Today in History (TIH)

[lugan]

The Everly Brothers were big business in their time:

2014 Jan 3, Rock & Roll singer Phil Everly (b.1939), the younger brother of Don Everly (b.1937), died. Phil helped make the Everly Brothers one of the biggest rock and country acts of the 1950s and early 1960s.
(Reuters, 1/3/14)(SFC, 1/4/14, p.A7)

[lugan]

A 2nd California earthquake today hit at about 8:20, not large but just 5 or so hours after an earlier one.

Eyewitness

[lugan]

It would be nice to direct this board to noting significant "today in history" business events. I will post to this end.

[lugan]

2009 Feb 6, The US FDA approved the first drug made with materials from genetically altered animals. Atryn, developed by GTX Biotherapeutics, was made from the milk of a genetically altered goat and would be used to treat a rare blood-clotting disorder known as hereditary antithrombin deficiency.
(WSJ, 2/7/08, p.A4)

[lugan]

My promise for a daily post clearly failed, but the data continues to be entered on a daily basis at: www. timelinesdb.com

[lugan]

Bill Gates will not cure malaria, but he can apply and direct a lot of money to where it can do a lot of good:

2006 Jan 18, Gervan Lubbe, a South African inventor, was reported to have developed an anti-malaria wristwatch to help combat one of Africa's biggest killers by monitoring the blood of those who wear it and sounding an alarm when the parasite is detected.
(AP, 1/18/06)
2006 Jun 2, Four governments (Brazil, Chile, France, and Norway), the UN and the world's soccer federation launched a plan to use the proceeds of a new airline ticket tax to treat people in the developing world suffering from AIDS, malaria or tuberculosis. Countries that have either approved or say they expect to approve a new airline ticket tax include Britain, Cyprus, Congo, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mauritius and Nicaragua.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jul 2, US researchers reported that astemizol, an allergy drug pulled off the market in 1999, could work to treat malaria. It was marketed under the brand name Hismanal by Janssen Pharmaceutica, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, and can kill the Plasmodium falciparum parasite that causes malaria.
(AP, 7/2/06)
2006 Jul 13, A collaborative effort to study malaria went public via the Web site Africa@home. Project leaders planned to use spare computing capacity to study malaria. By July 19 it reached the stable level of some 5000 computers needed at this stage for MalariaControl.net.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.79)(http://africa-at-home.web.cern.ch/africa%2Dat%2Dhome/index.htm)
2006 Sep 14, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded $68.2 million to fight parasitic diseases that included leishmaniasis, trypanosomiasis and hookworm. The new money will support efficacy trials in India and Africa.
(WSJ, 9/14/06, p.A11)
2006 Sep 15, The World Health Organization declared its support for indoor use of DDT to control mosquitoes in regions where malaria is a major health problem.
(SFC, 9/16/06, p.A5)
2006 The WHO estimated that malaria infected up to 500 million people per year.
(Econ, 2/4/06, p.71)

[mikeyrags]

your welcome. god bless america

[The Original dpb5!]

Mikeyrags,

Thanks for posting that!

[mikeyrags]

This is an extremely important letter. I encourage you all to read it even though it is lengthy . We all have our opinions about the Iraq war.
Reading the following history may provide a clearer picture of why we are there, why we should be there, and what the results of a failure in Iraq may mean to not only us individually, but more importantly our kids, grandkids and future generations. Please read the following and consider your position. If you think the writer makes a valid argument, then please pass this on to all the people you know. In light of daily events in the mideast, these are important issues we must consider, in relation to coming mid-term elections.


WHY WE ARE IN IRAQ .

(a post from Raymond S. Kraft, a California
lawyer, that sheds light on the Big Picture!)

Sixty-three years ago, Nazi Germany had overrun
almost all of Europe and hammered England to the
verge of bankruptcy and defeat, and had sunk more
than four hundred British ships in their convoys
between England and America for food and war
materials.

The US was in an isolationist, pacifist, mood, and
most Americans and Congress wanted nothing to do
with the European war, or the Asian war.

Then along came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941,
and in outrage Congress unanimously declared war on
Japan, and the following day on Germany, which had
not attacked us. It was a dicey thing. We had few
allies.

France was not an ally, the Vichy government of
France aligned with its German occupiers. Germany
was not an ally, it was an enemy, and Hitler
intended to set up a Thousand Year Reich in Europe .
Japan was not an ally, it was intent on owning and
controlling all of Asia . Japan and Germany had
long-term ideas of invading Canada and Mexico , and
then the United States over the north and south
borders, after they had settled control of Asia and
Europe .

America's allies then were England, Ireland, Canada,

Australia, and Russia, and that was ab out it.

All of Europe, from Norway to Italy , except Russia

in the east, was already under the Nazi heel.

