Friday, May 18, 2012

Friday! History, Military, Donna Summer, Quotes, More!

On This Date In 1676 During King Philip's War, Captain William Turner of the Massachusetts Militia and a group of about 150 militia volunteers (mostly minimally trained farmers) attacked a large fishing camp of Native Americans at Peskeopscut on the Connecticut River (now called Turners Falls, Massachusetts). The colonists claimed they killed 100–200 Native Americans in retaliation for earlier Indian attacks against Deerfield and other colonist settlements and the colonial losses in the Battle of Bloody Brook. Turner and nearly 40 of the militia were killed during the return from the falls.
On This Date In 1776 Through May 27, the Battle of The Cedars was fought, a series of military confrontations early in the American Revolutionary War during the Continental Army's invasion of Quebec that had begun in September 1775. The skirmishes involved limited combat between Continental Army units opposed by a small number of British troops leading a larger force of Indians (primarily Iroquois), and militia.
On This Date In 1783 The first United Empire Loyalists, known to American Patriots as Tories, arrived in Canada to take refuge under the British crown in Parrtown, Saint John, Nova Scotia (now New Brunswick), Canada. The town was located on the Bay of Fundy just north of the border with what is now the state of Maine. Most of the refugees came from New York, which had been under royal control throughout most of the American War for Independence.
On This Date In 1846 During the Mexican–American War, U.S. troops occupied Matamoros, Tamaulipas, with no resistance. More than 300 sick and wounded Mexicans were captured in the hospitals.
On This Date In 1860 Abraham Lincoln, a one-time U.S. representative from Illinois, was nominated for the U.S. presidency by the Republican National Convention meeting in Chicago, Illinois. Hannibal Hamlin of Maine was nominated for the vice presidency.
On This Date In 1861 The first skirmish in Virginia in the early days of the American Civil War, the little-known Battle of Sewell's Point, was fought on May 18-19, 1861, on ground now occupied by the US Naval Station Norfolk. The Battle of Sewell's Point was an inconclusive exchange of cannon fire between the Union gunboat USS Monticello, supported by the USS Thomas Freeborn, and Confederate batteries on Sewell's Point in Norfolk County, Virginia. Little damage was done to either side. USS Monticello's bombardment of the Sewell's Point battery was one of the earliest Union Navy actions against Confederate forces during the Civil War.
On This Date In 1863 Through July 4, 1863, the Siege of Vicksburg was fought, the final major military action in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of maneuvers, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate army of Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton into the defensive lines surrounding the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Confederate surrender following the siege at Vicksburg is sometimes considered, when combined with Gen. Robert E. Lee's defeat at Gettysburg the previous day, the turning point of the war.
On This Date In 1871 The Kiowa Chief Satanta joined with other Indians to massacre a wagon train near the Red River in northeastern Texas, in what would come to be known as The Warren Wagon Train Raid, also known as the Salt Creek Massacre. The Kiowa attacked and quickly overwhelmed the convoy, killing seven. Five managed to escape. The warriors lost three of their own, but left with 41 mules heavily laden with supplies. Arrests of the Indian war chiefs were ordered, and would eventually lead to the first Indian trial in history, the Trial of Satanta and Big Tree.
On This Date In 1883 Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (May 18, 1883 – July 5, 1969), German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, was born. Gropius, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture.
On This Date In 1864 During the American Civil War, the Battle of Yellow Bayou, in the Avoyelles Parish of Louisiana, took place between Union and Confederate forces. After learning of Confederate forces in Yellow Bayou, Brig. Gen. Joseph A. Mower was ordered to halt their advance. Union forces subsequently attacked the Confederates, under the command of Major General Richard Taylor, and drove them back to their main line. The Confederates then counter-attacked, forcing the Union forces to retreat, until they eventually repulsed the Confederate attack. This “see-saw” action lasted a few hours, until the ground cover caught fire and both sides were forced to retreat. Yellow Bayou was the last battle of Union Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks’s ill-fated Red River Expedition, and it ensured that the Federals would escape as an army to fight again.
On This Date In 1896 The Khodynka Tragedy occurred, a mass panic on Khodynka Field in Moscow, Russia, during festivities following the coronation of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, which resulted in the deaths of 1,389 people, and roughly 1,300 injuries.
