buttman302
Banned
343rd day of 2010 - 22 remaining
Thursday, December 9, 2010
CHRISTMAS SEALS DAY
The U.S. Post Office in Wilmington, Delaware offered Christmas Seals for sale for the very first time on this day in 1907. Contributions for the original seals, designed by Emily P. Bissell, helped in the fight against tuberculosis. (A hospital in Wilmington is named in honor of Bissell.)
Top Ten Reasons Why You Should Use Christmas Seals (from the American Lung Association’s Web site:
10. Because Emily Bissell was able to save a much needed TB sanatorium from closing when she launched her first Christmas Seal campaign in 1907.
9. So at the next cocktail party you attend you can answer the question, “What do you use Christmas Seals for anyway?” One answer: They do wonders to dress up envelopes!
8. To help educate and better the lives of the more than 4.8 million American children with asthma.
7. So the people who receive your holiday cards know that you have a big heart.
6. Because more than 50,000 children entered the American Lung Association’s Christmas Seals Kids’ Drawing Contest sponsored by the Triaminic Parents Club. (Call 1-800-LUNG-USA).
5. Because the Triaminic Parents Club donates $1 to the American Lung Association for every child’s Christmas Seals Kids’ Drawing Contest entry form.
4. To know that 90 percent of the proceeds from the Christmas Seal Campaign goes to local Lung Associations to prevent lung disease and promote lung health.
3. Because Christmas Seals make great keepsakes and collector’s items.
2. Because we’re asking nicely.
1. And the number 1 reason why you should use Christmas Seals is to support the American Lung Association’s efforts to fight lung disease, including asthma, emphysema, and lung cancer, because When You Can’t Breathe, Nothing Else Matters.
Events December 9
1788 - George Washington sold his race horse, Magnolia, to Colonel Henry Lee. Washington reportedly got 5,000 acres of Kentucky farmland in the trade.
1793 - The first daily newspaper in New York City was founded by Noah Webster. The American Minerva was published for the first time this day. (Minerva was the ancient Roman goddess of wisdom and the arts, identified with the Greek goddess Athena.)
1884 - Levant Richardson of Chicago, IL received his patent for the ball-bearing roller skate. His teeth chattered all the way to the post office box, downtown. The pavement was kind of rough on those early skates...
1926 - The U.S. Golf Association legalized steel-shaft golf clubs. Many of the new clubs are still wrapped around tree trunks, put there by angry golfers who couldn’t make them work any better than the clubs made with hickory sticks.
1934 - Because of ground conditions, the New York Giants football team preferred to wear basketball sneakers, as they defeated the Chicago Bears, 30-13, for the NFL championship.
1940 - The Longines Watch Company signed for the first FM radio advertising contract -- with experimental station W2XOR in New York City. The ads ran for 26 weeks and promoted the Longines time signals.
1943 - Singer and actor Frank Sinatra was classified 4-F by the United States Army when he tried to enlist in Newark, New Jersey. Sinatra was rejected for the service in World War II because of a punctured eardrum.
1948 - The U.N. General Assembly unanimously approved the Convention on Genocide, designed to prevent and punish the crime of genocide.
1953 - Frank Sinatra recorded Young at Heart. The song was turned down by Nat ‘King’ Cole and other artists, believe it or not. It became a top hit in the U.S. in March of 1954.
1956 - The Million Dollar Session was held at Sun Records in Memphis, TN. Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis gathered for an impromptu jam session. Six songs by the artists were recorded at this session. None of the songs was released for nearly three decades.
1958 - The John Birch Society was founded in the U.S. by Robert Welch. The society’s mission was to fight Communism.
1960 - Sperry Rand Corporation of St. Paul, MN unveiled a new computer, known as Univac 1107. The electronic wizard employed what was known as thin-film memory.
1965 - The Peanuts gang made its TV debut this day. A Charlie Brown Christmas ran for the first time on CBS.
1966 - Barbados became the 122nd member of the United Nations.
1967 - U.S. President Lyndon Johnson’s daughter Lynda married Charles Robb (later to become a Virginia governor and senator). Pianist Peter Duchin played for the ceremony. It was the first wedding at the White House since 1914.
1967 - The Cunard liner Queen Mary docked at Long Beach, California, after her final voyage. The Queen Mary then underwent a massive, three-year retrofit to become a luxury hotel. It opened to the public on May 8, 1971.
1972 - Keith Moon, Rod Stewart and Roger Daltrey opened the rock opera Tommy in london. The show featuring Tommy, Pinball Wizard and other tunes, was so hot that tickets sold for $50 and up.
1979 - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, the religious broadcaster, died in New York City at age 84.
