Thank 'em all...
Big 3-day weekend coming up and I bet you can't wait. I mean it is a national holiday, no work, no mail, sales in the stores and all that but let's look at why we celebrate it. It all started as 2 separate holidays honoring Presidents Abraham Lincoln (February 12th) and George Washington (February 22nd, although he was born on the 11th according to the Julian calendar but what does Julian know anyway ?). The combined "common" holiday was part of the "Uniform Holidays Bill" of 1968 and took effect in 1971. From that year on, the 3rd Monday of February became the holiday...
In theory it was a day set aside to honor all the Presidents, all 43 to date. In fact and even in Washington, D.C. most people still refer to this as "Washington's Birthday". It's still the designated holiday in section 6103 (a) of title 5 of the United States Code, the law that specifies holidays for Federal employees. Well, it's high time we ended this foolishness. Change that damn code...
I say we say thanks to all our Presidents in fact, not theory, even Millard Fillmore, our 13th. Even our 9th President, William Henry Harrison who only served one month, catching a cold on inauguration day which developed into pneumonia and other devastating and deadly complications. He would die in office. And let's not forget our 20th President, James Abram Garfield who only served 6 months. Garfield did not voluntarily leave office. He was assassinated...
On Monday, make it a real "Presidents' Day". Thank 'em all...
February 17 Memories...
1801) The U.S. House of Representatives breaks an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr by picking Jefferson as President and Burr as his VP...
1913) The Armory Show opens at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City with paintings and sculpture on display (the show continues annually)...
1933) "Newsweek" is published for the 1st time...
1933) Blondie and Dagwood marry 3 years after Chic Young's popular comic strip 1st debuted (Mr. & Mrs. Bumstead will spend eternity in matrimonial cartoon bliss)...
1947) The Voice of America begins its broadcasts to the Soviet Union...
1955) Little Richard sends his 1st audition tape to Specialty Records which will sign him to a contract...
1960) The Everly Brothers sign with Warner Brothers ($1 million for 10 years)...
1965) Joan Rivers makes her 1st guest appearance on "The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson" on NBC-TV...
1966) Brian Wilson begins recording the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations"...
1968) The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opens in Springfield, MA...
1968) France's Jean-Claude Killy wins the triple crown of Alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics in Grenoble, winning 3 gold medals...
1971) James Taylor makes his prime-time TV debut on ABC-TV's "Johnny Cash Show"...
1976) The Eagles release their "Greatest Hits" LP (ch-ching)...
1986) Howard Stern returns to New York radio at WXRK (K-rock)...
1992) Mass murderer Jeffrey Dahmer is sentenced to life in prison in Milwaukee (in November of 1994 he is beaten to death in prison)...
1995) Long Island Railroad killer Colin Ferguson is convicted of 6 counts of murder in the December, 1993 shootings (Ferguson is later sentenced to a minimum of 200 years in prison)...
1996) World chess champion Garry Kasparov beats "Deep Blue", the IBM supercomputer in Philadelphia (ironically, the founder of IBM, Thomas Watson would have been 132 today, his birthday)..
2004) Cingular Wireless agrees to pay nearly $41 billion to buy AT&T Wireless...
In order to insure accuracy, multiple reference sources were used in the timeline...
1924) In keeping with our presidential theme, Margaret Truman Daniel...
1925) An actor who played a President (Lincoln), Hal Holbrook...
1936) Football Hall of Famer Jim Brown...
1939) Miss America 1959 Mary Ann Mobley...
1941) Gene Pitney...
1963) Michael Jordan...
Today is the 48th day of 2006 with 317 days remaining in the year, 31 days until Spring and 43 days until opening day...
Saturday, February 18, 2006...
February 18 Memories...
1885) Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is published in the U.S. for the 1st time...
1930) The planet Pluto is discovered by Clyde Tombaugh who used photos taken in January (doesn't the discoverer get to name the planet ? and if he does, why didn't he name it Clyde ?)...
1951) The biggest point-shaving scandal in college basketball history begins when 3 players from CCNY, the defending champion, are charged with accepting bribes to fix games (they eventually admit their involvement along with 29 other players from 6 schools, including powerhouse Kentucky)...
1953) "Bwana Devil", the 1st 3-D movie opens in New York City...
1953) Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz sign a contract worth $8 million to continue "I Love Lucy" through 1955...
1959) Ray Charles records "What'd I Say" ("ummmm, ahhhh")...
1969) Lulu and Maurice Gibb walk down the aisle in England...
1970) 5 of the "Chicago 7" are found quilty of intent to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic convention (the convictions are later overturned)...
1977) The space shuttle "Enterprise" goes on its maiden flight on top of a Boeing 747...
1979) Richard Petty wins the Daytona 500 for the 6th time...
1998) Cubs play-by-play man Harry Caray dies at 83...
1999) The Yankees and Red Sox make a blockbuster trade: 5-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens goes to the Bronx for David Wells...
2001) Dale Earnhardt dies from injuries suffered in a crash at the Daytona 500 (Earnhardt was 49)...
2004) Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean abandons his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination (he did not go quietly did he ?)...
To ensure accuracy, multiple reference sources were used in the timeline...
1919) Jack Palance (who will be doing one-arm pushups to celebrate)...
1922) Helen Gurley Brown...
