Who invented the phrase “ Let no man write my epitaph.”…..?

Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: New York is named for the Duke of York, what is Boston named for?
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History for 9/19/2013
Birthdays: Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, Saladin, Hungarian nationalist Leopold Kossuth, Brian Epstein, "Momma" Cass Elliot, Frank Tashlin, Dr. Ferry Porsche- inventor of the Porsche race car, Twiggy– real name Leslie Hornby, William Golding author of The Lord of the Flies, Paul Williams, Adam West is 85, Frances Farmer, David McCallum, Duke Snyder, Jeremy Irons is 65, Jimmy Fallon is 39.

1356-BATTLE OF POITIERS- In the Hundred Years War Edward the "Black Prince" destroyed the French army and captured the French King and Dauphin. French King John II "The Good" was held for ransom in the Tower of London. Once there he found he could have all the benefits of Kingship without any of the stress, so he partied hardy. Even when the Dauphin Charles V got his freedom, and started to organize a heroic resistance to the English invasion, John the Good ignored his sons pleas to escape. Some apologist historians say John sacrificed his freedom for the French Nation. Other scholars like Henri Guizot and found the budgets this hostage spent on dwarves, feasts, mistresses and hunting dogs "disgraceful".

1493- Pope Alexander VI had never made it a secret that he had a growing family of children. He wanted to make his son Caesar Borgia a Cardinal at 26 and his daughter Lucretzia a duchess but first there was the problem that they were illegitimate. Well, that’s no problem for the Vicar of Christ! This day he declared them legitimate offspring, of his cousin. Everyone winked at the twisted logic and went along with it.

1580- The family of Miguel de Cervantes ransomed the writer from the Barbary Pirates. He wrote Don Quixote de la Mancha in 1604.

1692- One of the only men convicted in the Salem Witch Trials was executed. Pilgrim Rev. Giles Corey had a wooden board laid on top of him and his neighbors piled large stones on top until he was squished to death. At one point his tongue was sticking so grotesquely out of his head that the magistrate pushed it back in his mouth with the tip of his cane. His family descendent was Walt Disney.

1741- When the Austrian emperor died leaving only daughter Maria Theresa as heir, the surrounding powers like Prussia and France horned in to carve up her territory, the War of Austrian Succession began. Many lascivious cartoons were made of the symbolic ravishing of the territory of the young woman monarch. But Maria Theresa was made of tougher stuff. On this day she went to her Hungarian parliament and in a dramatic piece of political theater, holds her infant son aloft and calls for the defense of her family and the Homeland. The Hungarian noblemen go wild and hundreds of drawn swords wave in the air. The people rise en-masse and push out the invaders. Maria Theresa reigns as one of the strongest leaders of the XVIII century.

1777-First Battle of Saratoga, also called Freeman’s Farm- Gen. Johnny Burgoyne's British invasion down the Hudson was stopped. Burgoyne’s plan was to cut the rebel colonies in two with his thrust down from Canada being met from the South by Lord Howe coming up from New York City and another force east from Oswego. But Lord Howe disregarded the plan in favor of another shot at George Washington and Philadelphia. Back in London Lord Charles Germain neglected to write out the necessary orders for Howe to support Burgoyne because he was late to go on his holiday and couldn’t be bothered.

And the Oswego force was stopped by colonials using a lunatic hermit named Ute Schuyler who spooked the British-allied Indians into deserting. Algonquins thought the mentally ill were possessed by Hipi-Manitou spirits and so were bad luck. The net result was Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne's army was alone in the forest, far from supplies and surrounded by the Americans.

1783- Jacques Montgolfier launches the first hot air balloon in Paris. The first aeronauts were a sheep, duck and rooster. Montgolfier made his fortune in paper. To this day if you get some high quality stationary with a balloon and French flag in the watermark that is Papier Canson et Montgolfier, his company.

1796-President George Washington’s farewell address was first published in Claypools American Daily Advertiser, then reprinted in other papers throughout the country. Washington warned to “avoid entangling foreign alliances and asked for national unity above partisan politics. But party politics had firmly taken root. One opposition paper called Washington’s speech “the last loathings of a sick mind..”

1797-The Marquis de Lafayette was released from an Austrian prison after negotiations successfully conducted by Napoleon. Lafayette at first tried to channel the passions unleashed by the French Revolution to forge the kind of democracy he saw in America. But it almost got him guillotined and after he escaped across the French frontier the Austrians locked him up. He rotted in prison for five years. Napoleon hoped to use Lafayette as an ally in his grab for power but Lafayette laid low during the period of Napoleon’s dominance.

1819- On a beautiful English autumn day poet John Keats was moved to write his Ode to Autumn. 1827- Fight at the Vidalia Sandbar- Famous Mississippi gamblers brawl in which Jim Bowie uses his famous knife to carve up a gang of sore losers who shot him twice. The Bowie knife may not have been designed by Jim Bowie but by his brother Rezin Bowie, who wanted an intimidating toothpick to brandish after he almost died in an earlier altercation.

1841- The first railroad tracks to cross an international border was completed. From Strasbourg France to Basel Switzerland.

1849-First commercial laundry set up in Oakland Cal.