1984 - The Jackson’s Victory Tour came to a close at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles after 55 performances in 19 cities. The production was reported to be the world’s greatest rock extravaganza and one of the most problematic. The Jackson brothers received about $50 million during the five-month tour of the U.S. -- before some 2.5 million fans.
1984 - Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears got another first as he ran six plays as quarterback. He was intercepted twice, but ran the ball himself on four carries. It didn’t help. The Green Bay packers still won, 20-14. Payton said after the game, “It was okay, but I wouldn’t want to do it for a living.”
1984 - Eric ****erson, then of the Los Angeles Rams, became only the second pro football player to run for more than 2,000 yards (2,105) in a season. He passed O.J. Simpson’s record of 2,003 as the Rams beat the Houston Oilers, 27-16.
1987 - The first riots of the intifada erupted as Palestinian Arabs protested Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
1987 - Microsoft Windows 2.0 was shipped on this day. The operating system used overlapping windows instead of tiled windows.
1990 - Solidarity founder Lech Walesa won Poland’s presidential runoff by a landslide. Walesa was Poland’s first democratically elected President, winning more than 74 percent of the votes cast.
1992 - Britain’s Prime Minister John Major announced in parliament the separation of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. (The couple’s divorce became final Aug. 28, 1996.)
1992 - Americans watched live TV coverage of U.S. troops landing on the beaches of Somalia as Operation Restore Hope began.
1995 - The Beatles’ Anthology 1 was #1 in the U.S. The double CD contained 60 Beatles songs and was the their sixteenth number-one album. It also set a record for the longest time span for a run of number-one albums: 31 years and 10 months between Meet the Beatles and Anthology 1.
1996 - The FBI launched a new strategy in its investigation of the July 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing. The agency released the tape of the 911 call that warned of the bomb, and offering a $500,000 reward.
1998 - CBS Corp. raised $2.9 billion by selling a 17 percent stake in Infinity Broadcasting Corp., its radio and outdoor advertising business. The initial public offering of stock is largest ever in the media industry.
2000 - In a sudden and devastating blow to Vice President Al Gore, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to stop the recount going on in Florida. The court also scheduled a hearing for arguments on George Bush’s appeal of the Florida Supreme Court ruling.
2000 - Florida State University quarterback Chris Weinke won the Heisman Trophy.
2001 - The U.S. revealed the existence of a videotape in which Osama BIN Laden said he was pleasantly surprised by the extent of damage in the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks.
2002 - United Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after reporting losses of $20-million a day.
2003 - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited with U.S. President George Bush (II) for talks on Taiwan, trade and other issues.
2003 - Paul Simon, Illinois U.S. Senator from 1984 to 1997, died in Springfield. His work included thirteen published books.
2003 - The owners of a Rhode Island nightclub and the tour manager for a heavy metal band were indicted on charges related to the February 2003 fire that killed 100 people. (The owners were sentenced Sep 29, 2006 after pleading no contest to charges of involuntary manslaughter.)
2004 - Canada’s highest court said the government can redefine marriage to include same-sex couples, but it added that religious officials cannot be forced to perform unions against their beliefs.
2004 - The French government sold an 18.4 percent stake in Air France-KLM, the world’s largest airline, to help reduce the state debt.
2005 - Opening in U.S. theatres: The Western drama Brokeback Mountain, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Anne Hathaway, Randy Quaid, Michelle Williams, Scott Michael Campbell and Anna Farris; and the action fantasy The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, featuring Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, Anna Popplewell, William Moseley, Jim Broadbent, Tilda Swinton, Rupert Everett, James McAvoy, James Cosmo, Dawn French, Kiran Shah, Judy McIntosh, Elizabeth Hawthorne, Patrick Kake, Shane Rangi and Ray Winstone.
2005 - Viacom’s Paramount Pictures agreed to buy Dreamworks SKG -- the company founded in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen -- for $1.6 billion in cash and debt.
2006 - Martin Nodell, creator of comic book superhero the Green Lantern, died in Wisconsin at 91 years of age. The Green Lantern originated in July 1940. Nodell drew the strip until 1947 under the name Mart Dellon.
2006 - German police found traces of radiation in two buildings linked to Russian businessman Dmitry Kovtun, who met the murdered (by radiation poisoning) ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko in London on the day Litvinenko fell ill.
2007 - Voters in the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska cast ballots to choose a new president, as the country took steps towards European integration. (Rajko Kuzmanovic won the election.)
2008 - U.S. Feds arrested Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich on charges that he conspired to sell or trade the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
2008 - Hong Kong annouced the planned slaughter of 80,000 chickens after Bird flu was found on a poultry farm.
2008 - Discount giant Wal-Mart said it would pay up to $54.25 million to settle a Minnesota class-action lawsuit that alleged the chain cut workers’ break time and did not prevent employees from working off the clock.
2009 - American stage, screen and TV actor Gene Barry died at 90 years of age. Barry played Bat Masterson in the NBC-TV series from 1958-1961, starred in Burke’s Law (1963-1965 and 1993-1994), played a publishing tycoon in The Name of the Game (1968-1971), and was a government agent in the British series The Adventurer in 1972-1973.
2009 - Germany’s Volkswagen announced that it has agreed to pay $2.5 billion for a 19.9% stake in Suzuki, the family-owned Japanese maker of small cars and motorcycles.
Birthdays December 9
1561 - Sir Edwin Sandys
English statesman: treasurer: Virginia Company; colonist: one of the founders of the Virginia Colony [United States]; Sandys Parish in Bermuda named for him; died in 1629
1608 - John Milton
poet: Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes; civil rights activist; died Nov 8, 1674
1848 - Joel Chandler Harris
author: Uncle Remus stories; died Jul 3, 1908
1886 - Clarence Birdseye
inventor: process to deep-freeze foods; one of the founders of General Foods Corp.; died Oct 8, 1956
1898 - Emmett Kelly
clown: Ringling Bros.: hobo, Weary Willie; died Mar 28, 1979
1902 - Margaret Hamilton
actress: The Wizard of Oz, The Anderson Tapes, Brewster McCloud; Maxwell House commercials; died May 16, 1985
1906 - Grace Hopper
computer developer: COBOL programming language; U.S. Naval officer: Rear Admiral, oldest naval officer on active duty [retired at age 79]; died Jan 1, 1992
1906 - Freddy Martin
‘Mr. Silvertone’: musician: tenor sax; bandleader: I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Cocoanuts, April in Portugal, I Saw Stars, Then I’ll Be Tired of You, Isle of Capri, Piano Concerto in B Flat, Tonight We Love, Bumble Boogie, Sabre Dance Boogie, Warsaw Concerto, Rose O’Day, Miss You; died Sep 30. 1983
1909 - Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
actor: Ghost Story, Gunga Din, The Prisoner of Zenda, Accused, Catherine the Great, Scarlet Dawn; TV host: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Presents; died May 7, 2000
1911 - (William) Broderick Crawford
actor: Ransom Money, Dark Forces, The Oscar, Last of the Comanches, Born Yesterday, All the King’s Men, Highway Patrol, King of Diamonds, The Interns; died Apr 26, 1986
1912 - Thomas P. ‘Tip’ O’Neil
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives [1977-1987], Massachusetts Democratic congressman; died Jan 5, 1994
1914 - Frances Reid
actress: Days of Our Lives, One Stormy Night, The Affair, Mercy or Murder?, Man-Proof, The Eleventh Hour, Little Mister, Wagon Train; Broadway: Hamlet, Cyrano de Bergerac, Twelfth Night; died Feb 3, 2010
1916 - Kirk Douglas (Isadore Demsky/Issur Danielovitch)
actor: Greedy, The Secret, Oscar, Queenie, Tough Guys, The Final Countdown, The Chosen, A Gunfight, There was a Crooked Man, The Arrangement, The Brotherhood, In Harm’s Way, Seven Days in May, Spartacus, Lonely are the Brave, Paths of Glory, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Lust for Life, Ulysses, Young Man with a Horn, Champion, The Bad and the Beautiful; father of actor Mike Douglas
1922 - Redd Foxx (John Elroy Sanford)
comedian: Sanford and Son, The Royal Family, Redd Foxx, The Redd Foxx Show, Harlem Nights, Norman, Is that You?, Cotton Comes to Harlem; died Oct 11, 1991
1925 - Dina Merrill (Nedenia Hutton Rumbough)
actress: Suture, Fear, Caddyshack 2, The Sundowners, Butterfield 8, Operation Petticoat, Hot Pursuit; heir to Post cereal fortune
1928 - **** Van Patten
actor: Eight is Enough, When Things Were Rotten, WIOU, The Partners, The New **** Van Dyke Show, Mama, A Dangerous Place, Spaceballs, Westworld, Superdad, Son of Blob
1929 - John Cassavetes
actor: Edge of the City, The Dirty Dozen, Rosemary’s Baby, Johnny Staccato; director: Big Trouble, Love Streams, Gloria, Opening Night, Faces, Shadows; died Feb 3, 1989
1929 - Bob Hawke
Prime Minister of Australia [1983-1991]
1930 - Buck Henry (Zuckerman)
actor: Short Cuts, Grumpy Old Men, Eating Raoul, Catch-22, The Graduate; Emmy Award-winning writer: Ship of Spies, Get Smart [1966-67]; That was the Week That Was, To Die For, The Day of the Dolphin, What’s Up, Doc?, The Owl and the *****cat, Catch-22, The Graduate; entertainer: The Steve Allen Show, The New Show
1931 - Clifford Hagan
Basketball Hall of Famer [forward]: St. Louis Hawks [NBA], Dallas Chaparrals [ABA: player-coach]; career: one NBA Championship, scored 13,447 points, avaraged 18.0 points per game average
1932 - Donald Byrd
composer, musician: trumpet, flugelhorn: Change [Makes You Wanna Hustle], You and Music, Blackbyrd, Think Twice, Onward ’Til Morning, Lanasana’s Priestess
1933 - Morton Downey Jr.
