Unconfigured Ad Widget

Collapse

Unconfigured Ad Widget

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

On this date in history

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • On this date in history


    Today is Monday, May 21, the 141st day of 2007 with 224 to follow.
    The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

    Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include German painter Albrecht Durer in 1471; King Philip II of Spain, who launched the Spanish Armada, in 1527; English poet and satirist Alexander Pope in 1688; French painter Henri Rousseau in 1844; industrialist Armand Hammer in 1898; architect Marcel Breuer in 1902; composer and barrelhouse piano player Thomas "Fats" Waller in 1904; author Harold Robbins in 1916; singer Dennis Day in 1916; actor Raymond Burr in 1917; Soviet physicist-turned-humanitarian Andrei Sakharov in 1921; actress Peggy Cass in 1924; romance novelist Janet Dailey in 1944 (age 63); comedian Al Franken in 1951 (age 56); and actors Mr. T, born Lawrence Tureaud, in 1952 (age 55) and Judge Reinhold in 1957 (age 50).



    On this date in history:

    In 1832, the first Democratic Party national convention met in Baltimore.

    In 1881, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross.

    In 1927, Charles Lindbergh landed the "Spirit of St. Louis" in Paris, completing the first solo flight across the Atlantic in 33 1/2 hours.

    In 1932, five years to the day after Charles Lindbergh's historic flight, Amelia Earhart became the first pilot to repeat the feat, flying solo across the Atlantic from Newfoundland, Canada, to Ireland. She completed her flight in 13 1/2 hours.

    In 1941, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed "an unlimited state of national emergency," seven months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

    In 1972, a Hungarian man, Lazlo Tooth, attacked Michelangelo's sculpture "The Pieta" while screaming "I am Jesus Christ!" The statue was badly damaged.

    In 1985, after taking fertility drugs, Patti Frustaci of Orange, Calif., gave birth to the first recorded American septuplets. Six of the seven infants were born alive. Three survived.

    In 1991, former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated while campaigning.

    Also in 1991, Ethiopian President Mengistu Haile Mariam resigned and fled to Zimbabwe after 14 years in power.

    And in 1991, South Korean Prime Minister Ro Jai-bong quit after four weeks of student protests demanding his resignation.

    In 1992, royal intervention ended four days of the bloodiest urban unrest in Thailand's history.

    In 1993, the Venezuelan Senate authorized the country's Supreme Court to try President Carlos Andres Perez on corruption charges. Perez was suspended from office.

    In 1998, two students were killed and 22 others wounded when a classmate opened fire in a high school cafeteria in Eugene, Ore. A 15-year-old boy was arrested in connection with the shootings; police found his parents shot to death at home.

    Also in 1998, weeks of demonstrations led to the resignation of Indonesian President Suharto.

    In 2003, an earthquake, which measured 6.8 on the Richter scale, struck near Algiers, killing more than 2,200 people and injuring another 10,000.

    Also in 2003, a three-judge panel in Florida threw out a $145 billion punitive damage award against cigarette manufacturers.

    In 2004, explorers in the former Soviet republic of Georgia reported finding rich gold deposit linked to the legend of the Golden Fleece near Supsa on the shore of the Black Sea.

    In 2006, the FBI accused U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and claimed to have found $90,000 of the money in a freezer at his home.

    Also in 2006, in its first full day in office, Iraq's new government was greeted by a series of Baghdad bombings that killed four and wounded 37 others.


    A thought for the day: Arthur Koestler said, "If the Creator had a purpose in equipping us with a neck, he surely meant us to stick it out."
    What I once considered boring, I now consider paradise.
    Faust

    Comment


    • On this date in history


      Today is Tuesday, May 22, the 142nd day of 2007 with 223 to follow.
      The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

      Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include German composer Richard Wagner in 1813; Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, in 1859; actor Laurence Olivier in 1907; pioneering jazz musician Sun Ra (born Herman Blount) in 1914; critic Judith Crist in 1922 (age 85); French singer Charles Aznavour in 1924 (age 83); pianist/composer Peter Nero in 1934 (age 73); actor/director Richard Benjamin in 1938 (age 69); actor Michael Sarrazin in 1940 (age 67); actor Paul Winfield in 1939; and model/actress Naomi Campbell in 1970 (age 37).



      On this date in history:

      In 334 B.C., Alexander the Great defeated Persian King Darius III at Granicus, Turkey.

      In 1868, seven members of the Reno gang stole $98,000 from a railway car at Marshfield, Ind. It was the original "Great Train Robbery."

      In 1924, the discovery of the body of Bobby Franks, 13, of Chicago led to the arrest of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. They were sentenced to 99 years in prison for the so-called "thrill killing."

      In 1972, Richard Nixon became the first U.S president to visit Moscow.

      In 1987, a tornado flattened Saragosa, Texas, population 185, killing 29 residents and injuring 121.

      In 1991, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev asked the world's industrialized nations for $100 billion in economic loans and grants to bolster the Soviet economy.

      In 1992, Johnny Carson ended his nearly 30-year career as host of "The Tonight Show" with what NBC said was the highest-rated late-night TV show ever.

      In 1993, France, Britain, Russia, Spain and the United States approved a joint policy calling for a negotiated settlement of the war in Bosnia. However, the Muslim president of Bosnia rejected the plan.

      In 1994, a tougher U.N.-approved economic embargo against Haiti took effect.

      In 1998, a federal judge ruled that members of the U.S. Secret Service could be required to testify before a grand jury investigating U.S. President Bill Clinton's relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

      Also in 1998, voters in Ireland and Northern Ireland approved a plan to bring peace to violence-torn Ulster.

      In 2002, authorities in Birmingham, Ala., convicted a fourth suspect in the 1963 church bombing that killed four young black girls. Bobby Frank Cherry, 71, a former Ku Klux Klansman, was sentenced to life in prison.

