Never trust your dog to guard your sandwich

It's St. Sithney Day. He is the patron saint of mad dogs.

Make of this what you wish:



A Breton folk story, states that God asked Sithney to be the patron saint of girls seeking husbands, but Sithney said he would rather be the patron saint of mad dogs and get some rest.

(And you thought there were no Jewish comedians as saints.)


Barack Obama is 65 years old today and still happily retired and married.



I'm hoping the former president is enjoying his summer. (His play list came out last week.)


August 4, 1942 –
The Paramount Picture film, Holiday Inn, directed by Mark Sandrich and starring Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby was released in theaters on this date. Kemmons Wilson, who founded the Holiday Inn motel chain in 1952, named it after this movie.



Strangely enough, White Christmas was not expected to be a hit song. During filming, it was thought that Bing Crosby's song, Be Careful, It's My Heart, would be the movie's big hit. When Crosby first heard the song, he was not impressed by it. After Irving Berlin played the song on the piano during rehearsals, Crosby said in a bland voice, "I don't think we'll have any problem with that one, Irv."


August 4, 1954 -
Douglas Sirk's first Technicolor gift for film goers, Magnificent Obsession, was released on this date.



Rock Hudson never knew that Jane Wyman had served as an FBI informer under the code name T-10, providing the names of actors within the motion picture industry whom they believed to be communist sympathizers.


August 04, 1956-
The Merrie Melodies short, Rocket-bye Baby, directed by Chuck Jones, was released on this date.



One of the few Looney Tunes where Mel Blanc doesn't do any voices. Instead, Daws Butler, famous for the voices of Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound and other characters in the Hanna-Barbera library, and June Foray, most famous as the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel, provided the vocal content of the film. No recurring characters were used. As Blanc's contract stated that he receive sole credit for voice work, no actors are credited.


August 4, 1957 -
The Everly Brothers appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show for the second time, (Dan Dailey was subbing for Ed Sullivan, at the time - no word on whether or not Ed was nursing a severe hangover at the time,) on this date.



They performed the same song they played from their June 30th appearance, Bye, Bye Love and then sang Doll Baby.


August 4, 1958 –
The Billboard Hot 100 was published for the first time on this date. The first number-one song of the Hot 100 was Poor Little Fool by Ricky Nelson.



The song was written by 17-year-old Sharon Sheeley when she was still attending high school in Newport Beach, California. Female songwriters were rare at the time, and when the song climbed to #1 in the US, she became the first woman to compose an American chart-topper on her own.


August 4, 1972 -
The blaxploitation classic Super Fly, directed by Gordon Parks Jr. and starring Ron O'Neal, premiered in the US on this date. The soundtrack by Curtis Mayfield became a soul music landmark.



All the music in the movie was done by Curtis Mayfield. This film is one of only a few films where the soundtrack grossed more than the film itself.


Today's moment of Zen


Today in History:
August 4, 1693 -
Oh, great day in the morning (this day should be a great religious and national holiday),



Blind Benedictine Dom Perignon invents champagne on this date.



He has been quoted as saying, "Come quickly, brothers, I'm drinking stars!" upon tasting his accidental brew.


August 4, 1790 -
US Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton urged the Congress that ten boats for the collection of revenue needed to be built. This was to stop smuggling, especially of coffee, which was hampering trade. Congress passed the Tariff Act on this date.



The Coast Guard was born as the Revenue Cutter Service. The Coast Guard was empowered to board and inspect any vessel in US waters and any US boat anywhere in the world.


August 4, 1792 -



Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of England's greatest Romantic poets was born on this date. He died in a tragic boating accident (along with two others) before the age of 30, but he gave us many masterpieces, including Ozymandias, Music, When Soft Voices Die and Ode To The West Wind.

The fish eaten bodies were washed ashore at Viareggio, where, in the presence of his friend Lord Byron, he was burned on the beach - his heart was given to his wife, Mary Shelley, who carried it with her in a silken shroud everywhere she went for the rest of her life.



All I can say is that I'm glad it was just his heart.


August 4, 1884 -
Thomas Stevens wearily arrived in Boston on this date, 104 days after leaving San Francisco (April 22, 1884,) completing the first bicycle trip (on a penny-farthing) to cross the US.



