Friday, February 3, 2012

Friday! History, Reagan, Super Bowl, Music, Space, Quotes!

On This Date In 1821 Elizabeth Blackwell (February 3, 1821 – May 31, 1910), the first female doctor in the United States and the first on the UK Medical Register, was born. She was the first openly identified woman to graduate from medical school, a pioneer in educating women in medicine in the United States, and was prominent in the emerging women's rights movement.
On This Date In 1847 During the Mexican-American War, The Siege of Pueblo de Taos was fought. It was the final battle during the main phase of the Taos Revolt, an insurrection against the United States. It was also the final major engagement between American forces and insurgent forces in New Mexico during the war.
On This Date In 1863 During the American Civil War, The Battle of Dover was fought in Stewart County, Tennessee. The Confederate Army failed to disrupt shipping on the Cumberland River and capture the garrison at Dover, leaving the Union in control in Middle Tennessee.
On This Date In 1870 The Fifteenth Amendment (Amendment XV) to the United States Constitution prohibits each government in the United States from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's “race, color, or previous condition of servitude” (i.e., slavery). It was ratified on February 3, 1870. The Fifteenth Amendment is one of the Reconstruction Amendments adopted after the American Civil War.
On This Date In 1913 The Sixteenth Amendment (Amendment XVI) to the United States Constitution allows the United States Congress to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the states or basing it on Census results. This amendment overruled Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. (1895), which limited the Congress's authority to levy an income tax. It was ratified on February 3, 1913.
On This Date In 1917 President Woodrow Wilson spoke for two hours before an historic session of Congress to announce the United States was breaking diplomatic relations with Germany, due to the reintroduction of the German navy's policy of unlimited submarine warfare.
On This Date In 1924 Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924), 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921, died in his South Street, Washington, DC home from a debilitating illness from a prior stroke. He was buried in Washington National Cathedral, the only president buried in Washington, D.C.
On This Date In 1931 The Hawke's Bay earthquake occurred in New Zealand, killing 256 and devastating the Hawke's Bay region. This magnitude 7.8 quake remains New Zealand's deadliest natural disaster, and lasted for two and a half minutes. There were 525 aftershocks recorded in the following two weeks. The main shock could be felt in much of the southern half of the North Island.
On This Date In 1933 At his first meeting with all of the leading generals and admirals of the Reich, Adolph Hitler spoke of “conquest of Lebensraum in the East and its ruthless Germanization” as his ultimate foreign policy objectives. For Hitler, the land which would provide sufficient Lebensraum (“living space”) for Germany was the Soviet Union, which for Hitler was both a nation that possessed vast and rich agricultural land and was inhabited by what Hitler saw as Slavic Untermenschen (sub-humans) ruled over by what he regarded as a gang of blood-thirsty, but grossly incompetent Jewish revolutionaries.
On This Date In 1944 During World War II, American forces invaded and took control of the Marshall Islands, long occupied by the Japanese and used by them as a base for military operations.
On This Date In 1945 Through March 3, 1945, The Battle for Manila was fought by U.S. and Japanese forces. The one-month battle, which culminated in a terrible bloodbath and total devastation of the city of Manila, was the scene of the worst urban fighting in the Pacific War|Pacific theater, ended almost three years, 1942-1945 of Japanese military occupation in the Philippines. The city's capture was marked as General Douglas MacArthur's key to victory in the campaign of reconquest.
On This Date In 1950 Klaus Fuchs, a German-born British scientist who helped developed the atomic bomb, was arrested in Great Britain for passing top-secret information about the bomb to the Soviet Union. The arrest of Fuchs led authorities to several other individuals involved in a spy ring, culminating with the arrest of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and their subsequent execution.
On This Date In 1953 French oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau published his most famous and lasting work, The Silent World.
On This Date In 1959 A small-plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, killed three American rock and roll pioneers: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, as well as the pilot, Roger Peterson. The day was later called The Day the Music Died by Don McLean, in his song “American Pie”. The plane crash has been called the first and greatest tragedy rock and roll has ever suffered.
On This Date In 1966 The Soviet Union accomplished the first controlled landing on the moon, when the unmanned spacecraft Lunik 9 touched down on the Ocean of Storms. After its soft landing, the circular capsule opened like a flower, deploying its antennas, and began transmitting photographs and television images back to Earth. The 220-pound landing capsule was launched from Earth on January 31.
