Wednesday, March 19, 2008

An anniversary perhaps not worth having

It's the fifth anniversary of the second Gulf War. At some point today, please keep in minds the fine men and women who have given their lives in this endeavor.


Here is your Today in History -

It's the Feast of St. Joseph, stepdad to Jesus. Remember to go out and have the very delicious Sicilian pastry that bears his name. It's so good, it brings you that much closer to God.



If you live in Capistrano, remember the swallows are coming back today, eat you pastries indoors.




March 19, 1943 -
Francesco Raffaele Nitto, better known as, "Frank 'The Enforcer' Nitti", one of the top henchmen of Alphonse "Big Al," "Scarface" Capone and later the front man for the mob Capone created, the Chicago Outfit, was having a very bad day. Many top members of the Chicago Outfit were indicted for extortion. These individuals included Nitti, Ricca, Louis "Little New York" Campagna, Ralph Pierce, Filippo "John 'Handsome Johnny' Roselli" Sacco, Nick Circella, Phil D'Andrea, and Charles "Cherry Nose" Gioe. The Outfit was accused of trying to strong arm some of the largest Hollywood movie studios. The studios had cooperated with The Outfit to avoid union trouble stirred up by the mob.

The day before his scheduled grand jury appearance, Nitti shared breakfast with his wife in their Riverside, Illinois home at 712 Selborne Road. As his wife was leaving for church, Nitti told her he planned to take a walk. After his wife left, Nitti began to drink heavily. He then loaded a .32 caliber revolver, put it in his coat pocket, and walked five blocks to a local railroad yard. Two railroad workers (William F. Sebauer and Lowell M. Barnett) spotted Nitti walking on the track of an oncoming train and shouted a warning. They thought the train hit him, but Nitti had managed to jump out of the way in time. Then two shots rang out. The trainmen first thought Nitti was shooting at them, but then realized he was trying to shoot himself in the head. The two bullets went through his hat. Nitti finally sat on the ground against a fence and, with the railroad workers watching from a distance, shot himself in the head. Frank Nitti died on an Illinois Central railroad siding in North Riverside, Illinois on this date.


March 19, 1945 -
The Third Reich's World Tour is drawing to an abrupt close. And the band members are understandably depressed. The ever wacky and truly evil bastard Adolf Hitler orders all military and industrial facilities within the Third Reich destroyed. Albert Speer does everything he can to stop this from happening, in direct defiance of Hitler.




March 19, 1957 -
Elvis Presley tours and has a vision. Before he immediately act upon it, St. Elvis wolfs down seven fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches and agrees to purchase the 14 acre Graceland estate from Ruth Moore for $100,000. It is now his cemetery. Or is it?




March 19, 1982 -
The guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne, Randy Rhoads, dies during the Diary of a Madman tour after the plane he is flying in buzzes the band's tour bus and clips the wing of the plane, crashing into a nearby farmhouse. Kids, once again, repeat after me, drugs are bad.



March 19, 1987 -
Televangelist Jim Bakker resigns his PTL ministry after it is revealed he was delivering a little too much spiritual healing to former church secretary and future Playboy playmate Jessica Hahn.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Graceland_front.jpg


March 19, 2005,
John Zachary DeLorean former American engineer and executive in the U.S. automobile industry, and drug dealer died on this date.



And so it goes.

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