Today is Hansen's Disease Day.

Today, the Fourth day of the Chinese New Year is the day to welcome the kitchen god, the god of fortune and other gods. Families should stay at home to prepare abundant fruits, burn incense and light candles to welcome the gods. The sacrifices provided to the god of fortune should include goat head and carp.

(this is my kitchen god, her show The French Chef premiered on this date, in 1963.)



On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, families can finally clean their house. They collect all the rubbish to one place and throw them all, which symbolize that they throw away all the bad luck and possible poverty of this year. And in some rural areas in North China, people will light a fire on a stick and throw the stick into a river to put off the fire. This shows that there will not be any fire disaster in this family in the whole year.


Today is Hansen's Disease Day. Celebrate World Leprosy Day - be like St. Francis - lick a leper's sores.



Or not.



You could think about the fact that Barry Manilow's song, Mandy went gold on this date in 1974.


January 31, 1921 -
John G. Agar, American's greatest B movie actor, first husband of Shirley Temple

and once the owner of the world's largest King Kong Statue (I kid you not),

was born on this day.



Sometimes, it's just a red letter day.


January 31, 1957 -
Terrorama! Double Horror Sensation!

Oh Roger Corman, we love you!





It's not to be believed but on a double bill, Attack of the Crab Monsters and Not of this Earth premiered on this date.


January 31, 1986 -
Paul Mazursky's funny remake of Jean Renior's film Boudu Saved From Drowning, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, starring Nick Nolte, Bette Midler and Richard Dreyfuss, premiered on this date.



Nick Nolte's character remarks that he became a bum in part because he was "pretty active politically in the '60s. Sold some draft cards." In real life, Nolte received five years' probation for selling fake draft cards in the 1960s.


January 31, 1988 -
Everyone went back to the late 60s and early 70s when The Wonder Years, starring Fred Savage, Danica McKellar and Josh Saviano premiered on ABC-TV on this date.



Part of the show's running storyline is a falling-out between Kevin and Winnie, who becomes a background character for several months, until she and Kevin reconcile. The main reason for this part of the storyline was that actress Danica McKellar had had a growth spurt, and she and star Fred Savage, already shorter than McKellar, didn't look right standing together. The characters reconciled after Savage began to catch up in height.


Today in History:
January 31, 1606 -
Guy Fawkes and a group of English Catholics attempted to overthrow and assassinate King James I with the intention of installing his daughter, Princess Elizabeth as queen, on November 5, 1605. The failed attempt came to be known as the Gunpowder Plot.



Fawkes was sentenced to the traditional traitors' death - to be 'hanged, drawn and quartered'. In any event, on this date, he jumped from the gallows, breaking his own neck and thereby avoiding the horror of being cut down while still alive, having his testicles cut off and his stomach opened and his guts spilled before his eyes. His lifeless body was hacked into quarters and his remains sent to 'the four corners of the kingdom' as a warning to others.



While most of England celebrates the failed Gunpowder Plot as a national holiday on November 5, Guy Fawkes was also voted #30 in the BBC-sponsored list of "100 Greatest Britons" in 2002.


January 31, 1921 -
The Carroll A. Deering was a five-masted commercial schooner that was found run aground off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, on this date. Its crew was mysteriously missing.



Theories abound about the the crews disappearance ranging from piracy, mutiny and victims of the dread 'Bermuda Triangle'.

The truth is out there.


January 31, 1940 -
The first monthly retirement check was issued to Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont, in the amount of $22.54. Miss Fuller, a Legal Secretary, retired in November 1939. She started collecting benefits in January 1940 at age 65 and lived to be 100 years old, dying in 1975.



Ida May Fuller worked for three years under the Social Security program. The accumulated taxes on her salary during those three years were a total of $24.75. During her lifetime she collected a total of $22,888.92 in Social Security benefits.


January 31, 1945 -
Private Eddie Slovik was the first U.S. soldier to be shot for desertion since the Civil War on this date.



Although over 21,000 American soldiers were given varying sentences for desertion during World War II, including 49 death sentences, Slovik's was the only death sentence carried out.


January 31, 1950 -
Coming off yet another three day bender, President Truman gives the go-ahead for the development of Edward Teller's hydrogen bomb on this date.

The "hell bomb," as it was called, served to greatly heighten US-USSR tensions in the Cold War.  Hopefully, the terrorists are not reading my blog and taking notes.

January 31, 1958 -
Explorer-I, officially Satellite 1958 Alpha (and sometimes referred to as Explorer 1), was the first Earth satellite of the United States, having been launched at 10:48 pm EST on this date, as part of the United States program for the International Geophysical Year.



The satellite was launched from LC-26 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, on board a Juno I rocket.



Electrical power was provided by mercury chemical batteries that made up approximately 40 percent of the payload weight. These provided power that operated the high power transmitter for 31 days and the low-power transmitter for 105 days. (This is on the test.)


January 31, 1961 -
The United States sends its first space monkey into space, Ham the chimpanzee. His Mercury/Redstone 2 achieves an altitude of 158 miles. Ham's capsule splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean and was recovered by a rescue ship later that day.



After the flight, Ham lived for 17 years in the National Zoo in Washington D.C., then at the North Carolina Zoo before dying at the age of 27 on January 19, 1983. Ham the Chimp was not the first animal in space. That honor goes to Laika the dog, who was sent into orbit by the Soviet Union in 1957. Ham could not deal with this fact; and NASA had to hide the fact that Ham had become a heroin addict.


January 31, 1966 -
The Soviet Union launches the unmanned Luna 9 spacecraft as part of the Luna program. Three days later, on February 3, 1966 the Luna 9 spacecraft was the first spacecraft to achieve a lunar soft landing and to transmit photographic data to Earth.

For unknown reasons, the pictures from Luna 9 were not released immediately by the Soviet authorities.



Now the truth can be told.



And so it goes.


1449

And now a word from Wonder Woman

It's the third day of The Lunar New Year.  It is known as the Mice Wedding Day.

They said that people should turn off the light and go to bed early, because the night is the Mice's Wedding and one shouldn't disturb them. The other reason people should turn out the lights, so the mice can’t see their wedding, which would slow down mice breeding.  In the old farmer society,  people would leave a few grains of rice or cake crumbs in the corner of a room for the mice at night.