      In 2003, NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft orbiting Mars took a unique photo of Earth, the first from another planet, showing Earth as a tiny world in the vast darkness of space.

      In 2003 sports, Annika Sorenstam became the first woman in 59 years to compete in a PGA event. But, her 5-over-par 145 through two rounds of the Bank of America Colonial tournament failed to make the cut.

      In 2004, U.S. President George W. Bush was slightly injured when he fell off his bicycle toward the end of a 17-mile ride on his Texas ranch.

      Also in 2004, U.S. lawmakers overwhelmingly approved legislation aimed at expanding high-level military cooperation between the Taiwanese and U.S. militaries.

      And, Prince Felipe of Asturias, heir to the Spanish throne, married television newscaster Letizia Ortiz in a Roman Catholic ceremony in Madrid.

      In 2005, officials said about 100 U.S. military installations in Iraq will be consolidated into four heavily fortified, strategically located air bases.

      Also in 2005, relatives of 45 Chilean military recruits reported missing in a march during a severe Andes snowstorm accused army officers of abandoning the men.

      In 2006, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reported that a computer containing personal information on some 26.5 million veterans and spouses had been stolen.


      A thought for the day: William Lyon Phelps wrote, "You can learn more about human nature by reading the Bible than by living in New York."
      What I once considered boring, I now consider paradise.
      Faust

      Comment


      • On this date in history


        Today is Wednesday, May 23, the 143rd day of 2007 with 222 to follow.
        The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

        Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include(Sandcrab-ts4ms); Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus, the father of modern systematic botany, in 1707; Austrian physician and hypnotist Franz Mesmer in 1734; social reformer Sarah Margaret Fuller in 1810; U.S. Army Gen. Ambrose Burnside, who later was a U.S. senator and for whom sideburns were named, in 1824; actor Douglas Fairbanks Sr. in 1883; clarinetist/bandleader Artie Shaw in 1910; singer Helen O'Connell in 1920; singer Rosemary Clooney in 1928; actresses Barbara Barrie in 1931 (age 76) and Joan Collins in 1933 (age 74); Robert Moog, inventor of the Moog Synthesizer, in 1934; actor Charles Kimbrough ("Murphy Brown") in 1936 (age 71); and comedian Drew Carey in 1958 (age 49).




        On this date in history:

        In 1701, Capt. William Kidd was hanged in London for piracy and murder.

        In 1900, U.S. Army Sgt. William H. Carney became the first black to win the Congressional Medal of Honor, for his efforts during the Civil War battle of Fort Wagner, S.C., in June 1863.

        In 1939, the U.S. Navy submarine "Squalus" went down off New Hampshire in 240 feet of water. Thirty-three of the 59 men aboard were saved in a daring rescue with a diving bell.

        In 1960, Israeli agents captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and spirited him back to Israel, where he was tried, convicted and hanged.

        In 1988, Maryland Gov. Donald Schaefer signed the nation's first law banning the manufacture and sale of cheap handguns, known as "Saturday Night Specials."

        In 1991, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld federal regulations prohibiting federally funded women's clinics from discussing or advising abortion with patients.

        In 1994, four men convicted in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center were each sentenced to 240 years in prison.

        Also in 1994, former U.S. first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was laid to rest next to her first husband, President John F. Kennedy, in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

        In 1997, Mohammed Khatami, a "moderate" who favored improved economic ties with the West, was elected president of Iran.

        In 2002, Roman Catholic Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee acknowledged paying $450,000 in church funds in response to a claim that he had sexually assaulted a graduate student, then 33. Weakland, 75, who retired after the 1998 settlement became known, denied any sexual misconduct.

        In 2004, a double-decker ferry carrying more than 200 passengers sank off the Bangladesh coast during a storm with fewer than half of the people reported surviving.

        Also in 2004, a two-day Arab summit ended in Tunis with a commitment to the Middle East peace process and a condemnation of Israel for its actions against Palestinian people.

        In 2005, Newsweek's chairman said the magazine would restrict the use of unnamed sources in the wake of an item that alleged desecration of the Koran, sparking violent riots and forcing a printed retraction.

        In 2006, Amnesty International claimed in its annual report that U.S. anti-terror policies worldwide had undermined human rights in 2005.


        A thought for the day: Lao-Tzu said, "A thousand-mile journey begins with a single step."
        What I once considered boring, I now consider paradise.
        Faust

        Comment


        • On this date in history


          Today is Thursday, May 24, the 144th day of 2007 with 221 to follow.
          The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

          Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include French journalist and revolutionary Jean Paul Marat in 1743; British Queen Victoria in 1819; hostess and party-giver Elsa Maxwell, credited with introducing the "scavenger hunt," in 1883; actress Lilli Palmer in 1914; comedian Tommy Chong of Cheech and Chong in 1938 (age 69); musician Bob Dylan in 1941 (age 66); actor Gary Burghoff ("M*A*S*H") in 1943 (age 64); singer Patti LaBelle (born Patricia Louise Holte) in 1944 (age 63); actress Priscilla Presley, former wife of Elvis Presley, in 1945 (age 62); actor Alfred Molina in 1953 (age 54); singer Rosanne Cash in 1955 (age 52); and actress Kristin Scott Thomas in 1960 (age 47).



          On this date in history:

          In 1626, the Dutch West Indies Trading Co. bought the island of Manhattan from the Indians, paying with goods worth about $24.

          In 1844, the first U.S telegraph line was formally opened between Baltimore and Washington.

          In 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was opened to the public, linking Brooklyn and Manhattan Island.

          In 1935, the first night major league baseball game saw the Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1, at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.

          In 1962, Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth, circling it three times.

          In 1983, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled private religious schools that practice racial discrimination are not eligible for church-related tax benefits.

          In 1987, 250,000 people jammed San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge on its 50th anniversary -- temporarily flattening the arched span.

          In 1990, the U.S. Navy reopened the much-criticized probe of the USS Iowa explosion that killed 47 sailors, citing a test that showed the blast could have been an accident.

