DBKP Today in Weird History: March 13, 2008

WAR, DISASTER, SCIENCE, RESIGNING, MURDER, TRAGEDY, ABORTION, JEWS, DEALS, ICONS, PATENTS, ATTEMPTS, ASSASSINATION, NAZIS, CLIMATE, INVENTIONS, TRIALS, POLITICALLY CORRECT, ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH
Then...

ICONS

1852 Uncle Sam cartoon figure made its debut in the New York Lantern weekly.

...and later

WAR!

2003 U.S. officials said President Bush might delay a vote on his troubled United Nations resolution or even drop it - and fight Iraq without the international body's backing.

DISASTER

1895 Spanish cruiser Reina Regente sinks off Gibraltar, 402 die.

1928 Hundreds of people died when the San Francisquito Valley in California was inundated with water after the St. Francis Dam burst just before midnight the evening of March 12.

1961 Landslide in USSR, kills 145.

1992 570 die in a Turkish earthquake.

1994 Oil tank/airship crash at Bosporus (huge fire/15+ killed).

ATTEMPTS

1915 Dodgers manager Wilbert Robinson tries to catch a baseball dropped from an airplane, but the pilot substituted a grapefruit.

PATENTS

1887 Chester Greenwood of Maine patents earmuffs.

DEALS

1677 Massachusetts gains title to Maine for $6,000.

CLIMATE

1888 Great Blizzard of 1888 rages.

1993 Blizzard of '93 hits north-east US.

INVENTIONS

1894 J L Johnstone of England invents horse racing starting gate.

ASSASSINATION

1981 Attempt on Pope John Paul II by Mehemet Ali Agca.

NAZIS

1933 Josef Göbbels becomes German minister of Information & Propaganda.

1938 Anschluß-Austria annexed by Nazi Germany.

TRIALS

1998 Sgt. Maj. Gene McKinney, once the Army's top enlisted man, was acquitted at his court-martial of pressuring military women for sex, but was convicted of trying to persuade his chief accuser to lie.

SCIENCE

1781 The planet Uranus was discovered by Sir William Herschel. He thought it was a comet.

1925 A law went into effect in Tennessee prohibiting the teaching of the theory of evolution.

JEWS

1656 Jews are denied the right to build a synagogue in New Amsterdam.

1951 Israel demands DM 6.2 billion compensation from Germany.

MURDER

1964 Bar manager Catherine "Kitty" Genovese, 28, was stabbed to death near her New York home; the case generated controversy over charges that Genovese's neighbors had failed to respond to her cries for help.

RESIGNING

1980 Ford Motor Co. Chairman Henry Ford II announced he was stepping down, the same day a jury in Winamac, Ind., found the company innocent of reckless homicide in the fiery deaths of three young women in a Ford Pinto.

2007 Attorney General Alberto Gonzales admitted mistakes in how the Justice Department handled the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors but said he wouldn't resign.

POLITICALLY CORRECT

1988 yielding to student protests, the board of trustees of Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., a liberal arts college for the hearing-impaired, chose I. King Jordan to become the school's first deaf president.

TRAGEDY

1996 a gunman burst into an elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, and opened fire, killing 16 children and one teacher before killing himself.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

2007 President Bush sought to soothe strained ties with Mexico by promising to prod Congress to overhaul tough U.S. immigration policies, but Mexican President Felipe Calderon criticized U.S. plans for a 700-mile border fence.

ABORTION

2003 The Senate voted 64-33 to ban partial birth abortion.

BORN

1733 Joseph Priestly England, clergyman/scientist (discovered oxygen).

1770 Daniel Lambert England, giant (weighed 739 lbs (334 kg) at death).

1908 American billionaire, publisher and diplomat Walter Annenberg (TV Guide) was born in Milwaukee.

BIRTHDAYS

Jazz musician Roy Haynes is 83. Country singer Jan Howard is 78. Songwriter Mike Stoller is 75. Singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka is 69. Actor William H. Macy is 58. Actress Deborah Raffin is 55. Comedian Robin Duke is 54. Actress Glenne Headly is 53. Actress Dana Delany is 52. Rock musician Adam Clayton (U2) is 48. Jazz musician Terence Blanchard is 46. Actor Christopher Collet is 40. Actress Annabeth Gish is 37. Actress Tracy Wells is 37. Rapper Common is 36. Rapper Khujo (Goodie Mob, The Lumberjacks) is 36. Singer Glenn Lewis is 33. Actor Danny Masterson is 32. Actor Emile Hirsch is 23. Singers Nicole and Natalie Albino (Nina Sky) are 22.

DEATH

1901 Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States, died in Indianapolis.

1938 Clarence S Darrow Scopes Monkey Trial attorney, dies in Chicago at 80.

Today is March 13, the 73rd day of the year. There are 293 days left in 2008.

compiled by Mondoreb
images:
* sonofthesouth
* allposters
Sources:
* today in history
* Today in History
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Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 18, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, REBELS, SCIENCE, TRIALS, CLINTONS, DEATH BY WINE, QUAKERS, BEHEADED, ENLIGHTENED, POLITICS, DRY, PATENTS, FLYING COWS, PROGRESS, CLASSIC, OCTOPUS, CLIMATE CHANGE, MARRIAGE, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

CLASSIC

1885 Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" published.