America was not prepared for war. America had
stood down most of it's military after WWI and
throughout the depression, at the outbreak of WWII,
there were army units training with broomsticks over
their shoulders because they didn't have guns, and
cars with "tank" painted on the doors because they
didn't have tanks. And a big chunk of our Navy had
just been sunk and damaged at Pearl Harbor .

Britain had already gone bankrupt, saved only by
the donation of $600 million in gold bullion in the
Bank of England that was the property of Belgium and
was given by Belgium to England to carry on the war
when Belgium was overrun by Hitler. Actually,
Belgium surrendered in one day, because it was
unable to oppose the German invasion, and the
Germans bombed ! Brussels into rubble the next day
anyway just to prove they could. Britain has been
holding out for two years already in the face of
staggering shipping losses and the near decimation
of its air force in the Battle of Britain , and was
saved from being overrun by Germany only because
Hitler made the mistake of thinking the Brits were a
relatively minor threat that could be dealt with
later and turning his attention to Russia , at a
time when England was on the verge of collapse in
the late summer of 1940.

Russia saved America 's butt by putting up a
desperate fight for two years until the US got
geared up to begin hammering away at Germany .
Russia lost something like 24 million people in the
sieges of Stalingrad and Moscow , 90% of them from
cold and starvation, mostly civilians, but more than
a million soldiers. More than a million.

Had Russia surrendered, then, Hitler would have
been able to focus his entire campaign against the
Brits, then America , and the Nazis would have won
the war.

I say this to illustrate that turning points in
history are often dicey things. And we are at
another one.

There is a very dangerous minority in Islam that
either has, or wants and may soon have, the ability
to deliver small nuclear, biological, or chemical
weapons, almost anywhere in the world, unless they
are prevented from doing so.

The Jihadis, the militant Muslims, are basically
Nazis in Kaffiyahs. They believe that Islam, a
radically conservative (definitely not liberal!)
form of Wahhabi Islam, should own and control the
Middle East first, then Europe, then the world, and
that all who do not bow to Allah should be killed,
enslaved, or subjugated. They want to finish the
Holocaust, -destroy Israel , -purge the world of
Jews. This is what they say.

There is also a civil war raging in the Middle
East, for the most part not a hot war, but a war of
ideas. Islam is having its Inquisition and its
Reformation today, but it is not yet known which
will win - the Inquisition or the Reformation.

If the Inquisition wins, then the Wahhabis, the
Jihads, will control the Middle East , and the OPEC
oil, and the US , European, and Asian economies, the
techno industrial economies, will be at the mercy of
OPEC, not an OPEC dominated by the well educated and
rational Saudis of today, but an OPEC dominated by
the Jihadis.

You want gas in your car? You want heating oil
next winter? You want jobs? You want the dollar
to be worth anything? You better hope the Jihad,
the Muslim Inquisition, loses, and the Islamic
Reformation wins.

If the Reformation movement wins, that is, the
moderate Muslims who believe that Islam can respect
and tolerate other religions, and live in peace with
the rest of the world, and move out of the 10th
century and into the 21st, then the troubles in the
Middle East will eventually fade away, and a
moderate and prosperous Middle East will emerge.

We have to help the Reformation win, and to do
that we have to fight the Inquisition, i.e., the
Wahhabi movement, the Jihad, Al Qaeda, the Islamic
terrorist movements. We have to do it somewhere.
We cannot do it nowhere. And we cannot do it
everywhere at once. We have created a focal point
for the battle now at the time and place of our
choosing, in Iraq .

Not in New York , not in London , or Paris , or
Berlin, but in Iraq, where we did and are doing two
very important things.

(1) We deposed Saddam Hussein. Whether Saddam
Hussein was directly involved in 9/11 or not, it is
undisputed that Saddam has been actively supporting
the terrorist movement for decades. Saddam is a
terrorist.

Saddam is, or was, a weapon of mass destruction,
who is responsible for the deaths of probably more
than a million Iraqis and two million Iranians.

(2) We created a battle, a confrontation, a flash
point, with Islamic terrorism in Iraq . We have
focused the battle. We are killing bad guys there
and the ones we get there we won't have to get here,
or anywhere else We also have a good shot at
creating a democratic, peaceful Iraq , which will be
a catalyst for democratic change in the rest of the
Middle East , and an outpost for a stabilizing
American military presence in the Middle East for as
long as it is needed.

World War II, the war with the German and Japanese
Nazis, really began with a "whimper" in 1928. It
did not begin with Pearl Harbor . It began with the
Japanese invasion of China . It was a war for
fourteen years before America joined it. It
officially ended in 1945 - a 17 year war - and was
followed by another decade of US occupation in
Germany and Japan to get those countries
reconstructed and running on their own again .. a
27 year war.

World War II cost the United States an amount
equal to approximately a full year's GDP - adjusted
for inflation, equal to about $12 trillion dollars,
WWII cost America more than 400,000 killed in
action, and nearly 100,000 still missing in action.