1864- Battle of Winchester- General Phil Sheridan's Yankees whup Jubal Early's Confederates. The feisty son of an Irish ditch digger, Abe Lincoln called Sheridan "A runty little man with a bullet shaped head and not enough neck to hang him." But he proved his value today. He rode fearlessly down the battle line shouting to his men:" Pour it into them boys! Knock every sonofabitch down before you !" One sonofabitch killed was Confederate General George S. Patton, the grandfather of the World War Two general.
Sheridan's army had no less than three future U.S. presidents on staff- Gen.James Garfield, Gen. Rutherford Hayes and Major William McKinley.

1876- Melvin Bissell of Grand Rapids Michigan invented his carpet sweeper.

1881- PRESIDENT JAMES GARFIELD DIED- Garfield was shot in the back at Washington rail station by Charles Guiteau on July 2nd.The President lingered these many weeks in agony before finally dying. Garfield might have lived had it not been for all the doctors poking around in his wound without antiseptic conditions. Even inventor Alexander Graham Bell was invited to search for the bullet with a new invented metal detector. James Garfield died of blood poisoning and infection. Interestingly enough, for the two and a half months the President was out of action and Congress was not called into session, yet the U.S.A. ran just fine.

1893- New Zealand becomes the first nation in the world to give women the vote.

1898- THE RACE TO FASHODA- It is difficult to imagine that the First World War might have begun as Britain vs. France instead of Germany. Since 1832 France and Britain had been competing to see who could build a bigger colonial empire and grab more of the Third World. This "scramble for Africa" reached it's climax with an outrageous race to Fashoda, a small mud fort in the center of Africa. It was critical to Britain's claim to the whole Nile and land lengthwise down from Egypt to Capetown, as well as critical to France's claim widthwise from Atlantic Senegal to East coast Ethiopia.
On this day at Fashoda the race climaxed with the French commander Captain Marchand chesthair to chesthair with the British commander General Kitchener, exchanging champagne toasts while cordially threatening to annihilate each other. Both Paris and London threatened war. The French Army, exhausted by the Dreyfus scandal and lack of public support backed down by November. The British offered a compromise to evacuate Egypt as soon as the political situation settled down. They finally left Egypt in 1956. As for the Africans ? No one much cared what they thought. The Dinka people of southern Sudan referred to this period as: "The time the world was spoilt."

1926- THE BIG ONE- Miami Florida was destroyed by a huge Hurricane. The storm stopped a real estate boom in South Florida. SnowBirds up north invested millions in land that turned out to be under water. The Marx Brothers poked fun at the craze in their 1929 film Cocoanuts. As Groucho said:” Florida Folks. Sunshine, Sunshine , now let’s get the auction started before there is a tornado.”

1931- The Marx Brothers comedy “ Monkey Business” premiered.

1934- Bruno Richard Hauptman was arrested and charged with the kidnap murder of the Lindbergh baby. He pleaded innocence up until he fried in the electric chair, but he was found with a significant part of the ransom money on him.

1936- Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald record “Indian Love Call”. When I’m Calling You, Oooh-ohhoohhh, Ohhhh-ohhh-oohhhhhhh”, etc.

1939- Geli Raubel, Adolf Hitler’s 23 year old niece was found dead with a gunshot in the head. Hitler had a passion for his niece that she did not return. It remains a mystery whether she killed herself or she was murdered, and made to look like a suicide. Even though Eva Braun worshipped him, years later Adolf admitted Geli was the only woman he ever really loved.

1942- Chuck Jones cartoon The Dover Boys, released.

1945- Little Shirley Temple, now all grown up, married actor John Agar, who she met on the set of John Ford's film Fort Apache. The RKO studio turned the marriage into a media circus by inviting 12,000 people. John Ford teased Agar mercilessly, calling him Mr. Temple. John and Shirley divorced within two years. Shirley Temple did a few more small roles, remarried and became a diplomat and John Agar went on to star in a number of sci-fi flicks like 'Tarantula", The Brain from Planet Aurous" and built his own theme dinosaur park by an Arkansas freeway "John Agar's House of Kong'.

1945- Klaus Fuchs, a spy in the British delegation member of the Los Alamos Atomic bomb program, delivered the plans of the plutonium 'Nagasaki" bomb to a courier for Soviet intelligence in Moscow.

1955- Juan Peron the President of Argentina was overthrown in a military coup.

1961- This is the night Betty and Barney Hill claimed they were picked up by a flying saucer and experimented on. It is one of the more famous abduction stories because it was one of the first, and it holds up under hypnosis. Hey, what are you planning to do with that anal probe?

1970- The Mary Tyler Moore TV Show premiered.

1985- Mexico City devastated by a large earthquake 8.1 on the Richter scale. The next day the city was rocked again by a 7.5 earthquake. 10,000 people died. Curiously enough 80% of the cities ancient landmarks were undamaged, only modern buildings collapsed. People camped out in Aztec ruins, figuring they’ve stood for centuries and would stand now.

1991- UTZI- Two German tourists hiking in the Austrian Alps discovered the remains of an Ice Age man, killed with an arrow over 5,000 years ago. The body, exposed from the ice by global warming, was in such an excellent state of preservation, that they thought it was a modern homicide. Called Utzi, or Frozen Fritz, he was 42. He had 50 tattoos, a copper axe, a full stomach and Lime Disease.

1994- The US invaded Haiti- again. We also invaded in 1919 and 1922.

