Today’s Trivia Question: In Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film Rear Window, one of the people James Stewart spies on was in animation. Who is it?

Yesterday’s Question answered below: Which nation is older- Germany, Italy or the United States?
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History for 12/6/2007
Birthdays: King Henry VI of England-1422, English Puritan General George Monck-1608,, John Eberhard 1822, builder of the first large pencil factory in the US- Eberhard Faber, John Singleton-Mosby the Grey Ghost, Henry Jarecki, Baby Face Nelson, William S. Hart, Ira Gershwin, Dave Brubeck is 86, Agnes Moorehead, Tom Hulce, Wally Cox, Lynn Fontaine, Janine Turner, Steven Wright, JoBeth Williams, Nick Park

Today if the FEAST of SAINT NICHOLAS, the patron saint of sailors and children. In the 350 AD Bishop Nicholas heard of a man so poor that he was about to sell his daughters into prostitution. Nicholas climbed into the man’s house and gold coins in the socks drying by the fireplace. The beginning of the custom.
In some cities during the Middle Ages the custom this day to elect a Boy Bishop who would reign in an honorary style until the Feast of the Holy Innocents December 28th.

1240- The Mongol hordes of BatuKhan destroy the city of Kiev. This ended the great kingdom of Kievan Russ.

1825- President John Quincy Adams in his first message to Congress called for increased funding for scientific research, the founding of a national university and a national observatory. His ideas are ridiculed as idiotic and his political credibility was damaged by this speech. He also installed the first indoor toilets in the White House. People started calling the new commodes a Quincy.

1877- First edition of the Washington Post.

1915- MAX FLEISCHER PATENTS THE ROTOSCOPE TECHNIQUE- This system enables you to film an actor then draw the cartoons over the still frames of the live action to achieve a realistic motion. (an early form of Motion Capture) Max would film his brother Dave in a clown suit then draw Koko the Clown over him. Dave had already owned the clown suit because he had been seriously considering a change in careers. The Fleischer's New York studio would be Disney's chief rival for most of the 1920's-30's.

1933- U.S. Federal Judge Woolsey decides James Joyce's "ULYSSES" is not a dirty book and can be published in the U.S by Viking Press. The book had been in Europe since 1922.

1941- Admiral Nagumo turns his carriers into the wind and begins to prepare to launch the attack on Pearl Harbor. Colonel William Bratton of army intelligence in Washington decoded a message from Tokyo to the Japanese Embassy telling them after their final message to destroy their cyphers and top secret documents. He ran all over D.C. trying to get someone to listen but it was a lazy weekend like any other.
Saturday morning Mrs. Dorothy Edgers of the Navy cryptographic division translated long decoded instructions to the Japanese Consul Kita in Honolulu to provide up to date intelligence on Pearl Harbor's ship movements and armaments. When she pointed this out to her immediate supervisor, he told her "Ummm..We'll get back to this on Monday."

1941- NY City Council decided to build a second municipal airport- Idylwild Airport, later renamed John F. Kennedy Airport.

1942- The movie the Cat People with Simon-Simon premiered.

1957- First US attempt to launch a satellite into space failed- the Vanguard I rocket blew up.

1960- Baseball’s American League granted an expansion franchise team to old cowboy singer Gene Autrey, the California Angels.

1964- The first concert at the Los Angeles Music Center.

1964- Rankin Bass' t.v. special 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' first broadcast.

1969- The Rolling Stones do the last big rock festival of the 60s in Altamont California. The festival turned ugly when Hells Angels motorcyclists hired to guard the stage started fighting with fans and one man was killed.

1980- Reverend Jim Baker of the PTL ministry had sex in a motel room with Church volunteer Jessica Hahn. His reasoning to her was “when you help the shepherd you help the flock”. But later he paid her hush money. This indiscretion would help pull down his career. Baker’s ministry included a lavish lifestyle, air conditioned doghouse for his pets and a Christian theme park called Heritage USA. Comedian and ex-evangelist Sam Kinison joked: I can imagine up in heaven, Jesus is thumbing through the New Testament, saying” Hey, where did I ever say anything thing about a water slide?”
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Yesterday’s Question: Which nation is older- Germany, Italy or the United States?

Answer: The United States. Of course, the German and Italian people go back for centuries. But in 1776 when the USA was born, Italy was the Papal States, the Kingdom of Two Sicilys, The Duchy of Tuscany, Parma and the Venetian Republic, Milan was part of Austria. Germany was the Kingdoms of Brandenburg-Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, The Rhenish Palatinate and the independent Electorships of Baden, Hanover, Hesse and a myriad of little princedoms. Italy as a nation would not exist until 1859, Germany not until 1870.