Fun On this date in history...

You have now made it boringer.

 

Boringer is not a word.

 

...

 

On this date in history Gene Hunt asked Annie Cartwright to detect him "a nice packet of Garibaldis."

 

Let me guess -- you failed history. Dude, if you don't like the stuff we're posting here, feel free to contribute!

March 27:

1794 – The United States Government establishes a permanent navy and authorizes the building of six frigates.
1854 – Crimean War: The United Kingdom declares war on Russia.
1871 – The first international rugby football match, when Scotland defeats England in Edinburgh at Raeburn Place.
1886 – Famous Apache warrior, Geronimo, surrenders to the U.S. Army, ending the main phase of the Apache Wars.
1915 – Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the United States, is put in quarantine, where she would remain for the rest of her life.
1998 – The Food and Drug Administration approves Viagra for use as a treatment for male impotence, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States.

Births:
1785 – King Louis XVII of France
1899 – Gloria Swanson, American actress
1935 – Julian Glover, British actor
1962 – Kevin J. Anderson, American science fiction author
1970 – Mariah Carey, American singer and actress
1975 – Fergie, American pop singer

Deaths:
1625 – King James I of England and Ireland, James VI of Scotland
1926 – Georges Vézina, Canadian ice hockey player
1968 – Yuri Gagarin, Soviet cosmonaut
1972 – M. C. Escher, Dutch artist
2002 – Milton Berle, American actor and comedian
2002 – Dudley Moore, British actor

 

1935 – Julian Glover, British actor
[/quote]

General Veers!

 

Yep! I wondered if someone would catch that!

 

In 1966, Pickles the dog found the World Cup. I'm not even kidding.

 

Eep, forgot, it's also Quentin Tarantino's birthday!

 

And Kevin J. Anderson, author of many a Star Wars book, including the Jedi Academy Trilogy.

 

And every bad book in the Dune series.

 

KJA was in there. And he only writes bad books.

 

True, but it's a rare man who can do so while tricking someone into destroying their own family's legacy.

 

ON THIS DAY

On March 28, 1979, America's worst commercial nuclear accident occurred inside the Unit Two reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, Pa.

 

March 28:

845 – Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving.
1939 – Spanish Civil War: Generalissimo Francisco Franco conquers Madrid after a three-year siege.
1959 – The State Council of the People's Republic of China dissolves the Government of Tibet.
1968 – Brazilian high school student Edson Luís de Lima Souto is shot by the police in a protest for cheaper meals at a restaurant for low-income students. The aftermath of his death is one of the first major events against the military dictatorship.
1970 – Gediz earthquake: A 7.2 magnitude earthquake strikes western Turkey at about 23:05 local time, killed 1,086 and injured 1,260.
1978 – The US Supreme Court hands down 5-3 decision in Stump v. Sparkman, 435 U.S. 349, a controversial case involving involuntary sterilization and judicial immunity.
1990 – President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal.

Births:

1515 – Teresa of Avila, Spanish Carmelite nun and saint
1868 – Maxim Gorky, Russian author
1910 – Queen Ingrid of Denmark
1948 – Dianne Wiest, American actress
1969 – Brett Ratner, American director
1970 – Vince Vaughn, American actor
1986 – Lady Gaga, American singer and songwriter

Deaths:

1881 – Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, Russian composer
1884 – Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany (son of Queen Victoria, and the first of the royal hemophiliacs)
1943 – Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian composer and pianist
1969 – Dwight D. Eisenhower, American politician, 34th President of the United States
1979 – Emmett Kelly, American clown
1985 – Marc Chagall, Russian painter
1987 – Maria von Trapp, Austrian singer
2004 – Peter Ustinov, British actor

 

ON THIS DAY

On March 29, 1973, the last United States troops left South Vietnam, ending America's direct military involvement in the Vietnam War

 

ON THIS DAY

On March 30, 1981, President Reagan was shot and seriously injured outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John W. Hinckley Jr. Also wounded were White House news secretary James Brady, a Secret Service agent and a District of Columbia police officer.

 

March 30:

1822 – The Florida Territory is created in the United States.
1842 – Ether anesthesia is used for the first time, in an operation by the American surgeon Dr. Crawford Long.
1867 – Alaska is purchased from Russia for $7.2 million, about 2 cent/acre ($4.19/km²), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward.
1870 – Texas is readmitted to the Union following Reconstruction.
1944 – Allied bombing raid on Nuremberg. Along the English eastern coast 795 aircraft are despatched, including 572 Lancasters, 214 Halifaxes and 9 Mosquitos. The bombers meet resistance at the coasts of Belgium and the Netherlands from German fighters. In total, 95 bombers are lost, making it the largest Bomber Command loss of World War II.