He later continued around world (two years, nine months) on a trip financed with articles for Outing and the Wheelman magazines. The bicycle part of his journey around the world ended on December 17, 1886, when he reached Yokohama, Japan. Stevens returned by steamer to San Francisco, on January 3, 1887.

It’s important to note that some areas were inaccessible to Stevens during his journey so he had to get around them via boat or train, but he did bike through everything he could.


August 4, 1892 -
Someone took an axe and killed Lizzie Borden's millionaire parents: Andrew receives 10 whacks and Abby 14. Based on strong circumstantial evidence, Sunday school teacher Lizzie was later tried for the murders.



She was acquitted of the murders by an all-male jury.


August 4, 1901 -
Louis Armstrong (medicinal marijuana and laxative enthusiast) always stated that his birthday was on the Fourth of July, a date that has been noted in many biographies.







During the 1980's, Louis Armstrong's baptismal certificate was discovered in the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in New Orleans, showing his actual birth date was August 4th, 1901.


August 4, 1914 -
The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime - British foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey



Britain and Belgium declared war after German troops entered Belgium. The United States proclaimed its neutrality (more on all of this later.)


August 4, 1922 -
All 13 million telephones in North America went silent for one minute at sunset during the funeral services of Alexander Graham Bell on this date. Bell was buried in a coffin built by his lab staff in a tomb carved into the solid rock of Beinn Bhreagh Mountain on his estate in Nova Scotia, Canada.



To commemorate his pioneering contributions to telecommunications technology, AT&T and the Bell System suspends service at their switchboards and switching stations across Canada and the United States.


August 4, 1930 -
Michael Cullen was a grocer's grocer. He started working for The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A & P) at 18 and worked there for 17 years. He then went to work for Kroger Stores for 11 years but he had a dream.

Cullen leased a vacant garage at the corner of 171st Street and Jamaica Avenue in Queens, just a few blocks from a busy shopping district. On August 4, 1930, King Kullen Grocery Company opened the doors to the world's first supermarket.



We will be going to a King Kullen this weekend, so I can check out how they are celebrating the holiday.


August 4, 1964 -
Vietcong torpedo boats launched an unprovoked attack against the U.S.S. Maddox, while the destroyer was patrolling the Gulf of Tonkin. The only problem was - it may all have been a hoax.



Regardless, the Congress responded by passing the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing President Johnson "to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression."



And so it goes.

Watch what you do

Today is National Grab Some Nuts Day
.

I don't believe this can legally be celebrated in all 50 states, (especially Florida and Texas.)

How you celebrate is between you and your god.


August 3, 1929 -
Four famous vaudevillian performers took a chance on the new medium of 'talking pictures' with the general release of the film, The Cocoanuts, starring the Four Marx Brothers --

Chico, Groucho, Harpo and Zeppo, on this date,.



When The Marx Brothers were shown the final cut of the film, they were so horrified they tried to buy the negative back and prevent its release. Paramount wisely resisted - the movie turned out to be a big box office hit, with a $1,800,000 gross making it one of the most successful early talking films.


July 30, 1946 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Bacall to Arms, directed by Bob Clampett, was released on this date.



Originally, the audio track for the To Have and Have Not parody featured the actual audio of Bogart and Bacall from the film. However, the Warner Bros. legal department informed the producers that they could actually not re-use the film's audio track, so it had to be re-recorded with impersonators.


August 03, 1947-
The Merrie Melodies short, A Pest in the House, directed by Chuck Jones, and starring Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd, was released on this date.



The film is notable for featuring a sort of "in-between" interpretation of Daffy Duck. He is not necessarily the zany, impish interpretation used famously by Tex Avery and Bob Clampett, nor is he the greedy, self-preservationist version that Chuck Jones later popularized in the 1950s.


August 3, 1963 -
Allan Sherman released Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah (A Letter from Camp), in the US on this date.



Sherman was a writer on The Steve Allen Show and created the game show I've Got a Secret. He went on to record comedy albums. The song won a 1964 Grammy Award for comedy.

And somehow in the same universe, The Beach Boys’ Surfer Girl was released on this date as well. (This is the first song Brian Wilson ever wrote and the first one he produced.)



Ah, sweet mysteries of life. (The B-side of the single was Little Deuce Coupe.)