Also according to the Chinese Farmers Calendar it's also the Red Dog day. Red Dog is the name of the God of Blazing Wrath, who brings bad luck to people. So people don't like to go out on this day, otherwise they might lose their temper easily and become argumentative. However, with time progress, fewer and fewer people believe in the superstition. More and more people take this day as a precious opportunity for family reunion. Actually, After a 2-day binge of, eating, drinking, playing, gambling, many people are tired and would probably want to sleep in. They said that if people want to work on this day, they won't get much accomplished. Therefore, the Red Dog day is a good excuse for people who need a rest.


Today is National Inane Answering Machine Day, observed on January 30th every year. This holiday encourages you on this day to bring an end to all of the mindless and endlessly long answering machine messages that annoy and waste the time of callers.



Or, you could leave a long, drawn out, insane message on your machine this day.



The choice is up to you.


January 30, 1931 -
Charlie Chaplin's City Lights (A Comedy Romance in Pantomime) premiered at Los Angeles Theater on this date. The episodic film includes a complete musical soundtrack and various sound effects - but no speech or dialogue.



At the beginning of the film, a town official and a woman dedicating the statue can be heard uttering nondescript words by way of a paper reed mouth instrument. The sounds were made by Charlie Chaplin and this was the first time that his voice was heard on film.


January 30, 1969 -
At a free concert at their Apple corporate headquarters in London, The Beatles made their last-ever public appearance as a group on this date.



The performance, filmed for the documentary Let It Be, was eventually halted when police arrived after neighbors complained about the racket.


January 30, 1981 -
Universal Pictures released the Joel Schumacher film The Incredible Shrinking Woman,  starring Lily Tomlin and Charles Grodin, on this date.



The film's title is a variation on and spoof of The Incredible Shrinking Man made and released some twenty-four years earlier. In fact, both movies are based on the same source Richard Matheson novel The Shrinking Man.


January 30, 1987 -
Woody Allen's warm remembrance of the Golden Age of Radio, Radio Days premiered on this date.



The picture is a rare instance where Woody Allen is the narrator of a film in which Allen himself does not appear.


Today in History:
January 30, 1649 -
If history teaches us anything, it's that sometimes, it not good to be the king.



King Charles I of England, was beheaded for treason at Banqueting House on this date. It is reputed that he wore two shirts as to prevent the cold January weather causing any noticeable shivers that the crowd could have been mistaken for fear or weakness. He put his head on the block after saying a prayer and signaled the executioner when he was ready; he was then beheaded with one clean stroke.



It was common practice for the head of a traitor to be held up and exhibited to the crowd with the words Behold the head of a traitor!; although Charles' head was exhibited, the words were not used.


January 30, 1835 -
Andrew Jackson was the subject of the first recorded assassination attempt on a U.S. president. Jackson was crossing the Capitol Rotunda following the funeral of a Congressman when Richard Lawrence approached Jackson and fired two pistols, which both miraculously misfired. Jackson proceeded to beat the living daylights out of Lawrence with his cane, prompting his aides to restrain him.



As a result, Jackson's statue in the Capitol Rotunda is placed in front of the doorway in which the attempt occurred. Lawrence was later found to be mentally ill, having accused Jackson of preventing him from becoming King of England.


January 30, 1889 –
Kids, your history teachers lied to you once again - World War I really started on this date.



The bodies of Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, syphilitic, depressive, whore mongering heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, and his air headed 17 year old mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera, were discovered in the Imperial hunting lodge at Mayerling in the Vienna Woods on this date.



The Prince had either a.) shot himself after killing his mistress, b.) been killed by his mistress in a suicide pact or c.) been a victim of a political assassination. Their death and the resulting cover-up left Rudolf's cousin, The Archduck Ferdinand heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.



And you see where that got Europe.


January 30, 1948 -
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. - Gandhi



Sometimes, it's not good to be the world's greatest advocate of non violence.



Mohandas K. Gandhi was assassinated by Hindu extremist Nathuram Godse on his way to morning prayers on this date.


January 30, 1968 -
The Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Communist forces launched a surprise offensive on the lunar New Year Tet holiday truce that became known as the Tet Offensive on this date.

Although the Communists were beaten back, the offensive was seen as a major setback for the US and its allies and shocked the complacent American television viewer who had been led to believe the war was won.



Faced with an unhappy American public and depressing news from his military leaders, President Lyndon B. Johnson decided to end the escalation of U.S. involvement in Vietnam.


January 30, 1976 -
George H.W. Bush became the 11th director of the Central Intelligence Agency, a position which he held until 1977.

And you still wonder how Dubya won.



And so it goes.


Before you go - I'm just saying

1450

Even your dog wants to celebrate

Today is the second day of the Lunar New Year celebration, known as the Son-in-Law Day (also it the first time of the new year to worship the God of Land.)



It's the day that many married women return to their mothers' homes.



Some believe that the second day of the new year is also the birthday of all dogs and reward them with special treats.


January 29, 1595 -
... Give me my Romeo, and, when I shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garish sun....









William Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet was probably first performed on this date (unless it wasn't).

I don't know, I wasn't there, were you?


January 29, 1959 -
With a budget that exceeded $6 million, Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty premiered in Los Angeles on this date.



Famed Warner Bros. animation director Chuck Jones worked on the film briefly when Termite Terrace closed temporarily during the late 1950s. He found the atmosphere at Walt Disney Productions oppressive because everything anyone did there had to be approved by Walt Disney before, during, and after the process of production.


January 29, 1964 -
Introducing us to saving our precious bodily fluids and the rule about no fighting in the War room, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was released in the United States, on this date.



The film led to actual changes in policy to ensure that the events depicted could never really occur in real life.


Today in History:
It's Thomas Paine's birthday today. He was born in 1737.



You could commemorate the occasion by reading (or rereading) Common Sense. You could also commemorate the occasion by registering to vote or piercing your perineum or bleaching someone else's rectal area.

I don't care, it was just a suggestion.


January 29, 1845-
Edgar Allan Poe's most famous poem The Raven was originally published in the New York Evening Mirror, on this date, where it met with lukewarm reviews.



