Today

Ugg Boot

Today in History:
454 - Roman Emperor Valentinian III assassinates Aëtius in his own throne room.

1348 Jews in Zurich Switzerland are accused of poisoning wells

1745 - Battle of Prestonpans: A Hanoverian army under the command of Sir John Cope is defeated, in ten minutes, by the Jacobite forces of Prince Charles Edward Stuart. 10 minutes?

1765 - Antoine de Beauterne announced he had killed the Beast of Gévaudan. I don't believe it.

1776 Great fire in NY


1780 - American Revolutionary War: Benedict Arnold gives the British the plans to West Point. Think about this. If the English had won the war, Mr. Arnold would've been a wartime hero in England and probably America, or whatever it would be called now. That's just the way it goes sometimes.

1792 - The French National Convention votes to abolish the monarchy.

1827 - According to Joseph Smith, Jr., the angel Moroni gave him a record of gold plates, one-third of which Joseph translated into The Book of Mormon. So angels deal in gold too? Is every being in the universe run by greed?

1893 Frank Duryea drives 1st US made gas propelled vehicle (car)

1895 1st auto manufacturer opens-Duryea Motor Wagon Company

1897 - The "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" letter is published in the New York Sun. Brings a tear to the eye.

1913 1st aerobatic maneuver, sustained inverted flight, performed in France

1915 Stones at Stonehenge, England, sold at auction for œ6,600

1921 - Oppau explosion, a storage silo at a fertilizer producing plant exploded in Oppau, Germany, 500—600 killed.

1930 Johann Ostermeyer patents the flashbulb


1937 - J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is published. I bet he didn't think it would cause such a stir. What a good book.

1938 - The Great Hurricane of 1938 makes landfall on Long Island in New York. The death toll is estimated at 500-700 people. So many deaths today.

1939 - Romanian Prime Minister Armand Calinescu is assassinated by pro-Nazi members of the Iron Guard.

1942 - The B-29 Superfortress makes its debut. World War II hero, yes.

1950 - George Marshall sworn in as the 3rd Secretary of Defense of United States.

1953 Allied forces form West Germany

1954 Nuclear submarine "Nautilus" is commissioned

1957 "Perry Mason" with Raymond Burr premiers on CBS-TV

1958 1st airplane flight exceeding 1200 hours, lands, Dallas Tx

1964 - Malta becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

1964 - The North American XB-70 Valkyrie, the world's first air-breathing aircraft to achieve a speed of Mach 3, made its maiden flight from Palmdale, California.

1965 O Kommissarova (USSR) sets women's longest paracute jump (46,250')

1970 Luna 16 leaves the Moon

1971 John Lennon & Yoko Ono are Dick Cavett's only guest

1976 Wings performs in Zagreb Yugoslavia

1981 - Belize is granted full independence from the United Kingdom.

1982 SF cable cars cease operations for 2 years of repairs

1988 Mike Tyson threatens a TV reporter in NJ

1991 - Armenia is granted independence from Soviet Union.

1993 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin suspends parliament and scraps the then-functioning constitution, thus triggering the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993. Everytime I hear that guys name I think of "Boris the Spider"

1995 - The Hindu milk miracle occurs, in which statues of the Hindu god Ganesh began drinking milk when spoonfuls were placed near their mouths. Do you believe in miracles? Email me your miracle stories at bradsarcade@yahoo.com

1999 - Chi-Chi earthquake occurs in central Taiwan, leaving about 2,400 people dead.

2001 - Deep Space 1 flies within 2,200 km of Comet Borrelly. Only 8 more to go to get to Deep Space 9. I can wait to meet Odo.

2001 - AZF chemical plant explodes in Toulouse, France, killing 29 people.

2003 - Galileo mission terminated by sending the probe into Jupiter's atmosphere, where it is crushed by the pressure at the lower altitudes. It is 318 times more massive than Earth, with a diameter 11 times that of Earth, and a volume 1300 times that of Earth.

2005 - JetBlue Airways Flight 292 performs an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport following a front landing gear failure.

Happy Birthday:
1411 - Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, claimant to the English throne (d. 1460)
1629 - Philip Cardinal Howard, English Catholic cardinal (d. 1694)
1849 - Maurice Barrymore, actor; patriarch of the Barrymore family (d. 1905.
1866 - H. G. Wells, (Herbert George Wells) English writer (d. 1946)
1873 - Papa Jack Laine, American musician (d. 1966)
1886 Teiichi Igarashi Japan, climbed Mt Fuji at age 99
1912 Chuck Jones animator (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck)
1931 - Larry Hagman, American actor
1940 - Bill Kurtis, American television journalist
1947 - Stephen King, American author
1947 - Don Felder, American guitarist (Eagles) Rockin'
1950 - Bill Murray, American actor
1950 Bill Murray Evanston Ill, comedian (SNL, What About Bob, Stripes)
1967 - Faith Hill, American singer
1968 - Ricki Lake, American actress and talk show hostess
1971 - Luke Wilson, American actor


Deaths today:
1327 Edward II king of England (1307-1327), dies at 43
1776 Nathan Hale spied on British for American rebels, hanged
1798 - George Read, American lawyer and signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1733)
1906 - Samuel Arnold, Lincoln conspirator (b. 1838)
1954 - Kokichi Mikimoto, Japanese inventor (b. 1858)
1961 Earle Dickson inventor (band-aid), dies at 68
1974 - Walter Brennan, American actor (b. 1894)