DBKP Today in Weird History: March 7, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, POLITICS, PATENTS, PROGRESS, COMING WAR, ASSASSINATION, PRONOUNCEMENTS, JAZZ, LABOR, PRO WRESTLING, SPORTS, JEWS, OH NO, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, HEALTH NAZIS, CIVIL RIGHTS,BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

GAMES

1933 Game of "Monopoly" invented.

WAR!

1945 during World War II, U.S. forces crossed the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany, using the damaged but still usable Ludendorff Bridge.

1991 Iraq continues to explode oil fields in Kuwait.

TERRORISM

1981 anti-government guerrillas in Colombia executed kidnapped American Bible translator Chester Allen Bitterman, whom they accused of being a CIA agent.

2007 A suicide attacker blew himself up in a cafe northeast of Baghdad, killing 30 people.

DISASTER

2007 Ten people were killed in the Bronx, N.Y., when fire tore through their home.

CIVIL RIGHTS

1965 A march by civil rights demonstrators was broken up in Selma, Ala., by state troopers and a sheriff's posse.

PRONOUNCEMENTS

1908 Cincinnati Mayor Mark Breith stood before city council & announced that, "women are not physically fit to operate automobiles".

SPORTS

1955 Baseball commissioner Ford Frick says he favors legalization of the spitter.

PRO WRESTLING

1940 Ray Steele beats B Nagurski in St Louis, to become wrestling champion.

HEALTH NAZIS

1997 5 sue Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, because his smoking has violated the country's constitution guaranteeing a wholesome life.

OH NO

1981 1st homicide at Disneyland, 18 year old is stabbed to death.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1993 Diff'rent Stroke actor Todd Bridges arrested for stabbing a tenant.

JAZZ

1917 1st jazz record "Dixie Jazz Band One Step", recorded by Nick LaRocca Original Dixieland Jazz Band, released by RCA Victor in Camden NJ.

LABOR

1932 Riots at Ford-factory Dearborn MI, kills 4.

1967 Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa begins 8-year jail sentence at Lewisburg Federal Prison for defrauding the union & jury tampering (commuted Dec 23, 1971).

KILLERS

2007 Sex offender John Evander Couey was found guilty in Miami of kidnapping, raping and murdering 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was buried alive.

POLITICS

1850 In a 3-hour speech to the U.S. Senate, Daniel Webster endorsed the Compromise of 1850 as a means of preserving the Union.

1975 The Senate revised its filibuster rule, allowing 60 senators to limit debate in most cases, instead of the previously required two-thirds of senators present.

PATENTS

1854 Charles Miller patents 1st US sewing machine to stitch buttonholes

1876 Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for his telephone.

PROGRESS

1926 The first successful trans-Atlantic radio-telephone conversations took place, between New York and London.

JEWS

1977 Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin meets President Carter.

COMING WAR

1774 British close port of Boston to all commerce.

1936 Adolf Hitler ordered his troops to march into the Rhineland, thereby breaking the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact.

1998 Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, speaking in Rome, said the U.S. wouldn't tolerate any more violence in Kosovo, which she blamed on Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

ASSASSINATION

1951 Ali Razmara Shah of Iran (1950-51), assassinated.

BORN

1849 horticulturist Luther Burbank was born in Lancaster, Mass.

BIRTHDAYS

Comedian Alan Sues is 82. Photographer Lord Snowdon is 78. TV personality Willard Scott is 74. Auto racer Janet Guthrie is 70. Actor Daniel J. Travanti is 68. Former Walt Disney Co. chief executive officer Michael Eisner is 66. Rock musician Chris White (The Zombies) is 65. Actor John Heard is 62. Rock singer Peter Wolf is 62. Rock musician Matthew Fisher (Procol Harum) is 62. Football Hall of Famer Franco Harris is 58. Football Hall of Famer Lynn Swann is 56. Rhythm-and-blues singer-musician Ernie Isley (The Isley Brothers) is 56. Actor Bryan Cranston is 52. Actress Donna Murphy is 49. Actor Nick Searcy is 49. Tennis Hall of Famer Ivan Lendl is 48. Actor Bill Brochtrup is 45. Opera singer Denyce Graves is 44. Comedian Wanda Sykes is 44. Singer-actress Taylor Dayne is 43. Rock musician Randy Guss (Toad the Wet Sprocket) is 41. Actor Peter Sarsgaard is 37. Actress Rachel Weisz is 37. Classical singer Sebastien Izambard (Il Divo) is 35. Rock singer Hugo Ferreira (Tantric) is 34. Actress Jenna Fischer is 34. Actress Audrey Marie Anderson is 33. Actress Laura Prepon is 28.