Poe was almost completely unappreciated during his lifetime, but later became an extremely popular author in both the detective and Gothic genres.


January 29, 1886-
Karl Benz patented the Benz Patent Motorwagon, on this date, which looked much like a tricycle with a cushioned seat; this was the first gas-powered car.

Making a gas-powered car had been a long-time dream of Benz, who had originally started tinkering with engines in his spare time as a bicycle shop owner.

January 29, 1929 -
The Seeing Eye was incorporated in Nashville, Tennessee by Dorothy Harrison Eustus and Morris Frank, on this date. A few weeks later, the first seeing-eye Dog Guide School in the United States opened in Nashville. (The name the Seeing Eye came from Proverbs 20:12 in the Bible, "The seeing eye, the hearing ear; The Lord hath made them both." )



Frank had trained under Jack Humphrey in Switzerland at a kennel owned by Dorothy Eustis. Humphrey's became the Seeing Eye’s first geneticist and served as chief instructor. Buddy was Frank's first dog and in 1936 became the first seeing-eye dog to ride as a passenger on an American commercial airline.


January 29, 1954 -
Oprah Gail Winfrey, the most influential (and one of the wealthiest) woman in the world, is another year older.



Now that President Obama is taking a long vacation and the other gentleman is currently occupying the White House, Oprah might not be happy.  I just want to remind those folks in Washington DC, Oprah could get enriched uranium in a human heart beat - don't piss her off.


January 29, 1979 -
Brenda Spencer fired repeatedly at the school across from her residence in San Diego, killing two and wounding eight children, using the rifle her father had given her as a gift.



I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day. -- The reason she gave inspired the Boomtown Rats song.



Remember: guns don't kill people, it's the damn gifts our father's give us.



And so it goes.


1451

Pace yourself; it's over two week's long

The Lunar New Year starts today, and it's the Year of the Rooster, but which one?

In Chinese astrology, each year is associated with a Chinese zodiac animal sign and one the Five Elements: Gold (Metal), Water, Wood, Fire, or Earth. Both the sign and element of your birth year are said to affect your personality and destiny. This year is the Fire Rooster



(Please be aware that once again, Mr. Teeny and  I will be celebrating Chinese New Year recklessly this Year of the Rooster, by shooting firecrackers in public locations for the next two weeks. Please also remember that people in China don't call it Chinese New Year, it's Lunar New Year; other countries celebrate Lunar New Year as well.)

Legend has it that in ancient times, Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on the Lunar Chinese New Year. Twelve came, and Buddha named a year after each one. He announced that the people born in each animal's year would have some of that animal's personality.

This year is the Year of the Rooster. People under the sign of the Rooster are honest, bright, communicative and ambitious. Most of them are born pretty or handsome, and prefer to dress up. Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Elton John, Jennifer Aniston, Bette Midler, Cate Blanchett, Diane Sawyer, Elijah Wood, Matthew McConaughey, Matt Damon, Natalie Portman, Catherine the Great, Amelia Earhart, Rudyard Kipling, Groucho Marx, Peter Ustinov,  Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Donny Osmond, Martin Luther King III, Stephen Fry, and Jools Holland were born in the Year of the Rooster.



According to superstition, those born in the Year of the Rooster tend to be trustworthy, with a strong sense of timekeeping and responsibility at work. This year, those born under the sign of the Rooster will be more polite and less stubborn, but they will have the tendency to complicate things. It is also believed that the Rooster is most compatible with the Ox and the Snake, but least compatible with the Rat, the Rabbit, the Horse, the Dog and other Roosters.



The world’s largest annual human migration is now well underway as 2.8 billion trips are made across China in what is known as chun yun, when students, migrant workers and office employees living away from home will make the journey back to celebrate with their families.

Gong Hey Fat Choy!


Serendipity - the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely.

The word derives from an old Persian fairy tale and was coined by Horace Walpole on January 28, 1754 in a letter he wrote to his friend Horace Mann (not the same man as the famed American educator).



This should not be confused with Synchronicity - which is an album by the Police (but that's another story).


January 28, 1953 -
J. Fred Muggs joined NBC's Today Show on this date.

Please note: the more intelligent looking fellow standing on the desk is Mr. Muggs


January 28, 1973 -
Barnaby Jones, starring Buddy Ebsen, premieres on CBS-TV, on this date.



Shortly after the cancellation of The Beverly Hillbillies, Buddy Ebsen was Quinn Martin's first choice for the lead role in the show, he accepted it.


January 28, 1977 -
Star of TV's Chico and the Man, Freddie Prinze has a violent allergic reaction to lead on this date.



Despondent over his upcoming divorce and battling a major drug addiction, Prinze, shot himself in the head days earlier, died on this day. He was 22 years old.


January 28, 1978 -
Fantasy Island, starring Ricardo Montalban and Herve Villechaize, debuted on ABC-TV on this date.



The waterfall seen during the opening sequences is the real-life Wailua Falls in Kauai, Hawaii.


Today in History:
January 28, 814 -
First Reich: Charlemagne, German emperor, dies at the age of 71 on this date.



Though he had conquered much of Europe, his legacy was considerably reduced after his death from mismanagement and incompetence.

Coincidentally, The Siege of Paris, lasting from September 19, 1870 until January 28, 1871, bringing about French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and led to the establishment of the German Empire (Second Reich).

Due to a severe shortage of food, Parisians were forced to slaughter whatever animals at hand. Rats, dogs, cats, and horses were regular fare on restaurant menus.

* Consommé de Cheval au millet. (horse)
* Brochettes de foie de Chien à la maître d'hôtel. (dog)
* Emincé de rable de Chat. Sauce mayonnaise. (cat)
* Epaules et filets de Chien braisés. Sauce aux tomates. (dog)
* Civet de Chat aux Champignons. (cat)
* Côtelettes de Chien aux petits pois. (dog)
* Salmis de Rats. Sauce Robert. (rats)
* Gigots de chien flanqués de ratons. Sauce poivrade. (rats)
* Begonias au jus. (flowers)
* Plum-pudding au rhum et à la Moelle de Cheval. (horse)

Even Pollux and Castor, the only pair of elephants in Paris, were not spared.