The Iraq war has, so far, cost the US about $160
billion ( U.S. GDP in 2006 = 13.04 trillion dollars,
which means that the IRAQ war has cost the U.S.
approximately 12.5% of a full years GDP), which is
roughly what 9/11 cost New York . It has also cost
about 2,200 American lives, which is roughly 2/3 of
the 3,000 lives that the Jihad snuffed on 9/11.
But the cost of not fighting and winning WWII would
have been unimaginably greater - a world now
dominated by German and Japanese Nazism.

Americans have a short attention span, now,
conditioned I suppose by 60 minute TV shows and 2
hour movies in which everything comes out okay.

The real world is not like that. It is messy,
uncertain, and sometimes bloody and ugly. Always
has been, and probably always will be.

The bottom line here is that we will have to deal
with Islamic terrorism until we defeat it, whenever
that is. It will not go away on its own. It will
not go away if we ignore it.

If the US can create a reasonably democratic and
stable Iraq , then we have an " England " in the
Middle East, a platform, from which we can work to
help modernize and moderate the Middle East . The
history of the world is the clash between the forces
of relative civility and civilization, and the
barbarians clamoring at the gates. The Iraq war is
merely another battle in this ancient and never
ending war. And now, for the first time ever, the
barbarians are about to get nuclear weapons.
Unless we prevent them. Or somebody does.


We have four options.

1. We can defeat the Jihad now, before it gets
nuclear weapons.

2. We can fight the Jihad later, after it gets
nuclear weapons (which may be as early as next year,
if Iran 's progress on nuclear weapons is what Iran
claims it is).

3. We can surrender to the Jihad and accept its
dominance in the Middle East, now, in Europe in the
next few years or decades, and ultimately in
America .

4. Or we can stand down now, and pick up the fight
later when the Jihad is more widespread and better
armed, perhaps after the Jihad has dominated France
and Germany and maybe most of the rest of Europe .
It will be more dangerous, more expensive, and much
bloodier then.

Yes, the Jihadis say that they look forward to an
Islamic America . If you oppose this war, I hope
you like the idea that your children, or
grandchildren, may live in an Islamic America under
the Mullahs and the Sharia, an America that
resembles Iran today.

We can be defeatist peace activists as anti war
types seem to be, and concede, surrender, to the
Jihad, or we can do whatever it takes to win this
war against them.

The history of the world is the history of
civilizational clashes, cultural clashes. All wars
are about ideas, ideas about what society and
civilization should be like, and the most determined
always, win.

Those who are willing to be the most ruthless
always win. The pacifists always lose, because the
anti pacifists kill them.

In the 20th century, it was Western democracy vs.
communism, and before that Western democracy vs.
Nazism, and before that Western democracy vs. German
Imperialism. Western democracy won, three times,
but it wasn't cheap, fun, nice, easy, or quick.
Indeed, the wars against German Imperialism (WWI),
Nazi Imperialism (WWII), and communist imperialism
(the 40 year Cold War that included the Vietnam
Battle, commonly called the Vietnam War, but itself
a major battle in a larger war) covered almost the
entire century.

The first major war of the 21st Century is the war
between Western Judeo Christian Civilization and
Wahhabi Islam. It may last a few more years, or
most of this century. It will last until the
Wahhabi branch of Islam fades away, or gives up its
ambitions for regional and global dominance and
Jihad, or until Western Civilization gives into the
Jihad.

It will take time. It will not go with no
hitches. This is not TV.

Remember, perspective is everything, and America 's
schools teach too little history for perspective to
be clear, especially in the young American mind.

The Cold War lasted from about 1947 at least until
the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. Forty two
years. Europe spent the first half of the 19th
century fighting Napoleon, and from 1870 to 1945
fighting Germany .

World War II began in 1928, lasted 17 years, plus
a ten year occupation, and the US still has troops
in Germany and Japan . WWII resulted in the death of
more than 50 million people, maybe more than 100
million people, depending on which estimates you
accept.

The US has taken a little more than 2,500 KIA in
Iraq . The US took more than 4,000 killed in action
on the morning of June 6th, 1944, the first day of
the Normandy Invasion to rid Europe of Nazi
Imperialism. In WWII the US averaged 2,000 KIA a
week for four years. Most of the individual
battles of WWII lost more Americans than the entire
Iraq war has done so far.

But the stakes are at least as high . . a world
dominated by representative governments with civil
rights, human rights, and personal freedoms . or a
world dominated by a radical Islamic Wahhabi
movement, by the Jihad, under the Mullahs and the
Sharia (Islamic law).

I do not understand why the American Left does not
grasp this. They favor human rights, civil rights,
liberty and freedom, but evidently not for Iraqis.
In America , absolutely, but nowhere else.

300,000 Iraqi bodies in mass graves in Iraq are
not our problem? The US population is about twelve
times that of Iraq , so let's multiply 300,000 by
twelve. What would you think if there were 3,600,000
American bodies in mass graves in America because of
George Bush? Would you hope for another country to
help liberate America ?

