Question: What is a portcullis?

Yesterday’s question answered below: What is the longest bone in the human body?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
History for 6/17/2022
Birthdays: King Edward I "Longshanks", John Wesley the founder of the Methodists, , Wally Wood, Ralph Bellamy, Dean Martin, Barry Manilow, Joe Piscopo is 71, Newt Gingrich, Martin Bormann, Jason Patric, Ken Loach, Greg Kinnear is 58, Venus Williams, Thomas Haden Church is 62, Will Forte is 52

431BC- Battle of Mt. Algidus. Roman general Aulus Postumus Tubertus defeated two Etruscan tribes, the Aeguians and the Volscians.

1745- During one of the periodic wars between England and France, a force of New England colonials were sent up to Canada and helped captured the fortress of Louisburg, the largest French bastion on the Atlantic coast. It cost 100 colonists’ lives and 900 more during the occupation. But, amazingly, England gave the fortress back to France in exchange for a fortress in Madras, India. Ten years later in the Seven Years War, they had to do it all over again. This was another thing that annoyed Americans about being a colony.

1775- THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. British troops surrounded in Boston, crossed the harbor to attack an entrenched rebel position on Breeds Hill (the names got confused.). It took the Redcoats three grand assaults until they took the hill, but the rebel farmers, instead of fleeing like rabbits, shot them to pieces. Captain Israel Putnam advised his men,” Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes, then aim low.” The minutemen only retreated when their ammunition ran out.
The battle exacted such a huge cost in soldiers’ lives that the British public was shocked (1,000 casualties out of 2,040 men). Based on America's lukewarm participation in the French & Indian War a decade past, had not the great General Wolf of Quebec labeled the American the "Worst Soldier in the Universe"? and General Gage once told his friend, George Washington," New Englanders are big boasters and worst soldiers. I never saw any as infamously bad." The English generals consoled themselves with the thought that it couldn't have been the Yankees that fought so well, but all the Irish and Scottish immigrants that had arrived recently.
Lexington and Concord could be dismissed as an extended civilian disturbance, but Bunker Hill convinced London that it now had a full-scale war to fight 3,000 ocean miles away.

1789- French King Louis XVI had convened an Estates General to solve the bankrupt economy. The body consisted of three branches- the First Estate-Nobility, 2nd – Clergy and Third Estate the common people- about 99% of the country. This day after much debate the Third Estate voted to declare itself the real representative will of the French people and as such they should legislate for them, King or no.
They renamed themselves the National Assembly. Two days later most of the poor clergy and some nobles like Lafayette voted to join them and when the King ordered them to leave on June 20, they moved to the tennis court. This was the political beginning of the French Revolution.

1815- Heavy Spring rains cancel any actions as the British and French armies converge on a little village outside Brussels called Waterloo. Thunder and lightning drowned out the sound of cannon. The English were optimistic because by coincidence every major victory of the Duke of Wellington was preceded by a strong thunderstorm.
The Prussian (German) army, beaten and driven off yesterday, regrouped and turned around to join the English. Its commander was eccentric, 72-year-old Marshal Blucher. In the previous day's battle Blucher had a horse collapse on top of him and was trampled by French cavalry. But after bathing his limbs in brandy and swallowing a large schnapps he was back at the head of his troops bellowing: “Vowarts Mein Kinder! Vowarts Mein Leiber!”

1823- Charles MacKintosh patents the waterproof rubberized raincoat. In England, a raincoat is still called a MacKintosh.

1863 - Travelers Insurance Co of Hartford chartered (1st accident insurer)

1876- Battle of the Little Rosebud- The Ogalala Sioux under Crazy Horse repulsed U.S. cavalry and allied Crow warriors under George Crook. Crazy Horse amazed the white generals who claimed he maneuvered his warriors around the field like elite European light cavalry. They started calling him the Napoleon of the Plains. Crazy Horse then moved the Ogalala to the Little Big Horn to meet Sitting Bull, and fight Custer. Even though he was not badly beaten, Gen. Crook suspended his campaign and went fishing, and so was no help to Custer.

1873- Women’s Rights leader Susan B. Anthony went on trial for daring to attempt to vote.
She was found guilty by an all-male jury and fined $100, which she refused to pay.

1885- The pieces of the Statue of Liberty arrive from France. Some assembly required...

1893- Cracker Jacks invented by RW Reuckheim. Their name came from Teddy Roosevelt sampling the caramel corn, and exclaimed “These are Crackerjack!”- popular slang back then for something very good.

1893- The last Queen of Hawaii, Liliuokalani, was overthrown by a junta of American plantation owners led by Sanford Dole. The US apologized in 1992.

1917- The Republic of Finland is declared.

1919 - "Barney Google" cartoon strip, by Billy De Beck, premiered.

1930- Using 6 solid gold pens President Herbert Hoover signed the Harley-Smoot Act slapping heavy tariffs on imports from overseas. Britain and France and their overseas colonies retaliated with tariffs on American exports. The American stock market had collapsed 6 months before; now this shortsighted act sparked a trade war with the ruined economies of postwar Europe. It all but ensured that the Great Depression would spiral out of control, hitting rock bottom in 1932.

1946- The first mobile telephone was installed in an automobile in St. Louis, Missouri.

1950-Future attorney general and Senator Robert Kennedy married heiress Ethel Scheckter.

