Sunday, November 25, 2007

History Shows Again & Again...

Today is Sunday, November 25th, the 329th day of 2007. There are 36 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On November 25th, 1783, the British evacuated New York, their last military position in the United States during the Revolutionary War.
On this date:
In 1758, in the French and Indian War, the British captured Fort Duquesne in present-day Pittsburgh.
In 1881, Pope John XXIII was born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli near Bergamo, Italy.
In 1947, movie studio executives meeting in New York agreed to blacklist the "Hollywood Ten" who'd been cited for contempt of Congress the day before.
In 1957, President Eisenhower suffered a slight stroke.
In 1963, the body of President Kennedy was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. [See photo below. — Ed.]
In 1973, Greek President George Papadopoulos was ousted in a bloodless military coup.
In 1974, former U.N. Secretary-General U Thant died in New York at age 65.
In 1986, the Iran-Contra affair erupted as President Reagan and Attorney General Edwin Meese revealed that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to Nicaraguan rebels.
In 1987, Harold Washington, the first black mayor of Chicago, died in office at age 65.
In 1999, 5-year-old Elian Gonzalez was rescued by a pair of sport fishermen off Florida, setting off an international custody battle between relatives in Miami and Elian's father in Cuba.
Ten years ago: Teamsters President Ron Carey announced he was taking an unpaid leave of absence to fight an election overseer's decision barring him from a rerun.
Five years ago: President Bush signed legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security, and appointed Tom Ridge to be its head. Space shuttle Endeavour arrived at the international space station, delivering one American and two Russians, and another girder for the orbiting outpost. Former State Department official Eugene V. Rostow died at age 89. Movie director Karel Reisz, who was part of British cinema's gritty 1960's renaissance, died in London at age 76.
One year ago: A police shooting outside a strip club in Queens, New York, resulted in the death of Sean Bell hours before his wedding. (Two officers were later indicted for manslaughter, and a third was charged with reckless endangerment; all three have pleaded not guilty.) Israel and the Palestinians agreed to a cease-fire to end a five-month Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip and the firing of rockets by Palestinian militants into the Jewish state.

Today's Birthdays: Actor Ricardo Montalban is 87. Actress Noel Neill is 87. Actress Kathryn Crosby is 74. [Der Bingle's daughter? Yow! — Ed.] Singer Percy Sledge is 67. Author, actor, [idiotic asshole — Ed.] and game show host Ben Stein is 63. Singer Bob Lind is 63. Actor John Larroquette is 60. Actor Tracey Walter is 60. Movie director Jonathan Kaplan is 60. Singer Amy Grant is 47. Rock singer-musician Tim Armstrong is 42. Singer Stacy Lattisaw is 41. Actress Jill Hennessy is 38. Actress Christina Applegate is 36.

Today's Dead People's Birthdays: Andrew Carnegie, industrialist and philanthropist (1835)
Carry Moore Nation, temperance advocate (1846)
Pope John XXIII, religious leader (1881)
Virgil Thomson, composer (1896)
Ba Jin, modern novelist (1904)
Joe DiMaggio, baseballer (1914) [Oddly enough, we came across this wonderful item concerning Joltin' Joe, AKA Mr. Marilyn Monroe, just a few minutes ago]:

Furthermore, elites often expressed or ignored other forms of bigotry. Anti-Italian sentiment, while less acceptable than anti-black sentiment, could still be seen in major news publications before the war. Indeed, this rhetoric appeared in descriptions of the most popular Italian-American of the day, New York Yankees star Joe DiMaggio. In May 1939, Life wrote, “Although he learned Italian first, Joe, now twenty-four, speaks English without an accent and is otherwise well-adapted to most U.S. mores. Instead of olive oil or smelly bear grease he keeps his hair slick with water. He never reeks of garlic and prefers chicken chow mein to spaghetti.” The article also included a picture of DiMaggio with Joe Louis, captioned “Like Heavyweight Champion Louis, DiMaggio is lazy, shy, and inarticulate.”
John F. Kennedy, Jr. publisher, lawyer (1960)
[So just a dad-gum minute here. If the AP & Infoplease are correct, the photo above was taken on John-John's third birthday? There's some trauma. That, & wearing an outfit that matches your older sister's to the funeral of your assassinated father. Going down in your plane is probably the best outcome to something like that. The Editor would've been a heroin addict by the age of fifteen. — Ed.]

Show Bidness History: On November 25th, 1952, the Agatha Christie play "Mousetrap" opened in London. It became the longest-running play ever.
In 1961, Don and Phil Everly were sworn in to the US Marine Corps Reserves in Nashville and later reported to Camp Pendleton in San Diego.
In 1968, The Beatles' "White Album" was released. [Beatles news two days in a row. — Ed.]
In 1969, John Lennon returned his MBE medal to Queen Elizabeth to protest Britain's support for U.S. involvement to Vietnam, among other things. The other three Beatles kept their medals, which they received in 1965.
In 1976, The Band gave its final performance in San Francisco. The concert was documented in the movie "The Last Waltz."
In 1984, the Ethiopian famine relief song "Do They Know It's Christmas" by Band Aid was recorded in London. The session was organized by singer Bob Geldof.
In 1985, Bobby Brown announced he was leaving the group New Edition for a solo career.
In 1992, Whitney Houston's first movie, "The Bodyguard," opened nationwide. The movie's theme song "I Will Always Love You" was already a number one song when the film opened.
In 1998, comedian Flip Wilson died of liver cancer at his home in Malibu, California. He was 64.
Also in 1998, actor Michael J. Fox revealed he had Parkinson's disease.
In 2002, actor Nicolas Cage filed for divorce from Lisa Marie Presley. They had been married for four months.

No comments: