Today in history....

[severine]

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/index.html

July 21st

On this date in:

1831 Belgium became independent as Leopold I was proclaimed King of the Belgians.

1861 The first Battle of Bull Run was fought at Manassas, Va., resulting in a Confederate victory.

1899 Author Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Ill.

1899 Poet Hart Crane was born in Garrettsville, Ohio.

1944 American forces landed on Guam during World War II.

1944 The Democratic National Convention in Chicago nominated Sen. Harry S. Truman to be vice president.

1949 The U.S. Senate ratified the North Atlantic Treaty.

1954 France surrendered North Vietnam to the Communists.

1955 During the Geneva summit, President Dwight D. Eisenhower presented his "open skies" proposal under which the United States and the Soviet Union would trade information on each other's military facilities.

1961 Capt. Virgil "Gus" Grissom became the second American to rocket into a sub-orbital pattern around the Earth, flying on the Liberty Bell 7. (Grissom returned safely but the capsule sank in the Atlantic Ocean shortly after splashdown.)

1969 Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin blasted off from the moon aboard the lunar module.

1980 Draft registration began in the United States for 19- and 20-year-old men.

1988 Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis accepted the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention in Atlanta.

1998 Astronaut Alan Shepard died at age 74.

2000 Special Counsel John C. Danforth concluded "with 100 percent certainty" that the federal government was innocent of wrongdoing in the siege that killed 80 members of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, in 1993.

2002 Telecommunications giant WorldCom Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection after disclosing it had inflated profits by nearly $4 billion through deceptive accounting.

2007 Doctors removed five small growths from President Bush's colon after he temporarily transferred the powers of his office to Vice President Dick Cheney under the rarely invoked 25th Amendment.

2007 "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the final volume of the wizard series by J.K. Rowling, went on sale.

 

[Paul]

1954 France surrendered

Is this really unique enough to warrant mentioning?

 

[gorgonzola]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Robin Williams, Cat Stevens, Rufus Wainwright, Slash, J-Lo, Sandra Bullock, Mick Jagger.

THIS WEEK IN MUSIC HISTORY:
1970 - the #1 pop hit is Three Dog Night's "Mama Told Me Not to Come," written by Randy Newman
1968 - the animated movie "Yellow Submarine" opens in London;
1967 - John Coltrane dies.

 

[BeanoNYC]

Is this really unique enough to warrant mentioning?

Absolutely essential to U.S. history. To make a long story short. Prior to WWII Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were French colonies. (French Indochina) As expected they were taken over by the Japanese during WWII (actually Hitler's puppet government in France gave the Japanese permission.) During this time we see the rise of Ho Chi Mihn as a revolutionary against Japan. After the war Ho Chi Mihn eventually declared independence from France and war breaks out. Ho won a decisive victory at Dien Bien Phu and the French gave up. (Today 1954) It was at this time that the United States increased out involvement in South East Asia.(containment of communism) Many people forget that Vietnam was originally France's problem and the U.S. got left holding the bag.

Edit: I forgot to mention that Eisenhower wanted nothing to do with Vietnam. He was quoted as saying something to the effect of "The jungles of French Indochina would swallow battalion after battalion of U.S. soldiers." He saw it as another Korea, which he promised during his campaign to get us out of and was the first thing he did when he took office.

 

[BeanoNYC]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Robin Williams, Cat Stevens, Rufus Wainwright, Slash, J-Lo, Sandra Bullock, Mick Jagger. .

I know not a Cat Stevens, only a Youssef Islam.

 

[bvibert]

Absolutely essential to U.S. history. To make a long story short. Prior to WWII Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were French colonies. (French Indochina) As expected they were taken over by the Japanese during WWII (actually Hitler's puppet government in France gave the Japanese permission.) During this time we see the rise of Ho Chi Mihn as a revolutionary against Japan. After the war Ho Chi Mihn eventually declared independence from France and war breaks out. Ho won a decisive victory at Dien Bien Phu and the French gave up. (Today 1954) It was at this time that the United States increased out involvement in South East Asia.(containment of communism) Many people forget that Vietnam was originally France's problem and the U.S. got left holding the bag.

I think his point was that since the French surrender so much that it's not worth mentioning every time they do.

 

[BeanoNYC]

I think his point was that since the French surrender so much that it's not worth mentioning every time they do.

Ok then, carry on folks. Nothing to see here. Just Me making an ass of myself again.

 

[bvibert]

Ok then, carry on folks. Nothing to see here. Just Me making an ass of myself again.

We expected nothing less from you Rich.

 

[BeanoNYC]

We expected nothing less from you Rich.

Hey! At least I'm consistent!

 

[Paul]

I think his point was that since the French surrender so much that it's not worth mentioning every time they do.

Thank you Brian.

They don't call them cheese-eating surrender-monkeys for nothing...

and the French gave up

See what I mean?

 

[ckofer]

 

[severine]

July 22nd

On this date in:

1587 A second English colony, also fated to vanish under mysterious circumstances, was established on Roanoke Island off North Carolina.