1995- Orville Reddenbacher 'the Popcorn king' died.

1995-The NY Times and Washington Post printed the 35,000 word manifesto of the Unabomber. He promised to stop sending bombs to people if they printed his message. He accused technology of subverting American society and that the Democrats stoke the fears of the poor and the Republicans believe in nothing but pure self-interest.

2004- Chinese leader Zhiang zsi Minh rerired and handed over his offices to his successor Hu Zhin Tao. It marks the first peaceful regular transition of power in China since the Manchu emperors over a century ago.
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Yesterday’s Question: New York is named for the Duke of York, what is Boston named for?

Answer: Boston is a small town in Lincolnshire that the Puritans liked. The original Indian village there was called Shawmut.

Okay Gang, wish me luck as I swing into action. Today, Monday, September 16 at 7:00pm I'll be at the SVA Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street !! There to tell stories, spin yarns about CGI and sign copies of MOVING INNOVATION.
A Night of Stars, and Pixels!
Free and open to the public. Copies of MOVING INNOVATION will be available to purchase.
Drop on by and say Hi, or sit in the front row eating lemons.

SORRY GANG, I'VE BEEN TRAVELING, SO THESE POSTS MIGHT BE SPORADIC FOR A WEEK. I APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.
TS


Question: What does it mean when you call someone a Torquemada?

Yesterday’s Question What does it mean when you call a law Draconian?-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
History for 9/15/2012
Birthdays: James Fennimore Cooper, William Howard Taft, Porfirio Diaz- Mexican President 1884-1911, Agatha Christie, Cannonball Adderly, Bruno Walter, Yuri Noorstein, Merlin Olsen, Hank Williams, Oliver Stone, Jean Renoir (film director and son of painter August Renoir), Alexander Korda, Jesse Norman, Robert Benchley, Ron Shelton, Fay Wray, Tommy Lee Jones is 66, Prince Harry, the second son of Charles and Di is 28

In Japan, this is Respect For the Aged Day.

7 BC.- THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM..? According to astronomical records kept by the Persian Magi starting this day an alignment of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars caused a rare bright star that glowed both day and night . Another explanation of the star may have come from Chinese astronomers who recorded a comet during the year 5 BC.. Remember according to the many modern calculations Jesus may actually have been born in August, 6 BC

533 A.D. BATTLE OF THE TENTH MILESTONE (Decimum)- Byzantine general Belisarius defeated the Vandals of Africa -a really, really lost tribe of German Barbarians. Belisarius was sent by his emperor Justinian to win back the Western half of the Roman Empire for him. The Vandals while in Spain didn't leave much except giving their name to the Southern Spanish coast- Andalusia (Vandalusium) and the custom of defacing walls.

After conquering North Africa and half of Italy and Spain, Justinian rewarded Belisarius by taking away his army, having him blinded with boiling vinegar and given a begging bowl. Justinian thought he was getting TOO successful, that he might grab his throne. The Byzantines couldn't hold on to the African and Italian provinces so Rome stayed fallen.

1776- The BATTLE OF NEW YORK- Lord Howe's British Army crossed the East River from Brooklyn and attacked Manhattan at Turtle Bay, approximately between E 30th and 31st Streets. Colonial troops panicked and fled uptown while George Washington futilely tried to rally them where the 42nd St. Public Library now is. As the last panic stricken farmer scampered off tossing his weapons away, George Washington threw down his hat and exclaimed: "Lord, have I such soldiers as these?"

Legend has it the only reason the British let the Yankees escape was the commanders paused to have tea with a Quaker lady acquaintance. New York was an occupied city for the rest of the Revolutionary War. Hundreds of colonial prisoners were kept in rotting prison ships moored in the harbor, where many died of disease and neglect.

1810 -El GRITO aka MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE- As the bells ring peasant priest Father Miquel Hidalgo waved the banner of the Virgin of Tonantzin-Guadalupe and published a revolutionary tract-The Cry of Dolores. New Spain declared their Independence as Mexica, the name of the ancient Aztec nation. Hidalgo was later captured and shot but not before setting the people aflame:" Will you recover the lands stolen three hundred years ago from our forefathers by the hated Spaniards? Long Live Our Lady of Guadalupe! Death to the gachupines!” -Aztec for Euro- Honkies. The war continued for a decade until Spain acknowledged Mexican independence in 1821.

1858- The Butterfield Overland Mail service started up, driving stagecoaches throughout the Old West.

1894- Japanese defeat the Chinese at Ping Yang. They take Korea and Taiwan.

1901- After the funeral of assassinated President McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt strode into the White House for his first day as President. Bully !

1925- The Grand Order of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan take out a copyright on their logo – the white cross on the red circle with the black square in the center. After all, some other racist hate group might try to copy their cool duds!

1930- The first Blondie comic strip.

1930- Hoagy Carmichael first recorded “Georgia on My Mind”.

1935-“The Law Protecting German Blood and German Honor” aka the Nuremberg Edicts passed in Nazi Germany. They make Anti-Semitism official state policy. It took civil rights away from Jews and set up levels of Jewishness to determine pure Aryan bloodlines.”Jews are forbidden to marry other Germans or hold public office, including college professorships.

