USO Canteen FReeper Style ~ Canteen Goes West ~ April 8, 2003

USO CANTEEN GOES WEST

We call it the Wild West. To many it means guns, cattle, horses and gunfights. But it was also homesteading and pioneering. It was a rugged country back then with little amenities and much danger. It represented the growth of our nation from independent states and scattered people to a united country. Read about the colorful west and some of the people who made it.

TEXAS RANGERS:

These were Indian fighting militiamen who were established in a Texas area that was freed of Mexican rule. After Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana overthrew the Constitution of 1824, the Rangers organized themselves into a broader band whose intent was to seek restoration of the Constitution. Thus, "The Texas Rangers" was formally organized into a force of three 56-men companies to be deployed on the Indian frontier to protect the Texas citizenry against Indians and Mexican raiders.

Some of the most prominent rangers included: Ben McCulloch, the Tennessee frontiersman and friend of Davy Crockett's, William A.A. "Big Foot" Wallace, John Coffee "Jack" Hays. It was Hays who helped the Rangers earn their reputation for brutality during the war, men with "uncouth costumes, bearded faces, lean and brawny forms, fierce wild eyes and swaggering manners...fit representatives of the outlaws which make up the population of the Lone Star State", according to Samuel Chamberlain.

After the Mexican War, the Rangers returned to patrol the new state of Texas, trying to end Comanche Indian raids. Captain John S. "Rip" Ford was the famous frontiersman who is credited with killing many Comanches. IN the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, the Rangers continued their pursuit of Indian raiders, outlaws, and cattle rustlers. They tracked the bandit John Wesley Hardin all to the way to Pensacola, Florida . The Texas Rangers were reorganized in 1935 as a branch of the Texas Department of Public Safety and remain active today as the oldest law enforcement agency in America.

BUFFALO SOLDIERS:

This was the name given to the black soldiers of the U.S. army who fought Indians and policed the frontier in the years following the Civil War. The term was derived from the men's hair which the Indians thought resembled the fur of the buffalo. Not all of the recruits were former slaves; most were free blacks of Northern parentage and many had served with distinction during the Civil War.

Fast Facts

Nearly a third of the cowboys in the building of the American West were Black.
Black families came west in covered wagons; established self-sufficient all-Black towns, filling every job from barber to teacher, doctor to state legislator.
African Americans were some of the West's earliest millionaires, owning much of the West's most valuable real estate and many of its prominent businesses.
One of the first gold discoveries in Idaho Springs, Colo., was made by Henry Parker, a Black mine owner.
Blacks were also military heroes, taking San Jua Hill with Teddy Roosevelt in the Spanish-American War. It is a little-known fact that the all-Black 10th Cavalry should really be credited for that victory.

THE ALAMO:

The Alamo was founded in 1718 in San Antonio, Texas as the Mission de San Antonio de Valero and its function was to convert several area Indian tribes. In 1836, however, it was converted into a fortress to protect Texas against Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna who took control of the Mexican government, declared Martial Law and abolished the 1824 constitution. Santa Anna began his siege of the Alamo on February 24, 1836 with a force numbering about 4,000 against the 150 who protected the mission. Some of the principals included Colonel Jim Bowie (famous for the Bowie knife), David Crockett (who brought the Tennessee Mounted Volunteers, Sam Houston (as commander in chief of the Texas Army), William Barret Travis.

The final siege was on March 6, 1836 and most everyone inside was killed, including the sick in the hospital who were slaughtered outright. One man escaped alive overnight by going over the wall. That final battle lasted 90 minutes. When it was over, five defenders had survived long enough to be brought to Santa Anna who promptly executed them and set them afire. "Remember the Alamo" became the rallying cry as the Mexicans were driven from Texas the following April when Sam Houston and 800 men defeated Santa Anna's 3,000-man army and forced the now captured Santa Anna to sign a peace treaty recognizing Texas independence.

