Friday, January 27, 2012

Friday! History, Music, Tech, Space, Sports, Quotes, More!

On This Date In 630 The Battle of Hunain was fought between Muhammad and his followers against the Bedouin tribe of Hawazin and its subsection the Thaqif in a valley on one of the roads leading from Mecca to al-Ta'if. The battle ended in a decisive victory for the Muslims, who captured enormous spoils. The Battle of Hunayn is one of only two battles mentioned in the Qur'an by name, in Sura.
On This Date In 1302 Poet and politician Dante Alighieri was exiled from Florence, where he served as one of six priors governing the city. Dante's political activities, including the banishing of several rivals, led to his own banishment, and he wrote his masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, as a virtual wanderer, seeking protection for his family in town after town.
On This Date In 1756 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791), prolific and influential composer of the Classical era, was born. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers.
On This Date In 1785 The Georgia General Assembly incorporated the University of Georgia, the first state-funded institution of higher learning in the new republic.
On This Date In 1851 John James Audubon (April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851), French-American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter, died of natural causes. He was notable for his expansive studies to document all types of American birds and for his detailed illustrations that depicted the birds in their natural habitats. His major work, a color-plate book entitled The Birds of North America (1827–1839), is considered one of the finest ornithological works ever completed. Audubon identified 25 new species and a number of new sub-species.
On This Date In 1862 During the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued General War Order No. 1, ordering all land and sea forces to advance on February 22, 1862. This bold move sent a message to his commanders that the president was tired of excuses and delays in seizing the offensive against Confederate forces.
On This Date In 1888 The National Geographic Society was incorporated. Headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, it is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical conservation, and the study of world culture and history.
On This Date In 1903 The Battle of Dilam, a major battle of the Unification War between Rashidi and Saudi rebels, was fought in the town of Dilam, south of Riyadh, the capital of present day Saudi Arabia. After one year of conquest of Riyadh, Ibn Saud planned to grap Rashidis away from Riyadh by fake news. Ibn Saud has deployed 1,000 fighters in Riyadh and left the city with another 3,500 and captured Dilam. Rashidis followed Ibn Saud to Dilam in order to finish him and regain control of Dilam. During the battle Rashidis lost 250 men, and totally lost control of southern Nejd.
On This Date In 1908 Harry Houdini, Hungarian-born American magician and escapologist, stunt performer, actor and film producer, introduced his own original act, the Milk Can Escape. In this act, Houdini would be handcuffed and sealed inside an over-sized milk can filled with water and make his escape behind a curtain. As part of the effect, Houdini would invite members of the audience to hold their breath along with him while he was inside the can. Advertised with dramatic posters that proclaimed “Failure Means A Drowning Death,” the escape proved to be a sensation.
On This Date In 1926 John Logie Baird, a Scottish inventor, gave the first public demonstration of a true television system in London, launching a revolution in communication and entertainment. Baird's invention, a pictorial-transmission machine he called a “televisor,” used mechanical rotating disks to scan moving images into electronic impulses. This information was then transmitted by cable to a screen where it showed up as a low-resolution pattern of light and dark. Baird's first television program showed the heads of two ventriloquist dummies, which he operated in front of the camera apparatus out of view of the audience.
On This Date In 1927 “The Big Four,” a work of detective fiction by author Agatha Christie, was first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons on January 27, 1927 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. It features Hercule Poirot, Arthur Hastings and Chief Inspector Japp. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00.
On This Date In 1939 Adolph Hitler ordered “Plan Z”, the name given to the planned re-equipment and expansion of the Nazi German Navy (Kriegsmarine). The plan called for a Kriegsmarine of ten battleships, four aircraft carriers, three battlecruisers, eight heavy cruisers, 44 light cruisers, 68 destroyers and 249 U-boats by 1944 that was meant to challenge the naval power of the United Kingdom.
On This Date In 1943 During World War II, 8th Air Force bombers, dispatched from their bases in England, flew the first American bombing raid against the Germans, targeting the Wilhelmshaven port. Of 64 planes participating in the raid, 53 reached their target and managed to shoot down 22 German planes—and lost only three planes in return.
On This Date In 1944 During World War II, Soviet forces permanently broke the Leningrad siege line, ending the almost 900-day German-enforced containment of the city, which cost hundreds of thousands of Russian lives.
On This Date In 1945 During World War II, the Soviet army entered Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Monowitz and liberated around 7,000 prisoners, most of whom were ill and dying. It is estimated that the German SS and police deported at a minimum 1.3 million people to Auschwitz complex between 1940 and 1945. Of these, the camp authorities murdered 1.1 million. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005189
On This Date In 1951 Forcefully marking the continued importance of the West in the development of nuclear weaponry, the United States government detonated the first of a series of nuclear bombs at its new Nevada Test Site, today known as the Nevada National Security Site. Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site began with a 1-kiloton-of-TNT bomb dropped on Frenchman Flat on January 27th. Many of the iconic images of the nuclear era come from NTS.
On This Date In 1965 The Shelby GT 350, a version of a Ford Mustang sports car developed by the American auto racer and car designer Carroll Shelby, is launched. The Shelby GT 350, which featured a 306 horsepower V-8 engine, remained in production through the end of the 1960s and today is a valuable collector's item.
On This Date In 1967 During the Vietnam War, Specialist Four Donald W. Evans, Jr. from Company A, 2d Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, fought and died. During a firefight on that day, in Tri Tam, in the Kontum Province.of the Republic of Vietnam, Evans repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire in order to treat and evacuate wounded soldiers, even after being seriously wounded himself. He was killed during the battle and posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions. He was also awarded the Purple Heart. The United States Army hospital at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colorado is named in his honor as Evans Army Community Hospital.
On This Date In 1967 Apollo 1 is the official name that was later given to the never-flown Apollo/Saturn 204 (AS-204) mission. Its command module (CM-012) was destroyed by fire during a test and training exercise on January 27, 1967 at Pad 34 (Launch Complex 34, Cape Canaveral, then known as Cape Kennedy) atop a Saturn IB rocket. The crew aboard were the astronauts selected for the first manned Apollo program mission: Command Pilot Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Senior Pilot Ed White and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee. All three died in the fire.