talk show host: The Morton Downey, Jr. Show; actor: The Silencer, Revenge of the Nerds 3: The Next Generation, Driving Me Crazy, Predator 2; died Mar 12, 2001
1933 - Orville Moody
golf: champ: U.S. Open [1969]
1934 - Judi Dench
Academy Award-winning actress [Shakespeare in Love (1999)]; The Corrections, Casino Royale, Mrs. Henderson Presents, Pride and Prejudice, The Chronicles of Rid****, Die Another Day, Mrs. Brown, Chocolat, Iris
1934 - Junior Wells
‘Godfather of the Blues’: musician: harmonica: Hoodoo Man Blues, Messin’ with the Kid, Little By Little, Broke and Hungry, What My Mama Told Me; died Jan 15, 1998
1938 - David Houston
Grammy Award-winning singer: Almost Persuaded [1966]; Mountain of Love, Livin’ in a House Full of Love, With One Exception, You Mean the World to Me, Have a Little Faith, Already It’s Heaven, Baby Baby [I Know You’re a Lady], So Many Ways; actor: Carnival Rock, Cottonpickin’ Chickenpickers; died Nov 30, 1993
1938 - David ‘Deacon’ Jones
Pro Football Hall of Famer: LA Rams: coined the term ‘sack’ of which he was premier at the time; NFL defensive player of the year [1967, 1968]; San Diego Chargers, Washington Redskins
1941 - Beau (Lloyd III) Bridges
director, Emmy Award-winning actor: Without Warning: The James Brady Story [1991-92]; The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom [1992-93]; Harts of the West, Ensign O’Toole; The Fabulous Baker Boys, Married to It, Sidekicks, The Hotel New Hampshire, Norma Rae, Two Minute Warning, The Other Side of the Mountain, For Love of Ivy, The Red Pony, Sea Hunt; son of actor Lloyd Bridges, brother of actor Jeff Bridges
1942 - **** Butkus
College and Pro Football Hall of Famer: Chicago Bears: middle linebacker: NFL Defensive Player of the Year [1969, 1970]; actor: Rich Man, Poor Man, Half Nelson
1943 - Jim Merritt
baseball: pitcher: Minnesota Twins [World Series: 1965], Cincinnati Reds [World Series: 1970/all-star: 1970], Texas Rangers
1944 - Shirley Brickley
singer: group: The Orlons: The Wah-Watusi, Mashed Potato Time, Gravy [For My Mashed Potatoes], South Street, Don’t Hang Up; died Oct 13, 1977
1944 - Neil Innes
musician: keyboard, singer, songwriter: group: The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band: I’m the Urban Spaceman
1945 - Michael Nouri
actor: To the Limit, Danielle Steele’s Changes, The Hidden, Flashdance, Gangster Wars, Love & War, The Gangster Chronicles, Downtown, The Curse of Dracula, The Bay City Blues, Beacon Hill
1946 - Dennis Dunaway
musician: bass guitar: founding memeber of Alice Cooper: I'm Eighteen, Is It My Body, Desperado, Under My Wheels, Be My Lover, School’s Out; The Dennis Dunaway Project: LP: Bones from the Yard
1947 - Tom Daschle
U.S. Senator [South Dakota 1987-2005]
1947 - Steve Owens
football: Heisman Trophy winner: Oklahoma [1969]
1949 - Tom Kite
golf champion: U.S. Open [1992]; PGA Rookie of the Year [1973], Vardon Trophy winner [1989], PGA Player of the Year [1989]
1950 - Joan Armatrading
singer, songwriter: Me, Myself, I, Love and Affection, Down to Zero, Water in the Wine, Drop the Pilot
1953 - John Malkovich
Emmy Award-winning actor: Death of a Salesman [1986]; Mulholland Falls, Dangerous Liaisons, True West, The Killing Fields, The Sheltering Sky, Places in the Heart, Of Mice and Men, In the Line of Fire, Empire of the Sun
1954 - Jack Hues
singer: group: Wang Chung: Everybody Have Fun Tonight
1955 - Otis Birdsong
basketball: guard: Univ. of Houston [Player of the Year: 1977]; Kansas City Kings, New Jersey Nets, Boston Celtics; four-time NBA all-star; scored over 14,000 career points
1956 - Sylvia (Sylvia Hutton)