DANIEL BOONE:

Frontiersman Daniel Boone was born in 1734 in Pennsylvania. His family to North Carolina in 1750. He went to Kentucky in 1767 and again in 1769. He was hired to blaze a new trail from Cumberland Gap, Virginia to the Kentucky River which he did. He brought his wife and daughter with him and founded Boonesborough. In 1778 he was captured by the Shawnee Indians but escaped five months later. He raced back to Boonesborough to warn of an imminent attack by a joint force of British soldiers and Shawnees. His preservation of the fort (Boonesborough) proved vital to continued westward migration and settlement. During the Revolutionary War, Boone served as a lieutenant colonel of the Fayette County militia; he was also a legislator, county lieutenant and deputy surveyor. He was captured by the British in 1781 but later released. he died in 1820.

WILLIAM FREDERICK CODY (BUFFALO BILL):

He was born in Iowa in 1846 and his family moved to Kansas in 1854. He was a frontiersman, scout and showman. he rode for the Pony Express when he was just 15. He served in the Calvary during the Civil War. Following the war, he served as a scout and soon married Louisa Frederici. He left scouting to run a hotel but this was not the life for him so he left and scouted for Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. It is believed he earned his nickname in 1867 while hunting buffalo for the Union Pacific construction crews. Between 1866 and 1872 he fought in a slew of Indian skirmishes. He soon became the legend behind a series of dime store novels. He was awarded the Medal Honor in 1872 for his service in Indian campaigns but it was rescinded in 1917 because he had been a civilian at the time and was not qualified to receive one.

In 1989 the Medal was restored to Cody, 72 years after his death following a new ruling by the Army. In 1882, in North Platte, Nebraska and in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Cody launched his world famous "Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show", an extravaganza that included a Pony Express race, a runaway stagecoach, a reenactment of a Custer battle with Indians, sharpshooting, roping and riding exhibitions. The show featured Annie Oakley and in 1885, the Hunkapap Sioux chief Sitting Bull joined them. The show also went to Europe in 1887, 1889 and in 1906 and was a huge success everywhere. He merged his show with another then performed periodically with a circus until a month before his death in January 1917.

For additional information, click the graphic

WOMEN OF THE WEST

ANNIE OAKLEY:

An expert rifle and shotgun markswoman, Phoebe Anne Moses went on to achieve fame all over the world as a member of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show - although most people know her as Annie Oakley. Despite her big reputation as being a heroine of the Old West and she did visit, she never really lived any further west than Ohio. Her nickname was "Little Sure Shot" was given to her by Chief Sitting Bull who was so amazed by her skills. She was severely injured in 1901 when the train that carried the Wild West show collided with another and she became partially paralyzed. She performed again but not as the same Annie. She died in 1926, a few years after an auto accident from which she never regained her health

CALAMITY JANE:

She was born Martha Jane Canary; there are numerous tales of how she got her nickname but no one knows for sure. She was a tough cookie and dressed like a man, in buckskins. By the time she was 18, after moving to Salt Lake City with her parents after the Civil War, Jane had been a nurse, a dishwasher, a waitress, a cook and an ox-team driver. She had a reputation for being able to handle a man, shoot like a cowboy, skills that took her into Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show where she performed sharpshooting astride her horse. The love of her life was Wild Bill Hickok. They were secretly married in 1870 but he took off after the birth of their daughter three years later. Jane then remarried as had Hickok and they were reunited briefly, just before Hickok was killed. During the 1870's, Jane was the subject of some dime novels which brought her national fame. She is buried in Deadwood near Wild Bill Hickok

HELEN HUNT JACKSON:

A novelist and a poet, Helen Jackson's remarkable "A Century of Dishonor" stirred public outrage over the U.S. government's mistreatment of Native Americans. Her book centered on seven tribes, among them: Cheyennes, Nez Perce, Sioux, Cherokees and detailed four massacres in particular. At her own expense, she sent a copy of the book to every member of Congress. She was born in Massachusetts in 1830 and became a lifelong friend of poet Emily Dickinson. After her first husband's death (and that of her two young sons in an accident), Jackson moved to Colorado Springs where she married William Sharpless Jackson. It was on a visit to Boston that she learned of the unjust treatment of Indians during a lecture and spent countless years crusading for public awareness. She founded the Boston Indian Citizenship Association. Her crusade lasted until her death in 1885 when even from her deathbed she wrote President Grover Cleveland a letter urging the Indian cause.

WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE:

Before 1917, the only states in the Union that granted the vote to women were in the West. Women were granted the right to vote in Wyoming Territory in 1869; Utah Territory in 1870; Washington Territory in 1883, state of Wyoming in 1890; Colorado in 1893 and in Utah in 1896. As a result: the first woman elected to Congress was Jeannette Rankin of Montana; first elected mayor was Mary Howard of Kanab, Utah; the first elected mayor of a major city was Bertha Landes of Seattle, Washington; the first elected governors were Miriam "Ma" Ferguson of Texas and Nellie Taylor Ross of Wyoming.

For Additional information, click on the graphic

Click graphics for additional information about:

20th Century Warriors: Native American Participation in the United States Military

A Long Tradition Of Participation

American Indians have participated with distinction in United States military actions for more than 200 years. Their courage, determination, and fighting spirit were recognized by American military leaders as early as the 18th century.

I think they [Indians] can be made of excellent use, as scouts and light troops. --Gen. George Washington, 1778

Many tribes were involved in the War of 1812, and Indians fought for both sides as auxiliary troops in the Civil War. Scouting the enemy was recognized as a particular skill of the Native American soldier. In 1866, the U.S. Army established its Indian Scouts to exploit this aptitude. The Scouts were active in the American West in the late 1800s and early 1900s, accompanying Gen. John J. Pershing's expedition to Mexico in pursuit of Pancho Villa in 1916. They were deactivated in 1947 when their last member retired from the Army in ceremonies at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona. Native Americans from Indian Territory were also recruited by Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders and saw action in Cuba in the Spanish-American War in 1898. As the military entered the 20th century, American Indians had already made a substantial contribution through military service and were on the brink of playing an even larger role. (For the rest of the story, click on the graphic)

HILLARY FACELIFT?

I’m seeing my shrink this afternoon. I was putting it off till the fall; but I know now that I can’t last that long. Angst up to the nostrils. Vivid messages are coming through to the psyche front lobe. Must get to the couch afore I fall off altogether. Ever been there? Well, if you have, you know that breakdown waits for no one; put-off equals little men in white coats at the door.

So off to see Dr. Put It Together.

The reason? Well, you’d never guess it. I know I’ve been in the pastorate for a good long time, more years than many of you readers have been breathing. And that job in itself can surely crack a brain or two. (Don’t tell me it’s not a “job” but a “calling.” I already know that. But at the moment, I can call it a job if I want to. Have checked in with the Higher-ups on terminology and got the thumbs up).

No. It’s not the pastorate — phones ringing night and day, gossipy board members plotting mutiny, ushers late for ushering, war in the music department, Sunday school teachers failing to show up and not phoning ahead of no-shows, complaints from laity who just don’t understand that there really are not 40 hours in a day, and so forth and so forth. But that calls for a Book Magnus; no clock for that at this juncture.

So it’s not the job. It’s not the long winter. It’s not a blood shot eye that stared me in the face this morning when shaving. Nope. Not even a neighbor who complains that I play Sinatra too loud.

It’s Hillary. I really am distressed about Hillary. Can’t take it any more. With the thong and everything, I don’t think that one more weight upon a shoulder can keep from becoming a chip. I’ve tried, but to no avail. Hillary once more has got to my nerve hot bars and they are steaming aplenty.

Now that’s why I’m going to Dr. Put It Together. I don’t know if the steam is from anger or pity. And being a clergyman with ethics and morality at the top of my extremely sensitive persona, I have to sort this out or all soul caves in. Further, being near retirement, I can’t have a cave-in afore rockin’ chair comes a-knockin’. Know what I mean? Psycho-stuff big time here.