January 28, 1813 -
Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice was published by Thomas Egerton in the United Kingdom on this date.



Austen didn’t put her name on her novels, and would only say they were “By a Lady.” The title page of Pride and Prejudice said, “by the author of Sense and Sensibility.” It wasn’t until after her death that her brother revealed her name to the public.


January 28, 1829 -
In Scotland, serial killer William Burke was hanged for murder following a scandal in which he was found to have provided extra-fresh corpses for anatomy schools in Edinburgh. His partner William Hare had turned king's witness.

If only he had gone for the less fresh corpses. The scandal led to the 1832 Anatomy Act.


January 28, 1896 -

January 28, 1915 -
The Coast Guard was formed with the merger of the Revenue Cutter Service and the U.S. Life-Saving Service on this date, as an organization under the U.S. Department of the Treasury. They were originally intended to crack down on piracy while helping people out as a side interest.



Their services were later incorporated the US Lighthouse Service, and was itself incorporated into the Department of Homeland Security in 2002.


January 28, 1921 -
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was installed under the Arc de Triomphe on this date. The tomb was dedicated to the French soldiers who had died in World War I.



It has remained a popular tourist spot both for French citizens and international visitors to Paris. Jacqueline Kennedy was inspired by her visit with her late husband, President Kennedy to the Arc de Triomphe in 1961, to request that an eternal flame, much like the one she had seen at the Tomb, to be placed at her husband's grave, in 1963.


January 28, 1958 -
Those damn little toys that you step on in the middle of the night became legal today.



The Lego company patented their design of modern Lego bricks, still compatible with bricks produced today.


January 28, 1958 -
Bizarrely on the same day, Brooklyn Dodger catcher Roy Campanella's career ended when he lost control of his car on a slick highway.



He became a paraplegic and was confined to a wheelchair the remainder of his life.


January 28, 1986 -
The Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated 74 seconds into its flight, killing teacher Christa McAuliffe and the rest of the crew. Their capsule plunged intact into the ocean, pulverizing everyone on impact, making a rescue attempt difficult, if not impossible.



The cause was later found to be failure of a booster rocket O-rings because of the cold weather.

Moral: Avoid rocket travel this week, if possible.



And so it goes.


1452

Hooray, it's Thomas Crapper Day

In popular American folklore, the British Mr. Thomas Crapper was the man who invented and gave his name to the flush toilet. Unfortunately, there is little historical evidence to support Mr. Crapper as anything but a friendly British plumber.

Thomas Crapper died on January 27, 1910. To honor this day and the spirit of the man, we can choose to embrace the legend of Thomas Crapper.  We could also note that it's Punch the Clock day



I have no idea why anyone would want to celebrate the soul-numbing activity of having to punch into work. So instead, let's celebrate a great cut Let Them All Talk, from the Elvis Costello album Punch the Clock.


January 27, 1918 -
Tarzan of the Apes, the first Tarzan film, premiered at the Broadway Theater in NYC on this date.



Louisiana was chosen as the main shooting location because of the cooperation of the residents of Morgan City, the lush jungle vegetation, bayous, waterways, abundant black extras, and facilities such as hotels, a railway-serviced wharf and an adjacent storage warehouse.


January 27, 1976 -
Laverne and Shirley, a spinoff from Happy Days, starring Penny Marshall as Laverne De Fazio and Cindy Williams as Shirley Feeney, premiered on ABC-TV on this date .



Frustrated at TV shows constantly repeating who the characters are and what they do, Penny Marshall came up with the idea of Laverne having L's on all her clothes, figuring that would solve the problem. To her chagrin, they still had to say on a regular basis who was who and where the girls worked; she got tired of all the times Cindy Williams would say 'Laverne' in an episode.


Today in History:
January 27, 1756 -
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian musical genius, composer and fart joke lover, whose works included The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute, was born on this date.



When Mozart died in 1791, probably of heart disease, he was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave.


January 27, 1832 –
... Always speak the truth, think before you speak, and write it down afterwards.







Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, Anglican deacon, children's author, mathematician, and photographer (child pornographer?) was born on this date.


January 27, 1859 -
Kaiser Wilhelm II, (Queen Victoria's first grandchild and first cousin to both King George V and Tsar Nicholas II) emperor who ruled Germany during World War I but was forced to abdicate in 1918, was born on this date.



Oh, those wacky royals.


January 27, 1900 -
Hyman Rickover, American admiral who is considered the "Father of the Atomic Submarine", was born on this date.



Creating a detail-focused pursuit of excellence to a degree previously unknown, Rickover redirected the United States Navy’s ship propulsion, quality control, personnel selection, and training and education, and has had far reaching effects on the defense establishment and the civilian nuclear energy field.


On January 21, 1901, the great maestro Joe Green (Giuseppe Verdi was merely his stage name) suffered a stroke while staying at the Grand Hotel et de Milan, in Milan. So revered was the composer that horses hooves were wrapped in blankets to muffle their noise as they passed the hotel where he rested.



Verdi gradually grew more feeble and died six days later, on this date. To date, his funeral remains the largest public assembly of any event in the history of Italy.


January 27, 1967 -
A launchpad flash fire in the Apollo I capsule killed the astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward H White and Roger B Chaffee at Cape Canaveral on this date.



An investigation indicated that a faulty electrical wire inside the Apollo I command module was the probable cause of the fire.


January 27, 1973 -
North and South Vietnam, the Viet Cong, and the United States signed the Paris Peace Accord on this day, ending one of the longest and most unpopular wars in American history.



Despite a ceasefire that had been put into effect a few days earlier, the last American troop to die in Vietnam was killed just 11 hours before the treaty was signed.


January 27, 1992 -
Candidate Bill Clinton and Gennifer Flowers mutually accuse each other of lying about whether or not they had a 12 year affair on this date.



Oh, it's hard to keep the old hound dog on the porch.


January 27, 2010 –
Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and whose books, such as A People's History of the United States, inspired young and old to rethink the way textbooks present the American experience, died on this date.



Go out and buy his book, if not for a kid you know, buy it for yourself.



And so it goes.