1952- Jack Parsons died in a massive explosion in his kitchen in Pasadena. He was 37. Parsons was a founder of the Jet Propulsion Lab and the Aerojet Corporation. One of the nations top rocket scientists, his research into rocket fuels powered everything from World War II bazooka shells to the Space Shuttle.
But Parsons also had a strange second life in the occult. He was a follower of Alastair Crowley, sometimes signed his name as AntiChrist, and once tried to raise a demon in a white-magic ceremony. His close friends included writer Robert Heinlein and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. No one is sure what caused the explosion that killed him, but he was cavalier in his use of dangerous materials. “

1964- The first Universal Studios tram car tour. Carl Laemmle had been inviting tourists in for a nickel to sit in bleachers and watch movies be filmed as early as 1915.

1968- Ohio Express’ single “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy I got love in my Tummy” went gold.

1972- THE WATERGATE BREAK IN- President Richard Nixon's staff, trying to gain an edge on an upcoming election, hire men to break into Democratic National Committee's offices in the Watergate Hotel to steal election strategy documents. They had already broken in once before but the batteries on the wiretap they planted were defective so they wanted to replace them and copy some more documents. Hotel security guards caught three Cubans and a man named Frank Sturgis. One Cuban had, in his pocket, a check made out by a White House employee named E. Howard Hunt.
This "Third-Rate Burglary" and subsequent cover-up ulcerated into a major scandal that eventually forced the first ever resignation of a US president. President Lyndon Johnson had bugged the Republicans in 1967 and President Kennedy used the IRS to audit politicians he didn’t like, but the general public didn’t know that yet. President Nixon told his aides: "nobody's going to make a big deal that a Republican President broke into Democratic headquarters."

1976- The Soweto Uprising. A march turned into a running battle as thousands of South African black protestors battled police in their poor townships.

1990- The Battle of Century City- Police attacked 500 striking building maintenance workers and janitors, mostly Central American immigrants, for trying to form a union.

1994- THE WHITE BRONCO CHASE- Movie actor and Hall of Fame football player O.J. Simpson was wanted for questioning about the grisly murder of his second wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her boyfriend Ron Goldman. This day OJ tried to escape. He and his football friend Al Cowlings led police on a strange slow-speed pursuit for two hours around the freeways of Los Angeles as the world watched amazed on live television. He eventually was convinced to surrender. OJ Simpson was acquitted of murder in a controversial trial, but found guilty in a civil wrongful death suit.
=====================================================
Yesterday’s question: What is the longest bone in the human body?

Answer: The Femur. Your upper leg bone.

Question: What is the longest bone in the human body?

Yesterday’s Question answered below: What modern capitol in ancient times was called Lutetia or Lutece, for “Muddy Place”?
-------------------------------------------------------------
History for 6/16/2022
Birthdays: Stan Laurel, Willy Boskovsky, Joyce Carol Oates, Nelson Doubleday, Brian Eno, animator Pete Burness, Martha Graham, Erich Segal, Jack Albertson, Helen Traubel, Ron LeFlore, Laurie Metcalf, Sonia Braga is 73, John Cho is 50.
`
Today is the Feast Days of Saints Tychon and Saint Luthgard.

1686 BC- King Hammurabi the Lawgiver died in Babylon. He was succeeded by his son Samsu-iluna.

391 A.D. Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius I sent the Prefect of Egypt orders to close the pagan temples and forbid the any further practice of the worship of Isis, Serapis and Amon-Ra. It was Theodosius' policy to purge the now Christian Empire of the last vestiges of the old pagan religions. Theodosius closed Plato's Academy, silenced the Oracle of Delphi, burned the Sybilline Books, called the History of the Future, and stopped the Olympic Games.

1497- Amerigo Vespucci reached the mainland of South America.

1549- Catherine de Medici entered Paris as the bride of King Henry II of France. Many French noblemen objected to the “That fat Florentine shopkeepers’ daughter and her gang of corrupt Italians” but she dominated French politics for decades the way Elizabeth I dominated England. She inspired the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, which is why there are so few French Protestants today. She also brought a brilliant retinue of Italian cooks using new foods like artichokes and parsley. Modern scholars say Catherine’s influences helped French cuisine break out of the medieval rut of fruit sauces and begin its ascendancy to Haute Cuisine.

1657- First recorded mention in London of chocolate for sale. Xocolatl was served by the Mayans and Aztecs as early as 900AD. Mayans called it The Food of the Gods. Xocolatl was served to Hernando Cortez by Montezuma in 1517 but it was pretty bitter stuff, served hot and with chili peppers. The Spaniards tamed Chocolate with sugar and kept the formula a secret for 100 years. The Dutch figured it out and added milk for Milk Chocolate. Sir John Sloan the British chemist invented a formula as well. The Maya also gave Europeans the first Vanilla beans.

1779- Spain joined France and Holland in declaring war on Britain over the American Revolution.

1788- The Virginia Convention met to bring together the enemies of the new US Constitution. Led by Patrick Henry, after several weeks’ arguments, they adjourned without coming up with any serious alternatives to the Constitution.

1815- BATTLES OF QUATRE BRAS (Four Corners) & LIGNY- Napoleon's last victory. Napoleon slipped his army into Belgium in between Wellington's and his Prussian (German) allies then split his own army in three. While one part stalled the English, Napoleon defeated the Prussian army and sends it running. The engagement might have been more decisive if the flying reserve under General D’Erlon hadn't gotten conflicting instructions. They spent the entire day marching back and forth between the two battles. The Prussian's recovered and Wellington fell back on a little intersection outside of Brussels called Waterloo.

