Best Liberal Quote of the Day: On Intelligence "Intelligence, yes, but of what kind and aim? There is the intelligence of Socrates and the intelligence of the thief or a forger." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Stupidest and/or Scariest Quote from the Right for the Day: On Killing Big Bird "The Soviet system tried to manage production based production based on the values of the central government and say how money ought to be spent. And it collapsed. And when it came down, it wasn't long before the Berlin wall fell, too. Thankfully, the people are free there, and they are rejoicing over their freedom, and the government that was at the center of things no longer tells them what to produce and what not to produce . . . Here we have the National Endowment for the Arts with the argument or suggestion that it is a good thing to have Government telling people from the center of the Nation what they should or should not reward with their own support." — Sen. John "I won't dance" Ashcroft (R-MO). Congressional Record, S9388, 9-16-97. {The people of Missouri thought he did such a bang up job as senator that he lost his re-election bid to a dead man.}
Dumbest Thing Said for the Day: From Politics "We are getting into semantics again. If we use words, there is a very grave danger they will be misinterpreted." — H. R. Haldemn
{Disclaimer: I have attempted to give credit to the many different sources that I get entries. Any failure to do so is unintentional. Any statement enclosed by brackets like these are the opinion of the blogger, A Proud Liberal.}
NASA ASTRONOMY PICTURE OF THE DAY
Comet Holmes Grows a Tail
Credit & Copyright: Vicent Peris and José Luis Lamadrid (astrofoto.es)
Click picture to go to NASA APOD site for full explanation
EVENTS
● 1499 - Publication of the Catholicon in Treguier (Brittany). This Breton-French-Latin dictionary was written in 1464 by Jehan Lagadeuc. It is the first Breton dictionary as well as the first French dictionary.
● 1530 - St. Felix's Flood destroys the city of Reimerswaal in the Netherlands
● 1556 - Second Battle of Panipat: Fifty miles north of Delhi, a Mughal Army defeats Hindu forces of General Hemu to ensure Akbar the throne of India. In the battle, Hemu became unconscious when an arrow stuck into his right eye. He was brought as captive to Akbar and was hanged.
● 1605 - Gunpowder plot to blow up English Parliament detected. Leader Guy Fawkes and other Catholic conspirators are later hanged for the deed; over the next few months, English authorities also arrested, tortured, or killed dozens of innocent English Catholics. Now celebrated as a national English holiday. {This event was featured prominently in the recent movie, "V for Vendetta."}
● 1688 - Glorious Revolution begins: William of Orange lands at Brixham.
● 1757 - Seven Years' War: Frederick the Great defeats the allied armies of France and the Holy Roman Empire in the Battle of Rossbach.
● 1768 - Treaty of Fort Stanwix - The purpose of the conference was to adjust the boundary line between Indian lands and white settlements set forth in the Proclamation of 1763 in the Thirteen Colonies.
● 1780 - French-American force under Colonel LaBalme is defeated by Miami Chief Little Turtle.
● 1831 - Nat Turner, American slave leader, is tried, convicted, and sentenced to death.
● 1838 - The United States of Central America begins to disintegrate when Nicaragua separated from the federation.
● 1854 - The Battle of Inkerman is fought during the Crimean War.
● 1855 - Eugene Debs, U.S. socialist anti-militarist, born, Terre Haute, Indiana. IWW founder, jailed seditionist, perennial presidential candidate who received a million votes as a socialist candidate in 1920 while in jail for opposing U.S. entry into World War I.
● 1857 - Birth of anti-capitalist muckraker Ida Tarbell lives, Erie County, Pennsylvania.
● 1862 - 303 Santee Sioux suspects in Minnesota uprising sentenced to hang. Pres. Abraham Lincoln commutes many sentences, but 38 chose to hang at Mankato, singing their death song on their scaffold. The largest mass execution in U.S. history.
● 1862 - American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln removes George B. McClellan as commander of the Union Army for the second and final time.