1796 The city of Cleveland was founded by Gen. Moses Cleaveland.

1916 A bomb went off during a Preparedness Day parade in San Francisco, killing 10 people.

1933 American aviator Wiley Post completed the first solo flight around the world in seven days, 18 1/2 hours.

1937 the Senate rejected President Franklin D. Roosevelt's proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court.

1943 American forces led by Gen. George S. Patton captured Palermo, Sicily.

1946 Jewish extremists blew up a wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing about 100 people.

1981 Turkish extremist Mehmet Ali Agca was sentenced in Rome to life in prison for shooting Pope John Paul II. (He served 19 years.)

1991 Police in Milwaukee arrested serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

1992 Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escaped from his luxury prison near Medellin.

1994 O.J. Simpson pleaded innocent to the slaying of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

1995 Susan Smith was convicted by a jury in Union, S.C., of first-degree murder for drowning her two sons. (Smith is serving life in prison.)

1998 Iran tested a medium-range missile capable of reaching Israel or Saudi Arabia.

2002 Factory worker Alejandro Avila was charged in the abduction and slaying of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion of Stanton, Calif. (He was later convicted of murder, kidnapping and sexual assualt and sentenced to death.)

2003 Saddam Hussein's sons Odai and Qusai were killed when U.S. forces stormed a villa in Mosul, Iraq.

2003 Months after her prisoner-of-war ordeal, Pvt. 1st Class Jessica Lynch returned home to a hero's welcome in Elizabeth, W.Va.

2004 The Sept. 11 commission issued a report saying America's leaders failed to grasp the gravity of terrorist threats before the 9/11 attacks.

2006 Israeli tanks, bulldozers and armored personnel carriers knocked down a fence and barreled over the Lebanese border as forces seized the village of Maroun al-Ras from Hezbollah.

 

[ckofer]

