Articles
Friday! History, Space, Music, Cinema, Sports, Quotes, More!
by Walter Pearson REI; Internet and Social Media Enthusiast; Stock aOn This Date In 1779 The Battle of Great Bridge was fought in the area of Chesapeake, Virginia, during the American Revolutionary War. The victory by the Continental Army was responsible for removing Lord Dunmore and any other vestige of British Government for the Colony of Virginia during the early days of the Revolution.
On This Date In 1835 Inspired by the spirited leadership of Benjamin Rush Milam, the newly created Texan Army takes possession of the city of San Antonio, an important victory for the Republic of Texas in its war for independence from Mexico.
On This Date In 1854 The Examiner printed Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” which commemorated the courage of 600 British soldiers charging a heavily defended position during the Battle of Balaklava, in the Crimea, just six weeks earlier.
On This Date In 1861 During the American Civil War, Congress created the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War in an effort to monitor both military progress and President Abraham Lincoln's administration.
On This Date In 1917 During World War I, and after Turkish troops moved out of the region after only a single day's fighting, officials of the Holy City of Jerusalem offered the keys to the city to encroaching British troops. In a proclamation declaring martial law that was read aloud to the city's people in English, French, Arabic, Hebrew, Russian and Greek, General Edmund Allenby assured them that the occupying power would not inflict further harm on Jerusalem, its inhabitants, or its holy places.
On This Date In 1921 A young engineer at General Motors named Thomas Midgeley Jr. discovered that when he added a compound called tetraethyl lead (TEL) to gasoline, he eliminated the unpleasant noises (known as “knock” or “pinging”) that internal-combustion engines make when they run.
On This Date In 1940 During World War II, two British divisions, half of them composed of Indian troops, attacked seven Italian divisions in Egypt. Overwhelmed, the Italian position in Egypt collapsed.
On This Date In 1940 “Fantasia,” an American animated feature produced by Walt Disney and the third film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, was released.
On This Date In 1941 Bruce P. Smith (February 8, 1920 – August 28, 1967), halfback for the University of Minnesota, won the Heisman Trophy. Smith's acceptance of the trophy had some anxious moments when a squadron of American Army planes was mistaken for German bombers and an air raid alert was signaled along the East Coast as Bruce stepped forward to accept his Heisman two days after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. He would later go on to be elected governor of Massachusetts, and be inducted into the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame in 1972.
On This Date In 1946 Through August of 1947,The Doctors' Trial (officially United States of America v. Karl Brandt, et al.) was the first of 12 trials for war crimes that the United States authorities held in their occupation zone in Nuremberg, Germany after the end of World War II.
On This Date In 1950 Harry Gold - who had confessed to serving as a courier between Klaus Fuchs, a British scientist who stole top-secret information on the atomic bomb, and Soviet agents - was sentenced to 30 years in jail for the crime of atomic espionage.
On This Date In 1958 In Indianapolis, retired Boston candy manufacturer Robert H.W. Welch, Jr., established the John Birch Society, a right-wing organization dedicated to fighting what it perceived to be the extensive infiltration of communism into American society. Welch named the society in honor of John Birch, considered by many to be the first American casualty in the struggle against communism. In 1945, Birch, a Baptist missionary and U.S. Army intelligence specialist, was killed by Chinese communists in the northern province of Anhwei.
On This Date In 1954Lino Dante “Alan” Ameche (March 1, 1933 – August 8, 1988),
On This Date In 1965“A Charlie Brown Christmas,” the first prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz, was released. It was produced and directed by former Warner Bros. and UPA animator Bill Meléndez, who also supplied the voice for the character of Snoopy.
On This Date In 1965 The Cincinnati Reds traded outfielder Frank Robinson to the Baltimore Orioles, in exchange for pitchers Milt Pappas and Jack Baldschun and outfielder Dick Simpson. The trade is widely regarded as one of the worst in major league baseball history.
On This Date In 1966 “Fresh Cream,” Cream's December 1966 debut album, was released. It was the first LP release of producer Robert Stigwood's new “Independent” Reaction Records label.
On This Date In 1967 “Disraeli Gears,” the second album by British blues-rock group Cream, was released, and went on to reach #5 on the UK album chart. It was also their American breakthrough, becoming a massive seller there in 1968, reaching #4 on the American charts.
On This Date In 1971 For the first time since the Paris peace talks began in May 1968 to help bring an end to the Vietnam War, both sides refused to set another meeting date for continuation of the negotiations. The breakdown came during the 138th session of the peace talks. U.S. delegate William Porter angered the communist negotiators by asking for a postponement of the next scheduled session of the conference until December 30, to give Hanoi and the Viet Cong an opportunity to develop a "more constructive approach" at the talks.
On This Date In 1974 “Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore,” an American drama film directed by Martin Scorsese, from the screenplay by Robert Getchell, was released.