DEATH

322 -BC- Aristotle dies.

1959 Hinsdale Smith developer of roll-down auto windows, dies at 88.

1985 Victor W Farris inventor of paper milk carton, etc, dies.

1988 Divine [Harris Glenn Milstead] transvestite actor (Hairspray, Polyester, Pink Flamingos), dies in Los Angeles at 42.

1999 movie director Stanley Kubrick died in Hertfordshire, England, at age 70.

March 7, the 67th day of 2008. There are 299 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
image: northstargeneral
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History

DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: March 3, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, SPITTING, ANTHEMS, POLITICS, INSPIRING, CLINTONS, IMPEACHED, UNCLE SUGAR, VIDEO, NANNY STATE, TAVERNS, JEWS, CAMELS, SPORTS, JAZZ, JAILBREAK, READ MY LIPS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

VIDEO

1991 In a case that sparked a national outcry, motorist Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers in a scene captured on amateur video.

WAR!

1815 US declares war on Algiers for taking US prisoners & demanding tribute.

1863 1st US wartime military conscription bill enacted.

1878 Russia and the Ottomans signed the treaty of Stenafano. The treaty granted independence to Serbia.

1918 Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which ended Russian participation in World War I. (The treaty was rendered moot by the November 1918 armistice.)

1945 The Allies fully secured the Philippine capital of Manila from Japanese forces during World War II.

TERRORISM

1968 Greece, Portugal & Spain's embassies bombed in the Hague.

2003 Israeli troops arrested Hamas co-founder Mohammed Taha in a deadly raid. (Israel released him 14 months later.)

DISASTER

1943 Bomb-fleeing crowd falls into London shelter; 173 die.

1953 Canadian Comet crashes at Karachi, 11 killed.

1966 Twister hits Jackson MS; 3 minutes after 1st sighting, 57 die.

1974 Nearly 350 people died when a Turkish Airlines DC-10 crashed shortly after takeoff from Orly Airport in Paris.

1991 25 people were killed when a United Airlines Boeing 737-200 crashed while approaching the Colorado Springs airport.

1992 Gas explodes in coal mine at Zonguldak Turkey, 100s die.

2007 President Bush handed out hugs to residents who survived killer tornadoes that ripped through Alabama and Georgia and offered encouraging words at Enterprise High School, where students were grieving the loss of eight classmates.

SPITTING

1903 In St Louis, MO, Barney Gilmore was arrested for spitting.

TAVERNS

1634 1st tavern in Boston opens (Samuel Cole).

CAMELS

1855 Congress approves $30,000 to test camels for military use.

JAILBREAK

1934 John Dillinger breaks out of jail using a wooden pistol.

READ MY LIPS

1992 President Bush apologizes for raising taxes after pledging not to.

CLINTONS

1998 Presidential confidant Vernon Jordan testified before the grand jury investigating the Monica Lewinsky matter.

JAZZ

1931 Cab Calloway records "Minnie the Moocher" (Jazz's 1st million seller).

UNCLE SUGAR

1812 The US Congress passed the first foreign aid bill (aids Venezuela earthquake victims).

SPORTS

1875 1st recorded hockey game (Montréal).

NANNY STATE

1791 1st Internal Revenue Act (taxing distilled spirits & carriages).

2003 President Bush offered a rough blueprint for adding drug benefits to Medicare.

POLITICS

1817 Mississippi Territory is divided into Alabama Territory & Mississippi.

1845 Florida became the 27th state.

1845 The US Congress passed legislation overriding a US President’s veto. It was the first time the Congress had achieved this.