Births:

1853 – Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter
1874 – Charles Lightoller, English 2nd Officer on the RMS Titanic
1930 – John Astin, American actor
1937 – Warren Beatty, American actor and director
1945 – Eric Clapton, British guitarist
1950 – Robbie Coltrane, Scottish actor and comedian
1957 – Paul Reiser, American actor
1962 – MC Hammer, American rapper
1964 – Tracy Chapman, American singer-songwriter
1964 – Ian Ziering, American actor
1968 – Celine Dion, Canadian singer
1972 – Makoto Nagano, Ninja Warrior Champion
1976 – Ty Conklin, American ice hockey player
1979 – Norah Jones, American singer-songwriter and actress

Deaths:

1806 – Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (an ancestor of both Princess Di and Sarah Ferguson)
1840 – Beau Brummell, English fashion arbiter
1966 – Maxfield Parrish, American painter and illustrator
2002 – Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, of the United Kingdom

 

March 31:

1492 – Queen Isabella of Castille issues the Alhambra decree, ordering her 150,000 Jewish and muslim subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion.
1889 – The Eiffel Tower is officially opened.
1909 – Construction of the ill fated RMS Titanic begins.
1930 – The Motion Pictures Production Code is instituted, imposing strict guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion and violence in film, in the U.S., for the next thirty eight years.
1931 – An earthquake destroys Managua, Nicaragua, killing 2,000.
1991 – Georgian independence referendum, 1991: nearly 99 percent of the voters support the country's independence from the Soviet Union.
1995 – Selena, an American singer, was murdered by her friend and employee of her boutiques Yolanda Saldívar who was embezzling money from the establishments. The event was named "Black Friday" by Hispanics.

Births:

1499 – Pope Pius IV
1519 – King Henry II of France
1596 – René Descartes, French philosopher, mathematician and writer
1675 – Pope Benedict XIV
1685 – Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer
1872 – Sergei Diaghilev, Russian ballet impresario, founder of the Ballets Russes
1915 – Shoichi Yokoi, Japanese sergeant (one of the last of the "Japanese hold-outs")
1927 – César Chávez, American labor activist
1927 – William Daniels, American actor
1928 – Gordie Howe, Canadian ice hockey player
1929 – Liz Claiborne, Belgian-American fashion designer
1934 – Shirley Jones, American singer and actress
1940 – Barney Frank, American politician
1943 – Christopher Walken, American actor
1948 – Al Gore, American politician, 45th Vice President of the United States
1948 – Rhea Perlman, American actress
1955 – Angus Young, Scottish-Australian guitarist
1965 – Tom Barrasso, American ice hockey player
1971 – Pavel Bure, Russian ice hockey player
1971 – Ewan McGregor, Scottish actor

Deaths:

1340 – Ivan I of Russia
1855 – Charlotte Brontë, English author
1931 – Knute Rockne, American football coach
1945 – Anne Frank, German Holocaust victim and author
1980 – Jesse Owens, American athlete
1995 – Selena, Mexican-American singer (as mentioned above)
2005 – Terri Schiavo, American figure in right-to-die case

HAPPY EASTER!!!

 

ON THIS DAY

On March 31, 1968, President Johnson stunned the country by announcing he would not run for another term of office

 

April 1:

286 – Emperor Diocletian elevates his general Maximian to co-emperor with the rank of Augustus and gives him control over the Western regions of the Roman Empire.
1572 – In the Eighty Years' War, the Watergeuzen capture Brielle from the Spaniards, gaining the first foothold on land for what would become the Dutch Republic.
1891 – The Wrigley Company is founded in Chicago, Illinois.
1918 – The Royal Air Force is created by the merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service.
1922 – Six Irish Catholic civilians are shot and beaten-to-death by a gang of policemen in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
1924 – Adolf Hitler is sentenced to five years in jail for his participation in the "Beer Hall Putsch". However, he spends only nine months in jail, during which he writes Mein Kampf.
1933 – The recently elected Nazis under Julius Streicher organize a one-day boycott of all Jewish-owned businesses in Germany, ushering in a series of anti-Semitic acts.
1946 – Aleutian Island earthquake: A 8.6 magnitude earthquake near the Aleutian Islands creates a tsunami that strikes the Hawaiian Islands killing 159, mostly in Hilo.
1948 – Cold War: Berlin Airlift – Military forces, under direction of the Russian-controlled government in East Germany, set-up a land blockade of West Berlin.
1949 – The 26 counties of the Irish Free State become the Republic of Ireland.
1957 – The BBC broadcasts the spaghetti tree hoax on its current affairs programme Panorama.
1970 – President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law, requiring the Surgeon General's warnings on tobacco products and banning cigarette advertisements on television and radio in the United States, starting on January 1, 1971.
1976 – Apple Inc. is formed by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne.
1979 – Iran becomes an Islamic Republic by a 99% vote, officially overthrowing the Shah.
1992 – Start of the Bosnian war.
2001 – Former President of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević surrenders to police special forces, to be tried on war crimes charges.
2001 – Same-sex marriage becomes legal in the Netherlands, the first country to allow it.
2011 – After protests against the burning of the Quran turn violent, a mob attacks a United Nations compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of thirteen people, including eight foreign workers.

