BLOG by animator Tom Sito http://tomsito.com/blog.php en-US Wed, 24 Apr 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6444 <p>Quiz: Who was the person referred to in Elizabethan England as “ The Upstart Crow”?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: Who was John Donne?<br /> -------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/24/2024<br /> Birthdays: Daniel Defoe, William de Kooning, St. Vincent de Paul, Morgan Earp, Jack E. Leonard, Dame Ethel Smyth, Jill Ireland, Eric Bogosian, Sue Grafton, Robert Penn Warren, Richard Donner, Barbara Streisand is 82, Cedric the Entertainer is 60, Shirley MacLaine is 89, Djimon Hounsau is 60.<br /> <br /> 1184 B.C. (est.) TROY FALLS TO THE GREEKS- Despite the warnings of the seers Cassandra and Laocoon, the Trojans brought Ulysses' great wooden horse into the city, and at night the Greeks climbed out and opened the city gates to destruction. The reason we have any date for this was this day the Romans celebrated a festival commemorating the event, and they invented our calendar. <br /> The Romans liked the story that they were descended from the Trojan survivors led to Italy by the hero Aeneas. This seemed way more cool than being a little Latin tribe who got their act together before their neighbors.<br /> They loved this myth so much that in 190B.C. when the legions of Publius Scipio Asiaticus marched into Turkey to make war on Antiochus the Greek king of Syria, they paused first to go to the plains of Illium (the field where Troy once stood).<br /> The writer Livy wrote" There the grim warriors embraced and wept aloud like babes, for after countless generations, the children of Troy had come home at last." (Livy, History: Book XXXVII: 35)<br /> <br /> 1584- Japanese Shogun Hideyoshi Toyotomi asked the Heii Shrine in Edo (Tokyo) to dedicate a new heraldic design - the red disc Asahi - Rising Sun flag is created. <br /> <br /> 1800- The U.S. Congress set up the Library of Congress. By 1814 it had three thousand volumes, but they were destroyed when a British Army burned Washington. Thomas Jefferson then donated his own private library to restart the collection. Today it numbers in the millions of volumes.<br /> <br /> 1833- The Soda Fountain was patented.<br /> <br /> 1861- The minister of the independent German city-state of Bremen, Johann Schlieben, offered his services to Abraham Lincoln to open shuttle diplomacy with the rebellious Confederate States. He carried a message or two between Washington and Richmond. Eventually Lincoln told him thanks but no thanks. Blood had been shed and the flag insulted; it was too late for talk. Similar offers of mediation by a delegation of Virginia moderates led by former President John Tyler were also refused.<br /> <br /> 1874- Jesse James married his cousin Miss Zerelda Mimms, who he called Z. <br /> <br /> 1901-The First American League baseball game. The Cleveland Blues vs. the Chicago White Stockings.<br /> <br /> 1913- The Woolworth Building was dedicated in lower New York. It’s cornices decorated like the campanile of Saint Marks in Venice. At the time it was the tallest skyscraper in the world. President Woodrow Wilson illuminated its electric lights by flipping a switch long distance in the White House. One person upon taking the elevator to the top floor, said “ Is God in..?”<br /> <br /> 1915- THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE- The Ottoman Turkish Empire had always been an amalgamation of ethnic peoples. As their Empire aged and became the 'Sick Man of Europe', one by one these subject peoples- Greeks, Serbs, Egyptians, asserted their independence and broke away. <br /> When the Armenians also demanded autonomy, the Sultan Abdul Hamid IV came up with a bloodthirsty solution. After a Turkish offensive into Russia was defeated, this day the first 200 Armenian elders of a village were shot, signaling a general nationwide pogrom that would eventually kill over 1.5 million people. The first person to bring the massacre story to the world was a German, Dr. Armen Wegner. On the scene for the Red Cross he complained to the Kaiser and the Berlin press. The refusal to even discuss this event is a sore point dividing the nations to this day. <br /> Supposedly when a top Nazi suggested to Adolf Hitler that his plans for the Jews would bring down on Germany the condemnation of the world, Hitler replied “…and who remembers the Armenians?”<br /> <br /> 1916- THE IRISH EASTER SUNDAY UPRISING -Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, Michael Collins, Eamon De Valera and followers seize the O'Connell Street post office in downtown Dublin and proclaim the Irish Republic. After furious street battles with British troops diverted from the World War I battlefields, the rebellion is put down. All the ringleaders were executed. Connolly was so badly wounded that they had to prop up his stretcher before the firing squad and pinch his cheeks so he'd be awake for his own death. Eamon De Valera used his U.S. citizenship to avoid execution. Initially the Irish people hadn't wholly supported the futile rising, but the fierce police crackdown had the effect of arousing sympathy. It sparked the major IRA campaigns in the 1920's and eventual Independence. <br /> <br /> 1933- Ub Iwerk's "Fiddlesticks" the first Flip the Frog cartoon, done in a simple two-color process. Iwerks was the first designer and animator of Mickey Mouse, who had left Walt Disney to open his own studio.<br /> <br /> 1944- Film Noir classic film Double Indemnity premiered.<br /> <br /> 1945- As the Russian Army fought their way into the center of Berlin, Adolf Hitler gathered his remaining staff in his bunker deep under the Reich Chancellery. He told his people that all was lost and that they should escape the city as best they could. Most decided to stay and discussed how best to commit suicide. The Fuehrer himself lapsed into apathy. His secretary recalled seeing Hitler sitting quietly in a hallway, cradling a puppy in his lap, rocking back and forth, staring off, hollow-eyed.<br /> <br /> 1949- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) formed.<br /> <br /> 1948- The Chinese Communists under Mao Zedong and their generals Chu Teh and Lin Piao began their final campaign to unite all of China under their rule.<br /> <br /> 1954- Handsome English actor Peter Lawford married John F. Kennedy’s sister Patricia Kennedy. This union would give JFK his link to Hollywood, Frank Sinatra and the RatPack.<br /> <br /> 1961- First day of shooting on the film King of Kings, the Christ story starring Jeffrey Hunter. Called by one critic” I was a Teenage Jesus” In 1966 Jeffrey Hunter turned down a TV series after doing the pilot episode. His wife worried that he’d be typecast. The role of Star Trek’s Captain Kirk went instead went to William Shatner.<br /> <br /> 1967- Soviet Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov became the first acknowledged fatality in the conquest of Space, when the parachute of his re-entering capsule got snarled and he fell four miles to Earth.<br /> <br /> 1979- Paul McCartney happened to be in New York City and dropped in on his old mate John Lennon. They spent the day together and at one point mediated visiting the set of Saturday Night Live but changed their minds at the last minute. Paul McCarthy left in the wee hours. It was the last time he ever saw John Lennon alive.<br /> <br /> 1980- After months of fruitless negotiations to get the U.S. hostages held in the American Embassy in Teheran freed, President Jimmy Carter tried force. A Delta Force of eight helicopters met at their staging area in the Iranian desert. Once there it was discovered three of the helicopters had mechanical problems and they had fallen badly behind schedule so the mission was scrapped. As they were leaving one of the helicopters crashed into a transport plane killing 8 soldiers. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance resigned in protest. No more military adventures were planned and the Iran Hostage Crisis dragged on throughout 1980. The hostages were released in exchange for arms in January 1981 shortly after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration.<br /> <br /> 1981- Small companies like Apple and Commodore had dominated the personal computer market while giants like IBM stuck with large business systems. Now IBM weighed in with The IBM PC –personal computer, with basic software language DOS provided by Microsoft. It soon came to dominate the market.<br /> <br /> 1983- THE HITLER DIARIES HOAX- Gerd Heideman, a top correspondent for Germany’s top magazine Die Stern was contacted by a mysterious Professor Fischer that he had in his possession the long lost personal diary of Adolph Hitler. Heidemann was an eccentric who collected fascist memorabilia like Herman Goerings yacht and a pair of Idi Amin’s underwear. Fischer sold him the Hitler diary manuscripts for $4 million. <br /> After Heidemann got British Historian Sir Hugh Trevor Roper and several handwriting analysts to declare them genuine, the Hitler Diaries went public in Die Stern and Rupert Murdoch’s London Times. When Sir Hugh began to express doubts over the authenticity of the diary, Rupert Murdoch reacted in typical fashion: ”F**k him. I’m in the entertainment business!” <br /> This day a Bonn laboratory declared the diaries high quality but completely phony. Professor Fischer was actually an art forger named Konrad Kujau who knew suckers when he saw them. He had an expensive girlfriend and wife to keep so he was writing the diaries in his garage on 1940’s vintage paper and ink. Careers were ruined and everyone looked pretty stupid. Even when they were all in jail, Gerd Heidemann refused to believe the truth. Konrad Kujau sent him a letter in Hitler’s handwriting admitting he did the forgery.<br /> <br /> 1984- David Kennedy, the eldest son of Robert F. Kennedy, was found dead in his hotel room of a drug overdose. As a child he had watched his father assassinated on live television and had never gotten over it. He was a drug addict by 15 and dead by 28. <br /> <br /> 1990- The Hubble Space Telescope was carried into orbit by the Space Shuttle Challenger.<br /> ========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Who was John Donne?<br /> <br /> Answer: John Donne was a great English poet in the Jacobean Age (1571-1631). He was a father of metaphysical poetry who is known for phrases like “No Man is an Island”, “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “No man is an Island.”</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 23 Apr 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6443 <p>`Question: Who was John Donne?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: What was Bachmann-Turner Overdrive?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/23/2024<br /> Birthdays: William Shakespeare, James Buchanan, John Muir, Sergei Prokoviev, J.M.W. Turner, Vladimir Nabokov, Stephen Douglas the Little Giant, Shirley Temple, Roy Orbison, Halston, Sandra Dee, Valerie Bertinelli, Lee Majors is 84, Judy Davis, Simone Simon, Tony Esposito, Michael Sporn, Michael Moore is 70, Herve Villechais, John Oliver is 47.<br /> <br /> This was the ancient Roman Feast of the Vinalia, the feast of the first grapevine plantings.<br /> <br /> 301AD- This is the Feast of St. George. George of Nicomedia was a native of Illyria (Croatia) and a member of the Praetorian Guards, who went up to the Emperor Diocletian’s palace and tore up his edict banning Christianity. Then Diocletian had George torn up. And what about St. George fighting the dragon? In the old tradition of borrowing from pagan myths, the Coptic Christian monks took from the Ancient Egyptian religion the famous battle between Horus and his evil uncle Seth, God of Sandstorms, often represented in temple art as a dragon-like animal. <br /> <br /> 1014- BATTLE OF CLONTARF- Irish High King Brian Boru defeated the Vikings led by Sigurd Silkbeard and drove them from Ireland. At 73, Boru himself was too elderly to fight, so he was praying in a church when a renegade group of Vikings surrounded the church and set it on fire. Another account has him being slain while in his tent. Oh well, at least he won...<br /> <br /> 1348- The Order of the Garter created in England by King Edward III. Today it is the world’s oldest surviving chivalric order.<br /> <br /> 1349- King Edward III had the first pageant of the Order of the Garter at Windsor Castle. He wanted to recreate the grandeur of King Arthurs knights of the Round Table. Even though the Black Plague kept most people away, the event was a great success. <br /> <br /> 1374- The King of England granted a pension to the writer Geoffrey Chaucer that includes a pot of wine every day for the rest of his life. Chaucer just happened to live near Westminster Abbey, and when he died in 1400, he was buried there. This began the tradition of 'sections"-the poet’s corner at Westminster Abbey.<br /> <br /> 1500- Explorer Pedro Cabral claimed Brazil for Portugal.<br /> <br /> 1538- Protestant theologian John Calvin was asked to leave his ministry in Geneva for being, uhh, well.. too Puritan. Geneva went party wild. Two years later the city fathers called Calvin back to clean up the town.<br /> <br /> 1616- After a night out partying with Ben Johnson, John Draydon and other old buddies from Ye Old Mermaid Tavern, William Shakespeare caught a fever and died on his fifty third birthday.<br /> <br /> “Souls of Poets dead and gone,<br /> What Elysium have ye known,<br /> Happy field or mossy cavern,<br /> Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?”<br /> 1661- King Charles II, crowned at Westminster Abbey. The current English Crown Jewels date from this time, since Oliver Cromwell had the ancient crown jewels of Anglo-Norman times destroyed.<br /> <br /> 1746- THE GLASS HARMONICON- German composer Johann Christoph Witobald Gluck had premiered his first opera La Caduta de Giganti in London to weak box office . Today he hit it rich by playing an entire concerto on twenty-six drinking glasses with water raised to different levels to effect the pitch. He played it by rubbing his fingers along the rims. The crowd went wild. Another triumph of musical taste.<br /> <br /> 1784- Congress adopted Thomas Jefferson’s plan to extend government to territories west of the Appalachian Mountains, the Old Northwest. They reject his suggestion that ten states be organized with classical names like Metropotamia and Polypotamia. Some of his suggestions for Indian names like Michigan, Indiana and Illinois sounded better.<br /> <br /> 1789- On St George’s Day, Britons celebrated a solemn mass of thanksgiving at St. Pauls that the mental illness of King George III had been cured. King George himself attended the service and received the cheers of the crowd. A few years later George lapsed back into madness and remained that way for the remaining ten years of his reign.<br /> <br /> 1789- President-elect George Washington and Martha move into their temporary U.S. capitol of New York City. Traveling from Virginia up to New York every town he passed through greeted him with huge parades and celebrations. When moving through Philadelphia the artist John Singleton Copley had designed a triumphal arch that as Washington moved under it sprang a strange mechanical device that plopped a gold laurel wreath on his head. Annoyed, the startled statesman tore it off. <br /> Once set up as President, Washington realized that the first Presidential residence 1 Cherry St, Osgood House had no furniture, and Congress was broke. He had to pay out of his own pocket for all the furnishings and dinnerware, large enough for state dinners of thirty or more. When he left office in 1796, he offered to John Adams to sell him his furniture. When the frugal New Englander balked at the price, Washington left the new President of the United States an empty mansion with a few candle sticks and one crystal punch bowl. Today the site is one of the pediments for the Brooklyn Bridge.<br /> <br /> 1809- Napoleons army captured Ratisbon (Regensburg ) from the Austrians and Robert Browning did a nice poem about it.<br /> <br /> 1867- William Lincoln patented the zoetrope, an optical toy predating motion pictures..<br /> <br /> 1896- THE FIRST PROJECTED MOVIES IN THE U.S.- The first projection of Thomas Edison’s kinetoscope film by means of Thomas Armat’s Vitascope at Koster &amp; Bials Music Hall on 28th street and Broadway in New York City. Edison had to be nagged into this by his engineer W.K.L. Dickson. Edison thought projecting movies like the Lumiere Brothers were doing in Paris would never catch on, and the future of film was in nickelodeon machines. The movie show featured the sultry Annabella the Dancer and a boxing match, but the real hit of the evening was footage of Waves Hitting the Rocks on Shore, which made people instinctively jump to keep from getting wet.<br /> <br /> 1900- A celebration held in Russian Georgia was addressed by a young revolutionary who had been expelled from the Tiflis Theological Seminary where he was studying to become a priest. Josef Dzugashvili was encouraged by other revolutionaries to change his name so the Czar’s police wouldn’t pick up his family. He changed his name to Man of Steel- Stalin.<br /> <br /> 1903- The first game of the New York Highlanders (later Yankees) baseball team. They defeated the Washington Senators, 7-2.<br /> <br /> 1914- Chicago’s Wrigley Field opened. <br /> <br /> 1931- Warner Bros movie The Public Enemy was released. Starring Jean Harlow and a Broadway dancer with a strong lower east side accent named James Cagney. It made them both stars.<br /> <br /> 1942-The Baedecker Raids- In reprisal for an allied bombing raid on Lubeck, the German Luftwaffe began bombing medieval English cities like Norwich and Canterbury based on their rating in the Baedecker Tourist guidebooks. If a place got three or more stars it was bombed.<br /> <br /> 1945- As the Red Army was fighting in the suburbs of Berlin, S.S. Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler quietly contacted Swedish diplomat Count Bernadotte and requested peace terms with the Allies. From his hiding place in Bavaria Hermann Goring was also trying to make peace. When Hitler found out from Martin Borman, he was furious and ordered both of them placed under house arrest. <br /> <br /> 1951- Comedian Lenny Bruce was arrested for a stunt where he dressed as a priest and solicited funds in a leper colony.<br /> <br /> 1968- Anti Vietnam War student protesters seized the administrative offices of Columbia University. They occupied it for a week until driven out by police.<br /> <br /> 1970- Grace Slick of the Jefferson Airplane was inadvertently invited to a tea party at the White House by Pres. Nixon’s daughter Trisha. She had invited Slick because under her maiden name Grace Ward she was a fellow alumni of Finch College. Grace Slick and her escort Abbie Hoffman were in line to get into the event, when at the last-minute White House security recognized them and turned them away. It was too bad, because she had a plan to slip LSD into President Nixon’s tea. <br /> <br /> 1971- Vietnam veterans protest the continued U.S. presence in the war by ceremoniously returning their medals, in some cases tossing them over the White House fence. One angry combat veteran who tossed his medals was future Senator John Kerry. Meanwhile, Lt. George W. Bush was in the Texas Air Guard, tossing his cookies. <br /> <br /> 1985- Coca Cola introduces New Coke. They decided to make the basic formula slightly sweeter to appeal to younger people. Its reception by the public was so overwhelmingly bad that the company returned to the original formula just 90 days later. The chairman of rival Pepsi Cola exulted: " We've been eye to eye for decades and I think the other guys just blinked! New Coke became a symbol for large-scale executive incompetence, <br /> <br /> 1998- Microsoft chairman Bill Gates introduced Windows 98 to 4,000 industry leaders. When he ceremonially opened the first window, the system crashed- Doh!<br /> <br /> 2003- Boston area Catholic priests began to get busted for child molestation and the cover up by the Archdiocese was exposed by the Boston Globe. One priest, a Father Shayne, was an openly registered member of the Man-Boy Love Society (NAMBLA). Outraged parishioners demanded the resignation of their Cardinal Bernard Law. Instead, Cardinal Law was recalled to Rome where he was made pastor of the Church of Maria Maggiore, the second biggest cathedral in Rome. <br /> <br /> 2005- The first You-Tube video was uploaded- Me at the Zoo.<br /> <br /> 2020- Vice President Mike Pence, the leader of President Trump’s Covid Task Force, said in a statement that “the Coronavirus Pandemic will be behind us by Memorial Day”. It wasn’t. It raged just as badly for two more years.. <br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: What was Bachmann-Turner Overdrive?<br /> <br /> Answer: A 1970s rock &amp; roll band.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 22 Apr 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6442 <p>Quiz: What was Bachman-Turner Overdrive?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Who were the Rough Riders? A rock band?<br /> <br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/22/2024<br /> Birthdays: Queen Isabella I of Castille, Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, Immanuel Kant, Madame De Stael, Alexander Kerensky, Aaron Spelling, Eddie Albert, Glen Cambell, Betty Page would be 100, Marilyn Chambers, Rondo Hatton, Charlie Mingus, Peter Frampton, John Waters is 78, Jack Nicholson is 87<br /> <br /> Happy Earth Day (see below- 1970) <br /> <br /> 753 B.C.- HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROME. The Founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus. The reason we know this was because the ancient Romans celebrated a festival on this date. Romans counted time from this date. So 1 AD to them was 754 AUC or Anno Urbis Conditae- from “The Founding of the City". So today, April 22, 2024, to a Roman is the second day of the nones of Aprilis, 2,780 Ab Urbis.<br /> <br /> 1370- Beginning of construction on the castle/prison in Paris called La Bastille. The Bastille was leveled by angry revolutionaries in 1789.<br /> <br /> 1567- Dutch protestant leader William of Orange was such a shrewd leader and diplomat his nickname was William the Silent. This day as the persecutions of Dutch Protestants by Catholic Spanish Inquisitors increased William resigned all his offices and fled to Germany to raise an army to fight for Dutch Independence. He was eventually assassinated but not before he had united the Dutch provinces under his leadership. His family still rules Holland today.<br /> <br /> 1621- FRANCIS BACON -Philosopher and writer Sir Francis Bacon had become the first judge and minister in the England through hard work and furious ass-kissing. He was so unscrupulous he prosecuted to death his first benefactor the Earl of Essex. But King James 1st trusted him to run England whenever he was away. Finally, the pushy Parliament brought Bacon up on charges of bribery and corruption. <br /> This day Bacon pled guilty to all charges and left his public offices. The King waived his fines and imprisonment. Francis Bacon on his estate free of his addiction to power could now focus on his true love, philosophy and science. He became one of the greatest minds in Western thought, to be ranked with Aristotle and Descartes. He published the Great Renewal and Res Atlantica, two works that revolutionized the study of philosophy and science. <br /> Historian Will Durant have called Francis Bacon the finest mind of his time after Shakespeare.<br /> <br /> 1642- Danish settler Jonas Bronck came out from Amsterdam to settle in New Amsterdam. On this day he signed a deal with the local Indians to buy 680 acres of land north of the Harlem River. The price was two guns, two kettles, a shirt, a barrel of cider and some coins. His farm was called the Broncksland and later Bronxland. Finally people would say,” I’m going up to visit The Bronx’” It did not officially become part of Greater New York until 1895.<br /> <br /> 1741- Georg Frederich Handel dipped his quill into ink and began to write the Messiah.<br /> <br /> 1769- Madame DuBarry officially presented at the French Court. King Louis XV’s earlier mistresses like Madame La Pompadour were women of breeding and culture. But DuBarry was a saucy little trollop who had already slept with most of the men of the court. When the Duc d’ Richelieu asked Louis what he saw in this vulgar new toy, His Majesty replied:" She makes me forget that I shall soon be sixty."<br /> <br /> 1778- THE CONWAY CABAL- During the American Revolution, a conspiracy (or cabal) of colonial officers led by a Major Conway, and former Washington aide Thomas Mifflin plotted behind George Washington's back to get Congress to fire him for incompetence. Their choice for command of the American army was General Gage, whose career was undistinguished other than the Battle of Saratoga. And many whispered Benedict Arnold did all the work for him there. The plot was exposed, and Conway made to resign. Washington stayed the symbol of the American war effort even though he lost more battles than won.<br /> <br /> 1793- THE UNITED STATES DECLARED IT'S NEUTRALITY IN THE NAPOLEONIC WARS. This decision caused the split in American opinion that formed our two party system and soured the last years of George Washington’s presidency. The France that helped us win the Revolution was Louis XVI's Royal France, but she had now become a people’s republic like ours, the only other in the world. The French Revolutionary Convention had a Stars and Stripes flag hanging proudly in its hall. Americans danced in the streets when the Bastille fell and started calling each other "citizen". <br /> Thomas Jefferson’s followers felt we owed it to France to support a fellow people’s republic against the European autocrats. The more conservative Federalists like Alexander Hamilton and John Adams were afraid of guillotines and anarchy and openly wanted Mother Britain to win. Jefferson called them Monocrats, they called his side Democrats. Europeans tried to push America into choosing a side: America almost declared war on France in 1797,1804 and 1808, and almost declared war on Britain in 1800 and finally did in 1812. Napoleon had hoped America would then send over her navy to ferry his army across the Channel to get at England. Small wonder George Washington’s advice upon retirement was "Avoid entangling foreign alliances."<br /> <br /> 1811- Last of the Parthenon Marbles pried off their walls in Greece and sent back to England on a British frigate. Lord Byron was on board and called Lord Elgin, the supervisor of this act, "The Spoiler". Today the Elgin marbles are still at the British Museum and the Greeks are still mad about it.<br /> <br /> 1836- GENERAL SANTA ANNA the President of Mexico was captured after the Battle of San Jacinto and brought to Texas Gen. Sam Houston. Santa Anna was disguised in peasants’ clothes, but when brought into the Anglo camp the Mexican prisoners gave him away by cheering El Presidente! Santa Anna was suffering from nervous exhaustion so Houston offered him some of his opium. Houston was an alcoholic nursing a shattered ankle. <br /> As they sat under a tree Santa Anna said to Houston: " Great is the destiny of the man who can defeat the Napoleon of the West!" Everyone (including many Mexicans) wanted to kill the man who massacred the Alamo, but Houston used him as a hostage to draw off the six remaining Mexican armies still in Texas. Not only did Santa Anna get released unhurt, but ten years later the U.S. Government even covertly helped him regain power in Mexico. He was turned out yet again and lived in retirement in Staten Island.<br /> <br /> 1876- Composer Peter Tchaikovsky completed his score for the ballet Swan Lake.<br /> <br /> 1889- At noon on the signal of a cannon shot The Great Oklahoma Land Rush began. The town of Oklahoma City was set up in one day-population 10,000. The settlers who slipped in early were nicknamed Sooners and Oklahoma became known as the Sooner State. This eats up the remaining land of the Cherokee Nation, who once owned all of Georgia, the Carolinas and Alabama. The Cherokee kept their land communally, which to U.S. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge was their downfall: "The Cherokee possess many fine attributes except Greed, which we all know is the basis for Civilization."<br /> <br /> 1898- Teddy Roosevelt formed the First US Volunteer Cavalry, called the Rough Riders. It was a curious mix of Teddys' personal tastes- Harvard bluebloods and polo champions mixed with rough western cowboys and rodeo stars.<br /> <br /> 1906- In earthquake-destroyed San Francisco, one day after the last of the fires were declared officially out, the Market Street cable car began running once more.<br /> <br /> 1915- Second Battle of Ypres- First use of poison gas WWI. German Jewish Dr. Fritz Hauber was a friend of Albert Einstein and a loyal subject of the Kaiser. He was convinced his experiments to create poison gas could win wars. He ran from battlefield to battlefield ensuring it was being used correctly. Albert Einstein thought he was a fool. Hauber’s wife committed suicide. The chlorine clouds did cause a huge panic in the British ranks, that opened the way to Paris, but the German generals were too cautious to follow up their surprise and the Canadians fought fiercely to close the gap. Although they had no gas masks, a quick-thinking Canadian doctor ordered his men to urinate into their own handkerchiefs, then tie them around their faces. Although exceedingly gross, the ammonia counteracted the gas enabling them to survive.<br /> <br /> 1922- Albert the Duke of York married Scottish socialite Lady Elizabeth Beaux-Lyons. Bertie was shy and had a speech impediment and it took him three proposals before she said yes. The Archbishop of Canterbury refused to allow a live radio broadcast of the marriage ceremony for fear it would be broadcast in pubs, where uncouth men would not doff their hats. <br /> What Bertie and Elizabeth couldn’t know would be in 1936 Bertie’s older brother Edward VIII would abdicate and they would become King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. After her husband died in 1952 and her daughter Elizabeth II ascended the throne. The Queen Mum lived on, dying at age 101 in 2002.<br /> <br /> 1934- In Little Bohemia Hunting Lodge in Wisconsin, Public Enemy No.1 John Dillinger shot his way out of a FBI ambush. The FBI not only failed to stop Dillinger, but they also shot an innocent bystander who got caught in the crossfire.<br /> <br /> 1935- The Bride of Frankenstein released. James Whale’s sequel to his original classis. With Elsa Lanchester. “Friend…good! Smoke….good!” Ahah Hahhah!”<br /> <br /> 1940- Writer Ernest Hemingway cabled his editor Max Perkins from Havana about a new novel he began writing. " Title is "For Whom the Bell Tolls" from passage John Donne Oxford Book of English bottom page seventy one STOP Please register immediately."<br /> <br /> 1942- Alfred Hitchcock’s movie “Saboteur” premiered in Washington.<br /> <br /> 1945- While the Red Army was attacking the outskirts of Berlin, Adolph Hitler sent away to the south his personal files and belongings in a last Luftwaffe flight of ten planes. One plane that was shot down that carried some of his most private possessions. When Hitler heard the news, he called it a catastrophe. What was in that plane that he valued so much? The wreckage was never identified. It’s a mystery to this day.<br /> <br /> 1952- The first nuclear bomb test shown on network TV -Tommy Turtle says duck and cover!<br /> <br /> 1954- THE ARMY–McCARTHY HEARINGS on live nationwide TV began. Senator Joe McCarthy’s Senate committee chasing communists finally bit off more than it could chew when it took on the U.S. Army. Sparked by the drafting of Private G. David Shine, a young crony of chief counsel Roy Cohn, a hearing was held to investigate charges that the Army Secretary and several other top Pentagon officers were actually Russian spies. <br /> The hearing soon devolved from an indictment of the army into a probe of Senator McCarthy’s red baiting tactics. It lasted for three months and held the nation spellbound. At one point Senator McCarthy submitted a note that the television cameras be turned off for a minute so he could wipe his nose. After one heated session, Roy Cohn and Robert Kennedy had to be separated before a fistfight broke out. Finally, under the withering condemnation of Joseph Walsh "Senator, have you no shred of decency?!" McCarthy’s power was broken.<br /> Roy Cohn later went on to defend Mafia dons and be mentor to a rich kid named Donald Trump.<br /> <br /> 1954- The U.S. Congress added the phrase "In God We Trust" on to US money.<br /> <br /> 1961- THE PARATROOP COUP- The decision of whether to give up Algeria, the colony they owned since 1832 agonized the French nation. It was further complicated by a large population of Algerian-born French people, the "Pied-noirs". They felt they were being sold out to terrorist guerillas. The Foreign Legion's headquarters was at Sidde Abbes, and for generations their blood had spilled into the Sahara's sands to keep Algeria French. On this night French generals and the Legion plotted to stop President Charles DeGaulle from granting Algerian independence. They planned a night parachute jump over downtown Paris to seize the government. <br /> After the rebels grabbed the governor of Algeria and a few key posts, President Degaulle went on nationwide TV and exposed the plot, calling upon all Frenchmen to defend the nation. The conspirators lost their nerve and melted away. The Paris jump never occurred. The trials afterwards saw strange scenes like Croatian and Thai legionnaires falling before firing squads, shouting "Vive La France!!" <br /> <br /> 60 years ago. 1964- The opening day of the New York World’s Fair. It was in Flushing Meadow Park in Queens, built on the site of the 1939 World’s Fair.<br /> <br /> 1970- The first Earth Day. The idea was started by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin "The objective was to get a nationwide demonstration of concern for the environment so large that it would shake the political establishment out of its lethargy," Senator Nelson said, "and, finally, force this issue permanently onto the national political agenda."<br /> <br /> 1972- Magnavox announced the Magnavox Odyssey. Created by Ralph Baer in his spare time, it was the first mass retail home videogame console.<br /> <br /> 1978- Comic actors Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi debut two new characters on the Saturday Night Live TV show, Joliet Jake and Ellwood Blues. The Blues Brothers are born. On that same broadcast, host Steve Martin did his King Tut Song. “Now when I die, now don’t think I’m a nut. Don’t want no fancy funeral, just one like Old King Tut.”<br /> <br /> 1996- Christopher Robin Milne died at age 75. The young boy whose fascination with a bear in the London Zoo called Winnie inspired his father A.A. Milne to write the Winne the Pooh stories. Christopher Robin wasn’t always appreciative of all the attention. He said of his father: "Someday I’ll write some verses about him and see how He likes it!"<br /> <br /> 2000- The estranged wife of Mr. Juan Gonzales of Cuba had grabbed their son Elian and tried to escape by boat to the United States. The wife and her lover drowned in the attempt, but little 6 year old Elian survived. He became a star to the Cuban exile community in Miami. But Mr. Gonzales had come from Havana to get his son back. Back in Cuba, Fidel Castro had a ball making political hay out of the Yankee Imperialistas stealing children from their parents. Finally, after months of media circus, Attorney General Janet Reno ordered federal marshals to forcibly remove Elian Gonzales from his uncles home, and give him back to his father. His father pledged:" I want no one to ever stick a camera in my son’s face again!"<br /> <br /> 2001- Dreamwork’s Shrek opened in theaters. I’m making waffles! <br /> <br /> 2004- Pat Tillman was a football star who was moved by the 9-11 attacks to sacrifice a multimillion-dollar contract in the NFL to join the army and fight for his country. This day Tillman was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. He was 27 and left a wife and two children. The Pentagon played up his heroism, while lying to his grieving family and burning his diary and uniform. At the funeral, when presented with the casket’s flag, Tillman’s father snapped “ Keep your f*cking flag!” Pat Tillman was an atheist and it further annoyed his family to hear conservative politicians and pundits go on about him in Heaven among the warriors of Christ. After several hearings a general was reprimanded for the poor handling of the affair.<br /> <br /> 2021- The Mars Perseverance probe successfully collected oxygen from the Martian atmosphere.<br /> ===========================================================<br /> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><br /> Yesterday¹s Question: Who were the Rough Riders? A rock band?<br /> <br /> Answer: The Rough Riders were the volunteer cavalry that Theodore Roosevelt commanded during the Spanish-American War. (Although they were a cavalry unit, the Rough Riders were were on foot, except for Roosevelt himself, during the charge up San Juan Hill.) See above, 1898.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 21 Apr 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6441 <p>Quiz: Who were the Rough Riders? A rock band?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What was the first digitally projected movie to win the Best Picture Oscar?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/21/2024<br /> Birthdays: Queen Elizabeth II, Edwin S. Porter, Charlotte Bronte', John Muir, Freiderich Froebel the inventor of kindergarten-1782, Anthony Quinn, Patti Lupone, Charles Grodin, Anna Magnani, Andie MacDowell is 65, Tony Danza, Elaine May, Iggy Pop is 77, James McAvoy is 45, Rob Riggle is 54 <br /> <br /> Happy Palilia- Roman festival of the rustic god "Pales" for whom the Palatine Hill in Rome was named.<br /> <br /> 43BC- Battle of Mutina (Modena), One year after the assassination of Julius Caesar, his heirs squabbled. Legions sent by Octavian defeated Mark Anthony and drove him into the mountains. Ten years later, Octavian defeated Anthony for good at Actium.<br /> <br /> 1526- The First Battle of Panipat. Mughal Emperor Baibur defeated the Indian army of Ibrahim Lodi and captured Delhi. This established the Mughal Age in India. Babur’s army fought with Mongol bows, elephants, and western cannon.<br /> <br /> 1831- NAT TURNER'S REBELLION- The most serious slave revolt in the South before the Civil War. Using an eclipse as a sign from heaven, Turner and 75 other slaves turned on their masters, and tried to raise all the slaves through Virginia. It took 3,000 troops to crush them. Turner was taken and hanged, defiant to the end. Nat Turner’s Rebellion hardened opinions of both pro and anti-slavery groups in the U.S. and accelerated the slide towards civil war.<br /> <br /> 1836- BATTLE OF SAN JACINTO-. After chasing Sam Houston’s men across Texas almost to the Louisiana border, General Santa Anna thought so little of these rag-tag gringo rebels that he no longer bothered to post sentries. When the Texans attacked at 1:00PM, most of the Mexican army was having an afternoon siesta. General Santa Anna was bedded down with his mistress he called his Yellow Rose, the origin of the song Yellow Rose of Texas. <br /> Suddenly Houston's frontiersmen, filled with rage over the massacres of the Alamo and Goliad, rushed into the Mexican camp and routed them. After the battle Houston couldn't restrain the Texans from killing running fugitives, and even scalping some. Santa Anna was captured and forced to sign a peace.<br /> <br /> 1847- The 4th rescue team removed the last survivors of the Donner Party wagon train from their snowed in camp on Lake Truckee in the Sierras down to the settlement on the Sacramento River. A furious winter trapped the Donners in the mountains last Oct 31st with almost no food. Of 86 pioneers 41 died and the others ate their corpses to survive. Louis Kesesburg, the only settler who spoke openly of eating human flesh and was called a ghoul, moved to Sacramento and opened a restaurant. <br /> <br /> 1865- UNCLE BILLY’S POLITICAL LESSON. In North Carolina, General William T. Sherman had offered Confederate Joe Johnston’s army the same terms for surrender that Grant had given Robert E Lee. But Johnston handed Sherman new terms rewritten by crafty Confederate President Jefferson Davis. It asked for political and property amnesty for all Confederate leaders; that the US Government would leave all Southern state officials at their posts. <br /> This went much further than one army surrendering to another, it was in effect a deal that no one would be punished for the Civil War. But Sherman didn’t seem to see the fine print. He thought that was what Abe Lincoln had wanted before he was killed. So, he signed it and passed it on to Washington. <br /> When new President Andrew Johnson and General Grant read the terms, they were thunderstruck. They ordered Sherman to tear that treaty up and offer nothing but unconditional surrender. Hotheaded Secretary of War Stanton denounced Sherman in the newspapers as a traitor. Sherman the Hero of Atlanta was furious at being made a fool of. He resolved the rest of his life to have nothing more to do with politics, which is probably why we never had a President William T. Sherman.<br /> <br /> 1865- President Lincoln’s funeral train left Washington DC for the long trip back to Springfield Ill.<br /> <br /> 1911- LENIN WANTS A LIBRARY CARD. Russian communist revolutionary Nikolai Lenin was living secretly in exile in London. In a letter dated this day he applied to the British Museum Library collection to study its documents. His letter was in perfect English and he signed his name as Jacob Richter.<br /> <br /> 1910- Mark Twain died of congenital heart failure at 75 as Haley's comet appeared overhead. He once wrote: " When arriving in Heaven feel free to ask all the questions you want of Saint Peter. You may ask for his autograph, however don’t take any Kodak photos or bring your dog. Admittance to Heaven is based on favor, not merit, else the dog would be allowed to go in and you kept out."<br /> <br /> 1918- THE RED BARON SHOT DOWN- In the air duels above the World War I trenches, Baron Manfred Von Richthofen was the best. The Red Baron had shot down more planes than anyone -80 confirmed kills. (two more claimed but unconfirmed)<br /> On this day over Vauz sur Somme, von Richthofen got onto the tail of a plane and was about to add #81, when Canadian Roy Brown got behind him and filled the back of his plane with machine gun bullets. Other experts claim The Red Baron was hit by Australian ground fire. Mortally wounded, von Richthofen still managed to land his red Fokker triplane before slumping over dead. Manfred von Richthofen was 26. Soldiers tore the plane to pieces for souvenirs.<br /> Capt. Roy Brown later wrote of seeing the body of his enemy.<br /> . “…the sight of Richthofen as I walked closer gave me a start. He appeared so small to me, so delicate. He looked so friendly. Blond, silk-soft hair, like that of a child, Suddenly I felt miserable, desperately unhappy, as if I had committed an injustice. I could no longer look him in the face. I went away. I did not feel like a victor. There was a lump in my throat. If he had been my dearest friend, I could not have felt greater sorrow.”<br /> Roy Brown left the service after the war and became an accountant. He died of a heart attack in 1944.<br /> <br /> 1921- The Coconut Grove nightclub opened in Hollywood.<br /> <br /> 1933- The Nazis ban kosher meat processing in Germany.<br /> <br /> 1938- Disney animator Bill Tytla married artists model Adrienne LeClerc.<br /> <br /> 1944- During WWII, the French Committee of National Liberation (in exile in London) voted to give the women of France the right to vote. The first election French women could vote in would be the following Spring, after the liberation.<br /> <br /> 1948- HAIFA- As the British occupying troops were being withdrawn from Palestine’s second largest city, they had given up trying to keep Arabs and Jews from fighting. This day the British commander of Haifa informed city leaders that he was withdrawing his garrison. The British commander wagered a friend a bottle of whisky that neither side would have control of Haifa for weeks. The Jewish militia the Hagenah secured control of the city in 48 hours. The Arab population began a mass evacuation of the city, <br /> <br /> 1960- Brazil moved its capital from Rio De Janiero to Brasilia, a modern architects fantasy built in the middle of the jungle.<br /> <br /> 1961- Two British teenage rock bands meet each other for the first time- The Beatles met the Rolling Stones. They partied together often and wrote songs for each other.<br /> <br /> 1964- British TV viewers double their pleasure- BBC 2 goes on the air. Their first program is Play School.<br /> <br /> 1973- The pop song “Tie a Yellow Ribbon ‘Round the Old Oak Tree” by Tony Orlando and Dawn became a number one hit on the US, Canadian and UK pop charts. The song spawned the custom of a yellow ribbon as a symbol of remembering a soldier overseas, which reached its’ peak during the Iran Hostage Crisis. That in turn spawned variations like the red AIDS ribbon, the pink breast cancer ribbon, and so on.<br /> <br /> 1975- As North Vietnamese armies roll towards his capitol, South Vietnamese President Nygun Van Thieu resigned and went into exile. The Roman Catholic French-educated Thieu tearfully blamed America for the defeat. Vice President Nygun Kao Key moved to Orange County Cal with much of the exile community.<br /> <br /> 1986- Reporter Geraldo Rivera hosted a live primetime TV special in an old Chicago Hotel that was once a headquarters for gangster Al Capone. Called THE MYSTERY OF AL CAPONE’S SECRET VAULT. After wasting two hours speculating on discovering buried treasure or mobster skeletons, they broke into a room, sealed since 1932. All they found were some old dusty bottles, trash and a few dollar bills.<br /> <br /> 1989- Oil executive George W. Bush became part of an ownership consortium that bought the last place baseball team the Texas Rangers." As soon as I knew they were for sale I went after them like a pit bull on a pants leg…. It doesn’t get much better than this…"<br /> <br /> 1997-The first Intergalactic Funeral. The ashes of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and 1960's LSD guru Dr. Timothy Leary were shot into space.<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What was the first digitally projected movie to win the Best Picture Oscar?<br /> <br /> Answer: Slumdog Millionaire 2007. George Lucas had advocating digital replace celluloid as early as 1997. He shot Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace digitally in 1999. But many theaters resisted the expensive retooling costs. Slumdog’s success helped accelerate the change. By 2013, 93% of movie theaters had converted to digital projection.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 20 Apr 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6440 <p>Quiz: What was the first digitally projected movie to win the Best Picture Oscar?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: Why do religious groups go naming things Mt. Carmel? Does God have a thing for candy? <br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/20/2024<br /> Birthdays: Harold Lloyd, Juan Miro', Adolf Hitler, Tito Puente, Nina Foch, Gregory Ratoff, Ryan O'Neal, Daniel Day Lewis, Jessica Lange, Luther Vandross, Don Mattingly, Rosalyn Summers, Crispin Glover, Betty-Lou Gerson the voice of Cruella da Vil, George Takei is 87, Clint Howard, Carmen Electra is 49, Andy Serkis is 61, Bob Kurtz<br /> <br /> Happy 4:20 Day. See below 1970.<br /> <br /> 1605- King James I granted charters to the Virginia Company to found colonies in the New World. Jamestown Va. is the result.<br /> <br /> 1653- After the English Civil War beheaded King Charles I, General Oliver Cromwell sat listening to the Barebones Parliament arguing over trivial issues. He had already arrested any politicians who disagreed with him, and those who were left were too afraid to discuss anything else. Finally, Oliver rose and exploded in rage:” Drunkards! Whoremasters! You are no Parliament! “He ordered his troops to run them all out. England would remain under Cromwell’s military dictatorship until his death in 1659. A note was tacked onto the locked doors of the House of Commons-“This House to Let, Unfurnished.”<br /> <br /> 1689- Deposed English King James II Stuart had landed in Ireland and raised the Irish to help him regain his throne from his daughter and son-in-law William &amp; Mary. This day his army surrounded the City of Londonderry and began an epic 4 month siege. Like every battle in those days the conflict had a heavy religious connotation, James’ Irish followers were Catholics while the besieged loyalists were Protestants. Despite starvation and heavy bombardment, the Londonderriers held out until help arrived, and James II was beaten at the Battle of the Boyne.<br /> <br /> 1759- Composer George Friedrich Handel died after collapsing in the orchestra pit while conducting the Messiah. He was 74, almost blind, and suffering from a number of illnesses. <br /> <br /> 1769- Ottawa Chief Pontiac had organized a great rebellion against the whites that united all the Great Lakes tribes and made his name feared from Detroit to Maine. After capturing and burning scores of forts and towns, his forces were defeated by the British and American settlers, and he was forced to swear allegiance to King George. Ten years later old Pontiac was visiting a French merchant at a settlement across from modern Saint Louis called Caholkia when a Peoria Indian clubbed and stabbed him to death. It was never known why, but it’s rumored he was bribed by a white businessman. The Indian was rewarded with a barrel of whiskey, the very stuff Pontiac warned would ruin all Indian People.<br /> <br /> 1814- After his defeat Napoleon was sent to Elba, a little island off the south coast of France. He quoted the famous palindrome "Able was I ere I saw Elba." he had been learning English. <br /> <br /> 1836- Wisconsin Territory established.<br /> <br /> 1859- " It was the Best of Times, It was the Worst of Times..." Charles Dicken's novel "A Tale of Two Cities" began to be published in magazine form.<br /> <br /> 1865- Robert E. Lee, now a private citizen in occupied Richmond, wrote President Jefferson Davis still on the run. He urged Davis to give up the struggle and allow the remaining Confederate forces to lay down their arms and go home.<br /> <br /> 1902- Marie Curie discovered radium.<br /> <br /> 1903- THE KISHNIEV POGROM- The word Russian Jews feared most was Pogrom. It meant the Russian police would stand back and do nothing while mobs were encouraged to murder and violate the homes of Jews. This day in the city of Kishniev, mobs killed 43 Jews and mutilated their bodies, and several hundred Jewish women were raped. There were protests around the world about the Kishniev massacre but nothing official was ever done. When Jewish leaders went to the Czar to protest, they were answered with another pogrom in Gomel. <br /> Back in America, old Mark Twain donated money to groups advocating the Czars overthrow. Twain said:” If it takes dynamite to overthrow that regime well then, thank God for Dynamite!”<br /> <br /> 1909- Mary Pickford, the first Movie Star, goes in front of a camera for the first time.<br /> <br /> 1912- The first baseball game played at Fenway Park. The Boston Red Stockings, defeated the New York Highlanders (Yankees), 6-1.<br /> <br /> 1914- Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs opened. Commuters on the “El” could see how their cubbies were doing by looking for the W or L flag flying.<br /> <br /> 1914- THE LUDLOW MASSACRE- In Colorado a violent strike was being waged between coal miners and the Standard Oil Company of John D. Rockefeller. This night militia, Pinkerton detectives and strikebreakers attacked a tent camp of striking miners and their families in the dead of night. They poured kerosene on their tents while they were sleeping, set them alight and shot people as they ran out to safety. 20 died, half were women and children. As in most labor murders, no one was ever tried or convicted. President Woodrow Wilson sent federal troops to occupy Colorado and restore order. Even then, John Rockefeller refused mediation until the strike was broken.<br /> <br /> 1912- A London West End theater manager and failed author named Abraham “Bram” Stoker died. He was 65. If anyone noticed him, it was because he managed the Lyceum theater where famed actor Henry King performed. Bram Stoker’s seven books and several plays made little money in his time. But a decade later a play adapted from one of his novels made him world famous. Dracula.<br /> <br /> 1916- Mauser Day- A German submarine U-20 surfaces off the coast of Ireland and landed two IRA leaders, Sir Roger Casement and Patrick Pearse, and some rifles and ammunition. Casement was arrested by authorities while still on the beach, but the rifles were used to start the Irish Easter Sunday Rebellion.<br /> <br /> 1925- The Warner Bros. Moving Picture Company merged with Vitagraph, and began experimenting with fixing sound on to film.<br /> <br /> 1931- LA MAFIA- Charles “Lucky” Lucciano became a top crime figure in New York after he murdered Joey the Boss Masseria. Lucciano and Masseria were having dinner in Coney Island when Lucciano excused himself to go to the lavatory. Once gone, four gunmen burst in and filled Joey the Boss with bullets. Lucciano later whacked the other top capo of New York, Salvatore Maranzano. Maranzano and Masseria were the last of the “Mustache Petes” the old guard Sicilian immigrants, still pursuing feuds brought over from the old country. After this the Mafia became more American than Sicilian and Luciano organized his gangs along a corporate model. Lucky’s young gunmen- Joey Adonis, Al Anastasia, Vito Genovese and Bugsy Siegel, all became important gang bosses in the years to come. <br /> <br /> 1935- Radio program “Your Hit Parade” premiered.<br /> <br /> 1938-For Hitler’s birthday was the Berlin premiere of Leni Reifenstahl’s film Olympia, about the 1936 Berlin Olympics. <br /> <br /> 1939- RCA president David Sarnoff dedicated RCA pavilion at World's Fair in New York City. First U.S. news event filmed on television. Sarnoff predicted that one day everyone would have a television in their home!<br /> <br /> 1940- RCA labs demonstrated the first Electron Microscope.<br /> <br /> 1942- The' Bataan Death March' ends and the prison camps at Butan and Palayu. Half the captive 16,000 Pilipino and 10,000 American troops died. (there was two animators there who I later worked with at Filmation- Don Schloat and Len Rogers..)<br /> <br /> 1942- On his birthday, Adolf Hitler was presented with his favorite kind of present, a new tank. The first Tiger Tank.<br /> <br /> 1945- Adolph Hitler celebrated his last birthday (56) in his bunker and announced his decision to remain in Berlin. He did allow the military high command OberKommando Wehrmacht or OKW, to relocate out of the doomed city. There was a plan for a breakout to the Bavaria to organize a National Redoubt in the mountains and use Germany's poison gas stockpile, but the Fuhrer wanted his Wagnerian immolation in Berlin. <br /> The U.S. sent him a birthday present of the last 1000 plane bombing raid. Soviet pilots later said after this raid they discontinued bombing missions over Berlin because "every target we could think of had already been destroyed." One effect of the bombing, several great apes in the Berlin Zoo died of heart attacks from the stress. <br /> <br /> 1946- Walt Disney’s Make Mine Music premiered in NY.<br /> <br /> 1951- After being fired by President Truman, General Douglas MacArthur was given a massive ticker tape parade on Wall Street in his honor.<br /> <br /> 1968- Pierre Elliot Trudeau sworn in as Prime Minister of Canada. Trudeau became one of Canada’s more colorful leaders with his flower-child wife Margaret. <br /> <br /> 1971, Five students at San Rafael High School would meet at 4:20 p.m. by the campus’ statue of chemist Louis Pasteur to smoke some grass. They chose that specific time because extracurricular activities had usually ended by then. This group — Steve Capper, Dave Reddix, Jeffrey Noel, Larry Schwartz, and Mark Gravich — became known as the “Waldos” because they met at a wall. They would say “420” to each other as code for marijuana. Reddix later got a job as a roadie to the influential rock band The Grateful Dead. They took up the designation and made it a pop icon and now everyone lights up and tokes at 4:20PM.<br /> <br /> 1974 - Paul McCartney and Wings releases "Band on the Run" .<br /> <br /> 1976 - At a stage performance at City Center NYC, George Harrison secretly slipped in and sang the Lumberjack Song with the Monty Python comedy troop. John Cleese recalled: “George was wonderful. He came up on stage with us as a Mountie and sang the 'Lumberjack Song’ impeccably, and I don’t suppose 10 percent of the audience knew he was up there."<br /> <br /> 1977- Woody Allen &amp; Diane Keaton starred in the film “Annie Hall”. Young Christopher Walken did an early cameo as Annie’s weird brother. <br /> <br /> 1980- The Mariel Boat Lift. Fidel Castro made a mockery of President Jimmy Carter's policy of admitting seaborne political refugees from Cuba by opening his prisons and creating a flood of boat people, including many hardened criminals.<br /> <br /> 1999- COLUMBINE- Teenagers Ryan Harris and Dylan Kleibold entered their Columbine High School in Littleton Colorado and shot their classmates with semi-automatic guns. 15 died including the two gunmen and 26 were hurt. Despite making videotapes in which they bragged about their intentions, and leaving shotguns and ammunition around their rooms, their parents didn’t think anything was unusual. <br /> <br /> 2010- The BP DEEP WATER HORIZON oil well exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and drenching the U.S. Gulf Coast with millions of gallons of crude oil and dispersal chemicals. BP could not stop the leak for two and a half months. Despite the disaster, that year the TransAmerica Company, that built the rig, awarded their top execs bonuses for their safety record. They paid 18.7 billion in fines. The gov’t allowed BP to write off $9 billion in costs to clean up their own accident. <br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Why do religious groups go naming things Mt. Carmel? Does God have a thing for candy? <br /> <br /> Answer: Jews, Muslims, Christians and Ba’hai faiths regard Mt Carmel as a holy place, because the Prophet Elijah built an altar there and lived in a grotto. An order of monks and nuns called Carmelites, was established there.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 19 Apr 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6439 <p>Quiz: Why do religious groups go naming things Mt. Carmel? Does God have a thing for candy? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What is a dreadnought?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/19/2024<br /> Birthdays: Paulo Veronese, Elliot Ness, Jayne Mansfield, Dudley Moore, Paloma Picasso, animator Iwao Takamoto, Ashley Judd, James Franco is 47, Kate Hudson is 46, Tim Curry is 79<br /> <br /> Cerealia- an ancient Roman agricultural festival. Ceres (Demeter), the mother of Persephone, was the Goddess of Growing and Planting. To say, “That’s Fit for Ceres” was the Roman equivalent of saying “That’s Totally Awesome”.<br /> <br /> 1521-THE TESTAMENT OF WORMS- Two days after reformer Martin Luther told him to take a flying leap, German Emperor Charles V announced he was against Luther’s reformation and called all German princes to support him. Half decided not to. Even Charles’ own sister became a Lutheran.<br /> <br /> 1587- SIR FRANCIS DRAKE RAIDS CADIZ- The bold English captain attacked the ships of the Spanish Armada in their home harbor and so doing delayed the sailing of the Great Armada for one year. With him on the raid we re men like Capt. Newport and Capt. Martin who in 1607 will be with John Smith at Jamestown.<br /> <br /> 1775- LEXINGTON AND CONCORD- The American Revolution began.<br /> After being awakened by Paul Revere, some 70 farmers spent all night at Buckman's Tavern drinking and trying to decide whether to fight or run away. By 4:00 a.m. John Hancock talked them into staying to fight. Then John Hancock ran away. <br /> The redcoat column was met on Lexington green by the minutemen. "Stand aside, ye dammed Rebels!" Captain Pitcairn shouted. " Stand fast boys! if they want a war, let it start here!" was Captain Parker's reply. The redcoats opened fire and easily dispersed that group. But by the time the British reached Concord bridge, hordes of farmers were shooting at them from bushes and rooftops. Finally, they were forced to withdraw to Boston empty handed. Lord Percy complained even 'American women were pointing muskets out of their kitchen windows and firing at us!" One 80 year old man shot three soldiers from his front porch, before he was bayoneted. He lived 7 more years. And most of the Yankee muskets were British government-issue Brown Bess. <br /> Americans later called Lexington “The Shot Heard Around the World”, but the British Crown regarded this situation at first as little more than a minor local disturbance. It barely made the back pages of the London newspapers. But by Bunker Hill they realized they had a real trans-ocean war on their hands. As late as December, elements in the Colonial Congress kept asking Parliament if we could still be friends and talk it over.<br /> <br /> 1782- Holland became the first nation to officially recognize the United States of America. Ambassador John Adams hung a Stars &amp; Stripes out his hotel room window, calling it the first official American Embassy in Europe.<br /> <br /> 1824- Poet Lord Byron died of fever and uremic poisoning at Missolonghi Greece.<br /> <br /> 1861- Maryland tried to join the Confederacy. In Baltimore a secessionist mob attacked the Sixth Massachusetts regiment marching to protect Washington D.C. 4 killed, 30 wounded. A young nurse named Clara Barton first took over the responsibility of treating the injured.<br /> She later founded the American Red Cross. <br /> If Maryland seceded the nation’s capital would have had to be abandoned. Colonel Ben Butler solved the situation on his own initiative. He filed union troops into the Maryland legislature to point guns at the delegates as they voted. They wisely voted to stay loyal.<br /> <br /> 1863- GRIERSON'S RAID. Gen. Grant, besieging the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, detached a hard riding cavalry brigade to loot and burn their way through the deep south from Vicksburg Mississippi, through Baton Rouge Louisiana to Union occupied New Orleans. Grierson himself was an Illinois music teacher who disliked horses and liked to strum his jaw-harp on the march. It was said any unit he commanded always had the best band. John Ford’s 1959 movie “The Horse Soldiers” was based on this event.<br /> <br /> 1881- Former British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli died. When asked if he would like a final visit from Queen Victoria, Disraeli answered:" No, not now, she'd only ask me to take a message to Albert." His political arch-enemy William Gladstone wrote him a moving eulogy, but he confided in his diary that it gave him diarrhea to do it.<br /> <br /> 1910- The Earth passed through the tail of Halley’s Comet. <br /> <br /> 1927- Mae West found guilty of indecent behavior in writing, producing and starring in a Broadway musical entitled “SEX”. She was fined and emerged from jail more popular than ever. She said:” Everyone thinks I am opposed to censorship. Actually, I’m in favor of censorship. I’ve made a fortune from it!”<br /> <br /> 1951- General MacArthur had been fired from his Korean command by President Harry Truman. This day he did his famous speech to Congress” An Old Soldier never Dies, He just Fades Away, and like that old soldier I now close out my military career, and just fade away. An Old Soldier who tried to do his duty, as God showed him the light to do that duty, etc.” Republican Senator Robert Short shouted “We’ve just heard the Voice of God!” <br /> President Harry Truman watched the speech on TV and called it “The biggest bunch of bullshit I ever heard!”<br /> <br /> 1956-Movie star Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco.<br /> <br /> 1961- The BAY OF PIGS INVASION DEFEATED The CIA sponsored landing of AntiCastro Cubans failed on the beach of Bahia De Los Cochinos. After sanctioning some initial US Air Force bombing attacks, JFK changed his mind and cut off any further help, including a refusal to evacuate them when trapped. 200 Cuban insurgents were killed and 1,497 imprisoned. This earned him the everlasting anger of the Miami Cuban community. <br /> An aide said the day after the surrender Kennedy went alone to a secluded D.C. golf course and spent hours hitting golf balls, moaning:” How could I have been so Stupid!” after each whack.<br /> <br /> 1970- XEROX PARC – The Xerox Company announced the setup of a research group in Palo Alto Cal. This group pioneered the development of the personal computer, GUIs, digital scanning and the laser printer. <br /> <br /> 1973- Three years later Xerox Parc booted up the Alto, the first personal computer. They invented a new mouse, point and click windows, graphic interface and a digital printer. President Carter installed one in the White House. Yet Xerox didn’t know what to do with them, they were in the copier business. There was no internet yet, except for government communications. The Alto cost $16,500 each, too expensive for most, so the idea bombed. One day in 1979 a group from Apple visited led by Steve Jobs. The group was inspired by their progress, and they went back to Apple and put what they learned into the development of the Macintosh.<br /> <br /> 1987- The first Simpsons short aired today. MG01 "Good Night Simpsons" was on the 3rd episode of The Tracey Ullman Show, airing Sunday, 4/19/87 at 9pm. Animated by Wes Archer, Bill Kopp, and David Silverman.<br /> <br /> 1993- Branch Davidian cultists led by their messianic leader David Koresh immolate themselves in their compound at Waco, Texas during a furious shootout with the F.B.I.<br /> <br /> 1995- THE OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING- On the second anniversary of the Waco tragedy, emotionally disturbed Gulf War veterans Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols wanted their revenge on the U.S. Government. So, they detonated a truck bomb at the Murrow Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Among the 156 dead were a dozen pre-school children in a daycare center on the first floor. McVeigh called the dead children “collateral damage.” He was executed in 2001 and Nichols got life in prison. <br /> <br /> 2005- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany elected Pope Benedict XVI. The first German Pope since Hildebrandt in 1077, and the first pope to have been a soldier in the Nazi army. He was drafted in 1945 as all male children had been ordered to. Italians called him “The German Shepherd.” In 2013 he became the first pope to voluntarily retire since 1477. He died in 2022.<br /> ===============================================================___________________________________________________________<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is a dreadnought?<br /> <br /> Answer: A British battleship, larger than the usual battleship. Prior to WWI it sparked an acceleration of the arms race between the European Powers to keep up.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 18 Apr 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6438 <p>Quiz: What is a dreadnought?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: What do you mean when you say someone or something is glib?<br /> -----------------------------<br /> History for 4/18/2024<br /> Birthdays: Lucretzia Borgia, Franz Von Suppe’, Haley Mills is 77, Leopold Stokowski, Miklos Rosza, Herb Sorell, Wahoo Sam Crawford, Disney animator Phil Young, Conan O’Brien is 60, James Woods is 76, Eric Roberts, Rick Moranis is 72, Maria Bello is 56, David Tennant is 52, America Ferrerra is 39 <br /> <br /> 185AD- Today is the Feast Day of the Roman martyr Saint Apollonius.<br /> <br /> 1506- Pope Julius II lays the cornerstone for St. Peter's Basilica. He had pulled down the old St. Peters, which had stood for 1,200 years. The new structure designed by Bramante with the big dome by Michelangelo and the interiors by Sangallo and later Bernini.<br /> With true Renaissance modesty, Julius originally wanted his own tomb in the center under the altar, borne aloft by four giants carved by Michelangelo. I guess nobody mentioned the grave of St. Peter, overtop which this Basilica was being built. Eventually Julius scaled down his plans, and when he died his enemies put him in another church altogether (San Pietro Vincoli). Saint Peters was completed a little over schedule, 120 years later, in 1626.<br /> <br /> 1521-THE CONFESSION OF WORMS- German Emperor Charles V called Protestant reformer Martin Luther to come to the Imperial Diet at the city of Worms and explain his criticism of the Catholic Church. Ordered by the Papal Legate and the Emperor to renounce his heretical views, Luther defied them all." Here I stand, I can do no other, God help me." <br /> What makes this historically momentous is for the first time a common man stood before the Church, The Emperor and the assembled Princes of Europe and said "No. I won¹t obey". And he got away with it. The news ran like wildfire through Germany. That night someone hung on the council doors a placard with a farmer¹s shoe painted on it- the German traditional symbol of revolt. <br /> <br /> 1775- PAUL REVERE'S RIDE- Informers in Gen. Gage's office learned the British planned to send troops to seize an illegal arms cache in Lexington and arrest two radical leaders named John Hancock and Sam Adams. So silversmith Paul Revere, Thomas Dawes and a country doctor out on a date named Dr. Prescott were sent to warn them and raise the minutemen on the way, after getting the two lantern signal in the old North Church. "One if by land and two if by sea, etc." Dr. Prescott actually completed the mission. Revere was arrested by a British patrol soon after warning Adams &amp; Hancock and sent home without his horse. <br /> At daybreak Paul Revere walked over to Lexington green in time to watch the Revolutionary War begin. Longfellow's poem never mentioned Prescott or Dawes. Paul Revere never said "The British are Coming!" because he considered himself British like everybody else in America at the time. He would have said: "The Regulars are Coming! "meaning the regular army. <br /> <br /> 1778- THE WHITEHAVEN RAID- Former Scotsman John Paul Jones wanted to show the British public that the American Revolution wasn't just some distant war across the sea.<br /> He decided to raid Britain itself. An ulterior motive Jones had in attacking a seaport called Whitehaven was that Jones always suspected he was the illegitimate son of a Lord Selkirk, who resided there. It was his boyhood home. So through the dead of night, while the sailors of the U.S.S. Ranger were burning and plundering the harbor, John Paul Jones was out looking to kidnap his own father! By dawn they were gone. Jones couldn't locate his deadbeat dad, so he had to content himself with stealing his silverware.<br /> The British Navy never regarded Jones as more than an irritant, but the raid was a great morale booster in the States. <br /> <br /> 1847- Battle of Cerro Gordo- General Winfield Scott defeated the Mexican army of Santa Anna and opened the way to Mexico City.<br /> <br /> 1857- Vice President Rufus King died of tuberculosis. President James Buchanan was totally distraught. There has been speculation that James Buchanan might have been our first Gay President. He was a lifelong bachelor, his niece Harriet Lane filled in for the social duties of First Lady. Only once in his life did Buchanan have an affair with a lady, which he broke off abruptly without explanation. When James Buchanan and Rufus King were colleagues in the Senate they roomed together and were inseparable. Old Andrew Jackson liked to refer to Senators Buchanan and King," Little Miss Nancy and Mrs. Buchanan".<br /> <br /> 1861-Mr. LINCOLN'S LOUSY DAY PART I- America’s top soldier Robert E. Lee declined Lincoln's offer to command the U.S. Army and instead sided with the Confederacy. In his letter doing so he confesses: "I foresee the Country will go through a terrible ordeal, a necessary expiation for our national sins."<br /> <br /> 1861-Mr. LINCOLN'S LOUSY DAY PART II- As if that news wasn't bad enough, on the same day Lincoln got a telegram from the pro-Southern Governor of Maryland saying not only would he refuse to cooperate in fighting the rebels, but he was cutting the telegraph wires and railroads into and out of Washington D.C.! Until the main union armies reached the capitol on the 24th, Washington was deserted, surrounded by a hostile slave state, with only a few Massachusetts volunteers to defend them. Maryland was only prevented from joining the Confederacy by Col. Ben Butler's initiative of sending troops into the state legislature to point their guns at the members as they voted. They voted to stay loyal.<br /> <br /> 1870- John D. Rockefeller files papers to form the Standard Oil Corporation of Ohio. One the largest companies in the world, today it is called Exxon-Mobil.<br /> <br /> 1906- THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE. 3,500 deaths and the city destroyed in the most frightening earthquake in U.S. History. Writer Jack London wrote:” Never has a modern Imperial city been so completely destroyed. San Francisco is gone!” Enrico Caruso was in town with the Metropolitan Opera on tour. He later sat on his suitcase in front of the ruined Palace Hotel and said- "Helluva Place! Ah’ma ’never coming back!"<br /> Drew Barrymore’s grandfather the great actor John Barrymore was in a San Francisco hotel room when the quake struck. He ran into the bathroom and sat shivering in his bath tub until it was over. Afterward the National Guard put him to work clearing rubble looking for bodies. When they read his telegram, the other Barrymores refused to believe the story. Old John Drew, a patriarch of the acting family, felt otherwise. "It took an Act of God to get John out of bed and into a bathtub, and the National Guard to get him to go to work. I believe every word." Amadeo Gianini, founder of the Bank of America, then called the Bank of Italy, gathered up his bank's papers and stocks and buried them in his garden under the begonias until his new office could be set up. He soon set up for business again on a pier. City government was set up in the undamaged St. Francis Hotel on Powell Street and a large mahogany bar was moved out to the street to serve free drinks to calm nerves. <br /> <br /> San Franciscans dusted themselves off and rebuilt. By 1913 they were doing well enough to host the World’s Fair. A little ditty of the time said: <br /> "They say God spanked the town, for being rather frisky.<br /> Then why'd He knock all the churches down, yet leave up<br /> Hotaling's Whiskey?"<br /> <br /> 1914-. The full feature length movie premiered in Turin, Italy. "Cabiria" directed by Giovane Patrone. It was believed to be the first full length movie ever until the discovery of a 1912 version of Quo Vadis. D.W. Griffith’s 1915 classic the Birth of a Nation popularized feature film format in the U.S..<br /> <br /> 1923- The first Yankee Stadium dedicated. Yankees win the opener against Boston, 4-1 in front of over 72,000 fans, Babe Ruth hit the park's first home run. The new $2.5 million ballpark is the first to feature three decks. This Yankee Stadium was replaced in 2009.<br /> <br /> 1923- The Eastman-Kodak Company introduced 16mm movie film and projectors.<br /> <br /> 1934- The first automatic Laundromat opened in Ft. Worth Texas.<br /> <br /> 1938- Switzerland closed its’ borders to all Jews in a pact made with the German government. The Swiss government never admitted this until 1995.<br /> <br /> 1942- The DOOLITTLE RAID. Gen. Jimmie Doolittle led 16 B-25s to fly long distance and drop bombs on Tokyo. It was a desperate mission. They did it knowing they didn't have enough fuel to return to the carrier USS Hornet, so they continued on to China and took their chances where they landed. Some of the men shot down and captured were hanged or beheaded by angry Japanese. The raid was had no strategic value and did little damage, but after weeks of unbroken Japanese success, the American public needed a morale booster. General Doolittle survived the war and lived to be 97, dying in 1993.<br /> <br /> 1943- The Second Uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto.<br /> <br /> 1945- The German army surrounded in the Ruhr Pocket surrendered. 350,000 went into prison camps. Conscious that it was probably their last major battle in Europe, the Americans called it Operation Kaput. The same day British Prime Minister Churchill ordered Field Marshal Montgomery’s army to stop racing to Berlin and turn north towards Lubeck on the Baltic. "There is no reason for our friends the Russians to occupy Denmark, and our presence at Lubeck would save a lot of argument later on."<br /> <br /> 1945- Famed journalist Ernie Pyle is killed by Japanese machine gun fire during the fighting at Okinawa.<br /> <br /> 1955- Scientist Albert Einstein died in Princeton, New Jersey. He was 75. As he fell in and out of a coma, his last words were in German. Since no one around his bed could speak German, we don't know what his last words were. <br /> <br /> 1958- A U.S. court ruled that poet Ezra Pound no longer had to stay at a Washington D.C. mental hospital. The Idaho born Pound had moved to Italy in the 1920s and became an ardent supporter of Mussolini and the Fascists. He felt artists thrived under strongman rule. Gertrude Stein couldn’t stand him because of his open Anti-Semitism. When World War II ended, he was arrested for treason and sent to this mental hospital. After 13 years’ incarceration, he was deported to Italy and died in 1972. <br /> <br /> 1958- At the Los Angeles Coliseum in front of a crowd of 78,672, the Dodgers play their first game in the City of Angels, defeating the new San Francisco Giants, 6-5. <br /> <br /> 1967- Jonathan Frid first appeared as the vampire Barnabas Collins in the TV series Dark Shadows.<br /> <br /> 1980- The white minority dominated African nation of Rhodesia transitioned into the black majority nation named Zimbabwe and elected rebel leader Robert Mugabe as its first president.<br /> <br /> 30th Anniv 1994- Disney’s first theatrical musical based on one of their animated films, Beauty and the Beast: A New Musical, opened on Broadway. It’s first run would go for over thirteen years and became the 4th highest earning show on Broadway. It saved Radio City Music Hall from demolition.<br /> <br /> 2000- Earlier that spring some of the world’s biggest internet companies –e-Bay, Amazon and CNN were paralyzed by a virus spread by a hacker. Today the FBI made an arrest. The culprit was a Canadian High School student who went by the domain name of Mafia Boy. He received probation, and a promise to use his computer only for schoolwork for two years.<br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What do you mean when you say someone, or something is glib?<br /> <br /> Answer: To be glib is to be persuasive by being smoothly amusing.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 17 Apr 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6437 <p>Quiz: What do you mean when you say someone or something is glib?<br /> <br /> Yesterday¹s Question: During WW2, American soldiers were called G.I.s like GI Joe. What does G.I. mean?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/17/2024<br /> Birthdays: Tobias Stummer-1539, Duke Maximillian I of Bavaria, Nikita Khrushchev, Thorton Wilder, Clarence Darrow, Arthur Schnabel, Olivia Hussey is 73, Gregor Piatigorsky, Don Kirschner, William Holden, Harry Reasoner, Boomer Eiseason, Sean Bean is 65, Victoria Beckham, Martha Sigall, Ron Miller, Jennifer Garner is 52, Rooney Mara is 39.<br /> <br /> 161 AD- Today is the Feast of Saint Anictetus, who may have died a martyr's death in the reign of the Roman Emperor Antoninus, but more likely he was simply worn out over the argument about when exactly Easter should take place. <br /> <br /> 1421- Dort Dyke, one of the largest water barriers in Holland, ruptured and the ensuing flood killed thousands.<br /> <br /> 1492- After 8 years of interviews, waiting in antechambers and being laughed at and called crazy, King Ferdinand of Spain finally granted a commission for Christopher Columbus to outfit ships and sail west across the Unknown Ocean to find Asia. Ferdinand gave him a diplomatic letter for the Great Khan of Cathay- now called China. The legend of Queen Isabella pawning her jewels to give him money didn¹t happen. She suggested doing so, only to embarrass the royal finance minister to complete Columbus’ funding.<br /> <br /> 500 Anniv! 1524- A French expedition led by Florentine navigator Giuseppe De Verrazano sailed into New York Harbor. He thought at first it was a lake. Verrazano claimed the lands for France but upon returning home found the French King Francis too busy with his wars in Germany and Italy to bother with discoveries in faraway Terra-Nuova. Verrazano was later killed by natives in the Caribbean. The big harbor was forgotten until Henry Hudson with the Dutch came upon it 80 years later. <br /> This is probably good in the long run because then New York Harbor would have been called the Bay of Angouleme, and Manhattan the Isle de Valois. The Indian settlement that would one day be Newport Connecticut, he called “Refugio”. The Verrazano Narrows Bridge at the mouth of New York Harbor, is named for him.<br /> <br /> 1525- THE MASSACRE OF WEINSBERG- Count Ludwig von Helfenshein was a German lord hated by his people for his cruel severity. This day the Great German Peasant Revolt army of Jackob Rohrbach reached the walls of his castle at Weinsberg near Heilbronn. A small group under a flag of truce asked for a parley. Count Ludwig’s knights slew them. <br /> So, the peasant army with enthusiastic help from the townspeople stormed the town and captured the Count. Now he begged for his life and offered his entire fortune as ransom. But the peasants only wanted revenge. They made Count Helfensheim run a gauntlet of peasants armed with knives, pitchforks, scythes and axes. As he ran they chopped away at him they added their curses" You killed my father! You imprisoned my brother for not taking off his hat as you rode by!" etc. Then they slaughtered all the other nobles.<br /> <br /> 1534- Sir Thomas Moore the Chancellor of England was ordered to the Tower of London by King Henry VIII.<br /> <br /> 1656- Battle of Warka- Poles under Hetman Stefan Czarniecki defeated the Hungarians under Georgi Rackoszy.<br /> <br /> 1792- British Captain Vancouver explored Puget Sound. He founds a settlement and names it for then Prime Minister Granville. In 1886 Granville (sometimes called Gastown after Gassy-Jack a saloon keeper) was renamed Vancouver.<br /> <br /> 1770- At a dinner party in Versailles, Madame Necker, the wife of France¹s first minister, suggested a subscription be held for the great artist Pigalle to make a statue of old philosopher Francois Voltaire. Rousseau and King Frederick the Great of Prussia donated money. The bust of the smiling old cynic became one of the well-known images of the XVIII Century.<br /> <br /> 1793-The Battle of Warsaw- American Revolution hero Thaddeus Kozciuszko tried unsuccessfully to defend the Polish capitol from Catherine the Great’s Russian army led by Marshal Suvarov.<br /> <br /> 1800- The Senate passed a bill for the moving of the U.S. government from Philadelphia to the new Federal City, being called Washington D.C.<br /> <br /> 1808- Napoleon ordered US ships trading with England seized when entering French harbors.<br /> <br /> 1839- The Republic of Guatemala declared.<br /> <br /> 1861- The State of Virginia voted to secede from the United States and join the rebel Confederacy. Virginia, The largest and most populous Southern State had wavered undecided and in a preliminary vote had voted 2-1 not to leave. But the violence at Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call for troops to put down rebellion made her decide to join her Southern brethren. Abe Lincoln now could see out of his White House office window a Confederate flag flapping in the breeze across the Potomac at Alexandria.<br /> <br /> 1865- In Washington DC, At ten o’clock in the evening Federal agents show up at Mary Surrat¹s Boarding House and arrested the remaining conspirators in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln: George Atzenrodt, Lewis Paine and Mrs. Surrat. Their leader John Wilkes Booth with David Herold were on the run in the back country of Virginia. The four mentioned were hanged and a dozen others implicated were given prison sentences. But historians disagree about how extensive the conspiracy was. As Lewis Paine said when he was captured:" You don¹t know the half of it!" perhaps we never will.<br /> <br /> 1869- The first professional baseball game ever played saw the Cincinnati Reds defeated the rival Cincinnati Amateurs, 24-15.<br /> <br /> 1875- The billiard game Snooker was invented by Sir Joseph Chamberlain, the uncle of the future British Prime Minister.<br /> <br /> 100 Years old 1924- Metro Pictures, Goldwyn and Mayer Films all merged to become Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. By 1940, MGM was the largest studio in Hollywood.<br /> <br /> 1929- Baseball great Babe Ruth married Ziegfeld Follies dancer Marge Colson in a morning ceremony. Then he drove to Yankee Stadium and hit a home run.<br /> <br /> 1937 "Porky's Duck Hunt" The birth of Daffy Duck. One legend is that voice actor Mel Blanc designed Daffy’s distinctive lisp to be his impression of the Looney Tunes boss Leon Schlesinger. When they screened this cartoon all the artists stood in dread of how Leon would take the joke. Leon never made the connection that the Ducks voice was an imitation of him. Michael Maltese recalled Leon saying: “ Hey fellowth, where’d you get the craythee voith of that duck? Lotta joketh!” <br /> <br /> 1941-Yugoslavia surrendered to the Nazis. Serb guerillas rallied in the mountains and continued to fight under Josef Broz Tito.<br /> <br /> 1945- As Allied armies overran Germany, a massed raid of American bombers destroyed 752 German planes on the ground. This was all that was left of the Luftwaffe, once the world¹s largest air force. <br /> At the same time Field Marshal Walter Model, who had been directing much of the German army operations in the west since Normandy, was sitting in a forest listening to Propaganda Chief Goebbels on the radio tell the German people that everything was going well. “ I’ve sacrificed my life to those bastards!” Model sighed. He then drew his pistol, put it in his mouth and pulled the trigger.<br /> <br /> 1946- Syrian Independence Day. The last French colonial troops leave Damascus.<br /> <br /> 1960- Cleveland Indians traded Rocky Colavito to the Detroit Tigers.<br /> <br /> 1960- Munro, directed by Gene Deitch won the academy award for best animated short.<br /> <br /> 1961-THE BAY OF PIGS INVASION- The CIA started landing 1,400 anti-Castro Cuban fighters in La Bahia de los Cochinos. When John Kennedy became president he was shown a CIA plan that had been developed to land anti-Castro guerrillas in Cuba. Once there they would start a popular uprising to overthrow the cigar smoking commie. Kennedy went along with the plan, it failed, JFK looked bad, and South Florida has voted Republican ever since.<br /> <br /> 1964-The Ford Mustang introduced by Lee Iacocca.<br /> <br /> 1971- The song "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night tops the pop charts. <br /> <br /> 1973- In Marin County, young movie director George Lucas sat down and began writing a 13 page treatment for a story called, “The Adventures of Luke StarKiller: As Taken from the Journal of Whills”. This would later be polished into Star Wars, A New Hope.<br /> <br /> 1975- The Khmer Rouge entered Pnom Penh overthrowing Prince Norodom Sihanouk. the Cambodian War ended. The Khmer Rouge led by a junta with Premier Pol Pot at its head declare it to be Year Zero and began emptying the city people into the countryside. The holocaust known as The Killing Fields began. When it was finally ended by a Vietnamese invasion a few years later, almost one third of Cambodia's population had been murdered, or driven into exile.<br /> <br /> 1987- Comedian Dick Shawn ­the Hippy-Hitler in the original Mel Brooks film the Producers- was doing his one-man show The Second Funniest Man in the World at UC San Diego. After one particularly funny punch line he fell over dead from a heart attack. The audience laughed and clapped for several more minutes because they thought it was part of the act.<br /> <br /> 1989-The Communist Polish Government removed the ban on the Solidarity trade union. During the attempts to round up and imprison the ringleaders of the movement, one Zomo (secret police) got so close he had collared a man who leaped out of his jacket to escape. Later the same cop and dissident found themselves across a table discussing government power-sharing. The cop nonchalantly mentioned:" Oh, by the way, here is your jacket."<br /> <br /> 2011- The first episode of Game of Thrones premiered in the U.S. on HBO. <br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: During WW2, American soldiers were called G.I.s like GI Joe. What does G.I. mean?<br /> <br /> Answer: GI meant to some General Inductee, others Government Issue. Originally to tell between draftees and volunteers, in time it came to mean all army personnel.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 15 Apr 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6436 <p>Quiz: What is a malapropism?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What professional sport is nicknamed “ The Beautiful Game”? (hint: not in the U.S.)<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/15/2024<br /> Birthdays: Leonardo DaVinci, composer Domenico Gabrieli, Nanak I the founder of the Sikh religion 1469, Charles Wilson Peale, Theodore Rousseau, Henry James, Bessie Smith, Heinrich Klee, Kim Il Sung, Claudia Cardinale is 85, Roy Clark, Emma Thompson is 63, Hans Conried, Olympic runner Evelyn Ashford, Alice Braga is 39, Seth Rogen is 41, Emma Watson is 33<br /> <br /> Fordicidia-Ancient Roman Festival where 31 pregnant cows are sacrificed to Tellus, the Earth-Mother. <br /> <br /> Happy St. Matthews Day, the patron saint of tax-collectors.<br /> <br /> 1632- Battle of the Lech River. Round one of Protestant Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus vs. Catholic Duke Albrecht Wallenstein in the Thirty Years War.<br /> <br /> 1729- The Saint Matthew’s Passion oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach was first sung at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig.<br /> <br /> 1738- The Bottle Opener invented.<br /> <br /> 1755- Dr. Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language first published. Dr. Johnson first created the system of listing a word’s phonetic pronunciation, ancient roots and how to use the word in a sentence. Before this, nobody fussed much about spelling words correctly. The excellence of Dr. Johnson’s dictionary made him the virtual dictator of English writing in his time. <br /> Dr. Johnson allowed a bit of personal pique into his lexicographical prima non pares. He was annoyed that Lord Chesterfield pledged to finance his effort, but only sent a check for a measly ten pounds. When the book was a success his lordship claimed credit as Johnson’s benefactor. Dr. Johnson defined the word “Patron”- One who contributes Indolence and pays in Flattery.”<br /> <br /> 1797-The Great Spithead Mutiny- Never mind the Bounty, here the whole blinking British Fleet mutinied against harsh conditions like flogging, press gangs and having to say “Arr-Mateys” in a silly voice whenever appropriate. Flogging was never officially prohibited in the British Navy, it just died out in the 1870's.<br /> <br /> 1822- The Captain Henry Expedition set off. Andrew Henry got together a team of mountain men including Jedediah Smith and Jim Bridger and went off in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark to find the source of the Missouri River, 2,500 miles into Montana. They still couldn’t give up on the idea was one of these western rivers would go from the Mississippi to the Pacific Coast. They dragged a small ship on wheels along with them but wound up abandoning it. The story was dramatized in the 1971 Richard Harris film” Man in the Wilderness” and in the 2015 Leonardo DiCaprio film “ The Revenant”.<br /> <br /> 1839- Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg were betrothed to be married. It was Victoria who proposed to Albert, it was unseemly to speak to a queen otherwise. Victoria and Albert had been intended by political arrangement since they were 13, but they actually fell in love, which was considered rare among European royals.<br /> <br /> 1850- The township of Yerba Buena- Good Herbs, incorporated as the City of San Francisco.<br /> <br /> 1861- LINCOLN’S EDICT- In reaction to the attack by Confederate rebels on Fort Sumter, President Abe Lincoln declared the ten southern states in a state of rebellion and called for troops. Legally the Constitution did allow for the Southern States to secede, and Lincoln couldn't get a declaration of war from a half empty Congress, so he found an obscure 1792 law that allowed the President to call up state militias without requiring a declaration of war. He enlisted 175,000 men. <br /> Many regular army lieutenants and captains resigned from the national service so they could become generals and colonels in the militia. Even poor drunks like Ulysses Grant could get a captain's job from his local Ohio regiment. Frontier states were emptied of regular army men, forts like Tejon, California abandoned because of lack of troops.<br /> <br /> 1865- LINCOLN DIED- After being shot at Ford's Theater Abraham Lincoln finally expired at 7:08 am during a rainstorm. He had lingered all night without ever regaining consciousness. Mary Lincoln went into hysterics and had to be dragged from the room. She never entered the White House again. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton had the White House sealed up under guard for two months until Vice President Andrew Johnson got up enough nerve to move in. <br /> In North Carolina, General Sherman was putting the finishing touches on the surrender negotiations for the army of Joe Johnston, the largest remaining Confederate army in the field after Robert E. Lee's. When Sherman received the news of the murder he passed the telegram to Johnston, who grew pale. They both agreed to suppress the news from their armies for several days so revenge fighting wouldn't break out. <br /> In faraway Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Star newspaper reported U.S. troops had to stop the locals from celebrating the news. Many were Southerners who had fled west when it looked like the Confederacy was losing.<br /> <br /> 1871- Wild Bill Hickok became sheriff of Abilene Kansas, then a wild boom town filled with drunk cowboys and yahoos. One of the reforms he instituted was strict gun control.<br /> <br /> 1874- THE IMPRESSIONISTS. In Paris, a group of young modernist painters, fed up with being rejected by mainstream galleries and salons, banded together to mount their own show, Le Societie Anonyme Artistes, at photographer Nadar’s old studio. One franc, and a one flight walk up allowed you to see works by Cezanne, Degas, Pizarro and Monet. The critics hated it. One writer Louis Leroy said,” These people are not real artists, they are just Impressionists.” The name stuck.<br /> <br /> 1912- The Titanic sank by 2:20AM. At 4:30 AM, The S.S Carpathia finally reached the Titanic disaster site to rescue 705 survivors in the bobbing lifeboats. The Titanic death toll is now estimated at around 1,522 out of 2,200. Early reports of the disaster mentioned that the Titanic had struck an iceberg but that all was well. That morning's Wall Street Journal noted the incident "proved a triumph of modern technology!" <br /> <br /> 1924- The Rand McNally Company published the first automobile road atlas or North America.<br /> <br /> 1925- Ford introduced the first pickup truck. Up to now farmers had cut the backs off Model T cars and welded boxes on, to make a light-load vehicle. There was also an earlier pickup truck called the International, but it had limited distribution.<br /> <br /> 1927- First Hollywood star's footprints in cement ceremony at Grauman's Chinese theater. Called Hollywood's most enduring publicity stunt. Norma Talmadge, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Sid Grauman himself are the first to leave their prints. Grauman also invented the classic Hollywood premiere with spotlights, red carpet runways and chauffeured limousines.<br /> <br /> 1933- Chief of production Darryl F. Zanuck quit Warner Bros. over an argument about employee salary cuts, to take over a struggling little movie studio called Twentieth Century Fox, which he turned into a giant.<br /> <br /> 1935- Kodachrome film developed. First as motion picture film, later for home photography.<br /> <br /> 1938- Donald’s Nephews, the first appearance of Huey, Duey and Louie. All voiced by Clarence Nash. Written by Carl Barks and Jack Hannah.<br /> <br /> 1938- Walt Disney received his first honorary degree, a Master of Science from USC.<br /> <br /> 1940- Franklin Roosevelt covertly gave permission for American volunteers (mostly Army and Navy fighter pilots) to join General Claire Chennault to fight the Japanese invasion of China as part of a freelance foreign corps serving in the Chinese air force. The Flying Tigers are born. The famous toothy grimace painted on their planes was created by Walt Disney artist Hank Porter.<br /> <br /> 1945- Eva Braun left the comparative safety of Munich and traveled to Berlin to be with Hitler in his bunker. She told a friend. ”A Germany without Adolf Hitler would not be fit to live in.” <br /> <br /> 1947- Jackie Robinson took the field with the Brooklyn Dodgers. First black player to join the Major Leagues. Up until then the Brooklyn Dodgers in their history had never won more than 2 pennants. After Robinson and Campanella and other Negro league players were added they won 6 in 7 years and a World Series. At one game after a particularly nasty barrage of boos and catcalls from the crowd, Dodger stars Duke Snyder and Pee Wee Reese (a Southerner) went over to Robinson and publicly put their arms around him.<br /> <br /> 1950- Chuck Jones short The Hypo-chondri-Cat.<br /> <br /> 1951- General MacArthur prepared to leave Japan after being fired by President Truman. The Japanese adored their American Shogun who helped reform their society from postwar chaos. Even though he left his offices in the Daiichi Building for his plane at 6:00AM, the crowds to see him off were already ten deep. One unintentional bit of fun for the Americans was a large, misspelled banner from a Japanese well-wisher about MacArthur’s potential presidential run: “GOOD LUCK FOR YOUR UPCOMING ERECTION.” (William Manchester American Caesar, Chapter 10)<br /> <br /> 1952- The Franklin Savings Bank issued the first credit card in the U.S. <br /> <br /> 1953- Famed illustrator Charles R. Knight died peacefully in a Manhattan hospital. The man who first us all showed us what dinosaurs might have looked like and inspired the lush look of such films as 1933 King Kong. His last words were to his daughter Lucy, “Don’t let anything happen to my drawings.”<br /> <br /> 1955- The First McDonald's Restaurant franchise opened in Des Plaines, Ill. Ray Kroc, a traveling milkshake machine salesman, buys into a franchise restaurant idea cooked up in 1948 by two brothers named McDonald from Santa Bernadino. He urged the brothers to go national with their pre-prepared food system, but the brothers wanted to stay local. So, he offered them 1 million bucks for their idea and name, (would you go to" Kroc’s?”). The rest is history. <br /> <br /> 1961- Since taking power in 1959 Castro had been cagey about the nature of his politics, but he used hatred of the Yankee Imperialistas as a strong national unifier. When he visited the US for the opening of the United Nations he was snubbed by most of the State Department except a 20 minute meeting with Vice President Nixon. Still, he tried to stay non-aligned until he knew the CIA was readying a coup against him. This day, 48 hours before the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Fidel Castro told the world his Cuban Revolution was Communist, and he asked the Soviet Union and China for aid. He also ordered the arrest of 20,000 enemies of his regime. <br /> Fidel aka “The Beard” stayed in the Communist longer than Russia and China and outlasted eleven US presidents.<br /> <br /> 1962- AUNTIE EM! 80 yar old actress Clara Blandick, the Auntie Em of the Wizard of Oz, took an overdose of sleeping pills and tied a plastic bag around her head.<br /> She had been retired for several years and was suffering from bad arthritis and failing eyesight. <br /> She said,” It is time to embark on The Great Adventure.” She left out on a table her resume and press clippings so the newspapers would get her obituary right. <br /> <br /> 1964- Walt Disney sent attorney Robert Foster to Orlando Florida to quietly start buying up land for a planned new Disneyland Park.<br /> <br /> 1974- A surveillance camera picks up Heiress Patricia Hearst, now called Tanya, robbing a San Francisco bank with other members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the group that kidnapped her.<br /> <br /> 1983- Tokyo Disneyland opens.<br /> <br /> 1989- Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Hu Yao Bang died. His funeral gathered mass rallies of pro-democracy students and workers that culminated in the Tien ah Mehn Square Movement. <br /> <br /> 1990- Kennan Ivory Wayans comedy show In Living Color premiered on FOX TV. The show made stars of Marlon Wayans, Damon Wayans, Jamie Fox, Jim Carrey and the Fly-Girls, Jennifer Lopez and Rosie Perez.<br /> <br /> 1994- English ice skater John Curry who created the concept of Ice Dancing, died of HIV/AIDS at age 44.<br /> <br /> 2013- The Boston Bombing. Two Cheychen brothers, Tamerlan and Dzokhar Tsarnaev exploded two bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing 3 and injuring 120. Dzokhar died in a police shootout, and Tamerlan is serving a life sentence.<br /> <br /> 2019- A terrible fire gutted Notre Dame Cathedral, which had stood for 856 years.<br /> <br /> 2022- During Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this day Ukrainians sank the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, The heavy cruiser Moskva, with shore based missiles.<br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What professional sport is nicknamed “The Beautiful Game”? (hint: not in the U.S.)<br /> <br /> Answer: Soccer. Called football everywhere else but the U.S. This nickname was popularized by the great Brazilian soccer star Pele.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 14 Apr 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6435 <p>Quiz: What professional sport is nicknamed “ The Beautiful Game”? (hint: not in the U.S.)<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What does it mean to have a holistic approach to something?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/14/2024<br /> Birthdays: King Phillip III of Spain, Christian Huygens, Arnold Toynbee, Sir John Gielgud, Menachem Schneerson- the Grand Rabbi of Chabad, Papa Doc Duvalier- Haitian dictator 1907, Robert Doisneau, Rod Steiger, Loretta Lynn, Morton Sobotnick, Frank Serpico, Pete Rose, Julie Christie, Kenneth Mars, Anthony Michael Hall, Steve Martin is 73, Sarah Michelle Geller is 46, Adrien Brody is 50. Akira director Katsuhiro Otomo<br /> <br /> 69AD- Battle of Bedriacum- After the death of Nero, several Roman generals turned their legions around and marched to Rome. In this battle General Otho was killed by the Gaulic Legions of Aulus Vitellius. He would soon be killed by Vespasian and his son Titus. <br /> <br /> 73A.D. MASADA- After the great Jewish revolt against Rome was crushed by Titus and Jerusalem destroyed, two legions remained behind to do mopping up. A group of zealots, Essene rabbis and their families held out in a mountaintop stronghold for two years in an epic siege. <br /> The night before the Zealots realized the Roman siege engines were about to breach their walls. They resolved to not be taken alive. This day soldiers of the Tenth Legion Felix broke into the quiet works. They found 960 corpses. The Jews had preferred mass suicide to slavery. They killed their families, and then themselves.<br /> Contrary to modern sensibilities, the Romans were not horrified by the ghastly scene. Greco-Roman ethics considered suicide a rational way out of a bad situation. They expressed grudging admiration of their Jewish foes. The reason we know anything about this incident was because a Jewish turncoat named Flavius Josephus wrote about it in his history. The Masada fortress was discovered by archaeologists in 1947.<br /> <br /> 1471- Battle of Barnet- During the chaos of the English War of the Roses, the Earl of Warwick became a power player in the shifting sides. He was nicknamed The Kingmaker. He finally overplayed his hand. This day Warwick the Kingmaker was killed in battle by King Edward IV.<br /> The angry king had Warwick’s dead carcass brought to London and displayed naked on the steps of St, Paul’s Cathedral.<br /> <br /> 1543- Explorer Bartolomeo Ferrelo returned to Spain with news of a big new harbor he discovered on the Pacific coast of California that he named for his patron, Saint Francis- San Francisco Bay.<br /> <br /> 1758- RHINOMANIA- In India, Clara the Rhinoceros was adopted as a baby by two Dutch tradesmen, after hunters killed her mother. Despite her fierce-looking appearance, she was quite tame and gentle. In 1741 they brought Clara to Europe. No one had ever seen a live Rhinoceros, and she quickly became famous. They toured Clara through the capitols of Europe. She met Frederick the Great, Maria Theresa, Louis XV and Madame de la Pompadour and King George II. Painters and artisans made images of her, and King Louis XV named a new battleship the Rhinoceros. This day she died in graceful retirement at age 20 in Lambeth Palace, London. <br /> <br /> 1777- During the American Revolution, British loyalist counterfeiters with a printing press on board the HMS Phoenix stationed in New York Harbor, began to make phony Continental money to undermine the Yankee economy. The Continental dollar became so worthless that “Not worth a Continental” was a favorite phrase.<br /> <br /> 1789- George Washington learned that he had been elected first president of the United States. He had just been turned down for a bank loan. The electors told him he had won overwhelmingly over John Adams and John Hancock.<br /> The first election also produced the first sore-losers. John Hancock, who was the leader of Congress all through the Revolution, and had that really big signature, was so disgusted he lost, that when Washington paid an official visit to his home state of Massachusetts, Hancock snubbed him. John Adams was annoyed about being only Vice President of a country he felt he invented, under a man he felt he created. He was the one who first suggested the big Virginian with the bad teeth lead the army. <br /> John Adams hoped his position of Vice President would evolve powers not unlike an English Prime Minister, the real power, with the President just a ceremonial figurehead. But Washington's annoyance with Adams ensured he, and consequentially all future vice presidents, would have little or nothing to do.<br /> <br /> 1828- The first edition of Noah Webster’s American Dictionary published. In the 70.000 entries Webster made it a political point to separate American English from the King’s English by substituting Spanish roots for words in the place of Norman French roots. This is when “Colour” became “Color”, Theatre and Centre became Theater and Center, and Cheque became Check.<br /> <br /> 1865- ABRAHAM LINCOLN ASSASSINATED- Well known actor John Wilkes Booth shot the President in the back of the head as he watched the play "Our American Cousin". Lincoln had seen the play several times and knew most of the lines by heart. Booth also knew the play, and timed his shot to the loudest laughline in the script. Booth leapt onto the stage and shouting something. It may have been” Sic Semper Tyrannus-And thus with Tyrants” the motto of the State of Virginia, or “The South is Avenged”. In 2019 a letter from an eyewitness was discovered that said Booth yelled both things. <br /> That same night Booths accomplice Lewis Paine stabbed Secretary of State William Seward in his bed. When Seward’s son tried to stop him, Paine broke his skull and ran out into the street shouting "I am Mad!" Another man named George Atzenrodt was supposed to kill the Vice President but he lost his nerve and did nothing. <br /> <br /> In the box with the Lincolns were a Major Henry Rathbone and his fiance' Miss Clara Harris. Lincoln had asked General &amp; Mrs. Grant to join them at first but the Grant's declined. Nellie Grant didn’t like Mary Lincoln. Anyhow, to Clara Harris this was a pretty lousy first date, watching the president get a bullet in the brain, her dress splattered with Major Rathbone's blood from being slashed with a knife and seeing Mrs. Lincoln go insane, but she married Rathbone anyway. Rathbone was never the same man. Ten years later while living as ambassador to the German city of Hanover, Rathbone murdered Clara, and for the rest of his life was confined in an asylum for the criminally insane. <br /> <br /> 1871- Canada set its currency in dollars and cents, instead of pounds and shillings.<br /> <br /> 1883- Leopold Delibes’ opera Lakme premiered in Paris. <br /> <br /> 1906- The Azusa Street Church opened. Rev William Seymour began the first Pentecostal-Charismatic Church, a movement that spread around the world. <br /> <br /> 1910- At a baseball game in Washington, William Howard Taft becomes the first President to throw out the season's first ball. <br /> <br /> 1912- RMS TITANIC SINKS- At 11:40PM The unsinkable luxury liner going too fast and 14 miles off course struck an iceberg and by 2:40AM went down, taking millionaires and immigrants alike. As the stricken liner sank, the cruiser SS Californian watched a short distance away. They could have saved more people, but their radioman had gone to bed, and they thought the emergency flares lighting up the night sky were party skyrockets. No one was saved until the SS Carpathia arrived on the scene at dawn. <br /> A strange fact is in 1898 a writer named Morgan Robertson wrote a novel called Futility, in which an 880 ft luxury liner sank on her maiden voyage in the month of April. The fictitious ship was named the Titan.<br /> <br /> 1925- WGN broadcasts its first regular season baseball game. Quinn Ryan behind the mike as Grover Cleveland Alexander and the Cubs defeated the Pirates on Opening Day, 8-2. <br /> <br /> 1927- The first Volvo automobile rolled off the assembly line in Goteborg Sweden.<br /> <br /> 1930- Russian poet Vladimir Mayakowsky shot himself. This was convenient for Stalin because Mayakowsky had grown disillusioned with the Soviet regime. Stalin made a great public spectacle of his funeral.<br /> <br /> 1931- In Spain socialists, progressives and anarchists united to drive out the King Alphonso XIII. They proclaimed the Second Spanish Republic. Salud Republica!<br /> <br /> 1935- THE DUST BOWL - The drought conditions and over-farming in the plains states had been building for years, but this storm climaxed the decade long event. On this day a big dust storm struck Cimarron County Oklahoma. It blacked out the sun over five states. Cattle choked, calves and children disappeared in the drifts. Not even weeds would grow in it. The dust got through cracks in houses and when you awoke in the morning the only clean spot on your pillow was where your head lay. <br /> After this storm the migration of farmers rose until the estimate was 40% of the populations of the drought stricken areas. People from Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa, Texas and Missouri piled all their belongings onto their jalopies, and took Route 66 to California. They were called 'the Oakies, and their plight was dramatized in the songs of Woody Guthrie and John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath.<br /> <br /> 1956- In Redwood City, Cal. Charles Ginsburg, Ray Dolby and Charles Anderson demonstrated the first videotape recording machine. They were going then for a mere $75,000 each.<br /> <br /> 1960- The musical Bye Bye Birdie opened on Broadway.<br /> <br /> 1962- Bob Dylan recorded “Blowing in the Wind”.<br /> <br /> 1963- Beatle George Harrison was impressed by an unsigned rock band he just heard called the Rolling Stones.<br /> <br /> 1969- Disney’s Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day won the Oscar for best Animated Short.<br /> <br /> 1969- The first regular season baseball game played outside the United States. The Montreal Expos play their first home game, treating 29,184 fans at Jarry Park to an 8-7 win over the St Louis Cardinals. Speaking about Expo fans, Cub announcer Harry Carrey noted: "They discovered 'boo' is pronounced the same in French as it is English.”<br /> <br /> 1986- President Reagan ordered U.S. military places bomb Libya in retaliation for a terrorist bombing in a nightclub in West Germany. 15 civilians were killed including a son of Libyan President Mohamar Kaddafi.<br /> <br /> 1994- The cable channel TCM (Turner Classic Movies) premiered this day. Host Robert Osbourne introduced Gone With The Wind.<br /> <br /> 2005- Baseball returned to Washington D.C., 34 years after the Washington Senators left to Texas, the Washington Nationals played their first game.<br /> <br /> 2008- Ollie Johnston, the last animator of Walt Disney’s original Nine Old Men, passed away at age 96.<br /> ________________________________________________________________<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean to have a holistic approach to something?<br /> <br /> Answer:</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 13 Apr 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6434 <p>Question: What does it mean to have a holistic approach to something?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Vladimir Ulyanov was known by a more famous name. What was it? <br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/13/2024<br /> Birthdays: St. Thomas Becket, Thomas Jefferson, Frederick Lord North, Samuel Beckett, Dame Eudora Welty, Al Green, Jack Cassidy, Butch Cassidy, Franklin W. Woolworth, Howard Keel, Don Adams, Ricky Schroeder, Peabo Bryson, Ron Perleman, Stanley Donen, Alfred Butts the inventor of Scrabble, Glen Keane is 70<br /> <br /> 1387- A party of 29 English pilgrims assemble to travel to the shrine of Canterbury. The trip was immortalized by Geoffrey Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales.<br /> <br /> 1598- King Henry IV of France tried to end the religious strife tearing his country apart by publishing the Edict of Nantes- granting freedom of worship to all. The Edict of Nantes shocked Pope Clement VIII. Legend is his Holiness cried:" Every man with freedom of conscience? What can be worse than that?"<br /> <br /> 1612- This was the day of the legendary Duel on Ganryu island where Japanese swordsmen Musashi Miyamoto defeated Sasaki Kohjiro with a wooden sword. <br /> <br /> 1775- British Prime Minister Lord North had placed rebellious Massachusetts colony under an act called the Restraining Act. It declared that the New Englanders were not allowed to do business with any other nation but Britain. This day Lord North extended the act to cover the other colonies of Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and the Carolinas. He inadvertently gave the widely separated crown colonies in North America even more reason to work together, like they were an independent nation.<br /> <br /> 1829- THE CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION BILL PASSED IN ENGLAND. The previous June Irish orator Daniel O'Connell had successfully run for Parliament but was denied his seat because he was a Catholic. The old Duke of Wellington, now Prime minister of a Tory Government, believed the only way to keep his birthplace Ireland from collapsing into open rebellion was sweep away these outdated bans on the Roman Catholic religion, kept since the days of Henry VIII and the Reformation. <br /> To pass this bill he had to convince the radicals, Whigs, Ultras, Tories of his own party, the reluctant King, and he even had to fight a duel. It was his biggest fight since Waterloo. But the bill passed and was considered the crowning achievement of his government. It probably kept Ireland under English rule for another generation. <br /> <br /> 1830- For many year Thomas Jefferson’s birthday was a national holiday. This day, Jefferson birthday party toasts were made by various Southern congressman that the South wouldn't tolerate the Federal government telling them what to do about slavery and would secede if pushed too far. Then Tennessean President Andrew Jackson rose up, raised his glass, coldly looked his pro slavery vice president John Calhoun right in the eye, and declared:" The Union Must and Will be Preserved!"<br /> First time the issue of slavery vs. national survival was given national status. During the Civil War when the North captured the port of New Orleans Yankee General Ben "The Beast" Butler had these words inscribed on Jackson's statue in the center of town just to annoy the locals. <br /> <br /> 1843- Chang and Eng Bunker, the original Siamese Twins, were married to two women in a double ceremony. They must have coordinated times for connubial privacy, for together they produced 21 children. <br /> <br /> 1846- After the first Yanqui garrison was expelled by a rising of the native Mexican Californios, this day U.S. Commander Stockton and General Freemont and their army returned to recaptured Los Angeles.<br /> <br /> 1865- After the surrender to Grant, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, now a private citizen, left his last army camp to ride back to a rented house in war destroyed Richmond. Along the road he dismissed the Yankee guards accompanying him for protection." I am in my own country now among my own people. I wish to be no further bother to you." <br /> The commander of thousands of troops now was alone on his white warhorse Traveler with two blanket covered wagons, one with a sick friend in it. On the road he met a group of rebel soldiers walking home and gave them road directions using one of his 8 foot long military maps drawn by Stonewall Jackson. He told rebels who wanted to keep fighting" As you have been model soldiers, go home now and be loyal American citizens." <br /> <br /> 1865- In Goldsboro North Carolina, Confederate President Jefferson Davis completed his last cabinet meeting. Even after Lee’s surrender and the loss of Richmond, the Confederacy still had 175,000 troops and three armies in the field, so Jefferson Davis wanted to keep fighting. But the other cabinet members and the generals argued that the war was lost, and those numbers were on paper only. The starving dispirited troops were deserting in droves daily, the country was overrun with half a million Yankees. At last Gen. Joe Johnston wrung out of Davis permission to surrender to Sherman’s army. <br /> <br /> 1865- In Washington DC citizens held a Grande Illumination to celebrate victory. Throughout the city torch bearing revelers serenaded Lincoln and the Union. Expecting Lincoln to make a stirring speech from his balcony, Lincoln instead talked soberly about Reconstruction and amnesty. His one light moment was to order the band to play "Dixie", seeing how it was now once again the legal property of the United States.<br /> <br /> 1870- New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art opens.<br /> <br /> 1902- J.C. Penny opened his first store in Kemmerer Wyoming.<br /> <br /> 1919- At the Golden Temple at Amritsar British troops opened fire on Sikh's peacefully demonstrating for independence. 379 killed. Their commander was given a stern reprimand. Queen Elizabeth II apologized to India in 1997.<br /> <br /> 1928 - THE MULHOLLAND TRIAL– William Mulholland, the genius engineer who created the great aqueducts that brings water down to Los Angeles was on trial for the St. Francis Dam Disaster. When his dam near Newhall burst sending a 30 foot wall of water careening down on sleeping suburbanites. 400 perished. On this day, the jurors of the Los Angeles County Coroner's inquest into the disaster emerged from their two weeks of deliberations. They named William Mulholland responsible, although innocent of criminal negligence. Deputy D.A. Asa Keyes trumped the ruling a "victory for the people", despite his earlier promise to have Mulholland convicted of manslaughter. <br /> Though he was free of jail, but William Mullholland was a broken man. “I envy the dead.” Late at night he had his chauffeur drive him aimlessly around the city he helped create. He became a shut in for the last seven years of his life. D.A. Keyes later went to jail himself for misappropriation of funds.<br /> <br /> 1939- The film Wuthering Heights starring Lawrence Olivier and Merle Oberon premiered. Sam Goldwyn was disgusted by the headaches to bring this Charlotte Bronte novel to the Hollywood Screen. When asked if he planned to film more XIX century novels he replied: "Don’t bring me no more scripts by guys who write with feathers!"<br /> <br /> 1943- Franklin Delano Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial at the Washington D.C. Mall.<br /> <br /> 1949- Lead character designer and story artist Joe Grant resigned from Disney Studios, not to return until 1989. <br /> <br /> 1953- A British WWII intelligence officer turned newspaperman in peacetime was bored with his life. His name was Ian Fleming. He decided to write a novel about his idea of the ultimate spy. Looking for a suitably bland name, his favorite book on birdwatching was written by someone named James Bond. "It struck me that this brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon, yet very masculine name, was just what I needed.” His wife thought the finished story was vulgar. This day, the first Bond novel, Casino Royale, came out and was an instant hit.<br /> <br /> 1962- The New York Mets (metropolitans) Baseball Club formed. They played at the old Giants park, the Polo Grounds, until Shea Stadium was built in 1964 next to the Worlds Fair grounds. The team adopted the Blue and Orange logo colors of the Fair as their own. Blue and Orange were also the colors of the moved away Brooklyn Dodgers and NY Giants. <br /> The 62’ Mets were famous for their awful record. The cry was- Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game? Players like Marvelous Marv Throneberry became famous for their mediocre play. Manager Casey Stengel titled his memoirs "I Managed Good, but Boy, Did They Play Terrible!" The Amazin’ Mets won their first World Series in 1969.<br /> <br /> 1964- Sidney Poitier became the first African American to win an Oscar for Best Actor for the film Lilies of the Field. The first Oscar for any black actor or actress went to Hattie McDaniel as Best Supporting Actress for Gone With the Wind in 1939. Best actress was not won until Halle Berry in 2002.<br /> <br /> 1964- The Best Animated Short Oscar was won by Ernie Pintoff’s film The Critic, voiced by Mel Brooks.<br /> <br /> 1967- Columbia Picture’s bizarre version of Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale premiered. Several directors, John Huston, Orson Welles, Ursula Andress, Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, George Raft, and David Niven. Richard Williams opening titles, and Dusty Springfield ‘s song “The Look of Love.” Stories of a lot of recreational drugs off camera.<br /> <br /> 1970- "Houston, we have a problem here..." An explosion of an oxygen tank disabled the Apollo XIII moon mission. For the next several days the world held its breath as the spacecraft ricocheted itself around the moon and came back to Earth, the slightest mis-calculation of trajectory meant a cold, airless death for the three astronauts. Their plight was made into the film “Apollo XIII” directed by Ron Howard.<br /> <br /> 1975- During most of the wars in the Middle East, Lebanon remained an oasis of tranquility. Today the Lebanese Civil War began. Christian Phalangist militias, Iranian backed Shiites, Hezbollah, and Al Fatah Palestinians. Israel, Syria and the U.S. intervened. Lebanon became a war-wracked hell on earth for the next ten years.<br /> <br /> 1987- Colorado Senator Gary Hart announced his intention to run for president. During the election Gary Hart decried the media's obsession with scandal. He dared the press to find something on him. They did. In short order they turned up proof of his adulterous affair with beautiful model Donna Rice, complete with compromising photos taken on board a yacht appropriately named Monkey-Business. Gary Hart's political career sank like a stone and Ms. Rice became a lobbyist against porn on the Internet. <br /> <br /> 1997- 21year old golf phenomenon Tiger Woods won his first Masters Tournament by a record 12 strokes. <br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Vladimir Ulyanov was known by a more famous name. What was it? <br /> <br /> Answer: Lenin. He signed his name N. Lenin which led people to assume his first name was Nicholai. He explained the N stood for “nyietsto- nothing.”</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 12 Apr 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6433 <p>Question: Vladimir Ulyanov was known by a more famous name. What was it? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: Richard the Lionhearted led the Third Crusade. How many crusades were there?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/12/2024<br /> Birthdays: Henry Clay, Lily Pons, Lionel Hampton, Herbie Hancock, Disney artist Bernhard “Hardie” Gramatky, Monserrat Caballe' is 91, Ann Miller, Tiny Tim, Shannon Dougherty, Andy Garcia is 68, Claire Danes is 45, David Letterman is 77<br /> <br /> 65AD. SENECA DIED- The Roman philosopher Seneca committed suicide after his old pupil the Emperor Nero ordered him to. The poets Lucan and Petronius were also forced to kill themselves. When Nero sent you an indictment for treason, you knew the verdict would be guilty. So, you had the option of avoiding the public trial and horrible execution by committing suicide in the comfort of your own home. This also ensured your wealth would go to your family and not be confiscated by the state. Seneca had previously been condemned by Emperors Caligula, and Claudius as well, but always managed to wiggle out of it. But now his luck ran out. While Nero's Praetorian guards waited the old man opened his veins, but his circulation was so bad that it was taking him forever. The Praetorians patience finally exasperated, they took him in to his steam bath and suffocated him. <br /> <br /> 1606- The Union Jack adopted as the official flag of Great Britain. It showed the union of Scotland's cross of St. Andrew (white diagonal cross on blue background) with England's cross of St. George (red perpendicular cross on white background).<br /> <br /> 1633- GALILEO FACED THE INQUISITION- Galileo had to publicly recant the theories of Copernicus before the court of the Holy Inquisition. Their argument of hot irons and thumbscrews outweighed his mathematical proof that the earth went around the sun. <br /> Copernicus shrewdly avoided this problem by publishing his theory on his deathbed. When he heard of Galileo’s censure Frenchman Rene Descartes was intimidated enough to stop writing Le Monde, a book summing up his major philosophical and scientific conclusions. Protestant reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin also considered Galileo a dangerous lunatic.<br /> The Catholic Church kept Galileo under house arrest for the rest of his life. His conviction was overturned in 1827 and the Holy See admitted he might have been right in 1989.<br /> Supposedly as Galileo was leaving the courtroom he whispered to a friend " eppi si muove!" but it moves! Meaning the earth.<br /> <br /> 1709- In London the first issue of the Tattler published. “All accounts of gallantry, pleasure, poetry, foreign and domestick news you will have from Saint James Coffeehouse.”<br /> <br /> 1796- George and Martha Washington sit for painter Gilbert Stuart. Stuart noted that the General was a very uncooperative model. Stuart asked him to take out his dentures because they made his jaw bulge. But then his cheeks looked sunken, so he had him pad them inside with cotton balls. He tried small talk about his famous battles but that made GW even more annoyed. Washington much preferred a discussion on how to raise turnips to reliving his military career. The likeness Stuart painted became the basis for many other paintings and prints. Today it is on the U.S. one dollar bill. Eventually Gilbert Stuart had to move to England, because the only commissions he ever got in the U.S. were people wanting copies of his Washington portrait.<br /> <br /> 1843- A charter to sell Life Insurance is granted to the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, beginning the American insurance industry.<br /> <br /> 1861 -THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR BEGAN-For the previous twenty years Southerners and Northerners debated slavery and the right of a state to leave the American union. Guerilla violence had already been raging in border states like Missouri and Kansas when in response to Abraham Lincoln’s election 11 states announced the formation of a new country- The Confederate States of America. <br /> In the tense months after the Southern States declared independence a question arose. Who now owned U.S. Army bases and their property on Southern soil? Fort Leavenworth &amp; Fort Fisher gave up without a struggle. The one other obvious place was Fort Sumter, sitting out in the middle of Charleston Bay, South Carolina. U.S. Col. Robert Anderson would defend the flag even as he was surrounded by hostile batteries, commanded by his former West Point pupil Gen. Pierre Beauregard. <br /> In the wee hours of April 12th secessionist journalist Edmund Ruffin was allowed to fire the first shot at the fort. After a five hour cannon duel the fort surrendered. Ironically the only fatality was when a soldier was killed by a ruptured cannon while firing a final salute to the lowering Stars &amp; Stripes. This was the almost bloodless beginning to the bloodiest war in U.S. history. <br /> When the war was over Edmund Ruffin wrapped himself in a Confederate flag and shot himself, preferring death to "living in a universe populated by the vile Yankee race!"<br /> <br /> 1864-THE FORT PILLOW MASSACRE-Confederate cavalry under Nathan Bedford Forrest overran a small Yankee post manned by black troops and pro-union Tennesseans. The Rebels killed 300 of the garrison, just because they were black. Forrest later claimed it was because they refused to surrender and kept fighting after the flag was pulled down, but that is disputed. <br /> Some say his action was to prove black soldiers were cowards. If so, he miscalculated. Thousands of free black men rushed to enlist, dropping on one knee first to take an oath to avenge Fort Pillow. After the Civil War Forrest was the first Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. He resigned when they became too violent even for him. His reputation dogged him the rest of his life. <br /> <br /> 1865- The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia lays down its arms in a field outside Appomattox Courthouse surrounded by massed union troops. Lee and Grant both were not present. Grant left specific instructions that no union soldiers were to publicly celebrate: ”Those people are no longer our enemies, they are our fellow Americans. We will not exult in their downfall.” <br /> General John Gordon led the ragged procession with the 250 surviving members of the Stonewall Brigade, who began the war as 4,500. Yankee Medal of Honor winner Joshua Chamberlain demonstrated the warrior’s ability to forgive, by commanding his men to salute the Confederates, who snapped to attention and returned salute. <br /> In North Carolina when a hard riding dispatch rider with the news reached the front of Sherman’s western army, one soldier greeted him: “So you’re the sonofabitch I’ve been waiting four years for !”<br /> <br /> 1911- Cartoonist Winsor McCay opened his vaudeville act with his "Little Nemo" animated short. <br /> <br /> 1941-The Nazis captured Belgrade, Yugoslavia. The Croats and Serbs paused in their own fratricidal strife to take up sides, the Croats joining the Nazis’ and the Serbs the Soviets. In World War II more Yugoslavs were killed by other Yugoslavs than by the Germans.<br /> <br /> 1945- During WWII young infantryman Robert Sherman was hit in the knee by enemy gunfire. He walked with a limp for the rest of his life. After the war he teamed up with his brother to form the famous writing team The Sherman Brothers. Composing the hit songs for movies like Mary Poppins and Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang. Robert Sherman died at age 86 in 2012.<br /> <br /> 1945- PRESIDENT FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT DIED. The government knew since 1944 that FDR's health was failing and he would probably die in office. Roosevelt was at his Warm Springs Georgia retreat in the company of an old girlfriend, Lucy Mercer whom he had promised Eleanor never to see again. The assignation was arranged by their daughter Alice, who promised not to tell her mom. Mom found out anyway. FDR’s last words were to his portrait painter Madame Schoumatoff” I have a splitting headache..” then died of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 63. <br /> The nation was shocked. In his Berlin bunker with the Red Army knocking on the door Adolf Hitler was jubilant because he felt this was an astrological omen of final Nazi victory. Gen. MacArthur was still bitter about FDR's broken promises to the Philippines. His first reaction was:" He never used the truth where a good lie would do."<br /> Vice President Harry Truman was enjoying one of his whiskey &amp; poker parties with House Speaker Sam Rayburn when he got the phone call. "Jeezus Christ and General Jackson !!"-was his response. He was rushed to the White House while the staff went crazy looking for a Bible to swear him in -confirming the suspicions of many about FDR's attitude towards religion. Finally a Gideon turned up in a guest room drawer and the 33rd President was sworn in. Truman told Eleanor:" I'll pray for you." Eleanor replied: "No Harry. We'll pray for YOU."<br /> <br /> 1945- Generals Eisenhower, Bradley and Patton toured a Nazi concentration camp and saw for themselves the full horrors of the Holocaust. Patton threw up. Eisenhower ordered the press to film everything, because as he said:” Someday some people might say this was exaggerated and never happened. Let them see for themselves.” Patton was so angry when he heard civilians in a nearby town expressed ignorance to what the camp was doing, He ordered his men to make the citizens tour the camp at bayonet-point. As he was leaving the camp Eisenhower turned to a US Army guard and said:” Still need a reason to hate them? I never thought I’d be ashamed to be German. ” Eisenhower’s ancestors emigrated from the Rhineland and settled in Kansas in the 1800’s. <br /> <br /> 1945-Momotaro: Sacred Sailors (桃太郎 海の神兵, Momotarō: Umi no Shinpei) by Mitssuyo Seo opened. The second Japanese anime, feature-length animated film.<br /> <br /> 1954- "ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK' recorded by Bill Haley and the Comets- arguably the first true Rock &amp; Roll hit.<br /> <br /> 1955- the Salk vaccine for Polio made available to the public.<br /> <br /> 1961-THE FIRST MAN INTO SPACE- Soviet Major Yuri Gargarin aboard Vostok 1.<br /> <br /> 1981- The first space shuttle Columbia took off. After 26 flawless missions, in 2003 the Columbia broke up and disintegrated upon reentry, killing all aboard. <br /> <br /> 1983- Harold Washington elected first black Mayor of Chicago.<br /> <br /> 1992- Euro-Disney, now called Disneyland Paris, opened. It attracted only 50.000 visitors the first year, about ten times less than what was expected. In 1955, the first Disneyland in California drew 100,00 on opening day alone. Many felt it should have been built in Barcelona where the climate was milder. Disneyland Paris finally paid for itself in 1997.<br /> <br /> 1995- To celebrate David Letterman’s 49t birthday, actress Drew Barrymore climbed up on his desk and flashed her breasts. For once, the bucktoothed talk show host was speechless.<br /> <br /> 1996- James and the Giant Peach opened in the USA. Directed by Henry Selick.<br /> <br /> 2003- When US forces occupied Baghdad, troops ignored important cultural landmarks while they secured the Iraqi Oil Ministry. Poor people looted palaces and the museum of antiquities, defacing, and destroying priceless artifacts of Ancient Mesopotamia and Babylonia. <br /> Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld shrugged,” Hey,…stuff happens.”<br /> ==============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s question: Richard the Lionhearted led the Third Crusade. How many crusades were there?<br /> <br /> Answer: There were officially nine crusades. The First Crusade captured Jerusalem. The Third was the Crusade of Richard Lionheart and Philip Augustus. The Ninth was the Childrens’ Crusade.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 11 Apr 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6432 <p>Quiz: Richard the Lionhearted led the Third Crusade. How many crusades were there?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: What is a goniff?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/11/2024<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Septimius Severus, Frederick the Warlike of Saxony-1370, Ethel Kennedy, Joel Grey is 92, Louise Lasser, Mason Reese, Oleg Cassini, Cameron Mitchell. Norman McClaren would be 110, Bill Irwin, John Milius, Jennifer Esposito<br /> <br /> 1034- The Byzantine Emperor Romanus III Argyrus was poisoned by his wife.<br /> <br /> 1241- Battle of Sajoria- Two days after the Mongols destroy Polish-German knights at Leignitz and burned Cracow, another Mongol horde destroyed the Hungarian army of King Bela and burn Buda. Pest was across the river. <br /> <br /> 1506- Pope Julius II laid the corner stone for the new Saint Peter’s Basilica. It was completed in 1626. <br /> <br /> 1512- BATTLE OF RAVENNA -The first battle ever decided by artillery. The armies of Pope Julius II and his Spanish allies were defeated by Duke Alfonso D'Este of Ferrara and his French allies. The D'Este' family were patrons of Leonardo da Vinci, but this Duke was an artillery buff. For his birthday, friends gave him cannon. <br /> At one point during the battle the Duke pulled his cannon to the side of the battlefield where he could fire on both sides at once. When someone explained he would be firing on his allies as well, the Duke snapped:" Well, they'll probably be enemies tomorrow!" Despite this curious strategy, he won the battle anyway. <br /> <br /> 1713 - FIRST TREATY OF UTRECHT- Ending the War of Spanish Succession. George Frederich Handel premiered the Royal Fireworks Music in celebration. France yields to England the eastern coastal provinces of Canada. When the French speaking inhabitants of Arcadia refused to swear allegiance to the English King, they were driven out of their homes at bayonet point. Scottish colonists are brought in who renamed their island Nova Scotia -New Scotland. The French exiles migrated down to Louisiana and settled in the swampy bayous. They called themselves Arcadians, which slurred to A'cajun or Cajuns.<br /> <br /> 1854- Depressed by his go-no-where career and drinking heavily, Captain Ulysses Grant resigned from the US Army. <br /> <br /> 1861- In the dark night outside Fort Sumter in rebel held Charleston Bay, Confederate commissioners call on Major Robert Anderson to lower Old Glory and surrender the fort. The Kentucky born major said he would surrender if after three days he received no food resupply. (a stalling tactic) The Confederates had sighted an approaching Union rescue fleet and knew this answer meant they would have to fire on the fort. Anderson knew it too, for as he said goodbye to the commissioners he added: " And if we don't meet again in this life, I'm sure we'll meet again in the next."...<br /> <br /> 1865-Abe Lincoln sends his aide Ward Hill Lamon on an errand to occupied Richmond. This meant Lincoln's only bodyguard could not be at his side at Ford's Theater on the 14th. Lamon had long flowing hair and maintained a belt full of guns, Bowie knives and brass knuckles to guard the president. He also occasionally produced his banjo and played for the President his favorite song, “Jimmy Crack Corn”.<br /> <br /> 1865- That night a crowd of well-wishers stood under Lincoln’s window at the White House to celebrate the end of Civil War. In the crowd was actor John Wilkes Booth and 23-year-old Charles Leale, an army doctor seeing Lincoln for the first time. Lincoln made a short speech calling for the first time for African Americans to be given the right to vote. Booth came away from the crowd in a fury and said to a friend:” That means n- citizenship. By God, that’s the last speech he will ever give!” Dr Leale would want to see Lincoln again. He bought a ticket to Ford’s Theater the night Lincoln was shot. Leale was the first doctor to reach the stricken president and administer CPR.<br /> <br /> 1873- General Canby and several army commissioners were slain by Modoc Chief Kintpuash (Captain Jack) while in a tent talking peace. Canby became the only U.S. general killed in the Indian Wars. Remember Custer was a brevet major general (i.e. honorary general) in the downsized post-Civil War army, but he was doing the job of a colonel. Cap'n Jack got a really cool general's jacket to wear until he was captured and hanged. The Modoc Indian Wars were in the Northern California country called the lava beds. <br /> The Modocs themselves were peaceful until a mining company wanted their land. So they threw them a picnic and laced the food with rat poison. Cannons were hidden in the bushes to finish off the survivors. The remainder of the tribe went on the warpath and the U.S. Army had to come in and conquer them. A war correspondent photographer travelling with the army was future cinema pioneer Eadweard Muybridge.<br /> <br /> 1876- Benevolent Order of Elks Lodge founded.<br /> <br /> 1890- In England John Merrick, who was known as the Elephant Man, died.<br /> <br /> 1906- Albert Einstein published his Theory of Relativity.<br /> <br /> 1907- Baseball N.Y. Giant's Roger Bresnahan becomes the first catcher to wear a mask and shin guards. He had the mask built based on a sword fencing mask.<br /> <br /> 1914- George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion premiered at the Haymarket in London.<br /> <br /> 1926- Horticulturist Luther Burbank died. His last words:" I don't feel good."<br /> <br /> 1931- Dorothy Parker resigned her job as drama critic for the New Yorker Magazine. She married an actor named Alan Cambell and moved to Hollywood to become a screenwriter. While on her honeymoon the editor Harold Ross bugged her for some final fixes on an article. She sent a telegram from Paris: ”Don’t bother me. Stop. F*cking busy. Stop. And vice-versa. Stop“<br /> <br /> 1933- the Bauhaus directed by Mies Van Der Rohe was closed down by the Nazis.<br /> <br /> 1941- Henry Ford had vowed he would never sign a union contract. His dreaded security goons, called the Service Department, prowled the plants firing union men and even patrolled the toilets listening for loose talk. Ford kept machine guns on his homes roof and encouraged his executives to wear sidearms. But after a wildcat strike at River Rouge Ford reluctantly signed the first union contract in its history.<br /> <br /> 1945- Concentration camp at Buchenwald liberated by Patton’s Third Army. The Nazi guards had already fled, and an inmate answered the phone when the Gestapo called. They ordered the camp blown up and all the remaining inmates killed. The inmate answered not to worry, that they were already doing that. Then he went out to welcome the American tanks. Among the survivors was Nobel Laureate Ei Weisel, Simon Weisenthal and future leader of Communist East Germany, Eric Hoehnegger.<br /> <br /> 1950- First day filming on the movie All About Eve. As Bette Davis said “Fasten your seatbelts, its going to be a bumpy night.”<br /> <br /> 1951- When President Truman fired General Douglas MacArthur from his command in Korea a firestorm of protest erupted in Congress. Several leading senators called for the Presidents Impeachment! One California senator stood up and said he was for censure but was against impeachment. His name was Senator Richard M. Nixon.<br /> <br /> 1955- WABD in New York and KTLA in Los Angeles began running pre-1948 Warner Bros cartoon shorts in a half hour format, soon to be followed by other cities. This helped introduce the baby boomers to the world of Bugs, Daffy and Porky. <br /> <br /> 1957- Poet Pablo Neruda was arrested by authorities in Buenos Aires.<br /> <br /> 1961- As part of the Bay of Pigs Invasion the US Air Force bombed and destroyed most of Fidel Castro’s Cuban air force on the ground. <br /> <br /> 1968- After the Vietnamese Tet Offensive and President Lyndon Johnson’s announcement that he would not run for another term, Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford announced the US would send no additional ground troops to Vietnam. Even with 450,000 there already the generals were asking for an additional 200,000. Congress threatened to cut off funding. The US government began to talk of de-escalation and disengagement, but it took another 5 years to do it.<br /> <br /> 1970- Apollo 13 blasts off for the moon. Halfway there an explosion would force it to return.<br /> <br /> 1974- Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and defense minister Moshe Dayan resigned under heavy criticism for their handling of the Yom Kippur War. Ytschak Rabin became PM, the first Sabrah, or native-born Israeli to lead his country.<br /> <br /> 1979- Ugandan dictator Idi Amin-Dada driven out of power by a Tanzanian invasion. During his reign the mad dictator titled himself "Conqueror of the British Empire" and passed the time trying to wrestle crocodiles, rehearse mock invasions of Israel (a geographic impossibility) and played drums in his own rock band. <br /> <br /> 1981- Valerie Bertinelli married rocker Eddie Van Halen.<br /> <br /> 1983- At that year’s Academy Awards the winner for Best Animated Short was Polish artist Zybigniew Rybcyznski for his film Tango. During the ceremony he stepped outside for a smoke. When Security guards refused to let him re-enter, he became combative, shouting the only English he knew: ”I Have Oscar!” He wound up in an LA jail for assault, and his Oscar wound up in the bushes.<br /> <br /> 2006- Italian police captured the capo-de-capo of the Sicilian Mafia, Salvatore Provenzano, near the town of Corleone, the birthplace of Mario Puzo’s fictional Godfather. Don Provenzano had been hiding out for 43 years.<br /> =====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is a goniff?<br /> <br /> Answer: Today’s (Yiddishkeit) Answer:<br /> <br /> Goniff (also gonif) is a Yiddish term for a crook, swindler, liar, thief; an amoral, dishonest person. (Thanks FG)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 09 Apr 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6431 <p>Quiz: What is a Te Deum?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays quiz answered below: Has anyone ever run for president while in jail?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/9/2023<br /> Birthdays: Tamerlane, Eadweard Muybridge, Lenin, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Paul Robeson, Jean Paul Belmondo, Ward Bond, Seve Balesteros, Carl Perkins, Michael Learned, Tom Lehrer, Paula Poundstone, Cynthia Nixon, Hugh Hefner, Dennis Quaid is 69, Elle Fanning is 25<br /> <br /> 192AD- Septimius Severus hailed Emperor of Rome by the African Legions. <br /> <br /> 641AD- Babylon falls to the advancing armies of Arab Islam. Muslims saw their two greatest enemies to be the Christians and the Persian Mithraists, the philosophy of Zoroaster and the Magi. Even today in Iran there is a small Zoroastrian minority. <br /> <br /> 999 AD. Sylvester II made pope, the first Frenchman. He reformed the way Popes were selected by organizing the College of Cardinals. Before that Popes were selected out of infighting between several leading Roman families. Tradition also says Sylvester was a sorcerer because he experimented with the medicinal properties of herbs, and he is credited with inventing the modern pendulum clock.<br /> <br /> 1241- BATTLE OF LEIGNITZ- Ogodai, the son of Genghis Khan, wanted to complete his father’s plan for world conquest. To do this he dispatched four armies –one to China, one to Korea, one to Europe, the fourth was pushing south through Baghdad, Egypt and Palestine. This day the Mongol horde of Subotai, Vuldai and Paidar clashed with the cream of East European knighthood on a plain in Poland. This was the first meeting of the Mongols and Western Knights. <br /> The Mongols slaughtered them all easily. Paidar sent back to his overlord Batu Khan nine sacks of left ears taken from the slain, and King Henry of Bohemia’s head on a spear. The only reason the Mongols didn’t continue on to Paris and London as planned was back in Mongolia the Great Khan Ogodai died. Since the Mongol Empire was never more than an enlarged tribal system, custom decreed all Mongol elders had to stop everything they were doing and return home to Karakorum for a council -the Grand Kurlutai. <br /> The Mongols rode away from Europe as mysteriously as they had arrived.<br /> <br /> 1553- French comic writer Francois Rabelais died. His last words were: ” I go to seek a Great Perhaps.”<br /> <br /> 1682- Explorer Sieur De Lasalle claims Louisiana and the Mississippi for France.<br /> <br /> 1747- Famed British actor David Garrick signed a contract to take over the management of London’s Drury Lane Theatre.<br /> <br /> 1778- In Paris the philosopher Voltaire is initiated into the Masonic Order of the Nine Sisters on the arm of his friend, Benjamin Franklin.<br /> <br /> 1780- George Washington wrote Richard Lawrence the American emissary in Paris, about our chances of winning the American Revolution:” We here are at the end of our tether. If we do not receive help soon all will be lost.”<br /> <br /> 1812- THE SACK OF BADAJOZ-The Duke of Wellington’s English army storms into a Spanish city held by Napoleons French forces. The battle typified the ferocity of the war in Spain. The French and pro-French Spaniards dropped explosives and rocks on the heads of the attacking English and lined the tops of the city walls with broken glass and knife blades. The loss of life was so ghastly that when the redcoats finally breached the cities defenses they went berserk- looting, raping, and killing the civilian population. <br /> This is when Wellington called his men scum. <br /> Wellington always went through a depressed state after a battle, even his victories. At one point, tough old General Sir Thomas Picton noticed Wellington was openly weeping. He reacted: ”My God Arthur, what the devil are you blubbering on about?” <br /> <br /> 1859- Mark Twain received his Mississippi riverboat pilot’s license. <br /> <br /> 1865- APPOMATTOX COURTHOUSE, THE END OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. Robert E. Lee surrendered the remains of his army to Ulysses Grant (11,000 men to Grant’s encircling 150,000). Grant had had a migraine headache all morning until he received the note from Lee requesting terms. Grant’s staff understood that Lee’s note meant the end of the greatest cataclysm in U.S. history. One staff officer called for three cheers but the men could only manage one weak hurrah, then they all broke down in soft weeping. All realized that at last the killing was truly over.<br /> Lee arrived wearing his best dress uniform because he expected to be taken into custody. Grant rode in from the field wearing a muddy private’s jacket. Grant recalled when they met during the Mexican War but Lee didn’t remember him. Grant was happy to make small talk until Lee brought them back to the business at hand. Grant’s secretary was a Seneca Indian named Captain Ely Parker. Lee paused to say ”I’m glad there’s at least one real American here.” <br /> <br /> The house they met in was owned by a man named Wilbur McClean, who moved his family from Bull Run to Appomattox to get away from the fighting. He managed to keep his belongings safe for four years of war. Now, after Lee and Grant left the historic meeting, Yankee officers looted the place for souvenirs, George Custer riding off with the little surrender table perched on his head.<br /> <br /> 1914- THE TAMPICO INCIDENT- In the port of Vera Cruz a shore party from the USN gunboat Tampico was arrested by Mexican authorities while getting supplies. They were soon released and the Mexican Government apologized. But the American Admiral Mayo then demanded the Mexicans give the Stars &amp; Stripes a 21gun salute. The Mexican army said they would if the USN did the same salute to the Mexican flag. Washington didn’t want to do this because it would have meant the US recognized the dictatorship of General Huerta, who had overthrown the legally elected President Madero. <br /> So the US attacked Vera Cruz on April 21st, 20 Americans and 200 Mexicans killed. A newspaper at the time commented:” I can’t believe we almost went to war over some points of diplomatic etiquette!”<br /> <br /> 1914- The first all color film” The World, The Flesh and the Devil” premiered in London.<br /> <br /> 1917- Shortly after declaring war on Germany, President Woodrow Wilson was confronted by old former President Teddy Roosevelt. 59 year old TR volunteered to lead a new regiment of Rough Riders into the World War I trenches. Wilson said thanks, but no thanks. He said of Teddy, “ He is really a great big boy. You can’t help but like him.” At the same time he also declined an offer from Annie Oakley to lead a company of lady sharpshooters into the trenches “Oakley’s Amazons”.<br /> <br /> 1921- The Fly-In Lunch Party. Leslie Brand was a millionaire who developed Glendale California north of Los Angeles. This day he invited guests to a special garden party provided they all arrived in their own airplanes. The little biplanes parked all around his grounds, today known as The Brand Library.<br /> <br /> 1938- In an interview with Liberty Magazine, Walt Disney said he, “had plans to put animation to various well-known pieces of music, with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice being only the start.” He was beginning to think of expanding the short into a concert feature. The result of which would be Fantasia.<br /> <br /> 1940- Hitler invaded Denmark and Norway. Innocent looking civilian German freighters holed up in Danish and Norwegian ports suddenly disgorged hordes of steel helmeted Nazi soldiers. Copenhagen, Oslo and Trondheim were quickly overrun. Mysteriously the British Navy didn’t use its superiority to stop the Germans crossing the Baltic. The admirals were worried about the German dive-bombers. It showed the world that sea power had finally bowed to Airpower.<br /> <br /> 1942- On the Bataan Peninsula after weeks of desperate fighting Gen. Edward King sent a white flag to Japanese General Homma. It was the largest surrender of American forces in history. 78,000 Filipino-American troops. <br /> <br /> 1942- Black opera star Marian Anderson gave her concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington to an audience of 75,000. She was snubbed from giving a recital at the Daughters of the American Revolution Hall which caused a furious Eleanor Roosevelt to resign from the DAR and arrange this concert.<br /> <br /> 1943- A U.S. Patents court concluded that Guglielmo Marconi had used several of Nichola Tesla’s patents to create Wireless Broadcasting. So in effect, Tesla was the real inventor of radio broadcasting. Vindication came too late. Marconi died a rich Nobel-Prize winner, and Tesla died alone and penniless.<br /> <br /> 1943- First battle of the Warsaw Ghetto. Jews revolt in a desperate struggle against the conditions the Nazis held them in. All guns and supplies were precious. One character of the street fighting was nicknamed Moishe the Bolshevik, who ran from doorway to doorway under heavy fire dragging bandoliers of bullets, grenades and several helmets on his head.<br /> <br /> 1948- Variety columnist Lee Mortimer had been needling Frank Sinatra for his advocacy of liberal causes. He accused Old Blue Eyes of draft-dodging, and hinted maybe he had pro-Communist sympathies. This day as Sinatra passed Mortimer in front of Ciro's restaurant on Sunset Blvd. he heard Mortimer call him a dirty dago. Frank went at Mortimer and punched his lights out.<br /> <br /> 1948- Massacre of Deir Yasin- During the Israeli war of Independence a rogue Jewish militia called the Irgun on orders from Likud founder Menachem Begin entered a Palestinian village and shot 150 men women and children. Israeli leader David Ben Gurion apologized for the massacre and ordered the Irgun and other independent units merged into the Israeli Army. But word of the massacre helped accelerate the exodus of Palestinian Arabs into exile. <br /> <br /> 1951- The day before he fired General Douglas MacArthur- President Harry Truman secretly sent to Korea five unassembled atomic bombs. These were to be armed and used if only the situation looked totally hopeless. They were never used. <br /> <br /> 1952- The quiz show “I’ve Got A Secret” hosted by Gary Moore premiered on the Dumont Network and ran for 15 years.<br /> <br /> 1953- The first issue of the T.V. Guide.<br /> <br /> 1959- NASA introduced the first seven astronauts to the public, The Mercury Astronauts: Donald Slayton, Alan Shepard, Walter Schirra, Virgil Grissom, John Glenn, Leroy Cooper, and Malcolm Carpenter- all military test pilots instead of scientists.<br /> <br /> 1962- The musical West Side Story swept the Academy Awards.<br /> <br /> 1963- Animator Vernon Stallings died (1891-1963) He is known for inventing the animation disc while working on Felix the Cat in the 1920s. <br /> <br /> 1965- Mickey Mantle hits the first indoor home run as the Astrodome opens with an exhibition game with the Astros hosting the Yankees. President Lyndon Johnson was supposed to throw out the first pitch but arrived late. Phillie catcher Bob Boone commented about the Astrodome "This is a tough yard for a hitter when the air conditioning is blowing in.." <br /> <br /> 1966- actress Sophia Loren married producer Carlo Ponti, with whom she had been living with for a decade but not allowed to marry because Catholics did not allow divorce from their previous spouses.<br /> <br /> 1974- Ray Kroc the founder of MacDonalds Restaurants was the owner of the San Diego Padres baseball team. After yet another sorry performance, losing 8-0, Kroc stormed over to the broadcast booth, grabbed the mike and out shouted ” You Guys Stink!” Despite this morale booster, the Padres eventually did win championship pennants and get to the World Series.<br /> <br /> 1975- As North Vietnamese armies approached the South Vietnamese capitol of Saigon, President Gerald Ford issued an advisory to all Americans to evacuate the country.<br /> <br /> 1991- The last Horn &amp; Hardardt Automat was closed on 42nd St in Manhattan. Philadelphia restaurateurs Joseph Horn and William Hardart saw German experiments in mass market automated restaurants, and imported the equipment to start one in Philadelphia in 1902.<br /> <br /> 1999- American planes flying for NATO bombed the Serbian factory that made the economy car the Yugo. Car enthusiasts rejoiced.<br /> <br /> 2003- Baghdad fell to invading US and British armies.<br /> <br /> 2004- Archaeologists in Cyprus discover the 10,000 year-old grave of a New Stone Age man. With him were the remains of a cat that looks like it was deliberately placed there. This is the oldest evidence of man domesticating cats. So rest in peace- Gronk and Fluffy.<br /> <br /> 2005- Prince Charles wed Lady Camilla Parker-Bowles, his mistress of thirty years. They were not allowed to marry in Saint George’s Chapel in Windsor, the Queen avoided the ceremony and his father Prince Phillip didn’t feel like interrupting his trip to Germany; and because of a delay to respect Pope John Paul II’s funeral, all the commemorative cups and dishes had the wrong date on them. Among the thirty invited guests, were Mrs. Bowles divorced husband. In 2023 they became King and Queen of England. <br /> <br /> 2008- Stuntman Rupert MacDonald built a full-size Viking ship out of 15 million popsicle sticks. <br /> <br /> 2023- Illuminations’ Super Mario Bros. Movie breaks all records of an animated movie opening, and a movie based on a game. $484 million USD over the Easter holiday.<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Has anyone ever run for president while in jail?<br /> <br /> Answer: In 1920, Eugene Victor Debs ran for president on the Socialist ticket while serving jail time for protesting U.S. participation in WWI. He lost, obviously.<br /> In 1992, Lyndon LaRouche, another rogue 3rd party candidate ran from his prison cell. I think he was in for mail fraud. He lost also.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 08 Apr 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6430 <p>Quiz: Has anyone ever run for president while in jail?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays quiz answered below: Cadiz in Spain and Marseilles in France were not founded by the Romans, Greeks, or Celts. Who did build them?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/8/2024<br /> Birthdays: Gautama Buddha –as commemorated by Japanese custom-Kambutsue, Ponce De Leon, King Albert of the Belgians, Mary Pickford, Yip Harburg, Betty Ford, Sonja Henje, Catfish Hunter, Jacques Brel, Darlene Gillespie, Julian Lennon, Carmen McCrae, Shecky Green, Douglas Trumbull, Robin Wright is 59, Patricia Arquette<br /> <br /> 64AD- An advertisement found on a wall in Roman Pompeii: “TWENTY PAIRS OF GLADIATORS sponsored by Decimus Lucretius Satrius Valens, lifetime priest of Nero Caesar and TEN PAIRS OF GLADIATORS sponsored by Decimus Lucretius Valens Minor (his son) will fight on April 8th –12th, There will also be a suitable WILD ANIMAL HUNT. THE AWNING will be opened. “I wonder what the Latin was for PayPal?<br /> <br /> 217AD.-The Roman Emperor Caracalla was stabbed in the back while taking a pee during the Moon God Festival. He got caught with his toga down. The assassin Martialis leapt on a horse and tried to gallop away, but he was brought down by a well-thrown javelin. The Praetorian Prefect Macrinus became Emperor. <br /> <br /> 1476- In Florence, Leonardo da Vinci was anonymously accused of sodomy with his 17-year-old male model. He was acquitted in a preliminary hearing, but in his sketchbook, he designed a lock-busting tool, just in case. <br /> <br /> 1520- on a beach somewhere in what would be Argentina, Fernand de Magellan <br /> has three of his captains beheaded for trying to mutiny and turn back home. Of the 200 men and five ships in his expedition only one ship with 16 skeletal men will ever see Spain again.<br /> <br /> 1778- John Adams arrived in Paris to help Ben Franklin negotiate an alliance with the French Court. Their secretary Bancroft was a British double agent. The dour New Englander Adams was annoyed by Franklin’s superstar popularity among the French- Queen Marie Antoinette referred to him as Le Ambassadeur Electrique, as well as his habit of resting nude with the windows open -his “air baths”.<br /> <br /> 1793- CITIZEN GENET ARRIVES IN THE U.S.- The ambassador from the French Revolutionary Republic presented a dilemma for the George Washington Administration. The France that helped America win her independence was royal France, but Edouard Genet represented a fellow democratic republic, so far the only other one in the world. Common people in Philadelphia and New York danced and sang in the streets when they heard of the storming of the Bastille. The French Convention displayed a Stars and Stripes in their hall. A fashion started in America of calling each other “Citizen’ and “Citizeness”. <br /> <br /> Secretary of State Tom Jefferson was pro French, John Adams and Hamilton were anti. Washington was pro-French until the Revolution had arrested his friend Lafayette. Rich Americans were afraid of the class anger the French revolutionaries were stirring up. Citizen Genet didn't help matters by openly trying to bribe American officials and publishing a list of all the prominent men of Boston whom he felt should be guillotined. <br /> <br /> Finally, President Washington was asking for Genet's recall. Then Genet learned HE was next on Robespierre's list to be guillotined when he returned home! So, Genet requested asylum and became a good American citizen.<br /> <br /> 1810- Admiral Thomas Cochrane, MP for Westminster, entered the British House of Parliament with a keg of gunpowder under his arm. The old Sea Wolf was trying to make a point in debate about defending his political allies.<br /> <br /> 1826- Congressman Henry Clay and Congressman John Randolph got so mad at each other they fought a duel. They popped away at each other with pistols not doing any harm. <br /> <br /> 1856- The New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Company renamed themselves the Western Union Telegraph Company. In twenty years it became the largest corporation in the United States. Western Union stopped the personal telegram service in 2006.<br /> <br /> 1861- LINCOLN'S MOVE- Ever since Lincoln's election and the southern states declaring themselves an independent Confederacy, the thorny issue was the status of U.S. military bases on Confederate soil. The rebels sent commissioners led by Ex-president John Tyler to Washington to negotiate the peaceful transfer but Lincoln refused to meet them. The commander of Fort Leavenworth surrendered his post to Texas and Fort Pickens to rebel Florida. Only Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor South Carolina defiantly flew the Stars and Stripes. By now the U.S. garrison was running out of food and surrounded on all sides by hostile guns. Everyone wondered who would fire the first shot. <br /> On this day Lincoln informed Governor Pickens of South Carolina that the U.S. government was sending a relief force to re-supply the fort. Jeff Davis had to make the decision to fire on the fort before the relief fleet could get there, thereby starting the shooting war. Davis recognized that Lincoln had deliberately outmaneuvered him into this situation, so as not to look like the U.S. would fire first.<br /> <br /> 1864- Battles of Pleasant Grove and Mount Pleasant. Union General Nathaniel Banks Red River operation was to try and take Shreveport Louisiana and invade East Texas. But he bungled his chance in two battles with Confederates under General Richard Taylor, an old lieutenant of Stonewall Jackson’s. Other commanders among the Texas volunteers was General Tom Greene who had fought under Sam Houston for Texas independence and Marquis Etienne du Polignac, a French aristocrat whom the Texas cowboys called “General Polecat”. The Red River Campaign failed so badly that the disgusted Yankee soldiers refused to even honor Banks with the title of General; they referred to him as “Mr. Banks”.<br /> <br /> 1865- LEE'S DECISION- The Army of Northern Virginia led by Robert E. Lee had to abandon the Confederate capitol Richmond, and was now being pursued by two huge Union armies. At a small intersection named Appomattox Courthouse they found the last open road blocked by a third Yankee army. Lee had 10,000 starving effectives to put against 150,000 bluecoats. Grant was offering negotiations.<br /> <br /> This night Lee held a last council of war to decide what to do. The younger officers proposed dispersing the army with instructions to rally in the Blue Ridge Mountains and continue fighting as guerrillas. But Lee dismissed this: "I'm getting too old for that sort of thing.' I must act on the wishes of the government. " General Gordon snapped: "Oh, to Hell with the Government! You are the Confederacy now!" All that's left of it is here!" After one more dawn attempt to break out of the trap, Lee concluded with a sigh:" I guess all that is left now is to go see General Grant, and I would rather die a thousand deaths."<br /> <br /> 1876- Amilicare Ponchielli’s opera La Gioconda debuted. The ballet portion is famous as the Dance of the Hours.<br /> <br /> 1879- Milk first sold in glass bottles.<br /> <br /> 1904- THE ENTENTE CORDIAL. Britain and France end centuries of open hostility and signed the first of a series of alliances. In every war since William the Conqueror, Germany and Britain were always allies against France. For several years British foreign minister Joseph Chamberlain had been trying to negotiate the same exact kind of alliance with the Germans. In Berlin in 1895 Chamberlain gave the toast “Our (England) natural enemy will always be France.”<br /> Germany was shocked by the news. Kaiser Wilhelm exclaimed, "What would Wellington and Old Blucher think?" -the allies who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. <br /> <br /> 1911-Vitagraph released Winsor McCay's short cartoon "Little Nemo" theatrically.<br /> <br /> 1913- The 17th Amendment passed. It called for U.S. senators to be elected by popular vote instead of being named by their state legislatures. <br /> <br /> 1933-The WPA- Works Progress Administration, later renamed the Works Projects Administration founded. It was the Franklin Roosevelt administration’s massive jobs program to heal the Depression by putting unemployed people back to work. They built bridges, dams, roads, federal buildings. The WPA arts projects employed artists like Grant Wood, Berenice Abbott, Tyrus Wong, and Thomas Hart Benton and put on plays with Orson Welles and John Houseman. Lee Krasner said it was a life-saver. They created a WPA Symphony that found dozens of unemployed musicians, including three who once played for Peter Tchaikovsky.<br /> <br /> 1933- Disney short Father Noah’s Ark opened. Directed by Wilfred Jackson.<br /> <br /> 1942- The US government ordered all remaining heavy industry convert to war production for the duration of World War II. From now until 1946 no new automobiles were made, no tin toys, there were almost no labor strikes. Sugar, rubber and gas were strictly rationed. But any lingering unemployment from the Great Depression finally disappeared. <br /> <br /> 1945- Only days before his concentration camp would be liberated by allied armies, Lutheran theologian Deitrich Boenhoffer was hanged for his public opposition to Hitler.<br /> <br /> 1949- A three year old girl named Kathy Fiscus fell into a well in the LA suburb of San Marino California. After a concerted effort by authorities to rescue her, she was found dead. What makes this sad incident memorable, was it was the first time a news story was followed by KTLA television cameras and reported live as it happened. <br /> <br /> 1952- A nationwide steel strike was going to cripple steel production in the President Harry Truman ordered the US government to take direct control of the steel mills and threatened the strikers that if they didn’t go back to work he would draft them into the army. While such drastic methods may have been necessary in wartime, Truman was dangerously overstepping his bounds as president by this action.<br /> <br /> 1963- The Best Short Oscar went to John Hubley's The Hole. Voices by Dizzy Gillespie and George Matthews.<br /> <br /> 1966- Lenoid Brezhnev became Secretary General of the Communist party and leader of the Soviet Union.<br /> <br /> 1973- Pablo Picasso died at age 91. His last words at a dinner with friends was a toast 'Drink to me. Drink to my health. You know I can’t drink anymore'. On his night table was a book of spot cartoons drawn by former Disney animator Vip Partch. <br /> <br /> 50th Anniv.1974- Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's record of 714 home runs set in 1935. Hammerin' Hank hit #715 off Dodger pitcher Al Dowling. Aaron had tied the Babe’s record at the end of the previous season and had to endure an entire winter of stress and racial threats before he could come up to bat again and break the record on opening day of the new season. His locker had sacks of vicious hate mail alongside it. Henry Aaron retired with a new record of 755. Pitcher Al Dowling joked: "I never say 7:15 anymore. I only say, 'It's a quarter after seven'." <br /> <br /> 1975- Frank Robinson becomes the first black manager in major league history as his Cleveland Indians defeat the Yankees 5-3. The Tribe's new player-manager hits a home run in his first at-bat as the designated hitter.<br /> <br /> 1986- Actor Clint Eastwood was elected mayor of the town of Carmel, California.<br /> <br /> 1994- Chan Ho Park becomes the first Korean to play in the US major leagues as he makes his Dodger pitching debut. <br /> <br /> 1994- Grunge rocker Kurt Kobain’s body was discovered by a security system electrician three days after he blew his own head off with a shotgun. <br /> <br /> ===============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s question: Cadiz in Spain and Marseilles in France were not founded by the Romans, Greeks, or Celts. Who did found them?<br /> <br /> Answer: They began as colonies planted by the Phoenicians. The first international trade system in human history.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 07 Apr 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6429 <p>Question: Cadiz in Spain and Marseilles in France were not founded by the Romans, Greeks, or Celts. Who did found them?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: What should you do if you see an ICBM coming towards you? <br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/7/2024<br /> Birthdays St. Francis Xavier, William Wordsworth, Mongo Santamaria, Walter Winchell, David Frost, Percy Faith, Daniel Ellsberg, Jerry Brown, Alan Pakula, Billie Holiday, Ravi Shankar, Irene Castle, Wayne Rogers, Stan Winston, James Garner, Olkirk Christenson- the inventor of Lego toys, Francis Ford Coppola is 85, Russell Crowe is 60, Jacky Chan (born Chan Kong Shang) is 70<br /> <br /> Today is the Feast of Saint Jean Baptiste de LaSalle.<br /> <br /> 1732- STAND AND DELIVER! Dick Turpin was hanged. Dick Turpin was a highwayman who was the Jesse James of England. Many legends abound how he rode his trusty mare Black Bess from London to York in one day (impossible) and robbed the rich and helped the poor (he kept it all for himself). Finally, in York he was arrested for robbery, rustling, and shooting his neighbors chickens. <br /> <br /> 1805- Ludwig Van Beethoven premiered his Symphony # 3 Eroica at Vienna’s Theater-an-der-Wein. It marks his break with the classical styles of Mozart and Haydn and the evolution of his full mature sound. He originally intended to dedicate it to Napoleon but scratched out the dedication page when he heard Napoleon had renounced republican liberal values and made himself an emperor. Of all his symphonies it remained his favorite, despite the opinions of music critics at the time-“ Strange modulations and violent transitions… undesirable originality.”<br /> <br /> 1827- The first book of matches is patented.<br /> <br /> 1850 - The Nevada gold rush town of Rough n’Ready declared itself an independent nation, complete with president, flag and constitution. It lasted about three months. When the miners went to buy liquor at a nearby town to celebrate the 4th of July, they were refused because they were now foreigners. So, the miners quickly voted to rejoin the USA. <br /> <br /> 1862-THAT DEVIL FORREST! The Second Day of the Battle of Shiloh. Union General Grant, reinforced overnight, counterattacked and recaptured his ground lost the day before by the rebel surprise attack. When General Lew Wallace met him with reinforcements Wallace said: ”If stupidity and hard fighting are what you want, here we are.” Grant said: “I’ve had plenty of both already.” <br /> The last Confederate under fire was wild cavalryman Nathan Bedford Forrest. He led a charge at the Union Army to cover the rebel armies retreat. At one point the gray-clad horseman found himself cut off and alone in a sea of blue uniforms. The Yankees yelled: "Kill Him! Kill the G-ddamn Rebel! Knock him off his horse!" While Forrest slashed all around him with his saber, a bluecoat pushed his rifle into Forrest's ribs and pulled the trigger. The force of the blast lifted him momentarily out his saddle, but Forrest ignored the wound and kept fighting. To keep from being shot in the back as he galloped to safety Forrest pulled one hapless Yankee up on his horse and used him as a shield, then dropped him down when out of danger. <br /> Forrest survived the Civil War " I personally killed ten Yankees and had eleven horses shot out from under me. I finished the war down one horse!"<br /> <br /> 1865- General Ulysses Grant opened a correspondence with Confederate General Robert E. Lee about the surrender of his army. After the capture of Richmond, Grant’s Yankees sensed final victory was close. This night at Farmville Virginia, Grants blue coated troops broke out in a spontaneous torchlight celebration. The sky was illuminated by multitudes of torches and as Grant received their cheers. The nearby rebels could hear as the night sky shook with the sound of “John Brown’s Body” sung by thousands.<br /> <br /> 1891- Showman P.T. Barnum died of old age. The man who invented kiddie matinees, the Greatest Show on Earth, and coined the word “Jumbo” and “ There’s a sucker born every minute.” His last words were "How were the box office receipts today?"<br /> <br /> 1927- An audience at the Bell Laboratory watched a three inch television screen broadcast a sound image of US Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover.<br /> <br /> 1927- Abel Gance’s classic film Napoleon premiered at the Paris Opera. Gances active camera and editing were years ahead of their time, climaxed by a triptych of large images on three movie screens linked by synchronized projectors. One American man in the audience, Walter Wallin, was inspired to develop the Panavision wide screen lens, used in many modern movies.<br /> <br /> 1933- President Franklin Roosevelt began to dismantle the Prohibition laws by passing a law to allow the drinking of beer. My grandmother remembered climbing on a horse drawn beer wagon as they paraded down Fifth Ave. in New York City to cheering crowds. Congressman Fiorello LaGuardia and Mayor Jimmy Walker were there too. The full repeal of Prohibition would take until December 5th of that year.<br /> <br /> 1933- Hitler's regime passed the Professional Civil Service Restoration Act, which ordered Jews and other political undesirables fired from all government posts including university professorships, museum curators, and arts funded grants. The exile of Germany's intellectual elite began- Bertholdt Brecht, Billy Wilder, George Gropius, Thomas and Heinrich Mann, George Grosz, Michael Curtiz, Lazslo Moholy-Nagy, Max Reinhardt and Otto Klemperer -Colonel Klink's dad. <br /> <br /> 1939-"The Ugly Duckling" the last Disney Silly Symphony short cartoon.<br /> <br /> 1939- At the Philadelphia Academy of Music, recording sessions began for the music of Walt Disney’s Fantasia and would continue for 42 more days. Leopold Stokowski leading the Philadelphia Philharmonic.<br /> <br /> 1945-The SUICIDE MISSION OF THE BATTLESHIP YAMATO- The Japanese superbattleship had just enough fuel to sail into the midst of the American Navy around Okinawa, then it was to sell itself dearly. It never made it though. Because of Ultra, the cracking of the Japanese code, the Americans knew it was coming. The Yamato was bombed and torpedoed by swarms of U.S. planes and went to the bottom before it ever got within range of other surface ships. <br /> <br /> 1947- The Russians hanged Rudolph Hoess, Nazi commandant of Auschwitz, in front of the camp headquarters. His last words were Sieg Heil.<br /> <br /> 1948- The World Health Organization created.<br /> <br /> 1949- Musical "South Pacific" debuts. Some Enchanted Evening…<br /> <br /> 1957- The last New York City trolley car shuts down. (Queens to Manhattan)<br /> <br /> 1966-The U.S. Air Force recovered one of the H-Bombs they lost over Spain.<br /> <br /> 1970- The film Midnight Cowboy with Dustin Hoffman and John Voight won the Best Picture Oscar. The only x-rated (NC-17)film ever to do so. Walt Disney’s It’s Tough to be a Bird” won best animated short.<br /> <br /> 1971- In a taped Oval Office phone conversation, President Richard Nixon complained to Henry Kissinger that none of his cabinet had bothered to call and compliment him on a policy speech.” Well, screw ‘em! Screw all the cabinet!”<br /> <br /> 1972- Gangster "Crazy Joe" Gallo was shot and killed while celebrating his birthday at Umberto's Clam House in the Little Italy section of Manhattan. He had been disturbing the gang peace in New York set up by the council of the Five Families, under the leadership of Godfather Carlo Gambino. Crazy Joe’s headquarters was in the President’s Street section of Brooklyn where supposedly he kept a live African lion as a pet. Finally when Gallo had hit rival don Joe Columbo in broad daylight at a Columbus Day Italian Unity rally, the Five Families decided he had gone too far. Ownership of the restaurant was returned in 1994 by the city prosecutors office to the original owner Manny "the Horse" Ianello. <br /> <br /> 1990- The Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center opened a show of the photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe that the Corcoran Gallery in Washington DC cancelled. Mapplethorpe’s explicit depictions of gay and s/m lifestyles shocked neoconservative critics of the national endowments for the arts. A media debate on whether government should subsidize or censor art raged, and Dennis Barry the museum director was tried for obscenity. His acquittal was seen as a victory for free expression, but the argument cast a pall on future funding of controversial art.<br /> <br /> 1995- A Goofy Movie opened theaters. Directed by Kevin Lima. A lot of the animation was done at Disney’s Paris animation studio.<br /> <br /> 1998- Pop star George Michael was busted after exposing himself to an undercover policeman in a public park men’s room in Beverly Hills.<br /> <br /> 1998- Lead singer for the punk band The Plasmatics, Wendy O. Williams, committed suicide with a shotgun. The outrageously mohawked punk rocker was known for stunts on stage like destroying her amplifiers with a chainsaw, skydiving in the nude, autoeroticism with a sledgehammer, and crashing a burning school bus into a wall of television sets.<br /> <br /> 2155- According to the show Babylon 5 today marked the first contact between humans and the Centauri Alliance.<br /> ==========================================================<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s question: What should you do if you see an ICBM coming towards you? <br /> <br /> Answer: Run away. An ICBM stands for InterContinental Ballistic Missile. Used to deliver nuclear bombs and other nasty things.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 06 Apr 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6428 <p>Question: What should you do if you see an ICBM coming towards you? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is an Immelmann Turn? (Hint: pilots know).<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/6/2024<br /> Birthdays: Raphael of Urbino, Sacajawea, Ram Dass, Butch Cassidy, Gustav Moreau, Lowell Thomas, Merle Haggard, Billy Dee Williams, George Reeves, Michelle Phillips, Andre Previn, Barry Levinson, Roy Thinnes, John Ratzenberger, Gheorghe Zamfir, Paul Rudd is 55, Zach Braff is 49.<br /> <br /> 46BC- Battle of Thapsus- Even after Julius Caesar defeated his chief rival Pompey, other enemies kept the Roman Civil War going. This day in Africa, Caesar defeated an army led by a coalition of senatorial foes including Cato the Younger. Caesars troops were angry that they had to fight again the enemies Caesar had pardoned after the Battle of Pharsalia. So after the victory, they went on a killing spree of most of the prisoners.<br /> Cato the Younger declared he would spend the rest of his life eating his meals seated upright instead of lying down, which the Romans considered very bad for the digestion. Then he went on board his flagship at Utica and tried to commit suicide by stabbing himself in the belly. A doctor bandaged up his wounds. As Caesars officers arrived to arrest Cato, he pulled off the bandages, ripped open his wounds and pulled out his own intestines. “All is well with the General” Cato said and died. <br /> <br /> 1327- Italian poet Petrarch first saw the love of his life- Laura de Sade at the Church of Saint Clara in Avignon France. Even though Petrarch was a monk, and she was married, he loved her from afar and wrote some of the first great Italian love poetry, preparing the way for the Renaissance. Laura de Sade was the distant ancestor of the famous sadist the Marquis de Sade, who will be born 400 years in the future.<br /> <br /> 1453- Turkish Sultan Mohammed II, planted his standard before the St. Romanus Gate, and began the great siege of Constantinople, capitol of the Byzantine Empire. The Turkish Army went to battle to the sounds of heavy percussion, drums and cymbals, reintroducing them into European music. <br /> <br /> 1520- Renaissance artist RAPHAEL of Urbino, died on his 37th birthday. Vasari wrote of the great artist: " He pursued pleasures and love affairs without moderation. On one occasion he went to excess, and returned home with a violent fever, whereof he died soon after." Michelangelo, Leonardo and Titian lived to great old age. <br /> <br /> 1621- After staying in the New World for the winter, the Mayflower weighed anchor to return to England. The Pilgrims were on their own.<br /> <br /> 1717- BACH BUSTED- Composer Johann Sebastian Bach was court organist for the Duke of Saxe-Weimar but he was frustrated that he couldn’t get the job of court composer- Kappelmeister. Even after the incumbent kappelmeister Johann Drese died instead of Bach, the post went to Drese’s son! When the court of the nearby German state of Anhalt-Coethen offered him a better job, he went to tell his boss Duke Wilhelm Augustus that he wanted out of his contract. The Duke responded by clapping Bach in prison! Johann Sebastian Bach cooled his heels in the slammer until December when the duke relented and let him go to his new gig. Your Highness, Fugue You!<br /> <br /> 1776- USN- When the American Revolution started the rebels had only a few lightly armed sloops and pirate ships to pit against the invincible British Navy. The three heaviest armed American warships carried 34 cannons, Britain had 120 ships of the line that boasted 74 cannon each. This day was the first fleet action of the U.S. Navy. Commodore Iziah Hopkins flotilla engaged the British frigate HMS Glasgow off the coast of Rhode Island. <br /> The six little American ships could do little against the one British ship and after a lot of cannonballs flying the only British casualty was one man shot by a marine with a rifle.<br /> Hopkins was cashiered out of the service and more daring captains like Nicholas Biddle and John Paul Jones took his place.<br /> <br /> 1808- JOHN JACOB ASTOR founded the American Fur Company. Almost on the tail of Lewis and Clark, Astor established a line of fur trading posts to the Pacific and set the basis for the Astor Family fortune. A wily businessman, Astor had established Astoria on the Columbia River, the first Yankee settlement in the Pacific Northwest. When the War of 1812 broke out with England Astor knew nothing could defend this outpost from troops in British Granville- later renamed Vancouver. When a British man-of-war dropped anchor in Astoria Bay to burn the town, the captain was met with a man waving a bill of sale. Astor had sold the entire town to a Canadian company, thereby saving it.<br /> <br /> 1817- Princess Charlotte, the only child of the Prince and Princess of Wales, died in childbirth, creating a succession crisis. Mad King George III had many children, but they were all amazingly infertile, at least with their legitimate partners. HRH, soon to be George IV, hated his wife and was unlikely to have any more offspring, his younger brother William was childless and their three sisters were spinsters. Lucky for England the Duke and Duchess of Kent just had a new baby girl named Victoria. Later as Queen Victoria, she would visit Charlotte’s tomb and meditate on their strange paths of Fate.<br /> <br /> 1830- A Vermont man named Joseph Smith went to Fayette New York and filed papers to found a new Church he called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or the Mormon Church.<br /> <br /> 1830- The Mexican Government tried to stop any further American immigration into Texas territory by an edict this day. It also forbade trade contact with the US, and outlawed black slavery. Three issues destined to anger the Texans into demanding independence.<br /> <br /> 1832- The Black Hawk War began in the Illinois- Kentucky area. A young volunteer who didn't see much action was a tall gawky lawyer named Abe Lincoln.<br /> <br /> 1853- The town of Portland Oregon founded.<br /> <br /> 1862- BATTLE OF SHILOH- One of the bloodiest battles ever fought on American soil. At dawn the Confederate army surprise attacked the Union army of General Ulysses Grant at a small Tennessee riverboat landing near Memphis. Orthodox military logic would say Grant should have retreated, however he fought back and won a great, if confused victory. More Americans were wounded or killed in this one battle than all the previous American wars rolled into one. Shiloh is Hebrew for:” Place of Peace”. <br /> Confederate commander Albert Sidney Johnston, who was said to be as brilliant as Robert E. Lee, was trying to stop his hungry soldiers from sitting down to eat the hot breakfast they scared the Yankees away from. Picking up a tin coffee cup, he told looting rebels 'This is all the plunder I want” He spent the day directing the battle waving his tin cup instead of a sword. He was shot down and bled to death while waiting for his personal doctor to finish treating some captured enemy wounded. A Lieutenant General, Johnston remains the highest-ranking American general ever killed in action. <br /> Other combatants were Welshman William Morton Stanley, who would someday go to Africa and find Dr. Livingston, and General Lew Wallace, who as Governor of New Mexico, when not pardoning Billy the Kid would write the novel Ben Hur. The first day of Shiloh went badly for the North. That night Sherman said in frustration:” Grant, today we’ve had hell to pay!” In the firelight Grant quietly whittled on a stick:” Yep......whip ‘em tomorrow.” he muttered. Which he did.<br /> <br /> 1868- Brigham Young married Anne Elizabeth Webb, his 27th wife.<br /> <br /> 1896- The first OLYMPIC GAMES of the modern era opened in Athens Greece. The last was closed by the Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius in 391A.D along with all the other pagan festivals. The Olympics were revived as the idea of Baron Pierre Coubertin, who became the first president of the IOC. These games also saw the first modern Marathon race. Appropriately it was won by a Greek- Spyridion Louis. <br /> <br /> 1906 - Cartoonist James Stuart Blackton released his film The Humorous Phases of Funny Faces. Today it is considered the first animated film. Blackton made a fortune, lost it, and was hit by a bus in 1940. But his animated antics paved the way for Mickey, Bugs, Bart, Gollum and Laura Croft. <br /> <br /> 1909- Commander Robert Peary and his African American assistant Matthew Henson claimed to have been the first to reach the North Pole. Their claim was challenged but confirmed by the US Government in 1911. Today scholars say they were slightly off.<br /> <br /> 1917-THE UNITED STATES ENTERED WORLD WAR I. Congress approved President Woodrow Wilson’s call for a declaration of war against Germany and her allies Austria, Turkey and Romania. In 19 months the war would cost 200,000 U.S. lives, cost $56 billion, and created dozens of millionaires. If you owned any stock in chemical companies like Dupont or gun makers like Remington, your stock went up 400%.
But it also generated a lot of great music, like the song Over There. It also created the fashion for trench coats, wrist watches, and calling weather systems Cold Fronts. <br /> Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to ever sit in Congress, voted against war. In 1941, she was the lone vote against WWII. She lived long enough to protest the Vietnam War.<br /> <br /> 1929- Mahatma Gandhi and his thousands of followers complete their Salt March and make salt on the shores of the Indian Ocean in violation of the British State monopoly.<br /> This was India’s equivalent of the Boston Tea Party. Gandhi was arrested soon after.<br /> <br /> 1929- Louisiana senator Huey Long gained national notoriety when Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company tried to get the state legislature in Baton Rouge to impeach him. Long made a large part of the Louisiana legislature sign a pledge that hey would never impeach him, in return for sweetheart jobs and kickbacks. The impeachment scheme failed and Long- The Kingfish continued to be a rogue force in Third Party Politics.<br /> <br /> 1931- The Little Orphan Annie radio show premiered. “Who's the little chatterbox?
The one with pretty auburn locks. Who can it be, It's Little Orphan Annie…”<br /> <br /> 1933- the Screen Writer's Guild, later the WGA, formed. It took about seven years for them to unionize screenwriting in Hollywood. Jack Warner called them: "Communists, Radical Bastards and Soap Box Sons of B*tches !" David O. Selznick, who prided himself on running a writer-friendly studio, told them: “What? You put a picket line in front of my studio and I'll mount a machine gun on the roof and mow you all down!!" Despite these protestations, the Guild today represents most Hollywood writers.<br /> <br /> 1936- A scientist at Dupont invented Teflon. <br /> <br /> 1936- Episode One of the Flash Gordon series of movie serials premiered. This introduced Flash, Dale, and Emperor Ming the Merciless of the Planet Mongo. It made a moviestar out of Olympic gold medalist Larry “Buster” Crabbe.<br /> <br /> 1941-The Nazis panzers invaded Yugoslavia and Greece.<br /> <br /> 1941- The British army entered Addis Ababa and drove Mussolini’s Italians from Ethiopia.<br /> <br /> 1945- OPERATION FLOATING CHRYSANTHEMUM- The Japanese attacked the U.S. Navy around Okinawa with 355 Kamikaze suicide planes. The concept seems insane today but it had effect. More U.S. ships were sunk at this battle than in any time since Pearl Harbor. Casualty rates of sailors were so high that the War Dept. ordered a news blackout. The navy actually discussed a withdrawal from Okinawa at one point. Before the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese High Command had 2,200 kamikaze planes hidden in mountain bunkers to meet the US invasion of the Japanese mainland.<br /> <br /> 1951- Happy Birthday AstroBoy! According to the 1951 manga comic book by Osamu Tezuka, today Professor Elephant completed the little boy with the suction cup feet and pointed hairdo. Originally called Tetsuwan Atomo, he was named Astro Boy when Mushi Prod released the animated version in the US in 1961. <br /> <br /> 1956- Elvis Presley signed his first movie deal with Paramount Pictures.<br /> <br /> 1956- The Iconic round Capitol Records Building in Hollywood opened for business. Its recording studios were used by Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Les Paul to create their classic albums.<br /> <br /> 1968- Two days after the assassination of Martin Luther King, police attacked the Black Panther Party at their Oakland HQ. In the furious shootout a member named Billy Hutton was killed, Eldridge Cleaver wounded and Bobby Seale arrested. This incident seemed to prove the black militants claims of police harassment and caused a firestorm of civic protest. The Black Panthers forged an alliance with the Anti-Vietnam War white students, SDS, and later the Hispanic militants the Young Lords and AIM, the American Indian Movement.<br /> <br /> 1970- Sean Flynn was the only child of Errol Flynn and Lili Damita. He became a freelance war photographer who specialized in going to the most dangerous war zones. This day he was arrested by the Khmer Rouge guerrillas in the Cambodian jungle. He was never seen again. His mother had him declared legally dead in 1984. Sean Flynn was 28.<br /> <br /> 1974- ABBA, a new disco phenomenon from Sweden is introduced to the world when they win a Eurovision song contest. Mama Mia!<br /> <br /> 1991- The first episode of Darkwing Duck premiered.<br /> <br /> 1994-The Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi are both killed when their plane crashed. It is never proved why the plane went down but violence broke out in the Rwandan capitol. The ethnic Hutu tribe began a systematic killing of the Tutsi people. It was one of the worst genocides since the Holocaust. <br /> ===========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is an Immelmann Turn? (Hint: pilots know).<br /> <br /> Answer: During WWI Max Immelmann was considered the first fighter ace. He originated several tricks in the early plane-to-plane battles in the sky. His most famous maneuver was a high vertical loop that brought him down behind a pursuer. It was labeled an Immelmann Turn.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 05 Apr 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6427 <p>Quiz: What is an Immelmann Turn? (Hint: pilots know).<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Who first said The Show Must Go On..?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/5/2024<br /> Birthdays: Plato, Swinburne, Booker T. Washington, Josef Lister, Bette Davis, Nadar, Jean Fragonard, animator Hicks Lokey, Nguyen Van Thieu, historian Robert Bloch, Gale Storm, Washington Atlee-Burpee the mail order seed king, Spencer Tracy, Frank Gorshin, Melvyn Douglas, Walter Huston, Nigel Hawthorne, Peter Greenway, Gregory Peck, Mary Costa, the voice of Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, Roger Corman, Agnetha Faltskog of ABBA is 74, Colin Powell, Pharrell Williams is 51.<br /> <br /> To the ancient Romans this was the Feast Day of the Goddess of Good Fortune, Fortuna Virilis. <br /> <br /> 622 A.D.- BYZANTINE EMPEROR HERACLIUS began his military campaigns. Heraclius is one of the mysteries of history. He sat lethargic on his throne while the Persian Shah Chosroes II conquered the whole Middle East almost up to his doorstep. Then Heraclius got up, put on his armor and turned into Julius Caesar, Alexander and Rambo all rolled into one. In a lightning campaign he destroyed the Persian army, burned their capitol, sprinkled garbage on the grave of Zoroaster and chased them to the foot of the Himalayas. The Persians killed Chosroes just to make Heraclius go away. <br /> Then Heraclius went back to his throne and did nothing for the rest of his reign. Muslim Arabs would soon appear from out of Arabia and wipe out both empires, which is why you probably never heard of him. Some speculate that his wife Empress Heracleonas was the real military genius, but the scholars recorded the deeds all in the man’s name.<br /> <br /> 1242-" THE BATTLE ON THE ICE" Lake Pripus. Alexander Nevsky the Prince of Novgorod defeated the German monastic knights The Order of Sword Brothers. These warrior-monks had been sent by Rome to combat pagans in the Baltic lands, but after everyone had become Christian, they had switched their attention to "Greek Orthodox-Schizmatics". In 1939 Sergei Eisenstein did the famous film Alexander Nevsky about the battle with a musical score by Sergei Prokoviev.<br /> <br /> 1531- Richard Roose was boiled in oil for trying to poison the Archbishop of Canterbury.<br /> <br /> 1613- Princess Pocahontas, now baptized Lady Rebecca, married John Rolfe. had been sold by her cousins to the Jamestown colonists as a hostage for a copper pot. Today many old families in Virginia claim a dynastic link to Pocahontas. John Rolfe is famous for inventing the American tobacco industry. The local Virginia weed was a bit too rough for Englishmen to puff on, so Rolfe had tobacco cuttings smuggled out of Brazil and planted in the James River delta. Since the English had found no gold-laden Aztec Empires, this settlement was at first viewed as a failure. But this tobacco crop made the Virginia Colony a success to profit hungry investors back home. <br /> <br /> 1614- King James I’s second parliament met. It was famous for enacting no laws, basically doing absolutely nothing. Britons rejoiced.<br /> <br /> 1759- A small Dutch fleet blown off course in a Pacific storm discovered a small island. Because it was Easter, they named it Easter Island.<br /> <br /> 1794- French Revolutionaries Danton and Camille Desmoulins were guillotined. They were arch-leftists but their old buddy Robespierre wanted them out of the way. So they were convicted of being treasonous counterrevolutionaries. When Danton mounted the scaffold he laughed:" When you take my head off, show it to the people. It will be worth it!"<br /> <br /> 1814- Now that Napoleon had agreed to abdicate, he wanted to assure his son would keep the throne of the French Empire. But the victorious allied monarchs in occupied Paris told Nappy’s emissary Caulaincourt that they refused negotiate with them any further. At the same time one of Napoleon’s generals and closest friends Marshal Marmont made his own deal and took his army over to the enemy. Marmont was the Duke of Ragusa and for the next few decades a Raguser became a synonym for traitor like Benedict Arnold or Quisling.<br /> <br /> 1815-The volcano Mount Tambora erupted in Indonesia killing 12,000 and effecting weather patterns around the world. Many quaint Currier &amp; Ives ice skating prints come from this year without a summer.<br /> <br /> 1827- Englishman Joseph Lister born. Lister was not only the inventor of Listerine but of hygienic medical practices. Before Lister insisted on sterilization hospitals were known as death traps of infection where surgeons would sharpen their scalpels on the sole of their boots before making their incision. He once stopped an epidemic in a hospital by noticing that the interns would go from dissecting cadavers to delivering babies without washing their hands!<br /> <br /> 1840- Six drunken friends met in a tavern in Baltimore and pledged they would never drink again. They formed the Washingtonian Society, the earliest Temperance League.<br /> <br /> 1851- New York Mayor Ambrose Kingland proposed that a large park be built in Manhattan for health and recreation. Work on Central Park was begun in 1856.<br /> <br /> 1860- Garibaldi and his Thousand Red Shirts launched their invasion of Sicily. Of the several Italian leaders struggling to unify Italy. Giuseppe Garibaldi was the least patient. While the King of Sardinia Vittorio Emanuel and his minister Cavour tried quiet gentle diplomacy, Garibaldi and his "red shirts" launched an unprovoked assault on the Bourbon Kingdom of Two Sicilies. He told Vittorio-"You come from the North, I from the South." They met at the middle at a town called Teano and unified the entire Italian peninsula for the first time since the Roman Empire. Garabaldi's Northern Italian men wrote home of a new dish they tried in the South- pasta with tomato sauce!<br /> <br /> 1862- During the Civil War Union General George McClellan paused in his march through Virginia to attack the old Revolutionary War village of Yorktown. A small force under a rebel leader named MacGruder fooled McClellan into believing he was facing a large rebel army when he actually outnumbered them 20 to one. MacGruder marched his little force in circles, making multiple campfires and constantly blowing bugles, trying to look like a larger force than they actually were. When the Yankees finally overran the rebel fortifications they found the heavy cannon pointed at them were harmless logs painted black. They called them Quaker Guns.<br /> <br /> 1862- Meanwhile in Shiloh Tennessee, Confederate Beauregard and Albert Johnston’s rebel army was sneaking up to surprise attack Ulysses Grants army. But Beauregard was concerned that their undisciplined men were whooping and shooting their guns off and the element of surprise was now lost. Johnston ended speculation by saying:” I intend to fight them tomorrow even if they are a million strong!” Past midnight, Yankee General Sherman received reports of rebs skirmishing with his sentries. He told his adjutant to forget it and get some sleep, as there would be no battle that day. Shortly afterwards the entire Confederate Army attacked his camp.<br /> <br /> 1869- Daniel Bakeman, recorded as the last living minuteman of The American Revolution, died at age 109. A man who looked George Washington in the face lived long enough to be photographed by Matthew Brady. He married at age 12 and he and his wife stayed married for 91 years. <br /> <br /> 1874- Johann Strauss Jr.’s operetta Die Fledermaus premiered in Vienna.<br /> <br /> 1887- Lord Acton wrote: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”<br /> <br /> 1892- THE JOHNSON COUNTY WAR- By the 1890's many great Wyoming cattle ranches were owned by Eastern or European companies. When cattle herds were decimated by the great frost of 1888, a labor dispute arose between the distant employers and the laid off cowboys, many of whom resorted to rustling to make a living. By 1892 the friction became so bad the Wyoming Cattlemen's Association hired a private train and filled it with hired Texas gunfighters and enough ammunition to kill everyone in three states. They had orders to shoot or string up any and all rustlers, revolutionists and troublemakers. The word got out to the citizens of Casper Wyoming. A mob gathered, and surrounded the Texans in a ranch house, laying siege to it, throwing lit dynamite sticks from an armored wagon and shooting at any cowpoke who dared show his face in a window. <br /> The hapless hit men were finally rescued by the U.S. Cavalry, who granted all a general amnesty. The incident was the basis for the movie "Heaven's Gate". <br /> <br /> 1913- Ebbets Field opened in Flatbush. The Brooklyn Dodgers defeated the New York Highlanders (Yankees) 3-2.<br /> <br /> 1915- Jess Willard knocked down Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight boxing champion in a title fight in Havana Cuba. The older Johnson retired after the fight. Jess Willard wouldn’t hold the title long though, on July 4th Willard lost to new kid Jack Dempsey.<br /> <br /> 1923- Louis Armstrong, King Oliver and the Creole Jazz Band took a train from Chicago to Richmond Indiana to record Chimes Blues. Satchmo’s first record.<br /> <br /> 1930 -James Dewar invented the Twinkie. He said he got the name when he drove by a billboard advertising "Twinkle-Toe Shoes" and modified it to Twinkie. Dewar ate two every day of his life, and called them, “The best darn-tootin idea I ever had!” <br /> <br /> 1931- Fox Film Company dropped their option on young star John Wayne as a dud not going anywhere. Wayne eked out an existence doing cheap westerns for Republic and Monogram until John Ford of RKO made him a star in 1939’s Stagecoach.<br /> <br /> 1939- For German children, membership in the Hitler Youth corps became mandatory.<br /> <br /> 1940- Disney short Donald’s Dog Laundry.<br /> <br /> 1945- The first Casper the Friendly Ghost cartoon.<br /> <br /> 1951- Republican Senator Robert Short read General Douglas MacArthur’s proclamation to the Communist Chinese on the floor of Congress. It read that if they didn’t withdraw from Korea, MacArthur would restart the Chinese Civil War and “Rain Nuclear Fire down upon their cities”. <br /> MacArthur had no permission from the State Department to make such a rash statement, and it ruined all the behind the scenes overtures to get the Chinese to negotiate an end to the Korean War early. The previous December, MacArthur had been given a direct order from the President not to make any public statements about Korean policy, but the General chose to ignore it. <br /> President Harry Truman concluded, “I’m gonna fire that pompous Sonofabitch!”<br /> <br /> 1951- The Atomic Spies, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death for espionage.<br /> <br /> 1955- Elderly Prime Minister Winston Churchill finally retired. He was succeeded as PM by Anthony Eden. Churchill, already the author of several history books, joked with his cabinet:<br /> ”Gentlemen history shall be kind to us, for I intend to write it!”<br /> <br /> 1956- At Disneyland, The Bathroom of the Future opened at Tomorrowland.<br /> <br /> 1963- The Lava Lamp invented by Dr. Edward Craven Walker.<br /> <br /> 1965- Julie Andrews had created the role of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady on Broadway. But when filming the movie version old studio head Jack Warner decided she was not a big enough star, so he used Audrey Hepburn with a dubbed singing voice. But Andrews had her revenge. At the Academy Awards this night My Fair Lady won Best Picture, but Julie Andrews won the best actress Oscar for Mary Poppins. She famously said, "I would like to thank Jack Warner for making this award possible!"<br /> <br /> 1969- Pope Paul VI abolished those silly big wide brimmed red hats (galeros) the cardinals wore.<br /> <br /> 1975- The Best Animated Short Oscar went to Closed Mondays, claymation from Portland based Bob Gardiner and Will Vinton. In 2005 the Will Vinton Studio was renamed Laika.<br /> <br /> 1976- Eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes died at age 76. Hughes had inherited his fathers oil rig tool company at 17, and built the mighty Hughes aircraft empire, and ran RKO pictures. He was a well-known Hollywood playboy and dated beautiful women like Jane Russell. But after surviving several test plane crashes, he became addicted to pain killers and became increasing paranoid and withdrawn from the world. He died a strange shut in, long haired and living on a diet of drugs, and saving his urine in mason jars.<br /> <br /> 1985- Singer David Lee Roth quit the rock band Van Halen to pursue a solo career.<br /> <br /> 1987- The young Fox TV network premiered The Tracey Ullman Show. She was an English sketch comedy actor who did clever impressions. But a highlight of the show was the unique animated interstitials before commercials. One in particular was a take on a family done by Matt Groening entitled The Simpsons. The Tracey Ullman Show eventually ended, but The Simpsons spun off into a regular TV show in 1989. It became one of the most famous, longest running TV series in history.<br /> <br /> 1994- Grunge rock star Kurt Kobain shot himself. His body wasn’t discovered until two days later.<br /> <br /> 2003- Invading American forces began The Battle for Baghdad.<br /> <br /> 2063- FIRST CONTACT- According to Star Trek, this is the day Professor Zephram Cochran adapted an old-World War III missile and invented the Warp Drive, enabling the Earth to begin deep space exploration, and during whose maiden flight he made the first contact with an alien race- from the planet Vulcan. <br /> ===============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Who first said The Show Must Go On..?<br /> <br /> Answer: No one is sure, but it is assumed it was P.T. Barnum or some other travelling circus master. When some animal got loose or some other problem. In 1867 it was a common enough phrase to be recorded in The Dictionary of Americanisms.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 04 Apr 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6426 <p>`Quiz: Who first said The Show Must Go On..?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: What is a charlatan?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/4/2024<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Caracalla, Eadweard Muybridge, Maya Angelou, Frances Langford, Irv Spence-Tom &amp; Jerry animator, Gil Hodges, Arthur Murray, Muddy Waters-born McKinley Morganfield, Cloris Leachman, Dorothea Dix, Elmer Bernstein, Bijan, Bea Benaderet, Heath Ledger, Robert Downey Jr is 59, Barry Pepper, Craig T. Nelson is 80, Hugo Weaving is 64<br /> <br /> If you were a Roman, today is the first day of the Megaleasian Festival in honor of Lunus the Moon god. Party! Par-tee!<br /> <br /> In China, today is Ching-Ming Tomb Sweeping Day.<br /> <br /> 527AD- Byzantine Emperor Justin named his nephew Justinian as his successor.<br /> <br /> 636AD- Today is the Feast Day of Saint Isadore of Seville, the Patron Saint of the Internet. Don’t believe me? Check this out. http://factually.gizmodo.com/the-patron-saint-of-the-internet-is-isidore-of-seville-1595023500<br /> <br /> 896 A.D.-THE SYNOD HORRENDIUS-One of the more bizarre incidents in Vatican history. Bishops Stephen and Formosan hated each other. When Formosan became pope Stephen had to go into hiding. After Formosan's death Stephen became pope but was unsatisfied that he couldn't strike back at his old enemy. So, Pope Stephen had Formosan's tomb opened, the corpse sat up in a chair, and put on trial for heresy. <br /> The cross examination was pretty strange, the prosecutor said things like: "His very silence is admittance of his guilt!" The dead body was convicted, excommunicated, tossed around by a Roman mob, then thrown in the Tiber. Pope Stephen VI later became the first pope to be killed in bed with someone's wife.<br /> <br /> 1561- A strange show in the sky of red discs and crosses was reported over Nuremberg Germany. Perhaps an early UFO sighting?<br /> <br /> 1581- Queen Elizabeth I visited the Golden Hind, the ship which Francis Drake sailed around the world. The 'Great Pirate of the Unknown Seas" had plundered huge treasure ships and drove Spanish Colonial authorities crazy. The Spanish Ambassador to London demanded the pirate Drake lose his head, but Queen Elizabeth had a different use in mind for her sword- she knighted the Devon innkeeper's son.<br /> The Golden Hind was kept in a prize anchorage for decades until age and dry rot caused it to fall to pieces. Ben Johnson wrote poems about Sir Francis Drake. Shakespeare's island of wizards in the Tempest may have been modeled on Drake's accounts of the strange stormy islands of Tierra Del Fuego in the Straights of Magellan.<br /> <br /> 1704 -British Admiral Sir Cloudsley Shovel captured The Rock of Gibraltar from Spain. Britain still owns it today, which really annoys Spain. <br /> <br /> 1841- PRESIDENT WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON DIED AFTER ONLY 31 DAYS IN OFFICE. “Old Tippecanoe” caught pneumonia giving his inauguration address in icy drizzle. When Vice President Tyler got word of the President's death, he was playing marbles with some children, and was about to get his knuckles rapped for losing. No U.S. President had ever died in office before, and no one knew if the Vice President was now only a caretaker until special elections, or was he the president for the next for years? John Tyler set the rule by staying President for four full years. Many people hated him. Instead of “Your Excellency, they called him "Your Accidency".<br /> <br /> 1850- The City of Los Angeles was incorporated under U.S. law. <br /> <br /> 1865- As the bedraggled Army of Northern Virginia retreated from Richmond, Robert E. Lee had a slim hope that if he could put distance between himself and the pursuing Union armies he might be able to join together the remaining Confederate forces in the Carolinas and keep fighting. These hopes were dashed this day. When Lee’s army reached Amelia Courthouse, the waiting trainloads of promised food turned out to be only ammunition. There weren’t enough trains to convey his men. Lee lost an entire day resting his army while scavenging for food. This allowed Grants Yankee army to catch up and slowly surround him. Lee remarked bitterly that while his men starved, the Confederate Congress could only “debate and shell peanuts!”<br /> <br /> 1865- LINCOLN IN RICHMOND- Meanwhile against the wishes of his bodyguards that it was still too dangerous, Abraham Lincoln toured the newly captured Confederate capitol of Richmond. Most of the white population had fled the smoldering city, but crowds of jubilant black slaves pulled his coach and cheered that the Day of Jubilee had arrived. One old black man kneeled to him. Lincoln raised him up “Father, you no longer have to kneel to any other man, only God. You are Free. Free as air.” Lincoln walked over to the Confederate Executive Mansion and sat in Jefferson Davis’ chair, putting his feet up on his desk. He then visited the family of rebel General George Pickett of the famous Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg. The Pickett’s were friends of Abe and Mary Lincoln before the war and Abe enjoyed bouncing Pickett’s baby boy on his knee. <br /> <br /> 1900- In Brussels, a protester shouting 'Vive Les Boers!" fired four shots at the Prince of Wales and Princess Augusta (Future King Edward VII). They all miss. He was protesting the British war on the whites Afrikanners of South Africa. Queen Victoria survived six assassination attempts in her lifetime. <br /> <br /> 1901- Russian author Leo Tolstoy broke with the Russian Orthodox Church when he sent a letter to the Patriarch this day declaring that prayers offered to Jesus Christ were “the worst type of sacrilege”. <br /> <br /> 1924- On a dry lakebed in California, Tom Milton ran a Miller race car at 151 mph.<br /> <br /> 1932- Louisiana Senator Huey Long told Congress that 80% of America’s wealth was controlled by 20% of its population. According to Business Week, today 80% of America’s wealth was owned by 1% of its population, and the top 150 richest people on Earth collectively own 50% of all the total wealth of the planet.<br /> <br /> 1933- The U.S. Government orders all citizens to turn in their remaining gold dollar coins.<br /> <br /> 1933- The U.S. airship Akron crashed in a storm, killing the crew and an admiral. <br /> <br /> 1942- 'THE HUMP' -When the Japanese army overran Rangoon and cut the Burma Road, Allied forces helping Chiang Kai Shek 's Chinese armies and the Flying Tigers were suddenly without supplies. Army Air Corps General Olds and his men begin the daily supply flights of transports from India over the Himalayas to China, or 'Over the Hump'.<br /> <br /> 1944- During World War II a South African reconnaissance plane flew over the Auschwitz Concentration Camp and took photos. When they are analyzed in London, the intelligence boys declared it to be a synthetic rubber plant.<br /> <br /> 1952- CARTOON COMMIES- Nationally syndicated columnist Walter Winchell accused the owners of a New York commercial animation studio, Tempo Productions of Communist sympathies. One of the owners was Disney Layout man Dave Hilberman, who was a union organizer and was the only artist personally named by Walt Disney to the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. The F.B.I. began investigating Tempo and their Madison Avenue clients quickly pulled their business. Tempo closed, laying off 50 artists. Mr. Clean, Markie Maypo and the Hamm’s Beer Bear were once again safe from Red subversion. <br /> <br /> 1954- Arturo Toscanini, who had been making music since the 1880’s, conducted his final concert. Toscanini’s studio space at NBC is today the set of the Saturday Night Live TV show.<br /> <br /> 1958- Screen goddess Lana Turner and her gangster lover Johnny Stompanato had a violent argument that ended when Turner’s teenage daughter plunged a kitchen knife into his chest. She was acquitted as justifiable homicide. Rumors maintain the daughter was covering for her mother’s own actions. It was whispered Hollywood society ladies had nicknamed Stompanato’s willy Oscar for its size.<br /> <br /> 1967- Van Nuys premiere head shop Captain Ed’s Heads &amp; Highs first opened for business.<br /> <br /> 1967- In a speech at the Riverside Baptist Church in Manhattan Rev Dr. Martin Luther King announced his opposition to the Vietnam War. This put him in direct conflict with the heretofore friendly Lyndon Johnson administration. Whereas LBJ had Dr. King and the Southern Christian leadership up to the White House often, and had done much to fight discrimination, the volatile LBJ now called Dr. King “that backwoods n--- preacher!” <br /> <br /> 1967- Snoopy’s little bird friend Woodstock debuted in the Peanuts comic strip. <br /> <br /> 1968- THE SETTLERS MOVEMENT- The Israeli government was trying to sort out what to do about the West Bank territories conquered in the Six Day War. This day a small group of ultra-conservative Jews called Gush Eymunim moved into a hotel the Arab city of Hebron and declared themselves a settlement. Minister Moshe Dayan wanted Jewish settlements, but he wanted them to be alongside Arab communities, not displacing them. This was the first provocation by conservative settlers that would bedevil Palestinian-Israeli relations for the next fifty years.<br /> <br /> 1968- DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING ASSASSINATED. The great civil rights leader was struck in the head by a .30 cal bullet fired from a high-powered rifle, while he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. He was 39. Dr. King and his team had been clowning around that morning, throwing pillows at one another. On the balcony Dr King’s last words were teasing Jesse Jackson for not being dressed properly for going out to dinner. Jesse was wearing a fashionable turtleneck instead of suit and tie. <br /> Dr. Benjamin Hooks ran to the phone to get help, but the switchboard was not working. The motel manager's wife who usually ran the switchboard had seen the shooting, and the shock had given her a heart attack. She died the next day. The Memphis police had always surrounded King's party with at least seven officers whenever he was in town. For some unknown reason that morning they were ordered to stand back at least seven blocks. It was the one-year anniversary of the speech where he declared his opposition to the Vietnam War. <br /> A man named James Earl Ray was later apprehended in England, confessed to the shooting and was given a life sentence. He later recanted his confession and said the FBI coerced him, and he was taking orders from a mysterious contact man named Raul. James Earl Ray died in 1998. The King family reopened the investigation and a civil court ruled that Dr. King was probably killed by a conspiracy. When F.B.I. director J. Edgar Hoover heard about the assassination he did what he did the day John Kennedy was shot, he spent the day at the racetrack celebrating.<br /> <br /> 1968- When news of Martin Luther King's assassination got out, 175 US cities suffered urban rioting. In Indianapolis, Sen. Bobby Kennedy was scheduled to go speak to a mostly black crowd. His police escort refused to follow him out of fear. Kennedy went anyway. He told the audience the terrible news, made a reference to his own murdered brother, then proceeded to quote them poetry from the Greek writer Aeschylus "We must tame the savageness of man, and make gentle the life of this world." The crowd wept and prayed together. Indianapolis was quiet that night.<br /> <br /> 1973- The World Trade Center Twin Towers first opened to the public.<br /> <br /> 1984- In George Orwell’s novel 1984, this is the day Winston Smith started a secret diary and first wrote the dangerous thought-crime “Down With Big Brother”.<br /> <br /> 1987- Ronald Reagan’s hand-picked FCC voted to repeal The Fairness Doctrine, which mandated news services report unbiased news, reflecting all opinions. This set the stage for the highly partisan news reporting of today.<br /> <br /> 1988- Arizona governor Evan Meacham was impeached, the first US governor to get the boot in 60 years. Meecham had made Arizona the only state in the U.S. to refuse the Martin Luther King holiday. Meecham had once referred to African Americans as “pickaninees” and had ordered a list drawn up of all state employees who were gay.<br /> <br /> 1994- Marc Andreesen and Jim Clark started Netscape. Clark also founded Silicon Graphics, Inc.<br /> <br /> 2007- Bob Clark, the director of the holiday classic film A Christmas Story, was killed in a head on car crash on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. He was 67. <br /> ==========================================================<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s question- What is a charlatan?<br /> <br /> Answer: a person falsely claiming to have a special knowledge or skill; a fraud.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 03 Apr 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6425 <p>Quiz: What is a charlatan?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Why is the person who carries your golf clubs called a caddie?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/3/2024<br /> Birthdays: Marlon Brando would be 100, King Henry IV of England (1361), Washington Irving, William Marcy "Boss"Tweed, Sally Rand the Fan Dancer, Bud Fisher “Mutt &amp; Jeff”, Ma Rainey, Iron Eyes Cody, Wayne Newton, Doris Day, Robert Sherwood, Virgil Grissom, Marsha Mason, Melissa Etheridge, Amanda Byrnes, David Hyde Pierce is 66, Alec Baldwin is 66, Eddie Murphy is 63, Jane Goodall is 90.<br /> <br /> In Ancient Greece the beginning of April was the Aphrodisia- the Festival of Aphrodite. Greeks would offer sacrifices to the Goddess of Love, and some would visit the sacred prostitutes in her great temple in Corinth. Rich old matrons would put aside in their wills some money to purchase slave girls to work in the sacred brothels. <br /> <br /> 127AD- Today is the day Pope Sixtus I was martyred under the emperor Trajan. Sixtus is remembered as the pope during the Mass when the priests chanted Holy, Holy, Holy -Hosanna in the Highest, etc. he insisted it be sung by everyone in the congregation.<br /> <br /> 628AD-After being defeated by Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, Persian King Chosroes II was murdered by his own son’s followers, and his body chucked down a well.<br /> <br /> 1043- Edward the Confessor crowned King of England. <br /> <br /> 1312- The Vatican, under the influence of the French King Phillip the Fair, abolished the Holy Order of the Knights Templar. The order was rich in international finance and none of it taxable and because they were monks there were no relatives to sponge off. They invented the personal check, so a Templar didn’t have to ride from castle to castle with those heavy bags of gold. Just write out a note (or have your scribe do it if you were illiterate) and affix your seal to it. <br /> <br /> 1367-The Battle of Navarette- during a lull in the Hundred Year War, Edward the Black Prince of England goes to Spain to help King of Aragon Pedro the Cruel press his claims against Navarre. He defeats a Franco-Navarrese force of knights and captured the great French knight Bertrand DeGuesclin (De-Gue-Klan). But when Edward refused to turn over his prisoners to Pedro so he could behead them (why else have a nickname like The Cruel ?). Even refusing to hand over DeGuesclin for his weight in pure silver. Pedro then refused to pay the Englishmen's wages and Edward went home broke and annoyed. Another freelancer gets screwed.<br /> <br /> 1657- Oliver Cromwell formally refused the title King of England and preferred to remain the Lord Protector of the English Republic. But he basically ruled like a king anyway and tried to leave the leadership to his son.<br /> <br /> 1714-THE FIRST BRITISH PRIME MINISTER-Before this time men who ran the government of England at the king’s pleasure held a variety of titles: Lord High Admiral, Chancellor, Mayor of the Palace, etc. As the complicated checks &amp; balances of democratic government evolved more specific job titles were needed. <br /> When The British Crown was offered to the German George I of Hanover, he was bewildered by how complicated English parliamentary democracy was! He also refused to learn English, switching to French or Latin when no one would answer him in German.<br /> Couldn't I just work with one man who could done get what I wanted? So, Minister of the Exchequer (treasury) Sir Robert Walpole, who's party was in the majority in Parliament became First Minister, or Prime Minister. The reason the job evolved out of the Treasury is that minister could distribute bribes to get things done. <br /> King George wanted Walpole in close touch, so he gave him a house near Whitehall Palace. He had just foreclosed on a modest row house called #10 Downing Street. Walpole said he didn't want it seen as a royal bribe. He would vacate it when he left office for his successor. <br /> <br /> 1730 -EMPEROR MOYTOY OF AMERICA- A Scottish conman, Sir Alexander Cummings, had ingratiated himself into the council of the Cherokee Nation, then occupying most of Georgia, the Carolinas, Kentucky and Tennessee. In a scam to make himself look like the representative of all native Americans, Cummings convinced one Cherokee chief named Amatoya Moytoy of Tellico (Tennessee) to travel to England and do ritual submission to King George II. He dubbed him Moytoy, Emperor of America! The Cherokee were confused but went along with the gag if it meant good trading relations with the redcoat white men. Cummings disappeared shortly after the truth came out, undoubtedly a much wealthier man. <br /> <br /> 1764- Aging Empress Maria Theresa of Austria raised her son Joseph II to be co-emperor. He was the Emperor in the movie Amadeus. His sister was Marie Antoinette. In addition to Austria this day he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor at Frankfurt. He later wrote his mother about his coronation“...a lot of elegant people mouthing idiocies.”<br /> <br /> 1791- The French Revolution Assembly National decided to convert the Church of Saint Genevieve to a secular temple to contain the remains of the great leaders of the French Nation. It was renamed the Pantheon after the ancient Roman name. The bones of Mirabeau, Voltaire, Rousseau and more were soon moved there.<br /> <br /> 1814- THE MARSHALS STRIKE. Napoleon’s top generals, the Marshals, gathered around him at Fontainbleau Palace to try to convince him to step down. These men had their fortunes made in his service. They had fought and bled for him on a hundred battlefields. But after twenty years, France was overrun by five foreign armies, Paris had fallen, the French were down to drafting fifteen-year olds. The war was obviously lost. <br /> The discussion soon grew ugly. Marshals Ney, Oudinot, Moncey and Lefebvre told him if ordered they would not follow him to try to retake Paris. Napoleon shouted:” You just want to protect your titles and estates! I can replace you all with sergeants!” <br /> Finally Napoleon was made to accept the inevitable. He had tried first to resign in favor of his three year old son and save his dynasty. The Allies were amenable to this if it represented what the French people really wanted. However certain French government officials scheming for the return of the Bourbon Kings staged street demonstrations for the old monarchy, and convinced one of Napoleon's closest friends, Marshal Marmont the Duke of Ragusa, to defect to the enemy with his entire army. <br /> <br /> This gesture decided the allies that the French people would rather have King Louis return rather than the boy Napoleon II. Napoleon was forced to abdicate completely, and in France the name "Raguser" became a word for traitor like Benedict Arnold. <br /> <br /> 1860-The Pony Express system started. Relay riders from Saint Louis across the prairies and deserts all the way to Sacramento, California. Ten days to get a letter from St. Jo to Denver. For all its romance, The Pony Express failed after just 2 years. Stagecoaches and telegraph wires soon covered the same message business much more easily.<br /> <br /> 1861- Seven days before the Civil War would begin, tensions between North and South built to the point of explosion. At Fort Sumter South Carolina a ship, the R. H. Shannon out of Boston with a cargo of ice bound for Savannah put in a stop at Charleston, South Carolina. She sailed past Ft. Sumter, right in between the itchy fingered Yankee and Rebel cannons. The captain rarely read newspapers, so he was completely unaware of the political situation. When he heard a warning shot, he ran up the Stars and Stripes. Suddenly cannons started to boom out all around him. Mystified, he lowered the flag, the gunfire stopped, and the Shannon sailed on...<br /> <br /> 1869- First performance of Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor. <br /> <br /> 1882- JESSE JAMES SHOT-The famous outlaw had been living quietly with his family under the alias Mr. Howard when he was murdered by his own gang members, his cousins Bob and William Ford. Jesse was shot in the back of the head while he was standing on a chair straightening a picture frame. His last words were: ”My, it’s awfully hot today...” He was 34. Jesse’s older brother Frank took the hint and went straight. Bob Ford went on tour giving lectures, re-enacting how he had killed Jesse. Finally in a mining camp someone blew him away with a shotgun. The last thing he heard was,” …oh, Bob….”<br /> <br /> 1897-composer Johannes Brahms died.<br /> <br /> 1920- Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald married.<br /> <br /> 1922- JOSEF STALIN made General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. In the scramble for power after the death of Lenin this move allowed him to consolidate his his hold on the top job and push out Leon Trotsky and the other top Bolsheviks like Zioniev, Kamieniev and Krupskaya. He made sure Lenin's last will and political testament was never made public. <br /> <br /> 1936-Bruno Richard Hauptmann was electrocuted for the murder of the Lindbergh baby. <br /> <br /> 1941- With the possibility of a strike at his studio, and war looming, Walt Disney held the first meeting with U.S. government officials to try and obtain work for training films. <br /> <br /> 1948 -THE MARSHAL PLAN signed into law by President Truman. It called for 5 billion U.S. dollars to be spent to help 16 European countries rebuild their shattered economies after World War II. <br /> <br /> 1968- In Memphis, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was supposed to give a sermon at the Mason Temple Church, but excused himself because of his workload. Since he had openly come out against the Vietnam War, the death threats had increased and it all weighed heavily on his mind. Rev. Ralph Abernathy telephoned from the church that the crowd was disappointed Dr. King had not showed up. "Martin, they don't want to hear me. They're all here to hear you." <br /> So Dr. King got up, went to the church, and delivered off-the-cuff the last great speech of his life: "I have been to the Mountaintop and have Seen the Promised Land. And though I may not get there with you, it is alright….." At one point he was startled when the wind outside caused a shutter to bang. Then he returned to the Lorraine Motel. <br /> <br /> 1968- Stanley Kubrick's epic film "2001: A Space Odyssey" premiered. The N.Y. Times review said it was: " Somewhere between hypnotic and boring". Pauline Kael called it "monumentally unimaginative!" After an academy screening in Hollywood, movie star Rock Hudson walked out saying” Will someone please tell me what the hell that was about?” <br /> Writer Arthur C. Clarke always said HAL the computer was not a coded reference to IBM. At the Oscars, Clarke and Kubrick lost the best screenplay award to Mel Brooks for The Producers. 2001 won only one Oscar, for visual effects. It was the only Oscar a Stanley Kubrick film ever won.<br /> <br /> 1973- Standing on the corner of 6th Ave in Manhattan, Motorola scientist Marty Cooper made the first cell phone call. He called his competitor Joel Engel at Bell Labs to tell him he had lost the race to invent the cell phone. He said of that first phone, “It was the size of a leg of lamb.”<br /> <br /> 1974- Even while the Watergate Scandal continued, this day the IRS reported President Richard Nixon had been paying taxes based on an income of only $15,000 a year, when he was making at least $200,000 a year.<br /> <br /> 1975- Eccentric chess champion Bobby Fischer was stripped of his World Chess Championship for refusing to play any more matches to defend his title. <br /> <br /> 1984-THE COFFEE SHOP CONVERSION. Future President George W. Bush was a cocaine-snorting alcoholic who had been busted for drunk driving. This day he became Born-Again Christian after a meeting with an evangelist in a coffee shop.<br /> <br /> 1994- Disney chief executive Frank Wells was killed in a helicopter crash on a skiing trip. It’s been speculated that blowing snow off some high peaks caused an ice ball to be sucked into the copter’s air intake manifold. Clint Eastwood was supposed to be on that trip but couldn't make it. Billie Joel and Christie Brinkley had a similar scare with their helicopter on the same day. The death of the Disney CEO set in motion the events that would lead to Jeffrey Katzenberg leaving Disney and forming Dreamworks, as well as Michael Ovitz’s brief tenure as a mouseketeer and Michael Eisner’s eventual fall in 2006. In 1999 the Hollywood Reporter estimated that little iceball cost the Walt Disney Company over one billion dollars.<br /> <br /> 1996- Ron Brown, the first African American to be Chairman of the Democratic Party, was killed in a plane crash near Dubrovnik, Croatia.<br /> <br /> 1999- Egypt repealed a 1904 law that said a rapist could escape prison for his crime if he married his victim!<br /> <br /> 2020- With the covid pandemic spreading and thousands of people filling emergency rooms, President Trump held a nationwide press briefing. He announced that the CDC (Center of Disease Control declared that all Americans needed to wear cloth facemasks in public places. Then a moment later he disparaged the idea. “It’s just voluntary….I’m not going to wear one.” <br /> ==========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Why is the person who carries your golf clubs called a caddie?<br /> <br /> Answer: When Mary Queen of Scots lived in France she played the Scottish game golf and had a military cadet (pronounced ca-day) to carry her clubs. When she moved to Scotland, she apparently continued.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 01 Apr 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6424 <p>Question: What does it mean to “go down the Rabbit-Hole?”<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Why are people encouraged to yell Geronimo when they parachute out of a plane?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/1/2024<br /> Welcome to April, named for Aprilis, an Etruscan Goddess of Agriculture and planting, or it may even be a corruption of the name of the Greek Aphrodite, the goddess of love. OtThe month was considered by Romans sacred to Venus- Venuralia.<br /> <br /> To Ancient Egyptians it was the birthday of the God Het-Heth or Hathor. <br /> <br /> Happy April Fool’s Day – The Ancient Romans considered today ALL FOOLS DAY-a day of comedy- For the end of the time sacred to Hilaria, goddess of laughter. They did things backwards, men and women swapped clothes and carried on. <br /> Before the Gregorian reforms some Old Style Calendars had the year begin in late March instead of January. As the new modern calendar became more widely accepted, the people who stubbornly clung to the old practice were made fun of and called April-Fools. <br /> <br /> Birthdays: Big Jim Fisk , Edmund Rostand, Lon Chaney, Sir William Harvey, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Ali McGraw, Toshiro Mifune, Debbie Reynolds, Phil Neikro, Wallace Beery, Jane Powell, Bo Schembechler, Annette O’Toole, Barry Sonnenfeld, Rachel Maddow is 47, animator Andreas Deja is 65.<br /> <br /> 64 B.C.- According to the 60s TV show I Dream of Jeannie, this was the birthday of Jeannie. When she was 29 the evil Blue Djinn imprisoned Jeannie in her bottle. She remained there for 2,000 years until uncorked and released by astronaut Capt. Nelson in 1965.<br /> <br /> 1081- Alexius Comnenus Ist, captured Constantinople and establishes the Comnenoi dynasty. He took the city by bribing the Varangian Guards –English, Hun and Viking mercenaries, to open the city gates and let his army in. Alexius I was the Byzantine Emperor when the Crusades began. His daughter Anna Comnena described the event in her journal, "Then one day all of Europe decided to get up and walk to our door..."<br /> <br /> 1488- Ludovico Buonarotti, after going through a lot of trouble to get his son in the wool and draper’s guild, gives up hope that the boy would ever be anything other than an artist. He reluctantly takes him to fresco painter Domenico Ghirlandaio to be his apprentice. Michelangelo's career begins.<br /> <br /> 1621- The first treaty between English and Indians signed in Massachusetts. Massacoit of the Wampanoags made peace with the newly arrived Pilgrims. The Wampanoags were not just altruistic, their tribe too had been decimated by the diseases spread by English fishermen. They were being menaced by larger tribes like the Narraganset. So, they sought out an alliance with these pale new strangers.<br /> <br /> 1698- One of the more celebrated April Fool jokes. In London, a newspaper Dawks Newsletter, came up with the idea to advertise official looking tickets for sale to see the annual washing of the three Royal Lions at the Tower of London on April 1st. No such ceremony ever existed. Thousands of people still bought tickets and were crestfallen when this day they arrived at the Tower, ticket in hand, and were turned away.<br /> They kept printing April 1st “Washing of the Royal Lions” tickets until the late 1800s, and gullible people kept buying them. “I’ve got a lion washing ticket for you” was the 18th and 19th Century equivalent of “I’ve got a bridge to sell you.” <br /> <br /> 1747-Georg Frederich Handel premiered his oratorio Judas Maccabeus with the song "Hail, Conquering Hero!", frequently used at royal functions.<br /> <br /> 1789- The first session of the U.S. House of Representatives. Felix Muhlenburg was the first Speaker of the House.<br /> <br /> 1793- Unsen Volcano in Japan erupted, killing 53,000 people.<br /> <br /> 1808- Sir Arthur Wellesley landed with a small British Army to try and defend Portugal from Napoleon. The Peninsular Wars would go on until 1814 and drive the French from Portugal and Spain. For his success, Arthur was made the Duke of Wellington.<br /> <br /> 1810- Napoleon, having divorced Josephine because she could no longer provide a son for his dynasty, married Princess Marie-Louise of Austria. Josephine was nicknamed "Our Lady of Victories" and was more beloved by the army, but Marie Louise made up for it in spirit. She liked to smoke cigars and play billiards with Nappy’s officers. She was nearsighted but too vain to be seen in public wearing spectacles, so when she would dedicate art shows and public works like the Arch De Triomphes, she would smile regally and wave her hand, not knowing what she was looking at. Napoleon banned his kid sister Pauline Bonaparte from court for a time because he caught her in a mirror making faces behind Empress Marie Louise’ back.<br /> <br /> 1861- As the American Civil War was breaking out, Secretary of State Seward sent Lincoln a memo proposing that the way to keep the South united to the U.S. would be to declare war on Spain or France. Lincoln said thanks for the advice, but no thanks...<br /> <br /> 1862- Confederate General John Sibley declared the counties of western New Mexico to be the new independent Confederate State called Arizona. Sibley's rebs were driven out but Lincoln kept the idea, setting up Arizona in 1864.<br /> <br /> 1865- BATTLE OF FIVE FORKS- Grant's Yankee Army closed in on Robert E. Lee's Confederates at Petersburg, Grant's cavalry master Phil Sheridan cut off and destroyed one over extended division of Lee's army under George Pickett, taking 5,000 prisoners. Pickett had won fame as the leader of the famous charge at Gettysburg. But he blew it at Five Forks because while his men were fighting, he was away with some friends at a fish fry. No cell phones or text messages in those days.<br /> <br /> 1867- Opening of the Paris World Exhibition. This world’s fair was seen as the zenith of Napoleon III’s Second Empire. Visitors marveled to exhibits as Dr Lister’s new disinfectant, a new metal called Aluminum, a new butter substitute called margarine, and in the American exhibit, a novel bit of furniture called a Rocking Chair. The Art galleries of the exhibition were filled with Ingres, Courbets and Delacroix. But nothing from Cezanne, Manet, Pizarro or any of the other weirdoes who would one day be called Impressionists.<br /> <br /> 1918- The British Royal Flying Corps (RAF) formed. <br /> <br /> 1923- Developers S.H. Woodruff and Canadian William Whitley start advertising lots for sale in Hollywoodland, beneath their giant new Hollywoodland sign. The sign originally was covered with lightbulbs. It collapsed and was repaired in 1939, the 'land' part never restored. The Hollywood Sign was made over again in 1978.<br /> <br /> 1924- After the failed Beer Hall Putsch, Nazis party leader Adolph Hitler was sentenced by a German court to 5 years in prison. He serves only 8 months in a beautiful lodge in Bavaria named Castle Landsberg and uses the time to write Mein Kampf. <br /> <br /> 1932- The baby of Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh was kidnapped from their home.<br /> <br /> 1939- Generalissimo Francisco Franco announces the end of the Spanish Civil War, which had been raging since 1936.<br /> <br /> 80th Anniv.1944- Tex Avery's "Screwball Squirrel" Only a few shorts were made. As animator Bob Givens reminisced:" Eventually, everyone found that squirrel just too annoying!" <br /> <br /> 1945- OKINAWA- The Marines land and the battle began. Because it was not a conquered territory, but part of the home Japanese islands, Washington weighed it’s decision to use the atomic bomb by its observation of how tough Okinawa was, indicating how tough it would be to land on mainland Japan, only 360 miles away. <br /> The fighting was brutal, hand to hand with bayonets and flame-throwers. Of the 125,000 man Japanese garrison only 7,500 didn’t fight to the death, and many civilians threw themselves off cliffs in mass suicide. A children's class trip visiting from Tokyo who were caught in the battle, were shown by soldiers how to cluster themselves around a single hand grenade, so as to save on the number needed. Today there is a shrine to their memory. The Cave of the Maidens is dedicated to a group of schoolgirls who hid in a cave and when the Americans heard Japanese voices inside and none would answer their calls to come out and surrender, filled the cave with flamethrower fire. <br /> Almost every American soldier who was captured was executed. The U.S. Navy suffered the worst number of ships sunk and men killed since Pearl Harbor. There were 1,900 Kamikaze plane attacks. U.S. casualties were so high the government re-imposed a press blackout.<br /> This battle has the rare distinction like the Plains of Abraham in 1759 where both opposing generals died. US General Simon Bolivar Buckner, whose father had fought Ulysses Grant in the Civil War, was killed by an artillery round three days before the battles end. Japanese General Usijima committed hari-kiri almost at the same time.<br /> <br /> 1945- Adolph Hitler moved his headquarters from the Reich Chancellery to a bunker deep below it’s street level. <br /> <br /> 1949- Zsa Zsa Gabor married George Sanders.<br /> <br /> 1954- The U.S. Air Force Academy was established at Colorado Springs.<br /> <br /> 1961- Rev Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker get married.<br /> <br /> 1970- A symbol of the 70’s, AMC’s compact car the Gremlin introduced.<br /> <br /> 1972- In a gesture of turnabout-is-fair-play for women, Playgirl Magazine ran its first male nude centerfold- Burt Reynolds.<br /> <br /> 1976- Two college dropouts, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs started a company named Apple Computers. A third partner, small businessman Ron Wayne, sold his shares to Jobs &amp; Woz for $800 before they filed papers of incorporation. He didn’t want to get stuck with the bill when they failed. In 2011 Apple surpassed Microsoft as the world’s richest company.<br /> <br /> 1983 – Largest British civilian protests to Ronald Reagan and Maggie Thatcher’s plans to put nuclear cruise missiles at Greenham Common. The Thatcher government requested the missiles after the perceived weak response of Jimmy Carter to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The conservative British and German government felt that the US could not be trusted to risk nuclear war if the Soviet Union invaded with conventional forces- i.e. American would not risk Kansas City for Frankfurt, so they asked for the missiles. <br /> <br /> 1984- Motown star Marvin Gaye was shot to death by his own father in an argument over plans for the singer's 45th birthday party the next day. <br /> <br /> 1995- Chasen's restaurant closed. Former actor Frederick Chasen opened his exclusive Beverly Hills Restaurant in 1936. James Stewart and Mickey Rooney were regulars. During the filming of Cleopatra (1963) Elizabeth Taylor had Chasen's chili flown out to her in Rome. Walt Disney met Leopold Stokowski over dinner at Chasens and conceived the film Fantasia, Orson Welles and Joe Mankiewicz got into a fistfight over the script outline of Citizen Kane there. Bogart, Bacall and John Huston discussed how to fight the Hollywood Blacklist there. The non-alcoholic cocktail The Shirley Temple was invented there, so little Shirley could schmooze with the grownups .Today there is a booth from Chasens preserved in the Reagan Presidential Library, and a small section of tables in the supermarket it became today. <br /> <br /> 1996- Animation World Network, Toontown’s virtual trade magazine, started up. www.AWN.com<br /> <br /> 1997- In Israel, honoring a deal made with an ultra-right religious party to get into power, the right wing Likud government of Bibi Netanyahu passed a law that the only Jewish conversions that would be recognized under Israeli law would be conversions done by Orthodox rabbis. This law created such a firestorm of protest from Reform and Conservative Jews around the world that the government quickly backpedaled.<br /> <br /> 1998- Ukrainian serial killer Anatolyi Onoprienko was sentenced to death for the murder of 52 people.<br /> <br /> 2004- G-Mail invented.<br /> ================================================<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: Why are people encouraged to yell Geronimo when they parachute out of a plane?<br /> <br /> Answer: There are several origin stories of famous cry. Generally, it is assumed it began at the airborne troop training center at Ft. Benning Georgia in 1940. Legend is one paratrooper shouted the great Apache chief’s name as he jumped and it stuck with the commander. Some nervous soldiers would barely leave the plane before pulling their rip cord. Instructors told their paratroops that when you jumped from the plane, do not open your chute until you shout “Geronimo”. That gives you enough time for your chute to clear the propellors and tail of the exiting plane.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 31 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6423 <p>Question: Why are people encouraged to yell Geronimo when they parachute out of a plane?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: “hoisted up by your own petard?”<br /> ------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/31/2024
Birthdays: Rene' Descartes, Franz Josef Haydn, Serge Diaghilev, Harald von Braunhut 1926- the inventor of Sea Monkeys and X-Ray Specs, Richard Chamberlain, Cesar Chavez, Herb Alpert, Gordie Howe, Liz Claiborne, Gabe Kaplan, Rhea Perlman, Richard Kiley, Volker Schlondorf, William Daniels, Lucille Bliss the voice of Crusader Rabbit, Christopher Walken is 81, Colin Farrell is 46, Ewan McGregor is 53, Al Gore is 76, Ed Catmull is 79. Shirley Jones is 90<br /> <br /> HAPPY EASTER, Commemorating the time when Jesus Christ was crucified and after three days rose from the dead. The Resurrection story has roots in other cultures- Osiris in Egypt, Dionysius and Orpheus in Greece and Odin in Scandinavia all had death and resurrection myths about them. <br /> Easter is named for Oster, Eostre or Aster, German goddess of the East Wind that brings Spring, who’s sacrifice was painted eggs laid at her alter.<br /> In 63AD. Baodicea, The British warrior queen who battled the Roman legions of Nero had on her flags the Great Moon-Hare, who was the servant of Oster. <br /> In 1680 a German writer named Georg Franck published a story of a fantastic rabbit who laid magic eggs and hid them for lucky children to find. <br /> We owe our colorful Easter eggs thanks to druggist William Townley, who invented Easter egg dye tablets in his Newark, New Jersey pharmacy in 1880. He branded his five-color dye kits, Paas, which comes from the word Passen, the Pennsylvania Dutch name for Easter. <br /> ----------------------------------------------------<br /> <br /> 250AD- Roman general Constantius born. He was called Constantius Chlorus or the Pale. He was the most powerful general and virtual ruler of Northwestern Europe at the end of Diocletian’s rule. His son Constantine became Emperor of Rome in 312.<br /> <br /> 307AD. Roman Emperor Constantine married his wife Fausta. Mother of his children, he later had her suffocated in her bath for sleeping around with her slaves.<br /> <br /> 1146- St. Bernard preached the Holy Crusade at Vezalay, so King Louis VII of France and Emperor Conrad of Germany declared the SECOND CRUSADE. After the ready-made pilgrim cross emblems ran out, Saint Bernard tore his own cloak to pieces for cross making material. Folks don't remember much about the Second Crusade because it was pretty much a non-event. <br /> Conrad took the land route through the Balkans to the Holy Land and by the time he got to Jerusalem his army was down to about 5 guys. The French king’s army arrived intact but he was more of a tourist than a conqueror, after visiting the holy places and gathering some medieval tourist trinkets ( 'My folks went on Crusade and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt!") then he went home. <br /> They wasted most of their time in an unprovoked attack on the Emir of Damascus, who was one of the Crusaders only Muslim allies. The most memorable person on the voyage was the French Queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, who had an affair with a Saracen prince and legend has it inspired the troops by riding bare-breasted to Damascus. Later she would leave Louis and marry Henry Plantagenet of England and give birth to Richard Lionheart.<br /> <br /> 
1776- In a letter from Abigail Adams in Quincy Mass to her husband John Adams at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, she wrote:<br /> "I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”<br /> <br /> 1796- Touissaint L’Ouverture named Lieutenant Governor of the island of Saint Dominique, now called Haiti.<br /> <br /> 1814- PARIS FALLS- Since his Retreat from Moscow, Napoleon seemed to be fighting all of Europe. Today the allied armies of Austria, Sweden, Prussia and Russia entered Paris despite a spirited defense in the suburbs of Montmartre by Marshals Moncey and Marmont. Moncey had reformed the municipal police and is considered the father of the Paris Gendarmerie. But now German army tents went up in the Bois Du Boulogne and Cossacks watered their steppe ponies in the Seine. <br /> In the South, Wellington and his Anglo-Portuguese army moved down from the Pyrenees to take Toulouse. Napoleon was at Fountainbleau with the tatters of his army. He tried to make the best of it. Saying that now that he was free of covering the capitol he could maneuver in the enemies rear, but everyone but him had had just about enough.<br /> <br /> 1824- The British Parliament declared that any ships they caught transporting slaves would be treated as pirates and punished accordingly. They tried to get the United States to agree to make it an international law, but the U.S. refused.<br /> <br /> 1836- Charles Dickens first work published "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club."<br /> <br /> 1840- Congress lowers the minimum workday for federal workers from 11.4 hours a day to 10 hours a day. At this time in mines and factories people worked an average 12-16 hour day. The 8 hour day wasn’t achieved until 1913, not until 1941 in Hollywood.<br /> <br /> 1860- Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper refers to Harriet Lane, President James Buchanan's niece as "FIRST LADY of the Land". Buchanan was a bachelor and was probably gay, So Ms. Lane performed the duties of the White House hostess. Earlier in 1840 President Zachary Taylor eulogized Dolly Madison as First Lady, before that Martha Washington and Abigail Adams were referred to as Lady Washington and Lady Adams. But this is the first official use of the term First Lady for the President’s consort.<br /> <br /> 1889- The Eiffel Tower first opened to the public, to celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution. Twice as tall as the Saint Peter's in Rome or the Great Pyramid of Giza. The Wizard of Iron Gustave Eiffel also designed the armature holding up the Statue of Liberty. Eiffel’s original deal with the French government called for the tower to only stay up for twenty years, then pulled down if no further use can found for it. Eiffel agonized about what to do as the deadline approached. Fortunately by 1909, wireless radio transmissions became important and the Eiffel Tower turned out to be a great broadcast antenna.<br /> <br /> 1905- The Tangiers Incident. Germany tries to provoke an incident with France by sending the Kaiser to Morocco, then a target of French colonial expansion. Kaiser Wilhelm rode around on a temperamental white Arabian stallion and spent the ceremony looking nervously over his shoulder for anarchist assassins. He gave the Moroccan Sultan a gift of his own personal machine gun that the delighted boy liked to fire at his scampering courtiers. The whole thing looked silly, but it scared the hell out of diplomats in Paris and London.<br /> <br /> 1905- THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle brought back his famous sleuth in a new series of adventures. Conan Doyle had created Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in 1887 but by 1893 he had tired of the characters, he wanted to write more serious fiction like his novel The White Company. So, he killed him off. Holmes fell to his doom fighting Prof. Moriarity at the Reichenbach Falls. The reaction of the public was astonished outrage. It seemed whenever Conan Doyle went out inevitably someone would stop him and say "You Blackguard! How Could You ?!" He did a speaking tour in America, but all anybody wanted to know was how Holmes and Watson were doing? Finally, Conan-Doyle bowed to public pressure and resumed the career of the inhabitants of #221B Baker Street. He would later refer to Holmes success as “his monstrosity.”<br /> <br /> 1918- The Battle of Yekaterina- Anti-Communist White Russian armies invaded the Kuban region of southern Russia to fight a battle that was considered so unnecessary that one officer said it was “ A march to Hell to collect bluebirds.” Although the Kuban and Don Cossacks were anti Bolshevik, the workers and peasants of the town were pro-Red and outnumbered them heavily. <br /> When the White commander General Kornilov ordered an attack his aristocratic second General Markov dryly joked “Better wear your clean underwear if you have any left gentlemen, because whether or not we take Ykaterinadar, we are all going to be killed!” But fate intervened. Before the attack could commence, a lucky artillery shell dropped right on top of Kornilov and blew him to bits. Breathing a sigh of relief, the army immediately turned around and went home.<br /> <br /> 1930- Floyd Gottfredson began drawing Disney’s Mickey Mouse comic strip after Ub Iwerks quit. He continued to do the strip uninterrupted for 45 years, until his retirement in 1975.<br /> <br /> 1930 -Reacting to charges that the movies had become too naughty, Hollywood producers accept the MOTION PICTURE CODE. It was regulated by Will Hays, former Republican Party Chairman. The regulation wouldn't really start to have strength until 1935-36 when pressure groups like the Catholic League of Decency went after Mae West and the Tarzan pictures. <br /> The Hays Code forbade open sex and obscenity:<br /> - twin beds only in a bedroom, nightclothes buttoned to the neck. <br /> - if a couple were seated together on a bed they must have at least one foot touching the floor,<br /> -"kisses with a duration of no longer than 3 seconds, parting with lips closed."<br /> - One other little known clause was the forbidding of members of different races from kissing on camera. So Anna Mae Wong, the greatest Chinese-American actress of her time, could not play a Chinese heroine if her co-star was a Caucasian made up to look Asian.<br /> Lots of jokes were spawned like: "Give him the bird!" "If the Hays Commission would let me, I'd give him the bird!"<br /> <br /> 1931- ITT transmits the first message by microwave, from Dover to Calais.<br /> <br /> 1932- Ford introduces the V-8 Engine.<br /> <br /> 1933- Max Fleischer's short cartoon "Snow White" (starring Betty Boop and Koko) premiered. Cab Calloway singing the "St. James Infirmary Blues" is a highlight.<br /> <br /> 1943- Rodger &amp; Hammerstein's "Oklahoma!" debuts. Despite the opinion of producer Mike Todd -"No legs, No Laughs, No Chance", the musical becomes one of the great hits of American musical theater.<br /> <br /> 1950- Thor Heyderthal's book of his exploits Kon Tiki published. This was an account of his 4,200 mile voyage which proved ancient mariners could have traveled from Peru to Polynesia on boats made from tied reeds.<br /> <br /> 1959- The Dalai Lama fled the Communist Chinese invasion of Tibet and began his long exile.<br /> <br /> 1962- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art opened on Wilshire Blvd. No, it didn’t display customized surfboards or the ideal tuna melt with sprouts, but an exhibit of paintings by Bonnard. <br /> <br /> 1967- In a small London nightclub, rising young rock &amp; roller Jimmy Hendrix burned his guitar for the first time. Rock luminaries like Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Eric Clapton, and Pete Townsend sat in the audience stunned at the technical brilliance of this unknown former paratrooper who played left-handed. The pieces of his guitar were purchased by Microsoft chairman Paul Allen and today are in his Seattle Rock Museum.<br /> <br /> 1968- Depressed over The Vietnam War, the strong primary surge of Sen. Eugene McCarthy and the challenge of his old enemy Bobby Kennedy, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced he would not run for re-election. Borrowing the words of General Sherman in 1884, he said: "If Nominated Ah will not Run, If elected Ah will not serve.." In retirement, Johnson resumed cigarette smoking and neglected his health. “Johnson men are not long-livers.” He was dead within four years.<br /> <br /> 1973- Comic strip hero Smilin' Jack gets married, the strip concluded next day.<br /> <br /> 1991- Former child star Danny Bonaduce arrested for a fist fight with a trans prostitute.<br /> <br /> 1995- In Corpus Christy Texas legendary Tejana singer Selena Perez was shot and killed by an obsessed fan. The woman Yolanda Saldivar was president of the Selena Fan Club. “The gun just went off, I didn’t mean to shoot anybody.” <br /> <br /> 25th Anniv. 1999- The movie The Matrix opened in theaters. Whoah!<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Answer: “hoisted up by your own petard?”<br /> <br /> Answer: A petard was an explosive charge tied to the end of a long pike that was set against the gates of a castle to blow it open. To be hoisted meant to be tossed up into the air. So, to be hoisted by your own petard meant to be blown up by your own bomb.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 30 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6422 <p>Question: What does it mean to be “hoisted up by your own petard?”<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is the origin of the slang phrase “Stick a sock in it!”<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/30/2024<br /> Birthdays: Maimonides- Moses Ben Maimon, Anna Sewell (the author of Black Beauty), Vincent Van Gogh, Francisco Goya, John Astin, Peter Marshall, Ray Magliozzi (CarTalk), Warren Beatty is 87, Eric Clapton, Arthur Lee Harrington the designer of the first Jeep, Tracey Chapman, Robby Coltrane, Paul Reiser, Celine Dion, Nora Jones is 45, Disney animator Marc Davis, Maurice LaMarsh<br /> <br /> To the Romans this was the Festival of Salus, the God of Public Works.<br /> <br /> 1282- THE BIRTHDAY OF THE MAFIA- The Sicilian Vespers. Because of the strategic location of the island of Sicily smack dab in the center of the Mediterranean, her people were rarely allowed their own self-government. Sicilians were constantly being conquered by Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Crusaders. So while they were under the harsh rule of Franco-Norman knights, they formed secret societies. <br /> This night at the ringing of the evening vesper bells, they all ran out and stabbed every Norman they saw. This was the first "hit". Later at the turn of the century Mafia families like "Il Mano Negro (The Black Hand) and La Cosa Nostra (Our Way) brought their clan structure to the U.S., supplanting the earlier Anglo-Jewish-Irish gangsters.<br /> No one is really sure just what the word Mafia means; "Morte Alla Francia Irredenta Arreghana", the Arab response “Ma Fi”- Don’t Ask Me…or the woman who’s daughter was raped by a French knight and called out MaFilia!- My Daughter! <br /> <br /> 1492-THE JEWS EXPELLED FROM SPAIN- Shortly after conquering the last Moorish strongholds in Spain their Most Catholic Majesties Ferdinand &amp; Isabella issue an edict giving all Jews three months to convert or leave the country. Jewish people had held exalted positions in the Moorish Emirates of Granada and Cadiz like the philosopher Maimonides, some even became Viziers or prime ministers. Ferdinand &amp; Isabella’s own personal physician Abraham Senior was Jewish. <br /> Some Jews tried to flee to Portugal, but most went to Moslem countries like Turkey and Morocco where the persecution of the children of Issac was less fierce among the children of Ishmael. Many Jews who live in Bosnia and Kossovo speak Old Spanish- Ladino instead of Yiddish or Hebrew. The Inquisition made any Jewish practice a crime, even people who changed their sheets on a Friday or turned to the wall to die were accused of Jewish Heresy. <br /> <br /> 1534- The English Parliament passed the Act of Succession declaring King Henry VIII’s divorce from Catharine of Aragon and marriage to Anne Boleyn legal and any criticism of it to be treason. All Englishmen and women were required to take an oath of loyalty to ensure their agreement. This oath was what got Sir Thomas Moore and Bishop Fisher beheaded.<br /> <br /> 1788- The great French philosopher Francois Voltaire had been exiled to his estate at Fernay away from court for decades because of his criticism of the Catholic Church. Now at age 84 and the most famous writer in the world, he returned to Paris to see his last play Irene debut, but in reality to die. This night his passage to the theater became a triumphant procession as his coach was mobbed by cheering people shouting Vive Voltaire! After the play he was too frail to take a bow, so a bust of him was placed center stage and adorned with garlands and flowers.<br /> <br /> 1789- After the American Revolution Father of the U.S. Navy John Paul Jones had turned mercenary and organized Catherine's Black Sea fleet. This day he was accused in Russia of having sex with a ten year old minor. He later proved the girl was older and being pimped around by her mother, but Catherine the Great told him to leave her country anyway. He retired to Paris, ill and exhausted. Thomas Carlyle said he looked “like an empty wine skin.” Abigail Adams said “ He was so small I could have wrapped him in wool and kept him in my pocket…” He died in 1817.<br /> <br /> 1809- First Lady Dolly Madison began the tradition of regular White House receptions in the Drawing Room. Her husband James Madison, despite being the writer of the Bill of Rights, was a timid person and was not good in crowds. But the vivacious Dolly dominated these soirees and accomplished more politicking than many of her male counterparts. In 2009 First Lady Michelle Obama tried to revive these cordial cocktail parties, but the hyper-partisan Newt Gingrich partisans wanting nothing to do with them.<br /> <br /> 1822- FLORIDA ACQUIRED BY THE U.S. During the War of 1812 Spain allowed Britain to use Florida as a base for attacking the U.S. They also provided safe haven for the hostile Seminole Indians. This annoyed American politicians who wanted to have Florida anyway. General Andy Jackson concluded the First Seminole War by invading Florida and throwing the Spanish Governor out of Pensacola in 1818. What Jackson had started roughly, John Quincy Adams concluded diplomatically, with the Adams-Otis Treaty, buying Florida from Spain for $5 million.<br /> <br /> 1842- Dr. Crawford Long of Georgia uses Ether as an anesthetic in an operation. Before that surgeons had to have good biceps to hold down their patients while sawing on them. Surgery was actually less painful in ancient times because the patient was invited to chew an opium bulb “The Food of the Gods” before operating. In 1846 another doctor named W.T.G. Morton did a public demonstration of the Ether anesthesia process and tried to hog the glory of the invention, refusing to share any prizes with Dr. Long.<br /> <br /> 1858- The pencil eraser patented. The Eraser, or Rubber outside the U.S., was developed in 1770, but Hymen Lipman of Philadelphia first attach it on the top of a pencil.<br /> <br /> 1856- Tsar Alexander II emancipates the Russian serfs. He's later blown up by terrorists.<br /> <br /> 1867- Seward’s Folly. Secretary of State William Seward negotiated the deal with Czarist Russia to buy Alaska for $7.2 million or two cents an acre.<br /> <br /> 1918- Thomas Edison sold his studio and got out of the movie business. He fired W.K.L. Dickson, inventor of the movie studio set, Edwin Porter the inventor of the narrative film, Willis O’Brian, and J. Stuart Blackton, the inventor of cartoon animation, for annoying him too much about filmmaking. Edison was more interested then in finding a way to extract iron ore from rocks using magnets. <br /> <br /> 1939- HAPPY BIRTHDAY BATMAN Detective Comics # 27, Batman, created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, first appeared in a comic. It was called the May issue but it actually came out this day.<br /> <br /> 1968- In New York City’s Bowery district two children find the dead body of a homeless drug addict. He is later identified as Bobby Driscoll, 31, Walt Disney child star, and the voice of Peter Pan.<br /> <br /> 1980- Easter Fever by Nelvana premiered.<br /> <br /> 1981- PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN SHOT. After only few weeks in office President Ronald Reagan was shot by lunatic John Hinckley. Hinckley was trying to impress actress Jodie Foster. Reagan recovered. Jodie Foster was unimpressed. John Hinckley was a Republican. <br /> In a bit of bizarre theater during the confusion presidential national security advisor General Alexander Haig went to the media and announced he was in control: “I am minding the store.” This is in direct conflict with the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which states plainly the line of succession goes from the President to the Vice President the Speaker of the House to the Senate Leader Pro-Tem. Fortunately, nobody took Haig seriously.<br /> Presidential press secretary James Brady was shot in the head, which left him permanently brain damaged. He and his family later sponsored the Brady Handgun Bill, which was passed by President Clinton, but not renewed by Pres. George W. Bush. <br /> Ironically, one of the reason Ronald Reagan’s life was saved was because Secret Service agents rushed him to the nearest emergency room, which was a Washington DC ghetto hospital with much too much experience with gunshot wounds. Reagan quipped to the doctors working on his collapsed lung,” Hey, you guys aren’t Democrats, are you?”<br /> <br /> 1988- Beetlejuice, directed by Tim Burton. Starring Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin and Michael Keaton.<br /> <br /> 2000- Dreamworks animated feature The Road to El Dorado premiered.<br /> <br /> 2007- Disney’s Meet the Robinsons.<br /> <br /> 2023- Donald Trump becomes the first former president to be indicted in a criminal court.<br /> =========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is the origin of the slang phrase “Stick a sock in it!”<br /> <br /> Answer: The early record players Victrolas did not yet have an amplification or volume control. Just a funnel(horn) to project the sound. When someone wanted the sound reduced people would stuff a sock down into the funnel. Hence the phrase.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 29 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6421 <p>Quiz: What is the origin of the slang phrase “Stick a sock in it!”<br /> <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean when someone give you twenty quid? (Hint: UK slang)<br /> <br /> ----------------------------------------------------------<br /> <br /> HISTORY FOR 3/29/2024<br /> <br /> Birthdays: President John Tyler, Sir William Walton, Pearl Bailey, former English P.M. John Major, Bud Cort is 76, LaToya Jackson, Eugene McCarthy, Jennifer Capriati, M.C. Hammer, Walt "Clyde" Frazier, Cy Young, Christopher Lambert is 69, Jimmy Dodd, Disney animator Jack Kinney, Brendan Gleeson is 69, Lucy Lawless, Elle MacPherson, Eric Idle is 81<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Christians observe today as Good Friday.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 327AD- St. Jonah was squished to death in a wine press.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1461- Battle of Towton. Edward IV Yorkist army defeated the last organized Lancastrian forces, ending the War of the Roses.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1519- Pope Leo X sent uppity monk Martin Luther an invitation to come to Rome and explain his curious opinions. Luther quickly understood his chances- once in the Vatican’s hands, at best he would be assigned to some obscure Italian monastery to live out his days in a vow of silence. At worst he would burn at the stake over a slow fire, with a nail hammered through his tongue, like earlier Vatican critics Jan Hus, Giordano Bruno and Savonarola. Martin Luther decided to tell Rome thanks, but no thanks, he’d stay in Germany where it was safe.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1638- The first Swedish colonists arrive in America. Remember at this time Sweden was just as big a kickass military power in Europe as England or France. In Delaware they built a settlement they call Fort Christina. Twenty years later the Dutch under Peter Stuyvesant captured the fort and drove them out. Despite their short stay, the Swedes left a lasting impression on the New World. They brought with them plans for steam baths and invented the Log Cabin.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1697- FRONTIER LIFE- French allied Abanaki Indians raided the cabins of Haverhill Massachusetts. The Indians carried off Mrs. Hannah Dustin and her maid. When Mrs. Dustins baby began to cry the Indians killed it, then being good Catholic converts, they paused to say a Rosary over him. But the mother was not in a forgiving mood.<br /> <br /> This night when the warriors who guarded them slept, Mrs. Dustin and her maid quietly rose, grabbed tomahawks and murdered all the Abanakis. Then being aware of the Massachusetts bounty on Indian scalps she paused before fleeing to scalp all the bodies. She made it back home and earned 25 English pounds in prize money.<br /> <br /> Rev. Cotton Mather included her story in his 1697 book Humiliations Follow’d with Deliverances, an early American best seller.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1814- As Russian, Swedish, Austrian and Prussian armies closed in around Paris Napoleons court led by Empress Marie Louise fled the city. Napoleon himself was at Troyes with his army. He rushed but arrived too late to save the city.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1886- COCA-COLA invented. Atlanta Pharmacist and liver pill salesman John Pemberton developed the carbonated drink, originally with cocaine in it. His bookkeeper Francis Robinson penned the famous script logo, still in use today. Advertising for the drink claimed it cured everything from hysteria to cholic and the common cold.<br /> <br /> The formula is still a secret. During World War II the Nazis openly worried how a break with the United States would affect their supply of Coca Cola, so Reichminister Goebbels arrested Coke execs in Germany and forced them to develop a substitute. This became Fanta Cola.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1891- Impressionist painter George Seurat died at age 31. Before he died, he told his parents that he had two children with his model Maureen Knobloch. Surprise!<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1903- THE BIRTH OF THE DRIVE IN RESTAURANT? New York tycoon CKG Billings wanted to celebrate his new racing stables in Washington Park. So he invited 50 of the top New York financial society to a formal black tie dinner at Sherry’s Restaurant, except the entire dinner would be eaten on horseback. The horses were kept in a circle and a canvas painting of the English countryside provided the backdrop to the room. The moguls ate from solid silver trays and sipped champagne from straws in their saddlebags. The Horseback Dinner was one of the more outrageous examples of Gilded Age wealth and excess.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1936- Republic Pictures formed.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1939- Moviestars Clark Gable and Carole Lombard married. They had a happy marriage until Lombard was killed in a plane crash in 1942. It’s been said the first California King Size mattress, slightly larger than normal king size, was ordered custom made for Gable and Lombard for their rather exuberant assignations at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1951- 'The King and I' debuted on Broadway with Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brynner, who shaved his head for the first time for the role.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1952- President Harry Truman announced he would not seek reelection.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1962-THE BILLY SOL ESTES AFFAIR- Estes was the "fertilizer king" and considered an insider in the Kennedy White House. His arrest by the F.B.I. for selling $30 million dollars in fraudulent fertilizer tanks implicated several heads of the agriculture department. It became the only major scandal of John F. Kennedy’s administration. Before his career in fertilizer, Estes tried running a funeral parlor but went out of business, ran for local office but was defeated by a write-in candidate. He became a campaign manager for the failed 1956 Presidential bid of Adlai Stevenson. As campaign manager he paid for large quantities of parakeets to be dropped by plane over major American cities and chant in unison "Vote for Adlai!"<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1971- First day of shooting on the film The Godfather. Francis Coppola wanted young actor Al Pacino for the Michael Corleone role, but Pacino had signed with Fox to do a different film- The Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight. Producer Robert Evans begged and pleaded with Fox exec James Aubrey aka "The Smiling Barracuda", to get Pacino released from his contract. Finally Aubrey replaced him with Jerry Orbach. Aubrey called Evans and said:" Alright, you can have the midget." The scene was Michael and Kaye coming out of Best &amp; Co. Dept. Store while Christmas shopping.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1973- The last U.S. combat troops left Vietnam. President Nixon announced that night " We have Peace with Honor". Communists conquered South Vietnam two years later.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1974- Mariner 10 was the first satellite to reach the planet Mercury.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1974- Chinese farmer Zhao Kangmin digging a well discovered the huge, lifesize terracotta army buried with Chinas’ first emperor at XIAN.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1975- The Communist North Vietnamese capture DaNang, South Vietnam’s second largest city, signaling the beginning of the final drive on Saigon to end the Vietnam War.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1979- The House Committee Investigation into Assassinations, published their conclusions. They concluded that "President John F. Kennedy was in all probability killed by a conspiracy " but just who and why and what to do about it, they didn’t know.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1989- As part of one of the silliest Oscar telecasts in history, actor Rob Lowe had to dance and sing 'Proud Mary" with a Las Vegas showgirl named Eileen Bowman dressed as Disney’s Snow White. Rob Lowe had just been embarrassed by the publication of a videotape shot in a hotel room of him having sex with two teenage girls. The Walt Disney Company immediately threatened a lawsuit. The Academy apologized and replaced producer Alan Carr with Gilbert Cates.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1992- Presidential candidate Bill Clinton uttered the legendary American phrase:" I smoked pot- but I didn’t inhale!"<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1993- At the 65th Academy Awards, Disney’s Aladdin won two Academy Awards for Best Song and Best Soundtrack. Best Animated Short was Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase by Joan Gratz.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 2018- A Buzzfeed article detailed how animator John Kricfalusi, the creator of Ren &amp; Stimpy, preyed on underage girls, promising them careers at his studio. One was 14.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 2019- Tim Burton’s remake of the Disney animated classic Dumbo opened in theaters.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 2020- At President Trump’s insistence, the FDA approved emergency use of an anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine despite little evidence that it was effective in treating coronavirus. Even after the FDA declared hydroxychloroquine totally useless against the disease on Aug. 1 President Trump continued to tout its miraculous qualities.<br /> <br /> ==================================================<br /> <br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What does it mean when someone give you twenty quid? (Hint: UK slang)<br /> <br /> <br /> Answer: It means twenty English pounds.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 28 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6420 <p>Quiz: What does it mean when someone give you twenty quid? (Hint: UK slang)<br /> <br /> Yesterdays Question answered below: What is a coonskin cap?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/28/2024<br /> Birthdays: Paul Whiteman, Pearl Bailey, Freddy Bartholomew, Dirk Bogarde, Gen. Wade Hampton, pianist Rudolph Serkin, Swifty Lazar, Marlin Perkins, Diane Weist, Reba McEntire, Vince Vaughn is 54, Julia Stiles is 43, Lady Gaga (born Stefani Germanetta) is 38<br /> <br /> 193A.D. THE DAY THE WORLD WAS PUT UP FOR AUCTION- The Roman Emperor Pertinax had just been assassinated by his bodyguards and the Praetorian Prefect Marius Maximus wisely turned down the job- bad retirement prospects. The soldiers realized they cannot be Imperial Guards without an emperor to guard. They might even get sent back to the frontier! Ick! So they posted an announcement that "whoever wanted to be Emperor of the Known World" should come to the Praetorian camp that night and submit a bid. Several senators competed. The winner was Didius Julianus, with a winning bid of 15,000 silver pieces per man in the 1,500 man Guards. Almost none of Rome’s generals went along with this dippy solution to the succession to the throne of the Caesars. Julianus was soon bumped off in a violent civil war that eventually saw Septimius Severus the winner. <br /> <br /> 1456- Today is the feast of St. John Capistrano. The Saint of the Swallows of California was born in Italy and was a preacher, was married, fought the Turks in Hungary, and in later life after becoming a monk was put in charge of the Holy Inquisition in Central Europe. He burned Protestant reformers and ordered all Jews to wear yellow badges so as not to seduce good Christians. He was so hated that a century after his death from plague the Calvinists dug up his grave and threw his bones down a well.<br /> The Mission St. John Capistrano in California was named so by monk Fra Junipero Serra even though the Saint never visited the Golden State.<br /> <br /> 1778 -GEORGE WASHINGTON ANNOUNCED MAJOR GENERAL BARON VON STEUBEN, LATELY OF KING FREDERICK THE GREAT'S SERVICE, WOULD TRAIN THE AMERICAN ARMY. It turned out later Von Steuben was barely a real Baron. One British source claimed his medals were fakes purchased at a London theatrical costume shop. He did work on the Prussian General Staff. <br /> America was a new land, where if you wanted to be called a baron, you could be a baron. Von Steuben did an excellent job training the farmers and shop keeps in modern warfare. He wrote the first US Army manuals, he adapted and revised from the Prussian. He wrote: “ In Germany I order a soldier to do something and they do it. In America when I order a soldier to do something I must then explain WHY I want him to do it and WHY it is important!” The minutemen enjoyed watching him shout in a language they didn't understand, and at night around the campfire his big greyhound Azor howled along to the fiddle music.<br /> Proof of his methods success was at the Battle of Monmouth that summer. Lord Cornwallis groused:” Hmpf! Damned rebels form up well.”<br /> <br /> 1800- Congress voted to extend Franking privileges to Martha Washington. Franking meant she could mail letters without having to pay for postage.<br /> <br /> 1862- SIBLEY'S RAID. THE BATTLE OF APACHE PASS -The closest the Civil War ever came to California. Confederate Henry Hastings Sibley proposed to the Confederate High Command in Richmond that since most of the US Army was now back East fighting, there was no one to stop them riding from Texas to the gold fields of California! Richmond gave him a brigade of Texas Volunteers, and they quickly overran Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and won a skirmish at Valverde. Plans were made for the Confederate conquest of Colorado, Utah and set up a new rebel state in Arizona. Fighting got as far west as some Pima villages that one day would be Phoenix. <br /> But what Richmond didn’t appreciate was the regional rivalry – As soon as Colorado and New Mexico men heard they were being invaded by Texans, they rushed to fight them. And Sibley turned out to be a bad leader- because of his drinking habits, his men called him a Walking Whiskey Barrel. <br /> <br /> This day a pitched battle was fought outside of Tuscon in Glorieta or Apache Pass. The Confederates won the battle, but during the confusion a Yankee captain named Chivington sneaked behind the lines and set fire to Sibley’s supply train. This proved decisive, since you can’t march armies in the Arizona desert without supplies and water. Sibley had to retreat to Texas, he, riding in a remaining wagon, drunk with officers wives, while his men marched with no water. <br /> <br /> 1870- THE ROCK OF CHICKAMAGUA KILLED BY A NEWSPAPER. Gen. George H. Thomas, retired Union war hero had a heart attack in a St. Louis Hotel after reading an editorial saying all in all he wasn't that great a general, and all his victories were just mistakes. Survivor of shot and shell, they found Thomas in his room, clutching a written rebuttal to his chest.<br /> <br /> 1881- P.T. Barnum formed a partnership with his chief competitor James Bailey to create Barnum &amp; Bailey’s Circus. He proclaimed it the Greatest Show on Earth!<br /> <br /> 1920- Silent film stars Douglas Fairbanks &amp; Mary Pickford married.<br /> <br /> 1928- Via radio broadcast, the public heard the voice of Charlie Chaplin for the first time.<br /> <br /> 1929- Disney short The Opry House was released. The first short where they changed Mickey Mouses’ design to give him white gloves. <br /> <br /> 1930- The name of the City of Constantinople was officially changed to Istanbul, Turkish for “The City”. Angora was renamed Ankara.<br /> <br /> 1935- Leni Reifenstahl’s hypnotic movie paean to Nazism- Triumph of the Will, premiered.<br /> <br /> 1941-Battle of Matapan- British Navy destroyed Mussolini's fleet off the coast of Ethiopia.<br /> <br /> 1941- English writer Virginia Woolf filled her pockets with stones and drowned herself in the River Ouse in Sussex. Her body was never found. <br /> <br /> 1942- Albert Hurter, Swiss designer for Walt Disney's "Snow White' and 'Pinocchio", and called the first inspirational artist in animation, died of rheumatic heart disease. He was 59.<br /> <br /> 1953- Senator Joseph McCarthy, the grandstanding Commie chaser, held a news conference where he decried that European countries that were receiving US aid from the Marshall Plan were also trading with Communist countries. He announced he had received a pledge from a Greek shipping concern not to trade with Communist states in the future. <br /> This speech elicited a storm of protest, under Secretary of State Symington accused the Wisconsin senator of conducting his own foreign policy. Yet the new Eisenhower administration stayed silent and did nothing, which encouraged McCarthy to grow bolder. <br /> <br /> 1958- The Killer Slide- US 1, The Pacific Coast Highway has always been at the mercy of wind and weather erosion effecting the unstable cliffs it was carved from. This day while repairing a previous land slide, construction workers were caught in an even bigger hillside collapse- several people were killed.<br /> <br /> 1979- THREE MILE ISLAND- Partial Meltdown of the Pennsylvania reactor panicked the nation. Despite the official attempts to belittle the danger, Governor Richard Thornburg in Harrisburg moved his office underground to a bunker and Cardinal Krol of Philadelphia gave the entire counties of Lancaster and Harrisburg a blanket unction (Last Rites). just in case.... The accident spawned the largest civilian protests since the Vietnam War and nuclear energy business never quite recovered. <br /> <br /> 1987- The first Disney Store opened at the Glendale Galleria in California. Selling Disney themed merchandise outside of the parks.<br /> <br /> 1999- Matt Groening’s cartoon series Futurama debuted.<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is a coonskin cap?<br /> <br /> Answer: In early America frontiersmen wore a cap made from the hide of a racoon. The animal’s tail was usually in the back as an ornamentation. Colorful frontier scouts like Daniel Boone an Davey Crockett popularized the fashion.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 27 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6419 <p>Quiz: What is a coonskin cap?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays’ question answered below: Who first said,” Money is the root of all evil”?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/27/2024<br /> Birthdays: French King Louis XVII –the boy during the Revolution who died in prison after his Royal parents were guillotined, Patty Smith Hill 1868- The composer of the song Happy Birthday to You, Edward Steichen, Gloria Swanson, Sarah Vaughn, Maria Schneider, Mies Van der Rohe, Snooky Lanson, Wilhelm Roentgen the discoverer of X-Rays, Nathaniel Currier of Currier &amp; Ives, Donald Duck artist Carl Barks, cellist Mtisislav Rostropovich, Michael York is 80, Quentin Tarantino is 59, Mariah Carey is 52<br /> <br /> The ancient Romans called today Washing Day, the origin of our concept of Spring Cleaning.<br /> The ancient Egyptians had a similar holiday. <br /> <br /> 47BC – In Alexandria, Julius Caesar defeated the royal Egyptian forces of Cleopatra ‘s brother Ptolomey VII. <br /> <br /> 33AD- Ecce Homo- Behold the man, Traditional date for when Roman Governor Pontius Pilate condemned Jesus to death.<br /> <br /> 715 AD- Saint Rupert was a Frank who did missionary work around Austria and Bavaria. When he arrived at the abandoned Roman town of Juvenum he revived the areas salt works and named it The Salt-Fortress, or Salzburg. <br /> <br /> 922- By order of the Caliph Persian mystic Al Halij Mansur was beheaded at age 64.<br /> <br /> 1513- Juan Ponce De Leon first sighted the coastline of Florida. He thought it was an island. He claimed it for His Most Catholic Majesty, the King of Spain. For years Spanish maps called all of North America- Las Floridas. <br /> <br /> 1536- Swiss Cantons sign the First Helvetic Confession, declaring their common support of the Protestant religion.<br /> ``<br /> 1599- Queen Elizabeth I appointed her toyboy the Earl of Essex to be Governor General of Ireland. In his 6 months there he was ordered to put down the rebels under Earl Tyrone of O’Neill, which he couldn’t; not to make any peace treaties without consulting London, which he did; and not to leave Ireland without permission, which he left. Eventually Essex thought he could handle the Queen. He lost his head instead.<br /> <br /> 1625- King Charles I ascended the throne of England. The king who lost his head in the English Civil War. Dutch painter Jan Van Dyck had a premonition about him. When doing his portrait he said the English monarch had” The saddest face he’d ever done.”<br /> <br /> 1790- The invention of modern shoelaces. Lacing foorwear goes back to the Greeks, Romans and Chinese, but this is our modern version.<br /> <br /> 1802-The Peace of Amiens- A rare three years of peace interrupted the constant warfare in Europe. Around this time Napoleon was being annoyed by an oddball inventor from America named Robert Fulton, who had plans plan for a ship with no sails, only steam powered paddle wheels! He even proposed another ship that could travel underwater! He had first tried the British Admiralty, who threw him out. Napoleon had him design some craft for him, but it never went anywhere. Eventually, Fulton gave up and returned to America.<br /> <br /> 1814- THE BATTLE OF HORSESHOE BEND-The last great Indian battle in the American South. The War of 1812 coincided with Shawnee chief Tecumseh's called for all Indians regardless of tribe to unite to drive away the white man. Chief Red Eagle and the Creek Nation fought Gen. Andrew Jackson and his volunteer army of frontiersmen down in the Alabama territory. Jackson's army included Davey Crockett, Sam Houston and future Senator Thomas Hart Benton.<br /> Jackson (Indians named him "Sharp Knife") defeated the Creeks in one huge battle. In a switch on Hollywood image, in this battle the Indians fought from inside a wooden walled fort and the whites charged around it. After the carnage Jackson ordered his men to cut off the dead brave's noses so he could make an accurate count. Andy Jackson became a national hero and carried a lead bullet around in his shoulder for the rest of his life, Sam Houston got shot in the groin, and Chief Red Eagle put on a suit &amp; tie, became a Methodist, and changed his name to William Weatherford. <br /> <br /> 1836- The first Mormon temple is set up in Kirkland Ohio. Mormon ladies broke up their fine china to mix into the plaster so the walls had a sparkling effect. <br /> <br /> 1836- GOLIAD- After wiping out the Texas rebels at the Alamo, Mexican Gen. Santa Anna surrounded the next little fort at Goliad. Their commander, Colonel Daniel Fanin, seeing the result that resistance brought the men of the Alamo, tried the other tack and surrendered. Santa Anna, who was infuriated by the losses he suffered at the Alamo, wanted to make an example of the Yanqui Texans. He had Fanin and his whole command executed. But instead of being intimidated, Texans just got madder.<br /> <br /> 1855- Canadian doctor and part time scientist Abraham Gesner patented Kerosene. As a source of light, it burned brighter and was cheaper than whale oil. The first product made from crude oil.<br /> <br /> 1865- The City Point Conference. Lincoln, Grant and Sherman meet on the steamboat River Queen about how to finish off Robert E. Lee and end the Civil War. Lincoln stressed that after the war the South should be treated mildly, no mass treason trials, mass hangings or reparations.” Let’s let ‘em up easy.” It is the last time Grant and Sherman would ever see Lincoln alive. <br /> <br /> 1866- Andrew Rankin received the first patent for the upright porcelain urinal.<br /> <br /> 1883- When Prince Albert died in 1861, Queen Victoria was collapsed in grief. She was lifted out of her funk by her Scottish horse groom at Balmoral, named John Brown. For over a decade they had an inseparable friendship, which may or may not have been intimate. This day John Brown died. Victoria had a life size statue made of him for the front of Balmoral house. After Victoria’s death, her son King Edward VII had Brown’s statue moved to a far corner of the estate, so he didn’t have to look at it. Recent archival discoveries proved that as she knew she was dying Queen Victoria left instructions that she be buried with personal tokens of Mr. Brown as well as Prince Albert.<br /> <br /> 1884-The first long distance telephone call-New York to Boston.<br /> <br /> 1886- GERONIMO! After a whirlwind campaign across Arizona being chased by three U.S. armies, Geronimo and his Chiracuha Apaches surrendered. With only 32 braves and their families, Geronimo evaded 5,000 troops. The Apaches nicknamed their pursuing enemy General George Crook, "General Day-After-Tomorrow" for his inability to keep up with them. <br /> Finally, they were cornered and forced to give up. Geronimo and the Chiracua were shipped off to a Florida swamp for ten years before being allowed to return to their homelands. Many White Mountain Apaches who hated Geronimo acted as scouts for the army. Afterwards they were rewarded by being shipped off as well.<br /> <br /> 1908- Bud Fisher's comic strip Mutt &amp; Jeff debuted.<br /> <br /> 1912- Washington DC received its famous cherry trees, 3,020 in number, a gift from the Japanese government.<br /> <br /> 1914- In Belgium, the first successful blood transfusion was performed.<br /> <br /> 1939- Madrid fell to Generalissimo Francisco Franco and his fascist forces.<br /> <br /> 1940- “Rebecca,” the first Hollywood movie by Alfred Hitchcock opened.<br /> <br /> 1941- After democratic Yugoslavs overthrew the pro-Nazi regime of Prince Paul, Hitler ordered an invasion.<br /> <br /> 1943- Companies in Los Angeles doing war work were forbidden to discriminate by race.<br /> <br /> 1945- Nazis fired their last V-2 rockets at London before the Allied armies overrun their launchpads. The last rockets hit Stepney and Kent. Chief scientist Dr. Werner Von Braun and his scientists started taking English lessons.<br /> <br /> 1945- Argentina declared war on Nazi Germany. This is seen as a bit of political theater since President Juan Peron openly admired Hitler and Mussolini and Argentina gave haven to many top Nazis after the war.<br /> <br /> 1952- U.P.A.’s cartoon “Rooty-Toot-Toot” premiered. Its music score was by jazzman Phil Moore, the first African American to receive a screen credit for scoring a movie.<br /> <br /> 1952- “Singing in the Rain” starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor premiered.<br /> <br /> 1957- California Reverend Robert Schuller opened the first Drive-In Church.<br /> <br /> 1958- Nikita Khrushchev became Soviet Premier in addition to First Secretary of the Communist Party.<br /> <br /> 1958- At the 30th Academy Awards, the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay went to Pierre Boule for The Bridge on the River Kwai. But Boule was not there. He wrote the novel it was based on, but the actual screenplay was written by two Blacklisted writers in exile- Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson. Boulle’s name was entered as a cover.<br /> <br /> 1964-THE ANCHORAGE, ALASKA EARTHQUAKE- The largest in the western hemisphere in the Twentieth Century, 9.2 on the Richter Scale. It created a tsunami tidal wave that hit the coastlines of Alaska, British Columbia and Hawaii with a 100 foot wall of water. 164 people died.<br /> <br /> 1968- Russian Major Yuri Gargarin, in 1961 the first man in Space, died in a small plane crash during a routine private flight.<br /> <br /> 1973- In one of the more celebrated stunts in Hollywood history, when Marlon Brando won an Oscar for his role in The Godfather, he sent a buckskin clad model named Sashin Littlefeather to refuse the award and delivered a protest about treatment of Indigenous Americans. <br /> <br /> 1974- Mariner 10 visited the Planet Mercury.<br /> <br /> 1977- In the largest aviation disaster in history. A KLM 747 jumbo jet taking off crashed into another PanAm 747 jumbo jet landing at Tenerife Canary Islands. 582 people were killed.<br /> <br /> 1978- The first draft script of the film Norma Rae completed. The film dramatized the life of Christa Lee Jordan, a mill worker who was blackballed by the J.P. Stevens millworks for wanting a union. <br /> <br /> 1989- Who Framed Roger Rabbit earned four Oscars at the Academy Awards. Sound Effects, Visual Effects, Film Editing and a special one for Richard Williams for the animation. At that same ceremony, Pixar’s Tin Toy won best animated short. The first Pixar short to win.<br /> <br /> 1996- Fearful of mad cow disease, The European Community banned the export of beef from Britain for one year. <br /> <br /> 2022- At the Academy Awards, Best Actor winner Will Smith slapped and cursed out comedian Chris Rock on camera in front of the whole world for making a joke about his wife Jada Pinket Smith.<br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Who first said,” Money is the root of all evil”? <br /> <br /> Answer: St. Paul in the New Testament. Timothy 6:10, “For the love of money is the root of all of evil. “</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 25 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6418 <p>Question: What is Rembrandt Lighting? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: When Dante has a guide who led him through the realms of the afterlife in his epic poem The Divine Comedy. Who is his guide? (Hint: another famous poet)<br /> ----------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/25/2024<br /> B-Days: King Henry II Plantagenet, Joachim Murat, Gutzon Borglum, David Lean, Mary Flannery-O’Connor, Arturo Toscanini, Aretha Franklin, Bela Bartok', Howard Cosell, Bonnie Bedelia, Jerry Livingston (writer of Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo), Richard O’Brien (Rocky Horror), Elton John, Simone Signoret, Gloria Steinem is 90, Sarah Jessica Parker is 60.<br /> <br /> In ancient times this was the feast of Thalia, the goddess of comedy, one of the Nine Muses. In Latin she was called Hilaria. According to the historian Pausanias there was a town that was sacred to Thalia. When you arrived, you had to tell a joke to the locals or they would kill you.<br /> <br /> In the medieval London this was Lady Day when streetlights no longer had to be lit after dark.<br /> <br /> 3019 TA- Frodo Baggins destroyed the one true ring, causing the death of Sauron.<br /> <br /> 421AD- People fleeing the depredations of Attila the Hun go into the marshes and found the city of Venice.<br /> <br /> 1306- Robert the Bruce crowned King of Scotland.<br /> <br /> 1330- Battle of Zebras de Acholes (Tula)- On his deathbed, Scottish king Robert the Bruce asked Earl Douglas of Argyle to take his heart to the Holyland. Black Douglas went on Crusade with the Bruce's heart embalmed in a little lead box, hanging from a silver chain around his neck. In Spain, the Earl was ambushed by a large force of Moors. When Black Douglas realized his hour had come, he hurled the box into the thickest of the foe, and plowed after it, long sword in hand, to go down fighting.<br /> <br /> 1441-During the Council of Clermont, the Vatican invited Czech Jan Hus under an amnesty to come and explain his Protestant doctrines. After he explained his case, they burned him at the stake. Supposedly we got the expression ‘his goose is cooked’ from the martyrdom of Hus. Hus was the old German word for goose.<br /> <br /> 1521- FIRST MAN CIRCUMNAVIGATES THE GLOBE- No, it was not Magellan. It was Magellan's 16 year old Malay slave, Enrique. Enrique was taken from his native Sumatra, then Arab merchants brought him to Madagascar where Portuguese sailor Magellan purchased him. He brought him by sea around Africa to Lisbon, then to Spain. <br /> Later Magellan took him with his fleet west to South America and around the Cape into the Pacific and finally to the Philippine Islands. On this day on the isle of Cebu, Enrique found he could converse with the locals. Magellan knew he had done it and reached the Indies by sailing west. After Magellan was killed by natives, while captains stood around wondering what to do next, Enrique jumped overboard and swam home.<br /> <br /> 1524- Explorer Giuseppe Verrazano with a French fleet going up the coast of North America drop anchor off Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. Verrazano could not see the Carolina coastline beyond the thin isthmus of Diamond Shoals, so he decides the American Continent must become really-really thin in the middle before widening out to Canada. His men strain their eyes for signs of China, beyond what he thinks is the" Pacific". For a century European maps reflected this silly mistake, and Verrazano was later eaten by cannibals.<br /> <br /> 1586- Margaret Clitherow was a Yorkshire butchers wife who converted to Catholicism in Queen Elizabeth’s time. She held secret masses and sheltered outlawed priests. For this she was “pressed”. Meaning she was laid on the ground with a stone against her back, a door was placed on top of her. On that door they piled 700-800 pounds of stones until she was squished. The Catholic Church declared her a saint in 1970.<br /> <br /> 1634-The good ships Dove and Ark drop anchor in America bringing 128 English Catholics. The Colony of Maryland founded by Caelius Calvert- Lord Baltimore under former Virginia Gov. De La Ware (Delaware). For the first time in English America a Catholic Mass was held.<br /> <br /> 1668-First recorded horse race in America.<br /> <br /> 1815- After Napoleon seized back power in Paris he asked Europe for peace. This day the assembled powers meeting in Vienna declared him an outlaw and enemy of Europe. The issue was decided on the field of Waterloo.<br /> <br /> 1843- In London, the Thames Tunnel opened. The first tunnel under a major river.<br /> <br /> 1865- The Battle of Fort Steadman. Robert E Lee tried to break a hole in Ulysses Grants encircling army so he could rush reinforcements to Joe Johnston’s rebel army. They were trying to stop Sherman in South Carolina from marching north and uniting with Grant. It didn’t work.<br /> <br /> 1911-THE TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FIRE- 145 seamstresses, mostly teenage Jewish immigrant girls, burned to death in a horrible office building fire. They could not escape the flames because their employer padlocked them into their sweatshop so they wouldn't take so many breaks, or talk to union organizers. The pavement was littered with dead girls who jumped ten stories to their death rather than burn, while a helpless crowd looked on in horror. They would hold hands and leap to their deaths together. <br /> The factory owners were never charged with any crime. The owners soon opened another clothes factory that was cited for fire safety violations. The tragedy was a major cause of the formation of the ILGWU now called UNITE and the first job safety laws. One of the eyewitnesses to the horror, Frances Perkins, later became Franklin Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor. The last survivor of the fire died in 2001 at age 107. <br /> <br /> 1915- The first modern submarine disaster. The US F-4 went down with 21 sailors.<br /> <br /> 1916 - Ishi, the last survivor of his Yaqui Indian tribe, died.<br /> <br /> 1928- Young American composer George Gershwin first arrived in Paris.<br /> <br /> 1931- The Scottsboro Boys. In Alabama nine young black men were accused of raping two white women in a freight car. Although convicted the case was appealed and retired four times, and only the spotlight of national attention prevented any from being lynched.<br /> <br /> 1931- Shortly after the invention of automobiles, there were automobile races. This day in the dry lake beds of Muroc California saw the first race car speed trials sanctioned by the American Automobile Assoc. It was the beginning of NASCAR. <br /> <br /> 1932- Motion Picture Academy President William DeMille, the brother of Cecil B., tried starting a 'Squawk Forum", inviting film industry workers to air their grievances with their studio heads. (and this way they wouldn't try to unionize). The first boss on the hot seat was MGM's Louis B. Mayer. He was greeted with boos, insults and catcalls. The forum quickly devolved into a screaming free-for-all. Mayer furiously stormed out and preceded to fire all those Metro employees he could remember were there. The Squawk Forum idea was quickly abandoned. Workers continued to organize into craft unions. <br /> <br /> 1933- Nazis Minister of Propaganda Josef Goebbels offered famed director Fritz Lang a job. Fritz said he’d think about it, then immediately packed his bags for Hollywood.<br /> <br /> 1943 - The first Japanese anime film premiered " Momotarō no Umiwashi (桃太郎の海鷲,<br /> Momotaro's Divine Sea Eagles" by director Mitsuyo Seo. Momotaro or Peach Boy, was a popular character with children. It was made as wartime propaganda. It ran only 37 minutes. <br /> <br /> 1944- During World War II, over the Dover coastline, Flight Sgt. Nicholas Alkemade bailed out of his burning Spitfire, and his chute failed to open. He fell 18,000 feet. In a freak occurrence, high on shore winds slowed his descent, and he hit a wet beach that broke his fall. Sgt. Alkemade suffered only a broken ankle. It was a million to one shot. English film director Michael Powell made the incident the basis of his fantasy film with David Niven called "A Matter of Life and Death", released in the US as "Stairway to Heaven”.<br /> <br /> 1945- The 322 fighter group escorted a large contingent of bombers from Italy to Berlin and back. During the dogfights over Germany the unit’s P-51 fighter planes shot down three German ME-262 jet fighters. No bombers were lost and the 322rd was awarded a special unite citation for bravery. The 322rd Fighter Group were the Tuskeegee Airmen, the Red-Tails, all black pilots. Their commander Benjamin Davis became the first African-American to become a US General.<br /> <br /> 1945- General Eisenhower told Marshal Stalin that the allied armies would hold back and let the Soviet Red Army take Berlin.<br /> <br /> 1953- NUMBER 10 RILLINGTON PLACE. A new tenant to this modest flat in London made an awful discovery- behind the walls were the bodies of 4 women, with one more buried under the pea patch. The previous tenant Jack Christie confessed to the murders and was executed. Christie became the most infamous British serial killer since Jack the Ripper.<br /> <br /> 1954- RCA began mass production and marketing of color television sets. At the time the set cost as much as an automobile, 12 inch screen and there was very little programming in color.<br /> <br /> 1955- US Customs seize a shipment of 258 copies Alan Ginsburg’s poem Howl printed in the UK on the grounds it was obscene." I saw some of the finest minds of my generation destroyed by madness." Next year when Lawrence Ferlinghetti of San Francisco’s City Lights Bookstore printed the poem, he was arrested.<br /> <br /> 1957-The Rome Treaty establishing the European Economic Community.<br /> <br /> 1960- Thirty-five years after it was written and published in Europe an American judge ruled that D.H. Lawrence's novel 'Lady Chatterley's Lover" was not pornography and could finally be sold in the U.S. Whaddaya think of that, John-Thomas?<br /> <br /> 1960- The Moulin Rouge Agreement. After a lot of agitation and arm twisting from Frank Sinatra, the owners of the Las Vegas casinos agreed to integrate. It was so named for the Moulin Rouge Casino, which up to then had been the only casino that allowed black and white patrons to mix freely.<br /> <br /> 1965- Viola Gregg Liuzzo was a fiesty red-haired wife of a Detroit Teamster official who was so moved watching Martin Luther King’s freedom marchers being beaten up by cops that she drove down to Alabama to offer her help. When her children feared they would never see her again Mrs Liuzzo replied she would "live to pee on your graves". <br /> This night she was driving black marchers from Selma to Montgomery when three Ku Klux Klansmen pulled along side her car and shot her at point blank range. Her case reached up as high as the White House where President Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover spent several anxious meetings over what to do. The Klansmen were rounded up but acquitted by an all-white Alabama jury, then a Federal court gave them six years for violating Mrs. Liuzzo’s civil rights. Viola Liuzzo was the only white woman ever murdered in the 60’s Civil Rights Movement.<br /> <br /> 1966 - Beatles pose with mutilated dolls &amp; butchered meat for the cover of the "Yesterday &amp; Today" album, It was later pulled.<br /> <br /> 1967 -The Who &amp; Cream make their US debut at Murray the K's Easter Show.<br /> <br /> 1969- John Lennon and Yoko Ono began their week-long "love-in" for peace in the bed of Room 902 of the Hilton Hotel, Amsterdam.<br /> <br /> 1975- King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was assassinated by a nephew. The nephew was beheaded.<br /> <br /> 1990- The Happy Land Social Club fire. A Cuban man broke up with his girlfriend over drinks in a crowded Latino bar in New York City. The bouncers threw him out when he got abusive. He left the club then returned and splashed gasoline around the one entrance and set it on fire. 87 people died, some so fast that their remains still had their drinks in their hands. It was the worst fire in New York since the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, ironically on this same date.<br /> <br /> 1996- Pixar’s John Lasseter awarded a special Oscar for Toy Story, and Colors of the Wind from Disney’s Pocahontas won Best Song.<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Quiz: When Dante has a guide who led him through the realms of the afterlife in his epic poem The Divine Comedy. Who is his guide? (Hint: another famous poet)<br /> <br /> Answer: His guide was the Roman poet Virgil. Composer of the Aeneid.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 24 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6417 <p>Quiz: When Dante has a guide who led him through the realms of the afterlife in his epic poem The Divine Comedy. Who is his guide? (Hint: another famous poet)<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: What’s the difference between Aquaman and Prince Naymor?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/24/2024<br /> Birthdays: Steve McQueen, Lawrence Ferlingetti, John Wesley Powell, Harry Houdini aka Eric Weisz, Edward Weston, Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle, Clyde Barrow of Bonnie &amp; Clyde, Bob Mackie, Robert Carradine, Jesus Alou, Laura Flynn-Boyle, Alyson Hannigan, Joe Barbera, Cal Howard, R. Lee Ermey, Peyton Manning, Kelly LeBrock, Sir Elton John is 77, Jessica Chastain is 47<br /> <br /> <br /> 1185- Battle of Dano-Ura. Huge Japanese samurai battle fought at sea. The Minamoto Genji Clan defeated the Taira-Heiki Clan and seized the throne. When Dan-no-Ura is clearly lost, the redoubtable Lady Nii took her grandson, the 7 year old child emperor Antoku in her arms, and told him “Down there beneath the waves, another capitol awaits you!” They jumped into the sea with their retainers where they all drowned. To this day local fishermen find small crabs with shells like samurai face masques on them.<br /> <br /> 1241- Mongol armies were sent into Europe by Genghis Khan’s general Subotai. While one pincer marched into Hungary, another force under Vuldai and Paidar burned the Polish capitol of Krakow. A trumpeter trying to sound a warning from a church tower was shot through the throat with an arrow. Since then, in his memory in the town square every hour on the hour, a trumpeter plays the bugle call and stops short at the same note -The Heynal. <br /> <br /> 1603- Queen Elizabeth I of England died of a gum inflammation, James VI of Scotland, son of Mary Queen of Scots, becomes King James I Stewart of the United Kingdom. Elizabeth was 69 and had ruled England since she was 25. She was famous for being frugal but she loved nice clothing. At her death she left 2,000 dresses. When an Anglican bishop in a sermon tried to criticize her for vanity, the Queen stood up and warned the good bishop to hold his tongue,”ere ye may attain Heaven before your time”.<br /> <br /> 1663- King Charles II granted lands in the newly forming American settlements called Carolina to noblemen who supported him in the recently ended English Civil War.<br /> <br /> 1765- the British Parliament passed the American Quartering Act, which means you have to let a redcoat soldier sleep in your home whether you like it or not! You even had to give them your extra food and candles at no charge! Up to now all the British army was on the frontier protecting against Indians, now it seemed the redcoats were moved into towns and settlements to keep an eye on the Americans! This and the Stamp Act was another of the sort of thing that bugged Americans about being a colony.<br /> <br /> 1794- Hero of the American Revolution Thaddeus Kosciuszko raised the banner of Revolt to liberate Poland from the Russians, Austrians and Germans. They were unimpressed. In spirit of American and French liberty, he appeared in the great square of Krakow in a peasants jacket and declared a fight to the death. He finished the war in a Russian prison. Eventually released, he visited America in 1797 and was paid $3,947 in back pay as an American army officer. He spent all the money buying black slaves and freeing them.<br /> <br /> 1808- Napoleons’ French army entered Madrid.<br /> <br /> 1843- THE BATTLE OF HYDERABAD- Sir Charles Napier and the British Army of India defeated the Balouki tribesmen and Talpur Emir and conquered the region in modern Pakistan called the Sindh. <br /> One problem generals always have after a big battle is coming up with a good name. This battle was fought near a village called Dabaa, but in Hindi, Dabaa meant greasy animal skins. Charles Napier didn’t want to be knighted in Westminster Abbey as the Viscount Greasy Animal Skins, so he sent an officer to ride around until he found a town with a more suitable name. Finally they chose the town of Hyderabad. Back in London Lord Napier was hailed as the Conqueror of Sindh. Punch magazine punned that his report consisted of one word-PECCAVI- Latin for “ I have Sinned.- get it? “ Victorian humor!<br /> <br /> 1882 -In Berlin, German scientist Robert Koch announced the discovery of the bacillus that caused Tuberculosis, enabling a vaccine to at last be created. T.B. or consumption, was the dreaded pandemic of the 1800's- killing everyone from Frederic Chopin, Henry Clay, Doc Holliday, Aubrey Beardsley, to Mimi in La Boheme. <br /> <br /> 1900- Mayor Robert Van Wyck turned over the first shovel-full of dirt on the project to build the New York City subway system. <br /> <br /> 1912- Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle’s adventure novel The Lost World, first published in magazine installments. Conan Doyle was inspired when he in 1905 he attended a lecture at the Royal Geographic Society, when an Amazon explorer described finding dinosaur bones. It was the first of the Land-of-the-Dinosaurs type stories. In 1925, Willis O'Brien made the Lost World into the first dinosaur monster movie.<br /> <br /> 1918- A top magician on the London stage was Chung Ling Soo. His real name was Bill Robinson from Westchester, NY, but he got up in yellowface and pretended to be a magical mandarin. His best routine was when someone fired a pistol at him and he caught the bullet with his teeth. On this day his trick gun failed, and he was really shot and killed. Ta-Daaa!<br /> <br /> 1934-The Major Bowes Original Amateur Hour debuted on radio. It became a national craze to see who could be a future star. Frank Sinatra was among their finds. The show eventually moved to television and later spawned the Ted Mack Amateur Hour, Chuck Barris the Gong Show, Star Search, American Idol and The Voice.<br /> <br /> 1939- The film The Hound of the Baskervilles premiered with actors Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson. They became famous interpreters of the characters and went on to make a dozen more films.<br /> <br /> 1944- In Rome after a car bomb that killed 33 Germans, The Nazis retaliated by pulling innocent people at random off the street and shooting them.<br /> <br /> 1944- THE GREAT ESCAPE- 60 Allied POWs dug a tunnel and escaped from an elite German prison camp in Poland. But unlike the popular movie all but 5 were recaptured, and 40 were executed. <br /> <br /> 1945- Warners Life With Feathers, the first Sylvester the Cat.<br /> <br /> 1949- MGM’s The Little Orphan won the Oscar for Best Animated Short.<br /> <br /> 1954- The Nash-Kelvinator Company and the Hudson Car Company merge to form American Motors Corporation or AMC automobiles. <br /> <br /> 1955- Tennessee William's "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" debuts at Broadway's Marosco Theater. Barbera Bel-Geddes was the first Cat, and Burl Ives was "Big Daddy".<br /> <br /> 1958- Elvis Presley inducted into the Army. G.I. Blues!<br /> <br /> 1962- No one had been a more loyal supporter of President John F. Kennedy than Frank Sinatra. The singer got his Ratpack friends to stump for the candidate, and even got Mafia money to support a man whose brother Bobby was busy busting the rackets. But the President was warned that association with such a known libertine would cost him family votes. So when President Kennedy next visited Palm Springs he not only refused an invitation to stay with Sinatra, he stayed with more wholesome singer Bing Crosby, a Republican! Sinatra in a rage took a sledgehammer to the private helicopter landing pad he was preparing for JFK, and broke off his friendship with JFK’s brother-in-law, actor Peter Lawford. By the end of the 60s Old Blue Eyes was a supporter of Nixon.<br /> <br /> 1973- In Buffalo, a drunk fan bit singer Lou Reed on the ass.<br /> <br /> 1987- Michael Eisner and Premier Jacques Chirac sign the protocol to build Euro-Disney, later called Disneyland Paris.<br /> <br /> 1989- The supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground and spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil in Prince William Sound Alaska. It was claimed its Captain Joseph Hazelwood was drunk. But insiders claim Exxon fabricated the drunk-captain story to excuse their inadequate detection and warning equipment. The route was well charted and easy to maneuver. Despite lots of promises from Exxon to clean it up completely, today much of Prince William Sound is still contaminated, and the wildlife is still trying to recover.<br /> <br /> 1999- The U.S. and NATO began to bomb Belgrade over Serbian attacks in Kossovo.<br /> <br /> 2005- A Colorado Rockies big league baseball game was called off on account a swarm of bees. The bees were attracted by the coconut oil in the starting pitcher’s hair gel.<br /> <br /> 2006- 13 year old Miley Cyrus debuts on TV as Disney’s Hanna Montana.<br /> ==============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What’s the difference between Aquaman and Prince Naymor?<br /> <br /> Answer: Besides the differences in their origin stories, character development, super powers and weaknesses, etc, the biggest difference between Prince Namor (i.e. the Sub-Mariner) and Aquaman is that Namor is a character in the Marvel Universe and Aquaman exists in the DC Universe. (FG)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 23 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6416 <p>Question: What’s the difference between Aquaman and Prince Naymor?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays’ question answered below: Who was Helen of Troy?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/23/2024<br /> Birthdays: US Vice President Schuyler Colfax, Akira Kurosawa, Joan Crawford, Dr. Werner Von Braun, Juan Gris, Chaka Khan, Paul Grimault, Sidney Hillman, Jack Ruby, Joan Collins, Eric Fromm, Fanny Farmer, Catherine Keener is 64, Hope Davis is 59<br /> <br /> In ancient Rome today was the Tubilustrum, the Festival of the Sacred Trumpets of Minerva. Yes, the word is the origin of the word Tuba, although the modern tuba wasn’t invented until 1835.<br /> <br /> Today is the Feast day of the Irish Saint Gwinear. Gwinear loved animals so much that once when he was thirsty he struck the ground with his staff to make a clear pool appear, then again to make another one for his dog and horse.<br /> <br /> 1721- Johann Sebastian Bach sent the first copy of his Brandenburg Concertos to his patron the Margrave of Brandenburg. When the Margrave died, an inventory was made of his holdings in Berlin, the value placed on each concerto was six groschen, or about $5 each.<br /> <br /> 1775- During the debate in the Virginia House of Burgesses, Patrick Henry said the only way to deal with England was :"I KNOW NOT WHAT COURSE OTHERS MAY FOLLOW, BUT FOR ME -GIVE ME LIBERTY, OR GIVE ME DEATH !" Henry became Gov. of Virginia, but later he was forgotten in the formation of the new nation, especially after he declared publicly that the Constitution was a big mistake, and Tom Jefferson was an incompetent coward.<br /> <br /> 1806-After exploring the Pacific coast around the mouth of the Columbia River, Lewis and Clark start back for home.<br /> <br /> 1857- Stewart's department store in New York installs the first of Mr. Elisha Otis's new invention, the elevator. There were earlier steam elevators, but the danger of falling frightened off customers. Mr. Otis’ system of brakes and cut offs in the event of a cable failure made elevators popular and made the age of skyscrapers possible.<br /> <br /> 1877- Mormon elder John D. Lee was convicted of the murder of 120 settlers when he ordered his men to attack a pioneer wagon train as it passed through Utah in 1857, the infamous Mountain Meadow Massacre. On this day John D. Lee was marched to the massacre site, stood beside his own coffin and shot by firing squad.<br /> <br /> 1877- the first telephones installed in the White House.<br /> <br /> 1894- Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan-Doyle was in Davo Switzerland helping his wife recover from tuberculosis at a spa in the Alps. While there, the Swiss introduced him to a new sport that he quickly took to. This day he wrote to London enthusiastically about Ski-Running, or Skiing. Conan-Doyle predicted in the Strand Magazine “Within a generation, thousands of English people will be coming to the Alps to ski.” Today there is a statue of Sir Arthur in Davo, Switzerland.<br /> <br /> 1903- Orville and Wilbur Wright kept looking for someone to build them a motor light enough to power their airplane design. Finding no taker, they built the thing themselves and the propeller. This day took out an U.S. patent on The Airplane. They didn’t actually fly in it until nine months later.<br /> <br /> 1909- Two weeks after leaving the presidency, Teddy Roosevelt disembarked from New York, bound for a big game hunt in Africa. Banker J.P. Morgan said,” Every American hopes the African lions will do their duty.” <br /> <br /> 1918- In a final attempt to break French defenses during World War I, the Germans begin firing their giant "Big Bertha" cannon at Paris. The shells fly 77 miles and took three minutes to reach their targets. The first shell hit Place De La Republique. A gunner said the discharge of the cannon sounded like, “an enormous vomiting dachshund'.<br /> <br /> 1919- Benito Mussolini founded the Parti Fasci di Combatimento or Fascist Party in Italy. He started his career as a socialist union leader but swung to the other side later (better benefits?) He named his ultra-right group after the wrapped bundle of sticks with an axe sticking out that was carried before ancient Roman consuls, the fasces, it symbolized Roman power. In a previous generation Garabaldi's men were called Red-Shirts so Mussolini adopted the Black-Shirts. Later Hitler made his storm troopers Brown-Shirts.<br /> <br /> 1936- Ollie Johnston got his first job at the Walt Disney Studio, as Fred Moore’s assistant.<br /> <br /> 1945- THE FIRST JET FIGHTER ATTACK- In a last-ditch attempt to stop the allied armies entering Germany, the Luftwaffe mounted an attack on two captured Rhine river bridges by fifty jet fighters. The Messerschmidt ME-262 Schwalbe (Swallows).<br /> Half never get off the ground, others got lost and the rest don't accomplish anything. The Luftwaffe aces like Adolph Galland thought the jets were ideal for shooting down big B-17 bombers, but Hitler insisted they carried bomb loads, which slowed them down enough for propeller planes to hit them. The experimental jet fuel was so unstable that it had to be mixed by a chemist as it was being poured into the gas tank. If the mixing was done improperly the whole thing could explode on the runway.<br /> <br /> 1945- Later that day General George Patton led a group of journalists and photographers out to the center of the Rhine bridgehead. One journalist asked his thoughts now that he was breaching Hitler’s vaunted Siegfried Line and daring to go where no foreign soldier had stepped since Napoleon. <br /> As cameras clicked the Patton undid his fly and took a long healthy pee in the Rhine River. “I waited all morning to do that! Yessir, the pause that refreshes!” My father remembered signal corps photo lab assistants made a brisk business selling copies of the famous incident on left over scraps of enlargement paper. That photo was taken by Tech Sgt. Paul Dougherty of the 737 Tank Battalion.<br /> <br /> 1951- Disney short Corn Chips, with Donald Duck and Chip &amp; Dale. Directed by Jack Hannah.<br /> <br /> 1957- Art Clokey's Gumby Show. Clokey created the green clay fellow for his USC college thesis film Gumbasia.<br /> <br /> 1971- US Congress lowered the voting age from 21 to 18.<br /> <br /> 1973-White House attorney John Dean tells President Nixon:" There's a cancer on the Presidency...."<br /> <br /> 1976- Panamanian middleweight Roberto Duran was being honored in Havana. Fidel Castro casually remarked to Duran “Hey, what do you think would happen if my fighter Teofilo Stevenson met Muhammad Ali?” Duran laughed,” Him? Ali would kill him!” Duran was on a plane home that night.<br /> <br /> 1977- The first Richard Nixon-David Frost interview. <br /> <br /> 1983- STAR WARS- President Ronald Reagan announced in a nationwide speech the Strategic Defense Initiative, dubbed the Star Wars Program. He said US scientists were going to create a protective umbrella of laser satellites in orbit that would shoot down hostile nuclear missiles. <br /> This program would cost trillions and even if it worked it could never stop all the missiles launched in a Soviet first strike. Conservative apologists said that the re-escalation of the cold war arms race drove the Soviets crazy and their inability to keep up with arms spending sped up their economic collapse. Star Wars wasted billions of U.S taxpayer dollars before it was stopped. <br /> On the day of the 9-11 World Trade Center Attack National Security Advisor Dr Condoleeza Rice was scheduled to make a major speech announcing the Bush White House resuming of the Star Wars program. To this date, we still do not have satellites shooting other satellites with lasers. Recently Vladimir Putin has been making noises about putting nukes in space.<br /> <br /> 1987- After meeting creator Matt Groening, animators David Silverman, Wes Archer and Bill Kopp began animating the very first Simpson’s short for the Tracy Ullmann Show. <br /> <br /> 1989- COLD FUSION- Two physicists named Ponds &amp; Fleischman make incredible claims that they had discovered a way to make electric power from Cold Fusion. This would mean limitless cheap power that left little waste. It could even use nuclear waste as a fuel. After a lot of excitement, upon closer scrutiny it was discovered it didn’t really work. Oh well.<br /> <br /> 1990- President George H.W. Bush banned broccoli from the White House. <br /> He joked; "Read My Lips ! I hate Broccoli !"<br /> <br /> 2003- Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film, Beating out Lilo &amp; Stitch and Treasure Planet. Twenty One years later he won again for The Boy and the Heron.<br /> =====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Who was Helen of Troy?<br /> <br /> Answer: Beautiful Helen was one of the children born to Zeus, who seduced Leda in the form of a swan. Helen was married King Menelaus of Sparta, but she ran off with Paris a prince of Troy. Menelaus got together with the other Greek kings Agamemnon and Odysseus sailed together to attack Troy. So Helen is known as “ The face that launched a thousand ships.”</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 22 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6415 <p>Quiz: Okay, so who was Helen of Troy?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What was chiraro-scurro? (Hint: artwork)<br /> ---------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/22/2024<br /> Birthdays: Anthony Van Dyck, Marcel Marceau, Stephen Sondheim, Karl Malden, Werner Klemperer, animator Milt Kahl, George Benson, James Gavin, Allen Neuharth, Milt Kahl, Charlie Downs, Mort Drucker, Fanny Ardant is 75, Lena Olin is 69, Bruno Ganz, Reese Witherspoon is 48, Keegan Michael-Key is 53, William Shatner is 93.<br /> <br /> In ancient Rome this day was the Festival of the Entry of the Tree- when the priestesses of Cybele, the Magna Mater, would lead a procession through the streets carrying pine or palm branches. In later times the Christians took this custom and called it Palm Sunday.<br /> <br /> 1622- POWHATAN INDIANS ATTACKED JAMESTOWN- While the Pilgrims were still thinking of coming to America and Plymouth Rock was just another rock, Jamestown Virginia was the only English settlement in North America. <br /> After the deaths of Pocahontas and Powhatan, Opescanacough- pronounced Opee-cantanoo, became Mamanatowick- overall chief of the Virginia Powhatan Confederation. He hated the English since the days of John Smith. So, he resolved to rid his land of the white men once and for all with a simultaneous assault on them from all sides on the same day.<br /> The settlers were taken completely by surprise, many while tending their fields. 300 were killed, among them John Rolfe, the husband of the late princess Pocahontas.<br /> Despite such heavy losses, the English recovered and in a slow war of attrition eventually killed Opescanocough and wiped out the Powhatan people.<br /> <br /> 1687- Jean Francois Lully was court composer to Louis XIV the "Sun King”. In an age when the baton had not come into use for conductors, Lully conducted his orchestra by beating a large pole on the ground to the tempo of the music. One day during a performance he poked a hole in his own foot with the pole and died of blood poisoning. <br /> On his deathbed he asked a priest for Last Rites but the priest refused unless he burned his latest opera "Atys" which the church considered blasphemous. Lully admitted his sins and burned the manuscript of ATYS in front of the priest, who then gave him the sacrament. A friend came in afterward and said:" How could you burn your work?" Lully smiled:" Don't worry. I have another copy of it here in my desk. "<br /> <br /> 1719- King Frederick Wilhelm I announced the end of serfdom in Prussia-Germany.<br /> <br /> 1820 - Commodore Stephen Decatur was killed in pistol duel with Commodore James Baron outside Wash. D.C. Stephen Decatur was a naval hero of the War with Tripoli and War of 1812, who said "My Country Right or Wrong" .<br /> <br /> 1882- Congress outlawed polygamy. <br /> <br /> 1894- First Stanley Cup Game- Montreal 3, Ottawa I.<br /> <br /> 1901- Japan announces that Russia better keep their hands off Korea.<br /> <br /> 1905-WELTSMACHT (world power) Kaiser Wilhelm in a speech for a dedication ceremony in Bremen tells the Germans that it is their natural right to rule the world. It was another of his rash statements that sent chills through an already tense world situation. <br /> We sometimes think German officials all were like the Nazis, robotic and fanatical. But in the Kaiser’s time many of his officials were just as cynical as you or me. German diplomats despaired whenever Wilhelm put his foot in his mouth. One attaché tried to release an edited text to the press. The Kaiser complained: “Bauer, you left out all the good parts!” <br /> Another time after the Kaiser did an interview for the London Globe &amp; Mail where he called the English people a "Race of Mad Bulls." This caused the German ambassador in London to say to a colleague "Oh Well, we might as well start packing right now..."<br /> Another diplomat said,” The Kaiser’s speeches have the same effect as when first viewing a dead octopus. First shock, then revulsion, then amusement.” <br /> <br /> 1913- Jack London (White Fang, The Call of the Wild) wrote fellow writers HG Wells, George Bernard Shaw and Winston Churchill, and asked them how much do they get paid? He was unsure what to charge.<br /> <br /> 1933- The first SS concentration camp Dachau opened.<br /> <br /> 1935- Walt Disney Silly Symphony “ The Golden Touch”. <br /> <br /> 1935- TV SHOWS-The first true television service in the world began in Berlin as Deutscher Fernseh Rundfunk. Broadcasting from the Fernsehsender Paul Nipkow, it used a 180-line system, and was on air for 90 minutes, three times a week. Very few receivers then were privately owned, so viewers went instead to Fernsehstuben (television parlors). During the 1936 Summer Olympics, broadcasts up to eight hours a day took place in Berlin and Hamburg.<br /> <br /> 1944- When the evidence became overwhelming, President Franklin Roosevelt in a national radio address first told the American people of Hitler’s holocaust of the Jews. He warned that all persons aiding in these war crimes would be hunted down. Still no attempt was ever made to bomb Auschwitz, Dachau or even the railroad links to them. US Immigration quotas had been restricted since 1938. Although Jewish groups had complained for years, the US public never really grasped the full horror of the death camps until the film footage returned from the land armies a full year later.<br /> <br /> 1945- Several Arab nations including Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Egypt form the Arab League. Their goal is the eventual unity of all Arab peoples from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf, but about the only thing they all agreed on was hostility to a Jewish state in Israel. <br /> <br /> 1947- President Truman signed an Executive Order # 9835 ordering background checks of all government employees to see if they were commies, and to take an Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Two million took the oath, only 129 were sacked for refusing.<br /> <br /> 1958- Hollywood producer Mike Todd was killed in a small plane crash. He produced hit movies like Around the World in 80 Days and romanced starlets like Gypsy Rose Lee and Elizabeth Taylor. Taylor and Todd had been married for one year and she was devastated by the accident. Years and many marriages later Taylor said Mike Todd was the only man she ever really loved.<br /> <br /> 1960- Arthur Schawlow and Charles Townes patented the laser beam. Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation or LASER. Pussycats rejoice!<br /> <br /> 1970- The Beatles began their up. Paul McCartney filed papers in a London court for a formal dissolving of the Fab Four’s partnership. A year later John Lennon signed the final papers at Disneyworld Florida.<br /> <br /> 1972- Concluding a five-year study, the National Commission on Drug Abuse recommended ending all penalties and laws prohibiting marijuana. No one in authority listened to them.<br /> <br /> 1972- Congress passed the ERA, the Equal Rights Amendment, forbidding any discrimination by sex. The ERA was first proposed by women’s rights groups in 1923. With the heady atmosphere of Women’s Liberation in the early 70s the amendment seemed a no-brainer, even Ronald Reagan supported it. However, the Conservative backlash led by anti-feminists like Phyllis Schlafly slowly stunted its ability to win over states for ratification. The ERA died unratified in 1982.<br /> <br /> 1976- In Tunisia, George Lucas’ first day filming Star Wars. <br /> <br /> 1978- Karl Wallenda, 73 year old scion of the daredevil family the Flying Wallendas, fell to his death from a tightrope between two resort hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.<br /> <br /> 1991- Ivana Trump divorced Donald Trump. A celebrated court case ensued to see how the huge Trump fortune would be divided up. Newspapers cried, Ivanna More Money! When she died he had her buried in an unmarked grave on this Florida golf course.<br /> <br /> 1995- First day of shooting on that utterly classic film- Dinosaur Valley Girls!<br /> <br /> 2004- Israeli missiles blew up Sheik Ahmed Yasin, the quadriplegic founder of the Palestinian group Hamas.<br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What was chiraro-scurro? (Hint: artwork)<br /> <br /> Answer: Chiaroscuro translated from the Italian basically means "light to dark.” It refers to works of art that use modulated textures, accented shadows and especially bold contrasts between light and dark areas to increase the drama and dimension of the artwork. Very popular in the Renaissance and Baroque eras, the 16th century painter Caravaggio’s works are synonymous with the style. (Thanks FG)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 21 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6414 <p>Today’s Question: What was chiraro-scurro? (Hint: artwork)<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: IQ tests. Low IQ, High IQ. What exactly does IQ stand for?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/21/2024<br /> Birthdays: Plato, Johann Sebastian Bach, Benito Juarez, Modest Mussorgsky, Fats Waller, Josef Pulitzer, Florenz Ziegfeld, Bronco Billy Anderson, Rev Ralph Abernathy, Armand Hammer, Harold Robbins, Matthew Broderick is 62, Gary Oldman is 66, James Coco, Timothy Dalton is 78, Rosie O’Donnell is 62, animator Kathy Zielinski.<br /> <br /> Today in Switzerland this is the Feast of St. Nicholas Von Flue, who was married, had ten children, and made war. In 1481 when the Swiss Confederation was in danger of breaking apart Swiss leaders came to his monk's cell to seek his advice. Though he could neither read nor write, he worked out the Compromise of Stans, which saved peace and Swiss unity forevermore.<br /> <br /> 717 A.D. Battle of Vinciacus- Charles Martel, aka “Charles the Hammer", defeated Ragenfridus and the Merovingian pretenders to assure the Carolingian line on the throne of the Franks, aka the French. Charles Martel’s grandson was Charlemagne. His great-grandson Pippin was made into a musical by Bob Fosse and Stephen Schwarz in the 1970's. A musical called "Ragenfridus!" just doesn't have the same ring.<br /> <br /> 1617-Pocahontas, now called Lady Rebecca Rolfe, died at Gravesend, England after being taken off her homeward bound ship, too ill with smallpox to continue. She was 21. Her children with John Rolfe became the beginnings of one of the largest families in Virginia, with many scions of the Old Dominion tracing their ancestry to Pocahontas.<br /> <br /> 1740- Composer Antonio Vivaldi - Il Prete Rosso- the Red Priest, conducted his last concert at the Ospedale Della Pietra in Venice. It was a home for orphaned girls so it was an all-girl orchestra. The 64 year old Vivaldi went to Vienna to see if he could get any commissions from the Austrian Emperor, but caught an illness on the way and died.<br /> <br /> 1804- The Duc D'Enghein shot by firing squad. The Bourbon nobleman was setting up a conspiracy just beyond the French border in Germany to overthrow the French Republic and re-establish the king. Napoleon sent a covert strike force of fast riding cavalry across the border to kidnap him and bring him back. Napoleon prided himself on not executing political dissenters like the masses that were guillotined in the Revolution. But this Duke was too dangerous to keep alive. Still, the cold-bloodedness of this action bothered Napoleon, and he referred to it often with regret.<br /> <br /> 1804-THE CODE NAPOLEON- That same day the French Assembly gave final approval to Napoleon’s revising the legal system. The French civil law courts had been in a hopeless muddle with 368 separate regional law codes some dating back to the Middle Ages. Nappy tackled the problem like he did a battle. He presided over 35 of 87 all day meetings of the jurists- once waking up the drowsy legislators with the cry “Come Gentlemen Let us Earn our Salaries!” The CODE NAPOLEON became the basis for all French civil property rights and family law and is still in use in Louisiana and Quebec Canada today. Napoleon said: ” When the memory of my forty battlefield victories have faded, what will live forever is my Civil Code.”<br /> <br /> 1829- The British Prime Minister the Duke of Wellington had to work hard to get a Bill of Catholic Emancipation through Parliament. This day he had to fight a duel with an opposition MP, a Lord Winchelsea. They popped away at each other without doing any harm, and that seemed to satisfy everyone’s honor. <br /> <br /> 1859- The first public zoo opened in the U.S.<br /> <br /> 1864- Nevada statehood. Lincoln at this time was pushing several territories into statehood early so he could get emancipation and Civil rights legislation through congress with a majority against the rebellious Southern States.<br /> <br /> 1871- William Stanley set out to find Dr. David Livingstone. Livingstone was an explorer –missionary who had disappeared into the African jungle. No one had heard from for two years. Stanley, an illegitimate Welshman, had been a soldier-adventurer in the American Civil War and fought on both sides. He undertook this African expedition financed by the New York Herald. His Swahili name was “Bula Matari” the Breaker of Rocks.<br /> <br /> 1871- German Chancellor Bismarck convened the first Reischtag (parliament) of the unified Germany.<br /> <br /> 1915- President Woodrow Wilson hosted a private screening of D.W. Griffith’s film “The Birth of a Nation” at the White House. He later called it,” History written with a thunderbolt, and I’m afraid all too true. ”Both Wilson and Griffith were the sons of Confederate soldiers.<br /> <br /> 1917- Buster Keaton first stepped in front of a movie camera.<br /> <br /> 1918- During WWI The Ludendorf Offensive (second battle of the Somme) began. When Lenin took over Russia he immediately made peace with the Germans to end the Great War in the East. This freed up one million troops for the Western Front. German strategist Erich Von Ludendorf hurled them into one last attack to win the war before the American armies could arrive in significant numbers. Ludendorf (who was such a stiff Prussian it was said he made love with his monocle on.) called the action "Kaiserschlacht" (Kaiser's Battle") and he promised the Kaiser that he would be in Paris by April 1st. When this attack was stopped by the fresh American forces, the German High Command realized their chances of winning World War I were now kaput.<br /> <br /> 1921- Chicago mobster Big Jim Colosimo was murdered by a new face in gangsterdom, a hitman for Johnny Torrio named Alfonso “Scarface” Capone. When Al Capone became famous, he showed his appreciation to Torrio by killing him, too.<br /> <br /> 1921- Russian Communist leader Nicholai Lenin announced at a party conference the New Economic Policy. Russian state controls applied too quickly combined with the hardships of a civil war had destroyed the Russian economic infrastructure. A terrible famine raged. The New Economic Policy allowed for a certain amount of capitalism and free trade to occur until Russia could get back on her feet again. Stalin replaced the NEP with the first Five Year Plan in 1928.<br /> <br /> 1930- Col. Lyman Sanders founded Kentucky Fried Chicken. <br /> <br /> 1933- On the anniversary of Bismarck's parliament the Nazis dominated Reichstag passes the Enabling Act, giving newly elected Chancellor Adolph Hitler complete dictatorial powers to combat anarchy and terrorism. Hitler kept elderly President Hindenburg around for image sake until his death a year later. The Weimar Republic ended and the Third Reich began. Also passed today was an edict called the Heimtuckegesetz, or Malicious Practices Law, which made it a crime to criticize the Nazis. <br /> <br /> 1935- Persia was renamed Iran and Mesopotamia renamed Iraq.<br /> <br /> 1947- Then Pluto short “The Rescue Dog” was released.<br /> <br /> 1951- HOLLYWOOD COMMIES- House UnAmerican Acitivities Commitee (HUAC) under Judge J. Parnell Thomas left Washington and set up in Hollywood to continue rooting out Communist subversion in the movies. They began in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and later moved to the federal building downtown. <br /> Out of 15,000 people who made a living in the movies and television, only 295 were ever proven or confessed communists. It was an open secret that for $5,000 delivered to the right committee member, your dossier would be moved to the bottom of the pile. The hearings stopped in 1956, the blacklist was broken in 1960 and Judge J. Parnell Thomas went to jail himself for embezzlement. <br /> <br /> 1952- DJ Alan Freed put on an event of the new pop music in Cleveland Ohio. Called the MoonDog Coronation Ball, it was the very first Rock &amp; Roll Concert.<br /> <br /> 1960- THE SHARPEVILLE MASSACRE- White South African police confronting a peaceful demonstration in the black township of Sharpeville open fire with machine guns into the crowd, killing 69 and injuring hundreds. Nelson Mandela and other African National Congress leaders abandon for a time peaceful protest and form a militant wing of their movement- Spear of the Nation.<br /> <br /> 1961- The Beatles first performed at the Cavern Club in Hamburg Germany.<br /> <br /> 1961- based on the success of the first Playboy Club in Chicago, Playboy Clubs with their Bunny waitresses opened in New York, Miami and LA.<br /> <br /> 1963- On orders from Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Alcatraz Prison was closed. <br /> <br /> 1963- Barbara Streisand married Elliot Gould. <br /> <br /> 1965- Rev Dr. Martin Luther King’s civil rights marchers reached Montgomery from Selma.<br /> <br /> 1976- ASPEN MURDER- Jet setter Claudine Longet, a model who was formerly married to singer Andy Williams, shot and killed her lover Spider Sabich, an Olympic skiing champion. Even though their relationship was foundering she said it was an accident, that the Luger went off in his abdomen when he was showing her how to use it. In the bathroom. Uh Huh. Imagine being in the bathroom shaving and your girlfriend pops in “Honey, I’m having problems with the safety on my luger. Here darling I’ll just –oops!”<br /> She spent 30 days in jail for negligent manslaughter, then married her defense attorney.<br /> <br /> 1980- Mafia capo Angelo Bruno received a shotgun blast to the head while he sat in his car after dinner. The Genovese family had his former capo Phil "Chicken Man" Testa take over rackets in Atlantic City. <br /> <br /> 1988- the Screen Actor's Guild hits the bricks for the fourth time in twenty years, this time striking Hollywood for residuals for cable and videocassette income. <br /> <br /> 2006- The first Tweet sent on the new format Twitter. Scientist Jack Dorsey tweeted his friends “Setting up my twttr…” Twitter went public that July. Elon Musk bought it for $44 billion in 2022.<br /> <br /> 2010- Pres Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) into law.<br /> ===============================================================----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: IQ tests. Low IQ, High IQ. What exactly does IQ stand for?<br /> <br /> Answer: IQ stands for Intelligence Quotient.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 20 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6413 <p>Question: IQ tests. Low IQ, High IQ. What exactly does IQ stand for?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What did it mean to” be sent up the river?”<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/20/2024<br /> Birthday: Roman poet Ovid 43BC, Napoleon’s son Napoleon II "l'Aiglon" The eaglet, Henryk Ibsen, Lauritz Melchior, Ray Goulding, Mr. Rogers, Bobby Orr, B.F. Skinner, Pat Riley, Sir Michael Redgrave, Edgar Buchanan, Holly Hunter is 68, William Hurt, Sheldon "Spike" Lee is 67, Carl Reiner, David Thewlis, Chris Wedge is 67<br /> <br /> Happy Saint Cuthbert's Day !<br /> <br /> 44BC- The Great Funeral of Gaius Julius Caesar. The spot in the Forum where the common people tearfully cremated Caesar’s body is still there today. Caesars lieutenant Marc Anthony won the Roman populace over by appealing to their love of Caesar.” Friends Romans Countrymen Lend me your Ears!” as Shakespeare wrote. At a key moment Anthony revealed Caesar’s bloody toga. The assassins Marcus Brutus and Cassius Longinus thought the people would proclaim them heroes for saving the democracy. But they committed a fatal error by staying out of sight during this ceremony. They lost public sympathy, and soon fled Rome.<br /> <br /> 269AD- Roman emperor Gallienus was assassinated while conducting a siege of the city of Mediolanum (Milan). <br /> <br /> 1345- Noted scholars and scientists assembled at the University of Paris to debate whose fault was the Black Plague then decimating Europe. “Hmm..,was it witchcraft, or the left-handed?”<br /> <br /> 1413- Prince Hal ascended the throne of England as King Henry V. He spent most of his reign trying to conquer France and won the stunning victory at Agincourt. If he hadn’t died of dysentery at age 35, he might have united the kingdoms of France and England. <br /> <br /> 1549- Thomas Seymour the Lord High Admiral of England was beheaded for treason. In the unstable regency following King Henry VIII’s death Seymour tried for the top job by wooing Princess Elizabeth and Princess Mary and stockpiled secret stores of arms and ammunition. This execution weakened the political status of his brother the Earl of Somerset who was running the kingdom. Somerset eventually lost his head too.<br /> <br /> 1760- The Great Fire of Boston.<br /> <br /> 1777- Benjamin Franklin was officially presented at the court of Versailles to meet King Louis XVI. Spain, Russia and Sweden withheld their ambassadors, both not wishing to cause a rift with England. His eyes teared up when he was introduced, not as representing rebellious English colonies, but as “DR. FRANKLIN, CONSUL FROM THE UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA!” This is the beginning of U.S. foreign policy.<br /> <br /> 1782-British Prime Minister Lord North resigned his government after thirteen years in power. Lord North was infamous for doing King George’s bidding almost exclusively and bungling the American War of Independence. After the big defeat at Yorktown, he was the target of the first ever Vote of No Confidence in Parliament. Lord North resigned before Parliament could vote on a resolution ordering unilateral withdrawal from America.<br /> <br /> 1800- Alessandro Volta announced he had invented the electric battery.<br /> <br /> 1815- Napoleon Bonaparte was borne on the shoulders of a cheering Parisian mob back into the Tuileries palace as fat King Louis XVIII hightailed it to England. From this day to Nappy's abdication after Waterloo is referred to as the Hundred Days.<br /> <br /> 1841- Edgar Allen Poe's The Murder's in the Rue Morgue first published in Graham’s Magazine. Called the first true detective novel. Poe referred to it as one of his "tales of ratiocination".<br /> Poe's detective C. Auguste Dupin was inspired by a real French sleuth named Jules Vinquoc who used disguises and scientific technique to solve crimes the Paris police could not solve. Dupin was the inspiration for Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot.<br /> <br /> 1852- Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" first published. It sold one million copies within six months. Based on the story of escaped slave Josiah Henson, the book was the first to treat the horrors of slavery directly. It portrayed slave families not as dumb brutes or happy minstrels but victimized human beings. Because of this book, Yankee soldiers referred to Southerners as women-whippers, and baby sellers. Mrs. Stowe said modestly: “I didn’t write it, God did. I just took dictation.” When she visited the White House President Lincoln greeted her with, “So here’s the little lady who started the big war.”<br /> <br /> 1899- In Sing-Sing prison Martha Place becomes the first woman in the U.S. to be electrocuted. She had killed her stepdaughter. Because Sing-Sing Prison in Ossining New York was situated up the Hudson River from New York City, the phrase to be” sent up the River” as meaning going to jail, became popular.<br /> <br /> 1903- Henri Matisse first exhibited at the Salon des Independents in Paris.<br /> <br /> 1931- Cantors Kosher deli opened in the Fairfax neighborhood of Los Angeles.<br /> <br /> 1932- The German airship Graff Zeppelin began a regular passenger service between -Cologne Germany to Buenos Aires Argentina.<br /> <br /> 1940- KATYN- When the Nazi blitzkrieg crushed Poland, the remains of the Polish Army and government fled East only to fall into the hands of Stalin. Stalin didn’t want this group to form the nucleus of a revived Polish state after the war. In an order signed this day Stalin ordered the execution of 14,000 Polish officers and a further 10,000 Polish government workers. When the Nazis invaded Russia the following year they uncovered the mass graves at Katyn, the Hill of Goats. All the bodies had the NKVD signature- one bullet hole in the back of the head. Strange, Nazis denouncing a mass murder. Stalin claimed the Germans did it, and the news of Katyn was forgotten in the larger scale of the Holocaust. In 1991 Russia officially apologized.<br /> <br /> 1942- After a harrowing escape from the Philippines through Japanese lines by PT boat, submarine and plane, General MacArthur arrived at the Australian town of Darwin. His first radio message was to tell the occupied Philippine people “I Shall Return!” The U.S. State Department later asked MacArthur to amend his message to the more democratic We Shall Return, but the imperious general refused.<br /> <br /> 1943-Battle of Mersa Martruh, Rommel vs. Montgomery in the Egyptian desert.<br /> <br /> 1943-MGM's "Dumb Hounded" the first Droopy Cartoon.<br /> <br /> 1956- Habib Bourghiba and Prime Minister Mollet of France conclude talks for the independence of Tunisia.<br /> <br /> 1965- After the confrontation on the Edmund Pettis Bridge President Lyndon Johnson ordered 4,000 US troops to protect the Civil Rights protestors led by Martin Luther King marching from Selma to Montgomery. Alabama Governor George Wallace had sent attack dogs and police on the marchers after promising the President not to. Johnson referred to Gov. Wallace as “a treacherous, lying SOB!” <br /> <br /> 1969-John Lennon married Yoko Ono on the Rock of Gibraltar.<br /> <br /> 1976- Heiress Patty Hearst, aka Tanya, convicted of bank robbery. How she could be tried for bank robbery and her Symbionese Liberation Army captors, simultaneously tried for kidnapping her, is one of the riddles of American jurisprudence. She was finally pardoned by Bill Clinton in one of those last day in office pardons.<br /> <br /> 1985- Libby Riddles became the first woman to win the Alaskan Iditarod dog-sled race. She would win it a total of four times.<br /> <br /> 1987- The U.S. food and drug administration finally approved AZT for use in treating the effects of AIDS. <br /> <br /> 1991- In 1955 Walt Disney recorded Peggy Lee to sing “He’s a Tramp” for the film Lady and the Tramp. For that she was paid $3,500. In 1991, a judge ordered The Walt Disney Company to pay Peggy Lee $3.8 million for the songs she wrote and performed in the film. This additional income was from videocassette sales for a re-issue of the soundtrack. <br /> <br /> 1992- Basic Instinct opened. Noir thriller directed by Paul Verhoeven, starring Sharon Stone, and Michael Douglas.<br /> <br /> 1995-A Japanese doomsday cult called Aum Shinrikio released a deadly nerve gas called Sarin into the Tokyo subway system. It killed 13 and sickened 5,500. The cult had tried on several occasions to release anthrax and other germs into the air to kill millions but their attempts always failed. Their philosophy Poa stated the soul’s salvation could be achieved through mass-murder. Two days later Tokyo police raided Aum Shinrikio headquarters and arrested their leader Matsumoto Chuizo.<br /> <br /> 1999- After years of attempts and failures involving millionaires like Richard Branson, Rocky Aoki and Malcolm Forbes, Dr Bertrand Picard of Switzerland and Brian Jones of the UK became the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a balloon. It was named the Breitling Orbiter 3. Dr Picard said: “I am with the Angels and completely happy.” Mr Jones said: First thing I’ll do is phone my wife, then like a good Englishman I’ll have a cup of tea.”<br /> <br /> 1999- Legoland opened in Carlsbad Cal.<br /> ==============================================================<br /> Yesterdays’ question: What did it mean to” be sent up the river?”<br /> <br /> Answer: Being sent to prison. See above, 1899.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 19 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6412 <p>Question: What did it mean to” be sent up the river?”<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What U.S. state has a town called Kissimmee?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/19/2024<br /> Birthdays: George De La Tour, Wyatt Earp, Dr. David Livingston, William Jennings Bryan, Sir Richard Burton (The African explorer), Charles M. Russell, Jacky Moms Mabley, Adolf Eichmann, Phillip Roth, Adolf Galland, Ursula Andress, Patrick McGoohan, Ornette Coleman, Holly Hunter, animator Richard Williams, Bruce Willis is 69, Glenn Close is 77<br /> <br /> Roman Festival ANCILIA when the Salii, the Leaping Priests of Mars, take the Sacred Shields of Mars the Avenger, that dropped down from Heaven for Romulus, and do the leaping dance of Mars. A ceremony to mark the beginning of campaigning season.<br /> <br /> Today is Saint Joseph’s Day, when the swallows come back to Capistrano.<br /> <br /> 1330- Edmund the Earl of Kent was beheaded by order of his mother. Who’s a naughty boy?<br /> <br /> 1611- The first Burning of Moscow. During the period called the Time of Troubles, a Polish army captured the Kremlin and tried to get the son of the Polish King Wladyslaw IV made Czar. The Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow, Hermogenes, forbade any good Russian from swearing allegiance to the Roman Catholic Ladislas. So, the Poles threw the Patriarch in a dungeon where he soon died. This day a rebel army organized by a Prince Troubetzkoy and peasant butcher Kosma Minin attacked the foreign occupiers and in the ensuing conflict, the city caught fire. <br /> <br /> 1628- A group called Puritans, differing from the Pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony, were granted a Royal Charter to set up their own colony in Massachusetts. Oliver Cromwell once considered immigrating to this colony, but ultimately opted to stay in England.<br /> <br /> 1644- Si Sang, the last emperor of China's Ming Dynasty, committed suicide.<br /> <br /> 1687- French explorer Sieur de LaSalle was killed by his own men on the shores of the Mississippi in an argument over scarce food rations. He was 43.<br /> <br /> 1799- Franz Josef Haydn’s oratorio The Creation premiered. Haydn was inspired when he heard Handel’s The Messiah in London.<br /> <br /> 1812- When Napoleon’s armies occupied Spain in 1808 the Spanish people formed independent bands and fought on in the hills as "guerrillas"- "Little Wars". These militias sent delegates to a free, independent parliament in Cadiz called the Supreme Cortes. This day they declared a constitution for Spain, acknowledging exiled King Ferdinand, abolishing torture and the Inquisition, but keeping the Catholic Church. These men were first called by the term Free Men, Liberales or Liberals. <br /> <br /> 1831- The First U.S. Bank Robbery. English immigrant Edward Smith alias Edward Honeywell made a duplicate set of keys and robbed the City Bank of New York of $245,000 bucks. He did ten years in Sing Sing, but only half the money was ever found.<br /> <br /> 1853- Charles Dicken’s novel Bleak House first appeared in magazine installments. It is the first novel to ever mention dinosaurs-" It would be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill…"<br /> <br /> 1859- Charles Gounod's opera 'Faust" premiered. It was so popular that after a while in New York wags nicknamed the Metropolitan Opera the "Faustspeilhaus" ( it's a pun on Wagner's theater in Bayreuth being called a Festspeilhaus, so Faustspeilhaus..heh-heh,.get it ?....look, don't blame me...its a Gilded Age opera joke....)<br /> <br /> 1874- Mexican-Californio bandido Tirbucio Vasquez was hanged. His last words were “Pronto!” The wild hills north of Newhall California where he hid out are today named in his honor-Vasquez Rocks. They are the site of numerous film shoots like original Star Trek episodes.<br /> <br /> 1875- Mark Twain admitted in a letter to a friend that he now likes to use a typewriter, a new technology accused of ruining the art of writing.<br /> <br /> 1866- H.M.S. MONARCH OF THE SEAS left Liverpool with 2,000 tons, 700<br /> immigrants, and freight, bound for New York. and disappeared forever. No wreckage, no survivors, no distress signals. One of the Mysteries of the Deep...<br /> <br /> 1895- The Lumiere Brothers filmed their first movie, employees leaving their dad’s factory.<br /> <br /> 1914- A fire in the negative vaults of the Eclair Studios in New Jersey destroyed forever all the American work of pioneer French animator Emile Cohl. He had come to the U.S. to animate the first cartoon series, George McManus’ "The Newlyweds" later to be renamed in comic strip form "Life With Father".<br /> <br /> 1916- The first mission of the U.S. Airforce. The First U.S. Aero Squadron flew reconnaissance missions this day to aid General Pershing’s pursuit of Pancho Villa.<br /> <br /> 1918- As a wartime measure, the Congress created Daylight Savings Time separate from Standard Time.<br /> <br /> 1920- U.S. Congress rejects U.S. admission into the League of Nations. The refusal of the worlds largest economy who's President (Wilson) was the architect of the plan as well as the refusal to admit Soviet Russia doomed the League to impotence. Wilson ruined his health crossing the country lobbying for support for the League, and was heartbroken at its failure. In 1945 after another horrible war, the world would try again with the United Nations.<br /> <br /> 1928- the Amos &amp; Andy radio show debuted. NBC Blue Network, WMAQ in Chicago.<br /> <br /> 1931- Nevada legalized gambling.<br /> <br /> 1935- Harlem riots. When the rumor spread that a young shoplifter had been beaten to death by police in the basement of a Kress department store, 10,000 Harlem residents rioted in the streets and burned shops. Two people were killed. The child made an appearance and in fact had never been harmed.<br /> <br /> 1942- On St. Josephs Day, St. Joseph’s Hospital in Burbank, across the street from the Disney Studio, was dedicated. Walt Disney owned the land and gave it to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Sisters of Providence. It would be the place where Walt, Roy, Roy Jr. and many other Disney employees would end their life’s journey.<br /> <br /> 1945- THE NERO ORDER- While allied armies pour into Germany, Adolph Hitler in his bunker issued an order to destroy all bridges, water and telephone systems, dams, schools, anything that could be of any use after the war is over." The Allies will have conquered nothing by ashes!" An immolation worthy of Wagner's Gotterdammerung. <br /> Despite some Nazis fanatical wish to fight to the end, most rational Germans including Albert Speer completely ignored this order. And Hitler down in his bunker didn't know one way or another. German generals started to refer to the Fuhrer's strange mood swings with a German word: VookenCuckooshein- that translates as "Cloud-Cuckoo-Land".<br /> <br /> 1950- Writer Edgar Rice-Burroughs died at his LA ranch Tarzana. Today the town of Tarzana. He was 74. He had always hoped Walt Disney would have made a movie of his character Tarzan. Disney did produce an animated Tarzan in 1999. <br /> <br /> 1953- First T.V. broadcast of the Oscar ceremony broadcast simultaneously from LA and NY. The circus film "The Greatest Show on Earth" won best picture, beating out High Noon, Moulin Rouge, The Quiet Man and Ivanhoe. It was Cecil B. DeMille’s only Oscar of his career. Gary Cooper won best actor and Shirley Booth best actress. Before TV, the Oscars ceremony included a dinner and an hour of dancing before the awards were presented. <br /> <br /> 1954- On a freeway outside rural San Bernadino, singer Sammy Davis Jr. lost an eye in an auto accident. He was left lying bleeding unattended in a hallway in Riverside County Hospital. This was because he was black and it was a segregated facility. Finally, actor and friend Jeff Chandler found him and forced the doctors to treat him. Friend Frank Sinatra urged Davis out of his depression and got him out on stage again. That first night at Ciro’s nightclub the entire Ratpack- Sinatra, Dean Martin and Peter Lawford each preformed on stage wearing a black eye patch similar to Davis’.<br /> <br /> 1957- Elvis Presley purchased an estate outside Memphis Tennessee called Graceland from Ruth Moore for $100,000.<br /> <br /> 1957- Skiing aficionado Pete Seibert was wounded in both legs during World War II, and it was feared he would never walk again. He not only walked, but he got back on skis and by 1950 made the US Olympic skiing team. This day, he hiked with a friend up to an isolated Valley in Colorado named Vail. He exclaimed:" My God Earl, we’ve climbed all the way to Heaven!” Pete Seibert built Vail into a world-class ski resort and town. <br /> <br /> 1959- North Vietnamese nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh declared a war of unification against the Republic of South Vietnam.<br /> <br /> 1959- Disney released The Shaggy Dog, their first low budget live action comedy hit.<br /> <br /> 1962- Vasily Stalin, near-do-well son of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, died of acute alcoholism at age 40. After his father died, he was imprisoned in Siberia, but in 1958 he was allowed to retire to obscurity with a small pension.<br /> <br /> 1962- The first Pillsbury Doughboy commercial.<br /> <br /> 1964- IBM gave the green light to plans for the 360 series. The first compatible computers.<br /> <br /> 1964- First day shooting on the James Bond film Goldfinger. <br /> <br /> 1973- During the Watergate Scandal, President Richard Nixon's lawyer John Dean tells him "There is a cancer on the Presidency."<br /> <br /> 1974- The band Jefferson Airplane changed its name to Jefferson Starship.<br /> <br /> 1979- C-Span cable channel started broadcasting live from the floor of Congress. The first Congressman to speak on camera was Al Gore.<br /> <br /> 1982- Randy Rhoads, the lead guitarist for Ozzy Ozbourne died when he playfully flew his plane buzzing the bands traveling bus and smacked into a farmhouse. <br /> <br /> 1984- I’LL BE BACK- James Cameron began shooting the film the Terminator. He first considered casting O.J. Simpson for the cyborg killer before settling on Austrian weightlifter Arnold Schwarzenegger.<br /> <br /> 1987- Reverend Jim Baker resigned as head of the PTL Ministries. The televangelist had been accused of hanky-panky with secretary Jessica Hahn and defrauding his parishioners of millions to put air conditioning in his dog’s house, and build a Christian Theme Park named Heritage USA. Evangelist turned comedian Sam Kinison joked: "I imagine up in Heaven Jesus must be flipping through the New Testament saying "Hey, where did I say anything about a Water Slide?!" Today Baker rebuilt his ministry, is rich again, and supports Pres. Trump.<br /> <br /> 1993- Monkey-cam debuted on the David Letterman Show.<br /> <br /> 2003- SHOCK AND AWE, THE WAR IN IRAQ BEGAN- The United States, Britain and a loose coalition of small states manipulated public outrage over the 9-11 attacks to invaded Saddam Husseins’ Iraq, and marched on Baghdad. This while U.S forces were still bogged down in a war in Afghanistan.<br /> Although Iraq had never bothered the US directly, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney declared they had solid evidence that Saddam had the ability to attack America with nuclear weapons in 45 minutes. By 2008 all their claims proved to be lies. Bush and Cheney blamed it on the bad intelligence, after giving their CIA chief George Tenent the Medal of Freedom. Many young Americans had volunteered to avenge 9-11 were sent to a fight people who had nothing to do with it. None of the Bush /Cheney children served. 5,000 American dead, ten thousand Americans mutilated or disabled, 106,000 Iraqi dead. (est.)<br /> <br /> 2004- Brian Maxwell, the inventor of the Power Bar nutrition snack, died of a heart attack at age 51.<br /> <br /> ==============================================================<br /> Yesterdays’ question: What U.S. state has a town called Kissimmee?<br /> <br /> Answer: Florida. It’s near Orlando.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 18 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6411 <p>Quiz: What U.S. state has a town called Kissimmee? Kissimmee<br /> <br /> Yesterdays’ question answered below: What does it mean to remain taciturn? <br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/18/2024<br /> Birthdays: Amerigo Vespucci, John Calhoun, Nicholai Rimsky-Korsakov, Neville Chamberlain, Wilson Picket, Edgar Cayce, John Updike, Grover Cleveland, Edward Everett Horton, Vanessa Williams, F. W. DeKlerk, George Plympton, Peter Graves, Irene Cara, Luc Besson, Drew Struzan, Queen Latifah (born Dana Elaine Owens) is 54<br /> <br /> 44BC- This would have been the day Julius Caesar would have left Rome to lead his legions against the Parthians (Iran), had he not been assassinated.<br /> <br /> 566- The Feast of Saint Frediano (St Fred), who redirected a river near Lucca with his rake.<br /> <br /> 1286- King Alexander III of Scotland died. A heavy claret drinker, he went riding after midnight during a storm and rode his horse off a cliff. <br /> <br /> 1554- Princess Elizabeth was sent to the Tower of London on a charge of treason. An uprising of English Protestants under Sir Thomas Wyatt had been crushed. Wyatt under torture confessed his goal was to put Elizabeth on the throne. Elizabeth claimed she never heard of Wyatt, but her stepsister Queen Mary Tudor was suspicious. You could imagine what Elizabeth was thinking when she was rowed into the Tower through the Traitor’s Gate, the same way her mother Anne Boleyn was. For the next several weeks Elizabeth played a dangerous game pretending to be a loyal Catholic. Mary soon died of ovarian cancer and Elizabeth became Queen.<br /> <br /> 1584- Czar Ivan IV the Terrible died while playing chess. Nobody is sure why, except for <br /> "a noticeable swelling of his cods." He had no natural heir, especially after beating his eldest son's brains out with a mace, and his youngest son Dmitri was also dead. Chancellor Boris Gudunov said during an epileptic seizure, the boy whipped out his knife and slashed his own throat. (yeah...right...) Then Boris Gudunov crowned himself Czar. Russia entered a period of dynastic struggle known as "the Time of Troubles".<br /> <br /> 1662- French philosopher Blaise Pascal, who had invented an early computer device, tried to start a municipal bus system.<br /> <br /> 1815-VIVE L'EMPEREUR! While marching on Paris to overthrow King Louis XVIII Napoleon is stopped near Grenoble by the Royal French army commanded by his old friend Marshal Michel Ney. Ney had promised the king he would bring Bonaparte to Paris in an iron cage. The whole Royal Army was Nappy’s old troops anyway, just with a different flag. Soldiers who had served side by side for twenty years suddenly were facing each other. Instead of civil war, Napoleon quietly walked up to their raised guns and smiled: " Soldiers! You all know me. If any of you want to kill your Emperor, here I am." After an agonizing pause, the army cheered and went over to him en masse, including Ney.<br /> <br /> 1831- The U.S. Supreme Court rule that the Cherokee Nation are a “Domestic Dependent” and not a foreign nation, and therefore cannot sue in federal court over the Trail of Tears.<br /> <br /> 1834- The Tolpuddle Martyrs. Six Dorchester laborers were arrested and banished to the Australian penal colony for trying to organize a labor union. It is considered the beginning of British trade unionism. Public agitation forced the government to pardon them and invite them home. Only one went back to Dorchester, the rest moved to Canada.<br /> <br /> 1852- New York City steamboat skipper Henry Wells and mailman William Fargo form the Wells Fargo Company. In 1873 they went into a joint venture with several other freight shipping companies they called American Express.<br /> <br /> 1871- Citizens of Paris, disgusted with the inept handling of the Franco Prussian war and horrible siege they had to endure, declared a workers revolutionary state, The COMMUNE OF PARIS. Artist Honore' Daumier was named to it's governing board. Karl Marx, living in London, said it was the wrong type of revolution. <br /> The Communards were enthusiastic but inefficient revolutionaries. They tried to burn down Notre Dame but it was so old and damp it wouldn't burn. Then they tried to execute the eighty year old archbishop of Paris by firing squad. They all missed on the first try.<br /> They were eventually crushed by the regular French Army after bitter street fighting that destroyed a lot of Paris including the Tuileries Palace, the Hotel deVille and the Palace of St. Cloud. In Pere' Lachaise cemetery you can still see the 'Wall of the Comunards', where 150 were lined up and shot. They took as their banner the red flag of revolution. Young student Nikolai Lenin, when studying the Commune, adopted their red flag for his and it became the symbol of world communism. When Yuri Gargarin went into orbit in 1959 he had a relic piece of a Commune flag with him.<br /> <br /> 1902- BIRTHDAY OF THE RECORDING INDUSTRY. The RCA Victrola company sent its engineers to Milan to record ten discs of the young singer Enrico Caruso. He became a world celebrity and the phonograph went from being a scientific curiosity to something every home had to have.<br /> <br /> 1910- Rosie O’Neill invented the Kewpie Doll.<br /> <br /> 1913- On the streets of Salonika, the King of Greece was assassinated by anarchist Alexandros Skinos. <br /> <br /> 1915- THE BATTLE OF The DARDANELLES or POINT HELLAS - As part of World War I’s Gallipoli Campaign, a large British fleet attacked the shore installations guarding the sea approaches to Istanbul. The British Navy hadn't suffered a major defeat since the days of Lord Nelson, but now they were so badly shot up by the Turkish shore batteries that they had to withdraw. The First Sea Lord, Jack Fisher, resigned. King George V grumbled that Fisher should have been hung from a yardarm. The British Navy stayed formidable but its myth of the invincibility was damaged. Ship captains had discouraged target practice, because firing their cannon soiled the nice polished shine on the barrels. Historian Jan Morris said they had tried to beat Turkey by merely 'Looking Superb".<br /> <br /> 100th Anniversary 1924-The film “The Thief of Baghdad” starring Douglas Fairbanks released. Directed by Raoul Walsh and designs by William Cameron Menzies. It is considered one of the first great special effects blockbuster.<br /> <br /> 1925- THE GREAT MIDWEST TORNADO- One of the largest tornadoes ever recorded. A Force 5 monster that traveled 300 miles from Mississippi to Illinois traveling at 73 miles an hour. It wiped out two large towns and killed 689 people. <br /> <br /> 1928- William T. Hones was planting horseradish in Petersburg Virginia when he dug up a 32 carat diamond. He took it home as a curiosity and only figured out it’s value 15 years later. It was the largest diamond ever found in North America. <br /> <br /> 1931- Schick, Inc. introduced the electric razor.<br /> <br /> 1942- Paramount’s “The Lost Dream” Little Audrey cartoon. The short was directed by Bill Tytla for Famous Studios. He designed Little Audrey based on his own daughter Tammy.<br /> <br /> 1943- The Nazi Gestapo arrested serial killer Bruno Ludke. Ludke admitted to murdering 85 people. He would dress as a laundry delivery man and strangle his victims, mostly women, then commit unnatural acts with their remains. Ludke was sent to a Vienna hospital for medical experiments, then executed in a concentration camp in 1944.<br /> <br /> 1947- William Durant, the executive who built General Motors into an industrial giant, died the manager of a bowling alley in suburban Chicago. He had been ruined in the 1929 Stock Market Crash.<br /> <br /> 1962- President DeGaulle of France and Algerian FLN sign an accord giving Independence to Algeria.<br /> <br /> 1964- The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao, the final direction of George Pal. With Tony Randall and Barbara Eden. <br /> <br /> 1965- Cosmonaut Sergei Leonov became the first human to walk in space.<br /> <br /> 1965- The Rolling Stones were fined 5 English pence for urinating on a wall in Stratford at ABC recording studio Romford.<br /> <br /> 1967- The Pirates of the Caribbean ride opened at Disneyland, designed by master artists Marc Davis, Alice Davis, Rolly Crump and Claude Coates. <br /> <br /> 1980- At the Soviet Union’ secret Plesetsk space center a Vostok rocket exploded on the launch pad, killing fifty top scientists.<br /> <br /> 1981- Ronald Reagan’s Vice President George H.W. Bush got into a traffic accident in Washington D.C. while driving his secretary/mistress Jennifer Fitzgerald to dinner. Desperate to keep his affair out of the papers, Secretary of State Alexander Haig and Attorney General William French-Smith went to DC police HQ and erased any record of the accident from the daily police blotter. George H.W. Bush ran for president on a platform touting his family values.<br /> <br /> 1986- The New York Times reported that a 17-year-old student in New Jersey had tracked the launch of the new Soviet space station, Mir, before the Soviet government formally announced it. Using a shortwave scanner attached to his home computer, Phillip Naranjo tracked transmissions between space vessels and control centers on Earth. Just before the Russians announced Mir on February 20, the teen had picked up their Cyrillic code.<br /> <br /> 2004- Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea from Ukraine back into the Russian Federation. <br /> <br /> 2011- The first space probe went into orbit around Mercury.<br /> ==============================================================<br /> Yesterdays’ question: What does it mean to remain taciturn?<br /> <br /> Answer: Stubbornly quiet, recalcitrant, withdrawn, unresponsive in an antisocial way.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 17 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6410 <p>Question: What does it mean to remain taciturn?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered Below: What is the name of that strange French dance in the 1930s where the male dancer beats up his female partner and throws her around?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/17/2024<br /> Birthdays: Jim Bridger the mountain man, Nat King Cole, film composer Alfred Newman, Mercedes McCambridge, Leslie Ann Down, Patrick Duffy, Rudolph Nureyev, Gary Sinise, Kate Greenaway, John Sebastian, Ben Washam (Warner Bros. animator), Ken Anderson (Disney animator), Stormy Daniels (porn star), John Wayne Gacy, Kurt Russell is 74, Rob Lowe is 61<br /> <br /> Ancient Roman Festival Bacchanalia-the wine festival.<br /> <br /> 44BC- Mark Anthony called the first meeting of the Roman Senate since Julius Caesars assassination. Caesar’s murderers Brutus and Cassius were annoyed that the Roman people didn’t rise up in joy over their deed, but instead remained ominously quiet. Instead of seizing the government, Brutus and the conspirators went off to sulk. Meanwhile the Senate, not knowing who would win the coming power struggle, fence straddled by passing all of Caesars bills, then voting amnesty for his killers. <br /> <br /> 180AD- The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius died at his army camp Vindobona- the future Vienna. He was 59 and was succeeded by Commodus. He left behind a book of private thoughts entitled To Myself, that we call The Meditations. It has become one of the great works of Western Philosophy.<br /> <br /> 461AD- HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY - St. Patrick was a Romanized Gaul named Patricius Magonus Sucatus who as a boy was taken as a slave to Ireland by raiders, then escaped and became a Christian Bishop at Auxerre. He returned to Ireland in 432. Patrick converted the daughters of Irish King Laoghaire and cast down the great pagan idol of Crom Cruach in Letrim. As far as snakes go, some say that was a metaphor for the pagans. He died on this day in Ireland 461AD. <br /> The holiday was a religious festival in Ireland but in America the feast day of Ireland's patron saint became a chance to show ethnic pride and political strength in the face of anti-Irish prejudice. <br /> <br /> 965. AD- Pope Leo VIII died of a stroke while in bed with a lady en flagrante delicto. <br /> <br /> 1394- FREE LANCERS - Sir John Hawkwood died. During a time-out in the Hundred Years War in France Hawkwood formed a company of unemployed English knights and went to Italy to become “condottierie”-mercenaries, fighting for money in the feuds between all the little Italian city-states. Their distinctive brightly polished silver armor gave them the name “The White Company”. Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle wrote a novel by that name about them. <br /> This is around the time the term 'free lance' had been coined, meaning a knight who was free of any Shield-Oath to a noble lord.<br /> <br /> 1525- THE GERMAN PEASANTS WAR BEGAN- Excited by the new Protestant movement throwing off the yoke of the Church, German peasants decide to throw off the yoke of their nobles as well. Preacher Thomas Munzer led a mob of peasants to kick out the Bishop-Dukes of Mulhausen and established rule by “Eternal Council”. <br /> Martin Luther was shocked by the violence. He alienated many of his followers by disassociating himself from the revolts and urged their suppression. The rebellious mobs of peasants flying black flags across Germany, Austria and Alsace were only put down after terrible massacres. <br /> <br /> 1526- King Francis I of France had been captured in battle with Emperor Charles V and kept a prisoner in Madrid. A year later, after signing a lot of peace treaties he had no intention of honoring, he was finally set free on the Spanish-French border near Hendaye. He jumped on a horse and shouted “I am King Again!” Then he jumped on an 18 year old blonde his mother Louise of Savoy had brought for him. Gee, thanks Mom!<br /> <br /> 1692- After the Quaker community refused to support a war with France, the English Crown declared Governor William Penn deprived of his powers and the colony of Pennsylvania would be administered directly as a crown colony.<br /> <br /> 1737- The Irish Charitable Society of Boston held a dinner to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day. Earliest known commemoration in America.<br /> <br /> 1762- In New York City, Irish militiamen against orders not to, marched down Broadway to Hull's Tavern to a St. Patrick's Day breakfast. The first recorded St. Patty's Day parade. In 1848 several Irish-American organizations marched together and the parade became large enough to bring out the Mayor to preside. <br /> As immigration grew so did the parades and the political patronage. Pulaski Day, Steuben Day, Columbus Day, Puerto-Rican Day, etc. <br /> <br /> 1768- Black slaves on the Caribbean Island of Montserrat rise up against their plantation overlords. Because many of the white overseers were Protestant Irish, the slaves guessed they would be distracted by Saint Patrick’s Day partying when they attacked. At the last moment someone gave the plot away. The rebellion was crushed and nine leaders hanged.<br /> <br /> 1776- This day the British Navy of 150 ships hoisted sail and left the City of Boston. Lord Howe had concluded an armistice with colonial General Washington that in exchange for an unmolested evacuation they would not burn the city. It was seen as a great early victory for the Americans. Boston Harbor was opened for the first time in three years. The British troops were heartily glad to leave. A Lieutenant Sheffield wrote:” I curse Columbus and all the other discoverers of this diabolical land!”<br /> <br /> 1780- General Washington ordered his army to commemorate St. Patrick's Day in sympathy with "An ancient people's struggle for independence." One of the Pennsylvania regiments had so many Irish volunteers that it was called The Line of Ireland. <br /> <br /> 1808- ROYAL SCANDALS- William the Duke of York, second son of King George III had to resign his position as head of the British Army over an investigation that he kept a tootsie named Mary Clarke, who used her influence to cash in with army contractors. William’s dad the insane king was locked up and his older brother the Prince Regent later George IV didn't complain because he was hiding an illegal Irish wife named Mrs. Fitzherbert and another girlfriend named Lady Cunningham from his estranged wife Caroline the Princess of Wales, who was herself having sex with most of the men of Italy. <br /> All this scandal couldn't defeat Napoleon, but it did knock Boney out of the British newspapers for awhile, and help Prime Minister Pitt the Younger drink himself into an early grave.<br /> <br /> 1811- The first sidewheel Mississippi riverboat The New Orleans was launched.<br /> <br /> 1845- Rubber Bands invented.<br /> <br /> 1857- John Stephens founds the Fenian Brotherhood in Dublin. This group is the forerunner of Sinn Fein (Shin Fain). The Fenians tried numerous insurrections in the old country and even a conquest of Canada from New York State using former Union army veterans in 1867. Like political leaders today worried about Al Qaeda, Queen Victoria would cast a nervous eye over her shoulder for Fenians.<br /> <br /> 1874- MACY'S- Jacob and Isadore Strauss, two German Jewish immigrants whose first job in America was selling Confederate War Bonds, bought a dry goods store from a retired Quaker whaling captain named R.H. MACY. They decided to keep the name to divert anti-Semitic customers. The store was later so successful that in 1904 Macys’s moved to it's present location on 34th St. The location was close by the new Penn. Station and also across the street from the two largest brothels in New York. <br /> When Macy was a sailor, he had a red star tattoo on his arm. That red star remains the Macys logo.<br /> Izzy Strauss later went down with the Titanic in 1912 and Jacob's kids founded Strauss stores. When Jacob visited Paris in 1919, he joked on General Pershing's comment "Lafayette Nous'Voici", Lafayette We are Here!” to "Galerie Lafayette we are here!" Galerie Lafayette is a French department store.<br /> <br /> 1879- New Mexico Territorial Governor Lew Wallace stopped work on his novel Ben Hur long enough to meet face-to-face outlaw Billy the Kid to discuss an amnesty.<br /> <br /> 1884- To quiet the fears of New Yorkers that the Brooklyn Bridge was too dangerous to cross, circus-master P.T. Barnum led a herd of his circus elephants led by Jumbo the Elephant across the bridge safely.<br /> <br /> 1898- First test run of a practical submarine. Americans had experimented with underwater travel since 1776 with Bushnell’s "Turtle" then the Civil War CSS Hunley. In the ocean off Staten Island a diesel-electric battery powered sub built by the John A. Holland Electric Boat Company of Georgia ran underwater for an hour and forty minutes then resurfaced. As a child Holland was inspired by Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea".<br /> <br /> 1901- At a grand exhibition of his paintings at Bernheim-Jeune Palace in Paris, the world discovered the brilliance of a poor Dutch lunatic who had shot himself a few years back- Vincent Van Gogh.<br /> <br /> 1905- Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt marry. They were cousins. Eleanor was actually more directly related to Theodore Roosevelt than Franklin was -she was TR’s niece. President Roosevelt kept the wedding party waiting while he marched in New York’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, then rushed to the wedding. When the presiding priest asked,” Who giveth this woman in marriage?”, Teddy jubilantly roared, “I DO!!” <br /> <br /> 1906- Teddy Roosevelt in a speech to the Gridiron Club coins the term "Muckraker".<br /> <br /> 1912- The Camp Fire Girls created.<br /> <br /> 1939- The Walt Disney short cartoon “Goofy and Wilbur” released. The character Goofy had been in Mickey shorts since 1932, but this was his first as a solo star.<br /> <br /> 1941- The National Gallery of Art opens in Washington D.C.<br /> <br /> 1944- As if Naples wasn’t already having a tough year with WW2 fighting all around it, this day Mt. Vesuvius erupted as well.<br /> <br /> 1949- The first car show for Porsche sportscars.<br /> <br /> 1965- Chicago began the Saint Patrick’s Day tradition of dyeing the Chicago River green.<br /> <br /> 1967- Senator Robert Kennedy first openly broke with the Lyndon Johnson administration and in a speech denounced the US participation in the war in Vietnam. <br /> Johnson called Bobby “ Pipsqueak and his Massachusetts Mafia.” Kennedy called LBJ and the first lady “ Colonel Cornpone and the Little Piggy.” <br /> Historians debate whether his brother John F. Kennedy who first committed US troops to the conflict would have accelerated or stopped the war had he not been assassinated. But according to reporters and confidants Robert Kennedy told them while running for the presidency in 1968 that if he won, his first priority was to get us out. Kennedy’s assassination ended that dream and the war for America dragged on until 1973.<br /> <br /> 1982- Politically conservative Hollywood actors led by Charlton Heston broke with the Screen Actor’s Guild and form a rival group called AWAG (American Working Actor’s Guild). They were angered by SAG president Ed Asner’s taking their union into national politics by publically condemning Pres. Ronald Reagan’s policies in Central America, capped by the SAG board refusing Reagan (their former president) the Guild lifetime achievement award. <br /> As a result Ed Asner’s hit TV show “Lou Grant” lost sponsors and was cancelled, and Heston’s career cooled as well, beyond speaking at NRA events, and writing cranky letters to the L.A. Times that Ben Hur wasn’t gay.<br /> <br /> 1983- On trial for libel, and refusing to name sources, wheelchair bound porn publisher Larry Flynt showed up in a US Federal court wearing a diaper made from an American flag. This was calculated to mock a conservative demand for a Constitutional amendment against burning the flag.<br /> <br /> 1991- Irish Gays and Lesbians were first barred by the Ancient Order of Hibernians from marching in the New York and Boston St Patrick’s Day Parades. They took it to the Supreme Court who ruled the Hibernians could bar from marching who ever they wanted to. NYC and Boston welcomed LGBTQ groups in 2013. Today most major St. Paddys Day parades around the world admit LGBTQ groups to march.<br /> ====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is the name of that strange French dance in the 1930s where the male dancer beats up his female partner and throws her around?<br /> <br /> Answer: Apache Dancing. Not named for the American Southwest indigenous tribe of Geronimo, but for a tough gang from the slums of Paris. 1910 Parisian version of Gangsta.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 16 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6409 <p>Question: What is the name of that strange French dance in the 1930s where the male dancer beats up his female partner and throws her around?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: What is a Jumping the Broom ceremony?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/16/2024<br /> Birthdays: James Madison, Conrad Nagel, Dr. Josef Mengele the Nazi Angel of Death, Teresa Berganza, Christa Ludwig, Pat Nixon, Alice Bonheur, Harper Goff, Gore Verbinsky, Jerry Lewis, Bernardo Bertolucci, Eric Estrada, Kate Nelligan, Isabelle Huppert is 71, Lauren Graham is 57, Flava-Flav born William Drayton Jr.<br /> <br /> 597 BC- Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II captured Jerusalem and ended the Old Kingdom of Israel. He forced the Jewish people to relocate to Babylon. This period was called the Babylonian Captivity. After Cyrus the Persian king attacked Babylon and allowed the Jews to go home, they noticed two tribes had disappeared- the Lost Tribes of Israel. These events were the basis for the term Babylon to be associated with ultimate evil in so much Judeo-Christian apocalyptic writings. It’s been speculated by some biblical scholars that the Israelites at this time worshiped many gods but by the time they left captivity they had trimmed down to one god, the storm god Yahweh.<br /> <br /> In the ancient Roman religion this was the first day of nine days of fasting leading up to the Day of Blood, sacred to the Goddess Cybele. Although Jesus fasted in the wilderness, he never asked anyone else to. This pagan festival may be where the Christian Church got the Lenten Fast.<br /> <br /> 50BC- After maneuvering Pompey and his senatorial enemies out of Rome, Julius Caesar entered the city and proclaimed a general amnesty. Between now and his murder in 44 he drained marshes, built forums, opened public libraries and started the first newspaper in human history. The Acta Diurna –The Daily Doings- a one sheet of the acts of the Senate and events. It was pasted on city walls or read aloud by heralds. <br /> <br /> 37 AD- The Roman Emperor Tiberius had lived to a great old age and spent his last years at his private villa on the Isle of Capri. He had raised his sister Agrippina’s son Caligula to succeed him upon his death. This day after weeks of failing health Tiberius seemed to breathe his last. Caligula took the signet ring from his finger and went out to receive the adulation of the Praetorian Guard and Senate as the new emperor. But suddenly word came that Tiberius had opened his eyes and was asking for wine. The embarrassed Caligula went back into the sickroom and himself smothered the old man with a pillow. <br /> <br /> 455 A.D.- Roman Emperor Valentinian III was assassinated by kinsmen of Aetius, the half barbarian Roman general who Valentinian had killed the previous September.<br /> <br /> 1758- THE ST. SABA MASSACRE- The Apache had invited the westward expanding Spanish colonists to move into the Texas hill country near where Austin would one day be. This brought them into direct conflict with the Comanche nation, just as the Apache had hoped. This day the Comanches descended upon the new Spanish Mission of St. Sabaa and wiped them out. 200 dead. After punitive expeditions failed, the Spaniards left the territory alone. It remained Comancheria until the American settlers overran the area in the 1850s.<br /> <br /> 1778- In Paris, Benjamin Franklin first met Voltaire.<br /> <br /> 1792 -King Gustavus III Vasa of Sweden was assassinated at a masked ball. He had been warned and went incognito, but the killers recognized him because of the bejeweled medals all over his costume. He was a good ruler to Sweden but like Catherine the Great, he had no use for democratic parliaments and ruled like an absolute monarch. <br /> Giusseppi Verdi later wrote an opera based on the incident, "Un Ballo en Maschera" and invented a love story where the King falls for the wife of his Prime Minister. He was later forced to revise his story however because the Swedish government resented their late king portrayed as an adulterer. The King’s enemies in his time had accused him of being a child-predator. So to avoid any more hassle, Verdi made him the Duke of Boston.<br /> <br /> 1802- The fortress at West Point New York becomes the United States Military Academy. 40 student cadets without uniforms. Today West Point graduates about 4000 officers a year. The Long Grey Line.<br /> <br /> 1830- DULLEST DAY IN HISTORY OF STOCK MARKET- only 31 shares traded for a grand total of $ 3,740 dollars. <br /> <br /> 1848- King Ludwig Ist of Bavaria abdicated over the scandal of his mistress LOLA MONTEZ. Lola started off as an Irish nymph named Betty James who changed her name and passed herself off as an Argentine flamenco dancer. Ludwig was so besotted with her that after awhile she was hiring and firing gov't officials as the Bavarian economy careened towards bankruptcy. Ludwig protested publicly that all Lola and he ever did was spend evenings reading aloud from Thomas a' Kempis "An Imitation of Christ". Privately he confessed she possessed extraordinary internal muscles...ahem....<br /> He gave the crown to his brother Maximillian, and she published a best selling book on beauty tips and toured the U.S.<br /> <br /> 1850- Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter published.<br /> <br /> 1861- TEXAS voted to join the Southern Confederacy over the protests of elderly governor Sam Houston. "In the name of the nationality of Texas, I refuse to take this oath. …" <br /> Houston argued that a better course to follow was to invade Mexico again and this time conquer all of it, after which Americans would elect Houston President and he would redress all Southern grievances. Sam was a little out of it by now.<br /> As the Texas legislature called out 7 times for Sam Houston to take the Oath to the Confederacy, Houston sat quietly in his chair whittling on a stick. He then retired to his ranch and died a year later. Thousands of Texans died in the Civil War and the state was under military occupation until 1877.<br /> <br /> 1906- The Rolls-Royce Motorcar Company incorporated. Sir Charles Rolls and Mr. William Royce quickly realized that they couldn’t hope to compete with the mass produced, low-cost motorcars made by Henry Ford, so they appealed to the high-end buyer with elegant hand made craftsmanship.<br /> <br /> 1898- Artist Aubrey Beardsley died of tuberculosis at 25. Having a religious conversion at the end of his life, but still the stickler for detail, his last words were:" Destroy all my erotic drawings...all the bad ones too...." Luckily for history his friends did neither.<br /> <br /> 1921- On the final day of the 10th Communist Party Congress Lenin laid down the statutes barring dissent in Russia. From now on Anarchism, Socialism, Centrism, Trade Unionism, in fact any dissent or disagreement with the Soviet Communist Party from Right of Left would be seen as Counter-Revolutionary Dead-Meatism. <br /> Tired of arguing with old Bolsheviks over how Russian society should be transformed, he in effect stamped out the last sparks of democracy in Russia. The slogans of Russia belonging to the workers and peasants became just empty slogans. Russia really belonged to a small central committee of the Communist Party. <br /> <br /> 1926 -Robert Goddard launches the first liquid fueled rocket in Auburn Massachusetts. In later years he was invited to join Cal Tech and the Galcit group in forming the embryonic Jet Propulsion Lab. Goddard refused because at such a government facility he would no longer be the center of attention but just another scientist. Goddard also set up the first testing grounds in Rosswell New Mexico.<br /> <br /> 1934- Disney’s short The Three Little Pigs won an Oscar for best animated short.<br /> <br /> 1935- ADOLF HITLER surprised the world by announcing Germany's refusal to be bound by the Versailles Treaty anymore. He calls for universal conscription for a 100 division army, and reveals the secret massive illegal German arms buildup and the Luftwaffe, now the world's largest air force. He then waited for the Allies next move, which was to do nothing.<br /> <br /> 1961- Walt Disney comedy The Absent Minded Professor with Fred MacMurray premiered. <br /> <br /> 1968-THE MY-LAI MASSACRE- U.S. troops brutalized and killed 500 Vietnamese civilians. The GI's were disgusted with the endless invisible ambushes and not being able to tell civilians from guerrillas. So this day they annihilated an entire village that intelligence said had aided in the ambush of an earlier patrol. They lined up people in front of an open pit and shot them down. They got so carried away that a Huey helicopter gunship commanded by Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson had to place itself between the soldiers and the fleeing women &amp; children and threatened to fire if they didn't stop.<br /> Atrocities conducted under wartime stress are sadly common in all wars, but this one and the clumsy attempt to cover it up particularly horrified the American public. The ensuing media coverage began the harsh public attitude towards returning veterans, unprecedented in American wars. Only one person, Lt. William Calley, ever went to jail. Thompson and the surviving crew of the helicopter that halted the massacre were not acknowledged for their bravery until 1998, by President Clinton.<br /> <br /> 1985- A.P. correspondent Terry Anderson kidnapped by terrorist militia in Beirut. He was held captive for seven years. <br /> <br /> 1994- Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding was arrested for obstructing the prosecution of the case of the attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan.<br /> <br /> 2007- Author Michael Crichton was the author of classics like The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park. He had been called the H.G. Wells of modern times. But today he shocked the scientific community by denouncing the theory of Global Warming.<br /> <br /> 2005- Actor Robert Blake was acquitted of the murder of his wife Bonnie Lee Blakeley. She was shot in the head while in their car after having dinner together. Blake claimed he had returned to the restaurant to retrieve his gun. (?) Another suspect has never been found. Robert Blake died of old age in March 2023.<br /> <br /> 2008- J.P. Morgan bought-out collapsing super bank Bear Sterns (BSC), the first major firm to fall in the great Global Recession of 2008. One factor in the crisis was unregulated lying to stockholders and falsifying records. Just two of Bear-Stearns hedge-fund managers, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, lost $1.6 billion, all while telling investors that everything was fine.<br /> <br /> 2020- Los Angeles, including Hollywood, ordered all theaters closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Broadway and Walt Disneyworld closed down as well.<br /> <br /> 2020- Agatha Christies play The Mousetrap, the longest running play in history, running continuously since 1952, was closed due to the Covid pandemic.<br /> ===================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is a Jumping the Broom ceremony?<br /> <br /> Answer: Prior to the 13 Amendment, enslaved people’s marriages were not considered legal, so an old African custom of jumping over a broom was, for many, part of the unofficial way that couples were wed. As slavery ended, the practice waned but, after being referenced in Alex Haley's novel Roots and the television series that followed, "Jumping the Broom” became popular as part of many Black couples' wedding celebrations. (FG)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 15 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6408 <p>Question: What is a Jumping the Broom ceremony?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: “Klaatu! Barrata, Nickto.”<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/15/2024<br /> Birthdays: Andrew Jackson, Lee Schubert-one of Broadways Shubert Brothers, Ry Cooder, Sly Stone, Harry James, Lightnin' Hopkins, Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, Judd Hirsch, Norm Van Brocklin, Sabu, Fabio, Reni Harlin, David Cronenburg is 82, Eva Longoria is 49, David Silverman is 67<br /> <br /> 508BC-525AD- In the Roman Republic this was the traditional day the newly elected Consuls and Senate assumed their offices and began governing. It was the beginning of the ancient Roman calendar year.<br /> <br /> 44 BC -BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH- While attending the first day of the new Senate, Roman dictator Gaius Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by radical senators beneath the statue of his old rival Pompey Magnus. Two of the murderers, Brutus and Cassius were former officers of Pompey to whom Caesar granted amnesty. Marcus Brutus was a descendant of Junius Brutus the founder of the Roman democracy. Like a descendent of George Washington. He was even rumored to have been Caesar's illegitimate son, since his mother Servilla had an affair with Jules.<br /> Even though Caesar was stabbed 23 times, it still took him several hours to die, left alone lying on the floor. Unlike Shakespeare, Julius Caesar never said "Et Tu Brute'" Even you, Brutus? in Latin. His last words were the equivalent in Greek-"Touto kai teknon mou" which translates, "Even this my son?". Greek was to the Romans like French is to us. <br /> <br /> 1079- The Seljuk Sultan Alp Arslan assassinated by followers of his old Vizier, Nizam Al Mulk. The vizer had been killed by the Assassins, the original terrorists of the Islamic world, hired by Alp Arslan. Witness to all this was Omar Al Khayyam, poet, mathematician and astronomer. Legend said Alp Arslan had mustachios so long he had to pin them up on his turban so he could shoot his bow. Arslan’s successor was Gelalladin or the Malik Shah. His reign was considered the high point of Seljuk civilization.<br /> <br /> 1493- Columbus returned to Palo, Spain from his first voyage to America. The Santa Maria had broke up on reefs in America and Captain Pinzon had taken the Pinta on ahead to take credit for himself, or so Columbus worried. He himself got home in the little bark the Nina and at one point had to put in at a Portuguese port where he and his men were impounded for a few days. Captain Pinzon did reach home first, but fortunately King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella refused to listen to him. When Pinzon got his own voyage to the New World, all the credit went to his navigator- Amerigo Vespucci.<br /> <br /> 1517-Pope Leo X was left a full treasury by his predecessor Pope Julius II. But being a major party animal he quickly blew it all. This day he decided to pay his bills by ordering a new campaign to sell indulgences. Indulgences were sort of "after-life insurance" By paying a donation the bearer could be forgiven some sins and time in Purgatory. Leo extended it to forgive sins you may intend to commit in the future. You could also buy a reprieve to someone already dead. When this refinance scheme reached Germany it was the provocation that sent Martin Luther to pin up his 95 Theses challenging the authority of Rome and start the Reformation.<br /> <br /> 1582- WILLIAM OF ORANGE ASSASSINATED. The Spanish Viceroy of the Netherlands the Duke of Parma didn’t know how to cope with the Dutch Independence movement led by William of Orange, also called William the Silent. They defeated him in battle but they could never capture him or destroy his forces. Finally Parma came up with a solution. He published a decree declaring William "A criminal and outcast from God and Society" That anyone who killed William would receive 25,000 gold pieces and be made a noble. Such a deal! <br /> Within three days a man shot William in the head, but he recovered. Then a year later this day Belgian Bartholomew Girard shot William three times and killed him. Girard was executed, but his family received the reward, and his severed head was displayed in Cologne Cathedral like a holy relic. For year afterwards and German Catholics tried to get Girard made a saint. William of Orange was dead but his 12 children carried on the fight for Dutch Independence and his family still rules Holland today.<br /> <br /> 1780- BATTLE OF GUILFORD COURTHOUSE, Virginia. Colonial General Nathaniel Greene battled British Lord Cornwallis to a draw but Cornwallis had to withdraw to Yorktown for supplies. At one point Cornwallis ordered his artillery to fire into his own redcoats to get through to the rebels- not exactly a great morale booster. Back in London, Sir Horace Walpole remarked: " Lord Cornwallis has conquered. He has conquered his troops out of shoes and provisions, and conquered himself out of troops." <br /> <br /> 1783-THE NEWBURGH CONSPIRACY- The closest the United States ever came to a military dictatorship. George Washington's officers were fed up with the indecision of their bankrupt Congress. The Revolutionary War fighting was over, but the army hadn’t been paid in months. Like Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army in Britain a century before, there were loud calls to march on the Congress and chuck the rascals out! They talked of establishing a junta of generals to run the United States! But what of their commander? The ringleaders assured: "we can handle the old man." <br /> This day General Washington called a staff meeting at his HQ at Newburgh, New Jersey and faced down his angry troops. At first, he announced he would not attend, then surprised everyone by showing up. He appealed for understanding and patriotism. Tears were shed when he put on his spectacles, implying he'd broken his health and had aged prematurely in the service of his country. He was only 49, yet he looked much older. That won them over. George Washington not only wasn’t "handled", but convinced his sulky soldiers to go back their farms peacefully, paid with nothing but a paper IOU.<br /> <br /> 1782- The English House of Commons, fed up with his bungling of the American Revolution and the heavy-handed style of Lord North’s government, voted the first ever vote of no-confidence. The Lord North government resigned five days later.<br /> <br /> 1820- Maine became a state.<br /> <br /> 1865- Confederate guerrilla Sue Mundy was hanged in Kentucky. Long haired soldier Jerome Clark once passed out drunk, and for a gag his buddies put him in a dress and declared him Queen of the May. Instead of being insulted, Clark liked dressing like a woman, and ravaged the countryside as the guerrilla leader Sue Mundy. Until the Yankees caught him no one was quite sure whether he was a man or woman.<br /> <br /> 1869-The Cincinnati Red Stockings become the first professional baseball team. Players had been taking payments under the table for years to concentrate on their skills, now it was out in the open. Still some newspapers accused them of being "Shiftless young men debasing the game with their greed."<br /> <br /> 1890- Kaiser Wilhelm II forced Chancellor Otto von Bismarck into retirement and decided to run Germany himself. Bismarck "the Old Pilot" who had unified Germany had set up a highly centralized autocracy that he ran from behind the throne. His relations with the other statesmen like Disraeli assured Europe had thirty years of complete peace. He never imagined he would be sacked by the young, emotionally unstable grandson of his old friend Wilhelm I.<br /> <br /> 1892- The first voting machines in the US went into service. After 1972 metal voting machines were phased out in favor of the cheaper punch card system but the controversy over presidential elections fraud continues to cause new change.<br /> <br /> 1909- Harry Gordon Selfridge, formerly a manager of Chicago’s Marshal Fields, opened Selfridges, London’s first Department Store. Selfridge invented the Bargain Basement, the Annual Sale, and the motto “ The Customer is Always Right.”<br /> <br /> 1913- President Woodrow Wilson held the first presidential news conference.<br /> <br /> 1915- Universal Studios formed. Carl Laemmele bought a huge track of Burbank farmland and set up his studio. Laemmele had wooden bleachers built next to the movie sets where he charged people a nickel to come watch the filming. He used so many of his relatives in production that Ogden Nash quipped: "Carl Laemmele has a very large Faemmele." Universal actually had been operating as a film company since 1912 but the company counts today as its birthday.<br /> <br /> 1917-CZAR NICHOLAS II ABDICATED THE THRONE OF RUSSIA with a note scribbled in pencil. He had tried to abdicate in favor of his younger brother Archduke Michael as regent for his son Alexis, and save the dynasty. But Michael wanted none of it and the revolutionary forces tearing at Russian society. He ignored his pleas. After 303 years, the Romanov Dynasty was at an end.<br /> <br /> 1919- American veterans of World War I founded a veteran’s society based The Civil War vets Grand Army of the Republic. They called it the American Legion.<br /> <br /> 1929- Scarface Al Capone was called before a Chicago grand jury to explain his involvement in the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. Big Al’s alibi was he was in Key Biscayne Florida at the time having lunch with the Dade County prosecutor. They couldn’t pin nothing on him and no one was ever charged with the massacre.<br /> <br /> 1933- Young animator Chuck Jones first hired at Leon Schlesinger’s Looney Tunes cartoon studio. He was made a director in 1938. <br /> <br /> 1941- The daughter of Cecil B. DeMille, Katherine DeMille, had married actor Anthony Quinn. This day tragedy struck the family. On a visit to Cecil B.’s estate, the couple’s three year old son Christopher walked off into neighbor W.C. Fields yard where he fell into Fields unsupervised swimming pool and drowned. The parents were so shattered they divorced afterward. Anthony Quinn refused to talk about the rest of his long life. Fields was so depressed he had the pool filled in and landscaped so no reminder of the tragedy would remain.<br /> <br /> 1944- The DeHAVILAND CASE- A judge ruled actress Olivia DeHaviland free of her exclusive seven year personal contract to Warner Bros. For years movie stars like Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck and James Cagney had been fighting in court the system of exclusive contracts the studios used to keep them under control. They had no choice in the type of films they did, no residuals, and studios could lend them out to other studios for higher fees, and keep the money. <br /> If the actor complained they were put on disciplinary leave by the studio, without pay, and the penalty time added onto the end of their contract. Garbo called it the closest thing to White Slavery. Some contracts even ordered some stars not to get married for fear it would erode their sex appeal. The DeHaviland Case broke that system and allowed actors to make their own deals. Olivia DeHaviland died in 2020 at age 104.<br /> <br /> 1956- Lerner &amp; Lowe’s stage musical "My Fair Lady" premiered. <br /> <br /> 1956- The film Forbidden Planet premiered in theaters. Considered the granddaddy of Sci-Fiction blockbusters<br /> <br /> 1962- The discovery of anti-matter.<br /> <br /> 1964- Elizabeth Taylor married Richard Burton, for the first time.<br /> <br /> 1964- The book The Feminine Mystique by Betty Freidan first published. The first major book to point out women were unhappy with their second class roles. And it coined the term Feminist. <br /> <br /> 1969- Worst clashes between Soviet Russia and Red China across their long mutual border. While the free world feared a monolithic global Communist conspiracy, the fact was the animosity between Russia and China got so bad it threatened to go nuclear. <br /> During a lighter incident the Chinese People’s Liberation Army showed what they thought of their Russian comrades by lining up along a river bank, dropping their trousers, bending over and giving them a mass-mooning. The next time the Chinese did it the Russians were ready. As their butts went up the Russians held up portraits of Chairman Mao Zedong, the Chinese leader. The mooning stopped.<br /> <br /> 1969- Two young heirs to the Polydent false Teeth Company and two hippy promoters announced a rock festival would be held that summer in the farm community of Woodstock New York.<br /> <br /> 1977- Television sitcom Threes Company debuted.<br /> <br /> 1979- Strange lights danced in the night skies over Phoenix Arizona from 8:30 pm until 11:00 pm. The military dismissed them as experimental flares but the duration and patterns seemed unusually long for mere flares. Was it a UFO light show? <br /> <br /> 1985- THE SAVINGS &amp; LOAN SCANDALS- The Reagan White House’s policy of removing all business regulation played havoc within the savings &amp; loan system. The problem became a public issue when this day Gov. Richard Celeste of Ohio suspended business in thrift banks in his state to stop the complete collapse of the system. One of the most underreported and little understood stories of the 1980’s was the cost of the Savings &amp; Loan mess. It came out to be near $28 billion dollars, double the total cost to win World War II. Scores of crooked Savings &amp; Loan execs like Charles Keating and Neil Bush accumulated vast fortunes, leaving you and I to pay the bills.<br /> <br /> 1985- Symbolic.com is assigned the first registered private domain site on the Internet. <br /> <br /> 2002- Blue Sky’s hit animated film Ice Age premiered. The studio was being scaled down to be actioned off when the film was a massive hit. Out doing the Best Picture Oscar winner A Beautiful Mind. <br /> <br /> 2004- Cal Tech Scientists announce the discovery of Planet Xenia, the tenth planet orbiting our Sun, beyond Pluto. Some want to call it Sedna, an Inuit goddess who lived under the ice.<br /> <br /> 2011- The Syrian Civil War broke out. For over fifty years the Assad Family ruled Syria as absolute dictators. This day the reforming wave of the Arab Spring protests tried to bring about change, and was met with a brutal response, including chemical weapons. Further complicating the issue was that secular dictator Bashir al Assad was being challenged by rebels who were Muslim fundamentalists formed into a rogue state called ISIS. The US, Iran, Turkey, Russia, China and Saudi Arabia soon became embroiled. <br /> Today after ISIS was destroyed along with much of Damascus, Bashir Assad is still president.<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: “Klaatu! Barrata, Nickto.”<br /> <br /> Answer: In the 1951 Sci-Fi classic film “The Day the Earth Stood Still” those were the instructions Klaatu told Patrica O’Neal to say to the guardian robot Gort, so he wouldn’t destroy the world.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 13 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6407 <p>Quiz: What do these things have in common? Pete &amp; Gladys, Bachelor Father, My Mother the Car, The Life of Riley, Dobie Gillis<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: In Greek Mythology, who was Hecuba?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------<br /> History 3/13/2024<br /> Birthdays: Hugh Walpole, Charles 2nd Earl Grey 1764- English Prime Minister whom the tea blend 'Earl Grey Tea " is named for, Pope Innocent XII (1615), Abigail Powers Filmore- First Lady of Millard Filmore, Hugo Wolf, Ted Sears, Sammy Kaye, Danny Kaye, Neil Sedaka, L. Ron Hubbard, Dick Katz, Annabell Gish, Joe Ranft, Al Jaffee, William Macy is 73 <br /> <br /> 27BC- AUGUSTUS BECAME THE FIRST ROMAN EMPEROR- For several decades the Roman Republic had become a football contested for by powerful rich politicians- Marius &amp; Sulla, Pompey, Crassus, Julius Caesar, Mark Anthony and more. Julius Caesar said that Rome was now a Republic in name only. Since vanquishing Anthony &amp; Cleopatra, Caesar Octavian had been the first man in Rome (Princeps), yet he needed to solidify his hold on power. But Romans hated the title of King. <br /> So this day in a carefully staged bit of political theater, Octavian told the Senate he was tired of responsibility. He would resign all his offices and retire. Senators shouted for him to reconsider. They voted him the title GAIUS CAESAR AUGUSTUS, IMPERATOR- PRINCEPS. Imperator used to be the name for a general’s military authority, and we get the word Emperor from it. Augustus meant Father of His Country- with all the absolute power a father had in his family. Princeps meant first citizen. Rome had emperors until 476AD and continued on at Constantinople until 1453.<br /> <br /> 4 B.C.- King Herod the Great died in Jericho. The dynamic king who guided Israel through Rome’s Civil Wars, and rebuilt the temple of Solomon and Caesarea, had aged badly. He became increasingly paranoid. When a bastard son convinced him his legitimate offspring was trying to kill him, he had them executed. This may explain why he could order the infamous Massacre of the Innocents. Herod died slowly of a putrefying disease known only as Herod’s Evil. On his deathbed Herod ordered village elders across Israel rounded up and killed when he died. " I know I am hated, so I want all Israel to mourn". After his death, his family ignored the order and released everyone.<br /> <br /> 1639- Richard Burbage died. Burbage was the famed Elizabethan actor and friend of William Shakespeare. On his tombstone was a simple epitaph- EXIT BURBAGE.<br /> <br /> 1757- BATTLE ON THE SNOWSHOES-Col. Robert Rogers with "Roger's Rangers" American colonial frontiersmen in British service, was ambushed by a large French allied Huron Indian war party. The leathershirts scattered, and Rogers eluded his pursuers by walking with his snowshoes turned backwards from the edge of a cliff. When the Indians saw his tracks ending into thin air, they decided the Hipi-Manitou Spirit was with him, so they gave up the pursuit.<br /> <br /> 1778- The French ambassador informed the British Government that France had recognized the independence of the United States and had made an alliance with them.<br /> <br /> 1781- The discovery of the planet Uranus by British astronomer William Herschel. The first planet discovered since prehistoric times. Galileo and Kepler used their early telescopes to spot the rings and Saturn and moons of Jupiter, but no other planets. Herschel wanted to call his discovery Georgium Sidus after King George III, but other astronomers convinced him to keep to the pattern of naming planets after Roman gods. Hershel emigrated from Germany and played violin in several symphony orchestras before becoming interested in astronomy. He brought his sister over, and she became an opera singer, as well as observing and naming 5 comets.<br /> <br /> 1848- The working-class poor of Vienna rose up in rebellion against their Kaiser. After weeks of street fighting the rebellion was put down.<br /> <br /> 1865- With the South overrun by Yankee armies, at the request of Gen. Robert E. Lee, the Confederate Congress finally authorized the enlistment of black soldiers to fight for Old Dixie. They got 367 volunteers. On the Yankee side, 180,000 enlisted, almost 80% of the eligible population of free black men. <br /> <br /> 1881- Czar Alexander II assassinated. -He was the Czar-Liberator that freed the Russian serfs but he was still seen by patriotic movements as a symbol of oppression. <br /> On this day young revolutionaries of the People’s Will movement had already hurled one bomb at the Czar's armored carriage but it harmed no one. The Czar was getting out when another revolutionary (this one was Polish) stepped forward shouting "It's too early to thank God!" And threw a bomb which blew Alexander to bits. Later in the spring thaw St. Petersburg housewives were finding little bits of Alexander on their rooftops when they cleaned.<br /> <br /> 1884- Chester Greenwood of Maine invented ear-muffs.<br /> <br /> 1920-THE KAPP PUTSCH - In postwar Berlin after the Kaiser fled anarchy reigned as Bolshevik and right-wing paramilitary groups fought in the streets for control. On this day the Kaiser's former army officers marched on Berlin and tried to overthrow the Weimar Republic and restore the monarchy. They failed, but the weak government could do no more than let them march away scot free. They even paused to fire into a jeering crowd of civilians. After this rebuff the old Prussian aristocratically-led German Army would remain aloof from politics until getting behind Hitler's Nazi Reich in the late 1930’s.<br /> One of the central conspirators of the Putsch was a bizarre figure named Ignaz Trebitsch Lincoln, a Hungarian Jew who moved to England, ran for Parliament and won, was a German spy during the World War I, and finished his life as a Lama in Tibet named Chao-Kung. <br /> <br /> 1921- Mongolia declared its independence from China.<br /> <br /> 1928- In New York City, Walt Disney sent a telegram to his brother Roy back in California, informing him of his disastrous meeting with producer Charles Mintz. That Mintz had exercised a clause in their contract to take the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit away from them. He cabled “ Leaving Tonight, stopping over KC. Arrive Sunday Morning. Don’t Worry. All Will be Well.” Later on the train home, Walt with Ub Iwerks and his wife Lillian came up with a new character named Mickey Mouse.<br /> <br /> 1929- The White House never had much security. When you rang the bell, President Thomas Jefferson himself answered the door in his robe and slippers. Abe Lincoln had one bodyguard, and after the Civil War the one soldier guarding the front door was removed. Presidents like Grant &amp; McKinley would take a stroll at night down by the Potomac with no guards. Children played baseball and sheep grazed on the White House lawn. <br /> This night President Herbert Hoover was having dinner with Hollywood producer David O, Selznick when a homeless man wandered into the room and asked the president for a job. He just walked right through the front door, while the butler was preoccupied. The next day by Executive Order, the Secret Service took over direct control of the White House security and could command the D.C. Metro police.<br /> <br /> 1938- At the height of Stalin’s purges top Bolshevik Nicholai Bukharin was shot.<br /> <br /> 1939- Hollywood recognized the Screen Director’s Guild, later called he DGA. After a nasty battle lasting several years Guild President Frank Capra signed the contracts representing 80% of movie directors. They also contractually ensured the custom of the director’s credit being the last one seen at the opening title sequence of a film. <br /> <br /> 1943- Radio station WNYC goes on the air.<br /> <br /> 1944- Abbot &amp; Costello copyrighted their baseball routine ‘Who’s on First?"<br /> <br /> 1945- After systematically destroying the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Nagoya, this day the hundreds of massed B-29 bombers reduced the city of Osaka to burning rubble.<br /> <br /> 1946- The UAW struck General Motors. In 1936 businessmen had asked the Rand Corporation to come up with a solution to workers labor unions. The Rand Group came up with a pamphlet called the Mohawk Valley Rules. It said the way to defeat unions was not in the streets with vigilantes and tear gas but in the press. Make their union arguments seem unAmerican and subversive. All sides took a hiatus to win World War II so this was the first major strike where the Mohawk Rules were put into practice. So even though the union won concessions in the settlement they lost popular support. People blamed unions for the higher car prices and Communistic activity while the heads of GM and other defense corporations made 400%+ profits from the war. Today people still think unions are not important even though wages have not risen in 20 years, and CEO salaries have jumped 1,400 %. <br /> <br /> 1947- MGM Tom &amp; Jerry’s Cat Concerto won the Oscar for Best Animated Short.<br /> <br /> 1957- The F.B.I. arrested Teamster’s Union President Jimmy Hoffa on bribery charges.<br /> <br /> 1964- The Kitty Genovese murder. A sad moment in urban history when a New York cocktail waitress was jumped and murdered in front of her Queens apartment complex. 38 of her neighbors heard her screams "He's stabbing me! He's killing me!" They watched from their windows but no one bothered to come down to her aid.<br /> <br /> 1969- Disney’s comedy about a Volkswagen beetle, "The Love Bug" premiered. The reason the Volkswagen has the race car number 53 painted on it was because producer Bill Walsh was a big fan of LA Dodger hitter Don Drysdale. His player number was 53.<br /> <br /> 1970- Under pressure from U.S. diplomat Henry Kissinger, Cambodian Prince Siahnnouk asked the Vietcong and Khmer Rouge to please get out of his country. The civil war in Cambodia immediately grew from a lukewarm insurgency to a full-scale holocaust, resulting in the government’s defeat, and the Killing Fields of 1975. <br /> <br /> 1983- The Larry King Show debuted on HBO, later moving to CNN. King retired that show in 2010, but kept doing cable shows until his death from covid in 2020.<br /> <br /> 1986- Microsoft made its first public stock offering. A share went for $21.<br /> <br /> 1987- Raising Arizona, directed by the Cohen Bros opened.<br /> <br /> 1988- Overly endowed porn star John Holmes, also called Johnny Wad, died of HIV/AIDS. He claimed to have had sex with 14,000 women and a few men in his career, but that he contracted the disease through intravenous drug use. He also got involved with some drug dealers and was implicated in a murder. The film Boogie Nights was based on his career.<br /> <br /> 1997- In Malaysia, a man named Hassan Abdallah had his penis cut off by his wife in his sleep. She claimed she was sleep walking, and dreamed she was only strangling him. <br /> <br /> 2002- After building up 9-11 terrorist leader Osama bin Laden to be the most dangerous supervillain since Lex Luthor, this day in a national press conference President George W. Bush casually mentioned he did not know where Bin Laden was, and that he no longer cared much about him. <br /> <br /> 2013- Pope Francis I elected, aka Pope Frank. The first Argentine Pope. The first pope from the New World. <br /> ===============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: In Greek Mythology, who was Hecuba?<br /> <br /> Answer: She was the wife of Priam and Queen of Troy during the Trojan War. She saw her city destroyed, her family killed and was made a captive to Greek King Agamemnon. To “Weep the tears of Hecuba” is to experience the extreme grief of a mother in time of war.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 12 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6406 <p>Question: In Greek Mythology, who was Hecuba?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays’ question answered below: Is a marsupial a mammal?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/12/2024<br /> Birthdays: Jack Kerouac, Billy "Buckwheat "Thomas, Darryl Strawberry, Edward Albee, Andrew Young, Joan Kennedy, Eugene Ormandy, Gordon McCrae, Liza Minelli is 80, Courtenay Vance, James Taylor, Frank Welker, Al Jareau, Maurice Evans, Barbara Feldon- agent 99 in Get Smart is 91, Frank Welker, DeWitt Bodeen- writer of the 1942 film Cat People. Aaron Eckart is 56<br /> <br /> To the Zoroastrians of Persia, this was the Festival of Marduk, the God of Storms.<br /> <br /> 81 BC- Roman dictator Sulla granted his general Pompey the right to hold a triumph to celebrate his victories. A triumph was the grand parade through the streets of Rome, hero in his chariot and all that, like in the movies. Pompey is the guy we get the term "pompous" from. As a young man he already insisted people refer to him as Magnus- The Great. Instead of his gold chariot being borne by the traditional four milk white horses, he wanted four milk white elephants! Sulla felt Rome’s arches and streets weren't of sufficient width, so Pompey reluctantly had to settle for one white elephant.<br /> <br /> 222AD- The Roman Emperor Elagabulus was assassinated. Elagabulus was a sicko-tyrant like Nero and Caligula. When his guards turned on him he first hid in a toilet but was found and stabbed. His body was dragged behind a chariot in the Circus Maximus to the cheers of the crowd, then dumped in the Tiber River. General Severus Alexander took over the Empire.<br /> <br /> 1507-After being run out of Rome after his father Pope Alexander VI 's death, Caesare Borgia became a petty mercenary in Navarre. This day during a battle, he spurred his horse into the thickest of the foe, and on a pre-arranged signal none of his men followed. Ouch! He was cut to pieces.<br /> <br /> 1579- The Duke of Ferrara Ludovigo D’Este had a problem. He was the patron of a poet named Torquato Tasso, and Tasso loved one of his daughters. But Tasso was mentally unstable, probably schizophrenic from venereal disease. <br /> This day, in the midst of a ceremony celebrating the Dukes third marriage, Tasso began raving and screaming and had to be dragged off to a mental hospital. At the same time Tasso’s greatest poem JERUSALEM DELIVERED was published. The poem became world famous – Montaigne, Cervantes and Queen Elizabeth of England all loved reading it. Christian Europe felt they finally had an epic poet to rival the pagans Virgil and Homer. Musicians like Handel and Monteverdi made operas of its characters, Armida, Tancredi and Reynaldo. <br /> And Duke Ludovico? For all his trouble, all he got was grief for his perceived bad treatment of Italy’s greatest poet since Dante.<br /> <br /> 1773- The Virginia Legislature voted to make common cause with the other American colonies and establish regular communications, particularly with Massachusetts who was having the most trouble with the government in London at that time. Up to now even progressive thinkers like Ben Franklin doubted all the various American colonies could ever all agree on anything.<br /> <br /> 1781- In one of the more desperate schemes of the American Revolution, a letter signed this day by General George Washington gave permission to a plan for secret agents to kidnap Prince William, the Duke of Clarence, a younger son of King George III. He was then visiting British forces in occupied New York City. The letter insists the Royal hostage should be treated properly. The plan never was carried out. Forty years later, when William, now King William IV, was told of the scheme, he commented: "I thank Mr. Washington for his kind intent while being thankful I was never made subject to his hospitality!"<br /> <br /> 1796- After a two-day honeymoon at her place, Malmaison, Napoleon leaves Josephine <br /> to go conquer Italy.<br /> <br /> 1877-In Philadelphia, Sam Wanamaker was unsure just what kind of retail he wanted to go into, he just wanted his business to be big. So he opened a large building with different types of goods sold in separate departments. Wanamakers became the first true Department Store.<br /> <br /> 1884- The Dervish army of El Mahdi completed its surrounding of the Sudanese capitol of Khartoum, defended by British General Charles Gordon. They would finally break into the city and kill him by January. Yet despite the hopelessness of his situation Gordon was in merry spirits. Gordon was a religious zealot who prayed and preached at length. English society considered him something of a Missionary Saint. He never married but had a Victorian penchant for picking up poor street boys, bathing them and photographing them...ahem.<br /> <br /> 1912-The Girl Scouts was founded in Savannah, Georgia, by Juliet Low, a friend of Sir Anthony Baden-Powell, English founder of the Boy Scouts.<br /> <br /> 1928- THE SAINT FRANCIS DAM DISASTER- The second worst disaster to hit California after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. <br /> Following up his triumph bringing water to Southern California by aqueduct, William Mulholland had designed several dams and reservoirs north of Los Angeles in the Santa Clarita Valley. On this night at midnight the largest of them exploded from structural weakness, and sent a wall of water 30 feet high across the rural towns of Santa Paula and Fillmore down to Oxnard and the Pacific. 400 people drowned in their beds without any warning. <br /> Mulholland took full responsibility for the disaster and resigned all his city offices. "I envy the dead", he said. He died a few years later. Today when driving around the Valencia-Newhall area you can still see huge boulders with steel retaining rods sticking out of them. They are not natural rocks, but chunks of the dam carried miles by the raging torrent of water.<br /> <br /> 1930- Mohandas K Ghandi, of India, called the Mahatma or The Great Soul, began his Salt March. This gesture of defying the British Empire's monopoly on salt production was a gesture akin to throwing tea into Boston Harbor. He set out from his ashram with 78 followers and a lot of press coverage; by the time he reached the Indian Ocean his followers had become tens of thousands and was famous around the world.<br /> <br /> 1932- Disney short "Mickey’s Revue" featuring Dippy Dog, now turned into a new character named "the Goof" or Goofy.<br /> <br /> 1933-THE FIRESIDE CHATS- Just 8 days after taking office President Franklin Roosevelt began a series of national radio broadcasts detailing his plans to fight the economic problems of the country, called by newsman Robert Trout his Fireside Chats. FDR amazed the American public by speaking quietly and candidly, instead of using the bombastic political oratory of the day.<br /> <br /> 1939- While war clouds grew in Europe, Eugenio Pacelli was crowned Pope Pius XII. Pius’ authoritarian style dominated Catholic thinking into the 1950’s. He was nicknamed "Hitler’s Pope" for his cozy relationship with the Fascists and Nazis, never speaking out against the Holocaust even when the Jews of Rome were being dragged away under his window. But he did censure American anti-Semitic radio star Father Coughlin. In the 1950’s he threatened with excommunication any Catholics who became Communists, or even worse, who married Protestants!<br /> For short trips he liked to be driven around in a Cadillac with a throne built into the backseat. He died in 1958 and his successor Pope John XXIII instituted the liberal reforms known as Vatican II.<br /> <br /> 1945- Anne Frank died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at age 15.<br /> Her father discovered her diary after the war.<br /> <br /> 1945- The Japanese military ordered every child over the age of seven to enter the military, or factories, to fight the coming American invasion.<br /> <br /> 1945-THE WAR OF HOLLYWOOD BEGAN-Throughout the 1930’s and 40’s several national unions battled studios and each other to represent Hollywood film workers. The Teamsters, the FWPC, the Brotherhood of Electricians. <br /> By 1945 only two remained, the IATSE and the CSU.(International Alliance of Theater and Screen Engineers and the Conference of Studio Unions) IATSE had a reputation of gangsterism and making cozy deals with the studio heads. The CSU, a much more militant group with past ties to communist organizations, was headed by a charismatic scenery painter named Herb Sorrell who had helped win the Disney strike for the cartoonists in 1941. Sorrel called several citywide strikes that paralyzed Hollywood in 1945, 46 and 47. President Richard Walsh of IATSE fought them and rioting in front of the studios was commonplace. <br /> <br /> 1947-THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE- In a speech to Congress, President Harry Truman called for millions in aid to Greece and Turkey to stop them from going Communist. This speech was the de-facto declaration of the Cold War. Truman stated that it would be the policy of the United States to aid "any minority fighting Communist coercion". <br /> <br /> 1948- The Hell’s Angels motorcycle club formed in Oakland Cal. Instead of boozy teenagers, the first motorcycle clubs were formed by former World War II fighter pilots who missed the thrill and camaraderie of flying together in formation. During the war, motorcycle scouts kept their bike engines un-muffled and loud to scare German snipers into thinking a tank or some other big ordnance was coming. The long handlebars and low seat of the chopper was evolved as a defense against booby trap wires strung across a road at a height to decapitate a hapless scout.<br /> <br /> 1951- Former Disney assistant animator Hank Ketcham was trying his hand as a print cartoonist. He had some success selling gags to the New Yorker Magazine. His baby son Dennis was a precocious infant. Once after she caught the child smearing the contents of his diaper around the house, his mother exclaimed to Hank-“ Your son is a Menace!” That gave Ketcham an idea. Today the first Dennis the Menace comic strip was published.<br /> <br /> 1955- BIRD DIED- Innovative Jazz great Charlie "Bird" Parker had a chemical addiction since getting out of the army. After the death of his infant daughter earlier that year, his drug use spiraled out of control. He was sleeping on the couch in the NY apartment of the Baroness du Rothschild-Konigswarter, a jazz supporter. He awoke to watch TV. While laughing at a juggler on the Dorsey Brothers Variety Show, he died. The coroner said death was by heart failure, cirrhosis and pneumonia. He estimated Parker’s age at 65. He was really 34. When his band heard of his death they paused between sets to shoot up with heroin in his honor. "Seems silly now, come to think of it." Said one musician later.<br /> <br /> 1964- Malcolm X announced his break with the Nation of Islam in the US. Since returning from Mecca he was disillusioned with founder Elijah Mohammad’s leadership.<br /> <br /> 1969- Here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson –a song written by two young folk singers named Simon &amp; Garfunkel, won a Grammy award.<br /> <br /> 1969- Paul and Linda McCartney married.<br /> <br /> 1978- Meryl Streep and John Cazale were tops in the acting world and madly in love for two years. Cazale had Oscar nominations for The Godfather and Dog Day Afternoon. Just as they were completing Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter, John Cazale was taken down by an aggressive cancer. This day he died. Meryl sobbed and pounded on his chest. He revived long enough to say to her, “ Its allright, Meryl.” Then died. Meryl Streep’s career was breaking out as the top in her field, just as she lost the love of her life.<br /> <br /> 1989- Tim Berners-Lee flicked a switch and the World Wide Web became operational, connecting several regional web systems into a global network.<br /> <br /> 1992- Warren Beatty married Annette Benning.<br /> <br /> 2000- Pope John Paul II officially apologized on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church for the Crusades, The Inquisition, 2000 years of Anti-Semitic persecution, the Fires of Smithfield, Bloody Mary, burning at the stake Jan Hus and Giordano Bruno, Silencing Galileo and Copernicus, the Thirty Years War, The forced conversions of indigenous peoples, ignoring the Holocaust, etc, etc. In response, comedian John Stewart said Judaism officially apologized for the Barbara Streisand movie "Yentl."<br /> <br /> 2003 –The female vocal group the Dixie Chicks were tops of the country-western world. They had preformed at last years Super Bowl. But in an interview during a concert in Britain, singer Natalie Maines expressed her sadness over America’s invasion of Iraq. “ Just so you know, we're on the good side with y'all. We do not want this war, this violence. And we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas." The conservative backlash from this comment damaged their careers, even though conservative stars like Kid Rock did fine. They made a documentary about their situation in 2006 entitled, “Shut Up and Sing.” <br /> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><br /> <br /> Yesterdays’ question: Is a marsupial a mammal?<br /> <br /> Answer: Yes. Marsupials like Kangaroos are warm blooded, born like mammals and make milk for their young.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 11 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6405 <p>Quiz: Is a marsupial a mammal?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: What is agitprop?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> HISTORY FOR 3/11/2024<br /> Birthdays: Torquato Tasso, Marius Pretipa, Raoul Walsh, Charlie Ruggles, Lawrence Welk, Samuel “Shemp” Howard, British PM Harold Wilson, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, Bobby McFerrin, Sam Donaldson, Antonin Scalia, Jerry Zucker, Vannevar Bush- MIT scientist who in 1945 predicted the personal computer. Joey Buttafuco, Jules Engel, Douglas Adams, Rupert Murdoch is 93, Rob Paulsen is 68, Terence Howard is 55<br /> <br /> In ancient Rome, today was the Festival of Hercules<br /> <br /> 1513- Giovanni de Medici, a son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, was elected Pope Leo X.<br /> He was ordained a priest two days later- hey, details, details! Leo was the quintessential Renaissance Party-Pope. In a few short years he blew the Vatican treasury on lavish entertainment, employing many artists, poets and buffoons. He was quoted as saying:” God has given us the Papacy, so let us enjoy it.”<br /> <br /> 1669- Sicily’s Mt Etna erupted and killed 20,000 people.<br /> <br /> 1801- Russian officers dragged Czar Paul I out of his bed, beat him up and strangled him. It had been said the Czar was showing signs of mental instability. Others historians say that story was circulated by the nobility who were against the Czars land reform for peasants. The murder had the approval of his son Alexander who then became Czar. <br /> In 1812 after Napoleon's invasion was driven out, one of the top French generals, Dominique Vandamme, was captured. When Vandamme was reproached by Czar Alexander for invading Russia, the Frenchman shot back," Well Sire, at least I didn't murder my own father!"<br /> <br /> 1810- Prussian Chancellor von Hardenburg granted civil rights to the Jews of Germany. <br /> <br /> 1829- BachMania!-The Rediscovery of Johann Sebastian Bach-. Bach was little known in his time and after his death in 1750 was soon forgotten. Even his son Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach though his dad’s music old-fashioned. But a century later the stirrings of German nationalism led to the re-examination of this obscure organist. This night at the Singakademie in Berlin, musical superstar Felix Mendelsson performed “The St. Matthew Passion” and other Bach works. The musicians performed for free. The concert caused a sensation and Bach is soon being played all over Europe and influencing everyone from Berlioz to Wagner. Goethe and Hegel declared him a genius.<br /> <br /> 1851-Guisseppi Verdi's grand opera" Rigoletto "debuts. Considered Verdi's first mature work, it made him an international star. Based on Victor Hugo's "L'roi's amuse", originally about the lustful abominations of King Francois I of France, Verdi changed it to the Duke of Mantua and steered away from the class politics to a family melodrama. Victor Hugo didn't like it. <br /> <br /> 1861- the seceded southern states adopted a constitution based on the old Articles of Confederation passed in 1778, hence the name the Confederate States of America. It provided for a President with a six-year term with no eligibility for a second term. <br /> <br /> 1888- THE YEAR OF BLUE ICE- The Great Blizzard of '88. In New York and Boston 40 inches of snow fell in 36 hours. Record low temperatures, 80 mile an hour winds and ice storms so severe that all the telephone and telegraph wires between New York and Boston snapped. To contact anyone you had to be routed through London England. 400 people died in New York City alone. Policemen set up frostbite checkpoints to rub the ears of pedestrians as they walked by. <br /> Out West so many head of cattle died that a serious beef shortage the following year created a labor problem with unemployed cowboys that led to the Johnson County Wars of 1890. Teddy Roosevelt was a Dakota rancher at the time and he saw cattle freeze to death where they stood. Later in the spring thaw, these "cowsickles" would be bobbing up and down in the Dakota River with the ice flows.<br /> <br /> 1889- The California Legislature split Orange County from LA County.<br /> <br /> 1917- Czar Nicholas called out the army garrisoned in Petrograd to put down the rioting strikers in the streets. Although some shoot at the demonstrators, most of the soldiers broke ranks and joined them.<br /> <br /> 1918- THE GREAT SPANISH FLU PANDEMIC- This day the first noticeable rise in a strange new flu occurred at Camp Funston Kansas. It was called the Spanish flu because even though it broke out all around the world, Spain did not have wartime press censorship, so they reported it first. <br /> In only one year this new flu virus killed 21 million people around the Earth, 640,000 in the U.S. alone- everyone from Kaiser Wilhelm to young Walt Disney got sick. In places like China, India and Russia thousands died. The epidemic killed as many people as the just concluding World War I. Then it disappeared as rapidly as it appeared. Experts believed it mutated into less lethal versions. Covid-19 which emerged in 2020 has killed 6 million, in the USA is close to 2 million. <br /> <br /> 1926- Eamon De Valera renounced his opposition to Irish government politics and resigned from Sinn Fein. In 1933 he was elected first president of the Republic of Ireland, a job he held off and on until 1973.<br /> <br /> 1927- The first Roxy Theater opens at 50th st. &amp; Seventh Ave. in New York. Roxy was a nickname of theater owner Samuel L. Rothafel who pioneered the movie palace and is called the father of De-Luxe presentation. There were soon Roxy theaters in cities from Hollywood to Sydney Australia.<br /> <br /> 1938- ANSCHLUSS- The Nazi takeover of Austria. Hitler had been organizing a covert takeover of the Vienna government by Austrian Nazis until the Austrian Prime Minister Schussning declared they would put the issue of uniting with the German Reich to a public plebiscite. Rather than risk asking the public Hitler ordered his tanks to roll. Gen. "Panzer Heinz" Guderian had his men adorn their tanks with flowers act like it was more of a German family reunion than an invasion. <br /> Viennese intellectuals like Albert Einstein had to flee. Sigmund Freud was not allowed to leave until he signed a note saying he was treated well-" I'd personally recommend the Gestapo to anyone". Painter Alphonze Mucha wrote a letter to his friends in America saying he was in the care of the Nazis and that he was fine. He died shortly afterward.<br /> <br /> Eric Wolfgang Korngold was in Hollywood debating whether to score the latest Errol Flynn picture for Warner Bros.- "The Adventures of Robin Hood" or return to Vienna to produce his opera- "Die Kathrin". When he heard his Vienna apartment was one of the first the Gestapo raided he decided to stay and do the Flynn picture. He later inscribed the music score to Jack Warner; "to Jack. Thanks for saving my life."<br /> <br /> 1939- The Nazis take over the rest of Czechoslovakia that they didn't absorb through the Munich Pact. This leads Britain’s Prime Minister Chamberlain and France’s Premier Daladier to declare any attempt on Hitler’s next target-Poland, would be met with force.<br /> <br /> 1941- The U.S. enacted the Lend-Lease program to send valuable military equipment to Britain without getting directly involved yet in World War II.<br /> <br /> 1943- The Broadway musical team of Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein opened their first collaboration “Away We Go!”<br /> <br /> 1958- The U.S. Air Force accidentally dropped an H-Bomb on South Carolina near Mars Bluff. The safety catches insured it wouldn’t go off. The incident was kept top secret.<br /> <br /> 1971- Philo Farnsworth died of pneumonia at 64. The young Utah native in 1922 had invented the television set, but by the 1960’s he was forgotten, broke and addicted to painkillers. The only recognition he got in his lifetime was as a contestant on the quiz show I Got a Secret. He won a check for $80 and a carton of Winston cigarettes. Today Farnsworth is considered the father of television, along with John Logie-Baird.<br /> <br /> 1971- THX 1138- Frances Ford Coppola convinced Warner Bros to release a fleshed-out feature version of a USC college thesis film by a young guy named George Lucas.<br /> <br /> 1977- Film director Roman Polanski (Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown) was arrested for having sex with a 13 year old girl in Jack Nicholson’s home after he got her stoned on quaaludes. Polanski was charged with statutory rape. He jumped bail and fled Hollywood for exile in Paris. LA courts have been trying unsuccessfully to get him extradited ever since.<br /> <br /> 1984 - NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND, adapted and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, was released in Japan. When the Walt Disney company agreed to distribute the film, they released it in Europe with time cuts, about ten minutes. Miyazaki sent the studio a beautiful antique samurai sword. On the blade he engraved, “ No Cuts”.<br /> <br /> 1985- Since the death of Lenoid Brehznev the Soviet Union’s Central Committee was having a problem: every elderly Bolshevik they named as Soviet Premier -Yuri Andropov, Constantin Chernenko, had quickly died themselves of old age. On this day they selected the youngest member of their ranks to the leadership. He would be the last Premier of the Soviet Union- Mikhail Gorbachov.<br /> <br /> 1990- Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare its independence. This day their parliament approved The Act of the Reestablishment of the State of Lithuania. By 1991 the unwieldy Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had fallen to pieces and the Russian Federation was formed in its place.<br /> <br /> 2004- Al Qaeda terrorists set off ten bombs in Madrid commuter trains at the height of the morning rush hour. 200 dead, 1500 hurt. <br /> <br /> 2011- FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI- The northern coast of Japan was struck by one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded. The quake sent a tsunami wave that erased whole towns and killed 20,000. A ripple wave went across the Pacific and sank boats in harbor at Santa Cruz, California and Oregon. The tsunami also damaged 5 reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, sending clouds of radioactive steam into the atmosphere and water. <br /> <br /> 2020- The World Health Organization (WHO) declared covid 19 a global pandemic. Pres. Trump responded by denouncing the WHO and cutting their funding.<br /> =============================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is agitprop?<br /> <br /> Answer: Agitprop is the spreading of political ideas or arguments expressed through plays, art, books, etc. Agitation + Propaganda.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 10 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6404 <p>Question: What is agitprop? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: Some people watching Sen Katie Britt’s State of the Union speech called her a Stepford Wife. What is a Stepford Wife?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/10/2024<br /> Birthdays: Lorenzo da Ponte -librettist of Mozart's operas, Barry Fitzgerald, Claire Booth Luce, Heywoud Hale Broun, James Herriot, Pablo de Sarrasate, Osama Bin Laden, Robert Abel, Chuck Norris is 84, Shannon Tweed, Sharon Stone is 66, John Hamm is 53<br /> <br /> 241 B.C.- NAVAL BATTLE OF AEGATES ISLANDS- Romans under Gaius Lutatius Catullus defeated the Carthaginians under Hamilcar Barca (The Thunderer) to win the First Punic War. The Carthaginians were much better sailors than the Romans, so Catullus lashed his ships side by side and laid planks over the decks. This way his legions could fight infantry style. The Romans developed another tactic of taking clay beehives filled with angry hornets and shooting them by catapult onto enemy ships. <br /> The Romans won Sicily. Hamilcar taught his son Hannibal that Romans were not nice people.<br /> <br /> 1661-King Louis XIV of France "the Sun King" tells his guardians to take a hike because he was now old enough to rule alone. He kept his old regent Cardinal Mazarin around a few more years, but this is the beginning of his Divine Right Rule.<br /> <br /> 1697- PETERS TRAVELS- Young Czar Peter the Great was so hungry for the knowledge of the West, that this day he shocked Russian society by leaving the country to travel through Europe. He was the first Russian Czar to ever go outside his country. <br /> The 6 foot 8 inch monarch spent 18 months personally studying economics, architecture and chemistry. Peter lived in a small wooden cottage in Zaandam Holland and studied boat building. He drank in local pubs with workers and even made love to a local waitress. He learned to make his own shoes, mend clothes and even learned to pull teeth, which he loved to practice on unwilling nobles of this court. <br /> After arriving in England, Peter surprised English society by shouldering an axe every morning, and pipe in teeth, walking down to the docks to work among the ship builders. <br /> He returned to Russia filled with the desire to rebuild Russian society in the modern western European model. <br /> <br /> 1791- Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who fancied himself an amateur scientist, presented a paper to the American Philosophical Society about the discovery of the fossils of a cow sized sloth called Megalonyx. The future sciences like Geology and Paleontology were referred to in those times as “Natural Philosophy”.<br /> <br /> 1842-Vigilantes of Virginia City, Montana hanged a tough hombre named Jack Slade. Accounts say Slade was "More feared than God, but all in all a good citizen." <br /> <br /> 1862- FIRST U.S. GREENBACK PAPER DOLLARS ISSUED- "Dollar" is a corruption of Jacobsthaler- named for silver coins minted in St. James valley in Czech lands, which became 'Thalers' then 'Dollars'. Lincoln was originally annoyed that Secretary of the Treasury Samuel Chase put himself on the one-dollar bill while he was on the five. Lincoln thought Chase wanted some cheap advertising for a presidential bid in '64. Lincoln made him Supreme Court Justice to get him out of the way. The money was printed with green ink because it was then cheap and plentiful. <br /> When issued the new money instead of silver or gold, Union troops promptly rioted. People nicknamed the fat bills“ Chase’s Shinplasters ”. After the Civil War, when the U.S. Treasury tried to recall the paper currency and go back to coins, people complained again that they were now used to the stuff. In 1924 the US changed to the smaller sized bill we all use now.<br /> <br /> 1864- Lincoln gives Ulysses Grant overall U.S. command to finish the Civil War. The shy little general arrived late and unannounced at the White House party given in his honor. Because the crowd was so thick he stood patiently in the hallway until Lincoln spotted him. "There he is!" He made Grant stand on a stool, so everyone could get a good look at him.<br /> Lincoln was a constant nag on his generals, but after choosing Grant he backed off giving Grant independent command, a custom maintained by presidents to this day. Grant's successful though unorthodox approach disgusted more traditional strategists. Gen. Henry "Old Brains" Halleck, after running out of criticisms to hurl at Grant, said: "And on top of everything else, The man's a drunkard!" To which Lincoln replied: "He is? Find out what brand he drinks and send a barrel of it to the other generals!"<br /> <br /> 1864- King Maximillian I died, his son Ludwig II 'the Mad' becomes king of Bavaria.<br /> <br /> 1876- THE FIRST TELEPHONE CALL. Alexander Graham Bell had applied for the phone patent several weeks before but he still couldn’t get the signal clear enough to be understood. He even had a surgeon send him a human ear from a corpse to study. This day when trying a new variation, Bell spilled acid on his lap and called out over the wires " Watson ! Come Here! I Need You!" Watson heard it clearly and rushed to his aid. <br /> Some say Watson made up the story of the acid later to explain why Bell couldn’t think of anything loftier or profound to say as the first message sent by wire.<br /> <br /> 1926- The First Book of the Month Club – The Lovely Willows by Sylvia Townshend Warner.<br /> <br /> 1933- The LONG BEACH EARTHQUAKE. There had not been a serious quake in LA since 1857, so everyone thought it a thing of the past. Today the buildings swayed and brick walls collapsed. It was the last big shift in the San Andreas Fault. 200 people were killed, and if the schools had not been empty for Easter break, the casualties could have been much worse.<br /> Actors convening early SAG union meetings in the El Capitan Theater had to move out to the parking lot because of the aftershocks. The quake sparked the first serious earthquake building codes.<br /> <br /> 1935- The First Smokey Stover comic strip (notary sojac).<br /> <br /> 1938- Bowing to Arab anger and increased local rioting, the British Mandate authority in Palestine imposed the first restrictions on Jewish immigration. A quota of only 3.000 were permitted. The previous year 40,000 immigrated fleeing the Nazi persecution in Europe. Zionist Jews developed novel ways of smuggling more people ashore. They once held a Jewish Olympics to rival Hitler’s Berlin Games, then all the participants who came melted into the crowd and stayed.<br /> <br /> 1940- U.S. Under-Secretary of State Sumner Welles tried some shuttle diplomacy between Berlin, London and Paris to try and halt the World War that had just broke out. He was met with no cooperation. Hitler told him “Peace will come when we have the inevitable German Victory.” In January 1941 FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, “outed” Welles by accusing him of homosexual activity, and attempting to proposition several Pullman porters on trains. Welles resigned in disgrace and was later the target of a HUAC investigation.<br /> <br /> 1947- Ronald Reagan becomes President of the Screen Actor's Guild after President George Montgomery and V.P. Franchot Tone resigned to become independent producers. In the violent gangster-ridden atmosphere of Hollywood unions Reagan took to wearing a .32 Smith &amp; Wesson in a shoulder holster under his coat.<br /> <br /> 1948- Zelda Fitzgerald, the socialite wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, died in a fire at the mental hospital where she had been committed for more than a decade. <br /> <br /> 1948- Stalin’s agents take Czech Nationalist leader Jan Masaryk and defenestrate him -throw him out of a window- as a way of influencing the upcoming Czech elections. They gave as an excuse that he accidentally fell out of the window while doing yoga to combat his insomnia.<br /> <br /> 1952- General Fulgensio Batista seized power in Cuba. He was a favorite with US Corporations and the Mafia because he sold everything in his country not nailed down. Part of his coup was the dissolving and arrest of the Cuban Congress, among whom was a young novice politician and part time baseball pitcher named Fidel Castro.<br /> <br /> 1953- PANCHO AND THE GENERAL- Florence Lowe "Pancho" Barnes was the granddaughter of Thaddeus Lowe, inventor of the U.S. Army balloon corps in the Civil War. She became an aviatrix and in 1930 broke an air speed record set by Amelia Earhart.<br /> In the late 1940s she moved to Muroc California in the desert and opened up a saloon, "The Happy Bottom Riding Club' where the test pilots flying dangerous experimental craft trying to break the sound barrier came to blow off steam. Chuck Yeager and the future astronauts were frequent guests. She once told famed General Jimmy Doolittle "Jimmy, you know I can out fly and out f**k you any day of the Week!!" The bar was famous for wild parties with lots of booze and rough housing. <br /> In 1952 a General Holtoner took over command of Maroc, now renamed Edwards Air Force Base. He tried to have Pancho evicted so the Air Force could expand its supersonic runway. When she objected to the General's lack of respect, he implied that she ran a house of prostitution. On this day Pancho sued the US Air Force for 1 1/2 million dollars. General Holtoner was replaced, the Happy Bottom Riding Club was destroyed in a fire, and Pancho Barnes moved away. The bar was immortalized in the movie 'The Right Stuff'.<br /> <br /> 1954- In a letter to studio heads director Elias Kazan worried that young actor James Dean was “too odd” and unpredictable to star in his movie “Rebel Without a Cause”.<br /> <br /> 1954- First day of shooting on Stage 3 of the Giant Squid battle on Walt Disney’s production of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. The director was Richard Fleischer, the son of Walt Disney’s onetime competitor Max Fleischer.<br /> <br /> 1956- Chuck Jones’ “Rocket Squad”, when Porky and Daffy do a satire of the TV show Dragnet, except set in the future.<br /> <br /> 1963- Pete Rose first took the field in a Cincinnati Reds uniform. During an exhibition baseball game with the Yankees Mickey Mantle hit one of his monster 400-ft home runs and young Rose was the only outfielder scrambling and jumping hopelessly to catch it. Mantle laughed and said:” Hey, look at Charlie Hustle over there.” The nickname stuck. Charlie Hustle would go on to break Ty Cobb’s all time hitting record and managed winning teams. But after his retirement he was banned from baseball for betting on sports. Which everybody does now today, anyway.<br /> <br /> 1969- The Godfather, a novel by Mario Puzo was first published. The book about a NY mafia family was a huge hit and spawned three successful movies.<br /> <br /> 1972- Silent Running, starring Bruce Dern and directed by Douglas Trumble opened.<br /> <br /> 1975- North Vietnamese begin their final offensive that would capture Saigon and end the Vietnam War on April 30th. For the first time in a decade, they fought out in the open with heavy Russian T-52 tanks.<br /> <br /> 1980- This year one of the most popular diets in the country was the Scarsdale Diet by Dr. Herman Tarnower. This day a woman named Jean Harris entered his Purchase NY home and shot Dr. Tarnower to death. Her trial was a cause-celeb in the NY press. <br /> <br /> 1988- Andy Gibb of the BeeGees died at age 30. It was reported he died of a drug overdose, but he actually died of heart failure brought on by years of heavy drug abuse.<br /> <br /> 1997- The Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, who was in jail at Broadmoor England for killing thirteen women, was stabbed in both eyes by another inmate. <br /> <br /> 2008- BANG THE GOV SLOWLY- Elliot Spitzer was the hard-driving NY State Attorney General who rocketed to the governorship and was touted as a potential future presidential candidate. His specialty was catching hi-tech Wall Street white collar crooks. Today his Icarus-like ascent came crashing down. He admitted to soliciting high price prostitutes. At $4,300 an hour. Spitzer was known to them as Client #9. The ladies said he liked to leave his socks on. When the news of his resignation came over the ticker on the NY Stock Exchange trading floor, day-traders stopped to cheer.<br /> ==========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Some people watching Sen Katie Britt’s State of the Union speech called her a Stepford Wife. What is a Stepford Wife?<br /> <br /> Answer: "The Stepford Wives" is a 1973 horror/science fiction novel with dystopian overtones about a town where all of the women are beautiful, docile and compliant, who love housework and respond only to the whims and desires of their manipulative husbands. The main character finally realizes that the wives are actually cyborgs created for a cabal of husbands after their actual wives are murdered. The term Stepford Wife has come to mean a weirdly robotic character whose thoughts and behaviors are not her own. (thanks, FG)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 09 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6403 <p>Question: Some people watching Sen Katie Britt’s State of the Union speech called her a Stepford Wife. What is a Stepford Wife?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays Question answered below: In Russia, what is the difference between a Czar and a Tsar?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/9/2024 <br /> Birthdays: Amerigo Vespucci, Eddie Foy, Yuri Gargarin, John Lounsberry, Samuel Barber, chess master Bobby Fischer, Mickey Spillane, Vita Sackville-West, Raul Julia, Vacheslav Molotov, Juliet Binoche is 50, Linda Fiorentino is 66, Lil’ Bow-Wow is 37<br /> <br /> 1522- Protestant reformer Martin Luther had inspired the people of Germany to throw off the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. But he soon became alarmed by the excesses he heard of. People were burning churches and stoning priests who refused to change their ways. One bishop fed Holy Communion wafers to his pet parrot. <br /> This day Martin Luther came out of protective hiding and donned his monks robes to give a series of 8 sermons from the pulpit in Wittenberg. He called people back to order and to show mercy to those who still preferred the old religion. Stop the violence he said" had I not freed millions of men from ecclesiastical oppression without lifting more than one pen?"<br /> <br /> 1566- The Scottish Presbyterian nobles around Mary Queen of Scots disliked her Italian Catholic secretary Antonio Riccio. So today despite the Queens protests, they dragged him off and stabbed him to death.<br /> <br /> 1599- “The Nine Days of Wonder”. William Kemp, famous stage clown in Shakespeare plays completed his vow to Morris Dance from London to Norwich. About 110 miles. This day he completed his trek to the cheers of the crowd, and nailed his buskers to the door of the Norwich town hall.<br /> <br /> 1796- NAPOLEON &amp; JOSEPHINE'S WEDDING ANNIVERSARY- Legend has it Napoleon was working late at the office planning to attack Italy so arrived two hours late. The minister had dozed off and Napoleon shouted:" Wake up Citizen and Marry Us!" Josephine (34) was about 8 years older than Nappy (26) so to smooth over the difference on the marriage certificate he made himself 18 months older and she took four years off.<br /> <br /> 1805- YORK -Several times the Lewis &amp; Clark expedition was saved from attack because natives were amazed to see York, Captain Clark's slave. He was the first black man they had ever seen. <br /> This day York was introduced to Mandan Chief One-Eyed Le Bourgne. Le Bourgne first tried to rub the color off with water but when he saw York's dark hair he whooped for joy! The whites were hairy, pale and ugly, but this man was strong and beautiful with eyes like a buffalo! A very powerful symbol in Mandan culture. <br /> Chief LeBourgne immediately invited York to make love to two Mandan maidens so a physical record of this great event would remain with the tribe. <br /> <br /> 1822- First patent in the U.S. issued for ceramic false teeth. Before that they were made of a strong oak; George Washington once tried a set made of deer's teeth set in lead that was too heavy for him to close his mouth. He also tried teeth taken from his slaves. Finally, he settled for a set of choppers carved from a hippopotamus jaw. In Gilbert Stuarts’ painting the bulge seen in his tightly compressed upper lip are his dentures. <br /> <br /> 1841- After hearing the arguments of former president John Quincy Adams, the US Supreme Court ruled that the African men who overpowered the crew of the Spanish slave ship La Amistad could go home to Africa. <br /> <br /> 1842- Francisco Lopez discovered gold in Placerita Canyon in Southern California.<br /> <br /> 1846- With the lavish ceremony before the gates of Lahore, Britain concluded the First Sikh War. One of the tributes handed over was the Koh-in-Noor Diamond, The Mountain of Light, at 800 karats the largest diamond in the world. It is now part of the crown jewels of Britain. <br /> <br /> 1847- General Winfield Scott began landing the U.S. troops off ships in the harbor of Vera Cruz in landing boats he designed. He hoped to emulate Cortez's march of conquest to Mexico City. It was the first large scale amphibious landings in U.S. Army history. <br /> <br /> 1858- THE MAILBOX is patented. One legend has it first invented by English writer Anthony Trollope.<br /> <br /> 1862- THE MONITOR VS. THE MERRIMAC. The first battle between iron warships. The Confederate Merrimac also called the Virginia spent yesterday shooting up the wooden Yankee fleet, it's armor plating laughing off their cannonballs. <br /> She was preparing to finish the job today when the weirdly designed little U.S.S. Monitor chugged into view. The two ironclads fought to a draw, but it saved the remainder of the Union fleet. \They kept bouncing cannonballs off their iron sides all day. At one point the Confederate captain asked his gunnery officer why he had stopped firing. He replied:" Because I'm doing her as much damage as if I snapped my fingers at her every two and a half minutes!" The Merrimac's crew even tried to board the Monitor with pistols and cutlasses, but she was too un-maneuverable to catch her. Finally exhausted, they both drew off for the night. <br /> The CSS Merrimac was later blown up when it's home base at Norfolk was captured by Union forces and the USS Monitor sank in a storm. But both sides began to build more iron warships. <br /> <br /> 1888- While strolling through his garden, writer Jules Verne was shot by an emotional deranged nephew Gaston. He recovered, but walked with a limp for the rest of his life.<br /> <br /> 1907- Former Edison animator J. Stuart Blackton started "Moving Picture World" an early movie fanzine.<br /> <br /> 1913- Virginia Woolf completed her first novel The Voyage Out.<br /> <br /> 1916- Pancho Villa and his Mexican Revolutionaries- Los Dorados, crossed into Texas and New Mexico and at the town of Columbus killed 17 Americans and burned the town. Villa was angry that the Yankees had intervened in the Mexican revolution several times and allowed American railroads to transport the troops of his enemy General Carranza. Pancho Villa was pursued by U.S. troops under Blackjack Pershing, leading men who would one day command Americas armies, like Lieutenant George Patton and Captain Douglas MacArthur. <br /> <br /> 1917- During the air battles over the Western Front this day a red German Fokker Albatross biplane was forced down over his own lines. Friendly troops carried the pilot to safety, stunned but okay. When they asked him how many planes he shot down, he murmured "24". The men thought he was a liar until they undid the scarf around his neck and saw his Blue Max medal. The pilot was Von Richtofen, the Red Baron. Baron von Richtofen would recover and go back into combat, scoring 80 kills until he was finally killed himself the following April.<br /> <br /> 1932-New York born Eamon DeValera elected first President of the Republic of Ireland.<br /> <br /> 1932- China’s last Manchu emperor Henry Pu Yi was declared by the Japanese Army emperor of their conquered territory in Manchuria called Manchukuo.<br /> <br /> 1945- U.S. B-29s drop massive amounts of incendiary bombs on Tokyo, killing 120,000 people, more than Hiroshima (90,000). USAF General Curtis LeMay told his assistant Robert MacNamara that "If the Japanese had won the war, we would’ve been prosecuted as war criminals."<br /> <br /> 1954- Edgar R. Murrow does his "See It Now" television broadcast detailing the life of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the commie-chaser. The obvious contradictions and gross opportunism in McCarthy's record when laid out before a nationwide audience, destroyed his career and took the steam out of the "Red Scare" of the 50's. It is probably television journalism's finest moment. For the lowest? Well, what's on tonight? <br /> <br /> 1955- “Man In Space” First of a three part series premiered on Walt Disney’s TV show Disneyland. Walt Kimball with NASA German scientists Werner Von Braun and Hans Hauber featured. Walt created this in cooperation with the US Government to help generate enthusiasm for the Space Program. <br /> <br /> 1955- Actor James Dean’s last film, East of Eden, premiered today,<br /> <br /> 1959-The first "Clutch Cargo" show. Clark Haas of Cambria Studios tried to do animation cheaply using their Synchro-Vox Technique. Matching live action mouths over animated character. <br /> <br /> 1974- Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda came out of the Philippine jungle and surrendered, at last made to understand that World War II had been over for thirty years. Even after he captured a transistor radio, he thought the broadcast news of American troops in Vietnam and Korea was just propaganda. Onoda was finally convinced when Japanese researchers produced his elderly retired Major, who was driven through the jungle while reading over a bullhorn the surrender orders he first gave in 1945. Lt. Onoda returned to Japan a popular, if confused, hero. Onoda died in 2012 at age 94.<br /> <br /> 1984- Roy E. Disney Jr., Walt’s nephew, resigned from the central board of the Walt Disney Company, setting in motion a series of takeover bids and maneuvering that by August would wrest control of the company from Ron Miller, Walt’s son-in-law.<br /> <br /> 1984- Touchstone pictures Splash premiered, featuring Tom Hanks, John Candy and a tastefully topless Daryl Hannah.<br /> <br /> 1989- Artist-photographer Robert Maplethorpe died of AIDS. He was 42.<br /> <br /> 1997- Gangsta-rap singer Christopher Wallace, who was known as the Notorious B.I.G. and also called Biggie Smalls, was shot and killed by a gangsta-style drive by. His last album was entitled Life After Death. Notorious BIG could never shake the accusation that he was involved in the similar murder of singer Tupac Shakur.<br /> <br /> 2007- Zack Snyder’s film “300” opened. This is Sparta!<br /> <br /> 2012-John Carter premiered. Directed by Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo), Based on the original story by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It became one of Disney’s biggest flops. Costing over $275 million, and earning $70 million. <br /> ===============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: In Russia, what is the difference between a Czar and a Tsar?<br /> <br /> Answer: There is no difference. It’s just how it is translated from Cyrillic letters. Some say Czar, some say Tsar.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 08 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6402 <p>Question: In Russia, what is the difference between a Czar and a Tsar?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is Absinthe?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/8/2024 <br /> Birthdays: Sophocles, Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach, Hannah Hoes Van Beuren- the First Lady for Martin Van Beuren, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Alan Hovhannes, Kenneth Grahame the author of the Wind in the Willows, Cyd Charisse, Charlie Pride, Mickey Dolenz, Alan Hale Jr., Jim Rice, Aiden Quinn is 66, Freddy Prinze Jr is 50, Jim Bouton- baseball player, author, inventor of Big League Chew bubble gum, animator Don Hall<br /> <br /> 1265- THE GREAT PARLIAMENT- For the first time in the modern era, a legislative body comprised of English Nobility, Clergy and Common men met to discuss the affairs of the kingdom. All modern representative government begins here. This inclusion of a "House of Commons" was the genius of Earl Simon de Monfort, a rebel baron who saw the need to curb King Henry III's power, and perhaps from the depths of the Middle Ages, he saw the future. First, he had to defeat and capture the King in battle and forced the clergy to declare excommunicate anyone who messed with the system, just to make the whole thing stick. So even after Simon De Monfort was chopped up in battle and the king restored to full power, the Parliamentary system endured.<br /> <br /> 1702- After the death of King William III of Orange, Queen Anne takes over England.<br /> She was an obese lady almost in constant pain from gout and pleurisy and had to be moved around in a chair, raised and lowered with ropes and pulleys. Like William and Mary she had no direct heir - she had 17 children but none of them made it past the age of 11. After her death the British throne went to a nephew, the German Elector of Hanover, George I, because he was Protestant. Pirate Edward Teech, called Blackbeard, named his ship "Queen Anne's Revenge", for reasons known only to him.<br /> <br /> 1778- France’s entry into the war for American Independence made London rethink it’s strategy. This day Colonial Secretary Lord Germain sent orders to Generals Howe and Clinton to stop chasing rebels in Philadelphia and fall back to New York City, where they could be more adequately supported by the navy. The American Revolution would now be a secondary consideration to the wider global war with France, Spain and Holland.<br /> <br /> 1782- Gnaderhutten massacre- Connecticut militia ambush 90 Pequot Christian Indians as revenge for Indian raids. The raiders were from another tribe, but these guys were more conveniently in the neighborhood.<br /> <br /> 1846- After the U.S. annexation of Texas, Mexico disputed exactly where the border ended. The U.S. claimed it was the Rio Grande, the Mexican Government claimed it was a few hundred miles further north at the River Nueces. This day President James K. Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor “Old Rough &amp; Ready” to move his army into the disputed area and hope he gets attacked. This was so they could declare war on Mexico with a clear provocation.<br /> <br /> 1862- The Confederate navy had dredged up the hull of a sunken warship named the Merrimac and outfitted her with iron boilerplate to create the C.S.S. Virginia, the first ironclad warship. Her skipper Captain Robert Buchanan, before the war was first commandant of the Annapolis Naval Academy.<br /> On this day the Merrimac-Virginia steamed over to Union wooden warships blockading Hampton Roads inlet and attacked them. While the big warship's cannonballs bounced harmlessly off her iron plate, she rammed and sank the U.S.S. Cumberland, burned the U.S.S. Congress, and ran two more ships aground. Eventually she drew off for the night, resolved to finish them in the morning. Washington D.C. panicked: What was to prevent the Merrimac-Virginia from sailing up the Potomac and shelling the White House? The USS Monitor, that's who, sailing down slowly from New York. It arrived this night and moored alongside the stricken Congress. Sailors said it looked like a “Cheese Box on a Raft.”<br /> The London Times correspondent John Russell had watched the battle, and wrote home:" As of today, every wooden navy in the world is now obsolete."<br /> <br /> 1886- A Scottish doctor in Portsmouth England named Arthur Conan-Doyle had been trying his hand at writing fiction. He sold a few stories to magazines and tried to publish a historical novel about an insurance company, “The Firm of Girdlestone”, with lackluster results. <br /> This day he began a new novel “A Tangled Skein” which had a new character modeled after the famous French detective Jules Vinquoc. At firs, he named him Sheridan Hope, then Sheringford Holmes. By the time he finished his story, month later, he had changed the title to “A Study in Scarlet” and the main protagonist name had become SHERLOCK HOLMES. <br /> Arthur Conan Doyle was an admirer of the American writer Oliver Wendel Holmes who was touring Britain that year. Like him, Holmes was a doctor who turned author. No one is sure where he got the name Sherlock. It may have been a neighbor. Conan Doyle’s professor in Edinburgh college Dr Joseph Bell excelled at deductive reasoning and had an assistant named Dr. Watson.<br /> <br /> 1894- The first dog licenses issued in New York.<br /> <br /> 1908- The British House of Commons voted down a bill giving women the vote.<br /> <br /> 1917- In St. Petersburg it was International Women Workers Day. Women protesting the war threw rocks at factory windows to get the men to come out and join them. Soon the Czar's capitol was in a general strike. Czar Nicholas was at the front, and the Czarina is enclosed with her icons praying over the recently murdered monk Rasputin. The anti-government demonstrations would go on day and night, joined by policemen and soldiers until the Czar abdicated on March 15th.<br /> <br /> 1921- Spanish premier Eduardo Dato was assassinated while leaving the Cortes or Parliament in Madrid.<br /> <br /> 1928- While contact negotiations between Walt Disney and distributor Charles Mintz were breaking down, his animators completed their final Oswald the Rabbit short Sky Scrappers.<br /> <br /> 1930- An angry mob of unemployed battle the police in New York’s Tompkin’s Square.<br /> <br /> 1933- As a result of President Roosevelt's Nationwide Bank shutdown, Hollywood Studios go into a cash panic. MGM, RKO and the others ask for 30-50% salary cuts from their stars and artists. At one point they announced the salary cuts at the Oscar banquet ( betchya that made for a real fun party!)<br /> Louis B. Mayer, tearful and unshaven pleaded his case to his contract-stars, who reluctantly accepted the cuts. Lionel Barrymore called out "We're with ya. L.B. !" Afterwards Mayer winked to his secretary and giggled:” So how’d I do?” A week later Mayer hired his new son-in-law David Selznick as a producer at $4,5000 a week. Production chief Darryl Zanuck quit Warner Bros. over the employee salary cuts and went on to build Twentieth Century Fox. <br /> <br /> 1933- Nazi interior minister Wilhelm Frick announced the creation of a system of Concentration Camps to incarcerate political undesirables.<br /> <br /> 1941- Writer and playwright Sherwood Anderson dies from periarteritis- internal bleeding- after swallowing a toothpick at a cocktail party.<br /> <br /> 1941- The National Television System Committee set up by the FCC to standardize television technology recommended an industry standard of 525 scan lines at 30 frames a second- what we now call after their name- NTSC. England later adopted the PAL (Phase Alternation Line) of 625 lines, 25 frames per second and France the SECAM System (Systeme Electronique Couleur Avec Memoire), which is also a 625 line, 25fps system. This is why British TV shows like The Prisoner always looked so grainy on American sets and American shows look so garish on British sets. By garish I mean the color, not the content. <br /> It also speeds up the film during video from 24 frames to 25fps (i.e. 4%)...which is why in England and the rest of Europe, all Hollywood movies are 4% shorter and the voices of the actors all sound a little squeaky. The way to remember NTSC is "Never-The-Same-Color'. DVD and BluRay went to a thousand- scan lines. The invention of digital screens made most of this irrelevant.<br /> <br /> 1942- Dutch forces surrendered Java to Japanese invaders. They rolled on to Sumatra.<br /> <br /> 1950- The Volkswagen bus introduced.<br /> <br /> 1958- Chuck Jones’ short Robin Hood Daffy premiered. “ Yoiks and Awaay!”<br /> <br /> 1961-The Frito Company merges with potato chip makers H.L. Lay to form Frito-Lay. The recipe for Fritos corn chips was bought by milkshake salesman Elmer Doolin from a Mexican fry cook in South Texas.<br /> <br /> 1966- London gangster Ronnie Kray entered the Blind Beggar Pub on Whitechapel Road and shot gangster George Cornell in the head. Ronnie and his identical twin brother Reggie ran rackets in London as well as a West End nightclub that booked performers like Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland. The Krays were finally imprisoned in 1968.<br /> <br /> 1968- The Soviet nuclear submarine K-19 sank in the Pacific off the US coastline. In 1974 the CIA tried to secretly dredge it up with a research ship the Glomar Explorer designed by Howard Hughes Company. In 2002 Harrison Ford made a movie about the K-19, but that sank also.<br /> <br /> 1969 -The Pontiac Trans-Am introduced. Muscle car enthusiasts rejoice!<br /> <br /> 1970- The Nixon White House announced that the Americans operations in Vietnam and Cambodia had also been expanded into the neutral nation of Laos and already 27 Americans had been killed in fighting there.<br /> <br /> 1973- Paul McCartney was fined 100 pounds for growing marijuana on his farm Mull of Kintyre.<br /> <br /> 1977- Ralph Bakshi’s film Wizards premiered.<br /> <br /> 1994- Don Ku invented the ubiquitous little rolling wheeled black suitcase with collapsible handle that bumps into your legs at airports today.<br /> <br /> 1998- In Ladson South Carolina, Daniel Rudolph, the brother of Abortion Clinic bomber Eric Rudolph, videotaped himself cutting off his own hand with a power saw. He said he did this to send a message to the FBI and the Liberal Media!<br /> <br /> 2014- Malaysian airliner MH 370 in route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 227 passengers and crew disappeared mid-ocean. It went off course and headed towards the most remote part of the ocean between the Indian Ocean and Antarctica. Evidence showed that it’s satellite tracking had been turned off from inside the cabin shortly before it disappeared. Small pieces of debris were found on the African coast in 2015, but by January 2017 the search was called off.<br /> ===================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is Absinthe?<br /> <br /> Answer: An alcoholic liquor that is so strong it was illegal in the USA for awhile.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6401 <p>Question: What is Absinthe?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays Question answered below: What are the three orders of Greek columns?<br /> ---------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/7/2024<br /> Birthdays: Maurice Ravel, Piet Mondrian, Roman Emperor Geta, Luther Burbank, Tammy Fae Baker, Willard Scott, Lynn Swann, Franco Harris, Daniel D. Travanti, Rachel Weisz is 54, Michael Eisner is 82, Wanda Sykes is 60, Peter Saarsgard is 53, Bryan Cranston is 68.<br /> <br /> 322 BC- the Greek philosopher Aristotle died of indigestion.<br /> <br /> 161AD- The death of the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius. Marcus Aurelius became Emperor. Marcus named his brother Lucius Verus as co-emperor, but Verus died after a few years. Marcus Aurelius became famous as the philosopher-emperor, ruling justly and leaving behind his Meditations, one of the great works of western philosophy.<br /> <br /> 1274- Saint Thomas Aquinas died in Italy. Everybody knew the great teacher was so holy he undoubtedly would be made a saint (the medieval equivalent of being called to the Hall of Fame). So rather and wait for opportunity to sell his bones as relics, the people sped up the process by boiling his remains in lye.<br /> <br /> 1522- At York Place in London, Cardinal Woolsey threw a Shrovetide pageant for King Henry VIII called The Chateau Vert. It’s where King Henry first met the beautiful Anne Boleyn. Although at first the King made her sister Mary into his mistress. <br /> <br /> 1765- PARLIAMENT PASSES THE STAMP ACT. Ever since winning Canada and India from France, England had to come up with ways to pay for her massive war debt as well as garrisoning and administering all the new possessions. Until now Americans had gotten off easy on taxes because the Crown knew their economy was building. The Stamp Act ordered that all purchases and exports to and from America have a royal stamp (i.e. tax) on them, sort of like the stamp you see on liquor bottle caps. These taxes were already in place in England, so Whitehall felt nobody would mind. Americans went ballistic and overnight became a nation of smugglers. They most strongly objected to the idea that the tax was imposed without their consent. No one consulted their elected representatives, and there were no American seats in Parliament. <br /> Even though the unpopular act was repealed a year later after Benjamin Franklin successfully argued in Parliament, the resentment against the mother country lingered. The British in turn were surprised and annoyed by the all the fuss. They felt the Yankees were an ungrateful bunch they had defeated French for.<br /> <br /> 1774- To combat rampant smuggling and teach a lesson to the increasingly uppity New Englanders, the Royal Governor of Massachusetts General Thomas Gage ordered the Port of Boston closed. This act all but ensured that the first outbreak of violence in the American Revolution would happen there.<br /> <br /> 1809- French Balloonist Jean Pierre Blanchard died from injuries sustained from crashing his balloon in the Netherlands. Blanchard with a man named Jeffries had crossed the English Channel by air, and for years he had demonstrated the wonders of air flight for audiences like Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon. <br /> <br /> 1850- THE 7TH OF MARCH SPEECH- The only address given to Congress that is known only by it's date. Senator Daniel Webster stood up and electrified the nation with a three hour address backing the Clay Compromise: "Mr. Speaker ! I rise not as a Massachusetts man, or a Northern man, but as an American !!" This Northern abolitionist backed the fugitive slave law and other concessions to the South in exchange for California entering the union as a non-slave state. <br /> New England supporters were furious. His controversial stand probably cost him his last chance of ever becoming president, and he died bitter two years later. But John F. Kennedy said in "Profiles in Courage" that by doing this act Daniel Webster helped delay the Civil War for ten more years, which allowed the north to grow more industrially powerful. So he saved the United States in a way.<br /> <br /> 1862- THE BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE- Yankees under General Curtis defeated a Confederate army under Gen. Stirling Price, keeping Missouri in the Union. It was a confused battle with militias, frontier scouts like Wild Bill Hickock and Creek Indians under Confederate Colonel Stand Watie. Curtis directed the battle in an old brown corduroy jacket and nuzzled a shotgun in his lap. The Creeks captured a Union battery but stopped their advance to dance with the scalps of the Yankees. <br /> <br /> 1862- BULLETHOLE ELLIS- Rebel Guerrilla leader William Quantrill and his raiders shot up the town of Aubrey, Kansas. During the raid, Quantrill fired his Colt revolver at a man looking out of a second story window named Abraham Ellis. The bullet was slowed by smashing through the windowsill and embedded in the man’s skull, but just missed touching his brain. Quantrill apologized to Ellis. Ellis had helped him get a teaching job before the war. The raiders left him for dead, but Abe Ellis recovered. Old Bullethole Ellis lived to a ripe old age, just with a large round dark hole in the center of his forehead.<br /> <br /> 1877- Bill Reed, a Union Pacific Railroad worker discovered a vast field of dinosaur fossils at Como Bluff Wyoming. "The bones extend for seven miles and are by the ton!"<br /> <br /> 1906- Finland becomes the first nation to give women the right to vote.<br /> <br /> 1916- BMW- The manufacturing firms of Karl Rapp and Gustav Otto merged to form the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke AG -Bavarian Aircraft Works. The company would later become the Bayerische Motor-Werke -Bavarian Motor Works or BMW. The Logo circle represents a white propeller turning against a blue sky- the colors of the old Kingdom of Bavaria, the heraldic shield of the ruling Wittelsbach Dynasty. After the world wars, BMW was prohibited from manufacturing aircraft engines, as their engines had powered the fierce fighters like the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and the Focke-Wulf 190. So, BMW focused on making high quality cars.<br /> <br /> 1932-BATTLE OF THE RIVER ROUGE- At the depth of the Great Depression unemployment in Detroit was up to 50% of the population. 10,000 desperately unemployed auto workers staged a protest march on Henry Ford's Rouge River plant, the largest factory in the world. They are met by police and hired thugs who fired into the crowd, killing 3 and wounding 25. Henry Ford, (who personally made $10 million that year) had machine guns mounted on his home's roof and advised his chief executives to carry sidearms. Fords private police were called by the Orwellian misnomer the Service Department.<br /> <br /> 1936- HITLER RE-OCCUPIED THE RHINELAND- Since the Versailles treaty the German industrial heartland of the Ruhr valley was under neutral and sometimes Anglo-French occupation. Imagine trying to restart your stagnant economy with Chicago, Detroit and Pittsburgh under foreign control. Today Hitler took the biggest gamble of his career and ordered the still infant Wehrmacht army to reoccupy the Ruhr, in defiance of all previous treaties. He dared the Allies to do something about it, but they remained quiet. German generals were amazed that France and England could have easily invaded at any time and squashed them, but they did nothing. <br /> <br /> 1942- The Japanese army captured Rangoon and cut the Burma Road, severing Anglo- Chinese supply lines. After this supplies would have to be brought in 'Over the Hump" meaning flown by unescorted transport planes from India over the Himalayas.<br /> <br /> 1945- THE BRIDGE AT REMAGEN- A hostile army had not crossed the Rhine into Germany since Napoleon in 1806. The Germans called their defense of the border The Siegfried Line. The Nazis had ordered all Rhine bridges destroyed, but the bridge at Remagen was detonated with inferior charges. So it was intact as the U.S. Third Army approached. Sgt. Alex Drabik of Ohio ran across the bridge, weaving back and forth like a football player, with the enemy firing at him from all sides. Just as he reached the other side a Nazi popped out, pointed a Lugar pistol in his face and pulled the trigger. The gun was empty. The Siegfried Line was breached, and Sgt. Drabik died of very old age in 1993.<br /> <br /> 1945- Tom &amp; Jerry short Quiet Please won the Oscar for Best Animated Short.<br /> <br /> 1947- Winston Churchill, while giving a speech in America about the Soviet dominance of Eastern Europe uses the term "Iron Curtain". " From Zagreb on the Adriatic to Stettin in the Baltic, an Iron Curtain has descended across Europe." The phrase had been coined earlier by German Admiral Doenitz, but Churchill popularized the phrase. The Iron Curtain ended in 1989. <br /> <br /> 1951- The Prime Minister of Iran- General Ali Rasmara was assassinated by Islamic extremists. <br /> <br /> 1955- The 7th Emmy Awards, the first to be nationally televised. Steve Allen hosted. Held at the Moulin Rouge nightclub.<br /> <br /> 1965- BLOODY SUNDAY- THE EDMUND PETTUS BRIDGE-As Dr. Martin Luther King’s Civil Rights marchers reached the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Gov George Wallace had Alabama police attack them with firehoses, teargas, bullwhips and attack dogs. Dozens of peaceful marchers were beaten and hospitalized. Three were killed. The brutal images on television shocked the nation, had probably did more to ensure passage of the National Civil Rights Bill than anything the police could do to stop it.<br /> <br /> 1969- Golda Meir became Prime Minister of Israel.<br /> <br /> 1985- Lionel Ritchie and Michael Jackson released “ We Are The World” a song recorded by many of the top names in pop music at the time, all proceeds going to help starving children in Africa. Bruce, Springsteen, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, and more. It became the 8th most popular single of all time.<br /> <br /> 1988- 300 pound female impersonator Harris Milstead, better known as Divine in the John Waters films, died of sleep apnea. He was 42.<br /> <br /> 1999- Film director Stanley Kubrick died of a heart attack in his sleep, just five days after screening his final film Eyes Wide Shut. He was 71.<br /> <br /> 2010- The Pixar film UP won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. It was also nominated for Best Picture, the only other animated film besides Beauty and the Beast and Toy Story 3.<br /> ===========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s question: What are the three orders of Greek columns?<br /> <br /> Answer: Doric, Ionian, Corinthian.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 06 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6400 <p>Quiz: What are the three orders of Greek columns?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What are you being asked to do when you are invited to be in a sculling competition?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/6/2024<br /> Birthdays: Michelangelo Buonarotti, Cyrano De Bergerac, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Phil Sheridan, Lou Costello, Ivan Boesky, Ring Lardner, Gabriele Garcia-Marquez, Valentina Tereschkova the first woman in space, Tom Arnold, Kiri Te Kanawa, Rob Reiner is 76, Alan Greenspan, DC Mayor Marion Barry, Stephen Schwartz is 76, Ed McMahon, Shaquille O’Neal “Shaq” is 52<br /> <br /> Today is the Feast Day of Saint Fridolin the Wanderer.<br /> <br /> 1521- Fernan de Magellan reached the Pacific Island of Guam.<br /> <br /> 1554- The future King of Spain Phillip II married the Catholic Queen of England Mary Tudor long distance, by proxy. When Phillip came to England, and realized Mary had waited to long to have children and was now too old and ill, he sent emissaries to see if her half-sister Elizabeth was interested.<br /> <br /> 1834- The Ontario settlement of Fort York is incorporated as the City of Toronto.<br /> <br /> 1836- THE ALAMO- The Mexican army of General Santa Anna overwhelmed a small garrison of rebellious Texans in an old mission. The tragic stand of 189 men led by colorful frontiersmen like Davey Crockett and Jim Bowie against 7,000 troops has become part of American mythology. That they ignored Sam Houston's direct orders to blow up the mission and join his main army with their valuable cannon is forgotten. Apologists contend that if they didn’t stall, Santa Anna's army he would have swooped down on Washington-on-the-Brazos and squashed the Texas Rebellion while Texan leaders were still quibbling over their constitution.<br /> The attack began at 4:30 a.m. in the predawn darkness and was all over in 90 minutes, a little after 6 a.m. Jim Bowie was bayoneted in his hospital bed. The notes of a Texas officer named Dolson who interviewed a Mexican officer named Sanchez after the battle were discovered in 1961. It revealed that maybe Davey Crockett didn't go down heroically using his rifle "Old Betsy" as a club- like in the movies, but tried to surrender. He was a politician after all. Santa Anna had him and any surviving white men shot. Capt. Sanchez wasn’t sure if it was Crockett. We'll never know for sure. <br /> There were 16 Alamo survivors, the women and children, and Colonel Travis' black servant Joe. Santa Anna made sure they were each given two pesos and a blanket and set free. The battle cry of Texans became Remember the Alamo!<br /> <br /> 1837- Col Travis black slave Joe fought on the barricades of the Alamo alongside his master. After the battle Joe made it back to the Travis family home in Alabama to tell them what happened to him. They thanked Joe for his services by being returning him to slavery. On the one-year anniversary of the battle, Joe escaped to freedom. He stole a horse and galloped to Mexico. Joe remained in hiding for 40 years, long after the Civil War and Emancipation, emerging for a newspaper interview finally in 1877.<br /> <br /> 1841-American John Goff Rand working for the Winsor &amp; Newton Company of London patented artists oil paints premixed in collapsible metal tubes. Before this, artists (or their apprentices) had to mix their own pigment from ground stones and egg, then stored the mix in pig bladders. <br /> <br /> 1850- Gustav Flaubert was the French writer who was once tried for pornography for writing Madame Bovary. This day while in Egypt he kept an appointment with the countries most famous belly dancing prostitute, Kuchuk Hanem.<br /> <br /> 1853- Giusseppi Verdi’s classic opera La Traviata premiered at Teatro alla Fenice in Venice. It was based on Dumas novel Le Dame Aux Camelias. Verdi wrote in his diary about the premiere:" The evening was a disaster! Was it my fault or the fault of the singers? Only time will tell..."<br /> <br /> 1856- Mr. Simon met Mr. Schuster while buying a piano in New York City and discovered they had a common love of books. They formed Simon &amp; Schuster, one of the most famous publishers in the U.S.A.<br /> <br /> 1857- THE DREDD SCOTT DECISION. One of the incidents leading to the Civil War and one of the most infamous Supreme Court rulings in US History. A slave, Dredd Scott, sued in court for his freedom on the grounds that he no longer lived in a slave state, because his master had moved his home to a free state. <br /> The Supreme Court of Chief Justice Taney, whom the N.Y. Tribune had described as "5 slaveholders and two doughfaces", handed down the decision that not only was Scott still a slave, but he and his descendants could never have rights of U.S. Citizenship, no matter where they lived. In effect, all African-Americans even if born free in the North were still not people but property. <br /> This idea exploded the already enraged public opinion in the North. Four years later the same justice Taney swore in Abraham Lincoln as president.<br /> <br /> 1860- Presidential candidate Abe Lincoln in a speech said:" Thank God we have a system where workers have the Right to Strike."<br /> <br /> 1864- THE NAVAJO LONG WALK- After being defeated when their natural stronghold in Canyon de Chelly was stormed by US cavalry under Kit Carson, the Navajo and their families were forced into a death march in the winter cold several hundred miles to a reservation. Years later Washington decided it didn't want their ancestral lands after all and let them go home.<br /> <br /> 1884- Susan B. Anthony led 100 women’s rights advocates to a meeting with President Chester Allen Arthur. They demanded he give his support for giving women the vote. President Arthur said he would think about it, then he did nothing.<br /> <br /> 1899- The wonder drug of the age and the first patent medicine- Aspirin, was patented. Felix Hoffman isolated the compound salicin from ground willow bark, an old Indian pain remedy. Then he went on to invent Heroin.<br /> <br /> 1902- The Real Madrid football club was founded in Spain.<br /> <br /> 1911-THE YELLOW PERIL- In the bizarre game of diplomatic chess the great powers played before World War I, race was a favorite topic. The" Battle between the White Forces of Christian Civilization against the limitless Yellow Hordes of Asia" was an idea the German Kaiser Wilhelm liked to talk at length on. <br /> On this day the Kaiser's agents convinced the U.S. public via the US tabloid press that Japan had concluded an alliance with Mexico and was preparing to seize the Panama Canal, and that a Japanese Army was even now marching up Baja to invade California! To quiet public fears President Taft was actually forced to mobilize 2/3 of the U.S. Army and Navy and sent it to the Mexican border "for maneuvers". <br /> When the Great War did come Japan was on the American side, and the Kaiser tried fruitlessly to make an alliance with an unsympathetic Mexico.<br /> <br /> 1912- Happy National Oreo Cookie Day! The Oreo cookie debuted on store shelves.<br /> <br /> 1917- Woman’s rights advocate Margaret Sanger is released from prison where she was jailed for trying to open the first Planned Parenthood clinic. She married the inventor of the Three-In-One Oil Company and would smuggle abortion medicines in cans of oil. During prohibition she smuggled diaphragms in cases of innocent-looking bootleg whiskey. She lived into the 1960s, long enough to see the Birth Control Pill and the Women’s Movement.<br /> <br /> 1918- The Navy destroyer USN Cyclops with a crew of 306 disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle and has never been found.<br /> <br /> 1921- The film Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse premiered. The first Hollywood film to earn over one million dollars, and it made a major star out of Rudolf Valentino.<br /> <br /> 1933- Two days after inauguration Eleanor Roosevelt became the first First Lady to hold her own separate press conference. She insisted only female journalists could attend.<br /> <br /> 1936- Mr. Clarence Birdseye introduced frozen vegetables.<br /> <br /> 1944- The first big daylight bombing raid on Berlin. In one of the largest air battles of World War II, 800 B-17 and P-51s battled hundreds of Luftwaffe fighters. Over 80 US planes were shot down, losing 690 airmen, and 45 German planes. But the message was clear, Germany would now get the kind of wholesale destruction that Rotterdam, Warsaw and London got. <br /> <br /> 1978- Hustler Magazine publisher Larry Flynt was shot and crippled by a lunatic. <br /> <br /> 1979- The film The China Syndrome premiered. It was about an accident at an American nuclear power plant. Three weeks later the real Three Mile Island accident occurred, boosting the box office. " It's spooky, it's enough to make you religious" said star Michael Douglas.<br /> <br /> 1981- CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite retired. Dan Rather succeeded him after CBS learned ABC was offering Rather big bux to jump networks. Roger Mudd, who was thought to be the real successor to Cronkite, left the network to anchor the History Channel. Dan Rather was the CBS anchor until 2004.<br /> <br /> 1989- Time Inc. merged with Warner Communications to become Time Warner, the largest media conglomerate in the world. They were bought by AOL in 2000 but AOL proved to be dead weight and they resumed control as TimeWarner in 2003. Recently they merged with Discovery to become Warner Discovery.<br /> <br /> 1992- The film The Lawnmower Man premiered. It featured early motion-capture CGI imagery, and claimed to have the first virtual reality sex scene. <br /> <br /> 1998- The Big Lebowski opened in theaters. The Dude Abides…<br /> <br /> 2020- Walt Disney’s Onward opened in theaters. Written and directed by Dan Scanlon<br /> ==============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What are you being asked to do, when you are invited to be in a sculling competition?<br /> <br /> Answer: Rowing. Sculls are the long team boats college student’s race. Stroke! Stroke!</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 05 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6399 <p>Question: What are you being asked to do when you are invited to be in a sculling competition?<br /> <br /> Quiz: What does it mean to “cut a rug”?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/5/2024<br /> Birthdays: Henry III of England, Giovanni Batista Tiepolo, Explorer Le Sieur de Cadillac the founder of Detroit, Hector Villa-Lobos, Howard Pyle, William Oughtred 1574- inventor of the Slide Rule, Red Rosa Luxemburg, Rex Harrison, Dean Stockwell, Paolo Pasolini, Andy Gibb, Samantha Eggar, Andrej Wajda, Fred Williamson, Penn Gillette is 68, Eva Mendes is 49<br /> <br /> Today is the feast day of Saint Eusebius of Cremona.<br /> <br /> 493AD- BARBARIAN PEACE SUMMIT- 17 years after the last Roman emperor fell, Theodoric the Visigoth invited to peace talks Odoacer, King of the Germans in Italy. On a pre-arranged signal two Goths held Odoacer's hands pretending to shake them, then Theodoric whipped out his sword and with one stroke sliced Odoacer in half lengthwise. He said of his sword stroke: "Surely the mother of this knave hath made him with gristle, for I find no bones in his body." Peace was achieved.<br /> <br /> 1496- English King Henry VII hired Italian mariner Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot) to go explore this New World that the Spanish were going on about.<br /> <br /> 1534- Renaissance painter Correggio died when after an argument in the cathedral of Parma with his patrons paid him with sacks of pennies. He grew overheated carrying them all home and died of a fever at age 45.<br /> <br /> 1562- The Teutonic Knights disbanded- Warrior monks were a creation of the Crusades, but by the Renaissance they were outmoded. This German order of military monks formed in Jerusalem went to Prussia after the Crusades to convert the pagan Baltic peoples by chopping them up for Christ. But by now they had two big problems: Number one- everyone they used to chop were Christians already. Number two- the Reformation had started and all the knights were converting to Lutheranism, even the Order’s own bishop! So Grand Master Kettler went to Wittenberg to talk to the great reformer Martin Luther. Luther told Kettler to chuck the whole monk-thing, get married and become Duke of Prussia. Brandenburg-Prussia was the state that Germany unified under in 1870.<br /> <br /> 1616- The Holy Office of the Inquisition published its verdict on the new scientific ideas of Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo. It read:" The idea that the Earth goes around the Sun is Foolish, Philosophically Erroneous and Heretical since it contradicts Holy Scripture. The idea that the Earth revolves on its axis is also Ridiculous and Heretical." Galileo’s writings were not removed from the Index of Banned Books until 1835. In 1986, Pope John Paul II admitted Galileo might have been right.<br /> <br /> 1717- On his birthday Giovanni Tiepolo joined the Guild of Saint Lawrence, the artists union in Rome.<br /> <br /> 1759- Francois Voltaire’s most famous satire on religion and hypocrisy- Candide- was published. It was immediately ordered publicly burned by the regional parliaments of Geneva and Paris. This only increased its popularity. To stay out of trouble Voltaire first refused to admit he was the author:" People must have lost their senses to attribute to me that pack of nonsense! I have, Thanks God, better occupations."<br /> <br /> 1770- THE BOSTON MASSACRE- A snowball fight near some British sentries turned into an ugly anti-British riot that made the redcoats open fire on the crowd. African American Crispus Attucks among several others were killed. Radical publisher Sam Adams inflated the incident into the Boston Massacre. The British authorities were accommodating enough to allow the soldiers put on trial in a colonial civilian court. The soldiers were defended by a young Boston lawyer named John Adams. They were all acquitted.<br /> <br /> 1836- At the Alamo, as the Mexican army of Santa Anna prepared for their final attack, legend has it Colonel Travis gathered the remaining defenders. He drew a line in the sand with his sword and asked all who wished to stay and fight to the bitter end to cross it. All crossed but one. He was an elderly Frenchman named Louis Rose, who slipped out through the lines to safety. Rose was a veteran of Napoleon's army and had fought at Waterloo. I guess he felt he had been through enough history for one lifetime. At dusk, 16 year old rider James Allen slipped out of the Alamo to bring the doomed men’s last message to the outside world.<br /> <br /> 1853- Harry Steinway &amp; Sons began their piano making company.<br /> <br /> 1863- The U.S. Army finally admits having the men do their own cooking was bad for morale, as well as their digestion. The first field kitchens with real cooks set up.<br /> <br /> 1868- Englishman C.H. Gould patented the first stapler.<br /> <br /> 1877- Rutherford Hayes inaugurated. His wife banned hard liquor from the White House. For this she was nicknamed Lemonade Lucy.<br /> <br /> 1891- The town council of Phoenix Arizona offered a bounty of $200 for every dead Indian brought in, and they didn’t care how they came to be dead.<br /> <br /> 1912- Italy became the first to use dirigibles for military purposes. Using them to get aerial reconnaissance of Turkish positions west of Tripoli, Libya.<br /> <br /> 1913- The day after his inauguration, President Woodrow Wilson began filling his cabinet. Secretary of the Navy Dearing proposed as Assistant Secretary of the Navy a young New York assemblyman named Franklin D. Roosevelt. Wilson said:" Most Roosevelts I know try to run everything, but this fellow is a capitol idea!"<br /> <br /> 1915- NYPD broke up a plot by anarchists to set off bombs in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. <br /> <br /> 1918- Lenin moved the capitol of Russia from Petrograd- Saint Petersburg, back to Moscow.<br /> <br /> 1933- The day after his inauguration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered a nationwide "Bank Holiday", a nice way of saying shut the whole system down to stop the panic. One third of all U.S. banks had already collapsed. Roosevelt moved so fast, throwing program after program to combat the Great Depression, that his first 100 days in office became legendary, and now the media use it as a litmus to measure other presidents against.<br /> <br /> 1936- Disney’s Three Orphaned Kittens won the best short Oscar at the 8th Academy Awards.<br /> <br /> 1937-Allegheny Airlines born, later to become U.S. Air. Allegheny had such a bad safety record that by the 1970’s the joke on their motto was "Allegheny will get you there-maybe." In 1979 Allegheny rebranded themselves as USAir.<br /> <br /> 1937- SPITFIRE. The first flight of Britain’s most famous fighter plane, the Supermarine Spitfire Mark II. Designer R. J. Mitchell fought red tape and outdated thinking on the army requisition board. He died of exhaustion and heart failure at 42, never knowing that his Spitfire would become the decisive weapon in winning the air war over Britain and saving his country from invasion. During the Battle of Britain, when Reichsmarshall Hermann Goring asked Luftwaffe ace Adolf Galland what could he use to defeat the English? Galland responded “ I could use a squadron of Spitfires.”<br /> <br /> 1954- The Creature From the Black Lagoon opened. Directed by Jack Arnold. The Gill-Man designed by Disney animator Millicent Patrick.<br /> <br /> 1963- Country star Patsy Cline died in plane crash near Camden Tenn. Also killed were singers Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins.<br /> <br /> 1963- The hula-hoop was patented.<br /> <br /> 1966- As America was still getting used to the idea of fighting in Vietnam, and anti-war sentiment was beginning, a Sgt. Barry Sadler wrote a pro-war song titled Ballad of the Green Berets, that today hit #1. “Put silver wings, on my son’s chest. Make him one of America’s Best.”<br /> <br /> 1973- New York Yankee pitchers Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson make a stunning declaration. The left-handers announce that they have traded each others’ wives, children, houses, even their family dogs. <br /> <br /> 1982 – comedian John Belushi died of a drug overdose at The Chateau Marmont hotel on Sunset Strip. He had done 20 heroin-cocaine speedballs in just 24 hours. A woman named Cathy Smith was charged with administering to him the fatal dose. Robin Williams was with him that night partying but left early. Belushi was 31. Someone scrawled on Belushi’s tombstone:" You could have given us more laughs.....But NNNOOOO! (one of his signature comedy lines)<br /> <br /> 1994- The TV show Duckman premiered. <br /> <br /> 1995- Vivian Stanstall, lead singer for the Bonzo Dog Band, died in a fire in his London flat. He had been smoking in bed.<br /> <br /> 2004- Communist China changed its constitution to say that private property is now OK.<br /> ===========================================================--------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean to “cut a rug”?<br /> <br /> Answer: It was slang in the early XX century for being able to dance well.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 04 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6398 <p>Quiz: What does it mean to “cut a rug”?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: Pres. Hoover made The Star Spangled Banner the official national anthem in 1931. There was not an official anthem before, but what song was used as the U.S. theme first?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/4/2024<br /> Birthdays: King Henry II Plantagenet, Antonio Vivaldi, Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal, Count Pulaski, Miriam Makeba, Nancy Wilson, Bernard Haittink, John Garfield, Knute Rockne, Chastity Bono, Ray “Boom-Boom” Mancini, Patsy Kensit, Katherine O’Hara is 71, James Ellroy, Mykleti Williamson. Ward Kimball, Vicky Jenson, Ken Duncan<br /> <br /> 1152- Frederick Barbarossa made Emperor of Germany. Barbarossa means 'redbeard'. Barbarossa was the Richard Lionheart of Germany. <br /> <br /> 1517- HERNANDO CORTEZ LANDED IN MEXICO. With a hostile Viceroy of Cuba between him and Spain, and only 508 men, he resolved to conquer the Aztec Empire of many millions. He even burned his ships, to force his men to conquer or die. <br /> <br /> 1554- Queen Mary Tudor published a Royal edict repudiating her father Henry VIII’s religious reforms and restoring the Roman Catholic faith to dominance in England. Protestantism and other “heresies” were forbidden. To those who didn’t agree, she became Bloody Mary.<br /> <br /> 1647- As he realized he was losing the English Civil War, King Charles I sent his son Charles II and the rest of his family to Holland for safety. Today he saw them off. They would never see him alive again.<br /> <br /> 1681- King Charles II granted a charter to William Penn and his Quakers to build a colony in the New World. Penn wanted to name the new country "New Wales" because of its hills, but King Charles disagreed. As a Quaker, Penn was too modest to have a whole colony named after him. Since the Merry Monarch was essentially paying off an old debt owed to Penn's father, Admiral Penn, who stayed loyal to him during Cromwell’s time, the king suggested the new colony be named for his father. What else was there besides hills? Lots of forest-- the King knew that woods in Latin is Sylvania. Hey, how about Penn's Woods? thus Pennsylvania.<br /> When His Majesty noticed the Quakers not removing their hats in his presence, King Charles removed his. William Penn asked: ”Sire, why dost thou remove thy hat?” The Merry Monarch replied:” Well, ONE of us is supposed to!”<br /> <br /> 1759- Madame de Pompadour secured the appointment of Etienne de Silhouette as Finance Minister and controller general. Silhouette tried to fix the chaotic French economy by raising taxes of aristocrats and cutting back their privileges. Noblemen said they had been reduced to mere shadows of their former selves. By November the king fired him, and people joking called him a shadow. Since then the word silhouette has come to mean an outline figure.<br /> <br /> 1791- Green Mountains, or in French, Vermont, territory became the 14th state. The first new state added to the original 13 colonies. Before then, Vermonters had tried to be an independent country and once during the Revolution, Ethan Allen floated secret negotiations to sell Vermont back to the British. <br /> <br /> 1793-1933, Traditional Presidential Inauguration Day. "March Forth with a New President" (get it ?) <br /> Transportation being what it was in early America, and the time it took to count votes, and the Electoral College to ratify the election results, this seemed a convenient time.<br /> Inauguration ceremonies have been as elaborate as the Trump’s $107 million inaugural, to as simple as when Tom Jefferson addressed a few invited guests indoors, then returned to have dinner alone at Conrad's Tavern.<br /> At Lincoln's second inaugural in 1865, Incoming Vice President Andrew Johnson was so nervous, he kept accepting sips of corn whisky. So before Lincoln delivered his famous speech " With Malice Towards None. With Charity for All..." Johnson was up there burbling incoherently in a drunken stupor. Lincoln had to order him pulled off the podium. In 1937 Franklin Roosevelt moved the inauguration date to the third week in January and that’s where its been ever since.<br /> <br /> 1836- Today General Santa Anna held a council of war to decide what to do about the Alamo. Many of his generals were against an attack. The Texans were cut off with little food, and there was no help coming. The Alamo had no strategic importance. So why waste men? But Santa Anna wanted to make an example of these “Yankee Land Pirates”. He ordered a grand assault on the Alamo as soon as the preparations were completed.<br /> <br /> 1861- THE STARS &amp; BARS. During the Civil War the Confederate army was having a problem with their flag. Their first design so closely resembled the United States flag that soldiers had trouble distinguishing one from the other in heavy battle smoke. Creole General Pierre Beauregard put the ladies sewing circles of New Orleans on the problem and they came up with the Stars &amp; Bars design based on the Cross of St. Andrew. <br /> <br /> 1887- William Randolph Hearst bought the little San Francisco Examiner and began to build the Hearst newspaper empire. Hearst’s father was part owner of the famed Comstock Mine, and thought his son crazy for wasting his time in the penny-paper business. Hearst died in 1951 at age 88, leaving an estate of $160 million. <br /> <br /> 1887- The first Daimler motorcar introduced in Esslingen Germany- the Daimler Benzin Motorcarriage. Daimler’s chief competition was Dr Carl Benz. In 1899, Austrian Emile Jellinek invested heavily in Daimler’s motorcars, provided he name them for his daughter Mercedes. Mercedes and Benz merged in 1926 but the two founders- Gottfried Daimler and Carl Benz never met face to face.<br /> <br /> 1902- AAA the Auto Club founded.<br /> <br /> 1917- Jeanette Rankin became the first female member of Congress. <br /> <br /> 1922- F.W. Murnau’s classic film Nosferatu, the Vampire, opened in Berlin.<br /> <br /> 1924- The song “Happy Birthday to You” copyrighted by Claydon Sunny.<br /> <br /> 1933- Franklin Roosevelt gave his famous speech“ The only thing we have to fear is, Fear itself.” at his first inauguration.<br /> <br /> 1936- Screenwriter Dudley Nichols publicly refused the Best Screenplay Oscar for John Ford’s “The Informer” as a protest in support of the struggling Writer’s Guild.<br /> <br /> 1936- First flight of the German dirigible Graf Hindenburg.<br /> <br /> 1944- Louis Lepke Buchalter went to the electric chair at Sing Sing prison. Buchalter with Albert Anastasia headed the heavy enforcement arm of Lucky Lucciano’s New York Mafia Syndicate. Nicknamed “Murder Incorporated,” the Brooklyn gang committed at least 100 murders, including Dutch Schultz, and Lucciano’s mentor Joey the Boss Masseria.<br /> <br /> 1946- Alex Raymond's comic strip 'Rip Kirby" premiered.<br /> <br /> 1952- Ronald Reagan married Nancy Davis at the Little Red Church on Coldwater Canyon Blvd. in L.A. William Holden was their best man.<br /> <br /> 1952- Ernest Hemingway wrote a letter to his publisher:" I've completed a new novel. I think it's my best one to date." The Old Man and the Sea.<br /> <br /> 1956- Burger King introduced their signature hamburger the Whopper.<br /> <br /> 1958- U.S.S. Nautilus, first nuclear sub, reached the North Pole under the ice cap. <br /> <br /> 1960- American opera baritone Leonard Warren dropped dead on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in the 2nd act of Verdi's La Forza Del Destino.<br /> <br /> 1961- In the early stages of filming Cleopatra in London, actress Elizabeth Taylor developed pneumonia and slipped into a coma. She would have died, had not doctors at a convention at London’s Dorchester Hotel performed and emergency tracheotomy. When you seen the film today you can still see the tracheotomy scar at the base of her throat.<br /> <br /> 1976- Due to the intervention of San Francisco mayor George Moscone, the Giants baseball team would stay in city by the bay. In a last minute deal, the Stoneham family sells the team to Bob Lurie and Bud Herseth instead of the Labbatt's Brewery, which had planned to move the Giants to Canada. <br /> <br /> 1982- The Abrahams/Zucker Bros TV comedy Police Squad! premiered. <br /> <br /> 1994- Basketball legend Michael Jordan went to bat for the first time in a Chicago White Sox Baseball uniform. Jordan gave up baseball after one season and returned to the NBA. <br /> <br /> 1991- During the Gulf War, US troops destroyed an Iraqi bunker concealing tons of deadly sarin nerve gas. Estimates are up to 24,000 troops were exposed to the toxic release.<br /> <br /> 1994- 375 pound comedian John Candy died of sleep apnea. He was 43.<br /> <br /> 1997- The senate of Brazil finally allowed women to wear slacks to work.<br /> <br /> 2000- The Japanese launch of Sony Playstation 2. It was designed to compete with Segas Dreamcast and Nintendo’s Cube. The Playstation 2 was the most anticipated videogame launch in history. 600,000 units were sold. One store in Tokyo’s Ginza had 4,000 people lined up at their door. It remained hot for 13 years.<br /> <br /> 2004- A New York court convicted interior decorating guru Martha Stewart of four counts of stock fraud. This was for dumping her stock in a pharmaceutical firm called InClone after getting an inside tip that their cancer cure didn’t actually work.<br /> <br /> 2008- The first Simon’s Cat short cartoon appeared on YouTube. English commercial animator Simon Tofield wanted to teach himself Adobe Flash, a 2D computer animation program. He decided to make a cartoon of his cat, and his quirky behavior. He took the results and posted it on YouTube for a laugh. It got thousands of views and made him famous. Now he has a staff, sells merchandise and is working on longer films.<br /> <br /> 2016- Disney’s Zootopia, directed by Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Jared Bush.<br /> <br /> 2018- Pixar’s Coco won the Academy Award for Best Animated Film.<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: Pres. Hoover made The Star Spangled Banner the official national anthem. There was not an official anthem before, but what song was used as the U.S. theme first?<br /> <br /> Answer: Hail Columbia ( Columbia, Gem of the Ocean).</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 02 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6397 <p>Quiz: What is the difference between a suite and a sweet?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays Question answered below: What country in Europe has a region called Istria?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/2/2024<br /> Birthdays: Sam Houston, Alexander Graham Bell, Kurt Weill, Desi Arnaz (Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III), Ted Geisel aka Dr. Suess, Mikhail Gorbachov, Willis O'Brian, Moe Berg, Karen Carpenter, Lou Reed, Jennifer Jones, John Cullum, John Irving, Tom Wolfe, animator Bob Givens, Jon Bon Jovi is 62, Daniel Craig is 56, animator Stephen Chiodo<br /> <br /> 1818- It had been thought that the Pyramids in Egypt were solid monuments with no chambers. This day Italian archaeologist Giovanni Belzoni discovered the entrance to the Great Pyramid of Giza and explored its inner corridors and burial chambers. <br /> <br /> 1836- TEXAS DECLARED INDEPENDENCE FROM MEXICO. In 1821 the Mexican Congress had given Yankee settlers permission to live in the under-populated northern province of Teijas. Soon there were 100,000 Yanquis to just 3,000 Spanish Tejanos living there. After a military coup in 1833 brought General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna to power, conditions in the outer provinces got harsh. Taxes were bad and the army sent to police them were drawn from the dregs, usually prison convicts. Mexico also wanted the American settlers to liberate their black slaves. Slavery was outlawed in Mexico. <br /> When settler’s leader Stephen Austin went to Mexico City to complain he was jailed for fomenting insurrection. Even with Santa Anna’s army closing its grip on the Alamo, the Republic of Texas independence declaration was signed this day at Washington-on-the-Brazos. One of the signers there was John Wheeler Bunton, the great grand-uncle of Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson. <br /> The Texas revolt was as much a revolt of the ethnic Mexican Teijanos as the gringos. Similar revolts broke out at the same time in California and Jalixsco, but we remember Texas because it succeeded. Most histories were written after the Civil War in the racist Reconstruction Era. It made it out to be all white Texans vs. all brown Mexicans. <br /> <br /> 1863- The Union Pacific Railroad adopted a standard track width of 4 feet 8 and 1/2 inches. The width of a Conestoga wagon. This width became the standard for the United States and later for most of the railroads of the world. Although train travel was invented in Britain, Europe was slow to adapt to it, while America, Russia and India rapidly embraced a technology that could quickly cover their vast distances quickly.<br /> <br /> 1923- THE FIRST TIME MAGAZINE. Founders Henry Luce and Claire Booth Luce were among the more powerful of the nation’s cultural elite. Conservative to the core -to the end of their days they thought Franklin Roosevelt and Civil Rights were big mistakes, they still experimented with LSD when it was thought by Harvard professors to be mind expanding. In the late 1980's the Time merged with Warner Communications to form Time-Warner, the world's largest media conglomerate.<br /> <br /> 1925- The US Government started assigning numbers to motorways and planned interstate highways. Before that roads had names like the Boston Post Road or the Baltimore to Washington Highway. <br /> <br /> 1933- "KING KONG"s exclusive premiere at the new Radio City Music Hall in New York. It opened in the rest of the country in April. “Twas Beauty killed the Beast.”<br /> <br /> 1935- The Looney Tune Cartoon "I haven’t Got a Hat" premiered. This cartoon gave birth to the first permanent Warner Bros. cartoon star- Porky Pig. <br /> <br /> 1940- SEABISCUIT. The small ungainly racehorse Seabiscuit had lost the Santa Anita Handicap Stakes twice before. Now at 7 years old, with ligament tears, he was considered all washed up. But he was entered one more time to try to win this race. The jockey Red Pollard was an alcoholic who had broken his leg and collarbone and was told he couldn’t walk, much less ever ride again. <br /> Today this unlikely duo raced one more time against odds more like a Hollywood movie than a stakes race. The Biscuit not only won his last race, but set a track record, the second fastest time ever, and the richest win for that time. It’s called one of the greatest comeback stories in sports history.<br /> When discussing the Sports Legends of the Twentieth Century- Seabiscuit and Secretariat are the only non-humans.<br /> <br /> 1940- Chuck Jones’ Elmer’s Candid Camera, where Elmer Fudd meets an early prototype of Bugs Bunny.<br /> <br /> 1943- Battle of the Bismarck Sea. U.S. Navy planes shot up a Japanese task force.<br /> <br /> 1947- Crusading Hollywood union organizer Herb Sorrell was plucked off the street in Glendale by gangsters posing as police. They may not have been just posing, many movie studios hired off-duty LAPD at double-time rates to “take care” of troublesome employees. They drove Herb up to Mulholland and worked him over, leaving him by the side of the road. Shortly after leaving the hospital, Sorrell was jailed for disturbing public peace. <br /> <br /> 1960- Wilt Chamberlain ("Wilt the Stilt") scored 100 points in one game for the Philadelphia Warriors. Wilt averaged a phenomenal 55 points per game that year and the NBA instituted a number of anti-Wilt regulations to ensure guys under 6'2 could get back in the game, like offensive goal tending, etc. Wilt also claimed to have put his off the court time to good use. He claims to have had slept with 3,000 women. <br /> <br /> 1961- Pablo Picasso married his second wife Jacqueline. He was 80, she was 35. Jacqueline cared for the increasingly reclusive artist and kept even his family at a distance. When Picasso died in 1973, she turned away many family members from the funeral. Jacqueline committed suicide in 1986.<br /> <br /> 1962- The classic Twilight Zone episode To Serve Man premiered. It’s a Cookbook!<br /> <br /> 1965- US military bombers do the first bombing raid inside of North Vietnam in a campaign that got the designation Rolling Thunder.<br /> <br /> 1965- The movie The Sound of Music opened at the Rivoli theater in Manhattan. <br /> <br /> 1971- Charles Engelhard died, a venture capitalist whose wild investments and grand lifestyle made him the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s villain Auric Goldfinger.<br /> <br /> 1972- Pioneer 10 space probe launched. The first satellite to the outer planets, it sent back the first closeup photos of Jupiter in 1973 and left our solar system in 1983. It carries a plaque with a representation of men and women, a map of the Earth and Richard Nixon’s signature on it. It is in deep space now and will reach the star Ross 246 in the constellation Taurus in the year 34,600 A.D. Boy, I can hardly wait!<br /> <br /> 1973- The Women in Film organization founded.<br /> <br /> 1976- Francis Ford Coppola began shooting his epic film “Apocalypse Now” in the Philippines. The film was plagued by cost overruns, a typhoon and his Philippine Army helicopters frequently flying off to fight real guerrillas, but somehow it all got done. Today it is considered a classic.<br /> <br /> 1979- The Anglo-French Concord supersonic airliner service introduced. It was discontinued because of bad economics in 2003.<br /> <br /> 1982- Science Fiction writer Philip K. Dick died of a stroke in Santa Ana, California. He was 53. The author of stories the movies Blade Runner, Minority Report, Total Recall and the series The Man in the High Castle were based. Dick said he was at times possessed by a superalien who appeared in his mind in a beam of pink light. His autobiography was entitled “I am alive, and you are dead.”<br /> <br /> 1989- At a photo session, NY Mets outfielder and Darryl Strawberry threw a punch at the team's first baseman, Keith Hernandez. The scuffle started over comments about salaries and ended with The Straw walking out of camp. A sportswriter for Sports Illustrated describing the fight said," Darryl Strawberry finally hit his cut off man."<br /> <br /> 2014- Walt Disney’s Frozen won the best animated feature Oscar.<br /> ===============================================================<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What country in Europe has a region called Istria?<br /> <br /> Answer: Istria is a peninsula in the Adriatic Sea that is mainly part of Croatia, but sections also belong to Italy and Slovenia.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 01 Mar 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6396 <p>Question: What country in Europe has a region called Istria?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: Suffering succotash! What exactly IS succotash?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/1/2024<br /> Birthdays: Frederic Chopin, Augustus Saint Gaudens, Glen Miller, David Niven, Oskar Kokoschka, Roger Daltry, Robert Conrad, Deke Slayton, Yitschak Rabin. Catherine Bach, Timothy Daly, Harry Belafonte, Lupita Nyongo, Ron Howard is 70, Javier Bardem is 55, Zack Snyder is 58<br /> <br /> Welcome to MARCH from MARTIUS Mensis, THE MONTH OF MARS-so named because in ancient times it was the first month that was warm enough for armies to take the field. Various warrior societies held religious ceremonies to inaugurate campaigning season. In Rome, the Salian Priests would do a ceremonial war dance with the magic shields of Mars the Avenger, dropped from heaven for Romulus. The Macedonians would split a dog in half lengthwise and parade the troops between the two halves, sort of going through the gates of Pluto.<br /> <br /> 86 BC. Roman legions of Lucius Cornelius Sulla recaptured Athens from Mithridates the king of Pontus (a part of eastern Turkey). Mithridates was defeated and committed suicide. According to Plutarch, at one point Sulla's men captured a satyr (half man-half goat) in the precincts of the temple of Artemis. Sulla questioned the supernatural creature about the history of the future, but all it would do is whinny like a goat. So he told his men to get rid of it. <br /> <br /> 589AD- HAPPY SAINT DAVIDS’ DAY- This is the traditional date of the death of St. David, the patron saint of Wales. Called the Waterman, he was a Celtic monk, abbot and bishop who became the first archbishop of Wales. He was one of many early saints who helped to spread Christianity among the pagan Celtic tribes of western Britain. Welshmen celebrate today like the Irish celebrate St. Patrick, although without the green beer.<br /> <br /> 1562-THE MASSACRE OF VASSEY- In France the Catholics and Huguenots- Protestants had been headed towards open conflict despite all attempts at mediation. In the little town of Vassey south of Dijon the Catholic Duke Du Guise became annoyed when Huguenots hymn singing in a barn disturbed his ability to hear Mass. Scuffling broke out and when the Duke got hit in the face with a stone, his retainers drew their swords and chopped up 125 people. The French Religious Wars had begun.<br /> <br /> 1579- Sir Francis Drake on board the Golden Hind made the catch of his career. In the waters off Cartegena Colombia he attacked and captured one of the great Spanish treasure ships carrying Inca gold from Peru. This one ship carried more wealth than the entire treasury of Queen Elizabeth’s England. And a fleet of these ships crossed the ocean twice a year. Drake instantly became a rich man. The galleon was called La Nuestra Senora De La Concepcion, but her crew nicknamed her “CacaFuego” which some translate as “Spitfire”, but more closely means “Hot Shit.”<br /> <br /> 1680- Pennsylvania became the first US colony to outlaw slavery.<br /> <br /> 1711- The first issue of England’s’ great periodical The Spectator first published. It was unique for a broadsheet in that it didn’t cover politics or doings at court but printed essays on social gossip, literary criticism, studies of manners and morals. It was said the Spectator helped begin the transformation of English gentry from ale-swilling philanderers to the well-bred, well-read toffs of the Victorian Era.<br /> <br /> 1777- Young artillery officer Alexander Hamilton was appointed to General George Washington’s personal staff. This marked the beginning of Hamilton’s personal relationship with Washington that would last throughout the war and his presidency. Hamilton was his constant consultant, advisor, and may have written many of Washington’s speeches. There is a rumor that GW may even have been Hamilton’s father since his only trip outside the US was to visit Bermuda. Hamilton was born illegitimately on the Virgin island of Nevis, but beyond that no evidence has ever been substantiated.<br /> <br /> 1808- Parliament outlawed the overseas slave trade within the British Empire.<br /> <br /> 1815- Napoleon Bonaparte came ashore in France near Frejus on the Riviera and marched on Paris in a desperate gamble to regain his throne. He was attacking a nation of 14 million with just 1,200 followers. After his defeat in Russia and exile to Elba the European allies restored the Bourbon King and old aristocrats to France. <br /> The old royals soon made it plain they learned nothing from the French Revolution and wanted to continue things as if it was still 1789. Little things like evicting war orphaned children into the street so some old aristocrat could have his crumbling chateau back. The Royal family also liked to spit on the tricolor flag and appeared in public in Russian uniforms, a uniform seen by French people as responsible for the deaths of many of their brothers and husbands. The people’s anger enabled Napoleon to recall old memories of Glory, and Liberte’. <br /> At the sight of the little man in the plain black hat everyone went nuts. The whole Royal Army changed sides without a shot fired. His desperate gamble became a triumphal party and he was carried on the crowd’s shoulders back into the palace.<br /> <br /> 1836- A dozen Texans from Gonzales slipped past Santa Anna’s Mexican army to join their friends in the Alamo. These are the last reinforcements to arrive. <br /> <br /> 1872- Congress okayed the creation of Yellowstone National Park. In 1878 during the military campaign against the Nez Perce Indians, Chief Joseph took his warriors through the park territory frightening some early tourists.<br /> <br /> 1896- Battle of Adwa- The Italian colonization of the ancient land of Ethiopia is halted for a generation after the invading Italian army was defeated in one big battle. Critics like to scoff that the modern Italian forces were massacred by a spear wielding foe, but in truth the legions of the Negus Negusti (king of kings, i.e. Ethiopian emperor) had been covertly rearmed by France with the latest rapid firing steel cannon. France didn’t want any encroachment on her own colonial holdings in nearby Senegal.<br /> <br /> 1912- Albert Berry completed the first parachute jump from an airplane in St. Louis Missouri.<br /> <br /> 1917- Czar Nicholas II rushed back to his rebellious capitol St. Petersburg in a private train. Today his train was blocked by revolutionaries. His train backed up and was blocked again from behind by mutinous troops. His ministers advised that the army would no longer remain loyal and he may have to abdicate.<br /> <br /> 1919- The March Movement- Korea declared its independence from Japan, Russia and China.<br /> <br /> 1924- The first Alice in Cartoonland short, “Alice’s Day at Sea” from the new Disney Brothers Studio, premiered in several theaters.<br /> <br /> 1930- Disney animator Ub Iwerks, the animator/designer of Mickey Mouse, quit the studio to set up his own place. Iwerks partner was Pat Powers, who’s Powers Cinephone was the process used to put sound on “Steamboat Willie”. Powers engineered the break between Ub and Walt when Disney refused to let Powers buy into a co-partnership in Disney Studio. Walt was stunned by the loss of one of his first employees and closest friends. Iwerks studio produced Flip the Frog Cartoons, but it eventually failed, and he'll return to Disney to invent the xerox process. <br /> <br /> 1932- Museum of Modern Art in New York held first major retrospective of the style of architecture called "THE INTERNATIONAL STYLE" Steel girder frames with large windows for walls and no ornamentation. This style pioneered by Mies Van Der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Phillip Johnson. Called by critics "vertical ice cube trays" they now dominate the skylines around the world, making Moscow and Shanghai equally unrecognizable from Pretoria, or Newark, New Jersey.<br /> <br /> 1932- THE LINDBERGH BABY KIDNAPPING. The infant son of the famous aviator was taken from his crib in their Princeton New Jersey home. Forensic science determined he was bludgeoned and buried shortly afterwards. But the kidnap plot went ahead for nine days. The kidnapper left behind a crudely written note asking for $50,000 dollars in small bills. German immigrant Bruno Richard Hauptman, the man who was convicted and executed for the crime protested his innocence to the end. But some of the ransom money was found in his apt. The New Jersey country sheriff in charge of the investigation was the father of future Gulf War general Norman Schwarzkopf.<br /> <br /> 1937- Connecticut issued the first metal license plates for autos.<br /> <br /> 1941- Congress approved designating a committee to investigate waste in Defense appropriations. It was chaired by junior Missouri Senator Harry Truman. The Truman Commission uncovered corruption and sweetheart deals among businessmen doing war work. They exposed waste, fraud, padding bills and corporations still doing business with the enemy, even after Pearl Harbor. The Truman Commission saved America millions and made Harry Truman a national figure. Truman was also a Democrat investigating within a Democratic Administration. <br /> No such committee was ever allowed for the Iraq War, and the result was billions given out in secret no-bid contracts, and over a trillion dollars never unaccounted for. <br /> <br /> 1941- The first Captain America comic book by Marvel Comics published. <br /> <br /> 1946- The National Cartoonists Society formed.<br /> <br /> 1951- Frank Sinatra was subpoenaed by the Senate Kefhauver Committee looking into the activities of the Mafia. In deference to Old Blue Eyes public persona, strings were pulled so he was allow to testify in his attorney’s private office high in 30 Rockefeller Plaza at 4:00 a.m.<br /> <br /> 1954- Puerto Rican Nationalists shot 5 Congressman on Capitol Hill. They opened fire from the visitor gallery down on the Congressman.<br /> <br /> 1961- John F. Kennedy created the Peace Corps. <br /> <br /> 1961-The Ken Doll introduced as a mate to Barbie. <br /> <br /> 1962- A huge tickertape parade in New York is held for astronaut John Glenn.<br /> <br /> 1966- The Russian probe Venera 3 landed on Venus. Although the Venera crash landed it was the first unmanned probe to land on the surface of another world.<br /> <br /> 1968- Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who presided over the Vietnam War buildup and humiliated by the Tet Offensive, resigned and was replaced by presidential advisor Clark Clifford.<br /> <br /> 1968- THE CHICANO BLOWOUTS- Discontent had been buildings in the Mexican American community over substandard teaching and facilities in California schools. One student remembered her college-prep teacher yelling at her in class “ You’re never going to college! By the end of the year you and your girlfriends will all be pregnant anyway!” This day on a given signal hundreds of High School kids stood up and walked out of class. The protests grew through the Southwest, and the American Public heard a new word – Chicano, for the first time.<br /> <br /> 1971- Radical Hippy Weathermen Movement planted a bomb in the men’s room of the US Senate. It exploded causing thousands of dollars in damage but hurting no one.<br /> <br /> 1973- Hanna-Barbera’s feature film Charlotte’s Web premiered in theaters. Directed by Charles Nichols and Iwao Takamoto.<br /> <br /> 1975- The first Honda Civics arrive in the US.<br /> <br /> 1978- Unemployed auto mechanics Gatchko Ganas and Roman Wardas broke into the tomb of Charlie Chaplin in Vevey Switzerland and stole his remains. They tried to hold it for ransom. The body was recovered and the two losers were soon arrested. They were trying to make enough money to open a car repair garage in France.<br /> <br /> 1988- Apple introduced the first commercially available CD-ROM drive for your personal computer.<br /> ============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Suffering succotash! What exactly IS succotash?<br /> <br /> Answer: It's based on The Three Sisters, a native American dish of corn, beans and squash. Most non Native Americans use tomatoes instead of squash. ( Thanks, NB)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 29 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6395 <p>Question: Suffering succotash! What exactly IS succotash?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: In Greek mythology, who slew the gorgon Medusa?<br /> ------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/29/2024 Leap Year Day<br /> 46 BC-We have a Greek thinker named Sosigenes to thank for today. He was commissioned by Julius Caesar to reform the calendar. The Roman Calendar was a system of ten months made of three weeks each consisting of ten days each. The system was so rickety that the Roman curia (government) actually had a department who’s only purpose was to tell you what day it was! <br /> January and February didn’t exist, but when they were created they were originally between March and April, until moved to their present location. February in the original plan had 30 days but Augustus’ family was angry that August only had 30 days while July had 31, so they borrowed a day from February. This Julian calendar was changed again by Pope Gregory in 1582 to the modern western calendar.<br /> <br /> Birthdays: Giacomo Rossini -Who liked to joke he was 16 years old when he was actually 67, Balthus, Jimmy Dorsey, William “ Wild Bill” Wellman, Alex Rocco, Arthur Franz, Phyllis French, Mother Ann Lee the founder of the Shakers, Dinah Shore, author Tim Powers (1952); his surreal stories often have characters with unusual birthdays.<br /> <br /> Today in Anglo-Irish custom is the only day it is considered appropriate for a woman to propose to a man.<br /> <br /> 1504- Christopher Columbus, shipwrecked on Jamaica by a hurricane, scares natives into giving him food by accurately predicting a solar eclipse.<br /> <br /> 1528- Patrick Hamilton was burned at the stake for preaching the reformed faith in Scotland.<br /> <br /> 1692- The first indictments of the notorious Salem Witch trials. Tituba, a black-Caribe servant cook of the town’s preacher, who liked to entertain his children with ghost stories of the Caribbean was arrested for witchcraft with Sarah Osbourne, an elderly deaf woman who, well... just looked like an old and spooky witch. In all 22 people were executed. Salem kept up the hysteria until the Governor of Massachusetts stopped it after his own daughter was accused.<br /> <br /> 1704- The settlement of Deerfield Massachusetts massacred and burned by French &amp; Indians as part of Queen Anne’s War.<br /> <br /> 1776- French writer and spy Pierre D’ Beaumarchais wrote a letter to King Louis XVI advising France should support the American colonies revolution against England. Beaumarchais, who later wrote the Barber of Seville, set up spy operations and under the name of a Rodrique Hortalez &amp; Company, to ship guns, gunpowder and uniforms to George Washington’s beleaguered army.<br /> <br /> 1796- JAY’S TREATY- One of the first foreign treaties negotiated by the infant American republic was a settlement of issues left over from the Revolution. The British agreed to settle the border between Canada and Vermont, and abandoned Ft. Oswego, New York. And the Americans gave up some territory and agreed not to use the St. Lawrence trade route for 25 years. This treaty was very controversial in it’s day but its effects were temporary.<br /> <br /> 1804- According to Napoleon's plans this was supposed to be the day he scheduled to cross the Channel and invade England after his navy gave beat Admiral Nelson. His Grande Army was camped all along the beach at Boulonge waiting to board transport barges. But they never got to make the trip. Nelson destroyed Nappy's fleet at Cape Trafalgar.<br /> <br /> 1908- Former Sheriff Pat Garrett, the killer of Billy the Kid, was himself gunned down while stepping off a buckboard to urinate. The assailant was in a lawsuit with Garret over a promise to remove some goats from his property.<br /> <br /> 1960- Hugh Hefner opened the first Playboy Club, this one in Chicago. The restaurant –nightclub succeeded on a gimmick of members-only keys and the famous Playboy Bunny waitresses. One Bunny said of her job,“I served London Broil in a bathing suit and heels and made more money than anyone in my family!” <br /> <br /> 1960- An earthquake killed 12,000 in Agadir Morocco.<br /> <br /> 1968- Dr. Jocelyn Burnell of Cambridge announced the discovery of the pulsar star.<br /> <br /> 1968- The Beatles win four Grammy awards for their Sgt. Pepper album.<br /> <br /> 1960- FBI agent Melvin Purvis shot himself with the gun he used to kill John Dillinger. FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover would tolerate no competitors for the title of America’s most famous cop. When Purvis' fame began to overshadow Hoovers the Director hounded him out of his job. Purvis's widow commented bitterly that the F.B.I. didn't even send a card or flowers to note the passing of their single most famous field agent. J. Edgar also ruined treasury agent Elliot Ness’ career, although some contend that the accounts of his exploits in his book "The Untouchables" were more fiction than fact.<br /> <br /> 1984- Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced his retirement after 15 years in power.<br /> <br /> 1992- Bosnian Moslems and Croats vote on a referendum on independence for Bosnia-Herzegovina. The vote was boycotted by the Bosnian-Serbs. This was seen as the start of the Bosnian Civil War. <br /> ====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: In Greek mythology, who slew the gorgon Medusa?<br /> <br /> Answer: Perseus.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 28 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6394 <p>Question: In Greek mythology, who slew the gorgon Medusa? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: What part of America was once called The Palmetto Republic?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/28/2024<br /> Birthdays: Michel de Montaigne, The Marquis de Montcalm, Zero Mostel, Vasclav Nijinsky, Molly Picon, Gavin MacCleod, Bernadette Peters, Bubba Smith, Mario Andretti, Milton Caniff- the creator of Terry and the Pirates", Ben 'Bugsy' Siegel, Tommy Tune, Vincente Minelli, Linus Pauling, Dorothy Stratton, Frank Gehry, Sir John Tenniel, John Tarturro, Gilbert Gottfried, Bernadette Peters is 76.<br /> <br /> <br /> 468AD- Today is the Feast of St. Hilarius, who was a bishop at the Synod of Brigands. Held at Ephesus in 449AD, the theological debate of Church elders over where to place the holiday of Easter got so out of hand that the Patriarch of Constantinople was beaten to death, and St. Hilarius jumped out of a window to escape the brawl.<br /> <br /> 1574- The Spanish Inquisition sets up shop in the New World. The first two Mexican Lutherans were burned at the stake in a huge auto-da-fe in Mexico City.<br /> <br /> 1745- MADAME de POMPADOUR- Jeanne Poisson d’Etoiles was not only beautiful, but highly intelligent. Even her mother predicted “she is a morsel fit for a king”. This day at a masked ball at the Paris Hotel du Ville, King Louis XV first met her. She was dressed as Diana the goddess of the Hunt. The King was dressed as a Yew Tree. Louis ennobled her with the title Madame de Pompadour. Her husband was given a job as a tax collector and told to get lost. Madame de Pompadour spent the next thirteen years not only ruling Louis’ heart but France as well, and sponsored many artists and scholars like Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot. Long after their sexual attraction faded, Jeanne remained the king’s close friend and confidante.<br /> The champagne glass was supposedly modeled from Madame de Pompadour’s breast. <br /> <br /> 1753- Pope Clement XIII finally gave permission for the Catholic Bible to be translated into languages other than Latin, something people like John Wyclif were once burned for.<br /> <br /> 1820- The birthday of Sir John Tenniel (1820-1916). The original illustrator for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass.” He was also a leading political cartoonist for Punch and the first cartoonist to ever be knighted.<br /> <br /> 1827- First U.S. Railroad incorporated The Baltimore &amp; Ohio (B&amp;O).<br /> <br /> 1835- Dr. Elias Lohnnrot published the Finnish national epic poem Kalevala. It’s about the first man Vanjiamoimmen, who was born old and searched for the magical machine called The Samo, kept in a mountain with seven locks, guarded by seven wizards chanting Samo, Samo! Modern scholars cannot agree just what the samo was, or what it did.<br /> <br /> 1882- The first college store opened, the COOP, this one attached to Harvard &amp; MIT. The COOP means Harvard Cooperative Society.<br /> <br /> 1896- Robert Paul demonstrates a kinetograph to the Royal Institute. The British Cinema industry is born.<br /> <br /> 1916- Writer Henry James died. William Faulkner said, "He was the nicest old lady I ever met." H.L. Mencken eulogized: "Henry James was an idiot, and a Boston idiot to boot, of which there is no form lower." Mencken was equally caustic of other cities.<br /> <br /> 1920- Evans vs. Gore – Al Gore’s grandfather. The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the legality of the Income Tax amendments, saying:” The power to tax carries with it the power to embarrass and destroy. “Isn’t that reassuring?<br /> <br /> 1920 Maurice Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin debuted.<br /> <br /> 1921-THE KRONSTADT REBELLION-The sailors of the Russian Baltic Fleet had been the most politically radical group in the armed forces, Trotsky's "pride and joy". Their naval guns trained on the Winter Palace helped win the Bolshevik revolution. But by 1921 they were disillusioned with "the nightmare rule of communist dictatorship" . The fleet in St. Petersburg harbor mutinied, demanding freedom of speech and press, and the right to form labor unions. Lenin and Trotsky’s reaction? ”We will shoot them down like partridges.” They sent 20,000 Red Army troops charging across the ice of the frozen harbor to attack the Red Navy. They crushed the sailor's revolt but the cost in human lives was so high the Finnish government complained of impending epidemics when the ice thaws began to wash corpses all over the Baltic coastline.<br /> <br /> 1938- Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev toured the Walt Disney Studio, and performed his piece Peter and the Wolf for Walt and his music director Leigh Harline.<br /> <br /> 1938- President Franklin Roosevelt introduced in Congress a bill to make the practice of lynching a Federal crime. After a lengthy filibuster by southern conservative senators, FDR caved and withdrew the bill.<br /> <br /> 1940- At the Oscars ceremony Hattie McDaniel became the first black actress to win an Oscar for her supporting role in Gone With The Wind. When some criticized her for portraying a stereotype black mammy, McDaniel snapped:” I’d rather make $5000 a week playing a maid than $5 a week being a maid!”<br /> <br /> 1940- Richard Wright’s novel Native Son, about growing up black in America, first published.<br /> <br /> 1942- Battle of the Java Sea. Japanese forces shoot up a U.S.-Dutch naval task force.<br /> <br /> 1949- Bob Clampett’s live puppet show Time for Beanie premiered. Bill Scott was a writer and puppeteer. Albert Einstein was a fan. Ten years later it was revived as the popular animated series Beanie and Cecil.<br /> <br /> 1953- Chuck Jones “Duck Amuck” premiered. <br /> <br /> 1953- Englishman James Watson walked into his local pub and announced to the barman” Barman, set them up. I’ve just discovered the secret of life!” That morning Watson &amp; Francis Crick had indeed came upon the DNA double helix molecule. They were building on the work of fellow scientist Rosalind Franklin. It’s been argued that Franklin was the one who actually made the discovery, but she died before Watson and Crick were awarded the Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> 1968- Former teen idol singer Frankie Lyman OD’s on heroin.<br /> <br /> 1975- A fog bank crossing Freeway 91 near Corona California caused a 300 car pile up.<br /> <br /> 1982- BP oil tycoon J. Paul Getty had died in 1976 the richest man on earth. Getty found his immediate family so annoying he left the bulk of his estate to his little Getty Museum in Malibu California. This day after all attempts of the family to challenge his will were exhausted, the Getty Museum was endowed with two billion dollars and immediately became the richest museum on earth. <br /> <br /> 1983-The last episode of the television series M*A*S*H. It was the single most watched TV episode in history.<br /> <br /> 1986- Swedish Prime Minister Olav Palme was assassinated as he left a movie theater. The murderer was never caught.<br /> <br /> 1986- Disney animator Eric Larsen retired. Larsen had stayed on to train the next generation of animators who created the 2D Renaissance of the 1990s.<br /> <br /> 1993- Government agents arriving at David Koresh’s Branch-Davidian Cultists Compound in Waco, Texas were met with gunfire. Six were killed. The FBI siege began that lasted until April 19th.<br /> <br /> 2001- Seattle rocked by a 7.0 earthquake. That’ll stir your Starbucks!<br /> <br /> 2012- Pope Benedict XVI stepped down. The first pope to resign since 1419. He died ten years later in 2022.<br /> <br /> 2023- The last Worthington Ford car dealership closed. Oklahoman Cal Worthington began selling autos in Southern California in 1951, making distinctive commercials. He died at age 96. <br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What part of America was once called The Palmetto Republic?<br /> <br /> Answer: South Carolina. South Carolina seceded weeks before enough fellow Southern states joined her in a Confederacy. Until then, they called themselves The Palmetto Republic. Local judge Pettigru said ” South Carolina is too small for a republic, and too large for an insane asylum.”</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 26 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6393 <p>Quiz: Many places are named Shangri La. Where was the original Shangri La?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: Pres. Trump was criticized for never using the Presidential forested retreat Camp David while in office. Why is it called Camp David?<br /> --------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------<br /> History for 2/ 26/2024<br /> Birthday: King Wenceslas of Bohemia-1361, Frances Marion, Victor Hugo, Buffalo Bill Cody, Emma Destin, Levi Strauss, Jackie Gleason, Fats Domino, Betty Hutton, Johnny Cash, William Frawley, Robert Alda, Tony Randall- born Arthur Rosenberg, Erhyke Bahdu, Fred “Tex” Avery<br /> <br /> 747 B.C. In Sumer, it is the beginning of the Age of Nabronassar.<br /> <br /> 500s BC-391AD, HAPPY ANTHESTERION- the Ancient Greek holiday of Death and Spring. Dedicated jointly to Dionysus and Hermes Kthoninos- (Underworld). The Greeks believed ghosts weren’t as scary as they were annoying. If you didn’t bury the dead properly with spices and a coin in the mouth for the Chaeron the Boatman of the River Styx, they became ghosts. They would haunt you by moping around, turning up at inappropriate moments, predicting your death, bleeding on your lunch, etc. So this festival was a sort of visiting hours for the other world. <br /> You left your door open and cooked a meal for the spirits so they could spend a day visiting their old haunts (forgive the pun). This way they would not annoy you the rest of the year. This festival was also considered a festival of flowers to usher in Spring. <br /> Most Greeks spent all three days of the festival drunk.<br /> <br /> 393AD- Today is the feast day of Saint Porphyry, who made it rain in Gaza.<br /> <br /> 1773- Construction began in Philadelphia on the Walnut Street Jail, a Quaker alternative to physical punishment, where Penitents could reflect on their crimes- the first Penitentiary. The other innovation was individual cells instead of the large room common in colonial jails. All nations have jails but only America has penitentiaries.<br /> <br /> 1775- Leslie’s Retreat. In Boston, British General Gage sent a Colonel Leslie with a column of soldiers to Salem Mass to confiscate a store of weapons the colonists had. The Redcoats played Yankee Doodle on the march, then a form of insult to Americans. They were stopped at a river crossing by a line of heavily armed Massachusetts colonists. Leslie didn’t want a showdown, so he negotiated, while other neighbors smuggled the illegal weapons into the forest. Leslie went back empty handed. The American Revolution started a few weeks later at Lexington &amp; Concord.<br /> <br /> 1815- Napoleon and his followers escaped his exile island of Elba and sailed to France for another try for power. He had less than a thousand followers to try to re-conquer a nation of 14 million. <br /> <br /> 1854- Composer Robert Schumann went mad and jumped off a bridge into the Rhine River. He was fished out and institutionalized. His schizophrenia grew out of advanced syphilis. He said he was not committing suicide but had thrown his wedding ring into the river to free his wife Clara of him. He then relented and leaped into the raging ice filled water to get it back.<br /> Ironically this drama was played out during his town’s winter carnival celebrations. The tragedy of seeing his friend and teacher collapse moved young Johannes Brahms to write his First Piano Concerto. It was rumored that Clara Schuman and young Brahms had a fling as well.<br /> <br /> 1907- British Oil and Royal Shell merge to form British Petroleum- BP Company.<br /> <br /> 1929- Congress declared the Grand Tetons a national park.<br /> <br /> 1935- Adolf Hitler revealed to the world press that Germany had built the Luftwaffe, the worlds’ largest air force. This was a direct violation of the restrictions placed on Germany in the Versailles Treaty. Germany awaited the response, which was nothing.<br /> <br /> 1936- The NINIROKU JIKEN. Or the Coup of 2-26. Young Japanese officers led four regiments to attempt a takeover the government in Tokyo. They killed several government ministers, including two former prime ministers, and tried unsuccessfully to assassinate Prime Minister Okada. The coup collapsed when Emperor Hirohito declared he would personally lead his Imperial Guard against them if they would not stand down. The anti-war Prime Minister was later assassinated by another officer. Despite the coup’s failure, the surviving peace-party politicians were now too intimidated to block the Imperial Army plans for continued conquest in Asia. <br /> <br /> 1942- Walt Disney received the Irving Thalberg Award at the Academy Awards. Leopold Stokowski got a special Oscar for his work on Fantasia, Frank Churchill and Oliver Wallace won Best Score for Dumbo.<br /> <br /> 1951- The 22nd Amendment ratified limiting the President to two four-year terms. This was passed by a Republican Conservative dominated Congress. They were determined to never have something like Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four terms again. <br /> <br /> 1962- First day shooting on the first James Bond film Dr. No. The scene was in M's office and featured Bernard Lee, Peter Burton and their new discovery, Sean Connery.<br /> <br /> 1965- First day of shooting on the Beatle's second film 'Help!"<br /> <br /> 1983- Michael Jackson’s album Thriller went to #1 in the pop charts and stayed for weeks. Twenty-six year later, after Jackson’s death in 2009, Thriller again went to #1 around the world.<br /> <br /> 1985- New York Police under District Attorney Rudy Giuliani arrested most of the leaders of the New York Mafia families called The Commission. Despite this highly touted raid, the mob rebuilt, so that another big raid was necessary in 2010.<br /> <br /> 1986- Dragon Ball Z premiered in Japan<br /> <br /> 1990- Cornell Gunther, lead singer for the DooWop group the Coasters, was shot dead at a Las Vegas intersection."Yakkety-Yak, Don't Talk Back!"<br /> <br /> 1991- At a meeting in Switzerland, Tim Berners-Lee introduced the first Web Browser.<br /> <br /> 1991-The Highway of Death- During Gulf War One, The U.S. Air Force fighter bombers caught a long column of Iraqi army vehicles fleeing on an open desert road with no cover. No one is sure how many Iraqis were killed but easily over a thousand.<br /> <br /> 1993- THE FIRST WORLD TRADE CENTER ATTACK. Followers of Muslim extremist cleric Omar Abdel Rahman set off a large truck bomb in New York's World Trade Center. The bomb created a five-story crater in level B-2 of the underground parking structure. It killed 7 and injured over one thousand. 50,000 had to be evacuated from the twin towers for smoke inhalation. But the Twin Towers remained standing.<br /> It has been speculated that one reason there were not even more deaths in the collapse of 9-11, was because much of the office workers experienced this 1993 attack, so they already knew exactly how to evacuate the towers quickly. President Clinton’s Justice Dept had all the perpetrators in jail within a year. When planner Ramsay Youssef was being flown out of New York to his 240 year imprisonment, the plane flew over Manhattan by the World Trade Center. He was reported to have sighed: “….should have used more dynamite.”<br /> <br /> 1996- Silicon Graphics Corp (SGI) bought Cray Research. <br /> <br /> 2002- Terminal 1 of Sacramento Airport was evacuated because of a suspicious package that might be a bomb. Turns out it contained a Mickey Mouse snow globe.<br /> <br /> 2012- In Florida, 16 year old Trayvon Martin was walking home after buying a bag of Skittles, when he was shot to death by a self-appointed vigilante George Zimmerman. Zimmerman claimed self-defense and was acquitted in a trial with heavily racist overtones.<br /> <br /> 2014- Vladimir Putin invaded the Crimea, which was then part of Ukraine.<br /> <br /> 2017- Disney's Zootopia won best animated feature Oscar, and Pixar's Piper won best animated short.<br /> ===========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Pres. Trump was criticized for never using the Presidential forested retreat Camp David while in office. Why is it called Camp David?<br /> <br /> Answer: The Caitochin military base in the mountains of Frederick County Maryland, was converted into a Presidential retreat by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935. He called it ShangriLa. In the 1950s President Dwight Eisenhower renamed it after his newly born grandson David. So Camp David it has remained.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 24 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6392 <p>Question: What was the only Hollywood movie to have 2 Nobel Prize winners working on the script? <br /> <br /> Yesterdays Quiz answered below: In the 1960s, what was the Counterculture?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/24/2024<br /> B-Dazes: Roman Emperor Hadrian, Winslow Homer, Arrigo Boito, Wilhelm Grimm (of the brothers Grimm), Honus Wagner- early 1900’s baseball player called the Flying Dutchman, Admiral Chester Nimitz, Edward James Olmos, Barry Bostwick, Michel Legrand, James Farentino, illustrator Zdzislaw Beskinski, Michael Radford, Billy Zane, Steve Jobs, Abe Vigoda, Bob Kinoshita who designed the robot from Lost in Space. <br /> <br /> 495BC-The Roman Festival REGIFUGIUM in honor of the founding of the Roman Republic. The king of Rome, Tarquinus Superbus -Tarquin the Proud, capped off a history of arrogant rule when he raped Lucretia, the daughter of a nobleman named Horatius. She tells her dad, so he stabbed her to save her further shame. (I guess that's 'tough love 'or something.) The Roman people led by the Horatius family and his kinsmen Marcus Brutus drove out King Tarquin and established a republic. <br /> For the next 450 years Rome was a democracy led by a Senate, from "senates" or elders, electing two Consuls (presidents) a year, with the common people’s spokesmen called Tribunes of the Plebs, who could veto legislation. The motto of the Republic Romans would carry to the ends of the earth was S.P.Q.R.- Senatus Populusque Romanum -The Senate and the People of Rome.<br /> <br /> 138AD- Antoninus Pius adopted as co-emperor by the aging Emperor Hadrian.<br /> <br /> 616AD- King Ethelred of Mercia died. He was baptized by Saint Augustine of Canterbury and he did a lot to convince the other Saxon kings of Britain to accept Christianity and stamp out pagan rituals. He built one of the earliest churches in London, and became Saint Ethelred after his death. <br /> <br /> 1582- THE GREGORIAN CALENDAR reforms announced- Because our Earth is a big wobbly rock on an asymmetrical orbit Julius Caesar’s 366 day calendar was losing 11 minutes every year since 45BC. For years medieval scientists like Dennis Exigius, Abu Abdalah Mohammed and Roger Bacon noticed something wasn’t quite right. By 1582, the calendar was 11 days off the solar year. Pope Gregory XI had scientist Dionysius Ingratius revised the calendar of Julius Caesar by using a 400 year cycle of 365 days with a leap day every four years and no leap year when it occurred every fourth century. <br /> <br /> 1711- Handel’s opera Rinaldo premiered in London.<br /> <br /> 1784- Alexander Hamilton established the Bank of New York, the second oldest private bank in North America. At first the Mayor DeWitt Clinton refused to grant the bank a charter. He said “corporations are sinister plots aimed at the average citizen…” <br /> <br /> 1836- As Mexican cannon pounded the Alamo, Jim Bowie took ill and was invalid to the fort’s hospital, where he remained until the end. Historians dispute whether he developed a fever or something venereal. Col William Travis now assumed overall command. He had a message slipped out past Mexican lines-“ To the People of Texas and all Americans in the World” He appealed for aid and ended his message with a bold “Victory or Death!”<br /> The message was reprinted in newspapers throughout the US. The Alamo received no help, but the fiery message assured that the little doomed outpost would hold the attention of the everyone in North America.<br /> <br /> 1848- THE FRENCH SECOND REPUBLIC IS DECLARED. King Louis Phillipe whom Daumier caricatured as a fat pear in a frock coat and top hat, was overthrown. Austrian diplomat Baron Metternich predicted: When Paris sneezes, Europe catches cold. Sure enough, inspired by the French example, urban working class revolts break out all over Europe. Berliners,Viennese, Romans,Venetians, Hungarians, Saxons and Poles all rose up and battled royal troops in the streets. 1848 is remembered as the "Year of Revolutions". <br /> <br /> 1852- Russian writer and hypochondriac Nicolai Gogol burned the second half of his masterpiece DEAD SOULS on advice of a religious mystic to atone for his sins. He died two weeks later of "brain fever".<br /> <br /> 1868- The U.S. House of Representatives voted 11 articles of Impeachment against President Andrew Johnson. Of the 11 charges only one made any legal sense, that was Johnson’s ignoring the Tenure of Office Act and firing his own Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. This act was later overturned as unconstitutional. The other charges were things like “He made such speeches wherein he spoke disparagingly of this Congress.” etc. Johnson said:” Impeach and Be Damned!” He was acquitted in the senate by only one vote. Nobody feels too sympathetic towards Andrew Johnson. He was a narrow-minded racist who’s re-election campaign slogan was “ This nation was made for the white man.” He lost to Grant. <br /> <br /> 1895- Jose Marti’ began the Cuban war of independence against Spain.<br /> <br /> 1912- The Jewish aid organization Hadassah founded.<br /> <br /> 1914- General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the Maine theology professor who became a hero at the Battle of Gettysburg, and was made a general by Grant in 1864 only because he was so badly wounded, Grant figured he wouldn’t live much longer anyway. Gen. Chamberlain actually outlived Grant by thirty years and today finally died of old age. <br /> <br /> 1928- French serial killer Henri Landru, called BLUEBEARD, was executed by guillotine. Landru married ten times, bringing the ladies up to his home, murdering them, and burning them in his furnace. He'd then live off their estates and sell their furniture. When the prosecutor said :"So, you made a career out of the suffering and swindling of others !" Landru replied:" No monsieur, I am not a lawyer."<br /> <br /> 1937- MGM studio announced it acquired the rights to L. Frank Baum’s book The Wizard of Oz, to be made into a movie for their new star Judy Garland. They won out over Walt Disney and Hal Roach.<br /> <br /> 1942- The radio service The Voice of America first went on the air.<br /> <br /> 1943- Fed up with the bad climate in the studio because of the Strike, master animator Bill Tytla resigned from the Walt Disney Studio.<br /> <br /> 1944- Merrill’s Marauders, a special ops trained group of Army Rangers, entered the jungles of Burma to do battle against the Japanese.<br /> <br /> 1961- Dr. Richard Leakey in Tanzania discovered the oldest known human skull. <br /> <br /> 1968- THE TET OFFENSIVE ENDS- With the U.S recapture of the old Imperial city of Hue, the Vietnamese Tet Lunar offensive was declared over. North Vietnamese General Vo Giap, the mastermind of Dien Bien Phu, had planned this assault as his masterstoke to win the war. It's failure cost him his job and destroyed the Viet Cong as an effective force. And their mass executions of South Vietnamese civilian officials cost them much civilian support and lengthened the war. <br /> Yet even though the Vietnamese communists were strategically defeated, the battle showed the world that after years of maximum effort by the world’s most powerful country, the little North Vietnamese army was as formidable as ever. While American generals requested more troops, they already had 450,000, White House strategists like Clark Clifford began to think withdrawal.<br /> <br /> 1981- Long Island socialite Jean Harris was convicted of murdering Dr. Herbert Tarnnower, author of the popular Scarsdale Diet.<br /> <br /> 1987- US Robotics sold the first 56k modems.<br /> <br /> 1988- PARODY LAWS- The US Supreme Court upheld the right of public figures to be satirized, by throwing out a lawsuit Rev Jerry Falwell brought against Hustler Magazine owner Larry Flynt. Flynt published a gag about Rev Falwell having sex with his mother in an outhouse. Falwell tried to sue for libel. The Court ruled a public figure can be lampooned, so long as it is not presented as factual.<br /> <br /> 1989- According to the David Lynch television series Twin Peaks this is the day Laura Palmer’s body was found and F.B.I. agent Dale Cooper came to town to investigate.<br /> <br /> 1996- Los Angeles Angel Flight reopened.<br /> <br /> 1997- The announcement of the first successful cloning of a mammal embryo, a sheep named Dolly in Scotland. To prove even though they're research scientists 'boys will be boys', They used cells from a mammary gland to do the cloning, so they named their creation after busty singer Dolly Parton. After a series of illnesses, the animal was put down in 2003, living half the life span of a normal sheep, but she mated and had healthy babies normally.<br /> <br /> 2003- State Farm Insurance Company announced that they would add a clause into future car insurance policies that Nuclear Explosions and Terrorist Biological Agents would not be classified as Road Hazards and so not covered. Yep, if a Hydrogen Bomb goes off in my neighborhood, my first concern will be about my insurance premiums.<br /> <br /> 2008- Pixar’s Ratatouille won the Oscar for best animated feature.<br /> <br /> 2013- Pixar’s Brave won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.<br /> <br /> 2019- Spiderman into the Spiderverse won the Oscar for best animated feature.<br /> <br /> 2022- Vladimir Putin’s Russia invaded the Republic of Ukraine. Two years later he still can’t explain why. Expected to fall in a week, the Ukrainian people rallied behind their President Vlodomir Zelensky and fought back heroically. When the U.S. offered him and his family a flight out of the country to safety, he replied, “What I need is ammunition, not a ride….”<br /> ============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: In the 1960s, what was the Counterculture?<br /> <br /> Answer: The counterculture was the Hippie movement. They believed in getting back to the land, conservation, wearing upcycled clothing (jeans were working man's clothes) making things by hand, and following Buddhist or (in some cases) Native traditions. Marijuana was cool. Other drugs were for the wannabees. (Thanks, NB)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 23 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6391 <p>Quiz: In the 1960s, what was the Counterculture?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: The Byzantine Empire. Where exactly was it?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/23/2024<br /> Birthdays: George Fredrich Handel, Samuel Pepys (pronounced 'peeps'), Mayer Amschel Rothschild-1743- founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty, Victor Fleming, W.E.B. DuBois, Retta Scott- the first female animator at Disney, Casimir Funk (who invented vitamins), Johnny Winter, Peter Fonda, William Shirer, Allan MacLeod Cormack-inventor of the CAT Scan, Kelly MacDonald, Tom Bodet, Neal McDonough, Kristin Davis is 59, Emily Blunt is 41, Dakota Fanning is 30.<br /> <br /> 303 A.D. DIOCLETIAN RENEWED THE BAN ON CHRISTIANITY. The Roman Empire recognized a cult as ‘religo’ (officially sanctioned) or “supersticio” ( banned ). After Nero's death in 64, the pattern of Christian persecution raised and lowered with each emperor. When Diocletian became emperor he made it his mission to stop the Roman Empire's decline. So, if weirdo cults like Christianity were part of the problem, then it had to go. <br /> While Nero tortured people only in Rome, Diocletian demanded a systematic quota of executions in every part of the Empire. A lot of saints date their martyrdoms around this time 295-305 AD. <br /> What Diocletian couldn't foresee was that ten years later the son of one of his own generals, Constantine, would make Christianity the official religion of the Empire in 312.<br /> <br /> 1539- The Viceroy of New Spain Antonio Mendoza organized an expedition under Don Francisco de Coronado to march north from Vera Cruz and find El Dorado, the fabulous Seven Cities of Cibola. For two years Coronado wandered the American Southwest as far north as Kansas and Oklahoma. He discovered marvels like the Grand Canyon and the Painted Desert, but found no cities of gold. When he returned to Spain, he was arrested for wasting government money.<br /> <br /> 1568- Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great stormed the great Rajput fortress of Chitoor. His warriors fought with Mongol bows, cannon, matchlock rifles and armored war elephants, trained to squish enemies. <br /> <br /> 1593-The Uppsala Murta- the Uppsala Declaration. The Swedish Diet declared that the national religion of Sweden would forever be Lutheran Protestantism.<br /> <br /> 1819- The CATO STREET CONSPIRACY- English radicals led by Sir Roger Thistlewood plot to murder the entire British cabinet including the Duke of Wellington as they dined after the opening of Parliament. Then they would institute a French Revolutionary style republic in Jolly-Old England! Odds Fish! But fear not, an informer disclosed the plan to the government. On this night constables raided the nefarious plotters at their Cato-Street hideout and nabbed the whole bunch! Britain was safe once more!