August 3, 1966 -
Following the end of the series, Columbia Pictures released the animated film, The Man Called Flintstone, directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and featuring the voice work of Alan Reed, Mel Blanc, Jean Vander Pyl, and Gerry Johnson, on this date.



This was the last Hanna-Barbera theatrical cartoon for Columbia Pictures, as well as the last after Hanna-Barbera productions stopped making theatrical cartoons while focusing on animated TV projects. In 1966, Hanna-Barbera was later acquired by Great American Broadcasting when the animation studio began producing their Saturday Morning cartoons.


August 3, 1968 -
The revisionist Western film, Hang 'Em High, directed by Ted Post and starring Clint Eastwood, Inger Stevens, Ed Begley, and Pat Hingle, was released on this date.



Clint Eastwood's first leading role in a Hollywood film. He was already 38 years old. Hang 'Em High is also notable for being Eastwood's first assignment as a producer.


August 3, 1970 -
Shelved for two years after a disastrous test screening at which audiences yelled at the screen and walked out of the theater, Warner Brothers finally released Performance, directed by Donald Cammell, and Nicolas Roeg, and starring James Fox, Mick Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, and Michèle Breton, on this date in New York City.



Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg (mainly responsible for the 'look' of the film) also benefited from a lack of interference from Warner Bros. studio executives, who believed they were getting a Rolling Stones equivalent of A Hard Day's Night, Instead, they delivered a dark, experimental film which included graphic depictions of violence, sex and drug use.


August 3, 1973 -
Stevie Wonder released his 16th studio album Innervisions, on this date. Wonder played nearly all instruments on six of the album's nine tracks.



Three days after the album's release, Wonder was in a terrible car accident and lay in a coma for four days before his friend and tour director Ira Tucker was able to get a response from him: "I got right down in his ear and sang 'Higher Ground'. His hand was resting on my arm and after a while his fingers started going in time with the song. I said yeah, yeah!! This dude is going to make it!"


August 3, 1979 -
A sequel to the George Lucas film American Graffiti, More American Graffiti, directed by Bill L. Norton and starring, Candy Clark, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Cindy Williams, Mackenzie Phillips, Charles Martin Smith, Bo Hopkins, and Harrison Ford, opened in the US on this date. George Lucas was the executive producer of the film.



George Lucas came up with the idea of shooting each of the four storylines in a different aspect ratio. Milner's Drag racing was in the 1950's exploitation style using a wide angle, stationary camera. The Vietnam sequences were shot on 16-milimeter film, like the television reports of the time. Laurie and Steve's campus riot resembled a Hollywood version of student rebellions like The Strawberry Statement or Getting Straight. Debbie's trip were in multiple-image split-screen, inspired by Woodstock.


August 3, 1979 -
The Talking Heads release their third album, Fear of Music, on this date.



The album, produced by Brian Eno, was recorded in Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth's New York City loft where the band often rehearsed. They parked a mobile recording unit outside to record the tracks as they played from the loft.


August 3, 1985 -
Tears For Fears found themselves again on the Billboard charts when Shout hit No.1 on this date, (Everybody Wants To Rule The World was their first hit.)



This was written by Tears For Fears frontman Roland Orzabal and keyboard player Ian Stanley. In the liner notes to the single, Orzabal explained: "The song was written in my front room on just a small synthesizer and a drum machine. Initially I only had the chorus, which was very repetitive, like a mantra. I played it to Ian Stanley, our keyboardist, and Chris Hughes, the producer. I saw it as a good album track, but they were convinced it would be a hit around the world."


August 3, 1991 –
Pearl Jam plays the club RKCNDY in Seattle on this date. The show is filmed and used to create their first video for the song Alive. The audio from the show was used in the video, as the band hated the idea of lip-synching.



The instrumental demo of this song was titled Dollar Short. Eddie Vedder's lyrics went in a direction the band didn't expect, but they loved what they heard and quickly agreed that he should be their lead singer - only one other guy had been auditioned. Reflecting on how everything came together so quickly, the band credited timing and fate for Vedder's arrival. Eddie said that it took him 12 hours to write and record the songs for the demo, and he could have easily blown it off.


August 3, 1996 -
The Macarena by Los Del Rio appeared at #1 on the pop charts on this date. (For God sake, please don't listen. Save yourself from the ensuing madness.)



