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Friday! History, Space, Music, Cinema, Quotes, More!

Friday, March 09

The original post here: http://apsense.cc/843b4d

 
On This Date In 1513 Pope Leo X (December 11, 1475 – December 1, 1521) was elected Pope, and served from 1513 to his death. He was the last non-priest to be elected Pope. He is known primarily for the sale of indulgences to reconstruct St. Peter's Basilica and his challenging of Martin Luther's 95 theses. He was the second son of Lorenzo de' Medici, the most famous ruler of the Florentine Republic, and Clarice Orsini.
On This Date In 1781 During the American Revolutionary War, Spanish General Bernardo de Galvez, with a fleet of some 30 ships, arrived opposite Pensacola Bay in Florida and within a day took Santa Rosa Island. This action contributed to British General John Campbell's capitulation and surrender of British West Florida. Although Spain was not a formal ally of the United States, the Siege of Pensacola, and her victory there, made a significant contribution to the success of the American Revolution.
On This Date In 1841 The United States Supreme Court issued a ruling freeing the remaining thirty-five survivors of the Amistad mutiny. Although seven of the nine justices on the court hailed from Southern states, only one dissented from Justice Joseph Story's majority opinion. Private donations ensured the Africans' safe return to Sierra Leone in January 1842. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/mar09.html
On This Date In 1847 During the Mexican-American War, U.S. forces under General Winfield Scott invaded Mexico three miles south of Vera Cruz. Encountering little resistance from the Mexicans massed in the fortified city of Vera Cruz, by nightfall the last of Scott's 10,000 men came ashore without the loss of a single life. It was the largest amphibious landing in U.S. history and not surpassed until World War II.
On This Date In 1847 The Battle of Veracruz was a 20-day siege of the key Mexican seaport of Veracruz, during the Mexican-American War. Lasting from March 9 to March 29, 1847, it began with the first large-scale amphibious assault conducted by United States military forces, and ended with the surrender and occupation of the city. U.S. forces then marched inland to Mexico City.
On This Date In 1862 During the American Civil War, one of the most famous naval battles in American history occured as two ironclads, the U.S.S. Monitor and the C.S.S. Virginia (a captured and rebuilt Union steam frigate formerly known as the Merrimac) fight to a draw off Hampton Roads, Virginia. The ships pounded each other all morning but their armor plates easily deflected the cannon shots, signaling a new era of steam-powered iron ships.
On This Date In 1913 Thirty-one-year-old writer Virginia Woolf delivered the manuscript of her first novel, The Voyage Out, to her publisher. Coincidentally, this date was also the 21st birthday of Woolf's future lover, Vita Sackville-West, who Woolf would not meet until 1925.
On This Date In 1914 “Tango Tangles”, a American-made motion picture starring Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle, was released. Chaplin appears with no moustache. The action takes place in a dance hall, with a drunken Chaplin, Ford Sterling, and the huge, menacing, and acrobatic Arbuckle fighting over a girl.
On This Date In 1916 Several hundred Mexican guerrillas under the command of Francisco “Pancho” Villa crossed the U.S.-Mexican border and attacked the small border town of Columbus, New Mexico. Seventeen Americans were killed in the raid, and the center of town was burned. Though unclear whether Villa personally participated in the attack, President Woodrow Wilson ordered the U.S. Army into Mexico to capture the rebel leader dead or alive.
On This Date In 1916 During World War I, the Fifth Battle of the Isonzo (eventually, there would be twelve) was fought from March 9-15 between the armies of the Kingdom of Italy and those of Austria-Hungary. The Italians, under immense pressure from the French commanders, had decided to launch another offensive on the Isonzo River, even after four previous defeats. This battle resulted in defeat as well.
On This Date In 1916 During World War I, Germany declared war on Portugal, who earlier that year honored its alliance with Great Britain by seizing German ships anchored in Lisbon's harbor. This forced Portugal's hand in entering the war, ending its neutrality to that point.
On This Date In 1943 Robert James “Bobby” Fischer (March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008), American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion, was born. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author. After ending his competitive career, he proposed a new variant of chess and a modified chess timing system: His idea of adding a time increment after each move is now standard, and his variant Chess960 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess960 - is gaining in popularity.
On This Date In 1945 During World War II, U.S. warplanes launched a new bombing offensive against Japan, dropping 2,000 tons of incendiary bombs on Tokyo over the course of the next 48 hours. Almost 16 square miles in and around the Japanese capital were incinerated, and between 80,000 and 130,000 Japanese civilians were killed in the worst single firestorm in recorded history.
On This Date In 1945 During World War II, fearing an Allied offensive in French Indochina, the Japanese army took direct control of the land by the French authorities by delivering an ultimatum for the French troops to disarm, without warning. Those that refused during this coup were usually massacred.
On This Date In 1945 “Les Enfants du Paradis”, a film by French director Marcel Carné, made during the Nazi occupation of France, was released as Children of Paradise in North America. A 3 hour film divided into two halves, it was described in the original American trailer as the French answer to Gone with the Wind. The film was voted “Best French Film Ever” in a poll of 600 French critics and professionals in 1995.
On This Date In 1954 An episode of the television documentary series See It Now, hosted by journalist Edward R. Murrow, was broadcast on CBS TV. One of the most prominent attacks on anti-communist Senator Joseph McCarthy's methods as chairman of the Subcommittee of Investigations, titled “A Report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy”, the episode consisted largely of clips of McCarthy speaking. In these clips, McCarthy accuses the Democratic party of “twenty years of treason”, describes the American Civil Liberties Union as “listed as 'a front for, and doing the work of', the Communist Party”, and berates and harangues various witnesses, including General Zwicker. That same day, Republican Senator Ralph Flanders (Vermont) verbally blasted McCarthy, charging that he was a “one-man party” intent on “doing his best to shatter that party whose label he wears.” In addition to Flanders' speech, Senate Republicans acted to limit McCarthy's ability to conduct hearings and to derail his investigation of the U.S. Army.
On This Date In 1955 “East of Eden”, an American film directed by Elia Kazan, and loosely based on part of the 1952 novel of the same name by US author John Steinbeck, was released. Adapted by Paul Osborn and John Steinbeck, it stars Julie Harris, James Dean (in his first major screen role), and Raymond Massey; it also features Burl Ives, Richard Davalos and Jo Van Fleet.
On This Date In 1959 The first Barbie doll went on display at the American Toy Fair in New York City. Eleven inches tall, with a waterfall of blond hair, Barbie was the first mass-produced toy doll in the United States with adult features. The woman behind Barbie was Ruth Handler, who co-founded Mattel, Inc. with her husband in 1945.
On This Date In 1964 Initially based on the second generation North American Ford Falcon, a compact car, the Ford Mustang, manufactured by the Ford Motor Company, began production in Dearborn, Michigan. The car was introduced to the public on April 17, 1964 at the New York World's Fair. It is Ford's second oldest nameplate currently in production next to the F-Series pickup truck line. The Mustang was also Ford's most successful launch since the Model A.
On This Date In 1965 During the Vietnam War, 3,500 Marines of the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade under Brig. Gen. Frederick J. Karch continued to land at Da Nang. The Marines had begun disembarking from the USS Henrico, Union, and Vancouver on March 8 and were the first U.S. combat troops in South Vietnam. Among the arrivals on this day were the first U.S. armor in Vietnam - a tank of the 3rd Marine Tank Battalion. More tanks, including those with flame-throwing capability, followed in a few days. There was scattered firing from Viet Cong soldiers hidden ashore as the Marines landed, but no Marines were hit.
On This Date In 1965 Immediately after “Bloody Sunday”, the first of three American Civil Rights Movement events marked by 600 activists marching from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama being attacked by state and local police with billy clubs and tear gas, a second march took place. The following Tuesday, on March 9, 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led about 2,500 marchers in a second march out to the Edmund Pettus Bridge and held a short prayer session before turning the marchers back around, thereby not breaking a court order in place reviewing the prior event.
On This Date In 1966 During the Vietnam War, The Battle of A Shau was waged between the Viet Cong and the forces of the United States and South Vietnam. The battle began on March 9 and lasted until March 10 with the fall of the special forces camp of the same name. The battle was an outright victory for the North Vietnamese; it was nevertheless a costly battle that U.S. estimates suggest cost the attackers almost half of their force, or about 800.
On This Date In 1970 During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Marines turned over control of the five northernmost provinces in South Vietnam to the U.S. Army. The Marines had been responsible for this area since they first arrived in South Vietnam in 1965. The change in responsibility for this area was part of President Richard Nixon's initiative to reduce U.S. troop levels as the South Vietnamese accepted more responsibility for the fighting. After the departure of the 3rd Marine Division from Vietnam in late 1969, the 1st Marine Division was the only marine division left operating in South Vietnam.
On This Date In 1981 A nuclear accident at a Japan Atomic Power Company plant in Tsuruga, Japan, exposed 59 workers to radiation when a worker forgot to shut a critical valve, causing a radioactive sludge tank to overflow. Fifty-six workers were sent in to mop up the radioactive sludge before the leak could escape the disposal building, but the plan was not successful and 16 tons of waste spilled into Wakasa Bay.
On This Date In 1984 “Splash”, an American fantasy romantic comedy film directed by Ron Howard and written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, was released. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The original music score was composed by Lee Holdridge. It was the very first film released by Touchstone Pictures (then called Touchstone Films).
On This Date In 1985 The first-ever Adopt-a-Highway sign was erected on Texas' Highway 69. The highway was adopted by the Tyler Civitan Club, which committed to picking up trash along a designated two-mile stretch of the road.
On This Date In 1987 “The Joshua Tree”, the fifth studio album by Irish rock band U2, was released on Island Records. Recording took place from July to November 1986 at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin. The album features the band's exploration of roots rock, with their music exhibiting influences from blues-rock, folk rock, country music, and gospel music. Lyrically, The Joshua Tree depicts the band's fascination with America. The album was produced and engineered by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, and won Grammy Awards for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Album of the Year in the Grammy Awards of 1988.
On This Date In 1993 “I Hear Black”, the sixth studio album by thrash metal band Overkill, was releassed on Atlantic Records. It was the band's first to feature drummer Tim Mallare. Produced by Alex Perialas (Anthrax, Testament), I Hear Black was the first Overkill album released directly through Atlantic Records.
On This Date In 1996 George Burns (January 20, 1896 – March 9, 1996), born Nathan Birnbaum, an American comedian, actor, and writer, died from cardiac arrest at his home in Beverly Hills, California, just weeks after celebrating his 100th birthday. He was one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, film, radio, television and movies. His arched eyebrow and cigar smoke punctuation became familiar trademarks for over three quarters of a century. Beginning at the age of 79, Burns' career was resurrected as an amiable, beloved and unusually active old comedian, continuing to work until shortly before his death.
On This Date In 1997 American rapper Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997), popularly known as Biggie Smalls (after a fictional gangster in the 1975 film Let's Do It Again), Frank White (based on a fictional drug baron from the 1990 film King of New York), and by his primary stage name The Notorious B.I.G., was killed by an unknown assailant in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles.
On This Date In 1999 “Eye II Eye”, the fourteenth studio album by German heavy metal band Scorpions, was released. It is a radical departure in that Eye II Eye is much more pop-oriented than their previous work, which alienated some fans, despite lead single “Mysterious” reaching number 26 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. For the first (and, thus far, only) time, Scorpions released a song recorded in their native language, namely “Du bist so schmutzig”.
On This Date In 2000 Nupedia, an English-language Web-based encyclopedia whose articles were written by experts and licensed as free content, was founded by Jimmy Wales and underwritten by Bomis, with Larry Sanger as editor-in-chief. Nupedia lasted from March 2000 until September 2003, and is mostly known now as the predecessor of the free wiki encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
On This Date In 2011 Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker's bill to end collective bargaining for public employees passed the state senate. All 14 Democrats in the state Senate fled to Illinois to keep the measure from getting to the Senate floor, but the Republican-controlled Legislature passed a modified bill after finding a parliamentary way to get around the boycott. http://www.newser.com/story/113779/wisconsin-gop-passes-anti-union-measure.html
On This Date In 2011 Doctors from the scene of violent anti-government protests in Yemen's capital reported what was originally thought to be tear gas fired by government forces on demonstrators might instead have been a form of nerve gas, which is forbidden under international law. http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/110309/yemen-violence-protests-sanaa-nerve-gas