<br /> <br /> 1821- In a house in Rome’s Piazza de Espagna, 25 year old English poet John Keats died of tuberculosis. As he was dying he joked: ” I can feel daisies growing over me”. He instructed that his grave marker bear only the self-deprecating message” Here lies one Who’s Fame was Written in Water.”<br /> <br /> 1836- Santa Anna's Mexican army of 7,000 surrounded the mission called the Alamo, which had 185 Texas defenders. Santa Anna ordered the buglers to call to parley. Col. Travis answered with a cannon shot, which Jim Bowie thought was rather rash. Santa Anna then called for the raising of a red flag from a church steeple in San Antonio de Bejar, and his trumpeters sounded the Deguello, a call signifying that he intended to take no prisoners. <br /> <br /> 1847-Battle of Buena Vista- General Zachary Taylor defeated the Mexican army. <br /> <br /> 1861-Warned of death threats, and riots in pro-secessionist Maryland towns, President-elect Abraham Lincoln snuck into Washington D.C. at 3:15 AM. Abe, sporting his newly grown whiskers, was dressed in disguise and escorted by his bodyguard Lehman and Charles Pinkerton, a former Scottish barrel maker, who had set up the first detective agency in the United States. Pinkertons advertising created the name Private Eye for detective.<br /> <br /> 1873- Seattle Mayor Corliss B. Stone embezzled the towns entire treasury, $15,000, and skipped town with his girlfriend, who was married to another. Bye-bye!<br /> <br /> 1886- the Johnson Wax Company formed. <br /> <br /> 1892- Rudolph Diesel patented the Diesel Engine.<br /> <br /> 1898- French writer Emile Zola was arrested and charged with libel for his J'Accuse newspaper article that exposed the cover up of the Dreyfus Scandal. He jumped bail and fled to England until the scandal brought down the government.<br /> <br /> 1905- The Rotary Club founded.<br /> <br /> 1915- In Berlin, a secret pact was concluded between the German government and Irish nationalist leader Sir Roger Casement. In it Germany pledged to supply Casement with guns, artillery and even German officers to aid the Irish people to revolt against Britain. The Irish never got more than a shipload of rifles, but the Easter Sunday Uprising of 1916 was the result. Casement was arrested on the beach by the British trying to stop the rebellion from breaking out.<br /> <br /> 1926- President Calvin Coolidge said he was against the creation of a large US Air force because it “would be a menace to world peace.” <br /> <br /> 1927- Animator Les Clark began work at the Walt Disney Studio. He was the first of Walt’s Nine Old Men. <br /> <br /> 1935- Walt Disney cartoon "The Band Concert." The first color Mickey Mouse cartoon.<br /> <br /> 1939 - Walt Disney received a special Oscar for his classic 83-minute animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, at the 11th Academy Awards held at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California.<br /> Eleven-year-old child star Shirley Temple presented Walt with one statuette and seven miniature statuettes for "a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field for the motion picture cartoon." (Film director Frank Capra came up with the idea of a full-sized Oscar statuette with seven smaller ones descending in a row.) A regular category for best animated feature would not exist until 2001.<br /> <br /> 1940- Walt Disney’s second animated feature Pinocchio went into general release in theaters. It had a limited run since December.<br /> <br /> 1942- In the dead of night a Japanese submarine surfaced off the California coast and fired its cannon at lights it thinks is a city. In reality, it was an oil refinery just north of Santa Barbara. The brief bombardment caused $150 dollars in damage. The sub broke radio silence to report to Tokyo that " Enemy coast sighted. Los Angeles is in Flames." The incident was lampooned in the Steven Spielberg comedy "1941."<br /> <br /> 1960 - The Day Brooklyn Cried'- After the Dodgers moved west to Los Angeles, Flatbush’s Ebbets Field baseball stadium went under the wrecking ball and became a low income housing project.<br /> <br /> 1981- The Moscardo Coup. Disgruntled Spanish Fascists missed the good old days under Franco, who died 6 years ago. This day 200 members of the Guardia Civil police attacked the Spanish Parliament and held the lawmakers hostage. A Colonel Moscardo yelled threats on television and waved a pistol in the air. The coup was crushed after 18 hours thanks in no small part to King Juan Carlos, who appeared in nationwide television in uniform and called upon the people to defend their democracy.<br /> <br /> 1991- DESERT STORM, The Ground War to liberate Kuwait began. The US Army was led by Gen. Colin Powell, who was originally from the South Bronx, and in the spearhead column was the French Foreign Legion, then recruited from unemployed Liverpool and Manchester soccer hooligans. Scary bunch.<br /> <br /> 1994- The Russian Mir space station had been in space since 1986 but was starting to show it’s age. A booster ship sent with supplies collided with Mir during a bad-docking maneuver. This day an oxygen fire filled the Mir Space Station with smoke. The fire is put out but it’s just the beginning of 6 months of privation, accidents and hair-raising close-calls for the joint Russian-German crew, and lone American astronaut Jerry Leninger. Mir was retired in 2002 and burned up on re-entry.<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++<br /> Yesterday’s Question: The Byzantine Empire. Where exactly was it?<br /> <br /> Answer: When the Roman Empire fell, only the Western part fell. The Eastern, Greek-speaking part continued on another couple of centuries. Centered on their capitol Constantinople (Istanbul) comprising modern Greece, Turkey, Egypt and the Middle East to Armenia. We call them Byzantines to tell the difference.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 22 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6390 <p>Quiz: The Byzantine Empire. Where exactly was it?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: What was a hoplite?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/22/2024<br /> Birthdays: Hungarian King Ladislas the Posthumous-1440, Shah Tahmasp I-1514, George Washington, Frederic Chopin, Edward St. Vincent Millay, John Mills, Edward Gorey, Luis Bunuel, Ted Kennedy, Dr. J- Julius Erving, Dwight Frye- Renfield in Dracula, Sparky Anderson, Sheldon Leonard, Charlie O. Finley, Nicky Lauda, Don Pardo, Jonathan Demme, Jeri Ryan, Lea Salonga is 53, Kyle McLachlan is 63, Rachael Dratch is 58, Steve Erwin, Drew Barrymore is 49<br /> <br /> 1495- French King Charles VIII with his invading army entered Naples in triumph. Charles was pushing his family claims to the throne of the Kingdom of Naples. The ease with which his forces brushed aside the armies of the Italian citystates proved how rich and defenseless Renaissance Italy had become. For the next few centuries Italy would be the gameboard for armies from Germany, France, Austria, Turkey and Spain. Italian territory would not free of foreign control until 1918! <br /> <br /> 1732- GEORGE WASHINGTON born- Alexander Hamilton called him "Talented but Dull". Thomas Paine called him: "A compleate hippocryte". John Adams called him “Old Muttonhead” that he’d rather strike leadership poses than actually lead, But Thomas Jefferson called him the" Indispensable Man" who assured that this strange new system of elected chief executive would not lapse into a dictatorship or royalty. <br /> SO HERE’S TO- a successful General who lost more battles than won them, <br /> -Who donated much of his personal fortune to the Revolution, accepted no pay, yet ended the war with a profit; <br /> - who had a whiskey still at Mt. Vernon, and grew hemp -for rope; <br /> - Who had few close friends and disliked people touching him;<br /> - Who’s first ambition was to be an officer in the British Army. <br /> - Who much preferred conversation about methods of raising squash and greenbeans to discussing his military campaigns.<br /> - Who never went to college.<br /> - Who’s inability to produce children prevented an American royal family.<br /> - Who was turned down for a bank loan the day he was elected President.<br /> - Who wrote about freeing his slaves, but worried what his neighbors might think.<br /> -Who set the example of how an ex-president should behave in society. Not as an ex-king, but just another private citizen.<br /> - Who never used the word God, Jesus, or quoted the Bible in any of his letters or speeches. <br /> - Who on his deathbed turned down a priest who offered to give him the Last Rites.<br /> And without whom, the United States would not look the same. Happy Birthday GW!<br /> <br /> 1774- The English House of Lords announced that authors do not have a perpetual copyright on their works, but they must be periodically renewed.<br /> <br /> 1775- The first IPO- the American Manufactuary of Woolins, Linens &amp; Cottons became the first U.S. company to offer stock to the public- ten English pounds a share.<br /> <br /> 1782- After the news of the big defeat at Yorktown, Whig member of parliament William Conroy stood up in the House of Commons and called for Great Britain to finally withdraw from America and recognize the independence of the United States.<br /> <br /> 1805- Birth in England of Sarah Flowers Adams, whose poetry is in the hymn “Nearer My God to Thee.”<br /> <br /> 1821- As part of the Adams-Otis Treaty, Spain renounced her claims to Oregon. <br /> <br /> 1836- Texans defending the Alamo held a fiesta in San Antonio to celebrate Washington’s Birthday. Dancing, tequila, and corn whisky flowed. Davey Crockett played his fiddle. But the party was interrupted when scouts brought word that the first elements of General Santa Anna’s army were headed their way, only 8 miles away.<br /> <br /> 1848- John Quincy Adams had a stroke on the floor of Congress and died. He was the son of John Adams and was one of the only U.S. presidents to go back to being a congressman after losing re-election. I believe the only other was Andrew Johnson. Quincy Adams got his stroke speaking out on a bill to award Mexican War officers a ceremonial sword -he was anti-war. <br /> <br /> 1879- Frank Winfield Woolworth opened his first Five &amp; Ten Cent-store in Utica, New York. F.W. Woolworths became a major national chain of stores.<br /> <br /> 1889- Montana, the Dakotas and Washington State admitted into the union.<br /> <br /> 1909- The Great White Fleet returned to Hampton Roads Virginia after 14 months circumnavigating the world. At a time when battleships were the nukes of international policy, Teddy Roosevelt sending this fleet of 16 battleships on tour was making the statement that the U.S planned to be a world power player. <br /> <br /> 1911-The Kester Ranch in the San Fernando Valley became the town of Van Nuys, named for early settler Issac Newton Van Nuys. His father-in-law was Issac Lankershim.<br /> <br /> 1912-”MY HAT IS IN THE RING!” Teddy Roosevelt announced his intention to challenge for the Republican Presidential nomination against his own hand picked successor William Howard Taft. Roosevelt and Taft were once close friends, but now Teddy called Taft a “Puzzlewit” and “Fathead”. The Taft -Roosevelt feud split the Republican Party and allowed Democrat Woodrow Wilson to defeat them both. <br /> Roosevelt also split the progressive left wing off the Republicans that completed the process began in the Gilded Age of turning the radical party of Lincoln into America’s Tory conservatives. When Theodore Roosevelt was buried in 1919 the last mourner to linger weeping over his grave was William Howard Taft.<br /> <br /> 1913- Mexican President Francisco Madero assassinated by General Huerta who seized power. The gentle Madero- his enemies called him "the Christ-Fool", was elected after the longtime dictator Porfilio Diaz was finally turned out. His assassination caused a new wave of revolutionary civil war waged by Pancho Villa, Emilio Zapata and Miguel Carranza. President Woodrow Wilson refused to recognize the Huerta government and by doing so only fueled anti-American sentiment.<br /> <br /> 1929- Grand Central Airport in Glendale dedicated. Los Angeles first major airport. <br /> <br /> 1924- President Coolidge becomes first president to address the nation over the radio.<br /> <br /> 1941- Nazis begin arresting the Jews of Amsterdam.<br /> <br /> 1945- The Arab League is formed in Cairo.<br /> <br /> 1946- Dr. Selman Abraham created Streptomycin, the first antibiotic drug. <br /> <br /> 1946- THE KENNAN REPORT- U. S. charges des affaires in Moscow George Kennan sent a long telegram to Washington in which he analyzed Soviet foreign policy. "Soviet Power is impervious to the logic of Reason, but responds to Force, and when confronted by sufficient force and determination it usually backs down." Kennan's report created the US strategic policy to confront global Communism directly. It gave philosophical justification to the proxy wars in Greece, Korea, Cuba and Vietnam, as well as the support of Spain’s Franco, Indonesia’s Suharto, Pinochet’s Chile and Iran’s Shah because of their anti-Communist stances.<br /> <br /> 1957- Queen Elizabeth II’s husband Phillip was raised from Duke of Edinburgh to Prince of Edinburgh.<br /> <br /> 1957- The Incredible Shrinking Man premiered, directed by Jack Arnold. Written by Richard Matheson.<br /> <br /> 1965- General William Westmoreland asks for two marine battalions to protect the DaNang airbase. First U.S. troops sent to Vietnam not as advisers but as fighting units.<br /> <br /> 1967- General Suharto assumed power in Indonesia after crushing a communist insurgency threatening his predecessor Sukarno. <br /> <br /> 1979- Happy Saint Lucia Independence Day!<br /> <br /> 1980- Underdog U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated Soviet team 4-3 for the gold medal. The summer games in Moscow were boycotted, not the winter. The two teams did not meet again until the 2002 games in Utah where they skated to a 2-2 tie.<br /> <br /> 2002- Animator, director Chuck Jones passed away at age 89.<br /> <br /> 2009- The Indian film Slumdog Millionaire won best picture and best cinematography at the 81st Academy Awards. The first movie to win that was shot completely digital, with no celluloid film used.<br /> =====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s question below: What was a hoplite?<br /> <br /> Answer: The ancient Greek word for foot soldier.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 21 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6389 <p>Quiz: What was a hoplite?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: Who were Keitel and Jodl? (hint: World War 2)<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------<br /> HISTORY for 2/21/2024<br /> Birthdays: Leopold Delibes, C. Brancusi, Anais Ninn, W.H. Auden, Hubert de Givenchy, Era Bombeck, Sam Peckinpah, Nina Simone, Robert Mugabe, Joe Oriolo, John Lewis, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Kelsey Grammar is 69, Jennifer Love Hewitt is 45, Alan Rickman, Elliot Page is 37. David Geffen is 81, Jordan Peele is 45, Pebbles Flintstone is 61. <br /> <br /> 1613- The Russian parliament the Zemsky Sobor elected Michael Romanov as the new Czar. This ended the period of dynastic struggle and invasion called the Time of Troubles. It was also the last time a representative parliament decided anything in Russia until 1991. The Romanov Family ruled Russia until the Revolution of 1917 and are still around, should Russia ever want a monarchy again.<br /> <br /> 1719- A London weekly announced “Mr Handel, a Famous Master of Music, is gone beyond the sea, by order of His Majesty, to collect a company of the choicest singers in Europe for the Opera in the Haymarket.” The London Opera is born. On his recruiting trip George Frederich Handel passed through his hometown of Halle. <br /> A few hours after he was gone another musician came to town, having walked 25 miles just to meet this great German composer who was the toast of England. He was Johann Sebastian Bach. But he was too late. The two giants of classical music would never meet each other.<br /> <br /> 1803- Irish rebel Col. Edward Despard was executed at Horsemonger Lane Gaol for plotting to assassinate King George III. The last person to ever be sentenced to the medieval punishment of being drawn and quartered. But by now the public thought it was so gruesome, that it was partly commuted. Despard was hanged, and his body beheaded without any further butchery. The disappointed crowd booed the executioner.<br /> <br /> 1814- This day Captain De Berenger, a French exile aristocrat in the British Army, arrived in London with amazing news from the continent- that Napoleon Bonaparte had been defeated and killed by the Russians. The war was over! London went wild with celebrations and exiled French King Louis XVIII held a celebratory ball. But the story was a fake. Napoleon was alive and would wage war for two more years. <br /> De Berenger was part of an elaborate stock fraud. His partners Andrew Butt, Richard Cochrane-Johnstone and Thomas Cobbett waited until the London Stock Market boomed with the news, then sold their shares at top price. When the truth came out and the market crashed, they had made a fortune. An investigation was convened, and all the conspirators rounded up. <br /> The only good from this was for America. Cochrane-Johnstone’s cousin, Admiral Lord Thomas Cochrane was also implicated in the scheme, and this prevented him from sailing to America with the British fleet. Cochrane “The Sea Wolf” was one of the best fighting admirals since Nelson, and the model for fictional sea dogs like Horatio Hornblower and Lucky Jack Aubrey. He would not be at Baltimore when the “Rockets Red Glare, the Bombs Bursting in Air..”….etc.<br /> <br /> 1828- The Cherokee Nation adopted their own constitution.<br /> <br /> 1848- THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO- In Brussels Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published their revolutionary work the Communist Manifesto, redefining history in terms of economic class warfare and creating the terms communist and communism. Interestingly enough they picked Brussels to publish because that year 1848 there were too many revolutions happening in most of the other cities in Europe. <br /> <br /> 1885- The completed Washington Monument was dedicated by Pres Chester Allan Arthur. Plans for the obelisk were first drawn up in 1792 by Pierre L’Enfant and the cornerstone laid in 1840 but construction was constantly suspended. First they ran out of money for 20 years, then they stopped because of the Civil War, another time because the Presbyterian workers refused to handle Italian marble blocks donated by the Catholic Pope. The final capstone point as affixed last December, and the official dedication today.<br /> <br /> 1898- After the explosion of the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor Under Secretary of the Navy Teddy Roosevelt burned to take action. This day when his boss the Navy Secretary decided to take a day off, Teddy rushed off emergency orders to all the U.S. battleships to go onto a war alert and lay in a supply of extra coal and munitions. The War with Spain hadn't even been declared yet. His boss returned red faced and furious but Teddy had already resigned his office to raise his own volunteer cavalry brigade.<br /> <br /> 1901- Yankee outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with prostitute Hedda Place, sometimes called Mrs. Sundance, left New York City by ship for Latin America. They hoped to build a new life in the Patagonian foothills of Argentina. But after 4 year of ranching, Butch and Sundance took up their outlaw ways again, fleeing to Bolivia. Hedda Place returned to the US and disappeared from history.<br /> <br /> 1916- VERDUN began- One of the most horrible battles in world history. World War I German Gen. Eric Von Falkynhen planned to draw France into a battle that would ‘bleed her white”, but he wound up bleeding his own army just as badly. German and French troops battled over some stone fortresses for ten months. Hundreds of thousands of men died in one battle. The French fired 1 1/2 million shells in this thirty mile square area and the Germans even more. Regiments would be marched into the trenches, blown to bits, then another marched in. The surrounding countryside was turned into a shell hole pocked lunar hell. They were still digging up and defusing shells in 1968.<br /> <br /> 1919- More chaos in Germany after the Great War defeat. The Socialist rebel leader of Munich, Kurt Eisner, was assassinated and Bolsheviks declared the Soviet Republic of Bavaria. One of the things they tried to do before rightwing paramilitary militias turn them out was to declare war on Switzerland. By May, the streets of Munich become a battleground that ex-corporal named Hitler decides was a fun place to be.<br /> <br /> 1942- After the port of Darwin was bombed by the Japanese, President Roosevelt ordered General MacArthur, trapped on Corregidor, not to go down fighting in the Philippines, but escape and organize the defense of Australia.<br /> MacArthur slipped away in the dead of night by PT boat with his wife and four year old son. He vowed to the Philippine people:" I Shall Return !" The army press liaison tried to change the press release to We Shall Return, but MacArthur insisted it remain as is.<br /> <br /> 1945- During the Battle of Iwo Jima, the Marines raised the flag on Mt. Suribachi. Associate Press photographer Joe Rosenthal takes the most famous image of the war. It's now the Marine monument at Arlington Cemetery. Actually, he photographed the second flag raising. The first was a small flag stuck on a piece of pipe to get the artillery below to stop shelling them, and to give the Marines pinned down on the beach some hope. The second larger flag raising was done for the press. It was still plenty dangerous, two of the six flag raisers were later killed in battle that same day. Rosenthal almost missed the shot because he turned around momentarily to see if he was in the way of another cameraman. The big flag attracted Japanese gunfire, and Rosenthal tumbled down the mountain to get out of the way. He broke one of cameras and was not even sure he got the shot until the film was developed on Guam, 17 hours later. <br /> <br /> 1951- The first Jack-in-the-Box restaurant opened by Robert O. Peterson in San Diego. Hamburgers then cost .18 cents each.<br /> <br /> 1958- THE PEACE SIGN. British graphic designer Gerald Holtom was creating signs for a nuclear disarmament protest in London. He wanted a visual that would stick in people’s minds. He created a symbol based on the naval semaphore flag designation for “N” nuclear, and “D” disarmament. It was adopted by the Anti-Vietnam War Peace movement in the late 1960s.<br /> <br /> 1965- MALCOLM X was assassinated at the Audubon Meeting Hall in Washington Heights Manhattan. His last words were trying to quiet a disturbance in the crowd he was about to address-"Brothers, be cool." Three men then stood up and fired pistols and a shotgun killing him instantly. He was later found to have over twenty bullets in his body. Three murderers did time for the killing, but it has never been proven who ordered it. Popular sentiment speculate it was his enemies in the Black Muslim movement, with whom he had broken.<br /> <br /> 1977- Animation director John Hubley died suddenly on an operating table of an aortic aneurism during heart surgery. He was 62. <br /> <br /> 1980- Ukrainian astronomer Ludmila Karachkina named a main belt asteroid for Walt Disney, asteroid 4017 Disneya. <br /> <br /> 1988- Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart tearfully confessed to his Baton Rouge congregation “Ah Have Sinned!!” He had been caught soliciting a prostitute. They forgave him, A year later he was busted again for the same reason, but he still continues to preach family values on TV today. <br /> <br /> 2014- The Wind Rises, directed by Hayao Miyazaki premiered in the US.<br /> ===================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Who were Keitel and Jodl? (hint: World War 2)<br /> <br /> Answer: Field marshals Wilhelm Keitel and Albert Jodl were the overall leaders of the German Army (Wehrmacht) during WW2. They were basically known as colorless yes-men for Hitler. At Nuremburg both were executed for war crimes.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 20 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6388 <p>Question: Who were Keitel and Jodl? (hint: World War 2)<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: When movies went from silent to sound, many silent actors struggled to maintain their celebrity status. Buster Keaton was contracted to MGM and they put him in films partnered with a comedian with a distinctive voice. Who was it?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/20/2024<br /> Birthdays: Honore' Daumier, Nancy Wilson, Ansel Adams, Cindy Crawford, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Robert Altman, Roger Penske. Phil Esposito, Jennifer O’Neill, Ivanna Trump, Mike Leigh, Lili Taylor, Sidney Poitier, Rihanna (Robin Rihanna Fenty) is 38<br /> <br /> 1258- The Mongol horde under Hulugau sacked Baghdad. They were ordered by Genghis Khan not to spill any royal blood, so they took the last Caliph, Al Mostassem-Billah, rolled him in a blanket, then galloped the horde over him. The great city of the Arabian Nights was looted and burned for 40 straight days. Chroniclers said 800,000 died, and the streets ran with rivulets of liquid gold- melting from all the gilded books in the burning libraries. <br /> <br /> 1702- British King William III went riding around Hampton Court when his horse Sorrel stepped in a mole hole and threw him. He suffered a broken collarbone. But being already elderly, tuberculate and asthmatic, he died within the week. That night the friends of the exiled Stuart dynasty drank a hearty toast to the 'Little man in the velvet waistcoat', meaning the mole who dug the hole.<br /> <br /> 1725- THE FIRST DOCUMENTED SCALPINGS- Militiamen scalped ten Indians in New Hampshire. Indians of the Eastern coast and Caribbean had done the practice before. Now colonial authorities encouraged allied tribes to bring in scalps as a way of proving how many of the enemy they had killed, before being paid a cash bounty. Scalps soon became a fashionable novelty item for sale in London. Tribes adopted different scalp cuts so you would know who did it -the Cheyenne preferred a diamond cut, Sioux an oval pattern.<br /> <br /> 1792- U.S. Postal Service founded. Ironically, the only postal service that ever operated at a profit was the one established by the Confederacy under postmaster John Regan from 1861-65.<br /> <br /> 1816- "Fee-Garr-Row! Fig-Ar- Roww- Figaro-Figaro, Figaro, Figaro"- Giacomo Rossini's opera 'The Barber of Seville' premiered. Rossini endured bad press and heavy criticism at the time because another opera of the Marriage of Figaro had just been premiered by Paisiello, an inferior composer who then was enjoying more popularity than him.<br /> <br /> 1824- The first attempt to name and classify a dinosaur. At the Geological Society of London, Dean William Buckland announced the Megalosaurus or the Great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield. Based on a leg bone he estimated it at 40 feet long and a bulk larger than an elephant. <br /> <br /> 1827- The Battle of Ituzaingo- The army of the Brazilian Empire defeated Argentina.<br /> <br /> 1831- First Battle of the Cahuenga Pass. Angry California rancheros led by Juan de Alvarado and young Pio Pico clashed with the Mexican territorial governor Miguel de Micheltorena. The only casualty was a mule. Alvarado later became governor himself and Pico a general in the Mexican army.<br /> <br /> 1839- The City of Washington DC outlawed dueling. <br /> <br /> 1862- Abraham Lincoln's youngest son William Wallace Lincoln or “Willie” died of bilious fever in the White House. He was age 11. A distraught Lincoln said, "My poor boy. He was too good for this earth. God has called him home.” Today, some theorize he died of cholera from drinking the swampy water of Washington. <br /> <br /> 1918- The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Lenin and the Bolsheviks had promised an end to Russia’s part in World War I. Its continuation had doomed the representative government of Alexander Kerensky after the czar was overthrown. Now Lenin wanted to end the war at any cost. The Germans demanded huge parts of Poland and Ukraine as compensation. Since the Bolsheviks had demobilized the Russian Army, Lenin had to give it all away. He was gambling that the allies would win anyway. He also planned setting up Communist Party cells in Germany and Vienna that he hoped would overthrow the Kaiser. The Kaiser was defeated and toppled, and Russia did get back all her lost territory.<br /> <br /> 1925- Willis O’Brien’s silent movie The Lost World premiered. Based on Conan-Doyles 1912 novel. The stop motion animation of dinosaurs and exploding volcanoes issued in a new era of special effects films. O'Brien later did King Kong and trained kids like Ray Harryhausen.<br /> <br /> 1933-"WE’VE HIRED HITLER!" German chancellor Adolf Hitler had a secret meeting with Germany's corporate leaders: Krupp, I.G. Faben, Seimans, Bayer, GAF, BASF, Daimler-Benz. He made a deal that if they financed his Nazi government, he would destroy the labor unions and communists, re-arm the nation, and suspend the eight-hour workday. The quote is by Gottfried Krupp after their meeting.<br /> Most of the German corporate CEO's survived the war and became leaders in the postwar anti-Communist world.<br /> <br /> 1936- The film “Follow the Fleet” premiered, with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.<br /> <br /> 1937- The Raymond Scott Orchestra recorded his composition “Powerhouse.” Used in many Looney Tunes cartoons.<br /> <br /> 1937 Mickey Mouse short “ Moose Hunters”.<br /> <br /> 1939- The American Nazi Party held their largest rally in Madison Square Garden in New York City. 20,000 Americans goose-stepped and Sieg-Heiled under a huge portrait of George Washington, while angry anti-Fascist and Jewish groups protested outside. By 1941 most of the German American Bund had dissolved. During the war 10,000 German Americans were interned along with the Japanese and Italians. Fritz Kuhn, the organizer of the rally was jailed for embezzling his organizations funds. He was deported to Germany in 1946.<br /> <br /> 1947- In a lecture to the London Mathematical Society, Computer pioneer Alan Turing said the best way to test the intelligence of a computer would be to teach it to play chess. Earliest reference to interactive gaming.<br /> <br /> 1958- Hercules premiered, starring body-builder Steve Reeves and Sylvia Koscina. It spawned a genre of muscle-man movies set in ancient Greece and Rome. Called in Hollywood jargon, “ sword &amp; sandal flicks”.<br /> <br /> 1962- "God Go with You, John Glenn!" Mercury -7 sent the first American into orbit.<br /> His first words upon emerging from the space capsule were:” It was hot in there.” Glenn later became a Democratic senator and in his 70’s went into space a second time on a space shuttle in 1998. John Glenn was a combat Marine pilot, test pilot and astronaut but even he sometimes got the willies. <br /> In 1968 while traveling with the Robert Kennedy for President entourage their chartered plane hit turbulence. Bobby Kennedy undid his seat belt, stood up and said to the cabin “ I have an announcement- Colonel Glenn- is scared!”<br /> <br /> 1980- Bon Scott, vocalist for the band AC/DC, was found dead in a friend’s automobile choked in his own vomit.<br /> <br /> 1986- The Soviets launch the first permanent orbiting space station, Mir, which means Peace. After a long career in which 7 US astronauts among many others spent time there in 2001 it finally burned up in re-entry. The International Space Station went up shortly after.<br /> <br /> 1986- Britain and France announced the project Napoleon had dreamed of 200 years earlier, a tunnel under the English Channel – the Chunnel.<br /> <br /> 1997- Chinese Chairman Deng Zhao Peng died at 92. Nicknamed Little Bottles, he was the last leader from Mao Zedong’s original Long March days.<br /> <br /> 2005- First episode of Seth Green’s Robot Chicken premiered on TV.<br /> <br /> 2006- The animated film Wallace &amp; Gromet: Curse of the Were-Rabbit, won the British Academy Award (BAFTA) for the best British Film of the year. It beat out The Constant Gardner, and Pride &amp; Prejudice. <br /> ==============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: When movies went from silent to sound, many silent actors struggled to maintain their celebrity status. Buster Keaton was contracted to MGM and they put him in films partnered with a comedian with a distinctive voice. Who was it?<br /> <br /> Answer: Jimmy Durante.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 19 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6387 <p>Quiz: When movies went from silent to sound, many silent actors struggled to maintain their celebrity status. Buster Keaton was contracted to MGM and they put him in films partnered with a comedian with a distinctive voice. Who was it?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays’ question answered below: What is a chimera?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------<br /> HISTORY FOR 2/19/2024<br /> Birthdays: Copernicus is 1542, Luigi Boccherini, Smokey Robinson, Andre Breton, Lee Marvin, Sir Cedric Hardwicke. Karen Silkwood, Paul Terry, Frank Tashlin, Paul Krause, Merl Oberon, Amy Tam, John Frankenheimer, Ray Winstone is 67, Jeff Daniels is 69, Benicio Del Toro is 58<br /> <br /> Today is the Feast of Saint Wulfstan of Worchester.<br /> <br /> 197AD- General Septimius Severus of the African Legions had seized control of the Roman Empire was declared emperor. This day he defeated his last rival, Albinus, the commander of the legions of Gaul. He left Albinus’ dead body in front of his headquarters, where for fun he trampled it repeatedly with his horse. Albinus‘ corpse continued to lay around for days, being torn by dogs and vermin. Finally, it stank so badly, it was dumped into a nearby stream.<br /> <br /> 1600- The monk Giordano Bruno was one of the first modern skeptics. He raged against superstition and denied there was any such thing as Hell or Purgatory. But his chief crime was his expansion on the Copernican Theory. He declared that not only is the Earth revolving around the sun, but that the Universe is infinite and unfathomable. That God should not be belittled, being focused on one little people, on one little rock. He is an Infinite Presence ruling over countless worlds. This day in Rome, Giordano Bruno was stripped naked and burned at the stake, with an iron nail hammered through his tongue and his writings chained to his chest. Later thinkers like Galileo and Descartes kept Bruno’s fate in mind when they went too far in bucking Holy Mother Church.<br /> <br /> 1674- The Third Treaty of Breda settled the Third Dutch War with England. As part of the settlement, Holland gave up any chance of getting back her colonies in North America, now renamed by the English New York and New Jersey. Truth be told they weren’t bringing in much income anyway. They were considered of little value compared to their holdings in the Caribbean. The British gave Run Island in Indonesia to the Dutch in exchange.<br /> <br /> 1725- The first recorded case of spontaneous combustion.<br /> <br /> 1736- Georg Frederich Handel’s oratorio Alexander’s Feast premiered at Covent Garden.<br /> <br /> 1807- AARON BURR, former vice president of the U.S, was arrested in Alabama territory for treason. Napoleon's attack on Spain put the Spanish Americas in confusion. Mexico declared her independence, the U.S. occupied West Florida (Alabama) and James Madison thought we should also take Cuba. Aaron Burr was organizing a freelance military expedition (called a filibuster) to take Texas away from Spain, but President Tom Jefferson suspected him of more sinister purposes. In this age of Napoleonic adventurers, a frustrated ambition like Burr's might have been thinking of taking over New Orleans (only American for 3 years), or even a march on Washington City! <br /> <br /> Aaron Burr went on trial but nothing could be proven. The state's chief witness General James Wilkinson was taken apart on the stand as a consummate liar - Chief Justice John Marshal tried to subpoena the President, but Jefferson created the concept of "Executive Privilege, saying a president can't be put under oath. So, Marshal had no alternative but to acquit Burr. Tom Jefferson in a rage tried to have Burr's defense attorney jailed and the Chief Justice impeached- Justice Marshal was Jefferson's cousin. So, Burr got away. He lived in Paris for a while, and when he died at 81, he was being sued by a woman for getting her pregnant.<br /> <br /> 1847- “ARE YOU FROM CALIFORNIA OR ARE YOU FROM HEAVEN?” The Donner Party rescued at last. The wagon train of settlers had been trapped in the High Sierra mountains of California near Lake Truckee in blizzard conditions with no food since last October 31st. Half the settlers were dead and the rest subsisting on cannibalizing the dead for food. This day a survivor named John Reed who got to safety returned with a rescue party from Sutter’s Fort. Of the 89 original settlers only 45 made it out alive. One opened a restaurant.<br /> <br /> 1878- Thomas Edison patented the phonograph.<br /> <br /> 1913- Crackerjacks start putting toy prizes in every box. Legend has it the name Crackerjack for the reaction of Teddy Roosevelt trying some for the first time- These caramel-corns are Crackerjack!<br /> <br /> 1915- Grand Admiral von Tirpitz told German newspapers that his strategy to win the Great War was to use his submarine u-boats to blockade Britain and prevent food, fuel and supplies entering from the outside world.<br /> <br /> 1915- L.A. Times publisher and land baron Harry Chandler, oil man Harry Sinclair was indicted with 8 other prominent Angelenos for conspiring to start a new revolution in Mexico. The Mexican government had seized their large land holdings for redistribution, and this was their quaint little way of trying to get them back.<br /> <br /> 1920- THE MYSTERY OF ANASTASIA- This day came the first news reports that a emotionally disturbed young woman who tried to jump into a Berlin canal claimed to be the Archduchess Anastasia Romanov, youngest daughter of the Czar of Russia. That she somehow escaped the 1918 massacre of her family and tried to prove it by recalling minute details about the Imperial household. She was called Anna Anderson and for a time was the toast of New York and Parisian society. But unlike the movies, the Romanov family in exile never took her seriously and Anna eventually married and settled down in Sweden. In 1991 scientists conducted extensive tests to match her DNA with the Romanovs. They even took blood samples from English Prince Phillip, who had some Romanov in him. The report proved she was not the little archduchess.<br /> <br /> 1941- The problem with Walt Disney’s concert masterpiece Fantasia was most theaters around the country didn’t want to run it. Theater owners were not interested in a complicated refitting with stereophonic Fantasound for just one movie. After a premiere the previous November, this day Fantasia began a limited run in 13 theaters equipped for stereo. This first one at the Apollo Theater in Chicago, Illinois. surround sound system.<br /> 1942- Japanese planes bombed the Australian Port of Darwin, Australians braced for an invasion. In the beginning of the war, Australia had sent all her soldiers to Europe to help mother England, figuring the U.S. Navy could handle anything in Asia. Now the U.S. Navy was sunk or on the run, the Japanese were massing for invasion while the Australian army was on the other side of the world.<br /> When the Australian prime minister Curtin asked Churchill for his divisions back to defend the homeland, Churchill refused, saying he couldn't spare them. In the end the Japanese never did invade, and relations between Aussies and Brits have been dodgy ever since.<br /> <br /> 1942- PRESIDENT FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT signed Executive Order# 9066- The JAPANESE INTERNMENT ACT- All along the Pacific Coast first and second generation Japanese-Americans were uprooted from their homes and property and with what only they could carry were shipped off to camps in the desert. Many never got restitution for their lost property. <br /> Although the F.B.I. kept tabs on German and Italian agents in U.S. and pro-Fascist groups like the American Bund flourished in the 30’s, nothing like what happened to Japanese Americans occurred to them. Less than 10,000 German Americans were rounded up as compared to over 100,000 Japanese-Americans. Canada and Mexico also interned some of their Japanese immigrant population. Few Japanese-Americans were interned in Hawaii however, because it would have seriously depleted the population. <br /> <br /> 1943- Battle of Kasserine Pass ended. Rommel the Desert Fox showed he had a few tricks left, beating up the American army in its debut, and embarrassing Eisenhower's first combat command. He lured the Yanks into a narrow pass and chopped them up. It was the only time in the European war that American G.I.s broke and ran.<br /> <br /> 1944- Writer John Steinbeck asked that his name be taken off of the credits for the Alfred Hitchcock film version of “Lifeboat”. “In view of the fact that my script for the picture was distorted in production.” He didn’t much like the Grapes of Wrath screenplay either.<br /> <br /> 1945- THE INVASION of IWO JIMA-The nine-mile square bit of barren beach cost over 50,000 lives. This island and Okinawa were the test cases to judge how fiercely the Japanese would fight for mainland Japan. Iwo Jima was the first island that wasn't conquered territory of some other people but was considered part of the home Japanese Islands, only 700 miles from Tokyo. <br /> <br /> 1945- Sgt John Basilone earned the Medal of Honor for this bravery on Guadalcanal for conspicuous gallantry defeating a Japanese assault. He toured the USA doing war bonds tours. But being a celebrity or instructor did not suit him. He volunteered to go back to combat duty. This day in the assault of Iwo Jima Sgt. Baslilone was killed by enemy fire.<br /> <br /> 1945- While Allied armies crossed into Germany on all sides, Nazi S.S. leader Heinrich Himmler contacted the neutral Swedish diplomat Count Bernadotte to try and open secret peace talks behind Hitler's back. Bernadotte asked as a condition that all concentration camps in the Reich be turned over to the International Red Cross. Himmler balked at that, but agreed to allow food packages to be delivered to Nordic prisoners. When Hitler found out Himmler was trying to cut his own deal, he was extremely upset. Himmler was under house arrest at the end of the war.<br /> <br /> 1951- Poet philosopher Andre Gide died in Paris. Several things were quoted as his last words, my favorite is " Before you quote me, please make sure I'm conscious."<br /> <br /> 1954- The prototype Ford Thunderbird auto completed.<br /> <br /> 1960- Bill Keane's "Family Circus" cartoon strip debuts. <br /> <br /> 1963- The book The Feminine Mystique was published. Betty Freidan’s analysis of contemporary women’s issues is considered the first shot of the modern Women’s Movement. <br /> <br /> 1964- Peter Sellers married actress Brit Ekland. His huffing amyl nitrate as a sexual stimulant probably contributed to a series of early heart attacks he had. They divorced in 1968.<br /> <br /> 1968- “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood…” Mister Roger’s Neighborhood debuted on National Education Television, later called PBS. Ordained Presbyterian minister Fred Rogers had been doing children’s shows similar in Pittsburgh and Canada since the 50’s, but today was the start of his national show. It would run unchanged for thirty-five years.<br /> <br /> 1995- Sexy actress Pamela Anderson married sexy rocker Tommy Lee. On their honeymoon on Lake Powell, they shot an explicit sex tape that was leaked onto the internet, becoming the first viral video. By 2000, one sixth of everything viewed on the world-wide web was about Pamela Anderson. <br /> <br /> 1990- ILM VFX designer John Knoll and his brother Tom created a surfacing and paint system for home computer use. Adobe bought it, and this day released it as Photoshop.<br /> ===========================================================<br /> Yesterdays’ question: What is a chimera?<br /> <br /> Answer: A mythical creature, half woman, and half lion. The term came to mean you are seeing things that aren’t there. Chasing chimeras.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 18 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6386 <p>Quiz: What is a chimera?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays’ question answered below: Where is Sumatra?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/18/24<br /> Birthdays: Queen Mary I Tudor -Bloody Mary, Pietro Guarnieri the violin maker, Harry Grover-Seeley one of the founders of Paleontology, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Andre Segovia, Wendell Wilkie, Billy de Wolfe, Enzo Ferrari, Adolphe Menjou, Jack Palance, Milos Forman, Bobby Bachman of the Bachman Turner Overdrive, Gahan Wilson, Johnny Hart, John Hughes, Cybil Shepherd is 74, Matt Dillon is 60, John Travolta is 70, John Hughes, Dr. Dre, Yoko Ono is 91, Disney animator Tony Anselmo.<br /> <br /> Today is the feast day of Saint Simon, Jesus’ first cousin, who is often confused with Simon Zealots, one of the apostles. He was executed in the reign of the Emperor Trajan.<br /> <br /> 1386- IOGAILA WYTAUTAS also called Wladyslaw Jagiello, Grand Duke of Lithuania and grandson of Mendog the Terrible, married Jadwiga of Poland and became King of Poland-Lithuania, Hetman of the Ukraine, Voivode of Ruthenia (modern Moldova) and so on and so on. <br /> When Jadwiga heard the news of who she was marrying, her first reaction was to chop away at her door with an axe. But later she accepted patriotically. Poland-Lithuania becomes the second largest power in Europe, and the Lithuanians are the final people in Europe to renounce animist paganism for Christianity. <br /> <br /> 1564- Michelangelo Buonarotti died just 6 days before his 89th birthday. He was carving yet another Pieta a few days before his death. <br /> <br /> 1814- Napoleon with his little army of 15 year old conscripts stop an invading Russian army at the Battle of Montereau.<br /> <br /> 1842- Two hundred of New York City’s high society held a banquet in honor of the visiting English author Charles Dickens. Dickens spent the evening depressing everyone talking about his tour of the cities prisons, slums and poorhouses.<br /> <br /> 1854- McSorley’s Ale House opened on 7th St in New York City. And it is still open, the oldest bar in the city. Abe Lincoln went for a beer there after declaring himself a candidate for president. <br /> <br /> 1856- The KNOW NOTHING PARTY held their first, and only, presidential convention. Officially called the American Party, but known for responding to reporter’s questions as “they knew nothing” This 3rd party was formed over anger at growing immigration. They sought to curb the influx of immigrants, especially Roman Catholics from Ireland and Italy. They nominated ex-President Millard Filmore for re-election, but their ranks were broken up over disagreement over slavery, so their movement sputtered out.<br /> <br /> 1878- THE LINCOLN COUNTY WARS- John Tunstall, a Scotsman who gave a number of young cowboys work on his ranch in New Mexico, was bushwhacked and killed while his bodyguards were away hunting wild turkeys. Tunstall was buried in his clan tartan kilt. This murder sparked a running gun battle between Tunstall's group led by his attorney John McSweeny, and a town merchant named Murphy, rancher John Chisum and most of the county. One of Tunstall's hired hands turned this range war into a personal vendetta that would make his name famous- Billy the Kid.<br /> <br /> 1885- Mark Twain's 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' published.<br /> <br /> 1888- The Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego Cal. opened for guests. It remains one of the largest remaining wood structures in the U.S. Several presidents stayed there, the Duke of Windsor met Wallis Simpson there, and L. Frank Baum wrote three of his Wizard of Oz books there. Films like the Marilyn Monroe film Some Like it Hot and The Stuntman were shot there. The script for the movie Blade Runner was written there. <br /> <br /> 1930- The planet Pluto discovered- in 1909 Scientist Lord Percival Lowell had detected signs of a planet at the edge of our Solar System beyond Neptune but could not definitely confirm or identify it. They named it for the time being 'Planet X'. The Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff Arizona had searched in vain for decades until Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh, a 24 year old amateur astronomer who was allowed to occasionally use Lowell’s telescope to justify the public grants they got. Lord Lowell had just passed away before the discovery he had dedicated his life to. <br /> When the New Horizons spacecraft flew to Pluto in 2015, it carried a capsule of Clyde Tombaugh’s ashes.<br /> <br /> 1950- The first Mr. Magoo cartoon "Ragtime Bear".<br /> <br /> 1953- The first 3-D stereoscopic movie, "B'wana Devil" starring Robert Stack.<br /> <br /> 1964- Death of Jean-Armand Bombadier, inventor of the snowmobile.<br /> <br /> 1970- The Chicago 7, Yippie leaders of the anti-war rioting in front of the Democratic presidential convention of 1968 were found innocent of all charges. David Dillinger, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Bobby Seale, Tom Hayden, Lee Weiner, John Froines and Rene Davis. One of their offenses was trying to get a 250 pound pig onto the floor of the Convention so they could get it nominated for President. <br /> <br /> 1972- President Richard Nixon and Pat Nixon land in China. <br /> <br /> 1973- Richard Petty the Stock Car King won his first Daytona 500 race. He would go on to win 6 more and prove that NASCAR racing was one of America’s favorite though most underreported sports.<br /> <br /> 2001- Dale Earnhardt Sr, the reigning NASCAR racing car champion, died in a crash on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. His eldest son Dale Jr. placed second.<br /> <br /> 2021- During a bad winter ice storm, the Texas electric power grid broke down and plunged millions unto frigid cold with no running water. Texas conservatives had removed Texas from the national power grid that would have enabled them to borrow power from another state. Today it was revealed while this emergency was happening one of those conservatives, Senator Ted Cruz, had secretly taken his family on a vacation in Cancun Mexico. He was humiliated in public and had to return. Speaking to reporters after his arrival home, he conceded that the trip was “obviously a mistake”<br /> =====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Where is Sumatra?<br /> <br /> Answer: It is an Indonesian island just off the west coast of the Malay Peninsula.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 17 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6385 <p>Quiz: Where is Sumatra?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What modern country was once called Ceylon?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/17/2024<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, Montgomery Ward, Red Barber, Otto Englander, Marian Anderson, C'haim Potok, Jim Brown, Rene Russo, Michael Bay, Jerry O’Connell, Cybil Shepard, Huey Newton, Lou Diamond Phillips is 63, Denise Richards is 52, Paris Hilton is 43, Michael Jordan is 61, Hal Holbrook, Joseph Gordon Levitt is 55, Animator Aaron Blaise is 56.<br /> <br /> 3,201BC- According to Sumerian records, from today in the month of Hilu to the month of Eshil-March 30th occurred the GREAT FLOOD, that the story of the flood of Noah in the Bible was based on. Several ancient cultures have flood stories. In the 1920s, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle theorized that the Great Flood was the tidal backwash caused by the sinking of the lost continent of Atlantis.<br /> <br /> 364 AD- Valentinian I proclaimed Emperor of Rome. Just to show you could "Be-All That You Can Be.." in the Roman Army, Valentinian was born to an army family based in Pannonia (Hungary). He rose through the ranks and served in Africa (Tunisia), Persia (Iraq) and Gaul (France).<br /> <br /> 1673- MOLIERE DIED. The great playwright was suffering from tuberculosis and was in failing health, but he insisted on playing the lead in his final play "The Imaginary Illness". Tonight, when asked to rest instead he responded," There are fifty workman here who won’t get paid if we don’t play". He played Argan, a hypochondriac who imagined himself dying. <br /> In the final act he uttered the word "Juro I swear," and was seized with a violent coughing fit. He covered with a joke and finished the play, but later was carried home where he died. The local priest refused to give him Last Rights because his play Tartuffe made fun of the clergy. Moliere was one of the greatest playwrights and poets of the age, and French people equate him with Shakespeare.<br /> <br /> 1765- Leopold Mozart with his two gifted children Nannal (Anna-Marie) and Wolfgang were touring in London, when Leopold became grievously ill with flu. While he was recovering, no noise, including music, was allowed in the house. So, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart decided to spend his time writing his first symphony. He was 8 years old. This day Mozart Symphony #1 premiered at the Haymarket Theatre. <br /> <br /> 1814- Battle of Villeneuve- Napoleon beat somebody else once again. France had been invaded by 5 armies simultaneously. When Napoleon beat one force, the four others kept marching towards Paris.<br /> <br /> 1817- Baltimore got the first city streets lit with gaslight.<br /> <br /> 1864-THE FIRST SUCCESSFUL SUBMARINE ATTACK-. The Confederate submarine Hunley, after testing that drowned 23 men including the inventor, sails, err, chugs it's way to Yankee ships blockading Charleston Harbor. It attached an underwater bomb called a david to the hull of the warship USS Housatonic. The david exploded sinking the Housatonic, but it also dragged down the Hunley to a watery grave when it could not detach itself. <br /> In 1995 archaeologists raised the Hunley from the harbor. The found the submarine crew still seated at their stations uninterrupted. At first it was thought they drowned, but in 2017 scientists ascertained that the concussion from the blast killed them all instantly. The captain still had his lucky gold piece.<br /> The first modern diesel/electric submarine was developed by John Holland of the Holland Electric Boat Company in 1894.<br /> <br /> 1865- Sherman burns Columbia, S.C. The POPULARITY OF THE CIGARETTE- Everyone knew the Civil War just about almost over yet try and reason with Uncle Billy. Sherman's army fresh from burning Georgia spread a wide path of destruction through the Carolinas. When Sherman's men reached the capitol of South Carolina they took special pleasure in destroying the city where the first vote to secede took place. Yankee's sang "Hail Columbia, Happy Land; If I don't burn you I'll be damned!" <br /> Cigarettes were gaining popularity in Spain and Latin America while in the U.S. tobacco was used chiefly in cigars, pipes and chaw. A South Carolina planter in Durham had just finished developing the perfect mild blend of cigarette tobaccos, Bull Durham, when Sherman's bluecoats arrived to loot the factory. Instead of tragedy, things worked out well for the fellow. After the Civil War, the Yankees went home to towns from Maine to California and talked of the good smoke they had in South Carolina. Soon cigarette smoking was a national passion.<br /> <br /> 1876- The invention of canned sardines.<br /> <br /> 1877- THE SATSUMA REBELLION also called the Boshin War- Ever wonder whatever happed to all those samurai warriors in the movies? Part of the modernizing of Japanese society after the Mejii Restoration of 1868 was the phasing out of the samurai class. They were told to give up their swords and get a real job. Some moved into the officer corps of the new western trained Japanese army. Some, rather than bear the shame of being demoted to peasant, emigrated to Hawaii with the invitation of King David Kalakaua IV. <br /> But other samurai didn't go quietly. Led by Takamori Saigo, this day the samurai revolted and had to be put down in several bloody battles, mowed down by modern artillery and Gatling guns. After losing the Battle of Shiroyama in Sept., Takamori committed suicide. There is a statue of him today in Hokkaido. The events were dramatized in the movie The Last Samurai, but most of the American advisors were on the government side. The Tom Cruise character was based on a French officer named Jules Brunet who fought alongside the samurai. After their defeat he escaped to a French ship in Tokyo harbor to continue his career back home..<br /> <br /> 1890- The Los Angeles City Council voted to change the name of their main street, called Fort Street because it led up to an old fort, to Broadway. <br /> <br /> 1906- In a White House wedding ceremony President Teddy Roosevelt saw his eldest daughter Alice married to Congressman Nicholas Longworth of Ohio. Alice was as free spirited as her father, Once, when confronted about her escapades, Teddy remarked " I can run the country or control Alice, but I cannot do both."<br /> <br /> 1911- General Motors installed in their Cadillacs the first automatic starters, replacing the hand crank. It was developed by Charles Kettering, the reason he did it was because a friend of his stopped to assist a young lady's who's engine had stalled. When he tried to get the engine started again using the hand crank, it kicked back and broke his jaw, causing gangrene, which eventually killed him. <br /> Kettering spent many years at GM and started the Delco brand of auto parts. He also was responsible for fast drying paint which allowed a car to be painted in almost instantly on an assembly line instead of days. He sold the idea to an unbelieving client by having his car taken from the parking lot, painted and returned over a long lunch.<br /> <br /> 1912- THE NEW YORK ARMORY SHOW- Mabel Dodge and Gertrude Stein introduced the American public to modern art. The first showings of Picasso, Matisse, Duchamp and the Italian futurists in the USA. The show was denounced as a "chamber of horrors" and Matisse was burned in effigy in Chicago. Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase" was described by an art critic as "an explosion in a shingle factory". Duchamp was highly amused.<br /> <br /> 1925- First issue of Harold Ross’s The New Yorker magazine. <br /> <br /> 1934- Pennsylvanian Amos Neyhardt started the first driver’s education course.<br /> <br /> 1936- The Phantom first appeared as a comic by Lee Falk. <br /> <br /> 1942- Ernst Lubitsch’s classic comedy "To Be, Or Not To Be" with Jack Benny debuted. Adolf Hitler enters a room and after everyone "Sieg Heil" salutes him, he responds "Heil Myself!" But the comedy flopped, in part because beautiful co star Carole Lombard had died tragically in a plane crash a few weeks before the film opened.<br /> <br /> 1945- Nazi scientists abandoned the Pennemunde, the V-2 rocket testing site as Allied armies overran the area.<br /> <br /> 1958 – Johnny Hart’s comic strip "BC" 1st appears<br /> <br /> 1960- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was arrested for leading the Alabama bus boycott.<br /> <br /> 1967 – The Beatles released "Penny Lane" &amp; "Strawberry Fields".<br /> <br /> 1979- A Prairie Home Companion radio show starring Garrison Keilor was first broadcast nationally. It was a feature on Minnesota Public Radio since 1974. It ended when Garrison retired in 2016 because of Me-Too sexual abuse charges.<br /> <br /> 1979- Barely four years after finishing the twenty-five year war with the United States and France to unify the country, The Communist government of Vietnam declared war on Communist Cambodia and picked a fight with Communist China, who invaded them. China called it the Pedagogical War.<br /> <br /> 1987- Soviet premiere Mikhail Gorbachev revealed President Ronald Reagan's preoccupation with space aliens: "At our meeting in Geneva, the U.S. President said that if the earth faced an invasion by hostile extraterrestrials, the United States and Russia could join forces to repel such an invasion. I shall not dispute the hypothesis, though I think it's early yet to worry about such an intrusion..."<br /> <br /> 1989- "Bill &amp; Ted’s Excellent Adventure" premiered, starring the most excellent Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter. Whoah-Dude!<br /> <br /> 1992- Jeffrey Dahmer sentenced to life in prison without parole for drugging, torturing, murdering, cannibalizing 15 young men. Two years into his sentence, he was beaten to death in prison by another murderer who said God told him to.<br /> <br /> 2004- Walt Disney announced the deal to buy The Muppets from Jim Henson Ent.<br /> <br /> ==================================================<br /> --------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What modern country was once called Ceylon?<br /> <br /> Answer: Sri Lanka.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 15 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6384 <p>Question: What does it mean to be parsimonious?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: What us a Berserker?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/15/2024<br /> Birthdays: Galileo Galilei, Frederick Douglas, French King Louis XV, Michael Praetorius, Susan B. Anthony, Charles Tiffany, John Barrymore, Lillian Disney, Jane Seymour, Cesar Romero, Gale Sondergard, Melissa Manchester, Chris Farley, Claire Bloom, Chris MacDonald, Art Spiegelman is 76, Marissa Berenson is 77, Matt Groening is 70<br /> <br /> 980AD- Today is the Feast of Saint Sigfrid, an Englishman who became the patron saint of Sweden. At the invitation of Viking King Olaf Tryggvason, Sigfrid came north from Glastonbury and baptized Swedish King Olaf the White. Once when Sigfrid was away and his nephews minding his church, the pagans grabbed them and cut their heads off. Saint Sigfrid made the decapitated heads preach to the pagans about the coming Judgement Day. Musta scared the beejeezus out of them. <br /> <br /> 1720- Young Francois Voltaire had begun a career as a successful playwright with his first play Oedipe. But his second play Artemire was booed as loudly as his first play was cheered. The irate playwright ran up on stage and argued with the audience for over an hour, but the audience still thought his play stunk.<br /> <br /> 1764-The town of Saint Louis, Missouri was established by French fur trappers (les voyageurs) up from New Orleans, led by Pierre Laclede Ligueste.<br /> <br /> 1793- Revolutionary France adopted the tricolor flag. After Waterloo, royalists tried to go back to the white with gold Fleur du Lys banner. But from 1848 on the Tricolor remained the national banner of the French nation.<br /> <br /> 1815- Things on the Island of Elba had gotten so quiet that the British officer in charge of Napoleon's exile, Sir Colin Campbell, informed his prisoner he was going on holiday to see his girlfriend in Italy. Napoleon asked, “Will you be back by the 28th? “Yes, why?” Oh, nothing. it's just my sister Princess Pauline is planning a party and we'd hate for you to miss it." But Napoleon was actually plotting to escape to France and re-conquer Europe. Pauline had her party on the 25th. On the 28th Sir Colin Campbell returned from his holiday to find his prisoner, and his military career, had flown the coup.<br /> <br /> 1836- The Mexican Army of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna crossed the Rio Grande into the rebellious state of Texas. Santa Anna had mortgaged his own lands back home and put his field hands into uniform to bolster up the ranks of his army.<br /> <br /> 1861- When Texas joined the Confederacy, US frontier fort commanders worried about how to proceed. This day without waiting for orders, General William Twiggs surrendered all his army posts and war material of the Department of Texas to the new Confederate Government. The rebels gained tons of munitions and guns, and even some Egyptian camels from a failed experiment to introduce them to American deserts. President Elect-Abe Lincoln called Twiggs a traitor, and Twiggs responded by trying to unsuccessfully challenge outgoing President Buchanan to a duel.<br /> <br /> 1862- Battle of Valverde New Mexico- Pro Confederate Texans fought Pro-Union Colorado and New Mexico militia in a sleepy adobe village. Texans captured 4 Yankee brass cannon and dragged them back to San Antonio. The Valverde Guns became a famous Texas unit. <br /> <br /> 1879- President Rutherford Hayes signed a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases in U.S. law courts, even though they still were not allowed to vote.<br /> <br /> 1898- The U.S.S. Battleship MAINE EXPLODED in Havana Harbor, killing 252 sailors. The cause was never confirmed, it may have been a spontaneous igniting of fumes in the gunpowder magazine, but the American public was urged to blame Spanish sabotage. <br /> The next day a motor launch out to the site of the disaster rescued the ships cat clinging to the mainmast protruding from the water. U.S. public opinion against Spain was pushed by "yellow journalists" like William Randolph Hearst and Josef Pulitzer. Hearst said “ The Maine is a wonderful thing.” When Pulitzer’s correspondent, artist Frederick Remington arrived in Cuba, he reported home, “There is no war down here.” Pulitzer responded, "You supply the pictures, I'll supply the war." <br /> American expansionists had been planning a war with Spain since 1896 and had tried to pick a fight over Cuba in 1871 and 1874. President McKinley, who Teddy Roosevelt described as having:"no more backbone than a chocolate éclair" gave in and declared War on Spain to cries of "Remember the Maine!". More Americans were killed on the USS Maine than in the entire Spanish American War, which was fought and over by December of that same year. America emerged as a power player on the world stage.<br /> <br /> 1903- British Major General Hector MacDonald was one of the most famous soldiers of the Victorian Era. “Fighting Mac” had laughed in the face of fierce Afghan tribesmen, Boer bullets, and Dervish’s spears, and always triumphed. <br /> But he had a secret. The Love that Dare Not Speak Its Name. He married young but abandoned his wife and son, and now sought only the company of men. This day while serving as military commander of Ceylon, a leading cleric and several boys accused General MacDonald of homosexuality. Gays in the British Empire were not uncommon- Gordon of Khartoum, Cecil Rhodes of South Africa, even Earl Kitchener of Omdurman were known to prefer men to women. But never in the open. MacDonald tried to flee to England on medical leave, but the General Staff ordered him to return and clear his name in a court martial. Instead, MacDonald went into his office and put his service revolver to his temple. All Edinburgh turned out for his funeral. <br /> Still friends and admirers refused to admit he was gone. There was a rumor that a successful World War I German General von Mackensen was actually MacDonald under an alias, since von Mackensen stayed in the Balkans and never faced English troops in battle.<br /> <br /> 1933- ATTEMPTED ASSASINATION OF FDR- In Miami, unemployed anarchist Giuseppe Zangara shot a pistol at President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a rally in Chicago. He missed FDR but killed the Mayor of Chicago Anton Czermak. Giuseppe<br /> Zangara was tried and sent to the electric chair by the following month.<br /> <br /> 1942- Japanese troops captured Singapore. The British were confident the Japanese couldn't get an army through the thick Malaysian jungle, so they concentrated their heavy guns facing out to sea. Gen. Yamashita, the "Tiger of Malaya" put his army on bicycles and with light tanks burst through the jungle and breached the cities defenses from the weaker land side. The “Gibraltar of the East’ fell with depressing speed – Prime Minister Winston Churchill admitted he was humiliated. He felt the defeat had shown the world just how old and brittle the British Empire had become. <br /> <br /> 1947- The British had administered the Palestinian territories like a colony of the Empire since the end of World War I. But faced with a shattered post World War 2 economy, fed up with Arab-Jewish terrorism and the mortification of having to put Jewish Holocaust survivors back into camps, this day the British Government announced it was going to leave the Palestine Mandate. The new United Nations could have the whole Arab-Israeli mess and bugger off! <br /> <br /> 1947- During the anti-Communist witch hunt, the FBI revoked the visa of famed documentary filmmaker and founder of the National Film Board of Canada, John Grierson because they thought his personal politics were too lefty.<br /> <br /> 1950- Walt Disney’s Cinderella opened in theaters. After financially skirting close to the ground through most of the 1940s Cinderella marked a return to classic fairy tales and a return to unqualified success. It was one of the top box office movies of 1950 and earned three Academy Award nominations. “ Bibbity-Boppity-Boo.”<br /> <br /> 1954- Future President and b-movie star Ronald Reagan tried doing a stand-up act at the Las Vegas Ramona Room with the "Honey Brothers", a comedy troupe similar to Abbot &amp; Costello. <br /> <br /> 1965- Canada adopted the Maple Leaf flag. It did not completely replace the Dominion Flag until 1979. <br /> <br /> 1967- The first Super Bowl was played at the LA Colosseum. Green Bay Packers 35, Kansas City Chiefs 10.<br /> <br /> 1973- Actor and animation voice Wally Cox (Underdog, Mr Peepers, The Boatniks) was found in his LA apartment dead of a heart attack. He was 48. He was a close friend of Marlon Brando. It is said Brando kept a jar of Wally’s ashes and would occasionally be seen talking to it.<br /> <br /> 1984- Touchstone Pictures created, so the Walt Disney Company could do more adult PG movies. Their first film was Splash, starring a tastefully topless mermaid Darryl Hannah.<br /> <br /> 1989- The last Soviet troops left Afghanistan.<br /> <br /> 1991- In a speech, President George H. W. Bush invited dissidents in Iraq to rise up against Saddam Hussein in Iraq. He declared, “The Day of the Dictator is Over!” Iraqi Kurds, Shiites and Marsh Arabs rose in revolt, confident the US would back them. The US instead ignored them and left them to be bombed and nerve-gassed by Saddam’s Republican Guard. Thousands died, and the dictator remained for another ten years.<br /> <br /> 1994- After months of insane bidding, Viacom’s Sumner Redstone beat out QVC’s Barry Diller to buy Paramount Pictures. The cost was $20 billion, although the studio’s net worth was estimated at $8 billion. When asked, Diller replied: “What’s done is done. Next.”<br /> <br /> 2002- Scientists announced the first discovery of fossilized dinosaur vomit.<br /> <br /> 2003- Millions of protesters march in cities from Hollywood to New York, Kyiv to Capetown to Tokyo to protest US plans to attack Iraq. Nearly a million and a half people marched in London alone. Pres. Bush invaded anyway.<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What us a Berserker?<br /> <br /> Answer: Among Viking warriors, going berserk was when you got so psyched up by hand to hand combat you lost consciousness and became a fighting machine. “ battle madness.” Warriors would later not remember what they did. Vikings considered it a holy state of Odin. Although Vikings would help induce this state by taking magic mushrooms.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 14 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6383 <p>Quiz: What us a Berserker?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: What cities’ nickname is The Jaw?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/14/2024<br /> Birthdays: Joshua Norton aka Joshua I Emperor of the United States 1819, Jack Benny- real name Benjamin Koubielsky, Frederick Douglas, Christopher Latham Scholes- inventor of the typewriter, George Washington Ferris inventor of the Ferris Wheel, Pier Francesco Cavalli, Jimmy Hoffa, Vic Morrow, Skeezix Wallet (character in Gasoline Alley comic strip), Gregory Hines, Ignaz Friedman, Thelma Ritter, Carl Andersen, Hugh Downs, Jim Kelly, Florence Henderson, Meg Tilly, Alan Parker, Simon Pegg is 53,<br /> Margaret Knight the inventor of the flat bottom paper bag. The character Lara Croft, is 56.<br /> <br /> Happy Valentines Day!<br /> <br /> This holiday was originally the Roman fertility festival LUPERCALIA, when the young men of Rome wearing nothing but olive oil, would run through the streets waving oak branches over the heads of young girls to inspire fertility. They also spanked each other with little leather whips. Then they would all go to the orgy. <br /> Keeping with the custom of the early Church to sanctify pagan holidays with saints days, Pope Gelasius I decided to rename the holiday for St.Valentine, who was martyred by Emperor Claudius II Gothicus in 295 A.D.. The olive oil, whips and orgy were out, but tradition has it that Valentine in prison kept communicating with his flock by writing little notes and tossing them through the bars. The notes were written on little leaves (silphium) that are the familiar heart shape we use today (which looks nothing like an anatomical heart.). These notes or "Valentines" fused with the romance notion of the old Roman party and became a custom for lovers as early as the 14th century.<br /> <br /> 44BC- After years of Civil War Gaius Julius Caesar was now master of Rome. He kept most of the institutions of the Roman Republic but declared himself Dictator and Consul for life like his mentor Sulla had done. He had been heard to say “the Republic is just a word, without real substance”. People wondered if he was out to make himself king. The concept of a King was hateful to most Romans, regardless of their political party. <br /> This day at a Lupercalia celebration one of his biggest brown-nosing lieutenants, Marc Antony, publicly tried to put a crown on Caesar’s head. Caesar refused it twice. Instead of popular enthusiasm, this gesture alarmed many. A conspiracy formed to kill Caesar led by Marcus Brutus, a descendant of Junius Brutus the founder of the republic, and Gaius Cassius Longinus, who had fought for Pompey against Caesar.<br /> <br /> Today in the Orthodox calendar is the Feast of Saint’s Cyril &amp; Methodius, the Apostles to the Slavs, who created the Russian (Cyrillic) alphabet out of Greek and Hebrew characters.<br /> <br /> 1779- Captain James Cook was killed by angry Hawaiian natives after an argument over hostages. Despite heavy attack the shore party rallied and fought their way back to the longboats thanks to their second in command, ensign William Bligh, the future Captain Bligh of the Bounty.<br /> <br /> 1797- Battle of Cape St. Vincent. The British Navy under Admiral Jervis defeated a Spanish fleet off the coast of Portugal. Admiral Nelson was there in support.<br /> <br /> 1814- Battle of Vauchamps. Napoleon beats Marshal Blucher and his invading Prussian army. Blucher was called Old Fowvarts (Forward) because that was his favorite command.<br /> <br /> 1824- KING CAUCUS- Just in case you wished for a more innocent time in American politics, consider this election. A group of powerful Congressmen of the dominant Whig party tried to predetermine that the next president would be easy to control by nominating William Crawford, who was blind and paralyzed from a stoke. Remember in those days of poor communications most citizens would never even see a President except for an artist's engraving in a newspaper. <br /> The scheme was foiled and John Quincy Adams was elected president, even though more people voted for Andrew Jackson. This was done via another scheme hatched with Henry Clay that had manipulated entire states into his camp when not one soul had voted for him, then traded them to Adams for the Secretary of State job. <br /> The later angry public outrage over "King Caucus" led to liberalization of the election process. Jackson easily defeated Adams re-election bid in 1828.<br /> <br /> 1848- President James Knox Polk is the first sitting president to sit for a photograph. The daguerreotype was taken by a young Matthew Brady. John Quincy Adams was the earliest former president to be photographed. <br /> <br /> 1859- Oregon became a state.<br /> <br /> 1870- The first elevated commuter railway was inaugurated in New York City at Greenwich and 9 Ave.<br /> <br /> 1876- THE TELEPHONE- One of the strangest coincidences in technology history was that two men invented the same device at almost the same moment. <br /> Scotsman Alexander Graham Bell in Boston and Elijah Gray in Chicago were both working on a device to transmit human voices instantaneously over electric wires. Each knew of the others work and labored furiously to be the first. When Bell was able to get a weak sound of his voice over the wire his sponsor and future father in law Robert Hubbard wanted to file the patent. But Bell procrastinated until he felt it was perfect. Exasperated, Hubbard took the schematics and went himself to the office to file the patent. What he found out later, was he filed the patent barely two hours ahead of Gray in Chicago! Bell’s patent was granted on March 7.<br /> Gray tried to challenge the patent. US courts decided that since Grays attorney had filed a “caveat” to a patent- which meant I’m working on an idea” while Hubbard &amp; Bell filed a patent “I’ve invented the idea”, they awarded the patent to Bell. Elijah Gray still went on to invent more things, founded the Western Electric Company and grew very rich. But Alexander Graham Bell got the immortality as inventor of the telephone.<br /> <br /> 1884- 25 year old Teddy Roosevelt was an up and coming member of the New York State legislature. On this day he received a double shock - both his mother and young wife died on the same day. Shattered, he abandoned his political career and fled to the Badlands of North Dakota to be a rancher and deputy sheriff. He said the landscape was so bleak it "looked like the personification of a poem by Edgar Alan Poe." He became President at age 41.<br /> <br /> 1886- Los Angeles began to export its first trainload of oranges back east.<br /> <br /> 1887- Several leading French intellectuals including Honore’ Balzac, and Charles Gounod published a letter to the President of the Republic begging him NOT to build the Eiffel Tower. "A Useless Monstrosity, which even America with it's crazed passion for commerce has the sense to reject! And what if it lasts 20 years?" There were plans to pull down the Eiffel tower 1907, but by then it had gained a new purpose as a radio antenna.<br /> Novelist Guy de Maupassant, hated the tower but still went to its restaurant every day. When asked why, he said, "Because it is the only place in Paris where I cannot see it".<br /> <br /> 1907- Golden Books incorporated. One of their artists was Gustav Tennegren, who would become a key stylist of Walt Disney's Snow White and Pinocchio.<br /> <br /> 1917- I.A. Lilly became the first female N.Y. subway train conductor.<br /> <br /> 1919- THE SPARTACISTS- The government offices in Berlin are seized by Communists. Inspired by the Revolution in Russia they try to declare the Soviet Republic of Germany. They called themselves Spartacists after Spartacus the leader of the slave rebellion against ancient Rome. Right-wing paramilitary private militias called frei-korps led by former Imperial officers entered the city and battled the Bolsheviks for control of the streets. One of the reasons why businessmen in the west were later so cozy with Hitler was their relief that Germany didn’t turn into another Soviet Union. <br /> <br /> 1920- The League of Women Voters formed.<br /> <br /> 1927-Alfred Hitchcock’s first suspense film “The Lodger” opened in London.<br /> <br /> 1929- Dr. Fleming discovered penicillin.<br /> <br /> 1929- the ST. VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRE- Scarface Al Capone's men dressed as Chicago police rounded up a bunch of Bugs Moran's hoods at the S.M.C. Cartage Company garage at 2122 North Clark Street and blew them away with tommy guns. Capone subcontracted the job to Detroit’s Purple Gang. The seven men had 200 bullets in them. They even shot their dog. Dr Reinhardt Schwimmer, one of the men killed, wasn’t even a mobster but an optometrist who liked to hang out with gangsters to experience life on the edge. When Bugs Moran was asked who he thought had done it, he replied: ”Only Capone kills like that.” Big Al himself was in Key Biscayne Florida having lunch with the Dade County District Attorney. <br /> One of the triggermen was Machine-gun Jack McGurn, but when questioned by police his girlfriend testified he had been in bed with her all that day. Newspapers called her his 'Blonde-Alibi". Machine Gun McGurn was bumped off shortly after. <br /> At the massacre site amazingly one gangster- Joe Duesenberg- lived long enough for police to question. But to the end he wouldn't spill the beans. When asked who shot him full of bullets, he replied:" Nobody!" and died.<br /> <br /> 1931- Tod Browning's film of the play Dracula, starring Hungarian actor's union organizer and recreational morphine addict Bela Lugosi, premiered.<br /> <br /> 1939- The German battleship Bismarck christened in Kiel harbor.<br /> <br /> 1941- Mickey Mouse cartoon The Little Whirlwind, was released. <br /> <br /> 1942- Japanese forces attacked Sumatra.<br /> <br /> 1943- Battle of the Kasserine Pass began- Rommel the Desert Fox gave the U.S. Army in Africa it's baptism by ambushing it in the narrow Kasserine Pass. The only time in WW2 American troops broke and ran in panic.<br /> <br /> 1946- John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert unveiled the ENIAC, the first all electronic circuited computer, started up at the University of Pennsylvania. ENIAC stands for Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator.<br /> <br /> 1949- The United States charged that the Soviet Union had as many as 14 million people in prison camps in Siberia, called Gulags.<br /> <br /> 1962- First Lady Jackie Kennedy gave a tour to network television cameras of the private living quarters of the White House. It’s the first time most Americans had ever seen the inside of the Executive Mansion. She worked mostly without a script, adding her own details as she went along. The day after the broadcast, Pres. Kennedy called the FCC just to see how her Nielsen ratings were. They were much higher than his speeches ever were. <br /> <br /> 1965- The Detroit home of black activist Malcolm X was firebombed.<br /> <br /> 1967- Former kinky pinup model Betty Page married Harry Lear and became a born-again Christian.<br /> <br /> 1968- Part of the Vietnamese Tet Offensive was the Communists overrunning the old Imperial Capitol of Hue. This day US Marines finally recaptured the cities Imperial citadel after weeks of bitter street fighting. The Communist command center was set up in a throne room called the Place of Perpetual Peace.<br /> <br /> 1979- Digital music composer Walter Carlos, who scored the film A Clockwork Orange, announced he had a trans operation and was now Wendy Carlos.<br /> <br /> 1989- Iranian Imam Ayatollah Khomeni issued a 'fatwah' -death sentence against Pakistani born novelist Salman Rushdi because he considered parts of his book "The Satanic Verses" to an insult to the prophet Mohammed. The fatwah was finally revoked in 2000 by the Supreme Islamic Council (Iran's equivalent of the Supreme Court).<br /> <br /> 1990- As the Voyager 1 spacecraft was leaving our solar system, Dr. Carl Sagan had the spaceship look back and take a family photo of our planet system, 3.7 billion miles away. A few faint dots on a distant sunbeam.<br /> <br /> 1991-Meg Ryan married Dennis Quaid. The divorced a few years later.<br /> <br /> 2005- Steve Chen, Chad Harley and Jared Karan started You Tube.<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What cities’ nickname is The Jaw?<br /> <br /> Answer: Moose Jaw, Manitoba.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 13 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6382 <p>Quiz: What cities’ nickname is The Jaw?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: What is an amphora?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/13/2024<br /> Birthdays: Giambattista Piazzetta, Bess Truman, Grant Wood, Lord Randolph Churchill, Fyodor Chaliapin, Peter Tork, Oliver Reed, Chuck Yeager, Woody Hayes, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Carol Lynley, Kim Novak is 91, George Segal, Peter Gabriel, Jerry Springer, Stockard Channing is 80, Kelly Hu, Mena Suvari<br /> <br /> Happy International Radio Day!<br /> <br /> 1503- This day during the endless wars of the Italian Renaissance, outside the town of Barletta things were interrupted by a unique event. Angered by a French captain who said that Italians were all sissy-girlie-men, thirteen Italian knights challenged thirteen French knights to mano-a-mano single combat. Both armies lined up and cheered like a sporting event. The knights fought until all thirteen Frenchmen were down.<br /> <br /> 1542- Catherine Howard, the 5th wife of Henry VIII was beheaded. The execution was held on the exact spot where wife Number 2 Anne Boleyn was beheaded six years before. <br /> <br /> 1635- The Boston Public School for Boys opened. The first public school America.<br /> <br /> 1692- THE GLENCOE MASSACRE. Pro-English Scottish forces tried to make the Highlands accept King William of Orange, and renounce allegiance to the Stuart dynasty by singling out a particularly rowdy clan for annihilation. The MacDonalds of Glencoe were smaller than the MacDonalds of Keppoch, so they were to be the example. Ironically the leader of the clan was trying to get King James in exile to release him from his oath of obedience, when the soldiers of Clan Argyll and Campbell came visiting. <br /> The soldiers used the highland tradition of hospitality to gain entrance into the MacDonald hall, then started slaughtering everyone just when their hosts were bringing out the wine. This blatant betrayal of hospitality and the magnitude of the massacre backfired on the perpetrators and made Glencoe a bitter symbol of Scottish Nationalism.<br /> <br /> 1693- The Virginia College William &amp; Mary founded.<br /> <br /> 1742- After governing for 20 years, the first English Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, stepped down when his Tory government lost its majority. <br /> <br /> 1765- Dr. Benjamin Franklin stood up in the British House of Commons and argued the justice of the American protest of the Royal Stamp Act, against all the government MP’s. He won and the hated Act was repealed. This probably delayed the American Revolution for a decade.<br /> <br /> 1820- Five years after Waterloo, and twenty-five after the French Revolution guillotined his great uncle, the Duc de Berry, the heir apparent of France was assassinated outside of the Paris Opera by a republican terrorist. The Bourbon family’s survival would now depend on the minor branch, the House of Orleans. <br /> In the meantime, Napoleon was sitting in exile on the equatorial island of St. Helena. If you are a fan of the "Napoleon was poisoned theory", modern scientists doing radioactive analysis of hair samples noted that after this incident the arsenic content in Napoleon's body goes up 150%.<br /> <br /> 1863- President Lincoln hosted a wedding reception at the White House for P.T. Barnum star attraction General Tom Thumb and his bride. Lincoln was heavily criticized by his political opponents for having such a frivolous party during the depths of the Civil War. <br /> <br /> 1866-The first daylight bank job. In Missouri, the Clay County Savings Bank is robbed of $60,000 by a young ex confederate guerrilla named Jesse James. <br /> <br /> 1867- The Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss Jr premiered in Vienna. Brahms was a personal friend of Strauss. An anecdote from the time is that Strauss's stepdaughter approached Brahms with a customary request that he autograph her fan. Brahms inscribed a few measures from the "Blue Danube," and then wrote beneath it: "Unfortunately, NOT by Johannes Brahms."<br /> <br /> 1886- Artist Thomas Eakins resigned in disgust his professorship at the Philadelphia Academy of Art when he was criticized for allowing women students in his class drawing male nudes. At that time the men still were not fully nude but wore a kind of thong with a pouch covering their junk.<br /> <br /> 1914- ASCAP founded.<br /> <br /> 1917- Beautiful spy Mata Hari was arrested in Paris. Known in Berlin as agent H-21.<br /> <br /> 1926- Walt Disney and his young crew move into their new studio at Hyperion and Griffith Park Ave. They’d call it the Hyperion Studio. They worked there until 1939 when they moved to Burbank.<br /> <br /> 1932- Free Eats, the first Our Gang short comedy to feature George “Spanky” MacFarland.<br /> <br /> 1933- comic strip character Blondie married Dagwood Bumstead.<br /> <br /> 1939- Producer David O. Selznick replaced directors on Gone With the Wind. George Cukor was out, Victor Fleming was in after completing The Wizard of Oz. Vivien Leigh liked Cukor who was known for directing women, but Clark Gable convinced the producers that the film needed an action director. About 15 minutes of George Cukor’s work remains in the picture. Victor Fleming loved Gable, but didn't get along with Vivien Leigh and came to hate the controlling Selznick. David O. brought in Sam Wood to direct second unit when Fleming fell behind schedule. <br /> At the end Victor Fleming blew his stack when Selznick proposed giving Wood and Cukor equal co- screen credit. This was all before DGA contract credits were established. Today, Victor Fleming is recognized the director of record. Yet despite it all, Gone with the Wind became a box office smash. For many years critics and polls declared it the greatest Hollywood movie ever made. A decade after its release, Clark Gable went up to David O. Selznick at a party and said: "Maybe I'm wrong about disliking you David, 'Gone With the Wind' keeps getting re-released and keeps me a star." <br /> <br /> 1935- German immigrant Bruno Richard Hauptman found guilty of the kidnap-murder of the Lindbergh baby and electrocuted. Up until the end he kept declaring his innocence. The chief of police in the town of Bergen New Jersey where the murder occurred was the father of Desert Storm General Norman Schwarzkopf.<br /> <br /> 1937- Hal Foster's comic book hero Prince Valiant first appeared. <br /> <br /> 1945- THE FIREBOMBING OF DRESDEN. Some experts say the annihilation of this militarily defenseless city was an act of revenge for Rotterdam and Coventry, the fact was at the Yalta conference several days earlier Stalin had asked that the major German cities on his eastern front be bombed by his Anglo-American Allies to delay Nazi divisions withdrawn from Norway and Holland to be used to slow the Red Army 's advance. Dresden was to be a major assembly point for these new reinforcements. Still, it's a legacy the Allies find troubling. <br /> On this day in the early evening, 845 British bombers followed by 700 American dropped thousands of tons of incendiary bombs in a pattern calculated to cause a firestorm. The temperature reached 800f degrees, the church bells melted, and the oxygen was literally sucked out of the air by cyclonic winds. By conservative estimate 35,000-100,000 people were killed. Young American P.O.W. Kurt Vonnengut was in a group made to help dig out bodies. The experience changed his life, and he later wrote his accounts in the classic anti-war novel "Slaughterhouse-5" <br /> <br /> 1959 -Happy Birthday BARBIE! Mattel introduced the plastic nymph, from a German doll named 'Bild Lilli" based on a character in a comic strip by Reinhard Beuthin. Mattel co-owner Ruth Handler had it re-designed and changed to 'Barbie" after the nickname of her daughter Barbara. <br /> <br /> 1964- The Invention of Cool Whip.<br /> <br /> 1972-“ Wilkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome….” The movie Cabaret with Liza Minelli and Joel Grey opened in theaters.<br /> <br /> 1976- While working on The Rescuers, famed Disney animator John Lounsbery suddenly passed away. He was 64.<br /> <br /> 1996- The off-Broadway musical Rent by John Lawson premiered. Lawson spent years working as a waiter, living in poverty in a cold water flat in lower New York. Hoping for his big break. 36 year old John Lawson died of an aneurism just three months before Rent opened. It made him world famous, earned Tonys and a Pulitzer Prize, and made $250 million. His story was told in the 2022 Lin Manuel Miranda film tik-tik-Boom.<br /> <br /> 2016- Disney’s Zootopia premiered in Brussels. Directed by Rich Moore and Byron Howard. It opened in the U.S. on March 4. <br /> ===============================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is an amphora?<br /> <br /> Answer: A clay jug used for stacking, storing and transporting liquids and grain in the Ancient Greek world. The ancient equivalent of a storage barrel. Plural- amphorae.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 12 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6381 <p>Quiz: What is an amphora?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: To be on The Road to Perdition. What does that mean?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/12/2024<br /> BIRTHDAYS-Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin are born on the same day in 1809, although an ocean apart; Austrian Emperor Francis II, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, Joe Garagiola, Luigi Boccherini, John L. Lewis, Bill Russell, Franco Zeffirelli, Rudy Larriva, Lorne Greene, Joe Don Baker, Arsenio Hall, Christina Ricci is 44, Josh Brolin is 56.<br /> <br /> 333BC- Estimated date that Alexander the Great took time out from his war with Persia to travel out into the Sahara Desert to visit the oracle of Amun-Ra at Siwa. There the oracle declared him to be the living son of Zeus-Amun. Back in Athens someone said to the politician Demosthenes, “Did you hear? Alexander the Macedonian says he is now the son of Zeus.” Demosthenes shrugged, “If he wants to be son of Zeus, so let him be son of Zeus. Son of Apollo, too.” (Plutarch)<br /> <br /> 4th Century- Today is the feast day of Saint Julian the Hospitaller- Julian was a nobleman who one day when arrived home to his castle, mistook his parents for intruders and killed them. He was so distraught he ran off into the woods and became a hermit, helping people across a wild river. One day he helped a leper across who turned out to be an angel. He said:" Julian. God has forgiven you." He is the patron saint of travelers and ferrymen.<br /> <br /> 1502- Ferdinand and Isabella had thrown all the Jews out of Spain, now what about the Muslims? This day all Muslims not accepting baptism were given until April 30th to leave the country. They complained that when the Moors ruled they tolerated all religions, but the Spanish monarchs were deaf to all entreaties. Up to 3 million Moors eventually left. A century later, French Cardinal Richelieu called the Edict of 1502 "the most barbarous act in history."<br /> <br /> 1554- Lady Jane Grey was beheaded after being queen of England for nine days. This poor 16 year old kid was a pawn in the power struggle after the death of Henry VIII's sickly son Edward. The Protestant court knew the real next in line was the Catholic Mary Tudor, and Princess Elizabeth wisely kept a low profile, for now. Archbishop Cranmer and the Seymour clan pushed forward this cousin as a serious claim to the throne. It didn't wash and Mary became queen and earned the name "Bloody Mary", not for her ability to mix a cocktail. Jane went to the block as did Cranmer, and many others. <br /> <br /> 1709- Sir Alexander Selkirk shipped out for the South Pacific on a Chilean schooner. During the voyage he got into an altercation with the eccentric captain who marooned him on a deserted island. That ship later sank and the crew imprisoned in Peru. Selkirk survived on his own for four years on goats until he was rescued by a passing British ship that saw his signal fire. His story became the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's book-"Robinson Crusoe".<br /> <br /> 1789- Ethan Allen, the frontiersman whose Green Mountain Boys were heroes of the American Revolution, died from injuries gotten from drunkenly falling out of a sleigh crossing frozen Lake Champlain. His last words were when someone said, "Ethan, the Angels await thee…." Allen replied:" They do? Well, goddamn 'em, let em wait!"<br /> <br /> 1790- In Philadelphia, a group of Pennsylvania Quakers presented a petition to the US Congress calling for the abolition of slavery. But the real sensation was that the bill was written and endorsed by Benjamin Franklin. The octogenarian patriot regretted sweeping the slavery issue under the rug in the past, and now at the end of his life he wanted to show where he stood. It was Franklin’s last public act. Three weeks later he died. The furious debate in Congress almost split the brand-new government. Finally, the Senate chose to do nothing, and let the issue pass for a future time.<br /> <br /> 1793- Congress enacted the Fugitive Slave Law, making it a crime for anyone to help a slave trying to get away to freedom.<br /> <br /> 1797- First performance of the German national anthem. Composer Franz Josef Haydn was worried about the spirit of the French Revolution radicalizing the Austrian peoples. When in London he saw how the anthem God Save the King brought all Englishmen together in song. He thought his country could use a good song, too. So with poet Leopold Hashka and an old Croat drinking song, Haydn composed GOTT ERHALTE FRANZ DER KAISER! God Bless Our Kaiser Francis. It was later renamed Deutschland Uber Alles and Deutschlandlied. <br /> <br /> 1798- LORD NELSON AND MRS. HAMILTON DO THE NASTY... Admiral Horatio Nelson had been increasingly shivering his timbers over his friend Sir William Hamilton's sexy young wife Emma. He was staying with the Hamilton’s in their villa in Naples during his tour of duty in the Mediterranean. According to historians analyzing their love letters to each other, Emma and Nelson make specific references to the 'Delightful Twelfth of February", and Mrs. Hamilton bore a daughter nine months later she named Horatia. Their open love affair in the face of polite society was one of the scandals of the age. <br /> <br /> 1809 -Happy Lincoln's Birthday, Because of Richard Nixon’s 1970 law creating President’s Day you do not have today off as a holiday. One of my favorite Lincoln quotes is:" Some people say I’m two-faced. If I'm supposed to be two-faced, why did I settle for this one?"<br /> <br /> 1814-Battle of Chateau-Thierry- Napoleon defeated somebody yet again.<br /> <br /> 1817- Battle of Chacabuco- Argentine leader Jose de San Martin defeated the Spanish Royalist Army.<br /> <br /> 1839- The Aroostook War- Maine and New Brunswick lumberjacks scuffle over their border. There was a lot of war talk but not much else happened.<br /> <br /> 1909- African American civil rights leaders like W.E.B. DuBois and Oswald Villard call for a new militant organization to combat the growing violence against black people. the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People or NAACP is born.<br /> <br /> 1912- Following Dr Sun Yat Sen’s declaration of the Republic of China, the last Manchu Emperor, Henry Pu Yi abdicated his throne.<br /> <br /> 1924- RHAPSODY IN BLUE- Band leader Paul Whiteman had commissioned a rhapsody for Jazz Band from the famous composer George Gershwin. Tonight at a concert at the Aeolian Hall in New York City it premiered in a long bill of "Modern Music". Also on the bill was jazz interpretations of "Yes We have no Bananas" and "Kitten on the Keys." Sergei Rachmaninoff, Fritz Kriesler, Igor Stravinsky and Leopold Stokowski were in attendance.<br /> Gershwin’s orchestrator was Ferde Grofe’, the composer famous for the Grand Canyon Suite. It was Grofes’ idea to bring in a jazzman named Ross Gorman to do the opening clarinet solo. While rehearsing the piece, Gorman took Gershwin’s opening 17 note ascent and ‘smeared’ the riff to the long high note, creating the famous opening. Gershwin liked it so much he told him to play it always that way. <br /> Gershwin was originally going to call his piece Concert Rhapsody for Jazz Band &amp; Piano or American Rhapsody. But his brother Ira Gershwin was inspired by some Whistler paintings he saw at a museum called Nocturne in Blue and Green and Harmony in Grey and Green. He suggested Rhapsody in Blue. <br /> <br /> 1941- General Irwin Rommel landed in North Africa to take over the Italian forces and his new Afrika Korps. Using lightning tactics and brilliant improvisation in the desert he became legendary as the "Desert Fox". He took over from an Italian general named Barbazioli, who because of his wild facial hair was nicknamed "Electric Whiskers".<br /> <br /> 1947- THE BIRTH OF THE 'NEW LOOK' The Paris fashion show where designer Christian Dior defined the look for women of the 1950s into the early 60's: Wasp waists, gloves and patent leather accessories, pleated mid length skirts. <br /> <br /> 1964- Miles Davis and his band played Carnegie Hall. <br /> <br /> 1967- The Redlands Bust. Police arrested Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Marianne Faithful for doing LSD among other drugs. Marianne had just taken a bath and was wearing nothing but a fur throw rug, which he let drop in front of the constables. It was when the British public first saw how extensive the use of drugs among pop stars was.<br /> <br /> 1976- actor Sal Mineo was killed outside his car port in West Hollywood. Marilyn Monroe and Shelley Winters once shared an apartment in the same building. Mineo's murder remained unsolved for many years. There were rumors that he was done in by a gay acquaintance, but the killer turned out to be a routine robber who wanted money.<br /> <br /> 1986- Since 1977 Soviet human rights activist Anatoly Scharansky was imprisoned for demanding the right for Russian Jews to emigrate to Israel. This day he was freed by Soviet Premier Mikail Gorbachov. Scharansky moved to Israel, changed his name to Natan, converted to a conservative branch of Judaism and got involved in Likud politics.<br /> <br /> 1994-"WHY ME! WHY ME?!" The Winter Olympics at Lillehammer began, which are remembered mainly for figure skater Tanya Harding hiring a hit man to break her rival Nancy Kerrigan's kneecaps with a steel pipe. Despite all the hub-bubb, the gold was won by Ukrainian skater Oksana Baiyul who was arrested a year later for drunk driving.<br /> Nancy Kerrigan signed a multi-million dollar endorsement contract with Disney, which she succeeded in blowing within a month by making fun of Disneyworld during a parade. Within range of a microphone she whispered." This is all so corny! I can’t believe I’m doing this." When someone asked if Tanya Harding could get any commercial endorsements, it was pointed out that she was an asthmatic who smokes Marlboros.<br /> <br /> 1999- President Bill Clinton was acquitted in his Impeachment trial in the Senate stemming from his affair with young intern Monica Lewinsky. During the trial, word leaked out that several of the president’s chief critics like Representative Robert Livingston and Newt Gingrich also had extramarital affairs or sexually harassed their female employees. Chief Justice William Rheinquist, high on painkillers, presided over the trial with his dark Justices’ robes adorned with some gold stripes on the sleeves, the first time any Supreme Court Justice robes had any such adornment. He got the idea watching the Gilbert &amp; Sullivan operetta Iolanthe.<br /> The Parker Pen Company had created special monogrammed pens for the Senator’s use during the trial. But when the pens were used it was discovered they all had the name United States misspelled on them- they read the Untied States of America. Others said it was a fitting statement on the state of the government at the time.<br /> 1999- Rushmore released, the first quirky movie by quirky director Wes Anderson.<br /> 2001- The Near Spacecraft landed on Eros, an orbiting asteroid. The first <br /> landing on an asteroid.<br /> <br /> 2006- New York City has a record breaking snowfall of almost 27 inches.<br /> <br /> 2010- Happy Death Ray Day. A USAF high intensity laser beam shot down a missile in flight.<br /> ====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: To be on The Road to Perdition. What does that mean?<br /> <br /> Answer: Perdition came from an old word that meant to be separated from God. So you are on the road away from God.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 11 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6380 <p>Quiz: To be on The Road to Perdition. What does that mean?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: Who were The Hollywood Ten?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/11/2024<br /> Birthdays: Thomas Edison, Leslie Nielsen, Eva Gabor, Rudolph Firkusny, Joe Mankiewicz, Sidney Sheldon, Burt Reynolds, Sergio Mendes of the band Brazil 66, animator Al Eugster, Brandy Norwood, Bobby Picket -who recorded the Monster Mash, Tina Louise-Ginger on Gilligan’s Island is 90, Jennifer Aniston is 55, Sheryl Crow is 62<br /> <br /> 11AD- In order to become his heir, Augustus’ stepson Tiberius had to marry Augustus’ only daughter Julia. Tiberius was angry he had to divorce his wife Druxilla whom he actually loved. Julia despised Tiberius and scandalized her dad with her affairs.<br /> <br /> 1759- A Danish importer on the Caribbean Island of Saint Croix named Johann Michael Lavien filed for divorce against his estranged wife Rachael Faucette. She had been living on the isle of Nevis with a Scotsman named James Hamilton and had two children with him. Johann Lavien asserted in the court papers that his wife was a Scarlet Woman, and so her spawn were "Whore-Children". The divorce was granted and James Hamilton abandoned his little family. One of the little ‘whore-children" was Alexander Hamilton- future American patriot, and the hottest ticket on Broadway.<br /> <br /> 1789- In Italy, American consul William Short wrote his friend Thomas Jefferson that as per his request he had obtained for him a pasta mold. The first known introduction of pasta in America. <br /> <br /> 1801- THE FIRST DEADLOCKED PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION decided in the House of Representatives after 35 separate votes were held. Upstart Aaron Burr managed to come out of nowhere and put together enough anti-Jefferson and anti-Adams votes to tie the election with Thomas Jefferson. President John Adams and Senator Charles Pickney were a distant 3rd and 4th. Former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton was furious that fellow New Yorker Burr threatened to eclipse his power. New York and Pennsylvania were the swing votes in any deal between Yankee New England and the South. Since foreign born Hamilton could never be President, he liked to play kingmaker. <br /> So in retaliation Hamilton gave Adam's 36 electoral votes to Thomas Jefferson, not out of any love for him, but just to screw Burr. Cranky old John Adams was furious that he was rejected by the public: "Damn Them! Damn Them! Anyone can see this elective government won’t work!" He took his sweet time moving out of the White House, making the president-elect wait in a tavern. All this political chicanery doomed the Federalists, the first American political party, and Burr would get his revenge on Hamilton with pistols in 1804.<br /> <br /> 1812- Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signed a redistricting act that divided up his state into politically convenient if geographically tortuous congressional districts. In England such juggling of the voting populace to ensure your candidate’s election was called a "Rotten Borough", in America it became named for this governor- Gerrymandering. <br /> <br /> 1814- Battle of Montmiral. During the battle Napoleon saw a cannon emplacement in such a dangerously exposed position that all it's crew was dead or wounded. He dismounted his horse and proceeded to aim the guns himself under heavy enemy fire until help arrived. Whether or not he was hoping for a death on the battlefield he later says publically: "The bullet that gets me has not been cast yet!" But privately: "It's no use, I'm fated to die in bed."<br /> <br /> 1929- Benito Mussolini signed the Lateran Concordat that recognized the sovereignty of Vatican City within Italy, while the Pope blessed his Fascist regime. The threat of godless world communism scared the Holy See into a number of questionable relationships with right wing extremists like Hitler, Franco and the Eustache in Croatia.<br /> <br /> 1933- 19 year old Japanese schoolgirl Kiyoko Matsumoto committed suicide by jumping into the thousand foot crater of a volcano on the island of Oshima. This act started a bizarre fad in Japan, and in the ensuing months three hundred young girls did the same thing.<br /> <br /> 1936- Famed German Expressionist animator Oscar Fischinger escaped Nazi Germany for the U.S. Paid for by Hollywood director Ernst Lubitsch. <br /> <br /> 1937- General Motors settled a bitter strike and becomes the first major plant to recognize the United Auto Workers union.<br /> <br /> 1938- Donald Duck cartoon Self Control was released.<br /> <br /> 1945- Yalta agreement signed. If you were a Czech. Pole or Hungarian, it meant Roosevelt and Churchill had just traded you to Stalin for the next fifty years.<br /> <br /> 1948- Famed Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein died of a heart attack.<br /> <br /> 1963- Bell Jar author Sylvia Plath laid out bread and butter and two glasses of milk for her children, then stuck her head into an oven and committed suicide. Her poet-laureate husband Ted Hughes was in bed with another woman when he got the news. Hughes wrote stories for his children like The Iron Giant to explain death and loss.<br /> <br /> 1975- Margaret Thatcher became the first woman to lead the Tory Party in England. The green-grocers daughter from Finchley became the Iron Lady and dominated British politics until 1990.<br /> <br /> 1976- Chuck Jones TV special "Mowgli’s Brothers."<br /> <br /> 1979 - The Iranian Revolution Day. With Shah Reza Pahlevi fled, the fundamentalist Shiite mullahs led by Ayatollah Khomeni declared Iran to be an Islamic Republic.<br /> <br /> 1990- Nelson Mandela was freed by South African authorities after 27 years in prison. He was jailed in 1962 for a life sentence and became the conscience and symbol of the black resistance to white South African rule, called Apartheid.<br /> <br /> 1995- Disney Studios planned neighborhood suburban community Celebration opened.<br /> <br /> 2000- Disney’s The Tigger Movie premiered. Directed by Jun Falkenstein, one of the first animated features written and directed by a woman.<br /> <br /> 2003- A small satellite named U-Map, while studying the faint glow at the center of the Universe, calculated the exact age of our Universe to be 13.7 billion years old. That stars first appeared at 200 million years after the Big Bang, and that the Universe will ultimately expand forever, not crunch back in on itself or explode in one big cataclysm.<br /> <br /> 2005- Playwright Arthur Miller died at 90.<br /> <br /> 2006- While hunting for quail, Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot his hunting partner. After being treated for buckshot in his face, the victim, an attorney named Whittington, went before the press and apologized to the Vice President. In 2009, out of office, it was admitted that Whittington was not a close friend of Cheney, and that his wounds were more life threatening than first reported. Dick Cheney became the first Vice President since Aaron Burr in 1804 to shoot someone while in office. Nothing happened to Burr either. <br /> <br /> 2012- Singer actress Whitney Houston was found dead in her bathtub. She was 48, She was preparing for the Grammy Awards when she had a heart attack and drowned in the water.<br /> <br /> 2016- A Wrinkle in Time. While studying two black holes colliding in deep space, scientists announced they discovered Gravity Waves. It was one of the last unproven theories in Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity in 1905. That space and gravity ripples. <br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Who were The Hollywood Ten?<br /> <br /> Answer: The 10 Hollywood were writers, directors and producers who, during the early phases of the “Red Scare" anti-communist hysteria came before the House Un-American Activities Committee as suspected communists and refused to answer the Committees questions, including naming names of other suspected persons. All 10 were found in contempt of Congress and sent to jail. They were also blacklisted by the Hollywood movie industry. John Howard Lawson, Dalton Trumbo, Ring Lardner, Lester Cole, Edward Dymytruk, Waldo Salt, Herbert Beiberman, Edward Maltz, Adrian Scott, and Alvah Bessie.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 10 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6379 <p>Quiz: Who were The Hollywood Ten?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: What does it mean to be a martinet?<br /> -----------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/10/2024<br /> Birthdays: Former British PM Harold Macmillan, Jimmy Durante, Bertholdt Brecht, Leontyne Price, Roberta Flack, tennis great Bill Tilden, Lon Chaney Jr., Stella Adler, Mark Spitz, Boris Pasternak, Dame Judith Anderson, Greg Norman, Donavan, Dr Alex Comfort author of the Joy of Sex, Michael Apted, Jerry Goldsmith, Robert Wagner, Laura Dern is 57<br /> <br /> Happy Chinese New Year. The Year of the Dragon.<br /> <br /> 1531- King Henry VIII demanded the Convocation of English Bishops acknowledge him as “ Supreme Head of the Church and Clergy of England” After much dallying, rejected compromises and threats, the Bishops agreed. Their spokesman archbishop Warham later renounced the decision on his deathbed.<br /> <br /> 1534- RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISTS TAKE OVER A MAJOR CITY-<br /> In the myriad of Protestant sects popping up as the Reformation spread throughout Europe the most radical was the Anabaptists. They took the idea of living simply like the Old Testament to an advanced form of anarchist communism- no leaders, no private property. This day mobs of Anabaptists drove out the Bishop of the German City of Munster and declared the city The New Jerusalem. Their leader John of Leyden lived like an Old Testament King in rich clothing with several wives. <br /> After the Imperial German forces recaptured the city with horrible massacre (see June 24th) the Anabaptist movement was suppressed- except… one Anabaptist preacher named Menno Simmons reformed the movement stressing simple non-political farm life. His group the Mennonites established communities in the America, Canada and Russia.<br /> <br /> 1722- Although not as famous as Blackbeard or Captain Kidd, Bartholomew Roberts was one of the most notorious pirates that ever flew the Jolly Roger. J.M. Barrie used him for the model for Captain Hook. This day he met his end when the British warship HMS Swallow caught up with his ship the Royal Fortune off Cape Lopez in Gabon. The pirates had taken a merchantman the night before so most of them were too drunk or hung-over to fight. Captain Roberts bellowed defiance, but as luck would have it, he was struck dead by the first cannonball from the very first broadside fired by the British. <br /> His men threw his body overboard and after a short fight surrendered. The pirates were rounded up and sent in chains to the Cape Coast in Ghana where an Admiralty Court hanged 54, the largest one time pirate hanging ever. <br /> <br /> 1763- THE TREATY OF PARIS- Ending the Seven Years War (The French and Indian War). Europe makes peace and France yields to England all her territory in India and Canada. Spain gets Louisiana. “Half a continent changed hands with the scratch of a pen”. To ensure speedy approval of the treaty, Prime Minister Pitt the Elder set up a booth outside the Parliament to hand out cash bribes to the M.P.s as they walked in to vote. The French were bitter but philosophical. Minister Choiseul predicted:" With our threat removed, the Americans will try for independence in ten years." American colonial representative Benjamin Franklin reassured London:" Freedom is the last thing Americans want...."<br /> <br /> 1799- Napoleon marched out of Cairo at the head of his French expeditionary Army. He headed north towards Jerusalem but was stopped at the city of Jaffa. <br /> <br /> 1814- THE GREAT WEEK- Napoleon's enemies, figuring the little bastard can't be everywhere at once, invade France from five directions with five armies, all aimed at Paris. Napoleon with a small force of 15-year-old draftees defeated all five spearheads in one week. Today was the Battle of Champaubert.<br /> <br /> 1825- Gideon Mantell reported the discovery of an Iguanadon from the sandstone in Tilgate Sussex. He called it such because the teeth of the fossil resembled to him those of a large iguana.<br /> <br /> 1837- Russia’s greatest poet Alexander Pushkin died of wounds from fighting a duel defending his wife's honor. His last words were directed to his books "Farewell, my friends..." Pushkin was the great, great grandson of a black man Abram Gannibal, brought from Cameroon to serve Czar Peter the Great in his Moorish Guard.<br /> <br /> 1840- English Queen Victoria married a minor German prince named Albert of Saxe Coburg-Gotha. It becomes a real love-match, and they produced children who would occupy the thrones of Europe. Their common belief in strong moral values above all transformed English society into something truly Victorian. Victoria began the custom of brides always wearing white. Albert set men’s fashion trends like tuxedos, suits with neckties and sideburns; he also introduced to Britain and later America to the German custom of Christmas trees. <br /> <br /> 1846- After their temples in Navoo Illinois were burned by mobs, the Mormons under Brigham Young left for their trek to Utah.<br /> <br /> 1862- After a hard night partying with fellow poet Swinburne, pre-Raphaelite Dante Rossetti returned home to find his wife dead of an opium overdose.<br /> <br /> 1863- Alanson Crane invented the Fire Extinguisher. <br /> <br /> 1870- Anaheim California was founded. No Disneyland yet. The name means Ana, as in Santa Anna River, and Heim, the German word for home. So- Home of the Santa Anna River. The town was founded by 50 German immigrant families who wanted to raise grapes and build a socialist commune.<br /> <br /> 1888- The City of Long Beach incorporated.<br /> <br /> 1906- King Edward VII launched a new British design superbattleship called HMS Dreadnought. In the early twentieth century battleships were like nuclear weapons; the number and size showed the world how important a power you were. The Dreadnought class launched a new arms race, as the world’s navies spent millions to build more.<br /> <br /> 1907- THE EUHLENDBERG SCANDAL- Three of Kaiser Wilhelm's closest aides are accused by a socialist newspaper of being gay. The aides, including the Kaiser's personal friend Count Phillip zu Euhlenburg, who carried on an affair with Count Kuno von Molkte, military governor of Berlin! They sued in court but were disgraced and ostracized in the same way writer Oscar Wilde was in England. The scandal shocked German society, and the Kaiser suffered a nervous breakdown. That year in the gay hangouts of Paris the preferred pick-up line was “ Parlez vous Alemand?” “Do you speak German?”<br /> <br /> 1920- Major League Baseball banned the spitball pitch, scuff ball, licorice ball, all attempts to effect a baseball by defacing its surface.<br /> <br /> 1929- Elsa Lanchester married Charles Laughton.<br /> <br /> 1938- RKO screwball comedy with Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant “Bringing Up Baby” premiered. Directed by Howard Hawks.<br /> <br /> 1940- MGM's "Puss gets the Boot" the first Tom and Jerry cartoon and the first collaboration of the team of New Mexico born Bill Hanna &amp; New York born Joe Barbera.<br /> <br /> 1940- Despite the dangerously low manpower to fight the Nazis in North Africa, the British Cabinet voted to overrule Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and not arm the Jews in Palestine, for fear of angering the local Arabs. <br /> <br /> 1941- Nazi planes bombed Iceland. <br /> <br /> 1943- DUCT TAPE- During WW2, Miss Vesta Stoudt worked at a defense plant in Illinois. She noticed the way ammunition boxes were sealed required some effort to open. This could cost precious time in battle. She suggested they develop a strong cloth tape that could be torn open without scissors. Her supervisors ignored her. So, she wrote President Roosevelt this day. FDR loved the idea, and ordered Johnson &amp; Johnson to make it. Because they waterproofed the tape, they called it Duck Tape. Like water rolls off a duck’s back. G.I.s liked the tape so much, they began using it for everyday repairs, even to close wounds. I’m not sure when it was first used on ducts. It was originally Army green. Manufacturers changed it to silver when marketed for home use.<br /> <br /> 1949- The premiere of Arthur Miller’s play "Death of a Salesman”.<br /> <br /> 1960- Jack Paar was the star and host of NBC’s The Tonight Show. He pioneered the talk show format, the opening monologue and couch, that everyone uses today. He tried to tell one joke about a woman in a water closet (i.e. toilet) when the network censors cut the joke. Jack Paar was so angry, that in the middle of this show, he stood up, exclaimed “ There’s gotta be better ways to make a living,” and walked off the show. A few weeks later he was convinced to return, but he left permanently in 1962. His celebrity status faded while his successor Johnny Carson became famous. Paar later admitted quitting was the biggest mistake of his life.<br /> <br /> 1962- U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers, shot down over Russia in 1960, was finally traded back to the U.S. for top Soviet spy Alexander Abel. In his memoirs, Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev later confided to Kennedy that he kept Col. Powers through the American election of 1960, because he didn't want "that s.o.b. Nixon" to have the advantage. <br /> <br /> 1966- CBS co-ops broadcasting the senate Kennan Hearings on the conduct of the Vietnam War with reruns of "I Love Lucy'. CBS news division president Fred Friendly quit in protest. <br /> <br /> 1966- Jaqueline Susanne’s novel The Valley of the Dolls first published. Although critics considered it cheap and trashy- Time Magazine called it “Dirty Book of the Month”, and Truman Capote called Susanne in her heavy 1960s eye shadow, a “Truck Driver in Drag” Valley of the Dolls sold like wildfire. Its frank portrayal of single women enjoying casual sex and taking drugs in suburbia was a big step in the sexual revolution of the 1960’s.<br /> <br /> 1966- Author Ralph Nader gained national fame when he testified to the Senate about the lax standards of auto safety. His greatest criticism was for GM’s Corvair. General Motors responded with a smear campaign trying to paint Nader as gay and anti-Semitic. Nader successfully sued them in court. Many of his consumer advocates ideas are mandatory today like seat belts and listing gas efficiency on the sales sticker.<br /> <br /> 1968- Operation Fractured Jaw. Secret memo only released in 2018 showed the Pentagon had planned to use nuclear weapons to win the Vietnam War. Several days later, LBJ cancelled their plan. <br /> <br /> 1992- The children’s book- The Stinky Cheese Man debuted.<br /> <br /> 1996- IBM computer Deep Blue defeated world chess master Garry Kasparov. The first time a computer ever beat a human chess champion. <br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s question: What does it mean to be a martinet?<br /> <br /> Answer: To be a bad-tempered unpleasant perfectionist.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 08 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6378 <p>Question: The medieval Holy Roman Empire based in Frankfurt was called the First Reich. The Nazis called themselves the Third Reich. Who was the Second?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: What is the difference between immigrating and emigrating?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/8/2024<br /> Birthdays: St Proclus of Constantinople 412AD, Jules Verne, Dmitri Mendeleev- inventor of the Periodic Table of Elements, James Dean, William Tecumseh Sherman, animator Ivan Ivano-Vano, Lana Turner, Jack Lemmon, Alejandro Rey, Jack Larson (Jimmy Olsen in the 1950s TV Superman), Ted Koppel, Nick Nolte, Gary Coleman, Robert Klein, Seth Green, Sesame Street composer Joe Raposo, composer John Williams is 92<br /> <br /> 1587- MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS BEHEADED at Fotheringham Castle. Circumstantial evidence proved Mary had not discouraged plots to overthrow Queen Elizabeth. Truth was Elizabeth could never sit on her throne securely while Mary lived. While some could argue Elizabeth’s legitimate birth, Mary’s grandmother was the sister of King Henry VIII. <br /> Apologists for Queen Elizabeth argue she ordered the execution with great sadness, but others say she made jests as she signed the death warrant. Elizabeth and Mary never met face-to-face. Mary’s son James accepted his mother’s death calmly, he hadn’t seen her since he was a toddler and his Presbyterian tutors all filled him with hatred for her. She was raised Catholic at the court of French Queen Marie de Medicis. She would sit at her aunties side and watch her burn Protestants.<br /> It must have been a hard day for the headsman. First in order to ensure a good job, Mary gave a bribe to the executioner, but he muffed the first chop and had to do it in a couple of swings. Then, when the headsman picked up the head it plopped out of it's red wig. She had lost most of her hair to smallpox, as did Elizabeth and a lot of other folks. Finally, when they moved Mary's body, a yelping lap dog jumped out of her skirts and bit the headsman. The heartbroken little pet refused all food, and died soon afterwards.<br /> <br /> 1601- Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex, was the toyboy of Queen Elizabeth I. On this day he shocked the court by riding through the countryside declaring his intent to overthrow the beloved old Queen. The countryside in turn surprised him when no one joined him. He was soon captured and lost his head. <br /> <br /> 1608- A fire burns down what there is of Jamestown and most of the food supply, right in the depths of winter.<br /> <br /> 1836- Davy Crockett with twelve Tennessee leathershirts arrived at the Alamo.<br /> <br /> 1864- Abraham Lincoln visited Matthew Brady's Photo Studio and posed for the photos that would one day be on the Penny and Five-dollar bill. <br /> <br /> 1865- Russian monk Gregor Mendel publishes his laws of heredity. The science of genetics is born.<br /> <br /> 1866- Elizabeth Cady-Stanton pleaded in the New York State legislature that neglect, abandonment and wanton cruelty on the part of a husband be made grounds for divorce. Her ideas became law, one hundred years later, in 1966.<br /> <br /> 1887- Congress passed the Dawes Act, which said any Indian who left his tribe and moved into white society would be granted American citizenship. All native Americans were not granted unconditional U.S. citizenship until 1924.<br /> <br /> 1893- THE FIRST RECORDED STRIPTEASE - discounting Salome. At Paris' Moulin Rouge at the Bal de Quart’z Artes, an artist's model named Mona decided to get an edge in a beauty contest judged by art students by disrobing to music while walking up and down the stage. She was arrested and fined 100 francs, and the students rioted. <br /> <br /> 1893- Congress repealed the Enforcement Acts, a key piece of reconstruction legislation that prevented local governments from cheating African Americans out of their voting rights.<br /> <br /> 1910- Boy Scouts of America incorporated on the British model.<br /> <br /> 1914- THE FIRST TRUE CHARACTER ANIMATION- Windsor McCay's "Gertie the Dinosaur" premiered as part of his vaudeville act. Up to then most U.S. animated shorts were attempts to bring popular newspaper comic characters to life, but Gertie was a new character never before seen. Some critics had wondered if animated characters weren’t some kind of man in a special suit, so McCay drew a dinosaur, a character that couldn’t possibly be impersonated by any living thing. Giving the dinosaur the personality of a precocious kitten gave the character a new level above merely drawings that move. It was the first true character animation. The brilliant draftsmanship and timing of this film would inspire the generation of Animation artists of the Golden Age of the 1930's-40s.<br /> <br /> 1915- THE BIRTH OF A NATION or The Clansman, premiered at Clunes Auditorium in Los Angeles. Film pioneer D.W. Griffith's racist movie was considered for many years the first American feature length film. The discovery in 1999 of a 1913 Richard III film predates it. Son of a Confederate veteran, it’s been thought that Griffith was making a personal statement, truth is there was a flood of films to mark the 50th anniversary of the Civil War and the book the Clansman by Thomas Dixon was a national best seller. President Woodrow Wilson (another son of a Confederate soldier) endorsed the film, when he called it: "History written with a thunderbolt and I’m afraid all too true." <br /> Birth of a Nations’ inflammatory imagery and this politically incorrect Presidential endorsement helped a rebirth of the defunct Ku Klux Klan, and caused an increase in lynching. But despite the film’s politics, it’s technique influenced world cinema.<br /> D.W. Griffith in later years lost his fortune and became a drunken has-been. Watching him at Chasens Restaurant pathetically beg MGM studio head Dore Schary for work, inspired Billy Wilder to write Sunset Blvd. <br /> <br /> 1924, the first execution by gas chamber in the United States took place at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City. It took Chinese gang member Gee Jong six minutes to die. <br /> <br /> 1928- Englishman John Logie Baird transmitted a still television image across the Atlantic from England to Hartsdale New York. It was a still image of a woman. <br /> <br /> 1949- Cardinal Mindzenty, the Roman Catholic primate of Hungary had been imprisoned by Pro-Nazi Hungarians after he spoke out against the regimes treatment of Jews. Nine years later this day he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Communist government for treason. He was released in 1956 and in 1971, escaped to the west. In his time Cardinal Mindzenty was celebrated as a champion of human rights like Nelson Mandela.<br /> <br /> 1960- Adolph Coors III the heir to the Coors beer empire was killed in a failed kidnapping attempt. Joseph Corbett Jr was apprehended in Canada and charged with the crime. Ironically, Adolph Coors was reputedly allergic to beer.<br /> <br /> 1961- Nebraska teenager and future movie star Nick Nolte was busted for the first time. He was accused of selling fake Draft cards so his friends could buy alcohol to celebrate his birthday.<br /> <br /> 1966- The Vatican closed its office of censorship.<br /> <br /> 1967- Georgy Girl by the Seekers goes to #1 in pop charts.<br /> <br /> 1968- The Planet of the Apes, directed by Franklin Schafner, starring Charlton Heston, Kim Hunter, Roddy McDowell and Maurice Evans, premiered. <br /> <br /> 1976 - Taxi Driver, directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader, starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Cybill Shepherd, Peter Boyle, and Albert Brooks, was released. It was the last score by composer Bernard Hermann, whose career began with Citizen Kane. Hermann died just before the film opened, at age 64.<br /> <br /> 2001- Walt Disney California Adventure opened.<br /> <br /> 2007- Anna Nicole Smith, centerfold, pole dancer, heiress and reality TV star, died from an overdose of prescription drugs. She was 39.<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is the difference between immigrating and emigrating?<br /> <br /> Answer: Emigrating means leaving a place. Immigrating means arriving at a place. In the context of geopolitics, emigrating means leaving the country where you have been living, often one's native country, and taking up permanent residence in another country.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 07 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6377 <p>Question: What is the difference between immigrating and emigrating?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: Question: What does it mean to be caught between Scylla and Charybdis?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/7/2024<br /> Birthdays: St. Thomas Moore, Eubie Blake, Sinclair Lewis, Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Laura Ingalls Wilder writer of Little House on the Prairie, Gay Talese, animator Jim Tyer, James Spader is 64, Chris Rock is 59, Eddie Izzard is 62, Ashton Kutcher is 46<br /> <br /> 310 AD- Feast of St. Theodore the General. He commanded a Roman legion under the Emperor Licinius in Pontus. After admitting he had converted to the outlaw sect Christianity, he was tortured and burned in a furnace. Two years before the ban on Christians was lifted.<br /> <br /> 457AD- After the death of the Roman Emperor Marcian, General Aspar proclaimed his friend General Leo the Armenian to be the new emperor of the Eastern Empire.<br /> <br /> 1601- Elderly Queen Elizabeth I dallied with a courtier named Robert Devereaux the Earl of Essex. This hot headed toyboy soon got it into his head he could overthrow the old Queen and take over her government. This night at his estate- the original Essex House, flattering friends paid for a performance of Master Shakespeare’s play Richard II. Queen Elizabeth’s spies overheard and told her; the symbolism of Essex watching a play about a monarch overthrown was not lost on her. Next day the Essex plot was crushed. Essex and all his theater-loving buddies went to the headsman’s block.<br /> <br /> 1792- The major European powers- Russia, Austria, Prussia, Spain and England announced a grand coalition to crush the Revolution in France. They considered it a pre-emptive war to prevent a French people’s-style revolution from overthrowing their own monarchies. About the only ally the French had was the American Republic, but they were too weak and too far away to be of any help.<br /> <br /> 1796- Napoleon &amp; Josephine’s engagement was announced.<br /> <br /> 1807- BATTLE of EYLAU- Up until the 20th century, armies traditionally avoided fighting in winter because of the added hardships of weather. After chasing the Russian army up into Northern Poland, Napoleon put his French army into winter quarters and proceeded to snuggle up with his new mistress Countess Maria Walewska. Unfortunately, a French division bumped into the main Russian army and a battle ensued. Everyone rushed there and an inconclusive slaughter raged in a blinding snowstorm. The battle was only ended when Marshal Murat massed all the French cavalry into one big juggernaut and sent it smashing through the Russian center. <br /> <br /> 1882- John L. Sullivan defeated top boxer Paddy Ryan in a ferocious bareknuckle brawl in Gulfport Mississippi. There were no official boxing championship belts yet, but John L. Sullivan boldly declared himself the Champion of the World. The title stuck. He’d travel from town to town, building his legend: "I’m John L. Sullivan and I can lick any man in the house!!” and he always did. <br /> <br /> 1900- In Barcelona a new young talent named Pablo Picasso had his first show. <br /> <br /> 1904- The Great Fire of Baltimore.<br /> <br /> 1910- The town of Hollywood was absorbed into the growing City of Los Angeles.<br /> <br /> 1925- Professor Raymond Dart of the University of South Africa named the small human like skull found in a lime deposit Australopithicus, a missing link between ape and man.<br /> <br /> 1931- Aviatrix Amelia Earhart married publisher George Putnam.<br /> <br /> 1937- PACKING THE COURT-Since seizing the initiative in 1933 to battle the Depression, Franklin Roosevelt was used to having his own way with Congress. After the Supreme Court struck down important components of his National Recovery Act (NRA) as unconstitutional, FDR this night informed leading Senators that he was introducing a bill to expand the Supreme Court so he could name his own men and create a majority to do his bidding. The heretofore docile Senate rose up and defeated FDR’s scheme, the resistance led by his own vice president Cactus Jack Garner. The newly invigorated Congress continued to defy Roosevelt until Pearl Harbor.<br /> <br /> 1939, Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep was published. Chandler was a 51-year-old ex-oil company executive who had taken up writing at the age of 45, after being fired for alcohol-soaked absenteeism. Over the previous five years he had published enough crime stories in the pulp magazines to survive, but this was his first novel, the first of seven featuring the inimitable detective, Philip Marlowe.<br /> <br /> 1940- Disney's second animated feature "Pinocchio" opened at the Central Theater in Manhattan. It cost a staggering $2.6 million to make. <br /> <br /> 1942- Despite being under heavy Japanese attack, British commander Sir Spencer Percival vowed that Singapore, The Gibraltar of the East, would resist to the last man. Singapore surrendered one week later.<br /> <br /> 1942- Detroit assembly lines ceased all production of automobiles and focused exclusively on war material- tanks, planes, trucks, until 1945. When President Roosevelt challenged carmakers to help make America the "Arsenal of Democracy" in 1939 they dragged their feet. Now the government sweetened their orders with guaranteed profits, labor peace, and they could sell at incredible discount the factories built at government expense.<br /> <br /> 1944- German Panzergrenadiers launched a heavy counterattack on the Allied beachhead at Anzio Italy. Panzergrenadiers were elite infantry, the equivalent of the U.S. 101 Airborne.<br /> <br /> 1950- The US recognized the nation of Vietnam not as ruled by Ho Chi Minh but ruled by French mandate under the Emperor Bao Dai.<br /> <br /> 1960- JFK PARTYS WITH THE RATPACK-Before he created the Peace Corps and Camelot, presidential candidate John Kennedy needed to relax and raise some hell. So in total secret he helicoptered down to Las Vegas and spent this night at the Sands Hotel with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop and his brother in law, actor Peter Lawford. These men were famous for their all-night Rat Pack parties, heavy drinking, girls, poker and more. Sinatra introduced Kennedy to a party girl named Judith Cambell Exner, who would claim JFK as a lover at the same time as she was sleeping with Sam Momo Giancana, the head of the Chicago Mafia. In the wee hours of dawn, Kennedy slipped away to continue his race for the White House.<br /> <br /> 1964- THE BRITISH ROCK INVASION BEGAN. Thousands of screaming fans welcomed THE BEATLES to New York for their first U.S. Tour. The last music out of England to be taken seriously by Americans was The Lambeth Walk, now the UK announced itself as a powerhouse of rock &amp; roll. For a Brit to do Rock &amp; Roll in America was as audacious as an American reciting Shakespeare in Stratford, but the welcome for the Beatles was so overwhelming that other bands like The Rolling Stones, The Who, and Herman’s Hermits soon followed. <br /> Local New York disc jockeys Cousin Brucie and Murray the K wiggled to the front of the crowds and got a national audience by following the young musicians around. The crowds of teenagers were so excited they mobbed a Rolls Royce in front of the Warwick Hotel where the Beatles were staying just because they figured a Rolls Royce would be something they drove in. They actually used taxicabs.<br /> <br /> 1964- The GI Joe action figure born. In 1974 it got the Kung-Fu Grip.<br /> <br /> 1968- During the Vietnamese Tet offensive, a US Army colonel issued a statement to the A.P. after burning the tiny village of Ben Tre.:" We had to destroy that village in order to save it." It typified the sometimes-dizzy logic the Army used to justify its actions.<br /> <br /> 1971- Women in Switzerland receive the right to vote.<br /> <br /> 50th Anniversary 1974- Mel Brook’s classic comedy “Blazing Saddles” opened in theaters.<br /> <br /> 1979- Nazis Angel of Death Dr. Josef Mengele was living in hiding in Brazil. This day the old man had a stroke while swimming and drowned. His death was kept secret until 1985.<br /> <br /> 1989- Retired tennis champ Bjorn Borg was rushed to a Madrid hospital and had his stomach pumped after he tried to overdose of sleeping pills. He survived and today is 66.<br /> <br /> 1992- Twelve European nations sign the Maastricht Treaty of European Union.<br /> <br /> 1994- Jean Bertrand Aristide sworn in as democratically elected president of Haiti. He was overthrown shortly afterward.<br /> <br /> 2001-After being overthrown, Jean Bertrand Aristide sworn in as President of Haiti again. He was overthrown again in 2003.<br /> <br /> 2002- President George W. Bush issued a determination “…that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which affords minimum standards for humane treatment, did not apply to al-Qaeda or Taliban detainees.'" This gave direct permission to torture our prisoners, something every American leader since George Washington would not allow.<br /> <br /> 2014- The Lego Movie premiered. Directed by Chris Miller and Phil Lord.<br /> <br /> 2020- During an interview with journalist Bob Woodward, President Donald Trump admitted he always knew that the Covid-19 virus was deadly, spread through the air, and likely to be a serious health emergency. Nevertheless, within the week he was giving public speeches where he called Covid a hoax that would go away by itself. He didn’t want the bad news to affect his chances at re-election. Woodward sat on this information until his book came out later that Sept. Meanwhile, Americans were dying by the thousands. <br /> ____________________________________________________________<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean to be caught between Scylla and Charybdis?<br /> <br /> Answer: Made famous by Homer in the Odyssey, The narrow straights between the toe of Italy and Sicily was known to be perilous to mariners. Scylla was a deadly six headed sea monster, and Charybdis was a deadly whirlpool. So being caught between Scylla and Charybdis means the stuck between two bad options.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 06 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6376 <p>Question: What does it mean to be caught between Scylla and Charybdis?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: What is a demitasse?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/6/2024<br /> Birthdays: Christopher Marlowe, Eva Braun, Ronald Reagan, Francois Truffaut, Babe Ruth, Elias Disney-Walt’s dad, Bob Marley, Queen Anne I of England, Aaron Burr, Robert Townsend, Mike Farrell, Tom Brokaw, Mike Maltese, Haskell Wexler, Axel Rose, Patrick McKnee- Mr. Steed of the Avengers, Thurl Ravenscroft the voice of Tony the Tiger, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Rip Torn, Marty Sklar , Kathy Naijimy is 67<br /> <br /> 46BC- Julius Caesar defeated the Egyptian army of Cleopatra’s kid brother Ptolomey IX at the Battle of Thapsus. Young Ptolomey’s body was found face down in a swamp. <br /> <br /> 1481- The first public burnings of heretics by the Spanish Inquisition. Six men and women were marched out to a public square in Seville and burned at the stake. The executions soon took on a pageant like atmosphere and were called an Auto-da-fe’, an Act of Faith. <br /> <br /> 1671- Young John Churchill, the future Duke of Marlborough, was wounded in a duel with a man named Pfenning. At the time he was the lover of the beautiful Barbera Villars the Duchess of Cleveland, who was also the mistress of King Charles II. One time Churchill had to leap out of Ms. Villars bedroom window when he heard the king at the door. Luckily, his majesty had paused to urinate in a nearby planter. <br /> At the king’s suggestion, Barbara Villars was the model for the woman in the Greek helmet with trident &amp; shield, symbolizing Britannia.<br /> <br /> 1778- The Kingdom of France signed a formal alliance with the rebellious North American colonies, calling themselves the United States. Queen Marie Antoinette was charmed by the American ambassador Benjamin Franklin, calling him 'Le Ambassadeur d'Electrique'. <br /> In the House of Commons, Prime Minister Lord North had said that he doubted any European monarch would ever ally itself to the rebels: “For it would raise in America a new Empire dedicated to missionary it’s form of radical democracy around the world. “ In Germany, the philosopher Goethe said: “We wish the Americans every success.”<br /> <br /> 1815- President James Madison granted a complete pardon to Jean Lafitte, Dominique Yue and all the swamp pirates of Barataria who had fought alongside Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. <br /> Jean Lafitte became a prosperous citizen of New Orleans. But by 1819 had tired of the legit life. He outfitted a new ship and went buccaneering again. A book about pirates written in 1837 claimed Lafitte died fighting a British warship in the Gulf of Mexico in 1829, but no other proof of that exists. General Dominique Yue was a sergeant of artillery for Napoleon before becoming a buccaneer. The title of General seems to be something he made up, He died one of the first citizens of New Orleans. He is buried in tomb #1 in the city’s oldest cemetery.<br /> <br /> 1847- The Treaty of Waitangi- Britain settled New Zealand from the Maoris. Hobbits to follow…. <br /> <br /> 1857- The first Perforated Postage Stamp.<br /> <br /> 1865- THE NERO BALL- During the Civil War, as Sherman’s army burned and looted its way up from Georgia through the Carolinas, Sherman’s cavalry leader Judson Kilpatrick came up with newer and more novel acts of cruelty to inflict on the civilian population. This day at the town of Barnwell South Carolina, Kilpatrick invited all the belles of the town to a “Nero Ball” The ladies didn’t understand the meaning until that evening, when he forced them to dance with his officers while his soldiers burned their homes. One of Kilpatricks officers protested:” It was the bitterest satire I ever witnessed”. Many of his own men hated him and called him “Kill-Cavalry”. But Uncle Billy Sherman defended him,”I know he’s a helluva damn fool, but I need him for my cavalry”.<br /> <br /> 1874- THE ASHANTI RING- The British Army under Sir Garnet Woolsley defeated this West African kingdom, and on this day burn its capitol, Kimesha. Woolsley's inner circle of officers all became generals and were nicknamed the Ashanti Ring. <br /> <br /> 1904-The Russo-Japanese War began with a surprise attack on the Russian Manchurian base of Port Arthur, just like Pearl Harbor forty years later. Japan's defeat of mighty Russia in a modern war, after being in medieval poverty only 55 years before, amazed the world. <br /> <br /> 1919- The Great Seattle General Strike. 100,000 people walk off the job and paralyzed the city.<br /> <br /> 1919- Because defeated Berlin was awash in communist and rightwing paramilitary mobs fighting in the streets, the German government moved to Weimar to write its democratic constitution. Germany in between the wars was called the Weimar Republic.<br /> <br /> 1916- Oliver Hardy tried once to be a dancer in a minstrel show, but wound up managing a movie theater in his hometown of Milledgeville, Georgia. He watched the comics on screen and thought" I’m better than those guys." He moved to Hollywood, and this day signed a contract with the Hal Roach Studios to appear in short comedies, usually as a villain. The following year director Leo McCarey teamed the rotund Hardy with a skinny English music hall comedian Stan Laurel, and the legendary team was born- Laurel &amp; Hardy. Interesting Note: Laurel &amp; Hardy were both over 6 feet tall.<br /> <br /> 1929- Introduction to Photoplay magazine, the first lecture of the first university film degree course ever in the USA was given at The University of Southern California. <br /> <br /> 1932- Charles Addams published his first macabre cartoon in The New Yorker.<br /> <br /> 1935- The board game Monopoly is introduced by Parker Brothers. The prototype of the monopoly board was on a round oilcloth and had street names from Atlantic City NJ. <br /> <br /> 1935- Boxers or briefs? Arthur Kneibler patented men’s underwear brief. He got the idea looking at Frenchmen’s bathing suits on the Riviera and called them Jockeys.<br /> <br /> 1937- John Steinbeck’s novel “Of Mice and Men” published. In a result Mr Steinbeck probably didn’t anticipate, was the stereotype image of a mildly autistic man as the big sidekick Lenny, cartoonists used so often. “Duh, tell me about da rabbits, George.”<br /> <br /> 1938- The first automatic donut making machine invented in Dubuque, Iowa.<br /> <br /> 1943- “GET ME GEISLER!” Actor Errol Flynn was acquitted of two counts of sex with adolescents, which even if it was consensual is still considered statutory rape. The two women who brought the charges had actually tried this shakedown with other celebrities. They weren't exactly adolescents, despite testifying in court with pigtails and a lollypop. Flynn hired lawyer to the stars Jerry Geisler and he slowly took the women story apart. Geisler discovered one had a prior conviction for 'public lewdness, and the other had an abortion, which then was illegal. So Flynn got off- literally. <br /> Flynn had just completed a film called "Gentleman Jim. At the finale of the film, when he says to Alexis Smith: "I never said I was a Gentleman." Peals of knowing laughter rang out from audiences. This is also the time the slang term for living it up was coined- to be “In Like Flynn”. Errol Flynn’s car had the license plate- RU18?<br /> <br /> 1943- Walt Disney’s Saludos Amigos went into general release. <br /> <br /> 1948- In Paris’ Cherche-Midi jail, Nazi General Von Stuelpnagel, the former commandant of occupied France, shot himself rather than face trail for war crimes. Stuelpnagel was part of the Valkyrie Plot to overthrow Hitler, but he also executed many members of the French Resistance and shipped French Jews to concentration camps.<br /> <br /> 1956- Invasion of the Body Snatchers opened in theaters.<br /> <br /> 1974- John Boorman’s sci-fi cult classic Zardoz premiered. Sean Connery in his red jock-strap. <br /> <br /> 1985- Steve Wozniak, the young engineer who started Apple Computer with Steve Jobs in his garage, retired from running the company. He’d rather work as an engineer and teach children. He also returned to Berkeley to complete his undergraduate degree, under the name Rocky Clark. Rocky was the name of his dog. <br /> <br /> 2007- PSYCHO ASTRONAUT- Lisa Nowak, Space Shuttle commander, and mother of three, nicknamed RoboChick by the other astronauts, was fell in love with another astronaut on the program, William “Billy-O” Oefelein. This day Lisa Nowak drove non-stop 900 miles from Texas to Orlando to threaten the life of her boyfriend’s new girl. She wore a wig, a Huggies diaper to prevent having to pull over to use the restroom and was carrying handcuffs and duct tape. She was arrested before she could execute her strange plan. The incident spawned dozens of jokes- The Astro-Nut, Lust in Space, The 150 Mile High Club, etc.<br /> <br /> 2018- First launch of the Space X Falcon Heavy, the first privately owned reusable rocket, capable of taking people to the Moon or Mars. This rocket took into orbit entrepreneur Elon Musk’s personal red sports car with a dummy astronaut in the driver’s seat, with the music playing David Bowie’s Space Oddity in an endless loop. Also, the words from Hitchhiker’s Guide “Don’t Panic” in a panel in the dashboard.<br /> =======================================================<br /> QUESTION: What is a demitasse?<br /> <br /> ANSWER: Demitasse comes from French for half-cup for coffee, usually expresso. A demitasse set is a complete set of expresso cups and coffee pot.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 05 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6375 <p>Question: What is a demitasse?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: Who are you imitating when you say, “ Ruh-Roh…”<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/5/2024<br /> Birthdays: Sir Robert Peel founder of London’s police force- the Bobbies, outlaw Belle Starr, John Carradine, William Burroughs, Arthur Ochs Schulzburger, Hank Aaron, Tim Holt, Barbera Hershey, Charlotte Rampling, Roger Staubach, Michael Mann is 82, Bobby Brown, H. R. Giger, Red Buttons (born Aaron Chwatt), Christopher Guest, Jennifer Jason Leigh is 63, Laura Linney is 60, Michael Sheen is 55, Bruce Timm, who created Harley Quinn.<br /> <br /> 2BC -The Roman Emperor Octavian Caesar was given by the Senate the title Father of His Country- Pater-Patria, or the Augustus.<br /> <br /> 1631- Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, arrived in America from England. Tossed out of Boston for complaining about the Puritan fathers right to lock up anybody who disagreed with their religious views, Williams set up a new colony where he invited all those who wanted complete freedom of religion to come. Rhode Island is one of the smallest states in America, so I guess that says something about the response he got.<br /> <br /> 1642- The House of Lords finally gives in and agrees with the militant House of Commons to exclude bishops from sitting with an equal vote in Parliament.<br /> <br /> 1723- Louis XV who became King of France at age 5, attained manhood at age 13. The period in French History called the Regency came to an end, even through his uncle Phillip d’Orleans continued to run the government.<br /> <br /> 1736- Briton John Wesley landed in Savannah and brought the first Methodist missionaries to the U.S. On the boat Wesley was influenced by the simple discipline of several members of the sect the Moravian Brethren.<br /> <br /> 1783- The Kingdom of Sweden recognized the United States.<br /> <br /> 1811- The previous November, elderly and blind King George III lapsed into madness again never to recover. This day, by act of Parliament, his eldest son Georgie was declared Regent. The next 8 years was called the Regency Period, until the old mad king died in 1820 and the Prince-Regent became King George IV. <br /> <br /> 1846- The Oregon Spectator, first English newspaper on the Pacific Coast, published.<br /> <br /> 1887- Verdi’s opera "Otello" debuted. Guiseppi Verdi had retired from composing after 1875, but was goaded by a new generation of composers like Arrigo Boito to take up his pen once more. <br /> <br /> 1895- PRESIDENT GROVER CLEVELAND asks BANKER J.P. MORGAN TO BAIL OUT THE UNITED STATES- The business climate of the late 1880’s &amp; 90’s was dominated by the debate of whether U.S. currency should be backed by gold or silver bullion. Class distinctions and politics were aggravated by Gold Bugs vs. Silver Men. Wild speculation on Wall Street in both metals made and ruined fortunes overnight. In the midst of all this confusion it was suddenly noticed that the gold reserves of the U.S. treasury were so seriously depleted that the Federal government was about to go bankrupt. So, President Cleveland was reduced to going cap-in-hand to the famous tycoon for a loan. Morgan drove a hard bargain but the U.S. economy was saved. J.P. Morgan was so rich at this point he had stopped several Wall Street panics almost single-handedly. Morgan smoked twenty fat cigars a day and on the advice of doctors never exercised because they said it would be bad for his health.<br /> <br /> 1916- Enrico Caruso recorded O Solo Mio for the Victor Talking Machine Co.<br /> <br /> 1919- Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith sign papers to form the United Artists Studio. The press teased, “ The Lunatics have taken over the asylum!”<br /> <br /> 1921- The Loews State Theater in Chicago opened.<br /> <br /> 1922- The Reader’s Digest began publication.<br /> <br /> 1936-THE BATTLE OF JARAMA - Spanish General Franco’s Fascist army was thrown back from the gates of Madrid with help from the Republic’s newly arrived foreign volunteers, called the International Brigades. These idealistic young Europeans and Americans (the Abraham Lincoln Brigade) were thrown into the battle with no training as they had just arrived. They suffered 50% casualties, but still won the battle. Unlike the U.S Army at the time, The Lincolns were completely intergrated.<br /> The Lincolns sang a tune to Popeye the Sailor Man:<br /> "In a green little vale called Jarama, We made all the fascists cry "Mama!; we fight for our pay, just six cents a day, and play football with a bomb-a, Yippy kai-yo-kai yay."<br /> <br /> 1937- Charlie Chaplin’s film Modern Times opened in theaters. Chaplin was inspired to lampoon modern technological madness when he was invited to view the auto assembly production lines in Detroit and saw men moving like machines. <br /> <br /> 1944- British scientists at Bletchley Park booted up the Colossus Mark I, a huge early computer used to decode Hitler’s secret messages. Eleven more Colossus computers were built. After the war, all but one were destroyed with sledgehammers, and the scientists put under a vow of secrecy for thirty years. <br /> <br /> 1952- New York City is the first to adopt the three light traffic lights-red, yellow, green.<br /> <br /> 1953- Walt Disney’s "Peter Pan" opened in general release theaters.<br /> <br /> 1956- Darryl Zanuck resigned from 20th Century Fox, the studio he built into a powerhouse. He later won back the chairmanship in 1962 in the wake of the Cleopatra fiasco, and was ousted again in 1970 by a consortium led by his own wife and son, Darryl Zanuck Jr.<br /> <br /> 1957- Mel Lazarus’ comic strip Miss Peach debuted.<br /> <br /> 1970- TWA began 747 nonstop services between New York and Los Angeles.<br /> <br /> 1971-The NASDAQ computer stock trading system starts up.<br /> <br /> 1972- After numerous airline hijackings, the U.S. institutes luggage inspection and metal detectors at airports.<br /> <br /> 1974- Hearst Publishing heiress Patty Hearst was kidnapped at gunpoint by an underground radical group called the Symbianese Liberation Army. She was kept in a closet, brainwashed, changed her name to Tanya, did prison time for a bank job, and later appeared in several John Water’s movies. <br /> <br /> 1988- A new Palestinian militant group announced its formation. Called HAMAS meaning "zeal" They were trained in Islamic fundamentalism in the Ayatollah’s Iran. They vowed undying hostility to Israel, and refused to acknowledge the PLO as being in charge. Also, around this time the Syrians backed the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah.<br /> <br /> 1989- The last Soviet Russian troops leave Afghanistan. <br /> <br /> 2003- Former war hero and US Secretary of State Colin Powell went to the United Nations to make the case for the United States attack on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. He was doing so in emulation of Adlai Stevenson’s historic presentation to the UN of proof of the Soviet missiles in Cuba in 1962. <br /> But Adlai Stevenson had genuine proof. Powell had only the rumors and half-truths supplied him after the CIA declared it all suspect. Describing some trucks and aluminum tubes as proof of mobile nuke labs. In 2005 all these findings were declared totally false, and Powell’s reputation damaged. He later confessed:” It was the worst day of my life.”<br /> =========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Who are you imitating when you say, “ Ruh-Roh…”?<br /> <br /> Answer: Rooby-Doo! Uh,oh in Scooby Doo’s voice. Don Messick originally created it for George Jetson’s dog Astro, but used it again a few years later for Scoob.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 04 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6374 <p>Question: Who are you imitating when you say, “ Ruh-Roh…”<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: What was the studio that created Baby Huey and Little Audrey cartoons?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/4/2024<br /> Birthdays: Francois Rabelais, Big Bill Haywood, Fernand Leger', Charles Lindbergh, the Agha Khan, Betty Friedan, Rosa Parks, Erich Leinsdorf, Dan Quayle, Ida Lupino, Conrad Bain, McKinlay Kantor, George Romero, Lisa Eichhorn, boxer Oscar De La Hoya, Clyde Tumbaugh the astronomer who discovered the Pluto in 1930. Janet Waldo the voice of Judy Jetson, Alice Cooper (born Vincent Furnier) is 75<br /> <br /> 211 AD- Roman Emperor Septimius Severus died, despite praying every night to a shrine of little statues that included Zeus, Apollo, Mithras, Moses and Jesus. This guy wasn’t taking any chances! He also liked to keep the corpse of an enemy in front of his doorway for him to wipe his feet on.<br /> <br /> 1536- Henry VIII’s Parliament was presented with a Black Book cataloging all the supposed abuses and corruption of England’s monasteries and convents. They passed the King’s wish to close the monasteries and appropriate all Church wealth to the crown.<br /> <br /> 1703- THE 47 RONIN- A Japanese story that inspired hundreds of play, novels, and films. Asano Nagori the Lord of Ako quarreled with Kiru, the chief of protocol for the Shogun, and struck at him with his sword. To attack a representative of the Shogun was an insult, no matter how justified, so Nagori was ordered to commit suicide (seppuku) and his samurai declared Ronin or discharged freelancers. <br /> The Ronin banded together to plan their revenge. They ambushed Kiru, and placed his severed head on the grave of their master. Then they all sat in his house to quietly await judgement. After consulting several Shinto bishops, the Shogun could see no dishonor in what they did. So instead of executing them as criminals, this day they were allowed to all commit suicide, which they all did unquestioningly. Today their gravesite is a popular shrine in Japan as a model of total dedication to duty. <br /> <br /> 1775- MR. PITT’S PLAN- Legendary British statesman William Pitt the Elder, was Prime Minister during the French and Indian War (the Seven Years War) and called "the Architect of the British Empire.” Today he came out of retirement to try to solve the American Crisis before violence could break out. With the support of Whigs like Lord Shelburne, Edmund Burke, Rockingham and Charles Fox and with his friend Benjamin Franklin in the visitors’ gallery, Mr. Pitt proposed in the House of Lords that Britain legitimize the American Congress and give it seats in Parliament. He stated, “The Britons in America are only doing what we Britons in Britain should be doing, namely, demanding our rights.” <br /> But Mr. Pitts’ plan was voted down by Lord North’s government party, who instead passed a bill allocating more money for German mercenary troops to crush the malcontents. MP’s now placed bets on how soon they would burn Boston.<br /> It’s intriguing to think how history would have changed had Pitt's solution been adopted, for at this time most Americans like George Washington were not yet ready for a complete break from Mother England. The hardcore radicals like John and Sam Adams worried that if America did win Parliamentary seats, that the momentum for independence would be lost.<br /> <br /> 1776- General Washington took the cannon captured from Ft. Ticonderoga and had his men drag them up Dorchester Heights overlooking British occupied Boston. The British were taken unawares because it was done in a terrible winter snowstorm. Staring up into the mouths of these large guns they knew these amateur soldiers had outmaneuvered them. They soon evacuated the city by sea.<br /> <br /> 1783- Britain declared a formal ceasefire with its former colonies the United States,<br /> ending the American Revolution.<br /> <br /> 1826- James Fenimore Cooper’s novel “The Last of the Mohicans” was published. The character of wild frontiersman Natty Bumpo, called Hawkeye, has been called the first American superhero.<br /> <br /> 1861- Delegates of the several Southern states met in Montgomery Alabama to declare themselves the Confederate States of America. They decide to move the rebel capitol to Richmond, Virginia to insure that the Old Dominion State will join their cause.<br /> <br /> 1861- At the same moment in Washington D.C. a group of Virginia politicians led by old former President John Tyler arranged a covert peace conference between the slave states and free states in one final attempt at compromise. Despite long talks in a backroom of The Willard Hotel, they emerged more divided than before.<br /> <br /> 1861- The Apache Wars began. The U.S. Army arrested Apache chief Cochise for raiding his neighbors. Cochise escaped and declared war on the white man. The conflict would rage off and on for over 25 years and involved all the various Apache tribes as well as their cousins the Navajo. <br /> <br /> 1871- Ms. Victoria Woodhull testified before the House Judiciary Committee on the subject of women's voting rights. She was the first woman to testify before Congress, the first woman to run for President and the first woman to own a stock brokerage on Wall Street. Yet she is not as well known a figure as Susan B. Anthony or Elizabeth Cadie Stanton. The mainstream suffragette movement was shocked of her open advocacy of Free Love, Spiritualism and Socialism. <br /> <br /> 1894- Dr. Richard Weatherill discovered the first signs of the Basket Maker culture.<br /> <br /> 1938- After being in first run houses since Dec 21st, today Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs opened in general release across the US.<br /> <br /> 1940- Soviet dictator Josef Stalin had Nicholai Yezhov, the Commissar of Internal Affairs and leader of the NKVD, the secret police, arrested and shot. Nikita Khruschev wrote Yezhov was an alcoholic drug addict who got what he deserved.<br /> <br /> 1945- YALTA. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met to map the postwar world. In an unguarded moment Roosevelt told Stalin that America only intended to stay in Europe two more years. <br /> Later in the month a courier plane flying over Germany to Russia is shot down. Maps showing the agreed occupation zones of postwar Germany fall into the hands of the Nazis. Knowing how much mercy they could expect from Stalin, most of the top officials of the Third Reich arranged to be captured in the American Zone. Albert Speer had Wilhelm Furtwangler and the entire Berlin Philharmonic shipped by train to an American sector after one more Wagner concert. They played "Twilight of the Gods" from Gotterdammerung as the bombs rained down.<br /> <br /> 1961- United Artists released The Misfits, the last film of stars Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift. John Huston directed and Arthur Miller wrote the screenplay. The film flopped in its initial run but has since gained classic status.<br /> <br /> 1966- Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, Disney’s first Winnie the Pooh film came out with the live action film The Ugly Dachshund.<br /> (***Now stop what you are doing and sing the Winnie the Pooh Song!!)<br /> <br /> 1968- Old beatnik Neal Cassady died in Mexico. Cassady was not an intellectual but his wild non-conformist lifestyle was the inspiration for his companion author Jack Kerouac to write his greatest novel " On the Road'. Alan Ginsburg also wrote poems about him. While Kerouac disliked hippies, Cassady drove the first Hippie Bus “ Further” filled with LSD advocates like Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. The night after a party where he filled up on pills and booze, Cassady passed on the ground wearing nothing but a t-shirt and shorts. He was found in the morning in a coma and died soon after. He was 42. At one point, Cassady took a 19 year old aside and told him: " Twenty years of fast living — there's just not much left, and my kids are all screwed up. Don't do what I have done.”<br /> <br /> 1983- Pop singer Karen Carpenter died of anorexia-nervosa. She was 32 and weighed only 77 pounds. Her death brought to national prominence how the societal pressure to stay thin could lead to this deadly condition. <br /> <br /> 2004- Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, and Chris Hughes launched their social networking site called Facebook. <br /> =============================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What was the studio that created Baby Huey and Little Audrey cartoons?<br /> <br /> Answer: Paramount Animation Studio. Formerly Max Fleischer’s.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 03 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6373 <p>Quiz: What was the studio that created Baby Huey and Little Audrey cartoons?<br /> <br /> Answer to Yesterday’s Question below: What is a “nom de plume”?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/3/2024<br /> Birthdays- French King Charles VI the Mad –1380, Felix Mendelson-Bartoldy, Horace Greely, Gideon Mantell 1790-pioneer British fossil hunter that named the Iguanadon, Pretty Boy Floyd, Gertrude Stein, Norman Rockwell, James A. Michener, Joey Bishop, Shelley Berman, Bob Griese, Fran Tarkenton, John Fiedler the voice of Piglet, Victor Buono, Blythe Danner is 81, Morgan Fairchild is 74, Nathan Lane is 68<br /> <br /> Today is the Feast of St. Blaise, patron saint of sore throats and sick cattle.<br /> <br /> 1238- The Mongol horde under Genghis’ grandson Batu Khan burned the Russian city of Vladimir-Suzdal. He later also destroyed Kyiv.<br /> <br /> 1134- Robert Curthose (little bandy legs) was the eldest son of William Conqueror. He should have been king but he was outmaneuvered first by his middle brother William II Rufus, then his youngest brother Henry I. Henry had his brother imprisoned in Cardiff Castle for thirty years, until this day he died in his 80s. <br /> <br /> 1547- Czar Ivan the Terrible married Anastasia Romanova. Her young death may have pushed his sanity over the edge.<br /> <br /> 1637- TULIPMANIA- Dutch merchants went so wild over the importation of tulip bulbs from Turkey, that they drove up the market price in tulips to absurd lengths. It was the birth of Futures Markets, investing in crops that haven’t even been planted yet. Today the first consignment of bulbs failed to sell, and caused panic selling. It caused the first international stock market collapse.<br /> <br /> 1690- The first paper money issued in the New World, by the Massachusetts Colony.<br /> <br /> 1780- THE FIRST AMERICAN SERIAL KILLER- For those who think this kind of crime is a symptom of our modern Secular-Humanist society: In New Milford Connecticut, Revolutionary War veteran Barnett Davenport was rooming at the farm of Mr. Caleb Mallory. This day for no apparent reason, possible ptsd, Davenport murdered Mallory, his wife, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, using his musket and farm tools. He then set the house on fire with their bodies inside. <br /> He was soon captured, and his confession ran to 14 pages. He was sentenced by Declaration of Independence signer Judge Roger Sherman to 70 lashes, then hanged. The incident was widely reported in the young nations press. <br /> <br /> 1781- After declaring war on Holland over their support for the Revolutionary War, Admiral Rodney with a British fleet captured the Dutch Caribbean island of Saint Eustachius (now the Virgin Islands). The island was a major trading center of covert military aid to the Yankee rebels. Rodney looted the city and flew the Dutch flag over the harbor for several more weeks to surprise incoming Dutch and American ships. But while he made neat headlines in the Caribbean, he and his fleet would have been far more useful rescuing Lord Cornwallis whose army was surrounded at Yorktown Virginia.<br /> <br /> 1783- The Kingdom of Spain recognized the independence of the United States.<br /> <br /> 1846- The US Army captured the pueblo town of Taos New Mexico from hostile locals and Indians by shelling the town with cannon fire. Lt. Sterling Price then hanged the native chiefs for treason, even though no one had told them they were now part of America.<br /> <br /> 1862- President Lincoln received a message from the King of Siam (Thailand) offering him Siamese war elephants to help him win the Civil War. He politely passed on the offer.<br /> <br /> 1863- MARK TWAIN- It was a long custom in American newspapers for columnists and critics to publish under pseudonyms. Abe Lincoln loved humor columns written by Charles Farrar Brown under the name Artemus Ward. Aurore Dupin published as George Sand. When riverboat pilot Samuel Clemens became a writer he first considered names like Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass, and W. Epaminondas Adrastus Blab. Today he borrowed from another riverboat pilot the idea for the pseudonym for which he would become famous. This day in the Virginia City Nevada Territorial Register newspaper was an article authored by someone calling himself - 'Mark Twain'. Mark Twain was the Mississippi River pilot's term for when a steamboat is in two fathoms of water or more, in other words, safely enough away from shallows to proceed at full speed.<br /> <br /> 1865- The Confederate government made the first overtures to Washington for peace talks to end the Civil War. Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens secretly met with Abe Lincoln on board a riverboat in the James River to discuss terms. However no agreement was reached. One point that became a deal-breaker was the Lincoln’s offer of pardons and amnesties to Rebels who retook the Oath of Allegiance to the US. Stephens angrily replied that the South had a legal right to secede so had committed no crimes needing any pardons. So, the Civil War continued for two more bloody months.<br /> Alexander Stephens nickname is where we get the term “Smart Alec.”<br /> <br /> 1889-THE BANDIT QUEEN- In Oklahoma, outlaw Belle Starr was shotgunned out of her saddle by an old boyfriend. She usually shot them first. Originally named Myra Belle Shirley, she pursued a career as an outlaw and had two children, one by Cole Younger, another by a member of the James Gang. Rustler, gunfighter, prostitute, sideshow performer, she said: "Let's just say I'm a woman who's seen a lot of the world."<br /> <br /> 1912- The rules governing U.S. football are revised. The playing field was shortened to 100 yards; a touchdown counted as six points instead of five; four downs are allowed instead of three and the kickoff point was moved from midfield to the 40 yd. line.<br /> <br /> 1913- Federal Income Tax Amendment ratified.<br /> <br /> 1916- The original Canadian Parliament building burned down.<br /> <br /> 1917- After a German U-Boat sank the U.S.S. Housatonic, President Wilson broke off diplomatic relations with Germany.<br /> <br /> 1920- The play Beyond the Horizon premiered. The first hit of a young man who tried to drink himself to death, but instead became a playwright- Eugene O’Neill.<br /> <br /> 1930- Roy Disney signed a deal with M. George Borgfeldt Co. of New York to sell figurines of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Disney merchandising is born!<br /> <br /> 1943- Four Chaplains Day. This day a German U-Boat torpedoed the troopship USS Dorchester, with the loss of 600 lives. Four army chaplains gave their life jackets to others to be saved, and so drowned in the icy Atlantic. Congress declared Feb 3rd thereafter Four Chaplains Day.<br /> <br /> 1945- General MacArthur began the battle to liberate Manila. The fighting lasted a month, fierce fighting house to house with some Japanese troops killing Philippine civilians as they withdrew.<br /> <br /> 1945- Walt Disney’s The Three Caballeros opened in the USA. It had premiered first in Mexico City last Dec.<br /> <br /> 1948- The first Cadillac’s with big rear tail fins were produced.<br /> <br /> 1953- Jacques Cousteau, inventor of the Aqua Lung, published The Silent World, and later made a film version of the book with Louis Malle.<br /> <br /> 1959 "The Day the Music Died" The first Rock &amp; Roll tragedy. Top pop stars Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and J.P. "Big Bopper" Richardson died in plane crash. They were on tour and Holly chartered the small plane so they could get to Fargo, North Dakota in time to get his shirts cleaned. Waylon Jennings was supposed to join them but he gave up his seat to Richardson because Richardson was running a fever and didn’t want a long cold bus ride. As they left Richardson teased Jennings:” Hope your bus doesn’t freeze.” And Jennings joked:” Hope your plane doesn’t crash.” The plane was called the American Pie, which inspired a Don McClean’s hit song “Bye, Bye Miss American Pie.”<br /> <br /> 1962- John F. Kennedy signed the trade embargo act against Cuba, banning all trade with Fidel Castro’s regime. White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger recalled how the night before JFK had him go around Washington DC and buy up all the Havana cigars (Monte Cristos) he could for the White House humidor. The embargo lasted until partially lifted by President Obama in 2015. Then it was reinstated by Pres. Trump.<br /> <br /> 1966- Russia soft landed a probe on the Moon- Lunik-7. The Soviets took the first photos of the Dark Side of the Moon with Lunik–2 as part of their Space Race with the US.<br /> <br /> 1973- Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law.<br /> <br /> 1986- After three months of negotiations, Steve Jobs signed papers to acquire the Lucas Film Graphics Division, now under their new name- Pixar Inc.<br /> <br /> 1989- Swiss firm L'Oreal/Nestle bought LA animation studio Filmation (HeMan, SheRa) from Westinghouse, and shut it down laying off 229 artists the day before a new federal regulation requiring a company give it's employees 60 day notice before closing went into effect. <br /> <br /> 1998- Near Trento Italy a low flying Marine jet on maneuvers tangled snapped a cable on a ski tram, sending 20 people 300 feet down to their deaths.<br /> <br /> 1998- Murderer Karla Faye Tucker was executed by lethal injection at Huntsville State Prison, Texas. She had chopped up two people with an axe in 1983.<br /> <br /> 2003-Legendary rock and roll producer Phil Spector killed his girlfriend B-movie actress Lana Clarkson at his LA mansion. Spector had created the Wall of Sound concert technique and produced for the Beatles, Diana Ross, The Ronnettes, and Lenny Bruce, among many others. <br /> The few days before, Phil Spector said to the British Daily Telegraph, “. I would say I'm probably relatively insane, to an extent. I take medication for schizophrenia, but I wouldn't say I'm schizophrenic. I have a bipolar personality, which is strange.”<br /> Phil Spector died in prison of covid in 2021.<br /> <br /> 2013- American super-sniper Chris Kyle spent his time back from the Iraq War helping men suffering from PTSD by taking them hunting. The Clint Eastwood film American Sniper was based on him. Today he took a vet named Edie-Rae Routh to a shooting range. At one point, Routh turned his weapon on Kyle and killed him. Shortly before he was shot, Kyle texted a friend about Routh “ This guy is straight-up nuts.”<br /> =====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is a nom de plume?<br /> <br /> Answer: A pen name. It was the fashion in the late XVIII early XIX century to publish under a pseudonym. See above-1863.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> .</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 02 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6372 <p>Quiz: What is a “nom de plume”?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays question answered below: What does it mean when you back someone “ to the hilt”?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 02/02/2024<br /> Birthdays: Tallyrand, Charlie Halas a co-founder of the NFL, James Joyce, Ayn Rand, Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifitz, Abba Eban, Farrah Fawcett, Garth Brooks, Christie Brinkley, Tommy Smothers, Stan Getz, James Dickey, Liz Smith, Elaine Stritch, Brent Spinner is 75, Shakira born Isabelle Ripoli, is 47<br /> <br /> Happy Groundhog Day. This morning if Paxatawney Phil sees his shadow, it means 6 more weeks of winter. <br /> <br /> 1600BC-392AD In ancient Rome it was the first day for the lesser Eleusinian Mysteries held in honor of the goddess Demeter. Some of the rites of Demeter were for women only. <br /> <br /> In the Middle Ages it was the Feast of Candlemas, later named the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary.<br /> <br /> 961 A.D. -Otto I Hohenstaufen crowned, The HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE of the GERMAN NATION declared, or The First Reich. Otto was one of the first rulers to win wars with armored knights on horseback, instead of the Roman Legion style infantry, setting the style for the Middle Ages. <br /> At age 45, he was crowned Emperor by Pope Stephen VI, who was 19. This event created the unusual connection between the German Empire and the Italian states. Italian states like Florence and Venice considered vassals of the German Emperor even though they acted independently and he almost never crossed the Alps to check up on them. A German Emperor was called King of the Romans until crowned by the Pope.<br /> In 1477 the Emperors did away with kissing up to the Pope and left the Imperial selection to a court of electors meeting in Frankfurt. Holy Roman Empire hung around until 1809 when Napoleon declared the whole idea kaput. To quote Voltaire “ It wasn’t much of an Empire, it wasn’t Roman and it most certainly wasn’t very holy either.”<br /> <br /> 12-1300's-In the middle Ages this was the day of the Winter Reysa- when Crusader Knights of the Teutonic Order would venture into the Latvian Lithuanian forest, find a village of pagans, and chop them up for the Christian Faith. There were two expeditions a year, this one and in the summer. The Knights ran a sort of Club-Med for knights who wanted to crusade, but not risk the long dangerous journey to the Middle East.<br /> <br /> 1536- The City of Buenos Aires founded.<br /> <br /> 1565- CZAR IVAN THE TERRIBLE exhibited the first signs of mental unbalance. Without warning, in December he abandoned his capitol Moscow and disappeared. It took several weeks for the Russian court to find him at a little village named Alexandrov, 350 miles away. A procession waving incense and icons came out to beg him to return. He said he would return only if he were allowed to deal with his enemies ruthlessly. <br /> This day he returned to the Kremlin with a private army called the Oprichina, 6,000 criminals and peasants dressed as monks to help him torture people. When asked if a group of Jews from Lithuania could settle in Muscovite lands, Ivan explained his opposition: “ Jews would bring strange herbs into our realm and lead Russians away from Christianity.” <br /> <br /> 1709- William Dampier was a reformed buccaneer who wrote books about his travels. This day while cruising the South Seas he rescued a man named Sir William Selkirk, who had been marooned on the uninhabited island of Juan Fernandez for four years. It seems Selkirk had gotten into an argument with the captain of a Chilean schooner who left him there. It was a wise move, because the captain went mad and his ship was lost with all hands. Upon returning to London, Capt. Dampier mentioned the incident to his friend, writer Daniel DeFoe. He used it to create his most famous novel- Robinson Crusoe.<br /> <br /> 1811- Russian fur traders established Fort Ross, just north of Spanish San Francisco. It was the deepest Russian settlement into North America. In 1845 the Russian Fur Trading Company sold it to American John Sutter of Sutter’ Mill fame. Today there is a reconstructed facsimile of Fort Ross on the site.<br /> <br /> 1848- TREATY OF GUADALUPE HIDALGO signed, which ended the U.S.-Mexican War. Ambassador Nicholas Trist was given the dangerous assignment of finding the Mexican Government fleeing the American assault on Mexico City, then convincing them to sign away California and the Southwest, approximately 40% of their national territory. <br /> Just when negotiations in the little village of Guadalupe Hidalgo were about to conclude successfully, he got a message from Washington to break off talks and return. President Polk had changed his mind. He now wanted the complete conquest of Mexico down to the Yucatan! Trist knew if he did this, the war party in Mexico would keep up a guerrilla war for decades afterwards. So he ignored the message, signed for the U.S. and fixed our southern border at the Rio Grande.<br /> When Trist got home, instead of thanks, he was arrested for treason. But President Polk couldn't convince his war-weary congress to continue the fight. So the treaty was upheld. The French tried conquering Mexico twenty years later and got the Mexican national rising Trist avoided. Nicolas Trist was released from prison, but he never got his back pay until President Lincoln awarded it to him on his deathbed 16 years later. John Kennedy wrote about him in his book Profiles in Courage.<br /> <br /> 1852- London’s first public toilet was dedicated- near 95 Fleet St.<br /> <br /> 1870- Samuel Clemens also known as Mark Twain, married Olivia Langdon or Livy.<br /> <br /> 1870- The first international news agency. Reuters, Havas and Wolf News Agencies agreed to pool their resources for the shared expense of telegraphy.<br /> <br /> 1876- The National Baseball League founded.<br /> <br /> 1890- Ten months before the massacre at Wounded Knee 11 million acres of Sioux homeland in South Dakota went on sale to white homesteaders. The Sioux were removed to a smaller reservation and the money raised from the sale was supposed to go to them, but it all disappeared into the pockets of middlemen.<br /> <br /> 1910- D.W. Griffith's' In Old California', sometimes called the first Hollywood film.<br /> <br /> 1913- New York’s Grand Central Station opened.<br /> <br /> 1920- Admiral Kolchak, leader of the anti-communist (White) Russian armies in the civil war that followed the Bolshevik Revolution, was shot by firing squad and chucked into a dry canal. For a year Kolchak was de facto dictator of all Russia from the Ural mountains to the Pacific.<br /> <br /> 1922- the novel "Ulysses" is published. James Joyce had finished the book months earlier but delayed publishing until his birthday, when it would be 2/2/22, which he considered lucky.<br /> <br /> 1925- IDITEROD- THE SERUM RUN COMPLETED- Nome Alaska at this time was a town totally depended upon supplies from the outside world traveling in by sled dog teams. When a serious epidemic of diptheria threatened the population the call went to the ‘Outside” as Alaskans called the rest of the world, for help. It normally took a musher 18-20 days to cover the 650 miles from the coast to Nome, now a relay of 20 teams in short sprints would attempt to do it in 5 days in the depth of winter. <br /> One musher reported blizzard conditions so bad he couldn’t see the end of his team. While the press kept the world waiting breathlessly on this day Charlie Evans and his malamute team led by his lead dog Balto got into Nome with the serum in a metal cylinder wrapped in fur. At one point two of his dogs froze to death in harness and Evans took up their place himself and ran alongside the dogs the balance of the trip. It took 5 days and 7 hours. The epidemic was limited to five deaths. <br /> The 20 men and their teams were hailed as heroes. Although the dog Balto got most of the credit and has a statue and a movie about him, experts say a 48 pound Siberian husky named Togo did the greatest exertion, going 200 miles in the first leg. The Iditerod sled race is today run in commemoration of this event. The last surviving musher of the original race, Edgar Nollner, died in 1999 at 94 years old .<br /> <br /> 1928- The pulp magazine Weird Tales published “ The Call of Cthulhu” by H.P. Lovecraft.<br /> <br /> 1940- Soviet dictator Stalin had futurist theater director Vselevod Meyerhold shot.<br /> At the time of his arrest Meyerhold’s wife Zinaida was stabbed to death. Neighbors who heard her screams assumed they were rehearsing a new play.<br /> <br /> 1952- Chuck Jones cartoon short “Feed the Kitty”. At the age of 12, Chuck witnessed a big dog kill a tiny kitten. It haunted him for years, so obviously this was how he hoped it should have ended.<br /> <br /> 1957- Elizabeth Taylor married producer Mike Todd. Todd was killed in a plane crash a year later. Despite her famous association with Richard Burton, Taylor later said Mike Todd was the only man she ever truly loved.<br /> <br /> 1961- In a little Greenwich Village nightclub called the Blue Angel a young stand up comic got his first debut. His name was Woody Allen<br /> <br /> 1963- In England, singer Helen Schapiro was on tour. On the lower end of her program card was a new band called the Beatles.<br /> <br /> 1966- Woody Allen married Louise Lasser. They divorced four years later.<br /> <br /> 1971- After a coup toppled legal President Milton Obote, former British colonial sergeant Idi Amin was inaugurated as president of Uganda. He declared himself Conqueror of the British Empire, led his little army in mock invasions of Israel, even though it was thousands of miles away, and he was surrounded by hostile nations. He played drums in his own rock band, wrestled crocodiles, and once reputedly killed and ate one of his sons.<br /> In 1979, He was kicked out by a Tanzanian invasion.<br /> <br /> 1971- Murakami-Wolf's TV special "The Point" with Dustin Hoffman narrating and Harry Nilsson's music. In 1973, Hoffman's track was re-recorded by Ringo Starr for some reason. “Me and my Ar-row…”<br /> <br /> 1979- Sid Vicious, lead singer for the punk band The Sex Pistols, was found dead of a drug overdose. He was awaiting trial for the stabbing death of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen. He was 21. <br /> <br /> 1982- President Hafiz al-Assad ordered the destruction of Syrian city of Hama after its occupation by a Muslim fundamentalist group who sought to create an Iranian-style theocracy. Maybe as many as 25,000 were killed. <br /> <br /> 1985- O.J. Simpson married Nicole Brown Simpson.<br /> <br /> 1997- Nationally known sportscaster Marv Albert allegedly had an evening of sex and porn with a prostitute. At one point he bit the lady on the back. He was tried for lewd behavior and his career tanked.<br /> <br /> 2006- The Cartoon Riots. A Danish newspaper printed a political cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed with his turban shaped like a bomb. This so offended people in the Muslim world, that rioting broke out in Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jakharta and European capitols. Grenades were thrown at Danish embassies and Danish nationals made to flee. Cartoonist Peter Westergaard dodged a Somali man who attacked him with an axe, and even today needs a bodyguard. <br /> <br /> 2014- Actor Phillip Seymour-Hoffman died of a drug overdose.<br /> ================================================-------------------------------------------------------------------------- <br /> Yesterday’s question: What does it mean when you back someone “ to the hilt”?<br /> <br /> Answer: It meant to stab your sword into someone to the handle. The hilt was the little crossbar there. So, it meant to go in all the way on something.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 01 Feb 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6371 <p>Quiz: What does it mean when you back someone, “ to the hilt”?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is a profiterole? <br /> ------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/1/2024<br /> Birthdays: Victor Herbert, Langston Hughes, Renata Tebaldi, Clark Gable, John Ford, George Pal, Terry Jones, Jim Thorpe, Sherman Helmsley, Lisa Marie Presley, Garrett Morris, Boris Yeltsin, Billy Mumy is 70, Pauly Shore, Sherilyn Fenn is 59, Michael C. Hall is 53<br /> <br /> Welcome to February from Februarius Mensis, named for Februus, a Sabine god of the underworld called the Purifier. Another theory is this month is named for Febis, the Latin for fever, this being a time in the Roman climate when fevers were most common.<br /> <br /> 570AD- Today is the Feast Day of Saint Brigid, an Irish saint who gave beer to the poor.<br /> <br /> 1411- The Peace of Torun. The Teutonic Knights of Prussia, an order of warrior monks, yield and pledge obedience to Casimir II Jagiello, King of Poland-Lithuania. This creates a touchy situation with Germany since they had also pledged allegiance to the German emperor.<br /> <br /> 1733- Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland died. Described as Half-Bull- Half Cock, he could twist horseshoes with his bare hands, and drink everyone under the table. He wasted his kingdom’s treasury indulging his vices and filling his palace at Dresden with bejeweled treasures and porcelains, which makes it such a cool tourist destination today. One of the horniest monarchs of Europe, his reputation for womanizing would be unbelievable, had he not left behind hordes of illegitimate children. His last words were, “My life has been one ceaseless act of Sin.”<br /> <br /> 1790- First U.S. Supreme Court Session. It was held in the former Royal Exchange Building, a converted barn on Broad Street in lower Manhattan. The John Jay Court at first acted like a circuit court traveling around arbitrating local issues until a permanent home was fixed in the new Federal city.<br /> <br /> 1865- U.S. Chief Justice Salmon Chase admitted John Rock to be the first black lawyer to practice before the Supreme Court. Besides being a Boston attorney Rock was a dentist, orator and spoke French and German fluently.<br /> <br /> 1887- California land developer Harvey Wilcox took out a county deed for a new ranch he called 'Hollywoodland' after the name of an estate his wife admired back in Connecticut. It gave its name to the new Los Angeles town- Hollywood. The famous sign was put up in 1923.<br /> <br /> 1893- In New Jersey, Thomas Edison and his Canadian engineer W. K. Dickson built the FIRST MOTION PICTURE STUDIO. It was covered with black tar paper and called "The Black Mariah" because that was the nickname of police paddy wagons that it resembled. It's debatable how much of the inventing was more Dickson than Edison. Edison was only marginally interested in the movies. He was more concerned with how to extract iron ore from rocks using magnets. Dickson worked himself into the hospital to make the studio work, and resenting Edison’s apathy started experimenting on his own. When Edison found out, he fired him.<br /> <br /> 1896- Puccini's opera "La Boheme" debuted in Turin. It was based on Prosper Merimee’s popular book Bohemian Sketches. Puccini's old roommate Piero Mascagni (Cavalleria Rusticana) with whom Puccini and he once lived like Bohemian artists, tried to sue him, because he was writing a Boheme' also. The suit failed and Mascagni released his rival version, but it didn't hold up in comparison with Puccini's.<br /> <br /> 1898- The Travellers Insurance company issued the first auto insurance policy. It was to protect a car enthusiast from Buffalo. He was being sued and harassed by angry horse owners in his neighborhood.<br /> <br /> 1901- Outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with prostitute Hedda Place, sometimes called Mrs. Sundance, escaped the law back in Wyoming and arrive in New York City to relax. After a month of sightseeing they take a ship to Bolivia.<br /> <br /> 1908- King Carlos I of Portugal and his son were assassinated in the streets of Lisbon. In 1910 his other son was deposed and a republic declared under Teofilo Braga. King Edward VII of England attended a requiem Mass in their memory. It marked the first time in 220 years that an English King ever attended a Roman Catholic service.<br /> <br /> 1915- The Fox Film Company formed (Later Twentieth Century Fox). Disney ended them in 2020.<br /> <br /> 1926- Gen. Billy Mitchell resigned from the army after a court-martial censored him for shooting his mouth off in favor of building a large independent U.S. Air Force. He claimed all future wars would be won by air power. After World War II proved all of Mitchell’s arguments correct, he was reinstated an honorary Major general, posthumously.<br /> <br /> 1943- At his headquarters at the Wolf’s Lair in East Prussia, Adolf Hitler received the news of the Nazi army surrender at Stalingrad. Hitler was furious. Not that he lost 250,000 of his best men, but that their commander Field Marshal Von Paulus surrendered instead of committing suicide.” This hurts me so much that the heroism of so many soldiers was nullified by one single characterless weakling.”<br /> Then Hitler said in a foreshadowing of his own fate:” When the nerves break down, there is nothing left but to admit one can’t handle the situation and to shoot oneself.”<br /> <br /> 1944- The U.S. Marines invaded Japanese held Kwajelein, the world's largest atoll.<br /> <br /> 1961- Four black college freshmen sit down at a "whites-only" lunch counter at the Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina. When they left or were arrested four more sat down. Then four more. The Civil Rights sit-in campaigns begin.<br /> <br /> 1964- Indiana Governor Matthew Walsh declares that the Rock &amp; Roll song “Louie-Louie” by the Kingsmen was pornographic and should be banned. The FCC investigated and their conclusion was that the “lyrics are unintelligible at any speed”. The song remained a major hit. In the 1980’s several schools in Northern Cal held Louie-Louie Marathons-96 straight hours of Louie-Louie played by Punk bands, polka bands, string quartets, water-glasses, and folk trios. Whoah whoah, Me gotta go, yo,yo yo yo.<br /> <br /> 1968- During the Vietnamese Tet Lunar Offensive, as Eddie Adams camera snapped South Vietnamese General Nguyen Ngoc Loan put a snub-nosed pistol to the head of a Vietcong prisoner and pulled the trigger. The photo of the young man’s death grimace became one of the more haunting images of that war.<br /> <br /> 1979- The Ayatollah Khomeni took over Iran and declared it an Islamic Republic.<br /> <br /> 1985- Walt Disney Feature Animation was moved from their 1939 building on the main lot, to some anonymous warehouses in Glendale near Disney Imagineering. One building was a repurposed casket factory. Many of the animators thought it presaged the unit’s eventual dissolution. Ten years later, after successes like Little Mermaid and The Lion King, they were moved back to a new building adjacent to the studio lot.<br /> <br /> 1990- Siegfried &amp; Roy open their exclusive show at the Mirage Casino in Las Vegas. They and their white tigers have performed for Hollywood stars, presidents and Pope John Paul II. One Vegas columnist noted: “When Elvis performed in Vegas there were some empty seats. But there were nothing but full houses when Siegfried &amp; Roy performed.” The act was finally ended when Roy’s throat was slashed by a tiger in 2003.<br /> Roy died of Covid in 2020, and Siegfried a few months later in Jan. 2021. <br /> <br /> 2003-“Columbia this is Houston on UHF, Houston, Columbia on UHF…” NASA’s first space shuttle, the Columbia, broke up and disintegrated upon reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere. All seven astronauts were killed. The Columbia had flown 26 missions since 1981. On board was the first woman astronaut born in India, and the first Israeli in space, Col. Llan Ramon.<br /> <br /> 2020- Ophthalmologist Dr. Li Wenliang of Wuhan tried to warn the world about the coming pandemic of CoVid 19. He caught the disease while fighting it in others. Today he wrote his last message on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.” The dust has settled, and the diagnosis is confirmed.” He died a week later. Li Wenliang was 34. <br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s question: What is a profiterole? <br /> <br /> Answer: French pasty balls filled with cold custard or cream and topped with hot chocolate sauce.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 30 Jan 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6370 <p>Quiz: Who were the Ritz Brothers?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: What is the origin of the term “a podunk town”?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/30/2024 <br /> Birthdays: Barbara Tuchman, Walt “Moose” Dropo, Olaf Palme, Dick Martin, Louis S. Rukeyser, Dorothy Malone, Boris Spassky, John Ireland, Douglas Englebart, Phil Collins, Vanessa Redgrave is 87, Gene Hackman is 94, Christian Bale is 50, Former VP Dick Cheney is 84<br /> <br /> 1649- KING CHARLES I of ENGLAND BEHEADED-The Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell condemned the King "That man of Blood" and abolished the English monarchy. As Charles laid his head upon the block he said:" I go from a corruptible crown to one which is Incorruptible." -Splat! <br /> Cromwell’s government worried that if the identity of the headsman Richard Brandon was ever found out avengers may harm his family. They kept the secret so well that his name for a time was lost to history. In Alexander Dumas' sequel to “The Three Musketeers”, he makes the executioner to be the son of Madame DeWinter and the Duc de Rochefort. <br /> <br /> 1661- HAVE YOU SEEN OLIVER CROMWELL'S HEAD? English dictator General Oliver Cromwell died of natural causes in 1658. After the restoration of the British monarchy, The King’s sheriffs exhumed Cromwell’s body and exacted revenge by beheading it, and placing the head on London Bridge, where criminals are usually exhibited. A mob joyfully bounced around the rest of the corpse and threw it in the Thames.<br /> After a year, the head fell off it's spike and rolled around on the ground. A priest took it home and sold it to a travelling circus. Eventually it was donated to Cambridge University, to whom Oliver Cromwell had been a benefactor. The college interred it but will not divulge where.<br /> <br /> 1790- Sir Malcolm Greathead invented the lifeboat. <br /> <br /> 1835- THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL ASSASINATION ATTEMPT –An unemployed house painter named Richard Lawrence who thought he was King Richard III, emerged from a crowd in the lobby of the House of Representatives and fired two pistols at President Andrew Jackson. They both miss. Jackson, an old army man who already carried around two lead bullets in his body from Indian fights and duels, was so outraged that he grabbed Lawrence and started drubbing him on the head with his silver tipped cane. He beat him so badly that the police had the strange task of saving the assassin from his intended victim.<br /> <br /> 1862- John Ericsson’s radical design for an all-ironclad ship with a rotating turret, the USS Monitor, was launched at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.<br /> <br /> 1889- THE MAYERLING AFFAIR-Archduke Rudolf Von Hapsburg, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, committed suicide with his mistress, Bavarian baroness Maria Vestera. Rudolf was already married, and even if he could divorce, he could never marry so below his rank. Some say that there was more intrigue to it, that German statesman Otto Von Bismarck had Rudolf murdered because Rudolph planned on challenging Berlin’s hold over German unity, but that theory is a longshot. His family felt Rudolf was an emotionally troubled man, who finally found a girl dumb enough to follow him in his suicide pact. The Baroness had taken poison and then Rudolf blew his brains out. Austrian funerary makeup artists worked overtime to make the Archduke's shattered face fit for an open casket wake. His mother the Empress Elizabeth refused to go: "I won't go see that thing! It's head is made of wax!"<br /> <br /> 1894-Charles King of Detroit patented the pneumatic jackhammer.<br /> <br /> 1917- During WWI, The German General Staff gambled that resuming unrestricted U-boat warfare would economically destroy England and win even if it angered the United States enough to declare war. Admiral Keppel told the Kaiser that even if the United States did enter the war, they could never get enough soldiers across the Atlantic to accomplish anything. “The threat from America is less than nothing. Nothing!” <br /> <br /> 1931- The Premiere of Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights at the Los Angeles Theater. Albert Einstein came as his guest. Later at a dance at the Biltmore Hotel, writer Herman Mankiewicz (Citizen Kane, Duck Soup) got into a drunken fistfight with producer David O. Selznick (Gone With the Wind, Rebecca). You’ll never eat turtle-soup in this town again!<br /> <br /> 1933- HI-YO SILVER!! The Lone Ranger debuted on radio. The Masked Man was invented by the WXYZ Detroit station owner George Trendle and writer Fran Striker with absolutely no experience of cowboys or Indians. They just wanted a hero like Zorro with a strict moral code. He was later voiced by actor William Conrad who did the Rocky &amp; Bullwinkle narration and the TV detective series Cannon.<br /> <br /> 1934- Artist Salvador Dali married Gala.<br /> <br /> 1933- ADOLF HITLER TAKES POWER. After a general election President Von Hindenburg was forced to appoint the Nazi Party leader Chancellor. Hindenburg had earlier growled” Chancellor? I’ll make him a postmaster so he could lick stamps with my face on it!” But he was forced to give in. Germans fed up with skyrocketing inflation and political anarchy among leftist parties voted for the funny little man with the Charlie Chaplin mustache. <br /> The Nazis didn’t win by a landslide vote, it was a 37-42% majority, with the rest divided among splinter parties. The German Army at first didn’t cooperate with the Nazis. Generals called him “ That little Bohemian corporal”. Their real power came when Hitler made a bargain with the major German corporations like Krupp, Seimans, Bayer and Daimler to take the ‘socialist” out of National Socialists and arrest all communists, unions and other bad-for-business types. All this was applauded by big business in the US like JP Morgan, Chase and Hearst who floated loans to Germany. With their new corporate clout, the Nazis quickly called a new election to gain an overwhelming parliamentary majority in the Reichstag. <br /> After ancient President Hindenburg died in 1934 the Reichstag voted dictatorial powers to Hitler, making him Der Fuehrer.<br /> <br /> 1943- At Stalingrad, as the freezing remains of the German 6th Army were wiped out by superior Soviet forces, this day Berlin received the last radio message from Field Marshal Von Paulus’ headquarters in the basement of a bombed out department store:” Russians at the door. We are preparing to destroy the radios. We are preparing……”<br /> <br /> 1945- As the Red Army pushed the borders of the Third Reich back into Germany the German populations of isolated Baltic cities like Memel, Riga and Konigsberg tried to escape by sea. It was a Nazi Dunkirk, evacuations with ships full of people being bombed and strafed from the air. This day a large ship named the Wilhelm Gustoff was torpedoed by a Russian submarine. 1,500 people died on the Titanic, 7,700 people drowned in the frigid waters from the Wilhelm Gustoff- the most deaths ever in one sea disaster.<br /> <br /> 1946- The first US dimes with Franklin Roosevelt on the head were issued.<br /> <br /> 1948- At Birla House while walking to morning prayers, 78 year old Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi was shot three times in the chest and killed by Hindu extremist Nathuram Godse <br /> <br /> 1956- Elvis Presley recorded Blue Suede Shoes.<br /> <br /> 1958- Britain’s House of Lords admitted women for the first time.<br /> <br /> 1960- For years after the making of Fantasia, critics had pondered Igor Stravinsky's cryptic reaction to Disney's portrayal of his "Rite of Spring". Disney publicity said he was "speechless with admiration!" Today in a Saturday Review article, Stravinsky said Stokowski's editing of his music was 'execrable' and the visuals "an unresisting imbecility". His opinion still didn't stop him from selling the studio film the rights to several other of his pieces including "The Firebird' in 1942. Igor needed the cash.<br /> <br /> 1961-Hanna-Barbera’s The Yogi Bear Show premiered. The other sections were Snagglepuss and Yakky Doodle.<br /> <br /> 1963- MIT grad student Ivan Sutherland published his thesis Sketchpad, the first animation software. For the first time, a computer could draw lines instead of just numbers. When students at the University of Utah like Ed Catmull, Nolan Bushnell and Jim Blinn were learning about CGI. The first thing they were asked to read was Sutherland’s Sketchpad. Everything from Woody &amp; Buzz, Avatar, Groot and Mortal Combat results.<br /> <br /> 1969- The rock band the Beatles last public appearance as a group. They tried to do a free concert in the London streets but were banned by police for fear of congestion and noise complaints. So they withdrew to a rooftop above their recording studio at 3. Savile RD. and played anyway. John Lennon ended the concert by saying: ‘Thank you very much on behalf of the band and myself, and I hope we passed the audition.”<br /> <br /> 1972- BLOODY SUNDAY- British troops attempting to quell Irish sectarian riots in the poor neighborhoods of Londonderry fired into a crowd of unarmed civilians, killing 14 and wounding dozens more. British authorities attempted a spin by saying the troops were responding to perceived snipers, but no evidence of any snipers was ever proven. None of the soldiers were ever disciplined for their actions. The incident outraged world opinion and angered the Irish Republic. <br /> <br /> 1973- White House operatives G. Gordon Liddy and James McCord were convicted of burglary in the Watergate break in. President Nixon hoped sacrificing these two small fish would end the investigation. It didn’t. Liddy did some jail time, and today is a highly paid conservative radio talk show host.<br /> <br /> 1976- George H. W. Bush Sr. became head of the CIA. Poppy Bush revived the organization which had been wracked by scandal after the Frank Church Congressional Committee revealed details of the Allende coup in Chile, overseas assassination, illegal surveillance of Americans and schemes to put chemicals in Fidel Castro’s food to make his beard fall out.<br /> <br /> 2001- Shortly after becoming president, George W. Bush held the first meeting of his National Security Council. Secty of State Colin Powell and Treasury Secty Paul O’Neill were shocked when Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Condy Rice immediately start talking about how to invade Iraq and replace Saddam Hussein. Nine months before 9-11.<br /> <br /> 2002- President George W. Bush Jr. saluted his Vice President Dick Cheney on his birthday by saying “You are the best Vice President this country has ever had!” He may have forgotten that his own father was also once vice president. I’m sure his mom reminded him about that later.<br /> ==========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s question: What is the origin of the term “a podunk town”?<br /> <br /> Answer: In the 1920s, famed Broadway composer Irving Berlin (White Christmas) liked to visit friends in Kentucky and take in the Kentucky Derby. When there, he would sometimes stay near a small rural town called Podunk Junction. The locals used the name as a joke for a backward rube. Back in New York City, Irving Berlin’s use of the phrase spread through NY high society. It became popular slang in the 20’s to call someone or something backward and ignorant as “Podunk”.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 29 Jan 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6369 <p>Quiz: What is the origin of the term “a podunk town”?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: Recently news outlets claimed Joe Biden was the first president to ever walk in a union picket line. But there was one other. Who?<br /> ================================================<br /> History for 1/29/2024<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Didius Julianus, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Thomas Paine, William Claude Dunkenfeld known as W.C. Fields, Victor Mature, Paddy Chayefsky, Ed Burns, Bill Peet, Greg Louganis, John D Rockefeller Jr., Claudine Longet, John Calcott-Horsley (1817) the inventor of the Christmas Card-1842*, Oprah Winfrey is 70, Tom Selleck is 79, Heather Graham is 54.<br /> <br /> *Horsley was a Victorian artist at the Royal Academy in London who refused to draw nudes because it offended his morality. This earned him the nickname- Clothes Horsley.<br /> <br /> 282BC- Death of Pharoah Ptolomey II Philadelphus. Philadelphus meant Friend of the People. <br /> <br /> 1728- At this time all the rage in London was Italian Opera based on adaptations of Greek Mythology sung by castrated male sopranos. This day John Gay and Johann Pepusch’s THE BEGGARS OPERA was first produced in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The play was a sensation because it was an opera in English, using popular tunes of the time and told a story not of gods or noble heroes, but highwaymen, bawdy girls and innkeepers. Considered the first true musical.<br /> <br /> 1774-The COCKPIT, or BEN gets his ASS CHEWED- Benjamin Franklin was postmaster general of the American Colonies and had been feeling pretty good about his ability to represent American interests in London. He successfully argued the American's opposition to the Stamp Tax in the House of Commons. He offered to pay back exporters who lost money from the Boston Tea Party. He considered himself a good Englishman.<br /> On this day he was invited to the Kings Privy Council for what he thought was a private meeting. He was ushered into a room called The Cockpit, where he faced a delegation from The Kings Privy Council. The ministers spent the next 4 hours dressing him down. The Lord Chief Justice finished by shouting in 70 year old Ben’s face:" Spy, Traitor, Rebel, Thief! " He was sacked as postmaster and ordered home to America before they clapped him in prison. Ben Franklin entered the room a loyal subject, and left a committed revolutionary.<br /> <br /> 1813- Jane Austin’s novel Pride and Prejudice first published.<br /> <br /> 1820- After spending the last ten years of his long reign as a blind insane shut-in, King George III died at age 82. His son the Prince Regent finally became King George IV. Americans remember George III as the tyrant of the Revolution, but Britons truly loved their old monarch and his simple family-man tastes. While his German grandfather George II was barely mourned at all, all the Empire lamented the passing of Old Shopkeeper George.<br /> <br /> 1834- President Andrew Jackson sent U.S. troops to shoot at striking workers at the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal project. It was the first but sadly not the last time Federal troops were used to "settle" a labor strike.<br /> <br /> 1842- The Republic of Texas authorized the raising of a company of rangers to keep the peace- the Texas Rangers. Stephen Austin had commissioned rangers as early as 1833, but from this date on their regular service began.<br /> <br /> 1845- Edgar Allen Poe's poem The Raven first published. Quote the Raven, Nevermore.<br /> <br /> 1861- Since Kansas Territory was going to be organized as a state slaveholders and union men fought over whether she would be a free or slave state. Ten years later as the Civil War was breaking out Kansas announced statehood- as a free state.<br /> <br /> 1863- THE BEAR RIVER MASSACRE- The Shoshone Indians along with the Bannocks and Utes had been raiding wagon trains through Utah and Nevada. Col Patrick Connor led 300 US cavalry in subzero cold to attack Chief Bear Hunter’s winter camp in a hot-springs ravine near present day Preston, Idaho. After a daylong battle, 224 warriors were killed. The soldiers went berserk destroying tepees and raping the Indian women. Chief Bear Hunter was shot, beaten, whipped, and when he still would not die, a red-hot bayonet was rammed through his skull via his ear. One soldier called it “A frolic”. The Shoshone, Utes and Bannocks, who a generation earlier had helped Lewis &amp; Clark, now asked for peace. <br /> <br /> 1886-In Karlsruhe Germany, Dr. Karl Benz patented the internal combustion engine. To prevent gasoline explosions it utilized a fuel distribution system based on a ladies perfume atomizer spray (the carburetor). He called his horseless carriage at first a Motorvagen, but later names it after his partner Gottfried Jellinek’s daughter, Mercedes.<br /> Years later the merged with rival motorworks Daimler.<br /> <br /> 1891 After the death of King David IV Kalakoua, Liliuokalani was proclaimed Queen of Hawaii. Besides being the last monarch of Hawaii, Liliuokalani composed the song "Aloha-Oi, Aloha-Oi, Until We Meet Again."<br /> <br /> 1918- The new Bolshevik revolutionary government ordered the immediate demobilization of the Russian Army, preparatory for pulling out of World War I. After Civil War broke out Leon Trotsky began to form a new army of Communist volunteers, the Red Army.<br /> <br /> 1920- Walt gets a job. Nineteen year old WWI veteran Walt Disney and his buddy Ub Iwerks were hired by a local Kansas City Slide Company to draw ads for newspapers and slides for theaters.<br /> <br /> 1935- The first inductees to the new Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown announced- Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Christy Matthewson and Walter Johnson. Hall of Fame dedication ceremony was on June 12th 1939.<br /> <br /> 1936- Benito Mussolini dedicated the first stone of Cinecitta’ Movie Studios.<br /> <br /> 1943- Fredrich Von Paulus was the commander of the German Sixth Army, now totally surrounded at Stalingrad. The few survivors were huddled in basements in the destroyed city, freezing, starving and being wiped out by superior Russian forces. Von Paulus and his men prayed for a miracle to save them. This day he heard via radio that Adolf Hitler had promoted him to Field Marshal, with a suggestion that no German Field Marshal should ever be taken alive…..<br /> <br /> 1944- DARBY’S RANGERS were an elite American commando unit trained for the toughest assignments, the forerunners of the Green Berets and Delta Forces. On this day the bungling generals of the Anzio beachhead sent them into a suicidal battle at the Italian town of Cisterna. Germans were had anticipated the attack and set a trap. 761 rangers went in, 6 came out. Colonel Darby himself survived the battle, but was killed two days before the World War II ended.<br /> <br /> 1957- Patsy Cline recorded "Walkin' After Midnight."<br /> <br /> 1959- Disney's " SLEEPING BEAUTY "opened. Despite earning the fifth highest box office for that year, it made 1 million less what it cost. The animation staff had swollen to it's largest to finish the production. Meanwhile Disney’s cheap live action films like The Shaggy Dog were raking in profits. The studio’s animation dept had a big layoff, dropping from 551 to just 75. Staff level will not return to these same levels until 1990. Sleeping Beauty was never re-released in Walt’s lifetime, but since then has earned almost $681 Million and is considered one of Walt Disney’s most classic animated movies. <br /> <br /> 1964- Stanley Kubrick's nuclear comedy "DR STRANGLOVE –OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB." premiered. It's use of handheld camera for action sequences and cutting, inspired by WWII newsreels and the European New Wave, ushered in a new style in Hollywood cinema. So, who was Tracey Reed? She played Miss Scott, George C. Scott’s bikini clad secretary, and the only woman in the entire movie.<br /> <br /> 1964- Actor Alan Ladd (Shane), accidentally overdosed on tranquilizers and scotch. He was 50. <br /> <br /> 1975- The radical Weather Underground set off a bomb in the US State Department. They were a violent offshoot of the Student Anti-Vietnam War protest movement, <br /> <br /> 1977- Comic TV star of "Chico and the Man " Freddy Prinze (23) shot himself. Some said he suffered from a survivor's depression about why he had succeeded in life while all his friends from the Barrio were dead from gang killings or drugs. Family members said that he was just stoned on Quaaludes and was clowning around with a gun. <br /> <br /> 1979- President Jimmy Carter commuted the jail sentence of Patty Hearst.<br /> <br /> 1986- The National Geographic Society announced the discovery of the largest fossil find in North America. Estimated 10,000 fossilized remains in Nova Scotia They include penny sized dinosaur footprints, the smallest ever found. Best guess are they are from the Triassic-Jurassic boundary – a time of mass extinction.<br /> <br /> 2002- THE AXIS OF EVIL- In his State of the Union speech President George W. Bush coined the term " The Axis of Evil". He labeled as members Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Iran is a Shiite religious theocracy, Iraq a Sunnite secular fascist dictatorship and North Korea an atheistic Communist state- all with nothing in common and little mutual contact. The speechwriter originally wrote "Axis of Hate" but the Bush people like the Good vs. Evil thing. They also substituted North Korea for Libya because they wanted a non-Muslim power included they wouldn’t seem prejudiced.<br /> We learned from a retired CIA operative that up till now Iran had actually been cooperating with the USA in rounding up Al Qaeda agents. After 9-11 Iran arrested 16 Al Qaeda operatives. At the request of the US, they handed them over to Saudi Arabia, who promptly let them all go. But after the speech, the Iranians broke off all contact. <br /> ====================================================<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Recently news outlets claimed Joe Biden was the first president to ever walk in a union picket line. But there was one other. Who?<br /> <br /> Answer: Ronald Reagan was president of SAG in 1960 when the actors union first went on strike in Hollywood. Not sure if any photos exist of his actually picketing. Reagan’s people were very careful to edit out those photos.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 28 Jan 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6368 <p>Quiz: Recently news outlets claimed Joe Biden was the first president to ever walk in a union picket line. But there was one other. Who?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s quiz answered below: What is a Pharisee?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/28/2024<br /> Birthdays: King Henry VII Tudor, Jose Marti, Colette, Jackson Pollack, Claus Oldenburg, Arthur Rubenstein, Ernst Lubitsch, Connie Rasinski, Susan Sontag, Barbie Benton, General George Pickett, William Burroughs (1855) the inventor of the calculator, Mo Rocca, Frank Darabont, Alan Alda is 88, Elijah Wood is 44<br /> <br /> 1393- DANSE MACABRE- (Bal des Ardents) At a masquerade ball given at the French court King Charles VI and several of his friends dressed up as 'wild men' to amuse the court. They had fur and animal hair attached to their bodies with tar. <br /> While everyone was enjoying the capering of these strange anonymous creatures, a torch touched their tar covered bodies and the group exploded into flame. While the court watched these creatures writhe in agony, The Duchess de Berry screamed" Oh My God! That's the King!" King Charles was saved when that same duchess smothered his flames in her skirts. Another duke saved himself by diving headlong into a vat of Beaujolais, but the others roasted to death.<br /> The common people weren't sympathetic. As you kneeled, one duke liked to step on your neck, sneering 'Down Peasant!". As his barbecued remains were carried through Paris in a solemn procession, people laughed, danced, and cried 'Down M’lord!" Edgar Allen Poe wrote a story called “Hop Frog” about the incident. Roger Corman put it into his 1964 film- Masque of the Red Death.<br /> <br /> 1547- English Henry VIII died, leaving his ten year-old sickly-son Edward VI "Gods Imp" king. He was 55 years old but his hard living had aged him early. Increasingly suspicious of all around him as he aged, one of his last acts was to have the Earl of Surrey beheaded for changing the coat of arms of his father the Duke of York into something more like a Royal Heir-Apparent. The Duke of York was also scheduled to be executed but was saved when the old king died first.<br /> <br /> 1596- Sir Francis Drake died at sea off the coast of Nicaragua while trying to mount one more big raid on the Spanish Main. The Devonshire preacher's son had raided there as a young man. But by now, the Spaniards had learned his tricks so they were prepared. The trip was a failure and he died on deck of yellow fever in late middle age.<br /> <br /> 1782- The Congress called for the use of the Great Seal of the United States, even though no one had designed one yet. But the British had one and so..uh, we had to have one too !<br /> <br /> 1829- BURKE &amp; HARE- In the early nineteenth century scientific experiments on cadavers were outlawed as desecration of the dead. So doctors secretly hired grave robbers to get them specimens to experiment on. Burke &amp; Hare were the most infamous of Edinburgh's "resurrectionists" because they didn't always wait for the subject to die, but murdered them in their boardinghouse. To Burke someone became slang for suffocating them. Doctors and later police became suspicious of the freshness of their specimens and Hare finked on Burke to save himself.<br /> On this day Burke was hanged before a crowd of thousands and his body later medically dissected. The notoriety of this case helped pass laws allowing doctors more legal use of mortal remains. Their story was the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's story "The Body Snatcher."<br /> <br /> 1863- Ulysses Grant arrived at Vicksburg to begin the epic campaign that would end on July 4th with the capture of the 'Gibraltar of the Confederacy'.<br /> <br /> 1878- First commercial telephone switchboard.<br /> <br /> 1884- A British relief force reached the city of Khartoum just two days too late. After a one-year siege, the Sudanese Dervishes had sacked the city and massacred all the inhabitants including General Gordon. The desert relief force was held up until all their supplies were complete, including 20,000 black umbrellas, apricot jam, and cricket bats. Mad Dogs and Englishmen….<br /> <br /> 1902- Andrew Carnegie was a rough crude tycoon with a ruthless streak that saw him ruin his competitors and pay vigilantes to murder his striking employees. But after all the rough and tumble of the Gilded Age business world, he showed a new side of his character in retirement. He set up the Carnegie Institute in Washington and resolved to give away the bulk of his $350 million dollar fortune in philanthropic causes. The reason why so many colleges, hospitals and concert halls in America today are named Carnegie. Carnegie declared “A man who dies rich, dies disgraced!” <br /> <br /> 1915- The U.S. Coast Guard born, combining the Lifesaving Service and the Revenue Cutter patrol. In 2002 the Coast Guard was folded into the Cabinet office Department of Homeland Security.<br /> <br /> 1916- President Woodrow Wilson nominated Judge Lewis Brandeis to the Supreme Court. Brandeis was the first Jewish American to be so honored. <br /> <br /> 1917- After 11 months fruitlessly chasing Pancho Villa through Mexico and skirmishing with the Mexican army, Pres. Wilson ordered General John Pershing’s army home.<br /> <br /> 1918- In Germany, one million industrial workers, fed up with the endless carnage of World War I, went on strike, paralyzing factories nationwide.<br /> <br /> 1926- Composer Kurt Weill married his Pirate Jenny- Lotte Lenya.<br /> <br /> 1930- Warner Bros Cartoons Born. Leon Schlesinger, the head of Pacific Art and Title, signed a deal with several unemployed Disney animators who had left Walt to form their own studio to draw Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, but had been stiffed by their contacts. Schlesinger had connections with Warner Bros. since he helped them get funding for the 'Jazz Singer'. They created Leon Schlesinger's Studio Looney Tunes, in imitation of Disney's Silly Symphonies. Their first character was Bosko, but eventually they would create Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd and more. Schlesinger sold his company to WB outright in 1944 when he retired. <br /> <br /> 1949- The Admiral Broadway Review premiered on television. The one and a half hour comedy review starred Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. The show was so popular Admiral was swamped for orders for new televisions and ironically was forced to cancel the show to focus on their production needs. The show was revived as Your Show of Shows, one of the great shows of early television.<br /> <br /> 1956- Young singer Elvis Presley first appeared to television audiences on the Dorsey Brothers Stage Show. <br /> <br /> 1958- Brooklyn Dodger catcher Roy Campanella paralyzed in an auto wreck. He spent the rest of his life as a spokesman for the rights of the handicapped.<br /> <br /> 1978- At the Golden Globe Awards John Williams won for his score for Star Wars (IV: A New Hope), beating out Irving Kostal’s score for Pete’s Dragon. <br /> <br /> 1978- Hanna-Barbera's the Three Robonic Stooges.<br /> <br /> 1982- Danny DeVito married Rhea Perlman.<br /> <br /> 1986- THE CHALLENGER DISASTER- As the world watched, the Space shuttle Challenger exploded 74 seconds after takeoff killing all twelve crew members. They included New Hampshire schoolteacher Christie McAuliffe who had won the space ride in a contest. It was blamed on defective O-rings in the rocket booster. <br /> <br /> 2003- President George W. Bush in his State of the Union address said that he had proof that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had sent agents to the African nation of Niger to buy uranium yellowcake, a component to make atomic bombs. It is one of the major excuses for the war with Iraq. This was later proved to be a complete lie. Bush blamed the intelligence service, after giving the head of the CIA George Tenent the Medal of Freedom. When special CIA envoy Joseph Wilson, who knew Niger, tried to point out the falsehood, the Bush White House destroyed his career and outed the cover of his CIA wife, Valerie Plame. She had been working on exposing the Iranian nuclear program.<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is a Pharisee?<br /> <br /> Answer: A Pharisee was a member of one of the three main Jewish sects, Pharisees (interpretive, separatist) Sadducees (aristocratic, assimilatory) and Essenes (mystic) during a century or two before the time of Christ until the destruction of the second temple and the continued escalation of the Jewish diaspora. (thnks FG)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 27 Jan 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6367 <p>QUIZ: What is a Pharisee?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays question answered below: What is meant by transmigration of souls?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for Jan. 27, 2024<br /> Birthdays-Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Charles Dodgson-better known as Lewis Carroll, Eduard Lalo, William Randolph Hearst, Samuel Gompers, Jerome Kern, Skitch Henderson, Donna Reed, Bridgette Fonda, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Kate Wolf, Ross Bagdasarian a.k.a. David Seville- creator of Alvin and the Chipmunks, James Cromwell is 83, Mimi Rogers, Keith Olbermann, Frank Miller is 66, Patton Oswalt is 54<br /> <br /> 98AD- Roman General Trajan was serving on the German frontier. This day his aide Hadrian came with the news that the Emperor Nerva had died and had designated him as the next Emperor of Rome. Trajan was such a tough, no–nonsense soldier that he delayed several months in Germany to settle the affairs of the province before traveling down to Italy.<br /> <br /> 1307- Dante Alighieri got kicked out of Florence. Being exiled from politics left his mind free to concentrate on his poetry, like writing the Divine Comedy.<br /> <br /> 1431- German King Louis of Bavaria entered Rome to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor. It had been custom since Charlemagne for the German Emperor to be called King of the Romans, until the Pope crowned him. But Louis was arguing with the Pope in Avignon over several issues so rather than wait Louis expected the people of Rome to declare him Emperor. The German electors later reserved that right for themselves in Frankfurt. By successfully challenging the right of the Pope over him Louis of Bavaria was unwittingly aiding the coming of the Reformation seventy years in the future.<br /> <br /> 1535- Today is the Feast of Saint Angela Merci, founder of the Ursuline Nuns.<br /> <br /> 1649- King Charles I of England was convicted by trial in Parliament and sentenced to be beheaded. <br /> <br /> 1671- Buccaneer Henry Morgan and his pirates cross the Isthmus of Darien and attacked Panama City by land. Morgan the Pirate looted the city, despite the Spaniards stampeding a herd of bulls at him. However the attack wasn't much of a surprise and most of the population had already fled with their valuables. I guess a coupla' hundred Englishmen with peg legs and patch eyes growling "Arrr Mateys!" isn't a common sight in the Equatorial rainforest. <br /> <br /> 1775- In London, Secretary of State for the Americas Lord Dartmouth sent the Lord Governor of the colony of Massachusetts General Thomas Gage explicit orders to stop shilly-shallying with these uppity Yankees. He should clap the lot of them in prison and confiscate any illegal weapons. General Gage would get his instructions two months later -that how long it took news to cross the Atlantic by sailing ship. It will cause his redcoats in April to march on Lexington and Concord, which ignited the American Revolution. Ironically Old Tom Gage liked America and had a good friend in Virginia named George Washington.<br /> <br /> <br /> 1888- The first magazine published of the National Geographic Society.<br /> <br /> 1900- In the Grand Hotel de Milan Opera composer Guiseppi Verdi died. He was 87. On his explicit instructions, no music was played at his funeral.<br /> <br /> 1910- Plumber Thomas Crapper died, the inventor of the indoor flush toilet. Besides making going more comfortable, his systems of valves and vents prevented waste odors and germs from re-entering the home. This did a lot to combat disease in the 19th century. When American troops were in Britain during WWI, they kept seeing his name on all the toilets, so they started calling them The Crapper. <br /> <br /> 1918- Warner Bros. Pictures incorporated. The Brothers Warner (originally Wonkolasser)- Sam Albert, Harry and Jack were the sons of Jewish immigrants who had moved from Poland in 1882 and after some time in Canada, set up a bicycle repair shop in Ohio. In 1903 Albert and Harry bought a movie theater and began showing flickers. After their move to Hollywood, their first movie was Five Years in Germany. Throughout the 1920’s their little studio survived making pictures with dog star Rin Tin Tin. They called him Their Little Mortgage Lifter, because the profits from his pictures paid their bills. Later they bought Vitagraph from animator James Stewart Blackton, and gambled on the new Sound technology. When they made The Jazz Singer with Jolson, Warner Bros became a major studio. <br /> <br /> 1918- The first Tarzan movie premiered. A silent film, the first Tarzan was named Elmo Lincoln.<br /> <br /> 1925- IDITEROD- THE SERUM RUN BEGAN- At this time Nome Alaska was totally depended on supplies brought by sled dog teams. When a serious outbreak of diphtheria threatened to become a major epidemic, Alaska had only two airplanes, and they were boxed up for the winter. Governor Scott C. Bone decided to get the vaccination serum to Nome by a relay of twenty mushers in the depth of winter, temperatures averaging around -40 degrees Fahrenheit. This day the serum arrived by train at Nenana sealed in a metal cylinder wrapped in furs, and was loaded onto the first dog sled. Wild Bill Shannon called out to his malamutes and mushed down the frozen Tanana River into history. The lead dog was named Balto. It normally took a dog sled 20 days to cover the 650 miles, but these men did it in 5 days, 7 hours, limiting the epidemic to only 5 deaths. <br /> The Iditarod dog race runs in memory of this.<br /> <br /> 1926- Scotsman John Logie Baird demonstrated his televiser system- the first true television image. The image was small, and resolution too weak and fuzzy to yet be more than a scientific curiosity. More potential was seen in American Philo Farnsworth’s system of radio-transmitted scan line images.<br /> <br /> 1927- Charlie Chaplin’s short comedy The Circus premiered. <br /> <br /> 1932- The Mukden Incident- Japanese troops rigged up a provocation at a railway junction so they could invade Manchuria. If you are counting, this little railway junction is the real beginning of World War II, which would rage until 1945. <br /> <br /> 1943- US 8th Air Force conducted its’ first daylight bombing raid on Germany, attacking Wilhelmshaven. The air-Battle of Germany would continue to until May 1945.<br /> <br /> 1944- The Red Army breaks through to Leningrad (St. Petersburg) and lifts the 800 day Nazi siege.<br /> <br /> 1944- WAS WALT A RED? Walt Disney donated money and may have attended a tribute to cartoonist Art Young in New York who had died three weeks before. Art Young was a political lefty and a close friend of John Reed and Louise Bryant, founders of the American Communist Party. The F.B.I. noted the memorial to Young was sponsored by the socialist newspaper The New Masses and other attendees included progressives like Paul Robeson, Langston Hughes, Ernest Hemingway and Carl Sandburg.<br /> Walt was already a founding member of the Hollywood Society for the Preservation of American Ideals, a group of conservative Hollywood celebrities meant to counteract the rampant Hollywood Liberals. Disney later became an F.B.I. informant, but like Reagan, it may have been after the F.B.I. reminded him of his attendance at this little soiree'....<br /> <br /> 1945- The Soviet Red Army finally liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. The first soldier to reach the camp was a Mongolian scout on a horse. This led one Jewish survivor to wonder if the Nazis now had intended to hand them over to the Japanese! The Russians hanged Auschwitz commandant Rudolph Hoess in front of the villa in camp he and his family lived in. His last words were “Sieg Heil!” He was not the Rudolph Hess who flew to London in 1941 and died in Spandau Prison. Russian soldiers also lined up the guards and gave loaded pistols to the inmates, inviting them to “ Enjoy yourselves.” Rescued survivors include the future Nobel Laureate Primo Levi, and the founder of Commodore Computers, Jack Tramiel.<br /> <br /> 1948- The Wireway Company announced the first tape recorder for sale using the new magnetic tape. It cost $150.<br /> <br /> 1951- Test Ranger Abel. Because atomic tests in the Pacific were getting expensive, the US Air Force starts using the Nevada Test Site to drop their nuclear bombs. <br /> <br /> 1961- The TV show Sing-a-Long with Mitch, premiered. Mitch Miller was a classical musician who had once played in the orchestra that premiered Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Here he created a hit show where he encouraged people to sing with the TV as it was playing. He was famous for saying rock &amp; roll was a passing fad and would soon be gone.<br /> <br /> 1961- The Twilight Zone episode, “The Invaders” Agnes Moorhead played an old recluse tormented by little aliens, who turn out to be American astronauts from Earth. Their flying saucer was the one from the 1954 movie Forbidden Planet recycled.<br /> <br /> 1967- Three Apollo I astronauts Gus Grissom (pilot of the third Gemini flight), Ed Young and Roger Chafee died in a flash fire in their capsule. In those days the hatchways were literally screwed on from the outside and there was no way to open it from the inside. The fire occurred during a routine rehearsal probably from static electricity igniting an atmosphere of pure oxygen and feeding on velcro. The three men burned to death while engineers frantically struggled with the hatch. After this episode the future Apollo capsules were fitted with a hatch with exploding bolts. Grissom had once said: “If we die people must accept it. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life.”<br /> <br /> 1973- Henry Kissinger and Li Duc To signed the Paris Peace Accords ending U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. President Nixon hailed the agreement as Peace with Honor, but the defeat traumatized a generation of Americans and confused the public as to just what the American role in the world really was. Kissinger and Li Duc To won the Nobel Peace Prize for that year. Li Duc refused to accept it because his country was still at war. “if there's no peace, it would be hypocritical to receive a prize for it!" Henry the K didn’t have a problem accepting it and went to Oslo. North Vietnam overran South Vietnam two years later. Kissinger just died two months ago at age 100.<br /> <br /> 1984- HELP ME TITO! During the filming of a Pepsi commercial at LA’s Shrine Auditorium, a magnesium flash ignited singer Michael Jackson’s Jeri curl hair gel causing him 3rd degree burns on his scalp.<br /> <br /> 1992- Presidential candidate Bill Clinton was denounced by a woman named Jennifer Flowers of having a 12 year extramarital affair with her when governor of Arkansas. He goes on 60 Minutes with Hillary and called her a liar. Of course we now know they did have an affair, but hey, that’s politics. <br /> <br /> 1994- The very first Marc Davis Lecture given at the Motion Picture Academy in Beverly Hills. Marc and Alice established a fund to sponsor an annual talk about the art and development of animation. Marc gave this first talk himself.<br /> <br /> 1997- First day shooting on the Cohen Bros. film The Big Lebowski- The Dude Abides.<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s question: What is meant by transmigration of souls?<br /> <br /> Answer: Some faiths believe after death your soul goes to heaven, another dimension, Elysium, whatever. Other faiths believe your soul enters a newborn and you do it all over again. Another form is reincarnation, where you come back as a bird or fern or something.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 25 Jan 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6366 <p>Quiz: What does it mean when you call knowledge arcane?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: What was the Gang of Four?<br /> <br /> History for 1/25/2024<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Birthdays: Genghis Khan, Byzantine Emperor Leo IV the Khazar, Robert Burns, Somerset Maugham, Virginia Woolf, Vice Pres Charles “Goodtime Charlie” Curtis, Edwin Newman, Jean Image, Dean Jones, Ava Gardner, Etta James, Corazon Aquino, Anita Pallenberg, Disney Animator John Sibley, Tobe Hooper<br /> <br /> Happy National Bubble Wrap Day.<br /> 36 AD (est?) THE CONVERSION of ST PAUL. There was a Jewish Pharisee named Saul who on the road to Damascus had a blinding vision. He changed his name to Paul and became the most zealous of Christians. Scholars speculate that Paul may had studied philosophical disciplines like Greek Stoicism and the Jewish Essene movement, because elements of these faiths seem to influence Paul's structuring of his new religion. <br /> Paul is responsible for things like ladies keep their heads covered, men's heads uncovered in Church, etc. He made a point of going to Athens to preach the new religion in Plato's Philosophical Academy. He was also instrumental in bringing Gentiles into the religion, causing an early split in the faithful, when James the brother of Jesus felt that they should stay a reform movement within Judaism. That group eventually died out. <br /> <br /> 49AD- Claudius declared emperor of Rome.<br /> <br /> 1077- HENRY AT CANOSSA- One of the hottest arguments of the Middle Ages was whether Kings could boss around Popes or visa-versa. Ever since Pope Leo had crowned Charlemagne in 800, Popes declared that no monarch in Europe could rule legitimately without the Church’s official blessing. <br /> In 1077 German Emperor Henry IV told Pope Gregory VII, the Fiery Hildebrandt, that he could appoint or fire German bishops with or without Rome’s permission. The feud grew as Gregory excommunicated Henry and released all his subjects from allegiance to him; Henry declared Gregory “a licentious false monk” and appointed another Pope.<br /> But the superstitious fear of the common people and the ambition of rebellious German nobles brought Henry’s kingdom to a standstill. This day witnessed one of the most dramatic scenes in Medieval History: At the Italian town of Canossa, Emperor Henry in hairshirt and barefoot stood in the snow waiting at the locked door of the Pope to beg forgiveness. Gregory forgave him, but a year later they were at it again, and Henry chased Gregory out of Rome with an army and Gregory excommunicated him again. <br /> Luigi Pirandello wrote a play about Henry IV in the 1920s.<br /> <br /> 1327- Edward III, the Great Plantagenet, became King of England.<br /> <br /> 1483- Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition Peter de Arbules was beaten to death while at prayers at the Cathedral of Saragossa. Tradition states that years later the blood on the spot of his death stayed wet. He was made a saint in 1867. 1533- Henry VIII secretly married Lady Anne Boleyn, already pregnant with the future Queen Elizabeth. Anne Boleyn was later called a sorceress because she had six fingers on one hand. Lusty King Henry had also slept with Anne’s mother and her older sister Mary Boleyn. <br /> <br /> 1669- THE SECRET TREATY OF DOVER- King Charles II had at last gotten the British throne back from Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans, but he ruled over a kingdom bankrupt and ravaged by civil war. So on this day Charles signed a secret treaty with the richest country in Europe- Louis XIV's France. In it King Charles pledged to return England to the Roman Catholic Faith, and himself convert to Catholicism, in return for heavy subsidies of French gold. <br /> Charles lived in a grand baroque style and may have converted on his deathbed, but said nothing in public, so England stayed Anglican. His brother James II who was openly Catholic was overthrown and exiled. The British parliament then passed a law that a Catholic can never again be King of Great Britain. <br /> <br /> 1755- The King of France appointed the Marquis de Montcalm to command all French forces facing the British in North America.<br /> <br /> 1814- France invaded by five separate armies, Napoleon said goodbye to his wife Marie Louise and his three-year old son. He would never see either of them ever again. After Waterloo, his father-in-law the Austrian Emperor Francis II kept Marie Louise from joining Napoleon in exile and gave her a handsome Austrian duke as a lover. Napoleon’s son was renamed the Duke du Reichstadt and raised as an Austrian, until he died of tuberculosis at age 21.<br /> 1858- Queen Victoria &amp; Prince Albert's eldest child, Victoria the Princess Royal (Vicky), married Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia (Fritzy) in a lavish ceremony. At this wedding, for the first time the "Bridal Chorus "Treulich geführt") from the 1850 opera Lohengrin by composer Richard Wagner was used as a processional. Like everything Victoria and Albert did, it soon became a custom, known in English was “Here Comes the Bride, All Dressed in White.” Queen Victoria in her own wedding started the custom of brides wearing all white. Frederick and Vicky’s first child was the future Kaiser Wilhelm II.<br /> 1863- Lincoln fired his army commander Ambrose Burnside and replaced him with General Fighting Joe Hooker. Burnside, whose mutton chop whiskers named the style "sideburns" was a military hard luck case. He lost the battle of Fredericksburg so badly that even the enemy was embarrassed. His replacement "Fighting Joe" Hooker was so fond of "ladies of the evening" that he brought them on campaign in their own tent and cavalry escort. They were called "Hooker's Girls" hence the term-"hookers". <br /> 1890- Newspaper reporter Nelly Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) of the New York World was welcomed home after traveling around the world in 72 days. The stunt was inspired by the Jules Verne story Around the World in 80 days, which had become a hit stage play.<br /> <br /> 1900- In the Boer War the Boers had surrounded a British garrison in the town of Ladysmith. After many attacks the siege of Ladysmith was broken by a relief force that had in its’ ranks a young officer named Winston Churchill.<br /> <br /> 1924- The first Winter Olympics held in Charmonix, France. Winter sports were celebrated as early as 1901 as the Nordic Games in Scandinavia. Trying to hedge their bets the International Olympic Committee originally styled the Charmonix games the Winter Sports Week. It was so successful that in 1928 the IOC designed the games at St. Moritz the Second Winter Olympiad. These games did a lot to raise the public interest in the sport of ski running, now simply called skiing.<br /> <br /> 1925- In Prague, Karel Capek’s futuristic play R.U.R. opened. It featured electronic mechanical men replacing people, called by the Czech word for workers, “ roboti”, so robots.<br /> <br /> 1938- Walt Disney attempted to head off the rising tide of unionizing workers in Hollywood by forming a dummy company union called the Federation of Screen Cartoonists. No other artists but Disney employees joined, and Disney's chief attorney Gunther Lessing could veto any resolution passed that Walt did not like. Art Babbit agreed to be its first president, but after it seemed obvious management was calling all the shots, he resigned. <br /> <br /> 1939- President Franklin Roosevelt designated the fossil rich Badlands area of South Dakota a National Monument. 1945- The Rock Creek Report recommends mass additives of fluoride into American drinking water supplies. Tooth decay dropped by 50%, however many rightwing fringe groups like the John Birch Society saw fluoridation as an insidious Commie-Jewish plot.<br /> <br /> 1947- Mobster Al Capone died in seclusion at his home in Biscayne Bay Florida at age 48. He was released from Alcatraz Prison early because of ill health, his mind was slowly destroyed by untreated syphilis. When another gangster was asked if Capone would resume leadership of the Chicago rackets, he replied:” Big Al is nuttier than a fruitcake.” <br /> <br /> 1949- The first Emmy Awards ceremony was held at the LA Athletic Club. Five awards were given out for shows like Mabel’s Fables, and Treasures of Literature. Rudy Vallee hosted. Tickets were $5 each. Mayor Fletcher Bowron declared it “ TV Day” in LA.<br /> 1959- Propeller planes had been crisscrossing America since the 1920s. This day American Airlines set up the first jetliner passenger service across the U.S. 1959- VATICAN II- Pope John XXIII called for the creation of a Second Vatican Council to initiate reforms in the Roman Catholic Church. This was called Vatican II and it’s sweeping ideas changed the Church forever. Latin Masses replaced with native language, the priest does the Eucharist ceremony facing you instead of with his back to you, Folk Masses with guitars, etc. <br /> <br /> 1960- Actress Diana Barrymore, the daughter of John Barrymore, overdosed on sleeping pills. The Barrymore family that had dominated the American theater since the 1850’s had a history of drug and alcohol abuse. Ancestor after ancestor drank themselves to death. Current leader of the family Drew Barrymore recovered after rehab at age 12. 1961- John F. Kennedy has his first televised Presidential press conference. <br /> <br /> 1961- Walt Disney’s 101 Dalmatians premiered. <br /> <br /> 1970- Robert Altman’s movie M*A*S*H premiered.<br /> <br /> 1971- Charles Manson and his followers convicted of 27 counts of murder. They were all sentenced to the Gas Chamber, but the death penalty had just been abolished in California.<br /> <br /> 1971- Idi Amin seized power in Uganda. <br /> <br /> 1984- The widow of Mao Zedong, Chiang Ching, was sentenced to death for conspiring against the Chinese state. Her sentence was later commuted to life in prison. Madam Chiang was one of the leaders of The Cultural Revolution and her accomplices were known as The Gang of Four.<br /> <br /> 1990- Movie star Ava Gardner died in her London apartment. She was 67.<br /> <br /> 1995- Moscow radar detected a nuclear missile launch from Norway headed right for them. Russian President Boris Yeltsin had five minutes to decide if this was a mistake, or the dreaded First Strike, warranting a full retaliatory launching of all Russian nukes at the USA. He decided it was a mistake, and it turned out the missile was only a Norwegian weather satellite being shot into orbit. Similar nail-biting false alarms happened to Jimmy Carter in 1980 and off the US coast in 1986.<br /> <br /> 1996- Composer-playwright Jonathan Larson spent years waiting tables and living in a cold water loft in lower New York hoping for his big break. This morning after a night of bar-hopping his roommate returned to find him dead on their kitchen floor. Larson had died of a sudden aortic aneurism at age 35. Just three months after his death Larson’s musical Rent opened and became a major Broadway hit, earning $250 million dollars, Tony awards and a Pulitzer Prize. It ran for 12 years. <br /> <br /> 2011- The Arab Spring pro-democracy protests that began in Tunisia spread to Egypt, the world’s largest Arab country. Huge protests began in Cairo against long time president Hosni Mubarak. Eventually they forced his overthrow.<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What was the Gang of Four?<br /> <br /> Answer: They were four Chinese Communist party leaders, one of them being Mao Zedong’s last wife (aka:”Madame Mao”). They were active during the Cultural Revolution but, after Mao’s death, were blamed for the revolution's devastation, were later arrested, tried for treason, and sentenced to death, later commuted to life in prison. Madame Mao committed suicide. (Thanks FG)<br /> <br /> See above, 1984.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 22 Jan 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6365 <p>Quiz: Where precisely is Washington Irving country?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is meant by The Fourth Estate?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/22/2024<br /> St. Vincents Day- "If Vincents Day be Rainy Weather, shall rain then 30 days together.”<br /> <br /> Birthdays: Sir Francis Bacon, D.W. Griffith, Lord Byron, August Strindberg, Andre Marie Ampere (electric Amps), 1960’s UN Secretary General U-Thant, Ann Southern, Sam Cooke, Bill Bixby, John Hurt, George McManus, Joseph Waumbaugh, J.J. Johnson, Seymour Cassell, Jim Jarmusch is 70, Linda Blair is 65, Piper Laurie is 91, Diane Lane is 58<br /> <br /> 1503- Pope Alexander VI Borgia has his enemy Cardinal Orsini poisoned while imprisoned in the Vatican. <br /> <br /> 1506- THE SWISS GUARDS. Many European monarchs hired foreign mercenaries to be their personal bodyguards. They were often more trustworthy than their own subjects. The most famous were the Swiss. While the Swiss home cantons stayed at peace, her hardy mountaineers hired out as mercenary troops all over Europe. The Swiss had a reputation as incorruptible and tough fighters. This day the warrior Pope Julius II hired a troop of Swiss and had Michelangelo design their uniforms. The Swiss Guards still guard the Vatican today and are still recruited from the non-commissioned officers of the Swiss Army.<br /> <br /> 1522- Andreas Carstadt, an early follower of Martin Luther, set a new precedent by being a priest who openly got married. He was forty, she was fifteen.<br /> <br /> 1552- Because Henry VIII’s child was only ten at the time of the old king’s death Edward Seymour the Duke of Somerset ruled England as regent-administrator. But Somerset’s rule was troubled with corruption and religious friction between Catholics and Protestants. His own brother Thomas Seymour the Lord High Admiral was executed for trying to become king. Somerset soon fell and was replaced by the Duke of Northumberland. He charged Somerset with treason based on evidence given by Sir Thomas Palmer. Today Somerset’s head was cut off. Later Northumberland and Palmer lost their heads too. They confessed on the scaffold that they had fabricated the charges against Somerset.<br /> <br /> 1555- THE FIRES OF SMITHFIELD. When Mary the Catholic daughter of Henry VIII became queen she at first tried to be lenient towards her Protestant subjects. But continuous plots by Protestant nobility, and her own desire to restore England to the old faith hardened her heart. This day she began the mass trials and executions of those accused of Protestant heresy. Six clergymen including the Bishop of Gloucester were sentenced and burned at the stake. Hundreds more would follow. Even Spanish King Philip II urged Mary to calm down. Mary had an observation tower built nearby so she could watch and enjoy the screams while she ate lunch.<br /> Mary’s executioners added a new twist to the old system of burning at the stake. Before lighting the bonfire, if they liked you, a bag of gunpowder was stuffed between your legs, so you went out quick with a bang. Bloody Mary and her cruelty in the name of Roman Catholicism all but convinced the English people to stay Anglican.<br /> <br /> 1787- 17 year old French cadet named Napoleon Bonaparte, on furlough in Paris, wrote in his diary that after exhausting negotiations with a streetwalker he "…sampled the joys of Woman for the first time.." Today he’d probably do an Tick-Tock post.<br /> <br /> 1840- The first English colonists reach New Zealand.<br /> <br /> 1863- THE MUD MARCH- Union General Ambrose Burnside (who created the fashion for "side-burns") tried to avenge his humiliating defeat at Fredericksburg by a winter march up the Rappahannock River to maneuver around Robert E. Lee. In so doing he discovered why all pre-industrial age armies took the winter off. Burnsides army was pelted by blinding sleet storms and bogged down in oceans of gooey mud. When Burnside finally called it quits he had as many casualties from sickness as if had he fought a battle. A bitter army joke based on a children’s prayer went:<br /> "Now I lay me down to Sleep, In mud that’s eighteen fathoms Deep." <br /> "If you can’t see me when we Awake, please dig me up with an oyster Rake."<br /> <br /> 1879- Battle of ISHANDLWANA- The worst defeat ever inflicted by native peoples on a modern army. The British thought they were brushing out of the way just another spear throwing tribe when they attacked the Zulu Empire. They were unconcerned that the Zulu marched in regiments -impis, had generals -indunas, and practiced strategy and tactics. A Zulu impi was trained to run in tight formation for 20 miles barefoot then fight a battle. Lord Chelmsford had invaded Zululand searching for the Zulu army when he was tricked by a simple diversion into dividing his forces. The Zulu then flanked Chelmsford’s force in a maneuver Napoleon would have admired, fell on his camp and wiped out two regiments of the 24th Welsh Fusiliers. It was a massacre similar to Custer at the Little Big Horn. <br /> Lord Chelmsford and his staff were eating lunch several miles away when an aide noticed in his telescope flashing and running around the base camp. Lord Chelmsford dismissed it as nothing but sent a courier to investigate. The courier at first saw men in red coats and white pith helmets walking amongst the tents. As he got closer he noticed that they all had black faces. <br /> <br /> 1901- Queen Victoria died after a reign of 64 years, the longest for a British monarch until Elizabeth II. When she assumed the throne at age 19 in 1837 there were still many alive who remembered the Battle of Waterloo and white periwigs. She died in a world of electric lights, telephones, autos and motion pictures. She was buried with some tokens of her husband Prince Albert. Correspondence of Victoria’s daughter recently revealed that by Queen Victoria’s instruction she also be buried with tokens of her equerry Mr. John Brown, including his pocket watch. <br /> <br /> 1912- The first bridgeway connecting Key West and the Florida Keys opened.<br /> <br /> 1912- U.S. Marines occupied the Chinese city of Tientsin to "protect American commercial interests".<br /> <br /> 1918- A Manitoba judge tries to outlaw movie comedies, because they tend to make the public "too frivolous".<br /> <br /> 1923- The day after Ub Iwerks quit Walt Disney, music director Carl Stalling quit as well. When work at Iwerks new studio didn’t pan out, he ended up at Warner Bros. scoring the Looney Tunes. <br /> <br /> 1930- Work began on the foundation of the Empire State Building in New York.<br /> <br /> 1938- On a bare stage, Thorton Wilder’s play Our Town premiered.<br /> <br /> 1939- At Columbia University for the first time scientists split a uranium atom.<br /> <br /> 1944- Argentine Colonel Juan Peron first met radio actress Eva Duarte or Evita.<br /> <br /> 1944- ANZIO- The Allied armies advancing up the Italian boot had been fought to a standstill by fierce German resistance around Monte Cassino north of Naples -the Gustav Line. So the decision was made to amphibiously land a large invasion force in the rear of the German army with the intention of taking Rome. They completely surprised the enemy and their scouts reported the road into Rome was wide open. But the American commander General Lucas hesitated. <br /> In the meantime the Germans recovered and rushed up elite SS divisions that turned the battle into a bloody stalemate. Churchill said: "I thought we were hurling a wildcat onto the shore, but all we got was a beached whale!" Instead of two days, the allies didn’t take Rome until June 4th, five months later.<br /> <br /> 1947- Hollywood first commercial television station KTLA went on the air for regular broadcasting. At the time in all of Los Angeles there were only 350 TV sets.<br /> <br /> 1949- Mao Zedong and the Communist People’s Liberation Army captured Peking (Beijing).<br /> <br /> 1949- Tex Avery’s cartoon "Bad Luck Blackie".<br /> <br /> 1950- Preston Tucker tried to compete with the big auto giants like Ford and Chrysler with his revolutionary designed Tucker Automobile. But the giants bogged him down in court with charges of fraud. This day he was acquitted of all charges, but the legal expenses ruined him. Only 40 Tuckers were ever made. Francis Ford Coppola made a movie about his life.<br /> <br /> 1951- During winter baseball tryouts, a promising young left-handed pitcher from Cuba was scouted by the New York Yankees. But after losing a game for the Washington Senators and getting dropped from their roster, he gave up on sports to pursue a career in politics- Fidel Castro.<br /> <br /> 1954- The Los Angeles Fire Department is ordered by federal courts to integrate.<br /> <br /> 1968-T.V. comedy review show Rowan &amp; Martin’s Laugh In premiered. It launched the careers of Lilly Tomlin, Goldie Hawn and Eileen Brennan. You bet your sweet Bippy!<br /> <br /> 1972- In an interview with Melody Maker magazine, rocker David Bowie outed himself and said he was gay. Technically he would be bi-sexual since his wife Angela did catch him in bed with Bianca Jagger. Others called him a closet-heterosexual.<br /> <br /> 1973- While President Richard Nixon celebrated his second inaugural with a concert, Leonard Bernstein conducted a Concert for Peace at the Washington Cathedral. While Nixon’s orchestra played his favorite classical piece Tchaikovsky’s Overture 1812 with real cannons, Bernstein played Haydn’s Mass in a Time of War to 15,000 people against the War in Vietnam. <br /> <br /> 1973- The Roe Vs. Wade Supreme Court Decision 7-2 legalizing abortion. Before 1880 most abortion practices were legal, they were referred to as "quickening". The first prohibitions were more about banning dangerous quack drugs used in the process. Far Right politicians spent years slowly getting like-minded judges on to the Supreme Court. Finally in 2022 In the Dodd Decision, the Supreme Court overturned Roe. <br /> <br /> 1975- Hollywood agents Ron Meyer and Michael Ovitz leave William Morris and form the Creative Artists Agency, or CAA.<br /> <br /> 1977- The day after his inauguration President Jimmy Carter was shown the first pictures from the KH-11, the first imaging orbital spy satellite. An American mole sold the technology to the Russian KGB a year later and soon France, Britain and Israel also had spy satellites in orbit.<br /> <br /> 1984- Amazon Indians attack an oil drilling crew with blowguns. <br /> <br /> 1984- Apple released the Macintosh I personal computer. <br /> <br /> 2020- When asked about the first cases of Covid-19 in the U.S., Pres. Trump replied: “We have it totally under control. ... It’s going to be just fine.” <br /> <br /> =============================================================<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is meant by The Fourth Estate?<br /> <br /> Answer: The Fourth Estate meant The Press. As opposed to the First Estate-Nobility, the Second Estate-the clergy, the Third Estate- The common people.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 21 Jan 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6364 <p>Quiz: What is meant by The Fourth Estate?<br /> <br /> Question: What is the Mason-Dixon Line?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/21/2024<br /> Birthdays: Leadbelly (Harlan Ledbetter), Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, J. Carol Naish, Tele Savalas, Christian Dior, Placido Domingo, Wolfman Jack, Paul Scofield, Robby Benson, Jack Nicklaus, Benny Hill, Emma Bunton- Baby Spice of the Spice Girls, Gena Davis is 68, Ken Leung is 54<br /> <br /> 1188- THE THIRD CRUSADE DECLARED- In reaction to the news of Saladin's capture of Jerusalem, King Henry II of England, Phillip Augustus of France, and Conrad the Emperor of Germany "take the Cross", promise to invade the Holy Land. Henry died before the army departed and was replaced by his son Richard the Lionhearted. <br /> Every morning before breakfast and every night before retiring, all the knights of the Crusade would raise one steel-clad fist towards the east, and to the sound of massed trumpets they would all shout: " AEIDEUVA! AEIDEUVA! SANCTUS SEPULCHORUM!!" Help, Help to the Holy Sepulcher!<br /> <br /> 1535- Fun-loving King Francis I of France had been tolerant to the Reformation until over-zealous French Protestants tried to assassinate him. This day he responded by holding a solemn Catholic Mass in Notre Dame. The highlight of the show was the burning of six heretics. Francis had them tied to ladders and raised and lowered over a slow fire, to prolong their agony.<br /> <br /> 1649- King Charles I was put on trial by the English Parliament for treason. His defense was as monarch no one could judge him but God. <br /> <br /> 1789- The first American novel published- The Power of Sympathy: An Epistolary Romance by William Hill Brown.<br /> <br /> 1793- KING LOUIS XVI GUILLOTINED- For three years since the Bastille fell the French King tried to play a constitutional monarch while conspiring with the other European monarchs to crush the French Revolution. It was a game that was too subtle for him. When foreign armies invaded France, and declared their intention to remake Louis an absolute ruler, the revolutionary government condemned him to death. <br /> Citizen Capet, so named for an old family name of French kings, mounted the scaffold at Place de La Concorde currently where the U.S. Embassy is. He tried to speak to the people but the drummers were ordered to drown him out. As the blade fell his chaplain shouted: "Son of Saint Louis, ascend to Heaven!" SPLAT!<br /> The revolutionaries then stuck his head between his legs and threw him in a hole. Where the site of the Chapel Expiatore is today. The court executioner, Charles Henri Samson, wore pistols under his coat in case people tried to rush the guillotine. He usually never felt remorse for his victims ("I am not killing them, the State is") but this one bothered him. He stayed away from home for two nights and would later hide escaped political prisoners in his cellar. <br /> <br /> 1850- THE CLAY COMPROMISE. Senator Henry Clay crossed dark snow covered Washington streets for a late night meeting with Daniel Webster. President Zachary Taylor had just put forward in Congress California's application for admission to the Union as a non-slave holding state. Now the South was angrily threatening secession and civil war. Clay and Webster worked out a deal, called the Clay Compromise, which would grant concessions to both sides in exchange for cooperation. Northern man Webster probably sacrificed his last chance to be President by backing the controversial deal but the Compromise of 1850 succeeded in delaying the Civil War for ten more years.<br /> <br /> 1861- SECESSION! COLLAPSE! President-elect Lincoln was still packing his bags in Springfield and writing out the luggage tags in his own hand "A. Lincoln, White House, Washington, D.C.", while state after state of the South voted to leave the Union and join the new Confederacy. On this date, Mississippi senator and former Secretary of War Jefferson Davis resigned from the Congress. As he left the Senate, Georgia senator Robert Toombs turned around and declared out loud to the Speakers chair:" The Union sir, is Dissolved!" When Toombs called for his carriage, he discovered his personal slaves had run off to be free. He had to hire a driver to take him home.<br /> The Mormons of Utah were in an open state of rebellion, New Jersey and New York City talked of secession, California talked of pulling out of the union and joining Oregon to make a new country called TransPacifica. Mobs in Baltimore proclaimed Abe Lincoln would never get to Washington alive. Outgoing President James Buchanan said gravely: "I fear I may be the Last President of the United States."<br /> <br /> 1888- A key portion of Charles Babbage’s Differential Engine was tested for the first time. Babbage had already died, and the prototype was completed by his son. The Differential Engine was the grandfather of the modern computer. <br /> <br /> 1899- The Opel motorcar company opened for business.<br /> <br /> 1916- The National Board of Review outlawed nudity in Hollywood movies.<br /> <br /> 1923- LENIN DIED. Russia’s first Soviet leader died of respiratory failure and cerebral hemorrhage at 54. The lack of a reliable system of succession always plagued Communist states. As Lenin lay dying Leon Trotsky, Zioniev, Kamieniev, Krupskaya and a dozen others began a backroom scramble for power. Finally a minor bank robber and terrorist from Tblisi in Georgia who had risen rapidly in the last two years came out above them all- Comrade Kobal, also called Josef Stalin. <br /> <br /> 1930- Walt’s top animator and right hand Ub Iwerks quit Walt Disney to start his own rival company.<br /> <br /> 1935- the conservation group The Wilderness Society created.<br /> <br /> 1935- Disney animator Ollie Johnston’s first day at the studio, at $17 a week.<br /> <br /> 1938 – Max Fleischer told his New York cartoon studio they were relocating to Florida. <br /> <br /> 1938- George Melies, the father of Motion Picture Visual Effects, died at age 76. He had been reduced to selling trinkets in a little store in a Paris train station but had a bit of the rediscovery by the film community in his final years. On his deathbed he gave his friends a drawing he made of a champagne bottle popping. He said “Laugh, my friends. Laugh with me, laugh for me, because I dream your dreams."<br /> <br /> 1943- Legendary jazz drummer Gene Krupa was arrested in San Francisco for sending a kid to get him some marijuana. He served 84 of a 90 day sentence.<br /> <br /> 1950- After a highly publicized trial top State Department official Alger Hiss was found guilty of perjury in a trial that accused him of covering up his connections to Communist agents in Washington. The trial made a national figure of a then little known congressman named Richard Nixon. Hiss served four years in prison, and lived the rest of his life maintaining his innocence.<br /> <br /> 1958- BADLANDS- Teenagers Charlie Starkweather and Carilann Fugate killed her family and went on a Bonnie &amp; Clyde style crime spree throughout Nebraska, killing 11 people. When they were caught Starkweather pleaded self defense, even against the murder of Fugate’s infant baby brother. He went to the electric chair. Carilann Fugate did twenty years, yet always denied she was anything more than an unwilling accomplice. <br /> Starkweather had a 'James Dean-Marlon Brando' leatherjacket look, and the two teen killers seemed to exemplify older America's dread of juvenile delinquency and the 'degenerate Rock and Roll' culture of the 1950's. Their story inspired several films, including 'Badlands".<br /> <br /> 1959- Former 'Our Gang' child star Carl 'Alfalfa" Switzer was killed in a bar in Mission Hills, Ca. He pulled a knife on a man over a $50 debt on a hunting dog. The man then shot him. He was 32. According to fellow Little Rascal Darla Hood, Switzer was a brute who bullied the other children, and bitter his adult acting career never blossomed. <br /> <br /> 1977- President Jimmy Carter declared a pardon for all remaining Vietnam War draft resistors.<br /> <br /> 1992- Disney's Beauty and the Beast became the first animated film ever to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. The Best Animated Feature Oscar was not created until 2001. <br /> <br /> 2010- The Supreme Court handed down the Citizen's United Decision. In the case Citizens' United vs. the Federal Election Commission, the Roberts Court ruled that restrictions on corporate donations were limits on free speech. This one ruling opened the floodgates for businesses to lavish unlimited money on political candidates. <br /> <br /> ===============================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is the Mason-Dixon Line?<br /> Answer: For the early decades of the American Republic, it was called the dividing line between North and South. In 1765 Mason and Dixon were two surveyors brought in to settle the disputed border between Pennsylvania and Maryland, particularly to decide which state had claim to Philadelphia at its valuable tax base. Before the Civil War, it came to mark the border between slave states and free states.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 20 Jan 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6363 <p>Question: What is the Mason-Dixon Line?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered: What is a luthier? (hint: hand-made craftsperson)<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/20/2024<br /> Birthdays: King Charles III of Spain, Richard Henry Lee- signer of the Declaration of Independence, Frederico Fellini, Patricia O’Neal, Dorothy Provine, Mario Lanza, David Lynch, George Burns, DeForest Kelly, Arte Johnson, Lorenzo Lamas, Rainn Wilson is 58, Edwin Buzz Aldrin is 94.<br /> <br /> In the French Revolutionary calendar this is the first day Pluvoise, the Month of Rain.<br /> <br /> 661AD- Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed, was assassinated by a partisan of Muyawiah Ibn Abi Suffian- the founder of the Ummayad Dynasty of Caliphs. Ali’s supporters were called Ali's SHIAH or Ali's Partisans – which became the branch of Islam called Shiite, the rest of Islam is known as Sunni. It grew into a split like the one between Catholics and Protestants in Christianity.<br /> <br /> 1193- Licensed prostitution began in Japan.<br /> <br /> 1777- George Washington invited a bright young artillery captain to join his personal staff. Alexander Hamilton’s career began.<br /> <br /> 1779- The great English actor David Garrick died. Supposedly his last words were when asked “Is it hard to die?” Garrick replied:” Dying is not Hard. Comedy is Hard.”<br /> <br /> 1783- Britain signed peace treaties with France and Spain, ending their support to the American Revolution. The treaty with America had been finalized three months earlier.<br /> <br /> 1841- Convention of Chuen Pei-Treaty that ended the Opium Wars. China ceded harbor front land to Britain that would become the city of Hong Kong. The Chinese never smoked opium until it was introduced by British merchants from India. <br /> <br /> 1908- The Sullivan Ordinance barred women from smoking in public facilities.<br /> <br /> 1920- The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) founded by Roger Baldwin.<br /> <br /> 1924- WAR ON THE MAFIA- In 1924 the Mafia was almost completely destroyed. By who? Benito Mussolini. His fascist regiments marched across the island of Sicily arresting 11, 000 and executing hundreds. Mussolini declared victory and many of the surviving dons fled to America where Prohibition was providing great new opportunities for crooks. During WWII, when the Anglo-American armies liberated Sicily from the Nazis, who to put in charge of the local towns? Can’t be Fascists. Can’t be Communists. Who was left? (Cue the Godfather music….)<br /> <br /> 1930-The Matanza Massacre. Authorities in El Salvador kill 30,000 peasants protesting the government refusing to seat peasant ministers who won an election. By the time the army stopped, 4 percent of the population was dead, the Communist Party gone and native Indian dress and languages outlawed. The leader of the peasants Augustin Farabundo Marti later gave his name to the 1980’s guerrilla movement. <br /> <br /> 1936- King George V of England died. In great pain from incurable cancer, In 1986 a doctor admitted getting instructions from his son The Prince of Wales to euthanize him with a strong shot of cocaine and morphine, called a “Brompton Cocktail”. The doctor timed his offing of the king so the news would be out with the morning newspapers, instead of the trashier afternoon tabloids.<br /> His Majesties last words were reported to be:" How goes the Empire? " He actually winced at the sloppy way the injection was done and said: "Oww, God damn you!"<br /> Another legend says when the King was told if he recovered they would return to the town of Bognor in Sussex for holiday, His Majesties last words were “Oh, Bugger Bognor!” <br /> <br /> 1936- 19 year old Adriana Caselotti recorded her first tracks as Snow White for Walt Disney. Her father Guido Caselotti was a casting agent charged with finding the right actress. She stood behind him while he was on the phone, saying” Daddy! Pick me! Pick me!” I met her in her 80s, and that voice was still recognizable.<br /> <br /> 1937- Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated for his second term after defeating Gov. Alf Landon of Kansas. He is the first president to be inaugurated in January instead of the customary March 4th. The Depression still raged despite all his efforts, he gave the inaugural speech decrying the rampant poverty in the U.S. "I see one third of the nation, ill-housed, ill-fed, ill-clothed, living in conditions far beneath the minimum standards we regard as decent, etc."<br /> <br /> 1938- Early animation pioneer Emile Cohl died while headed for the Paris premiere of Disney's" Snow White and the Seven Dwarves". Cohl by then was so poor that the electricity in his flat had been turned off and the candles had ignited his beard. Angry he was never recognized in his time, he once said: "the French prefer their artists with marble and flowers on top."<br /> <br /> 1942- The Wanasee Conference-Heydrich, Adolf Eichmann and other top Nazis have a lunch meeting in a suburb in Berlin. Over cocktails they invented The Final Solution. Zyclon–B gas chambers instead of electrocution or carbon-monoxide. They set a target goal of ten million Jews to be murdered by 1946. <br /> <br /> 1945- Franklin D. Roosevelt sworn in as U.S. President for a fourth consecutive term, the only person ever to do so.<br /> <br /> 1947- Josh Gibson, star hitter of the segregated Negro Baseball Leagues, died indigent and alone. He was only 35. Had he been white he would be counted with Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb in baseball stardom. Instead, he was buried in obscurity. There was no money for a gravestone.<br /> <br /> 1949- FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover gave Shirley Temple a pen that shoots tear gas.<br /> <br /> 1953- The Birth of Little Ricky on the I Love Lucy show drew a larger viewing audience than the televised inauguration of President Dwight Eisenhower.<br /> <br /> 1961- John F. Kennedy gave his famous inaugural speech:” Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Outgoing President Eisenhower disliked JFK personally. He was angry that his win over Nixon seemed a repudiation of his policies, so almost nothing was said between them in the limousine during the drive to the ceremony. John Kennedy also went through that day mostly hatless, inaugurating the fashion. Before JFK, a man was not fully dressed without a hat or cap of some sort.<br /> <br /> 1964- Sports Illustrated Magazine put out its first Swimsuit Edition. Discovering many men like other things besides sports…<br /> <br /> 1965- Alan Freed, the disc jockey who coined the term Rock &amp; Roll, died at 43 of uremic blood poisoning. He was broken by the Rock payola scandal and died so poor his friends passed the hat to pay for his funeral.<br /> <br /> 1966- The Ghost and Mr Chicken, with Don Knotts premiered.<br /> <br /> 1968- Young U.S. infantryman Ron Kovic was wounded near the Vietnamese demilitarized zone the DMZ. The black soldier who carried him to safety was killed shortly after and Kovic never learned his name. The incident put Kovic in a wheelchair for life and changed his attitude towards the righteousness of the war. He wrote the bestseller " Born on the Fourth of July" and became a passionate antiwar activist. <br /> <br /> 1969- Richard Nixon sworn in as President capping one of the most amazing comebacks in political history. After losing to Kennedy in 1960 Nixon lost yet again to Pat Brown for the governorship of California and was considered politically finished. Anybody remember Michael Dukakis, Dan Quayle or Fritz Mondale? <br /> Yet Nixon worked on his image over the years and re-emerged in 1968 as “The New Nixon”. Nixon ran as peace candidate and at his inaugural announced, “The era of confrontation is over, the era of negotiation has begun.” It took him five years to get us out of Vietnam, destroying Cambodia, Laos and almost Thailand in the process. When Nixon took office there were 23,000 combat deaths, but when he left there were 58,000 war deaths and 8 US students shot down on their college campuses. So his record remains at best controversial.<br /> <br /> 1981- As President Reagan was being sworn in, the hostages taken at the United States Embassy in Teheran were released after being held for 444 days. 6 years later it was revealed a deal was negotiated with the Iranians to release the hostages in exchange for a ransom of weapons. But at the time, all the American public knew was that all the Old Gipper had to do was show up, to make the Mad Mullah’s hightail-it outta town. <br /> <br /> 1982- Rock star Ozzie Osbourne was hospitalized in Des Moines Iowa after biting the head off a dead bat thrown on stage during a concert. <br /> <br /> 1982- SONY introduced the Camcorder, the personal video camera.<br /> <br /> 1986- The worlds first computer virus, Brain, was sent out over the infant internet.<br /> <br /> 2001- George W. Bush inaugurated as the 43rd President. He is only the second son of a president to be elected, the other being John Quincy Adams, the son of John Adams.<br /> <br /> 2009- Standing in front of the U.S. Capitol, a building built by black slaves, Barack Obama was inaugurated 44th President of the United States. The first African-American.<br /> <br /> 2009- While the inaugural balls for President Obama were taking place, leaders of the defeated Republican Party met in a secret conclave at The Capitol Grill. There they formulated the strategy to paralyze all legislation and frustrate all of Pres. Obama’s attempts to heal the economy they had destroyed. Then they would run against his record as ineffective. They did paralyze his government with four times more filibusters than any time in history and won in 2016 with a promise to get America moving again. <br /> <br /> 2016- Cal Tech astronomers announced they discovered signs of a Ninth Planet beyond Pluto. It is 5,000 times larger than earth, and it’s wobbly oblong orbit takes 22,000 years to go completely around the sun, while the Earth takes one year. Named Ultima Thule, the space probe New Horizon reached it in 2019.<br /> <br /> 2021- The central ceremony of American Democracy is the peaceful transfer of power. This day Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46 U.S. President, without the presence of outgoing Pres. Trump. Although Biden defeated him by the same substantial margin that FDR defeated Hoover in 1932, Donald Trump refused to concede and spent the four years stirring up discontent among the ignorant with conspiracy theories, and legal recounts in 21 states. All of which proved Biden won. Today 60% of Republicans still believe the 2020 election was rigged, without a single bit of proof.<br /> =======================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is a luthier? (hint: hand-made craftsperson)<br /> <br /> Answer: Someone who hand-makes violins and other string instruments.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 19 Jan 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6362 <p>Quiz: What is a luthier? (hint: hand-made craftsperson)<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: Yesterday’s Quiz: American Horse Racing’s championship is the Triple Crown. One horse has to win all three races, each one progressively longer in distance. The first race is The Kentucky Derby. What are the other two?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/19/2024 <br /> Birthdays: James Watt, Edgar Allen Poe, Robert E. Lee, Paul Cezanne', Janis Joplin, Slobodan Milosovic’, radio comedian Ish Kabibble, Dolly Parton, Michael Crawford, Chic Young, Guy Madison, Richard Lester, John H. Johnson publisher of Ebony and Jet Magazines, Jean Stapleton, Fritz Weaver, Sean Wayans, Robin MacNeill, Paul Rodriquez, Antoine Fuqua, Drea Di Matteo, and Bart the Bear-1977 Bear who starred in movies like Clan of the Cave Bear, The Bear, White Fang and Legends of the Fall, Tipi Hedren is 94.<br /> <br /> Happy Feast of St. Wulfstan, who pulled the devils nose with hot tongs.<br /> <br /> 375 A.D. Valentinian I was a Roman emperor with strange mood swings. He outlawed the original Biblical method of birth control called exposure; in other words, leaving unwanted babies in the forest for the gods or wolves. Another time he had some stableboys crucified for letting the hounds go too early during a hunt. <br /> When some Quadi barbarians crossed the Rhine and sacked a few villages Valentinian got his legions together and burned down half of their home forest. He only stopped for the winter and was preparing to continue in the spring when on this day a delegation of Quadi elders came to sue for peace. They explained that it wasn't their idea to make war, just some of the younger hotheads in the tribe. They said that the Emperor was overreacting. Valentinian got so angry at their lame excuses that he raised his fists, turned purple and before he uttered a word fell over stone dead. His general Theodosius took over as emperor.<br /> <br /> 1405- Tartar conqueror Tamerlane fell ill and died in Samarkand. He roved the world conquering and murdering like Genghis Khan, but without Genghis’ skill at empire building. His empire fell apart soon after his death, inspiring Shelley to write a poem about transitory glory- Ozymandias.<br /> <br /> 1523- In Switzerland, Ulrich Zwingli publishes his 67 Articles attacking the authority of the Pope. This is the first manifesto of the Zurich Reformation.<br /> <br /> 1547- Grand Duke of Muscovy Ivan IV Vasilievich, called Ivan the Terrible, crowned Tsar or Czar- a Russian word for Caesar. His father Grand Duke Ivan III the Great assumed the title and power but it remained for his son to formalize the office. The Russian Princes call themselves the new inheritors of the Eastern Orthodox religion and Roman Empire after Constantinople, once called New Rome, fell to the Ottoman Turks. Czars were crowned with the "Cap of Monomachus", a small skullcap worn by one of the Greek Byzantine Emperors, Constantine IV Monomachus“ single-combat”. This cap was covered with ermine trim and gold. The Czars boasted: "Two Romes have fallen. The Third Rome –Moscow- shall stand forever!"<br /> <br /> 1633- Thomas Morton of Merrymount had been twice deported by the Pilgrims for holding “licentious Maypole celebrations” at his Indian trading post. This day he returned to England and at court tried to have the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s charter revoked. King Charles declined, probably because that might make the whole crowd of buckle-shoed killjoys return home!<br /> <br /> 1729- British Restoration playwright William Congreve died. He willed all his property to Henrietta, the Duchess of Marlborough. But then the Duchess did something a bit odd. She had a death mask made of Congreve’s face and attached it to a life size mannequin. She ate and conversed with the dummy all day and slept with it at night. She insisted her servants wait upon the dummy and treat it when she felt it was ill. When she died, she was buried with the dummy.<br /> <br /> 1829- Goethe published Faust Part 1.<br /> <br /> 1840- Explorer Charles Wilkes claimed all of Antarctica for the United States. He was on a scientific expedition to chart the South Seas and Southern polar waters. Captain Wilkes was really good at exploring, but he was such a tyrannical disciplinarian he was court-martialed upon his return. Wilkes’ erratic behavior may have been the inspiration for Herman Melville’s Captain Ahab in his novel Moby Dick.<br /> <br /> 1853- Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore with the famous Anvil Chorus premiered in Rome.<br /> <br /> 1869- New York City controller Andrew Green received a petition from 18 of the city’s wealthiest citizens. It called for the establishment of a Museum of Natural History. The famous building was built in 1874. <br /> <br /> 1915- Two German zeppelins cross the Channel and drop bombs on Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn causing two deaths. The first time England was bombed from the air.<br /> <br /> 1919- Famed dancer of the Ballet Russe Vaslav Nijinsky danced his last performance at a hotel in San Moritz Switzerland. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, he was incarcerated for the next 30 years, and underwent numerous shock therapies until his death in 1950.<br /> <br /> 1924- Lillian Bounds began work at the little Walt Disney studio as an ink and paint artist. She only took the job because it was a short walk from her sister Hazel's house where she was staying, and she didn't want to spend money for bus fare.<br /> She wound up falling in love and marrying Walt Disney and became a multimillionaire. Before her death in 1997 she financed the creation of Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles.<br /> <br /> 1940- The Three Stooges do their impression of Hitler and the top Nazis in the Columbia Pictures short comedy “You Natzy Spy”. Moe Howard was still the best all time Hitler impersonator. “Hail-Hail-Hailstone! Waahoo!”<br /> <br /> 1945- In Poland, the Nazis began the evacuation of the remaining concentration camp inmates in advance of the oncoming Soviet army. Tens of thousands were marched out of Auschwitz and Birkenau west in freezing snow and ice. Any who fell behind were shot. <br /> <br /> 1949- Disney’s So Dear To My Heart opened in theaters.<br /> <br /> 1955- President Eisenhower held the first press conference that was shown on television. It was held in the treaty room of the State Department. Eisenhower was famous for his ability to speak at great length and never say anything of substance. “This day, My Fellow Americans, more than at any other time, ahead of us lies the promise of the Future!” <br /> <br /> 1961- The first episode of the Dick Van Dyke Show was filmed.<br /> <br /> 1966- Indira Gandhi, the daughter of Nehru, became prime minister of India.<br /> <br /> 1967- The Star Trek episode “The Arena” first aired. Where Captain Kirk battled the Gorn in Vasquez Rocks. <br /> <br /> 1977- In one of his last acts as President, Gerald Ford pardoned Tokyo Rose. Iva Toguri D’Aquino was a Japanese American who did propaganda broadcasts for Radio Tokyo urging American GI’s to surrender. She explained she was stranded in Tokyo when the war broke out and was coerced into doing the broadcasts.<br /> <br /> 1979- Wendy O. Williams, mohawk-haired lead singer of the punk band the Plasmatics was arrested in Milwaukee for masturbating on stage with a sledgehammer. <br /> <br /> 1983- Klaus Barbie arrested in Bolivia and extradited to France. Barbie was the Nazi Gestapo chief in France and was called the Butcher of Lyon for his torture and execution of hundreds of French resistance and Jews. After the war Barbie avoided arrested and was briefly hired by the CIA as an anti-soviet spy. He went to South America and applied his skills for the dictators there until his extradition. While other former Nazis like Kurt Waldheim were disingenuously vague about their past, Barbie was loudly unrepentant. It was reported he continually embarrassed the Nazis trying to hide in South America by Sieg-Heil saluting them on the street and singing old stormtrooper songs over his empanadas.<br /> <br /> 1983- Apple introduced the Lisa. Named for Steve Jobs daughter, at a price tag of ten thousand dollars and incompatibility with the earlier Apple II doomed it to weak sales. <br /> <br /> 1985- Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA peaked the pop charts at #9.<br /> <br /> 1989- President Ronald Reagan, in one of his last acts as president, pardoned Yankee Baseball club owner George Steinbrenner for making illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon.<br /> <br /> 1991-Eastern Airlines ceased operations and went out of business. Chairman and former astronaut Frank Borman was philosophical: “Business without bankruptcy is like Christianity without Hell.”<br /> <br /> 1993- First day of full production at Pixar on their first feature film Toy Story.<br /> <br /> 2016- JOHN SCOTT- John Scott was an NHL Hockey player who had an undistinguished 8 year career. He was mainly known for brawling and sitting in the penalty box. But when it was time to vote for the NHL All Star Game, a mischievous blogger named Puck Daddy started a Twitter campaign to elect this unlikely bruiser onto the All Star team. He won an overwhelming number of votes and was made Captain of the Pacific League team. Despite NHL owners trying to exclude him from the game, he played and was named MVP. Carried aloft on the shoulders of his teammates, he later said,” It was unreal. Like I was in a Disney movie, except for real!”<br /> <br /> 2020- The first case of coronavirus Covid 19 in the USA reported. Snohomish, Washington. Medical experts started to sound alarm bells, but President Trump chose to sit on this information, and ignore the warnings for 6 more weeks, until March. All the while he was quietly warning his personal investor friends. To date 1,167,000 deaths in the U.S. since then.<br /> ================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: American Horse Racing’s championship is the Triple Crown. One horse has to win all three races, each one progressively longer in distance. The first race is The Kentucky Derby. What are the other two?<br /> <br /> Answer: The Preakness and the Belmont Stakes.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 17 Jan 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6361 <p>Quiz: What is the difference between a university and a polytechnic university?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: When dining in a wealthy Victorian home, what did you get when you were served terrapin?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for January 17, 2024<br /> Birthdays: Benjamin Franklin, Max Sennett-1880, Al Capone, Ethan G. Hodell 1883- the inventor of the Tow-Truck, Constantin Stanislavsky, Moira Shearer, Shari Lewis, Vidal Sassoon, Claude Coats, Denny Doyle, Kevin Reynolds, Muhammad Ali, Betty White, Jim Carrey is 62, Michelle Obama is 60, Zooey Deschanel is 44, James Earl Jones is 93, animator Genndy Tartakovsky is 54<br /> <br /> 50 BC- Julius Caesar’s chief rival for power in Rome was Pompey Magnus. Pompey was as famous a general as Caesar and he controlled the Roman Senate. Pompey bragged that if Caesar tried to start a civil war, all he had to do was stamp his foot, and soldiers would spring up everywhere. <br /> But when Caesar came down from Gaul and invaded Italy two months before the traditional March campaign season, Pompey stamped his foot and nothing happened. Pompey’s troops were still in Spain and Greece. The only legions in the area were loyal to Caesar. This day Pompey and the Senate abandoned Rome and fled south to the heel of the Italian boot.<br /> <br /> 38BC- Augustus and Livia’s wedding anniversary!<br /> <br /> 395AD- The death of Theodosius I, the last emperor to rule over the all the Roman Empire from Scotland to Iraq, Denmark to the Sahara. After his death the Roman Empire divided permanently between East and West. One son Honorius became Emperor of the West, and another Arcadius became Emperor of the East in Constantinople. A few years later in 401, The provinces of Britain in the West, and Armenia in the East, were abandoned by the withdrawing legions.<br /> <br /> 1775- Sheridan's Restoration comedy The Rivals premiered at Covent Garden Theater, London. <br /> <br /> 1781- THE BATTLE OF HANNAH’S COWPENS- Dan Morgan "the old wagoneer" and his mountainmen defeat a pro-British American army in the Carolinas. The American Loyalists in the South were led by Col. Banastre Tarleton, a dragoon officer unusual for his ruthlessness. After one battle he made his men go over the field and bayonet any men who might still be moving. This atrocity filled Morgan¹s ranks with rage, because many were the mountain kinfolk of the slain. This night the cry in the Yankee camp was:" Heads up boys! Bennie's Coming!"<br /> <br /> 1794- SCANDAL!! ANDY JACKSON MARRIED RACHEL DONELSON FOR THE SECOND TIME. Mrs. Rachel D. Robards was married to an abusive older man, when she fell in love with the dashing young officer in the Tennessee wilderness. Separated from Mr. Robards, she and Jackson were in Natchez, Mississippi at her sister¹s, when they heard word that Robards had filed for a divorce back in Nashville.<br /> Jackson and Rachael then married and lived together for a year but then discovered that the divorce report was false and worse, Mississippi where they were married was still Spanish territory that didn't recognize Protestant marriages as legal. Rachel finally got her divorce from Robards, and they married again. Still, the social stigma of 'living in sin' stuck.<br /> Rachel became morose in later years when Jackson's political enemies used the charge of adultery to attack him. Jackson fought duels and killed men over his wife's honor. By the time Jackson was elected President, Rachel Jackson was too ill to go to Washington. She died just before the Inauguration. The widower President lived long, but never got over his love for his Rachel.<br /> <br /> 1800- Thomas Jefferson welcomed French businessman Etienne Irenee Du Pont de Nemours to America. Monsieur Dupont had decided to move his business from revolution ravaged France and become an American. He founded the Dupont Chemical Corporation that today makes plastics and housepaints, but back then what was most important was he made gunpowder. During the American Revolution gunpowder was a precious commodity. Colonial women saved up pigeon droppings and their own urine to concoct saltpeter. Almost all the high quality gunpowder had to be imported from Europe. The Dupont family continued to control America’s petrochemical destiny way into the twentieth century and invented Nylon. And ladies could dispose of their urine in more sanitary ways.<br /> <br /> 1836- Texas General Sam Houston ordered Jim Bowie to go to the Alamo and blow it up. Then bring the soldiers and the valuable cannon back to the main army. But once there, Bowie was convinced by William Travis to disobey these orders and defend the Alamo to the bitter end.<br /> <br /> 1874- Chang and Eng Bunker were the original Siamese Twins, joined at the chest and sharing one liver. Since leaving Thailand they traveled the world with P.T. Barnum showing off their unique physique to paying crowds. They married two sisters and produced 21 offspring. As they aged, they made a deal that they wouldn’t be physically separated until one of them died. This day Eng awoke to discover his brother Chang had died of heart failure during the night. He cried “Then, I am going as well!” He frantically called for a doctor to come and separate them. But the doctor arrived too late, and Eng died too. They were 62.<br /> <br /> 1884- The Battle of Abu Kleer. British forces attempting to save Gordon of Khartoum are furiously attacked by the Dervish army of El Mahdi. At one point the Dervishes broke up a British infantry square, something Napoleon had trouble doing at Waterloo. Kipling wrote a poem in praise of the bravery of the long haired black Sudannese tribemen called “Fuzzy-Wuzzy” ­”Though we sloshed them with Martinis, an it wasn¹t ‘ardly fair, with the odds against you Fuzzy-Wuzzy, you broke the British square.” A Martini-Henry was a rapid firing rifle used at the time.<br /> <br /> 1904- Chekov's The Cherry Orchard opened in St. Petersburg.<br /> <br /> 1908- In London, Thousands of women march on Downing Street demanding women be given the vote. They broke windows and shouted “It will be bombs next time!” Among the suffragettes arrested and imprisoned was 23 year old Alice Paul from New Jersey. She was honored in 1996 by a US postage stamp.<br /> <br /> 1917- The U.S. bought the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $21 million.<br /> <br /> 1926- FATS WALLER KIDNAPPED- Harlem Jazz great Fats Waller was in Chicago for a gig. Suddenly several gunmen grabbed him off the street, shoved him into their limo, and drove to the lair of mob boss Al Capone. When they arrived there, the terrified Waller was reassured that it was Big Al’s birthday. All he wanted was for Fats to perform at his party. The bash went on for three days and the joint was really jumpin! After a song Big Al would stuff another $100 bill into a beer mug on his piano. Fats Waller left unharmed, and with a very fat wallet as well, but resolved to go back to Harlem where it was safe.<br /> <br /> 1926- George Burns married Gracie Allen.<br /> <br /> 1929- Elzie Segar was drawing a comic strip for Hearst’s NY Journal called The Thimble Theatre. It featured Olive Oyl, her brother Castor Oyl, and her boyfriend Ham Gravy. In this day’s strip, Ham meets an odd-looking sailor. He based on a neighbor of Segar’s, Frank Fiegel, a funny little man who liked to get into fights. Popeye the Sailor was born. <br /> <br /> 1935- In an address to Congress, Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed national unemployment insurance. It had been an issue demanded by workers since Coxey's Army in 1895.<br /> <br /> 1942- Right after the Pearl Harbor attack British Prime Minister Winston Churchill slipped across U-boat infested Atlantic waters and arrived in Washington for strategy planning meetings with President Roosevelt. Today he flew back to London without incident, although over London itself his plane was almost mistaken for the Luftwaffe and shot down. <br /> <br /> 1949- The first Volkswagen beetle automobiles arrived in North America. <br /> <br /> 1949- The Goldbergs, a radio comedy show about a Jewish family in the Bronx, moved to television and became the first true sitcom. The show ended when Mrs. Goldberg was accused by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee of being a Communist.<br /> <br /> 1950- THE BRINKS JOB- Several small time hoods wearing Halloween masks entered a Brinks Armored Car office in Boston and stole $1,2 million in cash and 1.5 in securities. By 1953 one crook broke down and confessed just eleven days before the statute of limitations would run out.<br /> <br /> 1957- The first non-stop jet flight around the world. Three U.S. B-52 bombers took off from Edwards Air force base in California, and by flying at supersonic speed, and refueling in mid-air, circumnavigated the globe in a little over 48 hours. The mission was not intended for any scientific value, as much as to demonstrate that the U.S. could now go anywhere on the earth and drop a nuke on you. They cemented this idea by dropping a dummy bomb after passing over Malaya. <br /> <br /> 1961- Frank Sinatra’s Ratpack had campaigned hard for their friend John F. Kennedy for president. Black entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. had worked particularly hard to help Kennedy win the African American vote. But Sammy had a personal preference for blond white actresses and had married one, May Britt in 1960. To fend off negative publicity, this day JFK had his secretary Mrs. Lincoln telephone Sammy Davis and un-invite him to the President¹s Inaugural Ball. We’re Liberal, but not THAT liberal. And uhh.. thanks for the help. Dean Martin was so angry at this insult to his friend that he canceled his appearance at the inaugural. In 1968 Sammy Davis angered the black community when he publically embraced republican Richard Nixon.<br /> <br /> 1961- President Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell speech to the nation. He warned against the growing influence of the “Military Industrial Complex”. <br /> <br /> 1961- Patrice Lamumba, nationalist leader and the first democratically elected president of the Congo, was executed by firing squad. Lamumbas’ pan-African nationalism earned him the enmity of the US state dept. and many believe the CIA might have been involved in his death.<br /> <br /> 1964- The first Porsche Carrera sports cars arrived in L.A. <br /> <br /> 1977- Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore was executed by firing squad in Utah for murdering an elderly couple. They pinned a paper on his chest with a heart drawn on it in pencil so marksmen could aim straight. Norman Mailor wrote the book, “Executioners’ Song”, about the event.<br /> <br /> 1989- A lunatic murdered 5 schoolchildren with an AK-47 assault rifle in Stockton California. Two months later Republican President George H. W. Bush. banned assault weapons and high capacity magazines by executive order. That ban was allowed to lapse by his son George W. Bush in 2004, and we’re still arguing, and counting our dead from school shootings today. <br /> <br /> 1994-The Great Northridge Earthquake rocked Los Angeles. 72 deaths and 20 billion dollars in damage. It was officially listed as 6.8 on the Richter Scale, although many persist that in some areas it was as high as 7.2. The epicenter was in the San Fernando Valley, so the valleys two major industries, animated cartoons and pornography, were temporarily disrupted.<br /> <br /> 1995- One year to the day after the Los Angeles earthquake, a massive earthquake struck Kobe Japan. The Japanese place great resources and time in earthquake preparedness, yet this 7.2 quake toppled whole freeways, killed 5,000 and left 1 1/2 million people homeless. It was the worst natural disaster in Japan since the 1923 Tokyo quake.<br /> <br /> 2000- A Complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton was offered for sale on E-Bay.<br /> <br /> 2021-Three days before President Biden was inaugurated, freshmen Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene texted outgoing Pres. Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and begged him to urge Pres Trump to declare martial law to stay president. “ In our private chat with only Members, several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for marshal law. I don’t know on those things. I just wanted you to tell him. They stole this election. We all know. They will destroy our country next.” <br /> =========================================================----------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: When dining in a wealthy Victorian home, what did you get when you were served terrapin?<br /> <br /> Answer: turtle soup.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 16 Jan 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6360 <p>Question: When dining in a wealthy Victorian home, what did you get when you were served terrapin?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: What is an idyll? As in having a rustic idyll?<br /> -----------------------------------<br /> History for 1/16/2024<br /> Birthdays: Yukon poet Robert Service, Andre Michelin inventor of the pneumatic tire- 1853, Ethel Merman, Dizzy Dean, Peter Ustinov, Henry Mancini, A.J. Foyt, Marilyn Horne, Sade, Michael Wilding, Eartha Kitt, animator Aurey Bataglia, Debbie Allen is 73, John Carpenter, Caroline Munro, Diane Fossey, Kate Moss is 50, Tsianina Joelson, Lin Manuel Miranda is 45, Animator Raul Garcia-Sanz<br /> <br /> 1605. Part one of Miguel de Cervantes's, "Don Quixote de la Mancha" was published in Spain (The ingenious nobleman Sir Quixote of La Mancha") It is generally referred as the first modern novel. Not about the lives of the Saints, or classical gods and heroes, but regular people.<br /> <br /> 1761- The British capture Pondicherry, the last French outpost in India.<br /> <br /> 1786- The Virginia Legislature passed the Ordinance of Religious Freedom, which stated that no man could be forced to join or support any church he didn’t want to. The Ordinance became the basis for the First Amendment to the Constitution. <br /> <br /> 1865- After resting his army in Savannah, for Christmas, Yankee General William Tecumseh Sherman started moving his blue columns north towards South Carolina.<br /> <br /> 1883- Moved to act by the assassination of President James Garfield by a demented civil servant, Congress passed the Pendleton Act, creating rigid merit standards for government jobs and creating the Civil Service Commission. Before this, things ran as the "Spoils System"- after every election hundreds of government jobs were given by the President and his party to party hacks and amateurs as payment for favors. Much uhh…as things are run today. <br /> <br /> 1891- Three weeks after the Wounded Knee massacre, the last independent warrior bands of Sioux Indians came in and surrendered to the U.S. Cavalry at the Pine Ridge Reservation.<br /> <br /> 1917-THE ZIMMERMAN TELEGRAM- The reason other than the Lusitania that the U.S. entered World War I. The Kaiser's generals fretted that the unrestricted U-Boat sinkings were strangling Britain, but they may force America into joining the Allies. So they concocted a scheme to keep the Yankees busy on their own side of the Atlantic. <br /> On this day, British intelligence handed President Woodrow Wilson an intercepted message from Baron Zimmerman, the German charge d' affaire in New York to the German Ambassador in Mexico City. It relayed an offer from Berlin of an alliance, if Mexico would please invade Texas! The Kaiser promised President Huerta the return of the entire U.S. southwest. The Mexican president wasn't enamored with the U.S. lately, but he still declined the offer. <br /> Instead of checking U.S. participation in World War I, the incident all but decided it. Wilson had run for re-election as an anti-war candidate, but after this he was convinced, Germany had to be stopped.<br /> <br /> 1919- In Argentina it was the end of the Sanglante- the Bloody Week. The government crushed a general nationwide strike – 700 killed.<br /> <br /> 1920- The League of Nations held its first meeting in Paris.<br /> <br /> 1935- “Ya better come out! We got you surrounded!” Kate Barker, called Ma Barker, died in furious shootout with the FBI at Ocklawaha, Florida. Legend has it they found Ma's body with the smoking tommy gun still cradled in her lap. Others say she was only an ignorant hillbilly lady traveling with her boy’s gang as a cover.<br /> Only one of Ma Barker's sons (Fred) was killed with her. Herman Barker committed suicide at Wichita, Kansas, August 29, 1927, after being blinded by police bullets in a gun battle in which he killed a policeman. Arthur "Doc" Barker was captured by the FBI in Chicago eight days before the shootout that killed Ma and Fred. He was killed attempting to escape from Alcatraz on January 13, 1939. Lloyd "Red" Barker was released from Leavenworth in 1939 after serving seventeen years of a 25-year sentence for mail robbery. He was murdered by his wife at their suburban-Denver home on March 18, 1949. <br /> <br /> 1936- the first racetrack photo-finish camera installed.<br /> <br /> 1936- Albert Fish, aka the Moon Maniac, aka The Grey Man, aka The Brooklyn Vampire, was executed at Sing Sing Prison. The 66 year old Fish had killed ten children and cannibalized their remains. He even went as far as to send a letter to the mother of his last victim describing how he had turned her daughter into a stew. The letter was traced back to him and he was arrested. He almost shorted out the electric chair because he kept his underpants filled with metal sewing needles. As he went to his death he told guards he was looking forward to the electric chair. "it is a thrill I never tried."<br /> <br /> 1938- Benny Goodman brought the new Swing Music to staid old Carnegie Hall. Count Basie and Harry James joined in to get the tuxedoed crowd dancing in the aisles, then afterwards they all went uptown to the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem to watch Count Basie’s band square off against the legendary Chick Webb. After this triumph, Benny Goodmans’ band would never be the same- Lionel Hampton, Harry James and Gene Krupa all split off to form their own orchestras." That band I had the night I played Carnegie Hall was the best I think I ever had." Goodman said later.<br /> <br /> 1938- Nylon invented by the Dupont Company.<br /> <br /> 1939- Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr announced the successful fission of uranium. They asked that it be used for peaceful purposes only. One of their colleagues Dr. Leo Szilard immediately warned the U.S. that they better start a nuclear bomb program, because another friend of Bohr's, Dr. Rudolph Heisenberg, planned to make one for Hitler. <br /> <br /> 1940- Lee Francis, then Hollywood’s top madam, was busted for prostitution. <br /> <br /> 1942-Actress Carol Lombard and her mother died in a plane crash at Mt. Potosi Nevada, outside of Las Vegas, while returning from a war bond drive. She was 33. Her husband, movie king Clark Cable was so disconsolate that he volunteered for an air force combat squadron instead of doing USO work and went on dangerous missions trying to get killed.<br /> <br /> 1942- Japanese armies attacked Burma.<br /> <br /> 1945- Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg last seen. The diplomat had been covertly smuggling hundreds of Jews out of Nazi occupied Austria by issuing them neutral Swedish passports. When the Soviets overran Vienna, Wallenberg disappeared. In 1991 The Russian government admitted that Wallenberg died in Leningrad’s Lubyanka Prison.<br /> <br /> 1954- THE WAR ON COMICS- Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee chaired the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency. They concluded that one of the contributing factors to adolescent moral decay was four-color comic books! The media called comics “The Ten Cent Plague”. <br /> The probe was sparked by a book called The Seduction of the Innocent by psychiatrist Frederic Wertham. He charged among other things that Batman &amp; Robin were gay because when not fighting crime, Bruce Wayne &amp; Dick Grayson lounged around all day in silk pajamas, with no women! That Superman was a fascist, and Wonder Woman’s strength and independence obviously made her a lesbian!<br /> Despite public testimony by Walt Kelly, Milt Caniff, Al Capp and Bill Gaines, 350 comic book companies including the EC "Tales from the Crypt" label were driven out of business. The strict comics-code was established. The comic book industry, which had been selling one million books a month, never regained that level of prosperity in the US again. Estes Kefauver tried to run for the Democratic nomination for president, but lost to John F. Kennedy.<br /> <br /> 1962- First day of shooting on the film Dr No with a young actor named Sean Connery in the role of James Bond. Ian Fleming thought the casting of Connery would be a disaster, he had wanted Cary Grant or David Niven. <br /> <br /> 1970- Col. Mohammar Khaddafyi became premier of Libya, a job he kept until 2011.<br /> <br /> 1974- Peter Benchley’s novel Jaws first published.<br /> <br /> 1979- The Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlevi, fled Teheran in the face of the Ayatollah’s fundamentalist revolution.<br /> <br /> 1980-The silver market collapses, making the Hunt Brothers from two of the richest men in America to two of the poorest.<br /> <br /> 1991- GULF WAR I - U.S. French, British and Arab air forces began attacking Iraqi-held Kuwait. Sadam, Wild Weazels, Gen Stormin’ Norman Schwarzkopf, Republican Guards, Scuds, Smart Bombs and CNN's Peter Arnett dangling a mike out the window of his Baghdad office as the bombs rained down. <br /> =======================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is an idyll? As in having a rustic idyll?<br /> <br /> Answer: Having a happy, peaceful, stress-free time, usually out in the country. First coined by the ancient Greek poet Theocritus, in hie stories The Idylls.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 15 Jan 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6359 <p>Quiz: What is an idyll? As in having a rustic idyll?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Who was Sappho?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/15/2024<br /> Birthdays: Dr. Martin Luther King, Moliere, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Cole Younger, Charro, Matthew Brady, drummer Gene Krupa, Lloyd Bridges, Mario Van Peebles, Josef Broyer the mentor of Sigmund Freud, Margaret O’Brien, Aristotle Onassis, Captain Beefheart, Dr. Edward Teller, Regina King is 53, Disney animator Dave Pruiksma<br /> <br /> Happy Druid New Year<br /> <br /> Feast of St. Paul the Hermit<br /> <br /> Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day (U.S.)<br /> <br /> 1208- THE ALBIGENSIAN CRUSADE- Count Raymond of Tolouse was thought to be sympathetic to a heretical cult called Cathars, from the French region of Albi (so Albigensians). They believed in a Zoroastrian dualism in direct conflict with the Church. When a papal representative named Peter De Castellan was sent from Rome to tell Count Raymond to knuckle under, he was assaulted. So, Pope Innocent III declared a crusade not against Muslims in the Middle East, but against other Christians in the heart of Europe. The holocaust was terrible, for the first time the answer of how to tell the guilty from the innocent was: ”Kill them all, and God will recognize his own.” The Holy Office of the Inquisition was invented to finish things off. The Cathar religion disappeared except for cult fans like Alastair Crowley and the Dan Brown of the DaVinci Code. <br /> <br /> 1520- Pope Leo X tells little monk Martin Luther he has sixty days to knock off all this Reformation stuff and stop complaining, or he's going to excommunicate his butt!<br /> <br /> 1559- Queen Elizabeth I was crowned at Westminster Abbey. The daughter of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII was 25 and reigned 42 years. Only Queen Victoria and the Queen Elizabeth II reigned longer.<br /> <br /> 1793- The Convention of the French Revolution condemned their King Louis XVI (now called simply “citizen Capet”) to death by guillotine. Voters for the death penalty included the artist Jean Jacques David, American Thomas Paine and Louis’ own younger brother the Duc D’Orleans, now ridiculously renamed Philippe Egalite’. When Philippe arrived home that night, his family shunned him. He cried aloud:” What else could I do?” <br /> Philippe was later guillotined anyway.<br /> <br /> 1811- At this time Spain was under Napoleonic domination and her king and government in exile. Mexico and other South American colonies were declaring their independence.<br /> This day in a secret session, the US Congress approved a plan to get Florida away from Spain. <br /> <br /> 1829- The first of two commercial working railroad locomotives arrived in the U.S. from England. Named the Pride of Newscastle back home, it was renamed the America. The Stourbridge Lion followed in May. These two trains began the U.S. Railroad system.<br /> Historian Stephen Ambrose noted that until this time all of society moved at the speed of a walking horse. That George Washington and Thomas Jefferson could travel no faster than Julius Caesar or Shakespeare did in their day. <br /> A Viennese doctor at the time said that the human body was never meant to travel faster than 35 mph. That blood would squirt out of your nose and eyes, and you’d go insane. <br /> <br /> 1861- The Abe Lincoln-hating Mayor of New York City Fernando Wood passed a non-binding resolution of secession from the United States. The pro-Southern sentiment in the North went underground after the rebels fired on Fort Sumter.<br /> <br /> 1895- The Electric Strike- Brooklyn's 5,000 trolley car workers go out and hit the bricks. New York's 7th Regiment had to run the system.<br /> <br /> 1919- After World War I toppled the Kaiser, anarchy reigned in Berlin streets. Today as the Spartacist revolt was put down in Berlin, German Socialist leaders Red Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Leibknecht were dragged out of the Eden Hotel, beaten with rifle butts, then shot. Their bodies were then dumped in a dry canal.<br /> <br /> 1919- The Great Boston Molasses Flood. In the North End neighborhood of Boston, a large storage tank filled with 2.3 million US gal (8,700 m3) weighing approximately 13,000 short tons (12,000 t) of molasses burst, and the resultant wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph (56 km/h), killing 21 and injuring 150. The event entered local folklore and residents claimed for decades afterwards that the area still smelled of molasses on hot summer days. <br /> <br /> 1919- Hollywood celebrities Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin and D.W. Griffith formed United Artists Studio. Newspapers wrote “ The Lunatics have taken over the asylum.”<br /> <br /> 1922- Irish troops led by IRA leader Michael Collins officially took over Dublin Castle and the Irish capitol’s administration from the British. The British commander at first upbraided Collins for being late for the ceremony. Collins said in response:” You’ve been here seven centuries and you can’t wait another seven minutes?” When the Lord Lieutenant Governor shook Collins hand and said, “I’m so happy to meet you!” Collins smiled,” The hell ya are.”<br /> <br /> 1927- The Dumbarton Bridge carried the first auto traffic across San Francisco Bay.<br /> <br /> 1929- Most of the nations of the world signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which stated that War is a bad thing. Ten years later World War II breaks out.<br /> <br /> 1935- The Tsuni Conference- Chinese Communists confirm Mao ZeDong as their overall leader.<br /> <br /> 1936-THE DGA- Several top Hollywood directors including Lewis Milestone, Ruben Mamoulian and William Wellman met at King Vidor’s house and pledged $100 dollars each to form the Screen Director’s Guild, later the Director’s Guild of America. It was a risky thing to do, previous attempts to form a director’s union were broken up a threat by the producers of perpetual blacklisting. Final recognition and contracts were signed by President Frank Capra in 1940. One provision insisted on in the contract was that the director’s credit always be the final name in the opening titles before the movie began. And so it remains.<br /> <br /> 1942- THE GREEN LIGHT LETTER. Major League Baseball Commissioner Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis wrote President Franklin Roosevelt that in light of the Pearl Harbor attack, perhaps big-league play be suspended until the war ended? <br /> The president responded in what’s known as “the green light letter,” encouraging Landis go ahead with the baseball season. “I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going,” Roosevelt wrote. “There will be fewer people unemployed, and everybody will work longer hours, and harder than ever before. And that means that they ought to have a chance for recreation, and for taking their minds off their work, even more than before.”<br /> <br /> 1943- Walt Disney released Education for Death, a wartime short directed by Clyde Geromini and animated principally by Ward Kimball. <br /> <br /> 1943- The Pentagon completed. First conceived as a medical research facility, it grew to become the headquarters of the massive US Military Industrial Complex, the largest office building in the world. The supervisor of construction was General Leslie Grove, who was also head of the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos.<br /> <br /> 1945- As the Nazi war effort was caving in on all sides Adolph Hitler relocated his headquarters from East Prussia to the Reichchancellory building in Berlin. One SS major cracked up der Fuhrer by joking that “now we can take a street car from the Western Front to the Eastern Front.”<br /> <br /> 1947-”THE BLACK DAHLIA”- One of the most lurid murder cases in Los Angeles history. A little girl playing in a vacant lot discovered the remains of high priced prostitute Elisabeth Short, 22, who used to work the Biltmore Hotel. She was named the Black Dahlia because of the black pullover sweaters and black lingerie she favored. Her body had been sawed in half and completely drained of blood, and the initials 'BD' carved on her thigh. Her body showed signs of torture. The murderer was never found. The incident was the basis for a movie called “True Confessions” with Robert DeNiro and Robert Duval. The last detective on the case died in 2003.<br /> <br /> 1949- Chinese Communist armies captured the city of Tientsin after an all day battle with Nationalist forces.<br /> <br /> 1951- ILSE, THE SHE-WOLF OF THE SS. Ilse Koch was the wife of the commandant of Buchenwald concentration camp and every bit as cruel as her husband. She participated in experiments on inmates to turn them into soap, and their skin into lampshades. On this day in her second war crimes trial she was sentenced to life imprisonment. Sixteen years later in 1967 she committed suicide in prison. In the 70’s Roger Corman revived interest in her by creating a sexploitation film about her life. Most of the movie was shot re-using the sets of the Hogan’s Heroes TV show, which had just been cancelled. The director of the film said of the screenplay, “That was the sickest piece of crap I ever read.”<br /> <br /> 1960- Walt Disney Presents Leslie Nielsen as Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion in the adventure series Swamp Fox. <br /> <br /> 1961- Berry Gordy of Motown Records signed a new group called The Supremes. <br /> <br /> 1967- THE FIRST SUPER BOWL- After a decade of professional football conference title games, the AFL and NFL combined to make a single championship game- Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 at the Los Angeles Memorial Colosseum. <br /> <br /> 1968- Jeanette Rankin, the 87-year-old Congresswoman who voted against US participation in World War I and World War II, today led a protest against the Vietnam War.<br /> <br /> 1974- The first episode of Happy Days premiered with Ron Howard as Richie Cunningham and Henry Winkler as Da Fonz.<br /> <br /> 1983- Meyer Lansky, the elderly retired Mafia boss denied a visa to move to Israel, died of a terminal nosebleed. <br /> <br /> 1998- Investigators from special counsel Kenneth Starr’s office have their first meeting with President Bill Clinton’s tootsie Monica Lewinsky in the lobby of the Watergate Hotel. They tried to pressure the 25 year old to admit her affair. They verbally denigrated her when she asked that her lawyer or her mother be present. But the Babe from Beverly Hills High was smart. She held out for 8 months to get the immunity deal she wanted before speaking about her and Bill and those well-placed cigars. <br /> <br /> 2009- THE MIRACLE ON THE HUDSON- Capt. Sully Sullenberger safely ditched his disabled airliner in the Hudson River, saving all his passengers. <br /> <br /> 2021- Wandavision premiered streaming on Disney+<br /> <br /> =========================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Who was Sappho?<br /> <br /> Answer: Ancient Greek female poet called “The Tenth Muse” who lived on the Isle of Lesbos. Although she had been married and had a son, she left some of the earliest examples of lesbian love poetry.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 14 Jan 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6358 <p>Quiz: Who was Sappho?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: I bought my wife a new frock. What is a frock?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/14/2024<br /> Birthdays: Marc Anthony 82 BC, Dr. Albert Schweitzer, Benedict Arnold, Hal Roach, Richard F. Outcault, Cecil Beaton, John Dos Passos, Lawrence Kasdan, William Bendix, Guy Williams- born Armando Catalano, Andy Rooney, Julian Bond, Steven Soderbergh is 61, LL Cool J, Faye Dunaway is 83, Emily Watson is 57<br /> <br /> 350AD. The feast day of Saint Hilary of Poitiers- Saint Hilary was the father of church music. In exile in Phrygia, he noticed pagans sang hymns to their gods, so he composed the first Christian music. The Halleluiah Chorus, Ave Maria, Silent Night, and “Drop Kick Me Jesus Through the Goalposts of Life” would follow in due course.<br /> <br /> 1604- King James I of England thought he could be like Roman Emperor Constantine, and use his royal prestige to resolve the theological disputes dividing Christianity. This day he convened at Hampton Court a grand synod of Anglican Bishops, Presbyterians, Baptists, Calvinists, Anabaptists, and Puritans to try and settle their differences. Nothing was really solved, but the only positive step was a motion was made to create a standardized translation of the Bible into English- The King James Edition.<br /> <br /> 1639- The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, the first constitution for a colony, is established. The Connecticut territory was a disputed area between the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam and the English New Englanders until the English conquest of 1661. The personal intervention of the Duke of York prevented Long Island from being made part of Connecticut.<br /> <br /> 1699- The Pilgrims of Salem held a day of fasting and prayer to atone for any people they may have unjustly executed as witches. <br /> <br /> 1797- Battle of Rivoli. Napoleon defeats the Austrians in Italy.<br /> <br /> 1831- Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame first published.<br /> <br /> 1858- Italian terrorists throw three bombs at French Emperor Napoleon III’s carriage outside the Paris Opera. 8 killed and 158 wounded, but not the emperor or his family.<br /> <br /> 1900- Giacomo Puccini's opera "Tosca" premiere in Rome.<br /> <br /> 1914- Henry Ford's assembly line process for building cars accelerates car production, thanks to a new chain system pulling the chassis along as they are worked on. As the system got faster and faster, the older, slower workers were replaced by younger ones. Hair dye sold at a premium in Detroit.<br /> <br /> 1943- Churchill and Roosevelt held a summit meeting in Casablanca in North Africa. The Casablanca Declaration bound the allies to never negotiate less than a total surrender out of the Axis powers. It was felt that one of the reason Germany resorted to war only twenty years after The Great War was their denial that they were ever defeated.<br /> At one point Churchill made a number of American diplomats and staff climb a high tower in the Casbah because he thought the setting sun would make a smashing good watercolor.<br /> <br /> 1952-The NBC "Today" show debuts with Dave Garroway, Jim Fleming and J. Fred Muggs the chimp.<br /> <br /> 1954- Marilyn Monroe married baseball star Joe DiMaggio.<br /> <br /> 1957- British Prime Minister Anthony Eden resigned, citing ill health, but more likely because he bungled The Suez Crisis.<br /> <br /> 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”. <br /> After Bogart’s death Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin adopted the name and made the Rat Pack famous.<br /> <br /> 60th anniv 1964- Hanna- Barbera's ' The Magilla Gorilla' cartoon show.<br /> <br /> 1967- HIPPIES The first “ Human Be-In” in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. 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 high. 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.<br /> <br /> 1969- At the Academy Awards, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day won best animated short. It is the last award credited to Walt Disney. Although he had died at the end of 1966, he had greenlit it and worked on it. Woolie Reitherman accepted the award.<br /> <br /> 1972- Norman Lear’s hit TV comedy series Sanford &amp; Son premiered. Starring Red Fox, it was based on the English show Steptoe &amp; Son. <br /> <br /> 1974- Sylvia Holland, British born story/concept artist at Disney on Fantasia/ Make Mine Music, died at age 74.<br /> <br /> 2004- Trying to channel JFK, President George W. Bush declared in his State of the Union speech his intention to return America to the Moon by 2020 and make a manned landing on Mars by 2030. To do this he gave NASA only one billion dollars more than their regular budget, while at the same time allocating $1.5 billion to fight gay marriage initiatives. In 2017 President Trump made a similar pledge to go to Mars. So far, neither has happened.<br /> <br /> 2005- The Cassini-Huygens Probe landed on Saturn’s moon Titan.<br /> <br /> 2016- Actor Alan Rickman passed away at age 69 of pancreatic cancer.<br /> =====================================---------------------------------------------<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: I bought my wife a new frock. What is a frock?<br /> <br /> Answer: English slang for a ladies dress. Usually a little more upscale.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 13 Jan 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6357 <p>Quiz: I bought my wife a new frock. What is a frock?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: The French comic TinTin; What is the name of Tintin’s dog?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> HISTORY FOR 1/13/2024<br /> Birthdays: Salmon P. Chase, Horatio Alger-1834, Sophie Tucker, Gwen Verdon, Robert Stack, Charles Nelson Reilly, Rip Taylor, Brandon Tartikoff, Julie Louise Dreyfus is 63, T. Bone Burnett, Patrick Dempsey, Orlando Bloom is 47<br /> <br /> 565A.D. THE NIKA SEDITION- In Constantinople, like Rome before her, the big spectator sport was chariot racing. Fans went crazy, lots of money wagered and charioteers were celebrities. Chariots were raced in teams like modern race cars (Team Unser, Team Ferrari etc.) and were distinguished by their colors. The big teams were the Blues and Greens. The Whites and the Reds were second tier. They even had their own booster clubs, who carried their arguments into the streets and beat each other up. The fan clubs were called in Latin FACTIOS, from where we get the words "fan, factions and fanatic".<br /> On this day the hooliganism of the booster clubs got so bad they rioted in the streets and burned down half of Constantinople. Emperor Justinian had to bring in the legions to restore order. <br /> <br /> 1687- Father Eusebio Kino began his missionary work in the Spanish Southwest. He founded several missions in Arizona and helped introduce the horse, pairs of whom were brought over from Spain and released around Santa Fe to multiply in the wild. The Italian born Jesuit’s travels also proved that California was not a big island as previously thought.<br /> <br /> 1733- James Oglethorpe reached Charleston South Carolina with a 114 colonists plucked from prisons back in England. His goal was to sail down to the Savannah River and create a new colony to stand as a buffer state between Spanish Florida and the English holdings. He got there on Feb 1, and called his new colony after King George- Georgia.<br /> <br /> 1777- Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson signed a bill in the legislature banning sodomy. The penalty for conviction was castration.<br /> <br /> 1847- Mexican Gen. Andres Pico signed the capitulation of Campo de Cahuenga (the little park across from Universal Studios today), surrendering the northern Mexican state of Alta-California to U.S. Gen. John Fremont. Fremont, nicknamed "The Pathfinder", was the first Republican candidate for President in 1856, and when the Civil War began he was a General until the Confederates made a fool of him and he dropped from public view. He was a better explorer than tactician. During the Civil War Andres Pico served in the Yankee force that defeated an attempted Confederate invasion of California. I guess he figured one change of flag in a lifetime was enough.<br /> <br /> 1849- Battle of Chillianwallah. The British army under Lord Hugh Gough defeated the Sikh army of Sher Singh and conquered the Punjab. Gough was a blunt old style soldier. When his second mentioned the army was almost out of cannonballs, Gough responded:” Good! Then we shall be at them with the bayonet!” This was the first battle where common soldiers’ bravery was “mentioned in dispatches” by the commander. At one point a befuddled major issued the wrong orders to a key troop of cavalry who would have galloped away from the battle, but they were rallied by their chaplain. For his bravery, Lord Gough recommended the chaplain be promoted to Brevet-Bishop.<br /> <br /> 1854- The modern Accordion is patented by Anthony Faas. Polka fans rejoice!<br /> <br /> 1864- Stephen Foster, the composer of "My Old Kentucky Home" and "Camptown Races" was found dead, a penniless drunk in New York's Bowery slum. In his hand was a piece of paper with the words "Dear friends and gentle hearts... ". A Pennsylvania Yankee, despite writing a lot of music about the South, he only visited it once, to New Orleans in 1852.<br /> <br /> 1872- GRANDDUKE ALEXIS BUFFALO HUNT. Grand Duke Alexis the son of the Czar of Russia visited America. A sportsman, He expressed a desire to go out West and hunt real buffalo. The US Government ordered General Custer and Buffalo Bill to afford him every courtesy. Buffalo Bill even talked Sioux Chief Spotted Tail to move his tribe’s winter encampment 100 miles south so Alexis could experience real wild Indians. Starting today the hunting party hunted and feasted for two weeks, leaving behind a trail of champagne bottles and buffalo carcasses. The trip was a great success and Buffalo Bill realized there was big money to be made in giving fancy foreigners a taste of the Wild West…<br /> <br /> 1895- Oscar Wilde’s play The Ideal Husband, premiered in London.<br /> <br /> 1898- Under the banner headline "J'Accuse !", a Paris newspaper printed writer Emile Zola's stinging criticism of the French government's handling of the Dreyfus scandal, blowing the whole scandal wide open. It charged Dreyfus was scapegoated to take the wrap for informants higher up in the Army General Staff. The army sued Zola for libel, and he went into exile to avoid imprisonment. He returned one year later after an enquiry cleared Dreyfus.<br /> <br /> 1906- The first ad for a radio appeared in an American Science Magazine. It boasted an effective range of over one mile !<br /> <br /> 1910- Dr. Lee Deforest, experimenting with his new radio vacuum tubes broadcast singers from New York's Metropolitan Opera for the first time. The regular Texaco 'Live from the Met' broadcasts wouldn't get going until 1934.<br /> <br /> 1914- Folksinging union organizer Joe Hill was arrested in Utah on trumped up murder charges.<br /> <br /> 1925- THE FIRST CALIFORNIA GURU- Indian spiritual teacher Paramahansa Yogananda , then called “The Swami” settled in Los Angeles and gave his first lecture to an audience in LA Philharmonic Hall. He taught westerners about these new things called Yoga and Meditation. He was a cause celeb, with friends like Luther Burbank, Armelita Galli-Curci, and John Barrymore. His Autobiography of a Yogi became a bestseller, read by the folks like Steve Jobs.<br /> He founded the Malibu Self-Realization Center in 1950. It featured one shovel-full of ashes from the funeral pyre of Mahatma Gandhi.<br /> <br /> 1929- Wyatt Earp died at 82 of prostate cancer in Los Angeles. After careers as a gunfighter, buffalo hunter, Dodge City marshal, prizefight referee, Yukon gold prospector and faro dealer, he finished in L.A. speculating in real estate. He was buried in San Francisco's Jewish Cemetery because his third wife, ex-saloongirl Sadie Marcus was of that faith. <br /> He liked to stroll onto Hollywood western movie sets to give advice to Tom Mix and William S. Hart on how they did it in the Old West. Recent scholarship claims that a tall young prop boy and extra named Duke Morrison (John Wayne) liked to hang around Wyatt to get advice. Supposedly the famous John Wayne swaggering walk was copied from Wyatt Earp. <br /> <br /> Wyatt Earp would have died totally forgotten but in his last years he was interviewed by a journalist named Stuart Lake who published a best selling biography in 1931 called Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal. After that the movies and TV took up his name to make him the most famous lawman in western history, which would have been a surprise to him.<br /> <br /> 1930- The Mickey Mouse comic strip first appeared in US newspapers. Originally Walt Disney himself wrote them, Ub Iwerks penciled and Winn Smith inked.<br /> <br /> 1939- Col. Jacob Ruppert died, the brewing tycoon and owner of the NY Yankees during their glory years of Babe Ruth, and Lou Gehrig. His will left his millions to a chorus girl Helen Weyant. She said “ they were just friends.”<br /> <br /> 1943- Movie star Frances Farmer was dragged out of a Hollywood hotel in a straightjacket. She screamed Rats! Rats! and listed her occupation on her arrest record as “c**ksucker”. Her career was ruined and she spent years in asylums. But it’s inconclusive whether she had actually suffered mental illness, or it was her mother overreacting to her sullen, temperamental nature.<br /> <br /> 1945- Sergei Prokoviev’s 5th Symphony (Classical) premiered in Moscow.<br /> <br /> 1946- In his comic strip, Dick Tracy first uses his two-way wrist radio. <br /> <br /> 1947- The comic strip “Steve Canyon”, by Milt Caniff first premiered in newspapers.<br /> <br /> 1953-" The Doctor's Plot"- Aging Soviet dictator Josef Stalin decided to launch a new purge and shoot and imprison thousands of people. He announced he had uncovered a conspiracy of counter revolutionists and spies to bribe doctors to poison top Soviet officials. Luckily Stalin died before he could kick off his new terror campaign. As he lay stricken with a stroke on his deathbed, his doctors were too afraid to treat him.<br /> <br /> 1957-THE FRISBEE went into production today. Two World War II fighter pilots who met in a German prison camp, Warren Fransconi and Walter Morrison, invented the plastic platter in a San Luis Obisbo home. Originally called Flying Saucers and Pluto’s Platters, they got the name Frisbee when they demonstrated it at Yale University. The students there were used to flipping pie plates at each other from the local Frisbee Pie Company, so when they played with the new disc, they cried “Frisbee, Frisbee!” which seemed to Walter a better name. <br /> When Walt Morrison died in 2002, his family obeyed his last request, to have his body cremated, his ashes mixed with plastic, and molded into a Frisbee.<br /> <br /> 1958- Actress Jayne Mansfield married weightlifter Mickey Hargitay. Their daughter was Marisa Hargitay.<br /> <br /> 1962- In the wee hours of a rainy night, TV pioneer Ernie Kovacs died when he plowed his Corvair into a power pole at Beverly Glen and Santa Monica Blvd. He was attending a baby shower Billy Widler threw for Milton Berle and his wife. But it was also known that Ernie had a weakness for screwdrivers, vodka and orange juice. At the funeral, the pastor said Ernie wanted his life summed up like this,” "I was born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1919 to a Hungarian couple. I've been smoking cigars ever since."<br /> <br /> 1979- The Young Men’s Christian Association filed a lawsuit against the rock group the Village People over their hit song “YMCA”. <br /> <br /> 1979- Russian animator Yuri Norstein’s masterpiece Tale of Tales premiered.<br /> <br /> 1985- Carol Wayne, an actress who played sexy blonde roles on comedy shows like Johnny Carson, drowned while swimming in Mexico. She was 41.<br /> <br /> 2002- While alone watching a football game on TV, Pres. George W. Bush almost choked on a pretzel.<br /> <br /> 2011- The huge Italian luxury cruise liner Costa Concordia ran aground on rocks off the coast of Umbria and capsized, killing 32. The captain of the ship Francesco Schettino was not present when the ship was in crisis because he was in his cabin with a hot Venezuelan woman. After the crash, he left his sinking ship early and was seen in town when everyone else was still trying to rescue survivors. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison. <br /> ====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: The French comic TinTin; What is the name of Tintin’s dog?<br /> <br /> Answer: Snowy. In French- Milou.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 12 Jan 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6356 <p>QUIZ: The French comic TinTin; What is the name of Tintin’s dog?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterdays question below: During WW2 German attack submarines were called U-Boats. What did the U stand for?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/12/2024<br /> Birthdays: Pilgrim leader John Winthrop, Charles Perrault (Mother Goose), John Hancock, Edmund Burke, John Singer Sargent, Jack London, James Farmer the founder of CORE, Herman Goering, Eddie Selzer, "Smokin' Joe" Frazier, Tex Ritter, Martin Agronsky, animator John Sibley, animator Ray Aragon, Howard Stern is 69, Rush Limbaugh, Oliver Platt is 64, Wayne Wang, Tiffany, Kirstie Alley, John Lasseter is 67<br /> <br /> Festival of Sarasvati –the Hindu Goddess of Wisdom.<br /> <br /> 1493- All Jews ordered to leave Sicily.<br /> <br /> 1519- Vasco Nunez de Balboa, Spanish discoverer of the Pacific, was convicted of treason, rebellion and mistreatment of Indians and beheaded. The cause was probably more that the local colonial governor Pedro de Arias hated him. <br /> <br /> 1641- The Virginia Colony passed a law that if any Indian committed a crime, the first Indian seen, even if he was completely innocent, would be compelled to pay his fine.<br /> <br /> 1669- Buccaneer Henry Morgan convened a meeting of the Captains of the Coast, a meeting of pirates on board his frigate the Oxford. In their meeting they resolved to attack Cartagena Columbia, a rich Spanish port and staging area for Spanish treasure galleons. During the drunken celebrations someone fired a gun off in the Oxford’s powder magazine and the explosion blew a dozen men to Davey Jones Locker. Arrr..!<br /> <br /> 1800- The frigate USS Experiment was attacked by ten pirate ships off Hispaniola.<br /> <br /> 1809- A group of Viennese businessmen convinced Ludwig Van Beethoven not to move to another city by paying him a yearly allowance. Beethoven constantly worried about money and pleaded poverty, yet after his death people found thousands of silver coins hidden in little pots and cupboards throughout his home. He used to charge people three marks to look at him through his window while he composed. <br /> <br /> 1812- A scant six years after Fulton first demonstrated his steamboat, the first Mississippi steamboat brought a cargo of cotton bales from Natchez to New Orleans to be loaded onto a transatlantic ship. This is the beginning of the riverboat trade Mark Twain made famous.<br /> <br /> 1898- Nationalist riots broke out in the Spanish colony of Cuba. U.S. President McKinley sent the battleship Maine to Havana harbor to protect American interests. Americans have coveted Cuba since James Madison's time. Just before the Civil War broke out, Southern businessmen paid mercenaries to conquer Cuba from Spain and bring her into the union as a new slave state. The U.S. threatened Spain with war over Cuba in 1870 and 1874 as well.<br /> <br /> 1928- NY police raid Alfred Knopf publishing offices and seized 852 copies of the novel “The Well of Loneliness” by Radclyffe Hall, because reading it was thought to turn young girls into lesbians!<br /> <br /> 1928- Henry Grey and Ruth Snyder are electrocuted in Sing-Sing Prison for the murder of Mrs. Snyder's husband. The love triangle was the inspiration for the films 'Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice' and 'Body Heat". Press photographer Thomas Howard taped a small camera to his ankle and snapped a photo of Mrs Snyder frying in the chair. The New York Daily News published the photo on its front page.<br /> <br /> 1942- German submarine U-123 torpedoed the British tanker S.S. Norness right outside the entrance to New York Harbor. The incident sent panic up and down the Eastern seaboard. The New York Museum of Natural History even moved its Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton to Pittsburgh, to save it from Nazi attack. <br /> <br /> 1945- To the overture of thousands of heavy cannons and Katyusha rockets the Red army crossed the Vistula river in Poland and began its final offensive against the Third Reich. This would end with Hitler’s death and the fall of Berlin. The nickname the multiple firing Katyushas was “Stalin’s Pipe Organ”.<br /> <br /> 1945- Japan signed licensing contracts and received from Nazi Germany their plans for jet fighters. Work was begun on a Japanese version of the Messerschmidt ME 262, the worlds’ first jet fighter, but they were too late to affect the wars end. The first Japanese fighter jet flew over Tokyo on Aug 6th,1945, the same day Hiroshima was A-bombed.<br /> <br /> 1960-” The Scent of Mystery”- the first film in Smell-O-Vision.<br /> <br /> 1962- President John F. Kennedy signed Executive order# 10988, mandating federal workers had the right to join unions and bargain collectively. In 2001 in the trauma over 9-11, President George W. Bush demanded his newly organized 50,000 member Department of Homeland Security be forbidden to unionize. <br /> <br /> 1965- NBC TV premiered Hullabaloo, a Rock &amp; Roll dance show with lots of mini-skirted go-go dancers. ABC responded with Shindig.<br /> <br /> 1966- Holy Cult Classic! The TV show "Batman" with Adam West and Burt Ward, premiered.<br /> <br /> 1969- Super Bowl III at the Orange Bowl, Broadway Joe Namath and the underdog NY Jets upset the Baltimore Colts led by the legendary Johnny Unitas 16-7.<br /> <br /> 1970- The Biafran Civil War ended.<br /> <br /> 1971- “ALL IN THE FAMILY” Norman Lear's TV sitcom debuted. Based on a popular British show Till Death Do Us Part, it broke new ground for American sitcoms by frankly discussing working class prejudice, menopause, rape and other taboo subjects. The first show featured the sound of a toilet flushing. The networks were so worried about its explosive content ABC rejected the show twice, and CBS ran the first episodes with a long apologetic disclaimer. Carrol O’Connor, the actor who played Archie Bunker, was so convinced the show would flop, he demanded as part of his contract a round trip plane ticket home. The show ran for 13 years, a bushel of Emmy Awards and made the name Archie Bunker famous.<br /> <br /> 1971- Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan, nun Sister Elizabeth McAllister and several others were indicted in Federal court for conspiracy. The Catholic clerics were trying to bring an end to the Vietnam War through non-violent acts of civil disobedience. After handcuffing themselves to missiles and the gates of army bases, the government alleged their scheme was to kidnap top Nixon diplomat Henry Kissinger and sabotage the State Department heating systems in the dead of winter. That was never proven. All charges were eventually overturned.<br /> <br /> 1987- No mystery, Agatha Christie died at 88 of natural causes.<br /> <br /> 1995- Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen announced the name of their new partnership would be 'Dreamworks SKG'. Someone in Florida immediately bought the domain name “Dreamworks.com” and waited for their buyout offer. I heard it was $5,000. <br /> <br /> 1997-According to Arthur C. Clarkes 1968 book "2001, a Space Odyssey", the HAL-9000 computer was booted up today.<br /> <br /> 1998-The LEWINSKY SCANDAL- Former White House staffer Linda Tripp was frustrated her career in the Clinton Administration was going nowhere. This day she appeared in the office of independent special prosecutor Kenneth Starr with tape recordings she secretly made of her friend Monica Lewinsky. They admitted to a sexual affair with the President. Conservative Judge Starr had been investigating Slick-Willie Clinton for years. After spending $54 million tax dollars, he hadn’t found much. So he immediately leaped at this opportunity, and asked the Attorney General for an extension of his mandate.<br /> Ms. Lewinsky had meant to keep her affair a secret, despite telling 11 friends. By autumn, the resultant scandal brought Washington to a standstill and only the second presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history. President Clinton first lied, then admitted to the affair, but was acquitted and served out his term anyway. Judge Starr later was booted out of the Presidency of Baylor Univ. for covering up a sex scandal. Linda Tripp asked the public for donations for her legal defense fund for her violating federal wiretap laws “I am one of you...a David against a Goliath...Even $1,000 dollars would do..” She took the money and got a facelift.<br /> <br /> 2002-The Refusenik Movement began in Israel when 53 Israeli Army officers announced they refused to enforce the Likud Government’s policy in the West Bank &amp; Gaza.<br /> ------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterdays’ Question: During WW2 German attack submarines were called U-Boats. What did the U stand for?<br /> <br /> Answer: Undersea-boat. Untersee-boot.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 10 Jan 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6355 <p>Quiz: You’ve heard of the famous WW2 Battle of Guadalcanal. What country does the island of Guadalcanal belong to?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: The famous Westminster bell named Big Ben was actually named for a real person. Who was it?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/10/2024<br /> Birthdays: Ethan Allen, Marshal Michel Ney, Frank James -Jesse's brother, Francois Poulenc, Ray Bolger (the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz), Stephen Ambrose, Sherrill Milnes, Pat Benatar, Sal Mineo, Jim Croce, Rod Stewart, Walter Hill, George Foreman, Linda Lovelace, Roy E Disney Jr, Jermaine Clement of Flight of the Concords is 50<br /> <br /> 50 B.C.- "Jacta Esta Alea!" Gaius Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River near modern Rimini with his legions and began a civil war for control of the Roman Empire. Caesar had been ordered by the Senate to give up his army command in Gaul and not bring his troops down. Once stripped of command he could be open to lawsuits, investigation and criminal charges. Years before Scipio Africanis, the defeater of Hannibal, was ruined by his political enemies this way. So instead Caesar attacked. The Rubicon was the border between the outer provinces and the home territory of Rome. Since then, "Crossing the Rubicon" means committing to a course of action you cannot turn back from. Caesar said "Alea jacta est" which means "The die is cast".<br /> <br /> 1072- Robert Giscard captured Palermo. At the same time Norman warriors under William the Conqueror were overrunning England and Scotland, other Normans knights were traveling south and spreading out across Southern Italy, Sicily and Croatia. They weren’t a national conquering army under a king, just professional mercenaries out for personal gain. They occupied Sicily and became the shock troops of the First Crusade. The Normans were finally driven out of Sicily in 1282.<br /> <br /> 1529- Michelangelo elected to design the military defenses of Florence. They failed to keep out the enemy, but they must have looked really beautiful!<br /> <br /> 1538- Martin Luther declared that Purgatory does not exist. " God in the Gospel of Mark has placed two ways before us- Salvation by faith or Damnation by unbelief."<br /> <br /> 1642- King Charles I slipped out of London as the city grew increasingly hostile to his cause. Londoners threw garbage out their windows at his Royal Guards. He traveled north to gather supporters. Parliament superseded the authority of the Mayor of London and called up the city militia. The English Civil War would break out in September.<br /> <br /> 1744- Bonnie Prince Charlie left exile in Rome to go to Scotland and start his uprising.<br /> <br /> 1775- PUGACHEV’S RISING. Yemelian Pugachev was an illiterate Cossack. One day for a laugh, his friends shaved his beard off while he was too drunk to notice. Without the beard they discovered he bore an amazing likeness to the Catherine the Great's dead husband, Czar Peter III. There was deep resentment in Russia among the common folk against the rule of Czarina Catherine. She was modernizing Russia against it's will and wasn't even Russian (she was a German princess).<br /> Pugachev declared himself the Czar Peter, back to reclaim his throne for the Muziks (peasants) and the Old Religion. Pugachev's Rising cost tens of thousands of lives before Catherine's armies stamped it out. Today Pugachev was brought to Moscow in an iron cage, then beheaded. A comparable Russian people's uprising would not be seen again until 1905.<br /> <br /> 1776- COMMON SENSE published. Thomas Paine's pamphlet explaining the case for liberty was considered psychologically decisive in garnering mass support among average Americans. Washington called it -"more valuable than a hundred cannon." Englishman Paine, a former corset maker, had only been living in America for one year.<br /> <br /> 1855- The Clackamas People of the Oregon territory sold some of their prime timberland for $500 and some food.<br /> <br /> 1861- Benito Juarez elected President of the Mexican Republic. The statesman spoke Zapotec before he learned Spanish, and became the first Indian head of Mexico since the last Aztec Emperor Guatamoc in 1519. During Emperor Maximillian’s French occupation, Juarez's government was constantly on the run along the Texas border but he refused to ever cross it. He felt the legitimate government must never leave Mexican soil.<br /> <br /> 1861- Florida became the third state to secede from the Union. <br /> <br /> 1863-The world's first Subway Train line opened in London at Baker's Street Station.<br /> <br /> 1870- John D. Rockefeller first formed the company called Standard Oil. In 1911 it changed its name to Esso and Humble, then in 1973 Exxon.<br /> <br /> 1878- the first Amendment proposing to give women the right to vote is proposed in Congress. Suffragette leaders Elizabeth Cady-Stanton and Susan B. Anthony looked for three months for a senator with the guts to sponsor it. It was defeated but it was brought up at every congressional session for the next 45 years. (see below 1917-1918)<br /> <br /> 1888-date of LOUIS LePRINCE's claim of a patent on Motion Pictures, predating Edison 1893 and the Lumiere Brothers-1895. LePrince even had as proof a film he shot of his mother, who had died in 1887. Despite this, LePrince could get no one to take him seriously. One day he boarded a train from Dijon to Paris and disappeared from the face of the Earth. <br /> <br /> 1901- SPINDLETOP- BLACK GOLD, TEXAS TEA… Conventional wisdom up till then was America’s oil reserves were chiefly around the Great Lakes and Pennsylvania. On this day wildcat drillers struck oil in Beaumont Texas. The Spindletop gusher was so big, 3,000 barrels an hour, it doubled total U.S. oil production output overnight. Companies like Gulf and Texaco spring up to compete with industry leader Standard Oil (Exxon). The era of the Texas Oil Tycoons began and until they began to run dry in the 1970s, America controlled 80% of the world’s petroleum output. <br /> <br /> 1906- The London Daily Mail coined a new term for women politically agitating to gain suffrage, or the right to vote, "Suffragettes".<br /> <br /> 1910- Joyce Clyde Hall started the company that became Hallmark Cards.<br /> <br /> 1917- On the anniversary of the first women’s right to vote bill, The Women's Suffragette Movement began a 24 hour round the clock protest in front of the White House. It is the first time the White House was ever publicly picketed. Ten suffragettes are jailed but are immediately replaced by ten more, who when arrested are replaced by more, then more.<br /> <br /> 1917- Frontiersman and master showman Buffalo Bill Cody died at 70 of uremia poisoning. His last words after he was told his end had come was "Ah forget it boys, let's play a round of High-Five." Today his grave still overlooks the city of Denver.<br /> <br /> 1918- 45 years after being first proposed, The 19th Amendment granting American women the right to vote passed in The House of Representatives. It failed at first to get the necessary 2/3 vote in the Senate, but after more votes and wrangling. It finally passed in Feb 1919.<br /> <br /> 1919- The League of Nations formed. The United States refusal to join and the Leagues refusal to admit Soviet Russia would doom this early attempt at a United Nations. Being dominated by old colonial powers like Britain and France it ignored the national aspirations of 3rd world countries like Syria and Vietnam. Finally the aggressive actions of the Fascist powers like Germany, Italy and Japan revealed the impotence of the League. The Leagues failure and World War II was used to make the point about the United Nations in 1945.<br /> <br /> 1923- When the defeated Germans proved too slow in paying the massive postwar indemnities (cash payments) to the Allies for World War I, a Franco-Belgian army occupied the Ruhr Valley industrial area. This cuts off the already ruined German economy from 80% of its steel and coal. The French leave after massive steel strikes and riots, and leave the Germans fresh hatreds to avenge later.<br /> <br /> 1924- Columbia Pictures created, ruled by Harry Cohn, whose motto was "I don't get ulcers, I give them!"<br /> <br /> 1927- Fritz Lang’s silent Metropolis premiered. Screenplay by his wife/collaborator Thea von Harbou. Despite the opinion of H.G. Wells in the London Times, “ Foolishness, cliche’, platitude and muddlement.” It is considered a classic of film science fiction. <br /> <br /> 1929- Herge’s comic character Tin Tin first appeared in a Belgian newspaper XXe Siecle. Tintin’s dog Snowy, in French Milou, he named for his girlfriend. <br /> <br /> 1939- Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov sold his first story to Amazing Stories Magazine "Marooned off Vesta".<br /> <br /> 1940- As the British and French awaited the first big German offensive of WW2, Hitler’s Generals argued about which plan to use for that offensive. This day a small plane was shot down over Belgium. In the pocket of a dead staff officer was the plans for the more conservative German attack. When this fell into the Allies hands, Hitler decided to adopt the more audacious plan of “Panzer Heinz” Guderian for a lightning strike through the Ardennes Forest. This plan turned out to be much more effected in defeating the Allies.<br /> <br /> 1941- The comedy play ARSENIC AND OLD LACE opened on Broadway. Playwright Joseph Kesselring originally wrote it as a drama based on true events, until he was advised - and, wisely so - to turn it into a dark comedy instead, guaranteeing a larger audience. He made the title a joke on a popular turn of the century romance novel, Lavender and Old Lace. When someone joked that Mortimer’s evil brother looked like Boris Karloff, the character was indeed played by famous horror movie star Boris Karloff. He was an investor in the play. When buying the movie rights Warner Bros agreed to wait until the play ended its theatrical run. They thought plays usually are done in a few months so they had Frank Capra make it into a classic screwball comedy with Cary Grant and Raymond Massey. The play Arsenic and Old Lace ran on Broadway for three years, until 1944. Then Warner Bros could finally release the movie. <br /> <br /> 1947- Returned WWII veteran Ed Lowe was working at his dad’s sand and gravel pit in Michigan. This day a neighbor asked if she could borrow some sand for her cat to do his business in. This gave Lowe an idea to use a clay mineral mixture called Fuller’s Earth. It absorbs twice its weight in water and is odorless. He invented Kitty Litter, and made millions.<br /> <br /> 1949- For years the recording industry had been working on ways to improve the 78 RPM record –RPM means Rotations Per Minute. RCA records announced the invention of the 45 RPM record. Columbia (CBS) had announced the LP (Long Playing) 33 rpm record and originally offered to share the technology but RCA (NBC) was having none of it. But the 33 stored more music and could use old 78 rpm turntables adapted so the 45 soon became a vehicle for hit singles.<br /> <br /> 1958- Jerry Lee Lewis single "Great Balls of Fire" topped the pop charts.<br /> <br /> 1958- GET MARRIED, OR ELSE! Blond actress Kim Novak had starred in Hitchcock’s Vertigo and was touted as the new Marilyn Monroe. In 1957 she began dating black entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. Davis was a member of Sinatra’s Ratpack and he challenged America’s racial barriers with his great talent. But this high profile interracial match was just too much for Hollywood society to handle. Columbia’s studio head Harry Cohn said of Novak-"That fat Polack Bitch! How could she do this to me? " <br /> Legend has it Cohn called the Chicago Mafia and put a contract out on Sammy Davis. L.A. mobster Mickey Cohen told Davis’ father that if Sammy didn’t marry a black girl in 24 hours, he would have his legs broken, and his remaining good eye poked out. <br /> On this day in Las Vegas’ Sands Hotel, Sammy Davis Jr. married black actress Loray White. Harry Belafonte was the best man. The couple honeymooned separately and divorced 6 months later. But the affair with Novak was over and Harry Cohn died of a heart attack the same year. In 1960 Sammy Davis married blonde German actress May Britt.<br /> <br /> 1961- Writer Dashell Hammett died. <br /> <br /> 1967- Lester Maddox was sworn in as Governor of Georgia. Maddox was a high school dropout who gained national stature when he refused to allow black people to eat at his restaurant, the Pickrick Café in Atlanta. Maddox passed out axe handles to white patrons to beat up Civil Rights workers. Maddox finally closed his restaurant rather than integrate.<br /> <br /> 1971-Stanford Calderwood, the president of WGBH Boston, got a good reaction for a season of a British drama he ran on American TV called The Forsythe Saga. He soon returned from a trip to England having purchased a bushel of BBC dramas. Period pieces, Called “Frock Dramas”. This day Masterpiece Theater debuted on US TV with host Alastair Cooke. The first show was the BBC series The First Churchills. I Claudius, Poldark and Upstairs Downstairs followed. These shows were so popular that for awhile people thought PBS meant Preferably British Shows. <br /> <br /> 1972- The liner Queen Elizabeth 1, on her retirement journey to the scrap yard, mysteriously caught fire and sank in Hong Kong harbor. <br /> <br /> 1992- The GREAT RUBBER DUCKY DISASTER- A North Pacific storm causes a ship to lose 29,000 plastic rubber duck toys overboard. They joined 61,000 Nike sneakers already bobbing in the water from a similar maritime accident. Scientists used the rubber ducky migration to track Pacific Ocean currents around Alaska.<br /> <br /> 1993- CAMILLAGATE- As speculation grew that the English Prince and Princess of Wales' marriage was on the rocks a London tabloid published tapes of phone conversations between Prince Charles and his long term mistress Lady Camilla Parker Bowles. The highly embarrassing transcripts included the Prince expressing a wish that he could be Ms. Bowles' tampon. Camilla's husband divorced her and Charles and Diana soon divorced as well. Within a year of Princess Diana's fatal auto accident Camilla resumed spending the night at Kensington Palace. Camilla and Charles married in 2005 and became King and Queen in 2022.<br /> <br /> 1999- HBO’s The Sopranos premiered. Howyadoin..?<br /> <br /> 2000- AOL and Time Warner announced a $165 billion dollar merger that made it the world’s largest media company. Considered now one of the worst business deals in history, the company lost $80 billion in one year. The deal almost sank both companies, uprooted both chairmen, and they detached permanently in 2009. Today Warner Bros is merged with Discovery with equally chaotic results.<br /> <br /> 2004- NY based Writer and actor Spaulding Gray spent the day taking his kids to the movies. They saw Tim Burton’s movie Big Fish. Gray put his kids into a taxi home and from the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, called his wife to say he would be home soon and that he loved her. Then he took the ferry, jumped into the harbor and drowned himself in New York Harbor. How He had waged a long battle with depression and his mother had commit suicide. His body did not resurface until March 9.<br /> ==========================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: The famous Westminster bell named Big Ben was actually named for a real person. Who was it?<br /> <br /> Answer: Its was named for Ben Cort, who was a top prizefighter in Victorian England at the time.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 09 Jan 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6354 <p>Quiz: The famous Westminster bell named Big Ben was actually named for a real person. Who was it?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays’ question answered below: What is the difference between a lithograph and a serigraph?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/9/2024<br /> Birthdays: Richard Nixon, Woody Guthrie, Ray Bolger, William Powell, George Balanchine, Judith Krantz, Bob Denver, Crystal Gayle, Joan Baez, Simone de Beauvoir, Sir Rudolph Bing, Herbert Lom, Gypsy Rose Lee, Joely Richardson, J.K. Simmons is 69.<br /> <br /> Festival of Janus, the namesake of January, Roman God of gateways and doors. Not to be confused, of course, with Terminus, God of borders and terminal points, Lemintinus the God of thresholds and stoops. Cardea the Goddess of hinges, or Forculus the God of the door leaves and sectioned doors.<br /> <br /> 1349- The Jews of Basel Switzerland were locked up in a warehouse and burned to death. Their neighbors accused them of bringing the Black Plague pandemic.<br /> <br /> 1570- Ivan the Terrible, just getting the suspicion that the city of Novgorod may be plotting a revolt, surrounded the city and massacred 20,000 people. Afterwards he told the survivors: " Forget your wrongs."<br /> <br /> 1768- Former English cavalry sergeant Phillip Astley combined trick riding in a tight circular ring, with a clown act, some jugglers, a mind-reading horse, his trick rider wife Patty the first Circus Queen, and took it all on the road. The first traveling circus.<br /> <br /> 1769- Gaspar De Portola and St. Junipero Serra set sail from Mexico to colonize California. They sailed because many thought California was an island. The California coastline had been explored by Juan De Cabrillo 250 years earlier. But since there were no more gold-laden Aztec cities to plunder, they forgot about it. Conquistadors don’t surf. By the 1760s, Spain’s King Charles III was finally moved to order the colonization of California to limit the encroachment of Russian fur traders moving down into Mendocino, and the British claims to the Oregon territory. Portola and Fra Serra established a series of missions that became to centers of the major cities of California.<br /> <br /> 1793- Aeronaut Jean Pierre Blanchard and his dog flew by hot air balloon from Philadelphia to Woodbury New Jersey. President George Washington was a spectator. <br /> <br /> 1806- In London, this day was the great funeral of Admiral Horatio Nelson, killed at the moment of victory in the Battle of Trafalgar. He was interred under the center of Saint Pauls Cathedral in a tomb built for Henry VIII's chancellor Cardinal Woolsey. Woolsey fell from royal favor before he ever got a chance to use it. The huge stone coffin stayed around in storage until a suitable hero popped up. An early example of recycling.<br /> <br /> 1825- Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams had dinner. The presidential election was deadlocked between Adams and Andrew Jackson with Clay a distant third. Andrew Jackson had won the popular votes, but the electoral votes were tied. Over sherry, Henry Clay offered all his electoral votes to Adams in exchange for the job of Secretary of State. So John Quincy Adams won the presidency with the electoral votes of states like Kentucky where hardly a soul had voted for him. People were furious over King Caucus and called it the stolen election. In the next election cycle Andy Jackson won easily and began major reform of the electoral system. <br /> <br /> 1847- After a small skirmish near San Gabriel Mission, Commodore Richard Stockton and the U.S. cavalry recaptured the pueblo of Los Angeles and ended resistance by the native population to U.S. control. <br /> <br /> 1847- First U.S. governor of New Mexico territory Charles Bent is murdered and scalped by angry Indians after the U. S. conquering army had moved on. His trading post- Bent’s Fort, still stands today.<br /> <br /> 1857- THE LAST BIG ONE. The Fort Tejon earthquake shook Los Angeles. This was the last major quake in Southern Cal of the great San Andreas Fault, an estimated 8.25! Because the area was so lightly populated, only two people were killed. One woman when her house collapsed on her, and an old man who had a heart attack. For the next big San Andreas quake? Stay tuned….<br /> <br /> 1860- The Star of the West, a ship sent to re-supply Union held Fort Sumter sitting out in Charleston Harbor, was fired on by South Carolina shore batteries on Morris Island and forced to turn around. These are the first hostile shots fired between North &amp; South. But the incident was not enough to trigger the U.S. Civil War.<br /> <br /> 1914 -John Randolph Bray took out patents on the principles of film animation: cycles, arcs, keys and in-betweens. He even tried to sue Winsor McCay, who had already been using them for years but never thought to patent them.<br /> <br /> 1924- The breakfast cereal Wheaties invented.<br /> <br /> 1936- Actor John Gilbert died of a heart attack after years of alcohol abuse. The accepted reason was he was a has-been silent film star whose voice was too thin and squeaky for talking pictures. Actually his voice wasn't too bad, some of it may of had to do with his punching Louis B. Mayer in the mouth when Mayer made a crude remark about Gilbert's relationship with Greta Garbo -something like "Why marry her when you're getting it anyway ?.."-BOP! . Mayer got up and screamed: "I'll ruin you if it costs me millions!"<br /> Gilbert's fading popularity and decline into alcohol as his second wife Virginia Bruce’s film career blossomed, was the inspiration for "A Star is Born".<br /> <br /> 1938- Walt Disney held a recording session in Culver City with Leopold Stokowski and his orchestra to record music for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Originally designed to be a Mickey short, Walt was so happy with the results he decided to go for it and make the film a concert feature. <br /> <br /> 1939- Top Looney Tunes director Frank Tashlin was hired by Walt Disney. He took a pay cut to do it. Tash quit after two fruitless years and wrote a children’s book called the "Bear that Wasn’t" about his experiences. An early vice president of the Cartoonists Guild, he also joined the Mouse House to help unionize the studio. After a stint at Screen Gems, in 1945 Frank Tashlin went to Paramount’s live action division and became the director of the Dean Martin &amp; Jerry Lewis comedies. <br /> <br /> 1959- The TV series Rawhide debuted, starring a young actor named Clint Eastwood. President Lyndon Johnson and Ladybird were big Rawhide fans. The President and First Lady would eat dinner on aluminum TV trays while watching Rawhide. To quote Ladybird:” Bliss!”<br /> <br /> 1968- THE BATTLE OF QUE SANH- Que Sanh was a U.S. Marine firebase at the western tip of the Vietnamese DeMilitarized Zone. It was so placed to interdict the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This day Firebase Que Sanh was surrounded and attacked by huge North Vietnamese forces. General William Westmorland growled to his corps commanders "This will NOT be the American Dien Bien Phu !" Dien Bien Phu was the 1954 siege that defeated the French. The Battle of Que Sanh lasted until April with the Marines fighting off huge attacks. <br /> The U.S. media at the time portrayed Que Sanh as an epic showdown in the tradition of Gettysburg or Guadalcanal, but to the Vietnamese General Ngyun Vo Giap, it was a feint to distract from the real offensive when the Tet Lunar holiday began....<br /> <br /> 1972- In a rare press conference by telephone from the Bahamas, reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes declared the biography done of him by Clifford Irving was a total fabrication. <br /> <br /> 1976- First day of shooting in Philadelphia of the movie Rocky. It was the first movie to utilize the Steadicam, a system that balanced hand-held camera shots.<br /> <br /> 1987- THE OCTOBER SURPRISE- Seven years later, The Ronald Reagan White House released a memorandum from 1980 proving the sale of weapons to Iran did bring about the release of the American Embassy hostages. Ronald Reagan had declared there was no ransom paid. His media spinners encouraged the idea that all the Old Gipper had to do was show up in the White House for the mad mullahs to release our people and hightail it outta’ town! Now the truth was out that Reagan lied, but it was too late, and not enough of a sound bite for a dazed &amp; confused public.<br /> <br /> 2007- Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone. “We didn’t realize we would change the world” a senior manager on the project recalled, “We just wanted to make an iPod that you can make a phone call on.”<br /> <br /> 2008- After his surprise win in the New Hampshire Primary, Barack Obama electrified the country with his speech:” Yes We Can.”<br /> <br /> 2021- Twitter suspended President Donald Trump’s account.<br /> =======================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is the difference between a lithograph and a serigraph?<br /> <br /> Answer: Today’s (printmaking) Answer: Lithograph are drawn and printed using stone plates. Seriographs are silk screened. (Thnks FG)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 08 Jan 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6353 <p>Question: What is the difference between a lithograph and a serigraph?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: What does it mean by saying “ The fix is in”?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/8/2024<br /> Birthdays: Elvis Presley would have been 89, Robert Schumann, Jose Ferrer, Shirley Bassey, Peter Arno, Yvette Mimieux, John Nierhardt, Bruce Sutter, Charles Osgood, Gen. James Longstreet, publisher Frank Doubleday, Saheed Jafray, Soupy Sales- born Milton Supman, David Bowie, Kim Jong Un, Larry Storch, Steven Hawking*<br /> <br /> *In 1963, Doctors told 21 year old Steven Hawking he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and he had at most two years to live. He lived 56 more years, dying at age 77. <br /> <br /> Today is the Feast day of St. Severinus of Noricum, one of the first missionaries to the pagan Austrians 482 AD.<br /> <br /> 794AD- The great Christian monastery of Lindisfarne was sacked by Vikings. <br /> <br /> 871- Battle of Ashdown- English warriors of Wessex defeated a large force of Vikings led by Halfdan the Black, Bascecg and Ivar the Boneless. On the English side under his brother King Ethlered was future king Alfred the Great. <br /> <br /> 1297- MONACO FORMED- Francois the Cunning was the leader of the Grimaldis, a prominent Genoese clan. On this day he disguised himself as a monk and sneaked into Monaco castle where he stabbed the guards, then opened the gate for his troops. The Grimaldis became Princes of Monaco in 1659. In 1851 Prince Charles III Grimaldi opened the first gambling casino. In gratitude of it's success, the people named the hill town they lived in Mount Charles, or Monte Carlo. The Grimaldi family still rule Monaco today under their present Grimaldi- Prince Albert Raynier II.<br /> <br /> 1642- Astronomer Galileo Galilei died at 77 of 'slow fever'. After being forced by the Holy Inquisition to recant his support of the theories of Copernicus in 1616, he lived under a loose house arrest the last ten years of his life. He became blind, but he played his lute and still published scientific papers smuggled out to be printed in Holland. Other great thinkers like English poet John Milton could visit him. <br /> The Vatican originally refused to allow him to be buried in consecrated ground but relented in 1727 and he was moved to the Church of Santa Croce in Florence. During the move someone cut off three of his fingers for souvenirs. Two of the fingers were eventually recovered and his middle finger is displayed in the Florentine Museum of Science. It is displayed in the upright position. The Church admitted in 1837 that he may have been right about the Earth going around the Sun.<br /> <br /> 1654- Hetman of the Ukraine Bogdan Khmelnitsky pledged loyalty to the Russian Czar in Moscow. The wild steppes between the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russia, the Tatars of the Crimea and the Turkish Ottoman Empire was a refuge for runaways and fringe folks similar to the American West or the Australian Outback. These Cossacks formed communities adopting Tartar customs and a fierce sense of independence. Khemlnitsky tapped into this independent streak to unite these disparate groups and used them to drive out their Polish Catholic overlords. He ruled the Ukraine like Oliver Cromwell in England. After several major wars maintaining a balance between the Poles, Turks and Russians, Khmelnitsky decided to throw in his lot with Moscow.<br /> After Bogdans’ death, the furious Poles dug up his grave and threw his bones to the dogs, but the deed was done. Despite several major revolts, the Ukraine and the Voivode of Ruthenia (Moldova &amp; Belarus) would stay a part of Russia until 1989. And today we see the strife still between Russia and the Ukraine.<br /> <br /> 1675- The first American Corporation chartered- The New York Fish Company.<br /> <br /> 1705- George Fredrich Handel’s first opera Almira opened.<br /> <br /> 1790- George Washington started a custom of the President delivering an annual speech reporting on the nation's progress in the past year, later known as the State of the Union Address. Because he was the first, Washington had to invent a lot what a President does, as long as it did not look like he acting like was a king. Article II of the Constitution said the President should annually report to Congress how things were doing. So George went to Congress and delivered his report in person in a speech. Tom Jefferson, who disliked public speaking, discontinued the custom and sent his report in writing. It stayed that way until in 1913 Woodrow Wilson revived the custom of a grand address to a joint session of Congress.<br /> <br /> 1815 "In Eighteen Fifteen we took a little Trip. With Colonel Andy Jackson down the Mighty Missa-sipp" BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. The last engagement of the War of 1812 and the last battle ever fought between Britons and Americans. It was actually fought AFTER the peace agreement had been signed. While the battle was raging, the news of the treaty was still crossing the Atlantic.<br /> When general Andrew Jackson heard of the British Army landing, he roared: "By Eternal God I will not have them sleeping on our soil!" He told the terrified New Orleanaise -still more French than American, that he would defend their city to the last, then burn it all to the ground. <br /> At Chalumette plantation, the redcoats were met by Jackson's ragtag force of regulars, militia, Cherokees, Jean Lafitte's pirates, and slaves, dug-in in a dry canal. Interestingly enough, the slaves proved to be the deadliest shots. Many slave families were denied meat for their diet. One a family were allowed to keep a bird rifle to bring home small game. To them bullets were precious, so they learned to make every shot count. At Chalumette they were given Kentucky long rifles with a range accuracy 300 yds. to the British "Brown Bess" musket 's 150 yds. The British grand assault never got within range before they were cut to pieces. It was all over in half an hour. <br /> Their commander Sir Edward Packenham, was a brother-in-law to the Duke of Wellington. Wellington himself declined the American command as being militarily impractical. Had the Iron Duke accepted he might have beat Jackson but would certainly have missed Waterloo. Sir Edward Packenham caught a bullet between the eyes, legend has it fired by a slave child. His body was shipped back to England sealed in a rum barrel. During the voyage home the barrels were mixed up and Sir Edward’s was tapped for the sailor’s rum rations. Even his officers toasted his memory unknowingly with the same rum. Upon arriving at Portsmouth his lordship had been reduced to brown sludge. <br /> <br /> 1853- The equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson unveiled in Lafayette Park in Washington D.C.<br /> <br /> 1856- Borax discovered in the California desert by Dr John Veatch. Now where’s that 20 mule team?<br /> <br /> 1877- Battle of the Tongue River. US Cavalry under General Nelson Miles surprise-attacked Crazy Horse’s winter camp in a Montana snowstorm.<br /> <br /> 1889- Herman Hollerith received a patent for the electronic counting machine. The machine fed numbers onto punch cards and was used in the U.S. census of 1890. In 1896 Hollerith founded the Tabulating Machine Company, which later was renamed International Business Machines or IBM.<br /> <br /> 1904- Pope Pius X banned women wearing low cut dresses in front of clergy. <br /> <br /> 1916- The British Navy withdrew their forces from the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey.<br /> <br /> 1918- THE FOURTEEN POINTS- President Woodrow Wilson had pondered the reason why the world had torn itself apart in World War I. He had his aide Colonel House chair a committee of top intellectuals and jurists called The Inquiry. They came up with Fourteen Points for lasting world peace. It asked for new ideas like people should be allowed to decide what government controlled them, and freedom of the seas. <br /> Wilson made it the cornerstone of his foreign policy, and airplanes dropped printed leaflets on the Germans. England &amp; France were willing to use the document as propaganda, but were not interested in its ideas. French Premier Clemencau said:" God gave us Ten Commandments, and we broke them. Wilson now gives us Fourteen Points. We will see."<br /> <br /> 1959- Charles DeGaulle returned to power as President of the Fifth French Republic.<br /> <br /> 1962- The Mona Lisa traveled to America and went on display today at the National Gallery in Washington. It was loaned in a deal brokered by Jackie Kennedy and French cultural minister Andre Malraux.<br /> <br /> 1936- Walt Disney was awarded Frances highest medal. The Legion of Honor. “In recognition of Disney’s work in creating a new art form in which good will is spread throughout the world.” -French Consul in LA, Jean-Joseph Viala.<br /> <br /> 1964- President Lyndon B. Johnson declared his War on Poverty campaign.<br /> <br /> 1973- Carly Simon got a gold record for "You’re So Vain". <br /> <br /> 1992- At a state dinner in Tokyo, President George H.W. Bush, suffering from a flu, vomited in the lap of Japanese Prime Minister Nakasone in front of press cameras. There is now a word in Japanese- BUSHURU, meaning to vomit on the person next to you.<br /> <br /> 2002- Pres George W. Bush Jr. signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law.<br /> <br /> 2011- Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was holding an informal town hall meeting, when a lunatic named Gerald Loughner pulled out a gun and started firing. He killed six people, including an 8 year old girl, and wounded 13. Rep Giffords, shot in the head, barely survived and had to learn to speak again. It ended her Congressional career. When her astronaut husband Mark Kelly tried to speak out for reasonable gun restrictions, they were declared enemies by the NRA. Kelly was later elected a senator.<br /> <br /> 2016- According to the movie Blade Runner, this is the day Rutger Hauers character Roy was born (activated) Replicant (M) Des: BATTY (Roy)<br /> NEXUS 6 N6MAA10816<br /> Incept Date: 8 JAN, 2016<br /> Func: Combat, Colonization Defense Prog. <br /> ============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What does it mean by saying “ The fix is in”?<br /> <br /> Answer: In the 1919 Blacksox Scandal, gangsters rigged the baseball World Series by bribing several key players of the favored team The Chicago White Sox to lose.<br /> The signal to the gamblers was in the first game when pitcher Eddie Cicotte threw a pitch that hit the batter in what should have been an easy out. Gangsters took this signal and sent the message to their friends “The Fix is In”. That they can now safely bet against the White Sox. This phrase came up recently because Donald Trump’s election challenges will be decided by his hand-picked Supreme Court. Many people do not see them as capable of impartiality.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 07 Jan 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6352 <p>Quiz: What does it mean by saying “ The fix is in”?<br /> <br /> Answer: What is meant by Balkanisation? Something being Balknanized?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/7/2024<br /> Birthdays: Jacques Montgolfier, Joseph Bonaparte- Napoleons older brother, St. Bernadette of Lourdes, Revolutionary War General Israel Putnam, Francois Poulenc, Charles Addams, Butterfly McQueen, Adolph Zukor, Charles Adams, E.L. Doctorow, Jean Pierre Rampal, Millard Filmore*, Katie Couric, William Peter Blatty the author of Jaws, David Caruso, Nicholas Cage- originally Nicolo Coppola, is 60<br /> <br /> • HAPPY MILLARD FILLMORE DAY!! Millard Fillmore is famous, if you could call it that, as America’s dullest president. This day the Millard Filmore Society has a banquet in his birthplace of Buffalo, N.Y. To celebrate, after a meal today say his famous last words," this nourishment is palatable."<br /> <br /> 1174- Today is the Feast day of Saint Raymond of Pentafort, who sailed to Barcelona on his own coat. <br /> <br /> 1610- Galileo pointed his telescope into the heavens and first noted the moons around Jupiter- Ganymede, Io and Europa. The first time anyone noticed objects in the heavens other than earth had moons around them too.<br /> <br /> 1785- Aeronauts Jean Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries crossed the English Channel in a gas balloon. To keep from crashing before attaining the French coastline they had to jettison most of their equipment, including silk covered oars intended to use to row through the air. Blanchard even threw his trousers overboard to lighten the load.<br /> <br /> 1789- THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION -Meaning when the electors nominated by the various state legislatures voted. The Electoral College is a remnant of this. Popular elections really didn't catch on until the 1820's. At this time only white, male, landowning, literate, freeborn men could vote, so 160,000 voted, out of a population of 4 million. In England at this time, only 10% of the male population could vote. George Washington won overwhelmingly over John Adams and John Hancock, to both their annoyance. Adams would scoff, ”Big deal. Man on a horse.”.<br /> <br /> 1839- Frenchman Louis Daguerre announced the invention of Photography (Just three weeks later on the 31st Englishman William Fox Talbot will say he invented photography first). Today was his public announcement. Daguerre’s experiments had been going on since 1835, which is when Talbot said he was doing his. There was also Thomas Wedgewood and Nicephore Niepce’s claims to be first. Despite the dispute, the Daguerreotype photographic process became the popular system worldwide in the nineteenth century. The image of Lincoln on the five-dollar bill is from a daguerreotype.<br /> <br /> 1894-Edison’s " The Sneeze" The first motion picture film to be copyrighted <br /> <br /> 1896- The first Fanny Farmer Cookbook published.<br /> <br /> 1914- the Merrill-Lynch Stock brokerage founded.<br /> <br /> 1914- The NY Times reported that Mexican general Pancho Villa signed an exclusive deal with Mutual Motion Pictures for coverage of his revolution. Villa would even confer with young movie director Raoul Walsh for when to schedule an attack, to get the best camera angles. <br /> <br /> 1922- THE IRISH CIVIL WAR. After a furious debate, the Irish Dail’ (parliament) voted by just seven votes to approve the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiated by IRA chief Michael Collins and Sinn Fein leader John Griffiths. This was the take-it-or-war deal offered by David Lloyd George that allowed for an Irish Free State but not a republic and with six counties of Northern Island sliced off to remain part of Britain. Irish President Eamon De Valera angrily took his followers out of the Dail and the street fighting broke out shortly afterwards. Griffiths died of a heart attack and Collins was assassinated. The Irish Republic declared in 1932 but Northern Ireland is still part of the UK.<br /> <br /> 1924- George Gershwin completed his Rhapsody for Piano and Jazz Orchestra, popularly called the Rhapsody in Blue. Ira Gershwin came up with the name after seeing a museum show of Whistler paintings with names like "Composition in Grey, Nocturne in Green," etc. <br /> <br /> 1926- George Burns married Gracie Allen.<br /> <br /> 1927- The first private telephone call from America to England.<br /> <br /> 1929- With the approval of Edgar Rice Burroughs, artist Hal Foster first began drawing the Tarzan comic strip.<br /> <br /> 1934 –The First Buck Rogers adventures.<br /> <br /> 1935- Roger Sherwood’s play the Petrified Forrest opened to smash revues at the Broadhurst Theater on Broadway. Lead Leslie Howard got great notices, but the real find was an obscure hard drinking actor with sad eyes playing the gangster Duke Mantee – Humphrey Bogart. In the audience was Jack Warner of Warner Bros, who decided Mr. Bogart might just make it in motion pictures.<br /> <br /> 1942- BATAAN- Gen. Homma's Japanese army attacked Gen. Douglas MacArthur's American and Philippine last stand defense line on the Bataan Peninsula. From today until late April, the Filipino-Americans waged a desperate fighting retreat against overwhelming Japanese forces down the Florida-shaped peninsula of Luzon, hoping for reinforcements from America that would never come. They sang:<br /> "We're the battling bastards of Bataan,<br /> No moma, no papa, no Uncle Sam.<br /> No aunts, no uncles, sisters or nieces;<br /> no pills, no planes, no artillery pieces.<br /> We're the battling bastards of Bataan,<br /> And nobody gives a damn.." <br /> <br /> 1943- Nicholas Tesla died in poverty. The inventor of AC current, rotary field motors and the Tesla coil. In his last years he had been experimenting with telegraphy, and trying to develop a death ray for the US Army.<br /> <br /> 1943- Walt Disney released the propaganda short The Spirit of ’43, commissioned by the Treasury Dept. Donald Duck explained that the best way to win the war, was to pay your taxes!<br /> <br /> 1949- Ever since Israel declared itself a state the previous May, it had been fighting off the armies of 5 surrounding Arab countries. After several attempts at a cease fire, this day a permanent U.N. Cease fire ended the Israeli War of Independence. <br /> <br /> 1961- In Providence Rhode Island a bunch of kids were stopped by police for driving a round a neighborhood store suspiciously carrying guns and masks. One 21 year old who did three days in jail for carrying a concealed weapon later became an actor- Al Pacino.<br /> <br /> 1966- A hippie rock band from what would become Silicon Valley, called the Grateful Dead, got their first gig playing in a nightclub called the Matrix. They would be one of the most successful rock bands in history, only breaking up after the death of their leader, Jerry Garcia in 1995.<br /> <br /> 1972- Pulitzer prize winning poet John Berryman went to a Minneapolis bridge over the Mississippi River, took off his glasses, waved at a few people then jumped to his death. He missed the river and hit the bank 110 feet below, but he achieved his initial purpose of killing himself.<br /> <br /> 1979-The invading Vietnamese Army took over the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh and ended the regime of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot. During his regime known today as the Killing Fields, he murdered up to a quarter of his Cambodia’s population, over two million people. <br /> <br /> 2009- Before inauguration day, President George W. Bush set up a working lunch at the White House for President-Elect Obama with all the living ex-Presidents, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush. Bush told Obama,” We want you to succeed. Whether we’re Democrat or Republican, we care deeply about this country. And to the extent we can look forward to sharing our experiences with you. All of us who have served in this office understands that the office transcends the individual.”<br /> <br /> 2015- CHARLIE HEBDO- In Paris, Muslim extremists shot up the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for making cartoons of the prophet Mohammad. 12 people were murdered, including the editor, and four of France’s most beloved cartoonists. Their editor in chief Stephane “Charb” Charbonnier, when he saw the gun pointed at him, stood and defiantly gave his killer the middle finger before he was shot.<br /> <br /> 2018- U.S. President Donald Trump declared “I am a very stable genius.”<br /> <br /> 2020- Brother of the future King of England, Prince Harry, announced that he and his American wife Meaghan Markle, were quitting the Royal Family and moving to America to become normal people.<br /> ==========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is meant by Balkanisation? Something being Balknanized?<br /> <br /> Answer: The Balkans are the region of small countries of South-Eastern Europe between Austria and Turkey. The modern states were created by the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. Balkanization has come to mean when a powerful territory or country is able to divide and take advantage of surrounding territories that are culturally and politically hostile to one another.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 06 Jan 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6351 <p>Quiz: What is meant by Balkanisation? Something being Balknanized?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What was The Borscht Belt?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/6/2024<br /> Birthdays: St. Joan of Arc, Khalil Gibran, mountain man Jedediah Smith, Tom Mix, Alexander Scriabin, Gustav Dore', Loretta Young, Earl Skruggs. Carl Sandburg, Danny Thomas, Nancy Lopez, Alan Watts, John Singleton, Anthony Minghella, Rowan Atkinson is 69 <br /> <br /> Happy Feast of Epiphany or Twelfth Night. Today is the end of the twelve days of Christmas when the Magi, the Three Wise Men, or the three kings- Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, visited the Holy Family. In some countries the Three Kings, not Christmas, is when children get their presents, because that’s when Jesus got his.<br /> The Magi were the priestly caste of ancient Persia. They were believed to predate the Persians and come from the Chaldeans, the people who invented the western branch of the science of astronomy. A lot of the Magi ritual concerned observation of the stars. Chinese astronomers recorded a bright star in the sky around 6 BC, probably a supernova. This could be the fabled Star of Bethlehem.<br /> <br /> 1066- After the death of Edward the Confessor, Saxon Earl Harold Godwinsson crowned himself King of England, which made Duke William of Normandy reach for his sword.<br /> <br /> 1522- The Augustinian Monastery of Wittenburg had been the home of reformer Martin Luther. Today, inspired by Luther’s preaching against the Vatican, the monks and nuns voted to disband themselves, move in together and start humping like bunnies. Martin Luther had go back to order them to calm down and get married.<br /> <br /> 1558- English Queen Mary Tudor had been talked by her proxy husband Phillip II into declaring war on France. The war went well for Spain, but this day the French recaptured Calais, the last English stronghold on the continent, which had been English for 211 years. Over the main gate of Calais was a stone relief of a donkey that bore the inscription “Calais shall be English until this Donkey eats straw!”<br /> <br /> 1759- George Washington and Martha Custis married. Washington first loved another woman named Sally Fairfax, who refused him. She married a prominent English loyalist plantation owner. They fled to Europe when the Revolution began and never returned. When George married Martha she was a very rich widow, but beyond childbearing years.<br /> This might have been a factor in Washington's decision later not to be King of America, for he would have no direct heirs. Imagine the complications in the young democracy trying to establish this concept of an elective President if there was a George Washington Jr. to contend with? In later years when Washington wanted to be alone, he would ride over to the ruins of the Fairfax Mansion to think. <br /> <br /> 1842- THE RETREAT FROM KABUL - This day, 15,000 British troops and their dependants march out of Kabul, Afghanistan on the road to Jalalabad. They were attacked by Afghan Ghilzais tribesmen all along the route through the Khyber Pass. Only one man survived, surgeon William Brydon, only because he got lost along the way.<br /> <br /> 1849- the first cartoon cover of Punch Magazine.<br /> <br /> 1853- President-elect Franklin Pierce and his family are involved in a train wreck in Concord Mass. Pierce and the first lady survived, but their last surviving child Ben was killed. First Lady Jean Pierce took this as a sign that God was punishing them for wanting the Presidency, and she morosely withdrew from society. Franklin Pierce himself spent most of his administration drunk, or on his knees singing psalms.<br /> <br /> 1872- Millionaire robber-baron Big Jim Fisk was shot dead by Ned Stokes, his rival for the affections of beautiful actress Josie Mansfield. Fisk once conned President Grant into a business partnership while he tried to corner the gold bullion market.<br /> <br /> 1912- New Mexico became a state.<br /> <br /> 1912- Scientist Alfred Wegener presented his paper to the German Geological Society in Frankfurt. In it he theorized that the Earth’s continents are not fixed in place but moving. He named it Continental Drift. Wegener’s theories were all dismissed as cuckoo until after WWII, when submarines charting the ocean floor discovered the tectonic plates. Today it is understood that the continents move at the speed with which you grow a fingernail. About 6 feet a century. <br /> <br /> 1919- Teddy Roosevelt died peacefully in his sleep at Oyster Bay N.Y. at 60. He was never expected to survive childhood asthma, was wounded in Spanish American War, thrown 40 feet in a streetcar wreck, got a dangerous leg abscess while on safari, almost died of malaria in the Amazon, and was shot by an assassin while giving a political speech, which he finished anyway. His daughter Alice said: " The problem with father is at every wedding he wants to be the bride and at every funeral the corpse."<br /> <br /> 1919- In the social anarchy after the defeat in World War I, German Communists storm the Chancellery in Berlin and try to set up a Bolshevik style Revolution. They are driven out by right wing mobs and more chaos reigns in the streets.<br /> <br /> 1945- First Pepe Le Pew cartoon, "Odorable Kitty". When Eddie Selzer, the Warners producer who replaced Leon Schlesinger, heard the plans to do a short about a skunk he thundered: "Absolutely Not! Nobody will go see a cartoon skunk!" Chuck Jones recalled: "As soon as he said no, I knew we just had to do it." Selzer's final opinion:" Nobody'll laugh at that sh*t!" Pepe went on to become one of Warners most beloved characters.<br /> <br /> 1945- Navy Lt. George H. W. Bush married Barbara Pierce. Despite Barbara’s mother’s opinion of Bush “Singularly Unimpressive”, Poppy Bush made Barbara First Lady, and the mother of another president.<br /> <br /> 1949- Composer Leonard Bernstein noted in his diary that “JR (Jerome Robbins) called today with a novel idea- a modern version of Romeo and Juliet set in the slums.” At first the musical was going to be called East Side Story, then GangWay, finally West Side Story.<br /> <br /> 1956- Prince Rainier of Monaco announced his engagement to movie star Grace Kelly.<br /> <br /> 1962- Bob Clampett's Beany and Cecil the Sea-Sick Sea Serpent. This was the animated version of his popular puppet show.“So Long Kids, Wind Up Your Lids, We’ll look for You Real Soooooon.”<br /> <br /> 1975-“Ease on Down the Road.-“ The musical The Wiz premiered on Broadway.<br /> <br /> 1993- Ballet star Rudolf Nureyev, the most famous male dancer since Nijinsky, died of HIV/AIDS.<br /> <br /> 1994- “WHY ME, WHY ME?” Shortly after a practice in a Detroit skating rink, Olympic hopeful Nancy Kerrigan was attacked by a man trying to break her knees with a steel pipe. The man Derrick Smith later confessed to the FBI that he was paid $6,500 to do the deed by Jeff Gilhooly, the manager and ex-husband of Kerrigan’s rival Tonya Harding. After all the intense media coverage Nancy Kerrigan won one Silver medal, Tonya Harding nothing and the Olympic Gold went to Ukrainian Oksana Baiul, who was later busted for drunk driving.<br /> <br /> 1995- In another great step for low journalism, CBS anchor Connie Chung got Kathleen Gingrich, the mother of Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, to call First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton a “bitch”. In an earlier time such gutter utterances would have been politely edited, but this was given national prominence.<br /> <br /> 1996- In Gaza, Hamas leader Yahya Ayyash, called the Engineer, dialed his cellphone and it blew his head off. It was a remote control bomb set by the Israeli Mossad. 100,000 Palestinians attended Ayyash’s funeral.<br /> <br /> 2017- In a meeting with the FBI President-elect Donald Trump was shown top secret evidence that the 2016 US elections had been compromised by Russian hackers. He ignored it and spent the next four years lying about ever knowing anything about it. <br /> <br /> 2021-THE JANUARY 6TH INSURRECTION. Pres. Donald Trump knew he lost re-election, but he refused to concede. A Master of Social Media, he summoned a mob of 126,000 supporters ginned up on baseless lies of voter fraud. This day he sent them to attack the U.S. Capitol. Pipe bombs were planted in key positions around Washington and similar smaller violent demonstrations broke out in several state capitols. Trump was prevented by the Secret Service from leading the rioters himself. He wanted metal detectors removed because his knew his fans were bringing weapons like guns and grenades. Black Lives Matter protests the previous August were met with massive police response, but this day protection for the national capitol was deliberately kept to just a few capitol police. Despite pleas for help, the National Guard was withheld for four hours, no reason ever given. Congressmen, many senior citizens, and Vice President Pence had to run for their lives. Capitol Policeman Eugene Goodman successfully distracted the mob just 30 feet from fleeing senators. 6 people were killed, 80 injured, and millions wasted in the worse destruction to the U.S. Capitol since the British invasion over 200 years ago. A rioter carried a Confederate flag into the capitol, something Robert E. Lee was never able to accomplish. It took President Trump over three hours to issue a statement. Even his daughter Ivanka begged him to call them off. He finally told his followers to “Go home. We love you. You are Beautiful.” Vice President Pence and Congresspeople reconvened at 2:00AM and certified the election anyway.<br /> <br /> 2022- On the one year anniversary of the Capitol Hill Insurrection, a federal judge turned down the request of convicted rioter Anthony Williams for ten days off to meet his fiancé’s family vacationing in Jamaica. <br /> ===============================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What was The Borscht Belt?<br /> <br /> Answer: In the mountains of Pennsylvania and New York State people spent the summer at beautiful mountain resorts in the fresh mountain air. Like many things in the early Twentieth Century these resorts did not allow Jews to stay there. So, in the 1940s and 50s Jewish people built their own resorts where the food and culture were geared towards the Yiddish culture of East Europe. It was known in showbiz term as The Borscht Belt or the Jewish Alps. The most famous resorts were Grossingers and The Hideaway. They had nightclub entertainment, and many famous comedians learn their craft playing the Borscht Belt like Alan King, Jackie Mason, Toadie Fields and Phyllis Diller.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 05 Jan 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6350 <p>QUIZ: What was The Borscht Belt?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What does it mean when people write, “We’ll take care of it all in one fell-swoop”? Where did that come from?<br /> ===============================================<br /> History for 1/5/2024. Birthdays: Zebulon Pike, Stephen Decatur, Alven Ailey, James Stuart Blackton (the first American animator, born in Lincolnshire, England ), W.D. Snodgrass, Jack Norworth who wrote " Take Me out to the Ballgame' , Konrad Adenauer, Astrologist Jean Dixon, Umberto Ecco, Yves Tanguy, Walter Mondale, George Reeves, Roger Spottiswoode, Tissa David, Hayao Miyazaki is 83, Robert Duval is 93, Dianne Keaton is 78, Spanish King Juan Carlos, Marilyn Manson is 56, January Jones is 43, Bradley Cooper is 49.<br /> 1463- French poet Francois Villon was kicked out of Paris.<br /> 1477- THE BATTLE OF NANCY- The Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Rash, dreamed of turning his duchy between France and Germany into one of the great powers of Europe. In the process he managed to annoy just about all his neighbors with his constant wars. This day Charles found out why the Swiss are left alone by everybody. Upon invading Switzerland, his army was cut to pieces. His body was found naked in a ditch with his head stuck fast in a puddle of ice. Two battle axes were rammed up his butt. <br /> The King of France as his feudal suzerain annexed Burgundy to France, but just before his last battle Charles engaged his only daughter to the German Emperor. So, the only thing Charles left to history was the ancient feud between Germany and France over who owned Alsace-Lorraine, which raged until 1945.<br /> <br /> 1643- The first divorce granted in North America. Pilgrim Anne Clarke was granted a divorce by the Massachusetts Bay Colony from her deadbeat husband Dennis.<br /> <br /> 1757- A man named Robert Damiens attacked French King Louis XV and stabbed him. It was a flesh wound that Voltaire described as a pin-prick. The king survived and the court sentenced Damiens to the most horrible death they could think of, the medieval punishment for regicides.<br /> Nobody had done it for generations so the court executioner, Charles Samson, had to consult the library. Hmm...Drawing and quartering....cut off assailants hands and stick his bleeding wrist-stumps into a pan of burning sulfur...uh-huh..got it! The execution was so ghastly that eyewitnesses vomited and fled, Samson passed out from exhaustion, so his assistants had to finish the job. Robert Damiens believed he was doing it for the people, but unfortunately he was 32 years too early for the French Revolution.<br /> <br /> 1762- The Seven Years War in Europe was a war of three powerful women against one gay man. Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Madame la Pompadour the favorite of Louis XV of France and Czarina Elizabeth of Russia. They all waged war on King Frederick the Great of Prussia, the country that eventually became Germany. Frederick called them the Three Petticoats. But after 6 years of war with his country overrun with foreign armies, and his treasury bankrupt, Frederick needed a miracle to survive. <br /> His miracle came this day, when Czarina Elizabeth died. She was succeeded by her eccentric son Peter III. The new Czar idolized Frederick. He immediately changed sides and donned a Prussian uniform to serve “My Master”. Frederick thought Czar Peter a bit odd, but he welcomed his help, nonetheless. He was later assassinated by his wife, who then ruled as Catherine the Great.<br /> <br /> 1825- Writer Alexander Dumas fought a duel with the Chevalier Saint George, a black duelist from Martinique, who played violin so well he was called Le Mozart Noir. Neither man was seriously hurt and Dumas went on to write The Three Musketeers. Saint George also once fought a duel with Monsieur d¹Eon, a crossdresser who fought his/her duels in a ball gown. The English Prince of Wales was a spectator.<br /> <br /> 1836- Davy Crocket crossed into Texas. <br /> <br /> 1895- Today was the famous scene of after Captain Albert Dreyfus was framed for espionage he was publicly humiliated in the courtyard of the Ecole Militaire in Paris. He was stripped of his insignia and his sword broken. As he was marched off to prison he continually shouted aloud “Citizens of France, I am Innocent!” <br /> <br /> 1896- A Vienna newspaper announced the invention by Dr. Wilhelm Roentgen of Wurzburg, of a machine that produces "X-Rays" to painlessly see inside the body. In England, Lord Kelvin, who invented the Celsius temperature scales, declared x-rays a "ridiculous hoax "<br /> <br /> 1896- Josef Pulitzers’ New York World began printing the Sunday Yellow Kid comic strip with a yellow color on his shirt. The strip gave the name to the sensationalist tabloid press 'Yellow Journalism".<br /> <br /> 1914- The Ford Motor Company shocked the leaders of American Industry by raising it¹s wage rates for work shift from $2.40 a day to $5.00 a day and voluntarily adopting the new 8 hour work day. Henry Ford’s idea was “When workers have more money, they buy cars”. The idea worked, and sales of cars quadrupled, and the economic climate of Detroit boomed.<br /> <br /> 1921- Famous Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton was preparing one more expedition to the South Pole. This day on his ship anchored in South Georgian Island Bay, he complained he felt ill. He said to his doctor “Oh, what do you want me to give up now?” then fell over dead of a heart attack. He was 47.<br /> <br /> 1924- William Chrysler introduced his first automobile featuring an all steel chassis frame instead of wood. He created it for the failing Maxwell Car Company and in 1925 changed the name to the Chrysler Car Company.<br /> <br /> 1925- Nellie Taylor Ross was inaugurated as the Governor of Wyoming, the first woman to hold such an office.<br /> <br /> 1933- First day of construction on San Francisco¹s Golden Gate Bridge.<br /> <br /> 1933- Former Pres. Calvin Coolidge died peacefully. Silent Cal’ Coolidge was so low key that he was a favorite target for political writers. H.L. Mencken said "Being fanatical for Coolidge is like being fanatical for double entry bookkeeping" Dorothy Parker had the final word. When told that Coolidge had died, she replied:" How could you tell?"<br /> <br /> 1934- Both the American and National Baseball Leagues agreed upon a standard size for a baseball.<br /> <br /> 1953- Samuel Beckett¹s play Waiting for Godot (En attendant Godot) first premiered in Paris.<br /> <br /> 1959- Buddy Holly released his last single, It Doesn’t Matter Anymore.<br /> <br /> 1959- The first Bozo the Clown TV show premiered on TV. Larry Harmon played the famous children’s clown.<br /> <br /> 1961- “Hello Wilbur” Mr Ed the Talking Horse appeared on TV for the first time.<br /> <br /> 1962- After a holiday break, shooting resumed on Cleopatra. This was the first time stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton worked together, and the first signs of their love affair. Their tempestuous relationship was one of the great affairs of 1960s Hollywood.<br /> <br /> 1968- A Boston grand jury indicted famous baby doctor Benjamin Spock for conspiring to abet violation of draft laws. The great scientist had come out as a vocal opponent of U.S. participation in the Vietnam War. "I helped them be born. I'm not going to abandon them now."<br /> <br /> 1970- Soap opera “All My Children” premiered.<br /> <br /> 1979- EMI Records ended their contracts with the punk band the Sex Pistols. They felt their outrageous behavior had gone just too far.<br /> <br /> 1980- The first Hewlett Packard Personal Computer, or PC, goes on the market.<br /> <br /> 1998-At the Heavenly Valley Ski Resort, former pop singer turned Republican Congressman Sonny Bono died when he skied headlong into a tree. <br /> <br /> 2017- Outgoing President Obama was briefed by the FBI about proof they had that the Russian hackers had interfered in the 2016 election to ensure Donald Trump would win. After Pres. Trump was inaugurated, the Justice Dept was told not to pursue the investigation any further.<br /> <br /> 2021- The night before their planned coup to stop President Biden’s election victory, outgoing President Trump, Rudy Giuliani and their cronies worked into the night making arrangements to pressure Vice President Mike Pence from certifying the election. They hoped that Pence could with a bang of his gavel stop the certification and throw the election to the House. Mike Pence called former Bush VP Dan Quayle, who told him, “You do not have that power. Your purpose is to do nothing. You preside, like a TV emcee.” <br /> That night after all their meetings wrapped, Trump left open the door to the Oval Office, so he could hear the hateful shouts and chants of the mob outside. When aides asked that he close the door from the January cold, Trump said,” Nah. I love listening to them. They are my people.” <br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean when people write, “ We’ll take care of it all in one fell-swoop”? Where did that come from?<br /> <br /> Answer: In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macduff describes how his family was murdered all at once. Like when a hawk swoops down and scoops up several animals at once.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 04 Jan 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6349 <p>Quiz: What does it mean when people write, “ We’ll take care of it all in one fell-swoop”? Where did that come from?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays Quiz answered below: Why is the Marianas Trench special?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/4/2024<br /> Birthdays: Sir Issac Newton, Emile Cohl, Louis Braille, General Tom Thumb, Jane Wyman, Jacob Grimm of the Brothers Grimm, Sterling Holloway the voice of Winnie the Pooh, Francois Rude, Dyan Cannon is 86, Floyd Patterson, Don Shula, Barbara Rush, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Julia Ormond is 59<br /> <br /> 1642- English King Charles I, egged on by his queen Henrietta Maria, attempted to squash his uppity Puritan enemies in Parliament with one stroke. He personally marched troops into the House of Commons and demanded the arrest of five ringleaders, John Pym, Sir Arthur Hazelrig and others. They had already fled. When he ordered the Speaker of the House to identify the men, the speaker bowed and politely refused: "Sire, I have neither eyes to see nor lips to speak say as this House biddeth me". <br /> King Charles and his guards left empty-handed, while Londoners laughed and threw garbage out their windows on him. He traveled north to raise troops. The English Civil War is recorded as beginning that September, but from this moment on King Charles considered no other remedy but force.<br /> <br /> 1698- The royal palace of Whitehall, built by Henry VIII, was destroyed in a spectacular fire. It burned for 2 days straight.<br /> <br /> 1725- American colonist Benjamin Franklin first arrived in London.<br /> <br /> 1821- Elizabeth Ann Seton died in New York. She was declared America’s first native-born Saint in 1979. Mother Cabrini the first American saint was an immigrant from Italy.<br /> <br /> 1824- Poet Lord Byron arrived in Missolonghi Greece to aid the Greek Independence movement against the Turkish Empire.<br /> <br /> 1861- As the Civil War was breaking out, Missouri inaugurated Governor Claiborne Jackson. Gov. Jackson in his inaugural speech declared Missouri would stand by her sister slaveholding states in the Confederacy, but the city folk of St. Louis and Kansas City were for the Union. The farming population were pro Dixie. Already wracked by years of violence, Missouri would collapse into an anarchy of roving paramilitary gangs robbing, hanging and shooting the innocent. Bushwhackers vs. Redlegs. Missouri suffered some of the worst losses of any state in the US. One tenth of the population would die or relocate.<br /> <br /> 1863- James Plimpton of New York patented four-wheeled roller skates.<br /> <br /> 1881- Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture premiered in Breslau. Johannes Brahms was offered an honorary degree by the University of Breslau. But he learned that in exchange, they expected him to write them a free symphony! Whaat? Brahms responded by sending them an overture to be played at commencement. On being performed, locals recognized several bawdy student drinking songs Brahms had worked into the score. The Academic Festival Overture is the basis for the opening music to National Lampoons Animal House.<br /> <br /> 1885- The first appendectomy operation.<br /> <br /> 1896- THE KRUGER TELEGRAM- Kaiser Wilhelm sends a telegram to Boer South African President Kruger congratulating him on defeating a coup attempt by pro-British mercenaries- The Jameson Raid. In the note the Kaiser implied military help for the Boers should Britain ever try anything else. When this note was leaked to the press, it was greeted with outrage in England. A backlash of anger also erupted among the German public.<br /> Even though the Kaiser apologized to his grand-mama Queen Victoria, the incident was seen as the first break between two countries, who throughout history had always been allies. The previous year, Lord Salisbury had said:" Our greatest national threat shall always be France." But the Kruger telegram and Germanys building navy began to change minds. Lord Asquith said:" It's as though a friend at your club you've always chatted and drank whiskey &amp; sodas with suddenly slapped your face!"<br /> <br /> 1896- After Mormon leader William Woodruff issued a manifesto reforming the Mormon Church’s hold over local government and renouncing polygamy, Utah became a state.<br /> <br /> 1904- The Supreme Court ruled that Puerto Ricans are not aliens but American citizens. Yet full citizenship was still delayed until 1917. <br /> <br /> 1904, Thomas Edison's movie crew filmed the electrocution of an elephant. Topsy, was being destroyed by its owners after she killed three men in as many years. (The third was a man who for a joke, fed her a lit cigarette.) The event was a public spectacle to a paying audience of 1,500 people at Coney Island, where the elephant had actually helped build the attraction. Edison was the consultant chosen to arrange the electrocution, after cyanide-laced carrots had failed. He made sure to use Nikolas Tesla’s AC current, to show people how dangerous it was.<br /> <br /> 1920- Eight teams combine to form the Negro Baseball Leagues. They were active until Major League Baseball finally integrated in 1948.<br /> <br /> 1932- Casey Stengel returned from the minors to manage the Brooklyn Dodgers, aka the Bums.<br /> <br /> 1936- Mickey’s Polo Team, directed by Dave Hand. <br /> <br /> 1943- Josef Stalin named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year.<br /> <br /> 1944- Kaj Munk, Danish playwright and poet who preached passive resistance to the Nazi occupation, was arrested by the Gestapo and shot.<br /> <br /> 1946- Terrytoons "The Talking Magpies" the first Heckle and Jeckle cartoons.<br /> <br /> 1948- Burma, received her independence from the British Empire.<br /> <br /> 1951- As Gen, MacArthur’s forces retreated from the Chinese Communist onslaught, Seoul fell into Communist control for the second time. The city, due to it's proximity to the front, changed hands several times during the Korean War.<br /> <br /> 1954- Young truck driver Elvis Presley went into Sun Records recording studio in Memphis. He plunked down $4 to record two demos for his mothers’ birthday. " Casual Love Affair" and "I’ll Never Stand in your Way". Studio manager Marion Keisker was impressed enough to play the demo for Sun Records boss Sam Phillips, who called Presley back in for an audition.<br /> <br /> 1954- The Pinky Lee Show premiered on TV. Sponsored by Tootsie Roll.<br /> <br /> 1956- In the Peanuts comic strip, Charles Schulz made Snoopy first stand up on two legs.<br /> <br /> 1956- Walt Disney had lunch with his old competitor Max Fleischer, now retired. The meeting was arranged by Max’s son Richard Fleischer, who was working for Disney directing movies like Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Although everyone had a nice time, Richard later admitted he found the whole thing depressing. Seeing his dad humbled:” It was like seeing David vanquished by Goliath.”<br /> <br /> 1957- The Dodgers are the first baseball team to buy an airplane to travel around in.<br /> <br /> 1958- the TV show Seahunt premiered. It made a star out of Lloyd Bridges, the father of Jeff and Beau. <br /> <br /> 1960- Writer Albert Camus was killed in a car accident. He was 46.<br /> <br /> 1964- The Boston Strangler murdered his last victim, 19 year old Mary Sullivan. The family of Albert DeSalvo, the man who confessed and was convicted as the Strangler, still claim today that he was innocent because the pattern of this killing didn’t match the others. <br /> <br /> 1973- In San Francisco, scientists from several top food companies like Proctor &amp; Gamble, Heinz and Del Monte began work inventing the Universal Product Code, or The Bar Code, now seen on everything you buy. The first product to sport the bar code was Wrigley’s Spearmint Gum.<br /> <br /> 1973- President Nixon informs the Senate committee investigating the Watergate break-in that he refused to yield to them his taped conversations, citing an arcane concept little used since the days of Thomas Jefferson, called "executive privilege.” <br /> <br /> 1995- Georgia Republican Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the House of Representatives. In the Washington atmosphere of congenial deal making, Gingrich was the arch-apostle of the scorched earth, no-compromise, us vs. them style of politics. Several times he used a routine approval of the federal budget to stalemate the Clinton Whitehouse to force a complete government shutdown. Even after he stepped down because of ethics violations, his highly polarized style of politics still rules Washington today.<br /> <br /> 1997- Spoon bending psychic Uri Geller predicted a UFO would land in Tel Aviv. Israelis watched the skies, but in the end, nothing appeared.<br /> <br /> 2010- Dubai opened the largest office building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. 163 floors.<br /> <br /> 2000- Charles Schulz published the very last Peanuts daily comic strip. It ran continuously since 1950. Schulz refused to allow any one to ghost him or take over the strip. He died a month later of colon cancer, and his last Sunday was printed the next day.<br /> ==============================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Why is the Marianas Trench special?<br /> <br /> Answer: The deep sea trench is the deepest hole into the Earth’s crust.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 02 Jan 2024 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6348 <p>Quiz: Name an important event that occurred in 1924.<br /> <br /> Yesterday: what does it mean to speak in platitudes?<br /> ___________________________________________<br /> History for 1/2/2024<br /> Birthdays: Turkish Sultan Mehmed IV-1642, Frederic Opper the cartoonist of Happy Hooligan, Phillip Freneau, Roger Miller, Issac Asimov, Julius LaRosa, Tito Schipa, Renata Tebaldi, Tex Ritter, Dick Huemer, Cuba Gooding Jr, is 56, Tia Carrere, Kate Bosworth is 41<br /> <br /> 1492- Sultan Abu-Abdallah, called Boabdil, surrendered the Emirate of Grenada, the last stronghold of the Moors in Spain to Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. As Boabdil rode out of the city between the Spanish troops, he paused on a hill for one last look at his beautiful city. The hill is today called El Ultimo Sospiro del Moro- the Last Sigh of the Moor.<br /> This completed the master plan of the Christian Spaniards to regain the whole Iberian Peninsula. Called La ReConquista, it had been raging for 500 years. In Rome Pope Alexander VI Borgia, who was also a Spaniard, celebrated the news by closing off Saint Peter's Square from worshippers to stage a bullfight. <br /> Boabdil's mother, the Sultana Ayeesha, scolded him for weeping while surrendering the city. " I should have smothered you as an infant, rather than watch you live like a degenerate and surrender like a whore...!" Gee, Thanks Mom…<br /> <br /> 1496- Did Leonardo da Vinci try to fly? Leonardo studied the motor actions of birds and sketched numerous flying machines. In one of his notebooks Leonardo had written:” On the second day of January, I will make the attempt.” Leonardo later noted in his financial records payment to a physician when his apprentice named Antonio broke his leg. It’s been speculated Antonio broke it trying to pilot one of his master’s flying machines. <br /> <br /> 1522- Adrian VI, a Dutchman was elected Pope. He was the first non-Italian since 1378, and the last until 1978.<br /> Adrian really tried to be a true Christian spiritual guide and agreed with Martin Luther that the church was too corrupt and sinful in its ways. He demanded he and his cardinals live on only one ducat a day, about $12.50, he shuttered the Belvedere Palace and its beautiful collection of ancient Greek &amp; Roman art as pagan idolatry.<br /> Poets, painters and sculptors were furious that this Pope cancelled all their lucrative contracts. The unemployed poet Aretino called the cardinals “miserable rabble that should all be buried alive" for choosing such a lousy pope.<br /> After three months Adrian died. This time the cardinals selected pope a Medici who loved art, music and parties. He said, “God has given us the Papacy, so let us enjoy it.”. The artists of Rome sent flowers to Adrian’s doctor to congratulate him for losing his patient. <br /> <br /> 1542- The town of Geneva had put themselves under the Protestant theologian John Calvin to reform everybody’s lifestyles. His first move was to create order in their new way of religion. This day his great work the Ecclesiastical Ordinances were approved by the Grand Council and put into law. It created a ministry of deacons, pastors teachers and lay elders based on Biblical Law. Calvin’s new code became the basis of the future churches of Presbyterianism, Huguenots, Puritans and Calvinism and reached as far as England, Scotland and America.<br /> <br /> 1602- End of the siege of Kinsale. Rebel Earl Hugh O’Neill had invited the Spanish to help him overthrow British rule in Ireland. He lost, and the English domination of Ireland was confirmed.<br /> <br /> 1611-THE BLOOD COUNTESS- Beautiful Transylvanian Countess Elizabeth Bathory was indicted for the murder of 610 people. She apparently believed that bathing in the blood of virgin girls would keep her skin beautiful. The crimes of the Medieval nobility were often winked at until they become so outrageous, they couldn’t be ignored any longer. When peasant girls kept disappearing around Csejthe Castle word got back to her big uncle King Sigmund Bathory of Poland, the enemy of Ivan the Terrible. When King Sigmund discovered the full horror of her story, he had Elizabeth walled up alive in her chamber. Daily food passed through a slit in the wall. When after a few years the empty dishes stopped being passed through, that slit was bricked up as well.<br /> <br /> 1688- The great insurance house Lloyd’s of London founded. In the past they’ve insured Betty Grable’s legs, Bruce Springsteen’s lungs and offered a million English pounds to anyone who could prove Elvis Presley was still alive.<br /> <br /> 1757- British redcoats marched into Calcutta. (modern Kolkata)<br /> <br /> 1785- Austrian Emperor Joseph II ordered the Jews throughout his empire to adopt family surnames. A similar law was passed in Prussia and the rest of Germany ten years later. Most Jews created surnames out of their profession. This was when someone like Yitzhak the diamond dealer became Issac Diamondstein and Yakub the butcher became Jacob Fleischman. If you think that’s funny, what if your name is Taylor, Miller, or Weaver?<br /> <br /> 1788- Georgia voted to ratify the Constitution.<br /> <br /> 1800- The free black community in Philadelphia petitioned Congress to abolish slavery. A South Carolina senator denounced the idea as:” This new-fangled French philosophy of Liberty and Equality!”<br /> <br /> 1815- Lord Byron married Lady Anna Milbanke. <br /> <br /> 1837- It was the custom at New Years for the Mayor of New York to hold an open house. Average citizens could pay a call, have a glass of sherry and pound cake and express good wishes for the New Year. But Mayor Cornelius Lawrence was a Tammany politician who had been elected with the help of gangs of hooligans from the Bowery and Five Points. When he held an open house this day all these gang toughs stormed in, got drunk, wiped their fingers on the curtains and pocketed the silverware. It quickly became bedlam. Mayor Lawrence had to get militia troops to push the mob out and lock the doors.<br /> <br /> 1843- Richard Wagner’s opera The Flying Dutchman premiered in Dresden.<br /> <br /> 1863 HELL’S HALF-ACRE- In the American Civil War the battle of Stones River or Murfreesboro resumed after a two days truce for New Years. The Union Army had been surprised attacked New Years Eve and caved in to a tight horseshoe configuration. By now it was now dug in and further fighting seemed fruitless. But Confederate army Commander Baxton Bragg couldn’t bring himself to retreat again as he had at Perryville. <br /> So, over the protests of his subordinates that it was suicide, he ordered a direct frontal attack. One brigade commander named Hanson declared he’d rather kill Bragg than murder his own soldiers. Hanson was killed in action. The Kentucky Orphans Brigade led by Confederate Vice President John Breckinbridge charged into a furious Yankee artillery cross fire and was annihilated. The attack failed and Bragg retreated anyway.<br /> <br /> 1873- Richard “Slippery-Dick” Connolly becomes the first American to embezzle a million dollars -he actually stole four million. He was the financial controller for the City of New York under Boss Tweed. Together the Tweed ring bilked New York City out of $60 million dollars. This day he fled abroad ahead of the police. Tweed was nabbed and died in jail, but Slippery Dick Connolly lived in Europe happily ever after.<br /> <br /> 1878- Farmer John Martin thought he saw something shiny flying in the sky above Denizen Texas. He is the first person to describe it as a “flying saucer.”<br /> <br /> 1882- John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil company controlled almost 90% of the U.S. crude oil output but the government seemed poised to hit it with anti-monopoly laws. So anticipating this move he reorganized Standard Oil into a Trust with himself as chief Trustee. Standard Oil later became ESSO (S-O) then EXXON-MOBIL. <br /> <br /> 1897- Young writer Stephen Crane survived a shipwreck when the good ship SS Commodore went down off the coast of Florida. He went on to write The Open Boat and The Red Badge of Courage.<br /> <br /> 1904- The Russians surrendered their big Pacific base of Port Arthur to the Japanese after a one-year siege. During the boredom of the siege the game Russian Roulette was invented- of putting a six shooter to your head with one bullet in a spun chamber. When their men kept dying for no reason the Stavka, or High Command, were at a loss how to stop it. When they caught men playing this lethal game they charged them for illegal use of government property- i.e. the bullets.<br /> <br /> 1909- Aimie Semple MacPherson was given her ordination by the Evangelical community of Chicago. Sister Aimie moved to Los Angeles and became one of the first great broadcast evangelists, entertaining millions with salvation and sin, while keeping toy-boys and popping pills on the side.<br /> <br /> 1933- The character Nancy first appeared in Ernie Bushmiller’s comic strip Fritzi Ritz.<br /> <br /> 1937- Hollywood actor Ross Alexander had hit on tough times. He had been in a few movies like Captain Blood and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but his career seemed to be stalled, he was in debt, and his wife committed suicide. This day the 29 year old went into the barn behind his Encino home and shot himself. The Warner Bros. Studio looked around for a replacement to refill their roster of handsome male leads. They replaced Alexander with an Illinois college sportscaster called “Dutch”- Ronald Reagan.<br /> <br /> 1939- Time Magazine named Adolf Hitler it’s “Man of the Year”. <br /> <br /> 1942- The Japanese army under General Homma entered Manila. They said they had come to drive out the American Western colonialists and create pan-Asian harmony. But they offended the Filipinos with atrocities like hanging the Chief Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court from a flagpole when he refused to be part of the occupation regime. Homma also had the city bombed even after they agreed to surrender.<br /> <br /> 1958- Maria Callas threw one of the more celebrated temper tantrums in Opera history when she stormed off the stage at La Scala in the middle of Bellini’s Norma with the President of Italy in the audience. La Divina Callas was a Greek-American with a beautiful voice and the slimmest waistline since Lili Pons. She was part of the Jet-Set society culture and her temper was famous.<br /> <br /> 1960- Young Mass. Senator John F. Kennedy announced he was a candidate for president. When asked why do you want to be president? Kennedy replied:” Because it’s the best job there is.”<br /> <br /> 1963- The Magic Castle opened in Hollywood. The Academy of Magicians renovated this 1908 mansion and declared it the world’s most unique private club. Even today, you can only get in by being invited by a member.<br /> <br /> 1965- Soupy Sales hosted one of the more successful kiddie shows on daytime TV. He often improvised his own comedy bits in between showing old cartoons. This say Soupy jokingly asked his kiddie audience to go into mommy’s purse while she was asleep and take out all those green pieces of paper with pictures of presidents on them, and mail them to Soupy Sales, c/o the studio. All that week, Soupy received thousands of dollars in small envelopes. The resultant outcry from parent groups got Soupy suspended.<br /> <br /> 1971- Israeli archaeologists in Jerusalem discovered the 2,000 year old remains of a crucified man. No, they didn’t think it was You-Know-Who. But it did provide the first empirical proof that Romans really used that method of execution.<br /> <br /> 1975- In a letter to MITS, college kids Bill Gates and Paul Allen offered their computer language adaptation of BASIC for the new Altair personal computer. They named themselves Microsoft. <br /> <br /> 1984- The Zenith Corporation announced it would stop selling video recorders in Betamax format and go over wholly to VHS. Other electronics giants followed suit and VHS won out over the higher quality Beta system.<br /> <br /> 1995- Washington D.C. Mayor Marion Barry was inaugurated for a second term after winning re-election, despite his conviction for smoking crack. Comedian Chris Rock said: “Who ran against him? Who was such a bad choice that people said- I’d rather vote for a crackhead? “<br /> <br /> 2000- Internet developers Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales, had a conversation about writing data entries for collaborative websites called wikis. Saunders conceived of an open on-line encyclopedia encompassing all world knowledge. He called it Wikipedia.<br /> <br /> 2019- The Chinese space probe, the Chang’ 4 became the first man made object to successfully land on the Dark side of the Moon. <br /> ===========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: what does it mean to speak in platitudes?<br /> <br /> Answer: <br /> I don’t want to talk your ear off but I really need to get this off my chest and keep you in the loop. It is right on the tip of my tongue anyway, so even if you want to take my 2¢ with a grain of salt, to make a long story short and just to make sure we’re speaking the same language and singing from the same hymnal, I’ll put all my eggs in one basket, come right to the point and let the cat out of the bag.<br /> <br /> Actually, maybe I have my head in the clouds, or perhaps I’m a little at sea about this but, while I hate going back to the drawing board and we both know this is not rocket science and that the answer is in the eye of the beholder, I am at sixes and sevens and can’t get my act together. The long and the short of it is I am not prepared to spill the beans, so I'm putting the ball in your court. Just keep in mind, all the world’s a stage, so break a leg, hit the nail on the head, separate the wheat from the chaff, give it 110% and get it all out in the open. It’ll be a piece of cake. Just take the bull by the horns, make a clean breast of it...and watch those platitudes! ( Thanks FG)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 31 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6347 <p>QUIZ: What is the new year in Roman numerals?<br /> <br /> Answer to Yesterday’s Question below: Sometimes you’ll notice your coffee comes from the Kona coast. Where is the Kona coast located?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for New Years Eve 12/31/2023<br /> Birthdays: Henri Matisse, General George C. Marshall, Odetta (real name Holmes Felicious Gordon), Simon Weisenthal, Virginia Davis, Pola Negri, Jules Styne, Sarah Miles, Donna Summer, Patti Smith, Elizabeth Arden, Tim Matheson, John Denver, Dianne Von Furstenberg, Psy, Ben Kingsley-born Khrishna Banji is 80, Anthony Hopkins is 86, Val Kilmer is 64, Gong Li is 58 <br /> <br /> 192-193 A.D.- The Roman Emperor Commodus was assassinated. The natural son of the great philosopher emperor Marcus Aurelius turned out to be just another sicko tyrant in the mold of Nero and Caligula. This night during a wild New Years Party, he drunkenly challenged a top wrestler named Narcissus. Narcissus had been bribed by Commodus's Praetorian Prefect Laetus and head of the Imperial Household Eclectus. So instead of just pinning him down, Narcissus broke Commodus’ neck. Made for a great party. <br /> <br /> 314 AD-This was the Feast Day of Saint Sylvester, the Pope who baptized the Roman Emperor Constantine who made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Legend is Sylvester miraculously cured Constantine of leprosy, and in reward Constantine gave the Roman Pontiff dominion over all the world. This Donation of Constantine was the philosophical reason the Pope in Rome became the supreme head of the Christian Church over any other bishop. In the 1440’s Italian scholar Lorenzo Valla proved the Donation story was a myth forged in the 700s by a Vatican clerk named Christophorous. <br /> <br /> 406AD- Huge hordes of Goths and allied German tribes, Seuvi, Alemanii, and Teutons, with all their families and belongings trudged across the frozen Rhine River and entered the frontier line of the Roman territory. This mass migration of barbarians was the signal of the beginning of the Fall of the Roman Empire. They reached the city of Rome four years later in 410, and the last emperor abdicated in 476. They later called it the Volkervanderung- The Wandering of the People.<br /> <br /> 1502- Renaissance Prince Caesar Borgia was besieging the Adriatic town of Senigalia. Caesar invited the enemy leaders Vitelli and Oliverotto to a conference with him at the Governors Palace. After dinner and drinks, Caesar had them garroted and their bodies dumped in the river. Machiavelli praised Caesar Borgia for ‘a most lovely ruse”. <br /> <br /> 1600- England starts thinking about India... Queen Elizabeth granted a charter for exploration to the Honorable East India Company.<br /> <br /> 1711- Queen Anne of England dismissed the Duke of Marlborough from command of the British Army and from all his cabinet and government posts. John Churchill the Duke of Marlborough was one of the greatest English soldiers, ranked with Wellington and Henry V. Yet, by now Queen Anne found him and his pushy wife Sarah annoying.<br /> <br /> 1772-3 THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. STRUENSEE-The King of Denmark, Christian VII was slowly devolving into insanity from syphilis. In 1770 he hired a doctor named Johann Freidrich Struensee to try to alleviate his pain. The good Doctor became more and more influential at the Danish Court as the king withdrew into seclusion. Struensee was made a count, and to top it all off he became the lover of the Queen! <br /> Soon Count Dr. Struensee was ruling Denmark. In the name of Queen Caroline, he passed 1,000 acts of enlightened reform, updating the Danish civil service and outlawed torture. Finally the Royal Court couldn't stand being dictated to by a low born doctor anymore. At a New Years ball Struensee was arrested by order of the Queen Mother Juliana Maria. He was quickly tried and beheaded. The King's care devolved to several regents until his son took over after his death. <br /> Queen Mum Juliana Maria said one of the greatest pleasures of her old age was looking out her window and watching the birds peck at the skull of Doctor Struensee.<br /> <br /> 1862- Battle of Stones River or Murfreesboro - Yankees and Confederates battle it out in the thick forests below Nashville. They then declare a days truce to celebrate New Years. Then they resume killing one another on Jan. 2nd.<br /> <br /> 1862- The U.S.S. Monitor, the little ship that fought the Merrimac in the first great duel of iron warships, sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras. Her inventor John Ericsson had boasted, 'the waves shall pass over her and she shall ride the sea like a duck', but in rough seas she sank like a rock. Twenty years ago the Monitor was found on the ocean floor. Bits have been brought up since 2002 and the entire turret is currently was reconstructed.<br /> <br /> 1862-3 - SLAVERY ENDED IN THE UNITED STATES- In a service at Boston's Music Hall Abolitionist leaders Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubmann, Harriet Beecher Stowe and William Lloyd Garrison sang 'Battle Hymn of the Republic" and celebrated midnight when the Emancipation Proclamation would officially take effect.<br /> <br /> 1879- Thomas Edison did a public demonstration of his new invention the Light Bulb. Special commuter trains brought people to Menlo Park New Jersey for the show.<br /> <br /> 1881- Los Angeles became the first U.S. city to be lit entirely by electricity.<br /> <br /> 1890- The new immigration facility on Ellis Island in New York Harbor opened.<br /> <br /> 1901-Los Angeles Angel's Flight cable tram opened. It closed down in the 1980's but was restored in 1996, then broke down a few years later.<br /> <br /> 1906-07- THE FIRST BALL DROPPING CEREMONY- Since the 1700s Newspaper services like Reuters and the London Times would post important headlines and on large signboard in front of their offices for businessmen on the street to see. Sometimes they would mark an important event like the death of a monarch by raising a flag, ringing a bell, or firing a cannon. Lowering a lantern was something ships in harbor did to synchronize their time keeping. The old Western Union building used to drop a ball at precisely noon for the same reason. <br /> In 1905 The New York Times hosted a giant news years party from their new office tower at #1 Longacre Square, now renamed in their honor Times Square. Midnight was signaled to the crowd by the lowering of a lantern on its roof. <br /> In 1907 an ironworker created a large ball covered with electric light bulbs that was lowered from a flagpole. The Ball-dropping ceremony was only interrupted twice in 1942 and 1943 for World War II blackouts. The Times Building was later sold and renamed the Allied Chemical Building, the Sony Building, Time/Warner, the Newsday building, and now One Time Square. <br /> <br /> 1911-12 Dr. Sun Yat Sen elected first President of the Republic of China, replacing the 256 year reign of the Manchu Dynasty. One of his first acts was to abolish the Chinese calendar and go on the western one for 1912. He then went to the Shrine of the Ming Emperors to tell their spirits that their enemies the Manchu had fallen. Dr Sen was a Methodist who no longer followed Chinese religious beliefs, but he was honoring a pledge to political allies.<br /> <br /> 1917- EUROPE DISCOVERED JAZZ- As the first American units entered Paris to help in World War I, the New York 15th Colored Regiment serenaded the city. The band of the 15th was made up of top Harlem jazz musicians led by bandleader James Europe. The French were amazed as the band performed ragtime riffs that only gradually they recognized as La Marseillaise and Le Marche Sambre et Meuse. Local musicians accused the Harlemites of using trick instruments since no one could make sounds like that. Lieutenant James Europe went on tour with the band and Europe the continent embraced the modern new sound.<br /> <br /> 1923-24-BBC overseas radio service first broadcast the Chimes of Big Ben around the world.<br /> <br /> 1929- New York's "21" Club opened as a speakeasy. Barkeep Jack Kramer opened the hangout at 21 west 52nd street. With a wine cellar hidden behind a two-foot thick stone wall door. The feds raided 21 once and found nothing after hours of searching. When they went back outside all their cars had been towed away by NYPD traffic cops. It seems the Mayor of New York Jimmy Walker was having dinner in the wine cellar with his mistress and was annoyed by the intrusion. In subsequent years it was normal to see movie stars, Lucky Lucciano, J. Edgar Hoover and John F. Kennedy eating side by side. Richard Nixon loved their tater-tots. 21 closed in 2021 due to covid.<br /> <br /> 1929- Guy Lombardo and his big band the Royal Canadians first played Auld Lang Syne at midnight for New Years. Lombardo and his band became synonymous with New Years until his death in the 1980s.<br /> <br /> 1931- NY gangster Larry Fay was a business partner of speakeasy hostess Texas Guinan and Cotton Club co-owner Big Frenchy DeMange. But the Depression was hitting everyone hard. This day Larry cut the salary of the doorman of his club. He responded by shooting Larry in the back as he walked by.<br /> <br /> 1940-41- Avant Garde artists John Sloan and Marcel Duchamp broke into the Washington Square Arch and declared Greenwich Village the Republic of New Bohemia. Like coool, daddy.<br /> <br /> 1941- A Warner Bros memo dated this day from producer Hal Wallis office announced that the movie to be made from a play by Murray Bennett called “Everybody Goes to Rick’s” has been renamed “Casablanca”. This was to capitalize on an already popular film title “Algiers” with Charles Boyer “come with me to ze Casbah” etc.. Humphrey Bogart got the lead after George Raft first turned it down. <br /> <br /> 1942- Chrome was outlawed on American cars for the duration of World War II.<br /> <br /> 1943-44- In occupied Europe U.S. Navy frogmen sneak over to the future Normandy beachhead and take sand samplings to analyze if the beach could take the weight of heavy tanks and ordnance. The samples were sent to Detroit so companies could design customized tank-tread teeth. As the frogmen swam back to their midget submarine they could hear the Germans celebrating in their bunkers. One frogman yelled out "HAPPY NEW YEAR!"<br /> <br /> 1943- Four hundred policemen are called out to control frenzied crowds of bobbysoxers as Frank Sinatra played the Paramount Theater in Times Square. It was his debut as a solo performer. OOHH FRANKIE!!<br /> <br /> 1946- The first Pismo Beach Clam Festival. <br /> <br /> 1947- Roy Rogers married Dale Evans.<br /> <br /> 1952- At the Cosmopolitan Club in East St. Louis, bandleader Johnny Johnson had a problem. Scheduled to play his regular gig at New Years, one of his trio suffered a stroke. Johnson looked around for a substitute musician and settled on a young construction worker trying to break in show business named Chuck Berry. Johnson played Boogie-Woogie piano, and Chuck Berry listened to country western on the radio and invented his own up-tempo variations. The two of them collaborating evolved a distinctly new sound we now recognize as Rock &amp; Roll. <br /> <br /> 1955- Chuck Jone's 'One Froggy Evening' premiered. Director Steven Spielberg called it the "Citizen Kane of Cartoons." If you wonder why you never heard the old time ditty 'The Michigan Rag' anywhere else but here, was because Chuck Jones &amp; Mike Maltese wrote it specifically for the cartoon.<br /> <br /> 1958-59- As Fidel Castro's guerrillas closed in on Havana, Cuban dictator Fulgensio Batista slipped out of a New Year's Party and boarded a plane for Miami, all arranged by the CIA. Fredo, ya broke my heart…<br /> <br /> 1962- Romanoff’s closed. Once one of the premier hot spots on the Sunset Strip, it was a preferred hangout of Humphrey Bogart, who liked to play chess in the afternoon with Nick Romanoff when he was between films.<br /> <br /> 1967- The Ice Bowl- Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers defeated the Dallas Cowboys 21-17 for the NFL championship ( the Superbowl had not been invented yet). It was nicknamed the Ice Bowl because the game was played in Green Bay in the out doors in below zero weather, with a wind chill of 40 below zero. Referees’ whistles froze to their lips.<br /> <br /> 1969- United Auto Worker's President Joseph 'Jock' Yablonsky was murdered with his wife and daughter. The gangland style hit is later tied to his successor Tony Boyle who went to jail. 20,000 miners called a wildcat strike Jan. 5th to protest the murder.<br /> <br /> 1973- Israel held its first election after the Yom Kippur War. The Labor Party held on to its majority although Prime Minister Golda Meir and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan resigned after a report accused them of being unprepared for the Arab surprise attack. The big news of this election was how former General Ariel Sharon and Menachem Begin had welded the various right wing parties into a new coalition called the Likud. They quickly became a major force in politics.<br /> <br /> 1977- President Jimmy Carter in Teheran toasted Iran under the Shah as “ An Island of Stability in a Troubled Middle East. ” Within a year the Shah was overthrown.<br /> <br /> 1985- Singer Ricky Nelson died when his band's converted old DC-9 airplane crashed near DeKalb, Texas. Nelson had been living on a steady diet of cheeseburgers and Snickers bars.<br /> <br /> 1995- The last Calvin and Hobbes comic strip by Bill Waterston. He just decided one day to end it, before it became stale.<br /> <br /> 1997- Will Smith married Jada Pinkett.<br /> <br /> 1999- Boris Yeltsin surprised everybody in the Russian Federation when he suddenly announced he would resign as president of Russia after an 8 year rule. He spent that time administering the break up of the Soviet Union and the establishment of democracy and capitalism in Russia. He named his successor, former KGB agent Vladimir Putin. <br /> <br /> 1999-2000 - The Y2K MANIA. While the world prepared to celebrate the new century and the Third Millennium, the American tabloid media whipped up fear over a theory that the change from 1999-2000 would cause most computers to crash. Planes would fall out of the sky, nuclear missiles would launch themselves, and marauders would rule the streets like something out of Mad Max. The US Government spent $65 million to prepare for the crisis. But at midnight absolutely nothing happened. Even older less sophisticated computers were unaffected, and everything ran normally. Meanwhile many of the US public shivered at home and watched the rest of the world have fun on television.<br /> <br /> 2001-2002- The European Union currency exchange went into effect. Adieu, Adios and Ciao to the French Franc, Belgian Franc, Italian Lire, German Deutschmark, Austrian Schilling, Dutch Gulden, Greek Drachma, Irish Pound, Portuguese Escudo and Spanish Peseta. Welcome the Euro.<br /> <br /> 2006- Deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was hanged. <br /> <br /> 2008- Dedication in Baghdad of the Killing Saddam Museum.<br /> <br /> 2019-The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a world-wide warning about the threat from the coming Coronavirus CoVid 19. American President Trump chose to ignore this, then inexplicably cut funding to the WHO.<br /> <br /> 2020- Because of the global covid pandemic, many world capitols cancelled their large public New Years celebrations, or held them virtually, like Times Square.<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s question: Sometimes you’ll notice your coffee comes from the Kona coast. Where is the Kona coast located?<br /> <br /> Answer: Hawaii.<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> **THANK YOU FOR READING MY LITTLE HISTORIES. I HOPE YOU HAVE AS MUCH FUN READING THEM AS I DO WRITING THEM.<br /> HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2024!<br /> - TOM SITO</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 30 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6346 <p>Quiz: Sometimes you’ll notice your coffee comes from the Kona coast. Where is the Kona coast located?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Who coined the catchphrase “ By Any Means Necessary”?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/30/2023<br /> Birthdays: Rudyard Kipling, Gen. Hideki Tojo, W. Eugene Smith, Luther Burbank, Anna Magnani, Bo Diddley, Sir Carol Reed, Sandy Koufax, Solomon Guggenheim, Jeanette Nolan, Jack Lord, Franco Harris, Joseph Bologna, Fred Ward, Tracey Ullman, Russ Tamblyn, Tiger Woods is 47, Heidi Fleiss, Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul &amp; Mary, Douglas Engelbart the inventor of the computer mouse, Lebron James is 39, Eliza Dushku is 43<br /> <br /> 1370- Pope Gregory XI is an example of the rather unconventional path one could take to the Papacy in the Middle Ages. His genial uncle Pope Clement VI had made him a cardinal at age 18. Upon his election as Pope at age 39 someone noticed that he had never taken Holy Orders to become a Priest! So yesterday he was ordained a priest and today became Pope.<br /> <br /> 1672- Violinist John Bannister and his orchestra held a concert at Whitefriars chapel in London. It’s the oldest known music concert given not to royalty, or a rich patron, but to the general public. <br /> <br /> 1689- The opera Dido &amp; Aeneas by Henry Purcell premiered in London.<br /> <br /> 1816- Poet Percy Bysshe Shelley married Mary Wollstonecraft. Mary wrote Frankenstein two years later.<br /> <br /> 1817- Coffee beans first planted on the Kona coast of Hawaii.<br /> <br /> 1853- The Gadsen Purchase- After the Mexican-American War the U.S. bought an additional 45,000 square miles from Mexico and finally settled the US border at the Rio Grande. The deal was brokered by U.S. Secretary of War and later President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis.<br /> <br /> 1862- During the Civil War, the day before the Battle of Stone's River Tennessee, Union and Confederate armies spent the day quietly facing each other across a creek under an icy rain. A battle of the bands started up. Blue and gray musicians serenaded each other across no-mans land with patriotic songs like Dixie and John Brown's Body, while the men sang along. Finally both bands synched up with a spontaneous rendition of " Be It Ever so Humble, There's No Place Like Home..." Thousands of throats from both sides took up the chorus.<br /> <br /> 1884- Anton Bruckner’s 7th Symphony premiered in Leipzig.<br /> <br /> 1894- Suffragette Amelia Jenks Bloomer died; she had gained notoriety for inventing "bloomers" a way for women to ride horses and do other physical actions without cumbersome hoops skirts.<br /> <br /> 1903 - A fire broke out in the crowded Iroquois Theater in Chicago killing 571. After the tragedy building codes were enforced that public buildings have exit doors that always open outwards, and some form of fire fighting equipment always be on the premises. The Iroquois had a sign over the door that read “Absolutely Fireproof”.<br /> <br /> 1905- Idaho governor Frank Steunberg killed by a bomb set by union supporters.<br /> <br /> 1916- RASPUTIN THE MAD MONK KILLED- Several Russian noblemen resolve to rid their country of this Siberian peasant mystic who held such power over the Czar and his family that he could dismiss government ministers at will. He once had an entire Russian army offensive redirected because he was negotiating to buy the real estate they planned to fight over. <br /> A first cousin of the Czar, Count Felix Yusupov invited Rasputin to a late night party. He had a record player with Yankee Doodle playing in another room to convince the monk that a party indeed was in progress. Yusupov gave Rasputin a glass of cyanide laced vodka. Rasputin drank it and finished the bottle. Then the conspirators rushed out, emptied a revolver into him, beat him with chains and heavy silver candlesticks, rolled him up in a rug and stuffed him into the ice clogged Neva River.<br /> The official coroner's report said he had drowned. Shortly before his death, Rasputin wrote a letter to the Czar saying that 'if the peasants, my brothers, kill me, then you, Czar of Russia, have nothing to fear. But if your relatives kill me, not you nor any one of your family will remain alive longer than two years." Rasputin's prediction was off by just four months. Nicholas II, and his 400 year old dynasty fell ten weeks later. The Czar and his family were murdered in July 1918.<br /> In 1965 CBS produced a TV movie The Murder of Rasputin, where they theorized that Yusupov murdered the monk because he seduced his wife. Imagine their surprise when elderly Count Yusupov showed up in NY and sued them. He won $800,000 and died in 1967.<br /> <br /> 1933- In Romania liberal premier Ion Duca was assassinated by the pro-fascist Iron Guard. In 1940 the Iron Guards leader General Ion Antonescu deposed King Carol II and established a dictatorship allied to Hitler.<br /> <br /> 1936- The Great General Motors Strike. The strike was violent and tied up steel, rubber tires and other manufactures for months. United Auto Workers invent the first "sit-down" strike at the Fisher Body Plant in Flint, Mich. "When they tie a can to the Union man-Sit Down, Sit Down! When the Boss won't talk, don't take a walk- Sit Down, Sit Down !"<br /> <br /> 1940- The Arroyo-Seco, the first L.A. Freeway, opened by Mayor Fletchor Bowron, connecting downtown and Pasadena. Today called the Pasadena Freeway 110. (interstate U.S. route 66 was in 1932, and The Imperial Highway opened in 1936.)<br /> <br /> 1944- Manhattan Project director Gen. Leslie Groves had a secret meeting with FDR at the White House. Groves told the President the two "cosmic super bombs" (Atom Bombs) they were building would end the war. The reason they were making two was one was uranium based, and the other was plutonium based, and they weren’t sure which one would work. <br /> Franklin Roosevelt asked Groves that one immediately be dropped on Berlin to stop the Battle of the Bulge and kill Hitler. But Groves argued these A-bombs hadn’t been tested yet. He worried that if the bomb was a dud, the Germans were smart enough to take it apart and build their own from the fissionable material, which they might shoot in a V-2 at London. The atomic bomb wasn’t tested until July 1945. By then, Hitler was dead, and the war in Europe was over.<br /> <br /> 1941- “I Vant to be Alone..” Film Star Greta Garbo announced she was retiring from motion pictures and all public appearances. "When I was just a little child, as early as I can remember, I have wanted to be alone. I detest crowds … don't like many people." She made her disappearing act complete and was only seen fleeting on the streets of her New York neighborhood until her death in 1990. Friends said she watched a lot of television and loved The Flintstones, and Hollywood Squares.<br /> <br /> 1947- Under the eye of the occupying Soviet Army, King Michael of Romania abdicated and a Communist government was voted into power.<br /> <br /> 1963- T.V. game show "Let's Make a Deal" with Monty Hall premieres.<br /> <br /> 1965- Ferdinand Marcos became president of the Philippines.<br /> <br /> 1971- Daniel Ellsberg was indicted for leaking the Pentagon Papers to the press.<br /> <br /> 1988- Col. Oliver North, on trial for the Iran Contra Scandal, subpoenaed former President Ronald Reagan and President-elect George H. W. Bush. President Bush declined and Reagan testified on videotape. <br /> <br /> 1988- the Pixar short Tin Toy released in theaters. The first CG short to win an Oscar. (Luxo Jr. was nominated but did not win.) Pixar’s first feature film Toy Story initially began as an attempt to capitalize on the success of Tin Toy, as a TV special. Tinny’s Xmas.<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Who coined the catchphrase “By Any Means Necessary”?<br /> <br /> Answer: Malcolm X.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 29 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6345 <p>Quiz: Who coined the catchphrase “ By Any Means Necessary”?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: In Dicken’s Christmas Carol, how many ghosts appear to Scrooge?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/29/2023<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Flavius Titus, Pablo Casals, Madame de Pompadour, Andrew Johnson, Charles Goodyear, Gelsey Kirkland, Dina Merrill, Tom Bradley, Mary Tyler Moore, Ray Nitschke, Viveca Lindfors, Ed Flanders, Ted Danson is 76, Marianne Faithful is 77, Paula Poundstone, Jon Voight is 85, Jude Law is 51, Patricia Clarkson, Animator Duncan Marjoribanks is 70.<br /> <br /> 1172- ST. THOMAS BECKET murdered. A debate that raged throughout the Europe in the Middle Ages was whether the Church could boss around Kings or visa-versa. <br /> In England when a vacancy opened up for Archbishop of Canterbury, King Henry II arranged to get his old drinking bud, Sir Thomas Beckett elected. However Beckett took his new job so seriously he became the English Church’ strongest champion. <br /> On this night, King Henry was so fed up with Beckett that he shouted at his court:" Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?" Two of Henry's dumber knights took this as a hint and went over to Canterbury and stabbed the Archbishop while at prayers. The Pope excommunicated Henry and placed England under the Writ of Interdict, which meant no English priest could administer baptism, marriage or last rites to anyone. They even took down the church bells so you didn’t know what time it was. King Henry apologized and did penance, even allowing himself to be whipped, and Beckett was made a Saint.<br /> <br /> 1566- Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe got into an argument with another scientist named Manderup Parsbjerg and they reached for their swords. During the duel, Tycho got his nose cut off. He thereafter he wore a gold cup over the scar, held in place with glue. He eventually reconciled with Parsbjerg, to whom he was distantly related.<br /> <br /> 1776- George Washington marched his minutemen back to the old Trenton battlefield, scene of their victory of four days before. There he praised them, then begged, pleaded and cajoled them not to go home now that their enlistments were up. Washington announced to the press that all his men had rejoined the colors, but in a private letter to Congress he admitted only about half were staying. <br /> <br /> 1837- THE CAROLINE INCIDENT. A minor rebellion against England had broken out in Canada led by William Lyon Mackenzie. This day on the American side of the Niagara river a ship full of supplies destined for the rebels called the Caroline was attacked by Canadian loyalist militia. They set fire to the Caroline and pushed it over Niagara Falls. The incident caused tensions between the U.S. and British governments. Mackenzie’s Rising was put down, and his grandson became Canadian Prime Minister.<br /> <br /> 1845- Texas became a U.S. state.<br /> <br /> 1851- In 1844 the Young Men’s Christian Association or YMCA opened in London. An American named Thomas Sullivan was inspired by this idea and brought it home to Boston. This day the first American YMCA meeting was held in the Old South Church. The idea soon spread across the United States..<br /> <br /> 1851- Lola Montez dances on tour in America. Lola Montez was originally an Irish lass named Betty James who re-invented herself as an Argentine flamenco dancer. She was famous for her “Tarantula Dance”. Lola became mistress to King Ludwig I of Bavaria, the second largest kingdom in Germany. Officially he claimed all they did was read the Bible together. Privately he admitted she was exceedingly talented with her…uh,.. muscles.<br /> King Ludwig was so besotted with Lola Montez that he bankrupted his kingdom for her. Anybody who dared criticize her was horsewhipped. Finally, Ludwig was overthrown and Lola fled the country. She did dancing and lecture tours to support herself, and even published books on beauty secrets. She died a social worker in New York in 1861, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery. Her ghost is sometimes seen on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.<br /> <br /> 1890- WOUNDED KNEE- The last battle of the Indian Wars. The US government reacted violently to the Ghost Dance Movement then sweeping Sioux reservations. But the Ghost Dance was not calling for an actual rebellion against the US. Ghost dancers believed if they danced with the spirits of their ancestors the white man would go away. <br /> But to the US Department of the Interior even a metaphysical rebellion is rebellion enough. Sitting Bull was arrested and killed. The army was sent to Wounded Knee reservation to demand a disarming of a few braves. When shooting broke out, the army opened up with modern rapid firing cannon and rifles. To 30 US casualties 300 Sioux, mostly women and children were killed. Reports abound of troops shooting the survivors. They left the bodies where they fell until after Jan. 1. Ironically the army unit was from the Seventh Cavalry, and soldiers considered it the revenge of Custer.<br /> <br /> 1913- Cecil B. DeMille had been sent to the West by his New York partners to scout out a possible place to move to escape Edison's Patents Trust.<br /> After scouting several cities with year round sunshine, this day C.B. telegraphed his partners back in New York:” Flagstaff no good for our purpose. Have proceeded to California. Want authority to rent a barn in a place called Hollywood for $75 a month.” His partner Sam Goldwyn cabled back: “ Rent barn on month to month basis. Do not make long commitment.” DeMille began shooting the Squaw Man, the first official Hollywood Film.<br /> <br /> 1916-James Joyce’s novel “the Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” published.<br /> <br /> 1939- Scientist William Shockley first noted in his laboratory notebook that it should be possible to replace vacuum tubes with something called a semi-conductor. Eight years later he led the team that developed the transistor.<br /> <br /> 1940- After a one week truce for Christmas, this night the Luftwaffe did one of their biggest raids of the Blitz. They firebombed London, causing 1500 fires. At one point they hit St. Paul's Cathedral. CBS correspondent Edgar R. Murrow achieved fame by standing on a rooftop and reporting live on the radio, even as the bombs exploded around him.<br /> <br /> 1941- Disney animator Bill Tytla told Time Magazine in an interview about creating "Dumbo": "I don't know a damn thing about elephants!"<br /> <br /> 1946- Milt Caniff published his last Terry and the Pirates comic strip. Caniff moved on to begin his Steve Canyon strip, which he had better ownership of. <br /> <br /> 1950- Congress passed the Celler-Kefhauver Act, which sought to reign in global companies mega-mergers. It was the last major piece of legislation to try and regulate corporate monopolies in the U.S. <br /> <br /> 1964- The first transistorized hearing aid.<br /> <br /> 1964 – To create the first pilot of the TV series Star Trek, the original model of the U.S.S. Enterprise was delivered by model maker Rick Datin, Jr, based on the design created by Star Trek production artist Walter “Matt” Jefferies. The “miniature” was 11 feet long!<br /> <br /> 1965- First day shooting on Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was an indoor set at Elstree Studios in England, and the first setup was the inspection of the excavation of the Monolith in the moon crater Tycho.<br /> <br /> 1967- The Star Trek episode The Trouble with Tribbles first aired.<br /> <br /> 1968- Animator Bill Tytla died at age 64, from complications of a stroke. He had several strokes over the previous six years.<br /> <br /> 1972- LIFE Magazine ended publication.<br /> <br /> 1974- While staying at the Polynesian Village in Disneyworld Florida, John Lennon signed the last papers dissolving the Beatles. The band had broken up in 1970, but it took four more years to unravel all of their vast financial holdings. The other three members had already signed.<br /> <br /> 1975- Euell Gibbons, early natural foods advocate, died of a stomach ailment.<br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: In Dicken’s Christmas Carol, how many ghosts appear to Scrooge?<br /> <br /> Answer: There are the four who speak to him and show him his life, and the many outside his window who are damned souls, and the shades of everyone he sees in his past vision. The Four guide ghosts were his former partner Jacob Marley, The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future. (Thanks NB)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 28 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6344 <p>Quiz: In Dicken’s Christmas Carol, how many ghosts appear to Scrooge?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is a jalopy?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/28/2023<br /> birthdays: Woodrow Wilson, Robert Sessions, Earl "Fatha" Hines, Hildegarde Neff, Edgar Winter, Stan Lee, Martin Branner the creator of Winnie Winkle, Johnny Otis, Martin Milner (1-Adam-12), Lew Ayres, Lou Jacobi, Terri Garber, Denzel Washington is 69, Maggie Smith is 89, Sienna Miller is 42, Rick Farmiloe is 67<br /> <br /> Feast of the Innocents-commemorates the Massacre of the Innocents. King Herod the Great had navigated the kingdom of Israel through the Roman Civil Wars and used his friendship with Augustus to gain favorable status within the empire. But as he grew elderly he became increasingly paranoid. He even executed one of his own sons who he thought was plotting against him. So, when he was told a king was born in Nazareth, he ordered all the first born of that town slain. This is what made Joseph and Mary flee to Egypt. <br /> In Latin American countries this is a kind of April Fools Day, the victim of a practical joke being proclaimed an "innocent".<br /> <br /> 1065- English King Edward the Confessor dedicated a new abbey church west of London. Since in those days a church was also called a minster, it was known as the West-minster Abbey. (St. Pauls is the East-minster). King Edward himself was too sick to attend the ceremony and died a few days later.<br /> <br /> 1598- The troupe of actors called The Lord Chamberlains Men was tired of negotiating with their landlord who held the lease on Richard Burbage’s theatre at Blackheath. Burbage was dead and they suspected the landlord had other plans for the property. So this night the actors moved through the snow and slowly dismantled the theatre and reassembled the pieces on the Southbank of the Thames. The completed theatre was christened the New Globe Theatre, where many of William Shakespeare’s greatest works premiered. And Will was one of those actors.<br /> <br /> 1694- Queen Mary II of England, one half of the husband &amp; wife team William &amp; Mary, died at age 32. She had helped her Protestant Dutch husband overthrow her Catholic father King James II.<br /> <br /> 1734- ROB ROY- Scottish nationalist guerrilla Robert McGregor, called Rob Roy, died peacefully of old age in his cottage in the Highlands. Made famous by Sir Walter Scot’s novel about him, he spent his last hours making peace with former enemies. His last wish was for a bagpiper to be brought into his room and pipe a tune as he passed away. Hoot-Man!<br /> <br /> 1793- Thomas Paine, philosopher of the American Revolution, was arrested by Robespierre's Reign of Terror in Paris. English born Paine was kind of an eighteenth century Che Guevarra. He went to Paris to help spread revolution. The American ambassador, Elbridge Gerry, hated Tom, so he took his sweet time about getting him out of the guillotine's shadow. But with the diplomatic pressure of James Monroe he eventually convinced the Revolutionary authorities to release him. While in prison in the Luxembourg Palace, Tom Paine wrote the Age of Reason and had a love affair with pretty inmate Murial Alette, who was arrested for being the mistress of an aristocrat.<br /> <br /> 1832- Southern states rights advocate John C. Calhoun resigned as Vice President under Andrew Jackson. Calhoun felt “King Andrew” was going to betray the South and force them to give up slavery. Calhoun continued on in government as senator from South Carolina. He was the first sitting Vice President ever to resign, but not the last.<br /> <br /> 1846- Iowa becomes a state.<br /> <br /> 1847- Peace Conference of Guadalupe Hidalgo began to try to end the U.S war with Mexico. Diplomat Nicholas Trist was given the tricky assignment of alone seeking out the Mexican authorities, although their government structure was in chaos at the time, and convincing them to sign away half their national territory while hostile American armies roamed their heartland. <br /> <br /> 1869- CHEWING GUM- William Semple and Thomas Adams of Mt. Vernon Ohio received a patent for chewing gum. Since early times frontiersmen and Indians had the habit of chewing on a piece of pine resin or sap. A 9,000 year old chewed piece of gum was found in Sweden in a glacier in 1993. As early as 1842 Charles Curtis was selling spruce chewing gum from his home in Bangor Maine.<br /> In 1869 a Staten Island photographer named Thomas Adams made friends with exiled Mexican dictator Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, he of The Alamo fame. Adams noticed the old general didn’t smoke, but he liked to chew a plug of tree sap he called “Chicle”. It was an ancient custom, going back to the Mayans. Adams took the chicle and put a candy shell around it, and became rich on the invention of Gum Balls. Santa Anna hoped the invention would finance his return to power in Mexico City but that never occurred. Gumball machines appeared in 1918, Bubble Gum in 1928.<br /> <br /> 1895- THE BIRTHDAY OF CINEMA- In Paris at the Grande Cafe des Capucines the Lumiere brothers combined Edison's kinetoscope using George Eastman’s roll film with a magic lantern projector and showed a motion picture to an audience in a theater. Back in the U.S. Thomas Edison thought the idea of projecting film in a theater was foolish and would never catch on. They called their device a Cinematograph, hence the word Cinema is born. The screening included dancers and people leaving a factory but the biggest reaction out of the audience was from shots of waves crashing on a rocky beach. The audience in the front row jumped for fear of getting wet. <br /> <br /> 1896- THE JAMESON RAID- The German-Dutch Boers of the Transvaal had led a quasi-independent status in South Africa that annoyed British Empire builders like Sir Cecil Rhodes, the DeBeers diamond millionaire who had created the nation of Rhodesia, today called Zimbabwe. "I am not religious, but I always felt God would like me to paint all of Africa in the colors of the Union Jack." Cecil Rhodes financed a freelance military coup by 70 pro-British mercenaries led by his right hand man Col. Jameson. The attack failed and embarrassed the British Government. The German public was outraged at the bald arrogance of the attempt while the British called Jameson a hero. The tensions aggravated by the incident would result in the Boer War two years later and eventually the First World War and the independence of South Africa. In retrospect Winston Churchill said that the decline of the British Empire may have begun with the Jameson Raid.<br /> <br /> 1897- Edmond Rostands famous play Cyrano de Bergerac premiered in Paris. There really lived a poet-duelist in the 1640’s named Cyrano de Bergerac-Servigan but little was known about him. Rostand created the hopelessly lovesick big nosed hero who helps another man romance his girlfriend Roxanne. <br /> <br /> 1908- A massive earthquake devastates Messina Sicily and causes a tsunami tidal wave that causes more destruction in Sicily and the Calabrian coast. More than 100,000 died. It was the largest quake recorded in Europe, an estimated 7.5 on the Richter scale.<br /> <br /> 1928- Last recording of Ma Rainey, The Mother of the Blues.<br /> <br /> 1941- Paramount Pictures called Max Fleischer to their business offices in New York. There they told him his contract with the studio would not be renewed and he was fired. Paramount had seized direct control of Max Fleischer Productions in May and put Max and Dave on notice. Dave Fleischer took the hint and left around Thanksgiving. Max was probably holding out that if Hoppity Goes to Town was a hit he might still work out an accommodation. But such was not to be.<br /> <br /> 1944- On The Town, a musical written by Betty Comden &amp; Adolf Green and young composer Leonard Bernstein premiered in NY.<br /> <br /> 1945- In Los Angeles, Russian composer Igor Stravinsky and his wife became U.S. citizens. Actor Edward G. Robinson was his friend and witness.<br /> <br /> 1948- Mahmud Nokrashi-Pasha the Prime Minister of Egypt was assassinated.<br /> <br /> 1950- The first stretch of the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles was dedicated.<br /> <br /> 1951- The British film A Christmas Carol with the memorable performance of Alastair Sim as Scrooge premiered in the USA. <br /> <br /> 1958- Cuban Communist forces under Che Guevara won the Battle of Santa Clara. It was a decisive battle in Fidel Castro's campaign to overthrow the dictator Fulgensio Batista. Today the remains of both Fidel Castro and Che Guevara rest in Santa Clara.<br /> <br /> 1963-Happy 60th Birthday the Daleks. In the first season of the BBC TV show Dr. Who, this day Dr. Who first met the Daleks.<br /> <br /> 1968- The Beatles White Album goes to number one on the pop charts.<br /> <br /> 1973-Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s book “The Gulag Archipelago” first published in Paris. The exposing of the Soviet prison camp system was a great success in the west. It gave the word for prison camp-“Gulag” into popular parlance.<br /> <br /> 1973- Pres. Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law. It saved animals like Bald Eagles, American Buffalo, Grizzly Bears and Gray Whales from extinction.<br /> <br /> 1983- Dennis Wilson was the original drummer of the Beach Boys, but he had a pretty bad drinking and drug habit. He was once friendly with the Manson Family. <br /> Taking time off from rehab for Christmas he and some friends sat on a yacht doing more drugs and booze near Marquesas Pier. Wilson recalled this very spot was where after breaking up with his first wife he threw her mementos overboard. He wondered if he could get them back and started “pearl-diving “, i.e.-diving holding your breath without any scuba equipment. But being stoned, he miscalculated the depth and drowned.<br /> Dennis Wilson was 37. Of all the Beach Boys he was the only one who liked to surf.<br /> <br /> 1987- The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles premiered.<br /> _________________________________________<br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is a jalopy?<br /> <br /> Answer: A jalopy is a beat-up old car that somehow still managed to run. Usually when teenagers could acquire an old Model T Ford cheaply.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 27 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6343 <p>Question: What is a jalopy?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: What does it mean when you say “The Jig is Up?<br /> =============================================================-<br /> History for 12/27/2023<br /> Birthdays: Johannes Kepler, Linwood Dunn, Marlene Dietrich, Louis Pasteur, Oscar Levant, Sidney Greenstreet, Anna Russell, Dr. William Masters of Masters &amp; Johnson, Leslie Maguire, John Amos, Tovah Feldshuh, Heather O’Rourke, Cokie Roberts, Bollywood star Salman Khan, Gerard Depardieu is 76<br /> <br /> In Bhutan- Happy Day of the Nine Evils.<br /> <br /> Feast Day of Saint John the Apostle.<br /> <br /> 1784- Francis Asbury was ordained the first Bishop of the Methodist Church in America.<br /> <br /> 1820- John Quincy Adams wrote a friend that he was sad that Washington DC didn’t have any good monuments yet. It could use one to George Washington and a cathedral like Westminster Abbey. If John Q. could only see DC today, it’s a rock garden of statuary. <br /> <br /> 1831- Charles Darwin sets sail for the Pacific on board the HMS Beagle. The observations he made of exotic species while on this voyage formed the basis of his theories on evolution and natural selection.<br /> <br /> 1869- RIEL'S REBELLION- The Red River wilderness of Manitoba were home to French-Indian trappers called the Metis. When the Hudson's Bay Company turned their jurisdiction over to the British Empire and English protestant surveyors and settlers began to arrive, the Catholic Metis banded together and declared independence. <br /> <br /> On this day they proclaimed Louis Riel "President of the Provisional Republic of Prince Rupertland and the Northwest Frontier"! They had a militia and newspaper-the New Nation. Louis Riel convened the first bi-lingual non-sectarian parliament. At this time the Governor General of Canada was still referring to his French and Indian subjects as 'Un-Britons '. <br /> The U.S. State Department seriously considered recognizing the Metis to curb British-Canadian expansion to the Pacific, but ultimately decided to stay neutral. In summer 1870 when a British army paddled in bateaux up stream to attack Riel at Ft. Gary (present day Winnipeg), The Metis Republic dissolved and Riel fled across the border. Louis Riel returned in 1885 lead an uprising in Saskatchewan but was finally caught and executed.<br /> <br /> 1887- Beginning of the Sherlock Holmes story, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.<br /> <br /> 1892- In New York City, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine started construction (and is still not finished..) The largest Gothic nave in the world, work was stopped during the Depression and resumed in the 1970s. Part of the problem re-starting construction was finding some Gothic medieval-style stonemasons who were willing to re-locate. <br /> <br /> 1900- Temperance crusader Carrie Nation staged her first public axe attack on a saloon, the bar at the Carey Hotel in Witchita, Kansas. She shattered a large mirror behind the bar and threw rocks at a titillating picture of Cleopatra nude bathing. She called her actions not vandalism, but “hatchetation”.<br /> <br /> 1903- The Barbershop Quartet standard “Sweet Adeline” sung for the first time. It was written in praise of opera star Adelina Patti.<br /> <br /> 1904- PETER PAN, OR, THE BOY WHO WOULDN’T GROW UP, a play by James M. Barrie, opened at the Duke of York Theatre in London. Barrie reserved seats in the opening night performance for orphaned children who laughed and cheered all night.He placed the kids all amongst the London theatre critics. Michael Llewelyn Davies, the little boy Barrie befriended who was the basis for Pan, used to say:” I am not Peter Pan. Mr Barrie is.” Barrie stipulated in his will that all monies earned from the play go to the Great St. Ormond Street Home for Boys, where he was raised. Peter Pan also made the name Wendy popular for girls. Barrie said he got from “Fwendy-Wendy” a nickname he had in the home. J. M. Barrie once said to H.G. Wells:” It’s all right and good to write books, but can you wiggle your ears?”<br /> <br /> 1927-"ShowBoat" debuted at the Ziegfeld theater. Based on a novel by Edna Ferber, the musical was written by Jerome Kern &amp; Oscar Hammerstein. The play was written for black baritone Paul Robeson but he could not appear in it until 1932.” Ol’ Man River” became his signature song.<br /> <br /> 1934- The Shah declared the country known as Persia would now be called Iran.<br /> <br /> 1935- Radio City Music Hall opened. The Art Deco masterpiece was for many years the largest indoor theater in the world, seating over 6,000. <br /> <br /> 1940- Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler announced their separation.<br /> <br /> 1942-THE SMOLENSK COMMITTEES- The Nazis began a recruiting campaign in the vast camps of Russian POWs to set up an Anti-Communist Russian Army. They had good results the previous April recruiting among the Soviet-hating nationalist Cossack groups of the Don, Tartar, Kuban and the Ukraine. These men hated Stalin worse than Hitler, so they signed up. Anti-Communist Russian armies eventually numbered as high as 100,000 men under their generals Vlasov, Komorov and Bach-Zelewski. After the war they tried to surrender to the Americans but by secret agreement with Moscow, they were all repatriated to Russia. Most were executed or died in Stalin’s labor camps.<br /> <br /> 1943- The movie The Song of Bernadette premiered.<br /> <br /> 1945- Eleven nations signed the Bretton Woods agreement creating the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.<br /> <br /> 1945- Korea had been a Japanese colony since 1910. After Japan’s defeat in WW2 Russia and America agreed to divide occupied Korea into two parts along the 38th parallel, and administer it for 5 years until regulated elections could decide the peninsula’s future. That never happened, because before the five year time limit was up North Korea and South Korea had each set up rival governments. The division stands to this day.<br /> <br /> 1947- “ Hey Kids, What Time is It?” The "Howdy-Doody Show” debuted on NBC. Buffalo Bob, Howdy and Clarabell the Clown, also known as the Puppet Playhouse. The live audience of children ws called the Peanut Gallery. Gumby was debuted on the show in 1957.<br /> <br /> 1949- Happy Indonesian Independence Day.<br /> <br /> 1951- The Crosley car goes into service for the post office in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is the funny little jeep with the steering wheel on the right side, so the mail deliverer didn’t have to get out of his vehicle to reach every curbside mailbox.<br /> <br /> 1968- Apollo 8 landed safely on Earth after being the first ship to reach the Moon and come back. The brought back spectacular photos of the Earth from space. One of the three astronauts was also the first to barf in deep space, but they aren’t saying which.<br /> <br /> 1978- King Juan Carlos ratified Spain’s first democratic constitution in 50 years. <br /> <br /> 1985- Terrorists organized by Abu Nidal open fire in airports in Vienna and Rome. Sixteen tourists killed. When White House aide Oliver North was giving testimony about the Iran Contra Scandal he fixated upon the threat posed by Abu Nidal as though it was his personal vendetta. In 2001 while the world was distracted by the events of 9-11, Saddam Hussein’s police quietly arrested and executed Abu Nidal in Baghdad.<br /> <br /> 2007- Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. She had been leading the opposition to the government of General Pervhez Musharraf.<br /> <br /> 2016- Actress-screenwriter Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia in Star Wars), died of cardiac arrest due to sleep apnea while flying from London to Los Angeles. She stopped breathing 15 minutes to landing. The coroner’s report said it was cardiac arrest/deferred. She was 60. Her mother Debbie Reynolds had a stroke and died the next day at age 84.<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s question: What does it mean when you say “The Jig is Up?<br /> <br /> Answer: From an old Elizabethan slang for the completion of a lively dance. It came to mean your plans have been found out or foiled. The Dance is Over.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 26 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6342 <p>Today’s Quiz: What does it mean when you say “The Jig is Up?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: Sword &amp; Fantasy stories since Robert Howard created Conan spoke of lands called Thule or Ultima Thule. Did such a place ever exist?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/26/2023<br /> Birthdays: The Persian prophet Zoroaster (1,000BC), Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen, Mao Zedong, Charles Babbage, Admiral Dewey, Richard Widmark, Steve Allen, Henry Miller, Carlton Fisk, Chris Chambliss, Alan King, Phil Spector, Fred Schepsi, Jared Leto is 51<br /> <br /> St. Stephen’s Day- “Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the Feast of Stephen…” Wenceslas I of Bohemia (Svaty’ Vaclav in Czech) was a chieftain of the West Slavs 907AD-937. When Czechs accepted Christianity, part of the deal was that they would make their national hero Wenceslas a Saint. The English Christmas carol was written in 1853 by Thomas Helmore and John Mason Neal. Neal adapted it from a collection of Christmas tales from other lands.<br /> First Day of the Kwanza Festival. Kwanza is from the Swahili words “Matunda ya kwanzaa” meaning “first fruits” of the harvest. See below-1966. In the Middle Ages this was the Feast Day of the Pagan god Jul, when good Guildsmen would gather in their Guild Halls to eat themselves sick and drink themselves silly. Then in a total stupor they would swear oaths on their patron saints to stick by and protect each other in the New Year. Churchmen bristled at the licentious nature of the festival and tried to ban it, but there was no stopping a good crazy party. Nobody really knew who the pagan god Jul was, just that it was fun to see the priests get so annoyed.<br /> <br /> 527AD- HAGIA SOPHIA- The Byzantine Emperor Justinian dedicated the newly completed basilica the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople in a grand ceremony. Sometimes called St. Sophia, the real name was not for this saint. It is Greek for The Holy Wisdom or Creative Logos, in other words, God himself. It was then the biggest Church in the world, surmounted by a great dome. Emperor Justinian walked alone to the altar and raised his arms up to heaven:” Glory be to God who has thought me worthy to accomplish so great a work. Solomon, I have vanquished thee!” He was referring to Solomon’s great temple in Jerusalem. <br /> Centuries later when Byzantine Empire was conquered by the Turks and Constantinople’s name was changed to Istanbul, the Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque and four complimentary minarets were added to it’s design. <br /> <br /> 795 AD- Leo III became Pope. He is the pope who made Dec 25th the official day to celebrate Christmas.<br /> <br /> 1492- Columbus founded the first European settlement in the New World on the beach on San Salvador. He called it La Natividad because it was founded on Christmas. 1522- The Siege of Rhodes ends. Turkish Sultan Sulieman the Magnificent occupied the island after the Knights of St. John agreed to evacuate to the island of Malta. <br /> <br /> 1776- THE BATTLE OF TRENTON- George Washington was desperate for a victory against a huge British Army that had chased him from New York. He crossed the Delaware and at dawn surprise attacked a Hessian regiment while they were still waking up from their Christmas hangovers. As the dazed Hessians ran out of their barracks and tried to form a battle line, Washington positioned his troops so they would be have to face into a snowstorm. <br /> The Americans captured 1,000 Hessians to just 4 casualties, and killed their commander Colonel Johann Rall. Just before the fatal musket ball hit him, Colonel Rall said to his aide: “Fuck! A bunch of country clowns cannot beat us!” <br /> Because part of his army got lost in the dark, Washington couldn’t hold Trenton and had to retreat. But the news of the rebel attack made other British units fall back to the Atlantic Coast. <br /> This was the first true offensive action of the American Army in the Revolutionary War. Back in occupied New York City, British commander Lord Howe, when hearing the news, exclaimed:” It seems inconceivable that three venerable old regiments made up of men who make war their profession, should lay down their arms to a rabble of ragged, undisciplined farmers!”<br /> <br /> 1799- While Washington DC was still being built. at Zion Lutheran Church in Philadelphia this day was the state memorial service in honor of George Washington, who had died two weeks ago. Former General Richard Henry “Lighthorse Harry” Lee, eulogized Washington as “First in War. First in Peace, First in the Hearts of his Countrymen.” All of the US government was there, except President John Adams. Adams was still annoyed with him.<br /> <br /> XIX Century England- Today was Boxing Day, a Victorian tradition where you boxed up the leftovers of your Christmas dinner and gave them to the poor. <br /> 1825- Nicholas I, the "Iron Czar" crushed the Russian democratic movement called "The Decembrists". 1860- In Charleston Harbor U.S. Major Robert Anderson found himself trying to hold government forts in a city seething with Southern hostility. South Carolina had just declared herself seceded from the United States, so just what was the status of U.S. Government military posts and arsenals? As a precaution, Major Anderson abandoned Fort Moultrie, and other strong points to consolidate his hold on Fort Sumter, a rock in the center of the bay. He then wrote to Washington for instructions. A tense standoff ensued until April when Southerners opened fire upon Fort Sumter. <br /> 1862- The largest mass execution in U.S. history. 38 Sioux warriors were hanged at Mankato, Minnesota. It was revenge for the Great Santee Sioux Uprising that had all Minnesota on fire that summer. The Governor of Minnesota had asked for 300 additional executions but President Abe Lincoln had manumitted all but these 38. As he ascended the scaffold, Sioux Chief Shackopee heard a train whistle. He remarked: “ As the White Man comes in, the Indian goes out.” <br /> <br /> 1865- James Nason of Massachusetts invented the coffee percolator.<br /> <br /> 1908- In Australia, Jack Johnson knocked out Canadian Tommy Burns in the 15th round to become the first African American heavyweight boxing champ. Jack Johnson held the heavyweight title until 1915. Jack Johnson’s flaunting of racist segregation laws drove mainstream America nuts. Johnson drove race cars, flashed gold teeth and openly dated white women. Later champion Muhammad Ali paid him tribute:” He did this all in the time of Jim Crow and Lynching. I was outspoken, but Jack Johnson was crazy!” <br /> <br /> 1909- Famous Western artist Frederick Remington died from an acute appendicitis operation that went badly. Today operations like that are routine and handled by anti-biotics, but back then no such drugs existed. He was 40.<br /> 1919- THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO- Boston Red Sox baseball owner Harry Frazier announced the trade of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for $126,000. The Yankees become champions and Boston believed Ruth cursed their team so they would never win another World Series, BoSox fans became obsessed with the curse story. They scoured a lake where Ruth supposedly pushed a family piano. A young man named Chris believed he helped break the curse. He lived in Ruth’s Boston home and during a 2004 game he was hit in the face with a pop fly ball, losing two teeth. He called it a Blood Sacrifice. The Boston Red Sox went on to win their first two World Series in 86 years and become a postseason power for years after. <br /> <br /> 1924- Baby Frances Gumm first appeared on a stage at 2 1/2 years old. Grown up she would change her name to Judy Garland. 1926- Young artist Al Hirschfeld had made his first caricature for the Broadway Stage. A drawing of actor Sasha Guitry. A friend took it to The New York Tribune and sold it. Al figured here's a nifty way to make a living, so soon he was selling to all the papers including the New York Times. <br /> Al would keep doing caricatures of Broadway greats into the millennium and became a legend himself. In the American Theater, a Hirschfeld caricature of you meant you had arrived and were a real star. His style influenced the look of Walt Disney’s animated classic Aladdin. At age 94 Al remarried and drew the cast of Ally McBeal for TV Guide. In 2003 he died just shy of age 100, drawing to the end.<br /> <br /> 1935- The premiere of the Warner Bros swashbuckler Captain Blood. Originally supposed to star Robert Donat, when he dropped out for health reasons, they cast a new actor, a debonair young rogue from Tasmania named Errol Flynn. The first teaming of Flynn, 19-year-old Olivia DeHaviland, director Michael Curtiz. Music by Eric Wolfgang Korngold. DeHaviland died in 2020 at age 104.<br /> <br /> 1938- Young playwright Thomas Williams moved from Saint Louis to New Orleans and changed his name to Tennessee Williams. 1939- Walt Disney Animation moved from Hyperion to the new Burbank Studio lot. The buildings are designed like hospital wards, so in case he hit economic trouble, Disney could sell them to the planned St. Joseph's Hospital across the street. Animator Ward Kimball said it was the first time he worked in a studio where all the furniture matched. The old Hyperion Studio was bulldozed in 1966, the year of Walt Disney’s death.<br /> <br /> 1941- Goofy cartoon, the Art of Self Defense, premiered.<br /> <br /> 1943- Battle of North Cape. British battleship the Duke of York sank the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst in the North Sea. Of 2000 crew on board only 36 survived. 1944- Patton's Third Army broke through to the besieged city of Bastogne. This marked the turning of the tide in the Battle of the Bulge<br /> <br /> 1944- Tennessee Williams play The Glass Menagerie premiered in Chicago.<br /> <br /> 1946- The Gala Opening day of the Flamingo Casino, the birth of modern Las Vegas. Mobster Bugsy Siegel's million-dollar gamble in the desert. Despite booking top talent like Jimmy Durante and Xavier Cugat, the promised Hollywood bigshots failed to materialize. The hotel part of the casino wasn't ready for guests yet, so the high rollers couldn't see making the long trip. A violent rainstorm kept still more people away. Also the casinos formal dress code discouraged the locals who liked to gamble in cowboy hats and blue jeans. Bugsy had to close down until the hotel was completed in March, $4 million in the red. <br /> The Flamingo Casino eventually made a profit but not before the Mob riddled Bugsy Siegel with bullets, and cut the throat of the hotel’s manager, Moe Greenberg.<br /> <br /> 1956- The premiere of the Japanese monster movie Rodan. Released in Japan as Radon the Sky Monster. The name comes from a flying dinosaur called a Pteranodon.<br /> <br /> 1963- The death of Gorgeous George Wagner, the first pro wrestler to adopt a flamboyant character.<br /> <br /> 1966- The first Kwanzaa Festival was organized by African studies professor Dr Marulanga Karenga at Cal State Long Beach to celebrate African-American culture.<br /> <br /> 1973- The horror film The Exorcist starring Linda Blair premiered. Merry Christmas! Have some pea soup!<br /> <br /> 1979- The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The Moslem fundamentalist tribesmen called Mujahadin, who hadn’t submitted to any foreign conqueror since Alexander the Great, began a ten year long guerrilla war that became the Russian Vietnam. The Russians quit Afghanistan in 1989 and the USA quit in 2021 with the same result.<br /> <br /> 1985- Gorillas in the Mist author and ape anthropologist Diane Fossey was murdered by machete in her lab in Africa.<br /> <br /> 1985- Ford introduced the Taurus motorcar.<br /> <br /> 1991- The crucial vote in the Supreme Soviet to dissolve the Soviet Union and create the Federation of Russian States.<br /> <br /> 2003- As part of a promotion for a NJ Islanders-NY Rangers Hockey Game the Nassau Coliseum invited all the fans dressed as Santa Claus to parade on the ice. As the hundreds of Santas marched on to the rink several opened their coats to reveal they were actually Rangers supporters. The Islander Santas objected, some shoving ensued and pretty soon the Nassau Coliseum was packed with fist-fighting Santas.<br /> <br /> 2004-TSUNAMI- One of the strongest earthquakes 9.1, recorded in the last 100 years hit the Indian Ocean. The earthquake sent giant tidal waves covering the coastlines of Sumatra, Thailand, the Maldives and Sri Lanka, killing over 215,000. Whole beach communities were swept away without warning. Poor fisherman to wealthy vacationers like a Victoria Secret model had to run for their lives.<br /> ===========================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Sword &amp; Fantasy stories since Robert Howard created Conan spoke of lands called Thule or Ultima Thule. Did such a place ever exist?<br /> <br /> Answer: In ancient times people believed the world had a finite edge you could sail off. The Greeks and Romans called that extreme northern border of Europe (Denmark?) Thule, and the edge of the world Ultima Thule. They were probably referring to the Orkney Islands or Iceland.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 25 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6341 <p>Quiz: Sword &amp; Fantasy stories since Robert Howard created Conan spoke of lands called Thule or Ultima Thule. Did such a place ever exist?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: Who was Zoroaster?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/25/2023 Christmas Day<br /> <br /> Birthdays: (observed) Emanuel Ben Joseph or Yesuah. Called in Greek Jesus the Christ, 6-4 BC (est) <br /> <br /> Other Birthdays: Sir Isaac Newton, Clara Barton, Humphrey Bogart, Cab Calloway, Helena Rubinstein, Rod Serling, Charles Pathe’, Jimmie Buffet, Quentin Crisp, Mike Mazurki, Conrad Hilton- Paris’ granddad, Anwar El Sadat. Larry Csonka, Burne Hogarth, Ishmail Merchant, Maurice Utrillo, Kid Ory, Barbara Mandrell, Dame Rebecca West, Clark Clifford, Annie Lennox is 69, Sissie Spacek is 74, CCH Pounder is 71, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, animator Howard Beckerman is 93.<br /> <br /> Today is Constitution Day in Republic of China/Taiwan, and <br /> Taisho Tenno-Sai (Anniversary of Death of Emperor Taisho) in Japan<br /> <br /> 272 A.D. To the Ancient Romans this date was the feast day of SOL INVICTUS, the "Invincible Sun", a hybrid religion popular just before Christianity that attempted an early form of monotheism, worship of the sun. The Roman Emperor Constantine, whose conversion lifted the ban on Christianity, was originally a devotee.<br /> <br /> 495 A.D.- Clovis, first King of the Franks (French), was baptized. St. Remi said while pouring the Holy water on the old barbarian's head:" Kneel Sicambrian, and Adore what thou once had Burned: and Burn what thou once hath Adored."<br /> <br /> 800AD- In old Saint Peters Basilica in Rome, Charlemagne knelt in prayer with Pope Leo III celebrating the Christmas feast. The King of the Franks had just come over the Alps to defeat the threat to the Vatican from the Lombards. During the service, Pope Leo whipped out a big jeweled crown and plopped it on Charlemagne’s head. The audience cried out three times in unison the ancient formula: "HAIL CHARLES THE AUGUSTUS, CROWNED BY GOD, THE GREAT EMPEROR OF THE ROMANS!" Charles had said he did not want the Imperial crown and was surprised, but nobody believed such an important step was taken without his prior knowledge. Charlemagne ruled a European Empire almost as large as the Old Roman Empire, from Spain to Hungary, and Denmark to Sicily. <br /> They called it the Holy Roman Empire, although as Voltaire once observed, it wasn’t Roman, wasn’t much of an empire, and wasn’t very holy either…<br /> <br /> 885- Pope Gregory I formalized what Christians had already been doing for 500 years, namely celebrating the birth festival of Jesus or "Christ’s Mass", on December 25th. <br /> <br /> 1066- After the great victory of Hastings William the Conqueror had himself crowned King of England in London. Outside, when his nervous Norman knights heard the loud shouts of celebration, they mistook them for a Saxon uprising, drew their swords and attacked the crowd. They slaughtered many and burned down most of the neighborhood around Westminster Abbey.<br /> <br /> 1428- During the Hundred Years War, at the siege of the city of Orleans, a six hour truce was declared for Christmas. English warlords Sir William Gladsdale and Sir John Talbot expressed a wish to hear French music, so a band of French trumpeters serenaded them from the city walls.<br /> <br /> 1497-Natal South Africa discovered by Vasco da Gama. It was called Natal because it was discovered on Christmas.<br /> <br /> 1541- After the Christmas services, Michelangelo’s fresco The Last Judgment was unveiled, done for the Altar wall of the Sistine Chapel beneath his famous ceiling.<br /> <br /> 1734- Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio first performed at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. Bach pioneered writing sacred music in German instead of Latin or Italian. <br /> <br /> 1745- The Treaty of Dresden between Prussia and Austria.<br /> <br /> 1758- HALLEY’S COMET- Sixteen years after his death, the comet Sir Edmund Halley had predicted showed up right on schedule. This event was seen as significant because for centuries the random unexplained appearance of a fiery torch in the sky seemed to be a direct Tweet from God himself. Halley proved once and for all that comets were not supernatural omens of Fate. That they had an erratic orbit but were otherwise natural phenomena. Halley's Comet appeared last in 1986, and is scheduled to return in 2061.<br /> <br /> 1776- WASHINGTON CROSSES THE DELAWARE- The British army kicked George Washington's rebel ass out of New York and chased them across New Jersey. The British Navy controlled the coastline. Washington had lost every battle, lost Americas’ largest city and was about to lose his capitol. From 23,000 men in July, he now had just 4,000 cold, sulky scarecrows left. And now the soldier’s 6-month enlistments were up! Who would re-up with a defeated shambles of an army? Washington wrote his family advising them to flee to the Blue Ridge Mountains. The American Revolution was in danger of complete disintegration. <br /> Washington knew he had to do something fast or else it was all over. He drew a line in the snow, and begged the men for one more battle, appealing to their patriotism and the great cause of independence. The response was only a few men crossed the line to volunteer. Frustrated, Washington gave a second speech, the contents of which are hidden from history but eyewitnesses said was more to the point: Swearing, You just can’t wage war against the king and then go home! Followed by descriptions of how they would all hang, kept alive long enough to see their wives and daughters gang-raped by soldiers, etc. This time more men crossed the line. <br /> <br /> Washington spent this night ferrying his men across the Delaware at McKonkey’s Ferry to attack a Hessian regiment in their Christmas beds. The boatmen were all from one town, Marblehead Mass, under their Quaker leader John Glover.<br /> <br /> The famous painting, Emmanuel Leutze's "Washington Crossing the Delaware" was painted in Dusseldorf Germany in 1894. The painter omitted details like Washington sat all the way across, and there were two black men in the boat, Oliver Cromwell, the ships pilot, and Washington's personal bodyguard William Wallace.<br /> <br /> 1815- At a Christmas concert in Vienna, Beethoven premiered his NameDay Overture.<br /> <br /> 1836- According to the novel Moby Dick, today is the day the Pequod set sail from Natucket.<br /> <br /> 1855- Ice hockey first played in North America at Kingston, Ontario, Canada.<br /> <br /> 1868- President Andrew Johnson, a Tennessean who filled in for the murdered Abraham Lincoln and now a lame duck after losing reelection to war hero General Grant, declared a general amnesty from prosecution for all Southerners who fought for the Confederacy. He was planning to issue this pardon in February, remember then the Inauguration wasn’t until March, but the treason trial of former Confederate President Jefferson Davis was being urged in the courts. Johnson moved up the pardon because many were worried a smart lawyer like Davis would use the platform of a trial to prove there was indeed a constitutional basis for the Southern states seceding the union. <br /> <br /> 1869- In Towash Texas, John Wesley Hardin went into town for a friendly game of cards. He quarreled over the game with a man named Bradley. The two went out into the street to shoot it out in classic gunfighter style. Bradley’s shot missed. Hardin drilled him dead. John Wesley Hardin isn’t as well known as Jesses James or Wyatt Earp, but he was one of the deadliest gunfighters of the west. His business card read J. Wesley Hardin, Shootist.<br /> <br /> 1870- Siegfried Idyll, written by Richard Wagner as a birthday gift to his wife Cosima, was first performed by a small ensemble outside her door as she awoke this morning at their home in Lucerne Switzerland. <br /> <br /> 1914- During World War I, German and Scottish soldiers facing each other across the Western Front held a spontaneous Christmas truce. After midnight the German guns ceased and the sounds of Christmas Carols drifted over the barbed wire. The British and French responded with serenades from their regimental bands. At dawn without any official sanction or orders the soldiers of both sides came out of their trenches. In the middle of No-Man's Land they exchanged laughter, schnapps, scotch, tobacco and even played a good-natured soccer game. Next morning the killing resumed, and the officers who allowed the fraternization were reprimanded.<br /> <br /> 1917-"Why Marry?" by Jesse Lynch Williams opened. The first play to win a Pulitzer Prize.<br /> <br /> 1927- Japanese Emperor Hirohito crowned. <br /> <br /> 1929- The Fox Atlanta Theater opened on Peachtree St. An Arabian Nights-type fantasy in part financed by the Shriners so they could use it for their meetings.<br /> <br /> 1931-The first BBC World Service broadcast. An address by King George V called "Around the Empire". Written by Rudyard Kipling.<br /> <br /> 1937-NBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the legendary Arturo Toscanini premieres with its first radio broadcast. In 1975, their studio space, Studio 8H, became the stage of Saturday Night Live.<br /> <br /> 1940- Rogers &amp; Hart’s musical Pal Joey opened on Broadway. It made a star out of a young dancer named Gene Kelly.<br /> <br /> 1946- Comedian W.C. Fields died of alcoholism at age 67. While in his hospital bed someone saw him reading a Bible. They said:" W.C., what are you doing with that? " Fields replied:" Looking for loopholes!"<br /> <br /> 1957- Disney film Old Yeller premiered. <br /> <br /> 1962- The film of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird premiered with Gregory Peck, Brock Peters, and Robert Duval.<br /> <br /> 1963- Walt Disney’s The Sword in the Stone released. First animated feature solely directed by Wolfgang,” Woolie” Reitherman.<br /> <br /> 1977- Charlie Chaplin died quietly in his sleep at Vevey, Switzerland. He was 86.<br /> <br /> 1980- Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns finished reading Simon Schaara’s novel about the Battle of Gettysburg called The Killer Angels. He told his father he was inspired to make a documentary about the Civil War. The Civil War took six years to make and ran in 1990, but it was one of the most popular documentary films in the US and redefined the medium of documentary filmmaking.<br /> <br /> 1989- Romanian Communist dictator Nicholai Cercescu and his wife were executed on live television. Cercescu ran the last mad-Stalinist tyranny in Eastern Europe. Madame Cercescu, unrepentant, bellowed defiance at the cameras as they were stood up against the wall. They were so hated, that the presiding officer barely had time to get out of the way of the firing squad and say "Ready…Aim…" before the troops started shooting. Instead of being given one round each with the Unknown Blank Cartridge, the men had asked for extra clips. The death penalty was abolished in Romania immediately afterwards. <br /> <br /> 1989- Bad-tempered NY Yankees baseball manager Billy Martin died in a car accident (DUI).<br /> <br /> 1991- Premier Mikhail Gorbachev resigned, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, aka the USSR or Soviet Union, ceased to exist. In its place is the Confederation of Independent States led by the Federation of Russia under Boris Yeltsin.<br /> <br /> 1993-The release of the animated "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm," not only arguably the best Batman animated film, but some say one of the best Batman feature films of any kind.<br /> <br /> 1998- Fidel Castro allowed the resumption of Christmas celebrations in Cuba, outlawed since 1960.<br /> <br /> 1999- Galaxy Quest opened. Spoof of Star Trek with Tim Allen, Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver.<br /> <br /> 2020- Pixar’s film Soul premiered.<br /> <br /> ===================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Who was Zoroaster?<br /> <br /> Answer: Zoroaster (aka: Zarathustra) was an ancient Persian prophet whose teaching are the basic for Zoroastrianism, which is now considered the oldest organized religion in history. It is the first religion that had a monotheistic orientation and is still practiced today.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 24 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6340 <p>Quiz: Who was Zoroaster? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Answer below: What is a wassel bowl?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/24/2023<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Servius Galba, English King John Lackland, Revolutionary Patriot Dr. Benjamin Rush, Kit Carson, Howard Hughes, Ava Gardner, Michael Curtiz, I.F. Stone, Robert Joffrey of the Joffrey Ballet, Mean Joe Green, John Matusak, Susan Lucci, Nicholas Meyer, Ricky Martin, Pixar animator Glen McQueen, Ryan Seacrest, Dr. Anthony Fauci is 84. <br /> <br /> The religion that was a close runner up to Christianity in the ancient world was the Persian Sun God Mithras. Today was celebrated as the birth of Mithras, who was conceived of a virgin, born in the wilderness to be adored by shepherds. Hmmm…?<br /> <br /> In the Middle Ages this was the Feast of Saints Adam and Eve. The western theatrical tradition survived in the form of Mystery Plays, acting out stories from the Bible. So this day they would do a play about the temptation and expulsion from the Garden of Eden. A tree was brought into the church and decorated to represent the Tree of Life, glass balls representing the forbidden fruit. This is one of the origins of the Christmas Tree. The Feast of Adam and Eve was discontinued during the Reformation.<br /> <br /> 1247- Sir Robin of Loxley, called Robin Hood, died. Legend has it that he fired an arrow out his window with instructions to bury him where it fell. <br /> <br /> 1294- Benedict Gaetani elected Pope Boniface VIII. Boniface felt the Roman pontiff was above any other earthly crown so much that he made the triple tiara the Popes are crowned with. The hat that looks like a big gold hairdryer. Dante hatred Boniface so much in his poem Inferno he has two devils stirring a cauldron of boiling lead and calling up:"Hey Boniface? When are you coming down? It’s just about ready!"<br /> <br /> 1652- In England the Puritan Parliament of Oliver Cromwell forbade any celebration of Christmas. Their brethren the Puritans of Massachusetts would arrest anyone found making merry and fine them three shillings. But after the restoration of King Charles II ten years later, the partying came back.<br /> <br /> 1740- In Pope’s Creek Va, a fire burned down the home of Augustine and Mary Ball Washington, with their little 8 year old son, George Washington.<br /> <br /> 1783 - the American Revolution concluded; General George Washington arrived home at Mt. Vernon. It was the first time he had seen his home in eight years. In those years he had won battles, lost battles, seen his army dwindle to a handful, disarmed a mutiny, and constantly faced the possibility of being hanged as a rebel chieftain like William Wallace. Now it was all over and done." The scene is at last closed. I feel myself eased of the load of public care." <br /> <br /> 1799- After seizing power in France in a military coup, 31 year old General Napoleon Bonaparte invented an executive system for the French republic based on an interpretation of the ancient Roman Republic. Nostalgia for classical art and themes were all the rage then. Napoleon made himself First Consul. He promised to share power with two other consuls in a rotation, Sieyes and Carnot. He never did. He became Emperor of France in 1804.<br /> <br /> 1800 – THE CARBONIS PLOT- Going to the theater Napoleon was almost blown up by a bomb planted in a wagon near his carriage. The terrorist was a royalist named Jean Carbonis. In a sick twist Carbonis gave the reins of the booby-trapped horse &amp; wagon to a little peasant girl to allay suspicions of the police. Napoleon was safe but 22 others including the little girl were killed. Carbonis was quickly arrested and shot.<br /> <br /> 1801- Richard Trevithick created a three wheeled vehicle powered by a big steam boiler and drove 7 people down a road in Cornwall England. He couldn’t steer it very well and it hit a wall at barely two miles an hour.<br /> <br /> 1814- U.S. and Great Britain sign the Treaty of Ghent ending the War of 1812. John Quincy Adams headed the American negotiation team. The British had demanded a independent Indian buffer state in the Great Lakes between the US and Canada, and the US demanded the Pacific Northwest, but all they got was the status quo before the war started. The news wouldn't get across the Atlantic for two months and in the meantime Americans and Englishmen would fight each other one last time at The Battle of New Orleans (Jan 8th).<br /> <br /> 1818- the song Silent Night first sung at the Church of Saint Nicholas in Obernsdorf, Austria. Its lyrics were written by the minister named Josef Mohr set to music by a teacher named Franz Gruber. Their little church could not afford an organ, so this first singing of Silent Night was accompanied on a guitar.<br /> <br /> 1862- Near Mufreesboro Tennessee Confederate guerrilla Col. John Hunt Morgan took advantage of the Christmas truce to get married. The ceremony was conducted by Confederate General Leonidas Polk, who was an ordained Methodist Bishop. Both men would not survive the Civil War.<br /> <br /> 1865- THE KU KLUX KLAN. Before the Civil War, white plantation owners rode together at night to chase down runaway slaves. They were called Night Riders. After the South’s defeat and Emancipation, in Pulaski Tennessee in the law offices of Thomas M. Jones, some disaffected Confederate veterans formed a secret society of night riders. <br /> They named it based on the Greek letter fraternities just gaining popularity in universities- Kappa-Alpha or Kuklos Adelphon.- Kuklos meaning Circle. There was also a theory that it came from an Indian tribe called the Kawklats. It corrupted into the Ku Klux Klan. <br /> They donned white sheets and hoods to portray themselves as the avenging ghosts of dead rebel soldiers. They played up the mystical images to terrify the superstitious-Grand Wizards, Cyclops. Ghouls. The first Grand Wizard was General Nathan Bedford Forrest, but he resigned after he felt their violence had become counterproductive. There is a hotly disputed story that the Klan first offered their leadership to Robert E. Lee. He declined in a letter, but suggested they should be an "Invisible Empire". After Congress outlawed them in 1871 the Invisible Empire went underground to thwart reconstruction and Black Civil Rights. <br /> <br /> 1888- Vincent Van Gogh cut off most of his left ear after a drunken argument with fellow artist Paul Gaugin over the affection of a prostitute named Rachel. He sent his ear to the prostitute. She fainted. In 2009 historians theorized his ear was sliced off by Gaugin drunkenly waving an antique sword. The two men agreed to keep the secret to not get Gaugin in trouble.<br /> <br /> 1889- Daniel Stover &amp; W. Hance of Freeport Ill. invented the bicycle backpedal brake.<br /> <br /> 1922- The BBC presented it’s first radio play:" The truth about Father Christmas."<br /> <br /> 1925- The London Evening News published a story “In which we are introduced to Winnie the Pooh, and some Bees.” By A.A. Milne. The first book of stories came out the following year.<br /> <br /> 1934- GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR DUMPED HIS GIRLFRIEND- For two years the divorced general had kept a beautiful young Philippine mistress he met in Manila named Isabella Rosario “Elizabeth” Cooper. But when he accepted the posting back in Washington she insisted on coming with him. Today he sent an aide to intercept her in the lobby of the Willard Hotel and buy her off with a newly minted sheet of 100 dollar bills. His chief reason for giving her the boot was the 54 year old four star general was afraid his mother would find out. <br /> <br /> 1937- Disney short Lonesome Ghosts premiered.<br /> <br /> 1941- General Homma and the advancing Japanese Army captured the Philippine capitol Manila. General MacArthur withdrew to the island fortress of Corregidor, while his exhausted Philippine-American troops set up a last line of defense on the Bataan Peninsula.<br /> <br /> 1941- Operation Drumroll. German Admiral Doenitz dispatched advanced 5 long range U-Boats to the US Eastern coast. <br /> <br /> 1942- Admiral Darlan assassinated. Darlan was a Vichy-Nazi collaborator who the Allies had to cut a deal with so the Vichy French wouldn't resist the Allied landings in North Africa at Casablanca. Having to be nice to this turncoat disgusted Free-French like Charles DeGaulle, and apparently disgusted somebody even more...<br /> <br /> 1944- In some of the last big V-1 attacks on London the Nazis added a sick twist- they filled the buzz bombs with letters home from British POWs. As the bombs exploded in Oldham and Gravesend killing women and children, the letters blew out like confetti.<br /> <br /> 1944- The MOSQUITO BOWL- The Marine 6th Division was stationed on Guadalcanal preparing for the attack on Okinawa, one of the last big battles of the Pacific War. During the long stretches of dull, endless training, the 6th Marine Division discovered they had a number of college football stars in their ranks. This day in the jungle, the men of the 6th Regiment, took on the 29th Regiment in an epic football game. Participants described it as “ Three Hours of Pure Joy.” Many of these men would be dead in battle a few weeks.<br /> <br /> 1949- The Bugs Bunny cartoon “Rabbit Hood” opened. directed by Chuck Jones.<br /> <br /> 1950- This night young Scottish nationalists broke into Westminster Abbey and stole the Stone of Scone from under the English throne. It was the traditional seat upon which kings of Scotland were crowned, it was brought to London by King Edward I Longshanks. After three months it was given back, left wrapped in a Scottish flag. <br /> <br /> 1951- Gina Carlo Menotti’s opera "Amal and the Night Visitors" premiered on NBC TV..<br /> <br /> 1952- The conservative Republican 80th congress overturned Pres. Harry Truman’s veto of the McCarren /Walters Immigration Act. It called for more strenuous screening of immigrants for Communist sympathies, but it also redistributed the quota system along more racist lines. Two thirds of the slots allowed for new immigrants to America went to England, Ireland and Germany, with the rest of the world getting one third. <br /> The objectionable parts of the act were changed in 1965,…. they said.<br /> <br /> 1952- First draft script completed on the MGM film Terror Planet, changed to “ Forbidden Planet.”<br /> <br /> 1964- First day shooting on the “Cage” a pilot for a new TV show called Star Trek. Jeffrey Hunter was the first captain, later replaced by William Shatner when Hunter’s wife advised him to skip the series. She was worried he’d be typecast.<br /> <br /> 1966- Local New York City TV station WPIX premiered The Yule Log. They ran a loop of 6 minutes of a closeup of a log burning in a fireplace in Gracie Mansion, the NY Mayors official residence. The loop ran from 11:00PM to 1:00AM with Christmas carols playing. It made the TV the symbolic family hearth. New Yorkers loved their kitschy Yule Log tradition, and when WPIX tried to replace it in 1989 hundreds of complaints forced them to put it back. The log was videotaped once more in 1970, and that’s been the film ever since. Other places have picked playing a Yule Log like You Tube.<br /> <br /> 1968- Apollo 8 went into orbit around the Moon. Astronauts Jim Lovell, Frank Borman and William Anders become the first men to reach the moon and win the Space Race. They orbited but did not land, that was for Apollo 11 next year. This Christmas night Frank Borman sent a message to Earth, by reading from Genesis, as they sent back the very first images of the Earthrise, our planet seen from another world. A little blue gem in a black cosmos. Borman read: " Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep… And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness.…”<br /> To a world exhausted by the riots, wars, political polarization and assassinations, Apollo 8’s message ended the year on a positive note. That humans could still dream to be better than they were.<br /> <br /> 1968- Twentieth Century Fox announced that legendary Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa had been fired from the production of TORA-TORA-TORA. Producer Darryl Zanuck’s original concept was the story of the Pearl Harbor attack told by Kurosawa from the Japanese side and David Lean from the American side. But Lean passed and Richard Fleischer stepped in. Japanese sections were directed by Kinji Fukusaku and Toshio Masuda, whose previous credit was The Green Slime. <br /> <br /> 1985- Fidel Castro gives up smoking cigars, on doctors’ orders.<br /> <br /> 1990- Tom Cruise married Nicole Kidman. They divorced a few years later.<br /> <br /> 1992- Outgoing President George H. W. Bush announced presidential pardons for all the former Reagan Whitehouse staff implicated in the Iran Contra Scandal. Caspar Weinberger, Bud McFarlane and probably himself.<br /> <br /> 1993- Tombstone premiered. Kurt Russell, Sam Elliott, Bill Paxton do the OK Corral, finally with accurate facial hair of the period.<br /> <br /> 1997- The first Hanukkah menorah lit in Vatican City.<br /> <br /> 1997- 62 year old Film director Woody Allen married 27 year old Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of his former lover Mia Farrow. When asked to explain himself the director said: " The Heart wants what it Wants.." His 3rd or 4th partner, they have lived happily together ever since.<br /> <br /> 2005- Movie star Burt Reynolds grew so tired of the National Enquirer publishing scandalous stories about him that he gathered 300lbs of horseshit from his ranch, then hired a helicopter. At 3:00AM he flew over the Enquirers’ headquarters in Boca Raton Florida, and dumped it all on the building. Much of it hit their large Xmas tree. <br /> ==============================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is a wassel bowl?<br /> <br /> Answer: In early Medieval Germany, for Christmas they brewed a Christmas ale that was served warm and brought out in a big wooden bowl. It had toasted bread floating in it. You dipped your cup in the beer and “toasted” each other “ Was-Heil!” or Here’s to you! In Old England it became garbled as Wassel.<br /> <br /> Merry Christmas!—t.s.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 23 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6339 <p>Question: What is a wassel bowl?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: The popular cartoon series Tom &amp; Jerry was produced by what studio?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/23/2023<br /> Birthdays; Joseph Smith, Paul Hornung, Ruth Roman, Otto Soglow -cartoonist of 'the Little King', Frank Morgan (the Wizard of Oz actor) Jose Greco, Elizabeth Hartmann, Harry Guardino, Claudio Scimone, Vincent Sardi of Sardi’s restaurant, Bob Barker, Frederick Forrest, Japanese Emperor Akihito, Carla Bruni, Harry Shearer is 80<br /> <br /> 1588- In France, Henri Duc d' Guise, Catholic leader of a powerful anti-Protestant league is called into the private chambers of King Henry III. Inside the chambers with the king were a dozen murderers hired to whack the duke. Seems his league got a bit too powerful. After Monsieur le Duc was stabbed repeatedly, the king came out of his hiding place, put one foot on his perforated body and said; "There! He doesn't look so tall now!" King Henri himself was assassinated a few months later.<br /> <br /> 1740- King Frederick the Great of Prussia attended a holiday masked ball, finished his coffee, said good night, mounted his horse, and invaded Silesia. He described it later as “my own little masquerade".<br /> <br /> 1753- A twenty-year old buckskin clad surveyor almost drowned when a raft his party was pulling across the Allegheny River capsized. Miraculously, despite his inability to swim and the icy water, he made it to safety. His name was George Washington.<br /> <br /> 1786- HMS Bounty sets sail from Portsmouth. Their mission to the South Seas was to bring back breadfruit plants and see if the breadfruit could be a cheap dietary staple like potatoes from America, except these would be used to extend the lives of the slaves in Jamaica and Barbados harvesting the sugar cane fields. But Mr. Christian and the crew would mutiny against tyrannical Captain Bligh and set him adrift in a rowboat.<br /> <br /> 1823- SANTA CLAUS BORN. This day the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" was published anonymously in The Troy Sentinel. Several years after the authorship was claimed by a Bronx Bible teacher, the Reverend Clement Clarke Moore. He was celebrated in his time as the father of Santa Claus until his death in 1863. In 2000, a literary-forensic specialist challenged Clement Moore’s authorship. He said a Revolutionary War veteran from Poughkeepsie named Major Henry Livingston was really the author of the poem. He said the poetry style of Livingston was much closer to the poem than anything Rev Moore ever wrote. But we may never know.<br /> The poem completed the synthesis of English and Dutch folk traditions that were merging in colonial New York into our modern concept of Santa. The British had Father Christmas, or Saint Nicholas, who was a big fat jolly bishop with a white beard in a red suit. He merged with the Dutch Kris Kringle, or Sinterklaas, an elf who climbed down chimneys to give children toys. <br /> <br /> Leaving cookies and milk out for Santa comes from an old Danish Viking custom at Yuletime to leave food out at night for Odin the Wanderer and his 8-legged horse Sleipnir. <br /> In an 1859 reprint of the famous poem famed cartoonist Thomas Nast (who created the Republican elephant and Democratic donkey) drew the first likeness of Santa Claus. Because of residual anger from the Civil War claiming Santa was a Yankee or came from old Dixie, in 1867 Nast ended the argument by declaring Claus’s true address to be the North Pole! The Santa we all recognize was created by illustrator Haddon Sundblom for a Coca-Cola ad campaign in 1934. <br /> <br /> 1834- In London, Joseph Hansom patented Hansom cabs. This is the one horse, two wheeled cab with the driver in back. Cab is shortened from Cabriolet.<br /> <br /> 1857- In St. Louis, ex-army officer, failed businessman, and town drunk Ulysses Grant pawned his watch so he could buy Christmas presents for his wife and son. From this rock bottom he would eventually rise to win the Civil War, become President of the United States and the most celebrated American of his time.<br /> <br /> 1893- Humperdinck's opera "Hansel und Gretel" debuts in Weimar Germany.<br /> <br /> 1894- Claude DeBussey’s “Afternoon of a Faun” premiered in Paris.<br /> <br /> 1912- France’s leading literary magazine Nouvelle Revue Francaise rejected a new novel by an author named Marcel Proust “A La Recherche du Temps Perdu” “Remembrance of Things Past”. One critic wrote: “Maybe I’m dead from the neck up, but I can’t see why the author needed 20 pages to describe how he got out of bed in the morning!” Remembrance of Things Past became one of the great literary works of the Twentieth Century.<br /> <br /> 1912- The Max Sennett short comedy “Hoffmeyer’s Release” premiered, the first comedy featuring the Keystone Cops.<br /> <br /> 1913- Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act, creating the first federal banking reserve since the Bank of the United States was dismantled by Andrew Jackson in the 1830's.<br /> <br /> 1913- Young Italian Rudolph Valentino arrived in America to seek his fortune. He was so poor, that after a year he sent his parents a photo of himself in a borrowed tuxedo to show he was doing well. He worked as a nightclub dancer and gigolo until becoming a Hollywood film star in 1921.<br /> <br /> 1930- Young actress Betty Davis signed her first contract with Universal Studio.<br /> <br /> 1935- Walt Disney sent a detailed memo to art teacher Don Graham outlining his plans for retraining his animators to do realistic feature films.<br /> <br /> circa-1935- This was the traditional day for Republic Pictures to fire all their employees and hire them back after New Years so they wouldn't have to pay them holiday pay. Republic billed itself on its business cards as The Friendly Studio.<br /> <br /> 1941- WAKE ISLAND. A large Japanese invasion force finally overwhelmed the tiny garrison of Marines and construction workers defending Wake Island. The hopeless stand of Col. Devereux, Hammerin-Hank Elrod and their men inspired the country still shocked by the relentless Japanese advance across the Pacific since the Pearl Harbor attack. The surviving Marines were shipped to POW camps in occupied Shanghai, but civilian construction workers were kept on the island to build an airbase for the Japanese. After they finished, they were all executed. The Japanese commander responsible was hanged for war crimes in 1948.<br /> <br /> 1941- A Japanese submarine torpedoed and sank the S.S. Montebello off the central California coast. Fifty-five years later in 1996 a research sub found the wreck with it's three million gallons of crude oil still intact.<br /> <br /> 1941- A meeting of business leaders and union officials make a deal that there would be no strikes or lockouts in American industry for the duration of World War II. <br /> <br /> 1942- The German Sixth Army was surrounded at Stalingrad and could not hold out much longer. General Von Manstein’s 16th Panzer Division was brought up from the Crimea, and was trying to break through and rescue them. But after two weeks of heavy fighting in blizzard like conditions, the 16th was bogged down. Hitler ordered Von Manstein to break off the attempt and stabilize the front in other areas, in effect, abandoning 250,000 men of the Sixth Army to their deaths.<br /> This day while frozen, hollowed eyed men scanned the horizon for signs of rescue, the tanks of the 16th Panzer turned away. The commander of the last tank stood in his turret, solemnly snapped a crisp salute in the direction of his doomed comrades, then dropped down the hatch and turned around.<br /> <br /> 1944- The Germans had timed their surprise offensive “The Battle of the Bulge” to coincide with a heavy storm system over northern Europe. The snow and poor visibility kept Allied air forces grounded. As Third Army was moving northward to rescue soldiers trapped in the surrounded Belgian town of Bastogne, General Patton called the Third Army’s chaplain to him. “Captain!” Old Blood &amp; Guts growled:” I want a prayer for good weather! Have it in my hands in an hour!” <br /> Dutifully the prayer was written and recited throughout the army. This day as if on cue the sky cleared and the sun shined for the first time in a week. The slow moving German Tiger Tanks proved easy pickings for Allied fighter planes. Gen. Patton’s reaction: “That chaplain! Make him a Major!”<br /> <br /> 1947- Two Bell laboratory scientists invent the Transistor. Nobody was quite sure what to do with the little thing until Texas Instruments invented the portable radio in 1954.<br /> <br /> 1948- Former Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and 6 others were hanged for war crimes. Tojo had tried to commit Hari Kari but guards bound his wounds and nursed him back to health. General Yamashita, the Tiger of Malaya, was granted death by firing squad by MacArthur to save him the indignity of dying like a criminal. <br /> <br /> 1954- The First Organ Transplant. 23 year old Richard Herrick was dying of kidney disease. Dr. Joseph Murray of Harvard removed a kidney from his brother Ronald Herrick and used it to replace his brothers diseased one. The idea of operating on a healthy person just so he could help someone else was a radical idea. Hundreds of thousands of organ transplants of kidneys, hearts, livers and corneas followed.<br /> <br /> 1954- Walt Disney’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, opened. Directed by Richard Fleischer, Max’s son.<br /> <br /> 1971- First B-1 bomber flight. The B-1 was supposed to replace the aging B-52 long range bomber fleet, in service since 1958. But after billions of dollars and embarrassed faces at Congressional hearings, the B-1 didn’t accomplish much. Then after spending billions more, the B-2 Stealth Bomber was developed. In 2001 in Afghanistan and 2003 in Baghdad, the majority of all air strikes were still by 30 year old B-52s.<br /> <br /> 1971- “You feel lucky, punk?” Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry premiered.<br /> <br /> 1972- The Immaculate Reception. Football’s Pittsburgh Steelers were trailing the Oakland Raiders 7-6 with one second to go, when QB Terry Bradshaw unloaded a Hail-Mary pass across the field to Franco Harris. The feared and brutal Oakland DB Jack Tatum batted the ball away back towards the Steelers, and Harris (still running upfield) made a shoestring catch (around the 20 yard line) and weaved through the stunned and basically unaware Oakland defenders into the end zone to win.<br /> <br /> 1973- Soap Opera “the Young and The Restless” premiered.<br /> <br /> 1973- THE ASTRONAUTS STRIKE. The first labor action to occur in space. American astronauts on board SKYLAB protested micromanagement, employer spying, and long hours. They demanded a day off, regular breaks, and greater workplace autonomy, but NASA refused. So they shut off the radio and took the day off, floating around, enjoying space, and taking photos of Earth. NASA gave in to their demands after one day, but those astronauts were never sent back into space.<br /> <br /> ======================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: The popular cartoon series Tom &amp; Jerry was produced by what studio?<br /> <br /> Answer: MGM.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 22 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6338 <p>Quiz: The popular cartoon series Tom &amp; Jerry was produced by what studio?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Icarus was the young man who flew too close to then sun when his wings melted and he fell. Who was Icarus’ Daddy?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/22/2023<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Diocletian 245AD, Josef Stalin-born Jozef Djugashvili, James Oglethorpe the founder of the State of Georgia, Jean Racine, Giacomo Puccini, Connie Mack, J. Arthur Rank, Ladybird Johnson, Deems Taylor, Jean Michel Basquiat, Barbara Billingsley, Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Emil Sitka, Gene Rayburn, Hector Elizondo, Diane Sawyer, Robin Gibb &amp; Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees, Ralph Fiennes is 60.<br /> <br /> 1737- Preacher John Wesley, the founder of the Methodists, was chased out of Savannah Georgia. The townspeople thought Pastor Wesley applied the Law of God a bit too arbitrary. He finally refused to grant an old girlfriend the rights of marriage because she had not been to confession enough in the past three months. This day he took ship back to England before he was arrested.<br /> <br /> 1807- President Thomas Jefferson was desperately trying to steer a neutral course in the struggle between Britain and Napoleon’s France, each wanted the US to choose their side. This day Congress passed his Embargo Act, cutting off trade with both European powers.<br /> <br /> 1808- DA-DA-DA- DUMMMM- Beethoven premiered his 5th Symphony.<br /> <br /> 1849- Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky had been a political radical. On this day the Czar's secret police the Ohkrana broke his spirit by a cruel ruse. They arrested him for treason. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. He was given a last meal, received Last Rites from a priest, blindfolded and stood before a firing squad. But before the guns would go off the squad stopped and his sentence was commuted. He was sent instead to Siberia for four years. This naturally had an adverse effect on his sensitive nature and he spent his final years a raving conservative.<br /> <br /> 1861- Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) was ordained a deacon in the Church of England.<br /> <br /> 1882- Thomas Edison introduced the string of electric Christmas Tree lights replacing candles.<br /> <br /> 1864- General Sherman marching through Georgia, today telegraphed Pres. Lincoln: ” I present you as a Christmas gift, the City of Savannah”. Uncle Billy spared Savannah the depredations his men committed in the rest of the state, many say because he had friends there before the war, but also because he needed a deep water port for a winter base that the US Navy could supply him from.<br /> <br /> 1888- Horn &amp; Hardart opened their first Automat Restaurant. This in Philadelphia.<br /> <br /> 1898-THE DREYFUS CASE- Early in 1898 the French Army High Command discovered they had a spy on their staff leaking secrets to Germany. The man was a Colonel Count Esterhazy, an aristocrat pretty high up in the chain of command. The Generals worried that news of the scandal would humiliate and weaken the army's prestige. So they looked for a lower ranked scapegoat to pin Esterhazy's crimes on. They chose a Captain Alfred Dreyfus, who was working class and Jewish. They had Dreyfus courts-martialed for espionage and treason and exiled to Devil's Island. As his sword and medals were being publicly stripped from him he shouted out loud "Citizens of France ! I am innocent !!" <br /> Dreyfus's family refused to give up hope and brought in the famous author-activist Emile Zola, who uncovered the plot in the news article "J'Accuse !"I accuse. The scandal tore the French military and public opinion apart. Esterhazy fled to Germany and one top general shot himself. In 1906 Dreyfus was cleared of all charges and when the Great War came General Dreyfus was entrusted with the defense of The City of Paris. <br /> <br /> 1921- LENIN'S TESTAMENT- Soviet Russian leader Vladimir Lenin was in failing<br /> health after an assassination attempt and a stroke. ,k;’[He knew of the internal<br /> struggle within the Communist Party between Trotsky and Stalin to succeed<br /> him. <br /> This day he dictated a series of notes spelling out his analysis of the<br /> situation and where he thought the future of the revolution should go. He<br /> felt Stalin was too dangerous to be in charge" Comrade Stalin is devoid of<br /> the most elementary human honesty". So Trotsky should come after him as<br /> leader of the Soviet Union. Lenin called it "Letter to the Party Congress"<br /> because he intended it to be published. <br /> Upon Lenin's death Stalin seized power and made sure this document was never made public. It didn't come out for thirty-three years, until after Stalin’s death in 1953. <br /> <br /> 1932 – The Mummy, directed by Karl Freund and starring Boris Karloff, Zita Johann, David Manners, Edward Van Sloan and Arthur Byron was released.<br /> <br /> 1937- The day after the triumphant premiere of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, animator Woolie Reitherman ran into Walt Disney at the studio. Instead of complimenting Woolie and telling him to kick back and relax a bit, Walt launched into a detailed analysis of the problems facing the next picture, and how they need to get started right away!<br /> <br /> 1938- Memo from Dave Fleischer’s casting director to Paramount rep A.M. Botsford, asking if they might offer the role of Gulliver in Gulliver’s Travels to Gary Cooper!<br /> <br /> 1939- Max Fleischer's animated classic “Gulliver's Travels” opened in theatres.<br /> <br /> 1940- Nathaniel West, novelist author of Day of the Locust and Miss Lonelyhearts, was killed in a car accident in L.A.<br /> <br /> 1941-Now that America was officially at war with the Axis, Prime Minister Winston Churchill slipped across U-Boat infested waters to spend a month at the White House planning strategy with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. A White House butler described;" Mr. Churchill awoke to a tumbler of sherry. At noon scotch and sodas, champagne at dinner finished off with 90 year old brandy then light a cigar and begin the day's work- from 9:00 PM- 2:00 AM. Churchill liked to dictate memos from his bath. When Roosevelt was told he could enter the room, he was embarrassed and excused himself to leave. Churchill stood up from the tub wearing nothing but soapsuds and the cigar in his teeth and declared: "THE PRIME MINISTER OF GREAT BRITAIN HAS NOTHING TO HIDE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES !" When a friend later asked Roosevelt what was Churchill like, the President mused: "He's pink...all over."<br /> <br /> 1944- During the Battle of the Bulge, a German officer was sent under a white flag to Gen. McAulliffe's American troops in Bastogne. His message was “You are surrounded with no hope of relief. Surrender or be annihilated!” General McAuliffe sent him a simple reply:" NUTS!' McAulliffe's force was eventually rescued by Patton. In later years McAullife grew tired of the fame of being the general who said "nuts". At a party a Manhattan socialite once said to him: "It is an honor to meet you, General Nuts".<br /> <br /> 1951- Yves Montand married Simone Signoret.<br /> <br /> 1964- In Chicago, Comedian Lenny Bruce was sentenced to four months in prison on obscenity charges. When the arresting officer read aloud his jokes, the jury laughed out loud. Lenny complained about the policeman’s delivery. After Lenny Bruce no one has ever again been convicted in the U.S. for telling jokes. <br /> <br /> 1973- The 55 miles per hour speed limit was set for all US interstate highways.<br /> <br /> 1975- English actor Sir Alec Guinness wrote a friend about a recent job offer, "I have been offered a movie (20th Cent. Fox) which I may accept if they come up with proper money. London and N. Africa, starting in mid-March. Science fiction – which gives me pause – but is to be directed by Paul [sic] Lucas who did "American Graffiti, which makes me feel I should. Big part. Fairy-tale rubbish but could be interesting perhaps."<br /> The part was Obie Wan Kenobi, and the movie was Star Wars. By the time the first trilogy was done, he personally had made $50 million from it. <br /> <br /> 1984- Nerdy shopkeeper Bernard Goetz shot four African-American men on a NYC subway train. They had asked him for money and one man had a sharpened screwdriver. Goetz had once been robbed before of a liquor store payroll and pushed through a plate glass store window. So he pulled his gun and fired. Two of the men died and one was left paralyzed. Like OJ Simpson ten years later, the Subway Vigilante divided people along racial lines. Was Bernard Goetz a homicidal racist, or a mild man pushed over the brink? <br /> <br /> 1988- In Brazil ecologist and rubber workers union activist Chico Mendes was shot and killed by plantation owners.<br /> <br /> 1993- The Hubble Space telescope cost $1.5 billion but it had a flaw. Its lens was ground incorrectly, so it was nearsighted. This day Space Shuttle Endeavour flew into space to fit the Hubble with an optical corrective system called CoStar, in effect, giving it a set of glasses. <br /> <br /> 2000- The Cohen Bros. Depression Era comedy Oh Brother Where Art Thou? Opened.<br /> “ I am a man of constant sorrow….”<br /> <br /> 2001- THE SHOE BOMBER. Would-be terrorist Richard Reid tried to blow up an American Airlines flight from Rome to Orlando by trying to ignite a substance concealed in his sneakers. He was stopped and beaten to a pulp by his fellow travelers, including a 6’8 pro basketball player returning home from the Italian leagues. Richard Reid is why we all have to take our shoes off in airports now.<br /> ===================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Icarus was the young man who flew too close to then sun when his wings melted and he fell. Who was Icarus’Daddy?<br /> <br /> Answer: The scientist-sorcerer Daedalus.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 21 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6337 <p>Quiz: Icarus was the young man who flew too close to then sun when his wings melted and he fell. Who was Icarus’Daddy?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: we’ve heard of musical pieces like Piano Concerto #1 or #5. But who wrote Piano Concerto #0 ?<br /> --------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/21/2023<br /> Birthdays: Benjamin Disraeli, Josh Gibson- the Home Run King of the Negro Baseball Leagues, Pat Weaver-TV exec who created the Today Show and father of Sigourney Weaver, Frank Zappa, Dr. Kurt Waldheim, Florence Griffith Joyner, Chris Evert, Phil Roman, Jane Fonda is 84, Paul Winchell born Pinkus Wilchinski, Keifer Sutherland is 57, Samuel L. Jackson is 75, Jane Kaszmarek, Judy Delphy is 54, Jeffrey Katzenberg is 73<br /> <br /> Happy Winter Solstice. The shortest day of the year.<br /> <br /> 1375- The writer Boccaccio died, not of the plague, and not during a wild party like in his book the Decameron.<br /> <br /> 1376- END OF THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY- After a lot of lobbying from St. Catherine of Siena and Saint Brigid of Sweden, Pope Gregory XI moved the Vatican back to Rome from Avignon. Gregory mysteriously died shortly after he arrived. Roman mobs, angry at the poverty caused by the absence of the Holy See, attacked the mostly French cardinals selecting the next pope. They crowded around their building shouting: "Death or an Italian Pope!' and threw javelins at the ceiling knowing the points would pop out of the floor and prick their feet. <br /> The terrified cardinals dragged any old bishop out of the Vatican library, made him an Archbishop, then Cardinal, then Pope, then ran for the hills. The librarian became Pope Urban VIII, “The Beast of Naples". <br /> <br /> 1776- American diplomats Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane arrive in Paris to negotiate a French alliance and money for the rebellious colonies. It took them a year. Their personal secretary, William Bancroft, was a British spy.<br /> <br /> 1788- Emperor Quang Tung of Vietnam was crowned.<br /> <br /> 1863- Congress created the Medal of Honor, at first only for Navy personnel for gallantry, but later extended to all branches of the military.<br /> <br /> 1866- THE FETTERMAN MASSACRE- Foreshadowing by ten years what Custer would get, the Sioux led by Crazy Horse surrounded an army detachment and wiped them out. The commander of Fort Phil Kearny Wyoming, a Colonel Carrington sent out the troop to drive away some hostiles molesting a woodcutting detail. It turned out to be an elaborate trap planned by Crazy Horse and Red Cloud. It was said Carrington was such a high-class snob,"the way he would prefer to deal with the Sioux would be to socially ostracize them". <br /> <br /> Now as his men went down under a hail of arrows Carrington could hear the firing in the distance but didn't think they needed any help. Captain Fetterman and his second in command Brown were among the last survivors. Fetterman had said the threat of the hostiles was overrated and "With 80 men I could ride through the entire Sioux Nation !" Brown had gone against orders on the mission because he promised his family back east a real Indian scalp for Christmas. Now surrounded and not wishing to be tortured by the Indians, they held their revolvers to each other's temples and on the count of three...<br /> <br /> 1909- The first Junior High School or Middle School set up in the US in Berkeley Cal.<br /> <br /> 1913- THE BIRTHDAY OF THE CROSSWORD PUZZLE- Journalist Arthur Wynne created the word game, which included 32 clues and ran in the New York World.<br /> <br /> 1914- The premiere of the first feature length film comedy- Tilly’s Punctured Romance, starring Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand and a young Charlie Chaplin.<br /> <br /> 1919-THE PALMER RAIDS- THE RED SCARE- Class-conscious American businessmen watched the growing Communist regime in Russia with fear. Soviet groups were also moving to take over Germany, Hungary and Austria. People feared foreign anarchists at home with bombs." Bolshevism is worse than war.”-Herbert Hoover. This day Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer received permission to go after what he deemed “seditious elements”.<br /> Under emergency wartime sedition legislation (even though World War I had been over for a year) At the stroke of midnight on New Years, U.S. marshals raided newspaper and union offices and deported 249 immigrants, including women's rights advocate Emma Goldman. The raids were organized by a young executive in the treasury dept, named J. Edgar Hoover.<br /> <br /> 1925- Sergei Eisenstein’s cinematic masterpiece Battleship Potemkin premiered in Moscow. The films pioneering use of montage and allegorical imagery intercut inspired a generation of filmmakers.<br /> <br /> 1933- Twentieth Century Fox signed 5 year old Shirley Temple to a seven year contract.<br /> <br /> 1937- Walt Disney's " Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" had its grand premiere at the Carthay Circle Theater. The first feature length American cartoon, it became the box office champ of 1938, earning 4 times more than any other film that year. Russian director Sergei Eisenstein called it “The greatest movie ever made.”<br /> <br /> 1937- Ted Healy, former vaudeville partner of the Three Stooges, was killed in a bar fight, while celebrating the birth of his son. No one is really sure what happened. One legend has it that actor Wallace Beery and some gangsters did the fatal pounding. Another rumor is one of the gangsters was young Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, who forty years later would produce the James Bond movies and win an Irving Thalberg Award at the 1982 Oscars. Healy originated the violent comedy schtick of the Stooges. But by this time The Three Stooges had parted ways with Ted Healy and were doing much better.<br /> <br /> 1939- In the year of their nonaggression pact, Adolf Hitler sent Holiday Greetings to his new best-buddy Josef Stalin. "Merry Christmas, you Jewish-Bolshevik untermensch schweinehund! "Thank you and the same to you, you corrupt Fascist tool of International Capitalism, ифыефкв! "<br /> <br /> 1940- Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald (44) died of a heart attack at Hollywood columnist Sheila Graham's house. She had just left the house to buy him some candy. She left him thumbing through his Princeton alumni newsletter. His last words to her were 'Hershey bars will be fine..."<br /> <br /> 1944- Walt Disney’s The Three Caballeros premiered in Mexico City. It opened in the US in February.<br /> <br /> 1945- General George “Blood &amp; Guts” Patton died from injuries suffered in an auto accident in Manheim Germany on Dec. 9th.<br /> <br /> 1953- Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the Atomic Bomb, was accused of being a Communist. When he was asked in 1940 to head the Manhattan Project the government knew he was a Berkeley eccentric who had joined every leftist group in town, but he was brilliant. This act is now viewed more as the government revenge for his flat refusal to help Edmund Teller develop the Hydrogen Bomb. <br /> <br /> 1958- Charles DeGaulle elected President of the 5th French Republic.<br /> <br /> 1959- Joe Oriolo’s TV remake of Felix the Cat debuted on TV. <br /> <br /> 1964-The British Parliament voted to ban the death penalty.<br /> <br /> 1968- The Apollo 8 spacecraft was launched to the Moon. Besides winning the Space Race, and doing the famous Christmas Night reading of Genesis from lunar orbit, Apollo 8 had on board one of the very first mini-computers. The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) was one cubic foot in size, had stored memory of 5 bytes, a language (DSKY) and a digital display. It’s the forerunner of the personal computer.<br /> <br /> 1969- Famed football coach Vince Lombardi coached his last game- Dallas beat Washington 20-10.<br /> <br /> 1971- Richard William's animated TV special "A Christmas Carol" with Alastair Sim reprising his Scrooge.<br /> <br /> 1972- 14 members of a Uruguayan rugby team were found alive on an Andes mountain peak after their plane crashed. They survived the harsh conditions by turning cannibal and eating their dead. <br /> <br /> 1973- Ray Harryhausen’s The Golden Voyage of Sinbad premiered.<br /> <br /> 1975- International terrorist Carlos the Jackal attacked an OPEC oil meeting in Vienna and took 11 ministers hostage. He escaped to Algeria and wasn’t finally caught until 1994 while trying to get an operation on his testicle.<br /> <br /> 1978- Chicago police investigating the disappearance of a 15 year old boy searched the home of contractor John Wayne Gacy. They found the remains of 33 children in the crawl space. Gacy in his spare time did volunteer work as a clown entertaining sick children.<br /> <br /> 1979- Disney’s Sci-Fi film The Black Hole opened in theaters.<br /> <br /> 1982- Thom Riley, one of the stars of the TV cop show ChiPS was busted for driving stoned on Quaaludes.<br /> <br /> 1988- PanAm 747 jumbo jet Flight 103 from London to New York exploded over Lockerbie Scotland killing all the passengers. The bomb was planted in Munich by Libyan agents. It was in retaliation for either Reagan's bombing of Tripoli in 1986, or the shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655 in July of 1988 by the US Navy Cruiser Vincennes.<br /> <br /> 1989- The Romanian army joined the people protesting in the streets and overthrew the hated Communist dictator Nicholai Cercescu. While most of the nation starved in a stagnant economy, Cercescu lived in luxury. His son drove sports cars and lost fortunes at roulette tables in Monte Carlo. Young Cercescu kept a “raping room” for women who caught his fancy. As the Communist regimes of Poland, Czechoslovakia and East Germany collapsed, Romanians realized their time had finally come, and they poured out into the streets.<br /> <br /> 1989- Vice President Dan Quayle sent out 30,000 official Christmas cards with the word beacon misspelled- beakon. In 2007 President George W. Bush sent out Hanukkah cards featuring the White House Christmas tree.<br /> <br /> 2003- Just in time to spoil Christmas, Pres. Bush’s Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced the color-coded threat level was raised to the highest state of alert since the 9-11 Attack. That Al Qaeda terrorists were about to attack the United States and kill us all at any minute! After terrifying everybody, absolutely nothing happened. In 2009 it was revealed the data came from a conman named Dennis Montgomery, who fooled the CIA into believing he had special software that he could use to intercept Al Qaeda secret messages broadcast on the Arab news network Al Jazeera. It was a complete fraud.<br /> <br /> 2012- The Era will come to an End, according to the ancient Maya Calendar. The Maya believed that the world as they knew it occasionally was turned upside down. The word for earthquake also meant revolution. Translating Mayan can be open to interpretation, so end of an era may also mean beginning of a new age of enlightenment. <br /> <br /> 2012- The Walt Disney Company spent $4.06 billion to buy Lucasfilm, ILM and the Star Wars rights. George Lucas retired to do philanthropic pursuits.<br /> <br /> 2089- According to Ridley Scott, today the good ship Prometheus landed on the Original Planet.<br /> ========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: we’ve heard of musical pieces like Piano Concerto #1 or #5. But who wrote Piano Concerto #0 ?<br /> <br /> ANSWER: Beethoven didn’t bother to number his works. He left that for later musicologists. They listed his mature piano concertos he wrote from 1 to 5. But after his death, looking through his files they found an immature concerto he wrote at age 14. So they called it Beethoven’s Piano Concerto #0.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 20 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6336 <p>Quiz: we’ve heard of musical pieces like Piano Concerto #1 or #5. But who wrote Piano Concerto #0 ?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: What does it mean when you say someone is “ gung-ho”?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/20/2023<br /> Birthdays: Bonnie Prince Charlie, Branch Rickey, George Roy Hill, Dr. Samuel Mudd, Jenny Agutter, Uri Geller, Irene Dunne, Cecil Cooper, Albert Dekker, animator Amby Paliwoda, Charlie Callas, John Spencer, Elsie De Wolfe, Jonah Hill is 40. <br /> <br /> 69AD- Roman General Vespasian occupied Rome with his legions, declared himself emperor and executed his predecessor, Aulus Vitellus. Vespasian was the winner in a year of civil war that started with Nero committing suicide, then Servius Galba, Otho, and Vitellus all in one year took the throne and were knocked off. The Romans called A.D. 69, the "Long Year". Vespasian was not an aristocrat like Caesar, but a humble man who rose up through the ranks. He was once caught nodding off during one of Nero’s harp recitals. <br /> <br /> Feast day of Saint Dominic of Brescia.<br /> <br /> 1192- Richard the Lionhearted was returning from the Crusades when he was captured near Vienna and imprisoned by Duke Leopold of Austria for two years. Leopold blamed Richard for the death of his relative Conrad of Monferrat in Palestine. The King of France Phillip II and Richard’s own brother John sent large bribes to the German Emperor Henry just to keep Richard locked up. This was part of the plot of the novel Ivanhoe. Richard spent the time in prison writing a ballad “Ja nus hons pris”, I am master of Gascony, Brittany, Poitoux. So how come no one can get me outta here?” I’m paraphrasing a bit.<br /> <br /> 1688- William and Mary’s army occupied London.<br /> <br /> 1780- Britain declared war on Holland over the Dutch covertly aiding the rebel American colonies. <br /> <br /> 1790- The first successful U.S. cotton mill opens in Pawtucket RI, it’s inventor Samuel Slater had memorized British technology for use in America. He also thought child labor would be most useful in his factories. <br /> <br /> 1803- The Louisiana Purchase completed as the French flag came down and the Stars and Stripes went up over the Cabildo in New Orleans. New Orleans continued to be a magnet for French people dispossessed by the politics in Europe. Ten years after Waterloo the French royalist charge de affaires would complain to the U.S. state department that the New Orleanaise would still wave the banned revolutionary tricolor flag at arriving French ships. In 1817 the mayor financed two ships with a 19th century 'Delta-Force" of mercenaries to sail to Saint Helena and rescue Napoleon. The plan never went through.<br /> <br /> 1811- Napoleon made another attempt to go hunting in the Forest of Boulogne. Even though they were both great military minds, Napoleon and Wellington were terrible hunters, and bad shots. While hunting, Napoleon shot out the eye of one of his generals. and Wellington was constantly hitting barn doors and stable boys by accident. Napoleon kept the royal shooting park at St. Cloud as a game preserve, and a captain once saw him feeding snuff to the deer. Another time his chief of staff set up a hunting party but stocked his grounds with domesticated rabbits instead of wild hares. When the bunnies saw Bonaparte, they thought he was there to feed them and mobbed him. He actually had to flee the scene. One of the only times other than Waterloo Napoleon was driven from the field.<br /> <br /> 1819- The novel Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott was published in Edinburgh. The novel caused a sensation in Europe and was one of the great influences on Victorian England. It created our modern perception of Richard Lionheart, Prince John and Robin Hood. Polite society sought to emulate its ideas of chivalry and courtly love. During the US Civil War, Confederate General James Longstreet complained that his contemporaries, Southern Gentlemen, had been raised on “…too much Walter Scott.”<br /> <br /> 1860- SECESSION! to the sound of cannon and church bells the first Southern State, South Carolina, voted to secede from the Union. Until the Confederacy formed, South Carolina called itself "the Palmetto Republic". Judge Pettigru, who was against this drastic move, said:" South Carolina is too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum." <br /> At first Northerners reacted with apathy. In Washington D.C., a local store advertised: THE UNION IS DISSOLVING, BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN YOU CAN’T STILL FIND SAVINGS WHEN YOU SHOP FOR CHRISTMAS AT LEHMANS!<br /> <br /> 1860- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published his most famous poem- The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. “Oh, listen my children and you shall here, of the Midnight ride of Paul Revere. “ Although he got most of the actual facts wrong, it was a great success. Longfellow intended it to rouse Americans of his day to the threat of Southern Secession and Slavery. <br /> <br /> 1891- BASKETBALL INVENTED. Methodist Minister and former rugby player James Naismith worried how his Springfield College students could do team sports in the harsh New England winters. So he nailed up two peach baskets on opposite ends of a gymnasium at a YMCA in Springfield Mass. and invented the game of basketball. The first basketball was a soccer ball. He originally asked for square boxes but the man he sent out mistook his instructions and brought round peach baskets instead. The NBA regulation height of the baskets of ten feet was determined by the gym in Springfield having a second floor running track and two nails were conveniently waiting at this height. He blew a whistle, and “the boys began tackling, kicking and punching in the clinches,” Naismith said. “They ended up in a free-for-all in the middle of the gym floor.” Naismith played himself frequently, and married one of the first female players, named Amelia.<br /> <br /> 1892- Alexander Brown and George Stillman of Syracuse New York invented inflatable pneumatic automobile tires, replacing wagon wheel and bicycle rims.<br /> <br /> 1892- According to Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days this was the day Phileas Fogg returned to London to complete his trip.<br /> <br /> 1920- English song &amp; dance man Leslie Townes became an American citizen and changed his name to Bob Hope.<br /> <br /> 1937- Nazi Josef Goebbels noted in his diary that this day he sent his boss Adolf Hitler a Christmas present of a dozen Mickey Mouse Cartoons from America. Officially der Fuehrer called Mickey “vermin”, but privately he enjoyed their animated antics. Mussolini’s family loved “Topolino” cartoons. (Mickey Mouse in Italian). <br /> <br /> 1940- Captain America first appeared in a comic book.<br /> <br /> 1941- THE FLYING TIGERS first action in the skies over China, surprising and shooting down 9 out of 10 in a Japanese bomber squadron flying from Hanoi. General Claire Chennault had come to China in 1937 as an advisor to organize the Chinese Air Force and stayed on to coordinate U.S. efforts in Mainland China after Pearl Harbor. His men were all volunteer adventurers who flew their P-40's with the tiger teeth insignia against overwhelming odds. They were awarded a bounty of $500 for every Japanese plane downed. Eventually they were incorporated into the regular U.S. Air Force.<br /> Chennault argued frequently with Washington, MacArthur and his army partner in China General 'Vinegar Joe' Stillwell. Just before the final victory in 1945 Chennault was forcibly retired and resumed his post as advisor to Chiang Kai Shek. He was the U.S. general most times under hostile fire. He flew combat missions and personally had 60 kills, which made him an Ace. Yet Chennault was deliberately not invited to the Grand Surrender Ceremony on the Missouri in Sept ‘45.<br /> <br /> 1942- Japanese planes bombed Calcutta, India.<br /> <br /> 1943- Stalin changed the national anthem of Russia from the revolutionary Internationale to the Hymn of the Soviet Union. <br /> <br /> 1944- German forces in the Battle of the Bulge surrounded the US 101st Airborne in the Belgian town of Bastogne. The Screaming Eagles of the 101st held out until relieved by Pattons’ Third Army just after Christmas.<br /> <br /> 1945- After the defeat of Japan in World War II Vietnamese nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam an independent nation. He based his declaration on the US Declaration of Independence. France reacted by heavily cracking down on nationalists in Hanoi and Saigon. This began an eight-year war against the French to be followed, by a civil war, and another 8 year war against the Americans.<br /> <br /> 1946- It’s a Wonderful Life, Frank Capra, James Stewart opened.<br /> <br /> 1950- Harvey premiered starring James Stewart and a 6 foot tall invisible rabbit. <br /> <br /> 1952- Bridgette Bardot married director Roger Vadim.<br /> <br /> 1955- Sir Lawrence Olivier’s film version of Richard III premiered.<br /> <br /> 1962- The Osmond Brothers premiered on the Andy Williams Show.<br /> <br /> 1957- Elvis Presley received his draft notice. G.I. Blues!<br /> <br /> 1968- Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day premiered.<br /> <br /> 1970- ELVIS MEETS NIXON or "The President Meets the King." Citizen Presley volunteers his services in the war on drugs and gave Nixon a gold plated 44 cal. pistol. The President thanked him with a White House security officer's badge for his collection of police badges. A recent biography of Presley described the dozen or so prescription medicines he was on while Nixon was naming him honorary chairman of the War on Drugs.<br /> <br /> 1971- Twentieth Century Fox chief Darryl F. Zanuck blamed his own son CEO Richard Zanuck for Fox's monetary problems and fired him. This set off a power struggle among the board of directors. When Zanuck's estranged wife Libby threw her support against the mogul, Darryl F. Zanuck was overthrown and fired from his own company. He was the last of the original Hollywood moguls.<br /> <br /> 1971- Roy O. Disney, Walt Disney’s older brother who took over running the company after Walt’s death, died of a stroke. He was 78. <br /> <br /> 1974- Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too came out with the film Island at the Top of the World.<br /> <br /> 1989- Operation Just Cause, the U.S. invades Panama to oust General Manuel Noriega, for being a dictator, drug pusher and not returning the C.I.A.'s washroom keys. When the general, known to Panamanian citizens as “Pineapple-face” took sanctuary in the Vatican Embassy, the U.S. army surrounded the building and drove him out by playing Jimi Hendrix and Motown through loudspeakers 24 hours a day. Tony Orlando or the Bay City Rollers would drive me out.<br /> <br /> 1996- Beavis and Butthead Do America, directed by Mike Judge, premiered.<br /> <br /> 2019- President Trump established the US Space Force as an equal branch of the armed services.<br /> ===========================================<br /> Yesterday’s question: What does it mean when you say someone is “ gung-ho”?<br /> <br /> Answer: A phrase popularized during World War 2 when Americans serving in China heard the Chinese troops use the phrase Deng-Hao, meaning “Let’s get up and get things done!”</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 19 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6335 <p>Quiz: What does it mean when you say someone is “ gung-ho”?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s quiz answered below: In illustrations of Dickens A Christmas Carol, the ghost of Jacob Marley is always wearing a bandage around his head lengthwise. Why?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/19/23<br /> Birthdays: King Phillip V of Spain (1683), Edith Piaf, Edwin Stanton, Tip O'Neil, Cicely Tyson, Sir Ralph Richardson, Robert Urich, Robert Sherman, Jennifer Beals is 60, David Susskind, Fritz Reiner, Mel Shaw, Alyssa Milano is 51, Jake Gyllenhaal is 43<br /> <br /> 1154- Coronation of King Henry II of England. He was the son of Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou and Empress Matilda, the daughter of William the Conqueror. His coronation settled a period of dynastic civil wars in England between the Conqueror’s children known as “The Wars of Stephen and Matilda". Henry and his sons Richard Lionheart and John Lackland are also called the Angevin dynasty, because of the part of France (Anjou) their family originated.<br /> <br /> 1686- According to Daniel Defoe, this was the day Robinson Crusoe was rescued from his deserted island. <br /> <br /> 1732- The Pennsylvania Gazette announced the publication of a new book by Dr. Benjamin Franklin writing under the penname Richard Saunders. The work was Poor Richard’s Almanac, an international best seller that made Franklin famous.<br /> <br /> 1783- William Pitt the Younger became Prime Minister of Great Britain at only 24 years old." A sight to make the Nations stare, A Kingdom trusted to a Schoolboy's care."<br /> <br /> 1793- The Anglo-Spanish fleet evacuated Toulon after the cities strong points were captured by the French army, led by a pushy 23-year-old major with a funny name- Napoleon Bonaparte.<br /> <br /> 1903- NY City’s Williamsburg Bridge opened, only the second major span across the East River since the Brooklyn Bridge. Because it linked Manhattan’s Lower East Side with Williamsburg Brooklyn, anti-Semites called it The Jew Bridge. <br /> <br /> 1914- Earl Hurd patented animation 'cels' (celluloids) and backgrounds. Before this cartoonists tried drawing the background settings over and over again hundreds of times or slashed the paper around the character and tried not to have it walk in front of anything. By the late 1990’s, most cels &amp; cel paint were replaced by digital imaging, except in Japan, where some traditional paint continued.<br /> <br /> 1915- Earl Douglas Haig replaces Sir John French as commander of British troops on the Western Front. His nickname was Whiskey Doug because his family owned a well-known distillery. Haig had succeeded in the Boer War by bloody frontal assaults, and he proved he had learned nothing from the experience. He had no use for new gismos like machine guns and airplanes, even after he watched large numbers of his troops mowed down by them. In the attack called Passchendaele in 1917 he lost thousands of men in stand up frontal assaults. He reacted "Good Lord, have we really lost that many?" <br /> <br /> 1918- Robert Ripley began his "Believe It Or Not" column in the New York Globe.<br /> <br /> 1919-The premiere of E.C. Segar’s comic strip “The Thimble Theatre”. The original characters were Olive Oyl, her brother Castor Oyl, and her original boyfriend Ham Gravy. Ten years later Popeye the Sailor appeared, as well as J. Wellington Wimpy, Alice the Goon and the Jeep. <br /> <br /> 1926- The U.S. government passed a law that women authors can only legally copyright their works under their husband's names.<br /> <br /> 1929- Thomas Benton-Slate was an entrepreneur who invented dry-ice. This day in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale, he attempted to fly the first all metal dirigible, the City of Glendale. He brought it out two days ago and it immediately began to pop rivets in the heat and fall apart. So he brought it in for repairs. This day he tried one more time, but the sun’s heat expanded the shell, causing rivets to pop again, followed by a metallic explosion and escaping gas. He had it dragged back into the hanger and forgot about it. <br /> <br /> 1932- BBC Overseas Service Radio broadcasts began. Originally called Empire Broadcasts. The sound of the chimes of Big Ben heard around the world. Despite gloomy predictions from the BBC's director-general John Reith - "The programs will neither be very interesting nor very good", the broadcasts received praise, and were further boosted by the support of a Christmas message from King George V (the first ever) to the Empire a few days later.<br /> <br /> 1941- The Japanese began their grand assault on British Hong Kong. The city surrendered on Christmas Day. Japanese assault teams had been told to take no prisoners and committed atrocities on British, Canadian and Australian defenders. In Berlin, Adolf Hitler told his dinner guests " The Japanese are all over those islands and will soon be in Australia. The White Race will disappear from those regions."<br /> <br /> 1944, in a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court upheld President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066, ruling that the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans in internment camps was constitutional as a “public necessity.”<br /> <br /> 1957- The musical ‘The Music Man’ starring Robert Preston first debuted. "Seventy Six Trom-bones in the Big Parade…"<br /> <br /> 1958- First airing of the Disneyland TV holiday special “ From All of Us, to All of You.”<br /> <br /> 1959- Confederate General Walter Williams, who claimed to be the last living veteran of the Civil War, died at age 117. His claim to be a general was later proved false, but he was that age and in the Civil War, so it was a good story.<br /> <br /> 1971- Stanley Kubrick’s ‘A Clockwork Orange’ premiered. Based on a novel by Anthony Burgess. In America the film received an X Rating, more for the violence than the sexual situations. The sensation over the film caused so many incidents of urban violence, that with Kubrick’s permission, it was banned in England for three decades.<br /> <br /> 1974- The first personal computer went on sale. The Altair 8800, named for the planet in the 1955 sci-fi movie classic Forbidden Planet. The computer came in a kit that you had to build and it cost $397. The next year, two kids at Harvard named Bill Gates and Paul Allen created a programming language for it called BASIC.<br /> <br /> 1986- Frank Oz’s movie version of the Ashman-Mencken musical Little Shop of Horrors.” This film convinced Disney to hire them to write the music for Little Mermaid.<br /> <br /> 1997- MTV dropped airing the rap song Smack My Bitch Up, by Prodigy.<br /> <br /> 1998- IMPEACHMENT- Before going on their holiday break, the Republican dominated House of Representatives voted two articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton, over his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The vote was along strict party lines and most of the Democrats stormed out in protest. Despite the impeachment, President "Slick Willy" Clinton was acquitted by trial in the Senate in February and completed his second term. To complete the circus-like atmosphere, pornography publisher Larry Flynt announced he had proof that incoming Republican Speaker of the House Bob Livingston, a descendant of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, had had at least six affairs while a congressman including one of his staff and a lobbyist. Livingston resigned before his hand could touch the gavel. He was replaced by Rep Dennis Hastert, who did time in jail for molesting young boys when a gym coach. Three other of the loudest callers for impeachment, Senators David Vitter, John Ensign and South Carolina Gov. Pete Sanford, were all soon after caught in their own equally tawdry affairs. President Donald Trump has been impeached twice.<br /> <br /> 2001- Peter Jackson’s film ‘The Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Ring’ first opened. It was the first film to use the software Massive, which created hundreds of digital figures to recreate whole armies attacking and retreating. <br /> <br /> 2020- That evening at The White House Holiday Party, attorney Jenna Ellis was told that even though President Donald Trump had been told repeatedly he lost the election, he had no intention of leaving power. Something no president had dared do in 243 years of elections. “He intends to stay.” That night, Trump tweeted a message to his worked-up fans, “Come to the Capitol on Jan. 6th. It’s going to be wild.”<br /> ===============================================<br /> Yesterday’s question: In illustrations of Dickens A Christmas Carol, the ghost of Jacob Marley is always wearing a bandage around his head lengthwise. Why?<br /> <br /> ANSWER: When a person dies, the muscles and ligaments that hold the jaw to the rest of the skull relax and begin to break down, causing the mouth to gape open grotesquely. Back in the day, morticians would keep the cadaver from this unpleasant manifestation by the use of a chin strap or sometimes a simple cloth tied around the head to hold the jaw in place. That is what Marley’s ghost is wearing.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 18 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6334 <p>Quiz: In illustrations of Dickens A Christmas Carol, the ghost of Jacob Marley is always wearing a bandage around his head lengthwise. Why?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz Answered Below: In Literature, who was Rodion Raskolnikov?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/18/2023<br /> Birthdays: Antonio Stradivari, Karl Maria Von Weber, Ty Cobb, George Stevens, Ozzie Davis, Diane Disney-Miller, Anita O’Day, Paul Klee, Betty Grable, Willy Brandt, Keith Richards is 81, Leonard Maltin is 73, Alyssia Sanchez-Vaccario, Ray Liotta, Katie Holmes is 45, Brad Pitt is 59, Steven Spielberg is 77, Billy Ellis is 22.<br /> <br /> 1679- THE ROSE ALLEY AMBUSCADE- Writer and critic John Dryden was walking in the Rose Alley in Covent Garden when a group of thugs jumped him and beat him up. They had been hired by The Earl of Rochester, because Dryden had published an essay making fun of him. Other writers like Voltaire suffered similar attacks from powerful men who can’t take a joke. <br /> <br /> 1757- Frederick the Great’s army besieged the Fortress city of Breslau in Silesia (modern name Wroclaw). The Austrian garrison’s commander General Sprecher posted placards throughout the town threatening with death anyone who breathed a word of surrender- then he surrendered.<br /> <br /> 1783- The American Revolution now over, George Washington appeared before Congress in Philadelphia to resign his army commission and go home to Mount Vernon. This moment was when George Washington parts company with most conquerors like Cromwell, Napoleon and Castro. He had power, and then walked away. In Europe<br /> Kings George III and Louis XVI were amazed when they heard the news: That Washington, the great generalissimo, the most powerful man in the Americas, would give up his office so lightly, to return to his farm like some the legendary Roman –Cincinnatus to be exact. George Washington came out of retirement five years later to be the first U.S. president.<br /> <br /> 1787- New Jersey named the third state.<br /> <br /> 1812- NAPOLEON'S RETREAT FROM MOSCOW ENDED -Napoleon reached Paris by sled after racing ahead of his shattered army to prop up the tottering government.<br /> Of Napoleon's 600,000 troops that invaded Russia less than 60,000 frozen wretches came out. Insanely brave Marshal Ney was the last invader to re-cross the border. Alone, with bullets whistling past his ears, he calmly crossed the burning Neiman River bridge stopping to pick up abandoned muskets to fire them back at the pursuing Russians. After he fired a last shot he threw the empty rifle at them. <br /> When Napoleon got to his palace at Saint Cloud he was so filthy from the trip the doormen didn't recognize him, and wouldn't let him in. His first official acts after the public announcement of the disaster was ordering the Paris ballet dancers to dance commando, without tights. While that topic dominated society gossip, his second act was to give the French people a big tax cut. Watching King Louis XVI lose his head gave Nappy a healthy respect for the anger of the common people.