This was originally released on a local label in Spain in 1993, where it did fairly well. The next year, the American label BMG bought the Spanish label and set out to make Macarena a hit in America. They marketed an English language version to dance clubs and cruise ships, then released it as a single in 1995. It was a minor hit until the summer of 1996, when the Macarena dance craze hit America.


August 3, 2001 -
Disney's surprise comedy hit, The Princess Diaries, directed by Gary Marshall and starring Julie Andrews, Héctor Elizondo, and introducing Anne Hathaway, went into general release in the US on this date.



One of the waiters in the dinner scene when Mia breaks the water glass says, "It happens all the time." The same actor played a waiter in Pretty Woman, and said the same line when Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) flings the snail and the waiter catches it. Both movies were directed by Garry Marshall, as well as featured Hector Elizondo and Larry Miller.


Word of the Day.


Today in History:
August 3, 1492 -
File this under: more lies my teacher told me.



Christopher Columbus famously sailed from the port of Palos de la Frontera, in southern Spain across the ocean blue in a fleet of three ships: the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula. (Every thing else you think you know about Columbus is a lie.)


August 3, 1921 –
Under the direction of the Ohio Department of Agriculture, Lt. John A. Macready, a U.S. Army pilot, made the first application of 175 pounds of lead arsenate pesticide with a modified Curtiss JN-6 "Super Jenny.", thus creating crop dusting.

Lt. Macready flight over a six acre Catalpa tree grove near Troy, Ohio, killed almost 99% of the Sphinx Moth caterpillars, saving 5,000 trees. The government then utilized aerial application in the Southern states.


August 3, 1926 -
I have a simple life. I mean, you just give me a drum roll, they announce my name, and I come out and sing. In my job I have a contract that says I'm a singer. So I sing.

Anthony Dominick Benedetto, last of the great saloon singers was born on this date.







The world is obviously a little less bright now that we've lost Tony


August 3, 1941 -
Martha Kostyra, business magnate, television host, author, magazine publisher and ex-con was born on this date.



Remember folks, please don't piss off Martha - she's a woman of a certain age, who raises her own poultry, hold her hard liquor, hangs out with rappers, and has her own line of CBD products.


August 3, 1943 (I have seen this event posted as happening on August 30th)-
Gen George Patton bitch slapped shell-shocked private Charles Kuhl, in the hospital accusing him of cowardice, on this date.



The incident nearly ended Patton's career; he was ordered by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to apologize for this and a second, similar episode. It seemed to help Francis Ford Coppola's career though.


August 3, 1946 -
Santa Claus Land, the world's first themed amusement park, opened in Santa Claus, Indiana, on this date.



The park offered a Santa, a toy shop, toy displays, a restaurant, and themed children's rides, one of which was The Freedom Train. Santa Claus Land didn't charge admission until 1955 and changed its name to Holiday World & Splashin' Safari in 1984.


On August 3, 1958, the U.S. nuclear submarine Nautilus accomplished the first undersea voyage to the geographic North Pole.



The world's first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus dove at Point Barrow, Alaska, and traveled nearly 1,000 miles under the Arctic ice cap to reach the top of the world.


August 3, 1966 -
Comedian and social critic Lenny Bruce died of a morphine overdose in his Hollywood Hills home on this date, two years after his original obituary was published in The Realist.



At the time of his death, Bruce was being maliciously harassed by police and districts attorney in various states for his groundbreaking standup performances, causing great difficulty in finding venues at which to perform. After his death, he became a cult hero, many other comics, like George Carlin and Richard Pryor, considering him a martyr to the cause of free speech.


August 3, 1977 –
Tandy Corporation announced the TRS-80, one of the world’s first mass-produced personal computers.



The basic model originally shipped with 4 KB of RAM.



And so it goes.

It's a beautiful day today,

so it a perfect time to celebrate National Ice Cream Sandwich Day today. The day was made to enjoy an ice cream sandwich.



The best way to celebrate is to make your own!


August 2, 1941 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Aviation Vacation, directed by Tex Avery, was released on this date.



This is the last cartoon to list Tex Avery as a credited director, as All This and Rabbit Stew and The Bug Parade do not credit him..


