On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on January 04:
1334 Amadeus VI [Green Earl], Earl of Savoye
1567 Franciscus Aguilon physicist/mathematician/jesuit/architect
1579 Willem Teellinck Dutch theologist/vicar
1581 Bishop James Ussher Archbishop of Armagh, calculated Earth's beginning (November 23, 4004 BC)
1739 Henrik C Cras Dutch lawyer (Laudatio Hugonis Grotii)
1785 Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm Germany, librarian (fairy tale collector)
1797 Wilhelm Beer Germany, amateur astronomer (constructed 1st Moon map)
1809 Louis Braille Coupvray France, developer (reading system for blind)
1813 Sir Isaac Pitman inventor (shorthand)
1821 John James Peck Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1878
1822 Joseph Jones Reynolds Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1899
1823 Peter Joseph Osterhaus Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1917
1838 Charles Stratton [General Tom Thumb] (famous short person)
1872 Edmund Rumpler Austria, auto/airplane builder
1877 Gibson Gowland England, actor (Blind Husbands, Phantom of the Opera)
1890 Alfred G Jodl German Wehrmacht General/Chief of Staff
1896 Everett McKinley Dirkson (Senator-R-IL)
1905 Sterling Holloway Cedartown GA, actor (Waldo-Life of Riley)
1914 Jane Wyman St Joseph MO, 1st Mrs Ronald Reagan, (Magnificent Obsession)
1914 Mohammed Sahir shah (Afghanistan)
1917 Jesse [Marc Weidenfeld] White Buffalo NY, actor (Maytag Repairman, Bedtime for Bonzo, Million Dollar Mermaid)
1919 Havelock Henry Trevor Hudson underwriter (Lloyd's of London)
1925 Veikko Hakulinen Finland, 30K/50K cross country skier (Olympics-gold-1956)
1930 Don Shula winningest NFL coach (Miami Dolphins)
1935 Floyd Patterson heavyweight champ (1956-59, 1960-62) (Olympics-gold-1952)
1937 Dyan Cannon Tacoma WA, Mrs Cary Grant, actress (Heaven Can Wait)
1940 Brian Josephson British physicist (Nobel 1973)
1941 Maureen Reagan 1st daughter (Ronald Reagan)
1942 John McLaughlin rock guitarist (Sentimental Journey/Clouds of Joy)
1947 J Danforth Quayle (Senator-R-IN, 44th Vice President 1989-1993)
1957 Patty Loveless [Ramey], Pikeville KY, singer (Blue Side of Town)
1960 Michael Stipe US rock vocalist (REM-Losing My Religion, Stand)
1967 Michael "Mike" Peterson Washington DC, rower (Olympics-1996)
1971 Garrison Hearst NFL running back (Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers)
Deaths which occurred on January 04:
0041 Caligula murdered
0838 Babak Persian social/religious reformer, martyred
1701 Ernst R Tarhemberg Austria, field marshal, dies at 62
1745 Willem I Kerricx the Young, Flemish architect/painter, dies at 62
1752 Gabriel Cramer Swiss mathematician (paradox of Cramer), dies at 47
1761 Stephen Hales English vicar/inventor (ventilator), dies at 83
1786 Moses Mendelssohn Jewish/German philosopher (Haksalah), dies at 56
1821 Elizabeth Ann Seton 1st native-born American saint, dies in Maryland
1825 Ferdinand I King of Sicily/Naples (Ferdinand IV), dies at 73
1877 Cornelius Vanderbilt, Industrialist, dies at 82
1880 Anselm Feuerbach German painter, dies
1913 Alfred von Schlieffen Prussian General-field marshal, dies at 79
1931 Art Acord western actor (Set Free, Spurs & Saddles), dies at 40
1944 Henri "Hans" Flu Indonesian/Dutch family doctor/anti-fascist, murder
1944 Kaj Munk [Harald Leininger], anti-fascist writer (Kaj Munk), dies
1946 Barney Oldfield daredevil, dies at 67
1960 Albert Camus French author (Stranger), dies in an automobile accident at 46
1961 Barry Fitzgerald actor (Going My Way), dies at 72
1965 T S Eliot poet (Washed Country), dies in London at 76
1967 Donald Campbell boat racer, dies trying to break 300 mph on water
1979 Charles Mingus jazz bassist, dies of heart attack
1985 Brian Gwynne Horrocks English Lieutenant-General (A Full Life), dies at 89
1986 Phil Lynott rocker (Thin Lizzy), dies of overdose at 34
1990 Robert F Adams US, sci-fi author (Castaways in Time), dies at 57
1992 William Walker stuntman/actor (Our Man Flint), dies at 74
1994 Michiel P "Michael" Gorsira Governor of Curaçao (1951-67), dies at 80
1997 Harry B Helmsley owner (Empire State Building), dies at 87
1998 John Gary singer, dies at 65
Take A Moment To Remember
GWOT Casualties
Iraq
04-Jan-2005 6 | US: 6 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Sergeant Bennie J. Washington Brooke Army Med Center, TX Hostile - hostile fire - RPG attack
US Private Cory R. Depew Tall Afar (nr. Mosul) - Ninawa Hostile - hostile fire - RPG attack
US Specialist Jimmy D. Buie Taji (NW of Baghdad) - Salah ad Din Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Specialist Joshua S. Marcum Taji (NW of Baghdad) - Salah ad Din Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Specialist Jeremy W. McHalffey Taji (NW of Baghdad) - Salah ad Din Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Private 1st Class Curtis L. Wooten III Balad (near) - Salah ad Din Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
Afghanistan
01/04/02 Chapman, Nathan R. Sergeant 1st Class 31 US U.S. Army Company C, 3rd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) Hostile - hostile fire (vicinity of) Khost
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://soldiersangels.org/heroes/index.php
On this day...
