Wednesday, November 25, 2009

25 November: British Capture Pittsburgh; Redcoats Leave New York; Joltin' Joe, Bush Twinz Drop; Blacklist Imposed; "White Album" Out In Time for Xmas; Mishima Commits Hara-Kiri; NIx Sez: Must Drive 55; Elian Gonzalez Rescued; Homeland Security Law Signed

Today is Wednesday, Nov. 25, the 329th day of 2009. There are 36 days left in the year. UPI Almanac.
Today's Highlight in History:
On Nov. 25, 1783, the British evacuated New York, their last military position in the United States during the Revolutionary War.
On this date:
In 1758, during the French and Indian War, the British captured Fort Duquesne in present-day Pittsburgh.
In 1835, industrialist Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland.
UPI Thought: Andrew Carnegie wrote: "Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community. The man who dies rich thus dies disgraced." [Fucking commie. — Ed.]
In 1881, Pope John XXIII was born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli near Bergamo, Italy.
In 1908, the first issue of The Christian Science Monitor was published.
In 1914, Baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio was born in Martinez, Calif.
In 1944, baseball commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis died at age 78.
In 1947, movie studio executives meeting in New York agreed to blacklist the "Hollywood Ten," who were cited a day earlier and jailed for contempt of Congress for failing to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee.
In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffered a slight stroke.
In 1963, the body of President John F. Kennedy was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.

In 1970, world-renowned Japanese writer Yukio Mishima committed suicide after failing to win public support for his often extreme political beliefs.In 1973, Greek President George Papadopoulos was ousted in a bloodless military coup. U. S. President Richard Nixon ordered the national highway speed limit cut from 70 mph to 55 mph to save lives and gasoline.
In 1974, former U.N. Secretary-General U Thant died at age 65.
In 1984, William Schroeder of Jasper, Ind., became the second man to receive a Jarvik-7 artificial heart, at Humana Hospital Audubon in Kentucky. (He lived 620 days on the device.)
In 1986, the Iran-Contra affair erupted as President Ronald Reagan and Attorney General Edwin Meese revealed that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to Nicaraguan rebels.
Audio LinkPresident Ronald Reagan
Audio LinkAttorney General Edwin Meese
UPI Version: U. S. President Ronald Reagan announced the resignation of national security adviser John Poindexter and the firing of Poindexter aide Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North in the aftermath of the secret, illegal Iran arms sale.
In 1987, Chicago Mayor Harold Washington died after suffering a heart attack in his City Hall office.
In 1992, the Czechoslovakian Parliament voted to dissolve the country at the end of the year into separate Czech and Slovak states.
In 1997, Ron Carey, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, resigned amid questions about his management of union funds.
In 1999, five-year-old Elian Gonzalez was rescued by a pair of sport fishermen off the coast of Florida. (Elian was one of three survivors from a boat carrying 14 Cubans that had sunk two days earlier in the Atlantic Ocean; his rescue set off an international custody battle between relatives in Miami and Elian's father that eventually resulted in Elian being returned to Cuba.)
In 2001, CIA officer Johnny "Mike" Spann was killed during a prison uprising in Mazar-e-Sharif, becoming America's first combat casualty of the conflict in Afghanistan.
In 2002, President George Bush signed legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security, and appointed Tom Ridge to be its chief.
In 2003, the Senate gave final congressional approval to historic Medicare legislation combining a new prescription drug benefit with measures to control costs before the baby boom generation reaches retirement age. Yemen arrested Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal, a top al-Qaida member suspected of masterminding the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and the 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker off Yemen's coast.
In 2004, leading Sunni Muslim politicians in Iraq urged postponement of the Jan. 30, 2005 national elections. (However, the elections ended up taking place as scheduled.) A man with a knife broke into a high school dormitory in Ruzhou, China, killing nine boys as they slept. (Chinese authorities later executed a 21-year-old man who confessed to the attack.)
In 2006, 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.
In 2008, President-elect Barack Obama said economic recovery efforts would trump deficit concerns after he took office in January; at the same time, Obama pledged a "page-by-page, line-by-line" budget review to root out unneeded spending. Former NFL quarterback Michael Vick pleaded guilty to a Virginia dogfighting charge, receiving a three-year suspended sentence. Flights in and out of Bangkok, Thailand, were grounded when anti-government demonstrators occupied the international airport.
Today's Birthdays: Actress Noel Neill is 89. Playwright Murray Schisgal is 83. Actress Kathryn Crosby is 76. Actor Matt Clark is 73. Playwright Shelagh Delaney is 70. Singer Percy Sledge is 69. NFL Hall of Fame coach and NASCAR owner Joe Gibbs is 69. Author, actor and game show host Ben Stein is 65. Singer Bob Lind is 65. Actor John Larroquette is 62. Actor Tracey Walter is 62. Movie director Jonathan Kaplan is 62. Author Charlaine Harris is 58. Retired baseball All-Star Bucky Dent is 58. Singer Amy Grant is 49. Rock musician Eric Grossman (K's Choice) is 45. Rock singer Mark Lanegan is 45. Rock singer-musician Tim Armstrong is 44. Singer Stacy Lattisaw is 43. Rock musician Rodney Sheppard (Sugar Ray) is 43. Rapper-producer Erick Sermon is 41. Actress Jill Hennessy is 40. Actress Christina Applegate is 38. Actor Eddie Steeples ("My Name Is Earl") is 36. Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb is 33. Former first daughter Barbara Bush is 28. Former first daughter Jenna Hager is 28. Actress Katie Cassidy is 23.
Today In Entertainment History November 25
In 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 1968, The Beatles' "White Album" was released.
In 1976, The Band gave its final performance in San Francisco. The concert was documented in the movie "The Last Waltz."
In 1969, John Lennon returned his MBE medal to the Queen to protest Britain's support for US involvement to Vietnam, among other things. The other three Beatles kept their medals, which they received in 1965.
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 No. 1 song when the film opened. Also in 1992, the movie "Aladdin" opened nationwide.
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.
In 2008, playwright William Gibson ("The Miracle Worker") died in Stockbridge, Mass., at age 94. TV personality Brooke Burke and professional partner Derek Hough won "Dancing with the Stars."
Thought for Today: "Self is the only prison that can ever bind the soul." — Henry van Dyke, American clergyman (1852-1933).

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