Question: One of the most popular characters in the Alice in Wonderland is the Mad Hatter. Where does the idea of a Mad Hatter originate?

Yesterday’s Quiz Answered below: Presidential candidate John McCain claims his experience in the military makes him a better choice for president. We know about former generals Eisenhower & Grant, but which of these military heroes also wanted to be president, but failed? a) Gen. Douglas MacArthur, b) Admiral Dewey, c) Gen. Winfield Scott, d) General Custer?
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History for 9/10/2008
Birthdays: Fae Wray, Yma Sumac ( Star of Brazilian jazz and crossword puzzles- real name Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chavarri del Castillo, from Ichocán, Peru. Descendent of Inca royalty), Ian Fleming, Raymond Scott (composer of songs Carl Stalling loved to score into Bugs Bunny cartoons) , Margaret Trudeau, Amy Irving, Arnold Palmer, Charles Kuralt, Jose Feliciano, Karl Lagerfield, Steven Jay Gould, Chris Columbus, Colin Firth is 48

1171- Salladin, the Vezir of Egypt, changed the religious practice of Egypt from Shiite back to Sunni Moslem. For this act, the Caliph in Bagdhad made the Kurd a Sultan, and he took up the war begun by Zenghi and Nur-Al-Din against the Christian Crusaders holding the Holy places in Jerusalem.

1224-The first Franciscan monks land in England. The are promptly arrested and sent to London in chains.

1526- The Turkish army of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent entered the Hungarian capitol of Budapest.

1608- Captain John Smith elected leader of the Jamestown Colony. This advances the common adventurer over the heads of several gentlemen like President Wingfield and Captain’s Martin and Newport. But since they first landed in April the rigors of the Virginia wilderness proved that Smith knew best how to run the colony.

1813- Commodore Oliver Perry defeats a British naval flotilla on Lake Erie. This battle and New Orleans prevented the War of 1812 from being a complete botchup by the U.S. considering we had our capitol burned and all our invasions of Canada defeated. Perry's victory message:" We have met the enemy, and he is ours." Commodore Perry shouldn't be confused with Capt. Robert Peary, the Polar explorer.

1846- Elias Howe patented the sewing machine.

1894- London taxi driver George Smith is the first man ever fined for drunk driving an automobile.

1907-The first Neiman Marcus dept. store opens in Dallas.

1940- During the Battle of Britain, Nazi bombs hit Buckingham Palace, just missing the Royal Family. The Queen later Queen-Mum said:"At last now I can look the East-enders in the face." RAF ace Sgt. Ginger Lacey volunteered to go up and get the bomber who did the bombing. In a London fog his Hurricane fighter caught up to the offending German Heinkell –111 bomber and shot it down., But his own plane was so shot up in the battle he had to bail out. His parachute caught in a tree and as Sgt, Lacey looked down he saw an old Englishman in a Home Guard helmet training a shotgun at him. He obviously thought he was a German. Lacey explained he wasn’t a Jerry but the old duffer remained unconvinced. He was preparing to fire when finally let loose a torrent of Anglo-Saxon invective "YOU STUPID GIT, YOU G*DDAM F**KING OLD WANKER! WAIT TILL I GET MY BLOODY ID CARD OUT, etc. The Old man then lowered his weapon with relief:" "Ere. He said:" Anyone who can swear like that can’t be a German.."

1953 - Swanson Foods sells it's first "TV dinner"

1955- the t.v. series 'Gunsmoke' premiered.

1963- The First New York Film Festival opened with Luis Bunuel’s The Exterminating Angel, and Woody Allen was probably there.

1966- H& B's Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossible's debut.

1968- Hanna Barbera's Space Ghost and Dino Boy' debut.

1977- The last execution in France by guillotine. Hamidas Djandoubi a Tunisian immigrant and convicted murderer.

1978- The Communist Premier of Bulgaria, Tobor Zhivkov, asked the Soviet KGB to do something about dissident Georgyi Markov who was making embarrassing broadcasts to Bulgaria on London's Radio Free Europe. After a broadcast Markov left the BBC offices and strolled across Waterloo Bridge. A man bumped into him and poked him in the shin with his umbrella tip. He excused himself and moved on. Markov grew sick and died within 24 hours on this day. A tiny pellet smaller than a pinhead carrying poison was injected into Markov by a hypodermic needle concealed in the umbrella tip.

1981- Picasso's painting Guernica is at last returned to Spain.