WAR!

1865 Evacuation of Charleston SC; Sherman's troops burn the city.

2003 Declaring that America's security should not be dictated by protesters, President Bush said he would not be swayed from compelling Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to disarm.

TERRORISM

1969 PLO-attack El-Al plane in Zurich Switzerland.

2003 An arson attack on two South Korean subway trains in the city of Daegu claimed 198 lives. (The arsonist was sentenced to life in prison.)

2007 A pair of bombs on a train headed from India to Pakistan killed 68 people.

2007 Twin car bombs blew up in a mostly Shiite area of Baghdad, killed at least 62 people.

DISASTER

1828 More than 100 vessels destroyed in a storm, Gibraltar.

1947 24 die in a train crash in Gallitzin PA.

1965 27 copper miners die in avalanche, Granduc Mountain British Columbia.

2007 A military helicopter crashed in southeastern Afghanistan, killing eight U.S. service members; 14 survived with injuries.

DEATH BY WINE

1478 Duke of Clarence forced drowning in a wine barrel.

FLYING COWS

1930 First cow milked in an airplane. Olly the Cow flown & milked, milk sealed in paper containers & parachuted over St. Louis MO.

PROGRESS

1953 Premiere of 1st 3-D feature film-"Bwana Devil" (New York NY).

OCTOPUS

1973 54-kg octopus measuring 7 meter across captured in Hood Canal, Washington.

CLIMATE CHANGE

1979 Snow falls in the Sahara Desert.

MARRIAGE

1995 Pamela Anderson (Baywatch) & Tommy Lee (Motley Crüe) wed.

ENLIGHTENED

1787 Austrian emperor Jozef II bans children under 8 from labor.

PATENTS

1901 H Cecil Booth patented a dust removing suction cleaner.

DRY

1896 Cave of Winds at Niagara Falls goes almost dry for 1st time in 50 years.

BEHEADED

1587 Mary Stuart Queen of Scots (1560-87), beheaded at 44.

CLINTONS

1998 President Clinton's foreign policy team encountered jeers during a town meeting at The Ohio State University while trying to defend the administration's threat to bomb Iraq into compliance with U.N. weapons edicts.

QUAKERS

1688 Quakers conduct 1st formal protest of slavery in Germantown PA.

POLITICS

1841 1st continuous filibuster in US Senate began, lasting until March 11.

TRIALS

1970 the "Chicago Seven" defendants were found innocent of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention; five were convicted of violating the Anti-Riot Act of 1968. (Those convictions were later reversed).

SCIENCE

1930 photographic evidence of Pluto (now designated a "dwarf planet") was discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz.

1977 the space shuttle Enterprise, sitting atop a Boeing 747, went on its maiden "flight" above the Mojave Desert.

REBELS

1861 Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the provisional president of the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, Ala.

BORN

1516 Mary I Tudor [Bloody Mary] Greenwich, (1553-58), 1st reigning queen of Great Britain.

1859 Sholem Aleichem [Solomon Rabinowitz], author (Fiddler on the Roof).

1890 Boris L Pasternak Russian poet/writer (Dr Zhivago).

1892 Wendell Wilkie Presidential candidate (R-1940)/author (One World).

1895 George "The Gipper" Gipp Notre Dame football star.

1920 Jack Palance [Walter Palanuik], Lattimer PA, actor (City Slickers).

BIRTHDAYS

Former Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown is 86. Actor George Kennedy is 83. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., is 81. Author Toni Morrison is 77. Movie director Milos Forman is 76. Singer Yoko Ono is 75. Singer/songwriter Bobby Hart is 69. Singer Irma Thomas is 67. Singer Herman Santiago (Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers) is 67. Singer Dennis DeYoung is 61. Actress Sinead Cusack is 60. Producer-director-writer John Hughes is 58. Actress Cybill Shepherd is 58. Singer Juice Newton is 56. Singer Randy Crawford is 56. Rock musician Robbie Bachman is 55. Rock musician Larry Rust (Iron Butterfly) is 55. Actor John Travolta is 54. Game show host Vanna White is 51. Actress Greta Scacchi is 48. Actor Matt Dillon is 44. Rapper Dr. Dre is 43. Actress Molly Ringwald is 40. Actress Sarah Brown is 33. Singer-musician Sean Watkins (Nickel Creek) is 31. Actor Tyrone Burton is 29. Actor Shane Lyons is 20.

DEATH

1546 Martin Luther, leader of the Protestant Reformation in Germany, died in Eisleben.

1564 artist Michelangelo died in Rome.

