Question: What general who, when not fighting battles, wrote classical music that was so good it is still performed in concert halls today..?

Question: During Hurricane Irma’s encounter with Key West, people were concerned for the Hemingway Cats. These were the descendants of Ernest Hemingway’s cat when he lived there. They are said to be polydactyl. What does that mean?
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History for 9/13/2017Birthdays: 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 73, Frank Marshal, Laura Secord, Jesse L. Lasky, Richard Kiel – Jaws in the James Bond movies, Maurice Jarre, Roald Dahl, Don Bluth is 80, Fred Silverman “The Man with the Golden Gut.” Tyler Perry is 48

509BC- Romans dedicated the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus (Greatest and Best) in the Forum.

81AD- the Roman Emperor Titus died.

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 disappear.

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 shipping. 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. That morning, Ross 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.

1835- The Tuba invented. Prussian Patent No. 19 was granted to Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht and Johann Gottfried Moritz for a “basstuba” in F1. The original Wieprecht and Moritz instrument used five valves of the Berlinerpumpen type that were the forerunners of the modern piston valve.

1845-THE IRISH POTATO FAMINE- In Ireland, The Gorta Mor, The Great Hunger. 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 its 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 hit by a car. (74th and Central Park West in New York City).1916- A Tennessee judge ordered Margo the circus elephant to be 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. This against six heavy Japanese battle carriers. Then Hornet was sunk just as the Enterprise came back into service.

1945- Henchmen of gangster Bugsy Siegel buy a 30 acre roadside tract from a widow in Las Vegas. On it will rise the Las Vegas Casino hotel-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.

1965 – Ghidrah the Three Headed Monster was released in the U.S.

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 race-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.

1993- The Animaniacs Show premiered.

2001- While America was still in shock from the Sept 11th terrorists attacks, televangelist Pat Robertson stuck his wrinkly old thumb in everyone’s open wound when he declared the tragedy was 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 Robertson!"

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 immediate family of 9/11 mastermind Osama Ben Laden. None were questioned and no explanation for the flight has ever been given.

=====================================================Yesterday’s Question: During Hurricane Irma’s encounter with Key West, people were concerned for the Hemingway Cats. These were the descendants of Ernest Hemingway’s cat when he lived there. They are said to be polydactyl. What does that mean?

Answer: Hemingway Cats have six fingers on each paw. Despite the nickname they are older than Ernie...a polydactyl cat came over on the Mayflower in 1620. (Thanks NB)

Question: During Hurricane Irma’s encounter with Key West, people were concerned for the Hemingway Cats. These were the descendants of Ernest Hemingway’s cat when he lived there. They are said to be polydactyl. What does that mean?

Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: Who was Bebe Rebozo?
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History for 9/12/2017
Birthdays: Piero 'the Fatuous' de Medici, King Francis I of France-1494, H.L. Mencken, Maurice Chevalier, Ben Blue, Jesse Owens, Barry White, Alfred A. Knopf, Ian Holm is 86, 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 50, Jennifer Hudson is 37.

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 king’s feckless brother Gaston de Orleans to overthrow the government. Richelieu had the young marquis tried for 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 in Brazil, gathered to celebrate the first Rosh Hashanah 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 lifted 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- After 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 England’s 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.

1814- The British fleet and army that burned Washington and Alexandria, arrived at the entrance to the harbor of Baltimore, to destroy that city too.

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 Mexico remembers them 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" 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 his Clemmie, 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 I. 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 Uzbekistan Akmal Ikramov was ordered 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. Walt 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 Marlene Dietrich 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- John F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Bouvier.

1953- THE RED REDHEAD? McCarthy investigators accuse top TV 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 their birthday present. America wouldn’t stand to see their favorite TV 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 they were being brainwashed.

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.

Sept. 12, 2001- The day after the terrible World Trade Center attack, White House anti-terrorism head Richard Clark reported that the CIA identified the home base of Osama Bin Laden and the hijackers was in Afghanistan. At one point 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.

2010- At the Video Music Awards, singer Lady Gaga wears a dress made out of 50 lbs of raw meat.
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Yesterday’s Question: Who was Bebe Rebozo?

Answer: The Florida businessman, with some Mafia ties, was a close friend and confident of President Richard Nixon. It has been speculated that Pres Nixon fired the special prosecutor Archibald Cox because he was starting to investigate Rebozo’s role to arranging covert payments to the president.