 


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Tagged as: sports, space, quotes, music, history, cinema, business, video


Friday! History, AB Happy Warrior, Courage, Cinema, Music, More!

Friday, March 02

The original post here: http://apsense.cc/0bfd21 

On This Date In 1776 During the American Revolution, and in advance of the Continental Army's occupation of Dorchester Heights, Massachusetts, General George Washington ordered American artillery forces to begin bombarding Boston from their positions at Lechmere Point, northwest of the city center.
On This Date In 1776 The Battle of the Rice Boats was a battle of the American Revolutionary War that took place in the Savannah River on the border between the Province of Georgia and the Province of South Carolina. The battle, which pitted colonial militia successfully against the Royal Navy, took place on March 2 and 3, 1776. It is sometimes referred to as the Battle of Yamacraw Bluff.
On This Date In 1780 The Battle of Fort Charlotte was a two-week siege from March 2 – March 14, 1780 conducted by Spanish General Bernardo de Gálvez against the British fortifications guarding the port of Mobile (which was then in the British province of West Florida, and now in Alabama) during the American Revolutionary War. Fort Charlotte was the last remaining British frontier post capable of threatening New Orleans in Spanish Louisiana. Its fall drove the British from the western reaches of West Florida and reduced the British military presence in West Florida to its capital, Pensacola.
On This Date In 1793 Samuel Houston (March 2, 1793 - July 26, 1863), nineteenth-century American statesman, politician, and soldier, was born in Timber Ridge in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, of Scots-Irish descent. Houston became a key figure in the history of Texas and was elected as the first and third President of the Republic of Texas, U.S. Senator for Texas after it joined the United States, and finally as a governor of the state.
On This Date In 1807 The U.S. Congress passes an act to “prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States...from any foreign kingdom, place, or country.” In abolishing the African slave trade, note that the widespread trade of slaves within the South was not prohibited, however, and children of slaves automatically became slave themselves, thus ensuring a self-sustaining slave population in the South.
On This Date In 1836 The Texas Declaration of Independence was the formal declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico in the Texas Revolution. It was adopted at the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, 1836, and formally signed the following day after errors were noted in the text.
On This Date In 1865 During the American Civil War, and at the Battle of Waynesboro, Virginia, Union General George Custer's troops routed Confederate General Jubal Early's force, bringing an end to fighting in the Shenandoah Valley.
On This Date In 1899 President William McKinley signed legislation creating Mount Rainier National Park in central Washington. The nearly 365-square-mile area of pristine forests and spectacular alpine scenery was the fifth national park designated by Congress. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/mar02.html
On This Date In 1904 Theodor Seuss Geisel (March 2, 1904– September 24, 1991) was born in Springfield, Massachusetts to Henrietta Seuss and Theodor Robert Geisel. His father, the son of German immigrants, inherited the family brewery one month before the start of Prohibition and later supervised Springfield's public park system and zoo. Geisel was raised in the Lutheran faith and remained a member of the denomination his entire life. Suess was an American writer, poet, and cartoonist most widely known for his children's books written under the pen names Dr. Seuss, Theo LeSieg and, in one case, Rosetta Stone.
On This Date In 1917 Barely a month before the United States entered World War I, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Jones-Shafroth act, under which Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory and Puerto Ricans were granted statutory citizenship, meaning that citizenship was granted by an act of Congress and not by the Constitution (thus it was not guaranteed by the Constitution). The act also created a bill of rights for the territory, separated its government into executive, legislative and judicial branches, and declared Puerto Rico's official language to be English. As citizens, Puerto Ricans could now join the U.S. Army, but few chose to do so. After Wilson signed a compulsory military service act two months later, however, 20,000 Puerto Ricans were eventually drafted to serve during World War I.
On This Date In 1929 The Jones Act, the last gasp of the Prohibition, was passed by the U.S. Congress. Since 1920 when the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect, the United States had banned the production, importation and sale of alcoholic beverages. But the laws were ineffective at actually stopping the consumption of alcohol. The Jones Act strengthened the federal penalties for bootlegging. Of course, within five years the country ended up rejecting Prohibition and repealing the Eighteenth Amendment.
On This Date In 1933 “King Kong,” a landmark black-and-white monster film about a gigantic gorilla named “Kong” and how he is captured from a remote lost prehistoric island and brought to civilization against his will, premiered in New York City at Radio City Music Hall. The film was made by RKO and originally written for the screen by Ruth Rose and James Ashmore Creelman, based on a concept by Merian C. Cooper. The film was directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, starred Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong and Bruce Cabot, and is notable for Willis O'Brien's ground-breaking stop-motion animation, Max Steiner's musical score and Fay Wray's performance as the ape's love interest.
On This Date In 1937 “Lost Horizon,” an American drama-fantasy film directed by Frank Capra starring Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt and Sam Jaffe, was released. It tells the story of a group of travelers who find a utopian society in the Himalaya Mountains. The film is based upon the James Hilton novel of the same name and was adapted by Sidney Buchman (uncredited) and Robert Riskin. The Streamline Moderne sets were designed by Stephen Goosson.
On This Date In 1939 The Venerable Pope Pius XII, born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (March 2, 1876 – October 9, 1958), reigned as the 260th Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from March 2, 1939 until his death in 1958.
On This Date In 1943 During World War II, the Battle of the Bismarck Sea (March 2 - 4, 1943) took place in the South West Pacific Area (SWPA). In the course of the battle, aircraft of the U.S. Fifth Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) attacked a Japanese convoy that was carrying troops to Lae, New Guinea. Most of the task force was destroyed, and Japanese troop losses were heavy.
On This Date In 1944 The 16th Academy Awards was the first Oscar ceremony held at a large public venue, Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California. Free passes were given out to men and women in uniform. The more theatrical approach makes it a forerunner of the contemporary Oscar telecast. For the first time, supporting actors and actresses took home full-size statuettes, instead of smaller-sized awards mounted on a plaque. This was the last year until 2009 to have 10 nominations for best picture. Also, The Ox-Bow Incident was the last film to be nominated for best picture and nothing else.
On This Date In 1944 In the Balvano train disaster of March 2-3, 1944, some 520 of approximately 650 people riding a steam-hauled freight train died of carbon monoxide poisoning when the train stalled on a steep gradient in the Armi tunnel. The accident occurred in southern Italy, near Balvano (Basilicata).
On This Date In 1962 Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game, named by the National Basketball Association as one of its greatest games, took place between the Philadelphia Warriors and the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962 at Hersheypark Arena in Hershey, Pennsylvania. With 46 seconds left, Chamberlin had 98 pointts. Chamberlain got free from the five Knicks, jumped high and stuffed the ball through the hoop for an alley-oop slam dunk to hit the century mark. The arena exploded in a frenzy. Over 200 spectators stormed the floor, wanting to touch the hero of the night. Some confusion remains about whether the game’s last 46 seconds were played. According to the NBA, play was halted and never resumed. http://listverse.com/2008/11/15/top-15-greatest-sports-moments-of-all-time/