0274 St Eutychian begins his reign as Catholic Pope
0871 Battle at Reading Ethelred of Wessex defeats Danish invasion army
1493 Columbus left new world on return from 1st voyage
1570 Spanish viceroy Alva banishes Zutphen City's only physician, Joost Sweiter, "because he is a Jew"
1642 King Charles I with 400 soldiers attacks the English parliament
1717 Netherlands, England & France sign Triple Alliance
1725 Benjamin Franklin arrives in London
1754 Columbia University founded, as Kings College (New York City NY)
1762 England declares war on Spain & Naples
1780 Snowstorm hit Washington's army at Morristown New Jersey
1781 André Méchain discovers M80 (globular cluster in Scorpio)
1832 Insurrection of Trinidad negroes
1843 Gaetano Donizetti's opera "Don Pasquale" premieres in Paris
1861 US Fort Morgan, Mobile, seized by Alabama
1862 Battle of Fort Hindman, AR (Arkansas Post)
1862 Battle of Helena, AR
1862 Romney Campaign-Stonewall Jackson occupies Bath
1863 4 wheeled roller skates patented by James Plimpton of NY
1884 Last sighting of an eastern cougar (Ontario)
1885 Dr W W Grant of Iowa, performs 1st appendectomy (on Mary Gartside, 22)
1887 Thomas Stevens is 1st man to bicycle around the world (San Francisco-San Francisco); 21,700km
1893 US President Harrison grants amnesty to Mormon polygamy
1896 Following Mormon abandonment of polygamy, Utah admitted as 45th state
1904 Supreme Court rules Puerto Ricans cannot be denied admission to US
1912 Smallest earth-moon distance this century, 356,375 km center-to-center
1920 1st Black baseball league, National Negro Baseball League, organizes
1923 1st broadcast of "Barn Dance Show" (WBAP - Fort Worth TX)
1923 Lenin's "Political Testament" calls for removal of Stalin
1925 French psychologist Emil Coué brings his self-esteem therapy to US "Every day in every way I am getting better & better"
1932 British East Indies Viceroy Willingdon arrests Gandhi & Nehru
1935 Fort Jefferson National Monument, Florida established
1935 Bob Hope 1st heard on network radio as part of "The Intimate Revue"
1936 Billboard magazine publishes its 1st music hit parade
1939 Hermann Goering appoints Reinhard Heydrich head of Jewish Emigration
1941 Sergey Rachmaninov's "Symphonie Dances" premieres in Philadelphia
1942 Rogers Hornsby is 14th player selected to the Hall of Fame
1945 Germans execute resistance fighters in Amsterdam
1945 US jeep-aircraft carrier Ommaney Bay sinks after kamikaze attack
1951 During Korean conflict, North Korean forces captured Seoul
1957 "Blondie" situation comedy premieres on NBC TV (later on CBS)
1958 Sputnik 1 reenters atmosphere & burns up
1960 European Free Trade Association forms in Stockholm
1961 Longest recorded strike ends-33 years-Danish barbers' assistants
1962 1st automated (unmanned) subway train (New York City NY)
1965 LBJ's "Great Society" State of the Union Address
1968 Leo Fender sells Fender Guitars for $13 million
1968 Duck hunter accidentally shoots endangered whooping crane in Texas
1969 France begins arms embargo against Israel
1970 Beatles last recording session at EMI studios
1970 Kansas City Chiefs beat Oakland Raiders 17-7 in AFC championship game
1970 Minnesota Vikings beat Cleveland Browns 27-7 in NFC championship game
1971 Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to relatives of Kent State victims
1974 Nixon refuses to hand over tapes subpoenaed by Watergate Committee
1975 Ice thickness measured at 4776 m, Wilkes Land, Antarctica
1975 Ford Executive Order on CIA Activities within the US (No 11828)
1980 President Carter announces US boycott of Moscow Olympics
1981 British police arrest Peter Sutcliffe, the "Yorkshire Ripper"
1982 Chris Wallace becomes co-anchor of the Today Show
1984 "Night Court" starring Harry Anderson premieres on NBC TV
1984 Edmonton beats Minnesota 12-8-highest-scoring modern NHL game
1989 US F-14s shoot down 2 Libyan jet fighters over Mediterranean
1991 Fu Mingxia, 12, of China wins World Swimming Championships gold medal
1991 Jan Krzystof Bielecki becomes premier of Poland
1992 8th largest wrestling crowd (60,000-Tokyo Dome)
1993 7th largest wrestling crowd (63,500-Tokyo Dome)
1994 10th largest wrestling crowd (58,000-Tokyo Dome)
1995 Newt Gingrich (R) becomes speaker of the House
1998 The History of the Future Museum opens in Las Vegas
2002 George and Marisol Gari, members of the Wasp network Cuban spy ring, are sentenced in Florida to 7 and 3.5 years
2002 US Army Special Forces Sgt. Ross Chapman (31) was killed by enemy fire near Khost, Afghanistan. 1st US soldier to die there by enemy fire
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Burma : Independence Day (1948)
Sri Lanka : Tamil Thai Pongal Day
Utah : Admission Day (1896)
Zaïre : Martyrs' Day
US : National Trivia Day
US : Short People Day
National Trivia Day
National Oatmeal Month
Religious Observances
Roman Catholic : Feast of St Rigobert (St Robert)
Roman Catholic : Memorial of Elizabeth Ann Seton, religious
Religious History
1528 Ferdinand of Austria, younger brother to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, issued the first secular mandate forbidding the Anabaptist religious movement.