1993- The TV series The X Files premiered. The truth is out there.
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Yesterday’s Quiz: Presidential candidate John McCain claims his experience in the military makes him a better choice for president. We know about former generals Eisenhower & Grant, but which of these military heroes also wanted to be president, but failed? a) Gen. Douglas MacArthur, b) Admiral Dewey, c) Gen. Winfield Scott, d) General Custer?

Answer: All of them. Custer told his Crow scouts that after he smote the Sioux, he planned to go East and become the next Great White Father; When MacArthur lost the nomination to Eisenhower, McArthur said Ike was “ The best damn orderly I ever had.” Admiral Dewey was indignant he even had to campaign.

Quiz: Presidential candidate John McCain claims his experience in the military makes
him a better choice for president. We know about former generals Eisenhower &
Grant, but which of these military heroes also wanted to be president, but failed?
a) Gen. Douglas MacArthur, b) Admiral Dewey, c) Gen. Winfield Scott, d) General
Custer?

Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: Martha Custis had a rather famous husband.
Who was he?
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History 9/9/2008
Birthdays: Antonio Frescobaldi, Captain William Bligh, Jimmy the Greek Snyder, Joe
Theismann, Cliff Robertson, Angela Cartwright, Alf Landon, Dee Dee Sharpe who sang
the 60's R&B hit the Mashed Potato, Michael Keaton, Adam Sandler, Don Mattingly,
Otis Redding, Anita Ekberg, Hugh Grant, Topol, Colonel Lyman Sanders the founder
of Kentucky Fried Chicken, James Hilton-writer who created the name for paradise
Shangri-La in his novel Lost Horizon.

490BC -About this time, although I haven’t found an exact date yet, was the battle
of MARATHON- when the small Athenian army led by Militiades defeated a huge invasion
led by Darius the Great King of Persia. Militiades is from whom we get the word
"Military".

490BC- This was the event that the runner Phidippides ran to bring the news to Athens-
the first Marathon. He once ran from Athens to Sparta- 150 miles in two days. The
ancient Olympics had foot races but no marathons, that came with the modern Olympics.
The reason the marathon became 26.2 miles, was during the London games the race
was lengthened so it could begin at Windsor Castle where Queen Victoria’s grandchildren
could watch, then end at the stadium in London where the little old Queen could
see them finish.

337AD- The aging Roman Emperor Constantine the Great makes his three sons Constantius
II, Constans and Constantine II all co-rulers in an effort to secure the succession.
It’s a confusing system and eventually the eldest Constantius II rules alone.

1087- WILLIAM THE CONQUERER DIED- King William had subdued Normandy, England and
Scotland and was one of the most successful kings of the Middle Ages. But old age
and good living caught up to him. He became very fat. One day when riding near
Mantes-La-Jolie, his horse bucked, causing the saddle pommel to stab up into his
groin and rupture his bladder. Blood poisoning brought the end swiftly. He was carried
to a monastery in great pain. His children ignored him in his last hours, because
they were too busy fighting each other for the throne. William the Conqueror died
alone in a bare room. His servants stole the rich bed trappings and rings from his
fingers as he lay in a coma. The coffin provided was too small for the large body,
now bloated with putrefaction. The monks tried to pound it into the box, but the
corpse finally burst "filling the room with horrid, malodorous odors."
Ehhuwww!

1776- The Continental Congress officially changed the name of the United Colonies
to the United States of America.

1825- BEETHOVEN'S LAST PUBLIC APPEARANCE. Before he retired to a government
appointed home, Ludwig von Beethoven did one more concert as a conductor and pianist,
even though he was now stone deaf. The fees for personal appearances were too good.
The orchestra rehearsed to play the 9th Symphony and the Missa Solemnis while ignoring
his commands, starting and stopping on a signal given by the first violinist. So
Beethoven flapped his arms around fruitlessly while the orchestra played. Everyone
enjoyed it even though people in the first few rows could hear the Maestro wailing
to the music, unaware of his own voice. When the performance ended he was still
gyrating, obviously a few bars behind the orchestra and oblivious to the cheers
of the audience. The soprano made him turn around and bow.

1830 - Charles Durant, the first US aeronaut, flew in a balloon from Castle Garden,
at the tip of Manhattan across New York Harbor to Perth Amboy, New Jersey.

1888- Sitting Bull led the GHOST DANCE. Realizing armed resistance to the white
invasion was hopeless many Indians resorted to a spiritual attack, hoping to dance
the invaders away. An Indian prophet from the Northwest named Wovoka preached that
if native people danced a dance with their ancestors (ghosts), a millennial cataclysm
would annihilate the White Man and bury them under 10 inches of new soil. Then the
forests and game would return and the Indian would regain his natural hunting grounds
the continent over. On this day word of this new cult reached the Sioux reservations.
Sitting Bull was at first skeptical, but then realized it would at least keep his
people's hope's alive. U.S. authorities mistook this magical resistance for a physical act of rebellion. Bull's assassination and the later Wounded Knee Massacre was the result.

