Today's Highlight in History:
One hundred years ago, on December 16th, 1907, 16 US Navy battleships, which came to be known collectively as the "Great White Fleet," set sail from Hampton Roads, Virginia, on a 14-month round-the-world voyage at the order of President Theodore Roosevelt, who wanted to demonstrate American sea power.
[Speak softly & wave a big fleet. — Ed.]On this date:
In 1653, Oliver Cromwell became lord protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.
In 1773, the Boston Tea Party took place as American colonists boarded a British ship and dumped more than 300 chests of tea overboard to protest tea taxes.
In 1809, Napoleon Bonaparte was divorced from the Empress Josephine by an act of the French Senate.
In 1916, Grigori Rasputin was assassinated by a group of Russian nobles. [Note from infoplease.com: Extra credit: Rasputin died on 30 December under the modern (Gregorian) calendar, on 17 December under the old (Julian) calendar; Russia didn't adopt the modern calendar until after the Revolution of 1917. Some sources list the death date as the 29th (or 16th) of December, on the theory that Rasputin died before midnight on the night of his murder.]
In 1920, one of the deadliest earthquakes in history hit the Gansu province in China. The 8.6 quake killed 200,000 people.
In 1944, the World War II Battle of the Bulge began as German forces launched a surprise attack against Allied forces in Belgium (the Allies were eventually able to beat the Germans back). [Really. Did we win that war, too? — Ed.]
In 1950, President Truman proclaimed a national state of emergency in order to fight "world conquest by Communist imperialism." [What a fucking tool. — Ed.]
In 1960, 134 people were killed when a United Air Lines DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation collided over New York City.
In 1985, Reputed organized-crime chief Paul Castellano was shot to death outside a New York City restaurant.
In 1990, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected president of Haiti in the country's first democratic elections.
In 1991, the U.N. General Assembly rescinded its 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism by a vote of 111-25.
In 2000, President-elect Bush selected Colin Powell to become the first African-American secretary of state.
Ten years ago: U.N. weapons monitor Richard Butler left Iraq after failing to persuade President Saddam Hussein to open his palaces to inspections. A Pentagon-appointed panel concluded that the Army, Navy and Air Force should segregate male and female recruits in their earliest phases of basic training. In Japan, at least 700 mostly young TV viewers reportedly suffered nausea and other symptoms after watching an animated "Pokemon" cartoon featuring bright, flashing colors.
In 1998, President Bill Clinton ordered a sustained series of airstrikes against Iraq by American and British forces in response to Saddam Hussein's continued defiance of UN weapons inspectors.
Five years ago: President Bush named former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean to replace Henry Kissinger as head of the panel investigating the September 11th terror attacks. [Because Kissinger was unwilling to reveal for whom he "consults." — Ed.] Senate Republican leader Trent Lott, in an interview on Black Entertainment Television, asked black Americans to forgive his seeming [Seeming? Seeming? — Ed.] nostalgia for segregation. Canada ratified the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A jury in Baltimore acquitted former altar boy Dontee Stokes of attempted murder in the shooting of a Roman Catholic priest he'd claimed molested him a decade earlier.
In 2004, Britain's highest court dealt a huge blow to the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policy by ruling that it could not detain foreign suspects indefinitely without trial.
One year ago: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for elections to end his violent standoff with Hamas. Ten players, including NBA scoring leader Carmelo Anthony, were ejected for fighting during a wild brawl near the end of a game between Denver and New York. Terrell Owens spat in the face of Atlanta cornerback DeAngelo Hall during a Cowboys-Falcons game. (Owens was fined $35,000 by the NFL.)
Today's Birthdays: Author Sir Arthur C. Clarke is 90. Civil rights attorney Morris Dees is 71. Actress Joyce Bulifant is 70. Actress Liv Ullmann is 69. CBS news correspondent Lesley Stahl is 66. TV producer Steven Bochco is 64. Pop singer Benny Andersson (ABBA) is 61. Actor Ben Cross is 60. Rock singer-musician Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) is 58. Rock musician Bill Bateman (The Blasters) is 56. Actress Alison LaPlaca is 48.
Actor Jon Tenney is 46. Actor Benjamin Bratt is 44.Really Historical Birthdays:
Ludwig van Beethoven, composer (1770)
Jane Austen, novelist (1775)
George Santayana, philosopher and poet (1863)
Zoltán Kodály, composer (1882)
Noel Coward, playwright, composer (1899)
Margaret Mead, anthropologist (1901)
Philip K. Dick, writer (1928)
This Date's Show Biz Shite:
In 1905, the entertainment trade publication Variety came out with its first weekly issue.
In 1966, "Hey Joe," the first single by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, was released in Britain. The song was not released as a single in the US
.In 1970, five singles and five albums by Creedence Clearwater Revival were certified gold. The songs were "Travelin' Band," "Up Around the Bend," "Lookin' Out My Back Door," "Down on the Corner" and "Bad Moon Rising."In 1973, singer Jermaine Jackson married Hazel Gordy, the daughter of Motown Records founder Berry Gordy.
In 1974, Mott the Hoople split up.
In 1975, the Bay City Rollers got their first US gold record for the song "Saturday Night." [Doubtless the last one for the one-hit wonders, as well. — Ed.]
In 1977, the Bee Gees were awarded a gold record for "How Deep is Your Love;" the movie "Saturday Night Fever," starring John Travolta as a Brooklyn disco dancer, opened in wide release.
In 1997, singer Nicolette Larson died in Los Angeles of complications from cerebral edema. She was 45.
In 2005, actress Teri Hatcher won her libel suit against a British tabloid that printed a fake story claiming she neglected her daughter while having sex with men in a van outside her home; actor John Spencer died of a heart attack in a Los Angeles hospital, a day after checking in with a bad cold. He was 58. [Hospitals can kill you. — Ed.]
No comments:
Post a Comment