1936-MGM producer Irving Thallberg, the "Boy Genius" of Hollywood, died of a cerebral hemorrhage at 31. He was the inspiration for F.Scott Fitzgerald's "The Last Tycoon". His boss Louis B. Mayer was beginning to resent his popularity. When actress Gloria Swanson asked Mayer how he felt about Thallberg's death Mayer replied:" God has been very kind to me."

1940- Climax of the BATTLE OF BRITAIN-Herman Goring tries some final huge bomber raids to flatten London and wipe out the R.A.F., in preparation for Operation Sea Lion, the German invasion of Great Britain. Germans thought this was the day the attack across the Channel would happen at last. Hundreds of planes dogfight in the skies over London and Saint Pauls Cathedral is wreathed in flame and smoke. 65 German planes were shot down in one day. American CBS news correspondent Edgar R. Murrow gained national fame by fearlessly standing on a rooftop at the height of the battle and reporting a live radio broadcast.

1945-In occupied Berlin, composer Anton Webern is shot and killed by an American sentry when he went outside for a smoke in violation citywide night curfew orders.

1950- The INCHON LANDINGS. Gen Douglas MacArthur's masterstroke to amphibiously land an army behind the North Korean invaders and drive them from South Korea. It was an unlikely landing beach- short pebbly beach with a high craggy cliffs and the high tides in the world – 37 feet, from low to high tide, make the area inaccessible for most of the day. But MacArthur had remembered the Japanese had used this spot as a landing site in 1894 and it worked decisively. Mao Tse Tung had guessed that MacArthur might try a landing at Inchon and warned North Korean leader Kim Il Sung but Sung ignored the warnings and was taken completely by surprise. Within a week Seoul was recaptured and the North Korean Army was in full retreat.

1954- The day of shooting on the film the Seven Year Itch. Marilyn Monroe in her little white dress stood over the subway grate and let the breeze blow her dress up, much to the annoyance of her husband, baseball star Joe Dimaggio. Her white halter outfit was thereafter known as a Marilyn Dress.

1956- Surgeons Walter Freeman and Egas Moniz perform America's first prefrontal lobotomy on a depressed, 63-year-old Kansas woman in Washington, D.C.

1957-The tv series Bachelor Father starring John Forsythe premiered.

1959- Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev arrived in the U.S. for a good will tour that included farms and factories. Americans found the earthy bald peasant with the broad smile charming, and not at all the bogeyman everyone feared. At one point Khruschev requested to visit Disneyland, the “workers playground” but Walt Disney refused:” In 1942 we lent those Commie bastards a print of Snow White and they released in their theaters with their own credits on it!” Khruschev also praised American white bread. “Russian Bread is made one day and goes stale. American bread can stay on shelf for weeks and still be soft!”

1963- Four little girls were killed when a bomb set by white racists destroyed the First Baptist Church in Birmingham Alabama. The Church was seen as the headquarters of the Black Civil Rights activists and Freedom Riders, but these girls had only arrived early for choir practice. The Klansman who planted the bomb was not convicted until 2001. One of the slain little girls schoolmates would one day grow up to become a Secretary of State- Dr. Condoleeza Rice.

1965- "Green Acres" t.v. show debuts. Arnold Ziffle the pig gains national prominence.

1971 –The environmental political movement Greenpeace founded in Vancouver by twelve members of the Don’t Make a Wave Committee.

1973- Star Trek animated series by Filmation premiered. This was the first time Kirk, Spock, Sulu and Uhura were untied again with a Roddenberry script since the original series was cancelled in 1967.

1982- During the Lebanese Civil War the Christian Maronite President of Lebanon Bashir Gemayel had made a deal with the Israelis to rid his country of the PLO, who were using South Lebanon as a base since being thrown out of Jordan in the Black September of 1971. Israel invaded Lebanon but Gemayel refused to sign an alliance, just a non-aggression pact. This day Gemayel was assassinated by Muslim fighters. His murder provoked the Sabra and Shatila massacres.

1998- Rap star Coolio is busted in Lawndale Cal for driving on the wrong side of the road, using an expired license and having a 9mm pistol and bag of marijuana in his car.

2004- A mob of demonstrators protesting fox hunting season break into the English House of Commons. The last time Parliament was attacked like this, was the Gordon Riots in 1744. There was a swipe card security gate, but it was broken that day, and no one had bothered to fix it.

2008- THE GREAT RECESSION- George W. Bush touted himself as the CEO President, proud of his cabinet’s business experience. Today the US Stock Market went into a panic nosedive after two of the nation’s oldest investment banks- Merrill Lynch and Lehman Bros collapsed. Lehmans was $613 billion in debt. This shock added to the news of the government taking over mortgage insurers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and gas prices suppressing car sales. The American financial crisis panicked stock markets around the world. It was the greatest financial collapse since the Great Depression of 1929.
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Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean when you call a law Draconian?

Answer: Dracon was a judge in ancient Athens circa the 620s BC. He was infamous for being harsh, giving out death sentences for almost everything. Since then Draconian came to mean an unusually harsh law or edict.

Question: What was the city of Seattle named for?