On This Date In 1965 Operation Rolling Thunder was the title of a gradual and sustained U.S. 2nd Air Division (later Seventh Air Force), U.S. Navy, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force (VNAF) aerial bombardment campaign conducted against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) from March 2, 1965 until November 1, 1968, during the Vietnam War. After one of the longest aerial campaigns ever conducted by any nation, Rolling Thunder was terminated as a strategic failure in late 1968 having achieved none of its objectives.
On This Date In 1965 Rodgers and Hammerstein's “The Sound of Music,” a musical film directed by Robert Wise and starring Julie Andrews in the lead role, was released. The film is based on the Broadway musical The Sound of Music, with songs written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and with the musical book written by the writing team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. Ernest Lehman wrote the screenplay. The movie version was filmed on location in Salzburg, Austria; Bavaria in Southern Germany; and at the 20th Century Fox Studios in California. It won a total of five Academy Awards including Best Picture and displaced Gone with the Wind as the highest-grossing film of all-time. The cast album was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. In 2001, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry as it was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
On This Date In 1966 In Dearborn, Michigan, the Ford Motor Company celebrated the production of its 1 millionth Mustang, a white convertible. The sporty, affordable vehicle was officially launched two years earlier, on April 17, 1964, at the World's Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York. That same day, the new car debuted in Ford showrooms across America; almost immediately, buyers snapped up nearly 22,000 of them. More than 400,000 Mustangs were sold within that first year, exceeding sales expectations.
On This Date In 1967 Senator Robert Kennedy (D-New York) proposed a three-point plan to help end the Vietnam War. The plan included suspension of the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam and the gradual withdrawal of U.S. and North Vietnamese troops from South Vietnam with replacement by an international force. Secretary of State Dean Rusk rejected Kennedy's proposal because he believed that the North Vietnamese would never agree to withdraw their troops.
On This Date In 1969 In a dramatic confirmation of the growing rift between the two most powerful communist nations in the world, troops from the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China fired on each other at a border outpost on the Ussuri River in the eastern region of the USSR, north of Vladivostok. In the years following this incident, the United States used the Soviet-Chinese schism to its advantage in its Cold War diplomacy.
On This Date In 1972 Pioneer 10, the world's first outer-planetary probe, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a mission to Jupiter, the solar system's largest planet. In December 1973, after successfully negotiating the asteroid belt and a distance of 620 million miles, Pioneer 10 reached Jupiter and sent back to Earth the first close-up images of the spectacular gas giant. In June 1983, the NASA spacecraft left the solar system and the next day radioed back the first scientific data on interstellar space. NASA officially ended the Pioneer 10 project on March 31, 1997, with the spacecraft having traveled a distance of some six billion miles.
On This Date In 1979 “Norma Rae,” a drama film which tells the story of a factory worker from a small town in the Southern United States who becomes involved in the labor union activities at the textile factory where she works, was released. It stars Sally Field, Beau Bridges, Ron Leibman, Pat Hingle, Barbara Baxley, Gail Strickland and Noble Willingham. The movie was written by Harriet Frank Jr. and Irving Ravetch, and was directed by Martin Ritt. It is based on the true story of Crystal Lee Sutton which was told in a 1975 book Crystal Lee, a woman of inheritance by New York Times reporter Henry P Leifermann. It won Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Sally Field) and Best Original Song (for David Shire and Norman Gimbel for “It Goes Like It Goes”). It was also nominated for Best Picture and for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.
On This Date In 1984 “This Is Spinal Tap,” an American rock musical mockumentary directed by Rob Reiner about the fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap, was released. Reiner and the three main stars played by American actors Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, and English-American actor Christopher Guest, respectively, are credited as the writers of the film, based on the fact that much of the dialogue was ad libbed by them. In 2002, This Is Spinal Tap was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
On This Date In 1985 The controversial Prince-penned song “Sugar Walls” reached #9 on Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart, and made Sheena Easton the first and still only recording artist to score top-10 singles on all five major Billboard singles charts: Pop, Country, Dance, Adult Contemporary and R&B.
On This Date In 1999 Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien (April 16, 1939 – March 2, 1999), known professionally as Dusty Springfield, died from breast cancer. Dubbed The White Queen of Soul, she was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s. With her distinctive sensual sound, she was an important white soul singer, and at her peak was one of the most successful British female performers, with 18 singles in the Billboard Hot 100 from 1964 to 1970. She is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the U.K. Music Hall of Fame. International polls have named Springfield among the best female rock artists of all time.
On This Date In 2004 The Ashura massacre in Iraq was a series of planned terrorist explosions that killed at least 178 and injured at least 500 Iraqi Shi'a Muslims commemorating the Day of Ashura. The bombings brought one of the deadliest days in the Iraq occupation after the Iraq War to topple Saddam Hussein.
On This Date In 2005 At a White House ceremony, President George W. Bush congratulated the 2004 World Champion Boston Red Sox baseball team for winning their first World Series since 1918. Massachusetts Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, and former Red Sox players were among those on hand for the event. Before saluting the Red Sox, Bush also paid tribute to one of baseball's greatest African-American players, Jackie Robinson. http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2005/03/images/20050302-17_w8n5418-515h.html
On This Date In 2006 “The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II,” abbreviated BFME2 is a real-time strategy video game developed and published by Electronic Arts. It is based on the fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien and its live-action film trilogy adaptation. The game is the sequel to Electronic Art's 2004 title The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth. The Windows version of the game was released on March 2, 2006 and the Xbox 360 version was released on July 5, 2006. Along with the standard edition, a Collector's Edition of the game was released, containing bonus material and a documentary about the game's development.
On This Date In 2010 “Never Let You Go” is a song performed by Canadian recording artist Justin Bieber. The track was written by Bieber and also co-written and produced by production duo Johnta Austin and Bryan-Michael Cox. It was originally released as the first digital-only single from latter half of Bieber's debut album, My World 2.0 on March 2, 2010. The accompanying music video features Bieber and Paige Hurd at the Atlantis Resort in The Bahamas, including scenes at the resort, an aquarium, and on the coast. Bieber performed the song a number of times, including on BET's SOS: Saving Ourselves - Help for Haiti Telethon, which benefited victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
On This Date In 2010 The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in McDonald v. City of Chicago, the case challenging Chicago's handgun bans in Chicago and Oak Park. The Question Presented by the Court asked if the bans should be considered unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process clause, or under the Privileges or Immunities clause. As expected, the arguments focused on application of the Second Amendment to the states (“incorporation”) and avoided the meaning of the Second Amendment (or any related unenumerated right), except insofar as the meaning drives the incorporation analysis. http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/conlaw/2010/03/oral-arguments-in-mcdonald.html

Tagged as: history, quotes, business, music, cinema, space, sports, video, music video


Friday! History and Honor, Music, Cinema, Quotes, More!

Friday, February 24

The original post here: http://ow.ly/9h77H
dOn This Date In 1645 The Battle of Jankau, one of the bloodiest of the Thirty Years' War, was fought in southern Bohemia, some 50 km southeast of Prague, between the army of Sweden and that of the Holy Roman Empire. The battle proved a decisive Swedish victory, which was largely due to the personal command skills of General Lennart Torstensson, and the tactical skill and maneuverability of the Swedish artillery.
On This Date In 1781 Pyle's Massacre was fought during the American Revolutionary War in Orange County, North Carolina (present-day Alamance County, North Carolina), between Patriot and Loyalist North Carolina militia troops. Patriot militia leader Colonel Henry Lee deceived Loyalist militia under John Pyle that he was British commander Banastre Tarleton sent to meet them. Lee's men then opened fire, surprising and scattering Pyle's force.
On This Date In 1786 Wilhelm Karl Grimm, the younger of the two Brothers Grimm, was born in Hanau, Germany. As young men, the two brothers assisted friends in compiling an important collection of folk lyrics. One of the authors, impressed by the brothers' work, suggested they publish some of the oral folktales they'd collected. The collection appeared as Children's and Household Tales, later known as Grimm's Fairy Tales, in several volumes between 1812 and 1822.
On This Date In 1803 The Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice John Marshall, decided the landmark case of William Marbury versus James Madison, Secretary of State of the United States, and confirmed the legal principle of judicial review - the ability of the Supreme Court to limit Congressional power by declaring legislation unconstitutional - in the new nation.
On This Date In 1836 In San Antonio, Texas, Colonel William Travis issued a call for help on behalf of the Texan troops defending the Alamo, an old Spanish mission and fortress under attack by the Mexican army.
On This Date In 1840 Former President John Quincy Adams began to argue the Amistad case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1839, a Spanish slave ship named La Amistad appeared off the coast of New York. The “slaves” aboard it, who were free Africans kidnapped in Africa and originally bound for sale in Cuba, had rebelled, killing the Spanish ship's captain and cook. The African mutineers then promised to spare the lives of the ship's crew and their captors if they took them back to Africa. The crew agreed, but then duped the slaves by sailing up the coast to New York, where they were taken into custody by the U.S. Navy. A complicated series of trials ensued regarding the ownership and outcome of the ship and its human cargo. Adams' skillful arguments convinced the court to rule in favor of returning the Africans to their native country.
On This Date In 1863 Arizona, formerly part of the Territory of New Mexico, was organized as a separate territory. The U.S. acquired the region under the terms of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the 1853 Gadsden Purchase. Arizona became the 48th state in 1912. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/feb24.html
On This Date In 1865 John Yates Beall (January 1, 1835 – February 24, 1865), a Confederate privateer in the American Civil War who was arrested as a spy in New York, was executed at Fort Columbus, Governors Island, New York. http://wileygenealogy.com/~usbios/bios/wv/jefferson/johnyatesbeall.txt
On This Date In 1868 Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States, was impeached in the U.S. House of Representatives on eleven articles of impeachment detailing his “high crimes and misdemeanors”, in accordance with Article Two of the United States Constitution. As one of the most dramatic events in the political life of the United States during Reconstruction, this was the first impeachment in history of a sitting United States president.
On This Date In 1875 The SS Gothenburg, a steamship that operated along the British and then later the Australian and New Zealand coastlines, encountered a cyclone-strength storm off the north Queensland coast. The ship was wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef north-west of Holbourne Island, Australia. Survivors in one of the lifeboats were rescued two days later by the Leichhardt, while the occupants of two other lifeboats that managed to reach Holbourne Island were rescued several days later. Twenty two men survived, while between 98 and 112 others died, including a number of high profile civil servants and dignitaries.
On This Date In 1917 During World War I, British authorities gave Walter H. Page, the U.S. ambassador to Britain, a copy of the “Zimmermann Note,” a coded message from Arthur Zimmermann, the German foreign secretary, to Count Johann von Bernstorff, the German ambassador to Mexico. In the telegram, intercepted and deciphered by British intelligence in late January, Zimmermann stated that in the event of war with the United States, Mexico should be asked to enter the conflict as a German ally. In return, Germany promised to restore to Mexico the lost territories of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. After receiving the telegram, Page promptly sent a copy to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, who in early March allowed the U.S. State Department to publish the note. The press initially treated the telegram as a hoax, but Arthur Zimmermann himself confirmed its authenticity. The Zimmermann Note helped turn U.S. public opinion, already severely strained by repeated German attacks on U.S. ships, firmly against Germany. On April 2, President Wilson, who had initially sought a peaceful resolution to end World War I, urged the immediate U.S. entrance into the war. Four days later, Congress formally declared war against Germany.
On This Date In 1917 During World War I, the Allied war against Turkish forces gained momentum (and ground) in Mesopotamia as British and Indian troops moved along the Tigris River in early 1917, recapturing the city of Kut-al-Amara on this day and taking 1,730 Turkish prisoners. Encouraged by their victory at Kut, the forcees pushed on towards Baghdad, which would fall on March 11.
On This Date In 1920 Adolph Hitler, in taking over the German Workers Party propaganda work, began to take a more prominent role in organization; consequently, his public speaking began to attract larger audiences. Hitler began to make the party much more public, and he organized the party's biggest meeting yet of 2,000 people on February, 24 1920 in the Staatliches Hofbräuhaus in München. In his speech here, Hitler, for the first time, enunciated the twenty-five points of the German Worker's Party's manifesto, giving the organization a much bolder stratagem with a clear foreign policy (abrogation of Versailles, a Greater Germany, Eastern expansion, exclusion of Jews from citizenship). Among his specific points were: confiscation of war profits, abolition of unearned incomes, the State to share profits of land, and land for national needs to be taken away without compensation. The party also added “National Socialist” to its official name, in order to appeal to both nationalists and socialists, becoming the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP, or Nazis for short), although Hitler earlier suggested the party to be renamed the “Social Revolutionary Party”; it was Rudolf Jung who persuaded Hitler to follow the NSDAP naming. http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/party.htm
On This Date In 1938 The entertainment trade newspaper Variety reported that the film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) had bought the rights to adapt L. Frank Baum’s beloved children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for the screen, and that the studio had cast 16-year-old Judy Garland in the film’s central role, Dorothy Gale.
On This Date In 1944 During World War II, Maj. Gen. Frank Merrill's guerrilla force, nicknamed “Merrill's Marauders,” began a campaign in northern Burma, which, when done, consisted of five major and 30 minor engagements with a far more numerous Japanese enemy. When their mission was completed, all surviving Merrill's Marauders had to be evacuated to hospitals to be treated for everything from exhaustion and various tropical diseases to malnutrition or A.O.E. (“Accumulation of Everything”). They were awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation in July 1944, which was re-designated the Presidential Unit Citation in 1966. Every member of the commando force also received the Bronze Star, a very rare distinction for an entire unit. Merrill remained in the Far East and was made an aide to General Stillwell.
On This Date In 1946 Juan Domingo Peron, the controversial former vice president of Argentina, was elected president. As president, Peron constructed an impressive populist alliance, and his vision of self-sufficiency for Argentina won him wide support. However, he also became increasingly authoritarian, jailing political opponents and restricting freedom of the press. In 1952, his greatest political resource, Evita, died, and support for him dissolved. Three years later, he was ousted in a military coup.
On This Date In 1968 During the Vietnam War, the Tet Offensive ended as U.S. and South Vietnamese troops recaptured the ancient capital of Hue from communist forces. Although scattered fighting continued across South Vietnam for another week, the battle for Hue was the last major engagement of the offensive, which saw communist attacks on all of South Vietnam's major cities. In the aftermath of Tet, public opinion in the United States decisively turned against the Vietnam War.
On This Date In 1969 During the Vietnam War, and after North Vietnamese mortar shells rocked their Douglas AC-47 gunship, Airman First Class John L. Levitow threw himself on an activated, smoking magnesium flare, dragged himself and the flare to the open cargo door, and tossed it out of the aircraft just before it ignited. For saving his fellow crewmembers and the gunship, Airman Levitow was later awarded the Medal of Honor. He was one of only two enlisted airmen to win the Medal of Honor for service in Vietnam, and was one of only five enlisted airmen ever to win the medal.
On This Date In 1975 “Physical Graffiti,” the sixth album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, was released. Recording sessions for the album were initially disrupted when John Paul Jones considered leaving the band. After reuniting at Headley Grange, the band wrote and recorded eight songs, the combined length of which stretched the album beyond the typical length of an LP. This prompted the band to make Physical Graffiti a double album by including previously unreleased tracks from earlier recording sessions. Physical Graffiti was commercially and critically successful; the album went 16x platinum (though this signifies shipping of eight million copies, as it is a double album) in the US alone.
On This Date In 1982 President Ronald Reagan announced a new program of economic and military assistance to nations of the Caribbean designed to “prevent the overthrow of the governments in the region” by the “brutal and totalitarian” forces of communism. The Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) was part of the Reagan administration's effort to curb what it perceived to be the dangerous rise in communist activity in Central America and the Caribbean.
On This Date In 1982 Hockey prodigy Wayne Gretzky scored his 77th goal, breaking a record held by Phil Esposito of 76 goals in a single season that was previously thought unbeatable by many fans.
On This Date In 1991 British and American armored forces crossed the Iraq/Kuwait border and entered Iraq in large numbers, taking hundreds of prisoners. Iraqi resistance was light, and 4 Americans were killed. The U.S. VII Corps assembled in full strength and, spearheaded by the 3rd Squadron of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment (3/2 ACR), launched an armored attack into Iraq just to the west of Kuwait, taking Iraqi forces by surprise. Simultaneously, the U.S. XVIII Airborne Corps launched a sweeping “left-hook” attack across the largely undefended desert of southern Iraq, led by the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment (3rd ACR) and the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized). Once the Coalition had penetrated deep into Iraqi territory, they turned eastward, launching a flank attack against the elite Republican Guard before it could escape.
On This Date In 2007 “Teardrops on My Guitar”, the second single from the Taylor Swift's eponymous studio album, Taylor Swift (2006), was released by Big Machine Records. The song originally made its peak positions in mid-2007, peaking at #2 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart and #33 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was re-released to the Hot 100 and Pop 100 in late 2007 with a pop remix that brought Teardrops on My Guitar to #13 on the Hot 100 and #11 on the Pop 100. The song was later included on the international release of Swift's second studio album, Fearless (2008), and released as the third single from the album in the United Kingdom.
On This Date In 2008 The 80th Academy Awards ceremony honoring the best films in 2007 was broadcast from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California on ABC. During the ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 24 categories. No Country for Old Men dominated the evening by winning four awards out of eight nominations including Best Picture. For the first time since the 37th Academy Awards (1964), the Academy presented all four of the acting awards to non-American actors.
On This Date In 2008 Raúl Castro was officially elected as President of Cuba by the National Assembly after Fidel Castro, who was still ailing, announced his intention not to stand for president again on February 19, 2008.
On This Date In 2009 US Senator Dick Durbin joined Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and others in asking Roland Burris, the junior senator from Illinois appointed by the former and impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich, to resign. But Burris, after acknowledging that he had tried to raise campaign money for the governor, told the senior senator from Illinois and No. 2 Democratic leader in the Senate that he would not resign. http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/02/burris_back_in_senate_mum_on_2.html
On This Date In 2010 A killer whale killed veteran SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau, age 40, at SeaWorld's Shamu Stadium in Orlando, Florida, during a show at the park in front of a large crowd. http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/02/24/killer.whale.trainer.death/index.html ; http://www.nationalledger.com/politics-crime/seaworld-trainer-autopsy-relea-984062.shtml

 


Hat tip to any included contributing sources, along with:

Tagged as: music video, video, sports, space, cinema, music, business, quotes, history


Friday! History, Remembrance, Music, Quotes, More!

Friday, February 17

For the original post: Friday! Friday! History, Remembrance, Music, Quotes, More! http://apsense.cc/5b7429 Great weekend all!

