60 shopping days until Christmas

Given the current state of the economy, most people will probably have to cut back on their shopping. So get out there and start collecting recyclable bottles and cans for their deposit (or see 'Gift of the Magi')

Today in History -
October 26, 1944 -


Vice President Harry S Truman publicly denies ever having been a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

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October 26, 1979 -
Kim Jae Kyu, director of South Korea's central intelligence agency, "accidentally" shoots President Park Chung Hee to death, also killing Park's bodyguard. Park had been president (dictator, effectively) since 1961. Kim is executed the following May for his attempted coup d'etat.

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A few years ago at the New York Film Festival, the film, The President's Last Bang, recounts the events.


October 26, 1984 -


19-year-old John McCollum shoots and killed himself while listening to Ozzy Osbourne records. One year later, McCollum's parents file suit against Ozzy and CBS Records, alleging that the song "Suicide Solution" from the album Blizzard of Ozz contributed to their son's death. Except that the song's subject was quite plainly alcohol addiction. The trial court dismissed the McCollum's complaint.

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October 26, 1991 -


A sudden wind uprooted a 485-pound umbrella, part of an outdoor art project installed by Christo, in the Tejon Pass north of Los Angeles and struck Lori Keevil-Matthews, 33 years old, of Camarillo, Calif., crushing her to death against a boulder.

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October 26, 1997 -


Charles Barkley was arrested by Florida police and charged with aggravated battery and resisting arrest for hurling an Orlando bar patron through a plate-glass window. Barkley later tells reporters: "I regret we weren't on a higher floor."

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October 26, 2002 -


After pumping an aerosol form of the fast-acting anesthetic Fentanyl Citrate into the air, Russian special forces raid the Palace of Culture of the Podshipnikov Zavod. Three days prior, Chechen terrorists captured 750 audience members inside the Moscow theater. The gas kills 116 captives. About fifty terrorists are slain as well, primarily from summary execution (close-range pistol shots to the head).

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And so it goes