Anyhow, Hillary is at it again. I mean Bill’s lied to her more times than eggs don’t turn over shiny in the skillet. Recall when she went on TV to defend hubby, saying that it was the political right that was messing things up in the Oval Office? I saw it. I burnt it into my CD memory. There she was on the visitor’s chair, facing Rosie. Rosie was all compassion, ears and leaning over. “It’s the political right,” Hillary said with strained countenance.

I had a strong hunch that she was "off". After all, she was pointing her accusing figure at me and company. I did not like that one twit. Nevertheless, she had to have her time in the Rosie glow. So she went for it.

But you know what happened after that. The thong. Yep. It was the thong. So much for the political right doing in her husband. It was something else, for sure. And naturally a minister doesn’t want to get gross and all that, so has to leave it to parishioners to fill in the well-media informed blanks on that faux pas.

Anyhow, Hillary surely has had it. Not to mention all those tabloid pix showing Chelsea drunk and sliding off a barstool and in love and out of love and escapading around India with mommy on a mother-daughter get-closer thingy.

God knows how much we parents have to bear when it comes to our kids acting like hellcats. So I felt sorry for Hillary in all that child-upbringing stuff for, let’s face it, when it came down to it, there wasn’t much support at home base — even the White House — when hubby was with The Thong and all that kind of exposure.

Well, now it comes out that Hillary is late. She’s late. And you know that Hillary is Ms. Perfect. She knows everything — from health care for the nation to feminism advancements to pro-choice double-talk to old time Methodist upbringing with Bible at the center of life to hobnobbing with the Hollywoodites to freezing out the enemy with one glare that could frost the sun.

But she’s late. Major late.

If there’s anything that gets to my nerves, it’s watching someone else late. I can be late, and I have a history of being late. But, knowing the pain it can bring to those on time, I double-feel when someone else falls into the same major iniquity. So Hillary being late really makes me quiver.

Her book is to come out in August. Not ready. Not even a manuscript showing at the publishers. Not even a title for pre-marketing stuff. Promises promises promises. But no promises upped to book size yet. And this is almost middle April. Rough draft? None, as far as the big boys in the office can spy. Final copy? Give me a break.

Now we all can speculate as to what Hillary has done with the $2.85 million advanced her by a trusting publisher, Simon and Schuster. Further, as the whole world was told some months ago, the total deal will cough up more than $8 million greenbacks. What we could do with those papers to build a village, eh?

Anyhow, it’s not come to hauling Hillary off to court — not yet. But. . .one never knows in this culture of litigation happy face.

In other words, Hillary has failed. She has failed. Not that this is the first time, but, of course Ms. Hillary protesting that she’s never done anything amiss, we all know that humans being mortals, Ms. H has surely lapsed on an occasion or several. But now — before a respected publisher handing over mega bucks! Well, this is just too much.

"We must be off to the printer next month, but the manuscript isn't in yet!" said one Simon and Schuster source last week. "Advance sales are lagging. And there is no title. Without a title it's been difficult to market."

But what is giving me the shakes more than anything is this: One of Hillary’s associates told media the following secret. Well, it’s not a secret any longer for since I read it you could have read it, too. Anyhow, it’s this: “In all fairness, she has been preoccupied with serving New York during these challenging times.” Okay. I can get that. It doesn’t hang together all that tightly, but I at least can try to tolerate that.

Yet it’s what follows that sends me to the couch. The intimate explains: “The writing is wonderful, touching, and will lift Hillary to a new level of respect.”

Now, I don’t know if you can understand this or not, but here goes: That last statement really makes me wanna pop the whole bottle. Know what I mean?”