On This Date In 1972 The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XI Olympic Winter Games, was celebrated from February 3 to February 13, 1972 in Sapporo, Hokkaidō, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympics to be held outside Europe and North America, and only the 3rd games (summer or winter) held outside those regions over all, after Melbourne (1956 Summer Olympics) and Tokyo (1964 Summer Olympics). Sapporo was the largest city to have held any Winter Games at the time.
On This Date In 1981 “Difficult to Cure,” the fifth studio album by the British rock band Rainbow, was released. The album marked the further commercialization of the band's sound with guitarist Ritchie Blackmore once describing at the time liking for the rock band, Foreigner. The album material was started with Graham Bonnet still in the band, getting as far as recording an early version of “I Surrender,” before Bonnet left the band due to his dissatisfaction over the material. American singer Joe Lynn Turner, formerly of Fandango was recruited and sang over backings already completed. Turner stated that, because of this, he was singing in higher keys than he would do normally (and would do subsequently).
On This Date In 1986 The Graphics Group, which is one third of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm that was launched in 1979 with the hiring of Dr. Ed Catmull from the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT),where he was in charge of the Computer Graphics Lab (CGL), was acquired by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs shortly after his departure from Apple. It would become American computer animation phenomenon Pixar.
On This Date In 1989 John Nicholas Cassavetes (December 9, 1929 – February 3, 1989), American actor, screenwriter and filmmaker, died from cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 59. He was also a pioneer of American independent film by writing and directing over a dozen movies, which he financed in part with his Hollywood paychecks, and which pioneered the use of improvisation and a realistic cinéma vérité style.
On This Date In 1994 Just six months before he announced he had Alzheimer's disease, former President Ronald Reagan celebrated his 83rd birthday with a gala celebration. Reagan's final public speech this day in 1994 followed a warm tribute by former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2004/reagan/stories/speech.archive/gala.html
On This Date In 1994 And nearly two decades after the fall of Saigon, U.S. President Bill Clinton announced the lifting of the 19-year-old trade embargo against Vietnam, citing the cooperation of Vietnam's communist government in helping the United States locate the 2,238 Americans still listed as missing in the Vietnam War.
On This Date In 1997 “Discothèque,” the lead single from Irish rock band U2's 1997 album, Pop, was released. It peaked at number one in many countries' charts, including the UK Singles Chart. The song received mixed reviews from critics.
On This Date In 1998 A U.S. Marine jet flying low over the town of Cavalese in the Italian Alps severed a ski-lift cable, sending a tram crashing to the ground and killing 20 people. Cavalese is located in the Dolomite Mountains, about 20 miles northeast of Trento, Italy.
On This Date In 1998 “Yield,” the fifth studio album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, was released. Following a short tour for its previous album, No Code (1996), Pearl Jam went into the studio in 1997 to record its follow-up. The album was proclaimed as a return to the band's early, straightforward rock sound.
On This Date In 2002 Originally scheduled to be played on January 26, 2002, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks caused the National Football League to postpone its September 16 games and play them a week after the scheduled conclusion of the regular season, pushing the Super Bowl championship to February 3. Super Bowl XXXVI was played at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana to decide the NFL champion following the 2001 regular season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots (14–5) won their first Super Bowl by defeating the National Football Conference (NFC) champion St. Louis Rams (16–3), 20–17, as kicker Adam Vinatieri made a game-winning 48-yard field goal as time expired. The Rams had been 14-point favorites to win the game, making the Patriots' victory one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history.
On This Date In 2005 Alberto Gonzales won U.S. Senate confirmation as the nation's first Hispanic attorney general despite protests over his record on torture.
On This Date In 2008 Super Bowl XLII was played at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, and featured the NFC champion New York Giants and the AFC champion New England Patriots to decide the NFL champion for the 2007 season. In one of the greatest upsets in sports history, the wild-card Giants (14–6) won 17–14 over the previously undefeated Patriots (18–1). In doing so, the Giants became the first NFC wild card team to win a Super Bowl. They also became the fifth wild card seed from either conference, the fourth in eleven years, and second in three years, to earn an NFL championship. The victory marked the franchise's seventh NFL championship and third Super Bowl win—New York's first title since Super Bowl XXV in January 1991. The game was a rematch of the final game of the regular season. In that game, the Patriots won 38–35 to complete the first perfect regular season since the 1972 Miami Dolphins team, and the first one since the league expanded to a 16-game regular season schedule in 1978.

