4 December (Again): More Damn Colonists; "Boss" Tweed On The Loose; WPA Dismantled; Keef Electrocuted On Stage; Pan Am Through; Cancer Gets FZ; SCOTUS Continues Usurpation; Bolton Gone

Today is Friday, Dec. 4, the 338th day of 2009. There are 27 days left in the year. UPI Almanac.[Our flunkies at The AP neglected to add the narration. Maybe later. — Ed.]
Today's Highlight in History:
On Dec. 4, 1619, settlers from Bristol, England, arrived at Berkeley Hundred in present-day Charles City County, Va., where they held a service thanking God for their safe arrival. (Some suggest that this was America's true first Thanksgiving.)
On this date:
In 1783, General George Washington bade farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York.<object height="345px" width="410px"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="wmode" value="transparent"/><param name="movie" value="http://mediaservices.myspace.com/services/media/embed.aspx/m=23320794,t=1,mt=video"/><embed src="http://mediaservices.myspace.com/services/media/embed.aspx/m=23320794,t=1,mt=video" width="410" height="345" allowFullScreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent"></embed></object>[Note (15 March 2014): No idea what the hell that was ... The iNternet is forever, right? — M.B.]

Today in History...

1783: General George Washington bids his officers farewell at Fraunces Tavern in New York; they are so moved by his words they don't notice that he's long gone before the check arrives. [Lifted from ant farmer's almanac. — Ed.]

In 1816, James Monroe of Virginia was elected the fifth president of the United States. In 1875, William Marcy Tweed, the "Boss" of New York City's Tammany Hall political organization, escaped from jail and fled the country. In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson left Washington for France to attend the Versailles Peace Conference. In 1942, US bombers struck the Italian mainland for the first time. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the dismantling of the Works Progress Administration, which had been created to provide jobs during the Depression. In 1945, the Senate approved U.S. participation in the United Nations. In 1965, the United States launched Gemini 7 with Air Force Lt. Col. Frank Borman and Navy Cmdr. James A. Lovell aboard. In 1971, India joined East Pakistan in its war for independence from West Pakistan. East Pakistan became the republic of Bangladesh. In 1977, Jean-Bedel Bokassa, ruler of the Central African Empire, crowned himself emperor in a lavish ceremony. (Bokassa was deposed in 1979; he died in 1996 at age 75.) In 1978, San Francisco got its first female mayor as City Supervisor Dianne Feinstein was named to replace the assassinated George Moscone. In 1980, the bodies of four American nuns slain in El Salvador two days earlier were unearthed. (Five national guardsmen were later convicted of murder.) In 1984, a five-day hijack drama began as four armed men seized a Kuwaiti airliner en route to Pakistan and forced it to land in Tehran, where the hijackers killed American passenger Charles Hegna. In 1991, Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson, the longest-held Western hostage in Lebanon, was released after nearly seven years in captivity. The original Pan American World Airways ceased operations.

In 1992, President George H.W. Bush ordered American troops to lead a mercy mission to Somalia, threatening military action against warlords and gangs who were blocking food for starving millions. In 1995, the first NATO troops landed in the Balkans to begin setting up a peace mission. In 1996, the Mars Pathfinder lifted off from Cape Canaveral and began speeding toward Mars on a 310 million-mile odyssey. (It arrived on Mars in July 1997.) In 1997, the National Basketball Association suspended All-Star Latrell Sprewell of the Golden State Warriors for one year for choking and threatening to kill his coach, P.J. Carlesimo, three days earlier. (An arbitrator later reduced the suspension and reinstated Sprewell to the Warriors, which had terminated his contract.) In 1999, NASA scientists continued to wait in vain for a signal from the Mars Polar Lander, raising questions about the whereabouts of NASA's $165 million probe. (It's believed the spacecraft was destroyed after it plunged toward the Red Planet.) In 2000, a Florida state judge refused to overturn Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush's certified victory in Florida, and the U.S. Supreme Court set aside a ruling that had allowed manual recounts. [Resulting in the destruction of a once semi-tolerable nation, & we don't mean Iraq, though there's no excuse for that either. — Ed.] In 2001, the United States froze the financial assets of organizations allegedly linked to the terrorist group Hamas. In 2002, United Airlines lost its bid for one-point-eight billion dollars in federal loan guarantees, a major setback to the nation's second-largest air carrier in its efforts to avoid bankruptcy. Supreme Court justices heard arguments on whether federal laws intended to combat organized crime and corruption could be used against anti-abortion demonstrators. (The Court later ruled that such laws were improperly used to punish abortion opponents.) A Roman Catholic priest was indicted on seven counts in a seven-month investigation of sex abuse allegations in the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. Nine others faced charges in the case. In 2004, President George W. Bush received the president of Pakistan, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, in the Oval Office; afterward, Bush pronounced himself "very pleased" with Pakistan's efforts to flush out terrorists. In 2006, Lacking the Senate votes to keep his job, embattled U.N. Ambassador John Bolton offered his resignation to President Bush, who accepted it. [Ha ha ha. Punk-ass loser. — Ed.] Marine Lance Corporal Daniel Smith was convicted in the Philippines of raping a Filipino woman and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Truck driver Tyrone Williams was convicted in Houston of the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants crammed into a sweltering tractor-trailer. NASA announced plans to build an international base camp on the Moon. [Hurry up w/ that, wouldja? We'd really like to get off this planet. — Ed.] In 2008, US automakers drew fresh skepticism from lawmakers during a Senate Banking Committee hearing over their pleas for an expanded $34 billion rescue package they said was needed for them to survive. For the first time, an NFL game was broadcast live in 3-D to theaters in Boston, New York and Los Angeles. (Although the telecast was marred by technical glitches, fans were mostly forgiving as they watched the San Diego Chargers beat the Oakland Raiders 34-7.) Seven weeks into his second term, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper suspended Parliament in an attempt to stall a no-confidence vote.
Birthdays of the Dead: John Cotton, clergyman (1584); Thomas Carlyle, essayist, historian (1795); English novelist Samuel Butler (1835); actress/singer Lillian Russell in 1861; Edith Cavell, nurse (1865); Rainer Maria Rilke, poet (1875); Francisco Franco, Spanish dictator (1892) [Still dead. — Ed.]; Marine Corps fighter ace Gregory "Pappy" Boyington (1912); Dennis Wilson, pop musician (1944).
Today's Birthdays December 4: Actress-singer Deanna Durbin is 88. Game show host Wink Martindale is 76. Pop singer Freddy Cannon is 73. Actor-producer Max Baer Jr. is 72. Actress Gemma Jones is 67. Rock musician Bob Mosley (Moby Grape) is 67. Singer-musician Chris Hillman is 65. Musician Terry Woods (The Pogues) is 62. Rock singer Southside Johnny Lyon is 61. Actor Jeff Bridges is 60. Rock musician Gary Rossington (Lynyrd Skynyrd; the Rossington Collins Band) is 58. Actress Patricia Wettig is 58. Actor Tony Todd is 55. Jazz singer Cassandra Wilson is 54. Country musician Brian Prout (Diamond Rio) is 54. Rock musician Bob Griffin (The BoDeans) is 50. Rock singer Vinnie Dombroski (Sponge) is 47. Actress Marisa Tomei is 45. Actress Chelsea Noble is 45. Actor-comedian Fred Armisen is 43. Rapper Jay-Z is 40. Actor Kevin Sussman is 39. Actress-model Tyra Banks is 36.
Today in "Entertainment" History [No Beatle items today! — Ed.]: In 1944, country singer Eddy Arnold made his first recordings in Nashville. In 1956, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins made a series of impromptu recordings in Memphis at Sun Records. They were released 25 years later under the title "The Million Dollar Quartet." In 1965, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones was knocked unconscious when his guitar touched an ungrounded microphone during a concert in Sacramento, California. He still managed to finish the show. In 1976, actress Elizabeth Taylor married Senator John Warner of Virginia. In 1980, the surviving members of Led Zeppelin announced they would not re-form after the death of drummer John Bonham. In 1989, the Supreme Court upheld an appeals court ruling that said Prince did not steal the song "U Got the Look" from his half-sister. Lorna Nelson claimed the lyrics were similar to ones she had written. In 1990, Madonna appeared on ABC's "Nightline" to defend her "Justify My Love" video, which was banned by MTV. She denied the video's explicit content was meant to stir up controversy and get publicity. In 1991, Van Halen performed a free show in Dallas. Lead singer Sammy Hagar had promised to do the show because he had lost his voice during a concert in Dallas three and a half years earlier. In 1993, composer & musician Frank Zappa died at his home in Los Angeles. He was 52. [To quote another dead local, talking about yet another dead musician: "Poor Otis/Dead & gone/Left me here/To sing his song/Pretty little girl/With the red dress on/Poor Otis/dead & gone." — Ed.]