August 2, 1965 -
Michael Caine's first outing as the anti Bond spy, Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File, premiered in the US on this date.



Producer Harry Saltzman hated Director Sidney J. Furie and his oddball style, and went so far as to bar him from the editing room. According to Furie, Saltzman also excluded him from the movie's party at Cannes, and even stole his best picture British Academy Award.


August 2, 1967 -
The crime drama In the Heat of the Night, starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, opened in New York on this date.



This was the first major Hollywood film in color that was lit with proper consideration for an actor with dark skin. Haskell Wexler recognized that standard lighting used in filming produced too much glare on most black actors and others of dark complexion. He toned down the lighting to feature Sidney Poitier with better results.


August 2, 1968 -
The Doors single, Hello, I Love You, from their album Waiting for the Sun, reached No. 1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.



The music is similar to The Kinks' song All Day And All Of The Night. So similar, that it has been rumored that The Doors paid royalties from the British single to The Kinks after the threat of legal action.


August 2, 1975 -
The eponymously named title track from their One of These Nights album, became the Eagles second single to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart, after Best Of My Love, on this date.



Glenn Frey cited this as an example of how he and Don Henley clicked as songwriters. "I'd go over to the piano and say, 'Hey, what do you think of this?' he told Tavis Smiley. "I'd play something, and he'd go, 'Yeah, I like that, I like that.' Maybe just get up and start singing. That's the way we wrote 'One of These Nights.' I just went over to the piano and I started playing this little minor descending progression, and he comes over and goes, (singing) 'One of these nights.' I go, yeah, yeah."


August 2, 1985 -
Universal Pictures released the sci-fi comedy film Weird Science, directed by John Hughes and starring Anthony Michael Hall, Kelly LeBrock and Ilan Mitchell-Smith, on this date.



In the scene where Bill Paxton is speaking to Kelly LeBrock while interrogating everyone over what had happened the previous night, in the background, Suzanne Snyder and Anthony Michael Hall are struggling to stay in character, but it is clear they are laughing. John Hughes chose to use this take in the completed film.


August 2, 1989 -
Universal Pictures released Ron Howard's film, Parenthood, starring Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen, Dianne Wiest, Martha Plymton and Keanu Reeves on this date.



This movie is based on Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Lowell Ganz, and Babaloo Mandel's experiences as parents.


August 2, 1998 -
Beastie Boys' fifth studio album Hello Nasty started a three week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Album Charts, on this date. This would be the band's third U.S. No. 1 album.



Some of the pioneering hip-hop acts that emerged in the early '80s distorted their vocals in innovative ways, but in the '90s, rappers usually went for a big, bold sound without any distortion. Beastie Boys bucked that trend, using a karaoke microphone to squiggle their raps on tracks from their 1992 album Check Your Head, notably So What'cha Want. By the time they recorded Intergalactic for the Hello Nasty album, they had access to a vocoder.


August 2, 1999 –
M. Night Shyamalan's psychological thriller, The Sixth Sense, starring Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment and Toni Collette premiered in the US on this date.



Reportedly, Haley Joel Osment got the role of Cole Sear for one of three reasons. First, he was best for it. Second, he was the only boy at auditions who wore a tie. Third, director M. Night Shyamalan was surprised when he asked Osment if he read his part. Osment replied, "I read it three times last night." Shyamalan was impressed, saying, "Wow, you read your part three times?" To which Osment replied, "No, I read the script three times."


August 2, 2014 -
Weird Al Yankovic's fourteenth studio album, Mandatory Fun goes to No. 1 on the Billboard Album Charts, on this date.



It’s the first No. 1 comedy album on Billboard’s charts since Allan Sherman’s My Son, the Nut in 1963 – the album that contained Sherman’s biggest hit, Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh.


Another album from the discount bin at The ACME Record Shoppe.


Today in History:
August 2, 1100 -
Force Majeure
(Those of you with delicate sensibilities may wish to skip this story.)

You may have wondered when the phrase Act of God first came into use. You've seen it on legal forms and may have unfortunately encountered it while trying to collect on your homeowner's insurance policy. As with many things, the English can be blamed—er, credited—with popularizing the term.



William II - better known as William Rufus - the second surviving son of William the Conqueror, was King of England from 1087 until 1100. He also ruled Normandy and wielded considerable influence in Scotland. He was not well liked, particularly for his unusual (and thoroughly unwholesome) practice of buggering unwilling men throughout his reign.