singer: Nobody, You Don’t Miss a Thing, The Drifter, The Matador, Heart on the Mend, Sweet Yesterday
1957 - Donny Osmond
singer: Go Away Little Girl, Puppy Love; [w/sister, Marie]: I’m Leaving It All Up to You; group: Osmond Brothers: One Bad Apple; TV host: Donny and Marie; actor: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; dance champ: Dancing with the Stars [2009]
1961 - David Anthony Higgins
actor: Three Blind Mice, Snake Eyes, The Wrong Guy, Payback, Coldblooded, After the Shock, Tapeheads
1962 - Felicity Huffman
actress: Desperate Housewives, Transamerica, Christmas with the Kranks, Raising Helen, Path to War, Snap Decision, Magnolia, Harrison: Cry of the City
1971 - Todd Van Poppel
baseball [pitcher]: Oakland Athletics, Detroit Tigers, Texas Rangers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds
1972 - Reiko Aylesworth
actress: BuzzKill, The Understudy, AVPR: Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem, Magma: Volcanic Disaster, Sherman’s March, Random Hearts
1973 - Tony Batista
baseball: Oakland Athletics, Arizona Diamondbacks, Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles, Montreal Expos, Washington Nationals
1974 - David Akers
football [kicker]: Univ of Louisville; NFL: Washington Redskins, Philadelphia Eagles
1974 - Jacqueline Lovell
actress: Femalien, Lolita 2000, Erotic House of Wax, The Killer Eye, Dead Country, Little Manhattan, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, She Hate Me, Lolita 2000
1976 - Jim Finn
football [fullback]: Univ of Pennsylvania; NFL: Indianapolis Colts, New York Giants
Chart Toppers December 9
1944The Trolley Song - The Pied Pipers
Dance with the Dolly - The Russ Morgan Orchestra (vocal: Al Jennings)
I’m Making Believe - Ella Fitzgerald & The Ink Spots
Smoke on the Water - Red Foley
1953Rags to Riches - Tony Bennett
Many Times - Eddie Fisher
Vaya Con Dios - Les Paul & Mary Ford
Caribbean - Mitchell Torok
1962Big Girls Don’t Cry - The 4 Seasons
Return to Sender - Elvis Presley
Bobby’s Girl - Marcie Blane
I’ve Been Everywhere - Hank Snow
1971Family Affair - Sly & The Family Stone
Have You Seen Her - Chi-Lites
Got to Be There - Michael Jackson
Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’ - Charley Pride
1980Lady - Kenny Rogers
More Than I Could Say - Leo Sayer
Another One Bites the Dust - Queen
Smokey Mountain Rain - Ronnie Milsap
1989We Didn’t Start the Fire - Billy Joel
Another Day in Paradise - Phil Collins
Don’t Know Much - Linda Ronstadt (featuring Aaron Neville)
If Tomorrow Never Comes - Garth Brooks
1998Jumper - Third Eye Blind
Thank U - Alanis Morissette
Save Tonight - Eagle-Eye Cherry
It Must Be Love - Ty Herndon
2007Apologize - Timbaland featuring OneRepublic
No One - Alicia Keys
Bubbly - Colbie Caillat
So Small - Carrie Underwood
Enjoy All
Happy Birthday Dennis Dunaway, bass guitarist for Alice Cooper
Thursday, December 9, 2010
CHRISTMAS SEALS DAY
The U.S. Post Office in Wilmington, Delaware offered Christmas Seals for sale for the very first time on this day in 1907. Contributions for the original seals, designed by Emily P. Bissell, helped in the fight against tuberculosis. (A hospital in Wilmington is named in honor of Bissell.)
Top Ten Reasons Why You Should Use Christmas Seals (from the American Lung Association’s Web site:
10. Because Emily Bissell was able to save a much needed TB sanatorium from closing when she launched her first Christmas Seal campaign in 1907.
9. So at the next cocktail party you attend you can answer the question, “What do you use Christmas Seals for anyway?” One answer: They do wonders to dress up envelopes!