Hey it's Lunar New Year's Eve in many parts of the world tonight:



It's a busy night, in between hanging red lanterns, the New Year reunion dinners, setting off firecrackers, giving red envelopes to kids (I will never be too old to accept a red envelope,) staying up late  - Enjoy!



1453

The world is not smiling today

Take chances, make mistakes. That's how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.





Mary Tyler Moore, actress and icon passed away yesterday.


Today is the feast day of St. Timothy.  St. Timothy is known to be the patron saint of those who suffer from stomach aches or other intestinal disorders (he was prescribed 'a little wine' for his own stomach troubles.)  Timothy is famous for being the companion and secretary to St. Paul. One of the requirements of the job was  circumcision; Timothy, ever pious and eager for the job, immediately went out and did the job himself, (remember that the next time you are hiring administrative assistants.)

Timothy, in his later life, become the first bishop of Ephesus.  While he was there, he objected to the parading around of a nude statue of the goddess Diana in celebration of the festival of Katagogian, which seems odd as Timothy was Greek himself and seeing nude statues of Greek goddesses should have been no big deal.  It apparently was a big deal to the locals of Ephesus and he was stoned to death on this date.


Today is the 68th annual Republic Day in India. Spectators line up to watch dancers from all over the nation gather in New Delhi every year on this day to dance in the huge National Arena and all along a five mile parade route.



It's Australia Day today (formerly known as Foundation Day in Australia) as well and commemorates the establishment of the first settlement at Port Jackson, now part of Sydney, in 1788. (The fleet was led by Captain Arthur Philip, who went on to establish the Colony of New South Wales, the first penal colony in Australia.) The day is filled with drinking, merriment and sodomy.



On January 26, 1979, Le Freak was on the top of the American charts.



It's nice to think there's a connection.


January 26, 1975 -
The BBC showed a documentary on David Bowie called Cracked Actor. The documentary was filmed after the end of the Ziggy Stardust tour and his tour supporting the release of the Diamond Dogs LP.



Among the TV audience was British director Nicolas Roeg, at the time planning an adaptation of Walter Tevis’s novel The Man Who Fell To Earth.


January 26, 1979 -
Dukes of Hazzard premiered on CBS television with One Armed Bandits - (A shipment of slot machines is hijacked.)



High comedy indeed.


Today in History:
January 26, 1885 -
General Charles George “Chinese” Gordon (Charlton Heston), an extremely popular and influential figure in the British Empire and governor-general of Sudan, was killed on the palace steps in the garrison at Khartoum by the forces of Muhammad Ahmed, El Mahdi on this date.



Unfortunately for Gordon, immediate after he was stabbed to death, he was decapitated and his head was paraded around for several hours until it was presented as a trophy to Muhammad Ahmed.


January 26, 1913 –
Jim Thorpe, the World's Greatest Athlete, relinquished his 1912 Olympic medals for being a professional athlete. He was paid for playing two seasons of semi-professional baseball before competing in the Olympics, thus violating the amateur rules at that time.

His Olympic medals were reinstated posthumously by an act of Congress in 1983.


January 26, 1958 -
Ellen DeGeneres, actress, comedian and Cover Girl spokes model, was born on this date.



So kids remember, apparently it is now OK to receive your Medal of Freedom wearing sneakers.


January 26, 1961 -
President Kennedy appointed Janet Travell as his personal physician, making her the first female presidential physician (as well as possibly the only woman he did not sleep with) on this date.



It was later found that she prescribed over five painkillers to the president at one time, as well as a variety of sleep aids and orthopedic shoes. The real original Dr. Feelgood.


January 26, 1962 -
Mafia boss Charles Lucky Luciano died of natural causes at the Naples airport. On the day of his fatal heart attack, Luciano had plans to sell the rights of his life's story to a movie maker. Luciano dropped dead as he was about to shake hands. The Mob disliked the idea and had tried unsuccessfully to change his mind. It has been hypothesized that Luciano's heart attack was a result of poisoning by the Mafia.



He was buried in St. John's Cemetery in Queens, New York after a federal court ruled his burial on United States soil could not be blocked on the grounds that a corpse is not a citizen of any country and is therefore not subject to immigration control or deportation laws.


January 26,1979 -
70-year-old multibillionaire Nelson Rockefeller was stricken by a massive heart attack while giving dictation to his 27-year-old research assistant, Megan Marshack on this date. Some time after that event, Marshack had called her friend, news reporter Ponchitta Pierce, to the townhouse and it was Pierce who phoned 911 approximately an hour after the heart attack.



Much speculation went on in the press regarding a personal relationship between Rockefeller and Marshack. Rockefeller's will left Marshak $50,000 and the deed to a Manhattan townhouse.


January 26, 1984 -
A magnesium flash bomb at Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles ignited Michael Jackson’s hair during the filming of a Pepsi television commercial, causing third-degree scalp burns.



It is later reveals that unscrupulous doctors prescribe a full but highly unorthodox regiment of pedophilia to ease the singer’s wounds.


January 26, 1998 -
U.S. President Bill Clinton denied, on television, having had sexual relations with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.



The president must have skipped class that day.


January 26, 1996 -
Insane madman millionaire John E. Du Pont shot Olympic wrestler David Schultz three times, killing him on this date. A two day police standoff follows at the Foxcatcher estate and wrestling compound, with SWAT teams biding their time under the assumption that Du Pont, an expert marksman, possessed an arsenal at his disposal (see Foxcatcher.)



Mr. Du Pont later died in prison. Perhaps Mr. Du Pont has gone to a better place where greasing yourself up and rolling around a mat with another person in nothing but a jock strap or a unitard is not considered a crime against nature.


January 26, 2004 -
A decomposing sperm whale exploded while in transport in Tainan City, Taiwan on this date. The whale was being moved to a laboratory for study when a critical build-up of gas caused it to explode, covering people and shop fronts in Tainan City with whale viscera.



Though decomposing whales are regularly exploded with dynamite to clear beaches, it is thought to be the first time a whale exploded in a city.  You may have had a bad day but you never had to go home to change because you were covered in whale viscera.



And so it goes.


Before you go - Our friends from The Netherlands welcomed our new president -



To paraphrase the greatest youtube comment about a video, "...If America is first and Netherland second does that make Germany the third Reich?"