● 1870 - U.S. - One of the nation's first train robberies. Seven men, led by Big Jack Davis, hopped aboard the eastbound express for Reno, forced the train to a stop, and rode off to Virginia City, Nevada with $40,000 in minted coin. Ten hours later, as the delayed engine chugged into Independence, Calif., six army deserters jumped aboard to take $4,490,000 that the Davis gang had overlooked. Within days, authorities captured all 13 bandits, who were sentenced variously from 10 to 15 years in prison.
● 1871 - Cafiero and Tucci, at an anarchist Congress in Rome, distribute the proclamation of Bakunin, against nationalism, republicanism, and Marxist authoritarianism.
● 1875 - Susan B. Anthony and friends arrested for attempting to vote, Rochester, N.Y.
● 1886 - Guy Aldred, British anarchist anti-militarist, born.
● 1895 - George B. Selden is granted the first U.S. patent for an automobile.
● 1902 - Everett (Wash.) Central Labor Council formed.
● 1911 - After declaring war on the Ottoman Empire on September 29, 1911, Italy annexes Tripoli and Cyrenaica.
● 1912 - Eugene Debs wins largest percentage ever by a socialist, of popular presidential vote - six percent.
● 1913 - Los Angeles receives its first piped-in water from Owens Valley, 200 miles northeast of the city. It makes possible the rampant land speculation that fueled the spectacular growth of Southern California.
● 1913 - The insane king Otto of Bavaria is deposed by his cousin, Prince Regent Ludwig, who assumes the title Ludwig III.
● 1913 - United Kingdom annexes Cyprus, and together with France declares war on the Ottoman Empire.
● 1916 - The Kingdom of Poland is proclaimed by the Act of November 5th of the emperors of Germany and Austria-Hungary.
● 1916 - Seven IWW union activists killed, scores wounded in Everett (Wash.) massacre when police attack a group of 280 picketers arriving on a ferry from Seattle. Seventy-four union members are charged with murder in the incident; charges are later dropped. Cops get away with murder.
● 1917 - October Revolution: In Tallinn, Esthonia, Communist leader Jaan Anwelt leads revolutionaries in overthrowing the Provisional Government (As Esthonia and Russia are still using the Julian Calendar, subsequent period references show an October 23 date).
● 1917 - St. Tikhon of Moscow is elected the Patriarch of Moscow and of the Russian Orthodox Church.
● 1920 - Debs, Convict #9653, receives nearly one million votes as Socialist Party presidential candidate while in jail, serving a ten-year sentence for opposing World War I.
● 1926 - Negro History Week initiated by Carter G. Woodson.
● 1928 - Columbia - Five thousand banana workers strike against United Fruit Company. One thousand killed.
● 1935 - In the heart of the Great Depression, Parker Brothers introduces the board game "Monopoly."
● 1937 - World War II: Adolf Hitler holds a secret meeting and states his plans for acquiring "living space" for the German people.
● 1940 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected to an unprecedented and never to be repeated third term as President of The United States of America.
● 1942 - The World War II Second Battle of El Alamein is won by the British in El Alamein, Egypt.
● 1945 - Colombia joins the United Nations.
● 1949 - Peace Pledge Union sets up Nonviolence Commission, leading to direct action against nuclear weapons. Britain.
● 1962 - United Nations General Assembly demands complete nuclear weapons testing ban.
● 1962 - A mining accident kills 21 miners at the government-owned Kings Bay Coal Company on Svalbard, leading the Norwegian government to close the mine.
● 1964 - Free Speech Movement coalesces when thousands of University of California-Berkeley students rally and occupy Sproul Hall.
● 1965 - State of Emergency declared in Rhodesia after collapse of negotiations with Great Britain over Rhodesian independence (UDI would follow six days later).
● 1966 - Walk for Love and Peace and Freedom - 10,000+ attend, including Poets Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder, Paul Krassner, and the Fugs. The "first hippie style demo" in New York.
● 1967 - The Hither Green rail crash in the United Kingdom kills 49 people. The survivors include Bee Gee Robin Gibb.
● 1968 - Shirley Chisholm is first black woman to be elected to U.S. Congress.
