While I don’t understand the fascination so many folks have towards British royalty, they obviously know how to attract the attention of the AOotSP. Not only did the the newly-married couple adopt a year old penguin named Acorn, but they also are having another recently born chick named after one of them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHwWaG4I8wE

Not one, but two references to these flightless birds from William & Kate? If I had known they were cool like that then I wouldn’t have declined the invitation to their wedding. (It wasn’t personal; just that we’re not that close & I had to work.)

It was on this day in 1994 that the Chunnel officially opened to the public. While a under-the-channel-tunnel between France and England was envisioned as early as 1802 (with the first attempt at construction made in 1880)  it wasn’t until June of 1988 that serious work would begin. It took over 15,000 workers to construct three separate tunnels (two rail and one service) 31 miles long, 23 of which are under the sea. The Chunnel was named one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World in 1996.

Wiki’s earliest event listed for this day is “1527 – Spanish and German troops sack Rome; some consider this the end of the Renaissance. 147 Swiss Guards, including their commander, die fighting the forces of Charles V in order to allow Pope Clement VII to escape into Castel Sant’Angelo” and the most recent is “2010 – The second largest intraday point swing in Dow Jones Industrial Average history occurs.“

A few other things of note include:

1937 – Thirty-six people die after the  Hindenburg explodes and catches fire in NJ.

1941 – Bob Hope does his first USO show.

2001 – John Paul II becomes the first pope to go inside a mosque.

Happy birthday to George Clooney and Bob Seger.

It was on this day in 1994 that Michael Fay got spanked with a cane. He was an 18 year old American living in Singapore who was convicted of vandalizing a bunch of automobiles. (He confessed to over 50 counts of vandalism, but later recanted.) His sentence was a few months in jail, a fine, and six strokes with a wooden cane across his bare buttocks. After President Clinton protested, calling the corporal punishment “extreme and mistaken”, the number of strokes was reduced to four.  The incident was later parodied via song.

The earliest thing that Wiki mentions for this date is “553 – The Second Council of Constantinople begins” and the most recent is “2010 – Mass protests in Greece erupt in response to austerity measures imposed by the government as a result of the Greek debt crisis.”

A few others events that happened on this day are:

1886 – Over 14,000 people protest in Milwaukee WI for an 8-hour work day. State militia troops fire into the crowd and kill seven, including a 13 year old boy.

1925 – John Scopes is arrested for teaching evolution.

1961 – Alan Shepard goes into outer space for 15 minutes, becoming the first American to leave Earth’s atmosphere.

Happy birthday to Bill Ward & Kurt Loder.

May the 4th be with you!

Even tho he has now shaved it, and he may never-ever again go a day without the steel scraping against his throat, this man still deserves to have the respect and honor that every beard-wearer is given.

 

Click here for more information about the awesomeness of beards.

It was on this date in 1932 that Alphonse Capone entered a Federal prison and started an eleven year sentence. Capone was a mobster from Chicago who made a fortune selling booze during a time that booze was illegal. He was a ruthless killer, not just ordering hits on his enemies but also with his own hands.  Elliot Ness and his “Untouchables” tried busting him, but Al had the city pretty much in his control. However, he couldn’t hide the fact that he obviously made a lot of money…yet his tax returns (when he chose to file ’em, that is) didn’t show that much income. The original “Scarface” finally got locked up not for murder nor a drug charge, but rather a simple case of tax evasion.

Wiki‘s earliest event for this day is “1256 – The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae” and the most recent they mention is a tie from 2007:  “Greensburg, Kansas is almost completely destroyed by a 1.7mi wide EF-5 tornado” & “The Scottish National Party wins the Scottish general election and becomes the largest party in the Scottish Parliament for the first time ever.“

A few other events that also happened on this day are:

1886 – A riot breaks out in Chicago when police attempt to disperse a labor rally. Eight people are killed and 60 wounded.

1904 – US work crews begin construction on the Panama Canal.

1970 – National Guard kill four dead in Ohio.

Slices of birthday cake go out to Mick Mars, George Will and Dick Dale.

Credit when credit is due…the President has been having a good week.

I’ve thought for a while that this birther-crap is just a red herring being used by both sides of the aisle to distract people from real and serious issues…hopefully now we’ll be able to move the national talk to more pressing things. As for OBL getting hunted down and taken down, that kinda speaks for itself. Congratz  to the Seal Team, CIA and whatever other spook-agencies that pulled the trigger…and /salute to the President that empowered ’em to go forth and do so. It really bothered me when W said he had basically given up looking for Osama…kudos to Obama for righting that wrong.

