On this Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on December 18:
1707 Charles Wesley, co-founder (Methodist movement)
1778 Joseph Grimaldi, known as the "greatest clown in history,"
1856 Joseph John Thomson, Eng, physicist discovered electron (Nobel 1906)
1879 Paul Klee, Swiss abstract painter.
1886 Ty (Tyrus Raymond) Cobb, American baseball player, first man to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1890 Edwin Howard Armstrong, NYC, radio pioneer inventor (FM)
1913 Willy Brandt, Mayor of Berlin and Chancellor of West Germany.
1913 Betty Grable (Elisabeth Grasle) (actress: The Gay Divorcee, Follow the Fleet)
1917 Ossie Davis (writer, actor: A Raisin in the Sun)
1919 Anita O'Day (Colton) (jazz singer)
1927 Ramsey Clark (U.S. Attorney General under President Lyndon Johnson [1967-1969]){never met a dictator he didn't like}
1943 Keith Richards (guitar: group: The Rolling Stones)(posterboy for junkies R us)
1947 Stephen Spielberg (Academy Award-winning director)
1955 Ray Liotta (Actor: Good Fellas)
Deaths which occurred on December 18:
0468 Huna Mari bar Mar Zutra, rabbi, executed in Pumpedita
1505 John IX van Horne, prince-bishop of Lieges, executed
1565 Benedetto Varchi, Italian humanist/historian (L'Ercolano), dies at 62
1737 Antonio Stradivari, renowned violin-maker, dies in Cremona Italy at 93
1829 Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck, French nature investigator, dies at about 85
1919 Horatio William Parker, composer, dies at 56
1931 John T "Legs" Diamond US gangster, murdered at 35
1959 Dorothy L Sayers, writer, dies at 66
1977 Cyril Ritchard, actor (Peter Pan), dies at 80
1980 Alexei N Kosygin, Soviet PM (1964-80), suffers heart attack at 76
1996 Arthur Jacobs, musicologist, dies at 74
1997 Chris Farley, comedian (SNL, Tommy Boy), dies at 33
2000 Newspaper heir Randolph Apperson Hearst, the last surviving son of William Randolph Hearst, died in New York at age 85.
Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1968 BARRAS GREGORY I---JACKSON MS.
["REMAINS RETURNED, IDENTIFIED 12/03/98"]
1971 HILDEBRAND LELAND L.---FIFIELD WI.
[03/28/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 1998]
1971 WELLS KENNETH---VANCOUVER WA.
[03/28/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1972 CERTAIN ROBERT G.---SILVER SPRINGS MD.
[03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1972 FERGUSON WALTER L.---DETROIT MI.
[08/23/78 REMAINS RETURNED]
1972 JOHNSON RICHARD E.---OCEANSIDE CA.
[03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 98]
1972 MC ELVAIN JAMES R.---LA VERNE CA.
1972 RISSI DONALD L.---COLLINSVILLE IL.
[08/23/78 REMAINS RETURNED]
1972 SIMPSON RICHARD T.---ANDERSON SC.
[03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1972 THOMAS ROBERT J.---MIAMI FL.
[08/23/78 REMAINS RETURNED]
1972 WARD RONALD J.---ANADARKO OK.
POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.
On this day...
1118 Afonso the Battler, the Christian King of Aragon captures Saragossa, Spain, a major blow to Muslim Spain.
1378 Charles V denounces the treachery of John IV of Brittany and confiscates his duchy.
1719 Thomas Fleet publishes "Mother Goose's Melodies For Children"
1774 Jews expelled from Prague, Bohemia & Moravia by Empress Maria Theresa
1787 New Jersey becomes 3rd state to ratify constitution
1796 1st US newspaper to appear on Sunday (Baltimore Monitor)
1799 George Washington's body interred at Mount Vernon
1812 Napoleon Bonaparte arrives in Paris after his disastrous campaign in Russia.
1813 British take Fort Niagara in the War of 1812
1849 William Bond obtains 1st photograph of Moon through a telescope
1862 Nathan B. Forrest engages and defeats a Federal cavalry force near Lexington in his continued effort to disrupt supply lines.