1849 The US Congress created the territory of Minnesota.

1851 The US Congress authorized the 3-cent piece. It was the smallest US silver coin.

1875 The US Congress authorized the 20-cent piece. It was only used for 3 years.

INSPIRING

1887 Anne Sullivan arrived at the Tuscumbia, Alabama, home of Captain and Mrs. Arthur H. Keller to become the teacher for their blind and deaf 6-year-old daughter, Helen.

IMPEACHED

1803 The first impeachment trial of a US Judge, John Pickering, began.

JEWS

1801 1st US Jewish Governor, David Emanuel, takes office in Georgia.

ANTHEMS

1931 President Hoover signed a measure making "The Star-Spangled Banner" the national anthem of the United States.

BORN

1853 Vincent Van Gogh Dutch painter.

1909 Harry Hemsley billionaire New York landlord.

BIRTHDAYS

Socialite Lee Radziwill is 74. Actress Hattie Winston is 62. Singer Jennifer Warnes is 60. Actor-director Tim Kazurinsky is 57. Singer-musician Robyn Hitchcock is 54. Actress Miranda Richardson is 49. Actress Mary Page Keller is 46. Olympic track and field gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee is 45. Football player Herschel Walker is 45. Rapper-actor Tone-Loc is 41. Rock musician John Bigham is 38. Actress Julie Bowen is 37. Country singer Brett Warren (The Warren Brothers) is 36. Actor David Faustino is 33. Singer Ronan Keating (Boyzone) is 30. Rapper Lil' Flip is 26. Actress Jessica Biel is 25.

DEATH

1966 Alice Pearce comedienne (Gladys Kravitz-Bewitched), dies at 52.

1966 William Frawley actor (Fred Mertz-I Love Lucy), dies at 89.

1987 Danny Kaye comedian (Danny Kaye Show), dies at 74.

1998 Former CBS News president Fred W. Friendly died in New York at age 82.

2007 Malcolm Kilduff, the White House spokesman who announced to a shocked world the death of President Kennedy, died in Beattyville, Kentucky, at age 75.

March 3rd, the 63rd day of 2008. There are 303 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
image: echo
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 29, 2008

WAR, DISASTER, REPORTS, QUICK-THINKING, MOVIES, VAVOOM, MUSIC, QUITTING, SCIENCE, RATINGS, POLITICS, KILLERS, UNUSUAL, BURNED, KINK, SPORTS, WHAT, RECORDS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

QUICK-THINKING

1504 Christopher Columbus, stranded in Jamaica during his fourth voyage to the West, used a correctly predicted lunar eclipse to frighten hostile natives into providing food for his crew.

You might be interested in reading: Leap Day: Facts, Figures, Birthdays and Famous Events

WAR!

1856 Hostilities in Russo-Turkish War cease.

1944 US troops land on Los Negros, Admirality Islands.

DISASTER

1960 Earthquake kills 1/3 of Agadir Morocco population (12,000) in 15 seconds.

1996 A Peruvian commercial jetliner crashed in the Andes, killing all 123 people on board.

UNUSUAL

1904 Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenberdorft Sr near Hamburg, Germany; had a Christian name for every letter in the alphabet, shortened it to Mr Wolfe Plus 585 Sr.

VAVOOM!

1960, the first Playboy Club, featuring waitresses clad in "bunny" outfits, opened in Chicago.

KINK

1784 Marquis de Sade transferred from Vincennes fortress to the Bastille.

RECORDS

1964 Frank Rugani sets badminton shuttlecock distance record, 24.3 meters.

WHAT?

1988 NYC Mayor Koch calls Reagan a "WIMP" in the war on drugs.

POLITICS

1956 Islamic Republic established in Pakistan.

2000 George W. Bush won Republican presidential primaries in Virginia, Washington state and North Dakota, defeating John McCain; Vice President Al Gore crushed fellow Democrat Bill Bradley in Washington state.

SPORTS

1964 North Carolina high school basketball teams play to 56-54 score in 13 overtime.

KILLERS

1996 Daniel Green was convicted in Lumberton, North Carolina, of murdering James R. Jordan, the father of basketball star Michael Jordan, during a 1993 roadside holdup. (Green and an accomplice, Larry Martin Demery, were sentenced to life in prison.)