1908- THE PATENTS TRUST- Thomas Edison, Charles Pathe and Leon Gaumont form the
Motion Picture Patents Group. Called the "Trust", their attempt to monopolize
movie production and strangle off the independents had a lot to do with the early
filmmakers exodus to Los Angeles. Otherwise the film capitol of the world would
have been Ft. Lee, New Jersey. The only positive result of the trust was they enforced
a regular industry standard for film stock of 35 mm running at 24 frames per second.
It seems the Mitchell Camera Company was developing a motorized motion picture camera
to replace the hand crank variety but they needed an official speed to set it at.
In a contentious meeting of the Trust held at the Waldorf Astoria no one could settle
on a single speed. Finally the compromise was made to make it the number of delegates
in the room- 24.

1910-Alice B. Toklas moved in with Gertrude Stein at the 22 Rue de Flerus in Paris.
Until Stein’s death in 1946 they ran one of the most glittering social networks
of the Twentieth Century. Soirees included Picasso, Matisse, Dali, Ernest Hemingway,
F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Max Ernst, Virgil Thompson, Sherwood Anderson,
Max Ernst, Guilliame Apollinaire and Carlos Santayanna. But the ultra modern was
not to everyone’s taste. Painter Mary Cassatt only visited once. She later told
a friend:" I never saw so many horrible things, I never met so many horrible
people!"



1920- Silent movie star Olive Thomas, nicknamed America's Kid Sister, partied
a little too hard at the Dead Rat Cafe in Paris. It was said the 21 year old died
of an overdose of cocaine and alcohol. Another theory was she accidentally overdosed
on mercury bicholoride tablets. Her nude body was discovered wrapped in a full length
ermine fur left on her couch in the Ritz Hotel. The scandal started the first investigation
of drugs in Hollywood. It netted an army captain named Spaulding who admitted that
film stars like Thomas, Mabel Normand and Ramon Navarro were regular clients for
morphine, heroin and cocaine. Shortly after Groucho Marx put in his vaudeville
show Animal Crackers the song Hooray for Captain Spaulding,.

1926 – The National Broadcasting Company or NBC created by Radio Corporation of
America RCA. Under the direction of David Sarnoff it became the powerhouse network
of broadcasting, recording and later television.

1939- The first Andy Panda cartoon.

1939- The first day of shooting on Charlie Chaplin’s film the Great Dictator.

1943- The first V-2 missile hit London, destroying buildings in the Chiswick area.
The V-2 was the first ballistic missile and the Allies were powerless to stop or
intercept it. Tens of thousands of London children were evacuated for safety to
Scotland and even as far as Canada. After the war the left over V-2’s were gathered
up by the US and Red Armies as the basis for the beginning of their space programs.

1945 - 1st bug in a computer program discovered by Grace Hopper. A moth
was removed with tweezers from a relay & taped into the log. Since then any
computer glitch was nicknamed "a bug".

1950 - 1st use of TV laugh track invented by Hank McCune.

1956- Elvis Presley appeared on nationwide television on the Ed Sullivan Show. Sullivan
himself had vowed never to have the kid on his show but caved in to network pressure.
He stayed home that first time and actor Charles Laughton was the substitute host.
CBS Network censors thought the gyrations of Elvis' pelvis so obscene that in
many markets they blacked out the lower portion of the screen so he was covered
the waist down.

1967- Jay Ward’s show George of the Jungle premiered, with SuperChicken and Tom
Slick sequences.

1982- Princess Grace of Monaco, the former movie actress Grace Kelly, died in a
car accident on the mountainous hill roads of Monaco. Twenty years earlier in the
film To Catch a Thief, Alfred Hitchcock had her drive her car at dangerous speeds
over the exact same hairpin turns.

2001 – Two days before the 9-11 terrorist attack on New York in Afghanistan Shan
Ibn Massoud , the greatest foe of the Taliban regime was assassinated. Massoud was
a charismatic rebel leader in the war against the Soviet occupation in the 1980’s.
Sort of an Afghan Robin Hood, in 1988 the Soviets launched a huge land and air operationjust to get him- Operation GoodBye Massoud. It failed and the Russians finally left Afghanistan. This murder was seen as an operation by Osama Ben Laden to thank the Taliban for their hospitality.

