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July 20th, 2009
02:26 pm
Today in History – July 20
1712 – The Riot Act takes effect in Great Britain. An official could read specific parts of the act to assemblies of twelve or more people, requiring them to disperse, hence our expression, “reading the Riot Act”.
1933 – Germany: Two-hundred Jewish merchants are arrested in Nuremberg and paraded through the streets. And the world said, “well, if this is the WORST they do…” It wasn’t.
1941 – Soviet leader Joseph Stalin consolidates the Commissariats of Home Affairs and National Security to form the NKVD and names Lavrenti Beria its chief. At least Stalin didn’t call him the “Security Czar”.
1944 – World War II: Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt (known as the July 20 plot) led by German Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.
1960 – The Polaris missile is successfully launched from a submarine, the USS George Washington, for the first time. Trousers in the Kremlin change colors.
1960 – Belgium defends its intervention in the Congo to the United Nations Security Council while the government of the Congo appeals to the Soviet Union to send troops to push back the Belgians. The governments of the United States and France and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization warn the Soviets to stay out of the dispute. Oh, hell! Let’s just everybody leave and let them settle it themselves. They’ll achieve paradise on earth, right?
1968 – Iron Butterfly’s “In-a-gadda-da-vida” becomes 1st heavy metal song to hit charts, it comes in at #117. I had the LP.
1969 – Apollo Program: Apollo 11 successfully lands the first man on the Moon. The only human footprints off this planet belong to an American.
1984 – Officials of the Miss America pageant ask Vanessa Lynn Williams to quit after Penthouse published nude photos of her. Ah, yes! The famous “Lesbian Duck Call” pose.
1994 – OJ Simpson offers $500,000 reward for evidence of ex-wife’s klller, looks in a mirror and writes himself a check.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/aliens/happy.gif) amused
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July 19th, 2009
09:22 pm
Today in History – July 19
1843 – Brunel’s steamship the SS Great Britain is launched, becoming the first ocean-going craft with an iron hull or screw propeller and also becoming the largest vessel afloat in the world.
1870 – Franco-Prussian War: France declares war on Prussia. Rumor has it that France was prodded into the move by lobbyists from the Parisian Restaurant Association, who thought that Germans were better tippers.
1963 – Joe Walker flies a North American X-15 to a record altitude of 106,010 metres (347,800 feet – 65.8 miles) on X-15 Flight 90. Exceeding an altitude of 100 km, this flight qualifies as a human spaceflight under international convention. The US Air Force said fifty miles was high enough to be an “astronaut” and Joe and a couple of others had already done more than fifty miles.
1966 – 50 year old Frank Sinatra marries 21 year old Mia Farrow in Las Vegas. Way to go, Frank! At least he didn’t do her and then leave her to drown in a canal.
1991 – Mike Tyson, a championship boxer rapes a Miss Black America contestant (Desiree Washington). If only he could sing and moon-walk, he’d have gotten off free.
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: just a dream feat. margaret fa - Delerium
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July 18th, 2009
05:45 pm - the Cajun is in fine form today....
Today in History – July 18
64 AD – Great fire of Rome: a fire begins to burn in the merchant area of Rome and soon burns completely out of control. Nero didn’t fiddle. the violin wasn’t invented yet.
1914 – The U.S. Congress forms the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, giving definite status to aircraft within the U.S. Army for the first time.
1925 – Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf, pretty much telling anybody who pays attention exactly how he means to do business. Then when he actually does it, people run around saying “We didn’t know he’d do THAT.”
1942 – World War II: the Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me-262 using only its jet engines for the first time. It’s the most advanced fighter of its time.
1969 – After a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts drives an Oldsmobile off a bridge and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, dies. Ted, being a Kennedy in Massachusetts, skates free. Dimmocrats overlook this little faux pas ever since. The fact that anybody in the country even speaks to this scumbag is a clear sign of the moral decline of the nation.
1984 – Beverly Lynn Burns becomes first female Boeing 747 airline captain, performs her first take-off roll while applying mascara.
Current Mood: amused
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12:15 am - Another "Icon?" gone
When he lied about Tet he lost me, what he said and what I saw was a huge disconnect. RIP Walter anyway, I'll moun you more than McNamara.