2000 Six-year-old Kayla Rolland was fatally shot by a fellow first-grader at Buell Elementary School in Mount Morris Township, Michigan.

REPORTS

1968 President Lyndon B. Johnson's National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (also known as the Kerner Commission) warned that racism was causing America to move "toward two societies, one black, one white -- separate and unequal."

BURNED

1528 Patrick Hamilton Scottish protestant martyr, burned at stake.

MOVIES

1940 "Gone with the Wind" won eight Academy Awards, including best picture of 1939.

2000 "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" won a record-tying 11 Academy Awards, including best picture; Sean Penn took the best-actor prize for "Mystic River" and Charlize Theron won best actress for "Monster."

SCIENCE

1968 the discovery of the first "pulsar," a star which emits regular radio waves, was announced by Dr. Jocelyn Bell Burnell in Cambridge, England.

MUSIC

1968 at the Grammy Awards, the 5th Dimension's "Up, Up and Away" won record of the year for 1967, while album of the year honors went to The Beatles for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

QUITTING

1984 Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau announced he was stepping down after more than 15 combined years in power.

2000 Facing rebellion, Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned and left for exile in the Central African Republic.

RATINGS

1996 About 30 television and entertainment industry executives met with President Clinton at the White House, where they promised to devise a TV ratings system.

BORN

1908 The artist known as Balthus was born in Paris.

1936 Henri "Rocket" Richard NHL center (Montréal Canadiens).

1944 Dennis Farina Chicago IL, actor (Mike Torello-Crime Story).

BIRTHDAYS

Actress Michele Morgan is 88. Actor James Mitchell is 88. Actor Joss Ackland is 80. Actor Alex Rocco is 72. Former space shuttle astronaut Jack Lousma is 72. Actor Dennis Farina is 64. Actress Phyllis Frelich is 64. Actor Antonio Sabato Jr. is 36. Rapper Ja Rule is 32.

DEATH

1992 Johnny Mack British actor (Time Lord-Dr Who), dies at 70.

2000 Playwright Jerome Lawrence died in Malibu, California, at age 88.

February 29th, the 60th day of 2008. There are 306 days left in the year. This is Leap Day.

compiled by Mondoreb
image: eaae
Sources:
* Today in History

* Today in History
* Today in History



DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 25, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, LEVIATHAN, BUSINESS, PATENTS, COMMIES, ACTIVIST COURT, SPORTS, RUN, SPEECH, EXECUTED, GUILLOTINED, LYNCHED, EXCOMMUNICATION, MONKEYS, E PLURIBUS PLURIBUS, RECORDS, GREENBACKS, CONDEMNED, DALI LAMA, TAXES, INFLATION, NAZIS, JEWS, MOONIES, SERIAL KILLERS, BICYCLES, AH ONE AND AH TWO, FAST, TV BREAKDOWNS, HOOKERS, WHEN HE'S DOWN, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

LEVIATHAN

1913 the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving Congress the power to levy and collect income taxes, was declared in effect by Secretary of State Philander Chase Knox.

WAR!

1779 American forces led by George Rogers Clark routed the British from Fort Sackville in the Revolutionary War Battle of Vincennes in present-day Indiana.

1991 During the Persian Gulf War, 28 Americans were killed when an Iraqi Scud missile hit a U.S. barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

2003 Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said Iraq was showing new signs of real cooperation, but President Bush was dismissive, predicting Saddam Hussein would try to "fool the world one more time."

TERRORISM

1995 Bomb attack on train in Assam India (27 soldiers killed).

1995 Moslem fundamentalists shoot 20 Shiite mosque goers dead.

2007 A female suicide bomber triggered a ball bearing-packed charge, killing at least 41 people at a mostly Shiite college in Baghdad.

DISASTERS

1977 Oil tanker explosion west of Honolulu spills 31 million gallons.

1984 Oil fire in Cubatao Brazil kills 500.

1994 Peruvian Yak-40 crashes into mountain near Tingo Maria, kills 31.

MONKEYS

1751 1st performing monkey exhibited in America, NYC (admission 1¢).