● 1968 - Richrad Nixon defeats Hubert Humphrey by narrowest margin of victory in a presidential campaign since 1912 - .7% (43.4-42.7). {Most of the rest went to racist George Wallace who wins five states and is the last third party candidate to win any electoral college votes.}
● 1968 - Washington state voters reject an initiative that would ban the export of raw logs.
● 1969 - Hull of the ship Keo fails off the Massachusetts coast, spilling 8,820,000 gallons of oil in the Atlantic.
● 1970 - Indians occupy federal land near Davis, California.
● 1970 - Vietnam War: The United States Military Assistance Command in Vietnam reports the lowest weekly American soldier death toll in five years (24).
● 1974 - Voters ban underground bomb tests, Colorado.
● 1974 - World Food Conference begins, Rome.
● 1977 - Pres. Carter vetoes Tennessee Clinch River (Tenn.) Breeder Reactor.
● 1978 - Voters agree to leave nuclear reactor unfuelled, Zwentendorf, Austria.
● 1979 - Ayatollah Khomeini declares the USA to be "the great Satan".
● 1982 - Demo at Honeywell, Minnesota's largest defense contractor, 36 arrested. The "Honeywell Project," a local campaign to target the arms maker, has dogged the company for over three decades, at times with enormous success. It continues today, targeting Alliant Technologies, the arms-making branch of Honeywell spun off in the 1990s.
● 1983 - Byford Dolphin diving bell accident kills five and leaves one severely injured.
● 1984 - Anti-apartheid general strike by black workers, South Africa.
● 1986 - USS Rentz (FFG-46), USS Reeves (DLG-24) and USS Oldendorf (DD-972) visit Qingdao (Tsing Tao) China — the first US Naval visit to China since 1949.
● 1987 - Govan Mbeki is released from custody after serving 24 years in prison. He had been sentenced to life for terrorism and treason.
● 1990 - Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the far-right Kach movement, is shot dead after a speech at a New York City hotel.
● 1995 - André Dallaire attempts to assassinate Jean Chrétien; he is thwarted when the Prime Minister's wife locks the door.
● 1996 - President of Pakistan Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari dismisses the government of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and dissolves the National Assembly of Pakistan.
● 2000 - Emperor Haile Selassie I is given an Imperial funeral by the Ethiopian Orthodox church
● 2006 - Saddam Hussein, former president of Iraq, and his co-defendants Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed al-Bandar are sentenced to death in the al-Dujail trial for the role in the massacre of the 148 Shi'as in 1982. {The sentences while probably well deserved are preceded by a mockery of a fair trial that does not come even close to approaching the fairness of the post WWII war crime trials. They more resemble the show trials held in Nazi Germany during WWII.}
BIRTHS
● 1271 - Mahmud Ghazan, Mongol ruler (d. 1304)
● 1494 - Hans Sachs, German mastersinger (d. 1576)
● 1549 - Philippe de Mornay, French writer (d. 1623)
● 1592 - Charles Chauncy, English-born president of Harvard College (d. 1672)
● 1613 - Isaac de Benserade, French poet (d. 1691)
● 1615 - Ibrahim I, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1648)
● 1667 - Christoph Ludwig Agricola, German painter (d. 1719)
● 1701 - Pietro Longhi, Venetian painter (d. 1785)
● 1715 - John Brown, English writer (d. 1766)
● 1722 - William Byron, 5th Baron Byron, English duelist (d. 1798)
● 1742 - Richard Cosway, English artist (d. 1821)
● 1835 - Moritz Szeps, Austrian journalist (d. 1902)
● 1846 - Duncan Gordon Boyes, English recipient of the Victoria Cross (d. 1869)