Current Mood: amused
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July 15th, 2009
03:32 pm
Today in History – July 15
1815 – Napoléon Bonaparte surrenders aboard HMS Bellerophon.
1870 – The Kingdom of Prussia and the Second French Empire commence the Franco-Prussian War. Prussian officers end up dining in Paris.
1916 – In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).
1954 – First flight of the Boeing 367-80, prototype for both the Boeing 707 and C-135 series. It’s our first commercial jetliner.
1979 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter gives his famous “malaise” speech, where he characterizes the greatest threat to the country as “this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.” In 1980, the electorate showed what they thought of Jimmy “I never met a dictator I didn’t like” Carter and the malaise.
2002 – “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh pleads guilty to supplying aid to the enemy and to possession of explosives during the commission of a felony. He should have died the same day, hanging or a firing squad.
2003 – AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape Communications Corporation. The Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day. Netscape was my first browser back in 1994. I’m running Firefox browser and Thunderbird email. That tells you how I feel. (I use Safari & Eudora. TvK)
Current Mood: amused
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July 14th, 2009
06:47 pm
Today in History – July 14
1789 – French Revolution: Citizens of Paris storm the Bastille and free seven prisoners. France descends into a bloodbath over the next few years as “Reason” supplants the old monarchy. Some people of Cajun ancestry mistakenly celebrate Bastille Day. We were gone from France a hundred and fifty years before and we’re no more “French” than George Washington was “English”.
1914 – First patent for a liquid-fueled rocket design granted to Robert Goddard. Sixty-five Fifty-five years later there are American footprints on the moon.
1948 – Palmiro Togliatti, leader of the Italian Communist Party, is shot near to the Italian Parliament, thereby becoming a “good communist”.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/aliens/artistic.gif) artistic
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July 12th, 2009
05:20 pm
Today in History – July 12
1543 – King Henry VIII of England marries his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr at Hampton Court Palace.
1862 – The Medal of Honor is authorized by the United States Congress.
1878 – Yellow fever epidemic in New Orleans begins, it will kill 4,500 before it’s over. New Orleans was a fetid, fever-infested swamp then. So what’s changed?
1943 – World War II: Battle of Prokhorovka – part of the greater Battle of Kursk – German and Soviet forces engage in largest tank engagement of all time. There was no clear victor, but the Russians were drawing from an essentially bottomless reserve of men and equipment and Germany had everything at their disposal on the field.
1948 – First jets to fly across Atlantic (6 RAF de Havilland Vampires)
1960 – USSR’s Sputnik 5 launched with 2 dogs. There was not provision for their live return.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/aliens/sleepy.gif) recumbent
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July 11th, 2009
09:45 pm
Zen Teachings
1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me for the path is narrow. In fact, just piss off and leave me alone.
2. Sex is like air. It’s not that important unless you aren’t getting any.
3. No one is listening until you fart.
4. Always remember you’re unique. Just like everyone else.
5. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.
6. If you think nobody cares whether you’re alive or dead, try missing a couple of mortgage payments.
7. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you’re a mile away and you have their shoes.
8. If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you.
9. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
10. If you lend someone twenty bucks and never see that person again, it was probably well worth it.
11. If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.
12. Some days you are the bug; some days you are the windshield.
13. Don’t worry; it only seems kinky the first time.
14. Good judgment comes from bad experience … and most of that comes from bad judgment.
15. A closed mouth gathers no foot.
16. There are two excellent theories for arguing with women. Neither one works.
17. Generally speaking, you aren’t learning much when your lips are moving.
18. Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.
19. We are born naked, wet and hungry, and get slapped on our ass … then things just keep getting worse.
20. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
Current Mood: amused
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July 9th, 2009
05:49 pm
Today in History – July 9
1540 – Henry VIII of England annuls his marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.
1789 – In Versailles, the National Assembly reconstitutes itself as the National Constituent Assembly and begins preparations for a French constitution ushering in the French “Age of Reason”, as in “I WANT to chop your head off, and that’s my ‘reason’.”