RECORDS

1838 London pedestrian walks 20 miles backward then forward in 8 hours.

CONDEMNED

1885 US Congress condemns barbed wire around government grounds.

PATENTS

1836 inventor Samuel Colt patented his revolver.

TV BREAKDOWNS

1990 On a BBC taped interview, rock star Stevie Nicks breaks down, saying that she will never have children & no man can stand her for long.

DALI LAMA

1910 Dali Lama flees Tibet from Chinese troop to British-Indies.

WHEN HE'S DOWN

1995 British heavyweight Nigel Benn hits Gerard McClellan in hospital.

HOOKERS

1998 Switzerland's 1st legal brothel opens in Zurich.

INFLATION

1923 Bread in Berlin rises to 2,000 mark.

AH ONE AND AH TWO

1982 Final episode of "The Lawrence Welk Show" airs.

GUILLOTINED

1922 Henri-Désiré Landru French sex murderer, guillotined at 52.

TAXES

1919 Oregon is 1st state to tax gasoline (1¢ per gallon).

GREENBACKS

1862 Paper currency (greenbacks) introduced in US by President Abraham Lincoln.

EXCOMMUNICATION

1570 Pius V excommunicates Elizabeth, absolves her subjects from allegiance.

NAZIS

1932 Immigrant Adolf Hitler gets German citizenship.

CHOKED

1983 Tennessee Williams writer (Streetcar Named Desire), reportedly chokes to death on a bottle cap at 71.

SERIAL KILLERS

1973 Juan Corona sentenced to 25 life sentences for 25 murders.

E PLURIBUS PLURIBUS

1803 1,800 sovereign German states unite into 60 states.

LYNCHED

1994 Baruch Goldstein physician/murderer (53 in mosque), lynched at 42.

BICYCLES

1974 Veronica & Colin Scargill (England) begin tandem bicycle ride a record 18,020 miles around the world, completed on August 27, 1975.

FAST

1982 Record speed for a snowmobile (239 kph).

BUSINESS

1901 U.S. Steel Corp. was incorporated by J.P. Morgan.

JEWS

1941 February strike against persecution of Jews, in Amsterdam.

MOONIES

1968 430 Unification Church couples wed in Korea.

COMMIES

1948 Communists seized power in Czechoslovakia.

ACTIVIST COURT

1957 The Supreme Court, in Butler v. Michigan, overturned a Michigan statute making it a misdemeanor to sell books containing obscene language that would tend to corrupt "the morals of youth."

SPEECH

2007 In Detroit, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan stressed religious unity during what was billed as his final major speech, saying the world was at war because Christians and Muslims were divided.

EXECUTED

1601 Robert Devereux Earl of Essex, executed for treason against Elizabeth.

SPORTS

1964 Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali), a 7-1 underdog, became world heavyweight boxing champion by defeating Sonny Liston in Miami Beach, Fla.

1989 Dallas Cowboys fire coach Tom Landry after a 29-year career.

RUN!

In 1986, President Ferdinand Marcos fled the Philippines after 20 years of rule in the wake of a tainted election; Corazon Aquino assumed the presidency.

BORN

1841 Pierre Auguste Renoir Limoges France, Impressionist painter/sculptor.

1901 [Herbert] Zeppo Marx New York NY, comedian/actor (Marx Brothers).

1906 Domingo Ortega Spanish bullfighter.

BIRTHDAYS

Country singer Ralph Stanley is 81. TV writer-producer Larry Gelbart is 80. Actor Tom Courtenay is 71. CBS newsman Bob Schieffer is 71. Actress Diane Baker is 70. Actress Karen Grassle is 64. Movie director Neil Jordan is 58. Rock musician Dennis Diken (The Smithereens) is 51. Rock singer-musician Mike Peters (The Alarm) is 49. Actress Veronica Webb is 43. Actor Alexis Denisof is 42. Actress Tea Leoni is 42. Comedian Carrot Top is 41. Actress Lesley Boone is 40. Actor Sean Astin is 37. Singer Daniel Powter is 37. Latin singer Julio Iglesias Jr. is 35. Rhythm-and-blues singer Justin Jeffre is 35. Rock musician Richard Liles is 35. Actor Anson Mount is 35. Actress Rashida Jones is 32. Actor Justin Berfield is 22. Actors Oliver and James Phelps ("Harry Potter" movies) are 22.