● 1850 - Ella Wheeler Wilcox, American author and poet (d. 1919)
● 1851 - Charles Dupuy, French prime minister (d. 1923)
● 1854 - Paul Sabatier, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1941)
● 1854 - Alphonse Desjardins, Québécois founder of the Caisses populaires Desjardins (d. 1920)
● 1855 - Léon Teisserenc de Bort, French meteorologist (d. 1913)
● 1855 - Eugene V. Debs, American socialist leader (d. 1926)
● 1857 - Ida Tarbell, American journalist (d. 1944)
● 1873 - Teddy Flack, Australian athlete, double Olympic gold medallist in 1896. (d. 1935)
● 1885 - Will Durant, American historian (d. 1981)
● 1890 - Jan Zrzavý, Czech painter (d. 1977)
● 1892 - J. B. S. Haldane, Scottish geneticist (d. 1964)
● 1895 - Walter Gieseking, French pianist (d. 1956)
● 1895 - Charles MacArthur, American author (d. 1956)
● 1900 - Martin Dies, Jr., American politician (d. 1972)
● 1900 - Natalie Schafer, American actress (d. 1991)
● 1904 - Cooney Weiland, Canadian hockey player (d. 1985)
● 1905 - Joel McCrea, American actor (d. 1990)
● 1906 - Fred Lawrence Whipple, American astronomer (d. 2004)
● 1906 - Endre Kabos, Hungarian Olympic champion fencer (d. 1944))
● 1911 - Roy Rogers, American actor (d. 1998)
● 1913 - Vivien Leigh, English actress (d. 1967)
● 1914 - Alton Tobey, American artist (d. 2005)
● 1917 - Jacqueline Auriol, French aviatrix (d. 2000)
● 1917 - Banarsi Das Gupta, Indian former Chief Minister of Haryana (d. 2007)
● 1919 - Hasan Askari, Pakistani philosopher (d. 1978)
● 1919 - Myron Floren, American accordianist The Lawrence Welk Show (d. 2005)
● 1920 - Douglass North, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
● 1921 - Georges Cziffra, Hungarian pianist (d. 1994)
● 1921 - Fawzia of Egypt, Queen of Iran
● 1931 - Ike Turner, American musician
● 1934 - Victor Argo, American actor (d. 2004)
● 1935 - Lester Piggott, British jockey
● 1936 - Michael Dertouzos, Greek internet pioneer, Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Director of the M.I.T. Laboratory for Computer Science (d. 2001)
● 1937 - Harris Yulin, American actor
● 1938 - César Luis Menotti, Argentine footballer
● 1938 - Joe Dassin, French-speaking American singer (d. 1980)
● 1940 - Elke Sommer, German actress
● 1941 - Art Garfunkel, American musician
● 1943 - Sam Shepard, American playwright and actor
● 1945 - Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
● 1946 - Herman Brood, Dutch musician and artist (d. 2001)
● 1946 - Gram Parsons, American musician (d. 1973)
● 1947 - Peter Noone, English musician (Herman's Hermits)
● 1948 - Hridayananda dasa Goswami, ISKCON guru
● 1948 - Mel Ab-Owain, Welsh politician
● 1948 - Bernard-Henri Lévy, French public intellectual
● 1948 - Peter Hammill, British musician
● 1948 - William Daniel Phillips, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
● 1949 - Armin Shimerman, American actor
● 1949 - Jimmie Spheeris, American singer-songwriter (d. 1984)
● 1950 - Thorbjørn Jagland, former Norwegian prime minister
● 1952 - Bill Walton, American basketball player and commentator
● 1952 - Oleg Blokhin, Ukrainian footballer
● 1953 - Joyce Maynard, American writer
● 1955 - Karan Thapar, Foremost Indian Journalist, Political Analyst & Commentator
● 1955 - Bernard Chazelle, French computer scientist
● 1955 - Nestor Serrano, American actor
● 1957 - Jon-Erik Hexum, American actor (d. 1984)
● 1958 - Robert Patrick, American actor
● 1959 - Bryan Adams, Canadian musician
● 1960 - Tilda Swinton, English actress
● 1961 - Gina Mastrogiacomo, American actress (d. 2001)
● 1961 - David Bryson, American guitarist and vocalist (Counting Crows)