On This Date In 1896 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled separate-but-equal facilities constitutional on intrastate railroads. For some fifty years, the Plessy v. Ferguson decision upheld the principle of racial segregation. Across the country, laws mandated separate accommodations on buses and trains, and in hotels, theaters, and schools. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/may18.html
On This Date In 1917 Some six weeks after the United States formally entered the First World War, the U.S Congress passed the Selective Service Act on May 18, 1917, giving the U.S. president the power to draft soldiers.
On This Date In 1920 The Venerable Pope John Paul II was born Karol Józef Wojtyła (May 18, 1920 – April 2, 2005). He served as Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from October 16, 1978 until his death almost 27 years later. His was the second-longest pontificate; only Pope Pius IX served longer (St Peter the Apostle is reputed to have served for more than thirty years as the first pontiff; however documentation is too sparse to definitively support this). He has been the only Polish Pope to date, and was the first non-Italian Pope since Dutch Pope Adrian VI in the 1520s.
On This Date In 1940 The Battle of Zeeland was fought, a little-known struggle on the Western Front during the early stages of the German assault on France and the Low Countries during World War II. Several Dutch and French units attempted to hold off the German onslaught by making a determined defense of the Dutch province of Zeeland. The battle lasted eight days, ending on May 18, and was a disappointing defeat for the French and Dutch forces defending the province.
On This Date In 1944 The Battle of Monte Cassino, a costly series of four battles during World War II fought by the Allies against Germans and Italians, with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome, ended with the Allies victorious. A reconnaissance group of Polish 12th Podolian Uhlans Regiment discovered Monte Cassino Abbey to have been abandoned by Axis Forces, officially marking the end of the battle.
On This Date In 1955 Educator and political leader Mary McLeod Bethune (July 10, 1875 – May 18, 1955) died from a heart attack at the age of eighty in Daytona Beach, Florida. Born in Mayesville, South Carolina, Bethune was one of the last of Samuel and Patsy McLeod's seventeen children. Former slaves, her parents were leaders of Mayesville's African-American community. Bethune was an American educator and civil rights leader best known for starting a school for African American students in Daytona Beach, Florida, that eventually became Bethune-Cookman University and for being an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
On This Date In 1958 In Monaco, France, Team Lotus made its Formula One debut in the Monaco Grand Prix, the opening event of the year's European racing season. Over the next four decades, Team Lotus will go on to become one of the most successful teams in Formula One history.
On This Date In 1969 During the Vietnam War, more than 1,500 communist troops attacked U.S. and South Vietnamese camps near Xuan Loc, located 38 miles east of Saigon. After five hours of intense fighting, the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces were driven off. At the U.S. camp, 14 Americans were killed and 39 wounded; 24 enemy soldiers were killed in the action. At the South Vietnamese camp, 4 South Vietnamese were killed and 14 wounded, with 54 communist soldiers reported killed and 9 captured.
On This Date In 1971 The 1971 Stanley Cup Final NHL championship series was contested by the Chicago Black Hawks and the Montreal Canadiens. The Black Hawks made their first appearance in the Final series since 1965; the Canadiens had last played and won the series in 1969. The Canadiens would win the series 4–3.
On This Date In 1974 The Smiling Buddha was the first nuclear test explosion by India at Pokhran. It was also the first confirmed nuclear test by a nation outside the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council having been developed and executed with no foreign help or assistance. Smiling Buddha was a crude nuclear device with a yield of not more than 8Kt.
On This Date In 1978 “The Buddy Holly Story,” a biographical film which tells the life story of rock musician Buddy Holly, was released. It stars Gary Busey, Don Stroud, Charles Martin Smith, Conrad Janis, William Jordan, and Maria Richwine, who played Maria Elena Holly. Directed by Steve Rash, the film was adapted by Robert Gittler from Buddy Holly: His Life and Music, the biography of Holly by John Goldrosen.
On This Date In 1979 “Lodger,” an album by English singer-songwriter David Bowie, was released. The last of the 'Berlin Trilogy' recorded in collaboration with Brian Eno (though in fact produced in Switzerland and New York), it was more accessible than its immediate predecessors Low and “Heroes”, having no instrumentals and being somewhat lighter and more pop-oriented. However, it was still an experimental record in many ways and was not, by Bowie's standards, a major commercial success.
