Question: Homer’s Illiad was about Achilles and Hector battling before Troy. The Odyssey was the story of Odysseus (Ulysses) voyage home battling Cycops and Sirens. What is the Aeneid about?

Answer to Yesterday’s Question below: There is a Utica, New York. It is named for a town in the ancient world, where Roman statesman Cato died. In what modern country is that Utica?
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History for 9/11/2020
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 63.

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 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, Wilhelm gave 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 Wilhelm then thanked the workers, 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 an English 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 or apologized for 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.

1992- Actor Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), began a second career as the voice of The Joker in Batman, The Animated Series.

1998- THE STARR REPORT- The full text of Special Counsel Kenneth Starr’s investigation into the sexual wrongdoings of President Bill Clinton with his intern Monica Lewinsky was released on-line.
This was the first major news story reported on the Internet, on line a full day before the other media sources could get it. Twenty million log-ons in one day. It caused huge internet user jams and sparked a furious response from millions, all on electronic mail.

Americans learned of their President’s many uses for his cigar, and Monica snapping her thong at him. Many felt the salacious details ranked as soft-core pornography, but it was sent out without any child-proof guards, championed by conservative politicians who normally cried for media censorship.

Hustler publishing tycoon Larry Flynt jokingly offered Kenneth Starr a job.”Heck, any man who could get that much porn into 50 million homes so quickly should be working for me!” In 2016, Kenneth Starr was forced to resign from the presidency of Baylor College. For what? Attempting to cover up a sex scandal.


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. 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 went into 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. In 2019 comedian John Stewart had to publically embarrass our millionaires club Senate into extending their health insurance.
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Yesterday’s Question: There is a Utica, New York. It is named for a town in the ancient world, where Roman statesman Cato died. In what modern country is that Utica?

Answer: It is in North Africa, 20 miles north of modern Tunis, in Tunisia.

Question: There is a Utica, New York. It is named for a town in the ancient world, where Roman statesman Cato died. In what modern country is that Utica?

Yesterday’s Quiz Answered below: Ulysses (Odysseus) was king of what city?
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History for 9/10/2020
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 60

1171- Saladin, the Vezir of Egypt, changed the religious practice of Egypt from Shiite back to Sunni Muslim. 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 low-born adventurer over the heads of several gentlemen like Captain Wingfield and Captains 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.

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 25 year old died of an overdose of cocaine and alcohol. Another theory was she accidentally overdosed on mercury bichloride liquid solution used by her husband to treat his syphilis. 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 prescription drugs. In 1928 Groucho Marx put in his Broadway show Animal Crackers the song Hooray for Captain Spaulding.

1926- The body 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, also the Three Robonic Stooges.”

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 colonist 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.

2009- The first D-23 opened in Anaheim. It is an annual Comicon just for Disneyanna fans. D-23 means the year the Walt Disney Company began, 1923.
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Yesterday’s Quiz: Ulysses (Odysseus) was king of what city?

Answer: Ithica.

Quiz: Ulysses (Odysseus) was king of what city?

Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: : Who coined the term, “ From the sublime, to the ridiculous”?
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History 9/9/2020
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, 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 54, Michelle Williams is 40, Hugh Grant is 61

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 ran up to the Agora, shouted “ Nike!” Victory, then fell over dead. 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 ruled 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 curtains and rings from his fingers as he was breathing 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 relocate 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. Even though she was also an American artist living in Paris, 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!"

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 Oregon 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.

1949- White Heat, with James Cagney premiered.

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 season.

1966- H&B’s Space Ghost show.

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.

1995- Pinky and the Brain premiered.

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 Quiz: : Who coined the term, “ From the sublime, to the ridiculous”?

Answer: Thomas Paine in The Age of Reason, 1795
"The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again."

Question: Who coined the term, “ From the sublime, to the ridiculous”?

Yesterday’s Quiz Answered Below: What were the sins of Absalom?
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history for 9/8/2020
Birthdays: Richard the Lionhearted, Michel Caravaggio, Antonin Dvorak, Patsy Cline, Jimmy Rogers the Singing Brakeman, Peter Sellars, Sid Caesar, Freddy Mercury, Lyndon LaRouche, Ewell Gibbons- natural food advocate, Heather Thomas, David Arquette is 48, Jonathan Taylor-Thomas, Pink is 41, Alvy Ray Smith is 77

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

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

1565- Sultan Sulieman the Magnificent lifted the Siege of Malta. The Knights of St. John Hospitaller were granted ownership of Malta in perpetuity. They become the Knights of Malta. Their symbol, the Maltese Cross, is four barbed arrowheads forming a cross.

1636- Barely 6 years since Boston was founded, Massachusetts established the first school of higher learning in North America in the town of Cambridge. First called New Towne College, it was given money and 400 books from clergyman John Harvard. In 1639 the school was renamed for him- Harvard.