"Peace Activists" always seem to demonstrate where
it's safe, in America .

Why don't we see Peace Activist demonstrating in
Iran, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, North Korea, in the places
in the world that really need peace activism the
most?

The liberal mentality is supposed to favor human
rights, civil rights, democracy, multiculturalism,
diversity, etc., but if the Jihad wins, wherever the
Jihad wins, it is the end of civil rights, human
rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc.
Americans who oppose the liberation of Iraq are
coming down on the side of their own worst enemy.

If the Jihad wins, it is the death of Liberalism.
Everywhere the Jihad wins, it is the death of
Liberalism. And American Liberals just don't get it.

Raymond S. Kraft is a writer and lawyer living in
Northern California . Please consider passing along
copies of this to students in high school, college
and university as it contains information about the
American past that is very meaningful TODAY - -
history about America that very likely is completely
unknown by them (and their instructors, too). By
being denied the facts and truth of our history,
they are at a decided disadvantage when it comes to
reasoning and thinking through the issues of today.
They are prime targets for misinformation campaigns
beamed at enlisting them in causes and beliefs that
are special interest agenda driven.

[The Original dpb5!]

Time is of the essence!

I have already received $555 in pledges to BAIL me out of JAIL tomorrow afternoon!

$465 so far has been pledged online by the good people who use IHUB! I NEED MORE SUPPORT!

I have sent Thank You notes to those who pledged to help Jerry's Kids in your memory!

Hopefully others will join in soon and help me to raise my goal this year of $1,200 to send 2 of Jerry's Kids to Summer Camp!

I will be carted away to Jr's Comedy Club tomorrow, placed in prison garb, forced to be pictured handcuffed behind bars, and made to sit and rot in "JAIL" until I raise this year's "BAIL" goal of $1200 via telephone calls to friends and family !!! $1200 will allow 2 children with Muscular Dystrophy to attend Summer Camp !! IMAGINE the JOY this will bring to them!

I am pleading for people to "HAVE A HEART" and help me raise my goal.

Click on the following link, then click on "LOOK WHO HAS DONATED!"

http://url.fm/30b

Then click on the link that will allow you to donate online, and help a couple of "Jerry's Kid's".

This link will be open for the next 2 weeks to give people with a 'GOOD HEART' time to participate!

NO pledge is too small. $1, $2, $5, $10, $20 or MORE.....it all adds up!!

Thanks go out once again to those who have helped in this year's "LOCK UP Event".

Dave

[lugan]

OT

In these scandal ridden, corrupt and litigious times, I am hereby giving you the opportunity to participate in poll that you may bias and influence at will. The timelines website (www.timelines.ws) has been selected as cool site of the day for April 16, 2005. Please come and visit today and cast your favorable vote at the cool site logo. Tell your friends and don't forget to let your state governor, state representatives, city mayor, and local librarian know of this once in a lifetime opportunity.

Thanks

[lugan]

Today in history March 1:

http://timelines.ws/days/02_01.HTML

[lugan]

I will post a daily link to the "today in history" section of my web site: www.timelines.ws
The link for Feb 28 is:

http://timelines.ws/days/02_28.HTML

[The Original dpb5!]

Hi lugan,

I thought this board had dried up and simply slipped away.

Perhaps we should revive it?

[lugan]

Today Feb 27:

http://timelines.ws/days/02_27.HTML

[lugan]

For an extensive look at any day in history see:

http://www.timelines.ws/

[dropdeadfred]

January 27 1967 - Tragedy struck on the launch pad of Apollo 204, scheduled to be the first Apollo manned mission. A flash fire in the command module during a preflight test killed stronauts Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee. After the disaster, the mission was officially designated Apollo 1.

[dropdeadfred]

Nov 4 1979 - 3,000 militants overran the U.S. Embassy in Teheran, Iran. They captured 54 embassy staff members. Religious extremist and Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini praised their actions. The militants demanded that the Shah of Iran, who had ruled for decades and was now seeking medical treatment in the West, be turned over to them for trial; that the United States apologize for crimes against the Iranian people; and that the Shah’s assets be given to them. The Iran(ian) Hostage Crisis, as it came to be known, lasted 444 days, ending on President Ronald Reagan’s inauguration day, Jan. 20, 1981.

[dropdeadfred]

Nov 4 1980 - Republican Ronald Reagan won the White House defeating President Jimmy Carter. Reagan was the 40th President of the U.S., winning by a landslide (525 electoral votes to Carter’s 40).

[The Original dpb5!]

Forgiven!

But possibly correct. I'll need to reanalyze it all tomorrow! On Saturday 1 !!!! hahahaa

[dropdeadfred]

I guess the good thing is I get to have two Fridays..

[dropdeadfred]

sorry about this post.. I was thinking yesterday was Friday..