On This Date In 1980 A magnitude 5.1 earthquake at Mount St. Helens, an active stratovolcano located in Skamania County, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, triggered a massive collapse of the north face of the mountain. It was the largest known debris avalanche in recorded history. The magma inside of St. Helens burst forth into a large-scale pyroclastic flow that flattened vegetation and buildings over 230 square miles (600 km2). More than 1.5 million metric tons of sulfur dioxide were released into the atmosphere. On the Volcanic Explosivity Index scale, the eruption was rated a five (a Plinian eruption). The collapse of the northern flank of St. Helens mixed with ice, snow, and water to create lahars (volcanic mudflows). The lahars flowed many miles down the Toutle and Cowlitz Rivers, destroying bridges and lumber camps. A total of 3,900,000 cubic yards (3,000,000 m3) of material was transported 17 miles (27 km) south into the Columbia River by the mudflows. The eruption killed 57 people, nearly 7,000 big game animals (deer, elk, and bear), and an estimated 12 million fish from a hatchery. It destroyed or extensively damaged over 200 homes, 185 miles (298 km) of highway and 15 miles (24 km) of railways. http://www.columbian.com/news/2012/may/17/mount-st-helens-anniversary-monument-gets-new-life/
On This Date In 1987 Earvin “Magic” Johnson Jr., retired American professional basketball player who played point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), averaged a career-high of 23.9 points, as well as 12.2 assists and 6.3 rebounds per game in the 1986 - 1987 NBA season, with which he earned his first regular season MVP award.
On This Date In 1989 A crowd of protesters, estimated to number more than one million, march through the streets of Beijing calling for a more democratic political system. Just a few weeks later, the Chinese government moved to crush the protests.
On This Date In 1998 The United States filed a civil complaint alleging that Microsoft had engaged in anticompetitive conduct in violation of §§ 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1,2. On that same date, a group of state plaintiffs filed a separate civil complaint alleging similar violations of federal law, as well as violations of the corresponding provisions of their various state laws. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/download/legal/RemediesTrial/PubIntDeterm11-1.pdf
On This Date In 2001 “Shrek,” an American computer-animated fantasy comedy film directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, was released through Universal Pictures. It features the voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, and John Lithgow. It is loosely based on William Steig's 1990 fairy tale picture book Shrek!, and also somewhat serves as a children’s parody film, targeting other films adapted from various childrens’ fantasies (mainly Disney films).
On This Date In 2004 Randy Johnson became the oldest pitcher in Major League Baseball history to throw a perfect game, retiring all 27 hitters to lead the Arizona Diamondbacks over the Atlanta Braves 2-0. It was the 17th perfect game in major league history, the 15th since the modern era began in 1900, and the first since the New York Yankees' David Cone against Montreal on July 18, 1999. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=240518115
On This Date In 2007 “Shrek the Third” (also known as Shrek 3), an American animated film, and the third film in the Shrek series, was released. It was produced by Jeffrey Katzenberg for DreamWorks Animation, and is the first in the series to be distributed by Paramount Pictures who acquired DreamWorks Pictures in 2006 (the former parent of DreamWorks Animation). It was released in U.S. theaters exactly six years after the first film. Although the film received mixed reviews from critics, it grossed $798,958,162, making it a commercial success.
On This Date In 2009 The Sri Lankan Civil War came to an end. A conflict fought on the island of Sri Lanka beginning on July 23, 1983, there was an on-and-off insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (the LTTE, also known as the Tamil Tigers), a separatist militant organization which fought to create an independent Tamil state named Tamil Eelam in the north and the east of the island. After a 26 year long military campaign, the Sri Lankan military defeated the Tamil Tigers in May 2009, ending the conflict.
On This Date In 2010 U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar acknowledged the government did not have adequate standards in place for the devices that are supposed to prevent blowouts on off-shore oil rigs. The blowout preventer on the BP Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded and sank on April 20, was not able to stop the flow of oil. Congressional investigators have found that it suffered from leaking hydraulic fluid, a dead battery and an inadequate design. www.usatoday.com/news/washington/environment/2010-05-18-oil-spill-hearings_N.htm