On This Date In 1970 John Lennon wrote and recorded “Instant Karma” in a single day. It ranks as one of the fastest-released songs in pop music history, recorded at London's Abbey Road Studios the same day it was written, and arriving in stores only ten days later. Lennon remarked to the press, he “wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch, and we're putting it out for dinner.” The record was produced by Phil Spector, the first of many recordings by the Beatles that Spector worked on that year.
On This Date In 1973 The Paris Peace Accords of 1973, intended to establish peace in Vietnam and an end to the Vietnam Conflict, ended direct U.S. military involvement and temporarily stopped the fighting between north and south. The governments of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), and the United States, as well as the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) that represented indigenous South Vietnamese revolutionaries signed the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam on January 27, 1973.
On This Date In 1975 A bipartisan Senate investigation of activities by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was launched by a special congressional committee headed by Senator Frank Church of Idaho. A precursor to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the committee investigated intelligence gathering for illegality by the FBI and the CIA after certain activities had been revealed by the Watergate affair.
On This Date In 1980 The “Canadian Caper” was the popular name given to the covert rescue by the Government of Canada of six American diplomats who evaded capture during the seizure of the United States embassy in Tehran, Iran and taking of embassy personnel as hostages by the Iranians on November 4, 1979. On January 27, 1980, the American diplomats were smuggled out of Iran, traveling with Canadian passports, boarded a flight for Zürich, Switzerland, at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport. They arrived in the friendly nation safely. The Canadian embassy was then closed that day, with Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor and remaining staff returning to Canada.
On This Date In 1984 Michael Jackson and other members of the Jacksons filmed a Pepsi Cola commercial, overseen by executive Phil Dusenberry, from ad agency BBDO and Pepsi's Worldwide Creative Director, Alan Pottasch at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. In front of a full house of fans during a simulated concert, pyrotechnics accidentally set Jackson's hair on fire. He suffered second-degree burns to his scalp. Jackson underwent treatment to hide the scars on his scalp, and he also had his third rhinoplasty shortly thereafter. Jackson never recovered from this injury. Pepsi settled out of court, and Jackson donated his $1.5 million settlement to the Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, California, which now has a “Michael Jackson Burn Center” in honor of his donation
On This Date In 1986 “Does Humor Belong in Music?,” a live album by Frank Zappa, was released. It features concert recordings from October–December 1984. It was the first album by Zappa to be released on CD only (although it was bootlegged on vinyl for listeners who did not own CD players).
On This Date In 1991 Muhammad Siyad Barre, the dictator of the Somali Democratic Republic since 1969, fled Mogadishu as rebels overran his palace and captured the Somali capital.
On This Date In 1991 Super Bowl XXV was played at Tampa Stadium in Tampa, Florida to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion following the 1990 regular season. The National Football Conference (NFC) Champion New York Giants (16-3) defeated the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Buffalo Bills (15-4), 20–19, the smallest margin of victory in Super Bowl history.
On This Date In 1996 Serbian-born tennis player Monica Seles, the former No. 1 women’s player in the world, defeated Anke Huber of Germany to win the Australian Open.
On This Date In 1998 Paul E. Tsongas Arena (usually referred to as just Tsongas Arena), a multi-use indoor sport and concert venue in Lowell, Massachusetts, was opened and dedicated to the memory of prominent local and national politician Paul Tsongas.
On This Date In 2002 The Lagos armory explosion, the accidental detonation of a large stock of military high explosives at a storage facility in the city of Lagos, Nigeria, took place. The fires created by the debris from this explosion burnt down a large section of Northern Lagos, and created a panic that spread to other areas. As people fled the flames, many stumbled into a concealed canal and were drowned. The explosion and its aftermath are believed to have killed at least 1,100 people and displaced over 20,000, with many thousands injured or homeless. The government of Nigeria launched an inquiry, which blamed the Nigerian Army for failing to properly maintain the base, or to decommission it when instructed to do so in 2001.
On This Date In 2004 “Live at the House of Blues,” a live album and video by the southern California punk rock band The Vandals, was released by Kung Fu Records and Kung Fu Films. It was the band's second official live album and video, the first being 1991's Sweatin' to the Oldies. -
On This Date In 2009 John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009), American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic, died of lung cancer at a hospice in Danvers, Massachusetts at the age of 76.
On This Date In 2010 The 2010 State of the Union Address was given by United States President Barack Obama to a joint session of Congress. It was Obama's first State of the Union Address, though he did give a non-State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress a month after taking office in 2009.
On This Date In 2010 The iPad, a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content, was introduced by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and weight fall between those of contemporary smartphones and laptop computers. The iPad runs the same operating system as the iPod Touch and iPhone—and can run its own applications as well as iPhone applications. Without modification, the iPad will only run programs approved by Apple and distributed via the Apple App Store (with the exception of programs that run inside the iPad's web browser).
On This Date In 2010 Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922 – January 27, 2010), American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist, died while swimming in a hotel pool of an apparent heart attack in Santa Monica, California.
On This Date In 2010 Jerome David “J.D.” Salinger (January 1, 1919 – January 27, 2010), an American author best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, as well as his reclusive nature, died of natural causes at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire.
On This Date In 2010 Zelda Rubinstein (May 28, 1933 – January 27, 2010), an American actress and human rights activist, best known as eccentric medium Tangina Barrons in the movie Poltergeist (1982) and its sequels, Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986), and Poltergeist III (1988), died. On December 29, 2009, it was reported that, after a month-long stay at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after mild heart attack, her close companion and her family made the decision to take Rubinstein off life support due to both kidney and lung failure. On January 27, 2010, Rubinstein died of natural causes at Barlow Respiratory Hospital in Los Angeles at the age of 76. http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-zelda-rubinstein28-2010jan28,0,7108032,full.story

