Holy Crap, Friday The 13th Already? Today in History & The Past

Today is Friday, Feb. 13, the 44th day of 2009. There are 321 days left in the year. The AP page. The AP A/V. UPI Almanac. Today's Highlight in History: On Feb. 13th, 1935, a jury in Flemington, N.J., found Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of first-degree murder in the kidnap-slaying of the son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. (Hauptmann was later executed.) On this date: In 1542, the fifth wife of England's King Henry VIII, Catherine Howard, was executed for adultery. In 1635, The Boston Public Latin School was founded. (It is now the oldest public school in the United States.) In 1741, Andrew Bradford of Pennsylvania published the first American magazine. Titled "The American Magazine, or A Monthly View of the Political State of the British Colonies," it lasted three issues. In 1914, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, known as ASCAP, was founded in New York. In 1920, the League of Nations recognized the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland. In 1939, Justice Louis D. Brandeis retired from the US Supreme Court. (He was succeeded by William O. Douglas.) [Hello, Lesley Wells. What up? — Ed.] In 1945, during World War II, Allied planes began bombing the German city of Dresden. The Soviets captured Budapest, Hungary, from the Germans. In 1960, France exploded its first atomic bomb, in the Sahara Desert.[Photo above historically un-true; it's 1999 & Mururoa, Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia, not the Sahara, but it's a French bomb. Photo by volker. — Ed.] In 1980, the 13th Winter Olympics opened in Lake Placid, New York. In 1984, Konstantin Chernenko was chosen to be general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding the late Yuri Andropov. In 1988, the 15th winter Olympics opened in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In 1991, Hundreds of Iraqi civilians were killed when a pair of laser-guided U.S. bombs destroyed an underground facility in Baghdad identified by U.S. officials as a military installation, but which Iraqi officials said was a bomb shelter. In 1997, the Dow Jones industrial average broke through the 7,000 barrier for the first time, closing at 7,022.44. [How's that fucking thing looking now, chumps? — Financial Ed.] Ten years ago: In his weekly radio address, President Bill Clinton said as many as 4,000 American troops would go to Kosovo as part of a NATO peacekeeping force if warring Serbs and ethnic Albanians were to reach a political settlement. A federal judge held American Airlines' pilots union and two top board members in contempt and promised sizable fines against them, saying the union did not do enough to encourage pilots to return to work after a court order. In 2000, Charles Schulz's final "Peanuts" comic strip ran in Sunday newspapers, the day after the cartoonist died at age 77. Five years ago: President George W. Bush, trying to calm a political storm, ordered the release of his Vietnam-era military records to counter Democrats' suggestions that he'd shirked his duty in the Texas Air National Guard. In 2005, final results showed clergy-backed Shiites and independence-minded Kurds had swept to victory in Iraq's landmark elections. One year ago: Under oath and sometimes blistering questioning, seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens told Congress: "I have never taken steroids or HGH." Hollywood writers ended their 100-day strike that had disrupted the TV season and canceled awards shows. Japanese movie director Kon Ichikawa died in Tokyo at age 92.

Thought for Today: "It is not so much what we have done amiss, as what we have left undone, that will trouble us, looking back." — Ellen Wood, English playwright and journalist (1813-1887). ["Don't look back. You never know who's following you." — Satchel Paige] Today's Birthdays (Any of whom may have been born on a Friday the 13th): Former test pilot Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager is 86. Actress Kim Novak is 76. Actor George Segal is 75. Actress Carol Lynley is 67. Singer-musician Peter Tork (The Monkees) is 67. Actress Stockard Channing is 65.Talk show host Jerry Springer is 65. Actor Bo Svenson is 65. [A trifecta, & all of them ready to retire. — Ed.] Duke men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski is 62. Former national security adviser Stephen Hadley is 62. Singer Peter Gabriel is 59. Actor David Naughton is 58. Governor of Missouri Jay Nixon is 53. Rock musician Peter Hook is 53. Actor Matt Salinger is 49. Singer Henry Rollins is 48.Actor Neal McDonough is 43.  Singer Freedom Williams is 43. Actress Kelly Hu is 41. Rock musician Todd Harrell (3 Doors Down) is 37. Singer Robbie Williams is 35. Football player Randy Moss is 32.  On February 13th, 1961, Frank Sinatra unveiled his own record label, Reprise. Sinatra did not have a very high opinion of rock music, but the label would release recordings by The Beach Boys, Jimi Hendrix and The Kinks. [Yeah, after Warner Bros. Records took it over. — Ed.] In 1972, Led Zeppelin had to cancel a concert in Singapore after authorities would not let the group off the plane because of their long hair.In 1982, a 300-pound marker on the grave of Lynyrd Skynyrd singer Ronnie Van Zant was stolen from an Orange Park, Florida, cemetery. Police found it two weeks later in a dry river bed. In 1991, a helicopter carrying actor Kirk Douglas collided with a stunt plane over an airport in California. Douglas suffered cuts and bruises. Two people on the plane were killed. [Jesus loves the celebrities more than the crew. — Ed.] In 1997, Michael Jackson and then-wife Debbie Rowe became parents to a son named Prince. [There oughta be a law. — Ed.] In 2005, Ray Charles won eight posthumous Grammy awards for his final album, "Genius Loves Company."

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