<br /> <br /> 1812- The first volume of stories Children’s and Household Tales by the Brothers Grimm came out. The world learns of Rapunzel, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White.<br /> <br /> 1890-The first electric powered subway train opened in London. This allowed the subways to be built in closed tunnels (or tubes) under buildings. The older steam engine tube trains operating since 1863 needed an open trench for the coal smoke to be let out.<br /> <br /> 1912- THE PILTDOWN MAN- An announcement was made, of a find, in a peat pit, in England, of the remains of a human ancestor between ape and man, the so-called "Missing Link". The skull had canine teeth like an animal but it had an enlarged cranium like a man and was buried with primitive tools. This find was made at the time Darwin’s Evolutionary theories were being hotly debated. The authenticity of the Piltdown Man was thrown into question in 1949. When modern dating techniques were perfected, by 1953, the Piltdown Man was officially declared a hoax. The remains were too modern to be ancient and the canine teeth had been filed down by tiny files. It is generally believed that a practical joker named Martin Hinton at the British Museum of Natural History may have been the perpetrator.<br /> <br /> 1916- The terrible Battle of Verdun ended. It had been raging since February. German General Von Falkenhayn wanted to draw France into a meatgrinder battle and 'bleed her white'. After hundreds of thousands of casualties, he had done just as much damage to his own side. He lost his job. The Verdun cemetery contains 100,000 bones of Unknown soldiers. Even today in Verdun there are areas you cannot walk for fear of unexploded shells.<br /> <br /> 1917- Universum-Film AG (UFA) was founded as a consolidation of private film companies in Berlin.<br /> <br /> 1919- in France, composer Cole Porter married divorcee Linda Thomas. They stayed together all their long lives even though she knew that he preferred male companions.<br /> <br /> 1931- Gangster Jacky "Legs" Diamond had a penchant for recovering after being shot repeatedly by pistols and shotguns. It was said he had so much lead in him he could attract a magnet. Today someone finally shot him down and he didn't get up.<br /> <br /> 1937- Mae West did a comedy routine on national broadcast radio with Don Ameche about Adam &amp; Eve that was considered so suggestive CBS banned her from their network. At the same time she got fined by the networks for joking about ventriloquist puppet Charlie McCarthy:" Hmmm…he’s a yard long and all wood."<br /> <br /> 1940- Adolf Hitler and his generals promulgate the plans for Directive 21, the invasion of Soviet Russia next June. They name it Barbarossa after a legendary German Emperor, a contemporary of Richard the Lionhearted, who fought back the migrating Eastern Slavs.<br /> <br /> 1941- Japanese forces overwhelm the island post of Guam. 641 Marines against 5,000.<br /> <br /> 1944- MOE BERG AND THE NAZI EINSTEIN. Head of the German atomic program, Prof. Werner Heisenberg gave a lecture on S-matrix physics in Zurich, Switzerland. In the audience was Moe Berg, allied spy, amateur physicist and baseball catcher for the Washington Senators (sounds ridiculous but true). Before the war, Berg and Heisenberg were both friends with Danish physicist Niels Bohr, hence his invitation. U.S. intelligence gave Berg a pistol and instructed him to stand up and shoot Heisenberg dead on the spot, if he felt from the talk that the Nazis were close to finishing their Atomic Bomb. Moe Berg listened to the lecture, coolly schmoozed Heisenberg at the reception afterwards, and even walked him home, but did nothing. In the 1950's Berg was a frequent contestant on quiz shows. <br /> <br /> 1956- Japan was admitted into the UN.<br /> <br /> 1956- TV Game show To Tell the Truth made its debut. Bud Collyier hosting, and panelists like Kitty Carlisle, Bennett Cerf, Orson Bean and Dorothy Kilgallen as panelists.<br /> <br /> 1960- A young, eccentric man named Jerry Garcia was dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Army. He had done things like drive a tank into a field then walking away. He had been AWOL 8 times in one year. After leaving the army, Jerry Garcia became a hippie musician in San Francisco. In 1966 formed the rock band the Grateful Dead.<br /> <br /> 1961-" In the Jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps to-night… a winoweh, etc. " this song by the Tokens goes to #1 in pop charts.<br /> <br /> 1962- UPA’s Mr Magoo’s Christmas Carol directed by Abe Levitow, premiered on NBC. Songs by Bob Merrill and Jules Styne, who went on to write musicals like Funny Girl.<br /> <br /> 1964- DePatie-Frelengs The Pink Phink, the first Pink Panther cartoon short.<br /> <br /> 1966- Chuck Jones 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' premiered.<br /> <br /> 1970- An atomic leak at a Nevada weapons stockpile caused hundreds to flee.<br /> <br /> 1972- President Nixon announced that despite all the antiwar street protests he would continue to carpet-bomb North Vietnam and Laos until he got a negotiated settlement.<br /> <br /> 1975- Rod Stewart announced he was leaving the band Faces, for a solo singing career.<br /> <br /> 1978- SAG strikes Hollywood again for residuals. (again...)<br /> <br /> 1983- The film of Jean Shephard’s A Christmas Story opened to tepid reviews and weak box office, but on cable and video sales it became an annual holiday classic. <br /> <br /> 1984- Christopher Guest married Jamie Lee Curtis at Rob Reiner’s house .<br /> <br /> 1984- Pixar’s first short The Adventures of Andre and Wally-B released in theaters. Directed by Alvy Ray Smith and animated by John Lasseter. <br /> <br /> 1997- Comedian Chris Farley was found dead in his Chicago apartment in the John Hancock Tower, surrounded by empty food containers and porn magazines. The chubby 31-year-old had been partying for 17 straight hours doing cocaine, heroin, vodka and crystal-meth. His last words were to an exhausted prostitute:" Please don’t leave me.” Farley idolized the late John Belushi, who had also died of drugs and hard living at age 31. One writer recalled a drunken Farley once turned to him and asked:" Do you think Belushi is in heaven?"<br /> <br /> 1988- Don Bluth’s The Land Before Time opened.<br /> <br /> 1998- Dreamworks The Prince of Egypt”, opened wide in theatres. <br /> <br /> 2003- Gary Ridgeway, "The Green River Murderer" was sentenced to life in prison. In the 1980’s Ridgeway murdered 48 women in the Seattle area. "I murdered mostly prostitutes, because I figured nobody would miss them."<br /> <br /> 2009- A massive blizzard buried the U.S. east coast. Washington D.C. got 24 inches, the most December snow since the 1920s.<br /> <br /> 2015- Star Wars VII, The Force Awakens opened. J.J. Abrams reboot of the old Star Wars franchise became a box office phenomenon. It earned $247 million in its opening weekend and ended way over a billion and a half dollars.<br /> <br /> 2019- Congress voted to impeach President Donald Trump for attempting to enlist foreign governments like Russia to corrupt the 2016 election. We now know Russian hackers were actively involved in spreading disinformation on line in the 2016 election, but the conservative congress ensured no further investigation was ever made.<br /> <br /> 2020- “The Unhinged Meeting” The election was over, and electors had already cast their votes as outgoing President Trump called an unscheduled meeting at the Oval Office. Trump hangers-on like Rudy Giuliani, Michael Flynn, Sydney Powell and the former CEO of Overstock.com faced off with the regular White House staff and Chief Counsel. They spent the next six hours floating absurd ideas to keep Trump in power like seizing voting machines, declaring martial law and arresting objectors. Eyewitnesses could hear screaming and personal insults through the walls. When they finally left empty-handed, The Chief Counsel had to personally walk Giuliani out of the White House to make sure he didn’t double back in. That night at 1:42AM, outgoing Pres. Trump started tweeting about a rally on the 6th of January, the day the election results were scheduled to be certified in Congress.<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterdays question: In literature, who was Rodion Raskolnikov?<br /> <br /> Answer: He was the main character in Dostoyevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 17 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6333 <p>Quiz: In literature, who was Rodion Raskolnikov?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: What was Beetlejuice before it was a popular Tim Burton movie?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/17/2023<br /> Birthdays: Paracelsus (otherwise known as Nicholas Paracelsus Theophrastus Bombastus Von Hohenheim) the father of modern medical diagnosis, Antonio Cimmarosa, William Lyon Mackensie-King, Arthur Fiedler, Bob Guccione, William Safire, Cal Ripken Sr., Ford Maddox-Ford, Erskine Caldwell, Tommy Steele, Pope Francis I, Bill Pullman is 70, Eugene Levy is 77, Giovanni Ribisi is 49, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Wes Studi is 76, Sean Patrick Thomas, Mila Jovovich is 49, Bart Simpson is 34.<br /> <br /> ROMAN FESTIVAL OF SATURNALIA- Today was the first day of the festival of Saturn, the biggest holiday to the ancient Romans, one of the roots of Christmas. On this holiday no business was conducted, Roman families ate together, masters served their slaves, and gave them a day off. People gave each other gifts in pretty colored wrappings. Romans also decorated the outsides of their houses with wreaths and lights (oil lamps). Christians began using the Saturnalia as the birth festival of Jesus as early as 335AD. It was made official by the Pope in 885 AD. So, at sunset, face towards the setting sun and shout "Io, Io, Saturnalia!", for Hail Saturn!<br /> <br /> 1596- In a warning of what his son Charles I would face in England, this day Scottish King James VI was chased out of Edinburgh by his pushy Presbyterian Parliament. James responded with an economic blockade of his capitol by withholding royal grants and contracts until by New Years the populace was clamoring for his return.<br /> <br /> 1777- VALLEY FORGE- When Lord Howe’s British Army called the Christmas Truce and beds down in Philadelphia, George Washington’s army made camp not too far away at Valley Forge. The severe winter and poor conditions made Washington’s Army lose as many men as if there had been a battle. 2,500 out of 10,000 minutemen did not survive to see Spring. Meanwhile the local farmers sold their harvest to the British, who paid better.<br /> <br /> 1793 -Battle of Toulon begins. The French Revolutionary army tried to retake the Mediterranean seaport whose royalist population had invited in an occupation fleet of English, Spanish and Piedmontese. The commanding French generals were nervous about failure, because to first magistrate Robespierre failure meant the guillotine. So they yielded the initiative to a pushy 23-year-old artillery major with a funny Italian name- Napoleon Bonaparte.<br /> <br /> 1843- Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story for Christmas" first published. In the 18th century and earlier the Christmas celebration was a more rowdy affair with public drinking, marching around in costumes “mummery” and mayhem more resembling Mardi Gras. <br /> The popularity of Dickens story of Scrooge, Marley and Tiny Tim did much to help Victorians change the nature of the Christmas celebration to a more intimate observance centered on the family. Charles Dickens said he wrote the book to make money. He had two flops and wanted to capitalize on the new fashion for family Christmas celebrations set by the example of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.<br /> <br /> 1862- GRANT'S GENERAL ORDER #11- When Union army troops occupied large parts of Confederate Tennessee, southerners wondered what kind of retribution the angry U.S. government would wreak upon their heads. They were amazed when the new commander of the Union troops, Ulysses Grant, issued an order expelling all Jews from East Tennessee! His reasoning was that drygoods salesmen and were cheating his men. Abe Lincoln was shocked. "Isn't our country divided enough?!" The order was countermanded by the White House and Grant was ordered to apologize. Grant later admitted the criticism of his hasty order was justified, and he “should not have legislated against any one particular sect.” During the eight years of Grant’s presidency, memories of General Orders No. 11 surfaced repeatedly. Eager to prove that he was above prejudice, Grant appointed more Jews to public office than any of his predecessors. Jewish leader Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise noted at the time, that Grant had “often repented” of his order, and “that even the wise also fail.” ‘<br /> <br /> 1865- Schubert's Unfinished Symphony (#8) received its world premiere. In 1822 Schubert wrote the first two movements and 8 measures for the 3rd (Scherzo), then forgot about it when he died in 1828. A friend kept the manuscript in a trunk for 43 years.<br /> <br /> 1892- Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet “The Nutcracker” premiered at the Imperial Ballet in Saint Petersburg. One child dancer playing a candy cane in that first performance was a Georgian boy named Gyorgi Balavadajze- later American choreographer George Balanchine.<br /> <br /> 1902- THE VENEZUELA CRISIS- Kaiser Wilhelm threatened Venezuela with naval blockade and invasion if she did not pay her international debts. US President Teddy Roosevelt sent Admiral Dewey with 23 battleships to the Caribbean and threatened war. Der Kaiser backed down and war was avoided. This incident was kept secret for seventy years. It’s when Teddy first said:” Speak softly and carry a big stick!”<br /> <br /> 1903- THE AIRPLANE- Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. For one minute a powered aircraft flew. Orville finished the day with a telegram to their father minding the bicycle shop back in Dayton Ohio: “ Success. Four Flights Thursday Morning against twenty-one mile an hour wind. Inform press home for Christmas.” The news failed to get into most national newspapers. <br /> The Wrights themselves maintained a strict secrecy because they knew rivals like Glen Curtis, the French, and Smithsonian professor William Langley were all close to inventing an airplane as well. The sensation of the airplane didn’t really become widespread until the Wrights demonstrated their plane in France in 1908 and in New York Harbor in 1909. In 1913 Curtis took Langley’s flying machine the Aerodrome out of storage and flew it to prove to the Smithsonian that the Wright Brothers were not the first. The bitter disputes lasted the length of their lives.<br /> <br /> 1917- Lenin created the first Communist Secret Police, the Cheka, led by Iron Felix Derszhinsky:” My thoughts induce me to be without pity.” In a few months the Cheka executed more people than the Czars’ police the Okrana did in all of the XIX Century. The Cheka in Stalin’s time was called the OGPU, then NKVD, his executioners in the Great Purges. After Stalin, their name was changed to the KGB, the great spy and Secret Police operation set to bedevil their counterparts in the west- the CIA and MI5. The KGB was disbanded in 1991, and today is called the FSB. Russian Premier Vladimir Putin began his career as a KGB agent.<br /> <br /> 1928- Under orders from Josef Stalin, the Central Committee of the Soviet Union first declared that all rural land belonged to the community. All landowners were enemies of the state. This began The War on the Kulaks- the name for middle class peasants who owned some farmland. The purges of Kulaks, and famine from forced collectivization killed millions.<br /> <br /> 1934- First test flight of the Donald Douglas' DC-3, the most widely used airplane in aviation history. Unchanged for almost 60 years, the two engine DC-3 was the backbone of most of the world's first passenger airlines and with the military name C-47 (the Gooney Bird) it became the workhorse cargo plane of from World War II until Vietnam. There are still some DC-3's in service in some small countries.<br /> <br /> 1939- THE GRAF SPEE- The world media in the opening weeks of World War II were dominated by news of an epic sea duel between the British Navy and a German battleship. The British pursued the Graf Spee across the Atlantic into Montevideo Harbor in neutral Uruguay. This day while the sun was setting, radio broadcasters stayed on the air live and 250,000 spectators lined the shoreline to see if the Graf Spee would come out and fight. Instead, the tropical quiet was rent by a huge explosion. Kapitan Zur See Langersdorf had scuttled his own ship. <br /> British intelligence had done a masterful job of fooling Kapitan Langersdorf into believing heavy naval reinforcements including the aircraft carrier Ark Royal were closing in on him, while in actual fact they were nowhere in the vicinity. All there was to try and stop the German battleship were three badly damaged light cruisers. After sinking the Graf Spee, Langersdorf wrapped himself in a German flag and shot himself. Interestingly he didn't use a Nazis swastika flag but wrapped himself in the old German Imperial Navy ensign. He also refused to give the stiff arm Nazis party salute.<br /> <br /> 1941- As if he hadn’t put his foot in his mouth badly enough already, Charles Lindbergh does it again today. After earlier in the year railing on about the “International Jewish Conspiracy pushing America into war” today in a speech Lucky Lindy denounced the war with Germany:” The only real threat to America is the threat of the Yellow Race. Japan and China are united against the white race. And our only natural ally is Germany”. This even after the public was enraged over Pearl Harbor. Secretary of the Treasury Robert Morgenthau told President Roosevelt: “I am convinced this guy is a Nazi”. Charles Lindbergh lived a long life, but never apologized or recanted his views.<br /> <br /> 1944- The MALMEDY MASSACRE- The largest documented atrocity committed on U.S. troops in Europe in World War II. During the Battle of the Bulge Nazi Waffen S.S. troops rounded up a large group of U.S. prisoners and machined gunned them all. 87 men of Battery B, 285th Field Artillery died. The atrocity stiffened U.S. resistance to the Nazis advance. The furor over President Reagan's laying a wreath at the Bitburg cemetery in 1985 was that some of the guilty SS of Malmedy were buried there. <br /> One of the leaders of the massacre, Major Otto Wolf, did some prison time after the war and lived quietly until 1967, when he was found shot to death in his burning house, a smoking rifle in his hands like he was defending himself. Obviously, someone had not forgotten.<br /> <br /> 1944- During the Battle of the Bulge, near Krinkelt Belgium, Sgt. José Mendoza López picked up a heavy machine gun and held off a massed German assault all by himself. An orphan from Oaxaca, Mexico who moved to Texas, he stood up in a snowy foxhole offering no cover and mowed down waves of attacking soldiers, covering the retreat of his buddies. Sgt. Lopez was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and lived to be 94, dying in 2005. He credited his success to the Virgin of Guadalupe.<br /> <br /> 1944- As the extent of the German offensive in the Ardennes became clear, General Eisenhower declared the Belgian town of Bastogne would be the key. He ordered the 82nd and 101st Airborne to go there and hold the town at all costs.<br /> <br /> 1944- The U.S. War Department issued Public Proclamation 21, stating that all Americans of Japanese ancestry could leave their internment camps and finally go home.<br /> <br /> 1955- Carl Perkins awoke in the middle of a bad nights sleep and wrote Blue Suede Shoes, the first song to be a hit in Country, R&amp;B and Rock n’ Roll charts simultaneously, especially when sung by Elvis Presley” Well you can knock me down, step on ma face, etc.”<br /> <br /> 1963- Americans began to hear on their transistor radios a new sound from a band from England named the Beatles. “I wanna hold your hand” becomes a big hit and heralds the British rock invasion in 1964. <br /> <br /> 1969- Tiny Tim, the campy, ukulele strumming crooner, married his Miss Vicky, or Victoria Budinger live on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.<br /> <br /> 1969- The US Air Force terminated Operation Blue Book, the investigation of UFO phenomena.<br /> <br /> 1969- The Walt Disney Studio re-released Fantasia, and it was embraced by hippy stoners who liked to get high during screenings, Disney did a black-lite poster for it. It was the first time the 1940 film had ever made a profit. <br /> <br /> 1971- After the last Pakistani forces surrendered East Pakistan to invading Indian armies, East Pakistan was declared the independent nation of Bangladesh.<br /> <br /> 1989- Communist dictator Nicholas Cercescu ordered the Romanian Army to open fire on democratic protesters in Timisoara. Two thousand were killed. This incident pushed elements of the Army to turn their guns on the government. The Romanian Revolution was the most violent of the Communist regime changes of Eastern Europe. <br /> <br /> 1989- After appearing in interstitial shorts on the variety Tracey Ullman Show, The Simpsons first premiered as a regular TV series. Season 1, Episode 1, Simpsons roasting on an open fire. “<br /> <br /> 1999- The film Stuart Little premiered. Directed by Rob Minkoff.<br /> <br /> 2001- Kellogg, Brown &amp; Root, a subsidiary of the Haliburton Corporation, was awarded a ten-year no-bid contract to provide the U.S. Army with everything from firefighting to building bases to serving meals. Soldiers won’t dig latrines, because KBR port-o-pottys will be there. A soldier couldn’t wipe his face with a towel that didn’t have a KBR logo on it. Haliburton made $39 billion in the Iraq War. Vice President Cheney was a senior stockholder of Haliburton.<br /> <br /> 2010- The Arab Spring- Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26 year old peddler in Tunisia, had his pushcart confiscated for being unable to pay a fine. It was his only source of income to feed his family. He protested by standing in front of a police station and setting himself on fire. As Bouazizi died, Tunisians rose in massive protests and overthrew their longtime President Ben Ali. The pro-democracy protests quickly spread to Egypt, then Bahrain, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Jordan, Syria and all over the strongman one party states of the Middle East.<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What was Beetlejuice before it was a popular Tim Burton movie?<br /> <br /> Answer: Betelgeus is a red-giant star in our neighboring system Orion. Large enough to be visible to the named eye at night. The dying star is expected to disappear in about 10,000 years. Set your timer!</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 16 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6332 <p>Quiz: What was Beetlejuice before it was a popular Tim Burton movie?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What is the correct way to spell Chanukah, err…Hanukkah, um...Chanukkah? <br /> <br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/16/2023<br /> Birthdays: Ludwig Van Beethoven, Catherine of Aragon (Henry VIII's wife # 1), Marshal Gerbhard von Blucher, Lenoid Brezhnev, Jane Austen, Margaret Mead, Noel Coward, George Santayanna, Caroline Munro. Steve Bochco, Leslie Stahl. Quentin Blake- dean of British illustrators favored by Roald Dahl, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, Miranda Otto is 56, Liv Ullmann is 85.<br /> <br /> 250 Anniv 1773- THE BOSTON TEA PARTY- The British Parliament had angered the colonists of New England by disallowing any tea to be imported except by British vessels and then a heavy tax to the Crown was to be paid on its purchase. As New England women began to develop alternatives from grass and dandelions-what we now call Herbal Teas- the men of Boston threatened violence on any merchant who dared sell English tea. <br /> On Nov 28th the good ship Dartmouth anchored at Griffith's Wharf (today called Independence Wharf), with 144 tons of tea to be cleared of customs by December 17th. A mob gathered at the Old South Meeting House to discuss what to do. The call was made for 'The Mohawks!" In the crowd were Paul Revere and artist Jonathan Trumbull. At 6:00 p.m. this night, men disguised as Indians boarded the Dartmouth overpowered the crew and tossed crates of tea into the harbor. <br /> British Admiral Montague watched the mischief from his warship across the harbor, but didn't take any action "for fear of civilian casualties." He well remembered the political repercussions a few years earlier, when His Majesties troops fired into a snowball throwing crowd and the radical Yankees labelled it the Boston Massacre.<br /> Next morning, all of Boston developed mass amnesia. No one seemed to know who did the deed? One man waited until he was ninety-three years old and the Revolution long over before he said who was there that night.<br /> <br /> 1777- The Comte’ De Vergennes, the foreign minister of the King of France, informed Ambassador Benjamin Franklin that France was now willing to recognize the United States and help in her war against Britain. <br /> The previous year, British Prime Minister Lord North declared in Parliament that he doubted any crown in Europe would ever support the American rebels. "They would be laying the foundation for an American empire, whose forces would missionary a radical form of democracy around the world."<br /> <br /> 1796- THE YEAR OF THE FRENCH- Wolf Tone, sort of the Irish Malcolm X, convinced Revolutionary France to send an army of 14,000 troops to help the Irish revolt against Britain. The French fleet that set out was beset with problems from the beginning. The French ships did so many maneuvers to avoid the British Navy that they got lost, their Admiral got mixed up in a fog and some ships struck rocks. Finally the whole expedition gave up and went home within sight of the Irish Coastline. Wolf Tone wrote bitterly:" I could have hit the shoreline with a biscuit!”<br /> <br /> 1811- First of the New Madrid earthquakes, est 7.5 Richter, hit the Mississippi valley. <br /> <br /> 1824- PUBLISH AND BE DAMNED! - Was the response of the Duke of Wellington to a Mr. John Stockdale, who wrote him that he intended to publish the reminiscences of one of London's most notorious courtesans named Harriet Wilson. The beautiful Miss Wilson had slept with most of the leading men of London society. She intended to name Wellington as one of her frequent customers during the period 1805-1808, unless of course he chose to have his name removed- for 200 pounds. But such was the Iron Duke's famous answer.<br /> <br /> 1826- Benjamin Edwards rode into Nacogdoches Texas and tried to declare it the free Republic of Freedonia. None of the other Yankee settlers knew what he was talking about. As soon as regular Mexican troops arrived to arrest him, Edwards fled. He presaged future events in Texas. The only other thing it did was give the Marx Brothers a good name for their fictional country in the 1934 movie Duck Soup.<br /> <br /> 1835- THE FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION FORMED- After numerous revolts in Paris streets since 1789, Napoleon’s elderly friend Marshal Soult came up with a novel idea: Take all those street ruffians who made "Le Miserables" so colorful, put them in uniform and send them to the Sahara and hopefully they'll all get killed. The Foreign Legion has fought France’s wars from Madagascar to Mexico. To this day the Legion Étranger' takes anyone from any nation from 16 to 40, no questions asked. Their motto- “Marche ou Creve”, March or Die”. <br /> <br /> 1835- The Great Fire of New York City. A fire started at 9:00PM in a small shop on Merchant St. Because of the cold, fire hydrants and hoses froze and the rival volunteer fire departments argued over who got there first. The fire quickly grew out of control. It raged for four days- consumed 700 buildings over thirteen acres. Four hundred Philadelphia firemen had to come to the rescue.<br /> <br /> 1838- THE BATTLE OF BLOOD RIVER- Dutch-German Boers of South Africa had piled into their laager wagons and embarked north on the Great Trekk to get away from British authority in Capetown. When they crossed into the territory of the Zulu king Dingane their leaders went to make a pact with him to settle in his territory. Dingane welcomed the Vortrekker leaders into his camp, then killed them and pounded wooden stakes into their eyes. On this day the Boers exacted a terrible vengeance on the Zulu, shooting up their tribe and burning their abandoned capitol. They found the remains of their dead leader Piet Restiv with the signed covenant still in his bag. For years afterwards White Afrikaners celebrated this day as Covenant Day, or Dingane Day.<br /> <br /> 1863- The first of the Union wounded from the battle of Fredericksburg began to trickle into Washington DC. The organizer of the hospital suppliers, then called the Sanitary Commission was Frederick Law Olmstead the designer of New York’s Central Park. Writers Louisa May Alcott and Walt Whitman volunteered and served as nurses for the sick. Whitman had tried several odd jobs and had just published a thin quarto of poems entitled the Leaves of Grass, which polite society considered vulgar.<br /> <br /> 1871- BOSS TWEED INDICTED- William Marcy Tweed as New York City Commissioner of Public Works was behind one of the most corrupt city governments in U.S. history. Tweed mobilized poor and immigrant voters into political power and bought and sold city building projects. The cost overruns to build a simple courthouse cost more than the total cost to build the British Parliament in London- $13 million dollars. For example he once billed the city $14,000 for 11 thermometers. <br /> The press tried to expose him, but it was really Thomas Nast’s cartoons in Harper’s Weekly who helped bring the Tweed Ring down. Boss Tweed said: "I don’t mind the newspaper articles since most of my voters can’t read, but those damn pictures!" Tweed once offered Nast half a million dollars to go to Europe and "study art". Nast refused. Boss Tweed ended his life in the Ludlow Street Jail, which he himself built.<br /> <br /> 1900 -EARLY ANIMATED FILM "ENCHANTED DRAWINGS', James Stuart Blackton was a New York World cartoonist who used to do a lightning-drawing act on the vaudeville circuit. He came to do an article on Thomas Edison, then Edison engaged him to make a film of his act. He created this and several other trickfilms. It doesn’t move much more than his vaudeville act. His 1906 film Humorous Phases of Funny Faces is considered the first animated cartoon.<br /> <br /> 1905- Variety magazine born. <br /> <br /> 1907- THE WHITE FLEET- Pres. Teddy Roosevelt sent a big badass fleet of US Navy battleships all painted white on a round-the-world cruise. It was billed as a goodwill tour, but in an age when battleships were the viewed like nukes are today, the message to other world powers was obvious. That the USA would now be a serious player in world affairs. Teddy exulted” Doesn’t the sight of those big battleships get your pulse racing?” <br /> <br /> 1913- When his lead actor quit, Max Sennett recalled a young English music hall actor he saw with Fred Karno’s troupe back east. He wrote, “I think his name was Carson, or Caslon, or Chaplin?” This day Charlie Chaplin signed a contract at Sennett’s Keystone Studios in Hollywood. $150 a week. In his first film he would play a villain.<br /> <br /> 1935- Hollywood movie star Thelma Todd found dead in her car in her garage in Malibu She was 30. She was a sexy comedienne who could hold her own with Laurel &amp; Hardy, Buster Keaton and the Marx Brothers. She loved to party so much she was nicknamed "Hot Toddy". She dated New York gangster Lucky Lucciano. Was she done in by the mob, her jealous director boyfriend, was it a suicide or did she just pass out drunk in her car garage with the motor running? The mystery’s never been answered.<br /> <br /> 1944- THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE- In his last gamble, Adolf Hitler scraped together his remaining army reserves armed with new King Tiger tanks and launched them in an attack through the center of the allied armies. The Nazis panzers were spearheaded by a group of commandos in G.I. uniforms trained in American slang and baseball scores to confuse communications. They calculated to launch their offensive during a heavy snowstorm when the superior Allied air forces would have to be grounded.<br /> After chasing the Germans across France to the Rhine, the Americans had come to consider the Krauts a defeated enemy. So, they were taken completely by surprise. One US POW noted as he was brought to the rear, seeing hundreds or Germans in fresh uniforms and new tanks. General Eisenhower had just gotten his fifth general's star and was attending the wedding of his orderly Rickie in Versailles when he got the news. Rickie’s bride was Pearlie.<br /> The German attack was so successful that Franklin Roosevelt wanted to drop the first atomic bomb on Berlin. The offensive eventually stalled and was beaten back at the cost of 70,000 U.S. casualties; the most Americans killed and wounded in any single battle in history.<br /> <br /> 1948- A top Truman Presidential aide named Alger Hiss was indicted for perjury for lying to a Federal Grand Jury about passing secrets to a Communist turncoat agent named Whittaker Chambers. Chambers told so many lies that he was discredited as a witness, but Hiss was convicted on circumstantial evidence like microfilm found concealed in a pumpkin- The Pumpkin Papers. <br /> The case of such a high ranking US official being a spy stoked the anti-commie paranoia of the 1950’s. Even decades later with the principle players dead, Communist Russia gone and the KGB files opened, the scholars continue to argue.<br /> <br /> 1966- New York Police raid the offices of Bernard Spindle, a freelance surveillance expert who bugged the phones of the rich and powerful. They carted off all his tapes and records; including tapes he claimed proved Marilyn Monroe’s sexual hijinks with President John Kennedy. He was later informed all his tapes were lost. Spindle’s career was the inspiration for the movies The Conversation and the Enemy of the State.<br /> <br /> 1966- The Jimi Hendrix Experience released the song ‘Hey Joe’.<br /> <br /> 1966- Sergio Leone’s epic spaghetti western, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly premiered in Rome. The last of the Man with No Name trilogy. Clint Eastwood never worked with Leone again. <br /> <br /> 1971- Don McClean released the long version of the song ‘American Pie’.<br /> <br /> 1973- O.J. Simpson became the first NFL player to rush for 2,000 yards in a season.<br /> <br /> 1978- The Disney short The Small One, directed by Don Bluth. <br /> <br /> 1980- Colonel Harland Sanders, the Kentucky Fried Chicken founder, died.<br /> <br /> 1988- Shockjock Howard Stern is fined $100,000 by the FCC for having on his radio show a man who could play the piano with his penis.<br /> <br /> 1993- Producer Aaron Spelling fired star Shannon Dougherty off the TV soap Beverly Hills 90210.<br /> <br /> 1998- The premiere of Dreamworks’ The Prince of Egypt. <br /> <br /> 1999- Julie Andrews, star of Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, sued New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital for destroying her singing voice during a routine throat operation. <br /> <br /> 2009- Roy E. Disney died, the Walt Disney nephew who oversaw the great animation resurgence of the 1990s.<br /> <br /> 2016- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opened in theaters. <br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is the correct way to spell Chanukah, err…Hanukkah, um...Chanukkah? <br /> <br /> Answer: According to our friend the Rabbi Gladestone: Generally, the word starts with H or Ch, the second consonant is nn or n, the third consonant is kk or k and ends with ends with ah or a. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, there are currently 24 correct spellings of the holiday. (I wonder if that includes the Hebrew חֲנֻכָּה.)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 14 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6331 <p>Question: What kind of music is Zydeco Music?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: True or False: Jingle Bells was not written to be a Christmas Carol.<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/14/2023<br /> Birthdays: 1553-King Henry IV of Navarre*, Tycho Brahe, Nostradamus -Michel de Notre Dame-1503, English King George VI- 1895, Spike Jones the bandleader, Morey Amsterdam, Charlie Rich, Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, Lee Remick, Patty Duke, Adult film star Ginger Lynn, Clark Terry- trumpeter. Cecil Pay, Saxophonist, Jane Birkin "Je t'aime moi non plus" is 76.<br /> <br /> *Henry of Navarre 1555-1610 was one of Frances most beloved kings. When he was born his father Duke Antoine du Bourbon rubbed garlic on his lips and gave him wine to be strong. One of Frances horniest kings, even as an infant, his suckling dried up 8 wet nurses!<br /> <br /> Welcome to the first day of what is referred to as the HALCYON DAYS. (Hal-see-on). The seven days prior to and after the Winter Solstice, a time of tranquility and peace. Supposedly, no storms happen. In 1867 Walt Whitman wrote a poem about the Halycon Days in "Leaves of Grass", using it as a metaphor for the time in the winter of one's life, when contentment replaces the "turbulent passions" of younger years.<br /> <br /> 1575- The Parliament of the Polish Commonwealth had a unusual system of electing foreign princes to be their king. This day they invited Transylvanian Duke Stefan Bathory to come be king. Bathory turned out to be an okay king. He defeated Russian Czar Ivan the Terrible’ armies in battle, frustrating his efforts to gain an outlet to Western trade. But his niece Elizabeth Bathory was a bit strange. Called The Blood Countess. <br /> <br /> 1776- After chasing George Washington's miserable little rebel army from New York to Philadelphia, British General Lord William Howe announced the customary Christmas truce, and beds his army down for the winter. His subordinate Lord Percy wrote home:” It’s just about over with those people. We shall be home shortly.” Back in occupied New York City, Lord Howe took as a mistress Betsy Loring, the wife of his Boston superintendent of prisons. Mr. Loring grew rich on army contracts so he did not mind. A rebel poem of the time said: "Sir William He, snug as a Flea, lay in his bed a Snorring. Nor thought of Harm, as he lay Warm, in bed with Mrs......"<br /> <br /> 1782- British troops evacuated Charleston South Carolina, in preparation for the final peace treaty ending the American Revolution.<br /> <br /> 1798- David Wilkinson of Rhode Island patented a machine that made the new fangled inventions- metal screws, nuts and bolts.<br /> <br /> 1799- GEORGE WASHINGTON DIED. Washington had retired to Mount Vernon after his last presidential term in 1796. On Dec. 12th he went riding five hours during a sleet storm and caught the flu. Another theory was a viral infection of the epiglottis.<br /> He might still have survived had it not been for modern medicine. Doctors bled him of four pints of blood, while applying leeches, mustard sulfur packs and laxatives to purge him of the ill humors. He developed pneumonia and died swiftly. Because coma was so little understood, people had a dread of premature burial. Washington left instructions that his body be left out several days to make sure he was dead before being sealed in a tomb. After assurances put his mind at ease his last words were:" Tis well." No priests or religious last rites were performed. Washington turned away a minister who offered. He was 67 years old, and always predicted he would not live very long. <br /> <br /> The US government wanted to place his tomb at the center of the planned dome in the capitol building, but Washington’s wish was to be in a simple tomb in Mt. Vernon. He also freed all his 137 slaves and sent them each off with a pension. <br /> <br /> 1819- Alabama was separated out from Mississippi territory and made a new state. Under Spanish rule Alabama was known as West Florida.<br /> <br /> 1861- Albert the Prince Consort, husband of Queen Victoria, died at 42. Even though he died of typhoid fever, which was common in those times, Victoria blamed her son Bertie (Edward VII)'s sexual escapades as causing her beloved husband's heartbreak. One of Albert’s last acts was to tone down the diplomatic response to the Trent Affair, which avoided war with the United States. <br /> Victoria wore mourning for the rest of her long life. She withdrew from formal politics for 12 years. She had Albert's rooms at Balmoral and Osborne kept like he was still there. Every single night for 40 years the servants would lay out his clothes and a basin of warm water like for some invisible user. <br /> She kept the cast of his hand on her night table at night so she could reach out to touch it for reassurance. When she died in 1901 after reigning 64 years her last words were "Albert..."<br /> <br /> 1863- Battle of Bean’s Station. Confederates in Tennessee defeated Yankees.<br /> <br /> 1871- Verdi's opera "Aida" debuts in Cairo.<br /> <br /> 1894- Socialist union leader Eugene Debs was sentenced to six months in jail for organizing sympathy actions for the railroad workers striking the Pullman company. Debs young lawyer handling his first case was Clarence Darrow.<br /> <br /> 1901- The first Ping-Pong tournament held in London.<br /> <br /> 1911- Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and four others first reached the South Pole, winning the race against Captain Robert Falcon Scott.<br /> <br /> 1918- Cartoonist Johnny Gruelle entertained his dying daughter Marcella, by making up stories involving her rag dollies. After her passing, friends urged Gruelle to publish them. The RAGGEDY ANN &amp; ANDY stories are born.<br /> <br /> 1924- Ottorino Respighi ‘s rhapsody The Pines of Rome premiered.<br /> <br /> 1927- Charles Lindbergh does one last flight with his famous monoplane the Spirit of Saint Louis, from Washington to Mexico City. This is at the request of American Ambassador Dwight Murrow who wanted to improve Mexican-American relations. Lindbergh would not only improve relations, but also marry Murrow's daughter Anne. To make the flight a challenge Lindbergh took off at night in a rainstorm to prove air travel was safe. The President of Mexico and 150,000 people greeted him in Mexico City. <br /> <br /> When flying he noticed many Mexican towns had signs named 'Caballeros' in their railroad stations. He reasoned Caballeros must be a popular name for a town.<br /> <br /> 1934- March of the Wooden Soldiers, the Hal Roach version of Babes in Toyland with Laurel &amp; Hardy opened. Walt Disney had been trying hard to get the rights to Babes in Toyland for his first animated feature but lost out. Despite that, Walt and Hal Roach were good friends, and Walt allowed him to put a Mickey-looking mouse character in the film. <br /> <br /> 1944- Hollywood starlet Lupe Velez, the "Mexican Spitfire' committed suicide. She had taken an overdose of sleeping pills and laid herself out in a beautiful negligee of her own design to be found radiant in repose. But instead of dying immediately, the pills made her sick and she was found dead with her head in the toilet. In her prime she counted Gary Cooper, Anthony Quinn and Johnny Weissmuller among her lovers. When Weissmuller was filming Tarzan the studio complained to her that their lovemaking was so...err.. exhuberant?....that she was leaving fingernail scratch marks all over his back. The makeup department complained of all the effort to cover them.<br /> <br /> 1944- The film National Velvet premiered, making a star out of 12 year old Elizabeth Taylor.<br /> <br /> 1945- Nazis camp guard Josef Brodsky “The Beast of Belsen”, was hanged.<br /> <br /> 1947- The National Association of Stock Car Racing or NASCAR formed.<br /> <br /> 1953- Young pitcher Sandy Koufax was signed by the Dodgers. He became one of their most famous pitchers of all time.<br /> <br /> 1957- Hanna Barbera's first TV cartoon "Ruff and Ready" premiered.<br /> <br /> 1962- Mariner II reached the planet Venus. The first manmade probe to reach another planet. Although it stopped working, it’s still up there in orbit between Venus and Mercury.<br /> <br /> 1967- Greek generals overthrow King Constantine II and rule by junta led by General George Papadapolos.<br /> <br /> 1970- George Harrison’s single My Sweet Lord went gold.<br /> <br /> 1972- THE LAST MAN LEAVES THE MOON. Apollo 17 blasts off. We all remember the first man on the moon, but do you remember the last? Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmidt. President Nixon annoyed NASA by saying he doubted that men would return to the moon in the remainder of the Twentieth Century, but he was right.<br /> <br /> 1974- Irwin Allen’s disaster film The Towering Inferno, opened.<br /> <br /> 1977- DISCO! The movie Saturday Night Fever starring John Travolta and the music of the Bee Gees make the Disco dancing scene a national craze.<br /> <br /> 1979- STUDIO 54 RAIDED- The Internal Revenue Service busted the worlds most famous disco club. Formerly the hangout of Andy Warhol, Bianca Jagger, Truman Capote and other “Beautiful People”, now the Feds were on to them. The IRS seized doctored account books, cocaine and undeclared cash, landing the owners in jail and bringing the celebrity playlands days to an end. <br /> <br /> 1983- Disney Studio released the short film Frankenweenie, by a weird young artist named Tim Burton. He was promptly fired upon its completion for wasting company resources. Later in 2012, when he was THE Tim Burton, he remade Frankenweenie as a full length stop-motion film.<br /> <br /> 1984- David Lynch’s version of Dune, with Kyle McClanahan.<br /> <br /> 2012- SANDY HOOK. Emotionally disturbed man Adam Lanza shot up a kindergarten school in Newtown Conn, killing 27 including his mother and 20 little children. Twenty years later nothing has changed. <br /> <br /> 2015- Hollywood premiere for J.J. Abrams reboot of the Star Wars franchise, Star Wars the Force Awakens. <br /> <br /> 2017- Rupert Murdoch sold off much of the Twentieth Century Fox Studio to Walt Disney for $66 billion. He kept his FoxNews division.<br /> ==========================================================<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: True or False: Jingle Bells was not written to be a Christmas Carol.<br /> <br /> Answer: True. Minister had moved from Boston to Savannah Georgia, but he missed New England winters. So he wrote a song about what fun it is ride in one-horse open sleigh.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 13 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6330 <p>Question: True or False: Jingle Bells was not written to be a Christmas Carol.<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: Ingmar Bergman’s famous movie was The Seventh Seal. What does the Seventh Seal mean? Where did it come from?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/13/2023<br /> Birthdays: Heinrich Heine, Mary Todd Lincoln, Mike Mosley, Darryl Zanuck Jr., George Schulz, Christopher Plummer, Steve Buscemi is 67, Jamie Fox is 54, Lynn Holly Johnson, Wendy Malick, Taylor Swift is 34, Dick Van Dyke is 98<br /> <br /> 305AD -Today is the Feast of Saint Lucy, who was ordered by the Romans to be raped in a brothel, set on fire, stabbed to death, and to stop men saying how beautiful her eyes were, she ripped them out and handed them over on a plate. But they miraculously grew back. St. Lucy is the patron saint of opticians.<br /> <br /> 863- Duke Baldwin Iron Arm married Lady Judith du Kales.<br /> <br /> 1250 -Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II "Stupor Mundi" the Wonder of the World, his spirit broken by endless quarrels with the Pope and rebellious Italian city states, expired at age 52. Frederick had tried to re-form back the old Roman Empire but only succeeded in making Italy and Germany more divided than ever. Meanwhile France, England and Spain were developing into centralized nation states. The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation or the 1st Reich, was never as powerful again. <br /> <br /> 1264- THE HOUSE OF COMMONS- Victorious rebel English Earl Simon de Monfort called for a meeting in Westminster of a Parliament of all nobles, clergy and common folk of the realm. It's probably the first time since the ancient Roman republic anybody had asked the common people their opinion about anything. <br /> King Henry III and Prince Edward Longshanks couldn't argue because Simon had them locked up in the Tower. To make sure Earl Simon had bishops pronounce the most fearful oaths of excommunication on anyone who dared undo his creation. So even after Longshanks escaped and had DeMonfort chopped into mincemeat, the institution of the House of Commons remained.<br /> <br /> 1543- THE COUNCIL OF TRENT convened- Officially called the XIX Ecumenical Council, this conference launched the Catholic Counter-Reformation against the Protestant reformation.<br /> <br /> 1577- Francis Drake on his ship The Golden Hind weighed anchor and set sail from Plymouth. His crew thought they were on a quiet diplomatic mission to the Mediterranean, but once out to sea he told them they were really going to sail around South America and raid the Spanish treasure ships on the Pacific side. They circumnavigated the globe, not returning for three years. They even found a strange new place called California!<br /> <br /> 1642- Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in the Pacific came upon a big island near Australia and named it for the Dutch province of Zeeland, so New Zealand. He also explored Fiji and Tonga and found another island and called it Van Deiman’s Land, but it was later named in his honor as Tasmania.<br /> <br /> 1672- Polish King Jan Casimir died a monk in Paris. He was king during a period of terrible wars with Russia, the Cossacks of the Ukraine, Turkey and Sweden. But he was pacific by nature. One saying was “the only battles Jan Casimir ever saw were woven in his Dutch carpets!”<br /> <br /> 1769- Dartmouth College founded.<br /> <br /> 1775- the U.S. National Guard formed.<br /> <br /> 1862- BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG- Union General Ambrose Burnside (who created the men’s fashion-"sideburns") made his men attempt a frontal attack uphill on a Confederate position of concentrated fire that " a chicken couldn't live through." <br /> The massed regiments of bluecoats were mowed down wave after wave in one of the worst disasters in U.S. Army history. The New York Fighting 69th, the all Irish brigade, fell dead in even rows shielding their eyes from the bullets as though they were rain. They shouted “Faugh au Ballagh!” Gaelic for “Clear the Way!” They left 53% of their men dead on the field. In all 13,000 Yankees died to a mere handful of confederates. <br /> One rebel general, sickened by the stupidity of it all, said: "This ain't war, it's just plain murder." After the defeat, Burnside rode past some of his men, a kissass major tried shouting "Three cheers for the General!" and was met with stony silence. <br /> <br /> 1872- The town council of Abilene, Kansas fired Wild Bill Hickok as sheriff. They said he was more violent than most of the criminals he arrested.<br /> <br /> 1895- Gustav Mahlers 2nd Symphony “Resurrection” premiered.<br /> <br /> 1928- Leopold Damrosch conducted the premiere of George Gershwin's -"An American in Paris."<br /> <br /> 1936- At the urging of New Yorker editor Harold Ross to find a better line of work, actor Dave Chasen opened Chasen's restaurant in Beverly Hills, which catered to Hollywood stars for 60 years. It is the restaurant where Leopold Stokowski was introduced to Walt Disney and as a result they conceived "Fantasia". Humphrey Bogart, John Huston and Lauren Bacall met upstairs to discuss the Blacklist of 1947. The Shirley Temple cocktail was invented there so little Shirley Temple could hang with the big boys after work. Elizabeth Taylor ordered Chasen’s chili flown out to Rome so she could eat it on the set of Cleopatra. The restaurant closed in 1995 because the Chasen family wanted to cash in on the choice real estate. Today it is a supermarket. They keep one booth intact as a display. <br /> <br /> 1937- THE RAPE OF NANKING- The Japanese army captured the Nationalist capitol of China. The Japanese generals let their soldiers run amok for three weeks, raping and murdering civilians by the thousands. Japanese who refused to kill the innocent were punished by their officers. Typical was two officers who held a contest to see who could behead more Chinese with their samurai swords. The winner killed 106 and the contest was reported in Tokyo newspapers on their sports pages. <br /> When their commanding General Matsui returned from convalescent leave, he was horrified and ordered a stop. That got him recalled home in disgrace. The unprecedented brutality shocked the world, remember the full horrors of World War II were still years in the future.<br /> <br /> 1937-THE GOOD NAZI- During the Rape of Nanking, in an ironic twist, the women and children of the foreign delegations were protected from the rampaging Japanese soldiers by a German businessman Johann Rabe, who guarded the door in his Nazi party uniform and swastika armband. He took in desperate Chinese civilians and saved thousands. Rabe had been born to a family of foreign merchants and lived his entire life in China, so when it was suggested to him, he joined the Nazi party not knowing anything about it. He just thought it would be good for his business connections. After Nanking, Rabe went home to Berlin and tried lodge a complaint with Adolf Hitler! The Gestapo threatened him with arrest if he didn’t shut up. Then after World War II, Johan Rabe was arrested by Allied authorities for being a Nazi party member! By 1947 he and his family were reduced to eating soup made from nettles and grass to survive. Then a huge package was delivered of food and money. It was a subscription from the People of Nanking, to express their thanks for his humanity.<br /> <br /> 1939- Battle of the River Platte- The German pocket battleship Graff Spee battled with several British cruisers near the Argentine coastline. The German then put into the neutral port of Montevideo for repairs. <br /> <br /> 1940- Fleischer Popeye cartoon "Eugene the Jeep" The character would give its name to the new army General Purpose vehicle- G.P. or "Jeep".<br /> <br /> 1942- Ukrainian Tanya Chernova was an attractive blonde ballerina. But when the invading Nazis executed her family, she became a guerrilla, and was trained to be a sniper by supersniper Vasily Zaistzev. This day in the streets of Stalingrad she was making her way to Nazi headquarters with instructions to assassinate their commander Field Marshal von Paulus. But on the way a comrade stepped on a mine and the explosion tore through her abdomen. Tanya survived, but her active duty days were over. She called the Nazis she shot “Broken Sticks.” By the time she turned 20 years old, Tanya Chernova had 80 broken sticks to her record. She died in 2015.<br /> <br /> 1951- One of the legendary Hollywood producers was Walter Wanger- starting in 1921 his films included The Sheik, Stagecoach, Queen Christina, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Silk Stockings and Cleopatra. His wife was beautiful starlet Joan Bennett, but at this time she was having an affair with her agent Jennings Lang. On this day Wanger surprised Hollywood by pulling out a gun and shooting Lang in the nuts right in the MCA studio parking lot. <br /> In true Hollywood fashion Wanger got off, sentenced to just a few months in an honor ranchero compound and was soon back to work. Contributors to pay his legal fees included the Jack Warner, Walt Disney and Sam Goldwyn. Jennings Lang recovered and later produced House Calls and High Plains Drifter. After all, who needs balls to be a producer?<br /> <br /> 1961- Jimmy Dean’s folk ballad Big Bad John went to #1 of the country charts. Later Dean had his own TV variety show featuring the Muppets, and started Jimmy Dean’s Pure Pork Sausage Company.<br /> <br /> 1969- Arlo Guthrie’s hit song Alice’s Restaurant released.<br /> <br /> 1971- Disney’s film Bedknobs and Broom Sticks opened.<br /> <br /> 1978- The US tried to introduce silver dollar coins. The first Susan B. Anthony dollars issued. They looked too much like quarters so they didn’t catch on.<br /> <br /> 1981- Communist Polish Gov't under General Jaruszelski declared martial law and outlaws Solidarity, the Polish Labor Organization. The secret police, the ZOMO's started arresting all the ringleaders. Jaruszelski later claimed the liberal political climate was getting so out of hand that he had to crack down, or the Soviet Union would invade like they did to Czechoslovakia in 1968, and Hungary in 1956. People showed their quiet resistance by wearing a small transistor (i.e. resistor) on their lapel. Also popular was a button that from a distance looked like the graphic "Solidarity" Logo but up close spelled out: "WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?" <br /> <br /> 1996- In Terry Gilliam’s sci-fi apocalypse epic the Plague of the 12 Monkeys was unleashed today, a virus pandemic that killed 4/5ths of the world’s population and drove the remainder underground. <br /> <br /> 2002- Cardinal Bernard Law resigned in disgrace. The Primate of Boston, the largest Roman Catholic diocese in the United States. Cardinal Law had spent years covering for priests who molested children. He even shielded a priest who was registered in the Man-Boy Love Society. Cardinal Law was the highest ranking Catholic to step down from popular pressure. He was recalled to Rome by Pope John Paul, who made him prior of Santa Maria Maggiore, the second largest cathedral in Rome.<br /> <br /> 2003- Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was pulled out of a hiding hole and captured by U.S. forces near his hometown of Tikrit. He was later hanged.<br /> ======================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Ingmar Bergman’s famous movie was The Seventh Seal. What does the Seventh Seal mean? Where did it come from?<br /> <br /> Answer: The Seventh Seal is the harbinger of Judgement Day. In the Book of Revelations, it is the culmination of opening the first Six Seals, leading up to the Apocalypse and the Second Coming.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 10 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6329 <p>Question: Where is Tuvalu?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Who coined the phrase, “ Tell it to the Marines!”<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/10/2023<br /> Birthdays: English King Edward VII, Emile Dickinson, Ada Lovelace, E. H. Shepard the illustrator of Winnie the Pooh. Chet Huntley, Morton Gould, Victor McLaughlin, Dan Blocker, Tommy Kirk, Fionnula Flanagan, Kenneth Branaugh is 62, Dorothy Lamour, Susan Dey is 70, Michael Clarke Duncan<br /> <br /> Happy World Freedom Day.<br /> <br /> 969AD- Byzantine Emperor Nicephorous II Phocas had no better administrator than John Tzimisces. But John was also the lover of Nicephorous’s wife Empress Theophano. This day she had Nicephorous assassinated. Theophano had earlier poisoned her own father-in-law Emperor Romanus II to help Nicephorous seize the throne. But now she was bored with him. To please the angry Greek Patriarch, John Tzmisces exiled Theophano to a convent and reigned as a pretty good emperor. But then he too was poisoned, by Basil II the Bulgar Slayer. Believe it or not, this was a happy period in Byzantine history.<br /> <br /> 1041- Byzantine Michael IV the Paphlagonian died. Before his death he had his sickbed moved to the Monastery of Saint Demetrios and changed his golden robes for monks rags.<br /> <br /> 1198-The death of the Moorish philosopher Averroes.<br /> <br /> 1508- Pope Julius II formed a grand alliance to crush the Republic of Venice. Called the League of Cambrai, the Vatican, France, The German Emperor, Spain and Naples all pledged to destroy the Most Surene Republic. The Venetians fought back valiantly, noblewomen patriotically pawning their jewels to pay the troops. After being attacked on all sides for 4 years, the League of Cambrai finally broke up when Pope Julius decided he’s rather have fellow Italians for neighbors rather than foreigners after all. The Republic of Venice survived, but her status as a world power was broken. She lapsed into an elegant, pleasure-loving decline until absorbed into Italy by Napoleon in 1796. They pioneered a new idea called tourism. That people would visit a place not to conquer it, or pray at shrines, but just to relax.<br /> <br /> 1513- Former Florentine politician Niccolo Machiavelli was living in a small town after being kicked out of government. He was even twisted a bit on a torture rack. Still missing his life in power, he declared this day to a friend he was writing a book on political theory to give to the Medici duke of Florence. He hoped by doing so he’d be called back to office. He also tried to dedicate it to Cesare Borgia. It didn’t get him a job, but his book THE PRINCE became one of the great works of political philosophy, the handbook of unscrupulous politicians ever since. <br /> <br /> 1518- Ulrich Zwingli was chosen to be the Gross Munster or chief vicar of the Swiss city of Zurich. Zwingli became a top leader of the Protestant Reformation like Martin Luther and John Calvin.<br /> <br /> 1520- Protestant reformer Martin Luther shows the Pope what he thinks of his Bull of Excommunication on him by burning it in public. Pope Leo’s command Exurge Domine went up in smoke along with the Canons of Roman Church Law to the cheers of students. <br /> <br /> 1577- The Union of Brussels- The 17 provinces of the Netherlands and Belgium formalized their union. This is why Holland is also known as the United Provinces.<br /> <br /> 1607- Captain John Smith left the Jamestown camp with two men to find food. They were captured by the Indians who killed the other men and dragged Smith before chief Powhatan. He ordered Smith’s head to be placed on a flat stone and bashed in with a war club. But Powhatan’s favorite daughter Pocahontas threw herself over Smith and protected him. Smith could speak no Algonquin and the Indians no English and neither could sing any Broadway tunes. Was this an execution prevented or a ritual of admission into the tribe? Powhatan was known to extend his rule through dynastic alliances with other tribal leaders, and he was well aware of the white strangers, wiping out a Spanish attempt to land on his beach in 1600. Maybe this was his way of wanting to bring the white man’s powers to his side. <br /> No one knows for sure. John Smith is the only source for the story, and he didn’t write of this incident until back in England 14 years later.<br /> <br /> 1641- King Charles I issued a Royal Declaration ordering all Britons to conform to the practices of the Church of England, or else! The Declaration was King Charles’ defiant answer to a list of demands called the Great Remonstrance given him ten days earlier that accused him of undermining the Protestant faith. This was a poke at all the Puritans, Pilgrims, Levellers, Anabaptists who were complaining that the Anglican Church had gotten too Catholic-looking in its rituals. <br /> Indeed, at the insistence of monarchs since Elizabeth, the reformed English service had re-introduced crucifixes, communion plate and surplice aprons for the priests. The declaration was one more provocation building the conflict that would soon break out as the English Civil War. When violence broke out the Puritans dragged out the Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Laud and chopped his head off. Laud was seen as the instigator of this declaration and the Kings policy on religion and was branded as Laudism.<br /> <br /> 1672- New York colonies Royal Governor Sir Thomas Lovelace announced the establishment of a regular monthly mail delivery between New York and Boston. <br /> <br /> 1800- Congress debated a bill to build a mausoleum for George Washington to be placed in the center of the Congress. But Martha Washington cut off such efforts by citing George’s specific instructions that his remains are not turned into some kind of national shrine. He insisted on and still sleeps in his simple family tomb at Mt. Vernon.<br /> <br /> 1710-Battle of Villaviciosa- Phillip V of Spain defeated an Anglo-Portuguese invasion and assured the throne for the Bourbon family. His descendants are still on the throne today.<br /> <br /> 1817- Mississippi statehood.<br /> <br /> 1839- THE GREAT GAME- A large British army left India to invade Afghanistan. The 15,000 troops carried with them 38,000 camp followers, including camels laden with raspberry jam, cigars, cricket bats and fox hunting dogs. One British officer alone brought sixty servants. The British claimed they were invading to contain Russian expansionism. The duel between Britain and Russia for the Indian Northwest that lasted until 1947 was nicknamed The Great Game. By 1841 this army would all die in the terrible Retreat from Kabul and its sole survivor would be a doctor who got lost. The British officer who coined the term the Great Game was beheaded by the Emir of Bokhara and thrown into a pit of reptiles. <br /> <br /> 1864- Sherman’s army reached the sea at the Georgia coast near Savannah.<br /> <br /> 1877- Siege of Plevna ends. Russia and Austria force Turkey to grant independence to Serbia and Bosnia. Austria’s later efforts to swallow up Bosnia became the issue that sparked World War I.<br /> <br /> 1869- Wyoming Territory granted women the vote. The nation follows 58 years later (California in 1911).<br /> <br /> 1898- Spain and the U.S. make peace ending the Spanish American War. Secretary of State John Hay who was once Abe Lincoln’s secretary called it “A Splendid Little War.” Critics Mark Twain and Ambrose Bierce called it the Yanko-Spanko War. The United States became a global power player with colonies in Puerto Rico, Guam, Samoa, Midway, Wake, and the Philippines. <br /> The Filipinos, who were fighting for independence under their leaders like Aquinaldo, suddenly discover they were now American property. The U.S. declared they fought for their freedom from Spain yet never officially recognized their national independence movements. The Philippines gained its full independence in 1946 and the last American base, Subic Bay, wasn’t removed until the 1990s. <br /> <br /> 1899- Battle of Magersfontein (more Boer-Woer). Our post-Apartheid opinion of white South Africans was not very high, but in 1899 most of Europe and America sympathized with their fight against the awesome might of the British Empire. The Queen of Holland begged the German Kaiser to help them (the Boers were ethnically Dutch-German). Crowds in Paris and Brussels would jeer and boo at the visiting Prince of Wales with the cry "Vive les Boers!" <br /> <br /> 1901- The First Nobel Prize is given. Alfred Nobel made millions by inventing dynamite and nitroglycerine. But as much as his discoveries were used for constructive purposes, they also made it possible for armies to kill each other much more efficiently. He felt guilty and after an accident with the stuff killed his own brother, He resolved to create something positive from his fortune. Hence the Nobel Prize. Alfred Nobel died on Dec 10th, 1896, and the awards are given each year on the anniversary. President Teddy Roosevelt won the first Peace Prize in 1910 for mediating an end to the Russo-Japanese War. President Obama was the third U.S. President to receive the Peace Prize.<br /> <br /> 1905- O. Henry’s short story “A gift from the Magi” first published.<br /> <br /> 1915- President Woodrow Wilson married Edith Bolling Galt in a ceremony in the White House.<br /> <br /> 1938- To make the film "Gone With the Wind" Producer David Selznick and director Victor Fleming shot the massive "Burning of Atlanta" in Culver City, California. The sequence was storyboarded and designed by William Cameron-Menzies, who designed the sets for Intolerance for D.W. Griffith. Selznick used the opportunity to clean the studios backlot storage, burning sets from King Kong, Little Lord Fauntleroy and Last of the Mohicans in the inferno. They shot the scenes with three Rhett Butler stand-ins.<br /> <br /> 1941-The Hollywood Victory Committee formed. Top Hollywood agents like Abe Lastfogel, Lou Wasserman and Myron Selznick (David's brother) start signing up movie stars for bond drives and touring shows for the troops. <br /> The committee later created the Hollywood Canteen, a nightclub for servicemen on Ivar near Sunset. A soldier or sailor could come in for a free meal served by Tyrone Power or Red Skelton and have a dance with celebrities like Rita Hayworth or Dina Shore. Walt Disney cartoonists painted the murals decorating the walls. The Hollywood Canteen was also the only completely integrated night club in LA then.<br /> One animation painter who worked in the kitchen told me the only celebrity who would stay until closing, even mopping up, and washing dishes was Marlena Dietrich. While Janey Gaynor and Rhonda Fleming were working in the kitchen, Bette Davis would burst in and announce, “ Okay you Haus-Fraus! We need some glamour out front!” <br /> <br /> 1941-Japanese planes sank the battleships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse in just 90 minutes. The prized British battleships had participated in the sinking of the German dreadnought Bismarck in the Atlantic a year earlier but had been transferred to the Pacific to boost the defenses of Singapore. The next day a lone Japanese plane dropped a wreath at the site of the sinking in tribute to the 884 British sailors who died there. <br /> <br /> 1941- A Japanese Army of 4,000 under General Homma landed on the Philippine Islands at Luzon and Vigan while a third force overran the U.S. outpost on Guam.<br /> <br /> 1941- The New York Metropolitan Opera announced that in light of the Pearl Harbor attack they were suspending any further performances of Madame Butterfly for the duration. Other opera companies also stopped doing Gilbert &amp; Sullivan’s The Mikado.<br /> <br /> 1942- OPERATION WINTERSTORM- General Von Manstein was ordered by Hitler to swing his panzers north and attempt to break through the Russian forces encircling the trapped German 6th Army at Stalingrad. But Von Manstein’s rescue mission was halted by Russian resistance and wintery conditions just 30 miles short of their goal. The 6th Army surrendered in February.<br /> <br /> 1948- The United Nations adopts Article XIX, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The committee, spending months drafting the resolution, was chaired by the Eleanor Roosevelt. By this act she debuted not just as a former first lady and widow of FDR but as a stateswoman and diplomat in her own right.<br /> <br /> 1949- After being defeated by Mao Zedong’s Communist forces, Kuomintang (KMT) Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek flew to Taiwan. Two and a half million ethnic Han Chinese evacuated to the island of Formosa-Taiwan, which continues today to call itself the ROC- The Republic of China. This ended the Chinese Civil War. Since 1924 China suffered 2 million deaths in its first civil war, 20 million in the Japanese invasion and World War II, and 5 million more killed in the final civil war. <br /> <br /> 1962- Happy Birthday Iron Man. The character Iron Man first appeared in the Marvel comic Tales of Suspense.<br /> <br /> 1966- The Beach Boys “Good Vibrations” hit #1 in pop charts.<br /> <br /> 1967- R&amp;B star Otis Redding and four of his band the Bar Kays were killed in a small plane crash near Madison Wisconsin. He was 26. Redding had recorded his hit “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” just three days earlier.<br /> <br /> 1969- Disney’s It’s Tough to be a Bird opened in theaters. Directed by Ward Kimball.<br /> <br /> 1974- Powerful Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Congressman Wilbur Mills resigned in disgrace after being busted by the DC police for getting drunk with a stripper named Fannie Fox and taking her for a 2:00 AM skinny dip in the Tidal Basin near the Jefferson Memorial. Fannie was later christened the “Tidal Basin Bombshell.”<br /> <br /> 1978- The world premiere of Richard Donner’s Superman, The Movie. The incomparable Christopher Reeve with Margot Kidder and Gene Hackman.<br /> <br /> 1994- The Unabomber sent an explosive device that killed Thomas J. Mosser, an advertising executive at Young &amp; Rubicam who handled the public relations spin for Exxon after the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster.<br /> <br /> 2013- Richard Williams unfinished epic animated film the Thief and the Cobbler: A moment in Time, received its premiere at the Motion Picture Academy in Beverly Hills. It was begun 40 years earlier in 1972 and never completed. <br /> ======================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Who coined the phrase, “Tell it to the Marines!”<br /> <br /> Answer: President Franklin Roosevelt said it in a speech shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack. “ Axis radio has declared that Americans are soft and decadent, that they cannot and will not unite and work and fight…. we have been described as a nation of weaklings... Well, tell that to General MacArthur and his men. Let them tell that to the sailors who today are hitting hard in the far waters of the Pacific….Tell that to the Marines!"[12]He may have got it from an humorous 1824 English novel, but after he said it, “Tell it to the Marines” became a popular slogan.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 09 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6328 <p>Question: Who coined the phrase, “Tell it to the Marines!”<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What planet is in between Mars and Jupiter?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/9/2023<br /> Birthdays: Sappho, John Milton, Jean De Brunhoff, Emil Waldteufel the composer of The Skaters Waltz, Admiral Grace Hopper who wrote the earliest computer language, Margraret Hamilton, Hermoinie Gingold, Dalton Trumbo, John Cassavettes, Broderick Crawford, Dick Butkus, Red Foxx, Cesar Franck, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Kirk Douglas, Buck Henry, Felicity Huffman, Mario Cantone, Alan Zaslove, John Malkovich is 70, Judy Dench is 89<br /> <br /> 536- The legions of Byzantine General Belisarius captured Rome from the Ostrogoths. This was part of Emperor Justinian’s unsuccessful plan to win back the western half of the old Roman Empire.<br /> <br /> 1641- Famed Flemish portrait artist Sir Anthony van Dyck died of a fever at his home in Blackfriars, London. He was 42. <br /> <br /> 1783- First executions began at England’s Newgate Prison, replacing the traditional public hanging, drawing, quartering, branding, beheading place of Tyburn Hill- approximately where London’s Marble Arch is today.<br /> <br /> 1803- Congress passed the Twelfth Amendment calling for the President and Vice President to be of the same party. Before this, the system was the Vice President was the loser of the presidential election, thus the people’s second choice. But trying to govern with your bitter political enemy standing right behind you proved impractical. The Amendment also defined the order of succession: President, Vice President, Secretary of State. Speaker of the House, Senate Leader Pro-Tem. In 1945 the 22nd Amendment excluded the Secretary of State, who was never an elected official.<br /> <br /> 1824- Battle of Ayacucho- Simon Bolivar defeated the last Royal Spanish Army in the Americas.<br /> <br /> 1825- THE LATIN AMERICAN BUBBLE- The London Stock Exchange crashed over rampant stock speculation in the potential wealth in the new emerging Latin American republics. Financier Nathan Rothschild became a national figure when he lent the Bank of England millions to stay solvent. Thanks to new communications and international investment for the first time the London panic reached across national borders and caused the U.S. Stock Exchange and the Paris Bourse to also crash. This kind of speculation in futures caused the South Sea Bubble in France and the Tulip craze a century earlier. We’ve seen it in our own times with the global credit crash of 2008 and the crypto-currency crash of 2022. <br /> <br /> 1835- First battle of San Antonio de Bexar. Angry Texas citizens forced Mexican <br /> General Cos to abandon a post in an old mission called the Alamo and give up a store of valuable cannon. This was the incident that provoked President Santa<br /> Anna into attacking San Antonio the following Spring.<br /> <br /> 1840- Dr. David Livingstone set sail for Africa to do missionary work. He met Stanley in 1871.<br /> <br /> 1854- Albert Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" published. The battle had been fought earlier that June.<br /> <br /> 1861- The first ever government oversight committee formed. The Joint Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War. It was created because Congressmen were afraid President Lincoln was a naïve hillbilly lawyer who was losing the Civil War. All they succeeded in doing was give Lincoln more stress and at one point they even accused First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln of being a Confederate spy.<br /> <br /> 1889- The Chicago Auditorium dedicated. The landmark building’s architect Louis Sullivan had hired a new assistant to help with the drawings-Frank Lloyd Wright.<br /> <br /> 1899- BLACK WEEK-Battle of Stormberg Junction. A series of small battles in which British forces were defeated by Boer guerrillas in South Africa. <br /> The commanding British general Sir Redvers Buller was considered so slow moving that one wag suggested they periodically hold a mirror up to his nostrils to check for signs of life. He was later replaced with the more energetic Lord Roberts of Kandahar, “Old Bobs”.<br /> <br /> 1905- Richard Strauss’s opera Salome premiered in Dresden. The lead role demands a soprano with big Wagnerian lungs but also a flat stomach to do the strip tease The Dance of the Seven Veils. When the opera debuted in New York, prudish old millionaires like J.P. Morgan were shocked at its’ blatant sexuality. They threatened to cut off funding until Sal and her skimpy veils was banished from the schedule. <br /> <br /> 1907- the first Christmas Seals go on sale to fight tuberculosis.<br /> <br /> 1909- Mary Harris a.k.a. Mother Jones spoke at the Thalia Theater in support of<br /> the "The Strike of the 20,000" Immigrant seamstresses in New York's garment<br /> district. "Every strike I have ever been in has been won by women!"<br /> <br /> 1917- During World War I, Field Marshal Allenby and the British army entered Jerusalem while Lawrence of Arabia and the Arab forces marched on Damascus. To promote harmony between Arabs and Jews, Allenby ordered the building of a huge YMCA in the Old City. The people that schvitz together….<br /> <br /> 1931- Disney short Mickey’s Orphans debuted.<br /> <br /> 1936- The first cookery show appeared on British television.<br /> <br /> 1937- In the path of advancing Japanese armies, Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek and his government abandoned his capitol Nanking and moved to Chunking. <br /> <br /> 1946- Damon Runyon died, the writer whose characters the musical "Guys and <br /> Dolls' are based. His philosophy: "All life is six to five against."<br /> <br /> 1948- Actor Ossie Davis married actress Ruby Dee.<br /> <br /> 1960- Coronation Street premiered on British ITV.<br /> <br /> 1964- John Coltrane recorded his landmark jazz album “A Love Supreme”. Late on foggy nights Trane liked to take his saxophone out onto the middle of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge in the night fog, and practice by himself. <br /> <br /> 1965- Bill Melendez's "A Charlie Brown Christmas" the first half hour animated TV special featuring the music of Vince Guaraldi. Producer Lee Mendelson had heard Guaraldi's jazz combo perform in San Francisco. He never scored a film before:" How many yards of music do you want? At the preview screening for CBS executives, the show was met with deathly silence; when the show concluded, one executive said to the director Bill Melendez, "Well, you gave it a good try." CBS hated its religious message, the idea of actual kids voicing the characters, not having a laugh track and having jazz as the soundtrack. They only aired it out of obligation to the sponsor, Coca-Cola. It was not screened for any critics sans one Time Magazine critic (who gave it a positive review). Estimates are that 15,490,000 households and 36 million people watched Charlie Brown and his friends that night. A Charlie Brown Christmas won an Emmy and has been a holiday favorite every year since. <br /> <br /> 1967- At a Doors concert lead singer Jim Morrison was sprayed with mace and arrested by Miami police for “lewd behavior” on stage, but probably more for referring to the cops as pigs.<br /> <br /> 1968- The MOTHER OF ALL DEMOS- At the Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco, Dr Douglas Engelbart of Stanford demonstrated the first personal computer workstation. He showed how people would use hot keys, a printer and scanner, cut and paste text. And he had a real time internet hookup to another workstation at Palo Alto, 120 miles away. His student assistant was Stewart Brand, who would later create the Whole Earth Catalog. In the audience was student Andries van Dam, who would one day create SIGGRAPH. Its been called “The 21 Century dropped in on 1968”.<br /> <br /> 1967- Nicholas Ceaucescu became dictator of Communist Romania.<br /> <br /> 1992-Britains Prime Minister John Major announced the separation of Prince Charles and Princess Diana of Wales.<br /> <br /> 1994- Disney Animators in California move into their new Animation building designed by Robert Stern.<br /> <br /> 1994- The Surgeon-General of the United States, Dr Jocelyn Elders, was forced to step down after her statements that sex education in primary schools include masturbation outraged many conservatives.<br /> <br /> 2004- Mia Hamm and the stars of the Women’s National Soccer Team played their last game, defeating Mexico 5-0. <br /> <br /> 2008- Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois was arrested for corruption and having a really bad haircut.<br /> <br /> 2340- Mr Worf, the Klingon officer of Star Trek Next Generation was born.<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What planet is in between Mars and Jupiter?<br /> <br /> Answer. There is no planet in between Mars and Jupiter. Just a large asteroid belt, which may be the remains of a disintegrated planet.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 08 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6327 <p>Question: What planet is in between Mars and Jupiter?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays Question answered below: Which comedian was not born Jewish? Gary Shandling, Larry David, Danny Thomas, Woody Allen.<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/8/23<br /> Birthdays: Horace (Quintus Horatius) 65BC, Mary Queen of Scots, Gustavus Adolphus, Queen Christina, Jean Sibelius, Camille Claudel, George Melies the father of Motion Picture Special Effects 1861, Elzie C. Segar (Popeye), Joel Chandler Harris (Uncle Remus), James Thurber, Richard Fleischer, Eli Whitney, Jim Morrison, Diego Rivera, Emile Reynaud, Sammy Davis Jr, Maximillian Schell, Flip Wilson, Sam Kinison, Teri Hatcher, Rick Baker, Sinead O’Connor, Kim Basinger is 70<br /> <br /> Happy Feast of the Immaculate Conception.<br /> <br /> 1660- Mrs. Margaret “Peg” Hughes played Desdemona in Shakespeare’s Othello at the Vere St Theatre in London. Mrs. Hughes was the first woman to appear on an English stage. All during the Elizabethan Era, boys substituted for women on stage. Legend has it when a play which King Charles II was watching suddenly stopped. When he sent servants to see what the problem was, it was found that the man that was supposed to play one of the female parts was still shaving. Odds Fish! sayeth the King. And lo, the ban was lifted.<br /> <br /> 1776- George Washington’s exhausted soldiers were rowed across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania, chased by a large British army. This marked the end of the hit &amp; run pursuit across New York and New Jersey that had been going on since August 24. <br /> <br /> 1793- MADAME DUBARRY GUILLOTINED. During the French Revolution this day the old kings mistress Madame DuBarry was guillotined. She was originally of humble birth but lived in grand style and was very arrogant. She once dumped the contents of a chamber pot out of a palace window onto Princess Marie Antoinette for a laugh. "Garde du Lou!" Now on her way to the blade she screamed and wept aloud:" Save me good people, for I am one of you!" It didn't help, the executioner hurried his task to the laughter of the crowd. Her last words were "Just one more minute of life, executioner!" Her husband the Comte’ du Barry had not seen her since the day they were married in 1769 for the convenience of the King. Now upon learning the news of his wife’s death he immediately married his mistress. <br /> <br /> 1813- Beethoven met Ai. The most well received of all the musical pieces of Ludwig Van Beethoven was not his 5th Symphony or Moonlight Sonata, but a silly piece called the Overture to Wellington’s Victory which premiered this day in Vienna. A calliope designer named Wilhelm Dietzel commissioned the piece to show off his mechanical music machines that could recreate the sound of an orchestra. The music celebrated Wellington’s great victory in Spain over Napoleon’s forces. It had cannon shots and musket volleys written into the music score. This overture made Beethoven much more money than his Seventh Symphony, which debuted at the same concert.<br /> <br /> 1854- Pope Pius IX promulgated the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. That the Virgin Mary stayed forever free of sin, even though Jesus had brothers and sisters.<br /> <br /> 1864- During General Sherman’s epic March through Georgia his bluecoats first encounter a new invention ominously familiar to our present day. Explosive charges buried under the ground that explode when a friction trigger was stepped on. They called them Land Torpedoes, but today we know them as LAND MINES. When a Yankee lieutenant lost his foot, the hot-tempered Sherman ordered all the Confederate prisoners driven to the front line and forced to dig them all up. When they protested this was inhumane, Sherman roared back:" Your people planted these cowardly things, so if some of you get blown up removing them it's no concern of mine!"<br /> <br /> 1868- According to Jules Verne’s novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, tonight is the night Captain Nemo’s fantastic submarine the Nautilus attacked and sank a US warship and captured Professor Aronax and harpooner Ned Land.<br /> <br /> 1881- RINGSTRASSE THEATER FIRE IN VIENNA. Two hundred people were killed when fire broke out during a performance of Offenbach's "Duchess du Gerolstein". <br /> <br /> 1886-The American Federation of Labor (AFL) formed. The first president was former cigar maker Samuel Gompers.<br /> <br /> 1891- George O'Brien invented the electric tattooing needle, making modern tattooing possible. He supposedly got the idea from a failed invention of Thomas Edison’s. It was an electric machine that tried to make several copies of a letter at once by pushing an ink filled needle through several pieces of paper.<br /> <br /> 1913- Ground broken for the construction of San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts.<br /> <br /> 100 Years Ago-1923- Developer S.H. Woodruff flipped the switch to illuminate the completed Hollywood Sign. Originally Hollywoodland, the “land” fell off eventually, as did the light bulbs.<br /> <br /> 1940- Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo remarry. The two great Mexican artists had been married for ten years but divorced for a year because of their mutual infidelities. Diego also wanted to protect Frida from fallout from his political activities. But after a year apart that decided they couldn’t live without one another and remarried. <br /> <br /> 1941- DAY OF INFAMY Aftermath- On the day after the Pearl Harbor sneak attack, President Roosevelt did his famous "Day of Infamy" speech. Congress voted almost unanimously to declare war on Japan. Interestingly enough the U.S. did not declare war on Germany along with Japan. Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S. four days later. The only vote against the war was Montana Congresswoman Jeanette Rankin, who had also voted against the First World War in 1917. <br /> With the American Fleet sunk or scattered, the US Pacific Coast braced for Japanese attack. After the war it was learned the Japanese military stretched their supply line to its limit just to reach Hawaii. Reaching America would be twice as far. But in California, that winter everyone expected to be bombed. Fourth interceptor Command reported two formations of enemy planes flying from San Francisco to Los Angeles. They turned out to be seagulls. Another panicky report of an approaching Japanese task force turned out to be Monterey tuna boats. Blackouts began, as did mass arrests of Japanese-Americans. In Hollywood the Paramount Studio baseball team was allowed to finish it's game with the L.A. Nippons 6-3, after which the FBI arrested the entire team. <br /> The civil defense command placed anti-aircraft guns on the Walt Disney Studio lot because of it's proximity to the aircraft plant of Lockheed. Walt Disney himself was turned away at the gate for not wearing his identity badge. That evening, an official at the Navy Dept telephoned Disney and offered him a commission for twenty short films on aircraft and warship identification.<br /> <br /> 1941- Following up on their successful attacks on Pearl Harbor and Hong Kong, Japanese task forces attacked the Philippines, invaded Malaya and another force captured Bangkok.<br /> <br /> 1941- The gunboat USS GUAM was serving in Shanghai as a station ship for the US Consulate. Its skipper was Lt Commander Columbus Darwin Smith, an old China hand. Smith was onshore, at home, when he received a phone call in the wee hours announcing the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. he put on his uniform, and went to the waterfront. Japanese soldiers had quickly occupied the International Settlement--but would not arrest Smith, who argued with them to let him aboard his ship.<br /> The Japanese had already taken the USS Guam without much resistance. Capt. Smith later made a daring escape over 200 miles to Kumming in "free China" The USS Guam was the only US warship to be captured intact by the enemy in WWII.<br /> <br /> 1941- Russian immigrant inventor Igor Sikorsky demonstrated the first practical Helicopter. They were developed too late for use in World War II, but the "egg-beaters" or "flying windmills" played an important role in the Korean and Vietnam conflicts.<br /> <br /> 1949-After being defeated by Mao Zedong’s Red Chinese Army (PLA), Generalissimo Chiang Kai Chek’s Kuomintang government voted to relocate to the island of Taiwan-Formosa.<br /> <br /> 1953- Thurgood Marshal’s final arguments to the Supreme Court in the desegregation case Brown Vs. Board of Ed.<br /> <br /> 1953- The Atoms for Peace Speech. President Eisenhower proposed to the United Nations that nuclear power be developed for peaceful purposes, and not just for bombs. The world builds civilian nuclear power plants, then makes bombs with them.<br /> <br /> 1958- THIS IS JAZZ- Landmark live CBS television broadcast of jazz greats Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Lester Young , Coleman Hawkins and Thelonius Monk .<br /> <br /> 1961-"Surfin’" the first record by the Beach Boys started to climb the local LA pop charts.<br /> <br /> 1963- Frank Sinatra Jr was kidnapped in Lake Tahoe. After four tense days he was released unharmed. Oscar Levant quipped, “ It was probably done by music critics.”<br /> <br /> 1980- The Bravo Channel began. Remember when it played only classical concerts and ballets?<br /> <br /> 1980- JOHN LENNON MURDERED. As he went in to his apartment building the Dakota in New York City, Beatle-composer John Lennon was stopped by a fan named Mark David Chapman for an autograph. A few hours later Lennon emerged from the building on another errand. Chapman was still there, except this time he pulled out a gun and shot Lennon 4 times in the back. John Lennon was 40. The area of Central Park across from the apartment was dedicated to him as Strawberry Fields. <br /> <br /> 1980- Berkeley Breathed’s comic strip Bloom County debuted.<br /> <br /> 1991- Steven Spielberg’s Hook premiered. <br /> <br /> 2000- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, directed by Ang Lee, premiered. <br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Which comedian was not born Jewish? Gary Shandling, Larry David, Danny Thomas, Woody Allen.<br /> <br /> Answer: Danny Thomas was born Lebanese Maronite Christian.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 06 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6326 <p>Question: Who were not a famous comedy team of the 1930s? The Marx Bros. Abbott and Costello, The Smothers Brothers, Olsen &amp; Johnson.<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: A Christmas Carol commands, “Now bring us some figgy pudding...” What is figgy pudding?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/6/2023<br /> Birthdays: King Henry VI of England-1422, English Puritan General George Monck-1608, John Eberhard 1822, builder of the first large pencil factory in the US, John Singleton-Mosby the Grey Ghost, Henry Jarecki, Baby Face Nelson, William S. Hart, Ira Gershwin, Dave Brubeck, Agnes Moorehead, Tom Hulce is 70, Wally Cox the voice of Underdog, Lynn Fontaine, Steven Wright, JoBeth Williams, Judd Apatow is 55, Nick Park is 66<br /> <br /> Dec 6,Today is the FEAST of SAINT NICHOLAS, the patron saint of sailors and children. In what is modern Turkey, in 350AD, Bishop Nicholas of Myra heard of a man so poor that he was about to sell his daughters into prostitution. Nicholas climbed into the man’s window and placed gold coins in the family socks drying by the fireplace. In some cities during the Middle Ages the custom was this day to elect a Boy Bishop who would reign in an honorary style until the Feast of the Holy Innocents December 28th. <br /> In Northern Europe St. Nicholas was accompanied by the devil Krampus or Schwartz Piet (Black Pete), who beat the crap out of naughty kids. Small wonder when the custom came over to America they left out the demon part.<br /> <br /> 1196- The northern coast of Holland was flooded, the Saint Nicholas Flood.<br /> <br /> 1240- The Mongol horde of Batu Khan destroyed the City of Kiev (Kyiv). This ended the old kingdom of Kievan Russ. <br /> <br /> 1534- Spanish settlers in Ecuador found the city of Quito.<br /> <br /> 1648- PRIDE'S PURGE -The final move of the Cromwell’s Army to secure power in post-Civil War England. His army had occupied London after Parliament ordered them to disband. Soldiers led by Colonel Thomas Pride stood at the entrance to the House of Commons with a list and as the Parliament members walked in he pulled out 60 of them for arrest. Outraged politicians demanded to know what was his commission? Col. Pride sneered, " This sword point is my commission!" <br /> Thus cowed, the truncated remainder was nicknamed The Rump Parliament. General Oliver Cromwell was discreetly out of town, but he was doubtless in on the planning of the purge. England was now a military dictatorship and would remain so for ten years until Cromwell's death, when General Monk summoned back the monarchy.<br /> <br /> 1757-Battle of Leuthen- Frederick the Great beats the Austrian Army outnumbering him three to one. Austrian commander Archduke Charles was contemptuous of the smaller Prussian army, calling them a “Berlin Watch Parade” i.e. a police patrol. But the Prussians defeated the Austrians badly, and sang their hymn Nun Danket Alle Gott on the blood soaked snow. Napoleon called Leuthen Frederick’s masterpiece. <br /> <br /> 1790- Congress moved from New York City back to Philadelphia to await construction of it’s final home in the new Federal City in Maryland, already being called by some Washington-City. George Washington himself would occasionally ride out from Mt Vernon and meet with Jefferson and Madison to inspect the construction site.<br /> <br /> 1825- In his first message to Congress, President John Quincy Adams called for increased funding for scientific research, the founding of a national university and a national observatory. His political enemies ridiculed his ideas as idiotic. They accused the president of wasting taxpayer money on depraved European luxuries like a billiard table. Adams also installed the first indoor toilets in the White House. People started calling the newfangled commodes a John Quincy, or simply a John.<br /> <br /> 1846- Battle of San Pasqual- A Mexican victory in the U.S.-Mexican War. The US Army was so sure that California was conquered that General Phil Kearny sent away half of his army to go join Zachary Taylor in Mexico while he pushed on to the Pacific Coast. Just outside of San Diego near Julian he was attacked by California Vaqueros, brandishing lances. The Yankee dragoons at first laughed at the silly “pig-stickers”, until they realized the previous nights rainstorm had made their gunpowder useless. Kearny’s force was routed. Only with great difficulty did they escape under Kit Carson’s guidance to the sheltering guns of the US Fleet in San Diego harbor. <br /> <br /> 1849- Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery in Maryland and began her underground railroad to smuggle runaway slaves from the South up North. After the Fugitive Slave Act was passed she extended her route to Canada. At one point she wanted to join John Brown’s insurrection in Harpers Ferry but illness prevented her, and probably saved her life.<br /> <br /> 1877- First edition of the Washington Post.<br /> <br /> 1882- English novelist Anthony Trollope was listening to his niece read aloud from a comic novel Visa-Versa by E.F. Asthley. Trollope laughed so hard he had a stroke and dropped dead. He was 67.<br /> <br /> 1915- MAX FLEISCHER PATENTED THE ROTOSCOPE- This system enabled you to film an actor then draw the cartoons over the still frames of the live action to achieve a realistic motion. (an early form of Motion Capture) Max would film his brother Dave in a clown suit then draw Koko the Clown over him. Dave had already owned the clown suit because he had been seriously considering a change in careers. Max invented the system while working for John Randolph Bray. Bray, usually quick to sue to enforce his copyrights, allowed Max and Dave to go off on their own with no problem. The Fleischer's New York studio would be Disney's chief rival for most of the 1920's-30's.<br /> <br /> 1921- Irish Home Rule- It had been an Irish dream since William Strongbow and the Norman English invaded in 1085. After decades of Parliamentary pressure from advocates like Charles Parnell and Daniel O'Connell, a long guerrilla war with the IRA and public exhaustion from the Great War, London was ready to talk terms. But the British Crown insisted on a compromise of letting the 6 Protestant Counties of Ulster remain under British rule and an oath of loyalty to the king. Prime Minister Lloyd George threatened a full war on Ireland with the full resources of the British Empire as the alternative. <br /> Irish negotiators Michael Collins and Alexander Griffith knew this deal would cause resentment, but they felt it was the best they could get. In the following months both men would be dead and a civil war broke out. The loyalty oath was ignored and full Irish independence declared in 1946. <br /> <br /> 1929- Turkey under Kemal Ataturk gave women the right to vote.<br /> <br /> 1933- U.S. Federal Judge Woolsey decides James Joyce's "ULYSSES" is not a dirty book and can be published in the U.S by Viking Press. The book had been out in Europe since 1922. <br /> <br /> 1941- Admiral Nagumo turned his carriers into the wind and began to prepare to launch the attack on Pearl Harbor. Meanwhile in Washington DC, Colonel William Bratton of army intelligence decoded a message from Tokyo to the Japanese Embassy telling them after their final message to destroy their cyphers and all top-secret documents. He ran all over D.C. trying to get someone to listen, but it was a quiet weekend like any other.<br /> Early Sunday morning Mrs. Dorothy Edgers of the Navy cryptographic division translated long decoded instructions to the Japanese Consul Kita in Honolulu to provide up to date intelligence on Pearl Harbor's ship movements and armaments, then destroy his ciphers. When she showed this to her supervisor, he told her, “Well, umm….We'll get back to this on Monday." <br /> <br /> 1941- NY City Council voted to build a second municipal airport- Idylwild Airport, later renamed John F. Kennedy Airport.<br /> <br /> 1942- Val Lewton’s movie The Cat People with Simon-Simon premiered.<br /> <br /> 1957- In their initial reaction to the Russians launching sputnik, the US attempt to launch a satellite into space failed- the Vanguard I rocket blew up on the launch pad.<br /> <br /> 1960- Baseball’s American League granted an expansion franchise team to old cowboy singer Gene Autry, the California Angels.<br /> <br /> 1963- Soon after the assassination, Jackie Kennedy had writer T. H. White to the White House for an interview. She was already shaping how her husband’s presidency would be remembered. She mentioned his favorite album was the soundtrack of the musical Camelot. White took this and expanded the idea in the piece he wrote for Life Magazine, “For President Kennedy, An Epilogue” which came out on this day. The JFK era would forever after being known as Camelot.<br /> <br /> 1964- The first concert at the Los Angeles Music Center.<br /> <br /> 1964- Rankin Bass' TV special 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' first broadcast. <br /> <br /> 1969- The Rolling Stones do the last big rock festival of the 60s in Altamont California. The festival turned ugly when Hells Angels motorcyclists, hired to guard the stage, started fighting with fans. One man, Meredith Hunter, was killed. <br /> <br /> 1980- Reverend Jim Baker of the PTL ministry had sex in a motel room with church volunteer Jessica Hahn. His reasoning to her was “when you help the shepherd, you help the flock”. But later he paid her hush money. This indiscretion would help pull down his Church. Baker’s ministry included a lavish lifestyle, air-conditioned doghouse for his pets and a Christian theme park called Heritage USA. Ex-evangelist turned comedian Sam Kinison joked: I can imagine up in heaven, Jesus is thumbing through the New Testament saying” Hey, where the hell did I ever say anything thing about a water slide?”<br /> In recent years, Jim Baker has made a comeback. He has another big church and is a loud supporter of former President Trump.<br /> <br /> 1994- Orange County California, one of the richest counties in the United States declared bankruptcy because an official gambled and lost the county's funds on speculative investments like junk-bonds. One billion dollars disappeared in less than a week of day trading.<br /> ___________________________________________________________________<br /> Yesterday’s Question: A Christmas Carol commands, “ Now bring us some figgy pudding..” What is figgy pudding?<br /> <br /> Answer: 14th Century English pudding were small cakes made of pork suet, heavily laced with sweet figs and other dried fruits. For many average people it would be the only sweet confection they’d get all year.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 04 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6325 <p>Question: Why do we wink at one another?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is obsidian?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/4/2023<br /> Birthdays: Chief Crazy Horse, Samuel Butler*, Thomas Carlyle, Lillian Russell, Vasilly Kandinsky, Buck Jones, Wink Martindale, Max Baer Jr., Robert Vesco, Charles Keating, Wally George, Deanna Durbin, Pappy Boyington, Horst Bucholtz, Rainer Maria Rilke, Jeff Bridges is 74, Marisa Tomei is 59, Tyrah Banks is 50, Johnny Lyon of the band Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Jay-Z is 54, Fred Armisen is 57<br /> <br /> *"Life is one long process of getting tired."- Samuel Butler (1835-1902)<br /> <br /> 963AD- Pope John XII died. According to chronicler Luidprand of Cremona, his Holiness was beaten to death by the husband of a woman named Steffanetta he was sleeping with. <br /> <br /> 1154- Nicholas Breakspeare elected Pope Adrian IV, so far the only Englishman ever made pope of the Roman Catholic Church.<br /> <br /> 1534- Ottoman Turkish Sultan Sulieman the Magnificent occupied Baghdad.<br /> <br /> 1655- Jews had been expelled from England since 1291. This year Oliver Cromwell convened a conference at Whitehall to consider re-admittance of Jewish people. Cromwell’s Puritans hated Catholic Papists, but had great sympathy for “God’s Chosen People”. One legislator even proposed moving the Sabbath Day back to Saturday. But there was still too much anti-Semitic resistance to make the re-admittance official. Despite the failure of the government to make a decision, from this time on Jewish families began resettling in England. They were allowed their own Jewish Burial Ground in 1657. In 1715 Solomon Medina became the first Jewish person to receive a knighthood. In the 1800s, Lionel Rothschild joined the House of Lords.<br /> <br /> 1657- Old artist Rembrandt van Rijn was evicted from his home. He was kept out of debtor’s prison when his daughter and son-in-law auctioned off most of his possessions to pay his debts.<br /> <br /> 1777- In France, Ben Franklin and the American commissioners were in despair. Nothing but bad news about British victories, and the French government was complaining about American privateers attacking British ships in French waters. Even sympathetic French newspapers were saying the Americans revolution was probably lost. <br /> This day, with playwright Pierre de Beaumarchais in attendance, a courier from across the sea arrived. Jonathan Austin delivered the news that at Saratoga, British General Burgoyne and his entire army were defeated and surrendered. Immediately the French, Dutch and Spanish governments were calling the Americans “our friends” and began discussing an alliance.<br /> <br /> 1783- WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL- The American Revolution now ended, George Washington bid farewell to his officers he shared 8 years of war with at a dinner at Fraunces Tavern in New York. Creole cook Samuel Fraunces "Black Sam' was later invited by Washington to become the first presidential chef. The tavern is still there today on the corner of Water &amp; Pearl Streets, and still serves food and ale. It has a little Washington museum on the second floor.<br /> <br /> 1791- The London Observer, called the oldest continually published newspaper in the world, first published. True, the Times was begun in 1788 but it had a spotty release it’s first few years while its publisher would be thrown in prison for libel.<br /> <br /> 1829- The British in India abolished the custom of suttee- that a widow should throw herself on her husband’s funeral pyre and die also.<br /> <br /> 1875- William Marcy “Boss Tweed” escaped Ludlow Street jail and fled to Cuba. He had been the corrupt boss of New York City politics throughout the 1860s and 70s. He was rearrested in Spain by a Spanish policeman who spoke no English. When asked by American diplomats why, the Spaniard said he saw a newspaper cartoon by Thomas Nast of Tweed in prison garb with his hands on two young boys. So, he thought he was a kidnapper! Tweed was brought to justice by the one crime he probably never did.<br /> <br /> 1881- First issue of the Los Angeles Times.<br /> <br /> 1909- The first Canadian Football League championship the Grey Cup, U of Toronto defeated Toronto Parkdale 26-6<br /> <br /> 1915- HENRY FORD'S PEACE SHIP-The great industrialist was a livelong pacifist and was horrified by the carnage of the World War I. On this day he equipped a large yacht with neutral diplomats and other famous personages like Thomas Edison and sailed to Europe. Pundits had fun mocking his homespun naiveté, and local lunatics like Urban Ledoux, aka Mr. Zero, jumped into New York Harbor and swarm alongside the ship "to ward off hostile torpedoes." Ford docked in a neutral harbor hoping to use his influence to get the Kaiser, Czar and the other crowned heads to a bargaining table like some kind of board of directors negotiation. Nobody would meet with him. Young N.Y. politician Fiorello LaGuardia noted: "The only boy he managed to save from the trenches was his own son!"<br /> <br /> 1918- President Woodrow Wilson left the US by battleship for Europe to help chair the Versailles Peace Conference ending the Great War. Once there he surprised people by refusing to visit the battlefields and tour the horror and devastation. He said:” They want me to see red as they do. But I feel at least one of us should remain impartial.”<br /> <br /> 1927- The Cotton Club opened as a speakeasy nightclub in Harlem. It was built on the site of a Club Deluxe, started by the old Boxing Champ Jack Johnson in 1909. New owners were New York gangsters Owney “The Killer” Madden and George “Big Frenchy” DeMange. Duke Ellington’s orchestra highlighted the opening night. When other gangsters tried to open a rival The Plantation Club, Owney had his hoods firebomb the place. The Cotton Club was one of the great centers of the Harlem Renaissance, but at first African Americans were banned from eating or drinking at the tables. Even W.C. Handy was turned away. The policy was changed in 1935 to allow all races in.<br /> Max Fleischer’s brother Lou was a regular customer.There he befriended Cab Calloway, and convinced him to come downtown and lay down some tracks for Betty Boop cartoons.<br /> <br /> 1931- “ Its alive! Its alive!” James Whale’s macabre masterpiece “Frankenstein” opened at the Mayfair theater in NY. Universal Studios originally wanted Bela Lugosi to play the Monster, to follow up on his success as Dracula. But Lugosi loudly protested it wasn’t a good fit for him. Whale’s writing partner David Lewis just saw this British actor William Henry Pratt renamed Boris Karloff in a play called the Criminal Code, where he played a murderous convict. So they signed him to play the monster.<br /> <br /> 1932- “Good Evening Mr &amp; Mrs. North and South America and All the Ships at Sea! Let’s Go To Press!” Newspaper columnist Walter Winchell began his famous radio broadcasts on the NBC Blue Network. Winchell became one of the most powerful voices in American society and politics for 23 years.<br /> <br /> 1941- As Admiral Nagumo's carriers approached Pearl Harbor, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox assured the press: "No matter what happens, the US Navy will not be caught napping !"<br /> <br /> 1941- The animated film “Hoppity Goes to Town" or Mr. Bug Goes to Town”-opened. Max Fleischer's last gamble to keep up with Walt Disney and keep his studio alive. Songs written by top pop song writer Hoagy Carmichael. However, the events of Pearl Harbor three days later not only sink the American Navy, but also Hoppity's box office and put Max out of a job. <br /> <br /> 1948- “Hey...Stella!! A Streetcar Named Desire opened on Broadway with Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy.<br /> <br /> 1950- President Truman gives General MacArthur in Korea direct orders not to open his big mouth and make any more public statements about the conduct of the war, without checking with Washington first! MacArthur was used to being on his own during World War II and as proconsul of occupied Japan. He didn't fret about being his own diplomatic corps as well as general. But now everything Dugout Doug said got him into trouble. He had been making statements in press that the U.S. should expand the Korean War into Communist China and Russia, and he warned the Chinese that if they didn’t quit he planned to rain Atomic Fire upon their cities. No tweets then.<br /> <br /> 1954- Jim McLamore and Dave Edgerton attended a demonstration of fast-food serving techniques by two California brothers named MacDonald. This day in Miami, McLamore and Edgerton opened the first Insta-Burger, later renamed Burger King.<br /> <br /> 1955- French mime Marcel Marceau appeared on American TV for the first time.<br /> <br /> 1958- Cocoa Puffs cereal invented.<br /> <br /> 1961- Someone at the Museum of Modern Art in NY noticed that they had hung Henri Matisse’s painting Le Bateau upside down. It had been that way for two months, and up until now nobody had noticed.<br /> <br /> 1963- The first Instant Replay camera used at a football game. It was an Army-Navy game.<br /> <br /> 1965 - Jerry Garcia, Bob, Phil, Bill, and Pigpen first convened as the Grateful Dead to play as the house band for Ken Kesey and the Prankster's Acid Test in San Jose, California. The Dead went on to break records, bend minds, and build a community that continued on for many years.<br /> <br /> 1985- The first Cray X-MP Supercomputer booted up. <br /> <br /> 1985- Steven Spielberg’s production Young Sherlock Holmes, directed by Barry Levinson premiered. It featured the CG breakthrough Stain Glass Knight animated by John Lasseter. Despite this, the film failed, and its failure made Disney change its movie title Basil of Baker Street to The Great Mouse Detective. <br /> <br /> 1988- Actor Gary Busey almost died in a motorcycle accident on Olympic Blvd. In Los Angeles. He was not wearing a helmet and suffered massive head trauma. He later claimed to have an out-of-the-body experience at the scene. <br /> <br /> 1993- Rocker Frank Zappa died of prostate cancer at age 52.<br /> <br /> 2012-Walt Disney announced it made a deal to show its Disney, Pixar and Marvel movies on Netflix instead of Starz Channel. First major studio to switch from cable to streaming. A few years later it set up its own streaming channel, Disney+.<br /> ==========================================================<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s question: What is obsidian?<br /> <br /> Answer: Obsidian is a volcanic igneous rock fired to the texture of glass. Its dark dramatic color makes it valuable in jewelry.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 03 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6324 <p>Question: What is obsidian?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What does it mean to maintain a certain animus towards another?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> HISTORY FOR 12/3/2023<br /> Birthdays: French King Charles VI the Well-Served 1380, Gilbert Stuart, Sven Nykvist, Joseph Conrad- real name Josef Korzeniowski, Jean Luc Godard, Nino Rota, Jim Backus, Maria Callas, Larry Parks, Charles Pillsbury, Mitsuo Fuchida the Japanese pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, Darryl Hannah is 63, Katerina Witt, Brendan Fraser is 55, Marisa Tomei, Julianne Moore is 63, Andrew Stanton, Amanda Seyfried is 38<br /> <br /> 749AD- This is the Feast of Saint John Damascene. He’s the saint who was called the Father of Christian Art, because he theologically argued a way for artists to avoid the No Graven Images hitch in the Ten Commandments, so we could make paintings and sculptures. <br /> <br /> 1557- The Scottish Covenant- In Edinburgh Scotland a group of anticlerical noblemen Argyll, Glencairn, Morton, Lorne and Erskine signed the First Scottish Covenant- pledging to reform the religion of the land.<br /> <br /> 1591- The first fire insurance contract was written in Hamburg.<br /> <br /> 1775- The first official U.S. flag hoisted aboard the USS Alfred. It was thirteen stripes with a cross of Saint George and Saint Andrew in the corner.<br /> <br /> 1800-Battle of Hohenlinden- French whip the Austrians, but it wasn’t done by Napoleon but by a different general, so Nappy asks us to overlook his competition.<br /> <br /> 1818- Illinois became a state with its first capitol at Kaskaskia.<br /> <br /> 1838- The Battle of Windsor. Another attempt by the U.S. to conquer Canada. On this day a force of 500 disaffected Canadians, Yankee opportunists and Polish revolutionists crossed over from Detroit and captured Windsor Ontario. (why do we always invade Canada in the winter? ) <br /> They were led by the uncle of writer Ambrose Bierce, Lucius Verus Bierce. They called themselves the Secret Guild of the Sacred Hunters of the East, and their intention was no less than liberating Canada from the hated British yoke! <br /> Well, nobody else rose up with them. And while they were standing around trying to think of what to do next, the British army quickly rounded them up. Those that weren’t hanged, were shipped to New Zealand. <br /> Lucius Bierce escaped back across the Detroit River in a canoe where he was promptly arrested for violating U.S. neutrality laws. He later devoted his time and money to abolitionist causes, and financed John Browns’ anti-slavery campaign in Kansas.<br /> 1845- Britain wages the First Sikh War. <br /> <br /> 1868- Preliminary hearings open into the treason trial of Jefferson Davis, former President of the Confederate States. Radical republicans wanted someone punished for the Civil War, but many were worried that a master lawyer like Davis would use the opportunity to prove there was indeed a Constitutional basis for states legally seceding from the union. Davis himself hoped for a trial to prove just that. But presiding judge Chief Justice Salmon B. Chase had by prior arrangement with President Andrew Johnson a plan to stall the trial until Johnson's amnesty for all former Confederates went into effect on Feb 15th.<br /> <br /> 1881- In Africa, explorer Henry M. Stanley founded the town of Kinshasa, which they called then Leopoldville after the King of the Belgians.<br /> <br /> 1890- A small British army marches into Uganda and camping on a hilltop called Kampala informed the local chief Mwanga that he was now part of the British Empire, whether he liked it or not! The British officer even made Mwanga sign the treaty twice, because he felt his first ink splotch was done insincerely. Uganda remained a British colony until 1956.<br /> <br /> 1894- In Samoa, writer Robert Louis Stevenson was opening a bottle of wine, when he paused and cried “What’s that?”, then he looked at his wife and said “Does my face look strange?” Then he collapsed and died of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 44.<br /> <br /> 1919- Impressionist painter Pierre August Renoir died at age 79. Suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, when he could no longer paint with his hands, Renoir used a bit that held the brush in his teeth.<br /> <br /> 1925- GEORGE GERSHWIN PLAYED CARNEGIE HALL. Gershwin always wanted to be taken seriously as a composer, and not just a Tin Pan Alley songwriter. While in Paris he met Maurice Ravel, but instead of giving him advice, Ravel said: "You make HOW much from your songs? Maybe I should learn from you!" When he asked to be Arnold Schoenberg's pupil, Schoenburg told him :" Why do you want to be a bad Schoenburg, when you're already such a good Gershwin?"<br /> <br /> 1931- Happy Birthday Alka Seltzer! The fizzy tablet was invented by chemist Maurice Treener for the Dr. Miles Medicine Company of Indiana.<br /> <br /> 1934- Lee Blair, Disney artist and brother of Preston Blair, Disney artist, married Mary Browne Robinson, Disney artist. She became the most famous of them as Mary Blair.<br /> <br /> 1941- After clandestine diplomatic initiatives to raise the U.S. oil and steel embargoes failed, The Japanese High Command radioed it's carrier fleet out in the Pacific: "Climb Mount Niitaka". This code meant go forward with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Admiral Nagumo orders resumption of radio silence and turned his fleet South-SouthWest towards Hawaii. <br /> <br /> 1944- A Nazi newspaper published on this day features a photo of a young Austrian S.S. officer with his commander in Greece. After the war his commander was hanged as a war criminal. The young man became Secretary General of the United Nations, President of Austria, and winner of a Nobel Peace Prize, Kurt Waldheim. <br /> <br /> 1948- Happy Ozzy Day! Ozzie Ozbourne is 75. ”I never set out to be a businessman. I just wanted to have fun, f—k chicks, and do drugs.”<br /> <br /> 1948- Walt Disney’s Mickey and the Seal, debuted. Directed by Charles Nichols.<br /> <br /> 1956- British and French forces finally leave Egypt, where they had been since 1799.<br /> <br /> 1965- The Beatles release the album Rubber Soul.<br /> <br /> 1967- Dr. Christiaan Barnard of Capetown performed the first heart transplant.<br /> <br /> 1968- Elvis Presley opened in Las Vegas to rave reviews and packed houses. It marks the beginning of his comeback and his transition from thin, black leather-jacketed youth to fat, rhinestone jumpsuit, half tinted sunglasses middle age. <br /> <br /> 1976- During a photo shoot for a Pink Floyd album cover at London’s Battersea Power Station, a 40 foot long inflated pig broke away from its’ tether and floated away to become a hazard to civil aviation. The AeroPork was lost to radar at 8,000 feet.<br /> <br /> 1984- An accident at a Union Carbide facility in Bhopal, India filled the air with poison methyl-isocynate gasses that killed 10,000 people and blinds or otherwise injured a further 200,000. No one from Union Carbide was ever tried or convicted for the tragedy. Saint Mother Theresa showed her controversial side when she publicly encouraged people to accept the disaster as God’s Will. Even today, the ground around the closed facility is considered too deadly for inhabitation.<br /> <br /> 1991- Hulk Hogan defeated Undertaker to become WWF champ for the 4th time.<br /> <br /> 1997 – 56 year old Darlene Gillespie, an original member of the Mickey Mouse Club, was busted in LA for a securities fraud scheme.<br /> <br /> 1997- Young basketball star Latrell Sprewell lost his $32 million contract with the Golden State Warriors for trying to strangle his coach, P.J. Carlesino. Chill out, dude.<br /> <br /> 2004-The Ukranian Supreme Court ruled the recent presidential election invalid. Moscow and hardline Kiev Gov’t supported Victor Januscowicz followers committed widespread acts of voter fraud, then suppressed any news reports. <br /> The story was revealed to the world by a heroic sign language translator for the deaf. While the state approved news anchor reported the elections on the evening news the translator, Nataliya Dmytruk, deaf signed “EYERYTHING YOU HAVE JUST HEARD IS A LIE! YUSCHENKO IS OUR TRUE PRESIDENT! THIS IS PROBABLY THE LAST TIME YOU WILL EVER SEE ME..” The word spread, and spawned weeklong mass demonstrations and international pressure that compelled the government to redo the election. Ms. Dmytruk survived and is today considered a national hero.<br /> <br /> 2008- Conservative Episcopalian churches in the U.S. and Canada announced they were leaving the main Episcopal communion to found a new church- the New Anglican Church of North America. These theologians objected to the Church nominating gay priests and bishops.<br /> ==============================================================__<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean to maintain a certain animus towards another?<br /> <br /> Answer: Having animus toward another, means to hold a grudge, sustained resentment or ill-will toward an individual or a group.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 02 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6323 <p>Question: What does it mean to maintain a certain animus towards another?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What does it mean when you and your date are “spooning”?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/2/2023<br /> Birthdays: George Seurat, Charles Ringling, Julie Harris, Jack Davis, Gianni Verasce, Monica Seles, Cathy Lee Crosby, Lucy Liu is 56, Britney Spears is 43<br /> <br /> 1254- Manfred, The bastard son of the German Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen, came into Italy with an army and routed Papal forces near Foggia. <br /> Ever since the Pope had crowned Charlemagne, the argument was whether Popes or Emperors were top dog. The German Emperors wasted two centuries fighting the independent Italian City states trying to consolidate a long dead Roman Empire. The Popes fought them like any other independent landowner who didn’t want to yield their property.<br /> Emperor Manfred didn’t accomplish much in Italy, but he liked to sing and write poetry. Dante said “There was not his like in the world when it came to playing string instruments.”<br /> <br /> 1494 – THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES Now that the Medici family were driven out, mystical monk Savonarola ruled Florence like a Christian Ayatollah. He led big public spectacles where in large bonfires Florentines burned their “vanities” like makeup, wigs, art and books, and tried to live a religious life. Even the artist Botticelli burned one of his own paintings. Eventually, it all got so boring they burned Savonarola instead, and recalled the fun-loving Medicis.<br /> <br /> 1644- THE FIRST GREAT EUROPEAN SUMMIT- The various combatants of the Thirty Years War began a peace conference at Westphalia. France, Spain, Sweden, The German Empire, Saxony, Holland, the Papacy, Hungary, Denmark and a multitude of German and Italian small states try and end the seemingly endless war. It took them four years to hammer out a deal. While Central Europe was ravaged by six armies that depopulated the countryside, plague broke out and peasants rose in revolt, diplomats wasted six months arguing the order of how they entered the conference chamber, how they addressed one another and who had precedence. It wasn’t until 1648 that the Peace Treaty of Westphalia was signed and the war ended.<br /> <br /> 1697- Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London reopened. It was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren after being destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666.<br /> <br /> 1723- Phillipe D’Orleans died of an apoplectic seizure at 49. He ruled France as regent for the boy King Louis XV. Even when Louis attained his manhood, he didn’t mind if his Uncle Phillipe continued to run the country. Phillipe D’Orleans was an able minister but extremely corrupt and sexually promiscuous. The City of New Orleans was founded in his name.<br /> <br /> 1804- NAPOLEON CROWNED EMPEROR OF FRANCE .The 35 year old little corporal from Corsica who spoke French with an Italian accent, had piercing gray eyes and if he liked you showed his affection by giving your ear a tug, was crowned Emperor of the French. He had the Pope brought up from Rome to Notre Dame for legitimacy, but in a moment of planned theater Napoleon took the crown from his hands and crowned himself. <br /> European liberals like Goethe and Beethoven who had thought Napoleon would be a strong force of reform in Europe were now disillusioned that he turned out to be just another usurper. Beethoven scratched off his dedication of his Third Symphony (Eroica) to him. Napoleon's mother, an old guerrilla named Madame Letizia, thought her son was making a fool out of himself and boycotted the ceremony. When David was doing the official painting of the event Napoleon ordered him to paint his mother in anyway.<br /> <br /> 1805- THE SUNRISE OF AUSTERLITZ- At a small village in what is now the Czech republic, Napoleon defeated the combined armies of Russia and Austria in one spectacular battle. Tolstoy called it the Battle of the Three Emperors. As much as he was a strategist and tactician Napoleon was a great analyst of human character. Based on his opinion of his opponent’s personalities, he predicted exactly how the battle would go two weeks before he lured them into it. The defeat of the Allies was total, French artillery blew holes in a frozen lake the Russians were trying to escape over, drowning hundreds. Within days they sued for peace and the war was ended. Napoleon's take on the days events: "Ah, que belle journee'."What a lovely day it's been."<br /> <br /> 1823- U.S. President James Monroe published the Monroe Doctrine, saying all the European empires then coveting lands in the Western Hemisphere should butt out or the Good Ole U.S.A. would have something to say about it! Shortly afterward Britain extended its claim on Western Canada and seized the Falkland Islands, France entered Mexico, and Russia pressed it's claim on Alaska.<br /> <br /> 1834-Battle of Ndondakasuka- Csetshwayo and his Zulu Impis (regiments) defeat his rival Mbulazi to become King of the Zulu Empire. Csetshwayo's descendants are now the leaders of the Inkatha Freedom Party in modern South Africa.<br /> <br /> 1845- President James K. Polk re-affirmed the Monroe Doctrine and announced it would be the policy of his administration to get Texas and California from Mexico and Oregon from the British. He called such continental expansion America’s “Manifest Destiny.”<br /> <br /> 1854- Napoleon III was Napoleon's nephew and since 1848 legally elected President of the Second French Republic. But he decided that he wanted to be an Emperor like his uncle, so he seized dictatorial power on the anniversary of Austerlitz and arrested all dissenters like Victor Hugo, Alex DeTocqueville and cartoonist Honore' Daumier (gotta watch those cartoonists...)<br /> <br /> 1859- John Brown was hanged. He said nothing on the scaffold but left a prediction on a slip of paper,".. I now believe that the sins of this nation have become so great that it cannot be excised but by a great spilling of blood.." Witnessing the event were Col. Robert E. Lee, Captain Jeb Stuart, and part time reservist John Wilkes Booth.<br /> <br /> 1863- The dome of the U.S. Capitol completed as the Goddess of Freedom is hoisted up into place.<br /> <br /> 1877- Camille Saint Saens opera “Samson &amp; Delilah” premiered in Weimar.<br /> <br /> 1896- We remember Wyatt Earp as the marshal of Dodge City and gunfighter of the 1881 OK Corral gunfight. He was better known to people of his own time as the referee of the Fitzsimmons-Sharkey Heavyweight prizefight in San Francisco. After leaving Tombstone Arizona, Wyatt Earp drifted to San Francisco where his skills as a fight referee were called upon for this last of the big bare-knuckle bouts. <br /> He enraged the public when he declared the fight for Sharkey in the 3rd round after Big-Bob Fitzsimmons couldn't stop bleeding. More people were out to kill him over this decision than were ever out to get him over the OK Corral. He quickly pulled up stakes and went to the Yukon for the gold rush. He was all but forgotten until a little book called Wyatt Earp Frontier Marshal published in 1920 made him famous. <br /> <br /> 1901- Mr. King Gillette invented the safety razor.<br /> <br /> 1933- Voice actor Clarence “Ducky” Nash began working at Walt Disney. He would create the voice for Donald Duck and his nephews.<br /> <br /> 1935- Animator Marc Davis first day at Walt Disney Studios. He retired in 1978.<br /> <br /> 1938- The first executions in California by gas chamber.<br /> <br /> 1942- THE FIRST CONTROLLED NUCLEAR CHAIN REACTION -The concept of a fission reaction had been theorized by Einstein and Bohr in 1939. Under a squash court at the University of Chicago a team of physicists led by Enrico Ferme began a chain reaction in a uranium pile and stopped it again, producing a few watts of energy. To celebrate they produced a bottle of Chianti and some paper cups. No toasts were made to man's entrance into the Atomic Age. Tennis courts are still there and the Regenstein Library was built on the site. To this day the lowest basement registers off the scale on Geiger counters.<br /> <br /> 1954- Senator Joseph McCarthy’s fall from power became complete. The Senate voted to censure him for Misconduct Unbecoming a Senator. He died of alcoholism in 1957.<br /> <br /> 1956- Fidel Castro with 88 followers trained in guerrilla fighting, landed on the beach in Cuba and melted into the mountains. This group would be the core of a revolution that by 1959 would topple the US backed regime of dictator Fulgensio Batista and upset the world balance of power. The ramshackle boat Fidel, Che and his buddies made the crossing over from Mexico in was called the Granma. <br /> <br /> 1965- Walt Disney live action comedy That Darned Cat, with Dean Jones and Hayley Mills, opened.<br /> <br /> 1980- During El Salvador’s civil war four American churchwomen, three catholic nuns and a lay worker, were raped and murdered by government death squads trained by the U.S.<br /> <br /> 1982- Wild-eyed British comedian Marty Feldman (Igor in Young Frankenstein) suddenly died of a heart attack in Mexico while filming the comedy YellowBeard. He was 48.<br /> <br /> 40 Years Ago 1983- The full 13 minute video version of Michael Jackson’s song Thriller, premiered on MTV. Directed by John Landis.<br /> <br /> 1993- NASA astronauts do a series of space walks from their shuttle to adjust the Hubble space telescope. The Hubble cost billions of dollars but was sent into orbit with a flaw in its lenses. It was nearsighted. The spacewalk in effect gave the Hubble a set of glasses to see better the furthest details of deep space.<br /> <br /> 1994- LA jury found Heidi Fleiss ‘The Hollywood Madam” guilty of running a prostitution ring. Charlie Sheen and Sean Penn were among her frequent flyers.<br /> ======================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean when you and your date are “spooning”?<br /> <br /> Answer: It was an old Victorian term for a couple cuddling, nuzzling, making out, etc.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 01 Dec 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6322 <p>Question: What does it mean when you and your date are “spooning”?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: What is meant by giving something sturm und drang?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/1/2023<br /> Welcome to December, from Decembrius Mensis, month number 10 to the Romans who only had ten months in their original calendar. Their year began in March. Decembrius has the same Latin root as Decimate, Dime, Decimal. <br /> <br /> Birthdays: Richard Pryor, Mary Martin, Cyril Ritchard, Dick Shawn, Richard Crenna, Lee Trevino, Charlene Tilton, Lou Rawls, Marshal Gyorgi Zhukov, Admiral Stansfield Turner, Rex Stout the author of Nero Wolfe, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, Treat Williams, Andrew Cuomo, Joanne Siegel the model for Lois Lane, Woody Allen is 88, Bette Midler is 78, Sarah Silverman is 53<br /> <br /> Happy Roman Festival of Neptune.<br /> <br /> WORLD AIDS DAY- established by the UN in 1987. <br /> <br /> 659 AD-Today is the feast day of Saint Eligius of Limoge, a goldsmith and mint master to Merovingian King Dagobert, who started the art of Limoge enamels.<br /> <br /> 1521- Pope Leo X died after getting overheated attending celebrations of the defeat of French forces in Milan. He was 45. Some thought he was poisoned, but he probably caught the malarial fever prevalent in Rome at the time. Leo was one of the great art patrons of the Renaissance. He spent lavishly. “ God has given us the Papacy, so let us enjoy it” As soon as the Pontiff was cold, Cardinals and bankers looted the Vatican treasury for all the money he borrowed from them, sending the Church into one of the worst financial crises in its’ history.<br /> <br /> 1641- THE GREAT REMONSTRANCE- The English Parliament sent King Charles I a long list of everything that annoyed them about being his subjects. They demanded Parliament to be the supreme authority in the realm, to sit in permanent session, the right to select and dismiss royal ministers, and to reform the Protestant Church of England to a more Calvinist purity. “God's Blood! You ask of me things one would never ask of a king!"-sayeth King Charles. This little spat would become the English Civil War by June.<br /> <br /> 1805-THE MIDNIGHT BIVOUAC AT AUSTERLITZ- The night before the big battle between French, Austrian and Russian armies on a cold little field in what would be the Czech Republic. Napoleon went on a midnight inspection of his troops. His tour turned into something akin to a homecoming football rally. The French soldiers cheered, lit torches, made bonfires, sang and partied all night. Across the hills, the enemy generals mistakenly thought all that noise meant Napoleon was preparing to run away.<br /> <br /> 1835- Hans Christian Andersen published his first book of fairy tales.<br /> <br /> 1861- The first installment of Charles Dicken’s novel Great Expectations began to appear in magazines.<br /> <br /> 1869- A Sir William McDougall was sent by Ottawa to take over the administration of Prince Rupertland, now called the new Canadian province of Manitoba. His problem was the whole population of French trappers, Indigenous peoples and half-breeds had already declared themselves the independent Metiz Republic, under their leader Louis Riel. MacDougal had to sneak across the border from the U.S. at midnight. Avoiding Metiz patrols, his party stopped at an abandoned Hudson's Bay trading post where they raised the Union Jack in the darkness. Gov. McDougall read his Royal Proclamation to an audience of seven aides and two hunting dogs. Then they crept back over the border to the U.S. to a healthy dose of razzing from Yankee cowboys. The British Army arrived next spring and established order, but by then “Wandering Willie” McDougall had been recalled. <br /> <br /> 1879- Gilbert &amp; Sullivan’s comic opera HMS Pinafore opened. Sullivan conducted the orchestra while Gilbert was a chorister. <br /> “When I was a lad I served a term<br /> As office boy to an Attorney's firm.<br /> I cleaned the windows and I swept the floor,<br /> And I polished up the handle of the big front door.<br /> I polished up that handle so carefullee<br /> That now I am the Ruler of the Queen's Navee!<br /> <br /> 1887- The very first Sherlock Holmes mystery by Arthur Conan-Doyle "A Study in Scarlet" first published in Beeton’s Christmas Gazette.<br /> <br /> 1909- The Pennsylvania Trust Company invented the Christmas Club account. <br /> <br /> 1917- Father Flanaghan opened Boys Town west of Omaha Nebraska. A retreat for homeless boys and in 1979 girls as well.<br /> <br /> 1934- Josef Stalin's close confidant Sergei Kirov is assassinated in a Kremlin hallway by Lenoid Nikolayev. Stalin ordered the GREAT PURGES of the thirties to begin. Later it came out that Stalin had ordered Kirov assassinated as an excuse. Exact figures are debatable but it is estimated millions were arrested and died. Stalin even had the wandering blind storytellers of the Ukraine rounded up and shot for fomenting anti-revolutionary ethnicity. Declassified private papers of Stalin revealed he admired Czar Ivan the Terrible and tried to learn from his example. Legend is he once said, “One person killed is a crime. Millions killed is a statistic.”<br /> <br /> 1938- In Moscow, Sergei Eisenstein released his film of Russian patriotism ALEXANDER NEVSKY, with soundtrack provided by Sergei Prokoviev.<br /> <br /> 1938- “The Terror of Tiny Town” The only Western musical with an all little-person cast.<br /> <br /> 1941-Anticipating imminent hostilities with Japan, The U.S. Navy withdrew it’s fleet of Yangtze River gunboats. As the gunboats steamed out into the South China Sea, they were surrounded by large Japanese warships, that held their fire to let them pass. <br /> <br /> 1943- FDR, Churchill and Stalin concluded their first meeting in Teheran, Iran. The western allies passed supplies to Russia via the Persian Gulf through Iran. Roosevelt discussed the occupation zones of a defeated Germany by drawing lines in pencil on a map torn out of an old National Geographic magazine he found on a table.<br /> <br /> 1944- Bela Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra premiered by the Boston Symphony and Serge Kousevitsky.<br /> <br /> 1947- Alastair Crowley died. Called the “wickest man in the world” he fused several occult theologies like Bavarian Illumanism, Gnosticism and Numerology into his Abbey of Theleme. His own mother nicknamed him “the Great Beast.” In 1968 Alastair Crowley was portrayed on the cover of the Beatles Sgt. Pepper album.<br /> <br /> 1949- The last Nationalist Chinese capitol, Chunking (Chonqing), fell to Mao ZeDong's PLA, the People’s Liberation Army. <br /> <br /> 1951- MIT scientists booted up Project Whirlwind, the TX-0 Computer. Called the Tixo, it was as large as a bus and was the first computer that could do more than one program at a time. In 1952 it had the first computer screen and first light pen. It calculated everything from synchronizing the gunfire of battleships to how much icing to put in an Oreo cookie. The TX-2 was used to write the first animation program Sketchpad, and the first interactive game SpaceWar!, both in 1962.<br /> <br /> 1953- Ex- Esquire magazine art director and frustrated cartoonist Hugh Hefner published the first issue of Playboy Magazine. It featured a nude centerfold of actress Marilyn Monroe. She joked to the press “ I had nothing on but the radio!” Hefner assembled the layout of the magazine on his kitchen table and borrowed money from his mother-in-law to pay for the printing. The first Playboy had no number or date, because Hef was certain he could not afford to make an issue number two.<br /> <br /> 1955- ROSA PARKS, a black seamstress in Montgomery Alabama, refused to give up her seat on a crowded bus and was arrested for violating the segregation laws. She was fined $10. She was actually seated in the first row reserved for Colored passengers, but since the bus was crowded the driver insisted, she give up her seat for a white man anyway. This incident and the subsequent boycott marked the beginning of the great Civil Rights Movement of the 50's and 60's.<br /> <br /> 1963- The NASA space facility at Cape Canaveral Florida was changed to Cape Kennedy in honor of slain president John F. Kennedy. The same day the Kennedy Family moved out of the White House so Lyndon Johnson could move in. Jackie Kennedy only returned to the White House once more in her life in 1971 and on the condition that it be in secret and no press be present. She even would tell D.C. taxicabs to avoid streets where she might accidentally get a glimpse of it.<br /> <br /> 1963- According to recently unclassified documents, today was supposed to be the day a staged coup would overthrow Fidel Castro in Cuba. The CIA had hired Mafia hitmen to shoot Fidel as he drove in an open jeep to his beach home. Then the head of the Cuban army, Juan Almeida would then seize the government. But John Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas suspended all such plans. <br /> <br /> 1964- DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING MET J. EDGAR HOOVER- Dr. King and Rev Ralph Abernathy were on their way to Oslo for Dr. King to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. In Washington they were invited to meet with the legendary head of the FBI. Hoover sat them down and proceeded to lecture them for over two hours, calling them "boys" and hinting that they better not cause him trouble, because he had tapes of Dr. King's extra-marital affairs. Dr. King and Abernathy left enraged. Hoover always believed that Martin Luther King and the entire NAACP were Communist agents of Moscow. Later when Dr. King came out publicly against the Vietnam War, one of these audio sextapes was mailed to his wife Coretta- anonymously.<br /> <br /> 1982- Dr. Barney Clark received the first Artificial Heart. Part of the research development was credited to Paul Winchell, puppeteer and cartoon voice who created Jerry Mahoney, Knucklehead Smith, Dick Dastardly and a plastic heart valve. At first it was hoped these plastic valves could take the place of real hearts, but today they are mostly used for temporary relief until a human donor heart can be found.<br /> <br /> 1982- Ziggy’s Gift TV special premiered on ABC.<br /> <br /> 1988- The Walt Disney Company spun off a new production company named Hollywood Pictures. Like its sister Touchstone, it was created so Disney could release films with more mature subject matter like Mr. Holland’s Opus and The Sixth Sense.<br /> <br /> 1990- Tunnelers digging below the English Channel from France and England break through to meet in the middle and shake hands. A tunnel under the Channel had been a dream since Napoleon in 1802.<br /> ========================================================<br /> Question: What is meant by giving something sturm und drang?<br /> <br /> Answer: Sturm und Drang is German for “Storm and Stress.” The expression comes from an 18th century literary group led by Goethe and Schiller that emphasized dramatic emotion and passionate artistic revolt.<br /> Today it has come to mean overreacting with too much emotion. Needlessly melodramatic.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 30 Nov 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6321 <p>Question: What is meant by giving something sturm und drang?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: In the annals of inhabitants of the underworld, who was Lilith?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/30/2023<br /> Birthdays: Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain, William Enos Berkeley aka Busby Berkeley, Winston Churchill, Jonathan Swift, Shirley Chisholm, Gordon Parks, G. Gordon Liddy, Alan Sherman, Abbie Hoffman, Virginia Mayo, Ephram Zimbalist Jr, Richard Crenna, Robert Guilliame, Rex Reason, Mandy Patinkin, David Mamet, Shuggie Otis, Billy Idol, Joan Ganz Cooney the creator of Sesame Street, Dick Clark, Ridley Scott is 86, Ben Stiller is 58, Kaley Cuoco is 38, Henry Selick is 71<br /> <br /> 1731-A huge earthquake killed 100,000 in Peking (Beijing). <br /> <br /> 1750- Maurice de Saxe was born an illegitimate son of Polish King Augustus the Strong and grew to become one of the top generals of French King Louis XV. He won the great Battle of Fontenoy against the British. Like his dad a notorious ladies’ man, this morning he was found dead after an all-night tryst with eight actresses at once. The king's doctor wrote as the cause of death: "Une surfeit des femmes - an overdose of women.”<br /> <br /> 1776- As George Washington’s minuteman army retreated across New Jersey to escape the pursuing British Army, a third of his troop’s enlistments were up. In a cold rain 2,000 New Jersey and Maryland militiamen, one third the army, left and went home. Writer Thomas Paine was serving Gen. Nathaniel Greene as a secretary. He was moved by this pitiful sight to write the pamphlet: “The Crisis”: ”These are times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will shrink in this crisis from the service of his country. But he that stands now deserves the love and thanks of both man and woman. “Washington called his remaining downcast soldiers together and had the pamphlet read aloud to them.<br /> <br /> 1782- On a dark, snowy day in an upstairs room on the Rue Bonaparte on Paris’ Left Bank, The United States and Britain signed the first of several protocols leading up to the treaty ending the American Revolution. John Adams, John Jay, Benjamin Franklin and Richard Lawrence signed for America, a parliamentary delegation led by Lord Oswald signed for the Crown. One British diplomat there said:” The Americans are the greatest quibblers I have ever dealt with, and I pray never to again in the future!”<br /> <br /> 1809- Napoleon told Josephine he wanted a divorce. She was the love of his life, but at 46 she could no longer bear children and he desperately wanted to start a dynasty. Even though she long suspected something like this might happen, eyewitnesses said when she heard the news she swooned. The French Army called Josephine Our Lady of Victories and marked the end of their gsuccss from this moment. Although his second wife Marie Louise gave him a son, Napoleon never forgot Josephine. In exile he once admitted,” I loved her, but I did not respect her.” On his deathbed in 1821, one of his last words was “Josephine.”<br /> <br /> 1864- THE BATTLE OF FRANKLIN. Confederate General John Bell Hood had lost Atlanta to Sherman, then failed to lure him out of Georgia. Now his subordinate officers missed an opportunity to entrap a different Yankee army outside of Nashville. That army now was facing them in an impregnable defensive position across open ground. Cavalry leader Nathan Bedford Forrest urged a maneuver around the enemy, but Hood had had enough of his insubordinate officers. He ordered a full-frontal attack. The attack was a disaster. <br /> General Patrick Cleburne, the blue-eyed Irish immigrant, called the Stonewall of the West, thought the order stupid, but couldn't send his men out without leading them.” Oh well lads, if we are to die today, let us do it like men.” After the battle he was found on the Yankee breastworks with 49 bullets in his body. Writer Ambrose Bierce was serving on the Union army staff. He was amazed at such a ‘ghastly carnival of death’ was being enacted on such a beautiful Autumn day. <br /> <br /> 1869- Paris’ famed naughty nightclub the Follies Bergere opened. The home of the Can-Can, Toulouse Lautrec, Josephine Baker, Bricktop, and Maurice Chevalier.<br /> <br /> 1900- Oscar Wilde died of meningitis in a hotel in Paris. He was 46. His last words; "This wallpaper is appalling! Either it goes or I do.”<br /> <br /> 1918- Three weeks after the Kaiser was toppled, the new liberal government granted German women the right to vote. This was before America, Britain or France did.<br /> <br /> 1922- The great actress Sarah Bernhardt made her last performance in Turin Italy. She was still considered sexy despite advanced age and a wooden leg.<br /> <br /> 100 years ago- 1923- Max Fleischer moved his Out of the Inkwell animation studio to big new offices in 1600 Broadway. <br /> <br /> 1924- The first fax message sent. A photo of the Prince of Wales was wired across the Atlantic by radio transmission.<br /> <br /> 1935- Hitler’s government passed a law that non-belief in Nazi doctrine could be grounds for legal divorce in Germany.<br /> <br /> 1939- Soviet Russia invaded Finland. The gallant Finns fought back fiercely with skiing hit and run attacks, and gasoline bottle bombs nicknamed for Stalin's Foreign Minister, Vachyeschav Molotov, the "Molotov Cocktail".<br /> <br /> 1940- Actress Lucille Ball married Cuban band leader Desi Arnaz. Together they pioneered the new art of Television production. They divorced in 1960 but remained lifelong friends.<br /> <br /> 1941- President Franklin Roosevelt left Warm Springs Georgia and traveled by special train to meet with Japanese ambassadors Hamada and Kurusu at the White House in a last effort to prevent war. Meanwhile the main Japanese carrier fleet weighed anchor and left Yokohama for the North Pacific. It’s code name was Kido Butai. It was officially scheduled for military exercises, but once out at sea Admiral Nagumo ordered radio silence, and following his instructions from Admiral Yamamoto, turned his ships south-southeast towards Hawaii.<br /> <br /> 1944- The Red Army invaded Nazi held Austria.<br /> <br /> 1954- Mrs. Elizabeth Hodges of Sylacauga Alabama was hit by a meteorite. It shot through her roof, bounced off her radio and hit her on the hip. It gave her a nasty bruise and one heck of a story to tell. Broke her radio too. Today it is called Hodges Meteorite.<br /> <br /> 1961- President-elect John F. Kennedy signed a secret memorandum creating Operation Mongoose. It ordered the CIA under the direction of Attorney General Robert Kennedy to eliminate Cuban leader Fidel Castro by any means necessary. The CIA tried everything from Mafia assassins, to poison cigars, to chemicals to make his beard fall out. Nothing worked. Operation Mongoose was discontinued after Kennedy’s assassination.<br /> <br /> 1966- Barbados got its independence from Britain.<br /> <br /> 1968- “Love Child” by Diana Ross and the Supremes hit #1 in the pop charts.<br /> <br /> 1970- First day shooting on William Friedkin’s film The French Connection.<br /> <br /> 1974- The Missing Link. In a dry gully in Ethiopia Dr Donald Johannsen discovered the perfect skeletal remains of one of the earliest human ancestors, an ape that walked upright. Australiopithicus Afrancenis. He called it Lucy. Johannsen liked the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.<br /> <br /> 1976- After doing such a fine job lowering the journalistic standards of the London press, Australian tabloid king Rupert Murdoch turned his attention to America. Today he bought the New York Post. The Post, a newspaper originally started in 1794 by Alexander Hamilton, quickly gains notoriety as the trashiest newspaper in the U.S. In an interview, Murdoch admitted the only reason he didn’t put in the Post his “Page Three Girls” -nude photos of young women so successful in the London Daily Sun, was because his wife objected. He later replaced his wife. Rupert then bought New York Magazine and the Village Voice, whereupon half their staff immediately quit. <br /> <br /> 1979- ESPN, the 24 hour sports channel began broadcasting.<br /> <br /> 1982- Michael Jackson’s second solo album Thriller was released. It becomes the biggest selling album in history.<br /> <br /> 1982- Nova Pictures is founded, but due to conflict with a PBS TV show of the same name they change theirs to TriStar Pictures. In 1994 TriStar was merged into Sony Pictures.<br /> <br /> 1985- Punk band The Dead Kennedys released their album Frankenchrist.<br /> <br /> 1987- John Lasseter’s Pixar short Red’s Dream released.<br /> <br /> 1991- Battered wife Mrs. Omeima Nelson killed her abusive husband, dismembered his body and ate him. “I did his ribs just like in a restaurant.” she said.<br /> <br /> 1993- President Clinton signed the Brady Handgun bill into law. The bill was named for Ronald Reagan press secretary James Brady, who received a debilitating head wound in the assassination attempt on Reagan in 1981. In 2001, President George W. Bush let it expire without renewing it.<br /> <br /> 1999- THE BATTLE OF SEATTLE- protesters trying to disrupt the World Trade Organization battled riot police and turned the downtown area into a battle zone. For the next several years wherever the WTO met they were surrounded by thousands of protestors, although the mainstream media tends to pooh-pooh their message.<br /> <br /> 2003- Roy Disney Jr, the last serving member of the Disney family, was made to resign from the Walt Disney Company. It was claimed to be the standard retirement policy, but more likely he was forced out by the exec he himself hired to run the company in 1984- Michael Eisner. Roy built a successful grass root stockholders’ campaign SaveDisney.com. In 2005 it was Eisner who was compelled to retire. Roy Disney kept an emeritus board position until his death in 2009.<br /> <br /> 2010- Don Hahn’s doc Waking Sleeping Beauty was released on DVD.<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> <br /> Question: In the annals of inhabitants of the underworld, who was Lilith?<br /> <br /> Answer: A female demon, the consort of Lucifer, the Empress of Hell. Some accounts make her the first wife of Adam.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 28 Nov 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6320 <p>Question: What does it mean to have a Shakespearian flaw?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: In Pixar’s Toy Story, who are the characters Woody and Buzz named after?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/28/2023<br /> Birthdays: Jean Baptiste Lully, William Blake, Frederick Engels, Stefan Zweig, Ernst Roehm, Brooks Atkinson, Berry Gordy the founder of Motown Records, Anton Rubinstein, Gary Hart, Vern Den Herder, Paul Warfield, Hope Lange, Paul Schaefer, Joe Dante, Michael Ritchie, Anna Nicole-Smith, Randy Newman is 80, Ed Harris is 74, John Stewart is 61<br /> <br /> 885 A.D. est. date that the VIKINGS ATTACKED PARIS-Viking warchief Ragnar Lothbrock had attacked Paris a generation earlier. Now dragonships led by his sons Sigfred and Sinric rowed up the Seine to attack again. The Parisians under Duke Odo and Bishop Gozlin put up a stout resistance from the city walls until the summer, when the plague and an army Frankish King Charles the Fat, son of Charles the Bald, rescued the city. <br /> <br /> 1493- On his second voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus returned to discover his first colony he founded La Natividad had been wiped out by angry local natives.<br /> <br /> 1520- Having recovered and refitted from navigating the Straights of Magellan around the tip of South America, Fernan Magellan struck out across the Pacific.<br /> <br /> 1812-THE CROSSING OF THE BEREZINA- Napoleon' army on it's frozen Retreat from Moscow had to get across two rickety spans over an ice swollen river while Russian armies fire down on them from all sides. Napoleon said to his chief of staff Berthier, ” Well, how do we get out of this?” <br /> Engineer General Eble, the artillery chief who called his cannon “my children” oversaw the maintaining of the bridges. He constantly waded into waist deep frigid water and with his men worked feverishly to keep patching up the rickety span. The bridges broke down frequently and the span of a wooden board was the difference between life and death. General Eble made it out of Russia, but soon died of pneumonia and exhaustion.<br /> <br /> 1815- After Waterloo and a prisoner on the island of St. Helena, Napoleon Bonaparte for the first time put away his uniform, and appeared in civilian clothes. It was his admission that after more than twenty-five years of politics and war, his career was indeed over.<br /> <br /> 1870- Painter Jean Bazille was shot and killed while serving in the French Army fighting the Prussians. He was only 29. He had been one of the early leaders of the new movement called Impressionism. Had he lived he might have become as famous as Monet or Cezanne.<br /> <br /> 1895- The Chicago Times-Herald Race- the first American auto race. Two electric and four gas powered cars raced from Chicago to Evanston and back, 54 miles despite several inches of snow on the ground. The winner Car # 5 driven by inventor Charles Duryea reached a top speed of 7 miles an hour! Only one other car finished, the rest broke down. Duryea won $2,000, and caught a cold. <br /> <br /> 1905- The Sinn Fein political party founded in Dublin by Arthur Griffiths. Sinn Fein –pronounced “shinn-fain”is gaelic for “We ourselves alone”. Griffiths signed the Anglo-Irish treaty with Michael Collins the IRA chief. The subsequent outcry over giving up the six counties of Ulster hounded him into an early grave, Griffiths died of a heart attack and Collins was assassinated.<br /> <br /> 1907- 23 year old Russian-Canadian scrap metal dealer Lazar Meir, now renamed Louis B. Mayer, bought an old burlesque house in Haverhill Massachusetts to show the new moving picture shows. Originally called The Gem, it was such a dump locals called it The Germ. Mayer renamed it The Orpheum, and on Thanksgiving Day opened with the film “ From the Manger to the Cross”. L.B. Mayer grew his film business to become MGM, and at the time of his retirement in 1950 was the most powerful man in Hollywood. The Motion Picture Academy was his idea.<br /> <br /> 1911- The Chevrolet Automobile Company founded by the brothers Chevrolet.<br /> <br /> 1919- Nancy Viscountess Astor became the first woman ever elected to the British Parliament. She succeeded her husband William Waldorf Astor as Conservative MP for Plymouth. Although a fellow Tory, Lady Astor was the political as well as verbal nemesis of Winston Churchill. She once said to him "Mr. Churchill, if I were your wife I'd put poison in your coffee!" To which Churchill replied:" Madame if I were your husband, I would drink it!" <br /> <br /> 1922- The first skywriting display. Former RAF pilot Cyril Turner wrote HELLO USA, CALL VANDERBILT 7-200 in the skies above New York City. 47,000 people immediately telephoned the Vanderbilt Hotel..<br /> <br /> 1925- First radio broadcast from the Grand Ol' Opry in Nashville.<br /> <br /> 1926- California oil tycoon Edward Doheny went on trial for his role in the Teapot Dome scandal. That he and Harry Sinclair had bribed the Secretary of the Interior to lease them U.S. Navy strategic oil reserves. And like most millionaires, he was acquitted.<br /> <br /> 1942- THE COCONUT GROVE FIRE-The U.S. public was distracted for awhile from war news by reports of a terrible disaster in Boston. A fire broke out at a popular nightclub called the Cocoanut Grove and killed 492 people in only twelve minutes. The clubs decorations caught fire and created carbon monoxide gas and there were only two exits. Among the dead was western movie star Buck Jones. The tragedy created the first mandatory laws requiring public buildings to have fire exits opening outwards and safety testing of decorative materials.<br /> <br /> 1942- Fleischer Paramount cartoon short “Superman and the Mechanical Monsters” opened in theaters. For the first time we see Clark Kent change into Superman in a phone booth. In 2004 the cartoon was the inspiration for Kerry Conran’s scifi epic “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” With Jude Law, Gwynneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie.<br /> <br /> 1946- During the traditional Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade in NYC, Hollywood cameras filmed the Macy Parade scenes for the movie “The Miracle on 34th St.”Star Edmund Gwenn posed as Santa. At this time, Hollywood movies were rarely filmed on location. But the studio had little faith the film would be a success, and did not want waste a lot of money building big sets on their lot. <br /> <br /> 1947- Disney's cartoon "Chip and Dale".<br /> <br /> 1948- Hopalong Cassidy premiered on television.<br /> <br /> 1951-Truman held a crisis cabinet meeting over the War in Korea. <br /> U.S and United Nations forces had been attacked by 180,000 Communist Chinese, lost the capitol Seoul and were being driven back down the Korean peninsula. Gen. Douglas MacArthur recommended dropping ten atomic bombs on Chinese cities, spreading a belt of nuclear waste across the Sino-Korean border and inviting Chiang Kai Shek's Nationalist Chinese to attack and restart the Chinese Civil War. This would mean Russia would step in with its nuclear weapons, and World War III would result.<br /> Truman made the decision to keep the Korean War a "limited war", and not let it expand, no matter how bad allied losses became. <br /> Gen. MacArthur was horrified. He was told we are not at war with China, even though thousands of Chinese soldiers were even now locked in deadly battle with his troops. At first, his call for nuclear weapons sound crazy, but his argument was it was crazy to fight wars to preserve a status-quo. If you go to the extreme of risking men's lives, do it to win or don’t go to war at all. In 1964 from his deathbed, MacArthur sent a note to Pres. Johnson begging him not to go into Vietnam.<br /> <br /> 1953- Dr. Frank Olson, one of the US Army’s foremost experts on biological warfare, smashed out of a window of the New York Statler Hotel and fell 9 stories to his death. In 1975 it was revealed Olson had been given LSD by Dr Sidney Gottlieb, as part of a government “mind-control” experiment. Gottlieb had the drug spiked into Olson’s after dinner glass of Cointreau without his knowledge. At the time the gov’t thought LSD under controlled conditions could expand the human mind. The CIA kept the truth from his family until compelled to do so by congressional hearings over twenty years later. <br /> <br /> 1953- Cartoonist &amp; writer Milt Gross died.<br /> <br /> 1989- Opposites Attract, Paula Abdul dancing with cartoon MC Skat Kat, was released. It became one of the most popular R&amp;B &amp; dance-pop singles of 1990 and won a Grammy. <br /> <br /> 1994 –At the Columbia State Penitentiary in Portage Wisconsin, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was cleaning the prison bathroom when he was attacked and beaten to death with a broomstick by inmate Christopher Scarver. Scarver explained God told him kill him. Dahmer’s brain was preserved in formaldehyde, but a year later his mother ordered it destroyed. <br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: In Pixar’s Toy Story, who are the characters Woody and Buzz named after?<br /> <br /> Answer: Woody was named for Woody Strode, a black actor who excelled in cowboy roles. Buzz is named after Buzz Aldrin, who walked on the moon with Neil Armstrong in 1969.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 27 Nov 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6319 <p>Question: In Pixar’s Toy Story, who are the characters Woody and Buzz named after?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s answer below: What does it mean to have a Napoleon Complex?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/27/2023<br /> Birthdays: Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jimi Hendrix would have been 80, Bruce Lee-original name Lee Jun Fan, would have been 83, James Agee, Chaim Weizmann, Mobster Vito Genovese, Czech leader Alexander Dubcheck, David Merrick, Marshal Thompson, Robin Givens, Judd Nelson, Buffalo Bob Smith, William Fichtner, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg is 66, Kathryn Bigelow is 72<br /> <br /> 43BC-THE SECOND TRIUMVERATE- Marc Anthony, Octavian Caesar and Marcus Lepidus compelled the Roman Senate to declare them The Board of Three with Consular Powers for the Reorganizing of the State. This legitimized what they were in fact anyway, the rulers of the Roman Empire. They used this new pact to hunt down the killers of Julius Caesar, and they published a list of "Proscribed Persons" who were declared enemies of the state. An estimated 4,000 Roman politicians and noblemen were executed, including the philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero.<br /> <br /> 176AD- Marcus Aurelius named his son Commodus as co ruler and heir to the Roman Empire. He died four years later. This ended Rome’s second Golden Age of Peace and prosperity called the Augustan Age. The Augustan Age was successful in part because the Emperors, who were mostly gay or bi-sexual, would adopt the best man for the job instead to rule Rome. So Rome enjoyed a series of excellent leaders- Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. But Marcus Aurelius spoiled the whole system by letting his natural son Commodus succeed him. Commodus turned into another sicko-tyrant like Nero and Caligula. It was rumored Commodus wasn’t even Marcus’ son but the Empress Faustina sired him with a gladiator, thus his fondness for the profession.<br /> <br /> 221AD- Today is the Feast Day of Saint James Intercisus, or Saint James "Chopped up into tiny pieces", which leave little doubt as to the method of his martyrdom.<br /> <br /> 1519- Martin Luther squared off with Catholic scholar Dr. Johann Eck in a grand public debate in Leipzig. Audiences sat in bleachers and cheered like a sports match. The debate about Luther’s new Protestant views would go on until July 8th. Luther won the audience with his superior eloquence and logic but Eck succeeded in getting Luther to publicly speak heresy against Rome. The Reformation now moved from a small local argument about indulgences to a major challenge to the authority of the Vatican to own the Christian Faith. <br /> <br /> 1582- William Shakespeare 18, married Ann Hathaway 26. They married quickly, and their first child Susannah was born after only six months. They had a son who died and two daughters. Three years later Will left Ann in Stratford on Avon, and by 1591 was known as an actor in London. He invested in land in Stratford, and in 1616 retired to the country to spend time with his daughters and grandchildren, but he never went back to Ann. It’s been speculated that she became a Puritan and disapproved of his profession. Shakespeare enjoyed making fun of Puritans in his comedies like "Twelfth Night"."<br /> <br /> 1868- THE GREAT BATTLE ON THE WASHITA -as it was called in those days. Generals Sherman and Sheridan had had enough of chasing small bands of Indian warriors all over the prairie. They now ordered George Armstrong Custer to introduce to the plains their style of "Hard War"- that burned Atlanta and brought the Confederacy to it’s knees. With the sound of a band playing " Gary Owen" shattering the pre-dawn quiet Custer and his 7th Cavalry surprise attacked the village of Chief Black Kettle. The warriors were out foraging so they mostly killed women and children. They even shot their ponies. <br /> Chief Black Kettle had recently signed a peace treaty with the white-eyes and felt so safe he flew a U.S. flag over his teepee. Black Kettle had survived a similar attack in 1864 called the Sand Creek Massacre. The excuse for the attack was that a white woman homesteader kidnapped by renegade Cheyenne may have been deposited for awhile at Black Kettle's encampment. The Victorian horror over inferred sexual outrages committed on Christian maidens goaded the troopers to ruthless fury, however after the battle Custer freely encouraged his officers to divide up the prettiest native women for themselves. <br /> One legend says Custer took a mistress named Meotzsi who bore him a child. When Custer died at the Little Big Horn, his body was not scalped and mutilated like the others. Because the Cheyenne considered him family.<br /> <br /> 1910- New York’s Penn Station opened.<br /> <br /> 1921- English writer Alastair Crowley proclaimed himself Outer Head of the Order Templeis Orientalis- or Order of the Temple of the East. Alastair Crowley had spent years studying and mastering various occult devotions- Freemasons, Rosicrucians, Gnosticism, Bavarian Illuminati, and others in order to fuse them into his own form of devotion- Thelema he called it, based on the satires of the 1500’s French poet Rabelais. He boasted often that he wanted Crowleyism to eventually replace Christianity. His own mother called him: "The Wickedest Man in the World".<br /> <br /> 1924- The First Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. The marvel of the parade were large displays that moved down the street thanks to small automobiles concealed under them. They seemed to "float", so they were called parade floats today. The huge balloons were added in 1927. Originally after the parade the balloons were let go to float away into the sky. Macy’s offered a bounty to people who found them after they landed, usually in rural New Jersey. <br /> <br /> 1932- Former Terrytoons animator Art Babbitt, now at Walt Disney, wrote to fellow animator Bill Tytla, encouraging him to come out to California. "Terry owes you a lot and Disney has plans for a full length color cartoon!"<br /> <br /> 1936- Max Fleischer's cartoon featurette, "Popeye meets Sinbad the Sailor".<br /> <br /> 1941-While Admiral Yamamoto’s carrier fleet was preparing to put to sea, at Pearl Harbor the U.S. army commander General Short received a top secret coded message from Washington: " Negotiations with Japan seem at an end for all practical purposes...future moves unpredictable but hostile action possible at any moment. If hostilities cannot be avoided the United States desires that Japan commit the first overt act...Measures should be carried out so as not to alarm the civilian population or disclose intent."<br /> <br /> 1942- Admiral Laborde had received orders from Vichy to put the French fleet at the Nazis disposal so they attack the Allied beachheads in North Africa. Instead Laborde scuttled the French fleet in Toulon Harbor.<br /> <br /> 1950- THE CHOSIN RESEVOIR- In Korea this day the US First Marine Division and British Commando 411 was cut off and attacked on all sides by massed Red Chinese armies. Commander Chesty Puller, a veteran of Guadalcanal, when told he was surrounded replied: "That just simplifies our problems of finding these people and killing them." The Marines slowly fought their way the trap in subzero cold, across the frozen ice, bringing out most of their wounded and some POWs. Survivors of the epic march refuse to call their campaign a retreat, they said they merely attacking in another direction. They called themselves "The Chosin Few" and the "Frozen-Chosin".<br /> <br /> 1953- Playwright Eugene O'Neill died of pneumonia, Parkinson's Disease, and alcoholism at 65. He had been writing on cardboard laundry shirt boards because he needed something large to write on because his hands trembled so violently. When O’Neill realized his end was near he tore up six plays he was writing because he wanted no one else to complete them. He was staying at the Shelton Hotel in Boston. As his father was an actor his family traveled frequently. O'Neill's last words were: "I knew it! Born in a hotel room, and goddammit, I'm dying in a hotel room! "<br /> <br /> 1957- The Hollywood Reporter announced NBC had purchased a season of cartoons especially made for TV by former MGM animators Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera. They will be called “Ruff and Ready” and will debut in a half hour slot on Saturday Mornings.<br /> <br /> 1960 – Gordie Howe became the first NHL player to score 1,000 goals.<br /> <br /> 1963- The Beatles release the single “ I Wanna Hold Your Hand.”<br /> <br /> 1967- The Beatles release Magical Mystery Tour.<br /> <br /> 1973- Conjunction Junction, by Jack Sheldon, first played on the TV show Schoolhouse Rock.<br /> <br /> 1973- According to the X-Files this was the night Fox Mulder’s sister Samantha was abducted by aliens.<br /> <br /> 1975- Ross McWhirter, publisher of the Guinness Book of World Records, was assassinated by the IRA.<br /> <br /> 1978- San Francisco Mayor George Mosconi and openly gay City Supervisor Harvey Milk were shot and killed by embittered city councilman Dan White. Councilwoman Diane Feinstein discovered their bodies, and took over as mayor. Dan White was acquitted on an insanity plea using the "Twinkie Defense", that junk food raised his blood sugar to such an extent that he went berserk. He served only 5 years in prison, moved to Orange County, then committed suicide. Diane Feinstein became a long time Senator from California and just died this year at age 90.<br /> <br /> 2002- Disney’s animated feature Treasure Planet opened in theaters.<br /> <br /> 2009- Tiger Woods was the greatest golfer of his time and could have been the greatest in history. He didn’t just win tournaments, he dominated the entire sport. While other athletes were tainted with drugs and scandal, Tiger had a squeaky clean image.<br /> This Thanksgiving night at 2:30AM, Tiger Woods crashed his SUV into a tree as a result of an argument with his Swedish bikini model wife, who chased him from their home waving one of his golf clubs. This incident revealed Woods as a compulsive philanderer. More than a dozen women- cocktail waitresses, bimbos and porn stars came forward to admit riding the Tiger. His reputation in tatters, Tiger Woods’ game never again really regained his champion form. <br /> <br /> 2013- Disney film Frozen premiered. Directed by Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck. Let it Go! Let it Go!<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean to have a Napoleon Complex?<br /> <br /> Answer: It means to become so carried away with one’s success, you become convinced you are never wrong, and push away dissenting opinions. Finally surrounded with yes-men who would never disagree with you.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 26 Nov 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6318 <p>Question: What does it mean to have a Napoleon Complex?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: Who was Elliot Ness?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/26/20233254<br /> Birthdays: John Harvard 1607(founder of Harvard University), Bat Masterson, Eugene Ionesco, Bruno Richard Hauptmann, Marian Mercer, Charles Schulz, Cyril Cusak, Eric Severaid, Rich Little, Sister Wendy Turnbull, Robert Goulet, Don Hahn.<br /> <br /> 311A.D. Saint Peter of Alexandria, was the last saint to be martyred before Roman Emperor Constantine lifted the ban on Christianity in 312.<br /> <br /> 1539- Fountains Abbey, the largest and richest Cistercian abbey in England, was surrendered to the officers of King Henry VIII.<br /> <br /> 1716- In Boston, the first African lion ever seen in America was put on exhibit.<br /> <br /> 1804- Napoleon Bonaparte made public the results of a national referendum held to decide whether the French people wanted him to be their emperor. 3.5 million votes for yes, 2,500 for no. Since Napoleon was a dictator who was kicking the butts of most of the nations of Europe, most Frenchmen wouldn’t argue much, and he had been planning his coronation for months anyhow. <br /> <br /> 1825- Kappa Alpha of Union College NY is established. The first college Greek Letter fraternity house.<br /> <br /> 1832- In New York, the John Mason started service, a streetcar pulled along iron rails by a team of horses. This replaced horse pulled wagons. It went from Princes Street to 14th St. A ticket cost 12 pennies. The last horse car tram stopped in 1926.<br /> <br /> 1865- Charles Dodgson sent a handwritten copy of the manuscript of his fantasy Alice’s Adventures Underground to his 12 year old friend and inspiration Alice Liddell. He conceived the story three years earlier. He later published the book with his own money retitled Alice in Wonderland, under the pen-name Lewis Carroll. Alice in Wonderland was one of the first books written solely to amuse children, and not to educate or discipline them.<br /> <br /> 1868- At first baseball games were played in a convenient cow pasture. Today the first baseball game was played in an enclosed field. It was in San Francisco at Folsom &amp; 25th St..<br /> <br /> 1896- AA. Stagg of The University of Chicago invented the football huddle.<br /> <br /> 1913- THE DISAPPEARANCE OF AMBROSE BIERCE- Ambrose Bierce was one of the more popular U.S. writers of the late 19th century. A savage wit and social critic, he pioneered sardonic anti-war fiction long before Kurt Vonnegut. But by 1913 the 71-year-old curmudgeon found himself alone, ill, his creative powers failing and not looking forward to old age. So on November 6th he announced his intention to travel to Mexico at the height of the revolution there and hopefully get killed.“Ah, to be an old gringo stood up before a Mexican firing squad, now that is Euthanasia!” This day he gave his last known newspaper interview in Laredo Texas, then disappeared forever. A niece claimed he sent her a letter from Chihuahua on Dec. 26th but that letter has never been found. The popular story is that he was executed by Pancho Villa. But Villa and his people never recalled meeting Bierce. Plus Villa was followed around by so many American news correspondents and newsreel cameras that a person as famous as Ambrose Bierce was sure to be noticed. Bierce’s family believed he was killed in action at Oijinaga in early 1914 and his body burned with the others.<br /> As he planned, Ambrose Bierce has the last laugh. “I want no one to find my bones!” And no one ever has.<br /> <br /> 1917- The National Hockey League-NHL, was founded in Montreal. The first teams The Quebec Bulldogs, Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Arenas, and Montreal Maroons.<br /> <br /> 1926- Potato chips, or crisps in the UK, were invented in the 1880’s by African American chef George Crumm and served in restaurants and fairgrounds. This day Mrs. Laura Scudder was the first to put potato chips in a bag and sold them as a handy snack food. She sold them out of the back of her pickup truck until the business picked up. She ran her own company until 1959. <br /> <br /> 1938- Walt Disney was raised in a hard-scrabble, struggling family. He promised his parents if he ever made good, he would take care of them. After Snow White made him rich and successful, he moved his parents out to Los Angeles and bought them a beautiful home in North Hollywood. This night faulty furnace leak filled their bedroom with carbon monoxide. The housekeeper found them in the morning and dragged them out onto the lawn. Walt Disney’s father Elias barely survived but his mother Flora died. This left Walt so shattered he could never talk about it after.<br /> <br /> 1940- Woody Woodpecker first appeared in an Andy Panda cartoon "Knock-Knock.’<br /> <br /> 1942- Rommel's "Dash to the Wire"- After months of inconclusive melee' in the Libyan desert, Gen. Rommel's German Afrika Korps broke through the British 8th Army and made a beeline for the Egyptian border. His plan was to cut the Suez canal, overrun the Middle East oilfields and link up with Vichy troops in Lebanon and Syria, and Nazi units rolling down from southern Russia into Iraq. But the German army in Russia never got that far and on the road to Egypt, Rommel would finally be stopped at an Egyptian railroad crossing cal led El Alamein.<br /> <br /> 1943- The Donald Duck short Home Defense was released.<br /> <br /> 1945- Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie recorded KoKo, the first bebop Jazz single. Instead of big bands as was the fashion, they used a smaller quintet. The pianist at the session didn’t have his New York union card, so after his solo, Dizzy dropped his trumpet and did the piano backup to Birds’ solo. The song was from chord variations of an old Ray Noble song “Cherokee” that Bird and Dizzy knew. The term Bop came from an earlier Lionel Hampton hit “Hey-Bop-A-ReBop”. Jazz critic Ira Gitler picked up on the witty interplay between musicians, and wrote of the new sound as BeBop.<br /> <br /> 1963- The day after John Kennedy’s funeral at a secret location in Lindenhurst New Jersey a meeting was held of Mafia bosses to find out just what just happened in Dallas? <br /> Mafia consiglierie Bill Bonano, the son of Joe Bananas, claimed he and other crime bosses were told by representatives of Tony Marcello and Santos Traficante that they were behind the JFK shooting, and it was all “a local matter”. Both men were the targets of heavy government racketeering probes pursued by Attorney General Robert Kennedy. They explained that there were four shooters that day including the patsy Lee Harvey Oswald. Dallas police officer Tibbets was supposed to take out Oswald right after the shooting, but Oswald killed him first, so Jimmy Roselli arranged for Jack Ruby to go in to fix things. Believe it or not!<br /> <br /> 1965- France launched its first space rocket, the Dianant-1, into orbit.<br /> <br /> 1970- During a visit to Manila, Pope Paul VI was attacked by a lunatic wielding a knife. The Pope was unhurt and continued his journey.<br /> <br /> 1975- Former Charles Manson follower Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme is convicted of trying to assassinate President Gerald Ford with a starters pistol.<br /> <br /> 1976- Sex Pistols Punk single “Anarchy in the UK” released.<br /> <br /> 1990- Acting on the example of Sony’s purchase of MGM-Columbia studios, Matushita (Panasonic) bought MCA- Universal studios for $6.6 billion. After a few fruitless years they sold it to The Bronfman’s Group, the distillers of Seagram’s Whiskey. <br /> <br /> 1998- Tony Blair became the first British Prime Minister to address the Irish Parliament.<br /> He said: We can no longer afford to be the Prisoners of History.”<br /> <br /> 2001- Columnist William Kristol proclaimed:” The endgame in Afghanistan is in sight!” The war went on instead for 20 more years. <br /> <br /> 2008- Terrorists attacked several top hotels in Mumbai (Bombay). They focused on trying to capture or kill American and British citizens and they shot up an Orthodox Jewish Chabad charity house, killing a rabbi and his wife. After four days of battle with Indian forces, they were all killed.<br /> =========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Who was Elliot Ness?<br /> <br /> Answer: Elliot Ness was a federal treasury agent who tangled with famous gangsters like Al Capone in Prohibition Era Chicago. Just before he died, he published a memoir about his racket-busting unit called The Untouchables. It became a best seller and a hit TV series and movie. He became the most famous lawman since Wyatt Earp.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 25 Nov 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6317 <p>Question: Who was Elliot Ness?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: On a ship, what does it mean when you have to “go to the head”?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/25/2023<br /> Birthdays: Lope de Vega, St. Pope John XXIII, Andrew Carnegie, Tina Turner, Joe Dimaggio, Carl Benz of Mercedes Benz, Virgil Thompson, Jeffrey Hunter, John Kennedy,Jr., Percy Sledge, Ben Stein, Ricardo Montalban, Bob Matheson, John Larroquette, Gloria Steinem, General Augusto Pinochet, Christina Applegate, Bucky Dent, Bill Kroyer<br /> <br /> <br /> 1177-Battle of Montgisard- 19 year old Baldwin the Leper-King of Jerusalem and his Crusader knights defeated Saladin.<br /> <br /> 1758- In the Pennsylvania wilderness, a British force including frontier scout Daniel Boone and militia Captain George Washington captured Fort Duquesne from the French. They renamed it for their current Prime Minister William Pitt, hence the name Pittsburgh.<br /> <br /> 1783- EVACUATION DAY- Treaties ending the American Revolution signed, the last British troops left U.S. soil, sailing out of New York Harbor for Nova Scotia. This also marks the beginning of the exodus to Canada of Americans who sided with England, maybe as many as 130,000. Tories, or United Empire Loyalists, as you prefer. Also about 3,000 slaves liberated by the British requested to return to Africa and were sent to Sierra Leone. Among their number was the personal cook of George Washington, who bolted through the lines the moment he heard about the offer. Washington angrily demanded his return, but the British refused. <br /> The last shot fired of the American Revolution was as the British fleet passed by Staten Island, so many people were at the shoreline jeering, a British warship fired a cannon at them. The shot landed harmlessly in the water. One British officer wrote “I wish Columbus had never discovered this cursed place.” George Washington led American forces into the city at around 1:00PM. Evacuation Day was a holiday in New York for many years afterwards.<br /> <br /> 1795- English architect Henry Latrobe left Europe for a life in the U.S. <br /> Latrobe was the architect who built the U.S. Capitol building.<br /> <br /> 1817- First sword swallower performed in the US.<br /> <br /> 1864- In a production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar at New York’s Winter garden Theater the three Booth brothers- John Wilkes, Edwin and Junius Booth appeared together for the only time. Other famous acting families of the time included the Powers, whose descendant was the movie star Tyrone Power, and the Barrymores, who’s line continues down today from John to John Drew to Drew Barrymore.<br /> <br /> 1867- Alfred Nobel patented dynamite. The riches he accumulated from this and Nitro-Glycerin he used to fund the Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> 1869- Ned Buntline was a hack dime novelist who understood that selling stories about gunfighters of the west would be easier if you could occasionally produce one in the flesh. So on a trip to Nebraska he found among the cavalry scouts an accommodatingly colorful rogue named William Cody, who everybody called Buffalo Bill. This day Ned Buntline announced in the New York Weekly the first installment of a serial series “Buffalo Bill, King of the Bordermen”. Buntline and Cody collaborated to make Buffalo Bill the first true American media star, entertaining millions, from crowned heads to street kids, until his retirement in 1916.<br /> <br /> 1915- In a rally at Stone Mountain Georgia, a group of white southerners inspired by D.W. Griffith’s film ‘The Birth of a Nation” declared the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan. The original Klan had been formed in 1865 by disaffected Confederate veterans as a resistance to the Yankee occupation. But by 1867 most had been rounded up by the authorities. It died out in part because all their goals of denying black Americans their civil rights had been achieved by political means anyway. This new Klan in 1915 broadened their appeal to hatred of not only black Americans but also immigrants, Jews and Catholics. Instead of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, the modern KKK appealed to strict U.S. patriotism and the Protestant Religion. Many areas other than the Old South invited in the Klan, like in 1921 the governor and most of the state legislature of Indiana were Klansmen. <br /> <br /> 1929- Alfred Hitchcock’s film Blackmail opened in London. It was the first full length talkie in Britain.<br /> <br /> 1932- At Sam Houston High School in rural Texas, a young teacher got a phone call. It was from Congressman Richard Clayburgh. He said he needed an executive aide in Washington, and he heard this guy was a go-getter. The young teacher said yes, and packed his one suit and a few shirts in a cardboard suitcase. <br /> Lyndon B. Johnson’s career in politics began.<br /> <br /> 1944- A German V-2 missile hit a Woolworth’s store in Deptford England while people were shopping. 160 killed. German generals wanted the V-2’s aimed at the Allied beachheads where all their supplies were being unloaded. But Hitler had them fired at London, and wherever they came down they did.<br /> <br /> 1949- Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer sung by Gene Autry hit number one on the music charts. The TV program by Rankin/Bass premiered in 1964.<br /> <br /> 1952- The stage adaptation of Agatha Christie’s mystery the Mousetrap opened in London’s West End and became one of the longest running plays in history.<br /> <br /> 1956- Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and 88 followers departed exile in Mexico in a ramshackle boat called The Granma to start the revolution in Cuba.<br /> <br /> 1960- CBS canceled its remaining five radio soap operas, most of them now on television. <br /> <br /> 60 Years Ago 1963- THE FUNERAL OF JOHN F. KENNEDY. The massed muffled drums, bagpipes, bands blaring Chopin’s Funeral March, the riderless horse named BlackJack with the boots in the stirrups turned inward, a tradition that went back to Genghis Khan, the black horse drawn artillery caisson modeled on Abraham Lincoln's. Photographer Sam Stearns caught little John-John giving a salute, like everyone around him.<br /> This day was also John Kennedy Jr.'s birthday, and a big party had been planned with lots of little tots. Jackie knew that baby John-john didn't understand the gravity of what had transpired, so after the funeral she changed out of her widow’s weeds and ran a kiddie party.<br /> <br /> 1963- In his family home in Queens NY, young songwriter Paul Simon was deeply depressed by the assassination of President Kennedy. He locked himself in his bathroom and kicked around chords on his guitar. That night, he wrote “ Hello darkness, my old friend….”<br /> <br /> 1970- Japan's great poet-playwright Yukio Mishima committed suicide(seppuku) after attempting a coup at a military base. He had his suicide filmed as it happened. He felt Japan was losing her spiritual soul to crass materialism, so the ancient Bushido warrior code was the only way back. The Japanese Defense Force soldiers he appealed to join his cause just laughed at him and thought he was crazy.<br /> In a poll conducted in a magazine at the time, about 75% of Japanese women said they would rather commit suicide than sleep with Yukio Mishima.<br /> <br /> 1971- Con man D.B. Cooper hijacked a Northwest Orient passenger plane after stealing $ 200,000. He parachuted out of the 727 airliner with the money during a thunderstorm over Washington State and disappeared forever. Searchers found rotting bits of money in the forest but never a body. D.B. Cooper became a folk legend. <br /> In 1999 a man in South Carolina named Dwayne Weber was dying of liver cancer. Before he died he turned to his wife Jo and said “Before I go, I gotta tell ya something. I’m Dan Cooper” His wife said he loved singing at piano bars, and his favorite song was “You’ll never know…”<br /> <br /> 1975- According to the movie Rocky, this was the date of the first prizefight portrayed in the film where we first meet Rocky Balboa.<br /> <br /> 1975- Happy Surinam Independence Day.<br /> <br /> 1986- President Reagan announced the firing of National Security adviser Admiral Poindexter and his assistant Marine colonel Oliver North. That night North’s secretary Fawn Hall smuggled incriminating documents out of her office stuffed in her brassiere and under her skirt. The NSC was engaged in an illegal scheme of selling weapons to Iran through middlemen then funneling the money made to the Nicaraguan Contras rebels in defiance of Congress. <br /> A 40 million dollar Congressional investigation could never definitively tie Reagan to the scheme, even though North openly admitted he was only the designated fall guy. Admiral Poindexter served in the GW Bush administration and Ollie North became a radio talk show host.<br /> <br /> 1992- Walt Disney’s Aladdin opened in theaters.<br /> <br /> 1995- Legendary Corporate CEO Akio Morita retired as the leader of Sony. Under his guidance Sony went from a little postwar maker of electric rice cookers to the largest electronics company in the world. His official reason was he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while playing tennis. Some insiders said he was tired of dealing with the stress of managing Sony's Hollywood studios -MGM, Columbia, TriStar losing $2 billion. By the time Morita died in 1999, the Sony movie studios had pulled out of their slump and were on top with movies like Titanic and Men in Black.<br /> <br /> 2009- Disney’s Princess and the Frog, directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, opened.<br /> <br /> 2015- In a speech in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Presidential candidate Donald Trump did a mocking impression of a NY Times reporter Serge Kovalevski, who is disabled. In his speech, Trump shook violently: “Now the poor guy — you ought to see the guy: ‘Uhh, I don’t know what I said. I don’t remember!’ To the cruel laughter of his audience. He later claimed his intent was misunderstood. For any normal candidate, this would have destroyed their chances. But Donnie was just getting started.<br /> ===============================================================------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: On a ship, what does it mean when you have to “go to the head”?<br /> <br /> Answer: In the Age of Sail the toilets for the sailors to use were located under the bowsprit, or at the head of the ship.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 24 Nov 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6316 <p>Question: On a ship, what does it mean when you have to “go to the head”?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: There is the Roman Catholic Church. But what does it mean to use the word catholic, small c, as an adjective?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> HISTORY FOR 11/24/2023<br /> Birthdays: Spinoza, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Scott Joplin, Zachary Taylor, Carrie Nation, Dick Powell, Garson Kanin, Cass Gilbert-the architect of the first skyscraper, Alvan Barkley-Truman’s VP, Forrest J. Ackerman, William F. Buckley, John Lindsay, Dale Carnegie- author of How to Win Friends and Influence People, Steve Yeager, Denise Crosby, Billy Connolly is 82<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------<br /> <br /> 800 AD- Charlemagne or Charles the Great, the King of the Franks (France), arrived in Rome to spend the Christmas season with his old pal Pope Leo III. At the Christmas service, Pope Leo would crown him Emperor.<br /> <br /> 1221- The Mongol horde of Genghis Khan destroyed the Persian army of Shah Jelalladin in the Indus Valley in present northwestern Pakistan.<br /> <br /> 1326- Hugh Despenser the Younger, onetime gay lover of King Edward II, was executed by order of Eddie’s wife, Queen Isabella the She-Wolf of France. Lashed to a high ladder, she ordered his penis and testicles amputated and burned in front of him before he was disemboweled and cut his heart out. <br /> <br /> 1440- The Black Dinner- Sir Alex Livingston and Sir William Crichton were the regents ruling Scotland in the name of boy King James II Stewart. They were concerned about the loyalty of the Douglas Clan. So this night they had the Earl of Douglas and his brother over to Edinburgh Castle for dinner. At one point during the dinner a black bulls head on a dish was presented. This was the signal to grab the Douglas’s, who were peremptorily tried and beheaded on the spot. <br /> <br /> Edinburgh Castle, town and tower, <br /> God grant ye sink for sin;<br /> And that even for The Black Dinner,<br /> Earl Douglas get there-in…<br /> <br /> 1681- YOU UGLY MUG! The Earl of Shaftesbury acquitted of treason. In the politics of King Charles II’s England the Earl was frequently in opposition to the Kings policy. He started the first political party in loyal opposition, the Green Ribbon Club, later the Whig Party. This was a new idea. Before this, disagreeing openly with the Crown was considered treason. But now after the English Civil War and the Restoration, open political debate was considered acceptable. <br /> Politics at the time was discussed in coffee houses on Fleet St. where only wealthy gentry could afford to dally over a cup of rare Java or hot cocoa imported from the Americas. The Earl of Shaftesbury’s face was printed on coffee mugs by his partisans, as were other images of leading politicians. This is when the word mug also came to mean a face:” I don’t like your mug!”<br /> <br /> 1688- English King James II was facing an invading army led by his own daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange. This morning in his camp, the King awoke to find his own army had run away! In the middle of the night the commander of the royal army, the Duke of Marlborough, and all 40 of his generals deserted and went over to the other side. These defections ensured that the Glorious Revolution of 1688 would be bloodless and not a repeat of the English Civil War of 1642-49.<br /> <br /> 1789- The first issue of France’s national newspaper Le Moniteur.<br /> <br /> 1832- THE NULLIFIERS- A controversy had been brewing since the U.S. Constitution was adapted whether the individual states or federal government had the final say on a law. Southern states in particular declared they had the right to “nullify” Federal laws they didn’t agree with. This day South Carolina refused to pay a new tariff imposed by Washington. President Andy Jackson, also a southerner, angrily ordered the army to mobilize. But the crisis was averted by a compromise the following spring. The issue continues to plague U.S. politics to this day. <br /> <br /> 1859- Charles Darwin published his book on evolution, The Origin of the Species.<br /> <br /> 1863- THE BATTLE ABOVE THE CLOUDS or Missionary Ridge. Gen. Grant's army had to break through a Confederate Army dug in on a mountaintop above Chattanooga, Tennessee. At first it was the 24th Wisconsin Infantry that was ordered to take the rifle pits at the base of Missionary Ridge. This was intended as a diversion for the two flanking attacks occurring at the same time. When the Wisconsin soldiers swept the pits, they confused their orders and just continued the assault. They felt stopping for cover or retreating on the bare mountain slope was more suicidal than attacking. More units joined in the mad scramble up the mountainside and soon the mistake became a general assault that blew the rebel army off the summit. Grant had a great, if unplanned for victory. <br /> The first soldier to plant the U.S. flag on the summit was Lt. Arthur MacArthur, the father of World War II hero General Douglas MacArthur. Lt. MacArthur picked up the regimental flag after the rest of the officers had been killed and led the charge up the slope, for which he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. How did Lt. MacArthur inspire his men? He kept yelling "On Wisconsin!" This tradition inspired the Wisconsin football fight song "On Wisconsin" still sung to this day and perennially voted one of the five best fight songs in college football.<br /> In the early 1960s, the Wisconsin assault on Missionary Ridge was the subject of a crayon/pastel painting by a young recruit of the 101st Airborne Division. The painting is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. The artist? Jimmy Hendrix.<br /> <br /> 1871- The National Rifle Association formed. For many years it was a benign association of amateur hunting and fishing enthusiasts. In 1991 CEO. Wayne LaPierre began filling its executive board with gun company executives and turning it into a major funder of lobbying for conservative culture war causes. <br /> <br /> 1874- Cacaobao, the high chief of the Cannibal Isles (modern Fiji) submitted to the British Empire. He figured they were going get it anyway. He sent Queen Victoria his personal war club as a gift.<br /> <br /> 1874- Joseph Glidden received a patent for barbed wire, which made it possible to fence in the Great Plains for farming. In 1899 in the Boer War it was the white South African Boers who first came up with the idea of using barbed wire to slow down enemy infantry.<br /> Since then, barbed wire has been used to keep people in or out.<br /> <br /> 1904- Alfred Steiglitz and Edward Steichen opened 291, the first art gallery dedicated exclusively to the art of photography.<br /> <br /> 1909- THE UPRISING OF THE TWENTY THOUSAND. Mary 'Mother' Jones led three fifths of the immigrant garment workers of New York out on strike to demand better conditions and recognition of their union, the ILGWU. Several Golden 400 socialites would meet the strikers at the old Water Tower in Greenwich Village to dispense food and day care. One of them was Betsy Morgan, the youngest daughter of J.P. Morgan, who was also involved in a lesbian affair with designer Elzie DeWolfe.<br /> <br /> 1922- Irish writer Erskine Childers was the writer of the Riddle of the Sands, one of the first true spy novels, but he was also a leader of the IRA, and after Irelands Treaty with Britain he sided with the anti-treaty rebels in the Irish Civil War. This day Erskine Childers was shot by an Irish Army firing squad. His son became President of Ireland in 1973.<br /> <br /> 1933- The RKO movie Flying Down to Rio released, meant as a starring vehicle for Dolores Del Rio, but what we remember is it is the first pairing of the famous dance team of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.<br /> <br /> 1937- The Andrew Sisters record their Boogie-Woogie version of “Bei Mir Bist Du Schon”, an old Yiddish Klezmer song that was updated by Bennie Goodman.<br /> <br /> 1938- LENI DOES TINSELTOWN -Hitler's top filmmaker Leni Reifenstahl arrived in Hollywood to meet the film community and show off her new documentary 'Olympia". Nazis charges de’ affaires in L.A., Gerhard Gyssling, had bragged to the press that all Hollywood couldn’t wait to meet Reich’s top filmmaker. But Hollywood had different ideas. Sam Goldwyn said,” I’m not going to greet that N*zi bitch!” Paramount, Warner Bros., Columbia, Fox refused to speak to her and picketers hounded her every step. Well known Conservatives like Louis B. Mayer and Gary Cooper were polite but begged off the bad publicity.<br /> The only studio heads who would meet Leni Reifenstahl were Hal Roach and Walt Disney. Uncle Walt gave her a tour of the studio but begged off running her film, saying the union projectionist would make trouble. ( uh-huh....) Years later Disney said he didn't really know who she was. (uh-huh......) In her 90s, Leni told LA historian Robert Nudleman that she thought Walt met her because his professional curiosity got the better of him. That he wanted to see Olympia, because it was the only film to beat his Snow White at the Venice Film Festival, then the world’s most prestigious film festival.<br /> <br /> 1941- After suffering a strike and declining revenue because of the war in Europe, Walt Disney’s studio was in trouble. Animator Ward Kimball noted in his diary for this day: “ 100 layoffs announced. Studio personnel from 1600 down to a Hyperion level of 300. Geez, It this the writing on the wall?” <br /> <br /> 1947- THE HOLLYWOOD BLACKLIST- 50 Hollywood moguls like Harry Cohn, Jack Warner and Dore Shary met at the Waldorf Astoria in New York to formulate a group response to the House UnAmerican Activities Committee anti-commie hearings that were targeting Hollywood. Besides the heat from the feds their stockholders were clamoring for them to get the Reds out! They agreed to enforce an industry-wide blacklisting of anyone refusing to cooperate with the HUAC Committee. Nothing was ever officially written down or published, if you were blacklisted you suddenly were unable to find any work. <br /> Eric Johnston, spokesman for the Motion Pictures Assoc. said on this day: "As long as I live, I will never be party ot anything as unAmerican as a blacklist!”.<br /> Two days later on Nov. 26th he said: " We will forthwith discharge and never again knowingly employ a Communist. Loyalty oaths for the Entertainment Industry are now compulsory." Many Hollywood artists signed Communist Party cards in the 1930's when it was chic' to be lefty, and the Communists were the only open opponents of segregation and Hitler. Writer Bud Schulberg’s excuse was CP parties had the prettiest girls. Out of an estimated 15,000 entertainment workers only around 300 were ever actually proven to be Communists. Famous blacklist victims included Zero Mostel, Lillian Hellman, Lloyd Bridges, Dashell Hammett, Gale Sondergaard, Edward G. Robinson, Howard Da Silva, Ed Wynn, Sterling Hayden &amp; Dalton Trumbo. Sidney Poitier was blacklisted for no other reason than he was friends with black activist-actor Canada Lee; 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' composer Yip Harburg was blacklisted for writing a song: “Happiness is a thing called Joe" which the committee took to mean Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. <br /> <br /> 1948- Hib Johnson, the President of Johnson's Wax had just moved into a home designed for him by the legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Called Wingspread, it was considered the culmination of Wrights Prairie style. But there was a problem. Johnson called Frank Lloyd Wright to complain that the roof was leaking rainwater onto his Thanksgiving dinner! The water was leaking right on Hib's head as he sat at the head of the table. He refused to budge, and had the phone cord stretched so he could make the<br /> call, and spoke to Wright with the drops splashing off his bald head. What was Frank Lloyd Wright’s response? " So move your table..." <br /> <br /> 1950- Gen. Douglas MacArthur announced his "Home by Christmas Offensive" to finish off the North Korean army and end the Korean War. The next day he was attacked by 180,000 Red Chinese. MacArthur was fired, and the war dragged on until 1953.<br /> <br /> 1950- The musical Guys &amp; Dolls opened. “ I got da horse right here, his name is Paul Revere, I know a jock who tells me Never Fear, Can Do- Can Do..The Jock sez da horse can –do ”<br /> <br /> 1958- The musical film Gigi opened, music by Lerner &amp; Lowe. Based on the writings of French author Collette, Collette herself had insisted young unknown Dutch actress Audrey Hepburn play the lead.<br /> <br /> 1958- Comedian Harry Einstein, known as Parkyakarkus, did his bit at the Friars Club. He sat down at amid the laughter and applause, put his head down and died of a heart attack. His son is comedian-filmmaker Albert Brooks.<br /> <br /> 1963- To complete the surreal drama that shocked America into the Sixties, JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was shot on live nationwide T.V. by smalltime gangster Jack Ruby. He was taken to the same hospital and had the same doctors as Kennedy but still died. Ruby, real name Jacob Rubenstein, always hung around the Dallas police station, so no one thought it was unusual to see him around.<br /> <br /> 1968- Hey Jude by the Beatles topped the pop charts while Tammy Wynette’s Stand By Your Man headed the Country &amp; Western listing.<br /> <br /> 1991- Freddy Mercury, lead singer of the rock group Queen, died of AIDS. He was 45.<br /> <br /> 1988- Mystery Science Theater 3000 premiered.<br /> <br /> 1998- America On Line bought their chief competitor Netscape.<br /> <br /> 1999- Pixar’s Toy Story 2. in theaters. <br /> <br /> 2000- Catherine Zeta-Jones married Michael Douglas. <br /> <br /> 2010- Disney’s Tangled released.<br /> ======================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: There is the Roman Catholic Church. But what does it mean to use the word catholic, small c, as an adjective?<br /> <br /> Answer: It means something universal, all-encompassing. So a catholic history would be a general history of all peoples. On a personal level it means having a wide, open perspective, an egalitarian outlook.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 22 Nov 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6315 <p>Question: What is meant by the Dark Side of the Moon? The moon is round. It has no sides.<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is a homunculus? <br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/22/2023<br /> Birthdays: French explorer Sieur de LaSalle, George Elliot- pen name for Mary Anne Evans, Benjamin Britten, Charles DeGaulle, Andre Gide, Wiley Post, Billy Jean King, Boris Becker, Geraldine Page, John Nance "Cactus Jack" Garner, Hoagy Carmichael, Rodney Dangerfield, Robert Vaughn, Tom Conti, Mark Ruffalo, Victoria Paris- porn star of such classics like Bimbo Bowlers from Buffalo, Stevie Van Zandt is 72, Jamie Lee Curtis is 65, Terry Gilliam is 83, Scarlett Johanssen is 39<br /> <br /> 1220- Pope Honorius III crowned Frederick Barbarossa the Holy Roman Emperor.<br /> <br /> 1622- English poet John Donne ordained the deacon of Saint Paul’s Cathedral. The poet had written some of the most erotic poetry in English literature, now he devoted himself just as fervently to religious contemplation.<br /> <br /> 1739- Georg Fredrich Handel premiered the oratorio Ode to Saint Cecilia’s Day.<br /> <br /> 1809- Baltimore native Peregrine Williamson was given a patent for a re-usable steel pen. This finally freed the western world from sharpening goose quills and other feathers to write.<br /> <br /> 1864- The Battle of Griswold. After Sherman’s army had burned Atlanta they began ravaging the Georgia countryside. Except for some horsemen most of the state was defenseless before the Union juggernaut. <br /> This day, a pathetic collection of Georgia state militia led by a drunk pastor accidentally blundered into Sherman’s line of march. The untrained boys and elderly men were angry how the Yankees had burned their farms. So despite the ridiculous odds they attacked- 2,000 charged 34,000. Unlike the Hollywood movies, they were easily mowed down, and Sherman’s men resumed their march.<br /> <br /> 1880- Actress Lillian Russell made her debut on the New York Stage. Russell exemplified the sex appeal of the era- big figured, big bustle, tiny waist and big caboose.<br /> <br /> 1886- Melbourne’s Victoria Street Streetcar starts. <br /> <br /> 1888- According to Edgar Rice Burroughs, this is the birthday of the boy who would become Tarzan.<br /> <br /> 1903- Franklin Roosevelt proposed to his cousin Eleanor Roosevelt. She was President Teddy Roosevelt’s niece; Franklin was his 5th cousin. Uncle Teddy gave the bride away.<br /> <br /> 1916- Author Jack London died at 40 in Glen Ellen California of kidney disease. The author of White Fang and Call of the Wild was a lifelong radical socialist and supporter of the labor movement. In 1919 radical Emma Goldman eulogized him in an article in The Masses: “It’s a pity that brother Jack never lived long enough to see the Red Flags of Freedom flying over the Kremlin!”<br /> <br /> 1923- President Calvin Coolidge pardoned Lothkar Witzke, a German spy who had set off the Black Tom Pier explosion in New York Harbor in 1916.<br /> <br /> 1928- Ravel’s Bolero Suite premiered in Paris.<br /> <br /> 1935- The First Pan Am China Clipper service began from San Francisco to Honolulu and Manila. Captain Edwin Musik took off with 20,000 people waving bon voyage.<br /> <br /> 1942- Operation Uranus- The German 6th Army surrounded at Stalingrad. As the Russian pincers were closing around him, Gen. Von Paulus wired Hitler for permission to pull back and maneuver. Hitler promoted him to Field Marshal and ordered him not to withdraw one millimeter. The 6th Army was slowly starved, frozen and pounded on all sides. By February, 100,000 surviving German troops surrendered. They were sent to Stalin's gulags in Siberia where most of them died. The bitter Von Paulus became as diehard a communist as he had been a diehard nazi. <br /> <br /> 1950- The Lowest Scoring Basketball game in NBA history. The Fort Wayne Pistons defeated the Minneapolis Lakers 19-18. They later became the Detroit Pistons and Los Angeles Lakers.<br /> <br /> 1955- Shemp Howard, one of the Three Stooges, died of a heart attack while driving home with friends from a prizefight. No one noticed he was gone until they saw his lit cigar had fallen into his lap. He had just turned 60. Born Samuel Horvitz, he got the name Shemp from his mother attempting to say his name Sam in her thick Yiddish accent.<br /> <br /> 1957- The Miles Davis Quintet debuted.<br /> <br /> 1963- ONE DAY IN DALLAS- At 12:30 Local time, President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed. Whether you believe the assassin was Lee Harvey Oswald, The Military Industrial Complex, Vice President Johnson, the Mafia, Corsican contract killers, The C.I.A., Fidel Castro, Anti-Castro Cubans, space aliens, or all of the above, it remains one of the traumatic moments of US History. <br /> John Kennedy had been warned about all the hateful conservative rhetoric originating in Texas. He said to Jackie about Dallas " We're going to Nut Country." One of the last things President Kennedy heard before the bullets struck him, was the wife of Texas governor John Connolly, who said:” Well Mr. President, now nobody can say they don’t love you in Dallas!” <br /> <br /> After the shots, reporter Robin MacNeill ran into the nearest building to phone in the story. He ran into the Texas Book Depository and asked a skinny t-shirted man where the nearest phone was. Two days later when watching TV of the assassin being arrested, he realized he had been talking to Lee Harvey Oswald!<br /> <br /> Jackie Kennedy, who after flying to D.C. from Dallas still wearing the blood soaked pink Channel dress “let the people see what they’ve done!” immediately started going over the funeral arrangements. Before retiring she had her staff comb the National Archives for the details of the 1865 Lincoln Funeral. <br /> <br /> In 1966 evidence from the Kennedy assassination including the presidents brain disappeared. For years people claiming knowledge of a conspiracy died in strange ways, like karate chops and boating accidents. Much testimony is still under seal. Before she died, Jackie Kennedy left a personal affidavit with her lawyers that is not allowed to be made public until the year 2050. Only 15% of Americans believed Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Mafia don Bill Bonnano said in his memoirs:” If you believe Oswald, a rather lackluster Marine, could get off three carefully aimed shots from a bolt action rifle in just six seconds, you have a vivid imagination.” <br /> <br /> 1963- Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa had been fighting off indictments and racketeering charges pressed by the aggressive Attorney General Robert Kennedy. When Hoffa heard that President Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas his first reaction was to laugh:” Now Bobby is just another lawyer!” Hoffa was himself whacked in 1975.<br /> <br /> 1963- Aldous Huxley died. The author of Brave New World had inoperable cancer so his wife kept him high on LSD,<br /> <br /> 1965- The musical The Man of La Mancha opened on Broadway. “ To Dream, the Impossible Dreaaammm…”Brings back memories of middle school band practice.<br /> <br /> 1967- The United Nations passed Resolution# 242 calling upon all the belligerents in the recently ended Arab-Israeli Six Day War to live in peace and trade back conquered territories like the West Bank for permanent peace. But because the resolution is vague on ideas like what exactly is meant by “conquered territories” the nations of the Middle East continue to argue over its meanings.<br /> <br /> 1974- The United Nations seated the Palestinian Liberation Organization as an unofficial observer group. Yassir Arafat was allowed to address the world body with a noticeable pistol stock sticking out of his belt.<br /> <br /> 1975- Two days after the death of Generalissimo Franco, Juan Carlos became the first King of Spain since 1936.<br /> <br /> 1980- Screen goddess Mae West died at 87. He apartment suite at the Ravenswood in the Hancock Park section of Los Angeles has been lovingly restored, since the owner claims her ghost nagged him to put her furniture back!<br /> <br /> 1985- Apple ended a long lawsuit with Microsoft and Hewlett Packard that allowed them to share the visual characteristics of the Macintosh displays in their Windows software.<br /> <br /> 1986- 20 year old Mike Tyson knocked out Trevor Berbick to become the youngest Heavyweight Champion of the World.<br /> <br /> 1990- Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady of English politics, resigned her offices to successor John Major. After 11 years in power her popularity was low because of her poll tax, and resistance to English cooperation in the European Community. <br /> <br /> 1993- Sir Anthony Burgess died at age 76. The author of A Clockwork Orange had been diagnosed with a brain tumor and told he had one year to live, back in 1959, 34 years ago. <br /> <br /> 1995- Pixar’s Toy Story opened, the first all CG movie, and the first true CG hit.<br /> <br /> 2005- Microsoft Xbox 360 goes on sale.<br /> ===============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is a homunculus?<br /> <br /> Answer: A small being created through alchemy or other occult science.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 19 Nov 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6314 <p>Question: What is an EGOT?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What modern country in ancient times was called Luistania?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/19/2023<br /> Birthdays: King Charles I of England, President James Garfield, Ferdinand de Lesseps, Roy Campanella, Tommy Dorsey, Ted Turner is 85, Calvin Klein, Indira Ghandi, Dick Cavett, Larry King, Kathleen Quinlan, Alan Young -Mr. Ed’s friend, Ahmad Rashad, Allison Janey is 64, Meg Ryan is 62, Jodie Foster is 61, Terry Farrell<br /> <br /> 1493- On his second voyage to the New World, this day Christopher Columbus discovered the island of Puerto Rico.<br /> <br /> 1581- The son of Czar Ivan the Terrible, also named Ivan, came in on his dad beating his pregnant wife. He thought she was wearing clothing too immodest for her station. When young man tried to make him stop, the elder Ivan beat the boys’ brains out with a mace. In this one act of blind rage Ivan extinguished his own dynasty.<br /> <br /> 1619- A young French student named Renes Descartes had enlisted in the army of Elector Maximillian of Bavaria to fight in the Thirty Years War. Outside of Neuberg one evening he climbed into a stove to keep warm. There he had the first revelation to invent analytical geometry and the mathematical applications of religion. “ Cogito, Ergo Sum.” I think, therefore I am.” Gee. That happens to me every time I climb into a stove, too<br /> <br /> 1703- The "Man in the Iron Mask" died in Pignerole prison. Louis XIV had him locked up for forty years. He was first mentioned in Voltaire's History of the Age of Louis XIV as having a velvet mask, which writer Alexandre Dumas changed to iron for dramatic effect. No one ever discovered who he was or why his face was covered. Speculation was that he was everyone from an Italian diplomat, to the son of Oliver Cromwell, to a twin brother of King Louis XIV himself. It made for great literature, but he remains a mystery.<br /> <br /> 1828- Composer Franz Schubert died of complications of venereal gonorrhea at age 31.<br /> <br /> 1863- THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS-At the dedication of the soldiers cemetery on the Gettysburg battlefield, the crowd watched Rev. Edward Everett, a famous abolitionist, deliver a fiery two-hour speech. Then President Abraham Lincoln stood up and in just two minutes delivered the most famous speech in U.S. History. "Forescore and Seven years ago Our Forefathers set Forth....And Government Of the People, By the People and For the People Shall Not Perish from the Earth. " <br /> The crowd was polite but indifferent. The Times of London correspondent thought it "vague and uninspiring". Lincoln himself told his aide: "Lehman, that speech won't scowl." meaning a plow blade that's too dull to cut. But Rev Everett was inspired “Mr. President, you said in two minutes much more than I did in two hours.” Contrary to legend Lincoln didn’t write it quickly on the back of an envelope, he worked long on his speeches and was seen doing corrections up to the last minute. There are three pencil copies of the speech still in existence. The photographer at the scene was still setting up his equipment when the brief speech ended and Lincoln started to sit down. He opened his shutter in time to get a blurry view of Lincoln's head in the crowd.<br /> <br /> 1903- Suffragette Carrie Nation tried to address the US Senate to plead for women’s voting rights and alcohol prohibition. She was barred admittance.<br /> <br /> 1915- I DREAMED I SAW JOE HILL LAST NIGHT.... Joe Hill was executed in Utah- Swedish Immigrant Josef Hilstrom was a nationally known charismatic poet and union organizer. Large Utah copper mining companies that found Hill's folk song singing union activism a nuisance had him convicted on trumped up murder charges. He was shot by firing squad despite pleas for clemency from President Wilson, Helen Keller and the Pope. Crowds of 10,000 marched in London and Sydney Australia for mercy for Joe Hill. <br /> Hill's last words were: "I die as I have lived, a rebel. Don't mourn, Organize!" He stipulated in his will that his body be transported over the state line and buried in Colorado because: "I DON'T WANNA BE CAUGHT DEAD IN UTAH!" His body was cremated and the ashes sent in little envelopes to union offices across the nation.<br /> <br /> 1937- Japanese armies captured the Chinese city of Shouchow and pillage it with great slaughter.<br /> <br /> 1941- Princess Iron Fan, by Wan Guchan and Wan Laiming, opened . Considered the first Asian animated feature film. <br /> <br /> 1942-“ THE IVANS ARE COMING!” OPERATION URANUS- The big Russian counter-attack in the Battle of Stalingrad begins. The Battle for the city named for Stalin had stalemated into house to house fighting in cellars and factory rooms the Germans called Ratt Kellerkrieg- Rat Cellar War. Meanwhile Marshal Gyorgi Zhukov had been massing forces on either end of the German 6th Army where weak Axis units of Romanian and Italian troops were holding the line. Luftwaffe commander Freiherr Von Richtofen reported the troop concentrations to army commanders, but HQ remained strangely apathetic.<br /> Today to the sound of thousands of Katyushka rocket launchers, nicknamed Stalin’s Pipe Organs, Marshal Zhukov launched two massive pincer assaults that blew through the German front, and joined up in the rear trapping 100,000 Nazis.<br /> <br /> 1942-“ GUERILLA MOUSEKIS. Since the previous August, The Battle of Stalingrad had stalled into urban house to house street fighting. Meanwhile the Nazi panzer tanks had to sit quiet in fields outside the city.<br /> This day, when the big Russian counteroffensive began, the Nazis rushed to start up their tanks. But soon their engines began to overheat and stall. <br /> During the long weeks of waiting, field mice had crawled into their engines and ate their radiator hoses and electrical insulation. 68 of 100 tanks immediately broke down. All thanks to the actions of enemy mice.<br /> <br /> 1942- In a concentration camp in Poland, author-artist Bruno Schulz was executed. The author of “Street of Crocodiles” last act was being forced by a Gestapo officer to paint images from Brothers Grimm fairytales on his son’s bedroom wall before he was shot.<br /> <br /> 1945- Trying to complete the plan of social services created by Franklin Roosevelt, President Harry Truman called for National Health Insurance. It was defeated in Congress after intense lobbying by the powerful insurance and pharmaceutical companies. It would also be blocked when reintroduced later by Presidents Johnson, Nixon and Clinton. Until Pres. Obama created the ACA, the U.S. was the only nation in the front rank of developed nations to have no form of national health insurance. <br /> <br /> 1959- Jay Ward's television show 'The Adventures of Rocky and his Friends' debuts. <br /> <br /> 1961- Michael Rockefeller, the son of tycoon Nelson Rockefeller, disappeared in the jungles of New Guinea. It’s assumed he was killed by aboriginal people.<br /> <br /> 1969- The great soccer champion Pele scored his 1,000 goal.<br /> <br /> 1998- Film Director Alan J. Pakula was one of the Hollywood community who preferred living in New York City. This day he was driving on the Long Island Expressway when he was killed in a freak accident. A large truck kicked up in its tires a discarded piece of steel pipe. It flipped it through Pakula’s windshield, killing him instantly.<br /> <br /> 2002- HOMELAND SECURITY. Reacting to the 9-11 attack Congress approved President Bush’s plan for a cabinet level position called the Department of Homeland Security. This branch would concentrate the activities of US Customs &amp; Immigration, FEMA, The Coast Guard and other law enforcement agencies. <br /> Despite insisting this new organization was all that stood between us and future 9-11 attacks, the Bush White House stubbornly refused to sign any bill that did not first bar it’s employees from joining the Gov’t Employees Service Union like the rest of Washington D.C.<br /> By 2006 Homeland Security had botched up the Hurricane Katrina disaster, and it’s fourth ranking executive was arrested by Polk County Fla police for soliciting sex from a 14 year old girl with leukemia.<br /> =====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What modern country in ancient times was called Lusitania?<br /> <br /> Answer: Portugal.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 18 Nov 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6313 <p>Question: What modern country in ancient times was called Lusitania?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Why is a detective called “A Private Eye”?<br /> =======================================================<br /> History for 11/18/2023<br /> Birthdays: Armelita Galli-Curci, Karl Maria Von Weber, W.S. Gilbert, Johnny Mercer,<br /> Astronaut Alan Shepard, Louis Daguerre, Brenda Vaccarro, Eugene Ormandy, George Gallup, Warren Moon, Pam Dawber, Rocket Ishmail, Delroy Lindo, Kevin Nealon, Owen Wilson is 56, Chloe Servigny is 50<br /> <br /> 500 A.D.- Today is the Feast day of the Irish Saint Mawes, who was born in a barrel floating in the sea.<br /> <br /> It’s hand drawn animation day! See below- 1928.<br /> <br /> 1421- In Holland a dyke holding back the Zuyder Zee River gave way and the ensuing flood killed 10,000.<br /> <br /> 1602- In Transylvania, 22 year old English soldier of fortune John Smith killed three Turkish warriors in single combat. Such single bouts were normal before large armies clashed. The Duke of Transylvania, Sigmund Bathory, granted the commoner Smith his own coat of arms, three Turkish heads. This is the same John Smith who will go to Virginia and meet Pocahontas in 1607. <br /> <br /> 1718- Francois Voltaire’s first play Oedipe, premiered in Paris. <br /> <br /> 1812- The Battle of Krasnoe-Napoleon's frozen army retreating from Moscow, fights it's way out of three encircling Russian armies trying to trap it. One of the armies was commanded by an admiral Tchitchagoff who's 20th century descendant would be the artist Erte'. Another general was the grandfather of writer Leo Tolstoy. General Tolstoy was an eccentric, who rode into battle in a chauffeured carriage with a trained bear sitting next to him he'd taught to drink champagne.<br /> <br /> 1863- Abraham Lincoln boarded a train to Gettysburg to deliver “a few appropriate remarks” to dedicate the new national cemetery there.<br /> <br /> 1865 Mark Twain's first story "The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County' published.<br /> <br /> 1883- THE DAY WITH TWO NOONS. Congress adopted William Allen’s plan to divide the United States into standardized time zones, corresponding to timetables set by the transcontinental railroads. At noon in New York City, the bells of Saint Paul’s Church tolled. Ten minutes later, several blocks away, the bells of Trinity Church on Wall St. tolled noon Eastern Standard Time, 11:00AM Central Time, 10:00AM Mountain Time and 9:00AM Pacific Time. And so it has been ever since. <br /> <br /> 1889- Richard Strauss completed his orchestral tone poem Tod und Verklarung, Death and Transfiguration. The 29 year old created a musical illustration of what it felt like to die and your soul ascend to glory. Fifty-nine years later in 1949, as 85 year old Richard Strauss lay dying, he said to his wife, “Yes! It is exactly the way I saw it…”<br /> <br /> 1902- THE TEDDY BEAR BORN-The Washington Evening Star published a story of how President Teddy Roosevelt while hunting couldn't bring himself to shoot a grizzly bear cub. Cartoonist Cliff Berryman illustrated the incident with one of his signature “dingbat” bear cubs in a gesture of “oh no!” Brooklyn toymaker Morris Mitchcolm sewed a doll from the illustration in the newspaper and sent the first one to the White House. Mitchcolm did so well with the sale of Teddy Bears he founded the Ideal Toy Company.<br /> <br /> 1903- The Hay-Buneau-Varilla Treaty signed, giving the U.S. permission to dig a canal in Panama. When Colombia wanted too much money for the canal zone, President Roosevelt backed a revolution that created the nation of Panama. Such a deal! <br /> <br /> 1914- SABOTAGE - A secret message was sent out by Imperial German Naval Command to all diplomatic embassies to begin sabotage operations of war material being readied in America and Canada for shipment to England. <br /> Bombs exploding in cargo ships and warehouses in New York, Boston and Baltimore became common. One incident called the “Black Tom” pier explosion detonated two million pounds of explosive on a Jersey City wharf. The blast cracked windows on Wall St. and damaged the arm of the Statue of Liberty.<br /> The success of German spies in the U.S. before America's entry into World War I sparked the buildup of a little known government office called the F.B.I. and the strict domestic counterintelligence work done in World War II.<br /> <br /> 1928- HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICKEY MOUSE- At Universal’s Colony Theater in New York, Walt Disney’s cartoon "Steamboat Willie" debuted before a movie called Gang War. The first major sound cartoon success and the official birth of Mickey Mouse. Two earlier silent Mickey's were being completed, but when Walt saw Al Jolson speak in The Jazz Singer, he held those two shorts back so the sound experiment could go ahead. At this time Walt Disney had just 11 employees. <br /> <br /> 1942- OPERATION FLIPPER, The KEYES RAID- The British army in North Africa had had enough of their German adversary Rommel the Desert Fox, so they sent Australian-Scottish commandos on a suicide raid to the Afrika Korps HQ just to kill him. Desert warfare was so porous the front lines were virtually non-existent. Unfortunately, Rommel was far away in Rome the night 50 commandos shot up his office. Only 2 made it out, 3 were killed and the rest captured.<br /> <br /> 1953- Singer Frank Sinatra had been having trouble with his sputtering career and his crumbling marriage to screen sex goddess Ava Gardner. This day songwriter Jimmy Van Heusen claimed he found Old Blue Eyes on his bathroom floor with his wrists slashed. Heusen bound his wounds then called his agent rather than the police. Sinatra recovered and soon his career revived and he had a new marriage. <br /> <br /> 1963-The first push button telephones go into service. By 1980 they pretty much replaced the rotary dial phones.<br /> <br /> 1964- In a public statement to the press, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover called Dr. Martin Luther King “The most notorious liar in the country!” This in response to the criticism Dr. King made that the FBI wasn’t trying hard enough to track down the murderers of civil rights workers. The elderly Hoover always believed Dr. King and the whole NAACP were commie agents of Moscow.<br /> <br /> 1968- Mattel introduced Hot Wheels toy cars in stores.<br /> <br /> 1970- At the Lakeside School in Seattle, a young kid named Bill Gates was first shown computer programming.<br /> <br /> 1978- JONESTOWN- After visiting U.S. congressman Leo Ryan and his party were murdered, 912 American members of the Rev. Jim Jones cult in Jonestown Guiana commit suicide, many drinking from tubs of Kool Aid, spiked with cyanide. <br /> <br /> 1985- Bill Watterson’s comic strip Calvin &amp; Hobbs debuted.<br /> <br /> 1988- Disney’s Oliver &amp; Company released.<br /> <br /> 1988- Don Bluth’s The Land Before Time was released.<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------______________________________________________<br /> Question: Why is a detective called “ A Private Eye”?<br /> <br /> Answer: Scotsman Allan Pinkerton was in law enforcement and served as a bodyguard to President Lincoln. After the assassination he set up a private detective agency, who’s logo was a large open eye, with the motto, “We Never Sleep”. It was an ad featured in all the newspapers. This gave rise to the name a Private Eye for an investigator for hire.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 17 Nov 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6312 <p>Question: Why is a detective called “ A Private Eye”?<br /> <br /> Question:What is a palladin?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/17/2023<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Vespasian 9 A.D, Il Bronzino, August Ferdinand Moebius-1790 the inventor of the Moebius Strip. Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, Rock Hudson- real name Roy Sherer, Walt Peregoy, Peter Cook, Isamu Noguchi, Lauren Hutton, Tom Seaver, Gordon Lightfoot, Les Clark, Lee Strasberg, Shelby Foote, Sophie Marceau, Martin Scorcese is 81, Lorne Michaels is 79, Danny deVito is 79<br /> <br /> 395- Death of the Roman Emperor Valentinian.<br /> <br /> 1796- Russian Czarina Catherine the Great died at 67 years old of a stroke on the toilet, not crushed trying to have sex with a horse, as some scandalous rumors alleged.<br /> <br /> 1800- The idea to create Washington DC was to create a new city, not beholden to any particular state, between north and south. And indeed, at first it was in the middle of nowhere. Following President Adams from their cozy homes in Philadelphia, this day Congress sulkily convened for the first time in the half-finished capitol city. Titled The Federal City, it was already being called Washington City. It was still mostly a Virginia swamp. Wooden pegs in the mud showed where streets would be one day. The only buildings up in operation were Congress, the Presidents Mansion, and Conrad’s Tavern.<br /> Many complained that city planners Pierre L’Enfant and Benjamin Banocker had made the main avenues too big, that there will never be enough carriages and wagons to fill these roads. This first Congressional session couldn’t accomplish much, because there were not enough members present to make a quorum.<br /> <br /> 1839- Oberto premiered, an opera written by a new composer named Guisseppi Verdi. ( Joe Green). The great composer would go on to write Rigoletto, Aida and La Traviata.<br /> <br /> 1853- San Francisco passed a law to put up street signs at the intersections of major streets.<br /> <br /> 1858- A Pennsylvania businessman named William Larimer founded a new town at the foot of the Rockies called Denver.<br /> <br /> 1869- The Suez Canal opened. The opera "Aida" was commissioned to be premiered for this occasion but Verdi missed his deadline by ten years.<br /> <br /> 1875- Russian psychic Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott found the American Theosophical Society.<br /> <br /> 1876- Peter Tchaikovsky’s musical rhapsody the Marche Slav premiered.<br /> <br /> 1882- The Chinese Exclusion Treaty signed in Peking between the United States and the Chinese Empress Zhaou Zsi. This was the first of a series of pacts attempting to limit Asian immigration to the U.S. In cities on the Pacific coast during the depression of the 1870’s violence against Chinese workers was sadly common. So many died building the Southern Pacific Railroad that the term “You Don’t Have a Chinaman’s Chance” was coined to mean the odds were against you. San Francisco writer Ambrose Bierce acerbically observed: A Chinese woman was recently found murdered on a street in San Francisco. She had done no crime but was merely the victim of Galloping Christianity. Barbaric acts like these mar the fine American tradition of Religious Intolerance.”<br /> <br /> 1891- Polish pianist Ignaz Paderewski made his American debut at Carnegie Hall. Paderewski created the cliché image of the temperamental classical musician with long flowing hair. Classical music became known as longhair music.<br /> <br /> 1926- The Chicago Black Hawks played their first game, <br /> beating the Toronto St. Pats 4-1.<br /> <br /> 90th Anniv. 1933- The Marx Bros classic Duck Soup premiered.<br /> <br /> 1934- LBJ marries LadyBird. For you born after the 60's, President Lyndon Baines Johnson married Claudia Alta Taylor whom he nicknamed LadyBird Johnson. Their daughters were LucyBird and LindaBird, so everyone in the family had the initials LBJ.<br /> <br /> 1941- Ernst Udet was a top World War I flying ace who was persuaded by Goring to build the Nazi Luftwaffe. Udet was responsible for developing the Stuka dive bomber and it’s screaming vertical attack. But his conscience was troubled. One of the WWI Knights of the Air, he grew depressed by the terror bombing of civilians and genocide his inventions were being used for. Sinking into drink and drugs. This night at dinner, Udet spoke of his time as a young ace with Von Richtofen the Red Baron, adding “Ahh, but we were decent men then…” He then went up to his bedroom, and shot himself.<br /> <br /> 1941- US ambassador to Tokyo, Joseph Grew, cabled Washington that he had heard disturbing rumors that the Japanese military was planning to attack Pearl Harbor.<br /> <br /> 1959- The DeBeers mining company of South Africa announced the invention of synthetic diamonds.<br /> <br /> 1965- Battle of Ia Drang ends. The first large battle fought between North Vietnamese regulars and U.S. combat troops. The first battle fought with helicopters. Although the Vietnamese forces were defeated, it told their generals that their system was working of moving down the Ho Chi Minh trail through neutral Laos and Cambodia then crossing into South Vietnam. <br /> <br /> 1968- THE HEIDI GAME- NBC was broadcasting a football game between the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders. The game was running late and would interfere with the broadcast of the movie "Heidi". The network heads felt with the Jets leading 32-29 with 65 seconds left, why disappoint the kiddies? So they pre-empted the rest of the game to start the movie. Oakland won 43-32 in a miracle comeback scoring the final touchdown in the final nine seconds. The embarrassed programmers had to answer nationwide firestorm of complaints from outraged football fans. So, to this day on television, no matter how boring a football game is, it is seen to its very end.<br /> <br /> 1973- In a televised press conference about the expanding Watergate Scandal held at Walt Disney World, President Richard Nixon uttered the famous phrase:” People want to know if their president is a crook, well, I am not a crook!”<br /> <br /> 1978- This night, our world was rocked by a disturbance in The Force more powerful than the destruction of Alderon, It was "The Star Wars Holiday Special", a two-hour comedy variety show on CBS, with Harrison Ford, Beatrice Arthur and Nelvana’s animated cartoon. To this day, even Mark Hamill jokes about how dumb it was.<br /> <br /> 1988- Benazir Bhutto elected Prime Minister of Pakistan. <br /> <br /> 1989- Don Bluth's animated film All Dogs Go to Heaven premiered. <br /> <br /> 1993- US Congress voted for the free trade, bill called NAFTA.<br /> <br /> 1994- The Sony Corporation posted a $2.7 billion dollar loss from its first year owning a Hollywood movie studio. Yet despite a lot of industry jokes ( “What’s the difference between Sony Pictures and the Titanic?-answer: The Titanic had entertainment.”) By 1996 the studio was on top with blockbusters like “Men in Black”<br /> <br /> 2002- Premiere of Disney’s Treasure Planet.<br /> <br /> 2019- The first reported case of CoVid 19 was reported in Wuhan China. It grew to become a global pandemic not unlike the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. So far it has killed 6.6 million people around the world, 1,120,000 in the USA.<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is a palladin?<br /> <br /> Answer: The loyal knights around the Frankish Emperor Charlemagne were called his Palladins. Similar to King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 15 Nov 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6311 <p>Question: What country owns the Galapagos islands?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What U.S. town name was NOT originally an Indian name? a. Chicago, b. Hoboken, c. Miami, d. Narragansett<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/15/2023<br /> B-Days: Georgia O'Keefe, Bill Melendez, Irvin Rommel the "Desert Fox", Avrial Harriman, Daniel Barenboim, George Bolet, William Pitt the Elder, Veronica Lake, Beverly D'Angelo is 72, Mantovanni, Ed Asner, Sam Waterson is 83, Otis Armstrong, Petula Clark is 91<br /> <br /> 64 AD- THE ROMAN EMPIRE OUTLAWED CHRISTIANITY- It is hard to believe today, but the Roman Empire was proud of its religious toleration. There was a harmony to the pagan world, A Goth knew his god Odin or Wotan was called Jove in Rome and Zeus in Athens and Mithra in Persia. So, the Judeo-Christian concept of One God just didn't quite fit in. Christians were also refused to participate in any of the usual state rituals to Mars or Jupiter.<br /> The only other religion persecuted as vigorously as Christianity was the Druids, but that was because the Druids preached rebellion to Roman rule. The Romans dispersed the Jews as a nation, but Julius Caesar left strict laws about never violating Jewish dietary or Sabbath Laws. <br /> Anti-Semites claim Messalina, the wife of Nero, was a Jewish convert and convinced her husband to ban the Christian cult, but the answer goes deeper than that. Secrecy and fear of its alien practices bred suspicion that would last 300 years.<br /> <br /> 1532- After marching his Spanish conquistadors for six months through steaming jungles and over tall mountains Francisco Pizarro reached the border of the mysterious Inca Empire. At the little border town of Cajamarca his 200 men suddenly found themselves face to face with 40,000 Inca warriors. The Imperial Inca Army was outfitted in gold armor, and “they shined like the sun!” What happened? Tune in tomorrow…<br /> <br /> 1754- First use of the modern trombone. It was played at a child's funeral.<br /> <br /> 1777- The ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION passed by Congress. A first pass at a U.S. Constitution that gave all real power to the individual states. It required a majority vote of 9 out of 13 states to get anything done and had no president. With rules like that, indeed nothing did get done. There were no laws regulating national commerce so goods travelling state to state paid tariffs like they were going through a foreign country. <br /> By 1787 the Articles were junked for the more centralized U.S. Constitution, but States Rights supporters would resurrect it later for their Southern Cause, hence the Confederacy.<br /> <br /> 1828- Author Victor Hugo signed a contract with Gosselin's Publishing House to write a story about the cathedral of Notre Dame du Paris. He was paid 4,000 francs in advance; The HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME was the result. <br /> <br /> 1849- In Rome, Vatican lay government minister Count Pellegrino Rossi was stabbed and as he walked through a crowd of Italian nationalists. Italians desiring the unification of Rome to the newly forming State of Italy rioted and looted the Popes Palace. Pope Pius IX,” Pio Nono” had to flee disguised as a plain priest. He returned a year later with a French army to reinstate the Papal States. Rome was annexed into Italy in 1870.<br /> Pius IX came to power professing liberal reforms but soon went back on his word and threatened excommunication against “Treasonous Democracy”. In Italy another name for liar was a Pio Nono, or Pius the Ninth.<br /> <br /> 1860- Shortly after Abraham Lincoln’s election as president a large meteor was seen in the skies over the Eastern U.S. Most took this as a bad omen of troubles to come.<br /> <br /> 1864- SHERMAN BURNED ATLANTA- Atlanta was the economic center of the South, an enormous industrial depot far from the front with railroad tracks linking all the coastal ports. William Tecumseh Sherman drove out the civilian population of the city at bayonet point and torched it. He claimed his men were only destroying military stores, but he didn’t stop them burning everything.<br /> When his Confederate opponent Gen. Hood complained that what he was doing was barbaric, Sherman replied" You might as well protest to a thunderstorm, and against these terrible hardships of war. War is all cruelty. and the crueler it is, the sooner it will be over."<br /> Sherman had an army band serenade him beneath his window, playing the "Miserere'" from Verdi's "Il Trovatore", while he watched the city burning, impatiently chewing on the stump of an unlit cigar.<br /> <br /> 1881- The American Federation of Labor AF of L formed under the leadership of former cigar-maker Samuel Gompers. In 1951 they merged with the CIO.<br /> <br /> 1889- Emperor Pedro II abdicated, the Republic of Brazil is declared.<br /> <br /> 1907- The comic strip A. Mutt by Harry “Bud” Fisher debuted in the San Francisco Chronicle. The name was later changed to Mutt &amp; Jeff. It was the first 6 day consecutive daily newspaper strip. The strip was so popular that its creator Harry “Bud “ Fisher became a celebrity, and negotiated the first large backend deal. He became the first millionaire cartoonist.<br /> <br /> 1920- The League of Nations held its first meeting in Geneva.<br /> <br /> 1926- FIRST NETWORK BROADCAST- NBC hooked up 20 cities across America and Canada for a radio program "The Steinway Hour" with Arthur Rubinstein. It came from the Steinway building penthouse on 57th St. in Manhattan.<br /> <br /> 1934- Animator Bill Tytla started work at Walt Disney's on a trial basis for $150 a week. He would create Grumpy the Dwarf, The Devil in Fantasia and Dumbo.<br /> <br /> 1937- The U.S. Congress gets air-conditioning.<br /> <br /> 1941- Nazi SS chief Heinrich Himmler ordering the arrest and deportation to concentration camps of all homosexuals and Romanies.<br /> <br /> 1957- Patriarch Ignatius Yacoub III established the Archdiocese of the Syrian Orthodox Church in the U.S. and Canada.<br /> <br /> 1958- Movie star Tyrone Power was filming a sword duel with George Sanders on the film Solomon and Sheba. He paused and told the director “ I have to stop, I don’t feel well”. He then dropped dead of a heart attack. He was 44. His father Tyrone Power Sr. had also died on a Hollywood movie set in 1931 of a heart attack,<br /> <br /> 1965- Walt Disney announced he planned to build a second Disneyland, this one in Orlando Florida.<br /> <br /> 1977- The Bee Gees soundtrack for the film Saturday Night Fever came out. <br /> <br /> 1979- ABC news announced they would broadcast a daily update of the Iranian Hostage Crisis. The late night show became Nightline.<br /> <br /> 1989- Walt Disney's The Little Mermaid opened. <br /> <br /> 1990- It was revealed that the Grammy winning pop group Milli Vanilli didn’t sing on their own album but lip-synced to the music. <br /> <br /> 1995- According to the Starr report, President Clinton had his first sexual tryst with intern Monica Lewinsky. At one point he was on the phone to a member of Congress while getting serviced by the chubby chick from Beverly Hills High.<br /> <br /> ===========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What U.S. town name was NOT originally an Indian name? <br /> a. Chicago, b. Hoboken, c. Miami, d. Narragansett<br /> <br /> Answer: There’s a debate about Hoboken. Some say it has Algonquin roots, others that it was from a suburb in Antwerp.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 14 Nov 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6310 <p>Question: What U.S. town name was NOT originally an Indian name? <br /> a. Chicago, b. Hoboken, c. Miami, d. Narragansett<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What movie studio was originally called Famous Players Lasky?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/14/2023<br /> Birthdays: Robert Fulton, Sen. Joseph McCarthy, Claude Monet, Aaron Copeland, McClean Stevenson, Jarahwahal Nehru, Mamie Eisenhower, Brian Keith, <br /> Louise Brooks, Ellis Marsalis, Harrison Salisbury, Dr. Condoleeza Rice, Yanni,<br /> P.J. O'Rourke, George Petrovic' called KaraGeorge "Black George" Serbian nationalist 1762, Astrid Lungren the creator of Pippi Longstockings, William Stieg, Laura San Giacomo is 61, Patrick Warburton is 59, Zhang Yimou is 72, King Charles III is 75<br /> <br /> 1565- King Phillip II of Spain ordered the Inquisition to enforce his edicts against protestants in the Netherlands. While Dutch emissaries like William of Orange urged moderation towards the growing population of Dutch Calvinists, Phillip said: “I would rather that thousands lose their lives, than reign over a kingdom of heretics”. <br /> <br /> 1666- English diarist Samuel Pepys recorded witnessing the first experimental blood transfusion done on two dogs.<br /> <br /> 1798- WolfTone, the young Irish revolutionary leader, committed suicide in prison after his capture. He knew he was certain for a hangman’s noose. He is sometimes called the founder of the IRA, although this is more a romantic notion than historical fact.<br /> <br /> 1805- Napoleon’s French Army captured Vienna. Composer Ludwig Van Beethoven had dedicated his Symphony #3 Eroica to him when he considered Bonaparte a force for liberalism and human rights. But after Napoleon became an emperor, he angrily scratched out the dedication. “So, he is just a man after all!” Now, ironically with all Austrian society run out of town, Beethoven had to premiere his symphony to an audience of French army officers. <br /> <br /> 1832- The first regular horse drawn streetcar service began in New York.<br /> <br /> 1851- Herman Melville's novel "Moby Dick, or the Whale” was first published in the U.S. by Harper &amp; Row. Before petroleum products, homes were illuminated by oil from refined whale blubber. This made hunting whales a lucrative trade for New Englanders. Herman Melville was inspired by a report of an albino whale named Mocha-Dick who had sunk seven ships off the coast of Java and was reported to have " a hide white as wool.” Melville also knew of a New Bedford whaling ship Essex that was rammed and sunk by an enraged sperm whale in 1839.<br /> For the famous author of Typee and Billy Budd, Moby Dick was a critical and financial disaster. What's now considered one of the greatest works of American literature was ridiculed in its time. Melville, broken in spirit, sank into obscurity and finished his life as a customs agent for the Port of New York. When he died, he was so forgotten the New York Times misspelled his name in it's obituary. <br /> <br /> 1875- British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and banker Sir Lionel Rothschild had lunch. Their brandy and Stilton were interrupted by an agent with the secret message that the Khedive of Egypt needed money and was willing to sell the unfinished Suez Canal zone to England. But Disraeli had to get the money on the spot. Disraeli knew Parliament was out of session and probably wouldn't agree to the sum anyway. "Well, how much do you need?" Rothschild asked. Disraeli replied "Four million Pounds Sterling" ($44 million in modern money). "No problem," quote Sir Lionel. Rothschild lent the Crown the money on the spot. The Suez Canal was built, and maintained by Britain until 1956.<br /> <br /> 1883- Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel Treasure Island, or, the Mutiny on the Hispaniola, first published. He wrote a friend,” It's quite silly and horrid fun – and what I want is the best book about Buccaneers that can be had" Stevenson gave us our image of a typical Pirate of the Spanish Main. His book told us about peg legs, pet parrots, skull and crossbones flag, treasure maps, and the song “ Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest. Yo-Ho-Ho and a bottle of rum!” <br /> <br /> 1883- London’s World newspaper printed an exchange of telegrams between writer Oscar Wilde and painter James MacNeil Whistler. “ When you and I are together we never talk about anything but ourselves.”-Wilde. Whistler:” No, no, Oscar. When you and I are together we never talk about anything except me.”<br /> <br /> 1889- Inspired by Jules Verne's book Around the World in Eighty Days, New York World reporter Nellie Bly, real name Elizabeth Cochrane, set out to travel the world in the declared time. She did it in 72 days. <br /> Nellie Bly was considered by Victorian society scandalously independent. She was a war correspondent, she had herself committed to a lunatic asylum to report on mistreatment of the mentally ill, she went up in a balloon and was the first woman to descend to the bottom of the sea in a diving bell- bathysphere.<br /> <br /> 1918- The Czechs declared their independence from the collapsing Austrian Empire.<br /> <br /> 1921- Winston Churchill told his political constituents that so far the "Twentieth Century has been a terrible disappointment." Just wait, Winnie, you ain't see nothing yet.<br /> <br /> 1922- Happy Birthday B.B.C. the British Broadcasting Companies first regular radio service 2LO goes on the air with general election results. <br /> <br /> 1927- Stalin’s victory as paramount Russian leader was completed. His chief rival Leon Trotsky was this day officially expelled from the Soviet Communist Party. Trotsky went into exile, and was eventually assassinated in Mexico City.<br /> <br /> 1937- SPAM introduced! Shoulder-Pork And haM.<br /> <br /> 1940- The Nazi Luftwaffe bombed the English city of Coventry, not for any military reason, but as a terror warning to the British. Ironically the British had broken the Nazis secret Enigma code and knew about the attack, but if they issued a warning, the Nazis would have realized their code had been compromised and would change it. Churchill had to make the terrible decision that the secret was more valuable than all those civilian casualties. <br /> <br /> 1943- When Bruno Walter was too ill to conduct the New York Philharmonic, 24 year old Leonard Bernstein was asked to assume the baton. Bernstein became an overnight sensation.<br /> <br /> 1943- During naval maneuvers in the South Atlantic the destroyer William D. Porter accidentally fired a live torpedo at the battleship Iowa carrying President Franklin Roosevelt! The Porter reported the mistake in time so the Iowa could take evasive actions and the torpedo exploded harmlessly in her wake. But the captain and crew of the William D. Porter were arrested and courts-martialed back at port. The incident kept top secret until the 1970’s. For years afterwards whenever the William S. Porter came into harbor she was greeted with the cry “DON’T SHOOT, WE’RE REPUBLICANS!”<br /> <br /> 1957-THE APALLACHIN CONFERENCE- The top Dons of the Mafia decided to meet at a small upstate New York town near Binghampton. The estate of Joseph Barbara, the President of the Canada Dry soda pop company was clogged with black Cadillacs and Lincolns driven by guys in silk suits. All the heads of the Five Families were there, Joe “Bananas” Bonano, Joey Profacci, Carlo Gambino, Vito Genovese, Paul Castellano, Joey Catena and Louis Tafficante. <br /> No one’s quite sure what this meeting was about. Theories are it was an attempt to broker a peace after the hits on Al Anastasia and Frank Costello, and to decide whether the Old Sicilian capos would agree to the younger men’s request that the mob organize narcotics. As luck would have it two New York State troopers investigating a bad-check case noticed the gangland gathering. They called for the estate to be surrounded. Once the cops raid commenced it was a free for all of mobsters jumping out of windows and running like rabbits through the corn stalks. <br /> The raid produced few convictions, but the headlines focused national attention on the Mafia. It proved without a doubt what had always been feared, that the Mafia was not a loose term for some local immigrant gangs but a highly centralized national organization. Congressional hearings like the McClellan Committee began to bust up the rackets. Mobsters who write of this time say the Appalachin mistake was the beginning of the end of the Mafia’s nationwide power.<br /> <br /> 1957- The Supreme Court refused to review the challenge to government obscenity laws brought by Irving Klaw and his wife, producers of the Betty Page kinky pinup photos.<br /> <br /> 1959- In Holcomb Kansas, two men broke into a farm home and murder four people. The subsequent trial and execution was attended by writer Truman Capote, who wrote the book “In Cold Blood”.<br /> <br /> 1960- Anthony Mann began shooting the film El Cid with Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren.<br /> <br /> 1961- President John F. Kennedy ordered the number of U.S. military advisors in Vietnam increased from 1,000 to 16,000. There has always been conflicting evidence about just what JFK thought about the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Some scholars point to writings that said Kennedy by 1963 was having second thoughts about involvement and wanted to begin pulling out after the 64 election, but Lyndon Johnson had deeper ties to the South Vietnamese regime and big military contractors like Bell-Huey. Others say if JFK wasn’t assassinated, he still would have done the same Vietnam mistakes that Lyndon Johnson later did.<br /> <br /> 1963- Volcanoes push up out of the sea the island of Circe, now part of Iceland.<br /> <br /> 1965- BATTLE OF IA DRANG- The First major engagement between U.S. combat troops and Vietnamese regulars. Ho Chi Minh wanted to see how his troops could withstand a major engagement with this new adversary. General William Westmoreland couldn’t think of any other way to say the battle was a success than by counting the number of enemy dead. <br /> Based on this defeat the Vietnamese would not challenge the Americans again in open battle like they had defeated the French but went underground and fought a guerrilla war for the next three years. Ia Drang was also the first battle where troops where brought in, out, and supplied totally by helicopters. Among the units involved were the reconstituted 7th Cavalry. The battle was dramatized in the Mel Gibson 2002 movie “We Were Soldiers.” <br /> <br /> 1973- Britain's Princess Anne wed Captain Mark Phillips. They divorced in 1992.<br /> <br /> 1967- Jack Warner, the last surviving Warner Brother, sold his stake of Warner Bros and it’s huge film library to a Canadian company called Seven Arts. <br /> <br /> 1968- Frank Sinatra announced that the smog and air pollution in Los Angeles had gotten so bad that he was moving out to the desert in Palm Springs. <br /> <br /> 1986- Wall Street Tycoon Ivan Boesky who defined the 1980's with mottos like "Greed is Good, Greed is Natural", pleaded guilty to insider trading and stock fraud and willingly finked on everyone at Drexel Bernham-Lambert who helped him.<br /> <br /> 1991- At ILM, the creation of the dinosaurs in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park were going to be done in traditional stop motion animation, like Ray Harryhausen used to do. Two CGI animators, Steve “Spaz” Williams and Walter Dippe’ did a quick test of a moving T-Rex on their own time and this day left it out for review as Spielberg’s producers chanced by. They loved the test and showed it to Steven who declared it all had to be done in CGI. The resultant success of Jurassic Park was the turning point in the digital revolution in modern media.<br /> <br /> 1995- Because of a deadlocked budget debate between President Bill Clinton and Congressional leader Newt Gingrich, the U.S. Government shut down.<br /> National parks like Yosemite, and tourist attractions like the Statue of Liberty turned people away because their staffs were unpaid. <br /> <br /> 1998- Pixar’s A Bugs Life Premiered.<br /> <br /> 1998- Colorful and eccentric NBA basketball star Dennis Rodman married beautiful supermodel Carmen Electra. There was some doubt at first as to the validity of the story as Rodman admitted he was blind drunk throughout and didn’t remember the ceremony. They divorced shortly after.<br /> <br /> 2016- Disney’s Moana premiered.<br /> ========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What movie studio was originally called Famous Players Lasky?<br /> <br /> Answer: Paramount Pictures. Named for early studio chief Jesse Lasky.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 13 Nov 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6309 <p>Question: What movie studio was originally called Famous Players Lasky ?<br /> <br /> Question: In a famous Shakespeare play one character says ” This royal seat of kings, this sceptered isle...This blessed plot. This earth, this realm, this England.” Who says it?<br /> ____________________________________________________<br /> History for 11/13/2023<br /> Birthdays: Saint Augustine 354 AD, King Edward III of England, Robert Louis Stephenson, actor Edwin Booth, Oskar Werner, Jean Seberg, Jack Elam, Judge Louis Brandeis (the first Jewish U.S. Supreme Court Justice), Alexander Scourby, Hermoine Badderly, Eugene Ionesco, Garry Marshall, Mel Stottlemyre, Joe Mantegna is 76, Jimmy Kimmel is 56, Gerald Butler is 55, Whoopi Goldberg- born name Caryn Johnson is 68<br /> <br /> In Ancient Rome, today was Epulium Jovis, or the Feast of Jupiter Reclining.<br /> <br /> In London it is Lord Mayor’s Day<br /> <br /> 1749- The University of Pennsylvania, originally called the Franklin Institute is established as the first non-sectarian American college. See below 1874.<br /> <br /> 1789- Ben Franklin wrote " Nothing is certain except Death and Taxes."<br /> <br /> 1833- Whites and native peoples in the American West all noted a meteor shower of massive proportions. Hundreds fell per hour. Lakota people called it “The Day the Stars Went Crazy.”<br /> <br /> 1842- Today Lewis Carroll noted in his diary:" Began writing the fairy tale of Alice. Hope to be done by Christmas..." <br /> <br /> 1851- The Denny Party from Illinois aboard the schooner Exact landed at Aliki Point in the American Northwest territory. At the invitation of local Chief named Chief Seattle, they set up a trading post across Elliot Bay at a Sucquamish village named Duwumps. <br /> Happy Birthday Seattle. <br /> <br /> 1861- THE TRENT AFFAIR- All through the American Civil War, Abe Lincoln's biggest fear, and Jefferson Davis’ greatest hope, was direct intervention of the great European powers. With England in Canada and France in Mexico and the British Navy ruling the seas, this was a real possibility. The British and French thought nothing of intervening in conflicts all over the world like the Greek Revolution or the war between Argentina and Uruguay. Almost as soon as the guns of Fort Sumter boomed, Emperor Napoleon III of France and the German Elector of Baden were offering their services as mediators.<br /> On this day a U.S. Navy warship fired on the British ship HMS Trent and removed from her two Confederate diplomats. Mason and Slidell were being sent as ambassadors to the Court of Saint James. They claimed diplomatic immunity, the U.S. said they were citizens in rebellion. London reacted to the insult to her flag with an explosion of war talk. General Garnet Woolsey volunteered to raise new regiments for an invasion of New York State through Canada. Abe Lincoln's reaction was "One War at a time." He apologized and offered reparations. On the other side of the Atlantic, British Prince Albert helped broker the peace.<br /> <br /> 1868- Giacomo Rossini died at 68. He retired at 37 from performing and lived on royalties. It was said he became so lazy he laid about in bed all day. One day when writing a concerto his score dropped to the floor as he leaned over to fill his glass. Rather than bend down to pick it up, he took a fresh sheet and wrote a sonata. He still could do a nice piece on occasion, like The Fantastic Toy Shop. Born on leap day Feb 29, at 68, he listed his age as 16.<br /> <br /> 1874 -At the sesquicentennial celebrations of the University of Pennsylvania, Robert Green invented the Ice Cream Soda.<br /> <br /> 1914- Clothing designer Caresse Crosby took two handkerchiefs and some ribbon off some baby bonnets and invented the Brassiere. She became very rich and lived the life of a 1920’s free spirit. She named her dog Clytoris.<br /> <br /> 1917- THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR- After Lenin’s Communist Party seized power in Saint Petersburg, disaffected officers and businessmen fled to the edges of the Russian Empire to organize resistance to the new regime. This day some "White" soldiers under General Krasnoe skirmished with some of Trotsky’s Red Guards. These were the first shots of a bloody Civil War that would rage for 4 years and kill millions. After just completing a World War and two Revolutions, when she heard this news one Russian poet exclaimed : "Oh God, You Mean its Not Over?!"<br /> <br /> 1940- Walt Disney's 'Fantasia' premiered at the Broadway Theater in NYC. As Walt put it, "this'll make Beethoven!" Frank Lloyd Wright's opinion was, 'I love the visuals, but why did you use all that old music?" <br /> <br /> 1953- An Indiana judge ordered his local school district to remove any school books with references to the character Robin Hood. All the "take from the rich and give to the poor" it was obvious to the judge that the medieval rogue of Sherwood Forest was a Communist.<br /> <br /> 1956- The Supreme Court declares Montgomery Alabama’s segregation laws involving interstate buses are unconstitutional.<br /> <br /> 1969- President Richard Nixon’s’ Vice President Spiro Agnew accused the national news media of bias and partisanship. He excoriated them as "Nattering nabobs of Negativism" and gained a reputation for pithy use of the language. In reality, Nixon speechwriters William Safire and Pat Buchanan wrote all of Nixon and Spiro’s best lines. <br /> Up to then White House reporters were a compromising bunch when asked, winking at John Kennedy’s bimbos and Franklin Roosevelt’s wheelchair. But relations soured as Lyndon Johnson’s handling of the Vietnam War, then Richard Nixon’s paranoia led him to openly declare the press his enemy, and the press responded in kind. And so modern media was born. <br /> <br /> 1970- A giant typhoon carrying 100 foot tidal waves smashed into Bangladesh, then called East Pakistan. 150,000 died.<br /> <br /> 1971- ABC TV. movie "the Duel" premiered. It starred Dennis Weaver as a hapless motorist on a lonely freeway menaced by an anonymous, unseen truck driver. The movie was directed by a young protégé of Lew Wasserman, named Steven Spielberg.<br /> <br /> 1971- Walt Disney’s The Aristocats opened.<br /> <br /> 1974- Atomic plant worker Karen Silkwood was the first person to expose lax safety practices at the US nuclear power plants. For this she was rewarded with demotion, harassment, lawsuits. A radioactive isotope was put under her car seat. On this night she was finally killed in a car accident. She was 28. Silkwood was on her way to talk to a New York Times reporter. It’s been alleged her car was deliberately run off the road. The files she was going to hand over to the press were taken from the car. The crash was ruled an accident.<br /> <br /> 1978- Mickey Mouse got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.<br /> <br /> 1986- President Ronald Reagan attempting to explain the festering Iran Contra Scandal said on nationwide TV:" We did not and I repeat did not…trade weapons or ransom for hostages, or would we ever." But it turns out that was exactly what he was doing.<br /> <br /> 1986- Directors John Huston, Martin Scorcese and Woody Allen denounced the fad promoted by Ted Turner of computer colorizing classic Black &amp; White films like the Maltese Falcon. Supposedly one of the last things Orson Welles said on his deathbed was "Keep Ted Turner and his crayons away from my movies!" Ted got the message and shifted his money to digital restoration and building channels like TCM.<br /> <br /> 1991- Disney's animated film Beauty and the Beast opened, the first animated film ever nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.<br /> <br /> 1997- Julie Taymor’s staging of The Lion King musical had its official Broadway debut. It had opened earlier in Minneapolis for a trial run. She became the first woman director to win a Tony award.<br /> <br /> 2001- President Bush issued an order that all people apprehended as terrorists would be tried by secret military commissions that dispense with our traditional American civil rights that we fought for in the Revolution. But he didn’t go as far as to call them prisoners of war, because then he could also ignore the Geneva Conventions. <br /> <br /> 2015- ISIS inspired terrorists attacked several parts of Paris, including a rock concert and a soccer match, killing 153. <br /> ======================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: In a famous Shakespeare play one character says ” This royal seat of kings, this sceptered isle...This blessed plot. This earth, this realm, this England.” Who says it?<br /> <br /> Answer: John of Gaunt in Richard II.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 12 Nov 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6308 <p>Question: In a famous Shakespeare play one character says” This royal seat of kings, this sceptered isle...This blessed plot. This earth, this realm, this England.” Who says it?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is an escutcheon?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/12/2023<br /> Birthdays: Auguste Rodin, Dr. Sun Yat Sen, Bahi-ullah 1817 founder of the Bahii faith, Elizabeth Cadie -Stanton, Cecil B. DeMille, Grace Kelly, Edward G. Robinson, Jack Oakie, Kim Hunter, Shamus Culhane, Charles Manson, Neil Young, Edvard Munch, Nadia Comenici, Tanya Harding, Wally Shawn is 80, Megan Mullally is 64, Anne Hathaway is 41, Ryan Gosling is 43, David Brain is 82.<br /> <br /> 1035- King Canute the Great died. He was the Viking King of Denmark and England simultaneously. It was Canute who once tried to command the ocean tide to go out.<br /> <br /> 1623- In Vilnius Lithuania, Catholic priest St. Joseph of Polotsk was torn apart by an angry mob. Polish Catholic legislators led by chancellor Jan Zamoyski tried to reconcile their Catholic practices with their Ukrainian and Belarus subjects by creating the Church of the Uniate Rite. Clergy could keep their Eastern Orthodox rituals and wives, but acknowledge the Pope. This compromise didn't suit all tempers, and such acts of violence broke out into the Great Cossack Revolt of 1648. <br /> <br /> 1792- The Revolutionary French Republic issued a declaration that any other European kingdom that wants to overthrow their king and chop his head off, is welcome to come join the fun and France would help.<br /> <br /> 1859- The first trapeze act was demonstrated at the Cirque Napoleon in Paris. The act caused such a sensation that the daredevil was immortalized by his tights becoming a fashion named in his honor- Jules Leotard.<br /> <br /> 1861- THE CURRAUGH CAMP AFFAIR- When 20 year old Edward the Prince of Wales went to Oxford he was kept on a short leash by his worried parents Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. They expected his college life to be- well, Victorian. He was to reside off campus, limited his diet to bland foods and soda water, and absolutely no smoking or carousing with women! This draconian regimen only stiffened Bertie’s rebellious nature. <br /> When allowed to attend maneuvers in Ireland and bunk with a company of hard drinking cavalry officers, Bertie was at last able to go wild. By unfortunate coincidence the gossip about the Prince’s drinking binges and bedding actresses reached his father just as Albert was showing the first signs of the typhoid fever that would kill him. For years afterwards, Queen Victoria blamed her son for contributing to his father's death. In his adult years, King Edward VII was never without a cigar in his teeth, a girl on his lap and a drink in his hand. Women called him Dirty Bertie, and Edward the Caresser.<br /> <br /> 1912- While King Edward VII was womanizing, his queen Alexandra was an enthusiastic amateur photographer. She used her Kodak Brownie camera to photograph the Royal Family at leisure. This day she published Queen Alexandra’s Christmas Album, with the proceeds to go to charity. The informality of her photos was revolutionary and did much to humanize the British Royal family to the public. <br /> <br /> 1912- Mayor of New Orleans Martin Behrman shut down the brothels and shady establishments of the red-light district Storyville. The place where American Jazz originated.<br /> <br /> 1912- SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC- in the Antarctic this day the frozen bodies of Capt. Robert Falcon Scott and his men were found. He had lost his race to find the South Pole to Norwegian Piers Amundsen, then was stranded by a blizzard only 30 miles from his base camp on the Ross Ice Shelf. His last diary entry (March 29th) said "We are showing that Englishmen can still have a bold spirit, fighting it out to the end. This diary and our dead bodies will be the proof. I should like to write more but I haven't the strength..."<br /> <br /> 1917- At the first meeting of the Russian Duma since the Bolshevik Revolution Lenin and Trotsky revealed their radical plan to reshape Russian society into a communist worker’s state dominated by the Soviets -workers and peasants councils. <br /> <br /> 1918- The day after the Armistice ended World War I, Fighter ace James Norman Hall of the Lafayette Escadrille borrowed a Spad and flew over the Western Front one last time. He was amazed at how quiet and peaceful it now was. He no longer had to look anxiously over his shoulder for Fokkers diving out of the clouds, or anti-aircraft bursts. He landed, and never flew again. James Norman Hall moved to Tahiti, and with another Lafayette Escadrille veteran, Charles Nordhoff, wrote the famous book, The Mutiny on the Bounty. <br /> <br /> 1918- With their Hapsburg emperor fled, Austria declared itself a republic.<br /> <br /> 1920- In the wake of the "Black Sox" Baseball scandal, the first rigged World Series, Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis was elected first Commissioner of Baseball. He ordered all those involved in the scandal including Shoeless Joe Jackson permanently banned from baseball, even though they had been acquitted in a civil trial.<br /> <br /> 1923- In Clarksburg West Virginia a man shot his wife for smoking a cigarette. <br /> <br /> 1927- The Holland Tunnel completed. It runs under the Hudson River connecting New York and New Jersey. It’s not named for the Netherlands, but for the engineer Clifford Holland, who died shortly before its completion. <br /> <br /> 1933- Hugh Gray of the British Aluminum Company takes the first photographs of what he claimed was a monster in Loch Ness. He would be the first of many to have claimed to have seen Nessie.<br /> <br /> 1936- The Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge dedicated. Engineer Charles Purcell went on to design LA Freeways. <br /> <br /> 1937- Alan Turing delivered his famous paper "On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem" at Kings College, Cambridge. <br /> In it he postulated on the ability to create a "universal machine" that used numbers to solve problems and could be re-programable for different tasks. In his day they were called Turing Machines, but we know them now as Computers.<br /> <br /> 1938- The Madagascar Plan. Nazi Herman Goring announced a new plan to create a homeland for European Jews in French Madagascar off the coast of Africa. It sounds goofy but they got it from an idea of 19th century Zionist leader Theodore Herzl and the just concluded international conference at Evian France showed the reluctance of the western democracies to take in large amounts of refugees. The idea went nowhere.<br /> <br /> 1939- Actor Bela Lugosi spent the day at the Walt Disney Studio posing for their animators as the Devil in Night on Bald Mountain in Fantasia. Despite the good publicity shots, lead animator Bill Tytla was dissatisfied with his performance and used fellow artist Ham Luske as his model instead.<br /> <br /> 1940- The first LA Freeway, the Arroyo-Seco opened for car traffic for the first time. “ Called the finest highway of its kind in America”. In 1954 it was renamed The Pasadena Freeway, and today is simply called The 110 Freeway.<br /> <br /> 1941- On the night before mobster Abe Reles, alias Kid Twist, was due to testify what he knew of the Mafia, he was thrown out of a hotel window to his death. He was under Federal protection. In 1962, Joe Valachi testified mobster Frank Costello had raised $100,000 to bribe NYPD cops to do the deed themselves. A popular toast in Brooklyn those days was: “ Here’s to Abe Reles, a canary who could sing, but not fly.”<br /> <br /> 1944- THE BATTLESHIP TIRPITZ is sunk. After the big battle with the Bismarck, Nazi admirals built an even bigger battleship, the Tirpitz. The allies however, found out through intelligence when it would sail and attacked this one as soon as it left harbor. They pounded it with bomber and torpedo planes and midget submarines day and night until it rolled over and sank. Survivors recalled as the ship was sinking they could hear through the hull the sound of the doomed sailors singing "Deutschland Uber Alles".<br /> This caused a British Admiral to remark:" It's tragic that such men follow such a cause."<br /> <br /> 1946- Disney's "Song of the South" with James Baskett as Uncle Remus.<br /> <br /> 1946- The Exchange Bank in Chicago opened the first drive in bank.<br /> <br /> 1948- After World War II, Japanese leaders were sentenced for war crimes by a world court like the top Nazis leaders were at Nuremberg. Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, Generals Homma and Yamashita and 900 others were executed or imprisoned for crimes against humanity and genocide. <br /> <br /> 1970- The town of Florence Oregon found a large dead gray whale on its beach. City fathers decided it would be easier to dispose, if they blew it up. As an audience watched, they stuffed it with half a ton of dynamite. The explosion drew cheers from the audience, then everyone ran for cover as they were showered by falling 50 pound chunks of smelly blubber and guts. The film of it has been called the first viral video.<br /> <br /> 1981- The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for the second time. First reusable spacecraft. <br /> <br /> 1990- Akihito became Emperor of Japan.<br /> <br /> 2014- The European Space Agency successfully landed the first satellite Philae on a moving comet. Comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It had been launched ten years before and had taken this long to reach it.<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is an escutcheon?”<br /> <br /> Answer: An escutcheon is the shield on a coat-of-arms.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 11 Nov 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6307 <p>Question: What is an escutcheon?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: An early American superhero was named Nattie Bumpo. In what book did he first appear?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/11/2023<br /> Birthdays: Abigail Adams, Alexander Borodin, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Gen. George Patton, Pat O’Brien, Kurt Vonnegut, Rene Clair, Carlos Fuentes, Jonathan Winters, Stubby Kay, Stanley Tucci is 73, Demi Moore is 61, Leonardo di Caprio is 49<br /> <br /> Today in the Middles Ages this was "Martinmass" the feast of St. Martin of Tours, patron saint of France.<br /> <br /> Happy Veterans Day in the U.S., Memorial Day in many European and Commonwealth countries.<br /> <br /> 1534- The Parliament voted the Act of Supremacy, confirming that the King of England would be henceforth the Supreme Head of the Church in England, and no longer beholding to the Catholic Church in Rome. They called it The Church of England. <br /> <br /> 1572- Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe noted that he observed a bright new star in the region of Cassiopea. It was brighter in the sky than Venus, but after 16 months it disappeared. Not until 2008 did scientists determine that what Tycho saw was a White Dwarf exploding into a Supernova. Today it is called Tycho G.<br /> <br /> 1647- King Charles I had been defeated in the English Civil War and was held a prisoner at Hampton Court. On this day, he gave his jailers the slip and escaped to the Isle of Wight to raise troops for what some historians call the Second English Civil War. His actions, not only of lying to escape but also of persuading a Scottish army to invade England on the promise to the Scots that he would forcibly convert England to Presbyterianism, as well as trying to raise a Catholic Army in Ireland, offended his few remaining friends. Oliver Cromwell concluded there was no use negotiating with a king who saw peace talks only as a delaying tactic. They must have the head of this 'Man of Blood". While in Scotland the king learned to play a new game called ” Golfe on balls.”<br /> <br /> 1673- Battle of Cochim - Polish Hetman Sobieski and his "Winged Hussars" defeat a Turkish invasion in the Ukraine. The heavily armored Hussar cavalry wore wooden wings decorated with feathers like something out of a Christmas pageant, but the effect on enemies was terrifying. The flutter and hiss they made during their attack made them seem like warrior Christian angels.<br /> <br /> 1807- The British Admiralty announced that all neutral commercial ships passing through European waters must put into an English port and pay tax, or be subject to attack and seizure by the British Navy. Britain further reserved the right to stop ships to search for deserters from the British Navy. By 1812 and estimated four thousand American sailors had been taken off ships on the high seas and imprisoned or impressed into English service. Because America desired to remain neutral in the Napoleonic Wars this was one of the roots of her declaring war on England in 1812.<br /> <br /> 1831- Nat Turner, who led the last large slave uprising before the Civil War, was hanged in Jerusalem, Virginia. He confessed but expressed no regrets.<br /> <br /> 1858- John Landis Mason invents the Mason Jar.<br /> <br /> 1865- Dr. Mary Edward Walker, Union army surgeon, abolitionist and prisoner of war, became the first woman awarded the Medal of Honor. It was taken away from her in 1885. When asked to return the medal, she wrote back, “Come and get it. I am armed.” They deferred, and she never actually gave it back. Her full status as a Medal of Honor recipient was not completely restored until 1977.<br /> <br /> 1887- THE HAYMARKET EXECUTIONS- Four leaders of an early American labor movement The Knights of Labor are hanged after being charged with responsibility for a bomb tossed at police during a demonstration in Chicago. Samuel Fielden, Adolphe Fischer, August Spies and Albert Parsons. Albert Parsons shouted as he dropped through the trapdoor:" Oh men of America, Let the Voice of the People be Heard!" It was never proven they actually had thrown the bomb, aww but they were a bunch of reds anyway...A later Chicago mayor ruined his political career when he proved publicly that the Haymarket defendants were innocent.<br /> <br /> They were demanding unheard of concessions like a six-day work week and an eight-hour day down from twelve to fourteen. A monument was erected in Haymarket not to Parsons but to the police. Hippies blew it up in 1968.<br /> <br /> 1889- Washington State admitted into the union.<br /> <br /> 1914- Sultan Mehmed V of Turkey who was also the last Caliph, honoring his alliance with Germany in World War I, declared a Grand Jihad on the allies. He said it was the duty of all good Muslims to fight the Christians, unless of course they were Germans, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Romanians or Austrians. And uh, neutral Spaniards, Swedes and Portuguese were okay too. Historians say the effect of his declaration of Holy War was met in the Muslim world with resounding indifference. About the only one who listened was the Khedive of Egypt, who was promptly replaced by the British.<br /> <br /> 1918- ARMISTICE DAY-MEMORIAL DAY- World War I ended. The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the guns of the Great War fall silent. It sounds poetic but it was just a coincidence, the opposing sides had been negotiating since the 8th. <br /> In a strange salute when the word went down the battlelines that the ceasefire would take effect at 11:00AM, at one minute before, thousands of cannons on both sides fired one last round simultaneously. <br /> One German machine gunner fired off his last belt of bullets, then he climbed up on his parapet. In full view of both armies, he executed a deep, theatrical bow. Then he turned around and walked away.<br /> World War I's final tally was 22 million dead, almost 20% of the young male population in the opposing countries. In only 7 months of actual fighting 116,000 American died. This also marks the turning point of the Old World into the Twentieth Century: ethnic republics arose out of dying monarchies. The British, German, Belgian and French colonial empires were fatally wounded. Independence desires stirred in 3rd world colonies and the United States became a major global power and world financier. <br /> People came home using wristwatches, trenchcoats, and referring to large weather systems as "fronts". A cold front, etc.<br /> 1918- The same day as the Armistice, French leader Clemenceau received a note from his friend, the old Impressionist Claude Monet. He said to celebrate the victory, he wanted to gift to the nation his huge painting cycle, the Water Lillies. <br /> 
1918- TOMMY GUNS- While the Armistice was being celebrated, sitting on a New York wharf, forgotten, was the first shipment of Thompson submachine guns, built for a war just ended. Gen. John Thompson was an inventor who tried to solve the problem of close hand-to-hand fighting in trenches by inventing a light mobile machine gun that could be a “trench-broom” –spewing 800 bullets a minute. Because it fired small pistol bullets, it was called a “sub-machine gun”.<br /> But the Great War was over and the U.S. Army wasn’t interested anymore, neither were most police departments. So in 1921 the Thompson Submachine Gun went on sale to the public as a “swell home defense system”. 
The people who did buy them were Gangsters and the IRA. They called them Choppers, Chicago Typewriters and Tommy Guns. Al Capone invented the novelty of hiding one in a violin case. John Dillinger was very proud of his. <br /> Old John Thompson was horrified that his creation was being used by violent hoodlums to make incidents like the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre possible. He died in 1940, only weeks before the US Army would order tens of thousands of his Tommy Guns to fight World War II.<br /> <br /> 1919- On the first anniversary of the Armistice, Congress declared today a national holiday honoring our veterans. Most of Europe and Canada celebrate today was Memorial Day, but our memorial day is in May to commemorate the end of our Civil War. Today was also known Remembrance Day, and in 1954, the name was permanently made Veterans Day. <br /> <br /> 1920- On the second anniversary of the Armistice, the British entomb an Unknown Soldier to represent all war dead “A Soldier Whose Name is Known Only to God”. The French do it and the Americans think this a neat idea so do their own at Arlington in 1932. Bavarian corporal Adolf Hitler called himself the Unknown soldier of Germany, Now because of DNA identification identities of war dead will no longer be unknown. In 1998 the identity of the Unknown of the Vietnam War was discovered, and the remains moved upon request of his family.<br /> <br /> 1925- Louis “Sachmo” Armstrong did the first recordings of his band the Hot Five. These records lift him from a local talent in Chicago and New Orleans to international stardom.<br /> <br /> 1925- The Nazis formed a second para-military force to augment their stormtroopers called the Schutz-Staffel or SS. Its leader was a one time chicken farmer named Heinrich Himmler. Himmler was heavily into the occult. He built officer training centers in a castle made up to look like King Arthur's round table. He also encouraged Germans to conceive children in graveyards, so the unborn could absorb the spirits of dead German heroes. The SS published a list of suitable graveyards for romantic assignations. <br /> <br /> 1926- Work began building Route 66, the first interstate highway built for automobiles in the U.S. It will get finished in 1932. The world's first road exclusively for automobiles was opened in 1921, the Avus in suburban Berlin, followed by the Via Fiore Imperiali in Rome (1927).<br /> <br /> 1932- The Girls Scouts first offered freshly baked cookies for sale. The proceeds went to purchase camping gear. In 1936, the Girls Scouts signed a contract with Keebler to bake and package their cookies.<br /> <br /> 1937- Animation production wrapped on Disney’s first feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.<br /> <br /> 1938- GOD BLESS AMERICA- Irving Berlin's song God Bless America sung for the first time by chanteuse Kate Smith. Irving Berlin had written the song in 1918 for a Broadway show Yip,Yap, Yaphank, but it didn’t fit in. So, he threw it in a file cabinet and forgot about it. Twenty years later, he revived the song as a peace hymn faced with the growing threat of WW2. This day at an Armistice Day radio concert it was sung by Kate Smith. It became a huge hit. Every few years there is a call to make it the national anthem. <br /> <br /> 1938- TYPHOID MARY- On this day 68 year old Mary Mallon died in an asylum. She was a carrier of the disease typhoid fever and, in 1910, while being a cook in a hotel resort she infected 1,000 people. Released from jail a few years later, she had promised not to resume her former profession. But soon she was in the kitchen again. She started the typhoid epidemic of 1915 and was arrested again. She herself never contracted the disease.<br /> <br /> 1938- The first day of shooting on the film 'The Wizard of Oz". Judy Garland met 125 little people hired to be the Munchkins. Judy's energy was fading under the heavy work schedule so L.B. Mayer ordered her put on Benzadrine (speed) every morning and Valium pills to sleep. June Alysson, another young MGM actress at the time said: "The studio nurse would give it to you and tell you it was vitamins." Judy Garland became a heavy drug addict and died of an overdose in 1969 at 47 years old.<br /> <br /> 1940- The Birth of the Jeep. The army introduces its first General Purpose vehicle-G.P. or Jeep, a name coinciding with a popular character in E.C. Segar's Popeye cartoons.<br /> <br /> 1940- Battle of Taranto (Italy) The RAF attacked the Mussolini’s fleet in port using torpedo planes. Convention wisdom of the time was plane-launched torpedoes wouldn't work in the shallow waters of a harbor. The British solved this by equipping their torpedoes with little fins that gave them greater buoyancy. Japanese Admiral Yamamoto said he wouldn't have attempted Pearl Harbor if the British hadn't proved at Taranto that such torpedo runs were possible. <br /> <br /> 1951- In Los Angeles, the Bing Crosby Enterprises gave the world’s first demonstration of a videotape recorder. Developed by John T. Mullins and Wayne Johnston.<br /> <br /> 1953- Disney short Ben and Me, directed by Ham Luske.<br /> <br /> 1954- Tolkein’s second book of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, first published.<br /> <br /> 1966- Gemini XII spacecraft went up into orbit. It was the last flight of the Gemini program and the first spaceflight of Buzz Aldrin who would later be the second man to walk on the moon.<br /> <br /> 1971- Walt Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks premiered at Radio City Music Hall in NYC. <br /> <br /> 1978- The renovated Hollywood Sign is unveiled. The second O was paid for by rock star Alice Cooper in memory of his idol, Groucho Marx.<br /> <br /> 1980- 'Heaven's Gate" Michael Cimino's $44 million dollar flop opened. Cimino originally said he could do the film for $8 million. Critic Pauline Kael said: "It's the kind of movie you want to deface. You want to draw mustaches all over it."<br /> <br /> 1992- The premiere of Walt Disney’s Aladdin, directed by John Musker and Ron Clements. Starring Robin Williams doing the voice of the Genie. <br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: An early American superhero was named Nattie Bumpo. In what book did he first appear?<br /> <br /> Answer: Nattie, or Nathaniel Bumpo was the full name of the sharpshooting frontiersman Hawkeye in The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 10 Nov 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6306 <p>Question: An early American superhero was named Nattie Bumpo. In what book did he first appear?<br /> <br /> Question: Which character was developed first? Captain Ahab, Sherlock Holmes or Cyrano de Bergerac?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/10/2023<br /> Birthdays: Martin Luther, William Hogarth, Charles the Bold of Burgundy, Francois Couperin, King George II of England, Frederick Schiller, Claude Rains, Carl Stalling, Tim Rice, Richard Burton, Roy Scheider, Ann Reinking, MacKenzie Phillips, Russell Means, Sinbad, Brittany Murphy, George Fenneman-Groucho Marx’s TV announcer, Enrico Morricone, Tracey Morgan is 54, Neil Gaiman, Animator Sue Kroyer<br /> <br /> Today is the feast of Saint Leo the Great, the Pope who scared Attila the Hun away from Rome by playing on his superstitions about the invisible power of the Christian’s god.<br /> <br /> 1610- THE NIGHT OF DUPES- Cardinal Richelieu ruled France with a centralized authority that made him admired by King Louis XIII, but hated by just about everyone else. When the king was gravely ill, the Queen Mother nursed him back to health. In return she asked as her payment, the Cardinals head! She wanted him replaced by keeper of the seals Jean de Mariac. This day in the Luxembourg Palace, Mom told Louis "It’s either Richelieu or me!" On cue, the gaunt cardinal emerged from a secret door. The King made his choice- Bye Bye Mommy. Oh and uh.,. Jean de Mariac was beheaded.<br /> <br /> 1766- In New Brunswick New Jersey, The Queens College was founded. It later changed its name to Rutgers University.<br /> <br /> 1770- Voltaire said:" If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him."<br /> <br /> 1775- The U.S. Marine Corps founded by Congress. Marines were originally the sharpshooters who climb up ships rigging during a sea battle and shoot down on the enemy decks. They got the nickname Leathernecks because part of their early uniform was a stiff leather collar worn under their cravat to ward off cutlass blows and "keep in the head up in a good military bearing."<br /> <br /> 1778- John Paul Jones had been beached in France for nine months. At the height of the American Revolution he had been told to send away his ship USS Ranger to await a bigger, better one from the French. But delay and red tape was making him crazy. Today his agents found him a new command- an old, run down tub named L’Duc du Durras. John Paul Jones fixed it up and renamed her the USS Bonhomme Richard after Ben Franklin’s bestselling book. The USS Bonhomme Richard became the most famous ship in the young American Navy.<br /> <br /> 1782- English King George III wrote his Prime Minister Lord Shelburne about the recently lost American Revolution: " I should be miserable indeed if no blame for the dismemberment of America from this Empire not be laid at my door. However, knowing that Knavery is a striking feature of it’s Inhabitants, it may Not in the end be such an Evil that they are now aliens to this kingdom."<br /> <br /> 1793- FESTIVAL OF THE GODDESS OF REASON- The radical French Revolutionaries had done away with the Catholic religion as a collaborator in tyranny, but they knew the common people wanted the consolation of religion. So they tried the worship of Reason in its place. Today was the first festival of the Goddess of Reason held at Notre Dame, with an actress personifying the new deity and chants and hymns and such silliness. It didn't last, it's inventor Pierre Chaumette was guillotined for not being radical enough. When Napoleon came to power he restored normal Catholic worship, although the French army permitted no chaplains. <br /> <br /> 1865- During the Civil War, Swiss immigrant Henry Wirz was the Confederate commander of the infamous prison Andersonville where thousands of Yankee prisoners starved and perished. On this day he became the first military officer ever hanged for war crimes. He was also the first person to use the excuse "I was only following orders."<br /> <br /> 1871- STANLEY FINDS LIVINGSTON- No one in England had heard from the famous African explorer-missionary Dr. David Livingston for three years and he was feared dead. Henry Morton Stanley undertook the expedition partly as a publicity stunt funded by the Josef Pulitzer’s New York World newspaper. After one year of wandering through the jungle, Stanley came upon the old missionary on the shores of Lake Tanganyika near Ujiji. Stanley introduced himself by saying: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" Stanley also proved Speeckes theory of the source of the Nile River as Lake Victoria Nyanzaa.<br /> <br /> 1880- Old Civil War general and New Mexico territorial governor Lew Wallace got his first novel published, and it came out pretty good- Ben Hur.<br /> <br /> 1885- Gottfried Daimler invented the first motorcycle.<br /> <br /> 1917- The Voting Rights for Women Movement or Suffragettes began a dramatic all day protest in front of the White House. Every time a protester was arrested and dragged off another would take her place. By the days end 41 women were arrested.<br /> <br /> 1918- After abdicating the throne, Kaiser Wilhelm decided he didn't want to stick around and end up executed like his cousin Nicky the Russian Czar. So, in the middle of night the German Imperial family slipped away by secret train and crossed the border into neutral Holland. The Hohenzollern Dynasty, which had ruled Germany since 1685, was now gone. Wilhelm’s first words when reaching the Castle of Daun were: "I should now like a strong hot cup of English tea." <br /> <br /> 1918- Emperor Karl of Austria-Hungary and Empress Zita abdicate. Ancient Emperor Franz-Joseph II helped start World War I and then he conveniently for him, he died. His young grandnephew Karl tried to handle a bad situation he had no control over. He even attempted a peace overture behind the Kaiser's back as early as 1916. Ironically the Austro-German High Command helped to fund Russian revolutionaries like Lenin. German money paid the printing costs for Pravda.<br /> After taking power in Petersburg Lenin immediately had soviet-style revolutionary cells set up in Vienna and Berlin. Like in Germany riots convulsed Austrian cities and whole regiments were throwing away their weapons and walking home. The Imperial Hapsburg family, which had reigned in Europe uninterrupted since 1265, piled into limousines and sped off for Switzerland before the Viennese Workers Soviet Committee could arrest them. Like the Kaiser, they too had heard how the Russian Czar and his whole family had been put up against the wall and shot. So they preferred not to suffer a similar fate. The Republics of Austria and Hungary were declared. In 2004 Pope John Paul II made Kaiser Karl I a Saint. Their son Crown Prince Otto lived to age 98 and died in 2011.<br /> <br /> 1950- Paramount's "Mice Meeting You" The first Herman and Katnip cartoon.<br /> <br /> 1951- The first long distance telephone call without needing an operator to make the connection.<br /> <br /> 1953- Disney’s short “ Toot Whistle, Plunk and Boom” released.<br /> <br /> 1969- The children’s education show SESAME STREET premiered on PBS TV. The world is introduced to Bert &amp; Ernie, Cookie Monster, Grover, Big Bird and Mr Hooper.<br /> <br /> 1971- The US table tennis team arrived in Red China for a tour. Ping-Pong became an unlikely diplomatic tactic to begin the warming of relations between China and the US.<br /> <br /> 1975- S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald sinks at Whitefish Bay in Lake Superior, drowning all 29 crew members and causing a famous 1970's folk song to happen.<br /> <br /> 1977- Pope Paul VI announced that Catholics who remarried or married Protestants were no longer automatically excommunicate.<br /> <br /> 1981- Pioneering French film director Abel Gance died at age 92. Shortly before his death he saw his great widescreen 1925 epic movie Napoleon restored by British historian Kevin Brownlow and produced by Francis Ford Coppola with a live audience. At Radio City Music Hall, Brownlow stretched a telephone cord out on stage so the old man could hear the wild cheers of the NY audience.<br /> <br /> 1982- The Vietnam Veterans Wall designed by Maia Lin opened to the public in Washington D.C,<br /> <br /> 1991- Walt Disney’s Beauty and the Beast premiered at the El Capitan. Directed by Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale.<br /> <br /> 1995- Carolco, the Hollywood studio that produced many hits like Terminator 2 Judgement Day, Rambo, Basic Instinct, and Total Recall declared bankruptcy after producing $115 million dollar megaflop "Cutthroat Island".<br /> <br /> 2008- Two days after Barack Obama was elected president, Georgia Republican congressmen Paul Broun was already calling him a “Marxist-Nazi.” This set the tone for the partisan hatred of the first black president that bordered on hysteria, and continued long after he left office.<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Which character was developed first? Captain Ahab, Sherlock Holmes or Cyrano de Bergerac?<br /> <br /> Answer: Captain Ahab 1851. Sherlock Holmes in 1887, and Cyrano in 1897.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 09 Nov 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6305 <p>Question: When Abe Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theater, what play was he watching?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: When tallying up your finances, is it better to finish in the red? Or in the black?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/8/2023<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Nerva, Bram Stoker, Sir Edmund Halley, June Havoc, Margaret Mitchell, Joe Flynn- Captain Binghampton in the 60’s TV sitcom McHales Navy, Ricky Lee Jones, Bonny Raitt, Dr. Christiaan Barnard, Ester Rolle, Katherine Hepburn, Parker Posey is 55, Gretchen Mol is 51, Tara Reid, Norman Lloyd, John Musker is 70<br /> <br /> 393AD- Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius banned any further worship of the old pagan gods and closed their remaining temples. He stopped the Olympic Games, not to return until revived in 1895.<br /> <br /> 641 A.D.- Cyrus the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria surrendered Egypt to the Arab army of Caliph Omar. Egypt had been a Byzantine province and the emperors in Constantinople had been persecuting their national church, the Coptic Rite, as a heresy. So the Egyptians opened their gates to the Muslim conquerors. The Byzantine Emperor Heraclius appeared at the port of Alexandria with a large fleet. But after removing some of his personal stuff, he abandoned the Paris of the Ancient World without a fight.<br /> <br /> 1519- Spanish Conquistador Hernan' Cortez first met the Aztec Emperor Montezuma II. Cortes was guided by Malinche', the "Pocahontas of the Aztecs". This noblewoman guided Cortez's little band into the heart of the empire. Eyewitness Bernal Diaz described how after dinner the Spaniards were given tobacco pipes to smoke, but a special pipe with different tobacco was given to Montezuma, after smoking it "The Emperor became merry, as we do when drunk with wine." Cortez was also offered a cup of chocolate, then a bitter brew called Xocoatl.<br /> <br /> 1620 -Battle of White Mountain- Austrian Catholic armies crush the Czech rebels and their leader Frederick of the Palatinate, who is nicknamed: "The Winter King" for his brief reign. Unfortunately, the Thirty Years War was only beginning. French philosopher Renes Descartes was a young soldier in the ranks. Although Frederick was married to the daughter of the English King, James wisely refused to get England embroiled in this European war. Frederick’s son Prince Rupert of the Rhine later traveled to England and got involved in the English Civil War. <br /> The Czech Protestant rebels mostly came from the province of Bohemia and their wandering exile in the cities of Europe caused the word "Bohemian" to become synonymous with a rootless lifestyle.<br /> <br /> 1789- Elijah Craig first distilled whiskey from Indian corn and strained it through a wool blanket. He lived in Bourbon County, Kentucky, so the stuff soon became popularly known as Bourbon. Abe Lincoln called Bourbon, “the most American of drinks.”<br /> <br /> 1805- Lewis and Clark first stand on the sand at the Pacific Ocean near the mouth of the Columbia River. <br /> <br /> 1821- Missouri became a state. The first American state on the west bank of the Mississippi.<br /> <br /> 1864- Abraham Lincoln was re-elected president over Democrat challenger George McClellan. It was the first U.S. election ever held during a war, and set the custom that Presidents in a war year never lose. Even most of the army voted for Old Abe. The inmates of the notorious Andersonville Prisoner of War Camp cast ballots, even if they had no way to send them to Washington. <br /> <br /> 1880- Famous actress Sarah Bernhardt made her American stage debut in La Dame aux Camelias. She made a further ten tours of the US, all billed as Farewell Appearances.<br /> <br /> 1887- Gunfighter-Dentist Doc Holliday died of tuberculosis. He knew he had it for a long time, and in the 1800's it was as irreversible as AIDS used to be. So some say this knowledge is what made him such a bold pistolero. But unfortunately for him, he won all his gunfights and died in bed in a hospital anyway. His last words after taking a shot of whiskey were:" Well, I'll be damned!" Another version said his last words were “ This is funny…” He was 35.<br /> <br /> 1889- Montana became a state.<br /> <br /> 1908- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were both killed by soldiers in San Vicente Canton, Bolivia. There is a theory that they faked this story and slipped back into the US to live out their lives quietly. Sundance under the name William Henry Long, died in Utah in 1936. In 2008 a DNA analysis was done on the remains and compared to the DNA of a distant relative of Sundance. They did not match. <br /> <br /> 1910- Patent for the first insect electrocutor. FHZZZZITT !<br /> <br /> 1910- Congressman Victor Berger of Wisconsin became the first Socialist to be elected to Congress. In the first decades of the 20th century a number of big city mayors and congressmen were socialists. In the 1912 presidential election when Woodrow Wilson won by a slim one million votes, third party socialist Eugene Debs polled over a million votes. <br /> <br /> 1918- German and Anglo-French negotiators began meetings in a railroad car in the remote Compiegne forest to negotiate an end World War I. Meanwhile the Kaiser’s government continued to collapse from within. Today revolutionary German sailors seized the town hall of Cologne and declared a workers state. <br /> <br /> 1923- When it sounds like they would be found out early, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler put into motion his attempt to overthrow the Weimar government. Because they started in a beer hall in Munich the coup is called the Beer Hall Putsch.<br /> <br /> 1926- New York Mayor Jimmy Walker, a former vaudeville hoofer who wrote the hit song: "Will You Love Me in December like You do in May? ", met chorus dancer Betty Compton at the Gershwin musical "Oh Kay!" and fell in love. Politically, Walker was “ as crooked as a dogs leg”, but it was his romancing his mistress openly in front of New York society, not to mention in front of his wife, that was the scandal of the Roaring 20's. <br /> Forced to resign as mayor after a probe unearthed massive corruption in his administration, Jimmy tried once more to run for mayor against Fiorello Laguardia in 1933. But he was blocked by the Roman Catholic Cardinal of New York and NY Governor Franklin Roosevelt. He had just become president and found Walker an embarrassment. Jimmy Walker and Betty Compton lived in Europe for the next ten years. In 2000 married NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani lost his chance to run for the US Senate in part because he made open appearances at shows and dinners with his girlfriend, even entertaining her in Gracie Mansion while his family was in an adjoining wing. She later became his 3rd wife.<br /> <br /> 1929- New York’s Museum of Modern Art opened.<br /> <br /> 1932-Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s second wife Nadehzda Alleyuieva shot herself, or so the official story said. It may have been the KGB, on orders of Stalin himself. Their daughter Svetlana later escaped to the U.S. and lived the rest of her life there.<br /> <br /> 1933- King Nadir Shah of Afghanistan was assassinated by Abdul Khallig.<br /> <br /> 1939- Pinks Hot Dogs in LA started by Betty and Paul Pink.<br /> <br /> 1942- Operation Torch- Anglo-American soldiers began mass landings on the beaches in French North Africa. The first action of American soldiers in World War II in Europe. The pro-nazi Vichy French fired on the Allies, until a deal was made with their commander Admiral Darlan. Charles DeGaulle was furious that fighting began before he could try to convince the French not to resist. But Eisenhower, FDR and Churchill were not yet ready to admit that the big nosed Colonel was now the de facto leader of Free-France.<br /> <br /> 1943- The first one man show of American abstract painter named Jackson Pollock. Pollock later created his brushless dripping form of painting that earned him the nickname:” Jack the Dripper”.<br /> <br /> 1950- In Korea, two Chinese MIG fighters tangled with US Sabre jets. The first jet-to-jet dogfight.<br /> <br /> 1952- The Supreme Court upheld a 1922 ruling that Baseball a sport, not a business. Therefore it is exempt from anti-trust laws.<br /> <br /> 1956-The Ten Commandments opened in theaters. Directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Much of the animated effects like the pillar of fire were done by freelancing Disney effects animators like Joshua Meador. <br /> <br /> 1965- The Days of Our Lives soap opera first premiered on TV.<br /> <br /> 1966- Former actor and SAG president Ronald Reagan elected Governor of California trouncing two-term incumbent Pat Brown. Uber-Conservative Reagan declared a tough line with the hippies of Haight Ashbury and Berkeley. <br /> <br /> 1966- Doctors at St. Josephs Hospital removed one of Walt Disney’s cancerous lungs, but discovered the cancer had spread to his lymph nodes and liver. They determined he did not have long to live. <br /> <br /> 1973- Walt Disney’s animated Robin Hood premiered.<br /> <br /> 1994- Marion Barry was re-elected Mayor of Washington D.C. despite serving jail time for smoking crack. Comedian Chris Rock wondered:” Who did he run against that was so bad that you’d rather vote for a crackhead?”<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: When tallying up your finances, is it better to finish in the red? Or in the black?<br /> <br /> Answer: Hundreds of years ago when businesses tallied up gains and losses, accountants recorded profits in black ink and losses in red ink. So being in the black is more desirable to being in the red.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 08 Nov 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6304 <p>Question: When Abe Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theater, what play was he watching?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: When tallying up your finances, is it better to finish in the red? Or in the black?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/8/2023<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Nerva, Bram Stoker, Sir Edmund Halley, June Havoc, Margaret Mitchell, Joe Flynn- Captain Binghampton in the 60’s TV sitcom McHales Navy, Ricky Lee Jones, Bonny Raitt, Dr. Christiaan Barnard, Ester Rolle, Katherine Hepburn, Parker Posey is 55, Gretchen Mol is 51, Tara Reid, Norman Lloyd<br /> <br /> 393AD- Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius banned any further worship of the old pagan gods and closed their remaining temples. He stopped the Olympic Games, not to return until revived in 1895.<br /> <br /> 641 A.D.- Cyrus the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria surrendered Egypt to the Arab army of Caliph Omar. Egypt had been a Byzantine province and the emperors in Constantinople had been persecuting their national church, the Coptic Rite, as a heresy. So the Egyptians opened their gates to the Muslim conquerors. The Byzantine Emperor Heraclius appeared at the port of Alexandria with a large fleet. But after removing some of his personal stuff, he abandoned the Paris of the Ancient World without a fight.<br /> <br /> 1519- Spanish Conquistador Hernan' Cortez first met the Aztec Emperor Montezuma II. Cortes was guided by Malinche', the "Pocahontas of the Aztecs". This noblewoman guided Cortez's little band into the heart of the empire. Eyewitness Bernal Diaz described how after dinner the Spaniards were given tobacco pipes to smoke, but a special pipe with different tobacco was given to Montezuma, after smoking it "The Emperor became merry, as we do when drunk with wine." Cortez was also offered a cup of chocolate, then a bitter brew called Xocoatl.<br /> <br /> 1620 -Battle of White Mountain- Austrian Catholic armies crush the Czech rebels and their leader Frederick of the Palatinate, who is nicknamed: "The Winter King" for his brief reign. Unfortunately, the Thirty Years War was only beginning. French philosopher Renes Descartes was a young soldier in the ranks. Although Frederick was married to the daughter of the English King, James wisely refused to get England embroiled in this European war. Frederick’s son Prince Rupert of the Rhine later traveled to England and got involved in the English Civil War. <br /> The Czech Protestant rebels mostly came from the province of Bohemia and their wandering exile in the cities of Europe caused the word "Bohemian" to become synonymous with a rootless lifestyle.<br /> <br /> 1789- Elijah Craig first distilled whiskey from Indian corn and strained it through a wool blanket. He lived in Bourbon County, Kentucky, so the stuff soon became popularly known as Bourbon. Abe Lincoln called Bourbon, “the most American of drinks.”<br /> <br /> 1805- Lewis and Clark first stand on the sand at the Pacific Ocean near the mouth of the Columbia River. <br /> <br /> 1821- Missouri became a state. The first American state on the west bank of the Mississippi.<br /> <br /> 1864- Abraham Lincoln was re-elected president over Democrat challenger George McClellan. It was the first U.S. election ever held during a war, and set the custom that Presidents in a war year never lose. Even most of the army voted for Old Abe. The inmates of the notorious Andersonville Prisoner of War Camp cast ballots, even if they had no way to send them to Washington. <br /> <br /> 1880- Famous actress Sarah Bernhardt made her American stage debut in La Dame aux Camelias. She made a further ten tours of the US, all billed as Farewell Appearances.<br /> <br /> 1887- Gunfighter-Dentist Doc Holliday died of tuberculosis. He knew he had it for a long time, and in the 1800's it was as irreversible as AIDS used to be. So some say this knowledge is what made him such a bold pistolero. But unfortunately for him, he won all his gunfights and died in bed in a hospital anyway. His last words after taking a shot of whiskey were:" Well, I'll be damned!" Another version said his last words were “ This is funny…” He was 35.<br /> <br /> 1889- Montana became a state.<br /> <br /> 1908- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were both killed by soldiers in San Vicente Canton, Bolivia. There is a theory that they faked this story and slipped back into the US to live out their lives quietly. Sundance under the name William Henry Long, died in Utah in 1936. In 2008 a DNA analysis was done on the remains and compared to the DNA of a distant relative of Sundance. They did not match. <br /> <br /> 1910- Patent for the first insect electrocutor. FHZZZZITT !<br /> <br /> 1910- Congressman Victor Berger of Wisconsin became the first Socialist to be elected to Congress. In the first decades of the 20th century a number of big city mayors and congressmen were socialists. In the 1912 presidential election when Woodrow Wilson won by a slim one million votes, third party socialist Eugene Debs polled over a million votes. <br /> <br /> 1918- German and Anglo-French negotiators began meetings in a railroad car in the remote Compiegne forest to negotiate an end World War I. Meanwhile the Kaiser’s government continued to collapse from within. Today revolutionary German sailors seized the town hall of Cologne and declared a workers state. <br /> <br /> 1923- When it sounds like they would be found out early, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler put into motion his attempt to overthrow the Weimar government. Because they started in a beer hall in Munich the coup is called the Beer Hall Putsch.<br /> <br /> 1926- New York Mayor Jimmy Walker, a former vaudeville hoofer who wrote the hit song: "Will You Love Me in December like You do in May? ", met chorus dancer Betty Compton at the Gershwin musical "Oh Kay!" and fell in love. Politically, Walker was “ as crooked as a dogs leg”, but it was his romancing his mistress openly in front of New York society, not to mention in front of his wife, that was the scandal of the Roaring 20's. <br /> Forced to resign as mayor after a probe unearthed massive corruption in his administration, Jimmy tried once more to run for mayor against Fiorello Laguardia in 1933. But he was blocked by the Roman Catholic Cardinal of New York and NY Governor Franklin Roosevelt. He had just become president and found Walker an embarrassment. Jimmy Walker and Betty Compton lived in Europe for the next ten years. In 2000 married NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani lost his chance to run for the US Senate in part because he made open appearances at shows and dinners with his girlfriend, even entertaining her in Gracie Mansion while his family was in an adjoining wing. She later became his 3rd wife.<br /> <br /> 1929- New York’s Museum of Modern Art opened.<br /> <br /> 1932-Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s second wife Nadehzda Alleyuieva shot herself, or so the official story said. It may have been the KGB, on orders of Stalin himself. Their daughter Svetlana later escaped to the U.S. and lived the rest of her life there.<br /> <br /> 1933- King Nadir Shah of Afghanistan was assassinated by Abdul Khallig.<br /> <br /> 1939- Pinks Hot Dogs in LA started by Betty and Paul Pink.<br /> <br /> 1942- Operation Torch- Anglo-American soldiers began mass landings on the beaches in French North Africa. The first action of American soldiers in World War II in Europe. The pro-nazi Vichy French fired on the Allies, until a deal was made with their commander Admiral Darlan. Charles DeGaulle was furious that fighting began before he could try to convince the French not to resist. But Eisenhower, FDR and Churchill were not yet ready to admit that the big nosed Colonel was now the de facto leader of Free-France.<br /> <br /> 1943- The first one man show of American abstract painter named Jackson Pollock. Pollock later created his brushless dripping form of painting that earned him the nickname:” Jack the Dripper”.<br /> <br /> 1950- In Korea, two Chinese MIG fighters tangled with US Sabre jets. The first jet-to-jet dogfight.<br /> <br /> 1952- The Supreme Court upheld a 1922 ruling that Baseball a sport, not a business. Therefore it is exempt from anti-trust laws.<br /> <br /> 1956-The Ten Commandments opened in theaters. Directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Much of the animated effects like the pillar of fire were done by freelancing Disney effects animators like Joshua Meador. <br /> <br /> 1965- The Days of Our Lives soap opera first premiered on TV.<br /> <br /> 1966- Former actor and SAG president Ronald Reagan elected Governor of California trouncing two-term incumbent Pat Brown. Uber-Conservative Reagan declared a tough line with the hippies of Haight Ashbury and Berkeley. <br /> <br /> 1966- Doctors at St. Josephs Hospital removed one of Walt Disney’s cancerous lungs, but discovered the cancer had spread to his lymph nodes and liver. They determined he did not have long to live. <br /> <br /> 1973- Walt Disney’s animated Robin Hood premiered.<br /> <br /> 1994- Marion Barry was re-elected Mayor of Washington D.C. despite serving jail time for smoking crack. Comedian Chris Rock wondered:” Who did he run against that was so bad that you’d rather vote for a crackhead?”<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: When tallying up your finances, is it better to finish in the red? Or in the black?<br /> <br /> Answer: Hundreds of years ago when businesses tallied up gains and losses, accountants recorded profits in black ink and losses in red ink. So being in the black is more desirable to being in the red.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 06 Nov 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6303 <p>Question: What does it mean to moon someone?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: What was the device called the wireless?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/6/2023<br /> Birthdays: Sophocles 495 BC, Joanna La Loca (Crazy Joanie 1479), John Phillip Sousa, Joseph Smith the founder of LDS, Ignacz Paderewski, Charles Dow of Dow Jones, Adolphus Sax inventor of the Saxophone, James Naismith the inventor of Basketball, Mike Nichols, Edsel Ford, animator Eddie Rehberg, Ray Coniff, John Olsen of the comedy duo Olsen &amp; Johnson, Harold Ross the founder of the New Yorker magazine, Jonathan Harris, Maria Shriver is 67, Thandie Newton, Stephen Bosustow, Elmer Plummer, Sally Field is 77, Emma Stone is 35<br /> <br /> Today is the Feast of Saint Leonard of Noblac, the Patron of Women in Labor and Prisoners of War. -is there some connection here..?<br /> <br /> 1528- Conquistador Alva Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was shipwrecked on the coast of Texas. The first white European to set foot in Texas. Cabeza de Vaca means Head of a Cow.<br /> <br /> 1730- King Frederick William I of Prussia has Lt Hans Hermann von Katte, the gay lover of his 18 year old son Crown Prince Frederick, beheaded by saber. He even forced his horrified son to watch the execution from his window. The king referred to his son as “ An effeminate fool.” Frederick William I was the originator of mechanically strict Prussian discipline that made the German Army infamous. He wanted his men to be more afraid of their drill sergeants than of the enemy. <br /> He was so feared by his subjects that they used to run away when he arrived. The king once caught one wretch in a doorway, and drubbed in the face with his cane, shouting: "WHY ARE YOU AFRAID? YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO LOVE ME! YOU SCUM!"<br /> When the old sadist finally died, and Prince Freddy became King Frederick the Great, he slept with whomever he liked. <br /> <br /> 1793- The youngest brother of King Louis XVI of France, the Duc d' Orleans, tried to survive the Revolution by repudiating his birthright, changing his name to Phillipe Egalitie', he even voted to execute his own brother. Well, it didn't work. Today he too went to the guillotine. His son would rule France in 1830-1848 as King Louis Phillipe. His palace, the Palais Orleans also known as the Palais Royale went from private ownership to property of the nation.<br /> <br /> 1806- The news reached London of the great naval victory of Trafalgar and the death of Admiral Nelson. Englishmen great and small fell into extreme grief over the death of their naval hero. Samuel Coleridge wrote: 'When Nelson died, it seemed as if no man was a stranger to another, for all were made acquaintances in the rites of a common anguish."<br /> <br /> 1810- A few days after his youngest daughter Princess Amelia died of tuberculosis at age 27, old King George III lapsed back into the insanity he suffered earlier in his reign. For the remaining 8 years of his life, he remained a blind shut-in. <br /> <br /> 1812- On this day during Napoleons Retreat from Moscow, it first began to snow. <br /> <br /> 1844- Spain granted independence to the Dominican Republic.<br /> <br /> 1850- The first fire brigade formed in Hawaii.<br /> <br /> 1860- Abraham Lincoln of Illinois won the presidency of the United States. The first Republican to win an election.<br /> <br /> 1869- Rutgers beat Princeton 6-4 in the first college football game.<br /> <br /> 1893- Famed Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky died at age 53. Just a few days before the premiere of his 6th Symphony. The cause of death for the composer was declared to be cholera from drinking un-boiled water in a local St Petersburg restaurant. Recent scholarship floated a different theory. Tchaikovsky was a closeted gay man afraid of being exposed. He had tried marriage to a woman, and hated it so much he tried suicide two weeks later. By this time he had formed an infatuation over his nephew. This allegedly caused a secret "Court of Honor" of alumni of his old civil service academy to confront him and threatened him with exposure and scandal. They threatened to even go directly to the Czar to expose him. So he may have taken poison and it was blamed on cholera which was prevalent in the city then. Fellow composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov though the inquest more oddly rushed and confused than usual. We may never really know. <br /> <br /> 1916- Elderly Buffalo Bill Cody made his last public appearance in El Paso Texas. El Paso had been as wild a frontier town as Deadwood or Tombstone, but now it was a quiet modern city. Telephone and electricity wires crisscrossed overhead and streetcars clattered down the streets where gunfighters once shot it out. Buffalo Bills parade seemed to make plain to all the final passing of the Old West to the New. The wild cheering brought tears running down the old scout's white mustaches. It was a fitting final bow. Bill Cody died of prostate cancer a few weeks later.<br /> <br /> 1917- After three months of murderous fighting, Canadian troops finally took the Belgian village of Passchendaele. Also called the Third Battle of Ypres. <br /> <br /> 1924- Stanley Baldwin became Prime Minister of England. Winston Churchill, who had deserted the Conservative Party for the Liberals, now decided to switch back to the Tories and became Home Secretary.<br /> <br /> 1936-The Screen Children's Guild chartered.<br /> <br /> 1941- In an evening nationwide radio broadcast, Josef Stalin told the Soviet people that although their losses were heavy, the Germans had already lost 4.5 million men, and were on the run. It was all pure fiction. In reality Leningrad was surrounded, Moscow was threatened and almost 40% of Russia’s population was under Nazis occupation.<br /> <br /> 1942- German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel began withdrawing his shattered army from the defeat at El Alamein. He then got a direct order from Adolf Hitler to stop the retreat and fight on to “Victory or Death!” Rommel ignored him, and withdrew his men anyway. <br /> <br /> 1944- Lord Moyne, the British Resident in Cairo, was assassinated by two young Israelis who were members of the Stern Gang, a terrorist organization. Ironically at this same time in London Prime Minister Winston Churchill was assuring Jewish leader Azer Weissman that Lord Moyne was sympathetic to the Zionist cause.<br /> <br /> 1947- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization- NATO created.<br /> <br /> 1962- Ted Kennedy first elected to the Senate from Mass. Called The Lion of the Senate, he remained in office until his death in 2009. <br /> <br /> 1966- A great flood hit the City of Venice. An international effort was mounted to save her priceless artifacts. Venice never suffered bad floods until the end of the nineteenth century when a deep channel was dug in the Venetian lagoon to accommodate modern heavy shipping. That imbalance messed up her natural flood cycle from the Adriatic. Added to that the whole city is resting on thousands of wooden pilings pounded into a sand bar when Attila the Hun was still running around. Venice is still sinking a few inches each century, and still suffers a terrible flood every few years.<br /> <br /> 1973- Abe Beame became the first Jewish man to be elected Mayor of New York City.<br /> <br /> 1975- First appearance of the band the Sex Pistols.<br /> =================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What was the device called the wireless?<br /> <br /> Answer: Wireless was an early name for the radio. Telegraphs used wires. Radio was the wireless telegraph, then wireless. (thanks NB)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 05 Nov 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6302 <p>Question: What was the device called the wireless?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Scientists named the planets for Greek and Roman gods, except Earth. Why?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/5/2023<br /> Birthdays: Gen. Benjamin "Spoons" Butler, Eugene V. Debs, Art Garfunkel is 82, Roy Rogers, Tatum O'Neill, Elke Sommer- born Baroness Elke von Shletz is 83, Ike Turner, Vivien Leigh. Will Durant, Joel McCrea, Sam Shepard, Yoshiyuki Tomino, John Berger, Robert Patrick is 66, Tilda Swinton is 63, Disney animator Mike Gabriel<br /> <br /> 1414- THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE- Since 1378 the Catholic Church had rent itself in pieces over politics, with no less than three Popes claiming the loyalty of Christians. This day the German Emperor Sigismund made Pope John convene at Constance the largest church conclave since the Roman Emperor Constantine. Five thousand priests, bishops, cardinals, patriarchs, princes with an army of servants, secretaries and retainers. Even fifteen hundred prostitutes. <br /> The published the declaration Sanctissima " This Holy Synod of Constance represents the true Church Militant, and has it’s authority directly from Christ, and everybody of whatever rank, including the Pope, is bound to obey." They healed the schism by deposing all three Popes and electing one acceptable to all sides. They also pledged to reform the Church. Then after accepting a promise from new Pope Martin V that he would do so, they dissolved. Martin did no such thing and future Popes worked to ensure a council would ever get that powerful again. Too bad, if the Council of Constance had reformed the Church maybe the Reformation and all the terrible religious wars could have been avoided. The council also confirmed the right of Christians to claim any lands occupied by heathens (non-Christians) in foreign lands. <br /> <br /> In Jolly Old England it is<br /> HAPPY GUY FAWKES DAY! in -1605 Sir Guy Fawkes, a Catholic nobleman, was caught digging a tunnel under the English Parliament and filling it with gunpowder. His goal was no less than blowing up the King and the entire blinkin' government! Sir Roger Catesby was actually the mastermind of the plot, but Sir Guy gets the fame.<br /> Modern day Brits commemorate this as a kind of April Fools Day with bonfires and merrymaking. Children go from door to door asking : "A penny for Sir Guy, please." <br /> Many English folks I know told me they celebrate the day they tried to blow up the government because wouldn't things have been lovely if he had succeeded!<br /> <br /> 1688- William and Mary of Orange land in England from Holland to start the 'Glorious Revolution' against her dad King James II.<br /> <br /> 1699- According to Jonathan Swift, this is the day Lemuel Gulliver was shipwrecked on the isle of Lilliput. <br /> <br /> 1757- Battle of Rossbach- Frederick the Great defeated a French invasion led by two generals Marquis de Soubuise and Hildeburghausen, whose only qualifications were that they were lovers of Madame De Pompadour. King Frederick referred to La Pompadour as Mademoiselle Poisson- Miss Fish. <br /> <br /> 1805- The Royal Spanish Governor of New Mexico, Joaquin del Real Alencaster, dispatches a cavalry troop under Don Pedro Vial on a secret mission. On this day Vial's force was attacked by hostile Commanches on the Arkansas River. Vial drove off the natives, but his command was left too battered to continue and had to return, their mission aborted. What was their mission? To kill or capture the American explorers Lewis and Clark. The Spanish government in Madrid knew full well the object in the American President Jefferson’s mind in sending this "scientific" expedition to plot a land route to the Pacific, over territory Spain claimed as theirs, despite the Louisiana Purchase. Lewis and Clark, at this point in the Columbia River Gorge, were unaware of the drama around them. <br /> <br /> 1820- Old British sea dog Lord Thomas Cochrane had joined the Latin Americans fight to gain independence from Spain. He decided the best way to do that was to capture the flagship of the Spanish Pacific fleet, the 44 gun Esmerelda. This night Cochrane with 80 Chilean sailors rowed up to the frigate and captured her after a brief but violent hand to hand struggle. As they rowed silently past the neutral USS Mendocino they were almost given away by the American sailors cheering them.<br /> <br /> 1857- Oxford professors at a dinner hear Sir William Trench call for a new Dictionary of the English Language, this time not just a sampler of difficult words but an attempt to inventory all the words used in English at the time. The OED, the Oxford English Dictionary took 70 years to write and was the biggest effort since Dr. Samuel Johnson’s dictionary of 1755.<br /> <br /> 1872- Susan B. Anthony was arrested and fined again for trying to vote in a presidential election.<br /> <br /> 1895- Invention of the Car Clutch.<br /> <br /> 1913- William Mulholland's great aqueduct starts bringing water 200 miles from Northern California to L.A. by the force of gravity alone. Without the extra water L.A. would never have grown any larger than 180,000 people. (L.A. Times estimate.) His address to the people of LA at the dedication concluded, “There it is. Take it.”<br /> <br /> 1917- After the collapse of the Czar’s government, the council of the Russian Orthodox Church reinstated the office of Patriarch, suppressed by Peter the Great in 1700.<br /> <br /> 1937- Disney's silly symphony The Old Mill debuted. The first film featuring the multiplane camera technique.<br /> <br /> 1938- Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings premiered.<br /> <br /> 1940- President Franklin Roosevelt was re-elected to an unprecedented 3rd term. His defeated Republican opponent- Wendell Wilkie, who became the butt of jokes in many Looney Tunes.<br /> <br /> 1946- Two punk kids fresh out of the Navy were elected to the US House of Representatives- John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.<br /> <br /> 1954- THE WRONG DOOR RAID- Baseball great Joe DiMaggio was fuming over the collapse of his marriage to sexy movie star Marilyn Monroe. He was very jealous to idea that she was now seeing other men. This night Joltin’ Joe was having dinner with Frank Sinatra and a few friends when a detective brought him a report that Monroe’s car was spotted parked in front of an apartment on Kilkea Dr. in West Hollywood. Enraged, DiMaggio, Sinatra and friends drove out to the building and kicked in the back door hoping to catch her in-flagrante-delicto. Marilyn was actually upstairs spending the night at a girlfriend’s apartment. This apartment was the home of a terrified old widow named Mrs. Florence Klotz. We don’t know what she thought about her door suddenly kicked in by Joe DiMaggio, and the Rat Pack, but the press had a lot of fun with it.<br /> <br /> 1955- This is the date in 1955 that Marty McFly travels to in the film Back to the Future. <br /> <br /> 1956- SUEZ CRISIS ENDS. The United States and Soviet Union bring heavy pressure on Israel, France and Britain to stop their war with Egypt. Egypt kept the Suez Canal, Israel no longer looked like a pathetic little country about to get stomped, and the world now saw that the only countries who’s opinion now mattered were Russia and the U.S.. British historian Jan Morris called it the official end of the British Empire. Israeli diplomat Chaim Herzog was touring Mount Sinai when he got the cablegram to come to New York for the peace talks. He joked:" I am only the second Jew in history to receive a message on Mount Sinai."<br /> <br /> 1968- After losing to John Kennedy in 1960, Richard Nixon ran for governor of California and lost that too. He was thought politically finished. Today Richard Nixon capped an amazing comeback by being elected President. He won over a democratic majority badly divided over Vietnam, and third party racist George Wallace. <br /> <br /> 1975- Mormon lumberjack Travis Walton was abducted by aliens and experimented on for five days, then returned to his home in Snowflake, Arizona. The encounter was seen by seven adult men, who were his co-workers. Walton published a bestseller Fire in the Sky, that was made into a movie.<br /> <br /> 1977- George W. Bush married Laura Welsh. Laura was once a Democrat who campaigned for liberal George McGovern in 1972.<br /> <br /> 1979- National Public Radio’s news show Morning Edition started.<br /> <br /> 1990- In New York City, the founder of the Jewish Defense League, Rabbi Meir Kahane, was assassinated at the NY Marriott by a man dressed as an orthodox student. The JDL was an extremist organization in America, that advocated violent responses to Arab extremism. Even though he was elected to the Israeli Knesset, Meir Kahane was refused a seat because of his racist views. So no one was too surprised that he was a target. But what was surprising was that the assassin, El Sayyid Nossair, was a member of a terrorist cell operating in the US. His apartment was a "treasure-trove of information" according to NYPD detectives. They found terrorist manuals written in Afghanistan, bomb making instructions and plans to NY city landmarks like the World Trade Center. The NYPD turned over all this intelligence to the FBI, who filed it away and forgot about it. <br /> <br /> 1994- Retired President Ronald Reagan gave his last public speech. He confirmed he had Alzheimer’s Disease. He gently faded away from public view and died in 2004. <br /> <br /> 1994- 45-year-old fighter George Foreman capped off an amazing comeback by becoming the oldest person ever to win the Heavyweight Championship of the World. <br /> <br /> 1999- A man was arrested in Minneapolis for stealing and keeping 150 shopping carts in his apartment.<br /> <br /> 2004- Pixar's The Incredibles, directed by Brad Bird premiered. <br /> <br /> 2009- Army Major Hassan went mad and shot 13 other soldiers in Ft. Hood, Texas. Major Hassan’s job was as a psychiatrist who helped other soldiers with their emotional stress. <br /> ===================================================<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: Scientists named the planets for Greek and Roman gods, except Earth. Why?<br /> <br /> Answer: They didn’t name it as a planet because back then nobody believed the Earth was a planet floating in space like all the others. Earth was from old Saxon Erda, meaning the ground you are standing on.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 03 Nov 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6301 <p>Question: Who was Sabu? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What was a morion? ( hint: conquistador)<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/3/2023<br /> Birthdays: The Roman writer Lucan 39AD, John Montague the Earl of Sandwich, Jubal Early, Walker Evans, William Cullen Bryant, Stephen Austin, Bronco Nagurski, Andre' Malraux, Vincenzo Bellini, Bob Feller, Karl Baedeker author of the guidebooks, Ken Berry, Michael Dukakis, Gustav Tenngren, Lulu, Osamu Tezuka, Jim Cummings is 70.<br /> <br /> 55 BC- CLEOPATRA MARRIED PTOLOMEY VIII. They were brother and sister. Because the Pharaoh was a god, he couldn't mate with a mortal, and the only available goddesses were in the immediate family. This curious inbreeding in the Royal line insured that the mighty family of Ptolemy, general of Alexander the Great, would produce descendants like Orestes the Flute Blower. <br /> <br /> 361AD- JULIAN THE APOSTATE BECAME EMPEROR OF ROME, upon the death of his uncle Constantius II. Julian's life was much like Claudius 300 years earlier, except the Imperial Family's official religion was now Christianity. The family of Constantine fought, intrigued, seduced and poisoned each other with great gusto, then went to Church. This had a funny effect on bookish young Julian, and he decided Christianity must be the problem, and everyone was better off worshiping Jupiter, Hercules, Mars like in the good old days. He was slain in battle with the Persians after only five years, before he could affect any real change.<br /> <br /> 631 AD- Caliph Omar, the conqueror of the Holyland, was assassinated in Medina by Abu-Lulu, a Persian Christian.<br /> <br /> 1394- the Jews expelled from France by King Charles VI.<br /> <br /> 1503- MONA LISA- This day Leonardo Da Vinci was hired by a Florentine senator Francesco del Giocondo to paint a portrait of his third wife Donna Elizabetha or Lisa. He fussed over the painting for four years and never gave it to Francesco. He said it was still unfinished and kept it for himself. Eventually he needed money, so he sold it to the King of France and today it sits in the Louvre. Was her enigmatic smile because she had lost a child earlier that year and Leonardo was trying to cheer her up? Or is she emblematic of Woman smiling at the foibles of Men? One historian called Mona Lisa, “The Face that Launched a Thousand Reams Upon a Sea of Ink.”<br /> <br /> 1529- In England, the Reformation Parliament first met. This was the Parliament that supported King Henry VIII’s break with the Catholic Church, and the adoption of Protestant practices.<br /> <br /> 1572- TYCHO’S SUPERNOVA. Around this time people began to notice a new light in skies near the constellation Cassiopeia. It was an exploding star (supernova) that soon became visible even in the daytime. It reached its brightest around Nov. 16th and lasted well into the following year. It is called Tycho’s Supernova or Tycho G because Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe first published about it. It was observed by many people around the world including Johannes Kepler and the astronomers of the Chinese Ming Emperor. This phenomenon inspired English astronomer Thomas Diggs in 1576 to declare that Copernicus’s idea of a Region of Fixed Stars did not make sense, since those stars were never supposed to change. Obviously, the Universe was infinite and ever changing. <br /> <br /> 1623- The Dutch government in the Hague decided Henry Hudson might have discovered something interesting in America after all. They ordered the Dutch West India Company to begin plans for a colony. This settlement, called New Amsterdam would become New York City.<br /> <br /> 1717- Henry Luttrell was a general in the Irish Jacobite army against the forces of William of Orange. At key battles at Aughrim and Limerick, he betrayed his own side, and for that he was richly rewarded by the English. King William even gave him the estates of his own brother, who picked the other side. Needless to say, Henry Luttrell was hated at home. This day while riding in a sedan chair through downtown Dublin, someone walked up to him and shot him in the face. Luttrell died the next day, and nobody on that street seemed to see or recall seeing who did it….<br /> <br /> 1755- The Massachusetts Colony offered a bounty of 20 English pounds each for scalps of Indian children under the age of 12. Warrior scalps fetched a higher bounty, about 30 pounds.<br /> <br /> 1761- Battle of Torgau- Frederick the Great had his last big victory over the invading Austrian army. Frederick “ Alte Fritz”- Old Fritz, personally led his men into battle and had three horses killed under him. At one point he was actually struck in the chest with a cannonball, but it had been fired at such a great distance that it had lost velocity and merely knocked the wind out of him.” It’s nothing,” he said, and returned to the battle. If he had been killed then the Prussian kingdom would have collapsed, and the future capital of Germany would have been Vienna or Frankfurt, rather than Berlin.<br /> <br /> 1836- Southern California ranchero Juan de Alvarado rallied local ranchers to overthrow corrupt territorial Governor Juan de Micheltorena sent from Mexico City. One of his followers was Pio Pico, who would become a general in the Mexican War. The story of Alvarado may have been an early inspiration for Zorro.<br /> <br /> 1849-THE PNEUMATIC TRAIN- Alfred E. Beech, the publisher of Scientific American Magazine, first proposed an underground railway be built under New York City to ease traffic snarls. He had invented the pneumatic tube system of delivering messages in tubes pulled through buildings by means of suction and compressed air. He now proposed to build tube shaped railroad cars that would carry people along via suction like a big straw. In 1868 he spent $350,000 to build a Pneumatic train under Broadway that could go one block. Beecher eventually gave up the idea and his tunnel was sealed but the New York City Subway system was inaugurated in 1904.<br /> <br /> 1883- The Billy Hicks Massacre- near El Obeid a poorly trained colonial Egyptian Army led by British officers under General William Hicks march right into a trap set by Sudanese rebel leader El Mahdi. He led a messianic movement much like ISIS today.<br /> <br /> 1883- Outlaw Black Bart held up his last stagecoach. He liked to rob the Wells Fargo strongbox and leave behind poems. “ I’ve labored long and hard for bread, for money and for riches. But too long on my corns you’ve tread, you fine-haired sons of bitches!- Black Bart poe-8.” Eventually Wells Fargo agents tracked him down to man named Charles Bowles and he did 6 years in San Quentin.<br /> <br /> 1888- Jack the Ripper killed his last victim, a prostitute named Mary Reilly.<br /> <br /> 1918- the Austrians sign a preliminary armistice with Italy to end the Italian Front section of World War I. Soldiers like Benito Mussolini could go home and get into politics.<br /> <br /> 1930- Amadeo Giannini changed the name of his San Francisco based Bank of Italy to the Bank of America.<br /> <br /> 1948 -The Chicago Daily Tribune prints the famous premature headline “Dewey Defeats Truman” based on early poll returns. Truman himself was so sure he’d lost the election he went to bed early. When he awoke he discovered he had won and he had a ball mocking the newspapers and doing nasal imitations of hostile news correspondent H.B. Kaltenborn. <br /> <br /> 1956- The movie The Wizard of Oz, with Judy Garland, was released in theaters in 1939, it did lackluster box office. This day it was first broadcast on television. Almost 40 million people tuned in that night. It has been run every year since. Possibly the most viewed TV movie ever. <br /> <br /> 1957-SPACE DOG- The first living thing sent into orbit, a Russian dog named Laika. She was a stray found on a Moscow street. She never came back but died in space, but she probably was satisfied knowing she made history- woof. <br /> <br /> 1963- THE FIRST ALL COSMONAUT WEDDING- Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in Space, marries cosmonaut Andrisyan Nikolayev.<br /> <br /> 1966- President Lyndon Johnson signed the Truth in Packaging Act, which required all packaged foods to print their real ingredients on the label.<br /> <br /> 1969- In a speech, President Richard Nixon announced his opposition to young anti-Vietnam War protesters by appealing to the social conservative middle Americans. "And so tonight—to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans—I ask for your support." It was basically a declaration of cultural war against the Rock &amp; Roll Hippy counterculture.<br /> <br /> 1971- The first UNIX manual released. <br /> <br /> 1971- Carly Simon married James Taylor.<br /> <br /> 1974- Hello Kitty created by Yukio Shimizu for Sanrio Prod.<br /> <br /> 1976- Carrie starring Sissy Spacek opened in theaters.<br /> <br /> 1977- Disney's Pete's Dragon starring Helen Reddy and Red Buttons. <br /> <br /> 1979- T.V. sitcom Different Strokes premiered.<br /> <br /> 1990- GM's car line the Saturn announced.<br /> <br /> 1981- WALLY WOOD was one of the most influential cartoonists of the 1950’s and 60’s. His amazing versatility enabled him to draw everything from superhero comics to very cartoony to playfully naughty girls like Sally Forth. He drew EC Comics, the Mars Attacks series, Mad Magazine, Weird Science, THUNDER Agents and much more. He had done an infamous drawing of the Disney characters having sex that was so good, people assumed it was done by a rogue Disney animator. But hard living and deadlines took their toll. Suffering from a stroke, and failing kidneys, Wally Wood put a 44 cal pistol to his right temple and pulled the trigger. Today police found his remains. The bullet had passed completely through his head and was in the pillow on the other side.<br /> <br /> 1986- While American media sat on the story, Lebanese newspaper Al Schirrah first revealed the details of the Reagan Presidency’s illegal sales of weapons to Iran- the Iran Contra Scandal. It embarrassed the final years of Reagan’s presidency. In 1989, Pres. George H.W. Bush gave executive pardons to all involved. <br /> <br /> 2006- Dreamworks/Aardman film Flushed Away, directed by David Bowers.<br /> ============================================================<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: What was a morion? ( hint: conquistador)<br /> <br /> Answer: A morion was the name of the classic round curved helmet that comes to a point in front and back we associate with Spanish conquistadors and the Swiss Guard of the Vatican.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 02 Nov 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6300 <p>Question: What was a morion? (hint: conquistador)<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: What does the old Hollywood phrase mean- Mickey-Mousing?”<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/2/2023<br /> Birthdays: Daniel Boone, Pres. James Knox Polk, Jean Chardin, Luchino Visconti, Ray Walston, Giusseppi Sinopoli, Burt Lancaster, Pat Buchanan, Steve Ditko, Ray Walston, Stephanie Powers, k.d. lang, David Schwimmer is 57<br /> <br /> Today is the traditional day for Dio de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. It derives from the Aztecs, who believed the life you are now living is a dream. When you die, you awake to your real life.<br /> <br /> 472AD- Next to last Roman Emperor Olybrius died. Put in his place was the boy Romulus Augustulus, while the real power was his general, the barbarian chieftain Odoacer.<br /> <br /> 1164- Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, fled into exile over his dispute with King Henry II of England.<br /> <br /> 1483- This day Richard III shows his friend the Duke of Buckingham how much he appreciated his help in becoming king by cutting his head off.<br /> <br /> 1541- Archbishop Thomas Cranmer handed King Henry VIII a spy’s report that his hot young wife Queen Catherine Howard was getting-it-on with at least three other men.<br /> <br /> 1783- The American Revolution now over, General George Washington published his final orders to his disbanding army, congratulating them for their courage and allowing them all to go home now to their farms.<br /> <br /> 1789- The French Revolution seized all Church property in France.<br /> <br /> 1789- President George Washington had borrowed two books from the New York City Public Library that were due this day. The Chief Librarian noted that they were still overdue, in April 2010. A total of $4, 577.00 late dues were owed.<br /> <br /> 1804- Pope Pius VII was brought by French cavalry from Rome on to French soil so he could crown Napoleon emperor at Notre Dame in Paris. Napoleon later had the Pope locked up from 1809 to 1814. His Holiness excommunicated him. Napoleon said, “ Good. Now I will have more followers.”<br /> <br /> 1830- American Methodist reformers opposed to bishops met in Baltimore to form the Protestant Methodist Church.<br /> <br /> 1889- North Dakota and South Dakota are admitted into the Union. They argued for twenty years the position of a joint state capitol. Finally they decided to go separately.<br /> <br /> 1904- London newspaper The Daily Mirror first published.<br /> <br /> 1915- Battle of Coronel. In World War I, German Admiral Max von Spee’s battle cruiser fleet defeated a British cruiser fleet of the coast of Chile. This was very upsetting back home, since it marked the first British naval defeat in 100 years.<br /> <br /> 1917- Britain passed the Balfour Declaration, calling for a national home for Jews in Palestine. Sir Arthur Balfour was the British Foreign Secretary under David Lloyd George. Britain once considered Uganda and Argentina for a Jewish homeland before settling on Palestine, then a sleepy border province of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. <br /> <br /> 1920- The first US Radio station, KDKA in Pittsburgh, began the nation’s first broadcasting with news of election results.<br /> <br /> 1921- On the fourth anniversary of the Balfour Declaration a huge mob of Palestinian Arabs attacked the Jewish quarter of Old Jerusalem. After the Great War, sporadic violence had been happening since Arab nationalism had arisen as well as increased Jewish immigration from Europe as a result of the Balfour Declaration. But for the first time the rioters were fought off in a pitched battle by an organized Jewish militia called the Hagannah. This force was formed by Av Avram, and made up of Jewish World War I veterans. The leader of the Palestinians, Al Husseini, would be later elected the Grand Mufti of Palestine. This was the first large clash of Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem, and sadly, it would not be the last.<br /> <br /> 1928- The Little Carnegie Theater in New York opened. Until its closing in 1982, it was one of the premiere art-house cinemas.<br /> <br /> 1930- Ras Tafari crowned Halie Selassie I, Ethiopian Emperor. The Jamaican movement Rastafarians are named for him.<br /> <br /> 1932- Young star Katherine Hepburn first shines in the film A Bill of Divorcement, co- starring with John Barrymore. <br /> <br /> 1936- The School of Industrial Arts founded in New York City. Four art teachers began it in an old building that once housed a WPA theater project. In 1960 it became The High School of Art &amp; Design, a magnet public school for commercial artists. It was my school 1970-1973.<br /> <br /> 1937- LaGuardia Airport opened. New York City’s first municipal airport.<br /> <br /> 1944- RAOUL WALLENBURG- The Jewish population of Budapest was driven off to Nazi concentration camps, but not after Swedish envoy Raoul Wallenberg saved thousands by granting Swedish (neutral) passports to them. Wallenberg once walked alongside an SS officer ordered to execute 25 people and pleaded for each person as they were shot. The SS officer finally tired of Wallenburg’s pleas and spared the last two. When Wallenburg’s aide asked him “What good did all that begging do?” He replied: “What Good? We just saved two human lives!” When Hungary was conquered by the Red Army, Raul Wallenburg was arrested and died in one of Stalin's prison camps. This despite being a Swedish national and a diplomat. Russia didn’t officially admit this until 1991. <br /> <br /> 1947- Howard Hughes pilots his monster wooden airplane, the Hughes H-1 Hercules, known as “The Spruce Goose" for it's only test flight, one minute over Long Beach Harbor. Two hundred tons, Eight engines, a wingspan longer than a football field, it was conceived as an aid to win World War II, but was not ready until long after the war ended. <br /> <br /> 1950- 94 year old writer George Bernard Shaw died of injuries sustained from falling out of an apple tree he was pruning. His dying words were:" Oh well, it will be a new experience, anyway." <br /> <br /> 1963- South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother were assassinated by a military coup of ARVN generals. President Kennedy was aware of the coup, and pledged the US would not interfere. Still, he was surprised that Diem was murdered.<br /> <br /> 1964- CBS television purchased the NY Yankees Baseball club. This is one of the dumber business deals in entertainment history. CBS thought they were buying the world champion Murderers Row team, if they had done their research they would have known most the Yankee top stars including Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford and Yogi Berra were scheduled to retire. Within a year of the deal the Yankees went from first to last place, and played bad until George Steinbrenner bought them in 1977.<br /> <br /> 1966- Walt Disney stopped into St. Joseph’s Hospital for pre-op x-rays for an old polo injury to his neck. Examining the x-rays doctors discover a cancerous tumor most of his left lung. They recommend immediate surgery, but Walt left to work at the studio a few more days. <br /> <br /> 1983- Yielding to nationwide lobbying, President Ronald Reagan created the Martin Luther King holiday in January. Arizona was the last state to officially celebrate the holiday.<br /> <br /> 2001- Pixar’s Monsters Inc. opened.<br /> <br /> 2005- The NY Times revealed the CIA was operating black sites in third countries like Poland and Thailand, where they could take Al Qaeda and Iraqi prisoners and torture them free of any oversight. <br /> <br /> 2012- Walt Disney’s Wreck it Ralph opened in theaters. Appearing in front of it was the short Paperman, by John Kahrs.<br /> <br /> 2016- Ending generations of frustration, the Chicago Cubs defeated the Cleveland Indians 8-7 in ten innings to win one of the more exciting World Series of baseball. The last time the Cubs won a world series was in 1908.<br /> <br /> 2021-A full year after the presidential election, a huge crowd of conspiracy-loving supporters of disgraced president Trump gathered in Dealey Plaza in Dallas. There some You-Tube Q-whatever types promised them JFK Jr, who died in 1999, and his father JFK Sr, who died in 1963, would magically rise from the dead and restore Donald back to the White House. Which has no constitutional basis or basis in reality. After lots of chanting and yelling at passing cars all day, they all got bored and went home.<br /> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does the old Hollywood phrase mean- Mickey-Mousing?”<br /> <br /> Answer: On the first decade or two of sound films, scores were often synchronized with the action on screen. This was especially true of the Disney films, hence the “Mickey-Mousing” name, where the action was often planned on bar sheets, very similar to music sheets, so that the music could be composed to punctuate the visuals. So someone milking a cow flicks some spray near a baby, you heard a quick xylophone riff up-scale.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 30 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6299 <p>Question: There have been two movies about a character called Dolomite, but Dolomite is a place, too. Where are the Dolomites?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is a pyrotechnician?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 10/30/2023<br /> Birthdays: John Adams, Christopher Columbus, English playwright Richard Sheridan,<br /> Ezra Pound, Emily Post, Louis Malle, Henry Winkler is 76, Charles Atlas, Ruth Gordon, <br /> Claude Lelouche, Dick Gautier, Louis Malle, Herschel Bernardi, Ted Williams, Grace Slick, Diego Maradona, animator Isao Takahata, Ivanka Trump is 42<br /> <br /> 1270- The Pope declared the 8th Crusade to try to save the city of St Jean D’Acre, the last Crusader hold in Palestine. Acre surrendered to the Saracens two years later.<br /> <br /> 1501-THE BALLET OF THE CHESTNUTS, or His Holiness throws an orgy.<br /> One of the most notorious incidents in pre-Reformation Rome. Pope Alexander VI Borgia, with his children Cesare and Lucretia Borgia, throw a wild party at the Vatican. The revelry was highlighted by a race of nude prostitutes on hands and knees through an obstacle course of silver candlesticks, gobbling up chestnuts. The pope later gave prizes to the courtiers and ladies who demonstrated the greatest sexual stamina. This was the kind of holy hedonism that drove the Protestant reformers nuts and caused the final rift in the Christian world.<br /> One participant in these revelries was the chef of the French ambassador. He was intrigued to see the pope’s guests not wasting time to be served dinner, but just getting their own plates of food from large tubs set in a row along the wall. He thought this was a neat way to serve food. His name was Pierre Buffet.<br /> <br /> 1628- The French City of LaRochelle had been acting as the capitol of an independent<br /> Huguenot nation- electing officers and collecting taxes independent of Catholic <br /> Paris. But France was now in the hands of the wily Cardinal Richelieu. Although a Catholic priest, Richelieu really didn’t care a figgy about Protestants, but that independence thing had to go. The Cardinal had LaRochelle under siege for months. <br /> When the starving citizens finally surrendered it was the Cardinal who entered the city in armor on a white charger. But rather than sack the city, and burn the heretics, Richelieu<br /> had his men distribute bread and medicine. He granted freedom of worship to all.<br /> <br /> 1811- Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility published. <br /> <br /> 1864- Gold miners founded the boomtown of Helena Montana.<br /> <br /> 1891- Henri Boulanger, a French general who dreamed of Napoleonic power before falling into disgrace, shot himself over his mistress’s grave.<br /> <br /> 1905- THE OCTOBER MANIFESTO- Trying to calm his rebellious subjects, Czar Nicholas II issues an imperial ukase (edict) transforming Russia from a completely autocratic state to a semi-constitutional monarchy. He created the Duma, Russia's elected<br /> parliament. However all didn't go well. When the elected representatives called<br /> for more freedom, release of political prisoners and dismissal of all government<br /> officials not approved by the Duma, Nicholas shut it all down. <br /> <br /> 1918- The Empire of Turkey signed an armistice at Modras with Britain, France and<br /> America to get out of World War I.<br /> <br /> 1918- While the last Austro-Hungarian Emperor Karl desperately tried to hold his<br /> disintegrating empire together, today even his German speaking subjects declared <br /> themselves to be the new Federal Republic of Austria.<br /> <br /> 1918- Kaiser Wilhelm moved his staff from riot-ravaged Berlin to Spa on the Belgian<br /> frontier to prepare for the armistice to end the Great War. Socialist leader Franz<br /> Ebert told Chancellor Prince Max of Baden the Kaiser may have to abdicate to avoid civil<br /> war. But Wilhelm still imagined that after making peace with the Allies, he could<br /> turn the German army around and put down his own unhappy subjects. But after <br /> four years and two and a half million dead, all the German army wanted to do was<br /> go home. Whole regiments were throwing away their weapons and walking away.<br /> <br /> 1931- first day shooting on the movie Tarzan the Ape Man, starring former Olympic Gold Medal swimming champ Johnny Weissmuller.<br /> <br /> 1936- London publishers George Allen &amp; Unwin had received a manuscript from an Oxford ancient languages professor named J.R.R. Tolkein. The publisher gave it to his ten-year old son Rayner Unwin, to read. Rayner read it and made a report, “This book will be a very good read for children from ages 5-7.” For his troubles, the young lad was paid a shilling. Based on his recommendation, they published “The Hobbit”. <br /> <br /> 1938-"THE NIGHT THAT PANICKED AMERICA- 27 year old Orson Wells broadcast on CBS a radio update of H.G. Well’s story "The War of the Worlds". Despite periodic station announcements that it was only a fictional re-enactment, one million people across the U.S. go bonkers that an actual Martian invasion had landed in Grover’s Mill New Jersey. <br /> In Hollywood, famed actor John Barrymore, very drunk, went over to his<br /> kennel of prize winning racing greyhounds and open their cage doors, saying: "Fend<br /> for yourselves!" Interestingly enough, the broadcast was only #2 in the ratings. More people listened to the Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Show. <br /> <br /> In 1949 Ecuador, and 1969 Buffalo NY, radio stations did updated versions of the broadcast, and they also started panics. <br /> <br /> 1941-The REUBEN JAMES INCIDENT-Five weeks before the Pearl Harbor attack, the neutral U.S. destroyer Reuben James was torpedoed by a German U-boat, drowning dozens of American sailors. Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill thought this would be the incident to anger Americans enough into getting into World War II like the Lusitania did a generation earlier. Woody Guthrie sang: "Oh tell me what were<br /> their names, tell me what were their names? Did you have a friend on the good old<br /> Reuben James?" However Adolf Hitler apologized and offered immediate monetary<br /> reparations. Popular anger cooled. Roosevelt told his cabinet:" I think I can keep us out of this war for one more year unless Germany or Japan does something stupid." <br /> <br /> 1947- Bertoldt Brecht, the playwright of Mother Courage and The Threepenny Opera,<br /> testified to the Hollywood HUAC committee. He smoked a large cigar through the whole<br /> session. Next day, as he had once fled Hitler’s Germany, he fled the U.S. and resettled in East Germany.<br /> <br /> 1961- Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev has his old boss Stalin’s body removed from<br /> its glass case pickled next to Lenin, and has it buried in a simple grave in the back.<br /> <br /> 1963- The first Lamborghini 350GTV went on sale.<br /> <br /> 1966- An inventory done at the National Archives revealed that medical evidence <br /> of John F. Kennedy's assassination autopsy were missing. This included JFK’s brain.<br /> They have never been found. Kennedy’s brother Robert was still attorney general<br /> at the time. Some historians think he hid evidence of conspiracy to hide his <br /> brothers mob connections, and so preserve the purity of the Camelot myth. <br /> <br /> 1973- The Carlin Case- Radical radio station WBAI in New York broadcast hippy comedian George Carlin’s routine about the “Seven Deadly Words” the naughty words you can’t say on the air. I can’t write them because Facebook would put me in jail, but you all know what they are anyway. The FCC slapped a heavy fine and WBAI sued for free speech and the case made it to the Supreme Court. Today the High Court found for the FCC and those 7 deadly words remain banned from airwaves today. Aw, Sh*t!<br /> <br /> 1975- After the death of the dictator Franco, King Juan Carlos assumed the throne in the restored monarchy of Spain.<br /> <br /> 1991- Middle East Peace Conference began in Madrid Spain. These first days about<br /> the only thing the Arabs and Israelis could agree upon was to politely refuse the<br /> lunch the Spaniards had set out for them- ham sandwiches.<br /> <br /> 1992- QUANTRILL’S HEAD- William Clark Quantrill and his raiders were infamous during the Civil War for their depredations in Kansas and Missouri. A vicious racist killer, after being shot dead in 1865, an admirer dug up his bones and kept them. For the next 150 years the bones passed through several hands. They were put up for sale, displayed in a glass case and even used by Ohio State fraternities for their initiation rituals. Quantrill’s skull was finally discovered in a refrigerator behind the tuna sandwiches and Coke in the Dover Historical Society. A forensics student was putting clay on it to see what he looked like in life. This day the reassembled remains were finally laid to rest in his birthplace of Dover Ohio.<br /> <br /> 2002- Rap star of Run-DMC Jam Master Jay was shot dead in the lounge of his recording studio in Queens NY. The killer was never found.<br /> <br /> 2005- The Disney feature Chicken Little premiered.<br /> <br /> 2012- The Walt Disney Company announced it was buying out George Lucas holdings (including the Star Wars franchise) for $4.05 billion.<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is a pyrotechnician?<br /> <br /> Answer: Pyrotechnicians design and control explosions, especially fireworks, but also other types of blasts. (Thanks CS)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 29 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6298 <p>Question: What does a pyrotechnician do?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What does it mean when you roll snake-eyes?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 10/29/2023<br /> Birthdays: James Boswell, Sir Walter Raleigh, John Keats, Sir Edmund Halley, Louis Blanc, Fanny Brice, Joseph Goebbels, Zoot Sims, Winona Ryder, Jesse Barfield, Kate Jackson, Bill Mauldin, Akim Tamiroff, Rufus Sewell, Neal Hefti-composer of the theme song for TV shows like Batman and the Odd Couple. Richard Dreyfus is 76, Ralph Bakshi is 85, Dan Castellenata, the voice of Homer Simpson.<br /> <br /> 1618- Sir Walter Raleigh celebrated his birthday by being beheaded. Raleigh was once Queen Elizabeth’s favorite, but by now he was getting on King James nerves, by opposing the Kings peace overtures to Spain. Also Raleigh was implicated in a plot to keep James from attaining the throne. The king had him dangling on a commuted death sentence for treason for 15 years. Finally when Raleigh attacked Spanish settlements in Brazil against direct orders not to, that was enough. Off with his head! On the scaffold Raleigh thumbed the axeman’s blade. He joked:" This is sharp medicine, but it cures all ills." The man credited with introducing tobacco to Northern Europe, he puffed his pipe for one last time before putting his head on the block. His wife kept the severed head in a cabinet for the rest of her life.<br /> <br /> 1762- Battle of Freiburg. Frederick the Great’s brother Prince Henry defeated the Austrians in the final major battle of the Seven Years War.<br /> <br /> 1764-The Hartford Current debuts. The U.S.'s oldest continuously running newspaper.<br /> <br /> 1776- During the American retreat from the British across New Jersey, General George Washington is accidentally handed a letter from one of his officers to another. He read it and it accused him of incompetence: "The only thing worse than a Blundering Commander is an Indecisive one!" Up till then Washington had thought that the writer, Thomas Mifflin, was a friend of his. Washington passed on the note without any comment other than an apology for having opened it.<br /> <br /> 1787- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera DON GIOVANNI premiere in Prague. Mozart had partied the night before and after midnight sat down and wrote the overture. As the musicians were sitting down he ran from stand to stand handing out the music. Goethe and Schiller loved it. Giacomo Rossini called it “the Greatest of All Operas”. After Don Giovanni, his lyricist Lorenzo da Ponte left Europe for America and settled down in New Jersey. His niece had an affair with the son of Francis Scott Key and married a general Dan Sickles, who fought at Gettysburg.<br /> <br /> Oct. 29, 1795- NAPOLEON MET JOSEPHINE- After quelling anti-government riots in Paris, General Bonaparte ordered the citizens to turn in all weapons. Beautiful socialite Josephine de Beauharnais came this day to thank the young General for allowing her son to keep the sword of his guillotined father.<br /> Napoleon was at once smitten, and their romance became legend. He would write her letters from the battlefield like “Don’t send me your kisses, they burn my blood!”,<br /> And “I shall be home in a week, please don’t bathe until then, I want to smell you!”<br /> <br /> 1796- The SS Otter out of Boston under Captain Ebeneezer Dorr entered Monterrey Bay, the first American visitor to Spanish Alta-California.<br /> <br /> 1825- In Dublin, British Marquis de Wellesley married American socialite Miss Margaret Patterson. What makes this society wedding memorable was Miss Patterson's sister Betsy was married to Napoleon's younger brother Lucien Bonaparte. The Marquis of Wellesley was the older brother of the Duke of Wellington. Napoleon had died in 1821 but had he still been alive he would have had his Waterloo opponent Wellington for a brother-in-law! It would have made for some interesting family gatherings.....<br /> <br /> 1836- The young nephew of Napoleon, Louis Napoleon, tried again to overthrow the French Government the way his famous uncle did. Instead of cheering, people chased him through the streets of Strasbourg yelling :"Shut Up you Blockhead!" He will eventually become Emperor Napoleon III.<br /> <br /> 1936- The resolutions of the First Geneva Convention announced. It attempted to regulate the treatment of civilians and prisoners in wartime. It was set up by Henry Dunant, who also helped found the International Red Cross. More Geneva Conventions would be signed by nations in 1925 and 1949.<br /> <br /> 1901- Leon Czogolsz was electrocuted for the assassination of President William McKinley. Immigrant anarchist Czogolsz had a nervous breakdown, and became so crazy, that even other anarchists avoided him.<br /> <br /> 1904--Mayor MacClellan opened the New York City Subway System. For 5 cents you could go 722 miles of tunnel, under 30 square miles, the largest system in the world. The Mayor was given a solid silver ceremonial throttle, took controls of the first train and drove it around himself. When asked to hand the controls back he refused “Go away, I’m running this train now.” He went full throttle from Bleecker St to 146th. Later that day after the VIP’s concluded the party, the subway was opened for the first commuters. <br /> <br /> 1923-General Mustapha Kemal abolished the Ottoman Sultans and declared Turkey a secular Republic. For this he was named Ataturk, or "Father of the Turks". Today in Turkey is National Day.<br /> <br /> 1923- The musical Running Wild opened on Broadway, introducing the dance craze the Charleston.<br /> <br /> 1929- BLACK TUESDAY-THE STOCK MARKET CRASH AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION BEGINS. The falling stock crisis which had been gaining momentum since early September finally culminated in the greatest ever one day collapse of the U.S. Economy. Millions of people who weren't ruined by last Thursday’s crash were ruined today. One third of all U. S. banks failed- 2,500. Eyewitnesses to that day all remember the strange low roar echoing through the glass canyons of Wall Street, it was the continuous moans of thousands of investors being simultaneously ruined. Businessmen jumped to their deaths from windows. Two executives held hands as they jumped because they had a joint account. The chairman of General Motors William Durant finished his life managing a bowling alley in Chicago.<br /> <br /> The Union Club wallpapered it's bar with worthless stock certificates. Venerable firms like Morgan and Lehman Brothers allowed 'apple-breaks' for their brokers to go out on the street and supplement their income by selling apples. By years end all U.S. industry was working at 17% of capacity and unemployment would soon soar to 55% in many major cities. The newl Empire State Building was nicknamed the "Empty State Building".<br /> <br /> The Hoover Administration, which espoused the traditional Republican hands-off attitude towards Wall Street, watched in horror as every trick known to financial wizards like Rockefeller and Lamont failed to stop the slide. People questioned whether capitalism itself was now a failure. Hoover's Vice President Charles Curtis, (for whom the nickname "Goodtime Charlie" was invented) continued to party while things collapsed. He responded to hungry, unemployed people protesting during his speech that they were all "Too damn dumb" to understand economics. His sister socialite Dolly Curtis said that she felt that the Depression, such as it was, maybe was already ending. This prompted one newspaper to run the headline:' DOLLY CALLS IT OFF!"<br /> <br /> 1936- Ella Crawford-Smith was a real estate magnate whose first husband was killed in a gangland hit. She had the Hollywood bungalow where the murder occurred torn down, and brought in Arte-Moderne architect Robert Derrah to create something unique. Today the project, Crossroads of the World, was dedicated. It was an early form of open-air mall, designed to look like an ocean liner coming into port. It is still there today.<br /> <br /> 1938-"SALUD CAMERADE!" The Farewell Parade in Barcelona of the International Brigade. 40,000 men-young intellectuals, German and French anti-fascists groups all united to help in the Spanish Civil War. The losing Spanish Republic had gambled that if they sent the International fighters home Franco would remove his Nazis and Italian allies. It didn't work. Their story was glamorized by writers like Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell. Ironically many Americans who fought in the Lincoln Brigade were denied advancement in the U.S. Armed forces when World War II began. The army labeled them "Premature Anti-fascists".<br /> <br /> 1956- SUEZ WAR-Britain and France were mad at Egypt over the nationalizing of the Suez Canal. They hatched a plan with Israel to start a war with Egypt then reoccupy the canal. This day the first phase went into effect when Israeli forces rolled into Sinai, preceded by a daring stunt. A flight of six Israeli P-51 Mustang fighters flew a top speed barely 12 feet off the ground slicing Egyptian telephone wires with their propellers.<br /> <br /> 1956- NBC TV upgraded its evening news show The Camel News Caravan with the Huntley-Brinkley Report. President Eisenhower disliked the change.<br /> <br /> 1957- A lunatic lobbed a hand grenade into the Israeli Knesset, wounding Prime Minister David Ben Gurion.<br /> <br /> 1957- Louis B. Mayer died. His last words were: "Nothing Matters..." The head of MGM Studios lorded over Hollywood like a monarch, made and broke moviestars, ordered Judy Garland fed a steady stream of narcotics and had his office redesigned all white to resemble Mussolini’s, whom he admired. Humphrey Bogart was at the funeral. When asked if he was close to Mayer, Bogie replied: Nah, I'm just here to make sure he's dead!<br /> <br /> 1959- Goscinny and Uderzo’s comic character Asterix first appeared in Pilote magazine.<br /> <br /> 1968- The Lion In Winter, with Katherine Hepburn, Peter O’Toole and Anthony Hopkins opened. When filming wrapped on this movie, Hepburn said to O’Toole: When I started off in this business my agent said to me, never act with children or animals. But you Peter, are both.” <br /> <br /> 1969- At the trial of the Chicago 7, Judge Hoffman ordered Blank Panther leader Bobby Seale to be bound and gagged in his seat, for outbursts in the courtroom. <br /> <br /> 1969- THE INTERNET- After the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Defense Department asked the Rand Corporation to create a communication system that could survive Russian atomic bombs. They developed an idea by British scientist Paul Baran of a “net” of computers all in communication with another around the world. Because there was no center, a bomb could not knock out the entire system. <br /> At 10:30PM In the basement of UCLA’s Boelter Hall, J.C. “Lick” Licklider, Leonard Kleinrock, Vin Cerf, Robert Kahn, Larry Roberts and Bob Taylor set up the first call to Stanford. “ We typed the “L” and we asked on the phone “ Did you see the “L”? “Yes, we see the “L,” was the response. Then we typed O and asked Did you see the O?” Yes, we see the O” was the response. Then we typed G, and then the system crashed!” But when they rebooted, and the system sprung to life again. The people at UCLA were able to type in LOG, to which the Stanford folks replied IN.<br /> They called it ARPANET- Advanced Research Projects Agency-NET, a few years later Internet. By 1978 the Defense Department didn’t want to run the thing anymore so they offered to turn over the entire Internet to AT&amp;T for free. AT&amp;T said no thanks, we just don’t see the value in it. In 1992 the US government made the Internet public and the gold rush was on.<br /> <br /> 1975- Years of bad fiscal management had brought New York City close to bankruptcy. This day President Gerald Ford announced that the United States Treasury would not help New York City out of it’s fiscal problems with any emergency loans. Although he reversed his position soon afterward, New Yorkers remembered his attitude. The New York DAILY NEWS papers headline “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD!” remained in people’s minds as they voted overwhelmingly for Jimmy Carter.<br /> <br /> 1993- Tim Burton’s fantasy A Nightmare Before Christmas, directed by Henry Selick, opened across the US.<br /> <br /> 1994- An emotionally disturbed Colorado upholsterer named Francisco Duran fired a Chinese AK-47 machine gun at the White House. He told authorities a multi-colored Alien told him to kill President Clinton in order to disperse a cosmic mist that had been over the White House for a thousand years. Pretty amazing mist, since the White House is only 200 years old. Bill Clinton was oblivious, watching football on TV.<br /> <br /> 1999- “Being John Malkovich”, quirky movie by Spike Jonze. <br /> <br /> 2012- Superstorm Sandy –a late season hurricane the size of Europe collided with a storm front coming from the west, and a cold front from Canada, and it all slammed into the mid Atlantic coastline. 233 killed, 6 million without power and the Wall St area flooded, The Atlantic City boardwalk, Asbury Park and the Jersey Shore were destroyed. <br /> <br /> 2012- Disney’s Wreck-it Ralph premiered. <br /> <br /> 2016- Federal guidelines say the FBI should not insert itself into an election thirty days before election day. A week before the election this day FBI director James Comey announced he was reopeni their investigation of Hillary Clinton’s e-mail use. The news of an equal investigation into Donald Trump’s campaign was suppressed by the media. They never found anything, but the fake news helped defeat Hillary in favor of Trump, who then fired FBI Director Comey. To this day he maintains the criticism of him is unfair.<br /> ===============================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean when you roll snake-eyes?<br /> <br /> Answer: In playing dice, when you throw the dice and they both turn up on the one. The lowest possible score. The phrase means you’re completely out of luck.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 27 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6297 <p>Question: Many old books about supernatural incidents would mention something called ether. What exactly was ether? (hint: not the ether that made you sleepy)<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: What kind of job did these people do? Jerry Goldsmith, Basil Poledouris, Rachel Portman, Thomas Newman?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------<br /> HISTORY FOR 10/27/2023<br /> B-Days: Captain James Cook, Theodore Roosevelt, Dylan Thomas, Nicolo Paganini, Gerhard Von Gneisenau, Sylvia Plath, Roy Lichtenstein, John Cleese is 84, Freddy De Cordova, Ruby Dee, Roberto Benigni, Bernie Wrightson, Dr. Stamen Grigorov 1878, Bulgarian microbiologist who discovered the bacillus that made natural yogurt.<br /> <br /> 1553- In Geneva, after a trial prosecuted by the great religious reformer John Calvin, the Protestants burned at the stake fellow Protestant theologian Michael Servetus. His doctrines about Christ were too radical even for them. Servetus argued that Christ may have been just a powerful prophet but not God, and the Greek text speaking of Mary could have mistranslated Young Woman to Virgin. Servetus was refused a quick death. With his books chained to his chest he was slow burned, taking a half an hour of agony to die. <br /> <br /> 1560- Berserk conquistador, and Amazon explorer Aguirre, who called himself the Emperor of El Dorado, and we know from a movie as Aguirre the Wrath of God, was killed in Venezuela by Spanish loyalists.<br /> <br /> 1788-THE FEDERALIST PAPERS- While the new American republic was still trying to decide what kind of government it wanted, this day the first in a series of editorial letters appeared in American newspapers. The 85 essays argued the case for a strong federal government and judiciary, superceding the authority of individual states. Under the pseudonym "Publius". The essays were written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison. Today they are called collectively the Federalist Papers.<br /> <br /> 1806- After defeating the Prussian Army at Jena, Napoleon’s French army marched into Berlin, all bands blaring Le Marseillaise. Part of his sightseeing Napoleon went to Potsdam and visited the tomb of Frederick the Great, the previous generation’s military genius.<br /> <br /> 1864-"BLOODY BILL" ANDERSON BUSHWHACKED-Among the Missouri bandits who called themselves Confederate guerillas like Quantrill and Jesse James, Bill Anderson was one of the worst. A complete psychopath, he had union soldier' scalps hanging from his horses bridle, and to avenge his sister’s death he made a knot in a silk cord every time he killed a Yankee. He rode into battle tearfully shouting her name. By the time the Yankees finally killed him and stuck his head on a telegraph pole, the silk cord had 54 knots in it.<br /> <br /> 1886- Musical fantasy "A Night on Bald Mountain" premiered in Russia. Composer Modest Mussorgsky worked as a florist during the day and wrote music at night. He was convinced he couldn’t make a living otherwise.<br /> <br /> 1916- The entertainment trade magazine Variety has the blurb: "Chicago has added recently to it’s number of so-called Jazz bands." Now jazz had been around in black neighborhoods for years, but the form was labeled Ragtime or Syncopation. This is the earliest known use in print of the word Jazz.<br /> <br /> 1919- New Orleans, Louisiana was unique because it governed itself using French law. This day saw the last execution of a criminal by axeman in the Big Easy, twenty years after most of America had gone from hanging to the electric chair.<br /> <br /> 1941- The Chicago Tribune announced in an editorial that there was no chance that the US would go to war with Japan.<br /> <br /> 1947- The "You Bet Your Life" quiz show premiered on radio. "Say the Secret Word and Win Fifty Dollars". Comedian Groucho Marx had struggled after his brothers act the Marx Brothers broke up. During a live radio program with Bob Hope at one point Hope dropped his script. Before he could pick it up Groucho stepped on the pages, threw his own away and the two improvised their conversation. The result was much funnier that anything anybody had written. The producer of the show was so impressed he hired Groucho and built a quiz show around him.<br /> <br /> 1954- Benjamin O. Davis became the first black general in the US Army.<br /> <br /> 1954- The" Disneyland" television show premieres. Up until then the major Hollywood Studios were all boycotting the new upstart medium of television, then mostly done in New York by blacklisted stage actors and writers. MGM Production head Dori Schary called TV “ the Enemy”. Walt Disney is the first to break ranks with the major film studios and get into television production. He even filmed the show in Technicolor, figuring television will develop color broadcasting eventually.<br /> <br /> 1962- THE DAY THE WORLD ALMOST ENDED- Black Saturday, the darkest day of the Cuban Missile Crisis, The US and Russia had enough nuclear weapons to destroy all life on Earth 23 times over, and this day they came closest to doing just that.<br /> Soviet and American battle fleets were faced off in the ocean. At the Berlin Wall tanks were muzzle to muzzle, some with nuclear artillery shells. All B-52's were in the air, waiting for the signal to enter Russian air space. Russian subs off the U.S. coast with nuclear missiles trained on American cities. All code Red, DEF CON-2- TOTAL WAR status. At a signal from The White House, the U.S. was poised to drop 7,000 nuclear weapons capable of killing 100 million people in an instant. The Russians had 64 hydrogen bombs operational in Cuba, mounted on missiles that could hit Washington and New York in just five minutes. Also 9 tactical nukes were under the direct control of two Soviet generals in Cuba, the only time that permission has ever been given.<br /> Then suddenly a Cuban anti-aircraft missile shot down an American U-2 spy plane, killing the pilot. Pres. Kennedy complained to his staff:" Khrushchev doesn't think I have the guts to push the button!" Attorney General Robert Kennedy almost in tears from the strain, cried to Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin: " Things are moving beyond all human control!" <br /> The Kremlin got a secret telegram from Fidel Castro in his underground bunker begging them to fire the nukes immediately, saying Cuba is proud to sacrifice itself on the ramparts of Socialism (Fidel sent it from an underground bunker). KGB director Yuri Andropov passed Castro's note on to Khrushchev after he penciled red question and exclamation marks all over it.( !!!??!?!? ) Khrushchev also later mentioned that he received an appeal from philosopher Bertrand Russell that he credited with helping him make up his mind to send Kennedy the offer of a compromise. <br /> <br /> 1964- Sonny &amp; Cher married. I got you babe!<br /> <br /> 1964- The “You Choose” speech. Actor, SAG President, and TV pitchman Ronald Reagan made his maiden political speech at a fundraiser for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. He had made political speeches in the past, but this one marks his shedding his acting and union careers to become a full time conservative politician. <br /> <br /> 1966- Bill Melendez's Peanuts TV special "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown'. <br /> <br /> 1967- the Worlds Fair in Montreal called Expo 67 closed.<br /> <br /> 1967- Anti-Vietnam War protesters in Baltimore broke into the Selective Service offices and poured human blood on draft files and records.<br /> <br /> 1981- Former UN ambassador and presidential aide Andrew Young was elected Mayor of Atlanta Georgia. The first African American mayor of that city.<br /> <br /> 1986- The NY Mets defeated the Boston Red Sox to win the baseball World Series.<br /> <br /> 1989 - World Series play resumes between Oakland and San Francisco after a ten day delay from the 1989- Loma Pietra Earthquake. <br /> <br /> 2004- After not winning it for half the history of baseball, since 1918, this day the Boston Red Sox swept the Saint Louis Cardinals to finally win a World Series. They go on to win several more. <br /> <br /> 2018- The LA Dodgers defeated the Boston Red Sox 3-2 in the longest World Series game in history. 18 innings, 7 ½ hours, ending at 12:30am. <br /> _____________________________________________________________<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What kind of job did these people do? Jerry Goldsmith, Basil Poledouris, Rachel Portman, Thomas Newman?<br /> <br /> Answer: They were (and are) movie composers.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 26 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6296 <p>Question: What kind of job did these people do? Jerry Goldsmith, Basil Poledouris, Rachel Portman, Thomas Newman?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: The Greek god Aphrodite was the Roman god Venus. The Greek god Poseidon was the Roman god Neptune. The Greek God Hephaestus was…? <br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 10/26/2023<br /> Birthdays: Danton, Leon Trotsky, Francois Mitterand, Domenico Scarlatti, Charles W. Post of Post Cereals, Bob Hoskins, The last Shah of Iran Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, Mahalia Jackson, Clive Barker, Bootsie Collins, Marla Maples, Count Helmuth von Molkte the Elder -German strategist of the Franco-Prussian War, Dylan McDermott, Cary Elwes, Jaclyn Smith, Hilary Rodham Clinton, Jon Heder, Seth McFarlane is 50, and Pat Sito.<br /> <br /> Feast of Saint Evaristus, a Hellenic Jew who was made pope during the Roman persecutions. He is counted as a martyr even though there is no evidence that he did die that way. It's just assumed that all those early popes became toast sooner or later.<br /> <br /> 901 AD- English King Alfred the Great died. One of two English kings ever to be called The Great. (the other being the Danish Canute). He drove the Vikings from England and unified most of the island under his rule. ( The parts that weren’t Welsh or Scottish. <br /> <br /> 1326- Hugh Despenser, the boyfriend of King Edward II, was hanged on orders of Edward's wife, Queen Isabella the" She-Wolf of France". Before he died, she had him castrated and let him watch his nads being burned. <br /> <br /> 1440- French nobleman Gilles de Rais beheaded. If the concept of "medieval justice" always seemed like an oxymoron, the case of Gilles De Rais was a notable exception.<br /> Baron de Rais was a powerful warlord of Joan of Arc, who went bizarrely wrong in his later years. He was so paranoid about losing his fortune, he listened to a sorcerer who told him the Devil would help if Gilles sacrificed some children to him. <br /> When children began disappearing in large numbers from around his castle, even the Royal court couldn't ignore the outcry. The knight was tried, beheaded and his remains burned without Christian rites. His castle Chevrenault outside Tours was leveled, so no memory of the horrible episode would remain. Gilles De Rais is sometimes called Bluebeard, a name also given to the insurance murderer Nicholas Landru in 1928.<br /> <br /> 1555- After being given the kingdom of the Netherlands by his father Charles V, this day King Phillip II of Spain pledged to respect Dutch freedom. But his Catholic zeal was offended by the rising conversion rates to Calvinist Protestantism. Phillip soon unleashed the Dukes of Alva and Parma to tortured and executed thousands. The Dutch responded with revolutionary force and after an 80 year struggle, won their independence.<br /> <br /> 1825-THE ERIE CANAL COMPLETED, on budget and ahead of schedule. Governor Dewitt Clinton poured a ceremonial bucket of Great Lakes water into the Hudson River. Once called Clinton’s Big Ditch, even elderly Thomas Jefferson thought the plan was madness. The 350 mile Erie Canal tied the Midwest interior of America to its Atlantic coast and made New York the economic capitol of the nation. It also set off a boom in canal boat building. Remember at this time trains weren’t invented yet and roads were so poor, it took Jefferson two weeks to travel from Washington to Charlottesville Virginia, a distance today driven in two hours! <br /> <br /> 1858- The rotary drum washing machine patented by H. E. Smith of Philadelphia.<br /> <br /> 1863- The English Football Association formed to standardize the rules for soccer.<br /> <br /> 1863- We all know the Transcontinental Railroad was completed when the Golden Spike was driven in, on May 10,1867. Well today the first nails of that four year, 800 mile track were hammered in ceremonies in Missouri in the East and Sacramento California in the West.<br /> <br /> 1881-The GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL- The grudgefight between the Earp Brothers and the Clantons only lasted about 90 seconds but remains the most famous gunfight of the Old West. The fight may have actually happened in an alley beside McFly's Photo-Parlor, but the Tombstone Gazette decided the OK Corral, a block away, sounded more macho. Deputy Marshal Wyatt Earp lived until 1929 and told so many different versions of what happened that he's totally discredited as a witness today. <br /> <br /> 1918- As the German front in World War I was falling apart, the Kaiser’s government sent a request for a ceasefire. Everyone knew this meant defeat and General Erich Ludendorf was having none of it. He denounced liberal Chancellor Prince Max of Baden’s peace efforts and vowed to fight on. Prince Max went to the Kaiser and said" He’s got to go. It’s Ludendorf or me!" Kaiser Wilhelm reluctantly ordered Ludendorf to submit his resignation. <br /> Ludendorf refused a limousine; he walked alone to his house and sat silent in his parlor chair in the dark for several hours. Finally, he emerged and said to his wife:" In a fortnight we shall have no more Empire and no more Emperor. You will see." He was right to the day. Kaiser Wilhelm II and his dynasty fell on November 9th.<br /> <br /> 1929- Henry Ford invited President Herbert Hoover out for a picnic at Greenfield Michigan to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the invention of Electricity. Greenfield was a theme park recreation of a pre-industrial American farm town Ford's innovations had done so much to change forever. Other guests included Thomas Edison, William Dupont, Henry Firestone and Madame Curie. During their picnic the President received a confidential message of the growing crisis on Wall St. Hoover told Ford not to worry, then quietly ordered his broker to sell all his personal stock. Three days later the Stock Market crashed.<br /> <br /> 1935 Disney short “Three Orphaned Kittens” premiered. Directed by Dave Hand. It won an Oscar.<br /> <br /> 1942- Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands- American and Japanese planes dogfight for supremacy in the fourth carrier battle of the Pacific War. The carrier USS Hornet was sunk but the damaged Japanese fleet had to draw off and give up plans to re-supply their troops on Guadalcanal. In a strange bit of bad luck a torpedo rigged under the wing of a damaged PBY Catalina flying boat accidentally dropped into the ocean and after several mad circles sank the destroyer USS Porter. <br /> <br /> 1944- End of the Battle of Leyte Gulf.<br /> <br /> 1947-HOLLYWOOD FIGHTS BACK- Members of Hollywood's progressive elite tried to answer the McCarthy hearings and the blacklist with a nationwide radio broadcast "Hollywood Fights Back” -Starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Judy Garland, Katharine Hepburn, Danny Kaye, John Huston, Gene Kelly and Edward G. Robinson. <br /> The event was a public relations fiasco. Nobel laureate Thomas Mann used his airtime to launch into a longwinded intellectual defense of Communism. When word reached them that some of the Hollywood writers they were defending really were communists Bogart and Bacall felt they had been hoodwinked. "As politicians we stink!" quote Bogie. <br /> <br /> 1951- Despite being past his prime famed heavyweight boxing champ Joe Louis The Brown Bomber came out of retirement to attempt a comeback and pay off back taxes. This day he was knocked out by young champ Rocky Marciano. Growing up, Marciano had idolized Louis and afterwards apologized to him.<br /> <br /> 1952- The TV documentary Victory at Sea, first premiered, with its majestic soundtrack by Richard Rogers. Scoring by Robert Russell Bennett. <br /> <br /> 1955- The Greenwich Village Voice, later called simply The Voice, first published. It ended in 2018. <br /> <br /> 1955- Ngo Dinh Diem declared himself the first President of the Republic of (South) Vietnam. <br /> <br /> 1957- Vatican Radio began broadcasting.<br /> <br /> 1958- The movie Bell, Book and Candle came out. Starring Kim Novak and Jimmy Stewart. The film inspired the 60s TV series Bewitched. Roy E. Disney liked the movie so much his car licenseplate was Piewacket.<br /> <br /> 1962- THE LUNCH THAT SAVED THE WORLD- During the tense standoff of the Cuban Missile Crisis, this day at a quiet Washington DC Chinese restaurant, a KGB man Alexander Feklisov, code name Fomin, met John Scali, an ABC White House correspondent. He gave the newsman a letter containing an offer from Khrushchev to take to the Kennedy that would end the superpower standoff. No personal emails, tweets or texts then. What happened? Wait for tomorrow<br /> <br /> 1965- The rock band the Beatles received MBEs (most excellent Member of the British Empire) medals at Buckingham Palace. John Lennon later returned his as a protest.<br /> <br /> 1970- Yale law graduate Gary Trudeau was convinced by his classmate Jim Andrews, now an editor at Universal Press syndicate, to recreate the funny comic strip he did in their campus newspaper. Its original name was 'Bull Tales". He renamed it Doonesbury. <br /> <br /> 1972- Nixon advisor Dr Henry Kissinger announced "Peace is at Hand" in Vietnam.<br /> <br /> 1979 - Kim Jae-kyu, head of the South Korean intelligence agency, blew away their country's President, Park Chung-hee with a machine gun at a state banquet. Park had been president/dictator since 1961. The assassin was executed some months <br /> later. He claimed it was an accident.<br /> <br /> 1984-" I’LL BE BACK…" James Cameron’s sci-fi thriller THE TERMINATOR first released. Arnold Schwarzenegger was considered a Hollywood joke before this film made him a major star. An interesting what-if, was that before Arnold was cast in the role of the cyborg assassin, the producers were first considering O.J. Simpson. <br /> <br /> 1985- The original date Marty McFly time travels from in the film Back to the Future.<br /> <br /> 2001- President Bush signed the USA Patriot Act, which gave him power to read your mail, tap your phones, bypassing all the safeguards demanded by Congress and the Bill of Rights, even the Magna Carta. <br /> <br /> 2015- The Supergirl TV show staring Melissa Benoist premiered.<br /> <br /> 2028- Asteroid 1977 FX11 will pass within 600,000 miles of the Earth. In 1998 The Smithsonian announced the asteroid would hit the planet or maybe pass closer than the moon's orbit 30,000 miles, causing global meteorological convulsions. The following day the Jet Propulsion Lab and Mount Palomar Observatory announced a correction of the calculations to prove it will miss us by a wide distance. So stick around, we're going to find out. <br /> =====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: The Greek god Aphrodite was the Roman god Venus. The Greek god Poseidon was the Roman god Neptune. The Greek God Hephaestos was…?<br /> <br /> Answer: Vulcan.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 25 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6295 <p>Question: The Greek god Aphrodite was the Roman god Venus. The Greek god Posiedon was the Roman god Neptune. The Greek God Hephaestus was…?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: The North African coastline used to be called The Barbary Coast, for the Muslim pirates who raided European shipping. But there was also a Barbary Coast in America. Where was it?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 10/25/2023<br /> Birthdays: Pablo Picasso, George Bizet, Johann Strauss Jr., Bobby Knight, Helen Reddy Minnie Pearl, Whit Bissell, Lyle Lovett. Leo G. Carroll, Bill Barty the famous Little Person actor, John Matusak, Tyrus Wong, Katie Perry is 39, Nancy Cartwright the voice of Bart Simpson is 66.<br /> <br /> Today is the Feast of Saints Crispin and Chrispinian- the patron saints of leatherworkers. They were supposedly so holy, that when the Roman prefect of Soisson saw his tortures were having no effect, he drowned himself. Another case of low job satisfaction.<br /> <br /> 1555- Emperor Charles V was called the Man who Married Europe- The Prince of the Netherlands was also King of Spain, which meant all of the Americas and Italy, and he was Emperor of Germany-which meant everything from Denmark and the Rhine to Turkish held Hungary. He assumed all this power at 19, fought wars, tried to stop the Protestant Reformation, sacked Rome and imprisoned the Pope and wielded power with gusto. But by 45 he was exhausted, sick with asthma and arthritis. <br /> <br /> So, this day at the States General of the Netherlands, Charles V announced his resignation of all his offices and retirement to a monastery in Spain. He named his son Phillip II to be King of Spain and the Netherlands and his brother Ferdinand to succeed him as German Emperor. Charles wasn’t a great monk though, his monk’s cell had rooms for 50 servants, and he insisted on keeping his favorite Titian paintings with him. A master of languages, Charles once said “Speak Italian to Ladies, German to enemies, French to friends and Spanish to God.”<br /> <br /> 1760- King George II died of constipation, his grandson George III becomes King. Old George II completed his 33 year reign with this final opinion of English politics:” I am sick to death of all this foolish stuff, and wish with all my heart that the Devil may take all your bishops, and the Devil take all your ministers, the Devil take your Parliament and the Devil take this whole Island, provided I can get out and go home to Hanover!” <br /> <br /> 1769-Young Massachusetts lawyer John Adams married Abigail Smith.<br /> <br /> 1795- The last king of Poland, Stanislas II Poniatowski, abdicated under pressure from his old girlfriend, Catherine the Great. Poland as a nationstate disappeared until 1919. As King, Stash was a loser but his family did pretty well in later years. A Poniatowski was a general under Napoleon, and in recent years the family was big in French-Gaulist politics. Helena Poniatowska is a writer in Mexico who wrote a prize-winning book about Diego Rivera.<br /> <br /> 1810- King George III celebrated his golden jubilee ruling Great Britain. Even though at the time he was elderly, almost blind and slipping into his final insanity. His youngest daughter Princess Amelia was also dying of tuberculosis at age 27.<br /> <br /> 1854-THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE- BALACLAVA- the climactic battle of the Crimean War in which Britain and France sent armies to help Turkey fight off Russia. During the battle Lord Raglan watched from his mountaintop the Russians on another mountaintop (their army was arranged on the hillsides like a fork with it's prongs pointed at the English and French). They were trying to pull some field artillery out of the way of the advancing Brits. So Raglan sent Lord Cardigan orders to send the Light Brigade to capture these few cannon before they got away. Lord Cardigan (who always insisted his officers drink champagne for breakfast) wasn't on a mountaintop but deep in a valley and all he could see was the whole heavily fortified Russian army in front of him. Then he got Raglan's command: "-Charge the Guns!" To cap matters the messenger Captain Nolan was angry with Cardigan so he refused to explain the order.<br /> <br /> So the 600 of the Light Brigade charged right into the whole Russian Army alone. The entire attack all took about 8 minutes. One survivor recalled seeing a Sergeant Talbot get his head struck off by a cannonball but his body stayed galloping in the saddle another 30 yards, lance still positioned under his arm. Lord Cardigan led his brigade through the first line of guns then immediately turned back “It is not the job of commanders to grapple with common soldiers.” Fired on from three sides the Light Brigade took the first lines of cannon and could have pierced the Russian center if they had been followed by reinforcements, but everyone just watched in stunned silence. The French commander gave orders for his Chausseurs d'Afrique to storm one other position which was the only positive result of the day. One problem the Light Brigade had that never made it into any movies was when they finally reached the Russian gunners, they were wearing their heavy wool winter coats that were too thick for sabers to slash. The horsemen slapped their swords harmlessly against their shoulders and backs. <br /> <br /> The Light Brigade staggered back accomplishing nothing, 3/4 of their men killed. The 17th Lancers went in with 250 and came out with 17 men. But it did inspire a really nice poem by Tennyson. In a delightfully British moment, the 2nd in command, his clothes torn up by bullets, blackened with gun smoke and a horrible saber gash across his face, said to Lord Cardigan: "Sir, shall we have another go?"<br /> <br /> 1864 Battle of Mine Creek, Missouri. The last major Civil War battle in the Trans-Mississippi-Western Theater. Yankee cavalry charged and destroyed a Confederate army under General Sterling Price. Price’s army had invaded Missouri hoping to capture St, Louis and cause enough of a sensation so Lincoln would lose re-election and the new government would make peace with the Confederacy. Price’s army had taken in many Missouri desperadoes like Quantrill’s Raiders and Bloody Bill Anderson. On the Yankee side a cavalry brigade was commanded by Major Frederick Benteen, who would be known as the commander of Custers reserves in the Little Big Horn massacre in 1876.<br /> <br /> 1891- THE SECRET OF THE LOST DUTCHMAN MINE- An old German (Deutsche) immigrant miner named Jacob Walsh lay dying after a lifetime digging in the Superstition Mountains in Arizona. Before he died, he told those around him he had discovered a fabulously rich gold mine and killed his partners to keep the secret. As proof he gave them the 45 pounds of pure gold in his trunk and said there was ten times that amount in the mine. He died leaving tantalizing vague clues like " I can see the military road from my mine, but those on the military road can't see me.." 125 people died or went mad looking for the Lost Dutchman Mine. To this day it has never been found.<br /> <br /> 1903- New York’s New Amsterdam Theater opened with a gala performance of A Midsummer’s Night Dream. The New Amsterdam boasted all Art Nouveau decoration, the first theater in a steel girder building and a new style of floating balcony that didn’t obstruct the view with support pillars, an effect to be copied by movie houses throughout the world. The Great Ziegfield staged his great Follies there, and in the rooftop garden theater for only the cream of New York society. The theater fell into decay and in the 1970’s was a porno house, but the Walt Disney Company restored it to its Gilded Age glory in 1996.<br /> <br /> 1917- Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, in a lecture announced his firm belief in spiritualism, divination, and communication with the dead. He called it The New Revelation. “The chasm between this life and the next is not insurmountable.” Other British intellects thought Sir Arthur had gone a bit potty.<br /> <br /> 1920- King Alexander of Greece died from blood poisoning after being bit by his pet monkey.<br /> <br /> 1921- Bat Masterson, Quebec born gunfighter, marshal of Dodge City, gambler, Indian fighter and outlaw, died of a heart attack over a typewriter as a sports reporter for the New York Morning Telegraph, while covering a championship prize fight. He was 67.<br /> <br /> 1924- The Zioniev Letter. Four days before the British General Elections the Tory opposition to the Labor Government of Ramsay MacDonald produced a letter purporting to show a cozy relationship between the Labor Party and the radical Bolshevik revolutionaries of Russia. Ramsay MacDonald’s party lost the elections. Later it turned out the letter was forged. Fake News!<br /> <br /> 1944- Battle of the Leyte Gulf. The combined forces of General MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz destroyed the last remaining tactical Japanese fleet. Four carriers, three battleships and assorted other craft sunk. After Leyte, the Japanese Navy ceased to be a factor for the rest of the war. In that same battle, the first Kamikaze planes attacked American ships.<br /> <br /> 1946- President Harry Truman declared a postwar “Housing Emergency” that led to the development of the suburban track house.<br /> <br /> 1957- Vicious Mafia killer Al Anastasia, the head of "Murder, Inc." walked into Arthur Grosso’s Barbershop in the Park Sheraton Hotel for his usual shave and haircut. He trusted Arthur enough to allow him to cover his face with a hot towel. While he was relaxing this way, Grosso backed away and two hitmen sent by Vito Genovese came in and shot big Al full of bullets. The murderers were never found.<br /> <br /> 1960- The Bulova Acutron Watch went on sale today. The first watch using an electronic power cell instead of a wound mainspring.<br /> <br /> 1964- At a football game Minnesota Viking defensive back Larry Marshal scooped up a fumble and ran 66 yards into the end zone. Except, it was his own goal line. DOH!<br /> <br /> 1983- President Reagan sent thousands of US Marines to invade the tiny island of Grenada, ostensibly to save a few American medical students from some fat Cuban construction workers and secure the US strategic supply of nutmeg. <br /> <br /> 1993- Long time Hollywood horror movie star Vincent Price died at age 83. <br /> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++<br /> Yesterday’s Question: The North African coastline used to be called The Barbary Coast, for the Muslim pirates who raided European shipping. But there was also a Barbary Coast in America. Where was it?<br /> <br /> Answer: In the 1800s, the waterfront of San Francisco was called the Barbary Coast, because of its wild, lawless inhabitants. The Gold Rush in California and the Yukon made it a boomtown on the water. San Francisco’s Barbary Coast was completely destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, and they rebuilt it much more cleaned up.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 24 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6294 <p>Question: The North African coastline used to be called The Barbary Coast, for the Barbary Corsairs, Muslim pirates who raided European shipping. But there was also a Barbary Coast in America. Where was it?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What does it mean when you describe someone as being droll?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 10/24/2023<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Domitian, Bob Kane the creator of Batman, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek- the founder of Microbiology, Moss Hart, Merrian Cooper, Jiles Perry Richardson better known as the Big Bopper, F. Murray Abrahams is 85, Enkwase Mfume, Y.A. Tittle, Sara Josepha Hale 1788- who wrote the poem "Mary Had a Little Lamb", animator Preston Blair, Kevin Kline is 76<br /> <br /> 3018 BCT- Frodo the Hobbit awoke safely in Lord Elrond’s palace in Rivendell, after escaping The Ring Wraiths. <br /> <br /> 439- The barbarian horde called the Vandals crossed from Spain into North Africa and captured the Roman colony of Carthage, built on the site of Hannibal’s old city. When the Romans had destroyed Carthage in 146BC they put a curse on the land. But the cities’ strategic location and great harbor proved too useful, so a colony was soon set up. Ironically, or perhaps the curse working, in 455AD Geneseric the Vandal launched an attack from Carthage that sacked Rome.<br /> <br /> 1537- After giving King Henry VIII his only son, Henry’s 3rd wife Jane Seymour died of childbed sepsis. She was 29.<br /> <br /> 1648 –THE TREATY OF WESTPHALIA- After four years of negotiations Europe ended its last great religious war, the Thirty Years War. The good thing was nobody disputed Dutch or Swiss independence or the anybody’s right to be Protestant anymore, the bad part was Germany was devastated. Germany lost almost half her population. It wouldn't really get it's act together again until 1870. France replaced Spain as the dominant power on the continent. And because the Pope refused any peace signed with heretics, the exhausted European kings began to simply ignore him. <br /> <br /> 1781- British General Sir Henry Clinton arrived at Yorktown Virginia with a rescue force to learn that Lord Cornwallis had already surrendered to George Washington a week ago. <br /> <br /> 1800- Three weeks before a presidential election an October Surprise. Alexander Hamilton published ON THE PRESIDENCY OF JOHN ADAMS ESQ, a 58-page attack on the incumbent Presidents’ character and record. Though they were of the same party, the two men loathed one another. Hamilton had almost challenged the President to a duel. Finally, Hamilton decided he would rather see the opposition party win than Adams re-elected. His persuasive pamphlet not only ruined any chance John Adams had of re-election, it was a grenade lobbed into the midst of his own Federalist Party. President Adams placed fourth in the election, but Alexander Hamilton’s party disloyalty lost him most of his political influence.<br /> <br /> 1812- BATTLE OF MALOYAROSLAVETS (say that three times fast). Contrary to traditional perception, Napoleon wasn't stupid enough to think he could retreat from Moscow through Russia in the dead of winter. His first idea was to retreat south to the Ukraine where it was warmer, the food abundant and the people anti-Russian. The Russian General Kutusov guessed this and moved his troops south to cut him off at a junction called Maloyaroslavets. There was a bloody battle and Napoleon was successfully blocked. This forced him to retreat north along the stripped and ravaged Smolensk Road from whence he came. <br /> <br /> 1836- Mr. Alonzo D. Phillips of Springfield, Mass. received a patent for the first book of matches in the U.S. However the laboratory of the English scientist Robert Farraday had invented matches in 1829.<br /> <br /> 1861-The Last Pony Express ride. The idea was romantic, but a financial dud and only operated about two years before being replaced by stagecoach, rail and telegraph.<br /> <br /> 1901- Anne Taylor became the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and live to talk about it. She attempted the stunt for a cash prize she used to get a loan to buy a ranch in Texas.<br /> <br /> 1902- Author Arthur Conan-Doyle was knighted by King Edward VII. He received the honor not for his literary accomplishments but for his volunteer service as a doctor during the just concluded Boer War. It was also said the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was one of the few books King Edward ever managed to read from cover to cover.<br /> <br /> 1907- President Teddy Roosevelt called for a grand conference of government and business leaders to discuss a strategy for the conservation of America’s natural resources. For the first time, Conservation was made an issue of national policy. “ I have seen the last fluttering of bird species that once blackened the skies...”<br /> <br /> 1917- THE BATTLE OF CAPORETTO - The crumbling Austrian army was bolstered by some big German battalions defeated the Italian army, pushing them from the Alps practically down to Milan, erasing all the territorial gains the Italian army had made the last three years. Italian Commander General Cadorna was taken completely by surprise. Up to then he had been spending most of his energies replacing officers who didn’t agree with him. <br /> Ironically the defeat was seen by scholars as being more beneficial to the future of Italy than a victory. This was because the insult and sacrifice welded Italian popular opinion into a national unity to defend their motherland, a spirit never seen during this unpopular war. The event was immortalized in Ernest Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms".<br /> <br /> 1918- As the German front crumbled, the Kaiser’s government requested preliminary talks for a cease fire to end the Great War. This day, hotheaded General Eric Ludendorf tried to derail the talks by publishing a manifesto in German newspapers. Last week he was urging the Kaiser to negotiate, but he suddenly changed his mind. He denounced American President Wilson’s Fourteen Points peace proposal and declared the German Army would fight on. He had no authority to publish such a rash statement and it got him fired. <br /> <br /> 1918- Battle of the Vitorio Veneto. This day Italy launched one final attack across the Piave and reached Austrian territory.<br /> <br /> 1929- BLACK THURSDAY- THE PRELUDE TO THE GREAT CRASH- The Bear Stock Market that had seen prices dropping steadily since September 5th turned into a panic as dependable stocks prices like General Motors dropped through the floor. $11.5 billion dollars was lost in one day. Vacationing Winston Churchill picked that day to visit the Stock Exchange and later saw a banker jump to his death past his Waldorf Astoria window. <br /> Basically what happened was people had bought stock on Margin, which meant you could buy ten thousand dollar’s worth of stock with just one thousand dollars. As the collapse occurred your broker would call you and demand the other nine thousand immediately or he would sell off everything you had. So, in minutes you were broke. <br /> It took every major banker and financier on Wall Street together dumping millions of dollars of emergency funds to stop the slide. Ironically that night in a Broadway show the new song "Happy Days are Here Again' had it's debut. When the stage manager thought it inappropriate, the show's director snapped: "Play it for the Corpses!"<br /> It was the worst day in American financial history, but it turned out to be just a gentle prelude to Black Tuesday coming the following week. <br /> <br /> 1936- The first appearance in the Thimble Theater comic of Popeye’s father Poopdeck Pappy.<br /> <br /> 1937- At Piping Springs NY, composer Cole Porter suffered a spill while horseback riding that broke both his legs. Even after 26 operations he never regained their full use. One leg was amputated in 1958. He died in 1964 at age 73 of kidney failure.<br /> <br /> 1938- The Fair Labor Standards Act established the 40 hour workweek as the law of the land. The 40 hour week, that thing few of us see nowadays.<br /> <br /> 1942- During the Battle of Guadalcanal, Marine Sgt John Basilone and his machine gun squad held off a heavy Japanese attack on their airfield. Basilone fought on until his guns were disabled and he held them off with a pistol and a machete. He won the Medal of Honor for this action.<br /> <br /> 1945 the United Nations Charter ratified.<br /> <br /> 1945- Vikdun Quisling was shot by firing squad. Quisling was a Nazi sympathizer who governed occupied Norway for Hitler. His name Quisling became synonymous with traitor like Benedict Arnold.<br /> <br /> 1946- Before NASA was created, the U.S. Army took a captured German V-2 rocket to White Sands New Mexico, and shot it up into the stratosphere. It had a camera in it, and recorded the first ever footage of the earth taken from almost-space. The U.S. Space Program had begun.<br /> <br /> 1946- KUSC, Southern California’s classical music station, started up.<br /> <br /> 1947- Walt Disney testified to the House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC) as a friendly witness. He accused leaders of the Cartoonists Guild and the League of Women Voters –which he mistakenly called the League of Women Shoppers, as being infiltrated by Communists "Seeking to subvert the Spirit of Mickey Mouse”.<br /> <br /> 1948- Bernard Baruch while testifying to Congress about the worsening relations between the US and Russia coined the term "cold war". "Although the war is over we are in the midst of a cold war, and it is getting hotter."<br /> <br /> 1956- Cartoonist Jules Feiffer had been working for Terrytoons writing Tom Terrific. This day he began moonlighting a simple one panel strip for The Village Voice. It became an institution that ran for decades, until 1997. <br /> <br /> 1959- The TV program Playboy’s Penthouse premiered. Hugh Hefner hosted a variety show designed to look like a cocktail party in a swinging bachelor’s pad. It was a success despite many stations in the South refusing to show it. That was because they dared to have black celebrities like Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, and Nat King Cole laughing and partying alongside white ones like Tony Bennett and Lennie Bruce. <br /> <br /> 1960- At the Baykonur space center in Russia an R-16 ballistic missile exploded on the launch pad. The blast incinerated 165 people. This was all kept secret until the 1990s. Included among the dead is Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin, whose death was covered up as having occurred in a plane crash. He is the highest ranking person to ever die in the Space Program.<br /> <br /> 1962- During the Cuban Missile Crisis the U.S. Naval blockade closed around Cuba to prevent any more Russian missiles coming in. For one of the few times in its history Strategic Air Command went from Defensive Condition (DEFCON)3, to DEFCON2 -full war imminent. <br /> An American destroyer dropped depth charges on a Soviet submarine. The enraged captain ordered a nuclear tipped torpedo loaded into its tube, but was talked out of firing it.<br /> <br /> 1962- UPA’s Gay Puree, animated film starring Judy Garland and Robert Goulet, and directed by Abe Levitow.<br /> <br /> 1969- Godfather Producer Robert Evans married young actress Ali McGraw.<br /> <br /> 1970- Chile elected Salvador Allende president. The US State Department went nuts because Allende was a lefty and began plans to have him overthrown. <br /> <br /> 1975- The musical play A Chorus Line opened.<br /> <br /> 1975- 90% of the women of Iceland went out on strike to demand equal rights and equal pay. They paralyzed the country. They won their fight and five years later they elected their first female president.<br /> <br /> 1994- Disney TV series Gargoyles premiered.<br /> <br /> 2003- Walt Disney’s Brother Bear, directed by Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker opened in wide release.<br /> <br /> 2008- Oprah Winfrey hosted an internationally famous talk show. She promoted literacy and called herself, “The Queen of Reading.” This day she declared her new favorite thing in the world to be the Kindle from Amazon. This plug helped launch the era of e-books.<br /> ==========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean when you describe someone as being droll?<br /> <br /> Answer: It meant to possess a low-key, dry wit.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 23 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6293 <p>Question: What does it mean when you describe someone as being droll?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: What is meant by “a flash in the pan”?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 10/23/2023<br /> Birthdays; Johnny Carson, Adlai Stevenson, Pele, Zioniev, Weird Al Yankovic, Dwight Yoakham, Michael Crichton, Chi-Chi Rodriquez, Phillip Kaufman, porn star Jasmine St. Claire, Gummo Marx, Ang Lee is 69, Ryan Reynolds is 47, Sam Raimi is 64<br /> <br /> 42 BC- Battle of Phillipi- The forces of Marc Anthony and Octavian defeated the legions of Brutus and Cassius in Greece. Both assassins of Julius Caesar, Marcus Brutus and Cassius Longinus, were killed. <br /> <br /> 524 AD- BOETHIUS- After the Fall of the Roman Empire in 476, for awhile the Roman Senate answered to Theodoric the King of the Goths in Italy, the way they once answered to the emperor. The Christian Senator Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius had risen to be chief counselor to Theodoric. But the old barbarian became increasing suspicious of plots around him. <br /> Boethius was falsely accused of plotting against the king’s life and this day Theodoric had him executed. Goths tied a rope around his temples and twisted it until his eyes popped out, then he was beaten to death with clubs. According to the chronicle, as soon as Boethius was dead Theodoric felt sorry and wept for his friend. <br /> The reason we remember this story was while Boethius was in prison awaiting death he wrote one of the great works of western philosophy- THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY. It was one of the first great works of Christian thinking since the Gospels and bridged the transition from pagan philosophy to Christian.<br /> <br /> 1642- The Battle of Edgehill- First battle of the English Civil War, King Charles Cavaliers-1, Roundheads-0. Even though the Parliamentary forces were defeated, the King hesitated when his impulsive cavalry general Prince Rupert wanted to pursue the enemy to London. It was the best chance King Charles ever had to crush the rebellion at one grand blow, but Charles delayed and let the opportunity slip away. The Parliamentary Army was under the command of the Earl of Essex, who traveled around with a coffin and burial shroud among his personal baggage. An ancestor of Walt Disney fought there for the king. The Edgehill Battlefield is considered one of the most haunted areas in Britain. It is actually listed as such in the British Office of Public Records.<br /> <br /> 1812- THE MALET PLOT-While Napoleon was retreating from Moscow, thousands of miles away all France waited anxiously for news. This day an escaped lunatic general named Malet convinced everyone that Napoleon was dead in Russia. In the ensuing panic, Malet actually succeeded in taking over the government for a few days. <br /> Eventually, everything was straightened out and Malet imprisoned. But it was terribly discouraging to Napoleon; he had hoped to build a dynasty to last generations. But it took just one nut and some fake news to show how shallow support for his regime was.<br /> <br /> 1917- In a secret meeting in Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) all the various left wing Russian political parties: Mensheviks, Anarchists, Utopian Socialists and Narodniks agreed to unite under Lenin’s Bolshevik Party and adopt their plan to violently seize power. After seizing power, Lenin had them all suppressed. The assassin who shot and wounded him in 1921 was an angry Socialist.<br /> <br /> 1923- The German postwar economy collapsed. Raging inflation makes it 6 billion Deutschmarks to one U.S. dollar. The few workers who had jobs are paid every other day and it takes a wheelbarrow full of money to buy a loaf of bread. The major industrial region of the Ruhr was under foreign occupation. These conditions made the rise of Adolf Hitler possible. The creeping depression afflicting the war-ruined European economies would help collapse the American banking system in 1929.<br /> <br /> 1927- Charles Lindbergh finally returned to Roosevelt Field Long Island. It was his starting point of an epic tour around the U.S. to celebrate his successful solo crossing of the Atlantic. For the last several months Lindbergh toured 80 U.S. cities, much of it flying town-to-town in his little plane The Spirit of St Louis. In so doing, Lindbergh taught Americans that travel by air was a safe, easy alternative to railroads. <br /> <br /> 1928- A financial consortium led by Wall St. banker-bootlegger Joseph Kennedy Sr. bought the Keith Albee theater circuit and merged it with the Radio Company and the Orpheum theaters to form Radio-Keith-Orpheum or RKO pictures. After Joe Kennedy met with the other Hollywood moguls he told a friend: ”They’re all a bunch of Austrian Pants Pressers! I can take their businesses away from them!” Kennedy made a quick killing then got out of the picture business in 1930, just before the Depression dropped his studios stock value. RKO made films like King Kong, Fort Apache, Snow White and Citizen Kane before merging into Desilu in 1957.<br /> <br /> 1930- The first Miniature Golf tournament held in Chattanooga Tenn.<br /> <br /> 1931- Chicago gangster Al Capone sentenced to 11 years in Alcatraz for federal income tax evasion.<br /> <br /> 1935- New York gangster Dutch Schultz was rubbed out. The erratic Schultz (real name Arthur Fleigenheimer) had announced to the other mob bosses that Federal prosecutor Thomas Dewey was getting too close, so he would kill him. To the syndicate, killing such a high profile fed was going too far and would bring the wrath of Washington down on them, so Lucky Luciano decided it was easier to take care of the Dutchman instead.<br /> Schultz was having dinner at the Bob Treat Porkchop House in Newark with his crooked accountant "Abadaba" (a corruption of Abracadabra ) when he excused himself to go to the men’s room. Hitmen followed him in and shot him six times while at the urinal. Gee, I hope he zipped up.....<br /> <br /> 1940- HITLER MET FRANCO- Hitler and Mussolini spent large sums of men and material to help Franco win the Spanish Civil War. Now they wanted payback in form of an alliance. However, they could not strike a bargain and Franco declared Spain neutral in the World War. After the talks Hitler says of his negotiations with Franco:" I'd rather have 3 or 4 teeth extracted than go through that again!"<br /> <br /> 1940- Shooting on the film Citizen Kane wrapped.<br /> <br /> 1941- Walt Disney’s Dumbo premiered. <br /> <br /> 1942- EL ALAMEIN- Montgomery's British 8th Army threw 2,500 new American-made Sherman and Grant tanks against Rommel's Afrika Korps threatening Cairo and the Suez Canal. Rommel the Desert Fox was on sick leave in Germany with diphtheria and Rommels' replacement, General Stumme, dropped dead of a heart attack in the middle of the battle. Rommel flew back to try and stop the British attack, but by Nov.4th he had to accept defeat and abandon his Egyptian positions. Hitler had made Rommel a field marshal “ I wish he had given me another Panzer division instead” was his reply.<br /> <br /> 1955-Vietnamese Emperor Bao Dai abdicated to a South Vietnamese Republic set up outside of and ignoring Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh communists.<br /> <br /> 1956- The Hungarian Rising of Inver Nagy. Inspired by the seeming liberalism Nikita Khrushchev was bringing to Moscow, thousands marched to the statue of the poet Petofi to read his poem "Arise, Hungarians!" and burn newspaper torches. It turned out Khrushchev wasn't as liberal as they thought, a month later hundreds of Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest to crush them.<br /> <br /> 1968-THE FIRST OCTOBER SURPRISE- Pres. Johnson was pushing secret peace talks to end the Vietnam War before he left office. Secret messages from South Vietnamese ambassador Bo Diem to the Saigon government confirmed that the Republican leaders like Richard Nixon were assuring the South Vietnamese that if they didn’t make peace before the American elections, Nixon would support them. On Nov 2nd, President Nguyen Van Thieu withdrew from the peace table and talks collapsed. Richard Nixon won election and the war went on 7 more bloody years and double the casualties.<br /> <br /> 1971-Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida opened.<br /> <br /> 1973- President Richard Nixon ordered a worldwide red alert of our strategic nuclear forces to warn the Soviets not to take advantage of U.S. domestic turmoil over Watergate. Soviet ambassador Andrei Dobrynin wrote in his memoirs that Secretary of State Henry Kissinger telephoned and apologized to him for the alert. He said that it was only done to distract the U.S. media and public from the festering Watergate scandal.<br /> <br /> 1983- Jessica Savitch was one of the first women journalists to break the barrier for women getting the top anchor jobs in network news broadcasting. This day she died in a car accident.<br /> <br /> 1983- President Ronald Reagan had sent U.S. Marines into civil war torn Beirut to achieve peace. This day a suicide bomber drove a truck full of dynamite into the Marines barracks, killing 241 men in their sleep. Reagan then withdrew the remaining Marines. Their whole intervention in Beirut accomplished nothing.<br /> <br /> 1987- Judge Robert Bork was defeated in his bid for a seat on the Supreme Court. Besides offending Liberals by being a longtime Conservative stalwart, he offended Conservatives by admitting under oath he smoked marijuana. <br /> <br /> 2001- Apple Computers launched the ipod. Once you could collect all your favorite songs in a little device, it sealed the doom of the record industry. Ipods were made obsolete by iphones in 2007.<br /> <br /> 2007- Massive brush fires north of San Diego California displaced one million people, the largest number of U.S. refugees since The Civil War. <br /> =================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is meant by “ A flash in the pan”?<br /> <br /> Answer: In old fashioned muskets the place where the hammer flint struck the gunpowder to fire the bullet was called the pan. Sometimes if a proper amount of gunpowder was not in the pan it ignited but failed to fire the charge. That was called a flash in the pan. Today it has come to mean someone or something that draws a lot of attention for a moment, but it means nothing and is quickly forgotten.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 22 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6292 <p>Question: What is meant by “ A flash in the pan”?<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is meant by saying something is kismet?<br /> <br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> <br /> History for 10/22/2023<br /> <br /> Birthdays: Sarah Bernhardt, Timothy Leary, Franz Liszt, Doris Lessing, Joan Fontaine, Derek Jacobi, Christopher Lloyd is 85, Annette Funicello, Brian Boitano, Jerry “Curly” Howard of the Three Stooges, Catherine Deneuve is 80, Spike Jonze is 55. Jeff Goldblum is 71.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1641- The Irish rose in revolt against England, this time hoping that the Brits would be too busy in their own Civil War to care about them. By 1649 Oliver Cromwell came over and dealt with them so harshly his depredations are still remembered today.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1660- Edward Hyde the Earl of Clarendon was an adviser to King Charles II. This day, upon learning that his daughter Anne had been made pregnant by James the Duke of York, The earl asked the King to please cut his daughters head off! Odds Fish! King Charles II dismissed his request as a personal matter more than an affair of state.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1746- The Royal College of New Jersey chartered. After the American Revolution, it was renamed Princeton University.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1797- Andre Garnerin did the first successful parachute jump over Paris. He conceived the idea while imprisoned by the Austrians in a Hungarian castle during the French Revolution. He read about Leonardo da Vinci theorizing its possibility. He first took his dog and threw him out of a hydrogen balloon, then he jumped himself at 2,300 feet in the air and sprained his ankle. In 1799 his wife Jean Genevieve became the first woman to parachute jump.  Andre Garnerin died in a balloon accident in 1823 while testing a new design, and his experiments were forgotten. The practical modern parachute was not invented until 1910.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1805-After the naval Battle of Trafalgar, the shot-up English and French fleets were scattered by an ocean storm. Admiral Nelson's dead body had been sealed in an upright barrel of brandy for the trip back to London.  After four days his body released some pent up gasses that suddenly popped the lid off the barrel. Must have scared the hell out of the honor guard on duty.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1843- THE GREAT DISSAPPOINTMENT- American preacher William Miller working with the books of Daniel and Revelations in the Bible calculated the exact date of the Second Coming and the End of the World to be Oct. 21, 1843. A highly publicized newspaper and lecture campaign got the American public so worked up that many didn’t bother to plant crops. Banks noticed businessmen returning monies they swindled from former partners. On the appointed day, Miller and thousands of followers withdrew to pitched tents outside Rochester New York to await the Rapture. They waited all day and all night staring up into the sky. By dawn, most went home disappointed and feeling a bit foolish.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1883- First performance at the New York Metropolitan Opera House. It was Gounod’s Faust with soprano Christine Nillson and tenor Italo Campanini. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1892-The SWAHILI WAR began. African ivory merchants Tippu Tip and Sefu began a revolution to drive the hated Belgian colonizers out of the Congo. This war has been forgotten in Europe in the light of how Belgium suffered under German occupations in the World Wars. But the Belgians proved they could be just as brutal in annihilating these native peoples as other European nations.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1900- Two Ohio bicycle repairmen named Orville and Wilbur Wright built a large glider and flew it. They choose the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina to test their glider because the winds were strong, and they would crash in something soft. The airplane was still three years in the future, but this was their first test of their prototype double winged plane design.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1903- Tom Horn, considered the Last of the Western Outlaws, was hanged in Wyoming for the murder of Willie Nickel. He supposedly adjusted the noose around his neck himself. The era of the gunslinger officially ends with him.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1923- THE TEAPOT DOME SCANDAL hearings began. By World War I the U.S. Navy had refitted its battleships from coal to diesel fuel engines, so maintaining a strategic petroleum reserve became as serious as nuclear stockpiles are today. The Secretary of the Interior Albert Ball arranged for some reserved oil rich areas of Teapot Dome Oklahoma and California transferred from the Navy Department's jurisdiction to his department of the Interior, so he could 'lease them' to oil magnates James Doheny of Doheny Drive fame, and Harry Sinclair. They in turn gave him a fortune in stock and other monetary kickbacks.<br /> <br /> Albert Ball became the first senior cabinet officer to go to jail.  It took years for the scandal to wind through the courts and blackened the last days of President Warren Harding's administration.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1934- The comic strip Terry and the Pirates by Milt Caniff first appeared in newspapers.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  1934- Bank Robber James" Pretty Boy" Floyd killed in a furious gun battle with the F.B.I.  He had told his father months before:" Pa, when I go, I’m gonna go down in lead!" Floyd was called the, "dust bowl robin hood" for leaving food and money on doorsteps of destitute farmers. One story had him steal a pie cooling on a windowsill, then replacing it with a $50 bill. In Woody Guthrie's "Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd" He says:" You may call me an outlaw, but one thing that I have known. I've never seen an outlaw drive a family from their home."   <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1938-THE BIRTHDAY OF THE XEROX COPY- Chester Carlson working with an amateur chemistry set behind a beauty parlor in Astoria Queens, created the first photo copy. He took his invention to Edison, G.E., RCA and IBM who all rejected it. Finally a little firm that produced photographic paper for Kodak called the Haloid Company bought it. They later changed their named to Xerox, Greek for “Dry-Writing”. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1939-The first televised football game-The Brooklyn Dodger's 23 Philadelphia Eagles 14.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 75th Anniv 1948- The first In-N-Out Burger stand opened in Baldwin Park, a suburb of Los Angeles. Created by Harry &amp; Esther Snyder as the first drive through hamburger stand. It is still in business today, selling only burgers, shakes, and fries, pretty much like they did back then. Their granddaughter Lynsi Snyder is CEO.  It was Bob Hope’s favorite burger place. Hollywood types learned to stock up there before the drive to Palm Springs.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1962- Twentieth Century Fox chief Daryl Zanuck fired long suffering director Joe Mankiewicz off of the editing of the spectacle Cleopatra. Mankiewicz had shot a 6 hour movie he wanted shown as two films. Zanuck wanted one big movie at half that size. After a lot of embarrassing feuding in the press, Zanuck rehired Mankiewicz and he recut Cleopatra, When Elizabeth Taylor saw the finished film, she threw up. Cleopatra became one of the biggest flops in Hollywood History and forced Fox to sell off most of their studio back lot.  It became Century City shopping mall.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1962- After it looked like a news leak would make the news public anyway, President John Kennedy went on national television and told the American public about the CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS. 54 B-52 bombers with 4 Hydrogen bombs each took off to fly within two hours of their Soviet targets. 134 Titan nuclear missiles were armed.<br /> <br /> Both sides wrestled with the temptation to do a 'First-Strike', meaning the side that hit first without warning just might knock out enough of the enemies’ nukes to limit the number of “megadeaths” to his own side.  Secretary of State Dean Rusk recalled: "I'd wake up in the morning and the first thing I'd think was, I'm alive, Khrushchev didn't do it today." In Moscow, Khruschev grimly joked:" With the time difference, Kennedy works while I sleep and I work while he sleeps. Hmph, maybe soon we'll both be sleeping..."<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1962- At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a stand up comic named Vaughn Meador recorded a comedy album called The First Family. It made lighthearted fun of John F. Kennedy and his White House. The record became the fastest selling hit of the pre-Beatles era, 7.5 million copies. Jackie called Meador a rat, but JFK thought it was funny and gave out copies as Christmas presents. Kennedy said Meador’s impersonation sounded more like his brother Teddy than him.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1966- In Oakland black militants Eldridge Cleaver, Huey Newton, Bobby Seale and H. Rap Brown formed the Black Panther Party of Self Defense.<br /> <br />  ---------------------------------------------------------------<br /> <br /> ================================================<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is meant by saying something is kismet?<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Answer: From the Turkish word for “It’s fate.”</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 21 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6291 <p>Question: What is meant by saying something is kismet?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: What are The Cinque Ports?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 10/21/2023<br /> Birthdays: Dizzy Gillespie, Whitey Ford, Alfred Nobel, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Mary Blair, Carrie Fisher, Patty Davis (Reagan's daughter), Benjamin Netanyahu, Sir Malcolm Arnold, Manfred Mann, Sir Georg Solti, Angus McFadyen, Ken Watanabe is 64, Kim Kardashian is 43.<br /> <br /> Today is the FEAST OF SAINT URSULA AND THE ELEVEN THOUSAND VIRGINS, one of the sillier medieval legends. Supposedly on the way back from a pilgrimage to Rome the saintly daughter of a Mercian (English) king had spurned the attentions of the King of the Huns. So he had her and all eleven thousand of her handmaids executed. Earliest accounts of the incident said she had only eleven servants and no one was killed.<br /> <br /> 1492- San Salvador. Christopher Columbus writes on this day in his diary about the new land he is exploring: " We must have found Eden. I think men shall never see this place again as we have seen it." Within 50 years of Columbus's discovery, the indigenous tribe that welcomed him on the beach, the Taino, were all but extinct.<br /> <br /> 1520- Fernand de Magellan sailed around the bottom of South America and made it into to the Pacific.<br /> <br /> 1600- BATTLE OF SEKIGEHARA The final battle of Japan's feudal civil wars- Warlord Ieyasu Tokugawa defeated the Toyotomi clan and became paramount leader under the Emperor, called the Shogun. Ieyasu later died from eating too much tempura, but the Tokugawa clan closed off Japan from all contact with foreigners and missionaries and ruled as Shoguns until 1868.<br /> <br /> 1639- Battle of the Downs- Dutch Admiral Van Tromp destroyed a new Spanish Armada forming in the English Channel. The Dutch fleet sank or captured 70 out of 77 ships.<br /> <br /> 1797- The 44 gun frigate USS Constitution launched. Nicknamed Old Ironsides, it is the oldest commissioned warship in the US Navy. It saw active service until 1861, remained a training vessel and is still entertaining tourists in Boston Harbor today. In 2016 it took a spin around the harbor to show it still had what it takes.<br /> <br /> 1805- TRAFALGAR- Admiral Nelson destroyed Napoleon's naval power in one huge battle off the southwestern coast of Spain. Trafalgar is a vulgarization of the Arabic " Al-Taraff Al-Agharr" or " The Fair Point.” Nelson began the day raising the signal flags "England expects every man to do his duty." One of Nelson's toughest captains, Sir John Collingwood said: "What the devil is Nelson about? We already know that!"<br /> <br /> In the heat of the battle the one-eyed, one armed Lord Nelson strode up and down his poop deck in his full dress uniform to inspire his men. He loved medals, he even had one that spun around. He not only inspired the English Tars but also the French sharpshooters who targeted him. Nelson was felled by a shot through his spine. He received the news of the victory as he lay dying and said:" The day is ours, kiss me Hardy." Hardy was captain of the flagship HMS Victory. Another version was he said “kismet.” Turkish for fate.<br /> French admiral Villeneuve, whom Napoleon goaded into fighting by threatening to courts-martial him as a 'Coward, Idiot and Traitor" left the service and later committed suicide. When they took Nelson's body back to England they bent it into a brandy barrel for preservation, which has been incorrectly called a rum barrel. Which is why today rum is known as "Nelson's Blood". <br /> <br /> 1837- The Second Seminole War ended. The US government waged three long wars to remove the Seminole Indian Nation from their Florida homelands. The most famous Seminole leader was Osceola, who ran a guerrilla campaign for 7 years in the Florida swamps that frustrated American leaders like Andrew Jackson, Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor. Finally treachery was used to get him. General Jessup invited Osceola to come to a conference under a white flag of truce. When the chief appeared, Jessup had him imprisoned. Despite claimed “good treatment” Osceola was dead by January, they said he “willed” himself to death. Seminole resistance continued under his allied chiefs Alligator and Billy Bowlegs until 1842.<br /> <br /> 1861- Battle of Balls Bluff. The only thing remembered about this early Civil War skirmish was the death of President Lincoln's family friend Edward Baker. Another man wounded was a young lieutenant who would one day become a great writer and father of a Supreme Court Justice- Oliver Wendell Holmes. Holmes later wrote- 'sitting under a tree with two bullet wounds pouring out blood, I decided to pass the time while waiting for the ambulance by beginning a debate in my mind about the existence or non-existence of the Afterlife. My final decision was……Damned if I Know!" In later years Holmes called war an “ Organized Bore.”<br /> <br /> 1879- Thomas Edison announced the invention of the Light Bulb. After experimenting with dozens of different type filaments in a vacuum, Thomas Edison perfected the light bulb with carbonized cotton. He and his crew stared at the glowing bulb for 40 hours to make sure it was really worked.<br /> <br /> 1932- The film Red Dust premiered. It made stars out of Clark Gable and Jean Harlow.<br /> <br /> 1937- A cough medicine called Elixir Sulfalinamide sold in stores poisoned hundreds and killed 200 in 15 states, mostly children. It was found to have the same ingredients as antifreeze. The scandal led to the passage of the 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which increased FDA's authority to regulate drugs.<br /> <br /> 1939- Turkey enraged Hitler and Mussolini when contrary to their participation in World War I, they opted to remain neutral in World War II.<br /> <br /> 1939- Walt Disney sent a confidential memo to his legal team: “Everything we do in the future should include television rights. There might be a big angle on television for the shorts we have already produced.” At this time, television was still mostly experimental.<br /> It would be 15 years until Disney had a television show, and he was considered an early pioneer. <br /> <br /> 1941- WONDER WOMAN, Elizabeth Holloway Marston was a niece of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger. She married psychologist William Moulton Marston who was an educational consultant for Detective Comics, Inc. (DC Comics). Elizabeth noticed the DC line was filled with images of super men like Green Lantern, Batman, Superman. She wondered why there was not a female hero? On her urging, Dr. Marston brought this up to DC head Max Gaines. Gaines was intrigued by the concept and told Marston that he should create a female hero – at first “Amazon Woman”, then "Wonder Woman." Marston's 'good and beautiful woman' made her debut in All Star Comics #8. <br /> <br /> 1944- BLOODY AACHEN- Aachen didn’t have much strategic value, but it was the first major German city to come under allied ground attack. It was the ancient home of Charlemagne and the first German emperors. The US First Army quickly surrounded the city, but the Germans dug in and held. For 39 days the US First Division the Big Red One did the bulk of the fighting- house-to-house, room by room. Finally on this day German Commander Gerhard von Wilke surrendered, even though he had been told by Hitler that the Gestapo would shoot his wife and children if he did.<br /> <br /> 1956- The last trolley cars in Flatbush Brooklyn shut down.<br /> <br /> 1959- Six months after the death of Frank Lloyd Wright his last creation the Guggenheim Museum in New York City opened.<br /> <br /> 1967- THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON- 100,000 anti-Vietnam War protestors surrounded the Pentagon in Washington and tried to do an “exorcism “ and levitate the building. This was the day of the famous images of Hippies putting flowers in the gun barrels of the National Guard troops.<br /> <br /> 1969- Beat Generation author of On the Road- Jacques Kerouac died of alcoholism and stomach bleeding, a pencil and pad on his lap. He grew bitter about how his call for youth rebellion had been reinterpreted by the 60's generation as hippies and flower power. When he came upon a gathering of kids at an anti-war rally distributing American flags to burn, Kerouac collected them all and folded them neatly.<br /> <br /> 1972- Curtis Mayfield’s theme to the movie “Superfly” debuted at Number #1 in the Billboard charts.<br /> <br /> 1975- The Cincinnati-Boston World Series-Carleton Fisk's 12th inning homer keeps the Boston Red Sox hopes alive against Johnny Bench and the 'Big Red Machine".<br /> <br /> 2003- The Great California Brush Fires. Hot dry wind and a lost hunter ignited the worst brush fires in California history. Ten fires from Ventura County north of Los Angeles to Tijuana Mexico burned hundreds of thousands of acres for two weeks, destroyed 3000 homes and killed 20. The smoke clouds were visible from space.<br /> <br /> 2015- According to Robert Zemeckis 1989 film Back to the Future II, all the events Marty McFly and Doc Brown experience in the future occur on this date. Did you ever get your hoverboard?<br /> ============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is The Cinque Ports?<br /> <br /> Answer: It is an old medieval designation of five towns on the southeast coast of England that the crown considered important to the defense of the realm.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 20 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6290 <p>Question: What are The Cinque Ports?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: Where is the Hindu Kush?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 10/20/2023<br /> Birthdays: Sir Christopher Wren, Bela Lugosi (born Bela Blasgow from Lugosz), Charles Ives, Arthur Rimbaud, Daniel Sickles, Black Panther Bobby Seale, Juan Marechal, Tom Petty, Art Buchwald, Arlene Francis, Grandpa Jones, Mickey Mantle, Frank Churchill, Thomas Newman, Jerry Orbach, Rex Ingram, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Michael Dunn, Snoop Dogg (born Calvin Broadus Jr) is 52, Danny Boyle is 67, Viggo Mortensen is 65<br /> <br /> 1740- The Austrian Emperor Charles VI died. He leaves his daughter Maria Theresa sole heir. Maria was such a tough monarch that even when giving birth to Marie Antoinette ( just one of her 18 children ) she refused to go into confinement, but sat propped up in an easy chair writing orders between contractions.<br /> <br /> 1805- NELSON'S LAST DISPATCH- Once Admiral Horatio Nelson learned that Napoleon’s Franco-Spanish Fleet had come out of Cadiz harbor he headed them off at Cape Trafalgar. Knowing the big battle would be fought on the morrow, he wrote his last log entries and letters. In one of them he begs the Admiralty to 'take care of My Poor Emma', meaning his beautiful mistress Lady Hamilton. He wrote nothing about his wife and son. Nelson was killed in the battle and lionized as the hero of the nation, but Lady Hamilton was shunned as a homebreaker, and died a lonely old souse in Calais.<br /> <br /> 1813- An incident during Napoleon’s retreat from Germany after the defeat at Leipzig. The retreating Neuchatel regiment were being harassed by pursuing Russian Cossack cavalry. Seeing a women camp follower or vivandiere, straggling behind the column, a Cossack charged her, lance in hand. It was not sure whether he wanted to kill or rape her in full view of the army. The vivandiere who’s name was Rosalie, calmly put down her bundle, pulled out a pair of pistols and shot the man out of his saddle. She then proceeded to steal his horse, and galloped back to the column to the cheers of the troops.<br /> <br /> 1818- America and Britain fix the western border between the US and Canada at the 49th parallel latitude.<br /> <br /> 1827- Battle of Navarino- France, England and Russia sent large fleets to the Bay of Navarino (Pylos) to arbitrate the dispute between Turkey and the Greek revolutionaries. Not that anyone asked them to, but they were terribly moved by Byron's and Shelley's poems and after all, that's what Imperialist powers DID in those days. The Admiral of the British fleet was Admiral Codrington, who was one of Nelson’s old captains. The Allied fleet were under strict orders not to fire unless attacked, so when a Turkish gunner shot at a messenger under a white flag, BOOM, BOOM! Greek Independence (achieved 5 years later).<br /> <br /> 1862- While the Civil War raged back east, Col. Patrick Connor and two regiments of US Cavalry (The California Blues) were sent to occupy Salt Lake City. His ostensible mission was to protect the overland stage and wagon trail routes through Utah, but also he was to keep an eye on Brigham Young and his Mormon Community. Connor was not the most diplomatic choice. He called Mormons “traitors and whores” and set up his camp overlooking the town with large cannon pointed down at them. He named his army camp Fort Douglas after the late Senator Stephen Douglas who had referred to Mormonism as a “disgusting cancer”. <br /> Brigham Young had to use all his diplomatic tact and patience to deal with this hotheaded soldier. The Mormons formed a volunteer unit called the Navoo Legion to work with the army fighting hostile Shoshone and Paiute bands. Eventually everyone got along, although Connor and other federal authorities encouraged non-Mormon settlers in Utah hoping to overwhelm their community. Connor not only reconciled with his Mormon neighbors, he stayed the rest of his life in Salt Lake City, dying in the 1890s.<br /> <br /> 1890- Retired explorer Sir Richard Burton died at 69. Burton was the first Christian to enter Mecca, he went up the Nile and the Amazon, fought Indians with Kit Carson and did the first modern translation of the Arabian Nights, introducing the western world to Aladdin, Scheherazade and Sinbad the Sailor. Wherever he went in his world travels he collected pornography and erotic poems, documenting of the sexual habits of various cultures. After his death his wife burned all this anthropological material in their backyard. She feared for his soul. It is considered one of the great literary crimes of the century.<br /> <br /> 1912- The First Balkan War. <br /> <br /> 1921- Rudolf Valentino starred in The Sheik, which premiered today.<br /> <br /> 1939- Frank Capra’s film “Mr Smith Goes to Washington” opened.<br /> <br /> 1940-:” Fuehrer, we are on the march!” Mussolini told Hitler as Italy invaded Greece from Italian occupied Albania. The Greeks not only defeated his armies and drove them away, they even invaded Albania forcing Hitler to send German reinforcements. Hitler was angry at Il Duce’s move because it pulled on reinforcements he intended for the North African drive on the Middle Eastern oilfields.<br /> <br /> 1944- In Cleveland, liquid natural gas from storage tanks leaks into storm sewers and the streets, then explodes. The explosion and fire leveled 30 blocks of the city, killing 130.<br /> <br /> 1944-"I HAVE RETURNED'- Douglas MacArthur and the President Quezon of the Philippines led the invasion of Japanese held Luzon. The U.S. military wanted to pass by the Philippines to head straight for Japan, but MacArthur couldn't bear to go back on his pledge. MacArthur did the stepping off of the landing craft on to the beach twice, once for the moment and a second time for the newsreel cameras. Some insiders said the scowl on his face was not just his grim determination to get at the Japanese, but because the landing craft had left him in water deeper than expected and got cold sea water up to his nads. MacArthur joked,” Well, at lease now people will see I can’t walk on water.”<br /> <br /> 1945- Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon form the Arab League.<br /> <br /> 1947- 'ARE YOU NOW OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN...' Judge J. Parnell Thomas banged the gavel opening the House Committee on Un-American Activities investigation into Communist infiltration into the Motion Picture Business. HUAC was set up in 1938 as The Dies Committee to keep an eye on pro-Nazis groups operating in German and Italian immigrant organizations, but by 1944 its emphasis had switched to Communist espionage. <br /> Jack Warner, Louis B. Mayer, Ronald Reagan and Walt Disney were the first in line to name names. Lucille Ball, Sterling Hayden, Zero Mostel, Ginger Rogers, Ed Wynn, Howard da Silva, and Lloyd Bridges admitted they had once held communist party memberships. Bogart wrote a friend,” The whole town is running for cover.” The anti-commie hysteria turned Hollywood inside out and the bitter feelings remained for the rest of their lives. <br /> <br /> 1951- the CBS Eye logo made its debut. Creative director Bill Golden was inspired when he drove through Pennsylvania Dutch country. He became intrigued by the hex symbols resembling the human eye that were painted on Shaker barns. In show biz slang CBS is still referred to as The Eye. <br /> <br /> 1955- Harry Belafonte recorded the Banana Boat Song, that made him a star. “ Come Mister Tally-Man, tally me bananas…Dayo!”<br /> <br /> 1955- J.R.R. Tolkein’s 3rd book of the Lord of the Rings published. The Return of the King.<br /> <br /> 1963- Diana Churchill, the eldest daughter of Winston Churchill, had two failed marriages and several nervous breakdowns. Today she took an overdose of sleeping pills. She was 52.<br /> <br /> 1968- Former First Lady Jackie Bouvier Kennedy shocked American society when a few months after Bobby Kennedy’s assassination when she married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis on his private island of Skorpios. “They’ll knock you off your pedestal” Truman Capote warned her. But she was determined to get her children away from the violence engulfing the U.S. in the 60’s. Onassis’ employees nicknamed her “Supertanker” because they felt he spent the equivalent price of one of those ships to win her hand.<br /> <br /> 50th Anniv 1973- The Six Million Dollar Man with Lee Majors premiered.<br /> <br /> 50th Anniv 1973- THE SATURDAY NIGHT MASSACRE- when special prosecutor Archibald Cox got too close to implicating President Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal Nixon fired him without comment or explanation. Attorney General Elliot Richardson, rather than execute the order to fire Cox, himself resigned. When deputy Attorney Gen. Donald Ruckleshaus was told to, he resigned as well. They eventually found someone in the Justice Dept. willing to fire Cox. It was Robert Bork. Nixon sent FBI agents to immediately secure their files and records. Because of this overt act of presidential arrogance, the first calls for impeachment of the President were heard, even from members of his own Republican party. <br /> <br /> 50th Anniv 1973- Sidney Australia’s Opera House was dedicated by Queen Elizabeth II.<br /> <br /> 1977- Lynyrd Skynyrd band members Ronnie Van Zandt and Steve Gaines died when their plane crashed into a swamp while en route to a concert at Louisiana University.<br /> <br /> 1991- The Oakland California Firestorm. Drought and diablo wind conditions fanned a blaze in the East Bay hills that destroyed 3,000 buildings and killed 25 people.<br /> <br /> 1994- President Clinton opened up the first Presidential web site and set up an office of Director of Electronic Mail. To e-mail the President you use President@whitehouse.gov or First.Lady@whitehouse.gov This may be poetic justice, but if you used www.whitehouse.com you got a porn site. One of the first acts of incoming President George W. Bush was to close the site down, but President Obama restored it.<br /> <br /> 2011- Libyan rebels killed dictator Col Mohammar Khaddafi. The man who had ruled Libya since 1967 was found hiding in a storm drain. He was dragged out, beaten bloody, rammed a broomstick up his butt, and shot him in the head six times.<br /> <br /> 2013- Saving Mr. Banks with Tom Hanks as Walt Disney, premiered.<br /> ====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Where is the Hindu Kush?<br /> <br /> Answer: The Hindu Kush is a mountain range, adjacent to the Himalayans. (thanks, FG)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 19 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6289 <p>Question: Where is the Hindu Kush?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: What does it mean to be stoic?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 10/19/2023<br /> Birthdays: Martha "Patsy" Jefferson, Auguste Lumiere, Tor Johnson, John Le Carre', Peter Tosh, Amy Carter, Jack Anderson, Peter Max, animator Lou Scheimer, John Lithgow is 78, Robert Reed of the Brady Bunch, Evander Holyfield, Patricia Ireland, Michael Gambon, John Favreau is 57, Trey Parker of South Park is 53<br /> <br /> Roman festival Armilustrum, blessing of the shields of the Roman Legions.<br /> Official end of campaigning season. Ancient nations didn't wage war from Oct. to Feb. because the winter cold would cost more lives than battle. And the men were needed for the harvest. It's no wonder that the first month that's warm enough to go out and kill each other is named for the god of war, Mars (March).<br /> <br /> 202BC, The BATTLE OF ZAMA - Hannibal's waterloo at the hands of Publius Cornelius Scipio, who was honored by Rome with the surname "Africanis". It was said Scipio thwarted Hannibal’s dreaded elephants by frightening them away with a herd of wild pigs. <br /> Despite saving Rome, and defeating the greatest military genius since Alexander, after the war Scipio Africanis was the target of a senate investigation into defense budget overdrafts. He tore up his expense records in front of the Senate and went into exile, not before scolding the Senators: "If Hannibal stood here instead of me, you would not be worrying about this."<br /> <br /> 43BC- Octavian, Julius Caesar’s 20 year old nephew, marched four legions into Rome and seized the government. He drove out the supporters of Brutus &amp; Cassius as well as the supporters of his erstwhile ally Mark Anthony. He had Brutus &amp; Cassius declared Enemies of the State. Octavian would eventually defeat them all and rule Rome as the Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome.<br /> <br /> 1216- King John Lackland died, legend has it from an evil monk who pours poison from a venomous toad into his ear as he slept. There's no such thing as a poisonous toad in England, he actually died from eating too many ripe peaches and brandywine.<br /> <br /> 1453- Britain and France signed a peace treaty finally ending the Hundred Years War. The on again, off again conflict had started in 1336.<br /> <br /> 1739- England declared war on Spain. The war was called the War of Jenkins Ear because a sea captain appeared in Parliament with his ear pickled in a bottle of spirits and swore a Spanish captain had done it to him on the high seas. Some thought he was a fraud but England was hot for war, and composers James and Thomas Arne introduced their stirring new song "Rule Britannia! Britannia Rules the Waves! Britons Never, Never, Never Shall be Slaves!<br /> <br /> 1739-The Holy Inquisition in Portugal has its great dramatist Antonio da Silva burned at the stake for "practicing secret Judaism". On the same day his plays were playing to packed houses in Lisbon.<br /> <br /> 1781- YORKTOWN- The decisive stroke that won the American Revolution. Lord Cornwallis's army was surrounded in the Virginia seaport of Yorktown and forced to surrender to George Washington and the French under the Comte du Rocheambeau. At 2:00PM the redcoats marched out to lay down their arms their bands played "The World Turned Upside Down."<br /> "...If ponies rode men, and grass ate the cows<br /> And cats should be chased into holes by the mouse...<br /> If Summer were Spring, and the other way 'round,<br /> Then all the World would be Upside Down."<br /> As the disciplined British redcoats marched between rows of Americans and Frenchmen, British sergeants ordered: "Eyes Right!" so the men would ignore the Yankees and face the French, for whom this was just one more chapter in their ancient rivalry. Lafayette recognized the insult and ordered the colonial bands to play Yankee Doodle real loud, and the Americans started giving happy Indian war whoops. One French officer wondered if they the French: "would have to save our fellow Europeans from being scalped."<br /> Back in London when Prime Minister Lord North received the news, he "reacted like he had taken a ball in the breast. "Good God!' he shouted:" It's all over!" His government fell as a result. The government selected to sign the final peace treaty fell also.<br /> As a final insult of fate, Lord Cornwallis on the boat home to England got captured by a French pirate ship and forced to pay ransom! The pirate was an Arcadian (Cajun) dandy, who would always dress in red. He was nicknamed " Le Joli Rouge " (the Handsome Guy in Red )... The nickname is the origin of the " Jolly Roger " the skull and cross bones of the pirates' flag.<br /> <br /> 1790- HARMAR’S DEFEAT- The new US Government of President Washington had sent its first army expedition under Brigadier General Josiah Harmar to the Ohio Country to chastise the Indians raiding settlements with British help. This day near the Miami Indian village called Kekionga which would one day be Fort Wayne Indiana, Harmars force was met by a Miami-Eel chief named Meshekinoquah or Little Turtle. Despite the innocent sounding name Little Turtle was a 6 foot tall, 44 year old warrior and a brilliant strategist. He skillfully maneuvered Harmar’s force into an ambush and wiped out 3/4 of their number with minimal losses of his own. Militiamen cried, "For God’s sake run, there are Indians enough to eat you all up!"<br /> <br /> 1812- Napoleon and his army quit Moscow, the Great Retreat began.<br /> <br /> 1845- Richard Wagners’ opera Tannhauser premiered.<br /> <br /> 1864- 'And there was Sheridan, Twenty miles Away.." Battle of Cedar Creek. In Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley Confederate Jubal Early surprise attacked the Union camp and sent the Yankees running. Little General Phil Sheridan, coming from a breakfast meeting in Washington, jumped on his horse Rienzi and rode to the sound of sound of the guns. As his men saw him ride by they cheered. He yelled back:" Don't just cheer me, g--damn you! Turn around and fight!" They counterattacked and won the day. Sheridan’s Ride was later made into a famous poem.<br /> <br /> 1899- Future U.S. rocket pioneer Dr. Robert Goddard mentioned today in his memoirs as the first time he started to think seriously about how man could achieve space travel.<br /> <br /> 1901- Brazilian Santos Dumont flew a small dirigible around the Eiffel Tower in Paris. This proved that a balloon could be maneuvered by a propeller motor. This was four years before the Wright Brothers. A crowd of 100,000 cheered including Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. <br /> <br /> 1907- 'GENTLEMEN, YOU HAVE FIFTEEN MINTUES TO RAISE TWENTY FIVE MILLION DOLLARS'- THE STOCK MARKET PANIC OF 1907- The unregulated Trust bank system goes into a tailspin, pulling Wall Street down with it. The Chairman of Knickerbocker Trust, William Barney, put a pistol to his head, as mobs of his clients beat down the barricaded doors to withdraw their savings. The system was saved singlehandedly by the Emperor of Wall Street, J.P. Morgan. Like a general at a battle he pumped reinforcing capitol into the system and made the above statement to the assembled bank presidents.<br /> <br /> They raised the money in ten minutes and got it to the Stock Exchange in time to save 30 brokerage houses. He personally lent New York City $20 million to save it from default. At the close of trading J.P. Morgan got a public ovation from the stock traders assembled under his office window. Citizens were relieved, but instead of being grateful to Morgan they were not a little horrified that one man should have so much power over the entire U.S. economy. This realization caused the movement in Washington to create the U.S. Federal Reserve Banking System in 1913.<br /> <br /> 1917- The Silent Raid, London was bombed by 21 German Zeppelins.<br /> <br /> 1926- King George VI of England was known to have a bad stammer that embarrassed him when speaking in public. This day, George had his first appointment with his Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue at his Harley St. office. The event was dramatized in the film- The King’s Speech.<br /> <br /> 1945- Near his Chadd’s Ford home, N.C. Wyeth, artist and father of Andrew Wyeth, was killed by a train that struck his car. His grandson was in the car with him and was also killed. He was 62. <br /> <br /> 1953 – Arthur Godfrey had one of the more popular TV variety shows at the time. One of his headliners was the singer Julius LaRosa. But Godfrey was seen to act more and more imperiously with his cast and crew. This day after a song, Godfrey put his arm around LaRosa and said gently. "Julie lacks humility, So, Julie, to teach you a lesson, you’re fired." La Rosa and the audience first thought he was kidding, but he wasn’t. He had fired LaRosa live, nationwide on the air.<br /> <br /> 1957- Montreal Hockey great Maurice Rocket Richard became the first player to score 500 goals.<br /> <br /> 1960- Rev Martin Luther King was arrested and jailed for holding a sit-in in Atlanta. Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy ignored his advisers and the silence of Republican Richard Nixon, by openly contacting Dr King in jail to see if he was all right. <br /> <br /> 1964- Doo Wah Diddy Diddy hit the pop charts.<br /> <br /> 1968- RUPERT MURDOCH INVADED ENGLAND. Never mind the Vikings or William the Conqueror, on this day the little Australian landed at Heathrow to begin a takeover war for his first English newspaper, the News of the World. Until now the Fleet Street press barons were a closed club of rich old gentlemen. Murdoch used Sir Robert Caro as his cover to get in and defeat a hostile takeover bid from Robert Maxwell. He then demoted Caro out of his leadership of the paper. He soon bought the London Times. Rupert Murdoch later became a U.S. citizen so he could build the Fox News and TV empires.<br /> <br /> 1985- Take on Me by Aha hit number one on the pop charts.<br /> <br /> 1987- Black Monday, The STOCK MARKET CRASH OF '87. The Dow falls 508 points. It was partly blamed on the Arbitrage high speed automated stock trading system going bananas and turning a downswing into a panic. Venerable old firms like E.F. Hutton sank beneath the waves -having their chairman Bob Froman plead guilty to $22 million dollars worth of bank and mail fraud didn't help either. <br /> However in six months most of the losses were regained, some traders saying the recovery was spurred by a bronze statue of bulls placed at the foot of Wall Street. A system of emergency circuit breakers was installed to prevent arbitrage from flipping out again. <br /> <br /> 1990- Kevin Costner’s film Dances With Wolves premiered.<br /> <br /> 1998- Website ClubLove.com published nude photos of conservative radio personality Dr. Laura Schlesinger. She denied the photos were of her, then sued the website for copyright infringement.<br /> =======================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean to be stoic?<br /> <br /> Answer: A stoic is the adherent to a philosophy that advocated a strong morale code for its own sake, rather than any supernatural reward. To be stoic has come to mean being firm in the face of misfortune. A stiff-upper-lip type.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 18 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6288 <p>Question: What does it mean to be stoic?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: What is the difference between India and Hindustan?.<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 10/18/2023<br /> Birthdays: Cannaletto, Lotte Lenya, Wynton Marsalis, George C. Scott, Pierre Trudeau, Lee Harvey Oswald, Mike Dytka, Peter Boyle, Inger Stevens, Violetta Chamorro, Wendy Wasserstein, Wynton Marsalis, Martina Navratilova, Zack Efron is 32, Jean Claude Van Damme, The Muscles from Brussels- is 63. Pixar Art Director Ralph Eggleston. Alex Williams.<br /> <br /> FEAST OF ST. LUKE. According to ancient sources Luke was actually a physician, but Medieval tradition made him the protector of artists. This is because John of Damascus claimed to have seen Luke draw paintings of the Madonna. In Rome during the Renaissance, Titian, Michelangelo, Rubens and El Greco were members of the Guild of St. Luke and paid union dues.<br /> <br /> 31AD- Praetorian Prefect Lucius Sejanus, a onetime favorite of the Emperor Tiberius, fell from power and was executed for treason. <br /> <br /> 1016- A large force of Vikings defeated the Anglo-Saxon English at Ashingdon.<br /> <br /> 1534- French King Francis I, like his counterpart in England Henry VIII considered himself a Renaissance Prince who espoused toleration. He gave safe haven to Protestants fleeing Germany and was encouraged by the calls for reform of the Church. But this night an event happened to spoil it all. Overzealous French Protestants hung placards on doors in Paris and Orleans denouncing Catholics as "wolves and vermin". Francis awoke to find a placard hung his own bedroom door, with the implied a personal threat to kill him and his family as they slept. <br /> Francis angrily ordered the arrests and the burning of heretics. At a solemn Mass in Notre Dame, the King swore he would behead any of his children who dared turn Protestant. This Affair of the Placards ruined any chance that the Protestant Reformation could grow in France peacefully.<br /> <br /> 1648- The First official union in the U.S. started, the Shoemakers Guild of Boston.<br /> <br /> 1776- Cato’s Road House, a colonial tavern New York City decorated with birds opened. The owner was a free black man named Cato Alexander. Customers ordered a favorite drink he created, called a "Cocks Tail" or cocktail. The origin of the name.<br /> <br /> 1767- The Mason-Dixon line settled the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland. In a later generation it became the symbol of the divide between North and South.<br /> <br /> 1781- For several days British positions at Yorktown Virginia were heavily bombarded by the heavy siege guns of George Washington and his ally the Comte du Rocheambeau. No area of the town was safe from bombardment. Thomas Nelson Jr., a signer of the Declaration of Independence, gave permission to target his own house, which the British were using as a headquarters. The British Navy had given up on a rescue and sailed off to Martinique for the winter. Today the cannons fell silent. A lone British drummer boy climbed up on an earthwork parapet and began beating the call to parley. <br /> <br /> 1793- Napoleon gets his first job. Sub-lieutenant Napoleon Bonaparte promoted to major of artillery and posted to Toulon. He was 24. At 25 he will be a General, at 31 a dictator, at 35 an Emperor, at 46 unemployed, and dead at 52. Sounds like a career in Hollywood.<br /> <br /> 1797- THE X,Y, Z AFFAIR- Throughout the wars between Napoleonic France and England each country tried to push the neutral United States into taking a side. This pressure came from harassing merchant trade and establishing heavy trade tariffs. This day war almost resulted between America and France when the American ambassadors in Paris were approached by three French diplomats, forever called X,Y and Z. This men said for a $250,000 cash bribe they would lift sanctions on trade. The American government was enraged, but war was averted. America finally went to war with Britain in 1812.<br /> <br /> 1813- FINAL DAY OF THE BATTLE OF THE NATIONS- Napoleon’s army at Liepzig was overwhelmed by the combined armies of Russia, Austria, Prussia and Sweden. <br /> The French had to retreat through a burning city, then cross a deep river with only one bridge over it and the enemy shooting down on them. A nervous engineer blew up the bridge prematurely leaving a third of the army still on the wrong side.<br /> The heroes of this terrible panic were Marshal Jacques MacDonald, son of an exiled Scotsman who fought for Bonnie Prince Charlie, and the son of the last king of Poland, Prince Josef Poniatowski, who, shot several times, drowned in the river. His remains were identified when fishermen discovered silver snuffboxes in his pockets. This battle forced Napoleon to abandoned most of his conquered territory in Central Europe fall back to the national borders of France.<br /> <br /> 1861- Poet and suffragette Julia Ward Howe was staying at the Willard Hotel down the block from the White House. She awoke in the middle of the night inspired to write new words to a popular soldiers tune she heard that day "John Brown's Body". She wrote "Mine Eyes have seen the Glory of the Coming of the Lord...." She called it "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"." Glory-Glory Halleluiah, His Truth is Marching On…"<br /> <br /> 1896- Joseph Pulitzer's N.Y. Journal American created the first Sunday Color Comics supplement.<br /> <br /> 1912- The First Balkan War- Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro attack Turkey in her remaining European territories.<br /> <br /> 1922- The British Broadcast Corp or BBC formed.<br /> <br /> 1922- In Hollywood Sid Grauman's Egyptian Theater opened.<br /> <br /> 1924- College football star Red Grange scored four long yardage touchdowns in one game.<br /> <br /> 1931- Thomas Edison died peacefully at age 84. His last words were-<br /> "It's beautiful over there..."<br /> <br /> 1942- Admiral Nimitz appointed Admiral Bull Halsey to take command of the fleet locked in battle with the Japanese off Guadalcanal. <br /> <br /> 1946- Walt Disney premiered The Story of Menstruation.<br /> <br /> 1950- In a heated showdown in the Directors Guild all motions by Cecil B.DeMille and Frank Capra to adopt the anti-Communist blacklist were defeated. Billy Wilder, John Huston, John Ford and Mervyn LeRoy supported President Joe Mankiewicz who blocked the Blacklist Motions, and they also blocked a recall vote on Mankiewicz' s presidency.<br /> <br /> 1954- Hi &amp; Lois comic strip debuted.<br /> <br /> 1967- Walt Disney's last animated feature done under his supervision "the Jungle Book." premiered. Disney had died the previous December. “Look for the Bear-Necessities…”<br /> <br /> 1974- Tobe Hooper's low budget cult film Texas Chainsaw Massacre first opened. Despite one film critic calling it " a bunch of sick crap" it became a huge hit. <br /> <br /> 1977- New York Yankee batter Reggie Jackson earned the name Mr. October by slugging three home runs in a World Series Game against the LA Dodgers.<br /> <br /> 1982- President Reagan said during a radio address:" My Fellow Americans, the economy is in a helluva mess....this microphone isn't on, is it?.." <br /> <br /> 1984- Handsome young television star John Eric Hexum died after shooting himself with a prop pistol. Even though it was loaded with blanks the concussion of compressed air at close range cracked his skull. He was playing at mock-Russian Roulette. His last words to his friends were "Let’s see if I can do myself in this time!"<br /> <br /> 2019- Jojo Rabbit, a dark comedy by Taiko Waititti opened. Taiko’s producer told him, I’ll greenlight this project only if you play Hitler. He agreed.<br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is the difference between India and Hindustan?<br /> <br /> Answer: Before India’s independence in 1948, the region administered by the British was divided in enclaves based on their ethno-religious populations. So, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the various Rajahs principalities, and remainder with a predominant Hindu makeup called Hindustan.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 17 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6287 <p>Question: What is the difference between India and Hindustan?.<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: What was the first song in a Walt Disney film?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 10/17/2023<br /> Birthdays: Arthur Miller, Rita Hayworth, Jean Arthur, Montgomery Clift, Jimmy Breslin, Tom Poston, Gary Puckett, Margot Kidder, Evil Knievel, Jerry Siegel (Superman co-creator), Virgil 'Vip' Partch, Charles Kraft the sliced cheese king, Beverly Garland- star of Attack of the Alligator People, George Wendt, Cameron Mackintosh, Mike Judge is 61, Eminem is 51<br /> <br /> 641 A.D.- ALEXANDRIA, the "Paris of the Ancient World" fell to the advancing armies of Islam. The Byzantine emperors had been persecuting the native Coptic Christians as a heresy, so the Egyptians didn’t mind opening their gates to the Arab invaders. <br /> <br /> 1777- SARATOGA- 'Gentleman Johnny' Burgoyne, and his British Army surrounded in upper New York State was forced to surrender. This is seen as the turning point of the Revolution, because this victory gave the American rebels credibility in the eyes of England's traditional European rivals- France, Holland and Spain. <br /> 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... <br /> <br /> 1787- The US Constitution accepted and signed into law, U.S. Constitutional Convention adjourned.<br /> <br /> 1805- THE BATTLE OF ULM- Napoleon maneuvered his regiments around an entire Austrian army and captured it while it sat waiting for their Russian allies. Nobody in the Austrian command realized that the Russian's Julian calendar date for their rendezvous was two weeks different then the Western Calendar. The last they heard, Napoleon's army was at the English Channel. Napoleon sent his army in five columns racing across Europe to suddenly appear in Austria. He piled soldiers in wagons to create the first motorized infantry.<br /> 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 I’ll betchya a lot of students dropped his class.<br /> <br /> 1814- In London a large beer vat burst and drowned nine people.<br /> <br /> 1815- Napoleon was 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 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 ! “<br /> 1873- MY NAME IS MUYBRIDGE. One night a carriage drove up from San Francisco to the Yellow Jacket Mine near Calistoga in the north Napa Valley. A man asked for the foreman Major Harry Larkyns. When Larkyns answered the door the man quietly said to him: ”Good Evening, Major. My name is Muybridge. Here is the answer to the message you sent my wife earlier. “ He drew a pistol and shot Larkyns through the heart, killing him instantly. He then dropped his weapon and waited for the sheriff.<br /> The murderer was the famous Photographer and Motion Picture Pioneer Edweard Muybridge. Muybridges’ young wife Flora had been having an affair while he was working on his Motion Studies Series in Palo Alto. Muybridge discovered the son she bore him was not his. They were even calling him Little Harry behind his back. <br /> The jury that convened in Napa did not hang the artist-inventor. In the Code of the Old West, proven adultery was considered a justifiable homicide. Plus, Governor Leyland Stanford was paying for Muybridge’s experiments. So, he was acquitted. Flora Muybridge divorced him in 1875 and after her early death two years later, Muybridge gave Little Harry to a San Francisco Orphans Asylum and refused to pay for his upkeep.<br /> <br /> 1904- In San Francisco, Amadeo &amp; Giovanni Giannini opened La Banca di Italia, the New Bank of Italy, which in 1930 became the Bank of America. Among the 40 or so independent banks in California, Giannini’s bank grew because they encouraged immigrants to put their money in, when Anglo bankers refused to do business with foreigners. After the great San Francisco earthquake, they buried the banks total assets 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.<br /> <br /> 1928- Duke Ellington recorded The Mouche, the Fly.<br /> <br /> 1938- The radio show Captain Midnight premiered on WGN Chicago. In 1940, sponsor Ovaltine dropped its decade old show Little Orphan Annie in favor of making Captain Midnight a nationwide broadcast.<br /> <br /> 1943- The Burma Railway was completed by occupying Japanese forces using British 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.<br /> <br /> 1965- After a two-year run, the New York World’s Fair in Flushing Queens officially closed.<br /> <br /> 1967- The Hippy musical “Hair” opened at the Anspacher Theatre on Broadway. <br /> <br /> 1973- Arab nations of OPEC declared a crude oil embargo on any nation supporting Israel. Oil went from $12 a barrel to $79. Called “ The Oil Weapon”, it made Gas rationing and long lines appear at gas stations in the US and England.<br /> <br /> 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 double deckers, the Cypress Freeway, collapsed, crushing motorists, all such plans were abandoned. <br /> 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!".<br /> <br /> 1990- William Stieg published his children’s book Shrek.<br /> <br /> 1990- IMDB.com, the Internet Movie Data Base started up. <br /> <br /> 2005- A spinoff from Jon Stewart’s Daily Show, The Colbert Report with Steven Colbert premiered on Comedy Central.<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> =====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What was the first song in a Walt Disney film?<br /> <br /> Answer: Turkey in the Straw (trad) from Steamboat Willy.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 16 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6286 <p>Question: What was the first song in a Walt Disney film?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: What was the difference between a Pilgrim and a Puritan?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 10/16/2023<br /> Birthdays: Lord Cardigan, Eugene O'Neill, Noah Webster, Dave DeBusschere, David Ben-Gurion, Disney animator Ham Luske, Angela Lansbury, Gunter Grass, Linda Darnell, Charles Colson, Susanne Somers, David Zucker, Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tim Robbins is 65.<br /> <br /> Happy National Bosses Day (begun in 1958)<br /> <br /> Today is the Feast of Saint Hedwig, who was married to a German Duke at 12 years old. They had six children and when they were grown, she went to a cloister, and her husband took a vow to never shave or bathe again. He was called Henry the Bearded.<br /> <br /> 1689- Seventeen year old Peter the Great entered Moscow to assume supreme power in Russia. Czar Peter had to push aside two rivals, his older half-brother Ivan who may have been autistic or impaired, and his half-sister Sophia who was angry that as a woman she couldn’t hold power. Ivan stepped aside for Peter and Sophia was shipped off to a convent at the Arctic Circle. From then until 1725, Peter reformed Russian society and made it a world power. He even made Russian society liberal enough to accept female rulers like Catherine the Great.<br /> <br /> 1746- Peace of Aix la Chapelle- Ended the War of Austrian Succession. Part of the treaty stated France would stop supporting the exiled Stuart Dynasty trying to get back the English throne. So Bonnie Prince Charlie would have to leave Paris. To celebrate the peace Georg Frederich Handel wrote the Royal Fireworks Music. When performed in Green Park London, the fireworks set fire to a pavilion and caused a panic. <br /> <br /> 1793- French Queen Marie Antoinette guillotined. She followed her husband King Louis XVI who was beheaded the previous January. The crowd in the Paris streets didn't have much sympathy for the foreign born queen. They called her "'la Chienne d'Autriche' '-the Austrian Bitch. Her last words were as she ascended the scaffold, she stepped on the toe of the executioner. 'Excuse me." she said.<br /> <br /> 1813- BATTLE OF THE NATIONS- First day of Leipzig- Napoleon's army was overwhelmed by the combined armies of Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, German states. There were British and Swiss advisers, and Napoleon’s French army had Poles, Dutch and Italian contingents as well. United Europe, in a odd way. At the height of the furious house to house fighting in the burning city, Napoleon was seen walking the streets calming whistling to himself Malbrouk s'en-va-t-en Guerre ("For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow") a popular song of the day.<br /> <br /> 1817- Giovanni Belzoni discovered the great tomb of Pharaoh Seti I in the Valley of the Kings. He discovered 8 more ancient royal tombs in the valley as well as the inner chambers of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, first making the world aware of The Valley of the Kings.<br /> <br /> 1829- The Tremont Hotel opened in Boston. Called the first modern hotel in America, it had luxurious 170 rooms, and 4 meals a day. All for an extravagant $2 a night.<br /> <br /> 1834- The British House of Parliament caught fire and burnt to the ground in a horrific conflagration. Luckily artists William Turner and John Constable were around watching the blaze from the south bank of the Thames, so at least we got a few neat paintings out of it...<br /> <br /> 1846- At Massachusetts General Hospital Dr. John Warren performed the first operation on a patient under anesthesia. A Georgia doctor named Morton extracted a tooth using ether two years earlier and there was a fracas as to who invented it first. But the news was groundbreaking. Until then surgeons were considered social inferiors to doctors because all surgeons really needed in their work was strong arms to hold people down while sawing on them.<br /> <br /> 1847- Jane Eyre, an Autobiography first published. Writer Charlotte Bronte’ did it under the pen-name Currier Bell. <br /> <br /> 1859- HARPERS FERRY- Kansas abolitionist John Brown led a group of followers and slaves to seize the large U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. They planned to use the weapons to begin a mass slave uprising throughout the South. Brown had declared: "the Sins of this Nation are so great that they cannot be expunged but by a great effusion of blood!" Harriet Tubman wanted to be present but for an illness. Brown and his men were surrounded by the army and forced to surrender after a gun battle in which two of Brown's sons were killed. <br /> The slaves did not rise in revolt. Present at the army operation were U.S. army officers Robert E. Lee and a Virginia National guard reservist, actor John Wilkes Booth. Brown was later hanged. Northerners considered John Brown a hero and martyr, Southerners thought him a dangerous lunatic who would murder them in their beds. Frederic Douglas thought Brown’s action reckless but his final praise was unstinting: "I have lived my life for my people. But John Brown died for my people. " One surviving son of John Brown who was at the battle changed his name and moved the family to Pasadena California, dying an old man in 1893. <br /> <br /> 1860- Olivia Bedel, a little girl from NY, wrote a fan letter to presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln, where she suggested that he grow a beard. Abe took her advice.<br /> <br /> 1901- One of the first acts of new President Teddy Roosevelt was to invite Dr. Booker T. Washington of the Tuskegee Institute to an official dinner. It was the first time a black American was ever invited to dine with the President. The South roared in loud protest. Teddy roared back:” In my veins flow the blood of both North and South, and such nonsense must end!” His mother was a Southerner. But he never openly invited another black leader again.<br /> <br /> 1916- THE FIRST BIRTH CONTROL CLINIC opens in the U.S. It was set up on 46 Amboy St in Brooklyn, by feminist Margaret Sanger. Police closed it down 9 days later and imprisoned Ms. Sanger for 30 days. She spent her time in jail lecturing women convicts about family planning. Margaret Sanger also hired bootleggers to smuggle French diaphragms into the U.S. disguised as innocent cases of illegal booze. Mrs. Sanger later married the owner of the Three-In-One Oil company, and smuggled spermicide into the U.S. in oil cans. In the 1930’s Margaret Sanger was invited on CBS radio. When CBS chief Bill Paley worried if Sanger would say something controversial he was reassured "don’t worry, she says she’s just going to read nursery rhymes". She began "There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe. She Had So Many Children, Because She Didn’t Know What to Do!" CBS cut off her microphone.<br /> <br /> 1918- As the defeat in World War I loomed, young Emperor Michael of the Austrian Hungarian Empire struggled to keep his tottering empire together. This day he asked for a cease-fire from the allies and declared Austria-Hungary would become a federation of independent peoples. This was all too late as the Yugoslavs, Czechs, Poles and even Austrians were already declaring themselves independent countries without waiting for his permission.<br /> <br /> 100 Years Ago, 1923- The Walt Disney Studios Born. 22 year old Walt and his older brother Roy signed a deal with Margaret M.J. Winkler for six "Alice in Cartoonland" short cartoons. Budget-$1,500 each. <br /> <br /> 1929- New York City skyscraper the Chrysler Building completed. It won a race with the Bank of Manhattan Company to become the world’s tallest building. But it only held the title for a few months because the Empire State Building was going up.<br /> <br /> 1929- The frosted light bulb patented.<br /> <br /> 1933- In Tampa Florida, a man named Victor Licata took an axe and murdered his family. He was declared criminally insane, but what the Federal government picked up on was he had a habit of smoking marijuana. Turns out he was always psychotic, but the Feds played up his pot smoking to push the idea of marijuana that did it. A “Demon-Weed”, the basis for criminalizing it. <br /> <br /> 1940- The Nazi occupying forces order Jews around Warsaw to move into a small quarter of the town and it is bricked up by a high wall. The Warsaw Ghetto.<br /> <br /> 1940- Despite being technically neutral, the U.S. began a peacetime draft of young men into the army.<br /> <br /> 1941- General Hideki Tojo became Japanese Prime Minister. While we have this image of Tojo as the paramount war leader like Churchill, Stalin or Hitler, he was only Prime Minister from 1941-1943. The Japanese government went through several administrations, however the military general staff remained constant and manipulated politics from behind the scenes, vetoing measures in the Diet and assassinating critics of it's policy of military expansion. By 1937 all outspoken peace advocates like Prince Konoye and Premier Inokai had been murdered.<br /> <br /> 1941-Nazi panzer tanks closed in around Moscow. Even though his staff were all waiting in a private armored train Russian leader Josef Stalin changed his mind about evacuating the Kremlin and fleeing east. He resolved to stay in the city.<br /> <br /> 1943- Chicago Mayor Ed Kelly dedicated the new subway system.<br /> <br /> 1945- World War II over, Dr. Robert Oppenheimer bade farewell to the Los Alamos nuclear facility to work for Cal Tech University. After laudatory speeches and plaques Oppy warned his fellow scientists : " If nuclear weapons become a regular part of the arsenals of other countries, then the time may come when the people of the world will curse the name of Hiroshima and Los Alamos." <br /> <br /> 1946- After the embarrassment of Herman Goring committing suicide under Allied noses the night before, the remaining Nazi war criminals tried at Nuremberg- Keitel, Jodl, Ribbentrop, Streicher, Kalternbrunner, and Franck were hanged. Executioner US Army Master Sergeant John C. Wood said some like von Ribbentrop had lost so much weight in prison he had to jump on the swinging body adding his weight to theirs and break their necks. Afterwards their bodies are driven in secret to Dachau concentration camp crematorium and burned in the same ovens they used on Jews in the Holocaust. Then the ashes are scattered in secret so no Nazi shrine could ever be erected.<br /> <br /> 1950- C.S. Lewis’ book “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe” published. First book of the Chronicles of Narnia series.<br /> <br /> 1952- Charlie Chaplin’s film "Limelight" premiered in London. Chaplin had shot the film in Hollywood but released it in Europe because he had been driven into exile by McCarthyite Red Baiters.<br /> <br /> 1955- Ann Landers published her first column.<br /> <br /> 1964- Red China exploded it's first nuclear bomb.<br /> <br /> 1968- During the Mexico City Olympics- African American gold and bronze track medalists Tom Smith and John Carlos shocked the world by giving the Black Power raised fist salute during the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner. Despite being the fastest men on earth, their medals were taken away and they were kicked off the US Olympic Team. Even the Silver medalist, Peter Norman of Australia, a white athlete, was banned and ostracized for saying he supported them. <br /> <br /> 1969- The Miracle Mets. The New York Mets, then possessing some of the worst records in baseball history, defied all 100-1 odds and won the World Series, defeating the Baltimore Orioles in 5 games. Tom Seaver, Cleon Jones, Nolan Ryan. Rusty Staub. Thousands of fans at Shea went crazy and danced and partied on the field with the players. My brother recalled in the parking lot cars were covered with turf because the fans had stolen the bases and ripped up the sod for souvenirs. <br /> <br /> 1973- President Anwar El Sadat of Egypt asked the Soviet Union to call a meeting of the United Nations to call a ceasefire to end the Yom Kippur War.<br /> <br /> 1976- Disco Duck by Rick Dees became #1 on the pop charts.<br /> <br /> 1978- Polish cardinal Karol Woytila elected as Pope John Paul II. First non-Italian pope in 450 years, since Dutchman Adrian IV in 1513. Dying in 2005 JPII had the longest reign of any pope in the twentieth century and had created more saints than any other pope.<br /> <br /> 1992- The Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson filed a $1.4 million dollar lawsuit against a French tabloid for publishing photos of her topless and her boyfriend Texas millionaire John Bryan sucking her toes. <br /> <br /> 1995- The Million Man March - One million African-American men converged on Washington D.C. to protest black-on-black violence and promote family values.<br /> <br /> 1997- According to the writers of the 1965 television show 'Lost in Space', this was the date the Jupiter-2 with Will, Penny, Dr. Smith and the Robot took off to colonize deep space. "Danger! Danger! Spare me your insolence, you mechanical ninny..."<br /> =======================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What was the difference between a Pilgrim and a Puritan?<br /> <br /> Answer: The Pilgrims were a sect while the Puritans were a far-right movement. While the Puritans pressed the British Crown to a more religious purity, the Pilgrims just wanted to be left alone. Even when both groups settled in New England, they rarely fraternized. At a certain point the pilgrims did not accept new members into their covenant, so they eventually died out.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6285 <p>Question: What was the difference between a Pilgrim and a Puritan?<br /> <br /> Quiz: What does it mean if you are unguiculate? <br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 10/15/2023<br /> Birthdays: Quintus Virgilius-Virgil 70 BC, Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great 1542, Oscar Wilde, Fredrich Nietszche, Mikail Lermontov, John L. Sullivan, Jane Darnell, Burt Gillett, John Kenneth Galbraith, Robert Trout, Klaus Barbie the Butcher of Lyon, P.G. Wodehouse, Penny Marshall, Mario Puzo, Sarah Ferguson-Fergie' the former Duchess of York, Chef Emeril LeGasse, Chuck Berry <br /> <br /> Ancient Roman Festival of the Ides, a chariot race where the winning team of horses was then sacrificed to Mars the Avenger.<br /> <br /> 1564- Great doctor and medical scholar Andreas Versalius died of exposure after his ship was wrecked off the coast of Zante, Greece. Versalius specialty was anatomy, he described the lobes of the liver, the bones of the jaw and finally got modern medicine to stop following the conclusions of the Roman doctor Galen on faith and go experiment for themselves. Versalius was so passionate about anatomical dissection that he would sneak out to the hangman’s tree outside town and pull the bodies down for study.<br /> <br /> 1582- THE GREGORIAN CALENDAR took effect- Julius Caesar’s 366 day calendar was losing 11 minutes every year since 45 BC. Medieval scientists like Dennis Exiguus ( the man responsible for B.C.-A.D. counting), Averroes (Ibn Ruhsd), and Roger Bacon noticed something was wrong. By 1582, the calendar was 11 days off the solar year. Pope Gregory XI had scientist Dionysius Ingratius revise the calendar of Julian Calendar by using a 400 year cycle of 365 days with a leap day every four years and no leap year when it occurred every fourth century. So 2000 was a leap year while 1900,1800 and 1700 were not. <br /> On this day people had gone to sleep on Oct. 5th and woke up on Oct.15th !<br /> The calendar at first wasn't accepted universally. At first only Italy, Spain, Portugal and Poland changed over. France and the Protestant countries took 70-100 years to change and England not until 1752! China adopted the western calendar in 1949. Because a lot of history happened during the interim, sloppy historians can confuse the 11day difference in the calendars (so if you disagree with any of my dates, That's My Excuse, Hah Harr!!) For instance, we celebrate Columbus Day on the 12th of October when Columbus himself thought he had landed on the 22nd Old Style. <br /> <br /> 1757- Prussian King Frederick the Great took time out from fighting wars to try and convince German poet Johann Gottsched to stop trying to write poetry in German. “So many guttural explosions, so many consonants- Klop, Knap, Krotz, Krok! How could you make melody in such a language?” Frederick spoke French exclusively and switched to German only to address servants and soldiers. Ironically, the fame of his court sparked a renaissance of music, poetry and philosophy- all in German. <br /> <br /> 1764- While wandering through the ruins of the Roman Forum, British writer Edward Gibbon was inspired to write "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". <br /> <br /> 1781- Climactic actions of the Siege of Yorktown when Franco-American assault teams in the dead of night stormed three important British strong points. This allowed Washington and Rochambeau’s heavy guns to be brought close enough to bombard the center of Yorktown and hastened Lord Cornwallis’ surrender.<br /> The American assault teams were personally led by Marquis de Lafayette and Alexander Hamilton, who threw a childish temper tantrum when at first Washington refused to risk such a good staff officer in such a dangerous assignment. The attack troops were not allowed to waste time loading and firing, they just had to run in the dark and win using the cold bayonet. In Lafayette’s troops was a young captain Berthier, who would one day be Napoleon’s chief of staff. <br /> <br /> 1794-The First silver dollars minted by the U.S. Government. Before that individual states printed money. British pounds, wampum, old colonial script called Continental Eagles, Spanish pieces of Eight and corn whiskey all had circulated as currency. <br /> <br /> 1796- Napoleon wins a battle at the bridge of Arcola, grabbing a flag and leading the final charge himself. In twenty years of constant war he was only hurt once, a slight graze in the foot. At Arcola he was even temporarily immobilized when he got stuck in mud under heavy fire but still no one could hit him. His colleague General Massena’ commented, “You know, that little bastard scares me…” <br /> <br /> 1806 -German philosopher Hegel met Napoleon on the street. Hegel was going to his publisher to publish his "Phremonology", Napoleon was on his way to take Berlin. Hegel later referred to Napoleon as “The World Soul on Horseback.”<br /> <br /> 1858- The last Lincoln-Douglas debate. Lincoln scored major moral points on the slavery issue but Douglas "the Little Giant" won the election to Congress anyway. After the Civil War began although Douglas was a Democrat he was a very strong Lincoln supporter and pro-union man. Douglas had also once dated Mary Lincoln before she married old Abe.<br /> <br /> 1880- Vitorio, a leader of the Chiracua Apaches as famous as Geronimo, was finally hunted down and killed south of El Paso by a combined force of US and Mexican Army. 1905- First Little Nemo comic strip by Winsor McCay premiered in the NY Herald. McCay modeled the child on his own son Robert, and name Nemo came from a Latin root meaning no one.<br /> <br /> 1905- Premiere of Claude Debussy’s tone poem La Mer- the Sea.<br /> <br /> 1917- MATA HARI- 41 year old beautiful erotic dancer and German spy H21, was shot by firing squad. Her real name was Gertrude Zelle from Holland, she made up a new identity as an Indian princess with the name Mata Hari- The Light of Day in Malay. She would use her sexual charms to seduce top enemy officers and pass information on to German High Command. But she was finally caught, tried and shot at the Chateau Vincennes outside Paris. She refused to wear a blindfold and blew a kiss at the French firing squad. She still elicited enough sympathy, that out of a 12 soldier squad, only four bullets were found in her body.<br /> <br /> 1927- Iraq strikes it's first gusher of oil. The gusher was so large it took 8 days to bring under control. <br /> <br /> 1929- The Canadian Parliament passed a resolution declaring women to be people, too.<br /> <br /> 1930- Duke Ellington first recorded Mood Indigo.<br /> <br /> 1934- THE LONG MARCH- During the Chinese civil war, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai’s Communist armies broke out of a ring of encircling Kuomintang (Nationalist) armies and began an epic 6,000 mile march to the safety of Shaanxi and Yenan in Northwest China. 100,000 people fought battles, internal divisions, starved and marched until in October 1935 only 8,000 survivors reached their destination. Mao’s two children and younger brother died but he emerged as the supreme leader of the Communist forces. Their example inspired thousands of young men to enlist in their cause. In 1993 Premier Ly Pung succeeded Deng Zhao Ping, one of the last surviving veterans of the Long March. 2003 the first Chinese astronaut Wang Liwei went into orbit on the anniversary of the Long March.<br /> <br /> 1937- The Disney short Clock Cleaners premiered. “Loudly the Bell, in the Old Town rings….”<br /> <br /> 1940- Charlie Chaplin’s film The Great Dictator premiered.<br /> <br /> 1942- The Nazi-dominated Vichy Government of France declared a ban on the importation of all American and British movies. <br /> <br /> 1946- HERMANN GORING CHEATED THE HANGMAN On the day before he was to hang for war crimes, Nazi Reichmarshall Herman Goring bit on a glass potassium-cyanide capsule. Goring was convinced that the Allies would need him to control postwar Germany. So he was surprised and indignant at his death sentence. The condemned prisoners were closely watched by guards so suicides couldn't happen. Even the furniture in their cells were made rickety so you couldn't stand upon it to hang yourself and guards looked in on you through a peephole every hour. <br /> <br /> 1950- THE WAKE ISLAND CONFERENCE- President Harry Truman flew to Wake Island to confer with General Douglas MacArthur about the Korean War. There was a story that MacArthur kept Truman waiting at the airport. This is incorrect, but he was disrespectful to his commander in chief in other ways, like neglecting to salute him and brushing off the President’s invitation to lunch. <br /> When Truman asked MacArthur if there was any chance of the Red Chinese joining in the war, MacArthur assured him there was no possibility. This same day in Beijing Mao Zedong was ordering General Lin Piao to move 300,000 troops to Korea. At one point Truman and MacArthur joked about Dwight Eisenhower thinking he could run for president. Truman said Ike didn’t know anything about politics and his administration would be more corrupt than Ulysses Grants’. Eisenhower did win election and his two terms were well run and scandal free.<br /> <br /> 1951- THE FIRST I LOVE LUCY SHOW- The successful family sitcom began its pilot episode this night. CBS and sponsor Phillip Morris had wanted Lucille Ball to transfer her popular radio show-“My Favorite Husband” to television. The story of the family life of Ricky Ricardo, a Cuban immigrant nightclub bandleader, his daffy wife Lucy, and their landlord friends Fred and Ethel Murtz became an overnight sensation. <br /> The show was shot on film instead of live TV, and it was produced in Los Angeles instead of New York City because Lucy and Desi Arnez refused to relocate back east. Lucy also refused the networks request that Desi be replaced with a more Anglo husband. The show also pioneered the three camera shooting system for sitcoms, still used to this day. Developed by Desi and Karl Freund, the cameraman behind Metropolis and The Mummy. When Lucille Ball was off being pregnant, the show proved re-runs could be just as popular as first-time showings. The January 1953 episode of little Ricky’s birth drew more viewers than the inauguration of President Eisenhower.<br /> <br /> 1959- Twentieth Century Fox signed Elizabeth Taylor to star in their new movie Cleopatra. The first time an actor was paid a million dollars for one movie. By the time production wrapped, she had earned $7 million. <br /> <br /> 1965- The first large scale peace protests over U.S. involvement in Vietnam began in Oakland California. David Miller is the first young man to burn his draft card, followed by many others. Chants of “One, Two, Three, Four, We don’t want your F**king War! Uncle Sam, Drop the Bomb! We Don’t Wanna Go to Nam!”<br /> <br /> 1969- THE MORATORIUM- 250,000 people gathered in Washington to protest the War in Vietnam. Richard Nixon had run as a peace candidate but once in office escalated the Vietnam conflict to include Cambodia and Laos. President Nixon came to regard the young student protestors as the chief enemies of his administration. In Chicago, young student John Belushi was hit in the chest with a tear gas shell and had to be dragged to safety.<br /> Nixon appealed to the Silent Majority, staged stunts like the Hard Hat Luncheon-an event thrown for conservative construction workers. According to John Dean, by 1971 Nixon had a bunker built under the executive offices where aide John Ehrlichman monitored protests from a battery of television monitors. Nixon stalwart G. Gordon Liddy pitched preposterous schemes like infiltrating the students with mercenaries who would at a signal beat up people, and strategic commando style kidnapping of protest leaders. These schemes were never implemented. <br /> <br /> 1969- The film musical Paint Your Wagon opened. Lerner &amp; Lowe, Paddy Chayevsky, Andre Previn, Lee Marvin, Jean Seberg, Nelson Riddle, Josh Logan, with Clint Eastwood singing!<br /> <br /> 1970- Height of the Canadian October Crisis. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau sent in army troops into Quebec to quell separatist riots and arrest terrorists of the FLQ.<br /> <br /> 1976- What’s Love got to do with it? Ike and Tina Turner break up.<br /> <br /> 1988- Bottom of the 9th, old, injured, Kirk Gibson came off the bench and hit the game winning home run to give the LA Dodgers victory over the Oakland A’s.<br /> <br /> 1989- Wayne Gretsky surpassed Gordie Howe’s all time record of scored points in hockey-1,850. The Great One went on to set a new record of 2,837 points before his retirement.<br /> <br /> 1991- After weeks of bitter hearings Justice Clarence Thomas was confirmed to the Supreme Court to take the seat of Civil Rights pioneer Thurgood Marshall. The Anti-Affirmative Action black republican’s appointment was challenged by allegations that he sexually harassed one of his female staff, Professor Anita Hill.<br /> <br /> 2003- On the anniversary of the Long March, Wang Lee Wei became the first Chinese astronaut to go into space.<br /> <br /> 2018- Sears Roebuck, once the largest retail store in America, declared bankruptcy.<br /> ======================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean if you are unguiculate? <br /> <br /> Answer: Most mammals, including humans, are unguiculate. It is an adjective that means you have claws or nails.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 14 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6284 <p>Quiz: What does it mean if you are unguiculate? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Answer below: In the Middle Ages they called the drink Aqua-Vitae, the Water of Life. What do we call it today?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 10/14/2023<br /> B-Days: William Penn-1644, King James II Stuart, Joseph Plateau, Sword master Masoaka Shiki 1867, Dwight Eisenhower, Lillian Gish, Ralph Lauren, Eamon De Valera, e.e. cummings, Mobutu Sese Seko, C. Everett Koop, John Dean III, Cliff Richards, Jack Arnold the director of the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Ralph Lauren- real name Ralph Lifshitz, Roger Moore. <br /> <br /> Feast of St Theresa of Avila<br /> <br /> Happy National Desert Day.<br /> 1066-WHEN WILLIAM ROSE AND HAROLD FELL- BATTLE OF HASTINGS- The Norman army of William the Bastard defeated and killed King Harold Godwinson of the Anglo-Saxons. The occupation and settlement of Norman French into England had a dramatic effect on the language ensuring the language you are now speaking would become English, instead of something between Dutch and Danish. The Normans also introduced the English to the concept of surnames- Wulf the Tailor yielding to Robert Beauceant and William Longchamps. Duke William, who was never fond of the title 'Bastard", became King William the Conqueror.<br /> <br /> 1318- When Scottish King Robert the Bruce won Scots independence, he sent his younger brother Edward to Ireland to organize their resistance. After 4 years of fighting , Edward de Brus was killed by the English at the Battle of Faughart. It is generally accepted that he left Ireland in worse shape than as he found it.<br /> <br /> 1492- Columbus and his men left San Salvador to continue west and look for Cipango- their name for Japan. 1529- WESTERN EUROPE DISCOVERED COFFEE- The first Turkish Siege of Vienna ended. Despite Sultan Sulieman the Magnificent telling his troops that if they didn't win, he would fill the Danube with their genitals, the Turkish army gave up the siege and fell back into Hungary. As the Viennese went through the Turkish camp, they found large quantities of black beans that tasted awful. A Polish mercenary named Adam Kolschitsky had lived in Turkey and knew what to do with them. He opened the first Viennese coffeehouse, the KolschitskyDom. He is also credited with inventing the coffee filter, which made the strong Turkish java palatable to Europeans. The Viennese commemorated their victory with a pastry shaped like the Turkish battle ensign, the crescent, or the croissant. <br /> <br /> 1670-At a performance before King Louis XIV the Sun King at the Chateau of Chambord Moliere’s satire “Le Bourgeouis Gentilhomme” premiered. Lully wrote the music. 1806- BATTLE OF JENA- Napoleon's army destroyed the Prussian (German) army and occupied Berlin in only six weeks. The Prussian army had been considered the finest in the world but by this time the legendary regiments of Frederick the Great were led by old men and a timid king. The average age of the sergeants was 50 and the generals 75! The night before the battle the Prussians gave up the strategic high ground to the French because it was too chilly for most of the old men to sleep in the open. Also, they had built their camp facing in the opposite direction from the enemy to be out of the wind. Shortly before they were hit from the fire of three hundred cannons, Prince Hohenlohe was telling his outposts to get some more sleep as there probably would be no battle that day. One other psychological tactic Napoleon used was he lined up 250 regimental bands so their combined musical power would augment the cannon in blowing the Germans out of their beds. A contemporary German analyst said; "The Prussian Army had to be very clever to lose that badly, for it had all the advantages." The embarrassing campaign caused major reform in the army and for the remainder of the 1800's Europe would fear French Militarism, not German.<br /> <br /> 1908- The Chicago Cubs defeated the Detroit Lions for their first World Series championship. The next time they won a World Series was 2016.<br /> <br /> 1912- While going to give a political speech in Milwaukee, a lunatic named William Shrenck shot Teddy Roosevelt in the chest. The bullet was slowed down tearing through his clothes, speech notes and tin eyeglasses case, and missed any important organs. Bleeding from his side Teddy spat in his hand to see if there was blood in his spittle, which would mean internal damage. Seeing there was none, he went ahead and gave his 90 minute speech before going to a hospital. -Bully!<br /> <br /> 1926- A.A. Milne’s first book of Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet and Christopher Robin debuted this day.<br /> <br /> 1934- The Lux Radio Theater premiered.<br /> <br /> 1940- While the Blitz raged above them, 14 year old Princess Elizabeth, The future Queen Elizabeth II, made her first radio address- to the evacuated children living away from their families. <br /> <br /> 1943- The Sobibor Uprising. At the Sobibor Concentration Camp the Jewish inmates launched a surprise attack on their guards. They were led by several Jews who were Red Army veterans and understood the use of weapons. After killing 16 SS guards, 365 inmates escaped into the countryside. Most were hunted down and killed but 47 survived.<br /> <br /> 1944- Field Marshal Ervin Rommel, the "Desert Fox", was forced by the Nazis to commit suicide by taking poison. He was a key figure in the July Generals Plot to assassinate Hitler and stop the war. At first Rommel demanded a public trial, but reluctantly accepted the quiet way in exchange for the Nazi's pledge not to harm his family. This way Berlin could claim Germany's greatest soldier died of his war wounds, instead of trying to revolt. <br /> <br /> 1944- British Paratroops liberated the city of Athens from the Nazis. 1947- Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier and achieved Mach I in the Bell XS-1 Glamorous Glennis.<br /> <br /> 1950- The LAPD raided a house party of gay men, which was illegal back then. One of the men arrested was future movie star Tab Hunter. This was kept secret until in 1955, when an angry agent Hunter leaked the story to Confidential Magazine. “Tab Hunter Busted at Limp-Wristed Pajama Party!” It soon blew over and Tab Hunter went on to have a full movie career.<br /> <br /> 1954- First day of shooting on Cecil B. DeMille’s remake of the Ten Commandments staring Charlton Heston out in the Egyptian desert. It was so brutally hot that Anne Baxter joked to Vincent Price “ Vin, who do I have to sleep with to get OFF this movie?”<br /> <br /> 1955- Actor Zero Mostel testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Zero made jokes at the committee’s expense, and even made some of them laugh, but was still blacklisted. In a playful mood, he told the Committee that he was employed by "19th Century-Fox." Zero denied he was a Communist, but refused to name names. He told the Committee that he would gladly discuss his own conduct, but was prohibited by religious convictions from naming others. Consequently, he was blacklisted during the 1950s. Shut out from the movies, he also lost many lucrative nightclub gigs, and he had to make due by playing gigs for meager salaries and by selling his paintings until the mid 1960s.<br /> <br /> 1959- Errol Flynn died of a heart attack in Vancouver. Exhausted by overindulgence in his favorite vices, doctors said the 50 year old movie star had the body of a 70 year old. A descendant of one of the Bounty mutineers, the Tasmanian born actor's last film was ' Cuban Rebel Girls'. <br /> <br /> 1962- THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS BEGAN- President John F. Kennedy was first shown top secret U-2 photos of Russian nuclear missile pads being constructed 90 miles away in Cuba. This meant instead of a 30 minute warning time a Soviet H-Bomb could hit New York or Washington in 7-10 minutes. Attorney General Robert Kennedy asked CIA operative Richard Helms: “Dick, is it true there are Russian missiles in Cuba?” When Helms replied there were, the normally erudite RFK reacted: “ OH, SHIT!!” For the next 14 days the world came closest its ever been to nuclear Armageddon. <br /> <br /> 1964- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr won the Nobel Peace Prize.<br /> <br /> 1964-IT’S FUN TO PLAY AT THE Y-M-C-A! Just three weeks before the presidential election, Lyndon Baines Johnson’s re-election was almost derailed by a gay sex scandal. One of LBJ’s closest aides Walter Jenkins, whom LBJ called My Vice President of Almost Everything, was busted by DC police for having a tryst with a Turkish diplomat in the YMCA locker room! He had been arrested for the same thing five years before. <br /> <br /> This day Walter Jenkins announced his resignation from the Johnson White House and was sent to a mental hospital. Lyndon Johnson distanced himself from Jenkins and the press was strong-armed to bury the story until after the election. Republican challenger Barry Goldwater was warned by the FBI that if he tried to use this story, they had plenty of info on the Arizona senator patronizing prostitutes. The story never effected the election. Barry Goldwater remarked:” Communists and c*cksuckers, what a way to win an election!”<br /> <br /> 1968- French Canadians who wanted independence from English Canada form a political party called the Parti-Quebecois. <br /> <br /> 1972 - KUNG FU, starring David Carradine, premiered on ABC TV.<br /> In her memoirs, Bruce Lee's widow, Linda Lee Cadwell, asserts that Lee created the concept for the series. There is circumstantial evidence for this in a December 8, 1971 television interview that Bruce Lee gave on The Pierre Berton Show. In the interview, Lee stated that he had developed a concept for a television series called THE WARRIOR, meant to star himself, about a martial artist in the American Old West (the same concept as KUNG FU, which aired the following year), but that he was having trouble pitching it to Warner Brothers and Paramount. Show creator and producer Ed Spielman denied taking Bruce Lees idea. He claimed he had been working on it on the East Coast long before. The show’s star David Carradine was a “gweilo”-Cantonese for white foreigner, pretending to be Chinese.<br /> <br /> 1972- Joe Cocker and his backup band were busted in Australia for drug possession.<br /> <br /> 1973- The Yom Kippur War between Arabs and Israelis almost drag the superpowers in as well. Russia had been supplying Egypt and Syria with their latest weapons. When Israeli tanks approached Damascus the Soviets warned Israel that if they attacked the Syrian capitol they would intervene with two Red Army airborne divisions. Israeli diplomat Yigail Allon said “From the way the Russians reacted you’d think they were protecting Stalingrad, rather than Damascus!” <br /> Prior to this time Israel would buy weapons on the international market, paying cash, but now the US refitted the Israeli military directly. This day President Nixon warned Moscow that any attempt to intervene in the Middle East would be matched by American ground forces. Both sides cooled off and the superpower confrontation was kept a secret until the 1990s. Ironically the early founders of Israel were Socialists. <br /> <br /> 1978- Lover Scott Thorsten “outs” pianist Liberace by filing a palimony suit.<br /> <br /> 1979- Wayne Gretsky scored his first goal.<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: In the Middle Ages they called the drink Aqua-Vitae, the Water of Life. What do we call it today?<br /> <br /> Answer: Whiskey.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6283 <p>Question: In the Middle Ages they called the drink Aqua-Vitae, the Water of Life. What do we call it today?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: “In Flanders Fields the poppies grow….” Where is Flanders?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 10/13/2023<br /> Birthdays: Revolutionary War hero Mary Ludwig nicknamed Molly Pitcher, Lily Langtry-the Jersey Lilly, Lenny Bruce, Larraine Day, Nipsy Russell, Cornel Wilde, Margaret Thatcher, Herblock, Yves Montand, Nancy Kerrigan, Sammy Hagar, Marie Osmond, Kelly Preston, Chris Carter, Paul Simon is 82, Sascha Baron-Cohen is 51<br /> <br /> HAPPY FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH- A Friday, the day Adam died and Jesus was crucified, combined with the number thirteen- Judas Iscariot is called the Thirteenth Apostle, and the Vikings considered wicked Loki the Thirteenth God. So today is considered an unlucky combination. But you have a Lucky Day!<br /> <br /> 539BC- The Persian armies of Cyrus the Great captured the city of Babylon, beginning the Persian Empire, which would last for a thousand years. Cyrus also allowed the Israelites to return home, ending their Babylonian Captivity. Cyrus is one of the few foreign kings the Old Testament has anything nice to say about.<br /> <br /> 54AD- Elderly Roman Emperor Claudius died from eating poisoned mushrooms served to him by his wife Agrippina. Another account has him vomiting out the mushrooms, so Agrippina administered to him an herbal enema which she also poisoned. This way she ensured her boy Nero would be emperor before Claudius could come to his senses about making that fat little monster his heir. Later as emperor Nero, had his mom killed. <br /> Robert Graves wrote that Claudius feigned simple-mindedness but many Romans felt it wasn’t an act. It was the custom when a Roman emperor died to deify him, make him a god. The writer Seneca thought it would be embarrassing for the gods to have a dolt like Claudius among their company. He wrote an epic poem on the subject called the 'Pumpkinification of Claudius”.<br /> <br /> 1269- Henry III's rebuilding of Westminster Abbey completed, the bones of St. Edward the Confessor were re-interred.<br /> <br /> 1307- MASSACRE of the TEMPLARS- The Knights Templar were an order of warrior monks named for their Crusader base at the site of the Temple of Herod in Jerusalem. After the Crusades, while the Knights of St John Hospitaler continued to fight Muslims in Greece and Malta, the Templars settled back in Europe and went into banking. They amassed great wealth all tax-free because it was Church property. This annoyed kings like Britain’s Edward I and France’s Phillip the Fair. So, this day Phillip bribed the Pope to declare the entire Templar Order heretics and burned at the stake. As the Templar Grand Master Jacques De Molay was roasting at the stake, he called out to the king through the flames,”Phillip de Valois! I charge YOU to stand with me before the throne of GOD one year from today to answer for your crimes!” Molay died, but the Curse of the Grand Master had its effect. Later in the year King Phillip did indeed decline from a wasting disease and die. (Guizot, Histoire de France)<br /> <br /> Myths abound about the Templars having bizarre rituals and secrets like the location of the Holy Grail, but most of it was made up by the Inquisitors to frame them. But one neat idea they brought back from the Middle East was the personal check. This way a Templar Knight could cross international borders without carrying heavy bags of gold, then go to the nearest Templar castle and redeem a note with his signet on it for money. <br /> <br /> 1590- Chief Powhatan, head of a confederation of Algonquian tribes in the Chesapeake Bay area, wiped out a Spanish Jesuit colony attempting to set up on his beach. He had heard from the Seminoles in Florida what these metal clad palefaces were capable of. Nineteen years later in 1607 another annoying bunch of English palefaces landed on his beach, but this time Powhatan was curious about these ones, especially when one started dating his daughter Pocahontas.<br /> <br /> 1670- The Virginia Colony passed a law that Negroes brought from Africa who proved to be Christians could not be kept as slaves. That law was repealed a year later.<br /> <br /> 1685- French King Henry IV had ended a long period of religious wars by granting freedom of worship with the Edict of Nantes. Later King Louis XIV decided Henry was a knucklehead and all Frenchmen should be Catholic, so this day he revoked the Edict of Nantes. This drove many French Protestants (Huguenots) to Canada, England, and America. In Ireland at the Battle of the Boyne 1690, there were as many expatriate French Protestants and Catholics shooting each other as Irish and Brits.<br /> <br /> 1768- THE BIRTH OF YANKEE DOODLE- The first written evidence of the song being played, this day by a British army band at a harvest festival in the Hudson Valley. The song means Yankee Doodle- American Dummy... “ stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni" A macaroni was English slang then for someone dressed in the latest Italian fashions, hence a dandy. That just because the Yankee sticks a feather in his hat, he thinks he is a gentleman. Later in the Revolution the song meant to lampoon Americans was adopted by the rebels and played with pride at the British while they were laying down their arms at Yorktown and Saratoga.<br /> <br /> 1792- Cornerstone of the White House set. First called the President’s Palace, later the Executive Mansion, it was modeled by James Hoban after the Irish estate house of the Duke of Leinster. Instead of a chaplain, President George Washington had Masters of the Masonic Rite sanctify the building with their secret rituals. The mansion took 8 years to build. Constant problems halted construction like when the workers went on strike when the government closed down their on-site brothel. A compromise was made to move it off site.<br /> When President John Adams moved in in 1800 it still wasn't finished, plus Washington took all the furniture with him. Abigail Adams hung her wash in the East Room because of the nice breeze. It wasn't until after the British torched the place in 1814 did it receive it's first coat of whitewash. The Oval Office wasn't built until Truman's time in 1947.<br /> <br /> 1812- Battle of Queenstown Heights. First major battle of the War of 1812. It cost the life of the brilliant young British General Issac Brock, but he saved Canada from the invading United States.<br /> <br /> 1815- Joachim Murat shot by firing squad. Marshal Murat was France's bravest cavalry leader. A wild bon-vivant, he would "ride to the sound of the guns" dressed in peacock feathers and gaudy uniforms, but amazingly was never harmed. Trying to regain the throne Napoleon gave him in Naples, his luck finally gave out when the Neapolitans put him up against the wall. His last words were:" AIM FOR THE HEART! DON'T TOUCH MY FACE!!" <br /> <br /> 1843- Bnai’ Brith, the oldest Jewish benevolent organization, was founded in New York by Henry Jones. It means “Sons of the Covenant”.<br /> <br /> 1845- Texans vote to accept annexation into the United States.<br /> <br /> 1857- Wall Street has yet another financial panic and crash.<br /> <br /> 1903- Victor Herbert’s operetta Babes in Toyland premiered.<br /> <br /> 1904- Sigmund Freud's book 'The Interpretation of Dreams" first published.<br /> <br /> 1918- BATTLE OF THE COTES DU CHATILLON- During the American offensive to break the German lines in World War I, the Cotes Du Chatillon was a hilltop studded with fortifications, machine guns and barbed wire fields up to 25 feet wide. General Pershing called his cocky young “Boy Colonel” Douglas MacArthur and said “MacArthur! Take the Cotes Du Chatillon or hand me a list of 5,000 casualties!” MacArthur replied:” I’ll take the hill or my name shall top the list!”<br /> This day, MacArthur personally led his Rainbow Division over the top without a gun or helmet, just a riding crop and his West Point varsity sweater. His doughboys captured the hill, but at such a frightful cost that MacArthur for years could not speak of it without tears. In his campaigns in World War II MacArthur became good at outmaneuvering enemy strong points to avoid high casualties. <br /> <br /> 1938- RKO Pictures was having a salary dispute with their singing cowboy Gene Autry. So, they cast around for another handsome cowpoke. Today they signed a Cincinnati born dentist from a vocal group called the Sons of the Pioneers named Leonard Slye. He became a star with the film “Under Western Skies” under his new name- Roy Rogers. <br /> <br /> 1947- Kukla, Fran &amp; Ollie debuted on television. Burt Tillstrom was the creator and puppeteer, and Fran was his wife.<br /> <br /> 1964- Mary Pinchot Mayer was a Washington DC socialite, artist, and the sister-in-law to Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee. On this day she was murdered while strolling a Georgetown footpath at noon. A black homeless person was accused of the murder, but later acquitted. Her sister took her diary to the CIA office of counterintelligence. It was said her diary admitted a long affair with President John F. Kennedy and claimed that on two occasions she and JFK smoked marijuana in the White House. <br /> At this time his brother Robert Kennedy was still Attorney General. The diary was never seen again. Was it an FBI, CIA hit? Many women claimed President Kennedy as a lover. Judith Cambell-Exner claimed to be schtupping the Prez and the head of the Chicago Mafia at the same time, yet she lived to a merry old age. Mary Pinchot Mayer’s killer has never been found.<br /> <br /> 1970- Black activist Angela Davis was arrested on suspicion she smuggled guns to a Black Panther group so they could stage a shootout with California police. The evidence was thin and it was more about the Berkeley professor’s radical political philosophy that got her arrested. Back you need more than just suspicion to lock somebody up in the Good Old US of A, so Angela Davis was acquitted after a long, very public trial.<br /> <br /> 1973- During the Yom Kippur War between Israel and Egypt, this day saw the largest mass tank battle since World War II. While Egyptian SAM anti-aircraft missiles kept away the Israeli air force, two thousand tanks, more than was at the Battle of the Bulge, twisted, turned, and blasted each other in the Sinai Desert. They didn’t have to aim, they could look out their gun barrel and see their opponent as close as 100 yards apart. Today, urban warfare and improved shoulder-held rockets have made tanks increasingly irrelevant.<br /> <br /> 1978- Mickey Mouse gets his star on Hollywood Blvd Walk of Fame.<br /> <br /> 1982- The computer spreadsheet program Lotus 1-2-3 introduced.<br /> <br /> 1988- Scientists declared the Shroud of Turin a high-quality medieval forgery. Even the Vatican was curious whether the thing was genuine or not. In 2010 another study also concluded it was a forgery. But many persist in the belief that the Shroud is the real burial cloth of Jesus, with an imprint of his body left by the heat of the Resurrection, like some kind of miraculous Xerox copy.<br /> <br /> 1993- The Nightmare Before Christmas premiered. Directed by Henry Selick. Based on a three page poem Tim Burton wrote in the 80s while a bored Disney staff animator. <br /> <br /> 2016 – Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.<br /> ======================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: “In Flanders Fields the poppies grow….” Where is Flanders?<br /> <br /> Answer: Flanders is a province of Belgium.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 11 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6282 <p>Question: Which is further East? The Ozarks or the Appalachian Mountains?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: What is a cat o’ nine tails?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 10/11/2023<br /> Birthdays: Eleanor Roosevelt, Henry Heinz the Ketchup king, Jerome Robbins, Carl Hubbard, Ron Leibman, John Candy, Omar Shariff, Ben Vereen, Art Blakey, Luke Perry, Joan Cusak, Jane Krakowski, Sig Ruman– the fat actor with the goatee and the over-the-top German accent in the Marx Brothers comedies.<br /> <br /> Today is the Feast Day of Saint Bruno of Cologne, the son of Saint Matilda and King Henry the Fowler.<br /> <br /> 1303- Pope Boniface VIII died. He was the Pope who first proclaimed Papal dominance in the bull Unam Sanctam, and who used to declare crusades against Italian families he didn't like. He died a raving lunatic in the dungeons of San Angelo eating the flesh off of his own arms. Dante hated him so much, in his poem "The Inferno" he has two devils stirring a boiling cauldron of lead and calling up to the world above:" Hey Boniface! When are you coming down? It's almost ready!" <br /> <br /> 1424- Czech general John of Ziska died of plague at age 64. He had never been defeated and led battles even when almost blind. When dying, he ordered that his body be skinned, and the skin dried and used to make a drum for his army. Tough Czech.<br /> 1492- As the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria continue sailing west, Christopher Columbus' fear crazed men began to see signs that land was close at hand: floating driftwood, a carved stick, moths, a seabird.<br /> <br /> 1531- Battle of Kappell- Civil war broke out between the Swiss cantons that were Catholic and the Protestant ones. In this battle the Catholics won. Among the killed was Ulrich Zwingli, the great Protestant theologian.<br /> <br /> 1649- Oliver Cromwell and his Ironside army captured the Irish town of Wexford and massacred all the inhabitants. A month earlier when the town of Drogheda was stormed, many thought the massacre was due to the stubbornness of its defense. But the slaying of the defenders of little Wexford showed that Cromwell intended to use terror as a weapon to pacify Ireland. No pity would be shown. <br /> <br /> 1737- A huge earthquake in Bejing China killed 300,000. 1776- The Battle of Valcour Island- American patriot Benedict Arnold built a little navy on Lake Champlain and let himself get shot up to slow down a huge British invasion force under Canadian Governor-General Sir Guy Carleton. Because of Arnold's delaying tactics it became too late in the year to cut off Washington's army retreating from New York and crush the Revolution in it's first year. Sir Guy Carleton's force had to return to Canada and wait until April for the Spring thaw. Valcour Island sometimes is called the first action of the U.S. Navy. One of Arnold’s little boats was recovered and today is in the Smithsonian.<br /> 1779- Battle of Savannah- During the Revolution, Polish immigrant Count Casimir Pulaski was killed leading a cavalry attack against British positions. He had been involved in a plot to kidnap the King of Poland, was a lover of Catherine the Great, and was in debtor's prison in Marseilles before running into Ben Franklin who sent him to America. He was the only officer to ever hold the rank in the U.S. Army of Master of Horse. <br /> <br /> 1800- The remaining French army trapped in Egypt and abandoned by Napoleon, made a deal with the Egyptians and their English allies to be evacuated back to France. One of the things that had to give up was the Rosetta Stone, the key to deciphering Ancient Hieroglyphics. Another thing the French troops brought back to Europe was marijuana, easily purchased in Egyptian bazaars. The old soldiers said the weed didn’t give you a hangover like drinking brandy did and made recovering from wounds easier.<br /> 1809- MERIWETHER LEWIS’ SUICIDE- Colonel Meriwether Lewis, of Lewis and Clark fame, shot himself -twice. He missed and wounded himself in the head the first time. He was 35. Meriwether Lewis was governor of Upper Louisiana (Missouri, Wisconsin, Montana, Illinois) and was the personal protégé of Presidents Jefferson and Monroe. It’s not inconceivable to assume that he would have been president one day. <br /> Some contend that Lewis didn't commit suicide but was murdered, because it was at a small tavern on the Natchez Trace, he had been arguing with some men along the road, and he was found with two head wounds, and his belly slashed with a bowie knife. Another scholar recently theorized Lewis was suffering from delirium caused by advanced syphilis, which he may have contracted from a Shoshone woman while on the great trek over the Rockies. His friends Thomas Jefferson and Captain Clark maintained Lewis was emotionally overwrought and was drinking too much. Back then alcoholism was not considered as bad a vice as venereal indiscretions. What an important United States Territorial Governor was doing riding all alone with no staff on a country road is still a mystery. <br /> <br /> 1867- General George Armstrong Custer was courts-martialed for leaving his post without permission to see his wife Libby, ordering his men to shoot deserters in peacetime, and marching his troops too excessively. He was found guilty but only given a years suspension of pay.<br /> <br /> 1868- Telegraph operator Thomas Edison patented his first invention. It was a device that recorded the votes of legislators automatically. It proved unpopular with politicians because it eliminated their ability to rig votes. <br /> <br /> 1890- The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) formed. 1899- THE SECOND ANGLO-BOER WAR. Ever since the British took over South Africa they had to contend with the fiercely independent German Dutch settlers called Afrikaners or Boers. Warfare flared up in 1886 but was settled temporarily. <br /> Now egged on by the German Kaiser, and threatened by the nationalistic pressures of English speaking immigrants (Uitlanders), President Kruger of the Transvaal ("Oom Paul" -Uncle Paul) attacked the Orange Free State and the Cape Colony to throw off British domination. The Boers were defeated after three bloody years which saw the development of military barbed wire, khaki uniforms replacing redcoats (from the Persian word for dust, advocated by Arthur Conan-Doyle) and concentration camps. Twenty five thousand Boers died, of them only five thousand were soldiers, the rest were uprooted civilians stuffed into camps with inadequate sanitary conditions. <br /> Despite his belligerent talk, the Kaiser begged off sending any aid, despite pleas from the Queen of Holland. When German-American societies asked Vice Presidential candidate Teddy Roosevelt to condemn British policy, Teddy replied: " It is right and natural that stronger nations should gobble up weaker ones!”<br /> <br /> 1906- The San Francisco Board of Education ordered children of Chinese and Japanese ancestry placed in segregated schools. This act caused outrage back in Japan who thought the Americans were their friends after helping settle their war with Russia. President Teddy Roosevelt intervened and forced San Francisco to rescind their law. <br /> 1910- Teddy Roosevelt becomes the first U. S. President to fly in an airplane.<br /> <br /> 1939- Albert Einstein sent a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt describing the feasibility of atomic weapons, and urging the US to begin an atomic program before Hitler created an A-Bomb. Years later with atomic weapons a reality, Einstein said of his letter of Oct.11, “ It was the biggest mistake of my life.”<br /> <br /> 1942- As the Russian Army continued to collapse before the Nazi invasion, dictator Josef Stalin reacted in the best way he knew- an act of terror. This day he signed Order # 227. It ordered no further retreat and the penalty of death for cowardice. The Russian Secret Police NKVD planted troops behind the combat soldiers called blockers who machine-gunned anyone falling back. They also set up Penal Battalions of solders arrested for cowardice (Straftbat). The only way out of these suicide squads was to show a wound got in battle, in which case your record would read” Atoned with his own blood”. Just last week in the modern Ukraine war, Putin has re-established penal battalions in the Russian Army.<br /> <br /> 1944-“ To Have and to Have Not,” written by Ernest Hemingway premiered. The movie paired Humphrey Bogart with a sultry Harpers model turned actress Betty-Lou Persky, now renamed Lauren Bacall. Bacall originally had a higher voice, but director Howard Hawks told her every day to go behind the soundstage and scream for an hour, to bring her voice down to a dusky, sexy alto. It worked on Bogart, who fell in love and married her despite his being 44 and she 20 years old. They called each other Slim and Steve after the characters in the film. “If you want me, just whistle. You know how to whistle, don’t you? Just put your lips together and blow.”<br /> <br /> 1956- The Muppets first appeared on national TV, on the Steve Allen Show.<br /> <br /> 1960- The Bugs Bunny Show premiered on TV. “Overture, Curtain, lights! This is it, we’ll hit the heights, and oh what heights we’ll hit…..etc..”<br /> <br /> 1962- Pope John XXIII convened the 2Nd Ecumenical Council. Nicknamed Vatican II, it instituted major reforms in the Catholic Church including ordering the Mass said in the vernacular instead of Latin, and toleration of Judaism and other faiths. Many conservative Catholic splinter groups including the one Mel Gibson’s family belonged to are still mad about Vatican II.<br /> <br /> 1962- McHales Navy TV show premiered. Starring Ernest Borgnine, Tim Conway and Joe Flynn.<br /> <br /> 1967- The NY Times printed an image of a nude by Bell Lab artists-in-residence Leon Harmon and Ken Knowlton. Titled Study in Perception I, It was done on a computer as a digital mosaic of thousands of numbers. It was an early breakthrough in digital imaging or CGI.<br /> <br /> 1968- Apollo 7 blasted off. The first of the Apollo Program, replacing the Gemini program.<br /> 1975- NBC needed a Saturday replacement for the Best Of Carson reruns, so Lorne Michaels’ TV show SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE premiered. Featuring the Not-Yet-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players: John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, Gilda Radner, Garrett Morris, Chevy Chase, Lorraine Newman, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin and Michael O’Donaghue. First guest host George Carlin did his opening monologue while stoned.<br /> Albert Brooks did a short film and Andy Kaufman did his Mighty Mouse lip sync bit. <br /> Paul Shaefer conducted the music and the show was held in NBC’s Studio 8H, which was built originally for Maestro Arturo Toscanini and The NBC Symphony of the Air. At the last moment a sketch by young Billy Crystal was cut from the show. <br /> The show also revived the career of announcer Don Pardo, who had trouble finding work since the original Jeopardy quiz show was canceled. He was the announcer for the show until his death in 2014 at age 96.<br /> <br /> 1975- Bill Clinton married Hillary Rodham.<br /> <br /> 1976- After the death of Chairman Mao, Chinese authorities arrest his widow Chiang Ching and three followers and accused them of plotting a coup- the Gang of Four. <br /> <br /> 1978- Sex Pistols bass player Sid Vicious murdered his girlfriend Nancy Spungen at the Chelsea Hotel in New York. Sid was too stoned to explain why he had killed her. It’s assumed they had a suicide pact. Sid Vicious died of an overdose before his trial.<br /> <br /> 1987- The AIDS Quilt was first displayed on the National Mall in Washington.<br /> <br /> 1991- Comedian Redd Foxx was famous for doing bits like faking a heart attack. This day on the set of his new TV series The Royal Family, while joking with Della Reese, he clutched his chest and fell over. Everyone thought he was faking and laughed. But this time he wasn’t. He died at the hospital an hour later.<br /> <br /> 2001- V.S. Naipul won the Nobel Prize for literature.<br /> <br /> 2005- Angela Merkel named Chancellor of Germany. She is the first woman to lead Germany and the first head of state from the former East Germany. <br /> ===============================================================-<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is a cat o’ nine tails?<br /> <br /> Answer: In Lord Nelson’s Navy it was a whip with nine leather straps, usually festooned with metal stars to increase the victim pain. A “kiss of the cat” meant to be flogged as punishment.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 09 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6281 <p>Question: What does it mean to have someone “over a barrel”?<br /> <br /> Quiz: What is a cuttlefish?<br /> =============================================================<br /> History for 10/9/2023<br /> Birthdays: Camille Saint Saens, E. Howard Hunt, Jacques Tati, Alastair Sim, Bruce Catton, Joe Pepitone, cartoonist Mike Peters, Savannah, John Lennon would be 82, his son Sean Lennon, E. Howard Hunt, Scott Bakula, Peter Tosh, Charles Rudolph Walgren-the inventor of the modern Drugstore, Guillermo Del Toro is 58, Tony Schaloub is 70, Pete Doctor is 55.<br /> <br /> Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! Societies have celebrated bringing in the harvest since primitive times. About forty years before the pilgrims of Massachusetts, English explorer Martin Frobisher and his crew exploring Canada celebrated at a harvest feast with the indigenous peoples in 1578. The first official celebration of Canadian Thanksgiving was in November of 1879, and in 1957, it was set as celebrate the second Monday in October. <br /> <br /> 270AD- Saint Denis and several followers were sent to preach in Paris (then Lutetia, home of a tribe of Gauls called the Parisi). The local Roman authorities had them rounded up and beheaded on a small hill north of town. The hill is today called the Hill of Martyrs, or Montmartre. The legend goes Saint Denis was so indignant at this lack of hospitality, that he picked up his head and walked out of town. Where he reached the city limits his body dropped down lifeless. This is where basilica of St. Denis (1122) stands.<br /> <br /> 1000AD- VIKINGS DISCOVER AMERICA. Viking Leif Ericsson beached his dragonships in Labrador, Canada. He calls it Vinland. There are several theories why: one was because of an abundance of grapevines he discovered. Another is that the old Norse crossed with Latin Vinland could also be described as Land of Pastures. The Vikings settled a colony in America but it didn't take, and was withdrawn for unknown reasons. Perhaps the mini-Ice Age temperatures that made the winters tough even for Scandinavians. The second expedition under Thorfinn Karlsefni called the natives they met Skraelings, and claimed they met a race of one legged men. <br /> <br /> 1192- Richard the Lionheart left the Holyland. End of the Third Crusade. He planned to return in 1196 and take back Jerusalem from Saladin, but he died first.<br /> <br /> 1609- Invalid Captain John Smith is put on a ship back to England. Smith had earlier gotten stung by a stingray and almost died. This time a powder horn exploded on his hip and blew out part of his side. While Smith was leader of the Jamestown Colony, he had many enemies among the jealous gentry. Some don't think it was an accident. Opinions also differ as to why the Jamestown settlers put Smith through a two-month Atlantic crossing that would kill even healthy men. Some say they were hoping he wouldn't make it. <br /> He did survive, but never returned to Jamestown. Nobody told Pocahontas, and when she visited the camp, the men told her he was dead and forget about him. She would meet him ten years later in England when she was a wife and mother of the children of settler John Rolfe. Eyewitnesses said he was “shocked” when she ran into Smith alive and well.<br /> <br /> 1635- Pilgrim Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts colony for saying the government should not be involved in determining someone’s religion. <br /> <br /> 1701- Yale University chartered.<br /> <br /> 1744- Peace of Kleinschellendorf- Frederick II the Great makes peace with Maria Theresa of Austria ending Prussian participation in the War of Austrian Succession.<br /> <br /> 1779- THE LUDDITES- A movement of English peasants and tradesmen started by a man named Ned Lud who felt that all this newfangled machinery was going to cost them their jobs. The Luddites roamed the countryside smashing any looms, pistons, flywheels or other such devices they encountered. A similar movement in France. French peasants would remove their wooden clogs, called sabots, and throw them into a machine's gears to jam them, and coined the term- Saboteurs.<br /> <br /> 1781- George Washington and the Comte du Rochambeau commenced the bombardment of English positions opening the Battle of Yorktown. Not much credit is given to Rochambeau that even though he considered himself the more experienced tactician, he deferred to Washington as the commander of the allied army. Privately, Rocheambeau didn’t think the American rebels had much of a chance. Still, when the Yankee payroll dried up, he paid the US troops out of his own fortune. <br /> <br /> 1809- The first Royal Jubilee celebrated in England. The monarchy had taken a number of hits lately. King George III was a blind, insane shut in and the Prince Regent and Princess of Wales were separated and quarreling. So, an old widow named Mrs Biggs came up with the idea of a celebration of King George's 50th anniversary of his reign as a way to boost morale. It worked and it's been a custom ever since.<br /> <br /> 1855- James Stoddard patents the steam calliope. <br /> <br /> 1888- The Washington Monument finally opened to the public. Construction on it was begun in 1840 and discontinued for a decade during the Civil War. Work was also held up when Protestant workmen refused to use marble donated by Pope Pius IX. It was dedicated the previous year by President Arthur. But he did it in February, and only 300 people showed up in the cold.<br /> <br /> 1899- Chicago writer and travelling salesman L. Frank Baum wrote a friend that he had just finished a new children’s book called The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. “It is the best thing I’ve written, so they tell me. We’ll see if the queer and fickle public will like it.” It became a huge bestseller.<br /> <br /> 1905- The World Series resumes after a one-year haggle between the owners of the American and National leagues. A best of seven contest between the N.Y. Giants and the Philadelphia Athletics. It would continue undisturbed until 1994 with the players strike.<br /> <br /> 1919- After a year overseas serving in WWI, young volunteer Walt Disney arrived back home in America and was mustered out.<br /> <br /> 1938- Eugene O'Neill's play 'The Iceman Cometh' opened.<br /> <br /> 1951- RKO Pictures asked Marilyn Monroe to please wear panties while working? She was distracting the film crew.<br /> <br /> 1963- Uganda became a republic from a British Colony.<br /> <br /> 1981- Sir Hugh Hudson’s movie Chariots of Fire, about British Olympians at the 1924 Paris Olympics became a sleeper hit. The decision to let Greek composer Vangelis score the period film with an all-electronic synthesizer soundtrack became a sensation. Soon most of the movies of that time had synthesizer tracks. People said symphony orchestras, Jazz quintets and garage bands would all be obsolete.<br /> <br /> 1983- Ronald Reagan’s Interior Secretary James Watt was forced to resign. Watt was a former oil industry lawyer who galvanized popular anger over his views on ecology, such as what's wrong with a few MacDonald’s hamburger stands in the Grand Canyon? Yet he refused to allow the Beach Boys to perform at a public 4th of July concert in DC because he felt they attracted: ”An unsavory element”. The thing that proved Watt’s downfall was a comment he made about a government panel he had just convened. Quote Secty Watt:” We have all bases covered. We have a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple!”<br /> <br /> 1986- People said there would never be more than three networks. Today the first show of the fourth network, The Fox Network's the Late Show with Joan River's, premiered. That show failed, but future hits like The Simpson's, Married With Children and the X-Files made Fox a major network within ten years.<br /> <br /> 1989- First edition of Penthouse Magazine in Hebrew. Oy Vey!<br /> <br /> 2009- President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.<br /> ============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is a cuttlefish?<br /> <br /> Answer: Related to squid and octopus, cuttlefish have eight legs and two tentacles and can secret ink. They are smart and can change their pigment in many different iterations in order to communicate, defend or disguise themselves. Cuttlefish are good eatin’ for lots of predators, including humans. (Thanks FG)<br /> <br /> Artistic trivia: The brown/black cuttlefish ink, called “sepia” since ancient times, is the origin for the word we use today to describe the popular warm brown-ish tone.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 08 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6280 <p>-------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Quiz: What is a cuttlefish?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: Ford motorcars was begun by Henry Ford. Chevrolet was begun by the brothers Chevrolet. But Cadillac was begun by a guy named Henry Leland. So, who was Cadillac?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 10/8/2023<br /> Birthdays: Eddie Rickenbacker, Rev Jesse Jackson, Juan Peron, David Carradine, Art Babbitt -the creator of Goofy would be 116, Chevy Chase is 80, Paul Hogan, Ruben Mamoulian, Edward Zwick, Johnny Ramone, Bruno Mars, Sigourney Weaver is 74, Matt Damon is 53<br /> <br /> Today is the feast day of Saint Demetrius of Thesalonikki<br /> <br /> 451AD- The Council of Chalcedon opened. <br /> <br /> 1777- During the Revolution, British General Clinton tried to get a message through to Burgoyne and his army trapped at Saratoga. He sent a Tory-Loyalist with a message rolled up and hidden in a solid silver capsule. When he was intercepted by the Americans, the messenger swallowed the capsule before he was searched. He was given a heavy emetic "whereupon he soon produced the capsule, which he proceeded to grab and swallow again. Another emetic was administered and he produced the capsule again." The message was opened and read, then the man was hanged as a spy."<br /> <br /> 1846- The Battle of Old Woman's Gun (also called The Battle of Dominguez Ranch). In 1846 During the Mexican War, United States forces had taken the pueblo of Los Angeles. But after a few weeks the first Yankee mayor, a Lt. Gillespie, was so hated, that the Mexican citizens drove them out of town. On this day the US forces came up from their fleet anchored in San Pedro Harbor and tried to re-take the town. Mexican forces led by a rancher and son of the former governor Jose Carillo routed the Yankees with an old 4 pounder signal cannon, that an old lady had buried in her front yard. She had hid the old gun when Gillespie ordered the population disarmed. The Angeleanos had no gun carriage so they lashed the old gun to a wagon harness. <br /> Six months later, the US forces finally overcame LA resistance and the town stayed American.<br /> <br /> 1862-THE BATTLE OF PERRYVILLE- Union forces defeat General Braxton Bragg's Confederates and prevent Kentucky from joining the Confederacy. Abe Lincoln said: " I hope I have God on my side, but I Must have Kentucky." The Confederates had actually pushed the Yankees off the field and were at the edge of victory, but Bragg overestimated the enemies strength the next day and ordered a general retreat, wasting everything they gained. His second in command General Kirby Smith resigned in disgust. The commander of the Union Army Gen. Don Carlos Buell, was so distracted with other business that he was unaware that his army had fought a battle. He was soon replaced. <br /> <br /> 1871- THE GREAT CHICAGO FIRE- Legend said in a shed behind 137 DeKoven St, Old Mrs. O'Leary's cow knocks over a lantern and starts a fire that burns down 17,500 buildings and kills 300 including Mayor Roswell Mason. The fire jumped the Chicago River and people rode their carriages into Lake Michigan and even jumped into open graves to escape. Eventually the firemen’s pumpers ran out of water and the Northside kept burning past Fullerton until it burned itself out when it hit open prairie. 300,000 were left homeless. One of the only downtown buildings to survive the inferno was Chicago’s beloved old water tower. The slaughter houses and grain elevators also survived so business could go on. Ironically the O'Leary house stayed intact, just the barn burned. Two journalists later admitted inventing the O’Leary cow story to sell newspapers.<br /> <br /> 1871-THE GREAT PESHTIGO FIRE- The most deadly fire in North American history occurred on the exact same day as the Chicago Fire, but this one was in Peshtigo Wisconsin. A forest fire started by loggers burning debris built into a firestorm (actually a flaming tornado) and destroyed a wooden town killing 1,200 in a town of 1,750, five times as many deaths as the Chicago Fire. The tornado caught dozens of people during church services. Three hundred died trying to escape across a wooden bridge that caught fire and burned from both ends. Survivors saw "people and cows stagger a few feet and go down burning brightly, like so many pieces of pitch pine." A heavy rain fell the next day. One day late.<br /> <br /> 1906- In Paris, Swiss inventor Ludwig Pressler demonstrated the first electric 'permanent -wave' hair curler. <br /> <br /> 1907- Charles Frederick Dow, one of the founders of the Wall Street Journal, started his system of charting the average performance of industrial stocks, the Dow Jones Industrial Average.<br /> <br /> 1915- The Battle of Loos. British troops released poison gas at the German lines. The wind suddenly shifted and blew the gas back on their own men. D’oh!<br /> <br /> 1918- SERGANT YORK- simple Tennessee hillbilly Alvin York was drafted into the U.S. Army where his crack shot talents enabled him this day to shoot up an entire German regiment. When his captain asked “ What did you do Alvin? Shoot the entire German Army?” He replied “ Nossuh, just 132 of them…” He captured 300 prisoners alone, with only his single shot Springfield rifle. He got the Medal of Honor and a tickertape parade. Then went back to the Ozarks where he resumed his life of making moonshine, avoiding tax collectors, and other rustic pursuits.<br /> <br /> 1929- British Imperial Airways shows the first in-flight movie.<br /> <br /> 1933- HOLLYWOOD ACTORS FIRST MASS PROTEST- When Franklin Roosevelt created the NRA to fix wages and prices to try and solve the Depression, he even went as far as to try to regulate Motion Picture rates and fees. The catch was the rates were drafted with the advice of friends of the studio heads. <br /> The actors went ballistic when they saw new rules, such as a cap on actors salaries of $100,000 a year (the producers had no such cap), restriction of actors independent agents, and terms of an old salary contract could stay in effect even after the contract expired, until it was renegotiated.<br /> This night, at the El Capitan theater, hundreds of actors met to draft a petition calling for rewriting of the codes. The activists included Paul Muni, Frederic March, Jeanette MacDonald, Bettie Davis, Groucho Marx and Boris Karloff. Earth tremors from the Long Beach Earthquake made the actors move across the street to Graumans Chinese parking lot . <br /> SAG president Ralph Morgan the brother of Frank Morgan (the Wizard of Oz) was considered politically too left to face FDR, so he stepped down in favor of comedian Eddie Cantor, who had helped Vaudeville acts unionize. Cantor went to the president's retreat at Warm Springs Georgia with the petition, and had the hated articles taken out of the code.<br /> <br /> 1935- Ozzie Nelson married Harriet.<br /> <br /> 1945- "Bloody Monday" During a big strike three hundred and fifty armed thugs club their way through picketing Warner Bros. film workers. Jack Warner had stationed sharpshooters behind the studios billboards. A logo on the studio wall said:" Better Movies through Better Citizenship", which the union folk changed to "Better Movies through Better Marksmanship". Similar scenes were happening in front of Fox and MGM.<br /> <br /> 1945- Percy Spencer was a researcher working on military radar for the Raytheon Corp. One day he accidentally walked through a beam of electronic microwaves, and noticed the chocolate bar in his pocket had melted. Intrigued, he placed some corn kernels near the beam and watched them pop. This day he filed a patent for the first microwave oven.<br /> <br /> 1957- Walter O'Malley announced the move of the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles.<br /> <br /> 1957- Jerry Lee Lewis recorded his hit Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of Fire.<br /> <br /> 1958- Swedish Arne Laarsen received the first artificial implanted heart pacemaker. Over the years he had 17 operations and a dozen more pacemakers put in him as the designs improved. Without the pacemaker he would have died at age 40, instead he died in 2000 at age 86 of skin cancer. Arne Laarsen outlived all his original doctors. <br /> <br /> 1967- In Bolivia guerrilla leader Ernesto Che' Guevara was captured and shot. Che' started as an Argentine doctor and was wracked with asthma most of his life. He had gone to Bolivia after quarreling with Fidel Castro about whether it was more important to export Cuban revolution the rest of Latin America or concentrate on building Cuba's economy. Thirty years later in 1997 his remains were identified and returned to Cuba for burial. <br /> <br /> 1968- The movie Romeo &amp; Juliet premiered. Director Franco Zeffirelli caused a sensation by casting young people to play the young people! Olivia Hussey was barely 16, and Leonard Whiting was 17. In the play she was supposed to be 13. Great score by Nino Rota (the Godfather). Romeo &amp; Juliet was the last time a film version of a Shakespeare play was ever nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. <br /> <br /> 1970- Dissident Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Soviet State kept him in internal exile and refused to let him travel to accept his prize. He was exiled to America in 1974 and returned to Russia after the fall of communism.<br /> <br /> 1971- John Lennon first released the song Imagine.<br /> <br /> 2004- Home decorating guru Martha Stewart began serving her 5 month prison term for perjury and insider trading. <br /> <br /> 2005- A massive earthquake in Pakistan killed 73,000.<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Ford motorcars was begun by Henry Ford. Chevrolet was begun by the brothers Chevrolet. But Cadillac was begun by a guy named Henry Leland. So, who was Cadillac?<br /> <br /> Answer: Leland named it for the French explorer who founded Detroit in 1701, Antoine de la mothe-Cadillac. Detroit is French for the straight of Lake Erie “le détroit du Lac Érié,"</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 07 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6279 <p>Question: Ford motorcars was begun by Henry Ford. Chevrolet was begun by the brothers Chevrolet. But Cadillac was begun by a guy named Henry Leland. So, who was Cadillac?<br /> <br /> Quiz: Who was Jenny Lind?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 10/7/2023<br /> Birthdays: Hans Holbein, Heinrich Himmler, Caesar Rodney, Joe Hill, Andy Devine, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Henry Wallace, June Allyson, Al Martino, Neils Bohr, Ameil Buraka, Johnny Cougar Mellencamp, Toni Braxton, Yo Yo Ma, Vladimir Putin is 71. <br /> <br /> 312 BC- THE SUCCESSORS- After the death of Alexander the Great, his generals divided up his empire for themselves. This day Seleucus Nicator – (pronounced Se-le-u-kos)- conquered Babylon and set up his Syrian-Greek kingdom. Others were Ptolemy, who became Pharoah of Egypt, Perdiccas, Antigonus One-Eye, who controlled mainland Greece, Cleitus the Black and Demetrius Destroyer of Cities (Poliocretes). Called Diodochi or The Successors, these generals warred and conspired with each other until the rising Roman Empire knocked them all off.<br /> Seleucus and his heirs figure prominently in the last parts of the Old Testament. The Israelites did well under the Persians and Alexander, but the Successors tried to force pagan worship on them. King Antiochus Theos Epiphanes –” God Made Manifest”, plundered Solomon’s Temple and ordered Jews to eat pork and worship Zeus on pain of death. Many Jews were martyred until an uprising led by Judas Maccabeus restored the Hebrew Kingdom. Ptolemy had the most successful dynasty, ruling Egypt for 300 years, until Cleopatra reached for her asp.<br /> <br /> 1337- King Edward III of England decides he's not only King of England but King of France as well- the HUNDRED YEARS WAR began. It was actually 111 years, until 1446. They took a time out in 1346 because of the Black Plague. Ironically it was around this time that the English language began to emerge as the common mother tongue of Britons, blending the Norman French of the nobility with the Anglo Saxon of the common folks.<br /> <br /> 1571- BATTLE OF LEPANTO- Great naval engagement in which the ships of Venice, Spain, Genoa and the Papacy defeat the Grand Turks navy led by Ali Pasha. The last great battle fought with war galleys rowed by teams of rowers. The admiral in charge was the bastard brother of Phillip II, Don John of Austria, a military hero who was supposed to have led the Spanish Armada against England, had he not succumbed to an early fever. <br /> The battle raged from ship to ship until Don Johns ship overran Ali Pasha’s flagship and hoisted his severed head to the top of their mainmast. Among the common sailors in the battle were future writers like Lope De Vega and Miguel de Cervantes, who lost his right hand:" For the greater glory of my left" he joked.<br /> <br /> 1763- THE ROYAL PROCLAMATION TO NORTH AMERICA- The British Colonial Ministry, trying to reward its Indian allies in the French and Indian War and kill two birds with one stone, told the Americans that any further western colonization to the Mississippi was forbidden, but they were invited to go north and settle in Quebec. This would hopefully mean the outnumbering and eventual assimilation of the French Canadians. <br /> Neither happened, and it only angered the Americans who were never consulted about this idea. The British even toyed with making the Illinois and Michigan territories part of Canada. <br /> <br /> 1777- SECOND BATTLE OF BEMIS HEIGHTS-British General Johnny Burgoyne trying to break out of a trap, smashed his army against the American defenses in a heavy rain. The defense works were built by Polish patriot Thaddeus Kosciuszko. Washington spelled his name 11 different ways in dispatches, the men just called him " Colonel Koz". <br /> Burgoyne had snubbed his superior officers since his arrival in America, saying he only answered to the War office in London. Now, surrounded in the forest by overwhelming odds he snuck out a message to General Guy Carleton in Canada "I await your Lordship's orders." Carelton recognized this weenie attempt to shift blame and ignored him. <br /> <br /> The hero of this battle was Benedict Arnold. Arnold was everywhere, rallying minutemen brigades and crashing them into the enemy without waiting for his commander’s orders. The U.S. commander Horatio Gates spent most of the battle in the rear entertaining captured British officers and discussing the futility of the American cause. The battle only ended when someone shot Arnold in the leg. After Arnold’s treason, Washington decreed that no monument to Arnold ever be allowed. So, the grateful locals raised a statue….to his leg.<br /> <br /> 1780- BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN- In the later stages of the American Revolution the British Army command shifted from a strategy of using overwhelming conventional force in New England to going South and encouraging American Loyalists to fight a civil war. At Kings Mountain in North Carolina The “Over the Mountain Men”, an army of Scots-Irish frontiersmen under Issac Shelby defeated a Loyalist militia under the command of Col. Patrick Ferguson. Ferguson, who was killed in the fight, was an unconventional Scots Highlander who taught his men to fight American Indian style. <br /> <br /> 1783- The Virginia House of Burgesses votes to grant freedom to all slaves who fought in the Continental Army during the American Revolution.<br /> <br /> 1799- Napoleon returned from his Egyptian Campaign without his army but with a new appreciation for antiquities.<br /> <br /> 1849- Writer Edgar Allen Poe was found sprawled over a barrel in a Baltimore street, dressed in someone else's clothing. He was taken to a hospital where he died raving at the walls. He was 40. It was thought he died from heavy alcohol abuse. Recently scholars theorize he may have died from a brain tumor or diabetes impacted by alcohol sensitivity, which would explain the violent mood swings, and that he drank heavily to deaden the pain. Another scholar also theorized that the symptoms strongly point to rabies. Poe loved cats and there were no rabies shot or test at the time. <br /> Still another theory on Edgar Allan Poe's death has to do with voter fraud. People voted in taverns in those days. Poe was completely sober (he had given up alcohol years before) when he left two friends after a good dinner. He was scheduled to go to Philadelphia to meet the Mother-in-law of his late wife (also his aunt.) He bought the ticket; it was found on his person. Cooping was a type of voter fraud wherein people who could read were kidnapped and held in pens. They were forced an overabundance of alcohol to knock them out of their senses, then forced to vote under alias names they were given. All night they were pushed to vote again and again. They were made to change clothes (so they wouldn't be recognized) and out to vote again. So Poe may have died of died of alcohol poisoning. He was buried in a pauper's grave.<br /> <br /> 1851- THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.- Several top bishops of the Church of England stunned Victorian High Society by announcing their conversion to Roman Catholicism. Bishop John Newman was the first, followed today by the Archbishop Manning of Chichester. Manning eventually became the Catholic cardinal primate of England and was listed in Lytton Straychey’s book the Eminent Victorians. Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 made John Newman a saint.<br /> <br /> 1855- THE BORDER WAR- John Brown arrived in Kansas help organize anti-slave men to fight pro-slavers, called the Border-Ruffians. For several years before the Civil War broke out Missouri and Kansas were torn by private gangs of militias murdering each other. The Southern extremists were called Bushwhackers, the pro-Unionists called Jayhawkers or Redlegs.<br /> <br /> 1861- In the Indian Territory –near what will one day be Tulsa Oklahoma, the councils of the Chickasaw, Cherokee and Choctaw Indian Nations signed an alliance with the Confederate States, smoked the war pipe and renounced any ties to the United States. The Comanche people announced they would stop raids on Texas. Pro-Northern Indians then broke with their tribal brothers and soon there were mini-Civil Wars amongst the tribes. The pro-Northern Indians were forced to march with their families in winter snows to the protection of Pro-Northern Kansas. In 1865 the last Confederate General to lay down his arms was Cherokee Chief Stand Watie.<br /> <br /> 1864- General Grant received a secret letter from Sherman in Atlanta. Sherman told Grant that he intended not to worry about his supply lines but cut his lines of communication and march through Georgia, totally living off the land, until he reached Savannah on the ocean where he could be resupplied by sea.<br /> <br /> 1868- After a season of raids by hostile Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors on Kansas settlers, Generals Sherman and Sheridan met with President Grant to draft a 'final solution' to the American Indian. They would no longer chase scattered bands of braves, but introduce their brand of ruthless "Total War". These tactics burned Atlanta and the Shenandoah Valley to end the Civil War. They ordered the US Army to attack villages, kill women &amp; children, burn crops and shoot ponies. Sherman openly described it as a 'Race War". He said." a few savages must no longer be allowed to impede the March of Anglo Saxon Civilization!" They made a policy of attacking villages in winter, just before dawn, because then Indian war parties stayed close to home and were less mobile.<br /> <br /> 1897-A group of Russian Jews, disgusted by the state sanctioned anti-Semitism of the Czars, formed the Jewish Socialist Bund. They broke with Theodore Herzl and the Zionists who wanted Jews to move to Palestine. The Socialist Bund advocated political reform within Russia. Leon Trotsky, himself Jewish, made fun of the Bund, calling them “Zionists afraid of getting sea-sick”.<br /> <br /> 1916- The German submarine U-53 boldly sailed into Newport Bay Rhode Island and docked alongside American warships. America was still technically neutral in WWI. Kapitan Hans Rose let civilian women and children tour the sub all day. Irish-Americans, angry at the English crushing the Easter Sunday Rebellion the previous Spring, presented Captain Rose with an Irish Republican flag. But the good will didn’t last long. That evening, U-53 submerged off the coast of Nantucket and sank six ships including a British liner with Americans on board. <br /> <br /> 1918- The Polish army contingents of the crumbling Russian, Austrian and German empires band together in Warsaw to set up a native government, declaring themselves the Republic of Poland. The Polish State that had disappeared in 1799 was now reborn. Famous concert pianist Jan Paderewski was named president.<br /> <br /> 1923- Baseball pitching legend Christy Matthewson died of complications from inhaling poison gas in World War I.<br /> <br /> 1939- Benito Mussolini's Fascist government adopts anti-Semitic laws in line with the Nazis. All Jews were excluded from public office, banking, teaching and the military.<br /> <br /> 1941- Two months before Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt announced that in view of stepped up activity by Nazi U-boats, the United States Navy and Coast Guard had been issued a shoot-on-sight order against any hostile craft.<br /> <br /> 1947- The Actor's Studio opened, teaching the Stanislavski Method, sometimes called Method Acting. The movement later suffered a feud between it’s two top teachers-Lee Strassberg and Stella Adler and Sandy Meisner. Ask any actor if they were with Lee or Sandy, odds were they sided with one and hated the other.<br /> <br /> 1955- THE BEATS- Allen Ginsberg read his poem "Howl" at the Six Gallery in San Francisco. The reading was intended to promote the new gallery. The poet Kenneth Rexroth organized the reading, and in preparation, he introduced Gary Snyder to Allen Ginsberg. Ginsberg introduced everyone to Jack Kerouac, and they became the core of the group of writers known as the Beats. Ginsberg was the second to the last to read, and he started at about 11 p.m. He was 29 years old, and he had never participated in a poetry reading before. He started off in a quiet voice. But as he read, he found his rhythm, and he took a deep breath before each of the long lines in "Howl" and then said each line in one breath. Jack Kerouac chanted "Go, go, go" in rhythm while Ginsberg read, and the audience went wild. Just recently the Russian satellite Sputnik was in the news, so people who adopted the Beat lifestyle were dubbed by the press Beatniks. Like cool, daddy-o.<br /> <br /> 1957-Dick Clark’s T.V. show American Bandstand debuts.<br /> <br /> 1959- MARIO LANZA . Philadelphia born Italian–American Lanza was a pop icon opera singer long before there were three tenors in concert. With moviestar good looks and a velvety voice, his records and movies sold millions. But he was temperamental and had angered most of the powers that be in Hollywood, climaxing with skipping a $250,000 promise to perform in Las Vegas. This day in Italy he was found dead at age 38. <br /> For years there were rumors that he was actually done in by the Mafia for offending Lucky Lucciano, but in the 1990s a forensic investigation by his son proved his brutal regimen of binge eating and furious dieting wore out his heart. He would attempt to drop 50 pounds in three weeks, then put it back just as quickly until it gave him a heart attack. He literally dieted himself to death.<br /> <br /> 1959- Young assassins sent by the dissident Ba’ath Party made an attempt on the life of the Prime Minister of Iraq Sherif Al Kassim. The plotters failed but they sneaked back into the country later. One of them would be one day the ruler of Iraq- Saddam Hussein.<br /> <br /> 1960- The movie Spartacus opened. Producer/star Kirk Douglas had been using blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo for the script, smuggling him in and out of the lot for story meetings. Finally Douglas got fed up and ordered Trumbo to be brought out in the open as the movie's true writer. This was considered the official end of the Hollywood Blacklist era, which had been raging on since 1947. After director Anthony Mann left the project, Douglas hired Stanley Kubrick, who had such a hard time he left Hollywood afterward, never to return.<br /> <br /> 1964- ITS FUN TO PLAY AT THE Y-M-C-A! The only big sex scandal of the Lyndon Johnson administration. Walter Jenkins was a top LBJ aide and confidant. Johnson called Jenkins “My vice president of almost everything.” This day Walter Jenkins was busted for lewd behavior with a male Turkish diplomat in a pay toilet at the YMCA just two blocks from the White House. Jenkins claimed he was just dehydrated. <br /> <br /> 1965- The film, The Agony and the Ecstasy opened in theaters. Sir Carol Reed adapted Irving Stone’s historical novel about the painting of the Sistine Chapel, with Rex Harrison as Pope Julius II, and Charlton Heston as Michelangelo. For the first time movie makers were allowed to film inside the Vatican and Sistine.<br /> <br /> 1971- Walt Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks premiered at the Odeon Theatre in London. <br /> <br /> 1974- THE TIDAL BASIN BOMBSHELL- At 2:00 AM Washington DC police stopped a car driving near the White House with its lights off. Inside police discovered powerful Congressman Wilbur Mills, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, drunk as a skunk with an Argentine stripper named Fannie Fox. Mills broke away from the cops and he and Fannie began to cavort in the Tidal Basin pool near the Jefferson Memorial. They were fished out by police. Mills’ sexual escapades had been hushed up by politicos before, but this was just too much. The subsequent publicity brought about hearings and Mills resignation.