Question: What was the name of Henry Hudson’s ship?
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History for 9/13/2013 Birthdays: Gen"BlackJack" Pershing, Clara Schumann, Milton Hershey, Arnold Schoenburg, Yma Sumac ( Star of Brazilian jazz and crossword puzzles- real name Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chavarri del Castillo, from Ichocán, Peru. Descendent of Inca royalty), Jacqueline Bissett is 69, Frank Marshal, Laura Secord, Jesse L. Lasky, Richard Kiel – Jaws in the James Bond movies, Maurice Jarre, Roald Dahl, Don Bluth is 76, Fred Silverman “The Man with the Golden Gut.” Tyler Perry is 44.

509BC- Romans dedicated the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus in the Forum.

122AD- In England, Roman legions began to construct Hadrians' Wall.

398AD- THE FEAST OF ST. JOHN CHRYSOTHOM John "Golden-Mouth" for his preaching. Ever since Roman Emperor Constantine had raised up the Christian Church from a despised cult and made it dominant throughout the Roman world, the Church was left with a philosophical problem-" Can you blame Rome for Jesus death?" Chrysothom came up with the solution- It was the Jews fault! So even though Christ’ disciples called him Rabbi, and the Last Supper was a Passover Seder, Christianity officially blamed Judaism for the death of Jesus. It took centuries of oppression, pogroms and the Holocaust, for the Vatican to officially "forgive" the Jewish people in 1947.

1515- Battle of Marignano- The French under King Francis II defeated a large force of Swiss south of Mantua in Italy. Francis fought hand-to-hand out front all day and was knighted by the great chevalier Bayard on the field. Cannons had begun to be mounted on wheels and rolled around instead of being dragged like catapults. And military scientists discovered a new thing- when you line up a lot of cannons and fire them all at once, the enemy infantry run away

1759- THE BATTLE OF THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM. England took Canada away from France. Gen. Wolfe defeated The Marquis De Montcalm and captures the great fortress of Quebec. Both Wolfe and Montcalm are killed, the only time both commanding generals were killed in a one battle at the same time. Gen. Wolfe (32) was aware he was asking his redcoats to scale a sheer rockface in a driving rainstorm then defeat a huge army with their backs to a cliff. So to boost their morale he read them his favorite poem: "Elegy in a Country Churchyard". with lines like:" The paths of Glory lead naught but to the Grave..." Gee, that would cheer me up....

1782- THE ROCK OF GIBRALTAR. Ever since Britain had taken control of the rock and established a fortress there Spain had burned to get revenge. When France and Spain decided to join in the American Revolution on the rebel side they sent a massed fleet and army to attack Gibraltar. The Rock withstood a three year siege climaxed by a grand assault this day from 50 battleships and 30,000 troops. By 1:00 a.m. most of the enemies fleet was burning and their troops fleeing in disorder. A fortnight later Admiral Hood arrived with reinforcements and Gibraltar has stayed British ever since.

1805- Admiral Nelson leaves London to take out HMS Victory and his fleet to sea. He will achieve death and glory at the Battle of Trafalgar. Shortly before he had a conversation with the artist Benjamin West. He told West his portrayal of the Death of General Wolfe at the Battle of Quebec was his favorite painting and why had he not painted anything as good since? West replied that there hasn't been any comparable incidents of tragic heroism lately. Nelson laughed and said: "Well I shall make a it a point to get myself killed in my next battle, to provide you with suitable inspiration !"

1812- Napoleon’s army makes camp within view of the domes and cupolas of Moscow.

1814- After destroying Washington DC and Alexandria , the British Navy began a bombardment of the forts surrounding Baltimore. Baltimore then was the main port of the many American privateers pirating English ships. After 25 straight hours continuous bombardment of Fort McHenry, the forts big Stars and Stripes flag was still flying. A simultaneous land attack failed when General Ross, who was a veteran of Wellingtons’ army, was shot down by American snipers. Ross had ate his breakfast on shore in a local inn. When the proprietor asked if he should have a dinner ready for him Ross replied:" No thank you. Tonight I shall sup in Baltimore or in Hell!" After the failure of the bombardment the British gave up and sailed away leaving Francis Scott Key on the shore with notes for a neat little poem. More tomorrow.

1845-THE IRISH POTATO FAMINE- An Irish newspaper printed this day announced that a fungus named Vituperia Infestae was affecting most of the years potato crop, the one food staple for the poor. The same parasite carried over in American fertilizer had effected continental European agriculture as well, but a drought minimized it’s effect. Ireland was more devastated by the famine than she had ever been by any war. The Potato famine raged for three years and killed millions. And all this while Ireland was administered by the richest nation in the world, the British Empire. Irish companies were still exporting other grains at the time as well. Truth be said most industrialized countries at this time were hard on their poor, poverty was viewed as a lack of character. It’s just everyone was too slow or apathetic to realize just how great a disaster was occurring in Ireland. By the time the famine eased in 1849 one quarter of the entire population of Ireland had died or immigrated to North America.

1848- The first lobotomy.

1899-First man was run over a car. (74th and Central Park West in New York City).

1916- A Tennessee judge orders Margo the circus elephant hanged for killing three men. It took a railroad crane and steel cable, but it sure taught her a lesson! 1928- Riding high on their big hit film the Jazz Singer, the Warner Bros. buy out First National Pictures and move into their big Burbank studio lot, where they still are today.

