Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Gotcha...

Iraq and the western world was a safer place at 8:30 p.m. on December 13, 2003. That was when members of our Armed Forces looked down the hole and found a cowering figure looking like a scruffy Ed Norton with matted hair and smelling like a Brooklyn sewer rat. Saddam Hussein was captured after spending 9 months on the run. President Bush would confirm that capture in a televised address at noon the following day...

Despite Hussein's recent histrionics in an Iraqi courtroom, the deposed dictator will continue to be tried on several criminal counts and a verdict will be reached with or without the efforts of Ramsey Clarke. If anyone knows what Clarke was thinking in defending Hussein, send up a flare, please...

It's interesting to note that Hussein recently said he didn't fear execution. This coming from a man who hid in a hole and offered no resistance when captured. A soldier at the scene described him as "a man resigned to his fate"...

More December 13 Memories...

1759) The 1st music store in America opens in Philadelphia (contrary to popular belief "The Geator with the Heater" did not own it)...

1769) Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire receives its charter...

1843) Charles Dickens publishes "A Christmas Carol"...

1903) Italo Marcioni patents the ice cream cone in New Jersey...

1937) The "Rape of Nanking" begins as Japanese forces take the Chinese city of Nanking. An estimated 200,000 Chinese are killed over the next 6 weeks...

1947) The Maine Turnpike opens...

1950) James Dean begins his career hawking Pepsi in a commercial...

1956) The Dodgers do the unthinkable, they trade Jackie Robinson, 36, to the Giants for journeyman pitcher Dick Littlefield and $30,000 (Jackie retires rather than play for the hated Giants)...

1961) The Beatles sign with Brian Epstein...

1961) The Tokens top the charts with "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"...

1966) Jimi Hendrix records "Foxey Lady"...

1969) Arlo Guthrie releases "Alice's Restaurant"...

1973) Charlie Rich is #1 with "The Most Beautiful Girl"...

1975) Saturday Night Live uses a time delay for the 1st time as the late Richard Pryor hosts...

1977) The entire University of Evansville basketball team and its coaches, trainers and sportscaster, 30 in all, are killed in a plane crash (the chartered plane took off in a dense fog from the Evansville airport in southwestern Indiana)...

1978) The Philadelphia Mint begins stamping Susan B. Anthony dollar coins (which will be in circulation to the dismay of people who try to spend them, the following July)...

1982) Hall & Oates are #1 with "Maneater"...

1983) Less than 10,000 are on hand to watch the highest scoring game in NBA history: Detroit 186 Denver 184 in 3 over times) If you had the over and 369 points, you win...

1985) Phil Collins makes his U.S. TV acting debut as a drug dealer on "Miami Vice"...

1988) Bruce Springsteen and Julianne Phillips agree to disagree and divorce...

1996) Ghana's Kofi Annan becomes the 7th secretary-general of the U.N...

1998) The Vikings Gary Anderson kicks 6 field goals against Baltimore and sets an NFL record for 34 straight field goals...

2000) George W. Bush claims the presidency 36 days after Election Day as Al Gore conceded defeat...

2001) The government releases a video tape of Osama bin Laden admitting the knowledge of the 911 attacks...

2002) Former Lovin' Spoonful guitarist Zal Yanovsky dies of a heart attack at 57...

2003) Saddam Hussein is captured (feature story)...

Happy Birthday To...

1925) Dick Van Dyke...

1929) Christopher Plummer...

1930) Robert Prosky...

1948) Jeff "Skunk" Baxter of The Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan...

1948) Ted Nugent (who wears ear plugs when he plays)...

1950) Wendy Malick...

1957) Steve Buscemi...

1967) Jamie Foxx...

Commentary...

Shadoe Stevens sent me some great material on Nikola Tesla who deserves much credit for the development of radio along with Marconi (Dec. 12, 2005 blog). Tesla's area of expertise was alternating current (AC). He devised a system for generation, transmission and utilization of AC power and partnered with George Westinghouse to commercialize his system. In 1896 he was credited for the 1st transmission of electrical power between the cities of Niagra Falls and Buffalo...

So when it's time for a toast to our Grand Daddy Guglielmo Marconi, let's remember Nikola Tesla for his contributions to the medium that has meant so much to us all, radio...

Thanks to Shadoe's info on Tesla, I was able to glean (when was the last time that word was used in a sentence ?) this little item. Thomas Edison, an adversary of Tesla's (Edison was a proponent of direct current or DC) used Tesla's alternating current to construct the 1st electric chair...