Happy Birthday Bill Macy (1922), Robert Hardy (1925), Robert Morse (1931), Dwayne Hickman (1934), Fran Jeffries (1937), Joan Blackman (1938), Diane McBain (1941), Miriam Margolyes (1941), Alana Stewart (1945), Reggie Jackson (1946), Rick Wakeman (1949), George Strait (1952), Chow Yun-Fat (1955), Catherine Herridge (1964), Tina Fey (1970), Matt Long (1980), Asia Vieira (1982), and Vince Young (1983).


RIP Omar Khayyam (1048 – 1131), Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970), Big Joe Turner (1911 – 1985), Richard Brooks (1912 – 1992), Perry Como (1912 – 2001), Margot Fonteyn (1919 – 1991), Pope John Paul II (1920 – 2005), and Pernell Roberts (1928 – 2010).


Quotes

I believe that we are here for each other, not against each other. Everything comes from an understanding that you are a gift in my life - whoever you are, whatever our differences. John Denver

Let us not be content to wait and see what will happen, but give us the determination to make the right things happen. Peter Marshall, Senate chaplain, prayer offered at the opening of the session, March 10, 1948

I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor. Oliver Wendell Holmes

Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered. Daniel Webster

Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame. Mahatma Gandhi

To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society. Theodore Roosevelt

Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune. Jim Rohn


Courtesy You Tube et al

USS George Washington Conducts Sea Trials

The last MRAP to cross the Iraq-Kuwait border comes home to be displayed at Fort Hood, Texas.

Department of Agriculture. Forest Service. Division of State and Private Forestry. Fire and Aviation Management Staff. (1986)
ARC Identifier 13504 / Local Identifier 95.206 1984
This place in time: The Mount St. Helens story
Recounts through reenactments, personal recollections, and documentary narration, the earth-changing event and aftermath of the May 18, 1980, volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest of southwest Washington. The film represents the work of dozens of both professional and amateur cinematographers and still-photographers. The film leaves the viewer with a positive feeling that the devastated area will someday be beautiful again during the course of the earth-shattering and earth-healing process.

Like the King of Pop or the Queen of Soul, Donna Summer was bestowed a title fitting of musical royalty — the Queen of Disco.
Yet unlike Michael Jackson or Aretha Franklin, it was a designation she wasn't comfortable embracing.
"I grew up on rock 'n' roll," Summer once said when explaining her reluctance to claim the title.
Indeed, as disco boomed then crashed in a single decade in the 1970s, Summer, the beautiful voice and face of the genre with pulsating hits like "I Feel Love," ''Love to Love You Baby" and "Last Dance," would continue to make hits...

Done in Memory of Donna Summer. 1948 - 2012 - May she Rest in peace.
Thanks for all the great memories. Video by Wayne.


Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate, no despotism can enslave. At home, a friend, abroad, an introduction, in solitude a solace and in society an ornament. It chastens vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once grace and government to genius. Without it, what is man? A splendid slave, a reasoning savage. Joseph Addison

We live in a world which respects power above all things. Power, intelligently directed, can lead to more freedom. Mary Jane McLeod Bethune, My Last Will And Testament


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