Friday, August 17, 2012

Friday! History, Military, Sports, Music, GOP, More!

On This Date In 1740 Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini (March 31, 1675 – May 3, 1758) was elected Pope Benedict XIV, and served until his death.
On This Date In 1785 Jonathan Trumbull, Sr. (October 12, 1710 – August 17, 1785), governor of both the colony and state of Connecticut, died in Lebanon, Connecticut, where he is buried.
On This Date In 1862 Minnesota erupts in violence as desperate Dakota Indians (more commonly referred to as the Sioux) attacked white settlements along the Minnesota River. The Dakota were eventually overwhelmed by the U.S. military six weeks later.
On This Date In 1864 During the American Civil War, the Battle of Gainesville was fought (not the First Skirmish of Gainesville of February 15, 1864) when a Confederate force defeated Union detachments on a raid from the Union garrison in the Jacksonville, Florida, area.
On This Date In 1914 Through August 23, 1914, The Battle of Stallupönen was fought between Russian and German armies in the opening battle of World War I on the Eastern Front. It was a minor German success, but did little to upset the Russian timetable.
On This Date In 1914 The Russian 1st and 2nd Armies began their advance into East Prussia, fulfilling Russia’s promise to its ally, France, to attack Germany from the east as soon as possible so as to divert German resources and relieve pressure on France during the opening weeks of the First World War.
On This Date In 1915 Charles F. Kettering, co-founder of Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (DELCO) in Dayton, Ohio, was issued U.S. Patent No. 1,150,523 for his “engine-starting device” - the first electric ignition device for automobiles.
On This Date In 1933 New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig played in his 1,308th consecutive game, breaking former Yankee Everett Scott’s record for consecutive games played. Gehrig would go on to play in 2,130 games in a row, setting a record that would stand for over half a century.
On This Date In 1942 Through August 18, 1942, the Makin Island Raid was fought, a successful attack by the United States Marine Corps during World War II on Japanese military forces on Makin Island (now known as Butaritari Island) in the Pacific Ocean. The aim was to destroy Japanese installations, take prisoners, gain intelligence on the Gilbert Islands area, and divert Japanese attention and reinforcements from the Allied landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi.
On This Date In 1943 During World War II, U.S. General George S. Patton and his 7th Army arrived in Messina several hours before British Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery and his 8th Army, winning the unofficial “Race to Messina” and completing the Allied conquest of Sicily.
On This Date In 1943 Robert De Niro, American actor, director and producer, and considered one of the greatest actors in modern movie history, was born in New York City.
On This Date In 1945 “Animal Farm,” an allegorical novella by George Orwell was published in England. According to Orwell, the book reflects events leading up to and during the Stalin era before the Second World War.
On This Date In 1945 “The Vanishing Prairie,” a documentary film by Walt Disney, was released through his own Buena Vista Distribution. It received an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
On This Date In 1962 Almost a year to the day that construction began on the Berlin Wall, East German guards gunned down a young man trying to escape across the Berlin Wall into West Berlin and left him to bleed to death. It was one of the ugliest incidents to take place at one of the ugliest symbols of the Cold War.
On This Date In 1969 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (March 27, 1886, Aachen – August 17, 1969, Chicago), a German-American architect, died. Along with Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, he is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture. After cremation, his ashes were buried near Chicago's other famous architects in Chicago's Graceland Cemetery.
On This Date In 1973 During the Vietnam War, the United States and Thailand agreed to begin negotiations on the reduction of the 49,000-man American presence in Thailand.
On This Date In 1978 The Double Eagle II completed the first transatlantic balloon flight when it landed in a barley field near Paris, 137 hours after lifting off from Preque Isle, Maine. The helium-filled balloon was piloted by Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman and flew 3,233 miles in the six-day odyssey.
On This Date In 1987 Rudolf Hess, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's former deputy, was found strangled to death in Spandau Prison in Berlin at the age of 93, apparently due to suicide. Hess was the last surviving member of Hitler's inner circle and the sole prisoner at Spandau since 1966.
On This Date In 1992 Through August 20, 1992, the 1992 National Convention of the Republican Party (GOP) of the United States was held in the Astrodome in Houston, Texas. The convention re-nominated President George H. W. Bush of Texas, and Vice President Dan Quayle of Indiana.
On This Date In 1992 Former President Ronald Reagan addressed the 1992 Republican National Convention (GOP) http://reagan2020.us/speeches/RNC_Convention.asp The video http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/31259-1
On This Date In 1992 “Force of Habit,” the fifth album by thrash metal band Exodus, was released. The songs are a departure from the thrash metal style for Exodus, slower and more experimental. Force of Habit is Exodus' last release until their 1997 live album Another Lesson in Violence and is also their last studio album until 2004's Tempo of the Damned, since the band went on two extended hiatuses.
On This Date In 1998 Former President Bill Clinton became the first sitting president to testify before the Office of Independent Council as the subject of a grand-jury investigation. The testimony came after a four-year investigation into Clinton and his wife Hillary's alleged involvement in several scandals, including accusations of sexual harassment, potentially illegal real-estate deals and suspected “cronyism” involved in the firing of White House travel-agency personnel.
On This Date In 1999 The Izmit (Kocaeli) earthquake struck, the largest earthquake of the 20th century in Northwestern Turkey (Magnitude 7.6). This quake and the aftershocks killed at least 17,118 people, injured nearly 50,000, caused thousands to be missing, about 500,000 people homeless and an estimated 3 to 6.5 billion U.S. dollars in damage in the Istanbul, Kocaeli and Sakarya Provinces. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/1999/1999_08_17.php
On This Date In 2000 Through August 20, 2000, the 82nd PGA Championship was held at the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky. Tiger Woods won his second straight PGA Championship and fifth major in a three-hole playoff over Bob May.
On This Date In 2006 Through August 20, 2006, the 88th PGA Championship was played at Medinah Country Club in Medinah, Illinois. Tiger Woods won his third PGA Championship (and his 12th major championship), five shots ahead of runner-up Shaun Micheel, the 2003 champion.
On This Date In 2007 “Superbad,” an American comedy film directed by Greg Mottola and starring Jonah Hill and Michael Cera, was released. The film was written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and opened at number one at the United States box office, grossing $33,052,411 in its opening weekend. With a relatively small budget of $20 million, Superbad earned a huge financial profit, grossing an estimated $121,463,226 in the United States and Canada, and $48,408,493 in other countries, for a total of $169,871,719 worldwide.
On This Date In 2008 At the 2008 Olympics, U.S. Olympian Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal in the 4×100-meter medley relay, breaking Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals won in a single Olympic Games, which had stood since 1972. Phelps, along with teammates Brendan Hansen, Aaron Peirsol, and Jason Lezak, set a new world record in the event with a time of 3 minutes and 29.34 seconds.
On This Date In 2009 The 2009 Sayano–Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station accident occurred when turbine 2 broke apart violently. The turbine hall and engine room were flooded, the ceiling of the turbine hall collapsed, 9 of 10 turbines were damaged or destroyed, and 75 people were killed. The entire plant output, totaling 6,400 MW and a significant portion of the supply to the local grid, was lost, leading to widespread power failure in the local area, and forced all major users such as aluminum smelters to switch to diesel generators.
On This Date In 2009 Political fixer, and frequent fundraiser for then-U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama, Tony Rezko's foreclosed mansion sold for $2.8 Million. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/17/tony-rezkos-foreclosed-ma_n_261132.html
On This Date In 2010 Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was convicted on just one of the 24 felony counts he faced - a charge that he had lied to FBI agents about his intense involvement in campaign fundraising. http://www.latimes.com/ct-ex-governor-rod-blagojevich-verdict,0,1812572,full.story