DEATH

1994 Jersey Joe Walcott boxer, dies at 80.

February 25, the 56th day of 2008. There are 310 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
image: history
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 21, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, LANDMARKS, PROGRESS, CHINA CARD, JEWS, WATERGATE, ADVENTURE, POLITICS, DIPLOMACY, SPORTS, DRAWN and QUARTERED, EJECTED, SALUTE, MONEY, ALARMS, BOOKS, BRAINS, FIZZ, PRO WRESTLING, SCIENCE, BEATLES, MUSIC, MOONIES, SERIAL KILLERS, RECORDS, TV PREACHERS, DRUGS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

TERRORISM

1965 black Muslim leader and civil rights activist Malcolm X, 39, was shot to death inside the Audubon Ballroom in New York by assassins identified as members of the Nation of Islam.

WAR!

1862 Texas Rangers win Confederate victory at Battle of Val Verde, New Mexico.

1916 the World War I Battle of Verdun began in France as German forces attacked; the French were able to prevail after 10 months of fighting.

2003 Chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix ordered the destruction of dozens of Iraqi missiles with ranges that violated U.N. limits.

2007 British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced his country would withdraw around 1,600 troops from Iraq in the coming months; Denmark, meanwhile, said it would withdraw its 460 troops.

DISASTER

1917 Train near Chirurcha Romania catches fire & explodes; 100s die.

1922 Airship Rome explodes at Hampton Roads Virginia; 34 die.

1971 Series of tornadoes cuts through Mississippi & Louisiana killing 117.

2003 The owners of The Station nightclub in West Warwick, R.I., where 100 people perished in a fast-moving fire the night before, denied giving the rock band Great White permission to use fireworks blamed for setting off the blaze, although the band's singer insisted the use of pyrotechnics had been approved.

DRAWN & QUARTERED

1803 Edward Despard last person drawn & quartered in England.

PRO WRESTLING

1947 Whipper Billy Watson beats Bill Longson, to become wrestling champion.

EJECTED

1764 John Wilkes thrown out of English House of Commons for "Essay on Women".

FIZZ

1931 Alka Seltzer introduced.

RECORDS

1983 Donald Davis runs 1 mile backwards in 6 minutes 7.1 seconds.

SALUTE

1777 English ambassador Joseph Yorke demands dismissal of Governor John de Graaff for saluting US flag.

BEATLES

1964 UK flies 24,000 rolls of Beatle wallpaper to US.

TV PREACHERS

1988 During a live TV broadcast, televangelist Jimmy Swaggart (age 52) admitted to visiting a prostitute, then announced he would be leaving his ministry for an unspecified length of time. (Defrocked in April by the Assemblies of God, he was ordered to stay off TV for a year, but returned after only three months).

MONEY

1857 Congress outlaws foreign currency as legal tender in US.

BRAINS

1902 Dr Harvey Cushing, 1st US brain surgeon, does his 1st brain operation.

ALARMS

1858 Edwin T Holmes installs 1st electric burglar alarm (Boston MA).

SERIAL KILLERS

1981 "Yorkshire Ripper" Peter Sutcliffe, murderer of 13 women, captured.

BOOKS

1878 1st telephone directory (with 50 names) issued (New Haven CT).

SCIENCE

1953 F Crick & J Watson discover structure of DNA-molecule.

DRUGS

1989 US bust Chinese heroin ring, capture record 820 lbs heroin ($1 billion street value).

LANDMARKS

1885 the Washington Monument was dedicated.

MUSIC

1970 Jackson 5 make TV debut on "American Bandstand".


PROGRESS

1947 Edwin H. Land publicly demonstrated his Polaroid Land camera, which could produce a black-and-white photograph in 60 seconds.

CHINA CARD

1972 President Nixon began his historic visit to China as he and his wife, Pat, arrived in Shanghai.

JEWS

1943 Dutch Roman Catholic bishops protest against persecution of Jews.

1973 Israeli fighter planes shot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 over the Sinai Desert, killing more than 100 people.