8. To help educate and better the lives of the more than 4.8 million American children with asthma.
7. So the people who receive your holiday cards know that you have a big heart.
6. Because more than 50,000 children entered the American Lung Association’s Christmas Seals Kids’ Drawing Contest sponsored by the Triaminic Parents Club. (Call 1-800-LUNG-USA).
5. Because the Triaminic Parents Club donates $1 to the American Lung Association for every child’s Christmas Seals Kids’ Drawing Contest entry form.
4. To know that 90 percent of the proceeds from the Christmas Seal Campaign goes to local Lung Associations to prevent lung disease and promote lung health.
3. Because Christmas Seals make great keepsakes and collector’s items.
2. Because we’re asking nicely.
1. And the number 1 reason why you should use Christmas Seals is to support the American Lung Association’s efforts to fight lung disease, including asthma, emphysema, and lung cancer, because When You Can’t Breathe, Nothing Else Matters.
Events December 9
1788 - George Washington sold his race horse, Magnolia, to Colonel Henry Lee. Washington reportedly got 5,000 acres of Kentucky farmland in the trade.
1793 - The first daily newspaper in New York City was founded by Noah Webster. The American Minerva was published for the first time this day. (Minerva was the ancient Roman goddess of wisdom and the arts, identified with the Greek goddess Athena.)
1884 - Levant Richardson of Chicago, IL received his patent for the ball-bearing roller skate. His teeth chattered all the way to the post office box, downtown. The pavement was kind of rough on those early skates...
1926 - The U.S. Golf Association legalized steel-shaft golf clubs. Many of the new clubs are still wrapped around tree trunks, put there by angry golfers who couldn’t make them work any better than the clubs made with hickory sticks.
1934 - Because of ground conditions, the New York Giants football team preferred to wear basketball sneakers, as they defeated the Chicago Bears, 30-13, for the NFL championship.
1940 - The Longines Watch Company signed for the first FM radio advertising contract -- with experimental station W2XOR in New York City. The ads ran for 26 weeks and promoted the Longines time signals.
1943 - Singer and actor Frank Sinatra was classified 4-F by the United States Army when he tried to enlist in Newark, New Jersey. Sinatra was rejected for the service in World War II because of a punctured eardrum.
1948 - The U.N. General Assembly unanimously approved the Convention on Genocide, designed to prevent and punish the crime of genocide.
1953 - Frank Sinatra recorded Young at Heart. The song was turned down by Nat ‘King’ Cole and other artists, believe it or not. It became a top hit in the U.S. in March of 1954.
1956 - The Million Dollar Session was held at Sun Records in Memphis, TN. Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis gathered for an impromptu jam session. Six songs by the artists were recorded at this session. None of the songs was released for nearly three decades.
1958 - The John Birch Society was founded in the U.S. by Robert Welch. The society’s mission was to fight Communism.
1960 - Sperry Rand Corporation of St. Paul, MN unveiled a new computer, known as Univac 1107. The electronic wizard employed what was known as thin-film memory.
1965 - The Peanuts gang made its TV debut this day. A Charlie Brown Christmas ran for the first time on CBS.
1966 - Barbados became the 122nd member of the United Nations.
1967 - U.S. President Lyndon Johnson’s daughter Lynda married Charles Robb (later to become a Virginia governor and senator). Pianist Peter Duchin played for the ceremony. It was the first wedding at the White House since 1914.
1967 - The Cunard liner Queen Mary docked at Long Beach, California, after her final voyage. The Queen Mary then underwent a massive, three-year retrofit to become a luxury hotel. It opened to the public on May 8, 1971.
1972 - Keith Moon, Rod Stewart and Roger Daltrey opened the rock opera Tommy in london. The show featuring Tommy, Pinball Wizard and other tunes, was so hot that tickets sold for $50 and up.
1979 - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, the religious broadcaster, died in New York City at age 84.
1984 - The Jackson’s Victory Tour came to a close at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles after 55 performances in 19 cities. The production was reported to be the world’s greatest rock extravaganza and one of the most problematic. The Jackson brothers received about $50 million during the five-month tour of the U.S. -- before some 2.5 million fans.
1984 - Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears got another first as he ran six plays as quarterback. He was intercepted twice, but ran the ball himself on four carries. It didn’t help. The Green Bay packers still won, 20-14. Payton said after the game, “It was okay, but I wouldn’t want to do it for a living.”
1984 - Eric ****erson, then of the Los Angeles Rams, became only the second pro football player to run for more than 2,000 yards (2,105) in a season. He passed O.J. Simpson’s record of 2,003 as the Rams beat the Houston Oilers, 27-16.
1987 - The first riots of the intifada erupted as Palestinian Arabs protested Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
1987 - Microsoft Windows 2.0 was shipped on this day. The operating system used overlapping windows instead of tiled windows.
