Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five

Like the poem says, it was on this date in 1775 that Paul Revere (along with William Dawes and Samuel Prescott) alerted American colonists that the British troops were on the move. When the British arrived in Lexington the next morning, colonial Minutemen were waiting for them.  The “shot heard ’round the world” was fired, and the first armed conflict of the American Revolution was underway.

In a weird lil’ coincidence, the fighting would end exactly eight years later,  on this date in 1783.

Earliest event listed on Wiki is “1025 – Bolesław Chrobry is crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland” and the most recent are two events from 2007: “The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in a 5-4 decision” & “A series of bombings, two of them being suicides, occur in Baghdad, killing 198 and injuring 251.”

A few other things that happened on this date:

1506 – St. Peter’s Basilica has its cornerstone laid.

1906 – Over 3,000 people die in the San Francisco earthquake and fire.

1994 – NAFTA goes into effect.

Happy birthday to Conan O’Brien, Rick Moranis, Mike Vickers, Grandmaster Flash, and Country Joe McDonald

It was on this day in 1961 that eight B-26B Bombers attacked several airfields in Cuba, launching what would later become known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion. 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban-refugees landed at several different points across the island two days later, hoping to incite a revolution against Castro. The forces were soundly defeated, with over 1,100 of the invaders taken prisoner.

The earliest event from Wiki for this date is “69 – After the First Battle of Bedriacum, Vitellius becomes Roman Emperor” and the most recent is “2006 – Sami Hammad, a Palestinian suicide bomber, detonates an explosive device in Tel Aviv, killing 11 people and injuring 70.“

A few other things that happened include:

1521 – Catholic Church excommunicates Martin Luther. 

1937 – First appearance of Daffy Duck.

1964 – The first Ford Mustang is introduced to the public.

1970 – Apollo 13 safely returns to Earth.

Birthday cake should be baked for Rowdy Roddy Piper & Maynard James Keenan.

SatNiteMusicSeries starts off with this upbeat version of a spooky song…

….and that gets you confused, then just listen to this music play:

It was on this day in 1964 that the Rolling Stones released their debut album. After playing their first show as a band in 1962, they were offered a weekly gig at London’s Crawdaddy Club. Their cover of a Chuck Berry song hit the charts a year later, and after a few more singles the band was sharing the bill on tours with other acts such as The Hollies, Bo Diddley, Little Richard and The Everly Brothers.  Their first US tour  in June ’64 didn’t go quite as well, with the Rolling Stones being mocked by Dean Martin after appearing on his variety show. Needless to say, this setback didn’t stop them from going on to become “the greatest rock & roll band in the world.”

Earliest event Wiki takes note of for this date is “1178 BC – The calculated date of the Greek king Odysseus’ return home from the Trojan War” and the most recent is “2007 – Virginia Tech massacre: The deadliest spree killing in modern American history. Seung-Hui Cho, kills 32 and injures 23 before committing suicide.“

Some other things that happened include:

73 – Masada falls to the Romans.

1862 – Slavery becomes illegal in the District of Columbia.

1990 – First time Jack Kevorkian give assistance to someone committing suicide.

Warm birthday wishes go out to Peter Billingsley, Martin Lawrence, Bobby Vinton, Jon Crye, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Respectful birthday wishes go to the Pope.

Ray Kroc opened his first franchised McDonald’s on this day in 1955. The original concept of “fast food” was started by Richard and Maurice McDonald seven years previously, with the kitchen in their restaurant being arranged like an assembly-line and serving only hanburgers, cheeseburgers, fries, apple pie, soda pop, and milkshakes. They later expanded to 7 more locations. Ray Kroc (a restaurant-supply salesman) become interested when he noticed that the brothers were using 8 multi-mixer milkshake machines at just one location. Impressed with what he saw during a visit, he quickly acquired the rights to set up McDonald’s restaurants in most of the country. It only took 4 years for there to be more than a 100 different locations, with 1,000 restaurants by 1968 and now over 31,000 in 119 different countries.   Click here for an early TV commercial.

Wiki‘s earliest event for this date is “1071 – Bari, the last Byzantine possession in southern Italy, is surrendered to Robert Guiscard” and their most recent is “2010 – Volcanic ash from the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland leads to the closure of airspace over most of Europe.”

A few other things that happened include:

1892 – The General Electric Company is formed.

1924 – McNally’s Road Atlas debuts.

1927 – The most destructive river flood in U.S. history begins on the Mississippi.

1947 – Jackie Robinson plays in his first Major League Baseball game.

Happy birthday to Roy Clark and Dave Edmunds.

It was on this date in 1902 that James Cash Penny opened his first store in Wyoming. Two additional stores were opened in the next 5 years, and then over 30 more stores in the 5 years after that. By 1929 there were 1,400 stores nationwide, and Penny continued on as CEO of his company until 1946. Rumor has it that in 1940 he personally trained a young Sam Walton how to properly tie packages.

The earliest event mentioned by Wiki is “43 BC – Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieging Julius Caesar’s assassin Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus in Mutina, defeats the forces of the consul Pansa, who is wounded” and the most recent is “2010 – Nearly 2,700 are killed in a magnitude 6.9 earthquake in Yushu, Qinghai, China“

Other events on this date include:

1828 – Noah Webster publishes his first dictionary.

1865 – Lincoln is assassinated.

1986 – Almost 100 people are killed after 1 kg hailstones fall in Bangladesh.

Warm birthday wishes go out to Loretta Lynn & Ritchie Blackmore.