On This Date In 1765 The Stamp Act of 1765 was passed by the British Parliament and imposed on the colonies of British America. The act required that many printed materials in the colonies carry a tax stamp. The purpose of the tax was to help pay for troops stationed in North America following the British victory in the Seven Years' War. The British government felt that the colonies were the primary beneficiaries of this military presence, and should pay at least a portion of the expense. The Stamp Act met with great resistance in the colonies. It was seen as a violation of the right of Englishmen to be taxed only with their consent—consent which could only be granted through their colonial legislatures.

On This Date In 1782 The Battle of Sadras was fought, the first of five largely indecisive naval battles between a British fleet under Admiral Sir Edward Hughes and French fleet under the Bailli de Suffren off the east coast of India during the American War of Independence. The battle, near present-day Kalpakkam, was indecisive, but the British fleet suffered the most damage, and the troop transports that Suffren was protecting were able to land their troops at Porto Novo.

On This Date In 1801 After one tie vote in the Electoral College and 35 indecisive ballot votes in the United States House of Representatives, Vice President Thomas Jefferson was elected the third president of the United States over his running mate, Aaron Burr. Jefferson's triumph brought an end to one of the most acrimonious presidential campaigns in U.S. history and resolved a serious Constitutional crisis. The confusing election, which ended just 15 days before a new president was to be inaugurated, exposed major problems in the presidential electoral process set forth by the framers of the U.S. Constitution. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/feb17.html

On This Date In 1819 The Missouri Compromise was an agreement passed in 1820 between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress, involving primarily the regulation of slavery in the western territories. It prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30? north except within the boundaries of the proposed state of Missouri. Prior to the agreement, the House of Representatives had refused to accept this compromise, and a conference committee was appointed. The bill passed on February 17, 1819 by the House of Representatives, but was defeated by the Senate. Both houses of Congress would come together in agreement after amendments and a year later, and the measures were passed on March 5, 1820, and ratified by President James Monroe on March 6.

On This Date In 1865 Columbia, South Carolina, surrendered to Union General William Tecumseh Sherman, and Wade Hampton's Confederate cavalry retreated from the city. Union forces were overwhelmed by throngs of liberated Federal prisoners and emancipated African Americans. Many soldiers took advantage of ample supplies of liquor in the city and began to drink. Fires began in the city, and high winds spread the flames across a wide area. Most of the central city was destroyed, and municipal fire companies found it difficult to operate in conjunction with the invading army, many of whom were also fighting the fire. The burning of Columbia has engendered controversy ever since, with some claiming the fires were accidental, a deliberate act of vengeance, or perhaps set by retreating Confederate soldiers who lit cotton bales while leaving town. On that same day, the Confederates evacuated Charleston.

On This Date In 1904 The original version of the opera “Madame Butterfly,” in two acts, by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, had its premiere at La Scala in Milan, Italy.

On This Date In 1915 During World War I, Count Platen-Hallermund, captain of the German zeppelin L-4, and a crew of 14 men had completed a routine scouting mission off the Norwegian coast in search of Allied merchant vessels and were returning to their base in Hamburg, Germany. After encountering a severe snowstorm that evening, the L-4 crash-landed in the North Sea near the Danish coastal town of Varde. The Danish coast guard rescued 11 members of the crew who had abandoned ship and jumped into the sea prior to the crash; they were brought to Odense as prisoners to be interrogated. Four members of the crew were believed drowned and their bodies were never recovered.

On This Date In 1939 “Gunga Din,” an RKO adventure film directed by George Stevens, loosely based on the poem of the same name by Rudyard Kipling, combined with elements of his novel Soldiers Three, was released. The film is about three British sergeants and Gunga Din, their native water bearer, who fight the Thuggee, a cult of murderous Indians in colonial British India. The film stars Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Joan Fontaine, Eduardo Ciannelli, and, in the title role, Sam Jaffe. The epic film was written by Joel Sayre and Fred Guiol from a storyline by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur.

On This Date In 1944 The Battle of Eniwetok was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought between February 17 - 23, 1944, on Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands, under Operation Catchpole, part of the U.S. Central Pacific Campaign. The invasion of Eniwetok followed the American success in the battle of Kwajalein to the southeast. Capture of Eniwetok would provide an airfield and harbor to support attacks on the Mariana Islands to the northwest.

On This Date In 1947 With the words, “Hello! This is New York calling,” the U.S. Voice of America (VOA) began its first radio broadcasts to the Soviet Union. The VOA effort was an important part of America's propaganda campaign against the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

On This Date In 1963 Michael Jeffrey Jordan, now retired American professional basketball player and active businessman, was born. His biography on the National Basketball Association (NBA) website states, “By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time.” Jordan was one of the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation and was instrumental in popularizing the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s.

On This Date In 1966 In testimony on President Lyndon B. Johnson's Operation Rolling Thunder campaign during the Vietnam War before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, General Maxwell Taylor stated that a major U.S. objective in Vietnam was to demonstrate that “wars of liberation” are “costly, dangerous and doomed to failure.” Discussing the American air campaign against North Vietnam, Taylor declared that its primary purpose was “to change the will of the enemy leadership.” Operation Rolling Thunder was closely controlled by the White House and at times targets were personally selected by President Johnson. From 1965 to 1968, an estimated 643,000 tons of bombs were dropped on North Vietnam. A total of nearly 900 U.S. aircraft would be lost during Operation Rolling Thunder.

On This Date In 1966 While the rest of the Beach Boys band toured during their mid-60s heyday, member Brian Wilson lost himself in the recording studio, creating the music for an album, Pet Sounds, that is widely regarded as one of the all-time best, and a single, “Good Vibrations,” on which he lavished more time, attention and money than had ever been spent previously on a single recording. Brian Wilson rolled tape on take one of Good Vibrations on February 17, 1966. Six months, four studios and $50,000 later, he finally completed his three-minute-and-thirty-nine-second symphony, pieced together from more than 90 hours of tape recorded during literally hundreds of sessions.

On This Date In 1968 During the Vietnam War, American officials in Saigon reported an all-time high weekly rate of U.S. Casualties: 543 killed in action and 2,547 wounded in the previous seven days. These losses were a result of the heavy fighting during the communist Tet Offensive.

On This Date In 1972 The 15,007,034th Volkswagen Beetle came off the assembly line, breaking a world car production record held for more than four decades by the Ford Motor Company's iconic Model T, which was in production from 1908 and 1927.

On This Date In 1975 “High Voltage,” the debut studio album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, was released. Six of the album's eight songs were written by Angus Young, Malcolm Young, and Bon Scott. “Soul Stripper” was written by Young & Young, and “Baby, Please Don't Go” is a cover version of a Big Joe Williams song. The album was produced by Vanda & Young at the Albert Studios in Sydney. George, the older brother of Angus and Malcolm, also played bass guitar for AC/DC.

On This Date In 1976 “Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975),” a compilation album by the American rock band the Eagles, was released. As of November 2009, 29 million copies have been shipped in the domestic market, making it tied with Michael Jackson's Thriller as the best-selling album in the United States. With an additional 13 million internationally, for a total of 42 million, it is one of the top-selling albums in music history.

On This Date In 1979 The Sino–Vietnamese War, also referred to as the Third Indochina War, was a brief but bloody border war fought between the People's Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, from February 17, 1979, to March 16, 1979. The Chinese launched the offensive in response to Vietnam's 1978 invasion and occupation of Cambodia, which ended the reign of the PRC-backed Khmer Rouge.

On This Date In 1982 Lee Strasberg (November 17, 1901 – February 17, 1982), American actor, director and acting teacher, died from a heart attack in New York City, aged 80. He co-founded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as “America's first true theatrical collective.” With him at his death at the hospital were his wife, Anna, and their two sons. He was interred at Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. A day before his unexpected death, he was officially notified that he had been elected to the American Theatre Hall of Fame. His last public appearance was on February 14, 1982 at Night of 100 Stars in the Radio City Music Hall, a benefit for the Actors Fund. Along with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, he danced in the chorus line with the Rockettes.

On This Date In 1983 “Local Hero,” a Scottish comedy-drama film written and directed by Bill Forsyth and starring Peter Riegert and Burt Lancaster, was released. Produced by David Puttnam, the film is about an American oil company representative who is sent to the fictional village of Ferness on the west coast of Scotland to purchase the town and surrounding property for his company. For his work on the film, Bill Forsyth won the 1984 BAFTA Award for Best Direction. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D05E6D9153BF934A25751C0A965948260

On This Date In 1989 “Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure,” a classic American comedy/science fiction movie written by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon and directed by Stephen Herek, was released. It stars Alex Winter as Bill S. Preston, Esquire, Keanu Reeves as Ted “Theodore” Logan, and George Carlin as Rufus. Bill & Ted was a financial success, grossing $40.4 million domestically on a budget of about $10 million.

On This Date In 1993 Approximately 900 people drowned when a passenger ferry, the Neptune, overturned near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The ferry was dangerously overloaded, and carried no lifeboats or emergency gear.

On This Date In 1994 “Cheshire Cat,” the debut studio album by the American pop punk band Blink-182, was released. Recorded at Westbeach Recorders in Los Angeles and produced by O (Otis Barthoulameu) and the band themselves, the album was released through local independent record label Cargo Music. “M+M's” and “Wasting Time” were released as singles to promote the album, and received popularity locally through radio play.

On This Date In 1996 In the final game of a six-game match, world chess champion Garry Kasparov triumphed over Deep Blue, IBM’s chess-playing computer, and won the match, 4-2. However, Deep Blue went on to defeat Kasparov in a heavily publicized rematch the following year.

On This Date In 1998 “Destiny's Child,” the self-titled debut album of R&B group Destiny's Child, was released by Columbia Records. It features the singles “No, No, No” and “With Me” and won Best R&B/Soul Album of the Year at the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards, but due to both singles having a remix (“Part 2”) as well as having an original version (“Part 1”), all singles preceded the album.