2001- Two days before the 9-11 Attack, Czech intelligence reported they saw top
hijacker Mohammed Atta meet the Chief of Iraqi Security Al Alhya in Prague. This
was one of the chief bits of proof given by US Vice President Cheney to justify
the attack on Iraq in 2003. When later asked to confirm this claim, the Czechs said:
"well, it may or may not have happened." President Vaslav Havel said he
didn’t know what they were talking about. A 2006 Senate committee concluded this
meeting never happened.

2002- Martin Strehl, "the Swimming Slovenian" completed his swim down
the entire length of the Mississippi River from Lake Athabasaca Minnesota to the
Gulf of Mexico in 68 days. To prevent infection from swallowing industrial pollution
in the water he daily gargled with Hydrogen Peroxide.
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Yesterday’s Question: Martha Custis had a rather famous husband. Who was he?

Answer: George Washington.

Question: Martha Custis had a rather famous husband. Who was he?

Yesterday’s Quiz Answered Below: Ethel Skakel had a rather famous husband. Who was he?
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history for 9/8/2008
Birthdays: Richard the LionHearted, Michel Caravaggio, Antonin Dvorak, Patsy Cline, Jimmy Rogers the Singing Brakeman, Peter Sellars, Sid Caesar, Freddy Mercury, Lyndon LaRouche, Euwell Gibbons- natural food advocate, Heather Thomas, David Arquette, Jonathan Taylor-Thomas

1381-Battle Of Kulikovo- Novgorod Prince Dmitri Donskoi defeated the Tartars of the Golden Horde.

1504- Michelangelo unveiled his completed statue of David. The Florentine Republic had commissioned a statue from another artist who gave up after gouging a large hole in a huge block of Carrarra marble. Stuck with the block, magistrates asked Michelangelo if he could do anything with it. Michelangelo carved the David positioning the hole where the legs stand spread.

1565-Sultan Sulieman the Magnificent lifted the Siege of Malta. The Knights of St. John Hospitaller were granted ownership of Malta in perpetuity. They become the Knights of Malta. Their symbol, the Maltese Cross, is four barbed arrowheads forming a cross. Today they operate a charity ambulance service, St. John's Ambulance.

1565- The first permanent European settlement in North America- San Augustin or Saint Augustine Florida was founded by Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles. He had sighted land on Saint Augustine’s day.

1636- Massachusetts established Harvard College, the first college of higher learning in North America.

1642- Plymouth governor William Bradford noted in his diary this day the Pilgrims executed a 16 year old named Thomas Granger for buggery. Young Master Granger confessed to buggering a mare, two cows, six sheep, two goats and a turkeybird. I guess the Pilgrims felt it was hard to enjoy thanksgiving when someone has had relations with the main course.

1760- Montreal, the last French stronghold in Canada and seat of the French Governor, fell to British troops. Governor Vaudreuil-Cavagnal surrendered all of New France- or Canada to the British.

1771- Mission San Gabriel founded by Fra Junipero Serra.

1812- After the terrible battle of Borodino the Russian General Prince Kutusov began the evacuation of Moscow to Napoleons’ invading army.

1892- Writer Francis Bellamy published "The Pledge of Allegiance" in the Youth's Companion magazine as a vehicle to instill a sense of Patriotism in America's youth. Francis Bellamy was a lifelong socialist.

1900- THE GREAT GALVESTON HURRICANE- At this time no one could chart or forewarn hurricanes beyond trying to read signs in the sky’s color. Despite hurricanes being common no one in Galveston Texas was seriously prepared. There had been talk of building a breakwater in the harbor but nothing had been done. This day a huge hurricane that had ravaged Cuba came over and surprised Galveston Texas. It's eye later passed over Houston. No accurate count could be made of the dead but 4,000 bodies were recovered. One friend said his grandmother remembered a huge oak tree getting out of the ground and dancing a jig around the yard before it flew off. Afterwards authorities raised the town of Galveston 25 feet and built a sea wall to prevent future floods. Luxurious 3 story mansions were filled in and built on top of.

1921 - 1st Miss America crowned -Margaret Gorman of Washington DC.

1926- Screen actress Greta Garbo skipped her own wedding and left John Gilbert alone at the altar. They still stayed lovers and lived together.

1930 - Richard Drew creates Scotch tape.

1932-The emirates of Hejaz and Nuir are combined into the new Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under the House of Ibn Saud. Ibn Saud had conducted a masterful military and diplomatic campaign to get the Hejaz lands away from Faisal, the old ally of Lawrence of Arabia. Before the oil wealth began Ibn Saud drove around his desert kingdom visiting Bedouin camps in an old Rolls Royce, with the nation's treasury in a trunk strapped to the roof.

