Today in History 1/8

1324: Marco Polo dies.
1746: Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Stirling.
1790: George Washington delivers the first State of the Union Address.
1815: Andrew Jackson leads American forces to victory over the British in the War of 1812.
1825: Eli Whitney dies.1835: US national debt is zero for the first and only time.
1909: Jose Ferrer is born. He was in classics like The Caine Mutiny and stinkers like The Big Bus and Dracula's Dog.
1909: Evelyn Wood is born. She is known as "the Pioneer of Speed Reading."
1916: Allied forces withdraw from Gallipoli.
1918: Woodrow Wilson announces his Fourteen Points.1923: Larry Storch is born. He is most famous for his role on F-Troop, but he also provided the voice for Mr. Whoopee on Tennessee Tuxedo.
1926: Soupy Sales is born. On New Year's Day, 1955 he told his viewers to sneak into their parents' bedrooms and send all the "funny green pieces of paper" to him.
1935: Elvis is born.
1937: Shirley Bassey is born.
1938: Bob Eubanks is born.
1941: Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, dies.
1941: Graham Chapman is born.
1941: Boris Vallejo is born. I loved his work when I was a teenager. I wonder why...1942: Stephen Hawking is born.
1944: Terry Brooks is born. He wrote the Shanarra series.
1947: David Bowie, rocker and Sovereign of the Guild of Calamitous Intent is born.
1964: Lyndon Johnson announces the War on Poverty.
1965: Michelle Forbes is born. She played the eternally ticked off Ensign Ro on Star Trek: The Next Generation.1975: Ella T. Grasso becomes the Governor of Connecticut. She is the first woman to serve as governor in the US who did not succeed her husband.1979: The tanker Betelgeuse explodes in Bantry Bay, Ireland killing 50 people.
1979: Sarah Polley is born. She was in the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead.
1984: Jeff Francoeur, right fielder for the Braves, is born.1992: George H.W. Bush, suffering from stomach flu, urps on the Japanese Prime Minister.
1994: Pat Buttram dies. He is best known for playing Mr. Haney on Green Acres but he also played the shifty used-car salesman in MST3K episode 622 Angel's Revenge which I was just watching this very morning while I got ready for work. 2007: Yvonne De Carlo dies. She played Lily Munster.

Do not want.

This is apparently a real product and not some clever Photoshop job. That's two tastes (three, if you count the clams and tomatoes separately) that just can't taste great together.
The reviews at Beer Advocate are priceless:

"Aroma is like concentrated Long Island Sound."
"...it looked better after I threw it into the intracoastal..."
"A soupy pour..."
Bleah! I don't ever want to hear the word "soupy" associated with beer.

I don't think I'm going to be asking Messier's General Store to order this for me.
Well, maybe one.

Today in History, 1/7

1536: Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII dies (of natural causes).
1558: France takes Calais, the last continental possession of England.
1598: Boris Godunov becomes Tsar of Russia. He was the last Tsar to be descended from the Mongol hordes who ran the place for a while.1610: Galileo observes the four largest moons of Jupiter.
1785: Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries travel from Dover to Calais via gas balloon.
1789: The first US presidential election is held.
1800: Millard Fillmore is born.
1873: Adolph Zukor is born. He would go on to found the Paramount media empire.
1903: Alan Napier is born. He played Alfred on the old live-action Batman TV show.1912: Charles Addams is born.1922: Vincent Gardenia is born. He played Mr. Mushnik in the Little Shop of Horrors movie musical.
1927: First transatlantic telephone call from NYC to London.
1928: William Peter Blatty is born. He wrote the novel and screenplay for The Exorcist.
1927: The Harlem Globetrotters play their first game. They won!
1942: Siege of Bataan Peninsula begins.
1943: Nikola Tesla dies.1945: General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference in which he claims credit for the Allied victory in the Battle of the Bulge. I'm guessing that didn't sit too well with Patton.1948: Kenny Loggins is born.
1949: Anne Schedeen is born. She played the Mom on ALF.
1950: Erin Gray is born.1956: David Caruso is born. Here's an extended montage of his cheesy one-liners from CSI: Miami.
1957: Katie Couric is born.
1959: Kathy Valentine is born. She was the bassist for The Go-Gos.
1959: The US recognizes the new government of Fidel Castro.
1964: Nicholas Cage is born.
1977: Dustin Diamond is born. He played Screech on Saved by the Bell.
1980: President Carter authorizes legislation giving $1.5 billion in loans to bail out the Chrysler Corporation.
1989: Hirohito, Emperor of Japan dies.
1990: Bronko Nagurski, football player, dies.2002: Avery Schrieber dies. He was in the godawful sci-fi comedy Galaxina, which makes The Ice Pirates look like early Heinlein.