<br /> <br /> 1982- London musical 'Cats' opened on Broadway.<br /> <br /> 1985- Palestinian terrorists hijacked the Italian Mediterranean cruise ship Achille Lauro. They murdered an elderly Jewish American tourist named Leon Klinghoffer and dumped his wheelchair and body into the sea. Composer John Adams wrote an opera about the incident, called The Death of Klinghoffer.<br /> <br /> 1993- Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park" earned $ 712 million dollars just in North American box office. <br /> <br /> 1994- Tim Burton’s movie Ed Wood opened in wide release..<br /> <br /> 1996- Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Channel began.<br /> <br /> 2001- U.S, British, Australian, Turkish and NATO forces attacked Afghanistan in retaliation for the 9-11 terror attacks. The war led to the temporary overthrow of the Taliban Regime ruling in Kabul and the suppressing of the Al Qaeda terrorist network. But the subsequent occupation was bungled to the point where the Taliban rallied. The US couldn’t establish a stable pro-Western government, so the Taliban got back into power twenty years later.<br /> <br /> 2003- The state of California had an unpopular Democratic Governor named Grey Davis. A Republican congressman named Daryl Issa who made a fortune making annoying car alarms “step away from the car..” found an obscure codicil in the State constitution calling for a recall election. The recall election soon had 154 candidates including a porn star, old child star Gary Coleman, Porn publisher Larry Flynt, a woman who financed her campaign by selling autographed thongs, and Grey Davis’ own lieutenant governor Cruz Bustamante, who couldn’t stand him either. This night, after a farcical election, Californians elected Austrian-born body builder-actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.<br /> <br /> 2016- One month before the U.S. presidential election, TV show Access-Hollywood played on air a tape recording of candidate Donald Trump bragging how he assaulted women: "You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful -- I just start kissing them," Trump said, speaking on a hot microphone with TV personality Billy Bush. "It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy." <br /> Normally, a statement like that would destroy a candidate’s chances. All major GOP leaders immediately called for Trump to drop out. But Trump was elected anyway, with overwhelming support from Evangelical Christians.<br /> =================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Who was Jenny Lind?<br /> <br /> Answer: Jenny Lind was The Swedish Nightingale. A beautiful singer who gained international stardom in the 1800s doing concerts and operas in many cities. A media star before the invention of recording.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 06 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6278 <p>Quiz: Who was Jenny Lind?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz Answered below: Who first invented the genre of “Kaiju” stories? Of a prehistoric beast or dinosaur running amok in a modern city.<br /> ==========================================================<br /> History for 10/6/2023<br /> Birthdays: Alfred Lord Tennyson, Jenny Lind, George Westinghouse, Janet Gaynor, Carol Lombard, Karol Szymanowski, Thor Heyderthal, wrestler Bruno Sammartino, Britt Eklund, Le Corbusier, Elizabeth Shue is 60, Sean William Scott, Jeremy Sisto is 49, Ioan Guffrudd is 50<br /> <br /> In Ireland this is Ivy Day, when Irish folk commemorate the death of the great statesman Charles Stuart Parnell with a sprig of ivy in their buttonholes.<br /> <br /> 105 BC- Migrating German barbarian tribes called the Cimbri defeated the Roman army at the river Arusia, modern Vaucluse in the Rhone Valley. The defeat gave Gaius Marius the opportunity to reform the training of the Roman legions.<br /> <br /> 68BC- Roman General Lucullus defeated the Armenians under King Tigranes II at Artaxata.<br /> <br /> 1502- THE LAST VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS -Rejecting the ideas of Amerigo Vespucci, Juan De La Cosa and the Portuguese that what he had discovered was in fact a new continent, Columbus made one more attempt to reach China by sailing west.<br /> He explored down the Central American coastline to Venezuela and Columbia. The Nicaraguans told him that beyond their jungle is another Great Ocean. He surmised that it must be the Indian Ocean so these people must be the Vietnamese (Cochin-China). <br /> <br /> 1536- Near Brussels, Englishman William Tyndale was strangled and burned at the stake for committing a crime against the Church, that of translating the Bible into English. 50 years later Tyndale’s writing was the basis of the King James Bible.<br /> <br /> 1600- THE BIRTH OF OPERA. This day as part of the celebrations of the marriage of French King Henry IV to Marie de Medici, composers Rinconcini and Caecini premiered a new kind of musical drama where soloists sang without the heavy polyphony of madrigals but more directly in imitation of ancient dramas. It was “Eurydice” and it was the first true opera. Many composers including Claudio Monteverdi took up the form. <br /> <br /> 1683-THE PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH- the first recorded German immigrants, Mennonite farmers from the Rhineland, arrived in America. They were invited by Gov. William Penn of Pennsylvania. The reason many German immigrants in Pennsylvania were labeled Dutch was the backwoods Americans inability to distinguish when the German declared “Ich bin Deutsche” from “Dutch”.<br /> <br /> 1802- The Heiligenstadt Testament- Composer Ludwig van Beethoven left behind a note found among his papers after his death in 1827. Dated this day it was addressed to his brother Karl and another unspecified relative. It was more of a spiritual Last Will than anything else. In the note Beethoven poured out of his heart confessing his faults and his fears of going deaf. It is an amazing insight into the great man’s soul.<br /> <br /> 1803- Napoleon inspected the restorations to a XVII century French church and veterans hospital called the Les Invalides, unaware that it would become his own tomb 40 years in the future.<br /> <br /> 1826- A Missouri saddle maker offered a reward of one penny for a runaway apprentice. The boy had joined a Santa Fe bound wagon train and grew up to become Kit Carson, one of the Old West's most famous scouts.<br /> <br /> 1847- Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre first published.<br /> <br /> 1860 First telegraph linking L.A. and San Francisco.<br /> <br /> 1860- During the Taiping Rebellion in China the Ever-Victorious Army, a mercenary western force paid by the Manchu Emperor, recaptured Peking (Beijing). Originally organized by an American named Stoneman, the Ever Victorious was now commanded by British Sir Charles Gordon, for which he received the nickname "Chinese Gordon'.<br /> <br /> 1863- The first Turkish Bath House is opened in Brooklyn.<br /> <br /> 1863- The BAXTER SPRINGS MASSACRE- Quantrill’s Raiders bushwhacked Union General Blount’s personal entourage on the road in Kansas and killed 86. It’s called a massacre rather than a battle, because most of the slain were noncombatant office staff trying to surrender. The heartless guerrillas even shot the regimental band. One union soldier with five bullets in him recalled before he lost consciousness, a large horseman standing over him gloating:” When you meet God, tell him the last thing you saw on Earth was Old Billy Quantrill!”<br /> <br /> 1864- SHERIDAN'S VALLEY CAMPAIGN- The Shenandoah Valley had been a pain in the neck to the U.S. Army throughout the Civil War. Its pro Southern population hid guerrillas like John Mosby, the "Grey Ghost". Stonewall Jackson had humiliated three Yankee armies there. Towns like Winchester and Harper's Ferry changed hands 73 times!<br /> So while Lee and Grant’s armies stood stalemated outside Richmond and Sherman was in Atlanta, feisty Irish-born cavalryman Phil Sheridan was given a large army and ordered to finally bring the Shenandoah Valley to heel. After drubbing the Confederates in battle, he turned away from the rebel army and concentrated on the civilian population. His army burned towns and crops, and hanged men from the trees even remotely suspected of being guerrillas. Sheridan sat, feet up, in a slow moving open buggy and waved his cigar like an orchestra conductor's baton. "Go to it my boys! Have Fun!" Like Sherman’s terror campaign through Georgia, the brutality of Sheridan left a bitter memory to Southerners for generations to come.<br /> <br /> 1866- The Reno Bros. committed the first recorded train robbery, this one in Indiana.<br /> <br /> 1880- First classes at University of Southern California or USC. <br /> <br /> 1889- Paris' naughty nightclub the Moulin Rouge opened.<br /> <br /> 1908- Since a Peace Treaty of Berlin in 1878 the European Peace had hinged upon the little Turkish province of Bosnia-Herzegovina being administered by Austria while still of Turkey. This compromise was clunky but it worked. This day in reaction to the Bulgarians declaring their independence the Austro-Hungarian Empire announced it was annexing Bosnia-Herzegovina outright. This act destabilized the world situation and began the diplomatic spiral into The Great War 6 years later.<br /> <br /> 1911- The first transpacific telephone conversation, between Tokyo and San Francisco.<br /> <br /> 1915- President Woodrow Wilson said he changed his mind, and was now in favor of votes for women.<br /> <br /> 1917- The terrible WWI Battle of Passchendaele finally ended when Canadian troops took the ridge on the third attempt. 250,000 casualties on both sides.<br /> <br /> 1918- From the wreckage of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of World War I the Serbs, Croats, Slovenes and Bosnians formed themselves into a new country called the Kingdom of South Slavs or Yugoslavia. It broke up in the 1990s. <br /> <br /> 1921- In London the society known as PPEN established, for Poets, Playwrights, Editors and Novelists.<br /> <br /> 1927-"THE JAZZ SINGER" with Al Jolson debuts. Okay, somebody made a sound picture in 1924, and also something called "Footlights of New York" from 1926 but hey, you know what?- who cares! THIS was the movie that made "Talkies" a reality. The success of this film turned Warner Bros from a minor film company into a major Hollywood studio. Within a year of this opening, only a handful of movie theaters were still showing silent movies. 26 year old Walt Disney was in the audience at that opening day, and it made him realize he needed to put sound in his next cartoon about that mouse.<br /> The Warner Bros were not at the opening because they were mourning their brother Sam, who had worked himself into an early grave to finish the picture.<br /> <br /> 1959- “Pillow Talk” premiered, the first romantic comedy pairing Doris Day and Rock Hudson. Stanley Shapiro won a best screenplay Oscar for it. The film typified the wink-wink attitude about sex before the 1960’s Sexual Revolution and defined Doris Day’s reputation as the wholesome, girl-next-door archetype. <br /> <br /> 1966- California became the first state to officially declare LSD illegal. Hippies in San Francisco celebrated by rallying in Golden Gate Park in the thousands, and all taking a tab together.<br /> <br /> 1968- In Huntington Cal, Troy Perry and 12 others started the first Gay &amp; Lesbian Church.<br /> <br /> 1971- William Freidkin’s gritty cop movie the FRENCH CONNECTION premiered. The film won best picture, director and actor Oscars, made a major star out of Gene Hackman. One unforeseen result was the movie stimulated interest in pursuing the investigation of the real French-Corsican Mafia heroin trafficking in the US. That mob was soon broken up. The two real life detectives the film was based on- Eddie Egan and Sonny Corso, both retired from the NYPD and pursued careers in show biz.<br /> <br /> 1973- THE OCTOBER WAR or THE YOM KIPPUR WAR. Egypt and Syria surprised attacked Israel on the holiest religious holiday of the Jewish calendar. They also achieved surprise by attacking at 2:00 in the afternoon instead of dawn. The Sinai and Golan Heights saw some of the largest tank battles since World War II. The Arab states received men and material support from the PLO, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Morocco, Libya, Algeria, Bangladesh and even Idi Amin the dictator of Uganda. America and Russia faced off by heavily re-supplying both sides. Both sides charged Russians and Americans were flying covert combat missions as well. <br /> <br /> 1976- During a televised debate with Jimmy Carter, President Gerald Ford said he was unaware of any Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, a great surprise to Poles, Czechs, Romanians, Lithuanians and others. Later the American public surprised Gerald by voting him out of office.<br /> <br /> 1981- Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat was assassinated while viewing parade marking Yom Kippur War anniversary. Commandos hopped out of the back of a troop carrier and blew him away with machine guns. Almost killed next to him was Hosni Mubarak. Although some claim that the chief assassin Khaled Al Islambouli asked Hosni to step aside so not to get hurt. One of the conspirators arrested was Alman Al Zawahiri, who was the little guy with the glasses and grey beard who took over Al Qaeda, after Osama Bin Laden was killed. He was killed earlier this year.<br /> <br /> 1991- Elizabeth Taylor got married for the 8th and last time, now to construction engineer Larry Fornetsky, at Michael Jackson’s house. They divorced shortly after.<br /> <br /> 1991- University of Oklahoma Professor Anita Hill testified at the Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. She alleged that when she was his aide she was subject to constant sexual harassment. Judge Thomas declared her testimony a "symbolic lynching". Thomas' conservative backers countered with a furious media campaign. Despite her credentials as a PhD scholar from a Christian University, they portrayed Prof Hill as a paranoid slut. Those involved in the smear campaign later admitted it was all fabricated. Justice Thomas was confirmed, but the controversy made Sexual Harassment a national issue.<br /> <br /> 2002- Pope John Paul II canonized Fra Paulo Escriva, the mystic founder of the order Opus Dei. John Paul broke with the more liberal Jesuits in favor of Opus Dei, a super conservative group that wanted direct power over Catholic doctrine and still practiced self- flagellation.<br /> <br /> 2002- The Mayor of Paris Bertrand Delaune was stabbed in the stomach at an all-night Nuit Blanche rock concert. He recovered and remained mayor until 2014.<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Who first invented the genre of “Kaiju” stories? Of a prehistoric beast or dinosaur running amok in a modern city.<br /> <br /> Answer: In 1842 Victorian scientist Richard Owen wrote that certain fossilized bones were the remains of long extinct giant creatures called “dinosaurs”. (Terrible Lizards) This caused much speculation and fantasy. Charles Dickens in his novel Bleak House wrote,” Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see a great behemoth walking up the high street?”<br /> The first monster story like this was The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. <br /> Published in 1912, it was made into a movie in 1925, with Willis O’Brien creating the monsters. He would later do the creatures in 1933’s King Kong, which Ichiro Honda said was the inspiration for his 1954 movie Godzilla. Considered the first Kaiju movie.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 05 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6277 <p>Quiz: Who first invented the genre of “Kaiju” stories? Of a prehistoric beast or dinosaur running amok in a modern city.<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz Answered below: What does it mean to be “entering the lists”..? <br /> -------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 10/5/2023<br /> Birthdays: Wendel Wilkie, President Chester Allen Arthur, Ray Kroc the mastermind of MacDonalds restaurants, Louis Lumiere, Vaslav Havel, Larry Fine of the Three Stooges, Bob Geldorf, Mario Lemieux, Josh Logan, Bill Dana "my name Jose Jimenez", Bill Keane, Clive Barker, Glynnis Johns is 100, Donald Pleasance, Maya Lin, Bernie Mac, Karen Allen is 72, Kate Winslet is 48, Guy Pearce is 56, Jesse Eisenberg is 40<br /> <br /> According to Mike Mignola, today is the birthday of Hellboy, born in Hell -1617.<br /> <br /> 1600- King Henry IV of France married his second wife Marie de Medici by proxy in a grand ceremony in Florence. Flemish master painter Peter Paul Rubens was in attendance, and the Queen asked him to create paintings commemorating the events.<br /> <br /> 1759- Col. Robert Rogers led his Roger’s Rangers on a forced march to surprise the Abenaki Indians who had been raiding Maine homesteads. At 4:00 am near present day Saint Francis, the Rangers burned the Abenaki village and killed so many that the Abenakis ceased to be a force in the area. Years later Rogers wrote down his principles of irregular warfare- his maxims like "Move Fast and Hit Hard" became the basis of Special Forces training today.<br /> <br /> 1761- Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder, called the Architect of the British Empire, retired from office. He was replaced by Lord Bute, who Frederick the Great called a complete scoundrel. Bute was chosen mostly because young King George III liked to play whist with him. Whist was a card game similar to bridge.<br /> <br /> 1762- Christoph Gluck premiered his opera Orpheo et Eurydice in Vienna.<br /> <br /> 1795- THE WHIFF OF GRAPESHOT- The end of the French Revolution. The problem with revolutions is once you start one it’s a real problem how to stop them. The Paris mob had gotten used to overthrowing one government after another since 1789. In 1795 when yet another mob of rioters threatened to overthrow yet another French government the politicians turned to young general Napoleon Bonaparte, who dispersed the crowd by firing cannons at them loaded with buckshot. A self proclaimed "Child of the Revolution" Bonaparte was already considered politically left, so his act of force could not be accused of royalist leanings. This action helped the little general with the funny Italian name becomes a national figure.<br /> <br /> 1813- BATTLE OF THE THAMES RIVER. Indiana territory- Tecumseh, an Indian visionary who foresaw that only by united action could native peoples hope to drive the white man back to Europe, spent his life convincing tribes to put away their tribal differences and fight as one people. He assembled a huge force of warriors, but this day he was defeated and killed by Gen. William Henry Harrison. Congressman Richard Johnson, who said he personally killed the great chief (nobody saw it happen) later became Vice President and Harrison President. People sang:"Rumpsy-Dumpsey, Rumpsey- Dumpsey, Colonel Johnson Killed Tecumsee." <br /> Tecumseh was one of the few who managed to organize real resistance to the white migration west and as such was one of America's greatest threats. Yet whites were so impressed by his nobility that people like Ohio settler John Sherman named his son and future Civil War hero William Tecumseh Sherman.<br /> <br /> 1842-THE BIRTHDAY OF BEER! Lager Beer is perfected in the city of Pilzn-Pilsner. Of course, beer was made by the Sumerians, Egyptians, Gauls, and can be traced back to the Ice Age, but our modern concept of beer requiring an advancement in refrigeration is Pilsner or Lager.<br /> <br /> 1858- An arsonist burned down NY's Crystal Palace Museum.<br /> <br /> 1864- A cyclone destroyed the Indian City of Calcutta, killing 60,000.<br /> <br /> 1877- After a lightning campaign across 1,200 miles Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce found himself surrounded by U.S. armies just 40 miles from the Canadian border. At Bear’s Paw near Chinook Montana, Chief Joseph surrendered to General Nelson Miles.<br /> "From where the Sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."<br /> <br /> 1880- John J. Loud patented the first ball-point pen. The modern ballpoint was developed by Laszlo Biro in 1938.<br /> <br /> 1882- Outlaw Frank James surrendered to authorities six months after his brother Jesse was killed. After doing some prison time Frank went straight and toured in a Wild West Show with fellow outlaw Cole Younger. He died peacefully of old age in 1915.<br /> <br /> 1892-THE DALTON BOYS RAID COFFEEVILLE, Kansas and try to rob two banks at once. One quick thinking bank clerk told them the bank vault was on a time lock and would open shortly. There was no such time lock, but while the badmen waited, the townspeople broke into the hardware store and armed themselves to the teeth. As the Daltons emerged, they were shot down by the locals, much the same way the Jesse James Gang was wiped out at Northfield Minnesota ten years earlier. 8 were killed. Only Emmett Dalton survived despite 25 gunshot wounds. After getting out of jail in 1907, he also wisely went straight.<br /> <br /> 1904- According to comedian and playwright Steve Martin, this is the day Pablo Picasso met Albert Einstein at the Cafe Lapin Agile. There was a cafe in Paris called Lapin Agile that Picasso did like to frequent, but he never actually met Einstein.<br /> <br /> 1905- Happy Birthday T-Rex! Prof. Henry Osborne published a paper on the new bones found in Montana of a sleek hunter-killer dinosaur. He originally called it Dynamosaurus Imperiosis, but changed it to Tyrannosaurus Rex.<br /> <br /> 1908- Bulgaria declared its independence from Turkey and formed a monarchy under German Prince Ferdinand von Battenburg. <br /> <br /> 1914- The first airplane was shot down by another airplane. For weeks since the Great War began German, British and French airplanes flew missions of air reconnaissance. When planes encountered each other the pilots would fire pistols and even threw darts and bricks at one another. Finally, someone thought of mounting a machine gun on a plane and aerial combat was born. <br /> <br /> 1915- Germany issued an official apology to the USA over the loss of life in the sinking of the luxury liner Lusitania and promised to pay restitution.<br /> <br /> 1927- Sam Warner, the Warner Brother most responsible for committing the studio to gambling on a talking picture process, died just as the 'Jazz Singer 'opened and made Warner-Vitaphone a major Hollywood power. He literally worked himself into an early grave. Brother Jack Warner had earlier said "Who the heck wants to hear actors talk?"<br /> <br /> 1927- A play version of the novel Dracula opened on Broadway. It starred a Hungarian immigrant named Bela Lugosi. It became a huge hit and made him a star. When the Hollywood movie version was made, Lugosi and Everett Sloan (Van Helsing) were the only two from the original play. <br /> <br /> 1930- THE R-101 The BRITISH HINDENBURG- Lord Thompson of Cardington dreamed of a fleet of passenger zeppelins uniting the British Empire much the way steam did in Queen Victoria's time. Dirigible moorings were built in Karachi, Montreal, Sydney and Ismailia in Egypt. The R-101 was the largest zeppelin in the world when she was launched and had all the luxury of the Cunard ocean liners. Lord Thompson himself decided to take the inaugural flight from London to India and back in time to make a vital Imperial conference. On Oct. 4th as a crowd sang Sir Edward Elgar's hymn 'Land of Hope and Glory" Thompson launched the R-101 "I see this great ship of the air built with the same perseverance and permanency that has built our British Empire and will give us the mastery of the air lanes of the world!" <br /> 300 miles out the R-101 was struck by a violent thunderstorm and crashed at Beauvais France. A sergeant was heard saying : "We’re down lads." when the hydrogen gas exploded. All but 6 of her 54 passengers died in the flaming inferno, including Lord Thompson. (compared to 30 out of the 96 Hindenburg passengers and crew died). Even though her sister ship the R-100 made a perfect flight to Canada and back the British public was so shocked by the disaster that all further attempts at a British dirigible service was scrapped.<br /> <br /> 1932- Talking pictures now in vogue, MGM Studios fired famed comic Buster Keaton. Keaton later said giving up his independent studio to work for MGM was the biggest mistake of his life.<br /> <br /> 1933- Warner Bros musical Footlight Parade with James Cagney premiered.<br /> <br /> 1945- The BATTLE OF BURBANK- Three thousand striking union filmworkers (and a few animators) battled the Burbank police in front of Gate 2 of the Warner Bros. Studio lot. chains, bricks, tear gas, firehoses, burning cars. Jack Warner placed sharpshooters behind those large movie billboards on Barham and Pass. One of the strike leaders arrested was a background painter for Tex Avery cartoons. Herb Sorrel, the union leader, was pulled into a car and beaten up by gangsters, then arrested by police for incitement to riot. <br /> <br /> 1947- President Harry Truman gives the first speech broadcast nationwide on television. In it he asked Americans to forgo eating meat on Tuesday’s and Thursdays, to build up U.S. grain stocks to feed people still starving in Post War Europe. <br /> <br /> 1961- The film Breakfast at Tiffany’s opened, with Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly, the song Moon River.<br /> <br /> 1961- There’s no need to fear, Underdog is here!” The Underdog Show premiered.<br /> <br /> 1969- Monty Python's Flying Circus debuted on British television BBC-1.<br /> <br /> 1969- Cuban Lieutenant Eduardo Jimenez, who wanted to defect to the USA, flew his Mig-21 fighter jet to Miami and landed it at Homestead Airforce Base. But what was embarrassing was he flew completely through all the U.S. advanced warning defenses and missiles, and landed his Mig right next to Air Force One carrying President Richard Nixon. Doh!<br /> <br /> 1969- Former First Lady Jackie Kennedy was seen going into a Manhattan cinema to see the Swedish X-rated film I Am Curious Yellow. Jackie-O beat up the photographer who caught her, but her example spawned a fashion among New York high society going to see porn as a Sexual Liberation statement. They called it Porn-Chic. <br /> <br /> 1970- The Canadian October Crisis. A Quebec terrorist separatist group calling itself the FLQ kidnapped and murdered a Canadian cabinet minister. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau sent army troops into Montreal and Quebec City to impose order.<br /> Worst civilian disturbances in Canada since 1867.<br /> <br /> 1986- IRAN-CONTRA- President Ronald Reagan feared Communist expansion growing in a new revolutionary regime in Nicaragua. When the U.S. Congress banned any funds for anti-Communist mercenaries, Reagan's National Security Agency staffer Oliver North created a covert pipeline of arms. On this day Nicaraguan communists shot down an unmarked plane full of smuggled weapons flown by a CIA agent named Eugene Hasenfuss. The revelation of the incident sets in motion the scandal that would tarnish the last years of The Reagan Administration. <br /> <br /> 1989- The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.<br /> <br /> 2000- The Yugoslavian Revolution. –Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic’ had spent the eleven years since the death of Tito making war on the various ethnic parts of Yugoslavia as they broke off and founded sister republics. War, misery and genocide were meted out on Slovenes, Croats, Bosnians and Kossovar Albanians in turn. <br /> Serbia endured the condemnation of the world and American-Nato bombing raids. <br /> This day after refusing to admit he had lost re-election, 200,000 Serbs marched into Belgrade and in a massive "People Power" revolution threw old Slobodan out. Woycheslav Kostunitse was declared the legal president and old Slovo died in jail. <br /> <br /> 2003- Timothy Treadwell was an author and advocate for the wild grizzly bears of North America. This day near Khalifa Bay Alaska, a huge bear attacked Treadwell and his girlfriend Anne Huguenard and tore them to pieces. When authorities brought down the bear in question, after being shot 21 times, human remains were found in his stomach. When Treadwell appeared on the David Letterman TV Show the previous year, Letterman joked:" Is it going to happen that one day we read a news article about you being eaten by one of these bears?" Werner Herzog did a film about his life. Grizzly Man.<br /> <br /> 2011- Steve Jobs died at age 56 of a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (pNET) that spread to his liver. As he faded away, he looked straight ahead as if he was seeing something and murmured "oh wow....oh....wow...."<br /> <br /> 2017- The Me-Too/Times Up Movement. Harvey Weinstein of Miramax and later the Weinstein Company was one of the most powerful movie producers in Hollywood. This day the NY Times broke the story of his history of sexually abusive conduct towards women. He was first fired from his company, then ejected from the Motion Picture Academy, and is now serving time in prison. Soon more women and men began to come forward with their stories of sexual abuse. All across Hollywood, celebrities’ dark secrets were exposed and careers collapsed. Louis CK, Garrison Keillor, Les Moonves, Maestro James Levine, opera star Placido Domingo, Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly, and more.<br /> ===============================================================<br /> Quiz: What does it mean to be “entering the lists”..? <br /> <br /> Answer: In the Middle Ages, lists were the long rail fences separating jousting knights. So, to be entering the lists means to enter a place to battle or compete against others.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 04 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6276 <p>Quiz: What does it mean to be “entering the lists”..? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Answer below: How many capitol cities has the U.S. had?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 10/4/2023<br /> Birthdays: French King Louis X The Stubborn 1314, Richard Cromwell “Tumbledown Dick, “ Rutherford Hayes, Frederick Remington, Jean Millet, Buster Keaton, Englebert Dolfuss, Charlton Heston, Susan Sarandon is 77, Armand Assante, Damon Runyon, Alvin Tofler author of Future Shock, Anne Rice, Alicia Silverstone is 47, Christoph Waltz is 67, Liev Schreiber is 56, Melissa Benoist is 35.<br /> <br /> 52BC- Julius Caesar completed the conquest of Gaul by accepting the submission of Vercingetorix, the King of the Gauls, at the Siege of Alesia. <br /> <br /> 1648- Happy Birthday NYFD! Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam Peter Stuyvesant established the first regular municipal fire department in the New World. Most Fire brigades were volunteers until the late 1800s.<br /> <br /> 1777- BATTLE OF GERMANTOWN George Washington tried a dawn surprise attack on the British army around Philadelphia. The same tactic had worked at Trenton, but here everything went wrong from the start. In the morning fog the Yankee right flank got turned around and started shooting at the Yankee center. The Center thought they were being attacked by Loyalists and returned fire. Two thirds of the American army shot itself to pieces and ran away before the British even knew what was happening. Washington realized he was going to need some drill instructors....<br /> <br /> 1798- Lyrical Ballads, a small book of poems published jointly by English poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The book opened with the Rime of the Ancient Mariner and finished with Wordsworth’s Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tinturn Abbey.” The book didn’t sell that well. Wordsworth blamed Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner poem for being too long. Some of the best sales of the book were by sea captains who thought The Rime of the Ancient Mariner was a collection of sea shanties. <br /> <br /> 1846- The First American mayor of Los Angeles, a Lieutenant Gillespie, was apparently such an asshole to the population of Spanish Californians that they rose in revolt and chased him out of town. The Californios under their old Mexican General Andres Pico waged a guerrilla war against the U.S. army for the next few months.<br /> <br /> 1869- Henry J. Heinz began his condiment company, bottling horseradish in a little shop in Pittsburgh. He was later called the Catsup King, -or Ketchup, if you prefer. Ketchup comes from a Chinese fermented fish sauce called Koe-chiap he adapted. <br /> One of the Heinz Company's greatest stunts was in the 1920s they placed a 40 foot tall electrified pickle on the corner of 23rd and 5th Ave. in Manhattan.<br /> <br /> 1909- St. Louis Missouri was site of the first –and only- airship race in the US. Four dirigibles, the total number in America, ran a course for a purse of $1000 dollars.<br /> <br /> 1910- King Manuel II of Portugal abdicated. The Portuguese Republic is declared.<br /> <br /> 1918- The day after he took the job of German Chancellor, Prince Max of Baden first telegraphed Washington DC to request peace talks to end World War I. But the note said Germany would not give up any of the territory it conquered in Belgium, France or Poland. President Wilson refused this, so the war went on.<br /> <br /> 1931- Chester Gould's "Dick Tracy" comic strip debuts.<br /> <br /> 1943- Actor Clark Gable was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal for flying combat missions over Germany. It was said Gable took these deliberately dangerous missions instead of doing USO shows out of a death-wish he had in grief for his wife Carole Lombard, who was killed in a plane crash the year before. She had been urging Gable to volunteer shortly before her death. Adolf Hitler offered a cash reward of $5,000 to anyone who could bring Gable in alive. Adolf was a movie-fan and loved Gone With the Wind. <br /> <br /> 1950- The first Peanuts comic strip introducing Charlie Brown’s dog Snoopy.<br /> <br /> 1955- The Brooklyn Dodgers a.k.a. "Da Bums" won the World Series for the first time, and the only time they won it while inhabiting the precincts of Flatbush. The name Dodgers came from the fact that several main trolley car lines intersected in front of Ebbets Field on Atlantic Avenue. To get into the ballpark you had to cross this area dodging the traffic. So they were known as the Brooklyn Trolley-Dodgers, then Dodgers.<br /> <br /> 1957- SPUTNIK- Russia first shot an object into space orbit and inaugurates the Space Age. A basketball sized satellite called" Sputnik-1". Sputnik means Fellow Traveler and the word spawned pop words like Beatnik, Nudnik and Peacenik. Americans used to thinking of themselves as the leaders in all technology reacted with shock. Why weren’t we first? We were losing the space race! Senate majority leader Lyndon Johnson complained “I don’t want to sleep under a Commie Moon!”<br /> The gov't reaction caused the creation of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which funneled Defense Dept money into research through leading universities. Besides space, DARPA oversaw the development of computer graphics and the Internet.<br /> Wild rock &amp; roll star Little Richard Penniman thought Sputnik was an omen of the end of the world and resolved to give up sex, drugs and rock &amp; roll and become a born again Christian preacher. Good Golly Miss Molly!<br /> <br /> 1957-"Leave it to Beaver' debuts on CBS.<br /> <br /> 1961- The Alvin Show premiered.<br /> <br /> 1965- Pope Paul VI arrived in the US to deliver a plea for world peace at the United Nations. Then his Holiness visited the World’s Fair and took in a Yankee baseball game.<br /> <br /> 1969- Diane Linkletter, the daughter of television personality Art Linkletter got high on LSD and leapt out of a window to her death. Her boyfriend snatched at the belt loops of her dress in an attempt to save her, but they tore away. Art Linkletter became a livelong crusader against drug abuse. <br /> <br /> 1970- Janis Joplin was found dead of a drug overdose at the Landmark Hotel in Hollywood. Room 105. She was 27. Her song “Me and Bobby McGee” was as yet unreleased but soon topped the pop charts. Joplin left a considerable sum in her will for a party for her friends. The invitation read “ The Drinks are on Pearl”, her nickname.<br /> <br /> 1986- On a New York street a man named William Tager walked up to CBS News anchor Dan Rather and mumbling “Kenneth, what’s the Frequency?” started furiously punching him. He thought CBS was beaming microwaves at his brain and it was Dan’s fault. Who Kenneth was, remains a mystery.<br /> <br /> 1993- After a two week power struggle between Russian Parliamentary hard line conservatives and President Boris Yeltsin, Russian troops fire on and attack the barricaded Russian White House (Parliament building). The conservatives, including Yeltsin's own vice-president Victor Chernomyrdin, were arrested and the fragile democracy saved. This Parliament building is where Yeltsin himself was barricaded two years earlier during the failed August Coup. <br /> <br /> 1998- Rolie Polie Olie premiered on The Disney Channel. The French-Canadian Nelvana production, designed by William Joyce, is today considered one of the earliest animated TV series done entirely on computer. <br /> <br /> 2001- James Hemingway, the youngest son of writer Ernest Hemingway, was found dead in the women’s wing of a Miami jail. He was a transexual street vagrant, going by the name of Gloria, and was picked up by Miami cops for drug use and exposing himself in public. He was 69.<br /> <br /> 2006- Julian Assange founded Wikileaks.<br /> =========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: How many capitol cities has the U.S. had?<br /> <br /> Answer: Five. Philadelphia 1775-1789, Harrisburg PA after the British Army chased them out of Philadelphia for a time., New York City-1789-1795, Philadelphia again 1795-1799. Baltimore 1800 until the Federal City was built up enough to move into. Then Washington D.C,. from Nov 1800 on.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 02 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6275 <p>Quiz: Why, I’ll keel haul you! What does keelhauling mean?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Which city is the furthest to the North? Vienna, Venice, Siena or Florence?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------<br /> October 2, 2023<br /> Birthdays: King Richard III, Nat Turner, Mahatma Ghandi, Claus Von Hindenburg, Ferdinand Foch, Spanky MacFarland, Groucho Marx, Bud Abbott, Moses Gunn, Graham Greene, LeRoy Shield (composer of the music in the Hal Roach comedies), Donna Karan, Gordon Sumner known as Sting is 72, Lorraine Bracco is 59, Tiffany, Kelly Ripa <br /> <br /> Happy Farm Animals Day<br /> <br /> 1370- King Charles V makes warrior Bertrand Du Guesclin (De-Goo-Clan) Constable of France, and so in charge of the French side of the Hundred Years War. Du Guesclin was a very noble and able knight; not many artifacts remain of his time, but if you go<br /> to the monastery of Mont. St. Michel in Brittany where he kept his wife, they have<br /> the complete selection of her chastity belts.<br /> <br /> 1552- Ivan the Terrible captured the Tartar capitol of Astrakhan.<br /> <br /> 1608- Dutch lens grinder Hans Lipperschei sent to the States General in the Hague<br /> a plan for an invention to see enemies at great distances. It used a tube with concave<br /> lenses on one end and convex lenses on the other. The Telescope. Another Dutch lens<br /> maker asked for a similar patent. But it was Italian scientist Galileo Galilei who<br /> read their doctoral papers. Within a year he had ground his own lenses and created<br /> his own telescope. He was the first to train it on the Universe, and he got all the credit.<br /> <br /> 1780- The Americans hang British Major John Andre' as a spy by a tavern near<br /> present day Nyack, New York. Andre' was Benedict Arnold's contact. He had<br /> put aside his redcoat uniform to slip through American lines. He was arrested before <br /> he could get back. Washington really wanted to trade Andre for Benedict Arnold if he could, and the British were disgusted that Arnold refused to nobly offer himself in exchange. The hangman chosen was a loyalist prisoner who was promised his freedom. It was felt if the executioner was a Yankee, the man's family might be harmed in revenge.<br /> <br /> Up until now the British and their Yankee cousins had been quite civil to each other<br /> and it was not uncommon to see paroled American and British officers dining together<br /> at the height of the Revolution. But the British considered this hanging a barbaric<br /> abuse of a prisoner of war. Everyone knew Andre was not a professional spy or turncoat,<br /> but a gentleman British officer of high standing. John Andre had always been dismissed<br /> as a dandy fop, but it was admitted by all he met his end well. After the Revolution, Benedict Arnold retired to England, but he was never accepted by polite British society.<br /> <br /> 1807- Napoleon met Goethe at the philosopher's home at Weimar. People expected<br /> sparks to fly as The Great Enslaver of Nations would meet The Champion of the Human<br /> Spirit. Actually they had a pleasant afternoon conversation.<br /> <br /> 1836- Charles Darwin on the HMS Beagle returned to Falmouth England, ending a five<br /> year voyage to Brazil, the Galapagos and New Zealand. The knowledge he gained on<br /> exotic flora and fauna would lead him to write the Origin of the Species.<br /> <br /> 1914- Charles Taze Russell, founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, predicted this day<br /> would be the beginning of the Apocalypse and the End of the World. When nothing <br /> happened, he responded that it was only the beginning of a process of events that would<br /> lead to the eventual end of the world. - oh.<br /> <br /> 1918- As the German lines on the Western Front continued to crumble liberal Prince Max of Baden agreed to become Chancellor of a new government in Berlin. He demanded that<br /> that Kaiser relinquish the power to make war and peace to the Reichstag. He also<br /> brought two leading Social Democrat deputies into the cabinet. They and General <br /> Ludendorf urged an immediate peace with the Allies before red revolution broke out<br /> in Germany like it had in Russia.<br /> <br /> 1919- President Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke after a speech at Pueblo, Colorado. For two months he lay paralyzed while the U.S. was run by first lady Edith Wilson. No one told the public, or the Vice President. There are many interpretations of how the government was run in those weeks. Edith claimed to be passing on Wilson's wishes to the government from his sickbed, but many thought Wilson was too incapacitated even for that, and The First Lady was running America herself. When Wilson’s debilitated condition became known in Feb, he still refused to relinquish the presidency, inspiring lawmakers to create the 25th Amendment. <br /> <br /> 1920 - The only triple-header in baseball history was played on this day, as the<br /> Cincinnati Reds took two out of three games from the Pittsburgh Pirates.<br /> <br /> 1925-The first bright red Leyland doubledecker omnibuses appear on London streets.<br /> <br /> 1928 - This was a busy day at Victor Records Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. DeFord<br /> Bailey cut eight masters. Three songs were issued, marking the first studio recording<br /> sessions in the place now known as Music City, USA.<br /> <br /> 1933- Library of Congress musicologist Alan Lomax met with an Arkansas chain gang<br /> convict named Hudlan Ledbetter, who everyone called Ledbelly. He recorded a cotton picking work song of his called "the Rock Island Line' and “The Midnight Special”. <br /> <br /> 1936- Mussolini attacked Ethiopia.<br /> <br /> 1937 - Ronald Reagan, just 26 years old, made his acting debut this day<br /> with Warner Brothers release of "Love is in the Air".<br /> <br /> 1950- Charles Schulz's "Peanuts" comic strip debuts. Good ol' Charlie Brown was the name of an office worker Schulz knew that all the guys liked to play jokes on. Schulz's idea 'Little Folks' was initially rejected by all the major comic syndicates. When it was finally accepted, a syndicate editor suggested he change the name to Peanuts, after the children’s Peanut Gallery in the popular Howdy Doody TV Show. Three months before the strip was accepted his girlfriend broke off their engagement. She was convinced he would never amount to anything. <br /> At the time of his death Charles Schulz had mountains on the moon named for his characters, and he was arguably the richest visual artist on earth.<br /> <br /> 1954- Elvis Presley was fired from Nashville's Grand Ol' Opry Show after <br /> one performance. He was told: "Son, you ain't a' going no where. Go<br /> back to driving a truck!" The next year he was a major star.<br /> <br /> 1955 - "Good Eeeeeeevening." The master of mystery movies, Alfred<br /> Hitchcock, presented his brand of suspense to millions of viewers on CBS<br /> on this night.<br /> <br /> 1957- Raintree County, the first film in Panavision.<br /> <br /> 1957- The Bridge on the River Kwai, directed by David Lean, premiered. <br /> <br /> 1959- The television show The Twilight Zone debuts. Producer/writer Rod Serling <br /> had fought network execs for months that a mystery-suspense show could compete with<br /> all the Doctor and Cowboy shows on TV. He originally wanted Orson Welles to be <br /> the host of the show, but when Welles asked for too much money, Serling decided to<br /> do it himself. He wrote 90 episodes. He said he got the name Twilight Zone from a <br /> term airline pilots used for the region of the sky at dusk when both the clouds and ground are invisible from view and you lose your bearings.<br /> <br /> 1967- Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as the first African American to be a Supreme<br /> Court Justice. <br /> <br /> 1967- San Francisco Police raid the Haight-Ashbury home of the rock band the Grateful<br /> Dead, busting everyone for possession of narcotics.<br /> <br /> 1968- Just a week before the Olympics were set to begin in Mexico City the Mexican<br /> government shot hundreds of rioting student demonstrators and arrested hundreds <br /> more who were never seen again. Thirty years later the incident is still not acknowledged<br /> by them as ever even happening. In 2001, President Vincente Fox did a South-African style peace commission. <br /> <br /> 1977 - Following a foiled attempt to steal the body of Elvis Presley from<br /> Forest Hill Cemetery, both Presley's and his grandmother's bodies were moved<br /> to Graceland.<br /> <br /> 1978- Future TV star Tim Allen was busted in Kalamazoo Michigan for selling cocaine.<br /> <br /> 1982- Godfrey Reggio’s haunting documentary Koyaanisqatsi premiered at Radio City Music Hall. No dialogue, no narration, no actors. just amazing music by Phillip Glass.<br /> <br /> 1985- Actor Rock Hudson died of AIDS, just 3 ½ months since he announced he had contracted it. He was 59. The first major celebrity to die of the disease.<br /> =========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Which city is the furthest to the North? Vienna, Venice, Siena or Florence?<br /> <br /> Answer: Vienna.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 01 Oct 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6274 <p>Question: Which city is the furthest to the North? Vienna, Venice, Siena or Florence?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What does it mean to be prorogued?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 10/1/2023<br /> Welcome to Month Number 8, Octubrius to the Romans. <br /> In 138AD the Roman Senate wanted to rename month Faustina, after the wife of the Emperor Antonius Pius. But she being a rare modest empress, declined the honor. <br /> <br /> Birthdays: Paul Dukas, Vladimir Horowitz, Walter Matthau, Richard Harris, Phillipe Noiret, James Whitmore, Everett Sloane, Rod Carew, Stanley Holloway, Tom Bosley, Randy Quaid, Cindy Margolis, Zack Galifanakis is 54, R.O. Blechman is 93, Brie Larson is 34, Julie Andrews is 88, Pres. Jimmy Carter is 99<br /> <br /> 522BC- The Magiophonia, the Massacre of the Magi. When the high priest of the Persian priesthood, the Magi, attempted to usurp the throne, the Great King of Persia Darius killed him and ordered a general massacre of Magi priests. Greek writer Herodotus wrote: 'This day was celebrated each year as the feast of Magophonia or the day of the slaughter of the magi...the Persians observe this day with one accord, and keep it more strictly than any other in the whole year...this day is the greatest holy day that all Persians alike keep.'" By Jesus’ time, the Magi were much more circumspect in their ambitions, and merely stuck to astronomy and spiritual matters.<br /> <br /> 331BC- THE BATTLE OF GAUGAMELA or Arbelum - Alexander the Great's victory over the Persian army of King Darius IV. Darius had sought to once and for all destroy this Greek troublemaker by assembling an enormous army from all over his kingdom. But this multinational, polyglot force had no cohesion, and the disciplined Macedonian-Greek veterans knifed through their ranks. Alexander ordered his elite Companion Cavalry to make right for King Darius, since he was the only thing holding his army together. Darius had to run for his life, and so his army broke up when they saw him fleeing. The Persian Empire collapsed and Alexander soon captured his capitol and family. <br /> <br /> 326 A.D. Christian Emperor Constantine banned sentencing criminals to gladiator schools, effectively phasing out gladiator combat. The Games continued on a little while longer using prisoners of war, but all the fun and professionalism had gone out of it. The last recorded bout in Rome was in 407AD. <br /> <br /> Today is the Feast of Saint Bavo of Ghent, who begged one of his former servants to drag him by a chain around his neck because of what a cruel master he was before his conversion to Christianity. <br /> <br /> 1202- To the sound of massed trumpets and singing the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus, the knights of the Fourth Crusade left by ship from Venice for the Holy Land.<br /> <br /> 1273- German Electors choose Duke Rudolph of Hapsburg as Holy Roman Emperor. The Hapsburg family was the most successful dynasty in Europe. They remained in power (with one or two interruptions) for 645 years, finally being deposed in 1918. When a Hapsburg chided Napoleon for having no royalty in his blood, he snapped back" I prefer to be the Rudolph of my race!' The last heir to the Austrian Empire, Dr. Otto von Hapsburg, died at age 98 in 2003.<br /> <br /> 1791- The first day of the French Legislative Assembly, the second French parliamentary body after the Assembly National that had started the French Revolution adjourned itself. In this assembly for the first time the conservatives sat on the right side of the hall, the liberals on the left side and the moderates in the center. This gives us the designation today used around the world for political Leftists and Right Wingers. <br /> <br /> 1800- By the secret Treaty of San Idelfonso Spain returned Louisiana to France in exchange for the Italian Duchy of Parma. Spain had owned Louisiana for her part in the French and Indian War (Seven Years War) victory. Napoleon needed it back for his planned worldwide colonial challenge to Britain. But when Santo Domingo revolted against French rule and Nelson sank the French navy Napoleon soured on his colonial plans. He decided to sell Louisiana to the one country he knew would annoy the British most, the United States. And Spain never did get Parma.<br /> <br /> 1810- The first Berkshire Cattle Show.<br /> <br /> 1857- Gustav Flaubert's Madame Bovary premiered in magazine installments. Flaubert was tried for pornography because of it, but acquitted.<br /> <br /> 1880- John Phillip Sousa was named leader of the Marine Corps Band and began his career as the March King.<br /> <br /> 1903- First World Series of Baseball. The Boston Pilgrims had lost the first game today to the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-3, even though Cy Young was the starting pitcher. But Boston went on to win the series in best of nine games. There was no 1904 World series because the owners couldn't agree on a format.<br /> <br /> 1908- Ford announces the Model "T" the "Tin Lizzie" the first mass-produced affordable car. It was called the Model T because it took Twenty prototypes to perfect it. The Model T cost $825, paid on installments with as little as $10 down. Its top speed was 45 miles and hour and 15 million were sold. When they asked Henry Ford what color should it be, he replied: "Any color so long as it's black.' The auto goes from being a rich mans plaything to something every home could afford.<br /> <br /> 1910- A bomb blew up the L.A. Times building, killing 23 people. The Times had a hostility to unions, and two union organizers The McNamara Brothers were arrested. <br /> Despite having Clarence Darrow as a lawyer they were convicted, possibly because halfway through the trial the brothers confessed they did it, and Darrow had to beat a charge of jury tampering. As the McNamaras were hanged they shouted 'Hurrah for Anarchy!'<br /> <br /> 1919- THE FIX IS IN- First game of the 'fixed' world series. The Chicago White Sox had the best team in baseball at the time but Charles Comisky paid them wages lower than most minor league teams. They were nicknamed the Black Sox because Comisky was too cheap to pay for laundering their uniforms. So this year five players accepted bribes from gangster Arnold Rothstein to throw the world series. Pitcher Eddie Cicotte, who spent much of the previous night sewing $10,000 into the lining of his overcoat, at first threw a perfect fastball strike, then hit the batter in-between the shoulder blades on the next pitch- a signal to the gangsters that "The Fix was In" Cincinnati won this game 9 -1 and eventually the series.<br /> The scheme was uncovered a year later and Baseball Commissioner Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis banned all the accused Sox players from ever playing again. <br /> <br /> 1923- The first football game in the L.A. Coliseum- USC defeated Pomona.<br /> <br /> 1931- Construction completed on the new Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The original Waldorf Astoria from the XIX Century was demolished to make way for the Empire State Building. The new Waldorf boasted the Waldorf Towers, where kings, presidents and other Hoi-Paloi could enter by a private lobby and stay for weeks at a time. Old president Herbert Hoover was a long time resident. Their restaurant was where The Waldorf Salad was created.<br /> <br /> 1932- Babe Ruth's "Called" Home Run. Ruth was hitting against a Chicago Cubs pitcher when he pointed with his bat towards right field. He then swung his bat and hit a home run over the right wing bleachers.<br /> <br /> 1937- After heavy lobbying by millionaire publisher William Randolph Hearst the first Federal law banning Marijuana goes into effect. The law was sought chiefly by southwestern states, that wanted to have any excuse to deport Mexican immigrants. Plus Hearst had many powerful paper manufacturers behind him who wanted wood pulp to be the chief source of paper products rather than hemp, which grows, well…. like a weed.<br /> <br /> 1942-The test flight of America’s first experimental jet aircraft- the XP59A Comet. <br /> <br /> 1943-THE DANISH MIRACLE- This day the Nazis were to begin deporting Denmark's Jewish population to death camps. The Danish people meanwhile had quietly smuggled the entire Jewish population to the coast and onto ferries to neutral Sweden. The Germans only found a few hundred stragglers. Earlier in a show of defiance when the Nazi authorities ordered all Jews to wear a large yellow Star of David, every Danish citizen including the King wore one. <br /> <br /> 1944- Nazis doctors in Buchenwald concentration camp began conducting experiments on homosexuals.<br /> <br /> 1945- Looney Tunes director Frank Tashlin left the cartoon business to work full time as a screenwriter at Paramount on live action movies. He wrote for the Marx Brothers and later directed the Dean Martin Jerry Lewis comedies. <br /> <br /> 1946- NUREMBERG-The verdicts read in the International Military Tribunal Trials of top Nazi war criminals. Herman Goering, Hans Franck, Jodl and 8 others got death sentences, their bodies later to be burned in the very crematoriums they created. Others like Rudolf Hess life prison terms. Admiral Doenitz, the leader of the U-Boats, got a lighter sentence by appealing to US Admiral Nimitz. Nimitz admitted that US submarines sinking the Japanese merchant marine learned their stuff studying the German tactics. Japanese submarines never sunk US cargo ships because sinking other than a war ship was considered dishonorable.<br /> Senator Robert Taft was a leading Republican Senator who pointed out that even though the Nazis were evil and deserved punishment, the Nuremberg trials had no legal precedent and were against the U.S. Constitution's guarantee against ex-post-facto – after the fact, laws. Technically speaking, there were no such laws like Crimes Against Humanity at the time, so how could anybody be convicted of violating them? Intriguing, but not a popular argument. Taft was being considered for a presidential run in 1948 until these statements ruined his career. John F. Kennedy put him in his book Profiles of Courage. <br /> <br /> 1947-THE BIRTH OF THE BURBS- William Levitt's postwar dream, a planned community of affordable pre-fab homes on the outskirts of New York, called Levittown, is born. Mr. and Mrs. Bladykas moved into the first 2 bedroom house, which cost $7,990 bucks. The first true suburb.<br /> <br /> 1948- After the Israeli War of Independence the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haij Amin Al Husseini gathered many Arab refugees displaced by the fighting and declared a Palestinian State in the North of Israel, in accordance with the UN Resolution. King Abdallah of Jordan rejected this and declared all Palestinian lands not claimed by Israel including the West Bank were part of Jordan. While Arab states lined up on either side to argue, the Palestinians were kept in refugee camps instead of being allowed to assimilate into the populations of the surrounding Arab countries. This confusion in part explains why Israel and other Western nations for many years had trouble understanding Palestinian nationalism. For years Israeli leaders like Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan felt Jordan was the homeland for resettled Palestinians. King Abdallah was assassinated by a Palestinian.<br /> <br /> 1949- THE EAST IS RED - Mao declared the Peoples Republic of China. "Now Let the World Tremble! " he said. In China today is a holiday –National Day. Contrary to paranoid conservative American politicians who feared the growing global Communist domination, Russian Soviet dictator Stalin hated Mao, and continued to support Chiang Kai Chek’s nationalist government. During World War II, Mao sent his wife to Moscow for safety. Stalin locked her up in a lunatic asylum just to annoy him.<br /> <br /> 1952- This Is Your Life TV show hosted by Ralph Edwards premiered.<br /> <br /> 1955- The Honeymooners with Jackie Gleason, Jayne Meadows and Art Carney premiered on TV.<br /> <br /> 1957- Los Angeles outlawed garbage incineration to try and cut down smog levels. Even though Los Angeles has reduced it's pollution levels by 30% in ten years it still had the worst air in the United States until surpassed by Houston in 1999.<br /> <br /> 1958- NASA born. The National Aeronautics &amp; Space Agency. The U.S. government takes the space program out of the hands of the military and sets up a civilian space agency to get us into orbit.<br /> <br /> 1960- The independence of Nigeria.<br /> <br /> 1962- Johnny Carson took over the Tonight Show, after host Jack Paar walked off the set too many times. In one incident, Paar was annoyed the network censors cut a comedy sketch that featured a joke about a WC (water-closet). At first, people were cool to Carson. Even his own mother in Nebraska wasn’t impressed. But by years end Johnny Carson became the king of late night TV, and ruled it for 32 years. Jack Paar later said quitting was the worst mistake of his life.<br /> <br /> 1963- People who argue that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy take note: It is a fact that this day weeks before the assassination top Mafioso Jimmy Roselli flew from Chicago down to New Orleans to have two secret meetings with Jack Ruby, the man who later shot Oswald. Why would a national crime boss take time to talk with a two-bit strip joint manager? <br /> <br /> 1964- THE FREE SPEECH MOVEMENT- It’s hard to believe now, but once upon a time most US universities had strict laws against students holding political protests on campus. It changed when this day on the campus of Berkeley, Cal., Jack Weinberg was arrested by Oakland police for distributing Civil Rights pamphlets. A mob of students surrounded the police car he was handcuffed in and would not let it proceed. The crowd held the car for 32 hours as speakers stood on the roof and made speeches denouncing the ban and other issues. The University lifted the ban on public political rallies and set the stage for the Anti-War protest of the 60’s.<br /> <br /> 1966- Largest demonstrations in China of Mao's Cultural Revolution.<br /> <br /> 1968- George Romero's film "Night of the Living Dead' premieres. Despite one film critic describing it as,” A bunch of sick crap”, it went on to become a cult hit.<br /> <br /> 1971-Walt Disney World Florida opened to the public.<br /> <br /> 1982- Disney's EPCOT opens.<br /> <br /> 1987- The Whittier Earthquake rocks L.A. 5.9 on the Richter Scale, it killed 8 and caused millions in damage.<br /> <br /> 1992 -The Cartoon Network started.<br /> <br /> 2009- The Walt Disney Family Museum opened in San Francisco.<br /> <br /> 2013- The Obamacare sign-up website, Healthcare.gov went on line. It quickly crashed and caused much embarrassment and scoffing from critics of the administration. But eventually it signed up millions of uninsured and slowed the rise of medical costs. <br /> <br /> 2017- Retired real estate dealer Steven Paddock went to Las Vegas with a car full of legally purchased automatic weapons. From his hotel suite window he sprayed bullets down on the audience of an outdoor rock concert. He shot 480 people, killing 56. Then he killed himself. No motive was ever revealed. No gun control ever considered.<br /> =====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean to be prorogued?<br /> <br /> Answer: An old parliamentary tactic where a monarch or prime minister can discontinue a parliament without officially dissolving it.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 30 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6273 <p>Question: What does it mean to be prorogued?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is the origin of something excellent being called top notch?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 9/30/2023<br /> Birthdays: William Wrigley the Chewing Gum king 1868, Truman Capote, Eli Weisel, Lester Maddox, Buddy Rich, David Oistrach, Deborah Kerr, Angie Dickinson, Marylin McCoo, Len Cariou, Johnny Mathis, Rula Lenska, Eric Stolz, Monica Bellucci is 59, Jenna Elfman is 52, Marion Cotillard is 48, Al Leong (Al KaBong) is 71<br /> <br /> 331BC- On the night before the Battle of Gaugamela. Alexander the Great made preparations. The Persian Great King had assembled and enormous army of peoples from throughout his vast empire-150,000 Lydians, Scythians, Bactrians, Phoenicians, Ionians, Egyptians, Medes, all to face the Macedonian Greek army of 30,000. Alexander ordered his soothsayer Aristander to offer sacrifices to the God of Fear.<br /> <br /> 420AD- Today is the feast of Saint Jerome, who first translated all of the Old and New Testaments from Hebrew, Chaldean, Aramaic and Greek into commonly spoken Latin. This is referred to as the Vulgate Edition. <br /> <br /> 1187- SALADIN CAPTURED JERUSALEM- After destroying the Crusader army at The Horns of Hattin in July, the Sultan of Egypt laid siege to the Holy City. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and Baron Baylin of Ibelin threatened to destroy the Al Aqsa mosque, the Dome of the Rock and other Muslim holy places if Saladin didn't agree to mild treatment of the Christian citizens of the city. Saladin didn't want his name to go down in history with such an infamy, so he agreed. Still, he consoled himself with beheading 3,000 captured Knights Templar (you gotta have some fun). Remember Richard Lionheart had 5,000 Arab people slaughtered just to taunt Saladin. The Queen of Jerusalem, Yolanda DeCourtenay, sister of Baldwin IV 'the Leper King '(deceased), went into exile looking for Western support for more Crusades. <br /> <br /> 1399- King Richard II abdicated the throne of England for Henry IV Bollingbroke.<br /> He was Henry IV part one, if you're a Shakespeare fan). Henry was the eldest surviving son of John of Gaunt and Richard the son of his brother Edward the Black Prince. The cousins would wage the War of the Roses a generation later. Richard was later murdered at Pontefract Castle. Richard II is remembered for is the invention of the pocket-handkerchief.<br /> <br /> 1628- Sir Fulke Greville was a peer of the realm, chancellor of the exchequer, confident of King James, poet, writer and friend of William Shakespeare’s. But he wasn’t nice to his employees. This day as he was being dressed, one of his servants, Ralph Haywood, drew a knife and stabbed him in the guts. Doctors tried to repair his loss of intestine by taking a comparable amount of pig’s intestine and packing it into the wound. (modern medicine). It didn’t take and just grew infected, and he died swiftly.<br /> <br /> 1630- Pilgrim John Billington became the first American hanged for murder. Known as the “Wickedest Pilgrim Father” criminologists call him the first American crook. <br /> <br /> 1681- Louis XIV of France seized the city of Strasbourg, a city half-German and half-French. The German Emperor considered Strasbourg one of his imperial cities and the stage was set for future Franco-German rivalry. The city would change hands again and again over the centuries until becoming finally French in 1945.<br /> <br /> 1789- After adopting the Constitution, setting up the Supreme Court and working with the first President, the First Congress of the United States adjourned. <br /> <br /> 1791- Mozart's opera "Die Zauberflotte, The Magic Flute" premiered at Emanuel Schiknader's theater in Vienna. One of the theories about Mozart's death was that he put too much Freemason’s secret ritual into the story, so that the Masons did him in for violating their secrecy. The Papageno-Papagena duet when they meet at the end was Schiknader's idea. Mozart gave pyrotechnical trills to the coloratura aria of the Queen of the Night, but privately he laughed at such singing as “Cut Up Noodles”.<br /> <br /> 1791- The French Assembly Nationale, which had been in session since King Louis XVI chased them into a tennis court and tried to disband them two years earlier, dissolved themselves to make way for a new Legislative Assembly to complete the work of converting France from a feudal monarchy to a democratic republic.<br /> <br /> 1846- Dr. William Morton first pulled a tooth using ether as an anesthetic.<br /> <br /> 1868- Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women first published in installments.<br /> <br /> 1888- Jack the Ripper murdered two more prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes<br /> <br /> 1896- Explorer Robert Peary returned to New York from the Polar ice bringing the Museum of Natural History a large iron meteorite, and two families of Eskimos (Inuit). Peary had tempted the Inuit with promises of gifts and promised to return them in a year. The Museum housed them in the basement. All but one young boy named Minik died of disease. Minik had been told his father Oiesuk was buried, but in reality the Museum made his skeleton into an exhibit. In 1909 the boy was finally allowed to go home. By then he had wised up. ” I want to leave before you put my brains in a jar, too!”<br /> <br /> 1919- The Fleischer Brother's first Out of the Inkwell cartoon featuring Koko the Clown. Koko was rotoscoped- meaning traced from live action like Motion Capture does today. Dave Fleischer put on the clown suit and was filmed by his brother Max.<br /> <br /> 1928- Walt Disney and his crew re-recorded the final music for the first Mickey Mouse short, Steamboat Willie. Walt was unhappy with the sync on first version of the track, and pawned his car for the money to pay for this second session.<br /> <br /> 1930- Death Valley Days Show premiered on radio, sponsored by Twenty Mule Team Borax powder. When it moved to television in the 50’s the host was Ronald Reagan.<br /> <br /> 1935- George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess premiered at the Colonial Theater in Boston. It flopped originally, but after some rewrites it became a major hit.<br /> <br /> 1939- With war breaking out across the world, Russian composer Igor Stravinsky moved to the USA. After living in Boston and New York he settled in LA for the next 25 years.<br /> <br /> 1942-THE STAR OF AFRICA- Just prior to the Battle of El Alamein the top German fighter ace Hans Joachim Marseilles The Star of Africa died when his ME 109F caught fire and his parachute didn’t open. Marseilles had shot down 158 aircraft in one and a half years. He was just 22. His marksmanship over the Sahara desert was so good that his wingman was nicknamed “The Adding Machine”, because his only job seemed to be to watch and tally up the enemy planes that Joachim shot down. Because of the desert heat, this ace fought his battles in shorts and white tennis shoes.<br /> <br /> 1947- The first World Series Game on Television- New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 5-3. Gillette and Ford paid $65,000 to sponsor the entire series.<br /> <br /> 1952- This Is Cinerama, showcasing the widescreen film process, opened in theaters.<br /> <br /> 1955- James Dean (24) was killed when his Porsche 550 Spyder crashed head on into a pickup truck driven by college student Donald Turnipseed on Highway 41 outside of Paso Robles, California. Dean was driving 85 mph at dusk without his headlights on, and two hours earlier had been given a ticket for speeding. Until now the American public had only seen him in one movie- "East of Eden" and some TV work. Giant and Rebel Without a Cause had yet to be released, yet the legend endures to this day. In an eerie coincidence, Dean had just filmed a public service announcement promoting automobile safety. His last lines were:” Remember, the life you save may be mine!”<br /> <br /> 1960- On a Friday night on ABC, Hanna &amp; Barbera's "The Flintstones" debuted. For six seasons the inhabitants of 301 Cobblestone Lane, Bedrock, was one of the most successful TV series ever. Originally going to be named the Flagstones, then Gladstones, before Flintstones. Ed Benedicts' designs with Alan Reed as the voice of Fred, Jean Van Der Pyl the voice of Wilma, Mel Blanc doing Barney and Bea Benaderet doing Betty. <br /> The show was so obviously modeled on the live action comedy The Honeymooners, that Jackie Gleason seriously considered suing, especially when two of his old writers went to work for them. But his people dissuaded him, saying if he did, he’s be hated by every child in America. <br /> <br /> 1962- Three days of bitter rioting climaxed the BATTLE OF OXFORD MISSISSIPPI. James Meredith wanted to be the first black man to enroll in the segregated University of Miss. Governor Ross Barnett, who Time Magazine called “The Worst Racist in the Nation” vowed to keep him out. President John Kennedy pondered the constitutional ramifications of arresting the sitting governor of a state. When Barnett refused to deploy the states’ National Guard Washington sent in Federal marshals and troops to ensure Mr. Meredith could attend classes. <br /> This night for 14 hours huge crowds of segregationist and Klansmen from around the state waving Confederate flags battled authorities with rocks, bottles, guns and tear gas. Two were killed and scores wounded. One federal marshal said: “ I was more scared there than I was at Pearl Harbor!” One of the marshals that night was the son of writer William Faulkner. Next day James Meredith walked to his classes at Old Miss. In later years Meredith became an aide to former segregationist Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina.<br /> <br /> 1966- British Bechuanaland becomes the Republic of Botswana.<br /> <br /> 1982- The TV comedy Cheers premiered. The Beacon Street Bar in Boston where everybody knows your name. It made stars of Ted Danson, Woody Harrelson, Kirstie Alley and Kelsey Grammar.<br /> <br /> 1990- READ MY LIPS! President George Bush Sr made the cornerstone of his policy the fact that he’d never raise taxes- He declared “Read my lips, no new taxes!” Well today he went back on his word and announced a hefty tax increase of $134 billion. When a spokesman was called on this obvious flip-flop he responded:” The Presidents position has Evolved.” So did the American public’s view of Bush, they voted him out of office.<br /> <br /> 2021- The Academy Museum of the Motion Picture opened to the public. <br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is the origin of something excellent being called top notch?<br /> <br /> Answer: The term goes back to 1839, when the term appeared in a Farmers Almanac. One theory is it comes from horse jumping hurdles, the best jumper being able to clear the bar placed on the top notch. Another theory is some pub games like darts, horseshoes, or cribbage, people kept score by a wooden board mounted on a pillar that a contestant’s peg was moved up a series of notches, until the winner reached the top notch.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 29 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6272 <p>Question: What is the origin of something excellent being called top notch?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: What does it mean when you say something with aplomb?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 9/29/2023<br /> Birthdays: Roman general Pompey Magnus, Miguel de Cervantes, Admiral Horatio Nelson, Rudolph Diesel (inventor of the engine), Enrico Fermi, Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Autrey, Lech Walesa, Stanley Kramer, Bryant Gumbel, Greer Garson, Michelangelo Antonioni, Ian McShane, Anita Ekberg, Andrew Dice-Clay, Russ Heath, Tom Sizemore, Emily Lloyd is 54, Silvio Berlusconi<br /> <br /> In the Medieval calendar this was The Feast of Mickelmuss or MichaelMass. In Old London this was the beginning of the winter lighting season when every tenth store had to maintain a candle in a street lamp, and light it after dark, until Lady Day, March 25th.<br /> <br /> 440 A.D. -Pope Leo the Great consecrated. He was the pope who turned away Attila the Hun from the gates of Rome.<br /> <br /> 1066-WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR LANDED IN ENGLAND. When King Edward the Confessor died childless, he left the throne up for grabs. Earl Harold son of Godwin promised Duke William of Normandy that he would step aside and let him be king. But later Harold took the crown for himself. So Duke William invaded with 30,000 Norman knights. Duke William was an illegitimate son of Robert the Devil. He was called William the Bastard until the conquest, when he became William the Conqueror.<br /> When William's ship landed at Pevensey Beach near Dover, Duke William leapt out into the surf to be the first to set foot in Britain. However in front of the whole army he stumbled and fell to his knees. Quickly realizing that if he didn't act fast the men would regard this as a dangerously bad omen, he grabbed two fistfuls of muddy sand in his clenched fists, raised them up and declared: "Ah Britain! Now I have you!" His men cheered and he went on to victory at Hastings on Oct. 16th.<br /> <br /> 1529- Phillip the Landgrave of Hesse got together the great Protestant leaders to try and seek a common ground for the anti-Catholic Reformation. Martin Luther met Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli at this conference. They couldn’t agree on anything and the meeting quickly fell apart. At the departure, Luther even refused to shake Zwingli’s hand. “Your Spirit is not our Spirit.”<br /> <br /> 1798- At the court of Naples Admiral Horatio Nelson was given a 40th birthday party by his friend and patron, the British ambassador Sir William Hamilton. At this party Nelson first shows the signs of getting seriously turned on by Hamilton's hot young wife Emma. Sir William was 69, Emma was 30. The party was broken up when Nelson's stepson, who was serving as one of his lieutenants, got so drunk he made a scene. <br /> The love affair between Nelson and Mrs. Hamilton in defiance of all social stigmas scandalized even that notorious age. Yet Sir William Hamilton seemed more interested in his ancient Roman pottery. Hamilton got more upset at the news of a shipload of antique vases sinking, than being told that his wife was shivering the admiral’s timbers.<br /> <br /> 1829- BOBBIES- Prime Minister the Duke of Wellington had been complaining for years that the city of London needed it's own regular police force instead of relying on irregular militia like the Bow Street Runners or the Horse Guards. At this time sections of North London were so tough they were labeled on maps “No-Go”. On this day London's reorganized police force, The Greater Metropolitan Police Force based at Scotland Yard, went on duty. The constables, because they were formed by Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel, were nicknamed "Bobbie's Boys" or "Bobbies". They’re also nicknamed Old Bill. Some called them Peelers.<br /> <br /> 1862- THE GENERAL DISTURBANCE- The Yankee army in Tennessee had a morale problem among its senior officers. Major General Bull Nelson got into an argument with Brigadier General Jefferson C. Davis -no relation to the President of the Confederacy. In a hotel lobby Davis confronted the 6' 5", 300 pound Nelson and flung a business card in his face. Nelson bellowed "Get outta my way you puppy!" and slapped him so hard he flew across the room. Whereupon General Davis drew a pistol and shot General Nelson in the chest." Tom, he's murdered me!" Bull Nelson cried as he collapsed and died. Amazingly Gen. Davis was never tried or court-martialed because he was needed on the battlefield. I guess arguments between nations take precedence. Davis was finally cashiered out of the army when during Sherman's March through Georgia he was accused of destroying a bridge before a crowd of runaway slave families could cross, knowing they would be left at the mercy of the pursuing Confederates. <br /> <br /> 1913-Rudolph Diesel, inventor of the diesel engine, jumped off the SS Dresden bound for England and drowned. His body was found a week later. He was 55. It was ruled a suicide, but some claim he was murdered for seeking to share his engine design with the English.<br /> <br /> 1918- German ally Bulgaria requested an armistice with Britain and France to get out of World War One.<br /> <br /> 1925- Colonel Billy Mitchell testified to Congress that America needed a large independent Air Force, because the current army and navy heads were too stupid to grasp its future significance. For these remarks, he was court-martialed and suspended for 5 years. He quit the army in disgust. In Germany, German ace Ernst Udet studied Mitchell’s tactics to develop the dive-bombing. In 1942, when it was obvious that World War II was being decided by air power, Billy Mitchell was reinstated a major general- posthumously. The US Air Force became a separate branch of the military in 1945. <br /> <br /> 1929- After a summer of fierce rioting between Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem, Nablus, Hebron and Bethlehem, Palestinian leader Oudah Mousah Pashah met with the British Mandate Governor. He warned that if something wasn’t done to curb Jewish desires for nationhood in Palestine, more violence would occur. <br /> <br /> 1930- Ninety-year-old writer George Bernard Shaw refused the offer of a Peerage.<br /> <br /> 1930- First day of shooting on the Tod Browning horror classic Dracula. Hungarian actor and morphine addict Bela Lugosi played the lead role he had already made famous on stage. Lugosi was identified with the character Dracula for the rest of his life. When he died, he was buried in the Dracula cape.<br /> <br /> 1933- The movie A Bill of Divorcement introduced the star Katherine Hepburn.<br /> <br /> 1936- Leaders of the Spanish Fascist Phalange forces vote Gen. Francisco Franco "Il Caudillo- the Leopard", their overall leader, or Generalissimo.<br /> <br /> 1938- THE MUNICH AGREEMENT- Hitler duped war weary England &amp; France that if he ate Czechoslovakia he would be satisfied. Prime Minister Chamberlain proclaimed back home: “We have Peace in our Time." At the conference at Berchtesgaden the British and French prime ministers never conferred, never even had lunch with each other. And no one would give a hearing to Czech Premier Benes, who’s country was being dissolved.<br /> In Germany a conspiracy of top generals lead by Admiral Canaris planned to topple Hitler in a coup the moment the news of Britain and France had declared war came from Munich. Instead, the news of Hitler bluffing his way peacefully to victory caused the conspiracy to collapse. <br /> <br /> 1938- Walt Disney brought 60 of his lead artists to a soundstage and told them of his plans for an animated concert feature, to be called Fantasia. He finished by running the work reel for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, originally begun as a Mickey Mouse short. <br /> <br /> 1941- Babi Yar. The nazis drove the Jewish population of Kyiv outside the city to a ravine and shot them. Thirty thousand were murdered in one day. For years afterwards the Soviet KGB denied Babi Yar's existence until poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko made the site famous with his 1961 poem.<br /> <br /> 1953- The television show “Make Room for Daddy” premiered, making a star out of big nosed nightclub entertainer Danny Thomas. The Lebanese Thomas had tried to break into films like other nightclub stars, but with no luck. He burst into tears after Columbia studio chief Harry Cohn suggested he get a nose job and forget about it. Danny Thomas at one time was the richest man in Beverly Hills. <br /> <br /> 1957- A nuclear reactor explosion in Chyrbtsk Russia released more deadly radiation than Chernobyl, but it was all kept secret until the fall of the Soviet State in 1991.<br /> <br /> 1959- Hanna Barbera's "Quick Draw McGraw" TV show. Baba Louie, Snooper and Blabb and Augie-Doggie and Doggie-Daddy.<br /> <br /> 1961- Russian ballet star Rudolph Nureyev, acclaimed as the greatest dancer of his age, defected to the west in Paris and was granted asylum. <br /> <br /> 1962- Because of the Independence of Algeria the French Foreign Legion quit their home base at Siddi Abbes forever. They took with them relics like the glass casket containing the wooden hand of Capt. Jean Danjou, killed at Camarone Mexico fighting the Juaristas one hundred years earlier. <br /> <br /> 1967- The cult TV series The Prisoner premiered. <br /> <br /> 1969- The TV series Love American Style premiered.<br /> <br /> 1969- Country singer Merle Haggard released the song “I’m Proud to be an Oakie from Muskogee”. It was a huge hit on the country charts, but more than that, it was a conservative declaration of cultural war of against the urban-hippy, liberal rock &amp; roll counterculture that dominated American media at the time. It focused rural anger into an already polarized American public debate. <br /> <br /> 1975- The legendary R&amp;B singer Jackie Wilson, collapsed of a heart attack while performing on stage for Dick Clark’s ‘Good Ol’ Rock and Roll Revue’ at the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, N.J. He lingered in an out of a coma for 8 years, dying in 1984. He was only 49. All the time he was comatose, Dick Clark paid all his medical bills, and kept it a secret. This wasn’t revealed until Clark himself died in 2012.<br /> <br /> 1976- At his birthday party musician Jerry Lee Lewis accidentally shot his bass player Norman Owens in the chest with his 357 magnum. He said he was using the gun to try and open a soft drink bottle and it accidentally went off. Owens survived and sued Lewis.<br /> <br /> 1982- Tylenol recalled hundreds of thousands of bottles of capsules after a lunatic laced some with cyanide, killing seven. The killer or killers were never found.<br /> <br /> 1996- The first Nintendo 64-bit game system, The NES, debuted in the US. It sold 500,000 units the first day. <br /> <br /> 2008- When the Conservative US Congress failed to pass a bail-out bill for the economy wracked by the Great Recession and high gas prices, Wall Street dropped 700 points, at the time the most ever at once.<br /> ===========================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean when you say something with aplomb?<br /> <br /> Answer: To state something with an easy confidence.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 28 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6271 <p>Question: What does it mean when you say something with aplomb?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: What is meant by noblesse oblige?<br /> <br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 9/28/2023<br /> Birthdays: Michel Caravaggio, Georges Clemenceau, Al Kapp, William Paley, Max Schmelling, Frederic Engels, Marcello Mastroianni, Moon Unit Zappa, Ed Sullivan, Sylvia Kristel, John Sayles, Arnold Stang, J.T. Walsh, Seymour Cray, Janeane Garofalo is 59, Mira Sorvino is 56, Hillary Duff is 36, Naomi Watts is 55, George Scribner, Bridgette Bardot is 89<br /> <br /> 48 B.C.- Pompey the Great, fleeing Julius Caesar after he was defeated by him, was assassinated by the Egyptians as he landed on their shore. A Roman officer named Septimius was hired to do the murder. The Egyptians thought it would please Caesar to present him with his enemy’s head. When one of Pompey's supporters was approaching the coast by ship and saw a Roman-style funeral pyre on the beach, he knew their cause was lost. He sighed:" Even thou, Pompeius Magnus?" <br /> <br /> 855AD- The Frankish Empire of Charlemagne had covered Europe from Hungary to the Pyrenees, Denmark to Sicily. This day Frankish Emperor Lothar died, and according to custom his kingdom is divided among his sons. Lothar had fought against his brothers Charles the Bald, and Louis the German to keep the empire together. By the Treaty of Verdun, Louis and Charles acknowledged the fact that Charlemagne’s Empire was just too big to manage. They broke it up, creating the kingdoms of France, Germany, and Austrasia, later Austria and Italy.<br /> <br /> 1043- Battle of LyrskogHede. Viking King Magnus the Good defeated a Baltic tribe called the Wends. Magnus psyched out the enemy by taking off his armor, and put on a loud red shirt. He then ran ahead of his charging warriors swinging a large double-bladed axe (he named it Hel) over his head in wide circles, until he crashed into the foe. <br /> Back then, kings were kings for a reason!<br /> <br /> 1216- CORONATION OF KING HENRY III- English King John I died when an evil monk poured poisonous toad venom in his ear. His son Henry was left a situation that didn't make for a good coronation. The country was racked by civil war and invasion because of the dispute over the Magna Charter, the great document that granted broad ranging civil rights. Henry couldn't have his coronation at Westminster because London was occupied by a French army. He couldn't have the Archbishop of Canterbury preside over the ceremony because he was under house arrest in the Vatican. And to top it all off his father had lost the Iron Crown of Alfred the Great at the beach. Boy, what a downer of a party! Henry III would reign for 56 years and he would demand extravagance at all subsequent royal functions.<br /> <br /> 1542- The European Discovery of California- Juan de Cabrillo sailing up from Mexico stepped ashore at Cabrillo Point in San Diego Harbor. He had hoped that San Diego Bay would be the Straights of Anian, a mythical sea route back to the Atlantic that would be safer than Magellan’s Straights. All through the 1500’s conventional thinking was that America was just one big island with sea routes all around it. California was supposed to be the Kingdom of Califa, the Brown Amazons who wield Golden Swords.<br /> <br /> 1774- Seven months before Lexington and Concord, Pennsylvanian Joseph Galloway proposed in the first Continental Congress that the solution to America’s problems with England was to petition the mother country for dominion status:” since the colonies hold in abhorrence the idea of being independent communities.” The Dominion idea was defeated by just one vote. <br /> <br /> 1781- Washington and Rochambeau’s troops entered the siege trenches around Yorktown. They were amazed at the British army’s lack of activity. Lord Cornwallis knew he was being surrounded by land and sea for two weeks, yet he did nothing to break out of the trap. He decided to wait until his superior General Clinton would arrive with a rescue force. But Clinton was busy in New York entertaining King George’s younger son the Duke of York who was visiting America to buck up the troops morale. Clinton’s relief force showed up to Yorktown two weeks late for Cornwallis’ defeat.<br /> <br /> 1794- France’s Ecole Polytechnique first opened.<br /> <br /> 1850- Congress abolished flogging on US Naval vessels. Captains came up with other clever means of discipline like hanging a seaman from his thumbs.<br /> <br /> 1857- Wall Street collapsed and the ensuing panic created recession and unemployment.<br /> <br /> 1864- CENTRALIA RAID- Confederate Guerilla "Bloody-Bill" Anderson stops a train of 150 disarmed Union recruits and has them all killed and scalped. Because of the chaos of civil war, nobody noticed that this guy was a complete psychopath. He hung human hair from his saddle and galloped into battle weeping aloud as he fired his pistols. He would put a knot in the sash around his waist for every time he killed a Yankee. By the time Bloody Bill was finally gunned down his sash was full of knots.<br /> <br /> 1864- THE FIRST INTERNATIONALE opens. European and American trade unions came together in a mass meeting in London, with the goal of attempting to centralize the struggle for labor rights. The meeting became sidetracked by radical and anarchist politics, and soon disbanded. The Second and Third Internationales were more about communist politics. One positive accomplishment was Frenchman Pierre de Guyter wrote a melody for the meeting that became the song of revolution, "The Internationale".<br /> <br /> 1904- A woman was arrested on New York’s Fifth Ave for openly smoking a cigarette. Look how far we’ve come. Today, almost anyone can be arrested for smoking a cigarette!<br /> <br /> 1918- At Imperial German headquarters, master strategist General Erich Ludendorff monitored the reports of his armies being driven back from their final defensive lines. Ludendorff dismissed his staff, gently closed his office door, and went into a fit of hysterics- screaming that the Kaiser, the Reichstag, and the Liberals had ruined everything. Then, after regaining his composure, he calmly walked downstairs to a meeting with General Von Hindenburg and Kaiser Wilhelm. There he told them that hopes for winning World War I were now kaput. The German army was defeated, the people demand peace. Negotiations need to begin immediately.<br /> <br /> 1924 -the first airplane flight around the world landed back at its point of departure. Commander Leslie Arnold took off from Seattle with 5 converted torpedo bomber seaplanes. One crashed, another sank but the remaining three circumnavigated the globe. They completed the journey in 175 days, making 74 stops and covering 27,550 miles.<br /> <br /> 1928- For his birthday, William Paley, son of a cigar manufacturer, was given control of a little radio company called the Columbia Broadcasting System. He turned CBS into a corporate broadcasting giant and threw his support behind developing television and long playing records.<br /> <br /> 1929- USC first played UCLA in a football game. USC won 76-0. Play was suspended for a few years because of UCLA revamping its program, but resumed regularly in 1935. A sportswriter at the time wrote: "In years to come, this game will probably be one of the football spectacles of the West"<br /> <br /> 1935- Mickey Mouse short On Ice, premiered.<br /> <br /> 1950- In a media rich ceremony, General Douglas MacArthur restored South Korean President Sygmun Rhee to the presidential palace in liberated Seoul. The Marines complained that though they had done the bulk of the house-to-house fighting, they were left out of the ceremony by old Army man MacArthur. Colonel Chesty Puller looked at all the crisp Army MP’s standing guard and growled to a correspondent “ Today my First Marines took 25 combat casualties, while these little cookies were still flying out from Tokyo!”<br /> <br /> 1960- Ted Williams hit a home run at his last at-bat. Number 521.<br /> <br /> 1961- Richard Chamberlain made a name for himself by playing the handsome Dr. Kildare on TV, Raymond Massey co-starred.<br /> <br /> 1961-The Hazel TV show with Shirley Booth premiered.<br /> <br /> 1961- Tennessee Tuxedo and his Friends Show premiered. Don Adams (Get Smart) did the lead voice.<br /> <br /> 1967- Speed Racer premiered in the U.S.<br /> <br /> 1970 - After spending three days making peace between King Hussein of Jordan and Yassir Arafat of the PLO, President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt died of heart failure. Five million people in the streets of Cairo attended the funeral and took over the coffin draped in the Egyptian flag and passed it above their heads across the city to the intended mausoleum. Nasser had been the first native leader of Egypt since the last Pharaoh Nectanebo, was driven out by Persian King Cyrus in the fourth century BC. <br /> <br /> 1976- Stevie Wonder released his album Songs in the Key of Life.<br /> <br /> 1978- Pope John Paul I dies after only 34 days in office. The rumor was some sort of pills were found by his bedside. The Vatican refused any autopsy, fueling many conspiracy theories.<br /> <br /> 1987- Star Trek the Next Generation premiered.<br /> <br /> 1994- Michael Eisner cancelled plans for a theme park called Disney’s America in Northern Virginia. The idea was dropped after much resistance from local homeowners in Northern Virginia. Many of them were retired Washington D.C. power brokers, who didn’t want a huge noisy theme park next to their quiet estates.<br /> <br /> 1996- The Ambiguously Gay Duo premiered on the Dana Carvey Show. Created by SNL writer Robert Smigel. J.J. Sedelmier created the animation, Steve Carrell and Stephen Colbert did the voices.<br /> <br /> 2015- Scientists discovered liquid water on the planet Mars.<br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is meant by noblesse oblige?<br /> <br /> Answer: Noblesse oblige is a French expression that means that nobility extends beyond mere entitlement, requiring people who hold such status to fulfill social responsibilities to be kind to those less fortunate.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 27 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6270 <p>Question: What is meant by noblesse oblige?<br /> <br /> Quiz: Georgetown was named for King George III, and Charlottesville for Queen Charlotte, who is Memphis Tennessee named for?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 9/27/2023<br /> Birthdays: King Stefan Bathory of Poland, Thomas Nast, Arthur Penn, Mike Schmidt,<br /> Meatloaf, William Conrad, Dick Schapp, Samuel Adams, George Cruikshank, Jayne Meadows, Wilford Brimley, Shaun Cassidy, Greg Morris, Amanda Detmer, Avril Lavigne is 39, Gwyneth Paltrow is 51<br /> <br /> 1538- The Battle of Preveza- The huge navy of German-Spanish Emperor Charles V, Venice, Genoa, the Pope and the Knights of Malta have a showdown with the Great Turkish fleet off Corfu. At one point the Turkish Corsair Barbarossa "Red Beard" tried to lure the Christian ships into the same Bay of Actium where the Roman Augustus defeated Anthony &amp; Cleopatra 1,500 years before. The Turks won the battle but this may have had to do with the fact that the Christian admiral Andrea Doria was a Genoese who didn't mind seeing the Venetians lose. <br /> The one other significant fact of the battle was at one point Turkish galleys surrounded Venice's powerful new warship named 'La Galleon". It bristled with more cannon than anyone had ever seen on one boat. As the Turks attacked with light forecannon and prepared to board, the Venetian commander Carmandiolo ordered all his guns to fire at once- the first Broadside. <br /> The tactics of using armed rowing galleys, which had ruled the Mediterranean since the ancient times was now obsolete to square rigged sailing ships bristling with guns. The Turkish “Barbary Corsairs” would continue to raid Christian Mediterranean ships for another three hundred years.<br /> <br /> 1771-Young artist Francisco Goya entered a scholarship competition sponsored by the Art Academy of Parma. He lost to an artist named Bettino. Judges said about Goya’s work: "Crude and ugly colors".<br /> <br /> 1810- Battle of Bussaco. The Duke of Wellington stopped the French army of one of Napoleon’s Marshal Massena in Portugal. One of the reasons for Wellington’s successes in Spain and Portugal was he had a top rate intelligence gathering system run by a man named Grant. <br /> Colonel Colquhoun Grant was once captured by the French and imprisoned in the fortress of Verdun. He escaped, and while on the run he paused to spend three weeks partying in Paris! He would brazenly walk down the Boulevard St. Germain in his bright redcoat of His Majesties 11th Foot. When French police would ask him who he was, he would say he was from The United States Army! Since not many Parisians had seen a real American yet, nobody disputed his story. So he got away with it.<br /> <br /> 1821- After a ten-year struggle, Spain acknowledged the independence of Mexico. The last royal commander, Agustin’ de Iturbide, changed sides and this day marched The Army of the Three Guarantees into Mexico City. He tried to become Emperor of Mexico. Less than a year later Agustin’ I was deposed by young republican officers like Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna who declared a Republic. Iturbide was allowed to go into exile, but a year later returned and tried again. This time he was shot.<br /> <br /> 1854- The first modern steamship disaster. The SS Arctic collided with the SS Vesta in the mid-Atlantic. The captains ordered women &amp; children first into the boats but the crewmen rebelled and took the lifeboats for themselves. 85 lived, 485 died.<br /> <br /> 1894- New York’s Aqueduct Racetrack, the Big A, opened.<br /> <br /> 1903- THE WRECK OF OLD 97- The Southern Pacific express jumped the tracks at 90 miles an hour and plunged into a ravine near Danville North Carolina. The disaster inspired the first great country music hit. Written in 1924, recorded by everyone from Woody Guthrie to Johnny Cash.<br /> <br /> 1910- The Black &amp; Decker tool company formed. Starting with the first portable electric drill in 1919 they became the first power tool company.<br /> <br /> 1919- Entrepreneur Frank Toulet partnered with Oregon restaurant manager Joe Musso to open a new restaurant in the heart of Hollywood. First called Franks Café, then Musso &amp; Frank, it became an important hangout for the movie industry. Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Valentino, Garbo and Douglas Fairbanks ate there. Bogart and Bacall hung out at the bar. It is still in the business today, still the same menu, and you can still see Hollywood types having power meetings there. The front window-box seat was there so cowboys could keep an eye on their tethered horse.<br /> <br /> 1934- “I’M SICK OF THIS CAT &amp; MOUSE GAME!” shouted gangster Baby Face Nelson as he was cornered by two FBI agents on a rural road south of Chicago. While his gang and wife looked on in amazement, Baby-Face Nelson boldly walked out in the open, down the middle of the road, his tommy gun blazing away at the G-Men. He was riddled with 17 bullets, but still killed the two feds. Nelson died the next day and was left in a ditch.<br /> <br /> 1934- The character of Oliver “ Daddy” Warbucks first appeared in Harold Gray’s comic strip Little Orphan Annie.<br /> <br /> 1935- 13-year-old singer Frances Gumm of the singing Gumm Sisters signed an exclusive contract with MGM Pictures. Louis B. Mayer changed Frances’ name to Judy Garland.<br /> <br /> 1937- J R Tolkien’s’ The Hobbit first appeared in bookshops.<br /> <br /> 1938- Bob Hope first sang “Thanks For the Memory” on his NBC radio show. It became a hit in his movie appearance in “The Big Broadcast of 1938.”<br /> <br /> 1939- WARSAW becomes the first world capitol to fall to a Nazi Blitzkreig. The city was surrounded and bombarded for weeks. German generals after the war admitted they had stripped their western front to deal with the unexpected Polish resistance; had the British and French attacked across the Rhine there wouldn’t be much they could do. But the western front stayed quiet, the armies of Democracy mobilized too slowly. As the Polish defenders were slowly wiped out with bombs and shells, Radio Warsaw kept broadcasting Chopin's Revolutionary Etude over and over as a sign that the city was still alive. Eventually the signal fell silent.<br /> <br /> 1939- The Mysterious Death of Werner Von Fritsch. Generaloberst Baron Von Fritsch was one of the architects of the rebuilt German Army after the World War defeat and oversaw its development into one of the most efficient killing machines in history. But the old Prussian nobleman was never an ardent Nazi and he grew resentful of Hitler’s mad plans for world domination. Hitler had him forcibly retired. This day during the Polish campaign Von Fritsch was reported killed by snipers leading a patrol. Why was a top general staff officer was leading a little patrol out in the middle of nowhere is a mystery. Was Von Fritsch courting death? Was he done in by the Gestapo, and the ambush story made-up? <br /> <br /> 1940- Germany, Italy and Japan signed a tripartite alliance aimed at the United States. They would be known as The Axis Powers. The diplomat who signed for Japan, Mr Kurusu, would later be sent to Washington to discuss peace while Pearl Harbor was being bombed.<br /> <br /> 1943- THE FOUR DAYS OF NAPLES- Naples was a city known for its tough street gangs. This day in advance of the American armies closing in the city the Neapolitans rose in revolt and fought the occupying Germans with knives, scissors, clubs, rocks, anything they could get their hands on. Young actress Sophia Loren remembered seeing from her window a ten-year-old boy climb onto a Nazi tank and push a gasoline-bottle bomb through its view slit.<br /> <br /> 1944- Evangelist Aimee Semple MacPherson died in hospital from an overdose of sleeping pills. She was 53. MacPherson was one of the most powerful evangelists of the 1920s with thousands of followers donating millions of dollars. <br /> <br /> 1947- Disney’s film Fun and Fancy Free, featuring Mickey and the Beanstalk.<br /> <br /> 1950- After a week of hard house-to-house fighting the South Korean capitol of Seoul was declared liberated from North Korean occupation.<br /> <br /> 1954- The Tonight Show premiered. Steve Allen was the first host.<br /> <br /> 1961- Hanna Barbera's "Top Cat" show premiered. Do you remember the words to the theme song..? "Top Cat, the most effectual- Top Cat, who's intellectual: Close friends get to call him T.C., Providing it's with dignity. Top Cat, the indisputable leader of the gang... He's the Boss. He's a pip. he's the championship, He's the most tip-top, Top Cat !"<br /> <br /> 1962- Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring was published. The best seller first brought to the public’s eye how indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides, particularly DDT, was damaging the environment and killing off wildlife.<br /> <br /> 1964- The Warren Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing President John F. Kennedy. Today, despite two investigations 8 out of 10 Americans still believe Oswald was part of a conspiracy. Even Lyndon Johnson had his doubts. Documents pertaining to the case, like Oswald's tax returns, and how he could re-enter the U.S. from Soviet Russia without a passport after renouncing his citizenship, are still kept top secret. Evidence like President Kennedy's brain disappeared from the lab and witnesses to contrary theories kept dying from car accidents and karate chops. Maybe we’ll know more when the CIA’s papers on the assassination are unlocked in 2060.<br /> <br /> 1977- Bob McKimson, Warner animation, director of many Looney Tune shorts, collapsed and died of heart failure in front of Friz Freleng and Yosemite Sam animator Gerry Chiniquy while having lunch. He was 66. Fellow animator Art Leonardi had asked Bob for a souvenir drawing that morning, Bob drew him a Bugs Bunny but as he was leaving Art reminded him that he neglected to sign it. Bob said as he walked out "Oh, I'll get to it after lunch..."<br /> <br /> 1989- The Japanese corporate giant Sony purchased Columbia Pictures.<br /> <br /> 1996- The Taliban captured the Afghan capitol of Kabul and established their hardline fundamentalist regime. They were driven out temporarily by the US invasion in 2002 but returned to full control in 2021.<br /> <br /> 2001- While America was still in shock over 9-11 and anthrax attacks, President Bush in a speech at O’Hare Airport stated that although we may be attacked again at any moment, and it may be more horrible than 9-11, the best thing we could do… is to go shopping; “ go to the mall, vacation at Disneyworld….enjoy life the way we want it to be enjoyed….”<br /> <br /> 2003- Hours after the season’s final concert, in the dead the night, the historic bandshell at the Hollywood Bowl was demolished. After a long legal fight with preservationists, the historic 1929 structure designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, that Gershwin and Stokowski played in, was replaced with a new shell with better acoustics. <br /> =======================================================<br /> Quiz: Georgetown was named for King George III, and Charlottesville for Queen Charlotte, who is Memphis Tennessee named for?<br /> <br /> Answer: The city of Memphis in ancient Egypt. In the colonial period towns were named for royal benefactors. After the Revolution there was a fashion for names from classical civilization. American towns were named Troy, Syracuse, Sparta, Corinth, Ithaca, Athens. Etc.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 26 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6269 <p>Quiz: Georgetown was named for King George III, and Charlottesville for Queen Charlotte, who is Memphis Tennessee named for?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: What does a SNAFU mean? What does it stand for?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 9/26/2023<br /> Birthdays: George Gershwin, T.S. Elliot, John Chapman (also known as Johnny Appleseed)-1774, Winsor McCay-1869, Theodore Gericault -1791, Olivia Newton-John, Cheryl Tiegs is 75, Marty Robbins, Pope Paul VI, Jack Lalanne, Melissa Sue Andersen, Phillip Bosco, James Cavaziel, Surena Williams, Linda Hamilton is 67.<br /> <br /> 303AD. Feast of Saints Damian &amp; Cosmas. The Syrian twin doctors were nicknamed 'The Moneyless". They were martyred by being crucified, stoned, shot full of arrows, beheaded, and they had to read their own prescriptions. <br /> <br /> 1370- Battle of Nicopolis- During a pause in the Hundred Years War with the English, Count Egguerand de Coucy led the cream of French knighthood in one last Crusade to help the king of Hungary defeat the Turks. Instead their army was defeated and their leaders captured. By now Sultan Bajazet (nicknamed Ilderim- Lightning) was so fed up with crusaders, knights and chivalry, that he refused to ransom them, but had them all beheaded.<br /> <br /> 1529- Sultan Sulieman the Magnificent lays siege to the city of Vienna. At one point he told his troops that if they didn't capture the city he would fill the moat with their genitals. (ouch!) The goal of the Ottoman Empire was the "Completion of the Crescent" . Starting in Turkey the southern side swung out through Palestine, Egypt to the Atlantic. Now the Northern arm must go through Hungary and Austria through France to Spain. <br /> <br /> 1560- A Spanish expedition under Don Pedro de Ursua left Peru for the deep Amazon. Lost in the limitless rainforest almost all his men die or go mad. The expedition at one point was taken over by a deranged conquistador named Aguirre who declared himself 'Emperor of the Kingdom of El Dorado'! The incident is the subject of Werner Herzog's 1972 movie "Aguirre the Wrath of God".<br /> <br /> 1575-Writer Miguel de Cervantes was captured by Barbary Pirates and held a slave for five years until his family ransomed him. He wrote Don Quixote in 1604.<br /> <br /> 1579- Sir Francis Drake in his ship the Golden Hind entered Plymouth Harbor England, after sailing around the world for 33 months. He raided Panama, Peru and visited a strange new place they called Nova Albion and we call California. The Golden Hind was kept in dry-dock in a place of honor for years, until it finally fell to pieces from dry rot.<br /> <br /> 1687- The Ancient GREEK PARTHENON WAS BLOWN UP during a minor Venetian raid on Turkish held Athens. A random shell ignited a gunpowder magazine the Turks had been storing inside of it. For two thousand years the Parthenon had survived mostly intact. Until now. Later on, in 1801 English Lord Elgin will back up his frigate to the shore and pry off the frieze marble sculptures for his collection. <br /> <br /> 1739- THE WAR OF JENKINS EAR- A 9 year war between England and Spain started when a Spanish warship stopped an English merchant ship and cut off the ear of the captain named Robert Jenkins. Jenkins marched around Parliament loudly calling for war and waving his ear, pickled in a bottle of spirits. He wore his hair long so some doubted that it was his ear in that bottle.<br /> <br /> 1820- In Defiance, Missouri, 85 year old frontier scout Daniel Boone died of acute fever and indigestion after eating too many yams. He did all of his exploring without a compass. Someone once asked him - Didn't you ever get lost? He replied, No, but I was once bewildered for three days...<br /> <br /> 1835- Donizetti’s opera Lucia De Lammermoor premiered.<br /> <br /> 1863- In a secret meeting, several Confederate generals agree to petition President Jefferson Davis to replace their commander Baxton Bragg. Despite his just winning a victory- Chickamauga. Private soldiers like memoirist Sam Watkins wrote that most of Bragg’s army disliked him. His top cavalry leader, Nathan Bedford Forrest, once got angry enough to draw his sword on him. But Pres. Davis seemed to be the only man who liked Bragg, and kept him in command. Bragg humiliated the mutineers, and the rest of his staff refused to talk to him. Baxton Bragg’s next battle, Missionary Ridge, was a complete disaster and lost most of Tennessee to the Confederacy.<br /> <br /> 1887- Emile Berliner patented the gramophone, rejecting Thomas Edison's cylinder recording in favor of a flat disc record on a turntable.<br /> <br /> 1892- The John Philip Sousa Band makes its first public appearance.<br /> <br /> 1914- The Federal Trade Commission, or FTC created.<br /> <br /> 1918- THE MEUSE ARGONNE OFFENSIVE- To the rally cry of Marshal Foch “Everyone to the Battle!” the Allies began the final offensive from Denmark to Switzerland to finish the Germans and end World War I. <br /> The Big Breakout was done by the fresh American divisions thrown forward by Pershing into the Argonne forest. Led by colorful officers like Douglas MacArthur, the Boy Colonel, who led his men calmly across No-Man's Land without a helmet or gun, and dressed in his West Point varsity sweater and cane. There was also artillery Captain Harry Truman and a pushy Lieutenant of a tank brigade named George Patton. After fierce resistance, the exhausted German lines finally began to cave in. The offensive had started off in a dense fog. A whole Yank battalion got lost and surrounded by Germans. After being rescued they were hailed as the "Lost Battalion". <br /> <br /> 1920- The NFL, National Football League, created.<br /> <br /> 1926- Bullock's Wilshire department store opened. Their Tea Room quickly became the in-place for Hollywood Society to see and be seen in.<br /> <br /> 1937- "Queen of the Blues" Singer Bessie Smith died after a car accident in Mississippi. She crashed her Packard into a parked car. She was 43. One account said she died because she was refused treatment in a segregated hospital, but the truth was she was treated by a white doctor at the scene and sent to the nearest hospital, which was a black one. <br /> <br /> 1939- Nazi scientists led by Rudolph Heisenberg met to discuss how the fission of uranium could be used to create a super bomb. Meanwhile in America, Hungarian scientist Dr. Leo Szilard was warning the US government that they better start an atomic program fast.<br /> <br /> 1941- Max Fleischer's Superman cartoon “ The Mad Scientist” debuts. The first animated action-adventure short. There had not been a serious cartoon since Winsor McCay’s Sinking of the Lusitania in 1918. The Superman’s were much more expensive that the usual short cartoons- $90,000 to the usual $40,000, but Paramount wanted them. It was nominated for an Academy Award.<br /> <br /> 1946- In Vietnam, as pro-French and pro-Communists battled in the streets of Saigon, the American O.S.S. representative Col. Peter Dewey wrote back to Washington: “Vietnam is aflame. The French and British are finished here. America should pull out and let the Vietnamese settle their own affairs.” Two days later, on his way to the airport he was ran into an ambush and was killed. The first very American killed in Vietnam. <br /> <br /> 1955- Eddie Fisher married Debbie Reynolds.<br /> <br /> 1957- The musical West Side Story opened. The legend goes composer Leonard Bernstein was in the hospital to be operated on for a deviated septum. While recuperating he ran into lyricist Steven Sondheim, who was also recovering from an operation. To pass the time while convalescing they started talking about the idea of an updated Romeo and Juliet set to music in the slums. One early idea for the title was Gang Way!<br /> <br /> 1960-THE NIXON-KENNEDY TELEVISED DEBATE. The first televised presidential debate that really ushered in the era of the "media-candidate". People who heard the debate on radio thought Vice President Nixon had won because he scored more points on issues. But far more who saw it on Television lauded Kennedy because of his cool, calm Presidential bearing as opposed to Nixon's pale sweaty-lipped nervousness. <br /> As he watched the debate on TV, Nixon’s running mate, Senator Henry Cabot-Lodge III, murmured “ We’re gonna lose…” For years Nixon put down his electoral defeat to the fact that he refused stage makeup before going on camera. <br /> One New York Times analyst referred to Kennedy &amp; Nixon as the Roadrunner &amp; Wile E. Coyote of American politics.<br /> <br /> 1961-Nineteen year old folk singer Bob Dylan made his debut in a Greenwich Village coffee house Gerde’s Folk City.<br /> <br /> 1961- Fidel Castro gave a speech to the United Nations that lasted 4 and 1/2 hours. <br /> <br /> 1962- The Beverly Hillbillies debuts. The story goes that CBS mogul William Paley disliked farm-humor type shows, and this project was greenlit behind his back, while he was on vacation.<br /> <br /> 1964- The premiere of Gilligan’s Island. The good ship Minnow was named for Newton Minnow, the FCC Chairman who first called television “A Vast Wasteland”. Actress Natalie Schafer, who played the wife of millionaire Thurston Howell III, really was a millionaire. She took the role just for the free trip to Hawaii.<br /> <br /> 1983- Stanislav Petrov saved the world. At this time, America and Russia had the nuclear capability to destroy all life on Earth 23 times over. During the deadly game of nuclear brinksmanship, there were some close-calls. This day Soviet Air-Defense Ministry officer Stanislav Petrov received an alarm that the US had fired 5 nuclear missiles at Russia. Petrov had only a few moments to decide if the alarm was real, and alert for a full counterstrike. But he reasoned, “ Why only 5?” He guessed it was a false alarm, which it was. <br /> <br /> 1987- A market research group called Q-5 tried to use a bank of computers number-crunching demographic surveys to design the ultimate safe, wholesome, politically-correct children's show. They came up with "The Little Clowns of Happytown"-. Of the 26 children's series in syndication it remained dead last in ratings, He-Man, Jem and G.I. Joe on top. The people had spoken.<br /> <br /> 1990- The Motion Picture Association changed the rating for the naughtiest movies from X to NC-17.<br /> <br /> 2001- While the ruins of the World Trade Center were still warm, Pres. George W. Bush asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to draw up plans to attack Iraq, a nation that had nothing to do with the 9-11 attacks. <br /> <br /> 2004- Florida gets hit with its fourth hurricane in six weeks. Hurricane Jean killed 6 and caused billions in damage. The last time Florida was hit by that many hurricanes was in 1886.<br /> <br /> 2020- President Trump tested positive for Covid-19. He kept it a secret and continued to meet people without a mask or other precautions. He probably gave it to some of his Secret Service detail, and the former governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, who wound up in intensive care and almost died. In 2023 a presidential attorney revealed Trump was actually much sicker than he pretended he was. The reason Trump hated wearing a covid mask was it made lines in his skin bronzer. <br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What does a SNAFU mean? What does it stand for?<br /> <br /> Answer: It began as WW2 US Army slang for Situation Normal, All F*cked Up.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 25 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6268 <p>Quiz: What does a SNAFU mean? What does it stand for?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: What was the name of Abraham Lincoln’s dog?<br /> =============================================<br /> History for 9/25/2023<br /> Birthdays: William Faulkner, Jean Phillipe Rameau, Mark Rothko, Dmitri Shoshtakovich, Sergei Bondarchuk, Phil Rizzutto the Scooter, Bob MacAdoo, Christopher Reeve, Glen Gould, Barbera Walters, Red Smith, Aldo Ray, Heather Locklear is 61, Will Smith, Michael Douglas 79 &amp; Catherine Zeta-Jones-55, Mark Hamill is 72<br /> <br /> <br /> 1066- Battle of Stamford Bridge -the last great Viking raid. Viking King Harald the Dragon landed an army at the old Roman city of Eboracum, now called in Norse, Joorvik or York. There he was met by the Anglo-Saxon army of King Harold Godwinson. "Give us land." The Vikings said." We'll give you as much land as needed to cover your bones!" said Harold, then defeated the Vikings. Harald Hadrada went down fighting as did his English ally Earl Tostig. <br /> Almost as soon as the fight was over, the Saxons learned a new invasion had landed down south near Dover. They were the Normans under Duke William of Normandy. Harold Godwinson having to fight in north England, then rush by forced marches down to the south to fight another big battle, was a factor in his final defeat at Hastings.<br /> <br /> 1218- While attacking the city of Toulouse, Simon De Monfort, leader of the Albigensian Crusade was hit in the face by a catapult stone. Legend says the lucky shot was fired by the women &amp; children of Toulouse, who knew they could expect no mercy from him. Simon espoused the Crusader slogan of how to tell good Christians from heretics,” Just slay them all, and God will choose his own.”<br /> <br /> 1493- Christopher Columbus sailed from Cadiz for the New World on his second trip, this time with seventeen ships. He had been named Governor General of the Indies and Admiral of the Ocean Seas.<br /> <br /> 1513- Vasco Nunez de Balboa emerged from the Panamanian rainforest to view the great expanse of the western ocean. He called it "Pacific" the "Peaceful Ocean."<br /> <br /> 1525- THE PEACE OF AUGSBURG- German Emperor Charles V wanted his rebellious people to knock off all this Protestant Reformation stuff and stay Catholic like him. But they fought him all over Germany in the Schmalkalden Wars. Even his own sister joined the new faith. Finally, Charles made a peace. All could have religious toleration- well, not really. It just said whatever your local prince said was the official religion. This was the first official state acknowledgment that more than one version of the Christian faith now existed.<br /> <br /> 1690- The first American newspaper published in Boston; " Publick Occurances Both Foreign and Domestick, Issue Number One" There was no number two because the Royal Governor of Massachusetts colony promptly closed it down.<br /> <br /> 1775- American patriot leader Ethan Allen was captured by the British while attempting an assault on Montreal. He was sent to England for prison, but exchanged two years later.<br /> <br /> 1777- British Lord Howe after pushing aside Washington's little army CAPTURED THE AMERICAN CAPITOL OF PHILADELPHIA. The rebel congress had picked up their Declaration of Independence and hightailed it for Harrisburg.<br /> It was the American's luck that at this time the colonies were so loosely knit and decentralized that losing the capitol wasn't very important to anyone except Philadelphians. Local Loyalists had a field day routing out rebel sympathizers. Because the Quakers espoused non-violence everyone thought they were on the other side, so they were singled out for especially rough treatment- pelted with stones, tar &amp; feathers, etc.<br /> Lord Howe complained to London that by now he had defeated the American army several times and captured it's capitol, yet the Rebellion showed no signs of dying out. America only had four major cities, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Charleston and they all had been captured by His Majesties forces at one time or another. Except for little pirate John Paul Jones and a ship or two, they had sunk most of the American Navy. But the Yankees still wouldn’t give up. Obviously, a military solution to the American problem was not the answer." I can only pacify the colonies if I had two soldiers for every colonist." London responded by replacing Lord Howe.<br /> <br /> 1789- James Madison proposed a series of ten amendments be added to the new Constitution guaranteeing basic personal freedoms, the BILL OF RIGHTS. This day it was approved by Congress and sent to the states for ratification.<br /> <br /> 1828- The September Conspiracy. Simon Bolivar the Liberator was confronted by assassins sent by his own vice president to kill him. He escaped death thanks in part to his mistress, Manuela Saenz. <br /> <br /> 1840- By order of the Mexican Government, slavery was outlawed in California- except.....Indian children were bought and sold for another ten years.<br /> <br /> 1849- Johann Strauss Sr. was found naked and dead in his apartment. He was 45. The Waltz King had abandoned his wife and three sons and moved in with his mistress. He caught scarlet fever from one of his illegitimate children and quickly succumbed. As soon as he was cold his girlfriend stripped him of his possessions and fled. Despite this, Johann Strauss was given a grand funeral through Vienna. 100,000 people attended. It was said Strauss “Died like a dog, and was buried like a king.” His estranged son Johann Strauss Jr. went on to even greater success.<br /> <br /> 1887- The first Sears Catalog published.<br /> <br /> 1888- The beginning of the Sherlock Holmes adventure The Hound of the Baskervilles.<br /> <br /> 1890- Spurred on by the writings of John Muir and John Wesley Powell, Congress created Yosemite National Park in California. <br /> <br /> 1911- Groundbreaking in Boston for Fenway Park.<br /> <br /> 1917- After the Red Baron, Germanys greatest WWI air ace was Werner Voss. He shot down 48 enemy planes. This day Werner Voss died in one of the most spectacular dogfights in aviation history. Alone in his baby-blue Fokker Triplane, Voss took on 8 British planes, all aces like himself, and fought them all in a wild, whirling melee in the sky. Shortly before Voss went down, the British saw his propellor stop turning. Did he run out of fuel? Or was his so badly wounded he could no longer control his plane? No one is sure. He was 20.<br /> <br /> 1918- Brazil declared war on Austria. This was seen as purely ceremonial, the Great War was just about over.<br /> <br /> 1926- Henry Ford announced a 40 hour, 5 day work week for his employees. <br /> <br /> 1928- Walt Disney wrote to his brother Roy and lead animator Ub Iwerks, “Carl’s (Stalling) idea of a Skeleton Dance as a musical novelty has been growing on me…” <br /> <br /> 1933- Young writer John Huston was driving drunk on Sunset Blvd when he struck and killed a pedestrian. His father Walter Huston was a top movie star, so to avoid scandal, MGM head Louis B. Mayer paid $46,000 to cover it up. John Huston went on to become a great Hollywood director and screenwriter.<br /> <br /> 1953- Alfred Hitchcock wrapped filming on his only 3D film, Dial M for Murder.<br /> <br /> 1957- President Eisenhower sent the bayonet wielding 101st Airborne to enforce the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, after the governor refused to use the National Guard. Three days earlier the Guard stood by doing nothing when a mob almost lynched a 15 year old girl trying to enter the school. She was saved by a sympathetic white friend. This day escorted by troops, nine black students entered the school through hordes of jeering whites. One girl was spit on so many times she had to wring her dress out in a sink afterward.<br /> <br /> 1961- Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color debuted on NBC TV today. Moved over from ABC. This episode introduced the character of Ludwig von Drake.<br /> <br /> 1965- The Beatles animated cartoon show premiered. <br /> <br /> 1975- The Rocky Horror Picture Show opened. The movie version of the successful cult stage musical. Let’s Do the Time Warp Again.<br /> <br /> 1980- John Bonham of Led Zeppelin was found dead of alcohol poisoning.<br /> <br /> 1984- THE RUBBERHEAD STRIKE- Disneyland workers including the actors who stroll the park in big Mickey and Goofy heads went on strike.<br /> <br /> 1988 – Former President Jimmy Carter’s brother Billy died. Billy Carter was one of the more colorful presidential relatives- he used his influence as a paid lobbyist for Khaddafi’s Libya, and produced Billy Beer, undoubtedly the worst beer I ever tasted.<br /> <br /> 1992- Michael Mann’s epic film, “The Last of the Mohicans” premiered. “I will find you!”<br /> ============================================================<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday Quiz: What was the name of Abraham Lincoln’s dog?<br /> <br /> Answer: Fido. Latin for ever faithful.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 24 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6267 <p>Happy 17th Anniversary to the Trivia Question. The first question ever asked.<br /> Question: What was the name of Abraham Lincoln’s dog?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: When King Charles III referred to the boarding school in Scotland his father made him go to, he described it as “Colditz in kilts”. What does that mean? <br /> =======================================================<br /> History for 9/24/2023<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Vitellius, Duke Albrecht Wallenstein, Chief Justice John Marshall, Francis Scott Key, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Raft, Chief Joseph, Sheila MacCrae, Anthony Newley. Phil Hartman, Mean Joe Greene, Billy Bletcher the voice of Pegleg Pete, Pedro Almodovar is 73, Jim Henson.<br /> <br /> 768 A.D. The two sons of Pepin the Short, Carloman and Charles, inherited the kingdom of the Franks, or France. Carloman then conveniently died, so Charles goes on to become Charlemagne- Charles the Great. The Franks had an unusal custom of inheritance. Instead of primogeniture- eldest son inheriting all, they divided all their lands among all their male siblings evenly, who would immediately start fighting one another. Carloman supposedly died of food poisoning, but getting rid of rivals with poison was common in those days.<br /> <br /> 1561- Mary Queen of Scots first met Presbyterian reformer John Knox. The beautiful young monarch, reared in Catholic France, attempted to win the sour old preacher to her side. Unfortunately, Knox was not impressed by Mary’s personal charm and howled against her entire reign. He thought women as rulers were “an abomination in the sight of God.” When she was deposed and imprisoned in England, he wrote Queen Elizabeth I constantly urging Mary be beheaded. John Knox also called Queen Elizabeth a beast and a whore.<br /> <br /> 1688- Sun King Louis XIV of France declared war on Germany and moved his armies towards the Rhine. This had the unexpected consequence of deciding who became King of England. Dutch Prince William of Orange was waiting for the opportunity to invade and overthrow his father-in-law King James II Stuart, who many English despised for being a secret Catholic. But William would never have dared such a move if Louis and his large French Navy, who were allies of James, were watching him. Once Louis turned his attention eastward, William crossed the Channel with no trouble. William overthrew James in short order and became King William III of England, ending the Stewart Dynasty.<br /> <br /> 1789- Congress passed the First Judiciary Act, which called for an Attorney General and a Supreme Court. John Jay was the first Chief Justice. When President George Washington formed the first cabinet, Thomas Jefferson asked if he could be Attorney General as well as Secretary of State, because representing a little country with no foreign policy was boring and he had nothing to do.<br /> <br /> 1805- LE GRANDE ARMEE- Napoleon’s army had been cooling its heels for weeks on the beach at Boulogne waiting to invade England. This was not likely since the British Navy kept sinking the French Navy. While waiting in camp, Napoleon took the time to drill his troops to an efficiency far superior to any other army of the period. England meanwhile had subsidized Russia and Austria into declaring war on France. <br /> This day Napoleons Grand Army turned around and began an epic march in 5 separate columns across Europe from the Normandy coast, to suddenly appear in the Czech lands. No one had ever moved troops so fast. Napoleon moved his Guard veterans like motorized infantry of the future by piling them into farm wagons. Napoleon left Paris that evening with his Imperial Guard. There was a rainstorm and his famous felt hat got waterlogged and drooped around his ears like a black sombrero. <br /> <br /> 1806- The North German Kingdom of Prussia gave Napoleon’s France an ultimatum to get out of southern Germany or else! Prussia at the time was considered the most superior military power in the world, but the army of Frederick the Great was now a ghost of its former self, ruled by a timid king. Napoleon destroyed it and overran Prussia in 6 weeks. Prussia later became the kingdom German unified around in 1870.<br /> <br /> 1869- BLACK FRIDAY- A scheme by robber barons Big Jim Fisk and Jay Gould to corner the US gold market backfired into a major financial panic. The two tycoons had thought they had convinced the gullible President Ulysses Grant into halting sale of government bullion. The night before Gould tried to bribe Grants brother-in-law James Corbin with $100,000 to ensure the President wouldn’t change his mind. <br /> But Grant smelled a rat and ordered millions in Federal gold put on the market to bring the prices down. Gold hoarders saw their investment shrink overnight. This day the value of gold dropped in three hours from $160 an ounce to $34. Up in the special part of the N.Y. Stock Exchange nicknamed the Gold Room, dozens speculators were ruined. One investor ran up and down shouting “Shoot Me! Someone Shoot Me!” “Let each man drag out his own corpse.”-Gould later testified. <br /> Jay Gould recovered and died in 1892 worth $70 million. In 1872 Big Jim Fisk was shot dead in the lobby of the Grand Central Hotel by a jilted suitor of Fisk’s mistress actress Josie Mansfield. And Grant the war hero was labeled a financial simpleton by Washington insiders.<br /> <br /> 1890- Under pressure from the US Government before getting statehood for Utah, the Mormon Church officially renounced polygamy. <br /> <br /> 1906- Teddy Roosevelt designated Devils Tower Wyoming as our first national monument. Teddy’s desire to preserve natural resources was blocked by Congressmen bribed by rich developers. So, he circumvented Congress and by Presidential Executive order declared the entire mountain a national monument. <br /> <br /> 1934- Stanford graduate Frank Thomas’s first day as at Walt Disney studio. <br /> <br /> 1936- Babe Ruth's last appearance in a baseball game. Yankees lost to Boston 5-0.<br /> <br /> 1936- Noel Coward's play 'Private Lives' opened.<br /> <br /> 1938- Bob Clampett's cartoon "Porky in Wackyland" ( Foo!)<br /> <br /> 1938- Tennis champion Dan Budge won the US Open in Forrest Hills. Budge became the first person to win a Grand Slam, all four major tennis meets in one year- Wimbledon, French Open now called Roland Garros, Australian Open and Forrest Hills, now called the US Open.<br /> <br /> 1941- This day the Japanese Consul in Honolulu was instructed by the Imperial War Ministry in Tokyo to quietly begin gathering information about the US Fleet in Pearl Harbor.<br /> <br /> 1944- President Franklin Roosevelt had been criticized by Republicans for wasting money in needless wartime excesses. This day he defeated his critics with humor when they accused him of sending a Navy destroyer to the Aleutian Islands just to retrieve his pet Scottie dog Fala. He said in a speech” Now I am used to personal attacks, My family is used to personal attacks, but Fala isn’t. (laughter) He’s Scottish, you know….and, well, he hasn’t been the same dog since.” (laughter)<br /> <br /> 1953- US Army scientist Frank Olsen jumped out of a NY hotel window to his death after unknowingly taking LSD slipped into his cocktail as part of a CIA monitored program. Olsen’s widow sued twenty years later when she finally found out the circumstances of her husbands’ death. The case was only resolved recently.<br /> <br /> 1953-UPA's "Unicorn in the Garden" directed by Bill Hurtz, based on the cartoon style and story by James Thurber.<br /> <br /> 1953- The movie "The Robe" premiered, the first movie in CinemaScope. It's success was part of a wave of 'Sword &amp; Sandal" epics and fostered many variations on wide screen processes- Superama,VistaVision, Dynarama, WarnerVision, TotalScope-etc.<br /> Fox had actually finished an earlier picture Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”, but studio chief Darryl Zanuck held it for The Robe, because a costume spectacular was a better way to showcase the technique.<br /> There had been earlier experiments with wide screen - Abel Gance's 1925 Napoleon, which used three 35mm images shown simultaneously, and The Big Trail 1930, which was a true wide screen 70mm film starring a very young John Wayne. It was superseded by 1967 by the more advanced Panavision lens. For many years in Hollywood, we called a wide screen formatted picture a "Scope" picture.<br /> <br /> 1955- President Eisenhower suffered a heart attack while playing golf. While he recovered, Secretary of State Allen Foster Dulles and other White House staffers run things without bothering to tell anyone, even Vice President Nixon.<br /> <br /> 1960- the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise is launched.<br /> <br /> 1960- The "Howdy Doody Time" children's show ended after thirteen years. The show remains a pivotal memory in the minds of thousands of American baby-boomers who grew up in the fifties. As the last song and the last credits rolled by, just before the cameras switched off, Clarabell the mute clown goes up to the lens and in a haunting voice said; "Goodbye, Kids."<br /> <br /> 1964- The Munsters TV comedy starring Fred Gwynne, Yvonne DeCarlo and Al Lewis premiered.<br /> <br /> 1968- CBS T.V. show "60 Minutes" debuted. Mike Wallace was pared with Harry Reasoner. The show was originally aired Tuesday nights at 10PM and fared poorly in the ratings. When it was moved to Sundays at 7:00PM it became a weekly institution.<br /> <br /> 1977- The TV series “The Love Boat “debuted.<br /> <br /> 1988- The Godfather of Soul James Brown got a little crazy sometimes. This day he burst into his own offices in Georgia waving a pistol and shotgun and demanded everyone stop using his washroom! After locking the bathrooms, he led police on high-speed chase through Georgia and South Carolina, only stopping when the cops shot out his tires. He rode the sparking rims till they collapsed. James Brown did 2 years for being under the influence of drugs. Hey!<br /> <br /> 2006- Tom Sito began adding a trivia question to his daily history e-mails. <br /> ===================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: When King Charles III referred to the boarding school in Scotland his father made him go to, he described it as “Colditz in kilts”. What does that mean?<br /> <br /> Answer: Colditz was a maximum security Nazi prison camp where they sent all the Allied POW’s who kept trying to escape. Its name became a synonym for harsh incarceration.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 23 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6266 <p>Quiz: When King Charles III referred to the boarding school in Scotland his father made him go to, he described it as “Colditz in kilts”. What does that mean?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: What is the difference between a doll and a Kewpie doll?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 9/23/2023<br /> Birthdays: Euripides-484BC, Victoria Woodhull, Walter Lippmann, Ray Charles, John Coltrane, Mickey Rooney, Julio Inglesias, Walter Pidgeon, Louise Nevelson, Jason Alexander, Mary Kay Place, Harry Connick Jr, Bruce Springsteen is 74, William Holmes McGuffey*<br /> <br /> *McGuffey was the educator and author of "the McGuffey Readers", a standard public school textbook so successful, that by 1860 the U.S. had an 80% literacy rate.<br /> <br /> 480BC- THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS- Themistocles and the Athenian fleet defeated the giant armada of Xerxes the Great King of Persia and threw back his invasion. Xerxes was so angry he had his top Phoenician captains beheaded. This battle assured the Golden Age of Greek culture would flourish uninterrupted with democratic Athens at its’ center. The playwright Aeschylus fought in the ranks and Sophocles led the chorus of nude boys dancing and singing in the victory celebrations. Themistocles laid the foundation for Athenian power by insisting she build a large navy rather than an army and concentrate on trade rather than territorial conquest. But Themistocles liked to make money too, and used his offices to pad his fortune, which eventually got him exiled. But not before in another moment of originality he set himself up histories’ first known foreign bank account as a private slush fund. <br /> <br /> 480BC- Greek chronicles tell us that also on this same day Glycon of Syracuse defeated the huge Carthaginian army of Hamilcar and saved Sicily for Greece. Hamilcar spent the battle burning up animal sacrifices to the Gods for good omens. When he saw he was losing Hamilcar threw himself on the fire. Not a bad solution, because the Carthage custom was to crucify generals who lost.<br /> <br /> 1326- Queen Isabella the "She-Wolf of France" and her lover Edmund Mortimer invade England to overthrow her openly out husband, King Edward II. Sounds like a soap opera, doesn't it?<br /> <br /> 1568- English merchantman John Hawkins and his 3 slave trading ship were blown by a hurricane into the harbor of San Juan de Ulua, the staging area for the treasure fleets that carry the gold of Peru to Spain. The Spanish and English worked out a temporary peace but on this day the Spanish Viceroy ordered his men to attack and kill the English heretics. Two ships got away, and one carried a young clergyman's son from Devon who from then on nursed a lifelong grudge - Francis Drake.<br /> <br /> 1642- The first commencement ceremony at Harvard College.<br /> <br /> 1779- "I HAVE NOT YET BEGUN TO FIGHT !" Captain John Paul Jones on the U.S.S. BonHomme Richard defeated the larger British H.M.S. Serapis in an epic sea battle off Cape Falmouth, England. The two ships grappled each other side by side, pounded away with heavy cannon and fought hand-to-hand. The ships were so close that men could jump through the gun portals from one ship to another. At one-point Bonhomme Richard was burning from stem to stern, sinking and all her guns out of action. But John Paul Jones refused to give up. The American crew thought their pint-sized Scots captain had lost his mind. When gunnery Ensign Grubb attempted to haul down the Stars &amp; Stripes, Jones knocked him down with a pistol butt. English Captain Pearson overheard Jones arguing with his officers, and called aloud "Sir, do you strike your colors, sir?" That is when John Paul Jones shouted his famous retort: "I have not yet begun to fight!"<br /> <br /> To make matters worse, the other American ship in the area the USS Alliance was manned by a jealous captain named Launnay. He ordered a broadside fired into the Bonhomme Richard! Launnay hoped that by helping the English kill Jones, he could then finish them off and take all the credit for the victory. Jones personally ran over to a ten pounder cannon whose crew had been killed, loaded it and fired it himself, bringing down the Serapis’ mainmast.<br /> Finally it was English Captain Pearson who gave up. The BonHomme was so shot to pieces it sank, so the victors had to ride home on the Serapis. The point of the battle for Jones was trying to raid a British merchant convoy, and the convoy got away, but the symbolic victory to Americans and French was significant. John Paul Jones became a legend on the English Channel. In 2002 the wreck of the Bonhomme Richard was discovered 7 miles off the English coast.<br /> <br /> 1780-"TREASON MOST FOUL !" General Benedict Arnold, fed up with being ignored for promotion by the American high command, planned to change sides by betraying West Point to the British. This was the huge American fortress that would give Britain control of the Hudson River and so split the rebellious colonies in half. <br /> Major John Andre' of British intelligence had a meeting with Arnold and was passing back through the lines when he was apprehended by some Yankee militia. These rascals skulked between the armies robbing anyone who chanced their way but when they discovered incriminating documents in his boot, they turned Andre over to the authorities. This morning Benedict Arnold found out Andre had been arrested and the jig was up, just as George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Lafayette were riding over for breakfast!<br /> Arnold escaped to the warship HMS Vulture waiting down river while his wife Peggy stalled Gen. Washington’s party in their parlor. When Washington learned of Arnold's treason and freaked, Peggy feigned a fit of hysterics. Disheveled, with her baby at her breast, she shrieked at the horrified Washington :"They're putting hot irons in my Head! Hot irons in my Head!!". She was put to bed and later slipped away to safety. It wasn't known until 1930 when British Army Intelligence documents were made public that loyalist Peggy Arnold was not only deep in the scheme but had been the chief inspiration of Arnold's changing sides. Major Andre was hanged as a spy. When Peggy died in London of old age, a locket containing the picture of Major Andre was found around her neck.<br /> <br /> 1803- Battle of Assaye- The Maharatta Rajahs of the Deccan are defeated by a young British general named Arthur Wellesley who Napoleon would meet twelve years later as the Duke of Wellington at a place called Waterloo. Wellington in retirement said Assaye was still his toughest fight.<br /> <br /> 1845- After only six weeks of U.S. rule, angry Los Angeleanos attacked the American commanders home. The War with Mexico hadn't broken out yet but American and Mexican paramilitary expeditions (called Filibusters) angled for power in California due to the loose and confused control from Mexico City. Mexican-Californian rancheros themselves frequently defied the government authorities, giving rise to the Zorro stories.<br /> <br /> 1846- The planet Neptune discovered by Johann Gottleib Gala. We did not know it had rings like Saturn until the Voyager 2 space probe visited in 1989.<br /> <br /> 1862- writer Leo Tolstoy married Sophie Behrs.<br /> <br /> 1862- Battle of Wood Lake- Minnesota militia put down the Great Santee Sioux Uprising led by Chief Little Crow. The Sioux had set up an ambush in the tall grass on either side of a road but the hungry Army troops steered their wagons right into the fields to look for left over potatoes. The Indians had to reveal their position and fire before they were trampled.<br /> <br /> 1889- The Nintendo Company started in Kyoto, They began by making hand-painted playing cards, very popular with the Yakuza. In 1956 they transitioned to electronics, and invented Donkey-Kong, Gameboys, Pokemon and The Legend of Zelda.<br /> <br /> 1908- Giants batter Fred Merkle hit the winning run in a pennant game with the Chicago Cubs. But in running the bases he neglected to touch second base so his run was disallowed and the game was declared a tie. They replayed the game the following day and the Cubs won the pennant. Thereafter Merkle's nickname became Bonehead Merkle.<br /> <br /> 1912- "Cohen Collects a Debt" Max Sennett's first film comedy featuring the Keystone Kops.<br /> <br /> 1915- The German submarine U-9 shows the world the power of submarines by sinking three big British battle cruisers all in one day. HMS Hogue, Aboukir and Monmouth were torpedoed and sent to the bottom. <br /> <br /> 1921- The Band-Aid self-adhesive bandage introduced. A scientist at Johnson &amp;Johnson, Earle Dickson, invented it for his wife who kept cutting herself in the kitchen. Supposedly the skin tone color, which never seemed to match anybody’s skin, was her skin coloring.<br /> <br /> 1923- A car accident in Chicago killed an elderly lady named Nancy Green. Born a slave, in 1890 she was hired by the Davis Milling Company to be the symbol of their new self-rising pancake flour. She adopted the name of a character in a popular minstrel song- Aunt Jemima. Nancy Green was a good storyteller and a good cook. Her demonstrations became so popular she was acclaimed “The Pancake Queen”. She was awarded a medal at the Chicago Exhibition of 1893. She was under lifetime contract to be the character Aunt Jemima. <br /> <br /> 1932- King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud combined several desert kingdoms including the Emir of the Hejaz and declared it the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.<br /> <br /> 1933- At a dedication ceremony Adolf Hitler broke ground for the construction of Germany’s Autobahn system- 1,400 miles of modern freeway. One story says Hitler himself conceived the idea since he was a lifelong auto enthusiast. But that is untrue. German designers as early as 1913 were inventing the road features common to today’s motorists- the Blending Lane and Clover Leaf, Fast Lanes and meridian divided roads.<br /> <br /> 1937- Mickey Mouse cartoon The Brave Littler Tailor premiered.<br /> <br /> 1939- At the World’s Fair in New York a time capsule was buried not to be opened until the year 6939. It contains a Bible, a mail order catalog and newsreels of President Franklin Roosevelt. I hope they include an explanation of what film was, and how to use it.<br /> <br /> 1939- Sigmund Freud died at age 83. Suffering from inoperable cancer of the jaw, he had his doctor euthanize him with a lethal shot of cocaine.<br /> <br /> 1942- Erwin Rommel the Desert Fox left his Afrika Korps at El Alamein and flew home to Germany to be treated for acute diphtheria. He missed most of the battle, but returned when things were going badly.<br /> <br /> 1942- Dr. Robert Oppenheimer and General Leslie Grove start the "Manhattan Project", the building of a "cosmic-super bomb" (the A-Bomb). Hungarian Professor Leo Szilard had been pestering the U.S. government since 1938 to do something before the Hitler made one first. Finally the War Dept. gave the go ahead to collect the finest physicists in the free world to create a super bomb. Scientists like Richard Fenyman and Enrico Ferme would arrive for work at an office in downtown Santa Fe and be immediately whisked out the back in a sealed truck to the top secret lab complex at Los Alamos. <br /> The project was so secret that they were warned if they breathed a word about it the government would make sure they "disappeared' for at least ten years! Vice President Truman had no idea of the project until he was told the night Franklin Roosevelt died. Leo Szilard was never asked to join the team because the F.B.I. considered him 'politically suspect', yet we now know at least two scientists there were Soviet spies, Dr. Karl Fuchs and Ted Hall.<br /> <br /> 1952- The "CHECKERS" SPEECH- Young Senator Richard Nixon saved his career as Eisenhower's running mate by going on nationwide T.V. and explaining away allegations of accepting improper gifts while a congressman. Included is a dog "checkers" for his kids. "He’s a good dog, and we’re gonna keep him." "My wife doesn't own a mink coat, she has a good Republican cloth-coat." Eisenhower was close to dumping the embattled senator from the ticket but the popular outcry of support after this speech but Nixon back on top. In effect he four-walled Ike into keeping him on the ticket.<br /> <br /> 1962- H&amp; B's show The Jetsons premiered. It was the first ABC show to be presented in color. Jane! Stop this Crazy Thing! Jane!<br /> <br /> 1964- Marc Chagall painting on the ceiling of the Paris Opera House unveiled.<br /> <br /> 1969- the film "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" premiered. Written by William Goldman and directed by George Roy Hill. It made fortunes for stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford, who later started and independent film festival called Sundance.<br /> <br /> 1984- Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Frank Wells met the Disney Animation Dept. and were pitched storyboards for the film Basil of Baker Street, later called the Great Mouse Detective. Up to now their thinking had been to close the animation department and earn income from the licensing the existing library. Roy Disney was instrumental in insisting the animation division remain. That evening Eisner dictated memos to start the Disney television animation division, stagnant for over a decade. <br /> <br /> 1990- Ken Burns landmark TV series The Civil War premiered. It redefined American documentary filmmaking for a generation.<br /> <br /> 1994- Quentin Tarentino’s film Pulp Fiction premiered.<br /> ====================================================<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is the difference between a doll and a Kewpie doll?<br /> <br /> Answer: Kewpie dolls were little elf-like dolls (Cupids) based on cartoon characters created by early female cartoonist-illustrator Rose O’Neill. They came out around 1909 and were very popular in the early twentieth century.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 22 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6265 <p>Question: What is the difference between a doll and a Kewpie doll?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: Who said “Washington! First in War. First in Peace. First in the hearts of his countrymen!”<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 9/22/2023<br /> Birthdays: Anne of Cleves 1515- Henry VIII’s fourth wife. Bilbo Baggins and Frodo Baggins, Mafioso Joe Valachi, Michael Farraday, Meryl Streep is 73, John Houseman, Joanie Jett, Erich Von Stronheim, Tom Lasorda, Paul Muni, Debbie Boone<br /> <br /> 3001-Bilbo Baggins left the Shire, having entrusted the one true ring to the custody of his nephew Frodo.<br /> <br /> 480 BC. Themistocles and the Athenian fleet of 300 faced the 1,200 warships of Xerxes the Great King of Persia in the Bay of Salamis. This night at a war council the Greek admirals voted not to try to fight such mighty host, but run away. Finding himself outvoted, Themistocles was so confident in their ability to win, that he took a risk that could have cost his life. He sent a spy to Xerxes to tell him the Greeks were planning to flee. So he should maneuver his fleet around them and cut off any hope of retreat. Xerxes fell for it and forced the engagement. The victory of Salamis assured the Golden Age of Athens.<br /> <br /> 287AD- THE THEBAN LEGION-One of the celebrated myths of the Middle Ages. A Roman general Maximian Heraclius recruited an entire army unit from Christians in upper Egypt. In Gaul with the imperial army, the Emperor Maximian ordered sacrifices to Mars for victory. The Theban Legion refused to participate in the pagan ritual. The emperor had every tenth man executed (to "decimate") and still they refused. Soon all 1,500 were executed. So much time and money was invested by the state in the training of veteran soldiers, that it seems unlikely that the practical Romans would execute an entire legion. Still, it's a good story. <br /> <br /> 1692- Seven witches were hanged in Salem, Mass. When the daughter of the Royal Governor of the Massachusetts Colony was accused, the Governor finally stepped in and stopped the madness. He overturned the decisions of the Salem court and ordered its disbandment. These were the last witch executions in America.<br /> <br /> 1761- King George III’s coronation in London. Unlike his two George forebears who clung to their German roots, George III spoke English without an accent. He considered himself English and never visited his German ancestral lands. All the great men of the day were there like Pitt the Elder, Edmund Burke, Dr. Samuel Johnson, Dr. Benjamin Franklin and his son William. In the crowd in front of Westminster Abbey, dazzled by all the pomp and circumstance, was a young colonist from America named John Hancock. Presented at court, he received from his sovereign’s hands a silver snuffbox. Ironically this was the very same Hancock whose bold signature would one day adorn the U.S. Declaration of Independence.<br /> <br /> 1776- Nathan Hale was hanged as a spy by the British in occupied New York City. Approximately where Grand Central Station is today. The Connecticut schoolteacher had only been a spy for nine days until he was ratted out by Colonel Robert Rogers, the French &amp; Indian War hero, who was by now a Tory Loyalist. One account later by a English officer named Montrose was that Hale’s last words were a quote from Addison’s play Cato: ”I regret that I have but one life to give for my country….” He was 21. No grave or marker for Nathan Hale’s remains have ever been found. <br /> <br /> 1762- After deposing and assassinating her husband Czar Peter III, Catherine the Great has a coronation to crown herself Czarina of all the Russias, at the cathedral of the Assumption in Moscow.<br /> <br /> 1777- General John Burgoyne was considering falling back with his British army to Canada after being stopped at Saratoga New York. But this day he changed his mind after getting a message from General Henry Clinton who said he was marching north from New York City to rescue. Clinton didn’t get much further than White Plains, and the delay proved fatal to “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne and his army.<br /> <br /> 1792- The French Revolutionaries declare the Kingdom of France a Republic. <br /> <br /> 1828- SHAKA ZULU. Shaka took the Zulu people from obscurity and created the largest centralized empire in Africa. He created military units, tactics and societal structures that enabled the Zulu to take on the Boers and later the British Empire. In his old age Shaka's rule became increasingly harsh and arbitrary, so this day his brother Mbulazi killed him. Shaka's descendants founded the Inkatha Freedom Party in South Africa.<br /> <br /> 1910- 15 year old button sewer Bessie Abramowitz led the Great Chicago Garment Workers Strike.<br /> <br /> 1925- Lon Chaney’s horror classic film The Phantom of the Opera premiered.<br /> <br /> 1927- The Dempsey-Tunney championship fight. Tunney wins in the famous 'long count', meaning the referee delayed the count because Dempsey wouldn’t return to his neutral corner. The extra time allowed Tunney to recover his wits and continue the fight to victory. Jack Dempsey had been world heavyweight champion for ten years but retired a year later.<br /> <br /> 1944- Disney short First Aiders, the first short of Minnie Mouse without Mickey.<br /> <br /> 1947- A C-54 Skymaster flies over the Atlantic using the first automatic pilot control.<br /> <br /> 1964- The T.V. series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. premiered. “Open Channel D, Please..”<br /> <br /> 1964- Jerome Robbins’ “The Fiddler on the Roof “ opened on Broadway. Based on the story “Tevye and His Daughters” by Sholom Aleichem in 1894. In 1953 Jerome Robbins had named names to the HUAC committee to save his career. Now on Fiddler he had to use blacklisted actors like Zero Mostel and Beatrice Arthur, who all despised him. <br /> <br /> 1967- Farewell voyage of the Queen Mary, in service since 1936.<br /> <br /> 1975- A deranged FBI worker named Sarah Jane Moore tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford in front of the Saint Francis Hotel in San Francisco. Her gun arm was deflected at the last moment by a man named Oliver Sipple. The bullet missed Ford by just 5 feet. In the subsequent media attention, Sipple was outed as a gay man. His career was ruined and his Baptist mother disowned him. “I can’t see what my sexual orientation had to do with saving the President’s life!”<br /> <br /> 1976- TV show Charlie’s Angels premiered. It made a star out of Farrah Fawcett.<br /> <br /> 1979- Hanna Barbera's Super Globetrotter's Show, featuring Multi-Man, Sphere Man, Gizmo-Man, Spaghetti-Man and Fluid-Man.<br /> <br /> 1980- Proctor &amp; Gamble announced a recall of millions of tampons following several deaths from a rare infection called Toxic Shock Syndrome. <br /> <br /> 1984- Michael Eisner named CEO of the Walt Disney Corporation.<br /> <br /> 1994- Friends TV show premiered.<br /> <br /> 1996- Seymour Cray, the genius engineer who designed the most powerful supercomputers for the Control Data Corporation and Cray Computers, was in a bad car accident in Colorado Springs. He died two weeks later. He was 71.<br /> <br /> 2011- Scientists at the CERN accelerator claimed to make a particle go faster than the speed of light, something Einstein said could not be done.<br /> <br /> 2017- In a speech to his supporters, Pres. Donald Trump referred in vulgar terms to football star Colin Kaepernik, who protested police violence during the playing of the national anthem. “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now! Out! He’s fired!’” <br /> Many presidents would swear in private like Truman, LBJ and Nixon, but never in public. It was a matter of the dignity of the Presidency. This was the first time a sitting president used vulgarities openly, in an official speech. And it wouldn't be his last.<br /> <br /> 2017- Hurricane Maria devastated the island of Puerto Rico. The Trump administration bungled the rescue and recovery attempt and claimed the death toll was only 46 when it is actually more than 3,000. It took 11 months for electricity to be restored to the entire island. One year later President Trump was still declaring the federal response “a complete success.” <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question: Who said “Washington! First in War. First in Peace. First in the hearts of his countrymen!”<br /> <br /> Answer: It was said by Revolutionary War General Light-Horse Harry Lee in a eulogy at Washington’s memorial. Lee was the father of Robert E. Lee.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 21 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6264 <p>Question: What is the difference between a doll and a Kewpie doll?<br /> <br /> Question Answered below: Why would you not look forward to being the subject of an old medical practice called trepanning?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 9/21/2023<br /> Birthdays: Louis Joliet of the explorers Marquette &amp; Joliet, Chuck Jones, Gustav Holst, H.G. Wells, Stephen King, Cecil Fielder, Rob Morrow, Jay Ward, Larry Hagman, Ricky Lake, Fanny Flagg, Ethan Coen of the Coen Brothers, Leonard Cohen- not one of the Coen Brothers, Faith Hill, Jerry Bruckheimer, Nicole Richie is 43, Bill Murray is 73<br /> <br /> 454 A.D.- Flavius Aetius, a Romanized Vandal who as commander of the decaying Roman Empire's legions had stopped Attila the Hun, was assassinated by his boss Emperor Valentinian III. Valentinian couldn't think of a way to catch Aetius alone, so he just bade him approach his throne, and as he leaned in, Valentinian himself stabbed him in the neck right in front of the horrified court. Later, when Valentinian boasted that he had done well in disposing of Aetius, his counsellor Sidonius Apollinaris reacted, "Whether well or not, I do not know. But I know that you have cut off your right hand with your left.” Aetius's family got their revenge and assassinated Valentinian later. Aetius has been called The Last Roman.<br /> <br /> 1327- English King Edward II was openly gay with his courtiers Piers Gaveston and later Hugh Despenser. In the Middle Ages, it was okay to be gay if you were a big, homicidal maniac like Richard Lionheart, but Edward lost battles and flaunted his male paramours out in the open. So he was overthrown by his own Queen Isabella, the She-Wolf of France, and her lover Roger Mortimer. This day Edward II was murdered in Berkeley Castle. Historians debate how and whether Edward was indeed killed. The popular version is that the murderers held him down and shoved a red-hot spear up his rectum. Edwards only son, Edward III, later executed everyone involved except his mom. <br /> <br /> 1589- During the French Religious Wars, King Henry IV defeated a large Catholic League army at the castle of Arques. He wrote a friend later:” Go hang yourself my brave Creon, we were at Arques and you weren’t!”<br /> <br /> 1599- A Swiss tourist named Thomas Platter was visiting London and kept a diary of his trip. He wrote on this day he attended the play The Tragedie of Julius Caesar by Master William Shakespeare at the New Globe Theatre, and enjoyed it very much. This is the first written account of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar being performed, and Shakespeare himself was one of the actors. <br /> <br /> 1745- Battle of Prestonpans- Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Scots defeated the first small English force sent against him and returned to Edinburgh in triumph. The English in London were alarmed, but at this time a new patriotic song had been written for King George II, it was called GOD SAVE THE KING, the first true national anthem. No one is quite sure who wrote the song. Some say Thomas Arne (Rule Britannia), some say a mysterious cleric calling himself John Bull. All we know is music halls and theaters began singing it around this time. It became the national anthem 60 years later during the Napoleonic Wars.<br /> 1769- MAYER ROTHSCHILD, a dealer in antique coins and furniture in the ghetto of Frankfurt, set up his first bank. He was soon managing the Elector of Hesse's income from selling his soldiers, the Hessians, to Britain to fight the American Revolution. Mayer and his sons built the Rothschild financial empire. Rothschild banks lent the British Empire the money to buy the Suez Canal project from the Khedive of Egypt, they built the first European railroads, and you all know the reputation of wines like Chateau Mouton Rothschild, named for the street Louis Rothschild's house was on, the Rue Mouton. A Rothschild was the first Jewish person in the English House of Lords, and even German chancellor Otto Von Bismarck set a kosher dinner table while courting a Rothschild bank loan. Every baby in the family was born worth $62 million dollars, then it's uphill from there.<br /> <br /> 1776- A fire broke out in war devastated New York City, now occupied by British troops. The fire started near Whitehall Street and burned down most of the city, including the spire of Trinity Church at the foot of Wall St. <br /> 1779- The Spanish governor of New Spain, the Marquis de Galves began his military campaign to help George Washington’s Revolutionaries by taking Baton Rouge and Natchez from the British. The town of Galveston, Texas is named in his honor.<br /> <br /> 1793- The French Revolutionary Government throws out the calendar and makes a new one. So today was the FIRST DAY OF THE FIRST DECADE (week) OF THE FIRST MONTH OF YEAR II OF THE REPUBLIC! If you didn't get it, you were guillotined. <br /> <br /> 1809- Two senior members of the British government, Whig leader Sir George Canning and Tory Foreign Secretary Viscount Castlereagh got so mad at each other that they fought a duel with pistols on Putney Heath (southwest suburb of London near Wimbledon). Sir George received 'a fine wound in the thigh' and Castlereagh got one of his buttons shot off.<br /> <br /> 1846- Irish drygoods dealer Alexander T. Stewart opened a store in New York City that was so large he put the various items in their own departments. the first U.S. Department Store. He called it his Marble Palace, and gave it the first large glass display windows, which one newspaper labeled “A useless extravagance.”<br /> <br /> 1855- Queen Victoria met nurse Florence Nightingale for the first time. Miss Nightingale never had an official title or rank in the British Government but used her influence and wealth to force major reforms in the way the military treated the sick. 1862- King William of Prussia makes a minor junker (nobleman) Otto Von Bismarck premier-president and as well as chief foreign minister. Bismarck goes on to make him first Kaiser of a unified Germany (1871) and that Germany a world power. Bismarck's conservative, militaristic style of politics swung Germany away from development of middleclass representative government and set the stage for the totalitarian regimes in the twentieth century. <br /> Bismarck also founded the centralized cradle-to-grave welfare state for the average citizen that the rest of the world envies today. At this time Germany was a loose coupling of 38 countries, some so small they made those Victor Herbert operettas so charming. A parliament of German nationalists had tried to form a plan for unifying Germany by meeting in Frankfurt and drafting a declaration. But Bismarck told the Prussian Reichstag that Germany will not be built by parliaments and papers, but by blood and iron!<br /> <br /> 1897- The famous column by Frank Church in Joseph Pulitzer's New York World first appeared with the answer to 8 year old Virginia O’Hanlon’s question: "...and yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus..."<br /> <br /> 1904- Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce died of natural causes at 64 on a reservation in Washington State. Others say he died of a broken heart.<br /> <br /> 1915- The archaeological treasure Stonehenge was sold at auction to a barrister named Sir Cecil Chubb, who promptly donated it to the British nation. His wife thought he had gone to that auction to buy some chairs. <br /> 1917- The Gulf Between, the first film shot in Technicolor.<br /> <br /> 1920- The Kimberly Clark Company introduces Kotex ladies napkins in a hospital-blue box. Before that women had to wear something like a linen diaper that they washed and re-used.<br /> <br /> 1938- This day the Long Island Express- A force 3 Hurricane slammed into New England killing 600. The Boston area was hit with 120 mile an hour winds and downtown Providence was flooded under 13 feet of water. <br /> <br /> 1942- The first Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber flew in a test flight in Seattle. 1944- An internal FBI memo concludes "Communist infiltration of the Hollywood Guilds and unions and the only organization that could stop them was the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals" a conservative publicity group that included Walt Disney, John Wayne and Gary Cooper.<br /> <br /> 1945- Disney short "Hockey Homicide" the first Sport-Goofy directed by Jack Kinney.<br /> <br /> 1948- the first Texaco Star Theater television show featuring a nightclub comedian named Milton Berle. Berle’s antics make him a major star and with Arthur Godfrey’s show help grow television from a scientific curiosity to the entertainment every household had to have. For ten years the U.S. public never missed Uncle Miltie on TV.<br /> <br /> 1950- General MacArthur’s UN Army fought their way into North Korean occupied Seoul. On a hilltop the First Marines Division raised a US flag on a loose drainpipe found near a local school. This caused one regular Army commander to complain: “Ever since Iwo Jima, the Marines never pass up an opportunity to be photographed raising a flag over something!”<br /> <br /> 1954- The USS Nautilus, the first nuclear powered submarine, was launched in Groton Conn. <br /> <br /> 1957- General Rudolph Ivanovich Abel, the KGB's top spy in the U.S. for ten years, was arrested in New York. Abel was a master at devising ingenious ways to conceal microfilm, using secret spaces in rusty bolts, shaving brushes and fountain pens. Abel served four years in prison but in 1962 was exchanged for downed U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers. <br /> <br /> 1957- The Perry Mason TV show with Raymond Burr premiered.<br /> <br /> 1961- The Washington Senators baseball club played its last game before moving to Texas. They lost. The US capitol would not have a hometown team again until 2005. Pundits would say,” Washington! First in War. First in Peace. Last in the American League.”````<br /> <br /> 1970-first ABC Monday Night Football - Cleveland Browns defeated the NY Jets led<br /> by Broadway Joe Namath, 24-21. Announcers- Keith Jackson, Howard Cosell and retired Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dandy Don Meredith. <br /> <br /> 1970- 20 year old Bill Murray was at O’Hare Airport waiting for a plane, when he joking told another passenger he had two bombs in his suitcase. An airline attendant overheard him and called the police. They didn’t find any bombs, but they did find a bag of marijuana. He was charged a misdemeanor. Dropped out of college, His older brother got him a tryout at Chicago’s Second City Improv comedy club.<br /> <br /> 1981- President Ronald Reagan appointed Judge Sandra Day O’Connor to be the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court.<br /> <br /> 1985- “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straights hit #1 in the Billboard charts. Writer Mark Knopfler overheard a workman in an electronics store making fun of celebrities on MTV and wrote the conversation down. The early CG animation done by London company Mainframe for the video was groundbreaking.<br /> <br /> 1989- General Colin Powell became the head of the Joint Chiefs. First African-American to lead all U.S. armed forces.<br /> =========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Why would you not look forward to being the subject of an old medical practice called trepanning?<br /> <br /> Answer: Trepanning was an ancient form of brain surgery, where a doctor drilled a hole in your skull to let out the evil humors. No anesthetic yet. Despite this, many people survived.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 20 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6263 <p>Question: Why would you not look forward to being the subject of an old medical practice called trepanning?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: A favorite catchphrase of politicos is “ The Senator Double downed on his comment in Congress.” What does double-down mean?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 9/20/2023<br /> Birthdays: Alexander the Great -357 BC, Upton Sinclair, Jelly Roll Morton, Jay Ward, Red Auerbach, Guy Lafluer, Fernando Rey, Ann Meara, Rachel Roberts, Jonathan Hardy, Pia Lindstrom, Gary Cole, Fran Drescher, George R.R. Martin is 75, animator Nancy Beiman, Sophia Loren is 89<br /> <br /> 356 BC- The Great Temple of (Artemis) Diana of Ephesus was destroyed by fire. It was said to be the work of an arsonist from Halicarnassus named Herostratus. The temple had been built as a gift to the goddess by King Croesus the Lydian, who had so much gold, the phrase “To be as rich as Croesus “ is still in use. It was considered one of the seven wonders of the world. Why had the goddess allowed her house to be consumed so cruelly? The priests explained that she was probably too busy overseeing the birth of Alexander the Great to keep a watch on her own house.<br /> <br /> 188AD- Feast of St. Eustachius. Eustachius Placidius was a general under Trajan, who after professing his Christianity was locked in a bronze bull and roasted to death. <br /> <br /> 450AD- Battle of Chalons-Attila the Hun is decisively defeated by Theodoric the Visigoth and Aetius, the general of what was left of the dying Roman Empires’ legions. Attila's shaman had predicted a great chief would die that day. Theodoric wound up being the one killed, even as his warriors were winning the battle.<br /> <br /> 1400- The Welsh under Owen Glendower revolt against English rule. Supposedly the fierce bowmen marched into battle to the sound of harps. Owen had captured English Prince Edwin Mortimer. He not only treated him well but he married Owens daughter creating the Tudor family of British monarchs.<br /> <br /> 1519- Fernand de Magellan sailed from Seville, Spain. His original mission from King Charles I was to seize the Moluccas from Portugal, now part of Indonesia. Instead his fleet was the first to sail around the world. <br /> <br /> 1670- English poet John Milton published his last works “Paradise Regained” and “Samson Agonistes”. He was blind but dictated to a secretary who wrote down his poems. When he felt the inspiration he would call him by saying:” Come. I need to be milked.”<br /> <br /> 1714- George I of Hanover entered his new capital of London as King of England. The German George feared his new subjects as treacherous revolutionists who had executed their earlier kings. So he deliberately waited out the huge throngs lining the streets come to welcome him. He slipped into the city in the dead of night, after most had gone home to bed disappointed. George never bothered to learn English.” The English have asked me to rule them, not to speak to them!”<br /> <br /> 1746- Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped Scotland to France, the Highland Rebellion ended.<br /> <br /> 1777- No-Flint Grey- In the dead of night British troops surprise attack American colonial forces under Gen Mad Anthony Wayne asleep in their camp at Paoli Tavern. British Commander Charles Grey ordered his men not to waste time loading their muskets, but just go at them silently with the bayonet. To ensure his order was obeyed he collected their musket flints, for which he earned the nickname “No Flint Grey”. Paoli Tavern was called a massacre by the American press because the perception was 500 men were stabbed as they slept. Fact is, only 150 casualties were reported, and George Washington had used the same kind of surprise attack on the Hessians at Trenton earlier that year.<br /> <br /> 1792-BATTLE OF VALMY- French revolutionaries (The Sans-cullottes, without breeches- aka rich people pants) mow down the Prussian army, the best soldiers in Europe, who were marching on Paris to suppress their revolution and rescue King Louis XVI. The cool, professional Prussian troops, used to the powdered bewigged, silk stockings type of soldier, had underestimated the passions unleashed by the enraged masses shouting "Aux Armes, Citoyen!" <br /> Another problem the Germans had was an excess of diarrhea among the ranks from eating too many grapes in the Champagne region. The great German poet Johann Wolfgang Goethe was there as an adviser to his patron the Duke of Saxe-Weimar. Although Goethe did not fight, he stood cool under fire. Watching the spectacle Goethe predicted: “From today and from this place begins a new epoch in the History of the World”.<br /> <br /> 1803- Irish patriot Robert Emmett was executed for leading an abortive uprising against British rule. His final words became famous: “ Let no man write my epitaph. When my country takes her place among the nations of the Earth, then, and not till then, Let my epitaph be written.”<br /> <br /> 1814- A week after the British Fleet sailed away, a new poem by Georgetown lawyer Francis Scott Key was first published in the Baltimore Patriot. First called The Defense of Fort McHenry. Key’s brother-in-law Judge Nicholson suggested it might sound good sung to a pub tune,” To Anacreon in Heaven’. Soon, everyone was singing it as The Star Spangled Banner.<br /> <br /> 1830-The first National Convention of African-Americans convened.<br /> <br /> 1839- The SS British Queen first brought news of the invention of Photography and the Daguerreotype process to the U.S. Soon everyone is happily snapping away.<br /> <br /> 1853- Elisha Otis revolutionized tall building construction by demonstrating his elevator that didn’t fall when the cable was cut.<br /> <br /> 1863-THE BATTLE OF CHICKAMAGUA- Bloody Civil War battle in Eastern Tennessee. Union General Rosecrans moved some troops to fill an imagined gap in his line and opened up a real gap that Confederate General Bragg exploited to rout the Yankees. The Union army was only saved by the rearguard defense of Gen. George H. Thomas, who earned the name "Rock of Chickamagua". The fighting was unusually vicious, when soldiers ran out of bullets they threw rocks, clubbed and strangled each other. <br /> Lincoln's opinion of the losing commander, Rosecrans:" Old Rosy's acts stunned, like a duck that's been struck on the head." Rosecrans was a devout Catholic and had the habit of crossing himself frequently and sitting with his head in his hands. He had verbally insulted most of the top officers of the U.S. Army, yet despite this his troops loved him.<br /> <br /> 1870- The Italian Army captured Rome from the Papal guards and allied French troops and completed the unification of Italy. The city was under Napoleon III's protection until he was defeated and overthrown by the Germans in the Franco Prussian War. The status of the Pope in an Italian Rome remained ambiguous until 1927, when Mussolini signed the Concordat (Treaty) creating the Vatican City-state. <br /> <br /> 1918- Lawrence of Arabia and the Arab army enter Damascus. Lawrence had inspired Prince Faisal's Bedouin tribesmen that they were fighting for their own all-Arab nation. But the British and the French had no intention of honoring that pledge and that knowledge gnawed at Lawrence. Arabia was divided into British and French protectorates (a civil servant named Speeckes created Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Palestine and Saudi Arabia with a stick in the sand) and Lawrence returned to England a spiritually broken, albeit famous, man.<br /> <br /> 1942- SUPERSNIPER- This day during the terrible Battle of Stalingrad, a young shepherd boy from the Ural Mountains named Vassily Zaitsiev arrived to fight the Nazis. Zaistsiev turned out to be the deadliest marksman since Sgt. York. In ten days he shot forty Germans, mostly officers- one man, one bullet. The Germans got so upset they sent for a top marksman from Bavaria named Major Koenig. <br /> For the next few weeks the two supersnipers waged a private duel in the ruins of the city Stalingrad. Germans called this urban fighting rattskellerkrieg- rat cellar war. In mid-October, Zaitsiev finally killed Koenig. Vassily Zaitsev survived the war and his rifle is lovingly preserved in the Volgograd Museum today. The duel was made into a movie called Enemy at the Gates with Jude Law.<br /> <br /> 1944- Now that the Pacific War was winding down martial law was lifted on the Hawaiian Islands. It had been imposed since Pearl Harbor. One tragic result for the servicemen was that the first thing the restored chief of Honolulu police did was shut down the busy brothels of Waikiki. The area known as Hotel Street was ringed with houses servicing servicemen. One sailor reminisced: I got stewed, screwed and tattooed, all in one night.” The quarters most famous hooker, Chicago-born Jean O’Hara said: “ I think I slept with the entire US Navy.” <br /> <br /> 1947- Tex Avery’s MGM cartoon Slap Happy Lion.<br /> <br /> 1952- CBS premiered the Jackie Gleason Show- The Honeymooners".<br /> <br /> 1952- Chuck Jones’ short Rabbit Seasoning, second of his Bugs-Daffy hunting trilogy.<br /> <br /> 1955- The Phil Silvers Show, originally entitled You’ll Never Get Rich” debuted on CBS. Silvers played con-man soldier Sgt. Bilko. Its been speculated that Hanna &amp; Barbera based the cartoon Top Cat on this show.<br /> <br /> 1973- Musician Jim Croce (30) died in a charter plane crash near Natchitoches Louisiana.<br /> <br /> 1977- During the premiere episode of the 5th season of the show Happy Days, Henry Winkler’s Fonzi character water-skis in his trademark black leather jacket and jumps a ramp over a live shark. This caused writer Jon Hein to coin the term Jumping the Shark. It has come to mean pinpointing the moment a quality program or person descends into banal silliness.<br /> <br /> 1979- The Central African Empire of Boukassa I was overthrown with the aid of 700 French paratroops. Jean Bedel Boukassa was known for repression, and spending one quarter of the gross national income of his nation just on his coronation. He had a golden throne made based on Napoleon Bonaparte’s, but changed it when he saw it wasn’t opulent enough. The Central African Republic was declared.<br /> <br /> 1984- The Cosby Show premiered.<br /> <br /> 1989- A Los Angeles court found Richard Ramirez guilty of the Night Stalker crimes- 43 counts including 13 murders, rape, burglary and sodomy. He would draw a Satanic pentagram in the victim’s blood at the scene.<br /> <br /> 2001- In his first address to congress since the 9-11 attack, President George W. Bush declared a “War on Terror” that would be war everlasting. <br /> <br /> 2001- Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away released in the US. The first Japanese anime film to win an Oscar.<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Question: A favorite catchphrase of politicos is “ The Senator Double downed on his comment in Congress.” What does double-down mean?<br /> <br /> Answer: in Blackjack, it means doubling your bet after only two cards are down, showing your bold confidence and determination.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 19 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6262 <p>Question: A favorite catchphrase of politicos is “ The Senator Double downed on his comment in Congress.” What does double-down mean?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: Name an animal that is classified a marsupial.<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 9/19/2023<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, Saladin, Hungarian nationalist Leopold Kossuth, Brian Epstein, "Momma" Cass Elliot, Frank Tashlin, Dr. Ferry Porsche- inventor of the Porsche race car, Twiggy– real name Leslie Hornby, William Golding author of The Lord of the Flies, Paul Williams, Adam West, Frances Farmer, David McCallum, Duke Snyder, Jeremy Irons is 75, Jimmy Fallon is 49.<br /> <br /> 1356- BATTLE OF POITIERS- In the Hundred Years War Edward the "Black Prince" destroyed the French army and captured the French King and Dauphin. French King John II "The Good" was held for ransom in the Tower of London. Once there he found he could have all the benefits of Kingship without any of the stress, so he partied hardy. Even when his son, the Dauphin Charles V got his freedom, and started to organize a heroic resistance to the English invasion, John the Good ignored his son’s pleas to escape. Some apologist historians say John sacrificed his freedom for the French Nation. Other historians like Henri Guizot and found his budgets spent on dwarves, feasts, mistresses, and hunting dogs, "disgraceful". <br /> <br /> 1493- Pope Alexander VI had never made it a secret that he had a growing family of children. He wanted to make his son Caesar Borgia a Cardinal at 26, and his daughter Lucrezia a duchess, but first there was the problem that they were illegitimate. Well, that’s no problem for the Vicar of Christ! This day he declared them legitimate offspring, of his cousin. Everyone winked at the twisted logic and went along with it.<br /> <br /> 1580- The family of Miguel de Cervantes ransomed him from captivity of the Barbary Pirates. He wrote Don Quixote de la Mancha in 1604.<br /> <br /> 1692- One of the few men convicted in the Salem Witch Trials was executed. Pilgrim Rev. Giles Corey had a wooden board laid on top of him and his neighbors piled large stones on top until he was squished to death. At one point his tongue was sticking so grotesquely out of his head, that the magistrate pushed it back into his mouth with the tip of his cane. His family descendent was Walt Disney.<br /> <br /> 1741- When the Austrian emperor died leaving only daughter Maria Theresa as heir, the surrounding powers like Prussia and France moved in to carve up her territory. The War of Austrian Succession began. Many lascivious cartoons were made of the symbolic ravishing of the young woman monarch. But Maria Theresa was made of tougher stuff. On this day, she went to her Hungarian parliament and in a dramatic piece of political theater, held her infant son aloft and called for the defense of the Homeland. The Hungarian noblemen went wild, and hundreds of drawn swords waved in the air. The people rose en-masse and drove out the invaders. Maria Theresa reigned as one of the strongest leaders of the XVIII century. <br /> <br /> 1777- First Battle of Saratoga, also called Freeman’s Farm- Gen. Johnny Burgoyne's British invasion down the Hudson was stopped. Burgoyne’s plan was to cut the rebel colonies in two with his thrust down from Canada being met from the South by Lord Howe coming up from New York City and another force east from Oswego. But Lord Howe disregarded the plan in favor of another shot at George Washington and Philadelphia. Back in London, Lord Charles Germain neglected to write out the necessary orders for Howe to support Burgoyne because he was late to go on his holiday vacation and couldn’t be bothered. <br /> And the Oswego force was stopped by colonials using a lunatic hermit named Ute Schuyler who spooked the British-allied Indians into deserting. Algonquins thought the mentally ill were possessed by Hipi-Manitou spirits and so were bad luck. The net result was Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne's army was alone in the forest, far from supplies and surrounded by the Americans.<br /> <br /> 1783- Jacques Montgolfier launches the first hot air balloon in Paris. The first aeronauts were a sheep, duck and rooster. Montgolfier made his fortune in paper. To this day if you get some high quality stationary with a balloon and French flag in the watermark that is Papier Canson et Montgolfier, his company.<br /> <br /> 1796- President George Washington’s farewell address was first published in Claypools American Daily Advertiser, then reprinted in other papers throughout the country. Washington warned to “avoid entangling foreign alliances and asked for national unity above partisan politics. He thought political parties were a big mistake. But party politics had firmly taken root. One opposition paper called Washington’s speech “the last loathings of a sick mind.”<br /> <br /> 1797-The Marquis de Lafayette was released from an Austrian prison after negotiations successfully conducted by Napoleon. Lafayette at first tried to channel the passions unleashed by the French Revolution to forge the kind of democracy he saw in America. But that almost got him guillotined, and after he escaped across the French frontier the Austrians locked him up. He rotted in prison for five years. Napoleon hoped to use Lafayette as an ally in his grab for power, but Lafayette laid low during the period of Napoleon’s Empire.<br /> <br /> 1819- On a beautiful English autumn day poet John Keats was moved to write his Ode to Autumn.<br /> <br /> 1827- Fight at the Vidalia Sandbar- Famous Mississippi gamblers brawl in which Jim Bowie uses his famous knife to carve up a gang of sore losers who shot him twice. He was only there to act as a second in a friends duel. The Bowie knife may not have been designed by Jim Bowie but by his brother Rezin Bowie, who wanted an intimidating blade to brandish after he almost died in a similar altercation. <br /> <br /> 1841- The first railroad tracks to cross an international border was completed. From Strasbourg France, to Basel Switzerland.<br /> <br /> 1849- First commercial laundry set up in Oakland Cal.<br /> <br /> 1864- Battle of Winchester- General Phil Sheridan's Yankees whup Jubal Early's Confederates. The feisty son of an Irish ditch digger, Abe Lincoln called Sheridan "A runty little man with a bullet shaped head and not enough neck to hang him." But he proved his value today. He rode fearlessly down the battle line shouting to his men:" Pour it into them boys! Knock every sonofabitch down before you!" One sonofabitch killed was Confederate General George S. Patton, the grandfather of the World War II general. Sheridan's army had no less than three future U.S. presidents on staff- Gen James Garfield, Gen. Rutherford Hayes and Major William McKinley.<br /> <br /> 1876- Melvin Bissell of Grand Rapids Michigan invented the carpet sweeper.<br /> <br /> 1881- PRESIDENT JAMES GARFIELD DIED- Garfield was shot in the back at Washington rail station by Charles Guiteau on July 2nd.The President lingered these many weeks in agony before finally dying. Garfield might have lived had it not been for all the doctors poking around in his wound without antiseptic conditions. Even inventor Alexander Graham Bell was invited to search for the bullet with a newly invented metal detector. James Garfield died of blood poisoning and infection. Interestingly enough, for the two and a half months the President was out of action and Congress was not called into session, yet the U.S.A. ran just fine.<br /> <br /> 1893- New Zealand becomes the first nation in the world to give women the vote.<br /> <br /> 1898- THE RACE TO FASHODA- It is difficult to imagine that World War I might have been Britain vs. France instead of Germany. Since 1832, France and Britain had been competing to see who could build a bigger colonial empire and grab up more of the Third World. This "scramble for Africa" reached it's climax with a race to a small mud fort in the center of Africa called Fashoda. It was critical to Britain owning to the whole Nile River and land lengthwise down from Egypt, as well as critical to France's claim widthwise from Atlantic Senegal to East coast Ethiopia. <br /> On this day at Fashoda the race climaxed with the French commander Captain Marchand face to face with the British General Kitchener, exchanging champagne toasts while cordially threatening to annihilate the other. Both Paris and London threatened war. The French Army, exhausted by the Dreyfus scandal and lack of public support, backed down by November. The British offered a compromise to evacuate Egypt as soon as the political situation settled down. They left Egypt in 1956.<br /> As for the Africans? No one much cared what they thought. The Dinka people of southern Sudan referred to this period as: "The time the world was spoiled."<br /> <br /> 1926- THE BIG ONE- This day Miami, Florida was destroyed by a huge hurricane. They didn’t have names then. The storm stopped a real estate boom in South Florida. Snowbirds from up north invested millions in land that turned out to be under water. The Marx Brothers poked fun at the craze in their stage comedy The Cocoanuts. As Groucho said:” Florida Folks. Sunshine, Sunshine, now let’s get the auction started before there is a tornado.”<br /> <br /> 1931- The Marx Brothers comedy “Monkey Business” premiered.<br /> <br /> 1934- Bruno Richard Hauptman was arrested and charged with the kidnap murder of the Lindbergh baby. He pleaded innocence up until he fried in the electric chair, but he was found with a significant part of the ransom money on him.<br /> <br /> 1936- Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald record “Indian Love Call”. When I’m Calling You, Oooh-ohhoohhh, Ohhhh-ohhh-oohhhhhhh”, etc.<br /> <br /> 1939- Geli Raubel, Adolf Hitler’s 23 year old niece was found dead with a gunshot in the head. Hitler had a passion for his niece that she did not return. It remains a mystery whether she killed herself or she was murdered and made to look like a suicide. Even though Eva Braun worshipped him, years later Adolf admitted Geli was the only woman he ever really loved.<br /> <br /> 1942- Chuck Jones cartoon The Dover Boys released. <br /> <br /> 1945- Little Shirley Temple, now all grown up, married actor John Agar, who she met on the set of John Ford's film Fort Apache. The RKO studio turned the marriage into a media circus by inviting 12,000 people. John Ford teased Agar mercilessly, calling him Mr. Temple. John and Shirley divorced five years later. Shirley Temple remarried and became a career diplomat, and John Agar went on to star in sci-fi flicks like 'Tarantula", The Brain from Planet Aurous". Eventually he built his own theme dinosaur park by an Arkansas freeway, "John Agar's House of Kong'.<br /> <br /> 1945- Klaus Fuchs, a spy in the British delegation of the Los Alamos Atomic bomb program, delivered the plans of the plutonium 'Nagasaki" bomb to a courier for Soviet intelligence in Moscow. <br /> <br /> 1952- The TV show The Adventures of Superman starring George Reeves debuted.<br /> <br /> 1955- Juan Peron, the President of Argentina, was overthrown in a military coup.<br /> <br /> 1961- This is the night Betty and Barney Hill claimed they were picked up by a flying saucer and experimented on. It is one of the more famous abduction stories because it was one of the first, and it holds up under hypnosis. Hey little guy, what are you planning to do with that anal probe?<br /> <br /> 1968 - "Funny Girl" opened in theaters, starring a young singer named Barbra Streisand. Hello Gorgeous!<br /> <br /> 1970- The Mary Tyler Moore TV Show premiered.<br /> <br /> 1984- Milos Forman’s movie of the play Amadeus opened.<br /> <br /> 1985- Mexico City devastated by a large earthquake 8.1 on the Richter scale. The next day the city was rocked again by a 7.5 earthquake. 10,000 people died. Curiously enough 80% of the cities ancient landmarks were undamaged, only modern buildings collapsed. People camped out in Aztec ruins, figuring they’ve stood for centuries and would probably stand now.<br /> <br /> 1990- Martin Scorcese’s movie Goodfellas opened. “You think I’m funny? What? Am I here to amuse you?” <br /> <br /> 1991- UTZI- Two German tourists hiking in the Austrian Alps discovered the remains of an Ice Age man, killed with an arrow over 5,000 years ago. The body, exposed from the ice by global warming, was in such an excellent state of preservation, that they thought it was a modern homicide. Called Utzi, or Frozen Fritz, he was 42. He had 50 tattoos, a copper axe, a full stomach, and Lime Disease.<br /> <br /> 1994- The US invaded Haiti- again. We also invaded in 1919 and 1922.<br /> <br /> 1995- Orville Reddenbacher 'the Popcorn king' died.<br /> <br /> 1995- The NY Times and Washington Post printed the 35,000 word manifesto of the Unabomber. He promised to stop sending bombs to people if they printed his message. He accused technology of subverting American society and that the Democrats stoke the fears of the poor, and the Republicans believe in nothing but pure self-interest.<br /> <br /> 2004- Chinese leader Zhiang zsi Minh retired and handed over his offices to his successor Hu Zhin Tao. It marks the first peaceful regular transition of power in China since the Manchu emperors over a century ago.<br /> ===============================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Name an animal that is classified a marsupial.<br /> <br /> Answer: A possum. A sloth.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 18 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6261 <p>Question: Name an animal that is classified a marsupial.<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is the difference between Hebrew and Yiddish?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 9/18/2023<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Marcus Ulpius Trajan 53AD, Dr. Samuel Johnson, Frankie Avalon, Greta Garbo, Claudette Colbert, Leon Foucault (Foucault's Pendulum), Jack Warden, Canadian PM John Diefenbaker, Eddie “Rochester”Anderson, Rossano Brazzi, Joe Kubert, Debbie Fields founder of Mrs. Field's Cookies, Jada Pinkett-Smith, James Gandolfini, June Foray<br /> <br /> 96 A.D. ROMAN EMPEROR DOMITIAN ASSASSINATED- Domitian was a mad tyrant in the mold of Nero and Caligula. He once ordered all the fortune tellers, sorcerers, and such driven out of Rome. Their guild got together and retaliated by doing a group prediction of Domitian's assassination: Sept. 18th on the eleventh hour. <br /> Domitian pretended not to care, but spent all day locked indoors with a sword under his pillow. He didn't come out until his slaves and butlers assured him the eleventh hour had passed. Domitian came out and was promptly murdered by his slaves and butlers. They lied. It was the eleventh hour. -BUT WAIT! IT GETS WEIRDER... A Roman mob drags Domitian's body through the streets on a hook and chain. They tried to stuff him into the sewer but he was too fat, so they tore the body to pieces and threw the chunks into the Tiber. <br /> -BUT WAIT! IT GETS EVEN WEIRDER!!-The Roman Senate told his wife the Empress Valeria no hard feelings, if she needed anything.... She requested to be allowed to keep one statue of her husband in the Forum. The Senate approved. Unbeknown to them fishermen had fished out the pieces of Domitian. Valeria took the fish-knawed chunks to an Egyptian doctor and had him sew them back into something resembling a human being. Then she told her artists to make a statue of what they saw. <br /> This horrid statue she put in the forum to remind Roman's of 'their ingratitude’.<br /> <br /> 324 A.D.-Battle of Chrysopolis-Constantine, Roman Emperor of the West, defeated Licinius, Emperor of the East, and took over the whole Roman Empire. One result of this battle was he took the Christian religion, which he had earlier removed the ban on, and raised it to the official state religion of the Roman Empire.<br /> <br /> 1572-the painter El Greco first appeared in history in a document paying his union dues to the Guild of St. Luke, the artists guild of Rome. His real name was Domenikos Theotokopoulos. People just called him 'The Greek Guy" -El Greco. <br /> <br /> 1705- PIRATES TAKE OVER NEW YORK CITY and hold it a few days until the British Navy drove them away. <br /> <br /> 1793- At the building site of the new capitol city (Washington D.C.) the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol building was set in a ceremony presided over by President George Washington and a group of Freemason masters from GW's local lodge.<br /> At one point Washington dismissed the crowd so the Freemason's could do their mystical rites in secret. No regular clergy was invited, and no Christian benedictions given. The US Capitol as we know would not be completed until 1863. <br /> <br /> 1804- Napoleon inspected Baron Gros’ painting The Plague Victims of Jaffa and liked it. Nappy considered paintings part of state propaganda and commissioned artists to project his image.<br /> <br /> 1811- A Portuguese 'Projectionist' (experimenter with Magic Lanterns) offers the Duke of Wellington to burn up Napoleon's army with a series of convex lenses and mirrors. Wellington says thanks, but no thanks...<br /> <br /> 1812- The Great Fire of Moscow finally out, Napoleon sent to Czar Alexander informing him of the tragedy and once more calling upon him to submit to peace talks. The Czar sent no reply but told his troops and court: “I will continue to fight so long as I have one soldier. Rather than surrender to the invaders I’d grow my beard to my waist, go to Siberia and live on potatoes!”<br /> <br /> 1851-First issue of the New York Daily Times, later just the New York Times.<br /> <br /> 1870- THE SIEGE OF PARIS BEGAN- During the Franco-Prussian War, by now the main French armies were defeated and Emperor Napoleon III a prisoner. Yet Paris alone refused to surrender. As the great Krupp guns boom shells into the city, American General Phil Sheridan stood as a tourist in between Chancellor Bismarck and the Kaiser. Painter August Renoir would go outside the city walls to sketch and was once picked up and accused of espionage. Parisians starved in the siege and elegant restaurants were soon offering 'roast cat in orange sauce with a decorative garnish of mice'. Top fashion guru Worth of Paris declared it chic' to have some decorative ruins in your garden. After the siege the Paris city walls were demolished. They were approximately where the freeway "peripherique" around the city is today. The fiercest fighting was where the suburb of La Defense is (hence the name). Young Emile Cohl was inspired by the military wall posters he saw to become an artist. He later became the first true animation artist. <br /> <br /> 1873- THE GREAT PANIC AND DEPRESSION OF '73- Contrary to modern belief the Depressions of 1929 and 2008 weren't the only times the U.S. economy collapsed. This panic began when the huge Bank of Cooke &amp; Sons closed. In those times you would say "to be rich as Jay Cooke' was like saying rich as a Elon Musk today. Cooke got the news of his ruin while having breakfast with President Grant. He broke down and wept in front of the befuddled chief executive. The run on the collapsing market got so out of control that the New York Stock Exchange shut down for ten days. The Depression lasted ten years. 1907,1819,1893,1914, 1832, 1987 and 2008 also saw financial panics. <br /> <br /> 1895- In Davenport Iowa, Daniel David Palmer performed the first chiropractic adjustment session. Crack!<br /> <br /> 1917-Writer Aldous Huxley got a job teaching at Eton. One of his students was Eric Blair, who would write under the name George Orwell.<br /> <br /> 1927-The Columbia Broadcasting System-CBS, broadcast its first program, an opera called the King’s Henchman.<br /> <br /> 1931- THE MUKDEN INCIDENT- The Japanese army rig a supposed Chinese ambush at a small railway junction near Shenyang. This served as the pretext for a mass invasion of Manchuria. This is technically the first violence of World War II, since the Sino-Japanese conflict would continue until 1945.<br /> <br /> 1932-Frustrated movie actress Peggy Enwhistle jumped off the Hollywood Sign. In case you are curious she jumped off the “H”. She also didn’t hit the ground immediately but hit a cactus patch, dying slowly later in great pain. Ironically in her mailbox that day was a script and a job offer. The role was of a woman who commits suicide.<br /> <br /> 1939- LORD HAW-HAW. Shortly after World War II broke out in Europe, today Britons first heard an English voice reading propaganda news from Radio Berlin. English fascist William Joyce became the English voice of Nazi Germany, making pro-axis commentary much like Tokyo Rose was doing in Asia. He was nicknamed Lord Haw-Haw because of his upper-class British accent. William Joyce was actually of Irish ancestry and lived in Brooklyn New York for awhile, but he considered himself British. After Germany’s defeat Joyce was executed for treason.<br /> <br /> 1947- The US Army Air Force is reformed as an independent department of the armed services. The US Air Force is born.<br /> <br /> 1951- The Day the Earth Stood Still, with Michael Rennie premiered. Klaatu, barrata, nicto!<br /> <br /> 1961- United Nations General Secretary Dag Hammerskjold was killed in a plane crash in Africa. He left behind a book of philosophical musings called Markings that became a best seller. Today the central plaza in front of the United Nations Building is named for him.<br /> <br /> 1964- H&amp;B’s Johnny Quest Show premiered.<br /> <br /> 1964- The Addams Family TV show premiered. Lurch, Thing and Uncle Fester. You Rang?<br /> <br /> 1965- I Dream of Genie debuted on television. Network Standards &amp; Practices said Barbara Eden could wear the harem outfit so long as her belly-button didn’t show. At first the reviews were not good. The Variety TV critic said: “The only thing that stands out in this show is Barbara Eden’s cleavage.”<br /> <br /> 1970- Jimmy Hendrix (27) was found dead of drug and alcohol abuse. He had passed out and choked on his own vomit. Janis Joplin's reaction was"G-ddammit! He beat me to it !" Joplin herself died three weeks later. Hendrix fame was made in about 4 years. <br /> <br /> 1981- France outlawed capital punishment and the guillotine.<br /> <br /> 1987- Disney’s TV show Ducktales premiered.<br /> <br /> 1994- Tennis star Vitus Gerulaitis was found in his home dead from carbon monoxide poisoning.<br /> <br /> 2001- ANTHRAX- While America was still in shock from the 9-11 attacks, government and media offices started getting envelopes in the mail containing weapons grade Anthrax powder. 22 people are sickened and 5 died. The Bush Administration immediately claimed it was the work of Al Qaeda and later Saddam Hussein, but the only culprit the FBI could pinpoint was a disgruntled chemist at the Army Biological Weapons Lab who committed suicide. Nothing was ever proven conclusively.<br /> <br /> 2003- In Scotland, paleontologists discover the world’s oldest fossilized genitals. From a dinosaur era insect, an ancestor of the praying mantis. Great Giant Mantis Balls!”<br /> ====================================================<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is the difference between Hebrew and Yiddish?<br /> <br /> Answer: Yiddish is an Eastern European language of German and Ukrainian origin, used by Ashkenazi Jews for everyday speech. Sephardic Jews speak Ladino, a mixture of Spanish and Turkish. Hebrew was the language of ancient Israel, considered sacred. Israel uses modern Hebrew, which some Jews find blasphemous. (Thanks NB)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 17 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6260 <p>Question: What is the difference between Hebrew and Yiddish?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: People used to describe a real backwards, hick town as Podunk. Podunk Junction. Where is Podunk?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 9/17/2023<br /> Birthdays: Hank Williams, Spiro Agnew, Ken Kesey, Jerry Colonna, Roddy MacDowell, George Blanda, Wendy Carlos Williams, Elvira- real name Cassandra Peterson, Anne Bancroft, Jeff MacNelly, John Ritter, Sir Frederick Ashton, Rita Rudner, animator Tim Walker, Baz Luhrmann is 61<br /> <br /> 1179- Feast of Saint Hildegard of Bingen, the medieval female composer.<br /> <br /> 1630- Happy Birthday Beantown! The Puritan colonists of New England decide to name their new settlement Boston, after a town in Lincolnshire. The site was an Algonquin village called Shawmut.<br /> <br /> 1632- BATTLE of BREITENFELD- Biggest battle of the religious Thirty Years War. South Germans, Austrians, Italians, Spaniards on the Catholic side, Swedes, Danes, Hungarians and North Germans on the Protestant side. Catholic general Joachim von Tilly lost, despite dedicating the battle to the Virgin Mary and having twelve cannons named for the Twelve Apostles. Protestant Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus sang morning prayers with his army from the saddle. <br /> <br /> 1787- The completed U.S. Constitution was signed by the representatives of 12 of the thirteen states. Rhode Island boycotted the convention. Alexander Hamilton signed as the only representative of New York since the others left in protest. “The business is closed.” George Washington wrote in his diary. The US Constitution became the bedrock of the American system and is viewed with an almost religious dedication. When Ben Franklin emerged from the meeting, an old woman asked:’ Well, Dr. Franklin, what have you given us now?” Franklin replied:” A Nation, mam, if you can keep it!”<br /> <br /> 1857- James Pierpont, an uncle of banker J.P. Morgan, had moved from Massachusetts to Savannah Georgia to be organist in a local church. There he missed the snowy winters of home. So, this day he published a song he wrote about what fun it was to ride in a sleigh. He called it The One-Horse Open Sleigh, but we know it by its popular chorus- Jingle Bells. <br /> <br /> 1859- JOSHUA NORTON of San Francisco, a well known rice merchant, suffered a mental breakdown under the strain of work, bought a marching band uniform and a tricycle, and declared himself Norton I, By God's Grace, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico! Everybody went along with the gag including Abraham Lincoln, who Norton would write to as "My Prime Minister" and Abe would answer "Your Majesty". When Joshua Norton died in 1875, 35,000 San Franciscans turned out for a state funeral befitting royalty.<br /> <br /> 1862- THE BATTLE OF ANTIETAM or Sharpsburg. Abe Lincoln desperately needed a Union victory before freeing the slaves, so the act wouldn't look like the last gamble of a losing side. Robert E. Lee had invaded Maryland, but his secret orders wrapped around some cigars were discovered by Yankee trooper. "At last, I've got him!' crowed Gen. George B. "Little Mac" McClellan, the Union commander who was a great organizer but a lousy battlefield commander. This day two sides battered each other in one of the bloodiest days in U.S. history, double the U.S. casualties of D-Day in World War II. McClellan delayed sending in his reserves at a critical moment to break Lee's center, so the battle was a draw. Lee withdrew into Virginia -he was leaving Maryland anyway, so it was kind of, sort of, a Union success. <br /> Yet despite Lincoln's pleading, McClellan refused to pursue. Lil' Mac was convinced Lee had 100,00 troops (he had barely 30,000.). Never one for modesty, McClellan wrote his wife: "Once again God has made me His instrument to be the Savior of my country." Lincoln sacked McClellan, but published The Emancipation Proclamation anyway.<br /> <br /> 1880- The L.A. Athletic Club opened.<br /> <br /> 1915- During World War I, Australians seized the German colony of Papua New Guinea.<br /> <br /> 1921-SWASTIKA- New leader of the German National Socialist or Nazi Party Adolf<br /> Hitler sent his first memo to party members. He had spent a lot of time researching graphic symbols in a Munich library with a Professor Pluskau, who specialized in Oriental cultures. Now Herr Hitler advised all party members to adopt as their emblem an ancient symbol of a crooked cross, Hakenkreuz, called a Swastika, Sanskrit for good well-being. This was to be worn as an armband and on party stationary topped with an eagle in imitation of imperial Rome. <br /> CBS news correspondent William Shirer noticed that at early rallies, Nazis actually sold brand named merchandise to fund their movement. <br /> <br /> 1925- In Mexico City, a streetcar crashed into a schoolbus carrying 14 year old Frida Kahlo. It fractured her pelvis when she had already been dealing with polio. The difficulty she suffered recovering had a great impact on her painting.<br /> <br /> 1932- Mickey Mouse short Mickey’s Whoopee Party, premiered.<br /> <br /> 1939- Russian forces join German troops in the invasion of Poland and occupied the Balkan countries Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. These nations would not regain their independence until 1990.<br /> <br /> 1940- After the failure of the German Luftwaffe, Hitler postponed Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of the British Isles. The Battle of Britain was over, but air raids would continue. Hitler would resume bombing London with rocket weapons in 1943 in the period called 'The Blitz".<br /> <br /> 1941- As Stuka Bombers drop incendiary explosives over their heads, Dmitri Shostakovich performs the first two movements of his Symphony #7 the "Leningrad" to a Leningrad audience. Shostakovich wrote the symphony during the terrible 900-day siege by the Nazi's, often pausing to join the fire brigade in putting out fires.<br /> <br /> 1944- OPERATION MARKET GARDEN- British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery convinced Eisenhower that one way to shorten the war would be to drop the allied parachute divisions to seize key bridgehead crossings at Arnhem, Eindhoven and Nijmegen in Holland and then send tank units racing up to secure their breakthrough. The area to be attacked was well behind the front lines and supposed to be undefended. But just before this attack two crack Nazi SS Panzer divisions had been withdrawn there to rest. The operation was one of the biggest Allied disasters of the war. The Allies dropped troops on one side of Arnhem and their supplies on the other side, with the Germans in between. <br /> The assault was broken and the valiant British paratroops under General Urquhart &amp; Col. Ross holding one side of Arnhem Bridge were forced to surrender. Of the 10,000 men of the British First Parachute Division only 2,000 were not killed, wounded or captured. An Arnhem eyewitness who would one day grow up to be a famous actress was a little Dutch refugee named Audrey Hepburn. General Patton, who was not fond of Montgomery, summed it all up unkindly: “Monty says he wants a dagger thrust into the heart of Germany. Knowing Monty, it would be more like a butter knife!” In 1967 shortly before his death, Montgomery stated:” I still feel Market Garden could have worked.”<br /> <br /> 1948- Count Bernadotte, the UN commissioner for Palestine was assassinated by Jewish terrorists while trying to arbitrate a ceasefire between Israel and the Arabs. A shocked Prime Minister Ben Gurion ordered the disbanding of all Jewish militias like the Irgun and Stern Gang operating independently of the Israeli central command. During World War II, Bernadotte had used his diplomatic immunity to save Jews from the Holocaust.<br /> <br /> 1951- Battle of the Yalu River. General MacArthur’s UN army reached the edges of North Korea.<br /> <br /> 1965- If you ever wondered what could be funny about being held in a Nazi prison camp you could watch the TV sitcom HOGANS HEROES, which debuted this day. Commandant Colonel Klink was acted by Werner Klemperer, whose father was the famous orchestra conductor Otto Klemperer. They had to flee Germany because they were Jewish. Sargent Schulz and the Frenchman LeBeau were also played by actors who survived the Holocaust- John Banner and Robert Clary. <br /> <br /> 1966- The original series of MISSION IMPOSSIBLE premiered this night. Starring Peter Graves, Martin Landau, Barbera Bain, Greg Morris and Peter Lupus.<br /> <br /> 1971- RCA gave up and pulled out of the retail computer market.<br /> <br /> 1972- Filmation’s The Groovie Ghoulies" debuts.<br /> <br /> 1975- Psychotherapist Lucile Yaney opened one of LA’s most unusual restaurants- the Inn of the Seventh Ray in Topanga Canyon. Built on the site of a country house 1920’s evangelist Aimee Semple MacPherson brought her toyboy lovers. Premiere organic cuisine with berry wines, then you can browse the store for power crystals, I-Ching sticks and literature from Alastair Crowley and Edgar Cayce. Faaar- Out!<br /> <br /> 1978- After thirteen days of intense negotiations President Jimmy Carter announced the Camp David Peace Accords, the first peace treaty between Israel and an Arab neighbor- Egypt. Prime Minister Menachem Begin shook hands with President Anwar El Sadat.<br /> <br /> 1980- Saddam Hussein’s Iraq attacked the Ayatollah Khomeni's Iran. An 8 year war resulted. Because at the time we hated the Ayatollah’s Iran more, the US actively supplied Saddam with arms, CIA intelligence on Iranian troop movements and a lot of those hand held rockets Iraqis shot at us later in 1991 and 2003.<br /> <br /> 1982- THE SABRAH and SHATILAH MASSCRES- The Israeli Army had invaded Lebanon and intervened in the Lebanese Civil War, which had been raging since 1975. Their original purpose was to destroy PLO bases with which the Palestinians used to attack northern Israel. The Israeli army went all the way to Beirut and surrounded two large Palestinian refugee camps, hoping to destroy the PLO command structure. After the Christian President of Lebanon Bashir Gemayel was assassinated, the Israeli Army let his Christian Lebanese militia fighters into the two camps to take out any remaining PLO fighters. Instead, the enraged militiamen went on a rampage of revenge. Hundreds were killed. When the press was finally allowed to inspect the camps, the images shocked the world. <br /> The Lebanon Invasion polarized Israeli society, many Israeli army officers joined Peace-Now and refused to serve. Defense Minister Ariel Sharon “The Beast of Beirut” was made to resign because of his complicity in this tragedy. He became Prime Minister anyway in 1998.<br /> <br /> 1991- The TV show Home Improvement debuted, making a star out of stand-up comedian Tim Allen.<br /> <br /> 2008- the entire nation of Iceland declared bankruptcy. <br /> <br /> 2008- the first revelations that George W. Bush’s Department of the Interior officials were having sex with prostitutes and taking drugs with lobbyists for the oil companies. One official admitted snorting meth off of an office toaster oven. Meanwhile they winked at the oil companies forgetting to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in environmental penalties and fees. Two years later, two oilrigs exploded and polluted the Gulf of Louisiana.<br /> <br /> 2011- THE 99% PROTESTS, average people gathered in parks by Wall Street in Manhattan to protest the terrible economy, while Wall Street mavens reaped big bonuses. Despite vilification by Right Wing Media, the protests grew to hundreds of thousands of protesters across America and went on for months. There was even Occupy Alaska, Occupy Honolulu, and Occupy the South Pole. Yet lack of organization and a clear program allowed the movement to eventually fade away. <br /> ==============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: People used to describe a real backwards, hick town as Podunk. Podunk Junction. Where is Podunk?<br /> <br /> Answer: The term was coined by Broadway showman George M. Cohan. He’d go to Churchill Downs Kentucky for his summer holidays. He would mention to his show biz friends a small town near there named Podunk Junction where he stayed. In the big societal movement to urbanization and the urban jazz culture, much was made of rural areas being labelled backward and ignorant.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 16 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6259 <p>Question: People used to describe a backwards, hick town as Podunk. Podunk Junction. Is there such a place?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Who was the first American president to be born in the United States?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 9/16/2023<br /> Birthdays: J.C. Penney (James Cash Penney), B.B. King, Gen. Mikhail Kutuzov, Anne Francis, Linda Darnel, Nadia Boulanger, Alan Funt, George Chakiris, Peter Falk, Ed Begley Jr, Jennifer Tilly, Molly Shannon, Marvin P. Middlemark 1919-the inventor of the rabbit ears TV antenna, Lauren Bacall, Mickey Rourke is 68<br /> <br /> 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 long journey from Africa.<br /> <br /> 1498-The Grand Inquisitor Tomas de Torquemada died peacefully. He presided over the torture and execution of up to 17,000 people during the Spanish Inquisition. He also oversaw the expulsion of Jews and Christian Arabs from Spain. Even the Borgias asked him to cool it. Today a Torquemada is a synonym for judicial cruelty.<br /> <br /> 1776- BATTLE OF HARLEM HEIGHTS- From Washington's defeat by the British at New York City until Christmas he fought several rearguard actions as the British army chased him and his raggedy-ass rebels up to White Plains, across the Hudson, and down across New Jersey into Pennsylvania. Historians graciously call these desperate hits-and-run actions battles, Harlem Heights, Throggs Neck, White Plains, Ft. Washington. <br /> The British were now so cocky about knocking the rebels about, that when the advance scouts spotted the American positions, they didn't use the usual trumpet signals but sounded fox-hunting calls. The British referred to the Americans as Mr. Washington’s Army, because they refused to give him with the title of General.<br /> <br /> 1810 -El GRITO aka MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE- As the bells ring, peasant priest Father Miquel Hidalgo waved the banner of the Virgin of Tonantzin-Guadalupe and published a revolutionary tract-The Cry of Dolores. New Spain declared their Independence as Mexica, the name of the ancient Aztec nation. Hidalgo was later captured and shot but not before setting the people aflame:" Will you recover the lands stolen three hundred years ago from our forefathers by the hated Spaniards? Long Live Our Lady of Guadalupe! Death to the gachupines!” -Aztec for Euro-Honkies. The war continued for a decade until Spain acknowledged Mexican independence in 1821.<br /> <br /> 1830- The Liverpool-Manchester railroad inaugurated. The first trip was an all VIP affair, with the Prime Minister the Duke of Wellington and most of the government along for the ride. At one point during a stop the elderly Duke watched a member of the House of Lord, Sir William Huckison, step out on to the track and get his leg severed by another train. The first known fatality by train.<br /> <br /> 1859- In Old San Francisco, California State Senator David Broderick called California Supreme Court Justice David Terry a “pro-slavery crook, knave and poltroon”. The chief justice in a rage challenged Broderick to a duel. They had to reschedule their meeting several times to elude the police. They finally met on the 13th, on a site near present day Daly City. 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. He died this date, three days later. Terry was acquitted of manslaughter but 30 year later, Terry was shot and killed by another in Stockton, California.<br /> <br /> 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 to hate one another. The debate would be moderated by famed explorer Dr. David Livingstone. However, fate, or Speeckes, ensured the debate would never take place. The day before, the high strung Speeckes had gone hunting to break the tension and had accidentally shot himself in the chest with a shotgun. Whether he had intentionally or unintentionally committed suicide remains a mystery. A different explorer, Henry Stanley, proved Speeckes was correct in 1873.<br /> <br /> 1893- THE LAST GREAT OKLAHOMA LAND RUSH-After appropriating some of their land in 1889, in 1893 the U.S. Gov't takes over the last huge stretch of land owned by the Cherokee Nation, who once owned all of Georgia and the Carolinas and Tennessee. They rename the Cherokee Strip Oklahoma and at the sound of a signal gun at noon one hundred thousand white settlers swarmed over it like a mad gold rush, on horseback, bicycle and carriages. By days end 40,000 claims averaging 160 acres a claim were made. Senator Henry Dawes of Mass. who sponsored the land grab, said of the Cherokee: " The defect in their system is obvious. Because they hold their land in common, there is no selfishness, which is at the bottom of all Civilization."<br /> <br /> 1898- Indianapolis attorney Albert Beveridge advocated the conquest of the Philippines in a speech entitled “The March of the Flag,” the classic statement of U.S. Imperialism.<br /> <br /> 1901- A British Imperial Academy of Sciences team began to excavate a Wooly Mammoth frozen in Siberia. Most of the head had been eaten by wolves and the ears and trunk were gone, but the hair, skin and contents of its’ stomach were still there.<br /> <br /> 1908- General Motors Car Company formed. Calvin Coolidge had once said:" What's good for General Motors is good for the Nation."<br /> <br /> 1916- TANKS made their first appearance on the Somme battlefield. The inventors wanted them to be called “Land-Battleships” but the British had shipped their secret weapon across the Channel in crates marked "water-tanks" to fool spies, so the name Tank stuck.<br /> <br /> 1919- An unemployed ex-corporal named Adolf Hitler drifted through Munich, today joined a new right-wing political party called the German Socialist Workers Party, later the National Socialists or Nazi Party. He also began attending meetings of the ultra-nationalist Thule Society. It was a group that espoused Aryan racial superiority and Anti-Semitism.<br /> <br /> 1920- TERRORISM- On this day anarchists planted a time bomb in a wagonload of scrap iron and parked it in the middle of Wall Street during a busy business lunch hour. The blast killed 38 and injured hundreds, blowing out the ground floor of J.P. Morgan's bank on the corner of Wall and Broad St. Bankers described nightmarish scenes like a woman's decapitated head with her stylish bonnet still on, imbedded 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. In 2001 the headquarters of Morgan/Stanley were in the World Trade Center.<br /> <br /> 1920- Enrico Caruso made his last recordings for the Victor Recording Company.<br /> <br /> 1938- Los Angeles Mayor Frank Shaw recalled for corruption. The city father's frustration with the mob corruption of politicians and police back east moved them to create the unique city charter that made the Los Angeles City Council more powerful than the mayor and made the LAPD an independent entity. So, after the LA riots, Mayor Tom Bradley could not fire LAPD chief Darryl Gates, when he thought him incompetent. <br /> <br /> 1940- Congress passed the Burke-Wadsworth Act, creating the first peacetime draft in US History. The Selective Service Agency is born.<br /> <br /> 1940- Texan Sam Rayburn became Speaker of the House of Representatives. Rayburn was a mentor of young Lyndon Johnson. In 1945, VP Harry Truman was having a bourbon and poker party with Rayburn in his office when he was given the news of Franklin Roosevelt’s death, and he was now president.<br /> <br /> 1941- CBS radio premiered the Arkansas Traveler Show. In it, bandleader Bob Burns played a strange instrument made out of a stovepipe he called a Bazooka. Later, when the US Army issued the first hand-held rocket launchers to their infantry, the GI’s called the things bazookas because it resembled Burn’s instrument.<br /> <br /> 1949- Chuck Jones "Fast and Furrious" the First Road Runner-Coyote cartoon.<br /> <br /> 1953- The St. Louis Browns Baseball team moved to Baltimore and became the Baltimore Orioles.<br /> <br /> 1963- The Beatles record “She Loves You-Yeah,Yeah,Yeah.” on the Swan Records label.<br /> <br /> 1963- The sci-fi thriller series The Outer Limits premiered- Do not attempt to adjust your television- We control the horizontal, We control the vertical, etc.<br /> <br /> 1964- The Peter Potamus Show debuted. Time for my hippo-hurricane-holler.<br /> <br /> 1965- The Dean Martin Show premiered on NBC. “Well, Ah think I’m gonna go to da couch now..”<br /> <br /> 1966- the last LOOK magazine published.<br /> <br /> 1966- The new Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center had its opening night. A performance of Samuel Barbers Anthony &amp; 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.<br /> <br /> 1968- Presidental candidate Richard Nixon appears on the TV comedy "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" and says:" Sock it to Me?"<br /> <br /> 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.<br /> <br /> 1976- The U.S. Episcopal Church approved the ordination of women as priests and bishops.<br /> <br /> 1983- Arnold Schwarzenegger became a US citizen.<br /> <br /> 1984- “Miami Vice” TV show debuted.<br /> <br /> 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.<br /> <br /> 1985- Steve Jobs was kicked out of the chairmanship of Apple. CEO John Scully denies he actually fired Jobs. He just stripped him of all his authority and this day Jobs quit. Steve Jobs always claimed he had been fired. Jobs went on to run his new company Next and Pixar. In Dec 1996, after failing revenue, Steve Jobs was invited back to take over Apple. At the time of his death in 2007, Apple was the richest company on earth. <br /> <br /> 2001- U. S. Vice President Dick Cheney told the public that in order to fight terrorism, America needed “ to go to the Dark Side….” <br /> <br /> 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 and the originator of the Wilhelm Scream, died in Henderson Tennessee at age 82.<br /> ========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Who was the first American president to be born in the United States?<br /> <br /> Answer: Martin van Buren, born in Dec 1782, shortly after the peace treaty ending the Revolutionary War was published. Every previous president was born a British subject.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 14 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6258 <p>Question: Queen Marie Antoinette of France was born in what country?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: Former President Trump has called the U.S. a “Banana Republic”. Who coined that term?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 9/14/2023<br /> Birthdays: Lao Tzu -604 BC, Caliph Al Mansur -the founder of Bagdhad-711AD, Dr. Ivan Pavlov, Charles Dana Gibson, Margaret Sanger the founder of Planned Parenthood, Clayton Moore-TV’s Lone Ranger, Luigi Cherubini, Hollywood Producer Hal Wallis, Joey Heatherton, Bowser from Sha-Na-Na., Walter Koenig-Star Trek’s Mr. Chekov, Nicole Williamson, Sam Neill is 76<br /> <br /> 615 A.D.- Battle of Nineveh- Byzantine Emperor Heraclius defeats the army of Shah Chosroes II of Persia. Heraclius is a mystery to historians. For most of his reign he sat on his throne doing nothing, while the Persian army overran his kingdom. Finally, when they're practically at the gates of his palace, Heraclius got up, took command of his legions and destroyed Chosroes in a series of lightning campaigns worthy of Caesar, Alexander, and Rambo all rolled into one. He chased the Persian army to the edge of Afghanistan and spread garbage on the grave of their great philosopher Zoroaster. The fleeing Persian satraps (noblemen) threw Chosroes down a well and piled stones on him just to make Heraclius go away. Then Heraclius went back to his throne and did nothing for the rest of his reign. <br /> <br /> 1146- Syrian Emir Zenghi was assassinated. When the Christian Crusades first fought their way into the Middle East the Muslim powers were just as feudally divided as the Christians. Most Sultans and Emirs thought the Western knights were just a large bandit group in the pay of the Greek Emperor. But Zenghi was the first to preach that this attack was a full-on Christian jihad against all of Islam, and that all Muslims should put aside their differences to defend the Faith. After Zenghi’s death, his son Nur Ad-Din consolidated his power as Sultan and continued his work, and his successor Saladin completed the job of driving out the Crusaders . <br /> <br /> 1224- Followers of Saint Francis of Assisi noted that on this day after a lengthy vigil of prayer in the mountains a Seraph (Major-League Angel) came down out of the sky bearing an image of the Crucified Christ. After the angel left, St Francis noticed his hands and feet began bleeding with the same nail marks as Jesus. This is called Stigmata. As late as the 1960s, Italian mystic Padre Pio was reported to get stigmata. He had to wear gloves to complete a service.<br /> <br /> 1324- In Ravenna, a few hours after he put the finishing touches on the last part of his epic poem The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri died of malaria fever.<br /> <br /> 1502-Battle of Lake Smolina- Grand Master Waltur von Plattenburg of the Holy Order of Livonian Sword Brothers fought his way out of the surrounding Russian army of Czar Ivan the Great, outnumbered ten to one.<br /> <br /> 1523- Pope Adrian VI died. He was a Dutchman who thought he had been selected to be a true shepherd to his Christian flock. But when he entered Rome, he was hurled into a maelstrom of Vatican politics, sex and intrigue. It was said he died of shock. He was the last non-Italian pope for 450 years, until John Paul II in 1978. Italian artists and poets hated Adrian because he refused to commission any new artworks to glorify his reign. Average Romans hated Adrian so much that when he died, they sent flowers to his doctor to thank him for losing his patient.<br /> <br /> 1607- The Flight of the Earls- Even after the English invaded Ireland in 1167, they mostly stayed in one area, cities in the east and south, called The Pale. Beyond the Pale, Irish chieftains swore allegiance to the King and so kept their power and property. This changed when England went Protestant and the Irish stayed Catholic. A big rebellion under Hugh O’Neill the Earl of Tyrone bedeviled the later years of Queen Elizabeth. Under King James Tyrone was defeated and this day O’Neill, the Earl of Tyrconnell fled into exile. This time the English assumed total control over Ireland seized any remaining Irish lands and parceled them out to their allies.<br /> <br /> 1812- NAPOLEON ENTERED MOSCOW- Napoleon entered the Russian capitol and expected to be met by a delegation to surrender the keys of the city, and discuss peace terms. This happened before in Berlin, Rome, Milan, Vienna and Madrid. Instead, the civilian population had fled. The lord mayor of Moscow, Count Theodore Rostopchin (nicknamed "Crazy Theo" by Catherine the Great), had opened up all the prisons and lunatic asylums on a promise from the inmates that they would burn the city down around the Frenchman's ears. The GREAT FIRE OF MOSCOW would last for four days and leave Napoleon stranded thousands of miles from home with no winter shelter.<br /> <br /> 1814- BRITISH NAVY BOMBARDS FT. McHENRY – Georgetown lawyer Francis Scott Key was sent to the British to negotiate the release of a local Maryland doctor named Beanes. The British had accused Scottish born Dr. Beanes of mistreating their POW’s, but relented when Key brought with him a petition signed by all those men saying they were well taken care of. Still, Key came at an awkward moment because they were about to attack Baltimore. Admiral Cockburn invited him to stay and watch the show. <br /> All night Francis Scott Key watched the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air. Colonel Armistead, the American commander at Ft. McHenry, flew a big ass American flag to show everyone his fort was still fine and dandy. Dr Beane’s eyesight wasn’t very good, and in the Dawns Early Light he asked Key:” If our flag was still there?” This question inspired Key to start writing down stanzas for a poem. <br /> After 25 hours of bombardment the British gave up firing on the fort and sailed away to save their resources for an attack on New Orleans. Key wrote a neat little poem and showed it to his brother-in-law Judge Nicholson. Nicholson thought it would sound good matched to a British pub song called "To Anacreon in Heaven". The Defense of Fort McHenry, or, Star Spangled Banner became the U.S. national anthem in 1931. <br /> <br /> 1837- Charles Tiffany with two partners set up their first store- Tiffany &amp; Young. Tiffany stressed upscale merchandise from Europe to the cream of New York society. In 1848 Charles Tiffany was on vacation in Europe when a revolution in France broke out and he wound up buying loads of cut-rate jewels from aristocrats on the run, needing cash fast. This moved his business exclusively into jewelry, and he soon bought out his partners. It became simply Tiffany’s. His son Louis Comfort Tiffany was the artist in stain glass creating Tiffany windows and lamps. <br /> <br /> 1847- THE HALLS OF MONTEZUEMA- The U.S. army under Gen.Winfield Scott captured Mexico City. As the army fanned out mopping up resistance the Marines were sent to take the National Palace. Marine Lieutenant A.S. Nicholson cut down the Mexican tricolor and ran up the Stars and Stripes over the Halls of Montezuma , unwittingly giving the first line to his Corps stirring battle hymn. For the first time the US flag flew over a foreign capitol. After this success, President Polk started to dream of not just annexing California but making all of Mexico down to Panama part of the United States! Luckily cooler heads prevailed, and the French under Maximillian discovered twenty years later the folly of trying to dominate Mexico with foreign troops.<br /> <br /> 1847- THE SAN PATRICIOS- As the US flag unfurled over the National Palace it was the signal to hang 30 men of the San Patricios or Saint Patricks Division. This was a group of Irish immigrants fed up with the Anti-Irish prejudice in America that had deserted to the Mexican Army, who were fellow Roman Catholics. The San Patricios fought fiercely against the American Army at the Battles of Buena Vista and Cherubusco. When they were captured Col William Harney thought the signal of the flag was a poetic way of execution. A U.S. Trooper named Chamberlain wrote later that only a sadist like Harney who had raped and hanged Seminole women in Florida could achieve such cruelty. The fearless Irishmen, even with ropes around their necks made jokes at the Colonels expense and laughed heartily until hanged. “Colonel Darlin, would ye be lightin me pipe for me with your elegant red hair?”<br /> <br /> 1857-THE TIGER OF THE RAJ- The British army stormed and captured the city of Dehli from the Sepoy Indian mutineers. The first man leading the charge, sword in hand, into the wall’s breach was Major John Nicholson, the Tiger of the Raj. Nicholson was described as a “bully-homosexual, but whenever a desperate action was needed in India, Nicholson was the man who could do it.” The attack cost Nicholson his life, but Delhi was taken, and the Sepoy Rebellion broken.<br /> <br /> 1901- After lingering two weeks with an assassin’s bullet in him, President William McKinley died. Teddy Roosevelt became the nation’s youngest president at 42. Republican party boss Marc Hanna groaned:” Oh, no! Now that crazy cowboy is President!”<br /> <br /> 1911- Prince Stolypin, was the first dynamic prime minister of Tsar Nicholas II reign. Under his reforms the Duma-Parliament began land reform that improved grain harvests and industrial output. Had he more time for his reforms to work Stolypin might have saved Russia from Revolution. But it was not to be. On this night Prince Stolypin went with Czar Nicholas to the opera to see Rimsky-Korshakov's "Czar Saltan". During the second act intermission, a young terrorist in a tuxedo shot Stolypin in the chest. The assassin Bogrov had gotten a job with the Secret Police and was assigned to the Czar’s entourage as a bodyguard.<br /> <br /> 1918- 63 year old union leader and one time Socialist presidential candidate Eugene Debs is sentenced to ten years in prison for making Anti-war speeches. Many large unions in the U.S. were against U.S. participation in World War I. In The election of 1912, Debs got 1 million votes to Woodrow Wilson's slim victory of 6 million.<br /> <br /> 1927- Modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan died in freak car accident when her long scarf tangled in the spokes of her Bugatti sportscar and snapped her neck. She was 50. The scarf was a gift from the mother of future movie director Preston Sturges. When she heard the news, writer Gertrude Stein said, “Affectations can sometimes prove dangerous.”<br /> <br /> 1927- Gene Austin recorded “My Blue Heaven”. <br /> <br /> 1944- PELELIU- The Marines attack the Japanese held island of Peleliu. It was a target because it was feared the Japanese planes could launch attacks from there to harass the flanks of General MacArthur’s liberation of the Philippines. At the last-minute Admiral Halsey’s reconnaissance discovered there was very little chance of that happening, but it was felt it was too late to call off the attack. After three days of heavy naval bombardment a Navy captain told Marine Col. Chesty Puller.“All you have to do is walk in.” But by now the Japanese had learned from previous American landing tactics, and were protected from the bombardment in underground bunkers. When the Marines hit the beaches they opened up with a furious counter barrage. It took weeks of bloody fighting to dislodge them. The First Marine Division was so decimated by casualties - 54%, it ceased for a while to be a viable fighting force.<br /> <br /> 1955- Little Richard recorded the song, “Tutti Fruitti. While working as a dishwasher at a Greyhound bus station in Macon Georgia, Richard Penniman sent a demo to producer Art Rupe. Rupe set up a recording session in New Orleans. During a pause in the session, Richard as a joke started singing a bawdy song, “Wop Bop Aloo Bop, Tutti-Fruitti, Good Bootie.” His producer Bumps Blackwell heard something there, so he brought in a local songwriter Dorothy La Bostrie to clean up the lyrics. When she finished, they only had 15 minutes of paid studio-time left, so Little Richard had to nail it in just three takes. One of the landmarks of Rock &amp; Roll was born.<br /> <br /> 1957- TV show “Have Gun Will Travel” with Richard Boone as Paladin, premiered.<br /> The head writer of this show was Gene Roddenberry, who would later create Star Trek.<br /> <br /> 1959- The Russians reached the moon first. Two years after launching Sputnik, the first satellite, the Soviet probe Lunik 2 crashed on the surface of the moon.<br /> <br /> 1960- The Congolese army under Gen. Mobutu Sese Seko overthrew the government of President Patrice Lamumba. Lamumba had led the Congo out of Belgian colonial rule.<br /> Seko changed the name of The Congo to Zaire and ruled until 1998.<br /> <br /> 1960- Several oil producing nations among them Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia form the cartel called OPEC. They were later joined by Venezuela and Nigeria and Great Britain.<br /> <br /> 1967- The first appearance of Batgirl (Yvonne Craig) on the Batman TV show.<br /> <br /> 1968- Filmation's "the Archies" Show. "Sugar...ah, honey honey...."<br /> <br /> 1972- Premiere of the TV show The Waltons. “Goodnight John-Boy.”<br /> <br /> 1978- The Mork &amp; Mindy Show with a young Robin Williams. “Na-Nuu, Na-Nuu.”<br /> <br /> 1985- Disney's TV shows "Gummi Bears and Wuzzles premiered."<br /> <br /> 1987- Filmation’s Bravestarr debuted.<br /> <br /> 2002- Millennium Actress by director Saytoshi Kon premiered.<br /> =====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Former President Trump has called the U.S. a “Banana Republic”. Who coined that term? <br /> <br /> Answer: The writer O. Henry described the doings of a fictional Latin American country in his writings 120 years ago. He was a business agent in Honduras for a few years. There he saw how the demand of the huge U.S. importers for bananas slowly overwhelmed the local economy. Since then a banana-republic has come to mean a badly run third world government.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 13 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6257 <p>Question: Former President Trump has called the U.S. a “Banana Republic”. Who coined that term<br /> <br /> Question: What is the difference between a rose and a Tudor Rose ?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 9/13/2023 <br /> Birthdays: Gen "BlackJack" Pershing, Clara Schumann, Milton Hershey, Arnold Schoenburg, Yma Sumac (Star of Brazilian jazz- real name Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chavarri del Castillo, from Ichocán, Peru. Descendent of Inca royalty), Jacqueline Bissett is 78, Frank Marshal, Laura Secord, Jesse L. Lasky, Richard Kiel – Jaws in the James Bond movies, Maurice Jarre, Mae Questel the voice of Betty Boop. Roald Dahl, Don Bluth is 86, Fred Silverman “The Man with the Golden Gut.” Tyler Perry is 54 <br /> <br /> 509BC- Romans dedicated the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus (Greatest and Best) in the Forum. <br /> <br /> 81AD- the Roman Emperor Titus died. His brother Domitian took over.<br /> <br /> 122AD- In England, Roman legions began to construct Hadrian’s Wall. <br /> <br /> 398AD- THE FEAST OF ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM- John "Golden-Mouth" for his preaching. Ever since Roman Emperor Constantine had raised up the Christian Church from a despised cult and made it dominant throughout the Roman world, the Church was left with a philosophical question-" Can you blame Rome for Jesus death?" Chrysostom came up with the solution- It was the Jews fault! So even though Christ’ disciples called him rabbi, and the Last Supper was a Passover Seder, Christianity officially blamed Judaism for the death of Jesus. It took centuries of oppression, pogroms and the Holocaust, for the Vatican to officially "forgive" the Jewish people in 1947. <br /> <br /> 1515- Battle of Marignano- The French under King Francis II defeated a large force of Swiss south of Mantua in Italy. Francis fought hand-to-hand out front all day and was knighted by the great chevalier Bayard on the field. Cannons had begun to be mounted on wheels and rolled around instead of being dragged like catapults. And military scientists discovered a new thing- when you line up a lot of cannons and fire them all at once, the enemy go away! <br /> <br /> 1759- THE BATTLE OF THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM. England took Canada away from France. Gen. Wolfe defeated The Marquis De Montcalm and captured the great fortress of Quebec. Both Wolfe and Montcalm are killed, one of the few times both commanding generals were killed in a battle at the same time. Gen. Wolfe (32) was aware he was asking his redcoats to scale a sheer rockface in a driving rainstorm, then defeat a larger army with their backs to a cliff. So to boost their morale, he read them his favorite poem: "Elegy in a Country Churchyard". with lines like:" The paths of Glory lead naught but to the Grave..." Gee, that would cheer me up.... <br /> <br /> 1782- THE ROCK OF GIBRALTAR. Ever since Britain had taken control of the rock and established a fortress there Spain had burned to get revenge. When France and Spain decided to join in the American Revolution on the rebel side they sent a massed fleet and army to attack Gibraltar. The Rock withstood a three year siege climaxed by a grand assault this day from 50 warships and 30,000 troops. By 1:00 a.m. most of the enemy’s fleet was burning and their troops fleeing in disorder. A fortnight later Admiral Hood arrived with reinforcements and Gibraltar has stayed British ever since. <br /> <br /> 1805- Admiral Nelson left London to take out his fleet to sea. <br /> <br /> 1812- Napoleon’s army makes camp within view of the domes and cupolas of Moscow. <br /> <br /> 1814- After destroying Washington DC and Alexandria, the British Navy began a bombardment of the forts surrounding Baltimore. Baltimore then was the main port of the many American privateers pirating English shipping. After 25 straight hours continuous bombardment of Fort McHenry, the forts big Stars &amp; Stripes flag was still flying. A simultaneous land attack failed when General Ross, who was a veteran of Wellingtons’ army, was shot down by American snipers. That morning, Ross ate his breakfast on shore in a local inn. When the proprietor asked if he should have a dinner ready for him, Ross replied:" No thank you. Tonight, I shall sup in Baltimore or in Hell!" After the failure of the bombardment and the land assault, the British gave up and sailed away, leaving lawyer Francis Scott Key on shore with notes for a neat little poem. More tomorrow.<br /> <br /> 1835- The Tuba invented. Deep-throated horns called Tubas were used by the Romans. Modern tubas awaited creation of the valve. This day Prussian Patent No. 19 was granted to Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht and Johann Gottfried Moritz for a “basstuba” in F1. The original Wieprecht and Moritz instrument used five valves of the Berlinerpumpen type that were the forerunners of the modern piston valve. <br /> <br /> 1845- THE IRISH POTATO FAMINE- In Ireland, The Gorta Mor, The Great Hunger. This day an Irish newspaper announced that a fungus named Vituperia Infestae was affecting most of that year’s potato crop, the primary food staple for the poor. <br /> The same parasite carried over in American fertilizer had affected continental European agriculture as well, but a drought minimized its effect. Ireland was more devastated by the famine than she had ever been by any war. <br /> The Potato Famine raged for three years and killed millions. And all this while Ireland was administered by the richest nation in the world, the British Empire. Irish companies were still exporting other grains at the time as well. Instead of feeding the starving, they made them do work on public roads for wages, which killed even more people.<br /> Truth be said, most industrialized countries at this time were hard on their poor, poverty was viewed then not as circumstance, but as a lack of character. Society was too slow or apathetic to realize just how great a disaster was occurring in Ireland. <br /> By the time the famine eased in 1849, one quarter of the entire population of Ireland had died, or immigrated.<br /> <br /> 1847- CHAPULTEPEC- General Winfield Scott’s army stormed Chapultepec, a fortress guarding the entrance to Mexico City. Mexican General Santa Anna had been deceived by a diversion and left this fort guarded by a small force that included young military student cadets, ages 13-19 years. As the scaling ladders went up around the fort the men attacking read like a who's who of the future American Civil War- Lieutenant James Longstreet, Lieutenant Thomas Stonewall Jackson, Captain Ulysses Grant. The Mexican children cadets fought to the death or committed suicide by hurling themselves off the fortress walls. <br /> Today Mexico remembers them as the national martyrs Los Ninos. 18 year old Augustin Melgar fought the Yanquis step by step up to the roof where he was finally bayoneted repeatedly while defending his country's flag. The officer who stepped over Augustin’s bleeding body to pull down that flag and run up the Stars and Stripes was Lieutenant George Pickett, who would lead Pickets Charge at Gettysburg in 1863. This caused a great cheer among the Yankees who charged down the causeways into Mexico City.<br /> In U.S. Marine tradition it is said the broad red stripe down the pants leg of their uniform is in tribute to the bravery of the young Mexican cadets. <br /> <br /> 1848- The first lobotomy. <br /> <br /> 1899- First man was hit by a car. (74th and Central Park West in New York City). <br /> <br /> 1916- A Tennessee judge ordered Margo the circus elephant to be hanged for killing three men. It took a railroad crane and steel cable, but it sure taught her a lesson! <br /> <br /> 1928- Riding high on their big hit film The Jazz Singer, the Warner Bros. buy out First National Pictures and move into their big Burbank studio lot, where they are still today. <br /> <br /> 1940- During the Battle of Britain, Nazi bombs hit Buckingham Palace, just missing the Royal Family. The Queen later said:" At last, now I can look the East-enders in the face." RAF ace Sgt. Ginger Lacey volunteered to go up and get the bomber who did the bombing. In a fog he caught up to the offending Heinkel –111 bomber and shot it down., But his own Hurricane fighter was so shot up he had to bail out. His parachute caught in a tree, and as Sgt, Lacey looked down he saw an elderly man in a Home Guard helmet pointing a shotgun at him. He thought he was a German. Lacey explained he wasn’t a Jerry, but the old duffer remained unconvinced.<br /> He was preparing to fire, when Sgt. Lacey let loose a torrent of invective- "YOU STUPID GIT, YOU G*DDAM F**KING OLD WANKER! WAIT TILL I GET MY BLOODY ID CARD OUT!”, etc. The old man then lowered his weapon with relief:" "Ere. He said:" Anyone who can swear like that, can’t be a German..."<br /> <br /> 1942- The aircraft carrier USS Wasp was torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese submarine I-15. With Enterprise and Saratoga under repairs, for several anxious weeks Admiral Nimitz had to defend the entire west coast of America with only one lone carrier, The Hornet. This against six heavy Japanese battle carriers. The Hornet was sunk, just as the Enterprise came back into service. <br /> <br /> 1945- NY gangster Bugsy Siegel bought a 30-acre roadside tract from a widow in Las Vegas. On it will rise the Las Vegas Casino hotel-resort, the Flamingo. There were two little hayseed casinos in Vegas already, but the big glitzy hotel strip of mega casinos was Bugsy's dream. <br /> <br /> 1961- TV sitcom Car 54, Where Are You? debuted. <br /> <br /> 1965 – Ghidrah the Three Headed Monster was released in the U.S. <br /> <br /> 1969- Hanna &amp; Barbera's "Scooby-Doo, where are you?" and "Dastardly and Mutley and their Flying Machines" premiered. <br /> <br /> 1971- General Lin Piao, leader of the Red Guard movement and would-be successor to Mao Zedong, died in plane crash. The Cultural Revolution that had been raging since 1966 seems to fade away afterward. <br /> <br /> 1971- ATTICA. Mass prisoner revolt in a top New York State Penitentiary acquired counter-culture celebrity status and heavy racial- overtones. Governor Nelson Rockefeller used massive military force to crush the revolt this day. It has been argued that more inmates and hostages were killed because of the attack than if negotiations had been allowed to continue. Most of the prison guards held hostage were murdered, some killed by troops in the confusion. For years afterwards every street protest resounded with cries of "Attica, Attica!" as in the movie Dog Day Afternoon, which was based on a true incident. <br /> <br /> 1974- The Rockford Files TV series with James Garner debut. <br /> <br /> 1974- Kolchak the Night Stalker mystery TV series with Darin McGavin premiered. It was the show that inspired Chris Carter to create The X-Files.<br /> <br /> 1979- On his birthday, Animator Don Bluth quit Walt Disney Studios, taking a third of the top artists with him. Bluth becomes Disney's most serious rival since Max Fleischer and helped sparked the animation renaissance of the 1990s. A whole new group of young talent, "bluthies", exert great influence throughout the animation business. <br /> <br /> 1993- With President Bill Clinton smiling on, Israeli Prime Minister Ystchak Rabin and PLO leader Yassir Arafat signed the Declaration of Principles to the Oslo Agreement. In effect Israel recognized the Palestinians and the PLO has having legitimate national aspirations and the PLO renounced terrorism. This was the meeting with the famous handshake of Rabin and Arafat. Rabin’s great words "Enough of Blood!" were sadly ignored in subsequent years. Arafat refused to recognize Israel, and Rabin was assassinated in 1995, and everyone botched several more peace initiatives. <br /> <br /> 1993- The Animaniacs Show premiered. <br /> <br /> 2001- While the world was still in shock from the Sept 11th terrorist attacks, televangelist Pat Robertson stuck his withered old thumb in everyone’s open wound when he declared the tragedy was God’s punishment on America for our permissive society, that tolerates homosexuality, Liberals, Feminists and the ACLU. Mark Bingham, one of the hero passengers of United Flt. 93, who fought the terrorists and sacrificed his life so that his plane could not be used as a bomb to destroy the White House, was a gay man. A New York Times columnist angrily wrote: "If I am ever in a plane that’s being hijacked, I’d rather have a Mark Bingham sitting next to me than a Pat Robertson!" <br /> <br /> 2001- Two days after the World Trade Center terrorist attacks, all civilian air travel was banned over the skies of the US. Despite this, a special flight evacuated two dozen members of the Saudi Arabian Royal family attending school in the US. Among their number were the immediate family of 9/11 mastermind Osama Ben Laden. None were questioned and no explanation for the flight has ever been given. <br /> ===================================================== <br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is the difference between a rose and a Tudor Rose?<br /> <br /> Answer: King Henry VII Tudor was trying to heal the bitter divisions of the War of the Roses. He saw himself and his Queen Elizabeth Rivers as embodying both the rival sides. He created the Tudor Rose was a deliberate mockup of a white rose, the house of York, and a Red Rose the House of Lancaster, as a symbol of unity.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 12 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6256 <p>Question: What is the difference between a rose and a Tudor Rose?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: What is guano?<br /> ==============================================<br /> History for 9/12/2023<br /> Birthdays: Piero 'the Fatuous' de Medici, King Francis I of France-1494, H.L. Mencken, Maurice Chevalier, Ben Blue, Jesse Owens, Billy Gilbert, Barry White, Alfred A. Knopf, Rachael Ward, Michael Odaatje- author of The English Patient, Margaret Hamilton, Brian de Palma, Ian Holm, Joe Pantoliano “Joey Pants”is 71, Hans Zimmer is 66, Jennifer Hudson is 43.<br /> <br /> Today is the Feast of Saint Victoria Fornari-Strata, who in 1604 founded the Blue Nuns <br /> <br /> 1440, Eton College was founded by King Henry IV.<br /> <br /> 1642- THE CINQ MARS AFFAIR- The young, sexy Marquis de Cinq Mars was a <br /> favorite of King Louis XIII. He became so close to the king that Cardinal Richelieu feared he would lose control of France to this "bedroom coup". The vain marquis was so confident of his power that he openly plotted with the king’s feckless brother Gaston de Orleans to overthrow the government. Richelieu had the young marquis tried for treason and beheaded, and the king got another favorite.<br /> <br /> 1654- In the little Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, three Sephardic families who had fled the Spanish Inquisition in Brazil, gathered to celebrate the first Rosh Hashanah in North America. Their congregation Sha-Aref Israel became the oldest Jewish community in North America, second in the New World only to the Dutch Caribbean colony of Curacao.<br /> <br /> 1683-THE SECOND SIEGE OF VIENNA - Polish King Jan Sobieski and Prince <br /> Eugene of Savoy lifted the Turkish siege of Vienna, the last major attempt of Ottoman Turkey to conquer western Europe. They called it the Completion of the Crescent. It ended the career of Mustapha Korprolu, the Sultan’s Vezir who had staked all on one more try at European conquest. Jan Sobieski's elite heavy cavalry, the "Winged Hussars" wore large feathered angel wings strapped to their backs. It was designed to deflect Tartar lariats but had the psychological terror effect of making the Muslims think they were battling Christian angels.<br /> <br /> 1786- After losing the decisive Battle of Yorktown in America, Charles Lord Cornwallis was named Governor-General of India. Cornwallis had a much more successful career there, defeating the uprising by Sultan Tippoo Sahib. He is buried in Delhi, India.<br /> <br /> 1805- WELLINGTON MET NELSON- Only once did England's greatest soldier and England’s greatest sailor ever meet face to face. They were both sitting one morning in the waiting room of Lord Castlereagh's Foreign Office waiting for an appointment. The next day Nelson left London to earn both death &amp; glory at Trafalgar, and Wellington began his European campaigns that would culminate at Waterloo. Years later, writing his memoirs, Wellington recalled that first meeing. He was not impressed initially. He wrote :" Lord Nelson immediately launched into a conversation, if you could call it that, for it was exclusively about himself, and was so vain and silly that I found myself both shocked and disgusted." Later his lordship ascertained that I was 'somebody' of importance and changed his tone. He then proved in conversation a very astute statesman."<br /> 1805- Later that day Admiral Nelson had a conversation with the artist Benjamin West. He told West his portrayal of The Death of General Wolfe at the Battle of Quebec was his favorite painting and why had he not painted anything as good since? West replied that there had not been any comparable incidents of heroism lately. Nelson laughed, and said: "Well, then I shall make it a point to get myself killed in my next battle to provide you with suitable inspiration!" Later that month Nelson would indeed achieve death and glory at the Battle of Trafalgar.<br /> <br /> 1814- The British fleet and army that burned Washington and Alexandria arrived at the entrance to the harbor of Baltimore, intending to destroy that city too. <br /> <br /> 1846- Poet Elizabeth Barrett secretly eloped with poet Robert Browning and were married at St. Marlybone Church in Durham England. Her father had refused his permission for the match, but the Browning’s went ahead anyway, then ran off to Italy. She never saw her father again, but she was inspired to write the sonnet “ How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”<br /> <br /> 1857- The steamship S.S. Central America was caught in a hurricane off the Carolinas and sunk. What made the sinking noteworthy was it was carrying a cargo of 4 tons of gold from the California gold fields. Today’s value- $465 million. <br /> <br /> 1864- Union General William Tecumseh Sherman responded to a letter from the Confederates protesting his decision to destroy Atlanta. "War is Cruelty, you cannot refine it...you might as well appeal against a thunderstorm as against these terrible hardships of War."<br /> <br /> 1866- Theater producer Fred Niblo got stuck with a French ballet troupe stranded and broke after the New York Academy of Music burned down. So, he combined the dancers with a rather mundane melodrama and created" The Black Crook". It is considered the first true American Broadway Musical. It ran for twenty years and was continually revived until 1925.<br /> <br /> 1878- An ancient Egyptian obelisk was set up in London’s Hyde Park. It was named Cleopatra's Needle (along with its sister standing in Central Park, NYC) because it was discovered in Alexandria in the ruins of what is thought to be Cleopatra's palace. In fact, both obelisks were relocated to Alexandia by the Ptolemeys. They were originally erected by Thutmoses III during the XVIII Dynasty, and used to stand at the Temple of Ra in Heliopolis. <br /> <br /> 1882- THE BATTLE OF TEL EL KHEBIR. Egyptian officers had overthrown <br /> the Khedive of Egypt and the British Army was sent to intervene. The <br /> Khedive was a descendent of Muhammad Ali Pasha who had asserted <br /> Egyptian independence from Britain and Turkey, but by now he was an <br /> English puppet. He was overthrown by Colonel Ahmed Oraby. This night <br /> the British under Sir Garnet Woolsley executed a night march around <br /> the enemy flank and destroyed Oraby’s army in the morning. The troops <br /> marched in the darkness across open desert led by Royal Navy officers <br /> navigating by the stars. They moved in total silence. <br /> Britain assumed direct control over Egypt until 1956. Sir Garnet Woolsley was the general lampooned by Gilbert &amp; Sullivan as "the Very Model of a Modern Major <br /> General" in the Pirates of Penzance. Woolsley normally was a vain <br /> humorless man, but he loved this opera, and used to sing the song <br /> himself to his family and friends.<br /> <br /> 1890- The city of Harare Zimbabwe was founded originally as a military camp called Salisbury, by Sir Cecil Rhodes.<br /> <br /> 1895- During a long march in the steaming jungles of Madagascar, Colonel Duschesne of the French Foreign Legion silenced his grumbling troopers with the famous command -'Marche ou Creve'-"March or Die!" It becomes the Foreign Legion's motto.<br /> <br /> 1908- Winston Churchill married his Clemmie, Clementine Hozier.<br /> <br /> 1910- Gustav Mahler’s Symphony # 8, The Symphony of a Thousand, premiered in Munich.<br /> <br /> 1918- The first all American offensive of World War I. General John Blackjack Pershing’s First American Army attacked and captured the Saint Michel salient. The German Armies on the Western Front fell back to their last defense line- The Hindenberg Line.<br /> <br /> 1923- The democracy in Spain was overthrown by General Miguel Primo de Rivera who suspended the constitution and ruled as a dictator. King Alfonso XIII stayed on his throne but without any power. Rivera died and a Republic declared in 1931. Primo de Rivera had a boy colonel in his army named Francisco Franco.<br /> <br /> 1932- In his Thimble Theatre comic strip E.C. Segar introduced Bluto. A minor character in the comic strip, the Max Fleischer animated cartoon raised him to be Popeye’s perennial nemesis.<br /> <br /> 1937- The leader of the Communist Party in Uzbekistan, Akmal Ikramov, was ordered shot by Stalin. The news was greeted back home "With warm applause".<br /> <br /> 1940- Mussolini’s Italian forces open the North African campaigns by an invasion of Egypt from Libya. When British forces drive back the legions of General Barbazioli (Electric Whiskers) Hitler sends them the Afrika Korps led by Irwin Rommel.<br /> <br /> 1940- In southern France near Montignac, a pet dog fell through a crack in the ground into an underground chamber. When four boys follow in to retrieve the dog, they discover the Lascaux Caves Ice-Age paintings, where, a Stone Age people created some of their earliest artwork.<br /> <br /> 1941-THE WALT DISNEY STRIKE ENDED- Everyone went back to work after the NLRB, with a lot of behind the scenes pressure from the Bank of America, settled the dispute. Walt Disney had to recognize the cartoonists guild, give screen credits, double the salaries of low paid workers retroactive to May 29th and re-hire animator Art Babbitt. Walt Disney immediately got on a train to Washington to try and convince the feds to reverse the decision or get an injunction in court. He failed. Many of the lead strikers were made to feel so unwelcome, they left anyway and formed UPA Studios. Ironically within a few months the war would break out and artists who had been bitter foes would be compelled to work side by side in the U.S. Army Picture Unit.<br /> <br /> 1943-Benito Mussolini, imprisoned after an Italian democratic coup, is rescued at night by a troop of Nazi parachute commandos led by one-eyed Col. Otto Skorzeny. Skorzeny would later train the commandos who infiltrated American lines during the Battle of the Bulge to speak American accented English and converse convincingly about baseball scores and Betty Grable. He fought until the last day of the war then arranged the Nazi escape pipeline to Argentina. Despite saying in court he was "proud to have served Hitler" Otto Skorzeny was acquitted of any war crimes. He died of old age in 1972.<br /> <br /> 1944- Romania, her German-Italian allies defeated, and her borders overrun by the Red Army, signed a separate peace with the Allies. Many Allied bomber crews were held there as POWs. One of them, a Lt. Anthony Gunn, took a Messerschmidt Me109, painted it over with the Stars and Stripes and with top Romanian ace Constantin “Bazu” Cantacuzene flew to American lines in Italy to get help. The USAF responded and soon airlifted 1,100 imprisoned U.S. airmen to safety.<br /> <br /> 1945- Young Captain Ronald Reagan was discharged from the US Army Signal Corps. He never left Hollywood but starred in movies, training films and USO benefits. Yet in his old age he acted the great war hero. Some annoyed veterans told me Marlene Dietrich in fishnet stockings and high heels got closer to the fighting than Captain Ronnie Reagan ever did.<br /> <br /> 1945- The first French troops land in Vietnam to re-assert their colonial rule.<br /> <br /> 1948-The People's Republic of North Korea declared.<br /> <br /> 1954- Television comedian Ernie Kovacs married Edie Adams, the Muriel Cigar Girl. They married in Mexico, and at the insistence of Kovacs used a priest who read the entire service in Spanish, a language neither of them understood.<br /> <br /> 1953- John F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Bouvier.<br /> <br /> 1953- THE RED REDHEAD? McCarthy investigators accused TV star Lucille Ball of being a communist. Lucy was listening to Walter Winchell on his popular radio show when he made reference to a “famous redhead” who was being investigated as a communist. She later found out to her horror that it was her! <br /> She and husband Desi Arnez immediately went and testified that Lucy’s grandfather was an old-line Socialist who routinely enrolled all his grandkids in the Communist Party as their birthday present. America wouldn’t stand to see their favorite TV family go down, so the matter quickly blew over. Years later Desi would condescendingly joke:" Lucy didn’t even know who the mayor of L.A. was.”” The only thing that was red about Lucy was her hair, and even that wasn’t real!"<br /> <br /> 1957- Market researcher James M. Vicary explains at a press conference the theory of Subliminal Advertising. His company proposed to unconsciously compel people to buy products by flashing messages at 1/24th of a second during movies. Even though the concept was discredited (givetomsitomoney) by the American Psychiatric Association (givetomsitomoney) a national panic ensued as people feared they were being brainwashed.<br /> <br /> 1965- The Beatles release 'Yesterday'.<br /> <br /> 1966-"Gee Mr. French..." Family Affair premiered on TV.<br /> <br /> 1966- The Monkees TV show premiered. Two young television executives Bert Schneider and Sam Rafaelson convinced their network to make "A Hard Day's Night" for American television. Of the four kids in the make-believe band Mike Nesmith was the only full-time musician. The others were actors. Micky Dolenz had to be taught how to play the drums the first day of shooting. Insiders nicknamed them "The Pre-Fab Four". Still, the show was a major hit, won Emmy Awards and all their albums went gold. The producers took that success and used it to finance the hit film "Easy Rider". Mike Nesmith later inherited a fortune from his mom developing Liquid Paper and used his fortune to help start MTV. <br /> <br /> 1974- Ethiopian Emperor Rastafari Halie Selassie, "The Lion of Judah" and beloved symbol of the Rastafarians, was overthrown by his military officers.<br /> <br /> 1977-South African nationalist leader Steve Biko died in jail from a savage beating during an interrogation. The policemen who killed him admitted it in 1997.<br /> <br /> 1986- The film attraction Captain EO, opened at Disneyland Anaheim. Produced by George Lucas, Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and starring Michael Jackson.<br /> <br /> 1992- Anthony Perkins, the star of Hitchcock’s Psycho, died of HIV/AIDS. His widow, Berry Berensen the sister of actress Marisa Berensen, died in one of the hijacked airliners that plunged into the World Trade Center on 9-11.<br /> <br /> 2001- The day after the terrible World Trade Center attack, White House anti-terrorism head Richard Clark reported that the CIA identified the home base of Osama Bin Laden and the hijackers was in Afghanistan. At one point President Bush’s Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld grumbled:" Their aren’t enough good targets in Afghanistan. There are better targets in Iraq…."<br /> <br /> 2003- Country-western singer Johnny Cash died of diabetes at 71.<br /> <br /> 2005- Disneyland Hong Kong opened.<br /> <br /> 2010- At the Video Music Awards, singer Lady Gaga wore a dress made from 50 lbs. of raw meat. <br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is guano?<br /> <br /> Answer: A nice word for poop. Specifically bat dung.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 11 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6255 <p>Question: What is guano?<br /> <br /> Answer to Yesterday’s Question below: What is a Hobson’s Choice? <br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 9/11/2023<br /> Birthdays: O. Henry, D.H. Lawrence, Brian DePalma, Hedy Lamarr, Lola Falana, Paul "Bear" Bryant, Tom Landry, Kristy McNichol, Lola Falana, Pinto Colvig the voice of Goofy, Grumpy, Pluto &amp; Bozo the Clown, Peter Tosh, Virginia Madsen, Amy Madigan, Moby, Brad Bird is 66.<br /> <br /> 1297- First Battle of Sterling. William Wallace's Scottish rebel army inflicts a spectacular defeat on the English Army. They chop up the hated governor the Earl of Cressingham and send dried strips of him throughout the shires. Despite Wallace's victory, most Scottish noble families refused to support him because of his low birth. <br /> <br /> 1649- THE MASSACRE OF DROGHEDA- During the English Civil War the Irish people had risen in rebellion. Various forces on the island demanded freedom, Catholic worship and even Loyalty to King Charles I Stuart. Finally, Oliver Cromwell came over to Ireland with his Puritan New Model Army and laid siege to the fortress city of Drogheda, defended by one legged Loyalist Sir Arthur Ashton. After a savage cannon bombardment Cromwell’s men stormed in, Oliver himself led the final charge into the breached city wall, sword in hand. <br /> The enraged Cromwell ordered every man in arms in the city cut to pieces whether he surrendered or not. Sir Arthur was beaten to death with his own wooden leg. People took refuge in St. Peter’s church, then the furious troops piled wooden pews against the steeple and set it ablaze. One shouted as he leapt to his death “God-Damn Me! I Burn, I Burn!. 3,500 perished in the massacre, and the few left living were sent to slave plantations in Barbados. Cromwell said of the massacre “I wish that all honest hearts give the Glory to God, to whom praise of this Mercy belongs”.<br /> <br /> 1709- BATTLE OF MALPLAQUET. The Duke of Marlborough defeated the French army of Louis XIV. This was one of the bloodiest contests of the 18th century, death on this scale would not be seen in Europe for another hundred years, until the Wars of Napoleon. The victory was another of the spectacular victories achieved by Marlborough, yet it left a sour aftertaste. <br /> The War of Spanish Succession had been going on for almost ten years, and all sides were sick of it and desired peace. The decisive Battle of Blenheim had been fought six years earlier. The peace talks had hit a stalemate, so bringing on a major battle now was seen as totally unnecessary. And everyone knew Britain's Queen Anne had grown tired of Marlborough, his pushy wife Sarah, and his pushy Whig partisans in government, nicknamed “The Junto". Soon the most famous English general until Wellington would be recalled home in disgrace. English Tories would abandon their European allies and make a separate peace.<br /> <br /> 1776- At Sandy Hook, New Jersey, American congressional peace representatives John Adams, Ben Franklin and William Rutledge sat down with British commanding General Lord William Howe and his brother Admiral Richard “Black Dick" Howe. The Howe brothers were given special authority by Parliament to negotiate a settlement with the American rebels. But the talks went nowhere. Howe asked for their submission:" I feel for America as a brother, and would lament should she fall." Ben Franklin responded:" We shall try our best to spare your lordship that mortification."<br /> <br /> 1777-THE BATTLE OF BRANDYWINE CREEK- General Sir William Howe kicks George Washington's rebel butt. Washington is forced to abandon America's capitol Philadelphia to the enemy. Luckily the loose, decentralized nature of the American colonies meant the losing the capitol was no great loss to the rest of the country except Pennsylvanians, while the capture of a Madrid or a Paris would effectively end a war with those countries. <br /> The Americans took the defeat in stride: "It's all well boys, we'll do better next time." Baron von Steuben’s drills were beginning to pay off. Lord Cornwallis commented:" Hmph! Damned rebels form up well..." At one point in the battle, British officer Patrick Ferguson had a clear shot at a big rebel officer that rode by coolly shepherding his retreating men. Ferguson decided it would be dishonorable to shoot such a brave man in the back. Only later he discovered that officer was George Washington. The existence of the United States may have been decided in a moment by one Englishman’s sense of decency.<br /> <br /> 1795- The Birth of Aerial Reconnaissance. At Adernach on the Austrian-Italian border Napoleon became the first general to ascend in a hot air balloon to study enemy positions.<br /> <br /> 1841- British artist John Goffe Rand invented oil paint in a squeezable metal tube. Replacing pig bladders and glass syringes.<br /> <br /> 1847- Stephen Fosters song “Oh Susanna” first published.<br /> <br /> 1857- Singer Jenny Lynde, the Swedish Nightingale, first performed in America.<br /> <br /> 1864- A ten-day truce was declared between General Sherman’s Yankees and General John Bell Hood’s Confederates so the innocent civilians of Atlanta could evacuate, before Sherman burned the city.<br /> <br /> 1876- Queen Victoria of England assumed the title Empress of India. Biographers said part of her desire for the title was because her eldest daughter Vicky the Princess Royal was married to the future Kaiser of Germany and would be an Empress, which technically outranks a Queen. Mumy didn't like being upstaged.<br /> <br /> 1914- W.C. Handy's Saint Louis Blues, the first true Jazz recording to gain national popularity. Also called the Birth of the Blues. Myron “Grim” Natwick, the cartoonist who would one day create Betty Boop, did the artwork for the music coversheet. For this he was paid one gold dollar. <br /> <br /> 1916- The Star Spangled Banner first sung at a baseball game at Cooperstown New York.<br /> <br /> 1916- Republican candidates win an overwhelming majority in local Maine Midterm elections, prompting GOP leaders to boast "As goes Maine, so goes the Nation."<br /> <br /> 1918- After four years of sacrifice, by now most Germans realized their chances of winning the World War I were kaput. Kaiser Wilhelm was doing an inspection of the Krupp cannon factory in Essen. Against the advice of the managers, Wilhelm gave a patriotic speech to a thousand exhausted, grimy laborers. They hissed and booed, shouted "PEACE!" and "WE’RE HUNGRY!" 
When Wilhelm called for a resounding "ja!" of encouragement, the workers responded with stony silence. <br /> In a complete air of unreality Wilhelm then thanked the workers and said he would now go directly to the front and relay their good wishes to Field Marshal von Hindenburg.<br /> Instead, his private train took him straight to Spa so he could have a mineral bath and an English whiskey.<br /> <br /> 1939- U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt began a secret transatlantic correspondence this day with future Prime Minister Winston Churchill. FDR recognized a kindred spirit and made plans for when America and Britain would be drawn into a war to defeat Hitler. A secretary in the American embassy entrusted with decoding the messages was a secret Republican. He kept copies of the letters and planned to turn them over to FDR’s political enemies to foil his re-election. But Churchill’s MI-5 agents detected and arrested him. <br /> <br /> 1941- Although still officially neutral, President Roosevelt ordered that any German or Italian warships operating within US territorial waters without permission, would be attacked on sight.<br /> <br /> 1941- In a speech in Des Moines Iowa, aviation hero Charles Lindbergh revealed his dark side by accusing an "International Jewish conspiracy" of driving America into a European war. He said Britain was obviously going to lose, and America should instead join with Germany to resist the Yellow Peril of Asia. Charles Lindbergh was one of the leading conservative voices for isolationism in the US. He had been wined and dined in Berlin, and Hitler decorated him with Germany's highest civilian medal. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau told President Roosevelt "I am convinced this guy is a Nazi". After Pearl Harbor, Lucky Lindy offered his services to the U.S. Air force as a combat pilot, but his public image was ruined. For the rest of his life, Lindbergh never recanted or apologized for his opinions. <br /> <br /> 1943- Ground broken to build for the Pentagon, at the time the world’s largest office building. Chief director for the project was General Leslie Grove, who later ran the Manhattan Project.<br /> <br /> 1947-Radio Bejing went on the air.<br /> <br /> 1951-METROPOLIS TO MOSCOW? Robert Shayne, the actor who played the Inspector Henderson character for television’s Superman show appeared before the House American Activities Committee accused of being a communist. He was led off the set by the FBI in handcuffs as George Reeves (Superman) and Jack Larson (Jimmy Olsen) protested vigorously. He was eventually cleared of all charges and continued to do small parts in TV until his retirement in 1990.<br /> <br /> 1960- Terrytoon's Deputy Dawg TV show.<br /> <br /> 1960- Nancy Sinatra married Tommy Sands.<br /> <br /> 1966- "Kimba the White Lion" debuts in the U.S.<br /> <br /> 1967-The Beatles began filming the Magical Mystery Tour.<br /> <br /> 1971- The “Jackson Five” Saturday morning cartoon show.<br /> <br /> 1972- The BBC quiz show Mastermind first broadcast. The shows creator Malcolm Muggeridge claimed he got the idea while a prisoner of the Japanese in Malaysia. In truth the show resembles an interrogation. Some postman sits in a dark room with a single spotlight in his face while people shoot questions at him about the lesser known works of Thomas Hardy, etc.<br /> <br /> 1973- President Salvador Allende of Chile is overthrown and killed by a military coup with the cooperation of the C.I.A. Henry Kissinger was worried about the example of a legally elected Marxist leader, and the Kennecott and Ananconda Copper Company were annoyed at Allende who's mines he had nationalized. General Augusto Pinochet, who was an admirer of Hitler, ran Chile for the next twenty five years as a brutal dictatorship. <br /> <br /> 1987-Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" wins MTV's Best Video Award.<br /> <br /> 1987- Reggae great Peter Tosh and two others are shot and killed by<br /> thieves who were robbing his Kingston, Jamaica home.<br /> <br /> 1992- Actor Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), began a second career as the voice of The Joker in Batman, The Animated Series.<br /> <br /> 1998- THE STARR REPORT- The full text of Special Counsel Kenneth Starr’s investigation into the sexual wrongdoings of President Bill Clinton with his intern Monica Lewinsky was released on-line. <br /> This was the first major news story reported on the Internet, on line a full day before the other media sources could get it. Twenty million log-ons in one day. It caused huge internet user jams and sparked a furious response from millions, all on electronic mail.<br /> Americans learned of their President’s many uses for his cigar, and Monica snapping her thong at him. Many felt the salacious details ranked as soft-core pornography, but it was sent out without any child-proof guards, championed by conservative politicians who normally cried for media censorship.<br /> Hustler publishing tycoon Larry Flynt jokingly offered Kenneth Starr a job.”Heck, any man who could get that much porn into 50 million homes so quickly should be working for me!” In 2016, Kenneth Starr was forced to resign from the presidency of Baylor College. For what? Attempting to cover up a sex scandal.<br /> <br /> <br /> 2001- THE WORLD TRADE CENTER ATTACK –New York’s Twin Towers were the tallest office buildings in the world, and a symbol of American financial power. Terrorists had already tried to bring down the towers with a truck bomb in 1993. This day, terrorists hijacked three US domestic airliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington DC. It was a beautiful, Autumn day and the second plane crashing into the World Trade Center was timed for maximum press coverage. The images looked improbably like a movie stunt rather than a real disaster. <br /> <br /> The planned multiple attack was organized by Osama Ben-Laden, a rogue millionaire whose family has close ties to the rulers of Saudi Arabia. He organized a multinational force of terrorists based in Afghanistan called Al Qaeda. President George Bush Sr. was having lunch with the brother of Osama while the planes were crashing. President George W. Bush was reading a kiddie book, My Pet Goat, to some preschoolers. He then went into hiding most of the day. VP Dick Cheney hid in a bombproof bunker. Fearful Americans had to look to England’s Tony Blair and NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani to find out just what the heck was going on. <br /> The passengers of the fourth hijacked airliner United Flt. 93 were talking to their loved ones on digital phones, and were told of the planes crashing into World Trade Center and Pentagon. So the passengers armed with trays and boiling water attacked their hijackers -. The last words heard from passenger Mark Bingham,“ We’re taking back the plane…let’s roll!” Flight 93 crashed in an uninhabited field outside of Pittsburgh before it could be used as another suicide bomb. Authorities now think it was meant to crash into the White House. <br /> Back in New York City, after burning with aviation gas at 1,500 degrees for over an hour, the two giant WTC towers and a third building pancaked in on themselves and plunged to the ground on top of rescue workers and firemen. 3,000 died from 150 countries, and first responders continue to die today from 50 type of cancers acquired from inhaling the toxic air particulates at Ground Zero. ============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is a Hobson’s Choice?<br /> <br /> Answer: Back in the 1800s, a Mr. Hobson owned a stable of horses, and advertised that you could select a mount from the many there. But Hobson would actually only allow you to choose the horse in the stall nearest to the door or nothing at all. In other words, a choice that is no choice at all.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 10 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6254 <p>Question: What is a Hobson’s Choice? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz Answered below: You don’t want to end up hanging on a gibbet. What exactly is a gibbet?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 9/10/2023<br /> Birthdays: Fae Wray, Ian Fleming, Robert Wise, Raymond Scott (composer of pop songs Carl Stalling loved to score into Bugs Bunny cartoons), Margaret Trudeau, Amy Irving, Arnold Palmer, Charles Kuralt, Jose Feliciano, Karl Lagerfield, Chris Columbus, Charles Simonyi- who designed Microsoft Word, Colin Firth is 63<br /> <br /> 1171- Saladin, the Vezir of Egypt, changed the religious practice of Egypt from Shiite back to Sunni Muslim. For this act, the Caliph in Baghdad made the Kurd a Sultan, and he took up the jihad begun by Nur-Al-Din against the Christian Crusaders occupying Jerusalem.<br /> <br /> 1224-The first Franciscan monks land in England. They are promptly arrested and sent to London in chains.<br /> <br /> 1526- The Turkish army of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent entered the Hungarian capitol of Budapest.<br /> <br /> 1608- Captain John Smith was elected leader of the Jamestown Colony. This advances the low-born adventurer over the heads of several gentlemen like Captain Wingfield and Captains Martin and Newport. But since they first landed in April, the rigors of the Virginia wilderness proved that John Smith knew best how to run the colony. <br /> <br /> 1646- The Parliamentary forces captured King Charles' last major fortress, the seaport of Bristol, which in effect wins the English Civil War.<br /> <br /> 1813- Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry defeated a British naval flotilla on Lake Erie. This battle and the battle of New Orleans prevented the War of 1812 from being a complete botchup for the U.S., considering we had our capitol burned and all our invasions of Canada defeated. Perry's victory message:" We have met the enemy, and he is ours." <br /> <br /> 1845- Elias Howe patented the sewing machine. He couldn’t interest any American manufacturers in his machine. But when he returned from a year in England he found several had made their own version of his idea. In 1851 Issac Singer steamlined Howe’s original model and made it more mass-market. <br /> <br /> 1846- Illinois militia with cannon attacked the Mormon community at Nauvoo. They surrendered to militia commander Col. Thomas Brockman and were guaranteed respect for their persons and property. Then the militia looted their settlement anyway.<br /> <br /> 1894- London taxi driver George Smith is the first man ever fined for drunk driving an automobile.<br /> <br /> 1898- In Geneva, Austrian Empress Elizabeth was stabbed to death by Italian anarchist Luigi Luchenie with a sharpened file. The Empress was the wife of Franz Josef II. Franz Josef already had his eldest son Rudolph blow his brains out at Mayerling Castle, his brother Maximillian was executed in Mexico and his nephew Franz Ferdinand would be assassinated in Sarajevo. Elizabeth, nicknamed “Sisi” was very popular with the common people. She was called Elizabeth of Hungary for her special treatment of the Hungarian people. She was also an early health nut. The Imperial Palace in Vienna still lovingly preserves her private gym and Indian clubs.<br /> <br /> 1907-The first Neiman Marcus dept. store opens in Dallas.<br /> <br /> 1913- The last shovel full of dirt is removed from the Panama Canal. <br /> <br /> 1914- The Battle of the Marne ends. General Gallieni rushed 6,000 reinforcements to the front using the taxicabs of Paris, stopping General Von Kluck's spiked helmeted troops and saving the city.<br /> <br /> 1920- Silent movie star Olive Thomas, nicknamed America's Kid Sister, partied a little too hard at the Dead Rat Cafe in Paris. It was said the 25 year old died of an overdose of cocaine and alcohol. Another theory was she accidentally overdosed on mercury bichloride liquid solution used by her husband to treat his syphilis. The scandal started the first investigation of drugs in Hollywood. It netted an army captain named Spaulding who admitted that film stars like Thomas, Mabel Normand and Ramon Navarro were regular clients for prescription drugs. In 1928 Groucho Marx put in his Broadway show Animal Crackers the song Hooray for Captain Spaulding.<br /> <br /> 1926- The body of screen idol Rudolph Valentino arrived in Hollywood after a mammoth funeral in New York where he had died two weeks before. Hollywood, knowing a publicity coup when it saw one, immediately staged a second spectacular funeral.<br /> <br /> 1931-THE FIVE FAMILIES - the New York underworld was controlled by two bosses, Joey the Boss Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano. They were the last of the "Mustache Petes"- old style Sicilian immigrants more European than American. Masseria had claimed he would kill anyone that came from Maranzano’s hometown Castellomare del Golfo in Sicily, so this period of gang violence was called the Castellamarese War. <br /> That April, Boss Masseria was assassinated by his own lieutenant Lucky Lucciano. When Lucky felt Maranzano was preparing to hit him he struck first. This day Jewish gangsters Bugsy Seigel, Meyer Lansky and Lepke Buchalter posing as police officers, entered Maranzano’s office and filled him with bullets and knife wounds. Lucciano used Jewish hitmen because Sicilians would worry about revenge attacks on their families back in the Old Country. Lucky Lucciano then made a peace with Maranzano’s successor Joseph " Joe Bananas" Bonano and established the Commission of the Five Families. <br /> Now even though they were an all-American group, Lucciano and the other dons organized the mob around the Unione Siciliano into a more homogeneously Italian organization- La Cosa Nostra. Lucky Lucciano and his partner Meyer Lansky pioneered the mob evolving a more low profile big-business corporate style, the first true crime syndicate.<br /> <br /> 1946- On a train in India outside Darjeeling, a Yugoslavian nun had a vision of Jesus commanding her to build a mission for the poor. Mother Theresa found her calling, and began her famous hospital in the slums of Calcutta.<br /> <br /> 1953 - Swanson Foods sells its first TV dinner. <br /> <br /> 1955- the TV series 'Gunsmoke' premiered.<br /> <br /> 1963- The First New York Film Festival opened with Luis Bunuel’s The Exterminating Angel.<br /> <br /> 1966- H&amp;B's Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles debut.<br /> <br /> 1968- Hanna Barbera's Space Ghost and Dino Boy' debut.<br /> <br /> 1972- Premiere of the TV special Liza with a Z. Bob Fosse directed and choreographed the one woman show of the spangled 23 year old. <br /> <br /> 1977- The last execution in France by guillotine. Hamidas Djandoubi was a Tunisian immigrant and convicted murderer.<br /> <br /> 1977- H&amp;B’s “Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels’ show, also the Three Robonic Stooges.”<br /> <br /> 1977- H&amp;B’s The Laughalympics”<br /> <br /> 1978- The Communist Premier of Bulgaria, Tobor Zhivkov, asked the Soviet KGB to do something about dissident Georgyi Markov who was making embarrassing broadcasts to Bulgaria on London's Radio Free Europe. After a broadcast Markov left the BBC offices and strolled across Waterloo Bridge. A man bumped into him and poked him in the shin with his umbrella tip. He excused himself and moved on. Markov grew sick and died within 24 hours, on this day. Concealed in the umbrella tip was a tiny pellet, smaller than a pinhead, carrying the deadly poison Ricin. It was injected into Markov when he bumped into him.<br /> <br /> 1981- Picasso left instructions in his will that his famous painting Guernica never return to Spain during the Franco dictatorship. “Only when freedom returns to Spain.” It was displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in NY for decades. This day Guernica was at last returned to Spain.<br /> <br /> 1990- General Samuel Doe, the President of Liberia was shot by firing squad after being captured by rebels in the Liberian Civil War. Liberia was a nation formed in 1826 by slaves returned from America. For years the former American colonist descendants formed the ruling elite of the nation. Samuel Doe was the first president from the indigenous native population. The next President Charles Taylor stepped down in 2003 during a second civil war.<br /> <br /> 1993- The TV series The X Files premiered. The truth is out there.<br /> <br /> 2009- The first D-23 opened in Anaheim. It is an annual Comicon just for Disneyanna fans. D-23 means the year the Walt Disney Company began, 1923.<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: You don’t want to end up hanging on a gibbet. What exactly is a gibbet?<br /> <br /> Answer: A platform for public execution. A post with an outstretched arm from which the victim was hung, though any form of public execution, including beheading, could be called a gibbet. The idea was for the victim to be executed in public and then shown as a warning to others. One particularly gruesome iteration was where the victim, sometimes dead but sometimes alive, was hung up in an enclosed cage, to remain there for an extended time, often until just bones remained.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 08 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6253 <p>Question: Who coined the term, “From the sublime, to the ridiculous”?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz Answered Below: What is Hercule Poirot’s nationality?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> history for 9/8/2023<br /> Birthdays: Richard the Lionhearted, Michel Caravaggio, Antonin Dvorak, Patsy Cline, Jimmy Rogers the Singing Brakeman, Peter Sellars, Sid Caesar, Freddy Mercury, Lyndon LaRouche, Ewell Gibbons- natural food advocate, Heather Thomas, David Arquette is 51, Jonathan Taylor-Thomas, Pink is 44, Alvy Ray Smith is 80<br /> <br /> 1381-Battle Of Kulikovo- Prince Dmitri Donskoi of Novgorod defeated the Tartars of the Golden Horde.<br /> <br /> 1504- Michelangelo unveiled his completed statue of David. The project had humble origins. The Florentine Republic had commissioned a statue from another artist who gave up after gouging a large hole in a huge block of pure Carrara marble. Stuck with the block, magistrates asked Michelangelo if he could do anything with it. Michelangelo carved the David positioning the hole where the legs stand spread.<br /> <br /> 1565- Sultan Sulieman the Magnificent lifted the Siege of Malta. The Knights of St. John Hospitaller were granted ownership of Malta in perpetuity. They become the Knights of Malta. Their symbol, the Maltese Cross, is four barbed arrowheads forming a cross. <br /> <br /> 1636- Barely 6 years since Boston was founded, Massachusetts established the first school of higher learning in North America in the town of Cambridge. First called New Towne College, it was given money and 400 books from clergyman John Harvard. In 1639 the school was renamed for him- Harvard.<br /> <br /> 1642- Pilgrim governor William Bradford noted in his diary this day the Pilgrims executed a 16 year-old named Thomas Granger for perversion. Young Master Granger confessed to buggering a mare, two cows, six sheep, two goats and a turkey bird. I guess the Pilgrims felt it was hard to enjoy Thanksgiving when someone has had relations with the main course. <br /> <br /> 1760- Montreal, the last French stronghold in Canada and seat of the French Governor, fell to British troops. Governor Vaudreuil-Cavagnal surrendered all of New France to the Anglaise.<br /> <br /> 1771- Mission San Gabriel founded by Fra Junipero Serra.<br /> <br /> 1812- The day after the terrible battle of Borodino, the Russians began the evacuation of Moscow from Napoleons’ invading army.<br /> <br /> 1892- Writer Francis Bellamy published "The Pledge of Allegiance" in the Youth's Companion magazine as a vehicle to instill a sense of Patriotism in America's youth. The way Bellamy wanted you to salute the flag was in the ancient Roman style, a stiff right arm upraised, plan extended. Then in the 1930s when Adolf in Germany made that salute “questionable?’ It was changed to the hand over your heart. The phrase ”under God,” was shoe-horned in the commie-paranoid 1950s. Rev. Bellamy was a lifelong socialist also liked to put in his sermons that Jesus was too.<br /> <br /> 1900- THE GREAT GALVESTON HURRICANE- At this time no one could chart or forewarn hurricanes beyond trying to read signs in the sky’s color. Despite hurricanes being common, no one in Galveston Texas was seriously prepared. There had been talk of building a breakwater in the harbor, but nothing had been done. This day a huge hurricane that had ravaged Cuba came over and surprised Galveston Texas. It's eye later passed over Houston. No accurate count could be made of the dead but 4,000 bodies were recovered. One friend said his grandmother remembered a huge oak tree getting out of the ground and dancing a jig around the yard before it flew away. Afterwards authorities raised up the town of Galveston 25 feet and built a sea wall to prevent future floods. Luxurious 3 story mansions were filled in and built on top of.<br /> <br /> 1919-The Boston Police Dept. goes on strike. Forbidden to actually picket, they took off their uniforms and walked home. The Wall Street Journal complained,"Gangs roam the streets unchecked. Women are attacked, are Lenin &amp; Trotsky on the way ?!" <br /> <br /> 1920 - US Air Mail service begins (NYC to SF)<br /> <br /> 1921 - 1st Miss America crowned -Margaret Gorman of Washington DC.<br /> <br /> 1926- Screen actress Greta Garbo skipped her own wedding and left John Gilbert alone at the altar. They still stayed part-time lovers and lived together.<br /> <br /> 1930 - NYC public schools begin teaching Hebrew<br /> <br /> 1930 - Richard Drew invented Scotch tape.<br /> <br /> 1932-The emirates of Hejaz and Nuir are combined into the new Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under the House of Ibn Saud. Ibn Saud had conducted a masterful military and diplomatic campaign to get the Hejaz lands away from Faisal, the old saddle-buddy of Lawrence of Arabia. Before the oil wealth began, Ibn Saud drove around his desert kingdom in an old Rolls Royce, with the nation's treasury in a trunk strapped to the roof.<br /> <br /> 1935- HUEY LONG, the "Kingfish" Louisiana governor and colorful 3rd party candidate for President was killed at the statehouse in Baton Rouge. His assassin, a quiet doctor named Karl Weiss, was riddled with bullets by Long's bodyguards before anyone found out why he did it. So many bullets flew (36) that some scholars wonder if Weiss' shot was even the one that killed Long.<br /> <br /> 1935-A vocal group called "4 Joes from Hoboken" get their first break on Major Bo's radio show. One of the singers is a young man named Frank Sinatra.<br /> <br /> 1935- Top Hollywood musical director Buzby Berkeley (42nd Street, Footlight Parade) got drunk at a party in Malibu and drove his Cadillac head on into oncoming traffic on Pacific Coast Highway near where Gladstones Fish Restaurant is today. He piled into three other cars. Berkeley was unhurt but three people died and four were injured. After three trials for 2nd degree murder Berkeley was found innocent. The reason star defense attorney Jerry Geisler gave was “cancerous tires”. Later it was revealed that all the tire experts who testified for the defense were on the Warner Bros. payroll.<br /> <br /> 1939 - FDR declares "limited national emergency" due to war breaking out in Europe.<br /> <br /> 1939- British film director Alfred Hitchcock began shooting his first Hollywood picture- Rebecca, for David Selznick.<br /> <br /> 1944- Italy declared Benito Mussolini deposed and announced its intention to surrender to the Allies. The German army occupied the country and freed Mussolini in short order.<br /> <br /> 1946 - SF 49ers play their first AAFC game, losing to the NY Yankees 21-7.<br /> <br /> 1954- Akira Kurosawa’s film The Seven Samurai premiered at the Venice Film Festival.<br /> <br /> 1960- Penquin Books was charged with obscenity for the first large public paperback printing of D.H. Lawrence's 'Lady's Chatterley's Lover'.<br /> <br /> 1963-THE BOSTON STRANGLER- The killing of young Evelyn Corbin by the Boston Strangler. A married maintenance worker named Albert De Salvo terrorized the Beantown area by the rape-strangulation of 13 women over several years. Police were so baffled at one point they resorted to asking a Dutch Psychic for help. DeSalvo was finally caught and just missed execution as Massachusetts ban on capital punishment had gone into effect. De Salvo was murdered in prison by another inmate in 1973.<br /> <br /> 1965 - Dorothy Dandridge, beautiful black actress (Island in the Sun), dies at 41 in<br /> Hollywood of sleeping pills overdose.<br /> <br /> 1966- STAR TREK debuts. LA policeman turned screenwriter Gene Roddenberry pitched it to Desilu Productions as, “Wagon Train in Outer Space.” The first episode “The Man Trap” aired this night. The show was produced by Lucille Ball’s production company, Desilu. That season Star Trek ranked 52nd in the Nielsen ratings, behind #1 "Iron Horse" starring Dale Robertson, and "Mr. Terrific". It was canceled after two seasons but a letter writing campaign won it a third season. Star Trek then found a new life in syndication. <br /> The cult fan base called Trekkies kept the memory of the show alive for ten years until Paramount revived it to cash in on the Star Wars-Close Encounters craze for Sci-Fi. First as a Filmation animated series, and then from 1979 a series of feature films, then spin-offs. <br /> Frank Sinatra once said: "The only good thing to come out of the 1960s was Star Trek." <br /> <br /> 1966 - "That Girl" starring Marlo Thomas and Ted Bessell premiered on ABC-TV<br /> <br /> 1967 - Surveyor 5 launched; made a soft landing on Moon, Sept 10.<br /> <br /> 1971- Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center opened. It was planned in the early sixties by John and Jackie Kennedy, although then unaware that their name would be on it. The performance featured the debut of Leonard Bernstein’s choral work “Mass”.<br /> <br /> 50 Years-1973- Hanna Barbera’s The Superfriends premiered on ABC TV.<br /> <br /> 50 Years 1973- Star Trek the Animated Series by Filmation premiered.<br /> <br /> 1974- Daredevil Evil Knievel in his most famous stunt, jumped the Snake River Gorge in a rocket powered motorcycle.<br /> <br /> 1974- President Gerald Ford surprised America by pardoning resigned President Richard Nixon for whatever he may have done in the Watergate Scandal, but not saying he really did anything. Ford sez: " Our great national nightmare is over.." America then surprised Ford by electing Jimmy Carter in his place.<br /> <br /> 1979- The decomposing body of actress Jean Seberg (Breathless, Paint Your Wagon), was discovered in the back seat of a car in Paris. She had been missing since Aug. 30th. Today it is assumed she committed suicide. She had been in an affair with a member of the radical Black Panther Party and was under continual harassment by the FBI and other Federal authorities. She was 40.<br /> <br /> 1986- The Chicago based television talk show the Oprah Winfrey Show went national and became one of the most successful talk shows ever.<br /> <br /> 2008- The Rachael Maddow Show premiered on MSNBC TV.<br /> <br /> 2009- A pair of Queen Victoria’s old underwear was recovered from a private collector and returned to the Royal Collection. Her waist size? 56 inches.<br /> <br /> 2022- Queen Elizabeth II died peacefully at Balmoral Castle. She was 96. She had reigned 70 years, the longest of any British monarch. <br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is Hercule Poirot’s nationality?<br /> <br /> Answer: Belgian. (Thanks NDP)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 07 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6252 <p>Quiz: What is Hercule Poirot’s nationality?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz Answered Below: What modern city used to be called Danzig?<br /> ———————————————————————————————————<br /> History for 9/7/2023<br /> Birthdays: Grandma Moses, Dame Edith Sitwell, Elia Kazan, Richard Roundtree, Sinclair Lewis, Anthony Quayle. Peter Lawford, Daniel Inouye, Susan Blakely, Shannon Elizabeth, Sonny Rawlins, Toby Jones is 56, Julie Kavner the voice of Marge Simpson, animator Fred Moore. Don Messick the voice of Scooby Doo, Leslie Jones is 56<br /> <br /> 605 B.C. Nebuchanesser II crowned king of Babylon. In 597 BC he destroyed the kingdom of Israel and began the Baylonian Captivity of the Judeo-Christian apocalyptic writings, but he also built the famed hanging Gardens of Babylon for his wife Amrytis.<br /> <br /> 1191- KING RICHARD VS. SALADIN-The Battle of Arsuf, the only major set battle between King Richard's Crusaders and Saladin’s Saracens. Saladin's men were driven back by the charging armored knights, but no final victory was achieved. Richard galloped about chopping at people so fiercely, that the Saracen warriors learned to ride around him and avoid contact. After such hot work in the desert Saladin sent his enemy Richard a cup of snow with rose water called Sherbat, which is the forerunner of modern Iced Sherbet. Unlike the movies, King Richard and Saladin never met face to face.<br /> <br /> 1303- ATTACK ON THE POPE- Pope Boniface VIII considered his throne higher than all Royal crowns. He even had a big triple tiara crown made bigger than all royal crowns to prove it. He got into a fight over sovereignty with French King Phillip the Fair, excommunicating him and all France. Then Phillip had a French clerical assembly accuse Boniface of being a “murderer, false monk, sorcerer, embezzler, adulterer, sodomite, idolater and infidel”. But King Phillip could fight with more than words. This day he sent a hit squad of knights to attack the pope at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo. The knights slew the Vatican guards and burst into the palace. Boniface knew his hour had come. He put on his full pontifical robes and mounted his throne to await the end. Knights William of Nogaret, and Sciarra Colonna marched up to the old man, held a knife over his head, and paused.” This was the message from my master, King Philip.” Then they turned and walked away. The 70 year old Pope was rescued by the Orsini family three days later, but Boniface died mentally broken from his ordeal. Accounts say he died raving in a dungeon, eating the flesh off his own arms.<br /> <br /> 1776 -The FIRST SUBMARINE ATTACK-Yankee Ezra Lee piloted inventor David Bushnell's barrel shaped submersible "The Turtle" over to the British warship HMS Eagle. His attack consisted of an attempt to drill holes in her hull with a hand cranked drill. But the ship’s bottom was covered in copper plates that his drill couldn’t penetrate. The real modern electric diesel motored submarine was not invented until 1900.<br /> <br /> 1812- BATTLE OF BORODINO, or La Moskova. Napoleon's French army and the Russians pound each other to bits before Moscow in the great battle immortalized by Tolstoy in 'War and Peace'. As the French army marched to the attack, Russian Prince Bagration sat on horseback in front of his troops. Before opening fire he pulled out a silver flask and toasted his enemy, "Gentlemen of France, Bravo! C'est Superb!". He was killed later. The French capture all the strategic points and forced General Kutusov to abandon Moscow, but while the Russians could make good their losses, La Grande Armee' was exhausted and thousands of miles from supplies and reinforcements. Napoleon was listless from a bad cold and hesitated sending in his Imperial Guard at a key moment to finish off the Russian army. Marshal Ney was enraged: ”Have we come so far merely to possess another battlefield? What is he doing, so far back? He is no longer a general, he is an Emperor. Let him sit home in the palace and leave the fighting to us!” <br /> <br /> 1822- Brazil declared its independence from Portugal.<br /> <br /> 1831- NICHOLAS I, the "Iron Czar" crushed the POLISH NOVEMBER UPRISING. Throughout the 1800's every young generation of Poles started a new uprising that the Russians, Germans and Austrians would have to stomp down. They went as far as to outlaw the Polish language, the Catholic religion and in the German controlled parts the Slavic suffix "-ski". Which is probably when Lech Waleski became Walesa and Sito was ..er.. always Sito. (?) In Jacksonian America the plight of the heroic Poles battling overwhelming odds was terribly inspiring to American Romantics like Longfellow, Hawthorne and Morse. <br /> <br /> 1857- THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE- In 1857 President James Buchanan declared the Mormon community in Utah territory in a state of rebellion and sent an army to the Great Salt Lake. The Mormons were worked up by their memories of persecutions in Illinois and Missouri that had taken the life of their founder Joseph Smith. Leader Brigham Young had given orders that no U.S. troops or settlers were to be sold food or water. When a California bound wagon train from Arkansas tried to cross Utah territory it was attacked by Mormon allied Indians. Local Mormon leader John D. Lee told the embattled settlers that if they surrendered to him he would lead them to safety. They put down their weapons and he marched them to a meadow. On a given signal the Mormons opened fire on the settlers, mostly women and children, killing 120 and leaving their bones to rot in the weeds without burial. The surviving infants were taken to be raised by Mormon families. The Mormon colony was horrified by the massacre and gave up peacefully to U.S. authorities. Apologist historians even today say Brigham Young never gave orders for the massacre, but admitted he protected John D. Lee for 20 years. In 1877 Lee was finally convicted for the mass-murder and executed at the massacre site. He died declaring he was the sacrificial scapegoat for the entire commune.<br /> <br /> 1876- THE GREAT NORTHFIELD MINNESOTA RAID- One old Hollywood myth is of the Western town cowering in fear while desperadoes shoot up the street whoopin’ and hollering. When the Jesse James &amp; Cole Younger gang rode out of Missouri and tried to rob the Bank of Northfield Minnesota, they found a town full of old Civil War veterans, who hauled out their rifles and shot at them from every window and doorway. Frank and Jesse are about the only ones who escaped. They laid low in Tennessee for three years until resuming their outlaw ways. Cole Younger was captured and did 25 years in prison. In 1903 Cole and Frank James went on tour with their own Wild West Show. <br /> <br /> 1880 - George Ligowsky patents device to throw clay pigeons for trapshooters<br /> <br /> 1888 - Edith Eleanor McLean was the 1st baby placed in an incubator.<br /> <br /> 1892 - Gentleman Jim Corbett finally KOs John L. Sullivan after 21 rounds for heavyweight boxing title. Corbett was an advocate of the new Marquis of Queensberry rules and preferred using boxing gloves to bare knuckle fighting like Sullivan did.<br /> <br /> 1907 - Sutro's ornate Cliff House in San Francisco was destroyed by fire.<br /> <br /> 1911- French avant-garde poet Guillaume Apollinaire was the man who coined the term “surrealism’. He was such an outspoken, radical guy, that Parisian authorities felt he must be up to something. So when the Mona Lisa was stolen out of the Louvre, Apollinaire was arrested. There was no evidence and he was released shortly after. The real thief was a disgruntled waiter who once worked as a security guard at the museum.<br /> <br /> 1916 - Workmen's Compensation Act passed by Congress.<br /> <br /> 1923 - Interpol was formed in Vienna<br /> <br /> 1936 - Boulder Dam (now Hoover Dam) began operation.<br /> <br /> 1940- Nazis bombers changed their strategy of bombing RAF bases in southern England and instead concentrate on destroying London for psychological value. Britons called his period The Blitz. This night waves of hundreds of bombers flattened the docklands of East London. For the next 57 straight days London suffered under a rain of high explosives.<br /> <br /> 1956- US test pilot Ivan Kincheloe flew his experimental Bell-X plane to the edge of the Stratosphere. While modern passenger planes fly at 46,000 feet, Kinchilo was 126,000 feet up, almost 26 miles. He could see the curve of the earth, the blue of the atmosphere turning ultramarine and the stars at the edge of space. He was weightless for a few seconds. Called the America’s First Spaceman, had Kincheloe not died in an accident in 1958, he would have been a major figure in NASA’s manned space program.<br /> <br /> 1957- Actress Ingrid Bergman and director Roberto Rossellini separate.<br /> <br /> 1961- MGM released Switchin Kittens, Tom &amp; Jerry directed and animated by Gene Deitch in Prague, Czechoslovakia.<br /> <br /> 1963- Mushi productions cartoon series," Tetsuan Atom" debuts in the U.S as Astro Boy.<br /> <br /> 1968- Led Zeppelin (billed as The Yardbirds) made their live debut at the Teen Club Box 45 in Gladsaxe, Denmark.<br /> <br /> 1968- Hanna Barbera’s The Banana Splits Show.<br /> <br /> 1978 - Keith Moon, rock drummer of the Who, died of a drug overdose at 31. He actually overdosed the drug he was prescribed to treat his drug abuse. In one night, he took 22 tabs of choloromethiazole edysilate. He was staying in the very same London flat- #123 Curzon Place, the one that Mama Cass Elliot died in four years earlier.<br /> <br /> 1984- The Walt Disney Board formally fired Walt’s son-in-law CEO Ron Miller.<br /> <br /> 1986- Archbishop Desmond Tutu was installed as the first black leader of the Anglican Church in South Africa. His appointment signaled the beginning of the final campaign to overthrow the racist apartheid system. After Apartheid was overthrown and Nelson Mandela made President of South Africa Tutu and Mandela began a curious argument over men’s wear. Bishop Tutu criticized the President for his taste in loud print shirts as undignified. Mandela responded” I won’t be criticized by a man who wears a dress!” <br /> <br /> 1991- Walt Disney’s Darkwing Duck aired.<br /> <br /> 1996- Rap artist and actor Tupac Shakur was shot to death gangland style in Las Vegas Nevada. He was standing up in the open roof of a BMW 750 sedan talking to some girls when a Cadillac pulled along side and opened fire. In 2002 the LA Times concluded an investigation that rapper Biggie Smalls or Notorious B.I.G. hired the killer and provided the gun. Notorious B.I.G. was himself shot to death shortly after.<br /> <br /> 1998- Google started.<br /> <br /> 2000- Barely legal teen pop star Britney Spears shocked even the permissive MTV Music Video Awards crowd by singing her hit “Oops, I Did it Again” while stripping and grinding in a Las Vegas showgirl type sheer flesh-colored bikini. <br /> <br /> 2008- The Great Recession- Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, the Federal National Mortgage Assoc., go into receivership after sinking under the weight of bad debt. ========================================================== <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What modern city used to be called Danzig?<br /> <br /> Answer: Gdansk in modern Poland.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 06 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6251 <p>Quiz: What modern city used to be called Danzig?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: The Hercule Poirot Mysteries by Agatha Christie are set in what decade or decades?<br /> ————————————————————————————————————<br /> History for 9/6/2023<br /> Birthdays: Marquis De Lafayette, Max Schreck (Nosferatu), Joseph Kennedy Sr., Felix Salten- the author of Bambi, Buddy Holly, Jane Curtin, Sergio Aragones is 86, Swoozie Kurtz, Jo Ann Worley, Rosie Perez is 58, Billy Rose, Ernest Tubb, Justin Whalin, Idris Elba is 50, Anika Noni-Rose, animator Bruce Smith. <br /> <br /> <br /> 338BC- Five days after Athens was conquered by Phillip of Macedon, the Greek philosopher Isocrates died. It was said the 98 year old was depressed by world events and old age. So, he simply stopped eating. Isocrates created the first literary criticism essays.<br /> <br /> 394AD- 15 years before the Fall of Rome, Roman Emperor Theodosius defeated his rival Eugenius at the Battle of Frigidus.<br /> <br /> 1298- Battle of Curzola- One of the perennial battles between Venice and the Pisa, only distinguished by the fact that Marco Polo was captured. <br /> The first thing the globe-trotting merchant did upon getting home from China was get drafted. While a P.O.W. in a Pisan prison he wrote his famous account: " My Travels". He actually dictated them to another prisoner named Rustichello because he may have been illiterate, or simply developed weak eyes. Glasses were not invented yet. Rustichello was already a writer of novels, so it was a good choice for a collaborator.<br /> Recently scholars have questioned just how much of China he may have actually seen, because he made no mention of The Great Wall or chopsticks. In his retirement, his neighbors called him, “Old Millions”, because of all his wild stories. “The Emperor of China had a million soldiers! One banquet had a million courses!” etc. <br /> 1522- One ship reached Spain manned by only a dozen or more skeletal sailors. They were all that was left of Fernand de Magellan’s fleet of five ships and 260 men that set out one year ago to reach the Indies. Magellan was killed and eaten in the Philippines, Magellan had beheaded three of his captains in Argentina and most of the crew were dead. The last leg of the trip the men sailed up the coast of Africa without stopping for food or water for fear of falling into the hands of their Portuguese enemies. But they had achieved the dream of the Columbus, they had reached the Indies by sailing west. In fact, they had circumnavigated the globe, forever proved the world was round.<br /> <br /> 1566- Elderly Turkish Sultan Sulieman the Magnificent died while besieging the Hungarian castle of Szigetvar. His vezirs worried that the news of his death would panic the troops and leave them open for attack. So they kept it a secret and marched back to Istanbul with Sulieman’s body propped up and held down by wires on his throne in his rolling pavilion. Censers of perfumed incense were waved to cover the fact that the Sultan was starting to smell nasty.<br /> <br /> 1642- The English Civil War just starting, Parliament issued a declaration that all Englishmen who weren't on their side would be declared 'delinquent' and subject to having their lands and properties seized. Unfortunately, this stupid edict had the reverse effect than intended, because the threat of losing their fortunes pushed many fence-sitters over to the King's side. King Charles could barely manage to raise one thousand sulky soldiers on Sept. I before the edict, afterwards his ranks swelled to the tens of thousands.<br /> <br /> 1696- William Kidd set sail from Portsmouth with a heavily armed ship named the Adventure. Captain Kidd’s orders were to clear the Indian Ocean of pirates, but instead, he became a pirate himself. <br /> <br /> 1782- Patsy Jefferson, the wife of Thomas Jefferson died at age 33. Jefferson promised her on her deathbed that he would never marry again and was so distraught he refused to leave their bedroom. He finally emerged after three weeks. They spent her last hours writing out their favorite passages from Tristram Shandy together. Jefferson kept the little folded up piece of paper on him the rest of his life.<br /> <br /> 1791- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera La Celemenza de Tito premiered in Prague.<br /> <br /> 1812- At Borodino the Russian army prepared to fight Napoleon’s Army before the entrance to Holy Moscow. This night the Orthodox Metropolitan in procession carried through the camp the icon of the Black Virgin of Smolensk. Thousands of soldiers kneeled, crossed themselves and whispered Gospodi Pomilui- Lord Have Mercy. During the Napoleonic Wars Russian officers began the curious custom of making sure that they went into battle wearing clean underwear- no gentleman wanted to be found dead on the battlefield with dirty knickers!<br /> <br /> 1821- Jacob Fowler with 21 frontiersmen left Arkansas for Santa Fe New Mexico to see if the local government was more amenable to Americans now that Mexico had won their independence from Spain. They were welcomed and began to hunt and trap. <br /> <br /> 1847- After living in a shack on Walden Pond for two years, Henry David Thoreau moved in with Ralph Waldo Emerson and his family in Concord Mass.<br /> <br /> 1862- During the Civil War an incident occurred when Stonewall Jackson’s Confederate brigades moved through the pro-Union town of Frederick, Maryland. All civilians kept indoors and waved white flags from their homes. But elderly widow Barbara Fritchie flew a big ass Stars &amp; Stripes from her window and dared anyone to do anything about it. General Jackson just smiled and tipped his hat as he rode by. Years later a famous poem was written about the incident, The Ballad of Barbara Fritchie:” Shoot if You Must, This Old Grey Head, But Spare your Countries’ Flag, She Said!”<br /> <br /> 1901-PRESIDENT WILLIAM McKINLEY ASSASSINATED- The President was visiting the Temple of Music at the World Exposition in Buffalo when anarchist Leon Czogolsz shot him with a pistol hidden in his bandaged hand. Czogolsz was such an emotionally unstable character, that even other anarchists avoided him. He said he was inspired by the political speeches of Socialist Emma Goldman, which soured many mainstream Americans to radical Socialism. McKinley lingered for two weeks while doctors were afraid to probe for the bullet. Ironically he had just inspected a new-fangled X-Ray machine at the science pavilion that could have saved his life but doctors said: " This is too serious a time for toys!" He died and Teddy Roosevelt became President. Roosevelt was a maverick Republican that McKinley reluctantly chose as his running mate because he was a hero in the recent Spanish-American War. When Tammany boss Paul Crocker heard about Roosevelt being made V.P. he shouted;" Don't you realize that now there's only one heartbeat between that nut and the Presidency-?!" Republican Senate Majority Leader Marc Hanna was also annoyed: ” Oh, no! Now that crazy cowboy is President!”<br /> <br /> 1910- Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughn-Williams premiered at the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester Cathedral. Vaughn Williams had not attempted sacred music yet, but was inspired by a melody written by Renaissance composer Tallis in 1567. During rehearsals, the organist wrote a friend it was “A queer, mad work, by an odd fellow from Chelsea.” <br /> <br /> 1914- As World War I raged all across Europe the country that started it all, Serbia, had a curious campaign. It was expected that the mighty Austro-Hungarian Empire would quickly crush this little country. But under the leadership of their resident military genius, Marshal Radomir Putnik, the Serbs drove out the invading Austrian army and this day even had the cheek to invade Austria! The Austrians pushed them out, tried another invasion, then forgot about them for the rest 1914 and all of 1915.<br /> <br /> 1916- Piggly-Wiggly, the first true Supermarket, opened in Memphis Tenn.<br /> <br /> 1935- the musical Top Hat opened with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. <br /> <br /> 1945- Four days after the Japanese surrender ending World War II, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover sent a bitchy memo to Truman’s Attorney General Tom Clark complaining about General Donovan. Wild Bill Donovan had led the wartime espionage agency the OSS. Now he was proposing a continuation of intelligence gathering in the US as well as overseas. Hoover considered this a direct challenge to his authority. Donovan’s group was reborn as the CIA in 1947. And relations with the FBI have remained cool ever since. During the 9-11 attack in 2001, the FBI and CIA could not directly e-mail one another.<br /> <br /> 1954- Groundbreaking for the first nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.<br /> <br /> 1958- The Spunky and Tadpole show debuts!<br /> <br /> 1966- Dr. Hendryk Verwoerd, the South African Prime Minister most responsible for the institutionalizing of racial segregation called Apartheid, was assassinated by an aide, Dmitri Tsafendas. <br /> <br /> 1968- Many momentous events occurred in 1968: assassinations, riots. But that’s nothing compared to the television premiere of H.R. PUFNSTUFF this day! Witchipoo, Orson and the Vroom Broom. Whether or not Sid and Marty Kroffts strange kiddie show was a code for drug use -HR meaning Hand-Rolled Puffing Stuff, is a matter for scholastic conjecture.<br /> <br /> 1969- DePatie-Freleng's The Pink Panther TV Show premiered.<br /> <br /> 1971- Happy Birthday Pampers. Scientists at Proctor &amp; Gamble invent the disposable diaper.<br /> <br /> 1972 - John Lennon &amp; Yoko Ono appeared on Jerry Lewis' Muscular Dystrophy Telethon.<br /> <br /> 1997- The great funeral of Princess Diana of Wales brought England to a halt and was televised around the world. <br /> <br /> 2000- The United Nations held a Millennial Summit. 150 presidents, kings, princes and prime ministers convened in New York City, the largest international conference ever held. Nothing important was decided and New Yorkers grumbled about the traffic.<br /> <br /> 2017- Our First Close Encounter? Scientists in Hawaii spotted a giant cigar-shaped object pass through our solar system. At first thought to be a comet, its speed did not behave like a comet, and it had no comets tail. An astrophysicist at Harvard said it might have been a probe sent by another civilization, but no one is sure. They named it Oumuamua- Hawaiian for “scout”.<br /> <br /> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++<br /> Yesterday’s Question: The Hercule Poirot Mysteries by Agatha Christie are set in what decade or decades?<br /> <br /> Answer: The 1920s-early 30s. Europe between the wars.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 05 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6250 <p>Quiz: The Hercule Poirot Mysteries by Agatha Christie are set in what decade or decades?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: What does it mean to “file an amicus brief”?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 9/5/2023<br /> Birthdays: Louis XIV the Sun King, Jesse James, Cardinal Richelieu, Johann Christian Bach, Jacopo Meyerbeer, John Cage, Quentin de la Tour, Darryl F. Zanuck, Jack Valenti, George Lazenby, Freddy Mercury, Raquel Welch, Kathy Guisewhite, Dweezil Zappa, Werner Herzog is 82, Michael Keaton is 72, Rose McGowan is 51, Bob Newhart is 95<br /> <br /> <br /> 1499- Former Columbus captain Alonso De Hojeda arrived in the New World on his own expedition. Along with him as pilot (navigator) was a Florentine named Amerigo Vespucci. Vespucci made four more trips to the alien lands, and published books about his adventures, leaving out Hojeda. While Columbus was still insisting he had reached Asia, Vespucci argued this was in fact a New World. His publishers spiced up his written accounts with beautiful sexy naked brown women throwing themselves on the Europeans. Although mostly fiction, it made quite popular reading. <br /> In 1507 when Columbus was ignored and forgotten, German mapmakers Martin Waldseemuller &amp; Gerhardus Mercator published the first mass printed maps of the known world. They drew on Vespucci's books and called the new hemisphere "America". I guess that's better than the United States of Hojeda.<br /> <br /> 1536- Protestant Reformer John Calvin was put in charge of the religious life of the city of Geneva. His ideas were so err…Puritan, that within two years he was kicked out.<br /> <br /> 1654- THE FIRST JEWISH PEOPLE IN NORTH AMERICA- The first boatload of Jewish families arrived in America at what would one day be New York City- then New Amsterdam. They were fleeing the Spanish Inquisition that was being set up in Brazil. They had to auction some of their furniture to pay off their French pirate captain, Jean De La Monthe, but Asher Levy and his family where here to stay. <br /> Puritan Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant immediately complained to The Hague that Jews not be allowed to settle in New Amsterdam. The Dutch East India Company told him to mind his own business and apologize. He was reminded he was running a business, not a religious colony. Anyone who wanted to work and raise a family was welcome. <br /> <br /> 1698 – Czar Peter the Great was determined to drag Russia into the modern world one way or another. Since the fashion in Europe at this time was clean-shaven, he imposed a tax on beards. When Czar Peter spotted a boyar at his court who refused to comply, he personally jumped the old man with a pair of shears and shaved him.<br /> <br /> 1725- King Louis XV of France married Marie Leszcynska, daughter of the last King of Poland, Stanislas Leszcynski. Their grandson Louis XVI was the King guillotined in the Revolution.<br /> <br /> 1774- The first Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia to come up with a group response to the worsening political climate with mother England. It is the first time all the American colonies had ever gathered together. British held Florida and Nova Scotia were invited but declined to attend. Ben Franklin was in London at the time and frankly doubted New Englanders, Southerners, city folk and frontiersmen could ever be persuaded to act together. Peyton Randolph was elected first president of Congress.<br /> <br /> 1781- BATTLE OF THE VIRGINIA CAPES also called The Battle of the Chesapeake- arguably the real battle that won the American Revolution. <br /> French Admiral DeGrasse' fleet drove off the English fleet attempting to evacuate Lord Cornwallis’ army trapped inside the port of Yorktown by Washington and Rochambeau. <br /> For command of the vital mission the British admiralty had passed over a more aggressive admiral named Rodney in favor of a semi-retired fossil named Sir Thomas Graves. Admiral Graves caught the French fleet dispersed unloading troops and supplies, but instead of immediately attacking, he waited three hours while the enemy formed in line. He then raised confusing signal flags for “Attack” and “Maintain Position” simultaneously. <br /> The inability of the British navy to evacuate Cornwallis sealed his defeat. If the British had won this battle, scholars agree the French were growing tired of propping up Washington and his raggedy-ass rebels. <br /> <br /> 1812- The vanguard of Napoleon’s Grand Army came up upon a little hill outside the town of Borodino. They strained to see if they had reached Moscow. But instead they saw something else- the main Russian army preparing to stand and fight. Napoleons plan was to invade a country, destroy their army, occupy their capitol, then sign a peace treaty. But these Russians weren't playing by the rules. For months after retreating across thousands of miles of Russian soil, Napoleon would finally get the big battle he desired.<br /> <br /> 1836- Sam Houston was elected first, and only, President of the Republic of Texas.<br /> <br /> 1867- After the Civil War, with so many farms neglected or destroyed, the USA experienced a beef shortage. This was answered by herding Texas longhorn cattle up to where they could be put on trains to Chicago and eastern meat markets. This day the first herd of Longhorns made it up the Chisholm Trail to the train depot of Abilene Kansas. A rancher who bought a thousand head of cattle at $4 a head could sell them here for $40 a head. One cattle drive could net up to $100,000 dollars, well worth risking hostile tribemen, rustlers and floods. This created a new kind of hero in the public's mind, the Cowboy.<br /> <br /> 1870- Now that Napoleon III had been defeated and deposed at Sedan, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck had achieved all his political goals. So, he proposed immediate peace talks to end the Franco Prussian War with a minimum of fuss. He had knocked off Austria the same way in the Seven Week's War of 1866. But this time Bismarck was overruled by his master King William I and the German generals, who all wanted to continue their march on Paris. Bismarck warned that humiliating the French would accomplish nothing, except creating a desire for revenge. He was overruled and the revenge happened in 1914-18. <br /> <br /> 1877- Chief Crazy Horse, the "Napoleon of the Plains" was murdered. He had surrendered his weapons on a promise of fair treatment, then was suddenly arrested and bayoneted in the back while resisting guards trying to push him into a jail cell. His dying words to his tribe were "Tell the people it is no use to depend on me anymore." Native peoples enjoy a legend today that Crazy Horse's secret burial place is on the top of Mt. Rushmore.<br /> <br /> 1885 - 1st gasoline pump is delivered to a gasoline dealer (Ft Wayne, Ind)<br /> <br /> 1917- The U.S. Government staged nationwide police raids to close down the offices of the IWW (The International Workers of the World- or The Wobblies). They were a folk-song-singing radical labor union who came out against U.S. participation in World War I, "The Master Class has always declared the wars, the Working Class must fight the battles"- Eugene Debs. Their apologists point out that while the Great War cost 166,000 U.S. casualties it made 200 new millionaires and if you had stock in petrochemicals like Dupont you made 400% profit.<br /> <br /> 1929- Wall Street stocks soared to unprecedented heights throughout 1929. Starting today they began to taper off and slide. Economist Roger Babson, the Sage of Wellesley, warned of an impending Stock Market crash, but people laughed him off. They called his warnings "Babson-Mindedness". The market would continue to slide downwards every day for the next several weeks climaxing Black Tuesday, the Great Stock Market Crash of October 29th.<br /> <br /> 1921- FATTY ARBUCKLE. After completing three feature films simultaneously, comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle rented three rooms in San Francisco's St. Francis Hotel for a big party. One attendee, Actress Virginia Rappe, died of peritonitis a few days afterward. Maude Delmont, a professional blackmailer who also attended, spread the story that Arbuckle had raped the actress with a champagne bottle. She never testified in court. <br /> The Hearst Press took up the story and sensationalized it as an example of Hollywood depravity. Fatty Arbuckle was found innocent after three high profile trials (the last jury actually apologized to him). The Motion Picture Production Code was formed as a direct result. Its first action was to ban Arbuckle from the screen. Fatty Arbuckle directed comedy for ten years under the pseudonym Will B. Good, and appeared in a successful series of short sound films in 1932, but died the same day that Warner Brothers signed him for a feature.<br /> <br /> 1927- Walt Disney’s Trolley Troubles, the first Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Walt losing the rights to this character a year later caused him to design Mickey Mouse.<br /> <br /> 1932- Paul Bern, the studio executive husband of sexy starlet Jean Harlow, was found lying naked on his bathroom floor with a bullet in his head. Bern’s brother revealed that Paul Bern had another wife in NY named Dorothy Millette he was hiding. She came to Hollywood while Harlow was away doing a film. Supposedly during an angry confrontation between Millette and Paul Bern he was shot. The studio was notified before the police. MGM heads Irving Thalberg and Louie B. Mayer jumped to hush up the scandal. Today the accepted version is he committed suicide. <br /> <br /> 1935- At a giant Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg Adolph Hitler told the world “We want Peace. Germany has no interest in harming her European neighbors.” uh-huh..<br /> <br /> 1935- Tumbling Tumbleweeds premiered, the film that made a star out of Gene Autry, the Singing Cowboy.<br /> <br /> 1939- The British Empire had restructured in 1867 as a commonwealth of dominions which some it's larger colonies had self-rule. But to the outside world it still looked like everything from Hong Kong to Ottawa to Capetown was run on orders from London. Three days after British Prime Minister Chamberlain declared war on Nazi Germany, U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull telephoned Canadian PM Mackenzie-King to ask if that meant Canada was going to war too?<br /> <br /> 1943- Young British cartoonist Ronald Searle is captured by the Japanese in Burma. He spent his time as a P.O.W. working on the infamous Bridge on the River Kwai and making sketches of the nightmarish conditions of his fellow prisoners.<br /> <br /> 1957- Jacques Kerouac’s ode to the beat life ON THE ROAD, first published. Kerouac wrote it in a heat using one large roll of white paper stuffed into his typewriter instead of individual sheets. When the editor got the novel it had no paragraph breaks of chapter breaks. Another young writer of the time, Truman Capote, was unimpressed. “That’s not writing, it’s typing.”<br /> <br /> 1958- The novel DR ZHIVAGO by Boris Pasternak published in US. It was banned in Russia until the collapse of Communism.<br /> <br /> 1964- Cook Teressa Bellissimo of the Anchor Bar in Buffalo NY, took some left over chicken wings, threw them into a deep fryer with spices and blue cheese dip and invented Buffalo Wings.<br /> <br /> 1965- CBS television network headquarters are moved into a sleek building on 6th Ave. in Manhattan. Because of its black granite and smoke tinted window's it's nicknamed "Black Rock". NBC's headquarters in Rockefeller Center are called "30 Rock". ABC's, owing to their status as the third network, called their headquarters "Little Rock". <br /> <br /> 1972- Palestinian Black September terrorists attacked Munich's Olympic Village during The Summer Games. There they murdered 11 Israeli athletes of their national team.<br /> <br /> 1975 –Manson Family cult member Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford. She was released from jail in 2009.<br /> <br /> 1977- NASA launched the Voyager 1 probe towards the outer planets of our solar system. Among the things Voyager discovered was that Jupiter had many more moons than previously thought and had a ring like Saturn. In 2012 it became the first man-made object to leave our solar system is currently in interstellar space.<br /> Part of NASA's program was an explanatory simulation film done on computer by Jim Blinn. It was shown on local news programs in 1980 and 82. The animation was so smooth and the graphics so breathtaking it expanded the use of the CGI medium and inspired a new generation of digital artists.<br /> <br /> 1980 -The St Gotthard auto tunnel in the Swiss Alps, opened. It was the world’s longest until surpassed by one in China in 2011.<br /> <br /> 1983- Filmation's "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" premiered on TV. I Have the Powerrrrrr!!!<br /> <br /> 1989- President George H.W. Bush does a major speech highlighting his war on drugs. He brandishes a bag of crack-cocaine. He declares it was purchased across the street from the White House in Lafayette Park. Later the truth came out that no crack cocaine is sold in Lafayette Park, the DEA agents had to talk a crack dealer into coming to the park. They even had to give him directions, because he never visited the White House area before.<br /> <br /> 1992- Bruce Tim’s Batman the animated series premiered on Fox Kids network.<br /> <br /> 1993- Two Stupid Dogs premiered on TV.<br /> <br /> 1994- Patrick McDonnell started drawing the comic strip MUTTS.<br /> ==========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean to “file an amicus brief”?<br /> <br /> Answer: An amicus brief, sometimes referred to as an amicus curiae (friend of the court) is a document presented to the court from an interested party not directly related to the case being currently heard, but might provide some information that has a bearing on the proceedings. Especially in a case that involves challenging or changing existing law. ( Thanks FG)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 04 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6249 <p>Quiz: What does it mean to “file an amicus brief”?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is the origin of calling someone a Goody Two-Shoes?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 9/4/2023<br /> Birthdays: Marcus Whitman the missionary who led US settlement of Oregon, Howard Morris, Darius Mihlaud, Anton Bruckner, Chateaubriand, Craig Claiborne, Dick York, Richard Wright, Mary Renault, Mitzi Gaynor, Computer AI pioneer John McCarthy, Damon Wayans is 63, Paul Harvey, Beyonce’ Knowles is 42<br /> <br /> 218BC- Hannibal’s army with his elephants reached the summit of the Alps.<br /> <br /> Today is the feast of St. Rosalia who lived in a cave at Mount Pelligrino in Sicily. Five centuries after her death, her bones miraculously saved Palermo from the plague.<br /> <br /> 1698- THE MASSACRE OF THE STRELTZY- Czar Peter the Great returned to Moscow after traveling Europe for the last 18 months. And boy, was he pissed off! It seems he had to cut his travels short because he heard that back home his royal bodyguards- the Streltzy, plotted a coup and conspired with Pete’s older step-sister Sophia. Peter was so mad he had dozens of Streltzy leaders tortured and 1,100 executed. Peter swung an axe and beheaded five himself. After wiping them out, Czar Peter laid the foundation for a new Russian Army based on the modern western model. And his sister Sophia was bundled off to a monastery at the Arctic Circle.<br /> <br /> 1781- HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LOS ANGELES. Royal Governor of New Spain Felipe de Neve and Franciscan monk Fra Junipero Serra with twelve soldiers, some free black families and Indians, about 44 in all, dedicated a new town, one days ride from Mission San Gabriel. The 63 year old Fra Serra had been stung by a scorpion, but he ignored it, so he hobbled around dragging his swollen leg. Fra Serra named the town after St. Francis of Assisi's first church in Italy - St. Mary of the Angels. LA’s official name is La Ciudad de la Iglesia de Nuestra Señora, Reina de Los Angeles sobra la Porziuncola de Asís. <br /> <br /> 1781- Benedict Arnold, the American Colonial general turned traitor, led a force of British redcoats to burn his own hometown of New London, Connecticut. <br /> <br /> 1821- Russian Czar Nicolas I issued an Imperial Ukase- edict restating Russia's claim to all of the North American Pacific coastline from Alaska to Northern California. The United States rejected this claim and threatened war, which is interesting considering they didn't own any of it at the time. Ya see, they had plans.<br /> <br /> 1833 –The New York Sun hired young boys to sell their papers on street corners. The first newsboy was ten-year old Barney Flaugherty. Now go peddle your papers, kid.<br /> <br /> 1839- The Opium Wars began between Britain and China. U.S. Ambassador John Quincy Adams called it "the Kow-Tow Wars" because he felt the real issue was the British Consul refused to lie prostrate on his face before the Chinese Emperor, as was the local custom. The Chinese had never smoked opium until it was introduced by Britain from Pakistan.<br /> <br /> 1870-After the news of the spectacular defeat and capture of the Emperor Napoleon III at Sedan reached Paris, street rioting breaks out. Empress Eugenie fled taking the Bonaparte family into exile in England. The French Assembly National declared Napoleon III deposed and proclaimed the Third republic. <br /> <br /> 1884-Thomas Edison proves he could replace gas streetlights with electricity by illuminating one square New York City block (around Pearl St.) with his new dynamo. J.P. Morgan's bank on the corner of Wall and Broad streets is the first private business to be lit solely by electricity.<br /> <br /> 1888- George Eastman patents the roll film camera. The word "Kodak" is supposedly the sound the shutter made. Another story on the origin of the word was that George wanted a word pronounced the same in all known dialects. After some research (Rochester lore has it that he did all of this himself) he concluded that only k and x qualified as sounds uttered the same way in all languages. Thus Eastman Kodak. <br /> <br /> 1893- Writer and illustrator Beatrix Potter sent a letter to a sick child: " I don't know what to write you, so I shall tell you the story of four little rabbits. Their names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter." The Peter Cottontail stories born.<br /> <br /> 1904 – The Dali Lama signed the first treaty allowing British commerce in Tibet. Tibet had been a closed society forbidding any contact with the outside world. <br /> <br /> 1914-The Miracle of the Marne- In World War I the main German advance smashed down into France and after 5 weeks were approaching Paris. But Von Kluck's grey clad soldiers were stopped at the river Marne. It was the first battle where telephones played an important role and at General Gallieni rushed French reserves up to the front in Parisian taxicabs. The commander of the defense of Paris was Albert Dreyfus, the Jewish officer of the famous scandal of the 1890's, now fully exonerated.<br /> <br /> 1918- Someone threw a bomb into the Adams St Entrance of the Chicago Federal building. At first it was thought the bomber was a radical anarchist or German agent. But it turned out to be a local gangster. The blast killed 4 people and 75 were injured. One person who just missed the explosion was a part time mail carrier named Walt Disney. Walt later said, “I missed the explosion by three minutes. “<br /> <br /> 1934- Young actress-filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl was contracted by the German Propaganda Ministry to film the 1934 Nazis Party Congress to be held in Nuremburg. While they were expecting a routine documentary, Riefenstahl instead created the film The Triumph of the Will, who’s darkly hypnotic images made film history.<br /> <br /> 1936- The musical Swing Time opened. Considered by critics one of the best pairings of the dance team of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. <br /> <br /> 1940- The Columbia Broadcast Service or CBS network started up their first television station.<br /> <br /> 1949- THE PEEKSKILL RIOTS. Singer Paul Robeson was a renaissance man who embraced controversy. An athlete, opera singer and actor he was also a passionate Black Civil Rights champion who expressed open admiration for the Soviet Union and Maoist China. This did not win him any friends in the segregated, paranoid America of the post war era. <br /> This day when Robeson and fellow activist folksinger Pete Seeger gave a concert in Peekskill New York, their cars were pelted with stones by screaming white rioters, all with the blessing of the local police. Robeson’s person was shielded by a bodyguard of union men. Fifty years later the Town of Peekskill officially apologized to Paul Robeson Jr. Pete Seeger saved some of the stones to fix his chimney.<br /> <br /> 1950- Mort Walker's "Beetle Bailey" comic strip first appeared. Walker first had Beetle as a college student, but when the Korean War broke out, he had Beetle enlist. In 1953, when that war ended, Walker figured interest in the strip would fade, so he created Hi &amp; Lois as a fall back. But Beetle Bailey kept finding new fans and kept going.<br /> <br /> 1957- Ford Motor Company introduced the Edsel, named for Henry Ford's son. Touted as "the dream car of the decade". Ford spent more to promote it than any other car up to that time. Only 200,000 were sold as opposed to 15 million Model T’s. After complaints like the steering and brakes failing, and dashboards unexpectedly bursting into flame, the Edsel was discontinued. Ford lost $250 million on it. The Edsel became a synonym for product failure.<br /> <br /> 1957- Defying direct orders from the Federal Government, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent any black students from attending classes at Little Rock High School. President Eisenhower took over direct control of the Guard and sent in the bayonet wielding 101st Airborne to ensure his orders for integration were followed.<br /> <br /> 1972- American swimmer Mark Spitz won his 7th gold medal in Olympic competition in Munich. He also spawned a cottage industry selling the poster of him wearing his medals, and tiny Speedos. This image and the swimsuit poster of Farrah Fawcett, were two of the more famous images of the 1970’s. Spitz’ record held until Michael Phelps in 2008.<br /> <br /> 1976- College party boy George W. Bush was arrested for drunk-driving close to his family home in Kennebunkport, Maine. He later applied for a brand new Texas State driver’s license, which came with a clean record with no report of the arrest. As President delivering the commencement at Harvard in 2002, he joked:” In the motorcade, seeing all those police cars behind me with their lights flashing… kinda brings me back to my college days…”<br /> <br /> 1982- the single “Valley Girl” by Frank Zappas daughter Moon Unit Zappa became a hit.<br /> <br /> 1985- Australian press baron Rupert Murdoch became a U.S. citizen so he could build the Fox News and TV networks. US regulations forbade foreign ownership of broadcasting stations so Rupert didn’t fuss about what country he was a citizen of. He keeps addresses in the U.S., London and Australia.<br /> <br /> 1986- Aardman Animation studio was founded.<br /> <br /> 1993- Herb Villechaise, the little person who began the show Fantasy Island with the announcement:” Da PLANE! Da PLANE!’ committed suicide with a shotgun.<br /> <br /> 2002- Kelly Clarkson won the first American Idol contest.<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is the origin of calling someone a Goody Two-Shoes?<br /> <br /> Answer: Little Goody Two-Shoes was a popular children's story published by John Newbery in London in 1765</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 03 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6248 <p>Quiz: What is the origin of calling someone a Goody Two-Shoes?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: What is a Klieg-light?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 9/3/2023<br /> Birthdays: Mort Walker would be 100, Alan Ladd, Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, Irene Papas, Memphis Slim, Eddie Brat Stanky, Eric Larson, Mitzi Gaynor, Richard Tyler, Eileen Brennan, Phil Stern- former WWII Darby’s Ranger and personal photographer for Louis B. Mayer of MGM, Valerie Perrine, Charlie Sheen is 59<br /> <br /> 401BC- THE MARCH OF TEN THOUSAND- Prince of Persia Cyrus the Younger had begun a civil war to overthrow his brother the King Artaxerxes the Mindful. In Cyrus’ army was ten thousand Greek mercenaries led by several generals including Xenophon, a writer who was once a student of Socrates. Today at a Babylonian town called Cunaxa, Cyrus’s force defeated the Persian Royal Army, but Prince Cyrus was killed. <br /> Without an employer and a thousand miles from home in a hostile country, these ten thousand Greeks were really in trouble. But they got themselves together, and in an epic march they fought their way up country through hostile armies from the Euphrates (Iraq) to the Greek colonies on the Black Sea (Northern Turkey). After 5 months their cry "Thalassa! The Sea! Which meant they were at last safe and could get a ship home. They dedicated a monument which was discovered by archaeologists near Trapizond Turkey in 1997. Xenophon wrote a book about this adventure called Anabasis or The March Up Country. <br /> <br /> 1189- King Richard the Lionheart crowned at Westminster. He declared his desire to fulfill his father Henry II’s vow to go on Crusade. Richard spoke French and only visited England twice more in his ten years as king. The Anglo-Saxon tongue would not become the official language of England until the 14th century. We don't know Richard's full opinion of London but he allegedly once told his minister William Longchamps:" I'd sell the whole place if they'd let me.." The people celebrate their new king by killing all the Jews they can find, including a mass burning in York. That didn’t stop good King Richard from keeping a Jewish man as his personal doctor.<br /> <br /> 1260- Battle of Ayn Jalut (Goliath’s Spring)- Hulugau &amp; the Mongol horde were turned back from Egypt by the Mamaluke army of Sultan Baibars. The Mongols had been in the saddle since China. They had already ravaged Baghdad, Moscow and the Holyland. The Mamelukes were originally an elite guard of slaves handpicked as children to be brought up as fanatical fighting machines. They eventually seized power and ran Egypt until 1798.<br /> When emissaries from the Caliph of Baghdad asked the Mameluke Sultan who was his family and by what right did he rule, the Sultan shook his scimitar in their faces and declared "This is by what right I rule!' Throwing some gold coins on the floor and watching the slaves and eunuchs scamper for them, he said, "And That is my family!!'<br /> <br /> 1592- Retired London actor Richard Green wrote a pamphlet to his fellow actors complaining of an actor becoming popular in their midst "A new upstart crow filled with Bombast" - William Shakespeare.<br /> <br /> 1651-The Battle of Worcester. Called the Last Battle of the English Civil Wars. Oliver Cromwell destroyed an army of resurgent Royalists. Young King Charles II hid in an oak tree, forever called the Royal Oak. He then slipped out of the country in disguise as a chimney sweep. This is why a number of English pubs along his route bear the curious name "The Black Boy". Charles later purchased as a yacht the little ship that carried him across the Channel and renamed it, “ The Royal Escape”.<br /> <br /> 1657-Battle of Dunbar- Cromwell defeated the Irish.<br /> <br /> 1658- Oliver Cromwell doesn't defeat Death. As you can see Cromwell the Lord Protector liked things on lucky days. Even though he was a deeply religious Puritan he believed in astrology and would send money to German astronomer Johannes Kepler to cast his horoscope. Kepler was the father of modern astronomy but it was casting horoscopes that paid his bills. <br /> <br /> 1697 - King William's War in America ends with Treaty of Ryswick.<br /> <br /> 1777- In a small skirmish with British redcoats near Cooch, Maryland, the American rebels raise their new Stars &amp; Stripes flag for the first time. They lost.<br /> <br /> 1792- Enraged French revolutionaries broke into the jail cell of the Princess de Lamballe, a confidante of Queen Marie Antoinette. She was raped in a kennel, beheaded and the body torn to pieces. One revolutionary pulled her heart out and bit it, another shot her legs out of a cannon. Finally, they put her head on a pike and danced with it under the Queen’s window demanding she give it a kiss.<br /> <br /> 1833- The New York Sun began publication, the first American mass circulation newspaper.<br /> <br /> 1838- Writer Frederick Douglas escaped slavery by boarding a northern bound train disguised as a sailor. Later when he was making a living as a writer, he returned to his former master enough money to compensate his loss. Southerners doubted anyone as intelligent and well-read as Douglas could have ever been a slave, but Douglas liked to remind them he "stole himself out of slavery."<br /> <br /> 1864- Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan was killed during a raid. The Yankees had slipped past his sentries and surrounded the house where he was sleeping. At dawn as he emerged he was met with a barrage of bullets. Morgan encouraged his raiders to disdain sabers as outmoded antiques and equipped them instead with rapid firing carbines and six-shooters. Once when attacked by union cavalry with drawn sabers, Morgan cried:" Hah, the fools! Mow ‘em down boys!"<br /> <br /> 1870- Napoleon III surrendered himself to Bismarck and the Kaiser after losing the Battle of Sedan. Louis Napoleon was suffering so from kidney stones that he was wearing rouge and lipstick to give color to his grey face.<br /> <br /> 1886- Geronimo gave up to the U.S. Army for the fourth and last time. He and his Chiracaua Apaches were promised no retribution would befall them. After they were disarmed they were packed up into railroad cars and shipped to prison in Ft. Myers, Florida to die in the malaria infested Everglades. Geronimo in his time had as many Apache enemies as white men. The White Mountain Apaches helped guide the US cavalry in their pursuit. After Geronimo's Chiracaua's were exiled, the White Mountain Apache were rewarded by also being shipped to the everglades. Geronimo survived it all. After his release he retired to Santa Fe, where he died in 1910. <br /> <br /> 1895 - 1st pro football game played, Latrobe beats Jeanette 12-0 (Penn)<br /> <br /> 1903: Col. Griffith Jenkins Griffith shot his wife, Christina, in the head.
The shooting occurred at the Hotel Arcadia in Santa Monica, where the Griffiths and their 15-year-old son were spending the summer, The Times reported two days later."Mrs. Griffith was in the room packing the trunk preparatory to coming home to Los Angeles, when Griffith entered the room and pulled his revolver," the newspaper said, citing a relative who had heard the story from Mrs. Griffith "in moments of consciousness" at the hospital." He pointed it at Mrs. Griffith, and said: “Get your prayer book and kneel down, and cover your eyes. I'm going to shoot you and kill you.” 
The bullet went through Mrs. Griffith's left eye, but she managed to escape by jumping out the window. She landed on a porch roof, fracturing her shoulder, The Times reported.
Griffith was convicted of attempted murder and spent more than a year at San Quentin. Col Griffith later gave the town of Los Angeles more than 3,000 acres of land to create the park that bears his name, Griffith Park. And his Christina divorced him.<br /> <br /> 1898- After destroying the Mahdi army in battle, Lord Kitchener and the Anglo-Egyptian army re-entered the destroyed Sudanese capitol of Khartoum. Kitchener in a spotless white uniform held an Anglican memorial mass at the site of General Charles Gordon’s headquarters where he was killed. Thousands of redcoat, white pith-helmeted troops sang Gordon’s favorite hymn " Abide With Me ", to massed bugles. Meanwhile, the Muslim inhabitants looked on with curiosity.<br /> <br /> 1902- In Pittsfield Massachusetts, a trolley car crashed into the carriage carrying President Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy was hurled from the wreck and landed on his face. A Secret Serviceman was killed. But Teddy survived. <br /> <br /> 1912- Los Angeles attraction Frazier's Million Dollar Pier destroyed by fire.<br /> <br /> 1930- The first issue of the Hollywood Reporter.<br /> <br /> 1937- Orson Welles Mercury Theater of the air produced its first play on nationwide radio- an adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables.<br /> <br /> 1939- Britain and France declare war on Nazi Germany over the invasion of Poland, World War II results. <br /> <br /> 1939- British Prime Minister Chamberlain's war announcement interrupts a Disney Cartoon "Mickey's Gala Premiere" showing on the nascent BBC television service. Television shuts down for the duration.<br /> <br /> 1940 -Adolf Hitler set the date for the invasion of England for Sept 21st. This after Goering’s Luftwaffe would destroy the Royal Air Force, which they never did.<br /> <br /> 1941-1st use of Zyclon-B gas in Auschwitz, on Russian prisoners of war. It was then used on Jews in the concentration camps.<br /> <br /> 1944- During the World War II U.S. pilots shot down by the Japanese were rescued by submarines. The submariners called the pilots Zoomies. This day off the coast of Ichi Jima, the submarine USS Tampico plucked out of the ocean a Zoomie who would one day become President of the United States. Second Lieutenant George H. W. Bush. George Herbert Walker Bush was such an Ivy League preppie, that while other pilots had nicknames like Wild Man and Capt. Marvel, his fellow pilots called him “George Herbert Walker Bush.”<br /> <br /> 1962- The Hanna-Barbera show 'Lippy the Lion and Hardy-Harr-Harr" premiered.<br /> <br /> 1967- Sweden officially switched from driving on the left side of the street (UK style) to driving on the right, with the expected traffic confusion. <br /> <br /> 1970 - Al Wilson, "Blind Owl", guitarist/vocalist (Canned Heat), died at age 27.<br /> <br /> 1970 - Jochen Rindt, famed German racecar driver died in a car crash. He was 28.<br /> <br /> 1971- The offices of the psychiatrist of Defense Department attorney Daniel Ellsberg were burglarized by agents of the Nixon White House, to look for incriminating dirt on Ellsberg. They hoped to stop him from publishing the Pentagon Papers by resorting to blackmail. Chief White House counsel John Dean noted that agent G. Gordon Liddy was such a loose cannon, that as he stood watch outside the offices, he invited a friend to take a photo of him! A true Kodak moment!<br /> <br /> 2003- Two crooks in Detroit hijacked a Krispy Kreme truck and tried to hold three thousand donuts hostage. <br /> <br /> 2004- Chechen separatists attacked a primary school in Beslan, Russia. After a three day siege the Russian authorities stormed the school after first pumping poison gas into it. 331 died, mostly little children.<br /> <br /> 2017- After weeks of extensive negotiations and personal photo-ops with Pres. Trump and Kim Jong Un, North Korea exploded its first hydrogen bomb anyway.<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is a Klieg-light?<br /> <br /> Answer: In the early days of motion pictures a powerful light source was needed in order to properly expose film. The Kliegl brothers came up with the design of an electric light so powerful that, even with the less sensitive film stocks of the era, filmmakers could get a good exposure in almost any lighting condition. Advances in both film sensitivity and lighting fixtures made the original Kliegs obsolete, But they continues a second life as those big outdoor spotlights used at gala Hollywood movie premieres.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 02 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6247 <p>Quiz: What is a Klieg-light?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz Answered Below: 1960’s trivia: Who was Oddjob?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 9/2/2023<br /> Birthdays: Hawaiian Queen Lydia Liliuokalani, Yang Tsu Ching leader of the Taiping Rebellion, Cleveland Amory, Alfred Spaulding 1850, founder of Spaulding sports equipment, Martha Mitchell, Mark Harmon is 72, Marge Champion, Terry Bradshaw, Chrysta McAuliffe, Jimmy Connors, Norm Ferguson, Selma Hayek is 56, Keanu Reeves is 59<br /> <br /> 44BC- In the Roman senate, Marcus Cicero delivered the first of his speeches condemning Mark Anthony. He called them his Philippics, because they were modeled on Demosthenes’ speeches against Phillip of Macedon. <br /> <br /> 31 BC- The Battle of Actium- Large naval battle near Corfu that decided that Octavian and not Anthony &amp; Cleopatra would be the master of Rome. Legend has it that before a battle the priests spread out sacred chicken feed and could predict victory or defeat based on how the sacred chickens would peck. This time the chicken wouldn't peck. Anthony said:" If the chickens won't peck, then let them drink!" And had them all thrown overboard. He lost the battle. Don't mess with the sacred chickens! <br /> <br /> 1191- Richard the Lionheart and Sultan Saladin made peace. Contrary to legend and Hollywood movies, Richard and Saladin never met face to face. Saladin couldn't defeat Richard in open battle but knew the English king's time in the Holy Land was limited, because he had to get his lands back from his brother Prince John. Richard knew Saladin was old, his Jihad was spent, and Richard fully expected to return by 1196 and then take Jerusalem back. So, they made peace for now. Richard got for Christians the freedom to worship at the Holy Sepulcher, which they always had before the Crusades anyway. Richard even offered his sister in marriage to Saladin’s brother. Saladin died the following year, but Richard never did return to Palestine. He died in 1199 from a gangrenous arrow-scratch while attacking a small castle in France named Chalus.<br /> <br /> 1415- Czech theologian Jan Hus had traveled to a Church conference in Constance to explain why the Church needed to be reformed. The Church elders burned him as a heretic, despite a promise of safety. This day 500 Czech leaders signed a note to the Vatican stating Hus was a good Catholic, they denounced his burning and declared they would fight to the last drop of blood for his doctrines. The Hussite Wars Began.<br /> <br /> 1572- Edward De Vere, the young Earl of Oxford, was first presented at the court of Queen Elizabeth. Scion of an ancient family, he lived several years traveling Europe, particularly Italy.<br /> Recent scholarship has made a strong argument that DeVere may have actually been the author of Shakespeare’s plays. Because 12 plays are set in parts of Italy he traveled, and they demonstrated a knowledge of detail of Italian topography and society that the Will Shakespeare from Stratford could not have known. Then it would have been undignified for a Peer of the Realm to indulge in such middle-class pursuits as playwriting, Actors then were looked upon as a step up from prostitutes. So, Oxford may have used Shakespeare as his cover identity. We may never know for sure.<br /> <br /> 1609- HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEW YORK CITY. Henry Hudson and his Dutch ship "Halve Maen -Half Moon" entered New York Harbor. Twenty canoes of Indians rowed out to welcome the strange looking craft. The French under Cartier and English under Cabot had cruised by years earlier but did not bother to stop there. <br /> Hudson sailed 100 miles up the Hudson River looking for China, but he only found more river and forest. He reported home about this "Great River, not unlike the Rhine and this Great Natural Bay, Wherein a Thousand Ships May Ride Tranquilly in Harbor." <br /> <br /> 1666- THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON- started in the bakery shop of Thomas Farynor on Pudding Lane. The Lord Mayor was woken up at 3:00AM. At first, he was not impressed, “Tosh, an old woman might piss it out!" Actually, it burned down the city, including Old St. Paul's Cathedral. 200,000 Londoners were left homeless. King Charles and his brother James (James II) pitched in personally as firefighters. <br /> After several days struggle it was finally put out. Samuel Pepys climbed up the steeple of Old St. Brides and recorded his eyewitness account in his diary. It was a tough time to be a Londoner, because shortly before the Great Fire was the Great Plague. But the great architect Christopher Wren rebuilt St. Paul’s and other London monuments into the beautiful images we know today.<br /> <br /> 1752 - Last day of the Julian or Old-Style calendar in Britain and her colonies, including the<br /> US and Canada. You went to sleep the evening of Sept. 2nd and awoke on the morning of Sept. 14th. The Gregorian Calendar had been promulgated in Rome in 1582, but it took this long for the Protestant countries to get on board with the new system.<br /> <br /> 1772- The FIRST PARTITION OF the POLAND. Russia, Austria and Prussia start to digest the Polish Commonwealth, which then included the Ukraine, Belarus (then called the Voivode of Ruthenia), Moldova and the Baltic States. These nations disappeared in 1794 not to reappear until 1919 (and later until 1991). English statesman William Pitt called it "One of the great political crimes of our Century." This gives folks like Frederic Chopin, Josef Conrad, Madame Curie and Count Pulaski an opportunity to chalk up a lot of travel miles in exile.<br /> <br /> 1775- The U.S. Navy is born. George Washington gave a commission to the U.S.S. Hannah. Most of the infant navy were privately funded pirate ships, given the nice label "commissioned privateer". The British refused to give Americans the status of foreign belligerents, so they referred to any sea-going Yankees as Pirates.<br /> <br /> 1784- Thomas Coke was named the first Bishop of the Methodist rite, by founder John Wesley.<br /> <br /> 1792- The September Massacres- When the French Revolution seized power the mob locked up pro French royalists, noblemen and priests. They were confused about just how far to go with trying them. But this day after radical publisher Jean Paul Marat called for death to all traitors because they were plotting with the German invaders to destroy the Revolution, mobs broke into the various prisons around Paris. They murdered the inmates by the thousands with swords, clubs and lynching from streetlights. "A’ la Lantern!" meant hang people from a lamppost. The massacres continued until Sept. 6th, but the real Reign of Terror was just getting started.<br /> <br /> 1795- Happy Birthday Cleveland. A group of Connecticut businessmen bought a tract of land on Lake Erie and lay out a new settlement. Their agent and project supervisor Moses Cleveland named the place for himself.<br /> <br /> 1814- A landing party from the British warship HMS Hermes visited the Louisiana pirate Jean Lafitte in his lair at Barataria Island in the swamps near the Bayou St. Jean. They offered him a captaincy in the Royal Navy and $30,000 dollars in gold if he would aid the British in capturing New Orleans. Lafitte said he would think about it, then passed on all he heard on to the Americans. It was the first warning the Americans had that the British planned to attack in force at the mouth of the Mississippi.<br /> <br /> 1859- THE CARRINGTON EVENT. One of the largest geomagnetic solar storms ever recorded struck the Earth. The Aurora Borealis was seen as far south as the Caribbean. Telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed. In the Pacific Northwest, the aurora was so bright that people could read a newspaper at night by its light. According to calculations by insurers Lloyd's of London and risk assessor AER, if a storm of the same magnitude struck the Earth now, it would cause up to $2.6 trillion worth of damage. The storm is known as the Carrington event after the British astronomer, Richard Carrington, who recorded the storm's genesis as a sunspot on 28 August.<br /> <br /> 1864- "Luki Lock the Door! The Yankees are coming!" Sherman’s army entered Atlanta.<br /> <br /> 1897 – McCalls magazine first published. <br /> <br /> 1898- THE BATTLE OF OMDURMAN Lord Herbert Kitchener the Sirdar turned heavy cannon and machine guns on attacking Sudannese tribesmen. Kitchener later revealed his cruel side by refusing any medical aid for the enemy wounded and letting hundreds of them die slowly where they fell. 20,000 Sudanese fell to 48 British casualties. Standing in the field of corpses Kitchener said he had given the enemy a "Thoroughly Good Dusting." Kipling writes some neat poems, young Winston Churchill gets decorated and Kitchener breaks open the tomb of the Dervish religious messiah El Mahdi and had, his skull made into a drinking cup. Prime Minister Gladestone told him this is not a terribly civilized thing to do, so he got rid of it. <br /> <br /> 1901- In a speech Teddy Roosevelt said the U.S. should " Speak softly and carry a big stick!"<br /> <br /> 1909- On the three hundredth anniversary of Henry Hudson’s discovery New York City held a grand birthday party. Hundreds of ships and public spectacles capped off with Wilbur Wright flying his new aeroplane around the Statue of Liberty. Thomas Edison illuminating the entire skyline with the new electric bulbs- the first time a city was illuminated at night by electricity.<br /> <br /> 1917- Baron von Richtofen the Red Baron first took to the sky with his new all red Fokker triplane. In it, he forced down an English Sopwith Camel fighter plane intact. The rotary engine Fokker had a design flaw that made it buck sharply to the right whenever you let up on the rudder bar. Richtofen would let an enemy get behind him, then he would lift his foot from the bar. The plane would jerk quickly to the right and he would zip behind his opponent. Then with a cheerful wave he'd shoot them down.<br /> <br /> 1922 -Weimar President Fritz Ebert declares "Deutschlandlied" as the German national anthem. The song was written in the 1770’s by Franz Josef Haydn, who had heard “God Save the King” while touring in London and decided his Kaiser needed a song too. It was originally named Gott Enhalte Kaiser Franz.<br /> <br /> 1924- Harold Lloyd’s comedy short "Why Worry?" released.<br /> <br /> 1925- French and Spanish troops attacked the Moroccan coastline under Abdl el Krim to re-establish their colonial interests. The first Spanish troops landing at Alhucemas Bay were led by a Colonel Francisco Franco, later dictator of Spain.<br /> <br /> 1930 - 1st non-stop airplane flight from Europe to US –only 37 hrs.<br /> <br /> 1931-Young new singer Bing Crosby sang for the first time on CBS radio.<br /> <br /> 1935- A huge hurricane submerged the Florida Keys, killing 443. They did not give them names yet. The storm was the inspiration for Maxwell Anderson to write the play Key Largo in 1939, which became a famous Humphrey Bogart-Lauren Bacall movie in 1948.<br /> <br /> 1942- At the Changi POW Camp in Malaysia, Japanese authorities were having difficulty convincing their British prisoners to be slave labor to build the Bridge on the River Quai. At Selarang Barracks they herded 15,000 prisoners into a building only meant to house 1,000. In the morning the surviving prisoners agreed to work. Artist Ronald Searle survived and was there to record the incident. <br /> <br /> 1945- WORLD WAR II OFFICIALLY ENDED. The grand surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay on board the battleship U.S.S. Missouri. Imperial Japan signed the surrender before the representatives of the great powers. General Douglas MacArthur presided. His normally pompous speaking style seemed appropriate for this dramatic moment:" These proceedings are now concluded. The most tragic era in human history has drawn to a close. We hope that future generations will not resort to war to resolve their problems." <br /> The only glitch in the ceremony was the Canadian representative signed the surrender in the space reserved for the Japanese ambassador, and MacArthur brought his own pens which he then took back for souvenirs. General Claire Chennault, the leader of the Flying Tigers had an ego almost as big as MacArthur's. He was the American general most under enemy fire, but he was not invited to the ceremony because the top brass considered him a pain in the ass.<br /> <br /> 1946- "The Iceman Cometh" by Eugene O’Neill premiered at the Martin Beck Theater on Broadway.<br /> <br /> 1963 - CBS &amp; NBC expand network news from 15 to 30 minutes. CBS named a reporter to star in their broadcast with the new title of "news anchor"- Walter Cronkite.<br /> <br /> 1964- Ten months after his brother’s assassination, Robert Kennedy resigned his post as attorney general of the United States to run for Senator of New York. Bobbie Kennedy and new president Lyndon Johnson hated one another. Johnson said he felt snubbed by that "Pipsqueak and his Massachusetts Mafia." Bobbie Kennedy referred to the President and First Lady as "Colonel Cornpone and the Little Piggy". Johnson’s decision not to run for re-election in 1968 in part was because he felt he would have to put his popularity up against Bobby Kennedy. <br /> <br /> 1969- The first ATM opened at a branch of Chemical Bank at Rockville Center, NY.<br /> <br /> 1973- J.R.R. Tolkein died at age 81. He once said of his trilogy The Lord of the Rings- “I should have written more.”<br /> <br /> 1985- A team of French and American oceanographers led by Dr. Robert Ballard discovered the final resting place of the HMS Titanic, which sank in 1912. <br /> Ballard would go on to discover the German battleship Bismarck, the WWII carrier Yorktown and JFK’s torpedo boat, the P.T. 109.<br /> <br /> 2001- Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim started. <br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: 1960’s trivia: Who was Oddjob?<br /> <br /> Answer: Oddjob was Goldfinger's villainous henchman in Ian Fleming’s James Bond novel and the movie. Oddjob was a master of martial arts (played by Olympic weightlifter Harold Sakata) who famously used a steel brimmed derby he could throw like a frisbee to wreck havoc on his victims. (Thanks FG)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 01 Sep 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6246 <p>Quiz: 1960’s trivia: Who was Oddjob?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: Where do the Tlingit people live?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 9/1/2023<br /> Welcome to September from Septembrius Mensis, After August the Romans ran out of names for months. Septembrius means Number 7, March being the first month of the Roman Calendar.<br /> <br /> Birthdays: Joachim Pachebel, Gentleman Jim Corbet, Sir Roger Casement, Seiji Ozawa, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Walter Reuther founder of the United Auto Workers, Englebert Humperdinck- the 19th century composer, Conway Twitty, Jack Hawkins, Leonard Slatkin, Yvonne DeCarlo, Gloria Estefan, Mike Lah, Boxcar Willie, Richard Farnsworth, Lily Tomlin is 84 <br /> <br /> 338BC- BATTLE OF CHAERONEA. Phillip of Macedon, with his son Alexander the Great, defeated the combined armies of the Greek city states. The Macedonian victory united Greece for the first time under their rule. It was said that night Phillip celebrated by getting roaring drunk, then going out on the battlefield and dancing on the bodies of the slain. The elite corps of the Theban army was the Sacred Band, a unit where every warrior was married to the man next to him. This way you are less likely to run away from a battle if your husband is next to you rather than a stranger. The system worked, none broke ranks, the Sacred Band fought and died to the last man. <br /> <br /> 1642- THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR BEGAN- Charles I of England, tired of arguing with his Parliament over money, religion and legislative power, set up his standard at Nottingham and called for the nobles of the Realm to bring troops to put down his saucy subjects.<br /> <br /> 1661- King Charles II introduced England to a sport he picked up while an exile in Holland, Yacht racing. Yacght is Dutch for little ship. This day in front of the court the King and his brother James raced each other down the Thames. <br /> <br /> 1715- French King Louis XIV, the Sun King, died at 76. He said: "Idiots! Did you think I would live forever?" later " Hmmm, I thought dying would be harder." His mistress Madame DeMaintenon once complained to the archbishop that the king still insisted on sex every day and at 68 she was tired. The archbishop replied: "It is all our duty to obey the king." <br /> <br /> 1730- Benjamin Franklin married Deborah Regan, the mother of his illegitimate son William. William nursed a lasting hatred of his father for his shoddy treatment of him. When the revolution broke out William Franklin was the Royalist Governor of New Jersey. When Ben Franklin died he left nothing in his will to his son: " It is as much as he would have left me were the roles reversed."<br /> <br /> 1772- The Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa founded in California.<br /> <br /> 1774- EIGHT MONTHS BEFORE LEXINGTON AND CONCORD- Royal Governor in Boston General Thomas Gage had been ordered by London to get tough with these unruly colonials. This day he sent a force of redcoats to Cambridge to confiscate a store of gunpowder he believed would be used against him. The word spread that the troops were coming and the rumors grew to wild proportions. All the way in Connecticut and New York the rumor was Gage's men were burning farms and bayoneting innocent people in their beds.<br /> As the redcoat troops marched off they noticed hundreds of heavily armed farmers emerging from the woods, only dispersing after hearing that the atrocity stories were false. An army of Minutemen had materialized with hours before the British officer’s eyes and disappeared as quickly. Gage wrote London that things were getting out of hand. <br /> <br /> 1775- British King George III asks Czarina Catherine the Great for 20,000 Russian troops to put down the American rebellion. She declined, but later said: "If I were my cousin George, rather than give up my American colonies I would sooner put a pistol to my head." The British crown did buy mercenaries from the Elector of Hess, the famous Hessians. The cost England for ten pounds, ten penny a man. The elector became very rich exporting his subjects, he received an extra charge whenever one was killed or wounded. Frederick the Great of Prussia charged cattle tax when they were transported over his territory. The Rothschild Bank was founded to handle the expenses. Of the 15,000 Hessians sent to America, only 5,000 ever returned. The rest weren't all killed, most decided to stay, settle down and become Americans.<br /> <br /> 1785 - Mozart publishes 6 string quartet Opus 10 in Vienna.<br /> <br /> 1799 - The Manhattan Company chartered. This was a clever bit of maneuvering by Aaron Burr to move in on the banking trade dominated by Alexander Hamilton’s The Bank of New York. The Manhattan Company was proposed as a fund to finance the building of new sources of fresh water. New York City’s mushrooming population was constantly beset by diseases of poor sanitation- yellow fever, dysentery, typhus. Hamilton controlled the State Legislature, but saw nothing wrong in building aqueducts. So the company was granted a charter.<br /> Deep in the company’s boiler plate text was an amendment allowing it to open a bank as well. Much to Hamilton’s chagrin the Manhattan Bank opened. The Manhattan Bank in 1840 dropped its water projects and united with the Chase Bank to form the Chase Manhattan Bank. Hamilton and Burr would settle their differences with pistols in 1804, but Chase is still around today.<br /> <br /> 1802 – The Aurora, a scandalous newspaper, first accused President Thomas Jefferson of having an 'improper relationship' with his slave Sally Hemmings. “Dusky Sally” was the child of Jefferson’s own father in law and his slave that Jefferson had inherited. When they met in 1786 he was in his late forties and she was fourteen. Friends said they lived together like man and wife for 38 years. In 1998 DNA testing of descendants proved Jefferson indeed created offspring with his servant Ms. Hemmings, although outraged Jefferson apologists still try to blame the paternity on a cousin.<br /> <br /> 1807- Chief Justice John Marshall finds former Vice President Aaron Burr not guilty of treason against the United States. President Thomas Jefferson was so mad that Marshall let his old enemy off the hook that he tried to have the chief justice impeached and had Burr's defense attorney, Luther Martin, put in jail. Burr always maintained his real purpose was the conquest of Texas. He lived long enough to see Texas independence and remarked” I was right! Only thirty years too soon”.<br /> <br /> 1836- A wagon train of Presbyterian missionaries reached the site of Walla-Walla Washington. One member of the party Narcissa Whitman, was the first white woman to cross the Rockies.<br /> <br /> 1836- In Jerusalem, Rabbi Judah Hasid began to build his synagogue and his reform movement- Hasidim.<br /> <br /> 1852- The Hot Dog or Frankfurter was invented by a group of butchers in Frankfurt, Germany. Frankfurterwurst didn't catch on in the U.S. until it was served at the opening the Coney Island Exhibition in 1894, where it was billed as a Vienna Sausage or Red Hots. Dog was one newspaper's speculation on the origin of the meat. It was first served at a baseball game in 1910.<br /> <br /> 1859- The first Pullman sleeping car train went into service. <br /> <br /> 1864- After Sherman threatened his last escape route at Decatur, General John Bell Hood abandoned the City of Atlanta to the Yankees. By now the 34 year old Texas born General Hood had his arm amputated at Gettysburg and a leg blown off a Chickamagua. He required straps to hold him up in his saddle. Yet he survived the Civil War, became a US senator and fathered nine children. <br /> <br /> 1870- THE BATTLE OF SEDAN. French Emperor Napoleon III lost his Empire losing to the Prussians and gets captured to boot. He had allowed himself to be bottled up in a fortress and pounded on all sides by new long distance German steel cannon. French General LaCroix wrote: " We are caught in a chamberpot and here comes la merde." When it came time to surrender the generals couldn't bear the humiliation, so they made LaCroix go and do the honors.<br /> <br /> 1885- Mrs. Emma Nutt became the first telephone switchboard operator. At first telephone companies used telegraph errand boys to connect calls but switched to women after customers complained of the boys saucy wisecracks and rude attitude on the phone.<br /> <br /> 1897- The Boston T-train opened. Between Park St and Boylston. The first subway line in the U.S. The New York subway opened in 1904.<br /> <br /> 1901 - Construction began on NY Stock Exchange.<br /> <br /> 1905-The Canadian territories of Prince Rupertland become the Provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.<br /> <br /> 1913 - George Bernard Shaw’s play "Androcles &amp; the Lion," premieres in London. <br /> <br /> 1916- The Keating-Owen Act banned child labor from interstate commerce.<br /> <br /> 1919- Pat Sullivan's 'Feline Follies" cartoon staring Felix the Cat. Felix is the first true animated star, not depended on a previous newspaper comic strip. His body prototype, a black peanut shape with four fingers, will be the standard for years to come. By 1926 he was the most popular star in Hollywood after Chaplin and Valentino. Lindbergh had a Felix doll in his plane. The first television image broadcast by scientists in 1928 was of a Felix doll.<br /> <br /> 1923- The Kanto Earthquake. Tokyo and Yokohama are destroyed by the largest earthquake recorded in the twentieth century. 100,000 died.<br /> <br /> 1928- Paul Terry premiered his sound cartoon RCA Photophone system for a short called "Dinner Time". Walt Disney rushed by train out from Los Angeles to see it. Later he telephoned his brother Roy back in L.A." My Gosh, Terrible! A Lot of Racket and Nothing Else!" He said they could continue completing their first sound cartoon "Steamboat Willie". <br /> <br /> 1932- Mayor Jimmy Walker resigned as Mayor of New York. The corrupt but colorful Walker was a former vaudeville hoofer who wrote a hit song "Will you love me in September like you do in May.?" and flouted his chorus girl mistress at social functions. The man who served out Walker’s term was John P. ”Boo-Boo” O’Brian, another Tamany machine politician who was so inept that when a reporter asked who he planned to name as the new Sewer Commissioner O’Brian said “A decision hasn’t been given me yet..”<br /> <br /> 1939- FIRST CANNES FILM FESTIVAL- The premiere film event in Europe had been the Venice Film Festival but western democracies tired of the bias of the judges for Fascist and Nazi films. For example Walt Disney was annoyed his Snow White, the box office and critical champ of 1938, lost out to Leni Reifenstahl's Olympia. So the little French Riviera city was chosen as the site for a new festival. Two days after opening World War II was declared and the festival shut down until 1946.<br /> <br /> 1939- WORLD WAR II BEGAN. The Nazi Army blitzkriegs into Poland. Britain and France declared war two days later. Blitzkrieg meant Lightning War- heavy motorized tanks and troops moving at full speed into an enemies interior while the airforce destroyed most of the Polish air force still on the ground. The outdated Polish Army still fought with cavalry. The Nazis propaganda Ministry rigged up a border incident to claim Polish troops had fired first. They put dead concentration camp victims in German uniforms in a plan called Operation Canned Goods. So all through the massive invasion the operation was referred to in the German media as the “Counter Offensive”<br /> <br /> 1939- Hitler ordered the mentally ill sent to concentration camps.<br /> <br /> 1939 – The Physics Review published the first paper on a celestial phenomena called "black holes".<br /> <br /> 1941- Hitler passed a law ordering Jews in Nazi occupied countries to wear yellow stars on their clothing for identification. The King of Denmark reacted by donning a yellow star.<br /> <br /> 1942- Battle of Alam Halfa. Rommel the Desert Fox’s final flanking push to try to reach Cairo and the Suez Canal was stopped by Montgomery’s Eighth Army. Rommel had no petrol for any more attacks. He now dug in and awaited Montgomery’s counter attack.<br /> <br /> 1947-In early 1947, the British Government turned over the problem of Palestine and Jewish statehood to the UN. The UN High Commission on Palestine UNSCOM studied the matter and on this day recommended to the General Assembly that two separate states, one Jewish, one Palestinian Arab be set up.<br /> <br /> 1955- Phillip Loeb was a TV star, playing Papa on the show The Goldbergs on radio and television. But the book Red Channels listed him as a Communist. He was blacklisted and the show dropped by CBS and NBC. This day Loeb checked into the Hotel Taft and swallowed a bottle full of sleeping pills. <br /> <br /> 1956- Elvis Presley bought his momma a pink Cadillac. <br /> <br /> 1963- The Mighty Hercules animated TV series began.<br /> <br /> 1966- The Marvel Superheroes animated TV series debuted. By Grantray-Lawrence.<br /> <br /> 1967- After Israel’s big victory in the Six Day War she put out a diplomatic feeler. They offered to return the West Bank, Gaza and Sinai Desert in return for Arab recognition of Israel and stable borders. Today at a meeting of the Arab League in Khartoum Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Jordan said a resounding no. No peace, no recognition, no deals. President Nasser said, “What was lost in war can only be recovered by war.”<br /> <br /> 1969- Col. Mohammar el Khaddafi seized power in Libya after deposing King Idris. He held power until the Arab Spring Revolution overthrew him in 2011.<br /> <br /> 1972 - Bobby Fischer (US) defeated Boris Spassky (USSR) for the world chess title.<br /> The young eccentric genius Fischer was the Tiger Woods of chess and for a time a pop icon. He would after a few years of fame drop out of competition at the height of his powers and go into seclusion.<br /> <br /> 1977 - 1st TRS-80 Model I computer sold<br /> <br /> 1978 - Last broadcast of "Columbo" on NBC.<br /> <br /> 1979- The fantasy book The NeverEnding Story by Michael Ende first published.<br /> <br /> 1979 – An LA Court ordered retired TV star Clayton Moore to stop wearing his Lone Ranger mask in public appearances. Paramount was pushing it’s remake the Legend of the Lone Ranger starring Klinton Spillsbury, so they wanted the old man to stop competing for the spotlight. Today that 1979 movie, as well as the 2013 movie are forgotten, while many still fondly remember the old TV show,<br /> <br /> 1982- In Houston, three friends from Texas Instruments, Rod Canion, Bill Murto, and Jim Harris got together and formed the company COMPAQ. They designed their first portable computer on a back of a House of Pies placemat. Made with off the shelf components, and compatible with all IBM programs it was a tremendous success.<br /> <br /> 1982 - Max US speedometer reading mandated at 85 MPH.<br /> <br /> 1983- A Korean KAL 747 passenger airliner had strayed into Russian airspace over the Sakhalin islands. Soviet authorities had the 747 shot down, killing 269 innocent people including 60 Americans and a US congressman. President Reagan decried this “barbarous act” and called for sanctions. Truth be told US and Korean intelligence played games of chicken with the commies using civilian airliners. Also KAL pilots were given monetary bonuses if they got to their destinations ahead of time, so this pilot used the Sakhalin shortcut. Passengers were kept unaware of these dangerous games.<br /> <br /> 1995 – The Rock &amp; Roll Hall of Fame opened in Cleveland Ohio.<br /> <br /> 1998- The Wild Thornberries TV series premiered.<br /> ============================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Where do the Tlingit people live?<br /> <br /> Answer: They are an indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest. Their territory resides in Canadian British Columbia and Yukon, and American Alaska.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 31 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6245 <p>Question: Where do the Tlingit people live?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Among great American inventors, what did William Kennedy-Laurie Dickson do?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 8/31/2023<br /> Birthdays: Caligula 12AD*, Commodus 161AD**, Amilcare Ponchielli, Eldridge Cleaver, Buddy Hackett, James Coburn, Itshak Perleman is 76, Van Morrison, Arthur Godfrey, Richard Baseheart, Rocky Marciano. Alan J. Lerner, Hugh Harman, Maria Montressori (of the Montressori Method of education), Hugh Harman, William Saroyan, Richard Gere is 73, Chris Tucker is 50. <br /> <br /> • Caligula was a nickname. His real name was Gaius, but as a child in his dad's army camp the troops dressed him up in his own little uniform. An army issued boot in Latin was a caligae, so they called him Caligula, or Little Boots. As Emperor if you called him that he'd have you killed.<br /> <br /> ** Commodus was yet another mad Roman Emperor. He'd have you killed if you reminded him that he had the same birthday as Caligula. Romans refused to believe such a loser as Commodus could be the son of the great philosopher Marcus Aurelius. The rumor was the empress slept with a gladiator while Marcus was away in Germany. When Marcus found out he was …uh…philosophical.<br /> <br /> 1422- King Henry V of England had settled the Hundred Years War in England’s favor after the great victory of Agincourt. But this day he died of dysentery at age 35 before the peace could hold. Had he lived, the Hundred Years War would have been the 90 Years War.<br /> <br /> 1535- Pope Paul II excommunicated English King Henry VIII for this Protestant –Reformation thing he was doing.<br /> <br /> 1798- Haitian leader Touissaint L’Overture signed a secret peace treaty with British General Maitland. In it the British and Spanish resolved to stop trying to invade Haiti and in turn Touissaint promised to not spread his revolution to the slaves of British Jamaica.<br /> <br /> 1829- Rossini’s Opera Guglielmo Tell debuted in Paris. The William Tell overture was heard for the first time- Hi Ho Silver!<br /> <br /> 1837- Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered his American Scholar speech in Cambridge Mass. “Our long apprenticeship to the learning of other lands is drawing to a close.” People called it an intellectual declaration of independence.<br /> <br /> 1879- THE RETREAT TO KANDAHAR- The British hold on Afghanistan and the Khyber Pass was difficult and dangerous. After a British force was wiped out by Ayub Khan at Maiwand, General Primrose reported he was surrounded at Kandahar. Lord Roberts, or “Lil’ Bobs” conducted his army on an epic march from Kabul to Kandahar fighting off heavy attacks on all sides from Afghan tribesmen. Once there he discovered to his annoyance that Primrose had overreacted, and the Kandahar garrison wasn’t in any real danger. Roberts proceeded to defeat the forces of Ayub Khan and later was also victorious in the Boer War. <br /> He received the thanks of Parliament and was made Lord Roberts of Kandahar. Even his horse received a medal. Kipling wrote a poem in his honor “Our Bobs”. Roberts was five foot three, blind in one eye and liked to sip champagne while directing a battle.<br /> <br /> 1881- The first men’s singles competition in tennis was held in Newport Rhode Island. The winner was Richard Sears.<br /> <br /> 1887- Thomas Edison patented the plans for a Kinetoscope, his original version of Motion Pictures using George Eastman’s new celluloid roll film. Most of the actual work was done by Canadian inventor W.K.L. Dickson. Working for Edison, he drove himself sick designing, building and improving the device as well as the camera and studio. He even designed an early sound on film system. But his boss Thomas Edison took all the credit. Edison wrote Edweard Muybridge at the time that he doubted the Kinetoscope would have much commercial value beyond the science lab. When Dickson gave Edison too much grief about not doing more with the new invention, Edison fired him.<br /> <br /> 1888-THE FIRST JACK THE RIPPER MURDER. Then called the Whitechapel Murders. The unique detail was that the Ripper killed his victim Mary Ann Nichols with a simple throat cut, then proceeded to remove her internal organs with the precision of a surgeon. Was the sadist murderer the syphilitic Duke of Clarence? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle suggested it was a woman, a psychotic midwife. An anti-Semitic issue appeared when a cryptic clue at the murder scene was interpreted by some to think the Ripper was Jewish. Then the message was thought to be a freemasons symbol. <br /> After six ghastly killings the murders stopped as mysteriously as they had started. In 1891 an Australian-born abortionist named Dr. Thomas Neill Cream was hanged for poisoning a prostitute. As he dropped through the trapdoor and the rope snapped he shouted: "I AM JAC-...!"<br /> <br /> 1907- Russia and the British Empire sign an entente or alliance. Russia and England had not been allies since the Age of Napoleon. They had fought a war against each other in 1854, competed over Afghanistan and almost went to war again in 1877. When World War I started, the Russian diplomat Isvolsky proudly boasted: " This is MY War !!"<br /> <br /> 1909- A geologist named Walcott hiking in the Canadian Rockies discovered the Burgess Shale. The first fossilized proof of the time period before the dinosaurs called the Cambrian Era. <br /> <br /> 1919- The American Communist Party founded in Chicago with John Reed and Carlos Tresca. This was distinct from Socialist Party tickets. Socialists had been active for years before and around 1912 Socialist Eugene Debs polled over a million votes in his run at the Presidency. Reed died in Russia and Tresca was murdered on a NYC street by agents of either Mussolini or Stalin. In 1945 the CP/USA was outlawed, but reinstated in the 1960s. Black militant professor Angela Davis once ran for president on the Communist ticket. She didn’t win.<br /> <br /> 1928- In Berlin, The ThreePenny Opera premiered, music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by Bertholdt Brecht with Lotte Lenya as Pirate Jenny. Mackie Messer or Mack the Knife was born.<br /> <br /> 1930 -Detroit radio station is 1st to broadcast a news program on the air.<br /> <br /> 1914- The Battle of Tannenberg ended. The Russian assault, called the great Russian Steamroller, was stymied in the forests of Prussia by an old General named Hindenberg who had been reactivated out of retirement.<br /> <br /> 1935- Disney cartoon Plutos’ Judgement Day.<br /> <br /> 1938- Walt Disney put ten thousand dollars down to buy 51 acres on Buena Vista Street in Burbank. He would build his modern air-conditioned studio there.<br /> <br /> 1939- Adolph Hitler sent out "Wartime Order #1-Force White" calling for the attack on Poland to begin on schedule and war to commence without a formal declaration. It also told all German ships at sea to be on alert for the news of hostilities with Britain and France.<br /> <br /> 1939- In Saint Moritz, exiled King of Spain Alfonso XI doubted there was going to be a world war. Even if one did break out, he predicted, it will all be over within a year.<br /> <br /> 1939- The very first comic book from MARVEL COMICS appeared on newsstands. The Human Torch and Submariner. Publisher Martin Goodman hired his wife’s cousin Stanley Leiber as general office manager. In 1941 Leiber changed his name to Stan Lee and became Chief Editor and writer. In 1961 with The Fantastic Four, the unique Marvel style began to emerge.<br /> <br /> 1941 –The Great Gildersleeve, a spin-off of Fibber McGee &amp; Molly debuts on NBC radio. The voice of Gildersleeve later narrated the UPA cartoon Gerald McBoing Boing.<br /> <br /> 1946- Looney Toon short 'Walky Talky Hawky' the first Foghorn Leghorn and Henery Hawk. The Foghorn character was based on a Fred Allen radio character Senator Beauregard Claghorn, that mocked bombastic Southern congressmen.<br /> <br /> 1948- Movie star Robert Mitchum was busted for smoking marijuana with a blonde in the Hollywood Hills. This would have normally smoked his career. Mitchum was so convinced his career was over that when asked by the police to state his occupation he said, "Former actor." But the new, postwar outlaw, noir attitude was in vogue. So bad-boy Mitchum emerged from county jail more popular than ever. When asked what he thought of being in jail, he said it's not much different than being free....but you meet a better clientele of people IN jail.<br /> <br /> 1950- Heaviest North Korean attacks on the Pusan Perimeter, a last stand line of the South Koreans and Americans only 23 miles long and 200 miles deep. General Bulldog Walker told his men:” This will not be another Dunkirk or Bataan, there is no further retreat, it is a fight to the finish!” While Walker and his men held on at Pusan, Douglas MacArthur prepared the amphibious counterattack behind the North Koreans at Inchon.<br /> <br /> 1955 - 1st microwave TV station operated in Lufkin, Texas.<br /> <br /> 1955- 1st sun-powered automobile demonstrated, Chicago, Ill.<br /> <br /> 1954- Make a note of it, the US Census Bureau founded.<br /> <br /> 1957- Malaysia gained independence from Britain.<br /> <br /> 1964 - Ground is broken for Anaheim Stadium, future home of the California Angels.<br /> <br /> 1964- Young comedian Richard Pryor made his first appearance on TV. He did some of his standup on Rudy Vallee’s Broadway Tonight Show.<br /> <br /> 1969- Former Heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano died in a plane crash in Newton Iowa. He had been hurrying home to attend a birthday party in his honor. He was 45.<br /> <br /> 1972- Russian Olga Korbut won a gold medal in gymnastics at the Olympics. She was the first of the cute little 15 year old girl gymnasts with the bright smile to catch the world’s attention.<br /> <br /> 1997- PRINCESS DIANA OF WALES died in a high speed car crash in a Paris traffic tunnel. Her Mercedes had been trying to avoid paparazzi hounding her and her current boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed, the son of the Egyptian tycoon owner of Harrods. The drivers body tested above normal for alcohol and drugs. Princess Di was 36. Britain reacted with an outpouring of grief not seen since the death of Nelson. The rapacious British press worked overtime to absolve themselves of hounding the woman to death. Press baron Rupert Murdoch personally flew to London to direct the spin campaign defending his newspapers. <br /> <br /> 2001- The NY Stock Exchange tries to avoid a Recession and bolster growth, by getting Michael Jackson and Jerry Lewis to ceremonially open trading sessions. Didn’t work.<br /> <br /> 2021- Last US forces left Kabul Afghanistan. After twenty years and trillions of dollars spent to build up the Afghan gov’t and army, they collapsed in a matter of days. <br /> ========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Among great American inventors, what did William Kennedy-Laurie Dickson do?<br /> <br /> Answer: He invented and perfected the motion picture camera. See above 1887.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 30 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6244 <p>Question: Among great American inventors, what did William Kennedy-Laurie Dickson do?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What is philately?<br /> ———————————————————————————<br /> History for 8/30/2023<br /> Birthdays: Mary Shelley, Jacques Louis David, Huey Long, Fred MacMurray, Raymond Massey, Ted Williams, John Blondell, Nancy Kulp, Timothy Bottoms, Jean-Claude Killy, Shirley Booth, John Landis, Tug McGraw, Stephen Silver, R. Crumb is 80, Lewis Black is 75, Cameron Diaz is 51<br /> <br /> Today is the Feast Day of Saint Fiacre, the Patron Saint of Gardeners.<br /> <br /> 30 BC- Cleopatra Philopator committed suicide at age 39. Some accounts have her allowing herself to be bitten by a poison asp concealed in a basket, another said she took poison concealed on a hairpin. It was said she killed herself to join her lover Marc Anthony, more likely it was because the victorious Augustus planned to have her dragged through the streets of Rome in a cage while the mob laughed and threw trash at her, then quietly strangled. The snakebite was thought by Egyptians to bestow immortality. <br /> After Julius Caesar's murder, Marc Anthony and Augustus had divided up the Roman Empire east and west. Cleopatra fell in love with Anthony and governed with him from 41 to 31BC. Augustus defeated them in the naval battle of Actium. Octavian Augustus was only Julius Caesar's nephew. Cleopatra had borne Caesar a natural son, Caesarion. Augustus discovered the boy during this turmoil and had him quietly killed. Octavia, Anthony’s jilted wife, took Cleo’s two other children by Anthony and raised them as her own.<br /> <br /> 304AD- Today is the feast of Saints Felix and Adauctus. Felix was sentenced to be beheaded when a voice in the crowd called out: "I too believe in what this man confesses! Take me too!" The Romans beheaded both of them, but forgot to get the other guy's name. So, it's Saint Felix and Saint What’s-His-Name.<br /> <br /> 1483- French King Louis XI, “the Spider King” died.<br /> <br /> 1721- The Treaty of Nystad ending the Great Northern War. The twenty-year struggle ended Sweden’s status as a butt kicking world power and the coming of Russia as a major player. The aging Czar Peter returned to his new capitol Saint Petersburg to cries of Mir Mir!- Peace! He was being called Pyotr Vyelke- Peter the Great.<br /> <br /> 1784- The Empress of China, a fast-sailing American clipper ship established trade between New England and China. Far East trade had been cut off by the British since the Revolution broke out.<br /> <br /> 1813- The Fort Mims Massacre- Red Eagle and his Creek warriors kill and scalp 500 whites. This was the pretext for the U.S. army driving the Creek Nation out of Alabama and Mississippi. Red Eagle eventually was defeated by Andy Jackson at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. He changed his name to William Weatherford and became a Methodist.<br /> <br /> 1850- Honolulu became a city.<br /> <br /> 1861- Western explorer John C. Freemont was given the Civil War command of the department of the west. This included the embattled states of Missouri and Kansas. The Missouri Governor and most of the legislature were pro-Southern. Many city dwellers were pro-abolition, particularly the German and Scandinavian immigrants. They thought the Declaration of Independence was supposed to be taken literally- “All Men Are Created Equal.” Not the local’s interpretation that it doesn’t include black people. Freemont declared that all slaves that fell into his hands would be set free and all citizens caught in arms against the United States would be executed. President Lincoln made him rescind these orders. He was not ready to free the slaves…not yet.<br /> <br /> 1873- The Royal Canadian Mounted Police- The Mounties formed. <br /> <br /> 1867- At the University of Göttingen, Albert Niemann isolated the chemical elements of the Columbian coca plant and named the powdery substance Cocaine.<br /> <br /> 1880- Diablo, chief of the Cibecue Apache, was killed fighting the White Mountain Apache.<br /> <br /> 1919- THE RED TERROR- Think of the famous assassins of history- Brutus, John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, Fanny Kaplan…..Fanny Kaplan? Yep, on this day in Moscow, Socialist Fanya Kaplan fired several bullets into Lenin. Several hours before this attack the head of the Saint Petersburg secret police Moishe Uritsky was assassinated. Uritsky was from an Orthodox Jewish family but joined the Communists like many Jews who hated the Anti-Semitic regime of the Czar. <br /> Lenin survived, Fanny was shot, and the police destroyed all remaining critics of the Bolshevik Revolution. Founder of the Communist Secret police, Felix Derzhinsky, said: Our purpose is not to find justice, but to mete out retribution!” <br /> In twenty months, they jailed and executed more Russians than the Tsar’s police did in the entire Nineteenth Century. <br /> A defining moment in the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was when Russians pulled down the huge statue of Derzhinsky in front of KGB headquarters.<br /> <br /> 1932- DID CHURCHILL EVER MEET HITLER? In 1932, Winston Churchill was out of government, and travelling in Bavaria to research his biography of the Duke of Marlborough. While in Munich, a mutual friend Ernst “Putzi” Hafstaengl suggested a meeting with the up and coming German politician named Adolf Hitler. This day they were supposed to meet for coffee. But Hitler stood Winston up. “Herr Hitler’ Hanfstaengl said, ‘don’t you realize the Churchills are sitting in the restaurant? They are expecting you for coffee and will think this a deliberate insult.’ Hitler replied, “It is of no consequence. He is out of power. What on earth would I talk to him about?” So they never did meet face to face. <br /> <br /> 1935- “Top Hat” starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers premiered.<br /> <br /> 1936- First newspaper comic strip entirely devoted to Donald Duck.<br /> <br /> 1939- The last peacetime voyage of the HMS Queen Mary left Southampton evacuating Americans fleeing the impending war in Europe. Among the crowd was a large contingent of Hollywood stars like Robert Montgomery, Loretta Young, Bob Hope and Jack Warner who planned to attend the first Cannes Film Festival (postponed until 1946).<br /> The Queen Mary kept radio silence across the ocean to hide from U-Boats. This was wise because her sister ship HMS Athenia was torpedoed.<br /> <br /> 1939- The first Marvel comic book went on sale. Marvel comic #1, introducing The Human Torch and the Submariner.<br /> <br /> 1942- Cartoonist Al Kapp premiered his comic strip “Fearless Fosdick”, a spoof of Dick Tracy detective stories.<br /> <br /> 1945- THE AMERICAN SHOGUN- Gen. Douglas MacArthur landed on mainland Japan as their military governor.<br /> After the ceasefire was announced, there still was a lot of distrust on both sides, and in the streets of Japan gangs of outraged youths and kamikaze pilots fought loyal troops trying to restart the war. Into this turmoil General MacArthur and his staff flew in alone ahead of any other allied occupying troops. He even ordered his staff to leave their pistols behind to show their fearlessness to the Japanese. He also wanted to get there before Admiral Nimitz and the Navy got there first and stole his spotlight.<br /> In a sight that alarmed his staff as MacArthur drove to Yokohama the road was lined on both sides with 30,000 crack Japanese troops standing silent with fixed bayonets. <br /> They were not threatening but saluting their new Shogun. They even faced backwards from the road not looking at MacArthur, a gesture of respect reserved only for the Emperor.<br /> While the still new Truman administration focused on Europe, MacArthur was left with a free hand to reshape Japanese society as he saw fit. He used the power of unquestioning Japanese social discipline to give women the vote, form labor unions and rewrite their constitution, setting the basis of Japanese democracy.<br /> <br /> 1963- The HOT LINE is set up between the White House and the Kremlin.<br /> It was never really a red telephone, more a coded teletype machine. It was to prevent misunderstandings like the Cuban Missile Crisis the previous year. In 1986 they became a fax machine, and since 2008 a secure e-mail link. <br /> We know now that in 1973 Nixon had put U.S. forces on red alert war footing to prevent the Soviets from intervening in the Arab-Israeli Yom Kippur War. In 1980 the Fail Safe system failed and reported 12,000 Soviet missiles were coming at us over the North Pole. Jimmy Carter had just 5 minutes to decide whether it was a mistake or the dreaded first strike warranting our full retaliation. We're all still here, so I guess you know how Carter chose.<br /> <br /> 1968- The first 7-11 store opened in Palmdale California. Have a Slurpee!<br /> <br /> 1975- Ralph Bakshi's film "Coonskin". Bad boy Bakshi's portrayal of African American urban violence was deemed so offensive that it caused the first ever riot at the Museum of Modern Art, and it died at the box office. The film was retitled on video "Streetfight". When Ralph resurfaced, he turned his attention to Sword &amp; Fantasy films.<br /> <br /> 1979- President Jimmy Carter claimed that while boating on vacation in Georgia he was attacked by an enraged rabbit.<br /> <br /> 1980- Willie Nelson released his hit song “On the Road Again.”<br /> <br /> 1983- Lt. Guion Bluford, the first African American in Space, went up on the Challenger space shuttle. <br /> <br /> 1992- Astronomers Jane Luu and David Jewitt discovered the Kuiper Belt. That out at the edge of our Solar System, where Pluto is, is a second asteroid belt of even more particles and debris. <br /> <br /> 1993- The David Letterman Show premiered on CBS. Letterman was wooed away from NBC for $42 million bucks.<br /> <br /> 2012- At the Republican Presidential convention, venerable 80 year old filmmaker Clint Eastwood made a fool out of himself by improvising a rambling dialogue with an empty chair that he meant to be the absent Pres. Barack Obama. Eastwood was supposed to introduce candidate Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech, but his bizarre performance upstaged anything Romney said. This followed the keynote speech by New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who talked only about himself for 16 minutes before he ever mentioned Romney. For this and many other reasons, Romney lost in a landslide.<br /> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is philately?<br /> <br /> Answer: Stamp-collecting.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 28 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6243 <p>Question: What is the capitol of Australia?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Answer Below: Who was the first Pope born in the Western Hemisphere?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 8/28/2023<br /> Birthdays: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Leo Tolstoy, Jack "King" Kirby. George Villiers the Duke of Buckingham- minister of James I, Sean O'Flagherty, Donald O'Connor, Charles Boyer, Karl Boehm, Bruno Bettleheim, Disney designer Ferdinand Horvath, Ben Gazzara, Janet Evans, Ron 'Louisiana Lightning' Guidry, Nancy Kulp, Daniel Stern, Shania Twain, anim historian Charles Solomon, Jack Black is 54, Rita Coolidge is 62. <br /> <br /> In Hong Kong, today is the Festival is the Festival of Hungry Ghosts.<br /> <br /> 29BC- In ancient Rome, dedication of the altar to Victory.<br /> <br /> 79AD- POMPEII AND HERCULANEUM DESTROYED-The great volcano Vesuvius erupted, burying the two Roman cities. The Emperor Titus rushed a fleet commanded by the scientist Pliny to rescue as many as he could. Pliny was overcome by the sulphureous fumes and died. His son, Pliny the Younger, eye-witnessed it all and wrote a moving account of the tragedy in his 'letters'. Scientists have been digging at the site of Pompeii-Herculaneum since it's rediscovery in 1726, but estimates are there's as many as 10,000 skeletons are still buried. Recently archaeologists may have identified Pliny the Elder’s remains. Near an evacuation beach they found a skeleton of a 45 year old man with golden insignia on his clothing and a sword in a gold sheath.<br /> <br /> 390AD-This was the Feast of Saint Augustine of Hippo. He was the Saint who tried every weird cult he could find before converting to Christianity, He drove his mother Saint Monica crazy, but his experiences helped him develop an answer to every anti-Christian argument. His famous book was "the City of God". For a Saint he could have done stand-up. He was famous for one liners like when someone asked him "What did God do before he created the world?" Augustine answered: "He made a hell for people who ask stupid questions!" He once half-jokingly suggested that in the Garden of Eden, before the Fall, Adam's penis was a voluntary organ. When he wanted it up, it was up, when he wanted it down, it was down. But, after the Fall, one of God's punishments was to make Adam's penis an involuntary organ. Which is why Adam and all his descendants have felt the need to cover their shame at having lost control of it. St. Augustine’s motto was "Lord, Make me Chaste- but not just yet..."<br /> <br /> 476AD- The Last Roman Emperor of the West, the boy Romulus Augustulus, was deposed. It was done by his counselor and actual power behind the throne, the barbarian warlord named Odoacer. Odoacer sent the Imperial diadem and insignia to the Zeno the Emperor of the East in Constantinople and declared himself King of the Germans in Italy. The Roman Senate continued on for another hundred years, but more as a municipal administrator. <br /> <br /> 1296- The Ragman Roll- English King Edward I “Longshanks” dropped his pretense of protection of the Scottish crown and instead went for direct annexation to England. He had the Stone of Destiny, called the Stone of Scone removed to London. Then this day Scottish nobles in Parliament from King John Balliol were called upon one by one to pledge allegiance to King Edward, or else. The only resistance came from peasant born leader William Wallace. The ceremony went on for so long such it coined a term for long inane formalities- Rigamarole.<br /> <br /> 1526- Battle of Mohacs. The Turkish Sultan Sulieman the Magnificent defeated the Hungarian army of Jan Hunyadi the "White Knight of Christendom". This victory pushed the borders of the Muslim world right up to the gates of Vienna Austria. <br /> <br /> 1565 - Oldest city in the US, St Augustine Fla, established.<br /> <br /> 1609- Henry Hudson explored Delaware Bay.<br /> <br /> 1678- THE POPISH PLOT- A man named Titus Oates came before King Charles II and the Parliament and declared he had uncovered a plot by English Catholics, Jesuits, the Bishop of Armaugh, and the Pope to kill King Charles, enthrone his Catholic brother James, burn London and land an army of mercenaries to force the English people back into Roman Church by force! Odds Fish! King Charles laughed it off but the public took him seriously. <br /> There may have been one or two forlorn Catholic schemes but nothing on the scale Oates described, yet England went crazy for the next several months executing anybody accused. Titus Oates became very rich, but he finally was caught in his lies and sent to prison. When a mob of anti-Catholic Londoners attacked the carriage of the kings mistress Nell Gywnn thinking it was one of Charles’ French tootsies, Nell poked her head out of the carriage and cried: ” Peace be with you Good Citizens! I am the PROTESTANT Whore!” the mob then cheered. <br /> <br /> 1776 – The day after George Washington’s Army was defeated by the British in Brooklyn this day heavy rain and fog canceled any actions. After the battle the British pushed the colonials up against the East River and could have brought their fleet up from Staten Island, captured Washington’s army, and destroyed the Revolution while the ink was still wet on the Declaration of Independence. <br /> But they hesitated. Why? Was it contrary winds in New York Harbor? Was it British memories of Bunker Hill preventing them from assaulting fixed colonial positions? Maybe it was because the English commanders Lord William Howe and his brother Admiral “Black Dick" Howe were Whigs in political opposition to the Tories in London. They saw a decisive military victory in America as a justification of the Lord North Government's policies. <br /> So, Howe hesitated finishing off the rebels and requested peace talks. If he could succeed in pacifying the colonies, he would have the credit to run for Prime Minister. Washington stalled him and while they exchanged polite notes, the rebels slowly escaped by boat across the East River to fight on.<br /> <br /> 1830 - 1st locomotive in US, "Tom Thumb," runs from Baltimore to Ellicotts Mill.<br /> .By 1835, the B &amp;O became an exclusively a steam affair.<br /> <br /> 1837 - Pharmacists John Leah &amp; William Perrin invented Worcestershire Sauce. A gentleman returning from the Raj asked them to recreate a favorite Indian condiment from a recipe he gave them. The initial result proved inedible. The bottles lay forgotten in their cellar for a few years. Upon rediscovery, it proved to have matured into the wonderful comestible that we enjoy today.<br /> <br /> 1850- Lohengrin, the first opera written by Richard Wagner, premiered in Weimar. The Third Act chorus “Treulich Gefuhrt” became famous for weddings as “Here Comes the Bride, All Dressed in White”. Wagner asked his friend Franz Liszt to produce the opera because he was in exile for his political views. Wagner himself did not see Lohengrin performed until 1861. <br /> <br /> 1859-In Titusville Pennsylvania, the first U.S. oil well struck oil. Before the industrial revolution crude oil or coal tar was considered a smelly nuisance. It was called Indian-Oil because Indians wore it as black warpaint, it was great for tarring and feathering rapscallions. Some entrepreneurs even tried to bottle it as health tonic. By this era it was refined into kerosene which was seen as a cheap plentiful substitute for whale-oil lamps. Unemployed railroad conductor Edwin Drake built the first oil well drilling apparatus out of components of a steam engine. By 1939 America exported 80% of the world’s crude oil. <br /> <br /> 1867- The U.S. Navy annexed Midway Island out in the Pacific.<br /> <br /> 1907- UPS small package delivery service started in Seattle.<br /> <br /> 1922- The first broadcast commercial on radio. It was for a real estate firm Queensboro Realty lasting ten minutes, and cost $100 dollars. The firm selling suburban homes in Queens NY immediately did $100,000 worth of business. The business world took note of this new method of advertising.<br /> <br /> 1934- Writer Upton Sinclair was nominated for Governor of California on the Democratic ticket by over half a million votes. This shocked the California power-elite because Sinclair was a radical whose grass roots organization EPIC (End Poverty in California) advocated socialist solutions to the Depression. Even FDR kept his distance from Sinclair.<br /> Powerful forces enlisted Louis B. Mayer, Irving Thalberg and other Hollywood conservatives to ensure Sinclair's defeat by creating the first modern negative media campaign. This included phony newsreels of actors dressed as hobos saying how they're going to California to sponge off the taxpayers. Walt Disney's lawyer, Gunther Lessing, demanded Ward Kimball take the "Sinclair for Governor" sign off his car window.<br /> Governor Frank Merriam who earlier that year had ordered troops to shoot down striking San Francisco longshoremen and their families won re-election.<br /> <br /> 1937- The Nazis began mass arrests of Jehovah's Witnesses.<br /> <br /> 1938- Northwestern University conferred an honorary degree upon the ventriloquist puppet Charlie McCarthy- Edgar Bergen’s famed ventriloquist dummy. The Dean of the School of Speech conferred a Master of Innuendo and Snappy Comeback upon the wooden celebrity. <br /> <br /> 1941- Rudolf Lichtenburg, pastor of St. Hedwig's Church the largest Lutheran congregation in Berlin, attacked the Nazi regime in an open letter to Dr. Leonardo Conti, Chief Reich Physician: "As a Human Being, As a Christian, a priest and a German I demand you answer for your crimes, which will call forth the Judgement of God upon the heads of the German People!" He was arrested by the Gestapo and died in Dachau.<br /> <br /> 1945- Chinese Communist Mao Zedong, conferred with Generalissimo Chiang Kai Chek over how to keep the Civil War from starting up again now that the War with Japan was over. The meeting was arranged by American Ambassador Patrick Hurley, an Oklahoma senator who greeted Mao and the Chiang with a loud Indian war whoop. We don’t know what Mao and Chiang thought of this curious form of welcome, but they couldn’t stand one another. Almost as soon as their conference was over the Chinese Civil War began again. Mao defeated Chiang and drove him to Taiwan in 1949.<br /> <br /> 1951- Robert Walker was a boyishly handsome actor who had played in a number of successful Hollywood movies like The Clock, Bataan, See Here Private Hargrove and Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train. This day a combination of amobarbital and alcohol caused him to suddenly collapse and stop breathing. He was 32. Accounts differ as to his mental state at the time, and whether his psychiatrist compelled him to take the injection of the sedative that brought about his seizure. His son Robert Walker Jr went on to a successful acting career on things like Star Trek. He died in 2019 of natural causes.<br /> <br /> 1953- Between the Israeli War of Independence and the Suez War guerrilla violence raged in small border settlements with terrorism killing innocent civilians. The Israeli Army tried forming a secret commando team called Unit 101 to stop Arab attacks on Israeli settlers by committing their own acts of terror “an-eye-for-an-eye”. After one raid this day Unit 101 went into action, shooting up a Palestinian refugee camp in Egyptian Gaza, and killed a number of women and children. The attack was so cold-blooded that the unit was soon disbanded by an embarrassed government. The young officer in command of Unit 101 was future Prime Minister Arial Sharon. <br /> <br /> 1955- Emmet Till was a 14 year old black child in Mississippi who was beaten and lynched by white vigilantes because a white woman said he “looked” at her in an inappropriate manner. His mother asked his funeral be public, and his casket open so people could see what brutality was committed on him. Even in 2018, plaques set up in his memory have been shot up by white supremacists.<br /> <br /> 60th Anniv 1963- Dr. Martin Luther King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial at the climax of the first ' Poor People's March 'on Washington”. Organizer A. Phillip Randolph conceived a poor people’s march taking weeks not unlike the Bonus Marchers of 1929. The sympathetic John F. Kennedy administration prevailed upon them to keep it to one day to reduce the chance of violence and maximize media exposure. They had planned for 100,000 but they got 400,000. Movie stars like Sidney Poitier, Marlon Brando, James Garner, Paul Newman and Charlton Heston attended.<br /> <br /> 1968- THE CHICAGO DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION- While thousands of anti-war hippie and yippie protestors battled the Chicago Police in Grant Park, the Democrats nominated Hubert Horatio Humphrey, the "Happy Warrior" their candidate to replace the assassinated Bobby Kennedy. Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, the Yippie and SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) leaders tried to get a live 100 pound pig into the convention and get it nominated for President. The Chairman of the DNC decried Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's "Gestapo Tactics" from the rostrum. Ironically Boss Daley opposed the Vietnam War, but he would not tolerate kids making him look bad on national TV. <br /> Newsman Dan Rather was gut-punched by a Chicago cop on camera on the convention floor. My friend animation writer John Culhane was clubbed down by police despite wearing all his press credentials and a baby blue army helmet with Newsweek painted on it. While the police and demonstrators battled, poet Alan Ginsburg and Timothy Leary grabbed a loudspeaker and chanted the Buddhist "Ohhhmmmmm" to calm people down. The student leaders -the Chicago 7 in reality 8, were put on trial for incitement to riot but after a yearlong media circus all the charges were overturned. Republican Richard Nixon won the election. The Democrats wouldn't go near Chicago again for thirty years.<br /> <br /> 1990- Computer pioneer Sandy Lerner was fired from the company she founded- Cisco Systems.<br /> <br /> 1996- The Prince and Princess of Wales Charles &amp; Diana got divorced. This was the first Royal divorce since Henry VIII annulled Anne of Cleves in the 1530's, not counting George IV's secret marriage to Mrs. Fitzherbert, which was hushed up, and his later cavorting with Lady Cunningham who was nicknamed "the Vice-Queen", and Edward VII's chasing every woman in Europe but his wife, etc.<br /> <br /> 2007- Conservative “Family Values” Senator Larry Craig of Idaho was arrested for soliciting gay sex in a men’s room in the Minneapolis Airport. Craig vigorously maintained that he had a wide stance in his stall, but older gay men said “toe-tapping” was a well-known method then to signal interest in a liaison. Larry Craig soon resigned from the Senate.<br /> <br /> 2020- Actor Chadwick Boseman, who played T’Chala in The Black Panther, died of colon cancer at age 43.<br /> =======================================================<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Who was the first Pope born in the Western Hemisphere?<br /> <br /> Answer: The current Pope Francis I was born in Argentina.<br /> .</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 27 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6242 <p>Quiz: Who was the first Pope born in the Western Hemisphere?<br /> <br /> Question: What town is considered the capitol of Sicily? <br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> HISTORY FOR 8/27/2023<br /> Birthdays: Man Ray, Martha Ray, LBJ (Lyndon Baines Johnson), Hegel, C.S. Forester, Hannibal Hamlin- Abe Lincolns first term vice president, Barbara Bach, Theodore Dreiser, Lady Antonia Fraser, Tommy Sands, Tuesday Weld is 80, Mangesuthu Buthelezi, Paul Rubens-aka Pee Wee Herman, Wayner Shorter<br /> <br /> 1506- Pope Julius II “Il Papa Terrible” attacked Perugia and Bologna for Holy Mother Church. After their conquest, Julius had Michelangelo cast a nine-foot statue of him to remind the Perugians who kicked their butts. Michelangelo created his largest free-standing bronze caste, but we don't have it anymore. In 1512 Julius's enemies liberated Perugia, and the happy people melted down the statue and cast it into a big cannon they called: "La Julia".<br /> <br /> 1660- Poet John Milton's books were publicly burned on Tyburn hill. It wasn't because of any great suppression of humanist ideas. Milton was an outspoken supporter of Oliver Cromwell and the Puritan regime that had governed England. But now the King was back on the throne and unimpressed with his writings. <br /> <br /> 1664- NIEUW AMSTERDAAM BECOMES NEW YORK. The English had disputed Holland's stake in America based on the early exploration of John Cabot. Now with the growth of the New England and Virginia colonies, and the English Civil War over, England sent a large battle fleet under Colonel Rollins to New Amsterdam to demand the surrender of the colony.<br /> The Dutch governor was an old one-legged mercenary named Peter Stuyvesant. He wanted to make a fight of it and had even set up a battery of cannon on -where else? the Battery. However, his city council were men of commerce, not soldiers. They told him if he wanted to fight, he should do it himself because they were surrendering. Even his own son was against fighting. Stuyvesant in a rage shouted at them:" Keep to your shovels and barrows!" The governor hobbled up to the cannon pointed at the British fleet and lit a match to fire the first shot. He paused and noticed the cold, silent stares of all those around him. The chaplain of the colony, Dominie Megapolensis, silently took Stuyvesant by the hand down from the fort. Stuyvesant signed the surrender. <br /> He was allowed to keep his large farm, or in Dutch, his Bouwerie -the Bowery. Five years later the English named renamed the city after King Charles II's brother the Duke of York for his birthday. The Duke of York's protection kept Long Island from being made part of Connecticut. The first English colony planted after the conquest was named for the only part of Britain to remain loyal to King Charles during the Cromwell period, the Isle of Jersey (New Jersey). Charles main supporter was James Leslie, Baron Newark. (Newark N.J.) and his illegitimate son the Duke of Monmouth. Still the old Dutch roots were deep and even in George Washington's time Dutch was the predominant language on New York's streets. In 1832 Martin Van Buren became our first knickerbocker President.<br /> <br /> 1665- What is considered the first documented and advertised staging of an English-language play in the North American British colonies, “Ye Beare and Ye Cubb” (“The Bear and the Cub”) was presented to an audience at a tavern just north of present day Pungoteague, Virginia. <br /> <br /> 1667- The first record in English of a Hurricane, this one striking near Jamestown Virginia. Of course, the Spanish in the Caribbean had been seeing hurricanes since Columbus’s third voyage in 1503.<br /> <br /> 1776- THE BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND, also called the Battle of Brooklyn Heights. British regiments destroyed George Washington’s army in Brooklyn while he was still in Manhattan waiting for the main attack. Washington sent two generals to command, Generals Sullivan and William Alexander, who insisted everyone call him Lord Stirling, in memory of some Scottish inheritance he claimed he was cheated out of. <br /> The British General Henry Clinton marched down the Kings Highway to Jamaica then found a secret path behind Yankee lines, guarded by only 5 militiamen. Clinton had walked these paths when he was a young officer stationed in NY. His superior Lord William Howe at first refused the idea- he said it smacked of the German School of Tactics. He felt the Americans were too stupid to panic when they saw their flank was turned. But the Yankees did panic, and Lord Howe won a great victory.<br /> The British had gotten over their shock of the American’s Indian style of guerrilla fighting. They countered by using German jaeger battalions, professional hunters turned soldier who were accustomed to shooting from behind rocks and trees. Generals Sullivan and Lord Stirling were forced to surrender after furious fighting around the Cortelyou House. One redcoat officer wrote: “Multitudes of retreating Americans who attempted to escape across the Gowanus River were drowned or suffocated in the morasses- a proper punishment for Rebels!”<br /> <br /> 1789- The French Revolutionaries publish THE DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN. They wanted the American ambassador Thomas Jefferson to help them write it, but he worried it would compromise his diplomatic immunity. So, he agreed to look over their shoulder during revisions. Most foreign ambassadors had fled Paris. But the French revolutionaires considered America a fellow Republic. <br /> <br /> 1813- BATTLE OF DRESDEN. After the retreat from Moscow the previous year, Napoleon is attacked by Austria, Russia, Sweden, Prussia, and just about everybody else in Europe but the Spice Girls. In reorganizing his army Napoleon ordered a stripped down staff and no more dessert served at the dinner table. War is Hell.<br /> Napoleon whupped the Allies in this first battle at Dresden, and a famous French turncoat general named Moreau was killed by a cannonball. Moreau had been counseling the Russians on how best to kill his countrymen. His death was seen as a sign of Divine Justice by both sides. During a temporary truce Napoleon was offered by the Allies the chance to negotiate a peace. World history would have been different, but he refused. When he asked Polish Prince Poniatowski what he would do, the Prince replied: 'I would make peace now, to wage war better later.' But Napoleon countered: "I'd rather make war now to win a better peace." He lost.<br /> <br /> 1814- President James Madison and the remains of the U.S. Government came out of hiding in the forests of Arlington and re-entered the burned out remains of Washington D.C.. It had been left by the British Army after being put to the torch. Looters scampered over the smoldering remains of the White House and Capitol Hill. Secretary of War Armstrong, who inadequately defended the capitol, resigned after blaming everyone but himself. Mayor Blakes’ biggest fear upon his return was of a slave insurrection, so he armed every available white male for police duty. Meanwhile the exhausted inhabitants of Washington could hear the British cross the Potomac loot and burn the town of Alexandria, given up without a fight.<br /> <br /> 1814- As the British invaders roamed the Maryland countryside an elderly Scottish immigrant doctor named Beanes was dragged out of his house by Royal Marines and packed off to the flagship offshore. He was accused of mistreating captured British soldiers. Since he was born in Scotland, he could face a charge of treason. When local residents’ petitions to have Dr Beanes released were refused, an appeal was made to a respected Georgetown attorney named Francis Scott Key to go try and win his release. Key showed up at the ship with written affidavits from the incarcerated British wounded attesting to Dr. Beanes innocence. Admiral Cockburn agreed to release them both, but only after their big assault on Baltimore. This is why lawyer Key was on the British warship in time to watch the Rockets Red Glare, the Bombs Bursting in Air, etc.<br /> <br /> 1814- Meanwhile in England, poet Percy Shelley eloped with Mary, the only daughter of John Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. Godwin had objected to Shelley’s proposal for his daughter’s hand because he was an opium addict, a sexual libertine, an atheist and already married with a baby daughter! Yeah, but besides all THAT, what’s your objection? They ran off followed by Mary’s stepsister Claire who began sleeping with Lord Byron. Mary of course was the author of Frankenstein. If I knew all this maybe I would have paid more attention in English Lit 101.<br /> <br /> 1910- The first radio message sent from an airplane.<br /> <br /> 1912- Edgar Rice Burroughs first published Tarzan of the Apes in The All-Story magazine.<br /> <br /> 1915- Italy declared war on Germany and Austria and entered World War I.<br /> <br /> 1917- Straight Shooting, the first film directed by John Ford released. <br /> <br /> 1927- Warner Bros began recording the soundtrack for Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer.<br /> <br /> 1930- Lon Chaney Sr. died at 47 of bronchial lung cancer. It was claimed then that during filming of a remake of The Unholy Three a wind machine blew an artificial gypsum snowflake into Chaney's mouth - it caused an irritation that became a tumor.<br /> <br /> 1941- Japan’s Prime Minister Prince Konoye requested a summit meeting with President Franklin Roosevelt to try and avoid war. Konoye was an anti-fascist and foresaw the coming holocaust but he couldn’t control Japan’s military. Ironically when the war ended in 1945 Prince Konoye was arrested by US authorities for war crimes. The anti-war statesman committed hari-kiri.<br /> <br /> 1942- Stalin called Marshal Zhukov, the hero of Leningrad, to go to Stalingrad and assume command there before the Nazis captured the city.<br /> <br /> 1955- The first Guinness Book of World Records published.<br /> <br /> 1950- NBC and General Foods abruptly canceled the second season of the television show “the Aldrich Family” when a publication called Red Channels accused Jean Muir, one of the show’s stars, of being a communist. It seems that studio execs hated her for being one of the founding members of SAG and being a member of The Congress of American Women. This signaled that the Hollywood Blacklist was now turning its attention eastward towards NY theater and television. Jean Muir’s career (1937 Midsummer Nights Dream) never fully recovered. <br /> <br /> 1953- The film Roman Holiday introduced a new young actress from Holland named Audrey Hepburn. <br /> <br /> 1964- The movie version of Mary Poppins premiered.<br /> <br /> 1967- The Beatles first manager Brian Epstein overdosed on sleeping pills. <br /> <br /> 1979- Retired Lord Louis Mountbatten was killed by the IRA, with a bomb on board his yacht.<br /> <br /> 1968- Former master animator Bill Tytla's request to return to Disney was turned down. The artist who animated Grumpy the Dwarf, Dumbo and the Devil on Bald Mountain even offered to do a free "trial animation test" to show he still had it. Disney exec W.H. Anderson wrote him:" We really have only enough animation for our present staff." Tytla died soon after.<br /> <br /> 1990- Guitar great Stevie Ray Vaughan was killed in a helicopter crash outside Alpine Valley Wisconsin, after an "All Stars of the Blues" show. Stevie Ray took the last remaining seat on the helicopter, after Eric Clapton got off, claiming he'd rather take a limo back to Chicago, which was about an hour away.<br /> <br /> 2008- Barack Obama nominated for President of the United States. The first African American candidate from a major party.<br /> <br /> 2022- George Jetson of The Jetson’s was born today. The show takes place in 2062 when he was 40, and Jane was 33. <br /> =====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What town is considered the capitol of Sicily?<br /> <br /> Answer: Palermo.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 26 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6241 <p>Question: What town is considered the capitol of Sicily?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz Answered Below: Julius Caesar invaded Britain, but he did not stay. Who was emperor when the Romans colonized Britain and founded cities like London and Colchester?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 8/26/2023<br /> Birthdays: Sir Robert Walpole the first British Prime Minister, Mother Theresa, Albert the Prince Consort, John Wilkes Booth, Guilliame Appollinaire who coined the term Surrealism, General Maxwell Taylor, Christopher Isherwood, McCauley Culkin is 43, Geraldine Ferarro, Dr. Lee DeForrest, Ben Bradlee, Barbet Schroeder, Branford Marsalis, Chris Pine is 43, Melissa McCarthy is 53<br /> <br /> 480 BC- The Persian Army of Xerxes the Great King marched into Athens. They found an empty city. Athenian leader Themistocles had ordered the population to evacuate to the small island of Salamis. Themistocles defeated Xerxes later in an epic naval battle.<br /> <br /> 55 B.C.- JULIUS CAESAR LANDED IN ENGLAND- Caesar paused from his conquest of Gaul to check out the British Isles. He didn't stay long because Channel storms were playing havoc with his supply ships. Just long enough to fight some Celts under their chief Cassilvelaunus, collect some tribute, and add a chapter to his memoirs. <br /> The Romans returned in A.D. 61 under instructions from Claudius to conquer and colonize. London, Colchester and York were founded originally Roman army camps. The Romans stayed until 401AD, when the legions were withdrawn to protect Italy.<br /> <br /> 580AD- An ancient Chinese inventory of the household of a nobleman made the first recorded reference to toilet paper. Meanwhile in Europe, the ancient Romans used a sponge tied to a small stick. You were expected to rinse it out afterwards for use by the next person.<br /> <br /> 217AD- Today is the Feast of St. Zephyrinus, who didn't die violently but he is still counted as a Martyr because he had a lot of stress. (?) He was supposedly so charitable, that Saint Hippolytus found him annoying.<br /> <br /> 1346-Battle of Crecy – The English beat the French in the Hundred Years War., The Welsh longbows rained powerful armor piercing arrows on the French knights from long range. The King of Frances’ friend King John of Bohemia rode into the thick of the battle, despite his being elderly and completely blind. His horse’s reins were held by retainers galloping alongside him. When Edward the Black Prince of Wales discovered the king's dead body after the battle, he plucked three white plumes from his helmet and assumed his motto "Ich Dein" or "How's dat, ye blind old bugger !" They became the symbols of the Prince of Wales. Also appearing at this battle for the first time were the big rock throwing fire pipes they called Bombardons, but we call cannon.<br /> <br /> 1498- Michelangelo gets a job. The big Florentine stonecutter was commissioned by Pope Alexander VI Borgia to carve the Pieta, Mary lamenting over the body of Jesus. <br /> <br /> 1572- In Paris four days after the Great Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, someone noticed the hawthorns were flowering out of season in the little cemetery of the Holy Innocents. The Bishop of Paris thought this was a divine sign, and ordered the church bells to ring. But when the dumbass people heard the bells they thought it was a signal to resume the massacre, so everyone ran out and started killing each other again.<br /> <br /> 1576- The artist Titian died at age 88. He outlived all the artists of the Renaissance, worked every day of his life, and might have gone on had he not caught a touch of plague.<br /> <br /> 1648- French peasant uprising known as La Fronde. The Fronde was a reaction to the king's government being controlled by scheming cardinals like Richelieu and his protege, Cardinal Mazarin. Had the movement more legal structure to their demands, France might have developed an English style representative government. The English were in the middle of their Civil War over the same issues at the same time. But the Fronde was more about blind class rage, and after it was crushed it left a deep impression on the mind of child King Louis XIV. He concluded that giving the common people any voice or power was a bad idea.<br /> <br /> 1790- THE KINGDOM OF YAZOO- Before the Louisiana Purchase the area around Spanish Mississippi territory and American Tennessee was a no man’s land of swamps Creek Indians. An Irish adventurer named O’Fanlon with a group of leathershirts and yahoos tried to declare themselves an independent nation -named for the Yazoo River.<br /> <br /> 1814- After completing their work of burning Washington D.C. to the ground, the British redcoats under Admiral Cockburn marched away in good order back to their ships. One old grandfather yelled at the British:" If General Washington had been alive you would not have gotten off so easily!" Admiral Cockburn reigned in his horse and replied -"Sir, if General Washington had still been President, we should never have thought of coming here."<br /> <br /> 1838- American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson met English writer Thomas Carlyle.<br /> <br /> 1846- W.A. Bartlet became first American mayor of Yerba Buena, in 1850 renamed San Francisco.<br /> <br /> 1868- First practical typewriter patented by Christopher Scholes. The Remington Company who were famous for making firearms took up the typewriter and mass produced it. In 1874 Mark Twain admitted to a friend that he preferred writing on it.<br /> <br /> 1914- During World War I, the German artillery bombarded the Belgian city of Louvain, destroying it’s 600 year old medieval library. It was considered the first great cultural crime of the 20th Century, but alas, not the last. <br /> <br /> 1918- 17 year old Walt Disney dropped out of high school and faked his birthdate in order to enlist to fight in World War I. Turned down for his age, he volunteered for the Red Cross. Assigned to the ambulance corps, he arrived in Europe just as the war was ending.<br /> <br /> 1929- The giant German dirigible Graf Zeppelin landed in Los Angeles at a remote place called Mines Fields, that would one day become Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). In ten years the Graf Zeppelin made 590 flights around the world without a single problem. It had a perfect safety record. Back then, lighter than air ships were considered much safer than airplanes.<br /> <br /> 1939- In preparation for the impending war with Germany, the Tower of London was closed to tourists and the English Crown Jewels smuggled out and hidden. <br /> <br /> 1944- Charles DeGaulle walked in triumph down the Champs Elysee among thousands as Parisians celebrates their liberation after four years of Nazi occupation.<br /> <br /> 1946 - George Orwell published "Animal Farm". Orwell said he conceived the idea for the novel while watching out his window a small boy driving a huge draft horse. The horse could have easily crushed the boy had it the free will, but instead patiently endured the boys taunts and flicks with a small switch. <br /> <br /> 1946- First day of shooting on Jean Cocteau’s film Belle et le Bete, Beauty &amp; the Beast.<br /> <br /> 1958- First day of shooting on the Alfred Hitchcock film North By Northwest. Conceived as a story that ended in a chase across the stone faces of Mt. Rushmore. The original title of Ernst Lehman’s script was The Man Who Hung from Lincoln’s Nose.<br /> <br /> 1961- The Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto dedicated.<br /> <br /> 1964- The Tokyo subway system opens. <br /> <br /> 1967 – The Beatles, Mick Jagger &amp; Marianne Faithful met the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.<br /> <br /> 1970- Tens of thousands of women across North America march in The Women’s Strike for Equality. It was led by Betty Friedan of NOW, the National Organization for Women.<br /> <br /> 1971- The New York Giants announced they would move from Yankee Stadium to a new complex being built in the Meadowlands of Rutherford, New Jersey.<br /> <br /> 1980- Director Tex Avery died after collapsing in the parking lot of Hanna-Barbera. He was 72. Two weeks before he was asked by a friend why he was working in Hanna &amp; Barbera, Tex laughed:" Hey, Don’t you know? this is where all the elephants come to die!"<br /> <br /> 1985- The first Yugo economy car arrived in the US. From Yugoslavia.<br /> <br /> 1997- Special effects house Boss Studios, closed. <br /> --------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Julius Caesar invaded Britain, but he did not stay. Who was emperor when the Romans colonized Britain and founded cities like London and Colchester?<br /> <br /> Answer: The Emperor Claudius about 80 years after Caesar.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 25 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6240 <p>Quiz: Julius Caesar invaded Britain, but he did not stay. Who was emperor when the Romans colonized Britain and founded cities like London and Colchester?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz Answered Below: What is a vole?<br /> --------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 8/25/2023<br /> Birthdays: King Ludwig II the Mad of Bavaria, Walt Kelly, Bret Hart, Lola Montez (flamenco dancing mistress of Ludwig I, King of Bavaria), Alan Pinkerton, Clara Bow, Ruby Keeler, Monty Hall, Van Johnson, Willis Reed, Frederick Forsythe, Wayne Shorter, Billy Ray Cyrus, Dr. Bruno Bettleheim, Leonard Bernstein, Sean Connery, Gene Simmons, Anne Archer, Elvis Costello is 68, Tim Burton is 64, Claudia Schiffer is 52<br /> <br /> Opiconsiva- Ancient Roman festival of the first harvest.<br /> <br /> 1127- Princess Matilda, granddaughter of William the Conqueror, married Geoffrey of Anjou, a powerful noble family in central France. After the Conqueror’s sons died, England went through a confusing period of dynastic struggle that only ended when Matilda and Geoffrey's son Henry becomes King Henry II of England. Geoff D’Anjou was a zitty little nonentity, who, other than producing the great English royal line of Richard the LionHeart and Henry V was also known for putting a little flower in his hat. In Latin a planta-genesta. His family name was called Plantagenet. <br /> <br /> 1688- Pirate Captain Sir Henry Morgan died of the various excesses of pirate life. He was 53. Morgan the Pirate was the only top pirate who ever really got away with it and lived a rich old salt as Royal governor of Port Royal. A few years after his death Port Royal was destroyed by an earthquake and Sir Henry’s last resting place slipped under the waves with most of the city.<br /> <br /> 1814- The British Army occupying Washington D.C. continued their work of burning the city- The State Department, War Office, Library of Congress, The Treasury Building and more were torched. British Admiral Cockburn made a point of destroying the offices of the National Intelligencer, a newspaper run by an English immigrant named Joseph Gales who loved writing insulting editorials about him. An early morning summer thunderstorm doused some fires but added to the misery of Washingtonians cowering in the forests of Arlington. <br /> President James Madison spent most of the night in the saddle looking for his wife Dolly and trying to rally his scattered government. He was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Dolly Madison with a carriage full of the furniture from the White House tried to enter an inn called Wiley’s Tavern. But the owner’s wife threw the First Lady out: “You can leave Mrs. Madison! Thanks to your husband, mine is out fighting in the war! Damn You!”<br /> <br /> 1829- The Mexican Government refused US President Andrew Jackson’s offer to purchase Texas. Jackson then explored other means. Sam Houston, first President of Texas, and its first governor under the US flag was a protégé of Jackson. <br /> <br /> 1830- Brabant Rebellion, Belgium separated from Holland.<br /> <br /> 1830- This is the day of the legendary race between the locomotive the Tom Thumb and a horse and buggy outside of Baltimore. The Tom Thumb weighing in at about a ton and developing a whopping one-horsepower. The boiler driven fan broke down near the end, so the horse won. Still, the train’s performance was so impressive that the first U.S. railroad, the Baltimore &amp; Ohio, shifted from horse drawn to steam railroad.<br /> <br /> 1835- Joseph Pulitzer’s New York Sun newspaper ran a story that British astronomer Sir William Herschel, the discoverer of Neptune, had observed little men living on the surface of the Moon! The story proved false, but it really boosted the sales of the paper.<br /> <br /> 1875- Matthew Webb became the first person to successfully swim the English Channel.<br /> <br /> 1893- Colored People’s Day at the Columbia Exhibition in Chicago. How thoughtful!<br /> <br /> 1896- The Journal Examiner's Yellow-Fellow Transcontinental Bicycle Relay race.<br /> <br /> 1900- Is God dead? No, just Fredrich Nietzsche, this day<br /> <br /> 1912- In Shanghai, Dr. Sun Yat Sen formed the Kuomintang or Chinese Nationalist Party. (KMT)<br /> <br /> 1916- President Woodrow Wilson created the National Parks Service out of 35 separate departments.<br /> <br /> 100 Years Ago- 1923 Young filmmaker Walt Disney wrote to NY Producer M.J. Winkler, that he was no longer affiliated with The Laugh-O-Grams company in Kansas City.” I am establishing a studio in Los Angeles for the purpose of producing the new and novel series of cartoons I have previously written to you about.” This will become the Alice in Cartoonland series.<br /> <br /> 1928- Commander Byrd set off to explore the Antarctic. <br /> <br /> 1942- King George VI youngest brother George the Duke of Kent, was killed in a military plane crash in Scotland. He became the first member of the English royal family to die in uniform in 450 years. <br /> <br /> 1944- PARIS LIBERATED. Adolf Hitler had ordered the Germans to dynamite all the major landmarks: Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame etc, But when the time came, the German commander Gen. Deitrich von Choltitz refused to do it. There was street fighting, but the heavier German tank units had voluntarily evacuated the city. On Aug 20 the French Resistance (Les Maquis), rose and seized key points. This day Free French units under General LeClerc led the allied columns into the City of Lights. <br /> Ernest Hemingway and a few paratroops liberated the Ritz Hotel's wine cellar and Shakespeare &amp; Company bookstore. Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas were discovered by CBS correspondent Eric Severaid living unharmed outside of town. <br /> <br /> 1945- In an incident in postwar China, U.S. troops scuffled with Communist Chinese soldiers and a Capt. John Birch was killed. In the growing Cold War hysteria, Capt. Birch was lauded as the first martyr in the Crusade against Communism, and an organization in his name was formed. In 1958, Robert Welch, who had become rich from inventing the Sugar Daddy candy bar, formed The John Birch Society. Birchers became a force for extreme right wing politics in the 60's. Another one of their founders was Fred Koch, the father of the modern Koch Bros, who used their oil money to start the Tea Party in the U.S.<br /> <br /> 1967 – In Mississippi George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of American Nazi Party, was blown off the speaker’s platform by a shotgun. Although not as significant as the Martin Luther King or the Kennedy’s assassinations, it was another incident in the violent 1960’s. George Lincoln Rockwell was also a distant cousin of Norman Rockwell, although the famed artist was embarrassed to admit it.<br /> <br /> 1970- A young singer named Elton John did his first US tour, opening at the Troubadour in LA.<br /> <br /> 1972- Blacula, starring William Marshall opened in theaters.<br /> <br /> 1980- The premiere of the Broadway musical version of the classic movie musical 42nd Street. In a moment of Broadway drama, producer David Merrick came out on stage and startled the cast and audience by announcing that the director of the play Gower Champion had died that very day. 42nd Street went on to be a smash hit. The play itself is about a Broadway director who works himself to death creating a hit musical.<br /> <br /> 1989- Congressman Barney Frank confirmed that he had paid for the services of a gay male prostitute named Stephan Gobie. The unrepentant Frank continued to serve in Congress another twenty-five years.<br /> <br /> 1989- The Voyager 2 probe left Neptune and shot off into deep space, completing its mission, a reconnaissance of the outer planets of our solar system. It discovered the rings of Jupiter and Neptune, the additional moons of these planets, and the volcanoes of the Jovian moon Io, and the ice of Europa. Today, you have ten times more computing power in your phone than in the Voyager spacecraft, yet all these years later it continues to transmit signals back to Earth. By 2012 Voyager I and Voyager 2 have both left the Heliosheath, the outer perimeter of our suns’ gravity field, and today are deep in interstellar space. Voyager 1 with its Chuck Berry recording, should reach the next neighboring solar system in about 40,000 years. <br /> http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/where/<br /> <br /> 1991- At the Emmy ceremony, comic Gilbert Gottfried upset the audience with a flood of masturbation jokes about Pee Wee Herman. Fox Network apologized the next day.<br /> <br /> 2001-Beautiful 22 year old R&amp;B singer Alleiya was killed, when her overloaded chartered plane crashed on the island of Abaco in the Bahamas.<br /> =======================================================<br /> —————————————————————————————<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is a vole?<br /> <br /> Answer: A small rodent similar to a field mouse.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 24 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6239 <p>Quiz: What is a vole?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: ”In ancient Rome, what was a hypocaust?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 8/24/2023<br /> Birthdays: Jorge Luis Borges, William Wilberforce, Marlee Matlin, Yasir Arafat, Max Beerbom, Cal Ripken Jr, Joshua Lionel Cowan the inventor of Lionel toy electric trains, Kenny Baker-C3PO in Star Wars, Stephen Fry is 67, Durward Kirby- 1960s T.V. announcer, Duke Kahanamoku-1890- Olympic champion who popularized Surfing, Kirk Wise, Dave Chappelle is 51, Steve Guttenberg is 66<br /> <br /> 410 A.D. ROME FELL TO THE BARBARIANS- Alaric the Visigoth marched a horde of Goths, Vandals and Huns to the gates of Rome. At midnight, escaped Goth slaves opened the Salarian Gate to them. Romans awoke next morning to the sound of barbarian horns. The Goths plundered the capitol of the Roman Empire for three days. The emperor’s sister Galla Placidia was dragged off in chains and given in marriage to Alaric’s brother. Roman Emperor Honorius had moved his Imperial Court to Milan, and there was an Eastern Emperor in Constantinople. <br /> The Roman Senate continued to meet until 578 AD. The last Emperor was deposed in 476. But the symbolic significance of The Roman Empire losing Rome was devastating. Even though the Empire staggered along for a few more years, this event marks the end of the Ancient World and the beginning of the Dark Ages. In Tunisia, St. Jerome wrote:” It is the end of the world, I cannot write for the tears.” <br /> <br /> 1215 – After getting a hefty “donation” from English King John Lackland, Pope Innocent III declared the Magna Carta invalid. Luckily for future democracies, the English lords ignored him.<br /> <br /> 1217-THE BATTLE OF SANDWICH (or Dover): FIRST VICTORY OF THE BRITISH NAVY- King John Lackland was a pretty lousy king, but he did understand that an island nation needs a kickass navy. So, he ordered land be purchased at Plymouth and Portsmouth and Greenwich for royal dockyards. This legacy didn't bear fruit until shortly after his death. A large French invasion fleet was defeated in the Channel by English ships lead by Sir Hugh de Bourg. The French didn't really have a navy yet either, these ships were hired freelancers led by a mad pirate named Eustace the Monk. <br /> After the battle the victorious English found Eustace hiding in the bilge of his flagship. They sailed with his severed head decorating the top of their mainmast. This victory forced the French king to make peace and withdraw his occupying troops from London. <br /> <br /> 1227- GENGHIS KHAN DIED. The man named Temujin united a few small nomadic tribes into one of the greatest empires in history. He was called the Prince of Conquerors or the Genghis Khan. He was around 65. How he died is a mystery. The Mongols kept almost no records and all accounts are second and third hand. One said the old conqueror had died of a fever, another in battle, Marco Polo heard he was shot in the knee with a poisoned arrow. My favorite is a captive Queen of the Tanguts concealed a piece of metal in her naughty bits and he lacerated his willy when ...you know... and he bled to death. <br /> Part of Genghis’ funeral cortege was a riderless horse with boots reversed, a symbol of a fallen leader handed down to the funerals of Lincoln, JFK and Ronald Reagan. He was buried in a secret place on the Burkhan Kaldun, the Mountain of Power. I’ve read some articles that claimed to have discovered it, but so far, I’m not convinced. <br /> <br /> 1632- Battle of Alte Feste (the other castle). Archduke Wallenstein and his Catholic army stalled Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus and his Protestants outside Nuremburg.<br /> 1662 - Act of Uniformity required all English subjects to accept Book of Common Prayer, or else!<br /> <br /> 1800- Alexander Hamilton ruined President John Adams chances of re-election by today publishing a pamphlet accusing Adams of incompetence “On the Presidency of John Adams, Esq.” Hamilton was a member of Adams Federalist Party. Hamilton wasn’t a fan of Tom Jefferson either, but he hated Adams even more. In the final vote tabulation the incumbent President ran a distant fourth.<br /> <br /> 1814- BRITISH TROOPS BURN WASHINGTON D.C.- A large British task force filled with veteran redcoats fresh from defeating Napoleon, came up from Chesapeake Bay. With most of the US Army trying to invade Canada or on the Western frontier the only defense of America’s capitol was some scanty Maryland militia and a few beached Marines. <br /> Generals, the Secretary of War, President Madison and Secretary of State James Monroe all galloped about in confusion barking orders. At noon at Bladensburg Maryland, the American force exchanged some gunfire with the British, panicked and ran away. The U.S. Army and government ran so fast that the incident was nicknamed "The Bladensburg Races". President James Madison had to leave in such a hurry that his evening dinner was still on the table. British Admiral Cockburn said he: "mightily enjoyed Master Jimmy 's sherry." <br /> First Lady Dolly Madison fled the White House but saved Gilbert Stuart's painting of George Washington, cut out of its frame with a penknife by her butler French John –Jean Pierre Sioussat. The Declaration of Independence was hidden under a front porch in Baltimore and the US Treasury hidden in a wagon at a solitary Maryland farm.<br /> At 9:00PM Admiral George Cockburn, sat in the speakers chair in Congress and said to his laughing troops:" Well lads, what shall we do with this vile nest of Yankee democracy ?" "Burn it!" they cried. The redcoats set fire to Congress, the Presidents Mansion, the Navy Yard and marched 6 abreast in good order down Pennsylvania Ave. Around 11:30 PM Cockburn and his staff entered Mrs Sutters Boarding House on 15th &amp; Pennsylvania Ave. for a late supper. Cockburn blew out the candles on the dinner table, leaving the room illuminated by the bright glow of the burning city. He joked” THIS, is the light by which I prefer to eat.”<br /> The humiliation unified American anger not unlike Pearl Harbor centuries later. It was no longer "Mr. Madison's War." On a Hudson riverboat author Washington Irving punched a man in the mouth he saw laughing over the President's flight." The National Honor must be Avenged!" After the British troops withdrew the President's burned out mansion was hastily covered over with the paint that was most in supply, white. The White House it was known thereafter.<br /> <br /> 1832- In a little London flat in the dead of night top Tory party leaders led by the Duke of Wellington executed a strange task. They huddled around a coal stove burning love letters. What made it unusual was they were the love letters of King George IV to his secret first wife, Irish-Catholic wife Fitzherbert. In 1788 While Prince Regent George had secretly married her but it was quickly hushed up, leaving him officially free to marry Princess Caroline of Brunswick. <br /> Sir Charles Fox had declared on the floor of Parliament that the rumors were false and the Prince was not married. Mrs. Fitzherbert was paid to keep quiet even after George IV had died. By this late date old Wellington wanted to be sure before she died that her secret would never come out.<br /> <br /> 1847 - Charlotte Bronte finished the manuscript of her novel "Jane Eyre".<br /> <br /> 1853 – Saratoga Springs hotel resort chef George Crum invented Potato Chips, or crisps.<br /> <br /> 1887- The US set up a weather station in Greenland.<br /> <br /> 1913- Congress okayed the creation of the Parcel Post system- UPS.<br /> <br /> 1939- Mr. Leslie Mitchell became the first British Television announcer.<br /> <br /> 1940- In Milan the first successful jet flight- the Italian Camponi CC-2.<br /> <br /> 1942- Walt Disney’s film Saludos Amigos received its world premiere in Rio De Janiero.<br /> <br /> 1944-The French Resistance in Paris with most of the police Gendarmes rose up to seize key points in the city as the Allied armies drew near. Gen. DeGaulle convinced General Eisenhower that Free-French units should be first to enter the city.<br /> <br /> 1951- Akira Kurosawa’s film Rashomon premiered at the Venice International Film Festival. The film won the Grand Prize and first showed the world that Japanese Cinema was a new creative force in the film world.<br /> <br /> 1958- The United States threatened to drop atomic bombs on China over two little islands called Quemoy and Matsu. Some of Chiang Kai Shek’s Nationalist armies had taken refuge there after being defeated by Mao. The islands were close enough to the mainland to be shelled by Red Chinese artillery. This caused Pres. Eisenhower to threaten them with the A-Bomb if they didn’t knock it off.<br /> <br /> 1966- The effects fantasy Fantastic Voyage directed by Richard Fleischer opened. The submarine in the film was designed by Harper Goff, who designed the Nautilus for Walt Disney’s Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, also directed by Richard Fleischer, the son of Max Fleischer.<br /> <br /> 1973- One month after Bruce Lee’s death, his last film Enter The Dragon opened in the US to wild acclaim. It cost $800,000 to make and grossed over $140 million. It renewed interest in the late star and helped spawn the Chinese Martial Arts craze in the US. <br /> <br /> 1992- HURRICANE ANDREW tore through southern Florida. One a scale of one to five Andrew was a force 5 hurricane. One meteorologist watched his wind velocity measuring device rip off his roof and dance down the street. <br /> <br /> 1993- LAPD announced an investigation of pop star Michael Jackson for possible child molestation. The investigation never led to any indictments, but the publicity tarnished his image. Equally damaging to his public image were revelations of his eccentric lifestyle, like his keeping chimps and mannequins around the house to talk to, and all the tap water and showers of his mansion spouting Evian water. Jackson was tried and acquitted of all charges in 2005.<br /> <br /> 1995- Microsoft's Windows 95 introduced.<br /> <br /> 1997- According to the 1984 James Cameron film The Terminator this was the day the Skynet computer system became self aware, and began the War of the Day of Judgement.<br /> <br /> 2004- Swiss scientist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, who wrote the Five Stages of Dying, died. She was 78. The day before she told a local newsperson, “When I meet God I will tell him he is a damned procrastinator!”<br /> <br /> 2011- Washington D.C. and much of the east coast U.S. was shaken by an earthquake. The first one in 121 years. Californians were told not to laugh too hard.<br /> <br /> 2011- Steve Jobs announced he was stepping down from all his positions at Apple, Pixar and Disney due to his failing health.<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: ”In ancient Rome, what was a hypocaust?<br /> <br /> Answer: A hypocaust was a system of central heating in a building that produced and circulated hot air below the floor of a room, and may also warm the walls with a series of pipes through which the hot air passes. Originally created for public baths, wealthy romans had them installed in their private homes.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 23 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6238 <p>Quiz: ”In ancient Rome, what was a hypocaust?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Is the Baja Peninsula part of Mexico or the USA?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 8/23/2023
Birthdays: French King Louis XVI, Gene Kelly, Keith Moon, Rick Springfield, Sonny Jurgensen, Alphonse Mucha, River Phoenix, Queen Noor of Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Ed Benedict the designer of Yogi Bear and the Flintstones, Barbara Eden is 92, Vera Miles is 94, Shelley Long is 73, Nik Ranieri, Oscar Grillo<br /> <br /> Roman Festival Vulcanalia, to pray to Vulcan to prevent fires.<br /> <br /> In Kyoto Japan, this is the first day of the Fire Festival, when candles are placed at each statue in the Temple of the Eight Thousand Buddhas<br /> <br /> In Swaziland, Happy Umhlanga Day!<br /> <br /> 408 AD- Roman Emperor Honorius killed his last competent General, Flavius Stilicho. It was rumored that Stilicho allowed a huge horde of barbarians cross the Rhine frontier last Christmas as part of a plot. But more likely Honorius was afraid Stilicho might try to overthrow him. The barbarians sacked Rome shortly after.<br /> <br /> 1305- In London, the great Scottish rebel William Wallace was hanged, then cut down while still alive and drawn and quartered. His head was stuck on a spike on London Bridge and his pieces were sent to be displayed in various parts of Scotland. But the Scots instead of being cowed, got even angrier. In 1314 won independence under their King Robert the Bruce.<br /> <br /> 1499- Christopher Columbus was fired as Governor of the Indies and sent back to Spain in chains. He was a great visionary but a lousy governor.<br /> <br /> 1524- A large armada of warships from Spain, Portugal, Genoa and the Vatican were sent to Algiers to deal once and for all with the Barbary Corsairs. These North African raiders terrorized the waters of the western Mediterranean under their bold captains like Kehir el Din "Barbarossa", Dragut and a mysterious man known only as The Jew of Smyrna. But when the Christian fleet arrived in the Bay of Algiers a large storm battered their ships and threw them on the shore. The survivors were slain or enslaved as they staggered up on the beach. The Barbary Pirates would continue to be a headache for Christian Europe sea travel for another 300 years. <br /> <br /> 1572-THE ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY MASSACRE- The reason there are so few Protestants in France. Emotionally unstable King Charles IX and his domineering mother Catherine DeMedicis had been trying to cope with the growing hatred between Catholics and Protestants, called Huguenots. After several civil wars and several treaties Catherine tried to cement a permanent peace by marrying the Kings sister Margot to the Prince of the Protestants Henry of Navarre. Catholic Paris was filled with Huguenots for the wedding. <br /> Then the night before Catholic extremists murdered the Huguenot leader Gaspar Coligny. When faced with this event King Charles blurted out,” Then slay them all, so none dare live to accuse me!” As the bells of Saint Margaret rang, a general massacre began throughout Paris. Protestants were put to the sword and the streets ran with blood. The massacre became so general that anybody who was mad at anybody declared them a Huguenot and they were promptly butchered. The Seine River flow turned red because it was choked up with corpses. <br /> The Pope congratulated the French queen for ridding her land of heretics and ordered thanksgiving celebrations throughout Catholic Europe. In Spain, dour King Phillip II smiled for one of the few times in his life. Protestant countries were outraged and Britain’s Queen Elizabeth put her court in mourning. Even the Spanish Duke of Alba, who was burning dozens of Dutch Calvinists a day, thought this was “a base way to make war.” Protestant Prince Henry of Navarre under the Queens protection escaped and would eventually become king as Henry IV, first of the house of Bourbon. Within a year Charles IX died of tuberculosis, wracked with remorse:” What have I done? All that blood! I am damned!”<br /> <br /> 1617- The invention of the One-Way Street (London). <br /> 1628- The Duke of Buckingham was a favorite of King James I. After James’s death the Duke continued to hold great influence over his son Charles I. Many people blamed Buckingham for England’s problems, and for reversing James’s peace policy and dragging England into the disastrous Thirty Years War that was destroying Europe. Parliament loudly demanded the duke’s imprisonment while Charles stood by his father’s old confident. This day a lunatic solved the problem by buying a kitchen knife, hiking sixty miles to London and plunging it into the Duke of Buckingham’s chest, killing him in front of his wife and family. It was one but not the only argument Charles would have with his parliament.<br /> <br /> 1634- Spain’s greatest playwright Lope De Vega wrote his last poem “El Siglo de Oro” – the Golden Age. He died the next day at age 73. A duelist and sailor on the Spanish Armada, Voltaire ranked him alongside Shakespeare. His work was so popular, the Holy Office of the Inquisition got angry when people sang a blasphemous doggerel that began “We believe in One Lope, the Poet Almighty…”<br /> <br /> 1750- 37-year-old Swiss writer Jean Jacques Rousseau published his first mature work- Discourse on the Arts &amp; Sciences. In it he breaks with the other French philosophers like Voltaire and Diderot and began his theory of the Noble Savage- that Civilization is the problem, and we were all a lot happier when we were primitives. Voltaire laughed “the pamphlet made me want to get down on all fours and live among the bears of Canada!”<br /> <br /> 1775- KING GEORGE III ISSUED A PROCLAMATION DECLARING HIS AMERICAN COLONIES IN A STATE OF REBELLION. Many English politicians like Charles Fox and John Wilkes felt the American colonists had some legitimate grievances that could have been peacefully addressed. Lord Chatham (Pitt the Elder) had gone as far to say in the House of Lords "The Englishmen on the other side of the Atlantic are only fighting for what the Englishmen at home should be fighting for, namely their rights!" He suggested several seats in Parliament be set aside for British North America. <br /> But King George rejected all further debate and refused the "Olive Branch Petition", a final plea to avert war brought by the loyalist Governor of Pennsylvania William Penn III. "They must decide now whether they are our subjects or our enemies." -The King stated flatly.<br /> <br /> The King's proclamation was that now the only solution would be by force of arms. Pardons would be given to those Americans who returned to their loyalty to the Crown, but British generals were given a secret list of ringleaders to be brought to London for trial like John Adams and Ben Franklin. Up to this point many Americans, even George Washington, felt complete independence was going too far and compromise with the motherland might still be possible. But after news of this Royal Proclamation reached America in October most then felt there was now no turning back.<br /> <br /> 1784- Frontiersmen west of the Alleghenies tried to found the independent state of Franklin. It later entered the union in 1796 as the state of Tennessee.<br /> <br /> 1864- Abe Lincoln was in despair. After four years of Civil War all the Northern armies were bogged down or defeated, the Confederacy showed no sign of collapse, and a popular General George McClellan announced he would run against Lincoln in the fall elections as a peace candidate. On this day Lincoln made all his cabinet sign a secret Presidential memo: " Seeing that it becoming more apparent that this Administration shall not continue in office, we pledge to work with the next President to save the Union between the election and the inauguration, because the next administration by its very nature shall be unable to accomplish this." In several days Sherman's capture of Atlanta and Sheridan's victories in the Shenandoah Valley would reverse public opinion and Lincoln would win re-election.<br /> <br /> 1872- The first commercial ship ever sent from Japan arrived in San Francisco carrying tea.<br /> <br /> 1914- Japan declared war on Germany. World War I, not two. The Japanese wanted to attack and capture the German held Chinese province of Tsingtao, where their big brewery was.<br /> <br /> 1922- Leader of the Irish IRA, Michael Collins was ambushed and killed by other Irish guerrillas while driving through his home county of Cork.<br /> <br /> 1926- Screen idol Rudolph Valentino died in a New York hospital of an infection due to a burst appendix and bleeding ulcer. He was only 30. Today his condition could be controlled by antibiotics, but they weren’t invented yet. Women around the world went mad with grief. From L.A. to Budapest, women committed suicide before his picture. In Japan two women jumped into a volcano shouting his name.<br /> <br /> 1937- At the urging of the Stanford Dean of engineering Fred Terman, graduate Bill Hewlett had his first meeting with David Packard. They called their company started out of their Palo Alto garage the Engineering Service Company. The Hewlett-Packard Company would one day be one of the biggest names in computers and their garage hailed as the birthplace of Silicon Valley.<br /> <br /> 1939-THE NAZIS-SOVIET PACT. Nazi minister Von Ribbentrop flew to Moscow and signed the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. This cleared the way for Hitler's attack on Poland. Many in the west saw this as Stalin's untrustworthiness, but the Russians said they were reacting to the lack of enthusiasm shown by the Western Democracies in stopping Fascism. This was evident in Ethiopia, Czechoslovakia and particularly evident in Spain, where the Soviets backed the anti-Fascists to the hilt, with no help at all from the democracies. <br /> But Stalin was genuinely duped by Hitler; maybe through the political rhetoric Stalin imagined he saw a fellow opportunist demagogue. It was obvious to Uncle Joe that the strategy of the West was to try and push Germany and Russia into war, so why would Hitler be stupid enough to do it? Even two days before the Nazis Invasion of Russia Stalin refused to believe the reports of his spies that Hitler was going to betray him.<br /> Josef Stalin’s action for temporary tactical advantage destroyed the intellectual justification for Russia’s leadership of Global Communism. All though the 1920’s and 30’s Communism seemed to some the best hope of the Left for stopping the Fascist dictators and winning Civil and Labor rights. But when Moscow ordered all good Communists to stop criticizing Hitler, they lost the sympathies of many progressives. Americans, Britons and Zionist Jews began to leave the party in droves.<br /> <br /> 1939-The Meeker St Bridge between Brooklyn and Queens completed. It was renamed the Kosciusko Bridge in honor of the Polish patriot who fought in the American Revolution. In George Washington’s time no one knew how to say his name either. They called him Colonel Koz. The bridge was rebuilt in 2017.<br /> <br /> 1942-THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD BEGAN. As clouds of Nazi planes bombed the city to flaming rubble, the tanks of the Nazi 16th Panzer Division reached the Volga River and began to fight their way into the northern suburbs of the City of Stalingrad. The 16th’s General was one-armed Hans Huber, whom his men nicknamed Die Mensch- The Man! <br /> The Germans were met by elements of the Red Army mixed with marines and civilians driving new unpainted T-34 tanks fresh from their factory assembly line. An estimated 40,000 civilians died just in this first attack, as many people as had died at Waterloo, and the battle just beginning. The German 6th Army attack stalled in the city center and the fighting went on until next February.<br /> <br /> 1942- Fascist Italian troops were aiding their Nazi allies in the invasion of Russia. At Izbushensky near the Don River a regiment of Savoy cavalry charged Soviet troops with drawn sabers. It was called the last cavalry charge with drawn sabers in history.<br /> <br /> 1944- Romania was declared liberated from the Nazis by the Red Army.<br /> <br /> 1947-President Truman’s daughter Margaret gave her first public singing concert. President Truman spent the following day personally telephoning music critics and threatening any who dared to give her harsh reviews. Paul Hume, the Washington Post’s music critic, wrote that Margaret Truman “cannot sing very well. She is flat most of the time.” The furious father dashed off a letter to Hume, warning that if they ever meet, “You’ll need a new nose, and plenty of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!”<br /> 1948- The World Council of Churches set up.<br /> <br /> 1953- David Mullany of Shelton Conn. invented the Whiffle Ball. He did it to help his son who was lousy at throwing a curve ball. <br /> <br /> 1964- Twist and Shout! The Beatles played the Hollywood Bowl. <br /> <br /> 1967- The record album “Are You Experienced” the debut album by Jimmy Hendrix and the Jimmy Hendrix Experience first went on sale. With songs like “Purple Haze, Hey Joe, and Foxy Lady “, it became one of the top albums of the year.<br /> <br /> 1996- In Afghanistan, an obscure terrorist group called Al Qaeda led by some guy named Osama bin Laden held a press conference where they actually declared holy war (Jihad) on the United States. Five years before the 9-11 attacks.<br /> <br /> 2007- Open-source advocate Paul Messina created the hashtag for Twitter.<br /> ======================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Is the Baja Peninsula part of Mexico or the USA?<br /> <br /> Answer: It is called Baja California, but it is actually a state of Mexico.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 22 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6237 <p>Question: Is the Baja Peninsula part of Mexico or the USA?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: In history, who was The Young Pretender. Hint: The son of the Old Pretender.<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 8/22/2023<br /> Birthdays: George Herriman the creator of Krazy Kat, Dorothy Parker, Claude DeBussy, Johnny Lee Hooker, Denis Papin 1647 inventor of the Pressure Cooker, Leni Reifenstahl, General Stormin’ Norman Schwarzkopf, Paul Molitor, Bill Parcells, Max Vilander, Carl “Big Yaz” Yazstremski, Dyanna Nyad, Deng Xiao Ping, Henry Cartier Bresson, Valerie Harper, Ray Bradbury, Cindy Williams, Kristen Wiig is 50<br /> <br /> In Britain it is National Slacker Day: Stand Up for your Right to Sit Back Down!<br /> <br /> 565AD – St. Columba reported seeing a sea monster in Loch Ness. <br /> <br /> 1485-"A Horse! A Horse! My Kingdom for a Horse!!" Battle of Bosworth Field. Welsh prince Henry Tudor defeated and killed King Richard III and became King Henry VII, first of the Tudor Dynasty. Henry Tudor was married to Elizabeth Rivers, the daughter of Richards dead brother King Edward IV, further strengthening his claim to the throne. Shakespeare made Richard out to be a usurper and child murderer, but couldn’t hide the fact that he died well. Whatever the truth, he went down sword in hand, fighting like a true descendant of Richard Lionheart. Recently Richard’s skeleton was found under a parking lot, and he did indeed have a misshapen spine and club foot. <br /> <br /> 1558- When Antonio Carafa became Pope Paul IV. Former head of the Inquisition, he blamed the loss of half of Europe to Protestantism to the corruption in the Catholic Church. He attacked the dry rot with zeal. He started with a warning to all monks away from their monasteries without permission to return at once. This day he ordered the gates of Rome closed. All deadbeat monks still AWOL to be rounded up and sentenced to be galley slaves. He’s the Pope who created the Index of Forbidden Books and ordered little cloths painted on Michelangelo’s nude Christ in the Last Judgment.<br /> <br /> 1572- Admiral Gaspar Coligny, was leader of the French Huguenots –Protestants, and was one of the most powerful men in France. This night he was recovering from an earlier assassination attempt, when agents of the Duke du Guise rushed into his room and stabbed him to death. They hurled his body out a window to smash on the pavement stones at the Dukes feet. When it was pointed out to the king that the French Protestants may not like this, the emotionally unstable King Charles IX shouted:" Then slay them all, so none shall remain to accuse me!" The Great Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre was the result.<br /> <br /> 1611- Galileo made a group of Venetian senators climb to the top of Saint Marks Basilica in Venice with him to demonstrate to them his new invention, the telescope.<br /> <br /> 1715 – Handel’s "Watermusic" premiered on the Thames River to mark celebrations of the Peace ending the 15 year long War of Spanish Succession. <br /> <br /> 1776- The Long Island Campaign began. British General Lord Howe and his brother Admiral Richard, called “Black Dick”, commanded the largest invasion force ever sent by England. Today they began ferrying their army from tory-loyalist Staten Island across the Straights of Verrazano for the march towards the village of Breuklyn. -Brooklyn. Their Hessian mercenaries, to show off their discipline, stood at rigid attention as the flatboats bobbed in the choppy water. Now that the British fleet were anchored inside New York Harbor, George Washington agreed that New York City was as already lost. He contemplated burning the town to keep it from being used by the enemy as a base. But Congress couldn't let him give up America’s largest city without a fight.<br /> <br /> 1791-THE NIGHT OF FIRE- Haitian slaves, after decades of oppression were organized by a voodoo priest named Boumann. This night they set fire to plantations, crops and massacred 300 white settlers. This began the great Haitian Revolution which will rage until 1811 and make Haiti the second republic in the New World. <br /> <br /> 1806- elderly French painter Jean Fragonard died of a cerebral seizure after eating a large fruit ice on a hot day.<br /> <br /> 1848- Ulysses Grant married Julia Dent. One of the only things Grant did well other than win the Civil War was his long and happy marriage to his Julia. <br /> <br /> 1849- The first aerial bomb attack. Austrian General Von Wintzingerode was at a loss at how to get at the besieged Italian city of Venice. The Venetian lagoon was too deep to wade across but was too shallow for battleships. Finally, a Swiss mercenary suggested filling hot air balloons with troops and flying them over the city to drop explosives. A dozen pilotless balloons filled with grenadiers were launched aloft, and one or two did drop some grenades, but soon a stiff breeze blew them all to Croatia. Doh! <br /> <br /> 1851- The schooner America defeated the British yacht Aurora to win the trophy called the Hundred Guinea Cup that would in time be called the America's Cup. It was the first win for the US in an international sports competition. American yachts continued to win it for the next 150 years until Australia II took it in 1984.<br /> <br /> 1860- Italian nationalist leader Giuseppe Garibaldi with his 'redshirts' crossed the Straights of Messina from Sicily and invaded the boot of Italy.<br /> <br /> 1882- American showman P.T. Barnum bought the largest elephant in the London Zoo. He created a new name for the beast- he called it JUMBO. It was the highlight of his circus for years. After Jumbo was hit by a freight train and died, PT Barnum had its bones bleached and charged people admission to come look at its skeleton.<br /> <br /> 1901-The Cadillac Automobile Company formed. Named for the French explorer who founded Detroit, William De La Mothe-Cadillac.<br /> <br /> 1902- Teddy Roosevelt became the first president to ride in an automobile.<br /> <br /> 1906 - 1st Victor Victrola manufactured, using Emile Berliners flat record turntable system. The Victrola was so cheap and easy to use it became standard in many homes and finished off any competition from Thomas Edison’s rival talking cylinder system.<br /> <br /> 1910- Despite a pledge after the Russo-Japanese War that they would bestow “complete freedom” on the Korean people, this day Japan’s military occupied Korea and annexed it to the Japanese Empire. <br /> <br /> 1914- The Angel of Mons. British forces stalled the German advance towards Paris with a fighting retreat, and in so doing helped the main French army to win at the Marne. In a proclamation to his generals Kaiser Wilhelm stated, “Roll over this contemptible little British Army!” The term appealed to the Tommies, and they nicknamed themselves “The Old Contemptibles”. At this time newspapers reported that soldiers claimed they saw ghosts in shining armor aiding the British army. "those who could see said they saw 'a row of shining beings' between the two armies.”<br /> The German field general was General Von Kluck, whose name rhymed with the Britons favorite expletive. As the marched through Belgian streets, the soldiers sang “We don’t give a F*CK about old Von KLUCK, an iz whole F*CKING ARMY!”<br /> <br /> 1922- After World War I, Lawrence of Arabia wrote home from Baghdad about the Postwar British occupation of Iraq:” The Public had been led into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with honor. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information. The Baghdad communiques have been belated, insincere and incomplete. Things have been far worse here than we have been told.” <br /> <br /> 1927- Walt Disney’s last Alice in Cartoonland short, Alice in The Big Leagues released.<br /> <br /> 1927- 200,000 people protest in Hyde Park London and around the world for clemency for convicted Italian immigrants Nicolo Sacco and Bartolomeo Vancetti. They were socialists who were convicted of murdering a store clerk in Massachusetts and became a radical cause-celebre. Letters demanding mercy came in from George Bernard Shaw, Helen Keller, Picasso, the Pope and more. Woody Guthrie wrote folk songs in praise of Sacco &amp; Vancetti. The next day the State of Massachusetts electrocuted them anyway.<br /> <br /> 1929- Walt Disney’s Silly Symphony The Skeleton Dance premiered. The tight dancing synch inspired a generation of animators. The idea of skeletons was suggested by composer Carl Stalling, a Kansas City movie theater organist that Walt befriended.<br /> <br /> 1935- Father Charles Coughlin, “the Radio Priest” addressed ten thousand in Madison Square Gardens. At the height of his popularity almost one third the American public tuned into his weekly radio address. But as his influence waned after the 1936 presidential elections he turned increasingly to racist Anti-Semitism. He even tried to make excuses for Kristallnacht. In 1942 with America in the war, his archbishop with permission from the Vatican ordered him to shut up, on pain of being defrocked. He retired from public life. <br /> <br /> 1939- The first aerosol spray can.<br /> <br /> 1942- Brazil declared war on the Axis powers. She was the only Latin American country to send troops to Europe to fight in World War II.<br /> <br /> 1942- Tex Avery’s first cartoon for MGM, The Blitz Wolf. <br /> <br /> 1945- This was the date Stalin scheduled for the Soviet invasion of Hokaido, in North Japan. The American attack, in the event the atomic bombs didn't work, was not scheduled until November 1st. With all of the remaining Japanese army concentrated on the southern beaches awaiting the American landings, if the Russian invasion in the north had come off as scheduled, they would have been able to overrun Northern Japan quite easily. The world might have had to settle for a divided Japan resembling Korea. History however, turned out differently.<br /> <br /> 1953- The French government closed the Devil's Island prison colony.<br /> <br /> 1962- Rogue French army officers, angry at France’s yielding independence to Algeria, try to assassinate Pres. Charles DeGaulle. Near Orly Airport, they opened up with machine guns on the presidential motorcade. They killed two police motorcyclists, but DeGaulle’s peppy Citroen DS sped away and escaped the gunfire. For that, DeGaulle made sure Citroen would never go bankrupt. The incident was the basis for the novel and film The Day of the Jackal.<br /> <br /> 1976- The protest at the Seabrook Nuclear Plant in New Hampshire. The birth of the U.S. anti-nuclear movement.<br /> <br /> 1984 – The last Volkswagen Rabbit produced.<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: In history, who was The Young Pretender?<br /> <br /> Answer: When the Scots dynasty of King James II was driven from the English throne by William and Mary in 1688, they lived in exile in Rome. There they plotted and planned to some day return to power. After old King James II died, his son James Stuart (1688-1766) was called The Old Pretender, and his son Charles Edward Stuart (1720-1788), was called The Young Pretender, aka Bonnie Prince Charlie. Pretender meant if the people of Great Britain ever tired of their current dynasty, they were ready and willing to come back.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 21 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6236 <p>Quiz: In history, who was The Young Pretender? Hint: The son of the Old Pretender.<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: In the 1930s Jazz musicians referred to all black venues as The Chittlin Circuit. Because at times the owner paid the musicians in chittlins. What are chittlins?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 8/21/2023<br /> Birthdays: Christopher Robin Milne-1920, King Phillip II Augustus of France- 1165, King William IV of England- 1765, Aubrey Beardsley, Count Basie*, Wilt (Wilt the Stilt) Chamberlain, Friz Freleng, Kenny Rogers, Princess Margaret, Matthew Broderick, Vance Gerry, Basil Poliodouris, Steve Hillenberg the creator of Spongebob Squarepants, Peter Weir is 79, Kim Catrall is 67, Carrie Anne Moss is 56<br /> <br /> *Count Basie's first name was William. When working in a swing band he'd often get to work late. This would make the band's director ask, “Where is that no-account Basie? “Which in his colloquial slang came out: "Where dat no' Count Basie!?" Hence the nickname. <br /> <br /> Consualia- Roman Festival of the first Harvest<br /> <br /> 1560 –Danish scientist Tycho Brahe wrote that he had become interested in astronomy. <br /> <br /> 1561- Queen Catherine de Medici attempts to solve the bitter wrangling over Protestants and Catholics dividing France by convening a grand Estates General at Fontainbleau. Huguenot leader Admiral Gaspar Coligny presented the Petition of the Huguenots. By then 20% of the French population were Protestant (Huguenots). They declared loyalty to the crown while asking that all men be allowed to worship as they pleased. It didn’t work. Soon Catholics and Huguenots were killing each other in the streets. Coligny was murdered in the Great Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.<br /> <br /> 1810- After the Swedish Royal family, the Vasas, died out, the Swedish Diet with major arm twisting by Napoleon, voted to have French General Bernadotte, married to the daughter of one of Nappy's old girlfriends Desiree' Clary, become the new King and Queen. Napoleon saw this move as adding Sweden to his continental empire but Bernadotte later changed sides and joined the allies. At the end of the Napoleonic wars Bernadotte hoped the Russian Czar would reward him with the throne of France but he let him keep Norway to add to his kingdom. Two centuries later Napoleon and the Czar’s families have lost their thrones, but Bernadotte’s descendants still rule Sweden today.<br /> <br /> 1820- After Argentina and Chile had been liberated from Spain, the army of Jose San Martin embarked from Valparaiso to invade Peru.<br /> <br /> 1858- The first Lincoln-Douglas debates. Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas squared off in a series of open air debates for a congressional seat for Illinois. But the main subject was the slavery issue. Douglas, the 'Little Giant" won the congressional seat, but the debates brought national attention to Lincoln. Douglas had even courted Lincoln's wife Mary before they were married. After Lincoln was in the White House, Douglas became his strong supporter. <br /> <br /> 1863- THE LAWRENCE KANSAS MASSACRE – In the Western Border States the town of Lawrence Kansas was the center of pro-Union partisans. Locals called it YankeeTown. Early in the morning this day Confederate guerrilla leader William Clark Quantrill led 450 hard-riding Missouri raiders flying black flags into town. <br /> As the wild horsemen galloped up Massachusetts Avenue burning and looting, Quantrill stood up in his saddle and shouted “Kill! Kill! Kill all the n-loving Yankees!” There was no regular army there. They murdered 200 civilians, mostly old men and boys. A guerrilla named Rev Larkin Skaggs tore down the Stars &amp; Stripes and dragged it behind his horse in the mud to the laughter of the troops. There were some regular Confederate officers present who were appalled at the carnage. They later showed their unfired weapons to survivors to witness that they did not take part in the crimes. <br /> Rev. Skaggs was shot down by a Delaware Indian as he tried to ride out of town. The citizens dragged his scalped corpse up and down the main street shooting it and pelting it with stones. It was later tossed into a ravine for wild dogs to eat. Many people never recovered from the nightmare. In 1865 at the end of the Civil War, William Quantrill was brought down in a hail of bullets. Quantrill's Raiders included young pups like 17-year-old Jesse James, Frank James and Cole Younger. <br /> <br /> 1878 - American Bar Association was organized at Saratoga, NY.<br /> <br /> 1887- Mighty (Dan) Casey struck out at his last at bat with the NY Giants. The poem by Ernest Lawrence Thayer was written many years later.<br /> <br /> 1888- William S. Burroughs of St Louis patented the first modern adding machine, not counting the abacus.<br /> <br /> 1897- Ransom Eli Olds opened the Olds Auto Works in Detroit. The produced a new horseless carriage he called the Oldsmobile.<br /> <br /> 1911- Café waiter Vincenzo Perugia walked into the Louvre and stole the Mona Lisa. Paris Police arrested Surrealist poet Guillaume Apollinaire, thinking the theft was some kind of statement by modernist movement artists. For two years Vincenzo Perugia tried to fence the painting with no luck. Finally while trying to claim a ransom for it, he was arrested and the painting recovered.<br /> <br /> 1912- Arthur Eldred of Oceanside New York became the first Eagle scout. <br /> <br /> 1921- On his first birthday, Christopher Robin Milne was given a Farrell teddy bear from Harrods. His parents first called it Edward, but when he could speak Christopher Robin named it Winnie, after Winnipeg, his favorite bear he saw at the zoo. The child would also mention the name of a swan there he liked named Pooh. This gave his dad A.A. Milne a neat idea for a new book.<br /> <br /> 1929- Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo marry.<br /> <br /> 1931- Pardon Us, the first feature length film starring Laurel &amp; Hardy. In 1926, Hal Roach Studio director Leo McCarey noticed the Briton Stan Laurel and Georgia-born singer Oliver Hardy looked funny together. He put them in a series of shorts starting with Putting Pants on Phillip (1927). Pardon Us was their first Sound film. Laurel &amp; Hardy became one of the iconic comedy teams in film history. <br /> <br /> 1935- Big band leader Benny Goodman was having a tough time. His band lost its radio gig when the show Let’s Dance was canceled. So, he and his musicians drove across the country in a small caravan of cars playing various venues on the road. They were told in small towns to stop playing that newfangled Swing music and stick to old standards. One manager in Denver told him:” Don’t you guys know any waltzes? ” By the time they arrived in Los Angeles this day they were thoroughly demoralized. But today when they set up in the Palomar Ballroom in Hollywood the crowd was immense! And these kids wanted to jitterbug to the new Swing music! So hit it, Jackson, Awl Reet, Awl Reet! <br /> <br /> 1941- Nazi forces cut off the supplies and began the 800 day Siege of Leningrad. A directive from Berlin announced, “The Fuehrer has decided to have St. Petersburg wiped off the face of the earth.” The epic siege would earn Leningrad the title of Hero-City. Dmitri Shostakovitch wrote and debuted his Leningrad symphony (#7) even as the Nazi Stukas reigned bombs down from above. He would have to take periodic breaks from composing to serve in the city fire brigade. Leningrad’s stand probably saved Moscow because it tied down troops the Germans needed for the final drive on the Russian Capitol. After Communism’s collapse in 1991 Leningrad regained its original name of St. Petersburg.<br /> <br /> 1944- Movie star James Cagney, star of Yankee Doodle Dandy, was cleared of charges of Communism. The accusations probably had less to do with Cagney's politics and more to do with his actors union activism, and his fighting in court the restrictive personal service contracts studios put their stars under. <br /> <br /> 1959- Hawaii became the 50th state.<br /> <br /> 1961- The British colonial authorities release Kenyan nationalist leader Njomo Kenyatta from prison. <br /> <br /> 1967 –New York Mets second baseman Ken Harrelson became the first baseball free agent. <br /> <br /> 1968- RUSSIAN TANKS CRUSH THE "PRAGUE SPRING' -Soviet forces destroyed Alexander Dubchek's experiment of "Socialism with a Human Face." 650.000 Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops moved on the small country from three sides. Some of the Red Army soldiers marching into Prague were from Siberia and had never seen a western city before. Carlos Casteneda, who was there for a socialist progressive conference, recalled seeing a Soviet tank crash right through a department store glass window. The driver had never seen a glass window that large and didn't think anything was there. A Czech put a sign over the window frame: "NOTHING CAN STOP THE INVINCIBLE RED ARMY!" <br /> <br /> 1972 - Grace Slick was sprayed with mace by police after one of her band called the cops pigs.<br /> <br /> 1981- John Landis’ “American Werewolf in London” opened.<br /> <br /> 1983- Benino Aquino, chief political opponent of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, was promised no reprisals if he returned from exile in Hawaii. Stepping off the plane in Manila, an assassin immediately shot him dead. His wife Cory Aquino took over, and led the "people power" revolution that toppled Marcos. <br /> <br /> 1987- The movie Dirty Dancing opened.<br /> <br /> 1989- The Voyager II space probe flew by the planet Neptune. It was discovered Neptune had a faint ring like Saturn and rotated on its side- south-north instead of west to east. Scientists speculated the atmospheric pressure to be so great that it could actually rain diamonds.<br /> <br /> 1995- Bill Gates announced Microsoft Windows 95.<br /> <br /> 2003- A two-week heatwave in Europe killed 17,000 in France. 13,000 people dead in Germany, Italy 12,000. Most were elderly people sitting in their locked apartments without air conditioning while their families went on their august holidays. It was probably the largest heat wave death in modern times, since it took place in only a few days. <br /> <br /> 2011- Anti Khaddafi rebels stormed the Libyan capital Tripoli, ending the dictator’s reign. <br /> -----------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: In the 1930s Jazz musicians referred to all black venues as The Chittlin Circuit. Because at times the owner paid the musicians in chittlins. What are chittlins?.<br /> <br /> Answer: Fried stuffed pig intestines.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 20 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6235 <p>Quiz: In the 1930s Jazz musicians referred to all black venues as The Chittlin Circuit. Because at times the owner paid the musicians in chittlins. What are chittlins?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: June Foray (1917-2017) was a famous voice actress who voiced Rocky the Flying Squirrel for Jay Ward and Witchy Hazel for Chuck Jones. But she did a voice in a Disney film as well. What was it?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 8/20/2023<br /> Birthdays: President Benjamin Harrison, Sukenoba Nishikawa, Bernardo O’Higgins, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, H.P. Lovecraft, Art Tatum, Issac Hayes, Connie Chung, Jacqueline Susanne, Rajiv Ghandi, Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, Joan Allen is 67, Fred Durst, Alan Reed -the original voice of Fred Flintstone, Slobodan Milosovic’, Amy Adams is 49<br /> <br /> Feast day of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux<br /> <br /> 480 B.C. -THE THREE HUNDRED SPARTANS- When Persian King Xerxes invaded Greece the King of Sparta Leonidas decided the best place to try and stop him was in the narrow pass of Thermopylae. But the Spartan senate and other allied Greek states refused to send troops until they completed the Olympiad festival. It was forbidden for Greeks to wage war during the Games. So. Leonidas went with the 300 Spartans of his bodyguard, and a thousand more allied troops, to try and stall ten times their number. After repulsing several attacks a traitor showed Xerxes a goat path around the Spartan position. Leonidas could still have retreated but he, his three hundred and some other Greek allies decided to stand and fight to the last man. They were wiped out, but they bought enough time for the Greeks eventual victory. <br /> <br /> Later a monument was erected over their bones: O xein angellin Lakdaimoniois hoti tede keimetha tois keinon rhemasi peithomenoi- which means "Go Tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that True to their Command, Here We Lie."<br /> <br /> 636 A.D. Battle of Yarmouk- The Arab armies led by their General Khalid bin Walid defeated the Byzantines and captured Palestine and Jerusalem. Caliph Omar received the defeated Byzantine Emperor Romanus Diogenes with a cup of fruit flavored ice called sherbat or sorbet. The custom was for high-born prisoners like an emperor to be ransomed back. But the Byzantine court was so angry, they said keep him! <br /> <br /> 1191- At the siege of Acre, Richard Lionheart had 3,000 Arab people and their families slaughtered in front of Saladin just to piss him off. <br /> <br /> 1619- A Dutch ship anchored at the English colony at Jamestown Virginia and landed the first African slaves. Twenty people. By the American Revolution, three million African people had been forcibly brought to America. There was slavery of the Indians and white slavery as well in the form of indentured servitude, but that had mostly died out by the American Revolution. In 1809 when an international treaty was signed to outlaw the overseas slave trade, even though despots like the Czar of Russia signed it, the only nation that refused was the United States. <br /> <br /> 1648- Battle of Lens, the last battle of the Thirty Years War. Archduke Leopold defeated somebody or other. The Thirty Years war went on so long that all those who started the war in 1618 had died and by 1648 nobody remembered how the whole damn mess got started in the first place.<br /> <br /> 1672- THE DAY THE DUTCH ATE THEIR PRIME MINISTER. Jan DeWitt had governed the Netherlands as Grand Pensioner of the Republic for four terms. But by now many Dutch hated him for his weak handling of wars with England and France. They wanted the more resolute leadership of young William III of Orange. Jan De Witt resigned his offices and when his brother Cornelius was imprisoned, Jan went to his aid. A mob broke into the Gevangenpoort jail. As unsympathetic guards looked on they beat Jan and Cornelius to death and hung their bodies from a lamp-post. Some reports say the mob tore strips of flesh from their bodies and ate them. <br /> <br /> 1741-VITUS BERING DISCOVERED ALASKA and helps colonize California. Well, he didn't actually help, but for 200 years Spain had ignored it's Southwest colonies because there were no more gold-rich Inca empires there. But when Berring opened the Pacific coast to Russian colonization, the King of Spain freaked and ordered towns and missions built up the California coast. Britain also rushed its’ claims to Washington State and British Columbia. This is why Juan De Cabrillo explored the California coast in 1542, but cities like L.A. and San Francisco weren't founded until 1776.<br /> Bering was a reluctant explorer. The Dane had heard Czar Peter the Great was giving cushy salaries to skilled European sailors. But when Bering arrived in Russia the Czar ordered him to travel 3,700 miles to Siberia, build a fleet and explore the arctic because the Czar had always wondered if America and Russia are connected. He went off and fooled around in the Arctic Sea for awhile, then went back and said it wasn't. The Czars scientists said that wasn't good enough, go back and do it again! Finally, he discovered his Bering Straights, but died of scurvy in the Aleutians before he ever got paid.<br /> <br /> 1794- Napoleon Bonaparte was released from prison at Caps d’Antibe. He was arrested with the leading Jacobins when Robespierre was overthrown. Nappy was friends with Robespierre’s brother.<br /> <br /> 1794- BATTLE OF FALLEN TIMBERS, American General Mad Anthony Wayne defeated the Shawnee and Miami Indians under Chief Blue Jacket and Little Turtle. By treaty signed after the victory, the Indians agreed to withdraw to the West, opening up the Ohio Valley to white settlement.<br /> <br /> 1862- SECOND BATTLE OF BULL RUN or MANASSAS. Robert E. Lee maneuvered the larger Union army of General George Pope back onto the old Bull Run battlefield and smashed it, sending thousands of bluecoats running back to Washington, -again. Pope considered himself a man of action and bragged "From now on my headquarters are in the saddle!" To which one wag wrote :"It's not the first time that a general had his Headquarters where his Hindquarters should be!' Confederate General James Longstreet was nursing a foot wound so he directed the decisive attack wearing bedroom slippers instead of boots. <br /> <br /> After three spectacular Yankee defeats in just two months, the Confederate cause was looking pretty good. In London, Prime Minister Palmerston wrote Lord Liverpool the foreign secretary that Washington or Baltimore would soon fall into rebel hands and a special steamboat was kept waiting at the navy docks to rush President Lincoln and his cabinet to safety when the capitol fell. The time may have arrived for England to offer her mediation to negotiate a ceasefire. Emperor Napoleon III of France was also offering Paris as the site of an international peace conference to oversee the final separation of North and South. <br /> <br /> 1866- One year after the Civil War ended President Andrew Johnson declared the great insurrection officially over and rescinded all remaining wartime regulations and edicts, reinstating Habeas Corpus, etc.<br /> <br /> 1882 -Peter Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" premiered in Moscow. The composer said of all his works the two pieces he liked the least were the 1812 Overture and the Nutcracker Suite. Overture 1812 was Richard Nixon’s favorite classical piece.<br /> <br /> 1896 – The Dial telephone patented. It was nicknamed the Gravediggers Dial because it was invented by funeral director Almon Stroweger. His inspiration to create the automated switching system was the local telephone operator was the wife of his competitor in the funeral business. She kept sending all inquiries for an undertaker to her husband. The rotary dial and Strowger switching system was the world standard until replaced by the touchtone button system in the 1980s. Even though the dial phone is a memory, the words remain when we speak of dialing a phone number.<br /> <br /> 1913- The first successful parachute jump. French balloonists experimented with parachutes in the 1790's but this is the first practical one. <br /> <br /> 1940- In Mexico City exiled Russian leader Leon Trotsky was assassinated. While writing at his desk he was hacked in the skull with a mountain-climbers pick. His murderer Ramon Mercador- alias Jules Antoine, alias Jackson, was paid by Stalin's agents. He got into Trotsky's household by dating one of the maids. It was rumored that part of the Stalinist cell in Mexico was famed painter David Siqueiros. Trotsky was having an affair with painter Frida Kahlo. Leon Trotsky predicted Stalin would try to get him while the world's attention was distracted by the Hitler War in Europe. When Mercador was released from a Mexican prison, Stalin presented him with a medal, the Order of Lenin.<br /> <br /> 1940- In a radio speech Winston Churchill praised the efforts of the Royal Air Force in fighting Hitler's bombers-"Never have so Many, owed so Much, to so Few.'<br /> <br /> 1953- The Kinsey Report on Sexual Behavior in Women first published. Alfred &amp; Clara Kinsey’s study proved to the conservative American public that 50% of women had premarital sex, liked sex for more than just procreation, and 25% had an extramarital affair. This document following their 1948 report on sexual behavior of men revolutionized social attitudes towards sex and feminism. <br /> <br /> 1954- President Eisenhower’s intelligence chief Allan Foster Dulles presented a paper on Far East Policy in which he urged that the US support be given to the post-colonial government of South Vietnam in opposition to communist Ho Chi Minh.<br /> <br /> 1971. FBI documents prove this day the Nixon White House began to covertly investigate journalist Daniel Schorr because of his anti-war editorials. President Richard Nixon kept an enemies list of people he imagined to be opponents to his administration. It began with obvious liberals like George McGovern and Ted Kennedy, then expanded as far as June Foray the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel.<br /> <br /> 1972- Top Hollywood directors Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich and William Friedkin announced a partnership in a new production company called "The Director's Company". Youngsters Martin Scorsese, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were also signatories. The partnership lasted two years then collapsed.<br /> <br /> 1982- Ralph Bakshi's film Hey Good Lookin'.<br /> <br /> 1982- President Reagan sent the Marines into civil war torn Beirut Lebanon.<br /> <br /> 1985- Israel shipped 96 American-made shoulder held missiles to the radical Ayatollahs of Iran. This was part of the Iran-Contra scheme. When Congress had forbidden the Ronald Reagan White House to send any money to Anti-Communist rebels in Nicaragua, Reagan’s people cooked up this scheme to sell the Iranians weapons for covert funds for the Nicaraguan Contras. <br /> <br /> 1989- George Adamson, who with his wife Joy were the naturalists who inspired the book Born Free, was murdered with machetes by Somali poachers in Kampi Ya Simba Game Preserve. <br /> <br /> 1994- Studio head Jeffrey Katzenberg resigned from the Walt Disney Company.<br /> <br /> 1998- THE WAG THE DOG ATTACKS- After the Al Qaeda terrorist organization bombed US embassies in Africa, the Clinton Administration looked for an opportunity to hit back. This day the CIA got word that senior Al Qaeda leaders including Osama bin Laden were gathered in a remote Afghan camp for a meeting. President Clinton ordered a spread of cruise missiles launched to kill them. The missiles hit their target, but Osama got away. In Washington, the hostile Conservative press had a field day accusing Clinton of making the strikes only to distract public attention from the Monica Lewinsky Sex Scandal. It alluded to a popular movie out at the time called Wag the Dog, where a scandal ridden president rigs a phony crisis to distract public attention. Bill Clinton was stymied in any further efforts, and Osama bin Laden lived on to plan 9-11.<br /> ==================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: June Foray (1917-2017) was a famous voice actress who voiced Rocky the Flying Squirrel for Jay Ward and Witchy Hazel for Chuck Jones. But she did a voice in a Disney film as well. What was it?<br /> <br /> Answer: She voiced Lucifer the Cat in Cinderella, an old Indian woman in Peter Pan as well as a Mermaid, and Lena Hyena in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 19 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6234 <p>Quiz: June Foray (1917-2017) was a famous voice actress who voiced Rocky the Flying Squirrel for Jay Ward and Witchy Hazel for Chuck Jones. But she did a voice in a Disney film as well. What was it?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz Answered Below: In Soccer (football) what does it mean when a ref holds up a yellow card?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 8/19/2023<br /> B-Days: Roman Emperor Probus (232AD), Orville Wright, Ring Lardner, Ogden Nash, Alfred Lunt, George Enesco, jockey Willie Shoemaker, Malcolm Forbes, Tipper Gore, Gene Roddenberry, Colleen Moore the It Girl, Jill St. John, Ginger Baker, Dawn Steel, John Stamos, Peter Gallagher is 67, Kyra Sedgwick is 58, Matthew Perry, Jonathan Frakes is 71, Bill Clinton is 77<br /> <br /> 480 B.C. THERMOPYLAE- The Spartan King Leonidas had gone on ahead of other Greek allies to try and slow down the gigantic Persian invasion force of Xerxes The Great King. He chose to stop them at a narrow mountain pass in Thessaly called Thermopylae or Hot Gates. He had only 300 Spartans of his royal guard and 7,000 other Greek allies to fight off 200,000 Persians. <br /> After repulsing several assaults, this night spies told Leonidas a Greek traitor named Ephialtes had shown Xerxes a way behind his position. If he did not retreat, he would be surrounded. Their priest Meistias saw in the sacrificial entrails nothing but death.<br /> But Leonidas decided the best way to gain time, and create an example for all Greece to rally, was to stay and fight to the last man. He allowed his allies to withdraw, but 1500 warriors including his 300 Spartans stayed with him. Meistias sent away his only son to be saved, but he stayed to fight. <br /> This night before the last battle the Spartans spent most of their time combing and oiling their hair and beards, for they did not want to enter the next world looking shabby. One Spartan warrior named Dieneces, was told when the Persian army fire their arrows, they black out the sun. Dieneces replied: “Good, then we can fight them in the shade.”<br /> <br /> 14 A.D.- Elderly Emperor Augustus died after ruling the Roman Empire for 44 years. The Empress Livia had ordered the imperial villa surrounded with troops so no one but her saw his end. She said his last words were:" Have I played my part well in this great comedy called life?" But the historian Tacitus suspected Livia might have aided his shuffling off this mortal coil before he had second thoughts about leaving the empire to his stepson Tiberius, He may have said something more like: " Honey, I don't feel so good. What did you put in these figs?"<br /> <br /> 1274- King Edward I Longshanks and his Queen Eleanor of Castile crowned at Westminster Abbey. Edward was called Long-Legs because he was over 6 foot, and his constant wars and blood conquest earned him nicknames like The Hammer of the Scots, and the Great Plantagenet after his family name.<br /> <br /> 1399 - King Richard II of England surrendered his throne to his cousin Henry Bollingbroke, who became King Henry IV. Richard II is not remembered for much else, but the Shakespeare play and inventing the pocket-handkerchief.<br /> <br /> 1561 - Mary Queen of Scots arrives in Leith Scotland to assume her throne after spending 13 years in France. She was raised at the extremely Catholic court of Queen Catherine de Medici and had little in common with her increasingly Presbyterian Scots subjects.<br /> <br /> 1599- Spanish conquistadors capture Acoma pueblo in New Mexico, east of modern Albuquerque. The Indian village on the sheer tabletop mountain reminded the Spaniards of attacking castles back in Europe. After their victory they enslaved the population and burned the Indian chief at the stake as a heretic. According to monk Bartolomeo de Las Casas, as the chief was roasting, Las Casas started to feel guilty, so he urged the chief at his last moments to accept baptism. The chief called out through the flames:" No thank you, because then I would go to the Christian Heaven and meet even MORE of you people!"<br /> <br /> 1692- Salem Mass, The pilgrims executed four people as witches. One was a senile old woman who just looked scary like a witch, and another was a Caribbean servant named Tituba who liked to tell children ghost stories. Another hanged, Rev George Burroughs, was a distant ancestor of Walt Disney.<br /> <br /> 1745- THE GATHERING OF THE CLANS- At Glenfinnin in the Scottish Highlands, to the thunder of drums and the skirl of massed bagpipes, Bonnie Prince Charlie raised his banner of revolt and called all Scottish clans to rally to him. Some clans stayed aloof but Clan MacDonald and Cameron wholeheartedly swelled his ranks, as did his family clan the Stuarts. His men were paid in oatmeal. <br /> <br /> 1781- George Washington started his Continental army marching from Yonkers, New York to attack Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown Virginia. At Dobbs Ferry he started ferrying his troops across the Great Northern River, as the Hudson River was known then. He was amazed that the British army was only twenty miles away in New York City, yet they never tried to stop him. <br /> <br /> 1787 – British astronomer W. Herschel discovers Enceladus, a moon of Saturn. Herschel also discovered Uranus and other celestial bodies.<br /> <br /> 1812- OLD IRONSIDES- During the war of 1812 The USS Constitution pounded it out with the frigate HMS Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia. The British captain complained his cannonballs bounced harmlessly off the Constitutions heavy New Hampshire oak hull as though it was made of iron. The nickname stuck and today Old Ironsides is the oldest commissioned ship in the US Navy. In 2012, the same USS Constitution was taken out for a cruise around Boston Harbor.<br /> <br /> 1814- THE ASSAULT ON WASHINGTON BEGAN. A huge British battle fleet of 14 Ships of the Line landed an invasion force at the town of Benedict on the Pautuxent River in Maryland. Admiral Cockburn’s intent was to march on Washington D.C., and “give the Americans a Good Drubbing!” The soldiers were all hardened British regulars, fresh from defeating Napoleon in Spain. The Duke of Wellington had turned down the American expedition. He called it " Fruitless, and a waste of time". <br /> Most of the American armies were on the frontier or north trying to invade Canada. To defend the American capitol were only some Maryland militia and a few Marines from two armed schooners hiding in the shallows of the Chesapeake. <br /> U.S. Secretary of War Armstrong was convinced the British were faking, and their real target was Baltimore. President James Madison sent contradicting orders to Armstrong and the field commanders. Secretary of State James Monroe, a veteran of the Revolution, personally galloped about alone under British gun fire bringing the only reliable scouting reports.<br /> <br /> 1848- The New York Herald published a story that President Polk confirmed that gold had indeed been discovered in California.<br /> <br /> 1886- Joseph Conrad got his British citizenship. The author of Nostromo, Heart of Darkness, and Lord Jim was born in Poland as Jozef Konrad Korzenieowski, but he went into exile when his patriot father was arrested by the Czars police and sent to Siberia.<br /> <br /> 1891 - William Huggins described the astronomical application of the spectrum.<br /> <br /> 1892- New Jersey pharmacist Charles Elmer Hires introduced the first commercially produced bottles of a new drink he dubbed “Root Beer”. Root Beer from sassafras root had been a traditional recipe since colonial times, but Hires was the first to market it.<br /> <br /> 1895- John Wesley Hardin was one of the more famous gunfighters of the Old West. His business card read J. Wesley Hardin, Shootist. He once shot a man for snoring. Hardin did 17 years in prison for murder, got released and studied law and theology. This day in El Paso at the Acme Saloon, lawman John Selman came up behind Hardin and shot him in the back of the head. After he collapsed on the floor he pumped a few more rounds into him to make sure he was dead. John Wesley Hardin was 42. <br /> <br /> 1909- The Brickyard is born. The first Indianapolis 500 auto race.<br /> <br /> 1929- The Amos &amp; Andy show premiered on radio.<br /> <br /> 1933 The Walt Disney short Lullaby Land released. Directed by Wilfred Jackson.<br /> <br /> 1942- The Dieppe Raid- Allied commanders were under pressure from Stalin to prove that they were doing something to open a second front in the west to take the pressure off Russia. So they sent a Canadian division in what amounted to the largest commando operation of World War II. These Canadians had to attack a large U-Boat base on the channel and ram a destroyer full of explosives into the dry docks. The Germans were waiting and it became a suicide mission. The Canadians suffered over 60% casualties.<br /> <br /> 1945- Four days after the Japanese surrender, in IndoChina, Ho Chi Minh declared the Republic of Vietnam. Uncle Ho had been supported by the CIA’s forerunner the OSS in his struggle against the Japanese. This day Ho ordered a reading aloud of his declaration, inspired from the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Even though FDR's personal representative Avril Harriman advised that the U.S. recognize Ho's government, we decided to support the French and British in trying to keep their tottering colonial empires. The British flew in French paratroops, and the stage is set for the Vietnam wars of the next 30 years.<br /> <br /> 70 Years Ago 1953- Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mossadegh was overthrown and Shah Reza II Pahlevi assumed absolute power. All with the cooperation of the American CIA. The popular Mossadegh was trying to steer Iran into a nonaligned status between the cold war superpowers and had nationalized the Iranian oil industry. So, to Washington he was a threat. Eisenhower advisor Allen Foster Dulles considered Mossadegh a dangerous lunatic for not wanting American support. The Shah Reza Pahlevi II ruled for the next 25 years until overthrown by the Moslem fundamentalists under the Ayatollah Khomeni. The CIA did not admit their role in this until 2011.<br /> <br /> 1953- The Israeli Knesset voted to create a huge memorial to Jews killed in the Holocaust called Yad Vashem.<br /> <br /> 1955 - WINS radio, announces it would not play "copy" white cover versions of black R&amp;B. DJs must play Fats Domino's "Ain't It A Shame," not Pat Boone's. In 1957 Little Richards “Tuttie-Fruitie” never got higher than 17th in the Billboard Charts, while Pat Boones version, by his own admission awful, went to number one.<br /> <br /> 1957- The NY Giants baseball team voted to move to San Francisco.<br /> <br /> 1960- The Russians launched a Sputnik capsule into space with two dogs- Belka and Strelka, 2 rats and 40 mice. They recovered this orbiting zoo the next day. The first sending of life into space and returning them safely.<br /> <br /> 1973 - Kris Kristofferson wed Rita Coolidge.<br /> <br /> 1977- Groucho Marx, the last surviving Marx Brother, died at age 86. In his final years Groucho had rewrote his will in favor of his young personal secretary Erin Fleming. This spawned a furious legal battle between Fleming and the Marx family.<br /> <br /> 1988- The Iran-Iraq war ended after 8 bloody years.<br /> <br /> 1989- The Polish Communist regime resigned and turned over power to the Solidarity trade union movement. Poland is the first Communist Warsaw Pact government to collapse.<br /> <br /> 1991-THE AUGUST COUP. Communist hardliners in a final attempt to stop the fall of the Soviet Union, try to overthrow leader Mikhail Gorbachev. They try to do it the way they did it to Nikita Khruschev in 1964, arresting Gorbachev while he was at his vacation dacha or cottage. The coup failed several days later when Russian Republic President Boris Yeltsin climbed on top of a tank and called for a "people-power" style rising to support the democratic elements of the government.<br /> <br /> 2000- Scientists report water at the North Pole for the first time in 50 million years.<br /> <br /> 2004- Google stock first went public on the stock market.<br /> <br /> 2012- Director Tony Scott (Top Gun, Days of Thunder) jumped to his death off a bridge in Los Angeles. He was 68.<br /> <br /> 2335 – According to Star Trek the Next Generation, this is the birthday of William T Riker, in Valdez Alaska, first officer of the Enterprise.<br /> ====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: In Soccer (football) what does it mean when a ref holds up a yellow card?<br /> <br /> Answer: When a foul is committed the referee will show a yellow card, play is stopped and the player who has been fouled gets a free kick. If a player gets a red card, the foul is determined to be more egregious and the player must leave the pitch, suspended for the remainder of play. Two yellow cards called on an individual player in a single game can also mean the player gets a red card. A red card for a particularly bad foul can lead to suspensions for additional games. (Thanks FG)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 17 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6233 <p>Quiz: Phil Collins returned for a concert tour with his original band Genesis. What band was Sting originally part of?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Driving around the U.S. Southeast you see the name Dekalb a lot. Dekalb township, DeKalb County, etc. So, who was DeKalb?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 8/17/2023<br /> Birthdays: Davy Crocket, Mae West, Marcus Garvey, Sam Goldwyn- born Schmuel Gelbfisz, Harry Hopkins, Monte Wooley, Boog Powell, Belinda Carlisle, Guillermo Vilas, V.S. Naipul, Jim Courier, Donnie Wahlberg, Belinda Carlisle, Maureen O’Hara, Sean Penn is 63, Martha Coolidge is 78, Robert DeNiro is 80<br /> <br /> 1661- THE PARTY. Nicholas Fouquet, the first minister of Louis XIV (the Sun King), had his coat of arms read "To what heights may I aspire?" He decided to throw the ultimate party for his royal master. Fouquet's chateau Vaux le Vicomte was so lavish, the dinner for 6,000 guests so exquisite, the gardens so beautiful and the entertainment was provided by the playwright Moliere. Everything was so all around superior, that the King wanted Fouquet thrown in a dungeon. It seems King Louis didn't like being upstaged by his servants. But the king’s mother didn’t want to spoil such a nice party. So the King waited two weeks, then sent his chief of musketeers, D’Artagnan, to arrest him. The king's new minister Colbert, was much more discreet in his entertaining. <br /> <br /> 1676- In Massachusetts, the conflict ended between the Pilgrims and local Indians called King Phillip’s War. This day Pilgrims placed the severed head of Wampanoag Chief Metacomet, or King Phillip, on a pole in front of the Plymouth settlement. Metacomet’s father Massacoit was the one who saved the Pilgrims from starving and celebrated the first Thanksgiving.<br /> <br /> 1806- After two years trekking across the Rockies to the pacific coast and back, Lewis and Clark finally returned to their starting point at the mouth of the Missouri. Just before they landed, Lewis was shot though both buttocks by Pierre Cruzatte, who had bad eyesight and thought he was an elk. This day they paid off and said goodbye to guide Jean Charbonnau and his wife Sacajewea. That same day Private John Colter asked to be released early from service. He desired to go back and explore some more. So while Lewis and Clark continued east to Washington City, John Colter went back into the Rocky Mountains to become the first American “Mountain Man”. Colter would discover Yellowstone Park. Captain Clark’s black slave York asked for equal wages as the other men because he shared all their labor and dangers. Captain Clark not only refused, he told him to never bring that up again, else he’d sell him. <br /> <br /> 1870- Battle of Gravellotte-St. Privat- The French and Prussians battle to a draw, but the French Marshal Bazaine retreated anyway, to the amazement of the enemy.<br /> <br /> 1876- Richard Wagner’s 4 hour opera Gotterdammerung- the Twilight of the Gods, premiered.<br /> <br /> 1877- Billy the Kid killed his first man.<br /> <br /> 1908- D.W. Griffith signed a contract to begin directing movies for Biograph Pictures. He was paid $50 dollars a week plus royalties. <br /> <br /> 1908- The premiere of the first fully animated film, Emile Cohl's "Fantasmagorie". <br /> <br /> 1914- Battle of Tannenburg. The Russian steamroller was stopped by Gen. Paul von Hindenburg in East Prussia. Hindenburg and his brilliant aide Ludendorf divided the Russian army into two pieces separated by a salt marsh and defeated each piece in turn. The fighting was so fierce that German gunners aimed their cannons by looking right through the barrel and firing directly into the thick masses of Russian soldiers. After the battle, Russian commander Gen. Samsonov walked off into the forest and shot himself. <br /> <br /> 1941- EL GRUPO- Walt Disney and his artists arrive in Rio on a ten-week goodwill tour of South America, underwritten by a $70,000 government grant. President Franklin Roosevelt was worried that some South American countries might be sympathetic to the Nazis, forcing the U.S. to worry about her backdoor. So FDR sent Nelson Rockefeller to give the Latin American countries whatever they wanted to keep them out of the world war. One of the things they wanted was Donald Duck. Back in LA the federal mediator Stanley White had worked out with Roy Disney that if they got Walt out of town, they could settle the Disney animators strike. The name comes from hotel footmen in Buenos Aires paging the artists as “ El Grupo Disney! Your bus is here.” The Three Caballeros and Saludos Amigos result.<br /> <br /> 1942- Carlson’s Raiders attacked Japanese held Makin Island. Before the war, Marine Lt. Colonel Evan Carlson served as an observer of Mao Zedong’s Chinese Communist army. He was impressed with General Chu Teh’s development of partisan-guerrilla tactics. Carlson became such a fan of their tactics, he was nicknamed “Commie-Carlson”.<br /> <br /> 1943- General Patton and his Seventh Army won the “Race to Messina” and completed the conquest of Sicily.<br /> <br /> 1945- This was supposed to be the scheduled date for the Japanese Navy to attack the Panama Canal. The Japanese had built a fleet of new I-400 class long-distance submarines that could carry 3-5 kamikaze bombers each. The crews trained to surface and get their planes in the air in 17 minutes. They targeted a key lock in the canal, that once destroyed would paralyze the entire system. But when the Japanese home islands were under threat of invasion, the Imperial High Command canceled the plan.<br /> <br /> 1945- Upon hearing of the Japanese surrender, Sukarno declared the Independence of Indonesia from Holland.<br /> <br /> 1954- Walt Disney’s True Life Adventure, “The Vanishing Prairie”, directed by James Algar, opened in theaters.<br /> <br /> 1960- Georg Pal’s The Time Machine opened in NY.<br /> <br /> 1962- The Beatles replaced drummer Pete Best with Ringo Starr. One of the reasons they decided on Ringo was that he came with his own car.<br /> <br /> 1979- Monty Python’s The Life of Brian premiered. Directed by Terry Jones. Just before principal photography was due to begin, a key sponsor got cold feet about the dodgy religious connotations and withdrew their funding. At the last-minute Beatle George Harrison stepped in and donated $3 million of the $4 million dollar budget. He said he just wanted to see it. “ It is the world’s most expensive theatre ticket.”<br /> <br /> 1984- The Walt Disney Company executive board informed its chairman Ron Miller that they wanted his resignation. Disney had fallen to 14th in film box office by then. Miller had been Walt’s son-in-law and he was he was once a tight end for the LA Rams. Within two years of Michael Eisner taking power Disney was number one. <br /> <br /> 1985- The Hormel Meat Packing Strike, severely threatening the world’s supply of SPAM.<br /> <br /> 1986- Pixar short Luxo Jr, premiered at Siggraph ’86 Dallas. <br /> <br /> 1987-Nazi Rudolph Hess found hanged in his cell by an electric light cord. He was 93 years old and had been in prison for 46 years. His body was burned and his prison Spandau was leveled, to prevent it from being made a shrine by Neo-Nazis.<br /> <br /> 1988- Mohammed Zia Al Haq, the president of Pakistan, died in a plane crash.<br /> <br /> 1992- Famed film director Woody Allen admitted he was having an affair with Soon Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of his longtime lover Mia Farrow. He was 60 and she was 21. But as the unrepentant Allen states: “The Heart wants what it wants.” They’ve been together ever since.<br /> <br /> 1994 The Great Baseball Players Strike- canceled out the season and the 1994 World Series. It was the longest strike in sports history until the NBA lockout of 1998.<br /> <br /> 1998- President Bill Clinton admitted to a grand jury that he had an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. This is only the second time in history that a sitting President allowed himself to be put under oath. The precedent was set by Ronald Reagan testifying he “couldn’t recall” anything about Iran-Contra. But this session is when Clinton, aka Slick Willy, defended his infidelity with the amazing argument that oral sex was not intercourse in the truest sense, and therefore he did not lie when he said on nationwide television that he did not have sex with Ms. Lewinsky. Part of his legal wriggling was a dissertation on the meaning of the word “is”. <br /> <br /> 2009- Police arrested Albert Gonzales for hacking into credit card company computers and stealing 134 million credit card numbers! He was an informant for the FBI on credit card crime, and was playing a double agent, still committing crimes.<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Yesterday’s Quiz: Driving around the U.S. Southeast you see the name Dekalb a lot. Dekalb township, DeKalb County, etc. So, who was DeKalb?<br /> <br /> Answer: Baron DeKalb was a German nobleman who like Lafayette and Kosciuszko came to aid the American cause. He was killed in battle in 1779.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 16 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6232 <p>Quiz: Driving around the U.S. Southeast you see the name Dekalb a lot. Dekalb township, DeKalb County, etc. So, who was DeKalb?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: What is spumoni?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 8/16/2023<br /> Birthdays: Fess Parker, Karl Stockhausen, George Meany, Charles Bukowski, Menachem Begin, Otto Mesmer the creator of Felix the Cat, Myron Grim Natwick the creator of Betty Boop, Hal Foster the creator of Prince Valiant, Kathie Lee Gifford, Edie Gorme, Bill Evans, Leslie Ann Warren, Angela Bassett is 65, Julie Numar is 90, Robert Culp, James Cameron is 68, Bruce Beresford, Steve Carrell is 62, Madonna, aka Louise Ciccone of Bay City Michigan, is 65<br /> <br /> Today is the Feast of St. Roch, who had a heavenly inspired dog to lick his sores and cure him of the Black Plague. It was thought dog licks cured plague. <br /> <br /> 1521- Cuauhtémoc (guatemoc) was the last fighting Aztec emperor. After Montezuma died, he led the resistance to Cortez and his conquistadors. After 80 days of brutal house-to-house fighting across Tenochtitlan, he finally surrendered. The Spaniards tortured Guatamoc for three days trying to get him to reveal where the secret treasure of Montezuma was. As they poured boiling oil on his feet he laughed:” Ah, am I standing on a field of rose petals?” Today they hanged him. He never revealed where the Treasure of the Aztecs was.<br /> <br /> 1777-Battle of Bennington- It actually occurred in Walloomsac, ten miles from Bennington Vermont. General of Volunteers John Stark defeated a large contingent of Hessians sent by Burgoyne to get help for his redcoats trapped at Saratoga. Stark inspired his men before the battle with words like these: “Men, yonder are the Hessians. They were bought for seven pounds ten pence a man. Are you worth more than that? Tonight the American flag will fly atop that hill, or Molly Stark will sleep a widow!” The flag few atop the hill and Stark went home to his wife a hero.<br /> <br /> 1780- Battle of Camden, South Carolina- Colonial General Horatio Gates excelled at backroom politics almost more than at military accomplishments. He finagled the northern army command away from its creator General Phillip Schuyler, then later took full credit for the great American victory of Saratoga even though the hard work was done by Benedict Arnold. Yet he was considered a serious rival of George Washington for leadership of the American armies. But on this day his humiliating defeat at the hands of Lord Cornwallis extinguished his ambitions. Gates leapt on his horse and abandoning his retreating army, galloping alone 30 miles to safety. Then citing ill health, he resigned from the service. Also at the battle, Baron DeKalb was wounded when his horse was shot under him, Then he was shot three more times and bayonetted by redcoats. He died shortly after.<br /> <br /> 1805- In the camp at Boulogne Napoleon held a grand military ceremony for his Grande Armee’. To the thundering beat of 1,300 massed drums, he personally awarded medals to worthy common soldiers. The secret to Napoleons leadership was a special bond between him and his men that was unique to his time. In a world of aristocrats who considered the common people scum, Napoleon walked casually among his soldiers like an equal, stopping to share a roast potato or a dirty joke in rough soldiers’ language. He called them his children. They treated him as though emperor was just another army rank. He had an uncanny memory and read the personnel rosters of his 350,000-man army once a month to update himself on his men’s achievements.<br /> <br /> 1812- Napoleon’s army stormed the burning Russian city of Smolensk. Marshal Murat, almost sensing the disaster this Russian invasion was going to bring, walked casually out in the open in front of the Russian cannons, almost inviting them to kill him. He was finally tackled out of harm’s way. <br /> <br /> 1812- American General Hull surrendered most of Michigan territory, including the settlement of Detroit, to British General Issac Brock.<br /> <br /> 1819- THE PETERLOO MASSACRE- At Saint Peters’ Fields in Manchester thousands of factory workers and their families gathered to protest for better working hours, minimum wages and the right to vote. The response of the local magistrate Sir Simon Burley was to send in the Royal Horse Cavalry to ride them down and saber them. The incident was called Peterloo because most of this same cavalry were also at the battle of Waterloo four years earlier. People referred to Sir Simon Burley’s actions with a pun from Shakespeares MacBeth, hurley-burley. <br /> <br /> 1858- Queen Victoria sent the first transcontinental wire message to President James Buchanan via Cyrus Field's incredible UNDERWATER TRANSCONTINENTAL CABLE, stretching from London to New York. After great fanfare about progress and a new era in communications it broke down, as well as the next several tries to fix it. Just hours after the first message a fisherman pulled it up in his net, thought it was the tail of a sea serpent and cut off a chunk to take home and brag to his friends. Other attempts were ruined when technicians tried to correct the faintness of the signal by boosting the voltage beyond the safety range of the insulation-Zapp!<br /> Direct transcontinental communications didn't really become a reality until wireless broadcasting. But the who-ha over this scientific marvel did inspire author Jules Verne to write "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.”<br /> <br /> 1877- BIRTHDAY OF THE WORD-"HELLO". In a letter dated today Thomas Edison wrote to the first president of AT&amp;T about how people should initiate conversation on the new telephone machine. A genteel Victorian would think it impolite to speak until spoken to. Alexander Graham Bell, an old navy man, always thought the right way to start a phone conversation was to say "AHOY!" Edison explained that the results of sonic tests proved the old English fox hunting call "Halloo!" was most audible over great distances. In most languages around the world the word hello is the same. It was the only English word Sioux Chief Sitting Bull ever learned. He loved to grab your hand and pump it vigorously while saying:" HELLO, HELLO!”<br /> <br /> 1896- THE YUKON GOLD RUSH. Four miners find gold in Bonanza Creek in the Klondike region of the Yukon Territory. When a boatload of gold was brought down to Seattle and San Francisco, it caused a stampede of prospectors north. Prospectors included poet Robert Service, Wyatt Earp, and Donald Trump’s grandfather, Friedrich Trump.<br /> <br /> 1930- Ub Iwerk's "Fiddlesticks" the first Flip the Frog cartoon, done in a simple two-color process called Harriscolor. Iwerks was the first designer and animator of Mickey Mouse, who had left Walt Disney to open his own studio.<br /> <br /> 1938- In Three Forks Mississippi, Blues legend Robert Johnson was poisoned by a jealous husband.<br /> <br /> 1942- Happy Birthday Mighty Mouse. Terrytoon's short: "The Mouse of Tomorrow".<br /> <br /> 1954- First issue of Sports Illustrated.<br /> <br /> 1965- The AFL, American Football League offered it’s first expansion franchise to a new team called the Miami Dolphins. The AFL merged with the NFL in the 80s.<br /> <br /> 1969- “ Hey Man, we’re gonna serve breakfast in bed for 500,000” So was hippy Wavy Gravy’s announcement at dawn on the second day of the Woodstock Rock Concert. Toasted oats in hot water was ladled out en-masse in paper cups. Wavy declared this was the day Americans learned first learned about Granola. <br /> <br /> 1974- The Ramones play their first gig at the NY club CBGBs. Hey-Ho, Lets Go!<br /> <br /> 1977- E-DAY in Memphis. Elvis Presley, donuts and Pizza Hut box in hand, died of a heart attack while sitting on the toilet. He was reading a book-the Historic Search for the Face of Jesus. He was 42.<br /> <br /> 1985- On her birthday, Madonna married Sean Penn. They divorced shortly after.<br /> <br /> 1987- The Harmonic Convergence- Another one of these celestial events that the mainstream media trumpeted as the end of everything. All nine planets of our solar system were in perfect alignment and the subsequent gravitational forces were supposed to knock the Earth into the Sun or something or other that would send us to Hell in a Handbasket. Lots of New Age types flocked to occult sites like Mt. Shasta and Stonehenge to meditate on the End of All Things. <br /> So, what happened? Nothing. <br /> <br /> 1991- The original Shamu the Whale died of respiratory failure at age 16.<br /> <br /> 2005- Top Pixar story-artist Joe Ranft was killed in an auto accident. He was 45.<br /> <br /> 2019- Animator Richard Williams died at age 86.<br /> =========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is spumoni?<br /> <br /> Answer: An Italian ice cream specialty, usually with added jellied fruits and nuts. A brick of three flavors combined, Pistachio, Cherry (Strawberry), and Vanilla or Chocolate.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 15 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6231 <p>Quiz: What is spumoni?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: What is The Natchez Trace?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 8/15/2023
Birthdays: Napoleon Bonaparte, Leon Theremin- inventor of that weird electronic musical instrument that is in all those 1950s flying saucer movies, Samuel Coleridge, Sir Walter Scott, King Frederick Wilhelm I of Prussia 1685, Lawrence of Arabia, Ethel Barrymore, Huntz Hall, Bill Baird, Edna Ferber, Sir Robert Bolt, Rose-Marie, Linda Ellerbee, Gene Upshaw, Oscar Peterson, Shimon Peres, Mike “Mannix” Connors, Nicholas Roeg, Animator Dick Lundy, Julia Child, Anthony Andrews, Ben Afleck is 50, Debra Messing is 54, Jennifer Lawrence is 32. <br /> <br /> 778 AD Battle of Roncevaux or Roncesvalles. Legendary battle where Charlemagne's top knights -the Paladins: Roland waving his sword Durandel, Oliver, and Ogier the Dane fought to the last against overwhelming odds. In reality the battle was probably a small rearguard border skirmish with hostile Basques tribesmen in the Pyrenees Mountains. <br /> But a poem about the incident called the Song of Roland inflated it into an epic Christian battle against the Muslim Moors, wizards and devils. The Chanson du Roland became the Sgt. Pepper of the Middle Ages, read and enjoyed throughout Europe. When William the Conqueror's Normans went into battle at Hastings in 1066, William’s minstrel Vailletan sang the Song of Roland at full gallop while tossing his sword into the air and catching it like a parade drum major.<br /> <br /> 1057-Scottish king Macbeth was defeated and killed by Malcolm III Canmore at the Battle of Lumphanan in Aberdeenshire. But did Burnham Wood move to Dunsinane?<br /> <br /> 1097- DEUS VOLT! GOD WILLS IT! The First Crusade was announced at Clermont by Pope Urban II. Christian Europe decided that the Holy places in Jerusalem should not be in Muslim hands. In his sermon the Pope addressed the assembled knights in their native French: "Christian warriors who continually seek pretexts for war and rape Rejoice! If you must have Blood, then bathe in the Blood of the Infidels, and Christ will count you among his Warriors! Soldiers of Hell, become Soldiers of the Living God!” <br /> They sewed small strips of red cloth in a cross on their left shoulders and began with a massacre of any Jews they could find. History is at a loss to find any comparable social phenomenon. It took Islam a generation to understand that this was a Christian Jihad (Holy war) declared on them. The Muslim Emirs were just as feudally divided as the European warlords, until they united under Saladin.<br /> <br /> 1100s-1400s- PAX DEI- The Medieval Church tried to limit the carnage of knights fighting and feuding by declaring a Truce of God between Lent and this, the beginning of the harvest season. It sometimes worked, but slaying infidels was still okay year-round. <br /> <br /> 1261 Byzantine Emperor Constantine VIII came from Nicea and recaptured his capitol Constantinople from the Crusader knights who had occupied it since 1209.<br /> <br /> 1457 – The earliest dated bound book, The "Mainz Psalter," completed.<br /> <br /> 1519- Panama City, Panama founded.<br /> <br /> 1535- Ascension Paraguay founded.<br /> <br /> 1549- First Christian missionaries arrive in Japan. A band of Spanish Jesuits led by Father Francis Xavier landed in Kagoshima on the island of Kysuhu.<br /> <br /> 1598- Irish Earl Hugh O’Neill of Tyrone defeated an English Army at Yellow Ford.<br /> <br /> 1649- THE IRONSIDE CONQUEST- Oliver Cromwell brought his New Model Army over to Ireland to crush the Irish rebellion. His depredations wreaked upon the population of Ireland are still recalled as the Curse of Cromwell. Mass death of this kind would not visit the Emerald Isle again until the Great Potato Famine of 1846. <br /> <br /> 1794- The first U.S. coin minted in the United States, a silver dollar. Minting of colonial and state currencies had been going on in America for years, Continental Eagles and such. There was a phrase then for something of no value, “ Not worth a Continental.” The word Dollar is derived from Thaler from JacobsThaler, meaning from the Gift of St. Jacob, a Czech mountain valley where there were rich silver deposits. <br /> <br /> 1806- For his birthday, Napoleon dedicated the cornerstone for the Arc de Triomphe.<br /> <br /> 1812- English General Issac Brock turned back a U.S. invasion of Canada, and captured the Yankee settlement of Detroit.<br /> <br /> 1824- The Marquis de Lafayette, now retired, returned to America for a grand tour of the new nation he did so much to create. A lot of towns in the South were named Fayette, Lafayette and Lafayetteville from this tour. <br /> <br /> 1843- Tivoli Gardens opened in Copenhagen. One of the oldest amusement parks in the world. King Christian said. “When people are amused, they don’t worry about politics.” Hans Christian Andersen was a frequent visitor. One hundred years later, Walt Disney visited to get inspiration for his Disneyland.<br /> <br /> 1848 - M Waldo Hanchett patented the dental chair.<br /> <br /> 1885- Sir Richard Burton completed his translation from medieval Persian of One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. There had been earlier attempts like a French edition in 1809, but Burton’s edition introduced the west to Aladdin and his magic lamp, Sinbad the Sailor and Scheherazade.<br /> <br /> 1911- Proctor &amp; Gamble introduced Crisco shortening.<br /> <br /> 1914- After ten years labor, the Panama Canal opened for regular service.<br /> <br /> 1935- Humorist writer Will Rogers and his pilot Wiley Post were killed when their small plane crashed in Barrow, Alaska. <br /> <br /> 1936- Disney animator Ward Kimball married painter Betty Lawyer-Kimball.<br /> <br /> 1939 - In 1st night game at Comiskey Park, Sox beat Browns 5-2.<br /> <br /> 1944- Operation Dragoon. To support the Normandy beachheads landings a second landing was made by allied armies on the southern French beaches near Marseilles.<br /> <br /> 1945- The US officially ended wartime gasoline rationing.<br /> <br /> 1946- Disney’s Make Mine Music, featuring Blue Bayou, All the Cats Join In, and Willie the Operatic Whale.<br /> <br /> 1947-"The Stroke of Midnight" India and Pakistan, the Jewel in the Crown, got their freedom from Britain after 200 years. The end of the Raj.<br /> <br /> 1948- Syngmun Rhee elected first president of the Republic of South Korea. The Russians saw this as a direct challenge to their hold over the North and quickly choose communist Kim Dae Jung as the leader of North Korea. What began as a postwar temporary partition of the Korean peninsula was made complete.<br /> <br /> 1958 - Buddy Holly wed Maria Santiago.<br /> <br /> 1960- The Congo (Brazzaville) declared independence from France. It had been renamed Zaire for a while, but is back to the Republic of the Congo today.<br /> <br /> 1965- The Beatles play their largest U.S. concert yet, at New York's Shea Stadium.<br /> <br /> 1968- The pirate radio station Radio Free London began transmitting.<br /> <br /> 1969- WOODSTOCK-Three Days of Peace and Music- The rock concert of the 20th Century opened. The promoters, one of whom was heir to the Polident Denture Cream fortune, were hoping to host 50,000 people and launch a recording studio in the quiet New York farming town. What they got was 500,000 young fans and the social phenomenon that defined an age. At one point the more conservative elements of the community got a court order to block the land to be used, but farmer Max Yasgur offered his cow farm for the site.<br /> Up till then in the tumultuous 1960’s, any gathering of young people that big meant violence and riot, and at one point New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller offered to send in the National Guard. But the magic prevailed and there was no violence outside of 200 bad acid trips and one heroin overdose.<br /> Richie Havens was the first act to play, he did six sets and kept stalling because the crowd was so immense, they had to bring in the other bands by helicopter. When he ran out of songs to sing, Havens started riffing anything he could think of. This way Havens created his most famous tune “Freedom” with added in spirituals like “Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child”. After his death in 2013, his ashes were scattered at the Woodstock site.<br /> <br /> 1971- President Nixon announced a sweeping economic package including taking the U.S. dollar off the Gold Standard. The world's most stable currency being so transformed created the wildly free-flowing currency market we have today. When warned of this consequence, President Nixon is supposed to have replied: "I don't give a sh*t about the Lire."<br /> <br /> 1971- Bahrain declared independence from Britain.<br /> <br /> 1973- Westworld with Yul Brynner and Richard Benjamin opened.<br /> <br /> 1977- THE WOW SIGNAL- Project SETI- Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence- heard something. It sounds like static to us, but it was a strong electromagnetic signal on a regular narrow band AM radio frequency emanating from deep space. So far, it has never been adequately explained away or repeated. SETI scientist Jerry Ehmen noted in his log for that night “….wow!” <br /> <br /> 1979- Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam epic “Apocalypse Now” opened. Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, young Harrison Ford and even younger Lawrence Fishburne. Pixar director Ronnie Del Carmen (Inside Out) got his first job as a student painting scenery.<br /> <br /> 1984- “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension” opened nationwide.<br /> <br /> 2021- Twenty years after being driven out of power by an American led coalition, the Taliban re-captured the Afghan capital Kabul. Called The Graveyard of Empires, the Afghans have only completely submitted once, to Alexander the Great.<br /> ==================================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is The Natchez Trace?<br /> <br /> Answer: A forest trail in Tennessee. Since the Ice Age, used by animals, then Indians, then early white settlers. The Trace went from where Nashville would one day be , and wound its way through the dense forests, down to Natchez Mississippi. Connecting the Cumberland, Tennesssee Rivers with the Mississippi. Steamboats and railroads eventully made the Natchez Trace obsolete. But the trail is a beautiful place to hike today.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 14 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6230 <p>QUIZ: What is The Natchez Trace?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Who was Ajax? (hint: not a kitchen cleanser)<br /> =====================================<br /> History for 8/14/2023<br /> Birthdays: Gary Larson, Erwin "Magic" Johnson, Lina Wertmuller, David Crosby, Alice Ghostly, Buddy Greco, Nehemiah Persoff, The 20's Parisian nightclub singer Bricktop, Dick Lundy, Mark "The Bird" Fidrych, C.S. Watson, James Horner, Rene Goscinny, Wim Wenders, Emmanuele Beart, Halle Berry is 57, Mila Kunis is 40, Steve Martin is 78<br /> <br /> 1248 - Construction of the DOM Cologne Cathedral begun. It was finished 600 years later in 1848. Hey, these things take time.<br /> <br /> 1281-A Pacific typhoon, called by the Japanese the Kamikaze, or The Divine Wind destroyed the Mongol invasion fleet of Kublai Khan as it approached the shores of Japan. To show the Japanese that they meant business, the Mongole crucified the captured civilians to the topmasts of their ships.<br /> <br /> 1385- Battle of Aljubarrota- Portuguese King John the Great defeated a Spanish army trying to put a relative on his throne. Portugal celebrates this as their Independence Day. Among Johns’ army were English archers freelancing after a lull in their Hundred Years War.<br /> <br /> 1457- The first printed Gutenburg Bible finished. One agent of Gutenberg’s bringing the first shipment of bibles to Paris was arrested for witchcraft by the locals. They thought it was humanly impossible for one person to make so many identical books without the aid of black magic.<br /> <br /> 1498 - Columbus explored the mouth of the Orinoco River in Venezuela.<br /> <br /> 1585 - Queen Elizabeth I of England politely turned down an offer of the Dutch to be Queen of Holland. She was trying to avoid angering Spain any further. Spain had a long festering feud with the Dutch. Shopping around for monarchs was not so unusual in those days. In 1700 England would go shopping for a Protestant king until they found the German George I. In 1827 the throne of Greece was offered to both a German Hohenzollern and a Russian Romanov.<br /> <br /> 1744- LOUIS LE BIEN AIMEE- Pleasure loving French King Louis XV had become gravely ill and was near death. His father confessor the Bishop of Soisson refused to give him the sacraments unless he banished his mistresses and reformed his sinful life. He did so and Louis health improved. He was so good the peasants began calling him Louis le Bien Aimee’- the Well Beloved. But boys will be boys. King Louis soon grew bored with being a faithful, sober husband. So he called back his mistresses and banished the Bishop instead. Louis XV lived happy, if disreputably, to a very old age.<br /> <br /> 1761-Battle of Liegnitz-Frederick the Great beat the Austrian army trying to surround him. Communications were so faulty 30,000 Russian soldiers stood around doing nothing while they could hear the distant cannon of their Austrian allies being defeated.<br /> <br /> 1781- At their camp in Wethersfield Conn, George Washington and the Comte du Rochambeau had been debating whether to use their combined forces against occupied New York City or Lord Cornwallis in Virginia. Today Washington received a letter from the Admiral DeGrasse that he was bringing his large French fleet with supplies and troops to meet them at the Chesapeake Bay. Washington knew this could be their last campaign, since his French allies wouldn’t send any more help in 1782, and everyone was starting to listen to a rumor that the Czarina Catherine of Russia was offering to broker an international peace conference in Vienna. Washington was sure that at this peace conference among the crowned heads of Europe, American Independence would probably be negotiated away. He resolved to accept the French plan to attack Cornwallis at Yorktown Virginia.<br /> <br /> 1784- On Kodiak Island, Grigori Shelekov founded Three Saints Bay, the first Russian colony in the Americas. The Russians would continue to expand their trading posts and settlements until Russian America extended from Alaska to just north of San Francisco California.<br /> <br /> 1820 - 1st US eye hospital, the NY Eye Infirmary, opens in NYC.<br /> <br /> 1873 - "Field &amp; Stream" magazine began publishing.<br /> <br /> 1893 - France issues 1st driving license, included a required driving test.<br /> <br /> 1900 – The 1st electric tram began in the Netherlands -Leidseplein-Brouwersgracht.<br /> <br /> 1900 -The end of the 55 DAYS IN PEKING. A multinational military force relieved the diplomats besieged by the rebellious Boxers in the Chinese capitol. The Dowager Empress Zhou Zhsi fled into the countryside. British, American, German, Russian, French, Italian and Japanese troops fought side by side, and looted and destroyed the beautiful Imperial Summer Palace. <br /> Just in case you thought tasteless cheap “fake-news” journalism is a modern problem- At this time back in Europe no one knew the Peking diplomats fate. The press had picked up on a report from a Shanghai correspondent for the London Daily Mail that reported them all massacred, with lots of lurid "eyewitness "details of their gang rape and torture. Queen Victoria had been fooled to the point of ordering a memorial service at St. Paul's Cathedral before reconsidering until more substantive proof came in.<br /> <br /> 1908- The first international beauty pageant held in Kent, England.<br /> <br /> 1920- THE MIRACLE OF THE VISTULA -An obscure action to western historians, but it poses an interesting "what if..." The Poles and Bolshevik Russians were having a war after the Red Revolution. The Reds had thrown the Poles back from Moscow and on this day they were beaten back by Marshal Pilsudski from the gates of Warsaw. The "What if" is the fact that Lenin and Trotsky never intended the Communist Revolution to be confined to Russia alone. The Red Army would missionary it across Europe the way Napoleon's battalions had spread in their wake social reforms of the French Revolution. Russian Marshal Tuckhashevsky told his men: " The Road to a World Conflagration lies over the Corpse of Poland !" <br /> <br /> With post-Great War Berlin, Vienna, Rome and Budapest in political chaos, if the Poles hadn't stopped the Bolsheviks when they did, instead of a Nazi Europe the 1920's we could have seen a Europe where the Communist Russia extended to the borders of France and Holland. Analysts at the time said this battle was as important as Marathon or Waterloo. <br /> <br /> 1928 - Ben Hecht &amp; Charles McArthur's play" The Front Page," premiered in NYC. They later went on to become top comedy writers in Hollywood after Sound pictures created a need for snappy dialogue. They came out to Hollywood after a mutual friend, writer Herman Mankiewicz sent Ben a telegram, “Hecht, some quick! Fortunes to be made and your competition are idiots!"<br /> <br /> 1935- President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the National Social Security Act. Considered the most successful US Federal social program ever.<br /> 1936- Rainey Bethea was the last person ever hanged in the USA, after having confessed to the rape and murder of a 70-year old woman named Lischia Edwards. <br /> 1937 "Bloody Saturday" in Shanghai. With the opening of the Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese hoped for foreign help by making a stand at Shanghai, within full view of the International Settlement. On August 14, some American trained Chinese bombers attacked the Japanese warship Izumo, anchored in the river in the heart of the city. They misjudged--some said their bomb sights hadn't been adjusted-- and they dropped two bombs on Nanking Road, the "5th Avenue" of Shanghai. <br /> One bomb went through the roof of the Palace hotel, the other detonated on the street: 729 people killed, 861 wounded. The same day, another tragic mistake--once again, Chinese bombers miscalculated, with worse results.( the area was crowded with refugees) 1,011 dead and 570 wounded.—the bodies were packed so tightly, blood flowed in the gutters like water. <br /> <br /> 1939 - 1st night game at Comiskey Park -White Sox 5, Browns 2.<br /> <br /> 1939- Donald Duck Day at the NY World’s Fair.<br /> <br /> 1941- Nazi spy &amp; saboteur Josef Jakobs was the last prisoner ever to be executed in the Tower of London. No, he wasn’t beheaded, he was shot by firing squad. He had suffered a broken ankle during his capture, so he faced his end seated in a Windsor chair.<br /> <br /> 1942 – General George Marshall named Dwight D Eisenhower as US commander for invasion of North Africa. Marshall wanted at first to run the show himself, but President Roosevelt said he was too valuable and had to stay in Washington in overall charge. Eisenhower was a controversial choice. A career staff desk jockey, he had no experience leading men in combat. This was especially galling to British Field Marshall Montgomery, who had been in the field battling Nazis for 3 years now. But George Marshal foresaw the job of European Allied commander would be a more administrative and even diplomatic, juggling act between the Yanks, British and Free French, so Eisenhower was his man.<br /> <br /> 1945-VJ DAY (Aug 15th in Japan) -President Truman announced the surrender sparking wild celebrations in allied cities like New York and London. In Japan citizens were politely asked to stand at attention by their radios as Emperor Hirohito explained to his people about the surrender. It is the first time they had ever heard his voice. At 3 am that morning 1,000 Japanese troops attacked the palace trying to prevent the disgrace of the surrender announcement. They were fought off by the Imperial guard and the guard commander was killed. The speech was pre-recorded and went on anyway. <br /> Defense minister Anami committed Hara-Kiri while his radio played the address. Gangs of angry kamikaze pilots wandered the streets looking for trouble. Their commanders had emptied the gas tanks of their planes to obey the Imperial edict.<br /> <br /> 1956- The Marilyn Monroe movie "Bus Stop" premiered.<br /> <br /> 1962 - French &amp; Italian workers break through at Mount Blanc to create an auto <br /> Tunnel through the Alps.<br /> <br /> 1962 - NASA test pilot Joseph Walker takes the X-15 supersonic plane to 60,000 ft.<br /> <br /> 1962 - US mail truck in Plymouth, Mass robbed of more than $1.5 million.<br /> <br /> 1964 –California angels pitcher Bo Belinsky is suspended after attacking sportswriter Braven Dyer.<br /> <br /> 1965 - Sonny &amp; Cher's "I Got You Babe" hits #1.<br /> <br /> 1965- Jane Fonda married director Roger Vadim, who put the beautiful young blonde in naughty movies like Barbarella. His previous wife Bridgette Bardot was a beautiful young blonde that he put in naughty movies….hmm.<br /> <br /> 1971 – The British began internment without trial in Northern Ireland.<br /> <br /> 1979 – A rainbow was seen in Northern Wales that lasted for 3 hours duration.<br /> <br /> 1980- SOLIDARNOSC!! - At a strike at the Lenin Shipyards in Gdansk, Communist Poland the first mass peoples movement that would eventually topple European Communism was created. An electrician named Lech Walsesa climbed the fence and joined the strike, eventually becoming the leader of the movement Solidarity. He was a political prisoner, a Nobel Prize winner and eventually President of democratic Poland.<br /> <br /> 1980- Dorothy Stratton was a beautiful Playboy model whose acting career was beginning to take off, as well as a relationship with top Hollywood director Peter Bogdanovich. She was encouraged by Hugh Hefner among others, to shed her old loser boyfriend Paul Snider, who kept hanging around her. Today Dorothy Stratton was found shot to death by Snider, who then turned the gun on himself. She was age 20.<br /> <br /> 1994 – The world’s most wanted terrorist "Carlos the Jackal" was arrested in Khartoum Sudan when he entered a clinic to have a varicose vein removed from his testicle.<br /> <br /> 1995- Super-agent Michael Ovitz of CAA was named President of the Walt Disney Company under Michael Eisner. After 14 fruitless months he left. <br /> <br /> 2003- Another blackout shut down the power again in the Northeast, from New York to Toronto to Detroit.<br /> <br /> 2006- A UN brokered ceasefire stopped the open war between Israel and the Hezbollah living in Lebanon.<br /> <br /> 2009- Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo opened in North America.<br /> <br /> 2126- Get your catchers mitts out! Comet Swift-Tuttle will pass very close by the Earth.<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Who was Ajax? (hint: not a kitchen cleanser)<br /> <br /> Answer: Ajax was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, second only to Achilles. Ajax fought many battles throughout the siege of Troy, protecting Greek troops and ships and killing many, but was never wounded himself. He even fought Hector, the Trojan hero, who, after a day of one-on-one combat that came to a draw, gave Ajax his sword as a gift of respect.<br /> <br /> <br /> .</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 13 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6229 <p>QUIZ: Who was Ajax? (hint: not a kitchen cleanser)<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: What is an ottoman? (Besides a Turkish sultan)<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 8/13/2023<br /> B-Dayz: Annie Oakley, Alfred Hitchcock, Erwin Schroedinger, Don Ho, Buddy Rogers, Bert Lahr, Ben Hogan, Richard Baseheart, Saul Steinberg, Regis Toomey, Johann Christoph Denner (1655)- inventor of the clarinet. Danny Bonaduce, John Logie Baird one of the inventors of television, Fidel Castro, Hockey great Bobby Clarke, Daniel Schorr, Bombay movie star Viyayanthimala<br /> <br /> Egyptian Festivals of Isis &amp; Serapis<br /> <br /> Festival of the Greek goddess Dianna of Ephesus. She had six breasts. Diana in her Greek form as Artemis from the older Near Eastern goddess Cybele. She had the dual nature of Virgin &amp; Mother. Hmm…Sound familiar? <br /> These three pagan festivals of Isis, Serapis and Artemis were in the Middle Ages converted into the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. In the Italian city-state of Sienna this is the date for the Pallio, the traditional horse race through the streets in medieval splendor.<br /> <br /> Today is also the Feast Day of Saint Cassian, the Patron Saint of Stenographers.<br /> <br /> 29BC- Octavian celebrated a triumph in Rome for his victory over Anthony and Cleopatra. <br /> <br /> 1521- The Aztecs surrender to Cortez. After Montezuma was killed, the Aztecs chose Guatamoc as their new emperor and he drove the conquistadors from their capital Tenochtitlan vowing:" We will eat the Spaniards flesh with salsa !” But smallpox ravaged the population and Cortez soon returned with heavy reinforcements of allied Indian tribes from Texcoco who hated Aztec dominance. After 80 days of bloody house to house fighting that destroyed most of the capitol. Guatamoc and a few survivors surrendered. Cortez built Mexico City on the ruins. <br /> <br /> 1642- Astronomer Christian Huygens noticed that Mars had a southern polar ice cap too.<br /> <br /> 1727- Count Nicholas Von Hutzendroff formed a group of Bohemian Protestant refugees into the movement Unas Fratrum or the Moravian Brethren. The Moravians strict but gentle practices were a great influence on Pastor John Wesley who created Methodism.<br /> <br /> 1790- The PEOPLE OF NEW SPAIN BECOME MEXICANS. almost 269 years after the Aztec surrendered, workmen in Mexico City were clearing a building site for a convent when they unearthed a giant statue of the snake skirted Aztec goddess Tonnantzin Coatlicue. The find galvanized Mexican society. Indians and Mestizos crowded around the statue and recalled their once mighty civilization. Worried Spanish colonial authorities quickly reburied the statue but the damage was done. <br /> Dominican monk Servando De Meir preached that the Aztec god Quetzalcoatal was actually St. Thomas the Wandering Apostle, so that meant Mexico was Christian before Spain was. Twenty years later when Father Hidalgo rang the liberty bells he called for revolution in the name of Our Lady of Guadalupe Tonnantzin. The people of New Spain named their country after the old Aztec name Mexica or Mexico. <br /> <br /> 1805- LEWIS GETS LAID, or, THE END OF A MYSTERY-historians have always puzzled why Meriwether Lewis, of Lewis &amp; Clark's famous trek to the Pacific, killed himself in a lonely cabin on the Natchez Trace in 1809. Lewis was a personal protege of Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe and was first Governor of Upper Louisiana -everything from Missouri to Wyoming. He was likely to one day become President. Yet despite his coolness under extreme hardship after his death stories evolved about his manic-depression, alcoholism or even that he was murdered.<br /> <br /> Recently a Seattle scholar theorized that on this day in 1805 he spent the night with a Shoshone woman to celebrate getting safely across the Continental Divide. The Shoshone regarded sexual contact as hospitality and that particular tribe was known to be rife with syphilis. Lewis subsequent illnesses and his increasing suicidal depression was clinically symptomatic with the final stages of the disease. And this would also explain why Jefferson and Captain William Clark would have been so quick to hush up any further investigation of his death, even resorting to calling Lewis an alcoholic, which in those days had far less social stigma than venereal disease.<br /> <br /> 1846- Commodore Stockton and Colonel Freemont with a contingent of U.S. Marines marched up from their ships in San Pedro Harbor to Ciudad Los Angeles. They interrupted a local fiesta to inform the startled inhabitants that they were now part of the United States, whether they liked it or not. They then moved south to attack San Diego.<br /> <br /> 1889- The first coin operated telephone set up in a Hartford Conn. bank.<br /> <br /> 1907-The first motorized TAXICABS hit the streets of New York. Taxi comes from Taximeter, a little machine that tallied the fare based on distance traveled. Cab is short for the earlier form of hired horse drawn carriage. Originally called a Cabriolet, then a brand name of Hansom Cabs, then just Cabs. <br /> <br /> 1910- Florence Nightingale died after being in sickbed convinced, she was dying since age 37. She died at 90. Although claiming to be too sick to walk down a flight of stairs, she worked ceaselessly reforming the army medical system, founding nursing colleges and drove several friends into early graves in the cause of medical reform. She created the ideal of the clean cut, disciplined, nurse professional.<br /> <br /> 1914 - Carl Wickman begins Greyhound, the 1st US bus line, in Minnesota.<br /> <br /> 1920- PONZI SCHEMES- This day U.S. investors attacked the offices of financier Charles Ponzi, demanding their money back. Carlo Ponzi had emigrated from Italy and came up with the idea of talking investors into giving him money without being specific about how he would make them rich. He used the millions to buy suits, cars and mansions. Like all pyramid schemes this one finally blew up. Ponzi spent some jail time and was deported. Mussolini gave him a job in the finance ministry and Ponzi proceeded to embezzle the Italian Treasury. He escaped to Brazil where he died comfortably in 1949. He gave his name to the term Ponzi Schemes.<br /> <br /> 1932- German President Von Hindenberg had a fifteen minute meeting with Adolf Hitler. He rebuked Hitler for tying up the Reichstag and the violence in the streets. Hitler refused any partial role in the government short of full power. After Hitler left, the old general grumbled:" That man for a Chancellor? I’d rather make him a postmaster so he could lick stamps with my head on it!"<br /> <br /> 1934- First Little Abner comic strip by Al Capp. Dogpatch, Mammy Yokum, Daisy Mae, Kickapoo Joy Juice, Jubilation T. Cornpone and the Schmoo are born. Al Capp was a hard drinking old curmudgeon of a cartoonist who lost one leg when as a child he fell off an ice truck and it was severed by a streetcar. <br /> <br /> 1937- The Japanese army reopened its’ campaign to conquer China by mass daylight bombing of Shanghai.<br /> <br /> 1941- James Stuart Blackton certainly had an interesting career. The English born artist became a top newspaper cartoonist, a vaudevillian drag act as Mademoiselle Stuart, the first American animator, founder of the Vitagraph Company, the movie fanzine Motion Picture World. He even successfully faked a newsreel of the Battle of Manila Bay in 1898 by using toy boats, sparklers and cigar smoke. He made fortunes and lost them just as quickly. On this day, a poor freelance artist for low budget Republic Pictures, he died after was struck and killed by an auto on Pico Blvd.<br /> <br /> 1942- Disney's Bambi opened in theaters nationwide. Today the film looks quaint but in its time artists felt it was as realistic as artists could attain. Designer Rico LeBrun had a hunter friend bring in a real deer he shot in the Sierras. LeBrun set up drawing and anatomy sessions to study the dead animal. But LeBrun was so inspired by the opportunity he refused to dispose of the carcass even after several days it began to smell badly and attract flies. Finally the other animators waited until LeBrun had left for lunch and tossed the rancid thing.<br /> <br /> 1945-After the atomic bombings Japan prepared to surrender. A note delivered to the Swedish Embassy in Tokyo expressed the wish of the Imperial Japanese Government to accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. Emperor Hirohito pre-recorded a radio message to prepare his people for something they had never faced since the days of Kublai Khan- foreign occupation.<br /> <br /> 1946- MGM cartoon Northwest Hounded Police. One of the best examples of the 'Tex Avery Take" - used since in films like The Mask, Roger Rabbit and Casper.<br /> <br /> 1955- Shooting wrapped on Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments. He was remaking the film he had done as a silent movie in 1925. One wag said: DeMille has done God one better, because he has now parted the Red Sea twice."<br /> <br /> 1960- French West Africa declared independence from France and became the nations of Chad and the Central African Republic. <br /> <br /> 1967- The World’s Fair at Montreal Canada, Expo-67 Held the opening reception of its World Exhibition of Animation Cinema. Famous animators from around the world gathered in a special reception. Opening night featured a screening of Disney’s Dumbo, and animator Bill Tytla was saluted. Attendees included Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, June Foray, Art Babbitt, Walter Lantz, Dusan Vukotic’, Bruno Bozzetto, Dave Fleischer and more.<br /> <br /> 1967- Bonnie &amp; Clyde with Warren Beaty and Faye Dunaway opened in theaters. “They're Young. They're in Love. And They Kill People”<br /> <br /> 1981- At his California ranch in a dense morning fog, Pres Ronald Reagan signed the Kemp-Roth Economic Recovery Act of 1981, the first of massive tax cuts for the rich that would slowly destroy the American Middle Class and shift the massive income tax burden from the rich to the poor. The wealthy saw their tax rate drop from 70% to 14% and estate taxes eliminated. The tax rate on corporations dropped by half. Tax incentives were given to companies who moved their factory jobs overseas and banked their assets in the Cayman Islands or other tax shelters. <br /> <br /> 1991- Jack Ryan died. The toymaker was the inventor of Hot Wheels toy cars, and helped launch the doll Barbie.<br /> <br /> 2000- In a presidential debate with Al Gore, candidate George W. Bush attacked the Clinton presidency for being too quick to use the military. Bush declared “The U.S. should not be in the business of nation building.” Once in office, Bush invaded two countries and was only stopped invading a third with great difficulty.<br /> <br /> 2016- At the Rio Olympics, American swimmer Michael Phelps won his 22 gold medal, His final total was 28, the most Olympic gold medals of anyone in history. The second most wins was Leonidas of Rhodes in 164BC. But in Leonidas time they didn’t get medals. They received a laurel wreath and several large pots of premium olive oil.<br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is an ottoman? (Besides a Turkish sultan)<br /> <br /> Answer: It is a small hassock placed in front of an easy chair so you could put your feet up.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 11 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6228 <p>Quiz: What kind of companies were these? RCA, Admiral, Zenith, Motorola, Phillips. <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: The Ghostbuster movies created the idea of “being slimed”. It comes from an arcane Victorian belief in ectoplasm. What was ectoplasm?<br /> ========================<br /> History for 8/11/2023<br /> Birthdays: Antonio Salieri, Frederick Ludwig Jahn 1778- founder of the Gymnastics Movement, Alex Haley, Jack Haley, Rev Jerry Falwell, Hulk Hogan- real name Terry Bollier-is 74, Dick Browne the creator of Hagar the Horrible, Steve Wozniak the co-founder of Apple Computers, Raymond Leppard, Lloyd Nolan, Mike Douglas, Patti Duke Astin, Chris Helmsworth is 38, Rob Minkoff<br /> <br /> Today is the Feast day of Saint Claire of Assisi, who followed Saint Francis into renouncing the world and formed the sisterhood of nuns called the Poor Claires. Their rule of poverty was so severe that the Vatican criticized them for making everyone else in the Church look bad.<br /> <br /> 883AD- The Abbassid Caliphs capture Al Mukhtara, crushing the Zanj slave revolt. So you get your Arabian Nights movie costumes correct- The Ummoyad Caliphs who followed immediately after the Prophet flew Green banners; the Abbasids, or the dynasty the most famous Caliph of the Arabian nights Harun al Rashid, flew black banners. <br /> <br /> 1297-French King Louis IX canonized a saint. While St. Louis was running around the Middle East being Saintly, his mother Blanche of Castile was ruling France with an iron hand. She crushed revolts, beat back invasions, and in Paris built the beautiful cathedral of Sainte Chappelle. She created one of the most enlightened courts since Eleanor of Aquitaine. But since the Medieval mind couldn't accept that a woman could do anything like that, not much was written about her. <br /> <br /> 1270- Prince Edward of England leaves Dover for his Crusade. Nobody had pointed out to Eddie that the Crusades were pretty much over and done with by then. <br /> <br /> 1772- A volcanic eruption destroyed Papandayan Java, killing 3,000.<br /> <br /> 1860 – The nation's 1st successful silver mill opened in Virginia City, Nevada.<br /> <br /> 1866 - World's 1st roller skating rink opens (Newport RI)<br /> <br /> 1874 - Harry S. Parmelee patents the sprinkler head.<br /> <br /> 1896 - Harvey Hubbell patents electric light bulb socket with a pull chain.<br /> <br /> 1908- The Hearst syndicate press published a story today that Annie Oakley was destitute and was arrested in Chicago trying to buy cocaine from a black man! The story was a phony. The woman arrested was a burlesque dancer who had previously impersonated Annie Oakley. The real Annie Oakley, one of the first big media stars, spent the next 6 years suing 55 newspapers. She won all but one lawsuit.<br /> <br /> 1909-The first S.O.S.-'Save Our Ship' Morse signal sent by the liner S.S. Arapahoe off Cape Hatteras North Carolina.<br /> <br /> 1932- The original Rin Tin Tin died. The German shepherd dog was the first animal movie star. Legend was he was rescued from a WWI battlefield by a doughboy named Lee Duncan who called him "Rinty". Later in Hollywood people joked he was more spoiled than any human star. Before sound he was the main moneymaker of struggling little Warner Bros studio. Jack Warner called him “Our little rent check.” 