Happy Birthday Larry Ellison (1944), Columba Bush (1953), Judith Regan (1953), Tim Bagley (1957), Belinda Carlisle (1958), Sean Penn (1960), Jon Gruden (1963), David Conrad (1967), Donnie Wahlberg (1969), Tammy Townsend (1970), Tamar Braxton (1977), Thierry Henry (1977), Cheerleader Melissa (1982), Rachel Hurd-Wood (1990)

RIP Pierre de Fermat (1601 – 1665), John III Sobieski (1629 – 1696), Thomas Stothard (1755 – 1834), Davy Crockett (1786 – 1836), Monty Woolley (1888 – 1963), Mae West (1893 – 1980), John Hay Whitney (1904 – 1982), Evelyn Ankers (1918 – 1985), Francis Gary Powers (1929 – 1977), Ted Hughes (1930 – 1998), Glenn Corbett (1933 – 1993)


Quotes

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope. Winston Churchill

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. Galileo Galilei

The fiery trials through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. Abraham Lincoln

To bear defeat with dignity, to accept criticism with poise, to receive honors with humility - these are marks of maturity and graciousness. William Arthur Ward

May the sun shine all day long, everything go right and nothing wrong. May those you love bring love back to you, and may all the wishes you wish come true! Irish Blessings


Courtesy You Tube et al

Performed by David Hudson [http://twitter.com/dubhud]
Executive Producer: Alexander JL Theoharis [http://twitter.com/Satire]
Director: Forest Gibson [http://twitter.com/ForestGibson]
Editors: Cinesaurus [http://cinesaurus.com]
Steven Hudson [http://twitter.com/HudsonFilm] & David Hudson [http://twitter.com/DubHud]
Written by Rob Whitehead [http://twitter.com/RobCWhitehead]...

FUKUOKA, Japan (Aug. 12, 2012) - The forward-deployed U.S. Navy 7th Fleet Band performs a series of concerts in Fukuoka, Japan. The concerts not only entertained but strengthened ties between the U.S. and their host country of Japan. (U.S. Navy video by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Brannon Deugan)

Topics: Mitt Romney-Paul Ryan-Tina Fey-Vice President Biden-President Obama-NASA's Curiosity Rover-Time Magazine-CNN-Fareed Zakaria-Elton John-Madonna-Whitney Houston
Starring: Jodi Miller; Production: Dialog New Media



The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity. Albert Einstein

There is a theory which states that if ever for any reason anyone discovers what exactly the Universe is for and why it is here it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another that states that this has already happened. Douglas Adams

Go Play!

No comments:

Post a Comment