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November 17th, 2008 mon
November 17th, 2008

Question: Early TV star Danny Thomas “ Make Room for Daddy” had been a nightclub entertainer before. Many of those club celebrities were of Jewish ancestry. Was Danny Thomas Jewish?

Question: If New York natives are New Yorkers, and Los Angeles natives are Angeleanos, what are folks from Washington called?
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History for 11/17/2008
Birthdays: Roman Emperor Vespasian 9 A.D, Florentine painter Il Bronzino, August Ferdinand Mobius-1790 the inventor of the Moebius Strip, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery- “Old Monty”, Rock Hudson, Danny DeVito, Peter Cook, Martin Scorcese is 65, Lorne Michaels,Lauren Hutton, Tom Seaver, Gordon Lightfoot, Les Clark, Lee Strassberg, Shelby Foote, Sophie Marceau, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio

1796- Russian Czarina Catherine the Great died at 67 years old of a stroke on the toilet, not crushed by trying to copulate with a horse as some scandalous rumors alleged.

1800- Following President Adams from their cozy homes in Philadelphia, Congress sulkily convenes for the first time in the half-finished Congress in the new Federal City. It was already being called Washington City D.C.. It was still mostly a damp muddy Virginia swamp. The only buildings up in operation were Congress, the Presidents Mansion and Conrads Tavern. Many complained that city planners Pierre L’Enfant and Benjamin Banocker had made the main avenues too big, that there will never be enough carriages and wagons to fill these roads. This first Congressional session couldn’t accomplish much, because there were not enough members present to make a quorum.

1839- Oberto premiered, an opera written by a new composer named Guisseppi Verdi –Joe Green, The great composer would go on to write Riggoletto, Aida and La Traviata.

1853- San Francisco passed a law to put up street signs at the intersections of major streets.

1858- A Pennsylvania businessman named William Larimer founded a new town at the foot of the Rockies called Denver.

1869- The Suez Canal opened. The opera "Aida" was commissioned to be premiered for this occasion but Verdi missed his deadline by ten years.

1880- The Chinese Exclusion Treaty signed in Peking between the United States and the Chinese Empress. This was the first of a series of pacts attempting to limit Asian immigration to the U.S.. In cities on the Pacific coast during the depression of the 1870’s violence against Chinese workers was sadly common. So many died building the Southern Pacific Railroad that the term “You Don’t Have a Chinaman’s Chance” was coined to mean the odds were against you. Writer Ambrose Bierce acerbically observed: A Chinese woman was recently found murdered on a street in San Francisco. She had done no crime but was merely the victim of Galloping Christianity. Barbaric acts like these mar the fine American tradition of Religious Persecution.”

1891- Polish pianist Jan Paderewski made his American debut at Carnegie Hall. Paderewski later followed by Stokowski create the cliché image of the grave classical music master with long flowing white hair combed straight back. Classical music became known as Longhair Music.


1934- LBJ marries LadyBird . For you born after the 60's, President Lyndon Baines Johnson married Claudia Alta Taylor whom he nicknamed LadyBird Johnson. Their daughters were LucyBird and LindaBird, so everyone in the family had the initials LBJ.

1941- Ernst Udet was a top World War One German ace who was convinced by Herman Goring into helping build the Nazi Luftwaffe. He was responsible for developing the Stuka dive bomber and it’s screaming diving sound. But his conscience was troubled. One of the old Gallant Knights of the Air, he was depressed by the terror bombing of civilians and genocide his inventions were being used for. Sinking into drink and drugs, he finally shot himself. His last dinner that night he spoke of his adventures as a young ace with Von Richtofen the Red Baron, interspersing it with “Ahh, we were decent men then…”
Udet photographed by Vanity Fair, courtesy of condenastimages.

1959- The DeBeers mining company of South Africa announced the invention of synthetic diamonds.

1968- THE HEIDI GAME- NBC was broadcasting a football game between the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders. The game was running late and would interfere with the broadcast of the movie "Heidi". The network heads felt with the Jets leading 32-29 with 65 seconds left, why disappoint the kiddies? So they pre-empted the rest of the game to start the movie. Oakland won 43-32 in a miracle comeback scoring the final touchdown in the final nine seconds. The embarrassed programmers had to answer nationwide firestorm of complaints from outraged football fans. So to this day on television no matter how dull a football game is, it is seen to it's completion.

1973- In a television address to the nation about the expanding Watergate Scandal, President Richard Nixon uttered the famous phrase:” People want to know if their president is a crook, well, I am not a crook!”

1988- Benazir Bhutto elected Prime Minister of Pakistan.

1989- Don Bluth's animated film "All Dogs Go to Heaven." premiered. When the film premiered in London in Leicester Square the opening night tickets were distributed with a printing error on them, the last letter of the film's title was dropped off. So the title read “All Dogs Go to Heave.”

1993- Congress voted for the free trade, job killing bill called NAFTA.

1994- The Sony Corporation posted a $2.7 billion dollar loss from it’s first year owning a Hollywood movie studio. Yet despite a lot of industry jokes ( “What’s the difference between Sony Pictures and the Titanic?-answer: The Titanic had entertainment.”) By 1996 the studio was on top with blockbusters like “Men in Black”.
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Question: If New York natives are New Yorkers, and Los Angeles natives are Angeleanos, what are folks from Washington called?

Answer: Washingtonians.


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