1857-WAR OF THE POLICE DEPARTMENTS-One of the strangest incidents in law enforcement history. The New York City Police Dept. under Mayor Fernando Wood was so unbelievably corrupt that Governor Samuel Tilden built a second police force called the Metropolitan Police Force and ordered it to take over the city and arrest the Mayor. They were stopped on the steps of City Hall by the original NYPD and a fight broke out. While citizens and criminals alike looked on in amazement, hundreds of blue-coated policemen clubbed, battered and shot each other in the street. Washington D.C. negotiated a settlement that if the state police force would disband Mayor Wood would resign. He ran for mayor again and was elected 5 years later in time to start the New York City Draft Riots of 1863.

1858- Abe Lincoln said in a speech “ A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

1884 - On Coney Island Amusement Pier the Switchback Railway, the first roller coaster began operating.

1897- Congress approves the treaty to annex the Kingdom of Hawaii.

1902- A musical play of L Frank Baum’s fantasy story the Wizard of Oz premiered at Chicago’s Grand Opera House. When Baum was writing down the stories at one point he was stuck for a name for the magical kingdom. He looked down at his desk files that were labeled A-N and O-Z.

1903 – The Pepsi Cola Company formed.

1903-. As Henry Ford filed papers of incorporation of his Ford Automobile Company, the first Ford automobiles go on sale at the Tenvoorde sales lot in Minnesota. The Tenvoorde is the oldest Ford dealership in the world and is still in business today, still run by the Tenvoorde Family.

1904- "Blume's Day" all the actions in James Joyce's "Ulysses" takes place on this one day in Dublin. This day Dubliners dress up as characters from the book and do readings.

1920- International Telephone and Telegraph incorporates- IT&T.

1932- Broadway star Mae West heads west for Hollywood to make movies.

1933- Franklin Roosevelt signs the National Recovery Act (NRA) and the Glass-Steagel Act, which orders big banks to separate commercial bond business from private savings and loans. This way big banks that ruined themselves in the Stock Market Crash couldn’t destroy the savings of average people who never bought a stock or bond. A heavy publicity campaign encouraged Americans to rally under the blue eagle symbol of the NRA.
The NRA was struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1937 but Glass-Steagel stayed in effect, much to the chagrin of banking corporations. It was finally rescinded by Bill Clinton in 1999, setting the stage for the financial collapse of 2008.

1939- Bandleader Chick Webb died at age 30. Webb was an unlikely pop star, a crooked backed, tuberculate little person who played drums, but his band The Chick Webb Orchestra pioneered the new Jazz form called Swing Music and inspired the Big Band Sound. One of Webb’s last actions before succumbing to his debilitating health problems was to make a star out of 19-year-old street singer named Ella Fitzgerald.

1940- As the Nazi tanks continue to roll deeper into France, French Premier Paul Reynaud resigned, and elderly Great War hero Marshal Phillipe Petain formed a new government and asked the Germans for terms of surrender.

1941-Operation Battle Axe- In the Sahara Desert, Rommel the Desert Fox defeated the British Army under Sir Archibald Wavell.

1941- President Franklin Roosevelt ordered Nazi Germany and Italy to close their diplomatic consulates and leave the country.

1943- 54 year old actor Charlie Chaplin married his fourth wife, 18 year old Oona O’Neill. She was the daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill. In Hollywood, Chaplin’s nickname in Hollywood was “Chickenhawk Charlie” for his fondness for underage girls. Oona did remain his wife until the end of his life in 1971.

1947 –The 1st regular broadcast network news show began-Dumont's "News from Washington”.

1951- Chuck Jones short, “Chow Hound”. Don’t forget the gravy.

1952- The CBS television comedy My Little Margie premiered. It starred Gale Storm and Charlie Farrell.

1955- Disney’s Lady and the Tramp premiered.

1958-Imre Nagy, who led Hungary’s ill-fated uprising against Communist domination in 1956, was hanged by the Soviets.

1959- Actor George Reeves, who played the 1950s television Superman, went upstairs after a dinner party and shot himself with a Luger pistol. Actor Gig Young, who was a friend of Reeves, said the actor 's career was going well, he was getting his first directing jobs, and his love life was fine. He never believed the actor would shoot himself. Gig Young shot himself in 1981.
Many of Reeves friends also wonder if it was a suicide because Reeves had been dating a socialite named Toni Mannix who’s husband Eddie Mannix, VP of MGM had mob connections. Another story has Toni Mannix counting among her boyfriends Lucky Lucciano, the head of the NY Mafia. The bullet entrance in George Reeves body didn’t have the customary powder burns of a suicide and there were other bullet holes in the floor and ceiling. Also the gun in Reeves hand had been wiped clean of fingerprints.

1960- Alfred Hitchcock's thriller "Psycho" premiered. “ Oh Mother! What have you done?”

1963- Cosmonaut Valentina Tereschkova was the first woman to go into space.

1963- David Ben-Gurion, who directed the Jewish Zionist independence movement since 1936 and was Israel’s first Prime Minister, stunned the young nation by announcing his retirement. He declared he was worn out by the strain of power. He lived quietly in a Kibbutz in the Negev Desert, occasionally coming out to give a speech.
In 1968 he was invited to visit South Africa at the height of its racist apartheid laws. At dinner Ben-Gurion turned to the Calvinist white Afrikanz bishops and asked:” And how do you explain to your flock that Moses married a black woman?”