It was on this day in 1953 that the CIA started Project MKULTRA. The goals of the project was to find an effective way to use mind-altering substances for interrogration purposes, but the bulk of the studies seemed to be nothing more than simply giving test subjects doses of LSD and watching what happened. These subjects…many times without their consent nor even knowledge of the “experiment”…included members of the military, other government agents, the mentally ill, and people from the general public. One of the studies involved several brothels in California that had two-way mirrors installed, where the effects on customers who were unknowingly given the drug could be observed and filmed. Various universities, hospitals, and prisons participated in various studies associated with MKULTRA. In 1973 the director of the CIA ordered all files relating to the project to be destroyed, but several thousand documents were discovered a few years later which resulted in a Congressional Investigation. Some notable people who claim to have been a subject for these acid-tests includes author Ken Kesey, song-writer Robert Hunter, and Ted “Unabomber” Kaczynski.

The earliest event mentioned by Wiki for this date is “1111 – Henry V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor” and the most recent is “1997 – Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win The Masters Tournament.“

Other things that happened on this date include:

1796 – An elephant walks on US soil for the first time.

1829 – Roman Catholics are granted freedom of religion in Great Britain.

1970 – An explosion aboard Apollo 13 occurs while on the way to the Moon.

Warm birthday wishes go to Amy Goodman, Max Weinberg, Ron Perlman, Al Green, Tony Dow, Jimmy Destri, Lyle Waggoner and Jack Casady.

It was on this date in 1776 that the Halifax Resolves was adopted by the Provincial Congress of North Carolina. This resolution not only called out for independence from England, it also took the extra step of urging all the other colonies to do the same. This was the first official act from any of the 13 colonies calling for revolution, and less than 3 months later the Declaration of Independence was written and signed by the Continental Congress.

It was also on this date in 1861 that troops from South Carolina began to shell Fort Sumter, starting what some folks still call “The Second American Revolution”

The earliest event listed by Wiki is “238 – Gordian II lost the Battle of Carthage against the Numidian forces loyal to Maximinus Thrax and is killed. Gordian I, his father, commits suicide” and the latest is “2010 – A train derailed near Merano, Italy, after running into a landslide, causing nine deaths and injuring 28 people.“

A few other things that happened on this date include:

1204 – Constantinople falls to the Fourth Crusades.

1954 – This song is recorded for the first time.

1961 – Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to go into outer space.

1968 – Over 3,000 sheep in Skull Valley, AZ are killed after nerve gas tests are conducted at a nearby Army Base.

1981 – Space Shuttle Columbia launches on her maiden mission.

1992 – Euro Disneyland opens in Paris.

1994 – First “commercial spam” is posted in Usenet.

1999 – US President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of court.

Happy birthday wishes go out to Vince Gill, David Cassidy, David Letterman, Tom Clancy, Ed O’Neill, John Kay, Herbie Hancock, & Beverly Cleary.

It was on this day in 1900 that the US Navy purchased their first fully-functioning submarine, the USS Holland. It could reach surface speeds of up to seven knots and remain submerged for several hours. More information is available here.

The earliest event mentioned by Wiki is “491 – Flavius Anastasius becomes Byzantine Emperor, with the name of Anastasius I.” and the most recent is “2007 – 2007 Algiers bombings: Two bombings in the Algerian capital of Algiers, kills 33 people and wounds a further 222 others.”

Some other events that happened on this day include:

1898 – President McKinley asks Congress to declare war against Spain.

1921 – First US tax on cigarettes enacted in Iowa.

1945 – Buchenwald concentration camp liberated.

1965 – 256 people are killed after 51 tornadoes touch down across the MidWest.

1968 – Civil Rights Act of 1968 is signed into law. Discrimination in the sale,  rental, and financing of housing is made illegal.

1993 – Prisoners riot in Ohio, mostly due to the forced vaccination of prisoners whose religious beliefs are against vaccinations. The riots continue for the next 10 days.

2006 – Iran announces they have successfully enriched uranium.

Birthday greetings to Dusty Rhodes & Ellen Goodman

Based on what President Obama said prior to being elected as well as a 2009 memo released by his administration, a lot of folks are under the illusion that the Federal Gov’t no longer goes after medical marijuana patients and growers. This latest update shows otherwise.

In a little-publicized memo, the U.S. federal government has indicated that the gloves are off regarding medical marijuana dispensaries, regardless of state laws.

The “Haag Memo” [PDF], written on February 1, 2011 from U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag (Northern District of California) to Oakland City Attorney John A. Russo, was a response to an Oakland City Council request for guidance regarding medical marijuana and federal law. The memo was written with consultation and approval from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

The Haag Memo clarifies the Ogden Memo, which was written by former Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden on October 19, 2009 for the Department of Justice. The Ogden Memo seemed to indicate that the new Obama Administration would restrict federal prosecution of medical marijuana providers in states where medicinal cannabis is legal. This was heralded by many as giving the green light to pursue medical marijuana businesses, as long as they complied with state laws.

“The ‘Haag Memo’ states very clearly that the feds will continue to investigate, arrest and prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries in every state ‘regardless of state laws.’ ”

In addition, the memo calls the prosecution of medical marijuana dispensaries a “core priority” for the feds.

The memo may be the cause of the recent increase in federal raids and medical marijuana dispensaries, according to CTI. Only four days after the Haag Memo was issued, the DEA raided four dispensaries in California. Just this week, the DEA raided more dispensaries in California and Montana. Agents seized the assets and bank accounts of several dispensaries.

More info available here.

A buddy of mine once said “A toker…casual or otherwise…who voted for Obama is like a chicken who voted for Col. Saunders.” The more time he spends in office, the more that opinion seems to be true…