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

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

1771- Mission San Gabriel founded by Fra Junipero Serra.

1812- The day after the terrible battle of Borodino, the Russians began the evacuation of Moscow from Napoleons’ invading army.

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

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

1919-The Boston Police Dept. goes on strike. Forbidden to actually picket, they took off their uniforms and walked home. "Gangs roam the streets unchecked. Women are attacked, are Lenin & Trotsky on the way ?!" (The Wall Street Journal)

1920 - US Air Mail service begins (NYC to SF)

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

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

1930 - NYC public schools begin teaching Hebrew

1930 - Richard Drew creates Scotch tape.

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

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

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

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

1939 - FDR declares "limited national emergency" due to war breaking out in Europe.

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

1944- Italy declared Benito Mussolini deposed, and announced its intention to surrender to the Allies. The Germans occupy the Italy and free Mussolini in short order.

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

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

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

1963-THE BOSTON STRANGLER- The killing of young Evelyn Corbin by the Boston Strangler. A married maintenance worker named Albert De Salvo terrorized the Beantown area by the rape-strangulation of 13 women over several years. Police were so baffled at one point they resorted to asking a Dutch Psychic for help. DeSalvo was finally caught and just missed execution as Massachusetts ban on capitol punishment had gone into effect months before. He was murdered in prison on 1973.

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

1966- STAR TREK debuts. LA policeman turned screenwriter Gene Roddenberry pitched it to Desilu Productions as, “Wagon Train in Outer Space.” The first episode “ The Man Trap” aired tonight. That season it ranked 52nd in the Neilsen ratings, behind #1 "Iron Horse" starring Dale Robertson, and "Mr. Terrific". It was canceled after two seasons but a letter writing campaign won it a third season. Star Trek then found a new life in syndication.
The cult fan base called Trekkies kept the memory of the show alive for ten years until Paramount felt compelled to revive it to cash in on the Star Wars-Close Encounters craze. First as a Filmation animated series, and then from 1979 a series of feature films, then spin-offs.
Frank Sinatra once said: "The only good thing to come out of the 1960s was Star Trek."

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

1967 - Surveyor 5 launched; makes soft landing on Moon, Sept 10.

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

1974- Daredevil Evil Knieval in his most famous stunt, jumped the Snake River Gorge in a rocket powered motorcycle.

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

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

1986- The Chicago based television talk show the Oprah Winfrey Show went national and became one of the most successful talk shows ever.

2008- The Rachael Maddow Show premiered on TV.

2009- A pair of Queen Victoria’s old underwear was recovered from a private collector and returned to the Royal Collection. Her waist size? 56 inches.

Yesterday’s Quiz: What are the sins of Absalom?

Answer: Absalom was the handsome son of King David, who rebelled against his father.

Quiz: What are the sins of Absalom?

Yesterday’s Quiz Answered Below: Who were the characters Horace Horsecollar an Clarabell Cow?
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History for 9/7/2020
Birthdays: Grandma Moses, Dame Edith Sitwell, Elia Kazan, Richard Roundtree, Sinclair Lewis, Anthony Quayle. Peter Lawford, Senator Daniel Inouye, Susan Blakely, Shannon Elizabeth, Sonny Rawlins, Toby Jones is 53, Julie Kavner the voice of Marge Simpson, Disney animator Fred Moore. 605 B.C. Nebuchanesser II crowned king of Babylon. In 597 he destroyed Israel and began the Baylonian Captivity of the Judeo-Christian apocalyptic writings, but he also build the famed hanging Gardens of Babylon for his wife Amrytis.

1191- KING RICHARD VS. SALADIN-The Battle of Arsuf, the only major set battle between King Richard's Crusaders and Saladin’s Saracens. Saladin's men were driven back by the charging armored knights, but no final victory was achieved. Richard galloped about chopping at people so fiercely, that the Saracen warriors learned to ride around him and avoid contact. After such hot work in the desert Saladin sent his enemy Richard a cup of snow with rose water called Sherbat, which is the forerunner of modern Iced Sherbet.

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

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

1812- BATTLE OF BORODINO, or La Moskova. Napoleon's French army and the Russians pound each other to bits before Moscow in the great battle immortalized by Tolstoy in 'War and Peace'. As the French army marched to the attack, Russian Prince Bagration sat on horseback in front of his troops. Before opening fire he pulled out a silver flask and toasted his enemy,"Gentlemen of France, Bravo! C'est Superb!". He was killed later. The French capture all the strategic points and force General Kutusov to abandon Moscow, but while the Russians could make good their losses, La Grande Armee' was exhausted and thousands of miles from supplies and reinforcements. Napoleon was listless from a bad cold and hesitated sending in his Imperial Guard at a key moment to finish off the Russian army. Marshal Ney was enraged: ”Have we come so far merely to possess another battlefield? What is he doing, so far back? He is no longer a general, he is an Emperor. Let him sit home in the palace and leave the fighting to us!”