          In 1991, Israel began a mass evacuation of 14,500 Ethiopian Jews from Ethiopia to Israel. The operation took 36 hours.

          In 1993, the archbishop of Guadalajara, Mexico, was killed at Guadalajara's airport when his car was caught in a shootout between rival drug cartels.

          In 2003, residents of Kirkuk in northern Iraq went to the polls in what the U.S. commander of the region called "the beginning of the process of democratization" for the post-war country.

          In 2005, the U.S. House of Representatives approved by a significant margin a bill to provide more funding for embryonic stem-cell research.

          In 2006, Iran was reported stepping up its call for direct talks with the United States over its nuclear program.

          Also in 2006, the U.S. Postal Service began allowing companies to create their own branded postage stamps in an attempt to reverse a decline in first-class mailings.



          A thought for the day: Oscar Wilde wrote, "Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing."
          What I once considered boring, I now consider paradise.
          Faust

          Comment


          • On this date in history


            Today is Friday, May 25, the 145th day of 2007 with 220 to follow.
            The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

            Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include (dac99999-ts4ms) poet/philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1803; dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson in 1878; aircraft designer Igor Sikorsky in 1889; Yugoslavian leader Josip Broz Tito in 1892; heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney in 1897; humorist and publisher Bennett Cerf in 1898; actor Claude Akins in 1926; spy novelist Robert Ludlum in 1927; opera singer Beverly Sills (born Belle Miriam Silverman) in 1929 (age 78); actors Dixie Carter and Ian McKellan, both in 1939 (age 68); singer/actress Leslie Uggams in 1943 (age 64); Frank Oz (born Richard Frank Oznowicz) director, actor, puppeteer, in 1944 (age 63); actresses Karen Valentine in 1947 (age 60) and Connie Selleca in 1955 (age 52); comedian Mike Myers in 1963 (age 44); and actress Anne Heche in 1969 (age 38).






            On this date in history:

            In 1787, the first regular session of the Constitutional Convention convened at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

            In 1935, winding up his legendary career with the Boston Braves, Babe Ruth hit his 714th and last home run in his final game. The home run record stood for 39 years until Hank Aaron, also with the Braves, broke it in 1974.

            In 1949, Chinese communist forces entered Shanghai as Nationalist troops abandoned the city and prepared to move to the island of Formosa, now called Taiwan.

            In 1979, 275 people were killed when an American Airlines DC-10 crashed on takeoff from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

            In 1986, 5 million people formed a broken 4,000-mile human chain from Los Angeles to New York in Hands Across America, to benefit the nation's homeless. The event raised $24.5 million.

            In 1990, U.S. President George H.W. Bush called for more research into global warming.

            In 1991, the United States reversed its decision to allow HIV-infected people to enter the country.

            Also in 1991, Cuban soldiers withdrew from Angola after 16 years of fighting South Africa and U.S.-backed rebels.

            In 1993, the U.N. Security Council voted to establish a war-crimes tribunal to deal with atrocities in the civil war in Bosnia.

            In 1994, after living 20 years in exile, mostly in the United States, Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to his homeland. He had been expelled after "The Gulag Archipelago," an expose of the Soviet prison camp system, was published in the West in 1974.

            In 1995, the level of tension in war-torn Bosnia increased dramatically when the Serbs began taking U.N. peacekeepers hostage for use as human shields.

            In 1997, mutinous soldiers seized power in Sierra Leone.

            In 1999, a report by a U.S. House of Representatives committee on espionage said China stole information on the most advanced U.S. nuclear weapons.

            In 2003, the Israeli Cabinet officially accepted the Palestinian claim to eventual statehood.

            In 2004, a U.S. Army report said U.S. mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan was more widespread than previously known.

            In 2005, Amnesty International accused the Bush administration of "atrocious" human rights violations at Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan and Iraq.

            Also in 2005, some 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops mounted a surprise offensive in western Iraq, targeting insurgent hideouts and munitions caches.

            In 2006, the U.S. Senate approved a compromise immigration reform bill that had few similarities to a House bill passed in December, setting the stage for a possible congressional showdown on the issue.

            Also in 2006, Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, former officers of Enron Corp., were convicted in Houston federal court of conspiracy and securities fraud.


            A thought for the day: Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "Good men must not obey the laws too well."
            What I once considered boring, I now consider paradise.
            Faust

            Comment


            • On this date in history


              Today is Saturday, May 26, the 146th day of 2007 with 219 to follow.

              The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

              Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include English Gen. John Churchill, ancestor of statesman Winston Churchill, in 1650; entertainer Al Jolson in 1886; actors John Wayne (born Marion Robert Morrison) in 1907, Robert Morley in 1908, Peter Cushing in 1913 and James Arness in 1923 (age 84); trumpeter Ziggy Elman in 1914; singers Peggy Lee in 1920 and Stevie Nicks in 1948 (age 59); jazz trumpeter Miles Davis in 1926; sportscaster Brent Musburger in 1939 (age 68); singer Hank Williams Jr. and actor Philip Michael Thomas, both in 1949 (age 58); Sally Ride, first U.S. woman in space, in 1951 (age 56); and actresses Genie Francis in 1962 (age 45) and Helena Bonham Carter in 1966 (age 41).


              On this date in history:

              In 1864, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, anxious to create new free territories during the Civil War, signed an act establishing the Montana Territory. Montana became a state 25 years later.

              In 1868, at the end of a historic two-month trial, the U.S. Senate failed to convict President Andrew Johnson of impeachment charges levied against him by the House of Representatives. Johnson won acquittal by one vote on each count.

              In 1940, the evacuation of Dunkirk began. Sailing vessels of every kind were pressed into service to ferry across the English Channel the British, French and Belgian soldiers trapped by advancing German forces in northern France. All 200,000 were safely across by June 2.