1925) George Kennedy...
1933) Yoko Ono (please do it quietly Yoko)...
1944) Herman Santiago (of the Teenagers)...
1950) Cybil Shepherd...
1954) John Travolta...
1957) Vanna White (no one turns letters better)...
Today is the 49th day of 2006 with 316 days remaining in the year, 30 days until Spring and 42 days until opening day...
Sunday, February 19, 2006...
February 19 Memories...
1878) Thomas Alva Edison patents a music player (the phonograph)...
1942) President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an executive order giving the military authority to relocate and intern Japanese-Americans...
1953) Ted Williams, a Marine pilot since 1951, escapes after crash landing his F-9 Panther after being hit in Korea (he climbs down from the cockpit just before the plane explodes)...
1956) The Platters record "The Magic Touch"...
1966) Joe Paterno moves from assistant head football coach of Penn State (where he began at the school in 1950) to head coach replacing Rip Engle (40 years later he's still doing it)...
1974) Kiss make their TV debut on "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert"...
1974) Dick Clark premieres the "American Music Awards"...
1977) President Gerald Ford pardons "Tokyo Rose" (Iva Toguri D'Aquino)...
1981) George Harrison is ordered to pay ABKCO Music $587,000 for "subconscious plagiarism" (even better than "temporary insanity") between his song, "My Sweet Lord" and the Chiffons "He's So Fine"...
1984) Twin brothers Phil and Steve Mahre finish 1-2 in the men's slalom on the final day of the Sarajevo Winter Olympics...
1985) Cherry Coke is introduced by the Coca-Cola Company (some discovery ! We were drinking those in Brooklyn 30 years earlier)...
1987) A controversial anti-smoking commercial airs for the 1st time on network TV. It features Yul Brynner who would die soon after of lung cancer...
1995) Tommy Lee and Pam Anderson rock down the aisle (although they divorced they're still together, oh no they're not, yes they are, no they're not, yes they are, etc. etc. etc.)...
2004) Former Enron chief Jeffrey Skilling is charged with fraud, insider trading and other crimes in connection with the energy trader's monumental collapse (worst of all he loses his company parking spot)...
To ensure accuracy, multiple reference sources were used in the timeline...
Happy Birthday To...
1940) Smokey Robinson...
1940) Fellow member of the Miracles Bobby Rogers...
1943) Lou (Looooooooooouuuuuuu) Christy...
1955) Jeff Daniels...
1963) Seal (for those of you who remember the spoof "CHAOS", "thank you seal")...
1966) Justine ("Family Ties") Bateman...
Today is the 50th day of 2006 with 315 days remaining in the year, 29 days until Spring and 41 days until opening day...
Monday (President's Day), February 20, 2006...
February 20 Memories...
1792) President George Washington signs the Postal Service Act, creating the U.S. Post Office...
1809) The U.S. Supreme Court rules the power of the federal government is greater than that of any individual state (so that's when that began)...
1839) The U.S. Congress prohibits dueling in the District of Columbia (somehow I have this picture of seeing Marion Barry back-to-back with some dueler, stepping off 10 paces)...
1872) The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens in New York City (still there)...
1949) Ricky Nelson joins the cast of his parents' radio show...
1952) Emmett Ashford becomes the 1st black umpire in organized baseball in the International League (he will graduate to the big leagues)...
1952) "The African Queen" with Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn opens at the Capitol Theater on Broadway...
1962) John Glenn makes space history, orbiting the earth 3 times to become the 1st American to orbit the earth (aboard "Friendship 7")...
1964) The Beach Boys record "Don't Worry Baby"...
1965) "Ranger 8" crashes on the moon after sending back thousands of pictures of its surface...
1970) John Lennon's "Instant Karma" is released in the U.S...
1974) Cher files for separation from husband Sonny Bono (married for 10 years she will also soon file for divorce),,,
1982) Pat Benatar marries her guitarist Neil Geraldo in Hawaii (it's the singer's 2nd marriage)...
1987) After 11 years as co-host of ABC-TV's "Good Morning America" David Hartman leaves the show...
1988) Brian Boitano wins the gold medal in figure skating, the first gold medal won by the U.S. at the Calgary Winter Olympics...
1992) Paula Abdul and Emilio Estevez announce their engagement...
1998) American Tara Lipinski, 15, is the youngest gold medalist in Winter Olympics history when she wins the ladies' figure skating title at Nagano...
1999) Gene Siskel ("Siskel and Ebert") dies at 53...
2000) ABC-TV airs the "Little Richard" movie...
2003) Fire breaks out in a West Warwick, RI club, killing 100, including Great White guitarist Ty Longley and injuring 200 others (Great White was one of the bands performing there that night)...
To ensure accuracy, multiple reference sources were used in the timeline...
Happy Birthday To...
1924) Gloria Vanderbilt...
1927) Sidney Poitier...
1937) Jazz vocalist Nancy Wilson...
1941) Buffy Sainte-Marie...
1942) Hockey Hall of Famer Phil Esposito...
1946) Sandy Duncan...
1946) J. Geils...
1950) Walter Becker (Steely Dan)...
1954) Patricia Hearst...
1966) Cindy Crawford...
Today is the 51st day of 2006 with 314 days remaining in the year, 28 days until Spring and 40 days until opening day...