● 1962 - Abédi Pelé, Ghanaian footballer
● 1963 - Andrea McArdle, American actress
● 1963 - Tatum O'Neal, American actress
● 1965 - Famke Janssen, Dutch model and actress
● 1965 - Kubrat, Prince of Panagiurishte, titular Bulgarian royal family
● 1968 - Sam Rockwell, American film actor
● 1968 - Judy Reyes, Dominican American actress
● 1968 - Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Spanish actress
● 1970 - Javy Lopez, baseball player
● 1970 - Tamzin Outhwaite, English actress
● 1971 - Dana Jacobson, ESPN's First Take hostess
● 1971 - Corin Nemec, American actor
● 1971 - Jonny Greenwood, guitarist (Radiohead)
● 1971 - Sergei Berezin, National Hockey League player
● 1971 - Edmond Leung, Hong Kong singer
● 1973 - Johnny Damon, American baseball player
● 1973 - Alexei Yashin, Russian ice hockey player
● 1973 - Daniella Westbrook, English actress
● 1974 - Angela Gossow, German vocalist (Arch Enemy)
● 1974 - Dado Pršo, Croatian footballer
● 1974 - Jerry Stackhouse, American basketball player
● 1974 - Ryan Adams, American musician
● 1977 - Brittney Skye, American porn star
● 1977 - Richard Wright, English footballer
● 1980 - Christoph Metzelder, German footballer
● 1980 - Jaime Camara, Brazilian racing driver
● 1983 - Mike Hanke, German footballer
● 1985 - Kate DeAraugo, Australian Idol 2005
● 1985 - Tanaka Koki, Japanese idol (member of KAT-TUN)
● 1986 - BoA, Korean singer
● 1986 - Kasper Schmeichel, Danish footballer
DEATHS
● 1370 - Casimir III the Great king of Poland
● 1515 - Mariotto Albertinelli, Italian painter (b. 1474)
● 1559 - Kano Motonobu, Japanese painter (b. 1476)
● 1660 - Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle, English socialite (b. 1599)
● 1660 - Alexandre de Rhodes, French Jesuit missionary (b. 1591)
● 1701 - Charles Gerard, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, French-born English politician (bc. 1659)
● 1714 - Bernardino Ramazzini, Italian physician (b. 1633)
● 1752 - Carl Andreas Duker, German classical scholar (b. 1670)
● 1758 - Hans Egede, Norwegian Lutheran missionary (b. 1686)
● 1828 - Maria Fyodorovna of Russia, second wife of Tsar Paul I of Russia (b. 1759)
● 1836 - Karel Hynek Mácha, Czech poet (b. 1810)
● 1879 - James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish physicist (b. 1831)
● 1923 - Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen, French novelist (b. 1880)
● 1930 - Christiaan Eijkman, Dutch physician and pathologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1858)
● 1933 - Texas Guinan, American saloon keeper, actress, and musician (b. 1884)
● 1941 - Arndt Pekurinen, Finnish pacifist (b. 1905)
● 1942 - George M. Cohan, American musician, actor, writer, and composer (b. 1878)
● 1944 - Alexis Carrel, French surgeon and biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1873)
● 1951 - Reggie Walker, South African athlete (b. 1889)
● 1955 - Maurice Utrillo, French artist (b. 1883)
● 1956 - Art Tatum, American musician (b. 1909)
● 1960 - Ward Bond, American actor (b. 1903)
● 1960 - Johnny Horton, country music singer (b.1925)
● 1960 - Mack Sennett, Canadian producer and director (b. 1880)
● 1964 - Lansdale Sasscer, U.S. Congressman for Maryland's 5th District (b. 1893)
● 1964 - Buddy Cole, American jazz pianist and orchestra leader (b. 1916)
● 1971 - Sam Jones, baseball player (b. 1925)
● 1974 - Stafford Repp, American actor (b. 1918)
● 1975 - Edward Lawrie Tatum, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1909)
● 1975 - Annette Kellerman, Australian swimmer (b. 1887)
● 1975 - Lionel Trilling, American critic and writer (b. 1905)