              In 1954, more than 100 crewmembers of the aircraft carrier USS Bennington died in an explosion off Rhode Island.

              In 1972, at a Moscow summit, U.S. President Richard Nixon and Soviet Communist Party leader Leonid Brezhnev signed a pact limiting nuclear weapons.

              In 1985, a cyclone struck the Bay of Bengal, killing 1,400 people in Bangladesh.

              In 1991, a Lauda Air Boeing 767-300 exploded over Thailand after take-off, killing all 223 people on board.

              In 1992, the Philippines' former first lady Imelda Marcos formally demanded the government return billions of dollars in assets seized after her husband's ouster from power in 1986.

              In 1994, the United States and Vietnam resumed diplomatic relations.

              Also in 1994, Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of Elvis Presley, were married in the Dominican Republic. They divorced in 1996.

              In 2000, Canadian medical researchers reported they had transplanted insulin-producing cells into eight diabetic patients, freeing them from insulin injections.

              In 2003, a plane crash in Turkey killed all 74 aboard, including 62 Spanish soldiers returning from peacekeeping duties in Afghanistan.

              In 2004, Terry Nichols, serving a life sentence after a federal conviction in the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building was found guilty of 161 killings in a state court.

              In 2006, U.S. Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to become director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

              Also in 2006, reports say U.S. Marines believed to be involved in the 2005 killing of 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq, could face murder charges.


              A thought for the day: "All that glitters is not gold" comes from John Dryden but a similar saying appeared earlier in Shakespeare and earlier still in Chaucer.
              What I once considered boring, I now consider paradise.
              Faust

              Comment


              • On this date in history


                Today is Sunday, May 27, the 147th day of 2007 with 218 to follow.
                The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

                Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include(Vanessa- ts4ms); financier Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1794; social reformer Amelia Bloomer, for whom the undergarment was named, in 1818; poet Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the lyrics for "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," in 1819; financier and railroad developer Jay Gould in 1836; frontiersman "Wild Bill" Hickok in 1837; dancer Isadora Duncan in 1877; detective novelist Dashiell Hammett in 1894; composer Harold Rome in 1908; U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey and actor Vincent Price, both in 1911; golfer Sam Snead in 1912; author Herman Wouk in 1915 (age 92); actor Christopher Lee in 1922 (age 85); former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 1923 (age 84); jazz musician Ramsey Lewis and actress Lee Meriwether, both in 1935 (age 72); actors Lou Gossett Jr. in 1936 (age 71) and Bruce Weitz in 1943 (age 64); singer/songwriter Don Williams in 1939 (age 68); and actors Peri Gilpin ("Frasier") in 1961 (age 46), Todd Bridges ("Diff'rent Strokes") in 1965 (age 42) and Joseph Fiennes in 1970 (age 37).


                On this date in history:

                In 1703, Czar Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg as the new capital of Russia.

                In 1930, Richard Gurley Drew received a patent for his adhesive tape, which was later manufactured by 3M as Scotch tape.

                In 1937, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge was opened. An estimated 200,000 people crossed it the first day.

                In 1941, the British Navy sank the German battleship Bismarck 400 miles west of the French port of Brest.

                In 1968, the U.S. nuclear submarine Scorpion disappeared in the Atlantic with 99 men aboard.

                In 1988, the U.S. Senate voted 98-5 in favor of the U.S.-Soviet treaty to abolish intermediate-range nuclear missiles.

                In 1990, Cesar Gaviria, 34, was elected president of Colombia after a campaign in which three candidates were killed. He vowed to make no deals with the cocaine cartels.

                In 1992, hours after a Russian-brokered cease-fire went into effect in Bosnia, Serb guerrillas launched a surprise mortar bombardment on Sarajevo -- killing at least 20 people and injuring up to 160 more waiting in lines to buy bread.

                In 1993, U.S. sailor Terry Helvey was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to murder in the October 1992 death of gay shipmate Allen Schindler in Sasebo, Japan.

                Also in 1993, five people were killed when a car bomb exploded near an art gallery in Florence, Italy. A few paintings by relatively minor artists were destroyed but masterpieces by Botticelli and Michelangelo survived.

                In 1996, a cease-fire was signed in the Russian republic of Chechnya.

                In 1997, Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the leaders of NATO nations signed an agreement clearing the way for NATO expansion to the east.

                In 1999, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and four other Serbian leaders were indicted on murder and other war crimes. Milosevic went on trial in 2002 for war crimes but he died in 2006 before the trial ended.

                In 2003, a top U.N. official said the "road map" for peace in the Middle East, designed to settle Israel-Palestinians relations and formally establish a Palestinian state, will not be changed or renegotiated.

                Also in 2003, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands swore in a new center-right government in The Hague after 125 days of coalition-forming talks. Christian Democrat Jan-Peter Balkenende remained prime minister.

                In 2004, a federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld Oregon's law authorizing doctors to help their terminally ill patients commit suicide.

                Also in 2004, more than 1 pound of explosives was found in Bratislava, the capital of the Slovak Republic, near a building where a NATO meeting was slated a few days later.

                In 2005, the U.N. conference on the nuclear non-proliferation treaty ended with failure to reach any substantive agreement on policy.

                Also in 2005, a suicide bomb killed 19 people at a crowded Muslim shrine in Islamabad, Pakistan, on the last day of a Shiite-Sunni religious festival.

                In 2006, a major earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Java, killing a reported 5,000 people and leaving an estimated 200,000 homeless.
                What I once considered boring, I now consider paradise.
                Faust

                Comment


                • On this date in history


                  Today is Monday, May 28, the 148th day of 2007 with 217 to follow.

                  This is Memorial Day.

                  The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

                  Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include British statesman William Pitt in 1759; naturalist Louis Agassiz in 1807; Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe in 1888; British novelist Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, in 1908; biologist and politician Barry Commoner in 1917 (age 90); actress Carroll Baker in 1931 (age 76); Annette and Cecile Dionne, surviving members of Canada's Dionne quintuplets, in 1934 (age 73); singer Gladys Knight and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, both in 1944 (age 63); and actresses Sondra Locke in 1947 (age 60) and Christa Miller in 1964 (age 43).