1860 – Temperature hits 115 degrees F in Fort Scott & 112 degrees F in Topeka, Kansas. Curse those SUV’s!
1863 – American Civil War: the Siege of Port Hudson ends, giving the Yankees control of the Mississippi River.
1916 – First cargo submarine to cross Atlantic arrives in US from Germany carrying synthetic dyes, drugs and mail. Bet you didn’t know there was such a thing as a ‘merchant submarine’ or that the US bought goods smuggled out of Germany in WW I past the French and British blockades.
1944 – World War II: Battle of Saipan – Americans take Saipan after invading on June 15.
1958 – Lituya Bay, Alaska is hit by a mega-tsunami caused by an earthquake-induced landslide. The wave is recorded at 524 meters high, making it the largest wave in history.
Current Mood: accomplished
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05:48 pm - da Nuge & the Constatution
Current Mood: amused
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July 8th, 2009
07:06 pm
Today in History – July 8
1680 – The first confirmed tornado in America kills a servant at Cambridge, Massachusetts. Because there were no trailer parks for it to hit.
1775 – The Olive Branch Petition is adopted by the Continental Congress of the Thirteen Colonies. “Can’t we all get along?” Apparently the answer was “No” because year later we did that “Declaration of Independence” thing.
1776 – The Declaration of Independence is read aloud in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the Liberty Bell is famously rung, but we tried being “nice” first.
1889 – The first issue of the Wall Street Journal is published.
1969 – Thor Heyerdahl & reed raft Ra II land in Barbados 57 days from Morocco.
1979 – Congo adopts constitution. For all the good it did, it should have come perforated and on rolls.
Current Mood: accomplished
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12:14 am
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For your information: this script only accesses publicly available information about your LiveJournal account -- namely, the friends listed in your user info. Note: I know that it sometimes uses communities. I can't figure out a way to stop that without possibly hugely taxing the LiveJournal servers, so I'm just leaving it as is. I also know that occasionally weird grammar and spelling errors appear, since many words are randomly selected from word-lists. And yes, sometimes males are played by females, and vice versa. Just consider it equal-opportunity casting. If you enjoyed using this, I'd sure love to hear from you. If you really enjoyed using this, you could consider making a tiny donation via PayPal to encourage me to make more! Just click on the button below to get started. Thanks! Have you tried my other toys?
Ryan N. Freebern / rfreebern@corknut.org
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Drone Zone on SomaFM - msng
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July 1st, 2009
05:45 pm
Today in History – July 1
1517 – First burning of Protestants at stake in Netherlands. Over religion. You’d have thought they denied global warming or something serious.
1520 – La Noche Triste: Joint Mexican Indian force led by Aztecs under Cuitláhuac defeat Spanish Conquistadors under Hernán Cortés. “We have a right to enslave our enemies and cut out their living hearts. It’s a cultural diversity thing.”
1847 – First US postage stamps go on sale, 5-cent Franklin & 10-cent Washington, in New York City.
1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Gettysburg begins.
1863 – Free city delivery of mail begins in 49 US cities; postage 3 cents for first ounce.
1898 – Spanish-American War: The Battle of San Juan Hill is fought in Santiago de Cuba. American combat troops were led into battle by a future president.
1908 – SOS is adopted as the international Distress signal. That’s “didit dahdahdah dididit” in Morse.
1916 – World War I: First day on the Somme – On the first day of the Battle of the Somme 20,000 soldiers of the British Army are killed and 40,000 wounded.
1919 – First class postage drops from 3 cents to 2 cents.
1962 – Independence of Rwanda. And we all know how THAT turned out…
1963 – ZIP Codes are introduced for United States mail.
1991 – The Warsaw Pact is officially dissolved at a meeting in Prague, marking the failure of centralized socialist government, but then the wrong people were in charge. Our new socialist overlords will do it the right way…
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/aliens/gloomy.gif) pessimistic
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June 29th, 2009
08:50 pm
Today in History – June 29
1613 – The original Globe Theatre in London burned to the ground after a cannon employed for special effects misfired during a performance of William Shakespeare’s Henry VIII and ignited the theatre’s roof. Sure! Blame the pyro guy.