Question: Who was Bebe Rebozo?

Answer to Yesterday’s Question below: Why is a 21 gun salute 21 guns? Why not 20 or 22?
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History for 9/11/2017
Birthdays: O. Henry, D.H. Lawrence, Brian DePalma, Hedy Lamarr, Lola Falana, Paul "Bear" Bryant, Tom Landry, Kristy McNichol, Lola Falana, Pinto Colvig the voice of Goofy, Grumpy,Pluto & Bozo the Clown, Peter Tosh, Virginia Madsen, Amy Madigan, Moby, Brad Bird is 60.

1297- First Battle of Sterling. William Wallace's Scottish rebel army inflicts a spectacular defeat on the English Army. They chop up the hated governor the Earl of Cressingham and send dried strips of him throughout the shires. Despite Wallace's victory, most Scottish noble families refused to support him because of his low birth.

1649- THE MASSACRE OF DROGHEDA- During the English Civil War the Irish had risen in rebellion. Various forces on the island demanded freedom, Catholic worship and even Loyalty to King Charles I Stuart. Finally Oliver Cromwell came over to Ireland with his Puritan New Model Army and laid siege to the fortress city of Drogheda, defended by one legged Loyalist Sir Arthur Ashton. After a savage cannon bombardment Cromwell’s men stormed in, Oliver himself led the final charge into the breached city wall, sword in hand.
The enraged Cromwell ordered every man in arms in the city cut to pieces whether he surrendered or not. Sir Arthur was beaten to death with his own wooden leg. People took refuge in St. Peter’s church, then the furious troops piled wooden pews against the steeple and set it ablaze. One shouted as he leapt to his death “God-Damn Me! I Burn, I Burn!. 3,500 perished in the massacre and the few left living were sent to slave plantations in Barbados. Cromwell said of the massacre “I wish that all honest hearts give the Glory to God, to whom praise of this Mercy belongs”.

1709- BATTLE OF MALPLAQUET. The Duke of Malborough defeated the French army of Louis XIV. This was one of the bloodiest contests of the 18th century, death on this scale would not be seen in Europe for another hundred years, until the Wars of Napoleon. The victory was another of the spectacular victories achieved by Marlborough, yet it left a sour aftertaste.
The War of Spanish Succession had been going on for almost ten years, and all sides were sick of it and desired peace. The peace talks had hit a stalemate, so bringing on a major battle now was seen as totally unnecessary. And everyone knew Britain's Queen Anne had grown tired of pushy Marlborough, his pushy wife Sarah and his pushy Whig partisans in government, nicknamed “The Junto". In two years the most famous English general until Wellington would be recalled home in disgrace. English Tories would abandon their European allies and make a separate peace.

1776- At Sandy Hook, New Jersey, American congressional peace representatives John Adams, Ben Franklin and William Rutledge sat down with British General Lord William Howe and his brother Admiral Richard “Black Dick" Howe. The Howe brothers were given special authority by Parliament to negotiate a settlement with the American rebels. But the talks went nowhere. Howe asked for their submission:" I feel for America as a brother, and would lament should she fall." Ben Franklin responded:" We shall try our best to spare your lordship that mortification."

1777-THE BATTLE OF BRANDYWINE CREEK- General Sir William Howe kicks George Washington's rebel butt. Washington is forced to abandon America's capitol Philadelphia to the enemy. Luckily the loose, decentralized nature of the American colonies meant the losing the capitol was no great loss to the rest of the country except Pennsylvanians, while the capture of a Madrid or a Paris would effectively end a war with those countries.
The Americans took the defeat in stride: "It's all well boys, we'll do better next time." Baron von Steuben’s drills were beginning to pay off. Lord Cornwallis commented:" Hmph! Damned rebels form up well..." At one point in the battle, British officer Patrick Ferguson had a clear shot at a big rebel officer that rode by coolly shepherding his retreating men. Ferguson decided it would be dishonorable to shoot such a brave man in the back. Only later he discovered that officer was George Washington. The existence of the United States may have been decided in a moment by one Englishman’s sense of decency.

1795- The Birth of Aerial Reconnaissance. At Adernach on the Austrian-Italian border Napoleon became the first general to ascend in a hot air balloon to study enemy positions.

1841- British artist John Reno invented oil paint in a tube.

1847- Stephen Fosters song “Oh Susanna” first published.