1974 Israeli forces leave western Suez.

WATERGATE

1975 Former Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman were sentenced to 2 1/2 to 8 years in prison for their roles in the Watergate cover-up.

ADVENTURE

1995 Chicago adventurer Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon, landing in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada.

POLITICS

2000 Consumer advocate Ralph Nader announced his entry into the presidential race, bidding for the nomination of the Green Party.

DIPLOMACY

1998 U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan began formal talks with Iraqi officials in the standoff over weapons inspections.

SPORTS

1979 2 Iowa girls High School basketball teams play 4 scoreless quarters; the game was won 4-2 in the 4th overtime period.

2003 Michael Jordan became the first 40-year-old in NBA history to score 40 or more points, getting 43 in the Washington Wizards' 89-86 win over the New Jersey Nets.

MOONIES

1977 74 Unification Church couples wed in New York NY.

BORN

1794 Antonio López de Santa Anna President of México (1833-36).

1887 Savielly [Xavier] G Tartakower Austrian/Polish/French chess player.

1893 Andrés Segovia Linares Spain, classical guitarist.

1907 Anglo-American poet W.H. Auden was born in York, England.

1914 Arnold S Denker New York, US chess champion (1944-46).

1927 Erma Bombeck Dayton OH, humorist (The Grass is Always Greener...).

BIRTHDAYS

Fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy is 81. Movie director Bob Rafelson is 75. Actress Rue McClanahan is 73. Actor Gary Lockwood is 71. Actor Peter McEnery is 68. Film/music company executive David Geffen is 65. Actor Alan Rickman is 62. Actress Tyne Daly is 62. Actor Anthony Daniels is 62. Tricia Nixon Cox is 62. Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, is 61. Rock musician Jerry Harrison (The Talking Heads) is 59. Actress Christine Ebersole is 55. Actor William Petersen is 55. Actor Kelsey Grammer is 53. Country singer Mary Chapin Carpenter is 50. Actor Jack Coleman is 50. Actor Christopher Atkins is 47. Rock singer Ranking Roger is 47. Actor William Baldwin is 45. Rock musician Michael Ward is 41. Actress Aunjanue Ellis is 39. Blues musician Corey Harris is 39. Country singer Eric Heatherly is 38. Rock musician Eric Wilson is 38. Rock musician Tad Kinchla (Blues Traveler) is 35. Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt is 29. Singer Charlotte Church is 22. Actress Ellen Page (Film: "Juno") is 21. Actor Corbin Bleu is 19.

DEATH

1991 Dame Margot Fonteyn ballerina, dies of cancer at 71.

February 21, the 52nd day of 2008. There are 314 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
image: umn
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 16, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, PIRATES, SOCIETIES, TOMBS, DICTATORS, 911, RAMPAGE, DEMONSTRATIONS, DEMOCRATS, SPORTS, ELECTROCUTED, EXECUTED, SNEEZE, JEWS, CHECKS, WOMEN, CLUBS, DOORS, PATENTS, LEVIATHAN, NAZIS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, DEATH PENALTY, SWIM, BEATLES, TRAFFIC, RADICALS, BLIMPS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH


WAR!

1862 during the Civil War, some 14,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered at Fort Donelson, Tenn. (Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's victory earned him the nickname "Unconditional Surrender Grant.")

1942 German submarines attack Aruba oil refinery.

1945 American troops landed on the island of Corregidor in the Philippines during World War II.

TERRORISM

1992 Abbas Musawi leader of Hezbollah, assassinated.

2007 An Italian judge indicted 25 suspected CIA agents and a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel in the alleged kidnapping of an Egyptian terror suspect. (The proceedings have been suspended pending a ruling on the Italian government's request to throw out the indictments.)

DISASTER

1994 6.5 earthquake strikes SE Sumatra, kills 200.

1996 11 people were killed in a fiery collision between an Amtrak passenger train and a Maryland commuter train in Silver Spring, Md.

1998 A China Airlines Airbus A300-600R trying to land in fog near Taipei, Taiwan, crashed, killing all 196 people on board and six people on the ground.