Today in History 1/6

1066: Harold Godwinson is crowned King of England.
1412: Joan of Arc is born.
1494: The first Mass in the New World is celebrated at La Isabela, Hispaniola.

1540: King Henry VIII marries Anne of Cleves. She's Henry's fourth wife and actually survives the marriage. Henry hated her from the getgo and, as the marriage was never consummated, he managed to get it annulled.

1649: The Rump Parliament votes to put Charles I on trial. Charles I wanted the power to be able to wage war with whoever he wanted for whatever reason and with whoever he pleased in charge. Trouble is, Parliament controlled the purse stings - new taxes could not be levied unless the approved. No taxes equals no money for war. Charles managed to get approval for a war with Spain but put his father James I's friend and mentor (and maybe lover) the Duke of Buckingham in charge. Buckingham was, to put mildly, an idiot. The campaign against Spain was a disaster and ended up wasting something like 200,000 pounds. Parliament said, "Get rid of him!" and Charles I said, "No way!" and then Buckingham was mysteriously stabbed to death. And everybody in the country - except Charles I - celebrated. No really! People were literally rejoicing in the streets.

The Duke of Buckingham

There was bad blood, to say the least. When Parliament absolutely refused to let Charles pick the next commander and withdrew all funding, Charles decided to levy his own taxes and everyone said, "Let's have the English Civil War!" Charles and the Royalists wound up on the losing side of that one.
1806: Admiral Horatio Nelson is laid to rest in Saint Paul's Cathedral.1838: Samuel Morse first successfully tests the electrical telegraph.
1853: President-Elect Franklin Pierce and his family are involved in a train wreck in Andover, Massachusetts which killed his only son at the age of 11.
1907: Maria Montessori opens her first school and daycare center for working class children in Rome.
1912: New Mexico is admitted as the 47th state.
1914: Danny Thomas is born.
1919: Theodore Roosevelt dies.
1924: Earl Scruggs, of Flatt & Scruggs, is born.
1925: John De Lorean is born.
1926: Mickey Hargitay, husband of Jayne Mansfield, is born.
1930: Vic Tayback is born.
1941: President Franklin Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms Speech in the State of the Union Address. They are:
1) Freedom of speech2) Freedom of worship3) Freedom from want
4) Freedom from fear1941: The keel of the USS Missouri is laid at New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn.1944: Bonnie Franklin, of One Day at a Time, is born.
1946: Syd Barret, founding member of Pink Floyd, is born.
1951: Kim Wilson, of The Fabulous Thunderbirds, is born. He's the guy with the beret who asserts that he's tough enough.
1953: Malcolm Young, guitarist for AC/DC is born.
1955: Rowan Atkinson is born.
1960: Howie Long is born.
1977: EMI ends its contract with The Sex Pistols.
1993: Dizzy Gillespie dies.
1994: Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the right leg by somebody working under the orders of the rival Tanya Harding.
2000: Don Martin dies.2006: Lou Rawls dies.

Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up

Today in History 1/5

1759: George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis.
1762: Constanze Weber, wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is born.1779: Zebulon Pike is born. He is famous for having discovered Pike's Peak.
1781: Richmond, VA is burned by by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold.
1855: King Camp Gillette, inventor of the safety razor is born.1876: Konrad Adenauer is born. He was the first chancellor of West Germany.
1895: Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
1910: Hugh Brannum is born. He played Mr. Green Jeans on Captain Kangaroo.

1914: Ford Motor Company announces the 8-hour day.
1914: George Reeves is born. He played Superman in the original TV show.
1917: Jane Wyman is born. She acted in more movies than I can shake a stick at but these days she's more famous for being the first wife of Ronald Reagan.
1919: The Free Committee for a German Workers Peace is founded - it would later become the Nazi party.
1928: Walter Mondale is born.
1931: Robert Duvall is born.
1933: Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins. I can totally to a bitchin' loop of it in a crop duster while playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. 1933: Calvin Coolidge dies.
1938: The search for Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan is called off. As it turns out, she was transported to the Delta Quadrant with a bunch of other 30's-era humans.
1940: Michael O'Donoghue is born. He was one of the geniuses behind early National Lampoon and Saturday Night Live.
1942: Charlie Rose is born.
1948: Ted Lange is born. He played Issac on The Love Boat.1959: Clancy Brown is born. He played The Kurgen in the original Highlander and provided the voice of Lex Luthor in Superman: The Animated Series and the various permutations of the DCAU Justice League.
1967: Joe Flanigan is born. He played Lt. Colonel John Sheppard on Stargate: Atlantis.
1969: Marilyn Manson is born. I'm so square I couldn't name a single one of his songs.
1972: Richard Nixon orders the development of a space shuttle program.1976: Cambodia is renamed Democratic Kampuchea by the Khmer Rouge.