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on April 08:
563 -BC- Gautama Buddha (as celebrated in Japan-Kambutsue)
1460 Ponce de Le¢n searched for fountain of youth, found Florida
1533 Claudio Merulo organist/composer
1605 Philip IV king of Spain & Portugal (1621-65)
1614 El Greco Spain, painter (View of Toledo)
1631 Coirnelis de Heem painter
1692 Giuseppe Tartini Italy, violinist/composer (Trillo del Diavolo)
1726 Lewis Morris signed Decl of Independence
1731 William Williams signed Decl of Independence
1783 John Claudius London England, horticulturist
1798 Dionysios Solomos poet
1816 Frederick William Burton painter
1843 Asger Hamerik [Hammerich], composer
1850 William Henry Welch pathologist
1859 Edmund Husserl Germany, philosopher, founded Phenomenology
1859 William Henry Welch US, pathologist, founded John Hopkins
1869 Harvey Cushing US, neurosurgeon (blood pressure studies)
1880 Victor Schertzinger coposer/director (Uptown NY)
1887 Walter Connolly actor (Good Earth, 5th Avenue Girl)
1889 Sir Adrian Boult Chester England, conductor (BBC Sym Orch)
1893 Mary Pickford [Gladsys Smith], actress (Poor Little Rich Girl)
1898 CM Bowra professor of poetry (Oxford University)
1898 E Y "Yip" Harburg [Isidore Hochberg], lyricist/librettist
19-- Michael Spound Santa Monica Calif, actor (Dave-Hotel)
1902 Josef Krips Vienna Austria, conductor (London Symph 1954-63)
1903 Ilka Chase NYC, actress (Masquerade Party, Trials of O'Brien)
1907 Maurice Stacey chemist
1908 Neil Lawson British high court judge
1910 George Musso NFL guard (Chicago Bears)
1912 Sonja Henie Oslo Norway, ice skater/actress (Olympic-gold-1928,32,36)
1919 Ian Smith PM (Rhodesia)
1920 Erik Pausin Austria, figure skating pairs (Olympics-silver-1936)
1921 Betty Bloomer Ford 1st lady/namesake for Betty Ford Clinic
1921 Virginia O'Brien singer/actress (Thousand Cheers, Ziegfield Girls)
1922 Carmen McRae NYC, singer (Down Beats New Star of 1954)
1923 Edward Mulhare Cork Ireland, actor (Daniel Gregg-Ghost & Mrs Muir)
1923 Franco Corelli Anconia Italy, tenor (Don Jos‚-Carmen)
1925 Shecky Greene Chicago Ill, comedian/actor (Love Machine, Combat)
1928 Eric Porter actor (39 Steps, Anthony & Cleopatra)
1928 Eric Porter London England, actor (Antony & Cleopatra, 39 Steps)
1928 John Gavin LA Calif, actor (Back Street, Psycho, Murder for Sale)
1928 Monty Sunshine bandleader
1929 Jacques Brel singer/actor (Pain in the A__)
1930 Dorothy Tutin London, actress (Importence of Being Ernest, Cromwell)
1930 John Reardon NYC, baritone (Falke-Die Fledermaus)
1930 John Bartholomew Tucker Pa, TV host (Candid Camera, Treasure Island)
1930 Mary Moore principal (St Hilda's College, Oxford)
1931 Dorothy Tutin actress (Importance of Being Ernest, Cromwell)
1933 Fred Ebb lyricist (Cabaret)
1935 Donald Thompsett cricket umpire
1936 Klaus Lowitsch Berlin, actor (Despair, Marriage of Marla Braun)
1937 Seymour Hersh award winning investigative reporter (NY Times)
1938 Lory Patrick Beckley WV, actress (TRina-Tales of Welles Fargo)
1940 John Havlicek Martin's Ferry Ohio, NBA hall-of-famer (Boston Celtics)
1941 Peggy Lennon LA Calif, singer (Lennon Sisters)
1943 J P Kavanaugh racehorse trainer
1943 Michael Bennett aids victim/choreographer (A Chorus Line)
1943 Robby Weaver actor (Stone)
1943 Tony Banks English politician (Lab)
1943 William Garth Morrison Chief scout
1944 Anthony Farrar Hockley military historian
1944 Roger Chapman vocalist (Family-Family Entertainment)
1945 Ian White MEP
1946 Jim (Catfish) Hunter major-league pitcher (A's, Yankees)
1947 Cindy Pickett Norman Okla, actress (Guiding Light, St Elsewhere)
1947 Steve Howe Yes, he plays guitar (Asia, Yes-Roundabout)
1948 Richard Alan Litchfield Mass, bank robber (FBI most wanted)
1949 Jim Lampley Hendersonville NC, newscaster (Monday Night Baseball)
1951 Mel Schachter rocker (Grand Funk Railroad)
1952 Adam Woods rocker (The Fixx)
1954 Gary Carter catcher (Mont Expos, NY Mets)
1954 John Schneider Mt Kisco NY, actor (Bo-Dukes of Hazzard)
1959 Martin Weston cricketeer
1962 Izzy Stradin rocker (Guns 'n' Roses-Welcome to the Jungle)
1963 Alec Stewart cricketer
1963 Julian Lennon John's son/singer (Too Late for Goodbyes)
1967 Robin Wright Dallas Tx, actress (Kelly-Santa Barbara, Princess Bride)