1966-YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT… The Supreme Court handed down the ruling Miranda vs. Arizona, overturning the conviction of an Ernesto Miranda, who was jailed after he was tricked into confessing an assault of a Phoenix woman. This ruling established the famous Miranda Rights, read to every suspect upon arrest. Ernesto Miranda was retired and convicted again and was stabbed in a bar fight in 1972.

1967- The film “The Dirty Dozen” debuted.

1987- Italian porn star Ciccolina announced that since all politicians were whores and she was a whore, she would run for office. This made sense to Italians, who this day elected her overwhelmingly to a seat in Parliament.

2002- The Premiere of Lilo and Stitch, written and directed by Chris Sanders & Dean Deblois.

2015- Reality TV star, and self-obsessed real-estate tycoon Donald Trump declared his candidacy for President. At the time he had so few followers he had to hire an audience of movie extras to fill out his press event at Trump Tower. In his opening speech, he managed to insult Mexico, immigrants, and Mexican Americans. “…They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

2018- Brad Birds’ The Incredibles 2 opened in theaters.
=============================================================
Yesterday’s Question: What modern capitol in ancient times was called Lutetia or Lutece, for “Muddy Place”?

Answer: Paris. The local tribe of Gauls were called the Parisi.

Question: What modern capitol in ancient times was called Lutetia or Lutece, for “Muddy Place”?

Yesterday’s Question answered below: Which English king signed the Magna Carta?
-------------------------------------------------------
History for 6/15/2022
Birthdays: Edward the Black Prince of England, Rachael Donelson Jackson- Andy Jackson’s First Lady, Edvard Grieg, Saul Steinburg, Mario Cuomo, Jim Varney, Wade Boggs, Waylon Jennings, Xaviera Hollander the Happy Hooker, Jim Belushi, Cartoonist Neil Adams, Roger Chiasson, Michael Barrier, Ice Cube is 53, Neil Patrick Harris is 49, Courtenay Cox is 58, Helen Hunt is 59

Happy St. Vitus Day! "If St. Vitus Day be rainy weather, shall rain for thirty days together. "St. Vitus was the patron of epilepsy, and some extreme forms of seizure (chorea) was called "St. Vitus Dance".

1215- The MAGNA CARTA or the Great Charter signed. On the field of Runymede. The rebellious English barons force King John ( also called John Lackland, John Soft Sword, etc. ) to sign a document granting basic individual rights such as trial by a jury of peers, the right to face your accuser, Habeas Corpus, etc. It basically said for the first time that even a King was not above the law of the land.
After King John signed, he traveled to Rome, where he bribed the Pope to absolve him of his oath. Then he returned with an army of mercenaries to put down his barons. Even though he hired rogues like Victor the Villain and Mauger the Murderer, King John still lost. Magna Carta became the basis of English Law.
John wasn’t a totally terrible king. He built the first British navy yards at Portsmouth and Southhampton and unlike his older brother Richard Lionheart, John actually preferred speaking English over Norman French.

1300- Poet Dante Alighieri got a job as one of the governing priors of Florence, sort of a city council. We don’t know if it says something about his abilities at municipal governing, but he was run out of town in 1302.

1762 – The Austrian Empire becomes the first to issue paper currency.

1775 - The Continental Congress appointed Mr. George Washington, Esq. of Virginia to be commanding general of the new colonial army forming around Boston. John Adams urged Congress to pick a southerner to command the mostly New Englander farmers in the interest of colonial unity. The fact that he was one of the richest men in America didn't hurt either. Plus the 6’ 2 plantation owner dropped hints he was interested in the job, like being the only delegate to attend congress squeezed into his 20 year old militia uniform. They afterwards bought him dinner at Peg Mullen's Beefsteak House. During the meal he turned to Patrick Henry and said with the appropriate 18th Century modesty: " From the date I enter into command of America's Armies, I date the fall and ruin of my reputation!"

1776- William Franklin, the pro-British governor of New Jersey, was arrested by the Yankee rebels and thrown into a dungeon. He was the illegitimate son of Benjamin Franklin and his cook Deborah Regan, whom Franklin later married out of sympathy for the boy. William had assisted his dad with his flying kite experiment years ago. The New Jersey delegates told Dr. Franklin while the Independence Declaration was being debated, and he was 'unmoved'.
Truth be told the two men couldn't stand one another. They said they reconciled after the Revolution but that may have been more for public record than reality. When he died Ben Franklin did not leave his son a penny in his will, bitterly stating it's only what William would have left him had the positions been reversed.

1800- US Congress ordered the disbanding of the US Army as a waste of money.

1815- THE WATERLOO BALL- In Brussels Belgium, the Duchess of Richmond hosts a ball for the officers of Wellington’s army before they go to stop Napoleon. Many of the dancers will be dead three days later. The event is dramatized in "Vanity Fair" and" Becky Sharp." While this ball is taking place Napoleon crossed his army into Belgium and placed it in between the British and Prussians (Germans) on the road to Brussels. Napoleon correctly guessed it would take some time for the enemy nations like Russia and Austria to mobilize armies (their target date was July 17) so instead of waiting for the inevitable invasion of France he would attack first, win a big victory then hopefully negotiate a peace from strength.

1836- Arkansas becomes a state.

1844- Mr. Charles Goodyear invents the vulcanization process, that keeps rubber from getting sticky in warm weather and brittle in the cold.

1846- The Oregon Treaty. The United States and Great Britain settle a dispute over exactly where the northwest border was between the U.S. and Canada. Despite President Polk’s belligerent campaign slogan “Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!” a peaceful compromise was reached on the 49th parallel.