[dropdeadfred]

Oct 16, 1989 - Millions were watching the third game of the World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics, when much to their horror, the seats at Candlestick Park began to rock, light towers swayed, and 58,000 fans became eerily quiet. An earthquake, measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale, had hit the San Francisco Bay area at 5:04 p.m. Homes crumbled, gas lines ruptured, ‘earthquake-safe’ structures fell and the upper section of a two-tiered freeway collapsed onto the lower level at the height of rush hour -- trapping commuters in flattened cars. The tremor and its aftershocks reached north to Sacramento and south to Los Angeles, causing an estimated 270 deaths, 3,000 injuries, and damages up to $3 billion. TV audiences stayed glued to their sets as fires burned, rescue workers went about their jobs and real stories unfolded. At the World Series game (postponed because of earth shaking), the fans cheered when the tremor stopped. They were the victors of nature’s game.

[NovoMira]

Astronomy picture of the day...

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/

[The Original dpb5!]

Oct. 15, 1951

I LOVE LUCY show airs!

I Love Lucy is an American classic sitcom from the 1950s, starring the famous comedienne Lucille Ball, her husband Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance and William Frawley. The series ran from October 15, 1951 to 1957 (180 episodes, including the "lost" Christmas episode). Keith Thibodeaux (credited as "Richard Keith") played "Little Ricky" in the last two seasons.
Based on a radio show starring Lucille Ball and Richard Denning called My Favorite Husband, I Love Lucy began its television career because of the popularity of the radio show. Denning was enthusiastic to continue his role as Ball's husband, but Ball wanted her real life husband, Desi Arnaz to play her onscreen husband. Studio heads were worried that American audiences would not find such a "mixed marriage" be believable, but Ball was adamant, and they were eager to have her in the part. To sway their decisions, Ball and Arnaz put together a vaudeville act featuring his music and her comedy, which was well received in several cities.
At the time television shows were shot live in New York City, and a low-quality 16mm kinescope print was made of the show. But Ball was pregnant at the time and her and Arnez therefore insisted on filming the show in Hollywood, California. The duo along with co-creator Jess Oppenheimer then decided to shoot the show on 35 mm film in front of a live studio audience, with three cameras (this technical innovation is now standard for sitcoms). The result was a much sharper image than other shows of the time and one of the best comic pairings to grace the small screen, with Ball as the scatterbrained wife and Arnaz as the long-suffering husband. The various setups were basically to give Ball the opportunity to display her extraordinary skill at physical comedy. Jess Oppenheimer, Bob Carroll, and Madelyn Pugh, writers of Ball's radio show, scripted the series.
One of the most memorable episodes was titled "Lucy Does a Commercial", filmed during the first season (episode 30 of 35) on March 28, 1952, and first aired on May 5 of that year. In this episode Lucy manages to get a role as the "Vitameatavegamin girl" and is tasked with trying to sell the public a tonic that has healthy amounts of vitamins, meat, vegetables, and the less healthy dose of 23% alcohol. During a number of rehearsals Lucy has to drink some of the tonic and gives grimacing facial expressions and says afterwards "It's tasty too. Just like candy". But due to the high alcoholic content Lucy begins to get drunk and slur her lines (especially the pronunciation of "Vitameatavegamin") and also begins to enjoy the taste better. So by the time she goes live with the commercial her lines "Do you poop out at parties? Are you unpopular?" becomes "Do you pop out at parties? Are you un-poopular?" and then she chugs the Vitameatavegamin bottle to the roaring laughter of the studio audience.
In November of 2001, fans voted this episode as their all-time favorite during a 50th anniversary I Love Lucy television special. Other memorable Lucy moments mentioned in the vote were: Lucy and Ethel working in a chocolate factory, the birth of Little Rickie (see below), Lucy stomping grapes in Italy and Lucy making an extremely long loaf of bread.
On January 19, 1953 68% of all United States television sets were tuned in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth. The next month on February 18 Ball and Arnaz signed an $8,000,000 contract to continue I Love Lucy through 1955. After the end of the weekly series, the actors reunited for several one-hour specials.
Classic moments include:
Grape stomping
Candy making
Nose burning
Harpo Marx
Vita-meata-vega-min



[Suppressed Sound Link]

[The Original dpb5!]

I missed this one!

Oct. 13, 2003...Joan Kroc dies!

(thanks to mayu for posting this on Excel's board!)

http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=1574203

[NovoMira]

This Astronomy picture of the day is incredibly beautiful, IMO...


http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/

[dropdeadfred]

Oct 14, 1926 POOH BEAR DAY
Oh-tay, boys and girls, gather ’round as we tell you that the classic A.A. Milne book, Winnie-the-Pooh, made its debut on this day in 1926.
Alan Alexander Milne wrote this and other delightful Winnie-the-Pooh stories, centering the tales around his little son, Christopher Robin, and Christopher’s stuffed animals, like the honey-loving Pooh Bear, Eeyore (the donkey), Piglet and Tigger, too

[dropdeadfred]

Oct 14, 1947 - U.S. Air Force Captain Charles Yeager rode the X-1, attached to the belly of a B-29 bomber, to an altitude of 25,000 ft. over dry Rogers Lake in California. After releasing from the B-29, he rocketed to an altitude of 40,000 ft. and became the first person to break the sound barrier.