On This Date In 2003 The E2 nightclub stampede occurred at the E2 nightclub located above the Epitome Chicago restaurant in Chicago, Illinois, in which 21 people died and more than 50 were injured when panic ensued from the use of pepper spray by security guards to break up a fight. The club's owners, Dwain Kyles and Calvin Hollins, were later convicted of criminal contempt for their persistent failure to keep the facility up to code, and sentenced to two years in prison.

On This Date In 2004 “G3: Rockin' in the Free World,” a double live album by the G3 project that was recorded at The Uptown Theater in Kansas City, Missouri on October 21, 2003, was released. The album features the touring lineup of project leader Joe Satriani, frequent member Steve Vai, and guest guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen. A DVD of the same tour but with a different track list was released as G3: Live in Denver.

On This Date In 2006 A massive rock slide-debris avalanche occurred in the Philippine province of Southern Leyte that caused widespread damage and loss of life. The deadly landslide followed a ten-day period of heavy rains and a minor earthquake of magnitude 2.6 on the Richter scale. The official death toll stands at 1,126.

On This Date In 2008 The 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence was declared. An act of the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government Assembly of Kosovo, and adopted by unanimous quorum (109 members present), it declared Kosovo to be independent from Serbia. It was the second declaration of independence by Kosovo's Albanian-majority political institutions, the first having been proclaimed on September 7, 1990. The legality of the declaration, and indeed whether it was an act of the Assembly, was disputed. Serbia sought international validation and support for its stance that the declaration was illegal, and in October 2008 Serbia requested an advisory opinion on the matter from the International Court of Justice. The Court determined that the declaration of independence was not in violation of international law.

On This Date In 2009 The U.S. Senate Ethics Committee opened a preliminary inquiry into Sen. Roland Burris’s (D-Ill.) conflicting testimony on the circumstances surrounding his appointment by ex-Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich, three weeks after the governor was arrested on federal corruption charges that included allegedly trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat held previously by President Barack Obama. http://archive.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/02/burris-im-open-to-senate-ethics-investigation.html , http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2009/02/senate-majority-leader-cautious-on-burris.html

On This Date In 2011 A group of Wisconsin Democrat lawmakers blocked passage of a sweeping anti-union bill, by refusing to show up for a vote on the Budget Repair Bill, and then abruptly leaving the state, thereby preventing a quorum for adopting the legislation. http://www.npr.org/2011/02/17/133847336/wis-democratic-lawmakers-flee-to-prevent-vote

 


Hat tip to any included contributing sources, along with:

 

 


Happy Birthday Patricia Routledge (1929), Barry Humphries (1934), Buddy Ryan (1934), Mary Ann Mobley (1939), Vicente Fernandez (1940), Prunella Gee (1950), Randy Forbes (1952), Rene Russo (1954), Lou Diamond Phillips (1962), Michael Jordan (1963), Michael Bay (1965), Chante Moore (1967), Dominic Purcell (1970), Denise Richards (1971), Kelly Carlson (1976), Jason Ritter (1980), Paris Hilton (1981), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (1981), and Bonnie Wright (1991).

 


RIP Frederick Douglass (1818 – 1895), Thomas J. Watson (1874 – 1956), Isabelle Eberhardt (1877 – 1904), Ruth Clifford (1900 – 1998), Sir Alan Bates (1934 – 2003), and Gene Pitney (1941 – 2006).

 

 



Quotes

 



God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well. Voltaire

 


Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us. Voltaire

 


It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. Voltaire

 


All the citizens of a state cannot be equally powerful, but they may be equally free. Voltaire

 


I will not serve that in which I no longer believe whether it call itself my home, my fatherland or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use, silence, exile, and cunning.

James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

 

 



Courtesy YouTube et al

 


The crew from the International Space Station captured eastern seaboard of the United States at night on January 29th, 2012

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Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder to sing at Houston's funeral; Don Cornelius honored by hundreds at memorial service; 'Spider-Man' producers and Julie Taymor's union reach deal. (Feb. 17)

 


The 2nd Assault Battalion, 2nd Aviation Regiment, 2nd Combat Aviation Brigade, also known as the "Wildcards," stationed at Seoul Air Base train and qualify in the use of the air volcano mine system. The system serves a critical role in deterrence against North Korean advances by enabling United States Forces Korea the capability to lay down a large amount of land mines efficiently

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Nobody makes me do anything I don't want to do. It's my decision. So the biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy. And that's how I have to deal with it. 

Whitney Houston


Load up your mind with pictures capturing your preferred tomorrow. Put the remembrances of the past in a place where they won't block your view. 

Gary Carter

Tagged as: music video, video, sports, space, cinema, music, business, quotes, history


Friday! This Day In History, Music, Sports, Quotes, More!

