Alfred Matthew Yankovic, Grammy Award winning American singer, musician, actor, satirist, parodist, songwriter, music producer, accordionist, and television producer, was born on this date. And you just thought he was some nerdy guy you sang some funny songs.
1941 Walt Disney studios release their fourth animated film, "Dumbo" on this date.
Today in History:
42 BC -
Brutus, one of the lead assassins of Julius Casear, and his army are decisively defeated by Mark Antony and Octavian in the Second Battle of Philipp, on this date. Brutus commits suicide. His last words were allegedly "Yes, we must escape, but this time with our hands, not our feet" (I believe they really were, "Ouch that really hurts).
While it is not the Ides of March - it is a very bad day for Brutus.
According to James Ussher, the venerable 17th century Archbishop of Armagh, and to Dr John Lightfoot of Cambridge, it was at exactly 9:00 a.m. on the chilly autumn morning of October 23, 4004 BC, that God created the world.
The question of 9:00 a.m. where didn't appear to enter into their consideration, but it strikes me as important. If the world was created at 9:00 a.m. Greenwich Time, it would have been 5:00 a.m Eastern Time, meaning the world was technically created earlier in the Old World than it was in the New. What's worse, Hawaii, the Midway Islands, Samoa, and other points west would have been created the day before.
It's conceivable, I suppose, that Ussher & Lightfoot (which sounds like either a rock group, law firm, or television action series) could have been mistaken in their calculations, but if we start questioning men of God, where will it end? Sooner or later we'll start questioning God himself, which couldn't possibly lead anywhere good. No, it's either blind obedience to God or the Hell with us all.
Just ask the Taliban.
Anyway, this would make this old earth just 6012 years old on October 23 (according to Sarah Palin, among others.) Happy Birthday good old 3rd Rock from the Sun.
October 23,1935 -
Gangsters Dutch Schultz, Abe Landau, Otto Berman, and Bernard "Lulu" Rosencrantz are fatally shot at a saloon in Newark, New Jersey in what will become known as The Chophouse Massacre.
October 23, 1976 -
In an astonishing lack of forethought, President Jimmy Carter admits a deadly sin in a Playboy magazine interview: "I've looked on many women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times. God knows I will do this and forgives me."
October 23, 1987 -
United States Senate rejected the Supreme Court nomination of Robert H. Bork on a 58-to-42 vote. Ostensibly this was because he admitted to smoking marijuana as a youth, which would be the wrong reason. He should have been rejected for being a sleazebag with freaky chin hair.
Some have since argued that Bork was the target of a smear campaign, and they began using his last name as a verb, saying that they wanted to prevent future nominees from getting "borked." The word "bork" was recently added to Webster's dictionary, defined as, "[Seeking] to obstruct a political appointment or selection, also to attack a political opponent viciously." Robert Bork said, "My name became a verb, and I regard that as one form of immortality."
The chip on Mr. Bork's shoulder makes the one on Clarence Thomas' very small indeed.
October 23, 1995 -
The murderer of the Pop Star singer Selena, and president of her fan club, Yolanda Saldivar, found guilty in Houston of her slaying. It helped that case tremendously that with her last breathe, Selena was able to say, "Hey, the big fat ugly embezzling head of my fan club just shot me in the back."
Very lucky break for the prosecution.
And so it goes
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