1857- Singer Jenny Lynde, the Swedish Nightingale, first performed in America.

1864- A ten day truce was declared between General Sherman’s Yankees and General John Bell Hood’s Confederates so the innocent civilians of Atlanta could evacuate, before Sherman burned the city.

1876- Queen Victoria of England assumes the title Empress of India. Biographers said part of her desire for the title was because her eldest daughter Vicky the Princess Royal was married to the future Kaiser of Germany and would be an Empress, which technically outranks a Queen. Mom didn't want to be upstaged.

1914- W.C. Handy's Saint Louis Blues, the first true Jazz recording to gain national popularity. Also called the Birth of the Blues. Myron “Grim” Natwick, the cartoonist who would one day create Betty Boop, did the artwork for the music coversheet. For this he was paid one gold dollar.

1916- The Star Spangled Banner first sung at a baseball game at Cooperstown New York.

1916- Republican candidates win an overwhelming majority in local Maine Midterm elections, prompting GOP leaders to boast "As goes Maine, so goes the Nation."

1918- By now most Germans realized their chances of winning the World War I were kaput. Kaiser Wilhelm was doing an inspection of the Krupp cannon factory in Essen. Against the advice of the managers, the "All-Highest" proceeded to give a patriotic speech to a thousand exhausted, grimy laborers. They hissed and booed, shouted "PEACE!" and "WE’RE HUNGRY!" When Wilhelm asked for a resounding "yes" of encouragement, the workers responded with stony silence.
In a complete air of unreality the Kaiser finished his address thanking the men for their support and said he would now go directly to the front and relay their good wishes to Field Marshal Von Hindenburg. Instead his private train took him straight to Spa so he could have a mineral bath and a whiskey.

1939- U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt began a secret transatlantic correspondence this day with future Prime Minister Winston Churchill. FDR recognized a kindred spirit and made plans for when America and Britain would be drawn into a war to defeat Hitler. A secretary in the American embassy entrusted with decoding the messages was a secret Republican. He kept copies of the letters and planned to turn them over to FDR’s political enemies to foil his re-election. But Churchill’s MI-5 agents detected and arrested him.

1941- Although still officially neutral, President Roosevelt ordered that any German or Italian warships operating within US territorial waters without permission, would be attacked on sight.

1941- In a speech in Des Moines Iowa, aviation hero Charles Lindbergh revealed his dark side by accusing an "International Jewish conspiracy" of driving America into a European war. He said Britain was obviously going to lose, and America should instead join with Germany to resist the Yellow Peril of Asia. Charles Lindbergh was one of the leading conservative voices for isolationism in the US. He had been wined and dined in Berlin, and Hitler decorated him with Germany's highest civilian medal. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau told President Roosevelt "I am convinced this guy is a Nazi". After Pearl Harbor, Lucky Lindy offered his services to the U.S. Air force as a combat pilot, but his public image was ruined. For the rest of his life, Lindbergh never recanted his opinions.

1943- Ground broken to build for the Pentagon, at the time the world’s largest office building. Chief director for the project was General Leslie Grove, who later ran the Manhattan Project.

1947-Radio Bejing went on the air.

1951-METROPOLIS TO MOSCOW? Robert Shayne, the actor who played the Inspector Henderson character for television’s Superman show appeared before the House American Activities Committee accused of being a communist. He was led off the set by the FBI in handcuffs as George Reeves (Superman) and Jack Larson (Jimmy Olsen) protested vigorously. He was eventually cleared of all charges and continued to do small parts in TV until his retirement in 1990.

1960- Terrytoon's Deputy Dawg TV show.

1960- Nancy Sinatra married Tommy Sands.

1966- "Kimba the White Lion" debuts in the U.S.

1967-The Beatles began filming the Magical Mystery Tour.

1971- The “Jackson Five” Saturday morning cartoon show.

1972- The BBC quiz show Mastermind first broadcast. The shows creator Malcolm Muggeridge claimed he got the idea while a prisoner of the Japanese in Malaysia. In truth the show resembles an interrogation. Some postman sits in a dark room with a single spotlight in his face while people shoot questions at him about the lesser known works of Thomas Hardy, etc.

1973- President Salvador Allende of Chile is overthrown and killed by a military coup with the cooperation of the C.I.A. Henry Kissinger was worried about the example of a legally elected Marxist leader, and the Kennecott and Ananconda Copper Company were annoyed at Allende who's mines he had nationalized. General Augusto Pinochet, who was an admirer of Hitler, ran Chile for the next twenty five years as a brutal dictatorship.

