Question: Sarah Palin’s husband claimed he is of Alaskan Inuit (Eskimo) ancestry. Has there ever been a US President that was Native American?

Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is meant by a “flash in the pan”…?
-------------------------------------------------------------------
History for 9/17/2014
Birthdays: Hank Williams, Spiro Agnew, Ken Kesey, Jerry Colonna, Roddy MacDowell, George Blanda, Wendy Carlos Williams, Elvira- real name Cassandra Peterson, Anne Bancroft, Jeff MacNelly, John Ritter, Sir Frederick Ashton, Rita Rudner, Tim Walker, Baz Luhrmann is 52

1179- Feast of Saint Hildegard of Bingen, the medieval female composer.

1630- Happy Birthday Beantown! The Puritan colonists of New England decide to name their new settlement Boston, after a town in Lincolnshire. The site was an Algonquin village called Shawmut.

1632-BATTLE of BRIETENFELD- Biggest battle of the religious Thirty Years War. South Germans, Austrians, Italians, Spaniards on the Catholic side, Swedes, Danes, Hungarians and North Germans on the Protestant side. Catholic general Joachim Tchserclas Von Tilly lost despite dedicating the battle to the Virgin Mary and having twelve cannon named for the Twelve Apostles. Protestant Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus sang morning prayers with his army from the saddle. I wonder if their battle cry was:" Prince of Peace! CHAAAAARGE !!"

1787- The U.S. Constitution signed by the representatives of 12 of the thirteen states. Rhode Island boycotted the convention. “The business is closed.” George Washington wrote in his diary. Alexander Hamilton signed as the only representative of New York since the others left in protest. Yet the US Constitution became the bedrock of the American system and is viewed with an almost religious dedication. When Ben Franklin emerged from the meeting, an old woman asked:’ Well, Dr Franklin, what have you given us now?” Franklin replied:” A Nation, mam, if you can keep it!”

1859- JOSHUA NORTON of San Francisco, a well known rice merchant, suffered a mental breakdown under the strain of work, bought a tricycle and a marching band uniform and declared himself Joshua Ist, By God's Grace Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico! Everybody went along with the gag including Abraham Lincoln, who Joshua would write to as "My Prime Minister" and Abe would answer "Your Majesty". When Joshua died in 1875, 35,000 San Franciscans turned out for a state funeral befitting royalty.

1862- BATTLE OF ANTIETAM or Sharpsburg. Abe Lincoln needed a Union victory before freeing the slaves so the act wouldn't look like the last desperate gamble of a losing side. Robert E. Lee had invaded Maryland but his secret orders wrapped around some cigars were discovered by Yankee trooper. "At last I've got him!' crowed Gen. George B. "Little Mac" McClellan, the Union commander who was a great organizer but a terrible battlefield commander. The two sides batter each other in one of the bloodiest days in U.S. history, double the U.S. casualties of D-Day in World War II. McClellan delayed sending in his reserves at a critical moment to break Lee's center, so the battle was a draw. Lee withdrew into Virginia -he was leaving Maryland anyway, so it was kind of, sort of, a Union success.
Yet despite Lincoln's pleading, McClellan refused to pursue. Lil' Mac was convinced Lee had 100,00 troops (he had barely 30,000.). Never one for modesty, McClellan wrote his wife: "Once again God has made me His instrument to be the Savior of my country."
Lincoln fired him, but published his Emancipation Proclamation anyway.

1880- The L.A. Athletic Club opened.

1915- During World War I, Australians seized the German colony of Papua New Guinea.

1921-SWASTIKA- New leader of the German National Socialist or Nazi Party Adolf
Hitler sent his first letter to party members. He had spent a lot of time researching graphic symbols in a Munich library with a Professor Pluskau who specialized in Oriental cultures. Now Herr Hitler advised all party members to adopt as their emblem an ancient symbol of a crooked cross, called a Swastika, Sanskrit for good well being. This was to be worn as an armband and on party stationary topped with an eagle in imitation of imperial Rome. American news correspondent William Shirer noticed that at early rallies Nazis actually sold brand merchandise to fund their movement.

1932- Mickey Mouse short The Whoopee Party, premiered.

1939- Russian forces join German troops in the invasion of Poland and occupied the Balkan countries Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. These nations would not regain their independence until 1990.

1940- After the failure of the German Luftwaffe, Hitler postponed Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of the British Isles. The Battle of Britain was over but air raids on London would continue. Hitler would resume bombing London with rocket weapons in 1943 in the period called 'The Blitz".

1941- As Stuka Bombers drop incendiary explosives over their heads, Dmitri Shostakovitch performs the first two movements of his Symphony #7 the "Leningrad" to a Leningrad audience. Shostakovitch wrote the symphony during the terrible 900 day siege by the Nazi's, often pausing to join the fire brigade in putting out fires.

1944- OPERATION MARKET GARDEN- British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery convinced Eisenhower that one way to shorten the war would be to drop the allied parachute divisions to seize key bridgehead crossings at Arnhem, Einhoven and Nijmegen in Holland and then send tank units racing up to secure their breakthrough. The area to be attacked was well behind the front lines and supposed to be undefended. But just before this attack two crack Nazi SS Panzer divisions had been withdrawn there to rest. The operation was one of the biggest Allied disasters of the war. The Allies dropped troops on one side of Arnhem and their supplies on the other side, with the Germans in between.

