On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on July 29:
1758 Antonius van Gils, Dutch RC theologist (opposed Enlightenment)
1805 Alexis de Tocqueville France, statesman/writer (Democracy in America)
1817 James Blair Steedman, Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1883
1820 Clement Laird Vallandigham, MC (Union), died in 1871
1828 Cuvier Grover, Bvt Major General (Union Army), died in 1885
1830 Alvan Cullem Gillem, Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1875
1861 Alica Hathaway Lee Roosevelt 1st wife of Theodore Roosevelt
1869 Booth Tarkington US, novelist (17, Magnificent Ambersons)
1871 [Gregory Efimovich] Rasputin the mad Russian monk
1878 Don Marquis Ill, journalist/poet (archy & mehitabel)
1883 Benito Mussolini [Il Duce], Fascist Italian dictator (1922-43)
1887 Sigmund Romberg Nagykanizsa Hungary, operetta composer (Blossom Time)
1892 William Powell actor (Thin Man, My Man Godfrey)
1898 Isidor Isaac Rabi Poland, physicist (explored atom-Nobel-1944)
1905 Clara Bow silent screen actress (It, Saturday Night Kid)
1905 Dag Hammarskjold 2nd UN Secretary-General (1953-61) (Nobel 1961) (Also known as St. Dag)
1907 Melvin Belli Sonora Calif, lawyer, SF's "King of Torts"
1913 Stephen McNally NYC, actor (Split Second, 30 Seconds over Tokyo)
1914 "Professor Irwin Corey comedian (Car Wash)
1924 Robert Horton LA Calif, actor (Kings Row, Wagon Train, Arena)
1933 Robert Fuller Troy NY, actor (Laramie, Wagon Train)
1936 Elizabeth Dole US Secretary of Transportation (1983-87) (Senator R-NC)
1938 Peter Jennings Toronto Canada, news anchor/fount of all wisdom and knowledge) (ABC Evening News)
1941 David Warner Manchester NH, actor (Holocaust)
1953 Geddy Lee lead singer (Rush-Tom Sawyer)
1972 Wil Wheaton actor (Star Trek Next Generation-Wesley, Stand By Me)
1981 Jennie Thompson, Wichita Falls TX, gymnast (Jr Natl-champ-93, Oly-96)
Deaths which occurred on July 29:
1030 King Olav Haraldsson of Norway, dies in battle of Stiklestad
1099 Urban II, [Odo van Lagery], French Pope (1088-99), dies
1164 King Olaf of Norway, dies
1833 William Wilberforce (b.1759), English abolitionist. Wilberforce was prominent from 1787 in the struggle to abolish the slave trade and slavery itself in British overseas possessions.
1890 Vincent Van Gogh, painter, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Auvers, France.
1900 Umberto I Italian king assassinated by anarchist Gaetano Bresci (sometimes it's NOT good to be king)
1960 Richard Simon cofounder of Simon & Shuster, dies
1974 Cass Elliot singer of Mamas & Papas chokes to death at 30 in London
1975 James B. Blish, sci-fi author (Star Trek Reader), dies at 54
1979 Herbert Marcuse, philosopher (Eros and Civilization), dies at 81
1983 David Niven actor (Guns of Navarone), dies in Switzerland at 73
1983 Raymond Massey actor, dies (86) Things to Come, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, The Naked and the Dead
1984 Fred Waring orch leader (Fred Waring Show), dies at 84
1988 Ellin Berlin (MacKay) Mrs Irving Berlin, dies at 86
1994 Francisco Veguillas, Spanish general, murdered at 68
1994 John Bayard Britton, abortion doctor, killed by Paul Hill
2001 Edward Gierek, the Polish communist ruler during the 1970s dies
GWOT Casualties
Iraq
29-Jul-2004 2 | US: 1 | UK: 0 | Other: 1
POL Corporal Marcin Rutkowski Madlul (nr. Al Hillah) - Babil Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Specialist Joseph F. Herndon II Hawijah (near, ~30 mi. W Kirkuk) - At Ta'mim Hostile - hostile fire
Afghanistan
A Good Day
http://icasualties.org/oif/ Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
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Go here and I'll stop nagging.
http://www.taps.org/ (subtle hint SEND MONEY)
On this day...