Deaths which occurred on April 08:
217 Caracalla [Marcus Aureiius Antoniius], Roman emperor, dies
1143 John II Byzantine emperor, dies in an accident
1794 Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicholas-Caritat mathematician dies
1890 Junius Morgan philanthropist, dies at 76
1897 Heinrich von Stephan UK politician, dies
1902 Sipyagain Russia's minister of interior is assassinated
1919 Baron Roland E”tv”s physicist, dies
1931 Eric Axel Karlfeldt poet, dies
1935 Edwin Cannan economist, dies
1937 William Henry Hadow author/musicologist, dies
1941 EugŠne-Marcel Pr‚vost novelist, dies
1943 Richard Sears 1st to win US amateur national tennis match, dies at 81
1950 Vaslav Fromich Nijinsky ballet dancer, dies in London
1973 Pablo Picasso artist, dies near Mougins, France, at 91
1976 Phil Ochs rock producer, dies
1977 Frank Milan actor (The Witness), dies at 71
1981 Gen Omar Bradley last 5-star general, dies in NY at 88
1987 Francis C Denebrink US Naval officer (WW I, WW II, Korea) dies at 90
1990 Ryan White hemophiliac aids sufferer, dies at 18. The Ryan White Foundation was founded later in 1991 by Jeanne White and Phil Donahue

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1962 GROOM GEORGE E. STEWARTSVILLE MO.
05/01/62 RELEASED