Births:

1220 – Emperor Go-Saga of Japan
1809 – Nikolai Gogol, Russian writer
1815 – Otto von Bismarck, German statesman
1873 – Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian composer, pianist, and conductor
1883 – Lon Chaney, Sr., American actor
1885 – Clementine Churchill, Wife of Winston Churchill
1926 – Anne McCaffrey, American author
1932 – Debbie Reynolds, American actress
1939 – Ali MacGraw, American actress
1950 – Samuel Alito, American lawyer and Supreme Court justice
1952 – Annette O'Toole, American actress
1961 – Susan Boyle, Scottish singer
1964 – Kevin Duckworth, American basketball player
1973 – Rachel Maddow, American television host and political analyst
1980 – Bijou Phillips, American actress
1983 – Sean Taylor, American football player

Deaths:

1204 – Eleanor of Aquitaine
1917 – Scott Joplin, American musician and composer
1922 – Charles I of Austria
1947 – King George II of Greece

 

On this day, exactly three years ago I filed for divorce!

Actually I retained an attorney who did it for me, but it still felt good.

 

April 2:

1513 – Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León first sights land in what is now Florida.
1800 – Ludwig van Beethoven leads the premiere of his First Symphony in Vienna.
1902 – "Electric Theatre", the first full-time movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles, California.
1912 – The ill fated RMS Titanic begins sea trials.
1917 – World War I: President Woodrow Wilson asks the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.
1982 – Falklands War: Argentina invades the Falkland Islands.
1989 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Havana, Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro in an attempt to mend strained relations.
1991 – Rita Johnston becomes the first female Premier of a Canadian province when she succeeds William Vander Zalm (who had resigned) as Premier of British Columbia.
1992 – In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison.
2002 – Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem into which armed Palestinians had retreated. A siege ensues.
2004 – Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks attempt to bomb the Spanish high-speed train AVE near Madrid. Their attack is thwarted.
2006 – Over 60 tornadoes break out in the United States; hardest hit is in Tennessee with 29 people killed.

Births:

742 – Charlemagne, King of the Franks
1805 – Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer
1840 – Émile Zola, French novelist and critic
1875 – Walter Chrysler, American automobile pioneer
1914 – Alec Guinness, English actor
1920 – Jack Webb, American actor, director, and producer
1924 – Bobby Avila, Mexican baseball player
1939 – Marvin Gaye, American singer
1941 – Dr. Demento, American radio personality
1945 – Reggie Smith, American baseball player
1947 – Emmylou Harris, American singer
1947 – Camille Paglia, American writer
1961 – Christopher Meloni, American actor

Deaths:

1502 – Prince Arthur Tudor, son of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York
1872 – Samuel F. B. Morse, American painter and inventor of the telegraph
1972 – Gil Hodges, American baseball player and manager
1998 – Rob Pilatus, American model, dancer, and singer (Milli Vanilli)
2003 – Edwin Starr, American singer
2005 – Pope John Paul II

 

ON THIS DAY

On April 3, 1948, President Truman signed the Marshall Plan, which allocated more than $5 billion in aid for 16 European countries

 

April 3:

1043 – Edward the Confessor is crowned King of England.
1860 – The first successful United States Pony Express run from Saint Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California begins.
1865 – American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America.
1882 – American Old West: Jesse James is killed by Robert Ford.
1888 – The first of 11 unsolved brutal murders of women committed in or near the impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London, occurs.
1895 – The trial in the libel case brought by Oscar Wilde begins, eventually resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.
1922 – Joseph Stalin becomes the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1936 – Bruno Richard Hauptmann is executed for the kidnapping and death of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., the baby son of pilot Charles Lindbergh.
1968 – Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech.
1973 – Martin Cooper of Motorola makes the first handheld mobile phone call to Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs, though it took ten years for the DynaTAC 8000X to become the first such phone to be commercially released.
1981 – The Osborne 1, the first successful portable computer, is unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco.
1996 – Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is captured at his cabin in Montana, United States.

Births:

1366 – Henry IV of England
1783 – Washington Irving, American author
1823 – William Magear "Boss" Tweed, American political boss
1924 – Doris Day, American actress, singer and animal rights activist
1924 – Marlon Brando, American actor
1934 – Jane Goodall, British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace
1942 – Wayne Newton, American singer and actor
1945 – Bernie Parent, Canadian hockey player
1958 – Alec Baldwin, American actor
1959 – David Hyde Pierce, American actor
1961 – Eddie Murphy, American actor and comedian
1972 – Jennie Garth, American actress
1986 – Amanda Bynes, American actress

Deaths:

1287 – Pope Honorius IV
1882 – Jesse James, American outlaw (as mentioned above)
1897 – Johannes Brahms, German composer (b. 1833)
1936 – Bruno Hauptmann, German murderer of Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. (again, mentioned above)