1935- HUEY LONG, the "Kingfish" Louisiana governor and colorful 3rd party candidate for President is assassinated at the statehouse in Baton Rouge. His assassin, a quiet doctor named Karl Weiss, was riddled with bullets by Long's bodyguards before anyone found out why he did it. So many bullets flew some scholars wonder if Weiss' shot was even the one that killed Long.

1935-A vocal group called "4 Joes from Hoboken" get their first break on Major Bo's radio show. One of the singers is a young man named Frank Sinatra.

1935- Top Hollywood musical director Buzby Berkeley (42nd Street, Footlight Parade) got drunk at a party in Malibu and drove his Cadillac head on into oncoming traffic on Pacific Coast Highway near where Gladestones Fish Restaurant is today. He piled into three other cars. Berkeley was unhurt but three people died and four were injured. After three trials for 2nd degree murder Berkeley was found innocent. The reason star defense attorney Jerry Geisler gave was “cancerous tires”. Later it was revealed that all the tire experts who testified in the defense were on the Warner Bros. payroll.

1939- British Alfred Hitchcock began shooting his first Hollywood picture- Rebecca, for David Selznick.

1946 - SF 49ers play their first AAFC game, losing to the NY Yankees 21-7.

1954- Akira Kurosawa’s film The Seven Samurai premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

1960- Penquin Books was charged with obscenity for the first large public paperback printing of D.H. Lawrence's 'Lady's Chatterley's Lover'.

1965 - Dorothy Danridge, beautiful black actress (Island in the Sun), dies at 41 in
Hollywood of a sleeping pills overdose.

1966- T.V.'s STAR TREK debuts. That season it ranked 52nd in the Neilsen ratings, behind #1 "Iron Horse" starring Rory Calhoun and "Mr. Terrific". It was cancelled after two seasons but a letter writing campaign won it a third season. Star Trek then found a new life in syndication. The cult fan base called Trekkies kept the memory of the show alive for ten years until Paramount felt compelled to revive Star Trek first as an animated series and then a series of feature films, then spinoffs. Frank Sinatra once said: "The only good thing to come out of the Nineteen Sixties was Star Trek."

1966 - "That Girl" starring Marlo Thomas and Ted Bessell premieres on ABC-TV

1968 - "Funny Girl" premiered, starring a young Brooklyn singer named Barbra Striesand.

1971- Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center opened. It was planned in the early sixties by John and Jackie Kennedy, although then unaware that their name would be on it. The performance featured the debut of Leonard Bernstein’s choral work “Mass”.

1974- Daredevil Evil Kneival jumped the Snake River gorge in a rocket powered motorcycle.

1974- Replacement President Gerald Ford surprised America by pardoning resigned President Richard Nixon for whatever he may have done in the Watergate Scandal, but not saying he really did anything..... Ford sez: " Our great national nightmare is over.." America later surprises Ford by electing Jimmy Carter in his place.

1979 - Jean Seberg, actress (Breathless, Airport), commits suicide at 40. She had been in love with a member of the radical Black Panther Party, and was under continual harassment by the FBI.

1986- The Chicago based television talk show the Oprah Winfrey Show went national and became one of the most successful talk shows ever.
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Yesterday’s Quiz: Ethel Skakel had a rather famous husband. Who was he?

Answer: Senator Robert F. “ Bobby” Kennedy.

The East Coast is getting pounded with Hurricane rains. Here in Southern Cal it's near 100F degrees every day and we'd love a little of that rain. I always miss September back East. After a hot sticky summer, you get the first wisps of cool air and the first leaves begin to turn. While here in Tinseltown, September is August Part II. But hey, you live a two-hour drive to the Mojave Desert, you can't be surprised that it gets hot.

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Quiz: Ethel Skakel had a rather famous husband. Who was he?

Yesterday’s question answered below: Zerelda Mimms had a rather famous husband. Who was he?
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History for 9/7/2008
Birthdays: Grandma Moses, Dame Edith Sitwell, Elia Kazan, Richard Roundtree, Sinclair Lewis, Anthony Quayle. Peter Lawford, Senator Daniel Inouye, Susan Blakely, Shannon Elizabeth, Sonny Rawlins, Julie Kavner the voice of Marge Simpson.

605 B.C. Nebuchanesser II crowned king of Babylon. In 597 he destroyed Israel and began the Baylonian Captivity of the Judeo-Christian apocalyptic writings, but he also build the famed hanging Gardens of Baylon for his wife Amrytis.