0362 Emperor Julianus of Constantinople ends education laws
1014 Battle of Strumitsa-valley: Byzantine destroys Bulgarian armies
1565 Mary Queen of Scots marries her cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley
1588 Attacking Spanish Armada defeated & scattered by English defenders
1603 Bartholomew Gilbert is killed in Virginia by Indians, during a search for the missing Roanoke colonists.
1676 Nathaniel Bacon declared a rebel for assembling frontiersmen to protect settlers from Indians
1715 10 Spanish treasure galleons sunk off Florida coast by hurricane
1751 1st international world title prize fight-Jack Stack of England,beats challenger M Petit of France in 29 mins in England
1773 1st schoolhouse west of Allegheny Mtns completed, Schoenbrunn, OH
1786 1st newspaper published west of Alleghenies, Pitts Gazette
1844 New York Yacht Club forms
1851 A De Gasparis discovers asteroid #15 Eunomia
1858 1st commercial treaty between US & Japan signed
1858 US citizens allowed to live anywhere in Japan
1862 Confederate spy Marie Isabella "Belle" Boyd is captured
1864 Union forces explode giant mine under confederate lines. Attack fails
1864 3rd and last day of battle at Deep Bottom Run, Virginia
1864 Battle of Macon, GA (Stoneman's Raid)
1874 Major Walter Copton Wingfield patents a portable tennis court
1899 1st motorcycle race, Manhattan Beach, NY
1899 Southern Calif Golf Assn formed
1914 1st transcontinental phone link made between NYC & SF ("Congratulations you're been selected to have an opportunity to partake in this limited time offer to have give your house a wonderful makeover with our beautiful aluminum siding")
1914 Austrian-Hungary bombs Belgrade
1914 Russia mobilize troops along Austrian boundary
1915 Pirate Honus Wagner at 41, hits a grand slam HR
1920 1st transcontinental airmail flight from NY to SF
1920 Mexican rebel Pancho Villa surrenders
1921 Adolf Hitler becomes the president of the Nationalist Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazis).
1927 1st iron lung installed (Bellevue hospital, NY)
1928 Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie" is released (Mickey Mouse)
1930 115ø F, Holly Springs, Mississippi (state record) (WOW it July, it's Miss., it's hot! go figure)
1936 RCA shows the 1st real TV program (dancing, film on locomotives, Bonwit Teller fashion show & monologue from Tobacco Road & comedy)
1937 Japanese troops occupies Peking and Tientsin
1938 Comic strip "Dennis the Menace," 1st appears
1938 Olympic National Park established
1945 USS Indianapolis is torpedoed and sunk, after delivering the Atomic Bomb to Tinian.
(Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss): You were on the Indianapolis?
Brody (Roy Scheider): What happened?
Quint: Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, chief. It was comin' back, from the island of Tinian, just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb.
Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in twelve minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. Thirteen footer. You know, you know that when you're in the water, chief? You tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail. Well, we didn't know. `Cause our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week.
Very first light, chief. The sharks come cruisin'. So we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know it's... kinda like `ol squares in battle like a, you see on a calendar, like the battle of Waterloo.
And the idea was, the shark would go for nearest man and then he'd start poundin' and hollerin' and screamin' and sometimes the shark would go away. Sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark, he looks right into you. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about a shark, he's got...lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eye. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be livin'. Until he bites ya and those black eyes roll over white. And then, ah then you hear that terrible high pitch screamin' and the ocean turns red and spite of all the poundin' and the hollerin' they all come in and rip you to pieces.
Y'know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men! I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand! I don't know how many men, they averaged six an hour.
On Thursday mornin' chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player, bosom's mate. I thought he was asleep, reached over to wake him up. Bobbed up and down in the water, just like a kinda top. Up ended. Well... he'd been bitten in half below the waist.
Noon the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us, he swung in low and he saw us. He'd a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper, anyway he saw us and come in low. And three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and start to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened? Waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again.
So, eleven hundred men went in the water, three hundred and sixteen men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.)
(For more
http://www.ussindianapolisinharmsway.com/home.htm) 1947 Gas leak explodes in a beauty parlor, 10 women die in Harrisonburg Va