Hat tip to any included contributing sources, along with:


Happy Birthday Fran Tarkenton (1940), Tom Gallagher (1944), Bob Griese (1945), Morgan Fairchild (1950), Michele Greene (1962), Maura Tierney (1965), Elisa Donovan (1971), Isla Fisher (1976), and Bridget Regan (1982).

RIP Elizabeth Blackwell (1821 – 1910), Gertrude Stein (1874 – 1946), Luigi Dallapiccola (1904 – 1975), Robert Earl Jones (1904 – 2006), Joey Bishop (1919 – 2007), John Fiedler (1925 – 2005), Richard Yates (1926 – 1992), and Elijah Pitts (1938 – 1998).


Quotes

Celebrating Ronald Reagan's 100th Birthday Celebration, ending this February 6th:

Are you willing to spend time studying the issues, making yourself aware, and then conveying that information to family and friends? Will you resist the temptation to get a government handout for your community? Realize that the doctor's fight against socialized medicine is your fight. We can't socialize the doctors without socializing the patients. Recognize that government invasion of public power is eventually an assault upon your own business. If some among you fear taking a stand because you are afraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even government, recognize that you are just feeding the crocodile hoping he'll eat you last. (October 27, 1964) RWR

Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves. RWR

We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. RWR

Every dollar the Federal Government does not take from us, every decision it does not make for us will make our economy stronger, our lives more abundant, our future more free. RWR

I believe with all my heart that standing up for America means standing up for the God who has so blessed our land. We need God's help to guide our nation through stormy seas. But we can't expect Him to protect America in a crisis if we just leave Him over on the shelf in our day-to-day living. RWR


Courtesy YouTube et al

Broadcast to the American people from the Oval Office. Reagan mentions two triumphs from his presidency: the economic recovery and the recovery of American morale. He discusses America's changing relations with the Soviet Union and shares his regret for the deficit that deepened during his time in office. He concludes by addressing America's sense of patriotism and refers to the nation as “a shining city on a hill.” January 11th, 1989

This 2012 video, "Flight of the Bumblebee," is the title tune on CANADIAN BRASS' premiere Steinway & Sons label release, and, the first recording with all of the new permanent members of the ensemble: Chuck Daellenbach (tuba), Chris Coletti and Brandon Ridenour (trumpets), Achilles Liarmakopoulos (trombone) and Eric Reed (horn). After 40 years, the BRASS have maintained a remarkable consistency in their style and virtuosity, even as the individual members have gradually changed.
This is also the first recording the BRASS have made with their new custom-made gold-plated Bach & Conn instruments built by Conn-Selmer. The repertoire features favorite encores, new arrangements, and world premieres. As with their other recent releases, this disc is an audiophile sonic blockbuster, produced by Dixon Van Winkle and MB Daellenbach.
Brandon was inspired to write this arrangement of "Flight of the Bumblebee" for his colleagues by the trumpet and piano arrangement he and his father Rich Ridenour created for their own duo.

The space telescope captured an amazing view of spiral galaxy NGC 1073 and three quasars that are right outside its galactic neighborhood. Located in the constellation of Cetus, the galaxy has a bar structure in the center similar to the Milky Way. Original Music by Mark C. Petersen, Loch Ness Productions


The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and “slipped the surly bonds of earth” to “touch the face of God.”
And
Man will continue his conquest of space. To reach out for new goals and ever greater achievements - that is the way we shall commemorate our seven Challenger heroes. RWR

We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look. (January 20, 1981) President Ronald Wilson Reagan



Posted by at
Labels: , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)