1962 GABRIEL JAMES JR HONOLULU HI
04/62 REMAINS RECOVERED

1962 MARCHAND WAYNE ELLSWORTH OMAHA NE.
04/68 REMAINS RECOVERED

1962 QUINN FRANCIS BUFFALO NY.
05/01/62 RELEASED

1970 BELLENDORF DIETER GERMANY
1589 SP BALLINDORF?

1970 GENSLUCKNER GEORG AUSTRIA

1970 YIENG UNG LING CAMBODIA
REFNO 1589

1972 RAY JOHNNIE L. PAULS VALLEY OK.
02/12/73 RELEASED BY PRG

1972 WANAT GEORGE K. JR. WATERFFORD CN.
02/12/73 RELEASED BY PRG

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
1513 Ponce de Le¢n discovers Florida
1730 1st Jewish congregation in US consecrates synagogue (NY)
1766 1st fire escape patented, wicker basket on a pulley & chain
1789 House of Representives 1st meeting
1802 French Protestant church becomes state-supported & -controlled
1838 Steamship "Great Western" maiden voyage (Bristol England to NYC)
1861 US mint at Dahlonega, Georgia seized by confederacy
1864 Battle of Mansfield, La Federals routed by Gen Richard Taylor
1865 Lee's retreat cut off near Appomattox Court House
1876 The opera "La Gioconda" is produced (Milan)
1893 The critic reports that the ice cream soda is our national drink
1898 Battle of Atbara River, Anglo-Egyptian forces crush 6,000 Sudanese
1904 Entente Cordiale signed by France & England
1908 Herbert Henry Asquith becomes PM of England
1912 Steamers collide in the Nile, drowning 200
1913 17th amendment, requiring direct election of senators, ratified
1914 US & Columbia sign a treaty concerning the Panama Canal Zone
1931 "White Horse Inn" opens in London
1935 Works Progress Administration approved by Congress
1938 H Alikoski discovers asteroid #2911
1943 Detroit Red Wings sweep Boston Bruins for the Stanley Cup
1943 Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya convicted of involvement with Mau Mau
1946 League of Nations assembles for last time
1947 Largest recorded sunspot (7,000) observed
1952 Pres Truman seizes the steel mills to prevent a strike
1954 "By the Beautiful Sea" opens at the Majestic Theater on Broadway
1961 British liner "Dara" explodes in Persian Gulf, kills 236
1964 Unmanned Gemini 1 launched
1966 AFL chooses 36 year old Al Davis as commissioner
1966 OAO 1, the 1st orbiting astronomical observatory, launched
1968 New socialist constitution of East Germany takes effect
1970 Senate rejects Nixon's nomination of Carswell to Supreme Court
1971 1st legal off-track betting system begins (OTB-New York)
1974 Discovery Island opens
1974 Hammerin' Hank Aaron hits 715th HR, breaks Babe Ruth's record
1975 Frank Robinson 1st black baseball mgr (Cleveland, beats NY 5-3)
1978 W Liller discovers asteroid #2449
1979 204th & final episode of "All in the Family"
1980 Islander Potvin's 2 shorthanded goals tie NHL record vs Kings
set NHL rec of 2 shorthanded playoff goals in 1 period
1981 Islanders scored 9 goals against Toronto in playoffs
1982 Penguins 2-Isles 4-Preliminary-Isles hold 2-0 lead
1982 Tracy Caulkins, 19, wins her 36th US swimming title
1985 India files suit against Union Carbide over Bhopal disaster
1986 Clint Eastwood elected mayor of Carmel, California, Make his day
1987 Al Campanis, LA Dodger VP resigns after racial remarks on "Nightline"
1989 Entertainment Tonights Mary Hart marries producer Burt Sugarman
1990 "Twin Peaks" with Peggy Lipton premiers on ABC-TV
1991 Michael Landon announces he has inoperable cancer of the pancreas
1991 Oakland A's stadium becomes 1st outdoor arena to ban smoking
1992 "Five Guys Named Moe" opens at Eugene O'Neill theater on Broadway
1992 After 151 years Britain's "Punch Magazine" final issue

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Religious Observances
Buddhist : Kambutsue, Buddha's birthday (Japan, Taiwan, Hawaii, Korea)
Christian : Feast of St Walter of Pontoise
RC : Commemoration of Our Lady of Good Counsel
Christian : Feast of St Dionysius of Corinth
Christian : Feast of St Perpetuus of tours
RC : Commemoration of St Julia Billiart, virgin
Ang : Commemoration of William Augustus Muhlenberg, priest

Religious History
1546 At its fourth session, the Council of Trent adopted Jerome's "Latin Vulgate" as the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. (Included in the Vulgate O.T. were the 15 apocryphal books which Protestants reject in their biblical canon.)
1730 Shearith Israel, first Jewish congregation organized in America, consecrated their synagogue in New York City.
1912 The American Theological Society was organized at Union Theological Seminary, in New York, for the purpose of discussing religious, theological and philosophical problems.
1945 German theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the night before he was hanged by the Nazis, said: 'This is the end - - for me the beginning' -- his last recorded words.
1988 Televangelist Jimmy Swaggert, 52, was defrocked by the Assemblies of God following the disclosure of his involvement with a prostitute. (Swaggert was ordered to stay off TV for a year, but had returned after only three months.)

Thought for the day :
"Behind every argument is someone`s ignorance."

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