1849- Three months after leaving office, President James K. Polk died. He was 53. The President who fought the War with Mexico to get California and the southwest was a lifelong and never drank. He died of cholera from drinking bad water. Sam Houston, who was one of the great alcoholics of American history, reacted, “That’s the natural end of all Water-Drinkers!"

1888 -Kaiser Wilhelm II becomes leader of Germany after the death of his father Frederich III, who died of throat cancer after reigning only 100 days. Kaiser Frederich was mild, liberal and had an English wife. He hated German powermongers and abhorred the cruel reputation Germany was getting for militarism. He was determined to alter these policies.
The first thing Wilhelm did had troops break into his mother's office and seize some confidential papers in her desk. He and his mother were hardly on speaking terms and he referred to her as "That English Princess who is my mother.." Once when Wilhelm had a nosebleed he refused to stop it because" Now maybe all the English blood will drain out of me!" The modern world would have turned out very different had Frederick lived to see 1914 as Germany’s leader, instead of his emotionally disturbed son " Willy ".

1896- GERMANY BUILDS A NAVY. Kaiser Wilhelm approved the plan of Admiral Von Tirpitz to create a huge battleship fleet. For the first time Von Tirpitz implicitly named England as an enemy. Germany and England until then had never fought a war and were usually allies. Queen Victoria spoke fluent German and her grandson the Kaiser was fluent in English. The Kaiser’s desk in his office was made from the wood of Admiral Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory. But building a navy meant Germany was directly challenging England for mastery of the High Seas.

1916- The Boy Scouts of America founded.

1932-The Bonus Marchers, thousands of Depression-unemployed veterans, encamp around Capitol Hill and begin a silent barefoot protest march around Congress. Unlike the army and Government of the time they vote to abolish Jim Crow and completely integrate their ranks.

1938- The Fair Labor Standards Act passed.

1945- Judy Garland married director Vincente Minnelli. Lisa Minnelli was one result.

1951- Comedian Lenny Bruce married a stripper named Honey Stuart.

1955- DUCK & COVER. The US Government held Operation OPAL, the first nationwide Civil Defense alert drills. Not only did millions of school children have to jump under their desks to avoid imaginary Russian nukes, but plans were made for commandos to grab the President, Congressional leaders, Supreme Court and even grab the Declaration of Independence and other valuable documents and whisk them out to underground bunkers in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Russian agents later said they learned a great deal about US intentions from observing these silly drills. President Eisenhower got a good laugh when the motorcade speeding him through the Virginia countryside was blocked by a heard of pigs. “Well, I guess that means we’re all dead, boys!” The president joked.

1969- The country music comedy TV show Hee-Haw premiered as a summer replacement for the Smothers Brothers Hour. Hee Haw ran for two years with high ratings but CBS cancelled the show anyway. This was because CBS chief Bill Paley disliked country music. CBS had so many shows like Mayberry RFD, Beverly Hillbillies and Hee Haw, that insiders joked that CBS stood for the Country Broadcasting System. Hee Haw had the last laugh, going on to a successful syndication run for decades.

1977- Everybody Disco! KC and the Sunshine band release “I’m your Boogie Man”.

1990- Warren Beatty’s movie version of Dick Tracy opened accompanied by the second Roger Rabbit short Roller Coaster Rabbit.

1992- The US Supreme Court ruled that it was okay for American law agencies to kidnap suspects being given asylum in foreign countries and bring them to the US for trial, just no one better try kidnapping anybody outta da Good Old U-S of A!

1994- Walt Disney’s The Lion King premiere.

1999- In San Diego, Nicholas Vitalich was arrested for slapping his wife with a large tuna.

2002- Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones was knighted.
………………………………………………………………………………….

Yesterday’s Question: Which English king signed the Magna Carta?

Answer: King John 1, see above 1215.

Question: Which English king signed the Magna Carta?

Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is the longest running science fiction show on TV?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
History for 6/14/2022
Birthdays: Tomaso Albinioni, Fighting Bob LaFollette, Margaret Bourke-White, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sam Wanamaker, Cliff Edwards the voice of Jiminy Cricket, Dorothy McGuire, Burl Ives, Gene Barry, Jerzy Kosinski, Diablo Cody is 43, Donald Trump is 76.

451 A.D. Battle of Orleans- Attila the Hun was defeated by the combined armies of Theodoric the Visigoth and the Roman general Aetius. Attila was told by his shamans that a great king would die that day. But even though Attila lost, it was Theodoric who was killed. Attila was not killed in battle but died on his wedding night years later with wife #20. He was 45, she was 16. He was dead by morning.

1497- Giovanni Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI and brother to Cesare and Lucretzia Borgia, had dinner with his family, then disappeared on his way home. Next day his body was found in the Tiber River with nine knife wounds in it. No one ever found the murderer. Suspects included everyone from scholar Pico Della Mirandola to his own brother Cesare. Heart-broken, dad Pope Alexander told his cardinals "This is God’s punishment for our sins, I hereby promise to renounce Nepotism and Simony, and I shall reform the Church." But Alex soon got over it, and resumed his corrupt ways.

1645- Battle of Naseby- Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army defeated King Charles I army in the decisive battle of the English Civil War. After this, the King never again could field a large army. Charles had as one of his generals his German nephew Prince Rupert of the Rhine. Rupert rode into battle with a white poodle under his arm named Bobbie. He made declarations like: "We will strew the field with English dead!" Considering it was a civil war, that conclusion was inevitable.