The assault was broken and the valiant British paratroops under General Urquhart & Col. Ross holding one side of Arnhem Bridge were forced to surrender. Of the 10,000 men of the British First Parachute Division only 2,000 were not killed, wounded or captured. An Arnhem eyewitness who would one day grow up to be a famous actress was a little Dutch refugee named Audrey Hepburn. General Patton, who was not fond of Montgomery, summed it all up unkindly: “Monty says he wants a dagger thrust into the heart of Germany. Knowing Monty, it would be more like a butter knife!” In 1967 shortly before his death, Montgomery stated:” I still feel Market Garden could have worked.”

1948- Count Bernadotte, the UN commissioner for Palestine was assassinated by Jewish terrorists while trying to arbitrate a ceasefire between Israel and the Arabs. A shocked Prime Minsiter Ben Gurion ordered the disbanding of all Jewish militias like the Irgun and Stern Gang operating independently of the Israeli central command. During World War Two Bernadotte had used his diplomatic immunity to save Jews from the Holocaust.

1951- Battle of the Yalu River. General MacArthurs UN army reached the edges of North Korea .

1957- Character actor Sterling Holloway signed his first contract with the Walt Disney Company. He will be the voice of Winnie the Pooh (“Oh bother”).

1965- If you ever wondered what could be funny about being held in a Nazi prison camp you could watch the TV sitcom HOGANS HEROES, which debuted this day. Nazi Commandant Colonel Klink was acted by Werner Klemperer, whose father was the famous orchestra conductor Otto Klemperer who had to flee Germany because they were Jewish. Sargent Schulz and the Frenchman LeBeau were also played by actors who survived the Holocaust- John Banner and Robert Clary.

1971- RCA gave up and pulled out of the retail computer market.

1972- Filmation's The Groovie Ghoulies" debuts.

1975- Psychotherapist Lucile Yaney opened one of LA’s most unusual restaurants- the Inn of the Seventh Ray in Topanga Canyon. Built on the site of a country house 1920’s evangelist Aimee Semple MacPherson brought her lovers. Premiere organic cuisine with berry wines, then you can browse the store for power crystals, I-Ching sticks and literature from Alastair Crowley and Edgar Cayce. Faaar- Out !

1978- After thirteen days of intense negotiations President Jimmy Carter announced the Camp David Peace Accords , the first peace treaty between Israel and an Arab neighbor- Egypt. Prime Minister Menachem Begin shook hands with President Anwar El Sadat.

1980- Saddam Hussein’s Iraq attacked the Ayatollah Khomeni's Iran. An 8 year war resulted. Because at the time we hated the Ayatollah’s Iran more, the US actively supplied Saddam with arms, CIA intelligence on Iranian troop movements and a lot of those hand held rockets Iraqis shot at us later in 1991 and 2003.

1982- THE SABRAH and SHATILAH MASSCRES- The Israeli Army had invaded Lebanon and intervened in the Lebanese Civil War, which had been raging since 1975. Their original purpose was to destroy PLO bases with which the Palestinians used to attack northern Israel. The Israeli army went all the way to Beirut and surrounded two large Palestinian refugee camps, hoping to destroy the PLO command structure. After the Christian President of Lebanon Bashir Gemayel was assassinated, the Israeli Army let his Christian Lebanese militia fighters into the two camps to take out any remaining PLO fighters. Instead, the enraged militiamen went on a rampage of revenge. Hundreds were killed. When the press was finally allowed to inspect the camps, the images shocked the world.

The Lebanon Invasion polarized Israeli society, many Israeli army officers joined Peace-Now and refused to serve. Defense Minister Ariel Sharon “The Beast of Beirut” was made to resign because of his complicity in this tragedy. He became Prime Minister in 1998.

1991- The TV show Home Improvement debuted, making a star out of stand up comedian Tim Allen.

2008- the entire country of Iceland declared bankruptcy.

2008- the first revelations that George W. Bush’s Department of the Interior officials were having sex with prostitutes and taking drugs with lobbyists for the Oil companies. One official admitted snorting meth off an office toaster oven. Meanwhile they winked at the oil companies forgetting to pay hundred of millions of dollars in environmental penalties and fees. Two years later, two oilrigs exploded and polluted the Gulf off Louisiana.

2011- THE 99% PROTESTS, tens of thousands of average people gathered in parks by Wall Street in Manhattan to protest the terrible economy with Wall Street mavens getting away with big bonuses. Despite vilification by Right Wing Media, the protest grew to hundreds of thousands of protesters across America and went on for months. There was even Occupy Alaska, Occupy Honolulu, and Occupy the South Pole.
==============================================================
Yesterday’s Question: What is meant by a “flash in the pan”…?

Answer: In an old flintlock musket, the place where you placed a little gunpowder for the hammer to strike firing the musket was called the pan. Sometimes the powder ignited with a flash, but the gun misfired anyway. So a flash in the pan denotes someone or something that attracts a lot of attention initially, but soon amounts to nothing.