On This Date In 1976 Anthony "Tony" Drew Dorsett (born April 7, 1954), helping lead the University of Pittsburgh to a national title in 1976, picked up the Heisman Trophy. He would also go on to win the Maxwell Award, the Walter Camp Award for Player of the Year, the United Press International (UPI) Player of the Year award, and first-team All-American along the way as he led the nation in rushing with 1,948 yards.
On This Date In 1982Herschel Junior Walker (born March 3, 1962) became the seventh junior to win the Heisman Trophy while playing college football at the University of Georgia.
On This Date In 1983 “Scarface,” an epic crime drama film directed by Brian De Palma, written by Oliver Stone, and starring Al Pacino as Tony Montana, and based on Howard Hawks' original 1932 film of the same name, was released.
On This Date In 1987 In the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip, the first riots of the Palestinian intifada, or “shaking off” in Arabic, begin one day after an Israeli truck crashed into a station wagon carrying Palestinian workers in the Jabalya refugee district of Gaza, killing four and wounding 10. Gaza Palestinians saw the incident as a deliberate act of retaliation against the killing of a Jew in Gaza several days before, and on December 9 they took to the streets in protest, burning tires and throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli police and troops. ...
On This Date In 1990 In Poland, Lech Walesa, founder of the Solidarity trade union, won a landslide election victory, becoming the first directly elected Polish leader.
On This Date In 1992 1,800 United States Marines arrived in Mogadishu, Somalia, to spearhead a multinational force aimed at restoring order in the conflict-ridden country.
On This Date In 1992 British Prime Minister John Major announced the formal separation of Charles, Prince of Wales and heir to the British throne, and his wife, Princess Diana.
On This Date In 2003 “Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted” (formerly Horizons: Empire of Istaria) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Artifact Entertainment and released in Europe on December 5, 2003 and in North America on December 9, 2003.
On This Date In 2003 “Soulful,” the debut album from second-season American Idol winner Ruben Studdard, was released.The album debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200 U.S. album chart selling over 400,000 copies in its first week, and has since been certified a platinum record. In the U.S. the album has sold an estimated 1,779,000.
On This Date In 2008 Rod Blagojevich, former governor of Illinois, was arrested on federal corruption charges including conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery. As a result, on January 9, 2009, the Illinois House of Representatives voted by a 114–1 vote to impeach Blagojevich for corruption and misconduct in office,the first time such an action has been taken against a governor of Illinois, making him the second state official in Illinois history to be impeached.
On This Date In 2009 The U.S. and China exchanged barbs on the third day of the Copenhagen climate talks, underscoring the abiding suspicion between the world's two largest carbon polluters about the sincerity of their pledges to control emissions. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34341648/ns/us_news-environment/#.TuI5utXfWG4
Hat tip to any included contributing sources, along with: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page , http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history , http://timelines.com/ , http://www.on-this-day.com/
Happy Birthday Kirk Douglas (1916), Dick Van Patten (1928), Judi Dench (1934), Beau Bridges (1941), Dick Butkus (1942), Michael Nouri (1945), Joan Armatrading (1950), Michael Dorn (1952), John Malkovich (1953), Donny Osmond (1957), Terry Moran (1959), Joe Lando (1961), Felicity Huffman (1962), Sebastian Spence (1969), Kara DioGuardi (1970), David Akers (1974), Imogen Heap (1977), and Simon Helberg (1980).
RIP Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1742 – 1786), Broderick Crawford (1911 – 1986), Redd Foxx (1922 – 1991), and Morton Downey, Jr. (1932 – 2001).
Quotes
Only as high as I reach can I grow, only as far as I seek can I go, only as deep as I look can I see, only as much as I dream can I be. Karen Ravn
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. T.S. Elliot
To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe. Anatole France
The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination. Don Williams, Jr.
Work like you don't need the money, love like your heart has never been broken, and dance like no one is watching. Aurora Greenway
Courtesy YouTube et al
Lunar Eclipse: Orbiter To Take Dark Moon's Temperaturen
An instrument aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) will gauge temperatures on the moon while it's in the Earth's shadow on December 10th, 2011. Size and density of rocks can be extrapolated from the results.
For soldiers of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, traditionally the mail delivery comes in one 10X10 container two times a week. However, since the holiday season kicked off, that mail delivery has tripled in size. The large influx in mail is more work for the soldiers to sort, but the morale boost, they say, is worth the extra time and effort, especially on a smaller FOB. Interview is with 1st Lt. Aaron Frazier, personnel officer. Video by Pfc. Andrew Geisler 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division Public Affairs
Have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed passage with you? Walt Whitman
Remember that everyone you meet is afraid of something, loves something, and has lost something. Proverb
Sponsor Ads
About Walter Pearson 
REI; Internet and Social Media Enthusiast; Stock a
3,834 connections, 12 recommendations, 7,820 honor points.Joined APSense since, January 31st, 2010, From Lake Hopatcong, United States.
Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.