In 1967 Warners admitted they had bred 16 duplicate dogs in case anything happened to him.<br /> <br /> 1934- The Mickey Mouse cartoon The Orphan’s Benefit. The first cartoon where Donald Duck lost his temper and did his fighting stance, and they started calling Dippy Dog by his new name- The Goof, or Goofy.<br /> <br /> 1942- Off the coast of Malta, the German U-Boat U-73 torpedoed and sank HMS Eagle, one of the world’s first aircraft carriers.<br /> <br /> 1942- Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr is awarded a patent for her radio-guided torpedo. It was ignored in her time, but many years later the principles became the basis of Spread Spectrum Technology, revolutionizing wireless communications.<br /> <br /> 1944- THE FALAISE GAP- It took weeks for the Anglo-American armies to fight their way up from the Normandy beachhead. The allies began an encircling movement around the German armies forbidden by Hitler to pull back and maneuver. When wiser Generals like Rommel and Von Runstedt advised retreat, Hitler replaced them. Now their successor General Von Kluge finally made Hitler understand he was being surrounded. This day Hitler gave permission for a general withdrawal. Still, fifteen thousand trapped German troops in Falaise surrendered. The German retreat became a fighting rout across France, Belgium and Holland. Anglo Americans liberated hundreds of kilometers a day, and easily captured World War I battlefields their fathers bled for. The Allied advance wasn’t stopped until the Rhine was reached in October.<br /> <br /> 1946- Playwright Moss Hart married Miss America Kittie Carlisle. <br /> <br /> 1949- Margaret Mitchell, author of "Gone With the Wind" was hit by a taxicab crossing Peachtree Street in Atlanta, and died 5 days later. Her last request was for her husband to burn the original manuscript of Gone With The Wind, which he did. Once accused of being a racist, it came out later Mitchell quietly paid for scholarships for dozens of black students to attend medical school and become doctors.<br /> <br /> 1954- Formal peace treaties signed between French Colonial forces and Communist Viet Minh ending 7 1/2 years of war.<br /> <br /> 1956- Abstract artist Jackson Pollack died when he drunkenly crashed his car into a tree near East Hampton Long Island. He was 44.<br /> <br /> 1957- The Toyota Car Company of Japan introduces itself to the United States with a car called the Toyopet. It's first year’s sales were so bad; they almost gave up on the U.S.<br /> <br /> 1960- Chad declared its independence.<br /> <br /> 1962- Actor Sir Lawrence Olivier founded the National Theatre in London.<br /> <br /> 1965- THE WATTS RIOTS- 6 days of urban warfare began when an angry crowd attacked some LAPD apprehending a black motorist named Marquette Frye. 34 deaths, 1000 injured. Similar riots erupted in a number of U.S. cities that year including Detroit, Newark and Washington D.C. <br /> <br /> 1972- San Antonio Texas holds its first annual Cheech &amp; Chong Day.<br /> <br /> 1973- American Graffiti opened nationwide. George Lucas film cost $777,000. And made $140 million. Making George Lucas a serious Hollywood player.<br /> <br /> 1975- The Indonesian Army invaded East Timor, ostensibly to end a Civil War, but they stayed until 2009 after the final defeat of the rebel Tamil Tigers.<br /> <br /> 1984- COLD WAR CHUCKLES- President Ronald Reagan was asked to do some sound checks for a nationwide radio address. He said into the mike: "Today we have passed legislation that will ban Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes..." The joke got out to the press and didn't do much to calm new cold war tensions.<br /> <br /> 1995- The Walt Disney short Runaway Brain, featuring Mickey Mouse, premiered.<br /> <br /> 2001- First day shooting on the film Hero, directed by Zhang Yimou.<br /> <br /> 2002- The Parliament of the Republic of Turkmenistan passed a bill renaming the months of the year for their President Saparmurat Niyazov the Turkmenbashi- Father of all the Turkmen. Mr Niyazov had ruled the country since he was appointed Communist Party chief in 1985 when it was still part of the Soviet Union. He was made president for life in 1999.<br /> He quickly developed a cult of personality, suppressing legitimate political opposition. Much of the cash for grandiose palaces and statues is thought to stem from deals involving Turkmenistan's rich oil and gas reserves. He has also issued a decree officially extending adolescence until the age of 25 and postponing old age officially until age 85. Saparmurat Niyazov died in 2006.<br /> <br /> 2014- Comedian/Actor Robin Williams committed suicide in his San Francisco home. He had been battling depression and recently received a diagnosis of Diffuse Lewy Body Dementia, a form of early onset Alzheimer’s. Then incurable. He was 63.<br /> <br /> 2017- The town of Charlotteville, Virginia was debating the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Today was the first day of a massive Unite the Right rally, which brought marching Nazis and White Supremacists chanting “Jews shall not replace us!” The next day, a right-wing fanatic deliberately drove his car into a crowd of anti-protestors, killing a young girl. The reaction of President Trump was “ There are good people on both sides..” The President’s tacit endorsement encouraged American extremists and racists to come out in the open.<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: The Ghostbuster movies created the idea of “being slimed”. It comes from an arcane Victorian belief in ectoplasm. What was ectoplasm?<br /> <br /> Answer: Edwardian society had a fascination with spiritualism, that we could communicate with the dead. They believed psychic ectoplasm was a strange sticky substance that ghosts were made of. That a good psychic medium could excrete this stuff from their minds during a trance.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 10 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6227 <p>Quiz: The Ghostbuster movies created the idea of “being slimed”. It comes from an arcane Victorian belief in ectoplasm. What was ectoplasm?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: In olden times, what were you looking for when you visited a cobbler?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 8/10/2023<br /> Birthdays: Alexander Glauzunov, Billie Holiday, Eddie Fisher, Leo Fender, Herbert Hoover, Polish King Jan III Sobieski, Norma Shearer, Rhonda Fleming, Jimmy Dean, Justin Theroux, Rosanna Arquette is 64, Antonio Banderas is 63<br /> <br /> 70 AD - JERUSALEM WAS DESTROYED BY THE ROMANS- After a prolonged siege, the Roman legions of Vespasian and Titus broke into the city and crushed the Zealot revolt with great slaughter. The cedar panels and muslin curtains of the Great Temple of Herod caught fire and the entire temple was destroyed but for an outer building retaining wall, known thereafter as the Wailing Wall. <br /> <br /> 70AD - One mystery about the destruction of Jerusalem is the disappearance of the ARK OF THE COVENANT, which was taken from the Great Temple of Herod by the Romans and kept as a treasure in Rome. Some say it was carried off by the Goths when Rome fell four hundred years later and buried with their king Alaric. Another legend said a Christian Roman Emperor named Valerian returned the Ark to Jerusalem but the Muslims sacked the monastery it was hidden in. Still another said it is supposedly in Ethiopia guarded for life by a family of Orthodox monks who keep it in a temple hewn out of rock, with one door and one key. <br /> <br /> 256 AD- St. Lawrence's day. He was the Saint whose emblem is the grill he was roasted on. Supposedly he showed his contempt for his torturers efforts by saying:" I think I'm done on this side." The Perseid Meteor Shower occurs around this time. It has been called the Burning Tears of Saint Lawrence.<br /> <br /> 1415- King Henry V of England and his army embarked from Dover to cross the Channel and press his claim to be king of France as well. <br /> <br /> 1492- Cardinal Roderigo Borgia elected Pope, despite openly keeping his children Caesar and Lucretia Borgia. He promised so many bribes to the other cardinals that humorists make jokes comparing him to Christ giving his worldly riches to the poor. When asked what his Papal name would be he replied, “by the name of the Invincible Alexander”, who was not even a Christian. So, Pope Alexander VI it was. When he died and his bitterest enemy became pope, that cardinal chose the name Julius II, probably for Julius Caesar. Also not quite a Christian.<br /> <br /> 1536- CANADA GETS ITS NAME-French explorer Cartier discovered a great river on St. Lawrence's Day, which he calls the St. Lawrence River. Cartier asks the Huron people "what people lived upstream?". They replied people who work with red copper, in their language" Caignetdaze". Cartier recorded in his log, the land "Chemin de Canada".<br /> <br /> 1557- Battle of San Quentin. King Henry II of France thought to see if the new young king of Spain Phillip II was as tough as his predecessor Charles V was. Phillip’s armies beat the French in this battle and threatened Paris before all sued for peace.<br /> <br /> 1628- Swedish King Gustavus built a huge battleship called the Vasa. This day in front of the whole court he launched it into a fjord and it immediately sank to the bottom. Doh! 333 years later it was brought up, and today is a nice attraction in a Stockholm museum.<br /> <br /> 1629- Painter Diego Velasquez traveled to Italy to study the Renaissance masters on the advice of his buddy, painter Peter Paul Rubens.<br /> <br /> 1675 - King Charles II lays foundation stone of Royal Observatory, Greenwich.<br /> <br /> 1680- THE GREAT PUEBLO INDIAN REVOLT. In Spanish New Mexico the Pueblo, Zuni, Hopi, Acoma and eastern Apache had had enough of Spanish colonists and their Christianity. A Pueblo leader named Pope' coordinated a simultaneous attack timed by giving each chief a rope with the days marked off with knots. Today the last knot was untied and the Indians attacked the Spaniards from all sides. 500 out of 2,000 Europeans were killed and the town of Santa Fe burned. The Madonna brought from Valencia Spain called La Conquistadora was riddled with arrows, the marks of which you can still see today. The Spaniards retreated back to Old Mexico, but returned in force 13 years later.<br /> <br /> 1787- Mozart completed his Eine Kleine Nachtmusik -A Little Night Music.<br /> <br /> 1788- Mozart’s on a roll! This day he completed his Jupiter Symphony #41. It was his last symphony. He never heard it performed in his lifetime.<br /> <br /> 1792- The FRENCH REVOLUTION HEATS UP. Since the fall of the Bastille two years earlier France and King Louis XVI had tried to work as a constitutional monarchy guided by the Marquis de Lafayette. But Louis only played for time while negotiating with his royal relatives in Germany and Austria to send armies to help him put his peasants in their place. <br /> By now the French nation had enough. Mobs stirred to anger by radicals like Danton and Marat marched on the Tuileries Palace demanding justice. The King Louis XVI's Swiss bodyguard opened fire on them. The enraged peasants tore the guards to pieces and looted the palace, sticking soldier's ears on the king’s desk. The king and queen tried to escape out the back door but were grabbed by the mob. A flag was made from a Swiss red uniform coat- the very first Red Flag of Revolution. Lafayette later fled into exile and was imprisoned. <br /> Standing in the street watching all this was a young unemployed lieutenant named Napoleon Bonaparte. He later wrote that if King Louis had the nerve to appear on a horse at the head of his supporters he could have triumphed. Napoleons conclusion: " Quel connard!”- “What an asshole!" <br /> <br /> 1793- In one of the more positive results of the Reign of Terror, the French Revolutionary Government opened the royal art collection of the Louvre to the public as a museum.<br /> <br /> 1867- Rather than put up with his pushy Secretary of War any longer, President Andrew Johnson asks for Edwin Stanton's resignation. Stanton (who formed the first American Secret Service and as a lawyer invented the "temporary insanity" plea) not only refused, he barricaded himself in his office and his partisans in the former Lincoln cabinet began impeachment proceedings against President Johnson.<br /> <br /> 1889 - Dan Rylands patented the screw -on cap.<br /> <br /> 1897 -German chemists working for the Bayer Company invent Aspirin, the first mass market over the counter drug. A powdered willow tree root that was known to the Native Americans for years. The Romans ground willow root and dissolved it in water for pain.<br /> <br /> 1913-The Treaty of Bucharest signed ending the Second Balkan War. Bulgaria was beat up by Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Romania over the territory they all took from Turkey.<br /> <br /> 1921- After a long day of physical exercise, young politician Franklin D. Roosevelt told his family “I feel funny. I’m going to bed.” He went to sleep and, in the morning, discovered he could no longer walk. It was polio. He never walked on his own ever again. <br /> <br /> 1928- Calvin Coolidge dedicated the cornerstone of the monument at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota. The last time a President of the United States rode a horse to attend an official event. <br /> <br /> 1942- HALELIEUYAH NIGHT- The Marines in the jungles of Guadalcanal were tensely awaiting a night attack by the Japanese. They convinced each other that because Japanese attempting to speak English have difficulty pronouncing the letter “L”, all passwords should contain them. So when a few Korean slave laborers straggled into the camp perimeter, the alarmed Marines, thinking the attack had started, yelled to each other: “LOLLYPOP! LAPLAND! LOLLAPALOOZA!”<br /> <br /> 1945- After Hiroshima &amp; Nagasaki bombings a third atomic pile was delivered to Tinian Island air base to be assembled into one more A-bomb. But it's dropping was canceled by President Truman. He told his aide Dean Acheson: "Another 100,000 people...I can't see killing any more kids." The military had plans for three more atomic bombings in September and three more in October before the land invasion of Kyushu on Nov. 2nd.<br /> <br /> 1945- Even after the two atomic bomb attacks the Japanese cabinet is still deadlocked 3 - 3 on whether to surrender. Prime minister Suzuki still thought he could get Russia to negotiate separately -Stalin had just declared war and sent troops to invade Manchuria and the Kurile islands. War minister Korechika Anami said the national honor demanded a final battle on the home soil:" Wouldn't it be wonderful to see all of Japan destroyed… like a beautiful flower!"<br /> The impasse was broken by Emperor Hirohito, who broke with tradition and personally intervened "The time has come to bear the unbearable". Next morning a note requesting negotiations based on Japan's acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration was sent to the Swiss and Swedish consulates. Anami committed suicide in front of his radio as the Emperor announced the surrender.<br /> <br /> 1948 – Allen Funt's "Candid Camera" TV debut on ABC.<br /> <br /> 1962- Amazing Fantasy comic #152 hit the newsstands, introducing a new character called The Amazing Spiderman, written by Stan Lee and drawn by Steve Ditko.<br /> <br /> 1964- Near Ely, Nevada the U.S. Forrest Service cut down a Bristlecone Pine that scientists thought to be the oldest living thing- 4,900 years old.<br /> <br /> 1966 - Daylight meteor seen from Utah to Canada. Only known case of a meteor seen<br /> entering Earth's atmosphere &amp; leaving it again.<br /> <br /> 1966- Murderer James French was sent to the electric chair by the state of Oklahoma. He joked; How about this for a headline for tomorrow's paper? FRENCH FRIES!<br /> <br /> 1969- The night after Charles Manson’s cultists murdered actress Sharon Tate, they attacked another Los Angeles home at random. They murdered attorney Leo and Rosemary LaBianca on Waverly Drive in the neighborhood of Los Feliz.<br /> <br /> 1970 - Jim Morrison is charged in Miami on "lewd &amp; lascivious behavior"<br /> <br /> 1972 - Paul &amp; Linda McCartney are arrested in Sweden on drug possession.<br /> <br /> 1973 –San Francisco’s first BART train travels through the transbay tube to Montgomery St Station.<br /> <br /> 1978- Ford announces a recall of its Pinto series car after tests prove when bumped from behind the auto’s gas tank explodes into flames.<br /> <br /> 1979- Britain's first official nudist beach opened at Brighton.<br /> <br /> 1983- Discovery of the Vega Galaxy. This was the first physical proof of a planetary system outside our Milky Way. With modern orbiting telescopes we’ve since found millions of them.<br /> <br /> 1984- Famed New Yorker cartoonist and former Disney artist Virgil “Vip” Partch died in a car crash with his wife, outside of Valencia, California.<br /> <br /> 1987- Clara Peller, the elderly actress who gained last minute advertising fame by saying Where's the Beef? died at 86. The director and writer of the spots was the father of J.J. Sedelmier, who created the Ambiguously Gay Duo and other TV Funhouse animations for SNL.<br /> <br /> 2001- Warner Bros film Osmosis Jones opened in theaters. <br /> <br /> 2019- Jeffrey Epstein was a Wall St. financier who on the side ran an upscale prostitution ring. He even had his own pleasure island in the Caribbean where Princes, Presidents and CEOs could molest underage girls as young as 14. He was finally arrested and kept at the downtown Manhattan men’s detention center. Before he could be made to reveal any of his clients’ names, this night he committed suicide. Although on a suicide-watch, the two guards assigned to watch him just happened to be missing, and the 24 hr camera on him just happened to be turned off.<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Quiz: In olden times, what were you looking for when you visited a cobbler?<br /> <br /> Answer: A cobbler was a shoe maker.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 08 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6226 <p>Quiz: What mythical hero became invulnerable to weapons when as a baby his mother dipped him in the River Styx?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What is the difference between a missile and a ballistic missile?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 8/8/2023<br /> Birthdays: Emiliano Zapata. Esther Williams, Gene Deitch, Dino DeLaurentis, Keith Carradine is 73, Rory Calhoun, Mel Tillis, Martin Brest, Peter Weir, Connie Stevens, Patricia Arquette, Dustin Hoffman is 85, Lee Unkrich is 56, Mamoru Oshii is 72<br /> <br /> 1143- Byzantine Emperor John II Comnenus was killed in a hunting accident, when a poisoned arrow sitting in his own quiver scratched his leg. I don't know who hunts with poisoned arrows, but that's Byzantine politics for you.<br /> <br /> 1170- The birth of St. Dominic- Dominic was a Spanish zealot who wanted to preach to pagans, but the Pope sent him to south France to try and re-convert the Albigensian heretics, who were all former Catholics. After ten years of fasting, begging and praying his legendary summary of his efforts was:" Someone should take a stick to those people!" The Holy Office of the Inquisition was later administered by Dominicans. Saint Dominic is reputed to have said “Nothing Cleans like Fire.”<br /> <br /> 1502 – King James II of Scotland married Margaret Tudor, the sister of English King Henry VII. Their child was Mary Queen of Scots. Her child James would be selected by Queen Elizabeth to succeed her as king of The United Kingdom.<br /> <br /> 1588- THE GREAT PROTESTANT WIND- Most of the Spanish Armada was not destroyed by the English Navy, but by a huge North Sea storm that hit them off the coast of Northern Ireland. This is why if you want to view relics of the great Spanish galleons don't go to Cadiz, go to The Museum of Belfast. King Phillip of Spain said, “I sent my Armada against men, not God’s wind and waves.” Supposedly the thousands of Spanish and Italian sailors marooned on the Irish coast intermarried with the Irish population. They created the racial strain Black Irish, or Celts with milk white skin and black hair and eyes.<br /> <br /> 1662- We all have heard of how England captured New Amsterdam and named it New York, well on this date Dutch Admiral Van Tromp came back with a bigger Dutch fleet and took it back. He renamed New York "New Orange". But it didn't stick, and after the peace treaty of Utrecht was signed, New York went back to the English. New Yorkers didn't really much care so long as it didn't affect their business.<br /> <br /> 1709 - 1st known ascent in hot-air balloon indoors by Bartolomeu de Gusmao.<br /> <br /> 1811- THE IRON CROSS- Before medals common soldiers were rewarded for bravery with a few gold coins. George Washington and Napoleon made medals things soldiers competed for. General Gerhard von Gneisenau urged the King of Prussia to create a medal like the French Legion d'Honneur that all ranks in the German Army might aspire to. At first the sulky King was against anything that led soldiers to believe they were better than the common schweinhund he felt they were, but he finally was made to give in. The new medal was based on the heraldic symbol of the Crusader order of the Teutonic Knights, a black cross formed by four arrowheads. The "Iron Cross" medal was created. Goths, Surfers and Hells Angels rejoiced.<br /> <br /> 1818- 22 year old English poet John Keats returned from a trip to the Lakes District only to discover the first signs of the tuberculosis that would kill him.<br /> <br /> 1876 - Thomas Edison patented the mimeograph, a forerunner of the Xerox photocopier.<br /> <br /> 1892-The Emancipated Duel- In Liechtenstein, Princess Pauline von Metternich and Countess Anastasia Keilmannsegg disagreed so vigorously about the flower settings at an exhibition that they fought a duel with swords. They had lady seconds and lady doctors on hand and no men were allowed in the room. They both agreed to fight topless, since the fight was not to the death, but just until someone drew first blood. (schmiss). After three rounds the Princess nicked the countess on the arm, so honor was satisfied. At the time the press made much of the leaked story, although both protagonists published vehement denials anything of the sort happened.<br /> <br /> 1918- During World War I, this was the Breakout at Amiens, to the Germans "Der Schwarz Tag" The Black Day. The British mass 500 newfangled tanks, and burst through the German front line trenches, impregnable for four years. For the first time since Napoleon, a German army was on the run. But with their typical shortsightedness, the Allied commanders were so surprised by their success they halted the advance to study it. Yet, master strategist Eric von Ludendorf now knew the Great War was kaput, and the best Germany could hope for was to negotiate a decent peace.<br /> <br /> 1920- The German National Socialist -NSDP or Nazi Party formed.<br /> <br /> 1925- The National Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan staged a massive march in Washington D.C. Twenty thousand white hooded members of the Invisible Nation marched down Pennsylvania Ave. in broad daylight. Around this time in Queens New York, a thousand KKK marched and fought with protestors. One Klansman arrested was Fred Trump, the father of the future president. <br /> <br /> 1939- On Walt Disney’s soundstage, Leopold Stokowski met with Walt and the story artists and directors of Fantasia to hammer out their approach to Beethoven’s 6th Pastorale. Ham Luske, Webb Smith, Otto Englander, Ben Sharpsteen and Ed Penner. To fit in the movie, Stokowski had to edit the 40 minute symphony down to 20 minutes without any noticeable parts missing.<br /> <br /> 1942- THE BATTLE OF SAVO ISLAND- The US and Australian Navy suffered the worst defeat of the Pacific War since Pearl Harbor. In the waters between Guadalcanal and Tulagi Islands, the Japanese warships of Admiral Murayama attacked the Americans and Australians at 1:30AM in a spectacular surface night battle. Four American and one Australian cruiser were sunk. The only Japanese ship sunk was done afterwards by a roving US submarine completely unaware of the battle. The Japanese ships slipped in and out under American air cover. One reconnaissance PBY Catalina plane actually spotted the enemy battle fleet early. But instead of radioing an alarm, he casually continued on his patrol and back at his base he filed a routine report in writing!<br /> <br /> 1944 - Smokey the Bear, named after NYC fireman Smokey Joe Martin born.<br /> <br /> 1945- Two days after the Hiroshima bombing, the Soviet Union declared war on the Japan and began landing troops in Manchuria, Korea and the northern Kurile Islands. The Japanese cabinet had hoped to avoid a total unconditional surrender by first negotiating a separate peace with Stalin, then using him to arrange a deal with the Anglo-Americans. But Stalin had his own ideas. Even today with Stalin dead and Communism long gone, the Russians still won’t give back the Kuriles.<br /> <br /> 1960 – Brian Hyland’s song "Itsy-Bitsy, Teenie-Weenie, Yellow Polka-dot Bikini" hits #1.<br /> <br /> 1963 – THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY- In Buckinghamshire England a small group of masked men stopped the London to Glasgow express and stole 2.6 million pound sterling, about $7.3 million U.S.. English police netted most of the gang, but the ringleader Ronald Biggs escaped. Biggs lived well in Rio de Janeiro for 38 years and gave frequent interviews to British media. Old and sick, he finally returned to England and jail in 2001. “I just want one more pint in a pub” he sighed.<br /> <br /> 1963 – The Kingsmen released the song "Louie, Louie". Many labeled it obscene, although no one is quite sure just what the song lyrics mean. In the 1980s Northwestern University staged Louie-Louie Marathons- 44 straight hours of Louie-Louie, played by punk bands, polka bands, marching bands, folk trios, and singing water glasses.<br /> <br /> 1964 - Rolling Stones 1st Dutch concert.<br /> <br /> 1973-Vice President Spiro Agnew vows not to resign. He resigned shortly afterwards.<br /> <br /> 1974 – KNEEL WITH ME, HENRY. Richard Nixon decided to resign the U.S. Presidency, after Senators Howard Baker and Barry Goldwater informed him his last supporting congressmen on the Senate Impeachment Committee intended to change their vote to yes for impeachment. Insiders say his last call before making up his mind was to Dixiecrat George Wallace, who told the President he could no longer count on the support of Southern white conservatives. Tonight he went on nationwide TV and told the nation. <br /> <br /> 1978- The character of Odie the dog first met Garfield in Jim Davis’ comic strip.<br /> <br /> 2008- Putin’s Russia invaded Georgia. Part of the opening attack was a massive Russian cyber-attack, crashing all the websites and web communications in Georgia. Russian bombers also targeted cell phone towers. Estonia offered to keep the Georgian gov’t ministry channels open. Elderly senator John McCain declared “We are all Georgians!” Even though no one asked him to, and it was not yet the policy of the USA. <br /> <br /> 2008- The Beijing Olympic Games opening ceremony, using 20,000 dancers. As director Zhang Yimou said “Hey, we’ve got the people…”<br /> <br /> 2022- The FBI raided the home of former President Donald Trump.<br /> ==========================================================<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is the difference between a missile and a ballistic missile?<br /> <br /> Answer: A ballistic missile carries ballistics, i.e. explosives.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 07 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6225 <p>Quiz: What is the difference between a missile and a ballistic missile?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s answer below: What is an “eminence grise”.<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 8/7/2023<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Constantius II, Revolutionary War General Nathanael Greene, Mata Hari, Rassan Rolling Kirk, Dr. Ralphe Bunche, Nicholas Ray, Dr. Richard Leakie, Grandma Moses, Stan Freberg, James Randi, Billy Burke aka Glenda the Good Witch, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Garrison Keillor, Animator Rudy Ising, David Duchovny is 63, Charlize Theron is 48 <br /> <br /> 1485- At Millbank harbor Wales, Henry Tudor landed with an army of knights to challenge King Richard III for the throne. Stepping on English soil, Henry dropped to his knees, raised his arms and exclaimed, “Judge me, oh Lord, on the righteousness of my cause!”<br /> <br /> 1620- The mother of astronomer Johannes Kepler was arrested for witchcraft.<br /> <br /> 1683-The Bagel was invented by a Jewish baker in Vienna as a tribute to Polish warrior King Jan III Sobieski, who had saved their city from Turkish attack. Bagel comes from the German word for stirrup, Bügel.<br /> <br /> 1782- General George Washington created the Order of the Purple Heart. The first U.S. medal. <br /> <br /> 1815- Prisoner Napoleon Bonaparte was transferred from the HMS Bellerophon to the HMS Northumberland for the voyage to Saint Helena. After his defeat at Waterloo the British public warmed up to Napoleon as an okay chap now down on his luck. While waiting in Plymouth Harbor curious crowds of English people would row out to wave hello at the fallen emperor. One enterprising citizen learned Napoleon’s schedule and from his rowboat would hold up a large sign "BONEY’S OUT ON DECK" to let the crowd know.<br /> <br /> 1819- Battle of Boyaca'- Simon Bolivar defeats the Royal Spanish army in the New World. He enters Bogota to proclaim the Republic of Columbia.<br /> <br /> 1834 -Death of Joseph Jacquard, French silk weaver who invented the first loom capable of weaving patterns. The cards used in the looms were the inspiration for the computer punch card, a way of transmitting data, whether pulses of light or lengths of wool. <br /> <br /> 1880- British Lord Roberts began the famous Retreat to Kandahar from Kabul. The British and Russians used Afghanistan as a political football for most of the 19th century. It was referred to as "The Great Game". <br /> <br /> 1882- The legendary hillbilly feud in Kentucky between the Hatfields and the McCoys began, supposedly over a prize hog. Ellison Hatfield was stabbed 26 times and shot in the back by Tolbert McCoy. The Hatfields then rounded up three McCoys and shot them. Over the next forty years, over 100 men, women, and children from both families would be killed.<br /> <br /> 1888- In Philadelphia, Theophilus van Kannel patented the revolving door.<br /> <br /> 1912 –After serving out murdered President William McKinley’s term, Teddy Roosevelt pledged he would only serve one full term of his own, then his successor Taft became President. TR came to regret this decision, so he ran for president anyway, even though the establishment GOP stayed with Taft. This day the Progressive Bull Moose Party nominated Theodore Roosevelt for president. 3rd Party candidate TR’s splitting the presidential ticket not only enabled democrat Woodrow Wilson to win the White House, but the Bull Moose movement drew off the progressive left wing of the Republican Party, causing the Party of Lincoln to drift to more the right. <br /> <br /> 1914-. This day German forces in Belgium capture the fortress city of Liege. It is the first success of General Eric Von Ludendorff, who drove up in a touring car, and banged on the city gates with his sword pommel. <br /> <br /> 1914 – The famous poster of Lord Kitchner pointing and saying "Your country needs you," spreads over the UK. James Montgomery Flagg later copied the poster for the American version with Uncle Sam in a similar pose. Lord Asquith commented that by now the elderly soldier Kitchener made "a better poster than a general." <br /> <br /> 1919- the First Actor’s Equity Strike.<br /> <br /> 1928- The US Treasury issued a smaller, leaner dollar bill. Before this dollars were two times larger and wider than the ones we now use.<br /> <br /> 1931 Jazz trumpeter Leon "Bix" Beiderbecke, died at 29 of drink and drugs. Bix along with his idol Louis Armstrong was considered one of the first jazz musicians to popularize the solo-riff, where in the body of a song the soloist would depart from the arrangement and improvise, like a cadenza in classical music. His family in Davenport Iowa were horrified that their son dropped out of school to associate with musicians and black people. Even after Bix was famous, he returned proudly home only to discover his parents had stacked up every record he sent them in a box under the stairs. They had never listened to a single one.<br /> <br /> 1933-The first "Alley-Oop" comic strip.<br /> <br /> 1942- GUADALCANAL BEGINS-10, 000 Marines landed on the Japanese held island in the first American offensive of World War II. Americans at home had to learn names like Tulagi, Savo Island, Gaivutu-Tanonbogo, Chesty Puller and Washing Machine Charlie as their loved ones slugged it out for six months in one of the most brutal battles of the Pacific War. The evenly matched Japanese and Americans went at each other with everything from bayonets to battleships. So many ships were sunk in the island’s lagoon that they nicknamed it "Ironbottom Sound". <br /> <br /> 1942-The first days aerial dogfights over Guadalcanal, Japanese fighter ace Saburo Sakai won fame for shooting down his 58th, 59th and 60th planes. In this days dogfight his Zero was badly shot up by Gruman F-4 Wildcats. Sakai was paralyzed on his left side and had one eye shattered by a bullet. Yet even in this state he managed to fly his plane 500 miles to home base safely. In the air for 8 1/2 hours, he said he would occasionally thrust a thumb into his eye wound to give himself a shot of pain to keep awake. <br /> Sakai survived, fought at Iwo Jima in 1944, volunteered for Kamikaze duty,
<br /> but flew back with honor when he could find no suitable targets. He survived the war and wrote a best selling memoir- Zero Pilot. He died in 2000 at age 84.<br /> <br /> 1953- President Eisenhower granted Ohio statehood retroactively 150 years later. It seems when Ohio joined the union in 1803 Congress screwed up the enabling legislation so Ohio was never officially a state. Local historians were preparing for an anniversary celebration when they uncovered the glitch.<br /> <br /> 1963- Pres. John F. Kennedy and Jacky Kennedy tried to have one more baby, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, but he was born with a breathing disorder and died two days later.<br /> <br /> 1964-THE TONKIN GULF RESOLUTION-After the Tonkin Gulf Incident, President Johnson asked for permission to act in Vietnam without a formal declaration of war. Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution 93-2 in the Senate and 410-0 in the House to accelerate the U.S. combat troops role in Vietnam. President Johnson used the hotline to the Kremlin for the first time, to assure Premier Khrushchev that the US did not plan to expand their role in IndoChina- (?) The American commitment went from 30,000 to 450,000, trillions of dollars and eventually destroyed Cambodia and Laos as well. Congressman Mark Hatfield- "I can’t get over the feeling we’re making a big mistake." <br /> <br /> 1968- James Brown recorded “Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud”, at the Vox Studios in Los Angeles. The single became a clarion call for the Black Power movement in the U.S. <br /> <br /> 1970 - Christine McVie joined the band Fleetwood Mac.<br /> <br /> 1970 – The first computer chess tournament.<br /> <br /> 1974- French daredevil Phillipe Petit strung a tightrope between the two 110 story towers of NY’s World Trade Center and walked across it. As New Yorkers watched in amazement, Petit kept his concentration by carrying on a conversation with the buildings. <br /> <br /> 1979- THE RUNAWAY WARS. Hollywood Cartoonist’s Union launched a strike against studios sending their animation jobs overseas. <br /> <br /> 1981- The Heavy Metal movie opened. Directed by Gerald Potterton.<br /> <br /> 1998- Simultaneous car bombs explode in front of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. It killed 100 and injured 2,200, many more innocent African bystanders than Americans. The bombs proved to be the work of the Al Qaeda organization. <br /> <br /> 2007- Leo Montulli, a programmer for Netscape, invented internet cookies. Do you accept them?<br /> =================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is an “eminence grise”.<br /> <br /> Answer: It means the power behind the throne. Someone who does not have an official position in the government yet exerts great influence on the leader. Like Clark Clifford was to Lyndon Johnson or Jared and Ivanka Trump was to Donald. From a friar who served as a scribe for the very powerful French Cardinal Richelieu. While he held no official position other than as a secretary, he had great influence with the Cardinal and was known to be instrumental in many religious and political decisions. Because he was a friar and not of the religious ruling orders, he wore grey robes, thus the nickname Eminence Grise (Grey Eminence). (FG)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 06 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6224 <p>Quiz: What is an “eminence grise”.<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What is the medical term rhinorrhea more commonly known as?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 8/6/2023<br /> Birthdays: Alfred Lord Tennyson, Daniel O'Connell "the Liberator", Dutch Schultz (real name Arthur Fleigenheimer), Louella Parsons, Lucille Ball, Robert Mitchum, Andy Warhol, Hoot Gibson, William B. Williams, Michelle Yeoh is 61, M. Night Shyamalan, Melissa George, Soliel Moon-Frye <br /> <br /> 1504- Birth of Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury under Elizabeth I and was responsible for formulating the 39 Articles. An apocryphal story is that his long nose and inquisitive nature gave rise to the term, "Nosey Parker ".<br /> <br /> 1571-During the Ottoman Turkish conquest of Cypus this day its second largest city Famagusta fell after a one-year siege. The Turkish commander was so enraged at all the time and soldiers he lost to capture the city, that he ordered the Venetian commander General MarcAntonio Bragadino skinned alive and his hide nailed to the poop deck of his flagship.<br /> The Bragadino Family later negotiated with Sublime Porte and regained possession of the skin, folded him up nicely and placed behind glass in his monument in the Church of San Giovanni et Paulo. When you enter the church today look to the right up high and you’ll see a bust with something that looks like a brown table napkin behind a glass plate. That’s General Bragadino.<br /> <br /> 1675- Czar Alexis forbade Russians to wear foreign hairstyles, except the nobility.<br /> <br /> 1774- Religious leader Ann Lee and a group of followers first arrived in America from England. They called themselves the United Believers in Christ's Second Coming, but were more popularly known as the Shakers.<br /> <br /> 1806- Napoleon ordered the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. This was a bit of international bookkeeping. The Empire existed if only on paper since 950 A.D. As Voltaire joked “ it wasn't really an Empire, it wasn't Roman (it was mostly German states) and it wasn't really that holy either”. The Austrian Empire and the Confederation of the Rhine States under French dominion took its place. After Waterloo it became Germany and Austria.<br /> <br /> 1825- Bolivia gained independence from Peru.<br /> <br /> 1840- NAPOLEON III'S ABORTIVE COUP. Louis Napoleon was the nephew of the first Napoleon and one day he decided since his uncle was a genius he must be a genius also. So he resolved to leave exile in Britain and overthrow the French Republic. In 1814 Napoleon just had to show up for the people to go wild and carry him to the palace on their shoulders. <br /> So, Louis Napoleon appeared on the beach in Boulogne waving his sword and flag. Instead of cheering crowds, a local constable tried to arrest him for carrying an unlicensed firearm. <br /> When the gun went off and hurt the constable, a mob chased Mr. Bonaparte back to his boat booing and laughing. While trying to row away the boat capsized and Napoleon III was picked up by a fishing boat while clinging to a lifebuoy. A minister in Paris said of the affair: "That blockhead! Everything would be easier if he would just drown himself!" Louis Napoleon later ran for office, was elected premier in 1848, then became France's second emperor in 1852.<br /> <br /> 1890- FIRST MAN ELECTROCUTED- Prison officials wanted a more humane way to execute badguys than hanging, after a 300 pound killer named Mad Jack Ketcham made everybody sick when the hangman’s noose ripped his head off. So, they turned to the miracle of the age, electricity. A spirited competition began between inventors Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse whether AC or DC current was more lethal. Lots of dogs and cats around their laboratories disappeared for test subjects. Edison wanted to call his device an "Automort" or "Electramort". <br /> When Edison knew he was going to lose the contract he suggested the inventor give his name to it." Joe will be Westinghoused at midnight!"-etc. Finally it was simply the Chair, Sparky, or the Hot Seat. The first man in it, an axe murderer named William Kemmler, took several 17 second jolts to be sent off, his hair and jacket caught fire and his shoes melted and stuck to the floor. <br /> <br /> 1890- Cy Young pitches and wins his first game.<br /> <br /> 1914 –The first German zeppelin raid. A Zeppelin bombs the Belgian city of Liege, 9 killed. <br /> <br /> 1926- Gertrude Ederle swam the English Channel.<br /> <br /> 1926- Warner Brothers Studio premiered its motion picture sound on disk system. The film was Don Juan with John Barrymore the Great Profile. It didn’t really have much impact until they made the "Jazz Singer" with Al Jolson a year later.<br /> <br /> 1930- Judge Crater disappeared. The New York Supreme Court Justice Joseph Force Crater had given no indication of any trouble, but he had accrued huge gambling debts and was known to be connected with crooked politicians. The judge had dinner with some friends at the Stork Club and told them he would join them later at the theater. He got into a taxi at 43rd street and vanished forever. It was the media story of the year. One paper called him “ the missingest man in New York.”<br /> <br /> 1932- Top Broadway singer Libby Hollman "Statue of Libby" had popularized torch songs and strapless gowns. She had married quiet tobacco millionaire Zachary Smith Reynolds of R.J. Reynolds and moved to his North Carolina estate. But life on the farm was boring, so Libby brought her Broadway friends down to party. After one party, she was missing for several hours and came home with grass stains on her knees and a wry smile. The couple quarreled and Smith Reynolds died of a gunshot wound to the head. Libby and a friend were indicted for murder, but the R. J. Reynolds Family had the charges dropped to avoid a prolonged scandal. It was ruled a suicide or accident. No one was ever charged.<br /> <br /> 1934- Charles Addams first New Yorker cartoon featuring the Addams Family.<br /> <br /> 1945- HIROSHIMA- At around 9:15 A.M. Capt. Paul Tibbetts and his B-29 "Enola Gay" dropped one bomb that destroyed an entire city, and sent us into the Atomic Age. The uranium device was called the "Cosmic Bomb" by the scientists and "Little Boy" by the crew. Navy Secretary Admiral Leahy had said:" It's the biggest damn fool thing we've ever done. It'll never go off!" <br /> When it did go off, one crewmember shouted: "Wow! Lookit that sonofabitch go! This war is over!!" The navigator wrote in his journal" My God! What have we done?" The target city of Hiroshima was selected because it was undamaged up until then, and the surrounding hills would concentrate its effect. The A-bomb killed around 130,000 people and continued to kill survivors with radiation and cancer. 50,000 people were vaporized outright leaving only shadows burned into the pavement. <br /> Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, the bomb's main designer, had built it primarily to stop Hitler -both the Nazis and Japanese had their own unsuccessful atomic weapon programs. He was still horrified by the results. He became a lifelong pacifist and was later persecuted for refusing any more help in developing nuclear weapons. <br /> <br /> 1959- Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest went into wide release.<br /> <br /> 1962- Jamaica gained independence from Britain. <br /> <br /> 1970- THE HIPPIES ATTACKED DISNEYLAND- A nationwide call for civil disobedience at the famous American-establishment tourist spot was called for August 6th. Called "Yippie Day" Yippies were considered more radical than Hippies. 750 long haired, denim clad young teens filtered into park. Once in they quickly massed, then invaded the Wilderness Fort in Frontierland. There they raised the Vietcong flag, passed out marijuana to tourists and chanted "Stop the War! Free Charlie Manson!" They were finally expelled with great difficulty by park security and the Anaheim police. In the 1980’s Disney was almost invaded by Nazi skinheads, but this time they were ready.<br /> <br /> 1973- Stevie Wonder was involved in car crash. After being in a coma for 4 days he recovered completely.<br /> <br /> 1984- Carl Lewis won four gold medals in track &amp; field at the Olympic Games in LA.<br /> <br /> 1991- Tim Berners Lee of CERN announced the world wide web, aka www. Today the first website of the web went online- http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html<br /> <br /> 1998- A White House student intern from LA named Monica Lewinsky testified to a Federal Grand Jury that she had sex with President Bill Clinton in a small room down the hall from the Oval Office. Hey, watch where ya put that cigar! <br /> <br /> 1999- I see dead people..” The Sixth Sense premiered.<br /> <br /> 2001- One month before the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, the CIA presented President George W. Bush with a study that increased terrorist chatter meant some kind of attack was likely. The report was entitled OSAMA BEN LADEN DETERMINED TO ATTACK IN CONTINENTAL US. That the terrorists may use hijacked civilian airliners. President Bush thanked them:” Okay, you’ve covered your ass...” then resumed clearing brush on his ranch. CIA chief George Tenant didn’t think it important enough to even show up. <br /> Later in 2003 after the 9-11 attack, National Security adviser Dr. Condoleeza Rice was quoted in hearings " No one could predict terrorists would hijack civilian airliners and fly them into the World Trade Center and Pentagon." Bush and Cheney said the fault was poor intelligence. CIA intelligence chief Tenant was awarded the Medal of Freedom.<br /> <br /> 2009- Director John Hughes died of a sudden heart attack at age 59. He had directed hits like Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Planes Trains and Automobiles and more.<br /> =============================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is the medical term rhinorrhea more commonly known as?<br /> <br /> Answer: It is the clinical term for a runny nose.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 05 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6223 <p>Quiz: What is the medical term rhinorrhea more commonly known as?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What is the difference between a punch and a sucker punch?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 8/5/2023<br /> Birthdays: Guy de Maupassant, Amboise Thomas, William- first black child born in British America, Neil Armstrong, John Huston, Robert Taylor, Conrad Aiken, Roman Gabriel, Selma Diamond, Patrick Ewing, Joseph Merrick the Elephant Man, Loni Anderson, John Saxon, Jonathan Silverman is 52<br /> <br /> Feast of St. Afra, a German prostitute who was burned to death rather than worship idols.” My body hath sinned but my soul is pure.”<br /> <br /> 1583 - The HMS Squirrel brought the first English settlement within sight of Newfoundland. After the first rough winter the colony failed. The boat retrieving the colonists sank in a storm and all were drowned. A colony planted in Roanoke Virginia by Raleigh two years later also failed. The first permanent British colony wouldn’t succeed until Jamestown in 1607.<br /> <br /> 1667- Moliere’s comedy “Tartuffe” first played for the public. The next day the Parliament of Paris ordered the theater closed and its posters ripped down. The Archbishop of Paris threatened excommunication of anyone who saw it or performed it. It seemed the Church didn’t like all the jokes about a con man who steals everything from a family by pretending to be a priest. But King Louis XIV thought it was funny. He overruled the prelates and ordered the play resumed. <br /> <br /> 1769- Marching up the California coast, Gaspar de Portola discovered the San Fernando Valley. He came down out of the Sepulveda pass, turned west along a trail that would one day be Ventura Blvd. and went over to the Chumash village by a spring. They called it Encino, Spanish for grove of oaks. The original Indian word for this valley was “Valley of Smoke” because of all the brush fires creating a lingering haze.<br /> <br /> 1775- 1st Spanish ship, the San Carlos, entered San Francisco Bay.<br /> <br /> 1847 -Author Herman Melville met Nathaniel Hawthorne. They went for a hike together in the Berkshires.<br /> <br /> 1864-“ DAMN THE TORPEDOES!” Admiral David Farragut at Mobile Bay, Alabama. The Union Navy captured one of last Southern deep water ports. As the US warships in a line ran the heavy cannon of the rebel forts, a lead ship exploded from a floating mine called a torpedo. This stacked up the ship traffic under the enemy guns like a shooting gallery. <br /> Admiral Farragut shouted, “Damn the Torpedoes, Full Speed Ahead! “ He pushed his flagship the USS Hartford to the lead and gambled the remaining booby traps would be duds. They were. They also defeated the Confederate ironclad Tennessee, who’s captain Franklin Buchanan had commanded the Merrimac two years earlier. Even though Farragut had closed the port to Confederate ships, the North couldn’t spare troops to capture the city. So the city of Mobile Alabama didn’t surrender until four days after Lee surrendered to Grant in 1865.<br /> <br /> 1882- On little Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor, on top of an old War of 1812 fort, the cornerstone of the Statue of Liberty set. The statue had arrived in pieces from France. Some assembly required. Donations for the statue’s construction were collected by a national fundraiser organized by newspaper tycoon Josef Pulitzer.<br /> <br /> 1888- Shortly after her husband Dr Karl Benz invented the internal combustion engine, his wife Bertha Benz took her two children on the first long distance car trip in history. 66 miles in 12 hours. When the wooden brakes wore out too easily, she stopped at a blacksmith and had him create some out of leather. The first brakepads. After her two boys had to push the car up a hill, she suggested to her husband he invent a third gear. He did and kept the brakepads idea too.<br /> <br /> 1891- the American Express Company introduces Travelers Checks.<br /> <br /> 1910- The first Traffic Light set up on Euclid and 105th St. in Cleveland.<br /> <br /> 1921- KDKA Pittsburgh does the 1st radio baseball broadcast Pirates-8, Phillies-0.<br /> <br /> 1924- Arf, Arf ! the first Little Orphan Annie comic strip drawn by Harold Gray. <br /> <br /> 1926- Magician Harry Houdini stays in a coffin under water for one hour.<br /> <br /> 1927- RCA-Victrola record producer Ralph Peer realized there might be a market for “Hillbilly Music”. He set up a makeshift recording studio above a furniture store in Bristol Tennessee, and put an ad in the local papers for talent. In one day, he recorded stars Jimmy Rogers the Singing Brakeman, The Carter Family, The Tennessee Mountaineers and Ernest “Pop” Stoneman. This session has been called the “Big Bang of Country Music.”<br /> <br /> 1940- The Day of the Eagle. The first German raids by the Luftwaffe over England. Mostly to probe defenses and attack coastal radar installations. This was the beginning of the Battle of Britain.<br /> <br /> 1945- At Tinian airbase The atomic uranium bomb “Little Boy” was loaded onto the B-29 bomber Enola Gay after traveling by ship from Hawaii. The crew will take off at 5:00 am next morning.<br /> <br /> 1945- THE INDIANAPOLIS The ship that carried the Atomic bombs, the cruiser U.S.S. Indianapolis was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-168 on the way back from Tinian Island. Because the Indianapolis was under top secret radio silence it took five days for the Navy to realize that she was even missing. By the time rescue planes reached the site most of her sailors had drowned or had been eaten by sharks. Out of 1,100 sailors in the water only 300 were rescued. Survivors recalled how they could feel the sharks noses bumping into the soles of their feet, then another comrade would disappear under water. <br /> This day the plane that discovered them did so by accident. He had spotted the oil slick and assumed it was a submerged Japanese submarine and was closing in to drop a bomb when he saw the men’s heads bobbing in the water. The Navy courtmartialed the ship’s Captain McVay for gross negligence. They even called the commander of the Japanese submarine to testify. McVay never got over the shame and committed suicide in 1968. In the movie Jaws, old salt Robert Shaw recounted the story of the Indianapolis.<br /> <br /> 1953- The film “From Here to Eternity” opened, starring Deborah Kerr, Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift. But the big story was Frank Sinatra’s Oscar winning performance as Maggio that signaled the turnaround in his slumping career.<br /> <br /> 1953- Operation Big Switch- a large exchange of prisoners of war in the Korean conflict. At this time when some American POW’s refused to come home the charge was made of “Brain Washing”, that the Red Chinese used extreme psychological pressure to alter prisoners behavior. <br /> <br /> 1955- The Screen Actor’s Guild strikes Hollywood for television residuals. Their president was Walter Pidgeon who had played Dr. Morbius in Forbidden Planet.<br /> <br /> 1956- Chuck Jones short Rocket By Baby premiered. “Mot!”<br /> <br /> 1957- American Bandstand featuring the eternally teenage Dick Clark debuts on television.<br /> <br /> 1961- The theme park Six Flags over Texas first opened.<br /> <br /> 1962- GOODBYE, NORMA JEAN. Marilyn Monroe found nude in bed, dead of barbiturate overdose. She was 36. Whether you think the starlet overdosed by accident, suicide, or was done in by the Mafia, the Kennedys, a Svengali like personal physician, lovesick lesbian physical therapist or space aliens, it is still a mystery. She made a call to Attorney General Bobby Kennedy’s office in Washington several hours earlier but was rebuffed. Her last call was to her hairdresser Mr. Guilaroff. She left the bulk of her belongings to her drama teacher Lee Strassberg and her funeral was organized by ex-husband, baseball star Joe DiMaggio. Her Westwood cottage had a tile over the doorway which read :"All my troubles end Here." <br /> <br /> 1963- The US, Britain and USSR sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.<br /> <br /> 1964 - Actress Anne Bancroft &amp; Comedian Mel Brooks wed.<br /> <br /> 1966- Caesar’s Palace Hotel &amp; Casino first opened to the public. This was the first of the super-resort casinos, with a total theme park design and three times the space and accommodations of anything yet seen on the Vegas Strip. Its success ushered in an accelerated era of building for Las Vegas casinos.<br /> <br /> 1966 –It a moment of youthful indiscretion, John Lennon declared his band the Beatles were now more popular than Jesus. This flippant comment provoked a firestorm of nationwide protest among conservative elements in the US. Beatles albums were publicly burned in the streets. Lennon apologized, then followed up by saying he was being crucified over the comment. Paul McCartney rushed up to the mike to insist that wasn't the choice of words they preferred.<br /> <br /> 1967- Bobby Gentry released “Ode to Billy Jo”.<br /> <br /> 1980- The Osmond Brothers break up.<br /> <br /> 1984- Welsh actor Richard Burton died of cerebral hemorrhage at 64. With a tumultuous career and two marriages to Elizabeth Taylor, the hard drinking Burton was the most famous English-speaking actor of his day. But unlike Olivier and Gielgud, he was never knighted. The monarchy objected to their portrayal when Burton starred in a TV miniseries on Winston Churchill. Burton was buried with a copy of Dylan Thomas’ poems in his pocket.<br /> <br /> 1984- Joan Benoit won the first Women’s Olympic Marathon.<br /> <br /> 1986 - It's revealed painter Andrew Wyeth had secretly created 240 drawings &amp; paintings of his neighbor Helga Testorf, in Chadds Ford, Pa<br /> <br /> 1994- JUDGE KENNETH STARR appointed by the Newt Gingrich Congress to be special prosecutor to investigate wrongdoing by President Clinton in his Whitewater financial dealings.<br /> When the Whitewater affair proved a cold lead, he came upon the Travelgate, Paula Jones and the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. Yet Starr never garnered much support because the public perceived his probe as just another political vendetta. While many Watergate investigators were fellow Republicans, Judge Starr was an openly declared enemy of Bill Clinton. And his blunt tactics brought up disturbing memories of McCarthyism- like his ordering the arrest of a D.C. bookshop owner who refused to hand over his receipts and berating jurors who deadlocked over two counts against Clinton’s law partners. <br /> After $54 million tax dollars spent, Congress voted impeachment of the President for lying under oath. But that effort was defeated and Clinton served out his term. Judge Starr became president of Baylor University in Texas. In 2016 was forced to resign due to his cover up of a teacher-student sex scandal. <br /> <br /> 1995- The infamous SIGGRAPH party at the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda. Titled Nailed: An Evening on the Cultural Frontier. When the very conservative Nixon Library was approached about the party, they heard it was a limited invitation event sponsored by ILM and Silicon Graphics. What could go wrong? What they got was 3,000 drunken, pot smoking hippies and computer nerds. The grounds were festooned with scantily clad Brazilian Carnival dancers, snake charmers, sword swallowers, Japanese Taiko drummers, and the bands Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone. LSD guru Timothy Leary held a mock exorcism over Nixon’s grave. SIGGRAPH Orlando chapter president said” It was wonderful! I doubt Richard Nixon would have appreciated any of this!”<br /> <br /> 2001- In a throwback to the long dead Communist era, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il visited Moscow to meet with Russian leaders. Flanked by goose stepping soldiers he laid a wreath at the tomb of Lenin. Russian President Putin let him sleep in a Kremlin suite his father Kim Il Sung slept in 50 years earlier, as the guest of Stalin. Terrified of flying, Kim made the 6,000 mile trip from Pyongyang by train, pausing to visit a tank factory. The only reaction was annoyance from Moscow workers. Kim’s private train had jammed up their morning commute.<br /> ======================================================<br /> Yesterdays’ Quiz: What is the difference between a punch and a sucker punch?<br /> <br /> Answer: It means to suddenly strike someone when they were not expecting it.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 04 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6222 <p>Quiz: What is the difference between a punch and a sucker punch?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What famous military general also composed classical music that is still played today?<br /> -------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 8/4/2023<br /> Birthdays: Percy Shelley, Hans Christian Andersen, Nicholas Conte' 1755-inventor of the modern pencil and the conte'-crayon, Louis Armstrong, William Pater, Dr. Alexander Schure, Richard Belzer, Franco Corelli, Elizabeth-England's late Queen Mum, Roger Clemens, runner Mary Decker-Slaney, Billy-Bob Thornton is 69, former President Barack Obama is 62<br /> <br /> 1181- Arab astronomers noted a supernova in the constellation Cassiopia.<br /> <br /> 1265- Battle of Evesham –Young Prince Edward Longshanks defeated the rebellious barons holding his father King Henry III of England captive. The leader of the rebel barons, Simon de Monfort had forced the King to acknowledge his creation of a House of Commons in Parliament. For that act old DeMonfort was so hated by the King's men that even after he was slain in battle they continued to chop his body to bits in a blind rage. But it was too late. Nothing could end the institution of a parliament of common men, curbing the capricious power of kings.<br /> <br /> 1578- Battle of Alcazar El Kebhir- King Sebastien of Portugal’s attempt to restart the long defunct Crusades, this time in Morocco, ended when he was defeated and killed.<br /> <br /> 1693- “Come quickly Martin, I am tasting stars!” monk Dom Perignon invented champagne. Others say this is baloney, Benedictine monk Pierre Perignon was indeed involved in the development of the Method Champagnoise, but the quote was invented for an advertisement in the 1880s.<br /> <br /> 1735- N.Y. newspaper editor John Peter Zenger had been writing articles criticizing the Royal Governor for corruption. Past governors of New York, Maryland and North Carolina were known to be fences for pirates like Captain Kidd and Blackbeard. This day German born Zenger's newspaper was shut down, and he was arrested for 'Seditious Libel". His trial and acquittal were seen as the first great victory in America for Freedom of the Press. <br /> <br /> 1753- George Washington became a Master Mason in the Freemason Lodge #4 of Fredericksburg, Virginia. The first Masonic lodge in America was founded in 1730 by Benjamin Franklin. Some think Freemasons akin to Fred Flintstone’s Waterbuffalo Lodge, but in the 1700’s, Freemasonry had strong political anti-clerical ramifications. Most European intellectuals –Voltaire, Mozart, Casanova, Lafayette, and Goethe were masons. Most U.S. Presidents were freemasons. <br /> <br /> 1776- The nice printed up Declaration of Independence we all recognize was officially signed. The declaration approved on July 2nd and published on July 4th was the rough draft. This day John Hancock signed that big flowing signature "So old King George won't need his spectacles". Today a nickname for a signature is a John Hancock. It was a gutsy thing to do, the signatures would be their death warrants if the rebellion had failed. <br /> During the War of 1812 when the British burned Washington D.C. the Declaration was hidden under a doorstep in Baltimore. For 30 years the Declaration hung in a window of the government patents office so people on the street could admire it. After few decades, the sun bleached the words almost to invisibility. Today millions are being spent on restoration efforts, like encasing it in pure helium. <br /> <br /> 1782- In Vienna’s St Stephen Cathedral, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart married Constanze Weber, the aunt of composer Karl Maria von Weber. Mozart had first proposed to Constanze's sister, but she chose another. They had several children, but only two survived to adulthood. They both died childless.<br /> <br /> 1789- The French Revolutionary Assembly abolished forever all rights of the nobility in France. The French aristocracy made up less than 1% of the population yet were given over 20% of the nation’s budget to play with, and they paid no taxes on their lands. The Revolutionaries also abolished the system of High-Law and Low-Law. In other words if some randy old Duke took a fancy to your wife or sister, you could do nothing but smile and hope he gave her some money for her trouble. These things more than the “Let Them Eat Cake” quote made people dance around the guillotine.<br /> <br /> 1821- 1st edition of Saturday Evening Post -published until 1969.<br /> <br /> 1855 - John Bartlett publishes his first book of "Familiar Quotations"<br /> <br /> 1874- Methodist clergyman John Vincent and Ohio businessman Lewis Miller began the Chautauqua Assembly in Northwestern New York. Under large summer tents lectures and training were given to Sunday school teachers and other church workers. The Chautauqua Movement grew into a national movement for religious revival and became a conservative rural force in turn of the century national politics.<br /> <br /> 1892-" Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother forty whacks, when he saw what she had done, gave her father forty-one.", etc. In Fall River Mass, Andrew and Abbie Borden were found brutally murdered and their daughter Elisabeth was accused. Ms. Borden pleaded innocence and cited a long history of abuse from her parents. She was acquitted but the murderer was never found. When Lizzie died peacefully in 1927 she left $30,000 to the ASPCA.<br /> <br /> 1914- WWI- grey clad spiked helmeted armies begin crossing into Belgian territory to deliver their knockout blow against France- aka the Schefflein Plan. This strategy violated the neutrality of Belgium which had been agreed to by treaty since 1839. When this was protested, German minister Bethman-Holveig bragged "we shall not be held by a scrap of paper!" This outrage brought England into the war against Germany and made handsome young King Albert of the Belgians into an international celebrity. Ironically, professional diplomat Betthman-Holveig had worked tirelessly for the last three weeks to try and prevent the war, but by now he was reduced to a mere a mouthpiece for the army.<br /> <br /> 1918- Young corporal Adolf Hitler was awarded the Iron Cross, First Class, for bravery. He was quite proud of it and wore it on his uniform for the rest of his life. The German officer who recommended Hitler, and pinned his medal on him, Captain Hugo Gutmann, was a Jew. <br /> <br /> 1921 The Motion Picture Fund created.<br /> <br /> 1922- In honor of the passing of Alexander Graham Bell, all 13 million telephones in the United States observed three minutes of silence.<br /> <br /> 1925- Conrad Hilton opened the first Hilton Hotel in Dallas Texas.<br /> <br /> 1940- The Mayor of Montreal was arrested for telling French-Canadian citizens to resist the military draft to fight for Britain in World War II.<br /> <br /> 1942- The Bing Crosby-Fred Astaire-Marjorie Reynolds film the Holiday Inn released. The film featured Irving Berlin hit songs like White Christmas and Easter Parade, but is hardly ever shown anymore because the Lincoln’s Birthday skit featured the cast in embarrassing minstrel blackface, singing “ ‘bout Massa Lincoln”.<br /> <br /> 1944- British pilot T.D. “Dixie” Dean used his new Gloster Meteor jet plane to bump the wing of a German V-1 buzz bomb, causing it to flip over off course.<br /> <br /> 1944- Acting on a tip from a neighbor, the Gestapo discovered and arrested 16 year old Anne Frank and her family in their hiding place in an Amsterdam warehouse. All were sent to Auschwitz. Only her father Otto survived.<br /> <br /> 1955 –President Eisenhower authorized $46 million for construction of CIA headquarters in Langley Virginia.<br /> <br /> 1956- Elvis Presley released his version of the Big Mama Mabel Thornton song, "You Ain’t Nothin’ but a Hound Dog".<br /> <br /> 1964- The TONKIN GULF INCIDENT. The incident that began the U.S. phase of the Vietnam War. North Vietnamese gunboats attacked the USS Maddox and the Turner Joy patrolling off their coast. The US claimed they were in international waters but the Pentagon Papers revealed that the Maddox was deliberately sent close in to the shore to provoke the Vietnamese to attack. The Maddox's captain testified he was 30 miles offshore when in reality he was 3 miles. For months the CIA had been conducting hit and run naval raids on the Vietnamese coast, but that was all still top secret. Although the U.S. already had advisers in the Vietnam for years this incident provided Pearl-Harbor style pretext President Lyndon Johnson needed to escalate U.S. involvement up to 450,000 combat troops and trillions of dollars. <br /> Johnson had told his press attache' Bill Moyers:" Bill, if this Vietnam thing comes off I'll go down as one of the great presidents of this century, if not I'll be the goat.".....<br /> <br /> 1964- Rand Corporation analyst Daniel Ellsberg’s first day working at the Pentagon. Ellsberg would be the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers.<br /> <br /> 1984- Actor Johnny Depp opened his own club on the Sunset Strip called the Viper Room. The original club on that site had once been owned by mobster Bugsy Siegel.<br /> <br /> 1993- Japan admitted that during World War II they forced 200,000 Korean and Chinese women to become “comfort women”- i.e., prostitutes for the Japanese soldiers. The army organized this policy after in 1937 the massed rapes of Chinese women in Nanking made them look bad in the world press.<br /> <br /> 1995-“Babe” a charming movie about a little talking pig written and directed by George Miller and Chris Noonan. <br /> ==========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What famous military general also composed classical music that is still played today?<br /> <br /> Answer: Frederick the Great, King of Prussia in the 1750s. When not fighting wars, he was friends with Bach and is sons, and practiced his flute four times a day. His flute concertos are pretty good.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 03 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6221 <p>Quiz: What famous military general also composed classical music that is still played today?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays’ question answered below: There is painting, and there is plien-air painting. What is the difference?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 8/3/2023<br /> Birthdays: British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, Elisha Otis inventor of the elevator, John T. Scopes- the teacher accused in the Monkey Trial, Habib Bourguiba, Ernie Pyle, Gene Kelly, Lenny Bruce, John Landis, Jay North, Dolores Del Rio, Leon Uris, Ann Klein, Martha Stewart, Corey Burton, Tony Bennett, Martin Sheen is 83, John C. McGinley is 64<br /> <br /> Happy National Mustard Day <br /> <br /> 216 B.C. THE BATTLE OF CANNAE. Hannibal's defeat of a much larger Roman army in Italy is one of the great pieces of strategy still studied today. This victory annihilated the top Roman leaders and left nothing between Hannibal and the gates of Rome. Yet Hannibal uncharacteristically hesitated. His cavalry commander Mago snarled:" You know how to win battles, but not a war." The Romans recovered, eventually drawing him off to Africa to protect his home city Carthage, where he was ultimately defeated by Scipio Africanis. <br /> <br /> 48 B.C.-Battle of Pharsalia- Julius Caesar decisively defeated his rival Pompey Magnus in northern Greece to become undisputed leader of Rome. <br /> <br /> 1305- Scots warrior William Wallace was betrayed to the English and captured while visiting the Glasgow house of a man named Robert Roe. <br /> <br /> 1347- THE BURGHERS OF CALAIS- When King Edward III attacked France to press his claim for its throne, the first city he attacked was the port city of Calais. After a long vicious siege, the leaders of Calais agreed to surrender. England held Calais for 250 years. King Edward wanted to hang the burghers (city leaders) because of their stubborn resistance, but they were spared after pleas of mercy from Edward’s Queen. August Rodin created a beautiful statuary group the Burghers of Calais. The six men loaded down with chains and ropes around their necks, defiance still radiating in their faces, became a symbol of resistance for all oppressed peoples.<br /> <br /> 1460- Scottish King James II “Fire Face” had a thing for cannon. He imported a number of the newfangled things from Flanders to blow holes in his enemy’s castles. This day, he was besieging the castle of Roxburgh, when a cannon he was firing blew up in his face and killed him. Ouch!<br /> <br /> 1492- One half hour before dawn, Christopher Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain on the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. This was the first of four voyages west in search of the Indies. He took a linguist fluent in Turkish, Sanskrit and Hebrew to speak to any natives they might encounter.<br /> <br /> 1529- The Ladies Peace of Cambrai- The King Francis I of France and German Emperor Charles V fought a series of bloody wars over who controlled Italy. Their hatred was so extreme that they even considered a personal duel. Nothing seemed to solve this feud, and Europe was being wrecked. Finally, Francis’ mother Louise of Savoy and Charles’ aunt Margaret of Austria, met without their permission and concluded a peace treaty without them. <br /> <br /> 1553- Mary Tudor the eldest daughter of the late King Henry VIII entered London in triumph. The schemes and corruption of the Duke of Somerset regency had been such a mess that even Protestant London was glad to have a real queen, even if she was Catholic. People brought out tables of food, danced and celebrated all night.<br /> <br /> 1610 - Englishman Henry Hudson with the Dutch fleet discovered a great bay on the Northeast coast of Canada and named it for himself- Hudson’s Bay.<br /> <br /> 1745- Bonnie Prince Charlie stepped on the soil of Scotland- at Arisca in the Hebrides. When a frightened Scottish lord asked him to go home, Charles Stuart replied:” But I am home.” The English Parliament offered a reward of 30,000 pounds for his arrest. So began the Great Highland Uprising, the last great campaign on British Soil.<br /> <br /> 1769- Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola made the first-ever recorded mention of the La Brea "tar pits" in Los Angeles: "The 3rd, we proceeded for three hours on a good road; to the right of it were extensive swamps of bitumen which is called chapapote. We debated whether this substance, which flows melted from underneath the earth, could occasion so many earthquakes.”<br /> <br /> 1807- Former Vice President Aaron Burr went on trial for treason. Burr had been organizing a private army in Louisiana territory to conquer Texas. President Jefferson accused him of plotting to use that army to make himself dictator of the United States.<br /> <br /> 1823- English Poet Lord Byron arrived in Greece, burning with a desire to help the Greeks attain independence.<br /> <br /> 1852- The first Harvard-Yale boat race.<br /> <br /> 1858- British explorer John Speeckes discovered Lake Victoria Nyanza, the source of the Nile River. The question of the Nile's origins had become a cause celebre among British explorers and debate raged fiercely. Speeckes was traveling with famed Orientalist Richard Burton, translator of the Arabian Nights stories, but Burton absented himself from the last leg of the journey because he was weak with malaria. He regretted this decision for the rest of his life and grew to hate Speeckes. Speeckes and Burton began a feud that may or may not have contributed to Speeckes accidental suicide in 1864. <br /> <br /> 1882- Congress passed the first Immigration Act, trying to restrict what had been an open door policy since the Pilgrims. But the act had a heavy European bias. Chinese immigrants were banned for ten years. <br /> <br /> 1916- Sir Roger Casement was hanged for treason. Casement was an Anglo-Irish patriot who arranged with Germany to smuggle guns to Dublin for the Irish Easter Sunday Uprising. He also exposed human rites violations done by the Belgians in the Congo and against Indigenous tribes in Peru. He had been called the “Father of Twentieth Century Human Rights Investigators.” After his conviction, many leading English intellectuals like Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle and George Bernard Shaw urged mercy for Casement. But the government published his “black diaries” taken from his home that proved he was gay. All the bad publicity silenced the mercy movement, and Sir Roger went to the gallows. <br /> <br /> 1921- The first aerial crop dusting in Troy, Ohio to kill caterpillars. <br /> <br /> 1933- The first Mickey Mouse watches go on sale. For $2.95 each.<br /> <br /> 1935- Mickey’s Fire Brigade, directed by Ben Sharpsteen.<br /> <br /> 1936- Jesse Owen’s won gold in the 100m dash at the Berlin Olympics.<br /> <br /> 1943- In Sicily, Gen. George Patton while touring a field hospital encountered a Pvt. Herman Kuhl. Private Kuhl wasn't physically wounded, but suffering from dysentery, malaria and PTSD. But all he could say to the general was he was nervous. Patton angrily accused him of cowardice and slapped him down. Then he kicked him out of the tent. Allied High Command ordered Patton to apologize to Kuhl and the entire army, then recalled him to England. He would have no part in military actions until after D-Day, to the amazement of the Nazi generals. They thought it was some kind of allied trick to fool them.<br /> <br /> 1948- Now that Baseball was finally integrated, Satchel Page, genius of the Negro Leagues, makes his belated Major League debut with the Cleveland Indians. A 45 year old rookie. Page once said:" Don't look back, something may be gaining on you."<br /> <br /> 1948- Time Magazine editor Whittaker Chambers publicly denounced a top Truman presidential aide Alger Hiss of being a Russian spy. Alger Hiss was a protégé of both Franklin Roosevelt and Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. The Hiss investigation eventually convicted Hiss of espionage based on the 'pumpkin papers', incriminating documents on microfilm Chambers said were found hidden in a pumpkin. The senate investigation shot to national prominence a new young congressman named Richard Nixon. <br /> <br /> 1949 -The National Basketball League is founded. <br /> <br /> 1958 – USN nuclear submarine Nautilus crossed the North Pole under the icecap. <br /> <br /> 1961- The first airline hijacked to Cuba.<br /> <br /> 1963 –Unemployed television producer Alan Sherman used to make friends laugh with songs he improved at the piano. They encouraged him to publish an album. Called “My Son the Folksinger” it contained the hit “Sarah Backman, Sarah Backman, Hows By You?” A song from his third album, My Son the Nut, “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh, Here I am at, Camp Granada” and became a sensation.<br /> <br /> 1966- While celebrating his 40th birthday, Comedian Lenny Bruce died of a herion overdose. The groundbreaking raunchy comedian who coined the term “T &amp; A” was arrested in 1964 and charged with obscenity for using the "F" word in his act. President Johnson and his opponent Senator Barry Goldwater would swear frequently in private, but comedians were only supposed to make mother-in-law jokes. <br /> .Lenny Bruce did six months in jail, and left broken physically and financially. No club would dare hire him. Phil Spector said: “Lenny died of an overdose of cops”. Today he is the patron-saint for all modern stand-up comedy. <br /> <br /> 1975- The Louisiana Superdome stadium was dedicated. The first dome stadium. Some football coaches like Mike Ditka of the Chicago Bears were skeptical:” Football is meant to be played in snow and mud. Dome stadiums are for Roller Derby!” <br /> <br /> 1981- U.S. Air traffic controllers (PATCO) go on strike despite Pres. Reagan's warning they would be fired. Reagan was once president of the Screen Actor’s Guild. Ironically the only U.S. President who has ever been a labor leader, was the most union-busting president of all time. <br /> <br /> 1996- The Macarena, by Los Del Rio, becomes the #1 hit worldwide dance craze.<br /> <br /> 2012- At the London Olympics, swimmer Michael Phelps won his final race. That made his total earning 22 Olympic medals, 17 of them gold. <br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: There is painting, and there is plien-air painting. What is the difference?<br /> <br /> Answer: "Plein-air" means painting outside, in the "open air,” rather than in a studio. It emphasizes the natural palette and effects of natural light. (thanks FG)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 02 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6220 <p>Quiz: There is painting, and there is plien-air painting. What is the difference?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: Last week I asked which movie came out first? Gulliver’s Travels, The Wizard of Oz or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? Now I’m asking what BOOK came out first? (Thanks Chaz)<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 8/2/23<br /> Birthdays: Pierre L’Enfant- the designer of Washington DC, Jack Warner, Myrna Loy, Sir Arthur Bliss, James Baldwin, Carrol O'Connor, Pete Sampras, Butch Patrick (Eddie Munster), Bill Scott the voice of Bullwinkle, Bob Beamon, Wes Craven, Edward Furlong, Peter O'Toole, Kevin Smith is 53, Joanna Cassidy, Marie Louise Parker is 59<br /> <br /> National Ice Cream Sandwich Day.<br /> <br /> 47BC- The Battle of Zela. Pharnaces the King of Pontus- a land today in central Turkey, decided he could take advantage of the Roman civil wars by rising in revolt. He called for all the eastern provinces throw off the Roman yoke. This day Julius Caesar took time off from Cleopatra, and hurried up to Pontus, where he defeated Pharnaces in one large battle. Caesar then sent his famous three word report to the Senate: “VENI VIDI VICI- I came, I saw, I conquered.”<br /> <br /> 1100- King William II Rufus (the Red), son of William the Conqueror, was shot with a poisoned arrow while hunting in the New Forest. His son Henry I became king. Truth be told, nobody liked Rufus very much, so it was probably not an accident.<br /> <br /> 1589- At the palace of St. Cloud, French King Henri III de Valois was stabbed in the guts by a demented Dominican, Brother Jacques Clement. He thought the King wasn't doing enough to stamp out heresy. The kings dying words were: "That little bastard has killed me. Kill him!" <br /> The next king, Henry IV de Bourbon became one of Frances most beloved rulers. The children's song "Frere' Jacques" is about this assassin. "Brother Jacques, Why are you sleeping?" another bad ruler needs stabbing, in other words.<br /> <br /> 1803- The British in India declare the Second Maharaja War against Skindia and Bousla, pro-French Rajahs in the Deccan peninsula.<br /> <br /> 1815- After Waterloo, a pro-royalist mob lynched a veteran general named Brune. Brune was a radical even before Napoleon promoted him. He still had Death to Tyrants tattooed on his chest from his days as a revolutionary. As the rope went around his neck Brune called out:" To stand on a hundred battlefields and die like this!" <br /> <br /> 1858 –As a result of the Sepoy Rebellion, the Government of India was transferred from the Honorable East India Company to direct Crown control.<br /> <br /> 1858- The first public mailboxes installed on Boston &amp; NYC streets.<br /> <br /> 1865- The Confederate raider CSS Shenandoah, after sinking a dozen U.S whaling ships in the Bering Sea off Alaska, was told by a passing British merchantman that the American Civil War ended four months ago. Captain James Waddell refused to believe it until shown some newspapers. Yes it’s really over. Whoops! Instead of putting in at an American port, Capt. Waddell sailed all the way back to Liverpool England, where the ship was built. This further strained diplomatic relations. <br /> <br /> 1876- In Deadwood South Dakota at Nuttall &amp; Manns No.10 Saloon, gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok was shot in the back and killed while playing cards. He was 39 years old. He was holding the "Deadman's Hand" aces &amp; eights all black, and a jack of hearts. His assailant 'Crooked Nose" Jack McCall was found hiding in a butcher’s shop. McCall had been cleaned out by Hickok in an earlier card game, yet after the murder he bragged about how much money he had. Which led some to speculate he was paid to murder Hickok. Acquitted in an initial trial in Deadwood, he was retried in Yankton S.D. and hanged. An eyewitness said:" It was very sad. Bill had won the hand too."<br /> <br /> 1877- The San Francisco Public Library dedicated.<br /> <br /> 1909- The US issues the first Lincoln head pennies.<br /> <br /> 1914- THE GUNS OF AUGUST-General mobilization began throughout Europe for World War I. Large armies moved towards their frontiers amid hysterical street demonstrations of patriotism, Jubilant mobs shouting "A Berlin!" "Nach Paris!" ring out as Europe prepared to destroy itself. In Russia, Czar Nicholas II in a solemn religious ceremony took the oath his ancestor Alexander I had taken to drive out Napoleon. In Berlin, a torchlight parade stopped under the Japanese Embassy to salute their friends. They were unaware that Japan had already decided to join the other side. The terrified diplomats thought the crowd was there to lynch them. Diplomats stood around stunned that all their efforts could not stop the catastrophe.<br /> In Berlin, German foreign minister Von Bethman-Holveig mumbled: "How did this all happen? If only I knew..." In London, Lord Grey watched the lamplighters on the street and reflected-" The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."<br /> <br /> 1914- Holland and Switzerland declared their neutrality in the coming Great War, closed their borders and mobilized their forces.<br /> <br /> 1920- Marcus Garvey addressed a rally of 25,000 African Americans at Madison Garden New York. He called upon Black Americans not to assimilate with white society but to work for economic self-sufficiency and an eventual return to Africa. Garvey told biographers he was never born, he had “combusted himself” on the corner of 125 &amp; Lennox in Harlem.<br /> <br /> 1923- President Warren Harding died suddenly in San Francisco’s Palace Hotel. He was touring the country to get away from the 'Tea Pot Dome'' corruption scandal in Wash. The official cause of death was listed as “a stroke of apoplexy”. It was rumored he may have committed suicide or had eaten bad crab meat. A popular idea was that First Lady Florence “Flossie” Harding had poisoned him. Harding was a womanizer and Flossie was well aware of his indiscretions; She refused an autopsy and had him quickly buried. She controlled all media coverage. To the press she was the Duchess. Nan Britton, one of Warren Harding’s tootsies, immediately sued for $50,000 for the daughter she bore Harding. She lost but wrote a best-selling book called the President’s Daughter in 1927. “Silent Cal” Coolidge became President.<br /> <br /> 1934- Elderly President of the German Republic Paul von Hindenburg died, leaving Chancellor Adolf Hitler alone in charge of Germany. Hitler had waited for the old man to croak before dispensing with the parliamentary niceties. Hindenburg’s death signaled the official end of the Weimar Republic. Hitler combined the offices of President and Chancellor and becomes Der Fuehrer- the Leader.<br /> <br /> 1939- Albert Einstein then living in New Jersey, wrote a famous letter to President Franklin Roosevelt describing the potential power of atomic energy. That the US must develop atomic bombs before the Nazis do. The Manhattan Project was the result. In later years Einstein described this letter as “one of the biggest mistakes of my life.”<br /> <br /> 1940- King Gustav of Sweden sent a note to both Adolf Hitler and King George VI offering to be the go-between to start talks to end World War II. All sides refused.<br /> <br /> 1961 - Beatles 1st gig as house band of Liverpool's Cavern Club.<br /> <br /> 1962- If you are a fan of the “Marilyn Monroe was done in by the Kennedy’s ” conspiracy theory, a CIA document dated this day mentioned that Marilyn’s bungalow was under electronic surveillance. Also that she kept a “red book” diary. The diary disappeared after her death, two nights from now.<br /> <br /> 1971- President Nixon acknowledged for the first time that the CIA was maintaining 30,000 troops secretly fighting in Laos.<br /> <br /> 1979- the song Rapper’s Delight by the Sugarhill Gang released by a St. Louis radio station. While not the first song with rapping in it, it brought the idea mainstream. People who did not remember the songs name Rappers Delight would ask “What’s that song that goes “ Hip-hip, the hip-hop hopper to the hiphop..?” So, the musical became known as HipHop.<br /> <br /> 1979- Yankee baseball star catcher Thurmon Munson died when he crashed his private plane near Akron Ohio. He was 32.<br /> <br /> 1985- John Hughes Weird Science opened, with Kelly LeBrock. Two nerdy boys create the perfect woman using this new thing called Computer Graphics.<br /> <br /> 1990 –After Kuwait refused to forgive Iraq’s outstanding debts. 100,000 troops of Saddam Hussein’s army invaded Kuwait. <br /> <br /> 1991- Hyperion’s “Rover Dangerfield” premiered. Directed by Jim George and Bob Seeley.<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Last week I asked which movie came out first? Gulliver’s Travels, The Wizard of Oz or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? Now I’m asking what BOOK came out first? (Thanks Chaz)<br /> <br /> Answer: Gulliver’s Travels was published in 1726, Snow White in Grimm’s Faerie Tales came out in 1812. The Wizard of Oz came out around 1900.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 01 Aug 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6219 <p>Question: Last week I asked which movie came out first? Gulliver’s Travels, The Wizard of Oz or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? Now I’m asking what BOOK came out first? (Thanks Chaz)<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: In art, what does it mean to work chiaroscuro or chiaro-scuro?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 8/1/2023<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Claudius, Emperor Pertinax, Francis Scott Key, William Clark of Lewis &amp; Clark, Herman Melville, Robert Todd Lincoln, Geoffrey Holder, Yves St. Laurent, Giancarlo Giannini, Dom Deluise, Jerry Garcia, Coolio, Sam Mendes, Jason Mamoa is 44.<br /> <br /> 31 B.C. Marc Anthony fell on his sword. It wasn't an accident, that’s how they did themselves in back then. Most people felt the final showdown between Marc Anthony and Augustus would be much bloodier than the war between Caesar and Pompey. But after the naval defeat of Actium, Anthony’s supporters melted away and he was alone.<br /> <br /> 14 A.D. The Roman Senate voted to change the name of Sextilis Mensis (month number 6) sacred to Ceres (Demeter) to the Month of the deified Caesar Augustus, or August. <br /> Except for February, the calendar system of Julius Caesar alternated one month at 30 days with the next month at 31. But the family of the emperor Augustus did not like that Julius Caesar's month July had 31 days, while theirs had only 30! So, they ordered the Senate to borrow a day from February, a month nobody liked anyway, which went down to 28. <br /> <br /> 1096- Peter the Hermit's Crusade, an enormous horde of chanting, bloodthirsty peasants, arrived at Constantinople. Their nominal leaders were the monk Peter and Walter Sans Sou or Walter the Penniless. They had spent the march through Europe looting and massacring Jewish enclaves in many cities, and the Byzantine Emperor Alexius didn’t want them turning his city into a war zone. So, he had them ferried them over to Asia without allowing them to enter his gates. They were soon destroyed by the first large Saracen force they encountered. The real First Crusade army arrived months later. <br /> <br /> 
1291- SWITZERLAND BORN- The rebellious peasants of three Helvetian cantons gather on Rutli meadow and pledged to unite in an everlasting league against foreign oppression. The Rütlischwur. Some say William Tell was there, some say no. Some say this happened in November. Some say no. Some say nothing happened on Rutli meadow other than cows grazing, but it’s a good story anyway.<br /> <br /> 1485 - Henry VII Tudor’s army invaded England to overthrow King Richard III.<br /> <br /> 1690- The besieged city of Londonderry was rescued by the army of William of Orange.<br /> <br /> 1714- George Louis/Ludwig, German Elector of Hanover, became George I King of Great Britain upon the death of Queen Anne, last of the Orange dynasty. He never trusted his English subjects, they had too many revolutions, too many confusing Parliamentary checks and balances and had once beheaded their king. George spoke no English ”The English asked me to Rule them, not to Speak to them!”.<br /> <br /> 1716- The first sculling race, down the Thames from London to Chelsea. Stroke! Stroke!<br /> <br /> 1740- Thomas Arne's song "Rule Britannia" is performed for the first time.<br /> <br /> 1744- British chemist Joseph Priestley isolated oxygen, first calling it "dephlogisticated air". His contemporary in France, Lavoisier, had reached a similar conclusion. Before this, doctors knew how the heart, lungs and blood operated, but no one was sure why. Sir William Harvey discovered the circulatory system, but thought it brought only nutrients from food. Some thought the heart was a little furnace that kept the blood warm, others thought it sifted blood as it passed through the ventricle walls like a cheesecloth. Leonardo da Vinci accurately drew the chambers of the heart, but he didn’t know either. Priestley is also credited with inventing the TimeLine of events.<br /> <br /> 1793 – Revolutionary France became the 1st country to use the metric system.<br /> <br /> 1797- According to C.S. Forrester, his British naval hero Horatio Hornblower received his captain's commission today.<br /> <br /> 1798- BATTLE OF ABU KIR or ABOUKIR BAY. Also called THE BATTLE OF THE NILE so it doesn’t confuse it with a land battle of Aboukir happening at the same time. The Nile itself is 20 miles away from Abukir Bay, but it sounds better in dispatches. British Admiral Horatio Nelson caught Napoleon's fleet in an Egyptian harbor and destroyed it in a spectacular night battle. <br /> Nelson bore down upon the French ships even though it was already past 4 p.m.. The furious cannonading lit up the evening sky and caused the windows to rattle in nearby Alexandria. The English ships each had four lanterns hung on their stern rails so they could tell each other apart in the dark. The French complained about the English sailors disconcerting habit of cheering like a football match whenever an enemy ship went down or was dismasted. The French Admiral Brousse', his legs blown off by a cannonball, was propped up in an armchair on his poopdeck and died directing the fight. Nelson was wounded in the head by flying splinters and was temporarily blinded by his own blood. <br /> Fighting was over by dawn as the exhausted sailors dropped from their guns dead asleep. The victory ruined Napoleon's efforts to destroy the British Empire through Egypt and Turkey and link up with Indian Maharratta Tippoo Sahib in India. <br /> <br /> 1805- Aaron Burr has dinner with Gen. Andrew Jackson in Nashville. The former Vice President was still wanted for the murder of Alexander Hamilton, and was plotting a mercenary invasion of the northernmost territory of Spanish-America called Texas. After President Jefferson had Burr arrested for treason, Jackson denied this dinner ever happened. Twenty-five years later, when Andy Jackson was president, the elderly Aaron Burr tried to greet him in public in New York. It was reported when Pres. Jackson saw Burr, “He turned pale, and recoiled as though he had been shot."<br /> <br /> 1861- The Empire of Brazil became one of the few nations to recognize the independence of the Confederate States of America.<br /> <br /> 1873 - San Francisco's first cable cars begin running, operated by Hallidie's Clay Street Hill Railroad Company.<br /> <br /> 1876- Colorado became a state. Because it happened in the year of the American centennial, Colorado calls itself the Centennial State.<br /> <br /> 1881- Angel Island in San Francisco Bay was established as a US gov quarantine station. Soon it was converted into an immigration station to control the influx of newcomers from China and Japan. Angel Island became the Pacific version of Ellis Island.<br /> <br /> 1893 - Henry Perky &amp; William Ford patented Shredded Wheat cereal.<br /> <br /> 1914- Count Friedrich von Portales, the German ambassador to Russia, suffering from nervous exhaustion after a sleepless week of negotiations, appeared in the office of the Czar's foreign minister Nikolai Sazonov. He asked if Russia had reconsidered Germany's ultimatum that Russia demobilize. Sazonov said they did not. Whereupon Portales pulled a paper out his pocket and read the Declaration of War: "His Majesty the Kaiser, my august sovereign, accepts the challenge in the name of the empire and now considers himself at war with Russia!" <br /> Portales then burst into tears and was comforted by his old friend Sazonov. Late that night Czar Nicholas II was lowering himself into his bathtub with a glass of tea when a final telegram pleading for peace came from Kaiser Wilhelm. "Silly man! Hadn't he just declared war on me?" Nicholas remarked. He wrote he slept soundly that night. <br /> <br /> 1917- Frank Little, native-American union organizer for the I.W.W. (the Wobblies) was beaten by a mob and hanged from a railroad trestle. His murder had originally been offered to new young Pinkerton detective named Dashell Hammett, who refused.<br /> <br /> 1919- In the postwar chaos of the collapsed Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bela Kun seized power in Budapest and tried to set up a Soviet regime like Lenin in Russia. This day he was deposed and Admiral Horty began a purge of all leftists. The violence in Hungary inspired young scientist Dr Edward Teller to be a livelong opponent of Communism. Teller developed the Hydrogen Bomb. Bela Kun fled to Moscow where Josef Stalin had him shot. <br /> <br /> 1924- Six months after his death, Russian Leader Nikolai Lenin’s mummified body is unveiled in his great tomb in Red Square. After the USSR fell in 1991, there were many calls to finally bury the Commie-Under-Glass, but in 2001 the decision was made to leave him as is.<br /> <br /> 1933- The WPA Arts Project set up to employ starving artists on large public works projects like murals for libraries and bridges, etc. Artists like Grant Wood, Andrew Wyeth, Dorothea Lang, Jackson Pollock, Orson Welles and Bernice Abbott got commissions. <br /> <br /> 1936- Carl Stalling first day as music director for Leon Schlesinger’s Looney Tunes and Merry Melodys. Stalling became famous for blending classical music seamlessly with modern swing tunes. Many young people say it was their first exposure to classical music.<br /> <br /> 1936- The opening ceremonies for the Olympic Games in Berlin. The first Olympic torch lighting ceremony. United States was the only nation to refuse to dip their flag in salute to the host head of state- Adolf Hitler. Filmmaker Leni Reifenstahl was given unlimited access to document the Games. She pioneered the use of slow motion, tracking shots and closeups to revolutionized the way modern sports was filmed. <br /> <br /> 1940- Hitler released War Directive #17, calling for increased air and sea operations against the British Isles. Operations were to commence August 5th which der Fuehrer called “The Day of the Eagle”. We call it the Battle of Britain.<br /> <br /> 1943- Late at night off the coast of Borneo the little torpedo boat P.T. 109 was rammed and sunk by the Japanese destroyer Amaqiri. Lieutenant John F. Kennedy and his crew swam to an uncharted island. They will be rescued when a native in a canoe delivers a message from Kennedy scrawled on a coconut. “Naru Is. Native knows it. 11 alive, need small boat.” When President, Kennedy had the native man to the White House and kept the coconut on his desk in the Oval Office. In June 2002 Dr. Robert Ballard, who had discovered the Titanic, found the wreckage of the PT 109 on the ocean bottom.<br /> <br /> 1946- Congress authorized all the leftover World War II army surplus to be sold off and the money given out as educational scholarships. The Fullbright Scholarships. This is when every small town had an Army Surplus store.<br /> <br /> 1946- Truman signed the Atomic Energy Act. It nationalized atomic energy research but created a civilian commission to review peacetime uses of atomic energy.<br /> <br /> 1946-The first drive-in bank teller opens in Chicago.<br /> <br /> 1952- The first Mad Magazine hit the newsstands. <br /> <br /> 1953- The Alan Ladd movie Shane released.<br /> <br /> 1960 - Chubby Checker released "The Twist" and started a worldwide dance craze.<br /> <br /> 1960 –A young Baptist preacher’s daughter who had sung nothing but gospel went into a recording booth to try her hand at R &amp; B. Aretha Franklin’s career began.<br /> <br /> 1966- TEXAS TOWER WHITMAN- Lunatic Charles Whitman barricaded himself into the high steeple of Texas University and shot 44 people at random during a day long gun battle with police. The tragedy reached comic proportions when Texas recreational gun owners hauled out their pieces and blazed away alongside the police. Whitman's Marine training was cited for his excellent marksmanship and his eccentric behavior, like constantly polishing his shoes during the day long battle.<br /> <br /> 1970- The first San Diego Comicon. Shel Dorf, Richard Alf, and Ken Keuger’s idea of a national comic book &amp; fantasy fan convention. The SDCC has run continually ever since and had brought in the Hollywood studios. There have always been other comicons in other cities, but San Diego’s has become the premiere event, averaging hundreds of thousands of attendees.<br /> . Special guests for the very first convention were comic book artist Jack Kirby and science fiction authors Ray Bradbury and A.E. van Vogt.<br /> <br /> 1971- The Rock Concert for Bangladesh, organized by George Harrison. The first charity-fund raising rock-concert.<br /> <br /> 1971- The Sonny &amp; Cher Comedy Hour debuted.<br /> <br /> 1971- PBS started a new television series called Masterpiece Theater hosted by Alastair Cooke. It’s first presentation was The Six Wives of Henry VIII. The high-quality BBC and Thames Television programs became so popular in the USA, that people said PBS stood for Preferably British Shows.<br /> <br /> 1972- Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s first articles in The Washington Post exposing the depths of the conspiracy in the Watergate Scandal. The two journalists claimed they were fed information by someone very high in the Nixon White House who would only give his name as Deep Throat. In 2005 his identity was at last revealed as W. Mark Felt, the assistant head of the FBI. Their story was dramatized in the film- All The Presidents Men.<br /> <br /> 1972- 187th Tactom Flight Group of the Air Texas National Guard suspended the flight privileges of Lieutenant George W. Bush for failing to take a drug test. The future US president went AWOL (away without leave) from May 1972-to May 1973 to work on his dads’ congressional campaign. It was well known then that some National Guard units were an easy way for rich kids with connections to avoid being sent to the real combat in Vietnam. His unit was called a Champagne Unit.<br /> <br /> 1973- With the tag line “Where were you in ’62?” the film American Graffiti opened in theaters. The hit made skinny young director George Lucas a player in Hollywood, and made stars of kids like Harrison Ford, Richard Dreyfus, Ron Howard, and Susanne Somers.<br /> <br /> 1975- Billy Martin became manager of the New York Yankees. The hard-drinking, bad tempered Martin became one of the more colorful managers to lead the pinstripe crew.<br /> <br /> 1976- Elizabeth Taylor had married Richard Burton a second time. Today she divorced Richard Burton a second time. This was her 6th marriage.<br /> <br /> 1976- The expansion team The Seattle Seahawks play their first NFL game. They lost their preseason opener to the SF 49ers 27-20.<br /> <br /> 1981-I WANT MY MTV! MTV goes on the air, rock videos 24 hours a day. The idea was funded by a consortium of investors including Mike Nesmith of the Monkees, then on the board of 3M Paper company. If you put on the TV this day you saw a slide of an astronaut for several hours, then finally a voice said:” Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Rock &amp; Roll.” The first rock video played was by a British New-Wave Band called the Buggles entitled “Video Killed the Radio Star.” followed by a Pat Benatar single. <br /> <br /> 1986- Howard the Duck premiered. George Lucas’ first major flop. <br /> <br /> 1991- Elderly movie queen Heddy Lamarr was busted in Tampa Florida for shoplifting.<br /> <br /> 1994- NASDAQ stock trading on Wall Street was halted for 35 minutes because a squirrel gnawed through a main fiber optic cable at the organization’s computer center in Connecticut.<br /> <br /> 2007- THE MINNEAPOLIS BRIDGE COLLAPSE. The I-35 Bridge, which crosses the Mississippi through the center of Minneapolis, collapsed during the afternoon rush hour, plunging 113 cars into the river. It killed 13 people and injured 145. The tragedy was a wake up call to America’s neglected infrastructure. Most American bridges were 40-70 years old and built only intended to last 75 years. In Los Angeles in 2014, a ninety-year old water pipe burst spilling 12 million gallons, this during a drought. Chunks of the Brooklyn Bridge keep falling off into the East River. In 1958 the U.S. spent 12% of the Federal Budget on infrastructure, in 2007, 2%.<br /> <br /> 2014- Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy opened in theaters. I am Groot.<br /> <br /> 2018- The NY Mets lost to the Washington Nationals by a score of 25-2, a team record loss.<br /> ===============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: In art, what does it mean to work chiaroscuro or chiaro-scuro?<br /> <br /> Answer: It means dark-to-light. To contrast your figures in dramatic dark shadows. Most famous artist doing this was Carravaggio.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 31 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6218 <p>Question: In art, what does it mean to work chiaroscuro or chiaro-scuro?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: In Britain, when one asks for two guineas, how much is that in modern money?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
<br /> History for 7/31/2023<br /> Birthdays: Liberace, General George H. Thomas the "Rock of Chickamagua", Sebastian Sperling Kresge the founder of S.S. Kresge stores, Milton Friedman, Sherry Lansing, Geraldine Chaplin, Kurt Gowdy, Dean Cain, Leon “ Bull “Durham, Primo Levi, Fred Quimby, animator Ken Harris, Ted Cassidy who played Lurch in the Adams Family, Wesley Snipes is 61, and according to J.K. Rowling, today is the birthday of Harry Potter<br /> <br /> 1358- The Mayor of Paris Etienne Marcel was killed trying to defend his city from the King of France’s royal army. Marcel tried to use the chaos of the English Hundred Years War to gain independence for Paris like the city-states of Italy. He governed the city with a bodyguard of Malletards, workmen who wielded huge two-handed sledgehammers instead of swords. After Marcel fell, Paris was governed by a royal appointee. There would be no Mayor of Paris until the Revolution in 1789. Today the Mayor of Paris is considered a direct step to the French Presidency. <br /> <br /> 1498- Christopher Columbus discovered Trinidad.<br /> <br /> 1620- The Pilgrims set sail for America. They were aiming for Virginia but washed up in Massachusetts instead. Comedian Eddie Izzard noted:” The Pilgrims sailed from Plymouth and landed in…. Plymouth! How convenient for them!”

<br /> <br /> 1703- In London, writer Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe) was made to stand in the public pillory for writing critical satires of the Her Majesties government and Church. The pamphlet was The Shortest Way with Dissenters.<br /> <br /> 1720- Height of the Great Plague of Marseilles- A bubonic plague of such ferocity hits the city that the regional parliament at Aix en Provence drew a line around the city and forbade anyone to enter or leave. Order within the city collapsed and the Bishop of Marseilles with his Jesuits took over the day-by-day functions. Everyday the Bishop, seated on a huge wagon of corpses pulled by convicts chanting the "Miserere' would lead a procession to church. Ahh, the good ole' days.. In later years people never forgot the heroism of the prelate. When the French Revolution ordered the despoiling of churches, the people of Marseilles refused to throw down the statue of their hero bishop.<br /> <br /> 1763- Battle of Bloody Bridge. British Captain Dalyell tried a surprise attack on Chief Pontiac’s camp to relieve the Indian siege of Fort Detroit. But Pontiac was forewarned. His warriors shot up Dalyell and his men. Pontiac slew the captain and ate his heart.<br /> <br /> 1776- Francis Salvador, a South Carolina plantation owner was killed in a skirmish with British troops. He became the first of the Jewish faith to die for American Independence.<br /> <br /> 1790- The U.S. Patent Office opened.<br /> <br /> 1793- THE BIRTH OF THE TWO PARTY SYSTEM IN AMERICA- Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson informed President George Washington of his intention to resign. Jefferson was frustrated with his endless feuds with Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton and Vice President Adams. Although he told Washington he wished to retire to Monticello, in reality he planned to direct the strategy of his new opposition party the Democratic-Republicans. The party that became the Democratic Party was first called the Republicans, the term “democrat” was then seen as an insult. Jefferson called Hamilton’s Federalist party “the Monocrats” because he felt they had royal ambitions. From now on with few exceptions the U.S. President’s cabinet would not be a coalition of differing viewpoints but all from one party. The modern Republican Party would not be born until Lincoln’s time, 60 years in the future. Washington was appalled that his old friend and fellow Virginia planter Jefferson would take partisanship so far that he would desert his cabinet. George Washington thought political parties a bad idea because it encouraged people to put the needs of their party over the needs of their country. <br /> <br /> 1798- Admiral Horatio Nelson sighted Napoleon's fleet anchored in the bay of Aboukir at the mouth of the Nile. Since it was too late that evening to fight, the one-eyed, one armed admiral ordered dinner to be served. Over port he told his captains; "Gentlemen, tomorrow I shall gain either a peerage, or a crypt in Westminster Abbey." <br /> <br /> 1813- The British invaded New York State at Plattsburgh.<br /> <br /> 1830- The Revolution of the Ten Days- King Charles X of France overthrown and replaced with his cousin Louis Phillipe d' Orleans as a constitutional monarch, The event was remembered by Delacroix in his painting "Liberty Leading the People". The Royal French Army was deliberately held back from suppressing the rebellion by their leaders. They were Napoleon’s old Generals Marmont and Soult. Honore Daumier liked to draw new King Louis Phillipe“ The Bourguois Monarch” as a fat pear in a top hat. Prince Metternich the premier of Austria correctly predicted this uprising would signal a new round of revolutionary ferment throughout Europe: ”When Paris Sneezes, Europe catches the cold.” King Louis Phillipe’s descendants, the D’Orleans branch of the Bourbon family, are the present heirs to the throne, should the French Nation ever desire a monarchy again.<br /> <br /> 1904- Russia completed the Trans-Siberian Railroad, linking the Ural Mountains and European Russia with the Pacific Coast.<br /> <br /> 1914- Europe spirals down into world war. The Czar of Russia changed his mind one more time and ordered the Russian Army to mobilize. He told his chief of staff ” You may smash your telephone now, for I will not change my mind again.” The French government decided to reject a last minute German warning to keep away from their coming war with Russia. France ordered general mobilization. 

The leader of the French Socialists and best hope for European peace, Jean Jaure' had helped diffuse a similar crisis the previous year by chairing a last minute international summit in Switzerland. This night Jean Jaure’ was sipping wine in a Paris café, when a bullet came through the window and killed him. Someone obviously didn’t want him to spoil the fun. <br /> <br /> 1914- Meanwhile in America the reaction to the war in Europe was THE WALL STREET PANIC OF 1914. American investors feared the coming war would cut off European markets for their goods and thus be disastrous for business. So many sell orders deluged the exchange that on the advice of Treasury Secretary MacAdoo and J.P. Morgan, Jr. the New York Stock Exchange closed down completely until December. 

Brokers began to meet in the street around Wall and Nassau streets and make deals anyway. These 'Gutter-Brokers" were the world's only open functioning stock market for several months. Ironically the war proved a boon to U.S. industry (stock in Dupont went up 400%) and caused the U.S. to supplant England as the world's largest creditor nation.<br /> <br /> 1917- The PASSCHENDALE OFFENSIVE also called the Third Battle of Ypres began- Field Marshall Sir Douglas "Whiskey Doug" Haig proved he learned nothing from the last 3 1/2 years of trench war by ordering a massed standing infantry attacks right into massed German machine guns. Even today the War Office is vague on the losses, but the estimate is between now and November, tens of thousands of young Britons and Canadians were slaughtered to move the front line 1/2 a mile. When hearing of the high casualties, Sir Douglas said:" Oh dear, have we really lost that many?" Poet Siegfrid Sassoon later wrote, “ I died in Hell, and they called it Paschendaele.”<br /> <br /> 1922- Ralph Samuelson invented water skis.<br /> <br /> 1930- Radio mystery show “The Shadow” premiered. “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows…heh, heh, heh.” Orson Welles did the voice of the crime fighting Shadow for a year in 1937 for $185 a week.<br /> <br /> 1945- Still at the Potsdam conference, Pres. Harry Truman gave the orders to use the Super Cosmic Bomb (a-bomb) on Japan, but not before Aug 2nd, to see if Japanese peace overtures through the Swedish Embassy were sincere. He conferred with General Eisenhower in Europe, but Ike was against the idea:” It was unnecessary to use that thing on those people.”<br /> <br /> 1945- Allied authorities capture arch-collaborator Pierre Laval hiding in Austria. Laval was the premier and chief organizer of the pro-Nazi Vichy French government under Marshal Petain. He cooperated in the transporting of thousands of French Jews to Nazi death camps, and many others Frenchmen to slave labor camps. After a sensational trial Laval, tried to poison himself, but was nursed back to health long enough so he could hang.<br /> <br /> 1948- President Truman dedicated New York City’s second major airport Idlewild Field. In 1963 it was renamed JFK Airport.<br /> <br /> 1954- Steve Allen married Jayne Meadows. <br /> <br /> 1966- Birmingham Alabama held a massed rally to burn Beatles records after John Lennon casually joked that the Beatles had become more popular than Jesus.<br /> <br /> 1960- Elijah Mohammed set up the African-American movement the Nation of Islam, called by some the Black Muslims.<br /> 1962- Malaysian independence.<br /> <br /> 1968- Charles Schulz introduced Franklin, the first black character into his Peanuts comic strip.<br /> <br /> 1970- Black Tot Day- The British Navy officially ended its centuries old custom of giving a ships crew a ration of rum. <br /> <br /> 1971- Apollo 15 astronaut went for a drive on the surface of the moon in their land-rover.<br /> <br /> 1977- Son of Sam serial killer David Berkowitz had kept normally unflappable New York City in the grip of fear for one year. This night he killed his last victim. He was caught because of his Volkswagen beetle being illegally parked. When writing the ticket the policeman noticed the 44 cal. pistol sticking out of a paper bag on the seat. Berkowitz was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences and today says he is a born-again Christian and he doesn’t like to dwell on the past. While in Attica he made friends with Mark David Chapman, the murderer of John Lennon.<br /> <br /> 1992- Bebe’s Kids released, the first animated feature directed by an African American, Bruce W. Smith.<br /> <br /> 1992- The Robert Zemeckis’ comedy Death Becomes Her opened. With Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis. It is the first film that widely used the new digital matte technique to replace traditional optical printing.<br /> <br /> 1995- The Walt Disney Company bought the ABC Network, the Discovery Channel and ESPN. <br /> 1999- Premiere of Brad Bird’s movie The Iron Giant.<br /> <br /> 2006- Elderly Cuban dictator Fidel Castro handed over leadership to his brother Raul Castro and went into retirement.<br /> <br /> 2020- The Twitter accounts of famous people like former Pres Obama, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Elon Musk were hacked for a sophisticated bitcoin scam. The person arrested was not a foreign agent or terrorist, but a 17 year old High School student from Tampa, Fla., named Graham Clark.<br /> <br /> 2022- George Jetson of the 1960s TV show The Jetsons was born. The show is set when George was age 40, in 2062. <br /> =========================================================
<br /> Yesterday’s Question: In Britain, when one asks for two guineas, how much is that in modern money?<br /> <br /> Answer: About 2 Pounds, 10 Pence. A Guinea was a gold coin introduced in England in 1663. A quarter ounce of gold minded in a place in Africa called Guinea. It lost its significance when the currency was reformed in 1814, then again in 1971. But the name still pops up in slang.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 30 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6217 <p>Question: In Britain, when one asks for two guineas, how much is that in modern money?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: What is an Arriviste? <br /> ================================================<br /> History for 7/30/2023<br /> Birthdays: Georgio Vasari, Henry Ford, Emily Bronte', Casey Stengel, Roy Williams, Vladimir Zworykin, Arnold Schwarzenegger is 76, Ed "Kookie" Byrnes, Peter Bogdanovich, Delta Burke, Henry Moore, Anita Hill, Lawrence Fishburne is 62, Jean Reno is 74, Hilary Swank is 49, Christopher Nolan, Lisa Kudrow is 60 <br /> <br /> 101 B.C.- Marius of Rome defeated two migrating hordes of German barbarians, the Teutons and Cimbri, at Raudine Plains. Marius built a fortified camp in their path and held them off until he was ready and his men got over their fear of these strange looking wildmen. Warriors taunted the Romans: “Do you have any messages for your wives? For we shall be with them soon!” When one frustrated German warchief marched up to the gates and challenged Marius to single-combat, Marius laughed and sent out a gladiator, "Here, fight him. He loves to fight." When he felt they were at last ready Marius marched out his legions and they defeated the barbarians. <br /> <br /> 1540- When King Henry VIII broke England away from the Catholic Church, he spent some time trying to decide just how Protestant England should be. The confusion was made manifest this day when at Smithfield, he burned at the stake three Catholics for not wanting to be Protestant, then three Protestants for questioning Catholic doctrine.<br /> <br /> 1619- The Virginia House of Burgesses formed, the first legislative body in the US.<br /> <br /> 1700- The British Succession Crisis- The 11year old Duke of Gloucester, only surviving child of Princess Anne and the grandson of King James, died of smallpox. This left England with no future prince, only a gouty old princess who had 17 miscarriages or dead children, and widowed King William III of Orange- childless, and tuberculate. The exiled Catholic king James II Stuart was living in Rome, waiting to be recalled. Many Whig politicians even wanted to chuck the whole system and make Britain a Republic! Odds Fish! Parliament solved the crisis with the Act of Settlement of 1701- That Anne would reign as Queen after William of Orange died, and then the Protestant family of her cousin the German elector of Hanover, George I would reign. This act reinforced the law that a Catholic could never again rule England.<br /> <br /> 1729- The City of Baltimore founded. Named for Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore.<br /> <br /> 1733- The first lodge of Freemasons in the US opened in Boston.<br /> <br /> 1792- LE MARSEILLAISE- During the French Revolution, an officer named Rouget de Lisle wrote a song called Chant for the Army of the Rhine. <br /> A young volunteer from Montpellier called François Mireur sang it at a patriotic gathering in Marseille. The local national guard liked it so much they adopted it as their marching song. By the time The Marseilles guards made their entrance into Paris the fame of their song had spread. Le Marseillaise quickly became the clarion call of the Revolution and the national anthem.<br /> In the 1970s The first lady of France Mitterand, caused a furor when she suggested changing some of the more bloodthirsty lyrics of the song. Like “ We’ll water our fields with the blood of our enemies.”<br /> <br /> 1810- Father Miquel Hidalgo, who began the Mexican revolution against Spain, was shot by firing squad. But the revolt continued until Mexico achieved independence in 1823.<br /> <br /> 1847 - Queen Victoria noted in her diary today she took a swim in the ocean for the first time. She entered a cottage on wheels called a bathing house and while she changed into her fully covered bathing costume the cottage was rolled into the water by means of cranks and pulleys. Another time she was at the beach at Ostend, Belgium, she noticed the curious habit there of women swimming with their hair loose " down to their hips, like penitents."<br /> <br /> 1864- Confederate raiders led by Jubal Early looted and burned the Northern town of Chambersburg Pennsylvania, in retribution for Yankee depredations down south. <br /> <br /> 1864- THE CRATER- One of the strangest battles of the Civil War. A Pennsylvania coal mine engineer convinced General Grant to dig a tunnel under Robert E. Lee's army and fill it with 8 million pounds of gunpowder. The massive explosion blew 4,500 troops into the air and created the first man-made mushroom cloud. It created a crater 30 feet deep and 200 yards wide. No one had ever seen anything so terrible. However the follow up Union attack was so badly bungled the rebels had time to recover from their shock and fight back. Instead of using a highly trained fresh black regiment, Grant instead sent in two exhausted frontline regiments who were told they were going to a rest area. He didn’t want to be accused of racism. The Union troops were supposed to attack around the rim of the crater, Instead they went down into it through a bottleneck and were massacred by the rebs from above as they tried to climb up the steep 30 foot walls. Troops bayoneted each other trying to get out of the slaughter pen. Another chance to end the war early was ruined. Grant sacked the commander, a General Ledlie, who spent the battle drinking brandy in the rear. "The generals dismissal was a great loss to the enemy" one officer wrote. It all accomplished nothing. One soldier said: "I hope we never make war like that again". <br /> <br /> 1867- After the Civil War the conquered states of the South were divided up into districts of military occupation. On this day General Phil Sheridan was removed from the military governorship of Texas and Louisiana for being too harsh. During his two years in charge, Sheridan sacked the Governors of Texas and Louisiana, as well as the mayors of New Orleans, Shreveport and Galveston. He hated Texans as unreconstructed rebels that should have gotten what Atlanta got. "If I owned both Hell and Texas and was forced to choose, I'd sell Texas and live in Hell!"<br /> <br /> 1889- Start of the Sherlock Holmes mystery, the Naval Treaty. <br /> <br /> 1915- WWI, At the Battle of Hooge, the Germans first introduced hand-held flamethrowers as a weapon. <br /> <br /> 1916- The Black Tom Pier Explosion- Throughout World War I German spies and saboteurs were active on American waterfronts. On this day German agents Kurt Jahnke and Lothar Witzkhe detonated two million pounds of explosive destined for the European battlefields on a New Jersey pier behind the Statue of Liberty. It caused 45 million dollars in damage, windows on Wall Street shattered and the Statue's arm was knocked slightly loose. In later years the park service would forbid tourists from climbing up to the torch. The success of German agents in America in World War I was a reason why in World War II-army intelligence struck a deal with the Mafia to keep peace on the waterfront. <br /> <br /> 1917- Two New York hotel detectives caught Senator Warren G. Harding in bed with an underage girl. He bought them off with $20 each. "I thought I wouldn't get off for under a thousand!" he told a friend. Later as President, Harding always kept a guard at the door.<br /> <br /> 1929 -The Hollywood Bowl musicians go on strike.<br /> <br /> 1932-Walt Disney’s “Flowers and Trees” the first Technicolor Cartoon. Disney had worked out a deal with Technicolor creator Dr. Herbert Kalmus to use his technique exclusively for two years to show larger Hollywood studios its quality.<br /> <br /> 1932- The first Los Angeles hosting of the Olympic Games in their spanking new Coliseum. Gold medalists in swimming Larry Buster Crabbe and Johnny Weissmuller later became movie stars. Another medalist, the Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku, began to teach the Californians about a new sport- surfing!<br /> <br /> 1935- The first paperback book. Andre Maurois 'Ariel, a Life of Shelley', published in this new form by Penguin Books of London.<br /> <br /> 1936- Producer David O. Selznick bought the movie rights to the best-selling novel “Gone With The Wind” from an ailing Irving Thalberg. The "boy genius" Thalberg was hoping that Selznick would ruin himself in the process of making this film. Thalberg was convinced that GWTW would prove to be a massive flop because "Costume dramas are box office poison." <br /> <br /> 1938- Adolf Hitler awarded the Third Reich’s highest civilian medal to American industrialist Henry Ford. He admired Ford’s anti-Semitic views. Ford paid for copies of the racist book Protocols of the Elders of Zion to be placed in American libraries. CBS reporter William Shirer noted when interviewing Hitler, that he had translations of Ford’s own newspaper the Dearborn Independent on his desk. The Chairman of the US Chamber of Commerce also got a medal from Der Fuehrer in recognition the international corporate support of the Nazi regime. They admired the way Hitler suppressed unions, the 8 Hour Work Day and other bad-for-business items.<br /> <br /> 1948 - Professional wrestling premieres on prime-time network TV (DuMont)<br /> <br /> 1954 - Elvis Presley joins Local 71, the Memphis Federation of Musicians. <br /> <br /> 1955 – Pres. Eisenhower signed the bill declaring "In God We Trust" to be the official motto of the USA replacing E Pluribus Unum (out of many, one). It had been on coins since 1864. This was around the same time "under God" was also added to the Pledge of Allegiance.<br /> <br /> 1959- Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor patented the integrated circuit.<br /> <br /> 1962- Italy adopts a total ban on cigarette advertising. Consumption of cigarettes doubled. <br /> <br /> 1963 –Escaped British spy Kim Philby was found living in Moscow. <br /> <br /> 1965- President Lyndon Johnson signs the Medicare Act and issues the first medicare card (#00001) to former president Harry Truman. <br /> <br /> 1966 - BATMAN: THE MOVIE, and based on the 1966 BATMAN television series, opened. Directed by Leslie H. Martinson and starring Adam West, Burt Ward, Lee Meriwether, Cesar Romero, Burgess Meredith, Frank Gorshin, <br /> <br /> 1972- John Boorman’s thriller Deliverance, with Burt Reynolds and Ned Beatty.<br /> <br /> 1974- President Richard Nixon turned over his White House tapes on Watergate after being forced to by the Supreme Court. That same day the House Judiciary Committee voted three acts of impeachment against the President. <br /> <br /> 1975- Teamster union boss Jimmy Hoffa disappeared while on the way to a lunch meeting with Teamster officials at a small Detroit restaurant. He once said: "Bodyguards? Who needs bodyguards?" He hated Bobby Kennedy so much that when he learned of his assassination, he ordered the half-masted flag at his union office run back up to the top and spent the day at the track celebrating. Rumor has it he currently resides under the goalposts at Giants Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey. Another story is that he was strangled by a Mafia hit man named Sal Briguglio, then his body was taken to an auto fender factory, cut up and the pieces thrown into vats of boiling zinc. Briguglio was himself whacked in 1978.<br /> <br /> 1986- Walt Disney released “Flight of the Navigator”, directed by Randal Kleiser, featuring early photo-real CG VFX done by Canadian studio Omnibus. <br /> <br /> 1988- The last Playboy Club in America closed. It was in Lansing, Mich. In 2006 Hugh Hefner opened a Playboy Club themed casino in Las Vegas.<br /> <br /> 1999- The Blair Witch Project opened in theaters. The low-budget indy became a huge hit due to an on-line grass roots campaign claiming that the footage of teenager encountering the supernatural was genuine. <br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is an Arriviste? <br /> <br /> Answer: A ruthlessly ambitious person, especially one who has recently acquired wealth or social status. An unscrupulous social-climber.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 29 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6216 <p>Question: What is an Arriviste? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: “ Shave and a Hair-cut. Two Bits.” How much in real money is two-bits?<br /> ======================================================<br /> History for 7/29/2023<br /> Birthdays: Alex de Tocqueville, Benito Mussolini, Clara Bow, Natalie Wood, Paul Taylor, Sig Romberg, Dag Hammarskjold, Peter Jennings, Michael Spinks, Maria Ouspenskaya, Dave Stevens creator of the Rocketeer, Ken Burns is 69, Booth Tarkington, David Warner, Steven Dorff, Professor Irwin Corey, William Cameron-Menzies, Peter Jennings, William Powell, Will Wheaton<br /> <br /> 1014- Battle of Kleidion, BalaThistau- Byzantine Emperor Basil II the Bulgar-Slayer defeated an entire Bulgar horde. He had 15,000 captured warriors blinded, leaving one man in one hundred with one eye to lead them all home. When Samuel the Bulgar Khan beheld his mutilated army limping back, he dropped dead in shock.<br /> <br /> 1030- Battle of Stiklestaad- One of the largest Viking battles ever- King Olaf the White went down fighting the still pagan Norsemen of Denmark and Sweden and became St. Olaf the Martyr. Olaf's method of converting Vikings to Christianity was similar to his uncle King Olaf Tryggvason, which was to sail a big fleet of dragon ships up and down the coast and chop anybody who didn't want to be baptized. <br /> But while Tryggvason's death in battle at Svoldr spawned some great epic poems and music by Edvard Grieg, Olaf the Saint's death spawned miracles and shrines and he was canonized a year later. Anxious Vikings who wanted to fence-sit in this struggle over religion took to wearing an amulet that turned one side resembled the Cross, while turned over became the Hammer of Thor.<br /> <br /> 1527- King Charles of Spain informed his ambassador in England that he would advise the Pope to refuse a divorce for King Henry VIII and his wife Catharine of Aragon. And since King Charles had the Pope in prison, I would say that about settled the matter. <br /> <br /> 1565 - Mary Queen of Scots married her cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley.<br /> <br /> 1567- The ten month old baby James VI, the offspring of Lord Darnley and Mary Queen of Scots was named King of Scotland in Edinburgh. It’s the last James would ever see his mother. His father was murdered and his mom beheaded by Queen Elizabeth, but after a number of guardians James had the last laugh. Eventually he become King of both Scotland and England.<br /> <br /> 1588- The SPANISH ARMADA DEFEATED. The great armada was sent originally to ferry the Duke of Parma's army from Holland over to England. Elizabeth didn't have much in the way of militia so the crack Spanish troops once landed probably could have taken London without too much difficulty. The admiral in charge of the fleet, the Duke of Medina-Sidonia was a replacement for the late famous captain Don John of Austria and the equally dead Marquis of Santa Cruz. Medina-Sidonia admitted he knew nothing about ships. <br /> <br /> This day was the BATTLE OF GRAVELINES, largest engagement of the Armada and the English navy under Francis Drake. They pounded one another and after Medina Sidonia discovered he could not pick up Parma’s army he resolved to sail home. The bulk of the Armada was destroyed by a North Sea storm off Ireland. When Medina-Sidonia appeared before King Phillip II, he replied: “I told Your Majesty I knew nothing about ships!”<br /> Although this great victory of the British Navy saved England, Queen Elizabeth's budget for them was amazingly stingy. More British sailors died from rancid food than Spanish gunfire. The English fleet had to break off its attack when they ran out of cannonballs. Spain sent other armadas at England over the next few years, but this was the most famous.<br /> <br /> 1693- Battle of Neerwinden- With the command “En Advance!” the French under Marshal Turenne attacked William of Orange with these newfangled "bayonets", combining the power of a pike with a musket. One of the French leaders was Pierre Montesqiou Comte D'Artagnan, the model for the hero of Dumas' novel The Three Musketeers.<br /> <br /> 1792- Maximillien Robsepierre stood up in the National Assembly and for the first time openly called for the dethronement of their King Louis XVI.<br /> <br /> 1813- General Junot, boyhood friend of Napoleon, and veteran of a dozen battles, suffered a nervous breakdown and jumped out of a window to his death. It was said he went mad, but could it possibly have been an early example of PTSD? Despite being so tight with Bonaparte, he couldn’t rise above the rank of general of division because he just didn’t have the ability. Ironically there was a costume ball that night and he jumped in his costume.<br /> <br /> 1848- The Tipperarry Revolt. At the height of the great potato famine William Smith O’Brien and his Young Ireland Movement tried to declare Independence. After a skirmish with police in a cabbage patch, they were rounded up and shipped to New Zealand.<br /> <br /> 1890- Near Auvers-sur-Oise, artist Vincent Van Gogh went behind a hay bale and was shot. He lingered for two days and died of blood poisoning. He was 37. His brother Theo was so distraught he died six months later of a brain disease and melancholia. <br /> For many years everyone believed Van Gogh committed suicide. Recent scholarship established that van Gogh may not have shot himself, but tussled with a group of neighborhood children who liked to taunt the “Crazy Man”. A boy named Rene’ Secretan acted like a cowboy and carried a pistol. In the melee’ his pistol went off. Van Gogh later said he did it to himself to spare the children any jail. Decades later as an old man, Rene’ Secretan confessed he fired the fatal shot.<br /> <br /> 1900- King Umberto I of Italy was shot and killed by anarchists. The assassin was Angelo Bresci, a silk merchant from Patterson New Jersey who had returned to the old country to rid Italy of monarchs. <br /> <br /> 1914- Czar Nicholas of Russia changed his mind about mobilizing his army, writes his cousin Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany in English, their common tongue, and warned that rising pressures were forcing him to declare war. "Could not the Austro-Serbian dispute be settled by the Hague Conference? Your Loving Nicky".<br /> Wilhelm scrawled in the margin "Rubbish". Later Wilhelm too had second thoughts about blowing up Europe and went up to his Bavarian hunting lodge to sulk about it. The German army chief of staff Von Moltke talked him out of his funk." How could you let down all those wonderful guys working long hours at the general staff by declaring peace?"<br /> <br /> 1918- At Grey’s Inn in London, First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill first met Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then US Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Twenty years later, they would become close friends while running a much larger war.<br /> <br /> 1920 - 1st transcontinental airmail flight from NY to SF.<br /> <br /> 1922- In Kansas City, Walt Disney released his first Laugh-o-Gram short- Little Red Riding Hood, animated by Rudy Ising. <br /> <br /> 1927- Dr Phillip Drinker and Dr Louis Shaw installed the first Iron Lung breathing apparatus at Bellevue Hospital in New York.<br /> <br /> 1931- George Bernard Shaw traveled to Moscow and met Josef Stalin.<br /> <br /> 1938- Three Missing Links- a Three Stooges comedy with the boys as cave men and Ray Crash Corrigan in a gorilla suit.<br /> <br /> 1942- Orson Welles left Rio De Janiero after RKO fired him and stopped production of "It's All True". RKO also had “the Magnificent Ambersons” re-cut to a more acceptable 90 minutes and fired the executive producer first who brought him to Hollywood.<br /> <br /> 1944- THE WARSAW UPRISING-As the Red Army under Marshall Voroshilov approached the eastern Praga suburbs of Warsaw, Radio Moscow broadcast a cryptic message to Poles inside their occupied capitol to “resist the occupying forces”. The Polish underground resistance the Home Army, or the AK, took this as the signal to rise and take the city the way the French underground taken key point of Paris. But Stalin tricked them. He had no intention of cooperating after the war with an independent Polish force. He let the AK battle the Nazis for weeks alone and the Red Army didn’t move into downtown Warsaw until they were all dead.<br /> <br /> 1946- In Los Angeles, Jazz great Charlie Parker had learned of the death of his baby daughter back in New York. He showed up for a recording session so drunk and high his producer had to hold him up in front of the mike. Later that night he fell completely apart, ran naked down the street, set fire to his hotel room smoking in bed. The cops had to shake him violently to wake him, he fought with them and they beat him up and threw him in jail. He was committed to the Camarillo Mental Hospital. <br /> <br /> 1948- Former Disney assistant-animator Hank Ketcham’s comic strip "Dennis the Menace," 1st appeared.<br /> <br /> 1952 - 1st nonstop transpacific flight by a jet.<br /> <br /> 1957-Happy Birthday NASA! President Eisenhower signed the bill creating the National Aeronautics and Space Agency, or NASA to oversee the space program, separate from the military. <br /> <br /> 1957- Tonight with Jack Paar premiered. <br /> <br /> 1962- The film “Dr No” premiered, introducing the world to the suave spy James Bond 007. They first considered Cary Grant, David Niven, Patrick McGoohan, and James Mason, who all turned them down. So, the producers chose young Scots actor Sean Connery. Ian Fleming wrote of the choice, “Disaster!!” Connery had just starred as the villain in a Tarzan film, and they wanted him to film the sequel. But he asked for a time off to go do “a little spy picture.”<br /> <br /> 1965 - Beatles movie "Help" had its Royal World premiere at the London Pavilion in the West End. Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon in attendance. The film actually opened a month later. People said the movie was filmed “in a haze of marijuana smoke” and most people on the film didn’t know what was next as they were writing it as they went along. <br /> <br /> 1974- Mamas and the Papa's chubby singer Mama Cass Eliot died of a stroke, not as was widely believed from choking on a sandwich. She was 32.<br /> <br /> 1976 -SON OF SAM- Demented postman David Berkowitz committed his first murder in the Bronx. Berkowitz believed his neighbor’s dog Sam was Satan and was telling him to go out and kill. He would point his 44 cal. gun at random at a young couple on the street or in a car and shoot them. As the year went on and he was undetected he wrote letters taunting the police and New York newspaper columnist Pete Hamill. See next entry.<br /> <br /> 1977- THE DAY OF HATE- Son of Sam Killer David Berkowitz announced in the press that he would kill again on the one year anniversary of his first shooting- he declared it to be the Day of Hate. By now New York City was thoroughly in a panic. The seeming randomness of the killings got under the skin of the usually blasé’ New Yorkers. Nightclubs and discos closed, women clipped and dyed their hair because Sam liked to shoot long haired brunettes. Even the Godfather John Gotti pledged the services of the Mafia to catch the lunatic. After a tense night nothing happened. Berkowitz was arrested two days later.<br /> <br /> 1981- Prince Charles of England married Lady Diana Spencer. The ill-fated fairy tale wedding was seen around the world on live television. Unknown to Di at the time was Prince Charles was already romantically involved with Mrs. Camilla Parker-Bowles.<br /> <br /> 1987- Ice cream makers Ben &amp; Jerry announce the flavor Cherry Garcia, named for rock singer Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. Jerry is gone, but the ice cream rocks on.<br /> <br /> 1989- Miyazaki’s film Kiki’s Delivery Service premiered in Japan.<br /> =========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: “ Shave and a Hair-cut. Two Bits.” How much in real money is two-bits?<br /> <br /> Answer: Two bits was slang for .25 cents. When coins were scarce in the Colonies, before the Revolution, they would cut up a Spanish silver reale coin into eight pieces to make change. These were called 'bits'. Hence 'pieces of eight' 'two bits' and 'four bits'. (Thanks NB)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 28 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6215 <p>Quiz: “ Shave and a Hair-cut. Two Bits.” How much in real money is two-bits?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What is the law of eminent domain?<br /> ---------------------------------------<br /> History for 7/28/2023<br /> Birthdays: Beatrix Potter, Jacqueline Kennedy, Richard Rogers, Ibn al’ Arabi- philosopher 1165, Marcel Duchamp, Rudy Vallee. Sally Struthers, Peter Duchin, Vida Blue, Joe E. Brown, Jim Davis the creator of Garfield, Frankie Yankovic the Polka King, Elizabeth Berkley, Earl Tupper the inventor of Tupperware, Hugo Chavez<br /> <br /> 450AD- Roman emperor Theodosius II died without a designated heir. Rome had already fallen so nobody was too fussed about it.<br /> <br /> 754 A.D. Pope Stephen III crowns Pepin the Short King of the Franks or French. Pepin was the son of Charles Martel and the father of Charlemagne. Pepin had asked for the Pope’s help to legitimatize his overthrow of the last king of the Merovingian Dynasty, Childeric IV, whom he had locked up in a monastery. In return he gave his military guarantee to the Vatican’s hold over a buffer state in the center of Italy. The Papal States would remain a political reality for 1,100 years until absorbed into united Italy in 1870. <br /> <br /> 1428- The Aztecs overthrew the Tepanec kingdom and begin their rise to empire. While the Inca of Peru were a homogeneous empire the Aztec ruled Mexico by conquest and subjugation of other tribes. So, when Cortez and the Spaniards arrived in 1519 they found lots of native tribes happy to help them against the Aztecs.<br /> <br /> 1540- Henry VIII married his fourth queen Catherine Howard. This was seen as an old man's autumn fancy. Henry was in his 50's and Catherine a teenager who still had the hots for boys her own age, a bad idea if she wished to keep her head.<br /> <br /> 1586 - Sir Thomas Harriott first introduced potatoes to Europe. At first people thought they were poisonous because their blossom resembled that of toxic nightshade.<br /> <br /> 1588- The English sea captains Thomas the Earl of Leicester and Sir Francis Drake were playing a game of bowls when they were told the Spanish Armada had been sighted off the coast of Cornwall. The Armada was so big, just the front row of ships reached seven miles across. Leicester coolly said:" Come Drake, there’s time to finish the game." They finished their game, then defeated the Armada the next day.<br /> <br /> 1609- Sir George Somers was shipwrecked on the uninhabited island of Bermuda.<br /> He stayed to build a settlement, claiming the island for Britain.<br /> <br /> 1615- French explorer Samuel de Champlain reached Lake Huron. <br /> <br /> 1655- Poet, playwright and duelist Cyrano de Bergerac died in Paris. The famous play about him and his big nose was written by Edmond Rostand in 1895.<br /> <br /> 1750- Composer Johann Sebastian Bach died at age 65. He had suffered blindness in his old age but is eyesight returned shortly before his fatal stroke. One of his final compositions was a chorale prelude: "Come, Kindly Death- come for my life is dreary, and of earth I am weary, etc." <br /> He and his wife Anna Magdelena had 17 children, and 7 more by his first wife. Many of whom became composers Johann Christian Bach, Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach, etc. Bach’s music was soon forgotten until rediscovered by Mendelssohn and others in the 1820s.. Albert Einstein’s brother Alfred said Bach’s music" almost makes one want to become Christian."<br /> <br /> 1788- Master British portrait painter Sir Joshua Reynolds visited the other master British portrait painter Sir Thomas Gainsborough, who was dying or cancer. They had been enemies for years, but now at the end they made up. When Reynolds left him, Gainsborough said "Goodbye until we meet in the Hereafter, Van Dyck in our company."<br /> <br /> 1794-The Thermidor Reaction, The end of the "Reign of Terror". After thousands of deaths, a group of French politicians called the Directorate overthrew Maximilien Robespierre and have him and his Jacobin followers guillotined. Robespierre didn't go quietly, a soldier named Charles Merda shot him in the face shouting Vive la Republique!" His brother Augustin Robespierre tried to escape out a window but just succeeded in breaking his hip.<br /> At the guillotine Robespierre’s second in command Saint-Just was defiant to the end:<br /> " I curse the dust I'm made of! I give it to you! Scatter my bones and Republics shall spring from them!" Robespierre wasn't so eloquent on the scaffold. He just bellowed in pain from the jaw wound. A woman shouted at him:" Go to Hell, Villain, and go knowing with you go the curses and maledictions of every wife, every mother!" When his head plopped into the basket Parisians cheered for 15 minutes. Then they smashed the fearsome guillotine. As dictator Napoleon was careful to keep few political prisoners and if he executed any he used a firing squad. He renamed the place where the guillotine was Place de la Concord.<br /> In 1891 a hit play about this event opened in Paris called “Thermidor” for the month in the French Revolutionary calendar. The chef of the Café de Paris created a new seafood dish in its honor, Lobster Thermidor.<br /> <br /> 1808- The Turkish Janissaries, the royal guard, deposed Sultan Mustapha VI and replaced him with his cousin Mehmed II. The Janissaries were the real power in Istanbul at this time, keeping a supply of royal princes in the harem, to be taken out as needed. Sultans sometimes picked what Harem girl they would favor that night by how many garlic cloves she could hold in her bellybutton. <br /> <br /> 1809- Battle of Talavera. General Sir Arthur Wellesley defeated the French army in Spain and for that was made Viscount Wellington. Sir Hugh Gough, who would later earn fame conquering the Punjab in India, was young officer at the time. In this battle Gough was so grievously wounded he was left for dead on a pile of corpses. Wellington happened to be riding by and was commenting to his staff upon his bravery, when to prevent being buried alive, Hugh Gough signaled by pushing his arm up out of the corpses and waved his hat at the startled Wellington." You-hoo..M’Lord, I’m not dead yet…"<br /> <br /> 1812- General Light Horse Harry Lee was a Revolutionary War hero and had eulogized George Washington as "First in War, First in Peace, First in the Hearts of his Countrymen". <br /> But this day the old general got involved with mob violence in Baltimore while trying to protect a publisher friend who was against "Mr. Madison’s War with the British”, what we now call the War of 1812. Despite his fame, Lee was dragged by a mob and beaten senseless, one of his eyes almost gouged out. He went to the West Indies to convalesce –and escape his creditors, but he never fully recovered. His 5-year-old son was future Civil War General Robert E. Lee.<br /> <br /> 1821- Peru declared independence from Spain. <br /> <br /> 1839- Italian revolutionary Guisseppe Fleschi wanted to assassinate the king of France, King Louis Phillipe. He rigged up a strange device that could fire 25 gun barrels simultaneously. He pointed this machine at the king during a military parade and pulled the string. All the guns went off but not one hit their intended target. Ironically, the only person killed was the elderly war minister Marshal Mortier, an old general of Napoleon's, who had spent thirty years amid shot and shell and had never even been scratched.<br /> <br /> 1841- The body of Mary Cecilia Rogers was pulled out of New York Harbor. The sensational murder of the “Beautiful Cigar Girl” inspired Edgar Allen Poe to write “The Mystery of Marie Roget.”<br /> <br /> 1858- The French photographer Nadar went up in a balloon and took the first aerial photograph.<br /> <br /> 1866- BUFFALO SOLDIERS- An act of Congress called for the creation of two all black cavalry regiments to serve in the peacetime army's frontier duty. These units, the 9th and 10th U.S. Cavalry became the famous "Buffalo Soldiers". They were so named by the Indians because an African Americans’ hair resembled the tuft of hair between a buffalo's horns to them, a symbol of strength. Buffalo Soldiers defeated the Apaches and charged up San Juan Hill right alongside Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. Their captain in Cuba named John Pershing was given the nickname Blackjack Pershing not for a love of cards, but for preferring leading black troops to white.<br /> <br /> 1867- The Daughters of St. Crispin, the first women's labor organization.<br /> <br /> 1896- Happy Birthday Miami! The City of Miami incorporated.<br /> <br /> 1882- Parsifal, the last opera of Richard Wagner was produced at Bayreuth. As a way to ensure its financial solvency Wagner left instructions to never tour Parsifal but it should forever stay at Bayreuth. This lasted a few decades. <br /> <br /> 1898- Spain asks for peace talks with the United States to end their war. The Spanish American War began in April and ended in December.<br /> <br /> 1914- THE RUSH INTO WORLD WAR I ACCELERATED. Britain suggested an international conference to settle Austria’s grievances against Serbia. Austrian Foreign minister Berchtold informed the British ambassador that it was too late for mediation because Austria had already declared war. The German Kaiser was having second thoughts but slipped out of Berlin to go yachting to avoid the Russian ambassador who was trying to make him commit to discussing peace. Part of the muddle that aggravated the meltdown of diplomacy, was many of the top European statesmen were on their summer holiday while this crisis deepened.<br /> <br /> 1932- The movie White Zombie with Bela Lugosi opened. <br /> <br /> 1932- THE BATTLE OF ANACOSTIA FLATS- Capitol Hill was surrounded by 20,000 Bonus Marchers- unemployed World War I veterans and their families who desperately marched to Washington to demand help from the ravages of the Depression and their promised back pay. <br /> On this day, President Hoover's response was to order the US Army to drive them away by force. Gen. Douglas MacArthur with his aides Patton and Eisenhower send tanks, saber wielding cavalry and bayonet armed troops to break up the homeless peoples dwellings. Facing them on the makeshift barricades eyewitnesses saw a black man waving a large American flag and Charles Frederick Lincoln, a direct descendant of Abraham Lincoln. These poor veterans and their families had come from as far as Honolulu. No record was kept of how many were killed or died on the walk home. <br /> Pres. Hoover was jubilant that order was restored, and the public was jubilant when they voted him out of office later that year.<br /> <br /> 1933- The first singing telegram. It was delivered to singer Rudy Valee by Western Union operator appropriately named Lucille Lipps.<br /> <br /> 1945- Congress endorses United Nations Charter. Congress' refusal to join the League of Nations in 1919 help doom that organization.<br /> <br /> 1945-A B-25 Mitchell bomber flying in thick fog struck the 78th floor of the Empire State Building in New York City. It killed a dozen people, including some when one of its 1,500 lb. engines shot through the building and down onto 33rd street. One woman in an elevator had the cables cut and fell 80 stories at 200 miles an hour to the basement. Miraculously she lived. <br /> Despite the devastation, the building did not collapse but stayed sound. As a result, US and World air traffic control standards were stiffened, air traffic controllers finally got the power to order planes down, and large planes are kept away from flying over large urban areas. <br /> <br /> 1948- In honor of the death of D.W. Griffith, all Hollywood studios observed three minutes of silence.<br /> <br /> 1948- The Premiere of " Abbott &amp; Costello Meet Frankenstein" For you hardcore film trivia fans this film is the only other time than the original Tod Browning movie that Bela Lugosi played Count Dracula on film. <br /> <br /> 1954- The film On The Waterfront opened. Producer Sam Spiegel originally wanted Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly as the leads. But Kelly took Hitchcock’s Rear Window instead, and Marlon Brando and Eva Marie-Saint became available, much to the annoyance of Sinatra.<br /> <br /> 1958- HAPPY LEGO DAY! Danish toymaker Gotfried Kirk Christiansen patented the interlocking plastic bricks. The LEGO empire began.<br /> <br /> 1965- VIETNAM- President Lyndon B. Johnson had been wrestling with a problem since June 5th. In Vietnam, the war against the Communist guerrilla Viet Cong was going badly. Strategic bombing of the North has failed to stop incursions in the South and the latest government in Saigon had fallen and been replaced by a group of generals led by Ngyen Kao Key. Johnson had to decide to pull, out or expand US commitment. Retired presidents Truman and Eisenhower advised him against going in. <br /> This day, at a routine Friday 12:30 PM press briefing, calculated to not be well attended, LBJ made the announcement that US forces in Vietnam would be expanded dramatically from 75,000 to 125,000- eventually to 450,000 by the end of 1967. What LBJ wasn’t saying was he had now decided that US ground troops would carry the bulk of the fighting. Not just to prop up the South Vietnamese army, but defeat the North Vietnamese Army, without ever invading North Vietnam. He would still try to do his Great Society Programs while running a trillion-dollar war that all his experts doubted was winnable. <br /> This one decision destroyed Johnson’s Presidency and cracked the thriving post war economy creating recession and domestic political turmoil.<br /> <br /> 1971- Photographer Diane Arbus probed increasingly darker subject matter, circus freaks, severe birth defects. This day she committed suicide by swallowing a bottle of sleeping pills, then slitting her wrists.<br /> <br /> 1978- National Lampoons Animal House directed by John Landis opened. <br /> <br /> 1987- Disney's Oilspot and Lipstick premiered at Siggraph Anaheim. Directed by Michael Cedeno. It was an early experimental all CGI film.<br /> <br /> 1998- In Afghanistan the Taliban ordered mass destruction of television sets. They also forbade the Internet and shaved the heads of their national soccer team for daring to wear shorts.<br /> <br /> 1999- Mayor Willie Brown of San Francisco declared today Marilyn Chambers Day, in honor of the San Francisco native, and star of classic porn like Behind the Green Door.<br /> <br /> 2061- The next predicted appearance of Halley’s Comet.<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is the law of eminent domain?<br /> <br /> Answer: The state reserved to itself the right to seize your land for the creation of large public works, like the building of railroads or roadways. They can’t always snake around everyone’s private property. James Madison added it into the Constitution as part of the Fifth Amendment. Eminent Domain superseded any legal deeds, the state gave you monetary compensation. And if you were lucky, it might actually be what the land was really worth.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 27 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6214 <p>Quiz: What is the law of eminent domain?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: Which movie came out first? Gulliver’s Travels, The Wizard of Oz or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs?<br /> ========================================================<br /> History for 7/27/2023<br /> Birthdays: Confucius, Alexander Dumas fils, Enrique Granados, Hillaire Belloc, Maureen McGovern, Keenan Wynn, Leo Durocher, Peggy Fleming, Bobby Gentry, Jerry Van Dyke, Vincent Canby, Betty Thomas, Ilya Salkind, David Swift –director of the Haley Mills Disney films like The Parent Trap, Maya Rudolph is 51, Jonathan Rhys Meyers is 46, Norman Lear is 101<br /> <br /> 1214- THE BATTLE OF BOUVINES- Called the most famous battle you never heard of.
Ever since 1066 there was a sticky point of medieval etiquette, because the King of England was also Duke of Normandy, so technically a vassal of the King of France. Yet the King of England also ruled over half of France, the Angevin empire. For years nobody pushed the question. Finally, paranoid English King John I had his boy nephew Arthur of Brittany killed for fear he would try to overthrow him. King Phillip of France convened a Feudal trial over the murder, and as his feudal suzerain formally stripped King John of his French provinces of Aquitaine, Gascony, Poitou, Brittany, Vexin, Anjou and Normandy. King John naturally didn't go along with this, and the issue was decided by battle. Bouvines today is a field where the Lille Airport is.<br /> The French victory at Bouvines doubled the size of France and cut England off from the continent of Europe. King Phillip was hailed as Phillip Augustus. King John's nickname became John Lack-land and John Softsword. Although the English tried several more times to get back Normandy, England went on to develop its own unique society, instead of being a French adjunct. King John even grew to prefer speaking English over French.<br /> <br /> 1361- Battle of Visby, King Valdemar of Denmark defeated the people of Gotland in Sweden. Its remembered because it left one of the largest mass graves of Medieval soldiers ever discovered.<br /> <br /> 1586- Sir Walter Raleigh brought the first tobacco pipe home to England from America.<br /> Columbus had of course brought cigars and other duty-free home years earlier, but tobacco was one of the goodies that kept England interested in American colonies after everyone realized there weren’t any more gold-rich Aztec-Inca Empires to plunder. King James I called smoking a filthy and unhealthful habit, but Raleigh persisted. He even paused for a few last puffs before putting his head on the executioner’s block. <br /> <br /> 1661- England passes the Navigation Act, spurring shipbuilding, especially in the U.S colonies. The masts of the British Navy were harvested from tall New Hampshire oaks.<br /> <br /> 1667- At Sulzbach near Baden, a cannonball killed Marshal Turenne, general of Louis XIV. Turenne was one of the most brilliant commanders of the age and idolized by military strategists like Napoleon.<br /> <br /> 1861- One week after losing the Battle of Bull Run, Union Army commander Irwin MacDowell was replaced by General George B. McClellan. “Little Mac” McClellan was a brilliant organizer with a Napoleon complex a mile wide. He once kept President Lincoln and the Secretary of War cooling their heels in his drawing room while he took a nap. Never able to defeat Robert E. Lee, he would persist in writing friends letters like “Once Again God has chosen me to be the savior of My Country.” <br /> <br /> 1880- BATTLE OF MAIWAND: The Afghan leader Ayub Khan's tribesmen destroyed a British invasion force. Dr. Watson told Sherlock Holmes he was there. Afghans recall a heroic young girl named Malala who grabbed a flag and braved the bullets. While the British remember a little terrier named Bobbie who was a regimental mascot and was wounded several times. He was brought to London and received a medal from Queen Victoria, but he was later run over by a London taxi. Shoulda stayed in Afghanistan where it was safer.<br /> <br /> 1900- HUNS- In Bremerhaven, Kaiser Wilhelm II addressed a contingent of German marines about to embark for China to help in the international effort to put down the Boxer Rebellion. Caught up in the moment, Wilhelm cried: "Take no prisoners! Kill all those who fall into your hands! As the deeds of the Huns of Attila resound through history for their ruthlessness, so like the Huns, make the name of Germany live in Chinese annals for a thousand years!" <br /> An embarrassed chancellor Von Bulow called it "The worst speech of the year and possibly of the Kaiser's career." He tried to release an edited version to the press. When the Kaiser read the edited speech, he said: My dear Bulow. You left out all the good parts." Germans got the nickname Huns for years afterwards.<br /> <br /> 1914- Austria declared war on Serbia. The first declaration of World War I.<br /> <br /> 1921- Two Toronto scientists, Frederick Banting and Charles Best isolate the hormone Insulin to treat diabetes.<br /> <br /> 1921- SHAKESPEARE &amp; CO. opened in Paris. The English language bookshop on the Seine owned by Sylvia Beach was the most famous hangout for the U.S. expatriate intellectuals. Shakespeare &amp; Co. championed writers like James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Carlos Santayanna, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Sherwood Anderson and more. <br /> During the liberation in 1944, the shop was liberated personally by Ernest Hemingway who shot snipers off its roof. After paying his respects to Sylvia, Hemingway and his G.I. buddies went on to liberate the Ritz hotel and its famous wine cellar.<br /> <br /> 1937- The invading Japanese Army entered Beijing, then called Peiping, the former Peking. Most of the art treasures of the old Imperial City had been crated up and moved to Taipei.<br /> <br /> 1939- Nazi High Command gave secret orders for German supply ships to put to sea, fill up on supplies like fuel oil and ammunition at neutral harbors in the Americas and take their positions in the Atlantic. In effect, this is the first hostile move against Britain, four and a half weeks before the attack on Poland and the declaration of war.<br /> <br /> 1940- HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUGS BUNNY. Tex Avery’s short-"A Wild Hare”-There were several earlier prototypes of the famous rabbit, white with a different voice, but this is the short that is generally accepted as his birthday. <br /> In the late 30s, a fashion among some animators in LA was to spend the weekend up in the High Sierras hunting. Most of them were terrible at it, and when they came back with nothing, got a lot of teasing from their buddies. At Looney Tunes, a few guys did gag drawings of designer Ben Hardaway fruitlessly hunting a rabbit. His nickname was Bugs, because he originated from Chicago, like gangster Bugs Moran. Being Bugs or Bugsy was also slang then for crazy. The gag drawings were of Hardaway and " Bug's Bunny". Bob Givens created the first official model sheet of the character. <br /> In this short Bugs says “Whats Up Doc?” for the first time, co-opting a line uttered by Clark Gable while chewing a carrot in the 1934 Frank Capra hit “It Happened One Night”. 
Interestingly, voice actor Mel Blanc was allergic to carrots, and kept a bucket nearby to spit them out after chewing. He experimented with chewing other vegetables, but he claimed nothing sounded as good as raw carrots.<br /> <br /> 1946- Writer Gertrude Stein died at age 72. Her last words to Alice B. Toklas were:" What is the Answer?" When Alice said nothing, Gertrude said:" Well then, what is the Question?"<br /> <br /> 1953- THE KOREAN WAR ENDS- The Treaty of Panmunjom. After 170,000 Americans casualties and millions of Koreans &amp; Chinese killed, the treaty fixed the border basically where they were in 1950. The South Korean Government was outraged and considered it a betrayal, because it accepted the permanent division of Korea in to two parts. South Koreans weren’t even allowed at the negotiations. But America and China were tired of the endless death and stalemate and wanted out. <br /> Before the treaty went into effect, South Korean President Sygmun Ree opened all POW camps and let all the North Korean troops who didn’t want to return home, run free. South Korea never signed the treaty, so it is still technically at war with the North. <br /> <br /> 1953- The Tonight Show debuted on NBC. Its first host was Steve Allen.<br /> <br /> 1965- The U.S. Government forces cigarette companies to print warning labels on the their packages about the hazards of smoking. <br /> <br /> 1977- John Lennon got his green card. Richard Nixon considered him a dangerous radical. Several times he was under 60-day notice to leave the country.<br /> <br /> 1977- Allegro Non Troppo opened in American theaters. Italian animator Bruno Bozzetto’s homage to Walt Disney’s Fantasia.<br /> <br /> 1986- Gregg Lemond became the first American to win the Tour de France bicycle race. <br /> <br /> 1993- IBM announced it would eliminate 35,000 white-collar jobs. Downsizing becomes a popular sport in corporate America. The more workers laid off, the higher your stock rose. The chairman of General Electric Jack Welch, was nicknamed “Neutron Jack” after the neutron bomb that kills off people but leaves buildings intact. He was lionized as a hero in corporate America. He wrote op-eds in the NY Times defending his practice of outsourcing American jobs. <br /> <br /> 1996- A bomb packed with nails goes off during Olympic celebrations in Atlanta Georgia. One woman was killed, and dozens injured. While hunting the bomber, the media decided to focus on an overweight security guard who lived with his mom named Richard Jewel. Ironically Jewel was the one who first alerted police to the suspicious package, and tried to evacuate the area, otherwise more people would have been killed. After weeks of merciless hounding by the press, the FBI declared Jewel completely innocent. In 2003 the police finally caught the real culprit, abortion clinic bomber and backwoods fruitcake Eric Rudolph.<br /> <br /> 2007- The Simpson’s Movie debuted.<br /> <br /> 2016- In an election speech, Donald Trump declared “I will tell you this, Russia: If you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 (Hillary Clinton) emails that are missing.” According to the Mueller Probe, soon after this speech the level of Russian hacking into American sites shot up dramatically. <br /> ==============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Which movie came out first? Gulliver’s Travels, The Wizard of Oz or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs?<br /> <br /> Answer: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), The Wizard of Oz (August 1939), Gulliver’s Travels (December 1939)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 26 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6213 <p>Question: Which movie came out first? Gulliver’s Travels, The Wizard of Oz or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: Was George Washington the first president to sit in the Oval Office?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 7/26/2023<br /> Birthdays: Salvador Allende, Serge Koussevitzky, George Bernard Shaw, Gracie Allen,<br /> Carl Jung, Stanley Kubrick, Blake Edwards, George Grosz, Pearl Buck, Jason Robards Jr, Aldous Huxley, Jean Shepard, Ken Muse, Vivian Vance, Emil Jannings, Ken Muse, Sandra Bullock is 59, Kevin Spacey, Kate Beckinsdale, Helen Mirren is 78, Jason Statham, Mick Jagger is 80<br /> <br /> 1533- Atahualpa, Emperor of the Incas, was executed by Francisco Pizarro. The Great Inca was captured by ambush at Cajamarca and forced to fill a large room with gold and two more rooms with silver to get his release. This was accomplished, but Pizarro decided to kill him anyway. Atahualpa accepted baptism out of fear of being burned alive, the Inca mummified their kings and carried their remains around like saints’ relics, being burned denied you access into the next world. So, he was garroted-strangled with a twisting stick behind the rope. The Spaniards then burned his body anyway. <br /> The Inca people didn't completely submit but withdrew deeper into the Andes and fought on for 70 more years. Pizarro became first governor of Peru and lived in Lima where he was run through with a sword during a feud with another Spanish noble family.<br /> <br /> 1656– Rembrandt van Rijn declared bankruptcy.<br /> <br /> 1694- The Bank of England opened on London's Threadneedle Street. It issued the first bank checks. <br /> <br /> 1757- Battle of Hastenbeck- The Duke of Cumberland, the bastard son of King George II who had defeated Bonnie Prince Charlie at Culloden, took over a Hanoverian army in the Netherlands. The British general was so badly beaten that he signed a treaty of his own at Klosterzeven with the French pledging not to militarily intervene anymore in Central Europe and even giving up Hanover, King George’s family homeland. In London, Prime Minister Pitt called Cumberland “a Coward and Traitor!”<br /> <br /> 1758- Admiral Boscowen’s fleet with the aid of New England militia captured the French fortress of Louisbourg on the mouth of the Saint Lawrence. This was the first step in the British conquest of Canada.<br /> <br /> 1775- U.S. Postal System began. Ben Franklin was first postmaster general. The year before Franklin had been fired by the Kings Privy Council in London from his post as postmaster of the Colonies. Interesting enough the only time a US postal system ever operated at a profit was the Confederate Postal System ran by a man named John Regan. <br /> <br /> 1781- During the Revolution, James Armistead was a runaway black slave who served British Lord Cornwallis as a cook. He was also a spy planted by Lafayette. Today he brought news to George Washington in his camp in Connecticut that Lord Cornwallis was fortifying his encampment at Yorktown Virginia, and intended to stay put. His information proved vital in the ultimate victory that won the American Revolution.<br /> <br /> 1790- The Funding Bill passed in Congress that was the first step in the master plan of Alexander Hamilton to start the US economy. He struck a deal with states rights politicians like Thomas Jefferson that allowed the US government to assume all the outstanding debt the individual states accrued during the Revolution. This act bound all the loose knit states more firmly under the Federal Government’s leadership. In return Hamilton proposed moving the site of the American Capitol from Philadelphia to a more southern site, like some area in Maryland near George Washington’s Virginia home. <br /> This site for the Federal City would eventually be Washington DC. Of course all of this create a huge federal budget deficit, but in Hamilton’s thinking big deficits were good for a country, they implied solidity.<br /> <br /> 1815- THE WHITE TERROR- It was said after the French Revolution that the Royal Bourbon family had learned nothing, but remembered everything. After the Battle of Waterloo smashed Napoleon's power forever, restored King Louis XVIII issued his Royal Ordinances, lists of Bonaparte supporters to be arrested. Some like Marshal Ney and General Labedouyere were shot, some jailed, Marshal Brune was lynched, many fled to America where Napoleon’s brother Joseph had resettled the Bonaparte family in Philadelphia.<br /> Others fled to New Orleans, where for years they defiantly waved the Tricolor flag at arriving French merchant ships. When Andrew Jackson fought British troops at New Orleans, over the roar of the guns French volunteers sang Le Marseillaise at the bagpiping Highlanders, A group of Napoleon’s veterans tried to found a colony on an island off Galveston Texas, but were driven away by a hurricane. One of the exiles, a 17 year old veteran named Michel Bouvier, was set up in the cabinet making business by Joseph Bonaparte. Michel Bouvier was the ancestor of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy.<br /> <br /> 1822- The Liberators meet. Simon Bolivar met Jose San Martin at Guayaqui, Equador.<br /> <br /> 1826- In Valencia, school teacher Cayetano Ripoll became the last person executed for heresy by the Spanish Inquisition, which had been raging since 1492. Napoleon had suspended their activities when he occupied the country in 1808, but they restarted after Spain was liberated. Cayetano Ripoll had fought Napoleon’s occupation, but as a school teacher he was arrested by the Inquisition for teaching “deist principles” and hanged. The Spanish Inquisition was official ended in 1834. The Alhambra Decree that expelled the Jews in 1492 was not rescinded until 1968!<br /> <br /> 1835 - 1st sugar cane plantation started in Hawaii.<br /> <br /> 1847- The Republic of Liberia was declared, the first democratic republic in Africa. Joseph Jenkins-Roberts elected first president. When the US government finally outlawed the African slave trade in 1825 one problem was what to do with all the boatloads of slaves still at sea completing the Middle Passage and all the unsold slaves in harbor depots? It was decided to send all these people to a specific beach on the West African Coast. The freed slaves called themselves Liberia and named their capitol Monrovia in honor of James Monroe, who was US president at the time of their liberation.<br /> <br /> 1861- Mark Twain left St. Jo Missouri to go west and sit out the Civil War. He went with his brother Oren Clemens who had been appointed to administer the Nevada territory. <br /> <br /> 1887 - 1st Esperanto book published.<br /> <br /> 1903 –FIRST TRANSCONTINENTAL AUTO TRIP- Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson, mechanic Sewell J. Crocker, and Bud the Wonderdog, in their Winton Touring Car rode into New York City at 4:30AM, having left San Francisco sixty-three days before. They are the first to cross the United States by automobile. They did it to win a $50 bet that you could cross the country by auto in 90 days. Jackson won the bet but spent $8,000 of his own money to do it. And he never collected his winnings. He was hailed as the Great Automobilist and his car was put on display. At the time, there were only 250 miles of paved roads in the United States, all in major cities.<br /> <br /> 1917- The last two-horse street car made it’s final run, down Broadway. There were now more automobiles than horses on the streets of American cities.<br /> <br /> 1918- During WWI, at a testimonial dinner in London, U.S. Under-Secretary of the Navy Franklin Roosevelt first met First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill. The friendship made there would mean a lot when they fought WW2 together twenty years later.<br /> <br /> 1925- Exhausted by his verbal battle with Clarence Darrow in the just concluded Scopes Monkey Trial, famed statesman William Jennings Bryan died in his sleep.<br /> <br /> 1926 - National Bar Association incorporates.<br /> <br /> 1941- Angered by Japan's refusal to stop its invasion of China and now Indochina, President Roosevelt ordered Japan's overseas assets frozen and embargoes oil and steel.<br /> Since the U.S. was then the world's leading producer of oil and steel this meant Japan's imports were cut by 90%, and her industry would soon dry up. Japan had a strategic oil reserve that could last only three years. FDR also closed the Panama Canal to all Japanese shipping. The generals in Japan now felt war with America was inevitable.<br /> <br /> 1943- The Birth of L.A. Smog! A newspaper headline from this date mentions a 'gas-attack' of exhaust and haze that reduced visibility to three short blocks. Besides leaded gasoline, many suburban homes had little backyard ovens to burn their garbage.<br /> <br /> 1945-The Potsdam Declaration-Truman and Churchill called upon Japan one more time to surrender unconditionally. By now all the leaders now knew the Americans had the Atomic Bomb. With a tentative schedule of dropping it the first week of August, they wanted to give Japan one more chance. The Japanese cabinet chose to ignore the Potsdam Declaration and hoped to use a diplomatic route to Stalin to force negotiations. They were unaware that Stalin was planning to attack Japan also. <br /> <br /> 1945- While the Big Three Potsdam conferences were going on, at home a British general election turned Winston Churchill out of office. He had to embarrassingly leave the conference and was superseded by Labor candidate Clement Atlee, who assumed a junior role in the talks. Churchill used to refer to Atlee as “a sheep in sheep’s clothing”<br /> <br /> 1947- HAPPY BIRTHDAY CIA! Pres. Truman signed the National Security Act, creating the CIA, the NSC, The Joint Chiefs and all those other groups that draw un-scrutinized federal budgets.<br /> <br /> 1948- President Truman issued Exec Order # 9981 to the U.S. military to ban all segregation. At the time the US Army was more segregated than it had been in 1865 or 1776.<br /> <br /> 1951- Charlie Chaplin driven into exile by red-baiters. Chaplin never was a communist or any other radical movement. He was just outspoken in his views, and in Commie-Paranoid America that was enough. He was on a holiday to Britain when he learned his visa had been revoked by the U.S. government. He didn't return until 1972. Despite his immense achievements in Hollywood History, when the Hollywood Walk of Fame was dedicated later that year, Chaplin’s name was deliberately excluded.<br /> <br /> 1951- Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland had its world premiere in London’s Leicester Square Theatre. It opened in the U.S. two days later.<br /> <br /> 1952- Evita Peron the beautiful First Lady of Argentina died at age 33.<br /> <br /> 1953- Fulgensio Batista had suppressed the evolution of democracy in Cuba and ruled as a dictator. This day a 25 year old lawyer and part time left handed baseball pitcher named Fidel Castro with a few followers tried to start a revolt by raiding the impregnable Morcado Barracks. The pathetic assault was immediately crushed and the survivors including Castro jailed. But the event was seen by the people and the world that Cubans would not submit quietly. When Castro was released in 1956 and started his more organized guerrilla campaign he called his group the July 26th Movement.<br /> <br /> 1956- The Suez Crisis. Egypt's Gamal Nasser, on the anniversary of the exit of King Farouk I (1952) and the declaration of the Republic, nationalized the Suez Canal, which had been run by an Anglo-French cooperative. Britain, France and Israel invaded Egypt, but the war was stopped by the intervention of the US and USSR.<br /> <br /> 1958- Top US test pilot Ivan Kinchilo was killed in a plane crash. His F-104 malfunctioned only 800 feet off the ground and he ejected, but couldn’t prevent his parachute from delivering him into the fireball of wreckage. Kinchilo has been called the First Spaceman, since in 1956 piloted a Bell-X test plane to the edge of the stratosphere. A friend of Neil Armstrong and the Gemini astronauts. Many say had Kinchilo lived, he would have been an important figure in the NASA Space Program. <br /> <br /> 1959- KPFK, Los Angeles progressive radio of The Pacifica Network, starts up.<br /> <br /> 1970- Oh, Calcutta! Play opened in London. Oh, Calcutta had nothing at all to do with a city in India, the show was a series of unrelated, but sex-dominated sketches featuring a totally nude cast, both male and female. Sketches were written by John Lennon, Sam Shephard and Jules Feiffer. The title came from a 1946 Dadaist painting by Clovis Trouille. It was a pun on the French “O quel cul t’as” meaning “what a nice ass you have”. The fun turned dark in 1988 when the show’s producer Norman Kean went mad, stabbed his wife then committed suicide.<br /> <br /> 1979- Alvin Texas recorded 43 inches of rain in one day.<br /> <br /> 1984- Edward Gein died peacefully in a prison for the criminally insane. Gein was arrested in 1957 and sentenced to life for mass murder. Police found his farm in Wisconsin decorated with human body parts, heads in the freezer and in the stove, and the dried cadaver of his mother Augustina. His story inspired "Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Silence of the Lambs".<br /> <br /> 1990- Pres. George H.W. Bush signed the Citizens with Disabilities Act into law.<br /> <br /> 1991 – Children’s comic Paul Reubens aka Pee Wee Herman was arrested in Florida for masturbating in an adult movie theater. The film was Naughty Nurse Nancy. <br /> <br /> 1995- After a year of investigation, the General Accounting Office noted that all documents pertaining to the Roswell UFO Incident of 1947 had disappeared or been destroyed. …Hmmm.<br /> ======================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Was George Washington the first president to sit in the Oval Office?<br /> <br /> Answer: No. The Oval Office was not built until the Twentieth Century. Washington served as president in New York City and Philadelphia.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 25 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6212 <p>Quiz: Was George Washington the first president to sit in the Oval Office?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What does it mean to say, my name is mud?.<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 7/25/2023<br /> Birthdays: Bishop Theitmar of Merseberg- 975AD, Arthur Balfour, Thomas Eakins, Maxfield Parrish, Stuart K. Hine 1899 missionary who wrote the hymn "How Great Thou Art", Woody Strode, Walter Payton, Walter Brennan, David Belasco, Adnan Khashoggi, Imam, Jack Gilford, Illena Douglas, Estelle Getty, Matt LeBlanc, Louise Brown the first "test-tube" baby-conceived by invitro-fertilization is 45<br /> <br /> Today is the Feast of Saint James, called San Diego or Santiago de Compostela in Spanish.<br /> <br /> 325 A.D. The Council of Nicea- The Roman Emperor Constantine called all the bishops of Christianity to answer the questions posed by the Arian (Gnostic) Christian sect. The Arrians asked: "If Jesus was God on Earth, then who was minding the store upstairs? And how can you kill God? Maybe he was just pretending to be dead..." They came up with the Nicene Creed (The Apostles Creed) and the Mystery of the Trinity, "One In Being with the Father" If you can't figure this out, a nun would be happy to rap your knuckles for asking.<br /> <br /> 1554- Queen Mary I of England "Bloody Mary" married King Philip II of Spain in Winchester Cathedral. Phillip didn’t linger long in England and Mary was much older than him, and beyond child bearing years.<br /> <br /> 1570- Czar Ivan IV demonstrated why his got the name Ivan the Terrible by ordering mass executions of his supposed enemies in Moscow. This day he had Boyar Prince Viskavati hanged from a gallows and slowly sliced up with knives, allowing him to live just long enough to watch Ivan rape his wife and daughter.<br /> <br /> 1593- After a bloody religious-civil war, Henry IV made himself King of all of France. But his capitol Paris was still holding out. When he asked why they were so stubborn in their resistance, they said it was because he was a Protestant. "Well then," the King said, ”Paris is well worth a Mass!”. So, he converted back to Catholicism. Henry’s family, the Bourbons, became the royal dynasty of France, and today is still on the throne of Spain. Recently the remains of Henry IV were found, a pierced ear for a pearl earring.<br /> <br /> 1788- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completed his Symphony #40 in G minor.<br /> <br /> 1792- THE BRUNSWICK MANIFESTO- The Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia sent armies invading France to help their brother-king Louis XVI put down the unruly French Revolution. This day the military commander of the invasion, Charles William, the Duke of Brunswick, issued a proclamation to the French people that if they didn’t knuckle under to their King like all good little peasants do he was going to kick their butts! He especially threatened Paris with “a memorable-vengeance". This arrogant threat enraged the French people and all but decided King Louis and Marie-Antoinette be executed. Danton and Marat called for a rising of the French nation, a levee en masse. So many men signed up to fight, recruiters ran out of ink. One future general Augureau, poked the pen into his vein and signed up in his own blood. The Duke of Brunswick was defeated by rampaging Frenchmen shouting Aux Armes-Citoyens!<br /> <br /> 1814- Battle of Lundy’s Lane. American forces defeated a British invasion force coming from Canada near Niagara Falls.<br /> <br /> 1822- General Augustin Iturbide has himself crowned Emperor of Mexico.<br /> <br /> 1846 -The Spanish-Californios residents of pueblo Los Angeles chase the U.S. occupying force out of town a second time.<br /> <br /> 1871- Samuel Colt patented his first revolver in 1836. Today he patented the "peacemaker", his most iconic Western sixgun. Gunfighters filed off the barrel sight so it wouldn't catch on your clothes during a quickdraw, and carried it “5 beans in the wheel" meaning while walking they kept it set at the one empty chamber, so it doesn't accidentally go off in the holster and shoot you in the foot, which was embarrassing. Most gunfighters carried it in their belts or a waist high holster. Wild Bill Hickock carried his 1860 Navy Colts backwards in a red sash. The familiar low-on-the-hip two gun holsters didn't become common until cowboys saw them in the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show in the 1880’s. <br /> Colonel Colt got very rich from his invention and had an annoying habit of shooting his guns off in courtrooms and restaurants like Yosemite Sam. Yee-Hah!<br /> <br /> 1871- The electric carousel was patented by Wilhelm Schneider, Davenport, Iowa <br /> <br /> 1894- The Sino Japanese War. The Japanese surprise attacked the Korean peninsula amphibiously at the Bay of Inchon, giving Douglas MacArthur the same idea 57 years later.<br /> <br /> 1897- Young writer Jack London went to the Klondike to look for gold. He didn’t find much gold, but did get material for a lot of good stories.<br /> <br /> 1898- The US Army invaded Puerto Rico. Spain had granted the island home rule but America took possession of it in the treaty ending the Spanish American War. It’s been a US commonwealth ever since. Puerto Ricans were given full US citizenship in 1917 and self government in 1942. <br /> <br /> 1909-THE WRISTWATCH- Frenchman Louis Bleriot flew the English Channel. Early pilots had no fuel gauge in their planes. They knew the rate that their plane burned fuel, so they kept a clock in the cockpit to mark the time. But a problem was the engine vibrations would rattle the clock to uselessness. Aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont asked his friend, Charles Cartier the jeweler, to make him a reliable timepiece free from vibrations. Cartier created a small watch that you could strap to your wrist with the clock face showing, the Wristwatch. By World War I wristwatches supplanted pocket watches as the standard male accessory.<br /> <br /> 1918- In Russia the anti-Communist White Guards entered Ykaterinburg one week too late to prevent the murder of Czar Nicholas II and his family. They discovered the bullet ridden blood soaked room and after capturing one of the Bolshevik agents involved in the murder spread the news of the crime to the world. Soviet apologists for years maintained that the murder of the Imperial Family was done upon the initiative of the local Soviet council under Commissar Yakovlev. But documents discovered in 1989 revealed the murders were a direct order from Lenin.<br /> <br /> 1920- The French Army occupied Damascus after Lawrence of Arabia and Faisal's All-Arab Congress government failed. Faisal's son was given the Kingdom of Mesopotamia (Iraq) after his claims to the Hejaz region were trumped by Saudi King Ibn Saud. The French would hold Syria as a colony until after World War II, which is why the Syrians have never been very pro-western since.<br /> <br /> 1927- The Tanaka Memorial- Japanese statesman Baron Tanaka spelled out for the Japanese government a strategy of conquest for the next twenty years, calling for Japan to achieve economic dominance by creating a Greater East Asian Economic Sphere from Korea to Australia. This document was considered by Anglo-American strategists the "Mein Kampf " of the Japanese militarists.<br /> <br /> 1934- Nazi agents assassinated the Austrian Chancellor Englebert Dolfuss for resisting Fascist encroachment and having a very silly name.<br /> <br /> 1936- Orchard Beach opened in the North Bronx.<br /> <br /> 1940- In Nazi occupied Paris, a Gestapo agent walked into the French offices of MGM studios and confiscated the six prints of "Gone With The Wind" sent from America. They were taken to Berlin for a screening for top Nazi officials. Gone with the Wind was one of Adolf Hitler’s favorite movies. For the entire period of the Occupation, Henri Langlois, founder of the Cinémathèque Française, hid a surviving print of Gone With The Wind under his bed. The day Paris was liberated, the Cinémathèque was reopened with the first public screening.<br /> <br /> 1943 - Benito Mussolini was overthrown as leader of Italy and imprisoned, while the Italian government tried to open negotiations with the allies. Hitler responded by sending commandos to rescue Mussolini, and militarily occupying Italy.<br /> <br /> 1944- Operation Cobra- The Allies break out of the Normandy beachheads and unleash Patton's fresh Third army into the French interior countryside. Between now and the Battle of the Bulge, the German Army can do little more than fall back to the Rhine.<br /> <br /> 1946- MARTIN &amp; LEWIS- Singer Dean Martin had met young comedian Jerry Lewis the year before at a club in New York City. This day in Atlantic City’s 500 Club they debuted as a team when Lewis suggested to the club owner that Martin would be a good replacement for a singer who called in sick. They became a major sensation, with movies, records and TV shows. They hired young writer Norman Lear and Ed Simmons to write for them.<br /> <br /> 1951- CBS conducted the first television broadcast in color. NBC made color TV popular in the mid 1960's.<br /> <br /> 1953- Chuck Jones’ "Duck Dodgers in the 24 and 1/2 Century".<br /> <br /> 1953- New York City subway fares rise from 10 cents to 15 cents. Subway tokens were issued for the first time.<br /> <br /> 1956- Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis performed for the last time as a duo at NY’s Copacabana. Exactly ten years from their first appearance.<br /> <br /> 1958- Jack Warner cheated his two surviving brothers Harry and Al out of their share of Warner Bros Studios. The three had agreed to all retire together and sell to an investor group led by a man named Sememenko. But by a pre-arranged deal with Sememenko, Jack then bought him out and named himself President of Warner Bros. When brother Harry read the news in Variety the next day, it gave him a heart attack. He lingered for a week then died this day. The family never spoke to their brother Jack again. His wife Rhea said “He didn’t die. Jack killed him.”<br /> <br /> 1959-"The Kitchen Debates" Vice President Richard Nixon traded catty comments with Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev at the American kitchen of the future exhibit in a Moscow Trade Show. <br /> <br /> 1965- Folk Music star Bob Dylan was booed off stage at the Newport Folk Festival for using an electric guitar. Alan Lomax, the great Smithsonian Folk Music historian got into a fistfight over it, and Pete Seeger threatened to pull the electric plugs.<br /> <br /> 1968- Pope Paul VI published the encyclical Humane Vitae, which set the Church policy against all forms of birth control other than The Rhythm Method. No to the Pill, condoms, and other contraception. This made the Pope a real drag to the Swinging Sixties.<br /> <br /> 1969 – Senator Edward Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident a week after the Chappaquiddick car accident that killed his campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne.<br /> <br /> 1972- The story was broken of the Tuskegee Experiments- that in the late 1940’s and 50’s the US Government did medical experiments on unwilling humans, mostly African American men, injecting with them with syphilis and other diseases to study their effects. One went mad and jumped out of a window. President Clinton officially apologized to the survivors in 1993.<br /> <br /> 1975 - "A Chorus Line," longest-running Broadway show (6,137), premiered.<br /> <br /> 1984- Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became 1st woman to walk in space.<br /> <br /> 1984- The groundbreaking CGI film The Adventures of Andre and Wally-B premiered at the Siggraph convention in Minneapolis. Directed by Alvy Ray Amith and the computer designers who would eventually form Pixar. They were aided by new hire John Lasseter, who brought his traditional Disney animation skills to forming credible character animation on computer.<br /> <br /> 1985- Movie star Rock Hudson publicly acknowledged that he had AIDS. He had collapsed in France and he made the announcement while being treated at a French clinic. He was the first major public figure to acknowledge he had the mysterious new disease. People then were so afraid of this mysterious disease and how it was transferred, everyone’s initial response was to shun the sufferer. The French-American hospital insisted Hudson leave, so he called his friends Pres. Ronald and Nancy Reagan for an airlift to a U.S. military hospital. They ignored him. Rock Hudson had to pay out of his own pocket to hire a 747 airliner to fly him directly home to LA. <br /> <br /> 1990 - Roseanne Barr sang the National Anthem at a San Diego Padre game. As a joke she impersonated ball players by spitting, grabbing her crotch and screeching during her rendition. It didn’t go over well with the more patriotically minded in that very conservative town.<br /> <br /> 2000- An Air France Concord supersonic jetliner exploded on takeoff, killing everyone on board. The investigation proved a piece of metal debris that fell off the previous Continental jetliner exploded one of the Concords tires and the resultant wreckage was sucked into the plane’s engine. Both Britain and France suspended SST flights for over a year and in 2003 discontinued them forever as being too expensive.<br /> <br /> ===================================================<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean to say, my name is mud?<br /> <br /> Answer: Dr. Samuel Mudd was local Virginia doctor that treated John Wilkes Booth’s broken ankle after he assassinated Abraham Lincoln. Mudd claimed to know nothing about the assassination and said he simply set the leg of a man who came to his house early one morning. There were enough inconsistencies in his story to connect him to the murder and, conversely, enough to surmise that he was innocent of the assassination plot. He was found guilty in the military court that tried all of the people accused of the murder plot and was sentenced to life in prison. He was spared, by one vote of being hanged. After four years in prison in Dry Tortugas, the American version of Devils Island, Dr. Mudd was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson. <br /> Since then, to say “My name is Mudd” is a way of saying I am really screwed now.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 24 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6211 <p>Question: What does it mean to say, my name is mud?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: What Asia-Minor? Where is Asia-Minor?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 7/24/2023<br /> Birthdays: Simon Bolivar, Amelia Earhart, Alexander Dumas fils, Ambrose Bierce, Robert Graves, Pat Oliphant, Bela Abzug, Zelda Fitzgerald, Ruth Buzzi, Lynda Carter is 72, Chief Dan George, Robert Hays, Gus Van Sant, Anna Paquin, Patty Jenkins, Elizabeth Moss, J-Lo Jennifer Lopez is 53<br /> <br /> 634 A.D. Accession of Omar as the third Caliph. This event caused the great split in the Moslem world. After the death of the Prophet, his first successor was his best friend and companion during the Hegira, Abu Bakir. But after his death the unrelated general and second-best friend Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, nicknamed "the Just" was nominated successor.<br /> Mohammed's daughter Fatima and son-in-law and cousin Ali Ibn-Abu Taleb split off with their followers. After the death of Ali and his two sons Hassan and Hussein, their group under the third Fatimid Caliph, Osman Ibn-'Affan became the Shiite sect of Islam, while the main branch under Omar became the Sunnite. The rivalry was similar to the Protestant-Catholic split in Western Christendom. <br /> <br /> 1567- Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned by the Scots and forced to abdicate her throne to her 1-year-old son James VI. Mary was raised in exile at the French court and her autocratic French ways and Catholic religion didn’t sit well with the Presbyterian Scots lords and their chaplain John Knox. So as soon as the succession was secure with a baby Mary was bundled off to prison and later turned over to Elizabeth of England for execution.<br /> <br /> 1568- Don Carlos was the eldest son of King Phillip II of Spain, the most powerful monarch in the world at the time. But Carlos and his dad didn’t get along, it all started when the King Phillip decided to marry the 16 year old bride Margaret of France, originally intended for Carlos. When Carlos showed signs of mental instability, he decided to take the side of Dutch rebels and made noises like he wanted to overthrow his father. Phillip had him imprisoned. He died of dysentery after fasting three days then gorging on meat and ice water, but many in Europe accused his father of poisoning him.<br /> <br /> 1656- Jewish philosopher Benedict Spinoza was excommunicated by the Rabbis of the Portuguese Synagogue in the Hague. His radical ideas of God made Jews, Catholics, Protestants and even some other humanists attack him, but his ideas formed the basis for modern rationalist philosophy. A German writer called Spinoza “Der Gott bedrunken Mensch” The Man Drunk on God”. Albert Einstein, Kant, Goethe and Voltaire were all inspired by the philosophy of Spinoza.<br /> <br /> 1701- After paddling in birchbark canoes 49 days from Quebec, French explorer Antoine de al Mothe-Cadillac and several families founded the City of Detroit.<br /> <br /> 1758 – Mr. George Washington Esq., admitted to the Virginia House of Burgess.<br /> <br /> 1784- On his way home from France after the American Revolution, Dr Benjamin Franklin stopped at the British Isle of Wight. While there he met his only son William Franklin, the former Royal Governor of New Jersey. While Franklin was a leading patriot, William stayed loyal to Britain and suffered imprisonment and exile. The two men hated one another, they only agreed to meet to humor grandson Temple Franklin. <br /> After an all-night argument nothing was settled. Ben Franklin never spoke or wrote to his son ever again. When old Ben died, he left William out of his will. “It is only what he would have done to me.” Temple Franklin never recovered any salaries Congress owed Ben Franklin, but he did inherit land in New Jersey from his Tory father William.<br /> <br /> 1824- The Harrisburg Pennsylvanian published the results of the first ever US public opinion poll- a clear lead for Andrew Jackson for president.<br /> <br /> 1832- French immigrant Benjamin Booneville led the first wagon train across the Rocky Mountains in Southern Wyoming. Booneville was a US Army captain who answered personally to President Jackson. Many believed he used the wagon train as an opportunity to observe British power in the Northwest. <br /> <br /> 1847- The Mormons reach the Great Salt Lake. After trekking 1,500 miles for 17 months since Illinois, leader Brigham Young said, "Enough. This is the place.”<br /> <br /> 1847 -Rotary-type printing press patented by Richard March Hoe, of New York.<br /> <br /> 1901- William Porter, also known as O. Henry, was released from jail after doing time for embezzlement. While in jail, he discovered he had a talent for writing.<br /> <br /> 1923- Treaty of Lausanne- The western powers ended the Greek-Turkish War and confirmed the Turkish Republic's borders from the old Ottoman Empire. The Turks kept Anatolia and their Aegean coastline, The French got Syria, The Greeks the Ionian islands, the British got Palestine, the Bolshevik Russians got Yerevan, and the Armenians and Kurds got nothing. Lawrence of Arabia was present but realized after a while no one was seriously listening to him, so he left in disgust. <br /> <br /> 1934- Cecil B. DeMille’s epic film Cleopatra premiered. <br /> <br /> 1938 - Instant coffee invented.<br /> <br /> 1948- Warner's "Haredevil Hare" featuring the first Marvin the Martian. Now where did I put my Pew Illudium Q 36 Explosive Space Modulator? <br /> <br /> 1965- Bob Dylan released the song “Like a Rolling Stone”.<br /> <br /> 1966- Actor Montgomery Clift died of a heart attack at age 45. When his private nurse Lorenzo James said goodnight to him at 1:00AM, he asked him if he wanted to watch his old movie The Misfits on TV. Clift’s last words were, “Absolutely Not!” <br /> <br /> 1967- Old French President Charles DeGaulle was on a state visit to Canada. While giving an address to a huge crowd in Quebec City he used the same words he used in 1940 to call for French freedom from Nazi occupation to voice his tacit support of French-Canadian independence: “Vive Le France, Vive Quebec, Vive Quebeque Libre!” The Ottawa government cut short the remainder of his trip and sent him back to Paris. But his words set the province aflame. All the separatist sentiment dividing Canada for next two decades-national referendums, the Meech Lake accords, the FLQ conspiracy and the Quebec Separatist movement, can trace their beginnings to those three words said on that day.<br /> <br /> 1969- After successfully landing on the moon and returning to Earth, Apollo 11 safely splashed down in the ocean.<br /> <br /> 1980- In London’s Dorchester Hotel, comedian and actor Peter Sellers died of a heart attack. He was 54. <br /> <br /> 1983- George Brett of the Kansas City Royals had a second homerun he hit nullified after Yankee manager Billy Martin complains he had too much pine tar on his bat.<br /> <br /> 1985- Walt Disney's "The Black Cauldron" premiered. Billed as Walt Disney’s greatest animation feature in decades, its first week it came in third to PeeWee’s Big Adventure, and The Care Bears Movie. It’s failure almost ended Disney animation.<br /> <br /> 1998- Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan opened.<br /> <br /> 1998- Russell Weston was a schizophrenic who believed Navy Seals were hiding in his cornfield. He had killed all his mother’s 25 cats because they had fleas. This day he went to Washington and tried to shoot his way into the US Congress, At the metal detector he killed two security guards before he was brought down in a hail of bullets. <br /> <br /> 2002- Only once since the Civil War had a U.S. Congressman been officially expelled. Today the House of Representatives voted 420 to 1 to expel Congressman James Trafficante for his conviction on bribery and extortion charges and having the worst haircut on Capitol Hill. <br /> <br /> 2005- American Lance Armstrong won the Tour du France bicycle race for an unprecedented 7th time, even after surviving testicular cancer that had spread to his spine and brain. Steroids or not, it was still one hell of an achievement. After he confessed to juicing (using performance enhancing drugs like steroids), all his medals were taken away.<br /> ==================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What Asia-Minor? Where is Asia-Minor?<br /> <br /> Answer: To the Greek and Roman mapmakers, the continent of Asia began on the west coast of Turkey. So the entire Turkish peninsula, called the province of Anatolia, was called Asia Minor. Or the Beginning of Asia.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 23 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6210 <p>Quiz: What Asia-Minor? Where is Asia-Minor?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: The US soldier who defected to North Korea brings up the 1950s concept of brain-washing. What was brain washing?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 7/23/2023<br /> Birthdays: Ethiopian Emperor Rastafari Halie Selassie "the Lion of Judah", Raymond Chandler, Jackson Beck the voice of Bluto, Raymond Booth, Don Drysdale, Gloria DeHaven, Arthur Treacher, Pee Wee Reese, Bob Fosse, Harry Cohn, Don Imus, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Slash, Marlon Wayans, Woody Harrelson is 63, Edie McClurg, Daniel Radcliffe is 35<br /> <br /> Today is the Ancient Roman Festival of Neptune, God of the Sea.<br /> <br /> 1599- Michel Caravaggio received his first commission for a painting.<br /> <br /> 1645- Russian Czar Michael Romanov died, founder of the Romanov dynasty.<br /> <br /> 1846- Because he did not agree with the U.S. War with Mexico, writer Henry David Thoreau refused to pay his taxes. A local constable fined him. The event caused him to write his famous piece "On Civil Disobedience" which inspired Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Ang Sung su Chi.<br /> <br /> 1866- The Cincinnati Reds Baseball club formed. The oldest continuous professional sports team in the U.S.<br /> <br /> 1868- The 14th Amendment ratified, giving all African Americans the right to vote. It just wasn’t enforced until 1965.<br /> <br /> 1880 - 1st commercial hydroelectric power planet begins, Grand Rapids, Mich<br /> <br /> 1885- Ulysses Grant died at age 63 of throat cancer. He smoked up to 22 cigars a day. Despite being a great general, he was a bad politician and a worse businessman. Bankrupt after trusting speculators who swindled him, Grant saw writing his memoirs as the only way to save his family from his bad debts. Writing up to 50 pages a day in constant pain, he refused any painkillers to not cloud his mind. But he coated his throat daily with a mixture of salt water and cocaine. He completed his book only four days before he died. It was published by ex-confederate Mark Twain, and immediately became a best seller.<br /> <br /> 1886- This was the day Bowery saloonkeeper Steve Brodie claimed he jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge and lived to talk about it. <br /> <br /> 1888 - John Boyd Dunlop patents the pneumatic rubber tire.<br /> <br /> 1892- The business partner of millionaire steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie was attorney Henry Clay Frick. Frick was charged by Carnegie to resolve the union issues at his steel works while he vacationed in Europe. Frick set off the Homestead Massacre, hiring thugs to shoot workers and their families who protested a 20% pay cut. Frick claimed he was merely the front man for Carnegie. Carnegie goes down in history as a great philanthropist. This day a Russian immigrant anarchist named Sasha Berksman entered Frick’s office and shot him twice. Frick recovered. <br /> <br /> 1894- Japanese troops occupied the Korean Imperial Palace. After years of conflict, they annexed Korea in 1905. Japan held Korea until 1945. <br /> <br /> 1904 – The Ice Cream Cone created by Charles E. Menches during the LA Purchase Expo. Also introduced there was Dr. Pepper.<br /> <br /> 1908 -Turkish Sultan Abdul Hamid IV is deposed by a group of young army officers demanding modern reforms, called the Young Turks.<br /> <br /> 1914-The Austro-Hungarian Empire sent Serbia its final ultimatum. After their Archduke's assassination in Sarajevo by Bosnian- Serb terrorists, the Austrian government deliberately made their demands so humiliating that Serbia would have to reject it and Austria could cleanly declare war. Austria wanted to beab t up the little nation it saw as encouraging revolution among the Slavic parts of their empire. But Serbia had an alliance that would bring Russia into the conflict. Austria had an agreement that would bring Germany into war with Russia. <br /> Once the Austrians got proof that the assassins were in the pay of the Serbian Secret Service, if they had simply declared war then no country would have minded. The Austrian Emperor Franz Josef said: "Russia will not step in to protect regicides." But Austria wasting weeks publicly posturing and intriguing, so Russia, Germany and France would have to get involved or lose face. The Russian ambassador said to the Austrians-" You are trying to set fire to Europe!" When German Kaiser Wilhelm read the ultimatum he said-" Spirited note, what?"<br /> <br /> 1919- At the request of his Secretary of War McAdoo, President Woodrow Wilson named the recently concluded great war against Germany as the "World War." It wasn’t called World War I until in Nov 1942, when Time Magazine labeled the new conflict of 1939-45 World War II. Franklin Roosevelt thought it" too depressing, like we were bound to have more."<br /> <br /> 1920- Kenya declared a crown colony of the British Empire.<br /> <br /> 1927 – Reacting to a public finally tired of the Tin Lizzy Model T and increased competition, the Ford Motor Co sold the first Model A car.<br /> <br /> 1932-The Birthday of Fritos. Texas ice cream maker Elmer Doolin bought a recipe for corn chips from a Mexican fry cook for $100 dollars and started the Frito-Lay Company.<br /> <br /> 1936- Aviator Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh arrived in Berlin to begin a state visit of Germany as the personal guests of Adolph Hitler. Lindbergh praised the German Luftwaffe as the "greatest air force in the world". Only three Americans ever got the Third Reich’s highest civilian medal- Lindbergh, Henry Ford and the Chairman of the US Chamber of Commerce.<br /> <br /> 1937 – Scientists at Yale University announced the isolation of the pituitary hormone.<br /> <br /> 1937-TENNIS DIPLOMACY- The US and Nazi Germany spent much of the late 1930’s testing their competing philosophies on sports playing fields- Democracy vs Aryan Racial Purity. First Jesse Owens at the Olympics, then prizefighters Joe Louis and Max Schmeling, this day even the semi-finals of the Davis Cup Tennis championship became another Yankees vs Nazis test. <br /> At Wimbledon England, American Don Budge and German Baron Gottfried von Cramm played the game of their lives. Hitler had personally telephoned Von Cramm the night before and ordered him to win. Ironically, von Cramm was anti-Nazi. Don Budge won after 6 nail-biting tied sets. Queen Mary was present, and Hitler was glued to his radio. At one-point American tennis great Bill Tilden who had been hired to coach the German team signaled that the match was in the bag. This provoked such an angry reaction from the audience that entertainers Jack Benny and Ed Sullivan tried to climb the fence to kick Tilden’s ass. But Budge came from behind to win. Von Cramm took defeat like a gentleman but Hitler didn’t. Shortly upon his return to the fatherland, the Gestapo arrested him for homosexual activity. He was released only after a campaign of protest letters from the worlds top athletes, organized by his old opponent, Dan Budge.<br /> <br /> 1942- Fuehrer directive #45. Adolf Hitler ordered General Von Paulus in Russia to turn his Sixth Army from his drive on the oil fields of Baku and take the city of Stalingrad.<br /> <br /> 1944- To counter charges that concentration camps are bad places, the Nazis invited the International Red Cross and neutral journalists to tour a model camp called Theresinstadt. The camp was a dummy with little white picket fences and flower pots in the barracks windows. The ICRC found conditions "moderately comfortable". After the Red Cross left, the inmates were all shipped off to Auschwitz. <br /> <br /> 1951-Thelonius Monk recorded the seminal jazz album Straight, No Chaser.<br /> <br /> 1952- Egyptian King Farouk abdicated to a group of army officers led by General Mohammed Naikeeb and Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser. Britain had ruled Egypt since 1880 and after withdrawing in 1936 they continued to control Egyptian politics through the Albanian-born ruler King Farouk. It was the first time Egypt was ruled by an Egyptian in 2,250 years. Gamal Nasser would make Egypt a leader in the Third World non-aligned movement, fought wars against Israel and nationalized the Suez Canal. Nassar later said: "Whenever I asked people 'What should I do first to build the new Egypt? they would only tell me who I should kill."<br /> <br /> 1966- The comedy song "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha, Ha!" released. The singer was Napoleon XIV.<br /> <br /> 1967- The city of Detroit exploded into race riots after white police raided a house party at 12th &amp; Claremont for returned black Vietnam veterans. Forty-three died and it took 20,000 soldiers to restore order. It was the worst rioting in the city's history in a summer of race riots in other major American cities like Newark and Washington D.C.<br /> <br /> 1968- Fred Blasie won an unprecedented fifth World Wrestling Championship belt. Blasie later gained more fame for recording the comedy song "Pencil Necked Geeks" and beating up comedian Andy Kaufman in the ring for calling wrestling a hoax.<br /> <br /> 1974- The junta of military officers ruling Greece since the time of George Papadopoulos collapsed. Greece held free elections.<br /> <br /> 1982- Actor Vic Morrow and two children are killed by a stunt helicopter while filming "Twilight Zone, the movie". The last scripted line before his death was "I’ll Keep you safe kids, I swear to God!" The children were being worked into the early morning hours without a caretaker supervisor in defiance of the Coogan Laws. Director John Landis was investigated but exonerated. <br /> <br /> 1984- Vanessa Williams the first black Miss America, resigned after a photo spread of her in a nude lesbian scenario in Penthouse magazine. She denied any impropriety until the photos were published widely. <br /> <br /> 1986 - Britain's Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson called Fergie. They divorced later and she moved to the US and became the spokesperson for Weight Watchers.<br /> <br /> 1995- The Discovery of Comet Hale-Bop. It’s called that because it was discovered almost simultaneously by two separate astronomers-Alan Hale in New Mexico and Thomas Bop in Arizona. The comet’s passing close by the Earth was the signal for a messianic cult in San Diego called the Heaven's Gate to commit mass suicide by eating poison laced chocolate pudding. They felt that suicide would enable them to join aliens flying in UFOs in the comet’s tail. CNN mogul Ted Turner said of the cult: "Oh well, one hundred fewer nuts in the world…"<br /> <br /> 1999- The Inspector Gadget Movie starring Matthew Broderick opened.<br /> <br /> 2003-THE DOWNING STREET MEMO- British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his cabinet had a meeting about the war in Iraq. During that meeting Blairs’ people openly discussed as fact that the George W. Bush administration had cooked the data as an excuse for their invasion. “Their case is thin.” This while the White House was loudly declaring that war was its last resort. When the Downing St memo was revealed in 2005, the story was quickly buried by the complacent U.S. media.<br /> <br /> 2004- Two armed men entered the Munch Museum in Norway and stole Edvard Munch’s masterpiece The Scream at gunpoint. It was recovered with some water damage three years later.<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: The US soldier who defected to North Korea brings up the 1950s concept of brain-washing. What was brain washing?<br /> <br /> Answer: Brain washing means changing a person’s point of behavior by severe psychological pressure, torture, drugs, or other nefarious means. Whether brain washing actually works like it does in movies like The Manchurian Candidate has never been proven.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 21 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6209 <p>Question: What does it mean to be “ rich as Croesus”?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz Answered below: What movie was NOT directed by Sergio Leone? The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Duck you Sucker!, Hang em High. Once Upon a Time in America.<br /> ---------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 7/21/2023<br /> Birthdays: Ernest Hemingway, Issac Stern, Marshal McCluhan, Don Knotts, Janet Reno, Gary Trudeau the creator of Doonesbury, Eugen Shuftan inventor of the "Shuftan Effect", a cheap way of combining actors with miniatures by shooting through mirrors. Edward Herman, Robin Williams, Josh Harnett, Norman Jewison<br /> <br /> Happy National Zippo Lighter Day. Smoking is bad but Zippos are cool- another one of life’s mysteries.<br /> <br /> 365AD- The Egyptian city of Alexandria was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami. This may have toppled the famous Pharos lighthouse. <br /> <br /> 1588-the Spanish Armada set sail from Lisbon, Seville, Corunna and Cadiz to attack England. One of the sailors was playwright and poet Lope De Vega.<br /> <br /> 1605- The false Dmitri crowned Czar in Moscow. Dmitri was a Lithuanian priest named Grishka who claimed to be the dead child of Ivan the Terrible come back to life. His claim was backed up with a powerful Polish magnate's private army, the Mniszechs. He captured Moscow as Czar Boris Gudunov died. But they couldn't hold it long.<br /> <br /> 1784- Abigail Adams went by coach from the English Channel via Canterbury to London to join her husband John Adams. Adams was to assume his post as first ambassador to the Court of Saint James from the new nation of the United States. Abigail wrote of her coach journey how when they passed the area called Blackheath there was fear of robbers and highwaymen. She saw one robber captured and shuddered that he would soon be hanged. She wrote in her diary:” It is good that such terrible things do not happen in America!” Why, women alone travel the roads in perfect safety!” <br /> <br /> 1798- "Soldiers! Forty Centuries look down upon you! “The Battle of the Pyramids- Napoleon's cannon mowed down the Mamelukes, who had ruled Egypt since the Crusades. He was so impressed with their courage that he later enlisted a corps of them in his own army. It was speculated around this time the Sphinx lost its nose. French troops used the Sphinx for target practice. The battle was actually fought a distance from the Pyramids, but Nappy disliked the title Battle of Embaba’s Melon Patch, so Battle of the Pyramids it was. <br /> <br /> 1821- After ten years as Prince Regent. George IV was finally crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey, but without his Queen Caroline. They couldn't stand one another and he was trying to divorce her. So, when she showed up in her state carriage for the coronation, on the kings orders the Lords and Peers rushed to shut the cathedral doors, leaving her out in the crowd of spectators. <br /> <br /> 1861- THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN or MANASSAS JUNCTION- First major engagement of the Civil War. Irwin McDowell's Yankees and Pierre Beauregard's Confederates had unknowingly adopted the exact same battle plan, feint with right and strike around the left. They would have completely marched around each other if they hadn't blundered together. The North was so confident of victory Washington society turned out with picnic baskets to watch the fun. <br /> What they saw was a horrible Union defeat and they were caught in the mob of panicked soldiers running back to the Capitol. They later called it called the Great Skeedadddle. Uniforms weren't standard yet and many states sent their men in colorful militia costumes. The union men from Wisconsin wore grey and the Rebels from Pensacola Florida wore blue. Both were shot at by their own sides. Rebel General Thomas Jackson was holding off union assaults when a dying general shouted, "Look, there stands Jackson like a stone wall!" The nickname stuck. <br /> Stonewall Jackson had told his men:" When you charge, howl like furies." For the first time the famous Rebel Yell was heard. Confederate President Jefferson Davis was so nervous he rushed to the battlefield in a locomotive. When he arrived on the scene he tried to make a speech to rally the spirits of some ragged soldiers he thought had fled. Turned out they were Stonewall Jackson's veterans, just resting after they won the battle for him. <br /> Bull Run could have been an American Waterloo, because the Yankee army was completely destroyed, and nothing stood between the southerners and the White House, only 40 miles away. But the gray-backs were also disorganized and exhausted, so the pursuit was called off. The Civil War would not be won in one big battle but would drag on for four bloody years.<br /> <br /> 1865- The Civil War over and Abraham Lincoln dead, the hard line cabinet of Pres. Andrew Johnson voted to put Confederate ex-president Jefferson Davis on trial for treason. Former lawyer Davis was hoping for just such a trial; so he could force the issue of the Constitutional legality of secession out into the open and maybe even get a ruling from the Supreme Court. It was just for these reasons that cooler heads prevailed and the treason charge was never acted upon. After two years in prison Davis was quietly released and allowed to retire. <br /> <br /> 1884- In one of the dirtiest elections in U.S. history, the New York Post broke the story of Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland fathered a child out of wedlock and abandone<br /> <br /> d the mother. Cleveland admitted paternity but won election anyway, because the Republican James G. Blaine was even worse. Just as Cleveland pioneered the Democratic preoccupation with sex, Blaine pioneered the cozy relationship between the Republicans and big business. He had taken so many kickbacks, his nickname was the Tatooed Man. A leading Protestant divine stood with Blaine and accused the Democratic Party of being “ The Party of Rum, Romanism and Rebellion." Every Irishman in the country immediately voted for Cleveland. (around forty per cent of the population of New York alone, was Irish at the time). Republicans chanted "Ma, Ma! Where’s My Pa!- Dems countered" He’s Going to the White House, Ha Ha Ha!" another ditty was: "Mary is healthy and so is the Kid, We Voted for Cleveland and we’re damn glad we did!" <br /> <br /> 1917- Ford introduced their first truck, the Model TT. It weighed one ton and had a new innovation not in regular automobiles, a reverse gear.<br /> <br /> 1936- Republican Spanish troops besiege the Fascist fortress of ALCAZAR. They maintained a telephone hookup with the commander, Colonel Moscardo, to try and convince him to surrender. At one point they told him they were going to shoot his son if he didn't give up. The colonel said: " Put my son on the phone!" Hello son?" Put your faith in God, shout Viva Espana, and Die like a Man!" Moscardo never surrendered and the siege was broken.<br /> <br /> 1939- Disney short “The Pointer” directed by Clyde Geronimi. Mickey gets whites in his eyes. <br /> <br /> 1944- Democratic Presidential Convention nominates Sen. Harry Truman of Missouri to be Franklin Roosevelt's Vice President on the second ballot. As early as December 1943 the Democratic party leaders knew FDR was a dying man. Whoever was his running mate would in all likelihood become President. With World War II not finished and the United Nations to create, this was a pretty important choice.<br /> The incumbent Vice President Henry Wallace was an eccentric who had a guru, sent field scientists to China and India to look for traces of teenage Jesus, but was the choice of the liberal wing of New Dealers. Democratic Party Chairman Robert Haneghan pulled every string he had to get Wallace off the ticket and Truman on. Truman himself didn't want the job and Roosevelt was promising it to everyone he met.<br /> At last Truman agreed, and Haneghan barred a pro-Wallace demonstration. He even sent a man with an ax upstairs to threaten the convention organist to stop playing "The Corn Grows High in IOWA" (Wallace's home state). Truman talked to Roosevelt only once or twice before FDR died and Truman had to decide whether to drop the A-Bomb and form the post-war world. Wallace tried a third party presidential run with Chet "the Singing Cowboy" Taylor as running mate in 1948. Robert Haneghan said-"The only epitaph I want on my tombstone is: AT LEAST HE PREVENTED HENRY WALLACE FROM BECOMING PRESIDENT!"<br /> <br /> 1954- The Fellowship of the Ring, first book of J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings, first published. Tolkien’s friend C.S. Lewis said the book “came forth like thunder on a summers day..”<br /> <br /> 1954- The Geneva Accords were signed, dividing French IndoChina into North and South Vietnams. This division was only to be until elections were organized, which never happened. This only set the stage for the terrible Vietnam War that lasted until 1975. <br /> <br /> 1959- Judge Frederick van Pelt-Bryan ruled that D.H. Lawrence’s novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover was not pornography and therefore could be sent through the U.S. postal system.<br /> <br /> 1969- The Lunar module had landed on the 20th. Buzz Aldrin admitted years later that Neil was the first to walk on the moon, but he was the first to pee on the moon. Houston control said, “I can see you’re smiling there, Buzz…”<br /> <br /> 1970- In Egypt the Aswan High Dam completed, finally controlling the annual summer flooding of the Nile.<br /> <br /> 1971, The New York Times ran an article about Taki 183 on the front page of its inside section, titled "Taki 183 Spawns Pen Pals. Taki was the first graffiti tag artist. Taki was a nickname of a man named Demetrius from 183 St. In the late 1960s-1970s his tag seemed to be everywhere. Although graffiti has been around since the Egyptians and Romans, this helped spark the modern fascination.<br /> <br /> 1974- Constantin Karamanlis returned to Greece from exile to signal the restoration of Greek democracy after the rule of the Colonels Junta fell.<br /> <br /> 1980- SAG went on strike for actor's residuals from videocassette and cable TV sales.<br /> The actors hit the bricks twice more, in 1988, 2000, 2008. And now in 2023.<br /> ===========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What movie was NOT directed by Sergio Leone? The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Duck you Sucker!, Hang em High. Once Upon a Time in America.<br /> <br /> Answer: Hang em’ High was directed by a man named Tom Poston. Clint Eastwood had a falling out with Leone, and wanted to do a spaghetti western without him.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 20 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6208 <p>Quiz: What movie was NOT directed by Sergio Leone? The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Duck you Sucker!, Hang em High. Once Upon a Time in America.<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What part of a medieval castle was the keep?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 7/20/2023<br /> Birthdays: Petrarch, Sir Edmund Hilary, Lord Elgin, Quaker Anne Hutchinson, Natalie Wood, Theda Bara the Vamp, Diana Rigg, Dick Lucas, Carlos Santana, Lord Reith- the first Director General of the BBC. Carlos Alarzaqui, Giselle Bunchen is 43, Sandra Oh is 52, Harrison Ellenshaw is 78 <br /> <br /> 1402- Near Ankara (Angora), the armies of the Ottoman Sultan of Turkey were destroyed by a Tartar invasion led by Tamerlane.<br /> <br /> 1420- Czech leader John Ziska led the Hussite rebels to defeat the German Emperor Sigmund at Witkowo Hill, freeing his besieged capital Prague. Ziska led armies in battle despite losing both eyes in fighting. When he finally died, he left instructions to have his body skinned, and the hide dried, and stretched onto a war drum. <br /> <br /> 1773-The Vatican outlaws the Society of Jesus, aka the Jesuits. The pope had gotten tired of all their intrigues and foreign entanglements. They went into hiding until they re-emerged reformed in 1820. <br /> <br /> 1804- Sir Richard Owen born. He was the British scientist who coined the term Dinosaur for all the big fossils being dug up. Yet he came to oppose Darwin’s theories of evolution. He believed dinosaurs were the creatures from Noah’s Flood who for some reason missed the boat.<br /> <br /> 1858 – Admission first charged to see a baseball game, 50 cents. NY beat Brooklyn 22-18.<br /> <br /> 1868 - 1st use of tax stamps on cigarettes.<br /> <br /> 1869- Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad and in the Holy Land first published. If you ever wondered what was the most popular book in America during the 19th Century, it was not Moby Dick, War &amp; Peace, Jane Eyre or David Copperfield. The all time best selling book in America during the Victorian Era was a sappy travel diary" Tent Life in the Holy Land "by a forgotten author William Prime. Twain had taken The Grand Tour abroad that was fashionable with the American wealthy classes and thought he’d have some fun recounting his own trip” To cross the Sea of Galilee by boat, a big local Arab demanded eight dollars for use of his miserable conveyance. No wonder Christ preferred to walk.”<br /> <br /> 1877- Russians besieged Turkish held Plevna in Bosnia.<br /> <br /> 1879- Joel Chandler Harris published in the Atlanta Constitution "The Story of Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Fox as Told by Uncle Remus". The first Uncle Remus stories. In Georgia Harris collected the stories from interviewing African American storytellers in the slave quarters. They felt comfortable speaking with him because he was the illegitimate son of an Irish immigrant. Pres. Teddy Roosevelt said, "Presidents may come and presidents may go, but Uncle Remus stays put. Georgia has done a great many things for the Union, but she has never done more than when she gave Mr. Joel Chandler Harris to American literature." <br /> <br /> 1881- Sitting Bull returned to U.S. territory and surrendered. He and his people had been residing in Canada since the Little Big Horn. When Canadian officials first challenged them being in Canada, Bull produced out of his medicine bag old treaty medals stamped with King George III on them. He said, "We also are the children of the Great Redcoat Mother." <br /> <br /> 1919- Pancho Villa assassinated while driving in his new Dodge. Even with 16 bullets in him he still managed to kill one of his attackers. He was 45. Three years later someone broke into his grave and stole his head.<br /> <br /> 1920- On the last day of testimony at the Scopes Monkey Trial defense attorney Clarence Darrow surprised everyone by calling prosecuting attorney William Jennings Bryan to the witness stand. In a dramatic all day debate Darrow and Bryan grappled over the validity of the Bible vs, Charles Darwin’s theory of Evolution. Darrow ultimately lost the case, but this debate made Bryan look foolish. The confrontation was dramatized in the 1955 stage play “Inherit the Wind”, later made into a famous movie by Stanley Kramer.<br /> <br /> 1944- THE GENERALS PLOT- German generals try to assassinate Adolf Hitler, take over the Third Reich and declare a ceasefire with the Allies. During a conference at Hitler’s strategic HQ at Rastenberg Prussia, one-eyed Count von Stauffenburg planted a suitcase-bomb next to Hitler's feet and excused himself. But someone bumped against it and moved it out of the way. After watching the massive explosion Stauffenburg then relayed the code word "Valkyrie". This meant the plotters could begin to arrest key Nazis, disarm the SS and form a provisional government with Field Marshal Rommel as President. <br /> In the explosion many were killed but amazingly Hitler only suffered a punctured eardrum and a stiff left arm. That night he went on nationwide radio to announce he was all right, and even read the weather in that day's newspaper to prove he was not pre-recorded. The coup plotters were rounded up and executed, some hung slowly with piano wire. Their deaths were filmed for Hitler's amusement at home. Rommel was forced to commit suicide. After 5000 arrests the purge was halted only when an allied bombing hit the courtroom and blew up the judge.<br /> <br /> 1946-Bob Clampett's cartoon"the Great Piggy Bank Robbery" with Daffy Duck as Duck Tracy. "I'm gonna rrrrrrrrrrrubbb ya out, see!"<br /> <br /> 1951- King Abdallah of Jordan was shot and killed at the Al Acqsa Mosque in Jerusalem by a Palestinian. He was attending a memorial service for the Prime Minister of Lebanon who had also been assassinated. He was an enemy of the Palestinian leader the Grand Mufti and resisted the Mufti’s attempts to declare a Palestinian state after Israel’s War of Independence. King Abdallah claimed all Palestinian lands not part of Israel should be part of Jordan. Abdallah then angered the Palestinians further by wanting to make peace with Israel and declaring that the Jews had every right to worship at their holy places like the Wailing Wall, then under Jordanian control. Watching his grandfather killed was young future King Hussein, who was never that fond of Palestinians afterwards. He drove them out of Jordan in 1972 spawning the Black September Movement.<br /> <br /> 1954- As part of the settlement brokered by the United Nations for the French to leave colonial Indochina, the country was divided in half at the 17th parallel, with the Communists in North Vietnam and the non-Communists in the South. This set the stage for the next twenty years of war that would go on until unification in 1975.<br /> <br /> 1963- Lt. Colonel John Paul Vann, acknowledged one of the finest combat field commanders in the service, scheduled a meeting with the Joint Chiefs in Washington. He planned to tell them that further American military involvement in Vietnam was pointless. The generals already knew his purpose and refused to meet with him. Afterward, he was slowly pushed out of the army for having a bad attitude. He died as a civilian adviser when his helicopter went down near Da Nang in 1972.<br /> <br /> 1964 –The first surfing record to go #1-Jan &amp; Dean's "Surf City"<br /> <br /> 1968 - Iron Butterfly's "In a-Gadda-da-Vida", reached #4 in the pop charts. Then it was called Psychedelic Rock, today it is considered the first Metal hit. The song was written as “In the Garden of Eden” but singer Doug Ingle was so drunk and stoned, In a Gadda Da Vida was all he could mumble out. <br /> <br /> 1969- Tranquility Base- The Eagle has Landed. Apollo11’s Lunar Module the LEM first landed humans on the Moon. The astronauts stepped out onto the surface 8 hours later (The 21st)<br /> <br /> 1973- Bruce Lee died of cerebral edema one month before his last film Enter the Dragon premiered. The handsome Hong Kong movie star single-handedly made Chinese martial arts a worldwide craze, and the Chop-Socky genre film a standard genre in world movie theaters. He was buried in his Enter The Dragon costume. Bruce Lee was 33.<br /> <br /> 1974- Turkey invaded the island of Cyprus, after a Greek coup toppled the coalition gov’t of Archbishop Makarios. <br /> <br /> 1976-Warner\Lambert, makers of Trident sugarless gum, comes out with their famous slogan "Sugarless gum is recommended by four out of five dentists who chew gum". When people asked what gum the fifth dentist recommended, they were brushed. <br /> <br /> 1976- The Viking I probe successfully landed on Mars.<br /> <br /> 1984 - Jim Fixx, creator of the Jogging craze through his hit book Running, died at 52 of a heart attack. Apologists for a health advocate dying so young, say Fixx would have died even younger without his physical routine. The creator of PowerBars also died in his fifties. <br /> <br /> 1994 - OJ Simpson offers $500,000 reward for evidence of ex-wife Nicole’s killer. No clues or suspects other than himself have ever been found. As David Letterman said" OJ began to vigorously search for the real killer on all the major golf courses of the nation.”<br /> <br /> 2001- Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away premiered in Japan. The first Japanese anime film to win an Oscar.<br /> ====================================================<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What part of a medieval castle was the keep?<br /> <br /> Answer: The Keep was the central part of the castle, the stronghold, that was protected by the outer walls and turrets. It was the place for a last stand.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 19 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6207 <p>Quiz: What part of a medieval castle was called the keep?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: Which was NOT a movie directed by Federico Fellini? Amarcord, City of Women, Cinema Paradiso, Satyricon, La Strada.<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 7/19/2023<br /> Birthdays: Edgar Degas, Samuel Colt, Charles Mayo of the Mayo Clinic, Bert Kwouk, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vicki Carr, Max Fleischer, Lizzie Borden, Ille Nastase, George McGovern, Brian Harold May of Queen, Atom Egoyan, Anthony Edwards, Campbell Scott, Dal McKennon- the voice of Gumby, Ben Franklin in Ben and Me, and Archie in the Archies, Benedict Cumberbatch is 47<br /> <br /> 64 A.D. THE BURNING OF ROME- As the city burned, mad emperor Nero was inspired to run up to an observation platform and sing an elegy on the destruction of Troy accompanying himself on the lyre. Romans later became suspicious when the areas most affected by the fire on the Palatine Hill were expropriated by the Emperor to build his new palace, the Golden House. <br /> The fire started to die out after six days, but then flared up again on the grounds of the estate of Tigellinus, a top aide to Nero. The fire burned for nine days and destroyed two thirds of the city, including a temple built by Romulus, and the shrine of the Vestal Virgins. The Romans were the first civilization to form a city fire brigade.<br /> When Nero heard the Roman people were blaming him for the disaster, he shifted the blame to a despised foreign minority, the Christians.<br /> <br /> 711 A.D. Battle of Medina-Sidonia- The Moors conquered most of Spain. When he first landed, the Moorish commander Tarik Bin Ziyad ordered his landing ships burned. He addressed his warriors: " ...The enemy is in front of you and the sea behind you... You have no choice but victory!” They pushed the Christian Spaniards north up against the Pyrenees Mountains. The Moors weren’t driven back until 1492. Until then the Emirs of Granada and Cordoba set up lavish courts where great sums were spent on poets, artists, mathematicians and scientists. <br /> <br /> 1500-In the Vatican, Lucretzia Borgia’s second husband Duke Alfonso of Naples was stabbed to death by assassins sent by her brother Caesar Borgia. Enemies of the Borgias said Caesar was jealous and had an unnatural passion for his sister, but his real reasons were political. Alfonso was against Caesar’s alliance with France, the enemy of Naples. Caesar had previously sent men to assault Alfonso as he was leaving Saint Peters Basilica in Rome, but he fought them off and recovered. While convalescing he spotted Caesar from his sickbed window, grabbed a bow and arrow and tried to shoot him. Then Caesar had him whacked. Cardinal Sforza, who arranged the marriage, was soon poisoned.<br /> <br /> 1553-Lady Jane Grey was deposed after being Queen of England for nine days. When Henry VIII's sickly son died at 15 the Protestant grandees panicked that the next in line to the throne was his Catholic daughter Mary Tudor. So they attempted a bit of dynastic sleight of hand with this distant protestant cousin. (Remember Elizabeth then was considered illegitimate). It didn't wash and Mary soon earned the sobriquet "Bloody Mary" by having all their heads.<br /> <br /> 1629- Communications between Europe and America in the colonial period were always spotty and confused. The fastest news could travel across the Atlantic was two months. On this day an Anglo-American expedition attacked the French settlement of Quebec and captured Governor Samuel Champlain. Shortly afterwards a message came from London saying the war had been over for two months and they should let him go and apologize.<br /> <br /> 1799- THE ROSETTA STONE DISCOVERED. During Napoleons campaign in Egypt several soldiers digging a latrine, uncover a black basalt slab with several forms of writing all over it.<br /> In 1821 Francois Champollion figured it out. The stone was the key to translating Egyptian hieroglyphics, sort of an ancient Babelfish. The document in honor of Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy is written three times. Once in Hieroglyphs (sacred letters of Ancient Egypt), then in Hieratic (governmental cursive type, a simpler form of Hieroglyphs used for texts unrelated to the Temple and Religion) and in Coptic, the same Egyptian language written in Greek letters. Since Champollion knew Greek, and had contacts with Egyptian Christian priests who spoke Coptic. The rest was easy.<br /> Before the Rosetta Stone people thought Egyptian hieroglyphics were just magical symbols, but after the stone’s discovery the long mute voice of Ancient Egyptian civilization was heard again. Prayers, Literature and Poetry could now be understood. <br /> It was like the discovery of a long dead world. <br /> <br /> 1848- THE SENECA FALLS DECLARATION- The Birth of the American Woman's Rights Movement. In a Wesleyan Chapel 200 delegates heard Lucretzia Mott and Elizabeth Cady-Stanton make the case for women to be treated as equal citizens under the law including the right to vote. Frederick Douglas attended, and admitted that at first he was a skeptic, but he left convinced.<br /> <br /> 1878- In New Mexico Territory the climax of the Lincoln County Wars, a feud between cattle barons and smaller independent ranchers. John Tunstall's attorney Big Jim McSween and his men including outlaw Billy the Kid were surrounded by a large force of rancher Murphy’s men backed up by militia with a Gatling gun and a small cannon. The Murphy men set the house on fire and shot the defenders as they rushed out. Billy the Kid blasted his way out to freedom. Big Jim McSween tried to surrender but was shot down. <br /> <br /> 1879- Doc Holiday had opened a saloon with a partner in Las Vegas, New Mexico. A drunken army scout named Mike Gordon got mad at one of his dance hall girls, went out into the street and started bellowing threats and firing his pistol wildly at the windows of the saloon. Doc Holiday came out of the swinging doors, drilled Gordon dead with one bullet, then walked back in and calmly resumed his poker game.<br /> <br /> 1899- “The Newsies Strike” Hundreds of poor children in NYC who survived by selling penny newspapers, banded together and went on strike against William Randolph Hearst and Josef Pulitzers newspaper empires. Despite lots of drama and threatened violence, Hearst and Pulitzer eventually both gave in to their demands.<br /> <br /> 1900- The first line of the Paris Metro underground dedicated. Ligne 1 Porte Vincennes.<br /> <br /> 1913 - Billboard Magazine publishes earliest known "Last Week's 10 Best Sellers among<br /> Popular Songs" Malinda's Wedding Day is #1<br /> <br /> 1932- writer Daphne du Maurier married General Frederick Browning.<br /> <br /> 1934- In an affidavit dated this day an old blacksmith from Pittsburgh named Louis Davarich claimed in 1899 he flew in a flying machine before the Wright Brothers. The inventor was a German immigrant named Gustav Whitehead. He designed a monoplane powered by a small steam engine. If true this would predate the Wright Brothers by 5 years, but Whitehead never documented nor published his discoveries, and did not apply for a patent. He died poor and forgotten in 1927. Is it true? Believe it or not!<br /> <br /> 1939 – Dr. Roy P Scholz is 1st surgeon to use fiberglass sutures, replacing cat’s intestines and wool thread.<br /> <br /> 1941 - British PM Winston Churchill launched his "V for Victory" campaign. By coincidence the letter "V" in morse code corresponded with the opening notes of Beethoven ‘s 5th symphony "Dit-Dit-Dit Daaah." making it the musical theme of the BBC overseas radio service war news. If you ever lived in England you would know that reversing the two fingers sign is an insult akin to flashing someone the middle finger. <br /> <br /> 1942- Operation Drumroll cancelled. Germans withdrew U-Boats stationed off the US coastline because of effective US counter-submarine measures.<br /> <br /> 1942- Actor Stirling Holloway, who did Disney character voices like Winnie the Pooh, enlisted in the army. He was 37. They didn’t send him to fight, but used him in Special Services raising money and public relations.<br /> <br /> 1952- Several UFOs appeared on the radar of Washington DC’s National Airport (Today its Reagan Airport). So many alarming reports and phone calls came in, that the Air Force was obliged to hold a news conference to calm public fears. They explained the lights were temperature inversions. Uh, huh…<br /> <br /> 1957 - 1st rocket with nuclear warhead fired, Yucca Flat, Nevada<br /> <br /> 1957- The film “I Was a Teenage Werewolf” starring Michael Landon premiered. <br /> <br /> 1966- Frank Sinatra (50) married Mia Farrow (21). Frankie’s ex Ava Gardner commented:” Hah! I always knew Frank would one day wind up in bed with a little boy.” Two years later when Mia Farrow was offered the lead role in Roman Polanski’s film “Rosemary’s Baby” Frank gave her an ultimatum "Baby, it's either me or your career”. She took the part and he served her with a divorce papers on the set. Mia got an Oscar nomination and Frank recorded “Strangers in the Night”. <br /> <br /> 1990- The Richard Nixon Library dedicated in Yorba Linda California. Nixon's Western White House of San Clemente first refused the honor of being the site as well as his actual birthplace town of Whittier. The little wood frame house where Nixon was born was moved to the Yorba Linda site. At the dedication the five living Presidents were present. <br /> Senator Bob Dole pointed at former Presidents Ford, Reagan and Nixon and joked: "Look. There’s Hear no Evil, See No Evil, and Evil.”<br /> <br /> 1991- Heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson raped a contestant for the Miss Black America Pageant named Desiree Washington. He got 3 years in jail.<br /> <br /> 1993- President Clinton launched his gays in the military initiative called "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell." It caused a storm of controversy, and probably uprooted more gay men and women out of their military careers than if nothing was done. The initiative was outlawed in 2010, after hundreds of careers were ruined. <br /> ===================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Which was NOT a movie directed by Federico Fellini? Amarcord, City of Women, Cinema Paradiso, Satyricon, La Strada.<br /> <br /> Answer: Cinema Paradiso. Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 18 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6206 <p>Quiz: Which movie was NOT directed by Federico Fellini? Amarcord, City of Women, Cinema Paradiso, Satyricon, La Strada.<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: When the Good Humor man came down your block, what was he selling?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 7/18/2023<br /> Birthdays: William Makepeace Thackeray, Chill Wills, Nelson Mandela, James Brolin, Elizabeth McGovern, Screaming Jay Hawkins, Hume Cronyn, Red Skelton, Hunter H. Thompson, Clifford Odets, Paul Verhoeven, John Glenn, Syd Mead, Vin Diesel is 56<br /> <br /> Happy Ancient Egyptian New Year! The day when Sirius the Dog Star is seen in the Southern skies, which heralds the coming of the Nile’s flood. In modern times we call it the Dog Days of Summer.<br /> <br /> 390 BC - THE GAULS SACK ROME Migrating tribes of Gauls crossed the Alps, defeated the young republic's legions and stormed into the city as the population fled. When Gauls beheld aging, white haired Roman senators, at first they thought they were gods. But when a Gaul pulled one of their beards and the man clopped him on the head, they knew they were just old men and slew them. The Gauls took ransom and migrated back up to where France is today. The Romans would not meet them again until 300 years later when their empire expanded north. <br /> <br /> 1792- John Paul Jones died in Paris. Amazingly although Jones was one of the only captains winning fights with British warships, he felt he never received enough credit. So, he left for Europe and became a mercenary. He organized the Black Sea Fleet for Czarina Catherine of Russia but left there after dodging a charge of sex with a minor. He retired to Paris. His sword and medals were pawned to pay for his funeral. The American Ambassador skipped his funeral, because he didn’t want to pass up on a dinner party. <br /> <br /> 1862- Confederate John Hunt Morgan took his rebel cavalry raiders into Yankee Indiana and attacked the town of Newburg.<br /> <br /> 1863- THE ASSAULT ON FORT WAGNER- Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and his 54 Mass. Regiment proved the courage of African-American men by launching a suicide attack on this bastion in the complex of forts around Charleston, South Carolina. Shaw and half of his command were killed but they held the outer works before being driven back. The fort was never taken and today is under water. 5 Medals of Honor were given that day including a sergeant who dragged himself into camp that night with six bullet wounds and the regiments Stars &amp; Stripes stuffed in his jacket. <br /> When Col. Shaw’s family asked for his remains, Confederate commissioners snapped: "We buried him with his n---rs!" Shaw’s father responded:" It’s what he would want, to be buried in the midst of his men." Ulysses Grant concluded: "If someone asks will a Slave fight, tell him no. But if asked will a Negro fight, tell him yes." <br /> By the Civil War's end 180,000 black men had volunteered, 85% of the eligible male African American population who could fight. The level of integration in the U.S. army in 1865 would not be seen again until the 1950's.<br /> <br /> 1870- The Vatican published the bull Pater Aeternus, that declared Papal Infallibility. That even when the Pope is wrong, he is still right because he is the Pope and you are not. <br /> <br /> 1877- Thomas Edison first recorded sound on tin foil cylinder `Mary Had a Little Lamb'<br /> <br /> 1925- The first volume of Mein Kampf by Adolph Hitler was published. The original title was "My Four and a Half Years Struggle Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice". But publisher Max Aman prevailed upon him to edit it down to My Struggle. <br /> <br /> 1933- Jewish Agency leader David Ben Gurion met with Palestinian Nationalist leader Awni Abd Al’Haadi, the nephew of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and co-founder of Al Fatah. Ben Gurion asked "if it is possible to reconcile the ultimate goals of the Jewish people and the goals of the Arabs within Palestine? They only agreed to keep talking. <br /> <br /> 1939- MGM tried a sneak preview of the film The Wizard of Oz. Afterward they debated cutting the song Somewhere Over the Rainbow as slowing down the story. Finally, they decided to leave it in. The film debuted in August to wild success and acclaim.<br /> <br /> 1939- RKO pictures signed Orson Welles to direct movies in Hollywood. That Hollywood signed a 24 year old radio star who never made a single film, and gave him complete freedom and final cut was an amazing deal.<br /> <br /> 1943- General Hideki Tojo's government resigned after the American victory at Saipan. <br /> <br /> 1950- Walt Disney’s live action film Treaure Island Premiered, with Robert Newton as Long John Silver, Capt. Jack Sparrow’s role model. Arrrr-Jim, me boy!<br /> <br /> 1964- Bob McKimson’s "A False Hare", the last Bugs Bunny theatrical short for Warner Bros for twenty years, until 1985.<br /> <br /> 1966- Bobby Fuller who made the hit song "I fought the Law and the Law Won" was found in LA in his mother’s Oldsmobile, beaten and dead from "forcible inhalation of gasoline"- huffing.<br /> <br /> 1968- Engineer Bob Noyce quit Fairchild Semiconductor and founded a new company in Santa Clara California named Intel. His partners were Andy Grove and Gordon Moore, he of Moore’s Law. It sold a new thing called microprocessors. In 1980 Intel would invent the silicon chip.<br /> <br /> 1969- Senator Ted Kennedy had been in a downward spiral of depression and drink since the murders of his brothers Jack and Bobby. This night Ted and a young campaign worker named Mary Joe Kopechne drove off the rural Dike Bridge at a place near Martha's Vineyard called Chappaquiddick. Kennedy escaped the sinking car, but Kopechne drowned. Kennedy was never able to explain why he waited four hours to report the accident to the police. Despite an illustrious Senate career, Chappaquiddick destroyed Ted Kennedy's chances of ever becoming President.<br /> <br /> 1975- Famed underground cartoonist Vaughn Bode’ experimented with breath control while doing hallucinogenic drugs. This day the creator of The Wizard of Id died of auto-asphyxiation while high. His last words were to his son, “ Mark, I’ve seen God four times, and I am going to see him again soon.” He was 33. <br /> <br /> 1981- John Henry Abbott was a murderer and bank robber doing hard time in prison. He started writing famous author Norman Mailor about life in prison, and it turned out he was a pretty good author himself. Through Mailors’ influence, Random House published Abbott’s book "In the Belly of the Beast" and it became a best seller. <br /> Well, this day despite his literary celebrity status, John Henry Abbott fell back into his bad habits and murdered another person- a Richard Adan at the Bonbon Café in New York. John Abbott was went back to prison for life, and committed suicide in 2001. Norman Mailor refused to concede he made a mistake- "Culture is worth a little risk."<br /> <br /> 1986- Aliens, the sequel directed by James Cameron, premiered. Game over, man!<br /> <br /> 1998- The movie Pokemon the First was released in Japan, stoking a Pokemon craze.<br /> <br /> 2019- A demented man set the Kyoto Animation Studio ablaze with gasoline and attacked people with a knife. 34 people died in the blaze. Many were young women for whom it was their first job.<br /> ===============================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: When the Good Humor man came down your block, what was he selling?<br /> <br /> Answer: Ice Cream.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 17 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6205 <p>Quiz: When the Good Humor man came down your block, what was he selling?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is the difference between a question and a rhetorical question?<br /> ---------------------------------------------<br /> History for 7/17/2023<br /> Birthdays: James Cagney, John Jacob Astor I, Hyacinth Rigaud, Bernice Abbott, Chill Wills, Brian Trottier, Phoebe Snow, Daryl Lamonica, Prof. Peter Schickele a.k.a. PDQ Bach, Earl Stanley Gardner the creator of Perry Mason, Art Linkletter, Phyllis Diller,<br /> Diane Carroll, animator Willie Ito is 89, David Hasslehoff is 71, Donald Sutherland is 88<br /> <br /> In ancient Rome, today was the feast of the god of Honor, Honorous.<br /> <br /> 924- The death of Edward "the Elder", King of the West Saxons. During his reign, he annexed Wessex and the Danelaw up to the Humber River. Danelaw was the name for English territory governed by Danish Vikings.<br /> <br /> 1429- Charles the Dauphin is crowned King Charles VII at Rheims, thanks to Joan of Arc.<br /> <br /> 1453- Battle of Chatillon. The last battle of the Hundred Years War. English warlord Sir John Talbot was blown away by the French with their newfangled firetubes. Other names for the cannon were bombardons, culverins, and a variation on the catapult name for rock thrower- a Mangonnel, shortened to Gonne or Gun. <br /> <br /> 1647- A Neopolitan fishmonger named Maisaniello led 100,000 Italians in a revolt against high taxes and tariffs. Maisaniello held power in Naples for ten days until his was assassinated this day by agents of the Spanish Viceroy the Count de Orsuna. One of Maisaniellos ideas was he reduced the price of bread by half, and if a baker didn’t comply, he was roasted in his own oven.<br /> <br /> 1717- British King George I held a procession by boat from Whitehall Palace to Chelsea and back. To add color to the event, he had his composer George Freidrich Handel compose a suite to be played by a boatload of musicians. Handel’s Water Music. King George enjoyed the music so much he made the exhausted musicians play the entire sweet three times during the outing. <br /> <br /> 1789- Three days after the Bastille was stormed, King Louis XVI appeared on a balcony at Paris city hall the Hotel Du Ville and wore a red, white and blue cockade in a red Phrygian liberty cap to the cheers of the crowd.<br /> <br /> 1793- Charlotte Corday, the assassin of French Revolutionary leader Jean Paul Marat, went to the guillotine. She was only 24. When her decapitated head was lifted out of the basket, the executioner gave it a smack on her cheek for being a bad little girl, to the laughter of the crowd.<br /> <br /> 1803- James T. Callender, editor of the Aurora newspaper, was among the worst scandal mongering journalists in early America. He broke the story of Alexander Hamilton’s extramarital affairs and Thomas Jefferson’s sleeping with his slaves like Sally Hemmings. He called John Adams a "pernicious hermaphrodite" and labeled George Washington’s Farewell Address the "Last ravings of a diseased mind". Everyone hated him. This night his body was found floating the James River. Without any investigation, a court ruled he probably fell in while drunk.<br /> <br /> 1841 - British humor magazine Punch first published.<br /> <br /> 1867 - 1st US dental school, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, established<br /> <br /> 1873- The U.S. Secretary of War William Belknap approved the revised set of cavalry regulations called "Upton's Rules". It became the standard for the U.S. Cavalry throughout the Indian Wars. Belknap was forced to resign for pocketing defense funds in 1874.<br /> <br /> 1876- Battle of Warbonnet Gorge. Skirmish between the 5th US Cavalry pursuing hostile Indians soon after Custer’s Last Stand. The battle is remembered chiefly because Gen Phil Sheridan asked his old friend Buffalo Bill Cody to return from his play-acting back east and scout for the army one more time. He looked rather incredible riding the prairie in his theatrical black velvet silver studded Mexican Vaquero britches and coat. <br /> Bill Cody was challenged to single combat by a Cheyenne Chief named Yellow Tail. Bill killed the chief and scalped him, waving the hair in the air to the cheering troopers and announcing, "The first scalp for Custer!" Buffalo Bill then returned to the East where his new stage production, “The First Scalp for Custer" ran for weeks to sold out audiences.<br /> <br /> 1879 - 1st railroad opens in Hawaii.<br /> <br /> 1893- Representatives of fourteen stage unions meet to form IATSE, the International Alliance of Theatrical &amp; Screen Engineers of the U.S. &amp; Canada.<br /> <br /> 1917- King George V issued a proclamation that his family’s name was changed from Saxe-Coburg und Gotha to The House of Windsor.<br /> <br /> 1917- President Woodrow Wilson approved U.S. troops to join an Anglo-French mission to Russia. Originally intended to help the Russians from the German Army, the mission became an attempt to help anti-Bolshevik forces overthrow Lenin and reopen the second front against the Kaiser. In effect the U.S., France and Britain invaded Soviet Russia. <br /> The American general was named Graves; the British were led by General Ironside, a 6 foot 4, killing machine his friends nicknamed "Tiny". The Michigan wolverines sent to Archangel and Vladivostok were told they were going to capture German U-boat bases. This excuse wore thin when the Great War ended and they were still fighting Bolsheviks, without ever seeing a German. <br /> They were never given any real instructions about what to do except support Anti-Bolshevik forces, who were pathetically few in number. The Allied forces were withdrawn from Russia in 1922.<br /> <br /> 1928- Mexican President-elect Alvaro Obregon was at a large banquet for former veterans of the Mexican Revolution. Part of the party was having a cartoonist stroll about making caricatures of the guests. Obregon said to cartoonist Leon Toral: "Make sure you make me look good." Toral responded "Oh, I will.." and pulled a gun and shot the President to death. An assassin but still a professional artist, Toral actually completed the drawing before reaching for his pistol. Gotta watch them cartoonists….<br /> <br /> 1935 - Variety's famous headline "Sticks Nix Hix Pix" meaning audiences in rural areas were not attending movies with a rustic theme.<br /> <br /> 1936-. The Spanish Civil War began. When their king was overthrown and a Republic declared, a Spanish Fascist army led by Gen. Francisco Franco invaded Spain from Spanish colonial North Africa. The first moves were to occupy the Canary Islands. The Fascists figured the takeover would only take a few days, but all over Spain the common workers, farmers, artists, even women and children took up guns to fight. Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Italy openly supported Franco. Soviet Russia supported the Republicans with tepid help from USA and England. Many young intellectuals and artists like Hemingway and Orwell went to Spain to volunteer. <br /> <br /> 1937- the Nazis open an art exhibit of banned artworks and artists called Entartete Kunst- Degenerate Art. Works of Dali and Duchamp, Grosz, Lippschitz, Kandinsky and Miro, with appropriate insults underneath. The next day Hitler dedicated the Great German Art Collection, having cleansed the German art world for National Socialist art, mostly bad deco-greco nudes and dumb Nordic medieval fantasy scenes.<br /> <br /> 1944- Top German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel was strafed by an Allied fighter plane as his open car sped down a French country road. Germans nicknamed these roaming planes JABOS, for jaeger-bomber or hunter bombers. By now Rommel was in the Generals Plot to overthrow Hitler. His last conversation was with an SS Panzer Division General named Sepp Dietrich. Rommel asked him cryptically": Would you obey an order from me, even if it ran counter to the wishes of the Fuehrer?" Dietrich said he would. <br /> But the plane attack cut short his career as a conspirator. When the General's Plot to kill Hitler went off in three days Rommel, who the conspirators planned to make President of the new Reich, was in a coma in the hospital. <br /> Even though the bomb failed to kill Hitler, if a healthy Rommel, who's fame was second only to Hitler, went on nationwide radio and announced an army coup against the Nazis and an immediate unilateral peace, it's intriguing to think what might have happened.<br /> <br /> 1944- The Port Chicago explosion. In Oakland Harbor, African American sailors were given the dreary but dangerous duty of loading ammunition onto ships. This day an accident with high explosives blew up 321 men. The blast broke windows in San Francisco across the bay and was heard as far away as Boulder City Nevada. <br /> When the base commander ordered the men to immediately resume loading with no change in pattern or promise of investigation- the black sailors refused. They were court-martialed for mutiny and treason.<br /> <br /> 1945-THE FIRST POTSDAM MEETING-New President Harry Truman met Stalin and Churchill in a suburb of war ravaged Berlin. Halfway through the talks Churchill learned that he was defeated in the British General elections and would be replaced by Clement Atlee. Truman told Stalin about the atomic bomb and was surprised that Stalin wasn’t surprised. Stalin already knew because of spies he had at Los Alamos. Stalin told Truman the Japanese government was requesting peace talks, asking that Russia act as intermediary, which he had no intention of doing. <br /> Stalin called the Anglo-Americans his "soyuznicki" Little Allies. Truman called him "Uncle Joe". Paranoid Stalin disliked the name, because he thought it was meant to be an insult.<br /> <br /> 1955- DISNEYLAND dedicated- Walt Disney's dream of a perfect family amusement park, called 'The Happiest Place on Earth" was declared open with celebrities like Ronald Reagan, Art Linkletter and the Mouseketeers in attendance. It opened to the public the next day. Walt hoped to get 1,000 visitors that first day. He got 30,000. Facilities broke down from the huge crowds and the haste with which the park was built. Concrete pavement which was poured the night before was still soft under people's feet, there were no working water fountains and the car parking was a nightmare. To the Disneyland workers opening day was nicknamed 'Black Sunday". But despite all, Disneyland became a huge success.<br /> <br /> 1955 - Arco, Idaho becomes 1st US city lit by nuclear power.<br /> <br /> 1959- Singer Billie Holiday, called Lady Day, died of heart and liver failure, and cirrhosis in Metropolitan hospital in NY. Hounded by federal authorities for twenty years, Feds were trying to arrest her for drug possession even as she lay dying. She was 44.<br /> <br /> 1959- Alfred Hitchcock’s classic North by Northwest premiered.<br /> <br /> 1967– The Monkees performed at Forest Hills NY, Jimi Hendrix was their opening act.<br /> <br /> 1968- In Iraq, the Bath party seized power under President Ahmad Hussain Al-Bakr. The following year his chief of police Saddam Hussein would overthrow him.<br /> <br /> 1968- The Beatles musical cartoon feature The Yellow Submarine premiered in London’s Piccadilly Circus. Look Out! It’s the Blue Meanies!!<br /> <br /> 1969- The first Vampirella comic, created by Forrest Ackerman and Trina Robbins<br /> <br /> 1975-The first Apollo-Soyuz space linkup. A second linkup would not happen until 1995.<br /> <br /> 1979- Nicaraguan rebels called Sandinistas overthrow dictator Anastasio Somosa. He escaped to Miami with CIA help. The Reagan White House spent most of the 1980’s obsessed with these Communist rebels as a new escalation of the Cold War.<br /> <br /> 1988- A home video tape was released of actor Rob Lowe having sex with two underage girls in his hotel room.<br /> <br /> 1996- TWA Flt.#800- a jumbo jet flying from New York to Paris exploded over Long Island Sound shortly after take-off. Disturbing rumors of a missile bringing down the plane was squashed by authorities, despite the Air France pilot immediately behind and eyewitnesses describing a streak of light in the sky before the explosion. <br /> In Paris, elderly Kennedy press secty Pierre Salinger reported it as a missile and was dismissed as senile. The official reason the FAA gave was "fumes ignited in a wing tank", but that explanation failed to satisfy the grieving relatives. Why a plane with a 30 year safety record should just blow up, and none have blown up that way since, remains a mystery.<br /> <br /> 2004- Katsuhiro Otomo’s film Steamboy premiered. Japanese interest in the idea of SteamPunk began to spread worldwide.<br /> ===============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is the difference between a question and a rhetorical question?<br /> <br /> Answer: A question is asked in order to find out something; to gain information and understanding of the subject at hand. A rhetorical question is asked when the answer is already known and is posed for dramatic effect, to make a point or, on occasion, to belittle the questionee. ( Thanks FG)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 16 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6204 <p>Question: What is the difference between a question and a rhetorical question?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What does it mean to be didactic? To speak didactically.<br /> ===============================<br /> History for 7/16/2023<br /> Birthdays: Andrea Del Sarto, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Ginger Rogers, Pinchas Zukerman,<br /> Orville Redenbacher, Roald Amundsen, Sunny Tufts, Barbera Stanwyck, Reuben Blades, Mary Baker-Eddy the founder of Christian Science, Phoebe Cates, Will Farrell is 57<br /> <br /> 1054 –The GREAT SCHISM- Eastern Greek Orthodox and Latin Roman Catholic Churches split. The Patriarch of Constantinople Michael I Cerularius and Pope Leo IX mutually excommunicate one another. When Catholic Crusaders sacked Constantinople in 1209 they put a prostitute on the Orthodox Patriarch's throne just for laughs. The Greek Patriarch referred to the Vatican in Rome as a "Synagogue of Satan!" <br /> Historian Ernle Bradford stated that his event marked the moment when Christianity ceased to be a supra-national force for unity in Europe the way Islam was in the Arab world. Europeans would now turn to nationalism as their identifying creed and Christianity took a backseat.<br /> <br /> 1099- JERUSALEM FELL TO THE CRUSADERS- The knights of the First Crusade broke into the city and committed horrible massacres of the population. The rampaging knights even cut down Armenian &amp; Syrian Christians, because they looked dark and were dressed like Arabs. In an ironic twist of history, the Jewish population fought shoulder to shoulder alongside their Arab cousins. When the massacre started they withdrew to a central synagogue where the Christians barred he doors and set fire to the building, burned them to death. <br /> The Crusaders then declared the Holy City free, and warlord Geoffrey de Boullion declared himself "Protector of the Holy Sepulcher" instead of king, since in his opinion "There is no King here but Christ". After he died his younger brother Baldwin made himself King of Jerusalem. The Crusaders held Jerusalem for about a hundred years.<br /> <br /> 1212- BATTLE OF LAS NAVAS DE TOLOSA (Al Uqab) Christian Kings of Spain defeated the Moors and began the "Reconquista", the gradual winning back of the Iberian peninsula lasting until 1492. King Pedro of Aragon was nicknamed Pedro the Lecher, because of his sexual appetite. Legend has him having to be helped into the saddle after taking on 100 women in one night! <br /> <br /> 1439 - Kissing is banned in England to stop diseases from spreading. I wonder if they knew about fist-bumping?<br /> <br /> 1690- After the collapse of his cause in the Battle of the Boyne, King James II Stuart fled Ireland for exile.<br /> <br /> 1721- Guilliame DuBois, archbishop of Cambrai was ordained a Cardinal. The Bishop was one of the most sexually promiscuous men in France, outdone only by his master Phillipe D’Orleans, Regent for the boy King Louis XV. The memoirist Madame De Sainte Simon wrote “His Eminence, the Cardinal had a face like a ferret, and was a Cloaca Maxima of depravity.” named for Rome’s largest sewer. Yet despite his sexual reputation, he ran Frances’ foreign policy almost as well as Cardinal Richelieu did a century earlier. France was at peace for 27 years. His only fear as Cardinal was that his wife would renege on the blackmail money, he paid her and go public.<br /> <br /> 1769- Fra Junipero Serra founded his first Mission settlement in California- San Diego de Alcala, now the City of San Diego. The master plan was to create a string of missions from San Diego to San Francisco one day’s ride apart- San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Anna, San Gabriel, Santa Maria Reina de Los Angeles, etc.<br /> <br /> 1777- I WILL FIND YOU! -In frontier Kentucky outside of Boones borough Jemima Boone and her girlfriend are set upon by a Shawnee Indian war party and kidnapped. Her daddy Daniel Boone with seven men tracked the war party. This day after a sharp fight they freed the women. Despite killing the son of the Shawnee chief, Boone was later adopted into the tribe in his place. This incident was widely reported in the colonies and was the basis for James Fenimore Cooper’s novel The Last of the Mohicans. <br /> <br /> 1779- American colonial General "Mad" Anthony Wayne attacks the British garrison at Stony Point, New York.<br /> <br /> 1862- In Paris the French Emperor Napoleon III received John Slidell, the ambassador of the Confederate States. But France declined to intervene in the American Civil War.<br /> <br /> 1877- THE GREAT UPHEAVAL- The B&amp;O Railroad cuts their workers wages 10% for the second time that year. (there had been a recession raging in the U.S. economy since 1873). Workers and engineers at Martinsburg Virginia went out on strike and started sabotaging trains. The strike soon spread coast to coast and became America's first nationwide strike. The laws protecting workers union rights were still far in the future so strikes were put down by troops randomly shooting into crowds, mass firings and vigilante murder of union leaders. <br /> The violence shocked the rest of the world. Karl Marx wrote Engels "did you hear what is happening in America?” He always thought industrialized countries like America and England would go communist long before Russia and China.<br /> <br /> 1918- CZAR NICHOLAS ROMANOV AND FAMILY MURDERED. After abdicating the Czar's family was imprisoned in a house in Siberia. The anti-Communist While armies were about to capture the area. So from Moscow Vladimir Lenin sent orders that they all be killed. In the middle of the night commissar Yakov Sverdlov told the Czar they were to be moved and were ordered to wait in a basement room of their house. Outside Red guards revved a truck motor to mask the sound of the guns. Then a group of soldiers came in the room pulled out their pistols. Nicholas’ last word before the guns went off was "Schto? " What the-? They even shot the family doctor, the boy’s sailor bodyguard and the family dog a cocker spaniel named Jimmy. <br /> The anti-Communist forces captured the area two weeks later and told the world about the crime. Seeing what happened to the Russian Czar may be part of the reason the Kaiser and Austrian Emperor went quietly into exile after losing the Great War. Bones weren't discovered until 1988 and in 1993 DNA testing proved them to be the true remains of the Czar and his family. DNA Testing on the remains of a woman who died in 1984 named Anna Andersen, who claimed to be the child Duchess Anastasia were negative. <br /> <br /> The reason the children's remains weren't in with the others was because the Bolsheviks first tried destroying their remains with sulfuric acid but found it took too long, so they cremated the rest. Czar Nicholas II and his family were made saints of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1994.<br /> <br /> 1932- Cecil B. DeMille shot the scene in his film Sign of the Cross where Claudette Colbert took a bath in asses milk. Legend has it that DeMille insisted on real milk in the bath and that by the second day the hot studio lights had curdled it to a smelly cheese. But production notes show the scene was all shot in one day. DeMille always got away with sexy semi-nude scenes by putting them in biblical settings. After all, who would criticize a morality tale from the Good Book? <br /> <br /> 1935- The first parking meter set up in Oklahoma City.<br /> <br /> 1936 - 1st x-ray photo of arterial circulation, Rochester, NY<br /> <br /> 1945-THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMB EXPLODED at Alamagordo New Mexico (site code name was "Trinity'). Called at first the Super Cosmic Bomb, nicknamed "The Gadget". The Manhattan Project scientists weren't sure that once you started the chain reaction when it would stop, if ever. Physicists Richard Fenyman and Enrico Fermi wagered a case of beer that they would incinerate the state of New Mexico. (Funny guys). They were led by General Leslie Groves, a by-the-book army engineer who supervised the construction of the Pentagon, and Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, a brilliant physicist and Berkeley radical who read Sanskrit to relax. When he saw the force of the blast, Oppenheimer recalled the Hindu verse: "Now have I become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds..."<br /> <br /> 1951- J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye" published.<br /> <br /> 1953- The story begins of a murder confessed by insurance investigator Walter Neff into a Dictaphone in the 1944 movie Double Indemnity. <br /> <br /> 1954- Groundbreaking for the construction of Disneyland.<br /> <br /> 1956 –The Last time Ringling Bros, Barnum &amp; Bailey Circus performed under a canvas circus tent.<br /> <br /> 1963- Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space aboard Vostok 6. <br /> <br /> 1964- Conservative Republican Senator Barry Goldwater was nominated to run against Lyndon Johnson for president. Goldwater set the tone by his speech:" Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." LBJ’s campaign portrayed him as a dangerous warmonger and he lost in a landslide. In later years Goldwater’s conservative views were eclipsed by the even more conservative Reagan and Bush.<br /> <br /> 1966- Mao Zedong went for a swim in the Yangtzse River and gave permission for his young Red Guards to begin The Cultural Revolution. <br /> <br /> 1969- Congress passed Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations. It makes it illegal for U.S. citizens to have any contact with extraterrestrials or their spacecraft.<br /> <br /> 1969- Apollo 11 blasted off for the Moon.<br /> <br /> 1973- WHO HAS THE TAPES! Presidential attorney Alexander Butterfield admitted to the Senate Watergate Committee that President Richard Nixon had bugged the Oval Office and had recorded tapes of all of his conversations. The tape system was actually installed by Lyndon Johnson. When Nixon took office, he was going to have it all removed. But his aides convinced him to keep the system to document his place in history. Why Nixon never destroyed these tapes that brought him down remains one of the mysteries of history. <br /> <br /> 1994- Comet Schoendacher-Levy 6 impacted with the Planet Jupiter, giving scientists a spectacular ringside seat to the processes of the creation of the Universe.<br /> <br /> 1988- Katsuhiro Otomo’s classic film Akira premiered in Tokyo. It opened in America a year later. It was the first Japanese Anime film to go beyond the domestic and its niche fan base, to appeal to a global audience. <br /> <br /> 1999- JOHN-JOHN -Thirty years after the death of his father and uncle, 38 year old John Kennedy Jr. fell victim to the Kennedy curse when his small plane crashed on the way to a wedding in Martha’s Vineyard. His wife had delayed having a pedicure, so he had to take off at dusk. He was too inexperienced to fly on instruments at dusk in fog and he lost his bearings, hitting the water at 150 miles per hour. The Kennedy’s had a history of bad luck with planes- Kathleen Kennedy, Ethel Kennedy’s parents and JFK’s older brother Joe Kennedy all died in small plane crashes. Senator Ted Kennedy barely survived a crash. Teddy refused to ever fly with John Jr., so he died of old age in 2009.<br /> =================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What does it mean to be didactic? To speak didactically.<br /> <br /> Answer: Speaking in such a way as intending to teach. Usually used in a negative context, meaning the person speaking didactically assumes an authority and talks down to others. Condescending. A close analogy would be “mansplaining”.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 15 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6203 <p>Quiz: What does it mean to be didactic? To speak didactically.<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: The Pennine Mountains are in what country? <br /> ===================================<br /> History for 7/15/2023<br /> Birthdays: Rembrandt van Rijn, Inigo Jones, Sir Thomas Bullfinch, Mother Cabrini, Rev. Clemont Moore, Julian Bream, Linda Rondstadt is 77, Alex Karras, Jan Michael Vincent, Lola Davidovich, Forrest Whitaker is 62, Brigette Neilsen, Jesse Ventura, Terry O’ Quinn is 71<br /> St. Swithun's Day in England. St. Swithun was Bishop of Winchester from his consecration on 30 October 852 until his death on 2 July 863. Swithun is regarded as one of the saints to whom one should pray in the event of drought. He is a patron saint of Umbrella makers.<br /> Feast of St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain.<br /> <br /> 765 A.D.- Mayan Scientists hold a conference at Copan to discuss astronomy and adjust their calendar. By 1492, the Mayan civilization was already 2,000 years old. Their calendar was so perfect, the difference between it and our modern atomic clocks calculation of a lunar month was just 24 seconds! They used hieroglyphic writing but also a system of numbers including zero, which the Greeks and Romans never figured out. Among their surviving documents are calculations on the orbit of Venus. <br /> Tikal, one of their cities, covered 23 square miles (Rome of the Caesars covered 8) and had a temple that was the tallest structure in America until the completion of the U.S. Capitol dome in 1863.<br /> <br /> 1205- Pope Innocent III declared that because they have rejected Christ, the Jewish people must be subjected to perpetual servitude and subjugation. It took several more centuries of oppression and a holocaust for the Vatican to officially "forgive" Judaism in 1947. Pope John Paul II apologized in 2000.<br /> <br /> 1410- Battle of Grunwald, King Jagiello of Poland, Witold Wytautas of Lithuania and their Tartar allies defeated the Prussian Teutonic Knights and the Livonian Sword Brothers under Grand Master Ulrich Von Junnigen.<br /> <br /> 1685- James the Duke of Monmouth was executed. Monmouth was the bastard son of King Charles II and tried to overthrow his step-uncle James II in Monmouth’s Rebellion.<br /> Monmouth New Jersey had been named for him.<br /> <br /> 1780- American Colonial General Benedict Arnold snuck a coded message to British Commander Sir Henry Clinton in occupied New York. In it, he offered to betray the fortress of West Point to the British for 20,000 English pounds. Arnold wasn’t even West Point’s commander yet, but he expected Gen. George Washington to confirm him in the job any day. The only person who warned that Gen. Arnold might be up to something, was a female spy planted in British Headquarters. Her cover was kept so complete, that her name is lost to history. We only know her as agent “355”.<br /> <br /> 1789- The day after the Bastille was stormed, the Revolution proclaimed Astronomer Jean Sylvain Bailly as first mayor of Paris. Since Medieval days when the hero Mayor Etienne Marcel had defied the King, Paris had no mayor but was under direct royal control through an appointed prefect. Bailly served as mayor for three years, then was guillotined. Today the mayor of Paris is such an important position it is considered the steppingstone to the Presidency of the Republic.<br /> <br /> 1795 - "Le Marseillaise" became officially the French national anthem.<br /> <br /> 1806- American captain Zebulon Pike set off on his trek of discovery through the new Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado territory. Near Santa Fe New Mexico he was apprehended by Spanish Authorities for trespassing and put on a boat back home. In Colorado, Pike discovered the mountain named for him- Pike’s Peak.<br /> <br /> 1815- Napoleon boarded HMS Bellerophon for the trip to St. Helena. On the trip he learned English, and made friends with the British sailors to such an extent that their officers reprimand them. He said to his Irish doctor, O'Meara:" So you are a doctor and I am a general. How many men have you killed? I'll wager more than me!"<br /> <br /> 1861- During the Civil War, a beautiful Washington D.C. socialite named Rose Greenhow moved in the highest circles of government and was personal friends with top Congressmen and Generals. But Rose was also a Southern spy. This day she got out a message to Confederate General Beauregard that the main Union army would commence their march on Richmond that week. This bit of espionage would contribute to the great Union defeat at Bull Run. Rose Greenhow was later arrested, and her home turned into a women’s prison.<br /> <br /> 1862- THE WILD RIDE OF THE C.S.S. ARKANSAS- Union Admiral David Farragut (the 'Damn the Torpedoes!' guy) had moved his big fleet up the Mississippi above the Confederate fortress town of Vicksburg and was preparing to bombard the town. Southern Captain Issac Brown was told he would take command of an ironclad called the Arkansas, and sailed it right into the middle of the Union navy, firing on all sides. One iron ship attacked 34 wooden warships! At one point Capt. Brown was knocked senseless by some shrapnel and when he woke up, he had been laid out on a pile of dead corpses. <br /> Farragut was taking a nap and was so surprised he fought the battle in his nightshirt. Although pounded by dozens of heavy cannonballs Brown's homemade ironclad not only held up but she inflicted so much damage on Farragut's wooden ships he was forced to leave Vicksburg and withdraw to the Gulf.. No further attempts to attack Vicksburg occurred until the end of that year. One ship had defeated a fleet.<br /> <br /> 1863- Yankee leaders were so frustrated by the actions of Confederate guerrillas in Missouri and Kansas that they resorted to a controversial solution. They began arresting the wives, sisters and girlfriends of the guerrillas and lodged them in Kansas City. They hoped to ship them to rebel held Arkansas, thinking this would draw off their menfolk. But on this day an unforeseen tragedy struck. The old Grand St Hotel they were in collapsed, killing many of the innocent women. The country was shocked and the rebels vowed revenge. Cole Younger lost his mother and two sisters. He never believed the collapse was an accident. Bloody Bill Anderson rode into battle tearfully shouting his baby sister’s name.<br /> <br /> 1870 -The Hudson's Bay Company sold Prince Rupertland to Canada, which was the entire Canadian west from the Ontario border to the Pacific and from the Montana border up to the Arctic Circle. Up to then it had been a corporate businessman's dream, the largest land mass ever managed by a board of directors, almost as large as the United States. The Hudson's Bay CEO, Sir Roger Simpson had been called the 'Emperor Simpson' by his detractors. Canada suddenly became bi-coastal. But the French-Indian fur trappers called the Metiz understood the threat Anglo town settlers would bring to their way of life and rose in revolt under their leader Louis Riel.<br /> <br /> 1882- In Springfield Illinois, “The Crazy Old Lady” who lived alone in the big house with the curtains always drawn finally died. Mary Todd Lincoln, the widow of Abraham Lincoln, had always been emotionally high strung and a little paranoid. Now, her spirit was broken by her husband’s murder and all of her children dying except her eldest son Robert. And he kept trying to get her committed to a lunatic asylum before she wasted all of their family fortune. Mary wore nothing but black, constantly wept, packed and unpacked trunks all day, and lived on chloral hydrate, opium and other narcotics. This day after eighteen years she finally got her fondest wish, to join her husband in death. <br /> <br /> 1915- A Secret Service agent was presented with a suitcase left by a German diplomat on a New York City subway seat. In the satchel was a complete list of known German spies and saboteurs working in the U.S., a nation still officially neutral in the war between Britain, France and Germany.<br /> <br /> 1916- The Boeing Aircraft Corporation (originally Pacific Aero) formed in Seattle by William Boeing. <br /> <br /> 1928- The first Enigma Machine for decryption invented.<br /> <br /> 1938- Max Fleischer Popeye cartoon "With the Jeep" introduced Eugene the Jeep. The character was created in the Thimble Theater comic strip two years earlier. The funny little character later gave its name to the army’s new General Purpose Vehicle, the G.P. or Jeep.<br /> <br /> 1941- President Franklin Roosevelt sent federal mediator Stanley White to try and solve the labor strike between Walt Disney and his cartoonists.<br /> <br /> 1945- President Truman was shown intercepted communiqués from Japanese military command saying that all that was left of the Japanese army was massing on the Southern beaches of Kyushu preparing to meet the expected American amphibious landings. <br /> <br /> 1951-A Syrian nationalist shot and killed the Lebanese Prime Minister Riyadh Bey-Ehrsault in Beirut.<br /> <br /> 1953- English serial killer Jack Christie was executed. In his home at Number 10 Rillington Place police found the bodies of several women buried in the garden. Two bodies weren’t even Christies, they were credited to an abortionist who was a previous tenant who had botched two and they died of internal bleeding.<br /> <br /> 1953- The film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes premiered starring Marylyn Monroe and Jane Russell.<br /> <br /> 1971- President Nixon announced he had accepted an invitation to visit Red China.<br /> <br /> 1971- Producer Steve Krantz announced the production of the first X-rated cartoon, Fritz the Cat, based on the popular underground comic by Robert Crumb. It would be directed by Ralph Bakshi.<br /> <br /> 1979- THE OIL CRISIS- Lines at gas pumps stretch for blocks, and President Jimmy Carter was scheduled to address the nation. But when he canceled at the last minute and disappeared from the public eye, rumors spread of a health problem or, even worse. After a few days, he reemerged with a speech In the address, President Jimmy Carter laid out the oil/gas crisis. He stated flatly that the U.S. and the world was trapped in an increasing dependence on diminishing stocks of foreign oil. We need to move to develop solar and other alternative fuels immediately. “ When we import oil, we import rising prices and unemployment." He said we should establish a Solar Bank to eventually take on 20% of the nations energy needs. <br /> But the media instead focused on his negative tone, his speaking of a “ crisis of confidence” They labelled it the “National Malaise” speech, even though he never said that. <br /> The next President, Ronald Reagan, ignored all of Jimmy Carter’s initiatives and tore off the solar panels from the roof of the White House. The cost of gas then was .86 cents a gallon.<br /> <br /> 1982-Coca-Cola introduced Diet Coke. Coke officials are proud of the fact that within a year it's sales top that of Tab, but Tab was owned by Coke as well. (duh..?)<br /> <br /> 1994- James Cameron’s movie True Lies opens. With Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis.<br /> <br /> 1996- MSNBC channel went on the air. It struggled to find an identity early on, until host Keith Olbermann in 2005 proved there was a huge underserved audience of politically liberal viewers who craved an alternative to Fox News blatant right wing partisanship. Even after Olbermann left in 2011, MSNBC kept up its progressive credentials with hosts like Rachel Maddow and Joy Reid.<br /> <br /> 1997- Famed clothing designer Gianni Versace was murdered outside his Miami mansion by a deranged serial killer on a spree since leaving Minnesota. The killer, Andrew Cunanan, was later found in a houseboat with a self-inflicted bullet in his head.<br /> <br /> 2011- Disney’s last hand-drawn feature film Winnie the Pooh, and short the Ballad of Nessie opened in theaters. Two years later CEO Bob Iger said there were no more 2-D projects in development and laid off most remaining traditional artists. <br /> ========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: The Pennine Mountains are in what country? <br /> Answer: Northern England at the Scottish border. The Apennine Mountains are in Italy.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 14 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6202 <p>Quiz: The Pennine Mountains are in what country? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: It’s been revealed that Justice Clarence Thomas was recently admitted to a secret society of ultra-rich and famous people called the Horatio Alger Society. Who was Horatio Alger?<br /> ————————————————————————————————————<br /> History for 7/14/2023<br /> Birthdays: Issac Bashevis Singer, Frederick Maytag, inventor of the electronic washing machine-1857, Emiline Pankhurst, Woody Guthrie, Gerald Ford, Ingmar Bergman, Jerry Rubin, Scott Rudin, Rosie Grier, Harry Dean Stanton, Polly Bergen, Gustav Klimt, Terry Thomas, Jimmy Hoffa, Dave Fleischer, Bill Hanna, Walt Stanchfield, Joel Silver, Vincent (Big Pussy) Pastore<br /> <br /> Happy Tape Measure Day.<br /> <br /> 1415- Joanna II, the Queen of Naples called Joanna la Loca (Crazy Joanie), allows the prostitutes of Avignon to form their own guild. Solidarity Forever.<br /> <br /> 1690- King William III of Orange landed in Ireland near Carrickfergus with a large Anglo-Dutch Army to confront James II Stuart. <br /> <br /> 1756- In one of the opening moves of the Seven Years War, the French crossed Lake Ontario and captured Fort Oswego. The French commander Vaudreuil wrote: The howling of our Canadians and Indians soon convinced the defenders to surrender."<br /> <br /> 1789- BASTILLE DAY-THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. In France the anger of the common people over economic hardship and arrogant indifference of the King and nobility finally exploded in mass violence. The focus of the people’s hate was the Bastille, a huge fortress- prison that towered over Paris rooftops, her cannon aimed at the people in the streets. The Parisians got guns and stormed the prison. Ironically, the royal government was intending to phase out the prison anyway. <br /> When the gates were forced opened only a handful of petty thieves came out, including a lunatic who shouted:" I am God! " But the symbolism was what counted. <br /> Miles away at Versailles, King Louis XVI had just written in his hunting diary- July 14th 1789-" Rien- Nothing" when he heard the commotion. He said:" What is that? A revolt?" The Duke de la Rochfoucauld said:" No Sire, a revolution!"<br /> <br /> 1790- On the first anniversary of the French Revolution, the U.S. Congress voted a celebration in solidarity with a fellow republic. <br /> <br /> 1791- The Irish rebel Wolftone stands on the heights above Dublin and swears eternal opposition to the English. This is considered the legendary birth of the IRA.<br /> <br /> 1793- Charlotte Corday stabbed French Revolutionary leader Jean Paul Marat in his bathtub. Marat had to receive callers in his tub because of a skin affliction. He was known for sayings like "If we cut off a thousand heads today, it saves us cutting off ten thousand tomorrow!" and:" We'll strangle the last king, with the guts of the last priest!" Corday was the daughter of one of his victims, a moderate politician called a Girondist. Young artist Madame Tussaud was allowed to make a death mask of Marat while still in the tub and David's painting shows him expiring with a Christ-like calm.<br /> <br /> 1798- President John Adams signed the ALIEN AND SEDITION ACTS, which stated you could be jailed, and if an immigrant deported, for saying anything critical of the U.S. government. Outraged Thomas Jefferson said he was afraid to write down his views anymore in the face of such a law. Despite the obvious conflict with basic Constitutional rights, the Alien and Sedition Acts were never successfully challenged in court. In 1801 the time limit on the Acts were allowed to elapse without renewal and incoming President Jefferson pardoned all those jailed under them. <br /> The Acts come up every now and again when politicians need a legal precedent for jailing someone, like during the McCarthy period of the 1950’s. In 1998 they were alluded to when Judge Kenneth Starr wanted to jail people who wouldn’t cooperate in his Monica Lewinsky scandal probe, and in 2003 in the Patriot Acts.<br /> <br /> 1850 - 1st public demonstration of ice made by refrigeration<br /> <br /> 1853 – In emulation of the London World Exposition at the Crystal Palace, the 1st US World's fair opens at the Crystal Palace NY.<br /> <br /> 1862- Every old sailors worst nightmare came true. This day the US Navy did away with the daily rum ration, in effect outlawing all alcohol on a ship except for medicinal purposes. <br /> <br /> 1863- After their defeat at Gettysburg Robert E. Lee's Confederate army finally crossed the Potomac back to the safety of Virginia. Abe Lincoln was furious that his victorious General George Meade wouldn't pursue the defeated rebels and finish them off before they could escape, maybe shortening the Civil War by a year. But the cautious General Meade thought his own army too exhausted and didn’t want to press his luck. Meade then angered Lincoln further by issuing a public thanks to his army for" Driving the Enemy off our soil." Lincoln responded:" Pennsylvania is our soil, but so is Virginia! They are not a foreign army!" Lincoln superseded Meade in authority with Grant who kept him in a secondary role. <br /> <br /> 1868- Seward's Folly- Congress authorized the purchase of Alaska from Russia.<br /> <br /> 1882- BILLY THE KID SHOT- Fort Sumner New Mexico sheriff Pat Garrett hid in a closet in the Kid's hotel room and shot him in the back as he was sitting on the bed, taking his boots off. Billy's last words were:" Who's there?" Backshooting was how Billy killed most of his victims. Billy was 21. After blasting away, Pat Garret panicked and scrambled out into the street without waiting to see if his shots had their effect. <br /> Billy had such a lethal reputation that a small crowd stood in fear outside his room for nearly an hour until they were sure the Kid wasn't just playing possum but was really dead. Even though Garrett was practically illiterate, he wrote several best-selling books on the incident, heavily embellished by pulp ghostwriter Ned Buntline. Eventually Pat Garrett too was shot in the back, this time in an argument over ownership of some goats.<br /> <br /> 1882- Gunfighter Johnny Ringo found dead in Turkey Canyon Arizona. Ringo was not part of the Gunfight at the OK Corral but he later called out Doc Holliday. Wyatt Earp claimed he had hunted down Ringo and killed him, but the court ruled it a suicide.<br /> <br /> 1892- Civil War veterans who were wounded in service were awarded an additional $50 pension by the government. Female nurses of that conflict were awarded a $12 pension. Political satirist and combat veteran Ambrose Bierce returned the money with the note" Thank you, but this was not part of the original contract when I signed on to become an assassin for my Country."<br /> <br /> 1908- The Adventures of Dollie premiered, the first movie of D.W. Griffith.<br /> <br /> 1914 - 1st patent for liquid-fueled rocket design granted to Dr. Robert Goddard. Goddard did some schooling at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA, until he blew up the chemistry building and they kicked him out. He then went down the road to a field in the town of Auburn to fire off that first successful liquid-fueled rocket.<br /> After he became famous, WPI named the new building after him. The air pressure inside that building is kept lower than the outside pressure via a large pump in the basement... so that if the building were ever exploded again, it would implode and reduce collateral damage. It makes the outside doors really tough to open! <br /> In l939 when the US government decided to take over the Guggenheim financed rocket experiments at Cal Tech and form the Jet Propulsion Labs they invited Goddard to join them. But Goddard didn’t want to lose his special status in his own labs by becoming a government scientist so he declined the offer.<br /> <br /> 1917- Buster Keaton made his film debut in the Fatty Arbuckle comedy The Butcher Boy. <br /> <br /> 1918- Quentin Roosevelt, the youngest son of Teddy Roosevelt became a fighter pilot in World War I. On this day in aerial combat he was shot down and killed. Teddy Roosevelt loved to brag about the manly virtues of war and as President continually rattled his saber at the world. But his own baby boy's death “Quinty-Que”, broke his spirit. Teddy was never the same again and died within a year.<br /> <br /> 1921-Sacco &amp; Vancetti convicted. These men were Italian immigrants and socialists who were accused of the murder of a Massachusetts storeowner. The evidence was slight, but hey, they were foreign immigrants, and lefties. Despite protests around the world from folks like Picasso, George Bernard Shaw and Helen Keller, they were electrocuted. Folksinger Woody Guthrie wrote a dozen ballads in tribute to Sacco &amp; Vancetti." Let me sing you a ballad of Sacco-Vancetti, pour me some wine and eat some spaghetti..."<br /> <br /> 90th Anniversary 1933- Well Blow Me Down!- Max Fleischer's first "Popeye the Sailor" cartoon debuted. The character was first created by Elzie Segar for his Thimble Theater comic strip. Based on a eccentric old neighbor who smoked a pipe and liked to get into fights. Vaudevillian Red Pepper Sam provided his salty mumbles throughout the post-sync track. Fleischer soon realized the improvised mumbling was funnier than the written dialogue. When Sam asked for more money than Max Fleischer thought he was worth, he replaced him with assistant animator Jack Mercer, who remained his voice until his death in 1984.<br /> <br /> 1944- T.S. Elliott, then working for the London publisher Faber &amp; Faber, wrote George Orwell a letter rejecting the manuscript of his book “Animal Farm” for publication. He said although the writing style was good and the most intriguing use of allegory since Swift’s Gulliver, its politics were too Trotskyite to be representative of their company. Orwell found another publisher.<br /> <br /> 1946 – Dr. Benjamin Spock's "Common Sense Book of Baby &amp; Child Care" published<br /> <br /> 1948- The Israeli Army captured Nazareth.<br /> <br /> 1951 - 1st color telecast of a sporting event (CBS-horse race)<br /> <br /> 1951 –Triple Crown Winner Citation becomes 1st horse to win $1,000,000 in races.<br /> <br /> 1955- The Kaarman Ghia debuted. Volkswagen wanted an "image car" to compete with the sleek American designs like the Corvette and Thunderbird. So they subcontracted the Kaarman motorbus company who engaged an Italian design firm named Ghia and the distinctive little coupe was born. <br /> <br /> 1958- The last King of Iraq, Feisal II was overthrown and killed by a coup of army officers led by General Kassim. Feisals family was Jordanian, they were placed in Iraq by the British in the 1920’s to make up for losing the Hejaz (Saudi Arabia) to the house of Ibn Saud.<br /> <br /> 1967 - The new band called The Who began a US tour as the opening act for Herman’s Hermits.<br /> <br /> 1969- El Salvador and Nicaragua go to war over a soccer match.<br /> <br /> 1969- The movie Easy Rider premiered.<br /> <br /> 1978- Lee Iacocca, exec in charge of the invention of the Ford Mustang, was fired by Ford Motor Co. Henry Ford III said: "I just don’t like the man." Iacocca went on to resurrecting the Chrysler Corporation and run KookARoo Chicken restaurants. <br /> <br /> 1980- The Republican Convention nominated former California Governor, actor and SAG president Ronald Reagan. The GOP under Robert Strauss &amp; Lee Atwater completed restructuring itself after the disaster of Watergate by creating a new-conservative alliance of Sunbelt Evangelicals and Southern Dixiecrats. <br /> Regular Republican stalwarts who disagreed with their agenda- Rockefeller, Goldwater, Nixon were out. At 69, Reagan was the oldest man to ever run for the presidency until McCain in 2008, then Trump and Biden in 2020. Reagan said of the convention:" It’s the first time in a long while I saw myself on television in prime time."<br /> <br /> 1997- Johnny Bravo premiered on TV.<br /> <br /> 2015- After a nine-year voyage, the space probe New Horizon made a closer flyby of the planet Pluto than any spacecraft had ever done. Scientists has dismissed Pluto as a shapeless rock asteroid. Horizon showed Pluto was perfectly round, had an ice cap, and even a slightly blue atmosphere. <br /> ==================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: It’s been revealed that Justice Clarence Thomas was recently admitted to a secret society of ultra-rich and famous people called the Horatio Alger Society. Who was Horatio Alger?<br /> <br /> Answer: Horatio Alger (1832-1899) was an immensely popular author of juvenile novels written during the last half of the 19th century. These books always featured a young, impoverished boy who, by his high moral character and heroic deeds, rises from his humble beginnings to success and a happy life. Self-made capitalists like Carnegie, Ford and Disney pointed to the Horatio Alger stories as their inspiration. (Thanks FG)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 13 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6201 <p>Quiz: It’s been revealed that Justice Clarence Thomas was recently admitted to a secret society of ultra-rich and famous people called the Horatio Alger Society. Who was Horatio Alger?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What was a potlatch ceremony and who did them? <br /> ------------------------------------<br /> History for 7/13/2023<br /> Birthdays: French Admiral Bailly de Suffren, Cheech Marin, Father Flannagan, Bob Crane, 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 83, Harrison Ford is 81, Tom Kenny the voice of Spongebob Squarepants is 62, Mike Ploog is 81, Computer artist Lillian Schwartz is 96<br /> <br /> 1174- The Battle of Alnwick, in which Scottish King William I "the Lion" was<br /> captured during a raid in Northumberland. He was held hostage by King Henry II until he recognized England's authority over Scotland.<br /> <br /> 1568 - Dean of St Paul's Cathedral perfected a way to bottle beer. What ever the process was it had to wait three hundred more years to be put to use.<br /> <br /> 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.<br /> <br /> 1787-THE NORTHWEST ORDINANCE PASSED- This unprecedented plan masterminded by Tom Jefferson stipulated that as new territory passed into the United States, their population could organize their own local government and enter the American union as a state, an equal of the original 13 states. So, Utah would have as much political power as Pennsylvania. Nothing like this had ever been imagined, much less implemented. <br /> 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!<br /> <br /> 1798- Poet William Wordsworth visited Tinturn Abbey and was inspired to write his famous elegy on the ruins.<br /> <br /> 1832- Geologist Henry Schoolcraft discovered the source of the Mississippi River at Lake Itasca, Minnesota.<br /> <br /> 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, Barnum invented the idea of advanced hype and created kiddie matinees. <br /> <br /> 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.<br /> <br /> 1898- Giuseppe Marconi patented 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.<br /> <br /> 1923- While digging in the Gobi Desert, paleontologist George Olsen discovered the first fossilized dinosaur eggs.<br /> <br /> 1925- Walt Disney and Lillian Bounds marry. Lillian was one of the first female animation ink &amp; paint artists.<br /> <br /> 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. <br /> <br /> 1930 – David Sarnoff the head of the NBC radio network said in the NY Times," 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.<br /> <br /> 1939- Frank Sinatra recorded his first album, this one with the Harry James Orchestra.<br /> <br /> 1939. 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.<br /> <br /> 1949- Hollywood Studio exec David O. Selznick left his first wife Esther, the daughter of Louis B. Mayer, to marry actress Jennifer Jones.<br /> <br /> 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 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 also killed in a car accident.<br /> <br /> 1953- Chuck Jones first day at the Disney Studio. Warner Bros laid him off with most of the animation staff when they attempted to go into all 3D production. Walt Disney hired Jones and this day showed him around the studio. Walt asked him, “ Well, where do you see yourself fitting in?” Chuck replied, “Well to be honest, the only job here I would really like is yours.” Walt laughed,” Well, that’s taken.” Chuck worked in story for 4 months, then returned to Warners when they realized their mistake and reconstituted their team. <br /> <br /> 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. <br /> 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 told him:” Lyndon, the Vice Presidency tain’t worth a bucket a warm spit!” <br /> Bobby Kennedy considered offering Lyndon the VP as a token gesture to mollify his anger at losing the nomination. But he was surprised when Johnson accepted. Before going to Ciro’s on Wilshire 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….” <br /> <br /> 1964- At the Republican Convention, the delegates cheered far right-wing candidate Barry Goldwater, then booed Nelson Rockefeller for denouncing right wing extremism in their party. <br /> <br /> 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. All he would say was, “I guess it wasn’t their night.”<br /> <br /> 1977- The Great New York City Blackout of '77. For the second time in 20 years the whole power grid broke down. Unlike the 1964 or 2003 Blackouts, it was much longer, much hotter and humid, 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”.<br /> <br /> 1981- Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits opened.<br /> <br /> 1984- The film The Last Starfighter with Robert Preston opened. Pitched as, “ The Music Man in Outer Space” because it was Robert Preston’s last film. The first movie where all the spaceships and effects were done with CGI, instead of miniatures and models. Their computers had a combined memory of 25 MGB.<br /> <br /> 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.<br /> <br /> 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.”<br /> <br /> 2016- In the wake of the Brexit Debacle, Theresa May became the second female Prime Minister of Great Britain. She resigned three years later when she could not figure out the Brexit mess either. She was succeeded by Boris Johnson who also lasted only three years. <br /> ====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What was a potlatch ceremony and who did them? <br /> <br /> Answer: The potlatch is a ceremony practiced among indigenous tribes of Northwest Canada and the United States in which families come together to celebrate births, give names, conduct marriages, mourn the loss of a loved one, or pass rights from a Chief to his eldest son. It involved gift giving and feasting. The Canadian gov’t banned it from 1885-1951 because they felt it was a vestige of old preventing native peoples from assimilating into mainstream (white) society.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 11 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6200 <p>Quiz: Among medieval peddlers at your door, what was a rag &amp; bone man?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Has director Martin Scorcese ever done a voice in an animated film?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 7/11/2023
Birthdays: Robert the Bruce, John Quincy Adams, Sir Thomas Bowdler, E.B. White, Yul Brynner, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leon Spinks, Tab Hunter, Giorgio Armani and Martin Scocese are both 80, Sela Ward, Kimberly “Little Kim’ Jones, Stephen Lang is 71<br /> <br /> 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. <br /> <br /> 1302-"Battle of the Golden Spurs" Battle of Courtai. In an unusual turn for the Middle Ages, French peasants defeated an army of noble knights and hung their golden spurs up in church.<br /> <br /> 1533- Pope Clement VII denounced King Henry VIII’s divorce, excommunicated him and pronounced his new marriage to Anne Boleyn null, and any offspring illegitimate.<br /> <br /> 1573- While plundering the Gulf Coast of Panama, Sir Francis Drake was taken by a friendly Cimaroon native to a large tree from whose top he could simultaneously view the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Drake swears an oath to one day navigate the Pacific, the first Englishman to dare violate the Spaniards private sea.<br /> <br /> 1573- After a long siege, the Dutch city of Haarlem fell to Spanish armies. <br /> <br /> 1708- The Battle of Oudenarde- Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy defeated the French 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. <br /> 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 melody was an old Crusader song 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. <br /> <br /> 1798- The birthday of the U.S. Marine Band. Called the 'President's Own" it achieved world fame in 1881 playing the marches of its director John Philip Sousa.<br /> <br /> 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. <br /> <br /> 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 left behind a note that said he deliberately planned to shoot wide as a gesture. Burr said baloney, he was just nervous. Burr’s shot hit Hamilton near the groin. Hamilton was carried back to Manhattan in great pain where he died the next day. <br /> <br /> 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. <br /> <br /> 1812- U.S. armies invade Canada- again.<br /> <br /> 1848 - London's Waterloo Station opened.<br /> <br /> 1855- An earthquake knocked down Los Angeles -again.<br /> <br /> 1906- Nordisk Films in Copenhagen founded. <br /> <br /> 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.<br /> <br /> 1921- British Prime Minster David Lloyd George and Irish Republican leader Eamon De Valera announced a truce in the guerrilla war ravaging Ireland and the beginnings of peace talks.<br /> <br /> 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. Alfred 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.<br /> <br /> 1936- The Triboro Bridge project opened 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 its 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."<br /> <br /> 1937- George Gershwin died of a brain tumor at age 38.<br /> <br /> 1938- The radio show The Mercury Theater of the Air with Orson Welles and John Houseman premiered.<br /> <br /> 1942- First phase or the Battle of El-Alamein ends with Rommel’s Afrika Korps stalled just outside Cairo and the Suez Canal.<br /> <br /> 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 Nazis understood thereafter that they could no longer hope to win.<br /> <br /> 1943- OPERATION HUSKY-One of the biggest boondoggles of WWII. During the invasion of Sicily, American strategists decided to drop parachute troops behind German forces to trap them before they could withdraw 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 Allied planes wings were painted with three broad white 'invasion stripes' to prevent similar accidents. The secret was so well kept, it is still not mentioned in many popular histories of World War II. <br /> One C-47 transport that peeled off and ran for base, avoiding the carnage, contained Tech Sergeant George Sito, who survived the war to sire me, your author. <br /> <br /> 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. <br /> <br /> 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 the Congress passed the 22nd amendment forbidding any other President to have more than two terms.<br /> <br /> 1945- Napalm first used on Japanese positions in Luzon in the Philippines.<br /> <br /> 1952- The Republican Convention nominated Gen. Dwight Eisenhower to be their candidate for President. Nobody 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 said of Ike: “He was the best damn orderly I ever had!”<br /> <br /> 1952- LA’s Randy’s Donuts, with its iconic giant donut sign on its roof, opened.<br /> <br /> 1962-The Tellstar I satellite transmitted the first television images from France to USA.<br /> <br /> 1969 – The Rolling Stones release "Honky Tonk Woman".<br /> <br /> 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. <br /> <br /> 1972- Beautiful actress and peace activist Jane Fonda toured Hanoi, North Vietnam. At one point she was photographed seated at an anti-aircraft gun. The same kind used to shoot down US planes. For that she was labeled “Hanoi Jane” and condemned by veterans’ groups for the rest of her life, even into her 80s. She said, “That was the worst decision of my life”. <br /> <br /> 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 life-sized statue was an individual portrait. They were buried in 221 BC to protect the tomb of China's first emperor Qin Shiwang, whose name is where the name China came from.<br /> <br /> 1979- The world held its breath and covered their heads as the first U.S. space station SKYLAB fell back to earth. 77 tons of space debris in 500 pieces falling around Australia and the Indian Ocean. Luckily it didn’t hit anyone, although chunks were imbedded in an office building in Perth.<br /> <br /> 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. <br /> <br /> 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 Coco were the result.<br /> <br /> 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&amp;M paraphernalia.<br /> <br /> 2016- Nintendo released the Pokemon Go app for smart phones and it caused a sensation.<br /> <br /> 2021- Richard Branson, billionaire CEO of Virgin Airlines, went up in space, just shy of orbit, in a privately made rocket plane. Amazon head Jeff Bezos followed shortly after. This initiated a new fashion for Space tourism, by the Beautiful People set. <br /> ==========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Has director Martin Scorcese ever done a voice in an animated film?<br /> <br /> Answer: Yes, Sykes in Dreamwork’s Sharktale.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 10 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6199 <p>Quiz: Has director Martin Scorcese ever done a voice in an animated film?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: In what story did we first hear, “ ..Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 7/10/2023<br /> 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, Queen Camilla, Jessica Simpson is 43, Chiwetel Ejiofor is 46.<br /> <br /> 138AD- Death of the Roman Emperor Hadrian at age 62. Antoninus Pius became emperor after promising him 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 killing of his brother-in-law Servianus, who was ninety years old. <br /> <br /> 1040 - Lady Godiva (Godgifu) goes for a ride on horseback in the nude through the streets of Coventry to embarrass her husband, Leofric, the Earl of Mercia, to lower taxes on the poor.<br /> <br /> 1099- The magical-mystical knight of Spain, Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, 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.<br /> <br /> 1460 - Wars of Roses: Richard of York defeated King Henry VI at Northampton.<br /> <br /> 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 child Mary from ascending the throne. Mary was a bigoted Catholic and made no secret her desire to charbroil all those who turned from the Roman Church. So, they found 16 year old Lady Jane Grey, a niece with a thin claim on the throne. It didn’t work, Mary became queen anyway, Elizabeth kept her head down, and Lady Jane lost hers.<br /> <br /> 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 Medicis ordered his prompt release.<br /> <br /> 1649- The Battle of ZBARAZH- Ukrainian Cossack rebel Bogdhan Khmielnitski besieged Polish warlord Prince Jeremy Wisnowiecki with the aid of the Crimean Tatars under Tugai Bey. After an 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. And now an invasion.<br /> <br /> 1815- After the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, the allied armies occupying Paris start to squabble. 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 de Jena. When the Duke of Wellington denounced this action as barbaric, General von Gneisenau sneered: “you would do the same if it was Pont du Yorktown!” the big British defeat in the American Revolution. Wellington wouldn’t speak to von Gneisenau afterwards. <br /> The Prussians got to set off gunpowder charge, but the bridge was built too solid and wouldn’t collapse. They compromised and changed its name to Pont de Louvre.<br /> <br /> 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 I ' 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.<br /> <br /> 1873 - French poet Paul Verlaine wounded Arthur Rimbaud in a pistol duel.<br /> <br /> 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”. <br /> <br /> 1890- Wyoming became a state.<br /> <br /> 1892 - 1st concrete-paved street built in Bellefontaine, Ohio.<br /> <br /> 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. <br /> 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. <br /> 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.<br /> <br /> 1932- In a baseball game against the Philadelphia Athletics, Cleveland Indian pitcher Eddie Rommel perfects the knuckleball pitch.<br /> <br /> 1940- THEIR FINEST HOUR-This day saw the first German bombing raids over London known as the "Battle of Britain". It went on all Summer into late September. 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 glass 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."<br /> <br /> 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. Legend is 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 Mabel anointing his head with Holy oil.<br /> <br /> 1943- Allied Armies hit the beaches in Sicily. <br /> <br /> 1950 - "Your Hit Parade" premieres on NBC (later CBS) TV.<br /> <br /> 1953- NIKITA KHRUSCHEV took 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.<br /> <br /> 1976- the last wooden slide rule produced. The K&amp;E company gave it to the Smithsonian.<br /> <br /> 1985 - Coca-Cola Co admitted New Coke was a big mistake and announced it would resume selling old formula Coke. <br /> <br /> 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.<br /> <br /> 1987- The Brave Little Toaster premiered in theaters. Directed by Jerry Rees. <br /> <br /> 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.”<br /> <br /> 1985- “We Don’t Need Another Evil. “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome opened in theaters.<br /> <br /> 1991-Boris Yeltsin took the oath of office as first (and so far only) popularly elected President of Russia.<br /> <br /> 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.<br /> ========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: In what story did we first hear, “ ..Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”<br /> <br /> Answer: In the movie The Wizard of Oz. When Dorothy spots the old sideshow ringmaster she knew operating the controls to the big scary head of the wizard.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 09 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6198 <p>Quiz: In what story did we first hear, “ ..Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What does it mean to have bonhomie?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 7/9/2023<br /> 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, Richard Roundtree, Daniel Guggenheim, John Tesch, Fred Savage, Chris Cooper, O.J. Simpson, Courtenay Love is 63, Debbie Sludge is 73, Brian Dennehy, Tom Hanks is 67, Sofia Vegara is 50<br /> <br /> 271B.C.- Greek philosopher Epicurus died at age 72. A strict vegetarian, he suffered from kidney stones and dysentery from drinking only water. <br /> <br /> 1540- Henry VIII had his marriage annulled to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. Because the match was made for strictly political reasons, in contrast to Henry's other queens, she was not beheaded, but had a nice quiet life afterward. Still, because it was his idea, Henry had his minister Thomas Cromwell beheaded. You gotta have some fun. <br /> <br /> 1595 - Johannes Kepler theorized a geometric construction of the universe.<br /> <br /> 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, the Pope hated him too. This treaty set the stage for the next century of European conflict.<br /> <br /> 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. Many 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, local 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 set fire to the ship. The next day the crew were released and everyone in the vicinity suddenly caught amnesia.<br /> <br /> 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 NY Mayor David Matthews, Royal Governor Tryon, and one of General Washington’s own bodyguard.<br /> <br /> 1815 -1st natural gas well in US is discovered.<br /> <br /> 1816- Happy Argentine Independence Day!<br /> <br /> 1864- Battle of the Monocacy. Jubal Early's Confederates threatened Washington D.C., to try and pull Grant away from his stranglehold on Richmond. This day they fought a large skirmish with Union forces in the area and resume their march towards the US Capitol.<br /> <br /> 1842 - Notary Stamp Law passes.<br /> <br /> 1910 - Walter Brookings becomes 1st to pilot an airplane up to an altitude of one mile!<br /> <br /> 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 as his training was completed.<br /> <br /> 1929- The first airline service set up between New York City and Los Angeles (Glendale Airport). It was set up by Clement Melville Keyes, and Jack Maddux, running Ford Tri-Motor airplanes. First called Maddux Airlines, then later TWA.<br /> <br /> 1937- A fire at the Fox Studio film vaults destroyed thousands of stored nitrate prints. Entire careers were erased from film history. Stars like Theda Bara and William Farnum had most of their work destroyed. A tragedy to film history.<br /> <br /> 1940- VICHY- After the terrible defeat by the Germans, the remains of the French government set up a Nazis puppet state with elderly Great War hero Marshal Phillipe Petain as president. Because Paris was occupied by the Nazis, they met in the mineral water resort town of Vichy. The Vichy Republic was born. For a long time after a debate raged 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" Claude Rains pours himself some mineral water, but when he sees the label says Vichy, he tosses it into the trash.<br /> <br /> 1942- Anne Frank and her family go into hiding from the Nazis in the warehouse attic above her father’s office. <br /> <br /> 1943- Polish secret agent Jan Kauszka had been smuggled out of occupied Europe so he could travel 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 of the Jews of Europe.<br /> <br /> 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 Morgenthau a "blockhead", idiot," and "He don’t know shit from apple-butter!"<br /> <br /> 1955 - "Rock Around Clock", arguably the first Rock &amp; Roll song, hits #1 on Top 100 chart\<br /> <br /> 1956 - Dick Clark's 1st appearance as host of American Bandstand.<br /> <br /> 1972- David Bowie first appeared as his alter-ego Ziggy Stardust.<br /> <br /> 1976- Walt Disney’s The Treasure of Matecumbe premiered.<br /> <br /> 1981 - Walt Disney's the "Fox &amp; 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 boomer generation. 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, John Pomeroy, Dan Haskett, Steve Hulett, John Musker, Jerry Rees, Rebecca Rees, Randy Cartwright, Glen Keane and many more.<br /> <br /> 1983- The Police’s single "Every Breath You Take" goes to #1.<br /> <br /> 1993- Industrial Light &amp; Magic completed its transition to digital technology by shutting down its Howard Anderson Optical Printer. The Optical Printer system of mattes had been the way Motion Picture visual effects had been done since Georg Melies in 1909, but the Digital Revolution had changed everything.<br /> ==========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What does it mean to have bonhomie?<br /> <br /> Answer: To project a casual, good-natured friendliness. A hail-fellow-well-met.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 08 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6197 <p>Quiz: What does it mean to have bonhomie? As in- he exuded good humor and bonhomie. "<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: The animated classic Allegro Non Troppo was created in what country?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 7/8/2023<br /> B-Dazes: Jean de LaFontaine, John D. Rockefeller, Nelson Rockefeller, Kathe Kollwitz, Count Ferdinand Von Zeppelin, Louis Jordan, Billy Eckstine, Steve Lawrence, Percy Grainger, Cynthia Gregory, Phillip Johnson, Kim Darby, Marty Feldman, Roone Arledge, Kevin Bacon is 65, Billy Crudup, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, Angelica Huston, Raffi , Jeffrey Tambor<br /> <br /> 951AD- Happy Birthday Paris! The Roman city of Lutetia- muddy place- was built on the site of a village inhabited by a tribe of Gauls called the Parisi. This date was when the chronicles say the Franks established a castle, probably a wooden stronghold, on the present-day site of the Louvre. Despite Viking raids and floods, the city slowly began to grow.<br /> <br /> 1099- The Crusaders tried to storm the walls of Jerusalem but were repulsed. They decided it was God telling them they were unworthy of the Holy City because they were sinful. So they drove out their camp followers and marched barefoot around the walls of Jerusalem praying and chanting. The Egyptian defenders hadn't really understood yet what this Christian Jihad stuff was all about. They thought it was pretty funny. They liked to urinate on the crusaders heads from the top of the walls.<br /> <br /> 1249- Death of King Alexander II "the Peaceful" of Scotland. During his reign the border was established, and his heraldic symbol, the Red Lion Rampant on a Yellow field, became the symbol of Scotland.<br /> <br /> 1386- The Battle of Sembach- Leopold of Austria discovers why you leave the Swiss alone and let them stay neutral. His army of knights were intent on chastising this land of uppity goat herders, but they were destroyed instead. At first they held off the raging Schwyzers with a wall of spears. But then legend has it that great hero and big schwyzer Arnold von Winkelreid shouted "Brothers! Take care of my wife and children!" and gathered up a dozen enemy spear points and shoved them into his own chest. As he fell he pulled them down with him, that opened a gap in the Austrian line that the Swiss swarmed through to victory. <br /> Duke Leopold was found in a ditch with a battleaxe in his skull and two spears rammed up his butt. The last two were more for insults sake.<br /> <br /> 1497 - Vasco da Gama departs for his trip to India by way of the Horn of Africa.<br /> <br /> 1673- William of Orange elected Stadholder of Holland while the country was fighting an Anglo French invasion. In electing him the Dutch chose an aristocratic prince over the republican party of the Great Pensioner Jacob De Witt. William was for no compromise with invaders, while De Witt favored a humiliating peace. De Witt was murdered by a mob. William called for national resistance and the Dutch opened their dykes and flooded the land around Amsterdam to stop the French army. William won and he eventually became King of England as well.<br /> <br /> 1755-THE BATTLE OF THE MONONGAHELA or BRADDOCKS DEFEAT- The French and Indian War, the North American installment of the greater European conflict known as the Seven Years War began. British General Braddock, marching to surprise French held Ft. Duquesne in western Pennsylvania, was ambushed on the Monongahela River by the French and their Indian allies. Out that far in the wilderness no one was sure if the war between France and England had even been declared, so it certainly was a surprise. Braddock and all the officers were killed except for a young militia captain named George Washington. Daniel Boone was also there as a young scout. After the war Ft. Duquesne became British and renamed it after Prime Minister William Pitt, so it became Pittsburgh. <br /> <br /> 1758- French general the Marquis de Montcalm with 3,000 men at Ft. Ticonderoga, New York, throw back a British attack of 15,000 under General Abercrombie. Some of the bloodiest fighting of the French and Indian War, Abercrombie lost 3,000. The French lost 104 men. <br /> <br /> 1775- Before the Declaration of Independence was even conceived, the more conservative members of the American Congress first tried a compromise. They drafted an appeal to the King to resolve America’s differences with London and stay part of the British Empire. They called it the Olive Branch Petition. It was written by John Dickinson and carried to London by William Penn III. But King George’s blood was up with these unruly Yankees. He had just got the reports of his redcoat casualties from the Battle of Bunker Hill. So when this weenie petition came, he brushed it aside.” Our colonists in North American must now decide whether they are our subjects or our enemies.” Still, Dickinson argued against independence up to the final vote. <br /> <br /> 1776- The new Declaration of Independence was celebrated in Philadelphia with parties and parades. With great solemnity the Royal Coat of Arms was taken down from the State House judges bench and tossed on a bonfire. <br /> <br /> 1801- Touissaint L’Ouverture created a new constitution for the island of French Saint Dominique’, now called Haiti. Even though Haiti became only the second democratic republic in all the Americas, and Americans loudly called on all nations to assert their freedom, the Founding Fathers could not bring themselves to recognize a republic of rebellious slaves.<br /> <br /> 1815- The British army occupied Paris after Waterloo. A camp of white tents set up in the Bois du Boulogne. The allied bayonets returned the fat elderly Bourbon king Louis XVIII to the throne in place of Napoleon. <br /> <br /> 1822- Poet Percy Shelley drowned when a storm sank his yacht The Simon Bolivar, off Leghorn, Italy. His body was cremated but his heart was embalmed in lead and presented to his wife Mary Wollenstonecraft Shelley. Lord Byron swam offshore during the cremation so they could observe Shelley's spirit rising to Heaven.<br /> <br /> 1835- The Liberty Bell cracked. It rang for the Declaration of Independence and was being rung for the death of Chief Justice John Marshall.<br /> <br /> 1838- THE TRAIL OF TEARS- Cherokee Removal Treaty goes into effect. President Andrew Jackson, Indian name: "Sharp Knife", forced the entire Cherokee Nation to evacuate Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. 17,000 people were marched off to Oklahoma. One third died along the way. The token amounts paid for their land could not help their heartbreak at leaving their ancestral home. Warriors would touch or kiss trees as they trudged away to the amusement of the soldiers. <br /> The Supreme Court ruled the harassment of the Cherokee Nation was unconstitutional, but President Jackson ignored them. Jackson said:" Chief Justice has ruled, now let him try to enforce it." One Georgia man later said:" I fought through the Civil War and have seen men shot to pieces and slaughtered in the thousands, but the Cherokee Removal was the cruelest work I ever knew."<br /> <br /> 1853- BLACK SHIP DAY-Commodore Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay and convinced the Japanese to open trade with them by threatening to bombard Yokohama. The Shogun's envoys received the Americans by laying straw matts under their feet and talking to them in a special pavilion. The Yankees thought this was special treatment, but actually after they left the mattes and building were burned so they could say the foreigner's feet never polluted Japanese soil. This ended Japan's 300-year-old isolation from the outside world.<br /> <br /> 1881- Soda fountain owner Ed Berners of Two Falls, Wisconsin first drizzled chocolate sauce on vanilla ice cream and invented the Ice Cream Sundae. It cost a nickel. It was called that a sundae because he only served it on Sundays as a treat after attending Church.<br /> <br /> 1889- The Wall Street Journal first published.<br /> <br /> 1889-The last great bareknuckle championship fight. John L. Sullivan defeated Jake Kilrain in Mississippi for a purse of $20,000. After 60 rounds one of Sullivan’s eyes was shut, he was covered with welts, and blood was showing above his shoes. When his manager recommended declaring a draw, Sullivan said:" Hell no. I want to kill him!" He won at sundown, after 75 rounds. Sullivan was one of the first flamboyant prizefighters and the first American fighter to declare himself Champion of the World. He’d travel from town to town building his legend:" I’m John L. Sullivan and I can lick any man in the house!" <br /> <br /> 1896- William Jennings Bryan" The Son of the Plains", electrifies listeners at the Democratic Convention with a speech denouncing the gold standard: "You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!" Whether federal currency should be backed by gold or cheaper silver divided Americans along class lines. Modern people only recall Bryan as the attorney Clarence Darrow made look silly in the Scopes "Monkey Trials". But Bryan was a fiery populist orator and strong rogue political force, who made several tries at the Presidency. He was a Bernie Sanders with Pat Robertson and some Ethel Merman thrown in.<br /> <br /> 1907-The First Ziegfield Follies staged on the roof of the New York Theater, today called the New Amsterdam Theater.<br /> <br /> 1911- Burbank incorporated as a city. <br /> <br /> 1918- A young American ambulance driver serving in Italy during World War I was badly wounded by a mortar shell. As he was being carried off, he was also hit by machine gun fire. Doctors removed 37 pieces of shrapnel and bits of glass from his body. His name was Ernest Hemingway. His long recovery and love affair with his nurse he later worked into his novel "A Farewell To Arms".<br /> <br /> 1922- Horn player Louis Armstrong first left his hometown of New Orleans to go to Chicago and play in King Oliver’s Jazz band.<br /> <br /> 1932- THE DEPRESSION STOCK MARKET HITS ROCK BOTTOM - free falling since the Great Crash of October 1929, and compounded by the Hawley-Smoot trade act of 1931, which started a trade war that killed off overseas exports. From a Dow Jones high in the Roaring Twenties of 262, today’s average hit bottom at 58. Only 720,278 shares exchanged. One local club wallpapered the bar with unsold bond certificates. The Bond market lost around ten million in value, Total output of heavy industries like steel production were working at only 12% of capacity. 25% of the U.S. workforce was unemployed, 50% of New York City, 80% of industrial cities like Detroit and Toledo. Top Wall Street securities firms like Morgan and Salomon Brothers encouraged "Apple Days"- one day a week for brokers to go on the street to sell apples to supplement their income. One songwriter wrote a song about the unpopularity of stock traders: " Please Don't Tell Mother I Work on Wall Street, She Thinks I Play Piano in a WhoreHouse. " The just completed Empire State Building was nicknamed the "Empty State Building." because there were no businesses to move into it. Yet President Herbert Hoover could only spout unrealistic slogans like "the economy is fundamentally sound" and "prosperity is just around the corner." Mt. Rushmore sculptor Judson Borglum said: "If you put a flower in Hoover's hand, it would wilt !"<br /> <br /> 1932- Tod Brownings disturbing movie "Freaks" about a family of circus sideshow performers, premiered. One of Us, One of Us!<br /> <br /> 1943- Jean Moulin, French Resistance leader who coordinated all the separate underground groups to unite under DeGaulle, was betrayed to the Nazis and tortured to death. <br /> <br /> 1951- The first meeting of American, United Nations, North Korean and Chinese officials to discuss peace terms to end the Korean War. The talks dragged on for months and eventually signed as the Treaty of Panmunjom. At this first meeting the reds and allies noted little psychological victories. The North Koreans drove up in a captured American jeep. When the chief Communist negotiator General Nom Il wanted a smoke he pulled out a Russian cigarette. But after striking several Peoples Democratic matches, he still couldn’t get it to light. So he was finally forced to light his cigarette by borrowing from his American counterpart a good old capitalist Zippo.<br /> <br /> 1961-YEAH, BABY YEAH! Upon arriving at Cliveden, the Estate of Lord and Lady Astor, Britain’s Secretary for War Sir John Profumo was introduced to Christine Keilor, a 19 year old party girl who just happened to be swimming nude in their pool. Profumo and Lord Astor chased Christine around the pool trying to pull her towel away while bejeweled guests arrived for a party. It was bad enough that the married Profumo started a hot affair with Christine, but also her manager Stephen Ward was connected to an East German Communist spy ring. Profumo resigned in disgrace, and Ward committed suicide. The Profumo Scandal brought down the MacMillan Government in 1963.<br /> <br /> 1969 - Thor Heyerdahl and his raft Ra II landed in Barbados, 57 days from Morocco. He was trying to prove ancient mariners could have traveled from Africa to the Americas using a ship made from papyrus reeds. It also may explain the phenomenon that some Egyptian mummies have been found to have traces of tobacco and chocolate in their stomachs.<br /> <br /> 1978- 100,000 rallied in Washington D.C. in support of the Equal Rights Amendment- the ERA.<br /> <br /> 1982- Walt Disney's TRON- the first film featuring computer graphics premiered. It only was about 20 minutes of actual CGI, and the computer images were still printed onto traditional animation cells and painted by hand, but it was a significant achievement. Remember in 1981 there were no off-the-shelf graphics software. The big deal at the time was that MAGI had just solved the "hidden Line" problem. <br /> <br /> 1998- An original 1477 William Caxton copy of Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" became the world's most expensive book when it was sold for £4,621,500 to billionaire oil heir Paul Getty.<br /> ==============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: The animated classic Allegro Non Troppo was created in what country?<br /> <br /> Answer: Italy. Bruno Bozzetto directed it in his studio in Milan.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 07 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6196 <p>Quiz: The 1976 animated classic Allegro Non Troppo was created in what country?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Which Walt Disney movie came out first? Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, or Cinderella?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 7/7/2023<br /> Birthdays: Joseph Jacquard- of the Jacquard Loom 1752, Gustav Mahler, Satchel Page, Ringo Starr is 83, Doc Severinsen, Robert Heinlein, William Kuntsler, Gian Carlo Menotti, animator Ken Harris, Shelley Duval is 74, Ted Cassidy-Lurch in the Adams Family, Michelle Kwan, David McCullough, Pierre Cardin, and according to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle this is the birthday of Sherlock Holmes’ sidekick Dr. John Watson.<br /> <br /> 750 BC- 391AD- This was the Roman Feast of Quirinus, then day when Romulus the founder of Rome was taken up to heaven and took his place beside the Gods as the deified Quirinus.<br /> <br /> 175AD- The future Roman Emperor Commodus attained manhood. There was a special celebration when a Roman boy grew his first beard. He made a ceremony of putting off his boys cloak-tunica, and donning the man’s toga, toga-virilis. <br /> <br /> 1569- Sir Francis Drake boldly sailed into the harbor of Cartagena (in modern Columbia), the largest port on the Spanish Main, and looted a treasure galleon.<br /> <br /> 1607- The English anthem God Save the King first sung in honor of King James I.<br /> <br /> 1666- King Charles II and his court evacuated London because of the Great Plague.<br /> <br /> 1735- King Stanislas Lescynski lost the throne of Poland to Augustus III, a boyfriend of Russian Empress Catherine the Great. Stan was the father-in-law of king Louis XV of France fortunately, so Louis gave him the Duchy of Lorraine to live in. In the town square of Nancy there is a statue of Stanislas pointing east. Some say he's pointing home to Poland, others say towards the red light district of Nancy, where he spent much of his time.<br /> <br /> 1754- Kings College in New York founded. After the American Revolution the name was changed to Columbia University.<br /> <br /> 1777- During the Revolution, the British invasion force of General Burgoyne captured the New York fortress of Ticonderoga back from the American rebels. <br /> <br /> 1814- Sir Walter Scott published his first novel Waverly. He wrote it under a pseudonym because he worried novel-writing would damage his reputation as a poet.<br /> <br /> 1821- The Latin American liberation army of Jose San Martin captured Lima Peru.<br /> <br /> 1839- The First European Railroad link opened between Vienna and Prague, thanks to the investment of Meyer Rothschild, of the bank of The House of Rothschild. Even though the English had a rail line between Liverpool and Manchester up in 1830, European development moved much slower than in America, where vast distances needed to be connected. There was medical concern about people being moved at such high speeds as 35 miles an hour! A Viennese doctor wrote then that if the human body moved faster than 15 mph (24k), blood would squirt out of your eyes and ears. Men would go mad and women sex-crazed. <br /> <br /> 1865- Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth's co-conspirators were all hanged Lewis Payne, George Atzenrodt and David Herold. Even weeping old Mary Surrat, who's involvement is still debatable. She may have known of some kind of plot but all they could prove was she the landlady of the boardinghouse where the plotters met. Everyone expected that a last minute amnesty would come from President Johnson, but the President stayed silent and she was hanged with the others. Mary Surrat was the first woman executed in the U.S. Big Lewis Payne’s neck didn’t break at first and he kicked and danced in the air for five minutes before he choked. General Dan Sickles said afterward, "We do not want to know their names anymore." The large gallows were then broken up and the splinters sold off as souvenirs to tourists.<br /> <br /> 1894-The Pullman Strike-U.S. troops battled 5,000 Chicago area railroad workers and their families. Dozens were killed. Troops were called for after marshals and detectives refused to shoot unarmed working people. Other unions go out in sympathy with the Pullman workers and make the strike nationwide. Union president Eugene Debs is arrested for sedition and treason, but acquitted by three grand juries. He later ran for president on the socialist ticket in 1912. Before crushing the strike with force, President Cleveland had just set the date for the first Labor Day.<br /> <br /> 1895-THE FIRST SUNDAY COMICS - The first modern comic strip, Hogan’s Alley featuring "The Yellow Kid" by Richard Felton Outcault, debuts in the Sunday edition of Josef Pulitzer's New York World. The strip was so popular it gave the name "Yellow Journalism" to the sensationalist tabloid press. Newspaper comics at this time were the mass media of the day. For people who couldn’t afford a theater ticket and couldn’t yet speak English, the little characters in the penny papers were extremely popular and made celebrities out of cartoonists like Outcault, Bud Selig, George McManus, and Winsor McCay. Richard Outcault later invented the backend deal, when he asked for a percentage of all sales from his new comic strip "Buster Brown and his dog Tige”.<br /> <br /> 1898-Congress voted to annex the Kingdom of Hawaii.<br /> <br /> 1900- Warren Earp, the youngest brother of Wyatt Earp, was killed in a gunfight. He had gotten into an argument in a saloon in Wilcox Arizona. Warren Earp was not at the OK Corral in 1881 but he did help his brothers hunt down the killers of brother Morgan Earp.<br /> <br /> 1911- THE AGADIR INCIDENT, also called, "The Panther's Leap'. In the tense international climate just before World War 1, Germany sparked a international incident by making moves to take southern Morocco from France. They sent the battle cruiser Panther to the Bay of Agadir to "protect endangered German citizens", There were no Europeans in that part of Morocco, so the German ministry cabled a Herr Weiland to rush overland by train to meet the warship. He was nicknamed "The Endangered German". After a lot of diplomatic threats between Paris, Berlin, London and St. Petersburg, Germany eventually backed down. One Berlin newspaper said:" To think we almost went to war with Britain &amp; France over a country that can only provide sand for our canary cages!" <br /> An angry German minister said:" The incident had the same effect as viewing a dead squid. First shock, then amusement, then revulsion."<br /> <br /> 1925- Afrikaanz is recognized as one of the official languages of South Africa, along with English and Dutch.<br /> <br /> 1928- A bakery in Chillicothe Missouri invented the automatic bread slicer, enabling bakers to cut an entire loaf into slices at once. This originated the phrase, “ The best thing since sliced bread.”<br /> <br /> 1930- Work began on Hoover Dam. <br /> <br /> 1936 - RCA shows the first true TV program: dancing, a short film on locomotives, a Bonwit Teller fashion show &amp; monologue from the Tobacco Road radio comedy show. <br /> <br /> 1941- The US military took over British bases on Iceland that protected trans-Atlantic convoys. This act was considered by Germany a further provocation of Neutral America towards joining the war on the Allied side. Earlier President Roosevelt had frozen German assets in the US and expelled their diplomats.<br /> <br /> 1942- SS chief Heinrich Himmler gave the go-ahead for forced sterilization experiments at Auschwitz.<br /> <br /> 1943- BANZAI- Climax of the Battle of Saipan- 4,300 Japanese troops streamed out of the jungle in a massed Banzai charge on U.S. Marine positions. Fighting devolved into hand-to-hand combat with Samurai swords and bayonets, more like our Civil War a century earlier than World War II. One of the Marines wounded in the attack was future movie star Lee Marvin, nicknamed Captain Marvel by his buddies for his aggressive, gung-ho attitude. Almost all the Japanese were killed. <br /> Later in a cave the Marines found the bodies of General Saito and Admiral Nagumo, the fleet commander at the Pearl Harbor attack. They had committed hari kari when the attack had failed. This event also caused Prime Minister Hideki Tojo's government to fall, since Tojo had pledged the U.S. could not take Saipan, an island which placed Japan within range of US long range bombers.<br /> <br /> 1946- After the War, the BBC television service resumes and an announcer says:" Well now, where were we?" They continued the Mickey cartoon Mickey’s Gala Premier from where it was interrupted in 1939. World War II probably held back for a decade the development of television.<br /> <br /> 1946- Mother Cabrini made the first American Saint. She was an immigrant from Italy. Later St. Elizabeth Ann Seton became the first native born American saint.<br /> <br /> 1946- Millionaire aviator Howard Hughes crashed an experimental airplane into four homes in Beverly Hills. Hughes had crashed planes before without much injury, but this crash left him near death. His slow recuperation left him with a lifetime addiction to morphine and codeine. <br /> <br /> 1947- THE ROSWELL INCIDENT- An official news report from the USAF 509th bomber command -the same unit that dropped the Hiroshima bomb- stated they had recovered the wreckage of a UFO in the New Mexico desert near Roswell and were examining it. The next day the commanding general of the 8th Air Force arrived in Roswell. He announced to the press that the earlier report was an error, and it was only a downed weather balloon. The wreckage was removed under heavy-armed guard. <br /> Complete secrecy was then imposed. The communications officer Major Jesse Marcel, who posed for an official photo showing him with the balloon wreckage, later told his son the photo was faked. Marcel, who died in 1967 and his adjutant Lt. Haut still stick to the original version of their story. Lt. Haut also claimed the base commander Col. William Blanchard thought it was UFO debris. This report coming only two weeks after the first modern sighting of "flying saucers" over Mt. Rainier in Oregon sparked the Flying Saucer craze that gripped America throughout the 1950’s.<br /> <br /> 1949- "I’m Friday"- The program Dragnet first debuted on radio. It later became a hit on TV as well. Jack Webb conceived, wrote, directed and starred in the show. His hardest job was urging actors "not to act" but to speak the lines normally like the average person does.<br /> <br /> 1957- Former MGM animation directors Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera filed papers to incorporate their new company, Hanna - Barbera Enterprises, Inc. <br /> <br /> 1958- Al and Jerry Lapin opened the first International House of Pancakes (IHOP) restaurant in Toluca Lake California. <br /> <br /> 1960- First demonstration of a practical laser beam. In Russia it had been theorized since 1951. Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, or LASER.<br /> <br /> 1967- Vivien Leigh, the actress who played Scarlet O’Hara in Gone with the Wind, collapsed and died from recurrent tuberculosis. She was 53.<br /> <br /> 1967 - Beatles' "All You Need is Love" is released. Queen Elizabeth II said it was one of her favorite songs.<br /> <br /> 1967 – The Doors' "Light My Fire" hits #1.<br /> <br /> 1976- First women cadets enroll at West Point Military Academy.<br /> <br /> 1981- Judge Sandra Day O’Connor becomes the first woman nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court.<br /> <br /> 1982- A drunken lunatic named Michael Fagin with a bleeding left hand broke into Buckingham Palace, got past all the security, and startled Queen Elizabeth in her bed. Her personal bodyguard was out walking the royal corgis. The Queen kept the man engaged in conversation at the foot of her bed until guards dragged him away.<br /> <br /> 2005-THE 7-7 ATTACK- Four Al Qaeda terrorist bombs exploded in the London subway Tube and a double decker bus, killing 50 and injuring one thousand.<br /> ---------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Which Walt Disney movie came out first? Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, or Cinderella?<br /> <br /> Answer: Cinderella (1950) was first, then Alice In Wonderland (51), Peter Pan (53), Sleeping Beauty (1959).</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 06 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6195 <p>Quiz: Which Walt Disney movie came out first? Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, or Cinderella?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s questions answered below: What is the difference between a Saint, an Angel and an Archangel?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 7/6/2023<br /> Birthdays: John Paul Jones, Czar Nicholas Ist, Frida Kahlo, Della Reese, Bill Haley,<br /> Nancy Reagan, Sylvester Stallone is 77, Merv Griffin, Janet Leigh, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sebastian Cabot, James Bodrero, The Dalai Lama, LaVerne Andrews of the Andrews Sisters, Geoffrey Rush is 72, Ned Beatty, President George W. Bush is 77, Fifty Cent is 48, Jennifer Saunders is 65.<br /> <br /> Happy St. Fermin's Day, the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain. Remember when running the trick to it is keeping ones self directly in front of the bull’s head. This area between his eyes is his blind spot. <br /> <br /> 83 B.C.- Sulla stormed Rome and defeated the supporters of Marius. This first civil war amongst powerful Roman factions is known as “The Wars of Marius &amp; Sulla" or “the Social Wars”. As dictator, Sulla published lists of hundreds of political enemies called the Proscribed. If you were on that list, anybody could kill you without trial. Sulla had on his staff a student intern who recently changed sides. His name was Julius Caesar.<br /> <br /> 1190- Death of Henry II, King of England and the Angevin Empire – he ruled a territory almost as great as Charlemagne but his reign was marred by the martyrdom of<br /> Thomas à Becket and quarrels with his family. Henry had pledged to go on Crusade to liberate Jerusalem and after his death his Crusade was taken up by his son Richard the Lionhearted. In the end Henry was so disgusted by the feuds with his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine and sons Richard, Geoffrey and John Lackland, legend has it his dying breath was a curse on his own family.<br /> <br /> 1480- The Duke of Gloucester was crowned King Richard III. He is referred to as the Last Plantagenet, meaning the last of the bloodline of Geoffrey of Anjou and Richard the Lionhearted. He was defeated and killed by Henry VII of the House of Tudor. The recent discovery of his remains proved he really did have a spinal deformity. Whether he was the villain as Shakespeare and Hollingshed portrayed him, is a matter for scholars to argue over. Shakespeare was writing plays for the granddaughter of the man who killed him, so that would obviously color his interpretation of events.<br /> <br /> 1495-Battle of Fornovo- King Charles VIII of France begins a new round of European kings invading Italy by marching on Naples and defeating a combined army of the Italian city states. The warrior king Charles eventually died back home by hitting his head on low doorway. Doh!<br /> <br /> 1560-The Treaty of Edinburgh- after a small war, victorious Scottish Presbyterian rebels compel Mary Queen of Scots dismiss her French troops from Scotland and declare freedom to worship, which meant Scotland was going Protestant. Representatives of Queen Elizabeth of England also demanded Mary renounce forever her claim to the throne of England. Mary’s mother was King Henry VIII’s sister. Mary refused that.<br /> <br /> 1685- THE BATTLE OF SEDGEMOOR AND THE BLOODY ASSIZES.-The illegitimate son of King Charles II, the Duke of Monmouth, tried to overthrow his Catholic uncle King James II with the help of many old Roundheads, angry that the Catholic monarch was planning to subvert the liberties won by Cromwell in the English Civil War. This day Monmouth hightailed it for the hills while his army was cut to pieces in battle. <br /> After the battle the punishment of the rebels under Judge Jefferies was so brutal it was nicknamed the Bloody Assizes. An assize was another name for circuit court. Hundreds were beheaded, tongues cut out, limbs branded with hot irons, then transported as slaves to the Bahamas and Barbados to cut sugar cane. Refined sugar was a new delicacy sweeping the nation. To this day many lighter skinned Bahamians can claim descendant from these condemned rebels. In the 1890s Rafael Sabatini wrote a novel about one slave who escaped to become a pirate named Captain Blood, later made into an Errol Flynn movie.<br /> <br /> 1809- THE IMMORTAL BELOVED LETTERS- Composer Ludwig van Beethoven never married, but not for want of trying. The bad tempered loner loved several women but never had a serious relationship beyond prostitutes. After his death, several love letters were found. The letters written this day were of a supremely passionate nature, where he begged some unknown woman to keep an appointment with him at some unstated rendezvous in Hungary. “Though still in bed my thoughts go out to you, My Immortal Beloved…” The letters were never sent and have no addresses or names. Who was this Immortal Beloved Beethoven yearns for?<br /> <br /> 1809-Battle of Wagram- Napoleon defeated the Austrian army of Archduke Charles. The Austrian soldiers wore white uniforms, so the French called them: "Soldats de la creme'". Napoleon planned this battle out so well that as soon as he was satisfied the enemy was toast, even though fighting still raged all around him, he took a nap on a leopard skin rug.<br /> <br /> 1843- THE REBECCA RIOTS In the countryside of Wales people’s anger against rents, tolls and tariffs took an unusual form. A big farmer named Tom Rees (Twm Carnabwth in Welsh) Dressed up in ladies petticoats, darkened his face and led a mob of 200 similarly dressed to smash a toll road barrier near Pontaldulais. They called themselves The Rebeccas from a passage in the Bible Genesis 24:60,” Rebecca mother of millions, let thy seed possess the gate of those that hate them.” Later that year the Rebecca protests died out and those the police captured were transported to Australia.<br /> <br /> 1853- In Ripon, Wisconsin, Free-Soil Whigs and other lefty radicals form the new Republican Party. They were first called the Anti-Nebraska Men, rejecting the Nebraska Compromise, then Black-Republicans for awhile because of their strong anti-slavery stance.<br /> <br /> 1885- Louis Pasteur gave the first inoculation to cure rabies.<br /> <br /> 1886 - Horlick's of Wisconsin offers the first malted milk to public. It began as an attempt to create a new type of baby formula.<br /> <br /> 1895- A businessman named William Sydney Porter returned from Honduras where he had fled after being indicted for embezzlement. He had returned because he had learned of the illness of his wife. Porter was sent to prison, and while there began writing little stories which he later published under the name O. Henry. <br /> <br /> 1906- THE GREAT FUNERAL OF JOHN PAUL JONES- The heroic sea captain of the American Revolution in Paris in 1792. Ill and forgotten, he had no friends. Writer Thomas Carlyle said Jones “resembled an empty wineskin.” The few mourners at the little Paris cemetery were he was interred were all admiring Frenchmen and children he had given coins to on the street during his walks through the Luxembourg Gardens. The American ambassador skipped his funeral because of a dinner party he didn’t want to miss. A Frenchman named Simonot had embalmed Jones in brandy in a lead sealed barrel because he figured the American government wanted to ship him home. He was amazed when they were too cheap to even cover the transport fees. Jones’ sword and medals were pawned to pay for the funeral. <br /> A century later America had become a great power. Scientists set about to look for John Paul Jones remains. They discovered the lead barrel in Paris’ Old Protestant Cemetery. The brandy embalming kept him so well preserved they could do an autopsy on the body. Jones had died of bronchial pneumonia and kidney failure at age 45. President Teddy Roosevelt shared Jones’ dream of a powerful US Navy. He used the occasion to stage a grand re-internment in Annapolis Naval Academy. <br /> So on his birthday rows of battleships booming salutes and mile-long processions of marching US Marine and French honor guards gave John Paul Jones the grand funeral he always felt he deserved, just 113 years late.<br /> <br /> 1917 As Lowell Thomas’ newsreel cameras rolled, Lawrence of Arabia and Bedouin Sheik Ouda Abu-Tai captured the Red Sea Port of Aqaba from Turkish troops. The battle was dramatized in the 1962 David Lean epic Lawrence of Arabia.<br /> <br /> 1917- King George V withdrew his offer of asylum to his first cousin Czar Nicholas II and his family. With European crowns falling all around him, George was concerned about his own. <br /> <br /> 1925, Walt and Roy Disney place a $400 deposit ($5,750.00 in modern money) on a lot located at 2719 Hyperion Avenue, in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. Their aim is to build a big new studio. <br /> <br /> 1928- The film "The Lights of New York" premiered at the Strand theater on Broadway. 1927's the Jazz Singer popularized sound movies while still being half silent. This film was the first with an all dialogue track. <br /> <br /> 1938- THE EVIAN CONFERENCE- No, it wasn't about bottled water. Since 1933, the refugees fleeing the Hitler’s Third Reich grew to tens of thousands. President Franklin Roosevelt called for a summit of Western powers at Evian France to discuss the issue of the rising numbers asking asylum in the democracies. 32 nations participated. The conference turned into a parade of diplomats making excuses. It accomplished nothing. From 1938 to 1944 only half the quota for U.S. visas allowed were ever filled. The rest were held up by red tape while the Holocaust raged. Also the British Mandate authority bowed to Arab anger to restrict immigration to Palestine. Saudi Prince Ibn Saud said:” Why should we be punished for the sins of Europe?” The only nations on Earth who accepted unrestricted Jewish immigration from the Nazis were Holland and Denmark. Young delegate and future Israeli leader Golda Meir was asked what she hoped to get out of the conference. “All I want to see before I die is for my people to get something else beyond Expressions of Sympathy.”<br /> <br /> 1944- A fire broke out in the main tent of Ringling Bros Circus during a children’s matinee in Hartford Connecticut. The big top had been waterproofed with a paraffin solution thinned with gasoline and now that mixture engulfed the tent in flames. 168 died and 682 more were injured, mostly children. In 1950 a mad arsonist named Robert Segee admitted he started the Hartford Circus Fire. <br /> <br /> 1957- Chuck Jones short "What’s Opera, Doc?" debuted. “Kill da wa-bitt, kill da wa-bitt..."<br /> <br /> 1957-16 year old John Lennon first met 15 year old Paul McCartney at a church picnic near Woolton, England. Lennon invited McCartney to join his first band called the Quarrymen, but McCartney missed their first engagement because of a boy scout trip.<br /> <br /> 1964 - Beatles' film "Hard Day's Night" premieres in London. The bands iconoclastic, antics portrayed by Richard Lester’s surreal free style direction set the style for the music videos of the future.<br /> <br /> 1965- TV sitcom F-Troop premiered. Shortly after the series began production it was learned that lead actress Melody Patterson (Wrangler Jane) fibbed on her paperwork and was actually underage, she was 16 years old. She kept the part, but the writers had to tone down any sexual innuendo in the scripts. The show did well, but is rarely show today because of the racially insensitive humor towards indigenous people. <br /> <br /> 1965 - Rock group Jefferson Airplane formed.<br /> <br /> 1967- The state of Biafra tried to win its independence from Nigeria. In the Civil War that followed a million of its citizens died of malnutrition and the images shocked the world. <br /> <br /> 1974- The first broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion, Garrison Keilor’s ode to small town life in Minnesota. Brought to you by Powdermilk Biscuits. His last broadcast was in 2016, and was forced to leave his company in 2017 due to Me-To allegations of sexual misconduct with his employees.<br /> <br /> 1996- Robert Zemeckis’ Forrest Gump opened in theaters.<br /> <br /> 1998- French workers at Disneyland Paris theme park went on strike for better pay and not having to smile constantly like Americans do. <br /> ==============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is the difference between a Saint, an Angel and an Archangel?<br /> <br /> Answer: A saint is a mortal who got promoted for doing nice things. An angel is a supernatural being who carries out the orders of God. An Archangel is a super class of angel used chiefly for battling Lucifer, ending the world, etc. Archangel Michael, Gabriel, Rafael.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 05 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6194 <p>Quiz: What is the difference between a Saint, an Angel and an Archangel?<br /> <br /> Quiz:Who said, “ Fire when you see the whites of their eyes”..?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 7/05/2023<br /> Birthdays: P.T. Barnum, Beatrix Potter, Mrs. Sarah Siddons, Jean Cocteau, Admiral David Farragut, Len Lye, George Pompidou, Shirley Knight, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Milburn Stone (Doc on Gunsmoke), Warren Oates, Bill Watterson, Henry Cabot Lodge IV, Eva Green is 44, Huey Lewis is 73, Edie Falco is 60, Animator-educator Dave Hilberman<br /> <br /> 1779- TRYON’S NEW HAVEN RAID- During the American Revolution, Royalist Governor William Tryon of New York thought a way to bring the American rebels back to their allegiance to the Crown was to launch punitive raids across Long Island Sound to rebel strongholds in Connecticut the day after their Independence Day celebrations. <br /> Forty boats of redcoats landed at New Haven and looted, burned and brutalized the inhabitants. Most of his soldiers were hoodlums who were given the choice of prison or the army. The elderly Dean of Yale University was beaten to death with rifle butts. Civilian homes were ransacked and women were gang raped in their own beds. The redcoats then burned Norwalk and Fairfield Connecticut before returning back across the Sound to occupied New York July 9th. <br /> Crown policy was that the majority of Americans are good subjects, just deluded by bad leaders. But Tryon was frustrated with the endless guerilla fighting. He lashed out with a brutality that accomplished more outrage than good. Gov. Tryon was soon recalled to London. For some reason there is a park named for Tryon in Upper Manhattan near the George Washington Bridge.<br /> <br /> 1814- Battle of Chippewa- During the War of 1812 an American force turned back a British counteroffensive across the Canadian border.<br /> <br /> 1820- THE TRIAL OF QUEEN CAROLINE- This was the greatest marital scandal ever to hit the British Monarchy. 
George the Prince Regent had been estranged from his wife Caroline for 25 years. She had been living a free life in Italy while George chased skirts at court. When his elderly, mad father George III finally died, and 'Princee' became King George IV, nobody expected Caroline to suddenly show up back in England and still expect to be Queen. 
On this day George forced a bill into the House of Lords to grant him a divorce so he could be free to marry his mistress Lady Cunningham, nicknamed 'the Vice-Queen'. The evidence in the trial were juicy anecdotes of the Queen's own sexual shenanigans with a number of Italians. The whole sordid affair was terribly embarrassing and split the nation into factions. Some loyal to the King, others the Queen's defender's and the Family. The King's public appearances were greeted with cries of 'Nero!" the Duke of Wellington was hissed and had rocks thrown at him and Prime Minister Lord Liverpool was so upset he could not address Parliament without a dose of ether first. 
Eventually the divorce bill was dropped and the King crowned, with the Queen shut out of Westminster Abbey. A popular doggerel in Punch made a joke on Christ's advice to the Adulteress-
" Most Gracious Queen we thee implore, to Go Away and Sin No More...
But if that effort Be too Great, Just Go Away at Any Rate.."<br /> <br /> 1830- The last Bey of Algiers was driven into exile by the invading French Army. This was the end of the Barbary Corsairs, active since 1517. Algeria would be a French colony until 1962. Part of the invading force was a new unit made up of Paris street riff-raff and foreign exiles called the French Foreign Legion.<br /> <br /> 1839- THE FLORA HASTINGS AFFAIR- The first great scandal of Queen Victoria's reign. After the escapades of her predecessors, the new 20 year old queen dwelt in a closed moral atmosphere. One day she noticed one of her ladies-in-waiting, a Lady Flora Hastings, had an enlarged belly, like she was pregnant. The idea that this unmarried grand dame may be pregnant was made worse by the idea that the father may have been the detested boyfriend of Victoria's mother, Sir John Conroy. <br /> The tittering eventually accelerated into a full-fledged political scandal involving the Prime Minister and the entire government. The slandered Lady Hastings had to submit to a humiliating doctor's examination to prove she was still a virgin and even that didn't silence the gossip. Finally, it came out that her belly swelling was caused by a large tumor on her liver, and had she paid more strict attention to it instead of the gossip she might have lived. This day she died and everyone blamed the young queen of persecuting Lady Hastings. Young Victoria was hissed in the streets for the remainder of the year.<br /> <br /> 1865- In London, William Booth formed the Salvation Army.<br /> <br /> 1863- After two days of torrential rain at Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee began withdrawing his broken Confederate army south to Virginia. He had enough ammunition for one more day's battle, and he was hoping the Yankees would destroy themselves assaulting his strong defensive works. But the Yankees, much to Lincoln's annoyance, remained quiet in camp. The Yankee General George Meade figured he already won Gettysburg, why press his luck? This is the reason you don’t hear his name as much as you heard of Grant and Sherman.<br /> <br /> 1892- THE HOMESTEAD MASSACRE- Jacob Frick, the business partner of steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, decided to solve the problem of uppity unions by surrounding his Homestead plant with barbed wire and guns then announcing to the astonished employees that they were getting a 20% pay cut. 3,000 workers fought with police and non-union replacements, 7 killed, the union leaders arrested for incitement to riot. <br /> <br /> 1910- Writer O. Henry died of cirrhosis and tuberculosis at 47. His last words were "Turn up the lights, I don't want to go home in the dark." He became a writer while serving a jail term for embezzlement.<br /> <br /> 1930- The Fox Midland Theater held the first meeting of a Mickey Mouse Club. It soon had chapters across the country and became a TV show in the 1950s.<br /> <br /> 1930- In West Texas, Bonnie met Clyde.<br /> <br /> 1933- Germans began building the Autobahn, a system of highways that became the envy of the world. The Bauhaus designers of the autobahn invented the ideas we take for granted today- the Cloverleaf Exit, Blending Lanes and the central meridian.<br /> <br /> 1934- THE SAN FRANCISCO GENERAL STRIKE- A longshoreman strike had brought harbor traffic along the West Coast to a standstill. California Governor Frank Merriam decided to send in the National Guard. When the longshoremen picket line was rushed by armored trucks full of scab replacements, they rioted, so the troops opened fire. Hundreds were hurt and two killed. Blood flowed on the Embarcadero. One policeman who killed a demonstrator later said: "The man was a Communist, so my only regret was that I did not kill more!" Flowers, candles and memorials to the slain men were kicked over by the cops. <br /> As a spontaneous unorganized reaction to the violence 100,000 San Franciscans refused to go to work for 4 days. The third largest city in the U.S. was completely paralyzed. Governor Merriam declared martial law but the tanks in the street were helpless. The regiment of National Guardsmen from Berkeley declared they would refuse to aim weapons at their fellow workers. To a nation struggling in the Depression there was widespread fear that this incident was the beginning of a Soviet style revolution. The Russian Revolution had started with general strikes. Then, on the 5th day everyone went back to work.<br /> <br /> 1935- The Wagner Act passed congress, decreeing all American workers have the right to collective bargaining and to form unions.<br /> <br /> 1943- Betty Grable married bandleader Harry James.<br /> <br /> 1945- The first British general election held since WW2 ended. PM Winston Churchill and his Tories were turned out for Labor candidate Clement Atlee. When his aides accused the British voters of ingratitude, Churchill said they had been through a lot and wanted to move on. Churchill’s wife Clementine told him, “This may well be a blessing in disguise.” To which Winston replied,” Maybe, but if so, it is quite effectively disguised.” <br /> <br /> 1945- OPERATIONS OVERCAST and PAPERCLIP- Pres. Truman had passed a law forbidding anyone with a Nazi past to emigrate. BUT…The U.S. Army intelligence wanted top Nazi rocket scientists to be brought to the U.S. for our future space program. War Dept Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency chief Bosquet Wev declared:" We’re not going to beat a dead Nazi Horse!" 1,600 scientists were brought to the U.S. Experts doctored the dossiers on these scientists and changed descriptions like: "Fanatical Nazi" to "Politically Ambivalent". <br /> Head of the unit Dr. Werner Von Braun was the inventor of the clustered liquid fuel engine rockets which Hitler had named the Vengence-2 and fired at London. Dr. Arthur Rudolphe the designer of the Saturn-5 moon rocket was deported in 1984 when a British documentary exposed his running a slave labor camp in 1943. Also Dr. Herman Becker-Freysing, the man who built John Glenn's space suit, got his knowledge about the effects of atmospheric pressure and oxygen loss on humans from human experiments he did on the inmates of Dachau.<br /> <br /> 1952- London Transport scrapped the last of their electric streetcars in favor of diesel polluting double-decker buses.<br /> <br /> 1954- Elvis Presley recorded "That’s All Right" at Sun Records in Memphis. Some call it the first true Rock &amp; Roll song, but that is disputed by Bill Haley’s Rock Around the Clock, Ike Turners Delta 88 and many other R&amp;B hits. “That’s All Right” was written by black bluesman Arthur Big-Boy Crudup, who never profited from the song’s success and died living in a shack.<br /> <br /> 1954- Tomoyuki Tanaka announced the beginning of production on the movie Godzilla.<br /> <br /> 1963- The Vatican finally says it’s okay for Catholics to be cremated, since the world is running out of land to make into cemeteries anyway.<br /> <br /> 1968- In Vietnam, after months of brutal fighting in a battle the mainstream media equated with Iwo Jima and Gettysburg, the US Marines were ordered to abandon their firebase at Khe Sanh anyway. Many Marines were outraged that they had to give up a place they had lost so many brothers over. But the Pentagon felt it was too vulnerable to enemy artillery. In Marine annals Khe Sanh is still counted as a great victory. Any blame for the withdrawal put on General Westmoreland, who had just been replaced as overall commander in Vietnam. He blamed the racial mixing in the ranks. This frustrating misuse of soldier’s sacrifice typified the Vietnam experience.<br /> <br /> 1975- Tennis player Arthur Ashe became the first African-American to win Wimbledon.<br /> <br /> 1975- Independence of the Cape Verde Islands.<br /> <br /> 1989- Reagan White House aide Lt. Colonel Oliver North sentenced for his role in the Iran Contra Scandal. North spent his last evening before testifying shredding incriminating documents. Colonel North appeared in court in his Marine uniform while being interrogated by Hawaii Senator Dan Inouye, a real combat war hero who lost an arm fighting in World War II. Pundits enjoyed the irony of one who could say "I bled for my Country," while the other "I Shred for My Country!" <br /> His conviction was later overturned by a conservative judge on a technicality. Oliver North became a conservative talk show host.<br /> <br /> 1989- The first episode of the TV sitcom Seinfeld.<br /> <br /> 1994- In Bellevue Washington, a man named Jeff Bezos started a company named Cadabra. Shortly after he changed its name to Amazon. <br /> <br /> 2002- International Professional Women’s Tennis had become dominated by two amazing American sisters, Venus and Serena Williams. This day Serena defeated Venus to win Wimbledon. Of 17 Wimbledon Women’s singles since, the Williams sisters won 14 of them. <br /> =========================================================-<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Who said, “ Fire when you see the whites of their eyes”..?<br /> <br /> Answer: Captain Prescott during the Battle of Bunker Hill. Instructing his nervous farmers how to shoot at seasoned troops, he said “ Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes, then aim low.” Also attributed to another colonial commander there, Israel Putnam.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 04 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6193 <p>Quiz: Who said, “Fire when you see the whites of their eyes”..?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: Experts expected Russia to blitzkrieg Ukraine. What is a blitzkrieg?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 7/4/2023 U.S. Independence Day<br /> Birthdays: Jean Pierre Blanchard the balloonist-1753, George M. Cohan, Stephen Foster, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Calvin Coolidge, Rube Goldberg, Louis Armstrong*, Edward Walker the inventor of the Lava Lamp, Mayer Lansky, Tokyo Rose, Louis B. Mayer, George Murphy, Emerson Boozer, Neil Simon, Mitch Miller, Gina Lollobrigida, George Steinbrenner, Ann Landers, Ron Kovic, Geraldo Rivera, Victoria Abril is 64, Pam Shriver, Rene Laloux, Gloria Stuart, Malia Obama, Eva Marie Saint is 99<br /> <br /> • Louis Armstrong always claimed his birthday was July 4th 1900, although records show his birth was August 4th 1901.<br /> <br /> 1054- A supernova in the constellation Taurus created a star visible in the sky for 23 days. The residue of the blast is visible today as the Crab Nebula.<br /> <br /> 1187- BATTLE OF THE HORNS OF HATTIN- Sultan Saladin lured the Christian Crusader army out into the desert, far away from water. The Saracens started a brush fire to confuse the Crusader formations with choking smoke. Old Duke Raymond of Tripoli realized what was happening but was helpless to stop it. When he saw his knights turning to fight, he cried out:" We're lost! We are already dead men!" <br /> In one big battle the entire hierarchy of Crusader Palestine or Outremer as they called it, was dead or taken. Saladin also captured Christian holy relics like the wood of the True Cross and Holy Lance. He sent them to the Caliph in Baghdad. <br /> <br /> While on the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saladin’s sister was captured and raped by a crusader named Raymond du Chatillion. Chatillion bragged that he planned next to march on Mecca and “piss on the grave of that lying old mule trader Mohammad!” Raymond was taken alive, so Saladin spent that evening torturing him to death. Hattin was the battle that decided that the Holy Land would not be part of Christian Europe. Raymond of Tripoli escaped back to his castle, to die of old age.<br /> <br /> 1630- Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus landed in Germany to help the Protestant side in the Thirty Years War. Nobody remembers now, but back then little Sweden was a butt-kicking berserk military power. She always had the problem of a small population of 4 million while she took on nations like France and Russia with tens of millions. <br /> <br /> 1636- The town of Providence Rhode Island founded.<br /> <br /> 1653- THE BAREBONES PARLIAMENT- Puritan General Oliver Cromwell had beheaded King Charles I and dispensed with Parliament. This day he tried a semblance of legality by naming a new parliament but with no royalists, Catholics or Presbyterians, in fact they were all his handpicked Puritan followers. It was nicknamed the Barebones Parliament because one its leaders was an itinerant Puritan preacher named PraiseGod Barebones. After a few months Cromwell dispensed with even this rubber stamp Parliament, and ruled directly as a dictator.<br /> <br /> 1712- A slave uprising in colonial New York City killed 9.<br /> <br /> 1744- Representatives of the Crown Colony of Pennsylvania negotiate a peace accord with the Iroquois Confederacy of the 5 Nations. The great Onondaga chief Canasatego lectured the white men : "Our wise forefathers established union and amity between the five tribes, it has made us formidable. We are a powerful confederacy and by following the same methods you too can acquire great power." A secretary present named Benjamin Franklin took his advice to heart. Their symbol, five arrows tied together is still held in the claws of the eagle in the Great Seal of the United States.<br /> <br /> 247 Years Ago 1776- U.S. INDEPENDENCE DAY- The actual vote for independence was on July 2nd, two days were required for rewrites, but the 4th was the day of the vote to approve the amended Declaration and the official announcement. After 46 revisions and deletions Tom Jefferson showed the finished document to Ben Franklin, he smiled: ”Now we may proceed.” The 56 men who signed the document knew that this was their death warrant as they were committing high treason. Many of them had their personal fortunes ruined as a result. <br /> 1776- It took two months for the news to cross the Atlantic. In London King George III wrote in his diary for July 4th, 1776:" Nothing important happened today..." <br /> <br /> 1802-The Hudson River fortress of West Point is inaugurated as a military academy.<br /> <br /> 1804- Already pledged to fight a duel in a week, Vice President Aaron Burr and former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton have to sit next to each other at an Independence Day dinner in New York City.<br /> <br /> 1826- John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Adams last words were: "Jefferson...Jefferson still lives...” . Jefferson breathed his last at 1:30PM at Monticello Virginia, Adams at 6:00PM at his home in Quincy Massachusetts. Adams left holdings amounting to $100,000, Jefferson left debts amounting to $100,000. Jefferson freed only six out of 200 slaves, all of the Hemmings Family but not Sally Hemmings his mistress for 38 years. Jefferson’s daughter clandestinely freed her with a pension for her old age. <br /> <br /> 1831- former President James Monroe, veteran of Washington’s Army and called the Last Founding Father, also died on the 4th of July.<br /> <br /> 1848- The Communist Manifesto published by Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels.<br /> <br /> 1850- President Zachary Taylor "Old Rough and Ready" gets sick from eating too many raw cherries and raw milk at a ceremony laying the cornerstone of the Washington Monument. He died 5 days later. Modern historians wondered if he was poisoned, being a Southern statesman who openly opposed slavery, but an examination of his exhumed remains in 1993 proved natural causes.<br /> <br /> 1855- Henry Davis Thoreau moved to Walden Pond. He was the first U.S. writer to describe nature as a thing of beauty instead of a mortal enemy to be conquered. This date is considered the birth of the American Conservation Movement.<br /> <br /> 1855- Walt Whitman published his quarto of poems The Leaves of Grass. Many people were shocked at its frank description of sexual desire. Whitman’s mother said: ”Walt is a good boy, but strange.”<br /> <br /> 1862- Oxford mathematics professor Charles Dodgson rowed ten-year-old Alice Liddell and her sister up the Thames in a small punt. The little girls called him Dodo. They begged him for a story, so Dodgson made up fantastic tales of March Hares, Mad Hatters and the Queen of Hearts.<br /> Dodgson later wrote them down and published them in 1865 as Alice in Wonderland. He used the pen name Lewis Carroll, which was a joke on the fact that Renaissance scholars adopted big stuffy Latin names like Ludovicus Carolus Magnus.<br /> <br /> 1863- The day after the Battle of Gettysburg both armies sat motionless while a torrential rains pour down. Lee had no more reserves and was practically out of cannonballs, U.S. General Meade still had a third of his army untouched and ready to go. But Meade infuriated Lincoln because he refused to resume the attack. <br /> <br /> 1863-VICKSBURG- The Confederate fortress-city of Vicksburg surrendered to Union General Grant. Pennsylvania-born Confederate General James Pemberton led 29,000 men into captivity. He said: " In know the Northerners. We can get better terms if we give up on the 4th of July than any other day." Grant was so confident he would win that while the battle was still going on he telegraphed the town's main hotel and booked a room reservation for July 4th. <br /> This completed the Yankee control of the Mississippi from the north down through Memphis to New Orleans. It severed the jugular of the Confederacy. Lincoln in his announcement said: "The Father of the Waters flows unvexed to the Sea." The citizens of Vicksburg would not celebrate the Fourth of July for eighty years, until 1945.<br /> <br /> 1863- In the far West, the town of Boise Idaho founded.<br /> <br /> 1879- Battle of Ulundi- After several Zulu victories earlier in the year, the full weight of the British Empire is brought in to conquer the Zulu people. It was the first time the British used Canadian, Indian and Australian regiments outside of their own territories. A large Victorian monument to British dead in the battle was erected. Only in 1989 was a monument allowed to the native Zulu people who died defending their own homeland.<br /> <br /> 1883- Buffalo Bill staged his first Wild West Show in North Platte Nebraska. Bill and his partners took the show all over the US and played for the crowned heads of Europe until 1916.<br /> <br /> 1898- The US flag first raised over Wake Island in the Pacific.<br /> <br /> 1905- Los Angeles developer Abbott Kinney had broken with his partners over the Santa Monica Pleasure Pier. He moved down the coast to some marshy wetlands and built a new community with canals, lagoons and gondolas. The town of VENICE California was dedicated this day. In 1925, the City of LA got rid of most of the canals and gondolas. Venice went on to be a seaside mecca for Beatniks, Hippies and weightlifters like young Arnold Schwarzenegger.<br /> <br /> 1911- The first rollercoaster on the Pacific Coast opened on Santa Monica Pier.<br /> <br /> 1914- First day of filming on D.W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation.”<br /> <br /> 1915- Heavyweight Champion Jess Willard who had taken the championship from Jack Johnson was himself beaten by a new kid named Jack Dempsey, the Manassas Mauler. Dempsey chewed pine tar to make his jaw hard and washed his face in ocean brine to toughen his skin against cuts. Dempsey hit Willard so hard, he broke his jaw and knocked out six teeth by the fourth round. Jack Dempsey defended his title several more times and became a popular media figure by appearing with many Hollywood Movie stars. After he retired, he opened a bar-restaurant in NY Times Square called Dempseys, the first sports-bar.<br /> <br /> 1917- The US First Division paraded through Paris in advance of the main American armies still to come. General Blackjack Pershing laid a wreath on the tomb of the Marquis de Lafayette and proclaimed:” Lafayette- nous voisci! Lafayette, we are here!” Jake Strauss the owner of Macy’s Department Store changed it to “Gallerie Lafayette, we are here!”<br /> <br /> 1917- The July Coup. Lenin and the Bolsheviks tried to overthrow the Russian Government early but were put down. They fled into exile, trying again in October. <br /> <br /> 1926- Hungarian film director Mano Mikhali Kertesz arrived in Hollywood. He changed his name to the more manageable Michael Curtiz and directed classic films like Captain Blood and Casablanca. <br /> <br /> 1927-Walt Disney’s Trolley Troubles with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit premiered.<br /> <br /> 1930- 1,300 delegates formed the National Unemployment Council. They agitate Washington to create national unemployment insurance.<br /> <br /> 1933- In San Francisco Bay, the work began on the Oakland Bay Bridge.<br /> <br /> 1943- Nazis panzer divisions began the Battle of KURSK. Thousands of tanks swirled around in the flat dusty Ukrainian steppe land and blew each other to pieces. The Russians considered Kursk the real turning point of World War II because they stopped a full-on Nazi blitzkrieg. For the first time the Nazis began a retreat in the summer.<br /> <br /> 1946- The Independence of the Philippines is declared.<br /> <br /> 1947- THE WILD ONES- 400 motorcyclists converge on a small California town called Hollister to party hard. The local police arrest 49 and call for State reinforcements. The national media sensationalized the wild bikers terrorizing a small town, calling them "Hell's Angels" three years before the first chapter was formed. Truth be told many residents remember the incident fondly and said it livened things up. <br /> Many of the bikers weren’t teenage delinquents but World War II veterans who used motorcycles to recapture the thrill and camaraderie of action. The Life Magazine that dramatized the Hollister incident had a cover photo showing a depraved biker swilling beer. The shot was staged and the man in the photo was actually a Hollister local who never went near a Harley. The Marlon Brando film 'The Wild One" was based on the Hollister incident.<br /> <br /> 1954- Dr. Sam Shepard returned to his suburban Cleveland home to find his wife beaten to death and a man fleeing the scene. Dr. Shepard himself was convicted of his wife’s murder in a controversial trial. People still argue today whether he was guilty or not. <br /> In 1998 Dr. Shepard’s son got DNA evidence to prove there was another man at the scene the night of the murder, and in 2000 the court threw out his wrongful imprisonment suit. The TV show and film The Fugitive was based on Dr. Shepard.<br /> <br /> 1956- MIT’s TX-1 Whirlwind computer added an adapted typewriter keyboard to enter data. The first computer keyboard.<br /> <br /> 1966- President Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act.<br /> <br /> 1968- “The Green Berets” premiered. John Wayne financed and produced this attempt to counter the antiwar sentiment sweeping America by creating a pro-war WWII style movie about the Vietnam conflict. <br /> <br /> 1969-“Give Peace a Chance.” released by John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band.<br /> <br /> 1976- What’s Love Got to Do With It? Singer Tina Turner left Ike Turner.<br /> <br /> 1976- The Ramones first arrived in England for a tour. They greatly inspired future bands like the Clash and the Sex Pistols. When playing at the Palladium the Sex Pistols said they couldn’t get tickets to get in so the Ramones pulled them in through the men’s room window. Hey, Ho, Lets Go!<br /> <br /> 1981- UPA producer Steve Bosustow passed away.<br /> <br /> 1982- Jimmy Connors defeated John McEnroe for his final Wimbledon Championship.<br /> <br /> 1982- Ozzie Ozbourne married Sharon Ozbourne. <br /> <br /> 1984- First Lady Nancy Reagan began the campaign to combat drugs among kids by saying “Just Say No”. Two of her Secret Service bodyguards were later caught doing cocaine.<br /> <br /> 1990- 2 Live Crew released the song Banned in the USA.<br /> <br /> 1997- NASA landed Pathfinder on Mars and deployed Sojourner, the first ever autonomous robotic rover. Expected to function for only two months, the rover collected data on the Red Planet for the next ten years.<br /> <br /> 2003- Pres. George W. Bush rashly bragged to the Iraqi insurgents “Bring it on!” Insurgent attacks on American forces immediately went up 300%.<br /> <br /> 2011- The London Guardian newspaper reported that reporters from Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid newspaper News of the World had hacked into the private phone records of Milly Dowler, a 13 year old girl who was raped and murdered in 2002. <br /> The outrage against the Murdoch journalists shook Fox NewsCorp to its roots. One whistle blower committed suicide, The 166 year old newspaper News of the World was shut down, and the chiefs of London Police quit in disgrace. <br /> <br /> 2012- The Higgs-Boson is a subatomic particle. It existed only in theory until in <br /> this day, the CERN Large Hadron Collider announced they had observed one. <br /> <br /> 2022- Kazuki Takahashi, the millionaire creator of the manga craze Yu-Gi-Oh, drowned off the coast of Okinawa while trying to rescue a young American girl swimmer caught in a rip current. He heroically saved the girl, when a freak wave took him. He was 60.<br /> =================================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Experts expected Russia to blitzkrieg Ukraine. What is a blitzkrieg?<br /> <br /> Answer: Blitzkrieg means “Lightning War”. Fast moving mechanized units backed with close air support would blast through enemy lines and go around resistance. These tactics enabled the WW2 German army to defeat Poland and France much faster than WW1. Many expected Russia to be in Kyiv in a week of the war starting. Their failure says much about the state of their army.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 03 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6192 <p>Quiz: Experts expected Russia to blitzkrieg Ukraine. What is a blitzkrieg?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: In history, a number of monarchs have been called great. Catherine the Great, Frederick the Great. Have any English monarchs ever been called The Great?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 7/3/2023<br /> Birthdays: King Louis XI of France "the Spider King"1423, Franz Kafka, Mr. Preserved Fish -New York Congressman 1819, Dave Barry, Leos Janacek, John Singleton Copley, Ken Russell, Tom Stoppard, George Sanders, Peter Fountain, Yeardley Smith, Tom Cruise is 61, Kevin Hart is 43<br /> <br /> Today is the Feast Day of Saint Thomas the Apostle, “Doubting-Thomas,” the patron saint of architects. <br /> <br /> 1754- During the French &amp; Indian War, 22 year old Virginia militia Captain George Washington surrendered his post, Fort Necessity, to the French. Up till now his major ambition in life was to be an officer in the British Army. Now his first command was a defeat, and to top it all off, because one of his allied Indians tomahawked a surrendered French officer, he was almost arrested for war crimes. When Washington signed the surrender document, a murder confession was slipped into the terms. It was in French, so he didn’t understand it.<br /> <br /> 1775- George Washington arrived in the camp at Cambridge Massachusetts to take over command of the colonial army surrounding Boston. A Virginia slaveholder, one of his first orders was to turn away all free African-American volunteers. But the New Englanders convinced him they were a vital part of their army, so he relented. In the American Revolution, one minuteman in eight was black. <br /> <br /> 1826- 83-year-old, dying Thomas Jefferson was drifting in and out of consciousness at his home in Monticello, Virginia. He would be cognizant long enough to ask, “Is it the 4th of July yet?” The author of the Declaration of Independence was grimly hanging on, determined to see one more Independence Day, the 50th Anniversary. Hundreds of miles north in Quincy, Massachusetts, dying 90-year-old John Adams was doing the exact same thing.<br /> <br /> 1863- PICKET'S CHARGE-CLIMAX OF GETTYSBURG-Robert E. Lee launched his last fresh divisions in a grand frontal attack to win the Civil War. 12,000 troops walk across one mile of open ground, while being shot at from the whole Yankee Army. Even against such long odds they almost break the Union center. The entire attack took thirty minutes.<br /> Picket’s division suffered 50%, casualties including all his leading generals killed. General Lothario “Lo” Armistead put his hat on his sword point and shouted "Who will follow me?" Lo Armistead’s uncle had commanded Fort McHenry during the “Rockets Red Glare” British attack in 1814. Armistead reached the union artillery before he was shot down. When one North Carolina flagbearer survived murderous gunfire from all sides and lived to reach the union wall, the men in blue instead of killing him, shook his hand. <br /> Finally the Southern assault spent itself and started to recede. Men retreated backwards because they didn’t want to be shot in the back. Lee rode out and told the survivors: “This is my fault. All of this..” That night he wrote his resignation to Richmond. But no fault would stick on their beloved old general. Pickett bitterly said:" That old man destroyed my division." After the Civil War George Pickett were ostracized by Southern society for daring to criticize Robert E. Lee’s decision to attack. Pickett was family friends with the Lincolns. When Picketts’ son was born Yankee generals sent baby gifts with a white flag through the lines.<br /> <br /> 1863- Santee Sioux chief Little Crow had led a large uprising against the whites in Minnesota. This day near the town of Hutchinson he was picking berries with his son when he was ambushed and killed by settlers seeking the $25 dollar bounty on Indian scalps. His body was thrown on an offal pile at a cattle slaughterhouse, and later put on exhibit by the Minnesota Historical Society. Eventually both bones and scalp were returned to the Sioux people for proper burial. <br /> <br /> 1866-Battle of Sadowa-Koniggratz- climax of the Seven Weeks War, also called the "BrudersKrieg" or "Brother's War" because in it Prussia fought the other German speaking states Austria, Hesse, and Bavaria to see who would be the dominant power. <br /> As a result of Koniggratz, Berlin and not Vienna or Frankfurt would be the capitol of a united Germany.<br /> <br /> 1890- Idaho statehood.<br /> <br /> 1898-Battle of Santiago Harbor- U.S. fleet under Admiral Sampson defeated the Spanish in Cuba. The U.S fleet so heavily outgunned the Spanish ships, that the Spanish admiral is remembered at home as a hero for even attempting the fight to keep up the national honor.<br /> <br /> 1915- An emotionally deranged German language professor at Cornell named Eric Meunter sent a time bomb to the U.S. Senate, then went to Glen Cove New York, where he tried to assassinate tycoon J.P. Morgan. He shot Morgan in the thigh before he was wrestled to the ground and knocked out with a chunk of coal. He committed suicide in jail two days later. The incident was played up in the yellow press to show how hostile Germany was, to turn neutral America into getting into World War I. <br /> <br /> 1916- Hetty Green "the Witch of Wall Street" died at 80. A brilliant businesswoman, her eccentric cheapness created the millionaire-bag lady myth. The richest woman in America, worth around $100 million ($2.5 billion today), she lived in a dumpy apartment in Hoboken, refused to pay for a doctor when her son broke his leg, and stole bread off the tables at fashionable restaurants.<br /> After she died, her son Ned Green bought a ferryboat, made it into a yacht so he could have the biggest one, named it after his favorite prostitute, partied with her and others every night, and collected whale penises. Hetty still left him so much money that when he died, the entire population of Massachusetts paid no state tax that year.<br /> <br /> 1931- The Cab Calloway Orchestra recorded 'The St. James Infirmary Blues."<br /> <br /> 1937- In California the Del Mar Racetrack opened. Owner Bing Crosby personally welcomed the first customers to his track. Called “ Where the Surf Meets the Turf.”<br /> <br /> 1943- Chuck Jones short Wackiki Rabbit debuted.<br /> <br /> 1969- Brian Jones, having been kicked out of the Rolling Stones just days before -- drowned in his swimming pool. His home was once the estate of Winnie the Pooh author A.A. Milne. <br /> <br /> 1969- On the same day, John and Yoko Lennon were almost killed in a car crash, along with John's son Julian and Yoko's daughter Kyoko.<br /> <br /> 1971- The Doors lead singer Jim Morrison, was found dead of a heart attack in his bathtub in Paris. He was 28. <br /> <br /> 1971- In Sweden, the first laser eye surgery was performed.<br /> <br /> 1985- Robert Zemeckis’ film Back to the Future opened. <br /> <br /> 1988- In the Persian Gulf, the U.S.S. Vincennes shot down an Iranian passenger airliner killing three hundred civilians. They thought the Airbus commercial plane was an Iranian fighter jet sent to attack them. <br /> <br /> 1991- James Cameron’s Terminator 2 Judgement Day, premiered.<br /> <br /> 1996- Independence Day, by Roland Emmerich opened.<br /> <br /> 2002- Powerpuff Girls the Movie, premiered.<br /> <br /> 2013- After the overthrow of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in 2011, Mohamed Morsi of the Moslem Brotherhood was elected President. But this day he was overthrown and imprisoned by a military coup led by General Fatah al-Sisi. In 2019 Morsi died in prison.<br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: In history, a number of monarchs have been called great. Catherine the Great, Frederick the Great. Have any English monarchs ever been called The Great?<br /> <br /> Answer: Only 2. Alfred the Great, who first united all England under his rule, and Canute the Great. Canute was a Viking king of Denmark as well as England.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 02 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6191 <p>Quiz: In history, a number of monarchs have been called great. Catherine the Great, Frederick the Great. Have any English monarchs ever been called The Great?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: what is the difference between a dilettante and a debutante?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 7/2/2023<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Valentinian III (419AD), Bishop Thomas Cranmer (1429) , Christoph Witobald Gluck, Herman Hesse, Medgar Evers, Patrice Lamumba, Thurgood Marshall, Andrez Kertesz, Richard Petty, Abe Levitow, Ahmad Jamal, Cheryl Ladd, Jose Canseco, Jerry Hall, Imelda Marcos, Ron Silver, Lindsay Lohan, Brock Peters, Margot Robbie is 33, Larry David is 76<br /> <br /> 6BC- Feast of the Visitation- When the Virgin Mary visited Saint Elizabeth and confided in her that she was pregnant with baby Jesus. The Magnificat is Mary's reply to the Angel of the Annunciation--"Magnicifcat anima mea Dominum..." "My spirit doth magnify the Lord" Many great composers like Vivaldi and Bach wrote grand choral masses called Magnificats for this occasion.<br /> <br /> 64 AD.- Today is the feast day of Saints Processus and Martinian who supposedly were Saint Peter's jailors in the Mamertine Prison in Rome. They were converted by their victim and Peter struck stones of the floor with his staff and water squirted out so he could baptize them.<br /> <br /> 1296- Scottish King John Balliol indicated to English King Edward I Longshanks (Long-legs) that he is ready to give up. He was stripped of his titles and the Scots referred to him derisively as "Toom-Tabard" or "the bugger without any sleeves". Scottish resistance to English rule soon flared up under William Wallace. John Balliol founded a school at Oxford.<br /> <br /> 1644- Battle of Marston Moor (English Civil War) The army of Parliament inflicts a crushing defeat on King Charles’ army outside of York. The defeat meant most of Northern England was now lost to the Royalist cause. The battle is also remembered as the first time a self-taught colonel distinguished himself in the public eye- Oliver Cromwell. The Royalists called him Old Ironsides.<br /> <br /> 1650- The first daily newspaper is published in the city of Leipzig. <br /> <br /> 1723- Johann Sebastian Bach’s chorale Magnificat first performed in Leipzig.<br /> <br /> 1776- AMERICAN CONTINENTAL CONGRESS VOTED FOR INDEPENDENCE- Deep into a hot rainy Philadelphia night the delegates finally voted the ultimate break with the mother country. At this time most Americans still referred to England as 'home'. No colony had ever broken away from their mother country and become an independent nation. <br /> And as far as the document Thomas Jefferson had written, called the Declaration of Independence, there were 46 separate revisions. The Southern states would not vote until the anti-slavery clauses were dropped. A clause stating New England Protestants objected to tolerance of Roman Catholics was dropped. Cesar Rodney, wracked with cancer, rode 80 miles just to be there to effect the vote. The final vote was 12 colonies yay, 0-nay and New York abstaining.<br /> "The Business is Done." John Adams said. After the Declaration was voted on, a day was given to clean up the document, and it would be announced on July 4th. The famous printed page with John Hancock's big signature was not done until August 2nd.<br /> John Adams always thought the great national celebration should be July 2nd, not the 4th, because to him, that was the day the important part actually happened.<br /> <br /> 1787- Commanding General of the U.S. Army James Wilkinson arrived in New Orleans for an inspection tour. In reality he was there to offer his services to the Viceroy of Spain as a paid double agent. In 1805 he conspired with Aaron Burr, and in 1812 he commanded America’s two bungled invasions of Canada. Teddy Roosevelt said, “ In all our history, there is no more despicable character.” He was the highest-ranking traitor in U.S. history, so far, and he was never caught. It was said of Wilkinson “He never won a battle, nor lost a court martial.”<br /> <br /> 1789- Two weeks before the French Revolutionaries stormed the Bastille, the Marquis DeSade was transferred to another jail. This after he grabbed one old inmates ear trumpet and recited out the window some sex jokes about the warden to the laughing crowd below. <br /> <br /> 1863- 2nd Day Battle of Gettysburg. Yankees and Confederates fight each other all day with no result. Places like Little Round Top, Devils Den and The Peach Orchard become battlefields. This was the day Maine schoolteacher Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain successfully defended the Little Round Top, climaxing with a bayonet charge after his men had all but run out of ammunition. Gen. Dan Sickles had his leg blown off. He was carried from the field, coolly puffing a cigar. A wily Tamany Hall politician, Dan Sickles knew this wound meant votes back home. He was elected to Congress after the war. He donated his shattered leg to the Army Medical School and used to visit it in his old age.<br /> <br /> 1881- PRESIDENTIAL ASSASSINATION. President James Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau. Guiteau was a demented gov't worker who expected a job when Garfield was elected. He said he believed in "Bible-Communism" and that he worked for "Jesus &amp; Company". When nobody took notice of him, Guiteau decided to kill the President, then ask the Vice President Chester Alan Arthur for a job. On a platform at Washington's Union Station, Charles Guiteau shot the President in the back, dropped his gun and announced:" I am the last Stalwart. Arthur is now President!" <br /> Garfield lingered for three months in great pain before he died. Chester Allen Arthur was a political hack, whose only previous job before being president was collector of tolls for the Port of New York. Woodrow Wilson called him" a nothing with whiskers". In fairness to Arthur he did help create civil-service qualifications and eliminate the corruptible spoils system. Standing next to Garfield when he was shot was Secretary of War Robert Lincoln, the son of Abraham Lincoln. Convinced he was bad luck, Robert Lincoln never went near the White House again.<br /> <br /> 1890- The Sherman Anti-Trust Act passed. This law forbids business monopolies. J.P. Morgan said: "Trying to break up trusts is like trying to unscramble eggs!" It was invoked to break up Standard Oil (Exxon), the Hollywood Studios in 1948, the ATT/Bell Telephone System in 1980, and in 2000 against Microsoft.<br /> <br /> 1900- THE FIRST MAN POWERED FLIGHT- No, not the Airplane, the Zeppelin. Count Von Zeppelin’s creation the LZ-1 made it’s first flight. The LZ-1 carried several passengers and mechanics gently into the air 30 miles from Frederichshaven on Lake Constance to Immenstadt, making perfect time. By the 1930s there was a regular zeppelin service between Europe and Buenos Aires. For years and it was considered much safer than airplanes. But after the Hindenburg disaster and the United States embargo of strategic helium, in 1939 Herman Goring scraped what was left of the zeppelin fleet for spare parts.<br /> <br /> 1901- The last train holdup in America by Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and their Hole in the Wall Gang.<br /> <br /> 1912- The Democratic Presidential Convention in Baltimore had been deadlocked for over a week. Finally after 46 separate ballots New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson was nominated to run against Republican President Howard Taft and Progressive 3rd party candidate Teddy Roosevelt.<br /> <br /> 1912- The First Automat restaurant.<br /> <br /> 1914- Under interrogation, the 3 other Bosnian-Serb conspirators to the Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassination in Sarajevo confessed that they were members of the Black Hand, a terrorist group organized and paid covertly by the chief of Serbian intelligence. <br /> Scholars agree that if Austria had declared war on Serbia immediately, no other nation would have intervened, and World War I may not have had to happen. But because Austria prevaricated for weeks and insisted Germany help which provoked Russia (see below), they began the tumbling of the great house of cards that caused the global disaster killing 37 million people and contributing to the Spanish flu epidemic that killed a further 21 million. <br /> <br /> 1914- THE GERMAN KAISER HAS LUNCH with the Austrian ambassador. Kaiser Wilhelm pledged to fully support Austria's move to strike Serbia over the assassination at Sarajevo, knowing it would probably annoy his cousins Nikky the Tsar of Russia and Georgie the King of England. Casually, he pledged the lives and fortunes of his 30 million German subjects and the destruction of his dynasty over poached eggs and champagne. He then went on a vacation cruise for the next three weeks and was unavailable during the frantic diplomatic negotiations trying to avoid world catastrophe.<br /> <br /> 1921- To prove what a neat new invention radio was, RCA chief David Sarnoff broadcast for free a live feed of the Jack Dempsey vs. George Carpentier championship prizefight. He had loud speakers set up in Times Square that attracted ten thousand listeners. As it happened, the live reports were a sham. An eyewitness to the fight relayed details via tickertape to a Manhattan studio. Then an announcer read them aloud over the radio as though he were there. No matter, the effect was electric. Suddenly everyone wanted a radio in their home. <br /> <br /> 1927- The film Flesh and the Devil established a new star named Greta Garbo.<br /> <br /> 1928- The day after the Democratic convention nominated New Yorker Al Smith for president, the Attorney General ordered major raids at a dozen illegal speakeasies throughout New York City. Smith was a leading opponent of Prohibition, and the attorney general wanted to embarrass him. <br /> <br /> 1934- Twentieth Century Fox signed a movie contract with child star Shirley Temple.<br /> <br /> 1937-AMELIA EARHART DISAPPEARED. Over the Pacific near Howland Island the Coast Guard cutter Ithaca received the last radio signals from aviatrix Amelia Earhart and her co-pilot Fred Noonan. …."One half-hour fuel and no landfall in sight. We are in position….." Then nothing. They disappeared never to be found. Recently investigators made a case that she was rescued by the Japanese and executed on Saipan. Nothing conclusive has ever been proven.<br /> <br /> 1940- Hitler held a victory celebration in Berlin. Thousands of steel helmeted troops goose-stepped though the Brandenburg Gate to celebrate their defeat of France, Belgium and the British Army. <br /> <br /> 1941- JAPAN OCCUPIED VIETNAM- When Germany conquered France, the French colony of Tonkin-Indochine (Vietnam) stood alone in confusion. Should they take orders from Vichy or the Free-French government in exile? Ignoring the protests of Britain and the United States, the Japanese Army moved in and occupied Indochina. Japanese Admiral Yamamoto was a leader of the peace party with Prince Konoye trying to prevent the coming conflict. When he was told what the army had done without consulting the opposition parties, he just shrugged. He knew this would provoke America past the point of no return. Now he must start planning a war with America.<br /> <br /> 1942- The beginning of the Battle of El Alamein. Rommel the Desert Fox and his Afrika Corps had pushed he British 8th Army across the North African desert into Egypt. Their goal was the cut the Suez Canal, occupy the Holy Land and link up with other Nazi units moving down from the Russian Caucasus into French Vichy controlled Syria. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haij Amin al Husseini promised a Palestinian uprising to coincide with the Nazi arrival. But the British 8th Army dug in at this obscure Egyptian railroad station outside of Cairo called El Alamein, and finally stopped Rommel’s advance.<br /> <br /> 
1945- In the July issue of The Atlantic Magazine, MIT Scientist Vanaevar Bush predicted some day in the future we would all be writing to each other on little electronic boxes on our desks. He didn’t have the name computer yet. He called it a “memex”. We would read stories, watch movies, have access to all the libraries of the world. We would send each other letters and pictures on it. In a Manila hospital, a young serviceman named Douglas Engelbart was recovering from war wounds. He read this article there and was inspired to study this new field. He eventually invented the computer mouse, hot keys, and coined the term "on-line."<br /> <br /> 1946-The Peace Treaty of Beverly Hills- SAG president Ronald Reagan brokered a labor settlement between the two rival Hollywood Unions, IATSE vs. CSU, temporarily ending a violent Hollywood strike. At this time Reagan went to work every day with a 32 cal. Smith &amp; Wesson under his coat.<br /> <br /> 1955- The Lawrence Welk T.V. Show debuts. Wannaful, wannaful! <br /> <br /> 1961- On the porch of his home in Ketchum Idaho, Nobel Prize winning writer Ernest Hemingway held a shotgun into his mouth, and with his big toe pushed the trigger. He blew most of his head off, just leaving his lower jaw and some cheek. Papa Hemingway was always haunted by the suicide of his father and he was receiving electro-shock treatments at the Mayo Clinic for depression and alcoholism. He thought about suicide for years, and when drinking with friends would take out his shotgun and rehearsed for them how he would do it. He lived for awhile in Cuba and his office in Cuba is still kept the way he left it, even protecting the hordes of cats sired by Hemingway's original pair. In 1996 his granddaughter Margaux Hemingway, called the First Supermodel, committed suicide almost to the day.<br /> <br /> 1962- The U.S. Congress passed a resolution to declare today General Włodzimierz Krzyżanowski Day, in honor of my great-grand uncle (by marriage), General Włodzimierz Krzyżanowski, who commanded the Polish Legion of the Yankee Army in the Civil War. <br /> <br /> 1964- THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT. African Americans finally get the basic rights promised by Abe Lincoln 100 years earlier. In the South, blacks were routinely disqualified from voting and forced to take humiliating tests, like guessing how many bubbles were on a bar of wet soap. Several Civil Rights bills had been proposed since but they were all blocked by the Southern Caucus in Congress. <br /> Those who remember Lyndon Johnson only as the warmonger of Vietnam should also recall that his arm twisting was the main reason this act made it through Congress. Chief Justice William Reinquist, Senator Strom Thurmond, Rev Billy Graham and Claire Booth Luce of Time Magazine all urged LBJ not to sign it. When Johnson did sign the act, he looked at his aide, sighed and said, “Well, we just lost the South.” The Civil Rights Act started the shift of Southern white conservatives from the Democratic Party to the Republicans. <br /> <br /> 1973-Art Babbitt began his animation lectures to Richard Williams London Studio. Dick took copious notes, and they became one of the most copied, underground how-to books in film history.<br /> <br /> 1980- the Abrahams-Zucker Bros comedy Airplane! Premiered. <br /> <br /> 1982- Don Bluth’s The Secret of Nimh premiered.<br /> <br /> 1986- Walt Disney’s The Great Mouse Detective released in theaters. <br /> <br /> 1986- John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China debuted.<br /> <br /> 1992- THE GREAT FLYING LAWNCHAIR- San Pedro California resident Larry Walters strapped 45 helium weather balloons to his lawnchair and took along a sixpack of beer, a sandwich and a pellet gun. In his lawnchair he reached 16,000 feet. He shot up so fast a commercial airplane reported him as a UFO. Trying to shoot some of the balloons, he lost consciousness and dropped his pellet gun. After two hours the balloons lost altitude and he got entangled in some power lines. He was fined by the FAA for violating LAX commercial airport airspace.<br /> <br /> 1994- During the World Cup Columbian soccer star Andres Escobar accidentally scored a goal for the opposing team causing Columbia’s elimination. They take their soccer pretty seriously in Columbia. This day Escobar was shot 12 times by an enraged fan.<br /> <br /> 1997- "KILL THIS STORY! DRIVE A STEAK THROUGH IT’S HEART AND BURY IT !" was the reaction of a top CNN news executive to the uproar caused by two journalists who broadcast a story that during the Vietnam War the U.S. military experimented with bombing enemy villages with chemical weapons. Among the villages targeted with Nerve Gas was one they knew harbored American deserters. The operation was code-named Tailwind. <br /> CNN was immediately attacked by Veteran’s groups, Henry Kissinger and Gen. Colin Powell. This day CNN retracted the story as being bad journalism and fired the reporters and producer of the show. CNN’s top Gulf War correspondent Peter Arnett came out in support of the story and quit. The journalists refused to recant their story and said the then commander of the joint chiefs of staff Admiral Sumner vouched for its validity. Others said Sumner was senile. <br /> <br /> 1998- In Paris, Mexican World Cup soccer fan Rodrigo Rafael Ortega was arrested for drunkenly urinating on the eternal flame at the Arch de Triomphe in honor of France’s Great War dead. The eternal flame had burned continuously since 1921, even the Nazis left it alone during the occupation. Ortega was the only one to ever put it out. Once again international football proves its ability to bring peoples together.<br /> ===============================================================<br /> Yesterdays’ Quiz: what is the difference between a dilettante and a debutante?<br /> <br /> Answer: A dilettante is a person who dabbles in something; a fan or amateur. Someone who claims to be an authority, but knows just enough about their subject to get by. A debutante is a young woman, coming of age and almost always from a wealthy family, who is being formally introduced into her class-conscious milieu.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 01 Jul 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6190 <p>Quiz: what is the difference between a dilettante and a debutante?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What are currants?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 7/1/2023<br /> Birthdays: Louis Bleriot, Tommy Dorsey, George Sand, Charles Laughton, James Cagney, Princess Diana of Wales, Twyla Tharp, Carl Lewis, Jamie Farr, Sidney Pollack, Wally "Famous"Amos, Estee Lauder, Debbie Harry (Blondie), Olivia De Haviland, Toshiyuki Sakata (Oddjob) Genevieve Bujold, Karen Black, Dan Ackroyd is 71. Andre Crouch, Pamela Anderson is 56, Liv Tyler is 46 <br /> <br /> Welcome to July, named for Julius Caesar. Before that the Romans called it month number five- "Quintilicus Mensis". They had a ten month calendar that began in Mars (March), and ran out of names after Juno (June). After Caesar’s assassination, the Senate voted to change the name of Month Five to the month of the Divine Julius. So, thank Caesar that you don't have to celebrate The Fourth of Quintilicus.<br /> <br /> 330BC- Alexander the Great comes upon the body of his enemy Darius IV, the Great King of Persia. Darius was assassinated by several noblemen who thought it would make Alexander happy and go away. Alexander caught the assassins and had them executed. Their leader Bessus the Satrap of Bactria had his nose and ears cut off, then was tied by the arms to two bent trees, that when released, pulled his body apart.<br /> <br /> 987 A.D. Hugh Capet becomes King of France, replacing the last of the family of Charlemagne.<br /> <br /> 1097-Battle of Dorylaeum. Crusaders defeat the Saracens.<br /> <br /> 1251- After a contentious election at the Grand Kurultai (council of elders) of Karakorum, the Mongols elected Mangu as the next Great Khan. Despite the immense size of their empire -from Vietnam and Korea across Eurasia and India to Poland and Syria, the Mongols were still an overextended tribal system, where the council elders anoint the next prince. Mangu pledged to renew his grandfather Genghis Khan's plan for World Conquest. Fortunately for the world, he died shortly after.<br /> <br /> 1410 -at the crossroads of Czerwinsk, King Casimir II Jagiello of Poland united his army with Witold Wytautas, the Grand Duke of Lithuania and a contingent of Crimean Tartars for the final showdown with the Teutonic Knights of Prussia.<br /> <br /> 1776- During a hot, humid day in Philadelphia the Continental Congress held the final crucial debate over whether to declare American Independence. No English colony had ever broken away from the British Empire by force. The conservative lawyer John Dickinson argued that the colonies indeed had grievances with England, but to declare independence was rash, "we would be embarking upon an ocean of storms in a skiff made of paper!" John Adams waited until he was finished, and then gave the greatest speech of his life. There is no record of what he said, because the debates were in secret and Adams didn’t work from notes. Jefferson said his passion swept the room. Yet despite it all, four colonies still were not sure they could vote for a final break with Mother England. Adams asked for a delay of one day, to await the New Jersey and South Carolina delegations to get their instructions.<br /> <br /> 1789- In Paris, revolutionary sentiment had been building since the Estates General declared itself the National Assembly and demanded King Louis XVI create a constitutional monarchy like Britain. King Louis this day listened to his conservative advisors that his French Royal Guards could not be trusted anymore. In an amazingly bad move, King Louis XVI ordered several regiments of German and Swiss mercenaries into Paris restore order. The foreign troops made camp in the Champs de Mars, where the Eiffel Tower stands today. Being pushed around by foreign troops on the street all but ensured that a violent Revolution would soon break out.<br /> <br /> 1851- James MacNeil Whistler applied to West Point Military Academy. After struggling for three years, he washed out and concentrated on becoming one of the most celebrated artists of the century. He later joked:" If silicon was a gas, I’d be a major general by now!"<br /> <br /> 1858- Charles Darwin does a public reading of his theories on Evolution to the Linean Club in London.<br /> <br /> 1862- President Abraham Lincoln signed into law the Revenue Act, calling for a 3% tax on people for the duration of the Civil War. Real graduated income tax didn’t become permanent until 1913. One other institution Lincoln started from this act was the Internal Revenue Office<br /> <br /> 1863- GETTYSBURG- the most famous battle ever fought on U.S. soil.<br /> Confederate General Robert E. Lee decided to invade north into Pennsylvania and hopefully by threatening Philadelphia and Washington force peace talks. Union General Meade shadowed his movements. With all their cavalry away chasing each other the two large armies groped around blindly through the backwoods of Lancaster County. <br /> Rebel General Henry Heath stopped in the little crossroads town of Gettysburg to get shoes for his men. While there he ran into some blue uniforms up the street. "Go on boys, that's just some Pennsylvania militia." Heath said. Actually it turned out to be the Yankee's elite "Iron Brigade". A nasty firefight brewed up and both armies started to boil into the little town like a slow motion trainwreck. Union General Winfield Scott Hancock drew up his cannon in a hilltop cemetery for defense. The battle would last three days and Lee's defeat would be the turning point of the Civil War.<br /> Through the screams and gun smoke one could read a little sign on the Gettysburg Cemetery gate: " The Carrying or Discharge of Firearms on these Premises are strictly Prohibited". <br /> <br /> 1867-HAPPY CANADA DAY- Her Majesties North American Colonies of Upper and Lower Canada, Quebec, Maritimes, Prince Rupert Land and diverse other holdings are incorporated as the Autonomous Dominion of Canada. This master plan to consolidate the British Empire's colonial administration was invented by Lord Caernarvon, who Queen Victoria nicknamed "Twitters." <br /> <br /> 1898- THE CHARGE UP SAN JUAN HILL. Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders take the Spanish fortifications on the two hilltops above the harbor of Cuba's second city, Santiago. His main attack was actually up Kettle Hill and the Rough Riders were on foot, and Teddy was not in command of the charge, but it made great hardcopy. Roosevelt’s superior was elderly former Confederate General Fightin' Joe Wheeler, who occasionally mixed up calling the Spaniards-"Yankees". On the other side of the hill the 9th Horse Cavalry, the famed Buffalo Soldiers were also in the assault, but the Rough Riders got all the press attention. Teddy was so excited about being under fire that at one point he stopped before a trooper dying of a terrible abdominal wound, shook his hand and said: " Isn't this just a splendid day ?!" <br /> <br /> 1898- The Second Treaty of Peking- Britain leased Hong Kong from China for 99 years. Hong Kong was given back in 1997.<br /> <br /> 1902- The United States declared the Philippine Insurrection officially over.<br /> <br /> 1916- THE SOMME- During World War I while the French and Germans were stalemated at Verdun the British began the "Big Push" also known as the First Battle of the Somme. The British high command were so confident this attack would break open the stalemate and get them out of the trenches that they began training their men in open country tactics. But after four months of hell and one million casualties all they managed to do was move their trench line 5 miles. Twenty thousand men fell in just one day. The descendant of one veteran of the battle recalled his grandfather reached the German trenches and saw a dead German machine gunner up to his knees in spent bullet cartridges. <br /> Young Captain Robert Graves was sent back to England for an operation on his deviated septum. He missed the attack while his unit suffered 60% casualties. Graves survived to write books like " I Claudius". At one point he was in hospital with poet Wilfred Owen and A.A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh). Another lieutenant there named J.R.R. Tolkein was jotting down notes about Norse-Celtic warriors and wizards for a future story book. Historian John Keegan said in retrospect the English sense of naïve optimism from the Victorian Era turned cynical after the Somme.<br /> <br /> 1916- Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower married.<br /> <br /> 1925- THE KRUPP COMPANY PLANS FOR THE FUTURE- In Postwar Berlin, a small industrial design office is set up with a few designers and drafting tables. The company called itself Koch und Kinsell but the real owner was Krupp Armaments Company. While the main Krupp steelworks produced bottle openers and trash bins, in secret violation of the Versailles Treaty these men designed the weapons of mass destruction that would wreak havoc in World War II: Panzer Tanks (code named "tractors"), 88mm guns, more lethal U-boats, bombs and torpedoes. At a time when no one had ever heard of Adolph Hitler, the Krupp engineers were drawing up blueprints with notes like: " Keep gage widths of tanks within the dimensions of French railroad rolling stock for rapid movements inside France and Belgium.”<br /> <br /> 1926- The Northern Expedition- After the fall of the Manchu Dynasty, China had broken up into provinces dominated by warlords with private armies and areas under foreign commercial control. Chiang Kai Shek and the Nationalist or Kuomintang government controlled most of the southern provinces. This day he launched five armies north to bring these provinces back into unified China. <br /> <br /> 1926- THE FIRST ANIMATED FEATURE. Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed premiered in Paris. Ten years before Walt Disney’s Snow White.<br /> <br /> 1933- Scarface Al Capone got his start in the crime from New York mobster Frankie Yale. But when Yale started to get inconvenient for Big Al, he didn’t have any problem with having him rubbed out this day.<br /> <br /> 1933- Mickey’s Gala Premiere, Mickey short with Joe Grant’s caricatures of famous Hollywood celebrities.<br /> <br /> 1940- Chuck Jones short Old Glory. Porky gets an American history lesson from no less than Uncle Sam himself.<br /> <br /> 1941- Animation director Tex Avery stormed out of the Looney Tunes Studio when Jack Warner ordered cuts in his Bugs Bunny cartoon, THE HECKLING HARE. 40 feet was trimmed from the end of the cartoon by Leon Schlesinger who agreed with Mr. Warner it had one too many endings, involving Bugs and the Dog falling through space endlessly. Tex felt the run-on gag was the whole point of the joke. Leon put him on a four-week suspension without pay, but Avery had already lined up a directing gig at MGM.<br /> <br /> 1941- THE FIRST TV COMMERCIAL -During the live coverage of a Brooklyn Dodgers-Philadelphia Phillies baseball game the first FCC sanctioned television commercial aired. It was for the Bulova Watch Company.<br /> <br /> 1944- Leon Schlesinger sold his animation company outright to Warner Bros Studio and retired.<br /> <br /> 1945- With WWII in Europe over, Bill Mauldin's wartime comic strip "Willie and Joe' ended it's run along with the European front-line edition of Stars and Stripes magazine. Charles Schulz of Peanuts fame said no one could draw mud like Bill Maudlin. Mauldin was once chewed out by General Patton for making his GIs so slovenly and cynical. He felt it was a negative image of the American Fighting Man. Seesh...everybody’s a critic!<br /> <br /> 1945- NY Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia read the Sunday comics section over the radio because of a newspaper strike.<br /> <br /> 1946- The first peacetime A-Bomb detonated in the Bikini Islands. The army wanted to study the effects of the bomb so they parked old German warships, buildings and dummies around it, as well as chained down animals. The soldiers nicknamed the bomb 'Gilda' after the Rita Hayworth movie. When Ms. Hayworth heard her name was being used to incinerate 1,500 innocent sheep, horses and elephants, she collapsed in shock. The inhabitants of the island were removed, and to this day those islands are uninhabitable. A cloud of radiation also killed the crew of a Japanese fishing boat who strayed into the area. But the island's name gave a neat idea to French designer Jacques Clauzel what to call his daring new ladies’ two-piece swimsuit.<br /> <br /> 1956- The film Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers premiered. Effects by Ray Harryhausen.<br /> <br /> 1958- Does She or Doesn’t She? Clairol hair dye introduced.<br /> <br /> 1963- U.S. POST OFFICE introduced Zip Codes.<br /> <br /> 1966- The US Medicare Program began. The first Medicare card was given by LBJ to elderly former President Harry Truman. At the time it was felt there was no need to include prescription drugs in the program since their cost was so low. Since then while general inflation rate has been nil to 1%, prescription drugs average inflation rate is 400%.<br /> <br /> 1970- Hanna &amp; Barbera’s attempt at a primetime animated series "Where’s Huddles?"<br /> <br /> 1970- The Xerox Company of Connecticut were convinced to open a new computer science lab on the west coast near Stanford University, It was called Palo Alto Research Center, or Xerox PARC. In 9 years, PARC will develop laser-printing, color graphics, GUI’s- Graphics User Interface, windows, cursor point and click, and Ethernet. <br /> <br /> 1972- Ms. Magazine started publication.<br /> <br /> 1979- Sony introduced the Walkman portable cassette player in the U.S.<br /> <br /> 1981- The Wonderland Murders. Overly endowed porn star Johnny Holmes (aka Johnny Wadd) was implicated in a gang murder. This day four drug dealers called The Wonderland Gang were found beaten to death in his home. Holmes was tried as an accomplice but acquitted. Johnny Holmes died in 1988, and his story became the basis for Marc Walberg’s character in Boogie Nights. <br /> <br /> 1996- the movie Dinosaur Valley Girls premiered.<br /> <br /> 1998- Barbara Streisand married James Brolin.<br /> ========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What are currants? (hint: food)<br /> <br /> Answer: A type of berry, which although they can be eaten dried like raisins, are not considered grapes. Black currants were banned in the US from 1911-1966 because it had been thought they were toxic to white pine trees, vital to paper and lumber.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 30 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6189 <p>Quiz: What are currants? (hint: food)<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What is meant by jumping the gun?<br /> -----------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/30/2023<br /> Birthdays: Buddy Rich, Lena Horne, Czeslaw Milosz, Susan Hayward, Deanna Durbin, Howard Hawks, Anthony Mann, William Goldman, Martin Landau, Essa-Pekka Salonen, David Alan Grier, Vincent D’Onofrio, Monica Potter, Mike Tyson is 57, Michael Phelps, Rupert Graves is 60 <br /> <br /> In the Catholic calendar, this is the Feast Day of the First Martyrs of Rome, Saint Theobald and Saint Basilides<br /> <br /> 1520- " La Noche Triste- THE NIGHT OF SORROWS". At the Aztec capitol city, Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs finally realized that Cortez and his conquistadors were not gods, and drove them from their city with great slaughter. Almost half the conquistadors died on this one night. Some Spaniards attempted to escape by diving into the lake Texcoco and swimming, but were dragged down by the weight of their stolen gold and drowned. <br /> Cortez made his hostage the Emperor Montezuma go out to quiet the multitudes, but the crowd killed him with a shower of rocks. During the fighting, captured Spaniards were dragged up the steps of the great pyramid of Huitzilopochtli and sacrificed while their comrades could only watch in horror. The temple towered over the city so everyone could see. Cortez would regroup his forces and with the aid of allied Indian tribes and a terrible smallpox epidemic eventually fight his way back into the city.<br /> <br /> 1559- King Henry II of France was warned by a weirdo named Nostradamus, to beware of lances. Henry laughed it off because nobody seriously fought that way anymore. However, to celebrate a dynastic marriage of his son to Mary Queen of Scots, part of the Rue Saint Antoine in Paris was closed off for an old fashioned joust with blunt lances– kind of a "Medieval Times" party. <br /> Forty-year-old King Henry jousted with the Dukes of Guise and Savoy and knocked them down. He complained they were just letting him win, so he ordered his Scottish bodyguard Montgomery to come at him for real. In a freak accident, Montgomery’s lance splintered and shot through the king’s gold helmet visor and into his brain, killing him instantly. Nostradamus was quickly put on the Queen’s payroll.<br /> <br /> 1632- Caecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, was awarded proprietorship of a new English colony forming north of Virginia named Mary’s land or Maryland. The colony’s charter left open the issue of the official sanctioned church, so Baltimore could make it a haven for his fellow Roman Catholics.<br /> <br /> 1643- In Paris, the son of an upholsterer named Jean Coquelin signed a contract to establish The Ilustre Theatre. Jean also took on a stage name- Moliere.<br /> <br /> 1688- Several English Anglican Bishops had defied the decrees of King James II because he was openly Catholic. James II put the clerics on trial for treason, but this day no court would convict them. Sensing the spirit of the people was rising against the King several top Protestant Dukes sent covert letters to James’ son-in-law in Holland William of Orange, inviting him to invade England and seize the throne.<br /> <br /> 1702- The leaders of the European Grand Coalition meet at the Hague to decide how to make war on Louis XIV of France over the Spanish Succession. The problem with a coalition is everyone wants to be in charge. The Dutch volunteered several generals as did the King of Prussia, the Elector of Baden and the Elector of Hesse. Queen Anne of England suggested her husband the Prince of Denmark be the commander. <br /> While all this bickering went on, the real Captain General, John Churchill the Duke of Marlborough, slipped away to the army camp and Nijmegen and took command. After the major victories of Blenheim and Ramillies they finally let him stay in charge. But his strategies had to be submitted to an international committee for approval, and he had to submit something like a term paper every spring with a dozen other strategists to decide how to fight the war. <br /> <br /> 1832- The Great Pierce Island Rendezvous- In the Old West, the end of June marked the one time of the year the solitary Mountain Men would come down out of the Rockies and meet together. At the rendezvous they contacted fur company representatives to turn in their furs and pelts for gunpowder, blankets, trade trinkets and whiskey. There were several rendezvous sites including Bent's Fort and Papoagia but Pierce Island was one of the more celebrated.<br /> <br /> 1837- England discontinued use of the Pillory as public punishment. <br /> <br /> 1837- The steamboat St. Petersburg arrived at Ft. Union to give the Indians of North Dakota blankets, knives and smallpox. The resultant plague all but wiped out the Assiniboine’s, Sans Arcs, Mandans and Blackfeet.<br /> <br /> 1841- The never-explained Day It Rained Fish Over Boston.<br /> <br /> 1856- In London, Charles Dickens does his first public reading from his works.<br /> <br /> 1859- Daredevil Emile Blondin crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope. The stunt was duplicated by Nick Wallenda in Spring 2014.<br /> <br /> 1864- Abraham Lincoln signed a bill protecting the Yosemite Valley in California as a natural preserve or “park” from developers and mining companies.<br /> <br /> 1865 – All 8 Booth conspirators in the assassination of Lincoln were found guilty.<br /> <br /> 1870- The dictator of the Dominican Republic offered to sell his entire nation to the United States. President Ulysses Grant thought it would be a great territory to add to the republic. After all, hadn’t they just established a naval base at Pearl Harbor in the kingdom of Hawaii and Seward had pushed through buying all that useless ice up in Alaska? <br /> Grant also had a plan that if black American hated being abused in the South they could move to this island. Maybe the threat of their leaving and removing the labor force would force Southern whites to treat them better. Many expansionists of the time also felt Cuba would make a great state. But the post Civil War Congress was not in a buying mood. This day they voted to block funds to buy the Caribbean country.<br /> <br /> 1882- Charles Guiteau, assassin of President Garfield and major league fruitcake, was hanged. He had acted as his own lawyer on a defense that God had ordered him to kill the president. One prison guard hated Guiteau so much he took a shot at him but missed, prompting a Congressman to order an investigation of the marksmanship of government officers. Tickets to the execution went for as much as $300 each. Guiteau’s last words as the gallows trapdoor dropped was "Glory Hallelujah!"<br /> <br /> 1893- PRESIDENTIAL COVERT OPERATION- Shortly after becoming President Grover Cleveland developed a cancer on his upper jaw. Without telling anyone in the government, or even his own Vice President, Cleveland and his family slipped off to New York and went on board the yacht of millionaire Elias Benedict. A makeshift operating room has rigged up inside with the table secured to the mainmast. The excuse for the trip was a relaxing cruise with a rich friend. As the ship bobbed in New York Harbor doctors removed part of Cleveland’s upper jaw and placed a rubber plate in it’s place. The Secretary of State and First Lady completed the charade by sunning themselves on deck. Cleveland never had cancer again and died of old age. The event was kept such a secret few even today know it even happened. <br /> <br /> 1894 - London Tower Bridge opened.<br /> <br /> 1896 - W S Hardaway patented the electric stove.<br /> <br /> 1908-A mysterious explosion occurred in remote Tunguska Siberia, with the estimated strength of several atom bombs. No meteorite remains were ever discovered. Soil at the epicenter had been turned to glass. It was speculated as an ice comet impact or a UFO crash. But it has never been completely explained. <br /> <br /> 1913-The Second Balkan War began when Greece, Serbia, Romania and Turkey beat up on Bulgaria. <br /> <br /> 1914 – A young English trained Indian lawyer named Mohandas K. Ghandi was arrested for the first time, trying to win equal rights for non-European citizens in South Africa. Years later in India he would earn the name the Mahatma, or the Great Soul.<br /> <br /> 1933- A group of actors met in secret at Frank (the Wizard of Oz) Morgan’s house and form the Screen Actors Guild. The secrecy was because studios threatened to blacklist anyone who so much as breathed the word union. Among the founding members that night is James Cagney, Groucho Marx, Joan Crawford, Franchot Tone, Frederic March, Robert Montgomery and Boris Karloff. Karloff said every member carried pockets full of nickels so they could use the nearest payphone to talk. They feared the studios had gotten the police to tap their home and office phones. <br /> <br /> 1934-"NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES"- Chancellor Adolf Hitler arrested his own stormtroopers during their convention and had them all shot. Hitler was placating the top industrial and military powers to consolidate his hold on Germany. The SA or Brownshirts led by Ernst Roehm were mostly street thugs and convicts who expected to get top jobs in the army when the Nazis came to power. The Prussian officer corps didn't think this was a hot idea. In exchange for their loyalty Hitler wasn't fussed about having to liquidate his old friends. Ernst Roehm insisted that if he was to be killed, he wanted Adolf himself to pull the trigger. Instead, Hitler sent several Gestapo officers who ended Roehm’s life in a fusillade of pistol shots. The new unit took over the SA’s duties called the SS, or blackshirts, under former chicken farmer Heinrich Himmler.<br /> <br /> 1936- Margaret Mitchell's bestseller “Gone With the Wind" first published.<br /> <br /> 1936- the 40 hour work week was made a federal law. <br /> <br /> 1937- Congress voted to shut down the Federal Theater Project, the division of the government funded WPA that produced plays for Depression wracked poor people. The FTP produced cutting edge works of Orson Welles, Clifford Odets and Eugene O’Neill and at its height reached 25 million people. But conservative senators thought it had been taken over by lefties. Theater actors working in L.A. on a hit production of Pinocchio held a mock funeral for the puppet. Over its casket was the headstone FTP: Born 1934, Killed by an Act of Congress, June 30th 1937.<br /> <br /> 1940- The Nazis invaded and occupied Britain’s Channel Islands, in preparation for an invasion of the British mainland. The only British territory ever occupied by the Germans.<br /> <br /> 1940- Dale Messick takes over the Brenda Star comic strip and adds the trademark sparkles. Born Dalia Messick, she used her nickname Dale to throw off publishers who would reject samples they knew came from a woman.<br /> <br /> 1948- Bell Laboratories announced the Transistor, a possible substitute for radio-vacuum tubes. So early computers can shrink from the size of a building to the size of a bus. In 1980 the silicon chip reduced the same computing power to the size of your fingernail.<br /> <br /> 1950- The Goofy short Motor Mania released.<br /> <br /> 1953- The first Chevy Corvette rolled off the assembly line. Only three thousand were made that first year, all white with red interior, selling for $3,500. <br /> <br /> 1971 – the movie Willy Wonka &amp; The Chocolate Factory was released. Directed by Mel Stuart, adapted from the 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (who wrote the screenplay) and starring Gene Wilder. The Oompha Loompha song titling was done by a very early digital CGI technique called Scanimate.<br /> <br /> 1973- The Supreme Court ordered President Nixon to yield the 'Pentagon Papers' to lawyers of Daniel Ellsberg. Nixon was so upset about these papers that in one taped meeting he actually considered a proposal from G. Gordon Liddy, that they firebomb the Brookings Institute where the papers were being kept. Most of the Supreme Court were Nixon appointees.<br /> <br /> 1975- Just 4 days after divorcing Sonny Bono, Cher married rocker Gregg Allman.<br /> <br /> 1996 - Margaux Hemingway, considered the first modern Supermodel, committed suicide at 41. Her grandfather Ernest Hemingway committed suicide, and his father before him.<br /> <br /> 1989- Spike Lee’s movie Do The Right Thing opened. <br /> <br /> 1997- Britain gave the colony of Hong Kong back to China upon the completion of the 99 year lease settled by the Second Treaty of Chuen Pee in 1898. <br /> <br /> 2014- The rogue state of Islamist rebels called ISIS, ISIL, or DAESH, forming in between Iraq, Syria and Turkey declared their leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi as their Caliph, defender of the faithful. There had not been a caliph since Turkish President Kemal Ataturk abolished the office in 1920. Al Baghdadi died in a raid in 2019.<br /> ==========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is meant by jumping the gun?<br /> <br /> Answer: In footraces the start was indicated by a starters pistol shot. Jumping the gun meant starting before he fired his pistol. Today "Jumping the gun" means to act too fast, recklessly, without forethought, usually leading to a bad result.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 29 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6188 <p>Quiz; What is meant by jumping the gun?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What was the significance of The Liberty Bell ?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/29/2023<br /> Birthdays: Bernard Hermann, Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle, Slim Pickens, Nelson Eddy, Gary Busey, John Hench, Little Eva, Harmon Killabrew, Antoine de Saint Exupery, Anna Sophie-Mutter, Leroy Anderson, Maria Conchita Alonso, Robert Evans, Matthew Weiner, Brett McKenzie, Ray Harryhausen, Roger Allers<br /> <br /> 65 AD- Feasts of Saints Peter and Paul. Supposed to be the date they were executed by order of Nero. Paul was beheaded in the Mamertine prison. He had the right to die quickly because he had honorary Roman citizenship. Peter was taken to Vatican Hill to be crucified. When he expressed joy that he would die as Jesus had, the Roman guard thought of a variation, and crucified him upside down. <br /> When later Roman Emperor Commodus learned the Christian sect liked Vatican hill because of that, he had his favorite racing horse buried there. When told “The Christians venerate that ground.” Commodus replied, “Well, I really liked that horse….”<br /> <br /> 1540- When Henry VIII needed some dirty work done, his unscrupulous chancellor Sir Thomas Cromwell was there to do it for him. Behead a wife, behead a Saint, no problem sire. This day Cromwell’s turn came, and he went to the block. The official charge was Heresy. Cromwell could probably appreciate the silliness of the charge. The king was merely tired of him, embarrassed by the botched marriage to Anne of Cleves and wanted him out of the way. His great nephew Oliver Cromwell disliked being reminded he was distantly related to that royal kissass Sir Thomas Cromwell.<br /> <br /> 1762- Catherine the Great overthrew her husband Czar Peter III in a palace coup. When Catherine received word that Peter intended to depose her to marry his mistress, she decided to strike first. Peter may have been mentally ill, so few believe he managed to make a child. But in those days if a marriage didn’t produced children it was assumed the woman was at fault. Catherine had a son the Czarevich Paul. So, the remainder of the Romanoff dynasty may well be the spawn of Count Orloff of the Guards, Polish Prince Poniatowski or any one of a number of other lovers. The Russian troops worshipped their “little mother” because her first order after the coup was to cancel Peter’s planned war with Denmark, which the men thought stupid. Czar Peter was beaten up and strangled, and Czarina Catharine became one of Russia’s great rulers.<br /> <br /> 1776- This day, outside New York Harbor near Sandy Hook New Jersey, an immense British fleet was sighted. 500 ships bringing 32,000 redcoat troops and supplies. It was led by the Howe brothers- General Lord William Howe and Admiral Richard Howe, “Black Dick”. One American soldier wrote:” There must be no one left in London, they are all here.” <br /> Simultaneous task forces were headed for the Carolinas, and the mouth of the Chesapeake to menace Philadelphia. The British regulars were augmented by regiments of Hessian German mercenaries, toughened in the schools of Frederick the Great, reputedly the finest soldiers in the world. George Washington with his little army of amateur farmers were going to face the largest amphibious invasion until D-Day.<br /> <br /> 1776- THE BATTLE OF SULLIVAN’S ISLE. At the same time, Colonial Minutemen repulsed another English seaborne attack, this one at Charleston, South Carolina. A rebel song of the time poked fun at the British commander, Sir Peter Parker's Lament : <br /> <br /> " With Much Labor and Toil<br /> Unto Sullivan's Isle<br /> Came I like Falstaff or Pistol.<br /> But the Yankees ('Od rot'em)<br /> I could not get at 'em<br /> And they terribly mauled my poor Bristol! (-HMS Bristol)<br /> <br /> But My Lords do not fear<br /> For before the next year,<br /> ('Though a small island could fret us)<br /> The continent whole<br /> We shall take by my soul,<br /> If the cowardly Yankees will let us!"<br /> <br /> 1776- Happy Birthday San Francisco! Don Juan Bautista De Anza brought 247 colonists to the tip of a rocky promontory in a huge foggy natural harbor and built a Presidio, a fort. When a monk came six months later to build a mission, he called it San Francisco de Asiacutes. The nearby village was called Yerba Buena for all the good herbs growing in the area. Juan de Anza explored and mapped most of the route from Old Mexico through Northern California but is not as well known to Americans as Fra Junipero Serra, or the Anglo explorers John Freemont, and Kit Carson.<br /> <br /> 1799- The little Kingdom of Naples had trouble deciding who's side it was on during the Napoleonic Wars. It was very pro-British until a French army showed up, when they drove out the king and became pro-French. The British came back with a battle fleet and put their king back on his throne. The Neopolitan King Ferdinand VII “Big Nose" told his British friends:" treat my Naples like it was a rebellious Irish village ". <br /> On this day the commander of the Neapolitan Navy, Admiral Carracciolo, who had changed sides several times, was captured and brought before Admiral Horatio Nelson. Nelson convened a drumhead courts-martial, sentenced and hanged the old Italian from his flagship's yardarm all on the same day. His lack of mercy, even of enough time to allow the condemned time to say his prayers, remains one of the only black marks on Nelson's otherwise brilliant naval career. After a yardarm hanging, the body was cut loose and allowed to drop into the sea. <br /> In a grim postscript, several days later, King Ferdinand was looking out across the harbor when he dropped his spyglass in horror. Carracciolo's body, bloated, fish knawed and pop-eyed from the hanging, had resurfaced and was looking right at him. <br /> <br /> 1801- Ludwig van Beethoven confessed to a friend that he was going deaf.<br /> <br /> 1815- After Waterloo, Napoleon Bonaparte spent a week sitting at Malmaison Palace trying to decide what to do, and reminiscing about Josephine to her daughter Hortense. as Allied armies closed in on Paris. Prussian Marshal Blucher declared his goal was to arrest Napoleon and hopefully shoot him as a criminal. At 5:00PM this day Napoleon finally left Paris for the Atlantic coast with a promise that a ship was waiting to take him to exile in America. Shortly afterwards a troop of Prussian cavalry arrived too late.<br /> <br /> 1863- Robert E. Lee with his army invading Pennsylvania, learned from a stage actor turned spy named Harris that the Yankee army he thought he left behind in Virginia was following him close by. There was a danger his army could be attacked while in it was strung out in several columns foraging for supplies. Angry that Jeb Stuart’s cavalry was off raiding somewhere instead of scouting for him, Lee ordered his grey columns to turn back from Harrisburg and Philadelphia and concentrate where five main roads intersected. A little town named Gettysburg. <br /> <br /> 1927- The first commercial airplane reached Hawaii from the US mainland. It was a seaplane, and at one point it ran out of fuel, landed in the water and the crew rowed the final few miles.<br /> <br /> 1936- Pope Pius XI published an encyclical warning of the evils of Motion Pictures. “They glorify Lust and Lascivious behavior.”<br /> <br /> 1940 – ROBIN THE BOY WONDER- According to Batman Comics, this day mobsters rubbed out a circus highwire team known as the Flying Graysons, leaving their son Dick an orphan. He was taken in by millionaire Bruce Wayne so Batman could have his Robin.<br /> <br /> 1940- First day shooting on the film Citizen Kane.<br /> <br /> 1941- One week after the German invasion began at a secret meeting in Moscow leader Josef Stalin was finally made to understand by his defense committee just how badly the Red Army was being beaten by the Nazis. Stalin left the room saying “ Lenin had left us a powerful state, and we have screwed it up!” <br /> <br /> 1950- The Hollywood 10 were given jail sentences for contempt of Congress.<br /> <br /> 1956- President Eisenhower signed the Interstate Highways Act, allocating millions of dollars to build a system of interstate freeways connecting all the major U.S. cities. This is the reason you can drive one road from the Pacific Ocean at Santa Monica to the Atlantic Ocean at Baltimore. Eisenhower was an engineer in the 1920s and saw the deplorable condition of American roads. During World War II, he saw the Germans use autobahns to move heavy mechanized forces quickly. <br /> The Interstate System had at first a definite Cold War logic to it. The Interstates would be commandeered in time of war and every few miles there had to be a five mile straightaway so military planes could use them for an emergency landing. Overpasses had to be at least 11’5” tall to clear an Ajax missile launcher. <br /> <br /> 1956- Marilyn Monroe married author Arthur Miller.<br /> <br /> 1966- Operation Rolling Thunder. US B-52s bomb Hanoi for the first time.<br /> <br /> 1967- At 2:30AM outside of Biloxi, Mississippi, actress Jane Mansfield and her dog were killed in a car crash when their car slammed into the rear of a parked truck. Her children including Marisa Hargitay were in the back seat but unhurt. Ever since then, high chassis trucks have to have Mansfield bars in the back. <br /> <br /> 1968 - "Tip-Toe Thru' The Tulips With Me" by Tiny Tim peaks at #17 on the pop charts.<br /> <br /> 1974- Isabella Peron, the second wife of Juan Peron after Evita, became President of Argentina.<br /> <br /> 1978- Actor Bob Crane, best known as the star in the television series Hogan’s Heroes, was found beaten to death with an electric cord wrapped around his neck in a Scottsdale Arizona hotel room. Around his room were piles of his homemade porn tapes. He was 49. Years later his sons gathered all of the tapes, had them digitized and posted on an online paysite, where you can watch the videos of their dad having sex. The killer was never found. <br /> <br /> 1992- President of Algeria Mohammed Boudief was assassinated during a speech.<br /> <br /> 2002- President George W. Bush formally turned over presidential power for two hours to Vice President Dick Cheney while he underwent a colonoscopy- i.e. a fiber optic camera is shoved up his butt. <br /> <br /> 2007- Pixar’s Ratatouille premiered, directed by Brad Bird.<br /> <br /> 2007- Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, initiating the age of the smartphone. <br /> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What was the significance of The Liberty Bell ?<br /> <br /> Answer: Inscribed, "Proclaim Liberty Throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof,” the Liberty Bell was initially Independence Hall’s bell. It was said to have rung on the first July 4th (probably apocryphal), but it was actively rung until it received its famous and picturesque crack in 1820. It cracked when being rung for the funeral for first Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall. It has been cherished and kept as a relic ever since.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 28 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6187 <p>Quiz: What was the significance of The Liberty Bell ?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz Answered below: What is bilgewater?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/28/2023<br /> Birthdays: King Henry VIII, Peter Paul Rubens, Luigi Pirandello, Jean Jacques Rousseau, John Dillinger, Richard Rogers, Herb Ryman, Gilda Radner, Cartoonist George Booth, Leon Panetta, Mary Stuart Masterson, Kathy Bates is 75, John Cusack is 57, Mel Brooks is 97<br /> <br /> Today is the Feast Day of Saint Plutarch and Saint Theodichidia. <br /> <br /> 622 A.D. The prophet Mohammed arrived in Medina, completing the Haj.<br /> <br /> 1098- THE HOLY LANCE- Outside the city of Antioch Kerbogha the Saracen Emir of Aleppo was defeated by the warriors of the First Crusade inspired by the "Holy Lance". The Crusaders were surrounded and starving, when a monk from Marseilles named Peter Bartholomew began to have visions of St. Andrew. The Saint told him to instruct the Crusader warlords where to dig to find the legendary Spear of Longinus, the Holy Lance that pierced the side of Christ. At first the monk was too frightened to go up to the barons, but plucked up his courage after Saint Andrew appeared to him a second time and boxed his ears for not following his orders. Boy, that’s one touchy saint! <br /> They dug in a church as instructed and found nothing, then dug up every other church in town until they found a rusty spike that looked close enough. The Crusader army was so jazzed over this obvious sign of divine favor that they stormed from the gates of the city and joyfully slaughtered all before them. <br /> After the victory, Peter Bartholomew got really full of himself, and started to boss the crusader barons around. The warlords told him that they were going to build a huge bonfire and that if he could walk through the flames unharmed, then God must surely be acting through him. By the morning of the test, the little monk had run off.<br /> <br /> 1119- Ager Saguinus "the field of Blood" Another crusader army doesn't do as well.<br /> <br /> 1519- THE MAN WHO MARRIED EUROPE- Charles V von Hapsburg was the grandson of Ferdinand &amp; Isabella and so became King of Spain. At this time to be King of Spain meant he also ruled Portugal, the Netherlands and Belgium, Southern Italy, the Philippines and all of the Americas. This day he was elected Holy Roman Emperor of Germany, which meant he was now also ruler of all of Central Europe- Germany, Austria and Italy down to Sicily. Charles V became the most powerful man in Europe and France suddenly found itself surrounded. Both she and England faced a Hapsburg super-state, fueled by the limitless gold of the plundered Aztec and Inca empires. Charles was the first of his family to have the unique facial characteristic called the “Hapsburg Lip” – a large lower lip and protruding jaw. <br /> <br /> 1709- Battle of Poltava- Peter the Great of Russia defeated Charles XII of Sweden, the "Madman of the North". This battle wins Russia enough Baltic coastline needed for serious trade with Western Europe.<br /> <br /> 1751- The first volume of the ENCYCLOPAEDIA appeared in print. French philosophers Diderot, D’Alambert and Voltaire inspired by the ideas of English scholars Newton and Francis Bacon, decided to create a digest of all human knowledge into one reference work. Encyclopedia is from the Greek “Knowledge all in the Round”. It took thirty years to write all the volumes, the last volume the index was published in 1780. But in those days the Encyclopedists were as much a political movement as a source of trivia. That these humanist scholars should attempt to define concepts like “God”, The Soul” “Heaven and Hell,” without the Church involved, was considered a declaration of philosophical war. The liberal ideas in the Encyclopedia did a lot to advance the thinking of the Enlightenment, as well as the American and French Revolutions.<br /> <br /> 1778- BATTLE OF MONMOUTH- The largest land battle of the American Revolution. George Washington had gotten word that the main British army had quit the rebel capitol of Philadelphia and was headed back to New York City. He resolved to strike the British army while strung out on the march. It was the first battle where the Americans, their discipline stiffened by Baron Von Steuben’s drills, could slug it out face to face with the European soldiers. <br /> The temperature was a stifling 90-100 % F and many men collapsed from heat exhaustion in their wool uniforms. This was where Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley, called Molly Pitcher, took her husband’s place manning a cannon. She laughed when an enemy cannonball flew between her legs taking away parts of her lower petticoats. <br /> The battle was a draw, but Washington had shown his army wasn’t a mob of raggedy-ass farmers, but a true modern army. <br /> His second, General Charles Lee, was retreating from the field when Washington rode up and rallied his men. Lee was fired from the service, but not before Washington gave him a piece of his mind. An eyewitness said: “As a connoisseur of swearing I can attest that General Washington excelled at calling Lee every swear word one could think of. It was wonderful. He swore until the leaves shook from the trees!”<br /> <br /> 1819- Lord Byron published his poem Mazeppa. The legend of a Ukrainian Cossack leader who in his youth made love to the young wife of an old Polish nobleman. He had the boy tied nude on the back of a wild horse and set loose to gallop across the steppes. Mazeppa survived and lived to become Hetman of the Ukraine and fought Czar Peter the Great. The poem inspired a lot of European romantic music and art like Gericault and Tchaikovsky. <br /> <br /> 1868- Twenty something artist Claude Monet was so broke and depressed he jumped in the Seine River. After splashing around for a while, he decided it’s silly to drown himself, so he swam to the riverbank and went for a drink. He outlived all the Impressionist painters of his generation, dying famous in 1926 at age 86.<br /> <br /> 1869- John Roebling was the architect who conceived and designed the Brooklyn Bridge. At the time the largest and tallest suspension bridge in the world. This day while overseeing construction, Roebling’s foot was caught between a ferryboat and the dock and crushed. Tetanus set in and he died swiftly. John Roebling’s son Washington Roebling assumed leadership of the construction team. When he grew too ill with caisson sickness to continue, his wife Emily Roebling oversaw the final completion of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1881.<br /> <br /> 1914- WORLD WAR I began- commenting on 40 years of European peace, Otto Von Bismarck had said:" The next European war can only happen if some damn fool thing happens in the Balkans." The Austro-Hungarian Empire was muscling the little kingdom of Serbia. Austria had already annexed Bosnia in 1909 and Serbia claimed it as theirs. The heir of the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz-Ferdinand went on a provocative tour of the Bosnian town of Sarajevo in an open limousine. One terrorist Nedjelko Cabrinovic, hurled a bomb at the car but the driver avoided it and took another route. The Archduke stopped at city hall where he and the mayor got into an argument. The mayor claimed:” This city is absolutely safe!”<br /> The motorcade proceeded until it was stopped by traffic at an intersection. Then 18 year old Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princeps stepped out of the crowd and fired his pistol. The first bullet hit the Archduchess Sophie Chotek who slumped lifeless over her husbands lap. Franz Ferdinand cried out: "Mama don't die! For the children!" when the next bullet killed him. Austria and Germany and Turkey declared war on Serbia and Russia and France and England. Later the whole world joined in the lunacy, about 58 nations and 22 million deaths, the last declaration was Honduras declaring war on Germany two months before the armistice. Gavrilo Princeps died in 1918 of tuberculosis in an asylum for the criminally insane, unaware that he had set the world on fire.<br /> <br /> 1918- The German Kaiser told Lenin that Germany and Finland would not violate the terms of their Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and so would not intervene in the Russian Civil War with a move against Petrograd. This enabled the Bolsheviks to move vital forces East to deal with Anglo-American supported White armies.<br /> <br /> 1919- The VERSAILLES TREATY is signed, formally ending the World War I. President Wilson had wanted a peace based on mutual respect and self-determination, but the winning powers led by Clemenceau and Lloyd George brushed aside his naive suggestions and wanted revenge. The German delegate was Count Brockdorff-Rantzau, a stiff monocled Prussian whose autocratic demeanor annoyed Wilson and lost probably the only sympathetic ear there.“ Isn’t it always the same with those people?” Wilson complained. Economist John Maynard Keynes warned the penalties heaped upon postwar Germany by article #232- The War Guilt Clause- would create a grave economic crisis for her and the world, all but predicting the Great Depression to come. The terms imposed on the defeated Germany were so crushing and humiliating that they were a major factor in the German public turning to Adolf Hitler. World War II has sometimes been called the "War to settle the Treaty of Versailles”<br /> <br /> 1922- Twenty year old Walt Disney started Newman's Laugh-O-Grams in Kansas City.<br /> <br /> 1928- Louis Armstrong &amp; Earl Hines recorded West End Blues.<br /> <br /> 1944- German commanders in the West, Feldmarshalls Rommel and Von Rundstedt have a showdown with Hitler at Berschesgarten. They tell their Fuehrer bluntly that since the Allied breakout at Normandy the war in the West was already lost. Germany must make peace at any price before she is totally destroyed. Hitler said the Allies would never make peace with him, so he knows they mean he must resign. Hitler rants about the new miracle weapons that would turn the tide, but Rommel asks him about what to do right now? <br /> Hitler angrily threw them out. Von Rundstedt was forcibly retired, and another officer promoted over Rommel’s head. Erwin Rommel decided to join in the generals plot to overthrow Hitler.<br /> <br /> 1950- General Douglas MacArthur flew out from Tokyo to see for himself the beginnings of the Korean War. He stood on a hilltop watching the terrible spectacle of the city of Seoul in flames. As bullets zipped around him and smoke and screams filled the air, he calmly lectured the newspapermen about the similarities to Napoleon’s assault on the Austrian city of Ratisbon (Ravensberg) in 1809.<br /> <br /> 1955- Walt Disney sent a memo to his studio employees to please come to the grand opening day of Disneyland Park on July 17. He was concerned not enough people would show up the first day, and it would look bad on live TV. He shouldn’t have worried. 100,000 people came that first day.<br /> <br /> 1964- Malcolm X said in a speech- “We declare our right on this earth to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary.” Many took the phrase “by any means necessary” as an implied threat of violence, breaking with Dr. Martin Luther King’s non-violence campaign.<br /> <br /> 1969- THE STONEWALL UPRISING- New York City Police got a false tip about a stabbing at the mob-owned Stonewall gay bar in Greenwich Village. Others claim the cops were there to get their money kickbacks, and when it wasn’t paid, they started arresting patrons. But for once the patrons didn’t go quietly but began to fight back. <br /> As she was being loaded into a paddy wagon, A drag queen began by kicking a policeman, then the others rushed out. People on the street began pelting the policemen with pennies and nickels, symbolizing there being there for graft. When the cops formed a blue wall to advance, gays formed a wall and fought them, shouting:” WE ARE THE VILLAGE GIRLS! WE WEAR OUR HAIR IN CURLS!” In the 60’s era of social revolution, the incident caused three days of urban rioting, and The Gay Pride Movement was born.<br /> 1970 -On the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, this day they marked the event with a march called at first The Christopher Street Liberation March. It marked the first Gay Pride Marches in New York, SF, Chicago and Los Angeles.<br /> <br /> 1971- Mobster Joe Colombo tells an Italian/American Unity Day rally in Columbus Circle, NY that the term "Mafia" was a label invented to denigrate people of Italian ancestry. A minute later, hitmen sent by "Crazy Joe" Gallo, shot and killed him.<br /> <br /> 1971- The Supreme Court overturned the conviction of prizefighter Mohammed Ali for draft evasion.<br /> <br /> 1975- Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling died during open heart surgery. He was 50. His last movie script was called The Man, about resistance of the Washington powerful to the first black president of the United States.<br /> <br /> 1997- Heavyweight prizefighter Mike Tyson was banned from boxing and fined $3 million for biting off a chunk of Evander Holyfield’s ear during a match. <br /> <br /> 2000- Little Cuban boy Elian Gonzales was taken by his father back home to Cuba after being in the US for 7 months. The 6 year olds estranged mother took the child and fled to Florida on a raft. But she and her boyfriend drowned, so the child was cared for by distant cousins in Miami.<br /> Elian Gonzales case became sensationalized by the US media and the vocally militant anti-Castro Cuban community of Miami. Fidel’s regime also had fun making publicity out of the traumatized boy’s plight. Finally Attorney General Janet Reno ordered the family home raided by US Marshals to forcibly unite the boy with his father. Back in Havana, Juan Miguel Gonzales said: ”I never want anyone to stick a camera in my sons face again!”<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is bilgewater?<br /> <br /> Answer: The lowest part of the bottom of the ship, where the two sides meet at the keel. In the old days leaking water, fuel oil, waste and other indescribable liquids would gather at the bottom- Bilge Water, and have to be pumped out- A Bilge Pump.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 27 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6186 <p>Quiz: What is bilgewater?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: 150 Years ago there was a kingdom called Prussia in Europe. Who were the Prussians?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/27/2023<br /> Birthdays: Swedish King Charles XII "the Madman of the North", Helen Keller, Norma Kamali, Charles Stuart Parnell, Bob" Captain Kangaroo" Keeshan, Emma Goldman, Marine General Chesty Puller, Walter Johnson, Ross Perot, Isabella Adjani is 68, Lauren Hill, Alice McDermott, J.J. Abrams is 57, Tony Leung Chu Wai is 61, Toby McGuire is 48. Katherine Beaumont the voice of Alice in Alice in Wonderland, and Wendy in Peter Pan <br /> <br /> 1542- Juan Cabrillo set sail from Mexico to explore the unknown California Coast. He was told he might find the magic kingdom of Queen Califa, an island east of Asia, next to the Earthly Paradise, populated with beautiful brown amazons with golden swords. He got the idea from a popular novel of the time.<br /> <br /> 1652 - New Amsterdam passed the 1st speed limit law in the New World.<br /> <br /> 1693 – The first woman's magazine "Ladies' Mercury" published in London.<br /> <br /> 1743- The English under George II defeat the French at Dettingen, and composer Georg Frederich Handel wrote in celebration the Dettingen Te Deum. <br /> <br /> 1787- English historian Edward Gibbon completed his life’s work-"The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". The massive history ran thousands of pages and took twenty years of his life to write. When he presented the first volume, bound in gold, to mad King George III, the King said: -" What's this? Another damn big, black book, eh Mr. Gibbon? Scribble, Scribble!! "<br /> <br /> 1788- The Battle of the Liman. Catherine the Great's fleet defeated the Turkish navy in the Black Sea near the Moldavan coast. What is memorable about this was one of the Russian admirals was Pavel Ivanovich Jones, or John Paul Jones from the US Navy. During the night Jones got in a little boat manned by one Cossack named Ivak and had himself rowed out into the middle of the Turkish Navy to inspect it. The Cossack spoke good Turkish and learned the fleet's passwords but it was still dangerous. Jones suffered no discovery and even paused to write graffiti on the stern end of a Turkish battleship to prove he was there. He wrote in chalk the French: "This ship to be burned- Paul Jones". Next day it was.<br /> <br /> 1804-The Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr challenged former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton to a duel. Hamilton had slandered Burr in the press and on previous occasions he had also challenged James Monroe and General Charles Lee (a critic of George Washington). Between this challenge and the duel on July 11th, Aaron Burr fought another duel with a cousin. Hamilton and Burr still had to sit side by side at an Independence Day banquet on July 4th. <br /> <br /> 1829- James Smithson died. The English scientist had amassed a huge fortune from patents yet was snubbed by polite London society because of his low illegitimate birth. So, he turned his back on his mother country and willed all his money to the United States, specifically asking a museum to be set up in his name. The Smithsonian Institute was the result.<br /> <br /> 1844- Mormon leader Joseph Smith and his brother Hyram were killed by a mob in Illinois. After being shot down Smith’s body was propped up and used for target practice. A man drew his Bowie knife to decapitate the body but Mormon folklore says his hand was stopped by a thunderbolt.<br /> <br /> 1847- New York and Boston linked by regular telegraph service.<br /> <br /> 1862. Battle of Gaines Mill. For the first time, the army launched two large observation balloons to observe enemy troop movements. The Washington and the Intrepid. The rebels launched their own balloon, called the Gazelle. Young George Armstrong Custer went for a ride in one. <br /> <br /> 1863- George Gordon Meade named commander of the Union Army of the Potomac. The quiet Pennsylvanian was awoken out of his sleep at three a.m. by a courier sent by special train from Washington. At first he thought he was under arrest. General Meade would have command for just one week before he would have to fight the greatest battle in U.S. history- Gettysburg.<br /> <br /> 1864- The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. General Sherman's Yankees are thrown back by Joe Johnston's Confederates near Atlanta.<br /> <br /> 1876- Major Gibbon's column discovered the remains of Custer and the Seventh Cavalry at the Little Big Horn. It was near one hundred degrees Fahrenheit in the dry sun. At first from a distance they thought the naked bloated bodies were skinned buffaloes. Custer’s men had all been paid their monthly wages before riding out of Fort Lincoln. The Sioux were uninterested in paper money, so among the carcasses little piles of green dollar bills were blowing through the bloody grass. <br /> Because hostile Indians were still in the vicinity, Gibbon's men hastily buried the soldiers where they fell. A few years later when a proper burial detail arrived to re-inter the bodies and remove Custer's remains to West Point they had trouble telling just who was who. So they shoveled a few bones and some yellow hair into a box and labelled it Custer. As late as 1991 Gen. George A. Custer III has refused to have the West Point tomb opened for DNA testing.<br /> <br /> 1905- Big Bill Haywood banged a board on the table to call to order the First Meeting of the I.W.W.-the International Workers of the World. Mother Jones, Dorothea Parsons, Eugene Debs, Emma Goldman and Fighting Bob LaFollette were also present. The I.W.W. nicknamed the Wobblies, was a labor movement that sought to unite all working people into one big international organization. Their romantic message of labor brotherhood, carried by poor folksingers like Joe Hill, was popular among miners and farmworkers. But their radical leftist politics terrified big business. When they came out against U.S. participation in World War I the government violently suppressed them. As Eugene Debs said then, “The Master Class declares all the wars. The Working Class fights all the battles.”<br /> <br /> 1922 - Newberry Medal 1st presented for kids’ literature, the first winner was Hendrik Van Loon.<br /> <br /> 1949 - "Captain Video &amp; His Video Rangers," debut on DUMONT-TV. The first Sci-Fi show made for TV.<br /> <br /> 1950- Seoul fell to North Korean troops. President Truman ordered U.S. troops to Korea without asking Congress for a declaration of war. He calls it a "police action." The Marines wrote on their tanks" Truman’s Police". Truman later told his aide Dean Acheson "Dean, I’ve spent the last five years trying to avoid a decision like the one I just had to make." The U.N. Security Council voted for a force to be sent to Korea without the Soviet Union's ambassador being present. Nations like Turkey, Holland, Britain, France, and Australia pledge to send troops for the force.<br /> <br /> 1954- Rebels organized by the CIA overthrew the elected government of Guatemala.<br /> <br /> 1962- Daryl F. Zanuck showed up at the quarterly meeting of the exec board of 20th Century Fox, and in a celebrated corporate showdown, he wrested back control of the company he founded in 1935, but had lost control of.<br /> <br /> 1966- TV soap opera Dark Shadows premiered. Barnabas Collins was the first vampire to have issues with his job, and so became the ancestor of the modern romantic vampires of True Blood, Interview With the Vampire, and Twilight.<br /> <br /> 1967- In London, Barclay’s Bank sets up an automated teller machine, which they called a Robot Teller, but we know today as the first ATM.<br /> <br /> 1973- Senior White House Counsel John Dean testified to the Watergate committee that President Richard Nixon maintained an Enemies List. The list ran from Senator Ted Kennedy and journalist Daniel Shore, to June Foray and Bill Scott, who did the cartoon voices of Rocky the Flying Squirrel and Bullwinkle the Moose. <br /> <br /> 1984- Hollywood introduced the PG-13 rating to indicate graphic violence, invented for the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.<br /> <br /> 1986 -Labyrinth as released, fantasy directed by Jim Henson, written by Terry Jones, with concepts by Brian Froud. David Bowie, Jennifer Connelly. The animated owl in the opening is the first ever digitally created rendering of an organic animal. Done by Bill Kroyer.<br /> <br /> 1995- Boyishly proper British actor Hugh Grant is busted for soliciting sex from a Sunset Blvd. street hooker named Divine Brown. Grant had just released a film called “The Englishman Who went up a Hill and Came down a Mountain". Pundits had fun changing the title to "The Englishman who went to L.A. a Hugh and Came Back a John."<br /> <br /> 2007- British Prime Minister Tony Blair stepped down after ten years. While in office his security codename was Bambi.<br /> <br /> 2008- Pixar’s WALL-E opened in theaters.<br /> <br /> 2011- The Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team filed for bankruptcy. The team owners, Mr. &amp; Mrs. Frank McCourt wrecked the team’s finances and almost destroyed the team fighting over their own personal divorce. The Dodgers have been doing quite well without them. In 2017, Pres Trump appointed Mrs. Jaimie McCourt as U.S. ambassador to Belgium.<br /> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: 150 Years ago, there was a kingdom called Prussia in Europe. Who were the Prussians?<br /> <br /> Answer: A province of Northeast Germany with its capitol in Berlin. Originally the Margrave of Brandenburg. In 1720 the German Emperor gave the Margrave-Elector permission to make themselves a kingdom. So, he chose the name Prussia for the pre-Christian tribe that inhabited those lands before the Teutonic Knights conquered them. He became Frederick 1 of Prussia. When all the German speaking states were united by Prussia in 1870, Chancellor Bismarck chose the name Germany in the interests of unity. Berlin became the capitol.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 26 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6185 <p>Quiz: 250 years ago there was a kingdom called Prussia in Europe. Who were the Prussians?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: What is meant by a Catch-22 situation?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/26/2023<br /> Birthdays: Peter Lorre- born Laszlo Lowenstein, Pearl Buck, Abner Doubleday, Babe Deidrickson-Zacharias, Willy Messerschmidt, Claudio Abbado, Woolie Reitherman, Gregg LeMond, Vittorio Storaro, Colonel Tom Parker, Pat Morita, Chris Isaak, Derek Jeter, Paul Julian, Chris O’Donnell, Sean Hayes is 52, Wallace Tripp, Makeup man Dick Smith (the Exorcist).<br /> <br /> 4AD- The Roman Emperor Augustus officially adopted his stepson Tiberius, as his official heir and successor. <br /> <br /> 363 AD- Julian the Apostate slain in battle. Julian was the Roman Emperor who decided his stepdad Constantine had made a big mistake making the world Christian, and we were all better off worshipping Jupiter, Venus, Hercules and the lot. This is why he is called an"Apostate" a lapsed Christian. During his invasion of Persia his camp was attacked by the Grand Surenna, the Persian Prime Minister. In the thick of battle he was struck in the chest by the enemy javelin. Dying, he supposedly looked heavenward and said:" You have won, Galilean." And died. The legions elected Christian General Jovian as the next emperor, and The Western World stayed Christian.<br /> <br /> 1483- Duke Richard of Gloucester, having locked up his two nephew princes in the Tower of London "for protection", had them declared illegitimate, so he could become King Richard III. After Richard was killed in battle and the Tudor Dynasty in place, the two little princes seemed to have disappeared. <br /> In 1903 their two little skeletons were discovered buried under a staircase in the Tower. Some historians maintain Richard III didn’t kill the princes, but Henry VII Tudor did after he took the crown from Richard. Then his granddaughter’s playwright Will Shakespeare wrote a play pinning the dirty deed squarely on Richard. <br /> <br /> 1496- Michelangelo Buonarotti arrived in Rome to look for work. Coming from the city of Florence he was treated like the citizen of a foreign country. <br /> <br /> 1522- The armies of the Grand Turk attacked the island of Rhodes. The Knights of St. John Hospitaller had fallen back to Rhodes after losing the Crusades. They would lose this base too, but make their final stand on Malta.<br /> <br /> 1541- Conquistador Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror of Peru, was eating dinner in Lima when his enemies rushed in and stabbed him to death.<br /> <br /> 1797 - Charles Newbold patents 1st cast-iron plow. He can't sell it to farmers, though; they fear the effects of iron on their soil.<br /> <br /> 1815- After Waterloo, Napoleon requested as a condition of his abdication be that he be allowed to go to the United States. He started to study books on America and the provisional French government prepared two ships at Rochefort to take him across the Atlantic. Napoleon declared his goal was now to be a scientist and study flora and fauna but he also said to another "Come, let us go to Texas, and create a new empire in the desert!" But the allies would not allow this dream to manifest. The British took him instead to a lonely prison island off the coast of Africa called Saint Helena.<br /> 1830- Ascension of King William IV of Great Britain after the death of his brother George IV. While still Duke of Clarence, William kept an actress Mrs. Dorothy Jordan as a mistress, by whom he sired ten illegitimate children. No legitimate of his own. One day he told his mentally tottering father, George III, that he paid her 1,000 pounds annually for this service. Reportedly, the king was much agitated by this and replied: "A thousand, a thousand--too much! Too much! Five hundred quite enough! Quite enough!" Some time later, following his breakup with Mrs. Jordan, and reflecting on his father's words, William demanded repayment of a portion of her "allowance." She responded by sending him the announcement in a play program that read, "Positively no money refunded after the curtain has risen.”<br /> <br /> 1858- The U.S. Army marched into Salt Lake City Utah. This was considered the end of the Mormon Rebellion. The town was deserted as Mormon leader Brigham Young had told the population to flee into the mountains. The US commander was Col. Albert Sidney Johnston, would later die at Shiloh leading Confederate forces. In the soldiers’ gambling tents, nicknamed FrogTown, was a teamster and card-shark named William Clark Quantrill, who would one day lead his rebel guerrillas in Missouri, Quantrill’s Raiders. When Abe Lincoln was inaugurated, he was asked” What do you propose to do about the Mormons?” He replied” I propose to leave them alone.”<br /> <br /> 1870- Atlantic City inaugurated its ocean side boardwalk; the first of it's kind in the US.<br /> <br /> 1888- Scots writer Robert Louis Stevenson shipped out from San Francisco to wander the South Pacific, and finally settle in Samoa.<br /> <br /> 1900 - Dr Walter Reed began the research that conquered Yellow Fever.<br /> <br /> 1906- The first Grand Prix automobile race was held at Le Mans, France. The winner was Hungarian Ferenic Szisz with a top speed of 63 miles an hour! Szisz also was sporting those newfangled rubber tires on rims, which change faster than regular wooden wheels.<br /> <br /> 1916- The Cleveland Indians baseball team began the custom of players wearing numbers on their uniforms.<br /> <br /> 1922- Montgomery’s Country House opened in the Los Feliz Area of LA. Started by Walter van de Kamp and Lawrence Frank. In 1926 it changed its name to The Tam O’ Shanter. For a time it was also called The Great Scot. In the 1930s it was the nearest bar to Walt Disney’s Hyperion Studio, so animators called it “the commissary”. It is still in business today. Walt Disney’s favorite table is marked.<br /> <br /> 1924- At the Democratic Party nominating convention young politician Franklin D. Roosevelt stood up on crutches and painfully walked the 30 feet to the podium to nominate candidate Al Smith for president. Al Smith lost, but the big news was FDR was not all washed up due to his polio, but was back in the national political scene. He received a standing ovation.<br /> <br /> 1924 - The Ziegfeld Follies opened on Broadway.<br /> <br /> 1925- Charlie Chaplin has a lavish Hollywood premiere for his new film The Gold Rush.<br /> He had edited the film in secret in an upstairs hotel room in Salt Lake City to keep away from his first wife’s bill collectors.<br /> <br /> 1925- From his Soho London flat, John Logie Baird invented an early form of television. The Boob Tube has no one single Tom Edison-like inventor, but many claimants. The Englishman joined the ranks of others who claimed to have invented TV first, including Philo Farnsworth, Bell Labs, Vladimir Zworkin, and Dr. Lee DeForrest.<br /> <br /> 1927- The Cyclone Rollercoaster ride debuted at Coney Island Amusement Park. It was built on the site of the Switchback Railway, the oldest rollercoaster. <br /> <br /> 1940- Turkey announced that unlike World War I it would sit this one out, thank you. It declared itself neutral in World War II.<br /> <br /> 1945- The United Nations is born when 50 nations sign the U.N. Charter in War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. John F. Kennedy was there, trying his hand as a journalist.<br /> <br /> 1949- Fred Allen’s last radio show was broadcast.<br /> <br /> 1950- Two days after their invasion began Communist North Korean troops reached the outskirts of Seoul, the capitol of South Korea.<br /> <br /> 1959- Queen Elizabeth and President Dwight Eisenhower dedicated the Saint Lawrence Seaway- a system of locks and canals connecting the Atlantic Ocean and Saint Lawrence River to the Great Lakes in the interior of the North American Continent.<br /> <br /> 1959- Disney short Donald in Mathamagic Land premiered with the film Darbie O’Gill and the Little People.<br /> <br /> 1961- John F. Kennedy makes his "Ich Bin Ein Berliner" speech at the Berlin Wall. He electrifies and inspires all Europe despite " ein berliner" really meant a local brand of jam donut. The proper way to say I am a Berliner is "Ich bin Berliner”. The crowd smiled but was polite. Today in tourist shops on the Unter Den Linden, you can buy a plastic donut with JFK’s speech coming from a hidden computer chip. <br /> <br /> 1964 - Beatles release "A Hard Day's Night" album.<br /> <br /> 1965-"Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man " by the Byrds hits number one on the US pop charts. Bob Dylan wrote the lyrics. William Shatners version became the most well known.<br /> <br /> 1968- Pope Paul VI announced excavations in the ancient Roman cemetery located in the sub-sub basement of Saint Peters Basilica had discovered the bones of the apostle Saint Peter himself. Later there were a few red faces when it was found out that a Vatican librarian had pocketed the piece of stone with the crucial inscription "Here is Peter" and had kept it on a shelf in his office.<br /> <br /> 1977 - Elvis Presley does his last public performance, in Indianapolis.<br /> <br /> 1984- Campy singer Tiny Tim married Miss Vicky on the Johnny Carson show during a live broadcast.<br /> <br /> 1990- The IRA detonated a bomb in the elite Tory hangout in London called the Carleton Club that almost killed Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The exclusive club's rules are so strict that Thatcher had to be named an "Honorary Man" before she could enter.<br /> <br /> 1992- Secretary of the Navy William Garnett resigned over the Tailhook Scandal, when Navy pilots went wild partying at a convention and sexually assaulted 26 female officers. Female officers testified of having to run a gauntlet of drunken pilots pawing, groping, and tearing at their clothes. <br /> The initial inquiry was led by Rear Admiral Duvall M. Williams. He was replaced after he told people he thought female Navy Pilots were all “hookers and go-go dancers.” The chief whistleblower that testified against the high command, Lt. Paula Coughlin, was treated like a pariah, and hounded out of the service.<br /> <br /> 1997- a novel called "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," the product of five years’ work by a new writer named J.K. Rowling with her own drawings, was published by Bloomsbury in the UK with an initial print run of five hundred copies. It became a worldwide phenomenon. In 5 years J.K. Rowling was the richest woman in England after Queen Elizabeth II and Madonna.<br /> <br /> 2000- THE GENOME- Scientists announce they had cracked the human gene code and now had a rough sketch of how our DNA is assembled. Custom drugs could now e developed matching the DNA of an individual patient. It is called the biological equivalent of the landing on the moon.<br /> <br /> 2003 - Lenin said the Workers Must Control the Means of Production. Today a group of strippers bought their San Francisco bar The Lusty Lady. <br /> <br /> 2015- In the case Obergefell vs. Hodges, the Supreme Court ruled LGBT Americans had the right to marry. Legalizing same-sex marriage.<br /> <br /> 2016- This was the day of the infamous meeting in the NY Trump Tower where the heads of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, including his own son, met with high ranking Russian intelligence officials and businessmen to discuss how they could help Trump undermine Hillary Clinton and win the presidency. Collaborating with a foreign power to affect an American election is highly illegal. After his victory, Pres.Trump denied this meeting ever took place or he ever knew anything about it, despite his being in the office directly above the meeting place.<br /> ========================================================<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is meant by a Catch-22 situation?<br /> <br /> Answer: Catch 22 is the title of an anti-war novel by Joseph Heller who coined the term to describe a circuitous dilemma from which there is no resolution, because the choices of solving the quandary are contradictory.<br /> <br /> In the novel, the "Catch 22" deals with a WWII pilot trying to find a way to get out of flying bombing runs by feigning insanity. But the mere fact that he is attempting to get out of such dangerous missions only proves that he is sane and therefore must keep flying.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 25 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6184 <p>Quiz: What is meant by a Catch-22 situation?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz Answered Below: What famous book began “Gaul is divided into three parts….”<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/25/2023<br /> Birthday: George Orwell, Marc Charpentier, Lord Louis Mountbatten, General Hap Arnold, Cajun musician Clifton Chenier, Sidney Lumet, Walter Brennan, Willis Reed, George Abbott, Carly Simon, June Lockhart, Alex Toth, Peyo (the creator of the Smurfs), Patrick Macnee, Jimmy Dyne-no-Mite Walker, George Michaels, Anthony Bourdain, Justice Sonya Sotomayor, Mike Myers is 60, Ricky Gervais is 62.<br /> <br /> 841- Charlemagne had made all Europe from Spain to Hungary the Frankish Empire. But the grandchildren of Charlemagne divided the empire according to Frankish custom. Instead of the eldest son inheriting everything (primogeniture), all the sons got an equal share. This ensured civil wars to reunite and consolidate power. After knocking off their brother Lothar, Charles the Bald &amp; Louis the German fixed the borders for a final division of their kingdoms. These would become France and Germany.<br /> <br /> 1630 – The fork was introduced to American dining by Plymouth Gov Winthrop.<br /> <br /> 1673- The Dutch open their dikes and flood the land around Amsterdam to stop an invading French army.<br /> <br /> 1744- The first Methodist conference convened, in London.<br /> <br /> 1789- This day representatives from the Revolutionary National Assembly went to Paris city hall and told King Louis’ royal administrators to get lost. They would now run Paris.<br /> <br /> 1815- After Waterloo and Napoleon’s abdication, now it that it was safe, King Louis XVIII returned to France. He was the younger brother of the Louis XVI guillotined in the Revolution. The slow, rotund Louis XVIII, called Dix-Huit -Deez-Hweet in French, was nicknamed "Louis Biscuit" by the British because he rode into to Paris with the supply wagons of Wellington’s army. The French called him Louis Dix-Huitres meaning Louis Ten Oysters. One British officer called him "A French Falstaff, a Fat Disgrace."<br /> <br /> 1835- Antoine Baron Gros was a celebrated painter under Napoleon and a friend of David and Ingres. But politics and tastes change. In a royalist postwar France dominated by Delacroix and Gericault, Baron Gros lived on forgotten and melancholy. This day the 64 year old artist drowned himself in the Seine.<br /> <br /> 1857- Writer Gustav Flaubert went on trial for “immorality” for his first novel Madame Bovary. He was acquitted and went on to write his next book Salammbo the Carthaginian princess who strangled herself with her own hair. Don’t try this at home ladies!<br /> <br /> 1863- During the Civil War siege of Vicksburg, Yankee engineers dug a tunnel under the rebel positions and filled it with gunpowder. The huge blast accomplished little, but blew a black cook named Abraham up through the air and over into Union lines. Abraham was badly frightened by his strange flight to freedom, but miraculously unhurt. Soldiers of an Iowa regiment immediately put him in a tent and charged people five cents to come look at him.<br /> <br /> 1867 Barbed wire patented by Lucien B Smith of Ohio. It was considered the perfect tool to protect crops from free-range cattle and other marauders. During the Boer War in 1898 South Africa the Boers got the novel idea of stringing the stuff in front of the attacking British regiments. It’s been used as a tool to herd humans ever since,<br /> <br /> 1876- CUSTER'S LAST STAND called by the Sioux the Battle of the Greasy Grass- George Armstrong Custer and 300 of his 7th Cavalry were wiped out by Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and the combined Sioux, Cheyenne nations (approximately 1,700 warriors).<br /> There had been defeats of the whites like this before: Fetterman's Massacre, The Little Rosebud Battle, but nothing captures the imagination like the Little Big Horn. And for Native-Americans it marks the last coming together of the tribes and the last great victory. The Ogalala Sioux, Hunkpapa, Miniconjou, Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne all united to resist the violation of their sacred Black Hills. No U.S. Army commander ever expected so many different tribes could unite and field thousands of warriors at once. <br /> Custer trusted in his audacity. "Custer's Luck". The boy general –just 23 years old in the Civil War, he was always at the head of his men in costly, reckless attacks yet personally suffered nothing more severe than the flu. Now at age 36 his luck ran out.<br /> <br /> Accounts by natives were sketchy and no one is sure just how Custer died. The last white soldier who saw him alive was a courier sent away with a message " Benteen, come up quick. Big Village. Bring packs". The courier was an Italian immigrant named Giuseppe Martini who couldn’t speak English. The famous image of Custer standing to the last with Old Glory in hand was made up by an artist named Paxton for an Anheuser-Busch beer advertisement in 1877. One Crow Indian scout who escaped said Custer was the first casualty, and that his being shot down panicked the troopers. Others say the last they saw of Custer he was crawling on all fours with blood trickling down his mouth. He was found in a pile of bodies with a bullet wound in the left side and one in the temple. The Sioux didn’t even know they had killed Yellow Hair until told days later. <br /> <br /> The tribes afterwards dispersed and headed for Canada. The only 7th Cavalry survivor was Commanche, Capt. Mile’s Keough's horse. He was treated with honor by the army and fed a bucket of beer every payday for the rest of his life. Custer was hallowed with martyrdom. Ulysses Grant was quiet about the affair but privately thought it a badly botched operation. Sitting Bull was more blunt- "The soldiers were fools, they rode to their deaths." <br /> <br /> Mrs. Libby Custer lived until 1933 and met FDR. The last living eyewitness of the battle, Mrs. Kate Bighead of the Cheyenne who was taken on the battlefield by her mother as a young child, died in 1959.<br /> <br /> 1870- Richard Wagner's opera Die Walkure (The Valkyrie) premiered in Munich. <br /> <br /> 1906- Famed New York architect Stanford White was having dinner at Madison Square Garden (back when it was still a garden, still on Madison Ave., and still square) when he was shot to death by millionaire Harry Thaw, the husband of his mistress Evelyn Nesbitt. The eccentric Thaw was obsessed by White, hiring detectives to follow the artist, and report his amorous pursuits. He would only date women who had dated White first. Thaw’s defense attorney’s got him acquitted of murder by reason of temporary insanity. <br /> So instead of the hangman noose, Harry Thaw spent a few years in a mental home living on squab and champagne. The crowd cheered him when he was freed. The key defense witness was 22 year old Mrs. Evelyn Nesbitt-Thaw, one of the beautiful "Gibson Girls’. She gave juicy details of her kinky relationship with White, like the red velvet swing she would ride in the nude over the admiring architect’s head. After Thaw was released, they divorced. Before Evelyn Nesbitt died of old age in 1967, she admitted Stanford White was the only man she ever really loved. The incident was the basis for E.L. Doctorow's novel and movie "Ragtime".<br /> <br /> 1910- First performance of Stravinsky's ballet "Firebird" by Diagheilev and his Ballet Russe. Stravinsky used to refer to the dancers as "A bunch of knock-kneed Lolitas".<br /> <br /> 1910- Congress passed the Mann Act, sometimes called the White Slave Trafficking Act. It stated you couldn’t coerce a woman across state borders for immoral purposes. Penalties are doubled for legal minors, but the law says nothing about boys.<br /> <br /> 1934- Milt Kahl's first day at the Walt Disney Studios. It was said he was the first artist to ever show Walt a real portfolio of drawings to get hired.<br /> <br /> 1940- Young actor, and liberal labor activist Ronald Reagan married his first wife, actress Jane Wyman.<br /> <br /> 1942- A staff officer named Dwight Eisenhower was named by General George Marshall to overall command of all US forces in Europe. Picked over 400 other officers Eisenhower was chosen for his organizational skills, although up until then he had never actually led troops in combat. <br /> <br /> 1944- Three weeks after the D-Day landings with 650,000 Allied troops now in France, German Western Front army commander Von Rundstedt still believed the main allied invasion hadn’t arrived yet.<br /> <br /> 1945- This day President Truman wrote in his diary about his conflict how to end the war with Japan ” Should I invade, or bomb, and blockade? This is the hardest decision I ever had to make...” Truman knew about the atomic bomb but didn’t know if it would work until July 16th. <br /> <br /> 1949- Chuck Jones Bugs Bunny short “Longhaired Hare” premiered. “Leopold!”<br /> <br /> 1951- After losing a power struggle to Dory Schary, Louis B. Mayer announced he was stepping down as head of MGM. Mayer in his time was the most powerful man in Hollywood. He kept an all white office modeled after Mussolini’s in Rome. <br /> <br /> 1951 - 1st color TV broadcast-CBS' Arthur Godfrey from NYC to 4 cities.<br /> <br /> 70th Anniversary 1953- The film Robot Monster premiered. It has attained cult film status as being one of the worst movies ever made. The lead actor only got the part of the monster because he owned a gorilla suit. After reading the reviews, the director Phil Tucker tried to kill himself.<br /> <br /> 1956- The last Packard automobile was produced.<br /> <br /> 1967- The "Our World" Beatles concert, the first television event to attempt a worldwide satellite linkup. They sing and record "All You Need is Love" live in front of an audience of 400.<br /> <br /> 1968- Pierre Elliot Trudeau elected Prime Minister of Canada. For the next twenty-five years he and his flower-child wife Margaret will be one of Canada’s most colorful leaders.<br /> <br /> 1973- White House counsel John Dean testifies to the Congressional Watergate Committee "There is a Cancer on the Presidency." For the first time one of President Nixon's closest advisers hinted publicly that the President himself was personally involved in the Watergate scandal. <br /> <br /> 1978- The Rainbow Flag, symbolizing LGBTQ rights first flown.<br /> <br /> 1980- Disney’s film Herbie Goes Bananas, premiered.<br /> <br /> 1981- Bill Gates and Paul Allen file papers to incorporate their company Microsoft.<br /> <br /> 1982- Ridley Scott’s sci-fi film Blade Runner opened. <br /> <br /> 1991-The Fifth Balkan War- also called the Yugoslav Civil Wars began. After the death of aged Communist dictator Josef Tito, the union of South Slavs called Yugoslavia started to come apart. This day Slovenia &amp; Croatia declared their independence. Serbia had allocated to itself the bulk of the armaments of the former Yugoslav army and attacked them with it. <br /> During these wars it was almost impossible to tell Serbs, Bosnian-Moslems or Croats apart. At times they killed each other based on what their automobile license plate read.<br /> <br /> 1997- Disney's animated film Hercules opened in theaters.<br /> <br /> 2009- Singer Michael Jackson, called the King of Pop, died after his personal physician Dr. Conrad Murray administered a powerful sedative named Propofol to help him sleep and it stopped his heart instead. He was 50 and been performing on stage since the age of 5.<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What famous book began “ Gaul is divided into three parts….”<br /> <br /> Answer: That was the way Julius Caesar began his famous memoir De Bellum Gallicum. The Gallic Wars. Gaul was the ancient name for France.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 24 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6183 <p>Quiz: What famous book began, “Gaul is divided into three parts….”<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz Answered Below: So what was the big deal about Charlemagne? What did he do?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/24/2023<br /> Birthdays: Earl Kitchener, the Sirdar of Omdurman, Roy O. Disney, E.I. Dupont, Ambrose Bierce, Jack Dempsey, John Ciardi, Mick Fleetwood, Phil Harris- singer and voice of Baloo in Disney’s Jungle Book, Billy Casper, Michelle Lee, Claude Chabrol, Chief Dan George, Pete Hamill, Peter Weller, Sherry Springfield<br /> <br /> Happy St. John the Baptist or St. Jean Baptiste’s Day.<br /> <br /> 1203- The armies and fleets of the Fourth Crusade arrive before the Walls of Constantinople. The knights of Europe had signed on to fight Moslems for the Holy City of Jerusalem but Venetian Doge Enrico Dandolo convinced them to help him destroy the Byzantine Greeks first. This was a purely economic act because the Byzantine Greeks were Venice’s chief competition for Mediterranean trade.<br /> <br /> 1219- Pope Innocent III set today as the deadline for deadbeat knights who volunteered to go on Crusade to get off their ironclad butts and get going. Knights had an economic incentive to taking the Crusading vow: no one could collect a bad debt from you, and you couldn't be imprisoned for owing money. So, some knights would take the vow to Crusade, but then stalled actually making the dangerous trip to the Middle East, where two out of three never returned.<br /> <br /> 1324- THE BATTLE OF BANNOCKBURN- Scottish King Robert the Bruce defeated the invading army of King Edward II of England and secured the crown of Scotland for the next 300 years. The Bruce fought in the midst of his troops, hacking down Sir Hugh de Bohun in single combat with his battle-axe. Edward’s father, Edwards Longshanks, had developed winning tactics of using Welsh archers to shoot up an enemy before the mounted knights charged. But Edward II’s bad generalship bungled the system. Knights and footmen scrabbled to get at the Scots not allowing the bowmen a clear target.<br /> <br /> 1374- In the French town of Aix la Chapelle was the first recorded outbreak of St. John’s Dance. Groups of people frothing at the mouth danced madly around uncontrollably until they fell over dead from exhaustion.<br /> <br /> 1441- Eton College created by King Henry VI of England.<br /> <br /> 1488-The PIED PIPER OF HAMLIN-The story is a romantic fairy tale but on this day one version of the story has the real man doing something more like Jeffrey Dahmer. Because the town fathers refused to pay his salary, he spirited a hundred children out of Hamlin, and they all disappeared. People later found young body parts. These fairy tales, like Red Riding Hood and others were for peasants more warnings of peril than amusements.<br /> <br /> 1497- English explorer John Cabot discovered Canada -Eh! <br /> <br /> 1534- Swiss medical pioneer Paracelsus led a mass burning of medical textbooks at Basel University. Theophrastus Paracelsus Bombastus von Hohenheim was an eccentric scholar who took frequent sips of laudanum (a heavy opiate he developed) from a container in the hollow handle of his sword. He pioneered the use of minerals in medicine and invented the term Tartar for teeth. <br /> He also practiced Astrology and would never give an enema during the full moon. With this book-burning stunt Paracelsus claimed that all medical text before him was quackery. Burning in St. John’s Fire was the least it deserved. Truth be told he was right. His middle name Bombast became a synonym for bragging.<br /> <br /> 1535- The Anabaptists, a radical religious sect, had driven out the Bishop of the German city of Munster and established a commune like city-state they called the New Jerusalem. This day after a long siege, a spy opened a gate to the German Imperial soldiers and the city was captured with a horrible massacre. The Anabaptist sect was suppressed in Cologne, Trier, Amsterdam, and Leyden. The Anabaptist leader John of Leyden, who had lived like an Old Testament King with a harem of wives, was tied to a stake and clawed with red-hot pincers. His tongue was torn out with pliers. Finally, when they couldn’t think of any more ways to torture him a dagger was pounded into his heart and his body burned. His charcoaled remains were displayed on the facade of Munster Cathedral until 1945!<br /> <br /> 1675- King Phillips War began. The Massachusetts Pilgrims repaid the hospitality of the Wampanoag Indians with whom they spent the first Thanksgiving by wiping them out. King Phillip was the Christian name of the chief who was the son of Massacoit, the Wampanoag who welcomed the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock.<br /> <br /> 1571- Spanish conquistador Miguel Lopez de Lagazpi founded the city of Manila. The town already existed for centuries, he just told them they were now part of Spain, whether they liked it or not. The name is from the Filipino word for city- Maynila.<br /> <br /> 1668- Margaret Brent entered the legislature of the colony of Maryland and demanded the right to vote. She was chased out of the building.<br /> <br /> 1812- NAPOLEON INVADED RUSSIA with the largest army then yet assembled.<br /> Around 600,000. By December, barely 30,000 came out alive. This day while inspecting the troops Napoleon’s horse stepped in a rabbit hole and threw him on his butt. This was taken as a bad omen.<br /> <br /> 1853- Joaquin Murietta was an outlaw who ranged up and down the California midlands. Called The Terror of the Stanislaus. He and his friend Three-Fingered Jack were finally hunted down and killed in a shootout by Marshal Harry Love. This day Murietta’s head and Jack’s three-fingered hand in a jar of spirits went on display in front of the Stockton Cal jailhouse. <br /> <br /> 1876- CUSTER APPROACHES THE LITTLE BIG HORN- General Custer's scouts reported a large Indian camp at the Little Big Horn River. Custer decides to attack tomorrow without waiting for the other army columns to catch up. Through his interpreter Mitch Boyer, he told his Indian scouts that after he has destroyed the Sioux, he would go back east and become the Great White Father. The Republican presidential nominating convention was next month. <br /> The Crow and Mandan scouts were troubled by the signs and began to sing their death-songs. Embedded N.Y. Herald reporter Mark Kellogg made a final entry in his diary: "I go to ride with Custer and will be there at the death...” <br /> In the dawn's light a survivor from Major Reno’s command overheard chief Mandan scout Bloody Knife tell Custer: " You and I are going Home today -but by a different path."<br /> <br /> 1889- The Bank of Telluride Colorado was robbed by a lapsed Mormon miner named Robert Parker, who now called himself Butch Cassidy. <br /> <br /> 1901- The first exhibit in a Paris salon on the Rue Lafitte of a Spanish artist named Pablo Picasso.<br /> <br /> 1924- As the Zionist Jews labored to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine, disagreements arose between Ultra-Orthodox and more secular Jews. The orthodox objected to the founding of a Jewish State before the coming of the Mossiach or Messiah, they objected to the everyday use of Hebrew, which they considered a sacred tongue. <br /> This day an Ultra Orthodox leader named Rabbi Israel Dehar was assassinated by the Hagenah, the Israeli underground. Rabbi Dehar had just had meetings with the Sheik of Trans-Jordan and had announced he was going to go to London to demand the British authorities create a separate protectorate for Orthodox Jews that would not be under the rule of the mainstream Jewish community. <br /> Even though many Zionist leaders like Abba Eban felt the killing of a fellow Jew was wrong, they could not endure such a fracturing of the Jewish position. So, Rabbi Dehar had to be stopped. <br /> <br /> 1930- The first test of radar to detect an airplane, this test over Anacostia flats near Washington DC.<br /> <br /> 1939- Pan-Am airlines began regular transatlantic passenger flights from New York to London.<br /> <br /> 1944- Three Jews escaped Auschwitz, traveled via Switzerland to bring evidence of the Holocaust to London and Washington. American and British Jewish leaders demanded bombing the rail links to the concentration camps. A shocked Winston Churchill wrote RAF Air Marshal Tedder: "Get anything out of the air force you can." Strangely, nothing ever happened. The plans were always stalled in lower echelons. <br /> Three times U.S. Assistant Secretary of War John McCloy wrote, "Kill this plan.” While massed Allied bombers were reducing German cities to ruins, there was never one single air attack ever made on a concentration camp. The gas chambers and crematoriums worked uninterrupted until they were finally overrun by the land armies. It's one of the war's more shameful mysteries.<br /> <br /> 1945- The Russian Victory Parade over the German Third Reich. Moscow rejoiced as thousands of Red Army troops marched in Red Square and tossed captured Nazi flags at the foot of Lenin’s tomb. This in imitation of their ancestors who tossed Napoleon’s battle flags in a heap on the steps of Saint Basil’s Cathedral. There, next to Stalin stood future President Dwight Eisenhower representing the United States. <br /> Top military genius Marshal Gyorgi Zhukov, the victor of Stalingrad and Berlin, was allowed to review the troops on a prancing white horse. This display aroused jealousy in Stalin who was suspicious of rivals and not anxious to share the credit. Within a year of the victory, Stalin had Zhukov disgraced and sent to Mongolia, and the heads of the Soviet Navy and Airforce demoted and tortured. Stalin then awarded all the top war medals to himself. <br /> <br /> 1945- Meet the Press debuted on radio. Two years later it moved to television and it remains TV’s longest running program.<br /> <br /> 1947-The Berlin Airlift- Soviet dictator Josef Stalin was furious when the western powers decided to unify their sections of defeated Germany back into an independent country and top Nazis supporters like industrialist Gottfried Krupp were being let out of jail and put back into positions of power. He decided to strike back at isolated Berlin. <br /> When Stalin ordered all land routes to West Berlin sealed off hoping to starve the city into submission, U.S. President Truman ordered the city supplied by round the clock air flights. The planes brought 4 thousand tons of supplies a day. A plane landed every three minutes. The Germans called them "candy-bombers" because they dropped candy on the children from above.<br /> <br /> 1947- THE FIRST MODERN UFO SIGHTING. A commercial airline pilot flying out of Seattle notices 6 silver disc shaped objects hovering over Mt. Reynier near Seattle. They then shot off at terrific speed. They are never identified nor explained. The pilot, Kenneth Arnold had impeccable credentials as an ex-combat Marine pilot and chamber of commerce member. The government response was to hit him with an IRS audit. The "flying-saucer" craze, with allegorical overtones to postwar atomic paranoia, sweeps the American imagination throughout the 1950’s.<br /> <br /> 1949 - "Hopalong Cassidy" became the first network western on television-NBC.<br /> <br /> 1950- THE KOREAN WAR BEGAN- June 25th in some records because of the International Date Line- 30 North Korea divisions armed with heavy Soviet tanks and artillery crossed the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea. The attack was a complete surprise and most South Korean officers were at a party dedicating a new Officer’s Club. The US had deliberately kept the Korean Army lightly armed to diffuse Cold War tension. Mao and Stalin were equally surprised by Kim Il Sung’s offensive. Declassified wire messages between Beijing and Moscow read “ Did you tell him to do that?” I thought you did…?”<br /> <br /> That previous January, Secretary of State Acheson had said during a conference that the US "was not interested in the Korean Peninsula." But when President Harry Truman was informed of the invasion he responded in typical Truman fashion:" We gotta stop those Sons of Bitches!" At this time there were only 500 US troops in Korea called KMAG, for Korean Military Advisory Group, which one Yank changed to Kiss My Ass Goodbye! This is considered the first war fought by the United Nations, since Truman pushed through a resolution sending troops under the UN banner. The Russians were boycotting the Security Council over its refusal to seat Red China, so they were not there to veto the resolution. <br /> <br /> 1963 - 1st demonstration of a home video recorder, at BBC Studios, London<br /> <br /> 1970 – The Mike Nichols movie "Catch 22" opened in movie theaters.<br /> <br /> 1973- Eamon de Valera resigned as President of the Irish Republic at age ninety. The American-born Irish patriot had been a guerrilla in the 1916 Easter Sunday Uprising and was president since 1932.<br /> <br /> 1994- Walt Disney’s The Lion King opened in regular theaters. <br /> <br /> 1997- Brian Keith, actor (Family Affair, The Parent Trap), shot himself at 75. He was suffering from incurable emphysema and lung cancer and tired of fighting the disease.<br /> <br /> 2004- On the Senate floor during a routine Congressional group photo, the Vice President of the United States, Richard Cheney, told the Democratic Senate Minority leader, Patrick Leahy, “Go F**k Yourself!” Republican Majority Leader, Senator Tom Delay, said the Vice President “was having a hard day”. The Vice President never apologized for this vulgar breach of etiquette, like he never really apologized for anything.<br /> <br /> 2022- The Dodd Decision. Supreme Court repealed the 1972 Roe vs.Wade decision on abortion. Saying states could now ban abortion no matter the circumstances. <br /> .===========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: So what was the big deal about Charlemagne? What did he do?<br /> <br /> Answer: Deep in the Dark Ages Charlemagne consolidated the Frankish Empire and built the largest state in Europe since the Roman Empire. He named the days of the week, and his thumb was the measure for the inch, and his foot is the foot.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 23 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6182 <p>Quiz: So what was the big deal about Charlemagne? What did he do?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: So why is the number 666 considered evil, or satanic?<br /> ------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/23/2023<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Augustus, Josephine Bonaparte, Alan Turing, Bob Fosse, James Levine, Dan Ogilvy of Ogilvy &amp; Mather, Joss Whedon, Dr. Alfred Kinsey the sex researcher, Edward VIII, aka the Duke of Windsor, Selma Blair, Justice Clarence Thomas, Josh Whedon is 60, Frances MacDormand is 63<br /> <br /> 1565- Siege of Malta -the fortress of St. Elmo fell to Turkish assaults. Sultan Sulieman the Magnificent was shocked at how many good troops he lost to take the smaller of two forts defending Valetta, the capital of Malta. He could imagine the cost to take the larger fort, St. George. So Sulieman gave up the siege. The victorious Knights of St. John Hospitaller, looking for a home since the Crusades, would now be the Knights of Malta. Their emblem, the Maltese Cross, is four barbed arrowheads forming a cross.<br /> <br /> 1611- In Hudson’s Bay, Canada, Henry Hudson's crew mutinied and set him and his son adrift in a rowboat. They were never seen again. When back in Holland the mutineers were never charged because they claimed to have discovered the Northwest Passage to the Indies, which luckily for them they never had to actually prove. <br /> <br /> 1683- William Penn signed a treaty with the Lenni-Lenapi Indians at Shackamaxon under the Treaty Elm to start his new Quaker colony called Pennsylvania. Penn wrote of the Indians: "Their language is narrow, yet lofty like the Hebrew…one word suffices in place of three."<br /> <br /> 1757- Battle of Plassey- Sir Robert Clive with 900 English and 1300 Indians defeated an army of 50,000 under Siraj-ud-Daula, the Nawab of Bengal who perpetrated the infamous Black Hole of Calcutta. Daula was killed, and the victory assured the British domination of India for the next two hundred years. <br /> <br /> 1789- Since June 20th, when the French Estates General had adjourned to a Tennis Court and declared itself the National Assembly, everyone wondered what King Louis XVI would do. This day the King held a Royal Levee with the legislators and court to announce his decision. <br /> From his golden throne Louis said that while he agreed to most of their political reforms, but the idea that a regularly sitting Parliament of common people could overrule royal authority he declared was "illegal and void". He would stay an absolute monarch, answerable only to God, thank you. <br /> After the King ended the meeting, his Royal Herald called upon the legislators in his tennis court to go home. The orator Mirabeau cried" We shall not leave this hall except by the power of the bayonet!" When told this, the King sighed "Oh... to the Devil with them. Let them stay." The standoff persisted until July 14th when the attack on the Bastille began the French Revolution.<br /> <br /> 1793- During the French Revolution, Josephine De Beauharnais is condemned to be guillotined. In a prison filled with nobles and intellectuals she found her first husband Alexandre the Vicomte du Beauharnais. They had been estranged for years and she had become quite a scandalous woman. When the jailer read out the names to go to the blade that day he read: "DeBeauharnais!" without specifying which of them was to go. The husband stepped forward and said: "Madame, just this once allow me to go first." When the Reign of Terror was overthrown she was released and she became the great love of Napoleon.<br /> <br /> 1810- The Pacific Fur Company was set up by John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant. His ambition was to set up a string of fur trading posts along the route traveled by Lewis &amp; Clark. It is the beginning of the great Astor fortune.<br /> <br /> 1815 –A week after his defeat at Waterloo. Napoleon abdicated for good. He abdicated to his son 4-year-old Napoleon II then being held in Austria, but everyone ignored that wish.<br /> <br /> 1859- Battle of Solferino- Garabaldi and Napoleon III defeated the Austrian army. This victory and the next battle of Magenta freed Milan and the Po Valley. All Italy is united for the first time since the Roman Empire. The completion of the unification process Italians called The Irredenta. In return, Italy gave France the city of Nice. <br /> After the carnage of the battle the suffering of the wounded was so pitiable that a Swiss volunteer doctor named Dr. Henry Dunant was inspired to found the International Society of the Red Cross. He was soon bankrupt and forgotten but his organization was taken up at the first Geneva Convention in 1864 and made international law.<br /> <br /> 1865- Partially as a result of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the U.S. Secret Service was set up.<br /> <br /> 1865- Two months after Lee surrendered to Grant, at Fort Towson in Indian Territory, General Stand Watiee, aka De-Ga-Ta-Ga, surrendered his Cherokees. This is the last Confederate force in the Civil War. Confederate Jo Shelby rather than give up, rode his Iron Legion of rebel cavalry across the Rio Grande into Mexico. After two years exile he returned and accepted the Yankee amnesty.<br /> <br /> 1868- Christopher Latham Scholes patented the typewriter. In 1873, he sold his patent to the Remington Company, who up till now had only made rifles. <br /> <br /> 1940- HITLER THE TOURIST. After the defeat of France, Adolph Hitler made his one vacation trip out of Germany. A plane flew him to Paris in the early morning and he was driven around to see the sites. While his Mercedes was waiting at a traffic light, a newsboy, not realizing who he was, thrust a morning newspaper under his nose yelling "le Matin! Le Matin!” Hitler was back in Berlin that evening.<br /> <br /> 1944- Disney short Springtime for Pluto released.<br /> <br /> 1944- Franklin Roosevelt's last fireside chat on the radio.<br /> <br /> 1953- 81 year-old Prime Minister Winston Churchill suffered a stroke during a dinner for the Italian Prime Minister. By agreement with the Fleet St press barons, it was all kept secret from the nation and the world. Churchill recovered quickly and was soon back wheeling and dealing by the end of the summer. <br /> <br /> 1963- In Disneyland the Enchanted Tiki Room opened with the first animatronics (the birds).<br /> <br /> 1971- Three Soyuz 11 cosmonauts were found dead in their space capsule upon landing. The capsule must have had a pressure leak upon re-entry. Soviet accidents in space were kept secret until after the fall of communism in 1990.<br /> <br /> 1972- Title IX passed by the US Government. It called for women’s collegiate sports to be funded equally as the men’s sports. <br /> <br /> 1976- Work completed on Toronto’s CN Tower. Called then the world’s tallest free-standing structure.<br /> <br /> 1979- The Knack released the single My Sharona.<br /> <br /> 1989- Tim Burton’s film " Batman" opened.<br /> <br /> 1989- Disney’s Honey I Shrank the Kids opened with the Roger Rabbit short Tummy Trouble.<br /> <br /> 1992- Head of the New York Mafia John Gotti was sentenced to life in prison for murder and racketeering. It had been so hard to pin anything on Gotti that he was nicknamed the Teflon Don. Finally, city prosecutor Rudy Giuliani secured the testimony of the Dons top henchman Sammy ‘the Bull’ Gravano. For turning informant, Sammy dodged any penalties himself, despite admitting killing 32 people, including his own brother in law, whose body parts he buried in his backyard. John Gotti died in prison in 2002. Gotti’s personal attorney was Roy Cohn, who was Donald Trump’s mentor.<br /> <br /> 1993- Lorena Bobbit had tired of her abusive husband John Wayne Bobbit. So this night while he was drunk, she severed his penis and drove off, casually tossing it into a nearby field. Doctors recovered the free willy and reattached it, starting a media sensation. They divorced and John Bobbitt for a while became a porn star.<br /> <br /> 1995- Walt Disney’s Pocahontas went into general release.<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: So why is the number 666 considered evil, or satanic?<br /> <br /> Answer: St. John of Patmos, who wrote the Book of Revelations, while probably doing a lot of ergot herb (LSD) on a beach in Greece. Revelations 13:18, “Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six." Some argue the number is just a mistranslation of the Greek text. As for “Mark of the Beast”, mark in Greek could also translate as your seal, as in the personal seal of Emperor Nero.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 21 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6181 <p>Question: Yesterday’s Quiz: Why is New York City called the Big Apple?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: ipso-facto.<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/21/2023<br /> Birthdays: Martha Washington, Alexander Pope, Berkeley Breathed, Al Hirschfeld, Al Martinez, Jean-Paul Sartre, Judy Holliday, Benazir Bhutto, Jane Russell, Mariette Hartley, Bernie Koppel, Rick Sutcliffe, Maureen Stapleton, Joe Flagherty, Juliet Lewis, Tony Scott, Chris Pratt is 42, Prince William the Duke of Cambridge is 41. <br /> <br /> 217BC- Hannibal defeated a Roman army on the shore of Lake Trasimenio in central Italy.<br /> <br /> 1527- Political theorist Niccolò' Machiavelli died at age 58 - His last words were:<br /> "I hope I shall go to Hell, for there I shall consort with kings, popes and princes.<br /> In Heaven, one can only meet beggars, monks and apostles."<br /> <br /> 1582- Japanese warlord Nobunaga Oda assassinated. Called the first of Japan’s Unifiers. He was the most pro-western of Japan's feudal lords and in western Japan, a folk hero, sort of a samurai Robin Hood. Under his protection the Catholic missionaries flourished, and Oda liked to parade around in his western-imported suit of armor. His enemy Tokugawa Ieyasu later became Shogun and banned all contact with the outside world.<br /> <br /> 1789- RATIFICATION OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION- New Hampshire becomes the 9th state to ratify the new document giving the majority of two thirds of the states. This despite angry anti-federalist sentiment from critics like Patrick Henry and John Hancock. They felt the new system was too centralized and could be tyrannical. Copies of the constitution were burned by mobs in Albany and Williamsburg. But eventually everyone got behind the system. Benjamin Rush noted: "We are now a Nation."<br /> <br /> 1791- THE FLIGHT TO VARENNES- After the fall of the Bastille in 1789, King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette tried to work things out as constitutional monarchs but moderates like Mirabeau and Lafayette were losing control of the angry people, exploited in medieval poverty for so long. So this night the royal family decided to sneak away and escape across the border. <br /> The escape plot was organized by Count Axel Fersen, a lover of Queen Marie Antoinette. They slipped away in the dead of night and traveled 150 miles to the Belgian border before they were stopped. At Varennes they were recognized and brought back to Paris by the city's fishwives led by Jean-Baptiste Drouet, the postmaster of Ste. Menehould. King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were eventually both guillotined and their son Louis XVII died rotting in prison. Ironically, a troop of loyalist cavalry, who were to meet them on the road and escort them, got lost a quarter mile away.<br /> <br /> 1791- The first Ledger entry.<br /> <br /> 1813- Battle of Vittoria- Wellington defeated the French in Spain to end the Peninsular War and Beethoven wrote a really silly overture to celebrate it. The Overture to Wellington's Victory has musical scoring for cannons and musket volleys. It was commissioned by a mechanical calliope inventor named Wilhelm Dietzel. It actually made Beethoven more money than anything else he ever wrote. <br /> <br /> 1815- Napoleon reached Paris after his defeat at Waterloo. Napoleon had regained power in France with the understanding he would rule as a constitutional monarch. As enemy armies closed in around Paris, the Chamber of Deputies now voted itself in permanent session and began arguing his fate. Royalists and the old Marquis De Lafayette called for his abdication. <br /> Napoleon still had 100,000 men in the field, and the common people were with him. Napoleon’s brother Lucien advised him to ignore the Deputies and rule as a dictator. But curiously enough, despite his reputation as a warmonger, Napoleon never could bring himself to start a civil war. He said “ The fate of one man is not worth drenching Paris in French blood.” Waterloo seemed to have broken his self-confidence and will to go on. <br /> <br /> 1854 -During service in the Baltic in the Crimean War –Ships Mate C D Lucas, Royal Navy, HMS Heraclea, received a new medal called the Victoria Cross, or VC.<br /> <br /> 1864- FATHER ABRAHAM- President Abraham Lincoln visited General Grant’s Union army attacking Lee in Petersburg, Virginia. One highlight of the tour was when Lincoln was shown the 18th corps, a unit of black soldiers. General Grant complimented their excellent discipline and courage under fire. The black troops broke ranks and cheered wildly for Lincoln, their liberator. Hundreds strained just to touch his coat. One said: Now I know I shall go to Heaven, for I have seen Father Abraham, he that hath struck off my chains, and the Day of Jubilee is nigh!” For Lincoln it was a cathartic moment. Whatever his real motives for freeing the slaves, political expediency or moral obligation, he was deeply moved by the demonstration. Tears flowed freely down his face and for once he was speechless.<br /> <br /> 1866- First recorded train robbery by Jesse James.<br /> <br /> 1871- The Los Angeles Star newspaper announced the first trainload of pretzels had reached town!<br /> <br /> 1877-10 members of the Molly Maguires hanged. Irish immigrants in the Pennsylvania coal mines formed secret societies to combat inhuman working conditions and prejudice. At one point they went on strike to reduce their working day to 13 hours! The Molly Maguires was the name of a supposed terrorist fringe that assassinated company men and informers.<br /> <br /> 1879 - F W Woolworth opens his 1st five and ten cent store.<br /> <br /> 1893- The FERRIS WHEEL -George Washington Ferris, Jr. decided that the Columbia Exhibition, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus' discovery, needed to surpass the French Eiffel Tower (introduced in 1889 during the centennial celebration of the French Revolution). So he created his wheel so each compartment could hold 12 people plus a butler in a parlor-like atmosphere and rotate them 250 feet in the air. People were afraid they would gasp for oxygen up so high but it was a big hit anyway. <br /> <br /> 1907 - E W Scripps founded United Press Agency.<br /> <br /> 1913 - Tiny Broadwick is the 1st woman to parachute from an airplane.<br /> <br /> 1916- General Blackjack Pershing had violated Mexican territory with US troops to hunt down Pancho Villa. This day the diplomatic mess got worse when Pershing’s troops were attacked by regular Mexican army troops at Carrizal. Pershing never did catch Villa and US troops were withdrawn in Jan 1917 because World War I in Europe beckoned.<br /> <br /> 1919- After WWI ended, in Scapa Flow, Scotland, German Admiral Von Reuter deliberately sank 21 of his interned battleships rather than turn them over to the Allies. On shore, vacationing Scottish schoolchildren cheered, thinking it was a fireworks display for their benefit.<br /> <br /> 1939- Eugene O’Neill’s wife Carlotta wrote in her diary- “Gene kept me up all night talking about his outline for a new play about his family”- The Long Days Journey into Night. It took him two years to write, and it almost killed him.<br /> <br /> 1940- In a theatrical act of revenge Adolph Hitler forced France to sign her surrender in the same railroad car in Compiegne that the Germans surrendered in 1918. They broke into a museum to pry loose the exact same Wagon-Lit train car so it could be moved to the exact spot. The treaty meant half of France was occupied by Germany while the other half was French governed from the mineral water spa town of Vichy by a puppet government led by old Marshal Petain.<br /> <br /> 1948- THE ATALENA INCIDENT- THE ISRAELI CIVIL WAR- Before the Independence of Israel there were two underground militia groups fighting for a Jewish homeland- the Hagenah and the more violent Irgun. After the State of Israel was declared, Leader David Ben Gurion ordered both to form the new Israeli Defense Force. But the Irgun resisted assimilation. While a tenuous four-week truce with the Arabs held, the Irgun filled a ship the Atalena, with weapons and fighters in France and this day it arrived off the coast of Tel Aviv. Ben Gurion gave a direct order to turn over the weapons to the Army and assimilate the fighters, but Irgun leader Menachem Begin refused. <br /> When Israeli troops converged on the beached ship to unload it, the Irgun opened fire on them with machine guns. In the gun battle, Jews killed Jews in front of Tel Aviv. Begin screamed he wanted to go down with the ship. The captain replied that that was unlikely since the ship had already stuck on the beach. The ship caught fire and the captain had the cargo of high explosives dumped overboard. When Begin became hysterical the captain had him, too, dumped into the sea. After several deaths, the Irgun surrendered and agreed to cooperate. <br /> Ben Gurion called them all traitors but was compelled to be lenient because of the greater threat of the Arab armies. Menachem Begin was rehabilitated, formed the Likud Party and eventually won the Nobel Peace Prize. <br /> <br /> 1947- To silence a jeering crowd of racists at a Brooklyn Dodgers-Cincinnati game, Kentucky native PeeWee Reese put his arm around Jackie Robinson. <br /> <br /> 1948- The Mark I computer, built at the Victoria University of Manchester by Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn and Geoff Tootill, and ran its first program this day. The first computer that could store a program and re-open it.<br /> <br /> 1948- The last Japanese holdout defenders surrendered on Okinawa, unaware that the war had been over for three years.<br /> <br /> 1948- Columbia Records introduced the 33 1/3-rpm long playing record, the LP. Inventor Peter Goldmark was annoyed that he had to change his 78 rpm records several times to hear just one Brahms Symphony. He decided to invent a way to fit all of a symphony on one side of a record. His immediate supervisors told him to stop it because people would not throw away all their 78 rpm records to replace them with his. So Goldmark went over their heads to CBS chief William Paley and Paley loved the idea. RCA and David Sarnoff tried to compete with the 45-rpm record, but all it was good for was singles. The 33 1/3 dominated recording until replaced by the Compact Disc in the 1980’s.<br /> <br /> 1964- In Mississippi, Ku Klux Klansmen murdered three Civil Rights volunteers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schermer and dumped their bodies in a swamp. The subsequent FBI investigation and trials further pushed the rural south towards desegregation. The mastermind behind the murders, Edgar Ray Killen, was not convicted until 2005.<br /> <br /> 1965- The Byrds release record Hey Mr. Tambourine Man. <br /> <br /> 1978 - Andrew Lloyd Webber &amp; Tim Rice's musical "Evita," premieres in London.<br /> <br /> 1982- John Hinkley was found innocent by reason of insanity in the assassination attempt on President Reagan.<br /> <br /> 1988- Who Framed Roger Rabbit? premiered at Radio City Music Hall. It opened generally three days later.<br /> <br /> 1989- The Supreme Court rules in the case Texas vs. Johnson that burning a US flag is a form of free speech and is so legally protected under the First Amendment. While more important issues are at hand, the conservative dominated Congress spent the next few years in repeated fruitless attempts to amend the Constitution. This is when modern politicians were criticized for not sporting a flag pin in their lapels. Pundits joked that the next constitutional amendment they would demand would be that cheeseburgers only have American cheese on them.<br /> <br /> 1991- Disney’s The Rocketeer premiered. Based on Dave Stevens comic book.<br /> <br /> 1996- Walt Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame opened in theaters.<br /> <br /> 1998- Paleontologists in Canada announced the discovery of the largest Tyrannosaurus turd ever found. The search intensified for a T-Rex with a relaxed look on his face.<br /> <br /> 2004- The first flight in the privatization of Space. Bert Routans’ company financed by Microsoft head, Paul Allen, sent SpaceShip 1 up to the edge of the atmosphere. Test pilot Mike Nelvil was the first civilian astronaut.<br /> <br /> 2008- Pixar’s WALL-E premiered at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles.<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: ipso-facto.<br /> <br /> Answer: Ipso-facto is Latin for “by the very fact”, which is used to mean that something is a fact by its very nature. For example, Saturn is a planet that revolves around the same sun as Earth, so, ipso-facto, Saturn is a planet in our solar system.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 20 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6180 <p>Question: ipso-facto.<br /> <br /> Yesterdays Question answered below: Sometimes the followers of a famous person are called Myrmidons. Who were the Myrmidons?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/20/2023<br /> Birthdays: Wolf Tone, Jacques Offenbach, Lillian Hellman, Errol Flynn, Audie Murphy,<br /> Andre Watts, Cyndee Lauper, Bob Vila, Chet Atkins, Stephen Frears, Brian Wilson, Robert Rodriquez, John Goodman, Martin Landau, John Mahoney, Nicole Kidman is 55<br /> <br /> 1389 -Battle of Kosovo Polje, where a coalition of Serbs, Croats, Bulgars and<br /> Albanians under Prince Lazar I of Serbia were annihilated by the Ottoman Turkish army under young Sultan Bajazet, called Ilderim- Lightning. The Sultan was presented with King Lazar’s head on a spear. The Ottoman Turkish Empire would rule in the Balkans for 500 years. <br /> <br /> 1397- The Union of Kalmar unites Sweden, Norway and Denmark under one crown. <br /> <br /> 1605-The False Dmitri invaded Russia. A defrocked Lithuanian priest named Grishka declared himself the dead infant son of Czar Ivan the Terrible grown up and convinced a powerful Polish noble family, The Mniszechs, to back him. Historians wrongly call this a Polish-Russian War but in actuality it was a privately run freelance invasion. <br /> Dmitri succeeded in toppling Czar Boris Gudunov and occupying Moscow. When the Polish Army went home the Russians killed him, burned his body, mixed the ashes with gunpowder, stuffed it in a cannon and fired it back in the direction of Poland.<br /> <br /> 1747- Persian King Nadir Shah had seized the throne and led armies across Central Asia in a march of conquest not seen since the days of Tamerlane. He conquered Iraq, Uzbekizatan, Afghanistan, Northern India and Yerevan. He forced the Indian Moguls to give him the fabulous Peacock Throne. But as he grew older he got increasingly paranoid, blinding his eldest son and executing hundreds. Finally, this day, his own bodyguards stabbed him, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.<br /> <br /> 1756- THE BLACK HOLE OF CALCUTTA- Bengal Rajah Siraj ud Daula stuffed 146 captured British officers in a tiny cell. Most died of asphyxiation by morning. Only 23 survived. <br /> <br /> 1782- The American Revolution now over, and the peace treaties being signed, Angry Continental soldiers, who had not been paid for months, surrounded the U.S. Congress at Independence Hall, Philadelphia. They pounded their muskets on the locked doors and threatened violence if they weren’t paid. Congressmen ran out the back door to Trenton to reconvene. Shortly before they ran away, Congress approved the final design of the Great Seal of the United States, choosing the Bald Eagle over the Wild Turkey as the symbol of America, to the annoyance of Ben Franklin.<br /> <br /> 1789- THE TENNIS COURT OATH- French King Louis XVI got annoyed with his parliament or Estates General for constantly asking for permanent power and the right to rule by laws. On this day he told them to disband. Of the Estates three divisions the First Estate- Nobility and the Second Estate – Clergy quietly obey and go home. But the Third Estate -the common folk- refused and when they were turned out of their meeting hall by the guards they reconvened in the Royal tennis court. There the members pledged not to disband until Liberty was established. "Go tell your master that here the People rule!"- Said Mirabeau to the royal herald.<br /> <br /> 1790- THE US CAPITOL CONCEIVED- In the then American capitol, New York City, Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, went over to have dinner with Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Senator James Madison. There were no real American political parties yet, but Jefferson had been leading the opposition to Hamilton’s plan for the US Government to assume all the debt incurred by the individual states in the Revolution. This act would strengthen the central government at the expense of the states. Everyone knew Jefferson worked through Madison but he presented this dinner as his arbitrating a peace between Madison and Hamilton! <br /> No one recorded what was said at the meal or if they sang any Broadway songs, but it is assumed Hamilton proposed a deal in exchange for the debt assumption- to move the American capitol south. This night they agreed to move the planned US capitol to a new site on land suggested by President Washington near his Mount Vernon estate. Midway between North and South. It would become Washington, DC. It was also possibly the last time Jefferson, Hamilton and Madison ever agreed on anything ever again. <br /> <br /> 1815- NATHAN ROTHSCHILD'S BIG SCORE. -When The Battle of Waterloo happened in Belgium no one in England knew who had won for 72 anxious hours. The House of Rothschild Bank had a Dutch agent at the battlefield who galloped to Ostend then crossed the Channel to tell Rothschild before the official news arrived. This morning, Nathan Rothschild walked into the London Stock Exchange and took his usual stance by his favorite pillar. <br /> Everyone was sure Rothschild knew something. He said nothing himself but his agents started to sell off Government bonds. Day traders took this as a sign that the Napoleon had won, so the price of Government securities plummeted in panic sales. When the prices had fallen low enough Rothschild gave the signal to start buying. By the time the real news that Wellington had beaten Napoleon arrived, Nathan Rothschild had made a fortune. He later became the first of the Jewish faith to enter the House of Lords.<br /> <br /> 1819- The first steam powered ship successfully crossed the Atlantic. The SS Savannah made it to Liverpool after a trip of 27 days. <br /> <br /> 1837- QUEEN VICTORIA-Upon the death of her uncle King William IV, little 19 year old Princess Victoria becomes Queen of the British Empire. She will rule 64 years, until 1901 and give her name to the era, Victorian. <br /> She came to the throne when veterans of the American Revolution and Waterloo were still alive, and she lived long enough to use electric lights, telephones and watch a movie. Before Victoria, the British Royals were never considered examples of morality. It was said her grandfather King George III was insane, her uncle King George IV a bigamist, her other uncle, King William IV, a glutton and her mother the Duchess of Kent was living openly with an Irish adventurer named James Conroy. If you wanted to meet the great men of the nation you had to look in the gambling houses or brothels. Victoria changed all that. <br /> She and her husband Prince Albert made the pursuit of morality and family the highest standard of polite society. Also Christmas trees, white bridal gowns and tuxedos.<br /> <br /> 1862- In the middle of a Civil War, The U.S. Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act, allowing funds for the transcontinental railroad.<br /> <br /> 1863- Several Virginia counties whose people opposed the Confederacy and slavery re-entered the Union as the new state of West Virginia.<br /> <br /> 1900- THE BOXER REBELLION- In Beijing, the Boxer Rebellion trapped the foreign diplomatic corps in their compound in the Forbidden City. The Chinese mobs were led by martial arts societies like the I Ho Chu Huan- The Righteous and Harmonius Fists. They wanted to drive out the hated foreigners who were ruining China the way they had carved up Africa and India. <br /> The German ambassador Baron Von Kettler, who liked to shoot at Chinese children from his balcony for fun, was murdered in the street, and the Japanese ambassador was pulled out of his sedan chair and beheaded. Women in western clothing were doused with gasoline and set ablaze. The Chinese Manchu Dowager Empress Cixi ordered the Chinese Army to support the Boxers. <br /> At first the besieged delegations didn't get along well, the British and Japanese didn't trust the Russians, the Germans were cut off from their big new brewery in Tsing-Tao. And nobody liked the Americans with their constant preaching that they weren't out to annex new colonies, while their gunboats and Marines prowled the Yangtze. But under the leadership of British attache’, Sir Archibald MacDonald, the diplomats soon learned to work together. They held out until an international force rescued them- the "55 days in Peking".<br /> <br /> 1910- Longtime President of Mexico, Porfirio Diaz, unsuccessfully tried to stop the Revolution breaking out by declaring martial law and arresting hundreds.<br /> <br /> 1927- THE RED TENT- Italian polar explorer, General Nobile, had reached the North Pole in his zeppelin, the Norge, the year before. He was the hero of Mussolini’s Italy and the world. But in his second expedition, his zeppelin, the Italia, crashed and the men were stranded on the arctic ice. They dyed their shelter tent red to be seen. <br /> An international rescue effort was launched to try to save them and the great Norwegian polar explorer, Roald Amundsen, died in the attempt. On this day, a Swedish plane reached the Red Tent. There was not room on the plane for everyone so Nobile went aboard to safety before the rest. He said he did so to better organize the saving of his men. But because he didn’t stay behind until all were saved Nobile was branded a coward. Remember this was just a few weeks after Lindbergh, so ‘hero’ standards were pretty high. Mussolini and the rest of the world would have nothing more to do with him. General Nobile spent the rest of his long life regretting he ever left the Red Tent.<br /> <br /> 1936- Mickey short Moving Day premiered.<br /> <br /> 1940- Thirty thousand people gathered at the Hollywood Bowl for an America First rally. There they listened to isolationist celebrities like Lillian Gish and Charles Lindbergh protest President Franklin Roosevelt’s plans to help Britain.” It is obvious that Britain will lose the war…. It is not freedom when one fifth the country can drag four fifths into a war it does not want!” Students like future President Gerald Ford were in the audience. When former President Trump addressed the G-7 in 2017, he referenced America First.<br /> <br /> 1940- Peruvian Artist Alberto Vargas signed a contract with Esquire Magazine to paint the ‘Vargas Girls’, glamour pin ups that made the magazine famous. He replaced artist George Petty who was demanding $1,500 a week. Vargas was paid $75 a week. When Esquire cut him loose, Hugh Hefner put him on salary at Playboy until he retired in 1978. Today an original Vargas goes for $350,000.<br /> <br /> 1941- Two days before Hitler’s invasion of Russia, Richard Zorga, a Russian spy in the German Embassy in Tokyo, sent to Moscow microfilm with complete information on the attack. He even revealed its codename- Operation Barbarossa. A Russian agent in Hungary, code-named “Lucy”, and the Chinese agents of Mao Zedong confirmed his information. Yet despite all these warnings, Soviet leader Josef Stalin refused to believe it. On June 22, the Nazis attacked, and Stalin was taken completely by surprise.<br /> <br /> 1941-Walt Disney's "the Reluctant Dragon" premiered, with cartoonist's pickets around the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. Police actually have to close part of Hollywood Blvd. out of concern for what the rampaging animators might do. Future UPA producer Steve Bosustow drove up in a limo and picketed in tuxedo and top hat. His chauffeur was Maurice Noble, the designer of the Road Runner cartoons. Ironically the movie was part documentary about how wonderful life was working at the Disney studio.<br /> <br /> 1943- Martial law was declared in Detroit when race riots killed 28. New Sherman tanks just completed in the auto plants of Dearborn, were driven into town to help restore order.<br /> <br /> 1947- Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, the gangster creator of modern Las Vegas, was murdered while reading his evening paper in his Beverly Hills home. He had bought the mansion from opera singer George London for his girlfriend actress Virginia Hill. The order to whack Bugsy was probably given by his old friend Mayer Lansky. The Mob was fed up with Bugsy’s cost overruns to build Las Vegas. The second owner of his Flamingo casino, Gus Greenbaum, had his throat cut with a butcher knife. Despite all, The Flamingo and the Las Vegas Strip went on to become a great success.<br /> <br /> 1948- The TV show "Toast of the Town" later to be “the Ed Sullivan Show” premiered. Sullivan's show was the showcase that brought new acts like Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Senor Wences and the Rolling Stones into the average American living room. Prior to this, Ed Sullivan was a columnist and radio show personality.<br /> <br /> 1972- In the first reaction to the news of the Watergate Break in, Nixon Presidential spokesman Ron Zeigler dismissed it: “It is not for the White House to comment on the investigation of a third-rate burglary”. The Third-Rate Burglary drove Richard Nixon from office in 1974.<br /> <br /> 1972- THE SMOKING GUN- All through the Watergate scandal the big question was how involved was President Richard Nixon? A conversation in the Oval office was taped this day between Nixon and his aide H.R. Haldeman. Whatever was said on this tape it took two years of lawsuits and a Supreme Court ruling to get Nixon to surrender it. This tape for June 20th had 18 missing minutes. <br /> Experts say five separate manual erasures caused the gap. After a feeble attempt to blame it on the fumble fingers of Nixon’s secretary, Rosemary Woods, it’s generally believed, although never admitted, that Nixon himself probably erased the incriminating parts of the tape. It was called the “smoking gun”. Three days after the tape was made public in 1974, President Nixon resigned. If Nixon had simply popped this tape into the White House incinerator, he may have completed his presidency.<br /> <br /> 1974- Roman Polanski’s film Chinatown opened.<br /> <br /> 1975- Steven Spielberg’s movie Jaws opened, bringing back the monster-hit summer event movie. Universal called that summer, “The Summer of the Shark.” <br /> <br /> 1977- The Trans-Alaskan Pipeline began flowing.<br /> <br /> 2022- The Dodd Decision. The conservative Supreme Court struck down key provisions of the Roe vs. Wade decision that guaranteed American women right to an abortion.<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Sometimes the followers of a famous person are called Myrmidons. Who were the Myrmidons?<br /> <br /> Answer: According to the Iliad of Homer, the hero Achilles was King of the Myrmidons. His followers were famous for their fanatical loyalty to him.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 19 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6179 <p>Question: Name the Three Musketeers.<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: : What does it mean to be avuncular?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/19/2022<br /> Birthdays: Euclid, Blaise Pascal, King James I Stuart, Wallis Simpson Duchess of Windsor, Moe Howard, Lou Gehrig, Guy Lombardo, Mildred Natwick, Charles Coburn, Pat Butram, Louis Jourdan, Pauline Kael, Salman Rushdie, Dame Mae Whitty, Lucie Sloane, Ang Sung Soo Chi, Kathleen Turner is 69, Paula Abdul is 61, Zoe Saldana is 45, Gena Rowlands is 93.<br /> <br /> 240 BC- Greek mathematician, Eratosthenes, measuring the cast shadows made by sticks placed in the ground, first calculated the total circumference of the Earth. He was only off by a few miles.<br /> <br /> 1312- Piers Gaveston- royal courtier and openly gay paramour of English King Edward II, was murdered by angry barons. The King went on to another favorite named Hugh Despenser. The memory of Piers Gaveston is preserved as the name of a men’s fraternity at Oxford University.<br /> <br /> 1389- At Kosovo, the huge Ottoman Turkish army of Sultan Murad I, faced the Balkan warriors of Serb Prince Lazar I. A Serb knight named Milosh Obilic’ got an interview in the Sultan’s tent by claiming to be a deserter with vital information. Once there, he sprang upon Sultan and stabbed him. Obilic’ was hacked to pieces by the Sultans’ guards. This should have been decisive, but unfortunately for the Serbs, Murad’s son, Bajazet, turned out to be an even better general than his dad. The next day the Turkish army destroyed the Serb Army. <br /> <br /> 1588- The Spanish Armada sailed from Cadiz and Lisbon to invade England.<br /> <br /> 1619- THE OLD GLOBE THEATER FIRE. During a performance of William Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, a prop cannon fired a salute that set afire the straw thatch on the roof. Soon the blaze consumed the old theater. Shakespeare, as a partner in the company that owned the Globe, paid to rebuild it. He soon retired home to Stratford. Fifty years later, during Cromwell’s Puritan rule, the Globe was pulled down because the Puritans frowned on theatrical entertainment as ungodly.<br /> <br /> 1754- Six American colonies and three Iroquois Indian tribes sent delegates to a meeting in Albany, New York to discuss how to work together more closely. Ben Franklin and Thomas Hutchinson submitted plans to form a congress of all the Anglo colonies except Georgia and Nova Scotia (remember Canada was still New France at this time), with a President-General appointed by the King. But London rejected the whole plan.<br /> <br /> 1803- Captain Meriwether Lewis sent a letter inviting Captain William Clark to come join him and explore the route from the Mississippi to the Pacific Coast. Lewis had a backup in mind in case Clark said no, a Lt. Moses Hook. But Clark said yes, so today we remember Lewis &amp; Clark, not Lewis &amp; Hook.<br /> <br /> 1815- The day after the Battle of Waterloo, the Congress of Vienna published their final declarations. The Congress was a grand summit- England, Russia, Prussia, Austria, Sweden, Spain, Naples, Portugal, Holland, Turkey and Royalist France spent the better part of a year redistributing the lands disturbed by Napoleon’s conquests. They mostly reaffirmed hereditary rights of the old monarchs, but published a joint ban on the African slave trade, and chose not to dispute America’s purchase of Louisiana. This conference set the stage for European politics for the rest of the XIX century.<br /> <br /> 1846-THE EARLIEST RECORDED BASEBALL GAME- The famous legend is that Abner Doubleday invented the game but that's been mostly disproved. The sport evolved out of an Old English game called Rounders. No one is sure of the exact date the game was invented, but, on this day, a New York newspaper ran a notice of a "base-ball" game played by the New York Knickerbocker Baseball Club and the New York Nines Cricket Club at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey. The cricketeers won 23-1. This was the first game played under Cartwright’s Rules. <br /> Alexander Cartwright created a finite system of three outs and nine innings. <br /> Baseball spread nationwide because of the Civil War. When men of all the states would spend time in army camps, they learned to play “The Boston-New York Game”. After the conflict, they went to their homes in the various states and took the game with them. <br /> <br /> 1863- In one of the most famous ship-to-ship duels of the American Civil War, the USS Kearsarge fought and sunk the Confederate raider CSS Alabama in the harbor of Cherbourg, France. Young Impressionist painter Claude Monet was watching from the shore and later made a painting of the event. <br /> Confederate raiders hunted US shipping around the sea-lanes of the world, which is why today you can find Confederate grave markers from Capetown, South Africa to the Bering Sea in Alaska.<br /> <br /> 1865- HAPPY JUNETEETH- Although Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had declared all slaves free in 1863, and the Confederacy surrendered that past April, it took this long for the entire country to admit it. Texans simply preferred not to tell any of their slaves about it. After the surrender, the Southern States were occupied and put under military rule. 12 weeks after Lee surrendered to Grant, Yankee Gen. Gordon Granger assumed command of the Dept. of Texas, and this day published GENERAL ORDER #3, that all slaves were finally, unconditionally, free. Black Texans celebrated this day every year as Juneteenth-Jubilee Day. White Texans refused to acknowledge the holiday until 1979. In 2021 Juneteeth became a National Holiday, 14 conservative congressmen still voting against it.<br /> <br /> 1867-The Emperor of Mexico, Maximillian Hapsburg, was shot by firing squad. Maximillian distributed bribes to the riflemen asking them not to aim for his head, but one hit him there anyway. Mexican President Benito Juarez felt this drastic gesture had to be taken to discourage any future European adventurers. And Maximillian routinely ordered the execution of any Juaristas who fell into his hands. <br /> <br /> 1867- The first Belmont Stakes horse race. The winner was Ruthless.<br /> <br /> 1889- Beginning of the Sherlock Holmes adventure, the Man with the Twisted Lip.<br /> <br /> 1893 - Lizzie Borden acquitted of the axe murders of her abusive parents. The murderers were never found. She lived alone peaceably and when she died she left all her money to the ASPCA.<br /> <br /> 1910 - Father's Day celebrated for 1st time. It was organized by the Spokane, Washington members of the local YMCA and Spokane Ministerial Assoc.<br /> <br /> 1917- During World War I, King George V ordered members of the British royal family to dispense with German titles &amp; surnames. Before that the official name of Queen Victoria’s family was the House of Saxe-Coburg Gotha. It now became the House of Windsor. Prince Louis Von Battenberg became Lord Louis Mountbatten. <br /> In Berlin, Kaiser Wilhelm, who spoke English fluently, joked, “Maybe now Herr Shakespeare will rename his play The Merry Wives of Von Saxe-Coburg Gotha…”<br /> <br /> 1921- Distributer Amadee van Beuren announced production of a new series of "Aesop’s Fables" cartoons to be done by former Bray director Paul Terry. Terrytoons studio is born.<br /> <br /> 1923 - "Moon Mullins," a Comic Strip, debuts.<br /> <br /> 1934- The Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, created.<br /> <br /> 1941 - Cheerios Cereal invented. Originally called Cheery-Oats, it was changed to Cheerios in 1945. <br /> <br /> 1944-" The Marianas Turkey Shoot"- the Japanese tried to defeat a landing on the strategic island of Saipan by sending a task force of 9 carriers and 400 aircraft, many new generation Zeroes nicknamed Judys. But most of Japan’s veteran combat pilots were gone and the planes were manned by inexperienced novices rushed through training. In this last big carrier to carrier battle US forces shot down 346 Japanese planes and sank three carriers to a loss of only 30 American aircraft.<br /> <br /> 1951-Happy Birthday Taz! Devil May Hare, short by Bob McKimson, introduced the Tasmanian Devil.<br /> <br /> 1953- THE ROSENBERGS GO TO THE CHAIR- Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, "The Atomic Spies", were electrocuted at Sing Sing for spying for the Soviet Union. When the Russians detonated their first nuclear weapon no one in America thought they could do it without spies giving them our secrets. <br /> We now know, in 1945, Manhattan project physicists Klaus Fuchs and Ted Hall had given Moscow the plans to the Nagasaki bomb. According to KGB archives from 1989, Julius Rosenberg was on their payroll, but just what and how much he did is controversial. Its assumed he was a low level go-between. Dr. Fuchs gave away much more vital information, yet he only got a moderate prison term. Ted Hall was never discovered until he wrote a book in 1997. <br /> <br /> Only hours before the execution, a young lawyer had found a clause in the law statutes that execution of spies could not take place except in time of war, but the judge who could have stopped it refused because he was Jewish and he feared an even greater anti-Semitic backlash if he saved them. The executions were moved up a day so they would not be killed on a Friday, the Jewish Sabbath. <br /> Housewife Ethel Rosenberg probably didn’t do anything and died horribly, screaming when the current was turned on. It took three jolts for two full minutes to kill her. To conservatives the Rosenbergs were dangerous traitors; to progressives they were innocent martyrs of the red hysteria of the times and of anti-Semitism, even though their prosecutor Roy Cohn was also Jewish. Roy Cohn became one of the first celebrities to die of AIDS, and was a mentor to Donald Trump.<br /> <br /> 1952 - "I've Got a Secret" debuts on CBS-TV with Garry Moore as host.<br /> <br /> 1956- The comedy team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis announced their breakup.<br /> <br /> 1956- Don Bluth’s first day at the Walt Disney Studio. <br /> <br /> 1960- Freedomland amusement park opened in the north Bronx, New York. Several of its designers like Harper Goff had worked on Walt Disney’s Disneyland. <br /> <br /> 1963- The Ray Harryhausen fantasy film Jason and the Argonauts premiered.<br /> <br /> 1963- The Canadian Football Hall of Fame formed.<br /> <br /> 1964- The Federal Civil Rights Act passed the Senate after a 54 day filibuster by Southern conservatives. <br /> <br /> 1964- While flying home to Massachusetts, Senator Ted Kennedy was almost killed in a small plane crash. He broke several vertebrae but survived. Years later whenever his nephew John Kennedy Jr would offer to take Ted on his small plane, Ted always refused. <br /> <br /> 1964- The Condor Club of San Francisco became the first modern club to offer topless dancers. Carol Doda became the first topless waitress, and a mainstay of San Francisco’s nightclub scene. She augmented her already ample bosom to 44 inches with silicon implants. She joked: "I dunno, I guess I just expanded in the heat!" <br /> <br /> 1973- The Rocky Horror Show stage show opened in London. The film version became a midnight cult classic. Writer Richard O’Brien himself played the doorman Riff-Raff. Let’s do the Time Warp Again.<br /> <br /> 1975- Mobster Sam "Momo" Giancana was murdered while frying sausages. He was scheduled to testify the next day about what he knew of Pres. John F. Kennedy’s assassination to the Frank Church Committee’s Senatorial Inquiry on Assassinations. The following year Jimmy Roselli, a Giancana hit man who always claimed he was the second gunman in Dallas, was found dismembered in an oil drum floating in Florida’s Biscayne Bay.<br /> <br /> 1978 – Garfield the Cat, created by Jim Davis, 1st appeared as a comic strip.<br /> <br /> 1983- Don Bluth’s video arcade game Dragons Lair debuted.<br /> <br /> 1987 - Ben &amp; Jerry’s Ice Cream &amp; Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia announce a new Ice Cream flavor, Cherry Garcia. Jerry is gone, but Cherry Garcia rocks on.<br /> <br /> 1987 –David Geffen Records signed their 1st artist -Donna Summer.<br /> <br /> 1998- Disney’s Mulan went into wide release. <br /> <br /> 2012- Wikileaks leader Julien Assange fled into the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to seek asylum for outstanding arrest warrants. He stayed there until 2019. Originally considered a champion of press freedom, he lost much sympathy after it was revealed he was a willing enabler for Russian intelligence to infiltrate American media on behalf of the Republican Party.<br /> <br /> 2014- After a scandal, King Juan Carlos of Spain stepped down, and his son Philip VI became king.<br /> ====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What does it mean to be avuncular?<br /> <br /> Answer: To act like a protective, compassionate uncle to people.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 18 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6178 <p>Quiz: What does it mean to be avuncular?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Why does being kicked in the shin hurt more than being hit in other parts of your body?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/18/2023<br /> Birthdays: M C Escher, Charles Gounod, James Montgomery Flagg, Kay Kayser, William Lassell 1799- English astronomer who discovered Neptune's moon Triton, Richard Boone, Jeanette MacDonald, Key Luke, Isabella Rosselini, E.G. Marshall, Roger Ebert, Eduard Daladier, Carol Kane, Sammy Kahn, The Quay Brothers, Paul McCartney is 81<br /> <br /> Happy Father's Day- It was organized by the Spokane, Washington members of the local YMCA and Spokane Ministerial Assoc. Father’s Day was celebrated for 1st time in 1910<br /> <br /> 1178- According to the chronicler Gervase of Canterbury, on this evening five monks sitting near the town witnessed a "flaming torch" spring up from the upper horn of the crescent moon. In 1976 it has been theorized that this was a lunar meteor impact that created the Giordano Bruno Crater. Others think it was an exploding comet in our atmosphere aligning with the moon. <br /> <br /> 1574- Henry III de Valois was the younger son of the King of France. Being third in line for the succession, he accepted the throne of Poland as better than nothing. In Krakow after his coronation and betrothal to a Polish princess, he learned his two older brothers had died and he was now King of France! Without pausing to consider the strategic advantages of a dual monarchy on either side of Germany, the spoiled young man demanded to go home immediately. He abandoned the Polish throne and galloped for the border with his court, and fiancé’ in hot pursuit.<br /> <br /> 1583 - Richard Martin of London takes out the first life insurance policy on his friend William Gibbons. The premium was 383 pounds.<br /> <br /> 1682 – Quaker leader William Penn founded Philadelphia.<br /> <br /> 1757- Battle of Koln- A rare time when Frederick the Great was defeated in battle by the Austrian army under Archduke Daun. Frederick in frustration shouted at his fleeing troops- " What? Do you want to live forever?"<br /> <br /> 1778- The British army evacuated the American capital of Philadelphia. The reason General Clinton pulled back his redcoats was because of his learning of the French entry into the war. London didn’t want him to be stranded in the American interior should the French fleet attack the coast. Clinton offered protection to any Philadelphia loyalists who were afraid of Yankee revenge. Six thousand American loyalists abandoned the city with the troops, many pulling their furniture-laden wagons by hand because of the scarcity of horses and oxen. <br /> By 3:00PM the British columns were gone. Then the first elements of the U.S. Army marched into the silent city down Second St. to William Penn’s mansion. They were led by the newly appointed military governor General Benedict Arnold.<br /> <br /> 1815- WATERLOO- One of the battles that changed history. 145,000 men in brightly colored uniforms with 400 cannons blew each other to pieces for 9 hours at a road intersection about three miles square. Many factors affected Wellington's defeat of Napoleon: The previous nights rains delayed the battle until 11:00 A.M. Napoleon had a bout of stomach cramps (he had bleeding ulcers, cystitis, piles and hypertension) and while he rested, his subordinates wasted troops in fruitless assaults. The Prussian army everyone thought was running to Berlin boiled into the French right just when it seemed that the French were winning. Later in private, Wellington admitted "It had been a very close run thing." Suffice to say the world would have been a much different place. Napoleon said: "If I lose England will dominate the world for the next 100 years." Individual stories abound. <br /> -Towards the end of the battle the Earl of Uxbridge was struck by a cannonball while seated next to Wellington. The Earl noticed: "My God Sir, I do believe I’ve lost my leg." Wellington looked down, then replied: "My God Sir, I do believe you’re right." Uxbridge had eloped with Wellington's younger sister so he didn't like him that much anyway.<br /> <br /> My favorite anecdote is about General Cambronne, leader of the French elite' Old Guard. He formed up an infantry square to take a last stand to cover the French retreat. His small band is surrounded by the victorious Anglo-Dutch German army and called upon to surrender. Cambronne had time for a one word reply before all the guns go off-" MERDE!" This is a favorite French epithet meaning "sh*t!" The writer Chateaubriand later said that he cried"The Guard dies but never Surrenders!" But we all know what he really said. To this day in France if you’re too polite to use an expletive you can say: A' la mode de Cambronne!" <br /> <br /> -Wellington didn't have any dinner until 11 p.m. He ate alone because his personal staff were all dead or wounded.<br /> - In later years writer Victor Hugo lived at Waterloo for awhile and was influential in making the old battlefield field a shrine. When I visited I saw across from Hugo's statue the "Victor Hugo's Private Men's Club" with "New Hostesses!"<br /> <br /> 1817- With the Iron Duke (Wellington), himself in attendance London opened a new bridge across the Thames, named the Waterloo Bridge. Later the guests sat down at the traditional Waterloo banquet and were served a new dish- you guessed it.....Beef Wellington. No crème napoleons for desert, through.<br /> <br /> 1879 - W H Richardson, an African American inventor, patents the baby buggy or perambulator.<br /> <br /> 1892 - Macadamia nuts first planted in Hawaii.<br /> <br /> 1898 - 1st amusement pier opens in Atlantic City, NJ<br /> <br /> 1900- The Dowager Empress of China Xiao Chin Xi (Cixi) called for the killing of all foreigners during the Boxer Rebellion. She committed the Chinese Imperial Army to the expulsion of all the European colonialist powers. Empress Xiao Chin Xi was the first person the western press called the Dragon Lady, later used by Milt Caniff in his comic strip Terry &amp; the Pirates. <br /> <br /> 1903 - 1st transcontinental auto trip begins in SF; arrives NY 3-mo later<br /> <br /> 1913- composer Cole Porter graduated from Yale.<br /> <br /> 1916- German Max Immelman, the first true fighter ace, died when the synchronizing mechanism that enabled his machine gun to fire through his propeller blades failed and he shot his own propeller off. Ach, Himmel! To take your plane in a large loop around someone else is still called an Immelman Turn.<br /> <br /> 1923- The first Checker Cab was manufactured in Chicago. The big, boxy, durable Checkers were the most famous American city taxicabs until phased out in the 1980s.<br /> <br /> 1927- The last radio transmission of the flying boat carrying famous arctic explorer Roald Ammundsen to the arctic circle. Norwegian Ammundsen had conquered the South Pole and flew over the North Pole. He was now called out of retirement to lead an international effort to save Italian Polar explorer General Nobile, who’s zeppelin had crashed on the arctic ice. Ironically Ammundsen disliked Nobile personally. Nobile and his men were rescued, but Ammundsen and his plane were never found.<br /> <br /> 1931- New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art had in its collection a little blue statue of a Hippo from the tomb of the Egyptian Steward Senbi from the Twelfth Dynasty. People nicknamed it Willie. This day an article about Willie with a color picture appeared in Punch Magazine. Soon museum craftsmen made little replicas of Willie that they gave as gifts to donors and eventually started selling to the public. The massive retail business in museum reproductions and merchandise we have today all began with little Willie the Hippo.<br /> <br /> 1940- As the shattered French armies fall back from the Nazis onslaught, Marshal Petain telephoned the German High Command and requested an armistice. Meanwhile across the Channel an obscure French colonel made a dramatic radio broadcast from London calling for Free French Resistance. Charles DeGaulle's political career began. <br /> <br /> 1945- During the battle raging for Okinawa the US Army commander General Simon Bolivar Buckner went up to the front to see better and was killed by a Japanese tank shell. At the same time the Japanese commander committed hari-kari. Okinawa was one of those rare battles like Quebec in 1759 where both commanding generals died. General Buckner’s father was a Confederate General in the Civil War who had fought Gen Douglas MacArthur's father.<br /> <br /> 1953- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. married Coretta Scott.<br /> <br /> 1959 - 1st TV telecast transmitted from England to US.<br /> <br /> 1959- Earl Long the Governor of Louisiana was ordered confined to a State Mental Hospital for his erratic behavior. Earl’s response was to arrange for the director of the hospital to be fired and replaced with another who declared him perfectly sane.<br /> <br /> 1967- At the Monterey Pop Rock festival Jimi Hendrix electrified the audience then finished his set by burning and smashing his guitar on stage. Until then musicians didn’t behave in such a way towards their instruments. Ravi Shankar was particularly shocked.<br /> <br /> 1969- Sam Peckinpah’s film “The Wild Bunch” opened. With William Holden, Warren Oates, Robert Ryan and Ernest Borgnine.<br /> <br /> 1980 –"We are on a mission from God." John Landis movie " The Blues Brothers" with Dan Ackroyd &amp; John Belushi premiered.<br /> <br /> 1983- Sally Ride becomes the first U.S. woman in Space. Russian Valentina Tereshkova had gone up in 1963.<br /> <br /> 1999- George Lucas film Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace opened wide. The first mainstream film shot completely digital.<br /> <br /> 2002- President George W. Bush said:” When we talk about war, we are really talking about peace.”<br /> <br /> 2021- Pixar’s Luca opened, directed by Enrico Casarosa.<br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Why does being kicked in the shin hurt more than being hit in other parts of your body?<br /> <br /> Answer: Because there is very little muscle meat on your shin. Its literally skin and bone with a some thin tendons.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 17 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6177 <p>Question: Why does being kicked in the shin hurt more than being hit in other parts of your body?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: Was the goddess Isis originally Egyptian, Greek or Roman?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/17/2022<br /> Birthdays: King Edward I "Longshanks", John Wesley the founder of the Methodists, Wally Wood, Ralph Bellamy, Dean Martin, Barry Manilow, Joe Piscopo is 72, Newt Gingrich, Martin Bormann, Jason Patric, Ken Loach, Greg Kinnear is 59, Venus Williams, Thomas Haden Church is 63, Will Forte is 53<br /> <br /> 431BC- Battle of Mt. Algidus. Roman general Aulus Postumus Tubertus defeated two Etruscan tribes, the Aeguians and the Volscians. <br /> <br /> 1745- During one of the periodic wars between England and France, a force of New England colonials was sent up to Canada and helped captured the fortress of Louisburg, the largest French bastion on the Atlantic coast. It cost 100 colonists’ lives and 900 more during the occupation. But shortly after England gave Louisburg back to France in exchange for a fortress in Madras, India. Ten years later in the Seven Years War, they had to take it all over again. This was another thing that annoyed Americans about being a colony.<br /> <br /> 1775- THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. British troops surrounded in Boston, crossed the harbor to attack an entrenched rebel position on Breeds Hill (the names got confused.). It took the Redcoats three grand assaults until they took the hill, but the rebel farmers, instead of fleeing like rabbits, shot them to pieces. Captain Israel Putnam advised his men,” Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes, then aim low.” The minutemen only retreated when their ammunition ran out. <br /> The battle exacted such a huge cost in soldiers’ lives that the British public was shocked (1,000 casualties out of 2,040 men). Based on America's lukewarm participation in the French &amp; Indian War a decade past, had not the great General Wolf of Quebec labeled the American the "Worst Soldier in the Universe"? and General Gage once told his friend, George Washington," New Englanders are big boasters and worst soldiers. I never saw any as infamously bad." The English generals consoled themselves with the thought that it couldn't have been the Yankees that fought so well, but all the Irish and Scottish immigrants that had arrived recently.<br /> Lexington and Concord could be dismissed as an extended civilian disturbance, but Bunker Hill convinced London that it now had a full-scale war to fight 3,000 ocean miles away.<br /> <br /> 1789- French King Louis XVI had convened an Estates General to solve the bankrupt economy. The body consisted of three branches- the First Estate-Nobility, 2nd – Clergy and Third Estate the common people- about 99% of the country. This day after much debate the Third Estate voted to declare itself the real representative will of the French people and as such they should legislate for them, King or no. <br /> They renamed themselves the National Assembly. Two days later most of the poor clergy and some nobles like Lafayette voted to join them and when the King ordered them to leave on June 20, they moved to the tennis court. This was the political beginning of the French Revolution.<br /> <br /> 1815- Heavy Spring rains cancel any actions as the British and French armies converge on a little village outside Brussels called Waterloo. Thunder and lightning drowned out the sound of cannon. The English were optimistic because by coincidence every major victory of the Duke of Wellington was preceded by a strong thunderstorm.<br /> The Prussian (German) army, beaten and driven off yesterday, regrouped and turned around to join the English. Its commander was eccentric, 72-year-old Marshal Blucher. In the previous day's battle Blucher had a horse collapse on top of him and was trampled by French cavalry. But after bathing his limbs in brandy and swallowing a large schnapps he was back at the head of his troops bellowing: “Vowarts Mein Kinder! Vowarts Mein Lieber!” <br /> <br /> 1823- Charles MacKintosh patents the waterproof rubberized raincoat. In England, a raincoat is still called a MacKintosh.<br /> <br /> 1863 - Travelers Insurance Co of Hartford chartered (1st accident insurer)<br /> <br /> 1876- Battle of the Little Rosebud- The Ogalala Sioux under Crazy Horse repulsed U.S. cavalry and allied Crow warriors under George Crook. Crazy Horse amazed the white generals who claimed he maneuvered his warriors around the field like elite European light cavalry. They started calling him the Napoleon of the Plains. Crazy Horse then moved the Ogalala to the Little Big Horn to meet Sitting Bull, and fight Custer. Even though he was not badly beaten, Gen. Crook suspended his campaign and went fishing, and so was no help to Custer. <br /> <br /> 1873- Women’s Rights leader Susan B. Anthony went on trial for daring to attempt to vote. <br /> She was found guilty by an all-male jury and fined $100, which she refused to pay.<br /> <br /> 1885- The pieces of the Statue of Liberty arrive from France. Some assembly required...<br /> <br /> 1893- Cracker Jacks invented by RW Reuckheim. Their name came from Teddy Roosevelt sampling the caramel corn, and exclaimed “These are Crackerjack!”- popular slang back then for something very good.<br /> <br /> 1893- The last Queen of Hawaii, Liliuokalani, was overthrown by a junta of American plantation owners led by Sanford Dole. The US apologized in 1992.<br /> <br /> 1917- The Republic of Finland is declared.<br /> <br /> 1919 - "Barney Google" cartoon strip, by Billy De Beck, premiered.<br /> <br /> 1930- Using 6 solid gold pens President Herbert Hoover signed the Harley-Smoot Act slapping heavy tariffs on imports from overseas. Britain and France and their overseas colonies retaliated with tariffs on American exports. The American stock market had collapsed 6 months before; now this shortsighted act sparked a trade war with the ruined economies of postwar Europe. It all but ensured that the Great Depression would spiral out of control, hitting rock bottom in 1932. <br /> <br /> 1940- THE LANCASTRIA DISASTER. Two weeks after Dunkirk, HMS Lancastria, a refitted luxury liner packed with still more Anglo-French survivors of the nazi invasion was sunk by German dive bombers off St. Nazaire. As many as 7,000 perished, more than the Titanic and Lusitania sinkings combined. The news was so bad Prime Minister Churchill ordered it kept top secret, “The public has heard enough of disaster today.” Lord Haw Haw on Radio Berlin proudly announced the sinking, but no one in England took his news seriously. <br /> <br /> 1946- The first mobile telephone was installed in an automobile in St. Louis, Missouri.<br /> <br /> 1950- Future attorney general and Senator Robert Kennedy married heiress Ethel Scheckter.<br /> <br /> 1952- Jack Parsons died in a massive explosion in his kitchen in Pasadena. He was 37. Parsons was a founder of the Jet Propulsion Lab and the Aerojet Corporation. One of the nations top rocket scientists, his research into rocket fuels powered everything from World War II bazooka shells to the Space Shuttle. Scientists said JPL really stood for “ Jack Parson’s Lab”. <br /> But Parsons also had a strange second life in the occult. He was a follower of Alastair Crowley, sometimes signed his name as AntiChrist, and once tried to raise a demon in a white-magic ceremony. His close friends included writer Robert Heinlein and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. No one is sure what caused the explosion that killed him, but he was cavalier in his use of dangerous materials. Storing explosives in his kitchen refrigerator. <br /> <br /> 1964- The first Universal Studios tram car tour. Carl Laemmle had been inviting tourists in for a nickel to sit in bleachers and watch movies be filmed as early as 1915.<br /> <br /> 1968- Ohio Express’ single “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy I got love in my Tummy” went gold.<br /> <br /> 1972- THE WATERGATE BREAK IN- President Richard Nixon's staff, trying to gain an edge on an upcoming election, hire men to break into Democratic National Committee's offices in the Watergate Hotel to steal election strategy documents. They had already broken in once before but the batteries on the wiretap they planted were defective so they wanted to replace them and copy some more documents. Hotel security guards caught three Cubans and a man named Frank Sturgis. One Cuban had, in his pocket, a check made out by a White House employee named E. Howard Hunt. <br /> This "Third-Rate Burglary" and subsequent cover-up ulcerated into a major scandal that eventually forced the first ever resignation of a US president. President Lyndon Johnson had bugged the Republicans in 1967 and President Kennedy used the IRS to audit politicians he didn’t like, but the general public didn’t know that yet. President Nixon told his aides: "nobody's going to make a big deal that a Republican President broke into Democratic headquarters."<br /> <br /> 1976- The Soweto Uprising. A march turned into a running battle as thousands of South African black protestors battled police in their poor townships.<br /> <br /> 1990- The Battle of Century City- Police attacked 500 striking building maintenance workers and janitors, mostly Central American immigrants, for trying to form a union.<br /> <br /> 1994- THE WHITE BRONCO CHASE- Movie actor and Hall of Fame football player O.J. Simpson was wanted for questioning about the grisly murder of his second wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her boyfriend Ron Goldman. This day OJ tried to escape. He and his football friend Al Cowlings led police on a strange slow-speed pursuit for two hours around the freeways of Los Angeles as the world watched amazed on live television. He eventually was convinced to surrender. OJ Simpson was acquitted of murder in a controversial trial, but found guilty in a civil wrongful death suit. <br /> <br /> 2016- Pixar’s Finding Dori opened, the Sequel to Finding Nemo, directed by Andrew Stanton<br /> =====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s question: Was the goddess Isis originally Egyptian, Greek or Roman?<br /> <br /> Answer: Egyptian. Although in late antiquity gods like her tended to blend into Greek and Roman worship.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 16 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6176 <p>Question: Was the goddess Isis originally Egyptian, Greek or Roman?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is Prima Facie?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/16/2023<br /> Birthdays: Stan Laurel, Willy Boskovsky, Joyce Carol Oates, Nelson Doubleday, Brian Eno, animator Pete Burness, Martha Graham, Erich Segal, Jack Albertson, Helen Traubel, Ron LeFlore, Tupac Shakur, Laurie Metcalf, Sonia Braga is 74, John Cho is 51.<br /> `<br /> Today is the Feast Days of Saints Tychon and Saint Luthgard.<br /> <br /> 1686 BC- King Hammurabi the Lawgiver died in Babylon. He was succeeded by his son Samsu-iluna.<br /> <br /> 391 A.D. Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius I sent the Prefect of Egypt orders to close the pagan temples and forbid the any further practice of the worship of Isis, Serapis and Amon-Ra. It was Theodosius' policy to purge the now Christian Empire of the last vestiges of the old pagan religions. Theodosius closed Plato's Academy, silenced the Oracle of Delphi, burned the Sybilline Books, called the History of the Future, and stopped the Olympic Games.<br /> <br /> 1497- Amerigo Vespucci reached the mainland of South America.<br /> <br /> 1549- Catherine de Medici entered Paris as the bride of King Henry II of France. Many French noblemen objected to the “That fat Florentine shopkeepers’ daughter and her gang of corrupt Italians” but she dominated French politics for decades the way Elizabeth I dominated England. She inspired the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, which is why there are so few French Protestants around today. She also brought a brilliant retinue of Italian cooks using new foods like artichokes and parsley. Modern scholars say Catherine’s influences helped French cuisine break out of the medieval rut of fruit sauces and begin its ascendancy to Haute Cuisine.<br /> <br /> 1657- First recorded mention in London of chocolate for sale. Xocolatl was served by the Mayans and Aztecs as early as 900AD. Mayans called it The Food of the Gods. Xocolatl was served to Hernando Cortez by Montezuma in 1517 but it was pretty bitter stuff, served hot and with chili peppers. The Spaniards tamed Chocolate with sugar and kept the formula a secret for 100 years. The Dutch figured it out and added milk for Milk Chocolate. Sir John Sloan the British chemist invented a formula as well. The Maya also gave Europeans the first Vanilla beans.<br /> <br /> 1779- Spain joined France and Holland in declaring war on Britain over the American Revolution.<br /> <br /> 1788- The Virginia Convention met to bring together the enemies of the new US Constitution. Led by Patrick Henry, after chaotic weeks, they adjourned without coming up with any serious alternatives to the Constitution.<br /> <br /> 1815- BATTLES OF QUATRE BRAS (Four Corners) &amp; LIGNY- Napoleon's last victory. Napoleon slipped his army into Belgium in between Wellington's and his Prussian (German) allies then split his own army in three. While one part stalled the English, Napoleon defeated the Prussian army and sends it running. The engagement might have been more decisive if the flying reserve under General D’Erlon hadn't gotten conflicting instructions. They spent the entire day marching back and forth between the two battles. The Prussian's recovered and Wellington fell back on a little intersection outside of Brussels called Waterloo.<br /> <br /> 1857- WAR OF THE POLICE DEPARTMENTS-One of the strangest incidents in law enforcement history. The New York City Police Dept. under Mayor Fernando Wood was so unbelievably corrupt that Governor Samuel Tilden built a second police force called the Metropolitan Police Force and ordered it to take over the city and arrest the Mayor. They were stopped on the steps of City Hall by the original NYPD and a fight broke out. While citizens and criminals alike looked on in amazement, hundreds of blue-coated policemen clubbed, battered and shot each other in the street. Washington D.C. negotiated a settlement that if the state police force would disband Mayor Wood would resign. He ran for mayor again and was elected 5 years later in time to start the New York City Draft Riots of 1863.<br /> <br /> 1858- Abe Lincoln said in a speech “ A house divided against itself cannot stand.” <br /> <br /> 1884 - On Coney Island Amusement Pier the Switchback Railway, the first roller coaster began operating.<br /> <br /> 1897- Congress approves the treaty to annex the Kingdom of Hawaii.<br /> <br /> 1902- A musical play of L Frank Baum’s fantasy story the Wizard of Oz premiered at Chicago’s Grand Opera House. Like Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days, the play was a bigger success than the original book. When Baum was writing down the stories at one point he was stuck for a name for the magical kingdom. He looked down at his desk files that were labeled A-N and O-Z. <br /> <br /> 1903 – The Pepsi Cola Company formed.<br /> <br /> 1903-. As Henry Ford filed papers of incorporation of his Ford Automobile Company, the first Ford automobiles go on sale at the Tenvoorde sales lot in Minnesota. The Tenvoorde is the oldest Ford dealership in the world and is still in business today, still run by the Tenvoorde Family.<br /> <br /> 1904- "Blume's Day" all the actions in James Joyce's "Ulysses" takes place on this one day in Dublin. This day Dubliners dress up as characters from the book and do readings.<br /> <br /> 1920- International Telephone and Telegraph incorporates- IT&amp;T.<br /> <br /> 1932- Broadway star Mae West heads west for Hollywood to make movies.<br /> <br /> 1933- Franklin Roosevelt signs the National Recovery Act (NRA) and the Glass-Steagel Act, which orders big banks to separate commercial bond business from private savings and loans. This way big banks that ruined themselves in the Stock Market Crash couldn’t destroy the savings of average people who never bought a stock or bond. A heavy publicity campaign encouraged Americans to rally under the blue eagle symbol of the NRA. <br /> The NRA was struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1937 but Glass-Steagel stayed in effect, much to the chagrin of banking corporations. It was finally rescinded by Bill Clinton in 1999, setting the stage for the financial collapse of 2008. <br /> <br /> 1939- Bandleader Chick Webb died at age 30. Webb was an unlikely pop star, a crooked backed, tuberculate little person who played drums. But his band The Chick Webb Orchestra pioneered the new Jazz form called Swing Music and inspired the Big Band Sound. One of Webb’s last actions before succumbing to his debilitating health problems was to make a star out of 19-year-old street singer named Ella Fitzgerald.<br /> <br /> 1940- As the Nazi tanks continue to roll deeper into France, French Premier Paul Reynaud resigned, and elderly Great War hero Marshal Phillipe Petain formed a new government and asked the Germans for terms of surrender.<br /> <br /> 1941-Operation Battle Axe- In the Sahara Desert, Rommel the Desert Fox defeated the British Army under Sir Archibald Wavell. <br /> <br /> 1941- President Franklin Roosevelt ordered Nazi Germany and Italy to close their diplomatic consulates and leave the country.<br /> <br /> 1943- 54 year old actor Charlie Chaplin married his fourth wife, 18 year old Oona O’Neill. She was the daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill. In Hollywood, Chaplin’s nickname in Hollywood was “Chickenhawk Charlie” for his fondness for underage girls. Oona did remain his wife until the end of his life in 1971.<br /> <br /> 1947 –The 1st regular broadcast network news show began-Dumont's "News from Washington”.<br /> <br /> 1951- Chuck Jones short, “Chow Hound”. Don’t forget the gravy.<br /> <br /> 1952- The CBS television comedy My Little Margie premiered. It starred Gale Storm and Charlie Farrell. <br /> <br /> 1955- Disney’s Lady and the Tramp premiered.<br /> <br /> 1958-Imre Nagy, who led Hungary’s ill-fated uprising against Communist domination in 1956, was hanged by the Soviets. <br /> <br /> 1959- Actor George Reeves, who played the 1950s television Superman, went upstairs after a dinner party and shot himself with a Luger pistol. Actor Gig Young, who was a friend of Reeves, said the actor 's career was going well, he was getting his first directing jobs, and his love life was fine. He never believed the actor would shoot himself. Gig Young shot himself in 1981. <br /> Many of Reeves friends also wonder if it was a suicide because Reeves had been dating a socialite named Toni Mannix whose husband Eddie Mannix, VP of MGM had mob connections. Another story has Toni Mannix counting among her boyfriend’s Lucky Lucciano, the head of the NY Mafia. The bullet entrance in George Reeves body didn’t have the customary powder burns of a suicide and there were other bullet holes in the floor and ceiling. Also the gun in Reeves hand had been wiped clean of fingerprints. <br /> <br /> 1960- Alfred Hitchcock's thriller "Psycho" premiered. “ Oh Mother! What have you done?”<br /> <br /> 1963- Cosmonaut Valentina Tereschkova was the first woman to go into space.<br /> <br /> 1963- David Ben-Gurion, who directed the Jewish Zionist independence movement since 1936 and was Israel’s first Prime Minister, stunned the young nation by announcing his retirement. He declared he was worn out by the strain of power. He lived quietly in a Kibbutz in the Negev Desert, occasionally coming out to give a speech.<br /> In 1968 he was invited to visit South Africa at the height of its racist apartheid laws. At dinner Ben-Gurion turned to the Calvinist white Afrikanz bishops and asked:” And how do you explain to your flock that Moses married a black woman?”<br /> <br /> 1966-YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT… The Supreme Court handed down the ruling Miranda vs. Arizona, overturning the conviction of an Ernesto Miranda, who was jailed after he was tricked into confessing an assault of a Phoenix woman. This ruling established the famous Miranda Rights, read to every suspect upon arrest. Ernesto Miranda was retired and convicted again and was stabbed in a bar fight in 1972.<br /> <br /> 1967- The film “The Dirty Dozen” debuted. <br /> <br /> 1987- Italian porn star Ciccolina announced that since all politicians were whores and she was a whore, she would run for office. This made sense to Italians, who this day elected her overwhelmingly to a seat in Parliament.<br /> <br /> 2002- The Premiere of Lilo and Stitch, written and directed by Chris Sanders &amp; Dean Deblois.<br /> <br /> 2015- Reality TV star, and self-obsessed real-estate tycoon Donald Trump declared his candidacy for President. At the time he had so few followers he had to hire an audience of movie extras to fill out his press event at Trump Tower. In his opening speech, he managed to insult Mexico, immigrants, and Mexican Americans. “…They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”<br /> <br /> 2018- Brad Birds’ The Incredibles 2 opened in theaters.<br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is Prima Facie?<br /> <br /> Answer: Prima Facie translates as "first face." As a legal term, it has come to mean that, at first impression (on the face of it), there is enough evidence to bring a case. (thanks FG)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 15 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6175 <p>Question: What is Prima Facie?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Which English king signed the Magna Carta?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/15/2023
Birthdays: Edward the Black Prince of England, Rachael Donelson Jackson- Andy Jackson’s First Lady, Edvard Grieg, Saul Steinburg, Mario Cuomo, Jim Varney, Wade Boggs, Waylon Jennings, Xaviera Hollander the Happy Hooker, Jim Belushi, Neil Adams, Roger Chiasson, Michael Barrier, Ice Cube is 54, Neil Patrick Harris is 50, Courtenay Cox is 59, Helen Hunt is 60, Lang Lang is 41<br /> <br /> Happy St. Vitus Day! "If St. Vitus Day be rainy weather, shall rain for thirty days together. "St. Vitus was the patron of epilepsy, and some extreme forms of seizure (chorea) was called "St. Vitus Dance".<br /> <br /> 1215- The MAGNA CARTA or the Great Charter signed. On the field of Runnymede. The rebellious English barons force King John (also called John Lackland, John Soft Sword, etc.) to sign a document granting basic individual rights such as trial by a jury of peers, the right to face your accuser, Habeas Corpus, etc. It basically said for the first time that even a King was not above the law of the land.<br /> After King John signed, he traveled to Rome, where he bribed the Pope to absolve him of his oath. Then he returned with an army of mercenaries to put down his barons. Even though he hired rogues like Victor the Villain and Mauger the Murderer, King John still lost. Magna Carta became the basis of English Law. <br /> John wasn’t a totally terrible king. He built the first British navy yards at Portsmouth and Southampton and unlike his older brother Richard Lionheart, John preferred speaking English over Norman French.<br /> <br /> 1300- Poet Dante Alighieri got a job as one of the governing priors of Florence, sort of a city council. We don’t know if it says something about his abilities at municipal governing, but he was run out of town in 1302.<br /> <br /> 1762 – The Austrian Empire becomes the first to issue paper currency. <br /> <br /> 1775 - The Continental Congress appointed Mr. George Washington, Esq. of Virginia to be commanding general of the new colonial army forming around Boston. John Adams urged Congress to pick a southerner to command the mostly New Englander farmers in the interest of colonial unity. The fact that he was one of the richest men in America didn't hurt either. Plus the 6’ 2 plantation owner dropped hints he was interested in the job, like being the only delegate to attend congress squeezed into his 20 year old militia uniform. They afterwards bought him dinner at Peg Mullen's Beefsteak House. During the meal he turned to Patrick Henry and said, " From the date I enter into command of America's Armies, I date the fall and ruin of my reputation!" <br /> <br /> 1776- William Franklin, the pro-British governor of New Jersey, was arrested by the Yankee rebels and thrown into a dungeon. He was the illegitimate son of Benjamin Franklin and his cook Deborah Regan, whom Franklin later married out of sympathy for the boy. William had assisted his dad with his flying kite experiment years ago. The New Jersey delegates told Dr. Franklin while the Independence Declaration was being debated, and he was 'unmoved'. <br /> Truth be told the two men couldn't stand one another. They said they reconciled after the Revolution but that may have been more for public record than reality. When he died Ben Franklin did not leave his son a penny in his will, bitterly stating its only what William would have left him had the positions been reversed.<br /> <br /> 1800- US Congress ordered the disbanding of the US Army as a waste of money.<br /> <br /> 1815- THE WATERLOO BALL- In Brussels, the Duchess of Richmond hosted a ball for the officers of Wellington’s army before they go to stop Napoleon. Many of the dancers will be dead three days later. The event is dramatized in "Vanity Fair" and" Becky Sharp." While this ball is taking place Napoleon crossed his army into Belgium and placed it in between the British and Prussians (Germans) on the road to Brussels. Napoleon correctly guessed it would take some time for the enemy nations like Russia and Austria to mobilize armies (their target date was July 17) so instead of waiting for the inevitable invasion of France he would attack first, win a big victory then hopefully negotiate a peace from strength.<br /> <br /> 1836- Arkansas becomes a state.<br /> <br /> 1844- Mr. Charles Goodyear invents the vulcanization process, that keeps rubber from getting sticky in warm weather and brittle in the cold. <br /> <br /> 1846- The Oregon Treaty. The United States and Great Britain settle a dispute over exactly where the northwest border was between the U.S. and Canada. Despite President Polk’s belligerent campaign slogan “Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!” a peaceful compromise was reached on the 49th parallel.<br /> <br /> 1849- Three months after leaving office, President James K. Polk died. He was 53. The President who fought the War with Mexico to get California and the southwest was a lifelong teetotaler and never drank. He died of cholera from drinking bad water. Sam Houston, who was one of the great alcoholics of American history reacted, “That’s the natural end of all water-drinkers."<br /> <br /> 1888 -Kaiser Wilhelm II becomes leader of Germany after the death of his father Frederich III, who died of throat cancer after reigning only 100 days. Kaiser Frederich was mild, liberal and had an English wife. He hated German powermongers and abhorred the cruel reputation Germany was getting for militarism. He was determined to alter these policies. <br /> The first thing Wilhelm did had troops break into his mother's office and seize some confidential papers in her desk. He and his mother were hardly on speaking terms and he referred to her as "That English Princess who is my mother.." Once when Wilhelm had a nosebleed he refused to stop it because" Now maybe all the English blood will drain out of me!" The modern world would have turned out very different had Frederick lived to see 1914 as Germany’s leader, instead of his emotionally disturbed son " Willy ". <br /> <br /> 1896- GERMANY BUILDS A NAVY. Kaiser Wilhelm approved the plan of Admiral Von Tirpitz to create a huge battleship fleet. For the first time Von Tirpitz implicitly named England as an enemy. Germany and England until then had never fought a war and were usually allies. Queen Victoria spoke fluent German and her grandson the Kaiser was fluent in English. The Kaiser’s desk in his office was made from the wood of Admiral Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory. But building a navy meant Germany was directly challenging England for mastery of the High Seas. <br /> <br /> 1916- The Boy Scouts of America founded.<br /> <br /> 1932-The Bonus Marchers, thousands of Depression-unemployed veterans, encamp around Capitol Hill and begin a silent barefoot protest march around Congress. Unlike the army and Government of the time they vote to abolish Jim Crow and completely integrate their ranks.<br /> <br /> 1938- The Fair Labor Standards Act passed. <br /> <br /> 1945- Judy Garland married director Vincente Minnelli. Lisa Minnelli was one result.<br /> <br /> 1951- Comedian Lenny Bruce married a stripper named Honey Stuart.<br /> <br /> 1955- DUCK &amp; COVER. The US Government held Operation OPAL, the first nationwide Civil Defense alert drills. Not only did millions of school children have to jump under their desks to avoid imaginary Russian nukes, but plans were made for commandos to grab the President, Congressional leaders, Supreme Court and even grab the Declaration of Independence and other valuable documents and whisk them to underground bunkers in the Blue Ridge Mountains. <br /> Russian agents later said they learned a great deal about US intentions from observing these silly drills. President Eisenhower got a good laugh when the motorcade speeding him through the Virginia countryside was blocked by a heard of pigs. “Well, I guess that means we’re all dead, boys!” The president joked.<br /> <br /> 1969- The country music comedy TV show Hee-Haw premiered as a summer replacement for the Smothers Brothers Hour. Hee Haw ran for years with high ratings but CBS cancelled the show anyway. This was because CBS chief Bill Paley disliked country music. CBS had so many shows like Mayberry RFD, Beverly Hillbillies and Hee Haw, that insiders joked that CBS stood for the Country Broadcasting System. Hee Haw had the last laugh, going on to a successful syndication run for decades. <br /> <br /> 1977- Everybody Disco! KC and the Sunshine band release “I’m your Boogie Man”.<br /> <br /> 1983- Rowan Atkinson’s The Black Adder TV comedy premiered on BBC.<br /> <br /> 1985 Studio Ghibli was founded, headed by the directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata and producer Toshio Suzuki.The studio was founded after the success of the 1984 film NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND written and directed by Miyazaki for Topcraft and distributed by Toei Company. The name Ghibli was coined by Hayao Miyazaki in reference to the Caproni Ca.309 Ghibli airplane. The Italian noun "ghibli" is based on the Arabic name for the sirocco, or Mediterranean wind, the idea being the studio would "blow a new wind through the anime industry".<br /> <br /> <br /> 1990- Warren Beatty’s movie version of Dick Tracy opened. Accompanied by the second Roger Rabbit short Roller Coaster Rabbit. Directed by Rob Minkoff.<br /> <br /> 1992- The US Supreme Court ruled that it was okay for American law agencies to kidnap suspects being given asylum in foreign countries and bring them to the US for trial, just no one better try kidnapping anybody outta da Good Old U-S of A! <br /> <br /> 1994- Walt Disney’s The Lion King premiere. <br /> <br /> 1999- In San Diego, Nicholas Vitalich was arrested for slapping his wife with a large tuna.<br /> <br /> 2002- Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones was knighted.<br /> ………………………………………………………………………………….<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: Which English king signed the Magna Carta?<br /> <br /> Answer: King John 1, see above 1215.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 14 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6174 <p>Question: Which English king signed the Magna Carta?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Was Sam Adams, like the beer, ever a real person?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/14/2023<br /> Birthdays: Tomaso Albinioni, Fighting Bob LaFollette, Margaret Bourke-White, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sam Wanamaker, Cliff Edwards the voice of Jiminy Cricket, Dorothy McGuire, Burl Ives, Gene Barry, Jerzy Kosinski, Diablo Cody is 44, Donald Trump is 77.<br /> <br /> 451 A.D. Battle of Orleans- Attila the Hun was defeated by the combined armies of Theodoric the Visigoth and the Roman general Aetius. Attila was told by his shamans that a great king would die that day. But even though Attila lost, it was Theodoric who was killed. Attila was not killed in battle but died on his wedding night years later with wife #20. He was 45, she was 16. He was dead by morning.<br /> <br /> 1497- Giovanni Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI and brother to Cesare and Lucretzia Borgia, had dinner with his family, then disappeared on his way home. Next day his body was found in the Tiber River with nine knife wounds in it. No one ever found the murderer. Suspects included everyone from scholar Pico Della Mirandola to his own brother Cesare. Heart-broken, dad Pope Alexander told his cardinals "This is God’s punishment for our sins, I hereby promise to renounce Nepotism and Simony, and I shall reform the Church." But Alex soon got over it, and resumed his corrupt ways.<br /> <br /> 1645- Battle of Naseby- Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army defeated King Charles I army in the decisive battle of the English Civil War. After this, the King never again could field a large army. Charles had as one of his generals his German nephew Prince Rupert of the Rhine. Rupert rode into battle with a white poodle under his arm named Bobbie. He made declarations like: "We will strew the field with English dead!" Considering it was a civil war, that conclusion was inevitable. <br /> <br /> 1658- Battle of the Dunes- Oliver Cromwell's Ironside cavalry help the French fight the Spaniards in Belgium. Cromwell was born during the reign of Queen Elizabeth when Spain was England's chief enemy, but by this time his generals were much more worried about Louis XIV's France. They felt they were helping the wrong side, but the Old Lord Protector (Cromwell) overruled them.<br /> <br /> 1718- The later years of Czar Peter the Great’s rule were clouded by a feud with his son and heir Alexis. While Peter was dragging Russia forcibly out of medieval backwardness his son was educated by priests to hate his father’s new ideas. Alexis pledged to undo all his father’s reforms when he became Czar. At one point Alexis fled to Italy to escape his father’s anger but returned when promised amnesty. This day Peter went back on his pledge and had Alexis arrested. In the dungeon below Saint Peter &amp; Paul fortress Alexis was beaten to death with whips. Papa himself administered the first blows. <br /> <br /> 1727- George II of England told by Sir Robert Walpole that his august father George I had died, and he was now king. At first George thought it was one of his dad's cruel jokes and said" Dat izt von big lie!"(they had German accents remember). He always resented his dad’s cruel treatment of his mom, like having her lover murdered while he kept a regular mistress. George I didn’t trust his English subjects and was always homesick for his birthplace in Hanover Germany. He was always visiting there. When he died and was buried over there, truth be said, nobody in England really missed him. While his grandson King George III’s death was cause for national mourning, George I’s death was only casually mentioned in the society newspapers.<br /> <br /> Happy Flag Day -in 1777 The Continental Congress orders the Stars &amp; Stripes flag to be the official U.S. flag. It replaced the Cambridge Flag (The Tree and Stripes) and the Snake and Stripes, and all those other things silly things and stripes. <br /> <br /> 1789- Capt. Bligh reached East Timor after floating 4,000 miles in an open boat. He and his followers were cast adrift by the Bounty Mutineers.<br /> <br /> 1800- Battle of Marengo- Napoleon defeated the Austrian army and conquers most of Italy. At first he was losing and his men were fighting so furiously against high odds that some could be seen urinating into their rifle barrels to cool them off. Just when things seemed lost, his regimental commander General Desaix, arrived in the nick of time, won the battle, and was conveniently killed in action so Napoleon didn’t have to share any of the credit. This led Napoleon to observe "The difference between victory and defeat can be 15 minutes."<br /> <br /> 1801- Old Revolutionary War traitor Benedict Arnold died in London of dropsy. He was living on an English major general’s half pay, but was shunned by polite British society, as he was despised by Americans. Legend has it that in his last days he had his wife Peggy help him back into his old Colonial uniform:" My country’s uniform! Woe to me that I ever put on another!" After his death, The London Post observed: Poor General Arnold departed this life, unmourned and without notice. A sorry reflection for other turncoats."<br /> <br /> 1807- Battle of Friedland -Napoleon does it again, this time to a Russian army. <br /> <br /> 1816- Writers Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and Mary Shelley were spending the summer at the Villa Deodati on Lake Geneva. This day among the revels, drinking, partner swapping and opium taking, Byron suggested they all write a ghost story. They all failed except for 19 year old Mary, who invented a story of a Swiss scientist who created an artificial man. She called it Frankenstein.<br /> <br /> 1822- Charles Babbage presented a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society in London proposing to build a "Difference Engine" a machine that could calculate equations and print the results-i.e. a computer. His early machine required 8,000 moving parts. Countess Ada Lovelace wrote the first program for it. After ten years and a small fortune it never quite comes off, but today it is considered the ancestor of the computer. MIT’s Vaneavar Bush and Cambridge’s Alan Turing both used Babbage’s writings as their starting off point.<br /> <br /> 1832- A large French invasion force landed in Algiers. The Barbary Corsairs were so annoyed they took the French ambassador and shot him out of a large large cannon. It was tough being a diplomat in those days. France held Algeria as a colony until 1962.<br /> <br /> 1834- Isaac Fischer Jr. of Vermont invented sandpaper. <br /> <br /> 1846-THE GREAT BEAR REBELLION- U.S. citizens living in Spanish California led by a schoolteacher named William Ide and Ezekiel Merritt declared themselves an independent country, not knowing that back east the U.S. government had already declared war on Mexico and declared California annexed to the U.S. Remember information took months to get back East across Indian territory and burning deserts. The Anglo-Californians seized a Sonoma military post and arrested the owner of the largest hacienda in the area, a retired Mexican General named Mariano Vallejo. Ironically Senor Vallejo himself desired AltaCalifornia to have independence from Mexico City. <br /> They chose as their flag for the new republic the grizzly bear and the polar star, which is now the state flag. It wasn’t well drawn. One Mexican woman watching the events thought the flag looked like “a large towel with a pig painted on it.” US Colonel John Freemont took over from the Great Bear settlers and raised the US flag over the Presidio in San Francisco on July 1st.<br /> <br /> 1865- A group of Englishmen climbed the Materhorn Mountain in Switzerland, inventing the sport of mountain climbing. <br /> <br /> 1934- Hitler met Mussolini for the first time for a conference in the city of Padua. They didn't trust any interpreters, and neither could speak the others language, so it wasn't much of a meeting. Il Duce's first impression of the German Chancellor wasn't impressive. He called Adolf " A comical little monkey."<br /> <br /> 1940- The German Army goose-stepped down the Champs Elysees into Paris. The Nazi propaganda that night broadcast from Radio Berlin declared" The decadent, democratic Paris of Jews and Negroes is gone, never to rise again!!" Marc Chagall and Jean Renoir (son of Auguste) fled the city on bicycles with their paintings strapped to their backs. German Jewish writers H.A. and Margaret Rey left on bicycles they had to repair from spare parts. In the basket of one bicycle was a manuscript for a new children’s book they had written. Curious George. <br /> <br /> 1941- President Roosevelt ordered all German and Italian assets in the U.S. frozen.<br /> <br /> 1942- A secret coded message sent by Moscow's intelligence service to all their agents in Germany, England and the U.S.A. showed that Russia was aware of these countries attempts to build an atomic bomb, and that Soviet agents should use all means to secure information about these programs.<br /> <br /> 1951- Univac I, built by John W, Mauchly and J. Prosper Eckert Jr. of the Remington Rand Company to be the first U.S. commercial built electronic computer, went online for the census bureau in Philadelphia.<br /> <br /> 1954- The Eisenhower Administration ordered the adding of the words "Under God" to the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance.<br /> <br /> 1957- Nelson Mandela married Winnie Mandela.<br /> <br /> 1959- Three new rides are debuted at Disneyland in Anaheim. The first monorail the Disneyland-Alweg Monorail System, Matterhorn Mountain, and the Submarine Voyage.( the submarine ride had been running since June 5).<br /> <br /> 1962- The Boston Strangler killed his first victim.<br /> <br /> 1964- THE FIRST HIPPY BUS- Ken Kesey, the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, bought an old school bus, painted it psychedelic colors, took of troupe of 14 fellow free spirits called the Merry Pranksters and spent the next few months driving across the country taking LSD and staging Happenings in various cities and towns.<br /> The Bus’s was name Further and its driver was Neil Cassidy, friend of Beatnik author Jack Kerouac. A book documenting the escapades of the "hippy bus" was "The Electric Koolaid Acid Test." Ken Kesey became interested in LSD when he volunteered for a college program to experiment with the drug, secretly funded by the CIA. The Merry Pranksters were invited in 1969 to be the security for the Woodstock Rock Festival.<br /> <br /> 1966- The Vatican abolished the Index of Forbidden Books. <br /> <br /> 1977- Skinny Carnaby Street fashion model Twiggy got married to Michael Whitney.<br /> <br /> 1983- The Pioneer 10 space probe left its orbit around Jupiter and headed off into deep space. NASA lost all contact in 1997. Pioneer 10 is expected to reach the solar system of the star Ross 246 in the Constellation Taurus in the year 34,600 AD. <br /> <br /> 1989- Elderly actress Zsa Zsa Gabor was arrested for slapping a Beverly Hills policeman who was writing her a traffic ticket.<br /> <br /> 1990- Warren Beatty’s film “Dick Tracy” premiered at Disneyworld. And opened generally the next day.<br /> <br /> 1995- MP3. The researchers at Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits decided to use "mp3" as the file name extension for their new audio coding technology. Development on this technology started in 1987. By 1992 it was considered far ahead of its time. MP3 became the generally accepted acronym as the popular standard for digital music on the on the Internet.<br /> <br /> 2001- The Oxford English Dictionary admitted the slang expletive of Homer Simpson "D’OH!" into its august pages.<br /> <br /> 2002- An asteroid the size of a football field bypassed the Earth by just 75,000 miles, about one fifth the distance to our moon. If it had hit us, the cataclysm might have rivaled the one that eliminated the dinosaurs. Little was said about it in the media because it came from the direction of the Sun and was undetectable until it was almost on top of us. So, sleep well tonight, modern science is on guard! Nyaaahhhh!!<br /> -------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Was Sam Adams, like the beer, ever a real person?<br /> <br /> Answer: Sam Adams (1722-1803) really was a brewer and patriot. An early radical in Boston who openly called for independence. He served as governor of Massachusetts. He was a second cousin of John Adams.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 13 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6173 <p>Question: Was Sam Adams, like the beer, ever a real person?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Which character is older? Sylvester the Cat, Garfield the Cat, Top Cat or Felix the Cat?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/13/2023<br /> Birthdays: Gnaeus Agricola- 40AD, Harriet Beecher Stowe, W.B. Yeats, Red Grange, Basil Rathbone, Dorothy Sayers, Ralph Edwards, Paul Lynde, Tim Allen is 70, Darla Hood, Ally Sheedy, Simon Callow is 71, Christo, Ralph McQuarrie, Malcolm McDowell is 80, Stellan Skarsgard is 72, the Olsen Twins are 37, Chris Evans is 42.<br /> <br /> 313 A.D. Constantine, the Roman Emperor of the West, and Licinius the Emperor of the East published a joint edict throughout the Roman Empire granting religious toleration: "All men shall have the freedom to worship what Gods they will." This edict officially lifted the 250-year persecution of Christianity. <br /> <br /> 1381-THE ENGLISH PEASANT REVOLT OCCUPIES LONDON. -Wat the Tyner and his pissed-off peasants chase young King Richard II into the Tower of London and drag the Archbishop of Canterbury to Tyburn Hill to chop his head off. The Archbishop was in charge of economic policy and taxation for the young king, so he was the focus of the people's rage. They used a non-union executioner, so it took several chops to get the job done...<br /> <br /> 1777- British General “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne began his invasion from Canada into New York State to smash the American Revolution once and for all. The Great North River, called the Hudson, was considered the jugular of America, because it divided militant New England from the moderate Mid-Atlantic and Southern States. Before Burgoyne left London, he had wagered politician Charles Fox 20 guineas that he would finish off the Yankees by Christmas. <br /> Burgoyne immediately annoyed most of the senior British officers in America. He refused orders from Canadian Governor General Carleton or Lord Howe in New York. He declared that his was an independent command and so could not be ordered about by anyone but London. <br /> By October, defeated, cut off, and surrounded by swarms of rebels at Saratoga, he got a letter out to Carleton “requesting You Lordships orders”. Carleton took this as a weenie attempt to shift the blame, so he ignored him. Burgoyne surrendered with his whole army and was prisoner exchanged. He did get home by Christmas, just without his army...<br /> <br /> 1777- Count Casimir Pulaski goes to join the American Revolution. Pulaski was a hotheaded Polish patriot who had fought Russians, served in the French and Turkish armies, made love to Catherine the Great, and had been in a conspiracy to kidnap the pro-Russian King of Poland. The American ambassadors trying to recruit European military experts found Pulaski in a Marseilles prison for non-payment of bills. Pulaski thought the Americans had paid his debts as part of his enlistment, but the truth was the French forgave his debts because they were just glad to get rid of him. <br /> Count Pulaski became the Father of the American Cavalry and the only person to ever hold the rank in the U.S. Army of Commander of Horse. He was killed in battle outside of Savannah Georgia at age 31.<br /> <br /> 1793- Captain Napoleon Bonaparte relocated his family from Corsica to mainland France.<br /> <br /> 1807- Former Vice President Aaron Burr was on trial for treason because of his plot to create a new kingdom for himself in Mexican Texas. As part of his defense, this day Chief Justice Marshal subpoenaed President Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson refused, citing the concept of Executive Privilege. That a President can’t be put under oath, for reasons of national security. So, Justice Marshal acquitted Aaron Burr for lack of evidence. Pres. Jefferson then considered arresting Chief Justice Marshal. The Executive Privilege concept was rarely used until Nixon used it for Watergate. Then Dick Cheney claimed it applied to vice presidents, too. Then in our own time Drumpf said it applied to everybody he gave orders to in the Executive Branch, and their little dog, too!<br /> <br /> 1858- THE BIG STINK- The population of metropolitan London had been outgrowing its sewage system. The Thames was London’s main sewer, as well as its source of drinking water. But nobody realized how bad it was until the unusually hot summer of 1858. Today the temperature reached the 90f, and the stink from the river got so bad it broke up a meeting of the Prime Minister’s cabinet. Ministers ran out of Parliament holding handkerchiefs to their noses. <br /> <br /> 1877- The Russo-Turkish War begins. Russia attacks into the Balkans after a Turkish governor commits a massacre of Bulgarian peasants. When the Russian armies get down to Istanbul the British and Austria threatens war if Russia goes any further.<br /> <br /> 1878-The CONGRESS OF BERLIN OPENS- German Chancellor Bismarck offered to mediate the argument between Russia and Britain and Austria over the Russo-Turkish War. It is the first world conference where all the great powers and statesmen convened not to divide conquered spoils but actually prevent a larger war from happening. As Bismarck joked in English to retired U.S. President Ulysses Grant, then vacationing: "Russia has bitten off a bit too much Turkey, and we must make him give some back.”<br /> <br /> 1905- The workers of the Russian city of Odessa go on strike and the Czar's troops shoot them down on the Odessa steps. This causes the Battleship Potemkin's sailors to mutiny. Twenty years later Sergei Eisenstein made a famous film of the incident.<br /> <br /> 1920-The US Government ruled Americans cannot mail their children through the Parcel Post System.<br /> <br /> 1927- Wall St. tickertape parade for Charles Lindbergh.<br /> <br /> 1941-The American Federation of Labor, the AF of L called for a nationwide boycott of all Disney products and films. This was to support the Disney Cartoonists strike.<br /> <br /> 1942- President Roosevelt by executive order created the Office of Strategic Services or the OSS. Under director Wild Bill Donovan its job was to coordinate espionage and intelligence gathering against the Axis powers in cooperation with its British counterpart, the SOE. On the agencies personnel roster were experts from spymasters William Gates and William Casey to tourist book author Eugene Fodor and chef Julia Child. Child for a time was an executive assistant to Donovan and transferred to India helped develop a shark repellent for downed fliers. Child recalled the OSS was nicknamed “Oh So Secret!” and “Oh, So-Social” for all the New York society High Society types in it. After World War II, the OSS became the CIA.<br /> <br /> 1944- The first Vengence-1 (V-1) Buzz Bombs hit London. Nicknamed “doodle bugs”, the first 21 launched missed most targets and one even spun around and landed close to Hitler. This is when the auto-destruct button was conceived. Of the ones that hit England the worst damage was to Bethnel Green tube station. Unlike bombers, these guided missiles were almost impossible to shoot down. By wars end 1,800 would hit London along with 5,000 V-2s and drive much of the population into the countryside.<br /> <br /> 1958- Frank Zappa graduated Antelope Valley High School.<br /> <br /> 1962- Three convicts, Frank Lee Morris, and the brothers Anglin, escaped from Alcatraz with a crude rowboat. They are the only prisoners to have ever successfully escaped from the Rock. Alcatraz was closed by attorney general Robert Kennedy later that year.<br /> <br /> 1967- President Lyndon Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshal to the Supreme Court. Marshal was the first African American to sit in the nation’s highest court, and as an attorney successfully pled the 1955 case Brown vs. Board of Education that struck down school segregation.<br /> <br /> 1971 -The day after Tricia Nixon's wedding, the Washington Post and the New York Times began printing THE PENTAGON PAPERS. They were leaked by dissenting intelligence specialist Daniel Ellsberg. Ellsberg was on the staff of Defense Secretary Robert MacNamara when McNamara ordered a fact paper drawn up explaining step by step just how the U.S. managed to get in as big a mess as Vietnam. The papers revealed damaging secrets as the U.S. had secretly been fighting alongside the South Vietnamese much earlier than the "Tonkin Gulf Incident" of 1965, all the while claiming neutrality. <br /> The U.S.S. Maddox, the ship that was fired on in the Tonkin Gulf, was ordered to violate Vietnamese waters and provoke a Communist attack; and that the opinion of the Pentagon Joint Chiefs was that they knew the war was unwinnable as early as 1965, yet we kept fighting anyway until 1973. <br /> The publication was very damaging to the Nixon White House, even though it was all about events taking place in the previous Democratic administrations. Robert McNamara said he himself never got around to reading the Pentagon Papers but kept a copy in his garage.<br /> <br /> 1978- Ford fired Lee Iacocca from the Ford Corporation. The creator of the Ford Mustang would later move on to run Chrysler. When asked why, Henry Ford II said: “Sometimes you just don’t like somebody.”<br /> <br /> 1982- Bill the Cat first appeared in the comic strip Bloom County.<br /> <br /> 1991- Boris Yeltsin became the first popularly elected leader of Russia.<br /> <br /> 2010- Pixar’s Toy Story 3 premiered.<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Quiz: Which character is older? Sylvester the Cat, Garfield the Cat, Top Cat or Felix the Cat?<br /> <br /> Answer: Felix the Cat was created in 1914.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 12 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6172 <p>Quiz: Which character is older? Sylvester the Cat, Garfield the Cat, Top Cat or Felix the Cat?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: What is Dressage?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/12/2023<br /> Birthdays: Egon Scheile, John Roebling the builder of the Brooklyn Bridge, Uta Hagen, Chick Corea, Sir Anthony Eden, Jim Nabors, Vic Damone, David Rockefeller, Irwin Allen, Marv Albert, Arthur Fellig- better known as Weegee, Sherry Stringfield, George Herbert Walker Bush, Anne Frank, Clyde “Jerry” Geronimi, Richard Sherman of the Sherman Bros is 95<br /> <br /> 1192- After battling across Palestine for over a year, King Richard Lionheart stood on a hilltop overlooking the Holy City of Jerusalem. The other Crusader leaders had gone home, leaving him with too weak an army to take the city. He covered his eyes with his shield and refused to look, saying he could not bear to see the Holy City in chains. Saladin was having problems of his own with unruly vassals and lukewarm support for his Jihad. But when he got the news that the Christians were withdrawing to the coast, he knew The Third Crusade had spent itself, and Saladin had won.<br /> <br /> 1616- Pocahontas, now called Lady Rebecca Rolfe, landed in England with her husband and son Thomas. <br /> <br /> 1733- Prussian King Frederick William I had his son Crown Prince Frederick married to Princess Elizabeth Christine of Brunswick. Despite being gay, Frederick the Great did his royal duty and married, but he and his wife kept separate households. Later as King, when asked why he never spoke with the Queen, King Frederick replied:" You see, the problem is my wife has the intelligence of a duck."<br /> <br /> 1815- Napoleon left Paris for Waterloo.<br /> <br /> 1817- In Mannheim Germany, Karl von Drais invented something he called a “laufmachine”. Also called a “velocipede” or drasienne” “swiftwalker”, but we call the bicycle. In 1865 a Frenchman added the pedals.<br /> <br /> 1862- Dashing Confederate cavalry leader Jeb Stuart makes headlines by riding his horsemen completely around the back of the 105,000 man Union army. Among the pursuing Yankees he made look stupid was his own father-in-law, Gen. Phillip Saint-George Cooke.<br /> <br /> 1876- News reporter George Kellogg was invited by General Custer to accompany him on his next campaign against the hostile Siooux. Kellogg would be the only correspondent embedded with the 7th Cavalry as they rode to the Little Big Horn. He wrote a friend,” I go to ride with Custer and will be there at the death…”<br /> <br /> 1898- In Cavite, Nationalist leader Emilio Aquinaldo declared the Independence of the Philippines after 300 years of Spanish rule. Too bad the United States didn’t see it that way. During the war with Spain the U.S. gave lip service to Philippine nationalism but after the war annexed the Philippines and fought these same nationalists. <br /> <br /> 1912- Archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt uncovered the bust of queen Nefertiti, the beauty icon, and the wife of King Akhenaten more than 3,300 years ago. It was created by the artist Thutmose in Amarna around 1345 B.C. Ludwig Borchardt did not have permission to take it to Berlin. He downplayed its importance to Egyptian authorities, then smuggled it out of the country. <br /> <br /> 1936- Cooperstown's Baseball Hall of Fame dedicated on the supposed 100th anniversary of Abner Doubleday inventing baseball. We now know that date to be fiction but it was a good party anyway. Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner and Walter Johnson were the first inductees. Doubleday was a Civil War general and the composer of the bugle call "Taps", first called General Doubleday’s Lullaby.<br /> <br /> 1937- Soviet leader Josef Stalin had eight of his top generals shot. Even Marshal Tuchashevsky, whose strategy had won the Russian Civil War. At his state funeral Stalin publicly praised Tuchashevsky’s talents as a leader even as he was having his mother shipped to a Siberian prison camp. When General Rokossovsky was interrogated, a secret policeman broke out his front teeth with a hammer. He wore steel dentures thereafter and would help win the key Battle of Stalingrad. By 1941 Stalin’s paranoid purges would kill 25,000 officers, 90% of the Red Army's general staff, just when they were about to be invaded by Hitler’s army. <br /> <br /> 1940- As German panzer tanks rolled towards Paris, French commander General Weygand ordered the military governor of Paris declare it an open city- meaning the French army would voluntarily evacuate it so no fighting or destruction would happen in its precincts. French General Weygand later said everything was Britain’s fault.<br /> <br /> 1942- On her birthday, Anne Frank was given a diary.<br /> <br /> 1949- The first LA parking ticket.<br /> <br /> 1952- Chief auto designer for Chevrolet Maurice Olley completed work on a sports car originally code-named the Opel, but later released as the Corvette.<br /> <br /> 1956- Singer/activist Paul Robeson testified to The House UnAmerican Activities Committee. He was called in after he refused to sign an affidavit that he was not a Communist. Robeson told the committee,” My father was a slave and my people died to build this country, and I am going to stay here and have a part of it, just like you. And no Fascist-minded people, just like you, will drive me from it. Is that clear?” They had earlier asked baseball star Jackie Robinson to denounce Robeson, but instead he denounced Jim Crow laws.<br /> <br /> 1962- Edward M. Gilbert, the "Boy Wizard of Wall Street," loses $23 million for his firm E.L. Bruce Flooring, then embezzles $2 million more and escaped to Brazil.<br /> <br /> 1962- In Modesto California, a teenage film student named George Lucas was almost killed in a car accident.<br /> <br /> 1963- Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers was shot and killed by a high powered sniper rifle in his own driveway in Jackson, Mississippi. His killer, Klansman Bryan del la Beckwith was not convicted until 1994.<br /> <br /> 1963- Twentieth Century Fox premiered the Elizabeth Taylor -Richard Burton epic CLEOPATRA. Costing $44 million, $400 million in modern money, four times more than the average film, it remains in comparable dollars the costliest disaster in movie history. The cast was put up at the swankiest hotels in Rome for months of shooting, and Liz Taylor had to have her chili from Chasens restaurant in Beverly Hills flown in. Director Joe Mankewicz said "Cleopatra was the toughest three pictures I ever made!" When Liz Taylor saw the finished film, she threw up. <br /> Fox had to cut 2,000 jobs and almost went bankrupt. The area of LA known as Century City with its huge shopping mall used to be the Fox backlot before Cleopatra. On the plus side, Andy Warhol said Cleopatra was the most influential movie of the 1960s because suddenly every woman had to have heavy black eyeliner, light lipstick and Egyptian style straight bobbed hair and bangs.<br /> <br /> 1964- South African anti-Apartheid leader Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiracy and sabotage. He served 27 years and was released in 1990 to lead his country out of white minority rule.<br /> <br /> 1967- In the ruling Loving vs. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme court struck down all remaining state laws barring interracial marriages. The Lovings were a married couple who were both jailed by the State of Virginia, because they were guilty of being a different race.<br /> <br /> 1981- Steven Spielberg’s movie Raiders of the Lost Ark premiered.<br /> <br /> 1987- President Ronald Reagan did his famous Cold War speech in Berlin “Mr. Gorbachov, tear down this wall!” <br /> <br /> 1991- In the Philippines, the volcano Mount Pinatubo erupted for the first time in 600 years.<br /> <br /> 1994- Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, pizza delivery guy Ron Brown, were savagely murdered in her home with a knife. Brown was returning Mrs. Simpson’s glasses from her dinner at Brentwood restaurant Mezzaluna. The only suspect seems to remain her estranged husband O.J. Simpson, actor, and Heismann Trophy winning NFL star. O.J. was acquitted in his murder trial, but convicted in a wrongful death suit brought by Nicole’s family. Another suspect has never been found.<br /> <br /> 1999- Disney’s Tarzan premiered. Directed by Chris Buck and Kevin Lima.<br /> <br /> 2016- The Orlando Massacre. A lunatic opened fire with a machine gun in a crowded gay bar named PULSE. 49 dead, and another 53 wounded before he was killed by police. <br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s question: What is Dressage?<br /> <br /> Answer: The highest form of horse-rider training turned into an equestrian sport. A competition of tightly choreographed maneuvers, forms of which have been practiced since the Greeks.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 11 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6171 <p>Quiz: What is Dressage?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Who composed the first original film score?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/11/2023<br /> Birthdays: Ben Johnson, Richard Strauss, Jacques Cousteau, Nelson Mandela, Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Joe Montana, John Constable, Gustav Courbet, Vince Lombardi, Adrienne Barbeau, William Styron, Chad Everett, race car driver Jackie Stewart, Gene Wilder, Hugh Laurie is 64, Shia LeBoeuf is 37, Peter Dinklage is 54<br /> <br /> The ancient Roman festival of Mater Matuta- The Mother of the Dawn. Equivalent of the Greek Aurora.<br /> <br /> 1174- Crusader king of Jerusalem Amalric IV dies, he is succeeded by his son Baldwin IV the "Leper King of Jerusalem". That this disease afflicted Baldwin did not stop him from marrying (unconsummated) and fighting battles -no one would get close enough to fight with him. Ed Norton played him in the Ridley Scott film Kingdom of Heaven.<br /> <br /> 1258-The "Mad Parliament"- In English history before Parliament sat on a regular basis, an eventful parliament was given a nickname:" The Rump, the Hochtide, etc." In this Parliament the barons of England fed up with King Henry III's arbitrary and spendthrift rule force him to submit his power to veto of a council of peers. These so-called "Provisions of Oxford" are the next great step after Magna Charter to creating a representative democratic government. But because historical chronicles are written at the King’s pleasure, this Parliament is known by the sobriquet Mad.<br /> <br /> 1644 -A Florentine scientist described the invention of a barometer.<br /> <br /> 1666- THE FOUR DAYS BATTLE (Vierdaagse Zeeslag) in the Channel the British Navy of 80 ships tangled with the Dutch Navy of 100 ships to see who would be masters of the sea. After amazing slaughter, Dutch Admiral De Ruyter claimed victory. He had brooms tied to his mainmasts symbolizing he intended to sweep the English from the seas, but by August, England was back with another fleet. De Ruyter was a naval genius who bedeviled the British for years. A French admirer said, "De Ruyter had the plain simplicity of a Biblical patriarch. Just four days after fighting this great sea battle, he was back home sweeping his own floor, and feeding his chickens."<br /> <br /> 1685- MONMOUTH'S REBELLION- The Duke of Monmouth, the son of English King Charles II felt he should be king instead of his lame Catholic Uncle, King James II. Being illegitimate was to him a mere technicality. This day The Duke of Monmouth landed in the U.K. and raised the banner of revolt. He got some of Oliver Cromwell’s old roundheads to join him, but they were soon crushed by the regular army. Monmouth was executed and many of his men shipped off to be slaves on the sugar plantations of Bermuda and the Bahamas by the infamous Judge Jeffries during the Bloody Assizes. The novel Captain Blood is about one such slave-survivor of Monmouth’s Rebellion. <br /> <br /> 1727- Coronation of King George II of England. Not much is remembered about this ceremony but that the English public began to see that Mr. George Fredrich Handel fellow his dad brought from Germany could really write some good music! This included Zadok the Priest, now customarily played at every royal coronation.<br /> <br /> 1742 - Benjamin Franklin invents his iron Franklin stove.<br /> <br /> 1775- 32-year-old Virginia planter Thomas Jefferson left Monticello to ride to Philadelphia, where the representatives of all the colonies were gathering to decide how to respond to the violence lately broken out between colonists and British troops around Boston.<br /> <br /> 1790- In Hawaii this is King Kamehameha Day in honor of the king who united all the Hawaiian Islands under one rule.<br /> <br /> 1809- The Pope excommunicated Napoleon. "Good," he said, "This will bring me even more followers."<br /> <br /> 1878- At a small track at the Palo Alto Stock Farm, English photographer Edweard Muybridge did the first of his Animal Motion Studies. He lined up 25 cameras and filmed California Governor Leyland Stanford’s favorite mare Sallie Gardner at a full gallop. He invited the press, so none could accuse him of doctoring the photos later. They proved that when a horse was in full gallop, all four hooves leave the ground.<br /> <br /> 1913- Turkish Grand Vizier Shevket Pasha was assassinated by revolutionaries. The Young Turk officers had the conspirators rounded up and hanged.<br /> <br /> 1927- Charles Lindbergh Day. After his historic flight, the young aviator was welcomed home to America by President Coolidge and huge throngs of well-wishers at Washington’s Navy Yard. Battleships boomed, bands blared and two dirigibles floated overhead. The radio announcer covering the event did one of the very first coast-to-coast broadcasts. He reached thirty million people. <br /> <br /> 1928 - Alfred Hitchcock's 1st film, "The Case Of Jonathan Drew," is released<br /> <br /> 1934- the first Mandrake the Magician comic strip.<br /> <br /> 1936- Shy, quiet, 30 year old Texas writer Robert E. Howard had created the powerful warriors Conan the Barbarian, Kull and single-handedly defined the genre we now call Sword &amp; Sorcery. This day after he learned his mother was dying and would never regain consciousness, he went into his garage and blew his brains out. Some say he had an Oedipal fixation, others that he always intended to end his life and was waiting to spare his mother the pain. On his typewriter he left a short message: "All fled, all done, so lift me upon the pyre. The feast is over and let the lamps expire."<br /> <br /> 1937 –" Getta’ yu tutsie-frutsie Ice Cream!" the Marx Brothers' "A Day at The Races" premiered.<br /> <br /> 1939 – President Franklin Roosevelt hosted King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at the White House. There, the rulers of the British Empire ate Hot Dogs for the first time. <br /> <br /> 1941- Bir Hakim surrendered. Free French &amp; Foreign Legion forces under Col. Koenig held out in an epic siege against Rommels’ Afrika Corps. After weeks of terrible bombing today they surrendered, buying critical time for the British Eighth Army.<br /> <br /> 1944- The Allied forces who landed at D-Day at five separate beaches and several drop zones link up their forces into one continuous front.<br /> <br /> 1948- Col. Eddie Marcus was a career US Army officer who spent World War II on General Eisenhower’s staff planning the major campaigns in Europe. Eddie Marcus was also Jewish. When the new state of Israel needed military experience, Marcus volunteered and was made the commanding General of the Jerusalem Front. He was given the name Mickey Stone as a code name. After furious fighting against Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi forces, the UN ceasefire went into effect. <br /> This night when Eddie Marcus stepped out of his tent during a curfew to relieve himself, he was accidentally shot and killed by a young Israeli sentry. The boy only spoke Hebrew, and Marcus only spoke English. He was also wrapped in his bedsheet, and the boy thought it was Arab dress. Eddie Marcus’ body was flown back to America and interred at West Point. The incident was made into a film with Kirk Douglas called "Cast a Giant Shadow."<br /> <br /> 1955- The deadliest day at Le Mans. During this running of the famous 24 hour car race a Mercedes crashed into an Austin Healy at high speed and the cars disintegrated, spewing flaming metal debris into the dense crowd of spectators. 85 died and 100 more were hurt.<br /> <br /> 1959 – The US Postmaster General banned D H Lawrence's novel Lady Chatterley's Lover as pornography. He was overruled by US Court of Appeals in March 1960. <br /> <br /> 1963- Alabama Governor George Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door and refused to allow two black students to integrate Alabama University. He eventually stood aside before federal troops but his stand made him a national figure. Ironically Wallace was originally a liberal judge but after being defeated for Governor in 1958 changed his tone to conservative racism.<br /> <br /> 1964 - Chicago police break up a Rolling Stones press conference.<br /> <br /> 1964 - Manfred Mann recorded Do Wah Diddy Diddy.<br /> <br /> 1966 - "Paint It, Black" by The Rolling Stones peaks at #1<br /> <br /> 1966 - Janis Joplin played her 1st gig in San Francisco.<br /> <br /> 1968- After the carnage of the Tet Offensive and the Battle of Que Sanh, General William Westmoreland stepped down as commander of all US forces in Vietnam. Unlike Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, General Westmoreland remained unrepentant for the rest of his life. He blamed his failures in Vietnam on the media, hippies, and the racial mixing being ordered in his army.<br /> <br /> 1972- THE MOST PROFITABLE FILM IN HISTORY. The film Deep Throat premiered. The first full length blockbuster porn film. The film was shot in just three days, by an ex-hairdresser turned director. It cost $22,500 to make and grossed $600 million. Most of that money disappeared into the coffers of the Mafia. It became a counterculture cause celebre. Jacky Kennedy saw it. Frank Sinatra screened a print for Vice President Spiro Agnew. Star Linda Lovelace later disavowed her career and claimed she did the sex scenes under duress from her husband Chuck Trainor. She died in a car accident in the 1982. Today the term Linda Syndrome denotes former porn actresses who denounce their past.<br /> <br /> 1977 - Main Street Electrical Parade premiered at Disneyland.<br /> <br /> 1979- John Wayne died after a long struggle with cancer. He was 73. Many believed his condition began as a result of filming the movie "The Conqueror" near the Nevada Atomic Test site. Half the crew of that film including all the stars and director died of cancer. When Wayne made a final appearance at the Academy Awards two months earlier, he purchased a small size tuxedo to hide his emaciated frame, but he was still too thin even then. So, he filled it out by wearing a scuba wetsuit underneath. <br /> <br /> 1984- In the freewheeling economy of the 1980’s tycoons conducted hostile takeovers of companies by buying most of their stock on margin. When Wall Street corporate raider Saul Steinberg announced he intended to target the ailing Walt Disney Company for takeover, CEO Ron Miller paid him $23 million just to make him go away. The Disney shareholders are outraged at this payment of "greenmail’ and demanded Miller’s resignation, which some say was exactly what Roy Disney had planned.<br /> <br /> 1987- Britain noted the first outbreak of Mad Cow Disease.<br /> <br /> 1993 –Steven Spielberg’s "Jurassic Park" opened. The film set a box office record of $931 million. It was begun with modelers and puppeteers about to do the dinosaurs with go-motion and clay. But after seeing tests using the new 3D CGI –computer graphic imaging software, Steven ordered all of ILM to do it digitally. Jurassic Park was the Jazz Singer-type event that clinched the digital takeover of Hollywood and set the standard for future special effects films.<br /> <br /> 2002- Fox TV’s show American Idol premiered.<br /> <br /> 2002- Lilo &amp; Stitch premiered.<br /> ----------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Who composed the first original film score?<br /> <br /> Answer: Camille Saint-Saens composed the score to The Assassination of the Duc de’Guise 1917. It was a silent film so it was played by a live orchestra in the theater. The first movie to have a complete music soundtrack synched to the film was King Kong in 1931.<br /> 
</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 10 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6170 <p>Quiz: Who composed the first original film score?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz Answered Below: What was Coulomb’s Law?<br /> ————————————————————————————————————<br /> History for 6/10/2023<br /> Birthdays: Charles James Stuart “The Old Pretender”, Yamaoka Tesshu (1832- Japanese swordsman), Judy Garland, Saul Bellow, Hattie McDaniel, Frederick Loew (of Lerner &amp; Loew), Howlin’ Wolf, Maurice Sendak, Dorse Lanpher, Harald Sieperman, Gina Gershon is 61, Leilee Sobieski is 40, Jean Triplehorn is 60, Jurgen Prochnow, Elizabeth Hurley is 57, Britain’s Prince Phillip Duke of Edinburgh. <br /> <br /> 1190- Emperor Frederick III Barbarossa (red-beard) died. Barbarossa (not to be confused with the Algerian-Barbary pirate Nur Al Din in the 1700's) was the great Hohenstaufen German Emperor who decided to go on Crusade at the same time as Richard Lionheart and Phillip Augustus of France. Frederick was very old but insisted he make the trip. This day while crossing a stream in Turkey, Frederick Barbarossa had a heart attack and fell into the water. His men, never being that thrilled about the whole thing and taking their king's death as the clincher, all immediately turned around and went home.<br /> <br /> 1682- English colonists in Connecticut observed a unique weather phenomenon, a dark windstorm taking the form of a funnel. The first recorded Tornado in America.<br /> <br /> 1688- THE BABY IN THE WARMING PAN- King James II of England and his wife Mary of Modena have a son named Charles James Stuart. The anger of English society that their King and head of the reformed Anglican Church, namely James, was a Catholic, was pushed past the point of endurance by his having a son who would become in all probability be another Catholic king. The lords of England began to openly plot to bring James' protestant daughter Mary and her Dutch husband William of Orange over to overthrow the King. A rumor created to support this effort was that James' child was born dead and switched with a baby smuggled in a warming pan. XVII Century Internet conspiracy theories.<br /> <br /> 1720 – Mrs. Clements of England markets the 1st paste-style mustard.<br /> <br /> 1750- Francois Voltaire accepted the invitation of King Frederick the Great of Prussia to come live at his court. French King Louis XV laughed: “Now there will be one less nut in Versailles and one more nut in Berlin.” The friendship between Frederick and Voltaire is fascinating- night after night over dinner, the enlightened gay despot matched wits with the commoner who was the greatest philosophical mind of his time. When Voltaire argued that the world would be better off with no religion or belief in God, King Frederick retorted:” But my dear Voltaire, if you did away with God, then common people would raise statues to you and pray to them.” At times Voltaire’s arguments would get Frederick so angry that the Frenchman would flee fearing for his life. Frederick ordered the borders closed and sent a troop of cavalry to drag him back, so they could finish their argument.<br /> <br /> 1752- BEN FRANKLIN FLIES HIS KITE- The wizard of Philadelphia was not the actual discoverer of electricity, Leyden Jars and Volta's experiments predate him. He did make the connection between lightning and electric currents, and created the lightning rod, and the first electric battery. He didn't tell anyone about the kite experiment until 15 years later for fear people would think him a silly fellow. There’s a famous painting of Ben with his kite being assisted by his young child William. In actuality William was about thirty at the time. During the American Revolution, William became a royalist and hated his old man.<br /> <br /> 1776- The great English actor David Garrick went on stage for the last time, playing in a benefit for The Decayed Actor’s Fund.<br /> <br /> 1776- The Continental Congress appointed a committee of Ben Franklin, John Adams ,William Rutledge and Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence. Most of the hard work devolved upon Jefferson. Franklin glibly noted:` It has been my practice to avoid being the author of any paper which would be reviewed by a public body. Tom Jefferson borrowed much from enlightened European writers like Burke and Montesqiou. There were 46 revisions before the final draft was voted on, including taking out any references to outlawing the slave trade. Yet Jefferson’s great prose put it perfectly “All Men are Created Equal, endowed by their Creator with certain Inalienable Rights, among them Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Ever since these words were thrown at tyrants and inspired leaders as diverse as Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro.<br /> <br /> 1782- John Adams negotiated a huge loan from the States General of Holland to get the rebellious American colonies out of bankruptcy. At the time this was seen as important as winning a battle.<br /> <br /> 1801- The Barbary Pirates of Tripoli declared war on the little nation called the United States. These Mediterranean buccaneers would extort tribute money from countries whose ships passed through their waters. So long as Yankee shipping was protected by the British Navy this wasn't a problem, but America was on its own now and the Dey of Algiers demanded payment. One senator's famous cry was Millions for Defense, but not one cent for Tribute!<br /> <br /> 1847 –The Chicago Tribune begins publishing<br /> <br /> 1854- First graduating class at Annapolis Naval Academy. The first commandant of the Academy Captain Brown later joined the Confederacy and became the commander of the rebel ironclad Arkansas in the Civil War. <br /> <br /> 1860- The Comstock Lode- Near Virginia City Nevada, Old Pancake McGaughlin hit a vein of silver so big and pure that it will eventually yield $300 million dollars worth of ore and make millionaires of men like William Randolph Hearst's father.<br /> <br /> 1865- Wagners opera Tristan und Isolde premiered in Munich. To meet the demands of Wagner’s music the orchestra needed to be so much larger than usual that they had to take out the first two rows of seats to enlarge the orchestra pit. Conductor Franz Von Bulow, whose wife Cosima was busy schtupping Wagner at the time, committed a brilliant blunder when he announced within earshot of reporters:" Take out the seats! One or two extra schweinhunds won't matter!" Not the way to get good reviews…<br /> <br /> 1865- Surrendered Confederate leader Robert E. Lee was indicted for treason by the United States district court in Norfolk Virginia. Ulysses Grant was told and immediately sent a note threatening to resign the army and start a public scandal if Lee’s indictment wasn't dropped. Once Grant had considered all rebels to be traitors, but he had promised Lee in his surrender terms at Appomattox that no one would be subject to further penalties from federal authorities. The indictment was put aside but never formally dropped, and Lee’s request for his restoration of full U.S. citizenship was never granted. In 1995 Republican Senate leader Trent Lot tried unsuccessfully to get Robert E. Lee’s citizenship restored.<br /> <br /> 1881- Count Leo Tolstoy, the author of War &amp; Peace and Anna Karenina, disguised himself as a peasant and went on a pilgrimage to the monastery of Optina Pustyn. He was having a spiritual conflict of whether to remain a nobleman landlord, or renounce his possessions and live an ascetic life. He opted to remain a noble. <br /> <br /> 1892- Republican Benjamin Harrison nominated for President. When Harrison was in office the White House was wired for Electric Lights. However Harrison and the First Lady were so terrified of electrocution that if a butler neglected to shut them off at bedtime, the Harrisons would quiver in bed all night rather than touch the switch. <br /> <br /> 1902 - Patent for the window envelope granted to H F Callahan.<br /> <br /> 1905- Japan and Russia accept the offer of peace talks to be mediated by American President Teddy Roosevelt. For helping end the Russo-Japanese War Roosevelt received the first Nobel Peace Prize.<br /> <br /> 1910- The first Krazy Kat comic strip- Cartoonist George Herriman was doing a strip for Hearst called "The Family Upstairs". He was amused at the idea of a friendship between a cat and a mouse. So, Herriman put them in the corner playing marbles while the family quarreled. First an office boy and later editor Arthur Brisbane suggested they have their own strip. The immortality of the denizens of Coconino County follows, loved by the likes of H.L. Mencken, e.e.cummings, and Jacques Kerouac. Krazy herself explains:" It's wot's behind me that I am."<br /> <br /> 1921- Babe Ruth became top HR champ with #120 runs passing then champ Gavy Cravath. But the Bambino was just getting warmed up. <br /> <br /> 1924- Italian Socialist leader Giacomo Mateotti was kidnapped and murdered by Mussolini's fascists. <br /> <br /> 1926- Artist Antonio Gaudi was run over by a streetcar while crossing in front of his famous cathedral in Barcelona. Construction begun in 1886, The Cathedral Sagrada Familia is still scheduled for completion in 2026.<br /> <br /> 1935- A New York stockbroker Bill W., and an Ohio physician Dr. Bob S, both recovered alcoholics, invented a twelve step recovery program called Alcoholic's Anonymous. This day was their first meeting.<br /> <br /> 1939 - Barney Bear, cartoon character by MGM, debuted.<br /> <br /> 1940-With Hitler’s blitz of France almost complete and English armies escaped across the channel, Mussolini decided the time was right and declared war on England and France. Italian forces crossed the border and occupied Nice.<br /> <br /> 1942- LIDICE- In occupied Czechoslovakia the Czech underground scored a big victory when they assassinated the Nazis occupation Gauleiter or governor Richard Heydrich, a personal friend of Hitler. Hitler ordered in revenge a Czech village selected at random and destroyed. The SS surrounded the village of Lidice and shot the whole population of 1,300, then burned and tore down the buildings.<br /> <br /> 1944- A USO troop was entertaining soldiers in Normandy from the back of a truck but they lacked a piano player. They called out to the G.I. audience if anyone could play. A shy cattle rancher’s son from Modesto California came up and played. He did so well his colonel ordered him out of the line and told him to form his own G.I. band. Dave Brubeck’s jazz career began.<br /> <br /> 1945- General Eisenhower was given a massive ticker tape parade down Broadway in New York City. Looking down on Ike from an office building 20 floors up, was a rumpled Navy Reserve Second Lieutenant named Richard Nixon.<br /> <br /> 1947- Sweden’s Saab motorcar company introduced its first model car. Saab in neutral Sweden had made planes and tanks for World War Two, but after the war was over they recognized that combat was not a growth industry and they switched to autos.<br /> <br /> 1948- THE JOHNSON CITY WINDMILL- Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson was trying to win a senate seat from Texas but he was lagging far behind a popular ex-governor named Coke Stevenson. So he hit upon a novel way of campaigning. He hired a helicopter and barnstormed the rural towns and districts of the Texas hill country. People came out just to see the newfangled flying machine land and take off, and this gave Johnson a captive audience. They nicknamed it the Johnson City Flying Windmill. Johnson also mounted a massive outlay of posters and pamphlets. He told his staff:” Ah don’t want a voter to wipe his ass with a piece of paper that ain’t got my face on it!” He pulled even to Stevenson and with a little extra ballot box skullduggery won the election.<br /> <br /> 1957- “Tom Terrific and Manfred the Wonder Dog” cartoon debuted on the Captain Kangaroo show.<br /> <br /> 1967-The Arab-Israeli Six Day War ends. Israel defeated five Arab countries at once and occupied all of Jerusalem, the West Bank, Sinai, Gaza and the Golan Heights.<br /> <br /> 1980- Comedian Richard Pryor had been doing so much cocaine even his dealers were worried about him. This day, while trying to freebase he exploded, and ran screaming down his street on fire. Another version of the story said he tried to commit suicide by pouring tequila on himself and setting it alight. During his long recovery in the Sherman Oaks burn unit, his nurse once put on the news and he watched CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite report his death. `He thought to himself: "If Walter Cronkite said I died, it must be true! Ahhh!" He recovered but suffered from Muscular Dystrophy until he died in 2005.<br /> <br /> 1995-110,000 people jam Central Park in New York to see Disney's Pocahontas, up to then the largest audience ever to attend an animated movie premiere. <br /> <br /> 2014- A radical new Sunni guerrilla group captured the key Iraqi city of Mosul and declared a new Caliphate. They called themselves ISIS, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. They take advantage of the chaos of war-torn Iraq and Syria to amass power and property and eclipse Al Qaeda as the West’s number one threat for several years. By 2018, their leader Al Bagdhaddi was killed and they were pretty much destroyed.<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What was Coulomb’s Law?<br /> <br /> Answer: The law states that the magnitude of the electrostatic force of attraction or repulsion between two point charges is directly proportional to the product of the magnitudes of charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Got dat? Easy-peasy.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 09 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6169 <p>Question: What was Coulomb’s Law?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz Answered Below: What are the Dolomites?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/9/2023<br /> Birthdays: Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Cole Porter, John Bartlett of Bartletts Familiar Quotations, Boy George O’Dowd, Les Paul, Burl Ives, Lash LaRue, Happy Rockefeller, Robert MacNamara, Major Bowes, Carl Neilsen, Jerzy Kosinski, Pierre Salinger, Steffy Graff, Marvin Kalb, Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, physicist who formulated Coulomb's Law, Dr. Alois Alzheimer, Michael J. Fox is 62, Johnny Depp is 60, Natalie Portman (born Neta-Lee Hershlag) is 42<br /> <br /> Today is the Roman festival Vestalia, when the Vestal Virgins made a special cake. <br /> <br /> 53BC- Battle of Caarhae- Roman consul Marcus Licinius Crassus was defeated in Persia (Iran) by the Parthian leader The Grand Surena. Crassus was an extremely rich man, and legend has it the Parthian King killed him by having his jaws held open, and having molten gold poured down his throat. ( Yes, that’s where J.R.R. Martin got the idea.)<br /> <br /> Today is the Feast Day of St Columba, and St. Maximian of Syracuse.<br /> <br /> 68 AD- Roman Emperor Nero committed suicide. Nero saw the jig was up when the Roman people opened their gates and welcomed the Legions of Servius Galba into the city, shouting "Death to the Incendiary! Death to Red Beard!” a nickname implying his fatherhood may not have been pure Roman. He took his life on the anniversary of the murder of his wife, whom he had kicked to death while she was pregnant. He had his servant Epaphroditus push a knife into his throat. Nero died saying "Oh, what an artist dies in me!” He was 30. Nero was descended from Augustus on his father’s side, and on the other side from Marc Anthony. His death ended the direct bloodline of Julius Caesar's family. For the next few months four generals would turn their legions homeward to fight for power. The Romans called this period "The Long Year".<br /> <br /> 1358- The Battle of Mello and the Massacre of Meaux. In a France already ravaged by the Black Death and the Hundred Years War, a violent peasant revolt broke out called the Jacquerie -Poor Jacques. On this day two top knights, one from the English side and one from the French- Gaston Phoebus and the Captal De Buch, took time out from their war to join forces and chop up rebellious peasants in the town of Meaux. Gaston Phoebus later became a character in Hugo's novel the Hunchback of Notre Dame.<br /> <br /> 1732- James Oglethorpe, a British MP, was granted a charter by King George II to start a new colony south of the Carolinas. He would call it Georgia in honor of the king. Oglethorpe lived into his 90s and saw the American Revolution. He lived long enough to congratulate John Adams and wish the new American nation well.<br /> <br /> 1798- Napoleon's fleet, on the way to Egypt, paused to attack the strategic island of Malta. The keepers of the island fortress, the once valiant Knights of Malta, had become so stodgy and decrepit that the French easily burst in. When Napoleon inspected the massive defense works, capable of holding off attackers for months, he said: " This conquest is embarrassing." After the Napoleonic Wars, Britain took over Malta until the 1950's. The Knights went from an order of warrior-monks, to a jet-set club, with members like Prince Rainier and Sir Frank Sinatra and charity work like Saint John's Ambulance.<br /> <br /> 1817- A defective boiler destroyed the experimental riverboat Washington. Despite this unfortunate occurrence, the S.S. Washington was the prototype of Mississippi riverboats- a flat bottomed side wheeler with the engine machinery above the waterline instead of down in a deep hold like Robert Fulton’s model.<br /> <br /> 1834 – Brass helmet deep-sea diving suit was patented by African-American inventor Leonard Norcross of Dixfield, Maine. The design remained unchanged for 100 years.<br /> <br /> 1834 - Sandpaper patented by Isaac Fischer Jr., Springfield, Vermont<br /> <br /> 1839 – The first Henley Regatta held<br /> <br /> 1847 - Robert von Bunsen invents the Bunsen burner.<br /> <br /> 1851- The English Liberal Party founded, made up of left-over Whig party and Peelite ministers.<br /> It broke up over the Irish Question and in the 1920s was supplanted by the Labor Party. <br /> <br /> 1860- DIME NOVELS &amp; PULP FICTION. Mr. Erastus Beadle published the first dime novel, Maleska, Indian Wife of the White Hunter by Anna Stephens. Sometimes called the Penny Dreadfuls, pocket-sized stories printed on cheap pulp paper became popular reading. They fantasized the West, extolling two-gun chivalry and virtuous maidens, roaring desperadoes and wild savages. This early form of mass media made celebrities out of characters like Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickok, Black Bart, Billy the Kid and Belle Starr.<br /> <br /> 1863- BRANDY STATION-The largest cavalry battle of the Civil War- Union cavalry caught Jeb Stuart's reb cavalry in camp. Stuart's horses and men were spent because they had spent the previous day holding a riding pageant showing off for the ladies. A huge, confused swirl of horseflesh, sabers and guns ensued. The rebs eventually drove off the Yankees, but Stuart looked pretty dumb being surprised so badly. Yankee cavalry finally proved that under tough new leaders like Sheridan and Custer they could hold their own with the Southern gentlemen horsemen.<br /> <br /> 1902- Woodrow Wilson was named President of Princeton University. One of the Board of Trustees that selected the future US President, was the former US President, Grover Cleveland.<br /> <br /> 1918- Louella Parsons began her Hollywood Gossip column. Louella became one of the most powerful and widely read columnists in Hollywood’s golden age. Stories say Louella got as much pull as she did in the Hearst newspaper empire for helping cover up the killing of director Thomas Ince as well as trying to stifle the release of Orson Welles’ film Citizen Kane. There is a story that Disney animator Frank Thomas spotted her being mean to a waitress while holding court at the Brown Derby. That inspired him to make her the model of the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland.<br /> <br /> 1920- King George V dedicated the new Imperial War Museum, comprising artifacts from the recently concluded Great War. In 1936, the War museum moved to its present home in a former building of the infamous mental asylum, Bedlam.<br /> <br /> 1930- Chicago Tribune reporter Jack Lingle was shot and killed by Al Capone’s hoods. The hit was done right in broad daylight on Michigan Ave and Randolph St at the Illinois Central underpass at the height of rush hour. It was first thought that Lingle was going to do some kind of courageous crusading journalist expose, but Big Al had him rubbed out because he welched on a $100,000 gambling debt.<br /> <br /> 1934- Happy Birthday Donald Duck! Walt Disney's short cartoon "The Little Wise Hen". <br /> <br /> 1934- The film The Thin Man with William Powell. Myrna Loy and Asta the dog went into general release.<br /> <br /> 1938 - Chlorophyll isolated by Benjamin Grushkin<br /> <br /> 1938 - Dorothy Lathrop wins the 1st Caldecott Medal for outstanding children’s books.<br /> <br /> 1941- First day shooting on the film, the Maltese Falcon. It was John Huston’s first directorial effort. The story had already been made into a movie twice before, so nobody had high hopes for it. The studio budget was so low, Humphrey Bogart had to wear his own suits on camera.<br /> <br /> 1942 - The first bazooka- shoulder held rocket launcher, produced in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The name Bazooka was from Bob Burns the Arkansas Traveler, a character on Fred Allen’s radio show, who played a home-made horn made from a stove pipe. Bazookas became vital in the US infantry’s ability to stop tanks and other obstacles. <br /> <br /> 1942- LBJ in the USN- Young Texas Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson spent 1941 loudly declaring if war came, he’d be the first in the trenches. After Pearl Harbor, he joined the US Naval Reserve and was made a lieutenant-commander. He spent the next few months inspecting naval facilities in Hollywood and Squaw Valley, Idaho while partying hard. Friends warned he better go to the battlefront before too much talk hurt him politically. <br /> Lyndon Johnson flew as an observer on one mission of B-26 bombers over the Japanese held island of Leii, New Guinea. To his credit, he reacted coolly as Japanese Zeroes attacked. The original plane he was supposed to be on got shot down over shark-infested waters. He missed that flight to go to the bathroom, and it saved his life. After the mission General MacArthur gave him a Silver Star, whose ribbon he wore proudly for the rest of his life. After 13 minutes in actual combat, the next day he was on a plane Stateside. By July 18th he had resigned his commission and was back at his desk in Washington. Presidential aide Harry Hopkins quipped to FDR:” Lyndon Johnson is back from his politically expedient dip in the Pacific.” <br /> <br /> 1942 - Anne Frank began her diary.<br /> <br /> 1943- The Internal Revenue Service introduced the Pay-As-You-Go system of tax collection, or today we know it as tax withholding from your paycheck.<br /> <br /> 1950- After all appeals fail the first of the Hollywood Ten, screenwriters Dalton Trumbo, Philip Dunne, Alvah Bessie, Waldo Salt, Edward Dymytrk, David Ogden Stewart, Ring Lardner and John Howard Lawson are sentenced to prison. In the L.A. Municipal Jail one felon greeted the writers with a smile and said: "Hi Ya, Hollywood Kids!”<br /> <br /> 1953 - Elvis Presley graduates from L.C. Humes High School in Memphis, Tennessee.<br /> <br /> 1972- Rapid City, South Dakota destroyed by a flash flood. 280 died.<br /> <br /> 1973- The thoroughbred horse Secretariat ridden by Ron Turcott won the Belmont Stakes, taking the first Triple Crown since Citation did it in 1948. He won it by an amazing 31 lengths! Secretariat was sired by Bold Ruler, the 1957 Preakness winner. The Triple Crown is three high stakes races. The Kentucky Derby is a mile and 1/4 (called by horseman "the classic distance"), the Preakness is slightly shorter at a mile and 3/16ths, and the Belmont, as reported, is a mile and 1/2. So the second race is actually shorter than the first. The big deal is that they all take place in only five weeks, which is asking a great deal of three-year-old colts.<br /> <br /> 1976 – Chuck Barris’ the" Gong Show" premiered. Where’s Jean-Jean the Dancing Machine?<br /> <br /> 1989 - Queen Elizabeth II knighted Ronald Reagan. <br /> <br /> 2002 –The Canadian Supreme Court lifted the ban on Gay marriages as unconstitutional; the first couple in Ontario was legally married.<br /> <br /> 2006- Pixar film Cars released.<br /> <br /> 2160 - Montgomery Edward Scott, called Scotty or Mr. Scott, born in Aberdeen, Scotland, the engineer of the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek. “ Cap’n, Ah dunna know how much more the engines can take!”<br /> =====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What are the Dolomites?<br /> <br /> Answer: A mountain range in Italy bordering Austria and Slovenia.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 08 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6168 <p>Quiz: What are the Dolomites? (Hint: they are NOT a 1970s black action hero.)<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What does it mean to be idiosyncratic?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/8/2023<br /> Birthdays: Robert Schumann, Frank Lloyd Wright, Barbara Bush, Admiral David Dixon Porter, Leroy Neiman, Emmanuel Ax, Alexis Smith, Nancy Sinatra, Boz Scaggs, Jerry Stiller, Dana Wynter, British cricketeer Ray Illingsworth, Juliana Margulies, Kanye West, Joan Rivers, Keenan Ivory Wayans is 65. Gary Trousdale is 63<br /> <br /> 1154- Today is the Feast of Saint William of York <br /> <br /> 216AD- Elagabulus and the Eastern Legions overthrew Macrinus the Praetorian Prefect and became Emperor of Rome. <br /> There has been an inconclusive debate as to whether there were any black Roman emperors, the way there were Spaniards (Vespasian), Croatians (Diocletian), and Arabs (Phillipus). The Romans were not color-prejudiced; they equally discriminated against all races. Septimius Severus, St. Augustine and Percennius Niger ("Black Percennius") were from the African Provinces, but were they racially African, Semitic or Greek? No surviving likeness can prove either way. The huge migrations of Arabs that followed the Moslem conquests in the 600's AD altered the ethnic makeup of North Africa forever. But Macrinus was known to be a Moor, and there is no such thing as a Caucasian Moor. Or is there?<br /> <br /> 452AD- Attila the Hun invaded Italy.<br /> <br /> 632 A.D. The Prophet Mohammed died in Medina. His followers elected his uncle Abu Bakir as the first Caliph or defender of the faith. The position of Caliphate continued through the Middle Ages in Baghdad until the rising Ottoman Empire moved them to Constantinople and made the post a figurehead behind the Turkish Sultan. The office disappeared after 1918 when the secular Republic of Turkey was declared.<br /> <br /> 1786- A New York newspaper advertised that a Mr. Hall of Chatham was currently selling the new Italian confection called Iced Cream. First reference to Ice Cream in the Americas.<br /> <br /> 1809- American Revolutionary writer Thomas Paine died. When his chubby doctor said: " Your belly diminishes." Paine smiled: "And yours augments." <br /> <br /> 1824 – the Washing Machine patented by Noah Cushing of Quebec.<br /> <br /> 1845- Andrew Jackson died. His last words to his friends and servants was:” Goodbye, I hope to meet you all again in Heaven, both Black and White.” After, someone asked Jackson’s manservant” Do you think Jackson is in Heaven?” The man replied:” If General Jackson decides he wants to go to heaven, who can stop him?”<br /> <br /> 1867- Two years after the Civil War ended former Confederate General James Longstreet, the right hand of Robert E. Lee, published a newspaper article encouraging Southerners to give up their anger and work with the U.S. Government. He even declared his intention to join Abe Lincoln’s party, the Republicans! He saw his actions as the only practical course. But embittered southerners vilified him as a traitor. This letter was the reason the name Longstreet is not today as fondly remembered as Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee or Jeb Stuart, even though his record was their equal. Today there were no statues of him to argue about taking down.<br /> <br /> 1871- 70-year-old Kiowa medicine man Satank (Sitting Bear) was being transported in an army wagon, handcuffed, to prison. He said to some Indians along the road:" Go tell my people to come and get my body here, because I am gonna go die now." As he spoke he slowly worked his hands out of the handcuffs, taking the flesh off in the process. He then sprang on the surprised soldiers and fought until they killed him. They dumped Satanka’s body on the roadside. There the Kiowa found him and removed his body for a dignified burial.<br /> <br /> 1874- Famed Chiracauha Apache chief Cochise died, probably of stomach cancer. His tribe buried him in a crevasse in the Dragoon Mountains that is still a secret.<br /> <br /> 1886- IRISH HOME RULE BILL DEFEATED- It was the dream of Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone to cap his career by settling the age old "Irish Question". However, many in his Liberal party wouldn't go that liberal. Former radical minister Joseph Chamberlain resigned from the government and split the liberal party to unify with ultra-conservatives to defeat Irish autonomy. The Liberal party eventually disappeared from English politics to be replaced by the Labor party. Josef Chamberlain went on to invent the game of Snooker.<br /> <br /> 1886- King Ludwig II, ruler of the second largest independent German State, Bavaria, was declared legally insane by his cabinet and put under arrest. Ludwig the Mad bankrupted his treasury building wild anachronistic castles like Neuschwanstein and the Blue Grotto, as well as Richard Wagner’s concert hall at Bayreuth. Ironically, these buildings are today among Germany’s top tourist attractions.<br /> <br /> 1889 –The Red Car cable car began service in LA.<br /> <br /> 1889 - Start of the Sherlock Holmes Adventure "Boscombe Valley Mystery"<br /> <br /> 1892- Bob Ford, the man who killed Jesse James ten years earlier, was running a saloon in the Colorado silver mining country. A man named Ed Kelly came up behind him and said: "Oh, Bob?" As Ford turned around, Kelly let loose with both barrels of his shotgun.<br /> Ford had just come from a Church where he donated money to bury a local saloon girl. He had written on his donation " Charity Covereth Up a Multitude of Sins..."<br /> <br /> 1900 - Start of Sherlock Holmes story the "Adventure of 6 Napoleons"<br /> <br /> 1911- At the Epson Derby, English suffragette Emily Wilson-Davison sought to protest votes for women by running out in front of the racehorses and allowing herself to be trampled to death. Her motto on her tombstone reads “Deeds, not Words.”<br /> <br /> 1912- Carl Laemmle formed Universal Pictures Studio.<br /> <br /> 1941- During the early part of World War II, Israeli Palmach partisans were hired by the British as scouts to fight the Vichy French in Syria. The British worried that the Nazis would use Syria to launch an offensive in the rear of the Eighth Army fighting Rommel in Egypt. This night, at a Syrian border village called Iskanderun, a young Jewish officer was lying on a rooftop looking through his binoculars when a bullet came through the eyepiece and shattered his right eye. The bone of his eye socket was too damaged to support a glass eye, so he wore a black eye patch for the rest of his life. Moshe Dayan with his distinctive black eye patch, became one of the most famous Israeli soldiers.<br /> <br /> 1942 - Bing Crosby records "Silent Night".<br /> <br /> 1942- In a private meeting at the White House, President Franklin Roosevelt asked movie mogul Jack Warner to please make a movie showing our new ally the Soviet Union to the American people in a positive light. The movie “MISSION TO MOSCOW” starring Walter Huston put a rosy spin on Stalin’s regime and even made excuses for his genocidal political purges. After the war and FDR’s death, angry conservative politicians conducting the House un-American Activities Committee went after Warner Bros over MISSION TO MOSCOW. Everyone who worked on the film got in trouble with HUAC and had to apologize.<br /> <br /> 1945- In Tokyo, at a meeting attended by Emperor Hirohito, the Japanese cabinet decided that despite the defeat of allies Germany and Italy, they would prosecute the war to the bitter end.<br /> <br /> 1946- Bob Clampett's cartoon 'Kitty Kornered' premiered, one of the earliest of Sylvester the Cat. “ I like cheese…” SMACK! <br /> <br /> 1948 - "Milton Berle Show" Uncle Miltie- premiered on NBC TV.<br /> <br /> 1949- During the Hollywood Blacklist, today an FBI report named actors Paul Muni, Frederick March, Edward G. Robinson, Paul Robeson and Dorothy Parker as reds. They had no proof, mostly anonymous accusers. Robinson was blacklisted, but never called upon to testify before the committee to clear his name. He said, “It’s like I was accused of being a rabbit. I am not a rabbit, but how do we know if you cannot prove you’re not a rabbit?” <br /> <br /> 1950- Universal pictures released 'Winchester '73', the first film in which the star James Stewart negotiated for a backend percentage of the profits. Stewart's agent was Lew Wasserman, the head of MCA and mentor of Steven Spielberg.<br /> <br /> 1954- During the Army-McCarthy Anti-Communist hearings, in front of a live television audience, attorney Joseph Walsh takes apart Senator Joseph McCarthy for stooping to accuse a junior law partner in Walsh’s office for once belonging to a socialist organization. Walsh’s dramatic cry gained national prominence “Finally Senator, have you no shred of decency?” McCarthy was censured by Congress, stripped of his chairmanships, and was politically finished. <br /> <br /> 1962- Twentieth Century Fox fired Marilyn Monroe for her erratic, druggy behavior on the set of “Something’s Got to Give”, and cancelled the picture. Monroe went into a tailspin that would lead to her suicide four weeks later. Even after her death, Fox sued her estate for $80,000. <br /> <br /> 1966- The American football leagues NFL and AFL announce their merger.<br /> <br /> 1968 - Rolling Stones release "Jumpin' Jack Flash".<br /> <br /> 1968- James Earl Ray, the man accused of assassinating Martin Luther King the past April, was arrested in London, England.<br /> <br /> 1969- "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," last aired. The show was canceled by CBS, not for bad ratings, but because its format highlighted liberal and anti-Vietnam War performers like Buffy Saint-Marie, Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger. Producer Tommy Smothers was constantly battling nervous network executives to let Seeger sing songs like “Big Muddy”, a direct criticism of U.S. war policy. Finally, when former President Lyndon Johnson personally called CBS chief Bill Paley to complain, the show was yanked. When writer/singer Mason Williams learned the Smothers Brothers Show was canceled, he planned to make an enormous pie to throw at the eye logo on the CBS building, but they threatened to sue him for trespassing if he actually staged the stunt...<br /> <br /> 1969 - Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor replaces Brian Jones.<br /> <br /> 1981- Former UN General Secretary Dr. Kurt Waldheim was elected President of Austria despite revelations about his once being an officer in the Nazi army.<br /> <br /> 1982- Legendary Negro League Pitcher Satchel Paige dies at 79. I once talked to a Disney security guard named Mitchel Carter who saw Paige pitch a game in the Detroit Negro league. Mitch said Satchel was so hot he loaded the bases, then ordered the fielders into the dugout because he felt like striking out the whole side, which he proceeded to do. When the Major League color barrier was broken in 1947 Paige started his new career at 42. He pitched a World Series game for Cleveland 1948 and in 1965 was stilling pitching shutout innings in major league games at age 59!<br /> <br /> 1983- The films "Trading Places," &amp; "Gremlins," premiered.<br /> <br /> 1984-Ivan Reitmans’ film "Ghostbusters" premiered. Who you gonna call..?<br /> <br /> 1984- Donald Duck officially became a member of the Screen Actors Guild- SAG.<br /> <br /> 1986- NBC was bought by General Electric. David Letterman joked about now having to interview toaster ovens on his show. <br /> <br /> 1998- the President of Nigeria, General Sani Abacha, died during a Viagra reinforced assignation with three women.<br /> <br /> 1999- The nation of Columbia announced it would now factor in its drug exports when calculating the nations GNP or Gross National Product.<br /> <br /> 2002- Forest Service ranger Terri Barton was trying to burn a letter from her estranged husband. The blaze she started became the Hayman Fire, the worst forest fire in Colorado history. The fire destroyed 103,000 acres, and almost burned down the city of Denver. <br /> <br /> 2018- John Lasseter, director of hit movies like Toy Story, stepped down from the leadership of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation due to “Me-To” harassment complaints made against him. <br /> ============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s question: What does it mean to be idiosyncratic?<br /> <br /> Answer: A curious individual characteristic that makes one stand out from the crowd.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 06 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6167 <p>Quiz: What does it mean when you say something is complete Bedlam?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: “The time has come, the Walrus said, to speak of many things. Of shoes, of ships, of sealing wax. Of cabbages and kings.”<br /> ------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/6/2023<br /> Birthdays: Diego Velasquez, Pierre Corneille. Alexandre Pushkin, Nathan Hale, John Trumbull, Thomas Mann, The Dalai Lama, Klaus Tennestedt, Bjorn Borg, Richard Crane, Dr. Karl Braun, Walter Chrysler, Isaiah Berlin, Aram Khachaturian, Jason Issacs, Sam Simon (Simpsons Producer), Sandra Bernhard is 68, Paul Giamatti is 56, Aaron Sorkin is 62, Angelo Moriondo 1851, Inventor of the expresso machine.<br /> <br /> 1438- THE ACT OF UNION. Emperor John III Paleologus was desperate. <br /> His Byzantine Empire had been reduced to just the suburbs of Constantinople, and the armies of the Turkish Sultan were massing for their final assault. He needed help from his fellow Christians in the West. But since the Crusades, the knights of the Europe had tired of long distance adventures. The courts of Italy wined and dined John, and made many pretty frescos of him, but gave him no troops. Greek scholars like George Lascaris resettled in Italy, where their reintroduction of ancient literature helped spark the Italian Renaissance. <br /> The Act of Union supposedly reconciled the differences between Latin and Greek Churches, but John went home empty handed, and the Turks took Constantinople in 1453. Other Orthodox Churches like the Russian Church renounced their allegiance to the Patriarch of Constantinople, over his making a deal with the Pope in Rome. <br /> <br /> 1536- The Spanish Inquisition sets up shop in Mexico. <br /> <br /> 1654- Queen Christina of Sweden, daughter of the Protestant war hero King Gustavus Adolphus, abdicated her throne to turn Catholic and live at the Vatican. She could ride and shoot like a man and was learned enough in philosophy to debate some of the great minds of Europe. In the 1930’s Greta Garbo made a movie of her life. My favorite comment of hers was when one scientist declared that the Human Body was a machine, she countered:" If that is so, then why can’t my clock give birth to little baby watches?"<br /> <br /> 1660- The Peace of Copenhagen signed.<br /> <br /> 1683- The world’s first public museum, the Ashmolean, was opened. English archaeologist Elias Ashmole donated his collection of curiosities to Oxford University for the students to study. A building was commissioned from Christopher Wren and the museum opened to the public this day.<br /> <br /> 1727- BATTLE OF THE DIVAS- In Old London at this time the rage was for Italian Operas. Many international musicians made lucrative livings singing for Britons. Italian soprano Francesca Cuzzoni was the reigning star, but a rival arrived in town named Faustina Bodoni. This night at His Majesty’s Theatre Covent Garden, with the Princess of Wales in attendance, as Bodoni tried to sing Astianatte, Cuzzoni fans booed, hissed and shouted so much a fight broke out. Soon the two rival singers were up on stage tearing each others hair out, fistfights in the pit and scenery being pulled down. Composer George Frederich Handel laughingly accompanied the mayhem with an impromptu solo on kettledrums.<br /> <br /> 1740- Prussian King Frederick the Great instituted a new medal. Originally called the Order of Generosity, Frederick called the little blue Maltese cross Order Pour Le Merite fur Offizeren. Frederick liked to say things in French. The medal became famous as the Blue Max, coveted by World War I flying aces.<br /> <br /> 1797- The Lake Poets meet. In the Coxwolds region of England Samuel Taylor Coleridge walked across a field and visited William Wordsworth in his cottage. This began one of the great collaborations in literature. Coleridge had just finished the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The married Mr. Coleridge even had a platonic affair with Wordsworth’s sister Dorothy, and later Wordsworth’s sister-in-law Susan Hutchinson.<br /> <br /> 1833- President Andrew Jackson becomes the first President to ride on a train.<br /> <br /> 1844 –George Williams formed the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in London, for lonely young men working in the new urban factories to have an alternative to pubs and dance halls.<br /> <br /> 1857- THE SIEGE &amp; MASSACRE OF KANPUR- The most infamous episode of the Indian Sepoy Rebellion against the British. The Hindu Mahratta of India and the Moslem Moghul Emperor Bajadur had thrown their support behind the Sepoys, the rebellious Indian troops attacking British posts throughout India. At Kanpur the rebels surrounded a garrison of British troops with their wives and children in a little hospital compound. <br /> After a two weeks of fighting and starving in 100 degree heat the British surrendered on a promise of safe conduct. After giving up their weapons the Indians murdered them all, using professional butchers to chop up the captive women and children and fill a dry well with their body parts. 600 died. The incident horrified Victorian society, which adopted a harder attitude towards their Indian subjects. Captured Sepoys were tied across the mouths of cannon and blown to bits.<br /> <br /> 1867- THE KA-KA COMPROMISE- The Austrian Empire quiets its nationalist Hungarian subjects by turning their country into a dual monarchy. Hapsburg Emperor Franz Josef and Empress Elizabeth go to Budapest and are crowned King and Queen of Hungary. The Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary was called in German `Kaiserlich-Koniglich' or K.K. The regime's opponents called it KaKa, and they interpreted the pun the same way we do.<br /> <br /> 1884- Nikola Tesla arrived in the United States. <br /> <br /> 1918- BATTLE of the BELLEAU WOOD- In World War I when the first U.S. Marine units arrived at the Western Front, Marshal Foch threw them in front of a major German attack. When the Yanks arrived in the trenches, the French commander announced the entire line was retreating. Marine Capt. Lloyd Williams replied: " Retreat? Hell, we just got here!" and they went into action. <br /> Later in the fighting, Sgt Major Daly was heard bellowing at his men:" Come on' you sons a' bitches! Do you wanna live forever?!" The Marines stopped the Germans only 37 miles from Paris.<br /> <br /> 1925 - Walter Percy Chrysler founded Chrysler Corp.<br /> <br /> 1929- Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali’ surrealist masterpiece Un Chien Andalou ( The Andalusian Dog) premiered at the Teatre des Ursulines in Paris. All the modernist artists were present like Picasso, Andre Breton and Jean Cocteau. Bunuel had filled his pockets with rocks, in case the crowd hated the film and he needed to defend himself, but it was warmly received.<br /> <br /> 1930- USC’s Tommy Trojan statue unveiled. <br /> <br /> 1933-The first Drive In movie opened in Camden, New Jersey. 25 cents a car. Richard Hollingshead, a young entrepreneur, devised a way to offer comfortable movie watching to the public by experimenting in his own driveway.<br /> <br /> 1934- President Roosevelt signed the Securities and Exchange Act, which set up a regulatory commission to rein in the under the table shenanigans of brokers and financiers that had caused the Great Depression. The chairman of the SEC was Joseph Kennedy Sr, the father of JFK.<br /> <br /> 1939- Playright Eugene O’Neill had hit a dry spell of no writing and dread of his impending Parkinsons disease. This day he got the inspiration to sketch out outlines for two plays- The Iceman Cometh, and Long Days Journey into Night.<br /> <br /> 1941- Actor George Raft wrote a memo to studio head Jack Warner reminding him of his contractual commitment to send Raft only good quality scripts. The latest he got: " The Maltese Falcon" he thought was “a lousy substandard idea, that has no chance." Humphrey Bogart did the film instead.<br /> <br /> 1942- Two days after the Battle of Midway the abandoned burning wreck of the carrier USS Yorktown was torpedoed and sunk by Japanese submarine I-162. In 1997 the Yorktown was found on the bottom of the Pacific by Dr. Robert Ballard, the same scientist who found the Titanic. To give you an idea of the depth of the Pacific compared to the Atlantic, Ballard said it took 1 1/2 hours for his submarine to descend to the Titanic, but it took 3 hours down, and 3 hours back up to visit the Yorktown.<br /> <br /> 1942 –Adeline Grey does the first nylon parachute jump in Hartford Conn.<br /> <br /> 1944- D-DAY, the NORMANDY INVASION- General Dwight Eisenhower launched 6,000 ships, 14,000 planes and 156,000 troops on the shores of Nazi occupied France with the order: "Okay. Let's go." In Moscow, where Stalin had been begging for a second front, there were wild celebrations, and Radio Moscow played "Yankee-Doodle" all day. Eisenhower planned for young green troops be used in the first wave. "If they knew what was waiting for them like the veterans know, they wouldn't go." <br /> The German High command was taken completely by surprise. When the invasion happened, many officers were coming home from a weekend seminar on how to defeat an invasion. Adolf Hitler had taken a sleeping pill and left orders not to be disturbed.<br /> <br /> In the assault were voiceover actor Paul Frees, Disney key assistant Dale Oliver, Marvel cartoonist Jack Kirby, and Disney/Warner development artist Victor Haboush. Peanuts creator Charles Schulz was in the second wave to Utah Beach. Ernest Hemingway was in a landing craft among other war correspondents. James Doohan (Scotty in Star Trek) was a Canadian officer and was wounded and Alec Guinness was in the Royal Navy. On Omaha Beach, war photographer Robert Capa leaped into the surf before the landing barges reached shore and walking backwards with the whole Nazi army shooting at him to photograph the first G.I.s landing. His 22 rolls of film were later ruined by an inept lab developer. Only three photos remain.<br /> <br /> 1949- Comic strip character Joe Palooka gets married to Ann Howe.<br /> <br /> 1949-BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING- George Orwell's book about technological tyranny -1984 was first published. Orwell's working title was "The Last Free Man", but the publisher thought it too depressing to sell. So, Orwell picked the date 1984, who's only significance was that it was the year he was writing 1948- reversed.<br /> <br /> 1952- Disney short Susie, the Little Blue Coupe, directed by Clyde Geronimi. From a story by Bill Peet. The anthropomorphized cars became the inspiration for Pixar’s Cars movies.<br /> <br /> 1955 - Bill Haley &amp; Comets, "Rock Around the Clock" hits #1.<br /> <br /> 1959-The Submarine Voyage attraction opened in Disneyland's updated Tomorrowland. The 8 vessels are named Nautilus, Seawolf, Skate, Skipjack, Triton, George Washington, Patrick Henry, and Ethan Allen. Originally painted to look like USN nuclear subs, after the VietNam war they repainted them explorer yellow.<br /> <br /> 1972 - David Bowie released "Rise &amp; Fall of Ziggy Stardust"<br /> <br /> 1976- The Glendale Galleria shopping mall in Glendale Cal. opened.<br /> <br /> 1978- Proposition 13 property tax cut approved by California voters.<br /> <br /> 1982- the Israeli army invaded Lebanon. Prime Minister Menachem Begin felt that the operation should take only one or two days. In 2000, after an 18 year occupation and fighting among a confusing mix of Syrian &amp; Iranian backed guerrillas, US Marines and Christian Maronite militias, the Israeli troops were finally withdrawn. The war remains controversial in Israel to this day. Ariel Sharon, the defense minister who was nicknamed "the Butcher of Beirut" because he allowed Lebanese militias to massacre Palestinian refugees, was Prime Minister 2001 to 2006. <br /> <br /> 1984- Climaxing two years of fighting Sikh Nationalists, Indian forces were ordered by Prime Minister Indira Ghandi to storm the Golden Temple of Amritsar, the holiest shrine of the Sikh religion. 1,000 people were killed. Later that year, Mrs. Ghandi was assassinated by her own Sikh bodyguards in revenge. <br /> <br /> 1984- In Moscow, 29 year old mathematics Professor Alexey Pajitnov invented the game Tetris. <br /> <br /> 1985- The body of Nazi war criminal Dr. Josef Mengele is located and exhumed near Sao Paolo, Brazil. Mengele was the Nazi Angel of Death, who conducted experiments on inmates of the concentration camps. The elderly Nazi had a heart attack while swimming.<br /> <br /> 1991 - NBC announced Jay Leno would replace retiring Johnny Carson, winning out over David Letterman. Letterman moved to CBS.<br /> <br /> 2007- The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim California, named for a Walt Disney comedy movie, won the Stanley Cup after defeating the Ottawa Senators. It is the first Stanley Cup won by a west coast team since 1925.<br /> <br /> 2015- American Pharaoh won the first Triple Crown horse race in 37 years.<br /> =========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: “The time has come, the Walrus said, to speak of many things. Of shoes, of ships, of sealing wax. Of cabbages and kings.”<br /> <br /> Answer: From Through the Looking Glass, a sequel to Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 05 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6166 <p>Quiz: “The time has come, the Walrus said, to speak of many things. Of shoes, of ships, of sealing wax. Of cabbages and kings.”<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: What does it mean when you call someone a milktoast? <br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/5/2023<br /> Birthdays: Socrates, Pancho Villa, Thomas Chippendale -furniture maker, Igor Stravinsky, Little archduchess Anastasia Romanov, Frederico Garcia Lorca, Dean Acheson, Bill Moyers is 89, Hopalong Cassidy, Tony Richardson, Lancelot Ware the founder of Mensa, Jimmy Murakami, Harold Whitaker, Kenny G., Spaulding Gray, Ron Livingston is 56, Mark Wahlberg is 52<br /> <br /> 221BC - The Chinese poet Chu Yuan drowned himself as a protest of an unjust Emperor. His memory is remembered by the annual Dragon Boat Festival. People decorate boats like dragons and drop dumplings into the river to dissuade fish from eating the remains of the poet.<br /> <br /> 754AD- Today is the feast of Saint Boniface, who chopped down the sacred tree of Thor at Mount Gundenberg in Thuringia.<br /> <br /> 1098- After the Crusaders starved the city of Antioch into surrender, an even bigger Saracen army led by Kerbogha the Emir of Roum trapped the Crusaders inside. Things looked real desperate boys and girls, luckily the Crusaders discovered the Holy Nail. But that's for a future story....<br /> <br /> 1305-"The BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY"- King Phillip the Fair of France made a deal with a cardinal to help him become elected as Pope Clement V. The cost was Clement had to move the entire Vatican from Rome to Avignon in French territory. The Holy See stayed in France about 150 years. <br /> <br /> 1455- Poet Francois Villon gets thrown out of Paris again, this time for stabbing a priest in a bar fight. <br /> <br /> 1502- LEONARDO GETS A JOB- This day Leonardo Da Vinci was hired by Cesare Borgia as a military engineer. Borgia was the son of Pope Alexander VI, and wanted to conquer Italy for Holy Mother Church. The artist-scientist Leonardo had promised Borgia he could design horrific war making machines like tanks, flame-throwers and poison gas. Most of these things were unrealistic for the technology of the time, so Borgia employed him drawing maps of the topography of the lands he intended to conquer. After a few months Pope Alexander died, and the new Pope Julius kicked out Cesare Borgia. Leonardo went back on Renaissance LinkedIn.<br /> <br /> 1568- The Spanish Governor of the Netherlands the Duke of Alba invited the Dutch independence leaders to come and discuss their grievances with him. The leaders Egmont and Van Horn showed up. Alba then had them both executed. The other leader William of Orange escaped to lead the Dutch resistance.<br /> <br /> 1605- Battle of Fontaine Francaise- French King Henry IV defeats an invading Spanish Army with just 300 horsemen. One of France's most beloved kings, instead of staying in the rear of his army he always galloped into the center of a fight. He had a huge white plume in his helmet. When asked what his strategy for the battle was, he replied: "Just follow the white plume!"<br /> <br /> 1661- Isaac Newton admitted as a student at Trinity College, Cambridge.<br /> <br /> 1805- The first tornado seen by white men in Tornado Alley, Southern Illinois.<br /> <br /> 1816- The Year Without a Summer- Volcanic explosions in Indonesia and the Caribbean threw so much ash into the atmosphere that large parts of the U.S. recorded winter temperatures throughout the summer months. This day in New England it was 83 degrees, then it plunged to 42, then the following day saw ten inches of snow. Still, Currier and Ives had more time to paint those cutesy sleigh ride scenes...<br /> <br /> 1854- The US Know-Nothing Party established. It's goal being the restriction of the immigration, especially the Irish Catholics. Former President Millard Fillmore became one of their adherents.<br /> <br /> 1863- It was an open secret that Union General Ulysses Grant was an alcoholic. His loyal aide Colonel Rawlins was determined to cure him because he had lost his own father to drink. On this day during the Siege of Vicksburg, Rawlins smashed an entire case of wine given him as a gift. Grant reacted by jumping on a steamboat and going on a two-day drinking binge, a nervous newspaper correspondent named Sylvanus Cadwallader in tow trying to keep him out of trouble. After two days Grant stepped nonchalantly off the steamer and soberly resumed the siege. Cadwallader was warned to write nothing, a promise he kept until after Grants death 1885.<br /> <br /> 1876- At the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, Americans first discovered an exotic new food- Bananas.<br /> <br /> 1884- Retired General William T. Sherman refused the Republican Convention's call to run for President. He was the first to say: " If nominated I will not run, if elected I will not serve." The "Hero of Georgia" hated politicians and newspapermen. He commented to a friend: "I have a happy life. The day after I announced myself a candidate for office I would read in the newspaper how I poisoned my grandmother. I never knew my grandmother, but there the story would be, in full lurid detail!"<br /> <br /> 1915- Britain’s top general Earl Horatio Kitchener the Sirdar of Omderman drowned when the HMS Hampshire was sunk by a German mine in the English Channel. The British recruiting poster with the image of Kitchener pointing at you with fierce eyes fixed saying I WANT YOU! was later copied by American James Montgomery Flagg, substituting Uncle Sam. Earl Kitchener was Secretary for War, but by this time had lost much of his influence in government. P.M. Lord Asquith commented "the man makes a better poster than a leader". Traveling with Kitchener to his watery grave was his personal aide Col. Oscar Fitzgerald. Earl Kitchener was not fond of ladies, and there was talk that he and Fitzgerald were … well... let’s just say, Don’t Ask and Don’t Tell.<br /> <br /> 1916- Grand Sherif Hussein of Mecca launched the Great Arab Revolt against the Turkish Empire. We in the west don’t remember Hussein as much as his British military advisor, a moody young man named T.E. Lawrence, or Lawrence of Arabia.<br /> <br /> 1940- The synthetic rubber tire invented.<br /> <br /> 1944- As the Allies celebrated the liberation of Rome, A NY animator turned G.I. named Johnny Vita solicited laughs from the troops by appearing on Mussolini’s balcony on the Via Del Corso, doing a mock impersonation of Il Duce.<br /> <br /> 1944- In London, General Eisenhower received reports that the storm system over Europe would lighten slightly. If he delayed the invasion any further he risked losing the favorable tides until September. Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of soldiers were waiting in ships. Ike launched the largest amphibious invasion in history with the words: " Well, there it is. I don't like it, but I don't see any other way. Okay, let's go.”<br /> <br /> 1946- THE BIKINI went on sale. Two-piece bathing suits had been around since the 1930s. Parisian Louis Reard invented our modern concept. Named the Bikini for the Atomic test in the Bikini islands, Diana Vreeland said it would "hit the fashion world like an atomic bomb". The first model to wear it was an exotic dancer, because the regular fashion models refused to parade around in “Reard's flimsy straps”. <br /> <br /> 1963- BRITAIN ENTERS THE 60'S, BABY...The Profumo Scandal. Sir John Profumo was defense minister, protégé of Prime Minister Harold MacMillan and a rising star in Tory politics. This day Profumo resigned in disgrace and brought down the government, when it came out he was keeping a 19-year-old `party-girl' named Christine Keilor as his mistress. She was not only sleeping with married Sir John but was also dating a known Russian spy.<br /> <br /> 1964 - Davie Jones &amp; King Bees debut "I Can't Help Thinking About Me," The group disbanded but Davie Jones went on to success after changing his name to David Bowie.<br /> <br /> 1967- The Arab-Israeli SIX-DAY WAR began. Egypt’s President Gamal Nasser sent tanks into the United Nations mandated Sinai Peninsula and cut off Israeli shipping in the Gulf of Tyran. Israel knew the coming war with its four neighbors was imminent. This day without waiting, Israel launched its own preemptive strike. Leaving only twelve jets to protect the entire country, at dawn they sent out their entire 300 plane air force to attack the Egyptian, Syrian, and Jordanian air forces on the ground. 400 planes were destroyed in two hours. Israeli commander Yitzhak Rabin said by then, the war was already over. The Israeli tank division Ugdah Peled rolled into the West Bank and attacked Jordanian armor near Jenin.<br /> <br /> 1968- SENATOR ROBERT F. KENNEDY WAS ASSASSINATED at 12:15 AM in the kitchen area of the Ambassador hotel in LA after winning the California Presidential primary. Depressed by the slaying of Martin Luther King in April, Bobby Kennedy had said: "The only thing between me and the Presidency is a gun." The assassin was a Palestinian waiter named Sirhan Sirhan. He picked the one-year anniversary of the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War to do the deed. "Kennedy you son of a bitch!" he shouted as he fired two shots into the back of his skull. People in the room shouted “ Oh God! Not Again! Not another Dallas!” Lying on the floor bleeding, Kennedy asked “ Is everyone ok?” RFK lingered and died the next morning. He was 42. <br /> His eldest son watched his father get shot on live television and never got over it. He died of a drug/alcohol abuse several years later. Sirhan Sirhan is still in jail today and the Ambassador Hotel was bulldozed in 2009 for a High School. <br /> <br /> 1976- In a wine competition outside Paris, California wines won for the first time. Santa Magdelena Chardonnay for whites and Stags Leap Cabernet for the red. It marks the moment when the dominance of French wines was broken, and California wines went from being a joke, to world class status.<br /> <br /> 1981- The U.S. Center for Disease Control published the findings of scientist Michael Gottlieb on the pneumonias of five L.A. gay men to be something new called Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS. Cases had been reported as early as 1975 and there is an ongoing argument whether Gottlieb or a French team at the Pasteur Institute discovered the disease first. One of the lead researchers at CDC was Dr. Anthony Fauci.<br /> <br /> 1989- Toronto’s Skydome Stadium opened. Home team Blue Jays lose to the Milwaukee Brewers 5-3.<br /> <br /> 1998- Walt Disney’s Mulan premiered at the Hollywood Bowl. Directed by Barry Cook and Tony Bancroft.<br /> <br /> 1998- Reuters and ABC News erroneously reported the death of 96 year old Bob Hope. Arizona Congressman Robert Stump announced the comedian’s death on the floor of the Congress, to the great surprise of Bob Hope, who was eating breakfast while watching TV at the time. Bob Hope lived four more years, dying at age 100.<br /> <br /> 2004- Ronald Reagan, The Gipper, the Great Communicator, The Teflon President, FBI informant T-10, Arrow Shirt model, SAG president, Forty Mule Team Borax salesman, Hippie bashing California Governor and the then oldest living US president, died at age 93. <br /> <br /> 2010- The Dr. Who episode where the Doctor (Matt Smith) takes Vincent van Gogh in the Tardis to the present day to see his paintings hanging in the Louvre. <br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean when you call someone a milktoast? <br /> <br /> Answer: A milktoast (also milquetoast) is someone with a submissive, reticent personality.<br /> From a popular cartoon character in the early XX century named Caspar Milquetoast, by T.H. Webster.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 04 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6165 <p>Quiz: What does it mean when you call someone a milktoast? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Where was the first ever Christian Church built?<br /> ----------------------------<br /> History for 6/4/2023<br /> Birthdays: King George III, Alvah Bessie, Rosalind Russell, Gene Barry, Dennis Weaver, Robert Merrill, Bruce Dern, Andrea Jaeger, Dr Ruth Westheimer, Freddy Fender, Rachael Griffiths, Noah Wylie is 52, Russell Brand is 48, Angelina Jolie is 48<br /> <br /> Happy Saint John the Baptist Day.<br /> <br /> 1070- THE BIRTHDAY OF ROCQUEFORT CHEESE. Legend has it on this day in the town of Roquefort, a shepherd found in a cave some cheese he had been saving but had forgotten about. He noticed it was covered with mold, but he was hungry and ate it anyway. And lo and behold, it tasted much better than before...<br /> <br /> 1249- King Louis IX of France (St. Louis) arrived in the HolyLand on Crusade.<br /> <br /> 1259- Kublai Khan, the grandson of the Genghis Khan, was elected the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. Kublai broke with Mongol custom by dividing their huge empire into three pieces. His uncle Kaidu would rule the Mongolian homeland and Uncle Batu the Western section (the Golden Horde in the Crimea) while Kublai preferred to rule China as it's emperor. In doing this he was acknowledging the reality that the master plan of Genghis for world conquest was unfeasible. The empire, which extended from Korea to Budapest to Baghdad was unmanageable and would break up anyway. Kublai Khan's Yuan Dynasty in China would last. He was the Chinese Emperor who met Marco Polo.<br /> <br /> 1615- Osaka Castle fell to the forces of Shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa.<br /> <br /> 1647- English troops storm into St. James Palace and arrest King Charles I. While the king had been gently stalling peace negotiations with Oliver Cromwell and the victorious Parliamentary army encamped at Putney, he was in secret talks with the Vatican Nuncio. King Charles promised toleration for Roman Catholicism in the British Isles if they would lend him an Irish army to beat Cromwell. At almost the same time he was promising the Scots that he would make all of England Presbyterian if they lent him an army. His attempts to restart the English Civil War was what labeled him "That Man of Blood" and got him beheaded.<br /> <br /> 1666- Moliere’s play "Le Misanthrope" premiered.<br /> <br /> 1717- FREEMASONS- The Grand Lodge of England was inaugurated in London on St John the Baptist Day. This is considered by some the birth of Freemasonry, but many alleged histories claim the practices of the Brotherhood of the Craft go back to ancient Egypt and was brought to England by the Knights Templar in the 1300’s. There is some validity to the reports of independent Lodges already existing in the 1630’s in England and earlier in Scotland. The Freemason movement spread throughout Europe and became an alternative to Christianity for many intellectuals in the 1700’s. Mozart, Haydn, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Casanova, Voltaire and many more were members. <br /> <br /> 1789- King Louis XVI was a kindly but weak king who never made a decision without consulting his beautiful Queen Marie Antoinette. But as the storm clouds of the French Revolution began to cover the land the Queen was taken out of the strategic decision making. Her sickly boy the Dauphin had died leaving her broken with grief. <br /> <br /> 1797- English officers in India fighting the Maharatta rajahs pause to celebrate King George III's birthday in their words "with a most ripe debauch."<br /> <br /> 1798- While Europe was convulsed by revolutions and Napoleon, the old ladies man Giacomo Casanova died of old age. He was 73. He had accepted the retirement post of librarian for a Czech nobleman.<br /> <br /> 1844- The last Great Auk killed by hunters.<br /> <br /> 1863- Robert E. Lee launched his divisions from their encampment at Culpepper, Virginia northwards towards Pennsylvania for the campaign that will climax at Gettysburg. <br /> <br /> 1896- Henry Ford tests out his automobile with headlights in a nighttime drive around Detroit.<br /> <br /> 1912-The first minimum wage law passed, in the state of Massachusetts.<br /> <br /> 1916-THE HERO PIGEON OF VERDUN- During the horrific battle of Verdun the Germans had surrounded the French strongpoint of Fort Vaux. The fighting in the underground 15 foot high concrete tunnels of the fort was ghastly, men killed each other with hand grenades and flamethrowers at close quarters while groping through the blackness and gagging at the stench of rotting corpses. The French commander Captain Reynal, his telephone communications cut, sent his last carrier pigeon to get help. The pigeon, despite being badly gassed and perching on the roof of the fort for a little while, got through to the high command. Delivering his message, he then fell over dead. Help never got through, and Captain Reynal had to surrender, but the dead pigeon was awarded the medal of the Legion d'Honneur. <br /> <br /> 1916 - Mildred J Hill, one of the two Hill sisters who composed the song Happy Birthday To You, died at 56.<br /> <br /> 1919- The Women's Suffrage Act passed the Senate by one vote. A chorus of women in the visitor's gallery break into: "Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow". The deciding vote was cast by a Utah senator who wanted to please his mother.<br /> <br /> 1938- Date of the famous Walt Disney Studio Hotel Norconian crew party to celebrate the success of Snow White. Walt picked the resort because when he first held a party at the studio, the crew trashed the place. One animator drunkenly fell out of a window. It was a first floor window, so he was unhurt. This party, billed Walt’s Field Day, featured golf, horse riding and swimming. But the young, mostly single artists (average age 26), released of stress and filled with booze, swapped bedrooms and galloped horses through the hotel corridors. After a while Walt and Roy fled the scene for fear of bad publicity. <br /> <br /> 1939- The Voyage of the Damned. The British ship SS Saint Louis was filled with 930 refugees, mostly Jewish families fleeing Hitler’s persecution. Up until the war the Nazis allowed thousands of Jews to emigrate, but after the Evian Conference the western democracies announced they weren’t prepared to open their borders to so great a human flood. So, the Saint Louis was refused permission to land her cargo of human desperation. The ship sailed from Nova Scotia, to Florida, Havana, Panama, and finally back to Europe where most of the passengers perished in the Holocaust. <br /> <br /> 1940- The last day of the Miracle of Dunkirk. British sea transports and small pleasure craft cross the English Channel and withdraw most of the British Army trapped against the sea. 280,000 British men and 100,000 allies were saved, 40,000 men go into captivity.<br /> <br /> 1940- The Nazis had taken Paris and the French were asking for surrender terms. An invasion of Great Britain seemed next. Today on the BBC radio, Prime Minister Winston Churchill inspired Britons with his famous speech:” We shall fight them on the beaches, we shall fight them in the hills and in the towns… we shall defend our island home. We shall Never Surrender!”<br /> <br /> 1941- While the Second World War raged, 82 year old Kaiser Wilhelm II Hohenzollern died peacefully of old age. He refused all offers from Hitler to return to Germany and stayed in exile in Holland.<br /> <br /> 1942- The BATTLE OF MIDWAY. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto committed the bulk of his carrier force to destroy the American Navy once and for all. Recent research of Japanese Imperial files reveal he considered this step a prelude to the invasion of the Hawaiian Islands, which he hoped would force America to negotiate peace. But the path of Yamamoto’s fleet was revealed by the breaking of the top Japanese radio codes and the American fleet laid an ambush for him. It was a battle of carrier-based planes where the opposing fleets never saw each other. <br /> The famous suicide attack of TBY-8, was an attack of U.S. torpedo planes on the Japanese carrier fleet without fighter cover. Of 51 planes, 47 were shot down by faster more agile Zeros. But while the zeros were on deck getting refueled and rearmed a cloud of Dauntless divebombers dropped out of the sky and blew Yamamotos four best aircraft carriers to bits- The Akagi, Hiryu, Soryu and Kaga. The carriers that launched the Pearl Harbor attack. The American carrier Yorktown was sunk. <br /> The Japanese fleet would never mount an offensive of this size again. Its defeat was seen by the U.S. Navy as the turning point of the Pacific War.<br /> <br /> 1942- Capitol Records opened for business.<br /> <br /> 1944- Original date for the D-Day Normandy Invasion. It was postponed until there was better weather. If the allies waited too long the tides would not be this good again until September.<br /> <br /> 1944- American armies at last enter Rome. An Allied beachhead had been established at Anzio last February only a few miles away, and scouts had reported the Eternal City wide open. But the American generals Lucas and Clark hesitated until the Germans could bring up reinforcements and bog them down for weeks. But this day they entered the city to the cheers of the populace. <br /> <br /> 1947- The film "A Miracle on 34th St." opened. Starring Maureen O’Hara, Edmund Gwen and 8 year old Natalie Wood.<br /> <br /> 1951- The Supreme Court upholds the anti-Communist Smith Act. This act stated you could be fired from your job or jailed even on a suspicion that you were a communist, no proof required.<br /> <br /> 1951- Tony Curtis married Janet Leigh. The result was to produce Jamie Leigh-Curtis. <br /> <br /> 1965- The Rolling Stones release the single "Satisfaction".<br /> <br /> 1967- The television show "The Monkees" win the Emmy award for Best Comedy.<br /> go figure... The producers of the Pre-Fab Four raised enough money to fund later projects like the hit movie Easy Rider. This same ceremony saw Bill Cosby become the first African-American to win an Emmy, this for his role in the series I-Spy.<br /> <br /> 1972- UCLA political science teacher and black militant Angela Davis was acquitted of all charges of conspiracy and kidnapping by an all white jury in San Jose. Davis was arrested not for anything she did but just for her vocal support of more violent members of the Black Power movement. Her case, like almost all these kind of cases in the 60’s became a national media cause-celebre. In 1980 Angela Davis ran for vice president as a candidate for the American Communist Party.<br /> <br /> 1977- The Apple II went on sale. <br /> <br /> 1982- The film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, premiered. Besides Ricardo Montalban as the badguy with the great pectorals, it features the Genesis Effect. This one minute sequence was a landmark of computer graphics effects. Done by the Lucas Graphics Group, who four years later would break off and become Pixar.<br /> <br /> 1984- Bruce Springsteen released “Born in the USA.”<br /> <br /> 1989-THE TIENAHMEN SQUARE MASSACRE. Chinese army troops loyal to Premier Deng Zhao Peng crushed the student democracy movement in the center of Bejing. The demonstrations started around a funeral for Hu Yao Bang, a party premier who was ousted for his liberal democratizing policy. The crowds gathered in strength and militancy, students joined by workers and soldiers. <br /> There was a hope China’s ruling elite would fall to a "people-power" type revolution that had overthrown Marco’s Philippines and the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe. But Premier Deng brought in soldiers from the rural provinces and brutally cracked down.<br /> No figures of total casualties exist but the figure ten thousand is thrown around as conservative. Incidentally this incident probably was the beginning of the world popularity of CNN news. Despite threats from commissars CNN correspondent Mike Chinoy remained at his post and continued to broadcast when all other news teams had fled. Deng Zhao Ping’s name was a pun on the word for "little bottle" so people showed their resistance by smashing dozens of small bottles out on the street.<br /> <br /> 1990- The New York Daily News quietly discontinued its long running comic strip Ching Chow. Besides being unbelievably racist and offensive, the little one panel strip of a stereotype Chinese man with a long hair queue saying Confucian platitudes, also was the source of racetrack and numbers racket tips.<br /> <br /> 2003- Martha Stewart, the self-made millionaire leader of a home recipe empire, was indicted for insider trading. <br /> <br /> 2004- THE HOMEMADE TANK- In the small town of Granby Colorado, a muffler salesman named Jim Heemeyer got so annoyed at his town, that he welded iron plates on to a large bulldozer to create a kind of homemade tank. While policemen fruitlessly shot at it, he razed to the ground most of the public buildings in town before shooting himself. If you can’t fight City Hall, bulldoze it.<br /> ===============================================================<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: Where was the first ever Christian Church built?<br /> <br /> Answer: In Aqaba, Syria. It was built in 283-303 AD.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 03 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6164 <p>Quiz: Where was the first ever Christian Church built?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz Answered below: What is pedantry? To be pedantic?<br /> --------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/3/2023<br /> Birthdays: John Paul Jones, Jefferson Davis, Josephine Baker, King George V, Henry Shrapnel, Allen Ginsburg, Collen Dewhurst, Alain Renais, Curtis Mayfield, Paulette Goddard, Maurice Evans, Jack Oakey, Jan Peerce, Zoltan Korda, John Dykstra, Tom Arnold, Hale Irwin, Chuck Barris, Tony Curtis<br /> <br /> 1579- Sir Francis Drake, his ship the Golden Hind parked in Drake's Bay or Anchor Bay or wherever, claims California for England. He calls it Nova Albion. Early explorers thought America was a big island or series of islands. Magellan had found the way around the southern end. Drake repeated Magellan's route around South America to attack get into the Pacific. Now, he sailed north trying to find the northern end of the island so he could sail around the top to get back into the Atlantic. <br /> But by Mendocino California, Drake realized that this was one big mother of an island, and it would be wiser to turn around and go home some other way. The Northwest Passage isn't discovered until Canadian icebreaker did it in 1958. <br /> <br /> 1778- MOTHER ENGLAND OFFERS A DEAL- After the French, Dutch and Spanish decide to intervene in the American Revolution, and pile on Britain, The British Government under Lord North offered the rebellious American colonies all of their grievances, taxation, seats in Parliament. What Mr. Pitt suggested he do three years ago when the Revolution started. Now they offered everything short of full independence. The Continental Congress said too late, you're dealing with a separate country now.<br /> <br /> 1779- British General Sir Henry Clinton had a problem. He had just captured Charleston South Carolina and accepted the surrender of the largest number of American rebels- 4,000, as many as his own army. Now orders came from London were to leave Lord Cornwallis with a force to subdue the South and return to New York. But what about the prisoners? Today Clinton published an edict that all rebels who take an oath of loyalty to the Crown will be released. His subordinate grumbled:” Sir Henry doesn’t understand that these rebels swallow an oath to their King then an oath to their Congress with the same ease his Lordship swallows a plate of poached eggs!”<br /> <br /> 1800- President John Adams arrived in the Washington D.C. area and took up residence at the Union Tavern in Georgetown while waiting for construction to be completed on the Executive Mansion, later called the White House. First Lady Abigail Adams and her suite got lost in the forest coming from Baltimore. <br /> There were only then three thousand residents in DC, one fifth were slaves. Pennsylvania Avenue was “wide morass confused with alder bushes”. The only way to understand where the avenues went, were from the wooden pegs sticking in the mud. Secretary to the British Ambassador Augustus John Forster wrote to London forlornly that he was losing his sanity in this “absolute sepulcher, this rural hole.”<br /> <br /> 1846- In Texas, General Stephan Kearny with his Army of the West, received orders to march west and invade the Mexican state of Alta-California.<br /> <br /> 1851- The American clipper ship Flying Cloud began her maiden voyage from Sandy Hook New York. She was so fast she could sail from New York around South America to San Francisco in 89 days, making her the most celebrated Yankee merchant ship, and with the British Cutty Sark the subject of numerous model boat kits.<br /> <br /> 1864- BATTLE OF COLD HARBOR- The Civil War battles between Robert E. Lee and Ulysses Grant had settled into something resembling the trench warfare of World War 1. This day General Grant, mistakenly believing Lee was abandoning his Petersburg defense lines, launched a huge frontal assault at Cold Harbor.<br /> Seven thousand men were cut down in 20 minutes. Before rising from their fortifications to the attack, Union men wrote their names on pieces of paper and pinned them to their shirts so their bodies could later be identified. One Massachusetts private wrote in his journal: "June 3rd. I was killed today." He went out and was indeed killed. By the third assault the Yankee army was near mutiny. A captain reacted to the order to attack: "I won't go back out there if Christ Almighty himself came down and ordered me to!" <br /> In two months, Grant had lost 20,000 men, more than Lee had in his entire army. The newspapers started to call him “the Butcher”. But Grant knew if he held on, he would defeat the Confederacy, if by sheer weight of numbers than nothing else. Still, for the rest of his life he regretted the attack at Cold Harbor. <br /> <br /> 1875- Harper's Weekly Newspaper reported the Kansas Pacific Railroad was bowing to editorial pressure from back east and would no longer allow it's passengers to shoot at buffalo from their moving trains. It had become quite the tourist attraction.<br /> <br /> 1885- Feast of the Martyrs of Uganda- Ugandan king Mwanga got angry that too many Christian missionaries were running around his kingdom. One of the royal pages who had been converted even had the audacity to baptize Mwanga's son Kizito. So he ordered dozens of them burnt alive or chopped up. His chief steward Joseph said as he perished:" Mwanga has condemned me without cause, but tell him I forgive him from my heart."<br /> Mwanga's persecution stopped when the British invaded later that year and turned Uganda into a colony until 1956.<br /> <br /> 1888-The poem: "Casey at the Bat" by Edward Lawrence Thayer published in the San Francisco Examiner.<br /> <br /> 1898- While Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders waited at Tampico Florida to embark for Cuba, an interesting meeting occurred. One of the U.S. army’s commanders was an ex-Confederate general named Fighting Joe Wheeler. Wheeler encountered another elderly retired rebel General James Longstreet, who was now a railroad executive. The two joked about Jubal Early, a hotheaded colleague. Longstreet said: “Joe, I hope I die before you do, because I want to get to Hell in time to hear Jubal Early curse you for wearing that pretty Blue Uniform!!”<br /> <br /> 1923- Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini gave Italian women the right to vote.<br /> <br /> 1924- Writer Franz Kafka died in Kierling Austria. He left instructions to<br /> Friends to burn all his unfinished manuscripts including The Trial, but<br /> Fortunately, his friends did not.<br /> <br /> 1929- Movie stars Douglas Fairbanks Jr married Joan Crawford.<br /> <br /> 1928- General Zhang Zuolin “The Old Marshal” was one of the last Chinese warlords to surrender to the Kuomintang Nationalist front (KMT) led by Chiang Kai Shek. Zhang Zuolin surrendered Peking (Beijing), on a promise he could retire in peace. But soon after boarding a train to Manchuria he was killed by a bomb. It was blamed on Japanese agents, but no one is sure. The intrigue and internal chaos of the time inspired several films and novels like Shanghai Express, the Bitter Tea of General Yen, and Lost Horizons.<br /> <br /> 1932- In a game against the Philadelphia A’s, NY Yankee hitter Tony Lazzeri hit “for the cycle” a natural cycle. This meaning his first at bat was a single, the second a double, his third a triple and his fourth at bat he hit a home run, a grand slam actually. In all 150 years of recorded baseball, only 14 batters have ever hit a natural cycle. <br /> <br /> 1937- King Edward VIII of England had abdicated his throne over his affair with American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Now as Duke of Windsor, he and Wally were officially married this day.<br /> <br /> 1939- Movie director Alexander Korda married movie star Merle Oberon.<br /> <br /> 1942- Japanese planes bomb Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands, part of Alaskan territory. This attack was supposed to be the feint drawing attention from the main Japanese attack at Midway Island. <br /> <br /> 1943- First Day of the ZOOT SUIT RIOTS- In Los Angeles, Navy and Marine servicemen awaiting embarkation to the Pacific battlegrounds clashed with Hispanic gangs. Truckloads of off-duty servicemen drove up from San Pedro Harbor to enlarge the fight. The servicemen would choose whom to beat up based on whether they were wearing a fashionable zoot-suit. They beat up two 13 year olds sitting in a theater watching a movie. Downtown L.A. became an urban war zone for several days.<br /> <br /> 1944- Planning the D-Day Invasion, Meteorologists in Norway predict a storm system over Europe to last all week. German High Command was sure an invasion of Europe was imminent, but that Eisenhower would need at least 4 days of good weather to launch an attack. The original date for D-Day was supposed to be tomorrow June 4th but this night Eisenhower canceled the go-ahead until June 6th. The tides would never be this favorable again until September. Field Marshal Rommel, deciding there would be no invasion that week, went home to Germany for conferences and his wife's birthday, June 6th.<br /> <br /> 1946- A consumer study finds there are only 10,000 television sets in America.<br /> A follow up study five years later finds the number at 15 million.<br /> <br /> 1948- The Hale telescope at the Mount Palomar Observatory in California dedicated. The 200 inch mirror had taken 11 years to polish and the observatory two decades to build. A brand new kind of glass was invented for the Palomar mirror, called "pyrex". If you thought it was invented just for test-tubes and coffee pots. Called the “Giant Eye” it gave us out first looks at black holes, and doubled our depth perception of the size of the Universe.<br /> <br /> 1949 - Dragnet is 1st broadcast on radio (KFI in Los Angeles). It went to NBC TV in 1952. Creator Jack Webb wanted to capture the dry, non-theatrical delivery he heard real cops’ use. He ordered his actors to “stop acting, just read the lines”. Webb wrote the scripts from real LAPD cases and starred as well. He liked to mix martinis for the cast and crew in between setups.<br /> <br /> 1965- Edward White becomes the first American to walk in space in Gemini VII. <br /> <br /> 1967 - Aretha Franklin's "Respect" reaches #1. Sockittome, sockittome, sockittome.<br /> <br /> 1968- Artist Andy Warhol was shot in the gut three times by Valerie Solanas, author of the "SCUM Manifesto". Warhol barely lived. Solanas was institutionalized.<br /> <br /> 1971- The first artificial gene created.<br /> <br /> 1975- The Bob Fosse-Gwen Verdon musical Chicago opened on Broadway. Written by Kander and Ebb, based on a 1926 play Roxie Hart.<br /> <br /> 1976 –Galileo-Galileo Fig-a-ro! Queen's single "Bohemian Rhapsody" goes gold.<br /> <br /> 1980- President Jimmy Carter announced the United States would boycott the 1980 summer Olympic Games in Moscow because of the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. The Russians boycotted the LA Olympics in 1984. <br /> <br /> 1982- Schlomo Argov, Israeli ambassador to Britain, was shot outside of a London Hotel. Tensions had been building up between Israel and the Arafat’s Palestinian Liberation Org. based in South Lebanon. Defense minister Arial Sharon planned an invasion of Lebanon, and was waiting for one more incident to spark it off. In the cabinet meeting over the killing, Mossad tried to point out that the assassin was identified as an Abu Nidal terrorist, who were enemies of the PLO. Prime Minister Menachem Begin waved them off.” They are all PLO”. The Israeli tanks rolled two days later. The War in Lebanon dragged on for twenty years, splintering Israeli opinion. <br /> <br /> 1986- Attorney Roy Cohn was disbarred by a federal appellate court. It was a symbolic act because Cohn was dying anyway of HIV/AIDS. In his career Cohn had prosecuted the Rosenbergs, helped Sen Joe McCarthy in his anti-Communist witch hunt and defended Mafia dons like John Gotti. Despite being gay himself, one of Cohn’s last acts was to lobby New York State legislators from his deathbed to defeat a Gay Rights Bill. His end was dramatized in the play Angels in America. Cohn was a mentor and big influence on young Donald Trump.<br /> <br /> 2001- Disney’s Atlantis the Lost Empire opened in theaters.<br /> ======================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is pedantry? To be pedantic?<br /> <br /> Answer: To be overly obsessed with minor details.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 02 Jun 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6163 <p>Quiz- What is pedantry? To be pedantic?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Do you have a raison d'être? What is a raison d'être?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 6/2/2023<br /> Birthdays: John Randolph, The Marquis DeSade, Martha Custis Washington, Thomas Hardy, Ludwig Roselius the inventor of decaf coffee 1874, Hedda Hopper, Sir Edward Elgar, Johnny Weismuller, Charlie Watts, Disney story artist Dick Heumer, Lotte Reinniger, Marvin Hamlisch, Barry Levinson, Jon Peters, Dana Carvey, Garo Yepremian, Jerry Mathers the Beaver of the old TV show Leave it to Beaver is 75, Dennis Haysbert is 69, Lasse Halstrom is 77<br /> <br /> 193AD- Shortly after he abdicated, Roman Emperor Didius Julianus was assassinated. As his own bodyguard turned on him and raised his sword, Julianus cried” What evil have I done? Who have I killed?” Unfortunately, Roman emperors were rarely allowed to retire. <br /> <br /> 303AD- Martyrdom of St. Elmo. This guy has to win the endurance record. The Emperor Diocletian had him starved, beaten with clubs, flogged with lead balled whips, rolled in tar and set on fire, roasted again in an iron chair, and he finally died after having his intestines wound out around a windlass. He is the patron saint of seafarers. When the blue electrical phenomenon appeared on ship's masts during a storm, it is called "St. Elmo's Fire".<br /> <br /> 1453-At Breslau, Papal Legate John of Capistrano presided over the torture of six Jews. After they confessed to Jewish practices, he had them burned at the stake. After John died the Protestants dug up his bones and threw them to their dogs. John was canonized San Juan Capistrano in 1690. A century later Franciscan monk Fra Junipero Serra named the picturesque little mission in California after him. And the swallows do migrate there, sometimes.<br /> <br /> 1502- 30 year old Caesar Borgia had conquered most of central Italy in the name of his father Pope Alexander VI. He attacked the town of Faenza that was stoutly defended by Astorre Manfredi and his brother. Caesar Borgia offered them generous terms and after the surrender treated the Manfredi Brothers very courteously, until they got back to Rome where he clapped them in a dungeon. This day the bodies of the Manfredi Brothers were found floating in the Tiber.<br /> <br /> 1533- Pope Paul III banned the enslavement of Indians in the New World. Whether anybody listened to him is another matter.<br /> <br /> 1763- At the British Fort Michilimackinac near Lake Superior some Sauk and Chippewa Indians were playing lacrosse. While the British sentries were engrossed in the ball game Indian women gathered near the forts’ open gates. When one player hurled the ball up over the wall as a signal the women tossed concealed tomahawks to the players who then rushed the fort and defeated the garrison.<br /> <br /> 1780- THE GORDON RIOTS- Lord Gordon organized a public demonstration against a pending bill granting toleration of Roman Catholic worship in England. A mob marched on Parliament, then went went berserk and looted London for a week. Lord Gordon became the last nobleman ever executed in the Tower of London and Parliament passed the Riot Act. But his tactics scared Parliament from passing the Catholic bill. The Catholic Emancipation Bill would not pass until 1834. From then on whenever an unruly crowd won't disperse, before the Authorities start shooting and clubbing people, they first read them The Riot Act. The last reading of the Riot Act in the British Isles was in 1919 in Glasgow during a police strike.<br /> <br /> 1781- Thomas Jefferson was a great American statesman and thinker, but he was not much at military matters. This day, he sighted the British army approaching his mountaintop home of Monticello. He leapt on his horse Caractacus, and galloped away for his life, abandoning his household. The redcoats respected his home, but burned his barns and liberated 200 of his slaves. As Governor of Virginia Jefferson had compromised his states defenses when he refused to accept black volunteers in the Virginia militia, to make up the manpower lost to Washington’s army up north. In the meantime, Royalist governor Lord Dunmore was offering freedom for slaves who fought under the His Majesty’s colors. Jefferson resigned as governor and nine days later. Fellow Virginian Patrick Henry convened a committee to investigate Jefferson’s incompetence while in office.<br /> Years later in 1820 when elderly Thomas Jefferson presided over a commemoration of Andrew Jackson’s victory at New Orleans, Jackson joked: “Well I’m glad to see the old gentleman got up enough courage to even remember a Battle!”<br /> <br /> 1886- President Grover Cleveland married Frances Folsom in a White House ceremony. She was the daughter of his former law partner and Cleveland became her legal guardian after his death. Despite her being half his age and his reputation for fathering children out of wedlock, they were much in love and she especially charmed the American public. At age 21 she became the youngest woman to be First Lady. Songs were written for her and their first baby was honored with a candy bar- the Baby Ruth.<br /> <br /> 1896- Guglielmo Marconi took out a patent on wireless broadcasting - radio.<br /> At the time his device could be heard from almost 12 miles away!<br /> <br /> 1908- James Spengler worked as a carpet cleaner in a dept. store in Akron Ohio. Being asthmatic, he found his work challenging, to say the least. So he invented the electric powered vacuum cleaner, which he patented this day. He eventually sold his invention to his cousin William Hoover. <br /> <br /> 1920- Eugene O’Neill won a Pulitzer Prize for his first play Beyond the Horizon.<br /> <br /> 1920- TERRORISM- Radical Anarchists set off 11 bombs in the US, including at the home of the U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. Palmer and his wife just missed being killed because the bomber’s device exploded as he was setting it down on their porch. This year they also set off a bomb in a wagonload of scrap metal on Wall Street and a man tried to shoot banker J.P. Morgan. <br /> This sparked a large government crackdown called The Palmer Raids. Many innocent immigrants, suffragettes and union organizers were jailed or deported as criminals, including Emma Goldman. The progressive reaction to the crackdown was the birth of the American Civil Liberties Union. Palmers point man was young J. Edgar Hoover.<br /> <br /> 1924- Congress granted U.S. citizenship to all Native American Indians, whether they wanted it or not.<br /> <br /> 1918 -In Monroe NY, Velveeta Cheese was invented by Swiss immigrant Emil Frey as a way to recycle damaged and partially used cheese wheels. <br /> <br /> 1928- Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek of the Kuomintang (KMT) captured the imperial capitol of Peking (Beijing) from warlord Chang Zhou Lin, called the Old Marshal.<br /> <br /> 1932- The Screen Publicists Guild formed<br /> <br /> 1940- Will Eisner's "The Spirit" comic first appears.<br /> <br /> 1941- Lou Gehrig died of (ALS) Lou Gehrig's disease at age 38.<br /> <br /> 1946- Italians vote in a postwar referendum to become a republic. The monarchy of the House of Savoy was in place all during the regime of dictator Mussolini. Because of King Vittorio Emmanuele IV’s support of Fascism, he and the Royal House of Savoy were declared deposed.<br /> <br /> 1952 - Maurice Olley of General Motors began designing the Corvette.<br /> <br /> 1952- Queen Elisabeth II of England crowned. The date was set by meteorologists who predicted it would be one of the few days that year that would have bright sunshine. And-you guessed it... it rained all day. It was also the first Royal Coronation to be seen on television.<br /> <br /> 1956- Elvis Presley introduced his hit song “You Ain’t Nothin But a Hound Dog” on the Milton Berle TV show.<br /> <br /> 1958- An L.A. referendum allowed the county to buy Chavez Ravine from its inhabitants to build Dodger Baseball Stadium.<br /> <br /> 1961-Pulitzer Prize winning writer George S. Kaufman died. Playwright, humorist and critic who wrote Dinner at Eight, You Can’t Take it With You, and Stage Door. He was 71. He requested the epitaph on his headstone read: "Over My Dead Body!"<br /> <br /> 1973- London animator Richard Williams closed down his Soho studio for one month so his staff could be tutored by old Hollywood animation legends Art Babbitt, Chuck Jones, Grim Natwick, and Ken Harris. <br /> <br /> 1991- MTV’s nighttime show Liquid Television premiered with Peter Chung’s Aeon Flux.<br /> <br /> 1996- Ray Combs took over the job as host of the TV game show Family Feud after Richard Dawson, hanged himself with his bed sheets at Glendale Adventist Hospital. Richard Dawson was the British POW in the popular TV show Hogan’s Heroes.<br /> <br /> 1999- Pope John Paul II blessed the new Vatican Parking garage. <br /> <br /> 2003- One secret to the speed of the American victory in Iraq was many in Saddam’s army heeded an appeal from the invaders not to resist and they would be taken care of. After the victory the occupation authority announced the Iraqi Army would be disbanded and all career soldiers lost their pensions and benefits. Today thousands of unemployed Iraqi soldiers demonstrated in front of American Occupation Headquarters in Baghdad demanding to be paid. It is the first time a defeated army ever demanded back pay from the winner.<br /> <br /> 2017- Wonder Woman, directed by Patti Jenkins and starring Gal Gadot, premiered.<br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Do you have a raison d'être? What is a raison d'être?<br /> <br /> Answer: It means your reason for being.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 31 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6162 <p>Quiz: The comedy act The Three Stooges were brothers, except for one. Who was that?<br /> <br /> Answer to Yesterday’s Quiz Below: What are jerrycans? (hint: a holdover from WW2)<br /> ————————————————————————————————————<br /> History for 5/31/2023<br /> Birthdays: King Manuel I of Portugal 1495, Walt Whitman, Fred Allen, Don Ameche, Prince Ranier, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, Ranier Fassbinder, Brooke Shields, Joe Namath, Richie Valens, John Kemeny-the co-creator of the computer language BASIC, Tom Berenger, Denholm Elliot, Peter Yarrow, Lea Thompson, John Bonzo Bonham of Led Zepplin, Colin Ferrell is 47, Clint Eastwood is 93<br /> <br /> 1578- A farmer plowing a vineyard near Rome caused the ground to collapse beneath him revealing the long buried Ancient Roman catacombs. Antonio Bosio studied them and in 1632 published his study, "Underground Rome".<br /> <br /> 1669 -Samuel Pepys was forced to discontinue the diary he had kept from 1660 due to failing eyesight.<br /> <br /> 1759- Under pressure from religious groups, the Royal Colony of Pennsylvania banned theatrical plays. You could be fined 500 pounds for trotting the boards.<br /> <br /> 1790- The U.S. Congress passed its first laws protecting the copyright of written works. This law was lobbied for by Noah Webster, who wrote the first American dictionary.<br /> <br /> 1793- LA TERREUR- THE REIGN OF TERROR BEGAN- French extremists the Jacobins named for their meeting place, near the monastery of St.Jacob, Danton, Robespierre and Marat took over the French Government. They declared anybody who didn't agree with them to be counterrevolutionary dead meat. Robsepierre said: “Virtue without Terror is Impotence, Terror without Virtue is Criminal.”<br /> Until 1794 their Committee of Public Safety guillotined 17,000 people, including Madame DuBarry, the great scientist Lavoisier, poet Andre Chenier and finally even fellow revolutionaries Danton and Camille Desmoulins. They also drowned hundreds in barges. One method of execution was the Republican Marriage- that meant tying up a man and woman face to face then throwing them into the sea to drown. <br /> Napoleon, Josephine, Roget Du Lisle -who wrote Le Marseillaise, even American Thomas Paine barely escaped with their heads. Marat said: "If we cut off 10,000 heads today, it saves us having to cut off 100,000 tomorrow!" Robespierre kept a servant playing a little accordion in his office so he wouldn't have to listen to the screams and pleas of the condemned dragged off to execution. To their credit they enacted much needed social reforms, For the first time the public could enjoy the Royal art collections like the Louvre and the royal parks like the Luxembourg Gardens. <br /> The modern concept of the restaurant also arises at this time. The name comes from a place to Restore-Your Health- Restaurant. In previous ages you could get a meal at an inn or public house, but it was never very good. The former chefs of great estates, now unemployed because their employer’s heads were in baskets, opened shops and cooked their grand cuisine for the average Jacques &amp; Jill.<br /> <br /> 1837 - Joseph Grimaldi, England’s greatest clown (king of pantomime), died at 57. On stage since the age of 3 at Sadler-Wells, he never appeared in a circus ring. Instead, his<br /> act was stage pantomime. In tribute to him, all English circus clowns are known as “Joey’.<br /> <br /> 1859- The famous clock in the Elizabeth Tower of Parliament called after its bell, Big Ben, began running, and its chimes sounded out across London for the first time.<br /> <br /> 1862- During the Civil War Battle of Fair Oaks, Professor Thaddeus Lowe first took an observation balloon aloft to study the defensive works of the enemy. He proved the military value of arial observation. Lowe created a balloon corps for the union army, and once gave a ride to General Custer. One of the military diplomatic observers who was very interested was the Prussian Count von Zeppelin. After the war Thaddeus Lowe moved to Pasadena California where he built a vacation resort, Mt. Lowe. His granddaughter Florence, “Pancho” Barnes was an aviator who raced Amelia Earhart, and was friends with Astronaut Buzz Aldrin. <br /> <br /> 1866- The FENIAN BROTHERHOOD, 1,500 Irish Union Army veterans decided the way to free Ireland from Britain was to invade Canada from New York State. <br /> <br /> 1870- President Ulysses Grant called for the U.S. purchase and annexation of Santo Domingo (The Dominican Republic). Congress defeated the measure as being too costly. Grant was disgusted, hadn't the gov't wasted millions already to purchase the frozen wastes of Alaska in 1868? Other times in American history we've made moves on Cuba and Nicaragua, and occupied Haiti in the 1920s, and the Dominican Republic in the 1960s.<br /> <br /> 1873- SCHLEIMANN FOUND TROY. Archaeologist Heinrich Schleimann unearthed the horde of gold known as Priam's Treasure in a mound near Hysarlik Turkey. This site was the Troy of Homer, proving the Trojan War was not a myth but a real historical event. There were actually 9 Troys on the site- from a Bronze Age village to a Late Roman Empire city. The Troy of the Trojan War was Troy number 4. It showed signs of destruction by fire.<br /> <br /> 1879- New York’s Madison Square Garden opened. Designed by Stanford White to resemble a Venetian Palazzo. The modern sports complex was opened in the 1960s.<br /> <br /> 1889-The Johnstown Flood. The South Fork Dam swollen by heavy rains burst and sent a 35-foot wall of water and debris over the town. 2,295 were killed.<br /> <br /> 1894- Happy Birthday Kellogg’s Corn Flakes! Dr. John Harvey Kellogg of Battle Creek Michigan patents "flaked cereal and the process for making same." He felt whole foods like Corn Flakes could help Victorian people curb their sexual urges. <br /> <br /> 1902-THE BOER WAR ENDED. After English troops entered Pretoria, Boer survivors signed the Treaty of Vereeniging. Transvaal President Kruger "Oom Paul"-Uncle Paul- fled to Holland. When the Queen of Holland appealed for help for the Boers, who were ethnically Dutch-German. The Kaiser was noncommittal. The leader of the second largest population of Germans, President Teddy Roosevelt of the United States, said, "It is right and natural that the larger nations should dominate the smaller."<br /> On a troopship returning from South Africa, volunteer doctor Arthur Conan-Doyle was told by a Welsh doctor of a legend of a big ghostly dog that attacked people on the moors of his home estate. Conan-Doyle thought this would be a great story for his character Sherlock Holmes to solve. The Hound of the Baskervilles was the result.<br /> <br /> 1904- On the first day of a new Parliament the right honorable Tory member Mr. Winston Churchill entered the House of Commons, bowed to the Speaker, then took a seat with the Liberal Benches, publicly abandoning his Tory Party. In 1924 he changed his mind again and rejoined the Tories. This was why he was so shunned in the 1930’s. He was seen as a shameless opportunist, and not trusted by many of his peers. <br /> <br /> 1910- Not even ten years after the Boer independent state was defeated in the Boer War, the British formed it into the self-governing commonwealth known as The Union of South Africa, with former Boer General Jan Christian Smuts as its head. <br /> <br /> 1911- RMS Titanic launched from the Belfast shipyards. In a strange premonition of her eventual fate, she was never christened at launch time.<br /> <br /> 1913- The 17th Amendment was ratified. It called for senators to be elected by popular vote instead of nominated by the various state legislatures.<br /> <br /> 1916-The BATTLE OF JUTLAND. German and British battleships boom away <br /> at each other in the only major fleet engagement of World War I. Giant battleships called Dreadnoughts were the nukes of the turn of the century power game. Yet when the first and third largest fleets in the world finally clashed, it was a tie. British Admiral Beatty was annoyed with the performance of his fleet: "Blast! Why are all me bloody battlecruisers sinking?” But the German High Seas fleet went back into Kiel harbor and didn't emerge again for the rest of the war.<br /> <br /> 1921-In Tulsa, after the news report came out about a black man grabbing a lady by the arm, angry white mobs began to gather at town hall at sunset. After midnight they began to move on the black neighborhood of Greenwood. <br /> <br /> 1928- The song “Old Man River “sung by Pail Robeson came out as a single.<br /> <br /> 1929- Steamboat Willie was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, but Mickey didn’t speak much. He just whistled, yelped and laughed. In the cartoon released this day “the Carnival Kid” Mickey spoke his first words “Hot Dogs!” The voice was musician Carl Stalling. Later Walt Disney decided to voice the mouse himself.<br /> <br /> 1935- Twentieth Century Pictures and Fox Pictures merged to become Twentieth Century Fox. In 2017 Walt Disney Company purchased 20th Cent Fox and in the Summer of 2020 phased out the brand.<br /> <br /> 1948- The various guerrilla groups fighting for the new state of Israel, the Palmach, Haganna and Irgun, combine to officially become the IDF, the Israeli Defense Force,<br /> <br /> 1957- Malaya received its independence from Britain.<br /> <br /> 1958 - Dick Dale invents "surf music" with "Let's Go Trippin".<br /> <br /> 1962- Israel hanged Nazi war criminal Adolph Eichmann. His body was cremated and the ashes scattered in the sea.<br /> <br /> 1969- John Lennon and Yoko Ono recorded "Give Peace a Chance." at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in downtown Montreal. It became the theme song of the Anti-Vietnam War movement. Because of this song and Lennon’s support of the Hippie protesters the Nixon White House kept a file on him. Lennon spent most of 1972-73 under a constant threat of 60-day deportation from the US. <br /> <br /> 1979- The nation of Rhodesia reformed as the Republic of Zimbabwe under rebel leader Robert Mugabe. But unlike his contemporary Nelson Mandela, Mugabe made himself president for life and crushed all opposition. He was only forced to retire in 2017.<br /> <br /> 1984- Martial arts movie star Steven Segal married soap opera star Adrienne LaRussa. But what Adrienne didn’t know was he already had a wife named Miyako Fujetani and two kids waiting for him in Japan. A few months after this he fell for another actress named Kelly LeBrock.<br /> <br /> 1985- John Sculley was a former exec from Pepsi brought in by Apple Computer founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak to help run the company. This day his solution to help the company run better was to fire Steve Jobs. Wozniak retired and Sculley eventually moved on. Before his death, Steve Jobs came back to Apple and make it the worlds most profitable company, as well as run Pixar, and be on the board of the Walt Disney Company.<br /> <br /> 1989- "Skinhead Day at the Magic Kingdom" Disneyland refused to admit a rally of skinheads, Nazis and Klansmen. <br /> <br /> 1990- Television sitcom Seinfeld premiered based on a TV special about the standup comedian called the Seinfeld Chronicles. No Soup for You!<br /> <br /> 1995- A young Mexican-American Tejana singer named Selena was gaining a growing crossover appeal in pop music and there seemed no limit. This day her career was cut short when she was shot and killed by the Yolanda Saldivia, the president of the Selena Fan club.<br /> <br /> 1996- Despite grief over the assassination of Labor Prime Minister Ytshak Rabin, the Israeli public voted for the right wing Likud anyway, making Benjamin “Bibi” Netnayahu Prime Minister. He was turned out in 1999 over corruption, but re-elected in 2009. After 12 years, he is still being investigated.<br /> <br /> 2000- The first Survivor show premiered, shepherding in the era in America of TV Reality shows.<br /> <br /> 2003- A wild dove got into the Pentagon and flapped around the Air Force Secretary's office on the 4th floor. Can we say- symbolism?<br /> <br /> 2004- Peppa Pig created by Astley Baker-Davies debuted on British TV.<br /> =========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What are jerrycans? (hint: a holdover from WW2)<br /> <br /> Answer: A portable can to carry gasoline. During WW2, the Germans were nicknamed the Jerries. In the North African desert where saving and using petrol was vital, the Anglo-American soldiers realized the German version of gas cans were far superior to their own. They held more and leaked less. They began using captured German gas cans in preference to their own. After the war the name Jerrycans stuck.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 30 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6161 <p>Quiz: What are jerrycans? (hint: a holdover from WW2)<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Which president had the first Air Force One?<br /> --------------------------------------------<br /> History for 5/30/2023<br /> Birthdays: Czar Peter the Great, Benny Goodman, Mel Blanc, Stepin Fetchit, Boris Pasternak, Irving Thalberg, Milt Neil, Howard Hawks, Gale Sayers, Agnes Varda, Michael J. Pollard, Wynonna, Keir Dullea is 86, Ceelo Green is 47, Idina Menzel is 51<br /> <br /> 1431- At Place de Vieux-Marche’ in English controlled Rouen, St. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. She was only 19. Her last request was for a priest to hold up high a crucifix, so she could pray aloud above the flames. When an English knight watched the maid call out to Christ as she died, he exclaimed in grief: "Brothers, we are lost, because I think we have just killed a Saint! " She was made a saint in 1920. Tradition says even after her death, her remains were incinerated a second time to break them down further. Then the ashes scattered in a river to ensure no one with preserve any “heretical” relics of her. <br /> <br /> 1593- English playwright Christopher Marlowe was stabbed to death in an argument over a restaurant check at the Bulls Tavern in Depford. Marlowe, whose plays included “Tamburlane” and “Dr Faustus", was one of Shakespeare's competitors, and found time for some espionage on the side. Writer Sir Anthony Burgess theorized there may have been more spy-stuff to this case than not wanting to pay for ale &amp; kippers. The murderer, Ingram Frizer, was quickly pardoned by Queen Elizabeth I, and Marlowe was buried in an unmarked grave. <br /> The recent theory was it wasn’t Marlowe whose body was buried. That he was smuggled to Italy to act as a special agent for Lord Walsingham. His plays continued to some out under the name William Shakespeare. Many of Will’s best plays date from after Marlowe’s “death”. Romeo and Juliet the following year. Many were set in cities in Italy like Verona, a place Will had no knowledge of, but Marlowe had visited extensively. <br /> <br /> 1630- King Gustavus Adolphus gave an emotional farewell speech to the Swedish Diet as he prepared to leave with his army for Germany. He had pledged to take up the Protestant cause in the brutal Thirty Years War then raging across Europe. Gustavus won many victories but he never saw Sweden again, because he was killed in battle at Lutzen in 1632.<br /> <br /> 1787- THE CRUCIAL VOTE creating the U.S. Constitution. The delegates of the thirteen states (actually twelve, Rhode Island refused to participate) had originally come to Philadelphia to iron out some bugs in the system called the Articles of Confederation.<br /> On this day they were convinced to accept “the Virginia Plan” authored by James Madison and strongly backed by NY’s Alexander Hamilton. This was to scrap the entire U.S. government used up till then, and create a new central government with a two chamber Congress based on the Roman Senate. Also an elected chief magistrate called, at first, 'The Executive" and later The President. Some politicians not attending the meeting, like Patrick Henry and Sam Adams, were outraged. Thomas Jefferson, then ambassador in Paris, was dubious about the elected-president idea. “So they’ve decided to saddle us with a Polish King” he quipped, meaning an elected figurehead monarch with no real power. Aaron Burr wrote:” Same old pork, different sauce.”<br /> <br /> 1788- French philosopher Francois Voltaire died of uremic illness at age 84. He breathed his last cradled in the arms of Benjamin Franklin. He had been trying to write a chapter of a new dictionary, trying to keep himself going by drinking 20 cups of coffee a day. A great critic of the Catholic Church, he refused the Sacrament up to the last but was still smuggled away after death to be buried in sacred ground. In 1793 his remains and Rousseau’s were moved to the Pantheon. <br /> In 1814 a Royalist ghoul broke into Voltaire and Rousseau’s tombs, stuffed their bones into a sack and threw them into a garbage dump. The whereabouts of his remains are unknown to this day.<br /> <br /> 1806- ANDREW JACKSON KILLED CHARLES DICKINSON IN A DUEL. -the hotheaded Jackson challenged Dickinson after he welched on horse racing bet. After Jackson accused him, he made insulting remarks about Jackson’s wife Rachel, calling her a scarlet lady. In Long County Kentucky they faced off with pistols at ten paces.<br /> Dickinson got off a shot first. Eyewitnesses said you could see the puff of dust from Jackson's jacket where the bullet entered his ribs. Amazingly, instead of falling, Jackson just coldly stood there, staring. He then lifted his gun and shot Dickinson dead. 