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Every act of perception, is to some degree an act of creation

It's hard to believe that the wonderful neurologist and author Oliver Sacks has been gone for about a year and a half now. So it was a nice surprise to find the video the people at Blank on Blank posted of him on Youtube yesterday -



Dr. Sacks discusses a short story by H. G Welles and colorblindness.


January 25, 1921
The Play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) by Karel Čapek premieres at the National Theater in Prague, Czechoslovakia, on this date. The play marks the first use of the term “robot,” which Capek coined from the Czech word “robota,” which is the word for the labor serfs were required to perform on their masters’ land.

To celebrate the anniversary, a robot in a factory in Flint, Michigan, in this date in 1979, killed an employee, Robert Williams. Mr Williams was struck in the head by a mechnical arm, trying to speed up retrievals from a storage space, became the first human ever killed by a robot.


January 25, 1961 -
Walt Disney's 101 Dalmatians, premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on this date.



The company was in debt following the flop of Sleeping Beauty and desperately needed a hit. There was even talk of closing down the animation division as the company was refocusing on live action films, television and theme parks.  The film went on to become the highest grossing movie of 1961 in the US.


January 25, 1970 -
Robert Altman's Oscar winning film starring Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould, M*A*S*H, premiered in NYC on this date.



The operating scenes were almost cut out due to their graphic nature. However, two women who were visiting the set told the producers that the operating scenes were what made the movie, and should be kept in.


Today in History:
January 25, 1759 -
It's Robert Burns' birthday and people will be celebrating with a Burns Supper.



The Burns Supper is eaten all across Scotland each year on the anniversary of the national poet's birth. It consists of haggis and whiskey. It is customary for the host to read Burns' Ode to a Haggis at the dinner table, presumably as a diversionary tactic.


January 25, 1924 -
The first Winter Olympics opened on this date in Chamonix, France.



Prior to this event, figure skating and ice hockey had been events at the Summer Olympics. Few, if any, of the athletes survived those winter sports during the Summer Olympics, as the rinks continually melted. And you don't want to know about the injuries sustained during nude hockey games.


January 25, 1927 -
Antonio Carlos Jobim, composer and primary force behind the creation of the bossa nova style, was born on this date.







If you are in your mid 40's to early 50's, you probably wouldn't have been born without the help of this guy - go ask your parents.


January 25, 1938 -
Etta James, blues, soul, R&B, rock & roll, gospel and jazz singer and songwriter, was born on this date



Pour yourself a double and remember this great singer.


January 25, 1947 -
Anita Pallenberg, model, actress, fashion designer,



bathtub companion to Mick Jagger and bed mate companion to Keith Richards, was born on this date.


January 25, 1947 -
Mobster Al Capone died in Florida on this date, having only recently been released from Alcatraz, due to his declining health (his mind gone from long untreated syphilis.)



For the wages of sin is death


January 25, 1960 -

Actress Diana Barrymore, Drew's aunt, committed suicide by taking a combination of sleeping pills and alcohol on this date.



Go out and rent The Bad and the Beautiful (the Lana Turner character is based on Diana.)


January 25, 1971 -
Charles Manson and three of his followers were convicted in Los Angeles of the Tate and LaBianca murders on this date.

All were sentenced to the gas chamber, with sentences commuted to life imprisonment when the death penalty was temporarily abolished.


January 25, 1971 -
Idi Amin Dada, everybody's favorite tyrant, comes to power in Uganda on this date.

Forest Whitaker won a Golden Globe award, a BAFTA, the Screen Actors' Guild award for Best Actor (Drama), and the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of this cannibal.

Hopefully, Forest isn't a method actor.


January 25, 1980 -
Ex-Beatle and pothead, Paul McCartney, after being detained for smuggling approximately 8 ounces (200 g) of pot into Japan, was released from Tokyo jail and deported without charge, on this date.



Kids let this be a lesson to you all - Pot is bad and you should never be carrying your stash on you if you are that wealthy.


January 25, 1990 -
Avianca Flight 52 ran out of fuel and crashed in Cove Neck, N.Y. on this date.



73 of the 161 people aboard were killed.


January 25, 1995 -
Hey, the world almost ended on this date and you probably didn't even know it:
Russia almost launched a nuclear missile at a Norwegian research rocket after mistaking it for a US missile.



The event, known as the Norwegian Rocket Incident, highlighted remaining Cold War tensions, despite the fact that the war had officially ended four years earlier.



And so it goes.


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I'm not interested in getting a dog

But in this case,

I might may an exception.


January 24, 1927 -
Alfred Hitchcock's first film, The Pleasure Garden, went into general release on this date in England.



Although shot in 1925, and shown to the British press in March 1926, the film wasn't actually released in the UK until after The Lodger, his third film, was a massive hit in 1927.


January 24, 1940 -
John Ford's film version of John Steinbeck's novel, The Grapes of Wrath, starring Henry Fonda, premiered in New York City on this date.



Prior to filming, producer Darryl F. Zanuck sent undercover investigators out to the migrant camps to see if John Steinbeck had been exaggerating about the squalor and unfair treatment meted out there. He was horrified to discover that, if anything, Steinbeck had actually downplayed what went on in the camps.


January 24, 1947 -
... So I guess I had, I think they tell me I had, about three years total of piano lessons, off and on. The primary one being, like I said, I don't like rock 'n' roll piano.







Warren William Zevon, singer-songwriter and musician, was born on this date.

Remember kids - keep enjoying every sandwich.


January 24, 1949 -
...I give so much pleasure to so many people. Why can I not get some pleasure for myself?



John Adam Belushi, actor and comedian, was born on this date.


A giggle for the day.

Today in History:
January 24, 41 -
Roman emperor and crackpot Caligula was assassinated by his bodyguards on this date. His last words apparently were, "I am still alive! Strike again."



Yeah, yeah, I know you know that the Roman Emperor Caligula made his horse a senator and a god, married his sister, slept with the horse, slept with the potted plants ...



I guess this guy got more unnatural things done in a day then most of us do in a lifetime.


January 24, 1848 -
James W. Marshall found gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento, starting the California Gold Rush on this date.



According to the Gold Institute less than 2 million ounce's of gold were mined during the height of the California Gold Rush in 1849.