Hat tip to any included contributing sources, along with:


Happy Birthday Steve Wynn (1942), Mikhail Baryshnikov (1948), Mimi Rogers (1956), Cris Collinsworth (1959), Buster Rhymes (1962), Bridget Fonda (1964), Tamlyn Tomita (1966), Tracy Lawrence (1968), Heather Nauert (1970), and Alicia Molik (1981).

RIP Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791), Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling (1775 – 1854), Lewis Carroll (1832 – 1898), Jerome Kern (1885 – 1945), Skitch Henderson (1918 – 2005), Charles E. Scripps (1920 – 2007), Donna Reed (1921 – 1986), Dolores Moran (1924 – 1982), and Troy Donahue (1936 – 2001).


Quotes

The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission. John F. Kennedy

America's abundance was not created by public sacrifices to “the common good”, but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes. Ayn Rand

There is nothing wrong with America that the faith, love of freedom, intelligence, and energy of her citizens can not cure. Dwight D. Eisenhower

Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves. Albert Einstein

The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way. Henry David Thoreau

The American, by nature, is optimistic. He is experimental, an inventor and a builder who builds best when called upon to build greatly. John F. Kennedy


Courtesy YouTube et al

http://ax.itunes.apple.com/us/artist/krista-branch/id376371085
This is a video I edited to show how the song "I Am America" inspired people all over the country and changed our lives. I'm very proud of what Krista has accomplished. Please support her by sharing the video on your social networks.

NASA ScienceCasts SMD "Science Mission Directorate" "Science@NASA News" "La Nina" "El Nino" "solar eclipse" annular "ring of fire" "partial eclipse" "eclipse glasses" "solar filters"
Visit http://science.nasa.gov/ for more.
Timetables and maps at http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/
A "ring of fire" solar eclipse is coming to the USA this spring. It's the first annular eclipse visible from the contiguous United States in almost 18 years.

The skies over northern Europe have been illuminated with an intense display of the northern lights after a week of massive solar storms showered the Earth with radiation. Video shot last weekend in Norway showed the eye-catching effect of the Aurora Borealis in the skies above Birtavarre. The lights are a familiar sight for Scandinavians, but even experienced stargazers were stunned by the intensity of the aurora borealis that swept across their night's sky on Tuesday, after the biggest solar storm in more than six years. An aurora appears when a magnetic solar wind slams into the Earth's magnetic field, exciting electrons of oxygen and nitrogen. Even before particles from the solar storm reached the Earth on Tuesday, a different aurora on Monday night was dancing across the sky as far south as Ireland and England, where people rarely get a chance to catch the stunning light show.

The reopening of an Australian Museum of Natural History has been a real thrill for visitors. Some of the delighted and rather frightened guests however think the animatronic creatures greeting them at the entrance were "a little too realistic".
The Queensland Museum of Natural History in Brisbane chose to mark its reopening after renovation with an unusual party. It invited several animatronic dinosaurs.
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Remember to look up at the stars and not down to your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don't just give up.
Professor Stephen Hawking
on his 70th birthday.



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1 comment:

  1. LauraineFebruary 3, 2012 at 1:51 AM

    I just seen the video. Its very excellent. Thanks for the share. Keep posting such kind of post on your blog.
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