[The Original dpb5!]

Oct. 14, 1977

Bing Crosby dies....

Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby (May 3, 1903 - October 14, 1977) was a very popular American singer and actor. His biggest hit was his recording of the Irving Berlin song "White Christmas", which became one of the biggest-selling recordings of all time. He had 21 other gold records; some of these include "I'll be home for Christmas", "Too-Ra-Lo-Ra-Loo-Ral" and "Swinging on a Star". He appeared in dozens of movies from the 1930s - 1960s.
Bing Crosby was born in Tacoma, Washington and grew up with Al Rinker, the younger brother of singer Mildred Bailey. Crosby and Rinker used Bailey's connections and joined Paul Whiteman's Rhythm Boys almost straight from school. He came to national attention while with the popular Whiteman Orchestra, with whom he made his film debut in King of Jazz (1930). From then on he was a top stage and radio performer and a top-selling record artist.
Crosby's films included (an incomplete listing):
The Big Broadcast (1932)
Mississippi (1935)
Rhythm on the Range (1936)
Rhythm on the River (1940)
Birth of the Blues (1941)
Holiday Inn (1942)
Going My Way (Crosby won an Academy Award for Best Actor) (1944)
The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)
Blue Skies (1946)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court(1949)
White Christmas (1954)
High Society (1954) (with Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong)
The Country Girl (1956)
the comedy "Road" pictures, with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour, including:
Road to Singapore (1940)
Road to Zanzibar (1941)
Road to Morocco (1942)
Road to Utopia (1946)
Road to Rio (1948)
Road to Bali (1952)
Road to Hong Kong (1962) (minus Dorothy Lamour)
Crosby also had regular radio shows from the 1930s-1950s, hosted a network television show in 1964-1965, and made numerous short films and television appearances.
Crosby was a keen amateur golfer, who appeared in many charity events. It was after a round of golf in Spain in 1977 that he collapsed and died from a massive heart attack. Crosby had been married twice (his second wife, actress Kathryn Grant, being considerably younger), and effectively had two families, his children from the marriages being of different generations. After his death, his eldest son from his first marriage wrote a controversial memoir depicting him as an autocratic and abusive father. Two of his children, Lindsay and Dennis, committed suicide.
There is some uncertainty about the year in which Bing Crosby was born. Most reference works give his year of birth as 1903, but his gravestone?on the instructions of his family?gives his birth year as 1904.



[Suppressed Sound Link]

http://www.b-unique.net/music/oldiesholiday/christmas/BingCrosby_WhiteChristmas.wav

[NovoMira]

Astronomy picture of the day...

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/

[dropdeadfred]

Oct 13 1994 - Netscape Communications Corporation announced that it was offering its new Netscape Navigator free to users via the Internet. The Internet browser, developed by the six-month-old Silicon Valley company led by Silicon Graphics founder Jim Clark and NCSA Mosaic creator Marc Andreessen, was available for free downloading by “individual, academic and research users.”

[NovoMira]

Certainly not! LOL

[The Original dpb5!]

Phenomenon explained....

I guess it isn't the alcohol after all!