January 24, 1908 -
The first Boy Scout troop was organized in England on this date, by its founder, Robert Baden-Powell, a man who enjoyed seeing and photographing, just a little too much, naked boys swimming.



I wonder what Baden-Powell would think (a noted repressed homosexual) now that openly gay boys (but not transgender boys) can join the scouts.


January 24, 1922 –
Christian K. Nelson of Onawa, Iowa was granted a patent (US patent No.#1404539) for his ice cream dessert covered in chocolate ( The ‘Eskimo Pie’.)



Mr Nelson invented Eskimo Pie, America's first chocolate covered ice cream bar, in his home laboratory in 1920. The ice cream bar quickly rose in popularity in America. By 1922, Nelson was earning $2000 per day in royalties on his product.


January 24, 1925 -
A motion picture of a solar eclipse was recorded by the United States Navy from the dirigible USS Los Angeles, about nineteen miles east of Montauk Point, Long Island, New York on this date.



It is the first time a dirigible has been used for astronomical observations in the U.S.


January 24, 1961 -
Mel Blanc, The Man of a Thousand Voices, was involved in a near-fatal auto accident on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California on this date. Hit head-on, Blanc suffered a triple skull fracture that left him in a coma for three weeks, along with fractures of both legs and the pelvis.



The accident prompted over 15,000 get-well cards from anxious fans, including some addressed only to "Bugs Bunny, Hollywood, USA", according to Blanc's autobiography. One newspaper falsely reported that he had died. After his recovery, Blanc reported in TV interviews, and later in his autobiography, that a clever doctor had helped him to come out of his coma by talking to Bugs Bunny, after futile efforts to talk directly to Blanc. Although he had no actual recollection of this, Blanc learned that when the doctor was inspired to ask him, "How are you today, Bugs Bunny?", Blanc answered in Bugs' voice. Blanc thus credited Bugs with saving his life.


January 24, 1965 -
After telling his son-in-law, Christopher Soames: "I am so bored with it,"  Winston Churchill, at age 90, never again makes an intelligible remark to anyone and died on this date.



Churchill died at his home at 28 Hyde Park Gate in London shortly after 8:00 a.m. on the seventieth anniversary of the death of his father, Sir Randoph Churchill.


January 24, 1972 -
Shoichi Yokoi, despite the fact that the war had been over for more than 27 years, was still at his post in Guam. Yokoi was unaware that the war had ended, and had been hiding out in the jungles of Guam since American troops occupied the island in the 1940s.

He refused to surrender until his old commanding officer, who had retired from the military for more than 20 years, was found and told him to stand down on this date. He was the last Japanese soldier from World War II to surrender.


January 24, 1978 -
The nuclear-powered Soviet Cosmos 954 satellite plunges through Earth's atmosphere and disintegrates, scattering radioactive debris over parts of Canada's Northwest Territories. Much of the satellite landed in the Great Slave Lake; only about 1% of the radioactive material was recovered.

Hey, I hope we all enjoyed that smoked salmon from Canada in the late 70s.


January 24, 1986 -
Note to Leah Remini: keep fighting the good fight - otherwise nothing to read here, move on.

Crackpot and founder of the fraudulent Scientology movement, L. Ron Hubbard died on this date (laughing his ass off about the crap he made up.) His bad science fiction writing has grown alarmingly prolific in the years since his death.



And so it goes.


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Raindrops falling from heaven

I haven't played Puddles Pity Party in awhile and I saw this video with him singing with Howard Kaylan (from the Turtles and Flo and Eddie) -



If you've lived under a rock for the past few years and don't know from Puddles, here's a nice video introducing you to him -



I'm thinking of making Puddles next weeks' ACME Eagle Hand Soap Hour


January 23, 1948 -
John Huston's classic film, Treasure of Sierra Madre, starring Humphrey Bogart opens in NYC on this date.



On seeing the depth of Walter Huston's performance, Humphrey Bogart famously said. "One Huston is bad enough, but two are murder."


January 23, 1950 -
Richard Dean Anderson, actor and love god of Patty and Selma Bouvier, was born on this date.



I shudder to think how Patty and Selma celebrate the day.


January 23, 1975 -
Barney Miller, a TV series set in a New York City police station in Greenwich Village, premiered on ABC-TV on this date.



During its broadcast run amid the many cop shows on television, many real-life police officers considered this the TV show that best depicted the reality of police life.


January 23, 1977 -
The twelve-hour miniseries Roots premiered on ABC-TV on this date.



The show was programmed by ABC to air on several consecutive nights in prime time. It was considered a revolutionary approach to programming a mini-series, since most minis were aired once or twice a week over several weeks' time. It was revealed years later that the reason the network did this was so that they get the show "out of the way" in a hurry because they felt, nobody would watch the story if it aired over a longer period of time.


January 23, 1983 -
The A-Team starring George Peppard, Dirk Benedict and Mr. T premiered on NBC-TV on this date.



The gold that was worn by Mr. T during filming varied in weight, usually between 35 and 40 pounds.


Before every starts complaining about the bad weather we are having today, remember -

last year at this time, we were in the middle of one of the worst blizzards for years on the Northeast.


Today in History:
January 23, 1849 -
The idea of winning a doctor's degree gradually assumed the aspect of a great moral struggle, and the moral fight possessed immense attraction for me.



English-born Elizabeth Blackwell, becomes the first woman to receive an American medical degree, graduated at the top of her class from the medical school of Hobart College, Geneva, NY on this date.


January 23, 1897 -
Elva Zona Heaster was found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia on this date. Authorities originally thought Heaster had died of natural causes, but her mother later claimed that Elva's ghost visited her and told her otherwise, leading to her widowed husband's arrest and conviction.

It was one of the few times in American legal history that the testimony of a ghost was taken into account at trial.


January 23, 1931  -
While touring in the Netherlands, the prima ballerina Anna Pavlova's train had a slight accident, derailing and being delayed for 12 hours. She went outside dressed only in pajamas and a light scarf to see what was happening. As a result of this she caught a cold, which developed into pneumonia.



She died three weeks later on this date. At the end, she asked to hold her Dying Swan costume. Her last words were, "Play that last measure very softly."