Jackson would carry the lead ball in his chest for the rest of his life, alongside two others earned in Indian wars.<br /> When asked why he didn’t forgive Dickinson and shoot wide, He replied: "I'd have killed Dickinson, even if he had put a bullet in my brain!"<br /> <br /> 1821 - James Boyd patents the Rubber Fire Hose.<br /> <br /> 1848- William Young patents the ice cream freezer.<br /> <br /> 1883- A rumor among the strollers on the Brooklyn Bridge that the bridge was falling caused a panic and 12 people were trampled. Young street kid Al Smith recalled being under the bridge and seeing a rain of bowler hats and parasols as the crowd pushed and shoved. To prove the bridge was absolutely safe, the mayor asked P.T. Barnum to parade his circus elephants over the bridge to Brooklyn. <br /> <br /> 1899- Female outlaw Pearl Hart robbed the Globe, Arizona stagecoach. <br /> <br /> 1913- It’s Albanian Independence Day! The Treaty of London signed, ending the First Balkan War and acknowledging the independence of Albania. The Second Balkan War started thirty days later.<br /> <br /> 1919- Hollywood entrepreneur Charles Tolman bought a natural declivity north of Hollywood Blvd called Daisy Dell. People had been picnicking in the grass there for years. Now Tolman wanted to build a concert amphitheater. Conductor Hugo Kirchhofer remarked “ It looks like a big bowl!” So it became the Hollywood Bowl thereafter. <br /> <br /> 1921-In Tulsa Oklahoma, a 19 year old black man named Dick Rowland got into an elevator operated by a white girl named Sarah Page. We’ll never know what actually transpired, but Rowland was later arrested for allegedly assaulting Page. Page claimed he grabbed her arm but nothing more. This incident led to the massing of mobs that resulted in the Great Tulsa Race Massacre. Thousands were killed, businesses torched, and the black neighborhoods were actually bombed from the air. <br /> <br /> 1922- The Lincoln Memorial dedicated. The huge statue of Lincoln seated was carved by an Italian immigrant family in the Bronx. While President Harding talked, a guest of honor was elderly 86 year old Robert Todd Lincoln, Abe Lincolns only surviving child. He was a former Secretary of War. It was his last public appearance. <br /> <br /> 1927- In one of the more disturbing Memorial Day parades in New York City history, one thousand Ku Klux Klansmen and blackshirted Italian Fascists tried to march down Broadway, and got into fistfights with bystanders.<br /> <br /> 1930- The Lockheed Terminal was rededicated as Burbank Airport.<br /> <br /> 1935 - Babe Ruth's last game. He went hitless for the Boston Braves against Phillies.<br /> <br /> 1942- The British RAF launch the first of their 1000 plane bombing raids on Germany, this one flattened the city of Cologne.<br /> <br /> 1955- The New York chapter of the Catholic League of Decency pressured Loews Theater on Broadway to take down a giant 30-foot billboard of Marilyn Monroe trying to push her skirt down.<br /> <br /> 1961- Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo was ambushed in his Chevrolet. Shot five times, he was left dead in the street.<br /> <br /> 1962- Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem had its first performance.<br /> <br /> 1972- Director choreographer Bob Fosse filmed a live performance of Liza Minelli’s one-woman show Liza with a Z. It was telecast in Sept. and became a sensation.<br /> <br /> 1994 - Death of Baron Marcel Bich, Italian-born French engineer and industrialist who created an empire of disposable BIC pens, lighters and razors.<br /> <br /> 2003- Pixar’s Finding Nemo opened in general release. <br /> <br /> 2020- Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched the Dragon Rocket with two astronauts into orbit. The first private company space launch, and the first time American astronauts blasted off into orbit from America since the space shuttle program was retired ten years ago.<br /> ============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Which president had the first Air Force One?<br /> <br /> Answer: Franklin Roosevelt was given a DC-3 as the first presidential flying office. But FDR disliked flying and preferred to go by train. So First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt used it for her appearances. In 1945 Harry Truman used his own plane exclusively, named the Spirit of Independence. President Eisenhower’s plane was the first to officially be given the designation Air Force One.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 29 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6160 <p>Quiz: Which president had the first Air Force One?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: Why is an American soldier called a G.I. ?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 5/29/2022
Birthdays: John F. Kennedy, King Charles II (the "Merry Monarch"), Bob Hope, G. K. Chesterton, Patrick Henry, Oswald Spengler, T.H. White, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Josef Von Sternberg, LaToya Jackson, John Hinckley Jr., Al Unser Jr., Beatrice Lilly, Danny Elfman, Annette Benning is 65, Melissa Etheridge is 62, Rupert Everett is 65<br /> <br /> For those who are curious why America celebrates Memorial Day in May instead of November 11th like most of Europe, it is because of our Civil War. <br /> The main Confederate field armies surrendered in early April; it took this long to quiet the entire countryside, the last fighting on May 27th. Once the countryside was finally at peace, the U.S. government declared a Day of Remembrance of the fallen. Abolitionist named James Redpath reported back to Washington that newly freed black families in Charleston South Carolina would decorate the graves of fallen union soldiers with flowers. The locals were only decorating their own Confederate graves. Later in 1868, Mary Cunningham Logan, wife of General John A. Logan, Commander in Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Union Army Veterans Organization, went to Petersburg, where she mentioned to her husband the Southerners were decorating the graves of their soldiers. <br /> The holiday was first called Decoration Day, and the first formal one was held May 28, 1868. By the end of WWI in 1918, Americans had gotten used to honoring all their war dead at the end of May, and the holiday’s name changed to Memorial Day.<br /> <br /> 526 AD -An earthquake destroyed the city of Antioch. Another major quake two years later caused much rebuilding efforts to be abandoned. Once one of the largest cities in the ancient world, on a par with Rome and Athens, today it is a forgotten little Turkish border town.<br /> <br /> 1415- The Grand Council of churchmen at Constance trying to heal the Great Schism ordered the deposition of Pope John XXIII. John ran the Vatican like a mercenary captain, taxing everything including gambling and prostitution. It was said he had slept with 200 women including maids, matrons and nuns. He fled Constance disguised as a groom and was given sanctuary by Cosimo de Medici of Florence. Today he is counted an AntiPope, an illegal one, so Salvatore Roncalli in 1958 was given his number John XXIII.<br /> <br /> 1453- CONSTANTINOPLE CONQUERED BY THE TURKS- Sultan Mehmed II the "Scourge of Christendom" stormed the capitol of the old Byzantine Empire. His great cherry wood cannons firing giant stone balls blew great holes in the city walls, proving the end of castles as serious defenses. <br /> When he knew the battle was lost, the last Eastern Emperor of the Romans, Constantine XI Paleologus, sallied out sword in hand and went down fighting. His body was identified out of a pile of corpses only by the bejeweled purple shoes. As Mehmed II rode into the city in triumph he recited a Persian poem:" A spider weaves it's web in the palace of the Caesars, a shadow falls over the House of Amonhasarib.”<br /> Except for Spain, Christian Europe hadn’t given much thought to expansionist Islam since the Crusades. Now Turkey became Europe’s number one rival for the next 300 years. The Byzantine Empire’s loss did have one beneficial effect on Western Civilization. All the fleeing Greek scholars, with their arms full of the works of Plato and Aristotle, would settle in European capitols and help spark the Renaissance. <br /> <br /> 1606- Michel Caravaggio the artist shot a man over a tennis match. Caravaggio was a mad-artist before the term was invented. The police records of Rome show the master painter constantly in trouble, seducing man, woman and child, throwing rocks at soldiers, stabbing waiters, etc.<br /> <br /> 1660- RESTORATION DAY- After Oliver Cromwell executed King Charles I, he declared the British Monarchy abolished, and ruled England as The Lord Protector. The Commonwealth never became a true representative government. It just replaced a king with a dictator. When Cromwell died in 1659 he tried to leave his son Richard Cromwell in his place. But the son is not the father. The rickety system didn’t work, and Richard got the nickname “Tumbledown-Dick”. A junta of generals led by General Monck had no choice but to recall King Charles’ son Charles II from exile in Holland to come ascend the throne. This day King Charles II entered London. For many years after Restoration Day was a holiday in the UK. In the rural counties today is also called Happy Oak/Apple Day commemorating when Charles was on the run from Cromwells troops he hid in an oak tree.<br /> <br /> 1692- The Battle of La Hogue- Great naval battle when the French fleet of Admiral de Tourville was ordered by Louis XIV to attack an Anglo-Dutch navy despite being heavily outnumbered. The French admiral did a brilliant job but lost anyway, and the French monarch turned his back on the navy, abandoning supremacy of the seas to England.<br /> Once considered the most important naval engagement until Trafalgar, La Hogue is now mostly remembered on cheap, framed prints of naval battle paintings you see hanging in doctor’s waiting rooms.<br /> <br /> 1765 - Patrick Henry gave a defiant speech in the Virginia House of Burgesses against the English Stamp Act. Someone in the crowd yelled "Treason!" Henry smiled: "If this be treason, make the most of it!"<br /> <br /> 1780- THE WAXSAWS or TARELTON’S QUARTER- In the later part of the American Revolution the British Army tried encouraging Loyal Americans to fight their Rebel brothers. A British officer named Banastre Tarleton raised a hard riding company of American Loyalist dragoons to subdue unruly South Carolina. But Tarleton had a sadistic streak that made him go beyond the gentlemanly war of the era. <br /> At the Waxsaws in North Carolina, Tarleton rode down a company of Virginia militia and slaughtered them as they tried to surrender. After the battle ended he ordered his men to comb the battlefield and bayonet the wounded. So he won the tactical victory but Butcher Tarleton’s tactics made more enemies than friends for his side. Many North Carolina hill country folk who had been sitting out the war lost kin at the Waxsaws and so joined the American side in droves. Knowing they may get “Tarleton’s Quarter” made many Minutemen fight harder rather than surrender. <br /> <br /> 1790- Two years after the U.S. Constitution was ratified, Rhode Island had still not ratified the document. Rhode Island refused to send delegates to the convention drafting it, and only after the other twelve states threatened to completely sever all commercial ties with it did they knuckle under and vote to join the union, but only by a majority of only two votes.<br /> <br /> 1814- Napoleon’s Empress Josephine died of a cold contracted while entertaining Czar Alexander of Russia. She was 50. A woman’s fashion of the time was to wear a flimsy muslin dress dampened with water to make it see-through, the equivalent of the modern wet T-shirt. Dressed this way she went for an evening stroll through the gardens of Malmaison with the Russian emperor, caught a chill and soon expired. Napoleon learned of her death while he was in exile on Elba. He locked himself in his room for two days grief stricken. He admitted, “ I loved her, but I did not respect her..” <br /> <br /> 1843- John C. Freemont began his second surveying expedition mapping out vast areas of California and Oregon and studying its geography. For this he was nicknamed the Pathfinder and later became the first presidential candidate of the new Republican Party.<br /> <br /> 1848- Wisconsin became a state.<br /> <br /> 1856- THE LOST SPEECH- Former Congressman Abraham Lincoln was called upon to deliver the adjournment speech to the convention inaugurating the new Illinois Republican Party. He had decided to abandon his strategy of mincing words about slavery and “hit it hard.” Lincoln delivered what many regarded as the best speech of his life, a speech better than the Gettysburg Address or “With Malice Towards None” the Second Inaugural. <br /> And maddeningly for history we have no record of what he said. The newspapermen jotting it down shorthand were so amazed by what they heard that they stopped writing, confident they would share the notes of a colleague later. Even Abe’s close friend Herndon, who was a prodigious note taker, gave up after fifteen minutes, admitting he “threw pen and paper away and was swept up in the inspiration of the hour”. The speech made Lincoln one of the rising stars of the party, yet we don’t know anything he said that night.<br /> <br /> 1859 –Illinois Congressman Abe Lincoln says in a better documented occasion "You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of time, but you can't fool all of the people all of time"<br /> <br /> 1905- Third Day of the Battle of Tsushima Straights. Japanese Admiral Togo catches up to the second half of the Russian Navy and sinks it. In 1985 Japanese salvage crews brought up a huge hoard of gold bullion meant for the payroll for the Tsarist sailors. A Japanese venture capitalist tried to use it to buy back the Kurile Islands- the few small islands in the north that Soviet Russia invaded in the closing days of World War II and have never given back. Russia said 'No Deal."<br /> <br /> 1908- Teddy Roosevelt signed the first ban on child labor in the U.S. <br /> <br /> 1911 -The first Indianapolis 500<br /> <br /> 1912- In Philadelphia, 15 young women were fired by the Curtis Publishing Company for dancing "Turkey Trot" during their lunch break. <br /> <br /> 1914- THE COLONEL REDL AFFAIR- In the years before World War I, the Great Powers of Europe spent vast sums on spies and agents to discover each other's future war plans. The period was known as the “soft war” not unlike the Cold War of a later generation. Coloneloberst Redl was on the Austro-Hungarian General Staff but was passing information on to Russian Intelligence. He was exposed by an Italian double agent who was also his male lover. According to the Austrian military code of honor, Redl was forced by his fellow officers to shoot himself. An eccentric man, his apartment was filled with life-size mannequins in chairs. Hungarian director Istvan Szabo made an award-winning film in 1986 about Redl with Klaus Maria Brandauer. There were earlier films made of the story in 1931 and 55.<br /> <br /> 1932- The BONUS MARCHERS reached Washington D.C. Men who joined the army during the Great War were promised an extra bonus to be received in 1945. Similar bonuses were given by the Gov’t to Civil War Veterans in the 1890s. But by 1932 the Great Depression had so ruined people's lives a movement was started by a Portland veteran named Captain William Waters to pass a bill in Congress to get their bonus early. Veterans would lobby congress by mounting a poor people's march on Washington. People's marches of this sort had happened before, like "Coxey's Army" in 1896, the Civil Right's march in 1964, and the Million-Man March in 1995. Veteran's groups came from all over the nation and by the time they got to Capitol Hill they numbered around 80,000. The set up shantytowns on the Mall nicknamed “Hoovervilles”. <br /> <br /> Everyday Senators going to work had to slip through a huge line of homeless men shuffling silently around the Capitol Building. The Hoover government panicked and believed Soviet-style revolution was imminent. The opposition to the bonus bill was led by Senator Howard Vidal, father of writer-activist Gore Vidal and uncle to Al Gore.<br /> <br /> 1941-THE GREAT WALT DISNEY CARTOONISTS STRIKE.. The picket line and campsite went up across the street where St. Joseph's Hospital is today. Chef's from nearby Toluca Lake restaurants would cook for the strikers on their off time and the aircraft mechanics of Lockheed promised muscle if any ruff stuff was threatened. <br /> Picketers included Hank Ketcham (Dennis the Menace), Walt Kelly and Margaret Selby (later Kelly) (Pogo), Bill Melendez (A Charlie Brown Christmas), Steve Bosustow and John Hubley (Mr. Magoo), Maurice Noble and Chuck Jones (What's Opera Doc?), George Baker (Sad Sack), Dick Swift ("the Parent Trap") Frank Tashlin (Cinderfella) Ade Woolery (Playhouse), and four hundred others. Animators from Warner Bros. MGM and Walter Lantz marched with their Disney brothers and sisters, because they knew this was where the fate of their entire industry would be settled. Celebrities like Dorothy Parker, Frank Morgan, and John Garfield gave speeches. The studio claimed no one of importance was on strike. <br /> <br /> The strike was eventually settled by Federal arbitration and a little arm twisting by the Bank of America. Many of the artists who left the studio afterwards set up U.P.A. and pioneered the modern 1950's style.<br /> <br /> 1942- JOHN BARRYMORE- The great dramatic actor, the first American to dare to play Hamlet in England, died of cirrhosis and kidney failure at age 60. Whether the infamous prank actually happened where Raoul Walsh, Bertholdt Brecht, Peter Lorre, W.C. Fields and some others (the "Bundy Drive Boys") kidnapped Barrymore's body from Pierce Brothers Funeral Home and propped it up at the poker table to scare the willys out of Errol Flynn is a matter of debate. Flynn and Paul Heinried said it was true, writer Gene Fowler said it was false. John Barrymore's last words were to screenwriter Gene Fowler: "Say Gene, isn't it true you are an illegitimate son of Buffalo Bill?"<br /> <br /> 1942- Bing Crosby recorded "White Christmas," debatably the greatest selling record of all time.<br /> <br /> 1952- Edmund Hillary and Sherpa guide Tenzing Norga became first men to reach the top of Mt. Everest. The tallest mountain on the Earth.<br /> <br /> 1954- New York Police raided the studio of Irving Klaw, the photographer of the Betty Page kinky pin-up photos. Klaw tried to appeal to the Supreme Court but couldn’t get a hearing.<br /> <br /> 1956- Hollywood director James Whale (Frankenstein, The Invisible Man) drowned himself in his pool. His career was over and his health was deteriorating from a series of strokes. Bruises were found on his head and at first the police suspected foul play. It wasn’t until 1989 his gay partner made his suicide note public. His head had struck the pool’s bottom as he jumped in causing the bruise.<br /> <br /> 1972- Moe Berg died of old age. He was a master spy who using a front as a catcher for the Washington Senator’s Baseball team. He was fluent enough in quantum physics to converse with Einstein. He was once ordered by Washington to go to Switzerland and meet with Rudolph Heisenberg, the Nazi Einstein, and kill him if he felt the Germans were getting too close do developing their own atomic bomb. He chose not to shoot him. In his later years he was a regular contestant on TV game shows. Believe it or not!<br /> <br /> 1973 - Columbia Records fired president Clive Davis for misappropriating<br /> $100, 000 in funds, So Davis went on and founded Arista records.<br /> <br /> 1977 - Janet Guthrie becomes 1st woman to drive in Indy 500.<br /> <br /> 1978 - Bob Crane, (Hogan-Hogan's Heroes), died at 49 under mysterious circumstances. He was found in a Tucson hotel room surrounded by pornography, bludgeoned to death by a camera tripod. The murder was never solved.<br /> <br /> 1987 –pop singer Michael Jackson attempted to buy the XIX century remains of Joseph Meredith a.k.a. the Elephant Man.<br /> <br /> 1999- Hikers in a Malibu ravine discovered the remains of Phillip Taylor Kramer, the bass guitar player of the 1960’s band Iron Butterfly. The musician had disappeared four years before. Now his skeleton was found sitting in his Ford Aerostar at the bottom of a steep ravine.<br /> <br /> 2003- The BBC aired a news expose alleging that Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government “sexed up” or exaggerated the proof of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction to justify the unpopular invasion of Iraq. The documentary named a shy government researcher named Dr. David Kelly as the perpetrator. He committed suicide as a result. <br /> <br /> 2007- Apple sold it’s first iPhone.<br /> =======================================================<br /> Quiz: Why is an American soldier called a G.I. ?<br /> <br /> Answer: GI stood for Government Issue. When you were drafted everything you got, your helmet, boots, socks, said Government Issue. So a G.I. Joe meant a government issue guy.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 28 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6159 <p>Quiz: Why is an American soldier called a G.I. ?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: What is a crustacean?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 5/28/2023<br /> Birthdays: Solomon 970 BC, Noah Webster, Dr. Joseph Guillotine, William Pitt the Younger, General Pierre Beauregard, Ian Fleming, Jim Thorpe, The Dion Identical Quintuplets 1930, Gladys Knight, Jerry West, Dietrich Fisher-Deiskau, Sandra Locke, T-Bone Walker, Taffy Abel (one of the first professional hockey stars), John Fogarty is 78, Carey Mulligan is 38, Carol Baker.<br /> <br /> 585 BC- THALES ECLIPSE An early recorded Solar Eclipse. It struck blind people who dared to look at it, and it scared away the armies of King Cyaxerxes of Media and King Alyattes of Lydia who were about to fight a battle. Not wishing to anger the Gods any further, they immediately made peace. <br /> <br /> 20AD- Tiberius’ general Drusus celebrated a triumph over the Pannonians (Hungary).<br /> <br /> 1358- THE JACQUERIE- In the Middle Ages the oppression of the peasantry coupled with the Black Death and the Hundred Years’ War reached their breaking point. Major peasant revolts began to break out all over Europe. In Italy they’re called the Ciompi, in England, Wat the Tyner’s revolt, and outbreak today in France was called the JACQUERIE (after "poor Jacques" or peasant). The outraged peasants burned manor homes and castles and massacred nobility without any real plan. To English and French knights class meant more than national feuds, so they took time out from their Hundred Years’ War to join together to chop up their uppity peasants. <br /> <br /> 1453- The night before his final assault on Constantinople, Turkish Sultan Mehmed II, addressed his troops:" I give you the capitol of the ancient Romans, the greatest city in the world! I give you her women and children, her silks and jewels. All I ask is that you leave me her buildings and monuments. I want the city for myself!" Then battalions of belly dancers danced for the men, but no sex was permitted until the battle ended.<br /> <br /> 1494- The official "birth" of Scotch - though it probably had been around much earlier, on this date, the Scottish Exchequer recorded a purchase of malt by a friar to make "aqua vitae", the first written reference to spirits in Scotland. Scottish King James IV particularly liked the stuff. Called in Gaelic “Uisge beatha”, this got corrupted by English speakers into “Whisky”<br /> <br /> 1742 - 1st public indoor swimming pool opens at Goodman's Fields, London.<br /> <br /> 1786- French explorer the Comte de Perouse became the first European to set foot on the Hawaiian Island of Maui. "The climate of Mowhee is quite delightful." He wrote. Then spending only three days there he hurried his ship on to the Northwest coast of America.<br /> <br /> 1853- THE CRIMEAN WAR BEGAN- England and the French Empire declared War on Russia over Russia’s trying to beat up Turkey and annex the Bosporus. England and Russia spent the nineteenth century in a tactical struggle for supremacy in Central Asia not unlike the Cold War the Soviet Union fought with America after World War II. The name for the Anglo-Russian duel was "the Great Game". It only heated up once, producing such artifacts as the Charge of the Light Brigade, Balaclava Helmets and Florence Nightingale. Roger Fenton also followed the army to the Crimea as the first war-photographer. <br /> <br /> 1871- THE COMMUNE OF PARIS CRUSHED- As the occupying Prussian Army looked on, the regular French army loyal to the conservative government of President Alphonse Thiers recaptured Paris from the workers-revolutionary government called the Paris Commune. In the fierce house to house fighting the Hotel Du Ville -city hall was completely destroyed, as well as the Royal Palace of the Tuileries (the open area of the Louvre in front of there the glass Pyramid is.) and the Palace of Saint Cloud.<br /> One hundred and fifty revolutionaries were lined up against the wall in Pere Lachaise Cemetery and shot. Today the Wall of the Communards is still there, and you can see the bullet holes. In Russia young Nikolai Lenin studied the Commune and when he formed his Bolshevik Party he took as his flag the red banner of the Commune. <br /> <br /> 1892- The Sierra Club formed.<br /> <br /> 1905- Second day of the Battle of Tsushima Straights- Japanese Admiral Togo, having shot up the first half of the Russian Navy waits for the other half.... They were slowly chugging their way around the world being sent from the Black and Baltic seas to the Sea of Japan.<br /> <br /> 1928 - Dodge Brothers Automobile Inc &amp; Chrysler Corp merged. <br /> <br /> 1929 - 1st all color talking picture, "On With the Show" exhibited (NYC).<br /> <br /> 1935- Tortilla Flat published. The first novel by John Steinbeck.<br /> <br /> 1940- Throughout World War I the tiny Belgian Army held out heroically against huge German forces. In World War II the story was different. As the Allied frontlines crumbled before the relentless Nazis armored Blitzkrieg, this day the Belgian Army surrendered unconditionally. The surrender left retreating British and French forces dangerously exposed, were it not for quick thinking divisional commander who plugged the line and enabled the escape to Dunkirk. General Bernard Law Montgomery first caught the notice of Churchill and the English high command.<br /> <br /> 1941- THE WALT DISNEY STRIKE- Labor pressures had been building in the Magic Kingdom since promises made to artists over the success of Snow White were reneged on, and Walt Disney’s lawyer Gunther Lessing encouraged a hard line with his employees. The union claimed they had a majority of employee rep-cards signed, which Walt Refused to acknowledge. On this day, in defiance of the federal Wagner Act, Walt Disney fired animator Art Babbitt, the creator of Goofy, and thirteen other cartoonists for demanding a union. Babbitt had emerged as the union movements’ leader. Studio security officers escorted him off the lot. “Would you mind if I collect my pencils?” <br /> That night in an emergency meeting of the Cartoonists Guild at Hollywood Legion Hall, Art’s assistant Bill Hurtz, made a motion to strike, and it was unanimously accepted. Bill Hurtz will later go on to direct award-winning cartoons like UPA’s "Unicorn in the Garden". Picket lines go up next day in Hollywood animation’s own version of the Civil War.<br /> <br /> Walt Disney nearly had a nervous breakdown over the strike, and a federal mediator was sent by Washington to arbitrate. In later years, Uncle Walt blamed the studio’s labor ills on Communists. The studio unionized completely, but the hard feelings remained for their rest of their lives.<br /> <br /> 1948- During the Israeli War of Independence the Jewish quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem surrendered after a long siege by the Arab Legion. The Legion was a force organized and led by a British soldier of fortune Sir John Bagot-Glubb or Glub-Pasha. The main Jewish community was in west Jerusalem but the Holy places of the Old City were in the eastern part. Jews lost the Wailing Wall until retaken in the Six-Day War of 1967. <br /> <br /> 1954- Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder in 3D premiered.<br /> <br /> 1957- The National League Baseball owners voted to allow the Brooklyn Dodgers and NY Giants to move west to California. <br /> <br /> 1960- George Zucco 74, a character actor who specialized in horror movies like Blood from the Mummies Hand, died. One version says he died of fright in a mental hospital in San Gabriel California. He was convinced that H.P. Lovecraft's Great God Cthulu was after him. He actually died of natural causes in a nursing home.<br /> <br /> 1961- Amnesty International, a human rights organization, is founded. It was the result of an Appeal for Amnesty, written in the London Daily Observer by Peter Benennson, who read of several Portuguese students who were arrested because they were overheard in a cafe making a toast to Freedom.<br /> <br /> 1966- the It’s a Small World exhibit, which had been created for the 1964 NY Worlds Fair, reopened at Disneyland, California. <br /> <br /> 1977- George Lucas film Star Wars opened in wide release across the country.<br /> <br /> 1981- The Bambi Murders- Police hunt Playboy Bunny Bambi Bembenek for shooting her husband’s ex-wife in Milwaukee. She was captured but escaped prison in 1990. <br /> Just follow the little stiletto high heel footprints.<br /> <br /> 1983- “What a Feeling” the theme from the film Flashdance by Irene Cara and Giorgio Moroder reached the top of the pop charts. Everyone began dancing with leg warmers and baggy sweaters torn at the neck.<br /> <br /> 1987- A young German student named Matthias Rust rented a Cessna airplane in Helsinki, and flying low to avoid radar flew right into the heart of the Soviet Union. Evading a forest of missiles, radar and anti-aircraft weapons, he landed his little plane right in the middle of Red Square at the Kremlin. The ensuing furor and humiliation cost many Russian generals their jobs.<br /> <br /> 1998- After a dinner at Buca di Beppo in Encino, Saturday Night Live comedian Phil Hartman was shot to death by his wife Brynne as he slept. She was a heavy drinker and pill user. At 6:00am as the LAPD were knocking Brynne turned the gun on herself. Hartman’s last role was doing the English dub of Gigi the cat in Miyazaki’s Kiki’s Delivery Service.<br /> <br /> 2004- Lorenzo, animated short came out with the Disney film Raising Helen. Directed by Mike Gabriel, from an idea created decades ago by 95 year old storyman Joe Grant.<br /> <br /> 2005- The great London clock Big Ben mysteriously stopped for 45 minutes. <br /> <br /> 2005- Actress Lindsay Lohan was photographed passed out drunk in her car shortly after a court hearing for a DUI.<br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is a crustacean?<br /> <br /> Answer: The genus category of shellfish, crabs, lobsters, prawns, langoustines, etc.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 27 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6158 <p>Question: What is a crustacean?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean in Japanese to write in Kanji?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 5/27/2023<br /> Birthdays: James 'Wild Bill' Hickock, Julia Ward Howe, Aemelia Jenks-Bloomer, Dashell Hammett, Leopold Goldowsky (the inventor of Kodachrome film), Hubert H. Humphrey, Herman Wouk, Harlan Ellison, Joseph Feines, Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Richard Schiff is 68, Peri Gilpin, Paul Bettany is 52, Dr. Henry Kissinger is 100<br /> <br /> 605AD, Today is the Feast day of Saint Augustine of Canterbury, who saw children in the slave docket and when told 'Those are Angles"-The barbarian tribe that England is named for. Augustine replied: Non Sunt Anglicai, Sunt Angeli” -Those are not Angles, those are Angels" -please forgive my Latin grammar. Augustine of Canterbury should not be confused with the Saint Augustine of Hippo, who wrote the Confessions.<br /> <br /> 1647-The first witch execution in Salem Massachusetts. Contrary to popular perception, more witches were hanged than burned at the stake. <br /> <br /> 1647- Peter Stuyvesant inaugurated as Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam. The one-legged old soldier was a strict Calvinist sent by The Dutch West India Company to “clean up the town”.<br /> <br /> 1703- Czar Peter the Great laid the cornerstones for his new capitol Saint Petersburg. The Baltic Port was called at one time Petrograd, then Leningrad, but was changed back to the original name in 1989. Peter made it the capitol until Lenin moved it back to Moscow in 1917.<br /> <br /> 1831- Mountain man Jedediah Smith was killed fighting Comanches.<br /> <br /> 1874- Prostitution was outlawed in Los Angeles central business district.<br /> <br /> 1895 - British inventor Burt Acres patented a film camera/projector<br /> <br /> 1905- BATTLE OF THE TSUSHIMA STRAIGHTS- Grand Admiral Togo and the Japanese Navy destroy the Imperial Russian fleet in a battle that announced to the world Japan had become a world power. It had been only 55 years since Admiral Perry forced the opening of its feudal society. Mahatma Ghandi said also the victory was a beacon to all colonialized peoples that the Europeans could be defeated at their own games. <br /> Of course the Japanese weren't fighting for altruistic motives but to see who would take over Manchuria and Korea. One-eyed Admiral Togo was trained as a samurai until their profession was abolished in 1877. When a midshipman cadet in England, had been nicknamed "Joe Chinaman" by the tars. After this battle he became one of the most respected naval strategists of the age. Ishiroku Yamamoto, the mastermind of Pearl Harbor, was his ensign at the time.<br /> <br /> 1930- HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOTCH TAPE -Chemist Richard Drew of Saint Paul Minnesota invented cellophane tape, marketed by the 3M Company under the brand Scotch. It was called Scotch after the stereotype perception that Scots people are frugal with money, so it’s a good value. Three years later Drew invented Masking Tape as a way for car manufacturers to paint cars two tone.<br /> <br /> 1933- Disney’s cartoon “The Three Little Pigs” premiered, whose song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf” became a national anthem of recovery from the Great Depression. <br /> Director of the short Burt Gillette left Disney afterwards to run the Van Beuren Studio in New York. <br /> <br /> 1935- The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Franklin Roosevelt’s National Recovery Act (The NRA) program. Roosevelt responds by unsuccessfully trying to stack the court with judges more to his liking. He referred to them as 'The Nine Old Men', a sobriquet Walt Disney would borrow in 1949 for his top animators.<br /> <br /> 1937- San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge opened.<br /> <br /> 1941- The German battleship Bismarck was sunk by massed Royal Navy ships and torpedo planes. The British sailors of the battleship HMS Prince of Wales helped the German sailors out of the water saying: ”Now you, one day it may be us.” That December, the Prince of Wales sent to the Pacific where it was sunk by the Japanese. <br /> The Bismarck’s pet cat was rescued floating on a piece of wood. The British destroyer that picked him up was torpedoed and sunk a few months later. The cat was rescued from that sinking too. That cat, named “Unsinkable Sam”, survived the war and lived a long happy life at the retired sailors home in Belfast.<br /> <br /> 1942- Top Nazi official in occupied Czechoslovakia, Reynhard Heydrich, was assassinated by a resistance agent, who casually lifted a bomb out of a vase of flowers and tossed it into his car as it drove by. Hitler angrily responded by ordering the SS to select a Czech village at random and destroy it. They picked Lidice; they leveled it and murdered all its innocent inhabitants.<br /> <br /> 1942- The aircraft carrier USS Yorktown limped into Pearl Harbor after being shot up in the Battle of the Coral Sea. The crew expected to be sent Stateside for weeks of major repairs, but the word came down from Admiral Nimitz that the Yorktown had to be ready for battle in just three days! Nimitz needed all his forces for an anticipated Japanese strike at Midway. 1,500 dockworkers labored around the clock patching her up. The Yorktown left on schedule to achieve the victory at Midway Island on June 5th.<br /> <br /> 1943- In a secret meeting in German occupied Paris, young French resistance leader Jean Moulin got all the various separate underground movements to unite under Charles DeGaulle's Free French. Moulin was eventually captured by the Gestapo and tortured to death, but le Maquis- i.e. resistance, continued the fight until the liberation.<br /> <br /> 1948- Walt Disney feature Melody Time released, featuring Pecos Bill. <br /> <br /> 1949- Actress Rita Hayworth married playboy Prince Aly Khan. Prince Aly Khan, 1911-1960, was born in Italy a son of dispossessed Pakistani royalty to the Aga Khan II. He lived his life as an international playboy, socialite and sportsman, making love to women from actress Rita Hayworth to Winston Churchill’s daughter-in-law Pamela Churchill-Harriman. Cole Porter wrote him into a song. He died when he crashed his sportscar in France.<br /> <br /> 1961 – The first black light is sold.<br /> <br /> 1969 – Construction on Walt Disney World Florida began..<br /> <br /> 1968- At this time 350 Americans a week were dying in Vietnam, and in 12 days George W. Bush’s student deferment was up! But never fear, his family was pulling strings. So even though the normal wait was a year, this day George W. Bush was accepted into the Texas Air National Guard on the first day he applied.<br /> <br /> 1977- Punk band The Sex Pistols release their hit God Save the Queen, the Fascist Regime, in time for the Queen’s Jubilee year. Her Majesty preferred the Beatles’ All You Need is Love.<br /> <br /> 1991- The Milwaukee police question serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer after finding a distraught, bleeding young Laotian immigrant in the street. The boy was struggling to shake off the effect of date-rape drugs given him by Dahmer. After deducing that it was merely a spat between gay lovers, the police returned the boy to Dahmer, who killed and ate him later. <br /> <br /> 1994 – Nobel Prize winner and dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia after a twenty-year exile.<br /> <br /> 1995- Actor Christopher Reeve was left paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in an equestrian event in Charlottesville,Va. He became a spokesman for stem-cel spinal chord research, but his efforts in the US were frustrated by powerful religious-right lobbyists. Christopher Reeves died in 2004.<br /> <br /> 1997- President Bill Clinton liked to appease his critics by appointing conservative judges despite popular perception of him as a Liberal. This day this practice came back to bite him when the conservative Supreme Court of William Rheinquist unanimously rejected Clinton’s plea that a President should not be subject to a private lawsuit while in office. A woman named Paula Jones with heavy funding from the religious right was suing him for sexual harassment. Of course, when President Trump was in office he was being sued by several women for sexual harassment, yet none of those cases were ever allowed to proceed until he was out of office.<br /> =========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What does it mean in Japanese to write in Kanji?<br /> <br /> Answer: It is the most formal style of calligraphy, using classical Chinese characters. In was also the style of Japanese print used in Manga comics.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 25 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6157 <p>Quiz: Many famous American entertainers are of Jewish ancestry. Which one of these people is NOT Jewish? a) Jerry Seinfeld, b) Lady Gaga, c) Larry David, d) Lewis Black.<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz Answered Below: What does it mean to ostracize someone?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 5/25/2023
Birthdays: Miles Davis, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Josef Broz Tito, Igor Sikorsky, Pontormo, Bennett Cerf, Claude Akins, Leslie Uggams, Bill Bojangles Robinson, Frank Oz (Richard Frank Oznowicz), Beverly Sills, Robert Ludlum, Anne Heche, Irwin Winkler, Mike Myers is 60, Ray Stevenson, Ian McKellen is 84<br /> <br /> 194BC- The Roman temple of Fortuna Virilis was dedicated on the Quirinal Hill.<br /> <br /> 1085- King Alfonso VI of Aragon took Toledo from the Moors.<br /> <br /> 1521- German Emperor Charles V declared Protestant reformer Martin Luther a heretic and an outlaw. The German states that rallied to Luther’s new teachings fought their emperor in the Schmalkalden Wars. Even Charles’ own sister became a Lutheran.<br /> <br /> 1720- John Copson became the first Insurance Agent in the New World.<br /> <br /> 1787- First meeting of delegates in Philadelphia to write the U.S. Constitution. <br /> Interestingly enough, nobody really asked them to. They were only summoned by Congress to iron out some bugs in the Articles of Confederation. However, James Madison of Virginia and Alexander Hamilton of New York hatched a plan to chuck the whole system and write a whole new document. They called it The Virginia/New York plan.<br /> <br /> 1810- When Napoleon conquered Spain, the colonies of Latin America puzzled about where to send their taxes to? To the French occupation government in Madrid? Or the Spanish Royal family in exile in Naples? This day Argentina had a better idea. They formed a national assembly ( Primera Junta) and in July declared the Republic of Argentina.<br /> <br /> 1865- Mary Lincoln and her son Tad moved out of the White House where she had been holed up in seclusion since the night of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. She had been too traumatized to attend the funeral or accompany the body back to Illinois.<br /> <br /> 1878- Gilbert &amp; Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore or The Lass that Loved a Sailor premiered at the Savoy in London. <br /> When I was a lad I served a term<br /> As office boy to an Attorney's firm. <br /> I cleaned the windows and I swept the floor,<br /> And I polished up the handle of the big front door. <br /> I polished up that handle so carefullee<br /> That now I am the Ruler of the Queen's Navee!<br /> <br /> 1895- Author and playwright Oscar Wilde sentenced to prison for sodomy. <br /> The terrible conditions of his imprisonment in Redding Gaol broke his health and lead to his early death in exile in 1900. In a 1995 ceremony honoring him in Westminster Abbey it was revealed the laws that sentenced Wilde were still on the books in England.<br /> The Victorian hypocrisy was compounded by the fact that so many great men of the British Empire privately acknowledged a preference for their own sex- Gordon of Khartoum, Sir Cecil Rhodes, Lawrence of Arabia, Nicholson the Tiger of the Punjab, and more. Queen Victoria once said after a meeting with Earl Kitchener of Omdurman: ”I was told my lord does not prefer the company of women. Still, I found him to be a pleasant speaker.”<br /> <br /> 1906- Putting on the Ritz! Swiss hotelier Cesar Ritz opened London’s Ritz Hotel. The first hotel to feature unheard of luxuries like a telephone and an indoor toilet in every suite!<br /> <br /> 1911-The beginnings of Mexican Revolution forced longtime dictator Gen. Jose Porfirio Diaz into exile. As a young man Diaz had fought the French under Juarez, but he later seized power for himself and ruled for thirty years. Under him Mexico industrialized and gained railroads, electric power, telephones and schools. He once said:" My poor Mexico. Too far from Heaven and too close to the United States."<br /> <br /> 1911- Thomas Mann visited Venice Italy. On the Lido Beach he was inspired to write A Death in Venice.<br /> <br /> 1915- Following up on the widespread massacres of Armenians, today the Ottoman Turkish government began mass deportations of their Armenian citizens. <br /> <br /> 1917- In World War I, Germany bombed London for the first time not with zeppelins but with new Gotha biplane bombers.<br /> <br /> 1923- Britain and France recognized the Hashemite Kingdom of TransJordan, ruled by Abdallah Ibn Hussein. <br /> <br /> 1927- Ford had put America on wheels with the Model T, the most successful car in history. Today they stopped making the Model T after 15 million cars, costing on average $300 each, $26 dollars down with monthly payments.<br /> <br /> 1932- Flamboyant New York Mayor Jimmy Walker testified before the Seabury Commission. The corruption scandals of his administration will force him to resign. <br /> <br /> 1932- Mickey’s Revue, the first Disney cartoon that featured the character that would eventually be called Goofy.<br /> <br /> 1935- Babe Ruth hit his final home runs. The Bambino was in his last year, working out his contract with the Boston Braves. This day in Pittsburgh, the Babe showed his old form when he hit three home runs and a single. His record of 714 home runs held for over sixty years.<br /> <br /> 1942- First day shooting on the film “Casablanca”.<br /> <br /> 1944- Yugoslav partisan leader Marshal Tito escaped a German attack designed just to kill him.<br /> <br /> 1946- Chuck Jones cartoon Hare Raising Hare, where Bugs meets a large shaggy monster originally named Rudolf, later Gossamer, “Monsters are such interesting people…”<br /> <br /> 1950- Brooklyn Battery Tunnel opened in NYC.<br /> <br /> 1957- Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows ended after nearly a decade. The show built a legendary writers room, employing future star writers like Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Woody Allen and Neil Simon. The show also pioneered the executive strategy of producer Sylvester “Pat” Weaver to not let the show be owned by an entire sponsor, but the network would produce the show and would sell the sponsor commercial time in 30 second chunks. Pat Weaver’s daughter is Sigourney Weaver. Your Show of Shows was finally bested in the ratings by The Lawrence Welk Show.<br /> <br /> 1961- THE SPACE RACE- The United States had been chafing about how far ahead the Soviet Union was in the exploration of space. In an address to Congress this day President John F. Kennedy pledged the wealth and resources of the U.S. to beating the Soviets to the Moon. "Our pledge is within the next ten years to send a man to the moon and return him safely to Earth… We choose to go to the Moon not because it will be easy but because it is hard!" The Moon landing was achieved in 1969. Today it is acknowledged that without the motivation of the Cold War the conquest of the Moon would have happened much more slowly. <br /> <br /> 1965- The Saint Louis Gateway Arch dedicated.<br /> <br /> 1968- The Rolling Stones released the song Jumping Jack Flash. <br /> <br /> 1969- John Schlesinger’s film Midnight Cowboy premiered. The first X-rated film to ever win the Oscar for Best Film. This is the film where Dustin Hoffman yells “Hey! I’m walking here!”<br /> <br /> 1977- The premiere of George Lucas’ movie Star Wars. The movie opened on the 28th. After Universal passed, Twentieth Century Fox picked up the distribution but let the backend profits go to Lucas. First because they had taken a loss with the failure of Dr. Doolittle, and second because they didn't think the film would do any serious business. Even George Lucas didn’t expect the film to break even. Fox's market research department told studio head Alan Ladd Jr: 1). don't make this movie; no one will go see a science fiction movie; and 2). change the title; no one will go see a movie with "War" in the title. Fox executives had predicted the studios hit for that summer would be "Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry" with Peter Fonda and Susan George. <br /> Star Wars was a monster hit. It was like there were no other movies playing that summer. It sold out Grauman’s Chinese in Hollywood 50 weeks in a row. George Lucas became a seriously rich man and developed THX sound, digital animation and Industrial Light and Magic special effects. The film’s popularity ran so ahead of expectations, that at Christmas when you purchased a Star Wars game you got an empty box with a pink IOU note in it pledging to get you the game when they printed more. <br /> <br /> 1979- Ridley Scott's sci-fi classic Alien opened. It featured the exotic designs of Swiss artist H.R. Giger, and John Hurt with a classic case of chest pains!<br /> <br /> 1980- Evangelist Oral Roberts claimed he saw a 900-foot Jesus over his bed.<br /> <br /> 1983- Return of the Jedi opened. It was originally Revenge of the Jedi, but George Lucas changed the name just a month before.<br /> <br /> 1986- Hands Across America stunt to help hunger has 7 million people at one time holding hands at noon.<br /> <br /> 1994- First International Conference on the World Wide Web. Tim Berners-Lee and CERN talked on how to unify existing internet systems into the new World Wide Web.<br /> <br /> 2000- NUKE THE MOON. During the Cold War, it was revealed that in 1958 in the panic over Sputnik, US scientists proposed to explode a nuclear bomb on the moon. There would be no mushroom cloud because that requires an atmosphere, and the flash would only be visible for a few seconds. What the purpose would be other than to scare the BeeJeezus out of the Russkies no one knew. This dumb-ass idea was soon scrapped.<br /> <br /> 2020- George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis, was arrested for allegedly buying cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. Officers handcuffed him on the ground and sat on him. Then Officer Derek Chauvin knelt with his full weight on Floyds neck for over 8 minutes while he choked to death, moaning “I can’t breathe”. <br /> Floyd’s death set off massive protests across the USA and around the world. For two weeks, hundreds of thousands marched and battled police in the streets. President Trump fled to a bunker under the White House and had to be talked out of having the National Guard fire on the crowd. The massive show of police and military firepower on the streets to confront this protest all managed to be mysteriously missing on Jan. 6, 2021 when the US Capitol was attacked.<br /> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++<br /> Yesterdays Quiz: What does it mean to ostracize someone?<br /> <br /> Answer: Ostracism was a system in Ancient Athens to vote to exile someone. This way the democracy assured some individuals never got too powerful. Top general Alcibiades aided an old man with weak eyesight write his name on the ballot of ostracism.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 23 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6156 <p>Quiz: Why is a virus belonging to the family Flaviviridae called Yellow Fever? Does it turn you yellow?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: In WW2 slang, what did you mean by “ a bunch of brass hats.”?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 5/23/2023<br /> Birthdays: Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Scatman Crothers, Rosemary Clooney, Artie Shaw, Alicia de Larrocha, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Melissa McBride, Frank McHugh, Drew Carey is 65, Joan Collins is 90<br /> <br /> Today in ancient Rome was the feast of Vulcan.<br /> <br /> 37BC- Herod the Great captured Jerusalem back from a Greek pretender named Antigonus with the help of a Roman legion loaned by his friend Marc Anthony. He reigned 37 years under Roman dominance and rebuilt the great temple of Solomon. <br /> <br /> 1498- In Rome, mystic monk Savonarola was hanged and his body burned for defying the Borgia Pope Alexander VI. Savonarola dominated Florence for a time like a Christian Ayatollah. Artists Michelangelo Buonarrotti, Sandro Botticelli and Luigi Della Robbia were admirers of his. Among his reforms were to hold a large Bonfire of the Vanities.<br /> <br /> 1533- King Henry VIII of England has his first wife Catharine of Aragon's marriage to him annulled. Henry's interest in multiple marriages wasn't merely a case of a roving eye, his father had won his throne in a bloody 30 year civil war (The War of the Roses) and it could all happen again if he didn't produce a male child fast. Despite his efforts, his Tudor dynasty was remembered for his female offspring, Mary I and Elizabeth I.<br /> <br /> 1618- THE DEFENESTRATION OF PRAGUE- The Protestant officials of Bohemia let the Catholic German Emperor know what they thought of his ultimatums by throwing his emissaries out of a window. "De-fenestrate" or to toss out a window. It was a low second floor window and a dung pile broke their fall, so only pride was injured. Catholic writers said they were caught by angels.<br /> This event started the THIRTY YEARS WAR, a European Civil War, when Catholic and Protestant nations whose pent up anger had been boiling for decades broke forth. They battled for years, until nobody could remember who started the whole thing to begin with. Germany lost one quarter of her population and would not see this kind of devastation again until World War 2. <br /> <br /> 1633- An edict of the King of France declared that only good Catholics would be allowed to settle in their colony of New France, already being called Canada. French Huguenots headed for the Anglo Dutch territories in Maryland, and New Amsterdam.<br /> <br /> 1701- Captain Kidd was hanged in London for piracy, robbery and killing a sailor with a bucket. His last letter was written to try to bribe the judge with his buried treasure. His body was coated with tar and left hanging in a cage suspended over Execution Wharf on the Thames for years afterward, as a warning to other would-be pirates.<br /> <br /> 1706- BATTLE OF RAMILIES- the Duke of Marlborough destroyed the main French army of Louis XIV under Marshal Villeroi. Carried away by the excitement, Marlborough personally led a cavalry charge sword in hand against the Maison Du Roi – the French elite Guards Cavalry. In the melee' he was knocked off his horse, trampled, and had to run for his life. As he was climbing up on another horse, the aide holding the reins had his head struck off by a cannon ball. His enthusiasm for hand-to-hand combat cooled, Marlborough spent the rest of the day in the rear directing the battle like a good general should.<br /> <br /> 1785- Ben Franklin invented bifocal glasses.<br /> <br /> 1861- Virginia, the most populous state and home of many presidents announced it was leaving the United States and joining the new Confederate States.<br /> <br /> 1865- Over a month after Richmond’s fall and Lee’s surrender the last bloodshed of the Civil War occurred. In Texas, Confederate General Magruder defeated a small Yankee force near Galveston Bay.<br /> <br /> 1865- UNION VICTORY DAY-To celebrate the end of the American Civil War today was the Union Victory Parade in Washington D.C.- The massed Grand Armies of the Republic marched down Pennsylvania Ave. to celebrate their victory over the Confederacy. They passed President Andrew Johnson and Generals Grant and Sherman. Sherman refused to shake hands with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton because of Stanton's criticism of Sherman's surrender terms to the Confederate western armies. <br /> 27 year old Gen. Custer, showing off for the crowd, with his golden locks flowing, managed to pass the reviewing stand twice. He claimed his horse was skittish. <br /> Despite the fact that 180.000 African American men fought in the war, no black regiments were allowed in the parade. Even the 54th Mass who did the heroic attack on Fort Wagner was refused permission to march. The flags in the nation’s capital were returned to full mast for the first time since Lincoln's assassination. Union veterans later formed the first professional veterans aid association the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), a forerunner of the VFW and the American Legion. <br /> <br /> 1873- The first Preakness horse race. The winner's name was Survivor.<br /> <br /> 1903- MOTHER JONES CHILDRENS CRUSADE- Seventy-three-year-old activist and union organizer Mary "Mother Jones" Harris led a strike of 16,000 Philadelphia mill workers, all children under 12 years old, to demand a 55 hour workweek down from 60 hours a week. That July she led a march of thousands of working children from Philadelphia to President Teddy Roosevelt's home in Oyster Bay New York to demand an end of child labor.<br /> <br /> 1911- President Taft dedicated the central branch of the New York Public Library.<br /> <br /> 1931- In Max Fleischer's Silly Scandals, the girl character first seen in Dizzy Dishes is first called by name Betty Boop.<br /> <br /> 1934- BONNIE &amp; CLYDE were blown away in a hail of machine gunfire as they drove down a road near Gisland, Louisiana. She was 24, he was 25. The ambush was set up by Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. An estimated 107 shots were fired in less than two minutes. Each body had about 28 bullets in them. Hamer smiled:" It’s a shame I had to bust the cap on a lady." Their bullet ridden car still pops up at auto shows from time to time. <br /> <br /> 1941-Hollywood union boss George Brown and assistant Willard Bioff (also a Frank Nitti bagman) were indicted on federal racketeering charges. Brown had been a Chicago operative and it was said 'he could drink 100 bottles of beer in one day". Their main contact among the Hollywood studio heads was Nicholas Schenck, the chairman of Loews Theaters and on the board of MGM. Willie Bioff had tried to help Louis B. Mayer defeat the screen actors guild and hijack the Disney animator's union. After their jail time Bioff blew up in his car after turning government witness, and Brown 'disappeared...' Nicholas Schenck meanwhile was pardoned by President Truman himself.<br /> <br /> 1945- Reinhard Gehlen was the head of Nazi intelligence and kept numerous agents in Washington, London and Moscow. After hiding for a month after the fall of Berlin, on this day he surrendered himself to the Americans. Initially, they wanted to put him on trial for war crimes, until he revealed his agents in Moscow were still on his payroll. This greatly interested General Wild Bill Donovan, who was reforming the O.S.S. for its new cold war role as the CIA. So Generalobherst Reinhard Gehlen came to the U.S. and began his second career as a founder of the CIA.<br /> <br /> 1945- SS leader Heinrich Himmler committed suicide by biting a cyanide capsule shortly after being captured by the British authorities. When he heard the news, a British army guard growled "The bastards’ beat us!". <br /> <br /> 1951- China formally annexed Tibet, a nation they invaded the year before.<br /> <br /> 1960- Nazi Adolph Eichmann was one of the architects of the Final Solution. He had been hiding in Argentina since the war ended. In 1957 a German prosecutor tipped off Israeli intelligence of Eichman’s whereabouts. This day Mossad agents kidnapped him in Buenos Aires and brought him to Israel for a public trial.<br /> <br /> 1969- The Who released their rock opera Tommy. <br /> <br /> 1980- Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, opened. Here’s Johnny!<br /> <br /> 2003- In US occupied Iraq, American occupational viceroy L. Paul Bremmer overruled CIA and Pentagon advice and disbanded the Iraqi Army, internal security, Presidential Guards and police forces, about 500,000. With this one decree, thousands of angry, humiliated career officers were unemployed, robbed of their pensions and benefits, but allowed to keep their side arms. The Anti-American guerrilla insurgency exploded soon after. Many of the military leadership of ISIS were former Iraqi commanders. Paul Bremmers’ excuse was he was only following orders, while Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney claim they were surprised by the move.<br /> =======================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: In WW2 slang, what did you mean by “ a bunch of brass hats.”?<br /> <br /> Answer: A bunch of superior officers. For the brass insignia decorating their service hats.<br /> The other non-WWII definition referred to demonstration automobiles, kept in pristine condition and sold at a discount when the new models came out. ( Thanks FG)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 22 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6155 <p>Quiz: In WW2 slang, what did you mean by “ a bunch of brass hats.”?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: To what country are the Balearic Islands part of? <br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 5/22/2023<br /> Birthdays: Sir Lawrence Olivier, Mary Cassatt, Richard Wagner, Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, T. Bone Pickens, Herge’ (Tintin), Irene Pappas, Paul Winfield, Richard Benjamin, Susan Strassberg, George Baker (Sad Sack), Paul Winchell, Tommy John, Naomi Cambell, Dr. Robert Moog –inventor of the music synthesizer, Ginnifer Goodwin is 45<br /> <br /> In Kodiak Alaska, today is the Kodiak Crab Festival.<br /> <br /> Happy National Bartender's Day<br /> <br /> 337AD- Emperor Constantine the Great, who raised Christianity from an illegal cult to the official religion of the Roman Empire, died after a ruling for 37 years. He himself didn't accept baptism until on his deathbed. It was a tradition among leaders to put off baptism until almost the end, so the act baptism would cleanse all your sins and you entered Heaven clean as a whistle. His coins had Christ on one side and Sol Invictus, the Imperial Sun god on the other. To maintain order in the Empire until his son Constantius could be contacted and safely installed as leader in Constantinople, the embalmed corpse of Constantine continued to receive ambassadors and preside over meetings for the rest of that year. <br /> <br /> 1276- Today is the feast day of Saint Humility of Faenza, a nun who insisted she be bricked up into her cell, with only a hole cut for food, water and to hear Mass and slept on her knees. After twelve years of this she was talked out of her prison to become an abbess.<br /> <br /> 1455- Battle of St. Albans- First battle of the WAR OF THE ROSES. The conflict wasn't about differing views on horticulture but a dynastic struggle between two powerful branches of the royal family of England. It seems a hundred years earlier King Edward III had a lot of lusty sons. His two eldest and lustiest were Edward the Black Prince and John of Gaunt. Edward lusted after Joan the fair Maid of Kent and John lusted after the throne. The Black Prince should have become The Black King, but he died young. Even then John couldn't be king because the rules said the throne went to the eldest Black Princeling, Richard II. So, John of Gaunt had some lusty sons himself and they became the Lancaster branch of the family, after John's title as Earl of Lancaster- represented by the Red Rose. The Black Prince's progeny were the York family represented by the White Rose. They warred and conspired and murdered and had a lusty time until they wiped each other out and were replaced by a third family, the Welsh Tudors. <br /> <br /> 1761-The first life insurance policy issued in the U.S.<br /> <br /> 1782- In a letter to one of his officers, George Washington rejected the calls to declare himself King of the United States. " It pains me to hear such ideas are circulating within the army. I regard such ideas with horror and condemn it severely. It seems pregnant with the greatest misfortunes that could ever befall our country."<br /> <br /> 1800- The US Congress voted to disband the US Army as being unnecessary and expensive. We would make do with militia to deal with Indians and a coast guard.<br /> <br /> 1809- Battle of Aspern-Essling. Napoleons army was crossing the Danube when the rivers flood washed out two bridges cutting his army in two. Austrian general Archduke Charles jumped on the opportunity and attacked, driving back Nappys troops against the river. Marshal Lannes, one of Napoleon’s top combat officers, was killed.<br /> <br /> 1843- Wagons Ho! The Great Migration- One of the largest wagon trains ever set out from Independence Missouri. One thousand settlers driving five thousand head of cattle set off west along the Oregon Trail. Dr. Elijah White, a Presbyterian missionary who made the trip the year before, served as guide.<br /> <br /> 1854- The NEBRASKA COMPROMISE-One of many stop-gap legislative measures to try to stall the Civil War a few more years. In an attempt to keep the balance between slave states and free states entering the Union, Whig Congressmen strike a deal where Kansas and Nebraska could decide for themselves whether they wanted to enter the union as free or slave states. Nobody was pleased with this deal. Guerrilla war broke out in Kansas and the Whig party disintegrated from dissent. The dissident Whig politicians like Freemont and Lincoln soon formed a new political party. At first called the Anti-Nebraska Men, they later became the Black-Republicans or simply Republicans.<br /> <br /> 1856- San Francisco City supervisor James Casey was hanged by San Francisco City Vigilance Committee for murder. Casey had sought out the editor of the Evening Bulletin James King and shot him down on the street for insulting him in print. The vigilantes of the Barbary Coast then went into action.<br /> <br /> 1868- The Reno Gang robbed an Indiana express train of $96,000. The train was carrying the payroll of railroad and mine workers.<br /> <br /> 1915- The San Fernando Valley voted to become part of Los Angeles. <br /> <br /> 1920- THE DEARBORN INDEPENDENT- Henry Ford was a brilliant inventor with unique opinions. He overpaid assembly line workers, gave equal raises and promotions to black and Latino workers, but he hated Jews. He had purchased the newspaper the Dearborn Independent in 1918 and ran editorials in it with no advertising, totally his own opinions. This day the Independent Anti-Semitic campaign began with the headline -"The International Jew: The World’s Problem." 119 leading prominent Christian leaders including President Woodrow Wilson signed a petition demanding the slanderous publications be stopped, but Ford just ignored them. In 1934 when CBS correspondent William Shirer interviewed Chancellor Adolf Hitler in Berlin, he noticed Hitler had translations of the Dearborn Independent on his desk.<br /> <br /> 1922-The U.S. Supreme Court rules Baseball is not a monopoly but a sport. This is the Achilles heel issue everyone jumps on when arguments about baseball owners use of salary fixes and other group actions reach crescendo.<br /> <br /> 1925- First day of shooting on Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis.<br /> <br /> 1942- In a dark basement room in Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Navy Cryptographic Unit spent weeks at primitive computers breaking the Japanese radio codes. Cmdr Joe Rochefort paced the small room in his red smoking jacket, downing pots of coffee, and coming up with answers to riddles. <br /> This day Joe Rochefort solved the most important riddle of his career. He deduced from intercepted radio messages that on June 4th Japan was going to feint a strike at the Aleutian Islands then launch its main battle fleet at Midway Island. Midway was a little dot of an island halfway between Japan and Hawaii. When Admiral Nimitz received this report he had to decide whether it was a trick or the real thing before committing his own aircraft carriers. If Nimitz was wrong and the fleet outmaneuvered, Hawaii, Australia and even the California coast might come under Japanese attack. Nimitz chose to fight at Midway, and Rochefort proved to be right. The Battle of Midway would be the victory to turn the tide of the Pacific War.<br /> In the month following the victory, the Chicago Tribune published the headline "Navy Breaks Jap Code" which cause Tokyo to change all their codes, so the work had to start all over again.<br /> <br /> 1949- Admiral James Forrestal was a top strategist during World War II, and was serving as President Truman’s Secretary of Defense. But the pressures of command in first the World War, then the Cold War may have been too much for him. Several days after President Truman awarded a medal to Forrestal he was admitted to the Bethesda Naval Hospital for nervous exhaustion. This day he leapt out a window with his bathrobe cord knotted around his neck. It was ruled a suicide.<br /> <br /> 1954- Bob Dylan’s Bar Mitzvah. Maseltov!<br /> <br /> 1954- Chuck Jones “Claws for Alarm” with Porky and Sylvester.<br /> <br /> 1955-The Golden Age of Radio ended when after 22 years the Jack Benny show was canceled. Once the top broadcast show in the nation, Benny went into television.<br /> <br /> 1957- A U.S. B-36 bomber accidentally dropped a Hydrogen Bomb on Albuquerque, New Mexico. The bombardier, Lt. Robert Carp lost his balance in the bomb bay area and grabbed for a handle that released the nuke. He ran back to the cockpit yelling: "I didn't touch anything! I didn't touch anything!" The bomb blew up a mesa and killed a cow but miraculously the thermonuclear triggering mechanism didn't kick in. This all was kept a classified secret until the late 1980's.<br /> <br /> 1964- In a speech at Ann Arbor, President Lyndon Johnson called for The Great Society. Johnson is remembered as the Vietnam War president, but many of his Great Society social programs like Medicare and Medicaid are still in effect today. <br /> <br /> 1966- Bill Cosby became the first African-American to win an Emmy Award for starring in a television series- I-Spy.<br /> <br /> 1967- T.V. children's show Mr. Roger's Neighborhood debuted.<br /> <br /> 1972- The land of Ceylon declared itself the Republic of Sri Lanka.<br /> <br /> 1973- Scientist Bob Metcalfe of Xerox PARC patented the Ethernet.<br /> <br /> 1981- Peter Sutcliffe was convicted in the Yorkshire Ripper trial of murdering 13 women.<br /> <br /> 1985- Top Disney animation director Wolfgang "Woolie" Reitherman, who directed the Jungle Book among other films, died in a car crash following lunch at the Smoke House in Burbank. He was 75. <br /> <br /> 1992- The film Encino Man premiered, with Brendan Frazier and Pauly Shore. Aaoooh!<br /> <br /> 2001- Ted Turner and Jane Fonda divorced. <br /> <br /> 2002- The Ayatollahs of Iran outlaw Barbie dolls. They denounced Barbie as "agents of subversive Zionist Western propaganda."<br /> <br /> 2004- The heir to the Spanish throne Prince Felipe of Asturias married a TV news anchorwoman. The first commoner in the Spanish Royal family. He became King Phillip VI in 2014<br /> <br /> 2004- Manmohar Singh was sworn in as Prime Minister of India. The first Sikh ever to hold this office. His Congress party had been led by Sonya Ghandi, but she declined the job. Let me see, if my husband P.M. Rajiv Ghandi was blown up by a suicide bomber, and my mother-in-law Indira was machined gunned by her own bodyguards, and my great uncle the Mahatma was gutshot, maybe this job isn't a good career move for me?<br /> <br /> 2012- SpaceX, the world’s first privately owned spacecraft, blasted off to bring supplies to the International Space Station.<br /> ============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: To what country are the Balearic Islands part of? <br /> <br /> Answer: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza. They are part of Spain. A short flight from Barcelona.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 21 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6154 <p>Quiz: To what country are the Balearic Islands part of? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: Custers Last Stand, the Battle of the Little Big Horn was one of the greatest battles on U.S. soil. What state is the Little Big Horn in?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------<br /> history for 5/21/2023<br /> Birthdays: Plato, Fats Waller, Albrecht Durer, Andre Sakharov, Armand Hammer, Raymond Burr, John Hubley, Dennis Day, Al Franken, Harold Robbins, Judge Reinhold, Larry Terro called Mr. T. is 73<br /> <br /> 1420- After the great victory of Agincourt King Henry V of England and King Charles VI the Mad of France concluded a peace treaty at Troyes. Harry of England would marry the French king's daughter and become heir. But Henry's early death from dysentery at 35 canceled these plans. That would have been an early end to the Hundred Years War, making it the 75 Years War.<br /> <br /> 1471- King Henry VI of Lancaster had been captured in the battle of Tewkesbury when he was defeated in the War of the Roses. On this day the imprisoned king was murdered in the Tower of London while at prayers. Many say he was done in by King Edward IV hunchbacked brother Richard of Gloucester (later Richard III). To this day the spot where the king was murdered is covered with flowers every May 21st.<br /> <br /> 1506- Christopher Columbus died in Valladolid Spain. Bitter, forgotten, watching other people take credit for his discoveries. He was 54.<br /> <br /> 1540- Hernand DeSoto discovered the Mississippi River, the "Father of the Waters."<br /> <br /> 1542- Hernand DeSoto's yellow-fever ridden body was dumped in the Mississippi to keep it from being violated by angry Indians.<br /> <br /> 1661- GAWD BLIMEY! TEA COMES TO ENGLAND- King Charles II of England, married Catherine of Braganza, the Princess of Portugal. Her dowry included Tangiers and Mumbai. Catherine never gave Charles any children, and she had to endure his constant philandering with a steady stream of mistresses. But she did introduce Britain to a new custom. She preferred drinking tea to the more traditional English Ale. None understood germ theory yet, but people knew you could die from drinking bad water. But nothing lived in alcohol. Catherine demonstrated drinking tea was safe as well. Nobody understood it was because you had to boil water to make it. Soon everyone had to have some. <br /> <br /> 1674- Hetman of the Ukraine, Jan Sobieski crowned king of Poland. He replaced King Michael Wisnowiecki, of whom it was said ' He could speak nine languages, but had nothing intelligent to say in any of them!'. Jan Sobieski became a warrior king.<br /> <br /> 1780- Off the coast of Connecticut, General George Washington conferred with his allies Admiral DeGrasse and the Comte Du Rochambeau aboard DeGrasse’s flagship. Washington wanted to attack the British in occupied New York, but Rocheambeau had a better idea: to pretend to assault New York, then their troops and ships would rendezvous down in Virginia and trap British General Cornwallis in Virginia at a little place called Yorktown. <br /> During this time a French officer wrote home about the curious American custom of whittling. “Whenever the American generals need to ponder great strategies, invariably they take out a knife and carve fruitlessly upon a small stick!”<br /> <br /> 1796- The President’s Slave is Missing- Ona Judge called Oney was a slave in the home of President Washington. When Washington brought his household slaves north to New York and Philadelphia, it created a delicate legal problem because they were free states. When Washington decided to send his slaves back to Virginia 23-year-old Ona learned Martha intended to give her as a wedding present to her granddaughter. She chose this night to run away. Philadelphia friends put her on a ship to New Hampshire. Washington angrily offered a $10 reward, and even discussed having her kidnapped and brought back South. But relented when advisors warned him it would cause an abolitionist riot on the docks. Ona stayed free in New Hampshire, married, and died peacefully of old age in 1845.<br /> <br /> 1800- Napoleon crossed the Alps into Italy at the Great Saint Bernard Pass. Napoleon waited for his last troops to complete the crossing, then thanked the monks who aided his men and crossed himself. Artist David portrayed Napoleon as crossing on a fierce white charger. In actuality he did the crossing on a donkey and at one point tucked his big gray overcoat between his legs and slid down a snowy mountain slope on his butt.<br /> <br /> 1821- Democratic delegates from several states gathered in Baltimore to consider their candidate for president. The first American political convention. <br /> <br /> 1856- CONGRESSIONAL SLUGFEST- During an angry debate on the slavery issue South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks attacked and beat unconscious Massachusetts Representative Charles Sumner right on the floor of the House of Representatives. "I wore out my cane on his head!” Brooks boasted. Admirers sent Brooks more canes. <br /> The slavery argument had become so ugly Congressman took to carrying concealed pistols and daggers to Capitol Hill. The news outraged abolitionists. In far away Kansas territory it affected preacher John Brown. "Dad went a little crazy when he got the news."-his son admitted. Brown would break into slave owners homes in the dead of night and announcing he was the Avenging Angel of the Lord, behead them with an antique broadsword.<br /> <br /> 1863- ARMY CHOW... The standard ration for soldiers in the Civil War was a baked flour biscuit called HardTack. Soldiers loved complaining about how awful it tasted and how hard it was to eat. ( Examples of hardtack 150 years old are still edible ). When Ulysses Grant marched his men around the back of the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg Mississippi he cut himself off from his supply lines and let him men loot the local farms for food. His men feasted three weeks straight on roast turkey and goose, smoked hams, bacon, buttermilk and sweet potatoes. This relentlessly rich diet sparked an unusual protest on this day. As Grant was riding past his troops digging trenches they started yelling out loud: "Hardtack! Give us Hard Tack! A man can't work with this heavy food!" Soon thousands of men were chanting in unison "HARD-TACK! HARD-TACK!!' General Grant was forced to stop and pledge on the spot to restrict their diet back to the bland biscuit.<br /> <br /> 1881- Clara Barton convened the first meeting of the American Red Cross as a branch of the International Red Cross.<br /> <br /> 1885- The pieces of the Statue of Liberty leave for the U.S. I wonder if the crates said "Some Assembly Required"? .The sculptor, Felix Bartholdi was requested to do something so that “Liberty does not leave France”, so he a made a smaller copy of the lady that is placed on the Seine facing westward. She and the Liberty in New York are facing one other.<br /> <br /> 1878- Mr. D.A. Buck of Waterbury Conn. received a patent for a low-cost, mass-produced pocket watch. Within a few years he was selling half a million Waterbury Watches a year at $3.50 each.<br /> <br /> 1892- Leoncavallo's opera "I Pagliacci" debuted at La Scala in Milan.<br /> <br /> 1906 - Louis H Perlman patented a de-mountable tire-carrying rim for cars.<br /> <br /> 1908 - 1st horror movie “Dr Jekyll &amp; Mr Hyde” premiered in Chicago.<br /> <br /> 1914 - Greyhound Bus Company began in Minnesota.<br /> <br /> 1916 - Britain began "Summer Time" Daylight Savings Time. The US adopted the system in the 1930s.<br /> <br /> 1921- LEOPOLD &amp; LOEB- Two preppie millionaire's sons who were pumped up on Nietzsche’s theory of the superman, decided to commit the perfect murder. Just because it would be fun. They lured Loeb's 15 year old cousin into their car, bludgeoned him to death with a chisel, then had lunch. Despite their confidence in their superior intellects, they were quickly identified and tried for murder. Their rich families hired famed social-progressive lawyer Clarence Darrow for the defense. Darrow made no attempt to prove their innocence but got them off on a life sentence. In 1936 Loeb was cut up with a razor while trying to rape another prisoner, Leopold was paroled in 1958 and died in 1971. The pointless cold bloodedness of the murder today would seem like just another news show, but it horrified 1920's America. F. Scott Fitzgerald said the Jazz Age lost some of its innocent fun after Leopold &amp; Loeb.<br /> <br /> 1921- The Soviet Army re-conquered Chechnya. They had been conquered in Czarist times but after the Revolution tried to break free. The Red Army came back, executed their Imam Godzhink and reasserted the rule of Moscow. The Chechens tried to rise again in 1991 and were put down after another bloody war. <br /> <br /> 1922- On the Road to Moscow, the first political cartoon to win a Pulitzer prize. The cartoonist Rollin Kirby, was passionate about Prohibition. He had a regular character to extol temperance named Mr. Dry. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933 Kirby killed off Mr. Dry in print.<br /> <br /> 1927- Charles Lindbergh-Lucky Lindy, The Lone Eagle, etc. reaches a field outside Paris called Le Bourget after flying nonstop across the Atlantic. There was no such thing as an auto-pilot yet, so he had to stay awake and alert for 33 hours straight. His fatigue would have let him crash, if the gremlin ghoulies he was hallucinating hadn’t kept him company. As soon as he was sighted over Paris, huge searchlights were beamed on his plane. The light temporarily blinded him so that he almost crashed. As he landed people swarmed around the whirring propeller, narrowly missing another tragedy. But Lindy was safe and history made. He said he had never been to Europe and had wanted to see the sights, but almost immediately he was whisked by battleship back to the U.S. for tumultuous ovations and parades.<br /> <br /> 1933- 23 year old Woolie Reitherman’s first day at Walt Disney Studio.<br /> <br /> 1945- BOGEY LOVES BABY-Humphrey Bogart married Lauren Bacall on a friend’s farm in Ohio. He was 48 and she was 21. Her real name was Betty Persky, but she passed for wasp. So when the publicity photographers came, they were under strict instructions from Jack Warner to frame out Bacall’s more Jewish-looking relatives. His nickname for her was “Slim”, and she called him “Steve”, after their characters in the film “To Have and to Have Not.”<br /> <br /> 1945- The remaining barracks of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp were destroyed by the U.S. Army with flamethrowers.<br /> <br /> 1952- Actor John Garfield died. Some say he died in the midst of wild fornications; in truth he died in his sleep of heart failure aggravated by stress and alcoholism. He was 39. The matinee idol of “The Postman Rings Twice” and “Kid Galahad” was too politically left for the conservative postwar age. When a young stage actor he had run guns to the IRA, later he supported progressive union movements, anti-fascism and desegregation. His outspoken politics got him blacklisted in Hollywood, his friends deserted him, and he was ruined.<br /> <br /> 1952- Famed writer Lillian Hellman (The Little Foxes, The Children’s Hour) testified before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee HUAC, but refused to name names. “I cannot cut my conscience to fit the fashions of the day.” She escaped a contempt of Congress wrap but she was blacklisted and at one point was working the makeup counter in Magnins department store. By the late 50s she was back with plays like Toys in the Attic.<br /> <br /> 1954- The Disney short Pigs is Pigs, directed by Jack Kinney, released.<br /> <br /> 1966 - Heavyweight Cassius Clay KOs Henry Cooper in London<br /> <br /> 1968- Future President George W. Bush graduated Yale with a C average.<br /> <br /> 1971- Marvin Gaye’s song “ What’s Going On?” Released.<br /> <br /> 1972- A lunatic shouting I am Jesus Christ, attacked Michelangelo’s statue La Pieta with a hammer. He is the reason why today we can only enjoy this beautiful sculpture from behind 3 inch thick bulletproof glass.<br /> <br /> 1979 - Elton John becomes the first western rocker to perform live in USSR.<br /> <br /> 1980 – Star Wars “The Empire Strikes Back" premiered.<br /> <br /> 1983 - David Bowie's "Let's Dance," single goes #1. The tracks featured a then little-known guitarist named Stevie-Ray Vaughn.<br /> <br /> 1991- Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandi was blown up by a girl suicide bomber carrying a bomb in a bunch of flowers. She was believed to be one of the Tamil Tiger separatists. <br /> <br /> 1992- Tonight Show host Johnny Carson did his last show “I bid you a very heartfelt goodnight.” Johnny spent his remaining years in privacy, even refusing an invitation to appear at the NBC 75th anniversary special.<br /> <br /> 2011- 89 year old California Pentecostal minister Harold Camping caused a sensation in the U.S. when he declared today would be the Rapture, the Christian End of the World. It didn’t happen. <br /> <br /> 2017- In Nassau County NY was the final performance of Ringling Bros, Barnum &amp; Bailey Circus. The Greatest Show on Earth had been a tradition for 146 years. <br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Custers Last Stand, the Battle of the Little Big Horn was one of the greatest battles on U.S. soil. What state is the Little Big Horn in?<br /> <br /> Answer: Montana.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 20 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6153 <p>Question: Custers Last Stand, the Battle of the Little Big Horn was one of the greatest battles on U.S. soil. What state is the Little Big Horn in?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is the story of The Prodigal Son?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 5/20/2023<br /> Birthdays: Honore Balzac, Jimmy Stewart, Leon Schlesinger, William Fargo of Wells Fargo, Moshe Dayan, Henri Rousseau, Dave Thomas, Ted Bessell (Donald to Marlo Thomas’ “That Girl”), Japanese baseball great Sadaharu Oh, Antony Zerbe, Bronson Pichot, Joe Cocker, Cher is 77, Busta Rhymes<br /> <br /> 1347- Cola di Rienzi became the “tribune”, or leader of the city of Rome. The Pope was a prisoner in Avignon, France, so the Eternal City was in chaos. Rienzi tried to bring about reforms and restore infrastructure, but like Mussolini he got too arrogant and overplayed his hand. Finally a mob killed him and danced with his corpse. At least Wagner wrote a nice overture about him.<br /> <br /> 1520- A violent young Spanish mercenary soldier named Ignacio was hit by a cannonball but miraculously lived. When he recovered, he underwent a spiritual conversion and became St. Ignatius Loyola. Loyola founded a religious order called the Society of Jesus or Jesuits. Instead of acting like monks, the Jesuits were organized on military discipline. Their leader is not called an abbot but the Secretary General. He is nicknamed “the Black Pope”. <br /> <br /> 1520- Hernando Cortez had not only to fight the entire Aztec Empire with just 391 troops, he also had the Spanish Governor of Cuba out to get him! This day Cortez surprised attacked the troop of Spaniards sent to arrest him. After a short battle he defeated the Governor’s force, and invited the survivors to join him.<br /> <br /> 1609- Shakespeare’s sonnets first published.<br /> <br /> 1621- The Sack of Magdeburg-During the Thirty Years War, Catholic armies captured this Protestant German city. They cut down the surrendering Dutch commander Dietrich Von Falkenberg, and committed horrible atrocities on the population. The medieval cry "Cria Havoc!" was the traditional signal for the soldiers to run amuck. According to the rules of war they had the right to rape and pillage for three days before discipline was restored.<br /> But at Magdeburg they looted the city for 14 days and dumped the bodies of their victims in the River Elbe. The army’s commander Johan Tserclas von Tilly explained: “The soldier must get something for his toil and trouble.” The incident galvanized Protestant resistance. Ironically a lot of the troops in the Catholic army were protestant mercenaries who figured the religious questions were for kings to worry about, they just thought the catholic side had better pay and benefits.<br /> <br /> 1690- The English Parliament passed the Act of Grace, giving pardon to all who had supported the deposed Stuart king James II. <br /> <br /> 1756- Battle of Minorca or Port Mahon- French Admiral the Marquis de Galissioniere defeated a British fleet led by Admiral of the Blue Sir John Byng, allowing the French to conquer the isle of Minorca. Byng was such a stickler for regulations he actually directed the battle while referring to an open copy of the Naval Rules of Engagement manual. The British admiralty and King George II was so incensed by Byng’s incompetence they recalled him to London, had him courts martialed and shot on the deck of his own flagship.<br /> <br /> 1830 - D Hyde patented the fountain pen, replacing the goose quill. Recently archaeologists found a bronze pen in Roman Pompeii, but it’s probably not to write in ink, but scratch on wax or bronze tables.<br /> <br /> 1862- Congress passed the Homestead Act. 250 million acres of Free Land to all families who move west and build a home. <br /> <br /> 1873- When ships went from sails to engines, the makers of sail cloth faced economic hard times. A Mr. Levi Strauss bought a lot of this unused sail cloth for a song from an exporter. He traveled out to California, hoping to sell it to gold miners for tents. Once there, miners told him that they were happy to sleep under a tree and didn’t need tents but what they really wanted were pants! So, Levi Strauss went into the pants business. The sailcloth was grey in color and showed dirt easily, and miners didn’t care about washing their pants, so Levi contacted the manufacturer in Nimes France and they found a blue dye that came from North Africa and made special colored blue material to send to California for Levi’ s jeans. They called it “serge de Nimes”, or denim. The word Jeans comes from the sailors from Genoa Italy who wore pants that were wider at the bottom (bell bottoms) the sailors were able to roll up their pants legs over their thighs while swabbing the decks and not wear out the knees.<br /> <br /> Levi Strauss was later walking down Battery St in San Francisco, when he was accosted by a gnarly gold miner. The miner had his entire stash of gold nuggets in his pockets and the pockets tore and the crusty old miner lost his entire stash, he did have a pistol which he threatened Levi with, as he blamed Levi for his loss. The man finally calmed down but the event inspired Levi to contact a black smith named Jacob Davis to invent the copper rivet system. This day Levi Strauss patented Jacob Davis’ process of riveted blue jeans. One alteration he made was to remove a rivet that was at the base of a cowboys crotch. It seems when they squatted around the campfire that rivet got red hot and caused much whoopin’ an a’ dancin’.<br /> <br /> 1887- In Russia a young man named Alexander Ulyanov was hanged by the police for plotting to assassinate the Tsar with a bomb hidden in a dictionary. His baby brother Vladimir watched him hang and was deeply affected. He took up his brother’s revolutionary cause, and to protect his family, he changed his name to Lenin. <br /> <br /> 1891- Thomas Edison demonstrated an early prototype of kinetoscope- a motion picture machine- to his wife's friends at a party. The footage was of engineer W.K.L. Dickson and his associates dancing. That night Edison wrote a letter about his movie machine to photographer Eadweard Muybridge: " I doubt it will ever have any commercial value...”<br /> <br /> 1892- J.P. Morgan created the General Electric Company.<br /> <br /> 1892 - George Sampson patents the electric clothes dryer.<br /> <br /> 1902- US military occupation of Cuba after the Spanish American War ended.<br /> <br /> 1916- Explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton set off in 1914 to cross the continent of Antarctica. No one had heard from him in two years, and everyone assumed he was dead. This day Shackleton and two survivors reached a Norwegian whaling station on South Georgia Island ahead of the rest of his party. <br /> At one point Sir Ernest asked about the Great War in Europe. He assumed that by now the war was probably over. “So, who won that war?” he innocently asked. He was told: “It is still going on. Europe has gone mad. The World has Gone Mad.”<br /> <br /> 1916- Artist Norman Rockwell sold his first painting for a Saturday Evening Post cover.<br /> <br /> 1926 - Thomas Edison says Americans prefer silent movies over talking pictures. He also thought the flat record disc could never replace the cylinder.<br /> <br /> 1927- Charles Lindbergh took off for France in his little plane The Spirit of Saint Louis. Just the day before two pilots died when their plane failed to clear some power lines. They exploded and burned. Weighed down with extra fuel, Lindbergh barely cleared the wires himself. By attempting the trip alone, it meant he would have to stay awake for 33 1/2 hours with no company but a Felix the Cat doll and a thermos of coffee.<br /> <br /> 1932- Amelia Earhart landed in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, completing the first solo flight by a woman across the Atlantic Ocean. Since Lindbergh in 1927, five aviators had died trying to recreate the feat, until Earhart did it. <br /> <br /> 1937-The Cinema Editor's Guild started.<br /> <br /> 1937- Bob Clampett promoted to director at Leon Schlesinger’s Looney Tunes Studio. Clampett’s mother hand sewed the first Mickey Mouse dolls for Walt Disney.<br /> <br /> 1939- Pan Am established "Yankee Clipper"" flying boat passenger service across the Atlantic. From Long Island New York to Lisbon Portugal in 22 hours. For awhile it was thought flying boats would be the future of civilian aviation because they land in water so save land for airports and runways. Also safer because if there was any kind of engine trouble they could just put down in water and bob around until help arrived.<br /> <br /> 1940- British Admiral Ramsey set up his HQ in a bunker in Dover overlooking the Channel to France, 21 miles away. There he began to plan how to evacuate 500,000 British and allied troops trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk, without air superiority.<br /> <br /> 1942- Nazi parachutists capture Crete. One of the paratroopers was Max Schmelling, who boxed Joe Louis for the heavyweight title. The Germans casualty rate was so high the Germans abandoned all future parachute assaults.<br /> <br /> 1943- Admiral Yamamoto was shot down and killed in transit by American pursuit squadron tipped off by the broken Japanese code, so they send a squadron just to get him. Ironically the mastermind of Pearl Harbor was against the war with America and predicted: " If I can knock out the American fleet early, I can raise hell in the Pacific for two years. If you don't negotiate after that we will eventually lose." <br /> I recently read a theory of one historian who said that right around this time Prime Minister Hideki Tojo's government had fallen over the conduct of the war and Yamamoto, as Japan’s most popular soldier, could have been the next Prime Minister. In which case he would have opened peace talks as early as 1943, long before Okinawa, Iwo Jima and Hiroshima. It’s a stretch, but one of the intriguing “what if’s” of history.<br /> <br /> 1948- A tornado touched down on a commercial airport in Tinker Oklahoma. What made this episode special was two air force meteorologists named Miller and Forbush just happened to present studying tornado weather patterns when the twister showed up as if on cue. The result was the invention of the first serious tornado warning systems.<br /> <br /> 1969- The Battle of Hamburger Hill ended- U.S.101st Airborne took the summit of Hill 937 in the Bo Giap Mountains from North Vietnamese regulars after nine days of frightful losses. It was nicknamed Hamburger Hill as a grim joke on the terrible meatgrinder of human life it cost. The hill was abandoned shortly after the battle.<br /> <br /> 1970- THE HARD HAT PARADE- In a response to the anti-war demonstrations convulsing US colleges and cities, several thousand people marched in downtown New York in support of President Nixon’s Vietnam policies. The so-called Hard Hat Parade was made up of union construction workers and middle-aged veterans. Conservatives made a lot of this event, but the fact is this was a one time anomaly in the face of hundreds of thousands marching nationwide against the unpopular war. <br /> <br /> 1975- In a small warehouse in Sherman Oaks California, George Lucas assembled an effects crew to create the film Star Wars. It is the birth of Industrial Light &amp; Magic, or ILM. <br /> <br /> 1979- The last Saturday Night Live show done by the original cast. Many of them had their 5 year contracts up and they wanted to do something else. Plus, producer Lorne Michaels was feuding with NBC chairman Fred Silverman and wanted to leave. So goodbye Lorne Michaels, Gilda Radner, Lorraine Newman, Garret Morris, Bill Murray and Al Franken. Hello Jean Doumainian and Joe Piscopo! Lorne Michaels came back to the show a few years later and has produced it ever since.<br /> <br /> 1984- Hanna Barbera’s “The Smurfic Games”.<br /> <br /> 1988- George Lucas film Willow premiered.<br /> <br /> 1993 - Max Klein, the inventor of Paint by Numbers sets, died at 77. President Eisenhower once passed out paint-by-numbers sets to his senior cabinet so their paintings could adorn the West Wing offices. Imagine seeing on your wall an original artwork by Richard Nixon or Curtis LeMay! <br /> <br /> 1994- Walt Disney released Aladdin II, the Return of Jaffar. Done overseas at ¼ the budget of the original, it nevertheless success spawned the industry of Disney direct-to-video sequels, called “cheapquels” by some animators. <br /> <br /> 2003- In 1977, when Walt Disney's the Rescuers was being completed, the artists for a joke added a Playboy picture into a pan shot. Going by at 1/24th a second, they were confident nobody would ever spot it. Later in the 1990s, when Rescuers went to VHS video, they edited out the controversial frame. But when it was time in 2003 to rerelease on DVD, the Studio apparatchik’s went to the original 1977 negative, without ever bothering to consult any of the artists. We could have warned them, but noooo. So on May 20, 2003, nine million copies of the Rescuers DVD hit the stores, with the ensuing out cry, firestorm, and embarrassed apologies you can imagine..<br /> ===========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is the story of The Prodigal Son?<br /> <br /> Answer: One of the most well-known of Jesus’ parables, a father gives his two sons equal shares of his estate. Responding to this magnanimous gift, the elder son immediately goes to work to help his father, while the other goes off adventuring, wasting his fortune on sinful endeavors. The wandering son, having no further resources, soon sinks into poverty and despair, finally retuning to his fathers house, wretched and hopeless, begging forgiveness. However, before he can finish his plea, his father accepts him back, provides him with fine clothes and accouterments and begins a celebration. <br /> The steadfast son resents this, saying he has always worked hard, been responsible, upright and heeded his father's wishes, while his prodigal brother had done none of those righteous things, in fact had done the opposite, yet was now, upon returning home, being treated better than he had ever been. Responding to his son’s complaint, the father says “You have always been with me. All that I have belongs to you. But your brother, whom I also love, was lost and now is found." (Thanks Frank G)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 19 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6152 <p>Question: What is the story of The Prodigal Son?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: The Battle of Blenheim was one of the great British victories, like Waterloo. Where exactly is Blenheim?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for May 19, 2023<br /> Birthdays: Malcolm X- born Malcolm Little, Ho Chi Minh- born Ngyun Tat Tanth- Ho Chi Minh means the Enlightener, Giovanni Della Robbia, John Hopkins, Lord Waldorf Astor, Dame Nelly Melba, Frank Capra, Wilson Mizner, Elena Poniatowska, Jim Lehrer, Nora Ephron, Grace Jones, Peter Mahew, Nancy Kwan, Pete Townshend, Joey Ramone, Andre the Giant, Polly Walker, James Baxter, Tom Sito, aka me, your author.<br /> <br /> 639, Turkic nobleman Ashina Jieshesuai led an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the Chinese Emperor. This led to a campaign to resettle Turkic people north of the great wall and south of the Gobi desert. It was intended as a buffer from the northern threat of the Eastern Turkic Khaganate.<br /> <br /> 988- Today is the Feast of Saint Dunstan, who pulled the Devil’s nose with hot tongs.<br /> <br /> 1535- Explorer Jacques Cartier sails from France for the New World.<br /> <br /> 1536- Anne Boleyn-King Henry VIII's second queen, was beheaded not by axe but by a French swordsman with a sort of golf-swing. The king was playing tennis at Hampton Court. He had a relay signal of cannons fired from the Tower of London so he would know the minute he was single again.<br /> <br /> 1586- Fleeing her rebellious nobles, Mary Queen of Scots crossed the border into England and threw herself upon the mercy of Queen Elizabeth, who promptly locked her up.<br /> <br /> 1635- Cardinal Richelieu confuses the religious nature of the Thirty Years War by putting Catholic France on the Protestant side. His eminence the Cardinal didn’t care a fig about religious issues, he just wanted to break the power of Catholic Spain.<br /> <br /> 1643- The separate Anglo-American colonies of Plymouth, Connecticut, New Harbor and Massachusetts Bay form an association called New England.<br /> <br /> 1649- Oliver Cromwell’s victorious Puritan Parliament declared the British Monarchy extinct. England was to be a Commonwealth. They also ordered that all families who had been for the King in the just-completed Civil War would now be taxed, assessed to one-half the value of their property, no matter how much real money they earned or lost that year. This tax drove many cash poor noble families to America -The Washingtons, Lees, Randolphs, Livingstons and Madisons. Most settled in Virginia and the Carolinas, because New England had too many Puritans.<br /> In the US Civil War many southerners called themselves the descendants of the cavaliers, and the Yankees of New England the heirs of the Puritan roundheads. <br /> <br /> 1652- An English fleet led by Blake attacked the Dutch under Admiral Van Tromp- The First Anglo-Dutch War began. <br /> <br /> 1749- King George II chartered the Ohio Company to explore the territories west of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. This act would bring English settlers into direct conflict with French settlers moving down from Canada and help bring on the French &amp; Indian, or the Seven Years War.<br /> <br /> 1780- In New England the sky turned to total darkness at noon. No explanation. <br /> <br /> 1798- Napoleon set off to invade Egypt, trying to cut off England's easy access to India and if possible conquering his way across Turkey and Persia to join forces with Tippoo Sahib, the Indian Sultan fighting against British rule. <br /> <br /> 1804- Napoleon designates 14 of his top generals MARSHALS of the EMPIRE. King Louis XVI had a rule that no one could become an officer in the Royal French Army without first proving nobility of birth going back at least four generations. In the British army it was perfectly natural to buy your officer commissions until the World Wars. The French Revolution changed all that. Napoleon's army functioned on the radical new principle of promoting people on merit instead of noble birth or connections. A slogan in the French army was "every drummer boy carries a marshal’s baton in his knapsack." <br /> <br /> 1812- The USA declared War on Great Britain, the War of 1812- The U.S. government tired of having it's shipping harassed by the British and having ambitions of conquering Canada sent off a declaration of war.<br /> Two weeks after their declaration of war sailed away to London, a Royal Navy vessel landed in Baltimore with concessions to most U.S. demands. D’oh! John Jacob Astor, the fur exporter, warned all his Canadian subcontractors that we were about to invade them. His message got there before the American general’s orders to march.<br /> Napoleon, retreating from Moscow when he received the news, calculated that because the American Navy had had success against the British Navy during their Revolution, they were the perfect ones to ferry his army across the Channel so he could get at England!<br /> He didn't know that after the Revolution most of the American Navy was scrapped, and the Yankees weren't that thrilled with him anyway.<br /> <br /> 1857 -William Francis Channing &amp; Moses G Farmer patents electric fire alarm.<br /> <br /> 1859- Sir John Franklin led a British Navy expedition to find the sea route across the top of Canada, the NorthWest Passage. Not only didn't he make it, but the National Geographic Society is still thawing out his sailors today. The route they looked for was not achieved until a Canadian ice cutter did it in 1958. And now thanks to Global Warming, the passage is easy.<br /> <br /> 1864- The Cherry Creek Flood- wipes out what there is of a little boomtown in silver mining country called Denver.<br /> <br /> 1864- President Abe Lincoln wrote that the widows and orphans of black union soldiers should get the same death benefits that white soldiers got.<br /> <br /> 1884 - Ringling Brothers circus premiered.<br /> <br /> 1886- First performance of Camille Saint Saen's Organ Symphony #3. Saint Saen's had actually written 6 such works but hated them all but three. He liked the third symphony so much he never wrote another. Composer Charles Gounod heard the symphony and exclaimed:" There is now a French Beethoven!" <br /> <br /> 1891- Rice University founded. <br /> <br /> 1892 - Charles Brady King invented the pneumatic jackhammer- sleeping city dwellers rejoice.<br /> <br /> 1895- Patriot leader Jose Martin killed fighting for Cuban independence.<br /> <br /> 1897- Writer Oscar Wilde was released from prison after doing two years of hard labor. The experience broke his health and he never completely recovered. He did use his experiences to write his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol in 1898.<br /> <br /> 1898 - Post Office authorizes the use of postcards.<br /> <br /> 1900- The British Empire annexed the islands of Tonga- once called the Cannibal Isles. The King of Tonga realized the futility of trying to resist the European Imperialists, so he mailed his war club as a symbol of submission to Queen Victoria. <br /> <br /> 1903- In San Francisco’s exclusive University Club, Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson overheard some gentlemen discussing how the new invention the automobile was just a passing fad, and only good for short distances. On the spot Jackson wagered $50 he could drive a motorcar across the entire USA to New York City in 90 days. He set out on May 23 and despite frequent breakdowns, made it to Manhattan in 63 days. For this he was hailed as The Great Automobilist.<br /> <br /> 1921- The U.S. Congress ended the system of unchecked immigration and sets up a quota system based on nationalities. The act was heavily influenced by experts in the pseudo-science of Eugenics, then very popular. Even today the system heavily favors Europeans.<br /> <br /> 1929 - General Feng Yu-Xiang, last of the great Chinese warlords, declared war on Chiang Kai-Shek’s Kuomintang Nationalist government. After the Manchu Empire collapsed in 1912, China broke up into small states run by generals with private armies, European protectorates and Communist guerrillas. The Nationalists under Chiang slowly reunified China piece by piece until the Japanese Invasion in 1937.<br /> <br /> 1934- Mickey Mouse short cartoon Gulliver Mickey.<br /> <br /> 1935- The National Football League adopts the college draft system.<br /> <br /> 1935- T.E. Lawrence "Lawrence of Arabia" died of injuries after a high-speed motorcycle crash. The motorcycle was a gift from George Bernard Shaw. Some thought he crashed deliberately.<br /> <br /> 1940- In a closed meeting of the war cabinet, Winston Churchill said it looked like the French were losing the war to Hitler’s Nazis, so he would send no more RAF squadrons across the Channel to help. He said they needed to keep them home for the coming attacks on Britain.<br /> <br /> 1941- Battle of Amba Alagi. Britain defeated Fascist Italy in Abyssinia.<br /> <br /> 1945- Two weeks after the end of World War II in Europe, the German U-boat U-234 surfaced in the harbor of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. They had been sent on a long-distance trip to Japan carrying military secrets, a disassembled jet fighter, and a store of fission quality uranium. <br /> In the mid-Atlantic, the crew heard the announcement of Hitler’s death and Germany’s surrender. An argument broke out among the crew, the captain, and two Japanese liaison officers about what to do. Barring being able to reach Tokyo, the back up plan was to go to a friendly Latin American country. But the crew had enough. Their war was over.<br /> Their final decision was to sail to the first American port and surrender.<br /> When docked, it was discovered the two Japanese officers were missing. <br /> The crew shrugged, “ uh…they decided to walk home".<br /> <br /> 1956- Cecil B. de Milles film " The Ten Commandments" premiered. Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter and Edward G, Robinson.<br /> <br /> 1956- The Disney film Pollyana debuted, making a star of Haley Mills.<br /> <br /> 1958- The film,” The Attack of the 50 Ft Woman” premiered. A drive-in favorite.<br /> <br /> 1960 - DJ Alan Freed is accused of bribery in the radio payola scandal, the first scandal to hit the new world of Rock &amp; Roll.<br /> <br /> 1962- Giant birthday party and rally held for President John F. Kennedy in New York's Madison Square Garden (his birthday was actually the following week). What made it memorable was Marilyn Monroe in a dress so tight she had to be sewn into it, singing her sexy version of the Happy Birthday song. 'Happy (exhale) Burth- Day, Mister - Prezz- a -dent (sigh), Happy, etc. "<br /> <br /> 1967- US B-52’s bomb Hanoi for the first time. <br /> <br /> 1970- Al Gore married Tipper Gore. <br /> <br /> 1987- Charles Fleming got a patent for plans for a device that can keep a severed human head alive. <br /> <br /> 1990- Amy Fisher 16, the "Long Island Lolita" shot the wife of her lover, muffler salesman Joseph Buttafuco. Mary Jo Buttafuco survived the attack and Amy went to jail. This case titillates the sensationalist media of New York City for the next three years, to the amazement of the rest of the U.S. <br /> <br /> 1991- Willy T. Ribbs became the first African American racecar driver to qualify for the Indianapolis 500.<br /> <br /> 1992- The completion bond company seized Richard Williams unfinished masterpiece Cobbler and the Thief. They had the film’s remaining sequences completed by another studio (Fred Calvert, and one sequence subcontracted to Don Bluth) and released as Arabian Nights. <br /> A year later I asked Dick how he was doing? He replied, “Well, contrary to everyone’s best wishes, I am NOT suicidal.” <br /> <br /> 1997- Matthew Broderick married Sarah Jessica Parker. <br /> <br /> 1999- George Lucas’ much anticipated film Star Wars Episode One the Phantom Menace premiered, the first Star Wars sequel in over a decade. It was the first major film premiere to be projected digitally. Only two theaters in New York and two in Hollywood could do digital projection then. It featured Jarr Jarr Binks, a character so annoying, that web sites like www. I Want Jarr-Jarr to Die-Die.com soon racked up tens of thousands of hits.<br /> <br /> 2000- Walt Disney film Dinosaur opened.<br /> <br /> 2005- Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith premiered.<br /> <br /> 2006- Dreamwork’s animated film ‘Over the Hedge’ premiered.<br /> ============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s question: The Battle of Blenheim was one of the great British victories, like Waterloo. Where exactly is Blenheim?<br /> <br /> Answer: In Bavaria in Germany.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 18 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6151 <p>Quiz: The Battle of Blenheim was one of the great British victories, like Waterloo. Where exactly is Blenheim?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What is the controversy about the Oxford comma?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 5/18/2023<br /> Birthdays: Pope St. John Paul II, Grover Cleveland, Ezio Pinza, Czar Nicholas II, Omar Khayam, Walter Gropius, Reggie Jackson, Margot Fonteyn, Robert Morse, Perry Como, Dwayne Hickman aka Dobie Gillis, Big Joe Turner, Richard Brooks, Mad artist Don Martin, Miriam Margolyes, Chow Yung Fat is 68, Tina Fey is 53<br /> <br /> The ancient Greek festival of Pan.<br /> <br /> 331 B.C. ALEXANDER THE GREAT DIED IN BABYLON. By age 31 he had conquered most of the known world and was planning a campaign to Arabia and western Europe when he fell ill. When asked "To whom do you leave your empire? He replied- "Hoti to Kratisto- To the Strongest". Some historians speculate he actually meant: "Hoti to Kratero" to Craterus, one of his trusted companions, but the generals in the room had their own ideas and didn't want to hear that. <br /> They carved up Alexanders empire into their own kingdoms-Ptolemy became Pharoah of Egypt, Seleucus king of Syria, and Antigonus One-Eye &amp; Cassander divided up Greece. They started fighting with each other almost immediately. Alexander grimly joked: "There will be great games at my funeral". The Successor kings even fought over his corpse, carrying it around with the army in a huge rolling shrine, until Ptolemy brought it to Alexandria and embalmed it in a solid block of honey. Caesar and Marc Anthony were able to gaze upon Alexander’s face three hundred years later. (Imagine today, being able to look at the undecayed face of George Washington!) The final fate of the honey-pickled corpse is unknown.<br /> <br /> 323BC- Diogenes the Cynic died his 90s. He once met Alexander the Great. Alexander came up to him seated upon the ground, stood over him and said "I am Alexander the King of Macedon". Diogenes countered:" And I am Diogenes the Dog". Alexander said:" If there is anything in the world you desire of me, just ask!" Diogenes replied:" Yes. You’re blocking my light."<br /> <br /> 257AD.- Today is the Feast of Saint Venantius. Little is known of him except his endurance record for being martyred. His persecutors flogged him, burned him with torches, hanged him upside down over a fire, knocked his teeth out, broke his jaw, and threw him to the lions, who merely licked his feet. Then they threw him off a cliff, and finally cut his head off. <br /> <br /> 1291- The last crusader stronghold in Middle East, St. Jean D'Acre, fell to the Egyptian Mamelukes of Al Khalil. Considered the official end of the Crusades.<br /> <br /> 1512- IRON HAND- German knight Gotz von Berlichingen spent his 81 years fighting and raiding throughout Germany. When his hand was blown off by a cannonball he had a mechanical one built for him out of metal. This day Gotz and one legged Hans von Selbitz raided 55 Nuremburg merchants and carried off their gold. Goethe and other German writers made Gotz into a Robin Hood type folk hero. <br /> In answering a challenge to personal combat, Iron Hand was credited with uttering the famous epithet "Er aber sag seinem Herren, er kann mich im Arsche lecken!" Go tell your master he can kiss my ass!"<br /> <br /> 1565- THE SIEGE OF MALTA BEGINS. Turkish Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent attacked the island stronghold of the Knights of St. John. The knights had formed in Jerusalem during the Crusades and ran a hospital when not chopping people, so they were called Hospitallers. Later after their victory they became the Knights of Malta. Their symbol, four barbed arrowheads forming a cross is called the Maltese Cross. Today they still run a medical service called St. John's Ambulance.<br /> <br /> 1642- Huron village of Hochelaga was rededicated as the city of Montreal.<br /> <br /> 1778-THE MESCHIANZA- Before the British Army evacuated the rebel capitol of Philadelphia they threw a grand farewell masque ball. American loyalist girls and young redcoat officers danced the night away under a spectacle of fireworks. There was a waterborne parade, medieval tournament and a huge dinner. <br /> Nothing this lavish had ever been staged in the American Colonies. One of the belles was Peggy Shippen, who would marry General Benedict Arnold and turn him from the American patriot cause. That night her dance partner was Major John Andre’, who art directed and designed the event. He even designed Peggy’s costume. The men had costumes as Knights and the women as Turkish damsels, symbolizing the civilizing influence of Art on barbaric peoples. <br /> The next day the British began their withdrawal to New York, and abandoning Philadelphia to Washington’s army camped at Valley Forge. Two years later George Washington hanged Major Andre as a spy.<br /> <br /> 1781- Inca resistance to the Spaniards didn't end when Pizarro left. They abandoned Cuzco and fled deeper into the Andes and continued to struggle for another 150 years. This day the last fighting Inca emperor, Tupu Amuru II, was executed by the Spanish conquistadors. They tried to pull him apart with horses, but he was too pliable so they cut him up. <br /> The Inca believed the world periodically is overthrown and another takes its place, so the European invasion was seen as a part of this cycle. The Inca word for earthquake also means revolution. In the 1980s the rebels fighting the Peruvian government forces called themselves the Tupu-Amaru Liberation front.<br /> <br /> 1795- Col. Robert Rogers died in poverty in London. During the French and Indian War Rogers’ colonial militia called Roger’s Rangers was the most daring unit fighting for England. But by the American Revolution, George Washington didn’t trust his loyalty, especially after he ratted out Nathan Hale. He formed a Tory unit but it was undistinguished. Despite the obscurity of his death, Rogers wrote down a manual of his tactics that are considered the basis of all Special Ops -Move Fast, Hit Hard.<br /> <br /> 1804- French senate voted Napoleon the title of Emperor of the French. This act disappointed many European liberals like Beethoven who had seen Napoleon as the strong wind of reform blowing through the dusty corridors of Monarchy. <br /> <br /> 1832- CLIMAX OF THE MAY DAYS- The closest England ever came to a full French style working class Revolution. The Whig party under Lord John Russell and Lord Grey ( Earl Grey Tea ) had introduced three bills in Parliament asking for voting rights to be extended to the middle classes and parliamentary allocations reformed to better represent the large city populations like Manchester and Birmingham. This would forever break the tight hold on power possessed by the gentry. Naturally the conservatives like King William IV (Victoria's uncle) fought it tooth and nail. Every time the bill passed in the House of Commons it was defeated in the House of Lords. The Commons in retaliation refused to let the Tories form a government. <br /> Starting with the bills third defeat on May 7th England was convulsed by rioting, looting, general strikes and boycotts. The King was hit in the face with a stone, the Horse Guards were called out and the Prime Minister the Duke of Wellington had so many rocks thrown at his house in Hyde Park he had steel shutters installed on the ground floor. On this day Lord Grey told the King if he didn't sign the reform act and create a dozen new liberal peers to the Lords, anarchy and revolution would result! Lord Lionel Rothschild reported the economy was at the point of collapse. <br /> <br /> The king backed down, reform went through and real two-party voting resulted, although the working classes would have to wait 86 more years until they could vote. King William IV has come down to us called William the Reformer, although it sounds like a title he would have liked to do without....<br /> <br /> 1896- The US Supreme Court in the decision Plessy Vs Ferguson upheld the concept of Separate-But-Equal facilities and laws. This racial separation called Segregation or Jim Crow, was not reversed until the 1960’s, and many say are still trying to come back today.<br /> <br /> 1904- In Paris 12 nations sign an international agreement for the Suppression of the White Slave Trade. The United States did not sign.<br /> <br /> 1905- MORROCCAN CRISIS OF 1905- A Moroccan desert sherif, El Raisuli, kidnapped a small Greek-American businessman named George Pedicaris. He did this for ransom, and because he wanted someone new to play chess with. Pedicaris was ransomed, but not before the incident became a major international incident between with Germany, Britain, France and the U.S. Marines. The incident was romanticized in the John Milius film "The Wind and the Lion", with Raisuli played by Sean Connery and Pedicaris turned into the beautiful Candice Bergen.<br /> <br /> 1911- Composer Gustav Mahler died of heart disease shortly before his 51st birthday. He had completed his Ninth Symphony with dread, because he knew Beethoven, Schubert and Bruckner had never lived beyond their ninth symphony. On his table were preliminary sketches for his tenth.<br /> <br /> 1926- L.A. evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson was the Billy Graham of her time. This day she shocked the nation when she mysteriously disappeared on a beach near Venice Cal. After an exhaustive search involving ships and planes, she turned up a month later with a lame story of being kidnapped. Truth, was she ran off with her boyfriend Kenneth Ormiston for a romantic week in Monterrey. Hallelujah!<br /> 1927- Sid Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood opened. The first show was the premiere of Cecil B. DeMille’s King of Kings. Ushers and doormen were dressed in imported Mandarin robes, and wall hangings were painted by young artist/actor Key Luke. Sid Grauman was the showman who also invented the Hollywood premiere with spotlights and limo's pulling up to red carpets, etc.<br /> <br /> 1931- Japanese pilot Seiji Yoshihara attempted to be the first pilot to fly alone across the Pacific Ocean. But he crashed and was rescued by a passing ship.<br /> <br /> 1933- President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Tennessee Valley Authority. The TVA created massive public works bringing electric power to much of the Appalachians and deep South.<br /> <br /> 1940- John Halas &amp; Joy Batchelor founded Halas &amp; Batchelor, for many years the preeminent animation studio in England.<br /> <br /> 1943- Battle of Monte Cassino. A ninth century mountaintop abbey filled with German troops held back the allied armies advancing up from Naples. In order to capture the fortress, the allies had to heavily bomb it from the air, destroying many priceless paintings by Piero della Francesca and Giotto. This day the monastery was finally captured by Polish troops attached to the British Army.<br /> <br /> 1944- Stalin's revenge- millions of Crimean Tartar people were herded up and shipped into exile in Central Asia because Stalin felt they collaborated with the Nazis. In the 1990s some were allowed to return to their ancestral homeland. But this is the reason when Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea back into Russia in 2014, a majority of the population were now ethnic Russians. <br /> <br /> 1976- The filming of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now was disrupted when the Philippines was hit by a major typhoon. Francis rode out the storm cooking pasta, smoking pot and listening to recordings of La Boheme.<br /> <br /> 1980- Mt. St. Helens explodes in Washington State. The volcano was always thought to be safely extinct but Mother Nature had other plans. I was in Toronto thousands of miles away and noticed volcanic ash floating in Lake Ontario. The eruption and earthquake killed 57 people and destroyed 24 square miles around the mountain. <br /> A lone eccentric named Harry Truman refused to be evacuated and stayed in his home. He was interviewed by Sixty Minutes and other programs. After the explosion Truman disappeared and is assumed killed.<br /> <br /> 1995- Elizabeth Montgomery, the star of Bewitched, died of colon cancer at age 62.<br /> <br /> 2001- Dreamworks animated SHREK opened. The voice of Shrek was originally planned to be Chris Farley but the big comedian died of a drug overdose and was replaced by Mike Myers. I’m serving Waffles!<br /> <br /> 2003 Pixar’s Finding Nemo opened.<br /> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is the controversy about the Oxford comma?<br /> <br /> Answer: a comma used after the penultimate item in a list of three or more items, before ‘and’ or ‘or’ (e.g. an Italian painter, sculptor, and architect ). Some people complain it makes the writing style too alliterative and stuffy.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 17 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6150 <p>Quiz: What is the controversy about the Oxford comma?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Who were these people? David Oistrach, Yehudi Mehunin, Anna Sophie-Mutter, Yascha Heifitz, Ytshak Perleman?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 5/17/2023<br /> Birthdays: Sandro Botticelli, Eric Satie, Ayatollah Khomeni, Edmond Jenner, Archibald Cox, Sugar Ray Leonard, Maureen O'Sullivan, Howard Ashman, Craig Ferguson, Bill Paxton, Ralph Wright- the original voice of Eeyore, Alan Kay-inventor of the laptop computer, Dennis Hopper, Enya is 61- born Eithne Patricia Ni’ Bhraonain<br /> <br /> 1204- The Fourth Crusade captured the city of Constantinople (Istanbul). The Western Crusaders decided to blame the Byzantine Greeks for their failure to keep Jerusalem, so they sent a crusade just to get them. This Crusade was backed by the growing merchant naval powers like Venice, Genoa and Pisa who saw the Byzantines as a commercial competitor.<br /> They stormed the unconquerable city and killed the Emperor Constantine VIII Paleologus called Mourzufle "Fuzzy", by hurling him off a high column. <br /> The Republic of Venice plundered many treasures to adorn their Cathedral of San Marco back home, including the four bronze horses that had adorned the Hippodrome. In the weeks of destruction and pillage that followed many priceless works of art were lost, including only remaining copies of a dozen plays of Sophocles, leaving only the four we have now. <br /> The Doge of Venice Enrico Dandolo had a horror of dying in bed. So, he was in the first wave to attack the city's walls even though he was 81 and blind. He survived the arrows, spears; catapult stones and boiling oil, and died in bed anyway.<br /> <br /> 1488- Vasco DeGama reached India from sailing around the horn of Africa.<br /> This fulfilled the master plan of Prince Henry the Navigator to outflank the Muslim world, providing an alternative to the ancient Silk Road land route that connected the world’s trade. Ironically, legend has it that DeGama’s navigator was an Arab.<br /> It was the beginning of the Age of Exploration and the rise of Western Europe. Both Columbus and Magellan learned their stuff studying in Prince Henry’s Portugal. A previous Portuguese navigator named Diaz had actually rounded the African continent before DeGama but his men were so freaked out that they mutinied and forced him to turn around go home, so he got no credit. <br /> <br /> 1673- French Explorers Father Marquette and Joliet set out from Green Bay, Wisconsin to explore the Mississippi. The missionary made only one baptism but he said that alone made the trip worthwhile. <br /> <br /> 1763- The Marquis de Sade was arrested on the first of many charges over his unusual recreational tastes. This time he was charged with “…outrage to public morals, blasphemy and profanation of the image of Christ.” The Marquis de Sade would be in and out of prisons and insane asylums for most of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. He died in 1814.<br /> <br /> <br /> 1792- In New York, twenty-four investors met under a buttonwood tree on the street where the old city wall once stood and formed The New York Stock Exchange. Then they all went to the Merchant’s Coffee House for lunch.<br /> <br /> 1802- Meriwether Lewis went to Philadelphia to meet Dr. Benjamin Rush to get advice for his Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific. Rush was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the most famous doctor in America. Dr. Rush gave Lewis a list of questions he had about the West, such as asking the Plains Indians if they practiced the religion of the Hebrews? Were the Sioux or Cheyenne the Lost Tribes of Israel? If you think that’s silly Thomas Jefferson told Lewis to look for living Mastodons.<br /> When Lewis asked what medical supplies were needed, Rush said unhesitatingly that he should lay in a good supply of Rush’s Purgative Pills, nicknamed ‘thunderclappers’ for the effect they had on your system. <br /> <br /> 1826- Artist-Naturalist John James Audubon departed for England” in deep sorrow” because he could find no publisher in America for his masterpiece the “Birds of North America”.<br /> <br /> 1845 - Rubber bands were patented by Stephen Perry of Mssrs Perry &amp; Co, vulcanized rubber manufacturers of London.<br /> <br /> 1847- The American Medical Association- the AMA formed.<br /> <br /> 1860- At the second presidential convention of the Republican Party former Illinois Congressman Abraham Lincoln is nominated on the second ballot, beating out William Seward and John Freemont, aka the Pathfinder.<br /> <br /> 1861- The California State Legislature passed a resolution declaring the states loyalty to the Union and against slavery and secession. <br /> <br /> 1875 –The First Kentucky Derby. Winning horse was Aristides.<br /> <br /> 1881- Engineer John Roebling designed the Brooklyn Bridge. The largest and tallest suspension bridge in the world. After his death his son engineer Washington Roebling oversaw most of its construction. But it was his wife, engineer Emily Warren Roebling, who finished the job. Emily oversaw the completion of the bridge after Washington became too ill from caisson-sickness to continue. This day Emily became the first person to cross the bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn. She crossed the bridge in a carriage with a rooster on her lap for good luck. The Brooklyn Bridge was opened to the public the following week.<br /> <br /> 1885- Geronimo went on the warpath for the second time. His Chiricahua Apache were the last independent Indian tribe still fighting the U.S. and Mexico.<br /> <br /> 1890 - Comic Cuts, 1st weekly comic newspaper, published in London.<br /> <br /> 1905 - After having been given to Sweden by Denmark back in 1814, Norway finally regained its independence. <br /> <br /> 1924- Marcus Loew of the Loew's theater chain bought Metro Pictures and combined them with Sam Goldwyn and Louis B. Mayer’s studios to form Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Two years ago Amazon bought MGM for $8 billion.<br /> <br /> 1931- Broadway dancer James Cagney became a tough guy movie star when the Howard Hawk’s film The Public Enemy opened in general release. “There you go with that wishing stuff! I wish you wuz a wishing well… so I could tie a bucket to ya and sink ya!”<br /> <br /> 1938 - Radio quiz show "Information Please!" debuts on NBC Blue Network.<br /> <br /> 1940- In World War I the German army tried for four years to reach Brussels. This day in World War 2 they captured the Belgian capitol in just 6 days.<br /> <br /> 1941- The Looney Toon Lockout. Producer Leon Schlesinger tried to forestall the unionization of his Bugs Bunny cartoonists by locking them out. After a week he relented and signed a contract with the cartoonist guild. Chuck Jones called it “our own little six-day war.”<br /> <br /> 1943- The B-17 bomber Memphis Belle flew it’s last of 25 successful missions over Germany. Today the Belle is in a museum, in Memphis, appropriately enough. <br /> <br /> 1954-" Brown vs. Board of Ed" Supreme Court ruled segregation illegal. Future justice Thurgood Marshal was the successful attorney.<br /> <br /> 1965- At a hotel in lower Manhattan, Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke shook hands and agreed to write a sci-fi movie, with an accompanying novel. <br /> First called How the Solar System was Won, because How the West Was Won was a popular film then. Then Journey Beyond the Stars, the title finally became- 2001: A Space Odyssey.<br /> <br /> 1967 – Bob Dylan's 1965 UK Tour is released as film "Don't Look Back"<br /> <br /> 1970 - Thor Heyerdahl crossed the Atlantic on reed boat Ra, proving the ancient Egyptians could have reached South America.<br /> <br /> 1971 - Stephen Schwartz' musical Godspell premiered off-Broadway.<br /> <br /> 1973 - Stevie Wonder released "You are the Sunshine of my Love"<br /> <br /> 1973- the Senate Watergate Committee convenes.<br /> <br /> 1974- The LAPD attacked the LA stronghold of the Symbionnese Liberation Army extremists, then holding heiress Patty Hearst. In a furious shootout most SLA members including their leader Donald DeFreeze were killed, but Miss Hearst remained missing for a few more weeks.<br /> <br /> 1977- In Israeli general elections, the right-wing Likud party under Menachem Begin won a majority. Labor lost power for the first time since independence in 1948. It also marked the religious conservative groups having a bigger say in Israeli politics over the earlier socialist-humanist reformists that built Israel. One-eyed Moshe Dayan startled his friends by changing parties and becoming foreign minister in the new government.<br /> <br /> 2004- Massachusetts became the first US State to legalize gay marriage. <br /> .======================================================<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Who were these people? David Oistrach, Yehudi Mehunin, Anna Sophie-Mutter, Yascha Heifitz, Ytshak Perleman?<br /> <br /> Answer: They are all internationally famous classical violin virtuosos.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 15 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6149 <p>Quiz: Why do we say someone who resembles another is a “dead ringer”?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: Who was the last US President to have been in combat?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 5/15/2023<br /> Birthdays: Lyman Frank Baum, Claudio Monteverdi, Richard Avedon, James Mason, Joseph Cotten, George Brett, Jasper Johns, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Jean Renoir, Richard Daley Sr., Trini Lopez, Charles Lamont, director of Abbott &amp; Costello Go to Mars, country singer Eddy Arnold, Chaz Palmintieri is 70, Lainie Kazan, Joe Grant<br /> <br /> The Mercuralia, the Roman Festival of Mercury, God of business, profit, and professional sports. Businessmen and athletes would go to the sacred well of Mercury on the Aventine Hill, and sprinkle sacred water on themselves to ensure good luck.<br /> <br /> 392A.D.- Roman Emperor Valentinian got so angry at a bunch of barbarians that he burst a blood vessel and fell over dead. Accession of Theodosius I. <br /> <br /> 756- Abdel Rahman I became Moorish Emir of Cordoba, Spain.<br /> <br /> 1248- Bishop Otto Von Hochstaden laid the cornerstone for the great DOM Cathedral of Cologne (Koln)<br /> <br /> 1577- The Orgy of Chenonceaux. Wild party at the French Royal Palace gardens with nude ladies cavorting with cross dressing knights and all such goings on. <br /> Historians like Barbara Tuchman speculated that queen mother Catherine de Medici threw this party for her son King Henry III because the monarch showed no interest in his Queen, but hung around with his male courtiers, his "mignons"-darlings. She figured by placing scores of scantily clad damsels around the palace grounds perhaps the King would see that girls were fun too, and he should try some and make some heirs to his throne. <br /> If this was the reason for the party it didn't work. There were no royal princes at the time of the king's death. This allowed the Bourbon dynasty to succeed to the throne.<br /> <br /> 1602 - Cape Cod discovered by English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold.<br /> <br /> 1648- Treaty of Muenster- After 125 years of conflict, Spain finally recognized the independence of Holland.<br /> <br /> 1703- Charles Perrault died. Perrault 1628-1703 was a retired minister to French King Louis XIV, who wrote stories for children under the pseudonym Mother Goose. He created Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Puss in Boots. <br /> <br /> 1776- The Continental Congress in Philadelphia voted that the American Colonies would refuse to obey any further orders from England and would from now govern themselves. Yet they still shrank from the obvious step of declaring full on independence.<br /> <br /> 1800-At a performance at London's Old Drury Lane Theatre, a lunatic named Hadfield rose from the audience and fired two pistols at King George III. They both miss and the assassin was dragged off. Old King George not only insisted that the show go on, but even dosed off during the second act.<br /> <br /> 1863- Edouard Manet first displayed his Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe (Luncheon on the Grass) at the Salon des Refuses in Paris. It was his modern interpretation of The Judgement of Paris by Renaissance master Marcantonio Raimondi. The painting is of two modern clothed men having a picnic with two nude women by a riverbank. The women aren’t portrayed as mythical goddesses or muses, but just bare, naked ladies. That shocked Paris society. Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugene called it “Immodest and obscene”. It heralded the rise of Impressionism and had been called the first masterpiece of modern art.<br /> <br /> 1903- While on a tour of Yosemite, President Teddy Roosevelt slipped away from his entourage to camp out alone under the stars with naturalist John Muir. <br /> <br /> 1905- From a public auction of railroad land, the town of Las Vegas Nevada founded. <br /> <br /> 1917- During World War I, this day Germany tried offering Russia an immediate peace so she could concentrate on the Western Front before the Americans could arrive in force. The Russian Provisional Government of Alexander Kerensky refused. This was a key moment for history. Part of the reason parliamentary democracy was overthrown by the Communists under Lenin was Kerensky’s refusal to stop the war, which was very unpopular with average Russians. If he had agreed, Russia might have been spared Lenin, Stalin. Purges and the Cold War. But World War I might have turned out differently.<br /> <br /> 1927- The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel opened for business. Named in honor of Teddy Roosevelt.<br /> <br /> 1928- Walt Disney held a private sneak preview screening of his completed cartoon Plane Crazy, featuring his new star Mickey Mouse, imitating hero Charles Lindbergh. But it was a silent cartoon, and Walt had recently been impressed by the new Talking Pictures. So, he decided to hold back the release of this cartoon and push ahead with his first sound cartoon Steamboat Willie. After the wild success of Steamboat Willie, Plane Crazy was refitted with a soundtrack and released as the 4th Mickey Mouse cartoon in 1929.<br /> <br /> 1930- Miss Ellen Church became the first airline stewardess on a flight from San Francisco to Cheyenne Wyoming. Originally called SkyGirls, stewardesses had to be registered nurses in case of any health emergencies.<br /> <br /> 1935- Japanese Prime Minister Inokai was assassinated in his official residence by several young army officers because he tried to cut the military budget. Several top Japanese statesmen who tried to stop the military taking over the government wound up lying in the street full of bullets. Inokai was replaced as Prime Minister by Admiral Hokoku Saito. The war party now silenced all political opposition in Japan.<br /> <br /> 1935- The Moscow Subway system opens.<br /> <br /> 1940- Nazis panzer tanks pierce the French Maginot line near Sedan with little trouble.<br /> <br /> 1940- Only 5 days into the German blitzkrieg in the West, French Premier Paul Reynaud telephoned Churchill that the war was already lost.<br /> <br /> 1940- The first Nylon stockings go on sale in the US.<br /> <br /> 1941- Yankee centerfielder Joe DiMaggio had been in a dry spell hitting lately. This day he got a safe hit and began a hitting streak that ran for 56 straight games, an unparalleled feat. He became America’s most famous baseball player since Babe Ruth. He was variously nicknamed Joltin’Joe, the Yankee Clipper but his teammates called him affectionately the Big Dago.<br /> <br /> 1942- The U.S. initiated a program of wartime gas rationing. Slogans like “Is this Trip Really Necessary?” and a system of ratings vehicles with A, B &amp; C cards pop up in a lot of gas stations for the duration. C meant a war-essential worker and you went to the head of the line to get gas. A cards was the lowest status. <br /> <br /> 1946- The first Tommy’s Burger stand opened in Los Angeles.<br /> <br /> 1947- Future President George Bush Sr. was initiated into the elite secret society at Yale University called Skull &amp; Bones. It’s so named because initiates pledge to remain loyal until “I die and nothing remains but skull and bones.” His sponsor-Charles Whitehouse later became big in the CIA. So many Bonesmen went into the CIA that they nicknamed the agency, “ The Front Office.”<br /> <br /> 1948- The ISRAELI WAR OF INDEPENDENCE- The day after the State of Israel was proclaimed the Jewish State was attacked simultaneously by the armies of Iraq, Syria, TransJordan, Egypt and Lebanon. Egyptian planes bombed Tel Aviv, and destroyed what Israeli airforce there was, leaving two Piper cub planes. Many Jewish fighters were veterans of WWII who were given guns and rushed into battle almost as soon as they stepped off their immigrant boat. The UN Mandate also called for the creation of a Palestinian homeland state but that seemed to be forgotten in all the fighting. Jordan and Syria both felt the territory of Palestine should be part of their country. <br /> <br /> 1949- Hungary voted in a communist government. Since the country was overrun with the Russian Red Army and there was only one candidate to check on the ballot, the result was hardly surprising. The Communist regime lasted until 1991.<br /> <br /> 1953- Rocky Marciano defeated Jersey Joe Walcott for the Heavyweight Championship.<br /> <br /> 1955- The Cuban dictator Fulgensio Batista ordered a partial freeing of political prisoners. One of those freed from prison was a young lawyer named Fidel Castro. Castro goes into exile, but returned a year later with trained guerrillas to start an insurgency.<br /> <br /> 1963 - Peter, Paul &amp; Mary won their first Grammy for, “If I Had a Hammer”.<br /> <br /> 1967- Paul McCartney first met his first wife Linda Eastman.<br /> <br /> 1968 - Paul McCartney &amp; John Lennon appear on the Johnny Carson Show to promote<br /> Apple records, Joe Garagiola is substitute host. <br /> <br /> 1970- As at Kent State two weeks earlier, National Guard units again fire into a crowd of anti-war protesters. This time at Jackson State, Mississippi, slaying two students.<br /> <br /> 1970 – A month after their breakup, The Beatles' last album, "Let It Be," is released in US.<br /> <br /> 1972- Alabama governor and rogue third party Presidential candidate George Wallace was shot five times by Arthur Bremer. Wallace survived but spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair in great pain. <br /> An Ultra Conservative, Wallace always thought he’d be killed by some hippy black-panther liberal outraged by his extremist political views. But in the end he was shot by a lonely little loser who wanted his picture in the newspapers. Arthur Bremer had contemplated shooting President Nixon before he focused on Wallace. In all the excitement Bremer forgot to say the words he wanted to be quoted for on TV,” Penny for your Thoughts…”. <br /> The Nixon Whitehouse in their unique way immediately focused upon how they could turn this tragedy to their own political use. There was a scheme to plant Democratic campaign material in Bremers’ apartment, but unfortunately for Tricky Dick’s people the FBI had already sealed it off.<br /> <br /> 1991- Socialist leader Edith Cresson became France’ first female Premier. She lasted only a year in office. For a nation renown for diplomacy, she said some pretty undiplomatic things- such as England was a nation of homosexuals, and when you negotiate with the Japanese, it is like ants crawling all over you.<br /> ==============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Who was the last US President to have been in combat?<br /> <br /> Answer: George H.W. Bush. He was a torpedo-bomber pilot in the Pacific during WWII. He was even shot down in combat and rescued by a submarine. Also Jimmy Carter served on board a nuclear submarine off the Chinese coast during the Korean War.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 14 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6148 <p>Quiz: Who was the last US President to have been in military combat?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Define when something is germane, what is it?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 5/14/2023<br /> Birthdays: Thomas Gainsborough, Thomas Wedgewood, Francesca Annis, David Byrne, Jack Bruce, Bobby Darin, Mark Zuckerberg is 39, Tim Roth is 62, Robert Zemeckis is 72, Kate Blanchett is 54, George Lucas is 79<br /> <br /> Happy Mothers Day (US) 1908. The holiday was inspiration of a West Virginia social activist named Anna Jarvis. She had 13 children herself, 4 of whom died of childhood diseases, and 5 died in the Civil War. Mrs Jarvis had spent her life mobilizing mothers to care for their children and she wanted mothers' work to be recognized. "I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mothers' day commemorating her for the matchless service she renders to humanity in every field of life." She began organizing Mother’s Day Clubs as early as 1858. After her death her daughter Anna Maria Jarvis took up the cause. She celebrated The First Mother's Day on the anniversary of her mothers passing in 1908; it became a national holiday in 1914. Mrs, Jarvis insisted the holiday idea not be commercially exploited. She hated the commercialization of Mothers Day so much that in 1943 she circulated a petition trying to get the holiday rescinded. In 1948 Anna Maria Jarvis died broke and surrounded by store-made Mother’s Day cards sent from well-wishers. <br /> <br /> Roman festival of the Avral Brethren, a ceremony where straw puppets were thrown into the river to bless Father Tiber. (Perhaps it's an echo of a more primitive human sacrifice?)<br /> <br /> 1264- BATTLE OF LEWES Rebel earls of Sussex and Simon de Monfort defeated and captured King Henry III and the Prince of Wales -Edward Longshanks. These barons compelled extensions to liberties that began with Magna Carta and created the House of Commons. The prince eventually escaped and killed de Monfort and Sussex but could not stop the growth of representative house of commons.<br /> <br /> 1525 – The Great German Peasant Revolt of Thomas of Muntzer was crushed at The Battle of Bad Frankenhausen. Muntzer was a devotee of reformer Martin Luther and he became a folk hero for trying to extend Luther’s idea of spiritual freedom to real political freedom. Martin Luther himself was horrified by the violence of the revolt and denounced it. <br /> Finally a powerful coalition of the Elector Dukes of Hesse, Saxony and Brunswick raised a big army of knights and went city by city suppressing the revolt with great massacre. Muntzers group was destroyed at Bad Frankenhausen. Thomas Muntzer was ordered broken on the wheel and beheaded by the vengeful German nobles. So many common people were being put to the sword, that the Imperial Diet at Augsburg warned that if the nobles killed all their peasants, who would be left to do the work and pay taxes?<br /> <br /> 1667- The sailors of the English Navy were only paid once a month. During the Dutch Wars, an incident happened when after several months of hard fighting the loyal sailors were told that their fun loving King Charles II didn't have any money left in his treasury to pay them. This made them so angry, scores of them deserted to the enemy. They guided Dutch Admiral De Ruyter's fleet right up the Thames where they burned the docks of Greenwich, within sight of King Charles' palace. <br /> <br /> 1787- Shortly before returning to America, the Marquis de Lafayette wrote his friend George Washington about his sponsorship of the famous quack Dr. Anton Mesmer, for whom Mesmerism is known. "Before leaving I shall obtain permission to tell Dr Mesmer’s great secrets on Animal Magnetism to you, for it is a great philosophical discovery."<br /> <br /> 1787- George Washington arrived in Philadelphia to chair the great convention to write the U.S. Constitution. Once there, he discovered that so far only three states had even bothered to show up, and that included host Pennsylvania. There was a fear that if enough states could not be made to cooperate, a federal constitution imposed by a minority would break up the United States. To Washington’s relief, by months end all the states except Rhode Island sent a delegation.<br /> <br /> 1796- English scientist Edward Jenner administered the first smallpox vaccination. This disease, which ravaged Europe for decades, was cured by the Chinese in the 600's B.C. Chinese doctors would ground up particles from a smallpox scab and blow it up your nose through a glass tube. After the pox decimated Native American tribes in the 1500's, by the 1770’s they did the same vaccination using a porcupine quill under the fingernail. <br /> Small pox was the great killer of the age, Queen Elizabeth, George Washington and Robespierre almost died of the pox. The fashion of wigs and makeup became popular because it covered the facial scars and hair loss from the disease. Robespierre’s eyes were permanently weakened by the pox and he had to wear black painted spectacles. Made him look badass. <br /> <br /> 1800- The Sixth US Congress voted to adjourn for the last time in Philadelphia and meet again in November in the new capitol city, already being called Washington City.<br /> <br /> 1800- Napoleon’s army began crossing the Alps into Italy via the Great Saint Bernard Pass.<br /> <br /> 1804- Lewis and Clark set out from St. Louis to find the Pacific. President Jefferson had told his aide Meriwether Lewis that there was a large river headed west from the Mississippi called the Missouri. Perhaps the large river that emptied into the Pacific in Oregon called the Columbia was the same river? So, maybe you could travel by boat from New Orleans to Seattle? And if there was a little neck of land between the two rivers, they were to measure the distance. <br /> Later, 1,200 miles into the high Rockies, eating candles to stay alive, they determined that the distance was much greater than previously thought. <br /> Pres. Jefferson had a fossil bone from a prehistoric sloth in his office. He told Lewis if he found a live one out there to send it back. Known as Paramylodon jeffersoni, remains of this animals have been found recently while digging the world's largest reservoir near Hemet, CA, and one specimen is known from the La Brea Tar Pits on Wilshire Blvd in downtown L.A. <br /> <br /> 1811- Paraguay declared independence from Spain.<br /> <br /> 1842 - 1st edition of London Illustrated News.<br /> <br /> 1860- The first delegation of diplomats from Japan arrived in the U.S bringing greetings from the Shogun.<br /> <br /> 1878- Vaseline petroleum jelly patented. <br /> <br /> 1940- Holland surrendered to the Nazis after Hitler threatened to bomb Amsterdam to rubble the way they did to Rotterdam.<br /> <br /> 1935- Griffith Park Observatory above Hollywood first opened to the public. It is featured in the James Dean movie Rebel Without a Cause.<br /> <br /> 1942- Nazi Stuka dive bombers began the attack on Malta.<br /> <br /> 1942- Walt Disney composer Frank Churchill, who wrote "Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf", Whistle While you Work”, shot himself at his piano at home. He was 40. He left a suicide note that said, “Dear Caroline: My nerves have completely left me. Please forgive this awful act. It seems the only way I can cure myself. Frank.”<br /> <br /> 1944- In the comic strip Dick Tracy, the longtime nemesis Flattop Jones was killed.<br /> <br /> 1945- US bombers firebombed Nagoya Castle, built in 1612 by Tokugawa Ieyasu the Japanese Shogun as a gift for his son. The castle was reconstructed to its original form 1959-1978.<br /> <br /> 1948- Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy, the older sister to John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, was killed in a plane crash. She was 28. She was married to the English Duke of Devonshire, and so was buried at their estate Chatsworth.<br /> <br /> 1948- THE STATE OF ISRAEL DECLARED- Since the Jewish Diaspora begun by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in 162 AD, Jews have wished for their own country. In 1897 European Jews called Zionists began building a homeland by encouraging mass immigration to the loosely governed Turkish province called Palestine. By World War 2 there were two populations, Arab and Jewish, both claiming the same land. After years of sectarian fighting the British announced they would evacuate Palestine May 15th. The 5 surrounding Arab nations announced they would attack if a Jewish State was declared- 45 million against barely one million. US ally King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia declared:" Even if we lose ten million to destroy the Jews, it will be a small sacrifice." <br /> The UN was considering a further three-month delay to debate the problem, when at 4:00PM Jewish Agency Premier David Ben Gurion walked into the crowd at the Tel Aviv Museum and declared the State of Israel. He did it at 4pm and the day before the mandate ran out, because it was Friday night, which is the Jewish Sabbath. During the Sabbath no Jews can sign anything or do any business, so he had to move it up. <br /> <br /> 1951 - Ernie Kovacs Show, debuted on NBC TV. Kovacs was a great pioneer in the video medium who created uniquely surreal images and pantomime blackout skits.<br /> <br /> 1955- Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park Cal, today’s Silicon Valley, was founded by peace activist Roy Kepler. Keplers’ books was a hangout for Stanford computer scientists, Hippies, and creators of the Whole Earth Catalog. The Grateful Dead and Joan Baez played there, Prof Douglas Englebart the inventor of the computer mouse, would pop in for coffee, and kids like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak would ride their bikes over to check out the new computer books.<br /> <br /> 1973- Skylab, Americas first attempt at a space station, blasted off into orbit. In 1979 the remains of the 77 ton satellite re-entered the atmosphere, causing half the world to duck.<br /> <br /> 1974- The Maalot Massacre-On the anniversary of Israeli Independence Palestinian terrorists of the Al Fatah faction entered an Israeli school and shot 22 children. <br /> <br /> 1976- Keith Relf of the rock group the Yardbirds, was electrocuted while playing his guitar in his bathtub.<br /> <br /> 1968 - Beatles announce formation of Apple Records.<br /> <br /> 1989 – The funeral for a Communist Party reformer named Hu Yao Bang grew into massive Demonstrations for democratic reforms in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. For three weeks the attention of the world focused on the students demands for greater personal freedom. The movement was finally crushed by the Chinese Army in June.<br /> <br /> 1992 - Carlos “ Danny” Herrera, bartender inventor of the Margarita, died at age 90- The Margarita was supposedly invented in 1938 for Hollywood actress Margaret Sullivan who wanted to drink tequila with the guys, but couldn’t tolerate the strong taste. Herrera mixed the tequila and lime juice into an iced cocktail and put the salt along the rim. He mixed a batch whenever he heard the actress was in Tijuana, writing on the bottle- For Margaret- Por Margarita.<br /> <br /> 1998 - Last episode of sitcom Seinfeld on NBC. Elderly singer Frank Sinatra died shortly after watching it.<br /> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Define when something is germane, what is it?<br /> <br /> Answer: It means to be relevant to the subject at hand. As opposed to a non-sequitur.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 12 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6147 <p>Quiz: What was a wigwam?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: A mace was a medieval weapon, a spiked club. But mace was also an ingredient in food. What was it?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 5/12/2023<br /> Birthdays: Dolly Madison, Dante Rossetti, Frank Stella, Florence Nightingale, Tom Snyder, George Carlin, Wilfred Hyde-White, Emilio Estevez, Ron Zeigler, Farley Mowat, Ving Rhames, Bruce Boxleitner, Katherine Hepburn, Yogi Berra, Joy Batchelor<br /> <br /> 1463B.C.- THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON- Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmoses III defeated a coalition of Canaanite princes at an outpost fort named Ha-Megiddo. This fort was the intersection of several trade roads that led south through the Lebanon Mountains into Palestine, so for centuries it was known for all the vicious battles and invasions that occurred there. When Saint John of Patmos wrote of the final battle in Book of the Apocalypse, he said it would be as terrible as one fought at Ha-Meggido or Armageddon.<br /> <br /> 1641- Thomas the Earl of Strafford was beheaded. In the rapidly deteriorating political climate between King Charles I of England and his Parliament, the Earl of Strafford advocated the king get tough with these rude peasants and rule dictatorially with an Irish army of occupation. So Parliament passed an act of attainment accusing the earl of treason and the terrified king signed it. Ironically the Earl was never tried for treason, he was 'legislated to death'. But the situation was deteriorating so rapidly even he petitioned the King to sign his death warrant to keep the peace. By June King and Parliament would declare the English Civil War.<br /> <br /> 1745- THE BATTLE OF FONTENOY- Britain and France fight (yet again). This time the French under one-eyed illegitimate son of the King of Poland named Marshal De Saxe defeated British under the Duke of Cumberland who was the illegitimate son of King George II. Saxe was suffering from dropsy, so he directed the battle from a wicker chair. It was also the last time a King of France and Dauphin appeared on a battlefield.<br /> As the British army approached the French line an English Guards officer, Lord Charles Hay, produced a silver flask and toasted the enemy, declaring ' Lay on gentleman of France! We never fire first!" His French counterpart the Comte d’Antroche bowed and said, "No no. After you please!" They would have kept bowing and toasting all day until someone finally started shooting.<br /> <br /> 1775- During the American Revolution, a New York mob carrying clubs and torches broke onto the campus of King’s College determined to lynch President Miles Cooper, who was an outspoken loyalist. The mob was blocked on the steps of Cooper’s home by his student Alexander Hamilton. While Hamilton pleaded to spare him, Cooper watched from the second story window. Cooper was hard of hearing, so he thought the Hamilton was the instigator of the mob. So, while Hamilton begged the mob not to kill his professor, Cooper yelled down:” DON’T LISTEN TO HIM! HE’S A BLOCKHEAD!” <br /> Despite this, Miles Cooper got away safely and Kings College name was changed to Columbia University.<br /> <br /> 1776- France’s finance minister Turgot fell from power and resigned. Turgot tried to reform France’s almost medieval economy- While all the king could think of was to cut the budget for the Royal Lapdogs Turgot abolished outdated medieval tariffs, and subsidies to useless noblemen. He also began serious land reform. Many including Voltaire and Catherine the Great felt that if Turgot was allowed to be successful the French Revolution wouldn’t have happened. Frederick the Great agreed that “the Fall of Turgot presaged the collapse of France.”<br /> <br /> 1789- TAMANY HALL BORN- The first and oldest of U.S. political machines (clubs , pacts, lobbies, CPAC, whatever ) Founded in Philadelphia and moved to New York. It was named for a Chief Tamamend, the Delaware chief who welcomed William Penn. The Hall on 14th Street was nicknamed the Wigwam and the leaders called Sachems, the Algonquin word for chief. <br /> Throughout the 1800's it was famous for bribery and political corruption. Boss Tweed and Slippery Dick Connolly, the first American to embezzle one million dollars, were Tamany Sachems. Tamany were the first to realize there was political power in mobilizing the mass of working-class immigrants against the snooty New York society. <br /> Tamany Hall men would stand on docks welcoming immigrants with a voting card and a silver dollar to vote for their candidates. Another trick was for Tamany men to grow a full beard and vote, then go home, shave to a goatee, vote again, shave to a mustache, vote again, then clean shave and vote once more. Tamany Hall was still influential into the XX Century. Bill O'Dwyer, a Tamany sachem was mayor of New York in the late 1940’s and in 1963 future Mayor Ed Koch became a congressman by unseating the last Tammany sachem Carmine DeSapio. Today the original Wigwam is a New York Film Academy.<br /> <br /> 1796- Napoleon's French Army occupied the city of Venice and destroyed the last traces of the independent Venetian Republic 'La Serenissima" The Most Serene Republic. The Last Doge Daniele Manin was forced to abdicate, and his Byzantine crown and trappings of office were burned, along with his famous golden barge, the 'Boucintoro'. Venice, an independent city-state since 976AD was going to be part of Italy, whether she liked it or not!<br /> <br /> 1797- The Peace of Leoben- Napoleon forced a peace treaty on Austria by menacing Vienna. He went in French eyes from a popular general to a national figure. At one point when frustrated with negotiating with the Austrian diplomats he smashed a china tea set to the floor and shouted “ If you don’t submit to my terms I will break your empire like so much old crockery!” With this treaty France gets its first real peace since the Revolution started in 1789.<br /> <br /> 1809- Napoleon’s heavy cannon- called Napoleon’s Daughters- began bombarding the Austrian capitol Vienna. Beethoven hid in a cellar. A cannonball fell near composer Franz Josef Haydn’s house but the octogenarian composer comforted his friends:” Children don’t be frightened; Where Papa Haydn is, no harm can come to you.” When the city was occupied, the French officer in charge of the guard on Haydn’s house comforted the old composer by singing an aria from his oratorio The Creation. <br /> <br /> 1812- Czar Alexander signed a peace treaty with Turkey in order to free up troops to face Napoleon’s pending invasion. Napoleon encouraged the Sultan to declare a jihad on Russia and promised him Moldova and other lost Balkan provinces. But the Sultan knew a con job when he heard one and wouldn’t take the bait.<br /> <br /> 1846- The Donner Party wagon train left Independence Missouri to start its trek out west. They tried a new short cut proposed by a charlatan named Lansford Hastings to get to California. They crossed the burning alkaline deserts of Utah and were attacked by Paiute Indians. By Halloween heavy snowstorms stranded the Donners in the High Sierra Mountains, where the starving survivors resorted to cannibalism.<br /> <br /> 1858- At The Battle of Little Robe Creek, Comanche chief and medicine man Iron Jacket was killed. Chief Pohebits-quasho was called Iron Jacket because he rode around the prairie in some old armor taken from a Spanish Conquistador. He said he could blow away bullets with his breath. The armor worked pretty well against normal guns, but then some Texas Rangers pointed a heavy gauge buffalo rifle at him, and that brought him down. <br /> <br /> 1864- BATTLE OF SPOTSYLVANIA- After Lee whips Grant in the Wilderness, instead of retreating Grant wheels around and attacks again. This time winning a draw. The fighting was dreadful, reports of trees so thick you couldn't put your arms around cut down by bullets, and men hit with so many 58 cal. musket balls at one time, that their bodies literally would fall apart. <br /> At the fight in the center of the line called The Angle Yankees and Confederates crowded in so tightly they pressed against one another like a massive rugby scrimmage. Soldiers fought hand to hand with pistol butts, flag staffs, clubs, fists, some even took their empty bayonet muskets and threw them into the crowd like a spear. Nothing failed to cause injury. <br /> One casualty was union general "Uncle John" Sedgewick, shot by rebel snipers. His last words were:" Aw, go on men! Them rebs couldn't hit an elephant at this dis......." <br /> <br /> 1881- Tunisia was made a colonial protectorate of France.<br /> <br /> 1915- THE BRYCE COMISSION- An English commission to study reports of German atrocities that was really a propaganda machine aimed at getting the United States into the Great War. America had the problem that if she chose the allied side in World War One, several million immigrant citizens of German, Hungarian and Austrian descent were sympathetic to the Kaiser. Add to them millions of English-hating Irish Americans, Jewish Americans who wanted the openly Anti-Semitic Russian Czar beaten, and many average Americans who felt the main reason their forefathers crossed the ocean was to get away from the kind of nonsense that occurred back in Europe. <br /> So you can see it was hard to get everyone up for intervention. The American yellow press printed all the British accounts without ever questioning their accuracy- they horrified the average reader with hair-raising stories of German troops raping and killing Belgian women, chopping the hands off of children and crucifying Canadian prisoners with bayonets through their hands and feet. Even though some atrocities stories were verified, like the needless burning of the medieval Library of Louvain -The German term was Shreiklichkeit- Rule by Fear- today it is acknowledged that most of these accounts were ginned up to get us to Hate the Hun! <br /> Later the U.S. Office of War Information took over feeding these stories to the press. It was headed by a psychiatrist Edmund Bernays, a psychoanalyst nephew of Sigmund Freud. After the war he went into advertising.<br /> <br /> 1934- Winnie, a Canadian black bear who had been living at the London Zoo, passed away at the ripe old age of 20. She had been at the Zoo since 1915. She was a favorite of young Christopher Robin Milne, the son of author a.a. milne. Winnie was the inspiration for Winnie the Pooh.<br /> <br /> 1934- Hungarian scientist Dr Leo Szilard took out a secret patent on his concept of a chain reaction, being able to theoretically release energy from uranium on an atomic level. Enrico Fermi proved this and created the first controlled chain reaction in 1939.<br /> <br /> 1935- In Akron Ohio, in a cottage at the edge of a great estate, a conversation took place between two men, Akron surgeon Dr. Bob S. and New York stockbroker Bill W., that would create the organization Alcoholics Anonymous.<br /> <br /> 1936- John Maynard Keynes most famous work "the General Theory of Money, Interest and Work" was published. Today if a politician advocates government controls in the business market, he is called a "Keynesian". Keynes once said: ' My only regret in life is that I did not drink more champagne."<br /> <br /> 1937-After the abdication of Edward VIII, his brother Bertie was crowned today as King George VI at Westminster. King George and Queen Elizabeth were the parents of the current Queen and were the first English monarchs to ever travel to America and eat hot dogs. <br /> <br /> 1938- “The Adventures of Robin Hood” starring Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, Olivia DeHaviland, Claude Rains and Eugene Paulette premiered. The swashbuckling film then cost a whopping $2 million dollars to make! The light brown mare Maid Marion rode in the movie was later bought by singing cowboy Roy Rogers and renamed Trigger.<br /> <br /> 1940- Despite being neutral, Switzerland mobilized its tiny army in anticipation of a Nazi invasion. It was never needed.<br /> <br /> 1943- Penned in at Tunis by English and American armies, Rommel's Nazi Afrika Korps laid down their arms. Rommel himself was hospitalized in Germany with diphtheria and would fight again. Besides desert and snows of Norway the Germans were so sure they would be active in all climates that after the war the allies found warehouses full of Tropical uniforms for action in some future African equatorial jungle.<br /> <br /> 1945- Reischmarshall Herman Goring drove to an American air base and surrendered himself and his family to USAAF commander General Spaatz. The former fighter pilot said he wanted to surrender to a fellow airman. Spaatz was reprimanded for being photographed toasting and celebrating the end of the war with war criminal Goring.<br /> <br /> 1948- In Palestine, the secret key cabinet meeting of Jewish leaders over whether to declare independence before the British evacuated on May 15th. Even the US was asking for a UN sponsored three month cooling off period. But Jewish leaders like David Ben Gurion felt any more delay would be fatal. They would declare independence on May 14th. The last problem was what to call their new country? After Zion, Zionia and Herzlvania was suggested, they decided to go with the name of a local kibbutz using an ancient Biblical name- Eretz-Israel, or simply Israel. <br /> <br /> 1949- THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF WEST GERMANY BORN- Seventy German politicians free of a Nazi past meet in a schoolroom and create Germany's first ever democratic constitution. The Allied Military Governor General Lucius Clay announced he would close his office and return to America. In 1989, The Federal Republic or West Germany, reunited with the Democratic Republic, aka East Germany.<br /> <br /> 1962- First day shooting on Frederico Fellini’s film 8 1/2. When screened for American Producer Joe Levine, Levine took the cigar from his mouth and growled-” Frederigo, what da hell did that movie mean? ” Fellini shrugged, “I don’t know”.<br /> <br /> 1963- Folksinger Bob Dylan walked out of a taping on the Ed Sullivan Show. He objected to CBS censors wanting to cut his number making fun of extra Right-Wing extremists like the John Birch Society.<br /> <br /> 1971 - Rolling Stone Mick Jagger weds Bianca Macias at St Tropez Town Hall.<br /> They later divorced and Bianca became a famous habitue’ of trendy discos and fashion magazines.<br /> <br /> 1971- Tor Johnson died of a heart attack at age 68. Swedish wrestler turned actor, Tor’s best known role was of the bald eyeless zombie in classics like Plan Nine from Outer Space and Bride of the Monster.<br /> <br /> 1977- A small Westchester radio station WENW hired a thin, gawky, college grad as a DJ- Howard Stern. US radio would never be the same.<br /> <br /> 1985- Philadelphia Police were trying to break into the headquarters of a black militant group called MOVE. They were barricaded in a row house. Someone had the bright idea of dropping a bomb on the building. The explosion and fire killed 11 including some children and set off a conflagration that engulfed the neighborhood. Some people remember it as noteworthy in that it was the first time an air strike was used on an American city by American authorities<br /> <br /> 1999- The First Scottish Parliament in three hundred years and the first Welsh assembly since Owen Glendower in 1410 sat in session today.<br /> <br /> 2008- A powerful earthquake hit Chungdu in Sichuan Province in China, killing tens of thousands.<br /> ==========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: A mace was a medieval weapon, a spiked club. But mace was also an ingredient in food. What was it?<br /> <br /> Answer: It is a yellowish-brown spice similar to nutmeg but milder.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 09 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6146 <p>Quiz: Why are the indigenous tribes of the Americas called Indians? They do not ride elephants or speak Hindi.<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: Where is The Sea of Tranquility?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 5/9/2023<br /> Birthdays: John Brown, James M. Barrie the creator of Peter Pan, Henry J. Kaiser of Kaiser Aluminum, Pedro Armendariz, Frank Frazetta, Glenda Jackson is 87, Billy Joel, Candice Bergen is 77, Mike Wallace, Pancho Gonzales, James L. Brooks, Rosario Dawson, John Corbett, Albert Finney<br /> --------------------------------------------------------<br /> To the ancient Romans this was the Lemuria, the Day of the Restless Dead (Lemures). Like the ancient Greek Anthesterion in February, the Lemuria was a deal made with the Underworld that the dearly departed were allowed to visit the surface world. You would leave your door open and put out food for them. This way they won't haunt you, and so you'll have good luck all year. <br /> At sunset tomorrow the head of the house (Pater Familias) walks through the house hitting a little bronze gong, he throws a handful of black beans over his shoulder and chants 'With These Beans I Redeem Myself and My Family. O Shades of My Ancestors Depart! Lemuria has Ended!' <br /> <br /> 310AD- This is the Feast of Saint Pachonius, the first monk to bring other monks and nuns together to live communally, instead of living in caves as solitary hermits. <br /> <br /> 1421- A fire destroyed part of the just completed Forbidden City in Beijing.<br /> <br /> 1503- Columbus sails home to Spain from his fourth and final voyage. He traveled down the Central American coast as far as Venezuela. Despite modern history extolling his genius, Columbus never stopped thinking he had discovered Asia. Because the Nicaraguan Indians told him there is another ocean just beyond the jungle, in his diary he confuses it with the Indian ocean, so he thinks he is in Vietnam. (Cochin China)<br /> <br /> 1662- London diarist Samuel Pepys noted today he first saw a Punch &amp; Judy puppet show in Convent Garden.<br /> <br /> 1754- THE FIRST NEWSPAPER CARTOON- Ben Franklin in his Pennsylvania Gazette prints a drawing of a segmented snake with each piece named for a colony with the inscription: Join or Die. (Okay, it's not Calvin and Hobbs, but it's a start).<br /> <br /> 1775- LUMBERJACKS ATTACK THE ROYAL NAVY- One of the stranger engagements of the American Revolution. Captain Henry Mowat, RN, anchored his warship off Falmouth Maine (present day Portland) to reassert Royal authority on the Maine seacoast. Suddenly several little boats rowed out to his ship. At first he thought they were royalists come out to greet him. But when they scampered up on board he saw they were Maine lumberjacks wielding their huge double bladed axes. Mowat and his startled crew surrendered and were roughly taken into custody. It was the first time a warship was ever captured by axe.<br /> The Maine men, not having any central authority or instructions about what exactly to do with prisoners, eventually let them go. Once back on his ship Capt. Mowat ‘s revenge was to haul off shore, and bombard the coastline with red-hot cannonballs, burning the town of Falmouth to the ground. The incident created a violent resentment in the colonies, many of whom were still hoping for reconciliation with the Mother England. <br /> <br /> 1785 - British inventor Joseph Bramah patents the beer-pump handle. So pull us a dram for a pint of pure.-i.e. I’d like a glass of Guinness Stout, please.<br /> <br /> 1812- Napoleon left Paris to begin his March to Moscow.<br /> <br /> 1844-THE PHILADELPHIA SECTARIAN RIOTS- in Philadelphia arguments between Irish and Protestant gangs over public funding of religious schools erupted into four days of rioting. 20 were killed, Catholic Churches were burned and the city placed under martial law. As news of the riots spread, the Irish Catholic Bishop of New York warned the mayor that if one church was harmed in New York, Irishmen would burn down the city. “We’ll make New York another Moscow!”- recalling that cities burning in 1812. <br /> These are the first anti-immigrant fighting in U.S. history. Also it was the first time Americans would have to understand that some immigrants could be loyal Americans without assimilating into an Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture. Anti-Irish anger would seethe until respect was won on the bloody battlefields of the Civil War.<br /> Another fact about the Philadelphia Riot was newspapermen Will &amp; Frederick Langeheim point their daguerreotype box camera out of the window and photographed the troops around City Hall. It was the first News Photo. <br /> <br /> 1865- In Gainesville Alabama, hard fighting rebel cavalry leader Nathan Bedford Forrest received news of the fall of Richmond and the surrender of the armies of Lee and Joe Johnston. He and a friend went on an all-night ride to meditate what to do. “If one road led to Hell and the other to Mexico, I would be indifferent as to which to take.”<br /> Finally, Forrest announced to his men his decision: they would not go to Mexico, and they would not continue on as guerrillas, they would surrender and go home. When the governor of Mississippi protested, Bedford Forrest growled: “ Any man who is in favor of further prosecution of this war is a fit subject for a lunatic asylum! The attempt to establish and independent confederacy has failed, we should now meet our responsibilities like men.”<br /> And despite Sherman offering a price for Forrest‘s head, saying “There can be no peace in the land until that man is dead!” Nathan Bedford Forrest was allowed to go home in peace.<br /> <br /> 1887- Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show did its first performance in Europe. In London the English public, several European kings and writer Oscar Wilde thrilled to displays of trick riding, wild red Indians, cowboys and little Annie Oakley the trick shooter. <br /> <br /> 1896 – The first horseless carriage show in London. It featured 10 models.<br /> <br /> 1914- An Italian immigrant chef arrived at Ellis Island named Ettori (Hector) Boiardi. He joined the kitchen staff at the Plaza Hotel and quickly rose to become head chef. In the 1920s Boiardi and his brother opened a restaurant and catering service in Cleveland. The soon expanded to selling pre-cooked Italian food in cans to groceries and markets. He even figured how to get pasta with meatballs in a can. It was marketed under his name Chef Boyardee. During WWII he was awarded a medal for creating rations for Allied troops. <br /> <br /> 1919- Mustapha Kemal, called Ataturk, is ordered to disband his Turkish Army at Samsun in accordance with the armistice agreement ending the Great War. Instead, he declared a revolt and resisted the Greek invasion. It is considered the beginning of modern Turkey.<br /> <br /> 1919- Harlem bandleader James Europe had toured Europe while in uniform for World War I and had made the Old World wild for jazz. Europe was doing a triumphal tour of America with his doughboy band when his career was tragically cut short. In Boston, he argued with one hotheaded musician who stabbed him in the neck. He quickly bled to death. Had he lived, James Europe might have been as famous in Jazz history as Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington.<br /> <br /> 1926- Commander Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett left Spitzbergen Norway, and flew over the North Pole in a Fokker monoplane called The Josephine Ford. He beat by two days Norwegian explorer Roald Ammundsen, who flew over the Pole in a dirigible built by Mussolini. Remember Lindbergh hadn’t flown across the Atlantic yet, and it was ten years before the Hindenberg disaster, so a dirigible was considered much safer than an aeroplane. <br /> Commander Byrd won the Medal of Honor and became a household name. Modern scholarship based on his diary and testimony by Floyd Bennett now shows Byrd really didn’t go over the Pole but turned back 150 miles short because of an oil leak. He was too drunk to tell anyway. Although a former World War I pilot, by now Byrd had grown skittish about flying.<br /> <br /> 1932 – London’s Piccadilly Circus first lit by electricity.<br /> <br /> 1935- The First Belch heard on nationwide radio. Melvin Purvis (the FBI man who killed John Dillinger) was doing an ad for Fleischmann’s Yeast when he committed the offense, which was dubbed “The Burp Heard Round the World”.<br /> <br /> 1937- ACTOR’S SHOWDOWN WITH L.B. MAYER- In a dramatic confrontation the heads of the Screen Actor’s Guild Robert Montgomery and Franchot Tone go to MGM boss Louis B. Mayer’s beach house during a Sunday garden party. While Capone gangster Willie Bioff stood by to give Mayer support, Montgomery told Mayer he had a 96% strike vote from the actors, so if Mayer didn’t recognize SAG as the sole bargaining agent for actors they would paralyze Hollywood come Monday morning!<br /> Mayer thought about it, then gave in. Bioff got from the actors a deal that the IA would back off if the actors would withdraw their support from a rival union to IATSE’s organizing the behind the scene’s technical artists. That night 5,600 actors and friends celebrated at Hollywood Legion Stadium. Next morning 200 waited in line to get their SAG cards including Greta Garbo and Jean Harlow. <br /> <br /> 1937- Burne Hogarth began drawing the Tarzan comic strip. Hal Foster had been in contract negotiations with the syndicate over money and the right to his originals. He had created Prince Valiant as a bargaining chip when the syndicate called his bluff by giving the Tarzan job to Hogarth. Foster went on to greater glory with Valiant, but remained angry at Burne.<br /> <br /> 1942- Chuck Jones wartime comedy short “ The Draft Horse” premiered. <br /> <br /> 1950- The French Premier Schumann warned that more deadly world wars would occur in Europe unless Europeans started to unite as one country. <br /> <br /> 1950- Former Naval reserve officer and pulp science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, his book defining his new religion Scientology.<br /> <br /> 1955- Washington D.C. station WRC TV put on a young Univ of Maryland grad named Jim Henson as filler before the TODAY Show. First called Sam &amp; Friends, Henson antics with his puppets, including a green frog called Kermit, fashioned from fabric cut out from one of his mother’s old green coats. The Muppets were born.<br /> <br /> 1960- Dr. Gregory Pincus introduced the Birth Control Pill Enovid-10, aka The Pill.<br /> <br /> 1961- John F. Kennedy's newly appointed head of the FCC, Newton Minow, did his first major address to a luncheon of top television executives. In his speech he blasted them for TV’s mindless content and violence. He called television: " A Vast Wasteland."<br /> What makes it historic is it's the first time anybody had noticed just how lousy TV is and how badly we are all addicted to it. Minnow did a lot to build up PBS and Sesame Street. In the show Gilligan’s Island, the boat they were on was named the Minnow for Newton Minnow.<br /> <br /> 1970- THE MORATORIUM DAY- Largest of the nationwide youth protests against the U.S. War in Vietnam and Cambodia. President Nixon was obsessed by the protests. He had a bunker command post built under the White House where video monitors observed the “long haired peaceniks” outside. When Nixon told his staff he was going to go watch some football, he meant he was going to brood over the monitors. Retired CIA director Bill Gates confessed in his memoirs that as a young operative he took the day off to go protest as well as did a lot of other CIA agents. In Chicago young student and future comic John Belushi was dragged off by friends after being struck in the chest with a fired tear gas shell.<br /> In 2000 it was revealed that President Nixon was so depressed at this time, he was taking a mood altering prescription barbiturate named Dilantin. It was given him by Jack Dreyfus of the Dreyfus Fund without a doctor’s permission. He was so out of it that Secretary of Defense John Schlesinger ordered military and nuclear installations to ignore the orders of our stoned President, unless first cleared by the Defense Department.<br /> <br /> 1973- Soylent Green opened in general release. Starring Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson in his last movie role. Soylent Green takes place in 2022.<br /> <br /> 1978- Italian authorities found the bullet-riddled body of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro in a car trunk. He had been kidnapped and murdered by a left wing extremist group called the Red Brigade. The cruelty of the act backfired on the brigade. They lost any public support they may have had and were soon gone. <br /> <br /> 1995- The Center of Disease Control published findings on a new deadly strain of virus appearing near Kinshasha Zaire. They called it the Ebola Virus.<br /> <br /> 2005- Columnist Arianna Huffington started the on-line newspaper The Huffington Post. Its liberal slant was considered a response to blatantly conservative media like Matt Drudge’s Drudge Report and Fox News.<br /> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Where is The Sea of Tranquility?<br /> <br /> Answer: It is on the Moon. Where the Apollo Moon Landing occurred in 1969.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 08 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6145 <p>Quiz: Where is The Sea of Tranquility?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz Answered Below: Where are your Sebaceous glands?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 5/8/2023<br /> Birthdays: Harry Truman, Roberto Rossellini, Leopold Bakunin, Louis Gottschalk, Oscar Hammerstein, Ted Sorenson, Sonny Liston, Toni Tennille, Ricky Nelson, Peter Benchley, Thomas Pinchon, Arthur Q. Bryan the voice of Elmer Fudd, David Attenborough, Keith Jarrett, Alex Van Halen, Melissa Gilbert, French illustrator Jean Giraud aka Moebius, Enrique Inglesias, animator Bob Clampett, Don Rickles, Saul Bass<br /> <br /> 1429- St. Joan of Arc lifted the siege of the City of Orleans. English armies were besieging the city from a string of powerful fortresses built around it. At one point in the battle for a strongpoint called La Tourelles, a big English knight stood in the breach in the wall, hewing down Frenchmen with his two-handed broadsword. He seemed invincible, until a knight named Jean De Montesclere brought up one of those newfangled handheld firetubes. From a safe distance, Jean put a stone bullet through the big Englishman. The unknown knight was the first man recorded as ever being shot by a gun. <br /> <br /> 1587- THE LOST COLONY- Twenty years before Jamestown, the Roanoke settlers left England for Virginia. When a supply ship reached their colony three years later in 1590, the houses were intact, but the colonists had all disappeared, leaving no bodies, or signs of violence. Only a mysterious message, CROTOAN, carved on a tree. Their ultimate fate has never been successfully determined.<br /> <br /> 1776- While the American Congress was debating whether to declare independence or not, the British Navy reminded them what was at stake. This day two warships, HMS Roebuck and Liverpool tried to shoot their way up the Delaware River to Philadelphia. They were finally turned back by the Yankee shore batteries.<br /> <br /> 1778- Sir George Clinton arrived in occupied Philadelphia to relieve British commander Sir William Howe. Clinton’s instructions from London were that since the French, Spanish and Dutch had entered the American Revolution on the American side, he was to abandon the rebel capitol of Philadelphia and consolidate British forces in New York. Instead of being reinforced with more troops, he had to detach a few regiments for an attack on Saint Lucia in the Caribbean. <br /> <br /> 1824- Ludwig Von Beethoven performed his Ninth (Choral) Symphony and Missa Solemnis in concert for the first time. Even though he was stone deaf he was still in demand as a conductor. The orchestra trained themselves to ignore the Maestro's baton waving and follow the lead of the concert-master (first violinist). It was said when they finished and the audience was cheering, Beethoven was still waving his arms and moaning the melody, unaware of the sound of his own voice.<br /> <br /> 1874- Massachusetts adopted a ten-hour workday for women, down from 12-14 hours.<br /> <br /> 1878- David Hughes invented the Microphone while trying to get over bronchitis.<br /> <br /> 1910- Russian-Jewish glove salesman Schmuel Gelpfisch married Blanche Lasky, the daughter of vaudeville performer Jesse Lasky. Gelpfisch later changed his name to Sam Goldfish, then Sam Goldwyn. He and his father-in-law Jesse Lasky went into the new flicker business and started the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company. They soon moved to Hollywood. <br /> <br /> 1912- The movie studio Famous Players Lasky born. In 1914 they changed their name to Paramount Pictures. <br /> <br /> 1927- When Charles Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic, there were other aviators who attempted the same feat. This day French daredevils Charles Nungesser &amp; Francois Coli took off from Paris to fly to New York in their plane L’Oiseau Blanc. They were never seen again, and their remains have never been recovered. Later that year, authorities noticed that the $30,000.00 in prize money that crooked NY Mayor Jimmy Walker was supposed to present them with had mysteriously disappeared as well…<br /> <br /> 1933- When the Rockefellers were building their huge office complex Rockefeller Center in New York City they decided to get one of the greatest living Mexican painters Diego Rivera to design the murals for the interior of the atrium ’Man at the Crossroads". This, despite the fact that Rivera was well known as a radical communist. <br /> Soon Nelson Rockefeller noticed Rivera was painting in the center of the mural a huge portrait of Lenin stepping on his father John D. Rockefeller’s face! Over Rivera’s protests Rockefeller ordered the mural painted over and no record of it’s existence ever kept. But on the night before the painting was to be destroyed Swiss art student Lucienne Bloch slipped a camera into her shirt. While Frida Kahlo distracted the guards, she took the only photos of the mural for posterity. <br /> <br /> 1943- Tex Avery's "Red Hot Riding Hood"- Ooohh Wolfy!<br /> <br /> 1945- V.E. Day. Grand Admiral Doenitz, the successor to Adolf Hitler, officially surrendered the Third Reich to the allies. They repeated the ceremony to the Russians next day. Admiral Doenitz said after the signing:" I feel we shall not see our flag fly over a prosperous Germany in our lifetime." Well, not really….<br /> Nazi's repeat the surrender signing done for Eisenhower, now for the Russians in Berlin. The announcements were made, V-E day celebrations broke out around the world.<br /> <br /> 1945- As thousands of people mobbed Trafalgar Sq. and the Mall in London to celebrate the end of the war, 19 year old future Queen Elizabeth slipped out a side door of Buckingham Palace. She and her girlfriends mingled in the crowds, dancing with boys and snatching sailor’s caps. That one night she was not a princess, she was just 2nd Subaltern Ordinary Elizabeth Windsor. <br /> <br /> 1947- Department store mogul Harry Gordon Selfridge died in poverty in Putney, a suburb of London. He was 89. Even though his store Selfridges made millions, in his old age he wasted so much money on gambling and women, his exec board stripped him of his power. In 1943 he was arrested for vagrancy for loitering in front of his own store. <br /> <br /> 1954- DIEN BIEN PHU- The Communist Viet Minh guerrillas decisively defeated the French in Indochina. The French strategy was to place a forward base in the heart of the guerrilla infested jungle to lure the Vietnamese into the open and defeat them. Instead, they got a modern version of the Little Big Horn with the French soldiers going down under endless waves of attacking Vietnamese. The guerrilla forces had carried large howitzers in small pieces up mountaintops and assembled them to rain shells down on the French. <br /> <br /> 1962-"A Funny thing Happened to Me on the Way to the Forum" opened on Broadway.<br /> <br /> 1962- Director Joe Mankiewicz shot the climactic spectacle scene of Cleopatra –Elizabeth Taylor, entering Rome through the Arch of Titus on a mobile sphinx surrounded by thousands of extras. The shot had been delayed six months after a stunt woman fell off an elephant, and then the light in the Forum had not been right. When Elizabeth Taylor appeared in the scene, the Italian extras were supposed to shout "Hail Cleopatra!, but instead they all shouted "Liz! Liz!"<br /> <br /> 1973-A.I.M. Indian movement surrendered Wounded Knee to the F.B.I.<br /> <br /> 1978- Postman David Berkowitz confessed to being "Son-of-Sam" or the "44 caliber killer", the serial killer who terrorized New York City by shooting to death teenage couples at random and toying with letters to journalist Pete Hamill. Berkowitz said he received his orders to shoot people from his neighbor's Labrador dog Sam.<br /> <br /> 1991- President Bill Clinton, then Governor of Arkansas, propositioned waitress Paula Jones at the Excelsior Hotel in Little Rock. With her legal bills financed by the Clinton-hating Neo-Cons, her case went as far as a Supreme Court. They decided to allow her to sue a President while in office. Clinton’s attorney didn’t help things with statements like,"Drag a hundred dollar bill through a trailer park and who knows who you’ll turn up. "She got a lot of publicity, an $850,000 settlement and a nude spread in Penthouse Magazine. <br /> <br /> 1996- South Africa adopted its first post-apartheid constitution.<br /> <br /> 1998- The impotence drug Viagra gained national prominence when retired Senator Bob Dole confessed on the Larry King talk show that he participated in the drugs test trials and the had "thoroughly enjoyed himself."<br /> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Where are your Sebaceous glands?<br /> <br /> Answer: In your skin. They are the glands near the hair folicles that secrete oils to keep your skin soft and pliable.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 07 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6144 <p>Quiz: Where are your sebaceous glands?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays’ Quiz: What is a jackanape?<br /> ===============================================<br /> History for 5/7/2023<br /> Birthday: Johannes Brahms, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Gary Cooper, Anne Baxter, Gabby Hayes, Ichiro Honda, Robert Browning, Marcus Loew of Loews Theater chain, Darin McGavin, Edward Land (inventor of the Polaroid lens and camera), Amy Heckerling, Traci Lords, Disney director Jun Falkenstein <br /> <br /> Greek Festival of the Birth of Apollo.<br /> <br /> 401 B.C. SOCRATES. Contrary to modern perception not everyone in ancient Greece loved philosophy. The Greeks had the same conflicts we have now between faith, tradition and rational thought and science. The scientist Anaxagoras was run out of town for saying that the Sun wasn’t Phoebus in a chariot, but just a burning rock floating in space. Euripides the playwright also got into trouble for saying that the gods did not really exist. <br /> But Socrates pushed the argument to its most extreme conclusion. The Athenian conservatives convicted Socrates of blasphemy and subverting the public morals. All hoped Socrates would just shut up and pay a fine, but Socrates unrepentant stance forced the law to go all the way to the death penalty. He was ordered to commit suicide by being given a cup of Hemlock. Actually, it wasn’t a cup, the poison was held in a leaf of Romaine Lettuce, then called Lettuce of the Isle of Cos. As he drank, he said, <br /> “To fear death, gentlemen, is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know. No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of evils.”<br /> <br /> 558AD- The dome of the great Byzantine basilica the Hagia Sophia collapsed under its own weight. The Emperor Justinian ordered it immediately rebuilt stronger.<br /> <br /> 1718- The FIRST BOATLOAD OF FRENCH COLONISTS LAND IN LOUISIANA- Sieur de la Moyne-Bienville established a fort and trading post on some low ground between the Mississippi and Lake Pontchartrain. He named the place New Orleans, for Phillip of Orleans, then regent of France in the name of the child King Louis XV. <br /> The French and Dutch always had a problem with their American colonies, in that nobody wanted to leave home to move there. One solution the French thought up was sweeping the streets of all the hookers, cutthroats, and riffraff, and shipping them all to America. Though it wasn't exactly "Pilgrim's Progress", this influx of card sharks and sportin' ladies helped New Orleans quickly establish its reputation as one of the wildest towns of the New World.<br /> <br /> 1760- A British merchant ship named the Friendship arrived in Virginia from Barbados. On board for his first sea voyage, and his first sight of America was a young Scottish apprentice named John Paul, who we would know as John Paul Jones.<br /> <br /> 1763- Chief Pontiac attacked Fort Detroit. Angry over British treatment after the French and Indian War, Pontiac had united all the Great Lakes tribes with their French trapper friends to attack all the forts simultaneously from Illinois to Maine. He later took the fort’s fat commander Captain Cambell hostage and gave him to the allied Chippewas who tomahawked him and ate his heart. Yum!<br /> <br /> 1789- To complete the break with Mother England, the Church of England in America renamed itself the Episcopalian Church.<br /> <br /> 1795- Throughout the French Revolution one region of France, La Vendee’, stubbornly stayed loyal to the monarchy and waged a long guerrilla war. Several French generals were sent to pacify the province but were unsuccessful. This day young whiz kid Napoleon Bonaparte learned he had been posted to the Vendee’. He immediately protested the posting and requested duty elsewhere. He recognized this move would be bad for his career but beyond that Nappy never wanted to be part of a civil war. Even after Waterloo, when he could have stayed in power by enforcing military control he refused, because it would have meant fighting the people. “There is no honor in spilling the blood of other Frenchmen.”<br /> <br /> 1800- The US Congress divided up the Northwest Territories, separating Indiana from Ohio.<br /> <br /> 1847-American Medical Assoc. founded.<br /> <br /> 1863- Hard-fighting Confederate general Earl 'Buck' Van Dorn was killed, but not in battle. A Tennessee doctor named J.G. Peters made an appointment with the general, went behind his back while he was at his desk, and shot him in the back of the head. Dr. Peters then calmly got back into his carriage and rode to Union lines. Peters wasn't a Yankee spy or assassin. He was expressing his disapproval that General Van Dorn was having an affair with his wife. William Faulkner alluded to his romantic exploits in books like Absalom Absalom.<br /> <br /> 1864-The WILDERNESS- LEE MET GRANT FOR THE FIRST TIME- Southern General Robert E. Lee lured Ulysses Grant's army into a dense tangled forest called the Wilderness and defeated him. The superior numbers of the Yankee troops became meaningless crawling about in the thick woods. At one point when the rebel line was in danger of breaking Lee rode to the front himself but was stopped by a Texas brigade. “Texan’s Always Move Them! “ Lee cried, and the inspired Texans threw back the enemy. <br /> That night hundreds of wounded left on the ground burned to death because the cannons had started a brush fire. Grant suffered as many casualties as at previous Union defeats like Chancellorsville, yet instead of retreating to Washington to make excuses to Lincoln, he circled around and attacked again. The men cheered wildly when they saw Grant quietly sitting atop his horse directing the columns back around for another try. Grant exhibited an iron-like reserve in public, but that night alone in his tent he broke down and sobbed like a child. The two armies maneuvered for 60 days straight, until Grant penned Lee into his Richmond defense lines.<br /> <br /> 1896- Dr. H.H. Holmes hanged. One of the worst American serial killers, the doctor set up a practice during the Chicago Worlds Fair of 1893. As tourists disappeared around the fair, the doctor offered new medical specimens to the local medical college. Called the Devil of the White City, authorities found remains of as many as 200 victims around his property. <br /> <br /> 1901- The actions of Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town, takes place this day. <br /> <br /> 1904 - Flexible Flyer trademark registered<br /> <br /> 1915- THE LUSITANIA- Off the southern coast of Ireland, the civilian ocean liner Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20. 1,198 drowned, including 128 Americans, almost all civilians. The Kaiser later gave a medal to the U-boat Captain Walter Schweige. These acts outraged American opinion and led us into World War I, despite many pro-German immigrants. It was revealed decades later that the reason Lusitania sank so quickly, just 18 minutes - even Captain Schweige was surprised- was that it's cargo hold was full of military explosives. <br /> First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill fought the German U-boat blockade by covertly transporting purchased American munitions on hospital ships, civilian ocean liners and let some British freighters illegally fly the flags of neutral countries. The German government knew that the Lusitania had been classified by the British admiralty a military cruiser. But regardless, the sinking of an unarmed ship without warning was considered a gross violation of international law. The German government apologized to the American government, and stopped the unrestricted U-boat campaign for two years, but the Lusitania shifted neutral U.S. public sympathy irrevocably to the Franco-English side.<br /> <br /> 1919- Defeated Germany learned just how bad the terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty were going to hit them. They expected bad times but were shocked at just how severe and steep the reparation payments were going to be. Millions were to be paid in indemnities and large areas of their industrial heartland would be under foreign occupation. The anger over this treaty did a lot to stoke the fires for revenge that would bring Hitler to power.<br /> <br /> 1926- Gangster Al Capone killed 3 men with a baseball bat over dinner.<br /> <br /> 1937- Nobel Prize winning writer William Faulkner hired by MGM Studios, earning $500 a week. He celebrated by going on a two-week drinking binge. MGM's Head of Writing Sam Marx had him tracked down to an Oakie migrant camp in the Imperial Valley. He was dragged off, boozily whining, "Ah wanna write for Mickey Mouse!"<br /> <br /> 1939- Los Angeles Union Station opened. It was built on top of L.A's original China Town.<br /> <br /> 1941-Glen Miller records the "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" for RCA. the first gold record million seller.<br /> <br /> 1942- Battle of the Coral Sea-The U.S. Navy, suffering only defeats up till then, stopped a Japanese task force. This is the first engagement in which the two fleets never saw each other but fought long distance with carrier launched airplanes. Veterans commented that one of the sadder losses was when the aircraft carrier USS Lexington went down, she took the fleet's supply of 6 Bugs Bunny cartoons down with her. War is Hell.<br /> <br /> 1945- Director Bob Clampett left Looney Tunes, now called Warner Bros Cartoons, to strike out on his own.<br /> <br /> 1945- German fighter ace Eric Hartmann celebrated the end of the war by going up in his Messerschmitt ME109f and shooting down one last allied plane. He caught the Ilyushin Russian fighter doing a victory roll. Hartman was called the Black Devil of the Ukraine, because he shot down 352 enemy planes. After ten years imprisoned in a Siberian gulag, he went home to his farm in Holstein and lived peacefully.<br /> <br /> 1945- In a top secret test at Los Alamos, the Manhattan Project scientists detonated a single blast 100,000 pounds of TNT. This was to measure the effect of a blast that big and provide a control to gauge the effectiveness of the Atomic Bomb. 100,000 pounds of TNT became known as one Kiloton. The Hiroshima A-Bomb was 20 kilotons. The largest thermonuclear device was 50 kilotons. <br /> <br /> 1950- The Carolwood Pacific Railroad. Walt Disney had grew up around and loved trains. Animator Ward Kimball got him interested in collecting model trains. Walt grew so enamored he built a miniature steam train big enough to take children on rides. The tracks ran all around the back of his Holmby Hills home. This day was the first running of his new hobby. The germ of his idea for Disneyland began here. After the home was sold, in the 1990s the Carolwood Barn and trains were moved to Griffith Park.<br /> <br /> 1966- “Monday Monday” by the Mammas and the Poppas becomes #1 in the pop charts.<br /> <br /> 1989- Police in Buenos Aires discovered the body of actor Guy Williams (Zorro, Lost In Space) He had died of a brain aneurysm in his apartment. He was 65.<br /> <br /> 1996- Comedian Martin Lawrence went berserk and ran down a main intersection in Van Nuys Cal. raving and waving a pistol. When asked to explain himself, Lawrence blamed it on “Dehydration.”<br /> <br /> 1998- Apple Computers introduced the iMac.<br /> <br /> 2009- Decorated career soldier Lt. Dan Choi directly challenged the US military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell ban on gay soldiers by outing himself on Rachel Maddow’s national news program. He was discharged by July, but his plea helped make the case for gay service-people. In Dec 2010, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was repealed by Congress with overwhelming popular support. <br /> <br /> 2012- Vladimir Putin was inaugurated for the umpteenth time as Russia’s president, premier, prime minister, or whatever. In 2021 he pushed through legislation so he could stay president until 2036.<br /> <br /> 2020- Due to the Coronavirus quarantine the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on the social networking program Zoom. One of the justices excused himself, but did not leave on the mute button. So, at one point the proceedings were interrupted by the sound of a toilet flushing. <br /> <br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Quiz: What is a jackanape?<br /> <br /> Answer: A hoity-toity way to call someone rude and impertinent. A young punk.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 06 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6143 <p>Quiz: What is a jackanape?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: Which Hollywood actor never served in the military in WW2? A. Clark Gable, B. Jimmy Stewart, C. Ronald Reagan, D. John Wayne.<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 5/6/2023<br /> Birthdays: Maximillien Robespierre, Sigmund Freud, Rudolph Valentino, Orson Welles, Robert Peary, Willie Mays, Stewart Granger*, Bob Seger, Toots Schoor, Weeb Ewbank, Adriana Caselotti- the voice of Snow White, Ruben Hurricane Carter, Christian Clavier, Roy Nesbit.<br /> Tony Blair, George Clooney is 62. <br /> <br /> *English actor Stewart Granger had to change his name to get into Hollywood movies. His real name was Jimmy Stewart. A nice name, but already taken<br /> <br /> 1096- The Massacre of Mainz- As mobs of Crusaders massed to war on the Holyland, they deliberately chose a route of march through Central Europe. As they passed through cities like Prague, Wurms, Mainz and Spier they could vent their religious zeal by slaughtering the Jewish communities there. <br /> Many well-meaning bishops like the Bishop of Mainz tried to stop them and hid Jews, but the pogrom was terrible. In some cities when faced with death or baptizing, hundreds of Jews committed suicide. When at the walls of Jerusalem the Crusaders saw the Jewish community fighting shoulder to shoulder with their Moslem-Arab cousins against them.<br /> <br /> 1527- THE SACK OF ROME- Pope Clement VII "the Medici Fox" played the diplomatic tango with the world powers a bit too clumsily and Emperor Charles V of Spain, Holland and Germany launched an army at Rome. Charles gave his general Charles De Bourbon a hangman's noose dipped in gold, a "Golden Rope to Hang the Pope" <br /> The Vatican armies were led by the late Pope Julius's bastard son Maria Della Rovere who didn't like Clement, so he kept his army out of the whole war. The city of Rome’s defense was organized by the artist Benevenuto Cellini. He managed to get off one shot before escaping out the back door. That shot killed the enemy general Charles de Bourbon, so now a loot crazed mercenary army with no commander was running amok in the richest city in Europe. The troops pillaged for weeks, only the plague drove them out. Many of the troops were newly converted Protestants, so they looked forward to despoiling the Great Whore of Rome. <br /> <br /> They entered the orphanage of Santo Spirito and slaughtered all the patients, then ran into St. Peters and massacred all the harmless people who sought sanctuary there. They dressed a donkey in cardinals robes, proclaimed Martin Luther pope, and made campfires in the Sistine chapel-which is why the fresco was darkened by smoke. 147 of the Pope’s elite Swiss Guard held off the rampaging enemy army until the Pope could escape. They were massacred to a man. Ever since, May 6th is the day new members of the Swiss Guard are installed at the Vatican.<br /> Pope Clement escaped the golden rope, but the Vatican never regained the power it once had and popes actually started to concentrate on spiritual stuff!<br /> <br /> 1603- After a triumphal procession down from Edinburgh James VI of Scotland enters London as James I of England. Although the treaty of union was not formally signed until 1717 James can truly be called the first king not just of England but of Great Britain.<br /> <br /> 1682-THE GLOUCESTER DISASTER- The good ship Gloucester was carrying the Duke of York and his court back from Scotland when it struck a reef off Norfolk and sank. It was said the good Duke, who would soon be King James II, courageously stayed until it was almost too late then escaped in a longboat. Later the Duke of Marlborough revealed in letters to his wife that if James had left sooner instead of worrying about his image they might have been able to save more people. As it was James took the only longboat and filled it with his luggage, hunting dogs and a priest. He then posted guards with drawn swords to keep anyone else coming on board. James and only 40 people survived while 300 perished with the ship. Later as King James II he was overthrown and driven into exile with the help of the Duke of Marlborough.<br /> <br /> 1793- After a stay in Europe, American artist Gilbert Stuart arrived back home dead broke. In the age of Gainsborough, Romney and West, Stuart didn’t fare too well. He left America because he was tired of being pestered to do copies of his famous portrait of George Washington, the one that is currently on our dollar bill.<br /> <br /> 1833 - John Deere makes his first steel plow.<br /> <br /> 1840- Britain issued the Penny-Blacks, the first perforated adhesive postage stamps.<br /> <br /> 1862- Henry David Thoreau died at age 44. When his sister asked him :"Have you made your peace with God?" Thoreau replied:" I was unaware that we had ever quarreled."<br /> His last words as he faded away were “Moose…Indian…”<br /> <br /> 1864- Ulysses Grant began moving his armies south towards Robert E. Lee in Virginia. One general cynically noted,” The fourth act of our comedy has begun.”<br /> <br /> 1867- MORIARITY! American criminal Adam Worth stole a Gainsborough masterpiece The Duchess of Devonshire from a London museum. Years later, he restored it to the authorities to collect the reward then skipped the country before they figured out he was the thief. Back in America he became friends with detective Alan Pinkerton, to whom he bragged about his adventures. He said the London police had called him “ The Napoleon of Crime”. <br /> Pinkerton later met fellow Scotsman Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, and related these stories to him. They gave Conan-Doyle the idea for Sherlock Holmes’ evil nemesis, Prof Moriarity. <br /> <br /> 1877- One year after Custer's Last Stand, Crazy Horse, "the Napoleon of the Plains", surrendered to U.S. authorities. They assassinated him later.<br /> <br /> 1882 -Congress passed the First Chinese Exclusion Act.<br /> <br /> 1903-A bronze plaque was attached to the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. On it was a poem The New Colossus by a young Jewish immigrant woman named Emma Lazarus. She was disturbed by the Anti-Semitic violence in Russia and wrote this inspired by the symbol of the Statue. “Give Me your Tired, Your Poor..” The French creators had intended the Statue of Liberty to symbolize political liberty, but Lazarus’s poem had confirmed the Lady Liberty as “The Mother of Exiles ”.<br /> <br /> 1915- Babe Ruth hits his first home run. He was a Boston Red Sox pitcher at the time. He will finish his career with 714 home runs, a record that held for decades until Hank Aaron.<br /> <br /> 1919- Seattle dockworkers go on strike refusing to load weapons destined to fight fellow workers in the Russian Revolution.<br /> <br /> 1919- Wizard of Oz creator L. Frank Baum died of heart disease at 62. He was trying at the time to buy real estate in Los Angeles for an Oz- theme amusement park.<br /> <br /> 1937-The great Zeppelin Graf HINDENBURG EXPLODED while landing in Lakehurst New Jersey. Despite the horrible film images 63 of the 90 passengers and crew escaped. <br /> People to this day aren’t sure what happened, from an igniting from static electricity to an anti-nazi saboteur firing a flare gun into the hydrogen gas-bags. The explosion originated behind the large swastika on the tail. <br /> The previous year a visit from a German luxury liner the S.S. Bremen caused a riot on the New York City docks as demonstrators fought police to tear the hated Nazi flag down. It was possible at that time to fly a dirigible with non flammable helium, but it was much more expensive than hydrogen and the worlds chief supplier of helium, the United States, was reluctant to sell Hitler that much of the strategic chemical. <br /> The American ground crew wanted to give a gift to the German captain who was dying of 3rd degree burns, so they presented him with an engraved cigarette lighter! My grandparents told me they drove out to see the wreckage with a huge crowd. Even though it was still smoldering, people were prying chunks off for souvenirs.<br /> Zeppelins were once supposed to be moored to the top of the Empire State Building but that never came about. By 1939 Air Marshal Goring ordered all remaining zeppelins and hangers scrapped for their valuable materials.<br /> <br /> 1937- THE FLEISCHER STRIKE-Cartoonists voted to strike Max Fleischer’s Studio after Max fired 13 animators for union activity and complaining about their 6 day work week.<br /> The strike was settled several months later when parent company Paramount forced Max to concede. Strikers sang "We're Popeye the Union Man! We're Popeye the Union Man! We'll Fight to the Finish, Cause We Can't Live on Spinach! We're Popeye...etc."<br /> <br /> 1937- The Society of Motion Picture Art Directors formed.<br /> <br /> 1941- A friend of Bob Hope who was now in the service suggested the comedian come and entertain troops on their army base. Hope took the suggestion, and it became his signature event. For decades, into his eighties he entertained servicemen around the world in five wars.<br /> <br /> 1945- Just as the exhausted GI’s in Germany were beginning to celebrate the end of the war in Europe, an announcement in Stars &amp; Stripes newspaper gave them the bad news that they won’t be demobilized and go home until Japan was defeated as well! European armies were scheduled for the invasion of the Japanese home islands in November if the atomic bombs didn’t work.<br /> <br /> 1946- Curly Howard, was the most outrageous of the comedy troupe The Three Stooges. <br /> While people laughed at his antics, he lived a wild Hollywood life, lots of clubs, drinking, smoking and girls. This day while filming the short Halfwits Holiday, he suffered a massive stroke. He was only 42. He survived 6 more years in debilitated health, moved from hospital to hospital by his brothers. He died in 1952 at age 48.<br /> <br /> 1949- In Cambridge University England, The computer EDSAC ran its’ first calculations. The first computer that could store data in its memory.<br /> <br /> 1954- Oxford student Roger Bannister ran the first Four Minute Mile. His time was 3:59.04.<br /> <br /> 1994- The Channel Tunnel or The Chunnel opened between Folkestone, England and Calais, France. <br /> <br /> 2001- Variety reported that the Walt Disney Company in promoting their upcoming summer film Pearl Harbor, had canceled plans for Pearl Harbor Happy Meals at McDonalds, as being in bad taste. <br /> <br /> 2003- A tornado destroyed the factory in Jackson, Tennessee that produced most of the world’s supply of Pringles Potato Chips.<br /> =========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Which Hollywood actor never served in the military in WW2? A. Clark Gable, B. Jimmy Stewart, C. Ronald Reagan, D. John Wayne.<br /> <br /> Answer: D. John Wayne never served. Reagan was a captain in the reserves, but never went overseas. He stayed in Hollywood. Gable and Stewart both served in combat.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 05 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6142 <p>Quiz: Which Hollywood actor never served in the military in WW2? A. Clark Gable, B. Jimmy Stewart, C. Ronald Reagan, D. John Wayne.<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz Answered below: What is the difference between a pederast and a pedagogue?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 05/05/2023<br /> Birthdays: Tyrone Power, Karl Marx, Elizabeth Cochrane called Nellie Bly, Soren Kierkegard, Alice Faye, James Beard, Michael Palin is 81, Jim Kelly, Pat Carroll, Patrick Ewing, John Rhys Davies is 79, Lance Henriksen is 83, Brian Williams, Floyd Gottfredson<br /> <br /> In Mexico and parts of the US, this is Cinco de Mayo (see 1862 below)<br /> <br /> In Japan this is a holiday known as Children's Day.<br /> <br /> National Teacher's Day.<br /> <br /> National Cartoonist's Day.<br /> <br /> 2,349 BC- According to Bishop Ussher, an XVI Century Flemish cleric who tried to calculate an actual date for every major event in the Bible, today is the day Noah’s Ark struck dry ground on Mount Ararat.<br /> <br /> 840- Louis the German, a son of Charlemagne, died of fright during a total eclipse of the sun. <br /> <br /> 1504 -Sir Anton of Burgundy, known as The Great Bastard, died at 82. <br /> <br /> 1534- King Henry VIII executed a nun named Elizabeth Barton, who claimed to have been instructed by God to condemn the King’s divorce. She claimed supernatural forces had shown her the place in Hell being prepared for King Henry.<br /> <br /> 1640- King Charles I dissolved Parliament after only three weeks for being uppity. It was called the Short Parliament. When they refused to grant him tax money to fight his wars the King levied a 1% property tax on everyone in England. If you didn’t pay it right away you could lose your ears and be branded on the cheeks with a hot iron. Bright ideas like this cost Charles his head, after losing the English Civil War in 1649.<br /> <br /> 1789- King Louis XVI reluctantly convened an Estates General, the French national parliament, to get the country out of a fiscal crisis. He had fired his Swiss financier Jacques Necker, the only man who seemed to be stopping the economy’s slide. Up to now Louis' understanding of fiscal policy was to cut the budget spent on the royal lapdogs. An assembly like this had not been convened since 1611. The Parliamentarians demanded permanent power and by refusing to adjourn when the Royal command came, set in motion the French Revolution. Napoleon said the French Revolution began when the king fired Necker. <br /> <br /> 1800- Shortly after winning his Federalist parties nod to run for re-election President John Adams was told by his wife Abigail Adams” Tis a pity that politicians would sacrifice all that good men hold dear and sacred, just to win an election.” <br /> <br /> 1808- THE SPANISH ULCER- The Spanish Royal Family was having problems. King Charles IV, his chief minister Godoy who was also a lover of the Queen, the Infante Ferdinand VII and the Prince of Asturias were all trying to overthrow one another while Goya made funny portraits of them. <br /> French Emperor Napoleon offered to mediate. After he lured them all to Bayonne on French soil, he told them: “ I’ve got an better idea. I’ll lock you up in this fortress, and my brother Joseph will be King of Spain.” Napoleon sent an army into Spain to enforce his idea, but the Spanish people wouldn’t stand for it and fought first in the open, and then as “guerrillas”- little wars. <br /> While Napoleon was trying to conquer the rest of Europe, he had to constantly keep troops in Spain fighting the guerrillas and the Duke of Wellington’s English. Spain was finally liberated in 1814 and the Royal Family promptly went back to arguing. <br /> <br /> 1821"...le Armee'......Josephine....." Napoleon Bonaparte died on the island of St. Helena at age 52. <br /> <br /> 1827- In Tennessee a 17-year old tailor's apprentice named Andrew Johnson married 16 year old Eliza McArdle. Johnson was illiterate, so one of his bride's first chores was to teach him to read and write. Johnson became the 17th President of the United States. <br /> <br /> 1862- CINCO DE MAYO- Battle of Puebla-Mexican Juaristas under Zaragosa defeated a French invasion force sent by Napoleon III. One of the heroes of the battle was a soldier named Porfiro Diaz. After Benito Juarez’s presidency Diaz made himself dictator and reigned 38 years until being ousted in the Mexican Revolution in 1910. <br /> <br /> 1864- While Lee and Grant’s armies began to battled in The Wilderness, Sherman began his Atlanta campaign. Sherman told Grant:" You hold Lee down and give me enough troops and I can make Georgia howl!"<br /> <br /> 1889- THE PARIS WORLD EXHIBITION opened. This exposition was what the Eiffel Tower was built for: it was the centerpiece of this World's Fair to mark the centennial of the French Revolution. <br /> Americans remembered it as the event where American painting first stood out on the world stage, despite being given a small gallery space between Bosnia and Denmark. The judging of the artwork was controversial. Here they are trying to show the world the uniqueness of American painting, yet with not a single Copley, Bierstadt, Thomas Eakins, or Winslow Homer was accepted. <br /> James McNeill Whistler considered himself American although he lived most of the time in London. When the show was announced, he patriotically entered a dozen paintings, but the American judges rejected them all. He angrily re-submitted them as a British artist and won a gold medal.<br /> <br /> 1891-Carnegie Hall in New York opened. One old musician told me the acoustics are so perfect that you can fart in the trumpet section, and you'll be heard in the second balcony.<br /> <br /> 1920- Britain and France get the League of Nations to sanction their colonial takeover of the Middle East. France occupied Syria and Lebanon and Britain Palestine and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The League officially considered them 'mandates' to administer territory of the defeated Turkish Empire, but Britain and France held them in effect as colonial possessions.<br /> <br /> 1932- Charles Revson founded the Revlon Cosmetics Company.<br /> <br /> 1942- The last U.S. forces on the besieged Island of Corregidor surrendered to the Japanese. General MacArthur was ordered to escape to organize the defense of Australia, leaving his friend Jonathan Wainwright to lead his men into captivity. But when he was asked to recommend General Wainwright for the Congressional Medal of Honor, MacArthur refused. "The Medal of Honor cannot be awarded to a general who pulls down Old Glory and surrenders!". MacArthur had Wainwright at his side to sign the surrender documents on the U.S.S. Missouri in 1945.<br /> <br /> 1945- In a desperate plan to get at America, Japanese generals tried tying bombs to high flying atmospheric weather balloons that could catch the jet stream across the Pacific. This day the only World War II casualties on the U.S. mainland occurred when an Oregon woman Elsie Mitchell and her two children were killed by one of these strange bombs while picnicking.<br /> <br /> 1945- Happy Birthday Yosemite Sam! Hare Trigger, the first cartoon to feature the red mustachioed desperado premiered.<br /> <br /> 1953- Broadway Director Jerome Robbins was riding high after directing hits like On the Town and King &amp; I, when he was labeled a Communist. To save his career, this day he testified before Joseph McCarthy’s House UnAmerican Activities Committee. He admitted he had been a communist party member and named names. One actress he finked on, Margaret Lee said,” I’ve just been stabbed by a wicked fairy”. Ironically, Jerome Robbins went on to direct two of his biggest hits “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and the Fiddler on the Roof using Zero Mostel, Beatrice Arthur and Jack Gilford, blacklisted actors who all hated him. During a break in rehearsal on Fiddler, one actor said, “I’d like to kick Jerry in the balls!” Beatrice Arthur replied, “Jerry has no balls.”<br /> The famed actor/director Orson Wells observed that “Friend informed on friend not to save their lives but to save their swimming pools.”<br /> <br /> 1960- Soviet Premier Khruschev announces to the world press the shooting down of an American U-2 spy plane over Russia. President Eisenhower vigorously denied anything of the sort until Khruschev in a world news conference produced the plane wreckage and pilot Lt. Francis Gary Powers. The incident not only deepened the Cold War, but for the first time in modern history a U.S. President was caught lying. But sadly, not the last time.<br /> <br /> 1961- Alan Shepard became the first American in space on board Friendship VII. The rocket took him 115 miles into space but not high enough to achieve an orbit. That was done one year later by John Glenn. Shepard was kept on the ground in his capsule for so long he had to pee in his suit. In the upside-down position the fluid ran up his back and puddled up in his helmet behind his head. NASA realized it needed to make modifications on the space suit….<br /> <br /> 1968- Albert Dekker, character actor and star of movies like Dr. Cyclops, was found dead by his fiance kneeling in his bathtub, handcuffed, Noose around his neck, ballgag, and wearing ladies lingerie. A narcotics needle was sticking in his arm. Someone wrote in red lipstick on his butt “ whip”. He was 62. The police declared it an “auto-erotic episode that had gone wrong." His fiancé Geraldine Saunders went on to create the hit TV show The Love Boat.<br /> <br /> 1975- Anne Rice’s novel The Interview With The Vampire first published.<br /> <br /> 1981- Young IRA supporter Bobby Sands made himself a martyr in the Northern Ireland crisis by dying of a hunger strike while in jail. He went 66 days without food.<br /> <br /> 1983- At a regional Comicon, the first edition comic of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came out and sold out within two hours. <br /> <br /> 1985- President Ronald Reagan started a firestorm of controversy among WWII veterans when he laid a wreath in Germany at a cemetery in Bitburg that contained graves of 49 Nazi Waffen-SS soldiers. Some of them may have participated in the infamous Malmedy Massacre of US prisoners. <br /> <br /> 2006- Walt Disney Company formally acquired Pixar Studio.<br /> =================================================<br /> Quiz: What is the difference between a pederast and a pedagogue?<br /> <br /> Answer: A pedagogue is the term for a person who educates children, and a pederast is a term for someone who sexually abuses children.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 03 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6141 <p>Question: Albert Schweitzer was called a Polymath. What is that?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: What does The Jig is Up, mean?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 5/3/2023<br /> Birthdays: Niccolo Macchiavelli, Bing Crosby, Golda Meir, Sir Richard D'Oly-Carte, Peter Gabriel, James Brown, Pete Seeger, Betty Comden, Doug Henning, Beaulah Bondi, Mary Astor, Sugar Ray Robinson, Alex Cord, 70’s singer Engelbert Humperdinck, Dule Hill, Christina Hendriks<br /> <br /> Happy World Press Freedom Day.<br /> <br /> 328 A.D.- Discovery of the True Cross- St. Helena the mother of Roman Emperor Constantine was the first to make fashionable the collecting of Christian relics. This day her archeologists in Jerusalem unearthed three old crosses on the Mount of Calvary. According to Medieval legend, she tested it out by crucifying someone on it who got up after three days. After all, it might have been someone else's cross! Ick! (From Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, by Sabine-Gould)<br /> Byzantine Emperors carried the True Cross around and into battle like a flag until it was thought to be too precious to lose. So, it was broken up, and the wood distributed to the kings of Christendom. By Luther's time it was said so much of the Good Wood or Holy-Rood was around that if you got it all together you could build a nice house. The custom of saying "Knock on Wood" comes from touching the True Cross for luck.<br /> Last year during the Russo-Ukrainian War, the sinking of the Russian flagship The Moskva, that ship supposedly had an icon on it with a splinter from the True Cross.<br /> <br /> 1494- Columbus discovered the island of Jamaica. He called it St. Iago.<br /> <br /> 1536- Huron Indian chief Donnaconna noticed that the French explorer Jacques Cartier and the other white men got excited whenever he mentioned gold or riches. So Donnaconna made up fantastic stories about a powerful kingdom upriver called Sanguenay, about where present day Ottawa is. He said the people were fabulously wealthy and had no anus's so they could only drink fluids. Cartier not only swallowed the gag this but he was so impressed he had poor Donnaconna kidnapped and brought to France to tell his stories to the king. The old chief never saw his home again.<br /> <br /> 1559- At Perth Scotland, Presbyterian preacher John Knox delivered the first sermon openly calling for the Scottish Church to throw off the authority of the Vatican. <br /> <br /> 1675- Massachusetts Puritans passed a law that church doors be locked during Sunday services. Too many people were leaving during long, boring sermons.<br /> <br /> 1702- William Hyde, aka Lord Cornbury arrived from England to be Royal Governor of colonial New York. This English aristocrat surprised the solid Dutch Calvinists of former New Amsterdam by his eccentric behavior. His favorite pastime was dressing up in ladies clothing and jumping out at people at night and pulling their ears. When in drag he bore an odd resemblance to England’s Queen Anne. He later explained he only dressed this way so the colonists could see what their queen in England looked like. Of course, nobody believed him. <br /> There is today a painting of the Lord Governor in drag at the New York Historical Society. It was alleged that he was a fence for pirates and once asked the New York City council for money to repel a fictitious French attack, which he pocketed and bought the land today called Hyde Park.<br /> <br /> 1791- Polish Constitution of 3rd of May. This radical document was inspired by the American Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man. But being situated in between autocratic monarchies Russia and Prussia who were unimpressed and crushed the Poles.<br /> <br /> 1812- A new poem called Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage became a huge hit in London and sold out in just three days. The author Lord Byron became the toast of London overnight. He said: "I awoke one morning and found myself famous."<br /> <br /> 1848- Working people of Saxony revolt against their king. Leo Bakunin the father of anarchism and the composer Richard Wagner were two of the leaders. The Prussian army was sent to help put down the workers and Wagner fled into Switzerland, but not before he had the pleasure of burning down the Leipzig Opera House.<br /> <br /> 1851- San Francisco burned down.<br /> <br /> 1863-2nd Day Battle of Chancellorsville-Lee sent Stonewall Jackson 12 miles swinging around the Yankee Army flank to attack them from behind. O.O. Howard, the Union General in charge of that area wouldn’t believe the scouts reports of an imminent attack. When a German immigrant officer demanded he prepare, Howard accused him of being drunk. Then Jackson’s men burst out of the woods and sent the Yankees running. <br /> The fighting lasted well into the evening and confusion reigned in the darkness. General Daniel Sickles division got into a vicious three way firefight with a Confederate division shooting at him from one side and his own reinforcements shooting at him from the other. <br /> Stonewall Jackson and his staff had ridden out beyond his lines to observe the Yankee preparations for tomorrow. He was riding back towards his own lines when a shot or two rang out. General A.P. Hill called out " Don't shoot! Were Southerners! ". But the Mississippi colonel in charge had been surprised once already that night by enemy cavalry:" It's a Yankee trick! Pour it into them!" A volley hit Jackson and several other officers." My boys, my own boys!" Jackson groaned. He died two weeks later.<br /> <br /> 1864- The day before his armies were set to move Union General Ulysses Grant laid out final plans for his campaign against the Confederacy. In a drawing room in Culpepper Virginia he told his staff that up till now union armies had acted independently like a bad team of horses that won’t pull together. He would now coordinate five armies attacking simultaneously from Washington to Atlanta to Shreveport Louisiana. Their goal would not be the taking of Richmond but the destruction of the main Confederate field armies like Robert E Lee’s. Grants plan was to hold Lee down near Richmond while the armies of Sherman, Banks and Butler completed the destruction of the Confederacy. <br /> <br /> 1888- The Poem "Casey at the Bat" by Ernest Thayer first published.<br /> <br /> 1906- British controlled Egypt seized the Sinai Peninsula from the Turkish Empire.<br /> <br /> 1917- The Great French Military Mutinies. During World War I, after three years of appalling conditions and being slain by the thousands in suicidal charges against machine guns, the average French "poilus" soldier nickname like G.I., had enough. Whole regiments refused to go to the front. The mutiny was so bad that to this day official records are vague as to just how many men were involved. A safe estimate is at least 100,000 men. <br /> <br /> 1931- E.C. Segar introduced Popeye’s friend J. Wellington Wimpy in his Thimble Theatre comic strip. “ I would gladly pay you Tuesday, for a hamburger today.”<br /> <br /> 1933- Fritz Lang’s movie M released in the US. It made a star of Peter Lorre.<br /> <br /> 1936- Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio first game for the New York Yankees. He got three hits.<br /> <br /> 1938- The Vatican recognized Generalissimo Franco’s fascist regime in Spain.<br /> <br /> 1941- Battle of Amba Alagi. Britain vs Italy for Ethiopia.<br /> <br /> 1948- THE PARAMOUNT DECISION- In 1938 the independent theaters and producers (including the Walt Disney Company) had brought suit in Federal court against the major Hollywood Studios over their monopolistic practices. Ten years later the Supreme Court ruled the Motion Picture Studios did constitute a monopoly and under the Sherman AntiTrust Act ordered them to sell their theater chains. <br /> One casualty of this rule was the short cartoon. Because theater managers no longer were forced to run a cartoon, newsreel and short with a feature (block-booking), they opted for the time to run more showings of the main feature. Many people were starting to become interested in that new television machine, anyway.<br /> <br /> 1952- U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Joseph O. Fletcher of Oklahoma stepped out of a plane and walked to the exact North Pole, the first known person to do so. Commander Robert Peary claimed to have reached the Pole in 1909 as did others, but modern scholars think they were all off by several degrees. <br /> <br /> 1952- President Harry Truman showed off the newly renovated White House to the newfangled network television cameras. <br /> <br /> 1963- Birmingham police attack Civil Rights marchers with attack dogs, clubs and high powered hoses. The brutality was captured on nationwide TV. The images shocked the nation and President Kennedy, who had been assured by Governor George Wallace by phone that everything was under control. JFK resolved to fast track the Civil Rights Act through Congress.<br /> <br /> 1968- THE PARIS '68 REVOLT- Police are sent into the Sorbonne University in Paris to break up student demonstrations. The grounds of the university had never been violated by police, even during the Nazi occupation. This act enraged the student leaders who are joined by labor unions and there is fighting in the streets of Paris for the next three weeks that eventually brought down the DeGaulle government.<br /> All night political meetings center in the Odeon theatre as the likes of Jean Paul Sartre and John Luc Goddard make intellectual manifestations of aesthetic freedom. "The More I make Love, the More I make Revolution!" One of the student leaders was Daniel Cohn-Bedit "Danny the Red". When conservative media tried to draw attention to Cohn-Bendit’s Jewish foreign background. This caused an even larger, angrier, march of Parisians shouting: "We are all Jews!" <br /> <br /> 1969- Groundbreaking in Valencia for the California Institute of the Arts. <br /> <br /> 1971- National Public Radio’s news program "All Things Considered" goes on the air, the first U.S. news program with women anchors like Susan Stanberg.<br /> <br /> 1971- President Nixon’s administration arrested 13,000 anti-war protestors in one week.<br /> <br /> 1973- Chicago’s Sear Tower was topped off at 443 meters, to be the tallest office building in the U.S.A.<br /> <br /> 1978- THE FIRST SPAM E-MAIL- Gary Thuerk, a marketing manager for Digital Equipment Corp wanted to invite all the scientists and professors on the ARPANET system to an event. It was too much work to do one e-mail at a time, so he devised a way to mail 600 people at once. <br /> <br /> 1979- Margaret Thatcher became the first woman to be Prime Minister of Great Britain. The green grocer’s daughter called the Iron Lady, dominated British politics for the next twenty years.<br /> <br /> 1985- The White House confirmed rumors that President Reagan would occasionally adjust his schedule when Nancy would seek the advice of a San Francisco astrologer.<br /> <br /> 1991- Steve Jobs agreed to the deal between Walt Disney and Pixar to create the film Toy Story. He insisted the Pixar logo be at the head of the film, instead of in the back roll credits. The world needs to know that Pixar are the one’s making these movies, not them. It’s all about marketing. The public will soon know who we are, more than they are.”<br /> <br /> 1997- The Chairman of Phillip Morris Tobacco Company James J. Morgan testified to a congressional committee that cigarettes are no more addictive than Gummy Bears candy.<br /> <br /> 1999- Oklahoma City was hit by a force 5 tornado with wind speeds of over 300 miles per hour, the strongest ever recorded.<br /> <br /> 2002- Spiderman, directed by Sam Raimi, and starring Tobey McGuire and Kirsten Dunst.<br /> <br /> 2014-Kevin McCoy created the first NFT (Non-Fungible Token) entitled “Quantum”.<br /> <br /> =========================================================<br /> <br /> Quiz: What does The Jig is Up, mean?<br /> <br /> Answer: From an old Elizabethan slang for the completion of a lively dance. It came to mean your plans have been found out or foiled. The Dance is Over.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 02 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6140 <p>Quiz: What does it mean when you say “The Jig is Up? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: Antonio Gaudi’s architectural masterpiece The Sagrada Familia is in what city? <br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 5/2/2023<br /> Birthdays: Czarina Catherine the Great, Domenico Scarlatti, Manfred Von Richthofen the Red Baron, Bing Crosby, Dr. Benjamin Spock the Baby Doctor, Vernon Castle, Lorenzo Music, Theodore Bikel, Lesley Gore, Roscoe Lee Browne, Satyajit Ray, Pinky Lee, Link Wray of the Wraymen, Christine Baranski, Doug Wildey, Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock is 51, Marty Abrahams.<br /> <br /> 1349- The Kings of England and France declared a ten-year truce in their Hundred Years War because of the Black Plague. After all, how can you have a good war, when everyone was already dead? That’s no fun.<br /> <br /> 1519- Leonardo Da Vinci died of a stroke at the Chateau d’Amboise in the arms of King Francis I. He had accepted the offer of the French King of a stable retirement (even then artists worried about that kinda stuff). He was 67. Two hundred and eighty years later, during the French Revolution, peasants broke into his tomb to get the lead lining for cannonballs. They threw his bones into a trash pile. In 1863 and archeologist found some bone fragments and coins King Francis and declared that to be him. But but no one is really sure.<br /> <br /> 1670- The Hudson's Bay Company is chartered by King Charles II. At one point the Honorable Company was responsible for the administration of most of western Canada, called Prince Rupert's land, the largest land mass in history ever under the control of a board of directors. It's CEO, Sir George Simpson, was nicknamed "the Emperor". <br /> <br /> 1797- One of the marvels of Europe today is the City of Venice. Beyond an occasional flood, Venice never had a great fire or destruction by war. Many of the buildings are as old as Notre Dame. Venice was a naval power, so all of her wars were fought out at sea. This day in 1797 Napoleon, pursuing his conquest of Italy, declared war on the Venetian Republic. They immediately surrendered.<br /> <br /> 1808- Spanish Independence Day- Napoleon had invaded Spain and put his older brother Joseph Bonaparte on the throne. The Spanish called him "Pepe Bottaglia" (Joey Bottles, due to his fondness for drink) and bitterly hated the French occupation. Reacting to the occupation of Madrid, the Spanish people riot in the Playa Del Sol and cut up all the French soldiers they can find. The French round up all the Spanish people they can find and shoot them. Francisco Goya does lots of neat drawings and paintings. The Spanish invention of organized small scale partisan actions they will give the name "guerilla" warfare.<br /> <br /> 1813- Battle of Lutzen- Napoleon whups the Prussians.<br /> <br /> 1863- Battle of Chancellorsville - Robert E. Lee was surrounded by the larger Union army of "Fighting Joe" Hooker. Hooker bragged: "God have mercy on General Lee, for I shall have none!". Lincoln was more realistic: "The hen is the wisest of all animal creation. She does not cackle until AFTER her egg is laid." Lee got out of the trap and defeated Hooker.<br /> <br /> 1865- A $100,000 reward was offered for the arrest of former president of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis, now a fugitive on the run from Union armies.<br /> <br /> 1885- First Good Housekeeping Magazine.<br /> <br /> 1920 –The Negro National League, the first successful all-Black baseball league, held its first game in Indianapolis. The league was founded earlier that same year by legendary baseball player, Andrew "Rube" Foster, and featured teams such as the Chicago American Giants, Chicago Giants, Cuban Stars, Dayton Marcos, Indianapolis ABCs, Kansas City Monarchs and St. Louis Giants in its first season.<br /> <br /> 1921- Chicago’s Field Museum opened to the public. It was housed in the building originally called the Hall of Fine Arts in the Great Chicago Exhibition of 1893.<br /> <br /> 1927- Buck vs. Bell. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled states had the right to mandatory enforced sterilization of the “unfit and incompetent”. These included low IQ and epileptics. This was a result of the Eugenics Movement, that felt America’s gene pool was being swamped by “lesser races”. A court could order you sterilized against your will. The Nazis said they learned much from study of these American laws. Even today, there are still sterilization laws on the books in 20 States. <br /> <br /> 1930- Little ten year old Phillip of Greece came home from school to find his mother Princess Alice von Battenburg had been packed off to an insane asylum, and his father Prince Andrew of Greece going to send him to an Scottish boarding school so he could move in with his mistress. The boy would grow up to marry Queen Elizabeth II and become Prince Phillip of Edinburgh.<br /> <br /> 1932- Jack Benny's Radio Show debuts. Oh Rochester! Mel Blanc the voice of Bugs Bunny did many characters and voices on the show, including the sputtering engine of Jacks’ old Maxwell automobile. <br /> <br /> 1933- Hitler's stormtroopers raid all union offices in Germany. They seize their accounts and cart the labor leaders off to concentration camps. Hitler had said" Democracy and Free Enterprise cannot co-exist in the same state, and one of the evilest forms Democracy can take is Trade Unionism".<br /> <br /> 1933- The first modern sighting of the Loch Ness Monster. The Inverness Courier published an account of a couple that sighted Nessie and offered a reward for proof.<br /> <br /> 1936- Ethiopian Emperor Rastafari Halie Selassie the Lion of Judah fled Addis Ababa in advance of Mussolini's invading armies.<br /> <br /> 1945-As General Weidling surrendered what was left of Berlin to the Russians, Admiral Doenitz, then head of government, ordered his Foreign Minister, Schwerin von Krosigk to broadcast to the German people advising them to flee west," The Iron Curtain in the east moves closer and closer; all those people caught in the mighty hands of the Bolsheviks are being destroyed." Beating Churchill to the term Iron Curtain by a couple years.<br /> <br /> 1945- After the suicide of Adolf Hitler, the German ambassador to Dublin was summoned to President Eamon De Valera's office. He was given an official note of condolence on the loss of their head of state. The neutral Irish Republic became the only nation on Earth to send The Third Reich a sympathy card. <br /> <br /> 1945- All the remaining Axis forces in Italy surrendered. Meanwhile on this day in Bavaria, the top German rocket scientists led by Dr. Werner Von Braun gave themselves up to the Americans. On Braun’s worktable were plans for a missile that could travel 4,200 miles, far enough to reach the U.S. East Coast.<br /> <br /> 1952- The British Airline B.O.A.C. began the first trans-Atlantic jet plane service. This began the class of globetrotting rich partygoers named Jet-Setters. BOAC later became British Air.<br /> <br /> 1957- Mafia don Frank Costello had taken over the Lucciano New York crime family after Lucky Lucciano had been deported to Sicily. Another Lucciano triggerman named Vito Genovese felt he had been passed over. This day Frank Costello was crossing the lobby of his apartment on Central Park West, when Vinny " the Chin" Gigante came up behind him: "Hey Frank, this is for you!" and started shooting. Costello was left for dead but Vinny bungled his job- Costello was only grazed in the skull. He recovered, but wisely decided to retire from racketeering. Costello’s job went to Carlo Gambino.<br /> <br /> 1957- Wisconsin Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy, the Commie Hunter, died in an asylum from hepatitis, alcohol delirium and cirrhosis of the liver.<br /> <br /> 1964- Disney’s audio-animatronic Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln opened at the NY World’s Fair.<br /> <br /> 1967-" Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud!" The Black Panther Party announced its armed militancy to the US and the world by trying to break in with shotguns on the California State assembly during a vote. This caused Gov. Ronald Reagan to pass the first assault weapons ban in the U.S. The media would ring with the militant words and images of Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver and Huey Newton. <br /> <br /> 1972- J. EDGAR HOOVER DIED. He had been F.B.I. director since 1934. Despite his numerous achievements like neutralizing Nazi espionage and the Ku Klux Klan, he never seemed willing to attack the Mafia. While the FBI chased solo criminals like Dillinger or Bonnie &amp; Clyde, the big crime syndicates in Chicago and New York functioned unmolested. Some speculate it was because he knew they would expose the FBI chiefs secret lifestyle. Hoover lived in a long-term relationship with his second in command Clyde Tolson. That didn’t stop him from outing high profile gays in the Truman and Johnson administrations when it suited him. When Hoover was buried at Arlington, the Marine guard handed Tolson the folded flag from the coffin, something only the widow gets.<br /> J. Edgar said he needed his secrecy to pursue his high profile war on "American Immorality". When Lyndon Johnson was asked why he still kept the ancient F.B.I. director around, he replied:" I’d rather keep that old bastard on the inside of my tent a pissing out, than on the outside pissing in.".<br /> <br /> 1972- First day shooting on Steven Spielberg’s film JAWS. The giant mechanical shark used as a prop was nicknamed "Bruce" after Spielberg’s lawyer.<br /> <br /> 1982- During the Falkland's War a British helicopter equipped with Exocet missiles sank Argentina's largest battleship, the Belgrano. London tabloids ran as the headline over the burning ship- "Gotcha !" Interestingly, the Belgrano was a refitted 45 year old American battleship, the U.S.S. Phoenix, that had survived the Pearl Harbor attack.<br /> <br /> 1982- The 24 hour Weather Channel started.<br /> <br /> 1983- Microsoft introduced the three-button mouse.<br /> <br /> 1997- Movie star Eddie Murphy was busted for picking up trans hooker Artisone Seiuli at 4:45 in the morning on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood. Murphy said he was just being a good Samaritan and giving the young lady a ride home.<br /> <br /> 1999- Actor Oliver Reed was filming the movie Gladiator in Malta with Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott. Reed, like many British actors of his generation was a very hard drinker. Some like Richard Harris and Anthony Hopkins managed to pull themselves out of their spiral and went on to full careers in later life. But Oliver Reed did not. This day in a local pub, he got into a drinking contest with several young English sailors from HMS Cumberland. At one sitting Oliver Reed drank 8 pints of beer, a dozen shots of rum, half a bottle of whiskey and a few shots of Hennessey cognac. Then when arm wrestling the sailors, he suffered a massive heart attack and dropped dead. Oliver Reed was 61. Ridley Scott had to use computer imaging to complete his remaining scenes in the film. <br /> <br /> 2011- In the dead of night American Navy Seal Team 6 flew into Pakistan and killed Osama Ben Laden. It turned out Osama had been living in a large compound just a few blocks from the Pakistani version of West Point. (Because of the time difference, it was still May 1st back in US).<br /> To maintain the surprise factor, President Obama spent the evening joking at the Correspondents dinner, then rushed to the Situation Room to monitor events.<br /> The Pakistani doctor who helps the Americans locate Bin Laden was later sentenced to 30 years in prison for treason. <br /> ========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Antonio Gaudi’s architectural masterpiece The Sagrada Familia is in what city? <br /> Answer: Barcelona.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 01 May 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6139 <p>Question: Antonio Gaudi’s architectural masterpiece The Sagrada Familia is in what city? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: What does it mean to be stuck in a rut? What’s a rut?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 5/1/2023<br /> Birthdays: Mary Harris a.k.a. Mother Jones, Marshal Vauban 1633, Benjamin Latrobe, Calamity Jane, Joseph Addison, Kate Smith, Jack Paar, Joseph Heller, Rita Coolidge, Steve Cauthen, Judy Collins, Glen Ford, Ray Parker Jr., Maurice Noble, Fyodor Khytruk, Louis Nye, John Woo, Wes Anderson is 54, Joanna Lumley is 77, Eric Goldberg is 68.<br /> <br /> May is named for Maia Majestus, Roman god of flowers, one of the Pleiades, a daughter of Fauna and Vulcan. It’s also the Roman festival for the Bona Dea or the Good Goddess, a deity of fertility.<br /> <br /> This day Romans celebrated the LARALIA- the feast of the Lares, your personal gods who watch over you and your family. Many times they included the founder of your house, ancestors or a particular allegiance to one deity, for example Julius Caesar claimed to be descended from Venus.<br /> <br /> Feast of Saint Phillip and Saint James the Lesser<br /> <br /> 62BC- Publius Clodius Pulcher- The Handsome, made love to the wife of Julius Caesar by dressing like a woman and sneaking into Caesars home while the women were celebrating the sacred mysteries of the goddess Bona Dea. Part of Greco-Roman religious mysteries was the drinking of a wine mixed with herbs like ergot, approximating the effect of LSD. So they were all high. Sex, Drugs and Latin Conjugations!<br /> <br /> 305AD- The Abdication of Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian- Diocletian attempted to solve the problem of Roman emperors being chosen by means other than murder or civil war. He split the Empire into two pieces and took a colleague, Maximian, as Emperor of the West. They would each select a vice-emperor or Caesar and after a set number of years retire and the succession moves up. This system worked while Diocletian was around but it began to unravel almost as soon as he retired to his estates in Croatia to grow cabbages. When the emperors started to fight and kill each other again, the Senate tried to recall Diocletian. He responded: "If you could but see my cabbages, you would not ask me to do so! " <br /> <br /> 1152- Henry II Plantagenet, king of England and Duke of Normandy (grandson of<br /> William the Conqueror) married Eleanor of Aquitaine, divorced wife of King<br /> Louis VI of France and heiress to half of France. This union created the<br /> powerful state called the Angevin Empire, so named because one of Henry's<br /> family titles was Duke of Anjou. They ruled not from London, but from Chinon, in the center of the Loire Valley. This set the stage for the next three hundred years of warfare. They also would sire those rather interesting offspring Richard the Lionhearted and evil John Lackland.<br /> <br /> 1373- Dante Alighieri met the love of his life Beatrice at a MayDay party in Florence. Although she married another, he was inspired to write his Divine Comedy to her.<br /> <br /> 1516- The poor of London band together and stage a demonstration, complaining of their harsh life. The King's Chancellor, Cardinal Woolsey, replied by having 60 of them hanged. <br /> <br /> 1776- THE ILLUMINATI- In Ingolstadt Germany a former Jesuit named Adam Weishaupt created a radical fringe off-shoot of Freemasonry called the Illuminati. Their program of anti-religion, anti-royalist pro-democratic secular humanism gained great influence over intellectual Freemason lodges in Europe before being suppressed by the Bavarian government in 1785. A new Order of Illuminati formed in 1880 and the members roster claimed to have included Alastair Crowley (The Great Outer Head) ,King Arthur, Sir Francis Bacon, Goethe, Gaugin, Cocteau, Nietzche and King Ludwig the Mad. But none of those claims were ever proven. Today some Christian Fundamentalists who see pro-Satanic conspiracies under every bed, point to the Illuminati as proof.<br /> <br /> 1786- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO premiered in Vienna. So many encores and bows were demanded that the evening went on twice as long.<br /> <br /> 1798- The Birth of American Industry- Cotton Gin maker Eli Whitney proposed<br /> to the U.S. government that he could make the army 10,000 muskets by a new automated <br /> machine process. He gets the contract, but delivers only 500, many of them<br /> handmade the old fashioned way. The first Defense department cost overrun.<br /> <br /> 1813- On the first day of the Saxon Campaign outside of Bautzen Germany, one<br /> of Napoleon's top generals, Marshal Bessieres, is struck dead by a rebounding<br /> cannonball. Marshal Ney stood over him and said:" It's a Good Death. It's OUR kind of<br /> Death!" Bessieres was one of the last of his generation to wear his hair long, powdered white and in a tied ponytail, long after it was out of fashion.<br /> <br /> 1851- Queen Victoria and Prince Albert open the Great Exhibition of 1851 at the new Crystal Palace in Hyde Park. This first World's Fair would last until October and have exhibits and inventions from all around the world. Many European crowned heads stayed away for fear of all their revolutionary exiles England had given asylum. A touching moment was when the Chinese ambassador did a public kowtow or prostrated himself before the Queen, symbolizing China's submission to England. The fact that the diplomat wasn't a diplomat but a local London resident named Hai Sing who gave tours of his junk on the Thames for a shilling didn't seem to bother anybody. The Queen at one point was frantic that the Crystal Palace was attracting hordes of sparrows whose droppings were covering the glass roof with an unwanted glazing. The elderly Duke of Wellington came upon a solution: "Try sparrow hawks, M'am."<br /> <br /> 1863- The Confederate Congress reacted to the Union Army enlisting black soldiers by passing a resolution that any African-American captured in battle would be considered a slave in insurrection and hanged. I can’t recall any such executions taking place but in several battles Rebs refused to take black soldiers prisoner and just killed them outright. This did not deter 180,000 black volunteers, 85% of the eligible free black male population joining up to fight.<br /> <br /> 1869- LEE &amp; GRANT MEET AGAIN- Four years after the Civil War ended, Ulysses Grant was U.S. President, and Robert E. Lee was dean of Washington University. They had not seen each other since Appomattox. Grant invited Lee to the White House where they sat together and chatted amiably for an hour. No one was allowed to hear or record what they said to each other. On the train passing through Arlington was the only time Lee saw his family home, now in the center of a giant national cemetery. He said nothing about it. Robert E. Lee died of heart disease the following year, Grant of throat cancer in 1885.<br /> <br /> 1886- MAYDAY- In most of the world except the U.S. this is Labor Day. Ironically the tanks and red banners that used to parade in Red Square and Havana celebrated events that began in the United States. In 1886- The Knights of Labor- an underground movement of unions came out in the open and announced itself America's first national labor organization. On this day they called for strikes against all employers who wouldn't grant an 8-hour workday. The norm in America then was 12 hours, 7am to 7pm six days a week. 500,000 people go out on 1,700 strikes and paralyze the nation's economy. The authorities crushed the strikes with violence, shootings, arrests and firings with a brutality that shocked the rest of the world. Karl Marx said: " Isn't it amazing what's happening in America ?” The 8 hour day doesn't become normal in America until 1913. <br /> <br /> 1889- in Europe the International Socialist Congress declaring itself in sympathy with the embattled American worker designated May 1st as International Worker's Day. In 1894 American Federation of Labor, a less militant successor to the Knights, asked President Cleveland to move Labor Day from May 1st to the end of August. This was so people can have a holiday between Independence Day and Thanksgiving, but also a Labor Day free of "radical politics".<br /> <br /> 1893- The WORLD COLUMBIAN EXHIBITION opened in Chicago. A great White City topped by the first Ferris Wheel, a giant that carried passengers higher than the crown of the Statue of Liberty. World’s Fairs then still had a certain amount of cheap sensationalist burlesque to attract customers uninterested in dynamos and new farming exhibits. Walt Disney’s father Elias worked as a carpenter building the exhibits. Candy maker Milton Hershey inspected some new German milk chocolate machines and was inspired to build his business around chocolate. This exhibition was made famous by the erotic gyrations of belly dancer Little Egypt. the famous tune "In the Land of Oz, Where the Ladies Smoke Cigars" was not written in Egypt but by a local songwriter named Joe Blume. Also the serial killer H.H. Holmes. It also displayed the World’s Largest Red Cedar Bucket, then filled with lager beer. In 2001, I had the pleasure of seeing the Bucket at Murfreesboro Tennessee, minus the beer.<br /> <br /> 1894- COXEY'S ARMY- Retired colonel Jacob Coxey called himself a spokesman for underprivileged. He led several marches of thousands of hungry, unemployed to Washington DC, proclaiming themselves The Army of the Commonwealth of Christ. On the steps of Capitol he loudly demanded workers compensation, unemployment insurance and national works projects to put the unemployed back to work. All these goals were achieved by the New Deal in 1933. For now, all Jacob Coxey got was 20 days in jail for disturbing the peace.<br /> <br /> 1898- BATTLE OF MANILA BAY- Admiral Dewey's fleet sank the Spanish fleet when<br /> he gives the order to the captain of the USS Olympia :"You may fire when ready, Gridley:" I'm sorry, Bugs Bunny didn't say it first. The Spanish admiral Marquis de Montijo is remembered in Spain as a hero for even trying to engage the Americans with his outdated and outgunned fleet. Forgoing the support of shore batteries he deliberately drew his ships up away from the city of Manila so civilians wouldn't get hurt in the battle and his ships could sink in shallow water. Hundreds of Spanish sailors were killed but the only Yankee who died was an engineer who had a heart attack from all the excitement.<br /> <br /> 1902- Richard Outcault's comic strip Buster Brown and Tige first appeared. Outcault, the creator of the first hit cartoon the Yellow Kid was so famous that as part of his deal to do this strip he negotiated the first back-end deal for a percentage of the merchandise sales.<br /> <br /> 1914-THE BIRTH OF THE BIG BLUE- Thomas Watson got a job at a little business machine company called CTR, the Calculating Typewriter and Regulating Company. He quickly rose to the top and renamed the company International Business Machine or IBM. When he retired in 1956 it employed 60,000 workers, and was one of largest companies in the world.<br /> <br /> 1926- Famed black baseball pitcher Satchel Page pitched his first game. His nickname came from Satchel-mouth.<br /> <br /> 1930- Marry Harris- aka Mother Jones, union activist and child labor crusader made her last speech on her 100th birthday: " I was born of the struggle, of torment and pain. A child of the wheel, a brat of the cogs, a woman of the dust. Whenever a worker weeps tears of blood, I am his remedy!"<br /> <br /> 1931- The Empire State Building in New York dedicated. For fifty years it was the worlds tallest office building and King Kong’s hangout. It’s topmost deck was designed to be a dirigible mooring post, but despite several tries, no zeppelin has ever been able to park there. A Goodyear Blimp attempted mooring there in 1976 but the high winds bobbed it around like a bucking bronco. The building was dedicated during the depths of the Great Depression when business was so bad it was nicknamed the 'Empty State Building'.<br /> <br /> 1935- Lou Gehrig, the Yankee "Iron Man" who had never missed a baseball game, takes himself out of a game because of illness. It is the first sign of the degenerative muscular disease ALS, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, that would soon be called Lou Gehrig's Disease.<br /> <br /> 1939- The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia exports its first barrel of crude oil.<br /> <br /> 1941- Orson Welles film "Citizen Kane" debuted at the Paramount theater (the El Capitan) in Hollywood. At the last minute William Randolph Hearst's friend Louis B. Mayer tried to buy and destroy every print of the film and the Hearst press went crazy attacking it. Hearst spokesperson Louella Parsons threatened "A Beautiful Lawsuit" if the film was not pulled. Despite winning some Oscars, the film didn't do well in its initial release, but it remains one of the greatest films of all time. Orson Welles said later:" The problem I've always had is my movies become classics ten years later."<br /> <br /> 1942- The last execution by hanging at San Quentin Federal Prison.<br /> <br /> 1945- THE SECOND FUEHRER- Grand Admiral Doenitz, leader of the U-boat campaigns is informed of Hitler's death, and that he was the Fuehrer's handpicked successor. Hitler was mad at Himmler and Goring, and everybody else had shot themselves. Doenitz was leader of what was left of the Third Reich for 23 days. Even with Berlin fallen his country overrun by allied armies, he deliberately dragged-out negotiations so he could smuggle as many people as he could away west to the Anglo-American zones.<br /> <br /> 1960- THE U-2 INCIDENT Soviet authorities shoot down a high observation U-2 spy plane violating Soviet airspace and capture the pilot Francis Gary Powers. Ironically President Eisenhower had ordered a halt to the U-2 spy program but the Pentagon tried to get one more flight in. After 1989 the US Government admitted the overflights of Russian airspace had been going on since 1950. <br /> In those ten years the Soviets had shot down around 20 planes with a loss of 100 U.S. servicemen killed or sent to die in Siberian Gulags, ignored by their government to whom they did not officially exist. Powers’s plane was hit and disintegrated. He fell 70,000 feet but miraculously he survived. Before he was captured he at first hitchhiked a ride from a Russian couple going to a wedding. They saw nothing strange in the uniformed man and when they noticed he couldn’t speak Russian in the middle of Russia, they decided he must be Bulgarian.<br /> <br /> 1964- Scientist John Kemeny at Dartmouth created the computer language BASIC.<br /> <br /> 1967- Elvis Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu at the Aladdin casino in Las Vegas.<br /> <br /> 1989- Walt Disney Feature Animation in Orlando Florida opened. It closed in 2006.<br /> <br /> 1993- The Florida Animation Union Local 843 chartered. <br /> <br /> 1997- Frank Gifford, ABC television sportscaster and husband of morning show celebrity Kathy Lee Gifford, was caught on videotape doing the nasty with stewardess Suzie Johnson. She got paid by a tabloid and posed nude for Playboy.<br /> <br /> 1997- Bebe, the dolphin who played Flipper on the television show, died at age 40.<br /> <br /> 1997- Tony Blair defeated Tory John Major to become Prime Minister of Britain.<br /> <br /> 1999- Spongebob Squarepants premiered on Nickelodeon. <br /> <br /> 2003- MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. President George W. Bush landed a military jet onto the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to deliver a speech declaring the war in Iraq to be officially over. In the next 8 years thousands more Americans would be killed and wounded. A large banner on the carrier read Mission Accomplished. The White House said it was set up spontaneously by crewmen to celebrate, but later admitted it was planned, printed and hung bo order of the president’s men. <br /> <br /> 2004- The European Union expanded from thirteen to twenty-five countries, including Estonia and Malta.<br /> <br /> 2005- The Sunday Times of London first printed the Downing Street Memo. It was minutes of a meeting between US and British strategists, that proved that the Bush White House was irrevocably set on attacking Iraq and removing Saddam Hussein in July 2002. This while the official position of the Bush Administration was that they were only going to war as a last resort. <br /> In an earlier generation, the Downing St. Memo would have been as important as the Watergate Smoking Gun, but the docile US news media buried its importance, and a blizzard of conservative spin.<br /> <br /> 3019TA- Aragorn II was crowned King of Gondor (according to Tolkien)<br /> ===============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean to be stuck in a rut? <br /> <br /> Answer: In the days of wagon wheels, a rut is a crevice usually made by consistently repeated passing of heavy vehicles over an unpaved path or road. Being stuck in a rut means to continue an action that is unproductive, but habitual and difficult to stop. <br /> <br /> .</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 30 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6138 <p>Quiz: What does it mean to be stuck in a rut? What’s a rut?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Before it was a movie, who first wrote the story of Snow White?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/30/2023<br /> Birthdays: Elector Johann-Frederich the Magnanimous, Franz Lehar, Joachim von Ribbentropp, Max Skladanowsky, Jaroslav Hasek, Eve Arden, Jill Clayburgh, Alice B. Toklas, Isaiah Thomas, Cloris Leachman, Jane Campion, Al Lewis, Bill Plympton is 76, Lars von Trier, Burt Young is 83, Kirsten Dunst is 41, Gal Gadot is 38. <br /> <br /> In ancient Egypt today was Shem El Nessim, Wake up and Smell the Breeze Day, The first recorded Spring Festival in history. As part of the holiday, Egyptians ate a small dried fermented fish called Fessig, which they thought prevented diseases blown in by the desert. Another custom was painting eggs. (hmm….?)<br /> <br /> WALPURGISNACHT- In the Hartz Mountains of Germany the eve the Feast Day of St. Walpurga the demon chaser is a Halloween kind of party, when the Devil can romp for a night. <br /> <br /> 535A.D. THE STRANGULATION OF ARMALASUNTHA, queen of the Ostrogoths. One hundred years after the fall of Rome, the nomadic Gothic peoples had settled in Southern Europe. The West-Goths or Visigoths across southern France and Spain, the East Goths or Ostrogoth’s across central Italy under their leader Totilla. <br /> But Totilla had now died and his Vandal wife Armalasuntha was trying to fend off rivals to her throne. She had concluded and alliance with the Byzantine Emperor Justinian just before she was overthrown and killed by Totilla’s brother Witimer. She was supposedly strangled in her bath, the latest fad among barbarians (baths I mean, they always had strangulation). <br /> Justinian used her death as the pretext to invade Italy and try and recover the western half of the old Roman Empire. The Ostrogothic nation was at last destroyed by the Byzantine general Narses, who was a eunuch-little person the character in Game of Thrones was based on. But the Roman Empire was not recovered and stayed fallen.<br /> <br /> 1524- The Chevalier Bayard, called the Knight without Equal and above Reproach, was killed covering the French rearguard after the battle of Romagnano. Bayard was considered the last of the great Knights of the Realm. France used his death to count as the End of the Middle Ages. Fittingly, the armored knight was shot by a rifle- a harquebus to be exact. When the fatal bullet struck him, Bayard drew his sword and kissed the handle skyward as a sign of the Cross. <br /> As the Chevalier’s remains were brought out of Italy to Grenoble, simple peasants came out to carry the coffin aloft from hand to hand for miles. At a time when nobles were despised, Bayard was beloved of all people.<br /> <br /> 1598- Conquistador Don Juan de Onate claims for Spain all of "New Mexico", a province comprising all of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah and California. He began an aggressive colonization policy among the Pueblo Indians.<br /> <br /> 1789- THE FIRST INAUGURATION of the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Wearing a suit of Connecticut homespun and a sword on his hip, George Washington was sworn in on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York as the first President. <br /> John Hancock and John Adams were annoyed that they weren't made first president before him. Thomas Jefferson originally thought the position of elected ruler ridiculous "So they've saddled us with a Polish King." (The Kings of Poland at the time were elected figureheads with little power). Jefferson was made first Secretary of State. He felt the position was so useless since America had no foreign policy he asked to also be made attorney general so he could do something else to pass the time. Alexander Hamilton wanted to be first Secretary of the Treasury so he could manipulate it into something resembling a Prime Minister. This was the way the Exchequer had evolved in England. At the same time Vice President Adams was hoping for the same kind of power.<br /> But Washington had his own ideas. His animosity with Adams may explain why the Vice Presidency evolved into the useless position it is. And Congress set up the Ways and Means Committee to curb the autocratic methods of Hamilton's Treasury Department. It's amazing that despite all this intrigue the system worked out the way it did.... <br /> <br /> 1803- THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE - Spain had governed Louisiana since the French defeat in the Seven Years War. At first Napoleon Bonaparte dreamt of rebuilding France’s colonial empire. But after his naval defeats and the long war against rebels in Haiti, he soured on the idea. He had duped the King of Spain into giving him back Louisiana in exchange for the Italian Duchy of Parma. The King of Spain’s only stipulation was that should France ever wish to unload Louisiana it must come back to Spain. Napoleon said:" Trust Me!" Then figured he could do the British most damage by selling it to the Yankees. Spain never did get Parma. <br /> The US wanted to buy New Orleans from France the way they bought Alabama from Spain and Maine from England. America's nightmare was England taking Louisiana from France the way they took away Canada in 1759. Then American expansion would be permanently confined to the east coast and the U.S. would be a one time zone country. Napoleon decided not just to sell them The Big Easy but the entire Midwest up to Montana! At the stroke of a pen the land mass of the United States doubled. Such a deal! <br /> Napoleon later wrote: "I have confirmed the might of the United States and in her raised a Rival to England, that will one day Humble her Pride!"<br /> <br /> 1859- CAMARONE DAY- National Holiday of the French Foreign Legion.<br /> It commemorates a battle during the French Empire in Mexico. 175 legionaries were attacked at a little ranchero called Camarone by thousands of Juaristas. The legionaries fought until only 12 were left alive with no more bullets. When the Mexican commander called upon them to surrender, Capt. Danjou ordered "Fix bayonets and Charge!" <br /> Today the wooden hand of Capt. Danjou is a relic at the Legions headquarters outside Marseilles. Since then, to do a gutsy action in Legion parlance is a Camarone. In 1951 in Korea when the Foreign Legion rose from their trenches to fight hand to hand with attacks of Red Chinese soldiers, their cry was "Camarone! "<br /> <br /> 1897- English Professor J.J Thompson discovered a subatomic particle 100 times smaller than a proton. He called it a 'corpusle' but later changed it to ' The Electron'. <br /> <br /> 1900- John Luther Jones, called CASEY JONES died in a spectacular train crash near Vaughn Mississippi. Jones' freight train was running 75 minutes late so he stoked up his engine to 100 mph. Suddenly a switching error put a passenger train in his path. Jones stayed at the controls trying to stop the train while his crew jumped to safety. There was a head on collision but because of Jone’s bravery his was the only death. A brakeman later wrote the famous folksong. <br /> Union activists prefer to remember that Jones was a strikebreaker running his train recklessly in defiance of a strike to impress his employers. The union still paid his widow his $3000 dollar life insurance. Folksinger Joe Hill in his song "Casey Jones the Union Scab." tells how when he went to heaven, the Angel’s Union Local #23 "fired Casey down the Golden Stair."<br /> <br /> 1902- The first ice cream cone was served at the St. Louis Worlds Fair. Los Angeles claims it was first.<br /> <br /> 1905- At Evansville Illinois, future baseball umpire Cy Rigler began the practice of raising his right arm to indicate strikes, so that friends in the outfield could distinguish calls. <br /> <br /> 1916- The Chicago Cubs played their first game in Wrigley Field, then called Weegman Park. <br /> <br /> 1934- In Berlin hotel, Chancellor Adolf Hitler met Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, who showed him the plans for a cheap inexpensive car the average German worker could afford. The KdF Wagen, A people’s car or Volkswagen. It would become the VW beetle. One of the designers who contributed to the project, Josef Ganz, was outed as a Jew and had to flee the country.<br /> <br /> 1939- The 1939 World’s Fair opened in Flushing Meadows, NY. The Trylon &amp; Perisphere presided over the gleaming Art-Deco paean to optimism, even as the world waited nervously for Hitler’s next move. With President Franklin D. Roosevelt in attendance the NBC network began regular television broadcasting. It only went to a few homes. Experts were not optimistic." It requires a darkened room and constant attention." one said.<br /> <br /> 1943- During WWII this day the dead body of an American Major named Martin washed up on a beach in Italy. On the intelligence officer’s body was found sensitive documents outline the coming Allied Invasion of Italy through Sardinia. But it was a fake. It was all an elaborate hoax set up by the Allies to fool Nazi strategists on their intentions. The body used was an unidentified corpse. It worked. In July when the Anglo-American forces invaded Sicily many of the German heavy forces were far away in Sardinia.<br /> <br /> 1945- BERLIN FALLS. Sergeants Yegorov and Kantariya raised the red flag over the Reichstag as the last Nazi resistance in the capitol was stamped out. After a late supper of spaghetti and a tossed salad Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun bit down on cyanide capsules and Hitler put a Walthur PPK pistol in his mouth and pulled the trigger. Dr. Josef Goebbels and his family took poison but secretary Martin Bormann decided to take his chances making a run for it. For years it was thought he had made it to Latin America, but in the late 1980's excavations in Berlin found his skeleton under a collapsed building crouching behind a tank. <br /> Hitler even left instructions to have his Alsatian dog Blondi poisoned. The bodies were taken out to a ditch and burned with gasoline. A famous photo of a dead man with a Hitler mustache, was in reality a body double shown to the Russians to throw them off the track. Today, Adolf Hitlers’ skull is sitting in a filing cabinet in Moscow somewhere.<br /> When Marshal Zhukov informed Soviet leader Josef Stalin by telephone of Hitler's death, Uncle Joe said:" Doigralsya, podlets!" So, that's the end of the bastard!" <br /> <br /> Soviet troops found in Hitler’s office that he did possess a large world globe like Charlie Chaplin’s film The Great Dictator. The globe had arrows drawn in red pen pointed at England and the United States with Hitler’s handwritten notes "Look out! Here I come!". Russians covered the Reich Chancellery building with graffiti- the most popular being "Svenia went to Berlin" a version of the American "Kilroy was Here". <br /> <br /> 1945- "Arthur Godfrey Time" debuts on CBS radio. Godfrey was a local Washington D.C. deejay who gained nationwide fame for his emotional coverage of the funeral of FDR. He then went from radio to television, hosting the first regularly successful television entertainment program. Godfrey in later life got increasingly hard on his employees and in an infamous incident actually fired star singer Julius LaRosa live on the air. <br /> <br /> 1948- The first civilian Land Rover automobiles produced.<br /> <br /> 1952- Mr. Potato Head became the first toy advertised on television. Over one million kits were be sold in the first year. Originally invented by George Lerner in 1949 to stick faces on real vegetables, Mr. Potato Head was sold to brothers Henry and Merrill Hassenfeld in 1951 (the creators of the toy company Hasbro, Hass-Bros, get it?). In 2000 Rhode Island declared itself the Mr. Potato Head State. The Hasbro Toy Company is headquartered in Pawtucket, a city just outside of Providence.<br /> <br /> 1953- Frank Sinatra did his first session at Capitol Records with Nelson Riddle. This is the first recording of crooner Sinatra’s mature style. <br /> <br /> 1961- In Moscow, Lee Harvey Oswald married Marina Prusakova. He later moved back to the US and became the assassin of President John Kennedy.<br /> <br /> 1970- President Nixon announced the U.S. invasion of Cambodia. The announcement from a President who ran on a Peace platform was greeted by an explosion of nationwide anti-war protests, climaxing in the Kent State murders. <br /> <br /> 1973- The Saturday Night Massacre. As the Watergate Scandal accelerated, President Nixon told his senior White House Staff- H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, Nicholas Katzenbach and attorney general John Mitchell, that they were all fired.<br /> <br /> 1975 -SAIGON FELL. As Huey helicopters lifted the last evacuees off of the US embassy roof, the South Vietnamese capitol city Saigon was taken by the Communist North Vietnamese army. Because initial rocket attacks had damaged the airports runways, all evacuation had to be done by helicopter. The signal to begin was Saigon radio played Bing Crosby’s “ White Christmas”. Over 7,000 people were airlifted out by helicopter to the U.S. fleet, the largest helicopter evacuation ever. <br /> One of the last out was US ambassador William Martin, with the Stars &amp; Stripes folded under his jacket. As North Vietnamese Colonel Bui Thin accepted the surrender of the city he told acting South Vietnamese President Big Minh “ Do not be sad. Only the Americans are defeated. Consider this a moment of Joy.” The Vietnam War, which had been raging on and off for 25 years, finally ended. Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City. <br /> <br /> 1976- After completing his work on the Rescuers, Disney animator Milt Kahl retired. Shortly after Ralph Bakshi called him and offered him a job on his project Lord of the Rings. Milt replied, “ Thanks, but no thanks. If I wanted to keep doing shit I would’ve stayed at Disney.”<br /> <br /> 1980- Bert Lance, White House budget director for President Jimmy Carter was cleared of nine charges of fraud. Lance had once explained the economy thus: " Think of the Inflationary Spiral as a giant corkscrew and think of yourselves as the cork."<br /> <br /> 1988- Tom Hanks married actress Rita Wilson.<br /> <br /> 1992- BERN, the Geneva particle lab where the World Wide Web was developed by Tim Berners-Lee, declared that WWW, aka The Web, would be open and free to all with no restrictions or royalties to be paid to them.<br /> <br /> 1993- In Hamburg, young tennis star Monica Seles had just completed a match when lunatic fan Gunter Parche jumped out of the crowd and stabbed her in the back with a knife. He didn’t want Monica to overtake Stephy Graff, whom he was stalking. Monica Seles recovered and resumed competition but never again regained her world championship poise. Parche spent a little time in prison but was soon released. Stephy Graff did stay the number one seed.<br /> <br /> 1993- The Walt Disney Company announced its’ purchase of top independent film producer Miramax. They produced films like The Crying Game. Ten years later a feud with Michael Eisner caused Miramax founders the Weinstein brothers to leave and form The Weinstein Company. By the time Miramax was sold off in 2010, it was a shadow of its former self.<br /> <br /> 1997- In the last show of the season, comedian Ellen Degenere’s character Ellen admits to Laura Dern that she’s gay. Disney promptly canceled the Ellen Show. Ellen returns with a talk show that became even more popular.<br /> <br /> 2011- At the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, President Obama kept the mood light by poking fun of Donald Trump that he might run for president. Trump never cracked a smile, and resolved there and then he would run for President. As president he ignored the correspondents dinner every year, the only president in a century. Pres. Biden renewed the custom.<br /> <br /> 2012- The Freedom Tower, was the building made to replace the destroyed World Trade Center. This day its height surpassed that of the Empire State Building, to be the tallest building in New York.<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Before it was a movie, who first wrote the story of Snow White?<br /> <br /> <br /> Answer: The Brothers Grimm in 1812. They collected the stories from old German folk tales.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 29 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6137 <p>Question: Before it was a movie, who first wrote the story of Snow White?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: “Death, Where is thy sting?” Who wrote that?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/29/2023<br /> Birthdays: Emperor Hirohito, Duke Ellington, Duke Wellington, Sir Thomas Beacham, Zuben Mehta is 87, Tom Ewell, Rod McKuen, Fred Zinneman, Jerry Seinfeld is 69, Michelle Pfeiffer is 65, Daniel Day Lewis is 66, Uma Thurman is 52, Willie Nelson is 90<br /> <br /> Today is the feast day of the Patron Saint of Italy, Saint Catherine of Sienna.<br /> <br /> 1429- At around 8:00 PM, the Royal French Army entered the City of Orleans surrounded on three sides by the besieging English. The torchlight glinted off the armor of the great warriors like the Duke Du Alencon, Giles Des Rais, Etienne LaVignoles” the Angry-One”. But all eyes were on their warchief, a little 17 year old peasant girl in white armor- Joan La Pucelle, Joan the Maid. Since she was illiterate she immediately dictated a letter to the English army: “Surrender to The Maid, sent by God the King of Heaven, the keys to all the French towns you have despoiled and go home!” People asked her, “Do you hate the English?” She replied, “ I love the English, in England!”<br /> <br /> 1749- In Philadelphia inventor Ben Franklin hosted a dinner party where he used his new battery to electrocute the turkeys to be roasted for the amusement of his guests.<br /> <br /> 1771- Artist Benjamin West unveils his painting of the “Death of General Wolfe” at the Royal Academy in London. Wolfe was killed in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, which decided that Canada would be English. West’s portrayal of Wolfe in his actual uniform instead an idealized Grecian god surrounded by floating cherubs, was considered scandalously realistic, and revolutionized painting.<br /> <br /> 1786- The day before his opera THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO was to premiere, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sat down after dinner and wrote the famous overture. Friends said he liked to think while playing billiards.<br /> <br /> 1818- The ARBUTHNOT &amp; ARMBRUISTER INCIDENT- Henry Arbuthnot was a 70 year old British merchant who sympathized with the Seminole Indians of Florida. Together with a former Major Armbruister they aided this tribe in its struggle with the expanding United States. When U.S. Gen. Andy Jackson invaded Spanish Florida in 1818 he captured these men. Jackson nursed a hatred of English people since as a young boy in the Revolution his home was burned and he was slashed with a saber by a redcoat officer. Jackson’s mother and older brother died in an English prison. <br /> So, Jackson was not interested in hearing about native rights or the eccentricities of Britishers. He executed them on the spot, hanging old Arbuthnot from the mast of his own schooner. This mistreatment of foreign nationals proved an embarrassment to President Monroe and earned Jackson a reputation for cruelty that would follow him to his own presidential runs. <br /> <br /> 1856- The US CAMEL CORPS- The first shipment of 33 Egyptian camels arrived in Camp Verde, Texas. It was an idea of Secty of War Jefferson Davis. The Spanish brought horses to America. Why not camels? They have deserts. We have deserts. The First U.S. Dromedary Corps was set up under a Lt. Beale, to run a camel train from the Texas Gulf Coast to Ft. Tejon, just north of Los Angeles. After one or two initial trips, the idea was scrapped by the Civil War. The camels were let loose, but never really took to multiplying in the wild, like horses and donkeys did. <br /> <br /> 1861- "All we wish is to be left alone." In a speech Southern President Jefferson Davis spells out the policy of the Confederacy with regard to the war with the United States. The speech was aimed at Britain and France for international support. Davis was adopting the traditional defensive strategy of insurgents, that not being crushed out of existence is a victory in itself. However by yielding the initiative and not occupying Washington D.C. after the U.S. army was destroyed at Bull Run, the rebels probably lost their best chance to win the Civil War. <br /> <br /> 1863- General Stonewall Jackson had spent the last three weeks peacefully enjoying the company of his wife Ann and his baby boy. They had celebrated his 38th birthday together. On this day Jackson received word that the Yankee Army was on the move. He said good bye to his family and rode off. When Ann saw him next, he was dying.<br /> <br /> 1914- THE SILENT PROTEST- Writer Upton Sinclair gained national prominence as an activist by standing with other intellectuals silently in front of the Standard Oil headquarters in Washington D.C. The protest was to accuse the company of the infamous Ludlow Massacre, when company hired vigilantes set upon a camp of striking unionists and murdered them and their families including 11 children. When loud protests in front of Standard Oil’s office were outlawed by DC marshals, Sinclair resorted to this silent protest.<br /> <br /> 1916- The phase of World War I in Mesopotamia (Iraq) effectively ended when Lord Townshend surrendered his Anglo-Indian invasion force to the Turks after being surrounded at the Iraqi city of Kut.<br /> <br /> 1929- The film "All's Quiet on the Western Front" premiered. The World War I battlefield was constructed on a California ranch and dozens of real veterans hired to be extras. When the antiwar film debuted in Germany, Nazis agitators were sent out to Berlin theaters to release rats, skunks and snakes in the theaters to scare people away. The star of the movie Lew Ayres ruined his career when he declared himself a conscientious objector during World War II. <br /> <br /> 1939- It’s strangely ironic that Adolf Hitler’s Government while murdering millions also waged the first campaigns against smoking. This day the Nazi Party officially banned smoking in all their offices because of health concerns. The rest of the world wouldn’t even begin to think of linking cancer with cigarette smoking until the 1960’s.<br /> <br /> 1944- Dancing Romeos, the last Our Gang comedy short was produced by MGM, which had bought the franchise in 1938 from Hal Roach.<br /> <br /> 1945- ADOLPH AND EVA'S WEDDING- With the Red Army knocking on the door, Adolph Hitler and Eva Braun get married in their bunker. They celebrate by having dinner of spaghetti and a small green salad and then commit suicide. <br /> <br /> 1945- DACHAU liberated- American combat troops of the 42th Rainbow Division shot their way into the concentration camp and liberated 32,000 survivors like future Nobel Laureate Eli Weisel. <br /> The Americans were so horrified by the nightmare they found, including 30 railroad cars packed with decomposing corpses, that when a clean cut, blonde haired SS commander surrendered by snapping a crisp Sieg-Heil salute, the American major he had directed it to pulled out his pistol and shot him dead on the spot. 346 SS guards were killed by the U.S. troops and camp survivors. <br /> Many of the U.S. troops there were African American and Nisei (Japanese American) so when the newsreels sent back images back home, they were careful to film the backs of their helmets, so you didn't see their faces.<br /> <br /> 1950- MGM chief Louis B. Mayer fired Frank Sinatra for making a joke about him. Mayer had hurt his hip riding, and Sinatra joked he got hurt not from falling off his horse, but falling off Ginny Simms, a young actress Mayer was chasing. <br /> <br /> 1962- President John Kennedy hosted a dinner for a group of Nobel Prize winners at the White House. Kennedy said: “ I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent and human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined here alone.”<br /> <br /> 1975- In the wee hours of the morning Communist North Vietnamese began their final assault on the South Vietnamese capitol of Saigon. Missiles struck the runway at Tahn Sun Nhut Airport, so the big Air Force C-130 cargo planes could not land. The evacuation out to the US 7th Fleet offshore would be done all by helicopters. It was the biggest helicopter airlift in history. The signal on the radio to begin the air evacuation was when Saigon radio began broadcasting Bing Crosby’s recording of White Christmas.<br /> <br /> 1981-Marylin Barnett “outs” tennis champion Mrs. Billy Jean King, the most famous American female athlete of her time. She said they had a lesbian affair for seven years.<br /> <br /> 1986- Los Angeles Central Library burns down. A lot of the costs of rebuilding was raised by private donation, much raised by a wild local televangelist named Dr. Gene Scott. Scott would preach his own strange brand of Bible study while smoking a cigar and wearing funny hats on camera. He also liked to laugh at other evangelists.<br /> <br /> 1988- On this day many Midwestern evangelicals awaited the Rapture and Apocalypse that the Bible foretold within one generation of the restoration of the Temple -- which<br /> they took to mean within forty years of the re-institution of the Nation of<br /> Israel... and guess what? We're still here. <br /> <br /> 1992- THE GREAT LOS ANGELES RIOT- Los Angelenos go berserk after an all-white jury in Simi Valley acquitted four policemen who beat up drunk motorist Rodney King while being videotaped. 63 killed, 2500 businesses destroyed, $1.5 billion dollars in damage, 13,200 arrests and large sections of Los Angeles put under martial law. Even Rodney King was moved to go on TV and proclaim: " Can't we all just get along?" <br /> Part of the reason the disturbance spun out of control was the autocratic chief of the LAPD, Darryl Gates, was incommunicado for several hours at the beginning of the crisis at a fundraising party in Bel Air to get money to fund his quarrel with Mayor Tom Bradley. One irony was the loot-crazed mob ran right past the L.A. County Art Museum to sack a Mays department store on the next corner. I guess they felt that there was nothing of value in it, which is in agreement with many art critics. The Beverly Hills Police, a separate entity, kept the peace by simply arresting everyone they saw. <br /> <br /> 2001- Pioneer 10 was a space probe launched to the outer planets in 1972. After sending the first photos of Jupiter and Pluto in 1973, Pioneer 10 left our solar system and headed for deep space in 1997. It is aimed at the Constellation Taurus. On this day 7 billion miles away Pioneer 10 phoned home to say it was fine. Its last message was received in 2003. I wonder if it asked if Richard Nixon was still president?<br /> <br /> 2004- The last Oldsmobile made, was ending the 106 year old line.<br /> <br /> 2011- Prince William married Catherine (Cate) Middleton in Westminster Abbey.<br /> ==============================================================<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: “Death, Where is thy sting?” Who wrote that?<br /> <br /> Answer: Saint Paul in Corinthians 15:55-58. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 28 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6136 <p>Quiz: “ Death, Where is thy sting?” Who wrote that?<br /> <br /> Answer to Yesterdays Quiz- Why is a traitor called a turncoat?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/28/2023<br /> Birthdays: English King Edward IV (1442), President James Monroe, Lionel Barrymore, Oskar Schindler, Carolyn Jones-aka Morticia Addams of the TV Addams Family, Ann Margret is 82, Jay Leno is 73, Saddam Hussein, Jean Redpath, James Baker III, Penelope Cruz is 49, Jessica Alba is 44, Godzilla is 69- see below.<br /> <br /> 357AD- Roman Emperor Constantius II visited Rome for the first time. Like his father Constantine he was now ruling the Empire from Constantinople. Later Western emperors preferred to rule from Milan for faster access to the Rhine or Danube frontiers.<br /> <br /> 1192- CONRAD OF MONFERRAT WAS SLAIN BY THE ASSASSINS OF ALAMUT-<br /> The word "assassin" comes from "hash-a-shin" or "eaters of Hashish". Their leader Sheik Ibn-Abdel Sinan, was called "The Old Man of the Mountain", established his murder cult on a mountaintop fortress in Iran. He got his followers stoned in a pleasure garden filled with pretty girls, telling them they had just spent time in Paradise. And if they were good he’d let them in for more visits. This is why his followers so fanatically devoted that all Abdel Sinan had to do is point, and a man would leap off the battlements to his death. <br /> <br /> Sheik Abdel Sinan ran his sect like an extortion racket throughout the Middle East. In exchange for gold, he wouldn't have one of his stoned followers knife you. When the Crusaders arrived in the Holyland, no one told them about this system. So when Conrad laughed off the Assassin's emissary, he was stabbed by hitmen disguised as Christian monks. <br /> <br /> Conrad was the other leader of the Third Crusade with Richard Lionheart and Phillip Augustus of France. Many believed Richard paid Abdel Sinan to murder Conrad. That's the reason King Richard was imprisoned on his way home by Leopold of Austria, Conrad's uncle. The Assassins were finally exterminated a century later by the Mongols, whose horde happened to be riding by when they thought their fortress would be good practice to destroy.<br /> <br /> 1376-The Good Parliament- English parliaments in the Middles Ages were held so rarely that they were remembered by nicknames "The Rump, The Mad, The Thoroughly Bollucks'd-Up, etc. This parliament achieved new rights by electing the first speaker and demanding the impeachment of a bad minister who was an appointee of the King.<br /> <br /> 1686- Sir Issac Newton published the first volume of his Principia Mathematica, outlining the Theory of Gravity. The earliest account of the apple story was in 1738. Voltaire writing about Newton claimed his niece told him when the scientist had left Cambridge for the country during the Great Plague of 1666- "He observed an apple falling from a tree and fell into a deep meditation on what was this force that drew all objects in a straight line that until interrupted would continue to the center of the Earth."<br /> <br /> 1789- THE MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY. The HMS Bounty had been sent around the world to bring back breadfruit samples to see if the plant could be a nutritional supplement for slave laborers in Jamaica and Bermuda. During the return voyage from Tahiti the crew led by first mate Fletcher Christian, set upon Captain William Bligh, and set him adrift in a rowboat to die. They then sail with their Tahitian families to settle permanently on an island. <br /> They choose Pitcairn Island because of its remoteness. Squabbles arose among the British and natives and their leader Fletcher Christian was killed while tending his sweet potatoes. Today a majority of the island’s inhabitants claim ancestry from the Bounty mutineers. <br /> Captain Bligh got to safety after navigating his little longboat 3,600 nautical miles to East Timor with almost no food, an unparalleled feat of seamanship. He was cleared by an Admiralty board and served with distinction in the Napoleonic Wars, although another ship mutinied on him. On top of everything else, when Bligh got home he discovered his wife had been made pregnant by the nephew of the Duke of Wellington -'Wicked Willy' Wellesley. <br /> Like many 'famous' incidents, this passed by its time with little or no notice. What made the Mutiny on the Bounty world famous was a best-selling novel written in the 1920's by two Americans, Charles Nordoff and James Norton Hall, who met when pilots in the World War I Lafayette Escadrille. Then it became a popular movie with Clark Gable. James Hall’s son , Conrad Hall, grew up to be a famous cinematographer in Hollywood, who won Academy Awards for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Road to Perdition.<br /> <br /> 1813- Marshal Kutusov, the one-eyed Russian general who chased Napoleon out of Russia, died the following year of exhaustion.<br /> <br /> 1828- English monarchs kept a menagerie of exotic animals at the Tower of London. Most were gifts from foreign rulers. Lions, apes, giraffes, canaries, a polar bear and an elephant. By the XIX Century the crown allowed tourists to visit, and it became quite the attraction. When old soldier the Duke of Wellington became Constable of the Tower, he found all the animals and the tourists annoying. The Tower should be a military bastion, not a bloody tourist attraction!<br /> This day all the animals were moved to a new spot in Regents Park, and the London Zoo was created. <br /> <br /> 1881- Notorious gunfighter Billy the Kid had given himself up to New Mexico authorities on condition he would get a fair trial. That fair trial sentenced him to hang. He was being kept shackled in the town of Maisella New Mexico by two deputies. One deputy named Pecos Bob Ollinger enjoyed tormenting the Kid with descriptions of how gruesome his death was going to be- feet kicking in the air, slowly choking, eyes bulging, etc. One night Ollinger left his shotgun by the door and crossed the street to have dinner. <br /> The Kid asked the other deputy to unshackle him so he could use the outhouse. A friend had secretly planted a gun in the outhouse. When Ollinger returned he found his deputy dead and Billy the Kid pointing his shotgun right at his face. "Hello Bob!" the smiling kid said, then he blew his head off.<br /> <br /> 1897- The first distress signal sent by wireless at sea. The S.O.S. (Save Our Ship) code wasn't invented until 1912.<br /> <br /> 1903- William Randolph Hearst married his mistress, Millicent Willson. She and her sister were showgirls who Hearst kept as a mistress for 6 years. Twenty years later he started cheating on her with Marion Davies. <br /> <br /> 1925- Tory minister Mr. Winston Churchill announced in Parliament that Britain was going back on to the Gold Standard. The result was an economic panic, nationwide strikes and a widening of the postwar depression already affecting Germany and France. Churchill's party led by Stanley Baldwin would be kicked out of office in the general election of 1926, and Churchill would remain in political oblivion until 1940.<br /> <br /> 1925- T.S. Elliot landed a job at Faber &amp; Faber Publishing. His enabled the poet to quit his job as a bank teller at Lloyds and get serious about his literary career.<br /> <br /> 1937- Italy’s movie studio Cinecitta’ was dedicated.<br /> <br /> 1944- EXERCISE TIGER-The greatest coup of Axis espionage. German spies discovered that the allies were going to rehearse their D-Day invasion landings off Slapton Sands, England. They sent a surprise attack of torpedo boats across the Channel to catch the defenseless transports packed with troops, bobbing in the water unawares. They sank several, drowning hundreds of men in the 44f degree water. <br /> Another big mistake was many of the GIs were wearing their life belts incorrectly around the waist instead of under the arms so when they leapt into the water the belt was useless and their heavy packs dragged them down. More G.I.s died in this incident than at Utah Beach on D-Day. For many years it was all kept top secret. After WWII, the head of German espionage, Reinhard Gehlen, was given a job in the CIA. <br /> <br /> 1945- BENITO MUSSOLINI DIED- Il Duce was on the run with his mistress Clara Petracci when they were apprehended by a roving band of Italian Partisans and stood up against a wall. Mussolini's last words before the guns went off were: "-But, but Colonel...." My father in the US Army remembered driving into Milan to see his body hanging upside down, with townspeople invited to spit, shoot at or otherwise insult his corpse.<br /> <br /> 1947- Thor Heyderthal set out on a balsa wood raft called Kon Tiki to prove ancient Peruvians could have used the ocean current to reach Polynesia.<br /> <br /> 1952- The American military occupation of Japan ended, and Japan was restored to full self-government.<br /> <br /> 1954- Happy Birthday Godzilla! The original kaiju movie by Ichjiro Honda was inspired when a Japanese fishing boat was fatally exposed by radioactive fallout from a U.S. hydrogen bomb test. He was also inspired by the Harryhausen movie The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and King Kong. Godzilla is an Anglicized version of the Japanese Kohjira, which is a combination of Gorilla and Whale. The famous roar was done by rubbing a resin-covered glove down some bass fiddle strings. The film was later released in the U.S. with American actor Raymond Burr (actually, Canadian actor.) acting in inserted scenes. The intact Japanese version of the film was not seen in North America until 2004.<br /> <br /> 1961-At La Scala, When tenor Guiseppi Di Stefano took ill, a young schoolteacher from Modena took the lead role in the opera La Boheme. Lucciano Pavarotti debuted.<br /> <br /> 1965- At the same time he was sending the first combat troops to Vietnam, President Lyndon Johnson also sent 22,000 Marines to overrun the Dominican Republic. He said it was to save it from "Communist Dictatorship", but no Communist ties to the rebels was ever proven.<br /> <br /> 1967- Citing his Black Muslim religion, world champion prizefighter Cassius Clay, now renamed Muhammad Ali, refused to be drafted into the army to fight in the Vietnam War. "I’m not mad at any Vietnamese person over there." The World Boxing Federation stripped Ali of his championship title, but he won it back during the 'Rumble in the Jungle" prizefight against George Foreman in 1974.<br /> <br /> 2004- ABU GHARIB-American network news confirmed a story first aired on Arab TV that U.S. and British soldiers were torturing Iraqi prisoners in violation of the Geneva Convention. The government asked the compliant American media to sit on the story, until after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testified to the 9-11 Commission. <br /> Graphic photos went around the internet from a prison called Abu Gharib. It was once a prison used by dictator Saddam Hussein. President Bush and Rumsfeld claimed they had no knowledge the abuses, while in reality documents released later said they knew and approved it all in detail. The Pentagon investigations in 2004 cleared all the top officials of any wrongdoing. Just a few low-level National Guard soldiers were blamed, and their commander General Jane Kaminski was reprimanded. <br /> <br /> 2019- The Marvel superhero movie Avengers Endgame earned $1.2 billion worldwide in its opening weekend. $350 million North America, and $850 million worldwide. A record shattering opening. <br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Why is a traitor called a turncoat?<br /> <br /> Answer: Before smokeless gunpowder was invented in 1880, rifle and cannon fire quickly turned battlefields into a cloudy mess. So, armies wore bright colors to tell friend from foe. With the shifting alliances of small European states, sometimes a state would change sides in the middle of a war. These would signal to the other regiments by ordering their men to turn their coat inside out. This idea of turncoat would come to mean any kind of traitor.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 27 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6135 <p>Quiz: Why is a traitor called a turncoat?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is a roofie?<br /> -----------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/27/2023<br /> Birthdays: Ulysses S. Grant, King Edward IV, Samuel Morse, Mary Wollenstonecraft, Edward Gibbon, Anouk Aimee, Sheena Easton is 64, Sandy Dennis, Coretta Scott King, Kasey Kasem, Jack Klugman<br /> <br /> 1278-Today is the Feast day of Saint Zita of the Magic Beans, the patron saint of domestic servants. <br /> <br /> 1521- HAPPY LAPU-LAPU DAY! Fernan' De Magellan was the explorer who found a way around the Americas into the Pacific. Although he was ordered by the King of Spain to conquer the Portuguese Moluccas, he paused after his discovery of the Philippines to convert the population to Catholicism. Magellan tried to demonstrate the power of the Spanish to the Lord of Cebu, by attacking a village called Mactan, who was his enemy. <br /> Almost at once everything started to go wrong. First the village was too far inland for his ships cannon. So his men had to wade ashore. In doing so their powder got wet, so their guns were useless. Then while fighting hand-to-hand, a lucky fishbone tipped spear hurled through Magellan's helmet visor and killed him. The Lord of Cebu was unimpressed. The Spanish captains tried to barter for his body, but the tribesmen said such a powerful enemy must stay for dinner, as the main course. The Chief of Mactan who killed Magellan was named Lapu-Lapu, and today he is considered a national hero.<br /> <br /> 1567- THE DUKE OF ALBA was given by King Phillip II of Spain the job of Governor General of the Netherlands and ordered him to "stamp out all Heresy, Rebellion and Freedom". Alba recruited an army of 10,000 soldiers and two thousand registered prostitutes and set up shop in Antwerp. His "Council of Troubles" prosecuted thousands of Dutch Calvinists, sometimes arresting 1,500 a day. Throughout 1568 alone, The Duke of Alba executed 60 Dutch people per day. The Dutch called it the "Council of Blood". This reign of terror gave Breughel such grim inspiration for his paintings.<br /> <br /> 1642- The English City of Hull refused to open its gates for King Charles I and his forces when he directly commanded them to. The King’s forces were still too weak to do anything but slink away. This was the first open act of defiance to Royal authority in what would become the English Civil War.<br /> <br /> 1667- Blind poet John Milton sold his masterpiece "Paradise Lost" to publisher Samuel Simmons for ten pounds. Ten years earlier under Oliver Cromwell’s patronage Milton was getting over a thousand pounds each for his poems<br /> <br /> 1763- PONTIAC’S REBELLION. After France surrendered Canada to England, the Great Lakes Indian tribes were offended by their treatment from their new British masters. The redcoats ended many of the subsidies and gift-giving the French provided. <br /> This day an Ottawa chief named Pontiac called a secret council on the Ecorse River about ten miles below Detroit. More than 400 chiefs and warriors from the Huron, Sauk, Fox, Pottawatomis, Miamis and Ottawas attended. Chief Pontiac spoke of the words he heard from the mysterious Delaware Prophet. Delaware Prophet said he had traveled up to the Spirit World to meet the Master of Life himself, who said he was sad that the Indian had fallen victim to the White Man. The whites should be driven back across the waters to the lands the Great Spirit had set aside for them and stay there. Pontiac said only by all tribes uniting as one could they drive away the white man. <br /> The assembled Indians pledged to join him on an attack on Fort Detroit and were soon joined by other Great Lakes Tribes. Chief Pontiac organized a simultaneous attack on all thirteen forts in the Great Lakes states, a powerful offensive now known as Pontiac’s War. <br /> <br /> 1784- Over the protests of King Louis XVI, Pierre de Beaumarchais’ play The Marriage of Figaro premiered at the Opera Comique in Paris. It was the first play to openly criticize the nobility for being no better than anyone else except for being born with money. This concept alone was radical, and it caused a sensation. Napoleon described Figaro as "The Revolution already in action". <br /> <br /> 1805-THE SHORES OF TRIPOLI- William Eaton led a small group of U.S. Marines and some Greek mercenaries capture Derna, stronghold of the Barbary Pirates and end the War with Tripoli.<br /> <br /> 1813- In the War of 1812, U.S. troops burn Toronto, then called York. They couldn't hold the territory, and quickly withdrew back into New York State. The American commander Zebulon Pike, for whom Pike's Peak is named, was killed when a slow burning match left by the retreating redcoats blew up the fort's powder magazine.<br /> <br /> 1861- President Lincoln suspended the Right of Habeas Corpus for the length of the Civil War. The old municipal jail where the modern Supreme Court Building is now began to fill up with critics of the government, pro-southern journalists and suspected spies.<br /> <br /> 1865- SULTANA DISASTER- Union P.O.W.'s liberated from the horrible prisons of Andersonville and Libby crowd onto a Mississippi steamboat called the Sultana for the ride home. After embarking from Vicksburg, the boat's boiler accidentally exploded, killing 1,700. <br /> <br /> 1884- The British government declared that Christopher Wrens 1675 observatory at Greenwich would be the central meridian point for calculating time zones. This would aid in calculation of longitudes, which is crucial in navigating the world’s oceans. Starting at Greenwich, they divided the world into 24 time zones each 15 longitudinal degrees apart.<br /> <br /> 1918- Former race car driver Eddie Rickenbacker, now a fighter pilot in WWI, shot down his first enemy plane. By Nov. he shot down 26 planes and became America’s premiere ace. He won the Medal of Honor, Croix de Guerre, was later a CEO of Eastern Airlines and even wrote a 1935 comic strip about a pilot called Ace Drummond.<br /> <br /> 1919- In the chaos of postwar Germany leftist and right wing paramilitary groups battled in the streets for political power. This day in Munich, a Communist gang broke into a military barracks to arrest a corporal they heard was a good anti-Communist orator. They took 16 men as hostages, but the corporal fought them off with a pistol and escaped. Later, the hostages were found in a ditch, all murdered. The lucky corporal who escaped was Adolf Hitler.<br /> <br /> 1940- SS leader Heinrich Himmler ordered the construction of a new concentration camp in Poland near Krakow called Auschwitz.<br /> <br /> 1950- South Africa passes the Group Areas Act, one of the first official acts separating the races and creating the system known as Apartheid.<br /> <br /> 1958- The Lavender Scare. Pres Eisenhower issued Executive order 10450, banning gays and lesbians from ever holding government jobs. 5,000 govt workers and scientists were fired. The ban was not lifted until 1977.<br /> <br /> 1964- The John Muir National Wilderness created.<br /> <br /> 1970- THE FIRST ATM- Automatic bank teller machine, opened at the Surety National Bank in downtown Los Angeles.<br /> <br /> 1975- The South Vietnamese capitol Saigon was surrounded by North Vietnamese forces.<br /> <br /> 1975- Monty Python and the Holy Grail opened in US theaters.<br /> <br /> 1979 -Navajo Indians protest Gulf Oil drilling for uranium on a sacred mountain.<br /> <br /> 1981- Ringo Starr married Barbara Bach, his costar on the film 'Caveman'. UngaBunga!<br /> <br /> 2005- Maiden flight of the world's largest passenger plane- the Airbus A-380.<br /> <br /> 2014- With retired Pope Benedict in attendance, Pope Francis raised previous Popes John XXIII and John Paul II to be saints of the Catholic Church. One liberal and one conservative.<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is a roofie?<br /> <br /> Answer: It is the nickname of an anesthetic called Rohypnol. People have been using it as a date-rape drug, because it can be slipped into a date’s drink.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 26 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6134 <p>Quiz: What is a roofie?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: There is evidence, then there is empirical evidence. What is the difference?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/26/2023<br /> Birthdays: Marcus Aurelius, French Queen Marie De Medicis, Pasquale Paoli, John James Audubon, Frederick Law Olmstead, Eugene Delacroix, Syngman Rhee, Dr. Lee DeForrest, John Grierson founder of the National Film Board of Canada, Rudolf Hess, Bobby Rydell, Anita Loos, I. M. Pei, Carol Burnett is 90, Eyvind Earle, Giancarlo Esposito is 67, Kevin James, Amos Otis, Joan Chen is 61, Jimmy Giuffre, Rocker Duane Eddy- 83, Jet Li- born Li Lian jie is 60, Victor Perrin 1916, voice actor who did the Control Voice in The Outer Limits. He also was Dr Zin in Johnny Quest., Melania Trump is 53<br /> <br /> 1478- THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY- Pope Sixtus planned to take over Florence by arranging a hit on Duke Lorenzo de Medici "The Magnificent". Francesco Pazzi and Bernardo Bandini attacked the Duke in church just as the consecrated Host was being raised. Lorenzo escaped harm but his brother Giuliano was cut down. <br /> Furious Florentines fell on the felons (repeat three times fast) and nailed their smoking hearts to the door of the cathedral. People blamed Archbishop Salviati for being part of the plot. The mob chased the archbishop up the bell tower, wrapped the bell chords around his neck and tossed him out to ring the bells for awhile. The people shouted "Long Live the Balls!" for the six gold balls that were the heraldic emblem of the Medici Family Bank. This emblem of three gold balls has come down to us as the universal sign for pawnbrokers.<br /> Michelangelo created a beautiful tomb for murdered Giuliano de Medici. Duke Lorenzo ordered artists to paint the portraits of the murderers’ corpses. Giuliano’s illegitimate son later became Pope Clement VII.<br /> <br /> 1607-THE ENGLISH LAND AT JAMESTOWN. First permanent English colony in America. The good ship Susan Constant and two small pinnaces landed 150 men. These men were mostly professional adventurers and gentlemen. Capt. Martin and Capt. Archer served with Sir Francis Drake. Of the 150, only 12 men actually could do a trade other than fighting. Their goal was to find another Aztec Empire like the Spaniards found in Mexico, defeat it, and send the gold back home. In a years time all but 50 of them would be dead from fever and cholera. And they never found any gold. Until John Rolfe began growing tobacco there, the Virginia colony was seen as a failure.<br /> Oh yeah, there was that John Smith guy too. He wouldn’t meet Pocahontas until around Christmas.<br /> <br /> 1777- Sybil Luddington, the female Paul Revere. Pro-British Governor Tryon launched punitive raids from occupied New York across Long Island Sound to the Connecticut coast. When one such raid threatened Danbury, colonial colonel Luddington’s 16-year-old daughter Sybil leapt on a horse and rode 45 miles through the townships rousing the minutemen. Sybil survived the Revolutionary War, married, and lived to be 89.<br /> <br /> 1846- Since annexing Texas, the U.S. and Mexico disagreed over where the border was. Mexico said it was the Nueces River, while the U.S. said it was the Rio Grande. President James K. Polk ordered an army into a disputed border area, in the hope Mexico would attack them. Then Washington could declare war with a clear conscience. This day, outside Matamoros, Mexican General Arrista ordered his men to fire on some Yankee woodcutters. When Gen. Zachary Taylor sent a Captain Thornton with some dragoons to investigate, they were attacked as well. Taylor wrote to Washington " Hostilities have commenced" Pres. Polk addressed Congress, “The cup of forbearance had been exhausted even before the recent information from the frontier of the Del Norte [Rio Grande]. But now, after reiterated menaces, Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American soil! She has proclaimed that hostilities have commenced, and that the two nations are now at war.” The War with Mexico was on.<br /> <br /> 1865- Near Bowling Green Virginia, President Abe Lincoln’s assassin John Wilkes Booth was cornered in the barn of Garretts tobacco farm. The troopers set fire to the barn, and as Booth emerged he was shot by Sgt. Boston Corbett. Booth died looking at his hands muttering "Useless, useless..."Corbett was a religious fanatic who had castrated himself with a bayonet to be free of sin. Years after killing Booth, Corbett committed suicide. <br /> <br /> 1877- The people of Minnesota held a state-wide day of prayer to ask the Almighty to deliver them from a plague of grasshoppers infesting their farmland. It must have worked because they were gone by the end of the summer.<br /> <br /> 1878- The Oxford dons who oversaw the Oxford University Press charged Scottish scholar James Murray with completing the first complete Oxford Dictionary of the English Language. This would be the first comprehensive dictionary of the King’s English since Dr Johnson’s in 1755. The project had been started by the son of the poet Samuel Coleridge but he died of consumption. James Murray was a self taught scholar who as a boy tried to teach his cows to respond to commands in Latin.<br /> <br /> 1926- The British General Strikes- Unions across Great Britain joins in sympathy with miners to paralyze the nation. Troops and tanks are stationed in WhiteHall for fear of a Bolshevik-style rising. The horrible poverty resulting from defeating the strikers accelerate the Depression already gripping postwar Europe. <br /> When the Prince of Wales (future Edward VIII) was shown the medieval squalor the Midlands miners lived in, he was deeply shocked, but eyewitnesses said after returning to Kensington Palace for a bath and a whiskey &amp; soda, he had quite forgotten about it.<br /> <br /> 1928- Los Angeles City Hall dedicated. <br /> <br /> 1933- The Nazi government formed an internal police force called the Gehime Staatspolitzei- aka the Gestapo. <br /> <br /> 1937- GUERNICA- In Spain the Stuka bombers of the German Condor Legion, Nazi subcontractors for Franco, bombed an innocent Basque village, killing 5,000 and provoking an international outcry and a painting by Picasso. Attacking at the height of the market time, for three hours the planes bombed and strafed the helpless civilians with no military target in sight. Combatants in WWI tried to avoid harming civilians, but this act and the simultaneous Japanese attacks in China signaled a new tactic, sowing terror by treating civilians as targets. <br /> <br /> 1941- An organ is played for the first time at a baseball game in Chicago.<br /> <br /> 1942- The last Little Orphan Annie radio program ran on WGN Chicago. After 12 years, Ovaltine replaced it with Captain Midnight.<br /> <br /> 1945- The War Department in their new headquarters in the Pentagon issued orders to General Eisenhower in Europe to begin Operation Paperclip- "to preserve from destruction and take under your control records, plans, documents files and other information and data belonging to German organizations engaged in military research." Included in the haul were dozens of German rocket scientists who regardless of their political sympathies were spirited away for the burgeoning US missile program.<br /> <br /> 1965- Fred Smith, a student at Yale, got his economics paper back with a "c'" and a note stating the idea he espoused was impractical. The idea was an overnight air-freight service which he founded six years later as Federal Express.<br /> <br /> 1969- PAUL IS DEAD. The height of a strange rumor that excited the rock &amp; roll world that Paul McCartney of the Beatles had died, and the news was being kept a secret. Evidence was presented in the cryptic lyrics of "I am the Walrus", songs played backwards and the record album photo where Paul is the only figure with his back to the camera. <br /> A TV special hosted by celebrity attorney F. Lee Bailey explored the controversy. Finally, this day Paul and Linda McCartney held a news conference and declared he was very much alive and what on Earth was everyone on about? <br /> <br /> 1977- In New York City, Studio 54, the mecca of 70’s Disco culture opened.<br /> <br /> 1982- Argentina gave in to Britain's demands ending the Falklands War. The military junta ruling in Buenos Aires fell a year later.<br /> <br /> 1986- CHERNOBYL- The Chernobyl nuclear reactor explodes. While the Soviet Government acknowledged 400 deaths, accounts put it as high as 9,000. 100,000 square miles of the Ukraine was contaminated, and tainted food shipped to 65 million people. Historian Igor Medvedev (who died from radiation induced cancer) reported on the bizarre fumbling at the beginning of the crisis. <br /> When one engineer entered the reactor core, he saw the devastation of the explosion while absorbing the radiation equivalent of 23 Hiroshima atomic bombs. He went out and told his supervisor: "Reactor Number Three has exploded." His supervisor told him: "That’s impossible! Go back and look again." So, he dutifully re-entered the reactor core, absorbing another 23 atomic bombs worth of radiation and came out and said:" Yes, it’s true, it’s really blown up." And he died shortly afterward.<br /> <br /> 1986- Arnold Schwarzenegger aka Conan the Republican, married Maria Shriver, the niece of John F. Kennedy. <br /> <br /> 1993- NBC announced former Simpsons and Saturday Night Live comedy writer Conan O’Brien would take David Letterman’s old Late Show spot. After a few years he moved on to replace the retiring the retiring Jay Leno on the Tonight Show. But soon Leno decided he did not want to retire just yet and bounced Conan.<br /> <br /> 2004- Michael Eisner of Disney named to Forbes list of the Worst CEOs in America.<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s question: There is evidence, then there is empirical evidence. What is the difference?<br /> <br /> Answer: Evidence can be circumstantial. He-said, she-said. Piecing together clues. Empirical evidence is a fancy way of saying hard, physical evidence or direct observation. A recovered murder weapon, etc.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 24 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6133 <p>Quiz: There was a famous ancient statue called Laocoon that was discovered during the Renaissance. Who was Laocoon?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: What is the current name for the Indian city once known as Bombay?<br /> -------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/24/2023<br /> Birthdays: Daniel Defoe, William de Kooning, St. Vincent de Paul, Morgan Earp, Jack E. Leonard, Dame Ethel Smyth, Jill Ireland, Eric Bogosian, Sue Grafton, Robert Penn Warren, Barbara Streisand is 81, Cedric the Entertainer is 59, Shirley MacLaine is 88<br /> <br /> 1184 B.C. (est.) TROY FALLS TO THE GREEKS- Despite the warnings of the seers Cassandra and Laocoon, the Trojans brought Ulysses' great wooden horse into the city, and at night the Greeks climbed out and opened the city gates to destruction. The reason we have any date for this was this day the Romans celebrated a festival commemorating the event, and they invented our calendar. <br /> The Romans liked the story that they were descended from the Trojan survivors led to Italy by the hero Aeneas. This seemed way more cool than being a little Latin tribe who got their act together before their neighbors.<br /> They loved this myth so much that in 190B.C. when the legions of Publius Scipio Asiaticus marched into Turkey to make war on Antiochus the Greek king of Syria, they paused first to go to the plains of Illium (the field where Troy once stood).<br /> The writer Livy wrote" There the grim warriors embraced and wept aloud like babes, for after countless generations, the children of Troy had come home at last." (Livy, History: Book XXXVII: 35)<br /> <br /> 1584- Japanese Shogun Hideyoshi Toyotomi asked the Heii Shrine in Edo (Tokyo) to dedicate a new heraldic design - the red disc Asahi - Rising Sun flag is created. <br /> <br /> 1800- The U.S. Congress set up the Library of Congress. By 1814 it had three thousand volumes, but they were destroyed when a British Army burned Washington. Thomas Jefferson then donated his own private library to restart the collection. Today it numbers in the millions of volumes.<br /> <br /> 1833- The Soda Fountain was patented.<br /> <br /> 1861- The minister of the independent German city-state of Bremen, Johann Schlieben, offered his services to Abraham Lincoln to open shuttle diplomacy with the rebellious Confederate States. He carried a message or two between Washington and Richmond. Eventually Lincoln told him thanks but no thanks. Blood had been shed and the flag insulted; it was too late for talk. Similar offers of mediation by a delegation of Virginia moderates led by former President John Tyler were also refused.<br /> <br /> 1874- Jesse James married his cousin Miss Zerelda Mimms, who he called Z. <br /> <br /> 1901-The First American League baseball game. The Cleveland Blues vs. the Chicago White Stockings.<br /> <br /> 1913- The Woolworth Building was dedicated in lower New York. It’s cornices decorated like the campanile of Saint Marks in Venice. At the time it was the tallest skyscraper in the world. President Woodrow Wilson illuminated its electric lights by flipping a switch long distance in the White House. One person upon taking the elevator to the top floor, said “ Is God in..?”<br /> <br /> 1915- THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE- The Ottoman Turkish Empire had always been an amalgamation of ethnic peoples. As their Empire aged and became the 'Sick Man of Europe', one by one these subject peoples- Greeks, Serbs, Egyptians, asserted their independence and broke away. <br /> When the Armenians also demanded autonomy, the Sultan Abdul Hamid IV came up with a bloodthirsty solution. After a Turkish offensive into Russia was defeated, this day the first 200 Armenian elders of a village were shot, signaling a general nationwide pogrom that would eventually kill over 1.5 million people. The first person to bring the massacre story to the world was a German, Dr. Armen Wegner. On the scene for the Red Cross he complained to the Kaiser and the Berlin press. The refusal to even discuss this event is a sore point dividing the nations to this day. <br /> Supposedly when a top Nazi suggested to Adolf Hitler that his plans for the Jews would bring down on Germany the condemnation of the world, Hitler replied “…and who remembers the Armenians?”<br /> <br /> 1916- THE IRISH EASTER SUNDAY UPRISING -Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, Michael Collins, Eamon De Valera and followers seize the O'Connell Street post office in downtown Dublin and proclaim the Irish Republic. After furious streetbattles with British troops diverted from the World War I battlefields, the rebellion is put down. All the ringleaders were executed. Connolly was so badly wounded that they had to prop up his stretcher before the firing squad and pinch his cheeks so he'd be awake for his own death. Eamon De Valera used his U.S. citizenship to avoid execution. Initially the Irish people hadn't wholly supported the futile rising, but the fierce police crackdown had the effect of arousing sympathy. It sparked the major IRA campaigns in the 1920's and eventual Independence. <br /> <br /> 1933- Ub Iwerk's "Fiddlesticks" the first Flip the Frog cartoon, done in a simple two-color process. Iwerks was the first designer and animator of Mickey Mouse, who had left Walt Disney to open his own studio.<br /> <br /> 1944- Film Noir classic film Double Indemnity premiered.<br /> <br /> 1945- As the Russian Army fought their way into the center of Berlin, Adolf Hitler gathered his remaining staff in his bunker deep under the Reich Chancellery. He told his people that all was lost and that they should escape the city as best they could. Most decided to stay and discussed how best to commit suicide. The Fuehrer himself lapsed into apathy. His secretary recalled seeing Hitler sitting quietly in a hallway, cradling a puppy in his lap, rocking back and forth, staring off, hollow-eyed.<br /> <br /> 1949- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) formed.<br /> <br /> 1948- The Chinese Communists under Mao Zedong and their generals Chu Teh and Lin Piao began their final campaign to unite all of China under their rule.<br /> <br /> 1954- Handsome English actor Peter Lawford married John F. Kennedy’s sister Patricia Kennedy. This union would give JFK his link to Hollywood, Frank Sinatra and the RatPack.<br /> <br /> 1961- First day of shooting on the film King of Kings, the Christ story starring Jeffrey Hunter. Called by one critic” I was a Teenage Jesus” In 1966 Jeffrey Hunter turned down a TV series after doing the pilot episode. His wife worried that he’d be typecast. The role of Star Trek’s Captain Kirk went instead went to William Shatner.<br /> <br /> 1967- Soviet Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov became the first acknowledged fatality in the conquest of Space, when the parachute of his re-entering capsule got snarled and he fell four miles to Earth.<br /> <br /> 1979- Paul McCartney happened to be in New York City and dropped in on his old mate John Lennon. They spent the day together and at one point mediated visiting the set of Saturday Night Live but changed their minds at the last minute. Paul McCarthy left in the wee hours. It was the last time he ever saw John Lennon alive.<br /> <br /> 1980- After months of fruitless negotiations to get the U.S. hostages held in the American Embassy in Teheran freed, President Jimmy Carter tried force. A Delta Force of eight helicopters met at their staging area in the Iranian desert. Once there it was discovered three of the helicopters had mechanical problems and they had fallen badly behind schedule so the mission was scrapped. As they were leaving one of the helicopters crashed into a transport plane killing 8 soldiers. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance resigned in protest. No more military adventures were planned and the Iran Hostage Crisis dragged on throughout 1980. The hostages were released in exchange for arms in January 1981 shortly after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration.<br /> <br /> 1981- Small companies like Apple and Commodore had dominated the personal computer market while giants like IBM stuck with large business systems. Now IBM weighed in with The IBM PC –personal computer, with basic software language DOS provided by Microsoft. It soon came to dominate the market.<br /> <br /> 1983- THE HITLER DIARIES HOAX- Gerd Heideman, a top correspondent for Germany’s top magazine Die Stern was contacted by a mysterious Professor Fischer that he had in his possession the long lost personal diary of Adolph Hitler. Heidemann was an eccentric who collected fascist memorabilia like Herman Goerings yacht and a pair of Idi Amin’s underwear. Fischer sold him the Hitler diary manuscripts for $4 million. <br /> After Heidemann got British Historian Sir Hugh Trevor Roper and several handwriting analysts to declare them genuine, the Hitler Diaries went public in Die Stern and Rupert Murdoch’s London Times. When Sir Hugh began to express doubts over the authenticity of the diary, Rupert Murdoch reacted in typical fashion: ”F**k him. I’m in the entertainment business!” <br /> This day a Bonn laboratory declared the diaries high quality but completely phony. Professor Fischer was actually an art forger named Konrad Kujau who knew suckers when he saw them. He had an expensive girlfriend and wife to keep so he was writing the diaries in his garage on 1940’s vintage paper and ink. Careers were ruined and everyone looked pretty stupid. Even when they were all in jail, Gerd Heidemann refused to believe the truth. Konrad Kujau sent him a letter in Hitler’s handwriting admitting he did the forgery.<br /> <br /> 1984- David Kennedy, the eldest son of Robert F. Kennedy, was found dead in his hotel room of a drug overdose. As a child he had watched his father assassinated on live television and had never gotten over it. He was a drug addict by 15 and dead by 28. <br /> <br /> 1990- The Hubble Space Telescope was carried into orbit by the Space Shuttle Challenger.<br /> ========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is the current name for the Indian city once known as Bombay?<br /> <br /> Answer: Mumbai.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 23 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6132 <p>Question: What is the current name for the Indian city once known as Bombay?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: What was Bachmann-Turner Overdrive?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/23/2023<br /> Birthdays: William Shakespeare, James Buchanan, John Muir, Sergei Prokoviev, J.M.W. Turner, Vladimir Nabokov, Senator Stephen Douglas the Little Giant, Shirley Temple, Roy Orbison, Halston, Sandra Dee, Valerie Bertinelli, Lee Majors is 83, Judy Davis, Simone Simon, Michael Sporn, Tony Esposito, Michael Moore is 69, Herve Villechaise.<br /> <br /> This was the ancient Roman Feast of the Vinalia, the feast of the first grapevine plantings.<br /> <br /> 301AD- This is the Feast of St. George. George of Nicomedia was a native of Illyria (Croatia) and a member of the Praetorian Guards, who went up to the Emperor Diocletian’s palace and tore up his edict banning Christianity. Then Diocletian had George torn up. And what about St. George fighting the dragon? In the old tradition of borrowing from pagan myths, the Coptic Christian monks took from the Ancient Egyptian religion the famous battle between Horus and his evil uncle Seth, God of Sandstorms, often represented in temple art as a dragon-like animal. <br /> <br /> 1014- BATTLE OF CLONTARF- Irish High King Brian Boru defeated the Vikings led by Sigurd Silkbeard and drove them from Ireland. At 73, Boru himself was too elderly to fight, so he was praying in a church when a renegade group of vikings surrounded the church and set it on fire. Another account has him being slain while in his tent. Oh well, at least he won...<br /> <br /> 1348- The Order of the Garter created in England by King Edward III. Today it is the world’s oldest surviving chivalric order.<br /> <br /> 1349- King Edward III had the first pageant of the Order of the Garter at Windsor Castle. He wanted to recreate the grandeur of King Arthurs knights of the Round Table. Even though the Black Plague kept most people away, the event was a great success. <br /> <br /> 1374- The King of England granted a pension to the writer Geoffrey Chaucer that includes a pot of wine every day for the rest of his life. Chaucer lived near Westminster Abbey, and when he died in 1400, he was buried there. This began the tradition of 'sections"-the poet’s corner at Westminster Abbey.<br /> <br /> 1500- Explorer Pedro Cabral claimed Brazil for Portugal.<br /> <br /> 1538- Protestant theologian John Calvin was asked to leave his ministry in Geneva for being, uhh, well.. too Puritan. Geneva went party wild. Two years later the city fathers called Calvin back to clean up the town.<br /> <br /> 1616- After a night out partying with Ben Johnson, John Draydon and other old buddies from Ye Old Mermaid Tavern, William Shakespeare caught a fever and died on his fifty third birthday.<br /> <br /> “Souls of Poets dead and gone,<br /> What Elysium have ye known,<br /> Happy field or mossy cavern,<br /> Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?”<br /> 1661- King Charles II, crowned at Westminster Abbey. The current English Crown Jewels date from this time, since Oliver Cromwell had the ancient crown jewels of Anglo-Norman times destroyed.<br /> <br /> 1746- THE GLASS HARMONICON- German composer Johann Christoph Witobald Gluck had premiered his first opera La Caduta de Giganti in London to weak box office . Today he hit it rich by playing an entire concerto on twenty-six drinking glasses with water raised to different levels to effect the pitch. He played it by rubbing his fingers along the rims. The crowd went wild. Another triumph of musical taste.<br /> <br /> 1784- Congress adopted Thomas Jefferson’s plan to extend government to territories west of the Appalachian Mountains, the Old Northwest. They reject his suggestion that ten states be organized with classical names like Metropotamia and Polypotamia. Some of his suggestions for Indian names like Michigania and Illinoia sounded better.<br /> <br /> 1789- On St George’s Day, Britons celebrated a solemn mass of thanksgiving at St. Pauls that the mental illness of King George III had been cured. King George himself attended the service and received the cheers of the crowd. A few years later George lapsed back into madness and remained that way for the final decade of his reign.<br /> <br /> 1789- President-elect George Washington and Martha move into their temporary U.S. capitol of New York City. Traveling from Virginia up to New York every town he passed through greeted him with huge parades and celebrations. When moving through Philadelphia the artist John Singleton Copley had designed a triumphal arch that as Washington moved under it sprang a strange mechanical device that plopped a gold laurel wreath on his head. Annoyed, the startled statesman tore it off. <br /> Once set up as President, Washington realized that the first Presidential residence 1 Cherry St, Osgood House had no furniture, and Congress was broke. He had to pay out of his own pocket for all the furnishings and dinnerware, large enough for state dinners of thirty or more. When he left office in 1796, he offered to John Adams to sell him his furniture. When the frugal New Englander balked at the price, Washington left the new President of the United States an empty mansion with a few candle sticks and one crystal punch bowl. Today the site is one of the pediments for the Brooklyn Bridge.<br /> <br /> 1809- Napoleons army captured Ratisbon (Regensburg ) from the Austrians and Robert Browning did a nice poem about it.<br /> <br /> 1867- William Lincoln patented the zoetrope, an optical toy predating motion pictures..<br /> <br /> 1896- THE FIRST PROJECTED MOVIES IN THE U.S.- The first projection of Thomas Edison’s kinetoscope film by means of Thomas Armat’s Vitascope at Koster &amp; Bials Music Hall on 28th street and Broadway in New York City. Edison had to be nagged into this by his engineer W.K.L. Dickson. Edison thought projecting movies like the Lumiere Brothers were doing in Paris would never catch on, and the future of film was in nickelodeon machines. The movie show featured the sultry Annabella the Dancer and a boxing match, but the real hit of the evening was footage of Waves Hitting the Rocks on Shore, which made people instinctively duck to keep from getting wet.<br /> <br /> 1900- A celebration held in Russian Georgia was addressed by a young revolutionary who had been expelled from the Tiflis Theological Seminary where he was studying to become a priest. Josef Dzugashvili was encouraged by other revolutionaries to change his name so the Czar’s police wouldn’t pick up his family. He changed his name to Steel- Stalin.<br /> <br /> 1903- The first game of the New York Highlanders (later Yankees) baseball team. They defeated the Washington Senators, 7-2.<br /> <br /> 1914- Chicago’s Wrigley Field opened. <br /> <br /> 1942-The Baedecker Raids- In reprisal for an allied bombing raid on Lubeck, the German Luftwaffe began bombing medieval English cities like Norwich and Canterbury based on their rating in the Baedecker Tourist guidebooks. If a place got three or more stars it was hit.<br /> <br /> 1945- As the Red Army was fighting in the suburbs of Berlin, S.S. Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler quietly contacted Swedish diplomat Count Bernadotte and requests peace terms with the Allies. From his hiding place in Bavaria Hermann Goring was also trying to make peace as well. When Hitler found out from Martin Borman, he was furious and ordered both of them placed under house arrest. <br /> <br /> 1951- Comedian Lenny Bruce was arrested for a stunt where he dressed as a priest and solicited funds in a leper colony.<br /> <br /> 1968- Anti Vietnam War student protesters seized the administrative offices of Columbia University. They occupied it for a week until driven out by police.<br /> <br /> 1970- Grace Slick of the Jefferson Airplane was inadvertently invited to a tea party at the White House by Pres. Nixon’s daughter Trisha. She had invited Slick because under her maiden name Grace Ward she was a fellow alumni of Finch College. Grace Slick and her escort Abbie Hoffman were in line to get into the event, when at the last minute White House security recognized them and turned them away. It was too bad, because she had a plan to slip LSD into President Nixon’s tea. <br /> <br /> 1971- Vietnam veterans protest the continued U.S. presence in the war by ceremoniously returning their medals, in some cases tossing them over the White House fence. One angry combat veteran who tossed his medals was future Senator John Kerry. Meanwhile, Lt. George W. Bush was in the Texas Air Guard, tossing his cookies. <br /> <br /> 1985- Coca Cola introduces New Coke. They decided to make the basic formula slightly sweeter to appeal to younger people. Its reception by the public was so overwhelmingly bad that the company returned to the original formula 90 days later. The chairman of rival Pepsi Cola exulted: " We've been eye to eye for decades and I think the other guys just blinked! New Coke became a symbol for large-scale executive incompetence, <br /> <br /> 1998- Microsoft chairman Bill Gates introduced Windows 98 to 4,000 industry leaders. When he ceremonially opened the first window, the system crashed- Doh!<br /> <br /> 2003- Boston area Catholic priests began to get busted for child molestation and the cover up by the Archdiocese was exposed by the Boston Globe. One priest, a Father Shayne, was an openly registered member of the Man-Boy Love Society (NAMBLA). Outraged parishioners demanded the resignation of their Cardinal Bernard Law. Instead, Cardinal Law was recalled to Rome where he was made pastor of the Church of Maria Maggiore. <br /> <br /> 2005- The first You-Tube video was uploaded- Me at the Zoo.<br /> <br /> 2020- Vice President Mike Pence, the leader of President Trumps Covid Task Force, said in a statement that “the Coronavirus Pandemic will be behind us by Memorial Day”. It wasn’t. It was raged just as badly for two more years.. <br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: What was Bachmann-Turner Overdrive?<br /> <br /> Answer: A 1970s rock &amp; roll band.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 22 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6131 <p>Quiz: What was Bachman-Turner Overdrive?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is a pom-pom gun?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/22/2023<br /> Birthdays: Queen Isabella I of Castille, Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, Immanuel Kant, Madame De Stael, Alexander Kerensky, Aaron Spelling, Eddie Albert, Glen Cambell, Betty Page would be 100, Marilyn Chambers, Rondo Hatton, Charlie Mingus, Peter Frampton, John Waters is 77, Jack Nicholson is 86<br /> <br /> Happy Earth Day (see below- 1970) <br /> <br /> 753 B.C.- The Founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus. The reason we know this date was because the Romans celebrated a festival about it on this date. Romans counted time from this date. So 1 AD to them was 754 AUC or Anno Urbis Conditae- from “The Founding of the City". So today, April 22, 2023, to a Roman is the second day of the nones of Aprilis, 2,779 Ab Urbis.<br /> <br /> 1370- Beginning of construction on the castle/prison in Paris called La Bastille. The Bastille was leveled by angry revolutionaries in 1789.<br /> <br /> 1567- Dutch protestant leader William of Orange was such a shrewd leader and diplomat his nickname was William the Silent. This day as the persecutions of Dutch Protestants by Catholic Spanish Inquisitors increased William resigned all his offices and fled to Germany to raise an army to fight for Dutch Independence. He was eventually assassinated but not before he had united the Dutch provinces under his leadership. His family still rules Holland today.<br /> <br /> 1621- FRANCIS BACON -Philosopher and writer Sir Francis Bacon had become the first judge and minister in the England through hard work and furious ass-kissing. He was so unscrupulous he prosecuted to death his first benefactor the Earl of Essex. But King James 1st trusted him to run England whenever he was away. Finally, the pushy Parliament brought Bacon up on charges of bribery and corruption. <br /> This day Bacon pled guilty to all charges and left his public offices. The King waived his fines and imprisonment. Francis Bacon on his estate free of his addiction to power could now focus on his true love, philosophy and science. He became one of the greatest minds in Western thought, to be ranked with Aristotle and Descartes. He published the Great Renewal and Res Atlantica, two works that revolutionized the study of philosophy and science. <br /> Historian Will Durant called Francis Bacon the finest mind of his time after Shakespeare.<br /> <br /> 1642- Danish settler Jonas Bronck came out from Amsterdam to settle in the New World. On this day he signed a deal with the local Indians to buy 680 acres of land north of the Harlem River. The price was two guns, two kettles, a shirt, a barrel of cider and some coins. His farm was called the Broncksland and later Bronxland. Finally people would say,” I’m going up to visit The Bronx’” It did not officially become part of Greater New York until 1895.<br /> <br /> 1741- Georg Frederich Handel dipped his quill into ink and began to write the Messiah.<br /> <br /> 1769- Madame DuBarry officially presented at the French Court. King Louis XV’s earlier mistresses like Madame La Pompadour were women of breeding and culture. But DuBarry was a saucy little trollop who had already slept with most of the men of the court. When the Duc d’ Richelieu asked Louis what he saw in this vulgar new toy, His Majesty replied:" She makes me forget that I shall soon be sixty."<br /> <br /> 1778- THE CONWAY CABAL- During the American Revolution, a conspiracy (or cabal) of colonial officers led by a Major Conway, and former Washington aide Thomas Mifflin plotted behind George Washington's back to get Congress to replace him for incompetence. Their choice for command of the American army was General Gage, whose career was undistinguished other than the Battle of Saratoga. The plot was exposed and Conway made to resign. Washington stayed the symbol of the American war effort even though he lost more battles than won.<br /> <br /> 1793- THE UNITED STATES DECLARED IT'S NEUTRALITY IN THE NAPOLEONIC WARS. This decision caused the split in American opinion that formed our two party system and soured the last years of George Washington’s presidency. The France that helped us win the Revolution was Louis XVI's Royal France, but she had now become a people’s republic like ours, the only other in the world. The French Revolutionary Convention had a Stars and Stripes flag hanging proudly in its hall. Americans danced in the streets when the Bastille fell and started calling each other "citizen". <br /> Thomas Jefferson’s followers felt we owed it to France to support a fellow people’s republic against the European autocrats. The more conservative Federalists like Alexander Hamilton and John Adams were afraid of guillotines and anarchy and openly wanted Mother Britain to win. Jefferson called them Monocrats, they called his side Democrats. Europeans tried to push America into choosing a side: America almost declared war on France in 1797,1804 and 1808, and almost declared war on Britain in 1800 and finally did in 1812. Napoleon had hoped America would then send over her navy to ferry his army across the Channel to get at England. Small wonder George Washington’s advice upon retirement was "Avoid entangling foreign alliances."<br /> <br /> 1811- Last of the Parthenon Marbles pried off their walls in Greece and sent back to England on a British frigate. Lord Byron was on board and called Lord Elgin, the supervisor of this act, "The Spoiler". Today the Elgin marbles are still at the British Museum and the Greeks are still mad about it.<br /> <br /> 1836- GENERAL SANTA ANNA the Dictator of Mexico was captured after the Battle of San Jacinto and brought to Texas Gen. Sam Houston. Santa Anna was disguised in peasants clothes, but when brought into the Anglo camp the Mexican prisoners gave him away by cheering El Presidente! Santa Anna was suffering from nervous exhaustion so Houston offered him some of his opium. Houston was an alcoholic nursing a shattered ankle. <br /> As they sat under a tree Santa Anna said to Houston: " Great is the destiny of the man who can defeat the Napoleon of the West!" Everyone (including many Mexicans) wanted to kill the man who massacred the Alamo, but Houston used him as a hostage to draw off the six remaining Mexican armies still in Texas. Not only did Santa Anna get released unhurt, but ten years later the U.S. Government even covertly helped him regain power in Mexico. He was turned out yet again and lived in retirement in Staten Island.<br /> <br /> 1876- Composer Peter Tchaikovsky completed his score for the ballet Swan Lake.<br /> <br /> 1889- At noon on the signal of a cannon shot The Great Oklahoma Land Rush began. The town of Oklahoma City was set up in one day-population 10,000. The settlers who slipped in early were nicknamed Sooners and Oklahoma became known as the Sooner State. This eats up the remaining land of the Cherokee Nation, who once owned all of Georgia, the Carolinas and Alabama. The Cherokee kept their land communally, which to U.S. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge was their downfall: "The Cherokee possess many fine attributes except Greed, which we all know is the basis for Civilization."<br /> <br /> 1898- Teddy Roosevelt formed the First US Volunteer Cavalry, called the Rough Riders. It was a curious mix of Teddys' personal tastes- Harvard bluebloods and polo champions mixed with rough western cowboys and rodeo stars.<br /> <br /> 1906- In earthquake-destroyed San Francisco, one day after the last of the fires were declared officially out, the Market Street cable car began running once more.<br /> <br /> 1915- Second Battle of Ypres- First use of poison gas WWI. German Jewish Dr. Fritz Hauber was a friend of Albert Einstein. He was convinced his experiments to create poison gas would win wars. He ran from battlefield to battlefield ensuring it was being used correctly. Albert Einstein thought he was a fool. Hauber’s wife committed suicide. The chlorine clouds did cause a huge panic in the British ranks, that opened the way to Paris, but the German generals were too cautious to follow up their surprise and the Canadians fought fiercely to close the gap. Although they had no gas masks, a quick thinking Canadian doctor ordered his men to urinate into their own handkerchiefs, then tie them around their faces. Although exceedingly gross, the ammonia counteracted the gas enabling them to survive.<br /> <br /> 1922- Albert the Duke of York married Scottish socialite Lady Elizabeth Beaux-Lyons. Bertie was shy and had a speech impediment and it took him three proposals before she said yes. The Archbishop of Canterbury refused to allow a live radio broadcast of the marriage ceremony for fear it would be broadcast in pubs, where uncouth men would not doff their hats. <br /> What Bertie and Elizabeth couldn’t know would be in 1936 Bertie’s older brother Edward VIII would abdicate and they become King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. After her husband died in 1952 and her daughter Elizabeth II ascended the throne, Elizabeth the Queen Mum lived on, dying at age 101 in 2002.<br /> <br /> 1934- In Little Bohemia Hunting Lodge in Wisconsin, Public Enemy No.1 John Dillinger shot his way out of a FBI ambush. The FBI not only failed to stop Dillinger, they shot an innocent bystander who got caught in the crossfire.<br /> <br /> 1940- Writer Ernest Hemingway cabled his editor Max Perkins from Havana about a new novel he was writing.-" Title is "For Whom the Bell Tolls" from passage John Donne Oxford Book of English bottom page seventy one STOP Please register immediately."<br /> <br /> 1942- Alfred Hitchcock’s movie “Saboteur” premiered in Washington.<br /> <br /> 1945- While the Red Army was attacking the outskirts of Berlin, Adolph Hitler sent away to the south his personal files and belongings in a last Luftwaffe flight of ten planes. One plane that was shot down that carried some of his most private possessions. When Hitler heard the news, he called it a catastrophe. What was in that plane that he valued so much? The wreckage was never found. It’s a mystery to this day.<br /> <br /> 1952- The first nuclear bomb test shown on network TV -Tommy Turtle says duck and cover!<br /> <br /> 1954- THE ARMY–McCARTHY HEARINGS on live nationwide TV began. Senator Joe McCarthy’s Senate committee chasing communists finally bit off more than it could chew when it took on the U.S. Army. Sparked by the drafting of Private G. David Shine, a young crony of chief counsel Roy Cohn, a hearing was held to investigate charges that the Army Secretary and several other top Pentagon officers were Russian spies. <br /> <br /> The hearing soon devolved from an indictment of the army into a probe of Senator McCarthy’s red baiting tactics. It lasted for three months and held the nation spellbound. At one point Senator McCarthy submitted a note that the television cameras be turned off for a minute so he could wipe his nose. After one heated session, Roy Cohn and Robert Kennedy had to be separated before a fistfight broke out. Finally under the withering condemnation of Joseph Walsh "Senator, have you no shred of decency?!" McCarthy’s power was broken.<br /> <br /> 1954- The U.S. Congress added the phrase "In God We Trust" on to US money.<br /> <br /> 1961- THE PARATROOP COUP- The decision of whether to give up Algeria, the colony they owned since 1832 agonized the French nation. It was further complicated by a large population of Algerian-born French people, the "Pied-noirs". They felt they were being sold out to terrorist guerillas. The Foreign Legion's headquarters was at Sidde Abbes, and for generations their blood had spilled into the Sahara's sands to keep Algeria French. On this night French generals and the Legion plotted to stop President Charles DeGaulle from granting Algerian independence. They planned a night parachute jump over downtown Paris to seize the government. <br /> After the rebels grabbed the governor of Algeria and a few key posts, President Degaulle went on nationwide TV and exposed the plot, calling upon all Frenchmen to defend the nation. The conspirators lost their nerve and melted away. The Paris jump never occurred. The trials afterwards saw strange scenes like Croatian and Thai legionnaires falling before firing squads, shouting "Vive La France!!" <br /> <br /> 1964- The opening day of the New York World’s Fair. It was in Flushing Meadow Park in Queens, built on the site of the 1939 World’s Fair.<br /> <br /> 1970- The first Earth Day. The idea was started by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin "The objective was to get a nationwide demonstration of concern for the environment so large that it would shake the political establishment out of its lethargy," Senator Nelson said, "and, finally, force this issue permanently onto the national political agenda."<br /> <br /> 1972- Magnavox announced the Magnavox Odyssey. Created by Ralph Baer in his spare time, it was the first mass retail home videogame console.<br /> <br /> 1978- Comic actors Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi debut two new characters on the Saturday Night Live TV show, Joliet Jake and Ellwood Blues. The Blues Brothers are born. On that same broadcast, host Steve Martin did his King Tut Song. “Now when I die, now don’t think I’m a nut. Don’t want no fancy funeral, just one like Old King Tut.”<br /> <br /> 1996- Christopher Robin Milne died at age 75. The young boy whose fascination with a bear in the London Zoo called Winnie inspired his father A.A. Milne to write the Winne the Pooh stories. Christopher Robin wasn’t always appreciative of all the attention. He said of his father: "Someday I’ll write some verses about him and see how He likes it!"<br /> <br /> 2000- The estranged wife of Mr. Juan Gonzales of Cuba had grabbed their son Elian and tried to escape by boat to the United States. The wife and her lover drowned in the attempt, but little 6 year old Elian survived. He became a star to the Cuban exile community in Miami. But Mr. Gonzales had come from Havana to get his son back. Back in Cuba, Fidel Castro had a ball making political hay out of the Yankee Imperialistas stealing children from their parents. Finally, after months of media circus, Attorney General Janet Reno ordered federal marshals to forcibly remove Elian Gonzales from his uncles home, and give him back to his father. His father pledged:" I want no one to ever stick a camera in my son’s face again!"<br /> <br /> 2001- Dreamwork’s Shrek opened in theaters. I’m making waffles! <br /> <br /> 2004- Pat Tillman was a football star who was moved by the 9-11 attacks to sacrifice a multimillion-dollar contract in the NFL to join the army and fight for his country. This day Tillman was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. He was 27 and left a wife and two children. The Pentagon played up his heroism, while lying to his grieving family and burning his diary and uniform. At the funeral, when presented with the casket’s flag, Tillman’s father snapped “ Keep your f*cking flag!” Pat Tillman was an atheist and it further annoyed his family to hear conservative politicians and pundits go on about him in Heaven among the warriors of Christ. After several hearings a general was reprimanded for the poor handling of the affair.<br /> <br /> 2021- The Mars Perseverance probe successfully collected oxygen from the Martian atmosphere.<br /> ===========================================================<br /> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><br /> Yesterday¹s Question: What is a pom-pom gun?<br /> <br /> Answer: In World War II, a double-barreled anti-aircraft gun, usually on ships, that fired in intervals that made a distinctive “pom-pom” sound.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 21 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6130 <p>Quiz: What is a pom-pom gun?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What was the first digitally projected movie to win the Best Picture Oscar?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/21/2023<br /> Birthdays: Queen Elizabeth II, Edwin S. Porter, Charlotte Bronte', John Muir, Freiderich Froebel the inventor of kindergarten-1782, Anthony Quinn, Patti Lupone, Charles Grodin, Anna Magnani, Andie MacDowell is 64, Tony Danza, Elaine May, Iggy Pop is 76, James McAvoy is 44, Rob Riggle is 53 <br /> <br /> Happy Palilia- Roman festival of the rustic god "Pales" for whom the Palatine Hill in Rome was named.<br /> <br /> 43BC- Battle of Mutina (Modena), One year after the assassination of Julius Caesar, his heirs’ squabbled. Legions sent by Octavian defeated Mark Anthony and drove him into the mountains. Ten years later, Octavian defeated Anthony for good at Actium.<br /> <br /> 1526- The First Battle of Panipat. Mogul Emperor Baibur defeated the Indian army of Ibrahim Lodi and captured Delhi. This established the Moghul Empire in India. Babur’s army fought with Mongol bows, elephants, and cannon.<br /> <br /> 1831- NAT TURNER'S REBELLION- The most serious slave revolt in the South before the Civil War. Using an eclipse as a sign from heaven, Turner and 75 other slaves turned on their masters, and went on a rampage through Virginia. It took 3,000 troops to crush them. Turner was taken and hanged, defiant to the end. Nat Turner’s Rebellion hardened opinions of both pro and anti-slavery groups in the U.S. and accelerated the slide towards civil war.<br /> <br /> 1836- BATTLE OF SAN JACINTO-. After chasing Sam Houston’s men across Texas almost to the Louisiana border, General Santa Anna thought so little of these rag-tag gringo rebels that he no longer bothered to post sentries. When the Texans attacked at 1:00PM, most of the Mexican army was having an afternoon siesta. General Santa Anna was bedded down with his mistress he called his Yellow Rose, the origin of the song Yellow Rose of Texas. <br /> Suddenly Houston's wild frontiersmen, filled with rage over the massacres of the Alamo and Goliad, rushed into the Mexican camp and routed them. After the battle Houston couldn't restrain the Texans from killing running fugitives, and even scalping some. Santa Anna was captured and forced to sign a peace.<br /> <br /> 1847- The 4th rescue team removed the last survivors of the Donner Party wagon train from their snowed in camp on Lake Truckee in the Sierras down to the settlement on the Sacramento River. A furious winter trapped the Donners in the mountains last Oct 31st with almost no food. Of 86 pioneers 41 died and the others ate their corpses to survive. Louis Kesesburg, the only settler who spoke openly of eating human flesh and was called a ghoul, moved to Sacramento and opened a restaurant. <br /> <br /> 1865- UNCLE BILLY’S POLITICAL LESSON. In North Carolina, General William T. Sherman had offered Confederate Joe Johnston’s army the same terms for surrender that Grant had given Robert E Lee. But Johnston handed Sherman new terms rewritten by crafty Confederate President Jefferson Davis. It asked for political and property amnesty for all Confederate leaders; that the US Government would leave all Southern state officials at their posts. <br /> This went much further than one army surrendering to another, it was in effect a deal that no one would be punished for the Civil War. But Sherman didn’t seem to see the fine print. He thought that was what Abe Lincoln had wanted before he was killed. So, he signed it and passed it on to Washington. <br /> When new President Andrew Johnson and General Grant read the terms, they were thunderstruck. They ordered Sherman to tear that treaty up and offer nothing but unconditional surrender. Hotheaded Secretary of War Stanton denounced Sherman in the newspapers as a traitor. Sherman the Hero of Atlanta was furious at being made a fool of. He resolved the rest of his life to have nothing more to do with politics, which is probably why we never had a President William T. Sherman.<br /> <br /> 1865- President Lincoln’s funeral train left Washington DC for the long trip back to Springfield Ill.<br /> <br /> 1911- LENIN WANTS A LIBRARY CARD. Russian communist revolutionary Nikolai Lenin was living secretly in exile in London. In a letter dated this day he applied to the British Museum Library collection to study its documents. His letter was in perfect English and he signed his name as Jacob Richter.<br /> <br /> 1910- Mark Twain died of congenital heart failure at 75 as Haley's comet appeared overhead. He once wrote: " When arriving in Heaven feel free to ask all the questions you want of Saint Peter. You may ask for his autograph, however don’t take any Kodak photos or bring your dog. Admittance to Heaven is based on favor, not merit, else the dog would be allowed to go in and you kept out."<br /> <br /> 1918- THE RED BARON SHOT DOWN- In the air duels above the World War I trenches, Baron Manfred Von Richthofen was the best. The Red Baron had shot down more planes than anyone -80 confirmed kills. (two more claimed but unconfirmed)<br /> On this day, von Richthofen got onto the tail of a plane and was about to add #81, when Canadian Roy Brown got behind him and filled the back of his plane with machine gun bullets. Other experts claim The Red Baron was hit by Australian ground fire. Mortally wounded, von Richthofen still managed to land his red Fokker triplane before slumping over dead. Manfred von Richthofen was 26. Soldiers tore the plane to pieces for souvenirs.<br /> Capt. Roy Brown later wrote of seeing the body of his enemy.<br /> . “…the sight of Richthofen as I walked closer gave me a start. He appeared so small to me, so delicate. He looked so friendly. Blond, silk-soft hair, like that of a child, Suddenly I felt miserable, desperately unhappy, as if I had committed an injustice. I could no longer look him in the face. I went away. I did not feel like a victor. There was a lump in my throat. If he had been my dearest friend, I could not have felt greater sorrow.”<br /> Roy Brown left the service after the war and became an accountant. He died of a heart attack in 1944.<br /> <br /> 1921- The Coconut Grove nightclub opened in Hollywood.<br /> <br /> 1933- The Nazis ban kosher meat processing in Germany.<br /> <br /> 1938- Disney animator Bill Tytla married artists model Adrienne LeClerc.<br /> <br /> 1944- During WWII, the French Committee of National Liberation (in exile in London) voted to give the women of France the right to vote. The first election French women could vote in would be the following Spring, after the liberation.<br /> <br /> 1948- HAIFA- As the British occupying troops were being withdrawn from Palestine’s second largest city, they had given up trying to keep Arabs and Jews from fighting. This day the British commander of Haifa informed city leaders that he was withdrawing his garrison. The British commander wagered a friend a bottle of whisky that neither side would have control of Haifa for weeks. The Jewish militia the Hagannah secured control of the city in 48 hours. The Arab population began a mass evacuation of the city, <br /> <br /> 1960- Brazil moved its capital from Rio De Janiero to Brasilia, a modern architects fantasy built in the middle of the jungle.<br /> <br /> 1961- Two British teenage rock bands meet each other for the first time- The Beatles met the Rolling Stones. They partied together often, and wrote songs for each other.<br /> <br /> 1964- British TV viewers double their pleasure- BBC 2 goes on the air. Their first program is Play School.<br /> <br /> 1973- The pop song “Tie a Yellow Ribbon ‘Round the Old Oak Tree” by Tony Orlando and Dawn became a number one hit on the US, Canadian and UK pop charts. The song spawned the custom of a yellow ribbon as a symbol of remembering a soldier overseas, which reached its’ peak during the Iran Hostage Crisis. That in turn spawned variations like the red AIDS ribbon, the pink breast cancer ribbon, and so on.<br /> <br /> 1975- As North Vietnamese armies roll towards his capitol, South Vietnamese President Nygun Van Thieu resigned and went into exile. The Roman Catholic French-educated Thieu tearfully blamed America for the defeat. Vice President Nygun Kao Key moved to Orange County Cal with much of the exile community.<br /> <br /> 1986- Reporter Geraldo Rivera hosted a live primetime TV special in an old Chicago Hotel that was once a headquarters for gangster Al Capone. Called THE MYSTERY OF AL CAPONE’S SECRET VAULT. After wasting two hours speculating on discovering buried treasure or mobster skeletons, they broke into a room, sealed since 1932. All they found were some old dusty bottles, trash and a few dollar bills.<br /> <br /> 1989- Oil executive George W. Bush became part of an ownership consortium that bought the last place baseball team the Texas Rangers." As soon as I knew they were for sale I went after them like a pit bull on a pants leg…. It doesn’t get much better than this…"<br /> <br /> 1997-The first Intergalactic Funeral. The ashes of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and 1960's LSD guru Dr. Timothy Leary were shot into space.<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What was the first digitally projected movie to win the Best Picture Oscar?<br /> <br /> Answer: Slumdog Millionaire 2007. George Lucas had advocating digital replace celluloid as early as 1997. He shot Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace digitally in 1999. But many theaters resisted the expensive retooling cots. Slumdog’s success helped accelerate the change. By 2013, 93% of movie theaters had converted to digital projection.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 20 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6129 <p>Quiz: What was the first digitally projected movie to win the Best Picture Oscar?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: What does it mean to place something in aspic?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/20/2023<br /> Birthdays: Harold Lloyd, Juan Miro', Adolf Hitler, Tito Puente, Nina Foch, Gregory Ratoff, Ryan O'Neal, Daniel Day Lewis, Jessica Lange, Luther Vandross, Don Mattingly, Rosalyn Summers, Crispin Glover, Betty-Lou Gerson the voice of Cruella da Vil, George Takei is 86, Clint Howard, Carmen Electra is 48, Andy Serkis is 60, Bob Kurtz<br /> <br /> Happy 4:20 Day. See below 1970.<br /> <br /> 1605- King James I granted charters to the Virginia Company to found colonies in the New World. Jamestown Va. is the result.<br /> <br /> 1653- After the English Civil War beheaded King Charles I, General Oliver Cromwell sat listening to the Barebones Parliament arguing over trivial issues. He had already arrested any politicians who disagreed with him, and those who were left were too afraid to discuss anything else. Finally, Oliver rose and exploded in rage:” Drunkards! Whoremasters! You are no Parliament! “He ordered his troops to run them all out. England would remain under Cromwell’s military dictatorship until his death in 1659. A note was tacked onto the locked doors of the House of Commons-“ This House to Let, Unfurnished.”<br /> <br /> 1689- Deposed English King James II Stuart had landed in Ireland and raised the Irish to help him regain his throne from his daughter and son-in-law William &amp; Mary. This day his army surrounded the City of Londonderry and began an epic 4 month siege. Like every battle in those days the conflict had a heavy religious connotation, James’ Irish followers were Catholics while the besieged loyalists were Protestants. Despite starvation and heavy bombardment the Londonderriers held out until help arrived, and James II was beaten at the Battle of the Boyne.<br /> <br /> 1759- Composer George Friedrich Handel died after collapsing in the orchestra pit while conducting the Messiah. He was 74, almost blind, and suffering from a number of illnesses. <br /> <br /> 1769- Ottawa Chief Pontiac had organized a great rebellion against the whites that united all the Great Lakes tribes and made his name feared from Detroit to Maine. After capturing and burning scores of forts and towns, his forces were defeated by the British and American settlers, and he was forced to swear allegiance to King George. Ten years later old Pontiac was visiting a French merchant at a settlement across from modern Saint Louis called Caholkia when a Peoria Indian clubbed and stabbed him to death. It was never known why, but it’s rumored he was bribed by a white businessman. The Indian was rewarded with a barrel of whiskey, the very stuff Pontiac warned would ruin all Indian People.<br /> <br /> 1814- Napoleon sent to Elba, a little island off the coast of France. He quoted the famous palindrome "Able was I ere I saw Elba." he had been learning English. <br /> <br /> 1836- Wisconsin Territory established.<br /> <br /> 1859- " It was the Best of Times, It was the Worst of Times..." Charles Dicken's novel "A Tale of Two Cities" began to be published in magazine form.<br /> <br /> 1865- Robert E. Lee, now a private citizen in occupied Richmond, wrote President Jefferson Davis still on the run. He urged Davis to give up the struggle and allow the remaining Confederate forces to lay down their arms and go home.<br /> <br /> 1902- Marie Curie discovered radium.<br /> <br /> 1903- THE KISHNIEV POGROM- The word Russian Jews feared most was Pogrom. Much like lynch mobs in the American South, it meant the Russian police would stand back and do nothing while mobs were encouraged to murder and violate the homes of Jews. This day in the city of Kishniev, mobs killed 43 Jews and mutilated their bodies, and several hundred Jewish women were raped. There were protests around the world about the Kishniev massacre but nothing official was ever done. When Jewish leaders went to the Czar to protest, they were answered with another pogrom in Gomel. <br /> Back in America, old Mark Twain donated money to groups advocating the Czars overthrow. Twain said:” If it takes dynamite to overthrow that regime well then, thank God for Dynamite!”<br /> <br /> 1909- Mary Pickford, the first Movie Star, goes in front of a camera for the first time.<br /> <br /> 1912- The first baseball game played at Fenway Park. The Boston Red Stockings, defeated the New York Highlanders (Yankees), 6-1.<br /> <br /> 1914- Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs opened. Commuters on the “El” could see how their cubbies were doing by looking for the W or L flag flying.<br /> <br /> 1914- THE LUDLOW MASSACRE- In Colorado a violent strike was being waged between coal miners and the Standard Oil Company of John D. Rockefeller. This night militia, Pinkerton detectives and strikebreakers attacked a tent camp of striking miners and their families in the dead of night. They poured kerosene on their tents while they were sleeping, set them alight and shot people as they ran out to safety. 20 died, half were women and children. As in most labor murders, no one was ever tried or convicted. President Woodrow Wilson sent federal troops to occupy Colorado and restore order. Even then, John Rockefeller refused mediation until the strike was broken.<br /> <br /> 1912- A London West End theater manager and failed author named Abraham “Bram” Stoker died. He was 65. If anyone noticed him, it was because he managed the Lyceum theater where famed actor Henry King performed. Bram Stoker’s seven books and several plays made little money in his time. But a decade later a play adapted from one of his novels made him world famous. Dracula.<br /> <br /> 1916- Mauser Day- A German submarine U-20 surfaces off the coast of Ireland and landed two IRA leaders, Sir Roger Casement and Patrick Pearse, and some rifles and ammunition. Casement was arrested by authorities while still on the beach, but the rifles were used to start the Irish Easter Sunday Rebellion.<br /> <br /> 1925- The Warner Bros. Moving Picture Company merged with Vitagraph, and began experimenting with fixing sound on to film.<br /> <br /> 1931- LA MAFIA- Charles “Lucky” Lucciano became a top crime figure in New York after he murdered Joey the Boss Masseria. Lucciano and Masseria were having dinner in Coney Island when Lucciano excused himself to go to the lavatory. Once gone, four gunmen burst in and filled Joey the Boss with bullets. Lucciano later whacked the other top capo of New York, Salvatore Maranzano. Maranzano and Masseria were the last of the “Mustache Petes” the old guard Sicilian immigrants, still pursuing feuds brought over from the old country. After this the Mafia became more American than Sicilian and Luciano organized his gangs along a corporate model. Lucky’s young gunmen- Joey Adonis, Al Anastasia, Vito Genovese and Bugsy Siegel, all became important gang bosses in the years to come. <br /> <br /> 1935- Radio program “Your Hit Parade” premiered.<br /> <br /> 1938-For Hitler’s birthday was the Berlin premiere of Leni Reifenstahl’s film Olympia, about the 1936 Berlin Olympics. <br /> <br /> 1939- RCA president David Sarnoff dedicated RCA pavilion at World's Fair in New York City. First U.S. news event filmed on television. Sarnoff predicted that one day everyone would have a television in their home!<br /> <br /> 1940- RCA labs demonstrated the first Electron Microscope.<br /> <br /> 1942- The' Bataan Death March' ends and the prison camps at Butan and Palayu. Half the captive 16,000 Pilipino and 10,000 American troops died. (there was two animators there who I later worked with at Filmation- Don Schloat and Len Rogers..)<br /> <br /> 1942- On his birthday, Adolf Hitler was presented with his favorite kind of present, a new tank. The first Tiger Tank.<br /> <br /> 1945- Adolph Hitler celebrated his last birthday (56) in his bunker and announced his decision to remain in Berlin. He did allow the military high command OberKommando Wehrmacht or OKW, to relocate out of the doomed city. There was a plan for a breakout to the Bavaria to organize a National Redoubt in the mountains and use Germany's poison gas stockpile, but the Fuhrer wanted his Wagnerian immolation in Berlin. <br /> The U.S. sent him a birthday present of the last 1000 plane bombing raid. Soviet pilots later said after this raid they discontinued bombing missions over Berlin because "every target we could think of had already been destroyed." One effect of the bombing, several great apes in the Berlin Zoo died of heart attacks from the stress. <br /> <br /> 1946- Walt Disney’s Make Mine Music premiered in NY.<br /> <br /> 1951- After being fired by President Truman, General Douglas MacArthur was given a massive ticker tape parade on Wall Street in his honor.<br /> <br /> 1968- Pierre Elliot Trudeau sworn in as Prime Minister of Canada. Trudeau became one of Canada’s more colorful leaders with his flower-child wife Margaret. <br /> <br /> 1971, Five students at San Rafael High School would meet at 4:20 p.m. by the campus’ statue of chemist Louis Pasteur to smoke some grass. They chose that specific time because extracurricular activities had usually ended by then. This group — Steve Capper, Dave Reddix, Jeffrey Noel, Larry Schwartz, and Mark Gravich — became known as the “Waldos” because they met at a wall. They would say “420” to each other as code for marijuana. Reddix later got a job as a roadie to the influential rock band The Grateful Dead. They took up the designation and made it a pop icon and now everyone lights up and tokes at 4:20PM.<br /> <br /> 1974 - Paul McCartney and Wings releases "Band on the Run" .<br /> <br /> 1976 - At a stage performance at City Center NYC, George Harrison secretly slipped in and sang the Lumberjack Song with the Monty Python comedy troop. John Cleese recalled: “George was wonderful. He came up on stage with us as a Mountie and sang the 'Lumberjack Song’ impeccably, and I don’t suppose 10 percent of the audience knew he was up there."<br /> <br /> 1977- Woody Allen &amp; Diane Keaton starred in the film “Annie Hall”. Young Christopher Walken did an early cameo as Annie’s weird brother. <br /> <br /> 1980- The Mariel Boat Lift. Fidel Castro made a mockery of President Jimmy Carter's policy of admitting seaborne political refugees from Cuba by opening his prisons and creating a flood of boat people, including many hardened criminals.<br /> <br /> 1999- COLUMBINE- Teenagers Ryan Harris and Dylan Kleibold entered their Columbine High School in Littleton Colorado and shot their classmates with semi-automatic guns. 15 died including the two gunmen and 26 were hurt. Despite making videotapes in which they bragged about their intentions, and leaving shotguns and ammunition around their rooms, their parents didn’t think anything was unusual. <br /> <br /> 2010- The BP DEEP WATER HORIZON oil well exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and drenching the U.S. Gulf Coast with millions of gallons of crude oil and dispersal chemicals. BP could not stop the leak for two and a half months. Despite the disaster, that year the TransAmerica Company, that built the rig, awarded their top execs bonuses for their safety record. They paid 18.7 billion in fines. The gov’t allowed BP to write off $9 billion in costs to clean up their own accident. <br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean to place something in aspic?<br /> <br /> Answer: Aspic is a sort of meat-based gelatin. It can be molded and can contain meat, vegetables and other victuals and can be a way of both serving and preserving these foods. “Setting in aspic” has come to mean something that is preserved or unchanged. Depending on context, the phrase can have a slightly negative connotation, suggesting that the things set in aspic are behind the times, provincial, hidebound.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 19 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6128 <p>Quiz: What does it mean to place something in aspic?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What U.S. baseball park has a feature called The Green Monster?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/19/2023<br /> Birthdays: Paulo Veronese, Elliot Ness, Jayne Mansfield, Dudley Moore, Paloma Picasso, Iwao Takamoto, Ashley Judd, James Franco is 46, Kate Hudson is 45, Tim Curry is 78<br /> <br /> Cerealia- an ancient Roman agricultural festival. Ceres (Demeter), the mother of Persephone, was the Goddess of Growing and Planting. To say, “That’s Fit for Ceres” was the Roman way of saying “That’s Totally Awesome”.<br /> <br /> 1521-THE TESTAMENT OF WORMS- Two days after reformer Martin Luther told him to take a flying leap, German Emperor Charles V announced he was against Luther’s reformation and called all German princes to support him. Half decided not to. Even Charles’ own sister became a Lutheran.<br /> <br /> 1587- SIR FRANCIS DRAKE RAIDS CADIZ- The bold English captain attacked the ships of the Spanish Armada in their harbor and so doing delayed the sailing of the Great Armada for one year. With him on the raid are men like Capt. Newport and Capt. Martin who in 1607 will be with John Smith at Jamestown.<br /> <br /> 1775- LEXINGTON AND CONCORD- The American Revolution began.<br /> After being awakened by Paul Revere, some 70 farmers spent all night at Buckman's Tavern drinking and trying to decide whether to fight or run away. By 4:00 a.m. John Hancock talked them into staying to fight. Then John Hancock ran away. <br /> The redcoat column was met on Lexington green by the minutemen. "Stand aside, ye dammed Rebels!" Captain Pitcairn shouted. " Stand fast boys! if they want a war, let it start here!" was Captain Parker's reply. The redcoats opened fire and easily dispersed that group. But by the time the British reached Concord bridge, hordes of farmers were shooting at them from bushes and rooftops. Finally, they were forced to withdraw to Boston empty handed. Lord Percy complained even 'American women were pointing muskets out of their kitchen windows and firing at us!" One 80 year old man shot three soldiers from his front porch, before he was bayoneted. He lived 7 more years. And most of the Yankee muskets were British government-issue Brown Bess. <br /> Americans later called Lexington “The Shot Heard Around the World”, but the British Crown regarded this situation at first as little more than a minor local disturbance. It barely made the back pages of the London newspapers. But by Bunker Hill they realized they had a real trans-ocean war on their hands. As late as December, elements in the Colonial Congress kept asking Parliament if we could still be friends and talk it over.<br /> <br /> 1782- Holland became the first nation to officially recognize the United States of America. Ambassador John Adams hung a Stars &amp; Stripes out his hotel room window, calling it the first official American Embassy in Europe.<br /> <br /> 1824- Poet Lord Byron died of fever and uremic poisoning at Missolonghi Greece.<br /> <br /> 1861- Maryland tried to join the Confederacy. In Baltimore a mob attacked the Sixth Massachusetts regiment marching to protect Washington D.C. 4 killed, 30 wounded. A young nurse named Clara Barton first took over the responsibility of treating the injured.<br /> She later founded the American Red Cross. <br /> If Maryland seceded the nation’s capitol would've had to be abandoned. Colonel Ben Butler solved the situation on his own initiative. He filed troops into the Maryland legislature to point guns at the delegates as they voted. They wisely voted to stay loyal.<br /> <br /> 1863- GRIERSON'S RAID. Gen. Grant, besieging the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, detached a hard riding cavalry brigade to loot and burn their way through the deep south from Vicksburg Mississippi, through Baton Rouge Louisiana to Union occupied New Orleans. Grierson himself was an Illinois music teacher who disliked horses and liked to strum his jaw-harp on the march. It was said any unit he commanded always had the best band. John Ford’s 1959 movie “The Horse Soldiers” was based on this event.<br /> <br /> 1881- Former British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli died. When asked if he would like a final visit from Queen Victoria, Disraeli answered:" No, not now, she'd only ask me to take a message to Albert." His political arch-enemy William Gladstone wrote him a moving eulogy, but he confided in his diary that it gave him diarrhea to do it.<br /> <br /> 1910- The Earth passed through the tail of Halley’s Comet. <br /> <br /> 1927- Mae West found guilty of indecent behavior in writing, producing and starring in a Broadway musical entitled “SEX”. She was fined, and emerged from jail more popular than ever. She said:” Everyone thinks I am opposed to censorship. Actually, I’m in favor of censorship. I’ve made a fortune from it!”<br /> <br /> 1951- General MacArthur had been fired from his Korean command by President Harry Truman. This day he did his famous speech to Congress” An Old Soldier never Dies, He just Fades Away, and like that old soldier I now close out my military career, and just fade away. An Old Soldier who tried to do his duty, as God showed him the light to do that duty, etc.” Republican Senator Robert Short shouted “We’ve just heard the Voice of God!” <br /> President Harry Truman watched the speech on TV and called it “The biggest bunch of bullshit I ever heard!”<br /> <br /> 1956-Movie star Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco.<br /> <br /> 1961- The BAY OF PIGS INVASION DEFEATED The CIA sponsored landing of AntiCastro Cubans failed on the beach of Bahia De Los Cochinos. After sanctioning some initial US Air Force bombing attacks, JFK changed his mind and cut off any further help, including a refusal to evacuate them when trapped. 200 Cuban insurgents were killed and 1,497 imprisoned. This earned him the everlasting anger of the Miami Cuban community. <br /> An aide said the day after the surrender Kennedy went alone to a secluded D.C. golf course and spent hours hitting golf balls, moaning:” How could I have been so Stupid!” after each whack.<br /> <br /> 1970- XEROX PARC – The Xerox Company announced the setup of a research group in Palo Alto Cal. This group pioneered the development of the personal computer, GUIs and the laser printer. <br /> <br /> 1973- Three years later Xerox Parc booted up the Alto, the first personal computer. They invented a new mouse, point and click windows, graphic interface and digital printer. President Carter installed one in the White House. Yet Xerox didn’t know what to do with them, they were in the copier business. There was no internet yet, except for government communications. The Alto cost $16,500 each, too expensive for most, so the idea bombed. One day in 1979 a group from Apple visited led by Steve Jobs. The group was inspired by their progress, and they went back to Apple and put what they learned into the development of the Lisa and Macintosh.<br /> <br /> 1987- The first Simpsons short aired today. MG01 "Good Night Simpsons" was on the 3rd episode of The Tracey Ullman Show, airing Sunday, 4/19/87 at 9pm. Animated by Wes Archer, Bill Kopp, and David Silverman.<br /> <br /> 1993- Branch Davidian cultists led by their messianic leader David Koresh immolate themselves in their compound at Waco, Texas during a furious shootout with the F.B.I.<br /> <br /> 1995- THE OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING- On the second anniversary of the Waco tragedy, emotionally disturbed Gulf War veterans Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols wanted their revenge on the U.S. Government. So, they detonated a truck bomb at the Murrow Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Among the 156 dead were a dozen pre-school children in a daycare center on the first floor. McVeigh called the dead children “collateral damage.” He was executed in 2001, and Nichols got life in prison. <br /> <br /> 2005- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany elected Pope Benedict XVI. The first German Pope since Hildebrandt in 1077, and the first pope to have been a soldier in the Nazi army. He was drafted in 1945 as all male children had been ordered to. Italians called him “The German Shepherd.”<br /> ===============================================================___________________________________________________________<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What U.S. baseball park has a feature called The Green Monster?<br /> <br /> Answer: Fenway Park in Boston. The home field of the Red Sox and an unusually high outfield wall, all painted green.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 18 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6127 <p>Quiz: What U.S. baseball park has a feature called The Green Monster?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: What is meant by “living the Life of Riley”?<br /> -----------------------------<br /> History for 4/18/2022<br /> Birthdays: Lucretzia Borgia, Franz Von Suppe’, Haley Mills is 76, Leopold Stokowski, Miklos Rosza, Herb Sorell, Wahoo Sam Crawford, Conan O’Brien is 59, James Woods is 75, Eric Roberts, Rick Moranis is 71, Maria Bello is 55, David Tennant is 51, America Ferrerra is 38, Disney animator Phil Young <br /> <br /> 185AD- Today is the Feast Day of the Roman martyr Saint Apollonius.<br /> <br /> 1506- Pope Julius II lays the cornerstone for St. Peter's Basilica. He had pulled down the old St. Peters, which had stood for 1200 years. The new structure designed by Bramante with the Dome by Michelangelo and the interiors by Sangallo and later Bernini.<br /> With true Renaissance modesty, Julius originally wanted his own tomb in the center under the altar, borne aloft by four giants carved by Michelangelo. I guess nobody mentioned the grave of St. Peter, overtop which this Basilica was being built. Eventually Julius scaled down his plans, and when he died his enemies put him in another church altogether (San Pietro Vincoli). Saint Peters was completed a little over schedule, 120 years later, in 1626.<br /> <br /> 1521-THE CONFESSION OF WORMS- German Emperor Charles V called Protestant reformer Martin Luther to come to the Imperial Diet at the city of Worms and explain his criticism of the Catholic Church. Ordered by the Papal Legate and the Emperor to renounce his heretical views, Luther defied them all." Here I stand, I can do no other, God help me." <br /> What makes this historically momentous is for the first time a common man stood before the Church, The Emperor and the assembled Princes of Europe and said "No. I won¹t obey". And he got away with it. The news ran like wildfire through Germany. That night someone hung on the council doors a placard with a farmer¹s shoe painted on it- the German traditional symbol of revolt. <br /> <br /> 1775- PAUL REVERE'S RIDE- Informers in Gen. Gage's office learned the British planned to send troops to seize an illegal arms cache in Lexington and arrest two radical leaders named John Hancock and Sam Adams. So silversmith Paul Revere, Thomas Dawes and a country doctor out on a date named Dr. Prescott were sent to warn them and raise the minutemen on the way, after getting the two lantern signal in the old North Church. "One if by land and two if by sea, etc." Dr. Prescott actually completed the mission. Revere was arrested by a British patrol soon after warning Adams &amp; Hancock and sent home without his horse. <br /> At daybreak Paul Revere walked over to Lexington green in time to watch the Revolutionary War begin. Longfellow's poem never mentioned Prescott or Dawes. Paul Revere never said "The British are Coming!" because he considered himself British like everybody else in America at the time. He would have said: "The Regulars are Coming! "meaning the regular army. <br /> <br /> 1778- THE WHITEHAVEN RAID- Former Scotsman John Paul Jones wanted to show the British public that the American Revolution wasn't just some distant war across the sea.<br /> He decided to raid Britain itself. An ulterior motive Jones had in attacking a seaport called Whitehaven was that Jones always suspected he was the illegitimate son of a Lord Selkirk, who resided there. It was his boyhood home. So through the dead of night, while the sailors of the U.S.S. Ranger were burning and plundering the harbor, John Paul Jones was out looking to kidnap his own father! By dawn they were gone. Jones couldn't locate his deadbeat dad, so he had to content himself with stealing his silverware.<br /> The British Navy never regarded Jones as more than an irritant, but the raid was a great morale booster in the States. <br /> <br /> 1847- Battle of Cerro Gordo- General Winfield Scott defeated the Mexican army of Santa Anna and opened the way to Mexico City.<br /> <br /> 1857- Vice President Rufus King died of tuberculosis. President James Buchanan was totally distraught. There has been speculation that James Buchanan might have been our first Gay President. He was a lifelong bachelor, his niece Harriet Lane filled in for the social duties of First Lady. Only once in his life did Buchanan have an affair with a lady, which he broke off abruptly without explanation. When James Buchanan and Rufus King were colleagues in the Senate they roomed together and were inseparable. Old Andrew Jackson liked to refer to Senators Buchanan and King," Little Miss Nancy and Mrs. Buchanan".<br /> <br /> 1861-Mr. LINCOLN'S LOUSY DAY PART I- America’s top soldier Robert E. Lee declined Lincoln's offer to command the U.S. Army and instead sided with the Confederacy. In his letter doing so he confesses: "I foresee the Country will go through a terrible ordeal, a necessary expiation for our national sins."<br /> <br /> 1861-Mr. LINCOLN'S LOUSY DAY PART II- As if that news wasn't bad enough, on the same day Lincoln got a telegram from the pro-Southern Governor of Maryland saying not only would he refuse to cooperate in fighting the rebels, but he was cutting the telegraph wires and railroads into and out of Washington D.C.! Until the main union armies reached the capitol on the 24th, Washington was deserted, surrounded by a hostile slave state, with only a few Massachusetts volunteers to defend them. Maryland was only prevented from joining the Confederacy by Col. Ben Butler's initiative of sending troops into the state legislature to point their guns at the members as they voted. They voted to stay loyal.<br /> <br /> 1870- John D. Rockefeller files papers to form the Standard Oil Corporation of Ohio. One the largest companies in the world, today it is called Exxon-Mobil.<br /> <br /> 1906- THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE. 3,500 deaths and the city destroyed in the most frightening earthquake in U.S. History. Writer Jack London wrote:” Never has a modern Imperial city been so completely destroyed. San Francisco is gone!” Enrico Caruso was in town with the Metropolitan Opera on tour. He later sat on his suitcase in front of the ruined Palace Hotel and said- "Helluva Place! Ah’ma ’never coming back!"<br /> Drew Barrymore’s grandfather the great actor John Barrymore was in a San Francisco hotel room when the quake struck. He ran into the bathroom and sat shivering in his bath tub until it was over. Afterward the National Guard put him to work clearing rubble looking for bodies. When they read his telegram, the other Barrymores refused to believe the story. Old John Drew, a patriarch of the acting family, felt otherwise. "It took an Act of God to get John out of bed and into a bathtub, and the National Guard to get him to go to work. I believe every word." Amadeo Gianini, founder of the Bank of America, then called the Bank of Italy, gathered up his bank's papers and stocks and buried them in his garden under the begonias until his new office could be set up. He soon set up for business again on a pier. City government was set up in the undamaged St. Francis Hotel on Powell Street and a large mahogany bar was moved out to the street to serve free drinks to calm nerves. <br /> <br /> San Franciscans dusted themselves off and rebuilt. By 1913 they were doing well enough to host the World’s Fair. A little ditty of the time said: <br /> "They say God spanked the town, for being rather frisky.<br /> Then why'd He knocked the churches down, yet leave up<br /> Hotaling's Whiskey?"<br /> <br /> 1914-. The full feature length movie premiered in Turin, Italy. "Cabiria" directed by Giovane Patrone. It was believed to be the first full length movie ever until the discovery of a 1912 version of Quo Vadis. D.W. Griffith’s 1915 classic the Birth of a Nation popularized the format for feature films.<br /> <br /> 1923- The first Yankee Stadium dedicated. Yankees win the opener against Boston, 4-1 in front of over 72,000 fans, Babe Ruth hit the park's first home run. The new $2.5 million ballpark is the first to feature three decks. This Yankee Stadium was replaced in 2009.<br /> <br /> 1934- The first automatic Laundromat opened in Ft. Worth Texas.<br /> <br /> 1938- Switzerland closed its’ borders to all Jews in a pact made with the German government. The Swiss government never admitted this until 1995.<br /> <br /> 1942- The DOOLITTLE RAID. Gen. Jimmie Doolittle led 16 B-25s to fly long distance and drop bombs on Tokyo. It was a desperate mission. They did it knowing they didn't have enough fuel to return to the carrier USS Hornet, so they continued on to China and took their chances where they landed. Some of the men shot down and captured were hanged or beheaded by angry Japanese. The raid was had no strategic value and did little damage, but after weeks of unbroken Japanese success, the American public needed a morale booster. General Doolittle survived the war and lived to be 97, dying in 1993.<br /> <br /> 1943- The Second Uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto.<br /> <br /> 1945- The German army surrounded in the Ruhr Pocket surrendered. 350,000 went into prison camps. Conscious that it was probably their last major battle in Europe, the Americans called it Operation Kaput. The same day British Prime Minister Churchill ordered Field Marshal Montgomery’s army to stop racing to Berlin and turn north towards Lubeck on the Baltic. "There is no reason for our friends the Russians to occupy Denmark, and our presence at Lubeck would save a lot of argument later on."<br /> <br /> 1945- Famed journalist Ernie Pyle is killed by Japanese machine gun fire during the fighting at Okinawa.<br /> <br /> 1955- Scientist Albert Einstein died in Princeton, New Jersey. He was 75. As he fell in and out of a coma, his last words were in German. Since no one around his bed could speak German, we don't know what his last words were. <br /> <br /> 1958- A U.S. court ruled that poet Ezra Pound no longer had to stay at a Washington D.C. mental hospital for the criminally insane. The Idaho born Pound had moved to Italy in the 1920s and became an ardent supporter of Mussolini and the Fascists. He felt artists thrived under strongman rule. Gertrude Stein couldn’t stand him because of his open Anti-Semitism. When World War II ended, he was arrested for treason and sent to this mental hospital. His release after 13 years incarceration, he returned to Italy and died in 1972. <br /> <br /> 1958- At the Los Angeles Coliseum in front of a crowd of 78,672, the Dodgers play their first game in the City of Angels, defeating the new San Francisco Giants, 6-5. <br /> <br /> 1967- Jonathan Frid first appeared as the vampire Barnabas Collins in the TV series Dark Shadows.<br /> <br /> 1980- The white minority dominated African nation of Rhodesia transitioned into the black majority nation named Zimbabwe and elected rebel leader Robert Mugabe as its first president.<br /> <br /> 1994- Disney’s first theatrical musical based on one of their animated films, Beauty and the Beast: A New Musical, opened on Broadway. It would run for over thirteen years and became the 4th highest earning show on Broadway.<br /> <br /> 2000- Earlier that spring some of the world’s biggest internet companies –e-Bay, Amazon and CNN were paralyzed by a virus spread by a hacker. Today the FBI made an arrest. The culprit was a Canadian High School student who went by the domain name of Mafia Boy. He received probation, and a promise to use his computer only for schoolwork for two years.<br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is meant by “living the Life of Riley”?<br /> <br /> Answer: The expression comes from a popular song of the 1880s, “Is That Mr. Reilly?”, in which the title character describes what he would do if he suddenly became wealthy. Sort of like the song “If I were a rich man”, in Fiddler on the Roof. The phrase came to mean living the good life, a life of luxury. A 1950s TV sitcom The Life of Riley, starring William Bendix.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 17 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6126 <p>Quiz: What is meant by “living the Life of Riley”?<br /> <br /> Yesterday¹s Question: On an army base, what is a PX?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/17/2023<br /> Birthdays: Tobias Stummer-1539, Duke Maximillian I of Bavaria, Nikita Khrushchev, Thorton Wilder, Clarence Darrow, Arthur Schnabel, Olivia Hussey is 72, Gregor Piatigorsky, Don Kirschner, William Holden, Harry Reasoner, Boomer Eiseason, Sean Bean is 64, Victoria Beckham, Martha Sigall, Ron Miller, Jennifer Garner is 51, Rooney Mara is 38.<br /> <br /> 161 AD- Today is the Feast of Saint Anictetus, who may have died a martyr's death in the reign of the Roman Emperor Antoninus, but more likely he was simply worn out over the argument about when exactly Easter should take place. <br /> <br /> 1421- Dort Dyke, one of the largest water barriers in Holland, ruptured and the ensuing flood killed thousands.<br /> <br /> 1492- After 8 years of interviews, waiting in antechambers and being laughed at and called crazy, King Ferdinand of Spain finally granted a commission for Christopher Columbus to outfit ships and sail west across the Unknown Ocean to find Asia. Ferdinand gave him a diplomatic letter for the Great Khan of Cathay- now called China. The legend of Queen Isabella pawning her jewels to give him money didn¹t happen. She suggested doing so, only to embarrass the Royal finance minister to accelerate Columbus’ funding.<br /> <br /> 1524- A French expedition led by Florentine navigator Giuseppe De Verrazano sailed into New York Harbor. He thought at first it was a lake. Verrazano claimed the lands for France but upon returning home found the French King Francis too busy with his wars in Germany and Italy to bother with discoveries in faraway TerraNuova. Verrazano was later eaten by cannibals in the Caribbean. The big harbor was forgotten until Henry Hudson with the Dutch came upon it 80 years later. <br /> This is probably good in the long run because then New York Harbor would have been called the Bay of Angouleme, and Manhattan the Isle de Valois. The Indian settlement that would one day be Newport Connecticut, he called “Refugio”. The Verrazano Narrows Bridge at the mouth of New York Harbor, is named for him.<br /> <br /> 1525- THE MASSACRE OF WEINSBURG- Count Ludwig von Helfenshein was a German lord hated by his people for his cruel severity. This day the Great German Peasant Revolt army reached the walls of his castle at Weinsburg near Heilbronn. A small group under a flag of truce asked for a parley. Count Ludwig’s knights slew them. <br /> So, the peasant army with enthusiastic help from the townspeople stormed the town and captured the Count. Now he begged for his life and offered his entire fortune as ransom. But the peasants only wanted revenge. They made Count Helfensheim run a gauntlet of peasants armed with knives, pitchforks, scythes and axes. As he ran they chopped away at him they added their curses" You killed my father! You imprisoned my brother for not taking off his hat as you rode by!" etc. Then they slaughtered all the other nobles.<br /> <br /> 1534- Sir Thomas Moore the Chancellor of England was ordered to the Tower of London by King Henry VIII.<br /> <br /> 1656- Battle of Warka- Poles under Hetman Czarniecki defeated the Hungarians under Georgi Rackoszy.<br /> <br /> 1792- British Captain Vancouver explored Puget Sound. He founds a settlement and names it for then Prime Minister Granville. In 1886 Granville (sometimes called Gastown after Gassy-Jack a saloon keeper) was renamed Vancouver.<br /> <br /> 1770- At a dinner party in Versailles, Madame Necker, the wife of France¹s first minister, suggested a subscription be held for the great artist Pigalle to make a statue of old philosopher Francois Voltaire. Rousseau and King Frederick the Great of Prussia donated money. The bust of the smiling old cynic became one of the well-known images of the XVIII Century.<br /> <br /> 1793-The Battle of Warsaw- American Revolution hero Thaddeus Kozciuszko tried unsuccessfully to defend the Polish capitol from Catherine the Great’s Russian army led by Marshal Suvarov.<br /> <br /> 1800- The Senate passed a bill for the moving of the U.S. government from Philadelphia to the new Federal City, being called Washington D.C.<br /> <br /> 1808- Napoleon ordered US ships trading with England seized when entering French harbors.<br /> <br /> 1839- The Republic of Guatemala declared.<br /> <br /> 1861- The State of Virginia voted to secede from the United States and join the rebel Confederacy. Virginia, The largest and most populous Southern State had wavered undecided and in a preliminary vote had voted 2-1 not to leave. But the violence at Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call for troops to put down rebellion made her decide to join her Southern brethren. Abe Lincoln now could see out of his White House office window a Confederate flag flapping in the breeze across the Potomac at Alexandria.<br /> <br /> 1865- In Washington DC, At ten o’clock in the evening Federal agents show up at Mary Surrat¹s Boarding House and arrest the remaining conspirators in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln: George Atzenrodt, Lewis Paine and Mrs. Surrat. Their leader John Wilkes Booth with David Herold were on the run in the back country of Virginia. The four mentioned were hanged and a dozen others implicated were given prison sentences. But historians disagree about how extensive the conspiracy was. As Lewis Paine said when he was captured:" You don¹t know the half of it!" perhaps we never will.<br /> <br /> 1869- The first professional baseball game ever played saw the Cincinnati Reds defeated the rival Cincinnati Amateurs, 24-15.<br /> <br /> 1875- The billiard game Snooker was invented by Sir Joseph Chamberlain, the uncle of the future British Prime Minister.<br /> <br /> 1924- Metro Pictures, Goldwyn and Mayer Films all merged to become Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer. By 1940 MGM was the largest studio in Hollywood.<br /> <br /> 1929- Baseball great Babe Ruth married Ziegfeld Follies dancer Marge Colson in a morning ceremony. Then he drove to Yankee Stadium and hit a home run.<br /> <br /> 1937 "Porky's Duck Hunt" The birth of Daffy Duck. One legendary story is that voice actor Mel Blanc designed Daffy’s distinctive lisp to be his impression of the Looney Tunes boss Leon Schlesinger. When they screened this cartoon all the artists stood in dread of how Leon would take the joke. Leon never made the connection that the Ducks voice was an imitation of him:" Gee Fellers, dat Duck iz pretty Ffffunny!"<br /> <br /> 1941-Yugoslavia surrendered to the Nazis. Serb guerillas rallied in the mountains and continued to fight under Josef Broz Tito.<br /> <br /> 1945- As Allied armies overran Germany, a massed raid of American bombers destroyed 752 German planes on the ground. This was all that was left of the Luftwaffe, once the world¹s largest air force. <br /> At the same time Field Marshal Walter Model, who had been directing much of the German army operations in the west since Normandy, was sitting in a forest listening to Propaganda Chief Goebbels on the radio tell the German people that everything was going well. “ I’ve sacrificed my life to those bastards!” Model sighed. He then drew his pistol, put it in his mouth and pulled the trigger.<br /> <br /> 1946- Syrian Independence Day. The last French colonial troops leave Damascus.<br /> <br /> 1960- Cleveland Indians traded Rocky Colavito to the Detroit Tigers.<br /> <br /> 1961-THE BAY OF PIGS INVASION- The CIA started landing 1,400 anti-Castro Cuban fighters in La Bahia de los Cochinos. When John Kennedy became president he was shown a CIA plan that had been developed to land anti-Castro guerrillas in Cuba. Once there they would start a popular uprising to overthrow the cigar smoking commie. Kennedy went along with the plan, it failed and JFK looked bad, and South Florida has voted Republican ever since.<br /> <br /> 1964-The Ford Mustang introduced by Lee Iacocca.<br /> <br /> 1971- The song "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night tops the pop charts. <br /> <br /> 1975- The Khmer Rouge entered Pnom Penh, the Cambodian War ends. The Khmer Rouge led by a junta with Premier Pol Pot at it's head declare it to be Year Zero and began emptying the city people into the countryside. The holocaust known as Killing Fields began. When it was finally ended by a Vietnamese invasion a few years later, almost one third of Cambodia's population had been murdered, or driven into exile.<br /> <br /> 1987- Comedian Dick Shawn ­the Hippy-Hitler in the original Mel Brooks film the Producers- was doing his one-man show The Second Funniest Man in the World at UC San Diego. After one particularly funny punch line he fell over dead from a heart attack. The audience laughed and clapped for several more minutes because they thought it was part of the act.<br /> <br /> 1989-The Polish Government removes the ban on the Solidarity trade union. During the attempts to round up and imprison the ringleaders of the movement, one Zomo (secret police) got so close he had collared a man who leaped out of his jacket to escape. Later the same cop and dissident found themselves across a table discussing government power sharing. The cop nonchalantly mentioned:" Oh, by the way, here is your coat."<br /> <br /> 2011- The first episode of Game of Thrones premiered in the U.S. on HBO. <br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: On an army base, what is a PX?<br /> <br /> Answer: Short for Post Exchange, a retail store where servicemen and women could buy discounted goods. Everything from toiletries to jeans, watches and regulation shoes. Some have a complete supermarket for families living on base.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 16 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6125 <p>Quiz: On an army base, what is a PX?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What sport is nicknamed “The Beautiful Game”? (hint: not in the U.S.)<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/16/2023<br /> birthdays: King John II “The good” of France (1319), Elisabeth Vignee-Lebrun, Wilbur Wright, Charlie Chaplin, J.P. Morgan, Kingsley Amis, Anatole France, Henry Mancini, Peter Ustinov, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bobby Vinton, Spike Milligan, John Halas, Edie Adams, Hans Sloane, Disney artist Victor Haboush, Pope Benedict XVI, Martin Lawrence, John Cryer is 58, Ellen Barkin is 70, Claire Foy is 40 <br /> <br /> 1260- Chartres Cathedral completed. Art history lecturers rejoice!<br /> <br /> 1632- Battle of the Lech River- in the Thirty Years War the Protestant army under Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus defeated the Catholics under Johan Tscherclas von Tilly. The 74 year old mercenary general Tilly, his hip smashed by a cannon ball, died soon after.<br /> <br /> 1746- BATTLE OF CULLODEN The last great land battle fought on British soil. British armies under the Duke of Cumberland crushed the Scottish Highlanders raised by Prince Charles Stuart. It is considered a movement of Scottish independence, although Bonnie Prince Charlie’s goal was not an independent Scotland but recapturing the English throne for his deposed family. <br /> Historians harp on what a forlorn hope it was to conquer the mighty British Empire, but truth be told the Highland Army got pretty far pretty easy, down into England as far as Derby before falling back into Scotland. With the majority of the British army running around North America, Gibraltar and India, there were fewer than 15,000 redcoats to defend the homeland. But the initial surprise was lost as most of the Highland Chieftains spent most of the time arguing. They paid their troops with Oatmeal. <br /> The vengeful British banned the clan system, tartans, bagpipes and the Gaelic language for decades. <br /> <br /> 1787- What some consider the first professionally produced American play- Royall Tyler’s The Contrast- debuted at New York City’s John Street Theater. It was a comedy that poked fun at aristocracy. Gen. George Washington was in the audience. At this time the Broadway theater district and Times Square was a quiet forest clearing.<br /> <br /> 1828- Spanish artist Francisco Goya died at 82 in Bordeaux, France. Years later when his remains were moved to Madrid, it was discovered Goya wasn't alone in his grave. His friend Martin Goesochea's remains were in there with him.<br /> <br /> 1862- Union Admiral David Dixon Porter's fleet of ironclad warships run past the batteries of Vicksburg ferrying Grant and his army to the town of Hard Times. One of the cannon thundering at Porter was the famous rebel 18 pounder "Whistlin' Dick". It was so named because the rifling of it's barrel gave it's shells an erratic spin and recognizable whistle.<br /> <br /> 1865- Confederate leader Robert E. Lee had surrendered his army to Grant and had returned as a private citizen to his Richmond brownstone. This day a scout from Mosby’s Raiders slipped into his home and asked Lee if they should keep fighting guerrilla style. Lee told him. “Tell General Mosby and his command to be good boys and go on home” <br /> <br /> 1874- AMERICA'S CANNIBAL, Gold prospector Alferd Packer went up into the Colorado Rockies with several friends to look for gold. They were stranded by blizzard conditions and reduced to eating their moccasins for food. <br /> On this day Packer, the only survivor, came down to civilization and admitted under examination that he and his friends resorted to cannibalism to survive. Upon further questioning Packer admitted he didn't always wait for his friends to die, he'd hatchet them in the head as they slept, then fricassee them. Alferd Packer became the only American ever convicted of cannibalism. The University of Colorado Student Grill is named in his honor.<br /> <br /> 1905- Andrew Carnegie established the Carnegie Foundation to distribute his philanthropy. The former Scottish orphan coal miner Carnegie renounced his robber baron career and dedicated himself to donating the bulk of his fortune to building libraries and hospitals. He claimed: “A man who dies rich dies disgraced!” When Mark Twain wrote him letters, he addressed them “To Saint Andrew from Saint Mark”<br /> <br /> 1912- Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel.<br /> <br /> 1916- During the Great War, the French High Command approved the petition of American pilots serving in the French service to form their own squadron. The Lafayette Escadrille was born.<br /> <br /> 1926- The Book-Of-The-Month-Club distributed its first selection-Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner. <br /> <br /> 1933- Dick Huemer’s first day working at Walt Disney. Huemer became a senior story artist, and writer. He and Joe Grant developed Dumbo, Fantasia, Lady and the Tramp, Saludos Amigos and more. <br /> <br /> 1935- Fibber McGee and Molly debut on radio.<br /> <br /> 1943- BICYCLE DAY-In Basil Switzerland, chemist Dr. Albert Hoffman discovered the hallucinogenic properties of LSD. He had become very interested in the relationship between ergot (wheat rust), and had done a great deal of research about the Oracle at Delphi. He had synthesized LSD in 1938 but couldn't figure out what to do with it. However, when he made up a batch of the drug the second time, he probably inhaled enough from it to start hallucinating. Since he had already tried mescaline, so he had a pretty good idea of what was happening to him. He closed up his lab, got on his bicycle and pedaled home to Binnigen, a suburb on the southern edge of Baselstadt, a trip of four or five miles, hallucinating all the way. <br /> The next day he went back to the lab and made up a dose of LSD the size of a reasonable dose of mescaline, without realizing that that amounted to a tenfold overdose of LSD. Twenty minutes later he said 'Oh oh,' got on his bike and pedaled back to Binnigen. A scientist reader to this site added this: I believe the first hope for LSD was that it would produce an 'experimental psychosis,' which would allow scientists to study schizophrenia in otherwise 'normal' patients or subjects. In the 1950s and 60s the CIA experimented with LSD as an aid in mind-expansion.<br /> <br /> 1940- On Baseball Season’s opening day President Franklin D. Roosevelt's ceremonial first pitch smashed a Washington Post camera. The Chief Executive was not charged with a wild pitch. Red Sox hurler Lefty Grove blanked the Washington Senators, 1-0. <br /> <br /> 1946-The Brothers Chevrolet- Louis and Arthur Chevrolet were Louisiana race car drivers at the beginning of the 20th Century who were invited by General Motors to design a line of high-performance vehicles. But their business skills were never as good as their engineering abilities. After several bad deals, cheated opportunities and hard luck Louis died a common mechanic on his own Chevrolet assembly line. This day Arthur Chevrolet, broke and alone, committed suicide.<br /> <br /> 1947- The Zoom Lens patented.<br /> <br /> 1952- THE NUNIVAK INCIDENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE COMPUTER – American coastal air defenses had been neglected since the end of WWII. But by 1952 the Cold War raised tensions. America knew the Soviets had Tupelov bombers capable of reaching the US mainland with nukes. This night, a radar station at Nunivak Alaska, and another at Presque Isle, Maine both reported flights of unidentified aircraft headed towards the U.S. They turned out to be false alarms, but the reports of the planes took four hours to reach Washington! The resultant scandal in Strategic Air Command resulted in the rapid building up of a new early warning system. They said they could no longer rely on telephones, they needed immediate date retrieval. This created the SAGE computer systems, inventing the computer screen made out of repurposed radar screens, the keyboard and the light pen. <br /> <br /> 1953- PORK CHOP HILL- In the Korean War, today marked the heaviest Red Chinese assaults to retake Hill 255, called because of its shape Pork Chop Hill. This hill had very little strategic value, but the Chinese and UN forces placed great symbolic meaning to it as a test of strength. Pork Chop Hill was battled over from June 1952 practically until the Peace Treaty of Panmunjom in mid 1953. <br /> <br /> 1956- Season 5, episode 23 of I Love Lucy aired. Where Lucy has the fight in the wine making vat.<br /> <br /> 1959- John McCarthy of MIT invented the computer language LISP. <br /> <br /> 1962- Walter Cronkite took over the job of anchor at the CBS Evening News, building a reputation for journalistic integrity almost equaled to Edward R. Murrow. Nicknamed the Most Trusted Man in America, many credit Cronkite for breaking the news to America that the U.S. was not going to win The Vietnam War. President Lyndon Johnson said: If I lost Cronkite then I’ve lost middle America.” When Cronkite retired, the redoubtable CBS News Division descent into tabloid stupidity and irrelevance began. <br /> <br /> 1983- Disney Channel debuted.<br /> <br /> 1988- Grave of the Fireflies, by Isao Takahata and Studio Ghibli, was released in Japan.<br /> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What sport is nicknamed “The Beautiful Game”? (Hint: not in the U.S.)<br /> <br /> Answer: Soccer, or as it is known in the rest of the world- football. This nickname was popularized by the great Brazilian soccer star Pele.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 15 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6124 <p>Quiz: What sport is nicknamed “ The Beautiful Game”? (hint: not in the U.S.)<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Something catlike is called feline, but what is something vulpine?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/15/2023<br /> Birthdays: Leonardo DaVinci, composer Domenico Gabrieli, Nanak I the founder of the Sikh religion 1469, Charles Wilson Peale, Theodore Rousseau, Henry James, Bessie Smith, Heinrich Klee, Kim Il Sung, Claudia Cardinale is 84, Roy Clark, Emma Thompson is 62, Hans Conried, Olympic runner Evelyn Ashford, Alice Braga is 38, Seth Rogen is 40, Emma Watson is 32<br /> <br /> Fordicidia-Ancient Roman Festival where 31 pregnant cows are sacrificed to Tellus, the Earth-Mother. <br /> <br /> Happy St. Matthews Day, the patron saint of tax-collectors.<br /> <br /> 1632- Battle of the Lech River. Round one of Protestant Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus vs. Catholic Duke Albrecht Wallenstein in the Thirty Years War.<br /> <br /> 1729- The Saint Matthew’s Passion oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach was first sung at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig.<br /> <br /> 1738- The Bottle Opener invented.<br /> <br /> 1755- Dr. Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language first published. Dr. Johnson first created the system of listing a word’s phonetic pronunciation, ancient roots and how to use the word in a sentence. Before this, nobody fussed much about spelling words correctly. The excellence of Dr. Johnson’s dictionary made him the virtual dictator of English writing in his time. <br /> Dr. Johnson allowed a bit of personal pique into his lexicographical prima non pares. He was annoyed that Lord Chesterfield pledged to finance his effort, but only sent a check for a measly ten pounds. When the book was a success his lordship claimed credit as Johnson’s benefactor. Dr. Johnson defined the word “Patron”- One who contributes Indolence, and pays in Flattery.”<br /> <br /> 1797-The Great Spithead Mutiny- Never mind the Bounty, here the whole blinking British Fleet mutinied against harsh conditions like flogging, press gangs and having to say “Arr-Mateys” in a silly voice whenever appropriate. Flogging was never officially prohibited in the British Navy, it just died out in the 1870's.<br /> <br /> 1822- The Captain Henry Expedition set off. Andrew Henry got together a team of mountain men including Jedediah Smith and Jim Bridger and went off in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark to find the source of the Missouri River, 2,500 miles into Montana. They still couldn’t give up on the idea was one of these western rivers would go from the Mississippi to the Pacific Coast. They dragged a small ship on wheels along with them but wound up abandoning it. The story was dramatized in the 1971 Richard Harris film” Man in the Wilderness” and in the 2015 Leonardo DiCaprio film “ The Revenant”.<br /> <br /> 1839- Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg are betrothed to be married. It was Victoria who proposed to Albert, it was unseemly to speak to a queen otherwise. Victoria and Albert had been intended by political arrangement since they were 13, but they actually fell in love, which was considered rare and unusual among European royals.<br /> <br /> 1850- The townships of Yerba Buena- Good Herbs, incorporated as the City of San Francisco.<br /> <br /> 1861- LINCOLN’S EDICT- In reaction to the attack by Confederate rebels on Fort Sumter, President Abe Lincoln declared the ten southern states in an open state of rebellion and called for troops. Legally the Constitution did allow for the Southern States to secede, and Lincoln couldn't get a declaration of war from a half empty Congress, so he found an obscure 1792 law that allowed the President to call up state militias without requiring a declaration of war. He enlisted 175,000 men. <br /> Many regular army lieutenants and captains resigned from the national service so they could become generals and colonels in the militia. Even poor drunks like Ulysses Grant could get a captain's job from his local Ohio regiment. Frontier states were emptied of regular army men, forts like Tejon, California abandoned because of lack of troops.<br /> <br /> 1865- LINCOLN DIED- After being shot at Ford's theater Abraham Lincoln finally expired at 7:08 am during a rainstorm. He had lingered all night without ever regaining consciousness. Mary Lincoln went into hysterics and had to be dragged from the room. She never entered the White House again. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton had the White House sealed up under guard for two months until Vice President Andrew Johnson got up enough nerve to move in. <br /> In North Carolina, General Sherman was putting the finishing touches on the surrender negotiations for the army of Joe Johnston, the largest remaining Confederate army in the field after Robert E. Lee's. When Sherman received the news of the murder he passed the telegram to Johnston, who grew pale. They both agreed to suppress the news from their armies for several days so revenge fighting wouldn't break out. <br /> In faraway Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Star newspaper reported U.S. troops had to stop the locals from celebrating the news. Many were Southerners who had fled west when it looked like the Confederacy was losing.<br /> <br /> 1871- Wild Bill Hickok became sheriff of Abilene Kansas, then a wild boom town filled with drunk cowboys and yahoos. One of the reforms he instituted was strict gun control.<br /> <br /> 1874- IMPRESSIONISTS. In Paris, a group of young modernist painters, fed up with being rejected by mainstream galleries and salons, banded together to mount their own show, Le Societie Anonyme Artistes, at photographer Nadar’s old studio. One franc, and a one flight walk up got you to see works by Cezanne, Degas, Pizarro and Monet. The critics hated it all. One writer Louis Leroy said,” These people are not artists, they are just Impressionists.” The name stuck.<br /> <br /> 1912- The Titanic sank by 2:20AM. At 4:30 AM, The S.S Carpathia finally reached the Titanic disaster site to rescue 705 survivors in the bobbing lifeboats. The Titanic death toll is now estimated at around 1,522 out of 2,200. Early reports of the disaster mentioned that the Titanic had struck an iceberg but that all was well. That morning's Wall Street Journal noted the incident "proved a triumph of modern technology!" <br /> <br /> 1924- The Rand McNally Company published the first automobile road atlas or North America.<br /> <br /> 1925- Ford introduced the first pickup truck. Up to now farmers had cut the backs off Model T cars and welded boxes on, to make a light-load vehicle. There was also an earlier pickup truck called the International, but it had limited distribution.<br /> <br /> 1927- First Hollywood star's footprints in cement ceremony at Grauman's Chinese theater. Called Hollywood's most enduring publicity stunt. Norma Talmadge, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Sid Grauman himself are the first to leave their prints. Grauman also invented the classic Hollywood premiere with spotlights, red carpet runways and chauffeured limousines.<br /> <br /> 1933- Chief of production Darryl F. Zanuck quit Warner Bros. over an argument about employee salary cuts, to take over a struggling little movie studio called Twentieth Century Fox, which he turned into a giant.<br /> <br /> 1935- Kodachrome film developed. First as motion picture film, later for home photography.<br /> <br /> 1940- Franklin Roosevelt covertly gave permission for American volunteers (mostly Army and Navy fighter pilots) to join General Claire Chennault to fight the Japanese invasion of China as part of a freelance foreign corps serving in the Chinese air force. The Flying Tigers are born. The famous toothy grimace painted on their planes was created by Walt Disney artist Hank Porter.<br /> <br /> 1945- Eva Braun left the comparative safety of Munich and traveled to Berlin to be with Hitler in his bunker. She told a friend. ”A Germany without Adolf Hitler would not be fit to live in.” <br /> <br /> 1947- Jackie Robinson takes the field with the Brooklyn Dodgers. First black player to join the Major Leagues. Up until then the Brooklyn Dodgers in their history had never won more than 2 pennants. After Robinson and Campanella and other Negro league players were added they won 6 in 7 years and a World Series. At one game after a particularly nasty barrage of boos and catcalls from the crowd, Dodger stars Duke Snyder and Pee Wee Reese (a Southerner) went over to Robinson and publicly put their arms around him.<br /> <br /> 1950- Chuck Jones short The Hypo-chondri-Cat.<br /> <br /> 1951- General MacArthur prepared to leave Japan after being sacked by President Truman. The Japanese adored their American Shogun who helped reform their society from postwar chaos. Even though he left his offices in the Daiichi Building for his plane at 6:00AM, the crowds to see him off were already ten deep. One unintentional bit of fun for the Americans was a large, misspelled banner from a Japanese well-wisher about MacArthur’s potential presidential run: “GOOD LUCK FOR YOUR UPCOMING ERECTION.” (William Manchester American Caesar, Chapter 10)<br /> <br /> 1952- The Franklin Savings Bank issued the first credit card in the U.S. <br /> <br /> 1953- Famed illustrator Charles R. Knight died peacefully in a Manhattan hospital. The man who first showed us what dinosaurs looked like and inspired the lush look of such films as 1933 King Kong. His last words were to his daughter Lucy, “Don’t let anything happen to my drawings.”<br /> <br /> 1955- The First McDonald's Restaurant franchise opened in Des Plains, Ill. Ray Kroc, a traveling milkshake machine salesman, buys into a franchise restaurant idea cooked up in 1948 by two brothers named McDonald from Santa Bernadino. He urged the brothers to go national with their pre-prepared food system, but the brothers wanted to stay local. So, he offered them 1 million bucks for their idea and name, (would you go to" Kroc’s?”). The rest is history. The oldest surviving McDonald’s from 1953 in Downey California was recently destroyed despite the efforts of historians and replaced with a plastic plaque. <br /> <br /> 1961- 48 hours before the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Fidel Castro told the world his Cuban Revolution was Communist, and he asked the Soviet Union and Red China for aid. He also ordered the arrest of 20,000 enemies of his regime. <br /> Since taking power in 1959 Castro had been cagey about the nature of his politics, but he used hatred of the Yankee Imperialistas as a strong national unifier. When he visited the US for the opening of the United Nations he was snubbed by most of the State Department except a 20 minute meeting with Vice President Nixon. Still, he tried to stay non-aligned until he knew the CIA was readying a coup against him. Fidel aka “The Beard” stayed in the Communist camp even beyond Russia and China, and outlasted eleven US presidents.<br /> <br /> 1962-AUNTIE EM! 80 yar old actress Clara Blandick, the Auntie Em of the Wizard of Oz, took an overdose of sleeping pills and tied a plastic bag around her head.<br /> She had been retired for several years and was suffering from bad arthritis and failing eyesight. <br /> So she said,” It is time to embark on the Great Adventure.” She left out on a table her resume and press clippings so the newspapers would get her obituary right. <br /> <br /> 1964- Walt Disney sent attorney Robert Foster to Orlando Florida to quietly start buying up land for a planned new Disneyland Park.<br /> <br /> 1974- A surveillance camera picks up Heiress Patricia Hearst, now called Tanya, robbing a San Francisco bank with other members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the group that kidnapped her.<br /> <br /> 1983- Tokyo Disneyland opens.<br /> <br /> 1989- Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Hu Yao Bang died. His funeral gathered mass rallies of pro-democracy students and workers that culminated in the Tien ah Mehn Square Movement. <br /> <br /> 1990- Kennan Ivory Wayans comedy show In Living Color premiered on FOX TV. The show made stars of Marlon Wayans, Damon Wayans, Jamie Fox, Jim Carrey and the Fly-Girls, Jennifer Lopez and Rosie Perez.<br /> <br /> 1994- English ice skater John Curry who created the concept of Ice Dancing, died of HIV/AIDS at age 44.<br /> <br /> 2013- The Boston Bombing. Two Cheychen brothers, Tamerlan and Dzokhar Tsarnaev exploded two bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing 3 and injuring 120. Dzokhar died in a police shootout, and Tamerlan is serving a life sentence.<br /> <br /> 2019- A terrible fire gutted Notre Dame Cathedral, which had stood for 856 years.<br /> <br /> 2022- During Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this day the Ukrainians sank the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, The heavy cruiser Moskva, with shore based missiles.<br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Something catlike is called feline, but what is something vulpine?<br /> <br /> Answer: Vulpine means like a fox.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 13 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6123 <p>Question: The War of the Roses. Who won?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Beethoven wrote nine symphonies, five piano concertos. How many violin concertos? <br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/13/2023<br /> Birthdays: St. Thomas Becket, Thomas Jefferson, Frederick Lord North, Samuel Beckett, Dame Eudora Welty, Al Green, Jack Cassidy, Butch Cassidy, Franklin W. Woolworth, Howard Keel, Don Adams, Ricky Schroeder, Peabo Bryson, Ron Perleman, Stanley Donen, Alfred Butts the inventor of Scrabble, Glen Keane is 69<br /> <br /> 1387- A party of 29 English pilgrims assemble to travel to the shrine of Canterbury. The trip was immortalized by Geoffrey Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales.<br /> <br /> 1598- King Henry IV of France tried to end the religious strife tearing his country apart by publishing the Edict of Nantes- granting freedom of worship to all. The Edict of Nantes shocked Pope Clement VIII. Legend is his Holiness cried:" Every man with freedom of conscience? What can be worse than that?"<br /> <br /> 1612- Date of the famous duel on Ganryu island between Japanese swordsmen Musashi Miyamoto and Sasaki Kohjiro. Musashi defeated Kojiro with a wooden sword. <br /> <br /> 1775- British Prime Minister Lord North had placed rebellious Massachusetts colony under an act called the Restraining Act. It declared that the New Englanders were not allowed to do business with any other nation but Britain. This day Lord North extended the act to cover the other colonies of Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and the Carolinas. He inadvertently gave the widely separated crown colonies in North America even more reason to work together, just like they were an independent nation.<br /> <br /> 1829- THE CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION BILL PASSED IN ENGLAND. The previous June Irish orator Daniel O'Connell had successfully run for Parliament but was denied his seat because he was a Catholic. The old Duke of Wellington, now Prime minister of a Tory Government, believed the only way to keep his birthplace Ireland from collapsing into open rebellion was sweep away these outdated bans on the Roman Catholic religion, kept since the days of Henry VIII and the Reformation. <br /> To pass this bill he had to convince the radicals, Whigs, Ultras, Tories of his own party, the reluctant King, and he even had to fight a duel. It was his biggest fight since Waterloo. But the bill passed and was considered the crowning achievement of his government. It probably kept Ireland under English rule for another generation. <br /> <br /> 1830- For many year Thomas Jefferson’s birthday was a national holiday. This day, Jefferson birthday party toasts were made by various Southern congressman that the South wouldn't tolerate the Federal government telling them what to do about slavery and would secede if pushed too far. Then Tennessean President Andrew Jackson rose up, raised his glass, coldly looked his pro slavery vice president John Calhoun right in the eye, and declared:" The Union Must and Will be Preserved!"<br /> First time the issue of slavery vs. national survival was given national status. During the Civil War when the North captured the port of New Orleans Yankee General Ben "The Beast" Butler had these words inscribed on Jackson's statue in the center of town just to piss off the locals. <br /> <br /> 1843- Chang and Eng Bunker, the original Siamese Twins, were married to two women in a double ceremony. The must have coordinated times for connubial privacy, for together they produced 21 children. <br /> <br /> 1846- After the first Yanqui garrison was expelled by a rising of the native Mexican Californios, U.S. Commander Stockton and General Freemont and their army returned to recaptured Los Angeles.<br /> <br /> 1865- After the surrender to Grant, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, now a private citizen, left his last army camp to ride back to a rented house in war destroyed Richmond. Along the road he dismissed the Yankee guards accompanying him for protection." I am in my own country now among my own people. I wish to be no further bother to you." <br /> The commander of thousands of troops now was alone on his white warhorse Traveller with two blanket covered wagons, one with a sick friend in it. On the road he met a group of rebel soldiers walking home and gave them road directions using one of his 8 foot long military maps drawn by Stonewall Jackson. He told rebels who wanted to keep fighting" As you have been model soldiers, go home now and be loyal American citizens." <br /> <br /> 1865- In Goldsboro North Carolina, Confederate President Jefferson Davis completed his last cabinet meeting. Even after Lee’s surrender and the loss of Richmond, the Confederacy still had 175,000 troops and three armies in the field, so Jefferson Davis wanted to keep fighting. But the other cabinet members and the generals argued that the war was lost and those numbers were on paper only. The starving dispirited troops were deserting in droves daily, the country was overrun with half a million Yankees. At last Gen. Joe Johnston wrung out of Davis permission to surrender to Sherman’s army. <br /> <br /> 1865- In Washington DC citizens held a Grande Illumination to celebrate victory. Throughout the city torch bearing revelers serenaded Lincoln and the Union. Expecting Lincoln to make a stirring speech from his balcony, Lincoln instead talked soberly about Reconstruction and amnesty. His one light moment was to order the band to play "Dixie", seeing how it was now once again the legal property of the United States.<br /> <br /> 1870- New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art opens.<br /> <br /> 1902- J.C. Penny opened his first store in Kemmerer Wyoming.<br /> <br /> 1919-At the Golden Temple at Amritsar British troops opened fire on Sikh's peacefully demonstrating for independence. 379 killed. Their commander was given a stern reprimand. Queen Elizabeth II apologized to India in 1997.<br /> <br /> 1928 - THE MULHOLLAND TRIAL ENDED – William Mulholland, the genius engineer who created the great aqueducts that brings water down to Los Angeles was on trial for the St. Francis Dam Disaster. When a dam near Newhall burst sending a 30 foot wall of water careening down on sleeping suburbanites. 400 perished. On this day, the jurors of the Los Angeles County Coroner's inquest into the disaster emerged from their two weeks of deliberations. They named William Mulholland responsible, although innocent of criminal negligence. Deputy D.A. Asa Keyes trumped the ruling a "victory for the people", despite his earlier promise to have Mulholland convicted of manslaughter. <br /> Though he was free of jail, but William Mullholland was a broken man. “I envy the dead.” He had his chauffeur would ,,drive him aimlessly around the city he helped create. He became a shut in for the last seven years of his life. D.A. Keyes later went to jail himself for misappropriation of funds.<br /> <br /> 1939- The film Wuthering Heights starring Lawrence Olivier and Merle Oberon premiered. Sam Goldwyn was disgusted by the headaches to bring this Charlotte Bronte novel to the Hollywood Screen. When asked if he planned to adapt more XIXth Century novels for film he replied: "Don’t bring me no more scripts by guys who write with feathers!"<br /> <br /> 1943- Franklin Delano Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial at the Washington D.C. Mall.<br /> <br /> 1949- Lead character designer and story artist Joe Grant resigned from Disney Studios, not to return until 1989. <br /> <br /> 1953- A British WWII intelligence officer turned newspaperman in peacetime was bored with his life. His name was Ian Fleming. He decided to write a novel about his idea of the ultimate spy. Looking for a suitably bland name, his favorite book on birdwatching was written by someone named James Bond. "It struck me that this brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon, yet very masculine name, was just what I needed.” His wife thought the finished story was vulgar. This day, the first Bond novel, Casino Royale, came out and was an instant hit.<br /> <br /> 1962- The New York Mets (metropolitans) Baseball Club formed. They played at the old Giants park, the Polo Grounds, until Shea Stadium was built in 1964 next to the Worlds Fair grounds. The team adopted the Blue and Orange logo colors of the Fair as their own. Blue and Orange were also the colors of the moved away Brooklyn Dodgers and NY Giants. <br /> The 62’ Mets were famous for their awful record. The cry was- Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game? Players like Marvelous Marv Throneberry became famous for their mediocre play. Manager Casey Stengel titled his memoirs "I Managed Good, but Boy, Did They Play Terrible!" The Amazin’ Mets won their first World Series in 1969.<br /> <br /> 1964- Sidney Poitier became the first African American to win an Oscar for Best Actor for the film Lilies of the Field. The first Oscar for any black actor or actress went to Hattie McDaniel as Best Supporting Actress for Gone With the Wind in 1939. Best actress was not won until Halle Berry in 2002.<br /> <br /> 1964- The Best Animated Short Oscar was won by Ernie Pintoff’s film The Critic, voiced by Mel Brooks.<br /> <br /> 1967- Columbia Picture’s bizarre version of Ian Flemings Casino Royale premiered. Several directors, John Huston, Orson Welles, Ursula Andress, Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, George Raft, and David Niven. Richard Williams opening titles, and Dusty Springfield ‘s song “The Look of Love.” And a lot of drugs off camera.<br /> <br /> 1970-"Houston, we have a problem here..." An explosion of an oxygen tank disabled the Apollo XIII moon mission. For the next several days the world held it's breath as the spacecraft ricocheted itself around the moon and got back to Earth, the slightest mis-calculation of trajectory meant a cold, airless death for the three astronauts. <br /> <br /> 1975- During most of the wars in the Middle East, Lebanon remained an oasis of tranquility. Today the Lebanese Civil War began. Christian Phalangist militias, Iranian backed Shiites, Hezbollah, and Al Fatah Palestinians. Israel, Syria and the U.S. intervened. Lebanon became a war-wracked hell on earth, and terrible massacres of civilians occurred at the Shatila refugee camps.<br /> <br /> 1987- Colorado Senator Gary Hart announced his intention to run for president. During the election Gary Hart decried the media's obsession with scandal. He challenged the press to find something on him. They did. In short order they turned up proof of his adulterous affair with beautiful model Donna Rice, complete with compromising photos taken on board a yacht appropriately named Monkey-Business. Gary Hart's political career sank like a stone and Ms. Rice became a lobbyist against porn on the Internet. <br /> <br /> 1997- 21year old golf phenomenon Tiger Woods won his first Masters Tournament by a record 12 strokes. <br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Beethoven wrote nine symphonies, five piano concertos. How many violin concertos? <br /> <br /> Answer: He only wrote one. And he got a lot of help from the Chevalier St. George, since violin was not his favorite instrument.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 12 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6122 <p>Question: Beethoven wrote nine symphonies, five piano concertos. How many violin concertos? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: Who were The Plantagenets?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/12/2023<br /> Birthdays: Henry Clay, Lily Pons, Lionel Hampton, Herbie Hancock, Disney artist Hardie Gramatky, Monserrat Caballe' is 90, Ann Miller, Tiny Tim, Shannon Dougherty, Andy Garcia is 67, Claire Danes is 44, David Letterman is 76<br /> <br /> 65AD. SENECA DIED- The Roman philosopher Seneca committed suicide after his old pupil the Emperor Nero ordered him to. The poets Lucan and Petronius were also forced to kill themselves. When Nero sent you an indictment for treason, you knew the verdict would be guilty. So, you had the option of avoiding the public trial and horrible execution by committing suicide in the comfort of your own home. This also ensured your wealth would go to your family and not be confiscated by the state. Seneca had previously been condemned by Emperors Caligula, and Claudius as well, but always managed to wiggle out of it. But now his luck ran out. While Nero's Praetorian guards waited the old man opened his veins, but his circulation was so bad that it was taking him forever. The Praetorians patience finally exasperated, they took him in to his steam bath and suffocated him. <br /> <br /> 1606- The Union Jack adopted as the official flag of Great Britain. It showed the union of Scotland's cross of St. Andrew (white diagonal cross on blue background) with England's cross of St. George (red perpendicular cross on white background).<br /> <br /> 1633- GALILEO FACED THE INQUISITION- Galileo had to publicly recant the theories of Copernicus before the court of the Holy Inquisition. Their argument of hot irons and thumbscrews outweighed his mathematical proof that the earth went around the sun. <br /> Copernicus shrewdly avoided this problem by publishing his theory on his deathbed. When he heard of Galileo’s censure Frenchman Rene Descartes was intimidated enough to stop writing Le Monde, a book summing up his major philosophical and scientific conclusions. Protestant reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin also considered Galileo a dangerous lunatic.<br /> The Catholic Church kept Galileo under house arrest for the rest of his life. His conviction was overturned in 1827 and the Holy See admitted he might have been right in 1989.<br /> Supposedly as Galileo was leaving the courtroom he whispered to a friend " eppi si muove !" but it moves! Meaning the earth.<br /> <br /> 1709- In London the first issue of the Tattler published. “All accounts of gallantry, pleasure, poetry, foreign and domestick news you will have from Saint James Coffeehouse.”<br /> <br /> 1796- George and Martha Washington sit for painter Gilbert Stuart. Stuart noted that the General was a very uncooperative model. Stuart asked him to take out his dentures because they made his jaw bulge. But then his cheeks looked sunken, so he had him pad them inside with cotton balls. He tried small talk about his famous battles but that made GW even more annoyed. Washington much preferred a discussion on how to raise turnips to reliving his military career. The likeness Stuart painted became the basis for many other paintings and prints. Today it is on the U.S. one dollar bill. Eventually Gilbert Stuart had to move to England, because the only commissions he ever got in the U.S. were people wanting copies of his Washington portrait.<br /> <br /> 1843- A charter to sell Life Insurance is granted to the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, beginning the American insurance industry.<br /> <br /> 1861 -THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR BEGAN-For the previous twenty years Southerners and Northerners debated slavery and the right of a state to leave the American union. Guerilla violence had already been raging in border states like Missouri and Kansas when in response to Abraham Lincoln’s election 11 states announced the formation of a new country- The Confederate States of America. <br /> In the tense months after the Southern States declared independence a question arose. Who now owned U.S. Army bases and their property on Southern soil? Fort Leavenworth &amp; Fort Fisher gave up without a struggle. The one other obvious place was Fort Sumter, sitting out in the middle of Charleston Bay, South Carolina. U.S. Col. Robert Anderson would defend the flag even as he was surrounded by hostile batteries, commanded by his former West Point pupil Gen. Pierre Beauregard. <br /> In the wee hours of April 12th secessionist journalist Edmund Ruffin was allowed to fire the first shot at the fort. After a five hour cannon duel the fort surrendered. Ironically the only fatality was when a soldier was killed by a ruptured cannon while firing a final salute to the lowering Stars &amp; Stripes. This was the almost bloodless beginning to the bloodiest war in U.S. history. <br /> When the war was over Edmund Ruffin wrapped himself in a Confederate flag and shot himself, preferring death to "living in a universe populated by the vile Yankee race!"<br /> <br /> 1864-THE FORT PILLOW MASSACRE-Confederate cavalry under Nathan Bedford Forrest overran a small Yankee post manned by black troops and pro-union Tennesseans. The Rebels killed 300 of the garrison, just because they were black. Forrest later claimed it was because they refused to surrender and kept fighting after the flag was pulled down, but that is disputed. <br /> Some say his action was to prove black soldiers were cowards. If so, he miscalculated. Thousands of free black men rushed to enlist, dropping on one knee first to take an oath to avenge Fort Pillow. After the Civil War Forrest was the first Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. He resigned when they became too violent even for him. His reputation dogged him the rest of his life. <br /> <br /> 1865- The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia lays down its arms in a field outside Appomattox Courthouse surrounded by massed union troops. Lee and Grant both were not present. Grant left specific instructions that no union soldiers were to publicly celebrate: ”Those people are no longer our enemies, they are our fellow Americans. We will not exult in their downfall.” <br /> General John Gordon led the ragged procession with the 250 surviving members of the Stonewall Brigade, who began the war as 4,500. Yankee Medal of Honor winner Joshua Chamberlain demonstrated the warrior’s ability to forgive, by commanding his men to salute the Confederates, who snapped to attention and returned salute. <br /> In North Carolina when a hard riding dispatch rider with the news reached the front of Sherman’s western army, one soldier greeted him: “So you’re the sonofabitch I’ve been waiting four years for !”<br /> <br /> 1911- Cartoonist Winsor McCay opened his vaudeville act with his "Little Nemo" animated short. <br /> <br /> 1941-The Nazis captured Belgrade, Yugoslavia. The Croats and Serbs paused in their own fratricidal strife to take up sides, the Croats joining the Nazis’ and the Serbs the Soviets. In World War II more Yugoslavs were killed by other Yugoslavs than by the Germans.<br /> <br /> 1945- PRESIDENT FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT DIED. The government knew since 1944 that FDR's health was failing and he would probably die in office. Roosevelt was at his Warm Springs Georgia retreat in the company of an old girlfriend, Lucy Mercer whom he had promised Eleanor never to see again. The assignation was arranged by their daughter Alice, who promised not to tell her mom. Mom found out anyway. FDR’s last words were to his portrait painter Madame Schoumatoff” I have a splitting headache..” then died of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 63. <br /> The nation was shocked. In his Berlin bunker with the Red Army knocking on the door Adolf Hitler was jubilant because he felt this was an astrological omen of final Nazi victory. Gen. MacArthur was still bitter about FDR's broken promises to the Philippines. His first reaction was:" He never used the truth where a good lie would do."<br /> Vice President Harry Truman was enjoying one of his whiskey &amp; poker parties with House Speaker Sam Rayburn when he got the phone call. "Jeezus Christ and General Jackson !!"-was his response. He was rushed to the White House while the staff went crazy looking for a Bible to swear him in -confirming the suspicions of many about FDR's attitude towards religion. Finally a Gideon turned up in a guest room drawer and the 33rd President was sworn in. Truman told Eleanor:" I'll pray for you." Eleanor replied: "No Harry. We'll pray for YOU."<br /> <br /> 1945- Generals Eisenhower, Bradley and Patton toured a Nazi concentration camp and saw for themselves the full horrors of the Holocaust. Patton threw up. Eisenhower ordered the press to film everything, because as he said:” Someday some people might say this was exaggerated and never happened. Let them see for themselves” As he was leaving the camp Ike turned to a US Army guard and said:” Still need a reason to hate them? I never thought I’d be ashamed to be German. ” Eisenhower’s ancestors emigrated from the Rhineland and settled in Kansas in the 1800’s. <br /> <br /> 1945-Momotaro: Sacred Sailors (桃太郎 海の神兵, Momotarō: Umi no Shinpei) by Mitssuyo Seo opened. The first Japanese anime, feature-length animated film.<br /> <br /> 1954- "ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK' recorded by Bill Haley and the Comets- arguably the first true Rock &amp; Roll hit.<br /> <br /> 1955- the Salk vaccine for Polio made available to the public.<br /> <br /> 1961-THE FIRST MAN INTO SPACE- Soviet Major Yuri Gargarin aboard Vostok 1.<br /> <br /> 1981- The first space shuttle Columbia took off. After 26 flawless missions, in 2003 the Columbia broke up and disintegrated upon reentry, killing all aboard. <br /> <br /> 1983- Harold Washington elected first black Mayor of Chicago.<br /> <br /> 1992- Euro-Disney, now called Disneyland Paris, opened. It attracted only 50.000 visitors the first year, about ten times less than what was expected. In 1955, the first Disneyland in California drew 100,00 on opening day alone. Many felt it should have been built in Barcelona where the climate was milder. Disneyland Paris finally paid for itself in 1997.<br /> <br /> 1995- To celebrate David Letterman’s 49t birthday, actress Drew Barrymore climbed up on his desk and flashed her breasts. For once, the bucktoothed talk show host was speechless.<br /> <br /> 1996- James and the Giant Peach opened in the USA. Directed by Henry Selick.<br /> <br /> 2003- When US forces occupied Baghdad, troops ignored important cultural landmarks while they secured the Iraqi Oil Ministry. Poor people looted palaces and the museum of antiquities, defacing, and destroying priceless artifacts of Ancient Mesopotamia and Babylonia. Defense Secty Donald Rumsfeld shrugged,” Hey,…stuff happens.”<br /> ==============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s question: Who were The Plantagenets?<br /> <br /> Answer: The English royal family of Richard Lionheart, Henry V and Richard III. Richard Lionhearts granddad was Geoffrey of Anjou, who liked to put a little flower in his hat. Called a planta-genesta. Thus, the name Geoffrey Plantagenet. In 1485 They were replaced by the Tudor Dynasty.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 11 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6121 <p>Quiz: Who were The Plantagenets?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: What conflict was known as The War to End All Wars?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/11/2023<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Septimius Severus, Frederick the Warlike of Saxony-1370, Ethel Kennedy, Joel Grey is 91, Louise Lasser, Mason Reese, Oleg Cassini, Cameron Mitchell. Norman McClaren, Bill Irwin, John Milius, Jennifer Esposito<br /> <br /> 1034- The Byzantine Emperor Romanus III Argyrus was poisoned by his wife.<br /> <br /> 1241- Battle of Sajoria- Two days after the Mongols destroy Polish-German knights at Leignitz and burned Cracow, another Mongol horde destroyed the Hungarian army of King Bela and burn Buda. Pest was across the river. <br /> <br /> 1506- Pope Julius II laid the corner stone for the new Saint Peter’s Basilica. It was completed in 1626. <br /> <br /> 1512- BATTLE OF RAVENNA -The first battle ever decided by artillery. The armies of Pope Julius II and his Spanish allies were defeated by Duke Alfonso D'Este of Ferrara and his French allies. The D'Este' family were patrons of Leonardo da Vinci, but this Duke was an artillery buff. For his birthday, friends gave him cannon. <br /> At one point during the battle the Duke pulled his cannon to the side of the battlefield where he could fire on both sides at once. When someone explained he would be firing on his allies as well, the Duke snapped:" Well, they'll probably be enemies tomorrow!" Despite this curious strategy, he won the battle anyway. <br /> <br /> 1713 - FIRST TREATY OF UTRECHT- Ending the War of Spanish Succession. George Frederich Handel premiered the Royal Fireworks Music in celebration. France yields to England the eastern coastal provinces of Canada. When the French speaking inhabitants of Arcadia refuse to swear allegiance to the English King, they were driven out of their homes at bayonet point. Scottish colonists are brought in who renamed their island Nova Scotia -New Scotland. The French exiles migrate down to Louisiana and settled in the swampy bayous. They called themselves Arcadians, which slurred to A'cajun or Cajuns.<br /> <br /> 1854- Depressed by his go-no-where career and drinking heavily, Captain Ulysses Grant resigned from the US Army. <br /> <br /> 1861- In the dark night outside Fort Sumter in rebel held Charleston Bay, Confederate commissioners call on Major Robert Anderson to lower Old Glory and surrender the fort. The Kentucky born major said he would surrender if after three days he received no food resupply. (a stalling tactic) The Confederates had sighted an approaching Union rescue fleet and knew this answer meant they would have to fire on the fort. Anderson knew it too, for as he said goodbye to the commissioners he added: " And if we don't meet again in this life, I'm sure we'll meet again in the next."...<br /> <br /> 1865-Abe Lincoln sends his aide Ward Hill Lamon on an errand to occupied Richmond. This meant Lincoln's only bodyguard could not be at his side at Ford's Theater on the 14th. Lamon had long flowing hair and maintained a belt full of guns, Bowie knives and brass knuckles to guard the president. He also occasionally produced his banjo and played for the President his favorite song, “Jimmy Crack Corn”.<br /> <br /> 1865- That night a crowd of well-wishers stood under Lincoln’s window at the White House to celebrate the end of Civil War. In the crowd was actor John Wilkes Booth and 23-year-old Charles Leale, an army doctor seeing Lincoln for the first time. Lincoln made a short speech calling for the first time for African Americans to be given the right to vote. Booth came away from the crowd in a fury and said to a friend:” That means n- citizenship. By God, that’s the last speech he will ever give!” Dr Leale would want to see Lincoln again. He bought a ticket to Ford’s Theater the night Lincoln was shot. Leale was the first doctor to reach the stricken president and administer CPR.<br /> <br /> 1873- General Canby and several army commissioners were slain by Modoc Indian chief Cap'n Jack while in a tent talking peace. Canby becomes the only U.S. general killed in the Indian Wars. Remember Custer was a brevet major general (i.e. honorary general) in the downsized post-Civil War army, but he was doing the job of a colonel. Cap'n Jack got a really cool general's jacket to wear until he was captured and hanged. The Modoc Indian Wars were in the Northern California lava beds. <br /> The Modocs themselves were peaceful until a mining company wanted their land. So they threw them a picnic and laced the food with rat poison. Cannons were hidden in the bushes to finish off the survivors. The remainder of the tribe went on the warpath and the U.S. Army came in to conquer them. A war correspondent photographer travelling with the army was future cinema pioneer Eadweard Muybridge.<br /> <br /> 1876- Benevolent Order of Elks Lodge founded.<br /> <br /> 1890- In England John Merrick, who was known as the Elephant Man, died.<br /> <br /> 1906- Albert Einstein published his Theory of Relativity.<br /> <br /> 1907- Baseball N.Y. Giant's Roger Bresnahan becomes the first catcher to wear a mask and shin guards. He had the mask built based on a sword fencing mask.<br /> <br /> 1914- George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion premiered at the Haymarket in London.<br /> <br /> 1926- Horticulturist Luther Burbank died. His last words:" I don't feel good."<br /> <br /> 1931- Dorothy Parker resigned her job as drama critic for the New Yorker Magazine. She married an actor named Alan Cambell and moved to Hollywood to become a screenwriter. While on her honeymoon the editor Harold Ross bugged her for some final fixes on an article. She sent a telegram from Paris: ”Don’t bother me. Stop. F*cking busy. Stop. And vice-versa. Stop“<br /> <br /> 1933- the Bauhaus directed by Mies Van Der Rohe was closed down by the Nazis.<br /> <br /> 1941- Henry Ford had vowed he would never sign a union contract. His dreaded security goons, called the Service Department, prowled the plants firing union men and even patrolled the toilets listening for loose talk. Ford kept machine guns on his homes roof and encouraged his executives to wear sidearms. But after a wildcat strike at River Rouge Ford reluctantly signed the first union contract in its history.<br /> <br /> 1945- Concentration camp at Buchenwald liberated by Patton’s Third Army. The Nazi guards had already fled, and an inmate answered the phone when the Gestapo called. They ordered the camp blown up and all the remaining inmates killed. The inmate answered not to worry, that they were already doing that. Then he went out to welcome the American tanks. Among the survivors was Nobel Laureate Ei Weisel, Simon Weisenthal and future leader of Communist East Germany, Eric Hoehnegger.<br /> <br /> 1950- First day filming on the movie All About Eve. As Bette Davis said “Fasten your seatbelts, its going to be a bumpy night.”<br /> <br /> 1951- When President Truman fired General Douglas MacArthur from his command in Korea a firestorm of protest erupted in Congress. Several leading senators called for the Presidents Impeachment! One California senator stood up and said he was for censure but was against impeachment. His name was Senator Richard M. Nixon.<br /> <br /> 1955- WABD in New York and KTLA in Los Angeles began running pre-1948 Warner Bros cartoon shorts in a half hour format, soon to be followed by other cities. This helped introduce the baby boomers to the world of Bugs, Daffy and Porky. <br /> <br /> 1957- Poet Pablo Neruda was arrested by authorities in Buenos Aires.<br /> <br /> 1961- As part of the Bay of Pigs Invasion the US Air Force bombed and destroyed most of Fidel Castro’s Cuban air force on the ground. <br /> <br /> 1968- After the Vietnamese Tet Offensive and President Lyndon Johnson’s announcement that he would not run for another term, Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford announced the US would send no additional ground troops to Vietnam. Even with 450,000 there already the generals were asking for an additional 200,000. Congress threatened to cut off funding. The US government began to talk of de-escalation and disengagement, but it took another 5 years to do it.<br /> <br /> 1970- Apollo 13 blasts off for the moon. Halfway there an explosion would force it to return.<br /> <br /> 1974- Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and defense minister Moshe Dayan resigned under heavy criticism for their handling of the Yom Kippur War. Ytschak Rabin became PM, the first Sabrah, or native-born Israeli to lead his country.<br /> <br /> 1979- Ugandan dictator Idi Amin-Dada driven out of power by a Tanzanian invasion. During his reign the mad dictator titled himself "Conqueror of the British Empire" and passed the time trying to wrestle crocodiles, rehearse mock invasions of Israel (a geographic impossibility) and played drums in his own rock band. <br /> <br /> 1981- Valerie Bertinelli married rocker Eddie Van Halen.<br /> <br /> 1983- At that year’s Academy Awards the winner for Best Animated Short was Polish artist Zybigniew Rybcyznski for his film Tango. During the ceremony he stepped outside for a smoke. When Security guards refused to let him re-enter, he became combative, shouting the only English he knew: ”I Have Oscar!” He wound up in an LA jail for assault, and his Oscar wound up in the bushes.<br /> <br /> 2006- Italian police captured the capo-de-capo of the Sicilian Mafia, Salvatore Provenzano, near the town of Corleone, the birthplace of Mario Puzo’s fictional Godfather. Don Provenzano had been hiding out for 43 years.<br /> =====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What conflict was known as The War to End All Wars?<br /> <br /> Answer. World War I. And of course, it was only wishful thinking.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 10 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6120 <p>History: What conflict was known as The War to End All Wars?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: The last Walt Disney’s Silly Symphony was The Ugly Duckling (1939). What was the first?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/10/2023<br /> Birthdays: Josef Pulitzer, Lew Wallace, George Arliss, Omar Sharif, Harry Morgan, Max Von Sydow, Ken Griffey Sr, Claire Booth Luce, Chuck Connors, John Madden, Dandy Don Meredith, Paul Theroux, David Halberstram, Steven Segal is 72, Orlando Jones, Mandy Moore is 39, Haley Joel Osment is 35, Daisy Ridley is 31<br /> <br /> Last day of the Roman Megaleasian festival in honor of Lunus the Moon god.<br /> <br /> 1500- The Renaissance Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza called Il Moro, the Moor, was betrayed by his bodyguards to his enemy, the King Louis XII of France. This one-time employer of Leonardo da Vinci was thrown in a dungeon at the castle of Loche, dying in 1508. He asked for nothing to take with him except his copy of Dante’s Divine Comedy.<br /> <br /> 1610- French King Henry IV of Navarre was as famous for his sexual appetite as for his statesmanship. He had many liaisons with many women but one of the most famous was Gabrielle d’Estrees. When a duke told him of her beauty, he galloped through heavy enemy fire to sleep with her. They had a long affair but Gabrielle wanted more, she wanted Henry to divorce his queen and marry her! <br /> Henry was thinking about it, when this day D’Estees died of infection after childbirth. Some said it was poison, but that sort of childbed fever was common then. Henry grieved: “I am destroyed. The Plant of Love is dead inside of me!” Two months later he had another girlfriend.<br /> <br /> 1741- Battle of Mollwitz- King Frederick the Great's first victory. His battalions of Prussian-disciplined infantry defeated the Austrians even after his cavalry had been driven off the field, with Frederick himself swept along in the panic. Later, he was drinking his sorrows away in a pub, when he got the news that he actually had won. <br /> The international fame of Frederick’s army created an unexpected side industry. A Coburg toy maker named Andreas Hippert began selling sets of toy soldiers modeled on his regiments. Flats made of lead and brightly painted, they were a big hit. <br /> Toy soldiers go back to the Egyptians. But Hippert created toys for average children and started the retail toy industry.<br /> <br /> 1784- Mozart completed his Piano Concerto #17 in G major, K. 453. The solo lines were inspired by his pet bird (a starling) singing as he wrote.<br /> <br /> 1790- The U.S. patent office created.<br /> <br /> 1836- THE HELEN JEWETT MURDER- Helen Jewett was a beautiful, well-bred woman. But bad luck had brought her down to prostitution on the mean streets of New York. This night at a brothel at 41 Thomas St, she was murdered with an axe. Her boyfriend, shop clerk Richard Robinson was charged with the murder, but there was not enough evidence for a conviction. The Helen Jewett Case became the first Media-Sensation Crime in the USA. The press of the time held the public spellbound for weeks with salacious details, and lurid descriptions of the sad end of this soiled dove.<br /> <br /> 1841- Horace Greeley creates the daily newspaper the New York Tribune, which he builds into a national voice for the abolition of slavery. Greeley was the man who advised: “Go West, Young Man.” During the New York Draft Riots of 1863 Greeley defended his newspaper from looters with his own personal cannon in the lobby.<br /> <br /> 1848- THE CHARTISTS- A large working class movement broke out in England inspired by the industrial working class uprisings occurring that year throughout Europe. The English radicals wanted no less than a republic with universal voting rights. The demonstrations and threats of violence concerned young Queen Victoria so much that at one point she became hysterical with tears. This day the Chartists planned a rally of 200,000 to march on Westminster. Victoria and Albert fled to the Isle of Wight to avoid the confrontation. But the movement petered out of it's own lack of momentum. Only 23,000 showed up and their leader, a Mr. Fergus O'Connor, shook hands with the police chief and took a cab to Parliament to present his petitions alone. Universal voting rights in England didn't occur until the Twentieth Century. <br /> <br /> 1849- Walter Hunt invented the safety pin. Hunt sold the pattern for $100 bucks.<br /> <br /> 1865- The day after Lee surrendered his army to Grant ending the Civil War, many of Lee’s officers started going through the lines to visit old friends on the other side. Men who only the day before had been trying to kill each other, today laughed and partied. One of the visitors to Grant headquarters was Lee’s second in command General James Longstreet. Before the war Old Pete Longstreet was best man to Ulysses Grants wedding.<br /> <br /> 1866-The ASPCA founded.<br /> <br /> 1868- Johannes Brahms A German Requiem debuted.<br /> <br /> 1877- Honoring a political deal that helped win his election, President Rutherford Hayes began withdrawing occupying troops from the Southern States of the former Confederacy. This ends the period known as the Reconstruction. The South was once the wealthiest part of the U.S., by then it was the poorest. And all the civil and voting rights for black Americans that Lincoln had planned for postwar America were nullified.<br /> <br /> 1903- King Alexander Obrenovic of Serbia had become increasingly autocratic. His suspending the liberal constitution of 1889, installing press censorship and revoking secret balloting had made him very unpopular. <br /> This night a group of Serbian army officers broke into the Kings bedroom and murdered King Alexander and his Queen Draga. They hurled their naked bodies out of a window to smash onto the cobblestone courtyard below where more army officers proceeded to hack up the remains with their sabers. <br /> <br /> Peter Karageorgevic’ was elected new king. Mainstream world media was shocked by the brutality of the killings, but the Head of the Serbian Church held a Thanksgiving Mass and there was a festive mood in Belgrade the rest of the week. One of the officers in the coup would later bankroll the Serbian terrorist group that assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and started World War I.<br /> <br /> 1906- O' Henry's story " The Gift of the Magi " first published.<br /> <br /> 1912- The White Star ocean liner RMS Titanic sailed from Southampton on her maiden voyage. When one passenger expressed reservation to a porter, he replied:” Lady, God himself could not sink this ship!” Hints of sinister premonition was the fact that for some reason the Titanic was launched but never christened. The ship's cat was seen carrying her kittens off the ship when she made her last (above surface) landfall at Queenstown, Ireland. One of the crew (William Coffey) saw this, said "That cat knows something!" and hid himself amidst the mailbags, deserting the ship.<br /> <br /> 1919- Mexican revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata assassinated. Zapata went to see a Colonel Jesus Guajardo who said he was willing to change over to his side. The colonel ordered his men to raise their rifles as if to fire a salute, but on a given signal lowered them and blasted Zapata away. Guajardo got 52,000 pesos and a promotion to general. In recent years, indigenous guerrillas in Chiapas called themselves Zapatistas.<br /> <br /> 100 Anniv 1923- Peeps invented. The sweet Easter marshmallow confection that is shaped like a yellow baby chic, and can stick to most surfaces. It was invented by Russian-Jewish immigrant Sam Born after his first idea, a lollipop machine called “Born Sucker” failed to succeed.<br /> <br /> 1925- F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" published by Scribners.<br /> <br /> 1941- First Battle of Tobruk. When Rommel's Afrika Korps pushed the British army across the Libyan desert, the port of Tobruk held out for three months in an epic siege.<br /> <br /> 1942- THE BATAAN DEATH MARCH- not one of the highpoints in U.S.-Japanese relations. The Japanese code Bushido stated warriors should prefer death to capture. A soldier who surrendered was beneath contempt. When twenty thousand trapped American and Filipino troops surrendered to the Japanese, they were sent back through the steaming jungles of Bataan on a forced march without food or water, the guards shooting and bayoneting those who dropped from exhaustion. These men were already starving when captured, their conquerors gave them food after nine days. Only half survived the ordeal, 12,000 died.<br /> <br /> 1947- THE FBI PAY A VISIT to Screen Actor’s Guild president Ronald Reagan and actress-wife Jane Wyman. They accuse them of belonging to Communist Party front organizations. Ronnie agrees to become an informer on his own guild SAG, and just about everyone else in Hollywood. Jane Wyman divorced him, and he married much more conservative Nancy Davis.<br /> <br /> 1948 Chuck Jones’ Bugs Bunny cartoon “ Rabbit Punch”.<br /> <br /> 1951- GENERAL MacARTHUR FIRED BY PRESIDENT TRUMAN- Douglas MacArthur had been used to being his own boss in the Far East and he found the politics of global nuclear brinksmanship puzzling. He thought you fought wars to win them, not to maintain a stalemate. Harry Truman was trying to keep the The Korean War from turning into World War III.<br /> MacArthur had been ordered by Truman last December 4th not to make public statements about the Korean war without going through Washington first. So when against direct orders MacArthur issued his own ultimatum threatening the Communist Chinese with a nuclear firestorm on their cities and independently conferring with Chiang Kai Shek about his getting Nationalist Chinese armies into the war, Truman had enough. Truman ordered MacArthur home and replaced with General Matthew Ridgeway. Generals Eisenhower, George C. Marshall and Omar Bradley supported the president’s policy that the military must be subject to civilian authority. <br /> MacArthur didn’t get the news until he heard it on the radio. The public outrage at the humiliation of America’s legendary soldier was enormous, but in time subsided. 60% of the Korean War’s battle casualties occurred in the two years after MacArthur’s dismissal. <br /> In 1964 the dying MacArthur sent a final message to President Lyndon Johnson advising him not to go into Vietnam.<br /> <br /> 1952- ELIA THE FINK- Film director Elia Kazan ( On the Waterfront, East of Eden, etc.) saved his career but earned the lasting hatred of Hollywood by testifying to the House Un American Activities Committee. He named 8 of his friends as Communists, including writers Clifford Odets and Lillian Hellman. <br /> Unlike others who were forced to testify, Kazan never expressed any regret for the pain he caused. Many see the irony of 'On the Waterfront', that the hero is a guy who does the right thing by turning informer. The film was written by Bud Schulberg, who also named names. <br /> In 1999 the Academy gave him an honorary Oscar and caused a new firestorm of protest, when Kazan stood next to visibly uncomfortable Robert DeNiro and Martin Scorcese. There an estimated 40% of the audience did not rise or applaud, although on television it seemed louder. That year the American Film Institute preferred to confer its lifetime achievement award on Roger Corman, director of Attack of the Giant Crab Monsters.<br /> <br /> 1953- The Vincent Price film The House of Wax in 3d premiered.<br /> <br /> 1961- Singer Joan Baez entered the Greenwich Village club called Folk City and was accosted by a funny young man with a nasaly twang ;”Joan Baez! Here, I wrote a song for you!” His name was Bob Dylan. Baez and Dylan became friends and together changed the image of folk music.<br /> <br /> 1962- DON'T TRY TO DOUBLECROSS JFK! The U.S. Steel Corporation had made a deal with the Kennedy Administration that if the feds leaned on the steelworkers union for a favorable labor settlement, U.S. Steel promised not to raise wholesale prices which would hurt the U.S. economy. On this day chairman Roger 'Ben' Blough told John Kennedy they were reneging on the deal and raising prices anyway. Kennedy exploded- " My father always warned me that all businessmen were sons of bitches, but I never believed him until now!" The Kennedy administration made things so hot for U.S. Steel that they cancelled the price increase.<br /> <br /> 1962- Stuart Sutcliffe was the bass guitarist of the Beatles until creative differences and a marriage made him drop out of the band in favor of George Harrison. This day Sutcliffe died of a brain hemorrhage at age 21.<br /> <br /> 1962- The Los Angeles Dodgers play their first game at their new Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine. They lost to the Cincinnati Reds 6-3.<br /> <br /> 1969- Radical students of the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) protesting the Vietnam War storm the administration buildings of Harvard. It takes 400 riot police and 197 arrests to drive them out.<br /> <br /> 1971- Rob Reiner married Penny Marshall. <br /> <br /> 50th Anniv 1973- At Xerox PARC, Dick Schoup’s team of scientists created Superpaint, the first digital paint and surfacing system for computer images. The first picture on the computer was a photo scanned of Dick holding a sign that read “ It works, sort of.”<br /> <br /> 1985- Madonna began her first tour, the Virgin Tour.<br /> <br /> 1992- Bill &amp; Sue Kroyer’s Ferngully the Last Rainforest premiered.<br /> <br /> 1992. Raunchy comedian Sam Kinison was killed in a head on collision with a truck on the road to Laughlin Nevada. He was 36. Ironically, the comedian who had glorified the wild sex, drugs and rock&amp;roll lifestyle was sober at the time, and the other driver, a 17 year old, was drunk. <br /> <br /> 1997- The Jerusalem Post announced the birth of a red heifer at a kibbutz near Haifa. The birth of a red heifer is supposed to foretell for the coming of the Messiah and the End of the World. In 2003 the cow became brisket, and we’re all still here.<br /> <br /> 2010- Polish President Lech Krasczynski and most of the Polish government leaders were killed in a plane crash on the way to commemorate the 70th anniv of the Katyn Massacre.<br /> <br /> 2019- The first photo evidence of a Black Hole in space. Young MIT grad student Katie Bouman led the creation of an algorithm that allowed scientists to capture the first-ever black hole photo. Proving Einstein was correct.<br /> ===============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: The last Walt Disney’s Silly Symphony was The Ugly Duckling (1939). What was the first?<br /> <br /> Answer: The Skeleton Dance 1929.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 09 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6119 <p>Quiz: The last Walt Disney’s Silly Symphony was The Ugly Duckling (1939). What was the first?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays quiz answered below: Has anyone ever run for president while in jail?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/9/2023<br /> Birthdays: Tamerlane, Eadweard Muybridge, Lenin, Paul Robeson, Jean Paul Belmondo, Ward Bond, Seve Balesteros, Carl Perkins, Michael Learned, Tom Lehrer, Paula Poundstone, Cynthia Nixon, Hugh Hefner, Dennis Quaid is 69, Elle Fanning is 25<br /> <br /> 192AD- Septimius Severus hailed Emperor of Rome by the African Legions. <br /> <br /> 641AD- Babylon falls to the advancing armies of Arab Islam. Moslems saw their two greatest enemies to be the Christians and the Persian Mithraists, the philosophy of Zoroaster and the Magi. Even today in Iran there is a small Zoroastrian minority. <br /> <br /> 999 AD. Sylvester II made pope, the first Frenchman. He reformed the way Popes were selected by organizing the College of Cardinals. Before that Popes were selected out of infighting between several leading Roman families. Tradition also says Sylvester was a sorcerer because he experimented with the medicinal properties of herbs, and he is credited with inventing the modern pendulum clock.<br /> <br /> 1241- BATTLE OF LEIGNITZ- Ogodai, the son of Genghis Khan, wanted to complete his father’s plan for world conquest. To do this he dispatched four armies –one to China, one to Korea, one to Europe, the fourth was pushing south through Baghdad, Egypt and Palestine. This day the Mongol horde of Subotai, Vuldai and Paidar clashed with the cream of East European knighthood on a plain in Poland. This was the first meeting of the Mongols and Western Knights. <br /> The Mongols slaughtered them all easily. Paidar sent back to his overlord Batu Khan nine sacks of left ears taken from the slain, and King Henry of Bohemia’s head on a spear. The only reason the Mongols didn’t continue on to Paris and London as planned was back in Mongolia the Great Khan Ogodai died. Since the Mongol Empire was never more than an enlarged tribal system, custom decreed all Mongol elders had to stop everything they were doing and return home to Karakorum for a council -the Grand Kurlutai. <br /> The Mongols rode away from Europe as mysteriously as they had arrived.<br /> <br /> 1553- French comic writer Francois Rabelais died. His last words were: ” I go to seek a Great Perhaps.”<br /> <br /> 1682- Explorer Sieur De Lasalle claims Louisiana and the Mississippi for France.<br /> <br /> 1747- Famed British actor David Garrick signed a contract to take over the management of London’s Drury Lane Theatre.<br /> <br /> 1778- In Paris the philosopher Voltaire is initiated into the Masonic Order of the Nine Sisters on the arm of his friend, Benjamin Franklin.<br /> <br /> 1780- George Washington wrote Richard Lawrence the American emissary in Paris, about our chances of winning the American Revolution:” We here are at the end of our tether. If we do not receive help soon all will be lost.”<br /> <br /> 1812- THE SACK OF BADAJOZ-The Duke of Wellington’s English army storms into a Spanish city held by Napoleons French forces. The battle typified the ferocity of the war in Spain. The French and pro-French Spaniards dropped explosives and rocks on the heads of the attacking English and lined the tops of the city walls with broken glass and knife blades. The loss of life was so ghastly that when the redcoats finally breached the cities defenses they went berserk- looting, raping, and killing the civilian population. <br /> This is when Wellington called his men scum. <br /> Wellington always went through a depressed state after a battle, even his victories. At one point, tough old General Sir Thomas Picton noticed Wellington was openly weeping. He reacted: ”My God Arthur, what the devil are you blubbering on about?” <br /> <br /> 1859- Mark Twain received his Mississippi riverboat pilot’s license. <br /> <br /> 1865- APPOMATTOX COURTHOUSE, THE END OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. Robert E. Lee surrendered the remains of his army to Ulysses Grant (11,000 men to Grant’s encircling 150,000). Grant had had a migraine headache all morning until he received the note from Lee requesting terms. Grant’s staff understood that Lee’s note meant the end of the greatest cataclysm in U.S. history. One staff officer called for three cheers but the men could only manage one weak hurrah, then they all broke down in soft weeping. All realized that at last the killing was truly over.<br /> Lee arrived wearing his best dress uniform, Grant rode in from the field wearing an old muddy private’s jacket. Grant recalled when they met during the Mexican War but Lee didn’t remember him. Grant was happy to make small talk until Lee brought them back to the business at hand. Grant’s secretary was a Seneca Indian named Captain Ely Parker. Lee paused to say ”I’m glad there’s at least one real American here.” <br /> <br /> The house they met in was owned by a man named Wilbur McClean, who moved his family from Bull Run to Appomattox to get away from the fighting. He managed to keep his belongings safe for four years of war. Now, after Lee and Grant left the historic meeting, Yankee officers looted the place for souvenirs, George Custer riding off with the little surrender table perched on his head.<br /> <br /> 1914- THE TAMPICO INCIDENT- In the port of Vera Cruz a shore party from the USN gunboat Tampico was arrested by Mexican authorities while getting supplies. They were soon released and the Mexican Government apologized. But the American Admiral Mayo then demanded the Mexicans give the Stars &amp; Stripes a 21gun salute. The Mexican army said they would if the USN did the same salute to the Mexican flag. Washington didn’t want to do this because it would have meant the US recognized the dictatorship of General Huerta, who had overthrown the legally elected President Madero. <br /> So the US attacked Vera Cruz on April 21st, 20 Americans and 200 Mexicans killed. A newspaper at the time commented:” I can’t believe we almost went to war over some points of diplomatic etiquette!”<br /> <br /> 1914- The first all color film” The World, The Flesh and the Devil” premiered in London.<br /> <br /> 1917- Shortly after declaring war on Germany, President Woodrow Wilson was confronted by old former President Teddy Roosevelt. 59 year old TR volunteered to lead a new regiment of Rough Riders into the World War I trenches. Wilson said thanks, but no thanks. He said of Teddy, “ He is really a great big boy. You can’t help but like him.” At the same time he also declined an offer from Annie Oakley to lead a company of lady sharpshooters into the trenches “Oakley’s Amazons”.<br /> <br /> 1921- The Fly-In Lunch Party. Leslie Brand was a millionaire who developed Glendale California north of Los Angeles. This day he invited guests to a special garden party provided they call arrived in their own airplanes. The little biplanes parked all around his grounds, today known as The Brand Library.<br /> <br /> 1938- In an interview with Liberty Magazine, Walt Disney said he, “had plans to put animation to various well-known pieces of music, with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice being only the start.” He was beginning to think of expanding the short into a concert feature. The result of which would be Fantasia.<br /> <br /> 1940- Hitler invaded Denmark and Norway. Innocent looking civilian German freighters holed up in Danish and Norwegian ports suddenly disgorged hordes of steel helmeted Nazi soldiers. Copehagen, Oslo and Trondheim were quickly overrun. Mysteriously the British Navy didn’t use its superiority to stop the Germans crossing the Baltic. The admirals were worried about the German divebombers. It showed the world that Sea Power had finally bowed to Airpower.<br /> <br /> 1942- Black opera star Marian Anderson gives her concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington to an audience of 75,000. She was snubbed from giving a recital at the Daughters of the American Revolution Hall which caused a furious Eleanor Roosevelt to resign from the DAR and arrange this concert.<br /> <br /> 1943- A U.S. Patents court concluded that Gulgielmo Marconi had used several of Nichola Tesla’s patents to create Wireless Broadcasting. So in effect, Tesla was the real inventor of radio broadcasting. Vindication came too late. Marconi died a rich Nobel-Prize winner, and Tesla died alone and penniless.<br /> <br /> 1943- First battle of the Warsaw Ghetto. Jews revolt in a desperate struggle against the conditions the Nazis held them in. All guns and supplies were precious. One character of the street fighting was nicknamed Moishe the Bolshevik, who ran from corpse to corpse under heavy fire dragging bandoliers of bullets, grenades and several helmets on his head.<br /> <br /> 1948- Variety columnist Lee Mortimer had been needling Frank Sinatra for his advocacy of liberal causes. He accused Old Blue Eyes of draft-dodging, and hinted maybe he had pro-Communist sympathies. This day as Sinatra passed Mortimer in front of Ciro's restaurant on Sunset Blvd. he heard Mortimer call him a “dirty Dago”. Frank went at Mortimer and punched his lights out.<br /> <br /> 1948- Massacre of Deir Yasin- During the Israeli war of Independence a rogue Jewish militia called the Irgun on orders from Likud founder Menachem Begin entered a Palestinian village and shot 150 men women and children. Israeli leader David Ben Gurion apologized for the massacre and ordered the Irgun and other independent units merged into the Israeli Army. But the massacre helped trigger the mass exodus of Palestinian Arabs into exile. <br /> <br /> 1951- The day before he fired General Douglas MacArthur- President Harry Truman secretly sent to Korea five unassembled atomic bombs. These were to be armed and used if only the situation looked totally hopeless. They were never used. <br /> <br /> 1952- The quiz show “I’ve Got A Secret” hosted by Gary Moore premiered on the Dumont Network and ran for 15 years.<br /> <br /> 1953- The first issue of the T.V. Guide.<br /> <br /> 1959- NASA introduced the first seven astronauts to the public, The Mercury Astronauts: Donald Slayton, Alan Shepard, Walter Schirra, Virgil Grissom, John Glenn, Leroy Cooper, and Malcolm Carpenter- all military test pilots instead of scientists.<br /> <br /> 1962- The musical West Side Story swept the Academy Awards.<br /> <br /> 1963- Animator Vernon Stallings (1891-1963) He is known for inventing the animation disc while working on Felix the Cat in the 1920s. <br /> <br /> 1965- Mickey Mantle hits the first indoor home run as the Astrodome opens with an exhibition game with the Astros hosting the Yankees. President Lyndon Johnson was supposed to throw out the first pitch but arrived late. Phillie catcher Bob Boone commented about the Astrodome "This is a tough yard for a hitter when the air conditioning is blowing in.." <br /> <br /> 1966- actress Sophia Loren married producer Carlo Ponti, with whom she had been living with for a decade but not allowed to marry because Catholics did not allow divorce from their previous spouses.<br /> <br /> 1974- Ray Kroc the founder of MacDonalds Restaurants was the owner of the San Diego Padres baseball team. After yet another sorry performance, losing 8-0, Kroc stormed over to the broadcast booth, grabbed the mike and out shouted ” You Guys Stink!” Despite this morale booster, the Padres eventually did win championship pennants and get to the World Series.<br /> <br /> 1975- As North Vietnamese armies approached the South Vietnamese capitol of Saigon, President Gerald Ford issued an advisory to all Americans to evacuate the country.<br /> <br /> 1991- The last Horn &amp; Hardardt Automat was closed on 42nd St in Manhattan. Philadelphia restaurateurs Joseph Horn and William Hardart saw German experiments in mass market automated restaurants, and imported the equipment to start one in Philadelphia in 1902.<br /> <br /> 1999- American planes flying for NATO bombed the Serbian factory that made the economy car the Yugo. Car enthusiasts rejoiced.<br /> <br /> 2003- Baghdad fell to invading US and British armies.<br /> <br /> 2004- Archaeologists in Cyprus discover a 10,000 year-old grave of a New Stone Age man. With him were the remains of a cat that looks like it was deliberately placed there. This is the oldest evidence of man domesticating cats. So rest in peace- Gronk and Fluffy.<br /> <br /> 2005- Prince Charles wed Lady Camilla Parker-Bowles, his mistress of thirty years. They were not allowed to marry in Saint George’s Chapel in Windsor, the Queen avoided the ceremony and his father Prince Phillip didn’t feel like interrupting his trip to Germany; and because of a delay to respect Pope John Paul II’s funeral, all the commemorative cups and dishes had the wrong date on them. Among the thirty invited guests, were Mrs. Bowles divorced husband. Next month they will be crowned King and Queen of England. <br /> <br /> 2008- Stuntman Rupert MacDonald built a full-size Viking ship out of 15 million popsicle sticks. <br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Has anyone ever run for president while in jail?<br /> <br /> Answer: In 1920, Eugene Victor Debs ran for president on the Socialist ticket while serving jail time for protesting U.S. participation in WWI. He lost, obviously.<br /> In 1992 Lyndon LaRouche, another rogue 3rd party candidate ran from his prison cell. I think he was in for mail fraud. He lost also.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 08 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6118 <p>Quiz: Has anyone ever run for president while in jail?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays quiz answered below: What do you mean by describing something as Lovecraftian?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/8/2023<br /> Birthdays: Gautama Buddha –as commemorated by Japanese custom-Kambutsue, Ponce De Leon, King Albert of the Belgians, Mary Pickford, Yip Harburg, Betty Ford, Sonja Henje, Catfish Hunter, Jacques Brel, Darlene Gillespie, Julian Lennon, Carmen McCrae, Shecky Green, Douglas Trumbull, Robin Wright is 58, Patricia Arquette<br /> <br /> 64AD- An advertisement found on a wall in Roman Pompeii: “TWENTY PAIRS OF GLADIATORS sponsored by Decimus Lucretius Satrius Valens, lifetime priest of Nero Caesar and TEN PAIRS OF GLADIATORS sponsored by Decimus Lucretius Valens Minor (his son) will fight on April 8th –12th, There will also be a suitable WILD ANIMAL HUNT. THE AWNING will be opened. “I wonder what the Latin was for PayPal?<br /> <br /> 217AD.-The Roman Emperor Caracalla was stabbed in the back while taking a pee during the Moon God Festival. He got caught with his toga down. The assassin Martialis leapt on a horse and tried to gallop away, but he was brought down by a well-thrown javelin. The Praetorian Prefect Macrinus became Emperor. <br /> <br /> 1476- In Florence, Leonardo da Vinci was anonymously accused of sodomy with his 17-year-old male model. He was acquitted in a preliminary hearing, but in his sketchbook, he designed a lock-busting tool, just in case. <br /> <br /> 1520- on a beach somewhere in what would be Argentina, Fernand de Magellan <br /> has three of his captains beheaded for trying to mutiny and turn back home. Of the 200 men and five ships in his expedition only one ship with 16 skeletal men will ever see Spain again.<br /> <br /> 1778- John Adams arrived in Paris to help Ben Franklin negotiate an alliance with the French Court. Their secretary Bancroft was a British double agent. The dour New Englander Adams was annoyed by Franklin’s superstar popularity among the French- Queen Marie Antoinette referred to him as Le Ambassadeur Electrique, as well as his habit of resting nude with the windows open -his “air baths”.<br /> <br /> 1793- CITIZEN GENET ARRIVES IN THE U.S.- The ambassador from the French Revolutionary Republic presented a dilemma for the George Washington Administration. The France that helped America win her independence was royal France, but Edouard Genet represented a fellow democratic republic, so far the only other one in the world. Common people in Philadelphia and New York danced and sang in the streets when they heard of the storming of the Bastille. The French Convention displayed a Stars and Stripes in their hall. A fashion started in America of calling each other “Citizen’ and “Citizeness”. <br /> <br /> Secretary of State Tom Jefferson was pro French, John Adams and Hamilton were anti. Washington was pro-French until the Revolution had arrested his friend Lafayette. Rich Americans were afraid of the class anger the French revolutionaries were stirring up. Citizen Genet didn't help matters by openly trying to bribe American officials and publishing a list of all the prominent men of Boston whom he felt deserved to be guillotined. <br /> <br /> Finally, President Washington wa vs asking for Genet's recall. Then Genet learned HE was next on Robespierre's list to be guillotined when he returned home! So Genet requested asylum and became a good American citizen.<br /> <br /> 1810- Admiral Thomas Cochrane, MP for Westminster, entered the British House of Parliament with a keg of gunpowder under his arm. The old Sea Wolf was trying to make a point in debate about defending his political allies.<br /> <br /> 1826- Congressman Henry Clay and Congressman John Randolph got so mad at each other they fought a duel. They popped away at each other with pistols not doing any harm. <br /> <br /> 1856- The New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Company renamed themselves the Western Union Telegraph Company. In twenty years it became the largest corporation in the United States. Western Union stopped the personal telegram service in 2006.<br /> <br /> 1861- LINCOLN'S MOVE- Ever since Lincoln's election and the southern states declaring themselves an independent Confederacy, the thorny issue was the status of U.S. military bases on Confederate soil. The rebels sent commissioners led by Ex-president John Tyler to Washington to negotiate the peaceful transfer but Lincoln refused to meet them. The commander of Fort Leavenworth surrendered his post to Texas and Fort Pickens to rebel Florida. Only Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor South Carolina defiantly flew the Stars and Stripes. By now the U.S. garrison was running out of food and surrounded on all sides by hostile guns. Everyone wondered who would fire the first shot. <br /> <br /> On this day Lincoln informed Governor Pickens of South Carolina that the U.S. government was sending a relief force to re-supply the fort. Jeff Davis had to make the decision to fire on the fort before the relief fleet could get there, thereby starting the shooting war. Davis recognized that Lincoln had deliberately outmaneuvered him into this situation, so as not to look like the U.S. would fire first.<br /> <br /> 1864- Battles of Pleasant Grove and Mount Pleasant. Union General Nathaniel Banks Red River operation was to try and take Shreveport Louisiana and invade East Texas. But he bungled his chance in two battles with Confederates under General Richard Taylor, an old lieutenant of Stonewall Jackson’s. Other commanders among the Texas volunteers was General Tom Greene who had fought under Sam Houston for Texas independence and Marquis Etienne du Polignac, a French aristocrat whom the Texas cowboys called “General Polecat”. The Red River Campaign failed so badly that the disgusted Yankee soldiers refused to even honor Banks with the title of General; they referred to him as “Mr. Banks”.<br /> <br /> 1865- LEE'S DECISION- The Army of Northern Virginia led by Robert E. Lee had to abandon the Confederate capitol Richmond, and was now being pursued by two huge Union armies. At a small intersection named Appomattox Courthouse they found the last open road blocked by a third Yankee army. Lee had 10,000 starving effectives to put against 150,000 bluecoats. Grant was offering negotiations.<br /> <br /> This night Lee held a last council of war to decide what to do. The younger officers proposed dispersing the army with instructions to rally in the Blue Ridge Mountains and continue fighting as guerrillas. But Lee dismissed this: "I'm getting too old for that sort of thing.' I must act on the wishes of the government. " General Gordon snapped: "Oh, to Hell with the Government! You are the Confederacy now !" All that's left of it is here!" After one more dawn attempt to break out of the trap, Lee concluded with a sigh:" I guess all that is left now is to go see General Grant, and I would rather die a thousand deaths."<br /> <br /> 1876- Amilicare Ponchielli’s opera La Gioconda debuted. The ballet portion is famous as the Dance of the Hours.<br /> <br /> 1879- Milk first sold in glass bottles.<br /> <br /> 1904- THE ENTENTE CORDIAL. Britain and France end centuries of open hostility and signed the first of a series of alliances. In every war since William the Conqueror, Germany and Britain were always allies against France. For several years British foreign minister Joseph Chamberlain had been trying to negotiate the same exact kind of alliance with the Germans. In Berlin in 1895 he gave the toast “Our (England) natural enemy will always be France.”<br /> Germany was shocked by the news. Kaiser Wilhelm exclaimed, "What would Wellington and Old Blucher think?" -the allies who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. <br /> <br /> 1911-Vitagraph released Winsor McCay's short cartoon "Little Nemo" theatrically.<br /> <br /> 1913- The 17th Amendment passed that called for U.S. senators to be elected by popular vote instead of named by their state legislatures. <br /> <br /> 1933-The WPA- Works Progress Administration, later renamed the Works Projects Administration founded. It was the Franklin Roosevelt administration’s massive jobs program to heal the Depression by putting unemployed people back to work. They built bridges, dams, roads, federal buildings. The WPA arts projects employed artists like Grant Wood, Berenice Abbott and Thomas Hart Benton and put on plays with Orson Welles and John Houseman. <br /> <br /> 1942- The US government ordered all remaining heavy industry convert to war production for the duration of World War II. From now until 1946 no new automobiles were made, no tin toys, there were almost no labor strikes. Sugar, rubber and gas were strictly rationed. But any lingering unemployment of the Depression finally disappeared. <br /> <br /> 1945- Only days before his concentration camp would be liberated by allied armies, Lutheran theologian Deitrich Boenhoffer was hanged for his public opposition to Hitler.<br /> <br /> 1949- A three year old girl named Kathy Fiscus fell into a well in the LA suburb of San Marino California. After a concerted effort by authorities to rescue her, she was found dead. What makes this sad incident memorable, was it was the first time a news event was followed by television cameras and reported live as it happened. <br /> <br /> 1952- A nationwide steel strike was going to cripple steel production in the President Harry Truman ordered the US government to take direct control of the steel mills and threatened the strikers that if they didn’t go back to work he would draft them into the army. While such drastic methods may have been necessary in wartime, Truman was dangerously overstepping his bounds as president by this action.<br /> <br /> 1966- Lenoid Brezhnev became Secretary General of the Communist party and leader of the Soviet Union.<br /> <br /> 1973- Pablo Picasso died at age 91. His last words at a dinner with friends was a toast 'Drink to me. Drink to my health. You know I can’t drink anymore'. On his night table was a collection of spot cartoons drawn by former Disney animator Vip Partch. <br /> <br /> 1974- Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's record of 714 home runs set in 1935. Hammerin' Hank hit #715 off Dodger pitcher Al Dowling. Aaron had tied the Babe’s record at the end of the previous season and had to endure an entire winter of stress and racial threats before he could come up to bat again and break the record on opening day of the new season. His locker had sacks of vicious hate mail alongside it. Henry Aaron retired with a new record of 755, done without steroids. Pitcher Al Dowling joked: "I never say 7:15 anymore. I only say, 'It's a quarter after seven'." <br /> <br /> 1975- Frank Robinson becomes the first black manager in major league history as his Indians defeat the Yankees 5-3. The Tribe's new player-manager hits a home run in his first at-bat as the designated hitter.<br /> <br /> 1986- Actor Clint Eastwood was elected mayor of the town of Carmel, California.<br /> <br /> 1994- Chan Ho Park becomes the first Korean to play in the US major leagues as he makes his Dodger pitching debut. <br /> <br /> 1994- Grunge rocker Kurt Kobain’s body was discovered by a security system electrician three days after he blew his own head off with a shotgun. <br /> <br /> 1995- Disney’s A Goofy Movie premiered.<br /> ===============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s question: What do you mean by describing something as Lovecraftian?<br /> <br /> Answer: H.P. Lovecraft was an influential 20th Century writer of science fiction and horror. Describing something as Lovecraftian generally means it is dark, weird, nightmarish. (Thanks FG.)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 05 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6117 <p>Quiz: Did Daniel Boone ever fight for George Washington?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What was the difference between a Pilgrim and a Puritan?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/5/2023<br /> Birthdays: Plato, Swinburne, Booker T. Washington, Josef Lister, Bette Davis, Nadar, Jean Fragonard, animator Hicks Lokey, Nguyen Van Thieu, historian Robert Bloch, Gale Storm, Washington Atlee-Burpee the mail order seed king, Spencer Tracy, Frank Gorshin, Melvyn Douglas, Walter Huston, Nigel Hawthorne, Peter Greenaway, Gregory Peck, Mary Costa, the voice of Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, Roger Corman, Agnetha Faltskog of ABBA is 73, Colin Powell, Pharrell Williams is 50.<br /> <br /> To the ancient Romans this was the Feast Day of the Goddess of Good Fortune, Fortuna Virilis. <br /> <br /> 622 A.D.- BYZANTINE EMPEROR HERACLIUS began his military campaigns. Heraclius is one of the mysteries of history. He sat lethargic on his throne while the Persian Shah Chosroes II conquered the whole Middle East almost up to his doorstep. Then Heraclius got up, put on his armor and turned into Julius Caesar, Alexander and Rambo all rolled into one. In a lightning campaign he destroyed the Persian army, burned their capitol, sprinkled garbage on the grave of Zoroaster and chased them to the foot of the Himalayas. The Persians killed Chosroes just to make Heraclius go away. <br /> Then Heraclius went back to his throne and did nothing for the rest of his reign. Muslim Arabs would soon appear from out of Arabia and wipe out both empires, which is why you probably never heard of him. Some speculate that his wife Empress Heracleonas was the real military genius, but the scholars recorded the deeds all in the man’s name.<br /> <br /> 1242-" THE BATTLE ON THE ICE" Lake Pripus. Alexander Nevsky the Prince of Novgorod defeated the German monastic knights The Order of Sword Brothers. These warrior-monks had been sent by Rome to combat pagans in the Baltic lands, but after everyone had become Christian, they had switched their attention to "Greek Orthodox-Schizmatics". In 1939 Sergei Eisenstein did the famous film Alexander Nevsky about the battle with a musical score by Sergei Prokoviev.<br /> <br /> 1531- Richard Roose was boiled in oil for trying to poison the Archbishop of Canterbury.<br /> <br /> 1613- Princess Pocahontas, now baptized Lady Rebecca, married John Rolfe. She had been sold by her cousins to the Jamestown colonists as a hostage for a copper pot. Today many old families in Virginia claim a dynastic link to Pocahontas. John Rolfe is famous for inventing the American tobacco industry. The local Virginia weed was a bit too rough for Englishmen to puff on, so Rolfe had tobacco cuttings smuggled out of Brazil and planted in the James River delta. Since the English had found no gold-laden Aztecs, this settlement was at first viewed as a failure. But this tobacco crop made the Virginia Colony a success to profit hungry investors back home. <br /> <br /> 1614- King James I’s second parliament met. It was famous for enacting no laws, basically doing absolutely nothing. Britons rejoiced.<br /> <br /> 1759- A small Dutch fleet blown off course in a Pacific storm discovered a small island. Because it was Easter, they named it Easter Island.<br /> <br /> 1794- French Revolutionaries Danton and Camille Desmoulins were guillotined. They were arch-leftists but their old buddy Robespierre wanted them out of the way. So they were convicted of being treasonous counterrevolutionaries. When Danton mounted the scaffold he laughed:" When you take my head off, show it to the people. It will be worth it!"<br /> <br /> 1814- Now that Napoleon had agreed to abdicate, he wanted to assure his son would keep the throne of the French Empire. But the victorious allied monarchs in occupied Paris told Nappy’s emissary Caulaincourt that they refused negotiate with them any further. At the same time one of Napoleon’s generals and closest friends Marshal Marmont made his own deal and took his army over to the enemy. Marmont was the Duke of Ragusa and for the next few decades a Raguser became a synonym for traitor like Benedict Arnold or Quisling.<br /> <br /> 1815-The volcano Mount Tambora erupted in Indonesia killing 12,000 and effecting weather patterns around the world. Many quaint Currier &amp; Ives ice skating prints come from this year without a summer.<br /> <br /> 1827- Englishman Joseph Lister born. Lister was not only the inventor of Listerine but of hygienic medical practices. Before Lister insisted on sterilization hospitals were known as death traps of infection where surgeons would sharpen their scalpels on the sole of their boots before making their incision. He once stopped an epidemic in a hospital by noticing that the interns would go from dissecting cadavers to delivering babies without washing their hands!<br /> <br /> 1840- Six drunken friends met in a tavern in Baltimore and pledged they would never drink again. They formed the Washingtonian Society, the earliest Temperance League.<br /> <br /> 1851- New York Mayor Ambrose Kingland proposed that a large park be built in Manhattan for health and recreation. Work on Central Park was begun in 1856.<br /> <br /> 1860- Garibaldi and his Thousand Red Shirts launched their invasion of Sicily. Of the several Italian leaders struggling to unify Italy. Giuseppe Garibaldi was the least patient. While the King of Sardinia Vittorio Emanuel and his minister Cavour tried quiet gentle diplomacy, Garibaldi and his "red shirts" launched an unprovoked assault on the Bourbon Kingdom of Two Sicilies. He told Vittorio-"You come from the North, I from the South." They met at the middle at Magenta and unified the entire Italian peninsula for the first time since the Roman Empire. Garabaldi's Northern Italian men wrote home of a new dish they tried in the South- pasta with tomato sauce!<br /> <br /> 1862- During the Civil War Union General George McClellan paused in his march through Virginia to attack the old Revolutionary War village of Yorktown. A small force under a rebel leader named MacGruder fooled McClellan into believing he was facing a large rebel army when he actually outnumbered them 20 to one. MacGruder marched his little force in circles, making multiple campfires and constantly blowing bugles, trying to look like a larger force than they actually were. When the Yankees finally overran the rebel fortifications they found the heavy cannon pointed at them were harmless logs painted black. They called them Quaker Guns.<br /> <br /> 1862- Meanwhile in Shiloh Tennessee, Confederate Beauregard and Albert Johnston’s rebel army was sneaking up to surprise attack Ulysses Grants army. But Beauregard was concerned that their undisciplined men were whooping and shooting their guns off and the element of surprise was now lost. Johnston ended speculation by saying:” I intend to fight them tomorrow even if they are a million strong!” Past midnight, Yankee General Sherman received reports of rebs skirmishing with his sentries. He told his adjutant to forget it and get some sleep, as there would be no battle that day. Shortly afterwards the entire Confederate Army attacked his camp.<br /> <br /> 1869- Daniel Bakeman, recorded as the last surviving minuteman of The American Revolution, died at age 109. A man who looked George Washington in the face lived long enough to be photographed by Matthew Brady. He married at age 12 and he and his wife stayed married for 91 years. <br /> <br /> 1874- Johann Strauss Jr.’s operetta Die Fledermaus premiered in Vienna.<br /> <br /> 1887- Lord Acton wrote: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”<br /> <br /> 1892- THE JOHNSON COUNTY WAR- By the 1890's many great Wyoming cattle ranches were owned by Eastern or European companies. When cattle herds were decimated by the great frost of 1888, a labor dispute arose between the distant employers and the laid off cowboys, many of whom resorted to rustling to make a living. By 1892 the friction became so bad the Wyoming Cattlemen's Association hired a private train and filled it with hired Texas gunfighters and enough ammunition to kill everyone in three states. They had orders to shoot or string up any and all rustlers, revolutionists and troublemakers. The word got out to the citizens of Casper Wyoming. A mob gathered, and surrounded the Texans in a ranch house, laying siege to it, throwing lit dynamite sticks from an armored wagon and shooting at any cowpoke who dared show his face in a window. <br /> The hapless hit men were finally rescued by the U.S. Cavalry, who granted all a general amnesty. The incident was the basis for the movie "Heaven's Gate". <br /> <br /> 1913- Ebbets Field opened in Flatbush. The Brooklyn Dodgers defeat the New York Highlanders (Yankees) 3-2.<br /> <br /> 1915- Jess Willard knocked down Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight boxing champion in a title fight in Havana Cuba. The older Johnson retired after the fight. Jess Willard wouldn’t hold the title long though, on July 4th Willard lost to new kid Jack Dempsey.<br /> <br /> 1923- Louis Armstrong, King Oliver and the Creole Jazz Band took a train from Chicago to Richmond Indiana to record Chimes Blues. Satchmo’s first record.<br /> <br /> 1930 -James Dewar invented the Twinkie. He said he got the name when he drove by a billboard advertising "Twinkle-Toe Shoes" and modified it to Twinkie. Dewar ate two every day of his life, and called them, “The best darn-tootin idea I ever had!” <br /> <br /> 1931- Fox Film Company dropped their option on young star John Wayne as a dud not going anywhere. Wayne eked out an existence doing cheap westerns for Republic and Monogram until John Ford of RKO made him a star in 1939’s Stagecoach.<br /> <br /> 1939- For German children, membership in the Hitler Youth corps became mandatory.<br /> <br /> 1945- The first Casper the Friendly Ghost cartoon.<br /> <br /> 1951- Republican Senator Robert Short read General Douglas MacArthur’s proclamation to the Communist Chinese on the floor of Congress. It read that if they didn’t withdraw from Korea, MacArthur would restart the Chinese Civil War and “Rain Nuclear Fire down upon their cities”. <br /> MacArthur had no permission from the State Department to make such a rash statement, and it ruined all the behind the scenes overtures to get the Chinese to negotiate an end to the Korean War early. The previous December, MacArthur had been given a direct order from the President not to make any public statements about Korean policy, but the General chose to ignore it. <br /> President Harry Truman concluded-“I’m gonna fire that pompous Sonofabitch!”<br /> <br /> 1951- The Atomic Spies, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death for espionage.<br /> <br /> 1955- Elderly Prime Minister Winston Churchill finally retired. He was succeeded as PM by Anthony Eden. Churchill, already the author of several books, joked with his cabinet:” Gentlemen, History shall be kind to us, for I intend to write it!”<br /> <br /> 1963- The Lava Lamp invented by Dr. Edward Craven Walker.<br /> <br /> 1965- Julie Andrews had created the role of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady on Broadway. But when filming the motion picture, the studio head Jack Warner decided she was not a big enough star, so he used Audrey Hepburn with a dubbed singing voice. But Andrews had her revenge. At the Academy Awards this night My Fair Lady won Best Picture, but Julie Andrews won the best actress Oscar for Mary Poppins. She famously said "I would like to thank Jack Warner for making this award possible!"<br /> <br /> 1969- Pope Paul VI abolished those silly big wide brimmed red hats (galeros) the cardinals wore.<br /> <br /> 1975- The Best Animated Short Oscar went to Closed Mondays, claymation from Will Vinton.<br /> <br /> 1976- Eccentric Billionaire Howard Hughes died at age 76. Hughes had inherited his fathers oil rig tool company at 17, and built the mighty Hughes aircraft empire, and ran RKO pictures. He was a well-known Hollywood playboy and dated beautiful women like Jane Russell. But after surviving several test plane crashes, he became addicted to pain killers and became increasing paranoid and withdrawn from the world. He died a strange shut in, long haired and living on a diet of drugs, and saving his urine in mason jars.<br /> <br /> 1985- Singer David Lee Roth quit the rock band Van Halen to pursue a solo career.<br /> <br /> 1994- Grunge rock star Kurt Kobain shot himself. His body wasn’t discovered until two days later.<br /> <br /> 2003- Invading American forces began the Battle for Baghdad.<br /> <br /> 2063- FIRST CONTACT- According to Star Trek, this is the day Professor Zephram Cochran adapted an old-World War III ICBM missile and invented the Warp Drive, enabling the Earth to begin deep space exploration, and during whose maiden flight he made the first contact with an alien race- from the planet Vulcan. <br /> ===============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What was the difference between a Pilgrim and a Puritan?<br /> <br /> Answer: Puritans was the name given to members of the Church of England who thought their church was turning too Catholic and desired to return to a more Calvinist purity. Pilgrims believed only a complete break with the mainstream church would solve things. They wanted to practice their faith only among themselves and be left alone. We call them Pilgrims, but they called themselves Separatists.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 04 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6115 <p>Quiz: What was the difference between a Pilgrim and a Puritan?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: Just where exactly is Silicon Valley?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/4/2023<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Caracalla, Eadweard Muybridge, Maya Angelou, Frances Langford, Irv Spence-Tom &amp; Jerry animator, Gil Hodges, Arthur Murray, Muddy Waters-born McKinley Morganfield, Cloris Leachman, Dorothea Dix, Elmer Bernstein, Bijan, Bea Benaderet, Heath Ledger, Robert Downey Jr is 58, Barry Pepper, Craig T. Nelson is 79, Hugo Weaving is 63<br /> <br /> If you were a Roman, today is the first day of the Megaleasian Festival in honor of Lunus the Moon god. Party! Par-tee!<br /> <br /> In China, today is Ching-Ming Tomb Sweeping Day.<br /> <br /> 527AD- Byzantine Emperor Justin named his nephew Justinian as his successor.<br /> <br /> 636AD- Today is the Feast Day of Saint Isadore of Seville, the Patron Saint of the Internet. Don’t believe me? Check this out. http://factually.gizmodo.com/the-patron-saint-of-the-internet-is-isidore-of-seville-1595023500<br /> <br /> 896 A.D.-THE SYNOD HORRENDIUS-One of the more bizarre incidents in Vatican history. Bishops Stephen and Formosan hated each other. When Formosan became pope Stephen had to go into hiding. After Formosan's death Stephen became pope but was unsatisfied that he couldn't strike back at his old enemy. So, Pope Stephen had Formosan's tomb opened, the corpse sat up in a chair, and put on trial for heresy. <br /> The cross examination was pretty strange, the prosecutor said things like: "His very silence is admittance of his guilt!" The dead body was convicted, excommunicated, tossed around by a Roman mob, then thrown in the Tiber. Pope Stephen VI later became the first pope to be killed in bed with someone's wife.<br /> <br /> 1561- A strange show in the sky of red discs and crosses was reported over Nuremberg Germany. Perhaps an early UFO sighting?<br /> <br /> 1581- Queen Elizabeth I visited the Golden Hind, the ship which Francis Drake sailed around the world. The 'Great Pirate of the Unknown Seas" had plundered huge treasure ships and drove Spanish Colonial authorities crazy. The Spanish Ambassador to London demanded the pirate Drake lose his head, but Queen Elizabeth had a different use in mind for her sword- she knighted the Devon innkeeper's son.<br /> The Golden Hind was kept in a prize anchorage for decades until age and dry rot caused it to fall to pieces. Ben Johnson wrote poems about Sir Francis Drake. Shakespeare's island of wizards in the Tempest may have been modeled on Drake's accounts of the strange stormy islands of Tierra Del Fuego in the Straights of Magellan.<br /> <br /> 1704 -British Admiral Sir Cloudsley Shovel captured The Rock of Gibraltar from Spain. Britain still owns it today, which really annoys Spain. <br /> <br /> 1841- PRESIDENT WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON DIED AFTER ONLY 31 DAYS IN OFFICE. “Old Tippecanoe” caught pneumonia giving his inauguration address in icy drizzle. When Vice President Tyler got word of the President's death, he was playing marbles with some children, and was about to get his knuckles rapped for losing. No U.S. President had ever died in office before, and no one knew if the Vice President was now only a caretaker until special elections, or was he the president for the next for years? John Tyler set the rule by staying President for four full years. Many people couldn't stand him. Instead of “Your Excellency, they called him "Your Accidency".<br /> <br /> 1850- The City of Los Angeles was incorporated under U.S. law. <br /> <br /> 1865- As the bedraggled Army of Northern Virginia retreated from Richmond, Robert E. Lee had a slim hope that if he could put distance between himself and the pursuing Union armies he might be able to join together the remaining Confederate forces in the Carolinas and keep fighting. These hopes were dashed this day. When Lee’s army reached Amelia Courthouse, the waiting trainloads of promised food turned out to be only ammunition. There weren’t enough trains to convey his men. Lee lost an entire day resting his army while scavenging for food. This allowed Grants Yankee army to catch up and slowly surround him. Lee remarked bitterly that while his men starved, the Confederate Congress could only “debate and shell peanuts!”<br /> <br /> 1865- LINCOLN IN RICHMOND- Meanwhile against the wishes of his bodyguards that it was still too dangerous, Abraham Lincoln toured the newly captured Confederate capitol of Richmond. Most of the white population had fled the smoldering city, but crowds of jubilant black slaves pulled his coach and cheered that the Day of Jubilee had arrived. One old black man kneeled to him. Lincoln raised him up “Father, you no longer have to kneel to any other man, only God. You are Free. Free as air.” Lincoln walked over to the Confederate Executive Mansion and sat in Jefferson Davis’ chair, putting his feet up on his desk. He then visited the family of rebel General George Pickett of the famous Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg. The Pickett’s were friends of Abe and Mary Lincoln before the war and Abe enjoyed bouncing Pickett’s baby boy on his knee. <br /> <br /> 1900- In Brussels, a protester shouting 'Vive Les Boers!" fired four shots at the Prince of Wales and Princess Augusta (Future King Edward VII). They all miss. He was protesting the British war on the whites Afrikanners of South Africa. Queen Victoria survived six assassination attempts in her lifetime. <br /> <br /> 1901- Russian author Leo Tolstoy broke with the Russian Orthodox Church when he sent a letter to the Patriarch this day declaring that prayers offered to Jesus Christ were “the worst type of sacrilege”. <br /> <br /> 1924- On a dry lakebed in California, Tom Milton ran a Miller race car at 151 mph.<br /> <br /> 1932- Louisiana Senator Huey Long told Congress that 80% of America’s wealth was controlled by 20% of its population. According to Business Week, today 80% of America’s wealth was owned by 1% of its population, and the top 150 richest people on Earth collectively own 50% of all the total wealth of the planet.<br /> <br /> 1933- The U.S. Government orders all citizens to turn in their remaining gold dollar coins.<br /> <br /> 1933- The U.S. airship Akron crashed in a storm, killing the crew and an admiral. <br /> <br /> 1942- 'THE HUMP' -When the Japanese army overran Rangoon and cut the Burma Road, Allied forces helping Chiang Kai Shek 's Chinese armies and the Flying Tigers were suddenly without supplies. Army Air Corps General Olds and his men begin the daily supply flights of transports from India over the Himalayas to China, or 'Over the Hump'.<br /> <br /> 1944- During World War II a South African reconnaissance plane flew over the Auschwitz Concentration Camp and took photos. When they are analyzed in London, the intelligence boys declared it to be a synthetic rubber plant.<br /> <br /> 1952- CARTOON COMMIES- Nationally syndicated columnist Walter Winchell accused the owners of a New York commercial animation studio, Tempo Productions of Communist sympathies. One of the owners was Disney Layout man Dave Hilberman, who was a union organizer and was the only artist personally named by Walt Disney to the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. The F.B.I. began investigating Tempo and their Madison Avenue clients quickly pulled their business. Tempo closed, laying off 50 artists. Mr. Clean, Markie Maypo and the Hamm’s Beer Bear were once again safe from Red subversion. <br /> <br /> 1954- Arturo Toscanini, who had been making music since the 1880’s, conducted his final concert. Toscanini’s studio space at NBC is today the set of the Saturday Night Live TV show.<br /> <br /> 1958- Screen goddess Lana Turner and her gangster lover Johnny Stompanato had a violent argument that ended when Turner’s teenage daughter plunged a kitchen knife into his chest. She was acquitted as justifiable homicide. Rumors maintain the daughter was covering for her mother’s own actions. It was whispered Hollywood society ladies had nicknamed Stompanato’s willy Oscar for its size.<br /> <br /> 1967- Van Nuys premiere head shop Captain Ed’s Heads &amp; Highs first opened for business.<br /> <br /> 1967- In a speech at the Riverside Baptist Church in Manhattan Rev Dr. Martin Luther King announced his opposition to the Vietnam War. This put him in direct conflict with the heretofore friendly Lyndon Johnson administration. Whereas LBJ had Dr. King and the Southern Christian leadership up to the White House often, and had done much to fight discrimination, the volatile LBJ now called Dr. King “that backwoods n--- preacher!” <br /> <br /> 1967- Snoopy’s little bird friend Woodstock debuted in the Peanuts comic strip. <br /> <br /> 1968- THE SETTLERS MOVEMENT- The Israeli government was trying to sort out what to do about the West Bank territories conquered in the Six Day War. This day a small group of ultra-conservative Jews called Gush Eymunim moved into a hotel the Arab city of Hebron and declared themselves a settlement. Minister Moshe Dayan wanted Jewish settlements, but he wanted them to be alongside Arab communities, not displacing them. This was the first provocation by conservative settlers that would bedevil Palestinian-Israeli relations for the next fifty years.<br /> <br /> 1968- DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING ASSASSINATED. The great civil rights leader was struck in the head by a .30 cal bullet fired from a high-powered rifle, while he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. He was 39. Dr. King and his team had been clowning around that morning, throwing pillows at one another. On the balcony Dr King’s last words were teasing Jesse Jackson for not being dressed properly for going out to dinner. Jesse was wearing a fashionable turtleneck instead of suit and tie. <br /> Dr. Benjamin Hooks ran to the phone to get help, but the switchboard was not working. The motel manager's wife who usually ran the switchboard had seen the shooting, and the shock had given her a heart attack. She died the next day. The Memphis police had always surrounded King's party with at least seven officers whenever he was in town. For some unknown reason that morning they were ordered to stand back at least seven blocks. It was the one-year anniversary of the speech where he declared his opposition to the Vietnam War. <br /> A man named James Earl Ray was later apprehended in England, confessed to the shooting and was given a life sentence. He later recanted his confession and said the FBI coerced him, and he was taking orders from a mysterious contact man named Raul. James Earl Ray died in 1998. The King family reopened the investigation and a civil court ruled that Dr. King was probably killed by a conspiracy. When F.B.I. director J. Edgar Hoover heard about the assassination he did what he did the day John Kennedy was shot, he spent the day at the racetrack celebrating.<br /> <br /> 1968- When news of Martin Luther King's assassination got out, 175 US cities suffered urban rioting. In Indianapolis, Sen. Bobby Kennedy was scheduled to go speak to a mostly black crowd. His police escort refused to follow him out of fear. Kennedy went anyway. He told the audience the terrible news, made a reference to his own murdered brother, then proceeded to quote them poetry from the Greek writer Aeschylus "We must tame the savageness of man, and make gentle the life of this world." The crowd wept and prayed together. Indianapolis was quiet that night.<br /> <br /> 1973- The World Trade Center Twin Towers first opened to the public.<br /> <br /> 1984- In George Orwell’s novel 1984, this is the day Winston Smith started a secret diary and first wrote the dangerous thought-crime “Down With Big Brother”.<br /> <br /> 1987- Ronald Reagan’s hand-picked FCC voted to repeal The Fairness Doctrine, which mandated news services report unbiased news, reflecting all opinions. This set the stage for the highly partisan news reporting of today.<br /> <br /> 1988- Arizona governor Evan Meacham was impeached, the first US governor to get the boot in 60 years. Meecham had made Arizona the only state in the U.S. to refuse the Martin Luther King holiday. Meecham had once referred to African Americans as “pickaninees” and had ordered a list drawn up of all state employees who were gay.<br /> <br /> 1994- Marc Andreesen and Jim Clark started Netscape. Clark also founded Silicon Graphics, Inc.<br /> <br /> 2007- Bob Clark, the director of the holiday classic film A Christmas Story, was killed in a head on car crash on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. He was 67. <br /> <br /> ==========================================================<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s question- Just where exactly is Silicon Valley?<br /> <br /> Answer: In California, between San Francisco and San Jose along the southern bay. Centered around Stanford University, who owned much of the land. In the 1930s the University adopted a policy of discounted leasing land for company startups, provided the new companies focused on high tech. Towns include Palo Alto, San Mateo, Mountainview, Menlo Park, Redwood City.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 04 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6116 <p>Quiz: What was the difference between a Pilgrim and a Puritan?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: Just where exactly is Silicon Valley?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/4/2023<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Caracalla, Eadweard Muybridge, Maya Angelou, Frances Langford, Irv Spence-Tom &amp; Jerry animator, Gil Hodges, Arthur Murray, Muddy Waters-born McKinley Morganfield, Cloris Leachman, Dorothea Dix, Elmer Bernstein, Bijan, Bea Benaderet, Heath Ledger, Robert Downey Jr is 58, Barry Pepper, Craig T. Nelson is 79, Hugo Weaving is 63<br /> <br /> If you were a Roman, today is the first day of the Megaleasian Festival in honor of Lunus the Moon god. Party! Par-tee!<br /> <br /> In China, today is Ching-Ming Tomb Sweeping Day.<br /> <br /> 527AD- Byzantine Emperor Justin named his nephew Justinian as his successor.<br /> <br /> 636AD- Today is the Feast Day of Saint Isadore of Seville, the Patron Saint of the Internet. Don’t believe me? Check this out. http://factually.gizmodo.com/the-patron-saint-of-the-internet-is-isidore-of-seville-1595023500<br /> <br /> 896 A.D.-THE SYNOD HORRENDIUS-One of the more bizarre incidents in Vatican history. Bishops Stephen and Formosan hated each other. When Formosan became pope Stephen had to go into hiding. After Formosan's death Stephen became pope but was unsatisfied that he couldn't strike back at his old enemy. So, Pope Stephen had Formosan's tomb opened, the corpse sat up in a chair, and put on trial for heresy. <br /> The cross examination was pretty strange, the prosecutor said things like: "His very silence is admittance of his guilt!" The dead body was convicted, excommunicated, tossed around by a Roman mob, then thrown in the Tiber. Pope Stephen VI later became the first pope to be killed in bed with someone's wife.<br /> <br /> 1561- A strange show in the sky of red discs and crosses was reported over Nuremberg Germany. Perhaps an early UFO sighting?<br /> <br /> 1581- Queen Elizabeth I visited the Golden Hind, the ship which Francis Drake sailed around the world. The 'Great Pirate of the Unknown Seas" had plundered huge treasure ships and drove Spanish Colonial authorities crazy. The Spanish Ambassador to London demanded the pirate Drake lose his head, but Queen Elizabeth had a different use in mind for her sword- she knighted the Devon innkeeper's son.<br /> The Golden Hind was kept in a prize anchorage for decades until age and dry rot caused it to fall to pieces. Ben Johnson wrote poems about Sir Francis Drake. Shakespeare's island of wizards in the Tempest may have been modeled on Drake's accounts of the strange stormy islands of Tierra Del Fuego in the Straights of Magellan.<br /> <br /> 1704 -British Admiral Sir Cloudsley Shovel captured The Rock of Gibraltar from Spain. Britain still owns it today, which really annoys Spain. <br /> <br /> 1841- PRESIDENT WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON DIED AFTER ONLY 31 DAYS IN OFFICE. “Old Tippecanoe” caught pneumonia giving his inauguration address in icy drizzle. When Vice President Tyler got word of the President's death, he was playing marbles with some children, and was about to get his knuckles rapped for losing. No U.S. President had ever died in office before, and no one knew if the Vice President was now only a caretaker until special elections, or was he the president for the next for years? John Tyler set the rule by staying President for four full years. Many people couldn't stand him. Instead of “Your Excellency, they called him "Your Accidency".<br /> <br /> 1850- The City of Los Angeles was incorporated under U.S. law. <br /> <br /> 1865- As the bedraggled Army of Northern Virginia retreated from Richmond, Robert E. Lee had a slim hope that if he could put distance between himself and the pursuing Union armies he might be able to join together the remaining Confederate forces in the Carolinas and keep fighting. These hopes were dashed this day. When Lee’s army reached Amelia Courthouse, the waiting trainloads of promised food turned out to be only ammunition. There weren’t enough trains to convey his men. Lee lost an entire day resting his army while scavenging for food. This allowed Grants Yankee army to catch up and slowly surround him. Lee remarked bitterly that while his men starved, the Confederate Congress could only “debate and shell peanuts!”<br /> <br /> 1865- LINCOLN IN RICHMOND- Meanwhile against the wishes of his bodyguards that it was still too dangerous, Abraham Lincoln toured the newly captured Confederate capitol of Richmond. Most of the white population had fled the smoldering city, but crowds of jubilant black slaves pulled his coach and cheered that the Day of Jubilee had arrived. One old black man kneeled to him. Lincoln raised him up “Father, you no longer have to kneel to any other man, only God. You are Free. Free as air.” Lincoln walked over to the Confederate Executive Mansion and sat in Jefferson Davis’ chair, putting his feet up on his desk. He then visited the family of rebel General George Pickett of the famous Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg. The Pickett’s were friends of Abe and Mary Lincoln before the war and Abe enjoyed bouncing Pickett’s baby boy on his knee. <br /> <br /> 1900- In Brussels, a protester shouting 'Vive Les Boers!" fired four shots at the Prince of Wales and Princess Augusta (Future King Edward VII). They all miss. He was protesting the British war on the whites Afrikanners of South Africa. Queen Victoria survived six assassination attempts in her lifetime. <br /> <br /> 1901- Russian author Leo Tolstoy broke with the Russian Orthodox Church when he sent a letter to the Patriarch this day declaring that prayers offered to Jesus Christ were “the worst type of sacrilege”. <br /> <br /> 1924- On a dry lakebed in California, Tom Milton ran a Miller race car at 151 mph.<br /> <br /> 1932- Louisiana Senator Huey Long told Congress that 80% of America’s wealth was controlled by 20% of its population. According to Business Week, today 80% of America’s wealth was owned by 1% of its population, and the top 150 richest people on Earth collectively own 50% of all the total wealth of the planet.<br /> <br /> 1933- The U.S. Government orders all citizens to turn in their remaining gold dollar coins.<br /> <br /> 1933- The U.S. airship Akron crashed in a storm, killing the crew and an admiral. <br /> <br /> 1942- 'THE HUMP' -When the Japanese army overran Rangoon and cut the Burma Road, Allied forces helping Chiang Kai Shek 's Chinese armies and the Flying Tigers were suddenly without supplies. Army Air Corps General Olds and his men begin the daily supply flights of transports from India over the Himalayas to China, or 'Over the Hump'.<br /> <br /> 1944- During World War II a South African reconnaissance plane flew over the Auschwitz Concentration Camp and took photos. When they are analyzed in London, the intelligence boys declared it to be a synthetic rubber plant.<br /> <br /> 1952- CARTOON COMMIES- Nationally syndicated columnist Walter Winchell accused the owners of a New York commercial animation studio, Tempo Productions of Communist sympathies. One of the owners was Disney Layout man Dave Hilberman, who was a union organizer and was the only artist personally named by Walt Disney to the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. The F.B.I. began investigating Tempo and their Madison Avenue clients quickly pulled their business. Tempo closed, laying off 50 artists. Mr. Clean, Markie Maypo and the Hamm’s Beer Bear were once again safe from Red subversion. <br /> <br /> 1954- Arturo Toscanini, who had been making music since the 1880’s, conducted his final concert. Toscanini’s studio space at NBC is today the set of the Saturday Night Live TV show.<br /> <br /> 1958- Screen goddess Lana Turner and her gangster lover Johnny Stompanato had a violent argument that ended when Turner’s teenage daughter plunged a kitchen knife into his chest. She was acquitted as justifiable homicide. Rumors maintain the daughter was covering for her mother’s own actions. It was whispered Hollywood society ladies had nicknamed Stompanato’s willy Oscar for its size.<br /> <br /> 1967- Van Nuys premiere head shop Captain Ed’s Heads &amp; Highs first opened for business.<br /> <br /> 1967- In a speech at the Riverside Baptist Church in Manhattan Rev Dr. Martin Luther King announced his opposition to the Vietnam War. This put him in direct conflict with the heretofore friendly Lyndon Johnson administration. Whereas LBJ had Dr. King and the Southern Christian leadership up to the White House often, and had done much to fight discrimination, the volatile LBJ now called Dr. King “that backwoods n--- preacher!” <br /> <br /> 1967- Snoopy’s little bird friend Woodstock debuted in the Peanuts comic strip. <br /> <br /> 1968- THE SETTLERS MOVEMENT- The Israeli government was trying to sort out what to do about the West Bank territories conquered in the Six Day War. This day a small group of ultra-conservative Jews called Gush Eymunim moved into a hotel the Arab city of Hebron and declared themselves a settlement. Minister Moshe Dayan wanted Jewish settlements, but he wanted them to be alongside Arab communities, not displacing them. This was the first provocation by conservative settlers that would bedevil Palestinian-Israeli relations for the next fifty years.<br /> <br /> 1968- DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING ASSASSINATED. The great civil rights leader was struck in the head by a .30 cal bullet fired from a high-powered rifle, while he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. He was 39. Dr. King and his team had been clowning around that morning, throwing pillows at one another. On the balcony Dr King’s last words were teasing Jesse Jackson for not being dressed properly for going out to dinner. Jesse was wearing a fashionable turtleneck instead of suit and tie. <br /> Dr. Benjamin Hooks ran to the phone to get help, but the switchboard was not working. The motel manager's wife who usually ran the switchboard had seen the shooting, and the shock had given her a heart attack. She died the next day. The Memphis police had always surrounded King's party with at least seven officers whenever he was in town. For some unknown reason that morning they were ordered to stand back at least seven blocks. It was the one-year anniversary of the speech where he declared his opposition to the Vietnam War. <br /> A man named James Earl Ray was later apprehended in England, confessed to the shooting and was given a life sentence. He later recanted his confession and said the FBI coerced him, and he was taking orders from a mysterious contact man named Raul. James Earl Ray died in 1998. The King family reopened the investigation and a civil court ruled that Dr. King was probably killed by a conspiracy. When F.B.I. director J. Edgar Hoover heard about the assassination he did what he did the day John Kennedy was shot, he spent the day at the racetrack celebrating.<br /> <br /> 1968- When news of Martin Luther King's assassination got out, 175 US cities suffered urban rioting. In Indianapolis, Sen. Bobby Kennedy was scheduled to go speak to a mostly black crowd. His police escort refused to follow him out of fear. Kennedy went anyway. He told the audience the terrible news, made a reference to his own murdered brother, then proceeded to quote them poetry from the Greek writer Aeschylus "We must tame the savageness of man, and make gentle the life of this world." The crowd wept and prayed together. Indianapolis was quiet that night.<br /> <br /> 1973- The World Trade Center Twin Towers first opened to the public.<br /> <br /> 1984- In George Orwell’s novel 1984, this is the day Winston Smith started a secret diary and first wrote the dangerous thought-crime “Down With Big Brother”.<br /> <br /> 1987- Ronald Reagan’s hand-picked FCC voted to repeal The Fairness Doctrine, which mandated news services report unbiased news, reflecting all opinions. This set the stage for the highly partisan news reporting of today.<br /> <br /> 1988- Arizona governor Evan Meacham was impeached, the first US governor to get the boot in 60 years. Meecham had made Arizona the only state in the U.S. to refuse the Martin Luther King holiday. Meecham had once referred to African Americans as “pickaninees” and had ordered a list drawn up of all state employees who were gay.<br /> <br /> 1994- Marc Andreesen and Jim Clark started Netscape. Clark also founded Silicon Graphics, Inc.<br /> <br /> 2007- Bob Clark, the director of the holiday classic film A Christmas Story, was killed in a head on car crash on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. He was 67. <br /> <br /> ==========================================================<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s question- Just where exactly is Silicon Valley?<br /> <br /> Answer: In California, between San Francisco and San Jose along the southern bay. Centered around Stanford University, who owned much of the land. In the 1930s the University adopted a policy of discounted leasing land for company startups, provided the new companies focused on high tech. Towns include Palo Alto, San Mateo, Mountainview, Menlo Park, Redwood City.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 03 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6114 <p>Quiz: Just where exactly is Silicon Valley?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Why is the person who carries your golf clubs called a caddie?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/3/2023<br /> Birthdays: King Henry IV of England (1361), Washington Irving, William Marcy "Boss" Tweed, Sally Rand the Fan Dancer, Bud Fisher “Mutt &amp; Jeff”, Ma Rainey, Iron Eyes Cody, Wayne Newton, Doris Day, Robert Sherwood, Virgil Grissom, Marsha Mason, Melissa Etheridge, Marlon Brando, Amanda Byrnes, David Hyde Pierce is 65, Alec Baldwin is 65, Eddie Murphy is 62<br /> <br /> In Ancient Greece the beginning of April was the Aphrodisia- the Festival of Aphrodite. Greeks would offer sacrifices to the Goddess of Love, and some would visit the sacred prostitutes in the great temple in Corinth. Rich old matrons would put aside in their wills some money to purchase slaves to work in the sacred brothels. <br /> <br /> 127AD- Today is the day Pope Sixtus I was martyred under the Emperor Trajan. Sixtus is remembered as the pope during the Mass when the priests chanted Holy, Holy, Holy -Hosanna in the Highest, etc. he insisted it be sung by everyone in the congregation.<br /> <br /> 628AD-After being defeated by Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, Persian King Chosroes II was murdered by his own son’s followers, and his body chucked down a well.<br /> <br /> 1043- Edward the Confessor crowned King of England. <br /> <br /> 1312- The Vatican, under the influence of the French King Phillip the Fair, abolished the Holy Order of the Knights Templar. The order was rich in international finance and none of it taxable and because they were monks there were no relatives to sponge off. They invented the personal check, so a Templar didn’t have to ride from castle to castle with those heavy bags of gold. Just write out a note (or have your scribe do it if you were illiterate) and affix your seal to it. <br /> <br /> 1367-The Battle of Navarette- during a lull in the Hundred Year War, Edward the Black Prince of England goes to Spain to help King of Aragon Pedro the Cruel press his claims against Navarre. He defeats a Franco-Navarrese force of knights and captures the great French knight Bertrand DeGuesclin (De-Gue-Klan). But when Edward refused to turn over his prisoners to Pedro so he could behead them (why else have a nickname like The Cruel ?). Even refusing to hand over DeGuesclin for his weight in pure silver. Pedro then refused to pay the Englishmen's wages and Edward went home broke and annoyed. Another freelancer gets screwed.<br /> <br /> 1657- Oliver Cromwell formally refused the title King of England and preferred to remain the Lord Protector of the English Republic. <br /> <br /> 1714-THE FIRST BRITISH PRIME MINISTER-Before this time men who ran the government of England at the king’s pleasure held a variety of titles: Lord High Admiral, Chancellor, Mayor of the Palace, etc. As the complicated checks &amp; balances of democratic government evolved more specific job titles were needed. <br /> When The British Crown was offered to the German George I of Hanover, he was bewildered by how complicated English parliamentary democracy was! He also refused to learn English, switching to French or Latin when no one would respond to him in German.<br /> Couldn't I just work with one man who could get what I wanted done? So Minister of the Exchequer (treasury) Sir Robert Walpole, who's party was in the majority in Parliament became First Minister, later Prime Minister. The reason the job evolved out of the Treasury is that minister could grease the rights palms to get things done. <br /> King George wanted Walpole in close touch so he gave him a house near Whitehall Palace. He had just foreclosed on a modest row house called #10 Downing Street. Walpole said he didn't want it seen as a royal bribe. He would vacate it when he left office for his successor. <br /> <br /> 1730 -EMPEROR MOYTOY OF AMERICA- A Scottish conman, Sir Alexander Cummings, had ingratiated himself into the council of the Cherokee Nation, then occupying most of Georgia, the Carolinas, Kentucky and Tennessee. In a scam to make himself look like the representative of all native Americans, Cummings convinced one Cherokee chief named Amatoya Moytoy of Tellico (Tennessee) to travel to England and do ritual submission to King George II. He dubbed him Moytoy, Emperor of America! The Cherokee were confused but went along with the gag if it meant good trading relations with the redcoat white men. Cummings disappeared shortly after the truth came out, undoubtedly a much wealthier man. <br /> <br /> 1764- Aging Empress Maria Theresa of Austria raised her son Joseph II to be co-emperor. He was the Emperor in the movie Amadeus. His sister was Marie Antoinette. In addition to Austria this day he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor at Frankfurt. He later wrote his mother about his coronation“...a lot of elegant people mouthing idiocies.”<br /> <br /> 1791- The French Revolution Assembly National decided to convert the Church of Saint Genevieve to a secular temple to contain the remains of the great leaders of the French Nation. It was renamed the Pantheon after the ancient Roman name. The bones of Mirabeau, Voltaire, Rousseau and more were soon moved there.<br /> <br /> 1814- THE MARSHALS STRIKE. Napoleon’s top generals, the Marshals, gathered around him at Fontainbleau Palace to try to convince him to step down. These men had their fortunes made in his service. They had fought and bled for him on a hundred battlefields. But after twenty years, France was overrun by five foreign armies, Paris had fallen, the French were down to drafting fifteen-year olds. The war was obviously lost. <br /> The discussion soon grew ugly. Marshals Ney, Oudinot, Moncey and Lefebvre told him if ordered they would not follow him to try to retake Paris. Napoleon shouted:” You just want to protect your titles and estates! I can replace you all with sergeants!” <br /> Finally Napoleon was made to accept the inevitable. He had tried first to resign in favor of his three year old son and save his dynasty. The Allies were amenable to this if it represented what the French people really wanted. However certain French government officials scheming for the return of the Bourbon Kings staged street demonstrations for the old monarchy, and convinced one of Napoleon's closest friends, Marshal Marmont the Duke of Ragusa, to defect to the enemy with his entire army. <br /> <br /> This gesture decided the allies that the French people would rather have King Louis return rather than the boy Napoleon II. Napoleon was forced to abdicate completely, and the name "Raguser" became a word for traitor like Benedict Arnold. <br /> <br /> 1860-The Pony Express system starts. Relay riders from Saint Louis across the prairies and deserts all the way to Sacramento, California. Ten days to get a letter from St. Jo to Denver. For all its romance, The Pony Express failed after just 2 years. Stagecoaches and telegraph wires soon covered the same message business much more easily.<br /> <br /> 1861- Seven days before the Civil War would begin, tensions between North and South built to the point of explosion. At Fort Sumter South Carolina a ship, the R. H. Shannon out of Boston with a cargo of ice bound for Savannah put in a stop at Charleston, South Carolina. She sailed past Ft. Sumter, right in between the itchy fingered Yankee and Rebel cannons. The captain rarely read newspapers, so he was completely unaware of the political situation. When he heard a warning shot, he ran up the Stars and Stripes. Suddenly cannons started to boom out all around him. Mystified, he lowered the flag, the gunfire stopped, and the Shannon sailed on...<br /> <br /> 1869- First performance of Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor. <br /> <br /> 1882- JESSE JAMES SHOT-The famous outlaw had been living quietly with his family under the alias Mr. Howard when he was murdered by his own gang members, his cousins Bob and William Ford. Jesse was shot in the back of the head while he was standing on a chair straightening a picture frame. His last words were: ”My, it’s awfully hot today...” He was 34. Jesse’s older brother Frank took the hint and went straight. Bob Ford went on tour giving lectures, re-enacting how he had killed Jesse. Finally in a mining camp someone blew him away with a shotgun. The last thing he heard was,” …oh, Bob….”<br /> <br /> 1897-composer Johannes Brahms died.<br /> <br /> 1920- Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald got married.<br /> <br /> 1922- JOSEF STALIN made General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. In the scramble for power after the death of Lenin this move allowed him to consolidate his his hold on the top job and push out Leon Trotsky and the other top Bolsheviks like Zioniev, Kamieniev and Krupskaya. He made sure Lenin's last will and political testament was never made public. <br /> <br /> 1936-Bruno Richard Hauptmann was electrocuted for the murder of the Lindbergh baby. <br /> <br /> 1948 -THE MARSHAL PLAN signed into law by President Truman. It called for 5 billion U.S. dollars to be spent to help 16 European countries rebuild their shattered economies after World War II. <br /> <br /> 1968- In Memphis, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was supposed to give a sermon at the Mason Temple Church, but excused himself because of his workload. Since he had openly come out against the Vietnam War, the death threats had increased and it all weighed heavily on his mind. Rev. Ralph Abernathy telephoned from the church that the crowd was disappointed Dr. King had not showed up. "Martin, they don't want to hear me. They're all here to hear you." <br /> So Dr. King went to the church, and delivered off-the-cuff the last great speech of his life: "I have been to the Mountaintop and have Seen the Promised Land. And though I may not get there with you, it is alright…..". At one point he was startled when the wind outside caused a shutter to bang. Then he returned to the Lorraine Motel. <br /> <br /> 1968- Stanley Kubrick's epic film "2001: A Space Odyssey" premiered. The N.Y. Times review said it was: " Somewhere between hypnotic and boring". Pauline Kael called it "monumentally unimaginative!" After an academy screening in Hollywood, moviestar Rock Hudson walked out saying” Will someone please tell me what the hell that was about?” <br /> Writer Arthur C. Clarke always said HAL the computer was not a coded reference to IBM. At the Oscars, Clarke and Kubrick lost the best screenplay award to Mel Brooks for The Producers. 2001 won only one Oscar, for visual effects. It was the only Oscar a Stanley Kubrick film ever won.<br /> <br /> 1973- Standing on the corner of 6th Ave in Manhattan, Motorola scientist Marty Cooper made the first cell phone call. He called his competitor Joel Engel at Bell Labs to tell him he had lost the race to invent the cell phone. He said of that first phone, “It was the size of a leg of lamb.”<br /> <br /> 1974- Even while the Watergate Scandal continued, this day the IRS reported President Richard Nixon had been paying taxes based on an income of only $15,000 a year, when he was making at least $200,000 a year.<br /> <br /> 1975- Eccentric chess champion Bobby Fischer was stripped of his World Chess Championship for refusing to play any more matches to defend his title. <br /> <br /> 1984-THE COFFEE SHOP CONVERSION. Future President George W. Bush was a cocaine-snorting alcoholic who had been busted for drunk driving. This day he became Born-Again Christian after a meeting with an evangelist in a coffee shop.<br /> <br /> 1994-Disney chief executive Frank Wells was killed in a helicopter crash on a skiing trip. It’s been speculated that blowing snow off some high peaks caused an ice ball to be sucked into the copter’s air intake manifold. Clint Eastwood was supposed to be on that trip but couldn't make it. Billie Joel and Christie Brinkley had a similar scare with their helicopter on the same day. The death of the Disney CEO set in motion the events that would lead to Jeffrey Katzenberg leaving Disney and forming Dreamworks, as well as Michael Ovitz’s brief tenure as a mouseketeer and Michael Eisner’s eventual fall in 2006. In 1999 the Hollywood Reporter estimated that the little iceball cost the Walt Disney Company over one billion dollars.<br /> <br /> 1996- Ron Brown, the first African American to be Chairman of the Democratic Party, was killed in a plane crash near Dubrovnik, Croatia.<br /> <br /> 1999- Egypt repealed a 1904 law that said a rapist could escape prison for his crime if he married his victim!<br /> <br /> ==========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Why is the person who carries your golf clubs called a caddie?<br /> <br /> Answer: When Mary Queen of Scots lived in France she played the Scottish game golf and had a military cadet (pronounced ca-day) to carry her clubs. When she moved to Scotland, she apparently continued...(Thanks CS)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 02 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6113 <p>Question: Why is the person who carries your golf clubs called a caddie?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Where are the Canary Islands?<br /> <br /> History for 4/2/2023<br /> Birthdays: Frankish Emperor Charlemagne, Giacomo Casanova, Hans Christian Andersen, Marvin Gaye, Emile Zola, Max Ernst, Buddy Ebsen, Sir Alec Guinness, Frederick Bartholdi, Emmy Lou Harris, Linda Hunt, Isaiah Washington, Karl Castle.<br /> <br /> 304B.C. Alexander IV, the young child of Alexander the Great, began his reign under the regency of the Macedonian General Perdiccas. <br /> <br /> 430AD. This day was the feast day of Saint Mary the Egyptian, a former prostitute who repented her sins by living naked and alone in the desert for 49 years, only appearing briefly at Easter time to take communion, and to get some more sunblock.<br /> <br /> 1459- Vlad III "Dracula" -Little Dragon, Duke of Wallachia, shows why he got the nickname Vlad the Impaler, by impaling the city council of Brasov high on stakes then eating lunch, laughing under their quivering bodies. Impaling was a torture where you had a huge sharpened stake hammered into your rectum, up into your body, then standing it up. A good executioner could keep the stake from piercing too many important organs, prolonging the agony of your death. Another time when Turkish ambassadors refused to remove their hats to him, as were their custom, Vlad had the men seized and had their hats nailed to their heads. The legend says he laughed as they writhed on the floor in agony.<br /> No wonder in the 1890’s when British author Bram Stoker was researching folk tales of the Carpathian Mountains to use as source material for a vampire novel, he chose Dracula for its title. <br /> <br /> 1502- King Henry VII Tudor’s primary heir Arthur of Britain died at age fifteen. King Henry had just married Arthur to the Catharine daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain a few weeks before. Now Henry didn’t want to lose the Spanish alliance, and he was too cheap to send back Catharine’s huge dowery. So he remarried her to his other son, Henry VIII. Catherine and Henry VIII’s marriage problems would lead to the English Church’s break with Rome. <br /> <br /> 1520- Somewhere off the coast of what will one day be Argentina, Magellan's captains, convinced this crazy Portuguese didn’t know where he was going, try to mutiny and go home to Spain. <br /> <br /> 1800- Beethoven's First Symphony premiered. Vienna's leading music critic called it - 'a vulgar, impertinent explosion, more expected from a military band than an orchestra!’<br /> <br /> 1801- BATTLE OF COPENHAGEN- Britain had a one-day war with Denmark. The English fleet was sent by London to intimidate the Danes into leaving Napoleon's anti-British blockade, but the Danes were more worried about a Russian-Swedish alliance forcing them to remain. So Admiral Nelson sailed his fleet into Copenhagen harbor and shot it out with the Danish Navy and shore batteries. Nelson’s ships sailed up and down the drydocks blasting the parked Danish battleships in for repairs. Despite fearful manpower losses the British don't lose one ship while sinking or capturing 17 Danish ships of the line. <br /> The one-eyed, one armed Nelson gloried in battle. When a Danish cannon ball struck his mainmast showering him and his staff with hot burning splinters, he laughed and said: "Hot work, what?" At one point the action got so desperate, that Nelson's superior Admiral Hyde Parker raised the ensign flags to break off battle and retreat. Nelson ignored them. He jokingly raised his spyglass to his dead eye and said, "What ensign flags? I don't see any ensign flags!" <br /> Denmark made peace the next day and all the surviving combatants had a lovely dinner together at the Copenhagen Palace, as though nothing had happened.<br /> <br /> 1814- Now that Paris was occupied by enemy armies, the French Senate led by Talleyrand declared the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte officially deposed.<br /> <br /> 1836- Charles Dickens married Elizabeth Howarth.<br /> <br /> 1865- The Confederate capitol Richmond fell to U.S. armies. More destruction to the city was done by looting Confederates and released prisoners than the enemy. Several large fires created the type of total urban destruction not to be seen again until the World Wars in the 20th Century. <br /> Mrs. Robert E. Lee (a grandniece of George Washington) was at her town home in the city while her husband was still out with his army. General Phil Sheridan stationed a guard to protect her door, but she protested bitterly that he was a black soldier and thought it was meant to offend her. Which knowing Phil Sheridan, it probably was.<br /> <br /> 1865- Abe Lincoln awakened from a strange dream. He told Mary that he was wandering the halls in an empty White House, when heard women weeping. When he asked a soldier at the East Room what had happened, he said the president had been assassinated. This story was confirmed a generation later by Robert Hay, who had been Lincolns’ personal assistant and in 1898 was Secretary of State under Teddy Roosevelt.<br /> <br /> 1877- First man shot out of a cannon.<br /> <br /> 1877- The first White House egg-rolling contest.<br /> <br /> 1902- The first movie theater opened in Los Angeles.<br /> <br /> 1916- Edinburgh Scotland was bombed by German zeppelin L14. They tried to bomb Edinburgh castle, but missed. The one o'clock signal gun was turned on them as a defense. The only damage they managed to cause was to destroy an Innes &amp; Grieve warehouse packed with whiskey, which burned very brightly. This made the Scots very angry.<br /> <br /> 1917- Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin arrived by train at St. Petersburg's Finland Station to cheers and salutes. He was smuggled from Geneva to Russia by the German High Command in a sealed railroad car. the German secret service also paid for the printing presses for Pravda. He began to organize the Communist plot to seize the Russian Government.<br /> <br /> 1917- President Woodrow Wilson called a special session of Congress to ask for a declaration of war against Germany. ‘The World Must be made Safe for Democracy!” he said.<br /> <br /> 1934- Ward Kimball’s first day at Walt Disney as an inbetweener.<br /> <br /> 1943- Disney short 'Private Pluto' the first Chip &amp; Dale cartoon.<br /> <br /> 1943- Warner short “Super Rabbit”.<br /> <br /> 1943- This day Harvard Dean Henry Chauncey supervised the distribution of 316,000 High School seniors of the Army-Navy College Qualifying Test, later re-titled the Scholastic Aptitude Tests or SAT. The SAT became a standardized test that manages every year to raise the stress level of seniors regardless of race, class or religion. Go On To Next Page.<br /> <br /> 1951- Author Jack Kerouac began writing his masterpiece On the Road, on one long roll of teletype paper. He tried to write in a marathon, reinforced by cigarettes, coffee and Benzedrine. The book was one long paragraph, with no page or chapter breaks.“ The only people for me are the mad ones…”<br /> <br /> 1974-While actor David Niven was speaking at the Academy Awards telecast a nude streaker named Bob Opel ran past him on nationwide television. Mr. Niven, completely unflustered, dryly commented: "The only laugh that man will ever get is by stripping off his clothes and showing off his shortcomings. " <br /> <br /> 1974- Later at that same Oscar telecast, Francis Ford Coppola presented the last award of the evening, the Best Picture to Cabaret. But he held up the show to launch into a speech that a Revolution was coming in Digital Technology “that will make the Industrial Revolution seem like a small town try-out!” The audience was confused and annoyed at being delayed any longer to get to their parties. No one knew what he was talking about.<br /> <br /> 1978- The TV show "Dallas" debuts.<br /> <br /> 1982- THE FALKLANDS WAR-Britain declared war on Argentina over their military takeover of the Falkland Islands. <br /> <br /> 1981- John Welsh made CEO of General Electric. After automating factories and firing one third of his employees, he earned the name "Neutron Jack" after the bomb that kills people but leaves buildings intact.<br /> <br /> 1993- Bullocks Wilshire department store with the famous Tea Room closed.<br /> <br /> 1996- Lech Walesa, who led the first great people’s movement to overthrow a Communist dictatorship and was president of Poland for two terms and a Nobel Prize winner, got his old job back repairing electric batteries at the Gydansk shipyard. The shipyard was later closed. <br /> <br /> 2004- Walt Disney Studio released Home on the Range.<br /> <br /> 2005- Polish Pope John Paul II died after reigning for 26 years.<br /> ========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Where are the Canary Islands?<br /> <br /> Answer: The Canary Islands are an archipelago off the coast of Morocco, SW from Spain. Administered by the Spanish Government.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 01 Apr 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6112 <p>Question: Where are the Canary Islands?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Why are people encouraged to yell Geronimo when they parachute out of a plane?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 4/1/2023<br /> Welcome to April, named for Aprilis, an Etruscan Goddess of Agriculture and planting, or it may even be a corruption of the name of the Greek Aphrodite, the goddess of love. The month was considered by Romans sacred to Venus- Venuralia.<br /> <br /> To Ancient Egyptians it was the birthday of the God Het-Heth or Hathor. <br /> <br /> Happy April Fool’s Day – The Ancient Romans considered today ALL FOOLS DAY-a day of comedy- For the end of the time sacred to Hilaria, goddess of laughter. They did things backwards, men and women swapped clothes and carried on. <br /> Before the Gregorian reforms some Old Style Calendars had the year begin in late March instead of January. As the new modern calendar became more widely accepted, the people who stubbornly clung to the old practice were made fun of and called April-Fools. <br /> <br /> Birthdays: Big Jim Fisk , Edmund Rostand, Lon Chaney, Sir William Harvey, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Ali McGraw, Toshiro Mifune, Debbie Reynolds, Phil Neikro, Wallace Beery, Jane Powell, Bo Schembechler, Annette O’Toole, Barry Sonnenfeld, Rachel Maddow is 46, animator Andreas Deja is 64.<br /> <br /> 1081- Alexius Comnenus Ist, captured Constantinople and establishes the Comnenoi dynasty. He took the city by bribing the Varangian Guards –English, Hun and Viking mercenaries, to open the gates and let his army in. Alexius I was the Byzantine Emperor when the Crusades began. His daughter Anna Comnena described the event in her journal, "Then one day all of Europe decided to get up and walk to our door..."<br /> <br /> 1488- Ludovico Buonarotti, after going through a lot of trouble to get his son in the wool and draper’s guild, gives up hope that the boy would ever be anything other than an artist. He reluctantly takes him to fresco painter Domenico Ghirlandaio to be his apprentice. Michelangelo's career begins.<br /> <br /> 1621- The first treaty between English and Indians signed in Massachusetts. Massacoit of the Wampanoags made peace with the newly arrived Pilgrims. <br /> <br /> 1698- One of the more celebrated April Fool jokes. In London, a newspaper Dawks News Letter, came up with the idea to advertise official looking tickets for sale to see the annual washing of the three Royal Lions at the Tower of London on April 1st. No such ceremony ever existed. Thousands of people still bought tickets, and were crestfallen when this day they arrived at the Tower, ticket in hand, and were turned away.<br /> They kept printing April 1st “Washing of the Royal Lions” tickets until the late 1800s, and gullible people kept buying them. “I’ve got a lion washing ticket for you” was the 18th and 19th Century equivalent of “I’ve got a bridge to sell you.” <br /> <br /> 1747-Georg Frederich Handel premiered his oratorio Judas Maccabeus with the song "Hail, Conquering Hero!", frequently used at royal functions.<br /> <br /> 1789- The first session of the U.S. House of Representatives. Felix Muhlenburg was the first Speaker of the House.<br /> <br /> 1793- Unsen Volcano in Japan erupted, killing 53,000 people.<br /> <br /> 1808- Sir Arthur Wellesley landed with a small British Army to try and defend Portugal from Napoleon. The Peninsular Wars would go on until 1814 and drive the French from Portugal and Spain. For his success, Arthur was made the Duke of Wellington.<br /> <br /> 1810- Napoleon, having divorced Josephine because she could no longer provide a son for his dynasty, married Princess Marie-Louise of Austria. Josephine was nicknamed "Our Lady of Victories" and was more beloved by the army, but Marie Louise made up for it in spirit. She liked to smoke cigars and play billiards with Nappy’s officers. She was nearsighted but too vain to be seen in public wearing spectacles, so when she would dedicate art shows and public works like the Arch De Triomphes, she would smile regally and wave her hand, not knowing what she was looking at. Napoleon banned his kid sister Pauline Bonaparte from court for a time because he caught her in a mirror making faces behind Empress Marie Louise’ back.<br /> <br /> 1861- As the American Civil War was breaking out, Secretary of State Seward sent Lincoln a memo proposing that the way to keep the South united to the U.S. would be to declare war on Spain or France. Lincoln said thanks for the advice, but no thanks...<br /> <br /> 1862- Confederate General John Sibley declared the counties of western New Mexico to be the new independent Confederate State called Arizona. Sibley's rebs were driven out but Lincoln kept the idea, setting up Arizona in 1864.<br /> <br /> 1865- BATTLE OF FIVE FORKS- Grant's Yankee Army closed in on Robert E. Lee's Confederates at Petersburg, Grant's cavalry master Phil Sheridan cut off and destroyed one over extended division of Lee's army under George Pickett, taking 5,000 prisoners. Pickett had won fame as the leader of the famous charge at Gettysburg. But he blew it at Five Forks because while his men were fighting, he was away with some friends at a fish fry. No cell phones or text messages in those days.<br /> <br /> 1867- Opening of the Paris World Exhibition. This world’s fair was seen as the zenith of Napoleon III’s Second Empire. Visitors marveled to exhibits as Dr Lister’s new disinfectant, a new metal alloy called Aluminum, a new butter substitute called margarine, and in the American exhibit, a novel bit of furniture called a Rocking Chair. The Art galleries of the exhibition were filled with Ingres, Courbets and Delacroix. But nothing from Cezanne, Manet, Pizarro or any of the other weirdoes who would one day be called Impressionists.<br /> <br /> 1918- The British Royal Flying Corps (RAF) formed. <br /> <br /> 1923- Developers S.H. Woodruff and Canadian William Whitley start advertising lots for sale in Hollywoodland, beneath their giant new Hollywoodland sign. The sign originally was covered with lightbulbs. It collapsed and was repaired in 1939, the 'land' part never restored. The Hollywood Sign was made over again in 1978.<br /> <br /> 1924- After the failed Beer Hall Putsch, Nazis party leader Adolph Hitler was sentenced by a German court to 5 years in prison. He serves only 8 months in a beautiful lodge in Bavaria named Castle Landsberg and uses the time to write Mein Kampf. <br /> <br /> 1932- The baby of Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh was kidnapped from their home.<br /> <br /> 1939- Generalissimo Francisco Franco announces the end of the Spanish Civil War, which had been raging since 1936.<br /> <br /> 1944- Tex Avery's "Screwball Squirrel" Only a few shorts were made. As animator Bob Givens reminisced:" Eventually, everyone found that squirrel just too annoying!" <br /> <br /> 1945- OKINAWA- The Marines land and the battle began. Because it was not a conquered territory, but part of the home Japanese islands, Washington weighed it’s decision to use the atomic bomb by its observation of how tough Okinawa was, indicating how tough it would be to land on mainland Japan, only 360 miles away. <br /> The fighting was brutal, hand to hand with bayonets and flame-throwers. Of the 125,000 man Japanese garrison only 7,500 didn’t fight to the death, and many civilians threw themselves off cliffs in mass suicide. A children's class trip visiting from Tokyo who were caught in the battle, were shown by soldiers how to cluster themselves around a single hand grenade, so as to save on the number needed. Today there is a shrine to their memory. The Cave of the Maidens is dedicated to a group of schoolgirls who hid in a cave and when the Americans heard Japanese voices inside and none would answer their calls to come out and surrender, filled the cave with flamethrower fire. <br /> Almost every American soldier who was captured was executed. The U.S. Navy suffered the worst number of ships sunk and men killed since Pearl Harbor. There were 1,900 Kamikaze plane attacks. U.S. casualties were so high the government re-imposed a press blackout.<br /> This battle has the rare distinction like the Plains of Abraham in 1759 where both opposing generals died. US General Simon Bolivar Buckner, whose father had fought Ulysses Grant in the Civil War, was killed by an artillery round three days before the battles end. Japanese General Usijima committed hari-kiri almost at the same time.<br /> <br /> 1945- Adolph Hitler moved his headquarters from the Reich Chancellery to a bunker deep below it’s street level. <br /> <br /> 1949- Zsa Zsa Gabor married George Sanders.<br /> <br /> 1954- The U.S. Air Force Academy was established at Colorado Springs.<br /> <br /> 1961- Rev Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker get married.<br /> <br /> 1970- A symbol of the 70’s, AMC’s compact car the Gremlin introduced.<br /> <br /> 1972- In a gesture of turnabout-is-fair-play for women, Playgirl Magazine ran its first male nude centerfold- Burt Reynolds.<br /> <br /> 1976- Two college dropouts, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs started a company named Apple Computers. A third partner, small businessman Ron Wayne, sold his shares to Jobs &amp; Woz for $800 before they filed papers of incorporation. He didn’t want to get stuck with the bill when they failed. In 2011 Apple surpassed Microsoft as the world’s richest company.<br /> <br /> 1983 – Largest British civilian protests to Ronald Reagan and Maggie Thatcher’s plans to put nuclear cruise missiles at Greenham Common. The Thatcher government requested the missiles after the perceived weak response of Jimmy Carter to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The conservative British and German government felt that the US could not be trusted to risk nuclear war if the Soviet Union invaded with conventional forces- i.e. American would not risk Kansas City for Frankfurt, so they asked for the missiles. <br /> <br /> 1984- Motown star Marvin Gaye was shot to death by his own father in an argument over plans for the singer's 45th birthday party the next day. <br /> <br /> 1995- Chasen's restaurant closed. Former actor Frederick Chasen opened his exclusive Beverly Hills Restaurant in 1936. James Stewart and Mickey Rooney were regulars. During the filming of Cleopatra (1963) Elizabeth Taylor had Chasen's chili flown out to her in Rome. Walt Disney met Leopold Stokowski over dinner at Chasens and conceived the film Fantasia, Orson Welles and Joe Mankiewicz got into a fistfight over the script outline of Citizen Kane there. Bogart, Bacall and John Huston discussed how to fight the Hollywood Blacklist there. The non-alcoholic cocktail The Shirley Temple was invented there, so little Shirley could schmooze with the grownups .Today there is a booth from Chasens preserved in the Reagan Presidential Library, and a small section of tables in the supermarket it became today. <br /> <br /> 1996- Animation World Network, Toontown’s virtual trade magazine, started up. www.AWN.com<br /> <br /> 1997- In Israel, honoring a deal made with an ultra-right religious party to get into power, the right wing Likud government of Bibi Netanyahu passed a law that the only Jewish conversions that would be recognized under Israeli law would be conversions done by Orthodox rabbis. This law created such a firestorm of protest from Reform and Conservative Jews around the world that the government quickly backpedaled.<br /> <br /> 1998- Ukrainian serial killer Anatolyi Onoprienko was sentenced to death for the murder of 52 people.<br /> <br /> 2004- G-Mail invented.<br /> ================================================<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: Why are people encouraged to yell Geronimo when they parachute out of a plane?<br /> <br /> Answer: There are several origin stories of famous cry. Generally, it is assumed it began at the airborne troop training center at Ft. Benning Georgia in 1940. Instructors told their paratroops that when you jumped from the plane, do not open your chute until you shout “Geronimo”. That gives you enough time for your chute to clear the propellors and tail of the exiting plane.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 31 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6111 <p>Question: Why are people encouraged to yell Geronimo when they parachute out of a plane?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: What is a narwhal?<br /> ------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/31/2023