Friday, February 10

The full blog here: http://apsense.cc/519eb5



On This Date In 1675 During King Philip's War, Mary Rowlandson (c. 1637 – January 1711), a colonial American woman was captured by Native Americans and held for 11 weeks before being ransomed. After her release, she wrote a book about her experience, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, considered a seminal American work in the literary genre of captivity narratives.
On This Date In 1763 The Seven Years' War, a global conflict known in America as the French and Indian War, ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris by France, Great Britain, and Spain. In the Treaty of Paris, France lost all claims to Canada and gave Louisiana to Spain, while Britain received Spanish Florida, Upper Canada, and various French holdings overseas. The treaty ensured the colonial and maritime supremacy of Britain and strengthened the 13 American colonies by removing their European rivals to the north and the south. Fifteen years later, French bitterness over the loss of most of their colonial empire contributed to their intervention in the American Revolution on the side of the Patriots.
On This Date In 1829 Pope Leo XII (August 22, 1760 – February 10, 1829), Pope from 1823 to 1829, died after lapsing into unconsciousness from illness. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09167a.htm
On This Date In 1846 The members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had been persecuted for their beliefs ever since Joseph Smith founded the church in New York in 1830. Anti-Mormon prejudice proved virulent with the murder of Smith and his brother in June 1844. On this day in 1846, convinced the Mormons would never find peace in the United States, Smith's successor, Brigham Young, and 1600 Mormons of Nauvoo, Illinois, began a long westward migration that eventually brought them to the valley of the Great Salt Lake in Utah, part of the still wild territories of the Mexican-controlled Southwest.
On This Date In 1861 Jefferson Davis, a former U.S. senator from Mississippi who served as U.S. secretary of war in the 1850s, received word he had been selected president of the new Confederate States of America. Delegates at the Confederacy's constitutional convention in Montgomery, Alabama, chose him for the job.
On This Date In 1862 During the American Civil War, The Battle of Elizabeth City was fought on the Pasquotank River near Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Vessels of the U.S. Navy's North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, opposed by vessels of the Confederate Navy's Mosquito Fleet; the latter supported by a shore-based battery of four guns at Cobb's Point near the southeastern border of the town, were defeated by forces led by Major General Ambrose E. Burnside, known as the Burnside Expedition. The resulting Union victory included Elizabeth City, Cobb's Point, and its nearby waters, and the Confederate fleet captured, sunk, or dispersed.
On This Date In 1916 As a result of bitter disagreements with President Woodrow Wilson over America's national defense strategies, Lindley M. Garrison resigned his position as the United States secretary of war. The main disagreement between Garrison and the president arose from the Wilson administration's long-term national defense plans and short-term U.S. military preparedness in light of the ongoing war in Europe. At the time, Wilson favored a policy of strict neutrality—he would be reelected later that year on a platform promising to keep America out of the war—and he objected to Garrison's belief that a full-time reserve army should be created as a foundation for national defense and, more immediately, for support in case the U.S. entered the European war. Assistant Secretary of War Henry Breckinridge also resigned his position out of loyalty to Mr. Garrison.
On This Date In 1927 Mary Violet Leontyne Price, American operatic soprano, was born in Laurel, Mississippi. She was best known for the title role of Verdi's Aida. Born in the segregated Deep South, she rose to international fame during a period of racial change in the 1950s and 60s (Price debuted on Broadway in April 1952), and was the first African-American to become a leading prima donna at the Metropolitan Opera. Her successful career took her to leading opera houses around the world and brought eighteen Grammy awards as well as the Presidential Medal of Freedom. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/feb10.html
On This Date In 1939 Pope Pius XI (May 31, 1857 – February 10, 1939), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, Pope from 1922 until his death on February 10, 1939, and sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on February 11, 1929, died of a third heart attack at age 81, only months before the outbreak of World War II. Pius XI chose for his tomb a spot in the Papal Grotto occupied by some of the Jacobite kings of England. They were moved to another location in the Grotto, however, when workers digging in the Grotto for Pius' tomb unearthed ancient archeological sites and tombs, included what is believed to be the tomb of St. Peter. Today it is called the Necropolis. Pius XI's tomb is just to the right as you enter the Grotto. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7840303
On This Date In 1942 During World War II, a Japanese submarine launched a brutal attack on Midway, a coral atoll used as a U.S. Navy base. It was the fourth bombing of the atoll by Japanese ships since the attack on Pear Harbor on December 7, 1941.
On This Date In 1957 Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder (February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957). an American author who wrote the Little House series of books based on her childhood in a pioneer family, died in her sleep in her Mansfield farmhouse just three days after her 90th birthday.
On This Date In 1962 Francis Gary Powers (August 17, 1929 – August 1, 1977), an American pilot whose Central Intelligence Agency U-2 spy plane was shot down while flying a reconnaissance mission over Soviet Union airspace, causing the 1960 U-2 incident, and subsequently convicted of espionage against the Soviet Union and sentenced to a total of 10 years in prison, was exchanged along with American student Frederic Pryor in a well publicized spy swap for Soviet KGB Colonel Vilyam Fisher, a Soviet colonel who was caught by the FBI and put in jail for espionage, at the Glienicke Bridge in Berlin, Germany. 
On This Date In 1964 Glenn Edward Lee Beck, American conservative radio host, vlogger, author, entrepreneur, political commentator and former television host, was born. He hosts the Glenn Beck Program, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks. He formerly hosted the Glenn Beck television program, which ran from January 2006 to October 2008 on HLN and from January 2009 to June 2011 on the Fox News Channel. Beck has authored six New York Times-bestselling books.
On This Date In 1965 During The Vietnam War, Viet Cong guerrillas blew up the U.S. barracks at Qui Nhon, 75 miles east of Pleiku on the central coast, with a 100-pound explosive charge under the building. A total of 23 U.S. personnel were killed, as well as two Viet Cong. In response to the attack, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered a retaliatory air strike operation on North Vietnam called Flaming Dart II.
On This Date In 1966 Ralph Nader, a young lawyer and the author of the groundbreaking book “Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile,” testified before Congress for the first time about unsafe practices in the auto industry.
On This Date In 1967 The Twenty-fifth Amendment (Amendment XXV) to the United States Constitution was ratified. It's purpose with succession to the Presidency establishes procedures both for filling a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, as well as responding to Presidential disabilities. It supersedes the ambiguous wording of Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution, which does not expressly state whether the Vice President becomes the President, as opposed to an Acting President, if the President dies, resigns, is removed from office or is otherwise unable to discharge the powers of the presidency. The Twenty-fifth Amendment was adopted on February 23, 1967.
On This Date In 1970 An avalanche crashed down on a ski resort in Val d'Isere, France. Approximately 100,000 cubic yards of snow came rushing down the mountain, killing 42 people, mostly young skiers. The snow was 100 yards high in some spots, and was the worst such incident in French history. French President Georges Pompidou declared it a national tragedy, and authorities ordered evacuations of other resorts in the region. This proved to be a wise move, as other avalanches followed in the next few days. In fact, the abandoned hotel at Val d'Isere was struck again two days later.
On This Date In 1972 Dressed in a striking costume, his hair dyed red, rocker David Bowie launched his Ziggy Stardust stage show with the “Spiders from Mars”—guitarist Mick Ronson, bassist Trevor Bolder and drummer Mick Woodmansey—at the Toby Jug pub in Tolworth, London. The show was hugely popular, catapulting Bowie to stardom as he toured the UK over the course of the next six months and creating, as described by biographer David Buckley, a “cult of Bowie” that was “unique—its influence lasted longer and has been more creative than perhaps almost any other force within pop fandom.”
On This Date In 1978 “Stained Class,” the fourth album by British heavy metal group Judas Priest, was released. A popular album in the band's catalogue, Stained Class showcased a more streamlined songwriting style. The production is crisper, clearer, and cleaner than any of their preceding albums. This is the only Judas Priest album to feature songwriting by all five members (one of Ian Hill's few contributions to the songwriting process for the band, and the sole contribution thereof by then-drummer Les Binks – the guitar riff for “Beyond the Realms of Death”). Following this album the band broke its songwriting team down to Rob Halford, K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton, with occasional contributions solely by Tipton.
On This Date In 1978 “Van Halen,” the eponymous debut album by American hard rock band Van Halen, was released. Recorded in 1977 and released in February 1978, it has sold over ten million copies in the United States alone and is one of the most successful debuts by a hard rock band. Along with 1984, it gives Van Halen two original albums with Diamond status in sales.
On This Date In 1989 Ronald H. Brown, a former Supreme Court lawyer and leader of the National Urban League, was elected chairman of the Democratic Party National Committee. He was the first African American to hold the top position in a major political party in the United States.
On This Date In 1992 Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, accused of raping 18-year-old beauty-pageant contestant Desiree Washington, was found guilty by an Indiana jury. The following month, Tyson was given a 10-year prison sentence, with four years suspended.
On This Date In 1996 And after three hours, world chess champion Gary Kasparov lost the first game of a six-game match against Deep Blue, an IBM computer capable of evaluating 200 million moves per second. Man was ultimately victorious over machine, however, as Kasparov bested Deep Blue in the match with three wins and two ties and took home the $400,000 prize. An estimated 6 million people worldwide followed the action on the Internet.
On This Date In 2004 “The College Dropout,” the debut album of American hip hop artist Kanye West, was released on Roc-A-Fella Records. It was recorded over a period of four years, beginning in 1999. Prior to the album's release, West had worked on Jay-Z's The Blueprint (2001), which showcased his style of melodic and soulful hip hop production. Produced entirely by West, The College Dropout also features contributions from musicians such as Jay-Z, John Legend, Ervin "EP" Pope, Miri Ben-Ari, Syleena Johnson, and Ken Lewis. Upon its release, The College Dropout became a massive commercial success, producing three top-ten singles and selling over 441,000 copies in its first week alone. The album has been widely considered a musical masterpiece, garnering “universal acclaim” by music critics, based on an aggregate score of 88/100 from Metacritic. At the 47th Grammy Awards in 2005, the album received a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album and a nomination for Album of the Year, and its single, “Jesus Walk,” won a Grammy for Best Rap Song.
On This Date In 2006 The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XX Olympic Winter Games, a winter multi-sport event, were celebrated in Turin, Italy from February 10, 2006, through February 26, 2006. This marked the second time Italy hosted the Olympic Winter Games, the first being the VII Olympic Winter Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo in 1956. Italy also hosted the Games of the XVII Olympiad in Rome in 1960. Turin was selected as the host city for the 2006 games in 1999.
On This Date In 2008 Roy Richard Scheider (November 10, 1932 – February 10, 2008), an American actor best known for his role as police chief Martin Brody in Jaws, as choreographer and film director Joe Gideon in All That Jazz, and as detective Buddy Russo in The French Connection, died from multiple myeloma at age 75. Scheider's final performance was released posthumously in the 2010 thriller Iron Cross. Scheider was nominated for two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award over the course of his career.
On This Date In 2009 The 2009 satellite collision, the first accidental hypervelocity collision between two intact artificial satellites in Earth orbit, occurred 789 kilometres (490 mi) above the Taymyr Peninsula in Siberia, when Iridium 33 and Kosmos-2251 collided at a speed of 11.7 kilometres per second (7.3 mi/s), or approximately 42,120 kilometres per hour (26,170 mph), faster than escape velocity on Earth. As of December 2011, many pieces of debris are in a steady decay towards Earth, expected to burn up in the atmosphere within one or two years.
On This Date In 2010 Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich pleaded not guilty to revised corruption charges. He went on to say he wanted jurors to be allowed to hear all of the audio recordings — some 500 hours’ worth — that federal authorities secretly made of his telephone conversations. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/us/11blago.html
On This Date In 2011 Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak refused to step down, saying in a nationally televised speech that he would hand authority to his vice president in a move that enraged and bewildered hundreds of thousands of protesters packed into Cairo's Tahrir Square. http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2011/0210/Hosni-Mubarak-will-stay-but-transferring-some-power-to-vice-president


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Friday! History, Reagan, Super Bowl, Music, Space, Quotes!