1658- Battle of the Dunes- Oliver Cromwell's Ironside cavalry help the French fight the Spaniards in Belgium. Cromwell was born during the reign of Queen Elizabeth when Spain was England's chief enemy, but by this time his generals were much more worried about Louis XIV's France. They felt they were helping the wrong side, but the Old Lord Protector (Cromwell) overruled them.

1718- The later years of Czar Peter the Great’s rule were clouded by a feud with his son and heir Alexis. While Peter was dragging Russia forcibly out of medieval backwardness his son was educated by priests to hate his father’s new ideas. Alexis pledged to undo all his father’s reforms when he became Czar. At one point Alexis fled to Italy to escape his father’s anger but returned when promised amnesty. This day Peter went back on his pledge and had Alexis arrested. In the dungeon below Saint Peter & Paul fortress Alexis was beaten to death with whips. Papa himself administered the first blows.

1727- George II of England told by Sir Robert Walpole that his august father George I had died, and he was now king. At first George thought it was one of his dad's cruel jokes and said" Dat izt von big lie!"(they had German accents remember). He always resented his dad’s cruel treatment of his mom, like having her lover murdered while he kept a regular mistress. George I didn’t trust his English subjects and was always homesick for his birthplace in Hanover Germany. He was always visiting there. When he died and was buried over there, truth be said, nobody in England really missed him. While his grandson King George III’s death was cause for national mourning, George I’s death was only casually mentioned in the society newspapers.

Happy Flag Day -in 1777 The Continental Congress orders the Stars & Stripes flag to be the official U.S. flag. It replaced the Cambridge Flag (The Tree and Stripes) and the Snake and Stripes, and all those other things silly things and stripes.

1789- Capt. Bligh reached East Timor after floating 4,000 miles in an open boat. He and his followers were cast adrift by the Bounty Mutineers.

1800- Battle of Marengo- Napoleon defeated the Austrian army and conquers most of Italy. At first he was losing and his men were fighting so furiously against high odds that some could be seen urinating into their rifle barrels to cool them off. Just when things seemed lost, his regimental commander General Desaix, arrived in the nick of time, won the battle, and was conveniently killed in action so Napoleon didn’t have to share any of the credit. This led Napoleon to observe "The difference between victory and defeat can be 15 minutes."

1801- Old Revolutionary War traitor Benedict Arnold died in London of dropsy. He was living on an English major general’s half pay, but was shunned by polite British society, as he was despised by Americans. Legend has it that in his last days he had his wife Peggy help him back into his old Colonial uniform:" My country’s uniform! Woe to me that I ever put on another!" After his death, The London Post observed: Poor General Arnold departed this life, unmourned and without notice. A sorry reflection for other turncoats."

1807- Battle of Friedland -Napoleon does it again, this time to a Russian army.

1816- Writers Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and Mary Shelley were spending the summer at the Villa Deodati on Lake Geneva. This day among the revels, drinking, partner swapping and opium taking, Byron suggested they all write a ghost story. They all failed except for 19 year old Mary, who invented a story of a Swiss scientist who created an artificial man. She called it Frankenstein.

1822- Charles Babbage presented a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society in London proposing to build a "Difference Engine" a machine that could calculate equations and print the results-i.e. a computer. His early machine required 8,000 moving parts. After ten years and a small fortune it never quite comes off, but today it is considered the ancestor of the computer.

1832- A large French invasion force landed in Algiers. The Barbary Corsairs were so annoyed they took the French ambassador and shot him out of a large mortar. It was tough being a diplomat in those days. France held Algeria as a colony until 1962.

1834- Isaac Fischer Jr. of Vermont invented sandpaper.

1846-THE GREAT BEAR REBELLION- U.S. citizens living in Spanish California led by a schoolteacher named William Ide and Ezekiel Merritt declared themselves an independent country, not knowing that back east the U.S. government had already declared war on Mexico and declared California annexed to the U.S. Remember information took months to get back East across Indian territory and burning deserts. The Anglo-Californians seized a Sonoma military post and arrested the owner of the largest hacienda in the area, a retired Mexican General named Mariano Vallejo. Ironically Senor Vallejo himself desired AltaCalifornia to have independence from Mexico City.
They chose as their flag for the new republic the grizzly bear and the polar star, which is now the state flag. It wasn’t well drawn. One Mexican woman watching the events thought the flag looked “like a large towel with a pig painted on it.” US Col. John Freemont took over from the Great Bear settlers and raised the US flag over the Presidio in San Francisco on July 1st.

1865- A group of Englishmen climb the Materhorn Mountain in Switzerland, inventing the sport of mountain climbing.

1934- Hitler met Mussolini for the first time for a conference in the city of Padua. They didn't trust any interpreters, and neither could speak the others language, so it wasn't much of a meeting. Il Duce's first impression of the German Chancellor wasn't impressive. He called Adolf " A comical little monkey."

1940- The German Army goose-stepped down the Champs Elysees into Paris. The Nazi propaganda that night broadcast from Radio Berlin declared" The decadent, democratic Paris of Jews and Negroes is gone, never to rise again!!" Not quite, Adolf.

As the city was falling, German Jewish writers H.A. and Margaret Rey fled the city on bicycles they had to repair from spare parts. In the basket of one bicycle was a manuscript for a new children’s book they had written. Curious George.

1941- President Roosevelt ordered all German and Italian assets in the U.S. frozen.