1822- Brazil declared its independence from Portugal.

1831- NICHOLAS I, the "Iron Czar" crushed the POLISH NOVEMBER UPRISING. Throughout the 1800's every young generation of Poles started a new uprising that the Russians, Germans and Austrians would have to stomp down. They went as far as to outlaw the Polish language, the Catholic religion and in the German controlled parts the Slavic suffix "-ski". Which is probably when Lech Waleski became Walesa and Sito was ..er.. always Sito. (?) In Jacksonian America the plight of the heroic Poles battling overwhelming odds was terribly inspiring to American Romantics like Longfellow, Hawthorne and Morse.

1857- THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE- In 1857 President James Buchanan declared the Mormon community in Utah territory in a state of rebellion and sent an army to the Great Salt Lake. The Mormons were worked up by their memories of persecutions in Illinois and Missouri that had taken the life of their founder Joseph Smith. Leader Brigham Young had given orders that no U.S. troops or settlers were to be sold food or water. When a California bound wagon train from Arkansas tried to cross Utah territory it was attacked by Mormon allied Indians. Local Mormon leader John D. Lee told the embattled settlers that if they surrendered to him he would lead them to safety. They put down their weapons and he marched them to a meadow. On a given signal the Mormons opened fire on the settlers, mostly women and children, killing 120 and leaving their bones to rot in the weeds without burial. The surviving infants were taken to be raised by Mormon families. The Mormon colony was horrified by the massacre and gave up peacefully to U.S. authorities. Apologist historians even today say Brigham Young never gave orders for the massacre, but admitted he protected John D. Lee for 20 years. In 1877 Lee was finally convicted for the mass-murder and executed at the massacre site. He died declaring he was the sacrificial scapegoat for the entire commune.

1876- THE GREAT NORTHFIELD MINNESOTA RAID- One old Hollywood myth is of the Western town cowering in fear while desperadoes shoot up the street whoopin’ and hollering. When the Jesse James & Cole Younger gang rode out of Missouri and tried to rob the Bank of Northfield Minnesota, they found a town full of old Civil War veterans, who hauled out their rifles and shot them to pieces from every window and doorway. Frank and Jesse are about the only ones who escaped. They laid low in Tennessee for three years until resuming their outlaw ways. Cole Younger was captured and did 25 years in prison. In 1903 Cole and Frank James went on tour with their own Wild West Show.

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

1888 - Edith Eleanor McLean is 1st baby placed in an incubator.

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

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

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

1916 - Workmen's Compensation Act passed by Congress.

1923 - Interpol was formed in Vienna

1936 - Boulder Dam (now Hoover Dam) began operation.

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

1956- US test pilot Iven Kincheloe flew his experimental Bell-X plane to the edge of the Stratosphere. While modern passenger planes fly at 46,000 feet, Kinchilo was 126,000 feet up, almost 26 miles. He could see the curve of the earth, the blue of the atmosphere turning ultramarine and the stars at the edge of space. He was weightless for a few seconds. Called the America’s First Spaceman, had Kincheloe not died in 1958 in an accident, he would have been a major figure in NASA’s manned space program.

1957- Actress Ingrid Bergman and director Roberto Rossellini separate.

1961- MGM released Switchin Kittens, Tom & Jerry directed and animated by Gene Deitch in Prague, Czechoslovakia.

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

1968- Led Zeppelin (billed as The Yardbirds) made their live debut at the Teen Club Box 45 in Gladsaxe, Denmark.

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

1984-The Walt Disney Board formally fired Walt’s son-in-law CEO Ron Miller.

1986- Archbishop Desmond Tutu was installed as the first black leader of the Anglican Church in South Africa. His appointment signaled the beginning of the final campaign to overthrow the racist apartheid system. After Apartheid was overthrown and Nelson Mandela made President of South Africa Tutu and Mandela began a curious argument over men’s wear. Bishop Tutu criticized the President for his taste in loud print shirts as undignified. Mandela responded” I won’t be criticized by a man who wears a dress!”

1991- Walt Disney’s Darkwing Duck aired.

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

1998- Google started.

2000- Barely legal teen pop star Britney Spears shocked even the permissive MTV Music Video Awards crowd by singing her hit “Oops, I Did it Again” while stripping and grinding in a Las Vegas showgirl type sheer flesh-colored bikini.

2008- The Great Recession- Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, the Federal National Mortgage Assoc., go into receivership after sinking under the weight of bad debt.
========================================================== Yesterday’s Quiz: Who were the characters Horace Horsecollar an Clarabell Cow?

Answer: Two of the Walt Disney characters in Mickey Mouse cartoons who never quite achieved the fame that Donald Duck and Goofy did.