Friday, February 03

On This Date In 1821 Elizabeth Blackwell (February 3, 1821 – May 31, 1910), the first female doctor in the United States and the first on the UK Medical Register, was born. She was the first openly identified woman to graduate from medical school, a pioneer in educating women in medicine in the United States, and was prominent in the emerging women's rights movement.
On This Date In 1847 During the Mexican-American War, The Siege of Pueblo de Taos was fought. It was the final battle during the main phase of the Taos Revolt, an insurrection against the United States. It was also the final major engagement between American forces and insurgent forces in New Mexico during the war.
On This Date In 1863 During the American Civil War, The Battle of Dover was fought in Stewart County, Tennessee. The Confederate Army failed to disrupt shipping on the Cumberland River and capture the garrison at Dover, leaving the Union in control in Middle Tennessee.
On This Date In 1870 The Fifteenth Amendment (Amendment XV) to the United States Constitution prohibits each government in the United States from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's “race, color, or previous condition of servitude” (i.e., slavery). It was ratified on February 3, 1870. The Fifteenth Amendment is one of the Reconstruction Amendments adopted after the American Civil War.
On This Date In 1913 The Sixteenth Amendment (Amendment XVI) to the United States Constitution allows the United States Congress to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the states or basing it on Census results. This amendment overruled Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. (1895), which limited the Congress's authority to levy an income tax. It was ratified on February 3, 1913.
On This Date In 1917 President Woodrow Wilson spoke for two hours before an historic session of Congress to announce the United States was breaking diplomatic relations with Germany, due to the reintroduction of the German navy's policy of unlimited submarine warfare.
On This Date In 1924 Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924), 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921, died in his South Street, Washington, DC home from a debilitating illness from a prior stroke. He was buried in Washington National Cathedral, the only president buried in Washington, D.C.
On This Date In 1931 The Hawke's Bay earthquake occurred in New Zealand, killing 256 and devastating the Hawke's Bay region. This magnitude 7.8 quake remains New Zealand's deadliest natural disaster, and lasted for two and a half minutes. There were 525 aftershocks recorded in the following two weeks. The main shock could be felt in much of the southern half of the North Island.
On This Date In 1933 At his first meeting with all of the leading generals and admirals of the Reich, Adolph Hitler spoke of “conquest of Lebensraum in the East and its ruthless Germanization” as his ultimate foreign policy objectives. For Hitler, the land which would provide sufficient Lebensraum (“living space”) for Germany was the Soviet Union, which for Hitler was both a nation that possessed vast and rich agricultural land and was inhabited by what Hitler saw as Slavic Untermenschen (sub-humans) ruled over by what he regarded as a gang of blood-thirsty, but grossly incompetent Jewish revolutionaries.
On This Date In 1944 During World War II, American forces invaded and took control of the Marshall Islands, long occupied by the Japanese and used by them as a base for military operations.
On This Date In 1945 Through March 3, 1945, The Battle for Manila was fought by U.S. and Japanese forces. The one-month battle, which culminated in a terrible bloodbath and total devastation of the city of Manila, was the scene of the worst urban fighting in the Pacific War|Pacific theater, ended almost three years, 1942-1945 of Japanese military occupation in the Philippines. The city's capture was marked as General Douglas MacArthur's key to victory in the campaign of reconquest.
On This Date In 1950 Klaus Fuchs, a German-born British scientist who helped developed the atomic bomb, was arrested in Great Britain for passing top-secret information about the bomb to the Soviet Union. The arrest of Fuchs led authorities to several other individuals involved in a spy ring, culminating with the arrest of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and their subsequent execution.
On This Date In 1953 French oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau published his most famous and lasting work, The Silent World.
On This Date In 1959 A small-plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, killed three American rock and roll pioneers: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, as well as the pilot, Roger Peterson. The day was later called The Day the Music Died by Don McLean, in his song “American Pie”. The plane crash has been called the first and greatest tragedy rock and roll has ever suffered.
On This Date In 1966 The Soviet Union accomplished the first controlled landing on the moon, when the unmanned spacecraft Lunik 9 touched down on the Ocean of Storms. After its soft landing, the circular capsule opened like a flower, deploying its antennas, and began transmitting photographs and television images back to Earth. The 220-pound landing capsule was launched from Earth on January 31.
On This Date In 1972 The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XI Olympic Winter Games, was celebrated from February 3 to February 13, 1972 in Sapporo, Hokkaid?, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympics to be held outside Europe and North America, and only the 3rd games (summer or winter) held outside those regions over all, after Melbourne (1956 Summer Olympics) and Tokyo (1964 Summer Olympics). Sapporo was the largest city to have held any Winter Games at the time.
On This Date In 1981 “Difficult to Cure,” the fifth studio album by the British rock band Rainbow, was released. The album marked the further commercialization of the band's sound with guitarist Ritchie Blackmore once describing at the time liking for the rock band, Foreigner. The album material was started with Graham Bonnet still in the band, getting as far as recording an early version of “I Surrender,” before Bonnet left the band due to his dissatisfaction over the material. American singer Joe Lynn Turner, formerly of Fandango was recruited and sang over backings already completed. Turner stated that, because of this, he was singing in higher keys than he would do normally (and would do subsequently).
On This Date In 1986 The Graphics Group, which is one third of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm that was launched in 1979 with the hiring of Dr. Ed Catmull from the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT),where he was in charge of the Computer Graphics Lab (CGL), was acquired by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs shortly after his departure from Apple. It would become American computer animation phenomenon Pixar.
On This Date In 1989 John Nicholas Cassavetes (December 9, 1929 – February 3, 1989), American actor, screenwriter and filmmaker, died from cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 59. He was also a pioneer of American independent film by writing and directing over a dozen movies, which he financed in part with his Hollywood paychecks, and which pioneered the use of improvisation and a realistic cinéma vérité style.
On This Date In 1994 Just six months before he announced he had Alzheimer's disease, former President Ronald Reagan celebrated his 83rd birthday with a gala celebration. Reagan's final public speech this day in 1994 followed a warm tribute by former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2004/reagan/stories/speech.archive/gala.html
On This Date In 1994 And nearly two decades after the fall of Saigon, U.S. President Bill Clinton announced the lifting of the 19-year-old trade embargo against Vietnam, citing the cooperation of Vietnam's communist government in helping the United States locate the 2,238 Americans still listed as missing in the Vietnam War.
On This Date In 1997 “Discothèque,” the lead single from Irish rock band U2's 1997 album, Pop, was released. It peaked at number one in many countries' charts, including the UK Singles Chart. The song received mixed reviews from critics.
On This Date In 1998 A U.S. Marine jet flying low over the town of Cavalese in the Italian Alps severed a ski-lift cable, sending a tram crashing to the ground and killing 20 people. Cavalese is located in the Dolomite Mountains, about 20 miles northeast of Trento, Italy.
On This Date In 1998 “Yield,” the fifth studio album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, was released. Following a short tour for its previous album, No Code (1996), Pearl Jam went into the studio in 1997 to record its follow-up. The album was proclaimed as a return to the band's early, straightforward rock sound.
On This Date In 2002 Originally scheduled to be played on January 26, 2002, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks caused the National Football League to postpone its September 16 games and play them a week after the scheduled conclusion of the regular season, pushing the Super Bowl championship to February 3. Super Bowl XXXVI was played at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana to decide the NFL champion following the 2001 regular season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots (14–5) won their first Super Bowl by defeating the National Football Conference (NFC) champion St. Louis Rams (16–3), 20–17, as kicker Adam Vinatieri made a game-winning 48-yard field goal as time expired. The Rams had been 14-point favorites to win the game, making the Patriots' victory one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history.
On This Date In 2005 Alberto Gonzales won U.S. Senate confirmation as the nation's first Hispanic attorney general despite protests over his record on torture.
On This Date In 2008 Super Bowl XLII was played at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, and featured the NFC champion New York Giants and the AFC champion New England Patriots to decide the NFL champion for the 2007 season. In one of the greatest upsets in sports history, the wild-card Giants (14–6) won 17–14 over the previously undefeated Patriots (18–1). In doing so, the Giants became the first NFC wild card team to win a Super Bowl. They also became the fifth wild card seed from either conference, the fourth in eleven years, and second in three years, to earn an NFL championship. The victory marked the franchise's seventh NFL championship and third Super Bowl win—New York's first title since Super Bowl XXV in January 1991. The game was a rematch of the final game of the regular season. In that game, the Patriots won 38–35 to complete the first perfect regular season since the 1972 Miami Dolphins team, and the first one since the league expanded to a 16-game regular season schedule in 1978.


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Happy Birthday Fran Tarkenton (1940), Tom Gallagher (1944), Bob Griese (1945), Morgan Fairchild (1950), Michele Greene (1962), Maura Tierney (1965), Elisa Donovan (1971), Isla Fisher (1976), and Bridget Regan (1982).


RIP Elizabeth Blackwell (1821 – 1910), Gertrude Stein (1874 – 1946), Luigi Dallapiccola (1904 – 1975), Robert Earl Jones (1904 – 2006), Joey Bishop (1919 – 2007), John Fiedler (1925 – 2005), Richard Yates (1926 – 1992), and Elijah Pitts (1938 – 1998).



Quotes


Celebrating Ronald Reagan's 100th Birthday Celebration, ending this February 6th:


Are you willing to spend time studying the issues, making yourself aware, and then conveying that information to family and friends? Will you resist the temptation to get a government handout for your community? Realize that the doctor's fight against socialized medicine is your fight. We can't socialize the doctors without socializing the patients. Recognize that government invasion of public power is eventually an assault upon your own business. If some among you fear taking a stand because you are afraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even government, recognize that you are just feeding the crocodile hoping he'll eat you last. (October 27, 1964) RWR


Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves. RWR


We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. RWR


Every dollar the Federal Government does not take from us, every decision it does not make for us will make our economy stronger, our lives more abundant, our future more free. RWR


I believe with all my heart that standing up for America means standing up for the God who has so blessed our land. We need God's help to guide our nation through stormy seas. But we can't expect Him to protect America in a crisis if we just leave Him over on the shelf in our day-to-day living. RWR



Courtesy YouTube et al


Broadcast to the American people from the Oval Office. Reagan mentions two triumphs from his presidency: the economic recovery and the recovery of American morale. He discusses America's changing relations with the Soviet Union and shares his regret for the deficit that deepened during his time in office. He concludes by addressing America's sense of patriotism and refers to the nation as “a shining city on a hill.” January 11th, 1989


This 2012 video, "Flight of the Bumblebee," is the title tune on CANADIAN BRASS' premiere Steinway & Sons label release, and, the first recording with all of the new permanent members of the ensemble: Chuck Daellenbach (tuba), Chris Coletti and Brandon Ridenour (trumpets), Achilles Liarmakopoulos (trombone) and Eric Reed (horn). After 40 years, the BRASS have maintained a remarkable consistency in their style and virtuosity, even as the individual members have gradually changed.
This is also the first recording the BRASS have made with their new custom-made gold-plated Bach & Conn instruments built by Conn-Selmer. The repertoire features favorite encores, new arrangements, and world premieres. As with their other recent releases, this disc is an audiophile sonic blockbuster, produced by Dixon Van Winkle and MB Daellenbach.
Brandon was inspired to write this arrangement of "Flight of the Bumblebee" for his colleagues by the trumpet and piano arrangement he and his father Rich Ridenour created for their own duo.



The space telescope captured an amazing view of spiral galaxy NGC 1073 and three quasars that are right outside its galactic neighborhood. Located in the constellation of Cetus, the galaxy has a bar structure in the center similar to the Milky Way. Original Music by Mark C. Petersen, Loch Ness Productions


The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and “slipped the surly bonds of earth” to “touch the face of God.”
And
Man will continue his conquest of space. To reach out for new goals and ever greater achievements - that is the way we shall commemorate our seven Challenger heroes. RWR

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