                  On this date in history:

                  In 1798, the U.S. Congress empowered President John Adams to recruit an American army of 10,000 volunteers.

                  In 1892, the Sierra Club was founded by famed naturalist John Muir.

                  In 1934, the Dionne sisters, Emilie, Yvonne, Cecile, Maria and Annette, first documented set of quintuplets to survive, were born near Callander, Ontario, and soon became world famous. Emilie died in 1954, Maria in 1970 and Yvonne in 2001.

                  In 1961, Amnesty International was founded in London by lawyer Peter Berenson.

                  In 1987, West German Mathias Rust, 19, flew a single-engine plane from Finland through Soviet radar and landed beside the Kremlin in Moscow. Three days later, the Soviet defense minister and his deputy were fired.

                  In 1988, Syrian troops moved into southern Beirut to end 22 days of fighting between rival Shiite Muslim militias.

                  In 1991, NATO agreed to reorganize its forces in Europe, with a 50-percent cut in U.S. troops.

                  In 1992, Anthony "Big Tuna" Accardo, a former Al Capone gunman who later was labeled America's No. 1 mobster, died of natural causes at age 86.

                  In 1995, Bosnia's foreign minister and five other people were killed when Serb forces downed their helicopter.

                  In 1996, Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker and two former business associates of U.S. President Bill Clinton were convicted of fraud and conspiracy charges in connection with Whitewater loans. Tucker resigned.

                  In 1998, Pakistan conducted five underground nuclear tests, prompting U.S. President Bill Clinton to impose economic sanctions against the Asian nation.

                  Also in 1998, in a first, digitized pictures taken by the Hubbell Space Telescope seemed to show an image of a planet outside the solar system. The planet circled two stars in the constellation Taurus.

                  In 2000, Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori easily won the runoff election but nationwide demonstrations against him continued and he would resign in September.

                  In 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush signed into law his modified tax reduction plan which lowered the tax rate for upper- and middle-income taxpayers and trimmed rates on capital gains and dividends.

                  Also in 2003, a spokesman for al-Qaida told an Arabic-language magazine the terror network wanted to poison the U.S. water supply.

                  In 2004, the Iraqi governing council gave unanimous approval to the appointment of Iyad Alawi, a prominent secular-minded Shiite and anti-Saddam exile, as prime minister.

                  In 2006, San Francisco slugger Barry Bonds hit his 715th home run to move past Babe Ruth as No. 2 on the all-time major league homer list. Hank Aaron is the career leader with 755.


                  A thought for the day: Ambrose Bierce defined painting as "The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic."
                  What I once considered boring, I now consider paradise.
                  Faust

                  Comment


                  • On this date in history


                    Today is Tuesday, May 29, the 147th day of 2007 with 216 to follow.

                    The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

                    Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include King Charles II of England in 1630; patriot Patrick Henry in 1736; Ebenezer Butterick, inventor of the tissue paper dress pattern, in 1826; English novelist G.K. Chesterton in 1874; movie composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold in 1897; entertainer Bob Hope in 1903; John F. Kennedy, 35th president of the United States, in 1917; actors Anthony Geary ("General Hospital") in 1948 (age 59), Annette Bening in 1958 (age 49), Rupert Everett and Adrian Paul, both in 1959 (age 48), and Lisa Whelchel in 1963 (age 44) and singers Melissa Etheridge in 1961 (age 46) and Melanie Brown of the Spice Girls in 1975 (age 32).


                    On this date in history:

                    In 1453, Constantinople (now Istanbul), capital of the Byzantine Empire, was captured by the Turks.

                    In 1660, Charles II was restored to the English throne.

                    In 1790, Rhode Island became the last of the original 13 states to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

                    In 1848, following approval by the territory's citizens, Wisconsin entered the Union as the 30th state.

                    In 1865, U.S. President Andrew Johnson issued a proclamation giving a general amnesty to all who took part in the rebellion against the United States.

                    In 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal became the first men to reach the top of Mount Everest.

                    In 1977, a flash fire swept through a nightclub in Southgate, Ky., killing 162 people and injuring 30.

                    In 1985, British soccer fans attacked Italian fans preceding the European Cup final in Brussels. The resulting stadium stampede killed 38 people and injured 400.

                    In 1989, Chinese students in Tiananmen Square erected a 33-foot statue similar to the Statue of Liberty.

                    In 1990, renegade communist Boris Yeltsin was elected president of Russia.

                    In 1991, scientists from Emory University discovered the gene that causes fragile-X syndrome, an untreatable mental retardation.

                    In 1996, in Israel's first selection of a prime minister by direct vote, Binyamin Netanyahu defeated Shimon Peres to become leader of Israel. The margin of victory was less than 1 percent.

                    In 1997, Lt. Kelly Flinn, the Air Force's first female B-52 bomber pilot, was discharged following an investigation stemming from adultery charges.

                    The same day, the Army relieved Brig. Gen. Stephen Xenakis of his command of the Dwight David Eisenhower Army Medical Center at Fort Gordon, Ga., because of an apparently "improper relationship" with a civilian nurse caring for his wife.

                    Also in 1997, Zaire rebel leader Laurent Kabila was sworn in as president of what was again being called the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

                    In 2000, the Indonesian government placed former President Suharto under house arrest on charges of corruption and abuse of power.

                    In 2002, FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington might have been avoided if the FBI had acted on available information.

                    In 2003, comedian Bob Hope was honored by the White House on his 100th birthday with establishment of the Bob Hope Patriotism Award for those showing extraordinary love of country and devotion to the personnel of the U.S. armed forces.