 So kids, once again, your mother was right - it's cold outside, put on a sweater.


January 23, 1978 -
Terry Kath of band Chicago accidentally killed himself on this date while pretending to play Russian Roulette in Woodland Hills.



The circumstances of his death gave him the dubious distinction of being one of the first celebrities to be nominated for a Darwin Award.

Moral: Remember guns don't kill - however one bullet in the chamber is a killer.


And so it goes.


Don't forget to check out our Cupboard

1457 (re-calibrated my calendar.)

You bet your sweet bippy

January 22, 1968 -
The comedy show Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, hosted by Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, premiered on NBC television on this date.


(sorry it's not the first episode but you get the idea.)

One of the trademarks of the series was the fast cutting that happened in between videotaped segments. Blackouts, one-liners and sketches were edited together in such a way that the show had a very rapid, almost frenzied, pace. This was done before computer controlled editing machines were invented, so much of the show was edited by hand.


January 22, 2003 -
The hysterical funny and groundbreaking comedy show Chappelle's Show, starring Dave Chappelle premiered on Comedy Central on this date.



Dave Chappelle was inspired to create the show after watching a documentary about Hugh M. Hefner that featured clips of Playboy After Dark. Chappelle was inspired by the laid-back atmosphere of Hefner's show.


January 22, 2010 -
To all the people watching, I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me and I'll think about it for the rest of my life. All I ask of you is one thing: please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism -- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere.

Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen - Conan O'Brien



Coco hosted his last episode of The Tonight Show on this date.


The Lady Said No!



Today in History -
Today is the birthday of Grand Duke Ivan III of Moscow, better known as Ivan the Great.

He was born in 1440 and became Grand Duke of Moscow in 1462. Although Moscow was a lot of fun, it was not yet Russia. Ivan was determined to remedy that shortcoming as quickly as possible: he had tsars in his eyes.

To enlarge his dominions he began nibbling at his smaller neighbors, paying an annual tribute to the Golden Horde of Tatars to keep them from nibbling at him. Having eventually swallowed most of his surroundings, Ivan decided in 1480 that it was time to stop paying the Golden Horde.

The Golden Horde reminded him that it was time for their annual tribute. Ivan ignored them.

The Golden Horde sent him polite reminders in the mail, but he ignored these also.

They sent reminders on brightly colored stationery embossed with the words PAYMENT PAST DUE, but Ivan, alas, remained indifferent.

Finally the Golden Horde marched against Ivan and he marched his own troops out to meet them. The two armies met, faced off, and simultaneously retreated.

This was a victory for Ivan, in that neither he nor his descendants ever paid tribute to the Golden Horde again. But it was also a defeat for Ivan, who was therefore denied the rank of tsar.

(The first real Tsar of Russia was his grandson, Ivan IV, "the shooting tsar.")


January 22, 1521 -
The Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V commenced the imperial Diet of Worms, on this date, to address the issues Martin Luther brought up in his 95 Theses.

While worms in general are quite unpleasant to consume, most people were afraid to contradict the Emperor, so many people in Europe became Protestant.


It was on this date in 1807 that U.S. President Thomas Jefferson exposed a plot by his former vice-president and unconvicted murderer, Aaron Burr, to establish an empire in the southwestern part of the continent. Burr was eventually acquitted as a result of Chief Justice Marshall's tree-falling-in-forest ruling that treason wasn't treason unless someone was there to see it—along with someone else who saw the same thing. The vice-presidency was never the same.



From that date forward, retiring vice-presidents have been compelled to either retire into the political obsolescence of private life, where we can safely ignore them, or into the presidency, where we can keep an eye on them (or possibly in Mike Pence's case, get to run the government away from prying eyes.)


January 22, 1901 -
After 63 years, England stopped sales of the Queen Victoria postage stamps series and began the King Edward VII series on this date.



Alexandrina Victoria (Hanover, if she needed a last name) the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India of the British Raj, finally gave up the ghost much to the relief of her 59 year old son Edward, permitting him to finally get a job.


January 22, 1905 -
Thousands of demonstrating Russian workers were fired on by Imperial army troops in St. Petersburg on what became known as "Red Sunday" or "Bloody Sunday" on this date.



96 people were killed, and over 300 were wounded. This incident marks the beginning of the so-called 1905 revolution.


January 22, 1918 -
Manitoba, Canada film censor board decides to ban comedies, on the grounds that they make audiences too frivolous.



Canada does not fully recover their true frivolousness until the broadcasting of SCTV in the early 80s.


January 22, 1970 -
A Pan Am Boeing 747-100 named Victor Clipper (N736PA) makes its first commercial passenger trip to London, England on this date

The flight had departed from New York City, and had carried 332 passengers and 18 crew. Although most passengers enjoyed the flight, one had mentioned that this plane is too big for commercial travel.



(Unfortunately, seven years later on March 27, 1977, the Clipper Victor was involved in the worst aircraft accident in history, with a total of 583 fatalities. A KLM 747 at full take off speed, while trying to get airborne crashed into Pan Am’s Clipper Victor in Tenerife (one of the Canary Islands.)


January 22, 1973 -
The Supreme Court in a 7-2 ruling handed down its Roe vs. Wade decision on this date, which legalized abortion, using a trimester approach. The court ruled that a woman's right to privacy encompasses her decision to terminate a pregnancy.



Norma McCorvey, the anonymous Jane Roe, revealed her identity in 1989. She ended up having her third baby that was the initial focus of the issue.


January 22, 1984 -
The future began today. The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, was introduced during Super Bowl XVIII with its famous 1984 television commercial.



Now that Steve Jobs is gone; we can stop saying 'Hooray for Big Brother!!!' Let's hope The President does not read.


January 22, 1997 -
Lottie Williams was reportedly the first human to be struck by a remnant of a space vehicle after re-entering the earth's atmosphere on this date.

The debris that struck Ms. Williams has not been examined to confirm its origin, but a used Delta II rocket, launched nine months earlier, had crashed into the Earth's atmosphere half an hour earlier. Williams says she received a letter from the deputy secretary of defense apologizing for the incident.



And so it goes.


Before I let you go:

January 22, 1987 -
If you know, you know why





Otherwise, nothing to see here


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