1967 American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer died in Princeton, N.J., at age 62.

1990 Hulk fictional character in "Death of Incredible Hulk" on NBC, dies.

1998 Sportscaster Harry Caray died in Rancho Mirage, Calif., at age 83.

2001 NASCAR driver/"The Intimidator", dies in crash during Daytona 500 at 49.

2003 Country singer Johnny PayCheck died in Nashville, Tenn., at age 64.

February 18, the 49th day of 2008. There are 317 days left in the year. This is Presidents Day.

by Mondoreb
image: teachwithmovies
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 13, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, BEHEADED, IMPRISONED, TRIALS, JEWS, RIOT, OUTLAWS, PATENTS, TOMBS, INTRO, TOYS, GOLF, MAN-EATERS, FINANCE, SPORTS, EDUCATION, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, MUSIC, RIGGED, NUKES, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH


NUKES

1960 France exploded its first atomic bomb.

WAR!

1942 Hitler's Operation Seelöwe (invasion of England) cancelled.

1945 Allied planes bomb Dresden Germany; 135,000 die.

1945 USSR captures Budapest, after 49-day battle with Germany; 159,000 die.

1968 US sends 10,500 additional soldiers to Vietnam.

2007 With Democrats in control, House members debated Iraq in an emotional and historic faceoff over a war that Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned as a commitment with "no end in sight."

TERRORISM

2003 A U.S. government plane carrying four Americans and a Colombian went down in rebel territory in southern Colombia; the executed bodies of an American and the Colombian were found in the wreckage.

DISASTER

1994 Ship disaster near Ranong Thailand, kills 200.

MAN-EATERS

1970 Man-eating tiger is reported to have killed 48, 80 km from New Delhi.

TOMBS

1924 King Tut's tomb opened.

OUTLAWS

1866 Jesse James holds up his 1st bank, Liberty MO ($15,000).

RIOT

1837 Riot in New York over high price of flour.

GOLF

1971 Golfing Vice President Spiro Agnew hits 2 tee shots into the crowd, injuring 2.

TOYS

1959 Barbie doll goes on sale.

IMPRISONED

1777 Marquis de Sade arrested without charge, imprisoned in Vincennes fortress.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1981 Longest sentence published by New York Times-1286 words.

RIGGED

2002 The French judge was accused of throwing the pairs skating decision to the Russians at the Olympics.

MUSIC

1982 Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" is on the charts for 402nd week.

EDUCATION

1795 The University of North Carolina became the first U.S. state university to admit students with the arrival of Hinton James, who was the only student on campus for two weeks.

PATENTS

1895 Moving picture projector patented.

POLITICS

2007 Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney officially entered the 2008 presidential race in Michigan, the place of his birth.

FINANCE

1973 US dollar devalues 10%.

1985 Dow Jones closes at 1297.92 (record high) after topping 1300 earlier.

INTRO

1932 "Free Eats" introduces George "Spanky" McFarland to "Our Gang".

TRIALS

1633 Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for trial before Inquisition for professing belief that earth revolves around the Sun.

1935 Bruno Hauptmann found guilty of kidnap & murder of Lindbergh's infant.

2003 Clara Harris, who'd run down her cheating husband with her Mercedes after catching him with his mistress, was convicted by a Houston jury of murder despite her claim that she'd hit him accidentally while in a heartsick daze. (Harris was sentenced to 20 years in prison.)

JEWS

1349 Jews are expelled from Burgsordf Switzerland.

1941 Nazi leaders attack Dutch Jewish Council.

1955 Israel acquires 4 of 7 Dead Sea scrolls.

SPORTS

1974 James "Cool Papa" Bell is named to baseball's Hall of Fame.

BEHEADED

1542 Catherine Howard queen of England/5th wife of Henry VIII, is beheaded.

BORN

1766 Thomas Malthus Rookery Surrey UK, economist/demographer/population expert (Law of Malthus).

1849 Lord Randolph Churchill England, politician, Winston's father.

1875 Kanouse quintuplets Watertown WI, 1st quintuplets in US, born to Edna Kanouse.

1919 Tennessee Ernie Ford Bristol TN, country singer/actor (pea picker).

BIRTHDAYS

Former test pilot Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager is 85. Actress Kim Novak is 75. Actor George Segal is 74. Actress Carol Lynley is 66. Singer-musician Peter Tork (The Monkees) is 66. Actress Stockard Channing is 64. Talk show host Jerry Springer is 64. Actor Bo Svenson is 64. Singer Peter Gabriel is 58. Actor David Naughton is 57. Rock musician Peter Hook is 52. Actor Matt Salinger is 48. Singer Henry Rollins is 47. Actor Neal McDonough is 42. Singer Freedom Williams is 42. Actress Kelly Hu is 40. Rock musician Todd Harrell (3 Doors Down) is 36. Singer Robbie Williams is 34. Rhythm-and-blues performer Natalie Stewart (Floetry) is 29. Actress Mena Suvari is 29.

DEATH

1980 David Janssen [Meyer], actor (Fugitive, Harry O), dies at 49.

1982 Zeng Jinlian Hunan China, grew to 8'1" (tallest woman), dies at 17.

2003 Walt W. Rostow, an adviser to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, died in Austin, Texas, at age 86.

February 13, the 44th day of the year. There are 322 days left in 2008.

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



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.