                    Also in 2003, Microsoft agreed to pay AOL Time Warner $750 million to end a private antitrust suit brought by AOL's Netscape Communications.

                    In 2004, the World War II memorial was dedicated on the National Mall in Washington. Some 70,000 veterans of that war were on hand.

                    Also in 2004, a residential compound in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, was invaded by four armed militants who killed 22 and wounded 25, mostly workers in the oil industry from several counties.

                    In 2005, U.S. and British aircraft doubled Iraq bombings in 2002 to try to provoke Saddam Hussein into war, reports say.

                    In 2006, relief workers struggled to prevent sickness and hunger among hundreds of thousands of survivors from the Indonesian earthquake in Java. More than 5,000 people were killed in the 6.3 quake.

                    Also in 2006, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe won a second term by a sizable margin.

                    A thought for the day: Franz Kafka wrote this in his diary: "I have hardly anything in common with myself."
                    What I once considered boring, I now consider paradise.
                    Faust

                    Comment


                    • On this date in history


                      Today is Wednesday, May 30, the 150th day of 2007 with 215 to follow.

                      The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

                      Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include (salpalaz-ts4ms); (JRStewart-ts4ms); Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and many other cartoon characters, in 1908; bandleader/clarinetist Benny Goodman in 1909; restaurant executive Bob Evans in 1918 (age 89); Christine Jorgensen, who gained notoriety for undergoing a sex-change operation, in 1926; actors Clint Walker in 1927 (age 80), Keir Dullea in 1936 (age 71) and Michael J. Pollard in 1939 (age 68); NFL Hall of Fame running back Gale Sayers in 1943 (age 64); actors Colm Meaney in 1953 (age 54) and Ted McGinley in 1958 (age 49).




                      On this date in history:

                      In 1431, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen, France, at age 19. She had been convicted of sorcery.

                      In 1783, the "Pennsylvania Evening Post" became the first daily newspaper published in the United States.

                      In 1806, future U.S. President Andrew Jackson took part in a duel, killing Charles Dickinson, a Kentucky lawyer who had called Jackson's wife Rachel a bigamist.

                      In 1868, the first major Memorial Day observance was held to honor those killed during the Civil War. It was originally known to some as "Decoration Day."

                      In 1922, the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington.

                      In 1937, a battle between police and strikers at the Republic Steel Corp. plant in Chicago killed 10 people and wounded 90.

                      In 1943, the Aleutian Islands of Kiska and Attu off the Alaskan coast were retaken by U.S. forces after being occupied by Japanese troops during World War II.

                      In 1972, the unmanned U.S. space probe Mariner 9 was launched on a mission to gather scientific data on Mars, ultimately sending back valuable information and becoming the first spacecraft to orbit a planet other than the Earth.

                      In 1972, three Japanese terrorists killed 22 people with automatic weapons at the airport in Tel Aviv, Israel.

                      In 1982, Spain became the 16th member nation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

                      In 1995, the United States announced it had moved seven ships and 12,000 Marines and sailors to the Adriatic Sea in response to the Serbian hostage-taking of U.N. peacekeepers.

                      In 1998, Pakistan conducted another underground nuclear test, despite condemnation from many leading countries and the imposition of U.S. economic sanctions.

                      In 2002, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the FBI would have expanded powers to monitor religious, political and other organizations as well as internet and other media as a guard against possible future terrorist attacks.

                      Also in 2002, the massive cleanup was completed in the ruins of New York's World Trade Center, destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.

                      In 2004, a standoff near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between Saudi authorities and terrorists who held 50 hostages ended when commandos stormed the building. At least nine hostages were killed by Islamic militants.

                      In 2005, at least 27 people, mostly police officers, were killed and more than 100 were wounded when two suicide bombers exploded bomb vests in a city south of Baghdad.

                      In 2006, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow resigned, saying he was anxious to return to private life. U.S. President George Bush quickly nominated Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Henry Paulson to succeed him.


                      A thought for the day: Harriett Beecher Stowe wrote in "Uncle Tom's Cabin" that, "No one is so thoroughly superstitious as the godless man."
                      What I once considered boring, I now consider paradise.
                      Faust

                      Comment


                      • On this date in history


                        Today is Thursday, May 31, the 151st day of 2007 with 214 to follow.

                        The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

                        Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include (mikey0531-ts4ms); poet Walt Whitman and surgeon William Mayo, founder of the Mayo Clinic, both in 1819; radio humorist Fred Allen in 1894; clergyman-author Norman Vincent Peale in 1898; actor Don Ameche in 1908; U.S. Sen. Henry Jackson, D-Wash., in 1912; Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1923; actor Clint Eastwood in 1930 (age 77); Peter, Paul and Mary's Peter Yarrow in 1938 (age 69); country singer Johnny Paycheck in 1938; NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath and actress Sharon Gless ("Cagney and Lacey"), both in 1943 (age 64); actors Tom Berenger and Gregory Harrison, both in 1950 (age 57), and Kyle Secor ("Homicide: Life on the Street") in 1958 (age 49); actor/writer Chris Elliot in 1960 (age 47); actress Lea Thompson ("Caroline in the City") in 1961 (age 46); and actress/model Brooke Shields in 1965 (age 42).




                        On this date in history:

                        In 1790, U.S. President George Washington signed into law the first U.S. copyright law.

                        In 1889, a flood in Johnstown, Pa., left more than 2,200 people dead.

                        In 1902, Britain and South Africa signed a peace treaty ending the Boer War.

                        In 1962, Israel hanged Adolf Eichmann for his part in the killing of 6 million Jews by Nazi Germany in World War II.

                        In 1973, the U.S. Senate voted to cut off funds for U.S. bombing of Cambodia.

                        In 1985, seven federally insured banks in Arkansas, Minnesota, Nebraska and Oregon were closed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. It was a single-day record for closings since the FDIC was founded in 1934.

                        In 1990, U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev opened a four-day summit in Washington, focusing on the role of a united Germany in Europe.