***************

A Straight Dope Classic from Cecil's storehouse of human knowledge
Why does the moon appear bigger near the horizon?
25-Jan-1985
Dear Cecil:
I have noticed that the moon (and the sun, for that matter) appears very large just as it rises and sets. When it is overhead, it seems tiny by comparison. The color is also vastly different, but this can be easily explained by the fact that we view the moon through varying ''thicknesses'' of atmosphere as it makes its way across the sky. But this explanation seems insufficient to account for the change in size. So what's the straight dope? --Frank M., Los Angeles
Cecil replies:
Believe it or not, Frank, they've been arguing about this for two thousand years, and it's about time I got things straightened out. First of all, let me make it clear that the effect is an optical illusion. If you measure the moon with a ruler held at arm's length (a paper clip bent into the shape of a calipers will also work), you'll find it's always the same size no matter where it happens to be in the sky. If anything, the moon is slightly smaller at the horizon than it is at the zenith, mainly because it's 4,000 miles (the radius of the earth) farther away. (If you don't understand why this is so, draw yourself a picture.) Nonetheless, most people are convinced that, area-wise, the moon's at least twice as big when it's near the horizon as when it's overhead.
Numerous theories have been advanced to explain the ""moon illusion.'' At one point people thought it had something to do with the angle at which you hold your head and/or eyes while viewing, while others said it was caused by differences in the moon's brightness when seen at various locations in the sky (a notion first proposed in 1709). Both ideas have long since been discredited. The fact is that the illusion is dependent entirely on the visual cues provided by the terrain when the moon is near the horizon, and the lack of such cues when it's at the zenith. To prove this, try viewing the moon through a cardboard tube or a hole punched in a sheet of paper to mask out the landscape--the illusion disappears.
What's now called the "apparent distance" theory was first advanced by the Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy in the second century AD (I told you this goes back a ways). His explanation is a little confusing, but here goes: most people subconsciously perceive the sky to be a flattened bowl--i.e., objects near the horizon seem farther away than objects overhead, due to the abundance of intervening visual cues on the ground. Now, when we see an image of a certain size at what we believe is a great distance, we deduce that it's bigger than an image of the same size seen at what seems to be a lesser distance. (You might want to let this percolate for a minute.) So when we see the moon at the "distant" horizon, we subconsciously conclude that that it's "bigger" than when we see it a few hours later overhead, when it's "close." To put it another way, perspective--i.e., the march of visual cues to the horizon--makes the the moon look bigger than it does when it's just hanging in space.
This explanation is OK as far as it goes, but it's even better if we combine it with one propounded by psychologist Frank Restle. Frank reasons thusly: you judge the size of something by comparing it to the size of things around it. If it's surrounded by big things, it seems little. If it's surrounded by little things, it seems big. When the moon is overhead you judge its size against the vast expanse of the night sky (the stars are too small and faint to make any difference). Ergo, it looks small. When the moon is close to the horizon, on the other hand, it's usually bigger than many nearby objects (trees, houses, waves on the ocean). In addition, just after moonrise (when the illusion is most compelling), the moon's apparent diameter exceeds the distance from the moon to the horizon. Add in the effect of prespective, and the moon looks huge. That's all there is to it.
THE TEEMING MILLIONS AREN'T BUYING IT
I know you're not infallible, but just in case you don't realize it, let me point out a small bit of misinformation you published recently. The question was, "Why does the moon sometimes appear much larger when it is near the horizon?" or something to that effect. Your answer was that it appeared larger because there were earthly objects such as trees, buildings, etc., "near" the moon, giving a false perspective.
Sorry to disappoint you, but that's completely wrong. The earth's atmosphere is, like the planet, curved. And, as anyone who has ever been in a pool knows, water can distort light. The moon appears larger when near the horizon only when there is sufficient water vapor (humidity) in the atmosphere, because the curvature of the earth's atmosphere combined with the correct vapor density forms what is essentially a gigantic lens. In this case, a magnifying lens. If you proof of this, just watch the moon (or the setting sun) on a humid day. Either celestial body will look somewhat pear-shaped when very close to the horizon, since that's where the "lens" is thickest. Trees or no trees. --Tom R., Chicago
Years of dealing with your kind has taught me patience, Tom. Try to pay attention. The "magnifying" effect you refer to is called refraction. It accounts for the fact that the sun, and less often the moon, appears distorted (i.e., vertically elongated, or pear shaped) just at the point of rising or setting. The elongation lasts only a few minutes, and is not what people are talking about when they say the moon looks bigger when it's low in the sky. The so-called moon illusion persists even when the moon is a couple of degrees of arc above the horizon.
The illusion is entirely psychological in origin. The actual size of the moon's image doesn't decrease as it rises in the sky; you only think it does. To prove this yet again, I got up at several points during the night recently and tried the paper-clip caliper test described earlier to measure the size of the moon's image as it sank toward the horizon. The illusion of great size was compelling toward the end, but it disappeared as soon as I held up the paper clip and confirmed that the size of the lunar image was unchanged.   Try it next time you're tempted to sound off, and save yourself the price of a stamp.
--CECIL ADAMS
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[NovoMira]

I've experienced that phenomenon myself a time or two especially in my younger years. LOL

[The Original dpb5!]

Novo,

Yes, I now see the updated pic. I don't care WHAT they say, the moon is bigger sometimes than other times.

I have usually blamed that effect on alcohol, but what do I know? Let's wait to hear from our friends out Seattle way!

[NovoMira]

Isn't that strange. I just clicked on the link and got the picture for 10/11 already. Apparently it updates itself. I'm on CST so it's still 10/10 here.

Do we have anybody who lives in Seattle here...they ought to enjoy this one.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/

[The Original dpb5!]

Novo,

That's the same astronomy pic as yesterday's.

They didn't change it! Drat!

[NovoMira]

Astronomy picture of the day...

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/

[NovoMira]

More October 10 birthdays...Tanya Tucker is 45. Ben Vereen is 57 and Peter Coyote is 61.

[dropdeadfred]

Oct 10 1969 - Birth Day - Brett Favre football: Southern Mississippi [6 school passing records; 2.9 INT rate for 4-year career ranks as one of best in NCAA history]; Atlanta Falcons, Green Bay Packers quarterback, Super Bowls XXXI, XXXII

[NovoMira]

ASTRONOMY picture of the day.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/

[dropdeadfred]

Oct 9 1973 - Priscilla Presley, was divorced from Elvis -- in Santa Monica, CA. ‘Cilla’ got $1.5 million in cash, $4,200 per month in alimony, half interest in a $750,000 home plus about 5% interest in two of Elvis’ publishing companies.