Current Mood: amused
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June 15th, 2009
05:16 pm
Today in History – June 15
1752 – Benjamin Franklin proves that lightning is electricity. That’s his kite experiment. Today he’d be arrested for terrorizing the neighborhood and conducting unauthorized science experiments.
1844 – Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.
1864 – Arlington National Cemetery is established when 200 acres (0.8 km²) around Arlington Mansion (formerly owned by Confederate General Robert E. Lee) are officially set aside as a military cemetery by U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
1911 – Tabulating Computing Recording Corporation, later becoming IBM, is incorporated.
1919 – John Alcock and Arthur Brown complete the first nonstop transatlantic flight at Clifden, County Galway, Ireland. The US Navy made the first trans-Atlantic crossing, but they stopped several times to refuel.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/aliens/thoughtful.gif) nostalgic
Current Music: Subversion - Synaesthesia
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June 12th, 2009
03:58 pm
Today in History – June 12
1979 – Bryan Allen wins the second Kremer prize for a man powered flight across the English Channel in the Gossamer Albatross.
1987 – Cold War: U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate.
Current Mood: artistic
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June 10th, 2009
04:10 pm
Today in History - June 10
1692 – Salem witch trials: Bridget Bishop is hanged at Gallows Hill near Salem, Massachusetts, for “certaine Detestable Arts called Witchcraft & Sorceries”. You’d think she was a global warming denier or something really bad.
1805 – First Barbary War: Yussif Karamanli signs a treaty ending hostilities with the United States. This was after subtle negotiation using powder and shot administered by the US Navy and the US Marines. The Marines ended up with that “to the shores of Tripoli” thing. This is how pirates should be dealt with.
1848 - First telegraph link between NYC & Chicago. Data transmission drops from days to minutes.
1871 – Sinmiyangyo: Captain McLane Tilton leads 109 Marines in naval attack on Han River forts on Kanghwa Island, Korea. For the first time, the Medal Of Honor is awarded for a foreign conflict.
1898 – Spanish-American War: U.S. Marines land on the island of Cuba. What is this? Like US Marine Day?
1944 – World War II: 642 men, women and children are killed in the Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre in France. In Distomo, Boeotia Prefecture, Greece 218 men, women and children are massacred by German troops. This is what REAL Nazis do, not drip some water in a prisoner’s nose…
1946 - Italian Republic established. The previous exercise in “charismatic dictator who speaks well” had not worked out.
1967 – Six-Day War ends: Israel and Syria agree to a cease-fire as the Arabs tire of hitting Israel in the fist with their face.
1967 - USSR drops diplomatic relations with Israel. It couldn’t be because that’s millions of dollars of Russian tanks, aircraft, hardware and training lying dead and burning all around Israel, could it?
1977 – Apple Computer ships its first Apple II personal computer. It sells for US$1298 with 4 KILObytes of RAM and for $2638 you could get it decked out with 48 kB RAM. For comparison, a brand new VW Beetle cost under $2000.
1985 - In its most stunning naval victory of the 20th century, Operation Satanique, French agents brave hordes of tree-hugging, patchouli-smelling, dope-smoking hippies to blow up Greenpeace battle cruiser Rainbow Warrior in port in New Zealand.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/aliens/awake.gif) awake
Current Music: The Unfinished - Eluvium
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June 9th, 2009
03:27 am
Random pithy quote: Some people are like Slinkies ... not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.
Current Mood: amused
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June 8th, 2009
03:40 am
Random pithy quote: Despite the cost of living, have you noticed how popular it remains?
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/aliens/sick.gif) sick
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May 26th, 2009
04:43 pm
Today in History - May 26
1865 – American Civil War: Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi division, is the last general of the Confederate Army to surrender, at Galveston, Texas.
1908 – At Masjed Soleyman (???? ??????) in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made. The rights to the resource are quickly acquired by the United Kingdom.
1927 - Ford Motor Company manufactures its 15 millionth Model T automobile.
1940 – World War II: Battle of Dunkirk – In France, Allied forces begin a massive evacuation from Dunkirk, France.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/aliens/stressed.gif) stressed
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