1191-KING RICHARD VS. SALLADIN-The Battle of Arsuf, the only major set battle between King Richard's Crusaders and Salladin Saracens. Salladin's men were driven back by the charging armored knights, but no final victory was achieved. Richard galloped about chopping people so ferociously that the Saracen warriors rode around him and avoided contact. Contrary to the image Salladin didn't ride around on a fiery Arab white stallion. He directed his army from the rear on a donkey. This he did in imitation of the example of the pious Caliph Omar, who also disdained white chargers as vanity. After such hot work in the desert Salladin sent his enemy Richard a cup of snow with rose water called Sherbat, which is the forerunner of modern Iced Sherbet or Slurpie.

1303- ATTACK ON THE POPE- Pope Boniface VIII considered his throne higher than all Royal crowns. He even had a big triple tiara crown made bigger than all royal crowns to prove it. He got into a fight over sovereignty with French King Phillip the Fair, excommunicating him and all France. Then Phillip had a French clerical assembly accuse Boniface of being a “murderer, false monk, sorcerer, embezzler, adulterer, sodomite, idolater and infidel”. But King Phillip could fight with more than words. This day he sent a hit squad of 2000 knights to attack the pope at his summer residence in Anagni. As the knights slew the Vatican guards and burst into the palace Boniface knew his hour had come. He put on his full pontifical robes and mounted his throne to await his end. The knights William of Nogaret and Sciarra Colonna marched up to the old man, held a dagger over his head and paused.” That is the message from my master, King Philip” Then they left. The 70 year old Pope was rescued by the Orsini family three days later, but Boniface died mentally broken from his ordeal.

1776 -The FIRST SUBMARINE ATTACK-Yankee Ezra Lee pilots inventor David Bushnell's barrel shaped submersible "The Turtle" over to the British warship HMS Eagle. His attack consisted of an attempt to drill holes in her hull. But the ship was copper bottomed. Doh!

1812- BATTLE OF BORODINO, or La Moskova. Napoleon's French army and the Russians pound each other to bits before Moscow in the great battle immortalized by Tolstoy in 'War and Peace'. As the French army marched to the attack, Russian Prince Bagration sat on horseback in front of his troops. Before opening fire he pulled out a silver flask and toasted his enemy:"Gentlemen of France, Bravo! C'est Superb!". He was killed later.

Leo Tolstoy had an ancestor at the battle. General Mikhail Tolstoy was an eccentric who rode into battle in a horse drawn carriage with his pet black bear seated alongside him who drank his champagne. The French capture all the strategic points and force General Kutusov to abandon Moscow, but while the Russians could make good their losses La Grande Armee' was exhausted and thousands of miles from supplies and reinforcements. Napoleon was listless from a bad cold and may have had prostate problems, since his doctor recalled he had trouble passing water. In any event, his illness made him hesitate sending in his Imperial Guard at a key moment to finish off the Russian army or maneuver to cut off their retreat.
Bad tempered Marshal Ney was enraged: ”Have we come so far merely to possess another battlefield? What is he doing so far back? He is no longer a general, he is an Emperor. Let him sit home in the palace and leave the fighting to us!”

1822- Brazil declared independence from Portugal.

1880 - George Ligowsky patents device to throw clay pigeons for trapshooters

1892 -Gentleman Jim Corbett finally KOs John L. Sullivan after 21 rounds for heavyweight boxing title. Corbett was an advocate of the new Marquis of Queensbery rules and preferred using boxing gloves to bare knuckle fighting.

1907 - Sutro's ornate Cliff House in SF destroyed by fire.

1911- French avant-garde poet Guilliame Appollinaire was the man who coined the term “surrealism’. He was such an elitist, outspoken radical guy that Parisian authorities felt he must be up to something. So when the Mona Lisa was stolen out of the Louvre this day Appollinaire was arrested. There was no evidence and he was released shortly after. The real thief was a disgruntled waiter who once worked as a security guard at the museum..

1940- THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN- Nazis bombers change their strategy of bombing RAF bases in southern England and instead concentrate on destroying London for psychological value. For the next 57 straight days London suffered under a rain of high explosives.

1957- Actress Ingrid Bergman and director Roberto Rossellini separate.

1963- Mushi productions cartoon series."Tetsuan Atomo" debuts in the U.S as AstroBoy.

1978 - Keith Moon, rock drummer of the Who, died of a drug overdose at 31. He actually overdosed the drug he was perscribed to treat his alcohol and drug abuse. In one night he took 22 tabs of choloromethiazole edysilate. He was staying in the very same London apartment #123 Curzon Place, was the one that Mama Cass Elliot died in four years earlier.