[dropdeadfred]

Oct 9 1940

IMAGINE DAY

John Winston Lennon -- composer; musician; one fourth of the famed rock group, The Beatles; husband of Yoko Ono; father of Julian and Sean -- was born on this day in 1940 in Liverpool, England. It’s hard to imagine what the world would be like without his influence on music.
There is hardly a soul anywhere in the world who isn’t familiar with the songs he wrote as half of the team of Lennon and McCartney. When The Beatles were no longer touring, John Lennon collaborated with Yoko Ono in avant-garde works. He then began to express his political views through his music, and in some cases, his actions. Live Peace in Toronto was his first gesture for world peace. And, he returned the coveted Order of the British Empire award (the MBE) to protest British involvement in the Nigerian Civil War. He continued his quest for peace in Give Peace a Chance and with his bed-in for peace at the Amsterdam Hilton following his marriage to Yoko Ono.

His music traced his lifestyles, his views, his childhood, his pain, and jubilation: Cold Turkey, Instant Karma, Mother, Working Class Hero, Jealous Guy, Crippled Inside and How Do You Sleep. Imagine, from the LP of the same title, became his best known work. It also made a statement, paying homage to nonmaterialism. Then there was the LP, Sometime in New York City, filled with anti-establishment verses. Mind Games and Walls and Bridges followed.

Whatever Gets You Through the Night was cause for celebration. It was his first solo #1 hit in the U.S. Lennon then recorded an LP with Yoko, each alternating songs on Double Fantasy. He celebrated his son Sean with Beautiful Boy, his wife with Woman and his new life with both in Just like Starting Over.

He had barely begun to start over when, on December 8, 1980, John Lennon was shot to death outside his New York City apartment building.

It’s hard to Imagine ...

[dropdeadfred]

Born on this day in 1943 - Chevy Chase (Cornelius Crane Chase)
Emmy Award-winning comedian, actor: Saturday Night Live [1976]; The Chevy Chase Show, Fletch, Man of the House, Caddyshack I & II, National Lampoon’s Vacation series, Three Amigos, The Groove Tube; Emmy Award-winning comedy writer: The Paul Simon Special [1978], Saturday Night Live [1976]; The Groove Tube


He has got to be one of my favorite actors..

[dropdeadfred]

Oct 8 1871
When Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicked over a lantern in the barn on this day in 1871, it was no laughing matter.
The barn, on DeKoven Street in Chicago, caught fire. The fire spread, scorching almost four square miles, killing about 300 people and leaving a path of destruction valued at over two hundred million dollars -- a lot of dollars for that time.

Of course, Patrick & Mrs. O’Leary’s barn was destroyed; as were 17,450 other buildings, leaving almost 99,000 people homeless. The city of Chicago was virtually leveled. And out of the ashes, a phoenix, in the guise of a steel and concrete Chicago, rose -- all because of one cow.

Now, more than 125 years later, a history buff, Richard Bales, says it may not have been Mrs. O’Leary’s cow, after all. It seems that Daniel ‘Peg Leg’ Sullivan, a neighbor of the O’Leary’s, was in the barn feeding his mother’s cow. He either kicked over a lantern or dropped a match or pipe, setting the famous fire. Sullivan, who had been questioned about the fire, said he was across the street when he saw the fire break out. A two-story building would have blocked his view. So, Bales theorizes that Sullivan lied and was the cause of the fire, rather than Mrs. O’Leary’s cow.

You’ll have to draw your own conclusion.

[dropdeadfred]

Thanks Original dpb5 for the warm welcome.

[NovoMira]

Astrology Picture of the Day may not fit the criteria of a "History" board, however...I thought you might enjoy it.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/

[The Original dpb5!]

Oct. 7, 1913....Henry Ford introduces the 'assembly line'

Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 - April 7, 1947) was the founder of the Ford Motor Company and one of the first to apply assembly line manufacturing to the mass production of affordable automobiles. This achievement not only revolutionized industrial production, it had such tremendous influence over modern culture that many social theorists identify this phase of economic and social history as "Fordism."

[Suppressed Sound Link]

Personal sidenote: Just last night I watched a great show on my local Public Broadcasting Station about the first man to ever cross the Continental United States from San Francisco to New York. The year...1903!!!!! An incredible show to see! It was called Horatio's Drive...America's First Road Trip!

SURPRISINGLY, the movie is NOT about Henry Ford!!!

[The Original dpb5!]

dropdeadfred....

Welcome! And thanks for that superb post! It inspired me to add a new section to the Header Board and to post here more.

I don't know how well this board will take off over time, but THANKS for reinspiring me!