                        In 1991, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney announced the United States had begun storing military supplies in Israel for use in future conflicts.

                        In 1994, U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill., was indicted on felony charges, including embezzlement.

                        In 2003, Eric Robert Rudolph, the long-sought fugitive in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic bombing and attacks on abortion clinics and a gay nightclub, in which two died, was arrested while rummaging through a dumpster in North Carolina.

                        In 2004, a bomb ripped through a Shiite mosque in Karachi, Pakistan, while worshippers were saying evening prayers. Sixteen people were killed.

                        In 2005, Mark Felt admitted that, while No. 2 man in the FBI, he was "Deep Throat," the shadowy contact whose help to Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein on the 1972 Watergate break-in led to U.S. President Richard Nixon's resignation.

                        In 2006, Officials said an estimated 200,000 people had died in the 3-year civil in Sudan's Darfur region and 2 million more had become refugees. The government and one rebel group agreed to stop fighting earlier in the month.

                        Also in 2006, Kimberly Dozier, the 39-year-old CBS reporter injured in a Baghdad bomb blast, was listed in critical but stable condition at a military hospital in Germany. Two members of the crew were killed.


                        A thought for the day: Leo Tolstoy said, "It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness."
                        What I once considered boring, I now consider paradise.
                        Faust

                        Comment


                        • On this date in history


                          Today is Friday, June 1, the 152nd day of 2007 with 212 to follow.

                          The moon is full. The morning stars are Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

                          Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include Jacques Marquette, Jesuit priest and French explorer of the Mississippi, in 1637; Mormon leader Brigham Young in 1801; bandleader Nelson Riddle in 1921; actress Marilyn Monroe in 1926; actors Andy Griffith in 1926 (age 81), Pat Corley ("Murphy Brown") in 1930; Edward Woodward, also in 1930 (age 77); crooner Pat Boone in 1934 (age 73); actor Morgan Freeman in 1937 (age 70); actor/comedian Cleavon Little in 1939; actor Rene Auberjonois in 1940 (age 67); actor Jonathan Pryce and rock musician Ron Wood of The Rolling Stones, both in 1947 (age 60); actress Diana Canova ("Soap") in 1953 (age 54); actress Lisa Hartman Black in 1956 (age 51); comedian/actor Mark Curry in 1964 (age 43); and singer Alanis Morissette in 1974 (age 33).



                          On this date in history:

                          In 1812, U.S. President James Madison warned Congress that war with Britain was imminent. The War of 1812 started 17 days later.

                          In 1880, the first public pay telephone began operation in New Haven, Conn.

                          In 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court banned prayers and Bible teaching in public schools on the constitutional grounds of separation of church and state.

                          In 1968, Helen Keller, a world-renowned author and lecturer despite being blind and deaf from infancy, died in Westport, Conn., at the age of 87.

                          In 1973, Greek Prime Minister George Papadopoulos abolished the Greek monarchy and proclaimed Greece a republic with himself as president.

                          In 1980, the Cable News Network (CNN), TV's first all-news service, went on the air.

                          In 1990, U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to sharp cuts in chemical and nuclear weapons.

                          Also in 1990, the South African government proposed a bill to scrap the 37-year-old law segregating buses, trains, toilets, libraries, swimming pools and other public amenities.

                          In 1991, U.S. Secretary of State James Baker and Soviet Foreign Minister Aleksandr Bessmertnykh resolved differences over a conventional weapons reduction treaty.

                          In 1993, the Guatemalan military, acting in response to appeals from the judiciary and the public, ousted President Jorge Serrano Elias from office.

                          Also in 1993, President Dobrica Cosic of Yugoslavia was voted out of office by parliament.

                          In 1997, French parliamentary elections brought parties of the left into power for the first time since 1986.

                          In 2003, with hostilities continuing in Iraq, coalition leaders decided against creating a large national assembly soon but rather devised a plan for an advisory council of 25 to 30 Iraqis instead.

                          In 2004, oil prices jumped to $42.33 a barrel, highest reported at that time.

                          Also in 2004, the Iraq Governing Council chose Ghazi al-Yawer to be the country's president as shells killed 15 near Baghdad's "Green Zone," home of the U.S. Army command and Coalition Authority.

                          In 2005, Dutch voters joined France in overwhelmingly rejecting the proposed EU constitution.

                          In 2006, U.S. officials say they planned to exhume bodies of Iraqi civilians allegedly killed by U.S. Marines in a 2005 retaliation attack at Haditha in western Iraq. Iraqi leaders said they would begin their own investigation.

                          Also in 2006, Indonesian authorities raised the Java earthquake death toll to 6,200.


                          A thought for the day: Jean de la Fontaine wrote, "Everyone believes very easily whatever he fears or desires."
                          What I once considered boring, I now consider paradise.
                          Faust

                          Comment


                          • On this date in history


                            Today is Saturday, June 2, the 153rd of 2007 with 212 to follow.

                            The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

                            Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include the first U.S. first lady, Martha Washington, in 1731; French writer Marquis de Sade in 1740; English novelist Thomas Hardy in 1840; English composer Edward Elgar ("Pomp and Circumstance") in 1857; Hollywood columnist; Olympic gold-medal swimmer and "Tarzan" movie star Johnny Weissmuller in 1904; actor-composer Max Showalter in 1917; astronaut Charles "Pete" Conrad of Apollo XII in 1930; actress Sally Kellerman in 1937 (age 70); drummer Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones in 1941 (age 66); actors Stacy Keach in 1941 (age 66) and Charles Haid in 1943 (age 64); composer Marvin Hamlisch in 1944 (age 63); actor Jerry Mathers ("Leave It to Beaver") in 1948 (age 59); and comedian Dana Carvey in 1955 (age 52).




                            On this date in history:

                            In 1862, Gen. Robert E. Lee took command of the Confederate armies of eastern Virginia and North Carolina in the Civil War.