1942- The aircraft carrier USS Wasp was torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese submarine I-15. With Enterprise and Saratoga under repairs, for several anxious weeks Admiral Nimitz had to defend the entire South Pacific with one lone carrier, The Hornet against six heavy Japanese battle carriers. Then Hornet was sunk just as the Enterprise came back into service.

1945- Henchmen of mobster Bugsy Siegel buy a 30 acre roadside tract from a widow in Las Vegas. On it will rise the Las Vegas Casino resort, the Flamingo. There were two little hayseed casinos in Vegas already, but the big glitzy hotel strip of mega casinos was Bugsy's dream.

1961- TV sitcom Car 54, Where Are You? debuted. 1969-Hanna Barbera's "Scooby-Doo,where are you?" and "Dastardly and Mutley and their Flying Machines" premiered. 1971- General Lin Piao, leader of the Red Guard movement and would-be successor to Mao Tse Tung, died in plane crash. The Cultural Revolution that had been raging since 1966 seems to fade away afterwards.

1971- ATTICA. Mass prisoner riot in a top New York State Penitentiary acquired counter-culture celebrity status and heavy rac
e-war overtones. The legend was cemented after Governor Nelson Rockefeller used a massive military force to crush the revolt this day. It has been argued that more inmates and hostages were killed because of the attack than if negotiations had been allowed to continue. Most of the prison guards held hostage were murdered, some killed by troops in the confusion. Nelson Rockefeller, the last Liberal Republican, had presidential ambitions. But any further hope he had of running were ended by this incident. For years afterwards every hippie protest resounded with cries of "Attica, Attica!".

1974- The Rockford Files TV series with James Garner debut.

1979- Animator Don Bluth quits Walt Disney Studios taking a third of the top artists with him. Bluth becomes Disney's most serious rival since Max Fleischer and helps sparked the animation renaissance of the 1990s. A whole new group of young talent, "bluthies", exert great influence throughout the animation business.

1993- With President Bill Clinton smiling on, Israeli Prime Minister Ystchak Rabin and PLO leader Yassir Arafat signed the Declaration of Principles to the Oslo Agreement. In effect Israel recognized the Palestinians and the PLO has having legitimate national aspirations and the PLO renounced terrorism. This was the meeting with the famous handshake of Rabin and Arafat. Rabin’s great words "Enough of Blood!" were sadly ignored in subsequent years. Arafat refused to recognize Israel, and Rabin was assassinated in 1995, and everyone botched several more peace initiatives.

2001- As the world was still in shock from the Sept 11th terrorists attacks, televangelist Pat Robertson stuck his thumb in everyone’s open wound, when he declared the tragedy God’s punishment on America for our permissive society that tolerates homosexuality, Liberals, Feminists and the ACLU. Mark Bingham, one of the hero passengers of United Flt. 93, who fought the terrorists and sacrificed his life so that his plane could not be used as a bomb to hit the White House, was a gay man. A New York Times columnist angrily wrote: "If I am ever in a plane that’s being hijacked, I’d rather have a Mark Bingham seated next to me than a Pat Roberston!"

2001- Two days after the World Trade Center terrorist attacks, all civilian air travel was banned over the skies of the US. Despite this, a special flight evacuated two dozen members of the Saudi Arabian Royal family attending school in the US. Among their number were the family of 9/11 mastermind Osama Ben Laden. None were questioned and no explanation for the flight was ever given.

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Yesterday’s Question: What was the name of Henry Hudson’s ship?
Answer: Look out your window tonight. The Half-Moon.

Question: What was the name of Henry Hudson’s ship?

Yesterdays Question Answered Below: What is a Stigmata?
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History for 9/12/2013
Birthdays: Piero 'the Fatuous' DeMedici, King Francis Ist of France-1494, H.L. Mencken, Maurice Chevalier, Ben Blue, Jesse Owens, Barry White, Alfred A. Knopf, Ian Holm is 82, Hans Zimmer, Rachael Ward, Michael Odaatje-author of The English Patient, Margaret Hamilton -"I'm mellllttinnng,,oooohh.." Joe Pantoliano “Joey Pants” Louis C.K. is 46, Jennifer Hudson is 32.

Today is the Feast of Saint Victoria Fornari-Strata, who in 1604 founded the Blue Nuns

1642- THE CINQ MARS AFFAIR- The young, sexy Marquis de Cinq Mars was a
favorite of King Louis XIII. He became so close to the king that Cardinal Richelieu feared he would lose control of France to this "bedroom coup". The vain marquis was so confident of his power that he openly plotted with the kings feckless brother Gaston de Orleans to overthrow the government. Richelieu had the young marquis convicted of treason and beheaded, and the king got another favorite.

1654- In the little Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, three Sephardic families who had fled the Spanish Inquisition, gathered to celebrate the first Rosh Hassanah in North America. Their Congregation Sha-Aref Israel became the oldest Jewish community in North America, second in the New World only to the Dutch Caribbean colony of Curacao.

1683-THE SECOND SIEGE OF VIENNA - Polish King Jan Sobieski and Prince
Eugene of Savoy lift the Turkish siege of Vienna, the last major attempt of Ottoman Turkey to conquer Europe. They called it the Completion of the Crescent. It ended the career of Mustapha Korprolu, the Sultan’s Vezir who had staked all on one more try at European conquest. Jan Sobieski's elite heavy cavalry, the "Winged Hussars" wore large feathered angel wings strapped to their backs. It was designed to deflect Tartar lariats but had the psychological terror effect of making the Moslems think they were fighting Christian angels.