1987-Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" wins MTV's Best Video Award.

1987- Reggae great Peter Tosh and two others are shot and killed by
thieves who were robbing his Kingston, Jamaica home.

2001- THE WORLD TRADE CENTER ATTACK –New York’s Twin Towers were the tallest office buildings in the world and a symbol of American financial power. Islamic terrorists had already tried to bring down the towers with a truck bomb in 1993. This day, terrorists hijacked three US domestic airliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington DC. It was a beautiful, Autumn day and the second plane crashing into the World Trade Center was timed for maximum press coverage. The images looked improbably like a movie stunt rather than a real disaster.

The planned multiple attack was organized by Osama Ben-Laden, a rogue millionaire whose family has close ties to the rulers of Saudi Arabia. He organized a multinational force of terrorists based in Afghanistan called Al Qaeda. President George Bush Sr. was having lunch with the brother of Osama while the planes were crashing. President George W. Bush was reading a kiddie book, My Pet Goat, to some preschoolers. He then remained in hiding most of the day. VP Dick Cheney hid in a bombproof bunker. Fearful Americans had to look to England’s Tony Blair and NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani to find out just what the heck was going on.
The passengers of the fourth hijacked airliner United Flt. 93 were talking to their loved ones on digital phones, and were told of the planes crashing into World Trade Center and Pentagon. So the passengers armed with trays and boiling water attacked their hijackers -. The last words heard from passenger Mark Bingham,“ We’re taking back the plane…let’s roll!” Flight 93 crashed in an uninhabited field outside of Pittsburgh before it could be used as another suicide bomb. Authorities now think it was meant to crash into the White House.
Back in New York City, after burning with aviation gas at 1,500 degrees for over an hour, the two giant WTC towers and a third building pancaked in on themselves and plunged to the ground on top of rescue workers and firemen. 3,000 died from 150 countries, and first responders continue to die today from 50 type of cancers acquired from inhaling the toxic air particulates at Ground Zero.
That night, average people in Moscow, Teheran and Havana sang “ God Bless America “ in town squares in sympathy.
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Yesterday’s Question: Why is a 21 gun salute 21 guns? Why not 20 or 22?

Answer: If you take the numbers of 1776, 1 + 7 +7 + 6 = 21.

Question: Why is a 21 gun salute 21 guns? Why not 20 or 22?

Yesterday’s Quiz Answered below: Who was Whittaker Chambers?
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History for 9/10/2017
Birthdays: Fae Wray, 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, Chris Columbus, Charles Simonyi- who designed Microsoft Word, Colin Firth is 57

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

1224-The first Franciscan monks land in England. They 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 Captain Wingfield and Captain’s Martin and Newport. But since they first landed in April the rigors of the Virginia wilderness proved that John Smith knew best how to run the colony.

1646- The Parliamentary forces captured King Charles' last major fortress, the seaport of Bristol, which in effect wins the English Civil War.

1813- Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry defeated a British naval flotilla on Lake Erie. This battle and the battle of New Orleans prevented the War of 1812 from being a complete botchup for 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."

1846- Elias Howe patented the sewing machine.

1846- The Illinois militia with cannon attacked the Mormon community at Nauvoo. They surrendered to militia commander Col. Thomas Brockman and were guaranteed respect for their persons and property. Then the militia looted their settlement anyway.

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

1898- As she was stepping out of her carriage, Austrian Empress Elizabeth was stabbed to death by Italian anarchist Luigi Luchenie with a sharpened file. The Empress was the wife of Franz Josef II. Franz Josef already had his eldest son Rudolph blow his brains out at Mayerling Castle, his brother Maximillian was executed in Mexico and his nephew Franz Ferdinand would be assassinated in Sarajevo. Elizabeth was very popular with the common people and was called Elizabeth of Hungary for her special treatment of that people. She was also an early health nut. The Imperial Palace in Vienna still lovingly preserves her private gym and Indian clubs.

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

1913- The last shovel full of dirt is removed from the Panama Canal.

1914- The Battle of the Marne ends. General Gallieni rushed 6,000 reinforcements to the front using the taxicabs of Paris, stopping General Von Kluck's spiked helmeted troops and saving the city.