                            In 1865, the Civil War came to an end when Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of Confederate forces west of the Mississippi, signed the surrender terms offered by Union negotiators.

                            In 1886, U.S. President Grover Cleveland, 49, married Frances Folsom, the 21-year-old daughter of his former law partner, in a White House ceremony. The bride became the youngest first lady in U.S. history.

                            In 1924, Congress granted U.S. citizenship to all American Indians.

                            In 1946, in a national referendum, voters in Italy decided the country should become a republic rather than return to a monarchy.

                            In 1953, Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in London's Westminster Abbey by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

                            In 1979, Pope John Paul II returned home to Poland in the first visit by a pope to a communist nation.

                            In 1992, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton clinched the Democratic presidential nomination as six states had the final primaries of the 1992 political season.

                            In 1994, U.S. President Bill Clinton met with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.

                            In 1995, a U.S. F-16 fighter-jet was shot down by a Serb-launched missile while on patrol over Bosnia. The pilot, Air Force Capt. Scott O'Grady, ejected safely and landed behind Serb lines. He was rescued six days later.

                            Also in 1995, Bosnian Serbs began releasing the 370 U.N. peacekeepers held hostage.

                            In 1997, a federal jury in Denver convicted Timothy McVeigh in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. He was sentenced to death and subsequently executed.

                            In 1998, former White House intern Monica Lewinsky fired her lawyer, William Ginsburg, and retained two criminal lawyers. They would win her a grant of immunity from prosecution in return for her testimony before the grand jury investigating U.S. President Bill Clinton's alleged relationship with her.

                            In 1999, in parliamentary elections, South African voters kept the African National Congress in power, assuring that its leader, Thabo Mbeki, would succeed the retiring Nelson Mandela as president.

                            In 2003, the Federal Communications Commission, in a controversial decision, voted 3-2 to eliminate a rule barring a media company from owning both a TV station and a newspaper in the same market.

                            Also in 2003, U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said in a report that inspectors before the war had been unable to prove or disprove the presence in Iraq of weapons of mass destruction.

                            And, the bishop of the Phoenix Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church agreed under threat of indictment to give county prosecutors an unprecedented and powerful role in the church's handling of complaints about sexual abuse by priests.

                            In 2005, reports say a federal court has ordered the Pentagon to release photographs depicting abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.

                            Also in 2005, Israel freed 400 Palestinian prisoners in the second move of its kind since Mahmoud Abbas became Palestinian Authority president.

                            In 2006, the U.S. Senate immigration reform bill, if approved, would add nearly 20 million more immigrants to the United States population in a decade, a U.S. Congressional Budget Office report said.

                            A thought for the day: Charles Eliot declared that, "Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers."
                            What I once considered boring, I now consider paradise.
                            Faust

                            Comment


                            • On this date in history


                              Today is Sunday, June 3, the 154th day of 2007 with 211 to follow.

                              The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

                              Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy during the Civil War, in 1808; automaker Ranson Olds in 1864; actor Maurice Evans in 1901; opera tenor Jan Peerce in 1904; jazz dancer and singer Josephine Baker in 1906; actors Paulette Goddard in 1910, Tony Curtis in 1925 (age 82) and Colleen Dewhurst in 1924; country blues singer Jimmy Rogers in 1924; poet Allen Ginsberg in 1926; sax virtuoso Boots Randolph in 1927 (age 80); TV producer Chuck Barris in 1929 (age 78); singer/songwriter Curtis Mayfield in 1942; singer Deniece Williams in 1951 (age 56); and actor Scott Valentine ("Family Ties") in 1958 (age 49).



                              On this date in history:

                              In 1888, the famous comic baseball poem "Casey at the Bat" was first published in the Sunday edition of The San Francisco Examiner.

                              In 1937, the Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, married divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson of Baltimore after abdicating the British throne.

                              In 1942, the battle of Midway began. It raged for four days and was the turning point for the United States in the World War II Pacific campaign against Japan.

                              In 1965, Gemini IV astronaut Ed White made the first American "walk" in space.

                              In 1985, an accord between Italy and the Vatican ended Roman Catholicism's position as "sole religion of the Italian state."

                              In 1989, Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of the Islamic revolution, died.

                              In 1991, France signed the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which prohibits signatories from helping other countries acquire nuclear weapons.

                              In 1992, U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali opened the largest meeting on the environment in history amid tight security in Rio de Janeiro.

                              In 1993, after reading her writings, U.S. President Bill Clinton announced he was withdrawing the nomination of University of Pennsylvania law professor Lani Guinier to head the civil rights division of the Justice Department.

                              In 1994, North Korea's refusal to allow inspections of two of its nuclear power plants prompted the United States to ask the United Nations about new economic sanctions against Pyongyang.

                              In 1997, French Socialist Party leader Lionel Jospin became prime minister.

                              In 2000, U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Vladimir Putin, meeting in Moscow on a wide range of subjects, were unable to agree on the proposed U.S. missile defense system.

                              In 2003, North Korea accused South Korean navy ships of intruding its territorial waters, warning the border violation would lead to a second war on the Korean peninsula.

                              In 2004, CIA Director George Tenet, criticized for his handling of the terrorist threat, resigned.

                              In 2006, Canadian police said they had arrested 17 people in an alleged plot to commit a series of terror attacks against targets in southern Ontario. The suspects included 12 men and five teenage boys.

                              Also in 2006, an ex-con surrendered in Indianapolis to face charges of killing four adults and three children in what police believe was a robbery gone bad.


                              A thought for the day: Bert Leston Taylor said, "A bore is a man who, when you ask him how he is, tells you."
                              What I once considered boring, I now consider paradise.
                              Faust

                              Comment


                              • And on this date in history another good man was born. Ken Faust who helped many find what they were looking for.
                                Timeshareforums Shirts and Mugs on sale now! http://www.cafepress.com/ts4ms

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X