1982: Harvey Lembeck dies. He is most famous (to me, at least) for playing the outlaw biker Eric Von Zipper in the Frankie & Annette beach movies.

"When Eric Von Zipper likes you, you stay liked!"

1994: Tip O'Neill dies.
1998: Sonny Bono dies.
2001: Nancy Parsons dies. She played Beulah Ballbricker in Porky's.
2004: Tug McGraw dies.

"Ya gotta believe!"

Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up

This Day in History 1/4

1066: Edward the Confessor, king of England dies. He had no heir and, as he lay dying, he laid his hand on Harold Godwin. Nobody knew if that was meant to be a blessing or a curse, but Harold decided it was a blessing and named himself king.
1642: King Charles I orders members of Parliament arrested. They escape by sneaking out the back door (which cracks me up) and England's inexorable slide to civil war begins.
1943: Sir Isaac Newton is born.1698: Most of the Palace of Whitehall in London burns.
1717: England, France and the Netherlands sign the Triple Alliance in an effort to prevent Spain from becoming a superpower.
1809: Louis Braille is born.
1838: Charles Stratton, aka General Tom Thumb, is born.1847: Samuel Colt sells his first revolver to the US government.
1877: Cornelius Vanderbilt, industrial tycoon, dies.
1885: The first successful appendectomy is performed by Dr. William W. Grant on Mart Gartside.
1896: Utah is admitted as the 45th state.
1930: Sorrell Brooke is born. He played Boss Hogg on The Dukes of Hazzard.1937: Dyan Cannon is born. She pretty much screamed her way through Deathtrap.
1941: Elmer's Pet Rabbit is released. It is the second appearance of Bugs Bunny and the first with his name on the title card.
1943: Doris Kearns Goodwin is born.
1944: The Battle of Monte Cassino begins. The historic abbey of Monte Cassino was destroyed by B-17s and B-24s even though nobody was in it.1946: Arthur Conley is born. He sang Sweet Soul Music which nicely bulwarks my theory that you can't make a good song by referencing other, better songs.
1951: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul.
1958: Matt Frewer is born. He most famously played Max Headroom, but he also played the time-hopping con artist "Doctor" Rasmussen in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "A Matter of Time."1958: Julian Sands is born. He played the evil title character in Warlock and, well, that's about it.
1960: Albert Camus dies.
1960: Michael Stipe is born. He is the singer for R.E.M. and is also alleged to have fought in the infantry during the Great Zombie War.
1965: T.S. Eliot dies.
1963: Dave Foley is born. Newsradio is still, far and away, the best sitcom ever.
1965: Lyndon Johnson proclaims his Great Society during his State of the Union address.
1986: Phil Lynott, of Thin Lizzy dies.
1999: Iron Eyes Cody dies. Even though he was Italian (his birth name was Espera De Corti) he played the "crying Indian" in those famous anti-litter ads back in the 70's.



Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up

Today in History, 1/3

1431: Joan of Arc is handed over to the Bishop Pierre Cauchon.
1496: Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine. This would have the ripple effect of causing one of the most excruciating Star Trek: Voyager plotlines ever.
1521: Martin Luther is excommunicated.
1710: Richard Gridley is born. The US Army Corps of Engineers considers him America's First Chief Engineer.
1749: Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.1777: The British lose the Battle of Princeton.
1841: Herman Melville sets sail aboard the whaler Acushnet.
1861: Delaware votes not to secede from the US.
1870: The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge begins.1871: Henry W. Bradley patents oleomargarine.
1879: Grace Coolidge, First Lady of the United States is born.

Even First Ladies love dog dancing!

1883: Clement Attlee is born. He's the guy who won the position of Prime Minister away from Churchill at the end of WWII.
1888: Marvin C. Stone patents the drinking straw.
1892: J.R.R. Tolkien is born.
1905: Ray Milland is born.
1909: Victor Borge is born.

