Quiz: When we think of the great innovators of computers- Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Nolan Bushnell, what about Alexei Pajitnov, a mathematician at the Moscow Academy of Science? What did he do ?

Answer to yesterdays question below: Quiz: Why is Christmas Island called Christmas Island?
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History for 12/20/2011
Birthdays: Bonnie Prince Charlie, Branch Rickey, George Roy Hill, Dr. Samuel Mudd, Jenny Aguitter, Uri Geller, Irene Dunne, Cecil Cooper, Albert Dekker, Amby Paliwoda, Charlie Callas, Harvey Firestone, John Spencer, Elsie De Wolfe*,

*Manahattan socialite and activist Elsie De Wolfe (Born 1860) described herself as the first interior decorator. When she was in Greece and saw the Acropolis she exclaimed; "It's Beige! My Color!"

69AD- Roman General Vespasian occupied Rome with his legions, declared himself emperor and dispatched his predecessor. Aulus Vitellius. Vespasian was the winner in a long year of civil war that started with Nero committing suicide, then Sevius Galba, Otho, and Vitellius all in one year took the throne and were knocked off. The Romans called A.D. 69, the "Long Year". Vespasian was not an aristocrat like Casear, but a humble man who rose up through the ranks. He was once caught sleeping during one of Nero’s harp recitals.

Feast day of Saint Dominic of Brescia.

1192- Richard the Lionhearted was returning from the Crusades when he was imprisoned by Duke Leopold of Austria. Leopold blamed Richard for the death of his relative Conrad of Monferrat in Palestine. The King of France Phillip II and Richard’s own brother John send large bribes to the German Emperor Henry to keep Richard locked up.

1688- William and Mary of Orange’s army occupied London.

1780- Britain declared war on Holland over the Dutch covertly aiding the rebel American colonies.

1790- The first successful U.S. cotton mill opens in Pawtucket RI, it’s inventor Samuel Slater had memorized British technology for use in America. He also thought child labor would be most useful in his factories.

1803- The Louisiana Purchase completed as the French flag came down and the Stars and Stripes went up over the Cabildo in New Orleans. New Orleans continued to be a magnet for French people dispossessed by the politics in Europe. Ten years after Waterloo the French royalist charge de affaires would complain to the U.S. state department that the New Orleanaise would still wave the banned revolutionary tricolor flag at arriving French ships. In 1817 the mayor financed two ships with a 19th century 'Delta-Force" of mercenaries to sail to Saint Helena and free Napoleon. The plan never went through.

1811- Napoleon made another attempt to go hunting in the Forest of Boulogne. Even though they were both great generals , Napoleon and Wellington were terrible hunters and bad shots. While hunting Napoleon shot out the eye of one of his generals by mistake and Wellington constantly shot barn doors and stable boys by accident. Napoleon kept the Royal shooting park at St. Cloud as a game preserve and a captain once saw him feeding snuff to the deer.

1860- SESSSION! to the sound of cannon and church bells the first Southern State, South Carolina, voted to secede from the Union. Until the Confederacy formed South Carolina calls itself "the Palmetto Republic". Judge Pettigru, who was against this drastic move, said:" South Carolina is too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum."
In Washington D.C. Northerners at first reacted with apathy. One Washington department store advertised: THE UNION IS DISSOLVING BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN YOU CAN’T STILL FIND SAVINGS WHEN YOU SHOP FOR CHRISTMAS AT LEHMANS!

1860- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published his most famous poem- The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. Oh listen my children and you shall here, of the Midnight ride of Paul Revere. Although he got most of the facts wrong, it was a great success. Longfellow intended it to rouse Americans of his day to the threat of Southern Secession and Slavery.

1891-BASKETBALL INVENTED. Minister and former Canadian rugby player James Naismith worried how his students could do team sports in the harsh New England winters. So he nailed up two peach baskets on opposite ends of a gymnasium at a YMCA in Springfield Mass. and invented the game of basketball. He originally asked for square boxes but the man he sent out mistook his instructions and brought round peach baskets instead. The NBA regulation height of the baskets of ten feet was determined by the gym in Springfield having a second floor running track and two nails were conveniently waiting at this height. Naismith played himself frequently, and married one of the first female players, named Aemelia.

1892- Alexander Brown and George Stillman of Syracuse New York invented inflatable pneumatic automobile tires, replacing wagon wheel and bicycle rims.

1892- According to Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days this was the day Phileas Fogg completed his trip.

1920- English song & dance man Leslie Downes became an American citizen and changed his name to Bob Hope.

1937- Nazi Josef Goebbels noted in his diary that this day he sent his boss Adolph Hitler a Christmas present of a dozen Mickey Mouse Cartoons from America. Officially der Fuehrer called Mickey ‘vermin’ but privately enjoyed his animated antics.

1942- Japanese planes bombed Calcutta, India.

1943- Stalin changed the national anthem of Russia from the revolutionary Internationale to the Hymn of the Soviet Union.

1944- German forces in the Battle of the Bulge surround the US 101st Airborne in the Belgian town of Bastogne. The Screaming Eagles of the 101st held out until relieved by Pattons’ Third Army just after Christmas.

1945- After the defeat of Japan in World War Two Vietnamese nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam an independent nation. France reacted by heavily cracking down on nationalists in Hanoi and Saigon. This began an eight year war against the French to be followed, by a civil war, and another 8 year war against the Americans.

1950- Harvey premiered starring James Stewart and a 6 foot invisible rabbit.

1952- Bridgette Bardot married director Roger Vadim.

1955- Sir Lawrence Olivier’s film version of Richard III premiered.

1962- The Osmond Brothers premiered on the Andy Williams Show.

1957- Elvis Presley received his draft notice. G.I. Blues!

1968- Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day premiered.

1970- ELVIS MEETS NIXON or "The President Meets the King." Citizen Presley volunteers his services in the war on drugs and gave Nixon a gold plated 44 cal. pistol. The President thanked him with a White House security officer's badge for his collection of police badges....... you see why fiction pales next to this stuff.... A recent biography of Presley described the dozen or so patent medicines he was on while he met Nixon.

1971- Twentieth Century Fox chief Darryl F. Zanuck blames his own son CEO Richard Zanuck for Fox's monetary problems and fires him. This sets off a power struggle among the board of directors. When Zanuck's estranged wife Libby throws her support against the mogul, Darryl F. Zanuck is overthrown and fired from his own company. He was the last of the original Hollywood moguls.

1977- Mayor Richard Daley Sr, the Boss of Chicago for twenty years, died of a heart attack.

1989- Operation Just Cause, the U.S. invades Panama to oust General Manuel Noriega, for being a dictator, drug pusher and not returning the C.I.A.'s washroom keys. When the general, known to Panamanian citizens as “Pineapple-face” took sanctuary in the Vatican Embassy, the U.S. army surrounded the building and drove him out by playing Jimi Hendrix and Motown through loudspeakers 24 hours a day.
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Yesterday’s question: Quiz: Why is Christmas Island called Christmas Island?

ANSWER: Because a British explorer named Mynors sighted it on Christmas Day of 1643.