1540 German Reformer Martin Luther testified in a sermon: 'Faith is the "yes" of the heart, a conviction on which one stakes one's life.'
1915 Democrat Moses Alexander, 62, was sworn in as governor of Idaho. He was the first elected Jewish governor in the U.S., and served two terms (1915-19).
1947 Presbyterian clergyman Peter Marshall ("A Man Called Peter"), 45, was elected Chaplain of the U.S. Senate. He was the 54th chaplain chosen in the Senate's history, and the first Presbyterian appointed since 1879.
1953 "The Catholic Hour" first aired over NBC-television. This long-running series was produced in cooperation with the National Council of Catholic Men and aired through August 1970.
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Animals know stupid when they see it
Jan 3, 12:38 PM (ET)
By Ed Stoddard
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African mugger fleeing the scene of his crime hides in a tiger enclosure.
On the country's coast, a woman attempts to be a good Samaritan by pushing a young seal into the sea, believing the poor thing is stranded.
Both people paid heavily for their stupidity, underscoring one of nature's truisms: humans do dumb things around wild animals.
"I blame it on Walt Disney, where animals are given human qualities. People don't understand that a wild animal is not something that is nice to pat. It can seriously harm you," said James Cameron, a South African professional hunter.
The cartoon image of wildlife may have prompted a 49-year-old South African woman in October to try to help a seal which she believed was stranded, allowing her 1-year-old grandchild to stroke the creature in the process.
The seal responded by biting off the woman's nose.
Cape Fur Seals are common on South African shores and many have become accustomed to humans.
They are a popular tourist attraction and can be viewed playing in the sea by Cape Town's waterfront -- which may also give a false impression of placid friendliness.
"Cute" seal pups have also been used as potent symbols by groups such as the International Fund for Animal Welfare, further enhancing the animal's "cuddly status."
But they can in fact be dangerous and sometimes attack people who venture too close -- as South Africa's noseless do-gooder discovered to her horror.
TIGER TROUBLE
Then there was the South African robber who made the mistake last month of taking refuge in an enclosure which turned out to be home to a pair of unimpressed tigers.
He had fled into a nearby zoo after security guards heard the screams of a couple he had just mugged in Bloemfontein, about 400 km (250 miles) southwest of Johannesburg.
Not surprisingly, he was mauled to death by the big cats.
The mugger was not the first South African criminal to err in hiding among zoo animals.
Max, a 200 kg (440 lb) gorilla, won fame in 1997 after being wounded by a terrified gunman who jumped a moat into his space in Johannesburg's zoo while fleeing police.
Max pinned the fugitive against the wall of his enclosure and guarded him even after being shot until police arrived, making him an instant folk hero in crime-ridden South Africa.
Other people don't realize that you shouldn't get between a mother and her offspring -- especially when dealing with the world's largest land mammal.
In April of this year, an elephant gored a tourist to death in a Ugandan national park after the man, carrying an 8-year-old boy in his arms, approached the animal's calf.
"I think many people are just far removed from nature. People who live in cities often see nature as something that is tame and manageable," said Sue Lieberman, director of the global species program for conservation group WWF International.
"And wrongly so. We don't need to tame nature, we need to keep the wild out there," she told Reuters.
SHOW-OFFS
Then there are the show-offs.
Lions mauled a South African teen-ager in March who came too close to their enclosure while trying to impress his girlfriend.
The sixteen-year-old, his girlfriend and his mother were having lunch with the lion keeper when he ignored advice and went off with his girlfriend to see the lions in the breeding section of the park just north of Johannesburg.
The boy went into an area off-limits to the public and touched a lion through the mesh fence.
The lion quickly sank its teeth into his arm and dragged him under the fence before the curator came, drove the four adult lions in the enclosure away and rescued the teen-ager.
"It just shows a total disregard and disrespect for wild animals," said Cameron.
The boy was luckier than a couple from Taiwan in 1993, who got out of their car to photograph lions up close at a South African game park -- and who were quickly savaged to death by the beasts.
Thought for the day :
"A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money."
Senator Everett Dirksen