Birthdays: Rene' Descartes, Franz Josef Haydn, Serge Diaghilev, Harald von Braunhut 1926- the inventor of Sea Monkeys and X-Ray Specs, Richard Chamberlain, Cesar Chavez, Herb Alpert, Gordie Howe, Liz Claiborne, Gabe Kaplan, Rhea Perlman, Shirley Jones is 89, Richard Kiley, Volker Schlondorf, William Daniels, Lucille Bliss the voice of Crusader Rabbit, Christopher Walken is 80, Colin Farrell is 45, Ewan McGregor is 52, Al Gore is 75, Ed Catmull is 78.<br /> <br /> 250AD- Roman general Constantius born. He was called Constantius Chlorus or the Pale. He was the most powerful general and virtual ruler of Northwestern Europe at the end of Diocletian’s rule. His son Constantine became Emperor of Rome in 312.<br /> <br /> 307AD. Roman Emperor Constantine married his wife Fausta. Mother of his children, he later had her suffocated in her bath for sleeping around with her slaves.<br /> <br /> 1146- St. Bernard preached the Holy Crusade at Vezalay, so King Louis VII of France and Emperor Conrad of Germany declared the SECOND CRUSADE. After the ready-made pilgrim cross emblems ran out, Saint Bernard tore his own cloak to pieces for cross making material. Folks don't remember much about the Second Crusade because it was pretty much a non-event. <br /> Conrad took the land route through the Balkans to the Holy Land and by the time he got to Jerusalem his army was down to about 5 guys. The French king’s army arrived intact but he was more of a tourist than a conqueror, after visiting the holy places and gathering some medieval tourist trinkets ( 'My folks went on Crusade and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt!") then he went home. <br /> They wasted most of their time in an unprovoked attack on the Emir of Damascus, who was one of the Crusaders only Muslim allies. The most memorable person on the voyage was the French Queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, who had an affair with a Saracen prince and legend has it inspired the troops by riding bare-breasted to Damascus. Later she would leave Louis and marry Henry Plantagenet of England and give birth to Richard Lionheart.<br /> <br /> 
1776- In a letter from Abigail Adams in Quincy Mass to her husband John Adams at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, she wrote:<br /> "I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”<br /> <br /> 1796- Touissaint L’Ouverture named Lieutenant Governor of the island of Saint Dominique, now called Haiti.<br /> <br /> 1814- PARIS FALLS- Since his Retreat from Moscow, Napoleon seemed to be fighting all of Europe. Today the allied armies of Austria, Sweden, Prussia and Russia entered Paris despite a spirited defense in the suburbs of Montmartre by Marshals Moncey and Marmont. Moncey had reformed the municipal police and is considered the father of the Paris Gendarmerie. But now German army tents went up in the Bois Du Bolongne and Cossacks watered their steppe ponies in the Seine. <br /> In the South, Wellington and his Anglo-Portuguese army moved down from the Pyrenees to take Toulouse. Napoleon was at Fountainbleau with the tatters of his army. He tried to make the best of it. Saying that now that he was free of covering the capitol he could maneuver in the enemies rear, but everyone but him had had just about enough.<br /> <br /> 1824- The British Parliament declared that any ships they caught transporting slaves would be treated as pirates and punished accordingly. They tried to get the United States to agree to make it an international law, but the U.S. refused.<br /> <br /> 1836- Charles Dickens first work published "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club."<br /> <br /> 1840- Congress lowers the minimum workday for federal workers from 11.4 hours a day to 10 hours a day. At this time in mines and factories people worked an average 12-16 hour day. The 8 hour day wasn’t achieved until 1913, not until 1941 in Hollywood.<br /> <br /> 1860- Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper refers to Harriet Lane, President James Buchanan's niece as "FIRST LADY of the Land". Buchanan was a bachelor and was probably gay, So Ms. Lane performed the duties of the White House hostess. Earlier in 1840 President Zachary Taylor eulogized Dolly Madison as First Lady, before that Martha Washington and Abigail Adams were referred to as Lady Washington and Lady Adams. But this is the first official use of the term First Lady for the President’s consort.<br /> <br /> 1889- The Eiffel Tower first opened to the public, to celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution. Twice as tall as the Saint Peter's in Rome or the Great Pyramid of Giza. The Wizard of Iron Gustave Eiffel also designed the armature holding up the Statue of Liberty. Eiffel’s original deal with the French government called for the tower to only stay up for twenty years, then pulled down if no further use can found for it. Eiffel agonized about what to do as the deadline approached. Fortunately by 1909, wireless radio transmissions became important and the Eiffel Tower turned out to be a great broadcast antenna.<br /> <br /> 1905- The Tangiers Incident. Germany tries to provoke an incident with France by sending the Kaiser to Morocco, then a target of French colonial expansion. Kaiser Wilhelm rode around on a temperamental white Arabian stallion and spent the ceremony looking nervously at the welcoming crowd for Spanish anarchist assassins. He gave the Moroccan Sultan a gift of his own personal machine gun that the delighted boy liked to fire at his running courtiers. The whole thing looked silly but it scared the hell out of diplomats in Paris and London.<br /> <br /> 1905- THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle brought back his famous sleuth in a new series of adventures. Conan Doyle had created Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in 1887 but by 1893 he had tired of the characters, he wanted to write more serious fiction like his novel The White Company. So he killed him off. Holmes fell to his doom fighting Prof. Moriarity at the Reichenbeck Falls. The reaction of the public was astonished outrage. It seemed whenever Conan Doyle went out inevitably someone would stop him and say "You Blackguard! How Could You ?!" He did a speaking tour in America, but all anybody wanted to know was how Holmes and Watson were doing? Finally, Conan-Doyle bowed to public pressure and resumed the career of the inhabitants of #221B Baker Street. He would later refer to Holmes success as “his monstrosity.”<br /> <br /> 1918- The Battle of Ykaterinadar- Anti-Communist White Russian armies invaded the Kuban region of southern Russia to fight a battle that was considered so unnecessary that one officer said it was “ A march to Hell to collect bluebirds.” Although the Kuban and Don Cossacks were anti Bolshevik, the workers and peasants of the town were pro-Red and outnumbered them heavily. <br /> So when the White commander General Kornilov ordered an attack his aristocratic second General Markov dryly joked “Better wear your clean underwear if you have any left gentlemen, because whether or not we take Ykaterinadar, we are all going to be killed!” But fate intervened. Before the attack could commence, a lucky artillery shell dropped right on top of their commander General Kornilov and blew him to bits. Breathing a sigh of relief, his army immediately turned around and went home.<br /> <br /> 1930- Floyd Gottfredson began drawing Disney’s Mickey Mouse comic strip after Ub Iwerks quit. He continued to do the strip uninterrupted for 45 years, until his retirement in 1975.<br /> <br /> 1930 -Reacting to charges that the movies had become too naughty, Hollywood producers accept the MOTION PICTURE CODE. It was regulated by Will Hays, former Republican Party Chairman. The regulation wouldn't really start to have strength until 1935-36 when pressure groups like the Catholic League of Decency went after Mae West and the Tarzan pictures. <br /> The Hays Code forbade open sex and obscenity:<br /> - twin beds only in a bedroom, nightclothes buttoned to the neck. <br /> - if a couple were seated together on a bed they must have at least one foot touching the floor,<br /> -"kisses with a duration of no longer than 3 seconds, parting with lips closed."<br /> - One other little known clause was the forbidding of members of different races from kissing on camera. So Anna Mae Wong, the greatest Chinese-American actress of her time, could not play a Chinese heroine if her co-star was a Caucasian made up to look Asian.<br /> Lots of jokes were spawned like: "Give him the bird!" "If the Hays Commission would let me, I'd give him the bird!"<br /> <br /> 1931- ITT transmits the first message by microwave, from Dover to Calais.<br /> <br /> 1932- Ford introduces the V-8 Engine.<br /> <br /> 1933- Max Fleischer's short cartoon "Snow White" (starring Betty Boop) premiered. Cab Calloway singing the "St. James Infirmary Blues" is a highlight.<br /> <br /> 1943- Rodger &amp; Hammerstein's "Oklahoma!" debuts. Despite the opinion of producer Mike Todd -"No legs, No Laughs, No Chance", the musical becomes one of the great hits of American musical theater.<br /> <br /> 1950- Thor Heyderthal's book of his exploits Kon Tiki published. This was an account of his 4,200 mile voyage which proved ancient mariners could have traveled from Peru to Polynesia on boats made from tied reeds.<br /> <br /> 1959- The Dalai Lama fled the Communist Chinese invasion of Tibet and began his long exile.<br /> <br /> 1962- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art opened on Wilshire Blvd. No, it didn’t display customized surfboards or the ideal tuna melt with sprouts, but an exhibit of paintings by Bonnard. <br /> <br /> 1967- In a small London nightclub, rising young rock &amp; roller Jimmy Hendrix burned his guitar for the first time. Rock luminaries like Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Eric Clapton, and Pete Townsend sat in the audience stunned at the technical brilliance of this unknown former paratrooper who played left handed. The pieces of his guitar were purchased by Microsoft chairman Paul Allen and today are in his Seattle Rock Museum.<br /> <br /> 1968- Depressed over The Vietnam War, the strong primary surge of Sen. Eugene McCarthy and the challenge of his old enemy Bobby Kennedy, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced he would not run for re-election. Borrowing the words of General Sherman in 1884, he says: "If Nominated Ah will not Run, If elected Ah will not serve.." In retirement, Johnson resumed cigarette smoking and neglected his health. “Johnson men are not long-livers.” He was dead within four years.<br /> <br /> 1973- Comic strip hero Smilin' Jack gets married, the strip concludes next day.<br /> <br /> 1991- Former child star Danny Bonaduce arrested for a fist fight with a trans prostitute.<br /> <br /> 1995- In Corpus Christy Texas legendary Tejana singer Selena Perez was shot and killed by an obsessed fan. The woman Yolanda Saldivar was president of the Selena Fan Club. “The gun just went off, I didn’t mean to shoot anybody.” <br /> <br /> 1999- The movie The Matrix opened in theaters. Whoah!<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Answer: What is a narwhal?<br /> <br /> Answer: It is a species of whale with a distinctive single horn emerging from its head.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 30 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6110 <p>Question: What is a narwhal?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: In medieval literature, who was Roland?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/30/2023<br /> Birthdays: Maimonides- Moses Ben Maimon, Anna Sewell (the author of Black Beauty), Vincent Van Gogh, Francisco Goya, John Astin, Peter Marshall, Warren Beatty is 86, Eric Clapton is 77, Arthur Lee Harrington the designer of the first Jeep, Tracey Chapman, Robby Coltrane, Paul Reiser, Celine Dion, Nora Jones is 44, Disney animator Marc Davis<br /> <br /> To the Romans this was the Festival of Salus, the God of Public Works.<br /> <br /> 1282- THE BIRTHDAY OF THE MAFIA- The Sicilian Vespers. Because of the strategic location of the island of Sicily smack dab in the center of the Mediterranean, her people were rarely allowed their own self-government. Sicilians were constantly being conquered by Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Crusaders. So while they were under the harsh rule of Franco-Norman knights, they formed secret societies. <br /> This night at the ringing of the evening vesper bells, they all ran out and stabbed every Frenchman they saw. This was the first "hit". Later at the turn of the century Mafia families like "Il Mano Negro (The Black Hand) and La Cosa Nostra (Our Way) brought their clan structure to the U.S., supplanting the earlier Anglo-Jewish-Irish gangsters.<br /> No one is really sure just what the word Mafia means; "Morte Alla Francia Irredenta Arreghana", the Arab response “Ma Fi”- Don’t Ask Me…or the woman who’s daughter was raped by a French knight and called out MaFilia!- My Daughter! <br /> <br /> 1492-THE JEWS EXPELLED FROM SPAIN- Shortly after conquering the last Moorish strongholds in Spain their Most Catholic Majesties Ferdinand &amp; Isabella issue an edict giving all Jews three months to convert or leave the country. Jewish people had held exalted positions in the Moorish Emirates of Granada and Cadiz like the philosopher Maimonides, some even became Vezirs or prime ministers. Ferdinand &amp; Isabella’s own personal physician Abraham Senior was Jewish. <br /> Some Jews tried to flee to Portugal, but most went to Moslem countries like Turkey and Morocco where the persecution of the children of Issac was less fierce among the children of Ishmael. Many Jews who live in Bosnia and Kossovo speak Old Spanish- Ladino instead of Yiddish or Hebrew. The Inquisition made any Jewish practice a crime, even people who changed their sheets on a Friday or turned to the wall to die were accused of Jewish Heresy. <br /> <br /> 1534- The English Parliament passed the Act of Succession declaring King Henry VIII’s divorce from Catharine of Aragon and marriage to Anne Boleyn legal and any criticism of it to be treason. All Englishmen and women were required to take an oath of loyalty to ensure their agreement. This oath was what got Sir Thomas Moore and Bishop Fisher beheaded.<br /> <br /> 1788- The great French philosopher Francois Voltaire had been exiled to his estate at Fernay away from court for decades because of his criticism of the Catholic Church. Now at age 84 and the most famous writer in the world, he returned to Paris to see his last play Irene debut, but in reality to die. This night his passage to the theater became a triumphant procession as his coach was mobbed by cheering people shouting Vive Voltaire! After the play he was too frail to take a bow, so a bust of him was placed center stage and adorned with garlands and flowers.<br /> <br /> 1789- Father of the U.S. Navy John Paul Jones is accused in Russia of having sex with a ten year old minor. He later proved the girl was being pimped around by her mother, but Catherine the Great told him to leave her country anyway. After the American Revolution, Jones had turned mercenary and organized Catherine's Black Sea fleet. He retired to Paris, ill and exhausted. Thomas Carlyle said he looked “like an empty wine skin.” Abigail Adams said “ He was so small I could have wrapped him in wool and kept him in my pocket…” He died in 1817.<br /> <br /> 1809- First Lady Dolly Madison began the tradition of regular White House receptions in the Drawing Room. Her husband James Madison, despite being the writer of the Bill of Rights, was a timid person and was not good in crowds, and a poor speaker. But the vivacious Dolly dominated these soirees and accomplished more politicking than many of her male counterparts.<br /> <br /> 1822- FLORIDA ACQUIRED BY THE U.S. During the War of 1812 Spain allowed Britain to use Florida as a base for attacking the U.S. They also provided safe haven for the hostile Seminole Indians. This annoyed American politicians who wanted to have Florida anyway. General Andy Jackson concluded the First Seminole War by invading Florida and throwing the Spanish Governor out of Pensacola in 1818. What Jackson had started roughly, John Quincy Adams concluded diplomatically, with the Adams-Otis Treaty, buying Florida from Spain for $5 million.<br /> <br /> 1842- Dr. Crawford Long of Georgia uses Ether as an anesthetic in an operation. Before that surgeons had to have good biceps to hold down their patients while sawing on them. Surgery was actually less painful in ancient times because the patient was invited to chew an opium bulb “The Food of the Gods” before operating. In 1846 another doctor named W.T.G. Morton did a public demonstration of the Ether anesthesia process and tried to hog the glory of the invention, refusing to share any prizes with Dr. Long.<br /> <br /> 1858- The pencil eraser patented. The Eraser, or Rubber outside the U.S., was developed in 1770, but Hymen Lipman of Philadelphia first put it on the top of a pencil.<br /> <br /> 1856- Tsar Alexander II emancipates the Russian serfs. He's later blown up by terrorists.<br /> <br /> 1867- Seward’s Folly. Secretary of State William Seward negotiated the deal with Czarist Russia to buy Alaska for $7.2 million or two cents an acre.<br /> <br /> 1918- Thomas Edison sold his studio and got out of the movie business. He fired W.K.L. Dickson, inventor of the movie studio set, Edwin Porter the inventor of the narrative film, Willis O’Brian, and J. Stuart Blackton, the inventor of cartoon animation, for annoying him too much about filmmaking. Edison was more interested then in finding a way to extract iron ore from rocks using magnets. <br /> <br /> 1939- Detective Comics # 27, the first Batman, created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, appeared on newsstands. It was called the May issue, but came out today.<br /> <br /> 1968- In New York City’s Bowery district two children find the dead body of a homeless drug addict. He is later identified as Bobby Driscoll, 31, Walt Disney child star, and the voice of Peter Pan.<br /> <br /> 1981- PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN SHOT. After only few weeks in office President Ronald Reagan is shot by lunatic John Hinckley. Hinckley was trying to impress actress Jodie Foster. Reagan recovers. Jodie Foster was unimpressed. John Hinckley was a Republican. <br /> In a bit of bizarre theater during the confusion Presidential Security advisor General Alexander Haig went to the media and announced he was in control: “I am minding the store.” This is in direct conflict with the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which states plainly the line of succession goes from the President to the Vice President the Speaker of the House to the Senate Leader Pro-Tem. Fortunately, nobody took Haig seriously.<br /> Presidential press secretary James Brady was shot in the head, which left him permanently brain damaged. He and his family later sponsored the Brady Handgun Bill, which was passed by President Clinton, but not renewed by Pres. George W. Bush. <br /> Ironically, one of the reason Ronald Reagan’s life was saved was because Secret Service agents rushed him to the nearest emergency room, which was a Washington DC ghetto hospital with much too much experience with gunshot wounds. Reagan quipped to the doctors working on his collapsed lung- ”Hey, you guys aren’t Democrats, are you?”<br /> <br /> 1988- Beetlejuice, directed by Tim Burton.<br /> <br /> 2000- Dreamworks animated feature the Road to El Dorado premiered.<br /> <br /> 2007- Disney’s Meet the Robinsons.<br /> =========================================================<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: In medieval literature, who was Roland?<br /> <br /> Answer: Roland was a knight serving under Frankish Emperor Charlemagne. In French literature he is like a Superhero Knight, like Sir Lancelot in English literature. The story of his final battle at Roncesvalles told in the epic poem The Song of Roland, was a medieval best seller across Europe.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 28 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6109 <p>Quiz: Who were Paulo and Francesca? (hint: Medieval Literature)<br /> <br /> Yesterdays Question answered below: What does it mean to go around half cocked?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/28/2023<br /> Birthdays: Paul Whiteman, Pearl Bailey, Freddy Bartholomew, Dirk Bogarde,<br /> Confederate Gen. Wade Hampton, pianist Rudolph Serkin, Swifty Lazar, Marlin Perkins, Diane Weist, Reba McEntire, Vince Vaughn is 53, Julia Stiles is 42, Lady Gaga (born Stefani Germanetta) is 37<br /> <br /> 193A.D. THE DAY THE WORLD WAS PUT UP FOR AUCTION- The Roman Emperor Pertinax had just been assassinated by his bodyguards and the Praetorian Prefect Marius Maximus wisely turned down the job- bad retirement prospects. The guards realized they cannot be Imperial Guards without an emperor to guard. They might even get sent back to the frontier! So, they posted an announcement that "whoever wanted to be Emperor of the Known World" should come to the Praetorian camp that night and submit a bid. Several senators competed. The winner was Didius Julianus, with a winning bid of 15,000 silver pieces per man in the 1,500 man Guards. Almost none of Rome’s generals went along with this dippy solution to the succession to the throne of the Caesars. Julianus was soon bumped off in a violent civil war that eventually saw Septimius Severus the winner. <br /> <br /> 1456- Today is the feast of St. John Capistrano. The Saint of the Swallows of California was born in Italy and was a preacher, was married, fought the Turks in Hungary, and in later life after becoming a monk was put in charge of the Holy Inquisition in Central Europe. He burned Protestant reformers and ordered all Jews to wear yellow badges so as not to seduce good Christians. He was so hated that a century after his death from plague the Calvinists dug up his grave and threw his bones down a well.<br /> The Mission St. John Capistrano in California was named so by monk Fra Junipero Serra even though the Saint never visited the Golden State.<br /> <br /> 1778 -GEORGE WASHINGTON ANNOUNCED MAJOR GENERAL BARON VON STEUBEN, LATELY OF KING FREDERICK THE GREAT'S SERVICE, WOULD TRAIN THE AMERICAN ARMY. It turned out later Von Steuben was barely a real Baron. One British source claimed his medals were fakes purchased at a London theatrical costume shop. He did work on the Prussian General Staff. Von Steuben was a gay young man. And Frederick the Great was a gay king. And well, he made out well. <br /> America was a new land, where if you wanted to be called a baron, you could be a baron. Von Steuben did an excellent job training the farmers and shop keeps in modern warfare. He wrote the first US Army manuals, he adapted and revised from the Prussian. He wrote: “ In Germany I order a soldier to do something and they do it. In America when I order a soldier to do something I must then explain WHY I want him to do it and WHY it is important!” The minutemen enjoyed watching him shout in a language they didn't understand, and at night around the campfire his big pet greyhound Azor howled along to the fiddle music.<br /> Proof of his methods success was at the Battle of Monmouth. Lord Cornwallis groused:” Hmpf! Damned rebels formed up well.”<br /> <br /> 1800- Congress voted to extend Franking privileges to Martha Washington. Franking meant she could mail letters without having to pay for postage.<br /> <br /> 1862- SIBLEY'S RAID. THE BATTLE OF APACHE PASS -The closest the Civil War ever came to California. Confederate Henry Hastings Sibley proposed to the Confederate High Command in Richmond that since most of the US Army was now back East fighting, there was no one to stop them riding from Texas to the gold fields of California! Richmond gave him a brigade of Texas Volunteers, and they quickly overran Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and won a skirmish at Valverde. Plans were made for the Confederate conquest of Colorado, Utah and set up a new rebel state in Arizona. Fighting got as far west as some Pima villages that one day would be Phoenix. <br /> But what Richmond didn’t appreciate was the regional rivalry – As soon as Colorado and New Mexico men heard they were being invaded by Texans, they rushed to fight them. And Sibley turned out to be a bad leader- because of his drinking habits, his men called him a Walking Whiskey Barrel. <br /> <br /> This day a pitched battle was fought outside of Tuscon in Glorieta or Apache Pass. The Confederates won the battle, but during the confusion a Yankee captain named Chivington sneaked behind the lines and set fire to Sibley’s supply train. This proved decisive, since you can’t march armies in the Arizona desert without supplies and water. Sibley had to retreat to Texas, he, riding in a remaining wagon, drunk with officers wives, while his men marched with no water. <br /> <br /> 1870- THE ROCK OF CHICKAMAGUA KILLED BY A NEWSPAPER. Gen. George H. Thomas, retired Union war hero had a heart attack in a St. Louis Hotel after reading an editorial saying all in all he wasn't that great a general, and all his victories were just mistakes. Survivor of shot and shell, they found Thomas in his room, clutching a written rebuttal to his chest.<br /> <br /> 1881- P.T. Barnum formed a partnership with his chief competitor James Bailey to create Barnum &amp; Bailey’s Circus. He proclaimed it the Greatest Show on Earth!<br /> <br /> 1920- Silent film stars Douglas Fairbanks &amp; Mary Pickford married.<br /> <br /> 1928- Via radio broadcast, the public heard the voice of Charlie Chaplin for the first time.<br /> <br /> 1929- Disney short The Opry House was released. The first short where they changed Mickey Mouses’ design to give him white gloves. <br /> <br /> 1930- The name of the City of Constantinople was officially changed to Istanbul, Turkish for “The City”. Angora was renamed Ankara.<br /> <br /> 1935- Leni Reifenstahl’s hypnotic movie paean to Nazism- Triumph of the Will, premiered.<br /> <br /> 1941-Battle of Matapan- British Navy sank Mussolini's Navy off the coast of Ethiopia.<br /> <br /> 1941- English writer Virginia Woolf filled her pockets with stones and drowned herself in the River Ouse in Sussex. Her body was never found. <br /> <br /> 1942- Albert Hurter, Swiss designer for Walt Disney's "Snow White' and 'Pinocchio", and called the first inspirational artist in animation, died of rheumatic heart disease. He was 59.<br /> <br /> 1953- Senator Joseph McCarthy, the grandstanding Commie chaser, held a news conference where he decried that European countries that were receiving US aid from the Marshall Plan were also trading with Communist countries. He announced he had received a pledge from a Greek shipping concern not to trade with Communist states in the future. <br /> This speech elicited a storm of protest, under Secretary of State Symington accused the Wisconsin senator of conducting his own foreign policy. Yet the new Eisenhower administration stayed silent and did nothing, which encouraged McCarthy to grow bolder. <br /> <br /> 1958- The Killer Slide- US 1, The Pacific Coast Highway has always been at the mercy of wind and weather erosion effecting the unstable cliffs it was carved from. This day while repairing a previous land slide, construction workers were caught in an even bigger hillside collapse- several people were killed.<br /> <br /> 1979- THREE MILE ISLAND- Partial Meltdown of the Pennsylvania reactor panicked the nation. Despite the official attempts to belittle the danger, Governor Richard Thornburg in Harrisburg moved his office underground to a bunker and Cardinal Krol of Philadelphia gave the entire counties of Lancaster and Harrisburg a blanket unction (Last Rites). just in case.... The accident spawned the largest civilian protests since the Vietnam War and nuclear energy business never quite recovered. <br /> <br /> 1987- The first Disney Store opened at the Glendale Galleria in California. Selling Disney themed merchandise outside of the parks.<br /> <br /> 1999- Matt Groening’s cartoon series Futurama debuted.<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean to go around halfcocked?<br /> <br /> Answer: In the age of muskets and firelocks, to fire the gun you first had to pull back the hammer holding the flint. There was an intermediate stage where you could pull back the hammer halfway in preparation. Since then, going off half-cocked means a person has not thought things through and is not ready to proceed.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 27 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6108 <p>Quiz: What does it mean to go around halfcocked?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays’ question answered below: The Seven Wonders of the World. Can you name any of them? <br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/27/2023<br /> Birthdays: French King Louis XVII –the boy during the Revolution who died in prison after his Royal parents were guillotined, Patty Smith Hill 1868- The composer of the song Happy Birthday to You, Edward Steichen, Gloria Swanson, Sarah Vaughn, Maria Schneider, Mies Van der Rohe, Snooky Lanson, Wilhelm Roentgen the discoverer of X-Rays, Nathaniel Currier of Currier &amp; Ives, Donald Duck artist Carl Barks, cellist Mtisislav Rostropovich, Michael York is 79, Quentin Tarantino is 58, Mariah Carey is 51<br /> <br /> The ancient Romans called today Washing Day, the origin of our concept of Spring Cleaning.<br /> The ancient Egyptians had a similar holiday. <br /> <br /> 47BC – In Alexandria, Julius Caesar defeated the royal Egyptian forces of Cleopatra ‘s brother Ptolomey VII. <br /> <br /> 33AD- Ecce Homo- Behold the man, Traditional date for when Roman Governor Pontius Pilate condemned Jesus to death.<br /> <br /> 715 AD- Saint Rupert was a Frank who did missionary work around Austria and Bavaria. When he arrived at the abandoned Roman town of Juvenum he revived the areas salt works and named it The Salt-Fortress, or Salzburg. <br /> <br /> 922- Persian mystic Al Halij Mansur was beheaded at age 64 by order of the Caliph.<br /> <br /> 1513- Juan Ponce De Leon first sighted the coastline of Florida. He thought it was an island. He claimed it for His Most Catholic Majesty, the King of Spain. For years Spanish maps called all of North America- Las Floridas. <br /> <br /> 1536- Swiss Cantons sign the First Helvetic Confession, declaring their common support of the Protestant religion.<br /> ``<br /> 1599- Queen Elizabeth I appointed her toyboy the Earl of Essex to be Governor General of Ireland. In his 6 months there he was ordered to put down the rebels under Earl Tyrone of O’Neill, which he couldn’t; not to make any peace treaties without consulting London, which he did; and not to leave Ireland without permission, which he left. Eventually Essex thought he could handle the Queen. He lost his head instead.<br /> <br /> 1625- King Charles I ascended the throne of England. The king who lost his head in the English Civil War. Dutch painter Jan Van Dyck had a premonition about him. When doing his portrait he said the English monarch had” The saddest face he’d ever done.”<br /> <br /> 1790- The invention of modern shoelaces.<br /> <br /> 1802-The Peace of Amiens- A rare three years of peace interrupted the constant warfare in Europe. Around this time Napoleon was being annoyed by an oddball inventor from America named Robert Fulton, who had plans plan for a ship with no sails, only steam powered paddle wheels! He even proposed another ship that could travel underwater! He had first tried the British Admiralty, who threw him out. Napoleon had him design some craft for him, but it never went anywhere. Eventually, Fulton gave up and returned to America.<br /> <br /> 1814- THE BATTLE OF HORSESHOE BEND-The last great Indian battle in the American South. The War of 1812 coincided with Shawnee chief Tecumseh's called for all Indians regardless of tribe to unite to drive away the white man. Chief Red Eagle and the Creek Nation fought Gen. Andrew Jackson and his volunteer army of frontiersmen down in the Alabama territory. Jackson's army included Davey Crockett, Sam Houston and future Senator Thomas Hart Benton.<br /> Jackson (Indians named him "Sharp Knife") defeated the Creeks in one huge battle. In a switch on Hollywood image, in this battle the Indians fought from inside a wooden walled fort and the whites charged around it. After the carnage Jackson ordered his men to cut off the dead brave's noses so he could make an accurate count. Andy Jackson became a national hero and carried a lead bullet around in his shoulder for the rest of his life, Sam Houston got shot in the groin, and Chief Red Eagle put on a suit &amp; tie, became a Methodist, and changed his name to William Weatherford. <br /> <br /> 1836- The first Mormon temple is set up in Kirkland Ohio. Mormon ladies broke up their fine china to mix into the plaster so the walls had a sparkling effect. <br /> <br /> 1836- GOLIAD- After wiping out the Texas rebels at the Alamo, Mexican Gen. Santa Anna surrounded the next little fort at Goliad. Their commander, Colonel Daniel Fanin, seeing the result that resistance brought the men of the Alamo, tried the other tack and surrendered. Santa Anna, who was infuriated by the losses he suffered at the Alamo, wanted to make an example of the Yanqui Texans. He had Fanin and his whole command executed. But instead of being intimidated, Texans just got madder.<br /> <br /> 1855- Canadian doctor and part time scientist Abraham Gesner patented Kerosene. As a source of light, it burned brighter and was cheaper than whale oil. The first product made from crude oil.<br /> <br /> 1865- The City Point Conference. Lincoln, Grant and Sherman meet on the steamboat River Queen about how to finish off Robert E. Lee and end the Civil War. Lincoln stressed that after the war the South should be treated mildly, no mass treason trials, mass hangings or reparations.” Let’s let ‘em up easy.” It is the last time Grant and Sherman would ever see Lincoln alive. <br /> <br /> 1866- Andrew Rankin received the first patent for the upright porcelain urinal.<br /> <br /> 1883- When Prince Albert died in 1861, Queen Victoria was collapsed in grief. She was lifted out of her funk by her Scottish horse groom at Balmoral, named John Brown. For over a decade they had an inseparable friendship, which may or may not have been intimate. This day John Brown died. Victoria had a life size statue made of him for the front of Balmoral house. But after Victoria’s death, her son King Edward VII had Brown’s statue moved to a far corner of the estate, so he didn’t have to look at it. Recent archival discoveries proved that as she knew she was dying Queen Victoria left instructions that she be buried with personal tokens of Mr. Brown as well as Prince Albert.<br /> <br /> 1884-The first long distance telephone call-New York to Boston.<br /> <br /> 1886- GERONIMO! After a whirlwind campaign across Arizona being chased by three U.S. armies, Geronimo and his Chiracuha Apaches surrendered. With only 32 braves and their families, Geronimo evaded 5,000 troops. The Apaches nicknamed their pursuing enemy General George Crook, "General Day-After-Tomorrow" for his inability to keep up with them. <br /> Finally, they were cornered and forced to give up. Geronimo and the Chiracua were shipped off to a Florida swamp for ten years before being allowed to return to their homelands. Many White Mountain Apaches who hated Geronimo acted as scouts for the army. Afterwards they were rewarded by being shipped off as well.<br /> <br /> 1908- Bud Fisher's comic strip Mutt &amp; Jeff debuted.<br /> <br /> 1912- Washington DC received its famous cherry trees, 3,020 in number, a gift from the Japanese government.<br /> <br /> 1914- In Belgium, the first successful blood transfusion was performed.<br /> <br /> 1939- Madrid fell to Generalissimo Francisco Franco and his fascist forces.<br /> <br /> 1940- “Rebecca,” the first Hollywood movie by Alfred Hitchcock opened.<br /> <br /> 1941- After democratic Yugoslavs overthrew the pro-Nazi regime of Prince Paul, Hitler ordered an invasion.<br /> <br /> 1943- Companies in Los Angeles doing war work were forbidden to discriminate by race.<br /> <br /> 1945- Nazis fired their last V-2 rockets at London before the Allied armies overrun their launchpads. The last rockets hit Stepney and Kent. Chief scientist Dr. Werner Von Braun and his scientists started taking English lessons.<br /> <br /> 1945- Argentina declared war on Nazi Germany. This is seen as a bit of political theater since President Juan Peron openly admired Hitler and Mussolini and Argentina gave haven to many top Nazis after the war.<br /> <br /> 1952- U.P.A.’s cartoon “Rooty-Toot-Toot” premiered. Its music score was by jazzman Phil Moore, the first African American to receive a screen credit for scoring a movie.<br /> <br /> 1952- “Singing in the Rain” starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor premiered.<br /> <br /> 1957- California Reverend Robert Schuller opened the first Drive-In Church.<br /> <br /> 1958- Nikita Khrushchev became Soviet Premier in addition to First Secretary of the Communist Party.<br /> <br /> 1958- At the 30th Academy Awards, the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay went to Pierre Boule for The Bridge on the River Kwai. But Boule was not there. He wrote the novel it was based on, but the actual screenplay was written by two Blacklisted writers in exile- Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson. Boulle’s name was entered as a cover.<br /> <br /> 1964-THE ANCHORAGE, ALASKA EARTHQUAKE- The largest in the western hemisphere in the Twentieth Century, 9.2 on the Richter Scale. It created a tsunami tidal wave that hit the coastlines of Alaska, British Columbia and Hawaii with a 100 foot wall of water. 164 people died.<br /> <br /> 1968- Russian Major Yuri Gargarin, in 1961 the first man in Space, died in a small plane crash during a routine private flight.<br /> <br /> 1973- In one of the more celebrated stunts in Hollywood history, when Marlon Brando won an Oscar for his role in The Godfather, he sent a buckskin clad model named Sashin Littlefeather to refuse the award and delivered a protest about treatment of Indigenous Americans. <br /> <br /> 1974- Mariner 10 visited the Planet Mercury.<br /> <br /> 1977- In the largest aviation disaster in history. A KLM 747 jumbo jet taking off crashed into another PanAm 747 jumbo landing at Tenerife Canary Islands. 582 people were killed.<br /> <br /> 1978- The first draft script of the film Norma Rae completed. The film dramatized the life of Christa Lee Jordan, a mill worker who was blackballed by the J.P. Stevens millworks for wanting a union. <br /> <br /> 1989- Who Framed Roger Rabbit earned four Oscars at the Academy Awards. Sound Effects, Visual Effects, Film Editing and a special one for Richard Williams for the animation. At that same ceremony, Pixar’s Tin Toy won best animated short. The first Pixar short to win.<br /> <br /> 1996- Fearful of mad cow disease, The European Community banned the export of beef from Britain for one year. <br /> <br /> 2022- At the Academy Awards, Best Actor winner Will Smith slapped and cursed out comedian Chris Rock on camera in front of the whole world for making a joke about his wife Jada Pinket Smith.<br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: The Seven Wonders of the World. Can you name any of them? <br /> <br /> Answer: The Great Pyramid of Giza, The Colossus of Rhodes, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, The Lighthouse of Alexandria, The Zeus at Olympia, The temple of Artemis at Ephesus, The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 26 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6107 <p>Quiz: The Seven Wonders of the World. Can you name any of them? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: What is a mishigas?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------- --<br /> History for 3/26/2023<br /> B-Days: Robert Frost, Chico Marx, Conde Nast, Tennessee Williams, Alfred Houseman, Joseph Campbell, Gen. William Westmorland, Erica Jong, Duncan Hines, Bob Woodward, Leonard Nimoy, Alan Arkin, James Caan, Diana Ross is 79, Sandra Day-O’Connor, Martin Short, Bob Elliot of Bob &amp; Ray, T. Hee, Michael Imperioli is 58, Keira Knightley is 38, Alan Silvestri, Chris Bailey, John Pomeroy is 71.<br /> <br /> 1199- While attacking a small castle in Limousin named Chalus, English King Richard Lionheart was wounded by an arrow in his neck. Although the arrow wound wasn't very deep, blood poisoning set in and he died on April 6th. He was 42. Since he shunned the company of women and never made a direct heir, his brother evil Prince John became king anyway.<br /> <br /> 1351- The Combat of the Thirty. (Combat des Trente), During the Hundred Years War, 30 English knights challenged 30 Breton/French knights to a single combat. Called one of the most famous “deed of arms” of the Middle Ages. The struggle was quite intense. Geoffroy du Bois said to his wounded leader, who was asking for water: "Drink thy blood, Beaumanoir; thy thirst will pass" The Breton side won.<br /> <br /> 1660- Since the death of the dictator Oliver Cromwell, the military government ruling Britain was breaking down. This day in Holland the exiled Prince Charles II Stuart received a message from Puritan General Monck inviting him to return to England to be their king. <br /> <br /> 1791- The French politician Mirabeau had guided the French Revolution from the Bastille towards creating a constitutional monarchy on the English model. But being the most famous man in France, Mirabeau lived hard and played hard. This night he “entertained” 8 female ballet dancers, and woke up with violent intestinal cramps. He was dead by April 2. Without Mirabeau the French Revolution spun out of control into the Reign of Terror, then the dictatorship of General Napoleon. <br /> <br /> 1796- Napoleon Bonaparte takes command of the French Army in Italy. His promotion came mainly because new bride Josephine urged her old boyfriend Barras who was head of the French government to grant the little general with the Italian accent the assignment.<br /> <br /> 1811- Poet Percy Shelley was expelled from Oxford for writing a pamphlet that argued that God didn¹t exist.<br /> <br /> 1827- Ludwig van Beethoven died at age 56. Six people visited him while he was sick, 20,000 attended his funeral in Vienna. Romantic legend says he died at the violent peak of a thunderstorm raising his fists skyward in a last act of defiance to God himself, but in actual fact he died peacefully in his sleep. <br /> He lived in an abandoned monastery given him as public housing by the Austrian government along with a small pension. He constantly complained about his poverty so that the Philharmonic Society of London sent him 1,500 gold English pounds from a benefit concert. After his death they found around 20,000 gold pieces hidden in cupboards and pots. <br /> <br /> 1830- Vermonter Joseph Smith, 24, first published "The Book of Mormon." Smith said the archangel Moroni in a dream aided his discovery of a later testament of Jesus written on golden plates in Reformed Egyptian, which Smith was able to translate with the aid of the "Urim &amp; Thummim" stones.<br /> <br /> 1832- Artist George Catlin began his first trip to the West. He traveled up the Missouri River on the American Fur Trading steamer The Yellowstone. Catlin’s portrait paintings of Plains Indians became famous.<br /> <br /> 1860- The tip of the Kowloon peninsula and Stonecutter¹s Island ceded by China to Great Britain. This would become the site of Hong Kong. A British diplomat called it "The notch by which the tree will be eventually felled.." meaning that like India, all China would one day become part of the British Empire.<br /> <br /> 1865- At City Point Virginia, the Vice President of the Confederacy Alexander Stephens had a secret meeting with Abraham Lincoln to discuss peace terms to end the Civil War. But they couldn¹t agree on anything- Even at this late date Lincoln was offered a cash compensation of $4 million for the loss of slaves. But Stephens said the deal breaker was Southerners would not admit they were wrong to rebel and ask for pardons. Alexander Stephens went back to Richmond empty handed and the war went on.<br /> <br /> 1883-To inaugurate her opulent new 5th Ave. mansion Mrs. Cornelia Vanderbilt held one of the most lavish costume balls in New York City history. She and Mrs. Astor had formed the Social Register, also called the Golden 400, the ranking of the top families in polite society. If you weren’t on their list, then darling, you simply weren’t anybody. <br /> The mansion stood where Bergdorf Goodman¹s faces the Plaza Hotel today. The party set new standards for the conspicuous wealth and excess of the Gilded Age. Many guests dressed as Venetian nobility. Mrs. J.P. Morgan dressed as “Electric Light: The Wonder of the Age.”<br /> <br /> 1900- The Happy Hooligan comic strip.<br /> <br /> 1909- The U.S. Board of Censorship created.<br /> <br /> 1920- This Side of Paradise, the first novel published by a young Minnesota writer named F. Scott Fitzgerald. F. Scott Fitzgerald was a descendant of Francis Scott Key, writer of the Star Spangled Banner.<br /> <br /> 1937- A statue of Popeye the Sailor unveiled at the Crystal City Texas Spinach Festival.<br /> <br /> 1942- The first trainload of Jewish people arrived at the Auschwitz concentration camp.<br /> <br /> 1943- Just outside of Chicago, gangster Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti took a walk down a railroad track, took a swig of bourbon, put a 32mm pistol to his head and pulled the trigger. He first waved to get the attention of some track workers so they could witness that he was taking his own life and was not the victim of another gangster. The successor to Al Capone was going to be indicted the next day on Federal charges of racketeering, and he knew they had enough from stoolies to put him away for a long time. <br /> <br /> 1953-The Salk Vaccine for Polio announced.<br /> <br /> 1953- President Dwight Eisenhower increased US aid to the French fighting the Vietnamese in Indochina, but refused outright military intervention.<br /> <br /> 1955- The song The Ballad of Davey Crockett, went to number 1 in the pop charts. <br /> <br /> 1958- The Mau-Mau Rebellion in colonial Kenya. It's debatable just how extensive or violent the Mau-Maus were. Many Kenyan resistance did not call themselves Mau Mau, but the Kenyan Land and Freedom Army (KLFA). but the British colonial authorities used fear of the Mau Mau as the excuse to arrest real nationalists like Njomo Kenyatta.<br /> <br /> 1959- Writer Dashell Hammett died.<br /> <br /> 1960- THE MOULIN ROUGE AGREEMENT- Las Vegas gambling casinos finally integrate. Before this stars like Sammy Davis Jr. and Ella Fitzgerald could headline in the clubs but had to exit via the kitchens and sleep across town in the colored section. Singer Nat King Cole was requested to keep his eyes on his piano keys for fear if he looked up he would seduce young white girls. Frank Sinatra played a big part in lobbying the Vegas Mob guys to change with the times. Marlene Dietrich grabbed Lena Horne by the arm and stormed into a casino bar defying any reaction. None came. The Moulin Rouge was the first completely integrated casino.<br /> <br /> 1969- The western movie 100 Rifles premiered. It broke taboos, because it featured sexy Raquel Welch making love to sexy black Jim Brown. And Burt Reynolds as the bandito Yaqui Joe Hererra.<br /> <br /> 1969- On this day a frustrated young writer named John Kennedy Toole committed suicide. When his mother went through his things, she found the manuscript of a novel in an old shoebox. She forced the manuscript on novelist Walker Percy to read. He was stunned by what he read. That lead to it being published by Louisiana State University Press. The book the "Confederacy of Dunces” went on to be a critically acclaimed bestseller and win a Pulitzer Prize.<br /> <br /> 1970- Peter Yarrow of the folk group Peter, Paul &amp; Mary admitted to having sex with a 14 year old girl. <br /> <br /> 1973- The Young and the Restless soap opera premiered. <br /> <br /> 1975 - The Who¹s rock opera "Tommy" premiered in London.<br /> <br /> 1976- USC sophomore Levar Burton screen tested for the role of Kunta Kinte in the landmark TV miniseries Roots. The role made him a star.<br /> <br /> 1976 - Wings release "Wings at the Speed of Sound" album .<br /> <br /> 1977 - Elvis Costello releases his first record "Less Than Zero" <br /> <br /> 1978- The skull of Swedish scientist-philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg auctioned at Sotheby¹s for $3,200. Swedenborg's family had found it in an antique shop and kept it until the auction. They said they needed the money.<br /> <br /> 1979- Camp David Peace Accords signed between Israel and Egypt. Israel¹s Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egypt¹s leader Anwar Sadat at one point were so uncooperative President Carter had to walk from cabin to cabin because they wouldn¹t meet in the same room. <br /> Menachem Begin liked to mess with people’s minds. At one point to cut the tension Presidential advisor Zbignew Brezshinski invited Begin to play chess. As they sat Begin said softly “ I haven’t played chess in 40 years. Not since the day the Nazis kicked in my door and dragged me and my family off to Auschwitz.” <br /> While Brezshinski was thinking about the enormity of that statement, Mrs. Begin came in and said: “Oh, I see you¹re playing chess, it¹s Menachem¹s favorite. He never stops playing!” <br /> <br /> 1982 - Paul McCartney &amp; Stevie Wonder release "Ebony &amp; Ivory" in the UK<br /> <br /> 1982- In Washington DC, groundbreaking for the Vietnam War Memorial. aka The Wall.<br /> <br /> 1989- The first free elections in Russia made Boris Yeltsin President.<br /> <br /> 1992- Heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson was convicted of rape.<br /> <br /> 1997- Turner Animation's film 'Cat's Don't Dance", Directed by Mark Dindal, featuring the last movie work of Gene Kelly. He was a consultant on the dance sequences.<br /> <br /> 2008- Arnold Schwarzenegger fired Clint Eastwood. No, its’ not a movie plot line. The former actor, turned Republican Governor, objected to a position the actor/director and former Republican mayor took on the California State Parks Commission. <br /> <br /> 2228 - According to Star Fleet records- James T. Kirk, captain of Federation Star Ship Enterprise (Star Trek) was born. <br /> ======================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is a mishigas?<br /> <br /> Answer: It is a Yiddish phrase meaning a big crazy situation. A confusing commotion or problem.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 25 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6106 <p>Question: What is a mishigas?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: In literature, who were Gargantua and Pantagruel?<br /> ----------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/25/2023<br /> B-Days: King Henry II Plantagenet, Joachim Murat, Gutzon Borglum, David Lean, Mary Flannery-O’Connor, Arturo Toscanini, Aretha Franklin, Bela Bartok', Howard Cosell, Bonnie Bedelia, Jerry Livingston (writer of Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo), Simone Signoret, Gloria Steinem is 89, Sarah Jessica Parker is 59.<br /> <br /> In ancient times this was the feast of Thalia, the goddess of comedy, one of the Nine Muses. In Latin she was called Hilaria. According to the historian Pausanias there was a town that was sacred to Thalia. When you arrived, you had to tell a joke to the locals or they would kill you.<br /> <br /> In the medieval London this was Lady Day when streetlights no longer had to be lit after dark.<br /> <br /> 3019 TA- Frodo Baggins destroyed the one true ring, causing the death of Sauron.<br /> <br /> 421AD- People fleeing the depredations of Attila the Hun go into the marshes and found the city of Venice.<br /> <br /> 1306- Robert the Bruce crowned King of Scotland.<br /> <br /> 1330- Battle of Zebras de Acholes (Tula)- On his deathbed, Scottish king Robert the Bruce asked Earl Douglas of Argyle to take his heart to the Holyland. Black Douglas went on Crusade with the Bruce's heart embalmed in a little lead box, hanging from a silver chain around his neck. In Spain, the Earl was ambushed by a large force of Moors. When Black Douglas realized his hour had come, he hurled the box into the thickest of the foe, and plowed after it, long sword in hand, to go down fighting.<br /> <br /> 1441-During the Council of Clermont, the Vatican invited Czech Jan Hus under an amnesty to come and explain his Protestant doctrines. After he explained his case, they burned him at the stake. Supposedly we got the expression ‘his goose is cooked’ from the martyrdom of Hus. Hus was the old German word for goose.<br /> <br /> 1521- FIRST MAN CIRCUMNAVIGATES THE GLOBE- No, it was not Magellan. It was Magellan's 16 year old Malay slave, Enrique. Enrique was taken from his native Sumatra, then Arab merchants brought him to Madagascar where Portuguese sailor Magellan purchased him. He brought him by sea around Africa to Lisbon, then to Spain. <br /> Later Magellan took him with his fleet west to South America and around the Cape into the Pacific and finally to the Philippine Islands. On this day on the isle of Cebu, Enrique found he could converse with the locals. Magellan knew he had done it and reached the Indies by sailing west. After Magellan was killed by natives, while captains stood around wondering what to do next, Enrique jumped overboard and swam home.<br /> <br /> 1524- Explorer Giuseppe Verrazano with a French fleet going up the coast of North America drop anchor off Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. Verrazano could not see the Carolina coastline beyond the thin isthmus of Diamond Shoals, so he decides the American Continent must become really-really thin in the middle before widening out to Canada. His men strain their eyes for signs of China, beyond what he thinks is the" Pacific". For a century European maps reflected this silly mistake, and Verrazano was later eaten by cannibals.<br /> <br /> 1586- Margaret Clitherow was a Yorkshire butchers wife who converted to Catholicism in Queen Elizabeth’s time. She held secret masses and sheltered outlawed priests. For this she was “pressed”. Meaning she was laid on the ground with a stone against her back, a door was placed on top of her. On that door they piled 700-800 pounds of stones until she was squished. The Catholic Church declared her a saint in 1970.<br /> <br /> 1634-The good ships Dove and Ark drop anchor in America bringing 128 English Catholics. The Colony of Maryland founded by Caelius Calvert- Lord Baltimore under former Virginia Gov. De La Ware (Delaware). For the first time in English America a Catholic Mass was held.<br /> <br /> 1668-First recorded horse race in America.<br /> <br /> 1815- After Napoleon seized back power in Paris he asked Europe for peace. This day the assembled powers meeting in Vienna declared him an outlaw and enemy of Europe. The issue was decided on the field of Waterloo.<br /> <br /> 1843- In London, the Thames Tunnel opened. The first tunnel under a major river.<br /> <br /> 1865- The Battle of Fort Steadman. Robert E Lee tried to break a hole in Ulysses Grants encircling army so he could rush reinforcements to Joe Johnston’s rebel army. They were trying to stop Sherman in South Carolina from marching north and uniting with Grant. It didn’t work.<br /> <br /> 1911-THE TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FIRE- 145 seamstresses, mostly teenage Jewish immigrant girls, burned to death in a horrible office building fire. They could not escape the flames because their employer padlocked them into their sweatshop so they wouldn't take so many breaks, or talk to union organizers. The pavement was littered with dead girls who jumped ten stories to their death rather than burn, while a helpless crowd looked on in horror. They would hold hands and leap to their deaths together. <br /> The factory owners were never charged with any crime. The owners soon opened another clothes factory that was cited for fire safety violations. The tragedy was a major cause of the formation of the ILGWU now called UNITE and the first job safety laws. One of the eyewitnesses to the horror, Frances Perkins, later became Franklin Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor. The last survivor of the fire died in 2001 at age 107. <br /> <br /> 1915- The first modern submarine disaster. The US F-4 went down with 21 sailors.<br /> <br /> 1916 - Ishi, the last survivor of his Yaqui Indian tribe, died.<br /> <br /> 1928- Young American composer George Gershwin first arrived in Paris.<br /> <br /> 1931- The Scottsboro Boys. In Alabama nine young black men were accused of raping two white women in a freight car. Although convicted the case was appealed and retired four times, and only the spotlight of national attention prevented any from being lynched.<br /> <br /> 1931- Shortly after the invention of automobiles, there were automobile races. This day in the dry lake beds of Muroc California saw the first race car speed trials sanctioned by the American Automobile Assoc. It was the beginning of NASCAR. <br /> <br /> 1932- Motion Picture Academy President William DeMille, the brother of Cecil B., tried starting a 'Squawk Forum", inviting film industry workers to air their grievances with their studio heads. (and this way they won't try to unionize). The first boss on the hot seat was MGM's Louis B. Mayer. He was greeted with boos, insults and catcalls. The forum quickly devolved into a screaming free for all. Mayer furiously stormed out and preceded to fire all those Metro employees he could remember were there. The Squawk Forum idea was quickly abandoned. Workers continued to organize into craft unions. <br /> <br /> 1933- Nazis Minister of Propaganda Josef Goebbels offered famed director Fritz Lang a job. Fritz said he’d think about it, then immediately packed his bags for Hollywood.<br /> <br /> 1943 - The first Japanese anime film premiered " Momotarō no Umiwashi (桃太郎の海鷲,<br /> Momotaro's Divine Sea Eagles" by director Mitsuyo Seo. Momotaro or Peach Boy, was a popular character with children. It ran only 37 minutes. <br /> <br /> 1944- During World War II, over the Dover coastline, Flight Sgt. Nicholas Alkemade bailed out of his burning Spitfire, and his chute failed to open. He fell 18,000 feet. In a freak occurrence, high on shore winds slowed his descent, and he hit a wet beach that broke his fall. Sgt. Alkemade suffered only a broken ankle. It was a million to one shot. English film director Michael Powell made the incident the basis of his fantasy film with David Niven called "A Matter of Life and Death", released in the US as "Stairway to Heaven”.<br /> <br /> 1945- The 322 fighter group escorted a large contingent of bombers from Italy to Berlin and back. During the dogfights over Germany the unit’s P-51 fighter planes shot down three German ME-262 jet fighters. No bombers were lost and the 322rd was awarded a special unite citation for bravery. The 322rd Fighter Group were the Tuskeegee Airmen, the Red-Tails, all black pilots. Their commander Benjamin Davis became the first African-American to become a US General.<br /> <br /> 1945- General Eisenhower told Marshal Stalin that the allied armies would hold back and let the Soviet Red Army take Berlin.<br /> <br /> 1953- NUMBER 10 RILLINGTON PLACE. A new tenant to this modest flat in London made an awful discovery- behind the walls were the bodies of 4 women, with one more buried under the pea patch. The previous tenant Jack Christie confessed to the murders and was executed. Christie became the most infamous British serial killer since Jack the Ripper.<br /> <br /> 1954- RCA began mass production and marketing of color television sets. At the time the set cost as much as an automobile, 12 inch screen and there was very little programming in color.<br /> <br /> 1955- US Customs seize a shipment of 258 copies Alan Ginsburg’s poem Howl printed in the UK on the grounds it was obscene." I saw some of the finest minds of my generation destroyed by madness." Next year when Lawrence Ferlinghetti of San Francisco’s City Lights Bookstore printed the poem, he was arrested.<br /> <br /> 1957-The Rome Treaty establishing the European Economic Community.<br /> <br /> 1960- Thirty-five years after it was written and published in Europe an American judge ruled that D.H. Lawrence's novel 'Lady Chatterley's Lover" was not pornography and could finally be sold in the U.S. Whaddaya think of that, John-Thomas?<br /> <br /> 1960- The Moulin Rouge Agreement. After a lot of agitation and arm twisting from Frank Sinatra, the owners of the Las Vegas casinos agreed to integrate. It was so named for the Moulin Rouge Casino, which up to then had been the only casino that allowed black and white patrons to mix freely.<br /> <br /> 1965- Viola Gregg Liuzzo was a fiesty red-haired wife of a Detroit Teamster official who was so moved watching Martin Luther King’s freedom marchers being beaten up by cops that she drove down to Alabama to offer her help. When her children feared they would never see her again Mrs Liuzzo replied she would "live to pee on your graves". <br /> This night she was driving black marchers from Selma to Montgomery when three Ku Klux Klansmen pulled along side her car and shot her at point blank range. Her case reached up as high as the White House where President Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover spent several anxious meetings over what to do. The Klansmen were rounded up but acquitted by an all-white Alabama jury, then a Federal court gave them six years for violating Mrs. Liuzzo’s civil rights. Viola Liuzzo was the only white woman ever murdered in the 60’s Civil Rights Movement.<br /> <br /> 1966 - Beatles pose with mutilated dolls &amp; butchered meat for the cover of the "Yesterday &amp; Today" album, It was later pulled.<br /> <br /> 1967 -The Who &amp; Cream make their US debut at Murray the K's Easter Show.<br /> <br /> 1969- John Lennon and Yoko Ono began their week-long "love-in" for peace in the bed of Room 902 of the Hilton Hotel, Amsterdam.<br /> <br /> 1975- King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was assassinated by a nephew. The nephew was beheaded.<br /> <br /> 1990- The Happy Land Social Club fire. A Cuban man broke up with his girlfriend over drinks in a crowded Latino bar in New York City. The bouncers threw him out when he got abusive. He left the club then returned and splashed gasoline around the one entrance and set it on fire. 87 people died, some so fast that their remains still had their drinks in their hands. It was the worst fire in New York since the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, ironically on this same date.<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Quiz: In literature, who were Gargantua and Pantagruel?<br /> <br /> Answer: Two giants who go on adventures created by the XVII French writer Francois Rabelais.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 24 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6105 <p>Quiz: In literature, who were Gargantua and Pantagruel?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: Which is not a Marvel character? Spiderman, Antman, Hulk, Aquaman, Green Goblin.<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/24/2023<br /> Birthdays: Steve McQueen, Lawrence Ferlingetti, Ub Iwerks (the first Disney animator), John Wesley Powell, Harry Houdini aka Eric Weisz, Edward Weston, Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle, Clyde Barrow of Bonnie &amp; Clyde, Bob Mackie, Robert Carradine, Jesus Alou, Laura Flynn-Boyle, Alyson Hannigan, Joe Barbera, Cal Howard, R. Lee Ermey, Peyton Manning, Kelly LeBrock, Sir Elton John is 76, Jessica Chastain is 46<br /> <br /> <br /> 1185- Battle of Dano-Ura. Huge Japanese samurai battle fought at sea. The Minamoto Genji Clan defeated the Taira-Hekki Clan and seized the throne. The 7 year old Hekki Emperor and many of his retainers drowned. To this day local fishermen find small crabs with shells like samurai face masques on them.<br /> <br /> 1241- Mongol armies were sent into Europe by Genghis Khan’s general Subotai. While one pincer marched into Hungary, another force under Vuldai and Paidar burned the Polish capitol of Krakow. A trumpeter trying to sound a warning from a church tower was shot through the throat with an arrow. Since then, in his memory in the town square every hour on the hour, a trumpeter plays the bugle call and stops short at the same note -The Heynal. <br /> <br /> 1603- Queen Elizabeth I of England died of a gum inflammation, James VI of Scotland, son of Mary Queen of Scots, becomes King James I Stewart of the United Kingdom. Elizabeth was 69 and had ruled England since she was 25. She was famous for being frugal but she loved nice clothing. At her death she left 2,000 dresses. When an Anglican bishop in a sermon tried to criticize her for vanity, the Queen stood up and warned the good bishop to hold his tongue,”ere ye may attain Heaven before your time”.<br /> <br /> 1663- King Charles II granted lands in the newly forming American settlements called Carolina to noblemen who supported him in the recently ended English Civil War.<br /> <br /> 1765- the British Parliament passed the American Quartering Act, which means you have to let a redcoat soldier sleep in your home whether you like it or not! You even had to give them your extra food and candles at no charge! Up to now all the British army was on the frontier protecting against Indians, now it seemed the redcoats were moved into towns and settlements to keep an eye on the Americans! This and the Stamp Act was another of the sort of thing that bugged Americans about being a colony.<br /> <br /> 1794- Hero of the American Revolution Thaddeus Kosciuszko raised the banner of Revolt to liberate Poland from the Russians, Austrians and Germans. They were unimpressed. In spirit of American and French liberty, he appeared in the great square of Krakow in a peasants jacket and declared a fight to the death. He finished the war in a Russian prison. Eventually released, he visited America in 1797 and was paid $3,947 in back pay as an American army officer. He spent all the money buying black slaves and freeing them.<br /> <br /> 1808- Napoleons’ French army entered Madrid.<br /> <br /> 1843- THE BATTLE OF HYDERABAD- Sir Charles Napier and the British Army of India defeated the Balouki tribesmen and Talpur Emir and conquered the region in modern Pakistan called the Sindh. <br /> One problem generals always have after a big battle is coming up with a good name. This battle was fought near a village called Dabaa, but in Hindi, Dabaa meant greasy animal skins. Charles Napier didn’t want to be knighted in Westminster Abbey as the Viscount Greasy Animal Skins, so he sent an officer to ride around until he found a town with a more suitable name. Finally they chose the town of Hyderabad. Back in London Lord Napier was hailed as the Conqueror of Sindh. Punch magazine punned that his report consisted of one word-PECCAVI- Latin for “ I have Sinned.- get it? “ Victorian humor!<br /> <br /> 1882 -In Berlin, German scientist Robert Koch announced the discovery of the bacillus that caused Tuberculosis, enabling a vaccine to at last be created. T.B. or consumption, was the dreaded pandemic of the 1800's- killing everyone from Frederic Chopin, Henry Clay, Doc Holliday, Aubrey Beardsley, to Mimi in La Boheme. <br /> <br /> 1900- Mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck turned over the first shovel-full of dirt on the project to build the New York City subway system. <br /> <br /> 1912- Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle’s adventure novel The Lost World, first published in magazine installments. Conan Doyle was inspired when he in 1905 he attended a lecture at the Royal Geographic Society, when an Amazon explorer described finding dinosaur bones. It was the first of the Land-of-the-Dinosaurs type stories. In 1925, Willis O'Brien made the Lost World into the first dinosaur monster movie.<br /> <br /> 1918- A top magician on the London stage was Chung Ling Soo. His real name was Bill Robinson from Westchester, NY, but he got up in yellowface and pretended to be a magical mandarin. His best routine was when someone fired a pistol at him and he caught the bullet with his teeth. On this day his trick gun failed, and he was really shot and killed. Ta-Daaa!<br /> <br /> 1934-The Major Bowes Original Amateur Hour debuted on radio. It became a national craze to see who could be a future star. Frank Sinatra was among their finds. The show eventually moved to television and later spawned the Ted Mack Amateur Hour, Chuck Barris the Gong Show, Star Search, American Idol and The Voice.<br /> <br /> 1939- The film The Hound of the Baskervilles premiered with actors Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson. They became famous interpreters of the characters, and went on to make a dozen more films.<br /> <br /> 1944- The Nazi Gestapo in Rome retaliated for a car bomb that killed 33 Germans, by pulling innocent people at random off the street and executing them.<br /> <br /> 1944- THE GREAT ESCAPE- 60 Allied POWs dug a tunnel and escaped from an elite German prison in Poland. All but 5 were recaptured, and 40 were executed. <br /> <br /> 1945- Warners Life With Feathers, the first Sylvester the Cat.<br /> <br /> 1949- MGM’s The Little Orphan won the Oscar for Best Animated Short.<br /> <br /> 1954- The Nash-Kelvinator Company and the Hudson Car Company merge to form American Motors Corporation or AMC automobiles.<br /> <br /> 1955- Tennessee William's "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" debuts at Broadway's Marosco Theater. Barbera Bel-Geddes was the first Cat, and Burl Ives was " Big Daddy".<br /> <br /> 1958- Elvis Presley inducted into the Army. G.I. Blues!<br /> <br /> 1962- No one had been a more loyal supporter of President John F. Kennedy than Frank Sinatra. The singer got his Ratpack friends to stump for the candidate, and even got Mafia money to support a man whose brother Bobby was busy busting the rackets. But the President was warned that association with such a known libertine would cost him family values votes one day. So when Kennedy next visited Palm Springs he not only refused an invitation to stay with Sinatra, he stayed with more wholesome singer Bing Crosby, a Republican! Sinatra in a rage took a sledgehammer to the private helicopter landing pad he was preparing for JFK, and broke off his friendship with JFK’s brother-in-law, actor Peter Lawford. By the end of the 60s Old Blue Eyes was a supporter of Nixon.<br /> <br /> 1973- In Buffalo, a drunk fan bit singer Lou Reed on the ass.<br /> <br /> 1987- Michael Eisner and Premier Jacques Chirac sign the protocol to build Euro-Disney, later called Disneyland Paris.<br /> <br /> 1989- The supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground and spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil in Prince William Sound Alaska. It was claimed its Captain Joseph Hazelwood was drunk. But insiders claim Exxon fabricated the drunk-captain story to excuse their inadequate detection and warning equipment. The route was well charted and easy to maneuver. Despite lots of promises from Exxon to clean it up completely, today much of Prince William Sound is still contaminated, and the wildlife is still trying to recover.<br /> <br /> 1999- The U.S. and NATO began to bomb Belgrade over Serbian attacks in Kossovo.<br /> <br /> 2005- A Colorado Rockies big league baseball game was called off on account a swarm of bees. The bees were attracted by the coconut oil in the starting pitcher’s hair gel.<br /> <br /> 2006- 13 year old Miley Cyrus debuts on TV as Disney’s Hanna Montana.<br /> ==============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Which is not a Marvel character? Spiderman, Antman, Hulk, Aquaman, Green Goblin.<br /> <br /> Answer: Aquaman is a DC character. The Marvel merman is called Submariner.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 23 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6104 <p>Question: Which is not a Marvel character? Spiderman, Antman, Hulk, Aquaman, Green Goblin.<br /> <br /> Yesterdays’ question answered below: Ted Kennedy and Ronald Reagan were knighted, but we couldn’t call them Sir Ted and Sir Ronnie. If you’re an American citizen and you inherit a dukedom, can you be called Duke or Duchess?<br /> <br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/23/2022<br /> Birthdays: US Vice President Schuyler Colfax, Akira Kurosawa, Joan Crawford, Dr. Werner Von Braun, Juan Gris, Chaka Khan, Paul Grimault, Sidney Hillman, Jack Ruby, Joan Collins, Eric Fromm, Fanny Farmer, Catherine Keener is 63, Hope Davis is 58<br /> <br /> In ancient Rome today was the Tubilustrum, the Festival of the Sacred Trumpets of Minerva. Yes, the word is the origin of the word Tuba, although the modern tuba wasn’t invented until 1835.<br /> <br /> Today is the Feast day of the Irish Saint Gwinear. Gwinear loved animals so much that once when he was thirsty he struck the ground with his staff to make a clear pool appear, then again to make another one for his dog and horse.<br /> <br /> 1721- Johann Sebastian Bach sent the first copy of his Brandenburg Concertos to his patron the Margrave of Brandenburg. When the Margrave died, an inventory was made of his holdings in Berlin, the value placed on each concerto was six groschen, or about $5 each.<br /> <br /> 1775- During the debate in the Virginia House of Burgesses, Patrick Henry<br /> said the only way to deal with England was :"I KNOW NOT WHAT COURSE OTHERS MAY FOLLOW, BUT FOR ME -GIVE ME LIBERTY, OR GIVE ME DEATH !" Henry became Gov. of Virginia, but later he was forgotten in the formation of the new nation, especially after he declared publicly that the Constitution was a big mistake, and Tom Jefferson was an incompetent coward.<br /> <br /> 1806-After exploring the Pacific coast around the mouth of the Columbia River, Lewis and Clark start back for home.<br /> <br /> 1857- Stewart's department store in New York installs the first of Mr. Elisha Otis's new invention, the elevator. There were earlier steam elevators, but the danger of falling frightened off customers. Mr. Otis’ system of brakes and cut offs in the event of a cable failure made elevators popular and made the age of skyscrapers possible.<br /> <br /> 1877- Mormon elder John D. Lee was convicted of the murder of 120 settlers when he ordered his men to attack a pioneer wagon train as it passed through Utah in 1857, the infamous Mountain Meadow Massacre. On this day John D. Lee was marched to the massacre site, stood beside his own coffin and shot by firing squad.<br /> <br /> 1877- the first telephones installed in the White House.<br /> <br /> 1894- Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan-Doyle was in Davo Switzerland helping his wife recover from tuberculosis at a spa in the Alps. While there, the Swiss introduced him to a new sport that he quickly took to. This day he wrote to London enthusiastically about Ski-Running, or Skiing. Conan-Doyle predicted in the Strand Magazine “Within a generation, thousands of English people will be coming to the Alps to ski.” Today there is a statue of Sir Arthur in Davo, Switzerland.<br /> <br /> 1903- Orville and Wilbur Wright kept looking for someone to build them a motor light enough to power their airplane design. Finding no taker, they built the thing themselves, and the propeller and this day took out an U.S. patent on The Airplane. They didn’t actually fly in it until nine months later.<br /> <br /> 1909- Two weeks after leaving the presidency, Teddy Roosevelt disembarked from New York, bound for a big game hunt in Africa. Banker J.P. Morgan said,” Every American hopes the African lions will do their duty.” <br /> <br /> 1918- In a final attempt to break French defenses during World War I, the Germans begin firing their giant "Big Bertha" cannon at Paris. The shells fly 77 miles and took three minutes to reach their targets. The first shell hit Place De La Republique. A gunner said the discharge of the cannon sounded like, “an enormous vomiting dachshund'.<br /> <br /> 1919- Benito Mussolini founded the Parti Fasci di Combatimento or Fascist Party in Italy. He started his career as a socialist union leader but swung to the other side later (better benefits?) He named his ultra-right group after the wrapped bundle of sticks with an axe sticking out that was carried before ancient Roman consuls, the fasces, it symbolized Roman power. In a previous generation Garabaldi's men were called Red-Shirts so Mussolini adopted the Black-Shirts. Later Hitler made his storm troopers Brown-Shirts.<br /> <br /> 1936- Ollie Johnston got his first job at the Walt Disney Studio, as Fred Moore’s assistant.<br /> <br /> 1945- THE FIRST JET FIGHTER ATTACK- In a last-ditch attempt to stop the allied armies entering Germany, the Luftwaffe mounted an attack on two captured Rhine river bridges by fifty jet fighters. The Messerschmidt ME-262 Schwalbe (Swallows).<br /> Half never get off the ground, others get lost and the rest don't accomplish anything. The Luftwaffe aces like Adolph Galland thought the jets were ideal for shooting down big B-17 bombers, but Hitler insisted they carried bomb loads, which slowed them down enough for propeller planes to hit them. The experimental jet fuel was so unstable that it had to be mixed by a chemist as it was being poured into the gas tank. If the mixing was done improperly the whole thing could explode on the runway.<br /> <br /> 1945- Later that day General George Patton led a group of journalists and photographers out to the center of the Rhine bridgehead. One journalist asked his thoughts now that he was breaching Hitler’s vaunted Siegfried Line and daring to go where no foreign soldier had stepped since Napoleon. <br /> As cameras clicked the Patton undid his fly and took a long healthy pee in the Rhine River. “I waited all morning to do that! Yessir, the pause that refreshes!” My father remembered signal corps photo lab assistants made a brisk business selling copies of the famous incident on left over scraps of enlargement paper. That photo was taken by Tech Sgt. Paul Dougherty of the 737 Tank Battalion.<br /> <br /> 1957- Art Clokey's Gumby Show. Clokey created the green clay fellow for his USC college thesis film Gumbasia.<br /> <br /> 1971- US Congress lowered the voting age from 21 to 18.<br /> <br /> 1973-White House attorney John Dean tells President Nixon:" There's a cancer on the Presidency...."<br /> <br /> 1976- Panamanian middleweight Roberto Duran was being honored in Havana. Fidel Castro casually remarked to Duran “Hey, what do you think would happen if my fighter Teofilo Stevenson met Muhammad Ali?” Duran laughed,” Him? Ali would kill him!” Duran was on a plane home that night.<br /> <br /> 1977- The first Richard Nixon-David Frost interview. <br /> <br /> 1983- STAR WARS- President Ronald Reagan announced in a nationwide speech the Strategic Defense Initiative, dubbed the Star Wars Program. He said US scientists were going to create a protective umbrella of laser satellites in orbit that would shoot down hostile nuclear missiles. <br /> This program would cost trillions and even if it worked it could never stop all the missiles launched in a Soviet first strike. Conservative apologists said that the re-escalation of the cold war arms race drove the Soviets crazy and their inability to keep up with arms spending sped their economic collapse. Star Wars wasted billions of U.S taxpayer dollars before it was stopped. <br /> On the day of the 9-11 World Trade Center Attack National Security Advisor Dr Condoleeza Rice was scheduled to make a major speech announcing the Bush White House resuming of the Star Wars program. To this date, we still do not have satellites shooting other satellites with lasers.<br /> <br /> 1987- After meeting creator Matt Groening, animators David Silverman, Wes Archer and Bill Kopp began animating the very first Simpson’s short for the Tracy Ullmann Show. <br /> <br /> 1989- COLD FUSION- Two physicists named Ponds &amp; Fleischman make incredible claims that they had discovered a way to make electric power from Cold Fusion. This would mean limitless cheap power that left little waste. It could even use nuclear waste as a fuel. After a lot of excitement, upon closer scrutiny it was discovered it didn’t really work. Oh well.<br /> <br /> 1990- President George Bush Sr. banned broccoli from the White House. <br /> He joked; "Read My Lips ! I hate Broccoli !"<br /> <br /> 2003- Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film, Beating out Lilo &amp; Stitch and Treasure Planet. <br /> =====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Ted Kennedy and Ronald Reagan were knighted, but we couldn’t call them Sir Ted and Sir Ronnie. If you’re an American citizen and you inherit a dukedom, can you be called Duke or Duchess?<br /> <br /> Answer: One of the earliest laws passed by the American Congress was that American citizens cannot hold or pass on titles of nobility. When Princess Grace Kelly and Queen Noor of Jordan became royalty, they had to give up their US citizenship.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 22 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6103 <p>Quiz: Ted Kennedy and Ronald Reagan were knighted, but we couldn’t call them Sir Ted and Sir Ronnie. If you’re an American citizen and you inherit a dukedom, can you be called Duke or Duchess?<br /> <br /> Quiz: See you in the Funny Papers. What were the funny papers?<br /> ---------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/22/2023<br /> Birthdays: Anthony Van Dyck, Marcel Marceau, Stephen Sondheim, Karl Malden, Werner Klemperer- Colonel Klink in Hogan’s Heroes, George Benson, James Gavin, Allen Neuharth, Milt Kahl, Mort Drucker, Fanny Ardant is 74, Lena Olin is 68, Bruno Ganz, Reese Witherspoon is 47, Keegan Michael-Key is 52, William Shatner is 92.<br /> <br /> In ancient Rome, this day was the Festival of the Entry of the Tree- when the priestesses of Cybele, Goddess of the Harvest, would lead a procession through the streets carrying pine or palm branches. In later times the Christians took this and called it Palm Sunday.<br /> <br /> 1622- POWHATAN INDIANS SUPRISE ATTACK JAMESTOWN- While the Pilgrims were still thinking of coming to America and Plymouth Rock was just another rock, Jamestown Virginia was the only English settlement in North America. <br /> After the deaths of Pocahontas and Powhatan, Opescanacough- pronounced Opee-cantanoo, became Mamanatowick- overall chief of the Virginia Powhatan Confederation. He hated the English since the days of John Smith. So, he resolved to rid his land of the white men once and for all with a simultaneous assault on them from all sides on the same day.<br /> The settlers were taken completely by surprise, many while tending their fields. 300 were killed, among them John Rolfe, the husband of the late princess Pocahontas.<br /> Despite such heavy losses, the English recovered and in a slow war of attrition eventually killed Opescanocough and wiped out the Powhatan people.<br /> <br /> 1687- Jean Francois Lully was court composer to Louis XIV the "Sun King”. In an age when the baton had not come into use for conductors, Lully conducted his orchestra by beating a large pole on the ground to the tempo of the music. One day during a performance he poked a hole in his own foot with the pole and died of blood poisoning. <br /> On his deathbed he asked a priest for Last Rites but the priest refused unless he burned his latest opera "Atys" which the church considered blasphemous. Lully admitted his sins and burned the manuscript of ATYS in front of the priest, who then gave him the sacrament. A friend came in afterward and said:" How could you burn your work?" Lully replied:" Don't worry. I have another copy of it here in my desk. "<br /> <br /> 1719- King Frederick Wilhelm I announced the end of serfdom in Prussia-Germany.<br /> <br /> 1820 - Commodore Stephen Decatur was killed in pistol duel with Commodore James Baron outside Wash. D.C. Stephen Decatur was a colorful naval hero of the War with Tripoli and War of 1812 who said "My Country Right or Wrong" .<br /> <br /> 1882- Congress outlawed polygamy. <br /> <br /> 1894- First Stanley Cup Game- Montreal 3, Ottawa I.<br /> <br /> 1901- Japan announces that Russia better keep their hands off Korea.<br /> <br /> 1905-WELTSMACHT (world power) Kaiser Wilhelm in a speech for a dedication ceremony in Bremen tells the Germans that it is their natural right to dominate the world. It was another of his emotionally rash statements that sent chills through an already tense world situation. <br /> We sometimes think German officials all were like the Nazis, robotic and fanatical. But in the Kaiser’s time many of his officials were just as cynical as you or me. German diplomats despaired whenever Wilhelm put his foot in his mouth. One attaché tried to release an edited text to the press. The Kaiser complained: “Bauer, you left out all the good parts!” <br /> Another time after the Kaiser did an interview for the London Globe &amp; Mail where he called the English people a "Race of Mad Bulls." This caused the German ambassador in London to say to a colleague "Oh Well, we might as well start packing right now..."<br /> Another diplomat said,” The Kaiser’s speeches have the same effect as when first viewing a dead octopus. First shock, then revulsion, then amusement.” <br /> <br /> 1913- Jack London (White Fang, The Call of the Wild) wrote fellow writers HG Wells, George Bernard Shaw and Winston Churchill, and asked them how much do they get paid? He was unsure what to charge.<br /> <br /> 1933- The first SS run concentration camp Dachau opened.<br /> <br /> 1935- Walt Disney Silly Symphony “ The Golden Touch”. <br /> <br /> 1935- TV SHOWS-The first regular electronic television service began in Berlin as Deutscher Fernseh Rundfunk. Broadcasting from the Fernsehsender Paul Nipkow, it used a 180-line system, and was on air for 90 minutes, three times a week. Very few receivers were ever privately owned, and viewers went instead to Fernsehstuben (television parlors). During the 1936 Summer Olympics, broadcasts, up to eight hours a day, took place in Berlin and Hamburg.<br /> <br /> 1944- When the evidence became overwhelming, President Franklin Roosevelt in a national radio address first told the American people of Hitler’s holocaust of the Jews. He warned that all persons aiding in these war crimes would be hunted down. Still no attempt was ever made to bomb Auschwitz, Dachau or even the railroad links to them. US Immigration quotas had been tightened since 1938. Although Jewish groups had complained for years, the US public never really grasped the full horror of the death camps, until the film footage returned from the land armies a full year later.<br /> <br /> 1945- Several Arab nations including Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Egypt form the Arab League. Their goal is the eventual unity of all Arab peoples from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf, but about the only thing they all agreed on was hostility to a Jewish state in Israel. Recently the Arab League tried to stop the fighting in Syria without much luck.<br /> <br /> 1947- President Truman signed an Executive Order # 9835 ordering background checks of all government employees to see if they were commies, and to take an Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Two million took the oath, only 129 were sacked for refusing.<br /> <br /> 1958- Hollywood producer Mike Todd was killed in a small plane crash. He produced hit movies like Around the World in 80 Days and romanced starlets like Gypsy Rose Lee and Elizabeth Taylor. Taylor and Todd had been married for one year and she was devastated by the accident. Years and many marriages later Taylor said Mike Todd was the only man she ever really loved.<br /> <br /> 1960- Arthur Schawlow and Charles Townes patented the laser beam. Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation or LASER. Pussycats rejoice!<br /> <br /> 1970- The Beatles broke up. Paul McCartney filed papers in a London court for a formal dissolving of the Fab Fours partnership.<br /> <br /> 1972- Concluding a five-year study, the National Commission on Drug Abuse recommended ending all penalties and laws prohibiting marijuana. No one in authority listened to them.<br /> <br /> 1972- Congress passed the ERA, the Equal Rights Amendment, forbidding any discrimination by sex. The ERA was first proposed by women’s rights groups in 1923. With the heady atmosphere of Women’s Liberation in the early 70s the amendment seemed a no-brainer, even Ronald Reagan supported it. However the Conservative backlash led by anti-feminists like Phyllis Schlafly slowly stunted its ability to win over states for ratification. The ERA died unratified in 1982.<br /> <br /> 1976- In Tunisia, George Lucas’ first day filming Star Wars. <br /> <br /> 1978- Karl Wallenda, 73 year old scion of the daredevil family the Flying Wallendas, fell to his death from a tightrope between two resort hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.<br /> <br /> 1991- Ivana Trump divorced Donald Trump. A celebrated court case ensued to see how the huge Trump fortune would be divided up. Newspapers cried, Ivanna More Money!<br /> <br /> 1995- First day of shooting on that utterly classic film- Dinosaur Valley Girls!<br /> <br /> 2004- Israeli missiles blew up Sheik Ahmed Yasin, the quadriplegic founder of the Palestinian group Hamas.<br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: See you in the Funny Papers. What were the funny papers?<br /> <br /> Answer: Mid twentieth century it was the nickname for the separate pullout comic strip section that was included in the newspaper Sunday editions. There was also a sports section, a travel section, classifieds, etc.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 21 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6102 <p>Todays Question: See you in the Funny Papers. What were the funny papers?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: In a symphony orchestra, only one instrument is permitted to give the tuning note “A” all the other instruments tune to. What is it? <br /> ------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/21/2023<br /> Birthdays: Plato, Johann Sebastian Bach, Benito Juarez, Modest Mussorgsky, Fats Waller, Josef Pulitzer, Florenz Ziegfeld, Bronco Billy Anderson, Rev Ralph Abernathy, Armand Hammer, Harold Robbins, Matthew Broderick is 59, Gary Oldman is 63, James Coco, Timothy Dalton is 75, Rosie O’Donnell is 59, animator Kathy Zielinski.<br /> <br /> Today in Switzerland this is the Feast of St. Nicholas Von Flue, who was married, had ten children, and made war. In 1481 when the Swiss Confederation was in danger of breaking apart Swiss leaders came to his monk's cell to seek his advice. Though he could neither read nor write, he worked out the Compromise of Stans, which saved peace and Swiss unity forevermore.<br /> <br /> 717 A.D. Battle of Vinciacus- Charles Martel, aka Charles the Hammer", defeated Ragenfridus and the Merovingian pretenders to assure the Carolingian line on the throne of the Franks, aka the French. Charles Martel’s grandson was Charlemagne. His great-grandson Pippin was made into a musical by Bob Fosse and Stephen Schwarz in the 1970's. A musical called "Ragenfridus!" just doesn't have the same ring.<br /> <br /> 1617-Pocahontas, now called Lady Rebecca Rolfe, died at Gravesend, England after being taken off her homeward bound ship, too ill with smallpox to continue. She was 21. Her children with John Rolfe became the beginnings of one of the largest families in Virginia, with many scions of the Old Dominion tracing their ancestry to Pocahontas.<br /> <br /> 1740- Composer Antonio Vivaldi - Il Prete Rosso- the Red Priest, conducted his last concert at the Ospedale Della Pietra in Venice. It was a home for orphaned girls so it was an all-girl orchestra. The 64 year old Vivaldi went to Vienna to see if he could get any commissions from the Austrian Emperor, but caught an illness on the way and died.<br /> <br /> 1804- The Duc D'Enghein shot by firing squad. The Bourbon nobleman was setting up a conspiracy just beyond the French border in Germany to overthrow the French Republic and re-establish the king. Napoleon sent a covert strike force of fast riding cavalry across the border to kidnap him and bring him back. Napoleon prided himself on not executing political dissenters like the masses that were guillotined in the Revolution. But this Duke was too dangerous to keep alive. Still, the cold-bloodedness of this action bothered Napoleon, and he referred to it often with regret.<br /> <br /> 1804-THE CODE NAPOLEON- That same day the French Assembly gave final approval to Napoleon’s revising the legal system. The French civil law courts had been in a hopeless muddle with 368 separate regional law codes some dating back to the Middle Ages. Nappy tackled the problem like he did a battle. He presided over 35 of 87 all day meetings of the jurists- once waking up the drowsy legislators with the cry “Come Gentlemen, Let us Earn our Salaries!” The CODE NAPOLEON became the basis for all French civil property rights and family law and is still in use in Louisiana and Quebec Canada today. Napoleon said: ” When the memory of my forty battlefield victories have faded, what will live forever is my Civil Code.”<br /> <br /> 1829- The British Prime Minister the Duke of Wellington had to work hard to get a Bill of Catholic Emancipation through Parliament. This day he had to fight a duel with an opposition MP, a Lord Winchelsea. They popped away at each other without doing any harm, and that seemed to satisfy everyone’s honor. <br /> <br /> 1859- The first public zoo opened in the U.S.<br /> <br /> 1864- Nevada statehood. Lincoln at this time was pushing several territories into statehood early so he could get emancipation and Civil rights legislation through congress with a majority against the rebellious Southern States.<br /> <br /> 1871- William Stanley set out to find Dr. David Livingstone. Livingstone was an explorer –missionary who had disappeared into the African jungle. No one had heard from for two years. Stanley, an illegitimate Welshman, had been a soldier in the American Civil War and fought on both sides. He undertook this African expedition financed by the New York Herald. His Swahili name was “Bula Matari” the Breaker of Rocks.<br /> <br /> 1871- German Chancellor Bismarck convened the first Reischtag (parliament) of the unified Germany.<br /> <br /> 1915- President Woodrow Wilson hosted a private screening of D.W. Griffith’s film “The Birth of a Nation” at the White House. <br /> <br /> 1917- Buster Keaton first stepped in front of a movie camera.<br /> <br /> 1918- The Ludendorf Offensive (second battle of the Somme) begins. When Lenin took over Russia he immediately made peace with the Germans to end the Great War in the East. This freed up one million troops for the Western Front. German strategist Erich Von Ludendorf hurled them into one last attack to win the war before the American armies could arrive in significant numbers. Ludendorf (who was such a stiff Prussian it was said he made love with his monocle on.) called the action "Kaiserschlacht" (Kaiser's Battle") and he promised the Kaiser that he would be in Paris by April 1st. When this attack was stopped by the fresh American forces, the German High Command realized their chances of winning World War I were now kaput.<br /> <br /> 1921- Chicago mobster Big Jim Colosimo was murdered by a new face in gangsterdom, a hitman for Johnny Torrio named Alfonso “Scarface” Capone. When Al Capone became famous, he showed his appreciation to Torrio by killing him, too.<br /> <br /> 1921- Russian Communist leader Nicholai Lenin announced at a party conference the New Economic Policy. Russian state controls applied too quickly combined with the hardships of a civil war had destroyed the Russian economic infrastructure. A terrible famine raged. The New Economic Policy allowed for a certain amount of capitalism and free trade to occur until Russia could get back on her feet again. Stalin replaced the NEP with the first Five Year Plan in 1928.<br /> <br /> 1930- Col. Lyman Sanders founded Kentucky Fried Chicken. <br /> <br /> 1933- On the anniversary of Bismarck's parliament the Nazis dominated Reichstag passes the Enabling Act, giving newly elected Chancellor Adolph Hitler complete dictatorial powers to combat anarchy and terrorism. Hitler kept elderly President Hindenburg around for image sake until his death a year later. The Weimar Republic ended and the Third Reich began. Also passed today was an edict called the Heimtuckegesetz, or Malicious Practices Law, which made it a crime to criticize the Nazis. <br /> <br /> 1935- Persia renamed Iran and Mesopotamia renamed Iraq.<br /> <br /> 1951- HOLLYWOOD COMMIES- House UnAmerican Acitivities Commitee (HUAC) under Judge J. Parnell Thomas left Washington and set up in Hollywood to continue rooting out Communist subversion in the movies. They began in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and later move to the federal building downtown. <br /> Out of 15,000 people who made a living in the movies and television, only 295 were ever proven or confessed communists. It was an open secret that for $5,000 delivered to the right committee member, your dossier would be moved to the bottom of the pile. The hearings stopped in 1956, the blacklist was broken in 1960 and Judge J. Parnell Thomas went to jail himself for embezzlement. <br /> <br /> 1952- DJ Alan Freed put on an event of the new pop music in Cleveland Ohio. Called the MoonDog Coronation Ball, it was the very first Rock Concert.<br /> <br /> 1960- THE SHARPEVILLE MASSACRE- White South African police confronting a peaceful demonstration in the black township of Sharpeville open fire with machine guns into the crowd, killing 69 and injuring hundreds. Nelson Mandela and other African National Congress leaders abandon for a time peaceful protest and form a militant wing of their movement- Spear of the Nation.<br /> <br /> 1961- The Beatles first performed at the Cavern Club in Hamburg Germany.<br /> <br /> 1961- based on the success of the first Playboy Club in Chicago, Playboy Clubs with their Bunny waitresses opened in New York, Miami and LA.<br /> <br /> 1963- On orders from Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Alcatraz Prison was closed. <br /> <br /> 1963- Barbara Streisand married Elliot Gould. <br /> <br /> 1965- Rev Dr. Martin Luther King’s civil rights marchers reached Montgomery from Selma.<br /> <br /> 1976- ASPEN MURDER- Jet setter Claudine Longet, a model who was formerly married to singer Andy Williams, shot and killed her lover Spider Sabich, an Olympic skiing champion. Even though their relationship was foundering she said it was an accident, that the Luger went off in his abdomen when he was showing her how to use it. In the bathroom. Uh Huh. Imagine being in the bathroom shaving and your girlfriend pops in “Honey, I’m having problems with the safety on my luger. Here darling I’ll just –oops!”<br /> She spent 30 days in jail for negligent manslaughter, then married her defense attorney.<br /> <br /> 1980- Mafia capo Angelo Bruno received a shotgun blast to the head while he sat in his car after dinner. The Genovese family had his former capo Phil "Chicken Man" Testa take over rackets in Atlantic City. <br /> <br /> 1988- the Screen Actor's Guild hits the bricks for the fourth time in twenty years, this time striking Hollywood for residuals for cable and videocassette income. <br /> <br /> 2006- The first Tweet sent on the new format Twitter. Scientist Jack Dorsey tweeted his friends “Setting up my twttr…” Twitter went public that July. <br /> <br /> 2010- Pres Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) into law.<br /> ===============================================================----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: In a symphony orchestra, only one instrument is permitted to give the tuning note “A” all the other instruments tune to. What is it? <br /> <br /> Answer: The oboe.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 20 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6101 <p>Question: In a symphony orchestra, only one instrument is permitted to give the tuning note “A” all the other instruments tune to. What is it? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What U.S. state has a town called Kissimmee?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/20/2023<br /> Birthday: Roman poet Ovid 43BC, Napoleon’s son Napoleon II "l'Aiglon" The eaglet, Henryk Ibsen, Lauritz Melchior, Ray Goulding, Mr. Rogers, Bobby Orr, B.F. Skinner, Pat Riley, Sir Michael Redgrave, Edgar Buchanan, Holly Hunter is 67, William Hurt, Sheldon "Spike" Lee is 66, Carl Reiner, David Thewlis, Chris Wedge is 66<br /> <br /> Happy Saint Cuthbert's Day !<br /> <br /> 44BC- The Great Funeral of Gaius Julius Caesar. The spot in the Forum where the common people tearfully cremated Caesar’s body is still there today. Caesars lieutenant Marc Anthony won the Roman populace over by appealing to their love of Caesar.” Friends Romans Countrymen Lend me your Ears!” as Shakespeare wrote. At a key moment Anthony revealed Caesar’s bloody toga. The assassins Marcus Brutus and Cassius Longinus thought the people would proclaim them heroes for saving the democracy. But they committed a fatal error by staying out of sight during this ceremony. They lost public sympathy, and soon fled Rome.<br /> <br /> 269AD- Roman emperor Gallienus was assassinated while conducting a siege of the city of Mediolanum (Milan). <br /> <br /> 1345- Noted scholars and scientists assembled at the University of Paris to debate the origin of the Black Plague then decimating Europe. “Hmm.., is it witchcraft, or the Jews? “<br /> <br /> 1413- Prince Hal ascended the throne of England as King Henry V. He spent most of his reign trying to conquer France and won the stunning victory at Agincourt. If he hadn’t died of dysentery at age 35, he might have united the kingdoms of France and England. Once more into the breach my friends!<br /> <br /> 1549- Thomas Seymour the Lord High Admiral of England was beheaded for treason. In the unstable regency following King Henry VIII’s death Seymour tried for the top job by wooing Princess Elizabeth and Princess Mary and stockpiled secret stores of arms and ammunition. This execution weakened the political status of his brother the Earl of Somerset who was running the kingdom. Somerset eventually lost his head too.<br /> <br /> 1760- The Great Fire of Boston.<br /> <br /> 1777- Benjamin Franklin was officially presented at the court of Versailles to meet King Louis XVI. Spain, Russia and Sweden withheld their ambassadors, both not wishing to cause a rift with England. His eyes teared up when he was introduced, not as representing rebellious English colonies, but as “DR. FRANKLIN, CONSUL FROM THE UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA!” This is the beginning of U.S. foreign policy.<br /> <br /> 1782-British Prime Minister Lord North resigned his government after thirteen years in power. Lord North was infamous for doing King George’s bidding almost exclusively and bungling the American War of Independence. After the big defeat at Yorktown, he was the target of the first ever Vote of No Confidence in Parliament. Lord North resigned before Parliament could vote on a resolution ordering unilateral withdrawal from America.<br /> <br /> 1800- Alessandro Volta announced he had invented the electric battery.<br /> <br /> 1815- Napoleon Bonaparte was borne on the shoulders of a cheering Parisian mob back into the Tuileries palace as fat King Louis XVIII hightailed it to England. From this day to Nappy's abdication after Waterloo is referred to as the Hundred Days.<br /> <br /> 1841- Edgar Allen Poe's The Murder's in the Rue Morgue first published in Graham’s Magazine. Called the first true detective novel. Poe referred to it as one of his "tales of ratiocination".<br /> Poe's detective C. Auguste Dupin was inspired by a real French sleuth named Jules Vinquoc who used disguises and scientific technique to solve crimes the Paris police could not solve. Dupin was the inspiration for Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot.<br /> <br /> 1852- Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" first published. It sold one million copies within six months. Based on the story of escaped slave Josiah Henson, the book was the first to treat the horrors of slavery directly. It portrayed slave families not as dumb brutes or happy minstrels, but victimized human beings. Because of this book, Yankee soldiers referred to Southerners as women-whippers, and baby sellers. Mrs. Stowe said modestly: “I didn’t write it, God did. I just took dictation.” When she visited the White House President Lincoln met her with, ”So here’s the little lady who started the big war.”<br /> <br /> 1899- In Sing-Sing prison Martha Place becomes the first woman in the U.S. to be electrocuted. She had killed her stepdaughter. Because Sing-Sing Prison in Ossining New York was situated up the Hudson River from New York City, the phrase to be” sent up the River” as meaning going to jail, became popular.<br /> <br /> 1903- Henri Matisse first exhibited at the Salon des Independents in Paris.<br /> <br /> 1931- Cantors Kosher deli opened in the Fairfax neighborhood of Los Angeles.<br /> <br /> 1932- The German airship Graff Zeppelin began a regular passenger service between -Cologne Germany to Buenos Aires Argentina.<br /> <br /> 1940- KATYN- When the Nazi blitzkrieg crushed Poland, the remains of the Polish Army and government fled East only to fall into the hands of Stalin. Stalin didn’t want this group to form the nucleus of a revived Polish state after the war. In an order signed this day Stalin ordered the execution of 14,000 Polish officers and a further 10,000 Polish government workers. When the Nazis invaded Russia the following year they uncovered the mass graves at Katyn, the Hill of Goats. All the bodies had the NKVD signature- one bullet hole in the back of the head. Strange, Nazis denouncing a mass murder. Stalin claimed the Germans did it, and the news of Katyn was forgotten in the larger scale of the Holocaust. In 1991 Russia officially apologized.<br /> <br /> 1942- After a harrowing escape from the Philippines through Japanese lines by PT boat, submarine and plane, General MacArthur arrived at the Australian town of Darwin. His first radio message was to tell the occupied Philippine people “ I Shall Return!” The U.S. State Department later asked MacArthur to amend his message to the more democratic We Shall Return, but the imperious general refused.<br /> <br /> 1943-Battle of Mersa Martruh, Rommel vs. Montgomery in the Egyptian desert.<br /> <br /> 1943-MGM's "Dumb Hounded" the first Droopy Cartoon.<br /> <br /> 1956- Habib Bourghiba and Prime Minister Mollet of France conclude talks for the independence of Tunisia.<br /> <br /> 1965- After the confrontation on the Edmund Pettis Bridge President Lyndon Johnson ordered 4,000 US troops to protect the Civil Rights protestors led by Martin Luther King marching from Selma to Montgomery. Alabama Governor George Wallace had sent attack dogs and police on the marchers after promising the President not to. Johnson referred to Gov. Wallace as “a treacherous, lying SOB!” <br /> <br /> 1969-John Lennon married Yoko Ono on the Rock of Gibraltar.<br /> <br /> 1976- Heiress Patty Hearst, aka Tanya, convicted of bank robbery. How she could be tried for bank robbery and her Symbionese Liberation Army captors, simultaneously tried for kidnapping her, is one of the riddles of American jurisprudence. She was finally pardoned by Bill Clinton in one of those last day in office pardons.<br /> <br /> 1985- Libby Riddles became the first woman to win the Alaskan Iditarod dog-sled race. She would win it a total of four times.<br /> <br /> 1987- The U.S. food and drug administration finally approved AZT for use in treating the effects of AIDS. <br /> <br /> 1991- In 1955 Walt Disney recorded Peggy Lee to sing “He’s a Tramp” for the film Lady and the Tramp. For that she was paid $3,500. In 1991, a judge ordered The Walt Disney Company to pay Peggy Lee $3.8 million for the songs she wrote and performed in the film. This additional income was from videocassette sales for a re-issue of the soundtrack. <br /> <br /> 1992- Basic Instinct opened. Noir thriller directed by Paul Verhoeven, starring Sharon Stone, and Michael Douglas.<br /> <br /> 1995-A Japanese doomsday cult called Aum Shinrikio released a deadly nerve gas called Sarin into the Tokyo subway system. It killed 13 and sickened 5,500. The cult had tried on several occasions to release anthrax and other germs into the air to kill millions but their attempts always failed. Their philosophy Poa stated the soul’s salvation could be achieved through mass-murder. Two days later Tokyo police raided Aum Shinrikio headquarters and arrested their leader Matsumoto Chuizo.<br /> <br /> 1999- After years of attempts and failures involving millionaires like Richard Branson, Rocky Aoki and Malcolm Forbes, Dr Bertrand Picard of Switzerland and Brian Jones of the UK became the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a balloon. It was named the Breitling Orbiter 3. Dr Picard said: “I am with the Angels and completely happy.” Mr Jones said: First thing I’ll do is phone my wife, then like a good Englishman I’ll have a cup of tea.”<br /> <br /> 1999- Legoland opened in Carlsbad Cal.<br /> ==============================================================<br /> Yesterdays’ question: What U.S. state has a town called Kissimmee?<br /> <br /> Answer: Florida. It’s near Orlando.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 19 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6100 <p>Question: What U.S. state has a town called Kissimmee?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What does it mean to remain taciturn? <br /> ----------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/19/2023<br /> Birthdays: George De La Tour, Wyatt Earp, Dr. David Livingston, William Jennings Bryan, Sir Richard Burton (The African explorer), Charles M. Russell, Jacky Moms Mabley, Adolf Eichmann, Phillip Roth, Adolf Galland, Ursula Andress, Patrick McGoohan, Ornette Coleman, Holly Hunter, Richard Williams, Bruce Willis is 68, Glenn Close is 76<br /> <br /> Roman Festival ANCILIA when the Salii, the Leaping Priests of Mars, take the Sacred Shields of Mars the Avenger, that dropped down from Heaven for Romulus, and do the leaping dance of Mars. A ceremony to mark the beginning of campaigning season.<br /> <br /> Today is Saint Joseph’s Day, when the swallows come back to Capistrano.<br /> <br /> 1330- Edmund the Earl of Kent was beheaded by order of his mother. Who’s a naughty boy?<br /> <br /> 1611- The first Burning of Moscow. During the period called the Time of Troubles, a Polish army captured the Kremlin and tried to get the son of the Polish King Wladyslaw IVmade Czar. The Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow, Hermogenes, forbade any good Russian from swearing allegiance to the Roman Catholic Ladislas. So the Poles threw the Patriarch in a dungeon where he soon died. This day a rebel army organized by a Prince Troubetzkoy and peasant butcher Kosma Minin attacked the foreign occupiers and in the ensuing conflict, the city caught fire. <br /> <br /> 1628- A group called Puritans, differing from the Pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony, were granted a Royal Charter to set up their own colony in Massachusetts. Oliver Cromwell once considered immigrating to this colony, but ultimately opted to stay in England.<br /> <br /> 1644- Si Sang, the last emperor of China's Ming Dynasty, committed suicide.<br /> <br /> 1687- French explorer Sieur de LaSalle was killed by his own men on the shores of the Mississippi in an argument over scarce food rations. He was 43.<br /> <br /> 1799- Franz Josef Haydn’s oratorio The Creation premiered. Haydn was inspired when he heard Handel’s The Messiah in London.<br /> <br /> 1812- When Napoleon’s armies occupied Spain in 1808 the Spanish people formed independent bands and fought on in the hills as "guerrillas"- "Little Wars". These militias sent delegates to a free, independent parliament in Cadiz called the Supreme Cortes. This day they declared a constitution for Spain, acknowledging exiled King Ferdinand, abolishing torture and the Inquisition, but keeping the Catholic Church. These men were first called by the term Free Men, Liberales or Liberals. <br /> <br /> 1831- The First U.S. Bank Robbery. English immigrant Edward Smith alias Edward Honeywell made a duplicate set of keys and robbed the City Bank of New York of $245,000 bucks. He did ten years in Sing Sing, but only half the money was ever found.<br /> <br /> 1847- THE MORMON BATALLION reached Los Angeles. Brigham Young, in order to quiet Federal suspicions that his Utah commune didn't want to be loyal to the U.S., formed a volunteer battalion to aid in the War with Mexico. This troop makes one of the longest infantry marches in U.S. history, across the arid desert, and arrived in El Pueblo de Los Angeles in time to interrupt a fiesta. They tell the startled locals that they were now Americans, whether they liked it or not!<br /> <br /> 1853- Charles Dicken’s novel Bleak House first appeared in magazine installments. It is the first novel to ever mention dinosaurs-" It would be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill…"<br /> <br /> 1859- Charles Gounod's opera 'Faust" premiered. It was so popular that after a while in New York wags nicknamed the Metropolitan Opera the "Faustspeilhaus" ( it's a pun on Wagner's theater in Bayreuth being called a Festspeilhaus, so Faustspeilhaus..heh-heh,.get it ?....look, don't blame me...its a Gilded Age opera joke....)<br /> <br /> 1874- Mexican-Californio bandido Tirbucio Vasquez was hanged. His last words were “Pronto!” The wild hills north of Newhall California where he hid out are today named in his honor-Vasquez Rocks. They are the site of numerous film shoots like original Star Trek episodes.<br /> <br /> 1875- Mark Twain admitted in a letter to a friend that he now likes to use a typewriter, a new technology accused of ruining the art of writing.<br /> <br /> 1866- H.M.S. MONARCH OF THE SEAS left Liverpool with 2,000 tons, 700<br /> immigrants, and freight, bound for New York. and disappeared forever. No wreckage, no survivors, no distress signals. One of the Mysteries of the Deep...<br /> <br /> 1895- The Lumiere Brothers filmed their first movie, employees leaving their dad’s factory.<br /> <br /> 1914- A fire in the negative vaults of the Eclair Studios in New Jersey destroyed forever all the American work of pioneer French animator Emile Cohl. He had come to the U.S. to animate the first cartoon series, George McManus’ "The Newlyweds" later to be renamed in comic strip form "Life With Father".<br /> <br /> 1916- The first mission of the U.S. Airforce. The First U.S. Aero Squadron flew reconnaissance missions this day to aid General Pershing’s pursuit of Pancho Villa.<br /> <br /> 1918- As a wartime measure, the Congress created Daylight Savings Time separate from Standard Time.<br /> <br /> 1920- U.S. Congress rejects U.S. admission into the League of Nations. The refusal of the worlds largest economy who's President (Wilson) was the architect of the plan as well as the refusal to admit Soviet Russia doomed the League to impotence. Wilson ruined his health crossing the country lobbying for support for the League, and was heartbroken at its failure. In 1945 after another horrible war, the world would try again with the United Nations.<br /> <br /> 1928- the Amos &amp; Andy radio show debuted. NBC Blue Network, WMAQ in Chicago.<br /> <br /> 1931- Nevada legalized gambling.<br /> <br /> 1935- Harlem riots. When the rumor spread that a young shoplifter had been beaten to death by police in the basement of a Kress department store, 10,000 Harlem residents rioted in the streets and burned shops. Two people were killed. The child made an appearance and in fact had never been harmed.<br /> <br /> 1942- St. Joseph’s Hospital in Burbank, across the street from the Disney Studio, was dedicated. <br /> Walt Disney owned the land and gave it to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Sisters of Providence. It would be the place where Walt, Roy, and many other a Disney employee would end their life’s journey.<br /> <br /> 1945- THE NERO ORDER- While allied armies pour into Germany, Adolph Hitler in his bunker issued an order to destroy all bridges, water and telephone systems, dams, schools, anything that could be of any use after the war is over." The Allies will have conquered nothing by ashes!" An immolation worthy of Wagner's Gotterdammerung. <br /> Despite some Nazis fanatical wish to fight to the end, most rational Germans including Albert Speer completely ignored this order. And Hitler down in his bunker didn't know one way or another. German generals started to refer to the Fuhrer's strange mood swings with a German word: VookenCuckooshein- that translates as "Cloud-Cuckoo-Land".<br /> <br /> 1953- First T.V. broadcast of the Oscar ceremony broadcast simultaneously from LA and NY. That utterly memorable circus film "The Greatest Show on Earth" won best picture, beating out High Noon, Moulin Rouge, The Quiet Man and Ivanhoe. It was Cecil B. DeMille’s only Oscar of his career. Gary Cooper won best actor and Shirley Booth best actress. Before TV, the Oscars ceremony included a dinner and an hour of dancing before the awards were presented.<br /> <br /> 1954- On a desert freeway, singer Sammy Davis Jr. lost an eye in an auto accident. He was left lying bleeding unattended in a hallway in Riverside County Hospital. This was because he was black and it was a segregated facility. Finally, actor Jeff Chandler found him and forced the doctors to treat him. Friend Frank Sinatra urged Davis out of his depression and got him out on stage again. That first night at Ciro’s nightclub the entire Ratpack- Sinatra, Dean Martin and Peter Lawford each preformed on stage wearing a black eye patch similar to Davis’.<br /> <br /> 1957- Elvis Presley purchased an estate outside Memphis Tennessee called Graceland from Ruth Moore for $100,000.<br /> <br /> 1957- Skiing aficionado Pete Seibert was wounded in both legs during World War II, and it was feared he would never walk again. He not only walked, but he got back on skis and by 1950 made the US Olympic skiing team. This day, he hiked with a friend up to an isolated Valley in Colorado named Vail. He exclaimed:" My God Earl, we’ve climbed all the way to Heaven!” Pete Seibert built Vail into a world-class ski resort and town. <br /> <br /> 1959- North Vietnamese nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh declared a war of unification against the Republic of South Vietnam.<br /> <br /> 1959- Disney released The Shaggy Dog, their low budget live action comedy hit.<br /> <br /> 1962- Vasily Stalin, near-do-well son of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, died of acute alcoholism at age 40. After his father died, he was imprisoned in Siberia, but in 1958 he was allowed to retire to obscurity with a small pension.<br /> <br /> 1962- The first Pillsbury Doughboy commercial.<br /> <br /> 1964- IBM gave the green light to plans for the 360 series. The first compatible computers.<br /> <br /> 1964- First day shooting on the James Bond film Goldfinger. <br /> <br /> 1973- During the Watergate Scandal, President Richard Nixon's lawyer John Dean tells him "There is a cancer on the Presidency."<br /> <br /> 1974- The band Jefferson Airplane changed its name to Jefferson Starship.<br /> <br /> 1979- C-Span cable channel started broadcasting live from the floor of Congress. The first Congressman to speak on camera was Al Gore.<br /> <br /> 1982- Randy Rhoads, the lead guitarist for Ozzy Ozbourne died when he playfully flew his plane buzzing the bands traveling bus and smacked into a farmhouse. <br /> <br /> 1984- I’LL BE BACK- James Cameron began shooting the film the Terminator. He first considered casting O.J. Simpson for the cyborg killer before settling on Austrian weightlifter Arnold Schwarzenegger.<br /> <br /> 1987- Reverend Jim Baker resigned as head of the PTL Ministries. The Televangelist had been accused of hanky-panky with secretary Jessica Hahn and defrauding his parishioners of millions to put air conditioning in his dog’s house, and build a Christian Theme Park named Heritage USA. Evangelist turned comedian Sam Kinison joked: <br /> "I imagine up in Heaven Jesus must be flipping through the New Testament saying "Hey, where did I say anything about a Water Slide?!" Today he has rebuilt his ministry, is rich again, and supports Pres. Trump in the press.<br /> <br /> 1993- Monkey-cam debuted on the David Letterman Show.<br /> <br /> 20th Anniversary 2003- SHOCK AND AWE, THE WAR IN IRAQ BEGAN- The United States, Britain and a loose coalition of small states manipulated public outrage over the 9-11 attacks to invaded Saddam Husseins’ Iraq, and marched on Baghdad. This while still bogged down in a war in Afghanistan.<br /> Although Iraq had never bothered the US directly, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney declared they had solid evidence that Saddam had the ability to attack America with nuclear weapons in 45 minutes. By 2008 all their claims proved to be lies. Bush and Cheney blamed it on the bad intelligence, after giving their CIA chief George Tenent the Medal of Freedom. 5,000 American dead, ten thousand Americans mutilated or disabled, 106,000 Iraqi dead. <br /> <br /> 2004- Brian Maxwell, the inventor of the Power Bar nutrition snack, died of a heart attack at age 51.<br /> <br /> 2004- The Florida unit of Walt Disney Feature Animation was shut down. Originally set up as an attraction at Walt Disney World theme park, they grew into a viable studio in their own right. They created hits like Trail Mixup, Mulan, Lilo &amp; Stitch, and Brother Bear.<br /> <br /> ==============================================================<br /> Yesterdays’ question: What does it mean to remain taciturn?<br /> <br /> Answer: Stubbornly quiet, recalcitrant, withdrawn, unresponsive</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 18 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6099 <p>Quiz: What does it mean to remain taciturn?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays’ question answered below: Who said:” But screw your courage to the sticking point.”?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/18/2022<br /> Birthdays: Amerigo Vespucci, John Calhoun, Nicholai Rimsky-Korsakov, Neville Chamberlain, Wilson Picket, Edgar Cayce, John Updike, Grover Cleveland, Edward Everett Horton, Vanessa Williams, F. W. DeKlerk, George Plympton, Peter Graves, Irene Cara, Luc Besson, Queen Latifah (born Dana Elaine Owens) is 52<br /> <br /> 44BC- This would have been the day Julius Caesar would have left Rome to lead his legions against the Parthians (Iran), had he not been assassinated.<br /> <br /> 566- The Feast of Saint Frediano (St Fred), who redirected a river near Lucca with his rake.<br /> <br /> 1286- King Alexander III of Scotland accidentally rode his horse off a cliff. <br /> <br /> 1554- Princess Elizabeth was sent to the Tower of London on a charge of treason. An uprising of English Protestants under Sir Thomas Wyatt had been crushed. Wyatt under torture confessed his goal was to put Elizabeth on the throne. Elizabeth claimed she never heard of Wyatt, but her stepsister Queen Mary Tudor was suspicious. You could imagine what Elizabeth was thinking when she was rowed into the Tower through the Traitor’s Gate, the same way her mother Anne Boleyn was. “Oh Lord, I never thought to have come here as a prisoner.” For the next several weeks Elizabeth played a dangerous game pretending to be a loyal Catholic. Mary soon died of ovarian cancer and Elizabeth then became Queen.<br /> <br /> 1584- Czar Ivan the Terrible died while playing chess. Nobody is sure why, except for <br /> "a noticeable swelling of his cods." He had no natural heir, especially after beating his eldest son's brains out with a mace, and his youngest son Dmitri was also dead. Chancellor Boris Gudunov said during an epileptic seizure, the boy whipped out his knife and slashed his own throat. (yeah...right...) Then Boris Gudunov crowned himself Czar. Russia entered a period of dynastic struggle known as "the Time of Troubles".<br /> <br /> 1662- French philosopher Blaise Pascal, who had invented an early computer device, tried to start a municipal bus system.<br /> <br /> 1815-VIVE L'EMPEREUR! While marching on Paris to overthrow King Louis XVIII Napoleon is stopped near Grenoble by the Royal French army led by his old friend Marshal Michel Ney. Ney had promised the king he would bring Bonaparte to Paris in an iron cage. The whole Royal Army was Nappy’s old troops anyway, just with a different flag. Soldiers who had served side by side for twenty years suddenly were facing each other. Instead of civil war, Napoleon quietly walked up to their raised guns and smiled: " Soldiers! You all know me. If any of you want to kill your Emperor, here I am." After an agonizing pause, the army cheered and went over to him en masse, including Ney.<br /> <br /> 1831- The U.S. Supreme Court rule that the Cherokee Nation are a “Domestic Dependent” and not a foreign nation, and therefore cannot sue in federal court over the Trail of Tears.<br /> <br /> 1834- The Tolpuddle Martyrs. Six Dorchester laborers were arrested and banished to the Australian penal colony for trying to organize a labor union. It is considered the beginning of British trade unionism. Public agitation forced the government to pardon them and invite them home. Only one went back to Dorchester, the rest moved to Canada.<br /> <br /> 1852- New York City steamboat skipper Henry Wells and mailman William Fargo form the Wells Fargo Company. In 1873 they went into a joint venture with several other freight shipping companies they called American Express.<br /> <br /> 1871- Citizens of Paris, disgusted with the inept handling of the Franco Prussian war and horrible siege they had to endure, declared a workers revolutionary state, The COMMUNE OF PARIS. Artist Honore' Daumier was named to it's governing board. Karl Marx, living in London, said it was the wrong type of revolution. <br /> <br /> The Communards were enthusiastic but inefficient revolutionaries. They tried to burn down Notre Dame but it was so old and damp it wouldn't burn. Then they tried to execute the eighty year old archbishop of Paris by firing squad. They all missed on the first try.<br /> <br /> They were eventually crushed by the regular French Army after bitter street fighting that destroyed a lot of Paris including the Tuileries Palace, the Hotel deVille and the Palace of St. Cloud. In Pere' Lachaise cemetery you can still see the 'Wall of the Comunards', where 150 were lined up and shot. They took as their banner the red flag of revolution. Young student Nikolai Lenin, when studying the Commune, adopted their red flag for his and it became the symbol of world communism. When Yuri Gargarin went into orbit in 1959 he had a relic piece of a Commune flag with him.<br /> <br /> 1902- BIRTHDAY OF THE RECORDING INDUSTRY. The RCA Victrola company sent its engineers to Milan to record ten discs of the young singer Enrico Caruso. He became a world celebrity and the phonograph went from being a scientific curiosity to something every home had to have.<br /> <br /> 1910- Rosie O’Neill invented the Kewpie Doll.<br /> <br /> 1913- On the streets of Salonika, the King of Greece was assassinated by anarchist Alexandros Skinos. <br /> <br /> 1915- THE BATTLE OF The DARDANELLES or POINT HELLAS - As part of World War I’s Gallipoli Campaign, a large British fleet attacked the shore installations guarding the sea approaches to Istanbul. The British Navy hadn't suffered a major defeat since the days of Lord Nelson, but now they were so badly shot up by the Turkish shore batteries that they had to withdraw. The First Sea Lord, Jack Fisher, resigned. King George V grumbled that Fisher should have been hung from a yardarm. The British Navy stayed formidable but its myth of the invincibility was damaged. Ship captains had discouraged target practice, because firing their cannon soiled the nice polished shine on the barrels. Historian Jan Morris said they had tried to beat the Turks by merely 'Looking Superb".<br /> <br /> 1924-The film “The Thief of Baghdad” starring Douglas Fairbanks released. Directed by Raoul Walsh and designs by William Cameron Menzies. It is considered one of the first great special effects blockbusters.<br /> <br /> 1925- THE GREAT MIDWEST TORNADO- One of the largest tornadoes ever recorded. A Force 5 monster that traveled 300 miles from Mississippi to Illinois traveling at 73 miles an hour. It wiped out two large towns and killed 689 people. <br /> <br /> 1928- William T. Hones was planting horseradish in Petersburg Virginia when he dug up a 32 carat diamond. He took it home as a curiosity and only figured out it’s value 15 years later. It was the largest diamond found in North America. <br /> <br /> 1931- Jacob Schick introduced the electric razor.<br /> <br /> 1942- Paramount’s “The Lost Dream” Little Audrey cartoon. The short was directed by Bill Tytla for Famous Studios. He designed Little Audrey based on his own daughter Tammy.<br /> <br /> 1943- The Nazi Gestapo arrested serial killer Bruno Ludke. Ludke admitted to murdering 85 people. He would dress as a laundry delivery man and strangle his victims, mostly women, then commit unnatural acts with their remains. Ludke was sent to a Vienna hospital for medical experiments, then executed in a concentration camp in 1944.<br /> <br /> 1947- William Durant, the executive who built General Motors into an industrial giant, died the manager of a bowling alley in suburban Chicago. He had been ruined in the 1929 Stock Market Crash.<br /> <br /> 1962- President DeGaulle of France and Algerian FLN sign an accord giving Independence to Algeria.<br /> <br /> 1965- Cosmonaut Sergei Leonov became the first human to walk in space.<br /> <br /> 1965- The Rolling Stones were fined 5 English pence for urinating on a wall in Stratford at ABC recording studio Romford.<br /> <br /> 1967- The Pirates of the Caribbean ride opened at Disneyland, designed by master animator Marc Davis. giggles. <br /> <br /> 1980- At the Soviet Union’ secret Plesetsk space center a Vostok rocket exploded on the launch pad, killing fifty top scientists.<br /> <br /> 1981- Ronald Reagan’s Vice President George H.W. Bush got into a traffic accident in Washington D.C. while driving his secretary/mistress Jennifer Fitzgerald to dinner. Desperate to keep his affair out of the papers, Secretary of State Alexander Haig and Attorney General William French-Smith went to DC police HQ and erased any record of the accident from the daily police blotter. George H.W. Bush ran for president on a platform touting his family values.<br /> <br /> 1986- The New York Times reported that a 17-year-old student in New Jersey had tracked the launch of the new Soviet space station, Mir, before the Soviet government formally announced it. Phillip Naranjo tracked transmissions between space vessels and control centers on Earth. Just before the Russians announced Mir on February 20, the teen had picked up their Cyrillic code.<br /> <br /> 2011- The first space probe went into orbit around Mercury.<br /> ==============================================================<br /> Yesterdays’ question: Who said:” But screw your courage to the sticking point.”?<br /> <br /> Answer: Lady Macbeth to her husband in The Scottish Play (Macbeth).</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 17 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6098 <p>Question: What is a Trompe l'oeil? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered Below: Many American conservatives adopt an economic policy of laissez-faire. What does that mean?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/17/2023<br /> Birthdays: Jim Bridger the mountain man, Nat King Cole, film composer Alfred Newman, Mercedes McCambridge, Leslie Ann Down, Patrick Duffy, Rudolph Nureyev, Gary Sinise, Kate Greenaway, John Sebastian, Ben Washam (Warner Bros. animator), Ken Anderson (Disney animator), Stormy Daniels (porn star), John Wayne Gacy, Kurt Russell is 72, Rob Lowe is 59<br /> <br /> Ancient Roman Festival Bacchanalia-the wine festival.<br /> <br /> 44BC- Mark Anthony called the first meeting of the Roman Senate since Julius Caesars assassination. Caesar’s murderers Brutus and Cassius were annoyed that the Roman people didn’t rise up in joy over their deed, but instead remained ominously quiet. Instead of seizing the government, Brutus and the conspirators went off to sulk. Meanwhile the Senate, not knowing who would win the coming power struggle, fence straddled by passing all of Caesars bills, then voting amnesty for his killers. <br /> <br /> 180AD- The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius died at his army camp Vindobona- the future Vienna. He was 59 and was succeeded by Commodus. He left behind a book of private thoughts entitled To Myself, that we call The Meditations. It has become one of the great works of Western Philosophy.<br /> <br /> 461AD- HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY - St. Patrick was a Romanized Gaul named Patricius Magonus Sucatus who as a boy was taken as a slave to Ireland by raiders, then escaped and became a Christian Bishop at Auxerre. He returned to Ireland in 432. Patrick converted the daughters of Irish King Laoghaire and cast down the great pagan idol of Crom Cruach in Letrim. As far as snakes go, some say that was a metaphor for the pagans. He died on this day in Ireland 461AD. <br /> The holiday was a religious festival in Ireland but in America the feast day of Ireland's patron saint became a chance to show ethnic pride and political strength in the face of anti-Irish prejudice. <br /> <br /> 965. AD- Pope Leo VIII died of a stroke while in bed with a lady en flagrante delicto. <br /> <br /> 1394- FREE LANCERS - Sir John Hawkwood died. During a time-out in the Hundred Years War in France Hawkwood formed a company of unemployed English knights and went to Italy to become “condottierie”-mercenaries, fighting for money in the feuds between all the little Italian city-states. Their distinctive brightly polished silver armor gave them the name “The White Company”. Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle wrote a novel by that name about them. <br /> This is around the time the term 'free lance' had been coined, meaning a knight who was free of any Shield-Oath to a noble lord.<br /> <br /> 1525- THE GERMAN PEASANTS WAR BEGAN- Excited by the new Protestant movement throwing off the yoke of the Church, German peasants decide to throw off the yoke of their nobles as well. Preacher Thomas Munzer led a mob of peasants to kick out the Bishop-Dukes of Mulhausen and established rule by “Eternal Council”. <br /> Martin Luther was shocked by the violence. He alienated many of his followers by disassociating himself from the revolts and urged their suppression. The rebellious mobs of peasants flying black flags across Germany, Austria and Alsace were only put down after terrible massacres. <br /> <br /> 1526- King Francis I of France had been captured in battle with Emperor Charles V and kept a prisoner in Madrid. A year later, after signing a lot of peace treaties he had no intention of honoring, he was finally set free on the Spanish-French border near Hendaye. He jumped on a horse and shouted “I am King Again!” Then he jumped on an 18 year old blonde his mother Louise of Savoy had brought him. Gee, thanks Mom!<br /> <br /> 1692- After the Quaker community refused to support a war with France, the English Crown declared Governor William Penn deprived of his powers and the colony of Pennsylvania would be administered directly as a crown colony.<br /> <br /> 1737- The Irish Charitable Society of Boston held a dinner to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day. Earliest known commemoration in America.<br /> <br /> 1762- In New York City, Irish militiamen against orders not to, marched down Broadway to Hull's Tavern to a St. Patrick's Day breakfast. The first recorded St. Patty's Day parade. In 1848 several Irish-American organizations marched together and the parade became large enough to bring out the Mayor to preside. <br /> As immigration grew so did the parades and the political patronage. Pulaski Day, Steuben Day, Columbus Day, Puerto-Rican Day, etc. <br /> <br /> 1768- Black slaves on the Caribbean Island of Montserrat rise up against their plantation overlords. Because many of the white overseers were Protestant Irish, the slaves guessed they would be distracted by Saint Patrick’s Day partying when they attacked. At the last moment someone gave the plot away. The rebellion was crushed and nine leaders hanged.<br /> <br /> 1776- This day the British Navy of 150 ships hoisted sail and left the City of Boston. Lord Howe had concluded an armistice with colonial General Washington that in exchange for an unmolested evacuation they would not burn the city. It was seen as a great early victory for the Americans. Boston Harbor was opened for the first time in three years. The British troops were heartily glad to leave. A Lieutenant Sheffield wrote:” I curse Columbus and all the other discoverers of this diabolical land!”<br /> <br /> 1780- General Washington ordered his army to commemorate St. Patrick's Day in sympathy with "An ancient people's struggle for independence." One of the Pennsylvania regiments had so many Irish volunteers that it was called The Line of Ireland. <br /> <br /> 1808- ROYAL SCANDALS- William the Duke of York, second son of King George III had to resign his position as head of the British Army over an investigation that he kept a tootsie named Mary Clarke, who used her influence to cash in with army contractors. William’s dad the insane king was locked up and his older brother the Prince Regent later George IV didn't complain because he was hiding an illegal Irish wife named Mrs. Fitzherbert and another girlfriend named Lady Cunningham from his estranged wife Caroline the Princess of Wales, who was herself having sex with most of the men of Italy. <br /> All this scandal couldn't defeat Napoleon, but it did knock Boney out of the British newspapers for awhile, and help Prime Minister Pitt the Younger drink himself into an early grave.<br /> <br /> 1811- The first sidewheel Mississippi riverboat The New Orleans was launched.<br /> <br /> 1845- Rubber Bands invented.<br /> <br /> 1857- John Stephens founds the Fenian Brotherhood in Dublin. This group is the forerunner of Sinn Fein (Shin Fain). The Fenians tried numerous insurrections in the old country and even a conquest of Canada from New York State using former Union army veterans in 1867. Like political leaders today worried about ISIS, Queen Victoria would cast a nervous eye over her shoulder for Fenians.<br /> <br /> 1874- MACY'S- Jacob and Isadore Strauss, two German Jewish peddlers whose first job in America was selling Confederate War Bonds, bought a dry goods store from a retired Quaker whaling sailor named R.H. MACY. They decided to keep the name to divert anti-Semitic customers. The store was later so successful that in 1904 Macys’s moved to it's present location on 34th St. The location was close by the new Penn. Station and also across the street from the two largest brothels in New York. <br /> When Macy was a sailor, he had a red star tattoo on his arm. That red star remains the Macys logo.<br /> Izzy Strauss later went down with the Titanic in 1912 and Jacob's kids founded Strauss stores. When Jacob visited Paris in 1919, he joked on General Pershing's comment "Lafayette Nous'Voici", Lafayette We are Here!” to "Galerie Lafayette we are here!" Galerie Lafayette is a French department store.<br /> <br /> 1879- New Mexico Territorial Governor Lew Wallace stopped work on his novel Ben Hur long enough to meet face-to-face outlaw Billy the Kid to discuss an amnesty.<br /> <br /> 1884- To quiet the fears of New Yorkers that the Brooklyn Bridge was too dangerous to cross, circus-master P.T. Barnum led a herd of his circus elephants led by Jumbo the Elephant across the bridge safely.<br /> <br /> 1898- First test run of a practical submarine. Americans had experimented with underwater travel since 1776 with Bushnell’s "Turtle" then the Civil War CSS Hunley. In the ocean off Staten Island a diesel-electric battery powered sub built by the John A. Holland Electric Boat Company of Georgia ran underwater for an hour and forty minutes then resurfaced. As a child Holland was inspired by Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea".<br /> <br /> 1901- At a grand exhibition of his paintings at Bernheim-Jeune Palace in Paris, the world discovered the brilliance of a poor Dutch lunatic who had shot himself a few years back- Vincent Van Gogh.<br /> <br /> 1905- Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt marry. They were cousins. Eleanor was actually more directly related to Theodore Roosevelt than Franklin was -she was TR’s niece. President Roosevelt kept the wedding party waiting while he marched in New York’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, then rushed to the wedding. When the presiding priest asked,” Who giveth this woman in marriage?”, Teddy jubilantly roared, “I DO!!” <br /> <br /> 1906- Teddy Roosevelt in a speech to the Gridiron Club coins the term "Muckraker".<br /> <br /> 1912- The Camp Fire Girls created.<br /> <br /> 1941- The National Gallery of Art opens in Washington D.C.<br /> <br /> 1944- As if Naples wasn’t already having a lousy year with WW2 fighting all around it, this day Mt. Vesuvius erupted as well.<br /> <br /> 1949- The first car show for Porsche sportscars.<br /> <br /> 1965- Chicago began the Saint Patrick’s Day tradition of dyeing the Chicago River green.<br /> <br /> 1967- Senator Robert Kennedy first openly broke with the Lyndon Johnson administration and in a speech denounced the US participation in the war in Vietnam. <br /> Johnson called Bobby “ Pipsqueak and his Massachusetts Mafia.” Kennedy called LBJ and the first lady “ Colonel Cornpone and the Little Piggy.” <br /> Historians debate whether his brother John F. Kennedy who first committed US troops to the conflict would have accelerated or stopped the war had he not been assassinated. But according to reporters and confidants Robert Kennedy told them while running for the presidency in 1968 that if he won, his first priority was to get us out. Kennedy’s assassination ended that dream and the war for America dragged on until 1973.<br /> <br /> 1982- Politically conservative Hollywood actors led by Charlton Heston broke with the Screen Actor’s Guild and form a rival group called AWAG (American Working Actor’s Guild). They were angered by SAG president Ed Asner’s taking their union into national politics by publically condemning Pres. Ronald Reagan’s policies in Central America, capped by the SAG board refusing Reagan (their former president) the Guild lifetime achievement award. <br /> As a result Ed Asner’s hit TV show “Lou Grant” lost sponsors and was cancelled, and Heston’s career cooled as well, beyond speaking at NRA events, and writing cranky letters to the L.A. Times that Ben Hur wasn’t gay.<br /> <br /> 1983- On trial for libel, and refusing to name sources, wheelchair bound porn publisher Larry Flynt showed up in a US Federal court wearing a diaper made from an American flag. This was calculated to mock a conservative demand for a Constitutional amendment against burning the flag.<br /> <br /> 1991- Irish Gays and Lesbians were first barred by the Ancient Order of Hibernians from marching in the New York and Boston St Patrick’s Day Parades. They took it to the Supreme Court who ruled the Hibernians could bar from marching who ever they wanted to. NYC and Boston welcomed LGBTQ groups in 2013. Today most major St. Paddys Day parades around the world admit LGBTQ groups to march.<br /> =====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Many American conservatives adopt an economic policy of laissez-faire. What does that mean?<br /> <br /> Answer: In French, laissez-faire means “allow to do.” Economically it means just let big business do whatever the heck they want, with no regulation or oversight. Of course, until a bank fails or a train derails, then they want the government to intervene.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 16 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6097 <p>Question: Many American conservatives adopt an economic policy of laissez-faire. What does that mean?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: What does it mean to adopt an ascetic lifestyle?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/16/2023<br /> Birthdays: James Madison, Conrad Nagel, Dr. Josef Mengele the Nazi Angel of Death, Teresa Berganza, Christa Ludwig, Pat Nixon, Alice Bonheur, Harper Goff, Gore Verbinsky, Jerry Lewis, Bernardo Bertolucci, Eric Estrada, Kate Nelligan, Isabelle Huppert is 70, Lauren Graham is 56, Flava-Flav born William Drayton Jr.<br /> <br /> 597 BC- Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II captured Jerusalem and ended the Old Kingdom of Israel. He forced the Jewish people to relocate to Babylon. This period was called the Babylonian Captivity. After Cyrus the Persian king attacked Babylon and allowed the Jews to go home, they noticed two tribes had disappeared- the Lost Tribes of Israel. These events were the basis for the term Babylon to be associated with ultimate evil in so much Judeo-Christian apocalyptic writings. It’s been speculated by some biblical scholars that the Israelites at this time worshiped many gods but by the time they left captivity they had trimmed down to one god, the storm god Yahweh.<br /> <br /> In the ancient Roman religion this was the first day of nine days of fasting leading up to the Day of Blood, sacred to the Goddess Cybele. Although Jesus fasted in the wilderness, he never asked anyone else to. This pagan festival may be where the Christian Church got the Lenten Fast.<br /> <br /> 50BC- After maneuvering Pompey and his senatorial enemies out of Rome, Julius Caesar entered the city and proclaimed a general amnesty. Between now and his murder in 44 he drained marshes, built forums, opened public libraries and started the first newspaper in human history. The Acta Diurna –The Daily Doings- a one sheet of the acts of the Senate and events. It was pasted on city walls or read aloud by heralds. <br /> <br /> 37 AD- The Roman Emperor Tiberius had lived to a great old age and spent his last years at his private villa on the Isle of Capri. He had raised his sister Agrippina’s son Caligula to succeed him upon his death. This day after weeks of failing health Tiberius seemed to breathe his last. Caligula took the signet ring from his finger and went out to receive the adulation of the Praetorian Guard and Senate as the new emperor. But suddenly word came that Tiberius had opened his eyes and was asking for wine. The embarrassed Caligula went back into the sickroom and himself smothered the old man with a pillow. <br /> <br /> 455 A.D.- Roman Emperor Valentinian III was assassinated by kinsmen of Aetius, the half barbarian Roman general who Valentinian had killed the previous September.<br /> <br /> 1758- THE ST. SABAA MASSACRE- The Apache had invited the westward expanding Spanish colonists to move into the Texas hill country near where Austin would one day be. This brought them into direct conflict with the fierce Comanche nation, just as the Apache had hoped. This day the Comanches descended upon the new Spanish Mission of St. Sabaa and wiped them out. 200 dead. After punitive expeditions failed, the Spaniards left the territory alone. It remained Comancheria until the American settlers overran the area in the 1850s.<br /> <br /> 1778- In Paris, Benjamin Franklin first met Voltaire.<br /> <br /> 1792 -King Gustavus III Vasa of Sweden was assassinated at a masked ball. He had been warned and went incognito, but the killers recognized him because of the bejeweled medals all over his costume. He was a good ruler to Sweden but like Catherine the Great, he had no use for democratic parliaments and ruled like an absolute monarch. <br /> Giusseppi Verdi later wrote an opera based on the incident, "Un Ballo en Maschera" and invented a love story where the King falls for the wife of his Prime Minister. He was later forced to revise his story however because the Swedish government resented their late king portrayed as an adulterer. The King’s enemies in his time had accused him of being a child-molester. So to avoid any more hassle, Verdi made him the Duke of Boston.<br /> <br /> 1802- The fortress at West Point New York becomes the United States Military Academy. 40 student cadets without uniforms. Today West Point graduates about 4000 officers a year. The Long Grey Line.<br /> <br /> 1830- DULLEST DAY IN HISTORY OF STOCK MARKET- only 31 shares traded for a grand total of $ 3,740 dollars. <br /> <br /> 1848- King Ludwig Ist of Bavaria abdicated over the scandal of his mistress LOLA MONTEZ. Lola started off as an Irish nymph named Betty James who changed her name and passed herself off as an Argentine flamenco dancer. Ludwig was so besotted with her that after awhile she was hiring and firing gov't officials as the Bavarian economy careened towards bankruptcy. Ludwig protested publicly that all Lola and he ever did was spend evenings reading aloud from Thomas a' Kempis "An Imitation of Christ". Privately he confessed she possessed extraordinary internal muscles...ahem....<br /> He gave the crown to his brother Maximillian and she published a best selling book on beauty tips and toured the U.S.<br /> <br /> 1850- Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter published.<br /> <br /> 1861- TEXAS voted to join the Southern Confederacy over the protests of elderly governor Sam Houston. "In the name of the nationality of Texas, I refuse to take this oath. …" <br /> Houston argued that a better course to follow was to invade Mexico again and this time conquer all of it, after which Americans would elect Houston President and he would redress all Southern grievances. Sam was a little out of it by now.<br /> As the Texas legislature called out 7 times for Sam Houston to take the Oath to the Confederacy, Houston sat quietly in his chair whittling on a stick. He then retired to his ranch and died a year later. Thousands of Texans died in the Civil War and the state was under military occupation until 1877.<br /> <br /> 1906- The Rolls-Royce Motorcar Company incorporated. Mr. Charles Rolls and Sir William Royce quickly realized that they couldn’t hope to compete with the mass produced, low-cost motorcars made by Henry Ford, so they appealed to the high end buyer with elegant hand made craftsmanship.<br /> <br /> 1898- Artist Aubrey Beardsley died of tuberculosis at 25. Having a religious conversion at the end of his life, but still the stickler for detail, his last words were:" Destroy all my erotic drawings...all the bad ones too...." Luckily for history his friends did neither.<br /> <br /> 1921- On the final day of the 10th Communist Party Congress Lenin laid down the statutes barring dissent in Russia. From now on Anarchism, Socialism, Centrism, Trade Unionism, in fact any dissent or disagreement with the Soviet Communist Party from Right of Left would be seen as Counter-Revolutionary Dead-Meatism. <br /> Tired of arguing with old Bolsheviks over how Russian society should be transformed, he in effect stamped out the last sparks of democracy in Russia. The slogans of Russia belonging to the workers and peasants became just slogans. Russia really belonged to a small central committee controlling the Communist Party. <br /> <br /> 1926 -Robert Goddard launches the first liquid fueled rocket in Auburn Massachusetts. In later years he was invited to join Cal Tech and the Galcit group in forming the embryonic Jet Propulsion Lab. Goddard refused because at such a government facility he would no longer be the center of attention but just another scientist. Goddard also set up the first testing grounds in Rosswell New Mexico.<br /> <br /> 1934- Disney’s short The Three Little Pigs won an Oscar for best animated short.<br /> <br /> 1935- ADOLF HITLER surprised the world by announcing Germany's refusal to be bound by the Versailles Treaty anymore. He calls for universal conscription for a 100 division army, and reveals the secret massive illegal German arms buildup and the Luftwaffe, now the world's largest air force. He then waited for the Allies next move, which was to do nothing.<br /> <br /> 1961- Walt Disney comedy The Absent Minded Professor with Fred MacMurray premiered. <br /> <br /> 1968-THE MY-LAI MASSACRE- U.S. troops brutalized and killed 500 Vietnamese civilians. The GI's were disgusted with the endless invisible ambushes and not being able to tell civilians from guerrillas. So this day they annihilated an entire village that intelligence said had aided in the ambush of an earlier patrol. They lined up people in front of an open pit and shot them down. They got so carried away that a Huey helicopter gunship commanded by Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson had to place itself between the soldiers and the fleeing women &amp; children and threatened to fire if they didn't stop.<br /> Atrocities conducted under wartime stress are sadly common in all wars, but this one and the clumsy attempt to cover it up particularly horrified the American public. The ensuing media coverage began the harsh public attitude towards returning veterans, unprecedented in American wars. Only one person, Lt. William Calley, ever went to jail. Thompson and the surviving crew of the helicopter that halted the massacre were not acknowledged for their bravery until 1998, by President Clinton.<br /> <br /> 1985- A.P. correspondent Terry Anderson kidnapped by terrorist militia in Beirut. He was held captive for seven years. <br /> <br /> 1994- Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding was arrested for obstructing the prosecution of the case of the attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan.<br /> <br /> 2007- Author Michael Crichton was the author of classics like The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park. He had been called the H.G. Wells of modern times. But today he shocked the scientific community by denouncing the theory of Global Warming.<br /> <br /> 2005- Old actor Robert Blake was acquitted of the murder of his wife Bonnie Lee Blakeley. She was shot in the head while in their car after having dinner together. Blake claimed he had returned to the restaurant to retrieve his gun. (?) Another suspect has never been found.<br /> <br /> 2008- J.P. Morgan bought-out collapsing super bank Bear Sterns (BSC), the first major firm to fall in the great Global Recession of 2008. One factor in the crisis was unregulated lying to stockholders and falsifying records. Just two of Bear-Stearns hedge-fund managers, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, lost $1.6 billion, all while telling investors that everything was fine.<br /> <br /> 2020- Los Angeles, including Hollywood, ordered all theaters closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.<br /> <br /> 2020- Agatha Christies play The Mousetrap, the longest running play in history, running continuously since 1952, was closed due to the Covid pandemic.<br /> ===================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean to adopt an ascetic lifestyle?<br /> <br /> Answer: An ascetic lifestyle is one in which the individual chooses to live monastically, simply, without luxury. Often religiously based, this may also include a list of prohibitions, rituals and self-denying behavior. (thanks FG)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 15 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6096 <p>Question: What does it mean to adopt an ascetic lifestyle?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: “Klaatu! Barrata, Nicto.”<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/15/2023<br /> Birthdays: Andrew Jackson, Lee Schubert-one of Broadways Shubert Brothers, Ry Cooder, Sly Stone, Harry James, Lightnin' Hopkins, Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, Judd Hirsch, Norm Van Brocklin, Sabu, Fabio, Reni Harlin, David Cronenburg is 80, Eva Longoria is 48, David Silverman<br /> <br /> 508BC-525AD- In the Roman Republic this was the traditional day the newly elected Consuls and Senate assumed their offices and began governing. It was the beginning of the ancient Roman calendar year.<br /> <br /> 44 BC -BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH- While attending the first day of the new Senate, Roman dictator Gaius Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by radical senators beneath the statue of his old rival Pompey Magnus. Two of the murderers, Brutus and Cassius were former officers of Pompey to whom Caesar granted amnesty. Marcus Brutus was a descendant of Junius Brutus the founder of the Roman democracy. Like a descendent of George Washington. He was even rumored to have been Caesar's illegitimate son, since his mother Servilla had an affair with Jules.<br /> Even though Caesar was stabbed 23 times, it still took him several hours to die, left alone lying on the floor. Unlike Shakespeare, Julius Caesar never said "Et Tu Brute'" Even you, Brutus? in Latin. His last words were the equivalent in Greek-"Touto kai teknon mou" which translates, "Even this my child?". Greek was to the Romans like French is to us. <br /> At the time, Caesar was preparing a new campaign to attack Persia via Arabia Felix <br /> (Saudi Arabia).<br /> <br /> 1079- The Seljuk Sultan Alp Arslan assassinated by followers of his old Vizier, Nizam Al Mulk. The vizer had been killed by the Assassins, the original terrorists of the Islamic world, hired by Alp Arslan. Witness to all this was Omar Al Khayyam, poet, mathematician and astronomer. Legend said Alp Arslan had mustachios so long he had to pin them up on his turban so he could shoot his bow. Arslan’s successor was Gelalladin or the Malik Shah. His reign was considered the high point of Seljuk civilization.<br /> <br /> 1493- Columbus returned to Palo, Spain from his first voyage to America. The Santa Maria had broke up on reefs in America and Captain Pinzon had taken the Pinta on ahead to take credit for himself, or so Columbus worried. He himself got home in the little bark the Nina and at one point had to put in at a Portuguese port where he and his men were impounded for a few days. Captain Pinzon did reach home first, but fortunately King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella refused to listen to him. When Pinzon got his own voyage to the New World, all the credit went to his navigator- Amerigo Vespucci.<br /> <br /> 1517-Pope Leo X was left a full treasury by his predecessor Pope Julius II. But being a major party animal he quickly blew it all. This day he decided to pay his bills by ordering a new campaign to sell indulgences. Indulgences were sort of "after-life insurance" By paying a donation the bearer could be forgiven some sins and time in Purgatory. Leo extended it to forgive sins you may intend to commit in the future. You could also buy a reprieve to someone already dead. When this refinance scheme reached Germany it was the provocation that sent Martin Luther to pin up his 95 Theses challenging the authority of Rome and start the Reformation.<br /> <br /> 1582-WILLIAM OF ORANGE ASSASSINATED. The Spanish Viceroy of the Netherlands the Duke of Parma didn’t know how to cope with the Dutch Independence movement led by William of Orange, also called William the Silent. They defeated him in battle but they could never capture him or destroy his forces. Finally Parma came up with a solution. He published a decree declaring William "A criminal and outcast from God and Society" That anyone who killed William would receive 25,000 gold pieces and be made a noble. Such a deal! <br /> Within three days a man shot William in the head, but he recovered. Then a year later this day Belgian Bartholomew Girard shot William three times and killed him. Girard was executed, but his family received the reward, and his severed head was displayed in Cologne Cathedral like a holy relic. For year afterwards and German Catholics tried to get Girard made a saint. William of Orange was dead but his 12 children carried on the fight for Dutch Independence and his family still rules Holland today.<br /> <br /> 1780- BATTLE OF GUILFORD COURTHOUSE, Virginia. Colonial General Nathaniel Greene battled British Lord Cornwallis to a draw but Cornwallis had to withdraw to Yorktown for supplies. At one point Cornwallis ordered his artillery to fire into his own redcoats to get through to the rebels- not exactly a great morale booster. Back in London, Sir Horace Walpole remarked: " Lord Cornwallis has conquered. He has conquered his troops out of shoes and provisions, and conquered himself out of troops." <br /> <br /> 1783-THE NEWBURGH CONSPIRACY- The closest the United States ever came to a military dictatorship. George Washington's officers were fed up with the indecision of their bankrupt Congress. The Revolutionary War fighting was over, but the army hadn’t been paid in months. Like Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army in Britain a century before, there were loud calls to march on the Congress and chuck the rascals out! They talked of establishing a junta of generals to run the United States! But what of their commander? The ringleaders assured: "we can handle the old man." <br /> This day General Washington called a staff meeting at his HQ at Newburgh, New Jersey and faced down his angry troops. At first, he announced he would not attend, then surprised everyone by showing up. He appealed for understanding and patriotism. Tears were shed when he put on his spectacles, implying he'd broken his health and had aged prematurely in the service of his country. He was only 49, yet he looked much older. That won them over. George Washington not only wasn’t "handled", but convinced his sulky soldiers to go back their farms peacefully, paid with nothing but a paper IOU.<br /> <br /> 1782- The English House of Commons, fed up with his bungling of the American Revolution and the heavy-handed style of Lord North’s government, voted the first ever vote of no-confidence. The Lord North government resigned five days later.<br /> <br /> 1820- Maine became a state.<br /> <br /> 1865- Confederate guerrilla Sue Mundy was hanged in Kentucky. Long haired soldier Jerome Clark once passed out drunk, and for a gag his buddies put him in a dress and declared him Queen of the May. Instead of being insulted, Clark liked dressing like a woman, and ravaged the countryside as the guerrilla leader Sue Mundy. Until the Yankees caught him no one was quite sure whether he was a man or woman.<br /> <br /> 1869-The Cincinnati Red Stockings become the first professional baseball team. Players had been taking payments under the table for years to concentrate on their skills, now it was out in the open. Still some newspapers accused them of being "Shiftless young men debasing the game with their greed."<br /> <br /> 1890- Kaiser Wilhelm II forced Chancellor Otto von Bismarck into retirement and decided to run Germany himself. Bismarck "the Old Pilot" who had unified Germany had set up a highly centralized autocracy that he ran from behind the throne. His relations with the other statesmen like Disraeli assured Europe had thirty years of complete peace. He never imagined he would be sacked by the young, emotionally unstable grandson of his old friend Wilhelm I.<br /> <br /> 1892- The first voting machines in the US went into service. After 1972 metal voting machines were phased out in favor of the cheaper punch card system but the controversy over presidential elections fraud continues to cause new change.<br /> <br /> 1909- Harry Gordon Selfridge, formerly manager of Chicago’s Marshal Fields, opened Selfridges, London’s first Department Store. Selfridge invented the Bargain Basement, the Annual Sale, and coined the motto “ The Customer is Always Right.”<br /> <br /> 1913- President Woodrow Wilson held the first presidential news conference.<br /> <br /> 1915- Universal Studios formed. Carl Laemmele bought a huge track of Burbank farmland and set up his studio. Laemmele had wooden bleachers built next to the movie sets where he charged people a nickel to come watch the filming. He used so many of his relatives in production that poet Ogden Nash quipped: "Carl Laemmele has a very large Faemmele." Universal actually had been operating as a film company since 1912 but the company counts today as its birthday.<br /> <br /> 1917- CZAR NICHOLAS II ABDICATED THE THRONE OF RUSSIA with a note scribbled in pencil. He had tried to abdicate in favor of his younger brother Archduke Michael as regent for his son Alexis, and save the dynasty. But Michael wanted none of it and the revolutionary forces tearing at Russian society. He ignored his pleas. After 303 years, the Romanov Dynasty was at an end.<br /> <br /> 1919- American veterans of World War I founded a veteran’s society based The Civil War vets Grand Army of the Republic. They called it the American Legion.<br /> <br /> 1929- Scarface Al Capone was called before a Chicago grand jury to explain his involvement in the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. Big Al’s alibi was he was in Key Biscayne Florida at the time having lunch with the Dade County prosecutor. They couldn’t pin nothing on him and no one was ever charged with the massacre.<br /> <br /> 1933- Young animator Chuck Jones first hired at Leon Schlesinger’s Looney Tunes cartoon studio. He was made a director in 1938. <br /> <br /> 1941- The daughter of Cecil B. DeMille, Katherine DeMille, had married actor Anthony Quinn. This day tragedy struck the family. On a visit to Cecil B.’s estate, the couple’s three year old son Christopher wandered off into neighbor W.C. Fields’ yard where he fell into his unsupervised swimming pool and drowned. The parents were so shattered they divorced afterward. Anthony Quinn refused to talk about the rest of his long life. Fields was so depressed he had the pool filled in and landscaped so no reminder of the tragedy would remain.<br /> <br /> 1944- The DeHAVILAND CASE- A judge ruled actress Olivia DeHaviland free of her exclusive seven year personal contract to Warner Bros. For years movie stars like Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck and James Cagney had been fighting in court the system of exclusive contracts the studios used to keep them under control. They had no choice in the type of films they did, no residuals, and studios could lend them out to other studios for higher fees, and keep the money. <br /> If the actor complained they were put on disciplinary leave by the studio, without pay, and the penalty time tagged onto the end of their contract. Garbo called it the closest thing to slavery. Some contracts even ordered some stars not to get married for fear it would erode their sex appeal. The DeHaviland Case broke that system and allowed actors to make their own deals. Olivia DeHaviland died in 2020 at age 104.<br /> <br /> 1956- Lerner &amp; Lowe’s musical "My Fair Lady" premiered. <br /> <br /> 1956- The film Forbidden Planet premiered in theaters. Considered the granddaddy of Sci-Fiction blockbusters<br /> <br /> 1962- The discovery of anti-matter.<br /> <br /> 1964- Elizabeth Taylor married Richard Burton, for the first time.<br /> <br /> 1964- The book The Feminine Mystique by Betty Freidan first published. The first major book to point out women were unhappy with their second class roles. And it coined the term Feminist. <br /> <br /> 1969- Worst clashes between Soviet Russia and Red China across their long mutual border. While the free world feared a monolithic global Communist conspiracy, the fact was the animosity between Russia and China got so bad it threatened to go nuclear. <br /> During a lighter incident the Chinese People’s Liberation Army showed what they thought of their Russian comrades by lining up along a river bank, dropping their trousers, bending over and giving them a mass-mooning. The next time the Chinese did it the Russians were ready. As their butts went up the Russians held up portraits of Chairman Mao Zedong, the Chinese leader. The mooning stopped.<br /> <br /> 1969- Two young heirs to the Polydent false Teeth Company and two hippy promoters announced a rock festival would be held that summer in the farm community of Woodstock New York.<br /> <br /> 1977- Television sitcom Threes Company debuted.<br /> <br /> 1979- Strange lights danced in the night skies over Phoenix Arizona from 8:30 pm until 11:00 pm. The military dismissed them as experimental flares but the duration and patterns seemed unusually long for mere flares. Was it a UFO light show? <br /> <br /> 1985- THE SAVINGS &amp; LOAN SCANDALS- The Reagan White House’s policy of removing all business regulation played havoc within the savings &amp; loan system. The problem became a public issue when this day Gov. Richard Celeste of Ohio suspended business in thrift banks in his state to stop the complete collapse of the system. One of the most underreported and little understood stories of the 1980’s was the cost of the Savings &amp; Loan mess. It came out to be near $28 billion dollars, double the total cost to win World War II. Scores of crooked Savings &amp; Loan execs like Charles Keating and Neil Bush accumulated vast fortunes, leaving you and I to pay the bills.<br /> <br /> 1985- Symbolic.com is assigned the first registered private domain site on the Internet. <br /> <br /> 2002- Blue Sky’s hit animated film Ice Age premiered. The studio was being scaled down to be actioned off when the film was a massive hit. Out doing the Best Picture Oscar winner A Beautiful Mind. <br /> <br /> 2004- Cal Tech Scientists announce the discovery of Planet Xenia, the tenth planet orbiting our Sun, beyond Pluto. Some want to call it Sedna, an Inuit goddess who lived under the ice.<br /> <br /> 2011- The Syrian Civil War broke out. For over fifty years the Assad Family ruled Syria as absolute dictators. This day the reforming wave of the Arab Spring protests tried to bring about change, and was met with a brutal response, including chemical weapons. Further complicating the issue was that secular dictator Bashir al Assad was being challenged by rebels who were Muslim fundamentalists formed into a rogue state called ISIS. The US, Iran, Turkey, Russia, China and Saudi Arabia soon became embroiled. 12 years later, the fighting still goes on and most of the country is destroyed.<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: “Klaatu! Barrata, Nicto.”<br /> <br /> Answer: In Robert Wise’s iconic 1951 Sci Fi movie, The Day The Earth Stood Still, "Klaatu Barrata Nicto” is the phrase spaceman Klaatu (Michael Rennie) gives to earth woman Helen (Patricia Neal) to repeat to giant robot Gort (Lock Martin) to stop him from blowing up the planet.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 14 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6095 <p>Question: “Klaatu! Barrata, Nicto.”<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What does it mean when you sign an NDA?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/14/2023<br /> Birthdays: Georg Phillip Telemann, Johann Strauss Sr., Albert Einstein, Casey Jones, astronaut Frank Borman, Les Brown, Hank Ketcham, Wolfgang Petersen, Diane Arbus, Chris Klein, Michael Cain born Maurice Mickelwhite is 90, Billy Crystal is 75, Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, Quincy Jones is 90<br /> <br /> On the Roman religious calendar this was the Second Equirra, the Blessing of the Horses. The Romans had no weekly Sabbath day, but they had 154 feast days out of 366. Sorry about that deadline boss, but I have to go bless the Horses...<br /> <br /> 44BC –The night before their planned assassination, Brutus and Cassius met with the other conspirators. They had heard that tomorrow at the opening of the senate, outgoing consul Lucius Cotta planned to declare Julius Caesar their king. <br /> The senators resolved to kill him, then debated whether they should then kill Caesars followers like Marc Anthony and Octavian. Marcus Brutus successfully argued that if they killed all their political enemies, then this gesture would just look like another partisan brawl. They would strike down one man, the dictator Caesar, in the name of Liberty, and all would respect the purity of their motives. <br /> It turned out this was a big mistake, because the men whose lives they spared were the ones who hunted them down.<br /> <br /> 44BC- This same night Julius Caesar held a dinner party. Guests remembered at one point the conversation went to the topic-“What is the best kind of Death?” Caesar answered: " That which is quick and unexpected."<br /> <br /> Today is also the Feast of Saint Matilda, wife of German Emperor Henry the Fowler and mother of Otto the Quarrelsome. <br /> <br /> 1590- Battle of Ivry- Henry IV defeated his political enemies and establishes the Bourbon Dynasty in France. The Bourbon family is still the Royal House of Spain and are ready if France ever wants a monarchy again. Henry's motto was: "I make Love, I make War, and I Build." During the battle he was climbing a ladder up a windmill to get a better look, when a cannonball flew between his legs and smashed the ladder. It almost left him with two out of three...<br /> <br /> 1757- THE ADMIRAL WAS SHOT AT NOON- English Admiral of the Blue John Byng was shot by firing squad on the poopdeck of his own flagship, the HMS Monarch. He had lost a battle off Minorca to the French fleet so was court-martialed. The admiral was seen as a scapegoat for London's slow response to the enemy threat to Minorca. Byng had already been absolved by court martial of cowardice and treason. Even he wondered just why he was being executed. Pleas for mercy even came from his French opponent, the Marquis De Gallissoniere. <br /> Years later whenever the Duke of Wellington or Lord Nelson was going through a bad stretch, they would wonder: " If I fail, they’ll probably shoot me like Byng..." <br /> The writer Voltaire has his comic hero Candide entering Portsmouth Harbor, witnessing an admiral being shot. When he asks why, his English guide replies "It is good idea to shoot an admiral from time to time..."<br /> <br /> 1794- Eli Whitney patented the Cotton "Gin" short for engine. Some folks call this simple machine the beginning of American Industry. However it also revitalized the institution of Slavery, which had been dying out economically the way it had in Europe and the northern states. Suddenly huge fields needed hundreds of laborers to pick cotton.<br /> <br /> 1872- Stanley says goodbye to Dr. Livingston. After finding the English missionary at his desolate African post, Henry Stanley spent 4 months with him, then left for England.<br /> <br /> 1883- Karl Marx died in London. Marx's last words were:" Get out of Here!<br /> Last words are for fools who haven't said enough already!"<br /> <br /> 1885- Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta The Mikado premiered in London.<br /> <br /> 1903- President Teddy Roosevelt established Pelican Island as the first Federal Wildlife Preserve. <br /> <br /> 1917- In St. Petersburg a general strike was festering since the 11th. Today soldiers and police start to join demonstrators instead of arresting them. Shouts of, "Cossacks! Don't shoot your brothers! Enough of blood! We want Peace and Bread!" The law courts were torched, prisons opened and the protestors grab the Czar's Rolls Royce and drive it around town draped in red flags. Government officials start to flee the city. Demonstrators in the Russian capitol Petrograd formed a revolutionary workers council (Soviet). Today the Petrograd Soviet ordered all soldiers and police to stop obeying the Czar and only take orders from them. Czar Nicholas out at his military headquarters received the news that the nations capitol was no longer under his control.<br /> <br /> 1923- President Warren Harding became the first President to file an Income Tax Return.<br /> <br /> 1932- Inventor GEORGE EASTMAN shot himself- The inventor of the Roll-film camera, who named his celluloid strips 'film' and founded Eastman/Kodak. He had been suffering from a long painful spinal illness and left the note: " To my friends: The End is near. My work is done. Why wait? " He was 77.<br /> <br /> 1941- Xavier Cugat and his orchestra recorded "Babalu".<br /> <br /> 1944- THE BATTLE OF IMPHAL- The Japanese 15th Army began an invasion of Northern India from occupied Burma. Japan called it the "Drive on Dehli". For the next several months the Japanese, British, Indians, Nepalese, Gurkhas and Draguts fought on the plains of Imphal with tanks, planes, samurai swords and kukhris- the famous Gurkha boomerang shaped blade.<br /> <br /> 1943- Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" premiered. George Szell conducting. Young Leonard Bernstein once asked Copland how he could write more "American" sounding music? The maestro answered:" Lenny, just shuttup and write. You're American. It's all going to sound that way anyway!" <br /> <br /> 1967- Nine executives of the German pharmaceutical firm Grunethal were indicted over the Thalidomide scandal. Thalidomide was prescribed as a sedative for pregnant women, but the drug caused thousands of children to be born with deformed limbs. Flippers instead of arms.<br /> <br /> 1991- Lyricist Howard Ashman (Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast) died of HIV/AIDS. He was 40. <br /> <br /> 1992- The official Soviet newspaper Pravda- Truth, ceased publication. <br /> <br /> 1998- The epic disaster movie Titanic surpassed Star Wars and Jurassic Park as the greatest money earning film (until Avatar). It cost over $200 million to make but it earned at least $1 billion in box office alone. Quote director James Cameron: I’m King of the World!!<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Quiz: What does it mean when you sign an NDA?<br /> <br /> Answered: A non-disclosure agreement. This means part of a settlement was the two parties agree not to discuss any of the terms or details of their case.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 12 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6094 <p>Question: In Greek Mythology, who was Hecuba?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays’ question answered below: Why are pictures of beautiful women’s legs called cheesecake?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/12/2023<br /> Birthdays: Jack Kerouac, Billy "Buckwheat "Thomas, Darryl Strawberry, Edward Albee, Andrew Young, Joan Kennedy, Eugene Ormandy, Gordon McCrae, Liza Minelli is 79, Courtenay Vance, James Taylor, Frank Welker, Al Jareau, Maurice Evans, Barbara Feldon- agent 99 in Get Smart is 90, Frank Welker, DeWitt Bodeen- writer of the 1942 film Cat People. Aaron Eckart is 55<br /> <br /> To the Zoroastrians of Persia, this was the Festival of Marduk, the God of Storms.<br /> <br /> 81 BC- Roman dictator Sulla granted his general Pompey the right to hold a triumph to celebrate his victories. A triumph was the grand parade through the streets of Rome, hero in his chariot and all that, like in the movies. Pompey is the guy we get the term "pompous" from. As a young man he already insisted people refer to him as Magnus- The Great. Instead of his gold chariot being borne by the traditional four milk white horses, he wanted four milk white elephants! Sulla felt Rome’s arches and streets weren't of sufficient width, so Pompey reluctantly had to settle for one white elephant.<br /> <br /> 222AD- The Roman Emperor Elagabulus was assassinated. Elagabulus was a sicko-tyrant like Nero and Caligula. When his guards turned on him he first hid in a toilet but was found and stabbed. His body was dragged behind a chariot in the Circus Maximus to the cheers of the crowd, then dumped in the Tiber River. General Severus Alexander took over the Empire.<br /> <br /> 1507-After being run out of Rome after his father Pope Alexander VI 's death, Caesare Borgia became a petty mercenary in Navarre. This day during a battle, he spurred his horse into the thickest of the foe, and on a pre-arranged signal none of his men followed. Ouch! He was cut to pieces.<br /> <br /> 1579- The Duke of Ferrara Ludovigo D’Este had a problem. He was the patron of a poet named Torquato Tasso, and Tasso loved one of his daughters. But Tasso was mentally unstable, probably schizophrenic from venereal disease. <br /> This day, in the midst of a ceremony celebrating the Dukes third marriage, Tasso began raving and screaming and had to be dragged off to a mental hospital. At the same time Tasso’s greatest poem JERUSALEM DELIVERED was published. The poem became world famous – Montaigne, Cervantes and Queen Elizabeth of England all loved reading it. Christian Europe felt they finally had an epic poet to rival the pagans Virgil and Homer. Musicians like Handel and Monteverdi made operas of its characters, Armida, Tancredi and Reynaldo. <br /> And Duke Ludovico? For all his trouble, all he got was grief for his perceived bad treatment of Italy’s greatest poet since Dante.<br /> <br /> 1773- The Virginia Legislature voted to make common cause with the other American colonies and establish regular communications, particularly with Massachusetts who was having the most trouble with the government in London at that time. Up to now even progressive thinkers like Ben Franklin doubted all the various American colonies could ever agree on anything.<br /> <br /> 1781- In one of the more desperate schemes of the American Revolution, a letter signed this day by General George Washington gave permission to a plan for secret agents to kidnap Prince William, the Duke of Clarence, a younger son of King George III. He was then visiting British forces in occupied New York City. The letter insists the Royal hostage should be treated properly. The plan never was carried out. Forty years later, when William, now King William IV, was told of the scheme, he commented: "I thank Mr. Washington for his kind intent while being thankful I was never made subject to his hospitality!"<br /> <br /> 1796- After a two-day honeymoon at her place, Malmaison, Napoleon leaves Josephine <br /> to go conquer Italy.<br /> <br /> 1877-In Philadelphia, Sam Wanamaker was unsure just what kind of retail he wanted to go into, he just wanted his business to be big. So he opened a large building with different types of goods sold in separate departments. Wanamakers became the first true Department Store.<br /> <br /> 1884- The Dervish army of El Mahdi completed its surrounding of the Sudanese capitol of Khartoum, defended by British General Charles Gordon. They would finally break into the city and kill him by January. Yet despite the hopelessness of his situation Gordon was in merry spirits. Gordon was a religious zealot who prayed and preached at length. English society considered him something of a Missionary Saint. He never married but had a Victorian penchant for picking up poor street boys, bathing them and photographing them...ahem.<br /> <br /> 1912-The Girl Scouts was founded in Savannah, Georgia, by Juliet Low, a friend of Sir Anthony Baden-Powell, English founder of the Boy Scouts.<br /> <br /> 1928- THE SAINT FRANCIS DAM DISASTER- The second worst disaster to hit California after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. <br /> Following up his triumph bringing water to Southern California by aqueduct, William Mulholland had designed several dams and reservoirs north of Los Angeles in the Santa Clarita Valley. On this night at midnight the largest of them exploded from structural weakness, and sent a wall of water 30 feet high across the rural towns of Santa Paula and Fillmore down to Oxnard and the Pacific. 400 people drowned in their beds without any warning. <br /> Mulholland took full responsibility for the disaster and resigned all his city offices. "I envy the dead", he said. He died a few years later. Today when driving around the Valencia-Newhall area you can still see huge boulders with steel retaining rods sticking out of them. They are not natural rocks, but chunks of the dam carried miles by the raging torrent of water.<br /> <br /> 1930- Mohandas K Ghandi, of India, called the Mahatma or The Great Soul, began his Salt March. This gesture of defying the British Empire's monopoly on salt production was a gesture akin to throwing tea into Boston Harbor. He set out from his ashram with 78 followers and a lot of press coverage; by the time he reached the Indian Ocean his followers had become tens of thousands and was famous around the world.<br /> <br /> 1932- Disney short "Mickey’s Revue" featuring Dippy Dog, now turned into a new character named "the Goof" or Goofy.<br /> <br /> 1933-THE FIRESIDE CHATS- Just 8 days after taking office President Franklin Roosevelt began a series of national radio broadcasts detailing his plans to fight the economic problems of the country, called by newsman Robert Trout his Fireside Chats. FDR amazed the American public by speaking quietly and candidly, instead of using the bombastic political oratory of the day.<br /> <br /> 1939- While war clouds grew in Europe, Eugenio Pacelli was crowned Pope Pius XII. Pius’ authoritarian style dominated Catholic thinking into the 1950’s. He was nicknamed "Hitler’s Pope" for his cozy relationship with the Fascists and Nazis, never speaking out against the Holocaust even when the Jews of Rome were being dragged away under his window. But he did censure American anti-Semitic radio star Father Coughlin. In the 1950’s he threatened with excommunication any Catholics who became Communists, or even worse, who married Protestants!<br /> For short trips he liked to be driven around in a Cadillac with a throne built into the backseat. He died in 1958 and his successor Pope John XXIII instituted the liberal reforms known as Vatican II.<br /> <br /> 1945- Anne Frank died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at age 15.<br /> Her father discovered her diary after the war.<br /> <br /> 1945- The Japanese military ordered every child over the age of seven to enter the military, or factories, to fight the coming American invasion.<br /> <br /> 1945-THE WAR OF HOLLYWOOD BEGAN-Throughout the 1930’s and 40’s several national unions battled studios and each other to represent Hollywood film workers. The Teamsters, the FWPC, the Brotherhood of Electricians. <br /> By 1945 only two remained, the IATSE and the CSU.(International Alliance of Theater and Screen Engineers and the Conference of Studio Unions) IATSE had a reputation of gangsterism and making cozy deals with the studio heads. The CSU, a much more militant group with past ties to communist organizations, was headed by a charismatic scenery painter named Herb Sorrell who had helped win the Disney strike for the cartoonists in 1941. Sorrel called several citywide strikes that paralyzed Hollywood in 1945, 46 and 47. President Richard Walsh of IATSE fought them and rioting in front of the studios was commonplace. <br /> <br /> 1947-THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE- In a speech to Congress, President Harry Truman called for millions in aid to Greece and Turkey to stop them from going Communist. This speech was the de-facto declaration of the Cold War. Truman stated that it would be the policy of the United States to aid "any minority fighting Communist coercion". <br /> <br /> 1948- The Hell’s Angels motorcycle club formed in Oakland Cal. Instead of boozy teenagers, the first motorcycle clubs were formed by former World War II fighter pilots who missed the thrill and camaraderie of flying together in formation. During the war, motorcycle scouts kept their bike engines un-muffled and loud to scare German snipers into thinking a tank or some other big ordnance was coming. The long handlebars and low seat of the chopper was evolved as a defense against booby trap wires strung across a road at a height to decapitate a hapless scout.<br /> <br /> 1951- Former Disney assistant animator Hank Ketcham was trying his hand as a print cartoonist. He had some success selling gags to the New Yorker Magazine. His baby son Dennis was a precocious infant. Once after she caught the child smearing the contents of his diaper around the house, his mother exclaimed to Hank-“ Your son is a Menace!” That gave Ketcham an idea. Today the first Dennis the Menace comic strip was published.<br /> <br /> 1955- BIRD DIED- Innovative Jazz great Charlie "Bird" Parker had a chemical addiction since getting out of the army. After the death of his infant daughter earlier that year, his drug use spiraled out of control. He was sleeping on the couch in the NY apartment of the Baroness du Rothschild-Konigswarter, a jazz supporter. He awoke to watch TV. While laughing at a juggler on the Dorsey Brothers Variety Show, he died. The coroner said death was by heart failure, cirrhosis and pneumonia. He estimated Parker’s age at 65. He was really 34. When his band heard of his death they paused between sets to shoot up with heroin in his honor. "Seems silly now, come to think of it." Said one musician later.<br /> <br /> 1964- Malcolm X announced his break with the Nation of Islam in the US. Since returning from Mecca he was disillusioned with founder Elijah Mohammad’s leadership.<br /> <br /> 1969- Here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson –a song written by two young folk singers named Simon &amp; Garfunkel, won a Grammy award.<br /> <br /> 1969- Paul and Linda McCartney married.<br /> <br /> 1989- Tim Berners-Lee flicked a switch and the World Wide Web became operational, connecting several regional web systems into a global network.<br /> <br /> 1992- Warren Beatty married Annette Benning.<br /> <br /> 2000- Pope John Paul II officially apologized on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church for the Crusades, The Inquisition, 2000 years of Anti-Semitic persecution, the Fires of Smithfield, Bloody Mary, burning at the stake Jan Hus and Giordano Bruno, Silencing Galileo and Copernicus, the Thirty Years War, The forced conversions of indigenous peoples, ignoring the Holocaust, etc, etc. In response, comedian John Stewart said Judaism officially apologized for the Barbara Streisand movie "Yentl."<br /> <br /> 2003 –The female vocal group the Dixie Chicks were tops of the country-western world. They had preformed at last years Super Bowl. But in an interview during a concert in Britain, singer Natalie Maines expressed her sadness over America’s invasion of Iraq. “ Just so you know, we're on the good side with y'all. We do not want this war, this violence. And we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas." The conservative backlash from this comment damaged their careers, even though conservative stars like Kid Rock did fine. They made a documentary about their situation in 2006 entitled, “Shut Up and Sing.” <br /> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><br /> <br /> Yesterdays’ question: Why are pictures of beautiful women’s legs called cheesecake?<br /> <br /> Answer: Some say referring to a sexy lady as cheesecake went back to the age of Oliver Cromwell. In 1912, reporters covered the arrival in New York of a famous beautiful actress-opera star Armelita Galli-Curci. At one point a breeze blew her skirt up. NY Journal reporter Jack Kane exclaimed “Wow, this is better than cheesecake!” It became a popular pop phrase. Today it would become a meme.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 11 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6093 <p>Quiz: Why are pictures of beautiful women’s legs called cheesecake?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: What do these places have in common? Tunbridge Wells. UK, Wolftrap, USA. Bayreuth, Germany. <br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> HISTORY FOR 3/11/2023<br /> Birthdays: Torquato Tasso, Marius Pretipa, Raoul Walsh, Charlie Ruggles, Lawrence Welk, Samuel “Shemp” Howard, British PM Harold Wilson, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, Bobby McFerrin, Sam Donaldson, Antonin Scalia, Jerry Zucker, Vannevar Bush- MIT scientist who in 1945 predicted the personal computer. Joey Buttafuco, Jules Engel, Douglas Adams, Rupert Murdoch is 92, Rob Paulsen is 67, Terence Howard is 54<br /> <br /> In ancient Rome, today was the Festival of Hercules<br /> <br /> 1513- Giovanni de Medici, a son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, was elected Pope Leo X.<br /> He was ordained a priest two days later- hey, details, details! Leo was the quintessential Renaissance Party-Pope. In a few short years he blew the Vatican treasury on lavish entertainment, artists, poets and buffoons. He was quoted as saying:” God has given us the Papacy, so let us enjoy it.”<br /> <br /> 1669- Sicily’s Mt Etna erupted and killed 20,000 people.<br /> <br /> 1801- Russian officers dragged Czar Paul I out of his bed, beat him up and strangled him. It had been said the Czar was showing signs of mental instability. Others historians say that story was circulated by the nobility who were against the Czars land reform for peasants. The murder had the approval of his son Alexander who then became Czar. <br /> In 1812 after Napoleon's invasion was driven out, one of the top French generals, Dominique Vandamme, was captured. When Vandamme was reproached by Czar Alexander for invading Russia, the Frenchman shot back," Well Sire, at least I didn't kill my own father!"<br /> <br /> 1810- Prussian Chancellor von Hardenburg granted civil rights to the Jews of Germany. <br /> <br /> 1829- BachMania!-The Rediscovery of Johann Sebastian Bach-. Bach was little known in his time and after his death in 1750 was soon forgotten. Even his son Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach though his dad’s music old-fashioned. But a century later the stirrings of German nationalism led to the re-examination of this obscure organist. This night at the Singakademie in Berlin, musical superstar Felix Mendelsson performed “The St. Matthew Passion” and other Bach works. The musicians performed for free. The concert caused a sensation and Bach is soon being played all over Europe and influencing everyone from Berlioz to Wagner. Goethe and Hegel declared him a genius.<br /> <br /> 1851-Guisseppi Verdi's grand opera" Rigoletto "debuts. Considered Verdi's first mature work, it made him an international star. Based on Victor Hugo's "L'roi's amuse", originally about the lustful abominations of King Francois I of France, Verdi changed it to the Duke of Mantua and steered away from the class politics to a family melodrama. Victor Hugo didn't like it. <br /> <br /> 1861- the seceded southern states adopted a constitution based on the old Articles of Confederation passed in 1778, hence the name the Confederate States of America. It provided for a President with a six-year term with no eligibility for a second term. <br /> <br /> 1888- THE YEAR OF BLUE ICE- The Great Blizzard of '88. In New York and Boston 40 inches of snow fell in 36 hours. Record low temperatures, 80 mile an hour winds and ice storms so severe that all the telephone and telegraph wires between New York and Boston snapped. To contact anyone you had to be routed through London England. 400 people died in New York City alone. Policemen set up frostbite checkpoints to rub the ears of pedestrians as they walked by. <br /> Out West so many head of cattle died that a serious beef shortage the following year created a labor problem with unemployed cowboys that led to the Johnson County Wars of 1890. Teddy Roosevelt was a Dakota rancher at the time and he saw cattle freeze to death where they stood. Later in the spring thaw, these "cowsickles" would be bobbing up and down in the Dakota River with the ice flows.<br /> <br /> 1889- The California Legislature split Orange County from LA County.<br /> <br /> 1917- Czar Nicholas called out the army garrisoned in Petrograd to put down the rioting strikers in the streets. Although some shoot at the demonstrators, most of the soldiers broke ranks and joined them.<br /> <br /> 1918- THE GREAT SPANISH FLU PANDEMIC- This day the first noticeable rise in a strange new flu occurred at Camp Funston Kansas. It was called the Spanish flu because even though it broke out all around the world, Spain was did not have wartime press censorship, so they reported it first. <br /> In only one year this new flu virus killed 21 million people around the Earth, 640,000 in the U.S. alone- everyone from Kaiser Wilhelm to young Walt Disney got sick. In places as far away as China, India and Russia thousands died. The epidemic killed as many people as the just concluding Great War. Then it disappeared as rapidly as it appeared. Experts believed it mutated into less lethal versions. Covid-19 which emerged in 2020 has killed 6 million, in the USA is over one million deaths. <br /> <br /> 1926- Eamon De Valera renounced his opposition to Irish government politics and resigned from Sinn Fein. In 1933 he was elected first president of the Republic of Ireland, a job he held off and on until 1973.<br /> <br /> 1927- The first Roxy Theater opens at 50th st. &amp; Seventh Ave. in New York. Roxy was a nickname of theater owner Samuel L. Rothafel who pioneered the movie palace and is called the father of De-Luxe presentation. There were soon Roxy theaters in cities from Hollywood to Sydney Australia.<br /> <br /> 1938- ANSCHLUSS- The Nazi takeover of Austria. Hitler had been organizing a covert takeover of the Vienna government by Austrian Nazis until the Austrian Prime Minister Schussning declared they would put the issue of uniting with the German Reich to a public plebiscite. Rather than risk asking the public Hitler ordered his tanks to roll. Gen. "Panzer Heinz" Guderian had his men adorn their tanks with flowers act like it was more of a German family reunion than an invasion. <br /> Viennese intellectuals like Albert Einstein had to flee. Sigmund Freud was not allowed to leave until he signed a note saying he was treated well-" I'd personally recommend the Gestapo to anyone". Painter Alphonze Mucha wrote a letter to his friends in America saying he was in the care of the Nazis and that he was fine. He died shortly afterwards…?<br /> <br /> Eric Wolfgang Korngold was in Hollywood debating whether to score the latest Errol Flynn picture for Warner Bros.- "The Adventures of Robin Hood" or return to Vienna to produce his opera- "Die Kathrin". When he heard his Vienna apartment was one of the first the Gestapo raided he decided to stay and do the Flynn picture. He later inscribed the music score to Jack Warner; "to Jack. Thanks for saving my life."<br /> <br /> 1939- The Nazis take over the rest of Czechoslovakia that they didn't absorb through the Munich Pact. This leads Britain’s Prime Minister Chamberlain and France’s Premier Daladier to declare any attempt on Hitler’s next target-Poland, would be met with force.<br /> <br /> 1941- The U.S. enacted the Lend-Lease program to send valuable military equipment to Britain without getting directly involved yet in World War II.<br /> <br /> 1943- The Broadway musical team of Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein opened their first collaboration “Away We Go!”<br /> <br /> 1958- The U.S. Air Force accidentally dropped an H-Bomb on South Carolina near Mars Bluff. The safety catches insured it wouldn’t go off. The incident was kept top secret.<br /> <br /> 1971- Philo Farnsworth died of pneumonia at 64. The young Utah native in 1922 had invented the television set, but by the 1960’s he was forgotten, broke and addicted to painkillers. The only recognition he got was as a contestant on the quiz show I Got a Secret. He won a check for $80 and a carton of Winston cigarettes. Today Farnsworth is considered one of the true inventors of television, along with John Logie-Baird.<br /> <br /> 1971- THX 1138- Frances Ford Coppola convinced Warner Bros to release a fleshed-out feature version of a USC college thesis film by a young guy named George Lucas.<br /> <br /> 1977- Film director Roman Polanski (Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown) was arrested for having sex with a 13 year old girl in Jack Nicholson’s home after he got her stoned on quaaludes. Polanski was charged with statutory rape. He jumped bail and fled Hollywood for exile in Paris. LA courts have been trying unsuccessfully to get him extradited ever since.<br /> <br /> 1984 - NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND, adapted and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, was released in Japan. When the Walt Disney company agreed to distribute the film, they released it in Europe with time cuts, about ten minutes. Miyazaki sent the studio a beautiful antique samurai sword. On the blade he engraved, “ No Cuts”.<br /> <br /> 1985- Since the death of Lenoid Brehznev the Soviet Union’s Central Committee was having a problem: every elderly Bolshevik they named as Soviet Premier -Yuri Andropov, Constantin Chernenko, had quickly died themselves of old age. On this day they selected the youngest member of their ranks to the leadership. He would be the last Premier of the Soviet Union- Mikhail Gorbachov.<br /> <br /> 1990- Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare its independence. Today their parliament approved The Act of the Reestablishment of the State of Lithuania. By 1991 the unwieldy Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had fallen to pieces and the Russian Federation was formed in its place.<br /> <br /> 2004- Al Qaeda terrorists set off ten bombs in Madrid commuter trains at the height of the morning rush hour. 200 dead, 1500 hurt. <br /> <br /> 2011- FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI- The northern coast of Japan was struck by one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded. The quake sent a tsunami wave that erased whole towns and killed 20,000. A ripple wave went across the Pacific and sank boats in harbor at Santa Cruz, California and Oregon. The tsunami also damaged 5 reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, sending clouds of radioactive steam into the atmosphere and water. <br /> <br /> 2020- The World Health Organization declared covid 19 a global pandemic. Pres. Trump reacted by denouncing the WHO and cutting their funding.<br /> =============================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question; What do these places have in common? Tunbridge Wells. UK, Wolftrap, USA. Bayreuth, Germany. <br /> <br /> Answer: They are all the sites for an international classical music festival.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 10 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6092 <p>Question: What do these places have in common? Tunbridge Wells, Wolftrap, Bayreuth, <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: What is the difference between sweetbreads, and sweetmeats?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/10/2023<br /> Birthdays: Lorenzo da Ponte -librettist of Mozart's operas, Barry Fitzgerald, Claire Booth Luce, Heywoud Hale Broun, James Herriot, Pablo de Sarrasate, Osama Bin Laden, Robert Abel, Chuck Norris is 83, Shannon Tweed, Sharon Stone is 65, John Hamm is 52<br /> <br /> 241 B.C.- NAVAL BATTLE OF AEGATES ISLANDS- Romans under Gaius Lutatius Catullus defeated the Carthaginians under Hamilcar Barca (The Thunderer) to win the First Punic War. The Carthaginians were much better sailors than the Romans, so Catullus lashed his ships side by side and laid planks over the decks. This way his legions could fight infantry style. The Romans developed another tactic of taking clay beehives filled with angry hornets and shooting them by catapult onto enemy ships. <br /> The Romans won Sicily. Hamilcar taught his son Hannibal that the Romans were not nice people.<br /> <br /> 1661-King Louis XIV of France "the Sun King" tells his guardians to take a hike because he was now old enough to rule alone. He kept his old regent Cardinal Mazarin around a few more years, but this is the beginning of his Divine Right Rule.<br /> <br /> 1697- PETERS TRAVELS- Young Czar Peter the Great was so hungry for the knowledge of the West, that this day he shocked Russian society by leaving the country to travel through Europe. He was the first Russian Czar to ever go outside his country. <br /> The 6 foot 8 inch monarch spent 18 months personally studying economics, architecture and chemistry. Peter lived in a small wooden cottage in Zaandam Holland and studied boat building. He drank in local pubs with workers and even made love to a local waitress. He learned to make his own shoes, mend clothes and even learned to pull teeth, which he loved to practice on unwilling nobles of this court. <br /> After arriving in England, Peter surprised English society by shouldering an axe every morning, and pipe in teeth, walking down to the docks to work among the ship builders. <br /> He returned to Russia filled with the desire to rebuild Russian society in the modern western European model. <br /> <br /> 1791- Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who fancied himself an amateur scientist, presented a paper to the American Philosophical Society about the discovery of the fossils of a cow sized sloth called Megalonyx. The future sciences like Geology and Paelontology were referred to in those times as “Natural Philosophy”.<br /> <br /> 1842-Vigilantes of Virginia City, Montana hanged a tough hombre named Jack Slade. Accounts say Slade was "More feared than God, but all in all a good citizen." <br /> <br /> 1862- FIRST U.S. GREENBACK PAPER DOLLARS ISSUED- "Dollar" is a corruption of Jacobsthaler- named for silver coins minted in St. James valley in Czech lands, which became 'Thalers' then 'Dollars'. Lincoln was originally annoyed that Secretary of the Treasury Samuel Chase put himself on the one-dollar bill while he was on the five. Lincoln thought Chase wanted some cheap advertising for a presidential bid in '64. Lincoln made him Supreme Court Justice to get him out of the way. The money was printed with green ink because it was then cheap and plentiful. <br /> When issued the new money instead of silver or gold, Union troops promptly rioted. People nicknamed the fat bills“ Chase’s Shinplasters ”. After the Civil War, when the U.S. Treasury tried to recall the paper currency and go back to coins, people complained again that they were now used to the stuff. In 1924 the US changed to the smaller sized bill we all use now.<br /> <br /> 1864- Lincoln gives Ulysses Grant overall U.S. command to finish the Civil War. The shy little general arrived late and unannounced at the White House party given in his honor. Because the crowd was so thick he stood patiently in the hallway until Lincoln spotted him. "There he is!" He made Grant stand on a stool, so everyone could get a good look.<br /> Lincoln was a constant nag on his generals, but after choosing Grant he backed off giving Grant independent command, a custom maintained by presidents to this day. Grant's successful though unorthodox approach disgusted more traditional strategists. Gen. Henry "Old Brains" Halleck, after running out of criticisms to hurl at Grant, said: "And on top of everything else, The man's a drunkard!" To which Lincoln replied: "He is? Find out what brand he drinks and send a barrel of it to the other generals!"<br /> <br /> 1864- King Maximillian I died, his son Ludwig II 'the Mad' becomes king of Bavaria.<br /> <br /> 1876- THE FIRST TRUE TELEPHONE CALL. Alexander Graham Bell had applied for the phone patent several weeks before but he still couldn’t get the signal clear enough to be understood. He even had a surgeon send him a human ear from a corpse to study. This day when trying a new variation, Bell spilled acid on his lap and called out over the wires " Watson ! Come Here! I Need You!" Watson heard it clearly and rushed to his aid. <br /> Some say Watson made up the story of the acid later to explain why Bell couldn’t think of anything loftier or profound to say as the first message sent by wire.<br /> <br /> 1926- The First Book of the Month Club – The Lovely Willows by Sylvia Townshend Warner.<br /> <br /> 1933- The LONG BEACH EARTHQUAKE. There had not been a serious quake in LA since 1857, so everyone thought it a thing of the past. Today the buildings swayed and brick walls collapsed. It was the last big shift in the San Andreas Fault. 200 people were killed, and if the schools had not been empty for Easter break, the casualties could have been much worse.<br /> Actors convening early SAG union meetings in the El Capitan Theater moved out into a parking lot because of the aftershocks. The quake sparked the first serious earthquake building codes.<br /> <br /> 1935- The First Smokey Stover comic strip (notary sojac).<br /> <br /> 1938- Bowing to Arab anger and increased local rioting, the British Mandate authority in Palestine imposed the first restrictions on Jewish immigration. A quota of only 3.000 were permitted. The previous year 40.000 immigrated fleeing the Nazi persecution in Europe. Zionist Jews developed novel ways of smuggling more people ashore. They once held a Jewish Olympics to rival Hitler’s Berlin Games, then all the participants who came melted into the crowd and stayed.<br /> <br /> 1940- U.S. Under-Secretary of State Sumner Welles tried some shuttle diplomacy between Berlin, London and Paris to try and halt the World War that had just broke out. He was met with no cooperation. Hitler told him “Peace will come when we have the inevitable German Victory.” In January 1941 FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, “outed” Welles by accusing him of homosexual activity, and attempting to proposition several Pullman porters on trains. Welles resigned in disgrace and was later the target of a HUAC investigation.<br /> <br /> 1947- Ronald Reagan becomes President of the Screen Actor's Guild after President George Montgomery and V.P. Franchot Tone resigned to become independent producers. In the violent gangster-ridden atmosphere of Hollywood unions Reagan took to wearing a .32 Smith &amp; Wesson in a shoulder holster under his coat.<br /> <br /> 1948- Zelda Fitzgerald, the socialite wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, died in a fire at the mental hospital where she had been committed for more than a decade. <br /> <br /> 1948- Stalin’s agents take Czech Nationalist leader Jan Masaryk and defenestrate him -throw him out of a window- as a way of influencing the upcoming Czech elections. They gave as an excuse that he accidentally fell out of the window while doing yoga to combat his insomnia.<br /> <br /> 1952- General Fulgensio Batista seized power in Cuba. He was a favorite with US Corporations and the Mafia because he sold everything in his country not nailed down. Part of his coup was the dissolving and arrest of the Cuban Congress, among whom was a young novice politician and part time baseball pitcher named Fidel Castro.<br /> <br /> 1953- PANCHO AND THE GENERAL- Florence Lowe "Pancho" Barnes was the granddaughter of Thaddeus Lowe, inventor of the U.S. Army balloon corps in the Civil War. She became an aviatrix and in 1930 broke an air speed record set by Amelia Earhart.<br /> In the late 1940s she moved to Muroc California in the desert and opened up a saloon, "The Happy Bottom Riding Club' where the test pilots flying dangerous experimental craft trying to break the sound barrier came to blow off steam. Chuck Yeager and the future astronauts were frequent guests. She once told famed General Jimmy Doolittle "Jimmy, you know I can out fly and out f**k you any day of the Week!!" The bar was famous for wild parties with lots of booze and rough housing. <br /> In 1952 a General Holtoner took over command of Maroc, now renamed Edwards Air Force Base. He tried to have Pancho evicted so the Air Force could expand its supersonic runway. When she objected to the General's lack of respect, he implied that she ran a house of prostitution. On this day Pancho sued the US Air Force for 1 1/2 million dollars. General Holtoner was replaced, the Happy Bottom Riding Club was destroyed in a fire, and Pancho Barnes moved away. The bar was immortalized in the movie 'The Right Stuff'.<br /> <br /> 1954- In a letter to studio heads director Elias Kazan worried that young actor James Dean was “too odd” and unpredictable to star in his movie “Rebel Without a Cause”.<br /> <br /> 1954- First day of shooting on Stage 3 of the Giant Squid battle on Walt Disney’s production of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. The director was Richard Fleischer, the son of Walt Disney’s onetime competitor Max Fleischer.<br /> <br /> 1963- Pete Rose first took the field in a Cincinnati Reds uniform. During an exhibition baseball game with the Yankees Mickey Mantle hit one of his monster 400-ft home runs and young Rose was the only outfielder scrambling and jumping hopelessly to catch it. Mantle laughed and said:” Hey, look at Charlie Hustle over there.” The nickname stuck. Charlie Hustle would go on to break Ty Cobb’s all time hitting record and managed winning teams. But after his retirement he was banned from baseball for betting on sports.<br /> <br /> 1969- The Godfather, a novel by Mario Puzo was first published. The book about a NY mafia family was a huge hit and spawned three successful movies.<br /> <br /> 1972- Silent Running, starring Bruce Dern and directed by Douglas Trumble opened.<br /> <br /> 1975- North Vietnamese begin their final offensive that would capture Saigon and end the Vietnam War on April 30th. For the first time in a decade they fight out in the open with heavy Russian T-52 tanks.<br /> <br /> 1980- This year one of the most popular diets in the country was the Scarsdale Diet by Dr. Herman Tarnower. This day a woman named Jean Harris entered his Purchase NY home and shot Dr. Tarnower to death. Her trial was a cause-celeb in the NY press. <br /> <br /> 1988- Andy Gibb of the BeeGees died at age 30. It was reported he died of a drug overdose, but he actually died of heart failure brought on by years of heavy drug abuse.<br /> <br /> 1997- The Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, who was in jail at Broadmoor England for killing thirteen women, was stabbed in both eyes by another inmate. <br /> <br /> 2008- BANG THE GOV SLOWLY- Elliot Spitzer was the hard-driving NY State Attorney General who rocketed to the governorship and was touted as a potential future presidential candidate. His specialty was catching hi-tech Wall Street white collar crooks. Today his Icarus-like ascent came crashing down. He admitted to soliciting high price prostitutes. At $4,300 an hour. Spitzer was known to them as Client #9. The ladies said he liked to leave his socks on. When the news of his resignation came over the ticker on the NY Stock Exchange trading floor, day-traders stopped to cheer.<br /> ==========================================================<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is the difference between sweetbreads, and sweetmeats?<br /> <br /> Answer: Sweetbreads are offal food taken from the thymus gland, pancreas or genitalia of young animals, most often calves, pigs or lambs. They are roundish in shape and are a favorite ingredient in many European dishes. Sweetmeats are an archaic term for confectionery. The Elizabethans loved their sugared treats, and it could be fruit, fruit skins, nuts, ginger, or other spice roots, etc.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 09 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6091 <p>Question: What is the difference between sweetbreads, and sweetmeats?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays Question answered below: Who invented the wedding ring?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/9/2023 <br /> Birthdays: Amerigo Vespucci, Eddie Foy, Yuri Gargarin, Samuel Barber, chess master Bobby Fischer, Mickey Spillane, Vita Sackville-West, Raul Julia, Vacheslav Molotov, Juliet Binoche is 59, Linda Fiorentino is 65, Lil’ Bow-Wow is 36<br /> <br /> 1522- Protestant reformer Martin Luther had inspired the people of Germany to throw off the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. But he soon became alarmed by the excesses he heard of. People were burning churches and stoning priests who refused to change their ways. One bishop fed Holy Communion wafers to his pet parrot. <br /> This day Martin Luther came out of protective hiding and donned his monks robes to give a series of 8 sermons from the pulpit in Wittenberg. He called people back to order and to show mercy to those who still preferred the old religion. Stop the violence he said" had I not freed millions of men from ecclesiastical oppression without lifting more than one pen?"<br /> <br /> 1566- The Scottish Presbyterian nobles around Mary Queen of Scots disliked her Italian Catholic secretary Antonio Riccio. So today despite the Queens protests, they dragged him off and stabbed him to death.<br /> <br /> 1796- NAPOLEON &amp; JOSEPHINE'S WEDDING ANNIVERSARY- Legend has it Napoleon was working late at the office planning to attack Italy so arrived two hours late. The minister had dozed off and Napoleon shouted:" Wake up Citizen and Marry Us!" Josephine (34) was about 8 years older than Nappy (26) so to smooth over the difference on the marriage certificate he made himself 18 months older and she took four years off.<br /> <br /> 1805- YORK -Several times the Lewis &amp; Clark expedition was saved from attack because natives were amazed to see York, Captain Clark's slave. He was the first black man they had ever seen. <br /> This day York was introduced to Mandan Chief One-Eyed Le Bourgne. Le Bourgne first tried to rub the color off with water but when he saw York's dark hair he whooped for joy! The whites were hairy, pale and ugly, but this man was strong and beautiful with eyes like a buffalo! A very powerful symbol in Mandan culture. <br /> Chief LeBourgne immediately invited York to make love to two Mandan maidens so a physical record of this great event would remain with the tribe. <br /> <br /> 1822- First patent in the U.S. issued for ceramic false teeth. Before that they were made of a strong oak; George Washington once tried a set made of deer's teeth set in lead that was too heavy for him to close his mouth. He also tried teeth taken from his slaves. Finally, he settled for a set of choppers carved from a hippopotamus jaw. In Gilbert Stuarts’ painting the bulge seen in his tightly compressed upper lip is his dentures. <br /> <br /> 1841- After hearing the arguments of former president John Quincy Adams, the US Supreme Court ruled that the African men who overpowered the crew of the Spanish slave ship La Amistad could go home to Africa. <br /> <br /> 1842- Francisco Lopez discovered gold in Placerita Canyon in Southern California.<br /> <br /> 1846- With the lavish ceremony before the gates of Lahore, Britain concluded the First Sikh War. One of the tributes handed over was the Koh-in-Noor Diamond, The Mountain of Light, at 800 karats the largest diamond in the world. It is now part of the crown jewels of Britain. <br /> <br /> 1847- General Winfield Scott began landing the U.S. troops off ships in the harbor of Vera Cruz in landing boats he designed. He hoped to emulate Cortez's march of conquest to Mexico City. It was the first large scale amphibious landings in U.S. Army history. <br /> <br /> 1858- THE MAILBOX is patented. One legend has it first invented by English writer Anthony Trollope.<br /> <br /> 1862- THE MONITOR VS. THE MERRIMAC. The first battle between iron warships. The Confederate Merrimac also called the Virginia spent yesterday shooting up the wooden Yankee fleet, it's armor plating laughing off their cannonballs. <br /> She was preparing to finish the job today when the weirdly designed little U.S.S. Monitor chugged into view. The two ironclads fought to a draw, but it saved the remainder of the Union fleet. \They kept bouncing cannonballs off their iron sides all day. At one point the Confederate captain asked his gunnery officer why he had stopped firing. He replied:" Because I'm doing her as much damage as if I snapped my fingers at her every two and a half minutes!" The Merrimac's crew even tried to board the Monitor with pistols and cutlasses, but she was too un-maneuverable to catch her. Finally exhausted, they both drew off for the night. <br /> The CSS Merrimac was later blown up when it's home base at Norfolk was captured by Union forces and the USS Monitor sank in a storm. But both sides began to build more iron warships. <br /> <br /> 1888- While strolling through his garden, writer Jules Verne was shot by an emotional deranged nephew Gaston. He recovered, but walked with a limp for the rest of his life.<br /> <br /> 1907- Former Edison animator J. Stuart Blackton started "Moving Picture World" an early movie fanzine.<br /> <br /> 1913- Virginia Woolf completed her first novel The Voyage Out.<br /> <br /> 1916- Pancho Villa and his Mexican Revolutionaries- Los Dorados, crossed into Texas and New Mexico and at the town of Columbus killed 17 Americans and burned the town. Villa was angry that the Yankees had intervened in the Mexican revolution several times and allowed American railroads to transport the troops of his enemy General Carranza. Pancho Villa was pursued by U.S. troops under Blackjack Pershing, leading men who would one day command Americas armies, like Lieutenant George Patton and Captain Douglas MacArthur. <br /> <br /> 1917- During the air battles over the Western Front this day a red German Fokker Albatross biplane was forced down over his own lines. Friendly troops carried the pilot to safety, stunned but okay. When they asked him how many planes he shot down, he murmured "24". The men thought he was a liar until they undid the scarf around his neck and saw his Blue Max medal. The pilot was Von Richtofen, the Red Baron. Baron von Richtofen would recover and go back into combat, scoring 80 kills until he was finally killed himself the following April.<br /> <br /> 1932-New York born Eamon DeValera elected first President of the Republic of Ireland.<br /> <br /> 1932- China’s last Manchu emperor Henry Pu Yi was declared by the Japanese Army emperor of their conquered territory in Manchuria called Manchukuo.<br /> <br /> 1945- U.S. B-29s drop massive amounts of incendiary bombs on Tokyo, killing 120,000 people, more than Hiroshima (90,000). USAF General Curtis LeMay told his assistant Robert MacNamara that "If the Japanese had won the war, we would’ve been prosecuted as war criminals."<br /> <br /> 1954- Edgar R. Murrow does his "See It Now" television broadcast detailing the life of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the commie-chaser. The obvious contradictions and gross opportunism in McCarthy's record when laid out before a nationwide audience, destroyed his career and took the steam out of the "Red Scare" of the 50's. It is probably television journalism's finest moment. For the lowest? Well, what's on tonight? <br /> <br /> 1955- Actor James Dean’s last film, East of Eden, premiered today,<br /> <br /> 1959-The first "Clutch Cargo" show. <br /> <br /> 1974- Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda came out of the Philippine jungle and surrendered, at last made to understand that World War II had been over for thirty years. Even after he captured a transistor radio, he thought the broadcast news of American troops in Vietnam and Korea was just propaganda. Onoda was finally convinced when Japanese researchers produced his elderly retired Major, who was driven through the jungle while reading over a bullhorn the surrender orders he first gave in 1945. Lt. Onoda returned to Japan a popular, if confused, hero. Onoda died in 2012 at age 94.<br /> <br /> 1984- Roy E. Disney Jr., Walt’s nephew, resigned from the central board of the Walt Disney Company, setting in motion a series of takeover bids and maneuvering that by August would wrest control of the company from Ron Miller, Walt’s son-in-law.<br /> <br /> 1984- Touchstone pictures Splash premiered, featuring Tom Hanks, John Candy and a tastefully topless Daryl Hannah.<br /> <br /> 1989- Artist-photographer Robert Maplethorpe died of AIDS.<br /> <br /> 1997- Gangsta-rap singer Christopher Wallace, who was known as the Notorious B.I.G. and also called Biggie Smalls, was shot and killed by a gangsta-style drive by. His last album was entitled Life After Death. Notorious BIG could never shake the accusation that he was involved in the similar murder of singer Tupac Shakur.<br /> <br /> 2007- Zack Snyder’s film “300” opened. This is Sparta!<br /> ===============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Who invented the wedding ring?<br /> <br /> Answer: The band of gold was a Greco-Roman idea. It represented in old times when you would exchange some gold to get your wife (dowry). It is on the third finger of the left hand, because ancient doctors believed that finger had a blood vessel that went directly to your heart. (veinis amoris) The Norse introduced the idea of engagement rings.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 08 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6090 <p>Question: Who invented the wedding ring?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What does it mean to defenestrate someone?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/8/2023 <br /> Birthdays: Sophocles, Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach, Hannah Hoes Van Beuren- the First Lady for Martin Van Beuren, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Alan Hovhannes, Kenneth Grahame the author of the Wind in the Willows, Cyd Charisse, Charlie Pride, Mickey Dolenz, Alan Hale Jr., Jim Rice, Aiden Quinn is 65, Freddy Prinze Jr is 49, Jim Bouton- baseball player, author, inventor of Big League Chew bubble gum, animator Don Hall<br /> <br /> 1265- THE GREAT PARLIAMENT- For the first time in the modern era, a legislative body comprised of English Nobility, Clergy and Common men met to discuss the affairs of the kingdom. All modern representative government begins here. This inclusion of a "House of Commons" was the genius of Earl Simon de Monfort, a rebel baron who saw the need to curb King Henry III's power, and perhaps from the depths of the Middle Ages, he saw the future. First, he had to defeat and capture the King in battle and forced the clergy to declare excommunicate anyone who messed with the system, just to make the whole thing stick. So even after Simon De Monfort was chopped up in battle and the king restored to full power, the Parliamentary system endured.<br /> <br /> 1702- After the death of King William III of Orange, Queen Anne takes over England.<br /> She was an obese lady almost in constant pain from gout and pleurisy and had to be moved around in a chair, raised and lowered with ropes and pulleys. Like William and Mary she had no direct heir - she had 17 children but none of them made it past the age of 11. After her death the British throne went to a nephew, the German Elector of Hanover, George I, because he was Protestant. Pirate Edward Teech, called Blackbeard, named his ship "Queen Anne's Revenge", for reasons known only to him.<br /> <br /> 1778- France’s entry into the war for American Independence made London rethink it’s strategy. This day Colonial Secretary Lord Germain sent orders to Generals Howe and Clinton to stop chasing rebels in Philadelphia and fall back to New York City, where they could be more adequately supported by the navy. The American Revolution would now be a secondary consideration to the wider global war with France, Spain and Holland.<br /> <br /> 1782- Gnaderhutten massacre- Connecticut militia ambush 90 Pequot Christian Indians as revenge for Indian raids. The raiders were from another tribe, but these guys were more conveniently in the neighborhood.<br /> <br /> 1846- After the U.S. annexation of Texas, Mexico disputed exactly where the border ended. The U.S. claimed it was the Rio Grande, the Mexican Government claimed it was a few hundred miles further north at the River Nueces. This day President James K. Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor “Old Rough &amp; Ready” to move his army into the disputed area and hope he gets attacked. This was so they could declare war on Mexico with a clear provocation.<br /> <br /> 1862- The Confederate navy had dredged up the hull of a sunken warship named the Merrimac and outfitted her with iron boilerplate to create the C.S.S. Virginia, the first ironclad warship. Her skipper Captain Robert Buchanan, before the war was first commandant of the Annapolis Naval Academy.<br /> On this day the Merrimac-Virginia steamed over to Union wooden warships blockading Hampton Roads inlet and attacked them. While the big warship's cannonballs bounced harmlessly off her iron plate, she rammed and sank the U.S.S. Cumberland, burned the U.S.S. Congress, and ran two more ships aground. Eventually she drew off for the night, resolved to finish them in the morning. Washington D.C. panicked: What was to prevent the Merrimac-Virginia from sailing up the Potomac and shelling the White House? The USS Monitor, that's who, sailing down slowly from New York. It arrived this night and moored alongside the stricken Congress. Sailors said it looked like a “Cheese Box on a Raft.”<br /> The London Times correspondent John Russell had watched the battle, and wired home:" As of today, every wooden navy in the world is now obsolete."<br /> <br /> 1886- A Scottish doctor in Portsmouth England, named Arthur Conan-Doyle had been trying his hand at writing fiction. He sold a few stories to magazines and tried to publish a historical novel about an insurance company, “The Firm of Girdlestone”, with lackluster results. <br /> This day he began a new novel “A Tangled Skein” which had a new character named at first Sheridan Hope, then Sheringford Holmes. By the time he finished his story, month later, he had changed the title to “A Study in Scarlet” and the main protagonist name had become SHERLOCK HOLMES. <br /> Arthur Conan Doyle was an admirer of the American writer Oliver Wendel Holmes who was touring Britain that year. Like him, Holmes was a doctor who turned writer. No one is sure where he got the name Sherlock. It may have been a neighbor. Conan Doyle’s professor in Edinburgh college Dr Joseph Bell excelled at deductive reasoning and had an assistant named Dr. Watson.<br /> <br /> 1894- The first dog licenses issued in New York.<br /> <br /> 1908- The British House of Commons voted down a bill giving women the vote.<br /> <br /> 1917- In St. Petersburg it was International Women Workers Day. Women protesting the war threw rocks at factory windows to get the men to come out and join them. Soon the Czar's capitol was in a general strike. Czar Nicholas was at the front, and the Czarina is enclosed with her icons praying over the recently murdered monk Rasputin. The anti-government demonstrations would go on day and night, joined by policemen and soldiers until the Czar abdicated on March 15th.<br /> <br /> 1921- Spanish premier Eduardo Dato was assassinated while leaving the Cortes or Parliament in Madrid.<br /> <br /> 1930- An angry mob of unemployed battle the police in New York’s Tompkin’s Square.<br /> <br /> 1933- As a result of President Roosevelt's Nationwide Bank shutdown, Hollywood Studios go into a cash panic. MGM, RKO and the others ask for 30-50% salary cuts from their stars and artists. At one point they announced the salary cuts at the Oscar banquet ( betchya that made for a real fun party!)<br /> Louis B. Mayer, tearful and unshaven pleaded his case to his contract-stars, who reluctantly accepted the cuts. Lionel Barrymore called out "We're with ya. L.B. !" Afterwards Mayer winked to his secretary and giggled:” So how’d I do?” A week later Mayer hired his new son-in-law David Selznick as a producer at $4,5000 a week. Production chief Darryl Zanuck quit Warner Bros. over the employee salary cuts and went on to build Twentieth Century Fox. <br /> <br /> 1933- Nazi interior minister Wilhelm Frick announced the creation of a system of Concentration Camps to incarcerate political undesirables.<br /> <br /> 1941- Writer and playwright Sherwood Anderson dies from periarteritis- internal bleeding- after swallowing a toothpick at a cocktail party.<br /> <br /> 1941- The National Television System Committee set up by the FCC to standardize television technology recommended an industry standard of 525 scan lines at 30 frames a second- what we now call after their name- NTSC. England later adopted the PAL (Phase Alternation Line) of 625 lines, 25 frames per second and France the SECAM System (Systeme Electronique Couleur Avec Memoire), which is also a 625 line, 25fps system. This is why British TV shows like The Prisoner always looked so grainy on American sets and American shows look so garish on British sets. By garish I mean the color, not the content. <br /> It also speeds up the film during video from 24 frames to 25fps (i.e. 4%)...which is why in England and the rest of Europe, all Hollywood movies are 4% shorter and the voices of the actors all sound a little squeaky. The way to remember NTSC is "Never-The-Same-Color'. DVD and BluRay went to a thousand- scan lines. The invention of digital screens made most of this irrelevant.<br /> <br /> 1942- Dutch forces surrendered Java to Japanese invaders. They rolled on to Sumatra.<br /> <br /> 1950- The Volkswagen bus introduced.<br /> <br /> 1961-The Frito Company merges with potato chip makers H.L. Lay to form Frito-Lay. The recipe for Fritos corn chips was bought by milkshake salesman Elmer Doolin from a Mexican fry cook in South Texas.<br /> <br /> 1966- London gangster Ronnie Kray entered the Blind Beggar Pub on Whitechapel Road and shot gangster George Cornell in the head. Ronnie and his identical twin brother Reggie ran rackets in London as well as a West End nightclub that booked performers like Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland. The Krays were finally imprisoned in 1968.<br /> <br /> 1968- The Soviet nuclear submarine K-19 sank in the Pacific off the US coastline. In 1974 the CIA tried to secretly dredge it up with a research ship the Glomar Explorer designed by Howard Hughes Company. In 2002 Harrison Ford made a movie about the K-19, but that sank also.<br /> <br /> 1969 -The Pontiac Trans-Am introduced. Muscle car enthusiasts rejoice!<br /> <br /> 1970- The Nixon White House announced that the Americans operations in Vietnam and Cambodia had also been expanded into the neutral nation of Laos and already 27 Americans had been killed in fighting there.<br /> <br /> 1973- Paul McCartney was fined 100 pounds for growing marijuana on his farm Mull of Kintyre.<br /> <br /> 1977- Ralph Bakshi’s film Wizards premiered.<br /> <br /> 1994- Don Ku invented the ubiquitous little rolling wheeled black suitcase with collapsible handle that bumps into your legs at airports today.<br /> <br /> 1998- In Ladson South Carolina, Daniel Rudolph, the brother of Abortion Clinic bomber Eric Rudolph, videotaped himself cutting off his own hand with a power saw. He said he did this to send a message to the FBI and the Liberal Media!<br /> <br /> 2014- Malaysian airliner MH 370 in route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 227 passengers and crew disappeared mid-ocean. It went off course and headed towards the most remote part of the ocean between the Indian Ocean and Antarctica. Evidence showed that it’s satellite tracking had been turned off from inside the cabin shortly before it disappeared. Small pieces of debris were found on the African coast in 2015, but by January 2017 the search was called off.<br /> ===================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean to defenestrate someone?<br /> <br /> Answer: To throw them out of a window.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 07 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6089 <p>Question: What does it mean to defenestrate someone?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays Question answered below: What is a John Roscoe? (Hint: Damon Runyon)<br /> ---------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/7/2023<br /> Birthdays: Maurice Ravel, Piet Mondrian, Roman Emperor Geta, Luther Burbank, Tammy Fae Baker, Willard Scott, Lynn Swann, Franco Harris, Daniel D. Travanti, Rachel Weisz is 53, Michael Eisner is 81, Wanda Sykes is 59, Peter Saarsgard is 52, Bryan Cranston is 67.<br /> <br /> 322 BC- the Greek philosopher Aristotle died of indigestion.<br /> <br /> 161AD- The death of the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius. Marcus Aurelius became Emperor. Marcus named his brother Lucius Verus as co-emperor, but Verus died after a few years. Marcus Aurelius became famous as the philosopher-emperor, ruling justly and leaving behind his Meditations, one of the great works of western philosophy.<br /> <br /> 1274- Saint Thomas Aquinas died in Italy. Everybody knew the great teacher was so holy he undoubtedly would be made a saint (the medieval equivalent of being called to the Hall of Fame). So rather and wait for opportunity to sell his bones as relics, the people sped up the process by boiling his remains in lye.<br /> <br /> 1765- PARLIAMENT PASSES THE STAMP ACT. Ever since winning Canada and India from France, England had to come up with ways to pay for her massive war debt as well as garrisoning and administering all the new possessions. Up until now Americans had gotten off easy on taxes, because the Crown knew their economy was building. The Stamp Act ordered that all purchases and exports to and from America have a royal stamp (i.e. tax) on them, sort of like the stamp you see on liquor bottle caps. These taxes were already in place in England, so Whitehall felt nobody would mind. Americans went ballistic and overnight became a nation of smugglers. They most strongly objected to the idea that the tax was levied without their consent. No one consulted their elected representatives, and there were no American seats in Parliament. <br /> Even though the unpopular act was repealed a year later after Benjamin Franklin successfully argued in Parliament, the resentment against the mother country lingered. The British in turn were surprised and annoyed by the all the fuss. They felt the Yankees were an ungrateful bunch, they had defeated French for.<br /> <br /> 1774- To combat rampant smuggling and teach a lesson to the increasingly uppity New Englanders, the Royal Governor of Massachusetts General Thomas Gage ordered the Port of Boston closed. This act all but ensured that the first outbreak of violence in the American Revolution would happen there.<br /> <br /> 1809- French Balloonist Jean Pierre Blanchard died from injuries sustained from crashing his balloon in the Netherlands. Blanchard with a man named Jeffries had crossed the English Channel by air, and for years he had demonstrated the wonders of air flight for audiences like Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon. <br /> <br /> 1850- THE 7TH OF MARCH SPEECH- The only address given to Congress that is known only by it's date. Senator Daniel Webster stood up and electrified the nation with a three hour address backing the Clay Compromise: "Mr. Speaker ! I rise not as a Massachusetts man, or a Northern man, but as an American !!" This Northern abolitionist backed the fugitive slave law and other concessions to the South in exchange for California entering the union as a non-slave state. <br /> New England supporters were furious. His controversial stand probably cost him his last chance of ever becoming president, and he died bitter two years later. But John F. Kennedy said in "Profiles in Courage" that by doing this act Daniel Webster helped delay the Civil War for ten more years, which allowed the north to grow more industrially powerful. So he saved the United States in a way.<br /> <br /> 1862- THE BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE- Yankees under General Curtis defeated a Confederate army under Gen. Stirling Price, keeping Missouri in the Union. It was a confused battle with militias, frontier scouts like Wild Bill Hickock and Creek Indians under Confederate Colonel Stand Watie. Curtis directed the battle in an old brown corduroy jacket and nuzzled a shotgun in his lap. The Creeks captured a Union battery but stopped their advance to dance with the scalps of the Yankees. <br /> <br /> 1862- BULLETHOLE ELLIS- Rebel Guerrilla leader William Quantrill and his raiders shot up the town of Aubrey, Kansas. During the raid, Quantrill fired his Colt revolver at a man looking out of a second story window named Abraham Ellis. The bullet was slowed by smashing through the windowsill and embedded in the man’s skull, but just missed touching his brain. Quantrill apologized to Ellis. Ellis had helped him get a teaching job before the war. The raiders left him for dead, but Abe Ellis recovered. Old Bullethole Ellis lived to a ripe old age, just with a large round dark hole in the center of his forehead.<br /> <br /> 1877- Bill Reed, a Union Pacific Railroad worker discovered a vast field of dinosaur fossils at Como Bluff Wyoming. "The bones extend for seven miles and are by the ton!"<br /> <br /> 1906- Finland becomes the first nation to give women the right to vote.<br /> <br /> 1916- BMW- The manufacturing firms of Karl Rapp and Gustav Otto merged to form the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke AG -Bavarian Aircraft Works. The company would later become the Bayerische Motor-Werke -Bavarian Motor Works or BMW. The Logo circle represents a white propeller turning against a blue sky- the colors of the old Kingdom of Bavaria, the heraldic shield of the ruling Wittelsbach Dynasty. After the world wars, BMW was prohibited from manufacturing aircraft engines, as their engines had powered the fierce fighters like the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and the Focke-Wulf 190. So, BMW focused on making high quality cars.<br /> <br /> 1932-BATTLE OF THE RIVER ROUGE- At the depth of the Great Depression unemployment in Detroit was up to 50% of the population. 10,000 desperately unemployed auto workers staged a protest march on Henry Ford's Rouge River plant, the largest factory in the world. They are met by police and hired thugs who fired into the crowd, killing 3 and wounding 25. Henry Ford, (who personally made $10 million that year) had machine guns mounted on his home's roof and advised his chief executives to carry sidearms. Fords private in-house police were called by the Orwellian misnomer the Service Department.<br /> <br /> 1936- HITLER RE-OCCUPIED THE RHINELAND- Since the Versailles treaty the German industrial heartland of the Ruhr valley was under neutral and sometimes Anglo-French occupation. Imagine trying to restart your stagnant economy with Chicago, Detroit and Pittsburgh under foreign control. Today Hitler took the biggest gamble of his career and ordered the still infant Wehrmacht army to reoccupy the Ruhr, in defiance of all previous treaties. He dared the Allies to do something about it, but they remained quiet. German generals were amazed that France and England could have easily invaded at any time and squashed them, but they did nothing. <br /> <br /> 1942- The Japanese army captured Rangoon and cut the Burma Road, severing Anglo- Chinese supply lines. After this supplies would have to be brought in 'Over the Hump" meaning flown by unescorted transport planes from India over the Himalayas.<br /> <br /> 1945- THE BRIDGE AT REMAGEN- A hostile army had not crossed the Rhine into Germany since Napoleon in 1806. The Germans called their defense of the border The Siegfried Line. The Nazis had ordered all Rhine bridges destroyed, but the bridge at Remagen was detonated with inferior charges. So it was intact as the U.S. Third Army approached. Sgt. Alex Drabik of Ohio ran across the bridge, weaving back and forth like a football player, with the enemy firing at him from all sides. Just as he reached the other side a Nazi popped out, pointed a Lugar pistol in his face and pulled the trigger. The gun was empty. The Siegfried Line was breached, and Sgt. Drabik died of very old age in 1993.<br /> <br /> 1945- Tom &amp; Jerry short Quiet Please won the Oscar for Best Animated Short.<br /> <br /> 1947- Winston Churchill, while giving a speech in America about the Soviet dominance of Eastern Europe uses the term "Iron Curtain". " From Zagreb on the Adriatic to Stettin in the Baltic, an Iron Curtain has descended across Europe." The phrase had been coined earlier by German Admiral Doenitz, but Churchill popularized the phrase. The Iron Curtain ended in 1989. <br /> <br /> 1951- The Prime Minister of Iran- General Ali Rasmara was assassinated by Islamic extremists. <br /> <br /> 1955- The 7th Emmy Awards, the first to be nationally televised. Steve Allen hosted. Held at the Moulin Rouge nightclub.<br /> <br /> 1965- BLOODY SUNDAY- THE EDMUND PETTUS BRIDGE-As Dr. Martin Luther King’s Civil Rights marchers reached the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Gov George Wallace had Alabama police attack them with firehoses, teargas, bullwhips and attack dogs. Dozens of peaceful marchers were beaten and hospitalized. Three were killed. The brutal images on television shocked the nation, had probably did more to ensure passage of the National Civil Rights Bill than anything the police could do to stop it.<br /> <br /> 1969- Golda Meir became Prime Minister of Israel.<br /> <br /> 1985- Lionel Ritchie and Michael Jackson released “ We Are The World” a song recorded by many of the top names in pop music at the time, all proceeds going to help starving children in Africa. Bruce, Springsteen, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, and more. It became the 8th most popular single of all time.<br /> <br /> 1988- 300 pound female impersonator Harris Milstead, better known as Divine in the John Waters films, died of sleep apnea. He was 42.<br /> <br /> 1999- Film director Stanley Kubrick died of a heart attack in his sleep, just five days after screening his final film Eyes Wide Shut. He was 71.<br /> <br /> 2010- The Pixar film UP won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.<br /> ===========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s question: What is a John Roscoe? (Hint: Damon Runyon)<br /> <br /> Answer: A nickname for a gun. A gat, A heater, Etc.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 06 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6088 <p>Quiz: What is a John Roscoe? (Hint: Damon Runyon)<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Who was El Kabong? (Hint: 1960s TV)<br /> --------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/6/2023<br /> Birthdays: Michelangelo Buonarotti, Cyrano De Bergerac, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Phil Sheridan, Lou Costello, Ivan Boesky, Ring Lardner, Gabriele Garcia-Marquez, Valentina Tereschkova the first woman in space, Tom Arnold, Kiri Te Kanawa, Rob Reiner is 75, Alan Greenspan, DC Mayor Marion Barry, Stephen Schwartz is 75, Ed McMahon, Shaquille O’Neal is 51<br /> <br /> Today is the Feast Day of Saint Fridolin the Wanderer.<br /> <br /> 1521- Fernan de Magellan discovered the Pacific island of Guam.<br /> <br /> 1554- The future King of Spain Phillip II married the Catholic Queen of England Mary Tudor long distance, by proxy. When Phillip came to England, and realized Mary had waited to long to have children and was now too old and ill, he sent emissaries to see if her half-sister Elizabeth was interested.<br /> <br /> 1834- The Ontario settlement of Fort York is incorporated as the new City of Toronto.<br /> <br /> 1836- THE ALAMO- The Mexican army of General Santa Anna overwhelmed a small garrison of rebellious Texans in an old mission. The tragic stand of 189 men led by colorful frontiersmen like Davey Crockett and Jim Bowie against 7,000 troops has become part of American mythology. That they ignored Sam Houston's direct orders to blow up the mission and join his main army with their valuable cannon is forgotten. Apologists contend that if they didn’t stall, Santa Anna's army he would have swooped down on Washington-on-the-Brazos and squashed the Texas Rebellion while Texan leaders were still quibbling over their constitution.<br /> The attack began at 4:30 a.m. in the predawn darkness and was all over in 90 minutes, a little after 6 a.m. Jim Bowie was bayoneted in his hospital bed. The notes of a Texas officer named Dolson who interviewed a Mexican officer named Sanchez after the battle were discovered in 1961. It revealed that maybe Davey Crockett didn't go down heroically using his rifle "Old Betsy" as a club- like in the movies, but tried to surrender. He was a politician after all. Santa Anna had him and any surviving white men shot. Capt. Sanchez wasn’t sure if it was Crockett. We'll never know for sure. <br /> There were 16 Alamo survivors, the women and children, and Colonel Travis' black servant Joe. Santa Anna made sure they were each given two pesos and a blanket and set free. The battle cry of Texans became Remember the Alamo!<br /> <br /> 1837- Col Travis black slave Joe fought on the barricades of the Alamo alongside his master. After the battle Joe was thanked for his services by being returned to Travis’ family in Alabama to remain a slave. On the one-year anniversary of the battle, Joe escaped to freedom. He stole a horse and escaped to Mexico. He remained in hiding for 40 years, long after the Civil War and Emancipation, emerging for a newspaper interview finally in 1877.<br /> <br /> 1841-American John Goff Rand working for the Winsor &amp; Newton Company of London patented artists oil paints premixed in collapsible metal tubes. Before this, artists (or their apprentices) had to mix their own pigment from ground stones and egg, then stored the mix in pig bladders. <br /> <br /> 1850- Gustav Flaubert was the French writer who was once tried for pornography for writing Madame Bovary. This day while in Egypt he kept an appointment with the countries most famous belly dancing prostitute, Kuchuk Hanem.<br /> <br /> 1853- Giusseppi Verdi’s classic opera La Traviata premiered at Teatro alla Fenice in Venice. It was based on Dumas novel Le Dame Aux Camelias. Verdi wrote in his diary about the premiere:" The evening was a disaster! Was it my fault or the fault of the singers? Only time will tell..."<br /> <br /> 1856- Mr. Simon met Mr. Schuster while buying a piano in New York City and discovered they had a common love of books. They formed Simon &amp; Schuster, one of the most famous publishers in the U.S.A.<br /> <br /> 1857- THE DREDD SCOTT DECISION. One of the incidents leading to the Civil War and one of the most infamous Supreme Court rulings in US History. A slave, Dredd Scott, sued in court for his freedom on the grounds that he no longer lived in a slave state, because his master had moved his home to a free state. <br /> The Supreme Court of Chief Justice Taney, whom the N.Y. Tribune had described as "5 slaveholders and two doughfaces", handed down the decision that not only was Scott still a slave, but he and his descendants could never have rights of U.S. Citizenship, no matter where they lived. In effect, all African-Americans even if born free in the North were still not people but property. <br /> This idea exploded the already enraged public opinion in the North. Four years later the same justice Taney swore in Abraham Lincoln as president.<br /> <br /> 1860- Presidential candidate Abe Lincoln in a speech said:" Thank God we have a system where workers have the Right to Strike."<br /> <br /> 1864- THE NAVAJO LONG WALK- After being defeated when their Navajo-Fortress in Canyon de Chelly was stormed by US Cavalry under Kit Carson, the Navajo and their families were forced into a death march in the winter cold several hundred miles to a reservation. Years later Washington decided it didn't want their ancestral lands after all and let them go home.<br /> <br /> 1884- Susan B. Anthony led 100 women’s rights advocates to a meeting with President Chester Allen Arthur. They demanded he give his support for giving women the vote. President Arthur said he would think about it, then he did nothing.<br /> <br /> 1899- The wonder drug of the age and the first patent medicine- Aspirin, was patented. Felix Hoffman isolated the compound salicin from ground willow bark, an old Indian pain remedy. Then he went on to invent Heroin.<br /> <br /> 1911-THE YELLOW PERIL- In the bizarre game of diplomatic chess the great powers played before World War I, race was a favorite topic. The" Battle between the White Forces of Christian Civilization against the limitless Yellow Hordes of Asia" was an idea the German Kaiser Wilhelm liked to talk at length on. <br /> On this day the Kaiser's agents convinced the U.S. public via the US tabloid press that Japan had concluded an alliance with Mexico and was preparing to seize the Panama Canal, and that a Japanese Army was even now marching up Baja to invade California! To quiet public fears President Taft was actually forced to mobilize 2/3 of the U.S. Army and Navy and sent it to the Mexican border "for maneuvers". <br /> When the Great War did come Japan was on the American side, and the Kaiser tried fruitlessly to make an alliance with an unsympathetic Mexico.<br /> <br /> 1912- Happy National Oreo Cookie Day! The Oreo cookie debuted on store shelves.<br /> <br /> 1917- Woman’s rights advocate Margaret Sanger is released from prison where she was jailed for trying to open the first Planned Parenthood clinic. She married the inventor of the Three-In-One Oil Company and would smuggle abortion medicines in cans of oil. During prohibition she smuggled diaphragms in cases of innocent-looking bootleg whiskey. She lived into the 1960s, long enough to see the Birth Control Pill and the Women’s Movement.<br /> <br /> 1918- The Navy destroyer USN Cyclops with a crew of 306 disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle, and has never been found.<br /> <br /> 1921- The film Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse premiered. The first Hollywood film to earn over one million dollars, and it made a major star out of Rudolf Valentino.<br /> <br /> 1933- Two days after inauguration Eleanor Roosevelt became the first First Lady to hold her own separate press conference. She insisted only female journalists could attend.<br /> <br /> 1936- Mr. Clarence Birdseye introduced frozen vegetables.<br /> <br /> 1944- The first big daylight bombing raid on Berlin. In one of the largest air battles of World War II, 800 B-17 and P-51s battled hundreds of Luftwaffe fighters. Over 80 US planes were shot down, losing 690 airmen, and 45 German planes. But the message was clear, Germany would now get the kind of wholesale destruction that Rotterdam, Warsaw and London got. <br /> <br /> 1978- Hustler Magazine publisher Larry Flynt was shot and crippled by a lunatic. <br /> <br /> 1979- The film The China Syndrome premiered. It was about an accident at an American nuclear power plant. Three weeks later the real Three Mile Island accident occurred, boosting the box office. " It's spooky, it's enough to make you religious" said star Michael Douglas.<br /> <br /> 1981- CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite retired. Dan Rather succeeded him after CBS learned ABC was offering Rather big bux to jump networks. Roger Mudd, who was thought to be the real successor to Cronkite, left the network to anchor the History Channel. Dan Rather was the CBS anchor until 2004.<br /> <br /> 1989- Time Inc. merged with Warner Communications to become Time Warner, the largest media conglomerate in the world. They were bought by AOL in 2000 but AOL proved to be dead weight and they resumed control as TimeWarner in 2003.<br /> <br /> 1992- The film The Lawnmower Man premiered. It featured early motion-capture CGI imagery, and claimed to have the first virtual reality sex scene. <br /> <br /> 1998- The Big Lebowski opened in theaters. The Dude Abides…<br /> ==============================================================<br /> Yesterdays Question: Who was El Kabong? (Hint: 1960s TV)<br /> <br /> Answer: It was a Zorro-type personality adopted by the Hanna Barbera character Quick Draw McGraw. Instead of a trademark Z drawn by his sword, he would whack you on the head with his guitar, while yelling “KA-BONG!”</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 05 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6087 <p>Question: Who was El Kabong? (Hint: 1960s TV)<br /> <br /> Quiz: What is marzipan?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/5/2023<br /> Birthdays: Henry III of England, Giovanni Batista Tiepolo, Explorer Le Sieur de Cadillac the founder of Detroit, Hector Villa-Lobos, Howard Pyle, William Oughtred 1574- inventor of the Slide Rule, Red Rosa Luxemburg, Rex Harrison, Dean Stockwell, Paolo Pasolini, Andy Gibb, Samantha Eggar, Andrej Wajda, Fred Williamson, Penn Gillette is 67, Eva Mendes is 48<br /> <br /> Today is the feast day of Saint Eusebius of Cremona.<br /> <br /> 493AD- BARBARIAN PEACE SUMMIT- 17 years after the last Roman emperor fell, Theodoric the Visigoth invited to peace talks Odoacer, King of the Germans in Italy. On a pre-arranged signal two Goths held Odoacer's hands pretending to shake them, then Theodoric whipped out his sword and with one stroke sliced Odoacer in half lengthwise. He said of his sword stroke: "Surely the mother of this knave hath made him with gristle, for I find no bones in his body." Peace was achieved.<br /> <br /> 1496- English King Henry VII hired Italian Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot) to go explore this New World that the Spanish were going on about.<br /> <br /> 1534- Renaissance painter Correggio died when after an argument in the cathedral of Parma with his patrons paid him with sacks of pennies. He grew overheated carrying them all home and died of a fever at age 45.<br /> <br /> 1562- The Teutonic Knights disbanded- Warrior monks were a creation of the Crusades, but by the Renaissance they were outmoded. This German order of military monks formed in Jerusalem went to Prussia after the Crusades to convert the pagan Baltic peoples by chopping them up for Christ. But by now they had two big problems: Number one- everyone they used to chop were already Christians. Number two- the Reformation had started and all the knights were converting to Lutheranism, even the Order’s own bishop! So Grand Master Kettler went to Wittenberg to talk to the great reformer Martin Luther. Luther told Kettler to chuck the whole monk-thing, get married and become Duke of Prussia. Brandenburg-Prussia was the state that Germany unified under in 1870.<br /> <br /> 1616- The Holy Office of the Inquisition published its verdict on the new scientific ideas of Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo. It read:" The idea that the Earth goes around the Sun is Foolish, Philosophically Erroneous and Heretical since it contradicts Holy Scripture. The idea that the Earth revolves on its axis is also Ridiculous and Heretical." Galileo’s writings were not removed from the Index of Banned Books until 1835. In 1986, Pope John Paul II admitted Galileo might have been right.<br /> <br /> 1717- On his birthday Giovanni Tiepolo joined the Guild of Saint Lawrence, the artists union in Rome.<br /> <br /> 1759- Francois Voltaire’s most famous satire on religion and hypocrisy- Candide- was published. It was immediately ordered publicly burned by the regional parliaments of Geneva and Paris. This only increased its popularity. To stay out of trouble Voltaire first refused to admit he was the author:" People must have lost their senses to attribute to me that pack of nonsense! I have, Thanks God, better occupations."<br /> <br /> 1770- THE BOSTON MASSACRE- A snowball fight near some British sentries turned into an ugly anti-British riot that made the redcoats open fire on the crowd. African American Crispus Attucks among several others were killed. Radical publisher Sam Adams inflated the incident into the Boston Massacre. The British authorities were accommodating enough to allow the soldiers put on trial in a colonial civilian court. The soldiers were defended by a young Boston lawyer named John Adams. They were all acquitted.<br /> <br /> 1836- At the Alamo, as the Mexican army of Santa Anna prepared for their final attack, legend has it Colonel Travis gathered the remaining defenders. He drew a line in the sand with his sword and asked all who wished to stay and fight to the bitter end to cross it. All crossed but one. He was an elderly Frenchman named Louis Rose, who slipped out through the lines to safety. Rose was a veteran of Napoleon's army and had fought at Waterloo. I guess he felt he had been through enough history for one lifetime. At dusk, 16 year old rider James Allen slipped out of the Alamo to bring the doomed men’s last message to the outside world.<br /> <br /> 1853- Harry Steinway &amp; Sons began their piano making company.<br /> <br /> 1863- The U.S. Army finally admits having the men do their own cooking was bad for morale, as well as their digestion. The first field kitchens with real cooks set up.<br /> <br /> 1868- Englishman C.H. Gould patented the first stapler.<br /> <br /> 1877- Rutherford Hayes inaugurated. His wife banned hard liquor from the White House. For this she was nicknamed Lemonade Lucy.<br /> <br /> 1891- The town council of Phoenix Arizona offered a bounty of $200 for every dead Indian brought in, and they didn’t care how they came to be dead.<br /> <br /> 1912- Italy became the first to use dirigibles for military purposes. Using them to get aerial reconnaissance of Turkish positions west of Tripoli, Libya.<br /> <br /> 1913- The day after his inauguration, President Woodrow Wilson began filling his cabinet. Secretary of the Navy Dearing proposed as Assistant Secretary of the Navy a young New York assemblyman named Franklin D. Roosevelt. Wilson said:" Most Roosevelts I know try to run everything, but this fellow is a capitol idea!"<br /> <br /> 1915- NYPD broke up a plot by anarchists to set off bombs in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. <br /> <br /> 1918- Lenin moved the capitol of Russia from Petrograd- Saint Petersburg, back to Moscow.<br /> <br /> 1933- The day after his inauguration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered a nationwide "Bank Holiday", a nice way of saying shut the whole system down to stop the panic. One third of all U.S. banks had already collapsed. Roosevelt moved so fast, throwing program after program to combat the Great Depression, that his first 100 days in office became legendary, and now the media use it as a litmus to measure other presidents against.<br /> <br /> 1936- Disney’s Three Orphaned Kittens won the best short Oscar at the 8th Academy Awards.<br /> <br /> 1937-Allegheny Airlines born, later to become U.S. Air. Allegheny had such a bad safety record that by the 1970’s the joke on their motto was "Allegheny will get you there-maybe." In 1979 Allegheny rebranded themselves as USAir.<br /> <br /> 1937- SPITFIRE. The first flight of Britain’s most famous fighter plane, the Supermarine Spitfire Mark II. Designer R. J. Mitchell fought red tape and outdated thinking on the army requisition board. He died of exhaustion and heart failure at 42, never knowing that his Spitfire would become the decisive weapon in winning the air war over Britain, and saving his country from invasion. During the Battle of Britain, when Reichsmarshall Hermann Goring asked Luftwaffe ace Adolf Galland what could he use to defeat the English? Galland responded “ How about a squadron of Spitfires.”<br /> <br /> 1954- The Creature From the Black Lagoon opened. Directed by Jack Arnold. The Gill-Man designed by Disney animator Millicent Patrick.<br /> <br /> 1963- Country star Patsy Cline died in plane crash near Camden Tenn. Also killed were singers Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins.<br /> <br /> 1966- As America was still getting used to the idea of fighting in Vietnam, and anti-war sentiment was beginning, a Sgt. Barry Sadler wrote a pro-war song titled Ballad of the Green Berets, that today hit #1. “Put silver wings, on my sons chest….”<br /> <br /> 1973, New York Yankee pitchers Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson make a stunning declaration. The left-handers announce that they have traded each others wives, children, houses, even their family dogs. <br /> <br /> 1982 – comedian John Belushi died of a drug overdose at The Chateau Marmont hotel on Sunset Strip. He had done 20 heroin-cocaine speedballs in just 24 hours. A woman named Cathy Smith was charged with administering to him the fatal dose. Robin Williams was with him that night partying but left early. Belushi was 31. Someone scrawled on Belushi’s tombstone:" You could have given us more laughs.....But NNNOOOO!<br /> <br /> 1995- Vivian Stanstall, lead singer for the Bonzo Dog Band, died in a fire in his London flat. He had been smoking in bed.<br /> <br /> 2004- Communist China changed its constitution to say that private property is now OK.<br /> ===========================================================--------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is marzipan?<br /> <br /> Answer: A German confection made from almond paste and sugar pressed into molds to make decorative shapes or decorate cakes.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 04 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6086 <p>Quiz: What is marzipan?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is a billy-club?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/4/2023<br /> Birthdays: King Henry II Plantagenet, Antonio Vivaldi, Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal, Count Pulaski, Miriam Makeba, Nancy Wilson, Bernard Haittink, John Garfield, Knute Rockne, Chastity Bono, Ray “Boom-Boom” Mancini, Patsy Kensit, Katherine O’Hara is 70, James Ellroy, Mykleti Williamson. Ward Kimball, Vicky Jenson, Ken Duncan<br /> <br /> 1152- Frederick Barbarossa made Emperor of Germany. Barbarossa means 'redbeard'. Barbarossa was the Richard Lionheart of Germany. <br /> <br /> 1517- HERNANDO CORTEZ LANDED IN MEXICO. With a hostile Viceroy of Cuba between him and Spain, and only 508 men, he resolved to conquer the Aztec Empire of many millions. He even burned his ships, to force his men to conquer or die. <br /> <br /> 1554- Queen Mary Tudor published a Royal edict repudiating her father Henry VIII’s religious reforms and restoring the Roman Catholic faith to dominance in England. Protestantism and other “heresies” were forbidden. To those who didn’t agree, she became Bloody Mary.<br /> <br /> 1647- As he realized he was losing the English Civil War, King Charles I sent his son Charles II and the rest of his family to Holland for safety. Today he saw them off. They would never see him alive again.<br /> <br /> 1681- King Charles II granted a charter to William Penn and his Quakers to build a colony in the New World. Penn wanted to name the new country "New Wales" because of its hills, but Charles disagreed. As a Quaker, Penn was too modest to have a whole colony named after him. Since the Merry Monarch was essentially paying off an old debt owed to Penn's father, Admiral Penn, who stayed loyal to him during Cromwell’s time, the king suggested the new colony be named for his father. What else was there besides hills? Lots of forest-- the King knew that woods in Latin is Sylvania. Hey, how about Penn's Woods- thus Pennsylvania.<br /> When His Majesty noticed the Quakers not removing their hats in his presence, King Charles removed his. William Penn asked: ”Sire, why dost thou remove thy hat?” The Merry Monarch replied:” Well, ONE of us is supposed to!”<br /> <br /> 1759- Madame de Pompadour secured the appointment of Etienne de Silhouette as Finance Minister and controller general. Silhouette tried to fix the chaotic French economy by raising taxes of aristocrats and cutting back their privileges. Noblemen said they had been reduced to mere shadows of their former selves. By November the king fired him, and people joking called him a shadow. Now the word silhouette means outline figure.<br /> <br /> 1791- Green Mountains, or in French, Vermont, territory became the 14th state. The first new state added to the original 13 colonies. Before then, Vermonters had tried to be an independent country and once during the Revolution, Ethan Allen floated secret negotiations to sell Vermont back to the British. <br /> <br /> 1793-1933, Traditional Presidential Inauguration Day. "March Forth with a New President" (get it ?) <br /> Transportation being what it was in early America, and the time it took to count votes, and the Electoral College to ratify the election results, this seemed a convenient time.<br /> Inauguration ceremonies have been as elaborate as the Trump’s $107 million inaugural, to as simple as when Tom Jefferson addressed a few invited guests indoors, then returned to have dinner alone at Conrad's Tavern.<br /> At Lincoln's second inaugural in 1865, Incoming Vice President Andrew Johnson was so nervous, he kept accepting sips of corn whisky. So before Lincoln delivered his famous speech " With Malice Towards None. With Charity for All..." Johnson was up there burbling incoherently in a drunken stupor. Lincoln had to order him pulled off the podium. In 1937 Franklin Roosevelt moved the inauguration date to the third week in January and that’s where its been ever since.<br /> <br /> 1836- Today General Santa Anna held a council of war to decide what to do about the Alamo. Many of his generals were against an attack. The Texans were cut off with little food, and there was no help coming. The Alamo had no strategic importance. So why waste men? But Santa Anna wanted to make an example of these “Yankee Land Pirates”. He ordered a grand assault on the Alamo as soon as the preparations were completed.<br /> <br /> 1861- THE STARS &amp; BARS. During the Civil War the Confederate army was having a problem with their flag. Their first design so closely resembled the United States flag that soldiers had trouble distinguishing one from the other in heavy battle smoke. Creole General Pierre Beauregard put the ladies sewing circles of New Orleans on the problem and they came up with the Stars &amp; Bars design based on the Cross of St. Andrew. <br /> <br /> 1887- William Randolph Hearst bought the little San Francisco Examiner and began to build the Hearst newspaper empire. Hearst’s father was part owner of the famed Comstock Mine, and thought his son crazy for wasting his time with the penny-paper business. Hearst died in 1951 at age 88, leaving an estate of $160 million. Today Hearst publications are still 15 magazines and broadcast networks.<br /> <br /> 1887- The first Daimler motorcar introduced in Essenlingen Germany- the Daimler Benzin Motorcarriage. Daimler’s chief competition was Dr Carl Benz. In 1899, Austrian Emile Jellinek invested heavily in Daimler’s motorcars, provided he name them for his daughter Mercedes. Mercedes and Benz merged in 1926 but the two founders- Gottfried Daimler and Carl Benz never met face to face.<br /> <br /> 1902- AAA the Auto Club founded.<br /> <br /> 1917- Jeanette Rankin became the first female member of Congress. <br /> <br /> 1922- F.W. Murnau’s classic film Nosferatu, the Vampire, opened in Berlin.<br /> <br /> 1924- The song “Happy Birthday to You” copyrighted by Claydon Sunny.<br /> <br /> 1933- Franklin Roosevelt gave his famous speech“ The only thing we have to fear is, Fear itself.” at his first inauguration.<br /> <br /> 1936- Screenwriter Dudley Nichols publicly refused the Best Screenplay Oscar for John Ford’s “The Informer” as a protest in support of the struggling Writer’s Guild.<br /> <br /> 1936- First flight of the German dirigible Graf Hindenburg.<br /> <br /> 1944- Louis Lepke Buchalter went to the electric chair at Sing Sing prison. Buchalter with Albert Anastasia headed the heavy enforcement arm of Lucky Lucciano’s New York Mafia Syndicate. Nicknamed “Murder Incorporated,” the Brooklyn gang committed at least 100 murders, including Dutch Schultz, and Lucciano’s mentor Joey the Boss Masseria.<br /> <br /> 1946- Alex Raymond's comic strip 'Rip Kirby" premiered.<br /> <br /> 1952- Ronald Reagan married Nancy Davis at the Little Red Church on Coldwater Canyon Blvd. in L.A. William Holden was their best man.<br /> <br /> 1952- Ernest Hemingway wrote a letter to his publisher:" I've completed a new novel. I think it's my best one to date." The Old Man and the Sea.<br /> <br /> 1956- Burger King introduced their signature hamburger the Whopper.<br /> <br /> 1958- U.S.S. Nautilus, first nuclear sub, reaches the North Pole under the ice cap. <br /> <br /> 1960- American opera baritone Leonard Warren dropped dead on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in the 2nd act of Verdi's La Forza Del Destino.<br /> <br /> 1961- In the early stages of filming Cleopatra in London, actress Elizabeth Taylor developed pneumonia and slipped into a coma. She would have died, had not doctors at a convention at London’s Dorchester Hotel performed and emergency tracheotomy. When you seen the film today you can still see the tracheotomy scar at the base of her throat.<br /> <br /> 1976- Due to the intervention of San Francisco mayor George Moscone, the Giants baseball team would stay in city by the bay. In a last minute deal, the Stoneham family sells the team to Bob Lurie and Bud Herseth instead of the Labbatt's Brewery, which had planned to move the Giants to Canada. <br /> <br /> 1982- The Abrahams/Zucker Bros TV comedy Police Squad! premiered. <br /> 1994- Basketball legend Michael Jordan went to bat for the first time in a Chicago White Sox Baseball uniform. Jordan gave up baseball after one season and returned to the NBA. <br /> <br /> 1991- During the Gulf War, US troops destroyed an Iraqi bunker concealing tons of deadly sarin nerve gas. Estimates are up to 24,000 troops were exposed to the toxic release.<br /> <br /> 1994- 375 pound comedian John Candy died of sleep apnea. He was 43.<br /> <br /> 1997- The senate of Brazil finally allowed women to wear slacks to work.<br /> <br /> 2000- The Japanese launch of Sony Playstation 2. It was designed to compete with Segas Dreamcast and Nintendo’s Cube. The Playstation 2 was the most anticipated videogame launch in history. 600,000 units were sold. One store in Tokyo’s Ginza had 4,000 people lined up at their door. It remained hot for 13 years.<br /> <br /> 2004- A New York court convicted interior decorating guru Martha Stewart of four counts of stock fraud. This was for dumping her stock in a pharmaceutical firm called InClone after getting an inside tip that their cancer cure didn’t actually work.<br /> <br /> 2008- The first Simon’s Cat short cartoon appeared on YouTube. English commercial animator Simon Tofield wanted to teach himself Adobe Flash, a 2D computer animation program. He decided to make a cartoon of his cat, and his quirky behavior. He took the results and posted it on YouTube for a laugh. It got thousands of views and made him famous. Now he has a staff, sells merchandise and is working on longer films.<br /> <br /> 2016- Disney’s Zootopia, directed by Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Jared Bush.<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is a billy-club?<br /> <br /> Answer: A billy-club was the nickname for a policeman’s baton or truncheon. The name may have originated in London, were one of the nicknames for the London Police was The Old Bill.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 03 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6085 <p>Quiz: What is a billy-club?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: What is the difference between a cupid and a cherub?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/3/2023<br /> B-Dayz: George Pullman of Pullman Railroad cars, General Matthew Ridgeway, Jean Harlow, Diana Barrymore, Akira Ifukube the composer of the music scores to movies like Godzilla, Tone Loc, Jacky Joyner-Kersee, James Doohan, Ronald Searle, animator Bruno Bozzetto, Bobby Driscoll, Herschel Walker, George Miller, Miranda Richardson <br /> <br /> 1517- Protestant reformer Martin Luther wrote the Pope in Rome a letter of submission and tried to make nice. But privately he told a friend” I am not sure whether the Pope is the AntiChrist or merely his Apostle.”<br /> <br /> 1764- Elderly French King Louis XV appeared before the regional Parliament of Paris to tell them who was boss:” In My Person alone resides the Sovereign Power…to me alone belongs the legislative power, unconditional and undivided. My people and I are one, all public order emanates from me.” None of that representative government stuff like England was going to happen while HE was around. King Louis XV all but ensured that France would change only from a violent revolution.<br /> <br /> 1783- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed his Symphony #35 the Hafner in Vienna with the Austrian Emperor Joseph II in attendance. <br /> <br /> 1800- President John Adams signed a bill calling for the second census of the people of the United States.<br /> <br /> 1801- THE MIDNIGHT JUDGES-Outgoing President John Adams was the first presidential sore loser. He was outraged that he was not re-elected to a second term like George Washington was. He vented his frustrations by spending his last night as President signing dozens of Federal Judgeships and army officer commissions to members of his own Federalist party. He then boycotted the inauguration and took his sweet time moving out of the White House, forcing Thomas Jefferson to spend his first night as President sleeping in Conrad’s Tavern.<br /> <br /> 1820- The Missouri Compromise. Most of US politics of the early nineteenth century was seeing how long they could keep the Civil War from breaking out. Congress was evenly divided between slave states and free states, so every new state created caused a crisis. This day it was decided Missouri would be a slave state while Maine would be a free state and there would be no slave states north of Missouri in the remaining Louisiana Purchase territories.<br /> <br /> 1836- A messenger slipped past the Mexican army into the Alamo. He told Col. Travis and his Texans that they could expect no help from the outside world to save them.<br /> <br /> 1842- Massachusetts created a law trying to limit the workday for children under twelve to only twelve hours a day, but opponents considered it too lefty-liberal to be enforced.<br /> <br /> 1845- On his last day in office, President John Tyler signed Florida Statehood.<br /> <br /> 1849- The US Department of the Interior established<br /> <br /> 1863- President Lincoln signed into law the National Conscription Act (the Draft).<br /> The Confederate States had already started drafting the previous year. Rich men could get out of the army by paying $300 for a substitute. J.P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller and Theodore Roosevelt's father took this way out. Harvard-Yale games and varsity boat races went on throughout the Civil War with no loss of players. This angered the poor that the war was a rich man's game. Riots broke out in several cities. A popular song of the day "We are coming Father Abraham, Three Hundred Thousand Strong" was changed to "We are Coming, Father Abraham, Three Hundred Dollars More<br /> <br /> 1873- Under the Comstock Act, information on birth control is considered pornography and not permitted to be sent through the U.S. mail.<br /> <br /> 1873- The US Congress voted to double their own salaries, and make the pay raise retroactive for the previous two years. This was at the time of a severe economic recession. The public was furious over the “Salary Grab Act”.<br /> <br /> 1875- Claude Bizet's opera CARMEN debuts. Parisians usually go to see comedies at the Opera Comique and most thought this would be about the adventures of a coquettish Spanish gypsy. Instead they saw one of the great dark dramas of opera, a story of sexual power and obsession. The shocking sight of a slutty smuggler getting knifed by a burnout soldier driven mad with sex was so upsetting, it was booed off the stage and savaged by critics. Bizet never got over the fiasco. He died three months later. Today Carmen is arguably the world's most famous operas.<br /> <br /> 1875- HOCKEY- The first modern Hockey Game was played at the Victoria skating rink in Montreal Canada. McGill University claim they invented it in 1877. The NHL was created in 1917. <br /> No one is sure just how old hockey is. In the 1700’s Micmac Indians played a game on bone skates using sticks and passed it on to the British garrison of Halifax Nova Scotia. The people of Windsor Nova Scotia claim hockey was invented there at Long Pond in 1844 from the Irish game of Stick &amp; Ball. The first pucks were frozen horse droppings. No one is sure where the word Hockey came from, the nickname of some British officer or local schoolteacher perhaps.<br /> <br /> 1902-The U.S. Supreme Court ruled it's all right for the U.S. Government to ignore Indian treaties, if they do it in a nice way.<br /> <br /> 1913- The Womens Suffrage Parade in Washington D.C. The national votes for women movement sent 5,000 marchers down Pennsylvania Ave. It was met with crowds of men who jeered and threw stones, causing 100 to go to the hospital. President-Elect Woodrow Wilson wondered why no one was there to greet him at the train station. They were all at the suffragette march.<br /> <br /> 1925- The Warner Bros started up their radio station, KFWB. It was Sam Warner’s idea, and their father Ben had coined the letters to mean Keep Fighting, Warner Bros, because of their constant bickering. It went through several hands, and was a newsradio station for a long time. In 2016, it was bought by a Bollywood music company who changed its letters. <br /> <br /> 1931- President Hoover signed an act of Congress that made the "Star Spangled Banner" officially the U.S. national anthem. The 1814 Francis Scott Key poem set to the English beer hall song "To Anacreon in Heaven" was sung since the 1850's, but this day it became official. <br /> <br /> 1934- Public Enemy #1 John Dillinger escaped from a Witchita jail by carving a gun out of soap (it was actually wood) and painting it black with shoe polish. He said: "The jail hasn't been made that can hold me!"<br /> <br /> 1938- The desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia discovered it had a lot of oil.<br /> <br /> 1938- The skies over Los Angeles finally clear after two huge Pacific storms ravaged the region, causing massive flooding from Long Beach to Glendale. The destruction and flooding caused Los Angeles to cover the Los Angeles River and Burbank Creek in concrete, creating the distinctive flood basin the Terminator raced motorcycles and trucks through.<br /> <br /> 1945- General MacArthur announced the Philippine capitol Manila had at last been retaken from the Japanese. The month-long fighting had been house-to-house and General Yamashita’s troops had committed wholesale executions of civilians as they retreated. After the war, General Yamashita was executed as a war criminal.<br /> <br /> 1950- Paramount's "Quack-a-Doodle-Doo" The first Baby Huey cartoon.<br /> <br /> 1950- Don Herbert began teaching millions of kids about science as TV’s Mr. Wizard.<br /> <br /> 1952- The Supreme Court ruled that school teachers could be fired if they were Communists.<br /> <br /> 1959- Lou Costello, the loveable pudgy comedian of the team Abbott &amp; Costello, died of a heart attack three days before his 53 birthday. A recurrence of childhood rheumatic fever and the death of his infant son darkened his last years. The team of Abbott and Costello broke up in 1957. His last words were to a hospital nurse,” That was the best strawberry soda I ever had…”<br /> <br /> 1966- William Frawley, the bald, gravel-voiced neighbor Fred Murtz on I Love Lucy, had just seen the movie Inside Daisy Clover on Hollywood Blvd. He was outside the Knickerbocker Hotel when he lit a cigar, then dropped dead of a heart attack. He was 79. When his TV partner Vivian Vance heard the news, she said “Champagne for everyone!” They never liked each other much. Frawley once referred to her as a “miserable c*nt...”<br /> Vivian died in 1979.<br /> <br /> 1973- THE BAR CODE. An ad-hoc committee of scientists from Proctor &amp; Gamble and Nabisco and such announced the invention of the Universal Product’s Code- The Bar Code, that annoying little set of bars and numbers on everything you own or buy. No longer would stores have to close their doors periodically for inventory counting. <br /> <br /> 1975- First meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club in a garage in Menlo Park Ca., Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were members.<br /> <br /> 1980- Aetna Insurance reported in a newsletter having to pay damages for a man at a delicatessen who had a carp he was ordering jump off the counter and bit him in the leg.<br /> <br /> 1985- The TV show “Moonlighting” premiered. Cybil Shepherd and Bruce Willis.<br /> <br /> 1991- L.A.P.D officers beat up drunk and disorderly driver Rodney King. King had previous convictions and was tazed several times but still fought back at police. They seemed to go berserk on him with their clubs just as a witness caught the incident on videotape. The incident and trials caused a scandal in Los Angeles and later the largest civilian riots in U.S. history. <br /> <br /> 2001- Despite worldwide outrage, the fundamentalist Taliban of Afghanistan began destroying their nations ancient giant stone Buddhas with dynamite, as graven images.<br /> =========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is the difference between a cupid and a cherub?<br /> <br /> Answer: Cupid was a Roman god. The son of Venus and Eros. Cherubim was a classification of angel, smaller and more childlike than the Seraphim, the taller adult angels. Cherub’s job seemed to be mostly flitting around the edges of baroque paintings.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 02 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6084 <p>Quiz: What is the difference between a cupid and a cherub?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays Question answered below: What country in Europe has a region called Istria?<br /> --------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/2/2023<br /> Birthdays: Sam Houston, Alexander Graham Bell, Kurt Weill, Desi Arnaz (Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III), Ted Geisel aka Dr. Suess, Mikhail Gorbachov, Willis O'Brian, Moe Berg, Karen Carpenter, Lou Reed, Jennifer Jones, John Cullum, John Irving, Tom Wolfe, animator Bob Givens, Jon Bon Jovi is 61, Daniel Craig is 55, animator Stephen Chiodo<br /> <br /> 1818- It had been thought that the Pyramids in Egypt were solid monuments with no chambers. This day Italian archaeologist Giovanni Belzoni discovered the long-lost entrance to the Great Pyramid of Giza and explored it’s inner corridors and burial chambers. <br /> <br /> 1836- TEXAS DECLARED INDEPENDENCE FROM MEXICO. In 1821 the Mexican Congress had given Yankee settlers permission to live in the under-populated northern province of Teijas. Soon there were 100,000 Yanquis to just 3,000 Spanish Tejanos living there. After a military coup in 1833 brought General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna to power, conditions in the outer provinces got harsh. Taxes were bad and the army sent to police them were drawn from the dregs, usually prison convicts. Mexico also wanted the American settlers to liberate their black slaves. Slavery was outlawed in Mexico. <br /> When settlers leader Stephen Austin went to Mexico City to complain he was immediately jailed for fomenting insurrection. Even with Santa Anna’s army closing its grip on the Alamo, the Republic of Texas independence declaration was signed this day at Washington-on-the-Brazos. One of the signers there was John Wheeler Bunton, the Great Grand-Uncle of Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson. <br /> The Texas revolt was as much a revolt of the ethnic Mexican Teijanos as the gringos. Similar revolts broke out at the same time in California and Jalixsco, but we remember Texas because it succeeded. Most histories were written after the Civil War in the racist Reconstruction Era. It made it out to be all white Texans vs. all brown Mexicans. <br /> <br /> 1863- The Union Pacific Railroad adopted a standard track width of 4 feet 8 and 1/2 inches. The width of a Conestoga wagon. This width became the standard for the United States and later for most of the railroads of the world. Although train travel was invented in Britain, Europe was slow to adapt to it, while America, Russia and India rapidly embraced a technology that could quickly cover their vast distances quickly.<br /> <br /> 1923- THE FIRST TIME MAGAZINE. Founders Henry Luce and Claire Booth Luce were among the more powerful of the nation’s cultural elite. Conservative to the core -to the end of their days they thought Franklin Roosevelt and Civil Rights were big mistakes, they still experimented with LSD when it was thought by Harvard professors to be mind expanding. In the late 1980's the Time merged with Warner Communications to form Time-Warner, the world's largest media conglomerate.<br /> <br /> 1925- The US Government started assigning numbers to motorways and planned interstate highways. Before that roads had names like the Boston Post Road or the Baltimore to Washington Highway. <br /> <br /> 1933- "KING KONG"s exclusive premiere at the new Radio City Music Hall in New York. It opened in the rest of the country in April. “Twas Beauty killed the Beast.”<br /> <br /> 1935- The Looney Tune Cartoon "I haven’t Got a Hat" premiered. This cartoon gave birth to the first permanent Warner Bros. Cartoon star- Porky Pig. <br /> <br /> 1940- SEABISCUIT. The small ungainly racehorse Seabiscuit had lost the Santa Anita Handicap Stakes twice before. Now at 7 years old, with ligament tears, he was considered all washed up. But he was entered one more time to try to win this race. The jockey Red Pollard was an alcoholic who had broken his leg and collarbone and was told he couldn’t walk, much less ever ride again. <br /> Today this unlikely duo raced one more time against odds more like a Hollywood movie than a stakes race. The Biscuit not only won his last race, but set a track record, the second fastest time ever, and the richest win for that time. It’s called one of the greatest comeback stories in sports history.<br /> When discussing the Sports Legends of the Twentieth Century- Ali, Ruth, Michael Jordan, Seabiscuit and Secretariat are the only non-humans.<br /> <br /> 1943- Battle of the Bismarck Sea. U.S. Navy planes shoot up a Japanese task force .<br /> <br /> 1947- Crusading Hollywood union organizer Herb Sorrell was plucked off the street in Glendale by gangsters posing as police. They may not have been just posing, many movie studios at the time hired off-duty LAPD at double-time rates to “take care” of troublesome employees. They drove Herb up to Mulholland and worked him over, leaving him by the side of the road. Shortly after leaving the hospital, Sorrell was jailed for disturbing public peace. <br /> <br /> 1960- Wilt Chamberlain ("Wilt the Stilt") scored 100 points in one game for the Philadelphia Warriors. Wilt averaged a phenomenal 55 points per game that year and the NBA instituted a number of anti-Wilt regulations to ensure guys under 6'2 could get back in the game, like offensive goal tending, etc. Wilt also claimed to have put his off the court time to good use. He claims to have had slept with 3,000 women. <br /> <br /> 1961- Pablo Picasso married his second wife Jacqueline. He was 80, she was 35. Jacqueline cared for the increasingly reclusive artist and kept even his family at a distance. When Picasso died in 1973, she turned away many family members from the funeral. Jacqueline committed suicide in 1986.<br /> <br /> 1962- The classic Twilight Zone episode To Serve Man premiered. It’s a Cookbook!<br /> <br /> 1965- US military bombers do the first bombing raid inside of North Vietnam in a campaign that got the designation Rolling Thunder.<br /> <br /> 1965- The movie The Sound of Music opened at the Rivoli theater in Manhattan. <br /> <br /> 1971- Charles Engelhard died, a venture capitalist whose wild investments and grand lifestyle made him the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s villain Auric Goldfinger.<br /> <br /> 1972- Pioneer 10 space probe launched. The first satellite to the outer planets, it sent back the first closeup photos of Jupiter in 1973 and left our solar system in 1983. It carries a plaque with a representation of men and women, a map of the Earth and Richard Nixon’s signature on it. It is in deep space now and will reach the star Ross 246 in the constellation Taurus in the year 34,600 A.D. Boy, I can hardly wait!<br /> <br /> 1973- The Women in Film organization founded.<br /> <br /> 1976- Francis Ford Coppola began shooting his epic film “Apocalypse Now” in the Philippines. The film was plagued by cost overruns, a typhoon and his Philippine Army helicopters frequently flying off to fight real guerrillas, but somehow it all got done. Today it is considered a classic.<br /> <br /> 1979- The Anglo-French Concord supersonic airliner service introduced. It was discontinued because of bad economics in 2003.<br /> <br /> 1982- Science Fiction writer Philip K. Dick died of a stroke in Santa Ana, California. He was 53. The author of stories the movies Blade Runner, Minority Report and Total Recall were based. Dick said he was at times possessed by a superalien who appeared in his mind in a beam of pink light. His autobiography was titled “I am alive and you are dead.”<br /> <br /> 1989- At a photo session, NY Mets outfielder and Darryl Strawberry threw a punch at the team's first baseman, Keith Hernandez. The scuffle started over comments about salaries and ended with The Straw walking out of camp. A sportswriter for Sports Illustrated describing the fight said," Darryl Strawberry finally hit his cut off man."<br /> <br /> 2014- Walt Disney’s Frozen won the best animated feature Oscar.<br /> ===============================================================<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What country in Europe has a region called Istria?<br /> <br /> Answer: Istria is a peninsula in the Adriatic Sea that is mainly part of Croatia, but sections also belong to Italy and Slovenia.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 01 Mar 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6083 <p>Question: What country in Europe has a region called Istria?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: When Leadbelly sang in The Midnight Special: The next thing you know Boy, you’re Sugerland bound…”. What is that?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 3/1/2023<br /> Birthdays: Frederic Chopin, Augustus Saint Gaudens, Glen Miller, David Niven, Oskar Kokoschka, Roger Daltry, Robert Conrad, Deke Slayton, Yitschak Rabin. Catherine Bach, Timothy Daly, Ron Howard is 69, Javier Bardem is 54, Zack Snyder is 57, Harry Belafonte is 96, Lupita Nyongo.<br /> <br /> Welcome to MARCH from MARTIUS Mensis, THE MONTH OF MARS-so named because in ancient times it was the first month that was warm enough for armies to take the field. Various warrior societies held religious ceremonies to inaugurate campaigning season. In Rome, the Salian Priests would do a ceremonial war dance with the magic shields of Mars the Avenger, dropped from heaven for Romulus. The Macedonians would split a dog in half lengthwise and parade the troops between the two halves, sort of going through the gates of Pluto.<br /> <br /> 86 BC. Roman legions of Lucius Cornelius Sulla recaptured Athens from Mithridates the king of Pontus (a part of eastern Turkey). Mithridates was defeated and committed suicide. According to Plutarch, at one point Sulla's men captured a satyr (half man-half goat) in the precincts of the temple of Artemis. Sulla questioned the supernatural creature about the history of the future, but all it would do is whinny like a goat. So he told his men to get rid of it. <br /> <br /> 589AD- HAPPY SAINT DAVIDS’ DAY- This is the traditional date of the death of St. David, the patron saint of Wales. Called the Waterman, he was a Celtic monk, abbot and bishop who became the first archbishop of Wales. He was one of many early saints who helped to spread Christianity among the pagan Celtic tribes of western Britain. Welshmen celebrate today like the Irish celebrate St. Patrick, although without the green beer.<br /> <br /> 1562-THE MASSACRE OF VASSEY- In France the Catholics and Huguenots- Protestants had been headed towards open conflict despite all attempts at mediation. In the little town of Vassey south of Dijon the Catholic Duke Du Guise became annoyed when Huguenots hymn singing in a barn disturbed his ability to hear Mass. Scuffling broke out and when the Duke got hit in the face with a stone, his retainers drew their swords and chopped up 125 people. The French Religious Wars had begun.<br /> <br /> 1579- Sir Francis Drake on board the Golden Hind made the catch of his career. In the waters off Cartegena Colombia he attacked and captured one of the great Spanish treasure ships carrying Inca gold from Peru. This one ship carried more wealth than the entire treasury of Queen Elizabeth’s England. And a fleet of these ships crossed the ocean twice a year. Drake instantly became a rich man. The galleon was called La Nuestra Senora De La Concepcion, but her crew nicknamed her “CacaFuego” which some translate as “Spitfire”, but more closely means “Hot Shit.”<br /> <br /> 1680- Pennsylvania became the first US colony to outlaw slavery.<br /> <br /> 1711- The first issue of England’s’ great periodical The Spectator first published. It was unique for a broadsheet in that it didn’t cover politics or doings at court but printed essays on social gossip, literary criticism, studies of manners and morals. It was said the Spectator helped begin the transformation of English gentry from ale-swilling philanderers to the well-bred, well-read toffs of the Victorian Era.<br /> <br /> 1777- Young artillery officer Alexander Hamilton was appointed to General George Washington’s personal staff. This marked the beginning of Hamilton’s personal relationship with Washington that would last throughout the war and his presidency. Hamilton was his constant consultant, advisor, and may have written many of Washington’s speeches. There is a rumor that GW may even have been Hamilton’s father since his only trip outside the US was to visit Bermuda. Hamilton was born illegitimately on the Virgin island of Nevis, but beyond that no evidence has ever been substantiated.<br /> <br /> 1808- Parliament outlawed the overseas slave trade within the British Empire.<br /> <br /> 1815- Napoleon Bonaparte came ashore in France near Frejus on the Riviera and marched on Paris in a desperate gamble to regain his throne. He was attacking a nation of 14 million with just 1,200 followers. After his defeat in Russia and exile to Elba the European allies restored the Bourbon King and old aristocrats to France. <br /> The old royals soon made it plain they learned nothing from the French Revolution and wanted to continue things as if it was still 1789. Little things like evicting war orphaned children into the street so some old aristocrat could have his crumbling chateau back. The Royal family also liked to spit on the tricolor flag and appeared in public in Russian uniforms, a uniform seen by French people as responsible for the deaths of many of their brothers and husbands. The people’s anger enabled Napoleon to recall old memories of Glory, and Liberte’. <br /> At the sight of the little man in the plain black hat everyone went nuts. The whole Royal Army changed sides without a shot fired. His desperate gamble became a triumphal party and he was carried on the crowd’s shoulders back into the palace.<br /> <br /> 1836- A dozen Texans from Gonzales slipped past Santa Anna’s Mexican army to join their friends in the Alamo. These are the last reinforcements to arrive. <br /> <br /> 1872- Congress okayed the creation of Yellowstone National Park. In 1878 during the military campaign against the Nez Perce Indians, Chief Joseph took his warriors through the park territory frightening some early tourists.<br /> <br /> 1896- Battle of Adwa- The Italian colonization of the ancient land of Ethiopia is halted for a generation after the entire Italian army is wiped out in one big battle. Critics like to scoff that the modern Italian forces were massacred by a spear wielding foe, but in truth the legions of the Negus Negusti (king of kings, i.e. Ethiopian emperor) had been covertly rearmed by France with the latest rapid firing steel cannon. France didn’t want any encroachment on her own colonial holdings in nearby Senegal.<br /> <br /> 1912- Albert Berry completed the first parachute jump from an aeroplane in St. Louis Missouri.<br /> <br /> 1917- Czar-Autocrat of all the Russias, Nicholas II rushed back to his rebellious capitol St. Petersburg in a private train. Today he was told the way was blocked by revolutionaries. His train backed up and was blocked again from behind by mutinous troops. His ministers advised that the army would no longer remain loyal and he may have to abdicate.<br /> <br /> 1919- The March Movement- Korea declared its independence from Japan, Russia and China.<br /> <br /> 1924- The first Alice in Cartoonland short, “Alice’s Day at Sea” from the new Disney Brothers Studio, premiered in several theaters.<br /> <br /> 1930- Disney animator Ub Iwerks, the animator/designer of Mickey Mouse, quit the studio to set up his own place. Iwerks partner was Pat Powers, who’s Powers Cinephone was the process used to put sound on “Steamboat Willie”. Powers engineered the break between Ub and Walt when Disney refused to let Powers buy into a co-partnership in Disney Studio. Walt was stunned by the loss of one of his first employees and closest friends. Iwerks studio produced Flip the Frog Cartoons, but it eventually failed, and he'll return to Disney to invent the xerox process. <br /> <br /> 1932- Museum of Modern Art in New York held first major retrospective of the style of architecture called "THE INTERNATIONAL STYLE" Steel girder frames with large windows for walls and no ornamentation. This style pioneered by Mies Van Der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Phillip Johnson. Called by critics "vertical ice cube trays" they now dominate the skylines around the world, making Moscow and Shanghai equally unrecognizable from Pretoria, or Newark, New Jersey.<br /> <br /> 1932- THE LINDBERGH BABY KIDNAPPING. The infant son of the famous aviator was taken from his crib in their Princeton New Jersey home. Forensic science determined he was bludgeoned and buried shortly afterwards. But the kidnap plot went ahead for nine days. The kidnapper left behind a crudely written note asking for $50,000 dollars in small bills. German immigrant Bruno Richard Hauptman, the man who was convicted and executed for the crime protested his innocence to the end. But some of the ransom money was found in his apt. The New Jersey country sheriff in charge of the investigation was the father of future Gulf War general Norman Schwarzkopf.<br /> <br /> 1937- Connecticut issued the first metal license plates for autos.<br /> <br /> 1941- Congress approved designating a committee to investigate waste in Defense appropriations. It was chaired by junior Missouri Senator Harry Truman. The Truman Commission uncovered corruption and sweetheart deals among businessmen doing war work. They exposed waste, fraud, padding bills and corporations still doing business with the enemy, even after Pearl Harbor. The Truman Commission saved America millions and made Harry Truman a national figure. Truman was also a Democrat investigating within a Democratic Administration. <br /> No such committee was ever allowed for the Iraq War, and the result was billions given out in secret no-bid contracts, and over a trillion dollars never unaccounted for. <br /> <br /> 1941- The first Captain America comic book by Marvel Comics published. <br /> <br /> 1946- The National Cartoonists Society formed.<br /> <br /> 1951- Frank Sinatra was subpoenaed by the Senate Kefhauver Committee looking into the activities of the Mafia. In deference to Old Blue Eyes public persona, strings were pulled so he was allow to testify in his attorney’s private office high in 30 Rockefeller Plaza at 4:00 a.m.<br /> <br /> 1954- Puerto Rican Nationalists shot 5 Congressman on Capitol Hill. They opened fire from the visitor gallery down on the Congressman.<br /> <br /> 1961- John F. Kennedy created the Peace Corps. <br /> <br /> 1961-The Ken Doll introduced as a mate to Barbie. <br /> <br /> 1962- A huge tickertape parade in New York is held for astronaut John Glenn.<br /> <br /> 1966- The Russian probe Venera 3 landed on Venus. Although the Venera crash landed it was the first unmanned probe to land on the surface of another world.<br /> <br /> 1968- Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who presided over the Vietnam War buildup and humiliated by the Tet Offensive, resigned and was replaced by presidential advisor Clark Clifford.<br /> <br /> 1968- THE CHICANO BLOWOUTS- Discontent had been buildings in the Mexican American community over substandard teaching and facilities in California schools. One student remembered her college-prep teacher yelling at her in class “ You’re never going to college! By the end of the year you and your girlfriends will all be pregnant anyway!” This day on a given signal hundreds of High School kids stood up and walked out of class. The protests grew through the Southwest, and the American Public heard a new word – Chicano, for the first time.<br /> <br /> 1971- Radical Hippy Weathermen Movement planted a bomb in the men’s room of the US Senate. It exploded causing thousands of dollars in damage but hurting no one.<br /> <br /> 1975- The first Honda Civics arrive in the US.<br /> <br /> 1978- Unemployed auto mechanics Gatchko Ganas and Roman Wardas broke into the tomb of Charlie Chaplin in Vevey Switzerland and stole his remains. They tried to hold it for ransom. The body was recovered and the two losers were soon arrested. They were trying to make enough money to open a car repair garage in France.<br /> <br /> 1988- Apple introduced the first commercially available CD-ROM drive for your personal computer.<br /> ============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: When Leadbelly sang in The Midnight Special: The next thing you know Boy, you’re Sugerland bound…”. What is that?<br /> <br /> Answer: Sugarland Texas was the site of the Federal prison Hudlan Ledbetter (aka Leadbelly) was imprisoned in. At night, convicts could hear the lonesome whistle of the express train that left Houston bound for California and the Good Life. Leadbelly called it The Midnight Special. One of Steven Spielberg’s early films was Sugarland Express.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 28 Feb 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6082 <p>Question: When Leadbelly sang in The Midnight Special: The next thing you know Boy, you’re Sugerland bound…”. What is that?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is a diva?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/28/2023<br /> Birthdays: Michel de Montaigne, The Marquis de Montcalm, Zero Mostel, Vasclav Nijinsky, Molly Picon, Gavin MacCleod, Bernadette Peters, Bubba Smith, Mario Andretti, Milton Caniff- the creator of Terry and the Pirates", Ben 'Bugsy' Siegel, Tommy Tune, Vincente Minelli, Linus Pauling, Dorothy Stratton, Frank Gehry, Sir John Tenniel, John Tarturro, Gilbert Gottfried, Bernadette Peters is 75.<br /> <br /> 468AD- Today is the Feast of St. Hilarius, who was a bishop at the Synod of Brigands. Held at Ephesus in 449AD, the theological debate of Church elders over where to place the Feast of Easter got so out of hand that the Patriarch of Constantinople was beaten to death, and St. Hilarius jumped out of a window to escape the brawl.<br /> <br /> 1574- The Spanish Inquisition sets up shop in the New World. The first two Mexican Lutherans were burned at the stake in a huge auto-da-fe in Mexico City.<br /> <br /> 1745- MADAME de POMPADOUR- Jeanne Poisson d’Etoiles was not only beautiful, but highly intelligent. Even her mother predicted “she is a morsel fit for a king”. This day at a masked ball at the Paris Hotel du Ville, King Louis XV first met her. She was dressed as Diana the goddess of the Hunt. The King was dressed as a Yew Tree. Louis ennobled her with the title Madame de Pompadour. Her husband was given a job as a tax collector and told to get lost. Madame de Pompadour spent the next thirteen years not only ruling Louis’ heart but France as well, and sponsored many artists and scholars like Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot. Long after their sexual attraction faded, Jeanne remained the king’s close friend and confidante.<br /> The champagne glass was supposedly modeled from Madame de Pompadour’s breast. <br /> <br /> 1753- Pope Clement XIII finally gave permission for the Catholic Bible to be translated into languages other than Latin, something people like John Wyclif were once burned for.<br /> <br /> 1827- First U.S. Railroad incorporated The Baltimore &amp; Ohio (B&amp;O).<br /> <br /> 1835- Dr. Elias Lohnnrot published the Finnish national epic poem Kalevala. It’s about the first man Vanjiamoimmen, who was born old and searched for the magical machine called The Samo, kept in a mountain with seven locks, guarded by seven wizards chanting Samo, Samo! Modern scholars cannot agree just what the samo was, or what it did.<br /> <br /> 1882- The first college store opened, the COOP, this one attached to Harvard &amp; MIT. The COOP means Harvard Cooperative Society.<br /> <br /> 1896- Robert Paul demonstrates a kinetograph to the Royal Institute. The British Cinema industry is born.<br /> <br /> 1916- Writer Henry James died. William Faulkner said, "He was the nicest old lady I ever met." H.L. Mencken eulogized: "Henry James was an idiot, and a Boston idiot to boot, of which there is no form lower." Mencken was equally caustic of other cities.<br /> <br /> 1920- Evans vs. Gore – Al Gore’s grandfather. The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the legality of the Income Tax amendments, saying:” The power to tax carries with it the power to embarrass and destroy. “Isn’t that reassuring?<br /> <br /> 1920 Maurice Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin debuted.<br /> <br /> 1921-THE KRONSTADT REBELLION-The sailors of the Russian Baltic Fleet had been the most politically radical group in the armed forces, Trotsky's "pride and joy". Their naval guns trained on the Winter Palace helped win the Bolshevik revolution. But by 1921 they were disillusioned with "the nightmare rule of communist dictatorship" . The fleet in St. Petersburg harbor mutinied, demanding freedom of speech and press, and the right to form labor unions. Lenin and Trotsky’s reaction? ”We will shoot them down like partridges.” They sent 20,000 Red Army troops charging across the ice of the frozen harbor to attack the Red Navy. They crushed the sailor's revolt but the cost in human lives was so high the Finnish government complained of impending epidemics when the ice thaws began to wash corpses all over the Baltic coastline.<br /> <br /> 1938- Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev toured the Walt Disney Studio, and performed his piece Peter and the Wolf for Walt and his music director Leigh Harline.<br /> <br /> 1938- President Franklin Roosevelt introduced in Congress a bill to make the practice of lynching a Federal crime. After a lengthy filibuster by southern conservative senators, FDR caved and withdrew the bill.<br /> <br /> 1940- At the Oscars ceremony Hattie McDaniel became the first black actress to win an Oscar for her supporting role in Gone With The Wind. When some criticized her for portraying a stereotype black mammy, McDaniel snapped:” I’d rather make $5000 a week playing a maid than $5 a week being a maid!”<br /> <br /> 1940- Richard Wright’s novel Native Son, about growing up black in America, first published.<br /> <br /> 1942- Battle of the Java Sea. Japanese forces shoot up a U.S.-Dutch naval task force.<br /> <br /> 1949- Bob Clampett’s live puppet show Time for Beanie premiered. Albert Einstein was a fan. Ten years later it was revived as the popular animated series Beanie and Cecil.<br /> <br /> 1953- Chuck Jones “Duck Amuck” premiered. <br /> <br /> 1953- Englishman James Watson walked into his local pub and announced to the barman” Barman, set them up. I’ve just discovered the secret of life!” That morning Watson &amp; Francis Crick had indeed came upon the DNA double helix molecule. They were building on the work of fellow scientist Rosalind Franklin. It’s been argued that Franklin was the one who actually made the discovery, but she died before Watson and Crick were awarded the Nobel Prize.<br /> <br /> 1968- Former teen idol singer Frankie Lyman OD’s on heroin.<br /> <br /> 1975- A fog bank crossing Freeway 91 near Corona California caused a 300 car pile up.<br /> <br /> 1982- BP oil tycoon J. Paul Getty had died in 1976 the richest man on earth. Getty found his immediate family so annoying he left the bulk of his estate to his little Getty Museum in Malibu California. This day after all attempts of the family to challenge his will were exhausted, the Getty Museum was endowed with two billion dollars and immediately became the richest museum on earth. <br /> <br /> 1983-The last episode of the television series M*A*S*H. It was the single most watched TV episode in history.<br /> <br /> 1986- Swedish Prime Minister Olav Palme was assassinated as he left a movie theater. The murderer was never caught.<br /> <br /> 1986- Disney animator Eric Larsen retired. Larsen had stayed on to train the next generation of animators who created the 2D Rennaissance of the 1990s.<br /> <br /> 1993- Government agents arriving at David Koresh’s Branch-Davidian Cultists Compound in Waco, Texas were met with gunfire. Six were killed. The FBI siege began that lasted until April 19th.<br /> <br /> 2001- Seattle rocked by a 7.0 earthquake. That’ll stir your Starbucks!<br /> <br /> 2012- Pope Benedict XVI stepped down. The first pope to resign since 1419. He died ten years later in 2022.<br /> <br /> 2023- The last Worthington Ford car dealership closed. Oklahoman Cal Worthington began selling autos in Southern California in 1951, making distinctive commercials. He died at age 96. <br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is a diva?<br /> <br /> Answer: A word in India for a goddess. In the English speaking countries it later became a term for someone absorbed with their own self-importance or vanity.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 26 Feb 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6081 <p>Quiz: How many English Kings were beheaded?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: In a famous Shakespeare play one character says ” This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle,….This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.” Who says it?<br /> --------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------<br /> History for 2/ 26/2023<br /> Birthday: King Wenceslas of Bohemia-1361, Frances Marion, Victor Hugo, Buffalo Bill Cody, Emma Destin, Levi Strauss, Jackie Gleason, Fats Domino, Betty Hutton, Johnny Cash, William Frawley, Robert Alda, Tony Randall- born Arthur Rosenberg, Erhyke Bahdu, Fred “Tex” Avery<br /> <br /> 747 B.C. In Sumer, it is the beginning of the Age of Nabronassar.<br /> <br /> 500s BC-391AD, HAPPY ANTHESTERION- the Ancient Greek holiday of Death and Spring. Dedicated jointly to Dionysus and Hermes Kthoninos- (Underworld). The Greeks believed ghosts weren’t as scary as they were annoying. If you didn’t bury the dead properly with spices and a coin in the mouth for the Chaeron the Boatman of the River Styx, they became ghosts. They would haunt you by moping around, turning up at inappropriate moments, predicting your death, bleeding on your lunch, etc. So this festival was a sort of visiting hours for the other world. <br /> You left your door open and cooked a meal for the spirits so they could spend a day visiting their old haunts (forgive the pun). This way they would not annoy you the rest of the year. This festival was also considered a festival of flowers to usher in Spring. <br /> Most Greeks spent all three days of the festival drunk.<br /> <br /> 393AD- Today is the feast day of Saint Porphyry, who made it rain in Gaza.<br /> <br /> 1773- Construction began in Philadelphia on the Walnut Street Jail, a Quaker alternative to physical punishment, where Penitents could reflect on their crimes- the first Penitentiary. The other innovation was individual cells instead of the large room common in colonial jails. <br /> <br /> 1775- Leslie’s Retreat. In Boston, British General Gage sent a Colonel Leslie with a column of soldiers to Salem Mass to confiscate a store of weapons the colonists had. The Redcoats played Yankee Doodle on the march, then a form of insult to Americans. They were stopped at a river crossing by a line of heavily armed Massachusetts colonists. Leslie didn’t want a showdown, so he negotiated, while other neighbors smuggled the illegal weapons into the forest. Leslie went back empty handed. The American Revolution started a few weeks later at Lexington &amp; Concord.<br /> <br /> 1815- Napoleon and his followers escaped his exile island of Elba and sailed to France for another try for power. He had less than a thousand followers to try to re-conquer a nation of 14 million. <br /> <br /> 1854- Composer Robert Schumann went mad and jumped off a bridge into the Rhine River. He was fished out and institutionalized. His schizophrenia grew out of advanced syphilis. He said he was not committing suicide but had thrown his wedding ring into the river to free his wife Clara of him. He then relented and leaped into the raging ice filled water to get it back.<br /> Ironically this drama was played out during his town’s winter carnival celebrations. The tragedy of seeing his friend and teacher collapse moved young Johannes Brahms to write his First Piano Concerto. It was rumored that Clara Schuman and young Brahms had a fling as well.<br /> <br /> 1907- British Oil and Royal Shell merge to form British Petroleum- BP Company.<br /> <br /> 1929- Congress declared the Grand Tetons a national park.<br /> <br /> 1935- Adolf Hitler revealed to the world press that Germany had built the Luftwaffe, the worlds’ largest air force. This was a direct violation of the restrictions placed on Germany in the Versailles Treaty. Germany awaited the response, which was nothing.<br /> <br /> 1936- The NINIROKU JIKEN. Or the Coup of 2-26. Young Japanese officers led four regiments to attempt a takeover the government in Tokyo. They killed several government ministers, including two former prime ministers, and tried unsuccessfully to assassinate Prime Minister Okada. The coup collapsed when Emperor Hirohito declared he would personally lead his Imperial Guard against them if they would not stand down. The anti-war Prime Minister was later assassinated by another officer. Despite the coup’s failure, the surviving peace-party politicians were intimidated to block the Imperial Army plans for continued conquest in Asia. <br /> <br /> 1942- Walt Disney received the Irving Thalberg Award at the Academy Awards. Leopold Stokowski got a special Oscar for his work on Fantasia, Frank Churchill and Oliver Wallace won Best Score for Dumbo.<br /> <br /> 1951- The 22nd Amendment ratified limiting the President to two four-year terms. This was passed by a Republican Conservative dominated Congress. They were determined to never have something like Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four terms again. <br /> <br /> 1962- First day shooting on the first James Bond film Dr. No. The scene was in M's office and featured Bernard Lee, Peter Burton and their new discovery, Sean Connery.<br /> <br /> 1965- First day of shooting on the Beatle's second film 'Help!"<br /> <br /> 1983- Michael Jackson’s album Thriller went to #1 in the pop charts and stayed for weeks. Twenty-six year later, after Jackson’s death in 2009, Thriller again went to #1 around the world.<br /> <br /> 1985- New York Police under District Attorney Rudy Giuliani arrested most of the leaders of the New York Mafia families called The Commission. Despite this highly touted raid, the mob rebuilt, so that another big raid was necessary in 2010.<br /> <br /> 1986- Dragon Ball Z premiered in Japan<br /> <br /> 1990- Cornell Gunther, lead singer for the DooWop group the Coasters, was shot dead at a Las Vegas traffic intersection."Yakkety-Yak, Don't Talk Back!"<br /> <br /> 1991- At a meeting in Switzerland, Tim Berners-Lee introduced the first Web Browser.<br /> <br /> 1991-The Highway of Death- During Gulf War One, The U.S. Air Force fighter bombers caught a long column of Iraqi army vehicles fleeing on an open desert road with no cover. No one is sure how many Iraqis were killed but easily over a thousand.<br /> <br /> 1993- THE FIRST WORLD TRADE CENTER ATTACK. Followers of Muslim extremist cleric Omar Abdel Rahman set off a large truck bomb in New York's World Trade Center. The bomb created a five-story crater in level B-2 of the underground parking structure. It killed 7 and injured over one thousand. 50,000 had to be evacuated from the twin towers for smoke inhalation. But the Twin Towers remained standing.<br /> It has been speculated that one reason there were not even more deaths in the collapse of 9-11, was because much of the office workers experienced this 1993 attack, so they already knew exactly how to evacuate the towers quickly. President Clinton’s Justice Dept had all the perpetrators in jail within a year. When planner Ramsay Youssef was being flown out of New York to his 240 year imprisonment, the plane flew over Manhattan by the World Trade Center. He was reported to have sighed: “….should have used more dynamite.”<br /> <br /> 1996- Silicon Graphics Corp (SGI) bought Cray Research. <br /> <br /> 2012- In Florida, 16 year old Trayvon Martin was walking home after buying a bag of Skittles, when he was shot to death by a self-appointed vigilante George Zimmerman. Zimmerman claimed self-defense and was acquitted in a trial with heavily racist overtones.<br /> <br /> 2014- Putin’s Russia invaded the Crimea, which was then part of Ukraine.<br /> <br /> 2017- Disney's Zootopia won best animated feature Oscar, and Pixar's Piper won best animated short.<br /> ===========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: In a famous Shakespeare play one character says ” This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle,….This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.” Who says it?<br /> <br /> Answer: John of Gaunt, the father of Henry IV Bolingbroke, in Shakespeare’s Richard II.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 25 Feb 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6080 <p>Question: In a Shakespeare play one character says ” This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle,….This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.” Who says it?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Answer below: What was the only Hollywood movie to have 2 Nobel Prize winners working on the script? <br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/25/2023<br /> Birthdays: Enrico Caruso, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Zeppo Marx, St. Louis (King Louis IX of France), Bobby Riggs, Carl Eller, Dicky Jones the voice of Disney’s Pinocchio, Sir Anthony Burgess, Neil Jordan, Larry Gelbart, Tom Courtenay, Sean Astin is 53, Tea Leoni, John Foster Dulles, Neil Jordan is 73, Rashida Jones is 47<br /> <br /> 799AD- Today is the Feast of Saint Walburga, who with her brother Saint Winebold preached Christianity in the remote forests of Germany. Oddly enough after Walburga’s death the Saint’s remains were removed to a new resting place on the anniversary of a pagan festival and her name stuck to the celebration- April 30th the Walpurgisnacht.<br /> <br /> 1525- THE BATTLE OF PAVIA. King Francis I of France was besieging this Italian city when he was defeated and captured by Spanish-German Emperor Charles V. This battle was noteworthy as the first battle in which hand held rifles were important. Medieval Gonnes or guns were slow, and most times more dangerous to the holder than the enemy. A good archer could get off ten aimed arrows while a gun-man was still loading. But improvements created a more accurate rifle called a harquebus with a wooden stock and trigger. <br /> At Pavia, when the French knights charged, harquebusiers, safe behind a wall of spears, shot them out of their saddles. 8,000 casualties and a new era in combat was born. King Francis fought in the van like a knight and didn’t notice his army was losing until he was alone, surrounded by enemies. After his capture wrote his queen: "All was lost save honor - and my skin, which is safe." <br /> <br /> 1570- Pope Pius V excommunicated Queen Elizabeth of England and absolved all English subjects of their allegiance to her. Since England was very Protestant by now, it didn't mean very much. <br /> <br /> 1601- The 31 year old Earl of Essex, one time toyboy of Queen Elizabeth, was beheaded for treason. She once gave him a ring and said if he was ever in trouble and needed her help he should send her the ring. One of his last acts was to send the ring to her. Whether she ever got it or she chose to ignore the summons is unknown.<br /> <br /> 1634-The ASSASSINATION OF WALLENSTEIN-Generalissimo of the Catholic armies in the Thirty Years War, which had been raging since 1618 with no end in sight. Duke Albrecht Wallenstein had so sickened of the seemingly endless carnage that he began secret negotiations with the Protestant Swedish generals to make peace in defiance of their kings. The German Emperor couldn't just fire him because his mercenary troops were so devoted to their General they would burn down their own capitol as soon as any enemy one. <br /> Wallenstein was murdered by a hit squad sent by his own employer. They broke into the Generalissimo’s bedroom and speared him in his bed. Then the assassins dragged his perforated body down the grand staircase as his head bumped on every step. Just to show how confusing the Thirty Years War was the German Wallenstein was murdered in his castle in the Czech homeland by a troop of Scotsmen led by an Irishman hired by an Austrian through and Italian intermediary named Piccolomini. The only language anybody could speak in common was Italian. United Europe.<br /> <br /> 1689- James II Stuart tries to regain his throne on offer of the Irish Parliament. At Boulogne King Louis XIV of France sent him off with money and troops. He told James:" The best hope I can wish you is the hope that I never see you again."<br /> <br /> 1779- During bone chilling cold American Captain George Rogers Clark and his men stormed the frontier fort Vincennes in Illinois Territory and captured his British nemesis Sir William Hamilton. Hamilton was nicknamed The Hair Buyer for his encouraging local Indians to scalp settlers. Clark and his army of frontiersmen Indian style. Part of his surrender ceremony was to make Hamilton watch while Clark personally tomahawked six captive Seneca chiefs. <br /> One chief was so tough after Clark imbedded his tomahawk in his skull the chief calmly pulled it out and handed it back to Clark and invited him to try another whack. The American Revolution on the Western Frontier effectively ended. Gen. Clark’s kid brother William Clark would be the explorer of the Lewis and Clark expedition.<br /> <br /> 1815- Princess Pauline Borghese holds a gala dress ball on the Island of Elba to distract the Allied occupation representatives away from Napoleon's secret plot to return to escape confinement and France. Pauline was Napoleon's kid sister and a wild thing. She drove her prudish brother nuts with her many love affairs and posing nude for artists, but when Nappy was down on his luck she was his most loyal sibling.<br /> <br /> 1836- FIRST COLT REVOLVER. Samuel Colt was given his first gun to play with at age 7. He was inspired by a ships steering wheel to invent a cylindrical gun chamber. They didn’t become popular until the price dropped with the 1860 Navy Colt. His six-shooter was nicknamed : The Great Equalizer","The Peacemaker" the "Confidence Machine" and sometimes the 'Thumbbuster". Gunfighters usually filed off the sight at the end of the barrel because it caught in your clothes during a quickdraw. <br /> Wild Bill Hickok for instance didn't wear holsters, he carried his two Navy Colts tucked in a red sash around his waist. Shootists also learned to carry it "5 beans in the wheel', meaning leaving your gun cocked to one empty chamber while you walk around. This so your gun doesn't accidentally go off in your holster, which could be very embarrassing, as Wyatt Earp once found out.<br /> <br /> 1860- A little known former congressman from out west named Abraham Lincoln stepped off the Cortlandt St. Ferry in New York City. He walked through the busy streets alone, carrying a moth-eaten carpet bag suitcase up to the Astor Hotel, where he let the press know he was in town to declare himself a candidate for President of the United States. He went and traded in his old beaver skin stovepipe hat for a new silk top hat. Then he went to Matthew Brady’s photo parlor to pose for a photo like all genteel-type folks is supposed to do.<br /> <br /> 1863- CIVIL WAR PRANKS - Outside the siege lines of Vicksburg, Union admiral David Porter decided to play a joke on the rebs. On an old barge he built a dummy ironclad with wooden logs for guns and two burning tar smudge pots nailed to phony smokestacks. The total cost to for black paint and wood was $15 dollars.<br /> He had this contraption pushed into the Mississippi and let it float with the current downstream. <br /> When the rebel shore batteries spotted the black monster they let loose a furious barrage. It only increased their panic that the Yankee ship seemed so formidable that it didn't even bother to shoot back! When the Confederate river fleet spotted the black enemy warship they fled in terror. One captain ran his own gunboat into a sand bar, abandoned it and blew it up rather than let it be captured. Eventually the dummy boat stuck in some shallows. A rebel sheepishly rowed out to the barge and they’d been fooled.<br /> <br /> 1864- Battle of Buzzards Roost. Sherman’s army attacked Joe Johnston’s defense works in Georgia but were repulsed.<br /> <br /> 1932- TOONTOWN SCANDALS. Former Australian prizefighter Pat Sullivan was the producer of the Felix the Cat cartoons, the first true animation star. Although animator Otto Mesmer actually created him, Sullivan's name is the only one on the titles. Felix was one of the top film stars of the 1920s. Lindbergh supposedly had a Felix doll with him in the Spirit of St. Louis and his body shape was the prototype of Mickey Mouse and dozens of other characters. While Mesmer quietly drew pictures Sullivan lived the fast life of a roaring twenties celebrity. <br /> <br /> Mrs. Marjorie Sullivan had been having an affair with her chauffeur. After a nasty scene when husband confronted wife and the chauffeur fled, Mrs. Sullivan mysteriously fell out of her window to her death. The scandal was front page news and Sullivan never got over it. He soon drank himself to death, which during Prohibition was difficult to do. Sullivan's death and his failure to get Felix into sound cartoons doomed his studio. Otto Mesmer went on to animate the first Broadway light signs but did not receive any recognition for his contributions to animation until he was re-introduced to the public at a Bob Clampett night at the Museum of Modern Art in 1975. Kid animators Eric Goldberg and Tom Sito were in the audience.<br /> <br /> 1932- A minor bit of bookkeeping. Austrian born Adolf Hitler had to officially become a German citizen before he could run for President.<br /> <br /> 1955- Davy Crockett at the Alamo with Fess Parker premiered on Walt Disney’s Disneyland TV show.<br /> <br /> 1956- THE SECRET SPEECH-In Moscow at a closed session of the 20th Party Congress Premier Nikita Khruschev denounced the crimes of the mass-murderer Josef Stalin. The audience was stunned at such revelations. When someone shouted:" If he was so terrible, why did you say nothing?" Khruschev roared back: " WHO SAID THAT?................(silence)..........................that's why."<br /> <br /> 1956- Poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes met at a party in Cambridge England.<br /> <br /> 1956- Chuck Jones Bugs Bunny short “ Broomstick Bunny” with Witchy Hazel, premiered.<br /> <br /> 1957- Bugs Moran, the gangster who challenged Al Capone for mastery of the Chicago rackets, died in prison of lung cancer. The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre ruined Moran’s organization and he finally slipped down to petty thievery when he was nabbed.<br /> <br /> 1957- Buddy Holly and the Crickets recorded "That'll Be the Day."<br /> <br /> 1964- Young Cassius Clay, later renamed Muhammad Ali, defeated Sonny Liston in 2:14 minutes into the 7th round for the heavyweight boxing crown. The odds were on Liston 8-1 but Clay said he would "Float like a Butterfly and Sting Like a Bee!" <br /> When asked to comment about his defeat, Sonny Liston replied: "Life, a funny thing."<br /> <br /> 1971- Oh Calcutta, the first play with lots of actors shedding their clothes, premiered on Broadway at the Belasco.<br /> <br /> 1983- Famous playwright Tennessee Williams was found dead in a New York hotel room. He died when he choked on a nose spray bottle cap that fell into his mouth while he was using the spray. Others say it was a Pepsi bottle cap. He was 71.<br /> <br /> 1986- President Ferdinand Marcos fled the Philippines in the face of the People-Power revolution. Former movie star turned first lady Imelda Marcos left behind her amazing shoe collection. She felt that if the poor people saw her living in luxury it would make them feel better- (?)<br /> <br /> 1994- In Hebron, A Brooklyn born Jewish man named Baruch Goldstein went berserk in the Tomb of the Patriarchs and shot 29 innocent Palestinian civilians at prayers.<br /> <br /> 1996- Dr Haing Ngor, the doctor who survived the Cambodian Killing Fields and won an Academy Award in a movie of the same name, was killed in a robbery attempt outside his Los Angeles home.<br /> <br /> 2004- Movie star conservative-Catholic Mel Gibson’s movie the "The Passion of the Christ" opened in North America. The film was criticized for its perceived anti-Semitism, it was the first movie in which Jesus spoke his real language –Aramaic. Pastors bought blocks of tickets for their congregations. The film earned nearly a billion dollars, most of the profit earned by Mel Gibson, who was the films sole investor. <br /> ==========================================================--------------------------------------------<br /> Question: What was the only Hollywood movie to have 2 Nobel Prize winners working on the script? <br /> <br /> Answer: Howard Hawks film “To Have and to Have Not”. Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner collaborated with Hawks on the screenplay.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 24 Feb 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6079 <p>Question: What was the only Hollywood movie to have 2 Nobel Prize winners working on the script? <br /> <br /> Yesterdays Quiz answered below: Take no quarter and give no quarter. What does that mean?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/24/2022<br /> B-Dazes: Roman Emperor Hadrian, Winslow Homer, Arrigo Boito, Wilhelm Grimm (of the brothers Grimm), Honus Wagner- early 1900’s baseball player called the Flying Dutchman, Admiral Chester Nimitz, Edward James Olmos, Barry Bostwick, Michel Legrand, James Farentino, illustrator Zdzislaw Beskinski, Michael Radford, Billy Zane, Steve Jobs, Abe Vigoda, Bob Kinoshita who designed the robot from Lost in Space. <br /> <br /> 495BC-The Roman Festival REGIFUGIUM in honor of the overthrow of the Tarquins and founding of the Roman Republic. The king of Rome, Tarquinus Superbus -Tarquin the Proud, capped off a history of arrogant rule when he raped Lucretia, the daughter of a nobleman named Horatius. She tells her dad, so he stabbed her to save her further shame. I guess that's 'tough love 'or something. The Roman people led by the Horatius family and his kinsmen Marcus Brutus drove out King Tarquin and established a republic. <br /> For the next 450 years Rome was a democracy led by a Senate, from "senates" or elders, electing two Consuls (presidents) a year, with the common people’s spokesmen called Tribunes of the Plebs, who could veto legislation. The motto the Republic Romans would carry to the ends of the earth is S.P.Q.R.- Senatus Populusque Romanum -The Senate and the People of Rome.<br /> <br /> 138AD- Antoninus Pius adopted as co-emperor by the aging Emperor Hadrian.<br /> <br /> 616AD- King Ethelred of Mercia died. He was baptized by Saint Augustine of Canterbury and he did a lot to convince the other Saxon kings of Britain to accept Christianity and stamp out pagan rituals. He built one of the earliest churches in London, and became Saint Ethelred after his death. <br /> <br /> 1582- THE GREGORIAN CALENDAR reforms announced- Because our Earth is a big wobbly rock on an asymmetrical orbit Julius Caesar’s 366 day calendar was losing 11 minutes every year since 45BC. For centuries medieval scientists like Dennis Exigius, Abu Abdalah Mohammed and Roger Bacon noticed something wasn’t quite right. By 1582, the calendar was 11 days off the solar year. Pope Gregory XI had scientist Dionysius Ingratius revised the calendar of Julius Caesar by using a 400 year cycle of 365 days with a leap day every four years and no leap year when it occurred every fourth century. <br /> <br /> 1711- Handel’s opera Rinaldo premiered in London.<br /> <br /> 1784- Alexander Hamilton established the Bank of New York, the second oldest private bank in North America. At first the Mayor DeWitt Clinton refused to grant the bank a charter. He said “corporations are sinister plots aimed at the average citizen…” <br /> <br /> 1836- As Mexican cannon pounded the Alamo, Jim Bowie took ill and was invalid to the fort’s hospital, where he remained until the end. Historians dispute whether he developed a fever or something venereal. Col William Travis now assumed overall command. He had a message slipped out past Mexican lines-“ To the People of Texas and all Americans in the World” He appealed for aid and ended his message with a bold “Victory or Death!”<br /> The message was reprinted in newspapers throughout the US. The Alamo received no help, but the fiery message assured that the little doomed outpost would hold the attention of the everyone in North America.<br /> <br /> 1848- THE FRENCH SECOND REPUBLIC IS DECLARED. King Louis Phillipe whom Daumier caricatured as a fat pear in a frock coat and top hat, was overthrown. Austrian diplomat Baron Metternich predicted: When Paris sneezes, Europe catches cold. Sure enough, inspired by the French example, urban working class revolts break out all over Europe. Berliners,Viennese, Romans,Venetians, Hungarians, Saxons and Poles all rose up and battled royal troops in the streets. 1848 is remembered as the "Year of Revolutions". <br /> <br /> 1852- Russian writer and hypochondriac Nicolai Gogol burned the second half of his masterpiece DEAD SOULS on advice of a religious mystic to atone for his sins. He died two weeks later of "brain fever".<br /> <br /> 1868- The U.S. House of Representatives voted 11 articles of Impeachment against President Andrew Johnson. Of the 11 charges only one made any legal sense, that was Johnson’s ignoring the Tenure of Office Act and firing his own Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. This act was later overturned as unconstitutional. The other charges were things like “He made such speeches wherein he spoke disparagingly of this Congress.” etc. Johnson said:” Impeach and Be Damned!” He was acquitted in the senate by only one vote.<br /> <br /> 1895- Jose Marti’ began the Cuban war of independence against Spain.<br /> <br /> 1912- The Jewish aid organization Hadassah founded.<br /> <br /> 1914- General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the Maine theology professor who became a hero at the Battle of Gettysburg, and was made a general by Grant in 1864 only because he was so badly wounded, Grant figured he wouldn’t live much longer anyway. Gen. Chamberlain actually outlived Grant by thirty years and today finally died of old age. <br /> <br /> 1928- French serial killer Henri Landru, called BLUEBEARD, was executed by guillotine. Landru married ten times, bringing the ladies up to his home, murdering them, and burning them in his furnace. He'd then live off their estates and sell their furniture. When the prosecutor said :"So, you made a career out of the suffering and swindling of others !" Landru replied:" No monsieur, I am not a lawyer."<br /> <br /> 1937- MGM studio announced it acquired the rights to L. Frank Baum’s book The Wizard of Oz, to be made into a movie for their new star Judy Garland. They won out over Walt Disney and Hal Roach.<br /> <br /> 1942- The radio service The Voice of America first went on the air.<br /> <br /> 1943- Fed up with the bad climate in the studio because of the Strike, master animator Bill Tytla resigned from the Walt Disney Studio.<br /> <br /> 1944- Merrill’s Marauders, a special ops trained group of Army Rangers, entered the jungles of Burma to do battle against the Japanese.<br /> <br /> 1961- Dr. Richard Leakey in Tanzania discovered the oldest known human skull. <br /> <br /> 1968- THE TET OFFENSIVE ENDS- With the U.S recapture of the old Imperial city of Hue, the Vietnamese Tet Lunar offensive was declared over. North Vietnamese General Vo Giap, the mastermind of Dien Bien Phu, had planned this assault as his masterstoke to win the war. It's failure cost him his job and destroyed the Viet Cong as an effective force. And their mass executions of South Vietnamese civilian officials cost them much civilian support and lengthened the war. <br /> Yet even though the Vietnamese communists were strategically defeated, the battle showed the world that after years of maximum effort by the worlds most powerful country, the little North Vietnamese army was as formidable as ever. While American generals requested more troops, they already had 450,000, White House strategists like Clark Clifford began to think withdrawal.<br /> <br /> 1981- Long Island socialite Jean Harris was convicted of murdering Dr. Herbert Tarnnower, author of the popular Scarsdale Diet.<br /> <br /> 1987- US Robotics sold the first 56k modems.<br /> <br /> 1988- PARODY LAWS- The US Supreme Court upheld the right of public figures to be satirized, by throwing out a lawsuit Rev Jerry Falwell brought against Hustler Magazine owner Larry Flynt. Flynt published a gag about Rev Falwell having sex with his mother in an outhouse. Falwell tried to sue for libel. The Court ruled a public figure can be lampooned, so long as it is not presented as factual.<br /> <br /> 1989- According to the David Lynch television series Twin Peaks this is the day Laura Palmer’s body was found and F.B.I. agent Dale Cooper came to town to investigate.<br /> <br /> 1996- Los Angeles Angel Flight reopened.<br /> <br /> 1997- The announcement of the first successful cloning of a mammal embryo, a sheep named Dolly in Scotland. To prove even though they're research scientists 'boys will be boys', They used cells from a mammary gland to do the cloning, so they named their creation after busty singer Dolly Parton. After a series of illnesses, the animal was put down in 2003, living half the life span of a normal sheep, but she mated and had healthy babies normally.<br /> <br /> 2003- State Farm Insurance Company announced that they would add a clause into future car insurance policies that Nuclear Explosions and Terrorist Biological Agents would not be classified as Road Hazards and so not covered. Yep, if a Hydrogen Bomb goes off in my neighborhood, my first concern will be about my insurance premiums.<br /> <br /> 2008- Pixar’s Ratatouille won the Oscar for best animated feature.<br /> <br /> 2013- Pixar’s Brave won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.<br /> <br /> 2019- Spiderman into the Spiderverse won the Oscar for best animated feature.<br /> <br /> 2022- Vladimir Putin’s Russia invaded the Republic of Ukraine. A year later he still can’t seem to explain why. Expected to fall in a week, the Ukrainian people rallied behind their President Vlodomir Zelensky and fought back heroically. When the U.S. offered him and his family a flight out of the country to safety, he replied, “What I need is ammunition, not a ride….”<br /> ============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Take no quarter and give no quarter. What does that mean?<br /> <br /> Answer:</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 23 Feb 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6078 <p>Quiz: Take no quarter and give no quarter. What does that mean?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: Which character is older? Mickey Mouse, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Felix the Cat, Betty Boop. <br /> -----------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/23/2023<br /> Birthdays: George Fredrich Handel, Samuel Pepys (pronounced 'peeps'), Mayer Amschel Rothschild-1743- founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty, Victor Fleming, W.E.B. DuBois, Johnny Winter, Peter Fonda, William Shirer, Allan MacLeod Cormack-inventor of the CAT Scan, Kelly MacDonald, Tom Bodet, Neal McDonough, Kristin Davis is 58, Emily Blunt is 40, Dakota Fanning is 29.<br /> <br /> 303 A.D. DIOCLETIAN RENEWED THE BAN ON CHRISTIANITY. The Roman Empire recognized a cult as ‘religo’ (officially sanctioned ) or “supersticio” ( banned ). After Nero's death in 64, the pattern of Christian persecution raised and lowered with each emperor. When Diocletian became emperor he made it his mission to stop the Roman Empire's decline. So, if weirdo cults like Christianity were part of the problem, then it had to go. <br /> While Nero tortured people only in Rome, Diocletian demanded a systematic quota of executions in every part of the Empire. A lot of saints date their martyrdoms around this time 295-305 AD. <br /> What Diocletian couldn't foresee was that ten years later the son of one of his own generals, Constantine, would make Christianity the official religion of the Empire in 312.<br /> <br /> 1539- The Viceroy of New Spain Antonio Mendoza organized an expedition under Don Francisco de Coronado to march north from Vera Cruz and find El Dorado, the fabulous Seven Cities of Cibola. For two years Coronado wandered the American Southwest as far north as Kansas and Oklahoma. He discovered marvels like the Grand Canyon and the Painted Desert, but found no cities of gold. When he returned to Spain, he was arrested for wasting government money.<br /> <br /> 1568- Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great stormed the great Rajput fortress of Chitoor. His warriors fought with Mongol bows, cannon, matchlock rifles and armored war elephants, trained to squish enemies. <br /> <br /> 1593-The Uppsala Murta- the Uppsala Declaration. The Swedish Diet declared that the national religion of Sweden would forever be Lutheran Protestantism.<br /> <br /> 1819- The CATO STREET CONSPIRACY- English radicals led by Sir Roger Thistlewood plot to murder the entire British cabinet including the Duke of Wellington as they dined after the opening of Parliament. Then would institute a French Revolutionary style republic in Jolly-Old England! Odds Fish! But fear not, an informer disclosed the plan to the government. On this night constables raided the nefarious plotters at their Cato-Street hideout and nabbed the whole bunch! Britain was safe once more!<br /> <br /> 1821- In a house in Rome’s Piazza de Espagna, 25 year old English poet John Keats died of tuberculosis. As he was dying he joked: ” I can feel daisies growing over me”. He instructed that his grave marker bear only the self-deprecating message” Here lies one Who’s Fame was Written in Water.”<br /> <br /> 1836- Santa Anna's Mexican army of 7,000 surrounded the mission called the Alamo, which had 185 Texas defenders. Santa Anna ordered the buglers to call to parley. Col. Travis answered with a cannon shot, which Jim Bowie thought was rather rash. Santa Anna then called for the raising of a red flag from a church steeple in San Antonio de Bejar, and his trumpeters sounded the Deguello, a call signifying that he intended to take no prisoners. <br /> <br /> 1847-Battle of Buena Vista- General Zachary Taylor defeated the Mexican army. <br /> <br /> 1861-Warned of death threats, and riots in pro-secessionist Maryland towns, President-elect Abraham Lincoln snuck into Washington D.C. at 3:15 AM. Abe, sporting his newly grown whiskers, was dressed in disguise and escorted by his bodyguard Lehman and Charles Pinkerton, a former Scottish barrel maker, who had set up the first detective agency in the United States. Pinkertons advertising created the name Private Eye for detective.<br /> <br /> 1873- Seattle Mayor Corliss B. Stone embezzled the towns entire treasury, $15,000, and skipped town with his girlfriend, who was married to another. Bye-bye!<br /> <br /> 1886- the Johnson Wax Company formed. <br /> <br /> 1892- Rudolph Diesel patented the Diesel Engine.<br /> <br /> 1898- French writer Emile Zola was arrested and charged with libel for his J'Accuse newspaper article that exposed the cover up of the Dreyfus Scandal. He jumped bail and fled to England until the scandal brought down the government.<br /> <br /> 1905- The Rotary Club founded.<br /> <br /> 1915- In Berlin, a secret pact was concluded between the German government and Irish nationalist leader Sir Roger Casement. In it Germany pledged to supply Casement with guns, artillery and even German officers to aid the Irish people to revolt against Britain. The Irish never got more than a shipload of rifles, but the Easter Sunday Uprising of 1916 was the result. Casement was arrested on the beach by the British trying to stop the rebellion from breaking out.<br /> <br /> 1926- President Calvin Coolidge said he was against the creation of a large US Air force because it “would be a menace to world peace.” <br /> <br /> 1927- Animator Les Clark began work at the Walt Disney Studio. He was the first of Walt’s Nine Old Men. <br /> <br /> 1935- Walt Disney cartoon "The Band Concert." The first color Mickey Mouse cartoon.<br /> <br /> 1939 - Walt Disney received a special Oscar for his classic 83-minute animated film SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, at the 11th Academy Awards held at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California.<br /> Eleven-year-old child star Shirley Temple presented Walt with one statuette and seven miniature statuettes for "a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field for the motion picture cartoon." (Film director Frank Capra came up with the idea of a full-sized Oscar statuette with seven smaller ones descending in a row.) A regular category for animated feature would not exist until 2001.<br /> <br /> 1942- In the dead of night a Japanese submarine surfaced off the California coast and fired its cannon at lights it thinks is a city. In reality it was an oil refinery just north of Santa Barbara. The brief bombardment caused $150 dollars in damage. The sub broke radio silence to report to Tokyo that " Enemy coast sighted. Los Angeles is in Flames." The incident was lampooned in the Steven Spielberg comedy "1941."<br /> <br /> 1960 - The Day Brooklyn Cried'- After the Dodgers moved west to Los Angeles, Flatbush’s Ebbets Field baseball stadium went under the wrecking ball and became a low income housing project.<br /> <br /> 1981- The Moscardo Coup. Disgruntled Spanish Fascists missed the good old days under Franco who died 6 years ago. This day 200 members of the Guardia Civil police attacked the Spanish Parliament and held the lawmakers hostage. A Colonel Moscardo yelled threats on television and waved a pistol in the air. The coup was crushed after 18 hours thanks in no small part to King Juan Carlos, who appeared in nationwide television in uniform and called upon the people to defend their democracy.<br /> <br /> 1991- DESERT STORM, The Ground War to liberate Kuwait began. The US Army was led by Gen. Colin Powell, who was originally from the South Bronx, and in the spearhead column was the French Foreign Legion, then recruited from unemployed Liverpool and Manchester soccer hooligans. Scary bunch.<br /> <br /> 1994- The Russian Mir space station had been in space since 1986 but was starting to show it’s age. A booster ship sent with supplies collided with Mir during a bad-docking maneuver. This day an oxygen fire filled the Mir Space Station with smoke. The fire is put out but it’s just the beginning of 6 months of privation, accidents and hair-raising close-calls for the joint Russian-German crew, and lone American astronaut Jerry Leninger. Mir was retired in 2002 and burned up on re-entry.<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Which character is older? Mickey Mouse, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Felix the Cat, Betty Boop. <br /> <br /> Answer: Felix the Cat, (1919)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 22 Feb 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6077 <p>Quiz: Which character is older? Mickey Mouse, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Felix the Cat, Betty Boop. <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: What is a “perp walk”?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/22/2023<br /> Birthdays: Hungarian King Ladislas the Posthumous-1440, Shah Tahmasp I-1514, George Washington, Frederic Chopin, Edward St. Vincent Millay, John Mills, Edward Gorey, Luis Bunuel, Ted Kennedy, Dr. J- Julius Erving, Dwight Frye- Renfield in Dracula, Sparky Anderson, Sheldon Leonard, Charlie O. Finley, Nicky Lauda, Don Pardo, Jonathan Demme, Jeri Ryan, Lea Salonga is 52, Kyle McLachlan is 62, Rachael Dratch is 57, Steve Erwin, Drew Barrymore is 48<br /> <br /> 1495- French King Charles VIII with his invading army entered Naples in triumph. Charles was pushing his family claims to the throne of the Kingdom of Naples. The ease with which his forces brushed aside the armies of the Italian citystates proved how rich and defenseless Renaissance Italy had become. For the next few centuries Italy was the gameboard for armies from Germany, France, Austria, Turkey and Spain. Italian territory would not free of foreign control until 1918! <br /> <br /> 1732- GEORGE WASHINGTON born- Alexander Hamilton called him "Talented but Dull". Thomas Paine called him: "A compleate hippocryte". John Adams called him “Old Muttonhead” that he’d rather strike leadership poses than actually lead, But Thomas Jefferson called him the" Indispensable Man" who assured that this strange new system of elected chief executive would not lapse into a dictatorship or royalty. <br /> SO HERE’S TO- a successful General who lost more battles than won them, <br /> -Who donated much of his personal fortune to the Revolution, accepted no pay, yet ended the war with a profit; <br /> - who had a whiskey still at Mt. Vernon, and grew hemp -for rope; <br /> - Who had few close friends and disliked people touching him;<br /> - Who’s first ambition was to be an officer in the British Army. <br /> - Who much preferred conversation about methods of raising squash and greenbeans to discussing his military campaigns.<br /> - Who never went to college.<br /> - Who’s inability to produce children prevented an American royal family.<br /> - Who was turned down for a bank loan the day he was elected President.<br /> - Who wrote about freeing his slaves, but worried what his neighbors would think.<br /> - Who never used the word God, Jesus, or quoted the Bible in any of his letters or speeches. <br /> - Who turned down a priest offering to give him Last Rites at his deathbed...<br /> And without whom, the United States would not look the same. Happy Birthday GW!<br /> <br /> 1774- The English House of Lords announced that authors do not have a perpetual copyright on their works but they must be periodically renewed.<br /> <br /> 1775- The first IPO- the American Manufactuary of Woolins, Linens &amp; Cottons became the first U.S. company to offer stock to the public- ten English pounds a share.<br /> <br /> 1782- After the news of the big defeat at Yorktown, Whig member of parliament William Conroy stood up in the House of Commons and called for Great Britain to finally withdraw from America and recognize the independence of the United States.<br /> <br /> 1805- Birth in England of Sarah Flowers Adams, whose poetry is in the hymn “Nearer My God to Thee.”<br /> <br /> 1821- As part of the Adams-Otis Treaty, Spain renounced her claims to Oregon. <br /> <br /> 1836- Texans defending the Alamo held a big fiesta in San Antonio to celebrate Washington’s Birthday. Dancing, tequila, and corn whisky flowed. Davey Crockett played his fiddle. But the party was interrupted when scouts brought word that the first elements of General Santa Anna’s Army were headed their way, only 8 miles away.<br /> <br /> 1848- John Quincy Adams had a stroke on the floor of Congress and died. He was the son of John Adams and was one of the only U.S. presidents to go back to being a congressman after losing re-election. I believe the only other was Andrew Johnson. Quincy Adams got his stroke speaking out on a bill to award Mexican War officers a ceremonial sword -he was anti-war. <br /> <br /> 1879- Frank Winfield Woolworth opened his first Five &amp; Ten Cent-store in Utica, New York. F.W. Woolworths became a major national chain of stores.<br /> <br /> 1889- Montana, the Dakotas and Washington State admitted into the union.<br /> <br /> 1909- The Great White Fleet returned to Hampton Roads Virginia after 14 months circumnavigating the world. At a time when battleships were the nukes of international policy, Teddy Roosevelt sending this fleet of 16 battleships on tour was making the statement that the U.S planned to be a world power player. <br /> <br /> 1911-The Kester Ranch in the San Fernando Valley became the town of Van Nuys, named for early settler Issac Newton Van Nuys. His father-in-law was Issac Lankershim.<br /> <br /> 1912-”MY HAT IS IN THE RING!” Teddy Roosevelt announced his intention to challenge for the Republican Presidential nomination against his own hand picked successor William Howard Taft. Roosevelt and Taft were once close friends, but now Teddy called Taft a “Puzzlewit” and “Fathead”. The Taft -Roosevelt feud split the Republican Party and allowed Democrat Woodrow Wilson to defeat them both. <br /> Roosevelt also split the progressive left wing off the Republicans that completed the process began in the Gilded Age of turning the radical party of Lincoln into America’s Tory conservatives. When Theodore Roosevelt was buried in 1919 the last mourner to linger weeping over his grave was William Howard Taft.<br /> <br /> 1913- Mexican President Francisco Madero assassinated by General Huerta who seized power. The gentle Madero- his enemies called him "the Christ-Fool", was elected after the long time dictator Porfilio Diaz was finally turned out. His assassination caused a new wave of revolutionary civil war waged by Pancho Villa, Emilio Zapata and Miguel Carranza. President Woodrow Wilson refused to recognize the Huerta government and by doing so only fueled anti-American sentiment.<br /> <br /> 1929- Grand Central Airport in Glendale dedicated. Los Angeles first major airport. <br /> <br /> 1924- President Coolidge becomes first president to address the nation over the radio.<br /> <br /> 1941- Nazis begin arresting the Jews of Amsterdam.<br /> <br /> 1945- The Arab League is formed in Cairo.<br /> <br /> 1946- Dr. Selman Abraham created Streptomycin, the first antibiotic drug. <br /> <br /> 1946- THE KENNAN REPORT- U. S. charges des affaires in Moscow George Kennan sent a long telegram to Washington in which he analyzed Soviet foreign policy. "Soviet Power is impervious to the logic of Reason, but responds to Force, and when confronted by sufficient force and determination it usually backs down." Kennan's report created the US strategic policy to confront global Communism with direct force. It gave philosophical justification to the client wars in Greece, Korea, Cuba and Vietnam, as well as the support of Spain’s Franco, Indonesia’s Suharto, Pinochet’s Chile and Iran’s Shah Reza Pahlevi because of their anti-Communist stances.<br /> <br /> 1957- Queen Elizabeth II’s husband Phillip was raised from Duke of Edinburgh to Prince of Edinburgh.<br /> <br /> 1957- The Incredible Shrinking Man premiered, directed by Jack Arnold. Written by Richard Matheson.<br /> <br /> 1965- General William Westmoreland asks for two marine battalions to protect the DaNang airbase. First U.S. troops sent to Vietnam not as advisers but as fighting units.<br /> <br /> 1967- General Suharto assumed power in Indonesia after crushing a communist insurgency threatening his predecessor Sukarno. <br /> <br /> 1979- Happy Saint Lucia Independence Day!<br /> <br /> 1980- Underdog U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated Soviet team 4-3 for the gold medal. The summer games in Moscow were boycotted, not the winter. The two teams did not meet again until the 2002 games in Utah where they skated to a 2-2 tie.<br /> <br /> 2002- Animator, director Chuck Jones passed away at age 89.<br /> <br /> 2009- Slumdog Millionaire won best picture and best cinematography at the 81st Academy Awards. The first movie to win that was shot completely digital, with no celluloid film used.<br /> <br /> =====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s question below: What is a “perp walk”?<br /> <br /> Answer: Short for perpetrator’s walk, is when someone under arrest and in handcuffs (maybe in civilian clothes but also possibly in prison garb with other punitive accouterments) appears thus bound and under guard in public, usually walking toward or away from some judicial proceeding, while the media catches photos and video of the event. (thanks FG)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 21 Feb 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6076 <p>Quiz: What is a “perp walk”?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: Why is your little finger called a pinky?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------<br /> HISTORY for 2/21/2023<br /> Birthdays: Leopold Delibes, C. Brancusi, Anais Ninn, W.H. Auden, Hubert de Givenchy, Era Bombeck, Sam Peckinpah, Nina Simone, Robert Mugabe, Joe Oriolo, John Lewis, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Kelsey Grammar is 68, Jennifer Love Hewitt is 44, Alan Rickman, Elliot Page is 36. David Geffen is 80, Jordan Peele is 44, Pebbles Flintstone is 60. <br /> <br /> Happy Mardi Gras - Fat Tuesday- The day before Ash Wednesday ushering in the Catholic season of Lent is the cause for wild parties in many cultures- Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Venice, Quebec and other cities. Carne-Vale is Latin for Carne-meat, Vale goodbye. So Goodbye to Meat, the Lenten fast. The Mardi Gras custom in America started in Mobile Alabama in 1708, when explorer Jean Baptiste Le Moyne Sieur de Bienville arrived at a plot of ground 60 miles directly south of New Orleans and named it "Pointe du Mardi Gras" when his men realized it was the eve of the festive holiday. It then went to New Orleans. It died out in more somber Victorian times but was renewed after the Civil War- so-' Lesse Le Bon Temps Rolle’! “Let the Good Times Roll!” “ Have you seen the Voodoo King?”<br /> <br /> 1613- The Russian parliament the Zemsky Sobor elected Michael Romanov as the new Czar. This ended the period of dynastic struggle and invasion called the Time of Troubles. It was also the last time a representative parliament decided anything in Russia until 1991. The Romanov Family ruled Russia until the Revolution of 1917 and are still around, should Russia ever want a monarchy again.<br /> <br /> 1719- A London weekly announced “Mr Handel, a Famous Master of Music, is gone beyond the sea, by order of His Majesty, to collect a company of the choicest singers in Europe for the Opera in the Haymarket.” The London Opera is born. On his recruiting trip George Frederich Handel passed through his hometown of Halle. <br /> A few hours after he was gone another musician came to town, having walked 25 miles just to meet this great German composer who was the toast of England. He was Johann Sebastian Bach. But he was too late. The two giants of classical music would never meet.<br /> <br /> 1803- Irish rebel Col. Edward Despard was executed at Horsemonger Lane Gaol for plotting to assassinate King George III. The last person to ever be sentenced to the medieval punishment of being drawn and quartered. But by now the public thought it was so gruesome, that it was partly commuted. Despard was hanged, and his body beheaded without any further butchery. The disappointed crowd booed and hissed the executioner.<br /> <br /> 1814- This day Captain De Berenger, a French exile aristocrat in the British Army, arrived in London with amazing news from the Continent- that Napoleon Bonaparte had been defeated and killed by the Russians. The war was over! London went wild with celebrations and exiled French King Louis XVIII held a celebratory ball. <br /> But the story was a fake. Napoleon was alive and would wage war for two more years. <br /> De Berenger was part of an elaborate stock fraud. His partners Andrew Butt, Richard Cochrane-Johnstone and Thomas Cobbett waited until the London Stock Market boomed with the news, then sold their shares at top price. When the truth came out and the market crashed, they had made a fortune. An investigation was convened and all the conspirators rounded up. <br /> The only good from this was for America. Cochrane-Johnstone’s cousin, Admiral Lord Thomas Cochrane was also implicated in the scheme and this prevented him from sailing to America with a British fleet. Cochrane “The Sea Wolf” was one of the best fighting admirals since Nelson, and the model for fictional sea dogs like Horatio Hornblower and Lucky Jack Aubrey. He would not be at Baltimore when the “Rockets Red Glare, the Bombs Bursting in Air..”….etc.<br /> <br /> 1828- The Cherokee Nation adopted their own constitution.<br /> <br /> 1848- THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO- In Brussels Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published their revolutionary work the Communist Manifesto, redefining history in terms of economic class warfare and creating the terms communist and communism. Interestingly enough they picked Brussels to publish because that year 1848 there were revolutions happening in most of the other cities in Europe. <br /> <br /> 1885- The completed Washington Monument was dedicated by Pres Chester Allan Arthur. Plans for the obelisk were first drawn up in 1792 by Pierre L’Enfant and the cornerstone laid in 1840 but construction was constantly suspended. First they ran out of money for 20 years, then they stopped because of the Civil War, another time because the Presbyterian workers refused to handle Italian marble blocks donated by the Catholic Pope. The final capstone point as affixed last December, and the official dedication today.<br /> <br /> 1898- After the explosion of the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor Under Secretary of the Navy Teddy Roosevelt burned to take action. This day when his boss the Navy Secretary decided to take a day off, Teddy rushed off emergency orders to all the U.S. battleships to go onto a war alert and lay in a supply of extra coal and munitions. The War with Spain hadn't even been declared yet. His boss returned red faced and furious but Teddy had already resigned his office to raise his own volunteer cavalry brigade.<br /> <br /> 1901- Yankee outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with prostitute Hedda Place, sometimes called Mrs. Sundance, left New York City by ship for Latin America. They hoped to build a new life in the Patagonian foothills of Argentina. But after 4 year of ranching, Butch and Sundance took up their outlaw ways again, fleeing to Bolivia. Hedda Place returned to the US, and disappeared from history.<br /> <br /> 1916- VERDUN began- One of the most horrible battles in world history. World War I German Gen. Eric Von Falkynhen planned to draw France into a battle that would ‘bleed her white”, but he wound up bleeding his own army just as badly. German and French troops battled over some stone fortresses for ten months. Hundreds of thousands of men died in one battle. The French fired 1 1/2 million shells in this thirty mile square area and the Germans even more. Regiments would be marched into the trenches, blown to bits, then another marched in. The surrounding countryside was turned into a shell hole pocked lunar hell. They were still digging up and defusing shells in 1968.<br /> <br /> 1919- More chaos in Germany after the Great War defeat. The Socialist rebel leader of Munich, Kurt Eisner, was assassinated and Bolsheviks declared the Soviet Republic of Bavaria. One of the things they tried to do before rightwing paramilitary militias turn them out was try to declare war on Switzerland. By May, the streets of Munich become a battleground that ex-corporal named Hitler decides was a fun place to be.<br /> <br /> 1942- After the port of Darwin was bombed by the Japanese, President Roosevelt ordered General MacArthur, trapped on Corregidor, not to go down fighting in the Philippines, but escape and organize the defense of Australia.<br /> MacArthur slipped away in the dead of night by PT boat with his wife and four year old son. He vowed to the Philippine people:" I Shall Return !" The army press liaison tried to change the press release to We Shall Return, but MacArthur insisted it remain as is.<br /> <br /> 1945- During the Battle of Iwo Jima, the Marines raised the flag on Mt. Suribachi. Associate Press photographer Joe Rosenthal takes the most famous image of the war. It's now the Marine monument at Arlington Cemetery. Actually, he photographed the second flag raising. The first was a small flag stuck on a piece of pipe to get the artillery below to stop shelling them, and to give the Marines pinned down on the beach some hope. The second larger flag raising was done for the press. It was still plenty dangerous, two of the six flag raisers were later killed in battle that same day. Rosenthal almost missed the shot because he turned around momentarily to see if he was in the way of another cameraman. The big flag attracted Japanese gunfire, and Rosenthal tumbled down the mountain to get out of the way. He broke one of cameras and was not even sure he got the shot until the film was developed on Guam, 17 hours later. <br /> <br /> 1958- THE PEACE SIGN. British graphic designer Gerald Holtom was creating signs for a nuclear disarmament protest in London. He wanted a visual that would stick in people’s minds. He created a symbol based on the naval semaphore flag designation for “N” nuclear, and “D” disarmament. It was adopted by the Anti-Vietnam War Peace movement in the late 1960s.<br /> <br /> 1965- MALCOLM X was assassinated at the Audubon Meeting Hall in Washington Heights Manhattan. His last words were trying to quiet a disturbance in the crowd he was about to address-"Brothers, be cool." Three men then stood up and fired pistols and a shotgun killing him instantly. He was later found to have over twenty bullets in his body. Three murderers did time for the killing, but it has never been proven who ordered it. Popular sentiment speculate it was his enemies in the Black Muslim movement, with whom he had broken.<br /> <br /> 1977- Animation director John Hubley died suddenly on an operating table of an aortic aneurism during heart surgery. He was 62. <br /> <br /> 1980- Ukrainian astronomer Ludmila Karachkina named a main belt asteroid for Walt Disney, asteroid 4017 Disneya. <br /> <br /> 1988- Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart tearfully confessed to his Baton Rouge congregation “Ah Have Sinned!!” He had been arrested for soliciting a prostitute. They forgave him, A year later he was busted again for the same reason, but he still continues to preach family values on TV. <br /> <br /> 2014- The Wind Rises, directed by Hayao Miyazaki premiered in the US.<br /> ===================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Why is your little finger called a pinky?<br /> <br /> Answer: Pinkjye is Dutch for little finger.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 20 Feb 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6075 <p>Question: Why is your little finger called a pinky?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: When the U.S. Marines raised the flag on Iwo Jima in 1945, how many stars were on the flag?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/20/2023<br /> Birthdays: Honore' Daumier, Nancy Wilson, Ansel Adams, Cindy Crawford, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Robert Altman, Roger Penske. Phil Esposito, Jennifer O’Neill, Ivanna Trump, Mike Leigh, Lili Taylor, Sidney Poitier<br /> <br /> 1258- The Mongol horde under Hulugau sacked Baghdad. They were ordered by Genghis Khan not to spill any royal blood, so they took the last Caliph, Al Mostassem-Billah, rolled him in a blanket, then galloped the horde over him. The great city of the Arabian Nights was looted and burned for 40 straight days. Chroniclers said 800,000 died, and the streets ran with rivulets of liquid gold- melting from all the gilded books in the burning libraries. <br /> <br /> 1702- British King William III went riding around Hampton Court when his horse Sorrel stepped in a mole hole and threw him. He suffered a broken collarbone. But being already elderly, tuberculate and asthmatic, he died within the week. Friends of the exiled Stuart dynasty drank a hearty toast to the 'Little man in the velvet waistcoat', meaning the mole who dug the hole.<br /> <br /> 1725- THE FIRST DOCUMENTED SCALPINGS- Militiamen scalped ten Indians in New Hampshire. Indians of the Eastern coast and Caribbean had done the practice before. Now colonial authorities encouraged allied tribes to bring in scalps as a way of proving how many of the enemy they had killed, before being paid a cash bounty. Scalps soon became a fashionable novelty item for sale in London. Tribes adopted different scalp cuts so you would know who did it -the Cheyenne preferred a diamond cut, Sioux an oval pattern.<br /> <br /> 1792- U.S. Postal Service founded. Ironically, the only postal service that ever operated at a profit was the one established by the Confederacy under postmaster John Regan from 1861-65.<br /> <br /> 1816- "Fee-Garr-Row! Fig-Ar- Roww- Figaro-Figaro, Figaro, Figaro"- Giacomo Rossini's opera 'The Barber of Seville' premiered. Rossini endured bad press and heavy criticism at the time because the another opera of the Marriage of Figaro had just been premiered by Paisiello, an inferior composer who then was more popular than him.<br /> <br /> 1824- The first attempt to name and classify a dinosaur. At the Geological Society of London, Dean William Buckland announced the Megalosaurus or the Great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield. Based on a leg bone he estimated it at 40 feet long and a bulk larger than an elephant. <br /> <br /> 1827- The Battle of Ituzaingo- The army of the Brazilian Empire defeated Argentina. <br /> 1831- First Battle of the Cahuenga Pass. Angry California rancheros led by Juan de Alvarado and young Pio Pico clashed with the Mexican territorial governor Miguel de Micheltorena. The only casualty was a mule. Alvarado later became governor himself and Pico a general in the Mexican army.<br /> <br /> 1839- The City of Washington DC outlawed dueling. <br /> <br /> 1862- Abraham Lincoln's youngest son Willie died of bilious fever in the White House. Today some theorize he died of cholera from drinking the swampy water of Washington. <br /> <br /> 1918- The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Lenin and the Bolsheviks had promised an end of Russia’s part in World War I. Its continuation had doomed the representative government of Alexander Kerensky after Tsar Nicholas was overthrown. Now Lenin decided to end the war at any cost. The Germans demanded huge parts of Poland and Ukraine as compensation. Since the Bolsheviks had demobilized the Russian Army, Lenin had to give it all away. He was gambling that the allies would win anyway. He also planned setting up Communist Party cells in Germany and Vienna that he hoped would overthrow the Kaiser. The Kaiser was defeated and toppled, and Russia did get back all her lost territory.<br /> <br /> 1925- Willis O’Brien’s silent movie The Lost World premiered. Based on Conan-Doyles 1912 novel. The stop motion animation of dinosaurs and exploding volcanoes issued in a new era of special effects films. O'Brien later did King Kong and trained kids like Ray Harryhausen.<br /> <br /> 1933-"WE’VE HIRED HITLER!" German chancellor Adolf Hitler had a secret meeting with Germany's corporate leaders: Krupp, I.G. Faben, Seimans, Bayer, GAF, BASF, Daimler-Benz. He made a deal that if they financed his Nazi government, he would destroy the labor unions and communists, re-arm the nation, and suspend the eight-hour workday. The quote is by Gottfried Krupp after their meeting.<br /> Most of the German corporate CEO's survived the war and became leaders in the postwar anti-Communist world.<br /> <br /> 1936- The film “Follow the Fleet” premiered, with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.<br /> <br /> 1939- The American Nazi Party held their largest rally in Madison Square Garden in New York City. 20,000 Americans goose-stepped and Sieg-Heiled under a huge portrait of George Washington, while angry anti-Fascist and Jewish groups protested outside. By 1941 most of the German American Bund had dissolved. During the war 10,000 German Americans were interned along with the Japanese and Italians. Fritz Kuhn, the organizer of the rally was jailed for embezzling his organizations funds. He was deported to Germany in 1946.<br /> <br /> 1947- In a lecture to the London Mathematical Society, Computer pioneer Alan Turing said the best way to test the intelligence of a computer would be to teach it to play chess. Earliest reference to interactive gaming.<br /> <br /> 1958- Hercules premiered, starring body-builder Steve Reeves and Sylvia Koscina. It spawned a genre of muscle-man movies set in ancient Greece and Rome. Called in Hollywood jargon, “ sword &amp; sandal flicks”.<br /> <br /> 1962- "God Go with You, John Glenn!" Mercury -7 sent the first American into orbit.<br /> His first words upon emerging from the space capsule were:” It was hot in there.” Glenn later became a Democratic senator and in his 70’s went into space a second time on a space shuttle in 1998. John Glenn was a combat Marine pilot, test pilot and astronaut but even he sometimes got the willies. <br /> In 1968 while traveling with the Robert Kennedy for President entourage their chartered plane hit turbulence. Bobby Kennedy undid his seat belt, stood up and said to the cabin “ I have an announcement- Colonel Glenn- is scared!”<br /> <br /> 1980- Bon Scott, vocalist for the band AC/DC, was found dead in a friend’s automobile choked in his own vomit.<br /> <br /> 1986- The Soviets launch the first permanent orbiting space station, Mir, which means Peace. After a long career in which 7 US astronauts among many others spent time there in 2001 it finally burned up in re-entry. The International Space Station went up shortly after.<br /> <br /> 1986- Britain and France announced the project Napoleon had dreamed of 200 years earlier, a tunnel under the English Channel – the Chunnel.<br /> <br /> 1997- Chinese Chairman Deng Zhao Peng died at 92. Nicknamed Little Bottles, he was the last leader from Mao Zedong’s original Long March days.<br /> <br /> 2005- First episode of Seth Green’s Robot Chicken premiered on TV.<br /> <br /> 2006- The animated film Wallace &amp; Gromet: Curse of the Were-Rabbit, won the British Academy Award (BAFTA) for the best British Film of the year. It beat out The Constant Gardner, and Pride &amp; Prejudice. <br /> ==============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: When the U.S. Marines raised the flag on Iwo Jima in 1945, how many stars were on the flag?<br /> <br /> Answer: 48. Alaska and Hawaii were not states yet.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 19 Feb 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6074 <p>Quiz: When the U.S. Marines raised the flag on Iwo Jima in 1945, how many stars were on the flag?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays’ question answered below: What is the difference between archaeology and anthropology?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------<br /> HISTORY FOR 2/19/2023<br /> Birthdays: Copernicus is 1542, Luigi Boccherini, Smokey Robinson, Andre Breton, Lee Marvin, Sir Cedric Hardwicke. Karen Silkwood, Paul Terry, Frank Tashlin, Paul Krause, Merl Oberon, Amy Tam, John Frankenheimer, Ray Winstone is 66, Jeff Daniels is 68, Benicio Del Toro is 57<br /> <br /> Today is the Feast of Saint Wulfstan of Worchester.<br /> <br /> 197AD- General Septimius Severus of the African Legions had seized control of the Roman Empire was declared emperor. This day he defeated his last rival, Albinus, the commander of the legions of Gaul. He left Albinus’ dead body in front of his headquarters, where for fun he trampled it repeatedly with his horse. Albinus‘ corpse continued to lay around for days, being torn by dogs and vermin. Finally, it stank so badly, it was dumped into a nearby stream.<br /> <br /> 1600- The monk Giordano Bruno was one of the first modern skeptics. He raged against superstition and denied there was any such thing as Hell or Purgatory. But his chief crime was his expansion on the Copernican Theory. He declared that not only is the Earth revolving around the sun, but that the Universe is infinite and unfathomable. That God should not be belittled, being focused on one little people, on one little rock. He is an Infinite Presence ruling over countless worlds. This day in Rome, Giordano Bruno was stripped naked and burned at the stake, with an iron nail hammered through his tongue and his writings chained to his chest. Later thinkers like Galileo and Descartes kept Bruno’s fate in mind when they went too far in bucking Holy Mother Church.<br /> <br /> 1674- The Second Treaty of Breda settled the Third Dutch War with England. As part of the settlement, Holland gave up any chance of getting back her colonies in North America, now renamed by the English New York and New Jersey. Truth be told they weren’t bringing in much income anyway. They were considered of little value compared to their holdings in the Caribbean.<br /> <br /> 1725- The first recorded case of spontaneous combustion.<br /> <br /> 1736- Georg Frederich Handel’s oratorio Alexander’s Feast premiered at Covent Garden.<br /> <br /> 1807- AARON BURR, former vice president of the U.S, was arrested in Alabama territory for treason. Napoleon's attack on Spain put the Spanish Americas in confusion. Mexico declared her independence, the U.S. occupied West Florida (Alabama) and James Madison thought we should also take Cuba. Aaron Burr was organizing a freelance military expedition (called a filibuster) to take Texas away from Spain, but President Tom Jefferson suspected him of more sinister purposes. In this age of Napoleonic adventurers, a frustrated ambition like Burr's might have been thinking of taking over New Orleans (only American for 3 years), or even a march on Washington City! <br /> <br /> Aaron Burr went on trial but nothing could be proven. The state's chief witness General James Wilkinson was taken apart on the stand as a consummate liar - Chief Justice John Marshal tried to subpoena the President, but Jefferson created the concept of "Executive Privilege, saying a president can't be put under oath. So, Marshal had no alternative but to acquit Burr. Tom Jefferson in a rage tried to have Burr's defense attorney jailed and the Chief Justice impeached- Justice Marshal was Jefferson's cousin. So, Burr got away. He lived in Paris for a while, and when he died at 81, he was being sued by a woman for getting her pregnant.<br /> <br /> 1847- “ARE YOU FROM CALIFORNIA OR ARE YOU FROM HEAVEN?” The Donner Party found at last. The wagon train of settlers had been trapped in the High Sierra mountains of California near Lake Truckee in blizzard conditions with no food since last October 31st. Half the settlers were dead and the rest subsisting on cannibalizing the dead for food. This day a survivor named John Reed who got to safety returned with a rescue party from Sutter’s Fort. Of the 89 original settlers only 45 made it out alive. One opened a restaurant.<br /> <br /> 1878- Thomas Edison patented the phonograph.<br /> <br /> 1913- Crackerjacks start putting toy prizes in every box. Legend has it the name Crackerjack for the caramel corn was named for the reaction of Teddy Roosevelt trying it for the first time- These caramel-corns are Crackerjack!<br /> <br /> 1915- Grand Admiral von Tirpitz told German newspapers that his strategy to win the Great War was to use his submarine u-boats to blockade Britain and prevent food, fuel and supplies entering from the outside world.<br /> <br /> 1915- L.A. Times publisher and land baron Harry Chandler, oil man Harry Sinclair was indicted with 8 other prominent Angeleanos for conspiring to start a new revolution in Mexico. The Mexican government had seized their large land holdings there for land redistribution, and this was their quaint little way of getting them back.<br /> <br /> 1920- THE MYSTERY OF ANASTASIA- This day came the first news reports that a emotionally disturbed young woman who tried to jump into a Berlin canal claimed to be the Archduchess Anastasia Romanov, youngest daughter of the Czar of Russia. That she somehow escaped the 1918 massacre of her family and tried to prove it by recalling minute details about the Imperial household. She was called Anna Anderson and for a time was the toast of New York and Parisian society. But unlike the movies, the Romanov family in exile never took her seriously and Anna eventually married and settled down in Sweden. In 1991 scientists conducted extensive tests to match her DNA with the Romanovs. They even took blood samples from English Prince Phillip, who had some Romanov in him. The report proved she was not the little archduchess.<br /> <br /> 1942- Japanese planes bombed the Australian Port of Darwin, Australians braced for an invasion. In the beginning of the war, Australia had sent all her soldiers to Europe to help mother England, figuring the U.S. Navy could handle anything in Asia. Now the U.S. Navy was sunk or on the run, the Japanese were massing for invasion while the Australian army was on the other side of the world.<br /> When the Australian prime minister asked Churchill for his divisions back to defend the homeland, Churchill refused, saying he couldn't spare them. In the end the Japanese never did invade, and relations between Aussies and Brits have been dodgy ever since.<br /> <br /> 1942- PRESIDENT FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT signed Executive Order# 9066- The JAPANESE INTERNMENT ACT- All along the Pacific Coast first and second generation Japanese-Americans were uprooted from their homes and property and with what only they could carry were shipped off to camps in the desert. Many never got restitution for their lost property. <br /> Although the F.B.I. kept tabs on German and Italian agents in U.S. and pro-Fascist groups like the American Bund flourished in the 30’s, nothing like what happened to Japanese Americans occurred to them. Less than 10,000 Germans were rounded up as compared to over 100,000 Japanese-Americans. Canada and Mexico also interned some of their Japanese immigrant population. Few Japanese-Americans were interned in Hawaii however, because it would have seriously depleted the population. <br /> <br /> 1943- Battle of Kasserine Pass ended. Rommel the Desert Fox showed he had a few tricks left, beating up the American army in its debut, and embarrassing Eisenhower's first combat command. He lured the Yanks into a narrow pass and chopped them up. It was the only time in the European war that American G.I.s broke and ran.<br /> <br /> 1944- Writer John Steinbeck asked that his name be taken off of the credits for the Alfred Hitchcock film version of “Lifeboat”. “In view of the fact that my script for the picture was distorted in production.” He didn’t much like the Grapes of Wrath screenplay either.<br /> <br /> 1945- THE INVASION of IWO JIMA-The nine-mile square bit of barren beach cost over 50,000 lives. This island and Okinawa were the test cases to judge how fiercely the Japanese would fight for mainland Japan. Iwo Jima was the first island that wasn't conquered territory of some other people but was considered part of the home Japanese Islands, only 700 miles from Tokyo. <br /> <br /> 1945- Sgt John Basilone earned the Medal of Honor for this bravery on Guadalcanal for conspicuous gallantry defeating a Japanese assault. He toured the USA doing war bonds tours. But being a celebrity or instructor did not suit him. He volunteered to go back to combat duty. This day in the assault of Iwo Jima Sgt. Baslilone was killed by enemy fire.<br /> <br /> 1945- While Allied armies crossed into Germany on all sides, Nazi S.S. leader Heinrich Himmler contacted the neutral Swedish diplomat Count Bernadotte to try and open secret peace talks behind Hitler's back. Bernadotte asked as a condition that all concentration camps in the Reich be turned over to the International Red Cross. Himmler balked at that, but agreed to allow food packages to be delivered to Nordic prisoners. When Hitler found out Himmler was trying to cut his own deal, he was extremely upset. Himmler was under house arrest at the end of the war.<br /> <br /> 1951- Poet philosopher Andre Gide died in Paris. Several things were quoted as his last words, my favorite is " Before you quote me, please make sure I'm conscious."<br /> <br /> 1954- The prototype Ford Thunderbird auto completed.<br /> <br /> 1960- Bill Keane's "Family Circus" cartoon strip debuts. <br /> <br /> 1963- The book The Feminine Mystique was published. Betty Freidan’s analysis of contemporary women’s issues is considered the first shot of the modern Women’s Movement. <br /> <br /> 1964- Peter Sellers married actress Brit Ekland. His huffing amyl nitrate as a sexual stimulant probably contributed to a series of early heart attacks he had. They divorced in 1968.<br /> <br /> 1968- “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood…” Mister Roger’s Neighborhood debuted on National Education Television, later called PBS. Ordained Presbyterian minister Fred Rogers had been doing children’s shows similar in Pittsburgh and Canada since the 50’s, but today was the start of his national show. It would run unchanged for thirty-five years.<br /> <br /> 1995- Sexy actress Pamela Anderson married sexy rocker Tommy Lee. On their honeymoon on Lake Powell they shot an explicit sex tape that was leaked onto the internet, becoming the first viral video. By 2000, one sixth of everything viewed on the world-wide web was about Pamela Anderson. <br /> <br /> 1990- ILM VFX designer John Knoll and his brother Tom created a surfacing and paint system for home computer use. Adobe bought it, and this day released it as Photoshop.<br /> ===========================================================<br /> Yesterdays’ question: What is the difference between archaeology and anthropology?<br /> <br /> Answer: Archaeology explores the digging up, recovery and examination of ancient peoples and species. Anthropology focuses on the analysis and interpretation of what they dug up.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 18 Feb 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6073 <p>Quiz: What is the difference between archaeology and anthropology?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays’ question answered below: What does desultory mean?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/18/23<br /> Birthdays: Queen Mary I Tudor -Bloody Mary, Pietro Guarnieri the violin maker, Harry Grover- Seeley one of the founders of Paleontology, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Andre Segovia, Wendell Wilkie, Billy de Wolfe, Enzo Ferrari, Jack Palance, Milos Forman, Bobby Bachman of the Bachman Turner Overdrive, Gahan Wilson, Johnny Hart, Cybil Shepherd is 73, Matt Dillon is 59, John Travolta is 69, John Hughes, Dr. Dre, Yoko Ono is 90<br /> <br /> Today is the feast day of Saint Simon, Jesus’ first cousin, who is often confused with Simon Zealots, one of the apostles. He was executed in the reign of the Emperor Trajan.<br /> <br /> 1386- IOGAILA WYTAUTAS also called Wladyslaw Jagiello, Grand Duke of Lithuania and grandson of Mendog the Terrible, married Jadwiga of Poland and became King of Poland-Lithuania, Hetman of the Ukraine, Voivode of Ruthenia (modern Moldova) and so on and so on. <br /> When Jadwiga heard the news of who she was marrying, her first reaction was to chop away at her door with an axe. But later she accepted patriotically. Poland-Lithuania becomes the second largest power in Europe, and the Lithuanians are the last people in Europe to renounce animist paganism for Christianity. <br /> <br /> 1564- Michelangelo Buonarotti died just 6 days before his 89th birthday. He was carving yet another Pieta a few days before his death. <br /> <br /> 1814- Napoleon with his little army of 15 year old conscripts stop an invading Russian army at the Battle of Montereau.<br /> <br /> 1842- Two hundred of New York City’s high society held a banquet in honor of the visiting English author Charles Dickens. Dickens spent the evening depressing everyone with talk about his tour of the cities prisons, slums and poorhouses.<br /> <br /> 1854- McSorley’s Ale House opened on 7th St in New York City. And it is still open, the oldest bar in the city. Abe Lincoln went for a beer there after declaring himself a candidate for president. <br /> <br /> 1856- The KNOW NOTHING PARTY held their first, and only, presidential convention. Officially called the American Party, but known for responding to reporter’s questions as “they knew nothing” This 3rd party was formed over anger at growing immigration. They sought to curb the influx of immigrants, especially Roman Catholics from Ireland and Italy. They nominated ex-President Millard Filmore for re-election, but their ranks were broken up over disagreement over slavery, so their movement sputtered out.<br /> <br /> 1878- THE LINCOLN COUNTY WARS- John Tunstall, a Scotsman who gave a number of young cowboys work on his ranch in New Mexico, was bushwhacked and killed while his bodyguards were away hunting wild turkeys. Tunstall was buried in his clan tartan kilt. This murder sparked a running gun battle between Tunstall's group led by his attorney John McSweeny, and a town merchant named Murphy, rancher John Chisum and most of the county. One of Tunstall's hired hands turned this range war into a personal vendetta that would make his name famous- Billy the Kid.<br /> <br /> 1885- Mark Twain's 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' published.<br /> <br /> 1888- The Hotel Coronado in San Diego Cal. opened for guests. It remains one of the largest remaining wood structures in the U.S. Several presidents stayed there, the Duke of Windsor met Wallis Simpson there, and films like the Marilyn Monroe film Some Like it Hot and The Stuntman were shot there. The script for the movie Blade Runner was written there.<br /> <br /> 1930- The planet Pluto discovered- in 1909 Scientist Lord Percival Lowell had detected signs of a planet at the edge of our Solar System beyond Neptune but could not definitely confirm or identify it. They named it for the time being 'Planet X'. The Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff Arizona had searched in vain for decades until Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh, a 24 year old amateur astronomer who was allowed to occasionally use Lowell’s telescope to justify the public grants they got. Lord Lowell had just passed away before the discovery he had dedicated his life to. <br /> When the New Horizons spacecraft flew to Pluto in 2015, it carried a capsule of Clyde Tombaugh’s ashes.<br /> <br /> 1950- First Mr. Magoo cartoon "Ragtime Bear".<br /> <br /> 1953- First 3-D stereoscopic movie, "B'wana Devil" starring Robert Stack.<br /> <br /> 1964- Death of Jean-Armand Bombadier, inventor of the snowmobile.<br /> <br /> 1970- The Chicago 7, Yippie leaders of the anti-war rioting in front of the Democratic presidential convention of 1968 were found innocent of all charges. David Dillinger, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Bobby Seale, Tom Hayden, Lee Weiner, John Froines and Rene Davis. One of their offenses was trying to get a 250 pound pig onto the floor of the Convention so they could get it nominated for President. <br /> <br /> 1972- President Richard Nixon and Pat Nixon land in China. <br /> <br /> 1973- Richard Petty the Stock Car King won his first Daytona 500 race. He would go on to win 6 more and prove that NASCAR racing was one of America’s favorite though most underreported sports.<br /> <br /> 2001- Dale Earnhardt Sr, the reigning NASCAR racing car champion, died in a crash on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. His eldest son Dale Jr. placed second.<br /> Disney’s Onward premiered at the El Capitan. Written and directed by Dan Scanlon.<br /> <br /> 2021- During a bad winter ice storm, the Texas electric power grid broke down and plunged millions unto frigid cold with no running water. Today it was revealed that Texas Senator Ted Cruz had secretly taken his family to a vacation in Cancun Mexico. He was humiliated in public and had to return. Speaking to reporters after his arrival home, he conceded that the trip was “obviously a mistake”<br /> <br /> =====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does desultory mean?<br /> <br /> Answer: A nice way of describing something was done haphazardly or randomly. The opposite of methodical.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 16 Feb 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6072 <p>Quiz: What is a chauvinist?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered below: Charles Perrault wrote stories under a more famous pen-name. What was it?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/16/2023<br /> Birthdays: The Great Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg-Prussia, Henry Adams, Charles Taze Russell founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Edgar Bergen, James Baskett, Sonny Bono, John McEnroe, Frank Welker, John Schlesinger, Faith Hubley, Katherine Cornell, John Corligiano, Kim Jong Il, Levar Burton is 66, Ice-T is 65, Elizabeth Olsen<br /> <br /> In ancient Rome it was the Festival of Quirinalia- when Romulus the founder of Rome was taken up into the sky to become the god Quirinus.<br /> <br /> 304AD- Today is the feast of St. Juliana of Nicomedia, who was tortured by both her father AND her boyfriend. I know a lot of you ladies out there can relate. She also liked to wrestle winged devils in her spare time.<br /> <br /> 1804- To the shores of Tripoli....The U.S. Navy went to North Africa to try and get the Barbary Pirates to leave Yankee merchant ships alone. The Barbary Pirates had been extorting money from Mediterranean shipping for hundreds of years, but they weren’t a problem while American ships were under British Royal Navy protection. But now the little republic was on it’s own. When the Bey of Algiers demanded his usual payoff, the U.S. Congress said: "Millions for defense, but not one cent for Tribute!" So the US Navy was sent.<br /> The frigate U.S.S. Philadelphia was sent to Tripoli harbor to threaten, but only managed to get stuck on a sand bar and her entire crew became hostages. On this day Captain Stephen Decatur slipped into Tripoli harbor and burned the Philadelphia. British Admiral Nelson called it "one of the boldest actions of the age. "Actually, more valuable was when Decatur landed a small force of U.S. Marines and Greek mercenaries who overland surprised the largest Algerian fortress at Dara and compelled the Bey of Algiers to make peace. <br /> <br /> 1808- Napoleon invaded Spain. After he defeated the Spanish Army and occupied Madrid, the Spanish people didn’t roll over quietly like other nations. They fought on as Guerrillas, little wars. The violence in what the French called the Spanish Ulcer raged unabated until they were driven out by Wellington in 1814.<br /> <br /> 1848- Frederic’ Chopin played his last concert in Paris. Slowly dying from incurable tuberculosis, the 38 year old retired to the isle of Majorca, and died a year later.<br /> <br /> 1860- British General Charles Gordon took command of the Ever-Victorious Army in China to combat the Taiping Rebellion. The Ever-Victorious was a force of mercenaries recruited by an American named Frederick Ward to help the Qing, Manchu Emperor defeat his enemies western style. The leader of the Taipings, Hong Xiuquan, had told his followers he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ come to Earth and called the territory he conquered around Nanjing, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Grand Peace. Gordon’s army helped destroy the Taipings, and Hong committed suicide by eating as much gold leaf as necessary. <br /> <br /> 1862- FORT HENRY &amp; DONELSON. Confederate strongholds Fort Henry and Ft. Donelson surrendered to a new Yankee general named Ulysses S. Grant. Rebel cavalry leader Nathan Bedford Forrest on his own initiative cut his way out of the encircling bluecoats rather than surrender. Southern commander Simon Bolivar Buckner was a personal friend of Sam Grant before the war and even lent Grant money when he was broke. Buckner now expected favorable terms, but Grant bluntly demanded Unconditional Surrender! The initials matched his name and the little cigar smoking souse became a hero to a demoralized North. But Simon Bolivar Buckner never forgave him and never spoke to him until Grant was on his deathbed in 1885. <br /> <br /> 1863- THE DRAFT- U.S. Congress passed the National Conscription Act. The Confederates had started drafting the year before. Riots broke out in Northern cities whenever the draft board set up. Rich men could buy their way out for $300. John Rockefeller, Grover Cleveland and Teddy Roosevelt’s father took that way out. There was a popular song of the era called "We are Coming Father Abraham, Three Hundred Thousand More" which was changed by wags to “We are Coming Father Abraham, Three Hundred Dollars More."<br /> <br /> 1923- Bessie Smith made her first recording-"Downhearted Blues".<br /> <br /> 1937- Chemist Wallace Caruthers working for the Dupont Company received the patent for Nylon. He was trying to find something to replace horsehair bristles for toothbrushes. What he got was a fabric that could replace expensive silk. By World War II nylon stockings for women were so popular that limited by shortages for parachutes, resourceful women would draw a seam in pencil down their bare leg to impersonate the effect.<br /> <br /> 1942- Operation Drumroll- Hitler sent a wolfpack of 5 large long-range U-Boat submarines to sink ships along the American east coast. <br /> <br /> 1949- NBC premiered The Camel News Caravan with John Cameron Swayze, the first all news TV program. Camel Cigarettes was the sponsor. In 1956 NBC replaced it with the Huntley-Brinkley Report.<br /> <br /> 1959- Fidel Castro takes the oath as President of Cuba.<br /> <br /> 1978- The first computer bulletin board goes on live. Two guys from Chicago named Ward Christensen and Randy Seuss built a Computerized Bulletin Board System that was an S-100 motherboard and CP/M, and a Hayes 300 band modem. It still runs today, but the Internet has taken the place that BBS's used to have.<br /> <br /> 1982- In Houston, three friends from Texas Instruments, Rod Canion, Bill Murto, and Jim Harris got together and formed the company COMPAQ. They designed their first portable computer on a back of a House of Pies placemat. Made with off the shelf components, and compatible with all IBM programs, it was a tremendous success.<br /> <br /> 1987-"Family Dog" episode on Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories show. The first direction by Brad Bird.<br /> <br /> 1994- Apple announced the introduction of the Apple Quicktake digital camera, the first camera that needed no film but could load images directly into a computer. They added it to the iPhone in 2007. Within ten years Polaroid and Kodak were filing for bankruptcy. <br /> <br /> 2018- The Black Panther opened in theaters. Directed by Ryan Coogler, and starring Chadwick Boseman.<br /> =============================================================<br /> Question: Charles Perrault wrote stories under a more famous pen-name. What was it?<br /> <br /> Answer: Mother Goose.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 15 Feb 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6071 <p>Question: Charles Perrault wrote stories under a more famous pen-name. What was it?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: What does it mean when something is viscous?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/15/2023<br /> Birthdays: Galileo Galilei, Frederick Douglas, French King Louis XV, Michael Praetorius, Susan B. Anthony, Charles Tiffany, John Barrymore, Jane Seymour, Cesar Romero, Gale Sondergard, Melissa Manchester, Chris Farley, Claire Bloom, Chris MacDonald, Art Spiegleman is 75, Marissa Berenson is 76, Matt Groening is 69<br /> <br /> 980AD- Today is the Feast of Saint Sigfrid, an Englishman who became the patron saint of Sweden. At the invitation of Viking King Olaf Tryggvason, Sigfrid came north from Glastonbury and baptized Swedish King Olaf the White. Once when Sigfrid was away and his nephews minding his church, the pagans grabbed them and cut their heads off. Saint Sigfrid made the decapitated heads preach to the pagans about the coming Judgement Day. Musta scared the beejeezus out of them. <br /> <br /> 1720- Young Francois Voltaire had begun a career as a successful playwright with his first play Oedipe. But his second play Artemire was booed as loudly as his first play was cheered. The irate playwright ran up on stage and argued with the audience for over an hour, but the audience still thought his play stunk.<br /> <br /> 1764-The town of Saint Louis, Missouri was established by French fur trappers (les voyageurs) up from New Orleans, led by Pierre Laclede Ligueste.<br /> <br /> 1793- Revolutionary France adopted the tricolor flag. After Waterloo, royalists tried to go back to the white with gold Fleur du Lys banner. But from 1848 on the Tricolor remained the national banner of the French nation.<br /> <br /> 1815- Things on the Island of Elba had gotten so quiet that the British officer in charge of Napoleon's exile, Sir Colin Campbell, informed his prisoner he was going on holiday to see his girlfriend in Italy. Napoleon asked, “Will you be back by the 28th? “Yes, why?” Oh, nothing. it's just my sister Princess Pauline is planning a party and we'd hate for you to miss it." But Napoleon was actually plotting to escape to France and re-conquer Europe. Pauline had her party on the 25th. Sir Colin Campbell returned to find his prisoner, and his career, had flown the coup.<br /> <br /> 1836- The Mexican Army of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna crossed the Rio Grande into the rebellious state of Texas. Santa Anna had mortgaged his own lands back home and put his field hands into uniform to bolster up the ranks of his army.<br /> <br /> 1861- When Texas joined the Confederacy, US frontier fort commanders worried about how to proceed. This day without waiting for orders, General William Twiggs surrendered all his army posts and war material of the Department of Texas to the new Confederate Government. The rebels gained tons of munitions and guns, and even some Egyptian camels from a failed experiment to introduce them to American deserts. President Elect-Abe Lincoln called Twiggs a traitor, and Twiggs responded by trying to unsuccessfully challenge outgoing President Buchanan to a duel.<br /> <br /> 1862- Battle of Valverde New Mexico- Pro Confederate Texans fought Pro-Union Colorado and New Mexico militia in a sleepy adobe village. Texans captured 4 Yankee brass cannon and dragged them back to San Antonio. The Valverde Guns became a famous Texas unit. <br /> <br /> 1879- President Rutherford Hayes signed a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases in U.S. law courts, even though they still were not allowed to vote.<br /> <br /> 1898- The U.S.S. Battleship MAINE EXPLODED in Havana Harbor, killing 252 sailors. The cause was never confirmed, it may have been a spontaneous igniting of fumes in the gunpowder magazine, but the American public was urged to blame Spanish sabotage. <br /> The next day a motor launch out to the site of the disaster rescued the ships cat clinging to the mainmast protruding from the water. U.S. public opinion against Spain was pushed by "yellow journalists" like William Randolph Hearst and Josef Pulitzer. Hearst said “ The Maine is a wonderful thing.” When Pulitzer’s correspondent, artist Frederick Remington reported home, “There is no war down here.” Pulitzer responded, "You supply the pictures, I'll supply the war." <br /> American expansionists had been planning a war with Spain since 1896 and had tried to pick a fight over Cuba in 1871 and 1874. President McKinley, who Teddy Roosevelt described as having:"no more backbone than a chocolate éclair" gave in and declared War on Spain to cries of "Remember the Maine!". More Americans were killed on the USS Maine than in the entire Spanish American War, which was fought and over by December of that same year. America emerged as a power player on the world stage.<br /> <br /> 1903- British Major General Hector MacDonald was one of the most famous soldiers of the Victorian Era. “Fighting Mac” had laughed in the face of fierce Afghan tribesmen, Boer bullets, and Dervish’s spears, and always triumphed. <br /> But he had a secret. The Love that Dare Not Speak Its Name. He married young but abandoned his wife and son, and now sought only the company of men. This day while serving as military commander of Ceylon, a leading cleric and several boys accused General MacDonald of homosexuality. Gays in the British Empire were not uncommon- Gordon of Khartoum, Cecil Rhodes of South Africa, even Earl Kitchener of Omdurman were known to prefer men to women. But never in the open. MacDonald tried to flee to England on medical leave, but the General Staff ordered him to return and clear his name in a court martial. MacDonald instead went into his office and put his service revolver to his temple. All Edinburgh turned out for his funeral. <br /> Still friends and admirers refused to admit he was gone. There was a rumor that a successful World War I German General von Mackensen was actually MacDonald under an alias, since von Mackensen stayed in the Balkans and never faced English troops in battle.<br /> <br /> 1933- ATTEMPTED ASSASINATION OF FDR- In Miami, unemployed anarchist Giuseppe Zangara shot a pistol at President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a rally in Chicago. He missed FDR but killed the Mayor of Chicago Anton Czermak. Giuseppe<br /> Zangara was tried and sent to the electric chair by the following month.<br /> <br /> 1942- Japanese troops captured Singapore. The British were confident the Japanese couldn't get an army through the thick Malaysian jungle, so they concentrated their heavy guns facing out to sea. Gen. Yamashita, the "Tiger of Malaya" put his army on bicycles and with light tanks burst through the jungle and breached the cities defenses from the weaker land side. The “Gibraltar of the East’ fell with depressing speed – Prime Minister Winston Churchill admitted he was humiliated. He felt the defeat had shown the world just how old and brittle the British Empire had become. <br /> <br /> 1947- The British had administered the Palestinian territories like a colony of the Empire since the end of World War I. But faced with a shattered post World War 2 economy, fed up with Arab-Jewish terrorism and the mortification of having to put Jewish Holocaust survivors back into camps, this day the British Government announced it was going to leave the Palestine Mandate. The new United Nations could have the whole Arab-Israeli mess and bugger off! <br /> <br /> 1947- During the anti-Communist witch hunt, the FBI revoked the visa of famed documentary filmmaker and founder of the National Film Board of Canada, John Grierson because they thought his personal politics were too lefty.<br /> <br /> 1950- Walt Disney’s Cinderella opened in general theater release.<br /> <br /> 1954- Future President and b-movie star Ronald Reagan tried doing a stand-up act at the Las Vegas Ramona Room with the "Honey Brothers", a comedy troupe similar to Abbot &amp; Costello. <br /> <br /> 1965- Canada adopted the Maple Leaf flag. It did not completely replace the Dominion Flag until 1979.<br /> <br /> 1973- Actor and animation voice Wally Cox was found in his LA apartment dead of a heart attack. He was 48.<br /> <br /> 1984- Touchstone Pictures created, so the Walt Disney Company could do more adult PG movies. Their first film was Splash, starring a tastefully topless mermaid Darryl Hannah.<br /> <br /> 1989- The last Soviet troops left Afghanistan.<br /> <br /> 1991- In a speech, President George H. W. Bush invited dissidents in Iraq to rise up against Saddam Hussein in Iraq. He declared, “The Day of the Dictator is Over!” Iraqi Kurds, Shiites and Marsh Arabs rose in revolt, confident the US would back them. The US instead ignored them and left them to be bombed and nerve-gassed by Saddam’s Republican Guard. Thousands died, and the dictator remained for another ten years.<br /> <br /> 1994- After months of insane bidding, Viacom’s Sumner Redstone beat out QVC’s Barry Diller to buy Paramount Pictures. The cost was $20 billion, although the studio’s net worth was estimated at $8 billion. When asked, Diller replied: “What’s done is done. Next.”<br /> <br /> 2002- Scientists announced the first discovery of fossilized dinosaur vomit.<br /> <br /> 2003- Millions of protesters march in cities from Hollywood to New York, Kyiv to Capetown to Tokyo to protest US plans to attack Iraq. Nearly a million and a half people marched in London alone. Pres. Bush invaded anyway.<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What does it mean when something is viscous?<br /> <br /> Answer: sticky.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 14 Feb 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6070 <p>Quiz: What does it mean when something is viscous?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: Why do English Queens always seem to marry foreign princes from small German states or Denmark? <br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/14/2023<br /> Birthdays: Joshua Norton aka Joshua I Emperor of the United States 1819, Jack Benny- real name Benjamin Koubielsky, Frederick Douglas, Christopher Latham Scholes- inventor of the typewriter, George Washington Ferris inventor of the Ferris Wheel, Pier Francesco Cavalli, Jimmy Hoffa, Vic Morrow, Skeezix Wallet (character in Gasoline Alley comic strip), Gregory Hines, Ignaz Friedman, Thelma Ritter, Carl Andersen, Hugh Downs, Jim Kelly, Florence Henderson, Meg Tilly, Alan Parker, Simon Pegg is 52,<br /> Margaret Knight the inventor of the flat bottom paper bag. The character Lara Croft, is 55.<br /> <br /> Happy Valentines Day!<br /> <br /> This holiday was originally the Roman fertility festival LUPERCALIA, when the young men of Rome wearing nothing but olive oil, would run through the streets waving oak branches over the heads of young girls to inspire fertility. They also spanked each other with little leather whips. Then they would all go to the orgy. <br /> Keeping with the custom of the early Church to sanctify pagan holidays with saints days, Pope Gelasius I decided to rename the holiday for St.Valentine, who was martyred by Emperor Claudius II Gothicus in 295 A.D.. The olive oil, whips and orgy were out, but tradition has it that Valentine in prison kept communicating with his flock by writing little notes and tossing them through the bars. The notes were written on little leaves (silphium) that are the familiar heart shape we use today (which looks nothing like an anatomical heart.). These notes or "Valentines" fused with the romance notion of the old Roman party and became a custom for lovers as early as the 14th century.<br /> <br /> 44BC- After years of Civil War Gaius Julius Caesar was now master of Rome. He kept most of the institutions of the Roman Republic but declared himself Dictator and Consul for life like his mentor Sulla had done. He had been heard to say “the Republic is just a word, without real substance”. People wondered if he was out to make himself king. The concept of a King was hateful to most Romans, regardless of their political party. <br /> This day at a Lupercalia celebration one of his biggest brown-nosing lieutenants, Marc Antony, publicly tried to put a crown on Caesar’s head. Caesar refused it twice. Instead of popular enthusiasm, this gesture alarmed many. A conspiracy formed to kill Caesar led by Marcus Brutus, a descendant of Junius Brutus the founder of the republic, and Gaius Cassius Longinus, who had fought for Pompey against Caesar.<br /> <br /> Today in the Orthodox calendar is the Feast of Saint’s Cyril and Methodius, the “Apostles to the Slavs”, who created the Russian (Cyrillic) alphabet out of Greek and Hebrew characters.<br /> <br /> 1779- Captain James Cook was killed by angry Hawaiian natives after an argument over hostages. Despite heavy attack the shore party rallied and fought their way back to the longboats thanks to their second in command, ensign William Bligh, the future Captain Bligh of the Bounty.<br /> <br /> 1797- Battle of Cape St. Vincent. The British Navy under Admiral Jervis defeated a Spanish fleet off the coast of Portugal. Admiral Nelson was there in support.<br /> <br /> 1814- Battle of Vauchamps. Napoleon beats Marshal Blucher and his invading Prussian army. Blucher was called Old Fowvarts (Forward) because that was his favorite order.<br /> <br /> 1824- KING CAUCUS- Just in case you wished for a more innocent time in American politics, consider this election. A group of powerful Congressmen of the dominant Whig party tried to predetermine that the next president would be easy to control by nominating William Crawford, who was blind and paralyzed from a stoke. Remember in those days of poor communications most citizens would never even see a President except for an artist's picture in a newspaper. <br /> The scheme was foiled and John Quincy Adams was elected president, even though more people voted for Andrew Jackson. This was done via another scheme hatched with Henry Clay that had manipulated entire states into his camp when not one soul had voted for him, then traded them to Adams for the Secretary of State job. <br /> The later angry public outrage over "King Caucus" led to liberalization of the election process. Jackson easily defeated Adams re-election bid in 1828.<br /> <br /> 1848- President James Knox Polk is the first sitting president to sit for a photograph. The daguerreotype was taken by a young Matthew Brady. John Quincy Adams was the earliest former president to be photographed. <br /> <br /> 1859- Oregon became a state.<br /> <br /> 1870- The first elevated commuter railway was inaugurated in New York City at Greenwich and 9 Ave.<br /> <br /> 1876- THE TELEPHONE- One of the strangest coincidences in technology history was that two men invented the same device at almost the same moment. <br /> Scotsman Alexander Graham Bell in Boston and Elijah Gray in Chicago were both working on a device to transmit human voices instantaneously over electric wires. Each knew of the others work and labored furiously to be the first. When Bell was able to get a weak sound of his voice over the wire his sponsor and future father in law Robert Hubbard wanted to file the patent. But Bell procrastinated until he felt it was perfect. Exasperated, Hubbard took the schematics and went himself to the office to file the patent. What he found out later, was he filed the patent barely two hours ahead of Gray in Chicago! Bell’s patent was granted on March 7.<br /> Gray tried to challenge the patent. US courts decided that since Grays attorney had filed a “caveat” to a patent- which meant I’m working on an idea” while Hubbard &amp; Bell filed a patent “I’ve invented the idea”, they awarded the patent to Bell. Elijah Gray still went on to invent more things, founded the Western Electric Company and grew very rich. But Alexander Graham Bell got the immortality as inventor of the telephone.<br /> <br /> 1884- 25 year old Teddy Roosevelt was an up and coming member of the New York State legislature. On this day he received a double shock - both his mother and young wife died on the same day. Shattered, he abandoned his political career and fled to the Badlands of North Dakota to be a rancher and deputy sheriff. He said the landscape was so bleak it "looked like the personification of a poem by Edgar Alan Poe." He became President at age 41.<br /> <br /> 1886- Los Angeles began to export its first trainload of oranges back east.<br /> <br /> 1887- Several leading French intellectuals including Honore’ Balzac, and Charles Gounod published a letter to the President of the Republic begging him NOT to build the Eiffel Tower. "A Useless Monstrosity, which even America with it's crazed passion for commerce has the sense to reject! And what if it lasts 20 years?" There were plans to pull down the Eiffel tower 1907, but by then it had gained a new purpose as a radio antenna.<br /> Novelist Guy de Maupassant, hated the tower but still went to its restaurant every day. When asked why, he said, "Because it is the only place in Paris where I cannot see it".<br /> <br /> 1907- Golden Books incorporated. One of their artists was Gustav Tennegren, who would become a key stylist of Walt Disney's Snow White and Pinocchio.<br /> <br /> 1917- I.A. Lilly became the first female N.Y. subway train conductor.<br /> <br /> 1919- THE SPARTACISTS- The government offices in Berlin are seized by Communists. Inspired by the Revolution in Russia they try to declare the Soviet Republic of Germany. They called themselves Spartacists after Spartacus the leader of the slave rebellion against ancient Rome. Right-wing paramilitary private militias called frei-korps led by former Imperial officers entered the city and battled the Bolsheviks for control of the streets. One of the reasons why businessmen in the west were later so cozy with Hitler was their relief that Germany didn’t turn into another Soviet Union. <br /> <br /> 1920- The League of Women Voters formed.<br /> <br /> 1927-Alfred Hitchcock’s first suspense film “The Lodger” opened in London.<br /> <br /> 1929- Dr. Fleming discovered penicillin.<br /> <br /> 1929- the ST. VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRE- Scarface Al Capone's men dressed as Chicago police rounded up a bunch of Bugs Moran's hoods at the S.M.C. Cartage Company garage at 2122 North Clark Street and blew them away with tommy guns. Capone subcontracted the job to Detroit’s Purple Gang. The seven men had 200 bullets in them. They even shot their dog. Dr Reinhardt Schwimmer, one of the men killed, wasn’t even a mobster but an optometrist who liked to hang out with gangsters to experience life on the edge. When Bugs Moran was asked who he thought had done it, he replied: ”Only Capone kills like that.” Big Al himself was in Key Biscayne Florida having lunch with the Dade County District Attorney. <br /> One of the triggermen was Machine-gun Jack McGurn, but when questioned by police his girlfriend testified he had been in bed with her all that day. Newspapers called her his 'Blonde-Alibi". Machine Gun McGurn was bumped off shortly after. <br /> At the massacre site amazingly one gangster- Joe Duesenberg- lived long enough for police to question. But to the end he wouldn't spill the beans. When asked who shot him full of bullets, he replied:" Nobody!" and died.<br /> <br /> 1931- Tod Browning's film of the play Dracula, starring Hungarian actor's union organizer and recreational morphine addict Bela Lugosi, premiered.<br /> <br /> 1939- The German battleship Bismarck christened in Kiel harbor.<br /> <br /> 1941- Mickey Mouse cartoon The Little Whirlwind, was released. <br /> <br /> 1942- Japanese forces attacked Sumatra.<br /> <br /> 1943- Battle of the Kasserine Pass began- Rommel the Desert Fox gave the U.S. Army in Africa it's baptism by ambushing it in the narrow Kasserine Pass. The only time in WW2 American troops broke and ran in panic.<br /> <br /> 1946- John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert unveil the ENIAC, the first all electronic circuited computer, started up at the University of Pennsylvania. ENIAC stands for Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator.<br /> <br /> 1949- The United States charged that the Soviet Union had as many as 14 million people in prison camps in Siberia, called Gulags.<br /> <br /> 1962- First Lady Jackie Kennedy gave a tour to network television cameras of the private living quarters of the White House. It’s the first time most Americans had ever seen the inside of the Executive Mansion. She worked mostly without a script, adding her own details as she went along. The day after the broadcast, Pres. Kennedy called the FCC just to see how her Nielsen ratings were. They were much higher than his speeches ever were. <br /> <br /> 1965- The Detroit home of black activist Malcolm X was firebombed.<br /> <br /> 1967- Former kinky pinup model Betty Page married Harry Lear and became a born-again Christian.<br /> <br /> 1968- Part of the Vietnamese Tet Offensive was the Communists overrunning the old Imperial Capitol of Hue. This day US Marines finally recaptured the cities Imperial citadel after weeks of bitter street fighting. The Communist command center was set up in a throne room called the Place of Perpetual Peace.<br /> <br /> 1979- Digital music composer Walter Carlos, who scored the film A Clockwork Orange, announced he had undergone a sex change and was now Wendy Carlos.<br /> <br /> 1989- Iranian Imam Ayatollah Khomeni issued a 'fatwah' -death sentence against Pakistani born novelist Salman Rushdi because he considered parts of his book "The Satanic Verses" to an insult to the prophet Mohammed. The fatwah was finally revoked in 2000 by the Supreme Islamic Council (Iran's equivalent of the Supreme Court).<br /> <br /> 1990- As the Voyager 1 spacecraft was leaving our solar system, Dr. Carl Sagan had the spaceship look back and take a family photo of our planet system, 3.7 billion miles away. A few faint dots on a distant sunbeam.<br /> <br /> 1991-Meg Ryan married Dennis Quaid. The divorced a few years later.<br /> <br /> 2005- Steve Chen, Chad Harley and Jared Karan started You Tube.<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Why do English Queens always seem to marry foreign princes from small German states or Denmark?<br /> <br /> Answer: After the wars of the Reformation, England passed a law that a Catholic can never sit on the throne, even the spouse. So that rules out royalty from France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Hungary. That leaves Scandinavia, Holland and the smaller German states for the royal dating game.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 13 Feb 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6069 <p>Quiz: Why do English Queens always seem to marry foreign princes from small German states or Denmark? <br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: In 1988 unsuccessful presidential candidate Mario Cuomo joked:” The American people would never elect a president whose name ended in a vowel”. We know about Barak Obama. Have any other U.S. Presidents had a name that ended in a vowel?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/13/2023<br /> Birthdays: Giambattista Piazzetta, Bess Truman, Grant Wood, Lord Randolph Churchill, Fyodor Chaliapin, Peter Tork, Oliver Reed, Chuck Yeager, Woody Hayes, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Carol Lynley, Kim Novak is 91, George Segal, Peter Gabriel, Jerry Springer is 77, Stockard Channing is 79, Kelly Hu, Mena Suvari<br /> <br /> Happy International Radio Day!<br /> <br /> 1503- This day during the endless wars of the Italian Renaissance, outside the town of Barletta things were interrupted by a unique event. Angered by a French captain who said that all Italians were sissy-girlie-men, thirteen Italian knights challenged thirteen French knights to single combat. Both armies lined up and cheered like a sporting event. The knights fought until all thirteen Frenchmen were down.<br /> <br /> 1542- Catherine Howard, the 5th wife of Henry VIII was beheaded. The execution was held on the exact spot where wife Number 2 Anne Boleyn was beheaded six years before. <br /> <br /> 1635- The Boston Public School for Boys opened, the oldest public school in North America.<br /> <br /> 1692- THE GLENCOE MASSACRE. Pro-English Scottish forces tried to make the Highlands accept King William of Orange, and renounce allegiance to the Stuart dynasty by singling out a particularly rowdy clan for annihilation. The MacDonalds of Glencoe were smaller than the MacDonalds of Keppoch, so they were to be the example. Ironically the leader of the clan was trying to get King James in exile to release him from his oath of obedience, when the soldiers of Clan Argyll and Campbell came visiting. <br /> The soldiers used the highland tradition of hospitality to gain entrance into the MacDonald hall, then started slaughtering everyone just when their hosts were bringing out the wine. This blatant betrayal of hospitality and the magnitude of the massacre backfired on the perpetrators, and made Glencoe a bitter symbol of Scottish Nationalism.<br /> <br /> 1693- The Virginia College William &amp; Mary founded.<br /> <br /> 1742- After ruling for 20 years, the first English Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, resigned when his Tory government lost its majority. <br /> <br /> 1765- Dr. Benjamin Franklin stood up in the British House of Commons and argued the justice of the American protest of the Royal Stamp Act, against all the government MP’s. He won and the hated Act was repealed. This probably delayed the American Revolution for a decade.<br /> <br /> 1820- Five years after Waterloo, and twenty-five after the French Revolution guillotined his great uncle, the Duc de Berry, the heir apparent of France was assassinated outside of the Paris Opera by a republican terrorist. The Bourbon family’s survival would now depend on the minor branch, the House of Orleans. <br /> In the meantime, Napoleon was sitting in exile on the equatorial island of St. Helena. If you are a fan of the "Napoleon was poisoned theory", modern scientists doing radioactive analysis of hair samples noted that after this incident the arsenic content in Napoleon's body goes up 150%.<br /> <br /> 1863- President Lincoln hosted a wedding reception at the White House for P.T. Barnum star attraction General Tom Thumb and his bride. Lincoln was heavily criticized at the time for having such a frivolous party during the depths of the Civil War. <br /> <br /> 1866-The first daylight bank job. In Missouri, the Clay County Savings Bank is robbed of $60,000 by a young ex confederate guerrilla named Jesse James. <br /> <br /> 1867- The Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss Jr premiered in Vienna. Brahms was a personal friend of Strauss. An anecdote from the time is that Strauss's stepdaughter approached Brahms with a customary request that he autograph her fan. Brahms inscribed a few measures from the "Blue Danube," and then wrote beneath it: "Unfortunately, NOT by Johannes Brahms."<br /> <br /> 1886- Artist Thomas Eakins resigned in disgust his professorship at the Philadelphia Academy of Art when he was criticized for having women students in his art class drawing male nudes. At that time the men still were not fully nude, but wore a kind of thong with a pouch covering their junk.<br /> <br /> 1914- ASCAP founded.<br /> <br /> 1917- Mata Hari, was arrested in Paris. Known in Berlin as agent H-21.<br /> <br /> 1932- Free Eats, the first Our Gang short comedy to feature Spanky MacFarland.<br /> <br /> 1933- comic strip character Blondie married Dagwood Bumstead.<br /> <br /> 1939- Producer David O. Selznick replaced directors on Gone With the Wind. George Cukor was out, Victor Fleming was in after completing The Wizard of Oz. Vivien Leigh liked Cukor who was known for directing women, but Clark Gable convinced the producers that the film needed an action director. About 15 minutes of George Cukor’s work remains in the picture. Victor Fleming loved Gable, but didn't get along with Vivien Leigh and came to hate the controlling Selznick. David O. brought in Sam Wood to direct second unit when Fleming fell behind. <br /> At the end Victor Fleming had one more tantrum when Selznick proposed giving Wood and Cukor equal co- screen credit. This was all before DGA contract credits were established. Today, Victor Fleming is recognized the director of record. Yet despite it all, Gone with the Wind became a box office success. For many years critics and polls declared the greatest Hollywood movie ever made. A decade after its release, Clark Gable went up to David O. Selznick at a party and said: "Maybe I'm wrong about disliking you David, 'Gone With the Wind' keeps getting re-released and keeps me a star." <br /> <br /> 1935- German immigrant Bruno Richard Hauptman found guilty of the kidnap-murder of the Lindbergh baby and electrocuted. Up until the end he kept declaring his innocence. The chief of police in the town of Bergen New Jersey where the murder occurred was the father of Desert Storm General Norman Schwarzkopf.<br /> <br /> 1937- Hal Foster's comic book hero Prince Valiant first appeared. <br /> <br /> 1945- THE FIREBOMBING OF DRESDEN. Some experts say the annihilation of this militarily defenseless city was an act of revenge for Rotterdam and Coventry, the fact was at the Yalta conference several days earlier Stalin had asked that the major German cities on his eastern front be bombed by his Anglo-American Allies to delay Nazi divisions withdrawn from Norway and Holland to be used to slow the Red Army 's advance. Dresden was to be a major assembly point for these new reinforcements. Still, it's a legacy the Allies find troubling. <br /> On this day in the early evening, 845 British bombers followed by 700 American dropped thousands of tons of incendiary bombs in a pattern calculated to cause a firestorm. The temperature reached 800f degrees, the church bells melted and the oxygen was literally sucked out of the air by cyclonic winds. By conservative estimate 35,000-100,000 people were killed. Young American P.O.W. Kurt Vonnengut was in a group made to help dig out bodies. The experience changed his life, and he later wrote his accounts in the classic anti-war novel "Slaughterhouse-5" <br /> <br /> 1959 -Happy Birthday BARBIE! Mattel introduced the plastic nymph, from a German doll named 'Bild Lilli" based on a character in a comic strip by Reinhard Beuthin. Mattel co-owner Ruth Handler had it re-designed and changed to 'Barbie" after the nickname of her daughter Barbara. <br /> <br /> 1964- The Invention of Cool Whip.<br /> <br /> 1972-“ Wilkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome….” The movie Cabaret with Liza Minelli and Joel Grey opened in theaters.<br /> <br /> 1996- The off-Broadway musical Rent by John Lawson premiered. Lawson spent years working as a waiter, living in poverty in a cold water flat in lower New York. Hoping for his big break. 36 year old John Lawson died of an aneurism just three months before Rent opened. It made him world famous, earned Tonys and a Pulitzer Prize, and made $250 million. His story was told in the 2022 Lin Manuel Miranda film tik-tik-Boom.<br /> <br /> 2016- Disney’s Zootopia premiered in Brussels. Directed by Rich Moore and Byron Howard. It opened un the U.S. on March 4. <br /> ===============================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: In 1988 unsuccessful presidential candidate Mario Cuomo joked:” The American people would never elect a president whose name ended in a vowel”. We know about Barak Obama. Have any other U.S. Presidents had a name that ended in a vowel?<br /> <br /> Answer: Super Mario may have been hinting in so many words that almost all US presidents have been WASPs except Kennedy, Obama and Biden, but there were four presidents who’s name ended in a vowel. James Monroe, Franklin Pierce, Millard Fillmore and Calvin Coolidge.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 11 Feb 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6068 <p>Quiz: To be on The Road to Perdition. What does that mean?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: During wars, US soldiers would refer to their enemy with derogatory nicknames. In WWII, the German enemy was called “Krauts”. During the Vietnam War, the Vietcong was referred to as “Charlie”. What did Yanks call the Iraqi fighters during the 2001-2021 Iraq War? <br /> --------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/11/2023<br /> Birthdays: Thomas Edison, Leslie Nielsen, Eva Gabor, Rudolph Firkusny, Joe Mankiewicz, Sidney Sheldon, Burt Reynolds, Sergio Mendes of the band Brazil 68, Al Eugster, Brandy Norwood, Bobby Picket -who recorded the Monster Mash, Tina Louise-Ginger on Gilligan’s Island is 89, Jennifer Aniston is 54, Sheryl Crow is 61<br /> <br /> 11AD- In order to become his heir, Augustus’ stepson Tiberius had to marry Augustus’ only daughter Julia. Tiberius was angry he had to divorce his wife Druxilla whom he actually loved. Julia despised Tiberius and scandalized her dad with her affairs.<br /> <br /> 1759- A Danish importer on the Caribbean Island of Saint Croix named Johann Michael Lavien filed for divorce against his estranged wife Rachael Faucette. She had been living on the isle of Nevis with a Scot named James Hamilton and had two children with him. Johann Lavien asserted in the court papers that his wife was a Scarlet Woman, and so her spawn were "Whore-Children". The divorce was granted and James Hamilton abandoned his little family. One of the little ‘whore-children" was Alexander Hamilton- future American patriot, and the hottest ticket on Broadway.<br /> <br /> 1789- In Italy, American consul William Short wrote his friend Thomas Jefferson that as per his request he had obtained for him a pasta mold. The first known introduction of pasta in America. <br /> <br /> 1801- THE FIRST DEADLOCKED PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION decided in the House of Representatives after 35 separate votes were held. Upstart Aaron Burr managed to come out of nowhere and put together enough anti-Jefferson and anti-Adams votes to tie the election with Thomas Jefferson. President John Adams and Senator Charles Pickney were a distant 3rd and 4th. Former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton was furious that fellow New Yorker Burr threatened to eclipse his power. New York and Pennsylvania were the swing votes in any deal between Yankee New England and the South. Since foreign born Hamilton could never be President, he liked to play kingmaker. <br /> <br /> So in retaliation Hamilton gave Adam's 36 electoral votes to Thomas Jefferson, not out of any love for him, but just to screw Burr. Cranky old John Adams was furious that he was rejected by the public: "Damn Them! Damn Them! Anyone can see this elective government won’t work!" He took his sweet time moving out of the White House, making the president-elect wait in a tavern. All this political chicanery doomed the Federalists, the first American political party, and Burr would get his revenge on Hamilton with pistols in 1804.<br /> <br /> 1812- Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signed a redistricting act that divided up his state into politically convenient if geographically tortuous congressional districts. In England such juggling of the voting populace to ensure your candidate’s election was called a "Rotten Borough", in America it became named for this governor- Gerrymandering. <br /> <br /> 1814- Battle of Montmiral. During the battle Napoleon saw a cannon emplacement in such a dangerously exposed position that all it's crew was dead or wounded. He dismounted his horse and proceeded to aim the guns himself under heavy enemy fire until help arrived. Whether or not he was hoping for a death on the battlefield he later says publically: "The bullet that gets me has not been cast yet!" But privately: "It's no use, I'm fated to die in bed."<br /> <br /> 1929- Benito Mussolini signed the Lateran Concordat that recognized the sovereignty of Vatican City within Italy, while the Pope blessed his Fascist regime. The threat of godless world communism scared the Holy See into a number of questionable relationships with right wing extremists like Hitler, Franco and the Eustache in Croatia.<br /> <br /> 1933- 19 year old Japanese schoolgirl Kiyoko Matsumoto committed suicide by jumping into the thousand foot crater of a volcano on the island of Oshima. This act started a bizarre fad in Japan, and in the ensuing months three hundred young girls did the same thing.<br /> <br /> 1936- Famed German Expressionist animator Oscar Fischinger escaped Nazi Germany for the U.S. Paid for by Hollywood director Ernst Lubitsch. <br /> <br /> 1937- General Motors settled a bitter strike and becomes the first major plant to recognize the United Auto Workers union.<br /> <br /> 1938- Donald Duck cartoon Self Control was released.<br /> <br /> 1945- Yalta agreement signed. If you were a Czech. Pole or Hungarian, it meant Roosevelt and Churchill had just traded you to Stalin for the next fifty years.<br /> <br /> 1948- Famed Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein died of a heart attack.<br /> <br /> 1963- Bell Jar author Sylvia Plath laid out bread and butter and two glasses of milk for her children, then stuck her head into an oven and committed suicide. Her poet-laureate husband Ted Hughes was in bed with another woman when he got the news. Hughes wrote stories for his children like The Iron Giant to explain death and loss.<br /> <br /> 1975- Margaret Thatcher became the first woman to lead the Tory Party in England. The green-grocers daughter from Finchley became the Iron Lady and dominated British politics until 1990.<br /> <br /> 1976- Chuck Jones TV special "Mowgli’s Brothers."<br /> <br /> 1979 - The Iranian Revolution Day. With Shah Reza Pahlevi fled, the fundamentalist Shiite mullahs led by Ayatollah Khomeni declare Iran to be an Islamic Republic.<br /> <br /> 1990- Nelson Mandela was freed by South African authorities after 27 years in prison. He was jailed in 1962 for a life sentence and became the conscience and symbol of the black resistance to white South African rule, called Apartheid.<br /> <br /> 1995- Disney Studios planned neighborhood suburban community Celebration opened.<br /> <br /> 2000- Disney’s The Tigger Movie premiered. Directed by Jun Falkenstein, one of the first animated features written and directed by a woman.<br /> <br /> 2003- A small satellite named U-Map, while studying the faint glow at the center of the Universe, calculated the exact age of our Universe to be 13.7 billion years old. That stars first appeared at 200 million years after the Big Bang, and that the Universe will ultimately expand forever, not crunch back in on itself or explode in one big cataclysm.<br /> <br /> 2005- Playwright Arthur Miller died at 90.<br /> <br /> 2006- While hunting for quail, Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot his hunting partner. After being treated for buckshot in his face, the victim, an attorney named Whittington, went before the press and apologized to the Vice President. In 2009, out of office, it was admitted that Whittington was not a close friend of Cheney, and that his wounds were more life threatening than first reported. Dick Cheney became the first Vice President since Aaron Burr in 1804 to shoot someone while in office. Nothing happened to Burr either. Whittington just died of old age last week.<br /> <br /> 2012- Singer actress Whitney Houston was found dead in her bathtub. She was 48, She was preparing for the Grammy Awards when she had a heart attack and drowned in the water.<br /> <br /> 2016- A Wrinkle in Time. While studying two black holes colliding in deep space, scientists announced they discovered Gravity Waves. It was one of the last unproven theories in Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity in 1905. That space and gravity ripples. <br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterdays Question: During wars, US soldiers would refer to their enemy with derogatory nicknames. In WWII, the German enemy was called “Krauts”. During the Vietnam War, the Vietcong was referred to as “Charlie”. What did Yanks call the Iraqi fighters during the 2001-2021 Iraq War? <br /> <br /> Answer: Hajii’s, or Hadji’s. In Arabic culture, a person who had completed the pilgrimage to Mecca (the Haj) is called a Hajii. But in this case it was more probably named for the little boy in the turban in the TV cartoon Johnny Quest.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 10 Feb 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6067 <p>Quiz: During wars, US soldiers would refer to their enemy with derogatory nicknames. In WWII, the German enemy was called “Krauts”. During the Vietnam War, the Vietcong was referred to as “Charlie”. What did Yanks call the Iraqi fighters during the 2003-2011 Iraq War? <br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: What is an imbroglio?<br /> -----------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/10/2023<br /> Birthdays: Former British PM Harold Macmillan, Jimmy Durante, Bertholdt Brecht, Leontyne Price, Roberta Flack, tennis great Bill Tilden, Lon Chaney Jr., Stella Adler, Mark Spitz, Boris Pasternak, Dame Judith Anderson, Greg Norman, Donavan, Dr Alex Comfort author of the Joy of Sex, Michael Apted, Jerry Goldsmith, Robert Wagner, Laura Dern is 56<br /> <br /> 1531- King Henry VIII demanded the Convocation of English Bishops acknowledge him as “ Supreme Head of the Church and Clergy of England” After much dallying, rejected compromises and threats, the Bishops agreed. Their spokesman archbishop Warham later renounced the decision on his deathbed.<br /> <br /> 1534- RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISTS TAKE OVER A MAJOR CITY-<br /> In the myriad of Protestant sects popping up as the Reformation spread throughout Europe the most radical was the Anabaptists. They took the idea of living simply like the Old Testament to an advanced form of anarchist communism- no leaders, no private property. This day mobs of Anabaptists drove out the Bishop of the German City of Munster and declared the city The New Jerusalem. Their leader John of Leyden lived like an Old Testament King in rich clothing with several wives. <br /> After the Imperial German forces recaptured the city with horrible massacre (see June 24th) the Anabaptist movement was suppressed- except… one Anabaptist preacher named Menno Simmons reformed the movement stressing simple non-political farm life. His group the Mennonites established communities in the America, Canada and Russia.<br /> <br /> 1722- Although not as famous as Blackbeard or Captain Kidd, Bartholomew Roberts was one of the most notorious pirates that ever flew the Jolly Roger. J.M. Barrie used him as the model for Captain Hook. This day he met his end when the British warship HMS Swallow caught up with his ship the Royal Fortune off Cape Lopez in Gabon. The pirates had taken a merchantman the night before so most of them were too drunk or hung-over to fight. Captain Roberts bellowed defiance, but as luck would have it, he was struck dead by the first cannonball from the very first broadside the British fired. <br /> His men threw his body overboard and after a short fight surrendered. The pirates were rounded up and sent in chains to the Cape Coast in Ghana where an Admiralty Court hanged 54, the largest one time pirate hanging ever. <br /> <br /> 1763- THE TREATY OF PARIS- Ending the Seven Years War (The French and Indian War). Europe makes peace and France yields to England all of her territory in India and Canada. Spain gets Louisiana. “Half a continent changed hands with the scratch of a pen”. To ensure speedy approval of the treaty, Prime Minister Pitt the Elder set up a booth outside the Parliament to hand out cash bribes to the M.P.s as they walked in to vote. <br /> The French were bitter but philosophical. Minister Choiseul predicted:" With our threat removed, the Americans will try for independence in ten years." American colonial representative Benjamin Franklin reassured London:" Freedom is the last thing Americans want...."<br /> <br /> 1799- Napoleon marched out of Cairo at the head of his French expeditionary Army. He headed north towards Jerusalem but was stopped at the city of Jaffa. <br /> <br /> 1814- THE GREAT WEEK- Napoleon's enemies, figuring the little bastard can't be everywhere at once, invade France from five directions with five armies, all aimed at Paris. Napoleon with a small force of 15-year-old draftees defeated all five spearheads in one week. Today was the Battle of Champaubert.<br /> <br /> 1825- Gideon Mantell reported the discovery of an Iguanadon from the sandstone in Tilgate Sussex. He called it such because the teeth of the fossil resembled to him those of a large iguana.<br /> <br /> 1837- Russia’s greatest poet Alexander Pushkin died of wounds from fighting a duel defending his wife's honor. His last words were directed to his books "Farewell, my friends..." Pushkin was the great, great grandson of a black man Abram Gannibal, brought from Cameroon to serve Czar Peter the Great in his Moorish Guard.<br /> <br /> 1840- English Queen Victoria married a minor German prince named Albert of Saxe Coburg-Gotha. It becomes a real love-match, and they produced children who would occupy the thrones of Europe. Their common belief in strong moral values above all transformed English society into something truly Victorian. Victoria began the custom of brides always wearing white. Albert set men’s fashion trends like tuxedos, suits with neckties and sideburns; he also introduced to Britain and later America to the German custom of Christmas trees. <br /> <br /> 1846- After their temples in Navoo Illinois were burned by mobs, the Mormons under Brigham Young left for their trek to Utah.<br /> <br /> 1862- After a hard night partying with fellow poet Swinburne, pre-Raphaelite Dante Rossetti returned home to find his wife dead of an opium overdose.<br /> <br /> 1863- Alanson Crane invented the Fire Extinguisher. <br /> <br /> 1870- Anaheim California was founded. No Disneyland yet. The name means Ana, as in Santa Anna River, and Heim, the German word for home. So- Home of the Santa Anna Rover. The town was founded by 50 German immigrants families who wanted to raise grapes and build a socialist commune.<br /> <br /> 1888- The City of Long Beach incorporated.<br /> <br /> 1906- King Edward VII launched a new British design superbattleship called HMS Dreadnought. In the early twentieth century battleships were like nuclear weapons; the number and size showed the world how important a power you were. The Dreadnought class launched a new arms race, as the world’s navies spent millions to build more.<br /> <br /> 1907- THE EUHLENDBERG SCANDAL- Three of Kaiser Wilhelm's closest aides are accused by a socialist opposition newspaper of being gay. The aides, including the Kaiser's personal friend Count Phillip zu Euhlenburg, who carried on an affair with Count Kuno von Molkte, military governor of Berlin! They sued in court, but were disgraced and ostracized in the same way writer Oscar Wilde was in England. The scandal shocked German society, and the Kaiser suffered a nervous breakdown. That year the preferred pick-up line in the gay hangouts of Paris was “ Parlez vous Alemand?” “Do you speak German?”<br /> <br /> 1920- Major League Baseball banned the spitball pitch, scuff ball, licorice ball, all attempts to effect a baseball by defacing its surface.<br /> <br /> 1929- Elsa Lanchester married Charles Laughton.<br /> <br /> 1938- RKO screwball comedy with Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant “Bringing Up Baby” premiered. Directed by Howard Hawks.<br /> <br /> 1940- MGM's "Puss gets the Boot" the first Tom and Jerry cartoon and the first collaboration of the team of Bill Hanna &amp; Joe Barbera.<br /> <br /> 1940- Despite the dangerously low manpower to fight the Nazis in North Africa, the British Cabinet voted to overrule Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and not arm the Jews in Palestine, for fear of angering the local Arabs. <br /> <br /> 1941- Nazi planes bombed Iceland. <br /> <br /> 1943- DUCT TAPE- During WW2, Miss Vesta Stout worked at a defense plant in Illinois. She noticed the way ammunition boxes were sealed required some effort to open. This could cost precious time in battle. She suggested they develop a strong cloth tape that could be torn open without scissors. Her supervisors ignored her. So she wrote President Roosevelt this day. FDR loved the idea, and ordered it implemented. Because developers waterproofed the tape, they called it Duct Tape. G.I.s liked the tape so much, they began using it for everyday repairs, even to close wounds. I’m not sure when it was ever used on ducts. <br /> <br /> 1949- The premiere of Arthur Miller’s play "Death of a Salesman”.<br /> <br /> 1960- Jack Paar was the star and host of NBC’s The Tonight Show. He pioneered the talk show format, the opening monologue and couch, that everyone uses today. He tried to tell one joke about a woman in a water closet (i.e. toilet) when the network censors cut the joke. Jack Paar was so angry, that in the middle of this show, he stood up, exclaimed “ There’s gotta be better ways to make a living,” and walked off the show. A few weeks later he was convinced to return, but he left permanently in 1962. His celebrity status faded while his successor Johnny Carson became famous. Paar later admitted quitting was the biggest mistake of his life.<br /> <br /> 1962- U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers, shot down over Russia in 1960, was finally traded back to the U.S. for top Soviet spy Alexander Abel. In his memoirs, Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev later confided to Kennedy that he kept Col. Powers through the American election of 1960, because he didn't want "that s.o.b. Nixon" to have the advantage. <br /> <br /> 1966- CBS co-ops broadcasting the senate Kennan Hearings on the conduct of the Vietnam War with reruns of "I Love Lucy'. CBS news division president Fred Friendly quit in protest. <br /> <br /> 1966- Jaqueline Susanne’s novel The Valley of the Dolls first published. Although critics considered it cheap and trashy- Time Magazine called it “Dirty Book of the Month”, and Truman Capote called Susanne in her heavy sixties eye shadow, a “Truck Driver in Drag” Valley of the Dolls sold like wildfire. Its frank portrayal of single women enjoying casual sex and taking drugs in suburbia was a big step in the sexual revolution of the 1960’s.<br /> <br /> 1966- Author Ralph Nader gained national fame when he testified to the Senate about the lax standards of auto safety. His greatest criticism was for GM’s Corvair. General Motors responded with a smear campaign trying to paint Nader as gay and anti-Semitic. Nader successfully sued them in court. Many of his consumer advocates ideas are mandatory today like seat belts and listing gas efficiency on the sales sticker.<br /> <br /> 1968- Operation Fractured Jaw. Secret memo only released in 2018 showed the Pentagon had plans to use nuclear weapons to win the Vietnam War. Several days later, LBJ cancelled their plan. <br /> <br /> 1992- The children’s book- The Stinky Cheese Man debuted.<br /> <br /> 1996- IBM computer Deep Blue defeated world chess master Garry Kasparov. The first time a computer ever beat a human chess champion. <br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s question: What is an imbroglio?<br /> <br /> Answer: An embarrassing confusing mess. A tangle.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 09 Feb 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6066 <p>Quiz: What is an imbroglio?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: What does it mean to be out in the boondocks?<br /> -----------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/9/2023<br /> Birthdays: Constantine XI Palaeologus- the last Byzantine Emperor 1404, President William Henry Harrison, Samuel Tilden, Carmen Miranda, Alban Berg, Ronald Colman, Ernest Tubb, King Vidor, Mamie Van Doren, Roger Mudd, Alberto Vargas, Carole King, Bill Veeck, Fred Harman, Joe Pesci is 80, Zhang ZhuYi, Disney animator Bill Justice, Frank Frazetta, Mia Farrow is 78, Mena Suvari is 44, Ciaran Hinds is 70, Michael B. Jordan, animation historian Jerry Beck.<br /> <br /> Today is the Feast of St. Apollonia, who wore a necklace of her own teeth, yanked out by her torturers. She is the patron saint of Dentists. She finished the session by throwing herself on the bonfire prepared for her. I wonder if she paused to rinse...<br /> <br /> 1267- The Polish-German town of Breslau ordered all Jews to wear funny hats.<br /> <br /> 1268- St. Louis declares his second Crusade. Crusade #8 if you're keeping score.<br /> <br /> 1540- First recorded horserace in England. Roodee Fields, Chester.<br /> <br /> 1555- John Hooper, the Anglican Bishop of Gloucester, was burned at the stake by Catholic Queen Bloody Mary Tudor.<br /> <br /> 1567- Young, sexy Mary Queen of Scots had tired of her abusive husband Lord Darnley and had the hots for macho Lord Bothwell. Darnley was convalescing from the Pox in a small cottage outside Edinburgh castle, annoyed that the Scottish parliament refused to confirm him as king. Mary had the cellar filled with gunpowder, so she could say he accidentally exploded -after all, isn't everybody’s basement filled with gunpowder? The scheme didn't work. After the explosion, Darnley staggered out of the smoldering ruins alive. So Lord Bothwell had to "accidentally " throttle him. Hoot-Man! <br /> <br /> 1674- The British had taken New Amsterdam from the Dutch and renamed it New York in 1661. In 1671 a Dutch battle fleet came back, recaptured the port and renamed it New Orange. Today another British fleet arrived and made it New York again. Oij! Make up your minds!<br /> <br /> 1800- France first received news of the death of American leader George Washington who had died December 14th. Napoleon ordered all French flags at half mast and ten days of official mourning in honor of "This great champion of the rights of man". <br /> <br /> 1807-THE GREAT SANHEDRIN- The French Revolution had finally given its Jewish citizens political rights, and spread these rights throughout Europe as the French armies conquered. This day Napoleon had called for a grand council of European rabbis in Paris to discuss issues dividing Christians and Jews. A Sanhedrin (Greek for sitting together) of the Jews had not met since 66AD. Napoleon himself wanted to attend, but at the time he was busy in Poland conquering more people.<br /> <br /> 1824- The House of Representatives decided a deadlocked presidential election in favor of John Quincy Adams even though he didn’t win the popular vote. <br /> <br /> 1856- An early tabloid The London Illustrated News reported a live Pterodactyl dinosaur popped out of a rock and flew away when workers were excavating a railroad tunnel in Culmont France. Believe it or Not!<br /> <br /> 1861- The new Confederate States elected as their first, and only president, former US secretary of state Jefferson Davis. Among other projects, Davis was once in charge of introducing Egyptian camels to the Southwestern deserts and creating the First US Army Camel-Corps. When the Southern states seceded Davis was hoping to become a general of Mississippi volunteers, but not be made president. Old Sam Houston said Jeff Davis was, "cold as a lizard and ambitious of Lucifer". <br /> <br /> 1864- George Armstrong Custer married Miss Elizabeth Bacon. Despite Custer’s reported taking Indian women as mistresses, he remained wildly in love with his Libby. He once risked a court martial for leaving his post to go see her. After Custer was killed at the Little Big Horn Libby Custer became the guardian of his memory. She created the romantic image of him, by writing books like "Mornings on Horseback" and " They Died With Their Boots On". She lived into her 80s and met President Franklin Roosevelt, before dying in 1933.<br /> <br /> 1870- Congress created the U.S. Weather Service.<br /> <br /> 1900- Collegiate tennis player Dwight Davis created the Davis Cup.<br /> <br /> 1909- The First US narcotics legislation, this one against opium. At this time heroin, morphine and cocaine were all available in patent medicines. Marijuana wasn’t outlawed until after prohibition in the late 1930s. <br /> <br /> 1914- “Mabel’s Strange Predicament” The Max Sennett Keystone short where Charlie Chaplin first donned his baggy pants, little mustache and derby to create The Tramp, one of the most beloved characters in film history. He was so popular, even young Adolf Hitler was advised to change his mustache, because he looked too much like Chaplin.<br /> <br /> 1923- Russia’s passenger airlines Aeroflot established.<br /> <br /> 1927- Mae West caused a scandal by writing and staring in a play called “Sex”, and mounting a new production about homosexual life entitled “ Drag”. This day the NY Police raided her offices, shut down production and carted her off to jail. She emerged after 8 days in a work-house more popular than ever.<br /> <br /> 1932- Mobster Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll was a hit man for Dutch Schultz when he decided to start his own gang. He earned the name "Mad Dog" for gunning down school children who accidentally strayed into his crossfire. Finally, he was so violent, even the mob couldn't stand him any more. This day Mad Dog Coll was waiting for a meeting in a soda shoppe on 23rd and 7th in Manhattan. Someone called him to the phone. While waiting on the line two gunmen jumped out and sprayed the phone booth with machinegun fire. Dutch disliked freelancers. <br /> <br /> 1942- When war broke out the US had impounded the worlds largest luxury ocean liner, France’s S.S. Normandie. France at this time was occupied and part of the Nazi Reich. The Normandie was being refitted in a New York drydock to become a troopship, when this day she caught fire. In a spectacular conflagration she rolled over and sank. Partly due to the thousands of gallons of water being sprayed on the fire. Everyone feared it was the work of Nazi saboteurs, but and investigation showed the real culprit was a welding torch left near some flammable solvents.<br /> <br /> 1943- After 6 months, the Battle of Guadalcanal finally ended. G.I.’s reached the opposite side of the island, and shot at Japanese soldiers running out into the surf. Evacuating Japanese forces had left behind wounded who could still fire a gun with orders to hold off the Americans as long as you can, then take a cyanide pill or blow yourself up with a hand grenade. So many warships had been sunk in the waters in between the archipelago’s islands that it is now named Ironbottom Sound. The last Japanese soldier came out of the jungle in 1947. Even 85 years later local people could still show you old fighter planes still dangling from the vines of the jungle canopy.<br /> <br /> 1950- THE WHEELING SPEECH- Wisconsin Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy "Tail-Gunner Joe" delivered his speech in Wheeling West Virginia, in which he blamed Communist subversion for all the ills of American society: the Soviet atomic bomb, the loss of China, fluoridated water, post nasal drip, the works. He dramatically waved a paper:" I have in my hand a list of 205 names- names given to the Secretary of State of known Communists who continue nevertheless to work and shape policy in the State Department !" The paper was blank, he had no such list and refused to back up his charge with proof. But the effect was electric. America went commie paranoid.<br /> <br /> 1959- The AFL and CIO unite.<br /> <br /> 1964- Ed Sullivan introduced the English rock band the Beatles to a nationwide TV audience. In a nation of 140 million it was estimated 73 million were watching that night. It was a "Rrrreally Big Shewww!" (Sullivan’s signature line)<br /> <br /> 1969- The" Lindsay Snowstorm". John Lindsay was the handsome if confused mayor of New York in the sixties of whom the Robert Redford character in "The Candidate" was partially based. He tried to cut budget expenses by stripping New York of it's snowplow fleet, thinking they were unnecessary. The city was immediately paralyzed by 14 inches of snow. Plows had to be brought from as far as Montreal. Even then, he ignored the outer boroughs for days, focusing on Manhattan.<br /> <br /> <br /> 1971- The Sylmar Quake (6.8) rocks L.A. 64 deaths.<br /> <br /> 1989- Animation director Osamu Tezuka, died of stomach cancer in Tokyo. He was 60. Called the God of Manga and the Walt Disney of Japan. His work helped give birth to what we today know as Japanese comics (manga) and animation (anime). His dying words were to a nurse trying to take his pencils and paper away. “Leave me alone and let me work!”<br /> <br /> 1989- In testimony before the New Jersey State Senate World Wrestling Federation President Vince McMahon admit that the sport of wrestling is purely entertainment, and no one actually gets hurt. I’m shocked, shocked!<br /> <br /> 1990- Singer Del Shannon, who had a hit with the 1961 song Runaway, shot himself with a 22 rifle. Del Shannon was supposed to replace Roy Orbison in the Travelling Wilbury's, the group that featured Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynn. Orbison had died the previous year of heart failure and the Wilburys were starting to rehearse with Del Shannon. After Shannon's suicide, the group decided to disband.<br /> <br /> 1996- German World War II fighter ace Adolf Galland died at age 86. Galland was a good pilot but his opinions often got him into trouble. Once during a photo-op with Luftwaffe head Herman Goering, when Goering asked him “ Is there anything I could give you to help defeat the English?” Galland smiled, “ I could use a squadron of Spitfires.” While other aces had skulls or dice painted on their planes, Galland had a Mickey Mouse on the side of his Messerschmidt ME109F. Hey Adolf, is that the RAF on your tail? Worse, its the Disney Legal Department! Himmel!<br /> <br /> 2001- Actor Tom Cruise filed for divorce from Nicole Kidman.<br /> ===========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean to be out in the boondocks?<br /> <br /> Answer: The Boondocks or the Boonies was a term coined by American soldiers during WW2 or possible Vietnam for an impossibly remote and desolate place to be stationed at. In the Philippines there was a remote island called Bundoc that had nothing on it but a large refueling depot. Servicemen posted there had nothing to do but stare at oil drums.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 08 Feb 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6065 <p>Question: What does it mean to be out in the boondocks? <br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: What are you doing when you make a “Faustian Bargain”?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/8/2023<br /> Birthdays: St Proclus of Constantinople 412AD, Jules Verne, Dmitri Mendeleev- inventor of the Periodic Table of Elements, James Dean, William Tecumseh Sherman, animator Ivan Ivano-Vano, Lana Turner, Jack Lemmon, Alejandro Rey, Jack Larson (Jimmy Olsen in the 1950s TV Superman),Ted Koppel, Nick Nolte, Gary Coleman, Robert Klein, Seth Green, Sesame Street composer Joe Raposo, composer John Williams is 91<br /> <br /> 1587- MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS BEHEADED at Fotheringay Castle. Circumstantial evidence proved Mary had not discouraged plots to overthrow Queen Elizabeth. Truth was Elizabeth could never sit on her throne securely while Mary lived. While some could argue Elizabeth’s legitimate birth, Mary’s grandmother was the sister of King Henry VIII. <br /> Apologists for Queen Elizabeth argue she did ordered the execution with great sadness, but others say she made jests as she signed the death warrant. Elizabeth and Mary never met face-to-face. Mary’s son James accepted his mother’s death calmly, he hadn’t seen her since he was a toddler and his Presbyterian tutors all filled him with hatred for her. She was raised Catholic at the court of French Queen Marie de Medicis. She would sit at her aunties side and watch her burn Protestants.<br /> It must have been a hard day for the headsman. First in order to ensure a good job, Mary gave a bribe to the executioner, but he muffed the first chop and had to do it in a couple of swings. Then, when the headsman picked up the head it plopped out of it's red wig. She had lost most of her hair to smallpox, as did Elizabeth and a lot of other folks. Finally, when they moved Mary's body, a yelping lap dog jumped out of her skirts and bit the headsman. The heartbroken little pet refused all food, and died soon afterwards.<br /> <br /> 1601- Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex, was the toyboy of Queen Elizabeth I. On this day he shocked the court by riding through the countryside declaring his intent to overthrow the beloved old Queen. The countryside in turn surprised him when no one joined him. He was soon captured and lost his head. <br /> <br /> 1608- Fire burns down what there is of Jamestown and most of the food supply, right in the depths of winter.<br /> <br /> 1836- Davy Crockett with twelve Tennessee leathershirts arrived at the Alamo.<br /> <br /> 1864- Abraham Lincoln visited Matthew Brady's Photo Studio and posed for the photos that would one day be on the Penny and Five-dollar bill. <br /> <br /> 1865- Russian monk Gregor Mendel publishes his laws of heredity. The science of genetics is born.<br /> <br /> 1866- Elizabeth Cady-Stanton pleaded in the New York State legislature that neglect, abandonment and wanton cruelty on the part of a husband be made grounds for divorce. Her ideas became law, one hundred years later, in 1966.<br /> <br /> 1887- Congress passed the Dawes Act, which said any Indian who left his tribe and moved into white society would be granted American citizenship. All native Americans were not granted unconditional U.S. citizenship until 1924.<br /> <br /> 1893- THE FIRST RECORDED STRIPTEASE - discounting Salome. At Paris' Moulin Rouge at the Bal de Quart’z Artes, an artist's model named Mona decided to get an edge in a beauty contest judged by art students by disrobing to music while walking up and down the stage. She was arrested and fined 100 francs, and the students rioted. <br /> <br /> 1893- Congress repealed the Enforcement Acts, a key piece of reconstruction legislation that prevented local governments from cheating African Americans out of their voting rights.<br /> <br /> 1910- Boy Scouts of America incorporated on the British model.<br /> <br /> 1914- THE FIRST TRUE CHARACTER ANIMATION- Windsor McCay's "Gertie the Dinosaur" premiered as part of his vaudeville act. Up to then most U.S. animations were attempts to bring popular newspaper comic characters to life, but Gertie was a new character never before seen. Some critics had wondered if animated characters weren’t some kind of man in a special suit, so McCay drew a dinosaur, a character that couldn’t possibly be impersonated by any living thing. Giving the dinosaur the personality of a precocious kitten gave the character a new level above merely drawings that move. It was the first true character animation. The brilliant draftsmanship and timing of this film would inspire the generation of Animation artists of the Golden Age of the 1930's-40s.<br /> <br /> 1915- THE BIRTH OF A NATION or The Clansman, premiered at Clunes Auditorium in Los Angeles. Film pioneer D.W. Griffith's racist movie was considered for many years the first American feature length film. The discovery in 1999 of a 1913 Richard III film predates it. Son of a Confederate veteran, it’s been thought that Griffith was making a personal statement, truth is there was a flood of films to mark the 50th anniversary of the Civil War and the book the Clansman by Thomas Dixon was a national best seller. President Woodrow Wilson (another son of a Confederate soldier) endorsed the film, when he called it: "History written with a thunderbolt and I’m afraid all too true." <br /> <br /> Birth of a Nations’ inflammatory imagery and this politically incorrect Presidential endorsement helped a rebirth of the defunct Ku Klux Klan, and caused an increase in lynching. But despite the film’s politics, it’s technique influenced world cinema.<br /> D.W. Griffith in later years lost his fortune and became a drunken has-been. Watching him at Chasens Restaurant pathetically beg MGM studio head Dore Schary for work, inspired Billy Wilder to write SUNSET BLVD. <br /> <br /> 1924, the first execution by gas chamber in the United States took place at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City. It took Chinese gang member Gee Jong six minutes to die. <br /> <br /> 1928- Englishman John Logie Baird transmitted a still television image across the Atlantic from England to Hartsdale New York. It was a still image of a woman. <br /> <br /> 1949- Cardinal Mindzenty, the Roman Catholic primate of Hungary had been imprisoned by Pro-Nazi Hungarians after he spoke out against the regimes treatment of Jews. Nine years later this day he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Communist government for treason. He was released in 1956 and in 1971, escaped to the west. In his time Cardinal Mindzenty was celebrated as a champion of human rights like Nelson Mandela.<br /> <br /> 1960- Adolph Coors III the heir to the Coors beer empire was killed in a failed kidnapping attempt. Joseph Corbett Jr was apprehended in Canada and charged with the crime. Ironically, Adolph Coors was reputedly allergic to beer.<br /> <br /> 1961- Nebraska teenager and future movie star Nick Nolte was busted for the first time. He was accused of selling fake Draft cards so his friends could buy alcohol to celebrate his birthday.<br /> <br /> 1966- The Vatican closed its office of censorship.<br /> <br /> 1967- Georgy Girl by the Seekers goes to #1 in pop charts.<br /> <br /> 1968- The Planet of the Apes, directed by Franklin Schafner, starring Charlton Heston, Kim Hunter, Roddy McDowell and Maurice Evans, premiered. <br /> <br /> 1976 - TAXI DRIVER, directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader, starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Cybill Shepherd, Peter Boyle, and Albert Brooks, was released. It was the last score by composer Bernard Hermann, whose career began with Citizen Kane. Hermann died just before the film opened, at age 64.<br /> <br /> 1994- Screaming, “You cut me off!” Jack Nicholson destroyed the windshield of his neighbor’s car with a golf club. He settled out of court.<br /> <br /> 2001- Walt Disney California Adventure opened.<br /> <br /> 2007- Anna Nicole Smith, centerfold, pole dancer, heiress and reality TV star, died from an overdose of prescription drugs. She was 39.<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What are you doing when you make a “Faustian Bargain”?<br /> <br /> Answer: A deal with the Devil for material gain. Dr. Faustus was a man of science who thought he could bargain with the devil. As a result he lost his soul, and was dragged down to hell anyway. So a Faustian Bargain came to mean making a dubious deal with unforeseen consequences.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 07 Feb 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6064 <p>Question: What are you doing when you make a “Faustian Bargain”?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: Question: The Roman Empire was bi-lingual. One language was Latin. What was the other?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/7/2023<br /> Birthdays: St. Thomas Moore, Eubie Blake, Sinclair Lewis, Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Laura Ingalls Wilder writer of Little House on the Prairie, Gay Talese, animator Jim Tyer, James Spader is 63, Chris Rock is 58, Eddie Izzard is 61, Ashton Kutcher is 45<br /> <br /> 310 AD- Feast of St. Theodore the General. He commanded a Roman legion under the Emperor Licinius in Pontus. After admitting he had converted to the outlaw sect Christianity, he was tortured and burned in a furnace. Two years before the ban on Christians was lifted.<br /> <br /> 457AD- After the death of the Roman Emperor Marcian, General Aspar proclaimed his friend General Leo the Armenian to be the new emperor of the Eastern Empire.<br /> <br /> 1601- Elderly Queen Elizabeth I dallied with a courtier named Robert Devereaux the Earl of Essex. This hot headed toyboy soon got it into his head he could overthrow the old Queen and take over her government. This night at his estate- the original Essex House, flattering friends paid for a performance of Master Shakespeare’s play Richard II. Queen Elizabeth’s spies overheard and told her; the symbolism of Essex watching a play about a monarch justly deposed was not lost on her. Next day the Essex plot was crushed. Essex and all his theater-loving buddies went to the headsman’s block.<br /> <br /> 1792- The major European powers- Russia, Austria, Prussia, Spain and England announced a grand coalition to crush the Revolution in France. They considered it a pre-emptive war to prevent a French people’s-style revolution from overthrowing their own monarchies. About the only ally the French had was the American Republic, but they were too weak and too far away to be of any help.<br /> <br /> 1796- Napoleon &amp; Josephine’s engagement was announced.<br /> <br /> 1807- BATTLE of EYLAU- Up until the 20th century, armies traditionally avoided fighting in winter because of the added hardships of weather. After chasing the Russian army up into Northern Poland, Napoleon put his French army into winter quarters and proceeded to bed down with his new mistress Countess Maria Walewska. Unfortunately, a French division bumped into the main Russian army and a battle ensued. Everyone rushed there and an inconclusive slaughter raged in a blinding snowstorm. The battle was only ended when Marshal Murat massed all the French cavalry into one big juggernaut and sent it smashing through the Russian center. <br /> <br /> 1882- John L. Sullivan defeated top boxer Paddy Ryan in a ferocious bareknuckle brawl in Gulfport Mississippi. There were no official boxing championship belts yet, but John L. Sullivan boldly declared himself the Champion of the World. The title stuck. He’d travel from town to town, building his legend: "I’m John L. Sullivan and I can lick any man in the house!!” and he always did. <br /> <br /> 1900- In Barcelona a new young talent named Pablo Picasso had his first show. <br /> <br /> 1904- The Great Fire of Baltimore.<br /> <br /> 1910- The Town of Hollywood was absorbed into the growing City of Los Angeles.<br /> <br /> 1925- Professor Raymond Dart of the University of South Africa named the small human like skull found in a lime deposit Australopithicus, a missing link between ape and man.<br /> <br /> 1931- Aviatrix Amelia Earhart married publisher George Putnam.<br /> <br /> 1937- PACKING THE COURT-Since seizing the initiative in 1933 to battle the Depression, Franklin Roosevelt was used to having his own way with Congress. After the Supreme Court struck down important components of his National Recovery Act (NRA) as unconstitutional, FDR this night informed leading Senators that he was introducing a bill to expand the Supreme Court so he could name his own men and create a majority to do his bidding. The heretofore docile Senate rose up and defeated FDR’s scheme, the resistance led by his own vice president Cactus Jack Garner. The newly invigorated Congress continued to defy Roosevelt until Pearl Harbor.<br /> <br /> 1939, Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep was published. Chandler was a 51-year-old ex-oil company executive who had taken up writing at the age of 45, after being fired for alcohol-soaked absenteeism. Over the previous five years he had published enough crime stories in the pulp magazines to survive, but this was his first novel, the first of seven featuring the inimitable detective Philip Marlowe.<br /> <br /> 1940- Disney's second animated feature "Pinocchio" opened at the Central Theater in Manhattan. It cost a staggering $2.6 million to make. <br /> <br /> 1942- Despite being under heavy Japanese attack, British commander Sir Spencer Percival vowed that Singapore would resist to the last man. Singapore surrendered one week later.<br /> <br /> 1942- Detroit assembly lines ceased all production of automobiles and focused exclusively on war material- tanks, planes, trucks, until 1945. When President Roosevelt challenged carmakers to help make America the "Arsenal of Democracy" in 1939 they dragged their feet. Now the government sweetened their orders with guaranteed profits, labor peace, and they could sell at incredible discount the factories built at government expense.<br /> <br /> 1944- German Panzergrenadiers launched a heavy counterattack on the Allied beachhead at Anzio Italy. Panzergrenadiers were elite infantry, the equivalent of the U.S, 101 Airborne.<br /> <br /> 1950- The US recognized the nation of Vietnam not as ruled by Ho Chi Minh, but ruled by French mandate under the Emperor Bao Dai.<br /> <br /> 1960- JFK PARTYS WITH THE RATPACK-Before he created the Peace Corps and Camelot, presidential candidate John Kennedy needed to relax and raise some hell. So in total secret he helicoptered down to Las Vegas and spent this night at the Sands Hotel with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop and his brother in law, actor Peter Lawford. These men were famous for their all-night Rat Pack parties, heavy drinking, girls, poker and more. Sinatra introduced Kennedy to a party girl named Judith Cambell Exner, who would claim JFK as a lover at the same time as she was sleeping with Sam Momo Giancana, the head of the Chicago Mafia. In the wee hours of dawn, Kennedy slipped away to continue his race for the White House.<br /> <br /> 1964- THE BRITISH ROCK INVASION BEGAN. Thousands of screaming fans welcomed THE BEATLES to New York for their first U.S. Tour. The last music out of England to be taken seriously by Americans was The Lambeth Walk, now the UK announced itself as a powerhouse of rock &amp; roll. For a Brit to do Rock &amp; Roll in America was as audacious as an American reciting Shakespeare in Stratford, but the welcome for the Beatles was so overwhelming that other bands like The Rolling Stones, The Who, and Herman’s Hermits soon followed. <br /> Local New York disc jockeys Cousin Brucie and Murray the K wiggled to the front of the crowds and got a national audience by following the young musicians around. The crowds of teenagers were so excited they mobbed a Rolls Royce in front of the Warwick Hotel where the Beatles were staying just because they figured a Rolls Royce would be something they drove in. They actually used taxicabs.<br /> <br /> 1964- The GI Joe action figure born. In 1974 it got the Kung-Fu Grip.<br /> <br /> 1968- During the Vietnamese Tet Offensive a US Army colonel issued a statement to the A.P. after burning the tiny village of Ben Tre.:" We had to destroy that village in order to save it." It typified the sometimes-dizzy logic the Army used to justify its actions.<br /> <br /> 1971- Women in Switzerland receive the right to vote.<br /> <br /> 1974- Mel Brook’s classic comedy “Blazing Saddles” opened in theaters.<br /> <br /> 1979- Nazis Angel of Death Dr. Josef Mengele was living in hiding in Brazil. This day the old man had a stroke while swimming and drowned. His death was kept secret until 1985.<br /> <br /> 1989- Retired tennis champ Bjorn Borg was rushed to a Madrid hospital and had his stomach pumped after he tried to overdose of sleeping pills. He survived and today is 66.<br /> <br /> 1992- Twelve European nations sign the Maastricht Treaty of European Union.<br /> <br /> 1994- Jean Bertrand Aristide sworn in as democratically elected president of Haiti. He was overthrown shortly afterward.<br /> <br /> 2001-After being overthrown, Jean Bertrand Aristide sworn in as President of Haiti again. He was overthrown again in 2003.<br /> <br /> 2002- President George W. Bush issued a determination “…that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which affords minimum standards for humane treatment, did not apply to al-Qaeda or Taliban detainees.'" This gave direct permission to torture our prisoners, something every American leader since George Washington would not allow.<br /> <br /> 2014- The Lego Movie premiered. Directed by Chris Miller and Phil Lord.<br /> <br /> 2020- During an interview with journalist Bob Woodward, President Donald Trump admitted he always knew that the Covid-19 virus was deadly, spread through the air, and likely to be a serious health emergency. Nevertheless, within the week he was giving public speeches where he called Covid as a hoax that would go away by itself. Woodward sat on this information until his book came out that Sept. Meanwhile, thousands kept dying. <br /> ____________________________________________________________<br /> Yesterday’s Question: The Roman Empire was bi-lingual. One language was Latin. What was the other?<br /> <br /> Answer: Attic Greek. If an Egyptian, a Libyan and a Persian wished to converse, they would do so in Greek. Most of St. Paul’s letters were written in Greek. Paul if course was a Hebrew</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 05 Feb 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6063 <p>Question: What is the meaning behind the phrase, “ Don’t Panic”? Hint: contemporary satirical fiction.<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: Who are you imitating when you say, “ Ruh-Roh…”<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/5/2023<br /> Birthdays: Sir Robert Peel founder of London’s police force- the Bobbies, outlaw Belle Starr, John Carradine, William Burroughs, Arthur Ochs Schulzburger, Hank Aaron, Tim Holt, Barbera Hershey, Charlotte Rampling, Roger Staubach, Michael Mann is 80, Bobby Brown, H. R. Giger, Red Buttons, Christopher Guest, Jennifer Jason Leigh is 62, Laura Linney is 59, Michael Sheen is 54, Bruce Timm, who created Harley Quinn.<br /> <br /> 2BC -The Roman Emperor Octavian Caesar was given by the Senate the title Father of His Country- Pater-Patria, or the Augustus.<br /> <br /> 1631- Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, arrived in America from England. Tossed out of Boston for complaining about the Puritan fathers right to lock up anybody who disagreed with their religious views, Williams set up a new colony where he invited all those who wanted complete freedom of religion to come. Rhode Island is one of the smallest states in America, so I guess that says something about the response he got.<br /> <br /> 1642- The House of Lords finally gives in and agrees with the militant House of Commons to exclude bishops from sitting with an equal vote in Parliament.<br /> <br /> 1723- Louis XV who became King of France at age 5, attained manhood at age 13. The period in French History called the Regency came to an end, even through his uncle Phillip d’Orleans continued to run the government.<br /> <br /> 1736- Briton John Wesley landed in Savannah and brought the first Methodist missionaries to the U.S. On the boat Wesley was influenced by the simple discipline of several members of the sect the Moravian Brethren.<br /> <br /> 1783- The Kingdom of Sweden recognized the United States.<br /> <br /> 1811- The previous November, elderly and blind King George III lapsed into madness again never to recover. This day, by act of Parliament, his eldest son Georgie was declared Regent. The next 8 years was called the Regency Period, until the old mad king died in 1820 and the Prince-Regent became King George IV. <br /> <br /> 1846- The Oregon Spectator, first English newspaper on the Pacific Coast, published.<br /> <br /> 1887- Verdi’s opera "Otello" debuted. Guiseppi Verdi had retired from composing after 1875, but was goaded by a new generation of composers like Arrigo Boito to take up his pen once more. <br /> <br /> 1895- PRESIDENT GROVER CLEVELAND asks BANKER J.P. MORGAN TO BAIL OUT THE UNITED STATES- The business climate of the late 1880’s &amp; 90’s was dominated by the debate of whether U.S. currency should be backed by gold or silver bullion. Class distinctions and politics were aggravated by Gold Bugs vs. Silver Men. Wild speculation on Wall Street in both metals made and ruined fortunes overnight. In the midst of all this confusion it was suddenly noticed that the gold reserves of the U.S. treasury were so seriously depleted that the Federal government was about to go bankrupt. So, President Cleveland was reduced to going cap-in-hand to the famous tycoon for a loan. Morgan drove a hard bargain but the U.S. economy was saved. J.P. Morgan was so rich at this point he had stopped several Wall Street panics almost single-handedly. Morgan smoked twenty fat cigars a day and on the advice of doctors never exercised because they said it would be bad for his health.<br /> <br /> 1916- Enrico Caruso recorded O Solo Mio for the Victor Talking Machine Co.<br /> <br /> 1919- Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith sign papers to form the United Artists Studio. The press teased, “ The Lunatics have taken over the asylum!”<br /> <br /> 1921- The Loews State Theater in Chicago opened.<br /> <br /> 1922- The Reader’s Digest began publication.<br /> <br /> 1936-THE BATTLE OF JARAMA - Spanish General Franco’s Fascist army was thrown back from the gates of Madrid with help from the Republic’s newly arrived foreign volunteers, called the International Brigades. These idealistic young Europeans and Americans (the Abraham Lincoln Brigade) were thrown into the battle with no training as they had just arrived. They suffered 50% casualties, but still won the battle.<br /> The Lincolns sang a tune to Popeye the Sailor Man:<br /> "In a green little vale called Jarama, We made all the fascists cry "Mama!; we fight for our pay, just six cents a day, and play football with a bomb-a "<br /> <br /> 1937- Charlie Chaplin’s film Modern Times opened in theaters. Chaplin was inspired to lampoon modern technological madness when he was invited to view the auto assembly production lines in Detroit and saw men moving like machines. <br /> <br /> 1944- British scientists at Bletchley Park booted up the Colossus Mark I, a huge early computer used to decode Hitler’s secret messages. Eleven more Colossus computers were built. After the war, all but one were destroyed with sledgehammers, and the scientists put under a vow of secrecy for thirty years. <br /> <br /> 1952- New York City is the first to adopt the three light traffic lights-red, yellow, green.<br /> <br /> 1953- Walt Disney’s "Peter Pan" opened in general release theaters.<br /> <br /> 1956- Darryl Zanuck resigned from 20th Century Fox, the studio he built into a powerhouse. He later won back the chairmanship in 1962 in the wake of the Cleopatra fiasco, and was ousted again in 1970 by a consortium led by his own wife and son, Darryl Zanuck Jr.<br /> <br /> 1957- Mel Lazarus’ comic strip Miss Peach debuted.<br /> <br /> 1970- TWA began 747 nonstop services between New York and Los Angeles.<br /> <br /> 1971-The NASDAQ computer stock trading system starts up.<br /> <br /> 1972- After numerous airline hijackings, the U.S. institutes luggage inspection and metal detectors at airports.<br /> <br /> 1974- Hearst Publishing heiress Patty Hearst was kidnapped at gunpoint by an underground radical group called the Symbianese Liberation Army. She was kept in a closet, brainwashed, changed her name to Tania, did prison time for a bank job, and later appeared in several John Water’s movies. <br /> <br /> 1988- A new Palestinian militant group announced its formation. Called HAMAS meaning "zeal" They were trained in Islamic fundamentalism in the Ayatollah’s Iran. They vowed undying hostility to Israel, and refused to acknowledge the PLO as being in charge. Also around this time the Syrians backed the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah.<br /> <br /> 2003- Former war hero and US Secretary of State Colin Powell went to the United Nations to make the case for the United States attack on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. He was doing so in emulation of Adlai Stevenson’s historic presentation to the UN of proof of the Soviet missiles in Cuba in 1962. <br /> But Adlai Stevenson had genuine proof. Powell had only the rumors and half-truths supplied him after the CIA declared it all suspect. Describing some trucks and aluminum tubes as proof of mobile nuke labs. In 2005 all these findings were declared totally false, and Powell’s reputation damaged. He later confessed:” It was the worst day of my life.”<br /> =========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Who are you imitating when you say, “ Ruh-Roh…”?<br /> <br /> Answer: Rooby-Doo! Uh, …Scooby Doo.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 03 Feb 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6062 <p>Quiz: Actress Blythe Danner has a daughter who also is an actress. Who is it?<br /> <br /> Answer to Yesterday’s Question below: What does it mean when you say someone is hirsute?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/3/2023<br /> Birthdays- French King Charles VI the Mad –1380, Felix Mendelson-Bartoldy, Horace Greely, Gideon Mantell 1790-pioneer British fossil hunter that named the Iguanadon, Pretty Boy Floyd, Gertrude Stein, Norman Rockwell, James A. Michener, Joey Bishop, Shelley Berman, Bob Griese, Fran Tarkenton, John Fiedler the voice of Piglet, Victor Buono, Blythe Danner is 80, Morgan Fairchild is 73, Nathan Lane is 67<br /> <br /> Today is the Feast of St. Blaise, patron saint of sore throats and sick cattle.<br /> <br /> 1238- The Mongol horde under Genghis’ grandson Batu Khan burned the Russian city of Vladimir-Suzdal. He later also destroyed Kyiv.<br /> <br /> 1134- Robert Curthose (little bandy legs) was the eldest son of William Conqueror, but he was outmaneuvered first by his middle brother William II Rufus, then his youngest brother Henry I. Henry had his brother imprisoned in Cardiff Castle for thirty years, until this day he died in his 80s. <br /> <br /> 1547- Czar Ivan the Terrible married Anastasia Romanova. Her young death may have pushed his sanity over the edge.<br /> <br /> 1637- TULIPMANIA- Dutch merchants went so wild over the importation of tulip bulbs from Turkey, that they drove up the market price in tulips to absurd lengths. It was the birth of Futures Markets, investing in crops that haven’t even been planted yet. Today the first consignment of bulbs failed to sell, and caused panic selling. It caused the first international stock market collapse.<br /> <br /> 1690- The first paper money issued in the New World, by the Massachusetts Colony.<br /> <br /> 1780- THE FIRST AMERICAN SERIAL KILLER- For those who think this kind of crime is a symptom of our modern Secular-Humanist society: In New Milford Connecticut, Revolutionary War veteran Barnett Davenport was rooming at the farm of Mr. Caleb Mallory. This day for no apparent reason, possible ptsd, Davenport murdered Mallory, his wife, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, using his musket and farm tools. He then set the house on fire with their bodies inside. <br /> He was soon captured, and his confession ran to 14 pages. He was sentenced by Declaration of Independence signer Judge Roger Sherman to 70 lashes, then hanged. The incident was widely reported in the young nations press. <br /> <br /> 1781- After declaring war on Holland over their support for the Revolutionary War, Admiral Rodney with a British fleet captured the Dutch Caribbean island of Saint Eustachius (now the Virgin Islands). The island was a major trading center of covert military aid to the Yankee rebels. Rodney looted the city and flew the Dutch flag over the harbor for several more weeks to surprise incoming Dutch and American ships. But while he made neat headlines in the Caribbean, he and his fleet would have been far more useful rescuing Lord Cornwallis whose army was surrounded at Yorktown Virginia.<br /> <br /> 1783- The Kingdom of Spain recognized the independence of the United States.<br /> <br /> 1846- The US Army captured the pueblo town of Taos New Mexico from hostile locals and Indians by shelling the town with cannon fire. Lt. Sterling Price then hanged the native chiefs for treason, even though no one had told them they were now part of America.<br /> <br /> 1862- President Lincoln received a message from the King of Siam (Thailand) offering him Siamese war elephants to help him win the Civil War. He politely passed on the offer.<br /> <br /> 1863- MARK TWAIN- It was a long custom in American newspapers for columnists and critics to publish under pseudonyms. Riverboat pilot turned writer Samuel Clemens first considered names like Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass, and W. Epaminondas Adrastus Blab. Today he borrowed from another riverboat pilot the idea for the pseudonym for which he would become famous. This day in the Virginia City Nevada Territorial Register newspaper was an article authored by someone calling himself - 'Mark Twain'. Mark Twain was the Mississippi River pilot's term for when a steamboat is in two fathoms of water or more, in other words, safely enough away from shallows to proceed at full speed.<br /> <br /> 1865- The Confederate government made the first overtures to Washington for peace talks to end the Civil War. Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens secretly met with Abe Lincoln on board a riverboat in the James River to discuss terms. However no agreement was reached. One point that became a deal-breaker was the Lincoln’s offer of pardons and amnesties to Rebels who retook the Oath of Allegiance to the US. Stephens angrily replied that the South had a legal right to secede so had committed no crimes needing any pardons. So, the Civil War continued for two more bloody months.<br /> Alexander Stephens nickname is where we get the term “Smart Alec.”<br /> <br /> 1889-THE BANDIT QUEEN- In Oklahoma, outlaw Belle Starr was shotgunned out of her saddle by an old boyfriend. She usually shot them first. Originally named Myra Belle Shirley, she pursued a career as an outlaw and had two children, one by Cole Younger, another by a member of the James Gang. Rustler, gunfighter, prostitute, sideshow performer, she said: "Let's just say I'm a woman who's seen a lot of the world."<br /> <br /> 1912- The rules governing U.S. football are revised. The playing field was shortened to 100 yards; a touchdown counted as six points instead of five; four downs are allowed instead of three and the kickoff point was moved from midfield to the 40 yd. line.<br /> <br /> 1913- Federal Income Tax Amendment ratified.<br /> <br /> 1916- The original Canadian Parliament building burned down.<br /> <br /> 1917- After a German U-Boat sank the U.S.S. Housatonic, President Wilson broke off diplomatic relations with Germany.<br /> <br /> 1920- The play Beyond the Horizon premiered. The first hit of a young man who tried to drink himself to death, but instead became a playwright- Eugene O’Neill.<br /> <br /> 1930- Roy Disney signed a deal with M. George Borgfeldt Co. of New York to sell figurines of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Disney merchandising is born!<br /> <br /> 1943- Four Chaplains Day. This day a German U-Boat torpedoed the troopship USS Dorchester, with the loss of 600 lives. Four army chaplains gave their life jackets to others to be saved, and so drowned in the icy Atlantic. Congress declared Feb 3rd thereafter Four Chaplains Day.<br /> <br /> 1945- General MacArthur began the battle to liberate Manila. The fighting lasted a month, fierce fighting house to house with some Japanese troops killing Philippine civilians as they withdrew.<br /> <br /> 1945- Walt Disney’s The Three Caballeros opened in the USA. It had premiered first in Mexico City last Dec.<br /> <br /> 1948- The first Cadillac’s with big rear tail fins were produced.<br /> <br /> 1953- Jacques Cousteau, inventor of the Aqua Lung, published The Silent World, and later made a film version of the book with Louis Malle.<br /> <br /> 1959 "The Day the Music Died" The first Rock &amp; Roll tragedy. Top pop stars Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and J.P. "Big Bopper" Richardson died in plane crash. They were on tour and Holly chartered the small plane so they could get to Fargo, North Dakota in time to get his shirts cleaned. Waylon Jennings was supposed to join them but he gave up his seat to Richardson because Richardson was running a fever and didn’t want a long cold bus ride. As they left Richardson teased Jennings:” Hope your bus doesn’t freeze.” And Jennings joked:” Hope your plane doesn’t crash.” The plane was called the American Pie, which inspired a Don McClean’s hit song “Bye, Bye Miss American Pie.”<br /> <br /> 1962- John F. Kennedy signed the trade embargo act against Cuba, banning all trade with Fidel Castro’s regime. White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger recalled how the night before JFK had him go around Washington DC and buy up all the Havana cigars (Monte Cristos) he could for the White House humidor. The embargo lasted until partially lifted by President Obama in 2015. Then it was reinstated by Pres. Trump.<br /> <br /> 1966- Russia soft landed a probe on the Moon- Lunik-7. The Soviets took the first photos of the Dark Side of the Moon with Lunik–2 as part of their Space Race with the US.<br /> <br /> 1973- Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law.<br /> <br /> 1986- After three months of negotiations, Steve Jobs signed papers to acquire the Lucas Film Graphics Division, now under their new name- Pixar Inc.<br /> <br /> 1989- Swiss firm L'Oreal/Nestle bought LA animation studio Filmation (HeMan, SheRa) from Westinghouse, and shut it down laying off 229 artists the day before a new federal regulation requiring a company give it's employees 60 day notice before closing went into effect. <br /> <br /> 1998- Near Trento Italy a low flying Marine jet on maneuvers tangled snapped a cable on a ski tram, sending 20 people 300 feet down to their deaths.<br /> <br /> 1998- Murderer Karla Faye Tucker was executed by lethal injection at Huntsville State Prison, Texas. She had chopped up two people with an axe in 1983.<br /> <br /> 2003-Legendary rock and roll producer Phil Spector killed his girlfriend B-movie actress Lana Clarkson at his LA mansion. Spector had created the Wall of Sound concert technique and produced for the Beatles, Diana Ross The Ronnettes, and Lenny Bruce, among many others. <br /> The few days before, Phil Spector said to the British Daily Telegraph, “. I would say I'm probably relatively insane, to an extent. I take medication for schizophrenia, but I wouldn't say I'm schizophrenic. I have a bipolar personality, which is strange.”<br /> Phil Spector died in prison of covid in 2021.<br /> <br /> 2013- American super-sniper Chris Kyle spent his time back from the Iraq War helping men suffering from PTSD by taking them hunting. The Clint Eastwood film American Sniper was based on him. Today he took a vet named Edie-Rae Routh to a shooting range. At one point, Routh turned his weapon on Kyle and killed him. Shortly before he was shot, Kyle texted a friend about Routh “ This guy is straight-up nuts.”<br /> =====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean when you say someone is hirsute?<br /> <br /> Answer: It’s a nice way of saying hairy, furry or fuzzy.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> .</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 02 Feb 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6061 <p>Quiz: What does it mean when you say someone is hirsute?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays question answered below: What does it mean when you back someone “ to the hilt”?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 02/02/2023<br /> Birthdays: Tallyrand, Charlie Halas a co-founder of the NFL, James Joyce, Ayn Rand, Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifitz, Abba Eban, Farrah Fawcett, Garth Brooks, Christie Brinkley, Tommy Smothers, Stan Getz, James Dickey, Liz Smith, Elaine Stritch, Brent Spinner is 74, Shakira born Isabelle Ripoli, is 46<br /> <br /> Happy Groundhog Day. This morning if Paxatawney Phil sees his shadow, it means 6 more weeks of winter. <br /> <br /> In ancient Rome it was the day for the lesser Eleusinian Mysteries held in honor of the goddess Demeter. Women only, please. Part of the ceremony was you were given a bowl of wine with certain herbs in it. After drinking it, you saw the gods. It was experimenting to find the nature of these ancient herbs in 1946 that led Dr. Albert Hoffman to discover LSD.<br /> <br /> In the Middle Ages it was the Feast of Candlemas, later named the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary.<br /> <br /> 961 A.D. -Otto I Hohenstaufen crowned, The HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE of the GERMAN NATION declared, or The First Reich. Otto was one of the first rulers to win wars with armored knights on horseback, instead of the Roman Legion style infantry, setting the tone for the Middle Ages. <br /> At age 45, he was crowned Emperor by Pope Stephen VI, who was 19. This event created the unusual connection between the German Empire and the Italian states. Italian states like Florence and Venice considered vassals of the German Emperor even though they acted independently and he almost never crossed the Alps to check up on them. A German Emperor was called King of the Romans until crowned by the Pope.<br /> In 1477 the Emperors did away with kissing up to the Pope and left the Imperial selection to a court of electors meeting in Frankfurt. Holy Roman Empire hung around until 1809 when Napoleon declared the whole idea kaput. To quote Voltaire “ It wasn’t much of an Empire, it wasn’t Roman and it most certainly wasn’t very holy either.”<br /> <br /> 12-1300's-In the middle Ages this was the day of the Winter Reysa- when Crusader Knights of the Teutonic Order would venture into the Lithuanian forest, find a village of pagans, and chop them up for the Christian Faith. There were two expeditions a year, this one and in the summer. The Knights ran a sort of Club-Med for northern knights who wanted to crusade, but not risk the dangerous long journey to Palestine.<br /> <br /> 1536- The City of Buenos Aires founded.<br /> <br /> 1565- CZAR IVAN THE TERRIBLE exhibited the first signs of mental unbalance. Without warning, in December he abandoned his capitol Moscow and disappeared. It took several weeks for the Russian court to find him at a little village named Alexandrov, 350 miles away. A procession waving incense and icons came out to beg him to return. He said he would return only if he were allowed to deal with his enemies ruthlessly. <br /> This day he returned to the Kremlin with a private army called the Oprichina, 6,000 criminals and peasants dressed as monks to help him torture people. When asked if a group of Jews from Lithuania could settle in Muscovite lands, Ivan explained his opposition: “ Jews would bring strange herbs into our realm and lead Russians away from Christianity.” <br /> <br /> 1709- William Dampier was a reformed buccaneer who wrote books about his travels. This day while cruising the South Seas he rescued a man named Sir William Selkirk, who had been marooned on an uninhabited island for four years. It seems Selkirk had gotten into an argument with the captain of a Chilean schooner who left him there. It was a wise move, because the captain was crazy and his ship was later lost with all hands. Upon returning to London, Capt. Dampier mentioned the incident to his friend, writer Daniel DeFoe. He used it to create his most famous novel- Robinson Crusoe.<br /> <br /> 1811- Russian fur traders established Fort Ross, just north of Spanish San Francisco. It was the deepest Russian settlement into North America. In 1845 the Russian Fur Trading Company sold it to American John Sutter. Today there is a reconstructed facsimile of Fort Ross on the site.<br /> <br /> 1848- TREATY OF GUADALUPE HIDALGO signed, which ended the U.S.-Mexican War. Ambassador Nicholas Trist was given the dangerous assignment of finding the Mexican Government fleeing the American attack on Mexico City, then convincing them to sign away California and the Southwest, approximately 40% of their national territory. <br /> Just when negotiations in the little village of Guadalupe Hidalgo were about to conclude successfully, he got a message from Washington to break off talks and return. President Polk had changed his mind. He now wanted the complete conquest of Mexico down to the Yucatan! Trist knew if he did this, the war party in Mexico would keep up a guerrilla war for decades afterwards. So he ignored the message, signed for the U.S. and fixed our southern border at the Rio Grande.<br /> When Trist got home, instead of thanks, he was arrested for treason. But President Polk couldn't convince his war-weary congress to continue the fight. So the treaty was upheld. The French tried conquering Mexico twenty years later and got the Mexican national rising Trist avoided. Nicolas Trist was released from prison, but he never got his back pay until President Lincoln awarded it to him on his deathbed 16 years later. John Kennedy wrote about him in his book Profiles in Courage.<br /> <br /> 1852- London’s first public toilet was dedicated- near 95 Fleet St.<br /> <br /> 1870- Samuel Clemens also known as Mark Twain, married Olivia Langdon or Livy.<br /> <br /> 1870- The first international news agency. Reuters, Havas and Wolf News Agencies agreed to pool their resources for the shared expense of telegraphy.<br /> <br /> 1876- The National Baseball League founded.<br /> <br /> 1890- Ten months before the massacre at Wounded Knee 11 million acres of Sioux homeland in South Dakota went on sale to white homesteaders. The Sioux were removed to a smaller reservation and the money raised from the sale was supposed to go to them, but it all disappeared into the pockets of middlemen.<br /> <br /> 1910- D.W. Griffith's' In Old California', sometimes called the first Hollywood film.<br /> <br /> 1913- New York’s Grand Central Station opened.<br /> <br /> 1920- Admiral Kolchak, leader of the anti-communist (White) Russian armies in the civil war that followed the Bolshevik Revolution, was shot by firing squad and chucked into a dry canal. For a year Kolchak was de facto dictator of all Russia from the Ural mountains to the Pacific.<br /> <br /> 1922- the novel "Ulysses" is published. James Joyce had finished the book months earlier but delayed publishing until his birthday, when it would be 2/2/22, which he considered lucky.<br /> <br /> 1925- IDITEROD- THE SERUM RUN COMPLETED- Nome Alaska at this time was a town totally depended upon supplies from the outside world traveling in by sled dog teams. When a serious epidemic of diptheria threatened the population the call went to the ‘Outside” as Alaskans called the rest of the world, for help. It normally took a musher 18-20 days to cover the 650 miles from the coast to Nome, now a relay of 20 teams in short sprints would attempt to do it in 5 days in the depth of winter. <br /> One musher reported blizzard conditions so bad he couldn’t see the end of his team. While the press kept the world waiting breathlessly on this day Charlie Evans and his malamute team led by his lead dog Balto got into Nome with the serum in a metal cylinder wrapped in fur. At one point two of his dogs froze to death in harness and Evans took up their place himself and ran alongside the dogs the balance of the trip. It took 5 days and 7 hours. The epidemic was limited to five deaths. <br /> The 20 men and their teams were hailed as heroes. Although the dog Balto got most of the credit and has a statue and a movie about him, experts say a 48 pound Siberian husky named Togo did the greatest exertion, going 200 miles in the first leg. The Iditerod sled race is today run in commemoration of this event. The last surviving musher of the original race, Edgar Nollner, died in 1999 at 94 years old .<br /> <br /> 1928- The pulp magazine Weird Tales published “ The Call of Cthulhu” by H.P. Lovecraft.<br /> <br /> 1940- Soviet dictator Stalin had futurist theater director Vselevod Meyerhold shot.<br /> At the time of his arrest Meyerhold’s wife Zinaida was stabbed to death. Neighbors who heard her screams assumed they were rehearsing a new play.<br /> <br /> 1952- Chuck Jones cartoon short “Feed the Kitty”. When Chuck was young he witnessed a big dog kill a tiny kitten. It haunted him for years, so obviously this was how he hoped it should have ended.<br /> <br /> 1957- Elizabeth Taylor married producer Mike Todd. Todd was killed in a plane crash a year later. Despite her famous association with Richard Burton, Taylor later said Mike Todd was the only man she ever truly loved.<br /> <br /> 1961- In a little Greenwich Village nightclub called the Blue Angel a young stand up comic got his first debut. His name was Woody Allen<br /> <br /> 1963- In England, singer Helen Schapiro was on tour. On the lower end of her program card was a new band called the Beatles.<br /> <br /> 1966- Woody Allen married Louise Lasser. They divorced four years later.<br /> <br /> 1971- After a coup toppled legal President Milton Obote, former British colonial sergeant Idi Amin was inaugurated as president of Uganda. He declared himself Conqueror of the British Empire, led his little army in mock invasions of Israel, even though it was thousands of miles away, and he was surrounded by hostile nations. He played drums in his own rock band, wrestled crocodiles, and once reputedly killed and ate one of his sons.<br /> In 1979, He was kicked out by a Tanzanian invasion.<br /> <br /> 1971- Murakami-Wolf's TV special "The Point" with Dustin Hoffman narrating and Harry Nilsson's music. In 1973, Hoffman's track was re-recorded by Ringo Starr for some reason. “Me and my Ar-row…”<br /> <br /> 1979- Sid Vicious, lead singer for the punk band The Sex Pistols, was found dead of a drug overdose. He was awaiting trial for the stabbing death of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen. He was 21. <br /> <br /> 1982- President Hafiz al-Assad ordered the destruction of Syrian city of Hama after its occupation by a Muslim fundamentalist group who sought to create an Iranian-style theocracy. Maybe as many as 25,000 were killed. His son and successor Bashir Al Assad did equally horrible things to the Syrian people in their civil war.<br /> <br /> 1985- O.J. Simpson married Nicole Brown Simpson.<br /> <br /> 1997- Nationally known sportscaster Marv Albert allegedly had an evening of sex and porn with a prostitute. At one point he bit the lady on the back. He was tried for lewd behavior and his career tanked.<br /> <br /> 2006- The Cartoon Riots. A Danish newspaper printed a political cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed with his turban shaped like a bomb. This so offended people in the Muslim world, that rioting broke out in Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jakharta and European capitols. Grenades were thrown at Danish embassies and Danish nationals made to flee. Cartoonist Peter Westergaard dodged a Somali man who attacked him with an axe, and even today needs a bodyguard. <br /> <br /> 2014- Actor Phillip Seymour-Hoffman died of a drug overdose.<br /> ================================================-------------------------------------------------------------------------- <br /> Yesterday’s question: What does it mean when you back someone “ to the hilt”?<br /> <br /> Answer: It meant to stab your sword into someone practically to the handle. The hilt was the little crossbar there. So, it means to go in all the way on something.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 01 Feb 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6060 <p>Quiz: What does it mean when you back someone, “ to the hilt”?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What are you doing when you use a depilatory? <br /> ------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 2/1/2023<br /> Birthdays: Victor Herbert, Langston Hughes, Renata Tebaldi, Clark Gable, John Ford, George Pal, Terry Jones, Jim Thorpe, Sherman Helmsley, Lisa Marie Presley, Garrett Morris, Boris Yeltsin, Billy Mumy is 68, Pauly Shore, Sherilyn Fenn is 58, Michael C. Hall is 52<br /> <br /> Welcome to February from Februarius Mensis, named for Februus, a Sabine god of the underworld called the Purifier. Another theory is this month is named for Febis, the Latin for fever, this being a time in the Roman climate when fevers were most common.<br /> <br /> <br /> 570AD- Today is the Feast Day of Saint Brigid, an Irish saint who gave beer to the poor.<br /> <br /> 1411- The Peace of Torun. The Teutonic Knights of Prussia, an order of warrior monks, yield and pledge obedience to Casimir II Jagiello, King of Poland-Lithuania. This creates a touchy situation with Germany since they had also pledged allegiance to the German emperor.<br /> <br /> 1733- Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland died. Described as Half-Bull- Half Cock, he could twist horseshoes with his bare hands, and drink everyone under the table. He wasted his kingdom’s treasury indulging his vices and filling his palace at Dresden with bejeweled treasures and porcelains, which makes it such a cool tourist destination today. One of the horniest monarchs of Europe, his reputation for womanizing would be unbelievable, had he not left behind hordes of illegitimate children. His last words were “My life has been one ceaseless act of Sin.”