1990 - Solidarity founder Lech Walesa won Poland’s presidential runoff by a landslide. Walesa was Poland’s first democratically elected President, winning more than 74 percent of the votes cast.
1992 - Britain’s Prime Minister John Major announced in parliament the separation of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. (The couple’s divorce became final Aug. 28, 1996.)
1992 - Americans watched live TV coverage of U.S. troops landing on the beaches of Somalia as Operation Restore Hope began.
1995 - The Beatles’ Anthology 1 was #1 in the U.S. The double CD contained 60 Beatles songs and was the their sixteenth number-one album. It also set a record for the longest time span for a run of number-one albums: 31 years and 10 months between Meet the Beatles and Anthology 1.
1996 - The FBI launched a new strategy in its investigation of the July 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing. The agency released the tape of the 911 call that warned of the bomb, and offering a $500,000 reward.
1998 - CBS Corp. raised $2.9 billion by selling a 17 percent stake in Infinity Broadcasting Corp., its radio and outdoor advertising business. The initial public offering of stock is largest ever in the media industry.
2000 - In a sudden and devastating blow to Vice President Al Gore, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to stop the recount going on in Florida. The court also scheduled a hearing for arguments on George Bush’s appeal of the Florida Supreme Court ruling.
2000 - Florida State University quarterback Chris Weinke won the Heisman Trophy.
2001 - The U.S. revealed the existence of a videotape in which Osama BIN Laden said he was pleasantly surprised by the extent of damage in the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks.
2002 - United Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after reporting losses of $20-million a day.
2003 - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited with U.S. President George Bush (II) for talks on Taiwan, trade and other issues.
2003 - Paul Simon, Illinois U.S. Senator from 1984 to 1997, died in Springfield. His work included thirteen published books.
2003 - The owners of a Rhode Island nightclub and the tour manager for a heavy metal band were indicted on charges related to the February 2003 fire that killed 100 people. (The owners were sentenced Sep 29, 2006 after pleading no contest to charges of involuntary manslaughter.)
2004 - Canada’s highest court said the government can redefine marriage to include same-sex couples, but it added that religious officials cannot be forced to perform unions against their beliefs.
2004 - The French government sold an 18.4 percent stake in Air France-KLM, the world’s largest airline, to help reduce the state debt.
2005 - Opening in U.S. theatres: The Western drama Brokeback Mountain, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Anne Hathaway, Randy Quaid, Michelle Williams, Scott Michael Campbell and Anna Farris; and the action fantasy The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, featuring Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, Anna Popplewell, William Moseley, Jim Broadbent, Tilda Swinton, Rupert Everett, James McAvoy, James Cosmo, Dawn French, Kiran Shah, Judy McIntosh, Elizabeth Hawthorne, Patrick Kake, Shane Rangi and Ray Winstone.
2005 - Viacom’s Paramount Pictures agreed to buy Dreamworks SKG -- the company founded in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen -- for $1.6 billion in cash and debt.
2006 - Martin Nodell, creator of comic book superhero the Green Lantern, died in Wisconsin at 91 years of age. The Green Lantern originated in July 1940. Nodell drew the strip until 1947 under the name Mart Dellon.
2006 - German police found traces of radiation in two buildings linked to Russian businessman Dmitry Kovtun, who met the murdered (by radiation poisoning) ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko in London on the day Litvinenko fell ill.
2007 - Voters in the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska cast ballots to choose a new president, as the country took steps towards European integration. (Rajko Kuzmanovic won the election.)
2008 - U.S. Feds arrested Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich on charges that he conspired to sell or trade the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
2008 - Hong Kong annouced the planned slaughter of 80,000 chickens after Bird flu was found on a poultry farm.
2008 - Discount giant Wal-Mart said it would pay up to $54.25 million to settle a Minnesota class-action lawsuit that alleged the chain cut workers’ break time and did not prevent employees from working off the clock.
2009 - American stage, screen and TV actor Gene Barry died at 90 years of age. Barry played Bat Masterson in the NBC-TV series from 1958-1961, starred in Burke’s Law (1963-1965 and 1993-1994), played a publishing tycoon in The Name of the Game (1968-1971), and was a government agent in the British series The Adventurer in 1972-1973.
2009 - Germany’s Volkswagen announced that it has agreed to pay $2.5 billion for a 19.9% stake in Suzuki, the family-owned Japanese maker of small cars and motorcycles.