1862 Union General Ulysses S. Grant announces the organization of his army in the West. Sherman, Hurlbut, McPherson, and McClernand are to be corps commanders.
1892 Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet "Nutcracker Suite" premieres
1898 Automobile speed record set-63 kph (39 mph)
1915 President Wilson, widowed the year before, marries Edith Bolling Galt
1915 In a single night, about 20,000 Australian and New Zealand troops withdraw from Gallipoli, Turkey, undetected by the Turks defending the peninsula.
1916 The Battle of Verdun ends with the French and Germans each having suffered more than 330,000 killed and wounded in 10 months. (now THAT'S a quagmire)
1925 Soviet leaders Lev Kamenev and Grigori Zinoviev break with Joseph Stalin.
1932 Chicago Bears beat Portsmouth Spartans 9-0 in 1st NFL playoff game
1940 Adolf Hitler issues his secret plans for the invasion of the Soviet Union--Operation Barbarossa.
1941 Defended by 610 fighting men, the American-held island of Guam falls to more than 5,000 Japanese invaders in a three-hour battle.
1944 Japanese forces are repelled from northern Burma by British troops.
1947 Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Optissima Pax
1948 Indonesia begins its 2nd political election
1951 North Koreans give the United Nations a list of 3,100 POWs.
1956 Japan is admitted to the United Nations.
1960 A government is installed under Prince Boun Oum in Laos as the United States resumes arms shipments.
1963 Muskegon MI gets 3' of snow
1965 U.S. Marines attack VC units in the Que Son Valley during Operation Harvest Moon.
1966 Dr Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" airs for 1st time on CBS
1970 An atomic leak in Nevada forces hundreds of citizens to flee the test site.
1972 President Richard M. Nixon declares that the bombing of North Vietnam will continue until an accord can be reached.
1985 Congress approved the biggest overhaul of farm legislation since the Depression, trimming price supports.
1985 UN Security Council unanimously condemns "acts of hostage-taking"
1991 DeForest Kelly (Dr McCoy on Star Trek) gets a star in Hollywood
2000 The Electoral College cast its ballots, with President-elect Bush receiving the expected 271; Al Gore, however, received 266, one fewer than expected, because of a District of Columbia Democrat who left her ballot blank to protest the district's lack of representation in Congress.
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
New Jersey : Ratification Day (1787)
Niger : Republic Day (1958)
World : Underdog Day (Friday)
US : Pantotime Day
US : Crazy From Xmas Shopping Day (only 7 more days to put off Christmas shopping)
Stress-Free Family Holidays Month
Religious Observances
Christian : Feast of Our Lady of Solitude, patron of lonely
Religious History
1819 Birth of Isaac Thomas Hecker, American Roman Catholic leader. He entered the Redemptorist Order in 1845, and in 1858 founded the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle (the Paulist Fathers). He was superior general of the Paulist Society during his last 30 years (1858_88).
1834 Emory College was chartered in Oxford, GA, under Methodist auspices. In 1915 it changed its name to Emory University and in 1919 the campus was relocated in Atlanta, GA.
1892 Rabbi H. Rosenberg was expelled from Temple Beth_Jacob in Brooklyn, NY, for eating pork.
1904 Indian mystic Sundar Singh, 15, was converted to Christianity through a vision. Baptized into the Church of England in 1905, Singh afterward donned the robe of a Sadhu (holy man) in an endeavor to present Christianity in a Hindu form. (He disappeared in April 1929, while undertaking a strenuous work in Tibet.)
1943 German theologian and Nazi martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in a letter from prison: 'The man who finds God in his earthly happiness...does not lack reminder that earthly things are transient...and...there will be times when he can say in all sincerity, "I wish I were home."'
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
"Enjoy yourself. It's later than you think."
Modern Lies...
It's not the money; it's the principle of the thing.
How to tick off Santa Claus...
While he's in the house, replace all his reindeer with exact replicas. Then wait and see what happens when he tries to get them to fly.
The Rules of Chocolate...
If I eat equal amounts of dark chocolate and white chocolate, is that a balanced diet? Don't they actually counteract eachother?
Famous Last Words...
These are the good kind of mushrooms.