<br /> <br /> 1790- First U.S. Supreme Court Session. It was held in the former Royal Exchange Building, a converted barn on Broad Street in lower Manhattan. The John Jay Court at first acted like a circuit court traveling around arbitrating local issues until a permanent home was fixed in the new Federal city.<br /> <br /> 1865- U.S. Chief Justice Salmon Chase admitted John Rock to be the first black lawyer to practice before the Supreme Court. Besides being a Boston attorney Rock was a dentist, orator and spoke French and German fluently.<br /> <br /> 1887- California land developer Harvey Wilcox took out a county deed for a new ranch he called 'Hollywoodland' after the name of an estate his wife admired back in Connecticut. It gave its name to the new Los Angeles town- Hollywood. The famous sign was put up in 1923.<br /> <br /> 1893- In New Jersey, Thomas Edison and his Canadian engineer W. K. Dickson built the FIRST MOTION PICTURE STUDIO. It was covered with black tar paper and called "The Black Mariah" because that was the nickname of police paddy wagons that it resembled. It's debatable how much of the inventing was more Dickson than Edison. Edison was only marginally interested in the movies. He was more concerned with how to extract New Jersey iron ore from rocks using magnets. Dickson worked himself into the hospital to make the studio work, and resenting Edison’s apathy started experimenting on his own. When Edison found out, he fired him.<br /> <br /> 1896- Puccini's opera "La Boheme" debuted in Turin. It was based on Prosper Merimee’s popular book Bohemian Sketches. Puccini's old roommate Piero Mascagni (Cavalleria Rusticana) with whom Puccini and he once lived like Bohemian artists, tried to sue him, because he was writing a Boheme' also. The suit failed and Mascagni released his rival version, but it didn't hold up in comparison with Puccini's.<br /> <br /> 1898- The Travellers Insurance company issued the first auto insurance policy. It was to protect a Buffalo car enthusiast from being sued by irate horse owners in his neighborhood.<br /> <br /> 1901- Outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with prostitute Hedda Place, sometimes referred to as Mrs. Sundance, escaped the law back in Wyoming and arrive in New York City to relax. After a month of sightseeing they take a ship to Bolivia.<br /> <br /> 1908- King Carlos Ist of Portugal and his son were assassinated in the streets of Lisbon. In 1910 his other son was deposed and a republic declared under Teofilo Braga. King Edward VII of England attended a requiem Mass in their memory. It marked the first time in 220 years that an English King ever attended a Roman Catholic service.<br /> <br /> 1915- The Fox Film Company formed (Later Twentieth Century Fox). Disney ended them in 2020.<br /> <br /> 1926- Gen. Billy Mitchell resigned from the army after a court-martial censored him for shooting his mouth off in favor of building a large independent U.S. Air Force. He claimed all future wars would be won by air power. After World War II proved all of Mitchell’s arguments correct, he was reinstated an honorary Major general, posthumously.<br /> <br /> 1943- At his headquarters at the Wolf’s Lair in East Prussia, Adolf Hitler received the news of the Nazi army surrender at Stalingrad. Hitler was furious. Not that he lost 250,000 of his best men, but that their commander Field Marshal Von Paulus surrendered instead of committing suicide.” This hurts me so much that the heroism of so many soldiers was nullified by one single characterless weakling.”<br /> Then Hitler said in a foreshadowing of his own fate:” When the nerves break down, there is nothing left but to admit one can’t handle the situation and to shoot oneself.”<br /> <br /> 1944- The U.S. Marines invade Japanese held Kwajelein, the world's largest atoll.<br /> <br /> 1961- Four black college freshmen sit down at a "whites-only" lunch counter at the Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina. When they left or were arrested four more sat down. Then four more. The Civil Rights sit-in campaigns begin.<br /> <br /> 1964- Indiana Governor Matthew Walsh declares that the Rock &amp; Roll song “Louie-Louie” by the Kingsmen was pornographic and should be banned. The FCC investigated and their conclusion was that the “lyrics are unintelligible at any speed”. The song remained a major hit. In the 1980’s several schools in Northern Cal held Louie-Louie Marathons-96 straight hours of Louie-Louie played by Punk bands, polka bands, string quartets, water-glasses, and folk trios. Whoah whoah, Me gotta go, yo,yo yo yo.<br /> <br /> 1968- During the Vietnamese Tet Lunar Offensive, as Eddie Adams camera snapped South Vietnamese General Nguyen Ngoc Loan put a snub nosed pistol to the head of a Vietcong prisoner and pulled the trigger. The photo of the young man’s death grimace became one of the more haunting images of that war.<br /> <br /> 1979- The Ayatollah Khomeni took over Iran and declared it an Islamic Republic.<br /> <br /> 1985- Walt Disney Feature Animation was moved from their 1939 building on the main lot, to some anonymous warehouses in Glendale near Disney Imagineering. One building was a repurposed casket factory. Many of the animators thought it presaged the unit’s eventual dissolution. Ten years later, after successes like Little Mermaid and The Lion King, they were moved back to a new building adjacent to the studio lot.<br /> <br /> 1990- Siegfried &amp; Roy open their exclusive show at the Mirage Casino in Las Vegas. They and their white tigers have performed for Hollywood stars, presidents and Pope John Paul II. One Vegas columnist noted: “When Elvis performed in Vegas there were some empty seats. But there were nothing but full houses when Siegfried &amp; Roy performed.” The act was finally ended when Roy’s throat was slashed by a tiger in 2003.<br /> Roy died of Covid in 2020, and Siegfried a few months later in Jan. 2021. <br /> <br /> 2003-“Columbia this is Houston on UHF, Houston, Columbia on UHF…” NASA’s first space shuttle, the Columbia, broke up and disintegrated upon reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere. All seven astronauts were killed. The Columbia had flown 26 missions since 1981. On board was the first woman astronaut born in India, and the first Israeli in space, Col. Llan Ramon.<br /> <br /> 2020- Ophthalmologist Dr. Li Wenliang of Wuhan tried to warn the world about the coming pandemic of CoVid 19. He caught the disease while fighting it in others. Today he wrote his last message on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.” The dust has settled, and the diagnosis is confirmed.” He died a week later. Li Wenliang was 34. <br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s question: What are you doing when you use a depilatory? <br /> <br /> Answer: A chemical way to remove unwanted body hair.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 31 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6059 <p>Quiz: What are you doing when you use a depilatory? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s quiz answered below: What European country came into being as a result of the Brabant Revolution of 1830-31?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/31/2023<br /> Birthdays: Gouverner Morris, Zane Grey, James G. Blaine, Franz Schubert, Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, Sir John Profumo, Phillip Glass, Johnny Rotten, Ernie Banks, Norman Mailer, Nolan Ryan, Susanne Pleshette, Anthony LaPaglia, Tallulah Bankhead, Jean Simmons, Justin Timberlake is 42, Portia DiRossi, Minnie Driver is 53, Carol Channing <br /> <br /> Today in ancient Greece it is the festival of Hecate, Goddess of the Underworld.<br /> <br /> Today is the Feast day of St. John Bosco, patron saint of Catholic Schools.<br /> <br /> Happy National Dress up in a Gorilla Suit Day. First advocated by Don Martin, cartoonist for MAD Magazine.<br /> <br /> 1606- Sir Guy Fawkes cheated the executioner by leaping off the scaffold and breaking his neck. Fawkes was convicted of the Gunpowder Plot, trying to blow up King &amp; Parliament. <br /> <br /> 1696- Dutch undertakers rose in revolt after the town of Amsterdam mandated reforms.<br /> <br /> 1795- This day Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton resigned his cabinet post to play a political boss behind the scenes. Hamilton helped develop the American economy on a sound basis, but his imperious demeanor offended many. The English job of Prime Minister evolved out of the Exchequer, so Hamilton hoped the Treasury job would make him the real power in government. Political heat as well as revelations Hamilton was seeing a married woman named Mrs. Reynolds finally made it too hot for him to stay in office. Congress then set up the House Ways &amp; Means Committee to ensure a Secretary of the Treasury never got that powerful again.<br /> <br /> 1839- Englishman William Fox Talbot says Frenchman Louis Daguerre is full of pate' when he announces he had invented photography (1/7/39). Talbot declares HE invented it first. Actually, a Belgian priest experimenting with capturing light on chemically treated glass or paper as early as 1817, Thomas Wedgewood in 1770 and Louis Niepce, with whom both Daguerre and Talbot were familiar. While the principles of capturing a shadow had been known for some time, no one had worked out how to fix the image so earlier attempts faded away in a few hours. Niepce' work predates both Talbot and Daguerre by about 10 years and constitute the earliest "photographic" images still extant. But Talbot and Daguerre are considered the fathers of Photography, provided you like history Anglais or a’ Francais.<br /> <br /> 1843-The first recorded minstrel show. The mode became so popular that even black performers were made to wear burnt-cork blackface makeup and white lips.<br /> <br /> 1865- Passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which outlawed slavery in the United States.<br /> <br /> 1876- The U.S. Congress ordered all remaining Indian tribes to move into reservations or be declared hostile.<br /> <br /> 1925- Scotch brand invisible tape introduced by the 3-M Company.<br /> <br /> 1933- The day after he assumed power, new German Chancellor Adolf Hitler promised he would respect Parliamentary Democracy. Uh, huh….<br /> <br /> 1940- Mrs. Ida Mae Fuller of Ludlow Vermont received the first Social Security check- $22.50.<br /> <br /> 1943- End of the Battle of Stalingrad. Field Marshal Von Paulus came out of the bombed-out basement of a department store and surrendered the shattered remains of his 6th Army. The highest-ranking Nazi general to surrender until the wars end.<br /> <br /> 1945- Private Eddie Slovik becomes the only U.S. soldier in World War II to be executed by firing squad for desertion.<br /> <br /> 1950- THE H-BOMB Despite the unanimous recommendation of the civilian Atomic Energy Commission that a "Super" or Hydrogen Bomb "would not be a weapon of war but an instrument of mass murder," President Harry Truman announced to the world that the U.S. was going to build one anyway. Physicist. I. G. Rabi was shocked that Truman should have announced a bomb we still didn't know how we were going to build and accelerate the arms race. When Dr. Robert Oppenheimer protested, Truman called him a “sissy-scientist.” Secretary of State Dean Acheson groaned privately to a friend: “What a horrible world we’re living in.”<br /> <br /> 1954- Howard Armstrong, the inventor of FM Radio, driven to despair by constant lawsuits with RCA Corporation over his patents, jumped to his death out of a hotel window. He first put on his hat, overcoat and gloves because he didn't want to be cold. Armstrong normally loved heights and used to climb hundreds of feet in the air to meditate on top of his radio antennas. By 1977 his family won all the lawsuits. Today, most radio, television and air traffic communications are by FM band.<br /> <br /> 1958- The U.S. enters the Space Race with the launching of satellite Explorer- 1.<br /> <br /> 1963- U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara declared to the press:” The War in Vietnam so far is going quite well…”<br /> <br /> 1968- The TET Offensive- This day the North Vietnamese army combined with the Viet Cong guerrillas surprise attacked American forces all over South Vietnam. Even the capitol Saigon and the American Embassy became battle zones. Despite an alert issued the night before, 200 US intelligence officers attended a pool party, and were as surprised as everyone else. Although all the Vietnamese attacks were defeated the U.S. public was shocked that such an attack could happen from what they kept being told was “A defeated enemy” It was the turning point of the Vietnam War. The Army of course, blamed the media, and asked for a bigger budget. Even with 450,000 soldiers there, they felt it was not enough.<br /> <br /> 1968- The Seattle city council concluded that there was no legal means to curb hippies hanging out in the downtown U- District.<br /> <br /> 1974- Apollo 14 blasted off for the moon. This voyage is chiefly remembered for Alan Shepard playing golf on the lunar surface.<br /> <br /> 1978- Polish director Roman Polanski fled the U.S. for exile after being charged for drugging, then having sex with a thirteen-year-old girl in Jack Nicholson’s house. On the eve of sentencing after learning that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Laurence Rittenband intended to send him back to prison, Polanski skipped town.<br /> <br /> 1978- Famed animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston retired together.<br /> <br /> 1989- Michael Jackson’s sister LaToya Jackson posed nude for Playboy.<br /> <br /> 1995- First Meeting of the WTO- World Trade Organization.<br /> <br /> 1999- The first episode of Seth McFarlane’s show Family Guy premiered.<br /> <br /> 2003- DOWNING STREET II- The Downing St. meeting minutes proved without a doubt that President Bush planned to invade Iraq after the 9-11 attack, even though Iraq had nothing to do with it. In this days’ meeting between English Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W. Bush, it was stated, “It is unlikely that the weapons inspectors will discover any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.” President Bush responded that it was too late to change their plans. They would start bombing Iraq on March 10th. The Downing I memo were made public in 2005, and Downing II was not made public until 2009, when Bush was safely out of office. <br /> <br /> 2005- The documentary Dream On, Silly Dreamer premiered at the Animex Festival in England. Dan Lund and Tony West’s doc about the loyal Disney 2D animators jobs being eliminated in 2002.<br /> <br /> 2020- Brexit- Great Britain officially withdrew from the European Union.<br /> ======================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What European country came into being as a result of the Brabant Revolution of 1830-31?<br /> <br /> Answer: The Catholic parts of the Netherlands separated and declared themselves the Kingdom of Belgium.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 30 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6058 <p>Quiz: What European country came into being as a result of the Brabant Revolution of 1830-31?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: What is the origin of the term “a podunk town”?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/30/2023 <br /> Birthdays: Barbara Tuchman, Walt “Moose” Dropo, Olaf Palme, Dick Martin, Louis S. Rukeyser, Dorothy Malone, Boris Spassky, John Ireland, Douglas Englebart, Phil Collins, Vanessa Redgrave is 86, Gene Hackman is 93, Christian Bale is 49, Former VP Dick Cheney is 83<br /> <br /> 1649- KING CHARLES I of ENGLAND BEHEADED-The Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell condemns the King "That man of Blood" and abolished the English monarchy. As Charles laid his head upon the block he said:" I go from a corruptible crown to one which is Incorruptible." -Splat! <br /> Cromwell’s government worried that if the identity of the headsman Richard Brandon was ever found out avengers may harm his family. They kept the secret so well that his name for a time was lost to history. In Alexander Dumas' sequel to “The Three Musketeers”, he makes the executioner to be the son of Madame DeWinter and the Duc de Rochefort. <br /> <br /> 1661- HAVE YOU SEEN OLIVER CROMWELL'S HEAD? English dictator General Oliver Cromwell died of natural causes in 1658. After the restoration of the British monarchy, The King’s sheriffs exhumed Cromwell’s body and exacted revenge by beheading it, and placing the head on London Bridge, where criminals are usually exhibited. A mob joyfully bounced around the rest of the corpse and threw it in the Thames.<br /> After a year, the head fell off it's spike and rolled around on the ground. A priest took it home and sold it to a travelling circus. Eventually it was donated to Cambridge University, to whom Oliver Cromwell had been a benefactor. The college interred it but will not divulge where.<br /> <br /> 1790- Sir Malcolm Greathead invented the lifeboat. <br /> <br /> 1835- THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL ASSASINATION ATTEMPT –An unemployed house painter named Richard Lawrence who thought he was King Richard III, emerged from a crowd in the lobby of the House of Representatives and fired two pistols at President Andrew Jackson. They both miss. Jackson, an old army man who already carried around two lead bullets in his body from Indian fights and duels, was so outraged that he grabbed Lawrence and started drubbing him on the head with his silver tipped cane. He beat him so badly that the police had the strange task of saving the assassin from his intended victim.<br /> <br /> 1862- John Ericsson’s radical design for an all-ironclad ship, the USS Monitor, was launched at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.<br /> <br /> 1889- THE MAYERLING AFFAIR-Archduke Rudolf Von Hapsburg, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, committed suicide with his mistress, Bavarian baroness Maria Vestera. Rudolf was already married, and even if he could divorce, he could never marry so below his rank. Some say that there was more intrigue to it, that German statesman Otto Von Bismarck had Rudolf murdered because Rudolph planned on challenging Berlin’s hold over German unity, but that theory is a longshot. His family felt Rudolf was an emotionally troubled man, who finally found a girl dumb enough to follow him in his suicide pact. The Baroness had taken poison and then Rudolf had blown his brains out. Austrian funerary makeup artists worked overtime to make the Archduke's shattered face fit for an open casket wake. His mother the Empress Elizabeth refused to go: "I won't go see that thing! It's head is made of wax!"<br /> <br /> 1894-Charles King of Detroit patented the pneumatic jackhammer.<br /> <br /> 1917- During WWI, The German General Staff gambled that resuming unrestricted U-boat warfare would economically destroy England and win even if it angered the United States enough to declare war. Admiral Keppel told the Kaiser that even if the United States did enter the war, they could never get enough soldiers across the Atlantic to accomplish anything. “The threat from America is less than nothing. Nothing!” <br /> <br /> 1931- The Premiere of Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights at the Los Angeles Theater. Albert Einstein came as his guest. Later at a dance at the Biltmore Hotel, writer Herman Mankiewicz (Citizen Kane, Duck Soup) got into a drunken fistfight with producer David O. Selznick (Gone With the Wind, Rebecca). You’ll never eat turtle-soup in this town again!<br /> <br /> 1933- HI-YO SILVER!! The Lone Ranger debuted on radio. The Masked Man was invented by the WXYZ Detroit station owner George Trendle and writer Fran Striker with absolutely no experience of cowboys or Indians. They just wanted a hero like Zorro with a strict moral code. He was later voiced by actor William Conrad who did the Rocky &amp; Bullwinkle narration and the TV series Cannon.<br /> <br /> 1934- Artist Salvador Dali married Gala.<br /> <br /> 1933- ADOLF HITLER TAKES POWER. After a general election President Von Hindenberg was forced to appoint the Nazi Party leader Chancellor. Hindenberg had earlier growled” Chancellor? I’ll make him a postmaster so he could lick stamps with my face on it!” But he was forced to give in. Germans were fed up with skyrocketing inflation and political anarchy, so they voted for the little man with the Charlie Chaplin mustache. <br /> The Nazis didn’t win by a landslide vote, it was a 37-42% majority, with the rest divided among splinter parties. The German Army at first didn’t cooperate with the Nazis. Their real power came when Hitler made a bargain with the major German corporations like Krupp, Seimans, Bayer and Daimler to take the ‘socialist” out of National Socialists and arrest all communists, unions and other bad-for-business types. All this was applauded by big business in the US like JP Morgan, Chase and Hearst who floated loans to Germany. With their new corporate clout, the Nazis quickly called a new election to gain an overwhelming parliamentary majority in the Reichstag. <br /> After ancient President Hindenberg died in 1934 the Reichstag voted dictatorial powers to Hitler, making him Der Fuehrer.<br /> <br /> 1943- At Stalingrad, as the freezing remains of the German 6th Army were wiped out by superior Soviet forces, this day Berlin received the last radio message from Field Marshal Von Paulus’ headquarters in the basement of a bombed out department store:” Russians at the door. We are preparing to destroy the radios. We are preparing……”<br /> <br /> 1945- As the Red Army pushed the borders of the Third Reich back into Germany the German populations of isolated Baltic cities like Memel, Riga and Konigsberg tried to escape by sea. It was a Nazi Dunkirk, evacuations with ships full of people being bombed and strafed from the air. This day a large ship named the Wilhelm Gustoff was torpedoed by a Russian submarine. 1,500 people died on the Titanic, 7,700 people drowned in the frigid waters from the Wilhelm Gustoff- the most deaths ever in one sea disaster.<br /> <br /> 1946- The first US dimes with Franklin Roosevelt on the head were issued.<br /> <br /> 1948- At Birla House, 78 year old Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi was shot three times in the chest by Hindu extremist Nathuram Godse while walking to morning prayers.<br /> <br /> 1956- Elvis Presley recorded Blue Suede Shoes.<br /> <br /> 1958- Britain’s House of Lords admitted women for the first time.<br /> <br /> 1960- For years after the making of Fantasia, critics had pondered Igor Stravinsky's cryptic reaction to Disney's portrayal of his "Rite of Spring". Disney publicity said he was "speechless with admiration!" Today in a Saturday Review article, Stravinsky said Stokowski's editing of his music was 'execrable' and the visuals "an unresisting imbecility". His opinion still didn't stop him from selling the studio film the rights to several other of his pieces including "The Firebird' in 1942. Igor needed the cash.<br /> <br /> 1961-Hanna-Barbera’s The Yogi Bear Show premiered. The other sections were Snagglepuss and Yakky Doodle.<br /> <br /> 1963- MIT grad student Ivan Sutherland published his thesis Sketchpad, the first animation software. For the first time, a computer could draw lines instead of just numbers. When students at the University of Utah like Ed Catmull, Nolan Bushnell and Jim Blinn were learning about CGI. The first thing they were asked to read was Sutherland’s Sketchpad. Everything from Woody &amp; Buzz, Avatar, Groot and Mortal Combat results.<br /> <br /> 1969- The rock band the Beatles last public appearance as a group. They tried to do a free concert in the London streets but were banned by police for fear of congestion and noise complaints. So they withdrew to a rooftop above their recording studio at 3. Savile RD. and played anyway. John Lennon ended the concert by saying: ‘Thank you very much on behalf of the band and myself, and I hope we passed the audition.”<br /> <br /> 1972- BLOODY SUNDAY- British troops attempting to quell Irish sectarian riots in the poor neighborhoods of Londonderry fired into a crowd of unarmed civilians, killing 14 and wounding dozens more. British authorities attempted a spin by saying the troops were responding to perceived snipers, but no evidence of any snipers was ever proven. None of the soldiers were ever disciplined for their actions. The incident outraged world opinion and angered the Irish Republic. <br /> <br /> 1973- White House operatives G. Gordon Liddy and James McCord were convicted of burglary in the Watergate break in. President Nixon hoped sacrificing these two small fish would end the investigation. It didn’t. Liddy did some jail time, and today is a highly paid conservative radio talk show host.<br /> <br /> 1976- George H. W. Bush Sr. became head of the CIA. Poppy Bush revived the organization which had been wracked by scandal after the Frank Church Congressional Committee revealed details of the Allende coup in Chile, overseas assassination, illegal surveillance of Americans and schemes to put chemicals in Fidel Castro’s food to make his beard fall out.<br /> <br /> 2001- Shortly after becoming president, George W. Bush held the first meeting of his National Security Council. Secty of State Colin Powell and Treasury Secty Paul O’Neill were shocked when Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Condy Rice immediately start talking about how to invade Iraq and replace Saddam Hussein. Nine months before 9-11.<br /> <br /> 2002- President George W. Bush Jr. saluted his Vice President Dick Cheney on his birthday by saying “You are the best Vice President this country has ever had!” He may have forgotten that his own father was also once vice president. I’m sure his mom reminded him about that later.<br /> ==========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s question: What is the origin of the term “a podunk town”?<br /> <br /> Answer: In the 1920s, famed Broadway composer Irving Berlin (White Christmas) liked to visit friends in Kentucky and take in the Kentucky Derby. When there, he would sometimes stay near a small rural town called Podunk Junction. The locals used the name as a joke for a backward rube. Back in New York City, Irving Berlin’s use of the phrase spread through NY high society. It became popular slang in the 20’s to call someone or something backward and ignorant as “Podunk”.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 29 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6057 <p>Quiz: What is the origin of the term “a podunk town”?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: What is the difference between jam, jelly and preserves?<br /> ================================================<br /> History for 1/29/2023<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Didius Julianus, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Thomas Paine, William Claude Dunkenfeld known as W.C. Fields, Victor Mature, Paddy Chayefsky, Ed Burns, Bill Peet, Greg Louganis, John D Rockefeller Jr., Claudine Longet, John Calcott-Horsley (1817) the inventor of the Christmas Card-1842*, Oprah Winfrey is 69, Tom Selleck is 78, Heather Graham is 53.<br /> <br /> *Horsley was a Victorian artist at the Royal Academy in London who refused to draw nudes because it offended his morality. This earned him the nickname- Clothes Horsley.<br /> <br /> 282BC- Death of Pharoah Ptolomey II Philadelphus. Philadelphus meant Friend of the People. <br /> <br /> 1728- At this time all the rage in London was Italian Opera based on adaptations of Greek Mythology sung by castrated male sopranos. This day John Gay and Johann Pepusch’s THE BEGGARS OPERA was first produced in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The play was a sensation because it was an opera in English, using popular tunes of the time and told a story not of gods or noble heroes, but highwaymen, bawdy girls and innkeepers. Considered the first true musical.<br /> <br /> 1774-The COCKPIT, or BEN gets his ASS CHEWED- Benjamin Franklin was postmaster general of the American Colonies and had been feeling pretty good about his ability to represent American interests in London. He successfully argued the American's opposition to the Stamp Tax in the House of Commons. He offered to pay back exporters who lost money from the Boston Tea Party. He considered himself a good Englishman.<br /> On this day he was invited to the Kings Privy Council for what he thought was a private meeting. He was ushered into a room called The Cockpit, where he faced a delegation from The Kings Privy Council. The ministers spent the next 4 hours dressing him down. The Lord Chief Justice finished by shouting in 70 year old Ben’s face:" Spy, Traitor, Rebel, Thief! " He was sacked as postmaster and ordered home to America before they clapped him in prison. Ben Franklin entered the room a loyal subject, and left a committed revolutionary.<br /> <br /> 1813- Jane Austin’s novel Pride and Prejudice first published.<br /> <br /> 1820- After spending the last ten years of his long reign as a blind insane shut-in, King George III died at age 82. His son the Prince Regent finally became King George IV. Americans remember George III as the tyrant of the Revolution, but Britons truly loved their old monarch and his simple family-man tastes. While his German grandfather George II was barely mourned at all, all the Empire lamented the passing of Old Shopkeeper George.<br /> <br /> 1834- President Andrew Jackson sent U.S. troops to shoot at striking workers at the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal project. It was the first but sadly not the last time Federal troops were used to "settle" a labor strike.<br /> <br /> 1842- The Republic of Texas authorized the raising of a company of rangers to keep the peace- the Texas Rangers. Stephen Austin had commissioned rangers as early as 1833, but from this date on their regular service began.<br /> <br /> 1845- Edgar Allen Poe's poem The Raven first published. Quote the Raven, Nevermore.<br /> <br /> 1861- Since Kansas Territory was going to be organized as a state slaveholders and union men fought over whether she would be a free or slave state. Ten years later as the Civil War was breaking out Kansas announced statehood- as a free state.<br /> <br /> 1863- THE BEAR RIVER MASSACRE- The Shoshone Indians along with the Bannocks and Utes had been raiding wagon trains through Utah and Nevada. Col Patrick Connor led 300 US cavalry in subzero cold to attack Chief Bear Hunter’s winter camp in a hot-springs ravine near present day Preston, Idaho. After a daylong battle, 224 warriors were killed. The soldiers went berserk destroying tepees and raping the Indian women. Chief Bear Hunter was shot, beaten, whipped, and when he still would not die, a red-hot bayonet was rammed through his skull via his ear. One soldier called it “A frolic”. The Shoshone, Utes and Bannocks, who a generation earlier had helped Lewis &amp; Clark, now asked for peace. <br /> <br /> 1886-In Karlsruhe Germany, Dr. Karl Benz patented the internal combustion engine. To prevent gasoline explosions it utilized a fuel distribution system based on a ladies perfume atomizer spray (the carburetor). He called his horseless carriage at first a Motorvagen, but later names it after his partner Godfried Daimler’s daughter, Mercedes.<br /> <br /> 1891 After the death of King David IV Kalakoua, Liliuokalani was proclaimed Queen of Hawaii. Besides being the last monarch of Hawaii, Liliuokalani composed the song "Aloha-Oi, Aloha-Oi, Until We Meet Again."<br /> <br /> 1918- The new Bolshevik revolutionary government ordered the immediate demobilization of the Russian Army, preparatory for pulling out of World War I. After Civil War broke out Leon Trotsky began to form a new army of Communist volunteers, the Red Army.<br /> <br /> 1920- Walt gets a job. Nineteen year old WWI veteran Walt Disney and his buddy Ub Iwerks were hired by a local Kansas City Slide Company to draw ads for newspapers and slides for theaters.<br /> <br /> 1935- The first inductees to the new Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown announced- Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Christy Matthewson and Walter Johnson. Hall of Fame dedication ceremony was on June 12th 1939.<br /> <br /> 1936- Benito Mussolini dedicated the first stone of Cinecitta’ Movie Studios.<br /> <br /> 1943- Fredrich Von Paulus was the commander of the German Sixth Army, now totally surrounded at Stalingrad. The few survivors were huddled in basements in the destroyed city, freezing, starving and being wiped out by superior Russian forces. Von Paulus and his men prayed for a miracle to save them. This day he heard via radio that Adolf Hitler had promoted him to Field Marshal, with a suggestion that no German Field Marshal should ever be taken alive…..<br /> <br /> 1944- DARBY’S RANGERS were an elite American commando unit trained for the toughest assignments, the forerunners of the Green Berets and Delta Forces. On this day the bungling generals of the Anzio beachhead sent them into a suicidal battle at the Italian town of Cisterna. Germans were had anticipated the attack and set a trap. 761 rangers went in, 6 came out. Colonel Darby himself survived the battle, but was killed two days before the World War II ended.<br /> <br /> 1957- Patsy Cline recorded "Walkin' After Midnight."<br /> <br /> 1959- Disney's " SLEEPING BEAUTY "opened. Despite earning the fifth highest box office for that year, it made 1 million less what it cost. The animation staff had swollen to it's largest to finish the production. Meanwhile Disney’s cheap live action films like The Shaggy Dog were raking in profits. The studio’s animation dept had a big layoff, dropping from 551 to just 75. Staff level will not return to these same levels until 1990. Sleeping Beauty was never re-released in Walt’s lifetime, but since then has earned almost $681 Million and is considered one of Walt Disney’s most classic animated movies. <br /> <br /> 1964- Stanley Kubrick's nuclear comedy "DR STRANGLOVE –OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB." premiered. It's use of handheld camera for action sequences and cutting, inspired by WWII newsreels and the European New Wave, ushered in a new style in Hollywood cinema. So, who was Tracey Reed? She played Miss Scott, George C. Scott’s bikini clad secretary, and the only woman in the entire movie.<br /> <br /> 1964- Actor Alan Ladd (Shane), accidentally overdosed on tranquilizers and scotch. He was 50. <br /> <br /> 1975- The Weather Underground set off a bomb in the US State Department. They were a violent offshoot of the Student Anti-Vietnam War protest movement, <br /> <br /> 1977- Comic TV star of "Chico and the Man " Freddy Prinze (23) shot himself. Some said he suffered from a survivor's depression about why he had succeeded in life while all his friends from the Barrio were dead from gang killings or drugs. Family members said that he was just stoned on Quaaludes and was clowning around with a gun. <br /> <br /> 1979- President Jimmy Carter commuted the jail sentence of Patty Hearst.<br /> <br /> 1986- The National Geographic Society announced the discovery of the largest fossil find in North America. Estimated 10,000 fossilized remains in Nova Scotia They include penny sized dinosaur footprints, the smallest ever found. Best guess are they are from the Triassic-Jurassic boundary – a time of mass extinction.<br /> <br /> 2002- THE AXIS OF EVIL- In his State of the Union speech President George W. Bush coined the term " The Axis of Evil". He labeled as members Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Iran is a Shiite religious theocracy, Iraq a Sunnite secular fascist dictatorship and North Korea an atheistic Communist state- all with nothing in common and little mutual contact. The speechwriter originally wrote "Axis of Hate" but the Bush people like the Good vs. Evil thing. They also substituted North Korea for Libya because they wanted a non-Muslim power included they wouldn’t seem prejudiced.<br /> We learned from a retired CIA operative that up till now Iran had actually been cooperating with the USA in rounding up Al Qaeda agents. After 9-11 Iran arrested 16 Al Qaeda operatives. At the request of the US, they handed them over to Saudi Arabia, who promptly let them all go. But after the speech, the Iranians broke off all contact. <br /> ====================================================<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What is the difference between jam, jelly and preserves?<br /> <br /> Answer: Jelly is made with fruit juice and has no fruit pieces at all. It is the thinnest of the three fruit spreads. Jam has fruit pieces in the mix; its texture is between jelly and preserves. Preserves contain chunks of fruit and is the thickest spread. (Thanks FG)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 28 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6056 <p>Quiz: What is the difference between jam, jelly and preserves?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s quiz answered below: What is an autogyro?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/28/2023<br /> Birthdays: King Henry VII Tudor, Jose Marti, Colette, Jackson Pollack, Claus Oldenburg, Arthur Rubenstein, Ernst Lubitsch, Connie Rasinski, Susan Sontag, Barbie Benton, General George Pickett, William Burroughs (1855) the inventor of the calculator, Mo Rocca, Frank Darabont, Alan Alda is 87, Elijah Wood is 43<br /> <br /> 1393- DANSE MACABRE- (Bal des Ardents) At a masquerade ball given at the French court King Charles VI and several of his friends dressed up as 'wild men' to amuse the court. They had fur and animal hair attached to their bodies with tar. <br /> While everyone was enjoying the capering of these strange anonymous creatures, a torch touched their tar covered bodies and the group exploded into flame. While the court watched these creatures writhe in agony, The Duchess de Berry screamed" Oh My God! That's the King!" King Charles was saved when that same duchess smothered his flames in her skirts. Another duke saved himself by diving headlong into a vat of Beaujolais, but the others roasted to death.<br /> The common people weren't sympathetic. As you kneeled, one duke liked to step on your neck, sneering 'Down Peasant!". As his barbecued remains were carried through Paris, people laughed, danced, and cried 'Down M’lord!" Edgar Allen Poe wrote a story called “Hop Frog” about the incident. Roger Corman put it into his 1964 film- Masque of the Red Death.<br /> <br /> 1547- English Henry VIII died, leaving his ten year-old sickly-son Edward VI "Gods Imp" king. He was 55 years old but his hard living had aged him early. Increasingly suspicious of all around him as he aged, one of his last acts was to have the Earl of Surrey beheaded for changing the coat of arms of his father the Duke of York into something more like a Royal Heir-Apparent. The Duke was also scheduled to be executed but was saved when the old king died first.<br /> <br /> 1596- Sir Francis Drake died at sea off the coast of Nicaragua while trying to mount one more big raid on the Spanish Main. The Devonshire preacher's son had raided there as a young man. But by now, the Spaniards had learned his tricks so they were prepared. The trip was a failure and he died on deck of yellow fever in late middle age.<br /> <br /> 1782- The Congress called for the use of the Great Seal of the United States, even though no one had designed one yet. But the British had one and so..uh, we had to have one too !<br /> <br /> 1829- BURKE &amp; HARE- In the early nineteenth century scientific experiments on cadavers were still outlawed as desecration of the dead so doctors secretly hired grave robbers to get them specimens to experiment on. Burke &amp; Hare were the most infamous of Edinburgh's "resurrectionists" because they didn't always wait for the subject to die, but murdered them in their boardinghouse. To Burke someone became slang for suffocating them. Doctors and later police became suspicious of the freshness of their specimens and Hare finked on Burke to save himself.<br /> On this day Burke was hanged before a crowd of thousands and his body later medically dissected. The notoriety of this case helped pass laws allowing doctors more legal use of mortal remains. Their story was the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's story "The Body Snatcher."<br /> <br /> 1863- Ulysses Grant arrived at Vicksburg to begin the epic campaign that would end on July 4th with the capture of the 'Gibraltar of the Confederacy'.<br /> <br /> 1878- First commercial telephone switchboard.<br /> <br /> 1884- A British relief force reached the city of Khartoum just two days too late. After a one year siege, the Sudanese Dervishes had sacked the city and massacred all the inhabitants including General Gordon, dancing with their heads on spears. The desert relief force was held up until all their supplies were complete, including 20,000 black umbrellas, apricot jam, and cricket bats. Mad Dogs and Englishmen….<br /> <br /> 1902- Andrew Carnegie was a rough crude tycoon with a ruthless streak that saw him ruin his competitors and pay vigilantes to murder his striking employees. But after all the rough and tumble of the Gilded Age business world, he showed a new side of his character in retirement. He set up the Carnegie Institute in Washington and resolved to give away the bulk of his $350 million dollar fortune in philanthropic causes. The reason why so many colleges, hospitals and concert halls in America today are named Carnegie. Carnegie declared “A man who dies rich, dies disgraced!” <br /> <br /> 1915- The U.S. Coast Guard born, combining the Lifesaving Service and the Revenue Cutter patrol. In 2002 the Coast Guard was folded into the Cabinet office Department of Homeland Security.<br /> <br /> 1916- President Woodrow Wilson nominated Judge Lewis Brandeis to the Supreme Court. Brandeis was the first Jewish American to be so honored. <br /> <br /> 1917- After 11 months fruitlessly chasing Pancho Villa through Mexico and skirmishing with the Mexican army, Pres. Wilson ordered General John Pershing’s army home.<br /> <br /> 1918- In Germany, one million industrial workers, fed up with the endless carnage of World War I, went on strike, paralyzing factories nationwide.<br /> <br /> 1926- Composer Kurt Weill married his Pirate Jenny- Lotte Lenya.<br /> <br /> 1930- Warner Bros Cartoons Born. Leon Schlesinger, the head of Pacific Art and Title, signed a deal with several unemployed Disney animators who had left Walt to form their own studio to draw Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, but had been stiffed by their contacts. Schlesinger had connections with Warner Bros. since he helped them get funding for the 'Jazz Singer'. They created Leon Schlesinger's Studio Looney Tunes, in imitation of Disney's Silly Symphonies. Their first character was Bosko, but eventually they would create Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd and more. Schlesinger sold his company to WB outright in 1944 when he retired. <br /> <br /> 1949- The Admiral Broadway Review premiered on television. The one and a half hour comedy review starred Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. The show was so popular Admiral was swamped for orders for new televisions and ironically was forced to cancel the show to focus on their production needs. The show was revived as Your Show of Shows, one of the great shows of early television.<br /> <br /> 1956- Young singer Elvis Presley first appeared to television audiences on the Dorsey Brothers Stage Show. <br /> <br /> 1958- Brooklyn Dodger catcher Roy Campanella paralyzed in an auto wreck. He spent the rest of his life as a spokesman for the rights of the handicapped.<br /> <br /> 1978- Hanna-Barbera's the Three Robonic Stooges.<br /> <br /> 1982- Danny DeVito married Rhea Perlman.<br /> <br /> 1986- THE CHALLENGER DISASTER- As the world watched, the Space shuttle Challenger exploded 74 seconds after takeoff killing all twelve crew members. They included New Hampshire schoolteacher Christie McAuliffe who had won the space ride in a contest. It was blamed on defective O-rings in the rocket booster. <br /> <br /> 2003- President George W. Bush in his State of the Union address said that he had proof that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had sent agents to the African nation of Niger to buy uranium yellowcake, a component to make atomic bombs. It is one of the major excuses for the war with Iraq. This was later proved to be a complete lie. Bush blamed the intelligence service, after giving the head of the CIA George Tenent the Medal of Freedom. When special CIA envoy Joseph Wilson, who knew Niger, tried to point out the falsehood, the Bush White House destroyed his career and outed the cover of his CIA wife, Valerie Plame. She had been working on exposing the Iranian nuclear program.<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is an autogyro?<br /> <br /> Answer: An autogyro was a weird 1930s hybrid flying vehicle, with an airplane propellor in front and a helicopter prop above. It was thought to be the future of civilian aviation. But it could never manage to carry more than one or two people and little else.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 26 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6055 <p>Quiz: What is a dreadnought?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What was Julius Caesar’s first name?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/26/2023<br /> Birthdays: First Lady Julia Dent Grant, General Douglas MacArthur, Stephan Grappelli, Angela Davis, Maria Von Trapp, Wayne Gretsky, Eartha Kitt, Paul Newman, Charles Lane, Roger Vadim, Jules Feiffer is 94, Henry Jaglom, Anita Baker, Edward Abbey, Scott Glenn, David Straitharn, Ellen DeGeneres is 65<br /> <br /> 404 A.D. Today is the Feast of Saint Paula, who built the first abbey and monastery where all the monks and nuns wore identical uniform sackcloth, demonstrating that we are all equal in the eyes of God.<br /> <br /> 1500- Captain Vincente Pinzon, who had once commanded the Nina for Columbus, discovered the coast of Brazil while serving the Portuguese navy. <br /> <br /> 1536- English King Henry VIII was a very active and virile 44 years old. This day he was participating in a joust, when his opponent knocked him off his horse. Not only did he hit the ground in full armor, but his horse rolled on top of him. He sustained a deep gash in his leg that never fully healed. It marked the end of his active life. He grew sedentary and very fat. His leg gave him pain for the remaining 11 years of his life. Many noted the king became more moody and irascible after the accident. Which meant, off with his head!<br /> <br /> 1758 - French troops burned at the stake the Haitian rebel leader Mackandal. A practitioner of Voodoo, his followers believed that at the moment of death he transformed into a mosquito and brought the Yellow Fever sickness to kill all the Europeans. Haitian Independence was achieved a generation later under Toussaint l'Overture and Dessalines. Mackandal's dance, done at all his rallies and voodoo religious ceremonies was the 'marenga".<br /> <br /> 1787- SHAY’S REBELLION- Just four years after the Revolutionary War ended, New England farmers rebelled again, against unfairly heavy taxes and a confused local government. Daniel Shays led 1,200 Massachusetts farmers in an attack on an armory that quickly fell apart, but the shock of the incident scared the Founding Fathers to convene a special Constitutional Convention to create a stronger central government.<br /> <br /> 1788- AUSTRALIA DAY, The First Fleet, a small group of British ships carrying 700 convicts, 200 soldiers and their families, landed at Port Jackson, New South Wales. Governor Arthur Phillip raised the Union Jack over Sydney Cove. The aboriginal people met them on the beach with cries of "Warra-warra!" which meant "Go Away!" Eventually 50,000 convicts were sent there. After a century Australians began to form their special character. The Aussie nickname name for British people is Poms or Pommies. This was for the initials printed on British prison shirts POM- or Prisoner Of his Majesty. Another version has it that British sailors regularly picked the pomegranate trees clean of fruit to ward off scurvy. The quest for citrus is also the root of Americans calling British people “Limeys”<br /> <br /> 1799- Thomas Jefferson wrote to Elbridge Gerry “I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another.” Another time he said,” It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg.”<br /> <br /> 1815- Congress votes to purchase Thomas Jefferson's book collection to replace the fledgling Library of Congress that was burnt by the British in the War of 1812.<br /> <br /> 1824- Artist Theodore Gericault was famous for his paintings of horses. This day he died, from a fall off a horse. <br /> 1837- Michigan became a state.<br /> <br /> 1865- Despite his Civil War victories, General William T Sherman had been criticized for having a biased attitude towards black slaves. This day he answered his critics by issuing his General Order # 15, stating that every freed African-American had the right to "40 acres and a mule". Many former slaves took this to mean they would take ownership of the lands they tended, parceled from the great plantations where they lived. Alas, corruption and racism of local white authorities during Reconstruction ensured this became an empty promise.<br /> <br /> 1875- Late at night, Pinkerton detectives on the trail of Jesse James threw a bomb into the window of the James family home. The explosion killed Jesses’ younger mentally handicapped stepbrother, who had nothing to do with the outlaws, and blew his mother’s the right arm off. The James Gang were nowhere near the farm that night.<br /> <br /> 1884- The Sundanese capitol Khartoum fell to the forces of messianic leader the Mahdi. The Liberal Government of William Gladstone had sent the famous Victorian general Charles 'Chinese' Gordon to oversee the British evacuation of the Sudan. Gordon was a courageous eccentric who instead of evacuating the Sudan barricaded himself into Khartoum and resolved to fight it out to the end. "We are all pianos" he once said:" And events play upon us". <br /> <br /> 1911- Richard Strauss’ Opera, Der Rosenkavalier Premiere at The Koniglisch Operahaus in Dresden. Kaiser Wilhelm was offended by the Hugo Hoffmanstahl story about aristocrats sleeping around with their servants. He called it "A dirty little play".<br /> <br /> 1924- The Russian city of Saint Petersburg was also called Petrograd. This day the Bolshevik Government changed its name in honor of Lenin to Leningrad. In 1991 they changed the name back to Saint Petersburg. <br /> <br /> 1934- Hollywood producer Sam Goldwyn secured the rights to L. Frank Baum’s book the Wonderful Wizard of Oz to develop into a movie. Walt Disney and Hal Roach were trying to get it also.<br /> <br /> 1939- Generalissimo Franco’s Fascist troops captured Barcelona, winning the Spanish Civil War.<br /> <br /> 1939- the first day of shooting on the film Gone With the Wind.<br /> <br /> 1950- In India today is Constitution Day, when the Indian Constitution went into effect.<br /> <br /> 1962- Mob boss Charles Lucky Luciano dropped dead of a heart attack at Naples airport as he was about to shake hands with an author who had arrived from the U.S. to write his biography. Lucky Luciano was the criminal genius that converted gangsters from waterfront street gangs to national syndicates with ties to legitimate business and government. He also imported the Sicilian system of La Mafia- family clan allegiance and code of honor, to supplant the earlier Irish-Jewish gangsters. Lucky was deported to Italy in the 1950’s and retired when his appeals to return were all denied.<br /> <br /> 1967- THE BIG SNOW- The people of Chicago pride themselves on their ability to handle the toughest winters. But this day was one of the worst- 23 inches of snow in 27 hours, driven by 50 mile an hour cyclonic winds brought the city to a total standstill.<br /> <br /> 1972- Walt Disney’s The Mouse Factory premiered on TV. Ward Kimball created the show of old Mickey cartoons introduced by comedians like Phyllis Diller, and Jonathan Winters in a Laugh-In style pace to attempt to modernize the characters for a new audience.<br /> <br /> 1979- Former Vice President of the United States, Nelson Rockefeller, was found dead in his office" en flagrante delicto" with Meghan Marshak, his young director of the Rockefeller Foundation. His second wife Happy Rockefeller had also been one of his office staff once. The method of the 70-year-old billionaire’s death was an open secret in New York City. The legend was fueled by the fact that Ms. Marshak's first call was not to 911 or the cops, but to her friend, local TV newswoman, Ponchitta Pierce. Pierce made the call to summon help nearly an hour after Rocky was cold. <br /> I had a friend at art school at the time who was a receptionist for a Park Ave. doctor who was Rocky's physician. She said the paramedics found him and the edge of the bed with his pants down but his tie still in place. His will left $50,000 and a Manhattan townhouse to Ms. Marshak.<br /> <br /> 1979- The Dukes of Hazard TV show premiered. Catharine Bach’s cutoff jeans became thereafter known for her character- Daisy Dukes.<br /> <br /> 1983- The software LOTUS 1-2-3 premiered that helped make IBM’s PC into the most popular business computers in the US.<br /> <br /> 1988- Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musical The Phantom of the Opera premiered.<br /> <br /> 1996- First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton testified to a grand jury, the first "first lady" to do so. The only earlier incident that comes to mind was in 1862 when a senate committee convened to investigate whether Mary Todd Lincoln was a Confederate spy.<br /> Mrs. Clinton was Secretary of State in the Obama administration, and so was the frequent target of vengeful Republican investigations. They once made her testify for 11 hours straight and tried to forbid her going to the bathroom. She met it all without a protest. Before the last Republican House adjourned at New Years 2018, their last order of business was to bring in former FBI director James Comey and question him about….what else? Hillary Clinton. <br /> <br /> 1998- The Japanese town of Ito was attacked by a horde of berserk monkeys, injuring 26.<br /> <br /> 2003- After the Super Bowl, ABC premiered a new late night talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live.<br /> <br /> 2020- Basketball star Kobe Bryant and 8 others including his daughter were killed in a helicopter crash in heavy fog in Calabasas, California. He was 41. <br /> =======================================================<br /> Yesterday’s question: What was Julius Caesar’s first name?<br /> <br /> Answer: His first name was Gaius. Julii was the family clan name.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 24 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6054 <p>Question: What was the Gang of Four?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Where and when are we talking about when we say the Belle Epoque?<br /> ---------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/24/2023<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Hadrian AD117, Frederick the Great, Farinelli the Castrato-1707, Pierre De Beaumarchais, Swedish King Gustavus III, Edith Wharton, Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan the Barbarian, German Field Marshal Model, Sharon Tate, Ernest Borgnine, Mary Lou Rhetton, John Belushi, Disney director Wilfred Jackson, Spiderman cartoonist Johnny Romita, Warren Zevon, Yakov Smirnoff, Daniel Auteuil is 72, Orel Roberts, Natassia Kinski is 64<br /> <br /> 41AD- CALIGULA ASSASSINATED- The psychotic Roman Emperor left a gladiator bout to have lunch when in an isolated hallway of the amphitheater his own bodyguards turned on him. His chief assailant was the captain of the watch Chaerea. After two sword thrusts, the bleeding emperor shouted: " I still live! Strike again!" Which they did until he was finally dead. They threw Caligulas’ corpse in a hole in the Lamian gardens. It was said his ghost continued to scare people there for years afterwards. <br /> Realizing that without an Emperor an Emperor's Guard isn't much use, the guards looked about for a member of the Imperial family that hadn’t already been butchered. They dragged Caligula's simple old uncle Claudius out from under a table and made him Caesar. He immediately gave them a heavy bribe.<br /> <br /> 1075- In a direct challenge to Papal authority German Emperor Henry IV held an ecclesiastical council at Worms where he declared Pope Gregory VII to be a “licentious false monk” and ordered him deposed. The Pope responded by excommunicating Henry. What happened? See tomorrow.<br /> <br /> 1848- James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill, California. This event will spark the first big gold rush the following year, the '49 ers. Swiss immigrant John Sutter had bought the land from the last Russian settlers and set up his town while still under Mexican rule. Marshall operated his sawmill. Ironically the gold rush ruined them both. Thousands of prospectors ignored his jurisdiction claims, trampled his crops and slaughtered his cows for food. Within a year or two They went broke and spent the rest of their lives trying to get the US Government to reimburse them. John Sutter was also annoyed that the new settlement of Sacramento was not named Sutterville. <br /> <br /> 1863- Arizona Territory was formed out of New Mexico. The Southern Confederacy at one time tried to make it one of their states. Around this same time Lincoln also pushed statehood for Nevada, and West Virginia. He was hoping to stack Congress for his Constitutional amendments outlawing slavery, and granting full citizenship and voting rights to African-Americans. <br /> <br /> 1865- The Pioneer Oil Company set up to prospect for petroleum in the L.A. area. <br /> <br /> 1874- Modest Mussorgsky’s opera Boris Gudunov premiered in Saint Petersburg.<br /> <br /> 1875- Camille Saint-Saens orchestral work Danse Macabre premiered in Paris.<br /> <br /> 1900- Battle of Spion Kop. (Boer Woer) The British Army rush an enemy position on top of a small hill, take it, and after the cheering noticed they are alone on the bald hill completely surrounded by the enemy. OOPS! It was said that the British commander was a much better watercolorist than a military strategist. One of the stretcher-bearers bravely running up and down the hill saving wounded men was an Indian law student –Mohandas K. Gandhi.<br /> <br /> 1901- Activist Emily Hobhouse toured one of Lord Kitchener’s “concentration camps” that the British were using to corral the Boer guerrillas in South Africa. This one was near Bloemfontein. Her reporting of the poor sanitation conditions and hardships of the Boer civilians there caused a scandal back home. Four out of five South Africans that died in the Boer War were civilians. <br /> <br /> 1916- The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the federal Income Tax.<br /> <br /> 1927- The Pleasure Garden premiered, the first film directed by Alfred Hitchcock.<br /> <br /> 1936- The first motion picture of a solar eclipse taken from a dirigible, The Los Angeles.<br /> <br /> 1942- Producer David O. Selznick signed young star Jennifer Jones. He became infatuated with her and left his wife Irene, the daughter of Louis B. Mayer, to marry Jones.<br /> <br /> 1961- Warner Bros. cartoon voice actor Mel Blanc had a terrible auto crash. He lingered in a coma for several weeks. The way the doctor brought him around was to say: “Hey Bugs Bunny! How are we today?” Blanc replied in character:” Ehhh…fine, doc!” Mel recovered and lived another thirty years.<br /> <br /> 1965- Winston Churchill died at 90. His last words were "Oh, I'm so bored of it all..." At 75 Churchill said :"I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the ordeal of meeting me is another matter." His granddaughter revealed he told her he intended to go on the same day his father died in 1895. And he did. David Lloyd George once quipped of how Churchill would behave in Heaven: "Winston would go up to his Creator and say he would very much like to meet His Son, about whom he has heard a great deal."<br /> <br /> 1972- Japanese soldier Soichi Yokoi was found in the jungles of Guam unaware that World War II had ended 27 years earlier. He had stolen a radio and listened to the news. But he thought the stories of American forces in Korea and Vietnam were just propaganda. He was returned to Japan a healthy, if somewhat confused hero. <br /> He died peacefully in 1997. <br /> <br /> 1983- Hulk Hogan pinned the Iron Sheik to win his first World Wrestling Federation title.<br /> <br /> 1986 –The Voyager 2 space probe flew by Uranus. So far the only space probe to ever visit that planet. It discovered its unusual rotation and that it had rings like Saturn, but they are thin and dark grey, due to the weak light of the sun.<br /> <br /> 1989- Serial killer Ted Bundy was executed by electric chair. <br /> <br /> 2000- The entire computer system of the super-secret National Security Agency crashed and was down for several days. No explanation given.<br /> <br /> 2006- The Walt Disney Company directly acquired CG animation studio Pixar. Apple and Pixar head Steve Jobs got a seat on Disney Board, Ed Catmull was named head of the studio, and director John Lasseter became its creative head.<br /> <br /> 2020- China became the first country to lock down their country to combat the spreading pandemic of Covid 19. <br /> ============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Where and when are we talking about when we say the Belle Epoque?<br /> <br /> Answer: In Europe, particularly France from the end of the Franco-Prussian War to the beginning of World War I, 1871-1914. It was considered a period of peace, prosperity, optimism and high culture. Strauss waltzes, Impressionists, Freud, Lautrec and the Folies Bergere. Great advances in technology, invention of motion pictures, telephones, plastics.<br /> They called it The Beautiful Era. La Belle Epoque.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 22 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6053 <p>Quiz: Where precisely is Washington Irving country?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What does it mean to be in your birthday suit?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/22/2023<br /> St. Vincents Day- "If Vincents Day be Rainy Weather, shall rain then 30 days together.”<br /> <br /> Birthdays: Sir Francis Bacon, D.W. Griffith, Lord Byron, August Strindberg, Andre Marie Ampere (electric Amps), 1960’s UN Secretary General U-Thant, Ann Southern, Sam Cooke, Bill Bixby, John Hurt, George McManus, Joseph Waumbaugh, J.J. Johnson, Seymour Cassell, Jim Jarmusch is 69, Linda Blair is 64, Piper Laurie is 90, Diane Lane is 57<br /> <br /> 1503- Pope Alexander VI Borgia has his enemy Cardinal Orsini poisoned while imprisoned in the Vatican. <br /> <br /> 1506- THE SWISS GUARDS. Many European monarchs hired foreign mercenaries to be their personal bodyguards. They were often more trustworthy than their own subjects. The most famous were the Swiss. While the Swiss home cantons stayed at peace, her hardy mountaineers hired out as mercenary troops all over Europe. The Swiss had a reputation as incorruptible and tough fighters. This day the warrior Pope Julius II hired a troop of Swiss and had Michelangelo design their uniforms. The Swiss Guards still guard the Vatican today, and are still recruited from the non-commissioned officers of the Swiss Army.<br /> <br /> 1522- Andreas Carstadt, an early follower of Martin Luther, set a new precedent by being a priest who openly got married. He was forty, she was fifteen.<br /> <br /> 1552- Because Henry VIII’s child was only ten at the time of the old king’s death Edward Seymour the Duke of Somerset ruled England as regent-administrator. But Somerset’s rule was troubled with corruption and religious friction between Catholics and Protestants. His own brother Thomas Seymour the Lord High Admiral was executed for trying to become king. Somerset soon fell and was replaced by the Duke of Northumberland. He charged Somerset with treason based on evidence given by Sir Thomas Palmer. Today Somerset’s head was cut off. Later Northumberland and Palmer lost their heads too. They confessed on the scaffold that they had fabricated the charges against Somerset.<br /> <br /> 1555- THE FIRES OF SMITHFIELD. When Mary the Catholic daughter of Henry VIII became queen she at first tried to be lenient towards her Protestant subjects. But continuous plots by Protestant nobility, and her own desire to restore England to the old faith hardened her heart. This day she began the mass trials and executions of those accused of Protestant heresy. Six clergymen including the Bishop of Gloucester were sentenced and burned at the stake. Hundreds more would follow. Even Spanish King Philip II urged Mary to calm down. Mary had an observation tower built nearby so she could watch and enjoy the screams while she ate lunch.<br /> Mary’s executioners added a new twist to the old system of burning at the stake. Before lighting the bonfire, if they liked you, a bag of gunpowder was stuffed between your legs, so you went out quick with a bang. Bloody Mary and her cruelty in the name of Roman Catholicism all but convinced the English people to stay Anglican.<br /> <br /> 1787- 17 year old French cadet named Napoleon Bonaparte, on furlough in Paris, wrote in his diary that after exhausting negotiations with a streetwalker he "…sampled the joys of Woman for the first time.." Today he’d do an Instagram post.<br /> <br /> 1840- The first English colonists reach New Zealand.<br /> <br /> 1863- THE MUD MARCH- Union General Ambrose Burnside (who created the fashion for "side-burns") tried to avenge his humiliating defeat at Fredericksburg by a winter march up the Rappahannock River to maneuver around Robert E. Lee. In so doing he discovered why all pre-industrial age armies took the winter off. Burnsides army was pelted by blinding sleet storms and bogged down in oceans of gooey mud. When Burnside finally called it quits he had as many casualties from sickness as if had he fought a battle. A bitter army joke based on a children’s prayer went:<br /> "Now I lay me down to Sleep, In mud that’s eighteen fathoms Deep." <br /> "If you can’t see me when we Awake, please dig me up with an oyster Rake."<br /> <br /> 1879- Battle of ISHANDLWANA- The worst defeat ever inflicted by native peoples on a modern western army. The British thought they were brushing out of the way just another spear throwing tribe when they attacked the Zulu Empire. They were unconcerned that the Zulu marched in regiments -impis, had generals -indunas, and practiced strategy and tactics. A Zulu impi was trained to run in tight formation for 20 miles barefoot then fight a battle. Lord Chelmsford had invaded Zululand searching for the Zulu army when he was tricked by a simple diversion into dividing his forces. The Zulu then flanked Chelmsford’s force in a maneuver Napoleon would have admired, fell on his camp and wiped out two regiments of the 24th Welsh Fusiliers. It was a massacre similar to Custer at the Little Big Horn. <br /> Lord Chelmsford and his staff were eating lunch several miles away when an aide noticed in his telescope flashing and running around the base camp. Lord Chelmsford dismissed it as nothing but sent a courier to investigate. The courier at first saw men in red coats and white pith helmets walking amongst the tents. As he got closer he noticed that they all had black faces. <br /> <br /> 1901- Queen Victoria died after a reign of 64 years, the longest for a British monarch until Elizabeth II. When she assumed the throne at age 19 in 1837 there were still many alive who remembered the Battle of Waterloo and white periwigs. She died in a world of electric lights, telephones, autos and motion pictures. She was buried with some tokens of her husband Prince Albert. Correspondence of Victoria’s daughter recently revealed that by Queen Victoria’s instruction she also be buried with tokens of her equerry Mr. John Brown, including his pocket watch. <br /> <br /> 1912- The first bridgeway connecting Key West and the Florida Keys opened.<br /> <br /> 1912- U.S. Marines occupied the Chinese city of Tientsin to "protect American commercial interests".<br /> <br /> 1918- A Manitoba judge tries to outlaw movie comedies, because they tend to make the public "too frivolous".<br /> <br /> 1923- The day after Ub Iwerks quit Walt Disney, music director Carl Stalling quit as well. When work at Iwerks new studio didn’t pan out, he ended up at Warner Bros. scoring the Looney Tunes. <br /> <br /> 1930- Work began on the foundation of the Empire State Building in New York.<br /> <br /> 1938- On a bare stage, Thorton Wilder’s play Our Town premiered.<br /> <br /> 1939- At Columbia University for the first time scientists split a uranium atom.<br /> <br /> 1944- Argentine Colonel Juan Peron first met radio actress Eva Duarte or Evita.<br /> <br /> 1944- ANZIO- The Allied armies advancing up the Italian boot had been fought to a standstill by fierce German resistance around Monte Cassino north of Naples -the Gustav Line. So the decision was made to amphibiously land a large invasion force in the rear of the German army with the intention of taking Rome. They completely surprised the enemy and their scouts reported the road into Rome was wide open. But the American commander General Lucas hesitated. <br /> In the meantime the Germans recovered and rushed up elite SS divisions that turned the battle into a bloody stalemate. Churchill said: "I thought we were hurling a wildcat onto the shore, but all we got was a beached whale!" Instead of two days, the allies didn’t take Rome until June 4th, five months later.<br /> <br /> 1947- Hollywood first commercial television station KTLA went on the air for regular broadcasting. At the time in all of Los Angeles there were only 350 TV sets.<br /> <br /> 1949- Mao Zedong and the Communist People’s Liberation Army captured Peking (Beijing).<br /> <br /> 1949- Tex Avery’s cartoon "Bad Luck Blackie".<br /> <br /> 1950- Preston Tucker tried to compete with the big auto giants like Ford and Chrysler with his revolutionary designed Tucker Automobile. But the giants bogged him down in court with charges of fraud. This day he was acquitted of all charges, but the legal expenses ruined him. Only 40 Tuckers were ever made. Francis Ford Coppola made a movie about his life.<br /> <br /> 1951- During winter baseball tryouts, a promising young left-handed pitcher from Cuba was scouted by the New York Yankees. But after losing a game for the Washington Senators and getting dropped from their roster, he gave up on sports to pursue a career in politics- Fidel Castro.<br /> <br /> 1954- The Los Angeles Fire Department is ordered by federal courts to integrate.<br /> <br /> 1968-T.V. comedy review show Rowan &amp; Martin’s Laugh In premiered. It launched the careers of Lilly Tomlin, Goldie Hawn and Eileen Brennan. You bet your sweet Bippy!<br /> <br /> 1972- In an interview with Melody Maker magazine, rocker David Bowie outed himself and said he was gay. Technically he would be bi-sexual since his wife Angela did catch him in bed with Bianca Jagger. Others called him a closet-heterosexual.<br /> <br /> 1973- While President Richard Nixon celebrated his second inaugural with a concert, Leonard Bernstein conducted a Concert for Peace at the Washington Cathedral. While Nixon’s orchestra played his favorite classical piece Tchaikovsky’s Overture 1812 with real cannons, Bernstein played Haydn’s Mass in a Time of War to 15,000 people against the War in Vietnam. <br /> <br /> 50th Anniv. 1973- The Roe Vs. Wade Supreme Court Decision 7-2 legalizing abortion. Before 1880 most abortion practices were legal, they were referred to as "quickening". The first prohibitions were more about banning dangerous quack drugs used in the process. Far Right politicians spent years slowly getting like minded judges on to the Supreme Court. Finally in 2022 In the Dodd Decision, the Supreme Court overturned Roe. <br /> <br /> 1975- Hollywood agents Ron Meyer and Michael Ovitz leave William Morris and form the Creative Artists Agency, or CAA.<br /> <br /> 1977- The day after his inauguration President Jimmy Carter was shown the first pictures from the KH-11, the first imaging orbital spy satellite. An American mole sold the technology to the Russian KGB a year later and soon France, Britain and Israel also had spy satellites in orbit.<br /> <br /> 1984- Amazon Indians attack an oil drilling crew with blowguns. <br /> <br /> 1984- Apple released the Macintosh I personal computer. <br /> <br /> 2020- When asked about the first cases of Covid-19 in the U.S., Pres. Trump replied: “We have it totally under control. ... It’s going to be just fine.” <br /> <br /> =============================================================<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean to be in your birthday suit?<br /> <br /> Answer: A nice way of saying being naked. Nude, au natural.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 21 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6052 <p>Quiz: What does it mean to be in your birthday suit?<br /> <br /> Question: What is the Mason-Dixon Line?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/21/2023<br /> Birthdays: Leadbelly (Harlan Ledbetter), Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, J. Carol Naish, Tele Savalas, Christian Dior, Placido Domingo, Wolfman Jack, Paul Scofield, Robby Benson, Jack Nicklaus, Benny Hill, Emma Bunton- Baby Spice of the Spice Girls, Gena Davis is 67, Ken Leung is 53<br /> <br /> 1188- THE THIRD CRUSADE DECLARED- In reaction to the news of Saladin's capture of Jerusalem, King Henry II of England, Phillip Augustus of France, and Conrad the Emperor of Germany "take the Cross", promise to invade the Holy Land. Henry died before the army departed and was replaced by his son Richard the Lionhearted. <br /> Every morning before breakfast and every night before retiring, all the knights of the Crusade would raise one steel-clad fist towards the east, and to the sound of massed trumpets they would all shout: " AEIDEUVA! AEIDEUVA! SANCTUS SEPULCHORUM!!" Help, Help to the Holy Sepulcher!<br /> <br /> 1535- Fun-loving King Francis I of France had been tolerant to the Reformation until over-zealous French Protestants tried to kill him. This day he responded by holding a solemn Catholic Mass in Notre Dame. The highlight of the show was the burning of six heretics. Francis had them tied to ladders and raised and lowered over a slow fire, to prolong their agony.<br /> <br /> 1649- King Charles I was put on trial by the English Parliament for treason. <br /> <br /> 1789- The first American novel published- The Power of Sympathy: An Epistolary Romance by William Hill Brown.<br /> <br /> 1793- KING LOUIS XVI GUILLOTINED- For three years since the Bastille fell the French King tried to play a constitutional monarch while conspiring with the other European monarchs to crush the French Revolution. It was a game that was too subtle for him. When foreign armies invaded France, and declared their intention to remake Louis an absolute ruler, the revolutionary government condemned him to death. <br /> Citizen Capet, so named for an old family name of French kings, mounted the scaffold at Place de La Concorde currently where the U.S. Embassy is. He tried to speak to the people but the drummers were ordered to drown him out. As the blade fell his chaplain shouted: "Son of Saint Louis, ascend to Heaven!" SPLAT!<br /> The revolutionaries then stuck his head between his legs and threw him in a hole. Where the site of the Chapel Expiatore is today. The court executioner, Charles Henri Samson, wore pistols under his coat in case people tried to rush the guillotine. He usually never felt remorse for his victims ("I am not killing them, the State is") but this one bothered him. He stayed away from home for two nights and would later hide escaped political prisoners in his cellar. <br /> <br /> 1850- THE CLAY COMPROMISE. Senator Henry Clay crossed dark snow covered Washington streets for a late night meeting with Daniel Webster. President Zachary Taylor had just put forward in Congress California's application for admission to the Union as a non-slave holding state. Now the South was angrily threatening secession and civil war. Clay and Webster worked out a deal, called the Clay Compromise, which would grant concessions to both sides in exchange for cooperation. Northern man Webster probably sacrificed his last chance to be President by backing the controversial deal but the Compromise of 1850 succeeded in delaying the Civil War for ten more years.<br /> <br /> 1861- SECESSION! COLLAPSE! President-elect Lincoln was still packing his bags in Springfield and writing out the luggage tags in his own hand "A. Lincoln, White House, Washington, D.C.", while state after state of the South voted to leave the Union and join the new Confederacy. On this date, Mississippi senator and former Secretary of War Jefferson Davis resigned from the Congress. As he left the Senate, Georgia senator Robert Toombs turned around and declared out loud to the Speakers chair:" The Union sir, is Dissolved!" When Toombs called for his carriage, he discovered his personal slaves had run off to be free. He had to hire a driver to take him home.<br /> The Mormons of Utah were in an open state of rebellion, New Jersey and New York City talked of secession, California talked of pulling out of the union and joining Oregon to make a new country called TransPacifica. Mobs in Baltimore proclaimed Abe Lincoln would never get to Washington alive. Outgoing President James Buchanan said gravely: "I fear I may be the Last President of the United States."<br /> <br /> 1888- A key portion of Charles Babbage’s Differential Engine was tested for the first time. Babbage had already died, and the prototype was completed by his son. The Differential Engine was the grandfather of the modern computer. <br /> <br /> 1899- The Opel motorcar company opened for business.<br /> <br /> 1916- The National Board of Review outlawed nudity in Hollywood movies.<br /> <br /> 1923- LENIN DIED. Russia’s first Soviet leader died of respiratory failure and cerebral hemorrhage at 54. The lack of a reliable system of succession plagued Communist states. As Lenin lay dying Leon Trotsky, Zioniev, Kamieniev, Krupskaya and a dozen others began a backroom scramble for power. Finally a minor bank robber and terrorist from Tblisi in Georgia who had risen rapidly in the last two years came out above them all- Comrade Kobal, also called Josef Stalin. <br /> <br /> 1930- Walt’s top animator and right hand Ub Iwerks quit Walt Disney to start his own rival company.<br /> <br /> 1935- the conservation group The Wilderness Society created.<br /> <br /> 1935- Disney animator Ollie Johnston’s first day at the studio, at $17 a week.<br /> <br /> 1938 – Max Fleischer told his New York cartoon studio they were relocating to Florida. <br /> <br /> 1938- George Melies, the father of Motion Picture Visual Effects, died at age 76. He had been reduced to selling trinkets in a little store in a Paris train station, but had a bit of the rediscovery by the film community in his final years. On his deathbed he gave his friends a drawing he made of a champagne bottle popping. He said “Laugh, my friends. Laugh with me, laugh for me, because I dream your dreams."<br /> <br /> 1943- Legendary jazz drummer Gene Krupa was arrested in San Francisco for sending a kid to get him some marijuana. He served 84 of a 90 day sentence.<br /> <br /> 1950- After a highly publicized trial top State Department official Alger Hiss was found guilty of perjury in a trial that accused him of covering up his connections to Communist agents in Washington. The trial made a national figure of a then little known congressman named Richard Nixon. Hiss served four years in prison, and lived the rest of his life maintaining his innocence.<br /> <br /> 1958- BADLANDS- Teenagers Charlie Starkweather and Carilann Fugate killed her family and went on a Bonnie &amp; Clyde style crime spree throughout Nebraska, killing 11 people. When they were caught Starkweather pleaded self defense, even against the murder of Fugate’s infant baby brother. He went to the electric chair. Carilann Fugate did twenty years, yet always denied she was anything more than an unwilling accomplice. <br /> Starkweather had a 'James Dean-Marlon Brando' leatherjacket look, and the two teen killers seemed to exemplify older America's dread of juvenile delinquency and the 'degenerate Rock and Roll' culture of the 1950's. Their story inspired several films, including 'Badlands".<br /> <br /> 1959- Former 'Our Gang' child star Carl 'Alfalfa" Switzer was killed in a bar in Mission Hills, Ca. He pulled a knife on a man over a $50 debt on a hunting dog. The man then shot him. He was 32. According to fellow Little Rascal Darla Hood, Switzer was a brute who bullied the other children, and bitter his adult acting career never blossomed. <br /> <br /> 1977- President Jimmy Carter declared a pardon for all remaining Vietnam War draft resistors.<br /> <br /> 1992- Disney's Beauty and the Beast became the first animated film ever to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. The Best Animated Feature Oscar was not created until 2001. <br /> <br /> 2010- The Supreme Court handed down the Citizen's United Decision. In the case Citizens' United vs. the Federal Election Commission, the Roberts Court ruled that restrictions on corporate donations were limits on free speech. This one ruling opened the floodgates for businesses to lavish unlimited money on political candidates. <br /> <br /> ===============================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is the Mason-Dixon Line?<br /> <br /> Answer: For the early decades of the American Republic, it was called the dividing line between North and South. In 1765 Mason and Dixon were two surveyors brought in to settle the disputed border between Pennsylvania and Maryland, particularly to decide which state had claim to Philadelphia at its valuable tax base. Before the Civil War, it came to mark the border between slave states and free states.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 19 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6051 <p>Quiz: The Kingdom of Siam is today called the nation of….?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: The river through London is the Thames. The river though Paris is the Seine. What is the river through Berlin?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/19/2023 <br /> Birthdays: James Watt, Edgar Allen Poe, Robert E. Lee, Paul Cezanne', Janis Joplin, Slobodan Milosovic’, radio comedian Ish Kabibble, Dolly Parton, Michael Crawford, Chic Young, Guy Madison, Richard Lester, John H. Johnson publisher of Ebony and Jet Magazines, Jean Stapleton, Fritz Weaver, Sean Wayans, Robin MacNeill, Paul Rodriquez, Antoine Fuqua, Drea Di Matteo, and Bart the Bear-1977 Bear who starred in movies like Clan of the Cave Bear, The Bear, White Fang and Legends of the Fall, Tipi Hedren is 93.<br /> <br /> Happy Feast of St. Wulfstan, who pulled the devils nose with hot tongs.<br /> <br /> 375 A.D. Valentinian I was a Roman emperor with strange mood swings. He outlawed the original Biblical method of birth control called exposure; in other words, leaving unwanted babies in the forest for the gods or wolves. Another time he had some stableboys crucified for letting the hounds go too early during a hunt. <br /> When some Quadi barbarians crossed the Rhine and sacked a few villages Valentinian got his legions together and burned down half of Germany. He only stopped for the winter and was preparing to continue in the spring when on this day a delegation of Quadi chiefs came to ask for peace. They explained that it wasn't their idea to make war, just some of the younger hotheads in the tribe. They said that the Emperor was overreacting. <br /> Valentinian got so enraged by their excuses that he raised his fists, turned purple and before he uttered a word fell over stone dead. His general Theodosius took over as emperor.<br /> <br /> 1405- Tartar conqueror Tamerlane fell ill and died in Samarkand. He roved the world conquering and murdering like Genghis Khan, but without Genghis’ skill at empire building. His empire fell apart soon after his death, inspiring Shelley to write a poem about transitory glory- Ozimandias.<br /> <br /> 1523- In Switzerland, Ulrich Zwingli publishes his 67 Articles attacking the authority of the Pope. This is the first manifesto of the Zurich Reformation.<br /> <br /> 1547- Grand Duke of Muscovy Ivan IV Vasilievich, called Ivan the Terrible, crowned Tsar or Czar- a Russian form for Caesar. His father Grand Duke Ivan III the Great assumed the title and power but it remained for his son to formalize the office. The Russian Princes call themselves the new inheritors of the Eastern Orthodox religion and Roman Empire after Constantinople, once called New Rome, fell to the Ottoman Turks. Czars were crowned with the "Cap of Monomachus", a small skullcap reputedly worn by one of the Greek Byzantine Emperors, Constantine IV Monomachus“ single-combat”. This cap was covered with ermine trim and gold. The Czars boasted: "Two Romes have fallen. The Third Rome –Moscow- shall stand forever!"<br /> <br /> 1633- Thomas Morton of Merrymount had been twice deported by the Pilgrims for holding “licentious Maypole celebrations” at his Indian trading post. This day he returned to England and at court tried to have the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s charter revoked. King Charles declined, probably because that might make the whole crowd of buckle-shoed killjoys return home!<br /> <br /> 1729- British Restoration playwright William Congreve died. He willed all his property to Henrietta, the Duchess of Marlborough. But then the Duchess did something a bit odd. She had a death mask made of Congreve’s face and attached it to a life size mannequin. She ate and conversed with the dummy all day and slept with it at night. She insisted her servants wait upon the dummy and treat it when she felt it was ill. When she died, she was buried with the dummy.<br /> <br /> 1829- Johann Von Goethe published Faust Part 1.<br /> <br /> 1840- Explorer Charles Wilkes claimed all of Antarctica for the United States. He was on a scientific expedition to chart the South Seas and Southern polar waters. Captain Wilkes was really good at exploring, but he was such a tyrannical disciplinarian he was court-martialed upon his return. Wilkes’ erratic behavior may have been a model for Herman Melville’s Captain Ahab in his novel Moby Dick.<br /> <br /> 1853- Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore with the famous Anvil Chorus premiered in Rome.<br /> <br /> 1869- New York City controller Andrew Green received a petition from 18 of the city’s wealthiest citizens. It called for the establishment of a Museum of Natural History. The famous building was built in 1874. <br /> <br /> 1915- Two German zeppelins cross the Channel and drop bombs on Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn causing two deaths. The first time England was bombed from the air.<br /> <br /> 1919- Famed dancer of the Ballet Russe Vaslav Nijinsky danced his last performance at a hotel in San Moritz Switzerland. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, he was incarcerated for the next 30 years, and underwent numerous shock therapies until his death in 1950.<br /> <br /> 1924- Lillian Bounds began work at the little Walt Disney studio as an ink and paint artist. She only took the job because it was a short walk from her sister Hazel's house where she was staying, and she didn't want to spend money for bus fare.<br /> She wound up falling in love and marrying Walt Disney and became a multimillionaire. Before her death in 1997 she financed the creation of Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles.<br /> <br /> 1940- The Three Stooges do their impression of Hitler and the top Nazis in the Columbia Pictures short comedy “You Natzy Spy”. Moe Howard was still the best all time Hitler impersonator. “Hail-Hail-Hailstone of Moronica! Waahoo!”<br /> <br /> 1945- In Poland, the Nazis began the evacuation of the remaining concentration camp inmates in advance of the oncoming Soviet army. Tens of thousands were marched out of Auschwitz and Birkenau west in freezing snow and ice. Any who fell behind were shot. <br /> <br /> 1949- Disney’s So Dear To My Heart opened in theaters.<br /> <br /> 1955- President Eisenhower held the first press conference that was shown on television. It was held in the treaty room of the State Department. Eisenhower was famous for his ability to speak at great length and never say anything of substance. “This day, My Fellow Americans, more than at any other time, ahead of us lies the promise of the Future!” <br /> <br /> 1961- The first episode of the Dick Van Dyke Show was filmed.<br /> <br /> 1966- Indira Gandhi, the daughter of Nehru, became prime minister of India.<br /> <br /> 1977- In one of his last acts as President, Gerald Ford pardoned Tokyo Rose. Iva Toguri D’Aquino was a Japanese American who did propaganda broadcasts for Radio Tokyo urging American GI’s to surrender. She explained she was stranded in Tokyo when the war broke out and was coerced into doing the broadcasts.<br /> <br /> 1979- Wendy O. Williams, mohawk-haired lead singer of the punk band the Plasmatics was arrested in Milwaukee for masturbating on stage with a sledgehammer. <br /> <br /> 1983- Klaus Barbie arrested in Bolivia and extradited to France. Barbie was the Nazi Gestapo chief in France and was called the Butcher of Lyon for his torture and execution of hundreds of French resistance and Jews. After the war Barbie avoided arrested and was briefly hired by the CIA as an anti-soviet spy. He went to South America and applied his skills for the dictators there until his extradition. While other former Nazis like Kurt Waldheim were disingenuously vague about their past, Barbie was loudly unrepentant. It was reported he continually embarrassed the Nazis trying to hide in South America by Sieg-Heil saluting them on the street and singing old stormtrooper songs over his empanadas.<br /> <br /> 1983- Apple introduced the Lisa. Named for Steve Jobs daughter, at a price tag of ten thousand dollars and incompatibility with the earlier Apple II doomed it to weak sales. <br /> <br /> 1985- Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA peaked the pop charts at #9.<br /> <br /> 1989- President Ronald Reagan, in one of his last acts as president, pardoned Yankee Baseball club owner George Steinbrenner for making illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon.<br /> <br /> 1991-Eastern Airlines ceased operations and went out of business. Chairman and former astronaut Frank Borman was philosophical: “Business without bankruptcy is like Christianity without Hell.”<br /> <br /> 1993- First day of full production at Pixar on their first feature film Toy Story.<br /> <br /> 2016- JOHN SCOTT- John Scott was a professional NHL Hockey player who had an undistinguished 8 year career. He was best known for brawling on the ice. But when it was time to vote for the NHL All Star Game, a mischievous blogger named Puck Daddy started a Twitter campaign to elect this unlikely bruiser onto the All Star team. He won an overwhelming number of votes and was made Captain of the Pacific League team. Despite NHL owners and leaders trying to exclude him from the game, he played and was named MVP. Carried aloft on the shoulders of his teammates, he later said,” It was unreal. Like I was in a Disney movie, except for real!”<br /> <br /> 2020- The first case of coronavirus CoVid 19 in the USA reported. Snohomish, Washington. Experts at the White House started to sound alarm bells, but President Trump chose to sit on this information, and ignore the warnings for 6 more weeks, until March. All the while he was quietly warning his personal investor friends. <br /> <br /> <br /> ================================================<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: The river through London is the Thames. The river though Paris is the Seine. What is the river through Berlin?<br /> <br /> Answer: The river Spree. (pronounced Spray)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 18 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6050 <p>Yesterday’s Quiz: The river through London is the Thames. The river though Paris is the Seine. What is the river through Berlin?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What are you eating when you are served squab?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> HISTORY FOR 1/18/2023<br /> Birthdays: Daniel Webster, A.A. Milne, Joseph Glidden, Oliver Hardy, Cary Grant- born Archie Leech, Danny Kaye, Emmanuel Chabrier, Bobby Goldsboro, Pierre Roget (Roget’s Thesaurus), Ray Dolby (Dolby sound), John Boorman, Kevin Costner is 67, Jason Segel is 42<br /> <br /> 1486- King Henry VII Tudor married Elizabeth of York, the daughter of the dowager queen in the just concluded War of the Roses. This further confirmed his legitimacy as king, ending a long period of dynastic instability. His symbol, the Tudor Rose, was a combination of the red rose of Lancaster and the white rose of York.<br /> <br /> 1535- Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro founded the city of Lima Peru.<br /> <br /> 1630- The Great Conde’, French general and uncle of the king, is imprisoned by order of Cardinal Mazarin, the successor of Cardinal Richelieu. Conde’ escaped, and for the next thirty years would lead Spanish and German armies against France. Still, this was not seen as a bad thing because nobody had invented nationalism yet, so the king forgave him in 1660.<br /> <br /> 1701- For services rendered in stopping French King Louis XIV from invading the Rhineland, The German Emperor gave permission to the Margrave/Elector Frederick of Brandenburg to reorganize his realm as a kingdom, the new Kingdom of Prussia. From his capitol of Berlin, the Prussians set out to become a world power. In 1870 they unified the German speaking nations into the country we now called Germany. See below.<br /> <br /> 1777- San Jose, California founded.<br /> <br /> 1778- Captain Cook landed at Waimea Bay in Kauai and "discovered" Hawaii. He named the place the Sandwich Islands after his boss John Montague the First Lord of the Admiralty the Earl of Sandwich. The King of Hawaii Kamehameha III didn't think this was the spirit of Aloha, and after numerous squabbles between the sailors and natives Captain Cook was killed. The ensign who rallied the shore party and got them safely home was the future Capt. Bligh. <br /> <br /> 1817- Jose San Martin led an army of Latin American rebels over the Andes Mountains in an epic march to free them from Spain.<br /> <br /> 1854- THE KINGDOM OF WALKER- Soldier of Fortune William Walker declared himself president of the Republic of Lower California-a new country formed out of the Mexican state of Sonora and Baja California. It didn’t stick and he had to run for it. A few years later Walker and a gang of U.S. mercenaries actually succeeded in overthrowing the government of Nicaragua and making himself a king. But soon after the Nicaraguans put him up before a firing squad.<br /> <br /> 1865- This was a target date John Wilkes Booth had to spring his plan to kidnap President Abraham Lincoln out of his box at Ford’s Theater and exchange him for thousands of Confederate POW’S to continue the South’s war effort. That the young actor naively planned to physically overcome and truss up the 6’5" president who although in ill health was an ex-wrestler, then sling him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, jump 12 feet to the stage and carry him off in front of an audience, is a strange plan to say the least. Lincoln did attend the theater that night, but Booth canceled the plan, because he had to prepare to do Romeo the day after tomorrow. His real job superseded his hobby as a conspirator.<br /> <br /> 1871- GERMAN UNIFICATION- Wilhelm of Prussia crowned first Kaiser of Germany in a ceremony in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. At one time Germans lived in 38 little princedoms that were great for operettas, but lousy as a political entity. Germans formed a symbolic parliament in Frankfurt and formed nationalist societies called Tugenbund to work for unification. But Prussian Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck said "unity would not be won by parliaments and papers, but by Blood and Iron!" Bismarck had first defeated Austria to ensure Germans would look to Berlin and not Vienna for leadership, then he picked a war with France to unite all the German peoples against their old enemy. So the crowning was two-fold the highpoint of victory over France and the symbol of unification. Sulky Wilhelm I didn’t want to be an emperor and was happy as king of Prussia, but Bismarck pushed him into it.<br /> <br /> 1903- President Teddy Roosevelt and King Edward VII exchanged the first wireless messages long distance between Washington and London. The system was invented by Gugielmo Marconi.<br /> <br /> 1908- Frederic Delius orchestral tone poem Brigg Fair premiered.<br /> <br /> 1910- The birth of the aircraft carrier. In San Francisco Bay, aviator Eugene Ely became the first to take off and land his plane on a ship. The first aircraft carrier, the USS Langley, was a converted coal tender.<br /> <br /> 1912- Capt. Robert Falcon Scott, "Scott of the Antarctic" reached the South Pole to discover the Norwegian flag of Pier Ammundsen, who got there first. <br /> <br /> 1919- American Society of Cinematographers formed (ASC).<br /> <br /> 1919- The Bentley Motorcar Company formed.<br /> <br /> 1943- The Red Army broke the 900 day Nazi siege of Leningrad.<br /> <br /> 1943- As part of the war effort, the US government ordered the sale of sliced bread be stopped for the duration. The phrase “ The greatest thing since sliced bread” entered the slang vocabulary.<br /> <br /> 1945- After weeks of bitter street fighting, Nazi forces surrendered Budapest to the Red Army. Major Otto Skorzeny, the Nazi commando who rescued Mussolini and organized American speaking infiltrators for the Battle of the Bulge, now shifted his efforts to organizing the Nazi escape route pipeline to the sympathetic countries in South America.<br /> <br /> 1948- Mahatma Gandhi broke a 121 hour fast that halted Hindu-Moslem rioting.<br /> <br /> 1949- Look Magazine published a photo essay called "Prizefighter". The photographer was a young kid from the Bronx named Stanley Kubrick. Mr. Kubrick said he now wanted to try filmmaking. <br /> <br /> 1952-The Hollywood Animation Guild chartered. Originally the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Local 839, signatories included Disney legends Milt Kahl, Les Clark, John Hench and Ken Anderson.<br /> <br /> 1962- The US Army in Vietnam began an experiment with spraying the jungle with chemical defoliants to get at hidden Vietcong guerrillas. The chemical Agent Orange defoliated jungles but also sickened thousands of American serviceman and Vietnamese civilians who continue to die from cancers decades after. <br /> <br /> 1962- THE FRENCH CONNECTION- NYPD cracked a drug ring smuggling heroin from South East Asia into New York via Marseilles. The French Connection bust nabbed $3.5 million in dope and made heroes out of the two detectives Eddie Egan and Sonny Grazzo. Egan joked to Grazzo:" I’ll betchya Paul Newman will play me and Ben Gazzara you!" Actually Gene Hackman played Egan and Roy Scheider Grazzo in the Oscar winning 1971 film. Both cops retired from the force to make careers in show biz. Ironically while the film was being made, the real heroin from the case disappeared from the NYPD evidence lockup and was replaced with bags of corn starch. It was never recovered.<br /> <br /> 1964- Plans are revealed for building New York City’s World Trade Center towers.<br /> <br /> 1977- The cult documentary PUMPING IRON premiered. Filmmakers George Butler and Rob Fiore maxed out his American Express card to the tune of $35,000 to bring this look at the little-known world of professional bodybuilding to the screen. The film first brought to the public a charmingly confident Austrian body builder named Arnold Schwarzenegger, who said he wanted to try acting someday. Also Lou Ferrigno who would also star in movies and as the TV Hulk. Many years later, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to buy the rights to the film so he could edit out the scenes of him smoking a joint.<br /> <br /> 1978- In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, rock star Frank Zappa described most rock journalism as " People who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t talk, for people who can’t read."<br /> <br /> 1987- National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition premiered.<br /> <br /> 1990- In a room at the Vista International Hotel in Washington DC Mayor Marion Barry was videotaped by the FBI toking on a crack pipe with his mistress Rasheeda. He served time in jail, but was re-elected mayor anyway.<br /> <br /> 1990- Rusty Hamer, who played Danny Thomas’ son in the TV show Make Room for Daddy, put a 357 Magnum to his head and pulled the trigger. He was 42.<br /> <br /> 1991- Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein started firing Soviet SCUD missiles at Israel. By a prearranged agreement, even though they were under attack, Israel did not retaliate with their own air force, but left it to US &amp; coalition forces to neutralize the missiles. <br /> <br /> 1993- The CIA admitted that it paid Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega $300,000 to be an operative.<br /> <br /> 1996- The Motion Picture Academy voted to give a special Oscar to John Lasseter for creating Toy Story.<br /> <br /> 2004- The I HAVE A SCREAM SPEECH. Democratic presidential challenger Howard Dean gave an address after losing the New Hampshire primary. Known for his energy, at one point he got so carried away he let out a jubilant yelp above the cheering throng. The media picked this up and played it to death. Soon it would be impossible to think of Dean as a serious candidate. Republican strategist Karl Rove later admitted it would have been harder to defeat Howard Dean than John Kerry, but then there was that scream.<br /> ========================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What are you eating when you are served squab?<br /> <br /> Answer: Roast pigeon.<br /> .</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 16 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6049 <p>Question: When dining in a wealthy Victorian home, what did you get when you were served terrapin?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: Did Bruce Willis ever do a voice in an animated film?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/16/2023<br /> Birthdays: Yukon poet Robert Service, The inventor of the pneumatic tire- Andre Michelin 1853, Ethel Merman, Dizzy Dean, Peter Ustinov, Henry Mancini, A.J. Foyt, Marilyn Horne, Sade, Michael Wilding, Eartha Kitt, animator Aurey Bataglia, Debbie Allen is 72, John Carpenter, Caroline Munro, Diane Fossey, Kate Moss is 49, Tsianina Joelson, Lin Manuel Miranda is 44, Animator Raul Garcia<br /> <br /> 1605. Part one of Miguel de Cervantes's, "Don Quixote de la Mancha" was published in Spain (The ingenious nobleman Sir Quixote of La Mancha") It is generally referred as the first modern novel. Not about the lives of the Saints, or classical gods and heroes, but regular people.<br /> <br /> 1761- The British capture Pondicherry, the last French outpost in India.<br /> <br /> 1786- The Virginia Legislature passed the Ordinance of Religious Freedom, which stated that no man could be forced to join or support any church he didn’t want to. The Ordinance became the basis for the First Amendment to the Constitution. <br /> <br /> 1865- After resting his army in Savannah, for Christmas, Yankee General William Tecumseh Sherman started moving his blue columns north towards South Carolina.<br /> <br /> 1883- Moved to act by the assassination of President James Garfield by a demented civil servant, Congress passed the Pendleton Act, creating rigid merit standards for government jobs and creating the Civil Service Commission. Before this, things ran as the "Spoils System"- after every election hundreds of government jobs were given by the President and his party to party hacks and amateurs as payment for favors. Much uhh…as things are run today. <br /> <br /> 1891- Three weeks after the Wounded Knee massacre, the last independent warrior bands of Sioux Indians came in and surrendered to the U.S. Cavalry at the Pine Ridge Reservation.<br /> <br /> 1917-THE ZIMMERMAN TELEGRAM- The reason other than the Lusitania that the U.S. entered World War I. The Kaiser's generals fretted that the unrestricted U-Boat sinkings were strangling Britain, but they may force America into joining the Allies. So they concocted a scheme to keep the Yankees busy on their own side of the world. <br /> On this day, British intelligence handed President Woodrow Wilson an intercepted message from Baron Zimmerman, the German charge d' affaire in New York to the German Ambassador in Mexico City. It relayed an offer from Berlin of an alliance, if Mexico would please invade Texas! The Kaiser promised President Huerta the return of the entire U.S. southwest. The Mexican president wasn't enamored with the U.S. lately, but he still declined the offer. <br /> Instead of checking U.S. participation in World War I, the incident all but decided it. Wilson had run for re-election as an anti-war candidate, but after this he was convinced Germany had to be stopped.<br /> <br /> 1919- In Argentina it was the end of the Sanglante- the Bloody Week. The government crushed a general nationwide strike – 700 killed.<br /> <br /> 1920- The League of Nations held its first meeting in Paris.<br /> <br /> 1935- “Ya better come out! We got you surrounded!” Kate Barker, called Ma Barker, died in furious shootout with the FBI at Ocklawaha, Florida. Legend has it they found Ma's body with the smoking tommy gun still cradled in her lap. Others say she was only an ignorant hillbilly lady traveling with her boys gang as a cover.<br /> Only one of Ma Barker's sons (Fred) was killed with her. Herman Barker committed suicide at Wichita, Kansas, August 29, 1927, after being blinded by police bullets in a gun battle in which he killed a policeman. Arthur "Doc" Barker was captured by the FBI in Chicago eight days before the shootout that killed Ma and Fred. He was killed attempting to escape from Alcatraz on January 13, 1939. Lloyd "Red" Barker was released from Leavenworth in 1939 after serving seventeen years of a 25-year sentence for mail robbery. He was murdered by his wife at their suburban-Denver home on March 18, 1949. <br /> <br /> 1936- the first racetrack photo-finish camera installed.<br /> <br /> 1936- Albert Fish, aka the Moon Maniac, aka The Grey Man, aka The Brooklyn Vampire, was executed at Sing Sing Prison. The 66 year old Fish had killed ten children and cannibalized their remains. He even went as far as to send a letter to the mother of his last victim describing how he had turned her daughter into a stew. The letter was traced back to him and he was arrested. He almost shorted out the electric chair because he kept his underpants filled with metal sewing needles. As he went to his death he told guards he was looking forward to the electric chair. "it is a thrill I never tried."<br /> <br /> 1938- Benny Goodman brought the new Swing Music to staid old Carnegie Hall. Count Basie and Harry James joined in to get the tuxedoed crowd dancing in the aisles, then afterwards they all went uptown to the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem to watch Count Basies band square off against the legendary Chick Webb. After this triumph, Benny Goodmans’ band would never be the same- Lionel Hampton, Harry James and Gene Krupa all split off to form their own orchestras." That band I had the night I played Carnegie Hall was the best I think I ever had." Goodman said later.<br /> <br /> 1938- Nylon invented by the Dupont Company.<br /> <br /> 1939- Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr announced the successful fission of uranium. They asked that it be used for peaceful purposes only. One of their colleagues Dr. Leo Szilard immediately warned the U.S. that they better start a nuclear bomb program, because another friend of Bohr's, Dr. Rudolph Heisenberg, planned to build one for Hitler. <br /> <br /> 1940- Lee Francis, then Hollywood’s top madam, was busted for prostitution. <br /> <br /> 1942-Actress Carol Lombard and her mother died in a plane crash at Mt. Potosi Nevada, outside of Las Vegas, while returning from a war bond drive. She was 33. Her husband, movie king Clark Cable was so disconsolate that he volunteered for air force combat squadron instead of doing USO work, and went on dangerous missions trying to get killed.<br /> <br /> 1942- Japanese armies attacked Burma.<br /> <br /> 1945- Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg last seen. The diplomat had been covertly smuggling hundreds of Jews out of Nazi occupied Austria by giving them neutral Swedish passports. When the Soviets overran Vienna, Wallenberg disappeared. In 1991 The Russian government admitted that Wallenberg died in Leningrad’s Lubyanka Prison.<br /> <br /> 1954- THE WAR ON COMICS- Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee chaired the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency. They concluded that one of the contributing factors to adolescent moral decay was four-color comic books! The media called comics “The Ten Cent Plague”. <br /> The probe was sparked by a book called The Seduction of the Innocent by psychiatrist Frederic Wertham. He charged among other things that Batman &amp; Robin were gay because when not fighting crime, Bruce Wayne &amp; Dick Grayson lounged around all day in silk pajamas, with no women! That Superman was a fascist, and Wonder Woman’s strength and independence obviously made her a lesbian!<br /> Despite public testimony by Walt Kelly, Milt Caniff, Al Capp and Bill Gaines, 350 comic book companies including the EC "Tales from the Crypt" label were driven out of business. The strict comics-code was established. The comic book industry, which had been selling one million books a month, never regained that level of prosperity in the US again. <br /> <br /> 1962-First day of shooting on the film Dr No with a young actor named Sean Connery in the role of James Bond. Ian Fleming thought the casting of Connery would be a disaster, he had wanted Cary Grant or David Niven. <br /> <br /> 1970- Col. Mohammar Khaddafyi became premier of Libya, a job he kept until 2011.<br /> <br /> 1974- Peter Benchley’s novel Jaws first published.<br /> <br /> 1979- The Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlevi, fled Teheran in the face of the Ayatollah’s fundamentalist revolution.<br /> <br /> 1980-The silver market collapses, making the Hunt Brothers from two of the richest men in America to two of the poorest.<br /> <br /> 1991- GULF WAR I - U.S. French, British and Arab air forces began attacking Iraqi-held Kuwait. Sadam, Wild Weazels, Gen Stormin’ Norman Schwarzkopf, Republican Guards, Scuds, Smart Bombs and CNN's Peter Arnett hanging a mike out the window of his Baghdad office as the bombs rained down. <br /> =======================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Did Bruce Willis ever do a voice in an animated film?<br /> <br /> Answer: He played the lead character in Dreamworks Over the Hedge, 2006.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 15 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6048 <p>Quiz: Did Bruce Willis ever do a voice in an animated film?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: The island of Guadalcanal is today part of what nation?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/15/2023<br /> Birthdays: Dr. Martin Luther King, Moliere, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Cole Younger, Charro, Matthew Brady, drummer Gene Krupa, Lloyd Bridges, Mario Van Peebles, Josef Broyer the mentor of Sigmund Freud, Margaret O’Brien, Aristotle Onassis, Captain Beefheart, Dr. Edward Teller, Regina King is 52, Disney animator Dave Pruiksma<br /> <br /> Happy Druid New Year<br /> <br /> Feast of St. Paul the Hermit<br /> <br /> 1208- THE ALBIGENSIAN CRUSADE- Count Raymond of Tolouse was thought to be sympathetic to a heretical cult called Cathars, from the French region of Albi (so Albigensians). They believed in a Zoroastrian dualism in direct conflict with the Church. When a papal representative named Peter De Castellan was sent from Rome to tell Count Raymond to knuckle under, he was assaulted. So Pope Innocent III declared a crusade not against Muslims in the Middle East, but against other Christians in the heart of Europe. The holocaust was terrible, for the first time the answer of how to tell the guilty from the innocent was: ”Kill them all, and God will recognize his own.” The Holy Office of the Inquisition was then invented to finish things off. The Cathar religion disappeared except for cult fans like Alastair Crowley and the Dan Brown of the DaVinci Code. <br /> <br /> 1520- Pope Leo X tells little monk Martin Luther he has sixty days to knock off all this Reformation stuff and stop complaining, or he's going to excommunicate his butt!<br /> <br /> 1559- Queen Elizabeth I was crowned at Westminster Abbey. The daughter of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII was 25 and reigned 42 years. Only Queen Victoria and the Queen Elizabeth II reigned longer.<br /> <br /> 1793- The Convention of the French Revolution condemned their King Louis XVI (now called simply “citizen Capet”) to death by guillotine. Voters for the death penalty included the artist Jean Jacques David, American Thomas Paine and Louis’ own younger brother the Duc D’Orleans, now ridiculously renamed Philippe Egalite’. When Philippe arrived home that night, his family shunned him. He cried aloud:” What else could I do?” <br /> Philippe got guillotined later anyway.<br /> <br /> 1811- In a secret session, the US Congress approved a plan to get Florida away from Spain.<br /> <br /> 1829- The first of two commercial working railroad locomotives arrived in the U.S. from England. Named the Pride of Newscastle back home, it was renamed the America. The Stourbridge Lion followed in May. These two trains began the U.S. Railroad system.<br /> Historian Stephen Ambrose noted that until this time all of society moved at the speed of a walking horse. That George Washington and Thomas Jefferson could travel no faster than Julius Caesar or Shakespeare did in their day. <br /> A Viennese doctor at the time said that the human body was never meant to travel faster than 35 mph. That blood would squirt out of your nose and eyes and you’d go insane. Railroads changed all that. <br /> <br /> 1861- The Abe Lincoln-hating Mayor of New York City Fernando Wood passed a non-binding resolution of secession from the United States. The pro-Southern sentiment in the North went underground after the rebels fired on Fort Sumter.<br /> <br /> 1895- The Electric Strike- Brooklyn's 5,000 trolley car workers go out and hit the bricks. New York's 7th Regiment had to run the system.<br /> <br /> 1919- After World War I toppled the Kaiser, anarchy reigned in Berlin streets. Today as the Spartacist revolt was put down in Berlin, German Socialist leaders Red Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Leibknecht were dragged out of the Eden Hotel, beaten with rifle butts, then shot. Their bodies were then dumped in a dry canal.<br /> <br /> 1919- The Great Boston Molasses Flood. In the North End neighborhood of Boston, a large storage tank filled with 2.3 million US gal (8,700 m3) weighing approximately 13,000 short tons (12,000 t) of molasses burst, and the resultant wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph (56 km/h), killing 21 and injuring 150. The event entered local folklore and residents claimed for decades afterwards that the area still smelled of molasses on hot summer days. <br /> <br /> 1922- Irish troops led by IRA leader Michael Collins officially took over Dublin Castle and the Irish capitol’s administration from the British. The British commander at first upbraided Collins for being late for the ceremony. Collins said in response:” You’ve been here seven centuries and you can’t wait another seven minutes?” When the Lord Lieutenant Governor shook Collins hand and said, “I’m so happy to meet you!” Collins smiled,” The hell ya are.”<br /> <br /> 1927- The Dumbarton Bridge carried the first auto traffic across San Francisco Bay.<br /> <br /> 1929- Most of the nations of the world sign the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which stated that War is a bad thing. Ten years later World War II breaks out.<br /> <br /> 1935- The Tsuni Conference- Chinese Communists confirm Mao Tse Tung (or Mao ZseDong) as their overall leader.<br /> <br /> 1936-THE DGA- Several top Hollywood directors including Lewis Milestone, Ruben Mamoulian and William Wellman met at King Vidor’s house and pledged $100 dollars each to form the Screen Director’s Guild, later the Director’s Guild of America. It was a risky thing to do, previous attempts to form a director’s union were broken up with threats by the producers of perpetual blacklisting. Final recognition and contracts were signed by President Frank Capra in 1940. One provision insisted on in the contract was that the director’s credit be the final name in the opening titles before the movie began. And so it remains.<br /> <br /> 1942- THE GREEN LIGHT LETTER. Major League Baseball Commissioner Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis wrote President Franklin Roosevelt that in light of the Pearl Harbor attack, perhaps big-league play be suspended until the war ended? <br /> The president responded in what’s known as “the green light letter,” encouraging Landis go ahead with the baseball season. “I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going,” Roosevelt wrote. “There will be fewer people unemployed, and everybody will work longer hours, and harder than ever before. And that means that they ought to have a chance for recreation, and for taking their minds off their work, even more than before.”<br /> <br /> 1943- Walt Disney released Education for Death, a wartime short directed by Clyde Geromini and animated principally by Ward Kimball. <br /> <br /> 1943- The Pentagon completed. First conceived as a medical research facility, it grew to become the headquarters of the massive US Military Industrial Complex, the largest office building in the world. The supervisor of construction was General Leslie Grove, who was also head of the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos.<br /> <br /> 1945- As the Nazi war effort was caving in on all sides Adolph Hitler relocated his headquarters from East Prussia to the Reichchancellory building in Berlin. One SS major cracked up der Fuhrer by joking that “now we can take a street car from the Western Front to the Eastern Front.”<br /> <br /> 1947-”THE BLACK DAHLIA”- One of the most lurid murder cases in Los Angeles history. A little girl playing in a vacant lot discovered the remains of high priced prostitute Elisabeth Short, 22, who used to work the Biltmore Hotel. She was named the Black Dahlia because of the black pullover sweaters and black lingerie she favored. Her body had been sawed in half and completely drained of blood, and the initials 'BD' carved on her thigh. Her body showed signs of torture. The murderer was never found. The incident was the basis for a movie called “True Confessions” with Robert DeNiro and Robert Duval. The last detective on the case died in 2003.<br /> <br /> 1949- Chinese Communist armies captured the city of Tientsin after an all day battle with Nationalist forces.<br /> <br /> 1951- ILSE, THE SHE-WOLF OF THE SS. Ilse Koch was the wife of the commandant of Buchenwald Concentration Camp and every bit as sadistic as her husband. She participated in experiments on inmates to turn them into soap, and their skin into lampshades. On this day in her second war crimes trial she was sentenced to life imprisonment. Sixteen years later in 1967 she committed suicide in prison. In the 70’s Roger Corman revived interest in her by creating a sexploitation film about her life. Most of the movie was shot re-using the sets of the Hogan’s Heroes TV show, which had just been cancelled. The director of the film said of the screenplay, “That was the sickest piece of crap I ever read.”<br /> <br /> 1960- Walt Disney Presents Leslie Nielsen as Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion in the adventure series Swamp Fox. <br /> <br /> 1967- THE FIRST SUPER BOWL- After a decade of professional football conference title games, the AFL and NFL combined to make a single championship game- Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10. <br /> <br /> 1968- Jeanette Rankin, the 87 year old Congresswoman who voted against US participation in World War I and World War II, today led a protest against the Vietnam War.<br /> <br /> 1974- The first episode of Happy Days premiered with Ron Howard as Richie Cunningham and Henry Winkler as Da Fonz.<br /> <br /> 1983- Meyer Lansky, the elderly retired Mafia boss denied a visa to move to Israel, died of a terminal nosebleed. <br /> <br /> 1998- Investigators from special counsel Kenneth Starr’s office have their first meeting with President Bill Clinton’s tootsie Monica Lewinsky in the lobby of the Watergate Hotel. They tried to pressure the 25 year old to admit her affair. They verbally denigrated her when she asked that her lawyer or her mother be present. But the Babe from Beverly Hills High was smart. She held out for 8 months to get the immunity deal she wanted before speaking about Bill and those well-placed cigars. <br /> <br /> 2009- THE MIRACLE ON THE HUDSON- Capt. Sully Sullenberger safely ditched his disabled airliner in the Hudson River, saving all his passengers. <br /> <br /> =========================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: The island of Guadalcanal is today part of what nation?<br /> <br /> Answer: The Government of the Solomon Islands.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 14 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6047 <p>Quiz: The island of Guadalcanal is today part of what nation?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What is bakelite?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/14/2023<br /> Birthdays: Marc Anthony 82 BC, Dr. Albert Schweitzer, Benedict Arnold, Hal Roach, Richard F. Outcault, Cecil Beaton, John Dos Passos, Lawrence Kasdan, Guy Williams- born Armando Catalano, Andy Rooney, Julian Bond, Steven Soderbergh is 60, LL Cool J, Faye Dunaway is 82, Emily Watson is 56<br /> <br /> 350AD. The feast day of Saint Hilary of Poitiers- Saint Hilary was the father of church music. In exile in Phyrgia, he noticed pagans sang hymns to their gods, so he composed the first Christian music. The Halleluiah Chorus, Ave Maria, Silent Night, and “Drop Kick Me Jesus Through the Goalposts of Life” would follow in due course.<br /> <br /> 1604- King James I of England thought he could be like Roman Emperor Constantine, and use his royal prestige to resolve the theological disputes dividing Christianity. This day he convened at Hampton Court a grand synod of Anglican Bishops, Presbyterians, Baptists, Calvinists, Anabaptists, and Puritans to try and settle their differences. Nothing was really solved, but the only positive step was a motion was made to create a standardized translation of the Bible into English- The King James Edition.<br /> <br /> 1639- The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, the first constitution for a colony, is established. The Connecticut territory was a disputed area between the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam and the English New Englanders until the English conquest of 1661. The personal intervention of the Duke of York prevented Long Island from being made part of Connecticut.<br /> <br /> 1699- The Pilgrims of Salem hold a day of fasting and prayer to atone for any people they may have unjustly executed as witches. <br /> <br /> 1797- Battle of Rivoli. Napoleon defeats the Austrians in Italy.<br /> <br /> 1831- Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame first published.<br /> <br /> 1858- Italian terrorists throw three bombs at French Emperor Napoleon III’s carriage outside the Paris Opera. 8 killed and 158 wounded, but not the emperor or his family.<br /> <br /> 1900- Giacomo Puccini's opera "Tosca" premiered in Rome.<br /> <br /> 1914- Henry Ford's assembly line process for building cars accelerates car production, thanks to a new chain system pulling the chassis along as they are worked on. As the system got faster and faster, the older, slower workers were replaced by younger ones. Hair dye sold at a premium in Detroit.<br /> <br /> 1943- Churchill and Roosevelt hold a summit meeting in Casablanca in North Africa. The Casablanca Declaration bound the allies to never negotiate less than a total surrender out of the Axis powers. It was felt that one of the reason Germany resorted to war only twenty years after The Great War was their denial that they were ever defeated.<br /> At one point Churchill made a number of American diplomats and staff climb a high tower in the Casbah because he thought the setting sun would make a smashing good watercolor.<br /> <br /> 1952-The NBC "Today" show debuts with Dave Garroway, Jim Fleming and J. Fred Muggs the chimp.<br /> <br /> 1954- Marilyn Monroe married baseball star Joe DiMaggio.<br /> <br /> 1957- British Prime Minister Anthony Eden resigned, citing ill health, but more likely because he bungled The Suez Crisis.<br /> <br /> 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”. <br /> After Bogart’s death Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin adopted the name and made the Rat Pack famous.<br /> <br /> 1964- Hanna- Barbera's ' The Magilla Gorilla' cartoon show.<br /> <br /> 1967- HIPPIES The first “ Human Be-In” in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. 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 high. 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.<br /> <br /> 1969- At the Academy Awards, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day won best animated short. It is the last award credited to Walt Disney. Although he had died at the end of 1966, he had greenlit it and worked on it. Woolie Reitherman accepted the award.<br /> <br /> 1972- Norman Lear’s hit TV comedy series Sanford &amp; Son premiered. Starring Red Fox, it was based on the English show Steptoe &amp; Son. <br /> <br /> 1974- Sylvia Holland, British born story/concept artist at Disney on Fantasia/ Make Mine Music, died at age 74.<br /> <br /> 2004- Trying to channel JFK, President George W. Bush declared in his State of the Union speech his intention to return America to the Moon by 2020 and make a manned landing on Mars by 2030. To do this he gave NASA only one billion dollars more than their regular budget, while at the same time allocating $1.5 billion to fight gay marriage initiatives. In 2017 President Trump made a similar pledge to go to Mars.<br /> <br /> 2005- The Cassini-Huygens Probe landed on Saturn’s moon Titan.<br /> <br /> 2016- Actor Alan Rickman passed away at age 69 of pancreatic cancer.<br /> =====================================---------------------------------------------<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is bakelite?<br /> <br /> Answer: It was an early form of plastic used since the 1930s in many common items like telephones and costume jewelry.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 13 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6046 <p>Quiz: What is bakelite?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: The French comic TinTin; What is the name of Tintin’s dog?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> HISTORY FOR 1/13/2023<br /> Birthdays: Salmon P. Chase, Horatio Alger-1834, Sophie Tucker, Gwen Verdon, Robert Stack, Charles Nelson Reilly, Rip Taylor, Brandon Tartikoff, Julie Louise Dreyfus is 62, T. Bone Burnett, Patrick Dempsey, Orlando Bloom is 46<br /> <br /> 565A.D. THE NIKA SEDITION- In Constantinople, like Rome before her, the big spectator sport was chariot racing. Fans went crazy, lots of money wagered and charioteers were celebrities. Chariots were raced in teams like modern race cars (Team Unser, Team Ferrari etc.) and were distinguished by their colors. The big teams were the Blues and Greens. The Whites and the Reds were kind of second tier. They even had their own booster clubs, who carried their arguments into the streets and beat each other up.<br /> On this day the hooliganism of the booster clubs got so out of hand that they rioted in the streets and burned down half of Constantinople. Emperor Justinian had to bring in the legions to restore order. The fan clubs were called in Latin FACTIOS, from where we get the words "fan, factions and fanatic".<br /> <br /> 1687- Father Eusebio Kino began his missionary work in the Spanish Southwest. He founded several missions in Arizona and helped introduce the horse, pairs of whom were brought over from Spain and released around Santa Fe to multiply in the wild. The Italian born Jesuit’s travels also proved that California was not a big island as previously thought.<br /> <br /> 1733- James Oglethorpe reached Charleston South Carolina with a 114 colonists plucked from prisons back in England. His goal was to sail down to the Savannah River and create a new colony to stand as a buffer state between Spanish Florida and the English holdings. He got there on Feb 1, and called his new colony after King George- Georgia.<br /> <br /> 1777- Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson signed a bill in the legislature banning sodomy. The penalty for conviction was castration.<br /> <br /> 1847- Gen. Andres Pico signed the capitulation of Campo de Cahuenga (the little park across from Universal studios today), surrendering the northern Mexican state of Alta-California to U.S. Gen. John Fremont. Fremont, nicknamed "The Pathfinder", was the first Republican candidate for President in 1856, and when the Civil War began he was a General until the Confederates made a fool of him and he dropped from public view. During the Civil War Andres Pico served in the Yankee force that defeated an attempted Confederate invasion of California. I guess he figured one change of flag in a lifetime was enough.<br /> <br /> 1849- Battle of Chillianwallah. The British army under Lord Hugh Gough defeated the Sikh army of Sher Singh and conquered the Punjab. Gough was a blunt old style soldier. When his second mentioned the army was almost out of cannonballs, Gough responded:” Good! Then we shall be at them with the bayonet!” This was the first battle where common soldiers’ bravery was “mentioned in dispatches” by the commander. At one point a befuddled major issued the wrong orders to a key troop of cavalry who would have galloped away from the battle, but they were rallied by their chaplain. For his bravery, Lord Gough recommended the chaplain be promoted to Brevet-Bishop.<br /> <br /> 1854- The modern Accordion is patented by Anthony Faas. Polka fans rejoice!<br /> <br /> 1864- Stephen Foster, the composer of "My Old Kentucky Home" and "Camptown Races" was found dead, a penniless drunk in New York's Bowery slum. In his hands was a piece of paper with the words "Dear friends and gentle hearts... ". A Pennsylvania Yankee, despite writing a lot of music about the South, he only visited it once, to New Orleans in 1852.<br /> <br /> 1872- GRANDDUKE ALEXIS BUFFALO HUNT. Grand Duke Alexis the son of the Czar of Russia visited America. A sportsman, He expressed a desire to go out West and hunt real buffalo. The US Government ordered General Custer and Buffalo Bill to afford him every courtesy. Buffalo Bill even talked Sioux Chief Spotted Tail to move his tribe’s winter encampment 100 miles south so Alexis could experience real wild Indians. Starting today the hunting party hunted and feasted for two weeks, leaving behind a trail of champagne bottles and buffalo carcasses. The trip was a great success and Buffalo Bill realized there was big money to be made in giving fancy foreigners a taste of the Wild West…<br /> <br /> 1895- Oscar Wilde’s play The Ideal Husband, premiered in London.<br /> <br /> 1898- Under the banner headline "J'Accuse !", a Paris newspaper printed writer Emile Zola's stinging criticism of the French government's handling of the Dreyfus scandal, blowing the whole scandal wide open. It charged Dreyfus was scapegoated to take the wrap for informants higher up in the Army General Staff. The army sued Zola for libel, and he went into exile to avoid imprisonment. He returned one year later after an enquiry cleared Dreyfus.<br /> <br /> 1906- The first ad for a radio appeared in an American Science Magazine. It boasted an effective range of over one mile !<br /> <br /> 1910- Dr. Lee Deforest, experimenting with his new radio vacuum tubes broadcast singers from New York's Metropolitan Opera for the first time. The regular Texaco 'Live from the Met' broadcasts wouldn't get going until 1934.<br /> <br /> 1914- Folksinging union organizer Joe Hill was arrested in Utah on trumped up murder charges.<br /> <br /> 1925- THE FIRST CALIFORNIA GURU- Indian spiritual teacher Paramahansa Yogananda , then called “The Swami” settled in Los Angeles and gave his first lecture to an audience in LA Philharmonic Hall. He taught westerners about these new things called Yoga and Meditation. He was a cause celeb, with friends like Luther Burbank, Armelita Galli-Curci, and the Barrymores. His Autobiography of a Yogi became a bestseller, read by the folks like Steve Jobs.<br /> He founded the Malibu Self-Realization Center in 1950. It featured one shovel-full of ashes from the funeral pyre of Mahatma Gandhi.<br /> <br /> 1929- Wyatt Earp died at 82 of prostate cancer in Los Angeles. After careers as a gunfighter, buffalo hunter, Dodge City marshal, prizefight referee, Yukon gold prospector and faro dealer, he finished in L.A. speculating in real estate. He was buried in San Francisco's Jewish Cemetery because his third wife, ex-saloongirl Sadie Marcus was of that faith. <br /> He liked to stroll onto Hollywood western movie sets to give advice to Tom Mix and William S. Hart on how they did it in the Old West. Recent scholarship claims that a tall young prop boy and extra named Duke Morrison (John Wayne) liked to hang around Wyatt to get advice. Supposedly the famous John Wayne swaggering walk was copied from Wyatt Earp. <br /> <br /> Wyatt Earp would have died totally forgotten but in his last years he was interviewed by a journalist named Stuart Lake who published a best selling biography in 1931 called Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal. After that the movies and TV took up his name to make him the most famous lawman in western history, which would have been a surprise to him.<br /> <br /> 1930- The Mickey Mouse comic strip first appeared in US newspapers. Walt Disney himself wrote them, Ub Iwerks penciled and Winn Smith inked.<br /> <br /> 1939- Col. Jacob Ruppert died, the brewing tycoon and owner of the NY Yankees during their glory years of Ruth, and Gehrig. His will left his millions to a chorus girl Helen Alkemade. She said “ they were just friends.”<br /> <br /> 1943- Movie star Frances Farmer was dragged out of a Hollywood hotel in a straightjacket. She screamed Rats! Rats! and listed her occupation on her arrest record as “c**ksucker”. Her career was ruined and she spent years in asylums. But it’s inconclusive whether she had actually suffered mental illness, or it was her mother overreacting to her sullen, temperamental nature.<br /> <br /> 1945- Sergei Prokoviev’s 5th Symphony (Classical) premiered in Moscow.<br /> <br /> 1946- In his comic strip, Dick Tracy first uses his two-way wrist radio. <br /> <br /> 1947- The comic strip “Steve Canyon”, by Milt Caniff first premiered in newspapers.<br /> <br /> 1953-" The Doctor's Plot"- Aging Soviet dictator Josef Stalin decided to launch a new purge and shoot and imprison thousands of people. He announced he had uncovered a conspiracy of counter revolutionists and spies to bribe doctors to poison top Soviet officials. Luckily Stalin died before he could kick off his new terror campaign. As he lay stricken with a stroke on his deathbed, his doctors were too afraid to treat him.<br /> <br /> 1957-THE FRISBEE went into production today. Two World War II fighter pilots who met in a German prison camp, Warren Fransconi and Walter Morrison, invented the plastic platter in a San Luis Obisbo home. Originally called Flying Saucers and Pluto’s Platters, they got the name Frisbee when they demonstrated it at Yale University. The students there were used to flipping pie plates at each other from the local Frisbee Pie Company, so when they played with the new disc, they cried “Frisbee, Frisbee!” which seemed to Walter a better name. <br /> When Walt Morrison died in 2002, his family obeyed his last request, to have his body cremated, his ashes mixed with plastic, and molded into a Frisbee.<br /> <br /> 1958- Actress Jayne Mansfield married weightlifter Mickey Hargitay. Their daughter was Marisa Hargitay.<br /> <br /> 1962- In the wee hours of a rainy night, TV pioneer Ernie Kovacs died when he plowed his Corvair into a power pole at Beverly Glen and Santa Monica Blvd. He was attending a baby shower Billy Widler threw for Milton Berle and his wife. But it was also known that Ernie had a weakness for screwdrivers, vodka and orange juice. At the funeral, the pastor said Ernie wanted his life summed up like this,” "I was born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1919 to a Hungarian couple. I've been smoking cigars ever since."<br /> <br /> 1979- The Young Men’s Christian Association filed a lawsuit against the rock group the Village People over their hit song “YMCA”. <br /> <br /> 1979- Russian animator Yuri Norstein’s masterpiece Tale of Tales premiered.<br /> <br /> 1985- Carol Wayne, an actress who played sexy blonde roles on comedy shows like Johnny Carson, drowned while swimming in Mexico. She was 41.<br /> <br /> 2002- While alone watching a football game on TV, Pres. George W. Bush almost choked on a pretzel.<br /> <br /> 2011- The huge Italian luxury cruise liner Casta Concordia ran aground on rocks off the coast of Umbria and capsized, killing 200. The captain of the ship was not present when the ship was in crisis because he was in his cabin with a hot Venezuelan woman. After the crash, he left his sinking ship early and was seen in town when everyone else was still trying to rescue survivors. He was jailed. <br /> ====================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: The French comic TinTin; What is the name of Tintin’s dog?<br /> <br /> Answer: Snowy.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 12 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6045 <p>QUIZ: The French comic TinTin; What is the name of Tintin’s dog?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterdays question below: The Pacific Island of Wake was the scene of an epic battle during WW2. Today what country actually owns Wake Island?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/12/2023<br /> Birthdays: Pilgrim leader John Winthrop, Charles Perrault (Mother Goose), John Hancock, Edmund Burke, John Singer Sargent, Jack London, James Farmer the founder of CORE, Herman Goering, Eddie Selzer, "Smokin' Joe" Frazier, Tex Ritter, Martin Agronsky, Howard Stern is 68, Rush Limbaugh, Oliver Platt is 63, Wayne Wang, Tiffany, Kirstie Alley, John Lasseter is 66<br /> <br /> Festival of Sarasvati –the Hindu Goddess of Wisdom.<br /> <br /> 1493- All Jews ordered to leave Sicily.<br /> <br /> 1519- Vasco Nunez de Balboa, Spanish discoverer of the Pacific, was convicted of treason, rebellion and mistreatment of Indians and beheaded. The cause was probably more that the local colonial governor Pedro de Arias hated him. <br /> <br /> 1641- The Virginia Colony passed a law that if any Indian committed a crime, the first Indian seen, even if he was completely innocent, would be compelled to pay his fine.<br /> <br /> 1669- Buccaneer Henry Morgan convened a meeting of the Captains of the Coast, a meeting of pirates on board his frigate the Oxford. In their meeting they resolved to attack Cartagena Columbia, a rich Spanish port and staging area for Spanish treasure galleons. During the drunken celebrations someone fired a gun off in the Oxford’s powder magazine and the ensuing explosion blew a dozen men to Davey Jones Locker. Arrr..!<br /> <br /> 1800- The frigate USS Experiment was attacked by ten pirate ships off Hispaniola.<br /> <br /> 1809- A group of Viennese businessmen convinced Ludwig Van Beethoven not to move to another city by paying him a yearly allowance. Beethoven constantly worried about money and pleaded poverty, yet after his death people found thousands of silver coins hidden in little pots and cupboards throughout his home. He used to charge people three marks to look at him through his window while he composed. <br /> <br /> 1812- A scant six years after Fulton first demonstrated his steamboat, the first Mississippi steamboat brought a cargo of cotton bales from Natchez to New Orleans to be loaded onto a transatlantic ship. This is the beginning of the riverboat trade Mark Twain made famous.<br /> <br /> 1898- Nationalist riots broke out in the Spanish colony of Cuba. U.S. President McKinley sent the battleship Maine to Havana harbor to protect American interests. Americans have coveted Cuba since James Madison's time. Just before the Civil War broke out, Southern businessmen paid mercenaries to conquer Cuba from Spain and bring her into the union as a new slave state. The U.S. threatened Spain with war over Cuba in 1870 and 1874 as well.<br /> <br /> 1928- NY police raid Alfred Knopf publishing offices and seized 852 copies of the novel “The Well of Loneliness” by Radclyffe Hall, because reading it was thought to turn young girls into lesbians.<br /> <br /> 1928- Henry Grey and Ruth Snyder are electrocuted in Sing-Sing Prison for the murder of Mrs. Snyder's husband. The love triangle was the inspiration for the films 'Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice' and 'Body Heat". Press photographer Thomas Howard taped a small camera to his ankle and snapped a photo of Mrs Snyder frying in the chair. The New York Daily News published the photo on its front page.<br /> <br /> 1942- German submarine U-123 torpedoed the British tanker S.S. Norness right outside the entrance to New York Harbor. The incident sent panic up and down the Eastern seaboard. The New York Museum of Natural History even moved its Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton to Pittsburgh, to save it from Nazis attack. <br /> <br /> 1945- To the overture of thousands of heavy cannons and Katyusha rockets the Red army crossed the Vistula river in Poland and began its final offensive against the Third Reich. This would end with Hitler’s death and the fall of Berlin. The nickname the multiple firing Katyushas was “Stalin’s Pipe Organs”.<br /> <br /> 1945- Japan signed licensing contracts and received from Nazi Germany their plans for jet fighters. Work was begun on a Japanese version of the Messerschmidt ME 262, the worlds’ first jet fighter, but they were too late to affect the wars end. The first Japanese fighter jet flew over Tokyo on Aug 6th,1945, the same day Hiroshima was A-bombed.<br /> <br /> 1960-” The Scent of Mystery”- the first film in Smell-O-Vision.<br /> <br /> 1962- President John F. Kennedy signed Executive order 10988, mandating federal workers had the right to join unions and bargain collectively. In 2001 in the trauma over 9-11, President George W. Bush demanded his newly organized 50,000 member Department of Homeland Security be forbidden to unionize. <br /> <br /> 1965- NBC TV premiered Hullabaloo, a Rock &amp; Roll dance show with lots of mini-skirted go-go dancers. ABC responded with Shindig.<br /> <br /> 1966- Holy Cult Classic! The TV show "Batman" with Adam West and Burt Ward, premiered.<br /> <br /> 1969- Super Bowl III at the Orange Bowl, Broadway Joe Namath and the underdog NY Jets upset the Baltimore Colts led by the legendary Johnny Unitas 16-7.<br /> <br /> 1970- The Biafran Civil War ended.<br /> <br /> 1971- “ALL IN THE FAMILY” Norman Lear's TV sitcom debuted. Based on a popular British show Till Death Do Us Part, it broke new ground for American sitcoms by frankly discussing race working class prejudice, menopause, rape and other taboo subjects. The first show featured the sound of a toilet flushing. The networks were so worried about its explosive content ABC rejected the show twice, and CBS ran the first episodes with a long apologetic disclaimer. Carrol O’Connor, the actor who played Archie Bunker, was so convinced the show would flop, he demanded as part of his contract a round trip plane ticket home. The show ran for 13 years, a bushel of Emmy Awards and made the name Archie Bunker famous.<br /> <br /> 1971- Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan, nun Sister Elizabeth McAllister and several others were indicted in Federal court for conspiracy. The Catholic clerics were trying to bring an end to the Vietnam War through non-violent acts of civil disobedience. After handcuffing themselves to missiles and the gates of army bases, the government alleged their scheme was to kidnap top Nixon diplomat Henry Kissinger and sabotage the State Department heating systems in the dead of winter. That was never proven. All charges were eventually overturned.<br /> <br /> 1987- No mystery, Agatha Christie died at 88 of natural causes.<br /> <br /> 1995- Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen announced the name of their new partnership would be 'Dreamworks SKG'. Someone in Florida immediately bought the domain name “Dreamworks.com” and waited for their buyout offer. I heard it was $5,000. <br /> <br /> 1997-According to Arthur C. Clarkes 1968 book "2001, a Space Odyssey", the HAL-9000 computer was booted up today.<br /> <br /> 1998-The LEWINSKY SCANDAL- Former White House staffer Linda Tripp was frustrated her career in the Clinton Administration was going nowhere. This day she appeared in the office of independent special prosecutor Kenneth Starr with tape recordings she secretly made of her friend Monica Lewinsky. They admitted to a sexual affair with the President. Conservative Judge Starr had been investigating Slick-Willie Clinton for years. After spending $54 million tax dollars, he hadn’t found much. So he immediately leaped at this opportunity, and asked the Attorney General for an extension of his mandate.<br /> Ms. Lewinsky had meant to keep her affair a secret, despite telling 11 friends. By autumn, the resultant scandal brought Washington to a standstill and only the second presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history. President Clinton first lied, then admitted to the affair, but was acquitted and served out his term anyway. Judge Starr later was booted out of the Presidency of Baylor Univ. for covering up a sex scandal. Linda Tripp asked the public for donations for her legal defense fund for her violating federal wiretap laws “I am one of you...a David against a Goliath...Even $1,000 dollars would do..” She took the money and got a facelift.<br /> <br /> 2002-The Refusenik Movement began in Israel when 53 Israeli Army officers announced they refused to enforce the Likud Government’s policy in the West Bank &amp; Gaza.<br /> ------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterdays’ Question: The Pacific Island of Wake was the scene of an epic battle during WW2. Today what country actually owns Wake Island?<br /> <br /> Answer: Wake Island still belongs to, but is not part of the United States. Population 150.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 11 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6044 <p>Quiz: The Pacific Island of Wake was the scene of an epic battle during WW2. Today what country actually owns Wake Island?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: Where is the island of Corregidor? <br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/11/2023<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Theodosius I, Alexander Hamilton, Gliere, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Harry Selfridge the London department store guy, Rod Taylor, David Wolper, Lyle Lovett, Ben Crenshaw, Naomi Judd, Joan Baez, Stanley Tucci, Disney animator Prez Romanillos, Amanda Peet<br /> <br /> Roman festival Carmentalia, or the Feast of the Nine Muses. Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomeni, Terpsichore, Erato, Polymnia, Ourania and Calliope.<br /> <br /> 1025- Byzantine Emperor John Tzimisces poisoned. He had become Emperor after seducing the previous emperor’s wife and assassinating him. John was succeeded by Basil II "the Bulgar Slayer". <br /> <br /> 1775- Frances Salvador, a South Carolina plantation owner was elected to the colony’s legislature. This makes him the first person of the Jewish faith to ever hold office in America. He was known as the Paul Revere of the South, because he raised the alarm through the countryside when the redcoats approached Charleston. One year later he was killed fighting British allied Cherokees.<br /> <br /> 1803 –U.S. diplomats James Monroe and Robert Livingston sailed for France to try and make a deal with Napoleon for the city of New Orleans. Instead, Napoleon sells them the entire U.S. Midwest, from the Bayous to Montana. The Louisiana Purchase. <br /> <br /> 1813- SAUVE’ QUI PEUT! “Every Man for Himself.” Joachim Murat was a bold cavalryman who rose to high command under Napoleon. He married Napoleon’s sister Caroline and was made the King of Naples. Back then that meant the bottom half of Italy, south of Rome. But after Napoleon’s disastrous retreat from Moscow, Murat began the New Year by changing sides. He abandoned the freezing French army recovering in Poland and announced he was taking Naples into the Grand Alliance against Napoleon. Even Nappy’s own sister Caroline endorsed his decision. But this amazing act of betrayal didn’t save his throne. Murat was still overthrown and shot.<br /> <br /> 1862- Abraham Lincoln accepted the resignation of Simon Cameron as Secretary of War. Lincoln said:” The only thing that man never stole was a red hot stove.” He replaced him with Edwin Stanton, a lawyer who was the first to get a client off a murder charge with a plea of temporary insanity.<br /> <br /> 1863- The Confederate Armies in Tennessee and Kentucky were commanded by General Baxton Bragg, a conscientious if sour and unimaginative man. Bragg wasted two near victories at Perryville and Stones River by ordering a retreat just when the Yankees were beaten. Southern newspapers called for his ouster. <br /> This day Bragg demanded a letter of support from all his generals. His top divisional commanders Hardee, Cleburne, Cheatham and Breckenridge not only refused, they sent their own letters to Richmond calling him an incompetent coward. Nathan Bedford Forrest hated Bragg so much, he once pulled his sword on him. But Bragg had a friend in President Jefferson Davis. Baxton Bragg convinced Davis he was the innocent victim of a conspiracy. So Davis reconfirmed Bragg in command. Only after losing most of the state of Tennessee, was Bragg finally replaced. He was promoted, kicked upstairs.<br /> <br /> 1863- Battle of Arkansas Post. Union forces under John McClernand and David Dixon Porter capture a large Confederate fort guarding the conflux of the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers. McClernand at one point was angling with the War Dept. to replace that drunk Ulysses S. Grant.<br /> <br /> 1879- THE ZULU WAR began. British control over the Boers (white afrikkaners of South Africa ) was always strained. The Governor of Capetown. Lord Chelmsford, decided to distract the Boers by picking a fight with neighboring KwaZulu, the Zulu Empire, the largest centralized black state in Africa. He had only vague instructions from the Foreign Office to do so. Still he was confident a few natives with spears wouldn't give a modern European army too much trouble. On Jan. 22nd the Zulu wiped out his army at Ishandlwana, inflicting the worst defeat on a British army in a generation. The full weight of the British Empire, including units brought from India and Canada, were required to finish a war started over nothing by a regional governor.<br /> <br /> 1892- French impressionist painter Paul Gaughin, aged 44, married a 13 year old Tahitian girl named Teha’amana who he called Tehura. His previous marriage to a Danish lady who gave him 5 children had broken up. <br /> <br /> 1908- President Teddy Roosevelt declared the entire Grand Canyon a National Monument. “The Ages have been at work at it and Man can only mar it.”<br /> <br /> 1913- Horse drawn public transport ended in Paris. As the last horse-omnibus moved through the streets. Parisians held mock funerals.<br /> <br /> 1922- Insulin first used to treat diabetes.<br /> <br /> 1942- Japanese forces attacked the Dutch East Indies and Borneo.<br /> <br /> 1942- A few weeks after Pearl Harbor, In the dead of night, German submarine U-123 slipped into New York harbor, sailed right past the Statue of Liberty, up the Hudson to where the George Washington Bridge was, before turning back. Captain Reinhard Hardegen was surprised the Americans had not yet instituted black-out rules. The lights of Manhattan still twinkled brightly. On his way out of the harbor, he torpedoed a British tanker. The WW2 U-Boat service had some of the highest casualty rates in the German military. Kapitan Hardegen survived the war and died in 2018 at the age of 105.<br /> <br /> 1943- American Communist writer Carlos Tresca was shot and killed on a New York street. His killer was never found. It’s been speculated he was killed by agents of Mussolini or even agents of Stalin.<br /> <br /> 1944- Mussolini has his foreign minister Count Ciano and his army chief Marshal De Bono, shot by firing squad. Count Ciano was his own son-in-law.<br /> <br /> 1948- President Harry Truman called for the creation of free, two-year community colleges for all those who desired a college education.<br /> <br /> 1949- The first recorded snowfall in Los Angeles.<br /> <br /> 1949- Cornerstone laid for Washington D.C.’s Islamic Center, the first major mosque in the US. <br /> <br /> 1963- A record was released in Britain called “Please, Please Me” recorded by a working class rock &amp; roll band from Liverpool called The Beatles. It was their first hit.<br /> <br /> 1964- U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry gave the first warnings against smoking. The Nazis had prohibited smoking in government buildings in 1939.<br /> <br /> 1965- Whisky-A-Go-Go, the first Disco opened on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. Discotecque is French for record library. An earlier Whisky had opened in Chicago. The LA Whisky a Go Go opened with a live band led by Johnny Rivers, featuring a mini-skirted female DJ spinning records between sets from a suspended cage at the right of the stage. That July, the DJ danced during Rivers' set. The audience thought it was part of the act and the concept of Go-Go dancers was born. Groovy!<br /> <br /> 1995- After the Feds de-regulation of media ownership and the seeing the success of the Fox Network, Warner Bros collected up six independent television stations around the US and this day started them off as the WB Network, today called the CW.<br /> <br /> 1999- John Stewart became the anchor of the Daily Show on Comedy Central. <br /> <br /> 2004- Harvard students Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, registered the domain name Facebook.com. It originally was a way for their classmates to rate female students they knew to be, “hot or not”.<br /> <br /> 2018- President Donald Trump earned the anger of the world when in an open meeting with senate leaders he said, “Why are we accepting people from shithole countries like Haiti, El Salvador and Africa, when we could have people from Norway?”<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’ Question: Where is the island of Corregidor? <br /> <br /> Answer: The Philippines.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 10 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6043 <p>Quiz: Where is the island of Corregidor? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: “Make him an offer he can’t refuse.” Where did that quote come from?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/10/2023<br /> Birthdays: Ethan Allen, Marshal Michel Ney, Frank James -Jesse's brother, Francois Poulenc, Ray Bolger (the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz), Stephen Ambrose, Sherrill Milnes, Pat Benatar, Sal Mineo, Jim Croce, Rod Stewart, Walter Hill, George Foreman, Linda Lovelace, Roy E Disney Jr, Jermaine Clement of Flight of the Concords is 49<br /> <br /> 50 B.C.- "Jacta Esta Alea!" Gaius Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River near modern Rimini with his legions and began a civil war for control of the Roman Empire. Caesar had been ordered by the Senate to give up his army command in Gaul and not bring his troops down. Once stripped of command he could be open to lawsuits, investigation and criminal charges. Years before Scipio Africanis, the defeater of Hannibal, was ruined by his political enemies this way. So instead Caesar attacked. The Rubicon was the border between the outer provinces and the home territory of Rome. Since then, "Crossing the Rubicon" means committing to a course of action you cannot turn back from. Caesar said "Alea jacta est" which means "The die is cast".<br /> <br /> 1072- Robert Giscard captured Palermo. At the same time Norman warriors under William the Conqueror were overrunning England and Scotland, other Normans knights were traveling south and spreading out across Southern Italy, Sicily and Dalmatia. They weren’t a national conquering army under a king, just professional mercenaries out for personal gain. They occupied Sicily and became the shock troops of the First Crusade. The Normans were finally driven out of Sicily in 1282.<br /> <br /> 1529- Michelangelo elected to design the military defenses of Florence. They failed to keep out the enemy, but they must have looked really beautiful!<br /> <br /> 1538- Martin Luther declared that Purgatory does not exist. " God in the Gospel of Mark has placed two ways before us- Salvation by faith or Damnation by unbelief."<br /> <br /> 1642- King Charles I slipped out of London as the city grew increasingly hostile to his cause. Londoners threw garbage out their windows at his Royal Guards. He traveled north to gather supporters. Parliament superseded the authority of the Mayor of London and called up the city militia. The English Civil War would break out in September.<br /> <br /> 1744- Bonnie Prince Charlie left exile in Rome to go to Scotland and start his uprising.<br /> <br /> 1775- PUGACHEV’S RISING. Yemelian Pugachev was an illiterate Cossack. One day, for a laugh, his friends shaved his beard off while he was too drunk to notice. Without the beard they discovered he bore an amazing likeness to the Catherine the Great's dead husband, Czar Peter III. There was deep resentment in Russia among the common folk against the rule of Czarina Catherine. She was modernizing Russia against it's will and wasn't even Russian (she was a German princess).<br /> Pugachev declared himself the Czar Peter, back to reclaim his throne for the Muziks (peasants) and the Old Religion. Pugachev's Rising cost tens of thousands of lives before Catherine's armies stamped it out. Today Pugachev was brought to Moscow in an iron cage, then beheaded. A comparable Russian people's uprising would not be seen again until 1905.<br /> <br /> 1776- COMMON SENSE published. Thomas Paine's pamphlet explaining the case for liberty was considered psychologically decisive in garnering mass support among average Americans. Washington called it -"more valuable than a hundred cannon." Englishman Paine, a former corset maker, had only been living in America for one year.<br /> <br /> 1855- The Clackamas People of the Oregon territory sold some of their prime timberland for $500 and some food.<br /> <br /> 1861- Benito Juarez elected President of the Mexican Republic. The statesman spoke Zapotec before he learned Spanish, and became the first Indian head of Mexico since the last Aztec Emperor Guatamoc in 1519. During Emperor Maximillian’s French occupation, Juarez's government was constantly on the run along the Texas border but he refused to ever cross it. He felt the legitimate government must never leave Mexican soil.<br /> <br /> 1861- Florida became the third state to secede from the Union. <br /> <br /> 1863-The world's first Subway Train line opened in London at Baker's Street Station.<br /> <br /> 1870- John D. Rockefeller first formed the company called Standard Oil. In 1911 it changed its name to Esso and Humble, then in 1973 Exxon.<br /> <br /> 1878- the first Amendment proposing to give women the right to vote is proposed in Congress. Suffragette leaders Elizabeth Cady-Stanton and Susan B. Anthony looked for three months for a senator with the guts to sponsor it. It was defeated but it was brought up at every congressional session for the next 45 years. (see below 1917-1918)<br /> <br /> 1888-date of LOUIS LePRINCE's claim of a patent on Motion Pictures, predating Edison 1893 and the Lumiere Brothers-1895. LePrince even had as proof a film he shot of his mother, who had died in 1887. Despite this, LePrince could get no one to take him seriously. One day he boarded a train from Dijon to Paris and disappeared from the face of the Earth. <br /> <br /> 1901- SPINDLETOP- BLACK GOLD, TEXAS TEA… Conventional wisdom up till then was America’s oil reserves were chiefly around the Great Lakes and Pennsylvania. On this day wildcat drillers struck oil in Beaumont Texas. The Spindletop gusher was so big, 3,000 barrels an hour, it doubled total U.S. oil production output overnight. Companies like Gulf and Texaco spring up to compete with industry leader Standard Oil (Exxon). The era of the Texas Oil Tycoons began and until they began to run dry in the 1970s, America controlled 80% of the world’s petroleum output. <br /> <br /> 1906- The London Daily Mail coined a new term for women politically agitating to gain suffrage, or the right to vote, "Suffragettes".<br /> <br /> 1910- Joyce Clyde Hall started the company that became Hallmark Cards.<br /> <br /> 1917- On the anniversary of the first women’s right to vote bill, The Women's Suffragette Movement began a 24 hour round the clock protest in front of the White House. It is the first time the White House was ever publicly picketed. Ten suffragettes are jailed but are immediately replaced by ten more, who when arrested are replaced by more, then more.<br /> <br /> 1917- Frontiersman and master showman Buffalo Bill Cody died at 70 of uremia poisoning. His last words after he was told his end had come was "Ah forget it boys, let's play a round of High-Five." Today his grave still overlooks the city of Denver.<br /> <br /> 1918- 45 years after being first proposed, The 19th Amendment granting American women the right to vote passed in The House of Representatives. It failed at first to get the necessary 2/3 vote in the Senate, but after more votes and wrangling. It finally passed in Feb 1919.<br /> <br /> 1919- The League of Nations formed. The United States refusal to join and the Leagues refusal to admit Soviet Russia would doom this early attempt at a United Nations. Being dominated by old colonial powers like Britain and France it ignored the national aspirations of 3rd world countries like Syria and Vietnam. Finally the aggressive actions of the Fascist powers like Germany, Italy and Japan revealed the impotence of the League. The Leagues failure and World War II was used to make the point about the United Nations in 1945.<br /> <br /> 1923- When the defeated Germans proved too slow in paying the massive postwar indemnities (cash payments) to the Allies for World War I, a Franco-Belgian army occupied the Ruhr Valley industrial area. This cuts off the already ruined German economy from 80% of its steel and coal. The French leave after massive steel strikes and riots, and leave the Germans fresh hatreds to avenge later.<br /> <br /> 1924- Columbia Pictures created, ruled by Harry Cohn, whose motto was "I don't get ulcers, I give them!"<br /> <br /> 1927- Fritz Lang’s silent Metropolis premiered. Screenplay by his wife/collaborator Thea von Harbou. Despite the opinion of H.G. Wells in the Times, “ Foolishness, cliche’, platitude and muddlement.” It is considered a classic of film science fiction. <br /> <br /> 1929- Herge’s comic character Tin Tin first appeared in a Belgian newspaper XXe Siecle.<br /> <br /> 1939- Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov sold his first story to Amazing Stories Magazine "Marooned off Vesta".<br /> <br /> 1941- The comedy play ARSENIC AND OLD LACE opened on Broadway. Playwright Joseph Kesselring originally wrote it as a drama based on true events, until he was advised - and, wisely so - to turn it into a dark comedy instead, guaranteeing a larger audience. He made the title a joke on a popular turn of the century romance novel, Lavender and Old Lace. When someone joked that Mortimer’s evil brother looked Boris Karloff, the character was indeed played by famous horror movie star Boris Karloff. He was an investor in the play. When buying the movie rights Warner Bros agreed to wait until the play ended its theatrical run. They thought plays usually are done in a few months so they had Frank Capra make it into a classic screwball comedy with Cary Grant and Raymond Massey. The play Arsenic and Old Lace ran on Broadway for three years, until 1944. Then Warner Bros could finally release the movie. <br /> <br /> 1947- Returned WWII veteran Ed Lowe was working at his dad’s sand and gravel pit in Michigan. This day a neighbor asked if she could borrow some sand for her cat to do his business in. This gave Lowe an idea to use a clay mineral mixture called Fuller’s Earth. It absorbs twice its weight in water and is odorless. He invented Kitty Litter, and made millions.<br /> <br /> 1949- For years the recording industry had been working on ways to improve the 78 RPM record –RPM means Rotations Per Minute. RCA records announced the invention of the 45 RPM record. Columbia (CBS) had announced the LP (Long Playing) 33 rpm record and originally offered to share the technology but RCA (NBC) was having none of it. But the 33 stored more music and could use old 78 rpm turntables adapted so the 45 soon became a vehicle for hit singles.<br /> <br /> 1958- Jerry Lee Lewis single "Great Balls of Fire" topped the pop charts.<br /> <br /> 1958- GET MARRIED, OR ELSE! Blond actress Kim Novak had starred in Hitchcock’s Vertigo and was touted as the new Marilyn Monroe. In 1957 she began dating black entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. Davis was a member of Sinatra’s Ratpack and he challenged America’s racial barriers with his great talent. But this high profile interracial match was just too much for Hollywood society to handle. Columbia’s studio head Harry Cohn said of Novak-"That fat Polack Bitch! How could she do this to me? " <br /> Legend has it Cohn called the Chicago Mafia and put a contract out on Sammy Davis. L.A. mobster Mickey Cohen told Davis’ father that if Sammy didn’t marry a black girl in 24 hours, he would have his legs broken, and his remaining good eye poked out. <br /> On this day in Las Vegas’ Sands Hotel, Sammy Davis Jr. married black actress Loray White. Harry Belafonte was the best man. The couple honeymooned separately and divorced 6 months later. But the affair with Novak was over and Harry Cohn died of a heart attack the same year. In 1960 Sammy Davis married blonde German actress May Britt.<br /> <br /> 1961- Writer Dashell Hammett died. <br /> <br /> 1967- Lester Maddox was sworn in as Governor of Georgia. Maddox was a high school dropout who gained national stature when he refused to allow black people to eat at his restaurant, the Pickrick Café in Atlanta. Maddox passed out axe handles to white patrons to beat up Civil Rights workers. Maddox finally closed his restaurant rather than integrate.<br /> <br /> 1971-Stanford Calderwood, the president of WGBH Boston, got a good reaction for a season of a British drama he ran on American TV called The Forsythe Saga. He soon returned from a trip to England having purchased a bushel of BBC dramas. Period pieces, Called “Frock Dramas”. This day Masterpiece Theater debuted on US TV with host Alastair Cooke. The first show was the BBC series The First Churchills. I Claudius, Poldark and Upstairs Downstairs followed. These shows were so popular that for awhile people thought PBS meant Preferably British Shows. <br /> <br /> 1972- The liner Queen Elizabeth 1, on her retirement journey to the scrap yard, mysteriously caught fire and sank in Hong Kong harbor. <br /> <br /> 1992- The GREAT RUBBER DUCKY DISASTER- A North Pacific storm causes a ship to lose 29,000 plastic rubber duck toys overboard. They joined 61,000 Nike sneakers already bobbing in the water from a similar maritime accident. Scientists used the rubber ducky migration to track Pacific Ocean currents around Alaska.<br /> <br /> 1993- CAMILLAGATE- As speculation grew that the English Prince and Princess of Wales' marriage was on the rocks a London tabloid published tapes of phone conversations between Prince Charles and his long term mistress Lady Camilla Parker Bowles. The highly embarrassing transcripts included the Prince expressing a wish that he could be Ms. Bowles' tampon. Camilla's husband divorced her and Charles and Diana soon divorced as well. Within a year of Princess Diana's fatal auto accident Camilla resumed spending the night at Kensington Palace. Camilla and Charles married in 2005.<br /> <br /> 1999- HBO’s The Sopranos premiered. Howyadoin..?<br /> <br /> 2000- AOL and Time Warner announced a $165 billion dollar merger that made it the world’s largest media company. Considered now one of the worst business deals in history, the company lost $80 billion in one year. The deal almost sank both companies, uprooted both chairmen, and they detached permanently in 2009.<br /> <br /> 2004- NY based Writer and actor Spaulding Gray spent the day taking his kids to the movies. They saw Tim Burton’s movie Big Fish. Gray put his kids into a taxi home and from the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, called his wife to say he would be home soon and that he loved her. Then he took the ferry, jumped into the harbor and drowned himself in New York Harbor. How He had waged a long battle with depression and his mother had commit suicide. His body did not resurface until March 9.<br /> ==========================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: “Make him an offer he can’t refuse.” Where did that quote come from?<br /> <br /> Answer: The line was said by mafioso Vito Corleone in the movie The Godfather.(1972)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 09 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6042 <p>Quiz: What does it mean to have a penchant for something?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays’ question answered below: What does it mean to give some the Third Degree?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/9/2023<br /> Birthdays: Richard Nixon, Woody Guthrie, Ray Bolger, William Powell, George Balanchine, Judith Krantz, Bob Denver, Crystal Gayle, Joan Baez, Simone de Beauvoir, Sir Rudolph Bing, Herbert Lom, Gypsy Rose Lee, Joely Richardson, J.K. Simmons is 68.<br /> <br /> Festival of Janus, the namesake of January, Roman God of gateways and doors. Not to be confused, of course, with Terminus, God of borders and terminal points, Lemintinus the God of threshholds and stoops. Cardea the Goddess of hinges, or Forculus the God of the door leaves and sectioned doors.<br /> <br /> 1349- The Jews of Basel Switzerland were locked up in a warehouse and burned to death. Their neighbors accused them of bringing the Black Plague pandemic.<br /> <br /> 1570- Ivan the Terrible, just getting the suspicion that the city of Novgorod may be plotting a revolt, surrounded the city and massacred 20,000 people. Afterwards he told the survivors: " Forget your wrongs."<br /> <br /> 1768- Former English cavalry sergeant Phillip Astley combined trick riding in a tight circular ring, with a clown act, some jugglers, a mind-reading horse, his trick rider wife Patty the first Circus Queen, and took it all on the road. The first traveling circus.<br /> <br /> 1769- Gaspar De Portola and St. Junipero Serra set sail from Mexico to colonize California. They sailed because many thought California was an island. The California coastline had been explored by Juan De Cabrillo, Sir Francis Drake and others 250 years earlier. But since there were no more gold-laden, Aztec-type cities to plunder, it was quickly forgotten. Conquistadors don’t surf. By the 1760s, Spain’s King Charles III was finally moved to order the colonization of California to limit the encroachment of Russian fur traders coming down into Mendocino, and the English claims to the Oregon territory.<br /> <br /> 1793- Aeronaut Jean Pierre Blanchard and his dog flew by hot air balloon from Philadelphia to Woodbury New Jersey. President George Washington was a spectator. <br /> <br /> 1806- In London, this day was the great funeral of Admiral Horatio Nelson, killed at the moment of victory in the Battle of Trafalgar. He was interred under the center of Saint Pauls Cathedral in a tomb built for Henry VIII's chancellor Cardinal Woolsey. Woolsey fell from royal favor before he ever got a chance to use it. The huge stone coffin stayed around in storage until a suitable hero popped up. An early example of recycling.<br /> <br /> 1825- Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams had dinner. The presidential election was deadlocked between Adams and Andrew Jackson with Clay a distant third. Andrew Jackson had won the popular votes, but the electoral votes were tied. Over sherry, Henry Clay offered all his electoral votes to Adams in exchange for the job of Secretary of State. So John Quincy Adams won the presidency with the electoral votes of states like Kentucky where hardly a soul had voted for him. People were furious over King Caucus and called it the stolen election. In the next election cycle Andy Jackson won easily and began major reform of the electoral system. <br /> <br /> 1847- After a small skirmish near San Gabriel Mission, Commodore Richard Stockton and the U.S. cavalry recaptured the pueblo of Los Angeles and ended resistance by the native population to U.S. control. <br /> <br /> 1847- First U.S. governor of New Mexico territory Charles Bent is murdered and scalped by angry Indians after the U. S. conquering army had moved on. His trading post- Bent’s Fort, still stands today.<br /> <br /> 1857- THE LAST BIG ONE. The Fort Tejon earthquake shook Los Angeles. This was the last major quake in Southern Cal of the great San Andreas Fault, an estimated 8.25! Because the area was so lightly populated, only two people were killed. One woman when her house collapsed on her, and an old man who had a heart attack. For the next big San Andreas quake? Stay tuned….<br /> <br /> 1860- The Star of the West, a ship sent to re-supply Union held Fort Sumter sitting out in Charleston Harbor, was fired on by South Carolina shore batteries on Morris Island and forced to turn around. These are the first hostile shots fired between North &amp; South. But the incident was not enough to trigger the U.S. Civil War.<br /> <br /> 1914 -John Randolph Bray took out patents on the principles of film animation: cycles, arcs, keys and in-betweens. He even tried to sue Winsor McCay, who had already been using them for years. <br /> <br /> 1924- The breakfast cereal Wheaties invented.<br /> <br /> 1936- Actor John Gilbert died of a heart attack after years of alcohol abuse. The accepted reason was he was a has-been silent film star whose voice was too thin and squeaky for talking pictures. Actually his voice wasn't too bad, some of it may of had to do with his punching Louis B. Mayer in the mouth when Mayer made a crude remark about Gilbert's relationship with Greta Garbo -something like "Why marry her when you're getting it anyway ?.."-BOP! . Mayer got up and screamed: "I'll ruin you if it costs me millions!"<br /> Gilbert's fading popularity and decline into alcohol as his second wife Virginia Bruce’s film career blossomed, was the inspiration for "A Star is Born".<br /> <br /> 1939- Top Looney Tunes director Frank Tashlin was hired by Walt Disney. He quit after two fruitless years, and he wrote a children’s book called the "Bear that Wasn’t" about his experiences. An early vice president of the Cartoonists Guild, he also joined the Mouse House to help unionize the studio. After a stint at Screen Gems, in 1945 Frank Tashlin went to Paramount’s live action division and became the director of the Dean Martin &amp; Jerry Lewis comedies. <br /> <br /> 1959- The TV series Rawhide debuted, starring a young actor named Clint Eastwood. President Lyndon Johnson and Ladybird were big Rawhide fans.<br /> <br /> 1968- THE BATTLE OF QUE SANH- Que Sanh was a U.S. Marine firebase at the western tip of the Vietnamese DeMilitarized Zone. It was so placed to interdict the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This day Firebase Que Sanh was surrounded and attacked by huge North Vietnamese forces. General William Westmorland growled to his corps commanders "This will NOT be the American Dien Bien Phu !" Dien Bien Phu was the 1954 siege that defeated the French. The Battle of Que Sanh lasted until April with the Marines fighting off huge attacks. <br /> The U.S. media at the time portrayed Que Sanh as an epic showdown in the tradition of Gettysburg or Guadalcanal, but to the Vietnamese General Ngyun Vo Giap, it was a feint to distract from the real offensive when the Tet Lunar holiday began....<br /> <br /> 1972- In a rare press conference by telephone from the Bahamas, reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes declared the biography done of him by Clifford Irving was a total fabrication. <br /> <br /> 1976- First day of shooting in Philadelphia of the movie Rocky. It was the first movie to utilize the Steadicam, a system that balanced hand-held camera shots.<br /> <br /> 1987- THE OCTOBER SURPRISE- Seven years later, The Ronald Reagan White House released a memorandum from 1980 proving the sales of weapons to Iran did bring about the release of the American Embassy hostages. Ronald Reagan had declared there was no ransom paid. His media spinners encouraged the idea that all the Old Gipper had to do was show up in the White House for the mad mullahs to release our people and hightail it outta’ town! Now the truth was out that Reagan lied, but it was too late, and not enough of a sound bite for a dazed &amp; confused public.<br /> <br /> 2007- Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone. “We didn’t realize we would change the world” a senior manager on the project recalled, “We just wanted to make an iPod that you can make a phone call on.”<br /> <br /> 2008- After his surprise win in the New Hampshire Primary, Barack Obama electrified the country with his speech:” Yes We Can.”<br /> <br /> 2021- Twitter suspended President Donald Trump’s account.<br /> =======================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean to give some the Third Degree?<br /> <br /> Answer: It meant to aggressively interrogate a criminal suspect. Even to the point of being abusive.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 08 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6041 <p>Question: What does it mean to give some the Third Degree?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: Who were Yakima Canutt, Al Leong, Richard Farnsworth?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/8/2023<br /> Birthdays: Elvis Presley would have been 88, Robert Schumann, Jose Ferrer, Shirley Bassey, Peter Arno, Yvette Mimieux, John Nierhardt, Bruce Sutter, Charles Osgood, Gen. James Longstreet, publisher Frank Doubleday, Saheed Jafray, Soupy Sales- born Milton Supman, David Bowie, Kim Jong Un, Larry Storch, Steven Hawking*<br /> <br /> *In 1963, Doctors told 21year old Steven Hawking he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and he had at most two years to live. He lived 56 more years, dying at age 77. <br /> <br /> Today is the Feast day of St. Severinus of Noricum, one of the first missionaries to the pagan Austrians 482 AD.<br /> <br /> 794AD- The great Christian monastery of Lindisfarne was sacked by Vikings. <br /> <br /> 871- Battle of Ashdown- English warriors of Wessex defeated a large force of Vikings led by Halfdan the Black, Bascecg and Ivar the Boneless. On the English side under his brother King Ethlered was future king Alfred the Great. <br /> <br /> 1297- MONACO FORMED- Francois the Cunning was the leader of the Grimaldis, a prominent Genoese clan. On this day he disguised himself as a monk and sneaked into Monaco castle where he stabbed the guards, then opened the gate for his troops. The Grimaldis became Princes of Monaco in 1659. In 1851 Prince Charles III Grimaldi opened the first gambling casino. In gratitude of it's success, the people named the hill town they lived in Mount Charles, or Monte Carlo. The Grimaldi family still rule Monaco today under their present Grimaldi- Prince Albert Raynier II.<br /> <br /> 1642- Astronomer Galileo Galilei died at 77 of 'slow fever'. After being forced by the Holy Inquisition to recant his support of the theories of Copernicus in 1616, he lived under a loose house arrest. He became blind, but he played his lute and still published scientific papers smuggled out to be printed in Holland. Other great thinkers like English poet John Milton could visit him. <br /> The Church admitted in 1837 that he may have been right about the Earth going around the Sun. The Vatican originally refused to allow him to be buried in consecrated ground, but relented in 1727 and he was moved to the Church of Santa Croce in Florence. During the move someone cut off three of his fingers for souvenirs. Two of the fingers were eventually recovered and his middle finger is displayed in the Florentine Museum of Science. It is displayed in the upright position.<br /> <br /> 1654- Hetman of the Ukraine Bogdan Khmelnitsky pledged loyalty to the Russian Czar in Moscow. The wild steppes between the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russia, the Tatars of the Crimea and the Turkish Ottoman Empire was a refuge for runaways and fringe folks much like the American West or the Australian Outback. These Cossacks formed communities adopting Tartar customs and a fierce sense of independence. Khemlnitsky tapped into this independent streak to unite these disparate groups and used them to drive out their Polish Catholic overlords. He ruled the Ukraine like Oliver Cromwell in England. After several major wars maintaining a balance between the Poles, Turks and Russians, Khmelnitsky decided to throw in his lot with Moscow.<br /> After Bogdans’ death, the furious Poles dug up his grave and threw his bones to the dogs, but the deed was done. Despite several major revolts, the Ukraine and the Voivode of Ruthenia (Moldova &amp; Belorus) would stay a part of Russia until 1989. And today we see the strife still between Russia and the Ukraine.<br /> <br /> 1675- The first American Corporation chartered- The New York Fish Company.<br /> <br /> 1705- George Frederich Handel’s first opera Almira opened.<br /> <br /> 1790- George Washington starts a custom of the President delivering an annual speech reporting on the nation's progress in the past year, later known as the State of the Union Address. Because he was the first, Washington had to invent a lot what a President does, as long as it did not look like he acting like was a king. Article II of the Constitution said the President should annually report to Congress how things were doing. So George went to Congress and delivered his report in person in a speech. Tom Jefferson, who disliked public speaking, discontinued the custom and sent his report in writing. It stayed that way until in 1913 Woodrow Wilson revived the custom of a grand address to a joint session of Congress.<br /> <br /> 1815 "In Eighteen Fifteen we took a little Trip. With Colonel Andy Jackson down the Mighty Missa-sipp" BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. The last engagement of the War of 1812 and the last battle ever fought between Britons and Americans. It was actually fought AFTER the peace agreement had been signed. While the battle was raging, the news of the treaty was still crossing the Atlantic.<br /> When general Andrew Jackson heard of the British Army landing, he roared: "By Eternal God I will not have them sleeping on our soil!" He told the terrified New Orleanaise -still more French than American, that he would defend their city to the last, then burn it all to the ground. <br /> At Chalumette plantation, the redcoats were met by Jackson's ragtag force of regulars, militia, Jean Lafitte's pirates, Cherokees and slaves, dug-in in a dry canal. Interestingly enough, the slaves proved to be the deadliest shots. Many slave families were denied meat for their diet. One a family were allowed to keep a bird rifle to bring home small game. To them bullets were precious, so they learned to make every shot count. At Chalumette they were given Kentucky long rifles with a range accuracy 300 yds. to the British "Brown Bess" musket 's 150 yds. The British grand assault never got within range before they were cut to pieces. It was all over in half an hour. <br /> Their commander Sir Edward Packenham, was a brother-in-law to the Duke of Wellington. Wellington himself declined the American command as being militarily impractical. Had the Iron Duke accepted he might have beat Jackson but would certainly have missed Waterloo. Sir Edward Packenham caught a bullet between the eyes, legend has it fired by a slave child. His body was shipped back to England sealed in a rum barrel. During the voyage home the barrels were mixed up and Sir Edward’s was tapped for the sailor’s rum rations. Even his officers toasted his memory unknowingly with the same rum. Upon arriving at Portsmouth his lordship had been reduced to brown sludge. <br /> <br /> 1853- The equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson unveiled in Lafayette Park in Washington D.C.<br /> <br /> 1856- Borax discovered in the California desert by Dr John Veatch. Now where’s that 20 mule team?<br /> <br /> 1877- Battle of the Tongue River. US Cavalry under General Nelson Miles surprise-attacked Crazy Horse’s winter camp in a Montana snowstorm.<br /> <br /> 1889- Herman Hollerith received a patent for the electronic counting machine. The machine fed numbers onto punch cards and was used in the U.S. census of 1890. In 1896 Hollerith founded the Tabulating Machine Company, which later was renamed International Business Machines or IBM.<br /> <br /> 1904- Pope Pius X banned women wearing low cut dresses in front of clergy. <br /> <br /> 1916- The British Navy withdrew their forces from the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey.<br /> <br /> 1918- THE FOURTEEN POINTS- President Woodrow Wilson had pondered the reason why the world had torn itself apart in World War I. He had his aide Colonel House chair a committee of top intellectuals and jurists called The Inquiry. They came up with Fourteen Points for lasting world peace. It asked for new ideas like people should be allowed to decide what government controlled them, and freedom of the seas. <br /> Wilson made it the cornerstone of his foreign policy, and airplanes dropped printed leaflets on the Germans. England &amp; France were willing to use the document as propaganda, but were not interested in its ideas. French Premier Clemencau said:" God gave us Ten Commandments, and we broke them. Wilson now gives us Fourteen Points. We will see."<br /> <br /> 1959- Charles DeGaulle returned to power as President of the Fifth French Republic.<br /> <br /> 1962- The Mona Lisa traveled to America and went on display today at the National Gallery in Washington. It was loaned in a deal brokered by Jackie Kennedy and French cultural minister Andre Malraux.<br /> <br /> 1936- Walt Disney was awarded Frances highest medal. The Legion of Honor. “ In recognition of Disney’s work in creating a new art form in which good will is spread throughout the world.” -French Consul in LA, Jean-Joseph Viala<br /> <br /> 1964- President Lyndon B. Johnson declared his War on Poverty campaign.<br /> <br /> 1973- Carly Simon got a gold record for "You’re So Vain". <br /> <br /> 1992- At a state dinner in Tokyo, President George H.W. Bush, suffering from a flu, vomited in the lap of Japanese Prime Minister Nakasone in front of press cameras. There is now a word in Japanese- BUSHURU, meaning to vomit on the person next to you.<br /> <br /> 2002- Pres George W. Bush Jr. signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law.<br /> <br /> 2011- Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was holding an informal town hall meeting, when a lunatic named Gerald Loughner pulled out a gun and started firing. He killed six people, including an 8 year old girl, and wounded 13. Rep Giffords, shot in the head, barely survived and had to learn to speak again. It ended her Congressional career. When her astronaut husband Mark Kelly tried to speak out for reasonable gun restrictions, they were declared enemies by the NRA. Kelly was just re-elected a senator.<br /> <br /> 2016- According to the movie Blade Runner, this is the day Rutger Hauers character Roy was born (activated) Replicant (M) Des: BATTY (Roy)<br /> NEXUS 6 N6MAA10816<br /> Incept Date: 8 JAN, 2016<br /> Func: Combat, Colonization Defense Prog. <br /> ============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Who were Yakima Canutt, Al Leong, Richard Farnsworth?<br /> <br /> Answer: Famous Hollywood stuntmen. In his later years Richard Farnsworth became a star in films like The Grey Fox and The Natural.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 07 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6040 <p>Quiz: Who were Yakima Canutt, Al Leong, Richard Farnsworth?<br /> <br /> Answer: Who was Ferd Grofe’?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/7/2022<br /> Birthdays: Jacques Montgolfier, Joseph Bonaparte- Napoleons older brother, St. Bernadette of Lourdes, Revolutionary War General Israel Putnam, Francois Poulenc, Charles Addams, Butterfly McQueen, Adolph Zukor, Charles Adams, E.L. Doctorow, Jean Pierre Rampal, Millard Filmore*, Katie Couric, William Peter Blatty the author of Jaws, David Caruso, Nicholas Cage- originally Nicolo Coppola, is 59<br /> <br /> • HAPPY MILLARD FILLMORE DAY!! Millard Fillmore is famous, if you could call it that, as Americas most obscure president. This day the Millard Filmore Society has a banquet in his birthplace of Buffalo, N.Y. To celebrate, after a meal today, say his famous last words," this nourishment is palatable."<br /> <br /> 1174- Today is the Feast day of Saint Raymond of Pentafort, who sailed to Barcelona on his own coat. <br /> <br /> 1610- Galileo pointed his telescope into the heavens and first noted the moons around Jupiter- Ganymede, Io and Europa. The first time anyone noticed objects in the heavens other than earth had moons around them too.<br /> <br /> 1785- Aeronauts Jean Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries crossed the English Channel in a gas balloon. To keep from crashing before attaining the French coastline they had to jettison most of their equipment, including silk covered oars intended to use to row through the air. Blanchard even threw his trousers overboard to lighten the load.<br /> <br /> 1789- THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION -Meaning when the electors nominated by the various state legislatures voted. The Electoral College is a remnant of this. Popular elections really didn't catch on until the 1820's. At this time only white, male, landowning, literate, freeborn men could vote, so 160,000 voted, out of a population of 4 million. In England at this time, only 10% of the male population could vote. George Washington won overwhelmingly over John Adams and John Hancock.<br /> <br /> 1839- Frenchman Louis Daguerre announced the invention of Photography (Just three weeks later on the 31st Englishman William Fox Talbot will say he invented photography first). Today was his public announcement. Daguerre’s experiments had been going on since 1835, which is when Talbot said he was doing his. There was also Thomas Wedgewood and Nicephore Niepce’s claims to be first. Despite the dispute, the Daguerreotype photographic process became the popular system worldwide in the nineteenth century. The image of Lincoln on the five-dollar bill is from a daguerreotype.<br /> <br /> 1894-Edison’s " The Sneeze" The first motion picture film to be copyrighted <br /> <br /> 1896- The first Fanny Farmer Cookbook published.<br /> <br /> 1914- the Merrill-Lynch Stock brokerage founded.<br /> <br /> 1914- The NY Times reported that Mexican general Pancho Villa signed an exclusive deal with Mutual Motion Pictures for coverage of his revolution. Villa would even confer with young movie director Raoul Walsh for when to schedule an attack, to get the best camera angles. <br /> <br /> 1922- THE IRISH CIVIL WAR. After a furious debate, the Irish Dail’ (parliament) voted by just seven votes to approve the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiated by IRA chief Michael Collins and Sinn Fein founder John Griffiths. This was the take-it-or-war deal offered by David Lloyd George that allowed for an Irish Free State but not a republic and with six counties of Northern Island sliced off to remain part of Britain. Irish President Eamon De Valera angrily took his partisans out of the Dail and the street fighting broke out shortly afterwards. Griffiths died of a heart attack and Collins was assassinated. The Irish Republic declared in 1932 but Northern Ireland is still part of the UK.<br /> <br /> 1924- George Gershwin completed his Rhapsody for Piano and Jazz Orchestra, popularly called the Rhapsody in Blue. Ira Gershwin came up with the name after seeing a museum show of Whistler paintings with names like "Composition in Grey, Nocturne in Green," etc. <br /> <br /> 1926- George Burns married Gracie Allen.<br /> <br /> 1927- The first private telephone call from America to England.<br /> <br /> 1929- With the approval of Edgar Rice Burroughs, artist Hal Foster first began drawing the Tarzan comic strip.<br /> <br /> 1934 –The First Buck Rogers adventures.<br /> <br /> 1935- Roger Sherwood’s play the Petrified Forrest opened to smash revues at the Broadhurst Theater on Broadway. Lead Leslie Howard got great notices, but the real find was an obscure hard drinking actor with sad eyes playing the gangster Duke Mantee – Humphrey Bogart. In the audience was Jack Warner of Warner Bros, who decided Mr. Bogart might just make it in motion pictures.<br /> <br /> 1942- BATAAN- Gen. Homma's Japanese army attacked Gen. Douglas MacArthur's American and Philippine last stand defense line on the Bataan Peninsula. From today until late April, the Filipino-Americans waged a desperate fighting retreat against overwhelming Japanese forces down the Florida-shaped peninsula of Luzon, hoping for reinforcements from America that would never come. They sang:<br /> "We're the battling bastards of Bataan,<br /> No moma, no papa, no Uncle Sam.<br /> No aunts, no uncles, sisters or nieces;<br /> no pills, no planes, no artillery pieces.<br /> We're the battling bastards of Bataan,<br /> And nobody gives a damn.." <br /> <br /> 1943- Nicholas Tesla died in poverty. The inventor of AC current, rotary field motors and the Tesla coil. In his last years he had been experimenting with telegraphy, and trying to develop a death ray for the US Army.<br /> <br /> 1943- Walt Disney released the propaganda short The Spirit of ’43, commissioned by the Treasury Dept. Donald Duck explained that the best way to win the war, was to pay your taxes!<br /> <br /> 1949- Ever since Israel declared itself a state the previous May, it had been fighting off the armies of 5 surrounding Arab countries. After several attempts at a cease fire, this day a permanent U.N. Cease fire ended the Israeli War of Independence. <br /> <br /> 1961- In Providence Rhode Island a bunch of kids were stopped by police for driving a round a neighborhood store suspiciously carrying guns and masks. One 21 year old who did three days in jail for carrying a concealed weapon later became a pretty good actor- Al Pacino.<br /> <br /> 1966- A hippie rock band from what would become Silicon Valley, called the Grateful Dead, got their first gig playing in a nightclub called the Matrix. They would be one of the most successful rock bands in history, only breaking up after the death of their leader, Jerry Garcia in 1995.<br /> <br /> 1972- Pulitzer prize winning poet John Berryman went to a Minneapolis bridge over the Mississippi River, took off his glasses, waved at a few people then jumped to his death. He missed the river and hit the bank 110 feet below, but he achieved his initial purpose of killing himself.<br /> <br /> 1979-The invading Vietnamese Army took Phnom Penh and ended the regime of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot. During his regime known as the Killing Fields, he may have murdered up to a quarter of his country’s population, over two million people. <br /> <br /> 2009- Before his inauguration, President George W. Bush set up a working lunch at the White House for President-Elect Obama with all the living ex-Presidents, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush. Dubya Bush told Obama,” We want you to succeed. Whether we’re Democrat or Republican, we care deeply about this country. And to the extent we can look forward to sharing our experiences with you. All of us who have served in this office understands that the office transcends the individual.”<br /> <br /> 2015- CHARLIE HEBDO- In Paris, Muslim extremists shot up the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for making cartoons of the prophet Mohammad. 12 people were murdered, including the editor, and four of France’s most beloved cartoonists. Their editor in chief Stephane “Charb” Charbonnier, when he saw the gun pointed at him, stood and defiantly gave his killer the middle finger before he was killed.<br /> <br /> 2018- U.S. President Donald Trump declared “I am a very stable genius.”<br /> <br /> 2020- Brother of the future King of England, Prince Harry, announced that he and his American wife Meaghan Markle, were quitting the Royal Family and moving to America to become average people.<br /> ==========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Who was Ferd Grofe’?<br /> <br /> Answer: Ferde Grofe was an arranger for the Paul Whiteman orchestra who wrote THE GRAND CANYON SUITE and other pieces. He orchestrated Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue since it was commissioned shortly before the Carnegie Hall concert in 1924. <br /> He brought in the jazz clarinetist who improvised the famous opening note. “Smearing the riff”. Gershwin liked it so much, he said it must always be played that way.<br /> (Thanks NB)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 06 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6039 <p>Quiz: Who was Ferd Grofe’?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What does it mean to “gin up the crowd”?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/6/2023<br /> Birthdays: St. Joan of Arc, Khalil Gibran, mountain man Jedediah Smith, Tom Mix, Alexander Scriabin, Gustav Dore', Loretta Young, Earl Skruggs. Carl Sandburg, Danny Thomas, Nancy Lopez, Alan Watts, John Singleton, Anthony Minghella, Rowan Atkinson is 68 <br /> <br /> Happy Feast of Epiphany or Twelfth Night. Today is the end of the twelve days of Christmas when the Magi, the Three Wise Men, or the three kings- Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, visited the Holy Family. In some countries the Three Kings, not Christmas, is when children get their presents, because that’s when Jesus got his.<br /> The Magi were the priestly caste of ancient Persia. They were believed to predate the Persians and come from the Chaldeans, the people who invented the western branch of the science of astronomy. A lot of the Magi ritual concerned observation of the stars. <br /> <br /> 1066- After the death of Edward the Confessor, Saxon Earl Harold Godwinsson crowned himself King of England, which made Duke William of Normandy reach for his sword.<br /> <br /> 1522- The Augustinian Monastery of Wittenburg had been the home of reformer Martin Luther. Today, inspired by Luther’s preaching against the Vatican, the monks and nuns voted to disband themselves, move in together and start humping like bunnies. Martin Luther had go back to order them to calm down and get married.<br /> <br /> 1558- English Queen Mary Tudor had been talked by her proxy husband Phillip II into declaring war on France. The war went well for Spain, but this day the French recaptured Calais, the last English stronghold on the continent, which had been English for 211 years. Over the main gate of Calais was a stone relief of a donkey that bore the inscription “Calais shall be English until this Donkey eats straw!”<br /> <br /> 1759- George Washington and Martha Custis married. Washington first loved another woman named Sally Fairfax, who refused him. She married a prominent English loyalist plantation owner. They fled to Europe when the Revolution began and never returned. When George married Martha she was a very rich widow, but beyond childbearing years.<br /> This might have been a factor in Washington's decision later not to be King of America, for he would have no direct heirs. Imagine the complications in the young democracy trying to establish this concept of an elective President if there was a George Washington Jr. to contend with? In later years when Washington wanted to be alone, he would ride over to the ruins of the Fairfax Mansion to think. <br /> <br /> 1842- THE RETREAT FROM KABUL - This day, 15,000 British troops and their dependants march out of Kabul, Afghanistan on the road to Jalalabad. They were attacked by Afghan Ghilzais tribesmen all along the route through the Khyber Pass. Only one man survived, surgeon William Brydon, only because he got lost along the way.<br /> <br /> 1849- the first cartoon cover of Punch Magazine.<br /> <br /> 1853- President-elect Franklin Pierce and his family are involved in a train wreck in Concord Mass. Pierce and the first lady survived, but their last surviving child Ben was killed. First Lady Jean Pierce took this as a sign that God was punishing them for wanting the Presidency, and she morosely withdrew from society. Franklin Pierce himself spent most of his administration drunk, or on his knees singing psalms.<br /> <br /> 1872- Millionaire robber-baron Big Jim Fisk was shot dead by Ned Stokes, his rival for the affections of beautiful actress Josie Mansfield. Fisk once conned President Grant into a business partnership while he tried to corner the gold bullion market.<br /> <br /> 1912- New Mexico became a state.<br /> <br /> 1912- Scientist Alfred Wegener presented his paper to the German Geological Society in Frankfurt. In it he theorized that the Earth’s continents are not fixed in place but moving. He named it Continental Drift. Wegener’s theories were all dismissed as cuckoo until after WWII, when submarines charting the ocean floor discovered the tectonic plates. Today it is understood that the continents move at the speed with which you grow a fingernail. About 6 feet a century. <br /> <br /> 1919- Teddy Roosevelt died peacefully in his sleep at Oyster Bay N.Y. at 60. He was never expected to survive childhood asthma, was wounded in Spanish American War, thrown 40 feet in a streetcar wreck, got a dangerous leg abscess while on safari, almost died of malaria in the Amazon, and was shot by an assassin while giving a political speech, which he finished anyway. His daughter Alice said: " The problem with father is at every wedding he wants to be the bride and at every funeral the corpse."<br /> <br /> 1919- In the social anarchy after the defeat in World War I, German Communists storm the Chancellery in Berlin and try to set up a Bolshevik style Revolution. They are driven out by right wing mobs and more chaos reigns in the streets.<br /> <br /> 1945- First Pepe Le Pew cartoon, "Odorable Kitty". When Eddie Selzer, the Warners producer who replaced Leon Schlesinger, heard the plans to do a short about a skunk he thundered: "Absolutely Not! Nobody will go see a cartoon skunk!" Chuck Jones recalled: "As soon as he said no, I knew we just had to do it." Selzer's final opinion:" Nobody'll laugh at that sh*t!" Pepe went on to become one of Warners most beloved characters.<br /> <br /> 1945- Navy Lt. George H. W. Bush married Barbara Pierce. Despite Barbara’s mother’s opinion of Bush “Singularly Unimpressive”, Poppy Bush made Barbara First Lady, and the mother of another president.<br /> <br /> 1949- Composer Leonard Bernstein noted in his diary that “JR (Jerome Robbins) called today with a novel idea- a modern version of Romeo and Juliet set in the slums.” At first the musical was going to be called East Side Story, then GangWay, finally West Side Story.<br /> <br /> 1956- Prince Rainier of Monaco announced his engagement to movie star Grace Kelly.<br /> <br /> 1962- Bob Clampett's Beany and Cecil the Sea-Sick Sea Serpent. This was the animated version of his popular puppet show.“So Long Kids, Wind Up Your Lids, We’ll look for You Real Soooooon.”<br /> <br /> 1975-“Ease on Down the Road.-“ The musical The Wiz premiered on Broadway.<br /> <br /> 1993- Ballet star Rudolf Nureyev, the most famous male dancer since Nijinsky, died of HIV/AIDS.<br /> <br /> 1994- “WHY ME, WHY ME?” Shortly after a practice in a Detroit skating rink, Olympic hopeful Nancy Kerrigan was attacked by a man trying to break her knees with a steel pipe. The man Derrick Smith later confessed to the FBI that he was paid $6,500 to do the deed by Jeff Gilhooly, the manager and ex-husband of Kerrigan’s rival Tonya Harding. After all the intense media coverage Nancy Kerrigan won one Silver medal, Tonya Harding nothing and the Olympic Gold went to Ukrainian Oksana Baiul, who was later busted for drunk driving.<br /> <br /> 1995- In another great step for low journalism, CBS anchor Connie Chung gets Kathleen Gingrich, the mother of Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, to call First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton a “bitch”. In an earlier time such gutter utterances would have been politely edited, but this was given national prominence.<br /> <br /> 1996- In Gaza, Hamas leader Yahya Ayyash, called the Engineer, dialed his cellphone and it blew his head off. It was a remote control bomb set by the Israeli Mossad. 100,000 Palestinians attended Ayyash’s funeral.<br /> <br /> 2017- In a meeting with the FBI, President-elect Donald Trump was shown top secret evidence that the 2016 US elections were compromised by Russian intelligence. He ignored it and spent the next few years lying about ever knowing anything about it. <br /> <br /> 2021-THE CRYBABY COUP. Donald Trump knew he lost re-election, but he refused to concede. Using rightwing social media, he organized and unleashed a mob of 126,000 fanatical supporters ginned up on unfounded lies about voter fraud. This day they attacked the U.S. Capitol. Pipe bombs were planted in key positions around Washington and similar smaller violent demonstrations broke out in several state capitols. Trump was prevented by the Secret Service from joining the rioters himself. He wanted metal detectors removed because his knew his fans were bringing weapons like guns and grenades. Protection for the national capitol was deliberately kept to just a few capitol police. Despite pleas for help, the National Guard was withheld for four hours, no reason given. Congressmen, many senior citizens, and Vice President Pence had to run for their lives. Capitol Policeman Eugene Goodman successfully distracted the mob just 30 feet from fleeing senators. 6 people were killed, 80 injured, and millions wasted in the worse destruction to the U.S. Capitol since the British invasion over 200 year ago. It took President Trump over three hours to issue a statement. Even his daughter Ivanka begged him to call them off. He finally told his followers to “Go home. We love you. You are Beautiful.” Vice President Pence and Congresspeople reconvened at 2:00AM and certified the election anyway.<br /> <br /> 2022- On the one year anniversary of the Capitol Hill Insurrection, a federal judge turned down the request of convicted rioter Anthony Williams for ten days off to meet his fiancé’s family vacationing in Jamaica. <br /> ===============================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean to “gin up the crowd”?<br /> <br /> Answer: In the XIX Century the British Army would pass out cups of gin to their troops just before a battle. It was to calm their nerves and get them “up” for the conflict. Since then to gin up someone is to artificially fill them with false passions.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 05 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6038 <p>QUIZ: What does it mean to “gin up the crowd”?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Did the Vikings originally come from Denmark, Norway or Sweden?<br /> ===============================================<br /> History for 1/5/2023<br /> Birthdays: Zebulon Pike, Stephen Decatur, Alven Ailey, James Stuart Blackton (the first American animator, born in Lincolnshire, England ), W.D. Snodgrass, Jack Norworth -composer of " Take Me out to the Ballgame' , Konrad Adenauer, Astrologist Jean Dixon, Umberto Ecco, Yves Tanguy, Walter Mondale, George Reeves, Roger Spottiswoode, Tissa David, Hayao Miyazaki is 82, Robert Duval is 92, Dianne Keaton is 77, Spanish King Juan Carlos, Marilyn Manson is 55, January Jones is 42, Bradley Cooper is 48.<br /> 1463- French poet Francois Villon was kicked out of Paris.<br /> 1477- THE BATTLE OF NANCY- The Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Rash, dreamed of turning his duchy between France and Germany into one of the great powers of Europe. In the process he managed to annoy just about all his neighbors with his constant wars. This day Charles found out why the Swiss are left alone by everybody. Upon invading Switzerland, his army was cut to pieces. His body was found naked in a ditch with his head stuck fast in a puddle of ice. Two battle axes were rammed up his butt. <br /> The King of France as his feudal suzerain annexed Burgundy to France, but just before his last battle Charles engaged his only daughter to the German Emperor. So the only thing Charles left to history was the ancient feud between Germany and France over who owned Alsace-Lorraine, which raged until 1945.<br /> <br /> 1643- The first divorce granted in North America. Pilgrim Anne Clarke was granted a divorce by the Massachusetts Bay Colony from her deadbeat husband Dennis.<br /> <br /> 1757- A man named Robert Damiens attacked French King Louis XV and stabbed him. It was a flesh wound that Voltaire described as a pin-prick. The king survived and the court sentenced Damiens to the most horrible death they could think of, the medieval punishment for regicides.<br /> Nobody had done it for generations so the court executioner, Charles Samson, had to consult the library. Hmm...Drawing and quartering....cut off assailants hands and stick his bleeding wrist-stumps into a pan of burning sulfur...uh-huh..got it! The execution was so ghastly that eyewitnesses vomited and fled, Samson passed out from exhaustion, so his assistants had to finish the job. Robert Damiens believed he was doing it for the people, but unfortunately he was 32 years too early for the French Revolution.<br /> <br /> 1762- The Seven Years War in Europe was a war of three powerful women against one gay man. Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Madame la Pompadour the favorite of Louis XV of France and Czarina Elizabeth of Russia. They all waged war on King Frederick the Great of Prussia, the country that eventually became Germany. Frederick called them the Three Petticoats. But after 6 years of war with his country overrun with foreign armies, and his treasury bankrupt, Frederick needed a miracle to survive. <br /> His miracle came this day, when Czarina Elizabeth died. She was succeeded by her eccentric son Peter III. The new Czar idolized Frederick. He immediately changed sides and donned a Prussian uniform to serve “My Master”. Frederick thought Czar Peter a bit odd, but he welcomed his help nonetheless.<br /> <br /> 1825- Writer Alexander Dumas fought a duel with the Chevalier Saint George, a black duelist from Martinique, who played violin so well Beethoven asked his help to write his violin concerto. He was called Le Mozart Noir. Neither man was seriously hurt and Dumas went on to write The Three Musketeers. Saint George also once fought a duel with Monsieur d¹Eon, a transgender who fought his/her duels in a woman’s ball gown. <br /> <br /> 1836- Davy Crocket crossed into Texas. <br /> <br /> 1895- Today was the famous scene of after Captain Albert Dreyfus was framed for espionage he was publicly humiliated in the courtyard of the Ecole Militaire in Paris. He was stripped of his insignia and his sword broken. As he was marched off to prison he continually shouted aloud “Citizens of France, I am Innocent!” <br /> <br /> 1896- A Vienna newspaper announced the invention by Dr. Wilhelm Roentgen of Wurzburg, of a machine that produces "X-Rays" to painlessly see inside the body. In England, Lord Kelvin, who invented the Celsius temperature scales, declared x-rays a "ridiculous hoax "<br /> <br /> 1896- Josef Pulitzers’ New York World began printing the Sunday Yellow Kid comic strip with a yellow color on his shirt. The strip gave the name to the sensationalist tabloid press 'Yellow Journalism".<br /> <br /> 1914- The Ford Motor Company shocked the leaders of American Industry by raising it¹s wage rates for work shift from $2.40 a day to $5.00 a day and voluntarily adopting the new 8 hour work day. Henry Ford’s idea was “When workers have more money, they buy cars”. The idea worked, and sales of cars quadrupled, and the economic climate of Detroit boomed.<br /> <br /> 1921- Famous Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton was preparing one more expedition to the South Pole. This day on his ship anchored in South Georgian Island Bay, he complained he felt ill. He said to his doctor “Oh, what do you want me to give up now?” then he fell over dead of a heart attack. He was 47.<br /> <br /> 1924- William Chrysler introduced his first automobile featuring an all steel chassis frame instead of wood. He created it for the failing Maxwell Car Company and in 1925 changed the name to the Chrysler Car Company.<br /> <br /> 1925- Nellie Taylor Ross was inaugurated as the Governor of Wyoming, the first woman to hold such an office.<br /> <br /> 1933- First day of construction on San Francisco¹s Golden Gate Bridge.<br /> <br /> 1933- Former Pres. Calvin Coolidge died peacefully. The laconic Coolidge was so low key and stand offish that he was a favorite target for political writers. H.L. Mencken said "Being fanatical for Coolidge is like being fanatical for double entry bookkeeping" Dorothy Parker had the final word. When told that Coolidge had died, she replied:" How could you tell?"<br /> <br /> 1934- Both the American and National Baseball Leagues agreed upon a standard size for a baseball.<br /> <br /> 1953- Samuel Beckett¹s play Waiting for Godot (En attendant Godot) first premiered in Paris.<br /> <br /> 1959- Buddy Holly released his last single, It Doesn’t Matter Anymore.<br /> <br /> 1959- The first Bozo the Clown TV show premiered on TV. Larry Harmon played the famous children’s clown.<br /> <br /> 1961- “Hello Wilbur” Mr Ed the Talking Horse appeared on TV for the first time.<br /> <br /> 1962- After a holiday break, shooting resumed on Cleopatra. This was the first time stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton worked together, and the first signs of their love affair. Their tempestuous relationship was one of the great affairs of 1960s Hollywood.<br /> <br /> 1968- A Boston grand jury indicted famous baby doctor Benjamin Spock for conspiring to abet violation of draft laws. The great scientist had come out as a vocal opponent of U.S. participation in the Vietnam War. "I helped them be born. I'm not going to abandon them now."<br /> <br /> 1970- Soap opera “All My Children” premiered.<br /> <br /> 1979- EMI Records ended their contracts with the punk band the Sex Pistols. They felt their outrageous behavior had gone just too far.<br /> <br /> 1980- The first Hewlett Packard Personal Computer, or PC, goes on the market.<br /> <br /> 1998-At the Heavenly Valley Ski Resort, former pop singer turned Republican Congressman Sonny Bono died, when he skied headlong into a tree. <br /> <br /> 2017- Outgoing President Obama was briefed by the FBI about proof they had that the Russian government had interfered in the 2016 election to ensure Donald Trump would win.<br /> <br /> 2021- The night before their planned coup to stop the certification of President Biden’s election victory, outgoing President Trump, Rudy Giuliani and their cronies worked into the night making arrangements to pressure Vice President Mike Pence from certifying the election. They hoped that Pence could with a bang of his gavel stop the certification and throw the election to the House. Mike Pence called former Bush VP Dan Quayle, who told him, “You do not have that power. Your purpose is to do nothing. You preside, like a TV emcee.” <br /> That night after all their meetings wrapped, Trump left open the door to the Oval Office, so he could hear the hateful shouts and chants of the demonstrators outside. When aides asked that he close the door from the January cold, Trump said,” Nah. I love listening to them. They are my people.” <br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Did the Vikings originally come from Denmark, Norway or Sweden?<br /> <br /> Answer: All three. There really weren’t nation states there yet. Europeans called them all Norse, Northmen.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 04 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6037 <p>Quiz: Did the Vikings originally come from Denmark, Norway or Sweden?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays Quiz answered below: What era has been referred to as “ One thousand years without a bath”?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/4/2023<br /> Birthdays: Sir Issac Newton, Emile Cohl, Louis Braille, General Tom Thumb, Jane Wyman, Jacob Grimm of the Brothers Grimm, Sterling Holloway the voice of Winnie the Pooh, Francois Rude, Dyan Cannon is 85, Floyd Patterson, Don Shula, Barbara Rush, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Julia Ormond is 58<br /> <br /> 1642- English King Charles I, egged on by his queen Henrietta Maria, attempted to squash his uppity Puritan enemies in Parliament with one stroke. He personally marched troops into the House of Commons and demanded the arrest of five ringleaders, John Pym, Sir Arthur Hazelrig and others. They had already fled. When he ordered the Speaker of the House to identify the men, the speaker bowed and politely refused: "Sire, I have neither eyes to see nor lips to speak say as this House biddeth me". by Thomas Edison and his engineer W.K.L. Dickson<br /> <br /> King Charles and his guards left empty-handed, while Londoners laughed and threw garbage out their windows on him. He traveled north to raise troops. The English Civil War is recorded as beginning that September, but from this moment on King Charles considered no other remedy but force.<br /> <br /> 1725- American colonist Benjamin Franklin first arrived in London.<br /> <br /> 1821- Elizabeth Ann Seton died in New York. She was declared America’s first native-born Saint in 1979. Mother Cabrini the first American saint was an immigrant from Italy.<br /> <br /> 1824- Poet Lord Byron arrived in Missolonghi Greece to aid the Greek Independence movement against the Turkish Empire.<br /> <br /> 1861- As the Civil War was breaking out, Missouri inaugurated Governor Claiborne Jackson. Gov. Jackson in his inaugural speech declared Missouri would stand by her sister slaveholding states in the Confederacy, but the city folk of St. Louis and Kansas City were for the Union. The farming population were pro Dixie. Already wracked by years of violence, Missouri would collapse into an anarchy of roving paramilitary gangs robbing, hanging and shooting the innocent. Bushwhackers vs. Redlegs. Missouri suffered some of the worst losses of any state in the US. One tenth of the population would die or relocate.<br /> <br /> 1863- James Plimpton of New York patented four-wheeled roller skates.<br /> <br /> 1881- Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture premiered in Breslau. Johannes Brahms was offered an honorary degree by the University of Breslau. But he learned that in exchange, they expected him to write them a free symphony! Whaat? Brahms responded by sending them an overture to be played at commencement. On being performed, locals recognized several bawdy student drinking songs Brahms had worked into the score. The Academic Festival Overture is the basis for the opening music to National Lampoons Animal House.<br /> <br /> 1885- The first appendectomy operation.<br /> <br /> 1896- THE KRUGER TELEGRAM- Kaiser Wilhelm sends a telegram to Boer South African President Kruger congratulating him on defeating a coup attempt by pro-British mercenaries- The Jameson Raid. In the note the Kaiser implied military help for the Boers should Britain ever try anything else. When this note was leaked to the press, it was greeted with outrage in England. A backlash of anger also erupted among the German public.<br /> Even though the Kaiser apologized to his grand-mama Queen Victoria, the incident was seen as the first break between two countries, who throughout history had always been allies. The previous year, Lord Salisbury had said:" Our greatest national threat shall always be France." But the Kruger telegram and Germanys building navy began to change minds. Lord Asquith said:" It's as though a friend at your club you've always chatted and drank whiskey &amp; sodas with suddenly slapped your face!"<br /> <br /> 1896- After Mormon leader William Woodruff issued a manifesto reforming the Mormon Church’s hold over local government and renouncing polygamy, Utah became a state.<br /> <br /> 1904- The Supreme Court ruled that Puerto Ricans are not aliens but American citizens. Yet full citizenship was still delayed until 1917. And watching Pres Mango’s response to Hurricane Maria, I would still be skeptical.<br /> <br /> 1904, Thomas Edison's movie crew filmed the electrocution of an elephant. Topsy, was being destroyed by its owners after she killed three men in as many years. (The third was a man who for a joke, fed her a lit cigarette.) The event was a public spectacle to a paying audience of 1,500 people at Coney Island, where the elephant had actually helped build the attraction. Edison was the consultant chosen to arrange the electrocution, after cyanide-laced carrots had failed. He made sure to use Nikolas Tesla’s AC current, to show people how dangerous it was.<br /> <br /> 1920- Eight teams combine to form the Negro Baseball Leagues. They were active until Major League Baseball finally integrated in 1948.<br /> <br /> 1932- Casey Stengel returned from the minors to manage the Brooklyn Dodgers, aka the Bums.<br /> <br /> 1936- Mickey’s Polo Team, directed by Dave Hand. <br /> <br /> 1943- Josef Stalin named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year.<br /> <br /> 1944- Kaj Munk, Danish playwright and poet who preached passive resistance to the Nazi occupation, was arrested by the Gestapo and shot.<br /> <br /> 1946- Terrytoons "The Talking Magpies" the first Heckle and Jeckle cartoons.<br /> <br /> 1948- Burma, received her independence from the British Empire.<br /> <br /> 1951- As Gen, MacArthur’s forces retreated from the Chinese Communist onslaught, Seoul fell into Communist control for the second time. The city, due to it's proximity to the front, changed hands several times during the Korean War.<br /> <br /> 1954- Young truck driver Elvis Presley went into Sun Records recording studio in Memphis. He plunked down $4 to record two demos for his mothers’ birthday. " Casual Love Affair" and "I’ll Never Stand in your Way". A studio technician was impressed enough to play the demo for his manager, who called back Presley for an audition.<br /> <br /> 1954- The Pinky Lee Show premiered on TV. Sponsored by Tootsie Roll.<br /> <br /> 1956- In the Peanuts comic strip, Charles Schulz made Snoopy first stand up on two legs.<br /> <br /> 1956- Walt Disney had lunch with his old competitor Max Fleischer, now retired. The meeting was arranged by Max’s son Richard Fleischer, who was working for Disney directing movies like Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Although everyone had a nice time, Richard later admitted he found the whole thing depressing. Seeing his dad humbled:” It was like seeing David vanquished by Goliath.”<br /> <br /> 1957- The Dodgers are the first baseball team to buy an airplane to travel around in.<br /> <br /> 1958- the TV show Seahunt premiered. It made a star out of Lloyd Bridges, the father of Jeff and Beau. <br /> <br /> 1960- Writer Albert Camus was killed in a car accident. He was 46.<br /> <br /> 1964- The Boston Strangler murdered his last victim, 19 year old Mary Sullivan. The family of Albert DeSalvo, the man who confessed and was convicted as the Strangler, still claim today that he was innocent because the pattern of this killing didn’t match the others. <br /> <br /> 1973- In San Francisco, scientists from several top food companies like Proctor &amp; Gamble, Heinz and Del Monte began work inventing the Universal Product Code, or The Bar Code, now seen on everything you buy. The first product to sport the bar code was Wrigley’s Spearmint Gum.<br /> <br /> 1973- President Nixon informs the Senate committee investigating the Watergate break-in that he refused to yield to them his taped conversations, citing an arcane concept little used since the days of Thomas Jefferson, called "executive privilege.” <br /> <br /> 1995- Georgia Republican Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the House of Representatives. In the Washington atmosphere of congenial deal making, Gingrich was the arch-apostle of the scorched earth, no-compromise, us vs. them style of politics. Several times he used a routine approval of the federal budget to stalemate the Clinton Whitehouse to force a complete government shutdown. Even after he stepped down because of ethics violations, his highly polarized style of politics still rules Washington today.<br /> <br /> 1997- Spoon bending psychic Uri Geller predicted a UFO would land in Tel Aviv. Israelis watched the skies, but in the end, nothing appeared.<br /> <br /> 2010- Dubai opened the largest office building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. 163 floors.<br /> <br /> 2000- Charles Schulz published the very last Peanuts daily comic strip. It ran continuously since 1950. Schulz refused to allow any one to ghost him or take over the strip. He died a month later of colon cancer, and his last Sunday was printed the next day.<br /> ==============================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: What era has been referred to as “ One thousand years without a bath”?<br /> <br /> Answer: The Middle Ages.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 03 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6036 <p>Quiz: What era has been referred to as “ One thousand years without a bath”?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: Name an important event that occurred in 1923.<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 1/3/2023<br /> Birthdays: Marcus Tullius Cicero, John Paul Jones, Victor Borge, Zasu Pitts, Sergio Leone, Hank Stramm, Bobby Hull, Robert Loggia, Maxine Andrews of the Andrews Sisters, Ray Milland, Anna Mae Wong, Steven Stills, J.R.R. Tolkein, Victoria Principal is 72, Dabney Coleman is 91, Mel Gibson is 67. Thelma Schoonmaker is 83<br /> <br /> 1521- Pope Leo X excommunicated former monk turned Protestant leader Martin Luther. In Wurttemberg this day Germany former Luther responded by tearing up and burning the Pope’s decree, as well as the canon of Roman law.<br /> <br /> 1777- BATTLE OF PRINCETON- After his Christmas victory at Trenton, George Washington’s little army gave the main British army the slip, wheeled around behind them and surprise attacked another redcoat regiment at Princeton New Jersey. <br /> As a young student Alexander Hamilton had failed the entrance requirements to study at Princeton University. Instead he went to Kings College, later renamed Columbia. Now as Major Hamilton of artillery, he had a pleasure rare among rejected college applicants- he got to fire a few cannon rounds at Princeton admission’s building.<br /> <br /> 1834- Tejano leader Stephen Austin traveled to Mexico City to put forward the grievances of his community to the Mexican government. Texians disliked that President Santa Anna had revoked the liberal Constitution of 1826 that had invited Anglo settlers to populate remote Texas. And they wanted Texas to be a separate state from the Mexican state of Coahiula. Up till then Stephen Austin had suppressed all talk of independence in order to work with the new regime in Mexico City. Santa Anna responded to Austin’s petitions by clapping him in jail. He was released a year later, and returned to Texas hot for independence.<br /> <br /> 1868- The MEIJI RESTORATION- the Tokugawa family had ruled Japan as Shoguns since winning their civil wars in 1603, keeping the Emperor as a figurehead. Their policy was isolation from the outside world. On this date a revolution occurred when radical samurai seized Kyoto Palace and overthrew the last shogun Yoshinobu Tokugawa. Japan would be under the direct control of the Emperor and form a parliament. Japan would end her enforced isolation, and modernize her society. The Emperor Meiji would also move the capitol from Kyoto to Yedo, already being called Tokyo- The Western Capitol.<br /> <br /> 1871- Henry Bradley patented margarine in the U.S. It had been demonstrated in the Paris Exhibition of 1867 as a butter that didn't spoil, so Emperor Napoleon III thought it was useful for his armies in the field. <br /> <br /> 1899- An editorial in the New York Times refers to the horseless carriage as an “Automobile”. This is the earliest known use of the word.<br /> <br /> 1925- Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini suspended democracy and his black shirted followers declared him Il Duce, or the leader. He became dictator of Italy.<br /> <br /> 1926- General Motors introduced the Pontiac brand of automobile.<br /> <br /> 1933- MGM Louis B. Mayer hired his son-in-law David O. Selznick to produce movies. At the same time he was begging his film workers to take 20% pay cuts because of the Great Depression, Mayer set Selznick’s salary at $4,000 a week. Newspapers joked “ The Son-In-Law Also Rises”<br /> <br /> 1946- Lord Haw-Haw, William Joyce, the English voice of Nazi radio propaganda broadcast from Berlin, was hanged for treason. Joyce was actually born in Brooklyn, but moved to England at an early age. He was nicknamed Lord Haw-Haw because of his stuffy upper class accent.<br /> <br /> 1953- Chuck Jones “Don’t Give Up the Sheep”, introduced Ralph the Sheepdog vs. Ralph (Wiley) Wolf. <br /> <br /> 1958- Howard Rushmore was the editor of Confidential one of the most ruthless scandal magazines in show business. This day for reasons never explained Rushmore murdered his wife, then shot himself in the back of a NYC taxicab. <br /> <br /> 1959- Alaska became the 49th state.<br /> <br /> 1967- Jack Ruby, real name Jacob Rubenstein, the murderer of Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, died of lung cancer in prison. To the end he was refused a meeting with Congress where he claimed he could discuss his patriotic motives for killing Oswald. Retired Mafia don Bill Bonano said Ruby being Jewish and not Sicilian, was the type of hood the mob used for clean-up jobs. That he was a soldier for Chicago boss Sam Giancana. Others say Ruby was just a two-bit loser who claimed he was more important than he actually was.<br /> <br /> 1973- Boatbuilding tycoon and George Steinbrenner led a group that bought the last place New York Yankees baseball club from CBS. "The Boss" becomes one of the more colorful baseball owners and propelled the Yankees into a new era of championship contention. Steinbrenner bought the Yankees for $10 million, and today they are worth several billion. <br /> <br /> 1977- Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne file papers to form the Apple Computer Company. They announced the company April 1, 1976, considered the official birth of Apple.<br /> <br /> 2004- Following the success of the Mars Pathfinder Rover in 1997, Two more advanced probes Spirit and Opportunity were launched. This day Spirit landed safely on Mars and began transmitting. The JPL mission leader announced "We're Back...We're on Mars." Only supposed to last 90 days, Spirit transmitted for 6 years. Opportunity for 14 years. <br /> <br /> 2004- After partying New Years in Las Vegas, 22 year old pop star Britney Spears woke up and realized she had just married her friend Jay Alexander while drunk. Today she annulled it. Alexander, who listed himself as unemployed, was soon seen driving around rural Louisiana in a $90,000 BMW.<br /> <br /> 2021- Outgoing President Trump did not want to admit he had lost re-election. This day he held a marathon meeting with his own Justice Dept. trying to get a low echelon flunky named Clark named acting Attorney General, so he could issue an order voiding the results of the election. All seven deputy AGs said then they would immediately resign in protest. One said the Presidents ideas were “ batshit crazy”. <br /> ----------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Name an important event that occurred in 1923.<br /> <br /> Answer: The Walt Disney Studio founded. King Tuts Tomb opened, Tokyo and Yokohama destroyed in a huge earthquake and fire. The Beer Hall Putsch, Insulin invented. The First LeMans car race. President Warren Harding died suddenly and was replaced by Calvin Coolidge, the parents of Queen Elizabeth married.<br /> Centennial Births, Henry Kissinger, Maria Callas, Betty Page, Charlton Heston, Roy Lichtenstein.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 02 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6035 <p>Quiz: Name an important event that occurred in 1923.<br /> <br /> Yesterday: When a woman was called a bluestocking, what does that mean?<br /> ___________________________________________<br /> History for 1/2/2023<br /> Birthdays: Turkish Sultan Mehmed IV-1642, Frederic Opper the cartoonist of Happy Hooligan, Phillip Freneau, Roger Miller, Issac Asimov, Julius LaRosa, Tito Schipa, Renata Tebaldi, Tex Ritter, Dick Huemer, Cuba Gooding Jr, is 55, Tia Carrere, Kate Bosworth is 40<br /> <br /> 1492- Sultan Abu-Abdallah, called Boabdil, surrendered the Emirate of Grenada, the last stronghold of the Moors in Spain to Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. As Boabdil rode out of the city between the Spanish troops, he paused on a hill for one last look at his beautiful city. The hill is today called El Ultimo Sospiro del Moro- the Last Sigh of the Moor.<br /> This completed the master plan of the Christian Spaniards to regain the whole Iberian peninsula. Called La ReConquista, it had been raging for 500 years. In Rome Pope Alexander VI Borgia, who was also a Spaniard, celebrated the news by closing off Saint Peter's Square from worshippers to stage a bullfight. <br /> <br /> Boabdil's mother, the Sultana Ayeesha, scolded him for weeping while surrendering the city. " I should have smothered you as an infant, rather than watch you live like a degenerate and surrender like a whore...!" Gee, Thanks Mom…<br /> <br /> 1496- Did Leonardo da Vinci try to fly? Leonardo studied the motor actions of birds and sketched numerous flying machines. In one of his notebooks Leonardo had written:” On the second day of January, I will make the attempt.” Leonardo later noted in his financial records payment to a physician when his apprentice named Antonio broke his leg. It’s been speculated Antonio broke it trying to pilot one of his master’s flying machines. <br /> <br /> 1522- Adrian VI, a Dutchman was elected Pope. He was the first non-Italian since 1378.<br /> He really tried to be a true Christian spiritual guide and agreed with Martin Luther that the church was too corrupt and sinful in its ways. He demanded he and his cardinals live on only one ducat a day, about $12.50, he walled up the Belvedere Palace and it’s beautiful collection of ancient Greek &amp; Roman art as pagan idolatry.<br /> Poets, painters and sculptors were furious that this Pope cancelled all their lucrative contracts. The unemployed poet Aretino called the cardinals “miserable rabble that should all be buried alive" for choosing such a lousy pope.<br /> After three months Adrian died. This time the cardinals selected a Medici Pope who loved art, music and parties. The artists of Rome sent flowers to Adrian’s doctor to congratulate him for losing his patient. The next non-Italian Pope was John Paul II in 1978<br /> <br /> 1542- The town of Geneva had put themselves under the Protestant theologian John Calvin to reform everybody’s lifestyles. His first move was to create order in their new way of religion. This day his great work the Ecclesiastical Ordinances were approved by the Grand Council and put into law. It created a ministry of deacons, pastors teachers and lay elders based on Biblical Law. Calvin’s new code became the basis of the future churches of Presbyterianism, Huguenots, Puritans and Calvinism and reached as far as England, Scotland and America.<br /> <br /> 1602- End of the siege of Kinsale. Rebel Earl Hugh O’Neill had invited the Spanish to help him overthrow British rule in Ireland. He lost, and the English domination of Ireland was confirmed.<br /> <br /> 1611-THE BLOOD COUNTESS- Beautiful Transylvanian Countess Elizabeth Bathory was indicted for the murder of 610 people. She apparently believed that bathing in the blood of virgin girls would keep her skin beautiful. The crimes of the Medieval nobility were often winked at until they become so outrageous, they couldn’t be ignored any longer. When peasant girls kept disappearing around Csejthe Castle word got back to her big uncle King Sigmund Bathory of Poland, the enemy of Ivan the Terrible. When King Sigmund discovered the full horror of her story, he had Elizabeth walled up alive in her chamber. Daily food passed through a slit in the wall. When after a few years the empty dishes stopped being passed through, that slit was bricked up as well.<br /> <br /> 1688- The great insurance house Lloyd’s of London founded. In the past they’ve insured Betty Grable’s legs, Bruce Springsteen’s lungs and offered a million English pounds to anyone who could prove Elvis Presley was still alive.<br /> <br /> 1757- British redcoats marched into Calcutta.<br /> <br /> 1785- Austrian Emperor Joseph II ordered the Jews throughout his empire to adopt family surnames. A similar law was passed in Prussia and the rest of Germany ten years later. Most Jews created surnames out of their profession. This was when someone like Yitzhak the diamond dealer became Issac Diamondstein and Yakub the butcher became Jacob Fleischman. If you think that’s funny, what if your name is Taylor, Miller, or Weaver?<br /> <br /> 1788- Georgia voted to ratify the Constitution.<br /> <br /> 1800- The free black community in Philadelphia petitioned Congress to abolish slavery. A South Carolina senator denounced the act as:” This new-fangled French philosophy of Liberty and Equality!”<br /> <br /> 1815- Lord Byron married Lady Anna Milbanke. <br /> <br /> 1837- It was the custom at New Years for the Mayor of New York to hold an open house. Average citizens could pay a call, have a glass of sherry and pound cake and express good wishes for the New Year. But Mayor Cornelius Lawrence was a Tammany politician who had been elected with the help of gangs of hooligans from the Bowery and Five Points. When he held an open house this day all these gang toughs stormed in, got drunk, wiped their fingers on the curtains and pocketed the silverware. It quickly became bedlam. Mayor Lawrence had to get militia troops to push the mob out and lock the doors.<br /> <br /> 1843- Richard Wagner’s opera The Flying Dutchman premiered in Dresden.<br /> <br /> 1863 HELL’S HALF-ACRE- In the American Civil War the battle of Stones River or Mufreesboro resumed after a two days truce for New Years. The Union Army had been surprised attacked New Years Eve and caved in to a tight horseshoe configuration. By now it was now dug in and further fighting seemed fruitless. But Confederate army Commander Baxton Bragg couldn’t bring himself to retreat again as he had at Perryville. <br /> So over the protests of his subordinates that it was suicide, he ordered a direct frontal attack. One brigade commander named Hanson declared he’d rather kill Bragg than murder his own soldiers. Hanson was killed in action. The Kentucky Orphans Brigade led by Confederate Vice President John Breckinbridge charged into a furious Yankee artillery cross fire and was annihilated. The attack failed and Bragg retreated anyway.<br /> <br /> 1873- Richard “Slippery-Dick” Connolly becomes the first American to embezzle a million dollars -he actually embezzled four million. He was the financial controller for the City of New York under Boss Tweed. Together the Tweed ring bilked New York City out of $60 million dollars. This day he fled abroad ahead of the police. Tweed was nabbed and died in jail but Slippery Dick Connolly lived in Europe happily ever after.<br /> <br /> 1878- Farmer John Martin thought he saw something shiny flying in the sky above Denizen Texas. He is the first person to describe it as a “flying saucer.”<br /> <br /> 1882- John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil company controlled almost 90% of the U.S. crude oil output but the government seemed poised to hit it with anti-monopoly laws. So anticipating this move he reorganized Standard Oil into a Trust with himself as chief Trustee. Standard Oil later became ESSO (S-O) then EXXON-MOBIL. <br /> <br /> 1897- Young writer Stephen Crane survived a shipwreck when the good ship SS Commodore went down off the coast of Florida. He went on to write The Open Boat and The Red Badge of Courage.<br /> <br /> 1904- The Russians surrendered their big Pacific base of Port Arthur to the Japanese after a one-year siege. During the boredom of the siege the game Russian Roulette was invented- of putting a six shooter to your head with one bullet in a spun chamber. When their men kept dying for no reason the Stavka, or High Command, were at a loss how to stop it. When they caught men playing this lethal game they charged them for illegal use of government property- i.e. the bullets.<br /> <br /> 1909- Aimie Semple MacPherson was given her ordination by the Evangelical community of Chicago. Sister Aimie moved to Los Angeles and became one of the first great broadcast evangelists, entertaining millions with salvation and sin, while keeping toy-boys and popping pills on the side.<br /> <br /> 1937- Hollywood actor Ross Alexander had hit on tough times. He had been in a few movies like Captain Blood and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but his career seemed to be stalled, he was in debt, and his wife committed suicide. This day the 29 year old went into the barn behind his Encino home and shot himself. The Warner Bros. Studio looked around for a replacement to refill their roster of handsome male leads. They replaced Alexander with an Illinois college sportscaster called “Dutch”- Ronald Reagan.<br /> <br /> 1939- Time Magazine named Adolf Hitler it’s “Man of the Year”. <br /> <br /> 1942- The Japanese army under General Homma entered Manila. They said they had come to drive out the American Western colonialists and create pan-Asian harmony. But they offended the Filipinos with atrocities like hanging the Chief Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court from a flagpole when he refused to be part of the occupation regime. Homma also had the city bombed even after they agreed to surrender.<br /> <br /> 1958- Maria Callas threw one of the more celebrated temper tantrums in Opera history when she stormed off the stage at La Scala in the middle of Bellini’s Norma with the President of Italy in the audience. La Divina Callas was a Greek-American with a beautiful voice and the slimmest waistline since Lili Pons. She was part of the Jet-Set society culture and her temper was famous.<br /> <br /> 1960- Young Mass. Senator John F. Kennedy announced he was a candidate for president. When asked why do you want to be president? Kennedy replied:” Because it’s the best job there is.”<br /> <br /> 1963- The Magic Castle opened in Hollywood. The Academy of Magicians renovated this 1908 mansion and declared it the world’s most unique private club. Even today, you can only get in by being invited by a member.<br /> <br /> <br /> 1971- Israeli archaeologists in Jerusalem discovered the 2,000 year old remains of a crucified man. No, they didn’t think it was You-Know-Who. But it did provide the first empirical proof that Romans really used that method of execution.<br /> <br /> 1975- In a letter to MITS, college kids Bill Gates and Paul Allen offered their computer language adaptation of BASIC for the new Altair personal computer. They named themselves Microsoft. <br /> <br /> 1984- The Zenith Corporation announced it would stop selling video recorders in Betamax format and go over wholly to VHS. Other electronics giants followed suit and VHS won out over the higher quality Beta system.<br /> <br /> 1995- Washington D.C. Mayor Marion Barry was inaugurated for a second term after winning re-election, despite his conviction for smoking crack. Comedian Chris Rock said: “Who ran against him? Who was such a bad choice that people said- I’d rather vote for a crackhead? “<br /> <br /> 2000- Internet developers Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales, had a conversation about writing data entries for collaborative websites called wikis. Saunders conceived of an open on-line encyclopedia encompassing all world knowledge. He called it Wikipedia.<br /> <br /> 2019- The Chinese space probe, the Chang’e 4 became the first man made object to successfully land on the Dark side of the Moon. <br /> ===========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: When a woman was called a bluestocking, what does that mean?<br /> <br /> Answer: A bluestocking was a derogatory label for an educated, independent woman. It began in XVIII Century England when Elizabeth Montagu began the BlueStocking Society. Women then attending university in Britain were required to wear blue stockings as part of their school uniform. When XIX Century women’s movements also embraced temperance, a Bluestocking came to mean sour killjoys who were too smart for their own good.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 01 Jan 2023 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6034 <p>Jan. 1, 2023 A.D. or 2023 of the Common Era- New Year's Day<br /> It’s also the Hebrew year 5,873 AM, or Year of the World, Anno Mundane,<br /> in the Muslim calendar 1443 A.H. or Al Hajira –since the Haj.<br /> _____________________________________________________________<br /> Quiz: : When a woman was called a bluestocking, what does that mean?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz question answered below: In Philadelphia on New Years they celebrate the Mummers Parade. What is a mummer?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for January 1, 2023<br /> Birthdays: Lorenzo De Medici” the Magnificent”, Pope Alexander VI Borgia, Paul Revere, Betsy Ross, Mad Anthony Wayne, E.M. Forrester, J. Edgar Hoover, Alfred Stieglitz, Xavier Cugat, Barry Goldwater, Kuniyoshi Utagawa, Chesley Bonestell, Dana Andrews, Idi Amin, Kliban, Verne Troyer (Mini-Me), Frank Langella is 85 <br /> <br /> Welcome to the month January from IANUARIUS, the old Roman god Janus, the two faced god of doorways and portals who looks forward and back, symbolizing new beginnings. Not to be confused of course with Terminus the god of boundaries and borders. <br /> Janus’ temple was dominated by a large doorway in the Roman Forum. Whenever the temple doors were closed, it meant Rome was at peace with the world. Unfortunately, this was hardly ever the case.<br /> <br /> Happy Last Day of Kwanza.<br /> <br /> 45 BC. AVE ANNO NOVUM! The Roman Empire adopted the 12 month 366 day calendar developed by the Alexandrian scientist Sosigenes. This was an improvement from the ten month, ten day week, 304 day system that began in March. The ten-month system is why December, which means ten, is counted as the twelfth month. The old system had become so clunky that the Roman civil service had a special office just to tell you what day it was. To pull the calendar back in line with the solar year, Julius Caesar decreed the last year of the old system 46 BC would have to be 445 days long! He called it Ultimus Annus Confusionis- The Year of Total Confusion.<br /> <br /> Happy Feast of the Holy Circumcision, when baby Jesus had his…well,…you know…..<br /> <br /> 69AD- The Roman legion at the Rhine frontier fort of Mainz rose in rebellion under their general Marius Vindex. This is the first act of defiance that would overthrow the Emperor Nero. By years end four men would be Emperor until only one –Vespasian, remained.<br /> <br /> 1525- Despite the pleading of Hernando Cortez to respect Aztec institutions, twelve Franciscan missionaries began to close down Aztec temples, and conducted mass baptisms at gunpoint.<br /> <br /> 1531- French King Louis XII died of sexual exhaustion from too many evenings spent with his new English queen, the sister of Henry VIII. His nephew Francis was next in line. The dying king lamented. “That big nosed boy will ruin everything we tried to accomplish!” Actually, Francis I turned out to be one of France’s best kings.<br /> <br /> 1540- King Henry VIII met his 4th wife Anne of Cleves. This was an arranged political marriage, and this day was the first time they actually met each other. Henry tried to play a jest and burst in her room dressed like Robin Hood to carry her off. A shocked Anne said to her guards in German “ Who is this fat, disgusting, old man? Throw him out, please.” After he picked himself up off the ground, Henry immediately began the process to annul their marriage.<br /> <br /> 1586 -Sir Francis Drake plundered Santo Domingo.<br /> <br /> 1666- Sabbatai Zevi, a 22 year old Sephardic rabbi of Smyrna, announced to the world that he was the long awaited Mosiach, the Messiah. Married to the Kaballah he claimed, he and his followers were going to Constantinople where the Turkish Sultan Selim the Grim would happilly hand over his crown to him and restore the Jewish people to Palestine. Zevi had already been expelled by his fellow rabbis in Smyrna, but stories of his miracles worked up the hopes of Jews from Amsterdam to Baghdad. But the Turkish Sultan Selim was not that impressed. <br /> Upon landing in Constantinople, the Turks clapped Sabbatai in prison and made him convert to Islam to avoid torture and execution. Once free, Sabbatai tried to say he only converted as a ruse, so he was still the Messiah. But by now everyone knew he was a phony, and he died in obscurity.<br /> <br /> 1673- Regular mail delivery is established between Boston colony and the newly conquered Dutch territory, now called New York.<br /> <br /> 1677- Racines greatest play “Phedre” premiered at the Theatre du Bourgogne in Paris. Phedre is the role all French actresses aspire to, the way English speaking actors dream of doing Shakespeare’s Hamlet.<br /> <br /> 1772- Thomas Jefferson married Martha Lockwood who he called “Patsy”. She died giving him 6 children, only one outlived Jefferson. He sat by her bedside and they both read together from Tristram Shandy. The grief stricken Jefferson promised on her deathbed to never remarry, but I guess he didn’t count the slave quarters, or French aristocrats.<br /> <br /> 1776- The first U.S. invasion of Canada was defeated, Benedict Arnold and William Montgomery's colonial army attacked Quebec City in a snowstorm and were repulsed. Montgomery was killed and Arnold shot through the leg. Aware of the Puritan New Englanders contempt for Roman Catholics, most French Canadians did not rise up as expected to help 'Les Bostonnais', as they called the minutemen.<br /> <br /> 1776- Lord Dunmore, the Royalist Governor of rebellious Virginia, gave permission for the warships of the Royal Navy to open fire on the town of Norfolk Virginia.<br /> <br /> 1788- THE LONDON TIMES is born. Daily newspapers had appeared in Europe in the early 1600s. Publisher John Walters had started a small one sheet in 1785 called the Daily Universal Register. In 1788 he changed the name to the simpler "The Times" and created the format for newspapers around the world for centuries to come. The Walters family ran the newspaper for 125 years and Walters even had to edit it for two years while serving a prison term for libel.<br /> <br /> 1788- The Quaker Community of Pennsylvania freed all their slaves.<br /> <br /> 1801- Toussaint L’Overture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared the Republic of Haiti, only the second independent republic in the Americas. Originally called Sainte Dominque, they reverted to the original Arawak Indian name of Haiti. The other American republic, the United States, refused any aid, out of the fear that the example of a successful slave revolt would spread to their own plantations.<br /> <br /> 1831- William Lloyd Garrison first began publishing his newspaper The Liberator, openly calling for the end to black slavery in the U.S. ‘ I will not Equivocate, I will not Retreat, and I Will Be Heard!”<br /> <br /> 1839- Twelve years after Franz Schubert's death composer Robert Schumann was rooting around in an old trunk at his friend's house when he discovered the score for Schubert's Great C Major Symphony. That is why this Symphony is called # 9 when the Unfinished Symphony is called #8.<br /> <br /> 1850- The TaiPing Rebellion began in China. Hung tsu Tsuan had listened to a Christian missionary. He decided he was the son of Jesus Christ come to Earth to right all wrongs. He led millions in revolt until he was crushed by the Manchu Emperor’s army.<br /> <br /> 1863- Poet Walt Whitman visited Washington D.C., but passed on a chance to meet Abraham Lincoln. Whitman was looking for his brother, and the New Years reception line in front of the White House was just too long to bother. Whitman reasoned Lincoln was young and running for a second term. So there would be plenty occasions to meet him later...<br /> <br /> 1875- The Molly Maguires, a fraternal union of Irish immigrant coal miners in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, go on strike after their employer cuts their wages by twenty percent. The employer had many shot and hanged.<br /> <br /> 1878- The Knights of Labor, the first national American Union Movement is born. They demanded unheard of: An 8 hour workday down from 14, a six day workweek down from 7, paid vacations and no child labor. <br /> <br /> 1881- The Eastman Kodak Company formed. Kodak supposedly was named from the sound of the snapping camera shutter. Ko-DAK!<br /> <br /> 1888- Johannes Brahms met Peter Tchaikovsky. The two musical giants shared a birthday, but otherwise they disliked each other, and hated each other’s music. Tchaikovsky wrote in his diary about Brahms, “What an unharmonious German bastard he is!” Usually Anton Bruckner could get them together. This night the two met for dinner with violinist Josef Brodsky after a rehearsal and had quite a pleasant time together. As he left the house that night, Anna Brodsky asked Tchaikovsky if he liked what he had heard during the rehearsal. “Don’t be angry with me, my dear friend,” he answered, “but I did not like it.”<br /> 1890- The First Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena California.<br /> <br /> 1890- Ellis Island, the great processing center for immigrants in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty opened for business. By the 1990 census it was estimated that close to 50% of the U.S. population could trace back to an ancestor who came through Ellis Island.<br /> <br /> 1909- London astronomers say they had detected signs of a planet further out than Neptune, the furthest known planet in our solar system. The theoretical body was called Planet -X until in 1930 an amateur astronomer named Clyde Tumbaugh found it, and named it Pluto.<br /> <br /> 1914- The Archbishop of Paris threatened with excommunication young people who dance the Tango. "It's lascivious nature offends morality."<br /> <br /> 1939- Vladimir Zworkin patented the Iconoscope (the eye of a TV camera) and Kinescope. The television process evolved over so many years -there were experimental TV stations in 1923 and the Berlin Olympics of 1936 were televised. So you can't really point to one Tom Edison type inventor, although Zworkin, Englishman James Logie Baird in 1924, Philo Farnsworth, and Dr. Lee DeForest all at one time tried to take the full credit.<br /> <br /> 1942- Young French Resistance leader Jean Moulin parachuted back into Nazi-occupied France to unify the scattered resistance groups into one force under Charles DeGaulle.<br /> <br /> 1942- Because of the fear of a Japanese attack on the California coastline, the Rose Bowl that year was played in North Carolina.<br /> <br /> 1943- Walt Disney's Donald Duck cartoon Der Fuehrer's Face premiered. Originally titled Donald Duck in NutziLand, it was changed to match to the song after Spike Jones recorded it.<br /> <br /> 1953- Country music star Hank Williams had spent New Years drinking whiskey and doing chloral hydrate. When a West Virginia policeman pulled over his car, he remarked to the driver that his passenger looked dead. The driver said he was just sleeping and drove on. 29 year old Hank Williams was dead. His last recorded song was “I’ll never get out of this World Alive.”<br /> <br /> 1959- As Fidel Castro’s guerrilla army entered Havana, Cubans celebrate the fall of dictator Fulgensio Batista. Fidel was proclaimed the leader of Cuba.<br /> <br /> 1959- The Chipmunk Song by David Seville (aka Ross Bagdassarian) tops the pop charts..<br /> <br /> 1960- The Radio and Television Director's Guild merge with the Screen Directors Guild to form the DGA.<br /> <br /> 1963- Tetsuwan Atomu or Atom Boy, an animated television show by Osamu Tezuka premiered on Japanese TV. As Astro Boy it became the first Japanese anime show to break into the mainstream American market.<br /> <br /> 1966- Ailing Walt Disney served as Grand Marshal for the Tournament of Roses Parade. Standing in the crowd on the curb with his mother was 8 year old John Lasseter.<br /> <br /> 1976- Potheads sneak up to the Hollywood Sign and change the two “O’s to “E’s so the sign read HOLLYWEED. <br /> <br /> 1980- The debut of Gary Larson's surreal single panel comic strip "The Far Side". Larson has recently revived it online.<br /> <br /> 1984- By court order, the phone system AT&amp;T also called The Bell System, which had dominated telephone communication exclusively since Alexander Graham Bell, was ordered broken up into 22 regional companies, the Baby Bells. The explosion of telecommunications, smart phones, blackberries, and bigger phone bills result.<br /> <br /> 1998- Michael Kennedy, a son of Robert F. Kennedy was killed in Aspen Colorado during a freak skiing accident. He was playing ski-football, shooting down a hillside while distractedly handling a video camera, and he ran headlong into a tree.<br /> <br /> 2000- Conservative Christian school Bob Jones University finally permitted students interracial dating. <br /> <br /> 2019- The space probe New Horizon reached the furthest known object in our Solar System outside the orbit of Pluto, a wobbly peanut shaped rock named Ultima Thule. 4 billion miles from Earth. A single radio signal from the spacecraft took 6 hours to reach Earth.<br /> ============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: In Philadelphia on New Year’s they celebrate the Mummers Parade. What is a mummer?<br /> <br /> Answer: Mummery is a fusion of Swedish custom of celebrating New Years with masquerade and noisemaking with a Medieval British custom of mummery- reciting doggerel and ribald songs in exchange for cakes and ale. George Washington received mummers when the US capitol was in Philadelphia in 1790. The large Mummers parade that continues to this day, began in Philadelphia in 1876 and still goes on.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 29 Dec 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6033 <p>Quiz: What is a baldric? Besides the character in the BlackAdder TV show.<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: In music we all heard of the term allegro. But what does it mean?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/29/2022<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Flavius Titus, Pablo Casals, Madame de Pompadour, Andrew Johnson, Charles Goodyear, Gelsey Kirkland, Dina Merrill, Tom Bradley, Mary Tyler Moore, Jon Voight is 84, Ray Nitschke, Viveca Lindfors, Ed Flanders, Ted Danson is 75, Marianne Faithful, Paula Poundstone, Jude Law is 50, Patricia Clarkson, Animator Duncan Marjoribanks is 69.<br /> <br /> 1172- ST. THOMAS BECKET murdered. A debate that raged throughout the Europe in the Middle Ages was whether the Church could boss around Kings or visa-versa. <br /> In England when a vacancy opened up for Archbishop of Canterbury, King Henry II arranged to get his old drinking bud, Sir Thomas Beckett elected. However Beckett took his new job so seriously he became the English Church’ strongest champion. <br /> On this night, King Henry was so fed up with Beckett that he shouted at his court:" Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?" Two of Henry's dumber knights took this as a hint and went over to Canterbury and stabbed the Archbishop while at prayers. The Pope excommunicated Henry and placed England under the Writ of Interdict, which meant no English priest could administer baptism, marriage or last rites to anyone. They even took down the church bells so you didn’t know what time it was. King Henry apologized and did penance, even allowing himself to be whipped, and Beckett was made a Saint.<br /> <br /> 1566- Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe got into an argument with another scientist named Manderup Parsbjerg and they reached for their swords. During the duel, Tycho got his nose cut off. He thereafter he wore a gold cup over the scar, held in place with glue. He eventually reconciled with Parsbjerg, to whom he was distantly related.<br /> <br /> 1776- George Washington marched his minutemen back to the old Trenton battlefield, scene of their victory of four days before. There he praised them, then begged, pleaded and cajoled them not to go home now that their enlistments were up. Washington announced to the press that all his men had rejoined the colors, but in a private letter to Congress he admitted only about half were staying. <br /> <br /> 1837- THE CAROLINE INCIDENT. A minor rebellion against England had broken out in Canada led by William Lyon Mackenzie. This day on the American side of the Niagara river a ship full of supplies destined for the rebels called the Caroline was attacked by Canadian loyalist militia. They set fire to the Caroline and pushed it over Niagara Falls. The incident caused tensions between the U.S. and British governments. Mackenzie’s Rising was put down, and his grandson became Canadian Prime Minister.<br /> <br /> 1845- Texas became a U.S. state.<br /> <br /> 1851- In 1844 the Young Men’s Christian Association or YMCA opened in London. An American named Thomas Sullivan was inspired by this idea and brought it home to Boston. This day the first American YMCA meeting was held in the Old South Church. The idea soon spread across the United States..<br /> <br /> 1851- Lola Montez dances on tour in America. Lola Montez was originally an Irish lass named Betty James who re-invented herself as an Argentine flamenco dancer. She was famous for her “Tarantula Dance”. Lola became mistress to King Ludwig I of Bavaria, the second largest kingdom in Germany. Officially he claimed all they did was read the Bible together. Privately he admitted she was exceedingly talented with her…uh,.. muscles.<br /> King Ludwig was so besotted with Lola Montez that he bankrupted his kingdom for her. Anybody who dared criticize her was horsewhipped. Finally, Ludwig was overthrown and Lola fled the country. She did dancing and lecture tours to support herself, and even published books on beauty secrets. She died a social worker in New York in 1861, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery. Her ghost is sometimes seen on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.<br /> <br /> 1890- WOUNDED KNEE- The last battle of the Indian Wars. The US government reacted violently to the Ghost Dance Movement then sweeping Sioux reservations. But the Ghost Dance was not calling for an actual rebellion against the US. Ghost dancers believed if they danced with the spirits of their ancestors the white man would go away. <br /> But to the US Department of the Interior even a metaphysical rebellion is rebellion enough. Sitting Bull was arrested and killed. The army was sent to Wounded Knee reservation to demand a disarming of a few braves. When shooting broke out, the army opened up with modern rapid firing cannon and rifles. To 30 US casualties 300 Sioux, mostly women and children were killed. Reports abound of troops shooting the survivors. They left the bodies where they fell until after Jan. 1. Ironically the army unit was from the Seventh Cavalry, and soldiers considered it the revenge of Custer.<br /> <br /> 1913- Cecil B. DeMille had been sent to the West by his New York partners to scout out a possible place to move to escape Edison's Patents Trust.<br /> After scouting several cities with year round sunshine, this day C.B. telegraphed his partners back in New York:” Flagstaff no good for our purpose. Have proceeded to California. Want authority to rent a barn in a place called Hollywood for $75 a month.” His partner Sam Goldwyn cabled back: “ Rent barn on month to month basis. Do not make long commitment.” DeMille began shooting the Squaw Man, the first official Hollywood Film.<br /> <br /> 1916-James Joyce’s novel “the Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” published.<br /> <br /> 1939- Scientist William Shockley first noted in his laboratory notebook that it should be possible to replace vacuum tubes with something called a semi-conductor. Eight years later he led the team that developed the transistor.<br /> <br /> 1940- After a one week truce for Christmas, this night the Luftwaffe did one of their biggest raids of the Blitz. They firebombed London, causing 1500 fires. At one point they hit St. Paul's Cathedral. CBS correspondent Edgar R. Murrow achieved fame by standing on a rooftop and reporting live on the radio, even as the bombs exploded around him.<br /> <br /> 1941- Disney animator Bill Tytla told Time Magazine in an interview about creating "Dumbo": "I don't know a damn thing about elephants!"<br /> <br /> 1946- Milt Caniff published his last Terry and the Pirates comic strip. Caniff moved on to begin his Steve Canyon strip, which he had better ownership of. <br /> <br /> 1950- Congress passed the Celler-Kefhauver Act, which sought to reign in global companies mega-mergers. It was the last major piece of legislation to try and regulate corporate monopolies in the U.S. <br /> <br /> 1964- The first transistorized hearing aid.<br /> <br /> 1964 – To create the first pilot of the TV series Star Trek, the original model of the U.S.S. Enterprise was delivered by model maker Rick Datin, Jr, based on the design created by Star Trek production artist Walter “Matt” Jefferies. The “miniature” was 11 feet long!<br /> <br /> 1965- First day shooting on Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was an indoor set at Elstree Studios in England, and the first setup was the inspection of the excavation of the Monolith in the moon crater Tycho.<br /> <br /> 1967- The Star Trek episode The Trouble with Tribbles first aired.<br /> <br /> 1968- Animator Bill Tytla died at age 64, from complications of a stroke. He had several strokes over the previous six years.<br /> <br /> 1972- LIFE Magazine ended publication.<br /> <br /> 1974- While staying at the Polynesian Village in Disneyworld Florida, John Lennon signed the last papers dissolving the Beatles. The band had broken up in 1970, but it took four more years to unravel all of their vast financial holdings. The other three members had already signed.<br /> <br /> 1975- Euell Gibbons, early natural foods advocate, died of a stomach ailment.<br /> =============================================================<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: In music we all heard of the term allegro. But what does it mean?<br /> <br /> Answer: Play it fast.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 28 Dec 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6032 <p>Quiz: In music we all heard of the term allegro. But what does it mean?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is a jalopy?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/28/2022<br /> birthdays: Woodrow Wilson, Robert Sessions, Earl "Fatha" Hines, Hildegarde Neff, Edgar Winter, Stan “The Man” Lee would be 100, Martin Branner the creator of Winnie Winkle, Johnny Otis, Martin Milner (1-Adam-12), Lew Ayres, Lou Jacobi, Terri Garber, Denzel Washington is 68, Maggie Smith is 88, Sienna Miller is 41<br /> <br /> Feast of the Innocents-commemorates the Massacre of the Innocents, when King Herod the Great was told a king was born in Nazareth, he ordered all the first born of Nazareth slain. This is what made Joseph and Mary flee with the child to Egypt. <br /> In Spain and many Latin American countries this is a kind of April Fools Day, the victim of a practical joke being proclaimed an "innocent".<br /> <br /> 1065- English King Edward the Confessor dedicated a new abbey church west of London. Since in those days a church was also called a minster, it was known as the West-minster Abbey. (St. Pauls is the East-minster). King Edward himself was too sick to attend the ceremony and died a few days later.<br /> <br /> 1598- The troupe of actors called The Lord Chamberlains Men was tired of negotiating with their landlord who held the lease on Richard Burbage’s theatre at Blackheath. Burbage was dead and they suspected the landlord had other plans for the property. So this night the actors moved through the snow and slowly dismantled the theatre and reassembled the pieces on the Southbank of the Thames. The completed theatre was christened the New Globe Theatre, where many of William Shakespeare’s greatest works premiered. And Will was one of those actors.<br /> <br /> 1694- Queen Mary II of England, one half of the husband &amp; wife team William &amp; Mary, died at age 32. She had helped her Dutch husband overthrow her father King James II.<br /> <br /> 1734- ROB ROY- Scottish nationalist guerrilla Robert McGregor, called Rob Roy, died peacefully of old age in his cottage in the Highlands. Made famous by Sir Walter Scot’s novel about him, he spent his last hours making peace with former enemies. His last wish was for a bagpiper to be brought into his room and pipe a tune as he passed away. Hoot-Man!<br /> <br /> 1793- Thomas Paine, philosopher of the American Revolution, was arrested by Robespierre's Reign of Terror in Paris. English born Paine was kind of an eighteenth century Che Guevarra. He went to Paris to help spread revolution. The American ambassador, Elbridge Gerry, hated Tom, so he took his sweet time about getting him out of the guillotine's shadow. But with the diplomatic pressure of James Monroe he eventually convinced the Revolutionary authorities to release him. While in prison in the Luxembourg Palace, Tom Paine wrote the Age of Reason and had a love affair with pretty inmate Murial Alette, who was arrested for being the mistress of an aristocrat.<br /> <br /> 1832- Southern states rights advocate John C. Calhoun resigned as Vice President under Andrew Jackson. Calhoun felt “King Andrew” was going to betray the South and force them to give up slavery. Calhoun continued on in government as senator from South Carolina. He was the first sitting Vice President ever to resign, but not the last.<br /> <br /> 1846- Iowa becomes a state.<br /> <br /> 1847- Peace Conference of Guadalupe Hidalgo began to try to end the U.S war with Mexico. Diplomat Nicholas Trist was given the tricky assignment of alone seeking out the Mexican authorities, although their government structure was in chaos at the time, and convincing them to sign away half their national territory while hostile American armies roamed their heartland. <br /> <br /> 1869- CHEWING GUM- William Semple and Thomas Adams of Mt. Vernon Ohio received a patent for chewing gum. Since early times frontiersmen and Indians had the habit of chewing on a piece of pine resin or sap. A 9,000 year old chewed piece of gum was found in Sweden in a glacier in 1993. As early as 1842 Charles Curtis was selling spruce chewing gum from his home in Bangor Maine.<br /> In 1869 a Staten Island photographer named Thomas Adams made friends with exiled Mexican dictator Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, he of The Alamo fame. Adams noticed the old general didn’t smoke, but he liked to chew a plug of tree sap he called “Chicle”. It was an ancient custom, going back to the Mayans. Adams took the chicle and put a candy shell around it, and became rich on the invention of Gum Balls. Santa Anna hoped the invention would finance his return to power in Mexico City but that never occurred. Gumball machines appeared in 1918, Bubble Gum in 1928.<br /> <br /> 1895- THE BIRTHDAY OF CINEMA- In Paris at the Grande Cafe des Capucines the Lumiere brothers combined Edison's kinetoscope using George Eastman’s roll film with a magic lantern projector and showed a motion picture to an audience in a theater. Back in the U.S. Thomas Edison thought the idea of projecting film in a theater was foolish and would never catch on. They called their device a Cinematograph, hence the word Cinema is born. The screening included dancers and people leaving a factory but the biggest reaction out of the audience was from shots of waves crashing on a rocky beach. The audience in the front row jumped for fear of getting wet. <br /> <br /> 1896- THE JAMESON RAID- The German-Dutch Boers of the Transvaal had led a quasi-independent status in South Africa that annoyed British Empire builders like Sir Cecil Rhodes, the DeBeers diamond millionaire who had created the nation of Rhodesia, today called Zimbabwe. "I am not religious, but I always felt God would like me to paint all of Africa in the colors of the Union Jack." Cecil Rhodes financed a freelance military coup by 70 pro-British mercenaries led by his right hand man Col. Jameson. The attack failed and embarrassed the British Government. The German public was outraged at the bald arrogance of the attempt while the British called Jameson a hero. The tensions aggravated by the incident would result in the Boer War two years later and eventually the First World War and the independence of South Africa. In retrospect Winston Churchill said that the decline of the British Empire may have begun with the Jameson Raid.<br /> <br /> 1897- Edmond Rostands famous play Cyrano de Bergerac premiered in Paris. There really lived a poet-duelist in the 1640’s named Cyrano de Bergerac-Servigan but little was known about him. Rostand created the hopelessly lovesick big nosed hero who helps another man romance his girlfriend Roxanne. <br /> <br /> 1908- A massive earthquake devastates Messina Sicily and causes a tsunami tidal wave that causes more destruction in Sicily and the Calabrian coast. More than 100,000 died. It was the largest quake recorded in Europe, an estimated 7.5 on the Richter scale.<br /> <br /> 1928- Last recording of Ma Rainey, The Mother of the Blues.<br /> <br /> 1941- Paramount Pictures called Max Fleischer to their business offices in New York. There they told him his contract with the studio would not be renewed and he was fired. Paramount had seized direct control of Max Fleischer Productions in May and put Max and Dave on notice. Dave Fleischer took the hint and left around Thanksgiving. Max was probably holding out that if Hoppity Goes to Town was a hit he might still work out an accommodation. But such was not to be.<br /> <br /> 1944- On The Town, a musical written by Betty Comden &amp; Adolf Green and young composer Leonard Bernstein premiered in NY.<br /> <br /> 1948- Mahmud Nokrashi-Pasha the Prime Minister of Egypt was assassinated.<br /> <br /> 1950- The first stretch of the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles was dedicated.<br /> <br /> 1951- The British film A Christmas Carol with the memorable performance of Alastair Sim as Scrooge premiered in the USA. <br /> <br /> 1958- Cuban Communist forces under Che Guevara won the Battle of Santa Clara. It was a decisive battle in Fidel Castro's campaign to overthrow the dictator Fulgensio Batista. Today the remains of both Fidel Castro and Che Guevara rest in Santa Clara.<br /> <br /> 1963-Happy Birthday the Daleks. In the first season of the BBC TV show Dr. Who, this day Dr. Who first met the Daleks.<br /> <br /> 1968- The Beatles White Album goes to number one on the pop charts.<br /> <br /> 1973-Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s book “The Gulag Archipelago” first published in Paris. The exposing of the Soviet prison camp system was a great success in the west. It gave the word for prison camp-“Gulag” into popular parlance.<br /> <br /> 1973- Pres. Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law. It saved animals like Bald Eagles, American Buffalo, Grizzly Bears and Gray Whales from extinction.<br /> <br /> 1983- Dennis Wilson was the original drummer of the Beach Boys, but he had a pretty bad drinking and drug habit. He was once friendly with the Manson Family. <br /> Taking time off from rehab for Christmas he and some friends sat on a yacht doing more drugs and booze near Marquesas Pier. Wilson recalled this very spot was where after breaking up with his first wife he threw her mementos overboard. He wondered if he could get them back and started “pearl-diving “i.e.-diving holding your breath without any scuba equipment. But being stoned, he miscalculated the depth and drowned.<br /> Dennis Wilson was 37. Of all the Beach Boys he was the only one who liked to surf.<br /> <br /> 1987- The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles premiered.<br /> _____________________________________________<br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is a jalopy?<br /> <br /> Answer: A jalopy is a beat-up old car that somehow still manages to run. Once a jalopy stops running at all, it becomes a wreck. ( thanks FG)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 27 Dec 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6031 <p>Question: What is a jalopy?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: Who was Howdy Doody?<br /> =============================================================-<br /> History for 12/27/2022<br /> Birthdays: Johannes Kepler, Linwood Dunn, Marlene Dietrich, Louis Pasteur, Oscar Levant, Sidney Greenstreet, Anna Russell, Dr. William Masters of Masters &amp; Johnson, Leslie Maguire, John Amos, Tovah Feldshuh, Heather O’Rourke, Cokie Roberts, Bollywood star Salman Khan, Gerard Depardieu is 75<br /> <br /> In Bhutan- Happy Day of the Nine Evils.<br /> <br /> Feast Day of Saint John the Apostle.<br /> <br /> 1784- Francis Asbury was ordained the first Bishop of the Methodist Church in America.<br /> <br /> 1820- John Quincy Adams wrote a friend that he was sad that Washington DC didn’t have any good monuments yet. It could use one to George Washington and a cathedral like Westminster Abbey. If John Q. could only see DC today, it’s a rock garden of statuary. <br /> <br /> 1831- Charles Darwin sets sail for the Pacific on board the HMS Beagle. The observations he made of exotic species while on this voyage formed the basis of his theories on evolution and natural selection.<br /> <br /> 1869- RIEL'S REBELLION- The Red River wilderness of Manitoba were home to French-Indian trappers called the Metis. When the Hudson's Bay Company turned their jurisdiction over to the British Empire and English protestant surveyors and settlers began to arrive, the Catholic Metis banded together and declared independence. <br /> <br /> On this day they proclaimed Louis Riel "President of the Provisional Republic of Prince Rupertland and the Northwest Frontier"! They had a militia and newspaper-the New Nation. Louis Riel convened the first bi-lingual non-sectarian parliament. At this time the Governor General of Canada was still referring to his French and Indian subjects as 'Un-Britons '. <br /> The U.S. State Department seriously considered recognizing the Metis to curb British-Canadian expansion to the Pacific, but ultimately decided to stay neutral. In summer 1870 when a British army paddled in bateaux up stream to attack Riel at Ft. Gary (present day Winnipeg), The Metis Republic dissolved and Riel fled across the border. Louis Riel returned in 1885 lead an uprising in Saskatchewan but was finally caught and executed.<br /> <br /> 1887- Beginning of the Sherlock Holmes story, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.<br /> <br /> 1892- In New York City, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine started construction (and is still not finished..) The largest Gothic nave in the world, work was stopped during the Depression and resumed in the 1970s. Part of the problem re-starting construction was finding some Gothic medieval-style stonemasons who were willing to re-locate. <br /> <br /> 1900- Temperance crusader Carrie Nation staged her first public axe attack on a saloon, the bar at the Carey Hotel in Witchita, Kansas. She shattered a large mirror behind the bar and threw rocks at a titillating picture of Cleopatra nude bathing. She called her actions not vandalism, but “hatchetation”.<br /> <br /> 1903- The Barbershop Quartet standard “Sweet Adeline” sung for the first time. It was written in praise of opera star Adelina Patti.<br /> <br /> 1904- PETER PAN, OR, THE BOY WHO WOULDN’T GROW UP, a play by James M. Barrie, opened at the Duke of York Theatre in London. Barrie reserved seats in the opening night performance for orphaned children who laughed and cheered all night.He placed the kids all amongst the London theatre critics. Michael Llewelyn Davies, the little boy Barrie befriended who was the basis for Pan, used to say:” I am not Peter Pan. Mr Barrie is.” James Barrie once said to H.G. Wells:” It’s all right and good to write books, but can you wiggle your ears?”<br /> <br /> 1927-"ShowBoat" debuted at the Ziegfeld theater. Based on a novel by Edna Ferber, the musical was written by Jerome Kern &amp; Oscar Hammerstein. The play made a star out of a tall black baritone named Paul Robeson.” Ol’ Man River” became his signature song.<br /> <br /> 1934- The Shah declared the country known as Persia would now be called Iran.<br /> <br /> 1935- Radio City Music Hall opened. The Art Deco masterpiece was for many years the largest indoor theater in the world, seating over 6,000. <br /> <br /> 1940- Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler announced their separation.<br /> <br /> 1942-THE SMOLENSK COMMITTEES- The Nazis began a recruiting campaign in the vast camps of Russian POWs to set up an Anti-Communist Russian Army. They had good results the previous April recruiting among the Soviet-hating nationalist Cossack groups of the Don, Tartar, Kuban and the Ukraine. These men hated Stalin worse than Hitler, so they signed up. Anti-Communist Russian armies eventually numbered as high as 100,000 men under their generals Vlasov, Komorov and Bach-Zelewski. After the war they tried to surrender to the Americans but by secret agreement with Moscow, they were all repatriated to Russia. Most were executed or died in Stalin’s labor camps.<br /> <br /> 1943- The movie The Song of Bernadette premiered.<br /> <br /> 1945- Eleven nations signed the Bretton Woods agreement creating the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.<br /> <br /> 1945-Korea had been a Japanese colony since 1910. After Japan’s defeat in WW2 Russia and America agreed to divide occupied Korea into two parts along the 38th parallel, and administer it for 5 years until regulated elections could decide the peninsula’s future. That never happened, because before the five year time limit was up North Korea and South Korea had each set up rival governments. The division stands to this day.<br /> <br /> 1947- The "Howdy-Doody Show” debuted on NBC. Buffalo Bob, Howdy and Clarabell the Clown, also known as the Puppet Playhouse. Gumby was debuted on the show in 1957.<br /> <br /> 1949- Happy Indonesian Independence Day.<br /> <br /> 1951- The Crosley car goes into service for the post office in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is the funny little jeep with the steering wheel on the right side, so the mail deliverer didn’t have to get out of his vehicle to reach every curbside mailbox.<br /> <br /> 1968- Apollo 8 landed safely on Earth after being the first ship to reach the Moon and come back. The brought back spectacular photos of the Earth from space. One of the three astronauts was also the first to barf in deep space, but they aren’t saying which.<br /> <br /> 1978- King Juan Carlos ratified Spain’s first democratic constitution in 50 years. <br /> <br /> 1985- Terrorists organized by Abu Nidal open fire in airports in Vienna and Rome. Sixteen tourists killed. When White House aide Oliver North was giving testimony about the Iran Contra Scandal he fixated upon the threat posed by Abu Nidal as though it was his personal vendetta. In 2001 while the world was distracted by the events of 9-11, Saddam Hussein’s police quietly arrested and executed Abu Nidal in Baghdad.<br /> <br /> 2007- Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. She had been leading the opposition to the government of General Pervhez Musharraf.<br /> <br /> 2016- Actress-screenwriter Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia in Star Wars), died of cardiac arrest due to sleep apnea while flying from London to Los Angeles. She stopped breathing 15 minutes to landing. The coroner’s report said it was cardiac arrest/deferred. She was 60. Her mother Debbie Reynolds had a stroke and died the next day at age 84.<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s question: Who was Howdy Doody?<br /> <br /> Answer:</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 26 Dec 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6030 <p>Today’s Quiz: Who was Howdy Doody?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: Sword &amp; Fantasy stories since Robert Howard created Conan spoke of lands called Thule or Ultima Thule. Did such a place ever exist?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/26/2022<br /> Birthdays: Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen, Mao Zedong, Charles Babbage, Admiral Dewey, Richard Widmark, Steve Allen, Henry Miller, Carlton Fisk, Chris Chambliss, Alan King, Phil Spector, Fred Schepsi, Jared Leto is 50<br /> <br /> St. Stephen’s Day- “Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the Feast of Stephen…” Wenceslas I of Bohemia (Svaty’ Vaclav in Czech) was a chieftain of the West Slavs 907AD-937. When Czechs accepted Christianity, part of the deal was that they would make their national hero Wenceslas a Saint. The English Christmas carol was written in 1853 by Thomas Helmore and John Mason Neal. Neal adapted it from a collection of Christmas tales from other lands.<br /> First Day of the Kwanza Festival. Kwanza is from the Swahili words “Matunda ya kwanzaa” meaning “first fruits” of the harvest. See below-1966. In the Middle Ages this was the Feast Day of the Pagan god Jul, when good Guildsmen would gather in their Guild Halls to eat themselves sick and drink themselves silly. Then in a total stupor they would swear oaths on their patron saints to stick by and protect each other in the New Year. Churchmen bristled at the licentious nature of the festival and tried to ban it, but there was no stopping a good crazy party. Nobody really knew who the pagan god Jul was, just that it was fun to see the priests get so annoyed.<br /> <br /> 527AD- HAGIA SOPHIA- The Byzantine Emperor Justinian dedicated the newly completed basilica the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople in a grand ceremony. Sometimes called St. Sophia, the real name was not for this saint. It is Greek for The Holy Wisdom or Creative Logos, in other words, God himself. It was then the biggest Church in the world, surmounted by a great dome. Emperor Justinian walked alone to the altar and raised his arms up to heaven:” Glory be to God who has thought me worthy to accomplish so great a work. Solomon, I have vanquished thee!” He was referring to Solomon’s great temple in Jerusalem. <br /> Centuries later when Byzantine Empire was conquered by the Turks and Constantinople’s name was changed to Istanbul, the Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque and four complimentary minarets were added to it’s design. <br /> <br /> 795 AD- Leo III became Pope.<br /> <br /> 1492- Columbus founded the first European settlement in the New World on the beach on San Salvador. He called it La Natividad because it was founded on Christmas. 1522- The Siege of Rhodes ends. Turkish Sultan Sulieman the Magnificent occupied the island after the Knights of St. John agreed to evacuate to the island of Malta. <br /> <br /> 1776- THE BATTLE OF TRENTON- George Washington was desperate for a victory against a huge British Army that had chased him from New York. He crossed the Delaware and at dawn surprise attacked a Hessian regiment while they were still waking up from their Christmas hangovers. As the dazed Hessians ran out of their barracks and tried to form a battle line, Washington positioned his troops so they would be have to face into a snowstorm. <br /> The Americans captured 1,000 Hessians to just 4 casualties, and killed their commander Colonel Johann Rall. Just before the fatal musket ball hit him, Colonel Rall said to his aide: “Fuck! A bunch of country clowns cannot beat us!” <br /> Because part of his army got lost in the dark, Washington couldn’t hold Trenton and had to retreat. But the news of the rebel attack made other British units fall back to the Atlantic Coast. <br /> This was the first true offensive action of the American Army in the Revolutionary War. Back in occupied New York City, British commander Lord Howe, when hearing the news, exclaimed:” It seems inconceivable that three venerable old regiments made up of men who make war their profession, should lay down their arms to a rabble of ragged, undisciplined farmers!”<br /> <br /> 1799- While Washington DC was still being built. at Zion Lutheran Church in Philadelphia this day was the state memorial service in honor of George Washington, who had died two weeks ago. All of the US government was there, except President John Adams. Adams was still angry at him. Former General Richard Henry “Lighthorse Harry” Lee, eulogized Washington as “First in War. First in Peace, First in the Hearts of his Countrymen.”<br /> <br /> XIX Century England- Today was Boxing Day, a Victorian tradition where you boxed up the leftovers of your Christmas dinner and gave them to the poor. <br /> 1825- Nicholas I, the "Iron Czar" crushed the Russian democratic movement called "The Decembrists". 1860- In Charleston Harbor U.S. Major Robert Anderson found himself trying to hold government forts in a city seething with Southern hostility. South Carolina had just declared herself seceded from the United States, so just what was the status of U.S. Government military posts and arsenals? As a precaution, Major Anderson abandoned Fort Moultrie, and other strong points to consolidate his hold on Fort Sumter, a rock in the center of the bay. He then wrote to Washington for instructions. A tense standoff ensued until April when Southerners opened fire upon Fort Sumter. <br /> 1862- The largest mass execution in U.S. history. 38 Sioux warriors were hanged at Mankato, Minnesota. It was revenge for the Great Santee Sioux Uprising that had all Minnesota on fire that summer. The Governor of Minnesota had asked for 300 additional executions but President Abe Lincoln had manumitted all but these 38. As he ascended the scaffold, Sioux Chief Shackopee heard a train whistle. He remarked: “ As the White Man comes in, the Indian goes out.” <br /> <br /> 1865- James Nason of Massachusetts invented the coffee percolator.<br /> <br /> 1908- In Australia, Jack Johnson knocked out Canadian Tommy Burns in the 15th round to become the first African American heavyweight boxing champ. Jack Johnson held the heavyweight title until 1915. Jack Johnson’s flaunting of racist segregation laws drove mainstream America nuts. Johnson drove race cars, flashed gold teeth and openly dated white women. Later champion Muhammad Ali paid him tribute:” He did this all in the time of Jim Crow and Lynching. I was outspoken, but Jack Johnson was crazy!” <br /> <br /> 1909- Famous Western artist Frederick Remington died from an acute appendicitis operation that went badly. Today operations like that are routine and handled by anti-biotics, but back then no such drugs existed. He was 40.<br /> 1919- THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO- Boston Red Sox baseball owner Harry Frazier announced the trade of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for $126,000. The Yankees become champions and Boston believed Ruth cursed their team so they would never win another World Series, BoSox fans became obsessed with the curse story. They scoured a lake where Ruth supposedly pushed a family piano. A young man named Chris believed he helped break the curse. He lived in Ruth’s Boston home and during a 2004 game he was hit in the face with a pop fly ball, losing two teeth. He called it a Blood Sacrifice. The Boston Red Sox went on to win their first two World Series in 86 years and become a postseason power for years after. <br /> <br /> 1924- Baby Frances Gumm first appeared on a stage at 2 1/2 years old. Grown up she would change her name to Judy Garland. 1926- Young artist Al Hirschfeld had made his first caricature for the Broadway Stage. A drawing of actor Sasha Guitry. A friend took it to The New York Tribune and sold it. Al figured here's a nifty way to make a living, so soon he was selling to all the papers including the New York Times. <br /> Al would keep doing caricatures of Broadway greats into the millennium and became a legend himself. In the American Theater, a Hirschfeld caricature of you meant you had arrived and were a real star. His style influenced the look of Walt Disney’s animated classic Aladdin. At age 94 Al remarried and drew the cast of Ally McBeal for TV Guide. In 2003 he died just shy of age 100, drawing to the end.<br /> <br /> 1935- The premiere of the Warner Bros swashbuckler Captain Blood, starring a debonair young rogue from Tasmania named Errol Flynn. The first teaming of Flynn, 19 year old Olivia deHaviland, director Michael Curtiz. Music by Eric Wolfgang Korngold. <br /> <br /> 1938- Young playwright Thomas Williams moved from Saint Louis to New Orleans and changed his name to Tennessee Williams. 1939- Walt Disney Animation moved from Hyperion to the new Burbank Studio lot. The buildings are designed like hospital wards, so in case he hit economic trouble, Disney could sell them to the planned St. Joseph's Hospital across the street. Animator Ward Kimball said it was the first time he worked in a studio where all the furniture matched. The old Hyperion Studio was bulldozed in 1966, the year of Walt Disney’s death.<br /> <br /> 1941- Goofy cartoon, the Art of Self Defense, premiered.<br /> <br /> 1943- Battle of North Cape. British battleship the Duke of York sank the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst in the North Sea. Of 2000 crew on board only 36 survived. 1944- Patton's Third Army broke through to the besieged city of Bastogne. This marked the turning of the tide in the Battle of the Bulge<br /> <br /> 1944- Tennessee Williams play The Glass Menagerie premiered in Chicago.<br /> <br /> 1946- The Gala Opening day of the Flamingo Casino, the birth of modern Las Vegas. Mobster Bugsy Siegel's million-dollar gamble in the desert. Despite booking top talent like Jimmy Durante and Xavier Cugat, the promised Hollywood bigshots failed to materialize. The hotel part of the casino wasn't ready for guests yet, so the high rollers couldn't see making the long trip. A violent rainstorm kept still more people away. Also the casinos formal dress code discouraged the locals who liked to gamble in cowboy hats and blue jeans. Bugsy had to close down until the hotel was completed in March, $4 million in the red. <br /> The Flamingo Casino eventually made a profit but not before the Mob riddled Bugsy Siegel with bullets, and cut the throat of the hotel’s manager, Moe Greenberg.<br /> <br /> 1956- The premiere of the Japanese monster movie Rodan. Released in Japan as Radon the Sky Monster. The name comes from a flying dinosaur called a Pteranodon.<br /> <br /> 1963- The death of Gorgeous George Wagner, the first pro wrestler to adopt a flamboyant character.<br /> <br /> 1966- The first Kwanzaa Festival was organized by African studies professor Dr Marulanga Karenga at Cal State Long Beach to celebrate African-American culture.<br /> <br /> 1973- The horror film The Exorcist starring Linda Blair premiered. Merry Christmas! Have some pea soup!<br /> <br /> 1979- The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The Moslem fundamentalist tribesmen called Mujahadin, who hadn’t submitted to any foreign conqueror since Alexander the Great, began a ten year long guerrilla war that became the Russian Vietnam. The Russians quit Afghanistan in 1989 and the USA quit in 2021 with the same result.<br /> <br /> 1985- Gorillas in the Mist author and ape anthropologist Diane Fossey was murdered by machete in her lab in Africa.<br /> <br /> 1985- Ford introduced the Taurus motorcar.<br /> <br /> 1991- The crucial vote in the Supreme Soviet to dissolve the Soviet Union and create the Federation of Russian States.<br /> <br /> 2003- As part of a promotion for a NJ Islanders-NY Rangers Hockey Game the Nassau Coliseum invited all the fans dressed as Santa Claus to parade on the ice. As the hundreds of Santas marched on to the rink several opened their coats to reveal they were actually Rangers supporters. The Islander Santas objected, some shoving ensued and pretty soon the Nassau Coliseum was packed with fist-fighting Santas.<br /> <br /> 2004-TSUNAMI- One of the strongest earthquakes 9.1, recorded in the last 100 years hit the Indian Ocean. The earthquake sent giant tidal waves covering the coastlines of Sumatra, Thailand, the Maldives and Sri Lanka, killing over 215,000. Whole beach communities were swept away without warning. Poor fisherman to wealthy vacationers like a Victoria Secret model had to run for their lives.<br /> ===========================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Sword &amp; Fantasy stories since Robert Howard created Conan spoke of lands called Thule or Ultima Thule. Did such a place ever exist?<br /> <br /> Answer: In ancient times people believed the world had a finite edge you could sail off. The Greeks and Romans called that extreme northern border of Europe (Denmark?) Thule, and the edge of the world Ultima Thule. They were probably referring to the Orkney Islands or Iceland.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 25 Dec 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6029 <p>Quiz: Sword &amp; Fantasy stories since Robert Howard created Conan spoke of lands called Thule or Ultima Thule. Did such a place ever exist?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: What is a Christmas cracker?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/25/2022 Christmas Day<br /> <br /> Birthdays: (observed) Emanuel Ben Joseph or Yesuah. Called in Greek Jesus the Christ, 6-4 BC (est) <br /> <br /> Other Birthdays: Sir Isaac Newton, Clara Barton, Humphrey Bogart, Cab Calloway, Helena Rubinstein, Rod Serling, Charles Pathe’, Jimmie Buffet, Quentin Crisp, Mike Mazurki, Conrad Hilton- Paris’ granddad, Anwar El Sadat. Larry Csonka, Burne Hogarth, Ishmail Merchant, Maurice Utrillo, Kid Ory, Barbara Mandrell, Dame Rebecca West, Clark Clifford, Annie Lennox is 68, Sissie Spacek is 73, CCH Pounder is 70, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, animator Howard Beckerman is 92.<br /> <br /> Today is Constitution Day in Republic of China/Taiwan, and <br /> Taisho Tenno-Sai (Anniversary of Death of Emperor Taisho) in Japan<br /> <br /> 272 A.D. To the Ancient Romans this date was the feast day of SOL INVICTUS, the "Invincible Sun", a hybrid religion popular just before Christianity that attempted an early form of monotheism, worship of the sun. The Roman Emperor Constantine, whose conversion lifted the ban on Christianity, was a devotee.<br /> <br /> 495 A.D.- Clovis, first King of the Franks (French), was baptized. St. Remi said while pouring the Holy water on the old barbarian's head:" Kneel Sicambrian, and Adore what thou once had Burned: and Burn what thou once hath Adored."<br /> <br /> 800AD- In old Saint Peters Basilica in Rome, Charlemagne knelt in prayer with Pope Leo III celebrating the Christmas feast. The King of the Franks had just come over the Alps to defeat the threat to the Vatican from the Lombards. During the service, Pope Leo whipped out a big jeweled crown and plopped it on Charlemagne’s head. The audience cried out three times in unison the ancient formula: "HAIL CHARLES THE AUGUSTUS, CROWNED BY GOD, THE GREAT EMPEROR OF THE ROMANS!" Charles had said he did not want the Imperial crown and was surprised, but nobody believed such an important step was taken without his prior knowledge. Charlemagne ruled a European Empire almost as large as the Old Roman Empire, from Spain to Hungary, and Denmark to Sicily. <br /> They called it the Holy Roman Empire, although as Voltaire once observed, it wasn’t Roman, wasn’t much of an empire, and wasn’t very holy either…<br /> <br /> 885- Pope Gregory I formalized what Christians had already been doing for 500 years, namely celebrating the birth festival of Jesus or "Christ’s Mass", on December 25th. <br /> <br /> 1066- After the great victory of Hastings William the Conqueror had himself crowned King of England in London. Outside, when his nervous Norman knights heard the loud shouts of celebration, they mistook them for an uprising, drew their swords and attacked the crowd. They slaughtered many and burned down most of the neighborhood around Westminster Abbey.<br /> <br /> 1428- During the Hundred Years War, at the siege of the city of Orleans, a six hour truce was declared for Christmas. English warlords Sir William Gladsdale and Sir John Talbot expressed a wish to hear French music, so a band of French trumpeters serenaded them from the city walls.<br /> <br /> 1497-Natal South Africa discovered by Vasco da Gama. It was called Natal because it was discovered on Christmas.<br /> <br /> 1541- After the Christmas services, Michelangelo’s fresco The Last Judgment was unveiled, done for the Altar wall of the Sistine Chapel beneath his famous ceiling.<br /> <br /> 1734- Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio first performed at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. Bach pioneered writing sacred music in German instead of Latin or Italian. <br /> <br /> 1745- The Treaty of Dresden between Prussia and Austria.<br /> <br /> 1758- HALLEY’S COMET- Sixteen years after his death, the comet Sir Edmund Halley had predicted showed up right on schedule. This event was seen as significant because for centuries the random unexplained appearance of a fiery torch in the sky seemed to be a direct Tweet from God. Halley proved once and for all that comets were not supernatural omens of Fate. That they had an erratic orbit but were otherwise natural phenomena. Halley's Comet appeared last in 1986, and is scheduled to return in 2061.<br /> <br /> 1776- WASHINGTON CROSSES THE DELAWARE- The British army kicked George Washington's rebel ass out of New York and chased them across New Jersey. The British Navy controlled the coastline. Washington had lost every battle, lost Americas’ largest city and was about to lose his capitol. From 23,000 men in July, he now had just 4,000 cold, sulky scarecrows left. And now the soldier’s 6-month enlistments were up! Who would re-up with a defeated shambles of an army? Washington wrote his family advising them to flee to the Blue Ridge Mountains. The American Revolution was in danger of complete disintegration. <br /> Washington knew he had to do something fast or else it was all over. He drew a line in the snow, and begged the men for one more battle, appealing to their patriotism and the great cause of independence. The response was only a few men crossed the line to volunteer. Frustrated, Washington gave a second speech, the contents of which are hidden from history but eyewitnesses said was more to the point: Swearing, You just can’t wage war against the king and then go home! Followed by descriptions of how they would all hang, kept alive long enough to see their wives and daughters gang-raped by soldiers, etc. This time more troops crossed the line. <br /> <br /> Washington spent this night ferrying his men across the Delaware at McKonkey’s Ferry to attack a Hessian regiment in their Christmas beds. The boatmen were all from one town, Marblehead Mass, under their Quaker leader John Glover.<br /> <br /> The famous painting, Emmanuel Leutze's "Washington Crossing the Delaware" was painted in Dusseldorf Germany in 1894. The painter omitted details like Washington sat all the way across, and there were two black men in the boat, Oliver Cromwell, the ships pilot, and Washington's personal bodyguard William Wallace.<br /> <br /> 1815- At a Christmas concert in Vienna, Beethoven premiered his NameDay Overture.<br /> <br /> 1836- According to the novel Moby Dick, today is the day the Pequod set sail from Natucket.<br /> <br /> 1855- Ice hockey first played in North America at Kingston, Ontario, Canada.<br /> <br /> 1868- President Andrew Johnson, a Tennessean who filled in for the murdered Abraham Lincoln and now a lame duck after losing reelection to war hero General Grant, declared a general amnesty from prosecution for all Southerners who fought for the Confederacy. He was planning to issue this pardon in February, remember then the Inauguration wasn’t until March, but the treason trial of former Confederate President Jefferson Davis was being urged in the courts. Johnson moved up the pardon because many were worried a smart lawyer like Davis would use the platform of a trial to prove there was indeed a constitutional basis for the Southern states seceding the union. <br /> <br /> 1869- In Towash Texas, John Wesley Hardin went into town for a friendly game of cards. He quarreled over the game with a man named Bradley. The two went out into the street to shoot it out in classic gunfighter style. Bradley’s shot missed. Hardin drilled him dead. John Wesley Hardin isn’t as well known as Jesses James or Wyatt Earp, but he was one of the deadliest gunfighters of the west. His business card read J. Wesley Hardin, Shootist.<br /> <br /> 1870- Siegfried Idyll, written by Richard Wagner as a birthday gift to his wife Cosima, was first performed by a small ensemble outside her door as she awoke this morning at their home in Lucerne Switzerland. <br /> <br /> 1914- During World War I, German and Scottish soldiers facing each other across the Western Front held a spontaneous Christmas truce. After midnight the German guns ceased and the sounds of Christmas Carols drifted over the barbed wire. The British and French responded with serenades from their regimental bands. At dawn without any official sanction or orders the soldiers of both sides came out of their trenches. In the middle of No-Man's Land they exchanged laughter, schnapps, scotch, tobacco and even played a good-natured soccer game. Next morning the killing resumed, and the officers who allowed the fraternization were reprimanded.<br /> <br /> 1917-"Why Marry?" by Jesse Lynch Williams opened. The first play to win a Pulitzer Prize.<br /> <br /> 1927- Japanese Emperor Hirohito crowned. <br /> <br /> 1929- The Fox Atlanta Theater opened on Peachtree St. An Arabian Nights-type fantasy in part financed by the Shriners so they could use it for their meetings.<br /> <br /> 1931-The first BBC World Service broadcast. An address by King George V called "Around the Empire". Written by Rudyard Kipling.<br /> <br /> 1937-NBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the legendary Arturo Toscanini premieres with its first radio broadcast. In 1975, their studio space, Studio 8H, became the stage of Saturday Night Live.<br /> <br /> 1940- Rogers &amp; Hart’s musical Pal Joey opened on Broadway. It made a star out of a young dancer named Gene Kelly.<br /> <br /> 1946- Comedian W.C. Fields died of alcoholism at 67. While in his hospital bed someone saw him reading a Bible. They said:" W.C., what are you doing with that? " Fields replied:" Looking for loopholes!"<br /> <br /> 1957- Disney film Old Yeller premiered. <br /> <br /> 1962- The film of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird premiered with Gregory Peck, Brock Peters, and Robert Duval.<br /> <br /> 1963- Walt Disney’s The Sword in the Stone released. First animated feature solely directed by Wolfgang,” Woolie” Reitherman.<br /> <br /> 1977- Charlie Chaplin died quietly in his sleep at Vevey, Switzerland. He was 86.<br /> <br /> 1980- Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns finished reading Simon Schaara’s novel about the Battle of Gettysburg called The Killer Angels. He told his father he was inspired to make a documentary about the Civil War. The Civil War took six years to make and ran in 1990, but it was one of the most popular documentary films in the US and redefined the medium of documentary filmmaking.<br /> <br /> 1989- Romanian Communist dictator Nicholai Cercescu and his wife were executed on live television. Cercescu ran the last mad-Stalinist tyranny in Eastern Europe. Madame Cercescu, unrepentant, bellowed defiance at the cameras as they were stood up against the wall. They were so hated, that the presiding officer barely had time to get out of the way of the firing squad and say "Ready…Aim…" before the troops started firing. Instead of being given one round each with the Unknown Blank Cartridge, the men had asked for extra clips. The death penalty was abolished in Romania immediately afterwards. <br /> <br /> 1989- Hot tempered NY Yankees baseball manager Billy Martin died in a car accident (DUI).<br /> <br /> 1991- Premier Mikhail Gorbachov resigned, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, aka the USSR or Soviet Union, ceased to exist. In its place is the Confederation of Independent States led by the Federation of Russia under Boris Yeltsin.<br /> <br /> 1993-The release of the animated "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm," not only arguably the best Batman animated film, but some say one of the best Batman feature films of any kind.<br /> <br /> 1998- Fidel Castro allowed the resumption of Christmas celebrations in Cuba, outlawed since 1960.<br /> <br /> 1999- Galaxy Quest opened. Spoof of Star Trek with Tim Allen, Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver.<br /> <br /> 2020- Pixar’s film Soul premiered.<br /> <br /> ===================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is a Christmas Cracker?<br /> <br /> Answer: At a traditional British Christmas Day feast, besides the roast turkey or duck, stuffing roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts (the leftovers will become “bubble and squeak" on Boxing Day) and Yorkshire pudding, each setting will include a cracker. This is a cardboard tube with a fancy wrapping, tied at both ends, with a heavy strip of paper protruding. At the appointed time, guests hold the paper strip of their cracker in one hand and the other strip is held by the guest next to them. On cue, the paper strips are sharply pulled. The strips carry a tiny charge, reminiscent of a toy cap pistol, and, when pulled, rub together. A sharp bang is heard and the tubes pop open. Inside is a colorful paper crown, a little note with a wonderfully terrible riddle or joke printed on it, and some kind of small toy or party favor. Everyone puts on their crown, which makes all look ridiculous, the jokes are told around the table and then everyone marvels at their wonderful Christmas treasure, as if it was diamonds or a precious rare antique. After which, the plum pudding is served and a little toy bartering may go on. ( Thanks FG)</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 24 Dec 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6028 <p>Quiz: What is a Christmas cracker?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Answer below: The ancient Jewish people of Israel were divided into tribes. How many tribes were there?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/24/2022<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Servius Galba, English King John Lackland, Revolutionary Patriot Dr. Benjamin Rush, Kit Carson, Howard Hughes, Ava Gardner, Michael Curtiz, I.F. Stone, Robert Joffrey of the Joffrey Ballet, Mean Joe Green, John Matusak, Susan Lucci, Nicholas Meyer, Ricky Martin, Pixar animator Glen McQueen, Ryan Seacrest, Dr. Anthony Fauci is 83. <br /> <br /> The religion that was a close runner up to Christianity in the ancient world was the Persian Sun God Mithras. Today was celebrated as the birth of Mithras, who was conceived of a virgin, born in the wilderness to be adored by shepherds. Hmmm…?<br /> <br /> In the Middle Ages this was the Feast of Saints Adam and Eve. The western theatrical tradition survived in the form of Mystery Plays, acting out stories from the Bible. So this day they would do a play about the temptation and expulsion from the Garden of Eden. A tree was brought into the church and decorated to represent the Tree of Life, glass balls representing the forbidden fruit. This is one of the origins of the Christmas Tree. The Feast of Adam and Eve was discontinued during the Reformation.<br /> <br /> 1247- Sir Robin of Loxley, called Robin Hood, died. Legend has it that he fired an arrow out his window with instructions to bury him where it fell. <br /> <br /> 1294- Benedict Gaetani elected Pope Boniface VIII. Boniface felt the Roman pontiff was above any other earthly crown so much that he made the triple tiara the Popes are crowned with. The hat that looks like a big gold hairdryer. Dante hatred Boniface so much in his poem Inferno he has two devils stirring a cauldron of boiling lead and calling up:"Hey Boniface? When are you coming down? It’s just about ready!"<br /> <br /> 1652- In England the Puritan Parliament of Oliver Cromwell forbade any celebration of Christmas. Their brethren the Puritans of Massachusetts would arrest anyone found making merry and fine them three shillings. But after the restoration of King Charles II ten years later, the partying came back.<br /> <br /> 1740- In Pope’s Creek Va, a fire burned out the home of Augustine and Mary Ball Washington, with their little 8 year old son, George Washington.<br /> <br /> 1783 - the American Revolution concluded; General George Washington arrived home at Mt. Vernon. It was the first time he had seen his home in eight years. In those years he had won battles, lost battles, seen his army dwindle to a handful, disarmed a mutiny, and constantly faced the possibility of being hanged as a rebel chieftain. Now it was all over and done." The scene is at last closed. I feel myself eased of the load of public care." <br /> <br /> 1799- After seizing power in France in a military coup, 31 year old General Napoleon Bonaparte invented an executive system for the French republic based on an interpretation of the ancient Roman Republic. Nostalgia for classical art and themes were all the rage then. Napoleon made himself First Consul. He promised to share power with two other consuls in a rotation, Sieyes and Carnot. He never did. He became Emperor of France in 1804.<br /> <br /> 1800 – THE CARBONIS PLOT- Going to the theater Napoleon was almost blown up by a bomb planted in a wagon near his carriage. The terrorist was a royalist named Jean Carbonis. In a sick twist Carbonis gave the reins of the booby-trapped horse &amp; wagon to a little peasant girl to allay suspicions of the police. Napoleon was safe but 22 others including the little girl were killed. Carbonis was quickly arrested and shot.<br /> <br /> 1801- Richard Trevithick created a three wheeled vehicle powered by a big steam boiler and drove 7 people down a road in Cornwall England. He couldn’t steer it very well and it hit a wall at barely two miles an hour.<br /> <br /> 1814- U.S. and Great Britain sign the Treaty of Ghent ending the War of 1812. John Quincy Adams headed the American negotiation team. The British had demanded a independent Indian buffer state in the Great Lakes between the US and Canada, and the US demanded the Pacific Northwest, but all they got was the status quo before the war started. The news wouldn't get across the Atlantic for two months and in the meantime Americans and Englishmen would fight each other one last time at The Battle of New Orleans (Jan 8th).<br /> <br /> 1818- the song Silent Night first sung at the Church of Saint Nicholas in Obernsdorf, Austria. Its lyrics were written by the minister named Josef Mohr set to music by a teacher named Franz Gruber. Their little church could not afford an organ, so this first singing of Silent Night was accompanied on a guitar.<br /> <br /> 1862- Near Mufreesboro Tennessee Confederate guerrilla Col. John Hunt Morgan took advantage of the Christmas truce to get married. The ceremony was conducted by Confederate General Leonidas Polk, who was an ordained Methodist Bishop. Both men would not survive the Civil War.<br /> <br /> 1865- THE KU KLUX KLAN. Before the Civil War, white plantation owners rode together at night to chase down runaway slaves. They were called Night Riders. After the South’s defeat and Emancipation, in Pulaski Tennessee in the law offices of Thomas M. Jones, some disaffected Confederate veterans formed a secret society of night riders. <br /> They named it based on the Greek letter fraternities just gaining popularity in universities- Kappa-Alpha or Kuklos Adelphon.- Kuklos meaning Circle. There was also a version that it came from a lost Indian tribe called the Kawklats. It corrupted into the Ku Klux Klan. <br /> They donned white sheets and hoods to portray themselves as the avenging ghosts of dead rebel soldiers. They played up the mystical images to terrify the superstitious-Grand Wizards, Cyclops. Ghouls. The first Grand Wizard was General Nathan Bedford Forrest, but he resigned after he felt their violence had become counterproductive. There is a hotly disputed story that the Klan first offered their leadership to Robert E. Lee. He declined in a letter, but suggested they should be an "Invisible Empire". After Congress outlawed them in 1871 the Invisible Empire went underground to thwart reconstruction and Black Civil Rights. <br /> <br /> 1888- Vincent Van Gogh cut off most of his left ear after a drunken argument with fellow artist Paul Gaugin over the affection of a prostitute named Rachel. He sent his ear to the prostitute. She fainted. In 2009 historians theorized his ear was sliced off by Gaugin drunkenly waving an antique sword. The two men agreed to keep the secret to not get Gaugin in trouble.<br /> <br /> 1889- Daniel Stover &amp; W. Hance of Freeport Ill. invented the bicycle backpedal brake.<br /> <br /> 1922- The BBC presented it’s first radio play:" The truth about Father Christmas."<br /> <br /> 1925- The London Evening News published a story “In which we are introduced to Winnie the Pooh, and some Bees.” By A.A. Milne. The first book of stories came out the following year.<br /> <br /> 1934- GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR DUMPED HIS GIRLFRIEND- For two years the divorced general had kept a beautiful young Philippine mistress he met in Manila named Isabella Rosario “Elizabeth” Cooper. But when he accepted the posting back in Washington she insisted on coming with him. Today he sent an aide to intercept her in the lobby of the Willard Hotel and buy her off with a newly minted sheet of 100 dollar bills. His chief reason for giving her the boot was the 54 year old four star general was afraid his mother would find out. <br /> <br /> 1937- Disney short Lonesome Ghosts premiered.<br /> <br /> 1941- General Homma and the advancing Japanese Army captured the Philippine capitol Manila. General MacArthur withdrew to the island fortress of Corregidor, while his exhausted Philippine-American troops set up a last line of defense on the Bataan Peninsula.<br /> <br /> 1941- Operation Drumroll. German Admiral Doenitz dispatched advanced 5 long range U-Boats to the US Eastern coast. <br /> <br /> 1942- Admiral Darlan assassinated. Darlan was a Vichy-Nazi collaborator who the Allies had to cut a deal with so the Vichy French wouldn't resist the Allied landings in North Africa at Casablanca. Having to be nice to this turncoat disgusted Free-French like Charles DeGaulle, and apparently disgusted somebody even more...<br /> <br /> 1944- In some of the last big V-1 attacks on London the Nazis added a sick twist- they filled the buzz bombs with letters home from British POWs. As the bombs exploded in Oldham and Gravesend killing women and children, the letters blew out like confetti.<br /> <br /> 1944- The MOSQUITO BOWL- The Marine 6th Division was stationed at Guadalcanal preparing for the attack on Okinawa, the last big battle of the Pacific War. During the long stretches of dull, endless training, the 6th Marine Division discovered they had a number of college football stars in their ranks. This day in the jungle, the men of the 6th Regiment, took on the 29th Regiment in an epic football game. Many of these men would be dead in battle a few months later.<br /> <br /> 1949- The Bugs Bunny cartoon “Rabbit Hood” opened. directed by Chuck Jones.<br /> <br /> 1950- This night young Scottish nationalists broke into Westminster Abbey and stole the Stone of Scone from under the English throne. It was the traditional seat upon which kings of Scotland were crowned, it was brought to London by King Edward I Longshanks. After three months it was given back, left wrapped in a Scottish flag. <br /> <br /> 1951- Gina Carlo Menotti’s opera "Amal and the Night Visitors" premiered on NBC TV..<br /> <br /> 1952- The conservative Republican 80th congress overturned Pres. Harry Truman’s veto of the McCarren /Walters Immigration Act. It called for more strenuous screening of immigrants for Communist sympathies, but it also redistributed the quota system along more racist lines. Two thirds of the slots allowed for new immigrants to America went to England, Ireland and Germany, with the rest of the world getting one third. <br /> The objectionable parts of the act were changed in 1965,…. they said.<br /> <br /> 1952- First draft script completed on the MGM film Terror Planet, changed to “ Forbidden Planet.”<br /> <br /> 1964- First day shooting on the “Cage” a pilot for a new TV show called Star Trek. Jeffrey Hunter was the first captain, later replaced by William Shatner when Hunter’s wife advised him to skip the series. She was worried he’d be typecast.<br /> <br /> 1966- Local New York City TV station WPIX premiered The Yule Log. They ran a loop of 6 minutes of a closeup of a log burning in a fireplace in Gracie Mansion, the NY Mayors official residence. The loop ran from 11:00PM to 1:00AM with Christmas carols playing. It made the TV the symbolic family hearth. New Yorkers loved their kitschy Yule Log tradition, and when WPIX tried to replace it in 1989 hundreds of complaints forced them to put it back. The log was videotaped once more in 1970, and that’s been the film ever since. Other places have picked playing a Yule Log like You Tube.<br /> <br /> 1968- Apollo 8 went into orbit around the Moon. Astronauts Jim Lovell, Frank Borman and William Anders become the first men to reach the moon and win the Space Race. They orbited but did not land, that was for Apollo 11 next year. This Christmas night Frank Borman sent a message to Earth, by reading from Genesis, as they sent back the very first images of the Earthrise, our planet seen from another world. A little blue gem in a black cosmos. Borman read: " Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep… And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness.…”<br /> To a world exhausted by the riots, wars, political polarization and assassinations, Apollo 8’s message ended the year on a positive note. That humans could still dream to be better than they were.<br /> <br /> 1968- Twentieth Century Fox announced that legendary Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa had been fired from the production of TORA-TORA-TORA. Producer Darryl Zanuck’s original concept was the story of the Pearl Harbor attack told by Kurosawa from the Japanese side and David Lean from the American side. But Lean passed and Richard Fleischer stepped in. Japanese sections were directed by Kinji Fukusaku and Toshio Masuda, whose previous credit was The Green Slime. <br /> <br /> 1985- Fidel Castro gives up smoking cigars, on doctors’ orders.<br /> <br /> 1990- Tom Cruise married Nicole Kidman. They divorced a few years later.<br /> <br /> 1992- Outgoing President George H. W. Bush announced presidential pardons for all the former Reagan Whitehouse staff implicated in the Iran Contra Scandal. Caspar Weinberger, Bud McFarlane and probably himself.<br /> <br /> 1993- Tombstone premiered. Kurt Russell, Sam Elliott, Bill Paxton do the OK Corral, finally with accurate facial hair of the period.<br /> <br /> 1997- The first Hanukkah menorah lit in Vatican City.<br /> <br /> 1997- 62 year old Film director Woody Allen married 27 year old Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of his former lover Mia Farrow. When asked to explain himself the director said: " The Heart wants what it Wants.." His 3rd or 4th partner, they have lived happily together ever since.<br /> <br /> 2005- Movie star Burt Reynolds grew so tired of the National Enquirer publishing scandalous stories about him that he gathered 300lbs of horseshit from his ranch, then hired a helicopter. At 3:00AM he flew over the Enquirers’ headquarters in Boca Raton Florida, and dumped it all on the building. Much of it hit their large Xmas tree. <br /> ==============================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: The ancient Jewish people of Israel were divided into tribes. How many tribes were there?<br /> <br /> Answer: 12 Tribes. 10 and two were the Lost Tribes of Israel.<br /> <br /> Merry Christmas!—t.s.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 22 Dec 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6027 <p>Quiz: In science fiction and other sources refer to a place called Tartarus. What or where was the original Tartarus?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Christmas is called the Yuletide season. What is a Yule?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/22/2022<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Diocletian 245AD, Josef Stalin-born Jozef Djugashvili, James Oglethorpe the founder of the State of Georgia, Jean Racine, Giacomo Puccini, Connie Mack, J. Arthur Rank, Ladybird Johnson, Deems Taylor, Jean Michel Basquiat, Barbara Billingsley, Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Emil Sitka, Gene Rayburn, Hector Elizondo, Diane Sawyer, Robin Gibb &amp; Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees, Ralph Fiennes is 59.<br /> <br /> 1737- Preacher John Wesley, the founder of the Methodists, was chased out of Savannah Georgia. The townspeople thought Pastor Wesley applied the Law of God a bit too arbitrary. He finally refused to grant an old girlfriend the rights of marriage because she had not been to confession enough in the past three months. This day he took ship back to England before he was arrested.<br /> <br /> 1807- President Thomas Jefferson was desperately trying to steer a neutral course in the struggle between Britain and Napoleon’s France, each wanted the US to choose their side. This day Congress passed his Embargo Act, cutting off trade with both European powers.<br /> <br /> 1808- DA-DA-DA- DUMMMM- Beethoven premiered his 5th Symphony.<br /> <br /> 1849- Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky had been a political radical. On this day the Czar's secret police the Ohkrana broke his spirit by a cruel ruse. They arrested him for treason. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. He was given a last meal, received Last Rites from a priest, blindfolded and stood before a firing squad. But before the guns would go off the squad stopped and his sentence was commuted. He was sent instead to Siberia for four years. This naturally had an adverse effect on his sensitive nature and he spent his final years a raving conservative.<br /> <br /> 1861- Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) was ordained a deacon in the Church of England.<br /> <br /> 1882- Thomas Edison introduced the string of electric Christmas Tree lights replacing candles.<br /> <br /> 1864- General Sherman marching through Georgia, today telegraphed Pres. Lincoln: ” I present you as a Christmas gift, the City of Savannah”. Uncle Billy spared Savannah the depredations his men committed in the rest of the state, many say because he had friends there before the war, but also because he needed a deep water port for a winter base that the US Navy could supply him from.<br /> <br /> 1888- Horn &amp; Hardart opened their first Automat Restaurant. This in Philadelphia.<br /> <br /> 1898-THE DREYFUS CASE- Early in 1898 the French Army High Command discovered they had a spy on their staff leaking secrets to Germany. The man was a Colonel Count Esterhazy, an aristocrat pretty high up in the chain of command. The Generals worried that news of the scandal would humiliate and weaken the army's prestige. So they looked for a lower ranked scapegoat to pin Esterhazy's crimes on. They chose a Captain Alfred Dreyfus, who was working class and Jewish. They had Dreyfus courts-martialed for espionage and treason and exiled to Devil's Island. As his sword and medals were being publicly stripped from him he shouted out loud "Citizens of France ! I am innocent !!" <br /> Dreyfus's family refused to give up hope and brought in the famous author-activist Emile Zola, who uncovered the plot in the news article "J'Accuse !"I accuse. The scandal tore the French military and public opinion apart. Esterhazy fled to Germany and one top general shot himself. In 1906 Dreyfus was cleared of all charges and when the Great War came General Dreyfus was entrusted with the defense of Paris. <br /> <br /> The Dreyfus case to French scholars is as contentious as the “Did Thomas Jefferson sleep with his Slaves?” controversy is to Americans. In 1998 on the hundredth anniversary of the Dreyfus Case everyone was still arguing over their interpretation of events.<br /> <br /> 1921- LENIN'S TESTAMENT- Soviet Russian leader Vladimir Lenin was in failing<br /> health after an assassination attempt and a stroke. ,k;’[He knew of the internal<br /> struggle within the Communist Party between Trotsky and Stalin to succeed<br /> him. <br /> This day he dictated a series of notes spelling out his analysis of the<br /> situation and where he thought the future of the revolution should go. He<br /> felt Stalin was too dangerous to be in charge" Comrade Stalin is devoid of<br /> the most elementary human honesty". So Trotsky should come after him as<br /> leader of the Soviet Union. Lenin called it "Letter to the Party Congress"<br /> because he intended it to be published. <br /> Upon Lenin's death Stalin seized power and made sure this document was never made public. It didn't come out for thirty-three years, until after Stalin’s death in 1953. <br /> <br /> 1932 – The Mummy, directed by Karl Freund and starring Boris Karloff, Zita Johann, David Manners, Edward Van Sloan and Arthur Byron was released.<br /> <br /> 1937- The day after the triumphant premiere of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, animator Woolie Reitherman ran into Walt Disney at the studio. Instead of complimenting Woolie and telling him to kick back and relax a bit, Walt launched into a detailed analysis of the problems facing the next picture, and how they need to get started right away!<br /> <br /> 1938- Memo from Dave Fleischer’s casting director to Paramount rep A.M. Botsford, asking if they might offer the role of Gulliver in Gulliver’s Travels to Gary Cooper!<br /> <br /> 1939- Max Fleischer's animated classic “Gulliver's Travels” opened in theatres.<br /> <br /> 1940- Nathaniel West, novelist author of Day of the Locust and Miss Lonelyhearts, was killed in a car crash in L.A.<br /> <br /> 1941-Now that America was officially at war with the Axis, Prime Minister Winston Churchill slipped across U-Boat infested waters to spend a month at the White House planning strategy with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. A White House butler described;" Mr. Churchill awoke to a tumbler of sherry. At noon scotch and sodas, champagne at dinner finished off with 90 year old brandy then light a cigar and begin the day's work- from 9:00 PM- 2:00 AM. Churchill liked to dictate memos from his bath. When Roosevelt was told he could enter the room, he was embarrassed and excused himself to leave. Churchill stood up from the tub wearing nothing but soapsuds and the cigar in his teeth and declared: "THE PRIME MINISTER OF GREAT BRITAIN HAS NOTHING TO HIDE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES !" When a friend later asked Roosevelt what was Churchill like, the President mused: "He's pink...all over."<br /> <br /> 1944- During the Battle of the Bulge, a German officer was sent under a white flag to Gen. McAulliffe's American troops in Bastogne. His message was “You are surrounded with no hope of relief. Surrender or be annihilated!” General McAuliffe sent him a simple reply:" NUTS!' McAulliffe's force was eventually rescued by Patton. In later years McAullife grew tired of the fame of being the general who said "nuts". At a party a Manhattan socialite once said to him: "It is an honor to meet you, General Nuts".<br /> <br /> 1951- Yves Montand married Simone Signoret.<br /> <br /> 1964- In Chicago, Comedian Lenny Bruce was sentenced to four months in prison on obscenity charges. When the arresting officer read aloud his jokes, the jury laughed out loud. Lenny complained about the policeman’s delivery. After Lenny Bruce no one has ever again been convicted in the U.S. for telling jokes. <br /> <br /> 1973- The 55 miles per hour speed limit was set for all US interstate highways.<br /> <br /> 1975- English actor Sir Alec Guinness wrote a friend about a recent job offer, "I have been offered a movie (20th Cent. Fox) which I may accept if they come up with proper money. London and N. Africa, starting in mid-March. Science fiction – which gives me pause – but is to be directed by Paul [sic] Lucas who did "American Graffiti, which makes me feel I should. Big part. Fairy-tale rubbish but could be interesting perhaps."<br /> The part was Obie Wan Kenobi, and the movie was Star Wars. By the time the first trilogy was done, he had made $50 million from it. <br /> <br /> 1984- Nerdy shopkeeper Bernard Goetz shot four African-American men on a NYC subway train. They had asked him for money and one man had a sharpened screwdriver. Goetz had once been robbed before of a liquor store payroll and pushed through a plate glass store window. So he pulled his gun and fired. Two of the men died and one was left paralyzed. Like OJ Simpson ten years later, the Subway Vigilante divided people along racial lines. Was Bernard Goetz a homicidal racist, or a mild man pushed over the brink? <br /> <br /> 1988- In Brazil ecologist and rubber workers union activist Chico Mendes was shot and killed by plantation owners.<br /> <br /> 1993- The Hubble Space telescope cost $1.5 billion but it had a flaw. Its lens was ground incorrectly, so it was nearsighted. This day Space Shuttle Endeavour flew into space to fit the Hubble with an optical corrective system called CoStar, in effect, giving it a set of glasses. <br /> <br /> 2000- The Cohen Bros. Depression Era comedy Oh Brother Where Art Thou? Opened.<br /> “ Ah, am a man of constant sorrow….”<br /> <br /> 2001- THE SHOE BOMBER. Would-be terrorist Richard Reid tried to blow up an American Airlines flight from Rome to Orlando by trying to ignite a substance concealed in his sneakers. He was stopped and beaten to a pulp by his fellow travelers, including a 6’8 pro basketball player returning home from the Italian leagues. Richard Reid is why we all have to take our shoes off in airports now.<br /> ===================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: Christmas is called the Yuletide season. What is a Yule?<br /> <br /> Answer: The ancient Norse/Viking solstice festival was called the Jul, or Yule. It lasted 12 days. You decorated you home indoors with evergreens and at night left out cookies and milk for Odin the Wanderer and his 8 legged horse Sleipnir.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 21 Dec 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6026 <p>Quiz: Christmas is called the Yuletide season. What is a Yule?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: All together, how many ghosts visited Ebeneezer Scrooge on Christmas?<br /> --------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/21/2022<br /> Birthdays: Benjamin Disraeli, Josh Gibson- the Home Run King of the Negro Baseball Leagues, Pat Weaver-TV exec who created the Today Show and father of Sigourney Weaver, Frank Zappa, Dr. Kurt Waldheim, Florence Griffith Joyner, Chris Evert, Phil Roman, Jane Fonda is 85, Keifer Sutherland is 56, Samuel L. Jackson is 74, Jane Kaszmarek, Judy Delphy is 53, Jeffrey Katzenberg is 72, Paul Winchell born Pinkus Wilchinski would be 100!<br /> <br /> Happy Winter Solstice. The shortest day of the year.<br /> <br /> 1375- The writer Boccaccio died, not of the plague, and not during a wild party like in his book the Decameron.<br /> <br /> 1376- After a lot of lobbying from St. Catherine of Siena and Saint Brigid of Sweden, Pope Gregory XI moved the Vatican back to Rome from Avignon. Gregory mysteriously died shortly after he arrived. Roman mobs, angry at the poverty caused by the absence of the Holy See, attacked the mostly French cardinals selecting the next pope. They crowded around their building shouting: "Death or an Italian Pope!' and threw javelins at the ceiling knowing the points would pop out of the floor and prick their feet. <br /> The terrified cardinals dragged any old bishop out of the Vatican library, made him an Archbishop, then Cardinal, then Pope, then ran for the hills. The librarian became Pope Urban VIII, the "Beast of Naples". <br /> <br /> 1776- American diplomats Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane arrive in Paris to negotiate a French alliance and money for the rebellious colonies. It took them a year. Their secretary, William Bancroft, was a British spy.<br /> <br /> 1788- Emperor Quang Tung of Vietnam was crowned.<br /> <br /> 1863- Congress created the Medal of Honor, at first only for Navy personnel for gallantry, but later extended to all branches of the military.<br /> <br /> 1866- THE FETTERMAN MASSACRE- Foreshadowing by ten years what Custer would get, the Sioux led by Crazy Horse surrounded an army detachment and wiped them out. The commander of Fort Phil Kearny Wyoming, a Colonel Carrington sent out the troop to drive away some hostiles molesting a woodcutting detail. It turned out to be an elaborate trap planned by Crazy Horse and Red Cloud. It was said Carrington was such a high-class snob, "the way he would prefer to deal with the Sioux would be to socially ostracize them". <br /> <br /> Now as his men went down under a hail of arrows Carrington could hear the firing in the distance but didn't think they needed any help. Captain Fetterman and his second in command Brown were among the last survivors. Fetterman had said the threat of the hostiles was overrated and "With 80 men I could ride through the entire Sioux Nation!" Brown had gone against orders on the mission because he promised his family back east a real Indian scalp for Christmas. Now surrounded and not wishing to be tortured, they held their revolvers to each other's temples and on the count of three...<br /> <br /> 1909- The first Junior High School or Middle School in the US began in Berkeley Cal.<br /> <br /> 1913- THE BIRTHDAY OF THE CROSSWORD PUZZLE- Journalist Arthur Wynne created the word game, which included 32 clues and ran in the New York World.<br /> <br /> 1914- The premiere of the first feature length film comedy- Tilly’s Punctured Romance, starring Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand and a young Charlie Chaplin.<br /> <br /> 1919-THE PALMER RAIDS- THE RED SCARE- Class-conscious American businessmen watched the growing Communist regime in Russia with fear. Soviet cells were also moving to take over Germany, Hungary and Austria. People feared foreign anarchists at home with bombs." Bolshevism is worse than war.”-Herbert Hoover. This day Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer received permission to go after what he deemed “seditious elements”. Palmer himself was a liberal progressive, but when anarchists set off a bomb on his home’s porch, he turned into an avenging inquisitor.<br /> Under emergency wartime sedition legislation (even though World War I had been over for a year) At the stroke of midnight on New Years, U.S. marshals raided newspaper and union offices and deported 249 immigrants, including women's rights advocate Emma Goldman. The raids were organized by a young executive in the treasury dept, named J. Edgar Hoover.<br /> <br /> 1925- Sergei Eisenstein’s cinematic masterpiece Battleship Potemkin premiered in Moscow. The films pioneering use of montage and allegorical imagery intercut inspired a generation of filmmakers.<br /> <br /> 1933- Twentieth Century Fox signed 5 year old Shirley Temple to a seven year contract.<br /> <br /> 1937- Walt Disney's " Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" had its grand premiere at the Carthay Circle Theater. The first feature length American cartoon, it became the box office champ of 1938, earning 4 times more than any other film that year. Russian director Sergei Eisenstein called it “The greatest movie ever made.”<br /> <br /> 1937- Ted Healy, former vaudeville partner of the Three Stooges, was killed in a fight at the Trocadero while celebrating the birth of his son. No one is sure what happened. One legend has it that actor Wallace Beery and some gangsters did the fatal pounding. Another rumor is one of the gangsters was young Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, who forty years later would produce the James Bond movies and win an Irving Thalberg Award at the 1982 Oscars. Healy originated the violent comedy schtick of the Stooges. But by this time The Three Stooges had parted ways with Ted Healy and were doing much better.<br /> <br /> 1939- In the year of their nonaggression pact, Adolf Hitler sent Holiday Greetings to his new best-buddy Josef Stalin. "Merry Christmas, you Jewish-Bolshevik untermensch schweinehund! "Thank you and the same to you, you corrupt Fascist tool of International Capitalism, ифыефкв! "<br /> <br /> 1940- Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald (44) died of a heart attack at Hollywood columnist Sheila Graham's house. She had just left the house to buy him some candy. She left him thumbing through his Princeton alumni newsletter. His last words to her were 'Hershey bars will be fine..."<br /> <br /> 1944- Walt Disney’s The Three Caballeros premiered in Mexico City. It opened in the US in February.<br /> <br /> 1945- General George “Blood &amp; Guts” Patton died from injuries suffered in an auto accident in Manheim Germany on Dec. 9th.<br /> <br /> 1953- Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the Atomic Bomb, was accused of being a Communist. When he was asked in 1940 to head the Manhattan Project the government knew he was a Berkeley eccentric who had joined every leftist group in town, but he was brilliant. This act is now viewed more as the government revenge for his flat refusal to help Edmund Teller develop the Hydrogen Bomb. <br /> <br /> 1958- Charles DeGaulle elected President of the 5th French Republic.<br /> <br /> 1959- Joe Oriolo’s TV remake of Felix the Cat debuted on TV. <br /> <br /> 1964-The British Parliament voted to ban the death penalty.<br /> <br /> 1968- The Apollo 8 spacecraft was launched to the Moon. Besides winning the Space Race, and doing the famous Christmas Night reading of Genesis from lunar orbit, Apollo 8 had one board one of the very first personal-computers. The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) was one cubic foot in size, had stored memory of 5 bytes, a language (DSKY) and a digital display. <br /> <br /> 1969- Famed football coach Vince Lombardi coached his last game- Dallas beat Washington 20-10.<br /> <br /> 1971- Richard William's animated TV special "A Christmas Carol" with Alastair Sim reprising his Scrooge.<br /> <br /> 1972- 14 members of a Uruguayan rugby team were found alive on an Andes mountain peak after their plane crashed. They survived the harsh conditions by turning cannibal and eating their dead. <br /> <br /> 1973- Ray Harryhausen’s The Golden Voyage of Sinbad premiered.<br /> <br /> 1975- International terrorist Carlos the Jackal attacked an OPEC oil meeting in Vienna and took 11 ministers hostage. He escaped to Algeria and wasn’t finally caught until 1994 while trying to get an operation on his testicle.<br /> <br /> 1978- Chicago police investigating the disappearance of a 15 year old boy searched the home of contractor John Wayne Gacy. They found the remains of 33 children in the crawl space. Gacy in his spare time did volunteer work as a clown entertaining sick children.<br /> <br /> 1979- Disney’s Sci-Fi film The Black Hole opened in theaters.<br /> <br /> 1982- Thom Riley, one of the stars of the TV cop show ChiPS was busted for driving stoned on Quaaludes.<br /> <br /> 1988- PanAm 747 jumbo jet Flight 103 from London to New York exploded over Lockerbie Scotland killing all the passengers. The bomb was planted in Munich by Libyan agents. It was in retaliation for either Reagan's bombing of Tripoli in 1986, or the shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655 in July of 1988 by the US Navy Cruiser Vincennes.<br /> The Libyan man who built the bomb wasn’t arrested until Dec. 2022. <br /> <br /> 1989- The Romanian army joined the people protesting in the streets and overthrew the hated Communist dictator Nicholai Cercescu. While most of the nation starved in a stagnant economy, Cercescu lived in luxury. His son drove sports cars and lost fortunes at roulette tables in Monte Carlo. Young Cercescu kept a “raping room” for women who caught his fancy. As the Communist regimes of Poland, Czechoslovakia and East Germany collapsed, Romanians realized their time had finally come, and they poured out into the streets.<br /> <br /> 1989- Vice President Dan Quayle sent out 30,000 official Christmas cards with the word beacon misspelled- beakon. In 2007 President George W. Bush sent out Hanukkah cards featuring the White House Christmas tree.<br /> <br /> 2003- Just in time to spoil Christmas, Pres. Bush’s Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced the color-coded threat level was raised to the highest state of alert since the 9-11 Attack. That Al Qaeda terrorists were about to attack the United States and kill us all at any minute! After terrifying everybody, absolutely nothing happened. In 2009 it was revealed the data came from a conman named Dennis Montgomery, who fooled the CIA into believing he had special software that he could use to intercept Al Qaeda secret messages broadcast on the Arab news network Al Jazeera. It was a complete fraud.<br /> <br /> 2012- The World will come to an End, according to the ancient Mayan Calendar. The Maya believed that the world as they knew it occasionally was turned upside down. The word for earthquake also meant revolution. Translating Mayan can be open to interpretation, so end of an era may also mean beginning of a new age of enlightenment. <br /> <br /> 2012- The Walt Disney Company spent $4.06 billion to buy Lucasfilm, ILM and the Star Wars rights. George Lucas retired to do philanthropic pursuits.<br /> <br /> 2089- According to Ridley Scott, today the good ship Prometheus landed on the Original Planet.<br /> ========================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: All together, how many ghosts visited Ebeneezer Scrooge on Christmas?<br /> <br /> Answer: Four.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 17 Dec 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6025 <p>Quiz: Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the Feast of Stephen.” Who the heck is King Wenceslas, and what has he have to do with Christmas?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: Why is alcohol for drinking also known as “booze”?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/17/2022<br /> Birthdays: Paracelsus (otherwise known as Nicholas Paracelsus Theophrastus Bombastus Von Hohenheim) the father of modern medical diagnosis, Antonio Cimmarosa, William Lyon Mackensie-King, Arthur Fiedler, Bob Guccione, William Safire, Cal Ripken Sr., Ford Maddox-Ford, Erskine Caldwell, Tommy Steele, Pope Francis I, Bill Pullman is 69, Eugene Levy is 76, Giovanni Ribisi is 48, Armin Mueller-Stahl is 92, Wes Studi is 75, Sean Patrick Thomas, Mila Jovovich is 47, Bart Simpson is 33.<br /> <br /> ROMAN FESTIVAL OF SATURNALIA- Today was the first day of the festival of Saturn, the biggest holiday to the ancient Romans, one of the roots of Christmas. On this holiday no business was conducted, Roman families ate together, masters served their slaves, and gave them a day off. People gave each other gifts in pretty colored wrappings. Romans also decorated the outsides of their houses with wreaths and lights (oil lamps). Christians began using the Saturnalia as the birth festival of Jesus as early as 335AD. It was made official by the Pope in 885 AD. <br /> So, at sunset, face towards the setting sun and shout "Io, Io, Saturnalia!", for Hail Saturn!<br /> <br /> 1596- In a warning of what his son Charles I would face in England, this day Scottish King James VI was chased out of Edinburgh by his pushy Presbyterian Parliament. James responded with an economic blockade of his capitol by withholding royal grants and contracts until by New Years the populace was clamoring for his return.<br /> <br /> 1777- VALLEY FORGE- When Lord Howe’s British Army called the Christmas Truce and beds down in Philadelphia, George Washington’s army made camp not too far away at Valley Forge. The severe winter and poor conditions made Washington’s Army lose as many men as if there had been a battle. 2,500 out of 10,000 minutemen did not survive to see Spring. Meanwhile the local farmers sold their harvest to the British, who paid better.<br /> <br /> 1793 -Battle of Toulon begins. The French Revolutionary army tried to retake the Mediterranean seaport whose royalist population had invited in an occupation fleet of English, Spanish and Piedmontese. The commanding French generals were nervous about failure, because to first magistrate Robespierre failure meant the guillotine. So they yielded the initiative to a pushy 23-year-old artillery major with a funny Italian name- Napoleon Bonaparte.<br /> <br /> 1843- Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story for Christmas" first published. In the 18th century and earlier the Christmas celebration was a more rowdy affair with public drinking, marching around in costumes “mummery” and mayhem more resembling Mardi Gras. <br /> The popularity of Dickens story of Scrooge, Marley and Tiny Tim did much to help Victorians change the nature of the Christmas celebration to a more intimate observance centered on the family. Charles Dickens said he wrote the book to make money. He had two flops and wanted to capitalize on the new fashion for family Christmas celebrations set by the example of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.<br /> <br /> 1862- GRANT'S GENERAL ORDER #11- When Union army troops occupied large parts of Confederate Tennessee, southerners wondered what kind of retribution the angry U.S. government would wreak upon their heads. They were amazed when the new commander of the Union troops, Ulysses Grant, issued an order expelling all Jews from East Tennessee! His reasoning was that drygoods salesmen and were cheating his men. Abe Lincoln was shocked. "Isn't our country divided enough?!" The order was countermanded by the White House and Grant was ordered to apologize. Grant later admitted the criticism of his hasty order was justified, and he “should not have legislated against any one particular sect.” During the eight years of Grant’s presidency, memories of General Orders No. 11 surfaced repeatedly. Eager to prove that he was above prejudice, Grant appointed more Jews to public office than any of his predecessors. Jewish leader Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise noted at the time, that Grant had “often repented” of his order, and “that even the wise also fail.” ‘<br /> <br /> 1865- Schubert's Unfinished Symphony (#8) received it's world premiere. In 1822 Schubert wrote the first two movements and 8 measures for the 3rd (Scherzo), then forgot about it when he died in 1828. A friend kept the manuscript in a closet for 43 years.<br /> <br /> 1892- Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet “The Nutcracker” premiered at the Imperial Ballet in Saint Petersburg. One child dancer playing a candy cane in that first performance was a Georgian boy named Gyorgi Balavadajze- later American choreographer George Balanchine.<br /> <br /> 1902- THE VENEZUELA CRISIS- Kaiser Wilhelm threatened Venezuela with naval blockade and invasion if she did not pay her international debts. US President Teddy Roosevelt sent Admiral Dewey with 23 battleships to the Caribbean and threatened war. Der Kaiser backed down and war was avoided. This incident was kept secret for seventy years. It’s when Teddy first said:” Speak softly and carry a big stick!”<br /> <br /> 1903- THE AIRPLANE- Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. For one minute a powered heavier than aircraft flew. Orville finished the day with a telegram to their father minding the bicycle shop back in Dayton Ohio: “ Success. Four Flights Thursday Morning against twenty-one mile an hour wind. Inform press home for Christmas.” The news failed to get into most national newspapers. <br /> The Wrights themselves maintained a strict secrecy because they knew rivals like Glen Curtis, the French, and Smithsonian professor William Langley were all close to inventing an airplane as well. The sensation of the airplane didn’t really become widespread until the Wrights demonstrated their plane in France in 1908 and around New York Harbor in 1909. In 1913 Curtis took Langley’s flying machine the Aerodrome out of storage and flew it to prove to the Smithsonian that the Wright Brothers were not the first. The bitter disputes lasted the length of their lives.<br /> <br /> 1917- Lenin created the first Communist Secret Police, the Cheka, led by Iron Felix Derszhinsky:” My thoughts induce me to be without pity.” In a few months the Cheka executed more people than the Czars’ police the Okrana did in all of the XIX Century. The Cheka in Stalin’s time was called the OGPU, then NKVD, his executioners in the Great Purges. After Stalin, their name was changed to the KGB, the great spy and Secret Police operation set to bedevil their counterparts in the west- the CIA and MI5. The KGB was disbanded in 1991, and today is called the FSB. Russian Premier Vladimir Putin began his career as a KGB agent.<br /> <br /> 1928- Under orders from Josef Stalin, the Central Committee of the Soviet Union first declared that all rural land belonged to the community. All landowners were enemies of the state. This began The War on the Kulaks- the name for middle class peasants who owned some farmland. The purges of Kulaks, and famine from forced collectivization killed millions.<br /> <br /> 1934- First test flight of the Donald Douglas' DC-3, the most widely used airplane in aviation history. Unchanged for almost 60 years, the two engine DC-3 was the backbone of most of the world's first passenger airlines and with the military name C-47 (the Gooney Bird) it became the workhorse cargo plane of from World War II until Vietnam. There are still some DC-3's in service in some small countries.<br /> <br /> 1939- THE GRAF SPEE- The world media in the opening weeks of World War II were dominated by news of an epic sea duel between the British Navy and a German battleship. The British pursued the Graf Spee across the Atlantic into Montevideo Harbor in neutral Uruguay. This day while the sun was setting, radio broadcasters stayed on the air live and 250,000 spectators lined the shoreline to see if the Graf Spee would come out and fight. Instead, the tropical quiet was rent by a huge explosion. Kapitan Zur See Langersdorf had scuttled his own ship. <br /> British intelligence had done a masterful job of fooling Kapitan Langersdorf into believing heavy naval reinforcements including the aircraft carrier Ark Royal were closing in on him, while in actual fact they were nowhere in the vicinity. All there was to try and stop the German battleship were three badly damaged light cruisers. After sinking the Graf Spee, Langersdorf wrapped himself in a German flag and shot himself. Interestingly he didn't use a Nazis swastika flag but wrapped himself in the old German Imperial Navy ensign. He also refused to give the stiff arm Nazis party salute.<br /> <br /> 1941- As if he hadn’t put his foot in his mouth badly enough already, Charles Lindbergh does it again today. After earlier in the year railing on about the “International Jewish Conspiracy pushing America into war” today in a speech Lucky Lindy denounced the war with Germany:” The only real threat to America is the threat of the Yellow Race. Japan and China are united against the white race. And our only natural ally is Germany”. This even after the public was enraged over Pearl Harbor. Secretary of the Treasury Robert Morgenthau told President Roosevelt: “I am convinced this guy is a Nazi”. Charles Lindbergh lived a long life, but never apologized or recanted his views.<br /> <br /> 1944- The MALMEDY MASSACRE- The largest documented atrocity committed on U.S. troops in Europe in World War II. During the Battle of the Bulge Nazi Waffen S.S. troops rounded up a large group of U.S. prisoners and machined gunned them all. 87 men of Battery B, 285th Field Artillery died. The atrocity stiffened U.S. resistance to the Nazis advance. The furor over President Reagan's laying a wreath at the Bitburg cemetery in 1985 was that some of the guilty SS of Malmedy were buried there. <br /> One of the leaders of the massacre, Major Otto Wolf, did some prison time after the war and lived quietly until 1967, when he was found shot to death in his burning house, a smoking rifle in his hands like he was defending himself. Obviously, someone had not forgotten.<br /> <br /> 1944- During the Battle of the Bulge, near Krinkelt Belgium, Sgt. José Mendoza López picked up a heavy machine gun and held off a massed German assault all by himself. An immigrant from Oaxaca, Mexico who moved to Texas, he stood up in a snowy foxhole offering no cover and mowed down waves of attacking soldiers, covering the retreat of his buddies. Sgt. Lopez was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and lived to be 94, dying in 2005. He credited his success to the Virgin of Guadalupe.<br /> <br /> 1944- As the extent of the German offensive in the Ardennes became clear, General Eisenhower declared the Belgian town of Bastogne would be the key. He ordered the 82nd and 101st Airborne to go there and hold the town at all costs.<br /> <br /> 1944- The U.S. War Department issued Public Proclamation 21, stating that all Americans of Japanese ancestry could leave their internment camps and finally go home.<br /> <br /> 1955- Carl Perkins awoke in the middle of a bad nights sleep and wrote Blue Suede Shoes, the first song to be a hit in Country, R&amp;B and Rock n’ Roll charts simultaneously, especially when sung by Elvis Presley” Well you can knock me down, step on ma face, etc.”<br /> <br /> 1963- Americans began to hear on their transistor radios a new sound from a band in England named the Beatles. “I wanna hold your hand” becomes a big hit and heralds the British rock invasion in 1964. <br /> <br /> 1969- Tiny Tim, the campy, ukulele strumming crooner, married his Miss Vicky, or Victoria Budinger live on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.<br /> <br /> 1969- The US Air Force terminated Operation Blue Book, the investigation of UFO phenomena.<br /> <br /> 1969- The Walt Disney Studio re-released Fantasia, and it was embraced by hippy stoners who liked to get high during screenings, Disney did a black-lite poster for it. It was the first time the 1940 film had ever made a profit. <br /> <br /> 1971- After the last Pakistani forces surrendered East Pakistan to invading Indian armies, East Pakistan was declared the independent nation of Bangladesh.<br /> <br /> 1989- Communist dictator Nicholas Cercescu ordered the Romanian Army to open fire on democratic protesters in Timisoara. Two thousand were killed. This incident pushed elements of the Army to turn their guns on the government. The Romanian Revolution was the most violent of the Communist regime changes of Eastern Europe. <br /> <br /> 1989- After appearing in some interstitial shorts on the variety Tracey Ullman Show, The Simpsons first premiered as a regular TV series. Season 1, Episode 1, Simpsons roasting on an open fire. “<br /> <br /> 1999- The film Stuart Little premiered. <br /> <br /> 2001- Kellogg, Brown &amp; Root, a subsidiary of the Haliburton Corporation, was awarded a ten-year no-bid contract to provide the U.S. Army with everything from firefighting to building bases to serving meals. Soldiers won’t dig latrines, because KBR port-o-pottys will be there. A soldier couldn’t wipe his face with a towel that didn’t have a KBR logo on it. Haliburton made $39 billion in the Iraq War. Vice President Cheney was a senior stockholder of Haliburton.<br /> <br /> 2010- The Arab Spring- Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26 year old peddler in Tunisia, had his pushcart confiscated for being unable to pay a fine. It was his only source of income to feed his family. He protested by standing in front of a police station and setting himself on fire. As Bouazizi died, Tunisians rose in massive protests and overthrew their longtime President Ben Ali. The pro-democracy protests quickly spread to Egypt, then Bahrain, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Jordan, Syria and all over the strongman one party states of the Middle East.<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Why is alcohol for drinking also known as “booze”?<br /> <br /> Answer: During the first political convention for William Henry-Harrison for President, a local distillery owned by Lemuel Booze handed out free whisky to delegates in little bottles shaped like a log cabin. Harrison promoted that he was born in a cabin. Each bottle was marked BOOZE. And thus was history made.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 16 Dec 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6024 <p>Quiz: Why is alcohol for drinking also known as “booze”?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: In illustrations of Dickens A Christmas Carol, the ghost of Jacob Marley is always shown wearing a bandage around his head lengthwise. Why?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/16/2022<br /> Birthdays: Ludwig Van Beethoven, Catherine of Aragon (Henry VIII's wife # 1), Marshal Gerbhard von Blucher, Lenoid Brezhnev, Jane Austen, Margaret Mead, Noel Coward, George Santayanna, Liv Ullmann is 84, Steve Bochco, Leslie Stahl. Quentin Blake- dean of British illustrators favored by Roald Dahl, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, Miranda Otto is 55.<br /> <br /> 1773- THE BOSTON TEA PARTY- The British Parliament had angered the colonists of New England by disallowing any tea to be imported except by British vessels and then a heavy tax to the Crown was to be paid on its purchase. As New England women began to develop alternatives from grass and dandelions-what we now call Herbal Teas- the men of Boston threatened violence on any merchant who dared sell English tea. <br /> On Nov 28th the good ship Dartmouth anchored at Griffith's Wharf (today called Independence Wharf), with 144 tons of tea to be cleared of customs by December 17th. A mob gathered at the Old South Meeting House to discuss what to do. The call was made for 'The Mohawks!" In the crowd were Paul Revere and artist Jonathan Trumbull. At 6:00 p.m. this night, men disguised as Indians boarded the Dartmouth overpowered the crew and tossed crates of loose tea into the harbor. <br /> British Admiral Montague watched the mischief from his warship across the harbor, but didn't take any action "for fear of civilian casualties." He well remembered the political repercussions a few years earlier, when His Majesties troops fired into a snowball throwing crowd and the radical Yankees labelled it the Boston Massacre.<br /> Next morning, all of Boston developed mass amnesia. No one seemed to know who did the deed? One man waited until he was ninety-three years old and the Revolution long over before he said who was there that night.<br /> <br /> 1777- The Comte’ De Vergennes, the foreign minister of the King of France, informed Ambassador Benjamin Franklin that France was now willing to recognize the United States and help in her war against Britain. <br /> The previous year, British Prime Minister Lord North declared in Parliament that he doubted any crown in Europe would ever support the American rebels. "They would be laying the foundation for an American empire, whose forces would missionary a radical form of democracy around the world."<br /> <br /> 1796- THE YEAR OF THE FRENCH- Wolf Tone, sort of the Irish Malcolm X, convinced Revolutionary France to send an army of 14,000 troops to help the Irish revolt against Britain. The French fleet that set out was beset with problems from the beginning. The French ships did so many maneuvers to avoid the British Navy that they got lost, their Admiral got mixed up in a fog and some ships struck rocks. Finally the whole expedition gave up and went home within sight of the Irish Coastline. Wolf Tone wrote bitterly:" I could have hit the shoreline with a biscuit!”<br /> <br /> 1811- First of the New Madrid earthquakes, est 7.5 Richter, hit the Mississippi valley. <br /> <br /> 1824- PUBLISH AND BE DAMNED! - Was the response of the Duke of Wellington to a Mr. John Stockdale, who wrote him that he intended to publish the reminiscences of one of London's most notorious courtesans named Harriet Wilson. The beautiful Miss Wilson had slept with most of the leading men of London society. She intended to name Wellington as one of her frequent customers during the period 1805-1808, unless of course he chose to have his name removed- for 200 pounds. But such was the Iron Duke's famous answer.<br /> <br /> 1826- Benjamin Edwards rode into Nacogdoches Texas and tried to declare it the free Republic of Freedonia. None of the other Yankee settlers knew what he was talking about. As soon as regular Mexican troops arrived to arrest him, Edwards fled. He presaged future events in Texas. The only other thing it did was give the Marx Brothers a good name for their fictional country in the 1934 movie Duck Soup.<br /> <br /> 1835- THE FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION FORMED- After numerous revolts in Paris streets since 1789, Napoleon’s elderly friend Marshal Soult came up with a novel idea: Take all those street ruffians who made "Le Miserables" so colorful, put them in uniform and send them to the Sahara and hopefully they'll all get killed. The Foreign Legion has fought France’s wars from Madagascar to Mexico. To this day the Legion Étranger' takes anyone from any nation from 16 to 40, no questions asked. Their motto- “Marche ou Creve”, March or Die”. <br /> <br /> 1835- The Great Fire of New York City. A fire started at 9:00PM in the a small shop on Merchant St. Because of the cold, fire hydrants and hoses froze and the rival volunteer fire departments argued over who got there first. The fire quickly grew out of control. It raged for four days- consumed 700 buildings over thirteen acres. Four hundred Philadelphia firemen had to come to the rescue.<br /> <br /> 1838- THE BATTLE OF BLOOD RIVER- Dutch-German Boers of South Africa had piled into their laager wagons and embarked north on the Great Trekk to get away from British authority in Capetown. When they crossed into the territory of the Zulu king Dingane their leaders went to make a pact with him to settle in his territory. Dingane welcomed the Vortrekker leaders into his camp, then killed them and pounded wooden stakes into their eyes. On this day the Boers exacted a terrible vengeance on the Zulu, shooting up their tribe and burning their abandoned capitol. They found the remains of their dead leader Piet Restiv with the signed covenant still in his bag. For years afterwards White Afrikaners celebrated this day as Covenant Day, or Dingane Day.<br /> <br /> 1863- The first of the Union wounded from the battle of Fredericksburg began to trickle into Washington DC. The organizer of the hospital suppliers, then called the Sanitary Commission was Frederick Law Olmstead the designer of New York’s Central Park. Writers Louisa May Alcott and Walt Whitman volunteered and served as nurses for the sick. Whitman had tried several odd jobs and had published a thin quarto of poems entitled the Leaves of Grass, which polite society considered vulgar.<br /> <br /> 1871- BOSS TWEED INDICTED- William Marcy Tweed as New York City Commissioner of Public Works was behind one of the most corrupt city governments in U.S. history. Tweed mobilized poor and immigrant voters into political power and bought and sold city building projects. The cost overruns to build a simple courthouse cost more than the total cost to build the British Parliament in London- $13 million dollars. For example he once billed the city $14,000 for 11 thermometers. <br /> The press tried to expose him, but it was really Thomas Nast’s cartoons in Harper’s Weekly who helped bring the Tweed Ring down. Boss Tweed said: "I don’t mind the newspaper articles since most of my voters can’t read, but those damn pictures!" Tweed once offered Nast half a million dollars to go to Europe and "study art". Nast refused. Boss Tweed ended his life in the Ludlow Street Jail, which he himself built.<br /> <br /> 1900 -EARLY ANIMATED FILM "ENCHANTED DRAWINGS', James Stuart Blackton was a New York World cartoonist who used to do a lightning-drawing act on the vaudeville circuit. He came to do an article on Thomas Edison, then Edison engaged him to make a film of his act. He created this and several other trickfilms. It doesn’t move much more than his vaudeville act, His 1906 film Humorous Phases of Funny Faces is considered the first animated cartoon.<br /> <br /> 1905- Variety magazine born. <br /> <br /> 1907- THE WHITE FLEET- Pres. Teddy Roosevelt sent a big badass fleet of US Navy battleships all painted white on a round-the-world cruise. It was billed as a goodwill tour, but in an age when battleships were the viewed like nukes are today, the message to other world powers was obvious. That the USA would now be a serious player in world affairs. Teddy exulted” Doesn’t just the sight of those big battleships get your pulse racing?” <br /> <br /> 1913- When his lead actor quit, Max Sennett recalled a young English music hall actor he saw with Fred Karno’s troupe back east. He wrote, “I think his name was Carson, or Caslon, or Chaplin?” This day Charlie Chaplin signed a contract at Sennett’s Keystone Studios in Hollywood. $150 a week. In his first film he would play a villain.<br /> <br /> 1935- Hollywood movie star Thelma Todd found dead in her car in her garage in Malibu She was 30. She was a sexy comedienne who could hold her own with Laurel &amp; Hardy, Buster Keaton and the Marx Brothers. She loved to party so much, she was nicknamed "Hot Toddy". She dated New York gangster Lucky Lucciano. Was she done in by the mob, her jealous director boyfriend, was it a suicide or did she just pass out drunk in her car garage with the motor running? The mystery’s never been answered.<br /> <br /> 1944- THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE- In his last gamble, Adolf Hitler scraped together his remaining army reserves armed with new King Tiger tanks and launched them in an attack through the center of the allied armies. The Nazis panzers were spearheaded by a group of commandos in G.I. uniforms trained in American slang and baseball scores to confuse communications. They calculated to launch their offensive during a heavy snowstorm when the superior Allied air forces would have to be grounded.<br /> After chasing the Germans across France to the Rhine, the Americans had come to consider the Krauts a defeated enemy. So, they were taken completely by surprise. One US POW noted as he was brought to the rear, seeing hundreds or Germans in fresh uniforms and new tanks. General Eisenhower had just gotten his fifth general's star and was attending the wedding of his orderly Rickie in Versailles when he got the news. Rickie’s bride was Pearlie.<br /> The German attack was so successful that Franklin Roosevelt wanted to drop the first atomic bomb on Berlin. The offensive eventually stalled and was beaten back at the cost of 70,000 U.S. casualties; the most Americans killed and wounded in any single battle in history.<br /> <br /> 1948- A top Truman Presidential aide named Alger Hiss was indicted for perjury for lying to a Federal Grand Jury about passing secrets to a Communist turncoat agent named Whittaker Chambers. Chambers told so many lies that he was discredited as a witness, but Hiss was convicted on circumstantial evidence like microfilm found concealed in a pumpkin- The Pumpkin Papers. <br /> The case of such a high ranking US official being a spy stoked the anti-commie paranoia of the 1950’s. Even decades later with the principle players dead, Communist Russia gone and the KGB files open, the scholars continue to argue.<br /> <br /> 1966- New York Police raid the offices of Bernard Spindle, a freelance surveillance expert who bugged the phones of the rich and powerful. They carted off all his tapes and records; including tapes he claimed proved Marilyn Monroe’s sexual hijinks with President John Kennedy. He was later informed all his tapes were lost. Spindle’s career was the inspiration for the movies The Conversation and the Enemy of the State.<br /> <br /> 1966- The Jimi Hendrix Experience released the song ‘Hey Joe’.<br /> <br /> 1966- Sergio Leone’s epic Spaghetti Western, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly premiered in Rome. The last of the Man with No Name trilogy. Clint Eastwood never worked with Leone again. <br /> <br /> 1971- Don McClean released the long version of the song ‘American Pie’.<br /> <br /> 1973- O.J. Simpson became the first NFL player to rush for 2,000 yards in a season.<br /> <br /> 1978- The Disney short The Small One, directed by Don Bluth. <br /> <br /> 1980- Colonel Harland Sanders, the Kentucky Fried Chicken founder, died.<br /> <br /> 1988- Shockjock Howard Stern is fined $100,000 by the FCC for having on his radio show a man who could play the piano with his penis.<br /> <br /> 1993- Producer Aaron Spelling fired star Shannon Dougherty off the TV soap Beverly Hills 90210.<br /> <br /> 1998- The premiere of Dreamworks The Prince of Egypt. Nicknamed The Zion King.<br /> <br /> 1999- Julie Andrews, star of Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, sued New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital for destroying her singing voice during a routine throat operation. <br /> <br /> 2009- Roy E. Disney died, the Walt Disney nephew who oversaw the great animation resurgence of the 1990s. <br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Quiz: In illustrations of Dickens A Christmas Carol, the ghost of Jacob Marley is always shown wearing a bandage around his head lengthwise. Why?<br /> <br /> Answer: When a person dies, the muscles and ligaments that hold the jaw to the rest of the skull relax and begin to break down, causing the mouth to gape open grotesquely. Back in the day, morticians would keep the cadaver from this unpleasant manifestation by the use of a chin strap or sometimes a simple cloth tied around the head to hold the jaw in place. That is what Marley’s ghost is wearing.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 15 Dec 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6023 <p>Quiz: In illustrations of Dickens A Christmas Carol, the ghost of Jacob Marley is always wearing a bandage around his head lengthwise. Why?<br /> <br /> Answer to yesterday’s question below: Thinking of the recent scientific breakthrough in fusion power, who were Ponds &amp; Fleischman?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------<br /> ¬History for 12/15/2022<br /> Birthdays: Roman Emperor Nero, Roman Emperor Lucius Verus who was known for little else but his really swell haircut, Gustav Eiffel, J. Paul Getty, Jeff Chandler, Alan Freed, Ernie Pintoff, Tim Conway, Helen Slater, Neil DeGrasse-Tyson, Don Johnson is 73, Julie Taymor is 70<br /> <br /> 214BC, Hieronymous, the Greek tyrant of Syracuse, was assassinated in the street. <br /> <br /> 1641- The Puritan Parliament had the Great Remonstrance published across England without King Charles ‘s permission or a chance to officially respond. <br /> <br /> 1790- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart held a farewell dinner for Franz Josef Haydn, who was going to London for two years. Amadeus said:" Farewell Papa, I think we shall not see each other again in life. " Mozart was 34 and Haydn was 67, so he probably assumed Haydn would go first. Mozart died a year later at 35, and old Haydn lived another fifteen years, dying in his 80s.<br /> <br /> 1791-The BILL OF RIGHTS was ratified and added to the U.S. CONSTITUTION- It was the brainchild of James Madison, who felt the Constitution was a bit vague on basic civil rights. Even so, Patrick Henry thought it was still too weak. <br /> <br /> 1792- FOUNDING FATHERS SEX SCANDAL- In the dead of night George Washington's Secretary of the Treasury Alexander was visited by a delegation sent by his political enemy, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. They included future president James Monroe and First Speaker of the House Felix Muhlenberg. <br /> They accuse Hamilton of having an extramarital affair with a Mrs. Reynolds, and that he had her husband sent to prison to get him out of the way! Hamilton admitted it all, but said he was being blackmailed by the Reynolds. The accusers took pity and by “Gentleman's Agreement" for four years the scandal was hushed up. <br /> <br /> When at last it was made pubic in 1797 by a tabloid newspaper, it helped drive Hamilton from government office and discredit the Federalist Party, who lost the White House to Jefferson's democrats. Alexander Hamilton was so furious that his secret was out that he challenged James Monroe to a duel. The duel was solved peacefully by an arbiter, Aaron Burr, who himself would kill Hamilton in a duel eight years later. Aaron Burr later became Vice President, and even enjoyed a tryst with Mrs. Reynolds.<br /> <br /> 1815- Giacomo Rossini received the commission to write a new opera based on Beaumarchais’ play The Marriage of Figaro- The Barber of Seville.<br /> <br /> 1840- Napoleon's remains were removed from his grave on Saint Helena and brought home to France where it was re-interred in the Invalides in Paris. He had wished to have his ashes sprinkled on the Seine, but instead his body is sealed in a tomb of red marble donated by the Czar of Russia. The Bourbon King Louis Phillipe had to quietly endure this massive outpouring of Bonapartist nostalgia.<br /> <br /> 1859- For those of you who speak Esperanto, Happy Zampenhoff Day!<br /> <br /> 1864- Battle of Nashville. The Yankee army of Gen. George Thomas destroyed the Confederate force of John Bell Hood so completely that Confederate military operations in the West of the Blue Ridge effectively cease. Thomas was being so tardy and cautious in ordering the attack, that General Grant had already dispatched another general by train to replace him.<br /> <br /> 1874- Hawaiian King David IV Kalakaou visited the White House and was received by President Grant. <br /> .<br /> 1890- SITTING BULL KILLED by government Indian agents. They had come to arrest him when they learned he planned to join the Ghost Dancers at Wounded Knee. The Ghost Dance was a spiritual revival movement but the authorities overreacted in fear of a true-armed uprising. As Sitting Bull was led out of his cabin other Sioux tried to stop the Indian police and in the scuffle they shot Bull dead. In a macabre twist, Bull's horse, who was a gift from Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, reared up and started doing circus tricks when he heard the shots.<br /> <br /> 1893- Czech composer Anton Dvorak premiered a symphony he wrote while living in Minnesota. The New World Symphony.<br /> <br /> 1899-Battle of Colenso-More Boer War. Britain had had so many early reverses in South Africa that Kaiser Wilhelm annoyed Prince Edward by saying:" You English are renown for your sense of good sportsmanship. Why don't you admit you're beaten and make the best of it? Rather like last year when the Australians beat you at cricket." Comments like this didn’t help Anglo-German relations. The British won the Boer War in 1901.<br /> <br /> 1911- King George V of England, called in India Pancham George “Fifth George”, moved the capitol of India from Calcutta to Delhi and laid the foundation stones for a new Imperial City, New Delhi.<br /> <br /> 1939- The gala premiere of Gone with The Wind at the Loews Grand Theater in Atlanta Georgia. Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh flew out from Hollywood and the Governor of Georgia declared it a state holiday. Clark Gable called Margaret Mitchell “ The most fascinating woman I ever met.” Hattie McDaniel, the first black woman to win an Oscar for her portrayal, was not invited to the premiere.<br /> <br /> 1941- The American Federation of Labor announced there would be no strikes or other labor actions for the duration of World War II.<br /> <br /> 1941- Lena Horne recorded her signature tune “Stormy Weather.”<br /> <br /> 1943- In Harlem jazz great Fats Waller died of alcoholism and heart failure. He was 39.<br /> <br /> 1944- Band Leader Glen Miller's plane disappeared over the English Channel. In 1988, a retired RAF pilot admitted he may have jettisoned some leftover bombs above the entertainer's plane while returning home from a bombing run. Other experts claim it may have been a faulty carburetor or icing in the fuel lines.<br /> <br /> 1950- President Harry Truman declared a State of National Emergency over the deteriorating situation in the Korean War. When Congress asked what it meant and why not ask Congress first instead of unilaterally declaring it, Truman lost his temper. “We must remember that we are the Leader of the Free World, and as such have an obligation to meet!”<br /> <br /> 1952- British Fashion photographer George Jorgenson has the first sex change operation in Denmark and became Christine Jorgenson.<br /> <br /> 1954- “Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier” starring Fess Parker was featured on The Walt Disney TV show for the first time. The show created a mania for little kids all wanting coonskin caps. “Born on a mountaintop in Tenn-Ah-See..”<br /> <br /> 1966- Walt Disney died at age 65. He was alone in the room at Saint Joseph's when he died. His brother Roy had been in earlier rubbing his legs. On his desk, scribbled on a piece of paper the name- Kurt Russell. A heavy cigarette smoker- his favorites were Malboro and French Gitanes- he suffered from lung cancer and respiratory failure. Contrary to the legend that he's cryogenically frozen in a room in the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland, he was cremated and his ashes interred at Forest Lawn. <br /> <br /> 1967- Beverly Hills police chief C.H. Anderson assured the public that there are "No Hippie Pads in Beverly Hills". Chief Andersen said many oddball types arrested on the Sunset Strip and West L.A. are sent to Beverly Hills municipal courts for trial, but inhabitants need not fear an outbreak of longhaired, hopped up, psychedelic speed freaks. <br /> <br /> 1973- The American Psychiatric Association reversed its earlier position and announced the homosexuality was not a form of mental illness. Before that, being gay meant your family could legally have you institutionalized, lobotomized or electro-shocked against your will.<br /> <br /> 1974- Mel Brooks film Young Frankenstein opened in general release.<br /> <br /> 1979- Lupin III- The Castle of Cagliostro opened. The first theatrical film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki.<br /> <br /> 1984- Gangster Paul Castellano had taken over the largest Mafia family in New York after the Godfather Carlo Gambino died. But he was having problems with his unruly lieutenant John Gotti. This day he was getting out his limo on a midtown Manhattan street to go to Sparks Steakhouse when he was shot dead by hitmen sent by Gotti. Instead of the dead of night on a lone wharf, it was done right out on the street in broad daylight. The killers dropped their guns and melted into the countless masses of lunch hour foot traffic on 5th Avenue. John Gotti took control of the Gambino family and ruled as the Dapper Don, until sent up the river for life in 1992. His personal attorney was Roy Cohn, who was the mentor of young Donald Trump.<br /> <br /> 1985- Sylvester Stallone married model Birgit Nielson. This was after he divorced his first wife Sasha who had shared his years of privation up to stardom. She worked as an usher at the Crown movie theater in NY to support Sly while he went to acting school.<br /> <br /> 1989- Colombian drug cartel leader Gonzalo Rodriquez Gacha “El Mexicano” was shot down in a furious gun battle with police. He had waged a war of terror with the Colombian authorities, bombing an Avianca airliner and blowing up the police headquarters in Bogota.<br /> <br /> 2008- Outgoing President George W. Bush made a farewell tour of Iraq, ostensibly to receive the thanks of the Iraqi people for freeing them. During a speech in Baghdad, Iraqi journalist Muntather Zaidi rose up and threw his shoes at the presidents’ head, shouting “Here’s your thanks, you dog!” He made Bush duck twice. <br /> NY Yankees owner Glen Steinbrenner commented” His first throw was low and inside, the second a bit high, but both were pretty good.”<br /> ===============================================================<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question: Thinking of the recent scientific breakthrough in fusion power, who were Ponds &amp; Fleischman?<br /> <br /> Answer: thirty years ago, two scientists, Ponds &amp; Fleischman claimed to have invented “Cold Fusion”. Nuclear power that was clean, cheap and unlimited. Their claim turned out to be false.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 14 Dec 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6022 <p>Question: Thinking of the recent scientific breakthrough in fusion power, who were Ponds &amp; Fleischman?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: What is Stendhal Syndrome, also called Florence Syndrome?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/14/2022<br /> Birthdays: 1553-King Henry IV of Navarre*, Tycho Brahe, Nostradamus -Michel de Notre Dame-1503, English King George VI- 1895, Spike Jones the bandleader, Morey Amsterdam, Charlie Rich, Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, Lee Remick, Patty Duke, Adult film star Ginger Lynn, Clark Terry- trumpeter. Cecil Pay, Saxophonist, Jane Birkin "Je t'aime moi non plus" is 75.<br /> <br /> *Henry of Navarre 1555-1610 was one of Frances most beloved kings. When he was born his father Duke Antoine du Bourbon rubbed garlic on his lips and gave him wine to be strong. One of Frances horniest kings, even as an infant, his suckling dried up 8 wet nurses!<br /> <br /> Welcome to the first day of what is referred to as the HALCYON DAYS. (Hal-see-on). The seven days prior to and after the Winter Solstice, a time of tranquility and peace. Supposedly, no storms happen. In 1867 Walt Whitman wrote a poem about the Halycon Days in "Leaves of Grass", using it as a metaphor for the time in the winter of one's life, when contentment replaces the "turbulent passions" of younger years.<br /> <br /> 1575- The Parliament of the Polish Commonwealth had a unusual system of electing foreign princes to be their king. This day they invited Transylvanian Duke Stefan Bathory to come be king. Bathory turned out to be an okay king. He defeated Russian Czar Ivan the Terrible’ armies in battle, frustrating his efforts to gain an outlet to Western trade. But his niece Elizabeth Bathory was a bit strange. Called The Blood Countess. <br /> <br /> 1776- After chasing George Washington's miserable little rebel army from New York to Philadelphia, British General Lord William Howe announced the customary Christmas truce, and beds his army down for the winter. His subordinate Lord Percy wrote home:” It’s just about over with those people. We shall be home shortly.” Back in occupied New York City, Lord Howe took as a mistress the wife of his Boston superintendent of prisons a Mr. Loring, who grew rich enough on army contracts to not mind. A rebel poem of the time said: "Sir William He, snug as a Flea, lay in his bed a Snorring. Nor thought of Harm, as he lay Warm, in bed with Mrs......"<br /> <br /> 1782- British troops evacuate Charleston South Carolina, in preparation for the final peace treaty ending the American Revolution.<br /> <br /> 1798- David Wilkinson of Rhode Island patented a machine that made the new fangled inventions- metal screws, nuts and bolts.<br /> <br /> 1799- GEORGE WASHINGTON DIED. Washington had retired to Mount Vernon after his last presidential term in 1796. On Dec. 12th he went riding five hours during a sleet storm and caught the flu. Another theory was a viral infection of the epiglottis.<br /> He might still have survived had it not been for modern medicine. Doctors bled him of four pints of blood, while applying leeches, mustard sulfur packs and laxatives to purge him of the ill humors. He developed pneumonia and died swiftly. Because coma was so little understood, people had a dread of premature burial. Washington left instructions that his body be left out several days to make sure he was dead before being sealed in a tomb. After assurances put his mind at ease his last words were:" Tis well." No priests or religious last rites were performed. Washington turned away a minister who offered. He was 67 years old, and always predicted he would not live very long. <br /> <br /> The US government wanted to place his tomb at the center of the planned dome in the capitol building, but Washington’s wish was to be in a simple tomb in Mt. Vernon. He also freed all his 137 slaves and sent them each off with a pension. <br /> <br /> 1819- Alabama was separated out from Mississippi territory and made a new state. Under Spanish rule Alabama was known as West Florida.<br /> <br /> 1861- Albert the Prince Consort, husband of Queen Victoria, died at 42. Even though he died of typhoid fever, which was common in those times, Victoria blamed her son Bertie (Edward VII)'s sexual escapades as causing her beloved husband's heartbreak. One of Albert’s last acts was to tone down the diplomatic response to the Trent Affair, which avoided war with the United States. <br /> Victoria wore mourning for the rest of her long life. She withdrew from formal politics for 12 years. She had Albert's rooms at Balmoral and Osborne kept like he was still there. Every single night for 40 years the servants would lay out his clothes and a basin of warm water like for some invisible user. <br /> She kept the cast of his hand on her night table at night so she could reach out to touch it for reassurance. When she died in 1901 after reigning 64 years her last words were "Albert..."<br /> <br /> 1863- Battle of Bean’s Station. Confederates in Tennessee defeated Yankees.<br /> <br /> 1871- Verdi's opera "Aida" debuts in Cairo.<br /> <br /> 1894- Socialist union leader Eugene Debs was sentenced to six months in jail for organizing sympathy actions for the railroad workers striking the Pullman company. Debs young lawyer handling his first case was Clarence Darrow.<br /> <br /> 1901- The first Ping-Pong tournament held in London.<br /> <br /> 1911- Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and four others first reached the South Pole, winning the race against Captain Robert Falcon Scott.<br /> <br /> 1918- Cartoonist Johnny Gruelle entertained his dying daughter Marcella, by making up stories involving her rag dollies. After her passing, friends urged Gruelle to publish them. The RAGGEDY ANN &amp; ANDY stories are born.<br /> <br /> 1924- Ottorino Respighi ‘s rhapsody The Pines of Rome premiered.<br /> <br /> 1927- Charles Lindbergh does one last flight with his famous monoplane the Spirit of Saint Louis, from Washington to Mexico City. This is at the request of American Ambassador Dwight Murrow who wanted to improve Mexican-American relations. Lindbergh would not only improve relations, but also marry Murrow's daughter Anne. To make the flight a challenge Lindbergh took off at night in a rainstorm to prove air travel was safe. The President of Mexico and 150,000 people greeted him in Mexico City. <br /> <br /> When flying he noticed many Mexican towns had signs named 'Caballeros' in their railroad stations. He reasoned Caballeros must be a popular name for a town.<br /> <br /> 1934- March of the Wooden Soldiers, the Hal Roach version of Babes in Toyland with Laurel &amp; Hardy opened. Walt Disney had been trying hard to get the rights to Babes in Toyland for his first animated feature but lost out. Despite that, Walt and Hal Roach were good friends, and Walt allowed him to put a Mickey-looking mouse character in the film. <br /> <br /> 1944- Hollywood starlet Lupe Velez, the "Mexican Spitfire' committed suicide. She had taken an overdose of sleeping pills and laid herself out in a beautiful negligee of her own design to be found radiant in repose. But instead of dying immediately, the pills made her sick and she was found dead with her head in the toilet. In her prime she counted Gary Cooper, Anthony Quinn and Johnny Weissmuller among her lovers. When Weissmuller was filming Tarzan the studio complained to her that their lovemaking was so...err.. exhuberant?....that she was leaving fingernail scratch marks all over his back. The makeup department complained of all the effort to cover them.<br /> <br /> 1944- The film National Velvet premiered, making a star out of 12 year old Elizabeth Taylor.<br /> <br /> 1945- Nazis camp guard Josef Brodsky “The Beast of Belsen”, was hanged.<br /> <br /> 1947- The National Association of Stock Car Racing or NASCAR formed.<br /> <br /> 1953- Young pitcher Sandy Koufax was signed by the Dodgers. He became one of their most famous pitchers of all time.<br /> <br /> 1957- Hanna Barbera's first TV cartoon "Ruff and Ready" premiered.<br /> <br /> 1962- Mariner II reached the planet Venus. The first manmade probe to reach another planet. Although it stopped working, it’s still up there in orbit between Venus and Mercury.<br /> <br /> 1967- Greek generals overthrow King Constantine II and rule by junta led by General George Papadapolos.<br /> <br /> 1970- George Harrison’s single My Sweet Lord went gold.<br /> <br /> 1972- THE LAST MAN LEAVES THE MOON. Apollo 17 blasts off. We all remember the first man on the moon, but do you remember the last? Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmidt. President Nixon annoyed NASA by saying he doubted that men would return to the moon in the remainder of the Twentieth Century, but he was right.<br /> <br /> 1974- Irwin Allen’s disaster film The Towering Inferno, opened.<br /> <br /> 1977- DISCO! The movie Saturday Night Fever starring John Travolta and the music of the Bee Gees make the Disco dancing scene a national craze.<br /> <br /> 1979- STUDIO 54 RAIDED- The Internal Revenue Service busted the worlds most famous disco club. Formerly the hangout of Andy Warhol, Bianca Jagger, Truman Capote and other “Beautiful People”, now the Feds were on to them. The IRS seized doctored account books, cocaine and undeclared cash, landing the owners in jail and bringing the celebrity playlands days to an end. <br /> <br /> 1983- Disney Studio released the short film Frankenweenie, done by a weird young artist named Tim Burton. He was promptly fired upon its completion for wasting company resources.<br /> <br /> 1984- David Lynch’s version of Dune, with Kyle McClanahan.<br /> <br /> 2012- SANDY HOOK. Emotionally disturbed man Adam Lanza shot up a kindergarten school in Newtown Conn, killing 27 including his mother and 20 little children. Twenty years later nothing has changed. <br /> <br /> 2015- Hollywood premiere for J.J. Abrams reboot of the Star Wars franchise, Star Wars the Force Awakens. <br /> <br /> 2017- Rupert Murdoch sold off much of the Twentieth Century Fox Studio to Walt Disney for $66 billion. He kept the News division.<br /> ==========================================================<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is Stendhal Syndrome, also called Florence Syndrome?<br /> <br /> Answer: It means seeing a work of art that is so beautiful you swoon or pass out.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 13 Dec 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6021 <p>Question: What is Stendhal Syndrome, also called Florence Syndrome?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: Ingmar Bergman’s famous movie was The Seventh Seal. What does the Seventh Seal mean? Where did it come from?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/13/2022<br /> Birthdays: Heinrich Heine, Mary Todd Lincoln, Mike Mosley, Darryl Zanuck Jr., George Schulz, Christopher Plummer, Steve Buscemi is 66, Jamie Fox is 53, Lynn Holly Johnson, Wendy Malick, Taylor Swift is 33, Dick Van Dyke is 97<br /> <br /> 305AD -Today is the Feast of Saint Lucy, who was ordered by the Romans to be raped in a brothel, set on fire, stabbed to death, and to stop men saying how beautiful her eyes were, she ripped them out and handed them over on a plate. But they miraculously grew back. So St. Lucy is the patron saint of opticians.<br /> <br /> 863- Duke Baldwin Iron Arm married Lady Judith du Kales.<br /> <br /> 1250 -Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II "Stupor Mundi" the Wonder of the World, his spirit broken by endless quarrels with the Pope and rebellious Italian city states, expired at age 52. Frederick had tried to re-form back the old Roman Empire but only succeeded in making Italy and Germany more divided than ever. Meanwhile France, England and Spain were developing into centralized nation states. The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation or the 1st Reich, was never as powerful again. <br /> <br /> 1264- THE HOUSE OF COMMONS- Victorious rebel English Earl Simon de Monfort called for a meeting in Westminster of a Parliament of all nobles, clergy and common folk of the realm. It's probably the first time since the ancient Roman republic anybody had asked the common people their opinion about anything. <br /> King Henry III and Prince Edward Longshanks couldn't argue because Simon had them locked up in the Tower. To make sure Earl Simon had bishops pronounce the most fearful oaths of excommunication on anyone who dared undo his creation. So even after Longshanks escaped and had DeMonfort chopped into mincemeat, the institution of the House of Commons remained.<br /> <br /> 1543- THE COUNCIL OF TRENT convened- Officially called the XIX Ecumenical Council, this conference launched the Catholic Counter-Reformation against the Protestant reformation.<br /> <br /> 1642- Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in the Pacific came upon a big island near Australia and named it for the Dutch province of Zeeland, so New Zealand. He also explored Fiji and Tonga and found another island and called it Van Deiman’s Land, but it was later named in his honor as Tasmania.<br /> <br /> 1672- Polish King Jan Casimir died a monk in Paris. He was king during a period of terrible wars with Russia, the Cossacks of the Ukraine, Turkey and Sweden. But he was pacific by nature. One saying was “the only battles Jan Casimir ever saw were woven in his Dutch carpets!”<br /> <br /> 1769- Dartmouth College founded.<br /> <br /> 1775- the U.S. National Guard formed.<br /> <br /> 1862- BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG- Union General Ambrose Burnside (who created the men’s fashion-"sideburns") made his men attempt a frontal attack uphill on a Confederate position of concentrated fire that " a chicken couldn't live through." <br /> The massed regiments of bluecoats were mowed down wave after wave in one of the worst disasters in U.S. Army history. The New York Fighting 69th, the all Irish brigade, fell dead in even rows shielding their eyes from the bullets as though they were rain. They shouted “Faugh au Ballagh !” Gaelic for “Clear the Way!” They left 53% of their men dead on the field. In all 13,000 Yankees died to a mere handful of confederates. <br /> One rebel general, sickened by the stupidity of it all, said: "This ain't war, it's just plain murder." After the defeat, Burnside rode past some of his men, a kissass major tried shouting "Three cheers for the General!" and was met with stony silence. <br /> <br /> 1872- The town council of Abilene, Kansas fired Wild Bill Hickok as sheriff. They said he was more violent than most of the criminals he arrested.<br /> <br /> 1895- Gustav Mahlers 2nd Symphony “Resurrection” premiered.<br /> <br /> 1928- Leopold Damrosch conducted the premiere of George Gershwin's -"An American in Paris."<br /> <br /> 1936- At the urging of New Yorker editor Harold Ross to find a better line of work, actor Dave Chasen opened Chasen's restaurant in Beverly Hills, which catered to Hollywood stars for 60 years. It is the restaurant where Leopold Stokowski was introduced to Walt Disney and as a result they conceived "Fantasia". Humphrey Bogart, John Huston and Lauren Bacall met upstairs to discuss the Blacklist of 1947. Elizabeth Taylor ordered Chasen’s chili flown out to Rome so she could eat it on the set of Cleopatra. The restaurant closed in 1995 because the Chasen family wanted to cash in on the choice real estate. Today it is a supermarket.<br /> <br /> 1937- THE RAPE OF NANKING- The Japanese army captured the Nationalist capitol of China. The Japanese generals let their soldiers run amok for three weeks, raping and murdering civilians by the thousands. Japanese who refused to kill the innocent were punished by their officers. Typical was two officers who held a contest to see who could behead more Chinese with their samurai swords. The winner killed 106 and the contest was reported in Tokyo newspapers on their sports pages. <br /> When their commanding General Matsui returned from convalescent leave, he was horrified and ordered a stop. That got him recalled home in disgrace. The unprecedented brutality shocked the world, remember the full horrors of World War II were still years in the future.<br /> <br /> 1937-THE GOOD NAZI- During the Rape of Nanking, in an ironic twist, the women and children of the foreign delegations were protected from the rampaging Japanese soldiers by a German businessman Johann Rabe, who guarded the door in his Nazi party uniform and swastika armband. He took in desperate Chinese civilians and saved thousands. Rabe had been born to a family of foreign merchants and lived his entire life in China, so when it was suggested to him, he joined the Nazi party not knowing anything about it. He just thought it would be good for his business connections. After Nanking, Rabe went home to Berlin and tried lodge a complaint with Adolf Hitler! The Gestapo threatened him with arrest if he didn’t shut up. Then after World War II, Johan Rabe was arrested by Allied authorities for being a Nazi party member! By 1947 he and his family were reduced to eating soup made from nettles and grass to survive. Then a huge package was delivered of food and money. It was a subscription from the People of Nanking, to express their thanks for his humanity.<br /> <br /> 1939- Battle of the River Platte- The German pocket battleship Graff Spee battled with several British cruisers near the Argentine coastline. The German then put into the neutral port of Montevideo for repairs. <br /> <br /> 1940- Fleischer Popeye cartoon "Eugene the Jeep" .The character would give its name to the new army General Purpose vehicle- G.P. or "Jeep".<br /> <br /> 1942- Ukrainian Tanya Chernova was an attractive blonde ballerina. But when the invading Nazis executed her family, she became a guerrilla, and was trained to be a sniper by supersniper Vasily Zaistzev. This day in the streets of Stalingrad she was making her way to Nazi headquarters with instructions to assassinate their commander Field Marshal von Paulus. But on the way a comrade stepped on a mine and the explosion tore through her abdomen. Tanya survived, but her active duty days were over. She called the Nazis she shot “Broken Sticks.” By the time she turned 20 years old, Tanya Chernova had 80 broken sticks to her record. She died in 2015.<br /> <br /> 1951- One of the legendary Hollywood producers was Walter Wanger- starting in 1921 his films included The Sheik, Stagecoach, Queen Christina, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Silk Stockings and Cleopatra. His wife was beautiful starlet Joan Bennett, but at this time she was having an affair with her agent Jennings Lang. On this day Wanger surprised Hollywood by pulling out a gun and shooting Lang in the nuts right in the MCA studio parking lot. <br /> In true Hollywood fashion Wanger got off, sentenced to just a few months in an honor ranchero compound and was soon back to work. Contributors to pay his legal fees included the Jack Warner, Walt Disney and Sam Goldwyn. Jennings Lang recovered and later produced House Calls and High Plains Drifter. After all, who needs balls to be a producer?<br /> <br /> 1961- Jimmy Dean’s folk ballad Big Bad John went to #1 of the country charts. Later Dean had his own TV variety show featuring the Muppets, and started Jimmy Dean’s Pure Pork Sausage Company.<br /> <br /> 1969- Arlo Guthrie’s hit song Alice’s Restaurant released.<br /> <br /> 1971- Disney’s film Bedknobs and Broom Sticks opened.<br /> <br /> 1978- The US tried to introduce silver dollar coins. The first Susan B. Anthony dollars issued. They looked too much like quarters so they didn’t catch on.<br /> <br /> 1981- Communist Polish Gov't under General Jaruszelski declared martial law and outlaws Solidarity, the Polish Labor Organization. The secret police, the ZOMO's started arresting all the ringleaders. Jaruszelski later claimed the liberal political climate was getting so out of hand that he had to crack down, or the Soviet Union would invade like they did to Czechoslovakia in 1968, and Hungary in 1956. People showed their quiet resistance by wearing a small transistor (i.e. resistor) on their lapel. Also popular was a button that from a distance looked like the graphic "Solidarity" Logo but up close spelled out: "WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?" <br /> <br /> 1996- In Terry Gilliam’s sci-fi apocalypse epic the Plague of the 12 Monkeys was unleashed today, a virus pandemic that killed 4/5ths of the world’s population and drove the remainder underground. <br /> <br /> 2002- Cardinal Bernard Law resigned in disgrace. The Primate of Boston, the largest Roman Catholic diocese in the United States. Cardinal Law had spent years covering for priests who molested children. He even shielded a priest who was registered in the Man-Boy Love Society. Cardinal Law was the highest ranking Catholic to step down from popular pressure. He was recalled to Rome by Pope John Paul, who made him prior of Santa Maria Maggiore, the second largest cathedral in Rome.<br /> <br /> 2003-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was pulled out of a hiding hole and captured by U.S. forces near his hometown of Tikrit. He was later hanged.<br /> ======================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Ingmar Bergman’s famous movie was The Seventh Seal. What does the Seventh Seal mean? Where did it come from?<br /> <br /> Answer: The Seventh Seal is the harbinger of Judgement Day. In the Book of Revelations, it is the culmination of opening the first Six Seals, leading up to the Apocalypse and the Second Coming.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 12 Dec 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6020 <p>Question: Ingmar Bergman’s famous movie was The Seventh Seal. What does the Seventh Seal mean? Where did it come from?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: In Film and TV, what is known as “Breaking the Fourth Wall?”<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/12/22<br /> Birthdays: Frank Sinatra, Roman Emperor Alexander Severus, Edvard Munch, Gustav Flaubert, Cherokee Confederate General Stand Watie, John Jay, Edward G. Robinson, Marshal von Rundstedt-the Black Knight of Germany, Ed Koch, Zack Mosley –the cartoonist of “Smilin' Jack", Connie Francis, Dionne Warwick, Cathy Rigby, Tracy Austin, Bill Nighy is 72, Tom Wilkerson is 73, Jennifer Connelly is 52, Mayim Bialik is 47<br /> <br /> 639 A.D. Moslem-Arab armies of the Caliph Omar invaded Egypt. Egypt at the time was a province of the Byzantine Empire and it's native church The Coptic Rite was being persecuted by the Byzantines as a heresy. So rather than put up with any more harassment, the Egyptians opened their gates to the advancing Arabs, and the province was overrun in short order.<br /> <br /> 1524- Pope Clement VII the Medici Fox, steered a dangerous policy to keep the Germans and French from taking over Italy. The previous year he signed a secret treaty with Germany against France, today he signed a secret treaty with France against Germany. This policy blew up in his face. The German army of Charles V stormed Rome and locked up the Pope in 1527. Italy was ravaged by wars for the rest of the century.<br /> <br /> 1653- Puritan General Oliver Cromwell, having executed King Charles I, declared himself Lord Protector of England and ruled with a junta of generals as a military dictator. He had all the symbols of monarchy destroyed. This included the crown jewels and the ancient iron crown of Alfred the Great. This is why England's crown jewels date from the 1660’s, after Cromwell. Scotland's crown jewels were smuggled out of Edinburgh Castle ahead of Cromwell's troops in a berry basket. <br /> <br /> 1792- The Bank of the United States was set up in Philadelphia on the model of the Bank of England. President Andrew Jackson dismantled the Bank in 1832 and U.S. finances swung wildly in the hands of a few tycoons like Astor and Morgan until the Federal Reserve was set up in 1913.<br /> <br /> 1784- George Washington bid a final farewell to his friend the Marquis of Lafayette. The young little aristocrat and the tall somber Virginian had become so fond of one another they were like father and son. Lafayette left for France and they never saw each other again. When Lafayette returned to America in 1825, Washington was long dead.<br /> <br /> 1793- WASHINGTON THE SLAVEMASTER- The most concrete evidence we have that George Washington was troubled about owning slaves. This day George wrote a friend in England about his plan to carve up his Mt. Vernon estate into small lots and rent them out to immigrant English tenant farmers, so he could liberate his slaves. He asked his British correspondent to keep his plan a secret and destroy this note after reading it. <br /> He never went ahead with his plan. After he and Martha were both dead, Washington’s will freed all 137 of his slaves and sent each off with a cash pension. Compare that to Thomas Jefferson, who freed 6 out of 300 when he died, and James Madison, author of the Bill of Rights, who freed none.<br /> <br /> 1897-The Katzenjammer Kids comic strip by Rudolph Dirks appears in the Hearst’s New York Journal. The first comic where characters spoke in word balloons. When Dirks took a vacation without Hearst’s permission, Hearst got another artist to draw the strip. Dirks went to rival paper The New York Sun, and recreated the strip as the Captain &amp; the Kids, leading to the first artistic plagiarism lawsuit. <br /> In Paris, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas had a problem whenever they bought the American newspapers, because Picasso and Fernande Oliver would fight over who got to read the Katzenjammer Kids first.<br /> <br /> 1899- George Grant of Boston invented the Golf Tee.<br /> <br /> 1900- At a dinner party Charles Schwab proposed a steel trust company to corner the steel market, uniting the resources of Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller and John "Bet a Million" Taylor. U.S. Steel is born.<br /> <br /> 1901- First transatlantic wireless signal sent by Guglielmo Marconi. The letter “S” was sent electronically from Newfoundland to Cornwall. This finally ended the frustrating hoopla over laying transatlantic telegraph cables and have them break down almost constantly since the 1850s. The pioneers of radio broadcasting like Armstrong, Lee Deforest and David Sarnoff got their start working for the Marconi Wireless Company. <br /> <br /> 1913- The Mona Lisa, which had been stolen out of the Louvre in 1911, was recovered. It was found in a hotel room in Florence, kept by waiter Vincenzo Perugia, who had stolen it. He had worked at the Louvre, so he knew all the back room passages. He and his accomplices dressed as janitors to avoid suspicion.<br /> <br /> 1922- Lenin suffered the first of a series of strokes that left him too sick to work. He ruled Soviet Russia for one more year as a figurehead while his true state of health was concealed from the public. Top Communist officials like Trotsky and Stalin now fought for power. <br /> <br /> 1925- The world’s first Motel opened. Arthur Heinman opened the Milestone Motel in San Luis Obispo California. Motel was a contraction of Motor-Hotel.<br /> <br /> 1925- Cossack officer Rezah Pahlavi deposed the last Qajar Shah and becomes Shah of Persia, which would shortly change its name to Iran. His descendants would rule until 1979.<br /> <br /> 1926- Polish Marshal Josef Pilsudski seized power in Warsaw. Sending troops to surround the Sejm- Parliament, he strode in and told the astounded politicians:” I sh*t on all of you! I am going to treat you like children because that is how you want to be treated.” Pilsudski ruled as dictator until his death in 1935.<br /> <br /> 1936- After the abdication of Edward VIII, his stuttering younger brother Albert was proclaimed King George VI. <br /> <br /> 1937- During their war in China, Japanese dive bombers strafed and sank the neutral U.S. gunboat Panay in the Yangtse River. The Japanese Government apologized and paid $2.2 million in reparations.<br /> <br /> 1941- In the emergency after Pearl Harbor the U.S. Army ordered all peacetime airliners and pilots commandeered into military service. Federal customs authorities in the port of New York also seized the world’s largest luxury ocean liner, The French S.S Normandie, for “protective custody”. Remember at this time France was an occupied part of the Third Reich.<br /> <br /> 1947- The United Mine Workers under John L. Lewis pull out of the AF of L. The historic difference was the American Federation of Labor (AFL) was made up of skilled technical workers and artisans. The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was made up of more unskilled assembly-line type folks.<br /> <br /> 1952- The first Screen Actors Guild Strike. President Walter Pidgeon -Dr. Morbius in Forbidden Planet- had the movie stars hit the bricks to win television and commercial residuals. The final deals were settled by then SAG president Ronald Reagan in 1960. Ronnie compromised with the studio heads (many who later backed his bid for the governorship of California) that only residuals for films released after 1955 would be paid. <br /> Actors who made their big hits in the 30's and 40s like Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, and The Little Rascals were left out. Mickey Rooney, who's Andy Hardy movies were the top box office of the mid-1940's put it mildly: "Reagan screwed me !!" <br /> <br /> 1955- the first hovercraft design patented. It wasn't built and launched until 1959.<br /> <br /> 1963- Kenya under Njomo Kenyatta declared independence from Britain.<br /> <br /> 1967- the movie “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” opened. The first American movie about an interracial relationship. <br /> <br /> 1975- Sarah Jane Moore pleaded guilty to trying to assassinate President Gerald Ford.<br /> <br /> 1980- The song “Whip It” by Devo won a gold record.<br /> <br /> 1991- Actor Richard Gere married supermodel Cindy Crawford.<br /> <br /> 2000- THE SUPREME COURT PICKED THE PRESIDENT. In the tightest presidential election since 1877, By one vote, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled George W. Bush won over Vice President Al Gore. They stated that although there may have been irregularities in the vote counting in the decisive state of Florida, it was too late and pointless to continue the recount, so they were suspending all further appeals. <br /> <br /> 2015- Women in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were finally given the right to vote.<br /> =============================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: In Film and TV, what is known as “Breaking the Fourth Wall?”<br /> <br /> Answer: When an actor on stage or screen looks at the audience and acknowledges their presence, sometimes confiding in them. Shakespeare used it in Richard III, Groucho Marx used it effectively. Most recently Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s comedy series Fleabag.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 11 Dec 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6019 <p>Question: In Film and TV, what is known as “Breaking the Fourth Wall?”<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is a John Hancock?<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/11/2022<br /> Birthdays: Sir David Brewster 1781-inventor of the kaleidoscope, Fiorello LaGuardia, Robert Koch the conqueror of tuberculosis, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Carlo Ponti, Gilbert Roland, Big Mama Mabel Thornton, Jean Marais, Jean Louis Tritignant, Tom Hayden, Jermaine Jackson, McCoy Tyner- John Coltrane's pianist, Brenda Lee, John Buscema, Rita Moreno is 91, Teri Garr is 78, Mos Def is 49, Mo’nique is 55, Vampira (Maila Nurmi) would be 100 (1922-2008)<br /> <br /> 493 AD. Today is the feast of Greek Saint Simon Stylites the greatest of all the religious hermits known as pillar-sitters. He died at the age of 85 after having sat on top of a solitary stone column for 35 years. He only descended twice, once to chastise the Byzantine Emperor. The Patriarch of Constantinople even had to be hoisted up by ropes and pulleys to ordain him a priest.<br /> <br /> 711AD- death of Byzantine Emperor Justinian II Rhino-Nose. Gotta love that nickname.<br /> <br /> 1668- Mademoiselle Du Parc was a beautiful actress who dumped Moliere and his comic company to become the mistress of the tragic playwright Racine, causing Moliere and Racine’s friendship to break. Plus, Racine didn’t like the way Moliere’s actors performed his plays. Three years later this day Mlle. Du Parc died under mysterious circumstances. Racine gave up his wild ways, got married and had a big family. In 1679 a notorious poisoner Madame Monvoisin claimed that Racine hired her to off his girlfriend! Was the French Shakespeare a Bluebeard, or was La Voisin paid to slander him? The authorities considered arresting him, but King Louis XIV quashed the investigation because it would implicate the King’s own mistress, Madame de Montespan. <br /> <br /> 1718- After many wars, Swedish King Charles XII the "Madman of the North" was shot and killed by a Danish sergeant while peeping over a trench parapet. He was a brilliant general but had a bad habit of getting too close to the action for a look. The day before his great battle at Poltava with Russian Czar Peter the Great, Charles was wounded, and had to direct the battle from a stretcher. He lost.<br /> <br /> 1763- A Parisian cultural newspaper noted: “A kapellmeister from Salzburg named Leopold Mozart arrived at court today. He brought his two performing children, a daughter who is 11 years old, and a son who at 7 years old is extraordinary. He already can perform and compose music!” (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)<br /> <br /> 1785- French artist Jean Baptiste Greuze was well known for making popular paintings of simple scenes like Young Girl Weeping For Her Dead Bird. This day he went to the Paris police prefect and accused his wife Gabriele Babuti of “Persistently receiving lovers into his home over his protests, stealing large sums of his money, and trying to beat his head in with a chamber pot.” The couple was granted a legal separation.<br /> <br /> 1793- The previous July, when the French Revolutionary Convention heard of the assassination of their great radical leader Jean Paul Marat, one delegate called out “David ! We Need You!” This day Jacques Louis David unveiled his painting, The Death of Marat for the first time.<br /> <br /> 1816- Indiana admitted to the union.<br /> <br /> 1882- The Bijou Theater in Boston presented Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe in the first show completely illuminated by electric light bulbs.<br /> <br /> 1926- Josephine Baker first performed her banana dance in Amsterdam.<br /> <br /> 1926- THE LADY VANISHES- 35 year old mystery writer Agatha Christie caused a mystery herself when she disappeared, leaving her car abandoned by a local brook. The search for the body sensationalized the London press, even knocking the death of the last great impressionist master Eduard Monet off the front page. Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle employed the first use of a police psychic. Finally after a week Mrs. Christie turned up at a health spa in Yorkshire. She was depressed when she earned her husband Sir Archibald Christie of the Guards was having an affair with a younger lady. She ran off and registered in the hotel using her younger rival’s name as her alias- Mrs. Neal.<br /> <br /> 1929- Frenchman Charles Cros patented a searchlight he declared he would use to signal civilizations on Mars and Venus. Nobody's returned the call yet.<br /> <br /> 1936- In a dramatic speech broadcast on radio around the world, British King Edward VIII abdicated his throne to be with "The Woman I Love" - to marry the American divorcee' Wallace Simpson. He had been leader of the British Empire for less than a year. His younger brother George became George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth II. Edward &amp; Wallace later became Duke and Duchess of Windsor and lived outside of England for the rest of their lives.<br /> For years, many outside of England sympathized with the handsome young king who had renounced everything for love. But later revelations showed a darker side to the story. The Nazis had planned after they had conquered England to put Edward back on the throne as a puppet. Edward never quite dismissed the rumors that he secretly sympathized with Nazi ideology. <br /> While he was Governor of Bermuda Edward had many parties and dinners with socialites who were known Nazi operatives.<br /> <br /> 1941- Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy declared war on the United States, honoring their Tripartite axis pact with Japan. Hermann Goering protested to Hitler that the Japanese had so far not been of any help to them, and they refused to declare war on Russia. Why invite another mighty foe? Hitler shrugged,’ The Americans will be our enemies eventually, why wait?”<br /> <br /> 1941- The hopelessly isolated little group of Marines on Wake Island repulsed a Japanese naval task force with heavy casualties. They played possum until the invasion fleet got in very close then hammered them with 16 inch naval shore batteries. To a U.S. still reeling from the shock of the Pearl Harbor attack, the nation was encouraged by the gutsy broadcast from tiny Wake: "Send us more Japs!"<br /> <br /> 1941- Gone With The Wind producer David Selznick pitched a movie version of Hitler’s book Mein Kampf to be directed by Alfred Hitchcock and written by Ben Hecht. Mercifully for moviegoers, the idea was dropped.<br /> <br /> 1946- UNICEF formed.<br /> <br /> 1950- THE CHOISIN FEW- During the Korean War the last remnants of the US First Marine Division completed their terrible retreat from the Chosin Resevoir. In subzero conditions they fought their way out of 5 encircling Chinese armies and brought out all of their wounded. Col. Chesty Puller, a veteran of Guadalcanal, exhorted his men “Remember you are First Marines, and all the Commies in Hell can’t stop you!” <br /> <br /> 1951- Yankee slugger Joe DiMaggio announced his retirement from baseball.<br /> <br /> 1957- Rock and Roll singer Jerry Lee Lewis secretly married his 13 year old cousin Myra Gail Brown, while still married to his second wife, who he divorced when the press broke the story the following April. They divorced 13 years later. The incident ruined his career. Great Balls of Fire!<br /> <br /> 1961- The first contingent of U.S. military advisers arrived in Vietnam.<br /> <br /> 1962- SAVE THE VILLAGE! Robert Moses was the famous engineer who crisscrossed New York City with bridges and highways. But many felt the imperious city-planner destroyed whole neighborhoods with little compassion for the inhabitants. Finally he set his sights on a roadway cutting right across Manhattan at Hudson Street to the Holland Tunnel, which would destroy historic Greenwich Village. Houses once inhabited by Walt Whitman, Elizabeth Barret-Browning, Jacques Kerouac and Mark Twain. But Robert Moses’ plans were thwarted by an odd alliance of Beatniks, Little Italy Mafia dons, Chinatown merchants and various Village Bohemians lead by author Jane Jacobs. This day after successfully pleading their case the Mayor and the NY City Board of Estimate rejected Moses plan. The Village today remains a gloriously confused muddle of quaint streets.<br /> <br /> 1964- Soul music star Sam Cooke was shot to death in an argument with a lady who ran an L.A. motel he had brought his girlfriend to.<br /> <br /> 1967- The Concorde SST passenger plane is unveiled in Toulouse. It was a joint venture between England and France. The American SST project was scrapped as too expensive.<br /> <br /> 1970- Walt Disney's the 'Aristocats' premiered.<br /> <br /> 1978- THE LUFTHANSA HEIST. Some small time Brooklyn Mafiosi slipped into the Lufthansa cargo terminal at Kennedy Airport and stole $8 million in unmarked bills and jewelry, most from European currency exchange booths. As the FBI moved in on the gang its members tended to wind up dead, thirteen bodies in all. The money was never recovered. The reputed mastermind, Jimmy the Gent Burke, died in prison on an unrelated murder charge in 1991. The feds were still chasing ringleaders as late as 2015. The incident was dramatized in the Martin Scorsese film “Goodfellas”.<br /> <br /> 1985- A Sacramento computer rental store owner named Hugh Scrutton became the first to get a mail bomb from the Unibomber. MIT advanced mathematics major Ted Kusczynski slowly became mentally unbalanced, and blamed rampant technology for ruining the world. His campaign of mailing explosives terrorized the academic world for a decade, until he was turned in by his own brother. <br /> <br /> 1997-150 nations sign the Kyoto Protocol, pledging to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but not the United States or China, the world’s two largest polluters. <br /> <br /> 2008- Bernie Madoff was arrested for stock fraud. For years he was known as an A-list Wall St investor. In reality, he ran the largest Ponzi-scheme fraud in history. Madoff cheated clients out of $180 BILLION, more than the GNP of many nations. Hundreds of investors were burned, as diverse as Steven Spielberg, NY Governor, Eli Weizel, The Shoah Foundation and even his own synagogue. Madoff’s son Mark committed suicide and his family members have since changed their names.<br /> <br /> 2009- The Princess and the Frog opened in theaters. Directed by Little Mermaid directors John Musker and Ron Clements, it was the first film with an African-American Disney Princess, and the last traditionally animated Disney feature.<br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is a John Hancock?<br /> <br /> Answer. When the Declaration of Independence was signed, John Hancock, as then president of congress, signed the document first. He said he made his signature big enough “ so King George won’t need his spectacles”. Since then, a large signature became known as a John Hancock..</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 10 Dec 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6018 <p>Question: What is a John Hancock?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is suet?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/10/2022<br /> Birthdays: English King Edward VII “Bertie”, Emile Dickinson, Ada Lovelace, E. H. Shepard the illustrator of Winnie the Pooh. Chet Huntley, Morton Gould, Victor McLaughlin, Dan Blocker, Tommy Kirk, Fionnula Flanagan, Kenneth Branaugh is 62, Dorothy Lamour, Susan Dey is 70, Michael Clarke Duncan<br /> <br /> Happy World Freedom Day.<br /> <br /> 969AD- Byzantine Emperor Nicephorous II Phocas had no better administrator than John Tzimisces. But John was also the lover of Nicephorous’s wife Empress Theophano. This day she had Nicephorous assassinated. Theophano had earlier poisoned her own father-in-law Emperor Romanus II to help Nicephorous seize the throne. But now she was bored with him. To please the angry Greek Patriarch, John Tzmisces exiled Theophano to a convent and reigned as a pretty good emperor. But then he too was poisoned, by Basil II the Bulgar Slayer. Believe it or not, this was a happy period in Byzantine history.<br /> <br /> 1041- Byzantine Michael IV the Paphlagonian died. Before his death he had his sickbed moved to the Monastery of Saint Demetrios and changed his golden robes for monks rags.<br /> <br /> 1198-The death of the Moorish philosopher Averroes.<br /> <br /> 1508- Pope Julius II formed a grand alliance to crush the Republic of Venice. Called the League of Cambrai, the Vatican, France, The German Emperor, Spain and Naples all pledged to destroy the Most Surene Republic. The Venetians fought back valiantly, noblewomen patriotically pawning their jewels to pay the troops. After being attacked on all sides for 4 years, the League of Cambrai finally broke up when Pope Julius decided he’s rather have fellow Italians for neighbors rather than foreigners after all. The Republic of Venice survived, but her status as a world power was broken. She lapsed into an elegant, pleasure-loving decline until absorbed into Italy by Napoleon in 1796.<br /> <br /> 1513- Former Florentine politician Niccolo Machiavelli was living in a small town after being kicked out of government. He was even twisted a bit on a torture rack. Still missing his life in power, he declared this day to a friend he was writing a book on political theory to give to the Medici duke of Florence. He hoped by doing so he’d be called back to office. He also tried to dedicate it to Cesare Borgia. It didn’t get him a job, but his book THE PRINCE became one of the great works of political philosophy, the handbook of unscrupulous politicians ever since. <br /> <br /> 1518- Ulrich Zwingli was chosen to be the Gross Munster or chief vicar of the Swiss city of Zurich. Zwingli became a top leader of the Protestant Reformation like Martin Luther and John Calvin.<br /> <br /> 1520- Protestant reformer Martin Luther shows the Pope what he thinks of his Bull of Excommunication on him by burning it in public. Pope Leo’s command Exsurge Domine went up in smoke along with the Canons of Roman Church Law to the cheers of students. <br /> <br /> 1577- The Union of Brussels- The 17 provinces of the Netherlands and Belgium formalized their union. This is why Holland is also known as the United Provinces.<br /> <br /> 1607- Captain John Smith left the Jamestown camp with two men to find food. They were captured by the Indians who killed the other men and dragged Smith before chief Powhatan. He ordered Smith’s head to be placed on a flat stone and bashed in with a war club. But Powhatan’s favorite daughter Pocahontas threw herself over Smith and protected him. Smith could speak no Algonquin and the Indians no English and neither could sing any Broadway tunes. Was this an execution prevented or a ritual of admission into the tribe? Powhatan was known to extend his rule through dynastic alliances with other tribal leaders, and he was well aware of the white strangers, wiping out a Spanish attempt to land on his beach in 1600. Maybe this was his way of wanting to bring the white mans powers to his side. <br /> No one knows for sure. John Smith is the only source for the story, and he didn’t write of this incident until back in England 14 years later.<br /> <br /> 1641- King Charles I issued a Royal Declaration ordering all Britons to conform to the practices of the Church of England, or else! The Declaration was King Charles’ defiant answer to a list of demands called the Great Remonstrance given him ten days earlier that accused him of undermining the Protestant faith. This was a poke at all the Puritans, Pilgrims, Levellers, Anabaptists who were complaining that the Anglican Church had gotten too Catholic-looking in its rituals. <br /> Indeed, at the insistence of monarchs since Elizabeth, the reformed English service had re-introduced crucifixes, communion plate and surplice aprons for the priests. The declaration was one more provocation building the conflict that would soon break out as the English Civil War. When violence broke out the Puritans dragged out the Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Laud and chopped his head off. Laud was seen as the instigator of this declaration and the Kings policy on religion and was branded as Laudism.<br /> <br /> 1672- New York colonies Royal Governor Sir Thomas Lovelace announced the establishment of a regular monthly mail delivery between New York and Boston. <br /> <br /> 1800- Congress debated a bill to build a mausoleum for George Washington to be placed in the center of the Congress. But Martha Washington cut off such efforts by citing George’s specific instructions that his remains not be turned into some kind of regal national shrine. He insisted on and still sleeps in his simple family tomb at Mt. Vernon.<br /> <br /> 1710-Battle of Villaviciosa- Phillip V of Spain defeated an Anglo-Portuguese invasion and assured the throne for the Bourbon family. His descendant are still on the throne today.<br /> <br /> 1817- Mississippi statehood.<br /> <br /> 1839- THE GREAT GAME- A large British army left India to invade Afghanistan. The 15,000 troops carried with them 38,000 camp followers, including camels laden with raspberry jam, cigars, cricket bats and fox hunting dogs. One British officer alone brought sixty servants. The British claimed they were invading to contain Russian expansionism. The duel between Britain and Russia for the Indian Northwest that lasted until 1947 was nicknamed The Great Game. By 1841 this army would all die in the terrible Retreat from Kabul and its sole survivor would be a doctor who got lost. The British officer who coined the term the Great Game was beheaded by the Emir of Bokhara and thrown into a pit of reptiles. <br /> <br /> 1864- Sherman’s army reached the sea at the Georgia coast near Savannah.<br /> <br /> 1877- Siege of Plevna ends. Russia and Austria force Turkey to grant independence to Serbia and Bosnia. Austria’s later efforts to swallow up Bosnia became the issue that sparked World War I.<br /> <br /> 1869- Wyoming Territory granted women the vote. The nation follows 58 years later (California in 1911).<br /> <br /> 1898- Spain and the U.S. make peace ending the Spanish American War. Secretary of State John Hay who was once Abe Lincoln’s secretary called it “A Splendid Little War.” Critics Mark Twain and Ambrose Bierce called it the Yanko-Spanko War. The United States became a global power player with colonies in Puerto Rico, Guam, Samoa, Midway, Wake, and the Philippines. <br /> The Filipinos, who were fighting for independence under their leaders like Aquinaldo, suddenly discover they were now American property. The U.S. declared they fought for their freedom from Spain yet never officially recognized their national independence movements. The Philippines gained its full independence in 1946 and the last American base, Subic Bay, wasn’t removed until the 1990s. <br /> <br /> 1899- Battle of Magersfontein (more Boer-Woer). Our post-Apartheid opinion of white South Africans was not very high, but in 1899 most of Europe and America sympathized with their fight against the awesome might of the British Empire. The Queen of Holland begged the German Kaiser to help them (the Boers were ethnically Dutch-German). Crowds in Paris and Brussels would jeer and boo at the visiting Prince of Wales with the cry "Vive les Boers!" <br /> <br /> 1901- The First Nobel Prize is given. Alfred Nobel made millions by inventing dynamite and nitro-glycerine. But as much as his discoveries were used for constructive purposes they also made it possible for armies to kill each other much more efficiently. He felt guilty and after an accident with the stuff killed his own brother, He resolved to create something positive from his fortune. Hence the Nobel Prize. Nobel died on Dec 10th 1896 and the awards are given each year on the anniversary. President Teddy Roosevelt won the first Peace Prize in 1910 for mediating an end to the Russo-Japanese War. President Obama was the third U.S. President to receive the Peace Prize.<br /> <br /> 1905- O. Henry’s short story “A gift from the Magi” first published.<br /> <br /> 1915- President Woodrow Wilson married Edith Bolling Galt in a ceremony in the White House.<br /> <br /> 1938- To make the film "Gone With the Wind" Producer David Selznick and director Victor Fleming shot the massive "Burning of Atlanta" in Culver City, California. The sequence was storyboarded and designed by William Cameron-Menzies, who designed the sets for Intolerance for D.W. Griffith. Selznick used the opportunity to clean the studios backlot storage, burning sets from King Kong, Little Lord Fauntleroy and Last of the Mohicans in the inferno. They shot the scenes with three Rhett Butler stand-ins.<br /> <br /> 1941-The Hollywood Victory Committee formed. Top Hollywood agents like Abe Lastfogel, Lou Wasserman and Myron Selznick (David's brother) start signing up movie stars for bond drives and touring shows for the troops. <br /> The committee later created the Hollywood Canteen, a nightclub for servicemen on Ivar near Sunset. A soldier or sailor could come in for a free meal served by Tyrone Power or Red Skelton and have a dance with celebrities like Rita Hayworth or Dina Shore. The Canteen was also the only completely integrated night club in LA then.<br /> One animation painter who worked in the kitchen told me the only celebrity who would stay until closing, even mopping up, and washing dishes was Marlena Dietrich. While Janey Gaynor and Rhonda Fleming were working in the kitchen, Bette Davis would burst in and announce, “ Okay you Haus-Fraus! We need some glamour out front!” <br /> <br /> 1941-Japanese planes sink the battleships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse in just 90 minutes. The prized British battleships had participated in the sinking of the German dreadnought Bismarck in the Atlantic a year earlier, but had been transferred to the Pacific to boost the defenses of Singapore. The next day a lone Japanese plane dropped a wreath at the site of the sinking in tribute to the 884 British sailors who died there. <br /> <br /> 1941- A Japanese Army of 4,000 under General Homma landed on the Philippine Islands at Luzon and Vigan while a third force overran the U.S. outpost on Guam.<br /> <br /> 1941- The New York Metropolitan Opera announced that in light of the Pearl Harbor attack they were suspending any further performances of Madame Butterfly for the duration. Other opera companies also stopped doing Gilbert &amp; Sullivan’s The Mikado.<br /> <br /> 1942- OPERATION WINTERSTORM- General Von Manstein was ordered by Hitler to swing his panzers north and attempt to break through the Russian forces encircling the trapped German 6th Army at Stalingrad. But Von Manstein’s rescue mission was halted by Russian resistance and wintery conditions just 30 miles short of their goal. The 6th Army surrendered in February.<br /> <br /> 1948- The United Nations adopts Article XIX, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The committee, spending months drafting the resolution, was chaired by the Eleanor Roosevelt. By this act she debuted not just as a former first lady and widow of FDR but as a stateswoman and diplomat in her own right.<br /> <br /> 1949- After being defeated by Mao Zedong’s Communist forces, Kuomintang (KMT) Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek flew to Taiwan. Two and a half million ethnic Han Chinese evacuated to the island of Formosa-Taiwan, which continues today to call itself the ROC- The Republic of China. This ended the Chinese Civil War. Since 1924 China suffered 2 million deaths in its first civil war, 20 million in the Japanese invasion and World War II, and 5 million more killed in the final civil war. <br /> <br /> 1962- Happy Birthday Iron Man. The character Iron Man first appeared in the Marvel comic Tales of Suspense.<br /> <br /> 1966- The Beach Boys “Good Vibrations” hit #1 in pop charts.<br /> <br /> 1967- R&amp;B star Otis Redding and four of his band the Bar Kays were killed in a small plane crash near Madison Wisconsin. He was 26. Redding had recorded his hit “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” just three days earlier.<br /> <br /> 1974- Powerful Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Congressman Wilbur Mills resigned in disgrace after being busted by the DC police for getting drunk with a stripper named Fannie Fox and taking her for a 2:00 AM skinny dip in the Tidal Basin near the Jefferson Memorial. Fannie was later christened the “Tidal Basin Bombshell.”<br /> <br /> 1978- The world premiere of Richard Donner’s Superman, The Movie. The incomparable Christopher Reeve with Margot Kidder and Gene Hackman.<br /> <br /> 1994- The Unabomber sent an explosive device that killed Thomas J. Mosser, an advertising executive at Young &amp; Rubicam who handled the public relations spin for Exxon after the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster.<br /> <br /> 2013- Richard Williams unfinished epic animated film the Thief and the Cobbler: A moment in Time, received its premiere at the Motion Picture Academy in Beverly Hills. It was begun 40 years earlier in 1972 and never completed. <br /> ======================================================<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is suet?<br /> <br /> Answer: A beef or lamb fat runoff, collected and used in Medieval cooking.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 09 Dec 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6017 <p>Question: What is suet?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is the name of the planet between Mercury and Earth?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/9/2022<br /> Birthdays: Sappho, John Milton, Jean De Brunhoff, Emil Waldteufel the composer of The Skaters Waltz, Admiral Grace Hopper who wrote the earliest computer language, Margraret Hamilton, Hermoinie Gingold, Dalton Trumbo, John Cassavettes, Broderick Crawford, Dick Butkus, Red Foxx, Cesar Franck, John Malkovich is 69, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Buck Henry, Felicity Huffman, Mario Cantone, Judy Dench is 88, Kirk Douglas<br /> <br /> 536- The legions of Byzantine General Belisarius captured Rome from the Ostrogoths.<br /> This was part of Emperor Justinian’s unsuccessful plan to win back the western half of the old Roman Empire.<br /> <br /> 1641- Famed Flemish portrait artist Sir Anthony van Dyck died of a fever at his home in Blackfriars, London. He was 42. <br /> <br /> 1783- First executions began at England’s Newgate Prison, replacing the traditional<br /> public hanging, drawing, quartering, branding, beheading place of Tyburn Hill- approximately where London’s Marble Arch is today.<br /> <br /> 1803- Congress passed the Twelfth Amendment calling for the President and Vice President to be of the same party. Before this, the system was the Vice President was the loser of the presidential election, thus the people’s second choice. But trying to govern with your bitter political enemy standing behind you proved impractical. The Amendment also defined the order of succession: President, Vice President, Secretary of State. Speaker of the House, Senate Leader Pro-Tem. In 1945 the 22nd Amendment excluded the Secretary of State, who was never an elected official.<br /> <br /> 1824- Battle of Ayacucho- Simon Bolivar defeated the last Spanish Army in the Americas.<br /> <br /> 1825- THE LATIN AMERICAN BUBBLE- The London Stock Exchange crashed over rampant stock speculation in the potential wealth in the new emerging Latin American republics. Financier Nathan Rothschild became a national figure when he lent the Bank of England millions to stay solvent. Thanks to new communications and international investment for the first time the London panic reached across national borders and caused the U.S. Stock Exchange and the Paris Bourse to also crash. This kind of speculation in futures caused the South Sea Bubble in France and the Tulip craze a century earlier. We’ve seen it in our own times with the global credit crash of 2008.<br /> <br /> 1835- First battle of San Antonio de Bexar. Angry Texas citizens forced Mexican <br /> General Cos to abandon a post in an old mission called the Alamo and give up a store<br /> of valuable cannon. This was the incident that provoked President Santa<br /> Anna into attacking San Antonio the following Spring.<br /> <br /> 1840- Dr. David Livingstone set sail for Africa to do missionary work. He met Stanley<br /> in 1871.<br /> <br /> 1854- Albert Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" published.<br /> <br /> 1861- The first ever government oversight committee formed. The Joint Congressional<br /> Committee on the Conduct of the War. It was created because Congressmen were afraid<br /> President Lincoln was a naïve hillbilly lawyer who was losing the Civil War. All they succeeded in doing was give Lincoln more stress and at one point they even accused First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln of being a Confederate spy.<br /> <br /> 1889- The Chicago Auditorium dedicated. The landmark building’s architect Louis <br /> Sullivan had hired a new assistant to help with the drawings-Frank Lloyd Wright.<br /> <br /> 1899- BLACK WEEK-Battle of Stormberg Junction. A series of small battles in which<br /> British forces were defeated by Boer guerrillas in South Africa. <br /> The commanding British general Sir Redvers Buller, was considered so slow moving<br /> that one wag suggested they periodically hold a mirror up to his nostrils to check<br /> for signs of life. He was later replaced with the more energetic Lord Roberts of<br /> Kandahar.-“Ol’ Bobs”.<br /> <br /> 1905- Richard Strauss’s opera Salome premiered in Dresden. The lead role demands<br /> a soprano with big Wagnerian lungs but also a flat stomach to do the strip tease<br /> The Dance of the Seven Veils. When the opera debuted in New York, old millionaires<br /> like J.P. Morgan were shocked at its’ blatant sexuality. They threatened to cut <br /> off funding until Sal and her skimpy veils was banished from the schedule. <br /> <br /> 1907- the first Christmas Seals go on sale to fight tuberculosis.<br /> <br /> 1909- Mary Harris a.k.a. Mother Jones speaks at the Thalia Theater in support of<br /> the "The Strike of the 20,000" Immigrant seamstresses in New York's garment<br /> district. "Every strike I have ever been in has been won by women!"<br /> <br /> 1917- During World War I, Field Marshal Allenby and the British army entered Jerusalem while Lawrence of Arabia and the Arab forces marched on Damascus. To promote harmony between Arabs and Jews, Allenby ordered the building of a huge YMCA in the Old City. The people that schvitz together….<br /> <br /> 1931- Disney short Mickey’s Orphans debuted.<br /> <br /> 1936- The first cookery show appeared on British television.<br /> <br /> 1937- In the path of advancing Japanese armies, Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai<br /> Shek and his government abandoned his capitol Nanking and moved to Chunking. <br /> <br /> 1946- Damon Runyon died, the writer whose characters the musical "Guys and <br /> Dolls' are based. His philosophy: "All life is six to five against."<br /> <br /> 1948- Actor Ossie Davis married actress Ruby Dee.<br /> <br /> 1960- Coronation Street premiered on British ITV.<br /> <br /> 1964- John Coltrane recorded his landmark jazz album “A Love Supreme”. Late on <br /> foggy nights Trane liked to take his saxophone out onto the middle of San Francisco’s <br /> Golden Gate Bridge in the night fog, and practice by himself. <br /> <br /> 1965- Bill Melendez's "A Charlie Brown Christmas" the first half hour animated TV special featuring the music of Vince Guaraldi. Producer Lee Mendelson had heard Guaraldi's jazz combo perform in San Francisco. He never scored a film before:" How many yards of music do you want? At the preview screening for CBS executives, the show was met with deathly silence; when the show concluded, one executive said to the director Bill Melendez, "Well, you gave it a good try." CBS hated its religious message, the idea of actual kids voicing the characters, not having a laugh track and having jazz as the soundtrack. They only aired it out of obligation for the sponsor, Coca-Cola. It was not screened for any critics sans one Time Magazine critic (who ironically gave it a positive review). Estimates are that 15,490,000 households and 36 million people watched Charlie Brown and his friends that night. A Charlie Brown Christmas won an Emmy and has run every year since. <br /> <br /> 1967- At a Doors concert lead singer Jim Morrison was sprayed with mace and arrested<br /> by Miami police for “lewd behavior” on stage, but probably more for referring to<br /> the cops as pigs.<br /> <br /> 1968- The MOTHER OF ALL DEMOS- In San Francisco, Dr Douglas Engelbart demonstrated the first personal computer workstation. He showed how people would use hot keys, a printer and scanner, cut and paste text. And he had a real time internet hookup to another workstation at Stanford Univ, 120 miles away. His student assistant was Stewart Brand, who would create the Whole Earth Catalog. In the audience was student Andries van Dam, who would one day create SIGGRAPH.<br /> <br /> 1967- Nicholas Ceaucescu became dictator of Communist Romania.<br /> <br /> 1992-Britains Prime Minister John Major announced the separation of Prince Charles<br /> and Diana of Wales.<br /> <br /> 1994- Disney Animators in California move into their new Animation building designed<br /> by Robert Stern.<br /> <br /> 1994- The Surgeon-General of the United States, Dr Jocelyn Elders, was forced to<br /> step down after her statements that sex education in primary schools include masturbation outraged many conservatives.<br /> <br /> 2004- Mia Hamm and the stars of the Women’s National Soccer Team played their last<br /> game, defeating Mexico 5-0. <br /> <br /> 2008- Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois was arrested for corruption and having a really bad haircut.<br /> <br /> 2340- Mr Worf, the Klingon officer of Star Trek Next Generation was born.<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is the name of the planet between Mercury and Earth?<br /> <br /> Answer. Venus.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 06 Dec 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6016 <p>Question: Is the language of Finland -Germanic, Slavic, or Scandinavian in origin?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: A Christmas Carol commands, “Now bring us some figgy pudding...” What is figgy pudding?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/6/2022<br /> Birthdays: King Henry VI of England-1422, English Puritan General George Monck-1608, John Eberhard 1822, builder of the first large pencil factory in the US, John Singleton-Mosby the Grey Ghost, Henry Jarecki, Baby Face Nelson, William S. Hart, Ira Gershwin, Dave Brubeck, Agnes Moorehead, Tom Hulce is 69, Wally Cox, Lynn Fontaine, Steven Wright, JoBeth Williams, Judd Apatow is 54, Nick Park is 65<br /> <br /> Today is the FEAST of SAINT NICHOLAS, the patron saint of sailors and children. In what is modern Turkey, in 350AD, Bishop Nicholas heard of a man so poor that he was about to sell his daughters into prostitution. Nicholas climbed into the man’s window and placed gold coins in the family socks drying by the fireplace. In some cities during the Middle Ages the custom was this day to elect a Boy Bishop who would reign in an honorary style until the Feast of the Holy Innocents December 28th.<br /> <br /> 1196- The northern coast of Holland was flooded, the Saint Nicholas Flood.<br /> <br /> 1240- The Mongol horde of Batu Khan destroyed the city of Kiev ( Kyiv). This ended the old kingdom of Kievan Russ. <br /> <br /> 1534- Spanish settlers in Ecuador found the city of Quito.<br /> <br /> 1648- PRIDE'S PURGE -The final move of the Cromwell’s Army to secure power in post-Civil War England. His army had occupied London after Parliament had given him a direct order to disband. Soldiers led by a Colonel Thomas Pride stood at the entrance to the House of Commons with a list and as the Parliament members walked in he pulled out 60 of them for arrest. Outraged politicians demanded to know what was his commission? Col. Pride sneered, " This sword point is my commission!" <br /> Thus cowed, the truncated remainder was nicknamed The Rump Parliament. General Oliver Cromwell was discreetly out of town, but he was doubtless in on the planning of the purge. England was now a military dictatorship and would remain so for ten years until Cromwell's death, when General Monk summoned back the monarchy.<br /> <br /> 1757-Battle of Leuthen- Frederick the Great beats the Austrian Army outnumbering him three to one. Austrian commander Archduke Charles was contemptuous of the smaller Prussian army, calling them a “Berlin Watch Parade” i.e. a police patrol. But the Prussians defeated the Austrians badly, and sang their hymn Nun Danket Alle Gott on the blood soaked snow. Napoleon called Leuthen Frederick’s masterpiece. <br /> <br /> 1790- Congress moved from New York City back to Philadelphia to await construction of it’s final home in the new Federal City in Maryland, already being called by some Washington-City. George Washington himself would occasionally ride out from Mt Vernon and meet with Jefferson and Madison to inspect the construction site.<br /> <br /> 1825- President John Quincy Adams in his first message to Congress called for increased funding for scientific research, the founding of a national university and a national observatory. His political enemies ridiculed his ideas as idiotic and wasteful. They accused the president of wasting taxpayer money on depraved European luxuries like a billiard table. Adams also installed the first indoor toilets in the White House. People started calling the newfangled commodes a John Quincy, or simply a John.<br /> <br /> 1846- Battle of San Pasqual- A Mexican victory in the U.S.-Mexican War. The US Army was so sure that California was conquered that General Phil Kearny sent away half of his army to go join Zachary Taylor in Mexico while he pushed on to the Pacific Coast. Just outside of San Diego near Julian he was attacked by California Vaqueros, brandishing lances. The Yankee dragoons at first laughed at the silly “pig-stickers”, until they realized the previous nights rainstorm had made their gunpowder useless. Kearnys force was routed. Only with great difficulty did they escape under Kit Carson’s guidance to the sheltering guns of the US Fleet in San Diego harbor. <br /> <br /> 1849- Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery in Maryland and began her underground railroad to smuggle runaway slaves from the South up North. After the Fugitive Slave Act was passed she extended her route to Canada. At one point she wanted to join John Brown’s insurrection in Harpers Ferry but illness prevented her, and probably saved her life.<br /> <br /> 1877- First edition of the Washington Post.<br /> <br /> 1915- MAX FLEISCHER PATENTED THE ROTOSCOPE- This system enables you to film an actor then draw the cartoons over the still frames of the live action to achieve a realistic motion. (an early form of Motion Capture) Max would film his brother Dave in a clown suit then draw Koko the Clown over him. Dave had already owned the clown suit because he had been seriously considering a change in careers. The Fleischer's New York studio would be Disney's chief rival for most of the 1920's-30's.<br /> <br /> 1921- Irish Home Rule- It had been an Irish dream since William Strongbow and the Norman English invaded in 1085. After decades of Parliamentary pressure from advocates like Charles Parnell and Daniel O'Connell, a long guerrilla war with the IRA and public exhaustion from the Great War, London was ready to talk terms. But the British Crown insisted on a compromise of letting the 6 Protestant Counties of Ulster remain under British rule and an oath of loyalty to the king. Prime Minister Lloyd George threatened a full war on Ireland with the full resources of the British Empire as the alternative. <br /> Irish negotiators Michael Collins and Alexander Griffith knew this deal would cause resentment, but they felt it was the best they could get. In the following months both men would be dead and a civil war broke out. The loyalty oath was ignored and full Irish independence declared in 1946. <br /> <br /> 1929- Turkey under Kemal Ataturk gave women the right to vote.<br /> <br /> 1933- U.S. Federal Judge Woolsey decides James Joyce's "ULYSSES" is not a dirty book and can be published in the U.S by Viking Press. The book had been out in Europe since 1922. <br /> <br /> 1941- Admiral Nagumo turned his carriers into the wind and began to prepare to launch the attack on Pearl Harbor. Meanwhile in Washington DC, Colonel William Bratton of army intelligence decoded a message from Tokyo to the Japanese Embassy telling them after their final message to destroy their cyphers and all top-secret documents. He ran all over D.C. trying to get someone to listen, but it was a quiet weekend like any other.<br /> Early Sunday morning Mrs. Dorothy Edgers of the Navy cryptographic division translated long decoded instructions to the Japanese Consul Kita in Honolulu to provide up to date intelligence on Pearl Harbor's ship movements and armaments, then destroy his ciphers. When she showed this to her supervisor, he told her, “Well, umm….We'll get back to this on Monday." <br /> <br /> 1941- NY City Council voted to build a second municipal airport- Idylwild Airport, later renamed John F. Kennedy Airport.<br /> <br /> 1942- Val Lewton’s movie The Cat People with Simon-Simon premiered.<br /> <br /> 1957- In their initial reaction to the Russians launching sputnik, the US attempt to launch a satellite into space failed- the Vanguard I rocket blew up on the launch pad.<br /> <br /> 1960- Baseball’s American League granted an expansion franchise team to old cowboy singer Gene Autry, the California Angels.<br /> <br /> 1963- Soon after the assassination, Jackie Kennedy had writer T. H. White to the White House for an interview. She was already shaping how her husband’s presidency would be remembered. She mentioned his favorite album was the soundtrack of the musical Camelot. White took this and expanded the idea in the piece he wrote for Life Magazine, “For President Kennedy, An Epilogue” which came out on this day. The JFK era would forever after being known as Camelot.<br /> <br /> 1964- The first concert at the Los Angeles Music Center.<br /> <br /> 1964- Rankin Bass' TV special 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' first broadcast. And it has run every year since.<br /> <br /> 1969- The Rolling Stones do the last big rock festival of the 60s in Altamont California. The festival turned ugly when Hells Angels motorcyclists, hired to guard the stage, started fighting with fans. One man, Meredith Hunter, was killed. <br /> <br /> 1980- Reverend Jim Baker of the PTL ministry had sex in a motel room with Church volunteer Jessica Hahn. His reasoning to her was “when you help the shepherd, you help the flock”. But later he paid her hush money. This indiscretion would help pull down his Church. Baker’s ministry included a lavish lifestyle, air-conditioned doghouse for his pets and a Christian theme park called Heritage USA. Ex-evangelist turned comedian Sam Kinison joked: I can imagine up in heaven, Jesus is thumbing through the New Testament saying” Hey, where the hell did I ever say anything thing about a water slide?”<br /> In recent years, Jim Baker has made a comeback. He has another big church and is a loud supporter of former President Trump.<br /> <br /> 1994- Orange County California, one of the richest counties in the United States declared bankruptcy because an official gambled and lost the county's funds on speculative investments like junk-bonds. One billion dollars disappeared in less than a week of day trading.<br /> ___________________________________________________________________<br /> Yesterday’s Question: A Christmas Carol commands, “ Now bring us some figgy pudding..” What is figgy pudding?<br /> <br /> Answer: 14th Century English pudding were small cakes made of pork suet, heavily laced with sweet figs and other dried fruits. For many average people it would be the only sweet confection they’d get all year.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 05 Dec 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6015 <p>Question: A Christmas Carol commands, “Now bring us some figgy pudding..” What is figgy pudding?<br /> <br /> Yesterdays Question Answered Below: What does it mean to egg someone on? <br /> --------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/5/2022<br /> Birthdays: Pope Julius II, Martin Van Buren, Walt Disney would be 121, Fritz Lang, Eugene Debs, George Armstrong Custer, Little Richard Penniman, Strom Thurmond, Otto Preminger, Lin Piao, Calvin Trillin, Joan Didion, Jim Plunkett, Jose Carrerras, Margaret Cho is 55<br /> <br /> Faunalia- the ancient Roman festival for rustic god Faunus.<br /> <br /> 1212-THE WONDER OF THE WORLD.- Fredrick II Hohenstaufen became Holy Roman Emperor of the German Nation at 18. The son of Henry VI the Lion, Freddy was called "stupor mundi et immutator mirabilis” The Marvelous Transformer and Wonder of the World”. <br /> <br /> 1349- People in Europe were at a loss to explain why the Black Plague was killing everyone. So, they settled on their age-old answer- It was the Jews fault! This day in Nuremberg, 500 Jews were killed by rioters.<br /> <br /> 1484- Pope Innocent VIII raises the practice of Witchcraft from a minor sin to a major heresy. Included in the definition of witchcraft is any remaining vestiges of local animist customs, herbalism or treating illnesses with home grown medicines. He ordered the Holy Office of the Inquisition to investigate all cases. From 1484 to 1750 maybe 200,000 people died in Europe and America. As late as 1784 a woman in Belgium was executed for bewitching a child. The last burning of the Spanish Inquisition was in 1817, when Lincoln and Darwin were 8 years old.<br /> <br /> 1492- Christopher Columbus, still looking for Japan, now discovered Haiti.<br /> <br /> 1502- Columbus’ last voyage was hit by a hurricane. For twelve days his ships were battered by wind and waves. At one point Columbus saw a waterspout in the ocean near them. He read a Rite of Exorcism at it and made the sign of the Cross with his sword. Tradition says it then went away.<br /> <br /> 1560- King Francis II of France died at age 16. His mom Catherine de Medici didn’t fret, she had more sons. She made her next son Charles IX king at age 10. <br /> <br /> 1704- In Hamburg, towards the end of his opera Cleopatre, composer Georg Frederich Handel and soloist Johann Mattheson started bickering over who should bow and receive the audiences applause. As the curtain came down and the cheers rang out, Handel and Mattheson began furiously wrestling over the harpsichord. Finally they rushed out into the snowy public square and fought with swords. The audience followed them and cheered on this unique encore. Neither was hurt in the end, and they even made up over their next collaboration.<br /> <br /> 1766- London auction house Christies held its first auction.<br /> <br /> 1791-MOZART DIED- The 35 year old composer was slaving away on a commission for a Requiem Mass when he died of scarlet fever and kidney failure complicated by exhaustion and alcoholism (and no, he didn't work in animation). His last words were telling his student Sussmeyer how to perform the percussion for the Requiem. Mozart was buried in a pauper's grave, and when his wife came to mourn him a few days later nobody could recall where he was buried. <br /> The theories about Antonio Salieri poisoning him out of jealousy or the Freemasons doing him in began only a few years later. Schiller wrote a play in 1817 called Mozart &amp; Salieri where he has Salieri doing the dastardly deed. Pushkin wrote a similar story in 1830. Antonio Salieri lived into his 80s. Peter Schaffer who wrote the play Amadeus in 1979, said his inspiration was reading notes of one of Beethoven's pupils in 1827 who wrote about going up to the sanitarium to visit the ancient composer: "Salieri is in one of his fits again, shouting “I killed Mozart! Mozart forgive me!”"<br /> <br /> 1791- First Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton presented his Report on Manufactures to Congress. This was considered a revolutionary document because here was this illegitimate snob telling his half wild nation of farmers and trappers with dead raccoons on their heads, that their future lay in developing heavy industry closely regulated by a strong centralized government. Thomas Jefferson among many others thought it was a big mistake, but modern scholars declare The Report on Manufactures as the true beginning of the US economy.<br /> <br /> 1804- The Presentation of the Eagles- Part of Napoleon’s reforming of the French Army after becoming Emperor was to standardize the battle flags. The old tattered flags of the Revolution were collected and a red, white and blue flag with gold trim was distributed, each surmounted by a brass Eagle patterned on an ancient Roman design. In 1807 the flag was standardized as the modern French tricolor we know today. Also given out was an emerald green flag with golden harps to the Irish Volunteer brigade. Jacques Louis David did a beautiful painting of the event, but the truth be told it was a lousy rainy day and there was a lot of confusion. <br /> <br /> 1837- Hector Berlioz chorale Requiem premiered.<br /> <br /> 1854- Aaron Allen of Boston patented the theater chair that folded up so you could exit.<br /> <br /> 1865-The steel industry is transformed when Sir Henry Bessemer received an American patent for the Bessemer Steel process, which made steel harder with less impurities. <br /> <br /> 1912- New York Hat directed by D.W. Griffith starring Mary Pickford and Lionel Barrymore premiered. The first movie script written by 19 year old Anita Loos to be produced. The first American women to be a staff screenwriter, she became one of the finest Hollywood screenwriters and Broadway playwright, who penned films like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Gigi. She helped discover Douglas Fairbanks and Audrey Hepburn. She died in 1981 at age 93.<br /> Her autobiography was titled “The First Time I got PAID for It!”<br /> <br /> 1933- Prohibition was repealed in the U.S. with the ratification of the 21st Amendment. Interestingly enough the final state to ratify the repeal amendment was Utah. Canadian cities like Moose Jaw Saskatchuan, where Al Capone had set up huge distilleries to run-rum across Lake Michigan, went into mourning. Bootleggers like Josef Bronfman of Seagrams and Joe Kennedy Sr. had to look for new sources of income.<br /> <br /> 1938- The FCC concludes there was no malicious intent in Orson Welles Halloween broadcast of The War of the Worlds, and no fines would be imposed.<br /> <br /> 1941- Marshal Zhukov commenced the first Soviet counterattack since the Nazis invasion began in June. As the Red Army pushed the Germans 100 miles back from the outskirts of Moscow. The Germans first came up against the new Soviet T-34 Stalin Tank. German tank expert Heinz Guderian wrote to a colleague” I have just seen a most amazing tank, and if the Russians are mass producing them, we may lose the war!”<br /> <br /> 1941- Admiral Halsey moved his carrier fleet- USS Lexington &amp; Enterprise out of Pearl Harbor to go on maneuvers. They would not be there for the Japanese attack on Pearl. This is why Admiral Yamamoto was disappointed with the battle’s final results.<br /> <br /> 1945- Flight 19, a routine training patrol of 5 Navy Avenger torpedo bombers took off from Fort Lauderdale at 2:00PM and flew into the Bermuda Triangle. Two hours later the commander radioed that his compass and backup compass had failed and his position was unknown. The 14 men and their planes were never seen again. In the next few months hundreds of planes and ships searched the waters for some signs of wreckage with no success. In 1986 and 1991 claims were made that wreckage was found, but so far but so far nothing definitive has ever been confirmed.<br /> <br /> 1947- Paramount’s “Santa’s Surprise” the first Little Audrey cartoon. The short was directed by Bill Tytla for Famous Studios. He designed Little Audrey based on his own daughter Tammy.<br /> <br /> 1951- Shoeless Joe Jackson died. The most powerful baseball batter of his age, he taught Babe Ruth how to hit. But he was implicated in the Black Sox scandal of 1919 and permanently banned from baseball. He spent the rest of his life running a hardware store near his rural Georgia home.<br /> <br /> 1952- The Abbott &amp; Costello Television Show premiered. Hilary, Mr Fields and Stinky. “ Niagara Falls! Slooowwlly I turn! Step by Step! Step by Step!”<br /> <br /> 1952- A killer smog blanketed London and southern England for a week. Visibility was reduced to barely a yard. Before it dispersed it killed 4,000-12,000 people. The crisis spurred Britain to ban the use of coal fires to heat homes in major cities. <br /> <br /> 1953- Josef Stalin died. He was in a coma after a stroke, but his doctors were too terrified to treat him. They left him on the floor for hours. Before he died, Stalin was preparing a new purge, aimed at doctors. <br /> <br /> 1953- Russian Composer Sergei Prokoviev died, but the news was overshadowed by the death of Stalin.<br /> <br /> 1974- The Seattle Seahawks football team formed.<br /> <br /> 1974- The BBC aired the last Monty Python show.<br /> <br /> 1978- Under the Jimmy Carter administration, a federal judge ruled that religious schools could no longer be segregated, and still claim religious their tax-exempt status. This made many mega churches decide to shift their activities towards Republican politics. <br /> <br /> 2002- Peter Jackson’s second part of his Lord of the Rings trilogy “ The Two Towers” opened.<br /> ======================================<br /> What does it mean to egg someone on? <br /> <br /> Answer: The Vikings had a word “eggja” which meant to urge a captive or slave to move on by prodding them in the back with your sword point. It sounded like egg in English. So, to egg somebody on came to mean to urge on someone who is reluctant.<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 04 Dec 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6014 <p>Question: What does it mean to egg someone on? <br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: When people talk on and on at length, people say you drone on. Why?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/4/2022<br /> Birthdays: Chief Crazy Horse, Samuel Butler*, Thomas Carlyle, Lillian Russell, Vasilly Kandinsky, Buck Jones, Wink Martindale, Max Baer Jr., Robert Vesco, Charles Keating, Wally George, Deanna Durbin, Pappy Boyington, Horst Bucholtz, Rainer Maria Rilke, Jeff Bridges is 73, Marisa Tomei is 58, Tyrah Banks is 49, Johnny Lyon of the band Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Jay-Z is 53, Fred Armisen is 56<br /> <br /> *"Life is one long process of getting tired."- Samuel Butler.<br /> <br /> 963AD- Pope John XII died. According to chronicler Luidprand of Cremona, his Holiness was beaten to death by the husband of a woman named Steffanetta he was caught in bed with. <br /> <br /> 1154- Nicholas Breakspeare elected Pope Adrian IV, so far the only Englishman ever made pope of the Roman Catholic Church.<br /> <br /> 1534- Ottoman Turkish Sultan Sulieman the Magnificent occupied Baghdad.<br /> <br /> 1655- Jews had been expelled from England since 1291. This year Oliver Cromwell convened a conference at Whitehall to consider re-admittance of Jewish people. Cromwell’s Puritans hated Catholic Papists, but had great sympathy for “God’s Chosen People”. One legislator even proposed moving the Sabbath Day back to Saturday. But there was still too much anti-Semitic resistance to make the re-admittance official. Despite the failure of the government to make a decision, from this time on Jewish families began resettling in England. They were allowed their own Jewish Burial Ground in 1657. In 1715 Solomon Medina became the first Jewish person to receive a knighthood. In the 1800s, Lionel Rothschild joined the House of Lords.<br /> <br /> 1657- Old artist Rembrandt van Rijn was evicted from his home. He was kept out of debtor’s prison when his daughter and son-in-law auctioned off most of his possessions to pay his debts.<br /> <br /> 1777- In France, Ben Franklin and the American commissioners were in despair. Nothing but bad news about British victories, and the French government was complaining about American privateers attacking British ships in French waters. Even sympathetic French newspapers were saying the Americans revolution was probably lost. <br /> This day, with playwright Pierre de Beaumarchais in attendance, a courier from across the sea arrived. Jonathan Austin delivered the news that at Saratoga, British General Burgoyne and his entire army were defeated and taken. Immediately the French, Dutch and Spanish governments were calling the Americans “our friends”, and began discussing an alliance.<br /> <br /> 1783- WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL- The American Revolution now ended, George Washington bid farewell to his officers he shared 8 years of war with at a dinner at Fraunces Tavern in New York. Creole cook Samuel Fraunces "Black Sam' was later invited by Washington to become the first presidential chef. The tavern is still there today on the corner of Water &amp; Pearl Streets, and still serves food and ale. It has a little Washington museum on the second floor.<br /> <br /> 1791- The London Observer, called the oldest continually published newspaper in the world, first published. True, the Times was begun in 1788 but it had a spotty release it’s first few years while its publisher would be thrown in prison for libel.<br /> <br /> 1829- The British in India abolished the custom of suttee- that a widow should throw herself on her husband’s funeral pyre and die also.<br /> <br /> 1875- William Marcy “Boss Tweed” escaped Ludlow Street jail and fled to Cuba. He had been the corrupt boss of New York City politics throughout the 1860s and 70s. He was rearrested in Spain by a Spanish policeman who spoke no English. When asked by American diplomats why, the Spaniard said he saw a newspaper cartoon by Thomas Nast of Tweed in prison garb with his hands on two young boys. So, he thought he was a kidnapper! Tweed was brought to justice by the one crime he probably never did.<br /> <br /> 1881- First issue of the Los Angeles Times.<br /> <br /> 1909- The first Canadian Football League championship the Grey Cup, U of Toronto defeated Toronto Parkdale 26-6<br /> <br /> 1915- HENRY FORD'S PEACE SHIP-The great industrialist was a livelong pacifist and was horrified by the carnage of the World War I. On this day he equipped a large yacht with neutral diplomats and other famous personages like Thomas Edison and sailed to Europe. Pundits had fun mocking his homespun naiveté, and local lunatics like Urban Ledoux, aka Mr. Zero, jumped into New York Harbor and swarm alongside the ship "to ward off hostile torpedoes." Ford docked in a neutral harbor hoping to use his influence to get the Kaiser, Czar and the other crowned heads to a bargaining table like some kind of board of directors negotiation. Nobody would meet with him. Young N.Y. politician Fiorello LaGuardia noted: "The only boy he managed to save from the trenches was his own son!"<br /> <br /> 1918- President Woodrow Wilson left the US by battleship for Europe to help chair the Versailles Peace Conference ending the Great War. Once there he surprised people by refusing to visit the battlefields and tour the horror and devastation. He said:” They want me to see red as they do. But I feel at least one of us should remain impartial.”<br /> <br /> 1927- The Cotton Club opened as a speakeasy nightclub in Harlem. Owners were New York gangsters Owney “The Killer” Madden and George “Big Frenchy” DeMange. Duke Ellington’s orchestra highlighted the opening night. When other gangsters tried to open a rival The Plantation Club, Owney had his hoods firebomb the place. The Cotton Club was one of the great centers of the Harlem Renaissance, but African Americans were banned from eating or drinking at the tables. Even W.C. Handy was turned away.<br /> <br /> 1931- “ Its alive! Its alive!” James Whale’s macabre masterpiece “Frankenstein” opened at the Mayfair theater in NY. Universal Studios originally wanted Bela Lugosi to play the Monster, to follow up on his success as Dracula. But Lugosi loudly protested it wasn’t a good fit for him. Whale’s writing partner David Lewis just saw this British actor William Henry Pratt renamed Boris Karloff in a play called the Criminal Code, where he played a murderous convict. So they signed him to play the monster.<br /> <br /> 1932- “Good Evening Mr &amp; Mrs. North and South America and All the Ships at Sea! Let’s Go To Press!” Newspaper columnist Walter Winchell began his famous radio broadcasts on the NBC Blue Network. Winchell became one of the most powerful voices in American society and politics for 23 years.<br /> <br /> 1941- As Admiral Nagumo's carriers approached Pearl Harbor, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox assured the press: "No matter what happens, the US Navy will not be caught napping !"<br /> <br /> 1941- The animated film “Hoppity Goes to Town"or Mr. Bug Goes to Town”-opened. Max Fleischer's last gamble to keep up with Walt Disney and keep his studio alive. Songs written by top pop song writer Hoagy Carmichael. However the events of Pearl Harbor three days later not only sink the American Navy, but also Hoppity's box office and put Max out of a job. <br /> <br /> 1948- “Hey...Stella!! A Streetcar Named Desire opened on Broadway with Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy.<br /> <br /> 1950- President Truman gives General MacArthur in Korea direct orders not to open his big mouth and make any more public statements about the conduct of the war, without checking with Washington first! MacArthur was used to being on his own during World War II and as proconsul of occupied Japan. He didn't fret about being his own diplomatic corps as well as general. But now everything Dugout Doug said got him into trouble. He had been making statements in press that the U.S. should expand the Korean War into Communist China and Russia, and he warned the Chinese that if they didn’t quit he planned to rain Atomic Fire upon their cities. No tweets then.<br /> <br /> 1954- Jim McLamore and Dave Edgerton attended a demonstration of fast-food serving techniques by two California brothers named MacDonald. This day in Miami, McLamore and Edgerton opened the first Insta-Burger, later renamed Burger King.<br /> <br /> 1955- French mime Marcel Marceau appeared on American TV for the first time.<br /> <br /> 1958- Cocoa Puffs cereal invented.<br /> <br /> 1961- Someone at the Museum of Modern Art in NY noticed that they had hung Henri Matisse’s painting Le Bateau upside down. It had been that way for two months, and up until now nobody had noticed.<br /> <br /> 1963- The first Instant Replay camera used at a football game. It was an Army-Navy game.<br /> <br /> 1965 - Jerry Garcia, Bob, Phil, Bill, and Pigpen first convened as the Grateful Dead to play as the house band for Ken Kesey and the Prankster's Acid Test in San Jose, California. The Dead went on to break records, bend minds, and build a community that continued on for many years.<br /> <br /> 1985- The first Cray X-MP Supercomputer booted up. <br /> <br /> 1985- Steven Spielberg’s production Young Sherlock Holmes, directed by Barry Levinson premiered. It featured the CG breakthrough Stain Glass Knight animated by John Lasseter. Despite this, the film failed, and its failure made Disney change its movie title Basil of Baker Street to The Great Mouse Detective. <br /> <br /> 1988- Actor Gary Busey almost died in a motorcycle accident on Olympic Blvd. In Los Angeles. He was not wearing a helmet and suffered massive head trauma. He later claimed to have an out-of-the-body experience at the scene. <br /> <br /> 1993- Rocker Frank Zappa died of prostate cancer at age 52.<br /> <br /> 2012-Walt Disney announced it made a deal to show its Disney, Pixar and Marvel movies on Netflix instead of Starz Channel. First major studio to switch from cable to streaming.<br /> ==========================================================<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s question: When people talk on and on at length, people say you drone on. Why?<br /> <br /> Answer: When you play a Scottish bagpipe, the pipe that you blow in and finger is called the Drone. So, droning on means to go on endlessly in an annoying manner.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 03 Dec 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6013 <p>Question: When people talk on and on at length, people say you drone on. Why?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is obsidian?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------<br /> HISTORY FOR 12/3/2022<br /> Birthdays: French King Charles VI the Well-Served 1380, Gilbert Stuart, Sven Nykvist, Joseph Conrad- real name Josef Korzeniowski, Jean Luc Godard, Nino Rota, Jim Backus, Maria Callas, Larry Parks, Charles Pillsbury, Mitsuo Fuchida the Japanese pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, Darryl Hannah is 62, Katerina Witt, Brendan Fraser is 54, Marisa Tomei, Julianne Moore is 62, Andrew Stanton, Amanda Seyfried is 37<br /> <br /> 749AD- This is the Feast of Saint John Damascene. He’s the saint who’s called the Father of Christian Art, because he theologically argued a way for artists to avoid the “No Graven Images “ hitch in the Ten Commandments, so we could make paintings of Jesus and the Saints.<br /> <br /> 1557- The Scottish Covenant- In Edinburgh Scotland a group of anticlerical noblemen Argyll, Glencairn, Morton, Lorne and Erskine signed the First Scottish Covenant- pledging to reform the religion of the land.<br /> <br /> 1591- The first fire insurance contract was written in Hamburg.<br /> <br /> 1775- The first official U.S. flag hoisted aboard the USS Alfred. It was thirteen stripes with a cross of Saint George and Saint Andrew in the corner.<br /> <br /> 1800-Battle of Hohenlinden- French whip the Austrians, but it wasn’t done by Napoleon but by a different general, so Nappy asks us to overlook his competition.<br /> <br /> 1818- Illinois became a state with its first capitol at Kaskaskia.<br /> <br /> 1838- The Battle of Windsor. Another attempt by the U.S. to conquer Canada. On this day a force of 500 disaffected Canadians, Yankee opportunists and Polish revolutionists crossed over from Detroit and captured Windsor Ontario. (why do we always invade Canada in the winter? ) <br /> They were led by the uncle of writer Ambrose Bierce, Lucius Verus Bierce. They called themselves the Secret Guild of the Sacred Hunters of the East, and their intention was no less than liberating Canada from the hated British yoke! <br /> Well, nobody else rose up with them. And while they were standing around trying to think of what to do next, the British army quickly rounded them up. Those that weren’t hanged, were shipped to New Zealand. <br /> Lucius Bierce escaped back across the Detroit River in a canoe where he was promptly arrested for violating U.S. neutrality laws. He later devoted his time and money to abolitionist causes, and financed John Browns’ anti-slavery campaign in Kansas.<br /> 1845- Britain wages the First Sikh War. <br /> <br /> 1868- Preliminary hearings open into the treason trial of Jefferson Davis, former President of the Confederate States. Radical republicans wanted someone punished for the Civil War, but many were worried that a master lawyer like Davis would use the opportunity to prove there was indeed a Constitutional basis for states legally seceding from the union. Davis himself hoped for a trial to prove just that point. But presiding judge Chief Justice Salmon B. Chase had by prior arrangement with President Andrew Johnson a plan to stall the trial until Johnson's amnesty for all confederates went into effect on Feb 15th.<br /> <br /> 1881- In Africa, explorer Henry M. Stanley founded the town of Kinshasa, which they called then Leopoldville after the King of the Belgians.<br /> <br /> 1890- A small British army marches into Uganda, and camping on a hilltop called Kampala informs the local chief Mwanga that he is now part of the British Empire, whether he liked it or not. The British officer even made Mwanga sign the treaty twice, because he felt his first ink splotch was done insincerely. Uganda remained a British colony until 1956.<br /> <br /> 1894- In Samoa, writer Robert Louis Stevenson was opening a bottle of wine, when he paused and cried “ What’s that?”, then he looked at his wife and said “ Does my face look strange?” Then he collapsed and died of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 44.<br /> <br /> 1919- Impressionist painter Pierre August Renoir died at age 79. Suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, when he could no longer paint with his hands, Renoir used a bit that held the brush in his teeth.<br /> <br /> 1925- GEORGE GERSHWIN PLAYED CARNEGIE HALL. Gershwin always wanted to be taken seriously as a composer, and not just a Tin Pan Alley songwriter. While in Paris he met Maurice Ravel, but instead of giving him advice, Ravel said: "You make HOW much from your songs? Maybe I should learn from you!" When he asked to be Arnold Schoenberg's pupil, Schoenburg told him :" Why do you want to be a bad Schoenburg, when you're already such a good Gershwin?"<br /> <br /> 1931- Happy Birthday Alka Seltzer! The fizzy tablet was invented by chemist Maurice Treener for the Dr. Miles Medicine Company of Indiana.<br /> <br /> 1934- Lee Blair, Disney artist and brother of Preston Blair, Disney artist, married Mary Browne Robinson, Disney artist. She became the most famous of them as Mary Blair.<br /> <br /> 1941- After clandestine diplomatic initiatives to raise the U.S. oil and steel embargoes failed, The Japanese High Command radioed it's carrier fleet out in the Pacific: "Climb Mount Niitaka". This code meant go forward with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Admiral Nagumo orders resumption of radio silence and turned his fleet South-SouthWest towards Hawaii. <br /> <br /> 1944- A Nazi newspaper published on this day features a photo of a young Austrian S.S. officer with his commander in Greece. After the war his commander was hanged as a war criminal. The young man became Secretary General of the United Nations, President of Austria, and winner of a Nobel Peace Prize- Kurt Waldheim. <br /> <br /> 1948- Happy Ozzy Day! Ozzie Ozbourne is 74. ”I never set out to be a businessman. I just wanted to have fun, f—k chicks, and do drugs.”<br /> <br /> 1948- Walt Disney’s Mickey and the Seal, debuted. Directed by Charles Nichols.<br /> <br /> 1956- British and French forces evacuate Egypt, where they had been since 1799.<br /> <br /> 1965- The Beatles release the album Rubber Soul.<br /> <br /> 1967- Dr. Christiaan Barnard of Capetown performed the first heart transplant.<br /> <br /> 1968- Elvis Presley opened in Las Vegas to rave reviews and packed houses. It marks the beginning of his comeback and his transition from thin, black leather-jacketed youth to fat, rhinestone jumpsuit, half tinted sunglasses middle age. <br /> <br /> 1976- During a photo shoot for a Pink Floyd album cover at London’s Battersea Power Station, a 40 foot long inflated pig broke away from its’ tether and floated away to become a hazard to civil aviation. The AeroPork was lost to radar at 8,000 feet.<br /> <br /> 1984- An accident at a Union Carbide facility in Bhopal, India filled the air with poison methyl-isocynate gasses that killed 10,000 people and blinds or otherwise injured a further 200,000. No one from Union Carbide was ever tried or convicted for the tragedy. Saint Mother Theresa showed her controversial side when she publicly encouraged people to accept the disaster as God’s Will. Even today, the ground around the closed facility is considered too deadly for inhabitation.<br /> <br /> 1991- Hulk Hogan defeated Undertaker to become WWF champ for the 4th time.<br /> <br /> 1997 – 56 year old Darlene Gillespie, an original member of the Mickey Mouse Club, was busted in LA for a securities fraud scheme.<br /> <br /> 1997- Young basketball star Latrell Sprewell lost his $32 million contract with the Golden State Warriors for trying to strangle his coach, P.J. Carlesino. Chill out, dude.<br /> <br /> 2004-The Ukranian Supreme Court ruled the recent presidential election invalid. Moscow and hardline Kiev Gov’t supported Victor Januscowicz followers committed widespread acts of voter fraud, then suppressed any news reports. <br /> The story was revealed to the world by a heroic sign language translator for the deaf. While the state approved news anchor reported the elections on the evening news the translator, Nataliya Dmytruk, deaf signed “EYERYTHING YOU HAVE JUST HEARD IS A LIE! YUSCHENKO IS OUR TRUE PRESIDENT! THIS IS PROBABLY THE LAST TIME YOU WILL EVER SEE ME..” The word spread, and spawned weeklong mass demonstrations and international pressure that compelled the government to redo the election. Ms. Dmytruk survived and is today considered a national hero.<br /> <br /> 2008- Conservative Episcopalian churches in the U.S. and Canada announced they were leaving the main Episcopal communion to found a new church- the New Anglican Church of North America. These theologians objected to the Church nominating gay priests and bishops.<br /> ==============================================================__<br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is obsidian?<br /> <br /> Answer: A volcanic igneous rock fired to the texture of glass. Its dark dramatic color makes it valuable in jewelry.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Thu, 01 Dec 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6012 <p>Question: Who said, “ When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a Bible.”?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: What is a catamite?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 12/1/2022<br /> Welcome to December, from Decembrius Mensis, month number 10 to the Romans who only had ten months in their original calendar. It’s the same Latin root as Decimate, Dime, Decimal. <br /> <br /> Birthdays: Richard Pryor, Mary Martin, Cyril Ritchard, Dick Shawn, Richard Crenna, Lee Trevino, Charlene Tilton, Lou Rawls, Marshal Gyorgi Zhukov, Admiral Stansfield Turner, Rex Stout the author of Nero Wolfe, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, Treat Williams, Andrew Cuomo, Joanne Siegel the model for Lois Lane, Woody Allen is 87, Bette Midler is 77, Sarah Silverman is 52<br /> <br /> Happy Roman Festival of Neptune.<br /> <br /> WORLD AIDS DAY- established by the UN in 1987. <br /> <br /> 659 AD-Today is the feast day of Saint Eligius of Limoge, a goldsmith and mint master to Merovingian King Dagobert, who started the art of Limoge enamels.<br /> <br /> 1521- Pope Leo X died after getting overheated attending celebrations of the defeat of French forces in Milan. He was 45. Some thought he was poisoned, but he probably caught the malarial fever prevalent in Rome at the time. Leo was one of the great art patrons of the Renaissance. He spent lavishly. “ God has given us the Papacy, so let us enjoy it” As soon as the Pontiff was cold, Cardinals and bankers looted the Vatican treasury for all the money he borrowed from them, sending the Church into one of the worst financial crises in its’ history.<br /> <br /> 1641- THE GREAT REMONSTRANCE- The English Parliament sent King Charles I a long list of everything that annoyed them about being his subjects. They demanded Parliament to be the supreme authority in the realm, to sit in permanent session, the right to select and dismiss royal ministers, and to reform the Protestant Church of England to a more Calvinist purity. “God's Blood! You ask of me things one would never ask of a king!"-sayeth King Charles. This little spat would become the English Civil War by June.<br /> <br /> 1805-THE MIDNIGHT CAMP AT AUSTERLITZ- The night before the big battle between French, Austrian and Russian armies on a cold little field in what would be the Czech Republic. Napoleon went on a midnight inspection of his troops. His tour turned into something akin to a homecoming football rally. The French soldiers cheered, lit torches, made bonfires, sang and partied all night. Across the hills, the enemy generals mistakenly thought all this activity meant Napoleon was preparing to run away.<br /> <br /> 1835- Hans Christian Andersen published his first book of fairy tales.<br /> <br /> 1861- The first installment of Charles Dicken’s novel Great Expectations began to appear in magazines.<br /> <br /> 1869- A Sir William McDougall was sent by Ottawa to take over the administration of Prince Rupertland, now called the new Canadian province of Manitoba. His problem was the whole population of French trappers, Indigenous peoples and half-breeds had already declared themselves the independent Metiz Republic, under their leader Louis Riel. MacDougal had to sneak across the border from the U.S. at midnight. Avoiding Metiz patrols, his party stopped at an abandoned Hudson's Bay trading post where they raised the Union Jack in the darkness. Gov. McDougall read his Royal Proclamation to an audience of seven aides and two hunting dogs. Then they crept back over the border to the U.S. to a healthy dose of razzing from Yankee cowboys. The British Army arrived next spring and established order, but by then “Wandering Willie” McDougall had been recalled. <br /> <br /> 1879- Gilbert &amp; Sullivan’s comic opera HMS Pinafore opened. Sullivan conducted the orchestra while Gilbert was a chorister. <br /> “When I was a lad I served a term<br /> As office boy to an Attorney's firm.<br /> I cleaned the windows and I swept the floor,<br /> And I polished up the handle of the big front door.<br /> I polished up that handle so carefullee<br /> That now I am the Ruler of the Queen's Navee!<br /> <br /> 1887- The very first Sherlock Holmes mystery by Arthur Conan-Doyle "A Study in Scarlet" first published in Beeton’s Christmas Gazette.<br /> <br /> 1909- The Pennsylvania Trust Company invented the Christmas Club account. <br /> <br /> 1917- Father Flanaghan opened Boys Town west of Omaha Nebraska. A retreat for homeless boys and in 1979 girls as well.<br /> <br /> 1934- Josef Stalin's close confidant Sergei Kirov is assassinated in a Kremlin hallway by Lenoid Nikolayev. Stalin ordered the GREAT PURGES of the thirties to begin. Later it came out that Stalin had ordered Kirov assassinated as an excuse. Exact figures are debatable but it is estimated millions were arrested and died. Stalin even had the wandering blind storytellers of the Ukraine rounded up and shot for fomenting anti-revolutionary ethnicity. Declassified private papers of Stalin revealed he admired Czar Ivan the Terrible and tried to learn from his example. Legend is he once said, “One person killed is a crime. Millions killed is a statistic.”<br /> <br /> 1938- In Moscow, Sergei Eisenstein released his film of Russian patriotism ALEXANDER NEVSKY, with soundtrack provided by Sergei Prokoviev.<br /> <br /> 1938- “The Terror of Tiny Town” The only Western musical with an all little-person cast.<br /> <br /> 1941-Anticipating imminent hostilities with Japan, The U.S. Navy withdrew it’s fleet of Yangtze River gunboats. As the gunboats steamed out into the South China Sea, they were surrounded by large Japanese warships, that held their fire to let them pass. <br /> <br /> 1943- FDR, Churchill and Stalin conclude their first meeting in Teheran, Iran. The western allies passed supplies to Russia via the Persian Gulf through Iran. Roosevelt discussed the occupation zones of a defeated Germany by drawing lines in pencil on a map torn out of an old National Geographic magazine he found on a table.<br /> <br /> 1944- Bela Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra premiered by the Boston Symphony and Serge Kousevitsky.<br /> <br /> 1947- Alastair Crowley died. Called the “wickest man in the world” he fused several occult theologies like Bavarian Illumanism, Gnosticism and Numerology into his Abbey of Theleme. His own mother nicknamed him “the Great Beast.” In 1968 Alastair Crowley was portrayed on the cover of the Beatles Sgt. Pepper album.<br /> <br /> 1949- The last Nationalist capitol, Chunking (Chonqing), fell to Mao ZeDong's PLA, the People’s Liberation Army. <br /> <br /> 1951- MIT scientists booted up Project Whirlwind, the TX-0 Computer. Called the Tixo, it was as large as a bus and was the first computer that could do more than one program at a time. In 1952 it had the first computer screen and first light pen. It calculated everything from synchronizing the gunfire of battleships to how much icing to put in an Oreo cookie. The TX-2 was used to write the first animation program Sketchpad, and the first interactive game SpaceWar!, both in 1962.<br /> <br /> 1953- Ex- Esquire magazine art director and frustrated cartoonist Hugh Hefner published the first issue of Playboy Magazine. It featured a nude centerfold of actress Marilyn Monroe. She joked to the press “ I had nothing on but the radio!” Hefner assembled the layout of the magazine on his kitchen table and borrowed money from his mother-in-law to pay for the printing. The first Playboy had no number or date, because Hef was certain he could not afford to make an issue number two.<br /> <br /> 1955- ROSA PARKS, a black seamstress in Montgomery Alabama, refused to give up her seat on a crowded bus and was arrested for violating the segregation laws. She was fined $10. At the time she said she was unaware that she was breaking the law, she was actually seated in the first row reserved for Colored passengers, but since the bus was crowded the driver insisted she give up her seat for a white man anyway. This incident and the subsequent boycott is the spark of the great Black Civil Rights Movement of the 50's and 60's.<br /> <br /> 1963- The NASA space facility at Cape Canaveral Florida was changed to Cape Kennedy in honor of slain president John F. Kennedy. The same day the Kennedy Family moved out of the White House so Lyndon Johnson could move in. Jackie Kennedy only returned to the White House once more in her life in 1971 and on the condition that it be in secret and no press be present. She even would tell D.C. taxicabs to avoid streets where she might accidentally get a glimpse of it.<br /> <br /> 1963- According to recently unclassified documents, today was supposed to be the day a staged coup would overthrow Fidel Castro in Cuba. The CIA had hired Mafia hitmen to shoot Fidel as he drove in an open jeep to his beach home. Then the head of the Cuban army, Juan Almeida would then seize the government. <br /> But John Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas suspended all such plans. <br /> <br /> 1964- DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING MET J. EDGAR HOOVER- Dr. King and Rev Ralph Abernathy were on their way to Oslo for Dr. King to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. In Washington they were invited to meet with the legendary head of the FBI. Hoover sat them down and proceeded to lecture them for over two hours, calling them "boys" and hinting that they better not cause him trouble, because he had tapes of Dr. King's extra-marital affairs. Dr. King and Abernathy left enraged. Hoover always believed that Martin Luther King and the entire NAACP were Communist agents of Moscow. Later when Dr. King came out publicly against the Vietnam War, one of these audio sextapes was mailed to his wife Coretta- anonymously.<br /> <br /> 1982- Dr. Barney Clark received the first Artificial Heart. Part of the research development was credited to Paul Winchell, puppeteer and cartoon voice who created Jerry Mahoney, Knucklehead Smith, Dick Dastardly and a plastic heart valve. At first it was hoped these plastic valves could take the place of real hearts, but today they are mostly used for temporary relief until a human donor heart can be found.<br /> <br /> 1982- Ziggy’s Gift TV special premiered on ABC.<br /> <br /> 1990- Tunnelers digging below the English Channel from France and England break through to meet in the middle and shake hands. A tunnel under the Channel had been a dream since Napoleon in 1802.<br /> ========================================================<br /> Question: What is a catamite?<br /> <br /> Answer: In ancient Greece and Rome, it was a boy kept for homosexual relations with an adult. In the ancient world a boy could provide such services until they attained manhood, with no residual social stigma.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Wed, 30 Nov 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6011 <p>Question: What is a catamite?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: What is a dilettante?<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/30/2022<br /> Birthdays: Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain, William Enos Berkeley aka Busby Berkeley, Winston Churchill, Jonathan Swift, Shirley Chisholm, Gordon Parks, G. Gordon Liddy, Alan Sherman, Abbie Hoffman, Virginia Mayo, Ephram Zimbalist Jr, Richard Crenna, Robert Guilliame, Rex Reason, Mandy Patinkin, David Mamet, Shuggie Otis, Billy Idol, Joan Ganz Cooney the creator of Sesame Street, Dick Clark, Ridley Scott is 86, Ben Stiller is 57, Kaley Cuoco is 37, Henry Selick is 70<br /> <br /> 1731-An huge earthquake killed 100,000 in Peking (Beijing). <br /> <br /> 1750- Marshal Saxe died. Maurice de Saxe was born an illegitimate son of Polish King Augustus the Strong, but grew to become one of the top generals of French King Louis XV. Louis gave him the magnificent palace of Chambord for his retirement. The old soldier spent the summer nights camping out Cossack style and letting wild steppe ponies gallop the grounds. Like his dad a notorious ladie’s man, this night he was found dead after an all-night tryst with eight actresses at once. The king's physician wrote as the cause of death: "Une surfeit des femmes - an overdose of women.”<br /> <br /> 1776- As George Washington’s minuteman army retreated across New Jersey to escape the pursuing British Army, a third of his troop’s enlistment’s were up. In a cold rain 2,000 New Jersey and Maryland militiamen, one third the army, left and went home. Writer Thomas Paine was serving Gen. Nathaniel Greene as a secretary. He was moved by this pitiful sight to write the pamphlet: “The Crisis”: ”These are times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will shrink in this crisis from the service of his country. But he that stands now deserves the love and thanks of both man and woman. “Washington called his downcast soldiers together and had the pamphlet read aloud to them.<br /> <br /> 1782- On a dark, snowy day in an upstairs room on the Rue Bonaparte on Paris’ Left Bank, The United States and Britain signed the first of several protocols leading up to the treaty ending the American Revolution. John Adams, John Jay, Benjamin Franklin and Richard Lawrence signed for America, a parliamentary delegation led by Lord Oswald signed for the Crown. One British diplomat there said:” The Americans are the greatest quibblers I have ever dealt with, and I pray never to again in the future!”<br /> <br /> 1809- Napoleon told Josephine he wanted a divorce. She was the love of his life, but at 46 she could no longer bear children and he desperately wanted to establish a dynasty. Even though she long suspected something like this might happen, eyewitnesses said when she heard the news she swooned. The French Army called Josephine Our Lady of Victories and marked the end of their good fortune from this moment. Although his second wife Marie Louise gave him a son, Napoleon never forgot her. In exile he once admitted,” I loved her, but I did not respect her.” On his deathbed in 1821, one of his last words was “Josephine.”<br /> <br /> 1864- THE BATTLE OF FRANKLIN. Confederate General John Bell Hood had lost Atlanta to Sherman, then failed to lure him out of Georgia. Now his subordinate officers missed an opportunity to entrap a different Yankee army outside of Nashville. That army now was facing them in an impregnable defensive position across open ground. Cavalry leader Nathan Bedford Forrest urged a maneuver around the enemy, but Hood had had enough of his insubordinate officers. He ordered a full-frontal attack. The attack was a disaster. <br /> General Patrick Cleburne, the blue-eyed Irish immigrant, called the Stonewall of the West, thought the order stupid, but couldn't send his men out without leading them.” Oh well lads, if we are to die today, let us do it like men.” After the battle he was found on the Yankee breastworks with 49 bullets in his body. Writer Ambrose Bierce was serving on the Union army staff. He was amazed at such a ‘ghastly carnival of death’ was being enacted on such a beautiful Autumn day. <br /> <br /> 1869- Paris’ famed naughty nightclub the Follies Bergere opened. The home of the Can-Can, Toulouse Lautrec, Josephine Baker, Bricktop, and Maurice Chevalier.<br /> <br /> 1900- Oscar Wilde died of meningitis in a hotel in Paris. He was 46. His last words; "This wallpaper is appalling! Either it goes or I do.”<br /> <br /> 1918- Three weeks after the Kaiser was toppled, the new government granted German women the right to vote.<br /> <br /> 1922- The great actress Sarah Bernhardt made her last performance in Turin Italy. She was still considered sexy despite advanced age and a wooden leg.<br /> <br /> 1923- Max Fleischer moved his animation studio to big new offices in 1600 Broadway. <br /> <br /> 1924- The first fax message sent. A photo of the Prince of Wales was wired across the Atlantic by radio transmission.<br /> <br /> 1935- Hitler’s government passed a law that non-belief in Nazi doctrine could be grounds for legal divorce in Germany.<br /> <br /> 1939- Soviet Russia invaded Finland. The gallant Finns fought back fiercely with skiing hit and run attacks, and gasoline bottle bombs nicknamed for Stalin's Foreign Minister, Vachyeschav Molotov, the "Molotov Cocktail".<br /> <br /> 1940- Actress Lucille Ball married Cuban band leader Desi Arnaz. Together they pioneered the new art of Television Situation Comedy. They divorced in 1960 but remained lifelong friends.<br /> <br /> 1941- President Franklin Roosevelt left Warm Springs Georgia and traveled by special train to meet with Japanese ambassadors Hamada and Kurusu at the White House in a last effort to prevent war. <br /> Meanwhile the main Japanese carrier fleet weighed anchor and left Yokohama for the North Pacific. It’s code name was Kido Butai. It was officially scheduled for military exercises, but once out at sea Admiral Nagumo ordered radio silence, and following his instructions from Admiral Yamamoto, turned his ships south-southeast towards Hawaii.<br /> <br /> 1944- The Red Army invaded Nazi held Austria.<br /> <br /> 1954- Mrs. Elizabeth Hodges of Sylacauga Alabama was hit by a meteorite. It shot through her roof, bounced off her radio and hit her on the hip. It gave her a nasty bruise and one heck of a story to tell. Broke the radio too. Today it is called Hodges Meteorite.<br /> <br /> 1961- President-elect John F. Kennedy signed a secret memorandum creating Operation Mongoose. It ordered the CIA under the direction of Attorney General Robert Kennedy to eliminate Cuban leader Fidel Castro by any means necessary. The CIA tried everything from Mafia assassins, to poison cigars, to chemicals to make his beard fall out. Nothing worked and Mongoose was discontinued after Kennedy’s assassination.<br /> <br /> 1966- Barbados got its independence from Britain.<br /> <br /> 1968- “Love Child” by Diana Ross and the Supremes hit #1 in the pop charts.<br /> <br /> 1970- First day shooting on William Freidkin’s film The French Connection.<br /> <br /> 1974- The Missing Link. In a dry gully in Ethiopia Dr Donald Johannsen discovered the perfect skeletal remains of one of the earliest human ancestors, an ape that walked upright. Australiopithicus Afrancenis. He called it Lucy. Johannsen liked the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.<br /> <br /> 1976- After doing such a fine job lowering the journalistic standards of the London press, Australian tabloid king Rupert Murdoch turned his attention to America. Today he bought the New York Post. The Post, a newspaper originally started in 1794 by Alexander Hamilton, quickly gains notoriety as the trashiest newspaper in the U.S. In an interview, Murdoch admitted the only reason he didn’t put in the Post his “Page Three Girls” -nude photos of young women so successful in the London Daily Sun, was because his wife objected. He later replaced his wife. Rupert then bought New York Magazine and the Village Voice, whereupon half their staff immediately quit. <br /> <br /> 1979- ESPN, the 24 hour sports channel began broadcasting.<br /> <br /> 1982- Nova Pictures is founded, but due to conflict with a PBS TV show of the same name they change theirs to TriStar Pictures. In 1994 TriStar was merged into Sony Pictures.<br /> <br /> 1985- Punk band The Dead Kennedys released their album Frankenchrist.<br /> <br /> 1987- John Lasseter’s Pixar short Red’s Dream released.<br /> <br /> 1991- Battered wife Mrs. Omeima Nelson killed her abusive husband, dismembered his body and ate him. “I did his ribs just like in a restaurant.” she said.<br /> <br /> 1993- President Clinton signed the Brady Handgun bill into law. The bill was named for Ronald Reagan press secretary James Brady, who received a debilitating head wound in the assassination attempt on Reagan in 1981. In 2001, President George W. Bush let it expire without renewing it.<br /> <br /> 1999- THE BATTLE OF SEATTLE- protesters trying to disrupt the World Trade Organization battled riot police and turned the downtown area into a battle zone. For the next several years wherever the WTO met they were surrounded by thousands of protestors, although the mainstream media tends to pooh-pooh their message.<br /> <br /> 2003- Roy Disney Jr, the last serving member of the Disney family, was made to resign from the Walt Disney Company. It was claimed to be the standard retirement policy, but more likely he was forced out by the exec he himself hired to run the company in 1984- Michael Eisner. Roy built a successful grass root stockholders’ campaign SaveDisney.com. In 2005 it was Eisner who was compelled to retire. Roy Disney kept an emeritus board position until his death in 2009.<br /> <br /> 2010- Don Hahn’s doc Waking Sleeping Beauty was released on DVD.<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> <br /> Question: What does it mean to be dilettante? <br /> <br /> Answer: A dilettante is someone who assumes a position while having only a passing interest in learning what the position entails. A willful ignorance.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Tue, 29 Nov 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6010 <p>QUESTION: What is a dilettante?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: Who is Beelzebub?<br /> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/29/2022<br /> Birthdays: Gaetano Donizetti, Busby Berkeley, C.S. Lewis (Clive Staples Lewis), Louisa May Alcott, Chuck Mangione, Yakima Canutt, Gary Shandling, Cathy Moriarity, Don Cheadle, Joel Coen is 66, Jacques Chirac, Howie Mandell, Susee “Chapstick” Chafee, Chadwick Boseman, Anna Faris is 46, Vin Scully<br /> <br /> 1830- The November Uprising. Polish nationalists rise up against the Russian occupiers in one of their many valiant but ultimately hopeless efforts. In America, literary figures like Hawthorne, Poe, and Longfellow were romantically moved to write lots of epic poems, but not much else could be done to help. <br /> Edgar Allen Poe in his opium induced delirium, would run out of his Bronx cottage and march up and down the street with a musket in his hand shouting: "To Warsaw! To Warsaw!" Luckily, the local constable was well aware of Mr. Poe's eccentricities and sent him home to bed.<br /> <br /> 1864- Colorado militia killed over 150 Cheyenne Indians in the Sand Creek Massacre. Local garrison commander Col. John Chivington was depressed that he was not back east winning glory in the Civil War. So he attacked a peaceful Cheyenne village. He later held a victory parade in Denver displaying the scalps of the Indians, mostly women, old men and children. His actions sparked a needless war with the Cheyenne that raged for years afterwards.<br /> <br /> 1887- The US Navy received permission from the Hawaiian King David IV Kalakaou to lease land for a base at Pearl Harbor. <br /> <br /> 1890- The first Army-Navy football game held at West Point. Midshipmen beat the cadets 24-0.<br /> <br /> 1914- In the first years of animated films, one artist like Winsor McCay drew everything alone, and may have hired a cameraman or assistant. This day, John Randolph Bray's cartoon "Colonel Heeza Liar in Africa" debuted. Bray adapted Henry Ford's assembly line system to making animation, today known as the Production Pipeline. He created the job classifications of layout, animator, inbetweener, background painter, inker, blackeners (cel painters), and camera. In the 1920s the job of gag man (storyboarder), cleanup and checkers. After 1919, Bray shifted his studio focus from entertainment to technical and training films. J.R. Bray started the careers of Paul Terry, Walter Lantz, Max &amp; Dave Fleischer, Dick Heumer, and Shamus Culhane. <br /> <br /> 1929- Commander Richard Byrd radioed he'd made the first airplane flight over the South Pole. Today its estimated he was probably wrong. Commander Byrd had flown over the North Pole in 1926 with his friend Floyd Bennett, but Bennett had since died. When Byrd made it over the South Pole he dropped a small American flag weighted with a stone from Bennett’s grave. <br /> <br /> 1932- Cole Porter’s musical The Gay Divorcee’ opened on Broadway.<br /> <br /> 1935- Physicist Edwin Schrodinger published his thought experiment “ Schrodinger’s Cat”.<br /> <br /> 1941- In occupied Russia, Nazi troops first raped and then hanged Zoia Kosmodemianskaya. She led a team of partisans guerrillas behind German lines. Zoia was 18 years old. Before she died, she cried defiance at the Nazis:” You cannot hang all 200 million of us!”<br /> <br /> 1942- During WWII, the U.S. declared coffee would be rationed along with sugar, gasoline and rubber. And lots more. People put their cars up on blocks "for the duration". Gas Ration cards were listed as C, B &amp; A. The C card meant essential defense worker so they had unlimited access to gasoline. B cards police &amp; fire. An A card was the least important, i.e. us.<br /> <br /> 1944- A Detroit man named Malcolm Little was busted for larceny. He later reformed his life around the Nation of Islam and changed his name to Malcolm X.<br /> <br /> 1947- THE UN DECIDES. Since 1897 European Jewry had focused on buying land and relocating to Palestine. In 1936 the Egyptian Parliament issued an open letter to all Jews to come live amongst them, but rising Arab nationalism since 1919 tended to resist Jewish immigration. Since World War I, the British held Palestine as a mandate but after World War II they dumped the whole problem in the United Nations hands. The Peel Report, a Foreign Office paper published in 1937 said maybe creating two new states was the solution. <br /> This day The United Nations voted 33-13 to partition the British Mandate of Palestine into Jewish and Arab independent states with Jerusalem under international supervision. On May 14th 1948 British forces completed their withdrawal and Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel.<br /> <br /> 1959- The Second Grammy Awards, broadcast for the first time on television. Bobby Darin’s rendition of Mack the Knife won top honors.<br /> <br /> 1961- NASA sent Enos the Chimp into orbit.<br /> <br /> 1963- THE WARREN COMMISSION announced- President Lyndon Johnson set up the Warren Commission to investigate the murder of John F. Kennedy. He had originally thought the Dallas Homicide Squad was sufficient, but public outrage demanded more. <br /> The Commission was headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren and participants included future president Gerald Ford, Eisenhower’s Secretary of State Alan Foster Dulles and future Senator Arlen Spector, then a young attorney who argued the validity of the "magic bullet" theory”. That one bullet went through Kennedy, bounced, went through Connolly, zinged, and wound up sitting in Gov. Connolly's bedsheets in the hospital with no surface dents or marks on it -or something like that. How the first bullet went through Kennedy intact while the second bullet exploded inside his skull was never explained.<br /> After ten months the Warren Commission concluded that President Kennedy was killed by a lone nut, so there was no conspiracy. In 1975, the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded the contrary view, that Kennedy probably was the victim of a conspiracy but what it was is unknown. To this date there are still two million documents pertaining to the case kept classified. In the end the Warren Commission’s unsatisfying conclusions spawned a generation of conspiracy buffs. <br /> <br /> 1963- A week after the Kennedy assassination, comedian Vaughn Meader announced he was giving up his act impersonating the slain president. Meader’s comedy album The First Family sold 7.5 million copies and won a Grammy in 1962, but now it just wasn’t funny anymore. Meader’s career faded, and he ended up managing a bar in Maine. He died of emphysema in 2004. When Lenny Bruce first took the stage after the Kennedy assassination, he opened his set with a long drag on his cigarette and sighed:” ….Man…. Vaughn Meader is really screwed!”<br /> <br /> 1967- Robert McNamara, who was Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson, stepped down to become president of the World Bank. <br /> <br /> 50th Anniv.1972- Atari announced Pong, the first popular mass-marketed interactive game. <br /> <br /> 1981- Actress Natalie Wood drunkenly toppled off her yacht near Catalina Island and <br /> drowned. She was 43. Her husband Robert Wagner, and friend Christopher Walken were onboard having an argument and unaware of her predicament. Wood had once confessed to a friend that she had a horror of drowning. <br /> <br /> 1995- Pixar’s IPO stock offering after the success of Toy Story made Steve Jobs a billionaire.<br /> <br /> 2001- Beatle guitarist and composer George Harrison died of cancer. He was 58.<br /> <br /> 2017- Matt Lauer, the celebrity host of NBC’s Today Show, was fired after allegations of sexual misconduct with staffers.<br /> <br /> 2018- Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns opened. <br /> -------------------------------------------------------<br /> Question: Who is Beelzebub?<br /> <br /> Answer: Another name for the Devil. Lucifer, Satan, Mephistopheles, etc.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Mon, 28 Nov 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6009 <p>Question: Who is Beelzebub?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: In Pixar’s Toy Story, who are the characters Woody and Buzz named after?<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/28/2022<br /> Birthdays: Jean Baptiste Lully, William Blake, Frederick Engels, Stefan Zweig, Ernst Roehm, Brooks Atkinson, Berry Gordy the founder of Motown Records, Anton Rubinstein, Gary Hart, Vern Den Herder, Paul Warfield, Hope Lange, Paul Schaefer, Joe Dante, Michael Ritchie, Anna Nicole-Smith, Randy Newman is 79, Ed Harris is 73, John Stewart is 60<br /> <br /> 885 A.D. est. date that the VIKINGS ATTACKED PARIS-Viking warchief Ragnar Lothbrock had attacked Paris a generation earlier. Now dragonships led by his sons Sigfred and Sinric rowed up the Seine to attack again. The Parisians under Duke Odo and Bishop Gozlin put up a stout resistance from the city walls until the summer, when the plague and an army Frankish King Charles the Fat, son of Charles the Bald, rescued the city. <br /> <br /> 1493- On his second voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus returned to discover his first colony La Natividad, had been wiped out by angry local Indians.<br /> <br /> 1520- Having recovered and refitted from navigating the Straights of Magellan around the tip of South America, Fernan Magellan struck out across the Pacific.<br /> <br /> 1812-THE CROSSING OF THE BEREZINA- Napoleon' army on it's frozen Retreat from Moscow had to get across two rickety spans over an ice swollen river while Russian armies fire down on them from all sides. Napoleon said to his chief of staff Berthier, ” Well, how do we get out of this?” <br /> Engineer General Eble, the artillery chief who called his cannon “my children” oversaw the maintaining of the bridges. He constantly waded into waist deep frigid water and with his men worked feverishly to keep patching up the rickety span. The bridges broke down frequently and the span of a wooden board was the difference between life and death. General Eble made it out of Russia, but soon died of pneumonia and exhaustion.<br /> <br /> 1815- After Waterloo and a prisoner on the island of St. Helena, Napoleon Bonaparte for the first time put away his uniform, and appeared in civilian clothes. It was his admission that after more than twenty-five years of politics and war, his career was indeed over.<br /> <br /> 1870- Painter Jean Bazille was shot and killed while serving in the French Army fighting the Prussians. He was only 29. He had been one of the early leaders of the new movement called Impressionism. Had he lived he might have been as famous as Monet or Cezanne.<br /> <br /> 1895- The Chicago Times-Herald Race- the first American auto race. Two electric and four gas powered cars raced from Chicago to Evanston and back, 54 miles despite several inches of snow on the ground. The winner Car # 5 driven by inventor Charles Duryea reached a top speed of 7 miles an hour! Only one other car finished, the rest broke down. Duryea won $2,000, and caught a cold. <br /> <br /> 1905- The Sinn Fein political party founded in Dublin by Arthur Griffiths. Sinn Fein –pronounced “shinn-fain”is gaelic for “We ourselves alone”. Griffiths signed the Anglo-Irish treaty with Michael Collins the IRA chief. The subsequent outcry over giving up the six counties of Ulster hounded him into an early grave, Griffiths died of a heart attack and Collins was assassinated.<br /> <br /> 1907- 23 year old Russian-Canadian scrap metal dealer Lazar Meir, now renamed Louis B. Mayer, bought an old burlesque house in Haverhill Massachusetts to show the new moving picture shows. Originally called The Gem, it was such a dump locals called it The Germ. Mayer renamed it The Orpheum, and on Thanksgiving Day opened with the film “ From the Manger to the Cross”. L.B. Mayer grew his film business to become MGM, and at the time of his retirement in 1950 was the most powerful man in Hollywood. The Motion Picture Academy was his idea.<br /> <br /> 1911- The Chevrolet Automobile Company founded by the brothers Chevrolet.<br /> <br /> 1919- Nancy Viscountess Astor became the first woman ever elected to the British Parliament. She succeeded her husband William Waldorf Astor as Conservative MP for Plymouth. Although a fellow Tory, Lady Astor was the political as well as verbal nemesis of Winston Churchill. She once said to him "Mr. Churchill, if I were your wife I'd put poison in your coffee!" To which Churchill replied:" Madame if I were your husband, I would drink it!" <br /> <br /> 1922- The first skywriting display. Former RAF pilot Cyril Turner wrote HELLO USA, CALL VANDERBILT 7-200 in the skies above New York City. 47,000 people immediately telephoned the number.<br /> <br /> 1925- First radio broadcast from the Grand Ol' Opry in Nashville.<br /> <br /> 1926- California oil tycoon Edward Doheny went on trial for his role in the Teapot Dome scandal. That he and Harry Sinclair had bribed the Secretary of the Interior to lease them U.S. Navy strategic oil reserves. And like most millionaires, he was acquitted.<br /> <br /> 1942- THE COCONUT GROVE FIRE-The U.S. public was distracted for awhile from war news by reports of a terrible disaster in Boston. A fire broke out at a popular nightclub called the Cocoanut Grove and killed 492 people in only twelve minutes. The clubs decorations caught fire and created carbon monoxide gas and there were only two exits. Among the dead was western movie star Buck Jones. The tragedy created the first mandatory laws requiring public buildings to have fire exits opening outwards and safety testing of decorative materials.<br /> <br /> 1942- Fleischer Paramount cartoon short “Superman and the Mechanical Monsters” opened in theaters. For the first time we see Clark Kent change into Superman in a phone booth. In 2004 the cartoon was the inspiration for Kerry Conran’s scifi epic “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” With Jude Law, Gwynneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie.<br /> <br /> 1946- During the traditional Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade in NYC, Hollywood cameras filmed the Macy Parade scenes for the movie “The Miracle on 34th St.”Star Edmund Gwenn posed as Santa. At this time, Hollywood movies were rarely filmed on location. But the studio had little faith the film would be a success, and did not want waste a lot of money building big sets on their lot. <br /> <br /> 1947- Disney's cartoon "Chip and Dale".<br /> <br /> 1948- Hopalong Cassidy premiered on television.<br /> <br /> 1951-Truman held a crisis cabinet meeting over the War in Korea. <br /> U.S and United Nations forces had been attacked by 180,000 Communist Chinese, lost the capitol Seoul and were being driven back down the Korean peninsula. Gen. Douglas MacArthur recommended dropping ten atomic bombs on Chinese cities, spreading a belt of nuclear waste across the Sino-Korean border and inviting Chiang Kai Shek's Nationalist Chinese to attack and restart the Chinese Civil War. This would mean Russia would step in with its nuclear weapons, and World War III would result.<br /> Truman made the decision to keep the Korean War a "limited war", and not let it expand, no matter how bad allied losses became. <br /> Gen. MacArthur was horrified. He was told we are not at war with China, even though thousands of Chinese soldiers were even now locked in deadly battle with his troops. At first, his call for nuclear weapons sound crazy, but his argument was it was crazy to fight wars to preserve a status-quo. If you go to the extreme of risking men's lives, do it to win or don’t go to war at all. In 1964 from his deathbed, MacArthur sent a note to Pres. Johnson begging him not to go into Vietnam.<br /> <br /> 1953- Dr. Frank Olson, one of the US Army’s foremost experts on biological warfare, smashed out of a window of the New York Statler Hotel and fell 9 stories to his death. In 1975 it was revealed Olson had been given LSD by Dr Sidney Gottlieb, as part of a government “mind-control” experiment. Gottlieb had the drug spiked into Olson’s after dinner glass of Cointreau without his knowledge. At the time the gov’t thought LSD under controlled conditions could expand the human mind. The CIA kept the truth from his family until compelled to do so by congressional hearings over twenty years later. <br /> <br /> 1953- Cartoonist &amp; writer Milt Gross died.<br /> <br /> 1989- Opposites Attract, Paula Abdul dancing with cartoon MC Skat Kat, was released. It became one of the most popular R&amp;B &amp; dance-pop singles of 1990 and won a Grammy. <br /> <br /> 1994 –At the Columbia State Penitentiary in Portage Wisconsin, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was cleaning the prison bathroom when he was attacked and beaten to death with a broomstick by inmate Christopher Scarver. Scarver explained God told him kill him. Dahmer’s brain was preserved in formaldehyde, but a year later his mother ordered it destroyed. <br /> -------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question answered below: In Pixar’s Toy Story, who are the characters Woody and Buzz named after?<br /> <br /> Answer: Woody was named for Woody Strode, a black actor who excelled in cowboy roles. Buzz is named after Buzz Aldrin, who walked on the moon with Neil Armstrong in 1969.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sun, 27 Nov 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6008 <p>Question: In Pixar’s Toy Story, who are the characters Woody and Buzz named after?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s answer below: Who gave the advisor to her daughters, “ Close your eyes and think of England.”<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/27/2022<br /> Birthdays: Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jimi Hendrix would have been 80, Bruce Lee-original name Lee Jun Fan, would have been 82, James Agee, Chaim Weizmann, Mobster Vito Genovese, Czech leader Alexander Dubcheck, David Merrick, Marshal Thompson, Robin Givens, Judd Nelson, Buffalo Bob Smith, William Fichtner, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg is 65, Kathryn Bigelow is 71<br /> <br /> 43BC-THE SECOND TRIUMVERATE- Marc Anthony, Octavian Caesar and Marcus Lepidus compel the Roman Senate to declare them The Board of Three with Consular Powers for the Reorganizing of the State. This legitimized what they were in fact anyway, the rulers of the Roman Empire. They used this new pact to hunt down the killers of Julius Caesar, and they published a list of "Proscribed Persons" who were declared enemies of the state. An estimated 4,000 Roman politicians and noblemen were executed, including the philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero.<br /> <br /> 176AD- Marcus Aurelius named his son Commodus as co ruler and heir to the Roman Empire. He died four years later. This ended Rome’s second Golden Age of Peace and prosperity called the Augustan Age. The Augustan Age was successful in part because the Emperors, who were mostly gay or bi-sexual, would adopt the best man for the job instead to rule Rome. So Rome enjoyed a series of excellent leaders- Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. But Marcus Aurelius spoiled the whole system by letting his natural son Commodus succeed him. Commodus turned into another sicko-tyrant like Nero and Caligula. It was rumored Commodus wasn’t even Marcus’ son but the Empress Faustina sired him with a gladiator, thus his fondness for the profession.<br /> <br /> 221AD- Today is the Feast Day of Saint James Intercisus, or Saint James "Chopped up into little pieces", which leave little doubt about the method of his martyrdom.<br /> <br /> 1519- Martin Luther squared off with Catholic scholar Dr. Johann Eck in a grand public debate in Leipzig. Audiences sat in bleachers and cheered like a sports match. The debate about Luther’s new Protestant views would go on until July 8th. Luther won the audience with his superior eloquence and logic but Eck succeeded in getting Luther to publicly speak heresy against Rome. The Reformation now moved from a small local argument about indulgences to a major challenge to the authority of the Vatican to own the Christian Faith. <br /> <br /> 1582- William Shakespeare 18, married Ann Hathaway 26. They married quickly, and their first child Susannah was born after only six months. They had a son who died and two daughters. Three year later Will left Ann in Stratford on Avon, and by 1591 was known as an actor in London. He invested in land in Stratford, and in 1616 retired to the country to spend time with his daughters and grandchildren, but he never went back to Ann. It’s been speculated that she was a Puritan and disapproved of his profession. Shakespeare enjoyed making fun of Puritans in his comedies like "Twelfth Night"."<br /> <br /> 1868- THE GREAT BATTLE ON THE WASHITA -as it was called in those days. Generals Sherman and Sheridan had had enough of chasing small bands of Indian warriors all over the prairie. They now ordered George Armstrong Custer to introduce to the plains their style of "Hard War"- that burned Atlanta and brought the Confederacy to it’s knees. With the sound of a band playing " Gary Owen" shattering the pre-dawn quiet Custer and his 7th Cavalry surprise attacked the village of Chief Black Kettle. The warriors were out foraging so they mostly killed women and children. They even shot the their ponies. <br /> Chief Black Kettle had recently signed a peace treaty with the white-eyes and felt so safe he flew a U.S. flag over his teepee. Black Kettle had survived a similar attack in 1864 called the Sand Creek Massacre. The excuse for the attack was that a white woman homesteader kidnapped by renegade Cheyenne may have been deposited for awhile at Black Kettle's encampment. The Victorian horror over inferred sexual outrages committed on Christian maidens goaded the troopers to ruthless fury, however after the battle Custer freely encouraged his officers to divide up the prettiest squaws for themselves. <br /> One legend says Custer took a mistress named Meotzsi who bore him a child. When Custer died at the Little Big Horn, his body was not scalped and mutilated like the others. Because the Cheyenne considered him family.<br /> <br /> 1910- New York’s Penn Station opened.<br /> <br /> 1921- English writer Alastair Crowley proclaimed himself Outer Head of the Order Templeis Orientalis- or Order of the Temple of the East. Alastair Crowley had spent years studying and mastering various occult devotions- Freemasons, Rosicrucians, Gnosticism, Bavarian Illuminati, and others in order to fuse them into his own form of devotion- Thelema he called it, based on the satires of the 1500’s French poet Rabelais. He boasted often that he wanted Crowleyism to eventually replace Christianity. His own mother called him: "The Wickedest Man in the World".<br /> <br /> 1924- The First Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. The marvel of the parade were large displays that moved down the street thanks to small automobiles concealed under them. They seemed to "float", so they were called parade floats today. The huge balloons were added in 1927. Originally after the parade the balloons were let go to float away into the sky. Macy’s offered a bounty to people who found them after they landed, usually in rural New Jersey. <br /> <br /> 1932- Former Terrytoons animator Art Babbitt, now at Walt Disney, wrote to fellow animator Bill Tytla, encouraging him to come out to California. "Terry owes you a lot and Disney has plans for a full length color cartoon!"<br /> <br /> 1936- Max Fleischer's cartoon featurette, "Popeye meets Sinbad the Sailor".<br /> <br /> 1941-While Admiral Yamamoto’s carrier fleet was preparing to put to sea, at Pearl Harbor the U.S. army commander General Short received a top secret coded message from Washington: " Negotiations with Japan seem at an end for all practical purposes...future moves unpredictable but hostile action possible at any moment. If hostilities cannot be avoided the United States desires that Japan commit the first overt act...Measures should be carried out so as not to alarm the civilian population or disclose intent."<br /> <br /> 1942- Admiral Laborde had received orders from Vichy to put the French fleet at the Nazis disposal so they attack the Allied beachheads in North Africa. Instead Laborde scuttled the French fleet in Toulon Harbor.<br /> <br /> 1950- THE CHOSIN RESEVOIR- In Korea this day the US First Marine Division and British Commando 411 was cut off and attacked on all sides by massed Red Chinese armies. Commander Chesty Puller, a veteran of Guadalcanal, when told he was surrounded replied: "That just simplifies our problems of finding these people and killing them." The Marines slowly fought their way the trap in subzero cold, across the frozen ice, bringing out most of their wounded and some POWs. Survivors of the epic march refuse to call their campaign a retreat, they said they merely attacking in another direction. They called themselves "The Chosin Few" and the "Frozen-Chosin".<br /> <br /> 1953- Playwright Eugene O'Neill died of pneumonia, Parkinson's Disease, and alcoholism at 65. He had been writing on cardboard laundry shirt boards because he needed something large to write on because his hands trembled so violently. When O’Neill realized his end was near he tore up six plays he was writing because he wanted no one else to complete them. He was staying at the Shelton Hotel in Boston. As his father was an actor his family traveled frequently. O'Neill's last words were: "I knew it! Born in a hotel room, and goddammit, I'm dying in a hotel room! "<br /> <br /> 1957- The Hollywood Reporter announced NBC had purchased a season of cartoons especially made for TV by former MGM animators Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera. They will be called “Ruff and Ready” and will debut in a half hour slot on Saturday Mornings.<br /> <br /> 1960 – Gordie Howe became the first NHL player to score 1,000 goals.<br /> <br /> 1963- The Beatles release the single “ I Wanna Hold Your Hand.”<br /> <br /> 1967- The Beatles release Magical Mystery Tour.<br /> <br /> 1973- Conjunction Junction, by Jack Sheldon, first played on the TV show Schoolhouse Rock.<br /> <br /> 1973- According to the X-Files this was the night Fox Mulder’s sister Samantha was abducted by aliens.<br /> <br /> 1975- Ross McWhirter, publisher of the Guinness Book of World Records, was assassinated by the IRA.<br /> <br /> 1978- San Francisco Mayor George Mosconi and openly gay City Supervisor Harvey Milk were shot and killed by embittered city councilman Dan White. Councilwoman Diane Feinstein discovered their bodies, and took over as mayor. Dan White was acquitted on an insanity plea using the "Twinkie Defense", that junk food raised his blood sugar to such an extent that he went berserk. He served only 5 years in prison, moved to Orange County, then committed suicide. <br /> <br /> 2002- Disney’s animated feature Treasure Planet opened in theaters.<br /> <br /> 2009- Tiger Woods was the greatest golfer of his time and could have been the greatest in history. He didn’t just win tournaments, he dominated the entire sport. While other athletes were tainted with drugs and scandal, Tiger had a squeaky clean image.<br /> This Thanksgiving night at 2:30AM, Tiger Woods crashed his SUV into a tree as a result of an argument with his Swedish bikini model wife, who chased him from their home waving one of his golf clubs. This incident revealed Woods as a compulsive philanderer. More than a dozen women- cocktail waitresses, bimbos and porn stars came forward to admit riding the Tiger. His reputation in tatters, Tiger Woods’ game never again really regained his champion form. <br /> <br /> 2013- Disney film Frozen premiered. Directed by Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck. Let it Go! Let it Go!<br /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Yesterday’s Question: Who gave the advisor to her daughters, “ Close your eyes and think of England.”<br /> <br /> Answer: Queen Victoria’s advice to her daughters when they had to marry strange European monarchs they did not love. So when you are “doing it”….</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Sat, 26 Nov 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6007 <p>Question: Who gave the advisor to her daughters, “Close your eyes and think of England.”<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s question answered below: What is sodabread? Something baked with Coke or Pepsi?<br /> -------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/26/2022<br /> Birthdays: John Harvard 1607(founder of Harvard University), Bat Masterson, Eugene Ionesco, Bruno Richard Hauptmann, Marian Mercer, Charles Schulz would be 100, Cyril Cusak, Eric Severaid, Rich Little, Sister Wendy Turnbull, Robert Goulet, Don Hahn.<br /> <br /> 311A.D. Saint Peter of Alexandria, was the last saint to be martyred before Roman Emperor Constantine lifted the ban on Christianity in 312.<br /> <br /> 1539- Fountains Abbey, the largest and richest Cistercian abbey in England, was surrendered to the officers of King Henry VIII.<br /> <br /> 1716- In Boston, the first African lion ever seen in America was put on exhibit.<br /> <br /> 1804- Napoleon Bonaparte made public the results of a national referendum held to decide whether the French people wanted him to be crowned emperor. 3.5 million votes for yes, 2,500 for no. Since Napoleon was a dictator who was kicking the butts of most of the nation of Europe, most Frenchmen wouldn’t argue much, and he had been planning his coronation for months anyhow. <br /> <br /> 1825-Kappa Alpha of Union College NY is established. The first college Greek Letter fraternity house.<br /> <br /> 1832- In New York, the John Mason started service, a streetcar pulled along iron rails by a team of horses. This replaced horse pulled wagons. It went from Princes Street to 14th St. A ticket cost 12 pennies. The last horse car tram stopped in 1926.<br /> <br /> 1865- Lewis Carroll sent a copy of the completed manuscript of his fantasy Alice in Wonderland to his 12 year old friend and inspiration Alice Liddell. Carroll later published the book with his own money. This is one of the first books written solely to amuse children, and not to educate or discipline them.<br /> <br /> 1868- At first baseball games were played in a convenient cow pasture. Today the first baseball game was played in an enclosed field. It was in San Francisco at Folsom &amp; 25th St..<br /> <br /> 1896- AA. Stagg of The University of Chicago invented the football huddle.<br /> <br /> 1913- THE DISAPPEARANCE OF AMBROSE BIERCE- Ambrose Bierce was one of the more popular U.S. writers of the late 19th century. A savage wit and social critic, he pioneered sardonic anti-war fiction long before Kurt Vonnegut. But by 1913 the 71-year-old curmudgeon found himself alone, ill, his creative powers failing and not looking forward to old age. So on November 6th he announced his intention to travel to Mexico at the height of the revolution there and hopefully get killed:<br /> “Ah, to be an old gringo stood up before a Mexican firing squad, now that is Euthanasia!” This day he gave his last known newspaper interview in Laredo Texas, then disappeared forever. A niece claimed he sent her a letter from Chihuahua on Dec. 26th but that letter has never been found. The popular story is that he was executed by Pancho Villa. But Villa and his people never recalled meeting Bierce. Plus Villa was followed around by so many American news correspondents and newsreel cameras that a person as famous as Ambrose Bierce was sure to be noticed. Bierce’s family believed he was killed in action at Oijinaga in early 1914 and his body burned with the others.<br /> As he planned, Ambrose Bierce has the last laugh. “I want no one to find my bones!” And no one ever has.<br /> <br /> 1917- The National Hockey League-NHL, was founded in Montreal. The first teams The Quebec Bulldogs, Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Arenas, and Montreal Maroons.<br /> <br /> 1926- Potato chips, or crisps in the UK, were invented in the 1880’s and served in restaurants and fairgrounds. This day Mrs. Laura Scudder was the first to put potato chips in a bag and sold them as a handy snack food. She sold them out of the back of her pickup truck until the business picked up. She ran her own company until 1959. <br /> <br /> 1938- Walt Disney was raised in a hard-scrabble, struggling family. He promised his parents if he ever made good, he would take care of them. After Snow White made him rich and successful, he moved his parents out to Los Angeles and gave them a beautiful home in North Hollywood. This night faulty furnace leak filled their bedroom with carbon monoxide. The housekeeper found them in the morning and dragged them out onto the lawn. Walt Disney’s father Elias barely survived but his mother Flora died. This left Walt so shattered he could never talk about it after.<br /> <br /> 1940- Woody Woodpecker first appeared in an Andy Panda cartoon "Knock-Knock.’<br /> <br /> 1942- Rommel's "Dash to the Wire"- After months of inconclusive melee' in the Libyan desert, Gen. Rommel's German Afrika Korps broke through the British 8th Army and made a beeline for the Egyptian border. His plan was to cut the Suez canal, overrun the Middle East oilfields and link up with Vichy troops in Lebanon and Syria, and Nazi units rolling down from southern Russia into Iraq. But the German army in Russia never got that far and on the road to Egypt, Rommel would finally be stopped at an Egyptian railroad crossing called El Alamein.<br /> <br /> 1945- Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie recorded KoKo, the first bebop Jazz single. Instead of big bands as was the fashion, they used a smaller quintet. The pianist at the session didn’t have his New York union card, so after his solo, Dizzy dropped his trumpet and did the piano backup to Birds’ solo. The song was from chord variations of an old Ray Noble song “Cherokee” that Bird and Dizzy knew. The term Bop came from an earlier Lionel Hampton hit “Hey-Bop-A-ReBop”. Jazz critic Ira Gitler picked up on the witty interplay between musicians, and wrote of the new sound as BeBop.<br /> <br /> 1963- The day after John Kennedy’s funeral at a secret location in Lindenhurst New Jersey a meeting was held of Mafia under bosses to find out just what just happened in Dallas? <br /> Mafia Don Bill Bonano, the son of Joe Bananas, claimed he and other crime bosses were told by representatives of Tony Marcello and Santos Traficante that they were behind the JFK shooting, and it was all “a local matter”. Both men were the targets of heavy government racketeering probes pursued by Attorney General Bobby Kennedy. They explained that there were four shooters that day including the patsy Lee Harvey Oswald. Dallas police officer Tibbets was supposed to take out Oswald right after the shooting, but Oswald killed him first, so Jimmy Roselli arranged for Jack Ruby to go in to fix things. Believe it or not!<br /> <br /> 1965- France launched its first space rocket, the Dianant-1, into orbit.<br /> <br /> 1970- During a visit to Manila, Pope Paul VI was attacked by a lunatic wielding a knife. The Pope was unhurt and continued his journey.<br /> <br /> 1975- Former Charles Manson follower Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme is convicted of trying to assassinate President Gerald Ford with a starters pistol.<br /> <br /> 1976- Sex Pistols Punk single “Anarchy in the UK” released.<br /> <br /> 1990- Acting on the example of Sony’s purchase of MGM-Columbia studios, Matushita (Panasonic) bought MCA- Universal studios for $6.6 billion. After a few fruitless years they sold it to the Bronfman’s group, the distillers of Seagram’s Whiskey. <br /> <br /> 1998- Tony Blair became the first British Prime Minister to address the Irish Parliament.<br /> He said: We can no longer afford to be the Prisoners of History.”<br /> <br /> 2001- Columnist William Kristol proclaimed:” The endgame in Afghanistan is in sight!” Instead the war went for 20 more years. <br /> <br /> 2008- Terrorists attacked several top hotels in Mumbai (Bombay). They focused on trying to capture or kill American and British citizens and they shot up an Orthodox Jewish Chabad charity house, killing a rabbi and his wife. After four days of battle with Indian forces, they were all killed.<br /> =========================================================<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question: What is sodabread? Something baked with Coke or Pepsi?<br /> <br /> Answer: It uses baking soda as a primary ingredient.</p><strong><em>Posted by:</em>Tom</strong> Fri, 25 Nov 2022 12:00:00 PST http://tomsito.com/blog.php?post=6006 <p>Question: What is sodabread? Something baked with Coke or Pepsi?<br /> <br /> Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: What does it mean to be Shanghaied?<br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> History for 11/25/2021<br /> Birthdays: Lope de Vega, St. Pope John XXIII, Andrew Carnegie, Tina Turner, Joe Dimaggio, Carl Benz of Mercedes Benz, Virgil Thompson, Jeffrey Hunter, John Kennedy,Jr., Percy Sledge, Ben Stein, Ricardo Montalban, Bob Matheson, John Larroquette, Gloria Steinem, General Augusto Pinochet, Christina Applegate, Bucky Dent, Bill Kroyer<br /> <br /> <br /> 1177-Battle of Montgisard- 19 year old Baldwin the Leper-King of Jerusalem and his Crusader knights defeated Saladin.<br /> <br /> 1758- In the Pennsylvania wilderness, a British force including frontier scout Daniel Boone and militia Captain George Washington captured Fort Duquesne from the French. They renamed it for their current Prime Minister William Pitt, hence the name Pittsburgh.<br /> <br /> 1783- EVACUATION DAY- Treaties ending the American Revolution signed, the last British troops left U.S. soil, sailing out of New York Harbor for Nova Scotia. This also marks the beginning of the exodus to Canada of Americans who sided with England, maybe as many as 130,000. Tories, or United Empire Loyalis