1786- Despite his losing the decisive Battle of Yorktown in America, Charles Lord Cornwallis was named Governor-General of India. Cornwallis went on to a much more successful career there, defeating uprisings by Sultan Tippoo Sahib. He is buried in Delhi, India.

1805- WELLINGTON MET NELSON- Only once did England's greatest soldier and greatest sailor ever meet face to face. They were both sitting one morning in the waiting room of Lord Castlereagh's Foreign Office waiting for an appointment. At first Wellington wasn't impressed. He said years later :" Lord Nelson immediately launched into a conversation, if you could call it that, for it was exclusively about himself and was so vain and silly that I found myself both shocked and disgusted/." / Later his lordship ascertained that I was 'somebody' of importance and changed his tone and proved in conversation a very astute statesman."/ The next day Nelson left London to earn both death & glory at Trafalgar and Wellington began his European campaigns that would culminate at Waterloo.

1846- Poet Elizabeth Barrett secretly eloped with poet Robert Browning and were married at St. Marlybone Church in Durham England. Her father had refused his permission for the match but the Brownings did it anyway, and ran off to Italy.

1847-CHAPULTEPEC- General Winfield Scott’s army stormed Chapultepec, a fortress guarding the entrance to Mexico City. Mexican General Santa Anna had been deceived by a diversion and left this fort guarded by a small force that included young military student cadets, ages 13-19 years. As the scaling ladders went up around the fort the men attacking read like a who's who of the future American Civil War- Lieutenant James Longstreet , Lieutenant Thomas Stonewall Jackson, Captain Ulysses Grant. The Mexican children cadets fought to the death or committed suicide by hurling themselves off the fortress walls.

Today remembered as the national martyrs Los Ninos. 18 year old Augustin Melgar fought the Yanquis step by step up to the roof where he was finally bayoneted repeatedly while defending his country's flag. The officer who stepped over Augustin’s bleeding body to pull down that flag and run up the Stars and Stripes was Lieutenant George Pickett, who would lead Pickets Charge at Gettysburg in 1863. This caused a great cheer among the Yankees who charged down the causeways into Mexico City.

1864- Union General William Tecumseh Sherman responded to a letter from the Confederates protesting his decision to destroy Atlanta. "War is Cruelty, you cannot refine it...you might as well appeal against a thunderstorm as against these terrible hardships of War.."

1866-Theater producer Fred Niblo got stuck with a French ballet troupe stranded and broke after the New York Academy of Music burned down. So he combined the dancers with a rather mundane melodrama and created" The Black Crook" and invented the first true Broadway Musical. It ran for twenty years and was continually revived until 1925.

1878- An ancient Egyptian obelisk was set up in London’s Hyde Park. It was named Cleopatra's Needle ( along with its sister standing in Central Park, NYC) because it was discovered in Alexandria in the ruins of what is thought to be Cleopatra's palace. In fact, both obelisks were taken to Alexandia by the Ptolemeys. They were originally erected by Thutmoses III during the XVIII Dynasty, and used to stand at the Temple of Ra in Heliopolis.

1882- THE BATTLE OF TEL EL KHEBIR. Egyptian officers had overthrown
the Khedive of Egypt and the British Army was sent to intervene. The
Khedive was a descendent of Muhammad Ali Pasha who had asserted
Egyptian independence from Britain and Turkey, but by now he was an
English puppet. He was overthrown by Colonel Ahmed Oraby. This night
the British under Sir Garnet Woolsley executed a night march around
the enemy flank and destroyed Oraby’s army in the morning. The troops
marched in the darkness across open desert led by Royal Navy officers
navigating by the stars. They moved in total silence.

Britain assumed direct control over Egypt until 1956. Sir Garnet Woolsley was the general lampooned by Gilbert & Sullivan as "the Very Model of a Modern Major
General" in the Pirates of Penzance. Woolsley normally was a vain
humorless man but he loved this opera and used to sing the song
himself to his family and friends.

1895- During a long march in the steaming jungles of Madagascar Colonel Duschesne of the French Foreign Legion silenced his grumbling troopers with the famous command -'Marche ou Creve'-"March or Die !" It becomes the Foreign Legion's motto.

1908- Winston Churchill married Clementine Churchill.

1910- Gustav Mahler’s Symphony # 8, The Symphony of a Thousand, premiered in Munich.

1918- The first all American offensive of World War One. General John Blackjack Pershing’s First American Army attacked and captured the Saint Michel salient. The German Armies on the Western Front fell back to their last defense line-the Hindenberg Line.

1923- The democracy in Spain was overthrown by General Miguel Primo de Rivera who suspended the constitution and ruled as a dictator. King Alfonso XIII stayed on his throne but without any power. Rivera died and a Republic declared in 1931. Primo de Rivera had a boy colonel in his army named Francisco Franco.

1937- The leader of the Communist Party in Uzbeckistan Akmal Ikramov was ordered arrested and shot by Stalin. The news was greeted back home "With warm applause".

1940- Mussolini’s Italian forces open the North African campaigns by an invasion of Egypt from Libya. When British forces drive back the legions of General Barbazioli ( Electric Whiskers) Hitler sends them the famous Afrika Korps led by Irwin Rommel.