1942- A secret coded message sent by Moscow's intelligence service to all their agents in Germany, England and the U.S.A. showed that Russia was aware of these countries attempts to build an atomic bomb, and that Soviet agents should use all means to secure information about these programs.

1951- Univac I, built by John W, Mauchly and J. Prosper Eckert Jr. of the Remington Rand Company to be the first U.S. commercial built electronic computer, went online for the census bureau in Philadelphia.

1954- The Eisenhower Administration ordered the adding of the words "Under God" to the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance.

1957- Nelson Mandela married Winnie Mandela.

1959- Three new rides are debuted at Disneyland in Anaheim. The first monorail the Disneyland-Alweg Monorail System, Matterhorn Mountain, and the Submarine Voyage.( the submarine ride had been running since June 5).

1962- The Boston Strangler killed his first victim.

1964- THE FIRST HIPPY BUS- Ken Kesey, the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, bought an old school bus, painted it psychedelic colors, took of troupe of 14 fellow free spirits called the Merry Pranksters and spent the next few months driving across the country taking LSD and staging Happenings in various cities and towns.
The Bus’s was name Further and its driver was Neil Cassidy, friend of Beatnik author Jack Kerouac. A book documenting the escapades of the "hippy bus" was "The Electric Koolaid Acid Test." Ken Kesey became interested in LSD when he volunteered for a college program to experiment with the drug, secretly funded by the CIA. The Merry Pranksters were invited in 1969 to be the security for the Woodstock Rock Festival.

1966- The Vatican officially abolished the Index of Forbidden Books.

1977- Skinny Carnaby Street fashion model Twiggy got married to Michael Whitney.

1983- The Pioneer 10 space probe left its orbit around Jupiter and headed off into deep space. NASA lost all contact in 1997. Pioneer 10 is expected to reach the solar system of the star Ross 246 in the Constellation Taurus in the year 34,600 AD.

1989- Elderly actress Zsa Zsa Gabor was arrested for slapping a Beverly Hills policeman who was writing her a traffic ticket.

1995, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MP3. The researchers at Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits decided to use "mp3" as the file name extension for their new audio coding technology. Development on this technology started in 1987. By 1992 it was considered far ahead of its times. MP3 became the generally accepted acronym as the popular standard for digital music on the on the Internet.

2001- The Oxford English Dictionary admitted the slang expletive of Homer Simpson "DOH!" into its august pages.

2002- An asteroid the size of a football field bypassed the Earth by just 75,000 miles, about one fifth the distance to our moon. If it had hit us, the cataclysm might have rivaled the one that eliminated the Dinosaurs. Little was said about it in the media because it came from the direction of the Sun and was undetectable until it was almost on top of us. So sleep well tonight, modern science is on guard! Nyaaahhhh!!
-------------------------------
Yesterday’s Question: What is the longest running science fiction show on TV?

Answer: The BBC’s Dr. Who. It has been running continuously since 1963.

Question: What is the longest running science fiction show on TV?

Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Which character is older? Daffy Duck or Donald Duck?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
History for 6/13/2022
Birthdays: Gnaeus Agricola- 40AD, Harriet Beecher Stowe, W.B. Yeats, Red Grange, Basil Rathbone would be 126, Dorothy Sayers, Ralph Edwards, Paul Lynde, Tim Allen, Darla Hood, Ally Sheedy, Simon Callow, Christo, Ralph McQuarrie, Malcolm McDowell is 79, Stellan Skarsgard is 71, the Olsen Twins are 36, Chris Evans is 41.

313 A.D. Constantine, the Roman Emperor of the West, and Licinius the Emperor of the East published a joint edict throughout the Roman Empire granting religious toleration: "All men shall have the freedom to worship what Gods they will." This edict officially lifted the 250 year persecution of Christianity.

1381-THE ENGLISH PEASANT REVOLT OCCUPIES LONDON. -Wat the Tyner and his pissed-off peasants chase young King Richard II into the Tower of London and drag the Archbishop of Canterbury to Tyburn Hill to chop his head off. The Archbishop was in charge of economic policy and taxation for the young king, so he was the focus of the people's rage. They used a non-union executioner, so it took several chops to get the job done...

1777- British General “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne began his invasion from Canada into New York State to smash the American Revolution once and for all. The Great North River, called the Hudson, was considered the jugular of America, because it divided militant New England from the moderate Mid-Atlantic and Southern States. Before Burgoyne left London he had wagered politician Charles Fox 20 guineas that he would finish off the Yankees by Christmas.
Burgoyne immediately annoyed most of the senior British officers in America. He refused orders from Canadian Governor General Carleton or Lord Howe in New York. He declared that his was an independent command and so could not be ordered about by anyone but London.
By October, defeated, cut off, and surrounded by swarms of rebels at Saratoga, he got a letter out to Carleton “requesting You Lordships orders”. Carleton took this as a weenie attempt to shift the blame, so he ignored him. Burgoyne surrendered with his whole army and was prisoner exchanged. He did get home by Christmas, just without his army...

1777- Count Casimir Pulaski goes to join the American Revolution. Pulaski was a hotheaded Polish patriot who had fought Russians, served in the French and Turkish armies, made love to Catherine the Great, and had been in a conspiracy to kidnap the pro-Russian King of Poland. The American ambassadors trying to recruit European military experts found Pulaski in a Marseilles prison for non-payment of bills. Pulaski thought the Americans had paid his debts as part of his enlistment, but the truth was the French forgave his debts because they were just glad to get rid of him.
Count Pulaski became the Father of the American Cavalry and the only person to ever hold the rank in the U.S. Army of Commander of Horse. He was killed in battle outside of Savannah Georgia at age 31.