1926- The remains of screen idol Rudolph Valentino arrived in Hollywood after a mammoth funeral in New York where he had died two weeks before. Hollywood, knowing a publicity coup when it saw one, immediately staged a second spectacular funeral.

1931-THE FIVE FAMILIES - the New York underworld was controlled by two bosses, Joey the Boss Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano. They were the last of the "Mustache Petes"- old style Sicilian immigrants more European than American. Masseria had claimed he would kill anyone that came from Maranzano’s hometown Castellomare del Golfo in Sicily, so this period of gang violence was called the Castellamarese War.

That April, Boss Masseria was assassinated by his own lieutenant Lucky Lucciano. When Lucky felt Maranzano was preparing to hit him he struck first. This day Jewish gangsters Bugsy Seigel, Meyer Lansky and Lepke Buchalter posing as police officers, entered Maranzano’s office and filled him with bullets and knife wounds. Lucciano used Jewish hitmen because Sicilians would worry about revenge attacks on their families back in the Old Country. Lucky Lucciano then made a peace with Maranzano’s successor Joseph " Joe Bananas" Bonano and established the Commission of the Five Families.

Now even though they were an all-American group, Lucciano and the other dons organized the mob around the Unione Siciliano into a more homogeneously Italian organization- La Cosa Nostra. Lucky Lucciano and his partner Meyer Lansky pioneered the mob evolving a more low profile big-business corporate style, the first true crime syndicate.

1940- During the Battle of Britain, Nazi bombs hit Buckingham Palace, just missing the Royal Family. The Queen later 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 fog he caught up to the offending Heinkell –111 bomber and shot it down., But his own Hurricane Fighter was so shot up he had to bail out. His parachute caught in a tree, and as Sgt, Lacey looked down he saw an elderly Englishman in a Home Guard helmet pointing a shotgun at him. He thought he was a German. Lacey explained he wasn’t a Jerry, but the old duffer remained unconvinced.

He was preparing to fire, when Sgt. Lacey let loose a torrent of 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.."

1946- On a train in India outside Darjeeling, a Yugoslavian nun had a vision of Jesus commanding her to found a mission for the poor. Mother Theresa found her calling, and began her famous hospital in the slums of Calcutta.

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

1955- the TV series 'Gunsmoke' premiered.

1963- The First New York Film Festival opened with Luis Bunuel’s The Exterminating Angel.

1966- H&B's Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles debut.

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

1972- Premiere of the TV special Liza with a Z. Bob Fosse directed and choreographed the one woman show of the spangled 23 year old.

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

1977- H&B’s “Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels’ show.

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 the deadly poison Ricin was injected into Markov by a hypodermic needle concealed in the umbrella tip.

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

1990- General Samuel Doe, the President of Liberia was shot by firing squad after being captured by rebels in the Liberian Civil War. Liberia was a nation formed in 1826 by slaves returned from America. For years the former American colonists descendants formed the ruling elite of the nation. Samuel Doe was the first president from the indigenous native population. The next President Charles Taylor stepped down in 2003 during a second civil war.

1993- The TV series The X Files premiered. The truth is out there.
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Yesterday’s Quiz: Who was Whittaker Chambers?

Answer: Whittaker Chambers was a ftt6 writer who started out as a Communist and then a Communist spy. He eventually had a change of heart and became a fervent right wing conservative. He “named names” during the McCarthy hearings and his allegations sent State Department official Alger Hiss to prison (not for being a spy, but for perjury). The fingering of such a top Washington official put the national anti-Commie mania into overdrive. In 1984, Ronald Reagan gave Whittaker Chambers the Medal of Freedom posthumously.

Quiz: Who was Whittaker Chambers? (hint: Twentieth Century American History)

Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: The City of Miami is in Dade County. What cities are in Cook County, and Clark County?
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History 9/9/2017
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, Don Mattingly, Otis Redding, Anita Ekberg, Hugh Grant is 58, Topol, Colonel Lyman Sanders the creator of Kentucky Fried Chicken, James Hilton-writer who created the name for paradise- Shangri-La, in his novel Lost Horizons. Adam Sandler is 51, Michelle Williams is 37

490BC -About this time, 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". The playwright Aeschylus wanted nothing else on his tombstone except that he had fought at Marathon.

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 breathed his last. 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."

1513- King James IV of Scotland is defeated and killed by the Brits at Flodden.

1739- A South Carolina slave named Jemmy tried to lead an uprising in Spanish Florida.