1984-the Walt Disney Board formally fired Chairman and Walt’s son-in-law Ron Miller.

1986- Archbishop Desmond Tutu was installed as the first Black leader of the Anglican Church in South Africa. His appointment signaled the beginning of the final campaign to overthrow the racist apartheid system.

1996- Rap artist and actor Tupac Shakur was shot to death gangland style in Las Vegas Nevada. He was standing up in the open roof of a BMW 750 sedan talking to some girls when a Cadillac pulled along side and opened fire. In 2002 the LA Times concluded and investigation that rapper Biggie Smalls or Notorious B.I.G. hired and killer and provided the gun. Notorious B.I.G. was himself shot to death shortly after.

2000- Barely legal teen pop star Britney Spears shocked even the permissive MTV Music Video Awards crowd by singing her hit “Oops, I Did it Again” while stripping and grinding in a Las Vegas showgirl type sheer bikini.
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Yesterday’s Quiz: Zerelda Mimms had a rather famous husband. Who was he?

Answer: Jesse James.

Robert Duvall did one of my favorite interpretations of Jesse James in George Roy Hill's underrated dramedy THE GREAT NORTHFIELD MINNESOTA RAID (1972).

Quiz: Zerelda Mimms had a rather famous husband. Who was he?

Yesterday’s Question answered below: Why are spiced chicken wings called Buffalo Wings?
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History for 9/6/2008
Birthdays: Marquis De Lafayette, Joseph Kennedy Sr., Buddy Holly, Jane Curtin,
Sergio Aragones, Swoozie Kurtz, Jo Ann Worley, Rosie Perez, Billy Rose, Ernest Tubb, Justin Whalin

338BC- Five days after Greece was conquered by Phillip of Macedon, the Greek philosopher Isocrates died at age 98. It was said he was depressed by world events and old age so he simply stopped eating. Isocrates wrote speeches about his philosophy but he was not a good speaker so he published them, creating the first literary essays.

1298- Battle of Curzola- One of the perennial battles between Venice and the Pisa only distinguished by the fact that Marco Polo was captured. The first thing the globe trotting merchant did upon getting home from China was get drafted. While a P.O.W. in a Pisan prison he wrote his accounts: " My Travels". He actually dictated them to another prisoner because he may have been illiterate or simply had weak eyes. Recently scholars challenged just how much of China he actually saw, because he makes no mention of The Great Wall or chopsticks.

1522- A ship reached Spain manned by only a dozen or more skeletal sailors. They were all that was left of Fernand de Magellans fleet of five ships and 260 men that set out one year ago to reach the Indies. Magellan was killed and eaten by cannibals in the Philippines, Magellan had beheaded three of his captains in Argentina and most of the crew was dead. The last leg of the trip the men sailed up the coast of Africa without stopping for food or water for fear of falling into the hands of their Portuguese enemies. But they had achieved the dream of the great Columbus, they reached the Indies by sailing west. In fact they had circumnavigated the globe, forever proved the world was round.

1566- Elderly Turkish Sultan Sulieman the Magnificent died while besieging the Hungarian castle of Szigetvar. His Vazirs worried that the news of his death would panic the troops and leave their lands open for invasion. So they kept it a secret and marched back to Istanbul with Sulieman’s body propped up and held down by wires on his throne in his rolling pavilion. Censers of perfumed incense were waved to cover the fact that the Sultan stank.

1782- Patsy Jefferson, the wife of Thomas Jefferson died. Jefferson promised her on her deathbed that he would never marry again and was so distraught he refused to leave their bedroom. He finally emerged after three weeks. They spent her last hours writing out their favorite passages from Tristram Shandy together. Jefferson kept the little folded up piece of paper on him the rest of his life.

1812- At Borodino the Russian army prepared to fight Napoleon’s Army before the entrance to Holy Moscow. This night the Orthodox Metropolitan in procession carried through the camp the icon of the Black Virgin of Smolensk. Thousands of soldiers kneeled, crossed themselves and whispered Gospodi Pomilui- Lord Have Mercy. During the Napoleonic Wars Russian officers began the curious custom of making sure that they went into battle wearing clean underwear- no gentleman wanted to his body to be found with dirty undies!

1821- Jacob Fowler with 21 frontiersmen left Arkansas for Santa Fe New Mexico to see if the local government was more amenable to Americans now that Mexico had won their independence from Spain. They were welcomed and began to hunt and trap.

1847- After living in a shack on Walden Pond for two years, Henry David Thoreau moved in with Ralph Waldo Emerson and his family in Concord Mass.