1948 King George VI opens 14th modern Olympic games in London
1952 1st nonstop transpacific flight by a jet
1953 US bombers shot down at north of Vladiwostok
1957 International Atomic Energy Agency established by UN
1957 Jack Paar's Tonight show premiers
1958 Pres Eisenhower signs NASA & Space Act of 1958
1961 Phillies lose 1st of 23 straight games
1961 Wallis & Futuna Islands become a French overseas territory
1965 Beatles movie "Help" premiers, Queen Elizabeth attends
1965 Gemini 5 returned after 12d 7h 11m 53s
1965 Major league record 26 strikeouts, Phillies (16), Pirates (10)
1967 Explosion & Fire aboard carrier USS Forrestal in Gulf of Tonkin kills 134, $100 million in damage
1968 Mount Arenal, Costa Rica kills 80 in Pelee-type eruption
1968 Pope Paul VI reaffirms stand against artificial birth control
1969 Mariner 6 begins transmitting far-encounter photos of Mars
1970 6 days of race rioting in Hartford Ct
1973 Greek plebiscite chooses republic over monarchy
1974 2nd impeachment vote against Nixon by the House Judiciary Committee
1974 St Louis Card Lou Brock steals his 700th base
1975 Ford became 1st US pres to visit Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz
1978 Penny Dean swims English Channel in record 7h40m
1978 Pioneer 11 transmits images of Saturn & its rings
1981 Prince Charles of England weds Lady Diana Spencer
1983 Steve Garvey ends his NL record 1,207 consecutive game streak
1984 Summer Olympics opens in LA
1985 19th Space Shuttle Mission (51-F)-Challenger 8-launched
1986 NY jury rules NFL violated antitrust laws, awards USFL $1 in damages
1987 Nutcases Ben & Jerry's & stoner Jerry Garcia agree on a new flavor Cherry Garcia
1988 FDIC bails out 1st Republic Bank, Dallas, with $4 billion
1988 Gorbachev pushes plan electing president & parliament in March, 1989
1988 Judge orders NASA to release unedited tape from Challenger cockpit
1988 Last US Playboy Club (Lansing Mich) closes
1988 South African govt bans anti-apartheid film "Cry Freedom"
1989 Vince Coleman, record streak stopped at 50 straight stolen bases
1990 Boston Red Sox set major league record with 12 doubles in a game
1991 Donald Trump gives Marla Maples a 7+ carat engagement ring
1991 The Federal Reserve sought a $200 million penalty against BCCI for violating U.S. banking laws.
1992 Former Secretary of Defense (and leftwing loonytoon) Clark Clifford and his law partner, Robert Altman, were indicted on charges of lying about their roles in the BCCI bank scandal.
1992 Former East German leader Erich Honecker was arrested on his return to his homeland and charged with manslaughter
1993 Walter Koenig (Checkov-Star Trek) suffers a mild heart attack
1993 Israeli Court of Appeal overturns (5-0) conviction of John Demjaujuk, saying not enough evidence he is Concentration Camp Ivan the Terrible
1994 200,000 Moslems demand death to feminist Taslima Nasrin
1999 A federal judge in Little Rock, Ark., fined President Clinton $89,000 for lying about his relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky in his deposition in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case.
2000 Yasser Arafat begins a multi-country tour to drum up support for the Palestinians in the Middle East peace process. (and extort more money)
2001 Lance Armstrong wins his 3rd straight Tour de France bicycle race.
2003 Boston's Bill Mueller becomes the 1st player in major league history to hit grand slams from both sides of the plate in a game and connected for three homers in a 14-7 win at Texas
2004 John Kerry gives his acceptance speech as the Democratic presidential nominee before 15,000 supporters in Bostons FleetCenter: Im John Kerry, and Im reporting for duty. (DISSSMISSED!)
(Note: Did you know John Kerry served in Viet-Nam and was a for really HEro)
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Norway : Olsok Eve Festival (1030)
Sweden, Iceland : Olaf name day
Gilroy, California : Garlic Festival
National Parent's Day (So you kids BE QUIET!) (like that's gonna happen)
National Eye Exam Month
Religious Observances
Ang, Luth : Comm of Mary & Martha (Lazarus' sister) of Bethany
Feast of St. Martha, virgin, patron saint of housewives, cooks, innkeepers and laundresses.
Luth : Commemoration of Olaf, King of Norway, martyr
Religious History
1775 The U.S. Army Chaplaincy was founded, making it the second oldest branch of thatservice, after the Infantry.
1776 Pioneer Methodist bishop Francis Asbury remarked in his journal: 'My present modeof conduct is...to read about 100 pages a day; usually to pray in public five times aday.... If it were in my power, I would do a thousand times as much for such a gracious andblessed Master.'
1866 Birth of Thomas O. Chisholm, American Methodist pastor, teacher, editor and poet.Of the 1,200 sacred verses he penned, one later became the popular hymn: 'Great Is ThyFaithfulness.'
1905 Birth of Dag Hammarskjold, Swedish diplomat and Secretary-General of the U.N.(1953-61). His spiritual journal 'Markings' was published in 1964, three years after his untimely death in a plane crash.
1974 The first eleven women priests in the Episcopal Church were ordained inPhiladelphia's Church of the Advocate.
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
BIRDS REALLY DO HATE MEN
A flock of man-hating seagulls which dive-bombs male posties has forced Royal Mail bosses to use female staff on the delivery route.
The birds have knocked one postman off his bike and and sent another running for cover.
But when a female colleague took up the challenge and went on the round in Highbridge, Somerset, she was was left alone by the gulls.
The Royal Mail is now using women whenever possible for the route.
A spokesman said: "Our regular postman went to attempt a delivery at a couple of houses and was dive-bombed by some very feisty seagulls.
"I think the manager thought he might be telling a tall story but whenever we get a report like this we do a health and safety risk assessment.
"The manager got knocked off his feet and isn't quite as mocking any more. He had to make a run for it after falling to the ground.
"Strangely though, when a woman did the same round last week they took no notice at all. They don't seem to see her as a threat."
Experts believe the birds are being protective during nesting seasons, but their defensiveness may ease as the chicks mature in coming weeks.
Along with seagulls, and aside from the normal problem of dogs, posties in the region are also pestered by territorial pheasants.
(I COULD make a comment about women and birdbrains flocking together. But that would be wrong...not too mention dangerous to my health....but I could...but I won't.)
Thought for the day :
"Every cloud has its silver lining but it is sometimes a little difficult to get it to the mint."
Don Marquis