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 was still making appearances as a conductor and pianist, even though he was now completely deaf. The fees for personal appearances were still too good to pass up. 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 waved 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.

1850- California was admitted to the Union. This was at the end of a long contentious debate over whether she would come in as a slave state or free state. Slavery had already been outlawed by Mexican authorities in the territory- except in the case of Indian children.

1878- CHEYENNE AUTUMN- Rather than die from starvation and neglect on the reservation, Cheyenne Chief Dull Knife led 365 men women and children in a desperate trek to escape to Canada, 'to seek protection of the Great Redcoat Mother '(Queen Victoria). They fight off several pursuing US armies and endure early snowstorms and sub-zero weather. When they finally surrender to the U.S. cavalry at Ft. Robinson, Nebraska they were reduced to 149.

1888- Sitting Bull first 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. Sitting Bull's assassination and the later Wounded Knee Massacre was the result.

1892 - E E Barnard at Lick discovered Amalthea, the 5th moon of Jupiter.

1895 – The American Bowling Congress formed.

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 26 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 the Radio Corporation of America RCA. Under the direction of David Sarnoff it became the powerhouse network of broadcasting, recording and later television.

1939- One week after Hitler invaded Poland and World War II began, Italian Fascist planes taking off from their bases in Libya bombed the city of Tel Aviv in British Protectorate Palestine, killing 150.

1939- The first Andy Panda cartoon.

1939- The first day of shooting on Charlie Chaplin’s film the Great Dictator. The first day was the Ghetto street scene. One of his distributors grumbled “By the time Chaplin finishes his movie, people won’t even remember who Hitler ever was.”

1942- Off the North Pacific coastline a long range Japanese I-400 class submarine launched a collapsible airplane. The plane dropped two incendiary bombs on Oregon trying unsuccessfully to ignite a forest fire. This was the only time the mainland United States has ever been bombed by a hostile power. The pilot, Nobuo Fijita, visited Oregon in 1962 and was charmed by the friendly reception he received. He later told his granddaughter that if the Oregonians hated him he was prepared to commit suicide with the 400 year old samurai sword he brought with him. He died of cancer in 1997 at age 85 and the sword is in a Brookline Oregon Library.

1943- Allied armies land on the Italian mainland at Salerno in the Bay of Naples.

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 USN Commander Grace Hopper. A moth that had burned out some relays was removed with tweezers from a relay & taped into the log. Since then any computer glitch was nicknamed "a bug". The logbook is in the Smithsonian today.

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

1951 - 1st broadcast of the soap opera" Love of Life " on CBS-TV

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.

1965 - Tibet was annexed as an autonomous region of China.

1965- LA Dodger Pitcher Sandy Koufax struck out 14 Cubs to win his perfect game and 4th shutout in one seasons.

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

1971- Inmates riot and seize control of the NY State Penitentiary at Attica.

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.

1985- She-Ra the Princess of Power premiered on TV.

1999- Chechen terrorists began a campaign of planting bombs in Moscow high rise apartment buildings to cause as many Russian civilian deaths as possible. This first blast killed 90. The final count was over 400. This campaign ended any world sympathy for the Chechen nationalists outside of the most extreme Islamist radicals. The U.S had criticized the brutality of the Russian campaigns in Chechnya until it was revealed that Chechens were joining the ranks of Al Qaeda.

2001 – Two days before the 9-11 terrorist attack, in Afghanistan, Shan Ibn Massoud, the greatest foe of the Taliban regime was assassinated. Sort of an Afghan Robin Hood against the Soviet Invasion. This murder was an operation by Osama Ben Laden to thank the Taliban for their hospitality. That night Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on telephone with President Bush. Putin said:” I think this attack is the prelude to something bigger to come…”

2001- Two days before the 9-11 Attack, it was reported Czech intelligence saw the Chief of Iraqi Security Al Alhya in Prague meeting with terrorist leader Mohamed Atta. This was one of the chief bits of proof given by US Vice President Cheney to justify the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. When later asked to confirm this claim, Czechs police said: "Well, it may or may not have happened." Czech President Vaslav Havel said he didn’t know what they were talking about. A 2006 Senate committee concluded this meeting never happened, but Dick Cheney didn’t admit it was a complete lie until 2009.

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: The City of Miami is in Dade County. What cities are in Cook County, and Clark County?

Answer: Cook County has Chicago, Clark County has Las Vegas.