SNEEZE

600 Pope Gregory the Great decrees saying "God bless You" is the correct response to a sneeze.

WOMEN

1838 Kentucky passes law permitting women to attend school under conditions.

TRAFFIC

1980 Continuous traffic jam extends 176 km north of Lyons, France.

BLIMPS

1992 Former silver Goodyear blimps are now painted yellow & blue.

CLUBS

1905 1st US Esperanto club organizes in Boston.

NAZIS

1943 Sign on Munich facade "Out with Hitler! Long live freedom!" done by "White Rose" student group, caught on 2/18, beheaded on 2/22.

PATENTS

1932 1st patent issued for a tree, to James Markham for a peach tree.

1937 DuPont Corp patents nylon, developed by employee Wallace H Carothers.

PIRATES!

1804 Lt. Stephen Decatur led a successful raid into Tripoli Harbor to burn the U.S. Navy frigate Philadelphia, which had fallen into the hands of pirates.

DOORS

1909 1st subway car with side doors goes into service (New York NY).

BEATLES

1968 Beatles George Harrison & John Lennon & wives fly to India for transcendental meditation study with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

JEWS

1349 Jews are expelled from Burgsdorf Switzerland.

1917 1st synagogue in 425 years opens in Madrid.

SWIM

1963 1st round-trip swim of Strait of Messina, Italy (Mary Revell of US)

CHECKS

1659 1st known check (£400) (on display at Westminster Abbey).

LEVIATHAN

1938 US Federal Crop Insurance program authorized.

DEATH PENALTY

1956 Britain abolishes the death penalty.

RADICALS

1989 Jane Fonda & Tom Hayden separate after 16 years of marriage.

DEMONSTRATION

2003 More than 100,000 people demonstrated in the streets of San Francisco to protest a possible U.S. invasion of Iraq.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1948 1st newsreel telecast, "20th Century Fox-Movietone News" shown on NBC.

1950 Longest-running prime-time game show, "What's My Line" begins on CBS.

EXECUTED

1979 Nematullah Nassiri Iran General/head of Savak, executed.

DEMOCRATS

2007 The Democratic-controlled House issued a symbolic rejection of President Bush's decision to deploy more troops to Iraq, approving the nonbinding resolution by a vote of 246-182.

SOCIETIES

1868 The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was organized in New York City.

TOMBS

1923 The burial chamber of King Tutankhamen's recently unearthed tomb was unsealed in Egypt by English archaeologist Howard Carter.

DICTATORS

1959 Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.

ELECTROCUTED

1936 Tommy Ward South African cricket wicket keeper (23 Tests), electrocuted.

911

1968 the nation's first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated, in Haleyville, Ala.

RAMPAGE

1988, Seven people were shot to death during an office rampage in Sunnyvale, Calif., by a man who was obsessed with a co-worker. (The gunman, Richard Farley, is under sentence of death.)

SPORTS

2003 Michael Waltrip raced past leader Jimmie Johnson to win the rain-shortened Daytona 500 for the second time in three years.

BORN

1903 Edgar Bergen Chicago IL, ventriloquist (Charlie McCarthy).

1906 Vera Menchik Moscow, 1st official women's world chess champion (1927).

BIRTHDAYS

Singer Patty Andrews is 90. Kim Jong Il, the president of North Korea, is 66. Actor Jeremy Bulloch is 62. Actor Pete Postlethwaite is 62. Actor William Katt is 57. Actor LeVar Burton is 51. Actor-rapper Ice-T is 50. Actress Lisa Loring is 50. Tennis Hall of Fame player John McEnroe is 49. Rock musician Andy Taylor is 47. Rock musician Dave Lombardo (Slayer) is 43. Rock musician Taylor Hawkins (Foofighters) is 36. Singer Sam Salter is 30. Rapper Lupe Fiasco is 26. Actor Mike Weinberg is 15.

DEATH

1977 Janani Luwum, the Anglican archbishop of Uganda, and two other men were killed in what Ugandan authorities said was an automobile accident.

2003 Eleanor "Sis" Daley, the matriarch of Chicago's Daley political clan, died at age 95.

February 16, the 47th day of 2008. There are 319 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
image: clangrant
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History



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