1911: John Sturges is born. He directed The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, and Gunfight at the OK Corral, among others. He did manly movies for manly men.
1922: Bill Travers is born. He was in the MST3K episode Gorgo.
1924: Howard C. Carter discovers the tomb of Tutankhamen.1925: Mussolini takes control of Italy.
1926: George Martin is born. He produced almost all of The Beatles' records.
1930: Robert Loggia is born. I love this orange juice commercial he did:

1932: Dabney Coleman is born.
1944: Pappy Boyington is shot down in his Corsair.1945: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz is placed in command of all US Naval forces in preparation for the planned assaults on Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Japan itself.
1945: Stephen Stills, of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, is born.
1946: John Paul Jones, of Led Zeppelin is born.
1946: Lord Haw-Haw is executed.
1950: Victoria Principal is born.1951: Dragnet is broadcast for the first time on TV.
1956: Mel Gibson is born.
1959: Alaska is admitted as the 49th state.
1961: The US severs diplomatic ties with Cuba.
1962: Fidel Castro is excommunicated. I wonder who the last person to be excommunicated was?
1967: Jack Ruby dies.
1973: A date which will live in infamy: George Steinbrenner buys the New York Yankees from CBS for 3.2 million dollars.
1975: Danica McKellar is born. She played Winnie on The Wonder Years. She's also some kind of genius mathematician too. She's only two years younger than me, so now I don't feel like such a filthy letch.1977: Apple Computer is incorporated.
1993: Johnny Most, announcer for the Celtics dies.
2000: The last new Peanuts comic strip runs.
2005: Will Eisner, comic book artist dies.





Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up

Today in History 1/2

1727: James Wolfe is born. He is best remembered as the guy who gave the Frenchies the boot out of Canada.

1757: The United Kingdom captures Calcutta, India.
1788: Georgia becomes the fourth state to ratify the US Constitution.
1872: Brigham Young is arrested on charges of bigamy.
1900: John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China.
1905: During the Russo-Japanese War, Russia surrenders Port Arthur, China to the Japanese.

1904: James Longstreet, Confederate general dies.

1905: The Industrial Workers of the World forms.
1920: Isaac Asimov is born.
1923: US Interior Secretary Albert Fall resigns over the Teapot Dome Scandal.1929: Canada and the US agree on a plan to preserve Niagara Falls.
1930: Julius LaRosa is born. He was a crooner of note, but he perhaps most famous for being fired on-air by Arthur Godfrey for refusing to take dance lessons.
1935: Bruno Hauptmann goes on trial for the murder of Charles Lindbergh, Jr.1936: Roger Miller is born. He sang King of the Road and Dang Me. He also did the second-most creepy song about pre-teen alcohol abuse Chug-a-Lug. The first is White Lightning by George Jones. Somebody crossed it with Deep Space Nine, of all things:

1938: Serial killer Ian Brady is born. He and his girlfriend Myra Hindley killed at least five people in Britain in the 1960's.

1940: Jim Bakker is born.
1959: Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the USSR.

1965: The New York Jets sign Joe Namath.
1968: Cuba Gooding, Jr. is born.

1974: Richard Nixon signs a bill lowering the maximum US speed limit to 55 MPH.
1974: Tex Ritter dies. "Tex Ritter...Tex Ritter?! And that's when I woke up!"

1990: Alan Hale, Jr dies. He played The Skipper (Captain Jonas Grumby) on Gilligan's Island and was in the MST3K "jiggle-fest" Angel's Revenge.
Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up

Today in History 1/1

404: The last known gladiator competition in Rome takes place.
1651: Charles II is crowned king of Scotland.
1660: Samuel Pepys starts his diary.
1673: Regular mail delivery begins between New York and Boston.
1735: Paul Revere is born.
1801: Great Britain and Ireland unify.
1801: Giuseppi Piazzi discovers the dwarf planet Ceres.
1808: The importation of slaves into the United States is banned.
1818: Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus is published.
1863: The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect in Confederate territory.
1864: George Washington Carver is born.
1877: Queen Victoria is proclaimed Empress of India.
1895: J. Edgar Hoover is born.
1909: Barry Goldwater is born. He didn't really write The Conscience of a Conservative - L. Brent Bozell did.
1919: J.D. Salinger is born.
1925: Edwin Hubble announces the discovery of galaxies outside the Milky Way.
1934: Alcatraz Island becomes a US federal prison.
1939: William Hewlett and David Packard found Hewlett-Packard.
1942: Country Joe McDonald of Country Joe and the Fish is born.
1943: Don Novello is born. He played Father Guido Sarducci.
1959: Batista is overthrown by the forces of Fidel Castro.
1970: Unix time begins.
1971: Cigarette ads are banned on American television.
2001: Ray Walston dies.