7/22 Births

Births

• 1210 - Joan of England, Queen consort of Scotland, wife of Alexander II of Scotland (d. 1238)
• 1478 - King Philip I of Castile (d. 1506)
• 1510 - Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence (d. 1537)
• 1535 - Katarina Stenbock, wife of Gustav I of Sweden (d. 1621)
• 1559 - Lawrence of Brindisi, Italian monk (d. 1619)
• 1621 - Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, English politician (d. 1683)
• 1711 - Georg Wilhelm Richmann, Russian physicist (d. 1753)
• 1713 - Jacques-Germain Soufflot, French architect (d. 1780)
• 1733 - Mikhail Shcherbatov, Russian philosopher and writer (d. 1790)
• 1755 - Gaspard de Prony, French mathematician (d. 1839)
• 1784 - Friedrich Bessel, German mathematician and astronomer (d. 1846)
• 1844 - William Archibald Spooner, English priest and scholar (d. 1930)
• 1848 - Adolf Friedrich V, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (d. 1914)
• 1849 - Emma Lazarus, American poet (d. 1887)
• 1882 - Edward Hopper, American painter (d. 1967)
• 1887 - Gustav Ludwig Hertz, German physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1975)
• 1888 - Kirk Bryan, American geologist (d. 1950)
• 1888 - Selman Waksman, Ukrainian-born biochemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1973)
• 1889 - James Whale, English film director (d. 1957)
• 1890 - Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, American Kennedy family matriarch (d. 1995)
• 1893 - Karl Menninger, American psychiatrist (d. 1990)
• 1893 - Jesse Haines, American baseball player (d. 1978)
• 1898 - Stephen Vincent Benét, American author (d. 1943)
• 1898 - Alexander Calder, American artist (d. 1976)
• 1905 - Doc Cramer, American baseball player (d. 1990)
• 1907 - Zubir Said, Singaporean composer who composed Singapore's national anthem (d. 1987)
• 1908 - Amy Vanderbilt, American author (d. 1974)
• 1909 - Dorino Serafini, Italian racing driver (d. 2000)
• 1913 - Gorni Kramer, Italian bandleader (d. 1995)
• 1913 - Licia Albanese, American opera singer
• 1915 - Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah, Pakistani politician, diplomat and author. (d. 2000)
• 1916 - Marcel Cerdan, French boxer (d. 1949)
• 1916 - Gino Bianco, Brazilian racing driver (d. 1984)
• 1921 - William Roth, U.S. Senator (d. 2003)
• 1923 - Bob Dole, American politician
• 1923 - Lillian Ellison, American professional wrestler (d. 2007)
• 1923 - Mukesh, Indian singer (d. 1976)
• 1924 - Margaret Whiting, singer
• 1928 - Orson Bean, American film actor
• 1929 - John Barber, British racing driver
• 1932 - Oscar De la Renta, Dominican-born fashion designer
• 1934 - Louise Fletcher, American actress
• 1936 - Tom Robbins, American author
• 1937 - Yasuhiro Kojima, Japanese professional wrestler (d. 1999)
• 1938 - Terence Stamp, English actor
• 1939 - Gila Almagor, Israeli actress
• 1940 - Alex Trebek, Canadian-born game show host
• 1940 - George Clinton, American musician
• 1940 - Judith Walzer Leavitt, American college professor
• 1941 - Ron Turcotte, Canadian jockey
• 1943 - Kay Bailey Hutchison, U.S. Senator from Texas
• 1943 - Bobby Sherman, American singer and actor
• 1944 - Estelle Bennett, American singer (Ronettes)
• 1944 - Rick Davies, British musician (Supertramp)
• 1944 - Sparky Lyle, American baseball player
• 1944 - Dennis Firestone, Australian racing driver
• 1946 - Danny Glover, American actor
• 1946 - Mireille Mathieu, French singer
• 1946 - Stephen M. Wolownik, Russian musician (d. 2000)
• 1946 - Paul Schrader, American film director and screenwriter
• 1947 - Albert Brooks, American comedian
• 1947 - Don Henley, American musician (Eagles)
• 1947 - Gilles Duceppe, Quebec politician
• 1948 - S. E. Hinton, American author
• 1948 - Otto Waalkes, German comedian
• 1949 - Alan Menken, American composer
• 1949 - Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai and PM of UAE
• 1949 - Lasse Virén, Finnish athlete
• 1951 - J. V. Cain, Football player
• 1953 - Jimmy Bruno, American jazz guitarist
• 1953 - Sylvia Chang, Taiwanese actress
• 1954 - Lonette McKee, American actress
• 1954 - Al Di Meola, American guitarist
• 1954 - Pierre Lebeau, Canadian actor
• 1955 - Willem Dafoe, American actor
• 1957 - Dave Stieb, American baseball player
• 1958 - David Von Erich, American professional wrestler (d. 1984)
• 1958 - Tatsunori Hara, Japanese professional-baseball player and coach
• 1960 - Jon Oliva, American musician (Savatage)
• 1961 - Keith Sweat, American singer
• 1961 - Calvin Fish, English racing driver
• 1962 - Steve Albini, writer, recording engineer and musician (Big Black, Rapeman, Shellac)
• 1962 - Martine St. Clair, Quebec singer
• 1963 - Emilio Butragueno, Spanish footballer
• 1963 - Rob Estes, American actor
• 1963 - Emily Saliers, American singer (Indigo Girls)
• 1964 - John Leguizamo, Colombian actor
• 1964 - Don Van Natta, Jr., American journalist
• 1964 - David Spade, American comedian
• 1964 - Adam Godley, British actor
• 1964 - Rafael Addison, American Basketball Player
• 1965 - Patrick Labyorteaux, American actor
• 1965 - Shawn Michaels, American professional wrestler
• 1966 - Tim Brown, American football player
• 1966 - Shaun Cohen, South African professional wrestler
• 1967 - Lauren Booth, British journalist
• 1968 - Rhys Ifans, Welsh actor
• 1969 - Despina Vandi, Greek singer
• 1970 - Jason Becker, American musician
• 1970 - Sergei Zubov, Russian ice hockey player
• 1970 - Craig Baird, New Zealand racing driver
• 1971 - Kristine Lilly, American soccer player
• 1972 - Keyshawn Johnson, American football player
• 1972 - Colin Ferguson, Canadian actor
• 1972 - Seth Fisher, American comic book artist and penciller (d.2006)
• 1973 - Daniel Jones, Australian musician (Savage Garden)
• 1973 - Mike Sweeney, American baseball player
• 1973 - Rufus Wainwright, Canadian singer
• 1973 - Ronald Ray Howard, American murderer (d. 2005)
• 1974 - Franka Potente, German actress
• 1974 - Sonija Kwok, Hong Kong actress
• 1977 - Gustavo Nery, Brazilian footballer
• 1978 - Dennis Rommedahl, Danish footballer
• 1978 - Martyn Lee, English radio presenter
• 1978 - A. J. Cook, Canadian actress
• 1979 - Lucas Luhr, German racing driver
• 1979 - Yadel Martí, Cuban baseball player
• 1979 - James Mason, British professional wrestler
• 1980 - Scott Dixon, New Zealand racing driver
• 1980 - Dirk Kuyt, Dutch footballer
• 1980 - Kate Ryan, Belgian singer
• 1983 - Arsenium, Moldovan singer (O-Zone)
• 1983 - Sharni Vinson, Australian actress and model
• 1983 - Steven Jackson, American football player
• 1984 - Stewart Downing, English footballer
• 1984 - Kinzie Kenner, American pornographic actress
• 1985 - Takudzwa Ngwenya, American rugby player
• 1985 - Akira Tozawa, Japanese professional wrestler
• 1992 - Selena Gomez, American actress
• 1996 - Mac McArkly, American child actor
• 1997 - Field Cate, American child actor
• 1998 - Madison Pettis, American actress
• 2002 - Prince Felix of Denmark