● 1977 - René Goscinny, French comic book writer (b. 1926)
● 1977 - Guy Lombardo, Canadian conductor (b. 1902)
● 1979 - Al Capp, American cartoonist (b. 1909)
● 1982 - Edward Hallett Carr, historian
● 1982 - Jacques Tati, French actor and director (b. 1908)
● 1985 - Spencer W. Kimball, twelfth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1895)
● 1985 - Arnold Chikobava, Georgian linguist (b. 1898)
● 1986 - Claude Jutra, Québécois actor and film director (b. 1930)
● 1986 - Bobby Nunn, American singer (The Coasters) (b. 1925)
● 1989 - Vladimir Horowitz, Russian pianist (b. 1903)
● 1990 - Meir Kahane, Israeli rabbi and activist (b. 1932)
● 1991 - Fred MacMurray, American actor (b. 1908)
● 1991 - Robert Maxwell, Slovakian-born media entrepreneur (b. 1923)
● 1992 - Arpad Elo, American physicist and chess player (b. 1903)
● 1996 - Eddie Harris, American saxophonist (b. 1934)
● 1997 - James Robert Baker, American novelist, screenwriter (b. 1946)
● 1997 - Isaiah Berlin, Latvian-born historian of ideas (b. 1909)
● 1997 - Epic Soundtracks, English musician (Swell Maps, Crime and the City Solution, These Immortal Souls) (b. 1959)
● 2000 - Victor Grinich, American businessman (b. 1924)
● 2000 - Bibi Titi Mohammed, Tanzanian politician (b.1926)
● 2000 - Jimmie Davis, singer and politician (b. 1899)
● 2001 - Roy Boulting, English film director and producer (b. 1913)
● 2001 - Barry Horne , a British animal liberation activist.
● 2002 - Billy Guy, American singer (The Coasters) (b. 1936)
● 2003 - Bobby Hatfield, American singer (Righteous Brothers) (b. 1940)
● 2005 - Rod Donald, New Zealand environmentalist (b. 1957)
● 2005 - John Fowles, English writer (b. 1926)
● 2005 - Virginia MacWatters, American soprano (b. 1912)
● 2006 - Bülent Ecevit, four term Turkish Prime Minister (b. 1925)
● 2007 - Nils Liedholm, Swedish football midfielder and coach (b. 1922)
HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES
● Roman Catholic:
● St. Bertilia
● St. Dominator
● St. Domninus
● St. Elizabeth
● Sts. Felix and Eusebius
● St. Fibitius
● St. Galation
● St. Kea
● St. Laetus
● St. Magnus
● St. Sylvia
● St. Zachary, Pope
● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for October 20 (Civil Date: November 5)
● Great Martyr Artemis at Antioch
● Martyrs Eboras and Eunous of Persia.
● St. Matrona of Chios.
● Martyr Zebinas of Caesaria in Palestine.
● Righteous Artemius of Verkolsk.
● St. Gerasimus the New, ascetic of Cephalonia.
● New Martyr Ignatius of Mt. Athos.
● Repose of Abbot Theodosius (Popov) of Optina (1903).
● New Zealand,United Kingdom and the province of Newfoundland & Labrador (Canada): Guy Fawkes night (also called Bonfire night; or Fireworks night): Failure of the Gunpowder Plot to blow up Parliament in 1605 is celebrated with bonfires and fireworks.
THIS IS AN ABBREVIATED POST FOR THIS DATE USING ONLY THE FOLLOWING SEVEN SOURCES. A COMPLETE POST IS PLANNED AS SOON AS TIME ALLOWS.
Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.
Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.
Roman Catholic Saint of the Day
Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar
Liberal Quotes of the Day taken from The Best Liberal Quotes Ever: Why the Left Is Right Compiled by William P. Martin ©2004
Quotes from the Right of the Day taken from Take Them at Their Words: Startling, Amusing and Baffling Quotations from the GOP and Their Friends, 1994-2004 Compiled by Bruce J. Miller with Diana Maio ©2004
Dumbest Thing Said for the Day taken from 1001 Dumbest Things Ever Said Edited by Steven D. Price ©2004
Permanent Backlink to Post
1 comment:
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