1862- During the Civil War an incident occurred when Stonewall Jackson’s Confederate brigades moved through the pro-Union town of Frederick, Maryland. All civilians kept indoors and waved white flags from their homes. But elderly widow Barbara Fritchie flew a bigass American Stars & Stripes from her window and dared anyone to do anything about it. General Jackson just smiled and tipped his hat as he rode by. Years later a famous poem was written about the incident, The Ballad of Barbara Fritchie:” Shoot if You Must, This Old Grey Head, But Spare your Countries’ Flag, She Said!”

1901-PRESIDENT WILLIAM McKINLEY ASSASSINATED- The President was visiting the Temple of Music at the World Exposition in Buffalo when anarchist Leon Czogolsz shot him with a pistol hidden in his bandaged hand. Czogolsz was such an emotionally unstable character that even other anarchists avoided him. He said he was inspired by the political speeches of Socialist Emma Goldman, which soured many mainstream Americans to radical Socialism.
McKinley lingered for two weeks while doctors were afraid to probe for the bullet. Ironically he had just inspected a new-fangled X-Ray machine at the science pavilion that could have saved his life but doctors said: " This is too serious a time for toys!" He died and Teddy Roosevelt became President. Roosevelt was a maverick Republican that McKinley reluctantly chose as his running mate because he was a hero in the recent Spanish-American War. When Tammany boss Paul Crocker heard about Roosevelt being made V.P. he shouted;" Don't you realize that now there's only one heartbeat between that nut and the Presidency-?!" Republican Senate Majority Leader Marc Hanna was also annoyed:”Oh, no! Now that crazy cowboy is President!”

1914- As the First World War raged all across Europe the country that started it all, Serbia, had a curious campaign. It was expected that the mighty Austro-Hungarian Empire would quickly stomp this little country. But under the leadership of their resident military genius, Marshal Radomir Putnik, the Serbs drove out the invading Austrian army and this day even had the cheek to invade Austria! The Austrians pushed them out, tried another invasion, then forgot about them for the rest 1914 and all of 1915.

1945- Four days after the Japanese surrender ending World War Two FBI director J. Edgar Hoover sent a nasty memo to Attorney General Tom Clark complaining about General Donovan. Wild Bill Donovan had led the wartime espionage agency the OSS, now he proposed a continuation of intelligence gathering in the US as well as overseas. Hoover saw this as a direct challenge to his authority. Donovans’ wing was reborn as the CIA in 1947 an the FBI has remained cool ever since. Before the 9-11 tragedy you could not directly e-mail the FBI from the CIA.

1954- Groundbreaking for the first nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.

1958- The Spunky and Tadpole show debuts!

1966- Dr. Hendryk Verwoerd, the South African Prime Minister most responsible for the institutionalizing of racial segregation called Apartheid, was assassinated by a demented aide.

1968- Many momentous events occurred in 1968: assassinations, riots, the Vietnamese Tet offensive, the Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia, Easy Rider, 2001 a Space Odyssey Sergeant Pepper. But that’s nothing compared to the television premiere of H.R. PUNFNSTUFF this day! Witchipoo, Orson and the Vroom Broom. Whether or not Sid and Marty Kroffts strange kiddie show was a code for drug use -HR meaning Hand-Rolled Puffing Stuff, is a matter for scholastic conjecture.

1969- DePatie-Freleng's the Pink Panther TV Show premiered.

1971- Scientists at Proctor & Gamble invent the disposable diaper.

1972 - John Lennon & Yoko Ono appear on Jerry Lewis' Muscular Dystrophy Telethon.

1997- The great Funeral of Princess Diana of Wales brought England to a halt and was televised around the world. There was a last minute fuss over the fact that Buckingham Palace refused to lower the Royal Standard to half-mast, customary for a death in the Royal Family, because technically Diana was divorced and no longer part of that family. The tabloid press jumped on this as a way to divert public attention from the discussion that their hounding Diana was what caused the fatal car accident. As this day began the flag came down at the urging of the elderly Queen Mum.

2000- The United Nations called a Millennial Summit. 150 presidents, kings, princes and prime ministers convened in New York City, the largest international conference held since the UN Charter conference in 1945. Nothing important was decided and New Yorkers grumbled about the traffic.
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Yesterday’s Quiz? Why are spiced chicken wings called Buffalo Wings?

Answer: Fry cook Angelina Bellissima of Buffalo New York, noticed that chicken wings were the most under utilized part of the bird. In 1964, she scooped a bunch into her fryer with her own recipe of spices and served them at her local bar.
The rest is culinary history.