It was on this day in 1948 that the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that deed restrictions which prohibited the sale of real estate to minorities were legally unenforceable. Three years previously a family by the name of Shelly purchased a house in St. Louis. A neighbor (who lived about 10 blocks away) by the name of Kraemer was offended/scared/upset/something-or-other about the color of this family’s skin and thus sued to keep them from living there. The basis for the lawsuit was a covenant on the property that was put in place in 1911 which stated that “people of the Negro or Mongolian Race” were not allowed to own the house. The State Supreme Court ruled that it was a private contract and thus allowed; but the Supremes stated that while the restriction itself wasn’t actually illegal itself, don’t ask the courts to step in and enforce ’em.

The first event that Wiki lists for happening on this day is “1491 – Kongo monarch Nkuwu Nzinga is baptised by Portuguese missionaries, adopting the baptismal name of João I” and the latest is “2006 – Zacarias Moussaoui is sentenced to life in prison in Alexandria, Virginia.“

A few other things that also happened are:

1802 – Washington, DC is incorporated as a city.

1921 –  The first state sales tax initiated by West Virgina.

1960 – The Fantasticks opens in NYC. It continues on for 17,161 more performances over the next 42 years, making it the longest-running musical of all time.

Wishes for a happy birthday go out to Christopher Cross, Ann B. Davis, Frankie Valli, and Pete Seeger.

“Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.“

It was on this day in 1933 Hitler banned worker unions in Germany. Their offices were ordered closed, bank accounts confiscated, and many of their leaders put in prison.  Hitler then ordered all the members of the various unions to join a newly formed national labor union…ran by the central gov’t….while lowering wages and making strikes illegal. This was all part of his master plan to establish a totalitarian-style government. Workers would not be allowed to organize into their own unions until after the fall of Nazi Germany.

The earliest event mentioned by Wiki for this day is “1194 – King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter” and the most recent is “2008 – Cyclone Nargis makes landfall in Myanmar killing over 130,000 people and leaving millions of people homeless.“

A few other things that happened on this date:

1536 – Anne Boleyn is arrested for not only adultery but also incest, witchcraft and treason.

1611 – First publication of the King James Bible

1952 – The world’s first commercial jet airliner makes its maiden flight.

Wishes for a happy birthday go to Alan Best, Lesley Gore, and Bianca Jagger.

The Constitution of the United States guarantees to all citizens the right to peaceably assemble and petition for redress of grievances, and furthermore declares that the right of free speech shall not be abridged. We stand here to-day to test these guaranties of our Constitution. We choose this place of assemblage because it is the property of the people.

We stand here to-day in behalf of millions of toilers whose petitions have been buried in committee rooms, whose prayers have been unresponded to, and whose opportunities for honest, remunerative, productive labor have been taken from them by unjust legislation, which protects idlers, speculators, and gamblers.

It was on this day in 1894  that Jacob Coxey was arrested for walking on the grass of the US Capitol.  Coxey was leading the first protest march in DC, demanding solutions to the large-scale unemployment that was occurring at the time. About 100 men had left Ohio at the end of March and started walking east, and they had grown to around 500  by the time they reached the nation’s Capitol. Concerned about the intentions of what was called “Coxey’s Army”, there were 1,500 federal troops waiting for their arrival with several thousand more nearby in reserve. Coxey was reading a prepared statement when he was arrested for being on the lawn outside the Capitol building. The march helped bring the idea of unemployment insurance to a national discussion,  as well as serving as an inspiration for the Wizard of Oz.

The earliest event that Wiki mentions for this day is “305 – Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman Emperor” and the most recent is “2010 – attempted car bombing of Times Square.“

Some other things that happened include:

1786 – Opening night for Amadeus’s The Marriage of Figaro.

1956 – The polio vaccine is released to the general public.

1960 – Francis Gary Powers has his U-2 spy plane shot out from under him while flying over the Soviet Union.

1967 – Elvis & Priscilla get married.

2003 – President Bush says “Mission Accomplished” in regards to Iraq.

Happy birthday to Julie Benz, Tim McGraw, Marilyn Milian, Ray Parker Jr, John Woo, and Judy Collins.