William began his royal tenure on September 26, 1087, and apparently liked to start each day with a brisk round of forced sodomy. Though he had no shortage of "special friends," he seemed to prefer a fresh, mostly unwilling courtier every morning.

And why not? It's good to be the king.

As roughly the thousandth such morning approached, William decided to follow his usual routine: a bit of coerced intimacy followed by a hunting excursion. Off the royal party went. Before long, the nobles returned—except for William. His brother Henry (soon to become Henry I) was among those who hurried back, leaving William lying (yes, lying) dead in the New Forest with an arrow through his lung on this very date.



Henry wasted no time crowning himself king. He later ordered an inquest into his brother's demise—not because he was especially curious about the outcome. In fact, no one even bothered to retrieve William's body. It was eventually hauled back to Winchester Cathedral by a peasant in the back of a dung cart. I kid you not.

A royal commission was convened and ultimately concluded that William's death was a just end—an Act of God visited upon a wicked king.

So there you have it: the next time your insurance company refuses to pay a claim because of an "Act of God," you can thank a long-dead English monarch with a fondness for vigorous, nonconsensual sodomy.


August 2, 1776 –
Once again, your teachers lied to you - the signing of the Declaration of Independence didn’t occur on July 4.



After the Continental Congress voted to declare independence on July 2, the final language of the document was approved on July 4, and it was printed and distributed on July 4–5. The actual signing was on this date. Matthew Thornton from New Hampshire didn't get around to sign it until November 4, 1776.


August 2, 1876 -
Drinking at a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, Jack McCall noticed Wild Bill Hickok playing poker at a corner table. Then he calmly walked over to the table and blew a wide hole in the back of Hickok's head with a .45 revolver. The professional gambler and onetime lawman was holding a pair of Aces and a pair of Eights, now known as the "Dead Man's Hand." There is no general consensus on what the fifth card was.



So kids, please remember to split those aces and eights when you are dealt them.


August 2, 1909 -
The first Lincoln head pennies were minted on this date.

It was 95% copper and was the first US coin to depict the likeness of a president.


August 2, 1923 -
President Warren G. Harding died suddenly at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco on this date. His wife Florence forbids an autopsy, and the President's body is embalmed shortly after death. It is speculated by many that the cause of death, initially reported as "a stroke of apoplexy," was in fact poison administered by the First Lady. Mrs. Harding was rather annoyed that her husband was giving dictation to his secretary in the broom closet.



You have to love this asshole - he actually lost the White House china in a poker game. And despite the fact that Prohibition made it illegal, Harding served his friends alcohol.



Harding had the largest feet of any U.S. President. He wore size 14 shoes. I'll just leave you all with that.



Make of it what you will.


August 2, 1924 -
There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now.



James Arthur Baldwin, writer and civil rights activist was born on this date


August 2, 1939 -
Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd, representing fellow physicists who have discovered that an atomic bomb could be built from Uranium, write a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt explaining the dangers of Germany developing Atomic Bomb capabilities before the United States. The letter came just before the beginning of World War II.



The scientists warn Roosevelt of efforts in Nazi Germany to purify Uranium-235. Soon after the letter, the United States Government begins “The Manhattan Project.” Einstein later reacted to the destructive elements of the atom bomb by saying. "If only I had known I should have become a watchmaker."


August 2, 1943 -
A Navy patrol torpedo boat, PT-109, commanded by Lt. John F. Kennedy, sank after being sheared in two by the Amagiri, a Japanese destroyer, off the Solomon Islands. Two members of the crew were killed in the collision.



An injured Kennedy and the ship's other survivors clung to the wreckage and swam to a nearby island, where Aaron Kumana and Biuku Gasa found them. The pair rowed 35 miles through enemy-held waters to summon a rescue boat.


August 2, 1990 -
After Kuwait refuses to waive Iraq's war debts, 100,000 Iraqi soldiers stream across the border and seize control of Kuwait City. Their troops outnumbered 5-to-1, the Kuwaitis mount no resistance whatsoever. In so doing, Saddam Hussein precipitates the first Gulf War.



This was one of the the reasons we got into the mess in Iraq.



And so it goes.