1940- In southern France near Montignac a pet dog fell through a crack in the ground into an underground chamber. When four boys follow in to retrieve the dog they discover the Lascaux Caves Ice-Age paintings, where, a Stone Age man created some of the earliest artwork.

1941-THE WALT DISNEY STRIKE ENDS- Everyone goes back to work after the NLRB, with a lot of behind the scenes pressure from the Bank of America, settled the dispute. Walt Disney had to recognize the cartoonists guild, give screen credits, double the salaries of low paid workers retroactive to May 29th and re-hire animator Art Babbitt. Disney immediately got on a train to Washington to try and convince the feds to reverse the decision or get an injunction in court. He failed. Ironically within a few months the war would break out and artists who had been bitter foes would be compelled to work side by side in the U.S. Army Picture Unit.

1943-Benito Mussolini, imprisoned after an Italian democratic coup, is rescued at night by a troop of Nazi parachute commandos led by one-eyed Col. Otto Skorzeny. Skorzeny would later train the commandos who infiltrated American lines during the Battle of the Bulge to speak American accented English and converse convincingly about baseball scores and Betty Grable. He fought until the last day of the war then arranged the Nazi escape pipeline to Argentina. Despite saying in court he was "proud to have served Hitler" Otto Skorzeny was acquitted of any war crimes. He died of old age in 1972.

1944- Romania, her German friends defeated and her borders overrun by the Red Army, changed sides and signed a separate peace with the Allies. Many Allied bomber crews were held there as POWs. One of them, a Lt. Anthony Gunn, took a Messerschmidt Me109, painted it over with the Stars and Stripes and with top Romanian ace Michael Cantacuzene flew to American lines in Italy to get help. The USAF responded and soon airlifted 1,100 U.S. airmen POWs to safety.

1945- Young Captain Ronald Reagan was discharged from the US Army Signal Corps. He never left Hollywood but starred in movies, training films and USO benefits. Yet in his old age he acted the great war hero. Some annoyed veterans told me Marlena Deitrich in fishnet stockings and pumps got closer to the fighting than Captain Reagan ever did.

1945- The first French troops land in Vietnam to re-assert their colonial rule.

1948-The People's Republic of North Korea declared.

1954- Television comedian Ernie Kovacs married Edie Adams, the Muriel Cigar Girl. They married in Mexico and at the insistence of Kovacs used a priest who read the entire service in Spanish, a language neither of them understood.

1953- Jacqueline Bouvier married John F. Kennedy.

1953- THE RED REDHEAD-? McCarthy investigators accuse top t.v. star Lucille Ball of being a communist. She and husband Desi Arnez immediately went and testified that Lucy’s grandfather was an old Socialist who routinely enrolled all his grandkids in the Communist Party as a birthday present. America wouldn’t stand to see their favorite t.v. family go down, so the matter quickly blew over. Years later Desi would condescendingly joke:" Lucy didn’t even know who the mayor of L.A. was. The only thing that was red about Lucy was her hair, and even that wasn’t real !"

1957- Market researcher James M.Vicary explains at a press conference the theory of Subliminal Advertising. His company proposed to unconsciously compel people to buy products by flashing messages at 1/24th of a second during movies. Even though the concept was discredited (givetomsitomoney) by the American Psychiatric Association (givetomsitomoney) a national panic ensued as people feared brainwashing.

1965- The Beatles release 'Yesterday'.

1966-"Gee Mr. French..." Family Affair premiered on TV.

1966- The Monkees TV show premiered. Two young television executives Bert Schneider and Sam Rafaelson convince their network to make "A Hard Day's Night" for American television. Of the four kids in the make-believe band Mike Nesmith was the only real musician. Micky Dolenz had to be taught how to play the drums the first day of shooting. Insiders nicknamed them "The Pre-Fab Four". Still, the show was a major hit, won Emmy Awards and all their albums went gold. The producers took that success and used it to finance the hit film "Easy Rider". Mike Nesmith later inherited a fortune from his mom developing the Liquid Paper Company, and used his fortune to help start MTV.

1974- Ethiopian Emperor Rastafari Halie Selassie, "The Lion of Judah" and beloved symbol of the Rastafarians, is overthrown by his military officers.

1977-South African nationalist leader Steve Biko died in jail from a savage beating during an interrogation. The policemen who killed him admitted it in 1997.

1992- Anthony Perkins, the star of Hitchcock’s Psycho, died of HIV/AIDS. His widow, Berry Berensen the sister of actress Marisa Berensen, died in one of the hijacked airliners that plunged into the World Trade Center on 9-11.

2001- The day after the terrible World Trade Center attack, White House anti-terrorism head Richard Clark recorded that the CIA identified that the home base of the hijackers was in Afghanistan. President Bush’s Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld grumbled:" Their aren’t enough good targets in Afghanistan. There are better targets in Iraq."

2003- Country-western singer Johnny Cash died of diabetes at 71.

2005- Disneyland Hong Kong opened.
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Yesterday’s Question: What is a Stigmata?

Answer: Stigmata is a psychic-spiritual condition when someone prays so had, they display bleeding wounds similar to those that Jesus had at the Crucifixion. St Francis of Assisi through to Italian hermit Padre Pio who died in 1968 had it.