1793- Captain Napoleon Bonaparte relocated his family from Corsica to mainland France.

1807- Former Vice President Aaron Burr was on trial for treason because of his plot to create a new kingdom for himself in Mexican Texas. As part of the defense, this day Chief Justice Marshall subpoenaed President Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson refused, citing the concept of Executive Privilege. That a President can’t be put under oath, for reasons of national security. So, Justice Marshall acquitted Burr for lack of evidence. Pres. Jefferson then considered arresting Chief Justice Marshall.

1858- THE BIG STINK- The population of metropolitan London had been outgrowing its sewage system. The Thames was London’s main sewer, as well as its source of drinking water. But nobody realized how bad it was until the unusually hot summer of 1858. Today the temperature reached the 90f, and the stink from the river got so bad it broke up a meeting of the Prime Minister’s cabinet. Ministers ran out of Parliament holding handkerchiefs to their noses.

1877- The Russo-Turkish War begins. Russia attacks into the Balkans after a Turkish governor commits a massacre of Bulgarian peasants. When the Russian armies get down to Istanbul the British and Austria threatens war if Russia goes any further.

1878-The CONGRESS OF BERLIN OPENS- German Chancellor Bismarck offered to mediate the argument between Russia and Britain and Austria over the Russo-Turkish War. It is the first world conference where all the great powers and statesmen appear not to divide conquered spoils but actually prevent a larger war from happening. As Bismarck joked in English to retired U.S. President Ulysses Grant, then vacationing: "Russia has bitten off a bit too much Turkey, and we must make him give some back.”

1905- The workers of the Russian city of Odessa go on strike and the Czar's troops shoot them down on the Odessa steps. This causes the Battleship Potemkin's sailors to mutiny. Twenty years later Sergei Eisenstein made a famous film of the incident.

1920-The US Government ruled Americans cannot mail their children through the Parcel Post System.

1927- Wall St. tickertape parade for Lucky Lindy- Charles Lindbergh.

1941-The American Federation of Labor, the AF of L called for a nationwide boycott of all Disney products and films. This was to support the Disney Cartoonists strike.

1942- President Roosevelt by executive order created the Office of Strategic Services or the OSS. Under director Wild Bill Donovan its job was to coordinate espionage and intelligence gathering against the Axis powers in cooperation with its British counterpart, the SOE. On the agencies personnel roster were experts from spymasters William Gates and William Casey to tourist book author Eugene Fodor and chef Julia Child. Child for a time was an executive assistant to Donovan and transferred to India helped develop a shark repellent for downed fliers. Child recalled the OSS was nicknamed “Oh So Secret!” and “Oh, So-Social” for all the New York society High Society types in it. After World War II, the OSS became the CIA.

1944- The first Vengence-1 (V-1) Buzz Bombs hit London. Nicknamed “doodle bugs”, the first 21 launched missed most targets and one even spun around and landed close to Hitler. This is when the auto-destruct button was conceived. Of the ones that hit England the worst damage was to Bethnel Green tube station. Unlike bombers, these guided missiles were almost impossible to shoot down. By wars end 1,800 would hit London along with 5,000 V-2s, and drive a lot of the population into the countryside.

1958- Frank Zappa graduated Antelope Valley High School.

1962- Three convicts, Frank Lee Morris, and the brothers Anglin, escape from Alcatraz with a crude rowboat. They are the only prisoners to have ever successfully escaped from the Rock. Alcatraz was closed by attorney general Robert Kennedy later that year.

1967- President Lyndon Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshal to the Supreme Court. Marshal was the first African American to sit in the nation’s highest court, and as an attorney successfully pled the 1955 case Brown vs. Board of Education that struck down school segregation.

1971 -The day after Tricia Nixon's wedding, the Washington Post and the New York Times began printing THE PENTAGON PAPERS. They were leaked by dissenting intelligence specialist Daniel Ellsberg. Ellsberg was on the staff of Defense Secretary Robert MacNamara when McNamara ordered a fact paper drawn up explaining step by step just how the U.S. managed to get in as big a mess as Vietnam. The papers revealed damaging secrets as the U.S. had secretly been fighting alongside the South Vietnamese much earlier than the "Tonkin Gulf Incident" of 1965, all the while claiming neutrality.

The U.S.S. Maddox, the ship that was fired on in the Tonkin Gulf, was ordered to violate Vietnamese waters and provoke a Communist attack; and that the opinion of the Pentagon Joint Chiefs was that they knew the war was unwinnable as early as 1965, yet we kept fighting anyway until 1973.
The publication was very damaging to the Nixon White House, even though it was all about events taking place in the previous Democratic administrations. Robert McNamara said he himself never got around to reading the Pentagon Papers but kept a copy in his garage.

1978- Ford fired Lee Iacocca from the Ford Corporation. The creator of the Ford Mustang would later move on to run Chrysler. When asked why, Henry Ford II said: “Sometimes you just don’t like somebody.”

1991- Boris Yeltsin became the first popularly elected leader of Russia.

2010- Pixar’s Toy Story III premiered.

=============================================================
Yesterday’s Quiz: Quiz: Which character is older? Daffy Duck or Donald Duck?


Answer: Donald Duck was created in 1934. Daffy Duck in 1937.