Birthdays December 9
1561 - Sir Edwin Sandys
English statesman: treasurer: Virginia Company; colonist: one of the founders of the Virginia Colony [United States]; Sandys Parish in Bermuda named for him; died in 1629
1608 - John Milton
poet: Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes; civil rights activist; died Nov 8, 1674
1848 - Joel Chandler Harris
author: Uncle Remus stories; died Jul 3, 1908
1886 - Clarence Birdseye
inventor: process to deep-freeze foods; one of the founders of General Foods Corp.; died Oct 8, 1956
1898 - Emmett Kelly
clown: Ringling Bros.: hobo, Weary Willie; died Mar 28, 1979
1902 - Margaret Hamilton
actress: The Wizard of Oz, The Anderson Tapes, Brewster McCloud; Maxwell House commercials; died May 16, 1985
1906 - Grace Hopper
computer developer: COBOL programming language; U.S. Naval officer: Rear Admiral, oldest naval officer on active duty [retired at age 79]; died Jan 1, 1992
1906 - Freddy Martin
‘Mr. Silvertone’: musician: tenor sax; bandleader: I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Cocoanuts, April in Portugal, I Saw Stars, Then I’ll Be Tired of You, Isle of Capri, Piano Concerto in B Flat, Tonight We Love, Bumble Boogie, Sabre Dance Boogie, Warsaw Concerto, Rose O’Day, Miss You; died Sep 30. 1983
1909 - Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
actor: Ghost Story, Gunga Din, The Prisoner of Zenda, Accused, Catherine the Great, Scarlet Dawn; TV host: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Presents; died May 7, 2000
1911 - (William) Broderick Crawford
actor: Ransom Money, Dark Forces, The Oscar, Last of the Comanches, Born Yesterday, All the King’s Men, Highway Patrol, King of Diamonds, The Interns; died Apr 26, 1986
1912 - Thomas P. ‘Tip’ O’Neil
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives [1977-1987], Massachusetts Democratic congressman; died Jan 5, 1994
1914 - Frances Reid
actress: Days of Our Lives, One Stormy Night, The Affair, Mercy or Murder?, Man-Proof, The Eleventh Hour, Little Mister, Wagon Train; Broadway: Hamlet, Cyrano de Bergerac, Twelfth Night; died Feb 3, 2010
1916 - Kirk Douglas (Isadore Demsky/Issur Danielovitch)
actor: Greedy, The Secret, Oscar, Queenie, Tough Guys, The Final Countdown, The Chosen, A Gunfight, There was a Crooked Man, The Arrangement, The Brotherhood, In Harm’s Way, Seven Days in May, Spartacus, Lonely are the Brave, Paths of Glory, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Lust for Life, Ulysses, Young Man with a Horn, Champion, The Bad and the Beautiful; father of actor Mike Douglas
1922 - Redd Foxx (John Elroy Sanford)
comedian: Sanford and Son, The Royal Family, Redd Foxx, The Redd Foxx Show, Harlem Nights, Norman, Is that You?, Cotton Comes to Harlem; died Oct 11, 1991
1925 - Dina Merrill (Nedenia Hutton Rumbough)
actress: Suture, Fear, Caddyshack 2, The Sundowners, Butterfield 8, Operation Petticoat, Hot Pursuit; heir to Post cereal fortune
1928 - **** Van Patten
actor: Eight is Enough, When Things Were Rotten, WIOU, The Partners, The New **** Van Dyke Show, Mama, A Dangerous Place, Spaceballs, Westworld, Superdad, Son of Blob
1929 - John Cassavetes
actor: Edge of the City, The Dirty Dozen, Rosemary’s Baby, Johnny Staccato; director: Big Trouble, Love Streams, Gloria, Opening Night, Faces, Shadows; died Feb 3, 1989
1929 - Bob Hawke
Prime Minister of Australia [1983-1991]
1930 - Buck Henry (Zuckerman)
actor: Short Cuts, Grumpy Old Men, Eating Raoul, Catch-22, The Graduate; Emmy Award-winning writer: Ship of Spies, Get Smart [1966-67]; That was the Week That Was, To Die For, The Day of the Dolphin, What’s Up, Doc?, The Owl and the *****cat, Catch-22, The Graduate; entertainer: The Steve Allen Show, The New Show
1931 - Clifford Hagan
Basketball Hall of Famer [forward]: St. Louis Hawks [NBA], Dallas Chaparrals [ABA: player-coach]; career: one NBA Championship, scored 13,447 points, avaraged 18.0 points per game average
1932 - Donald Byrd
composer, musician: trumpet, flugelhorn: Change [Makes You Wanna Hustle], You and Music, Blackbyrd, Think Twice, Onward ’Til Morning, Lanasana’s Priestess
1933 - Morton Downey Jr.
talk show host: The Morton Downey, Jr. Show; actor: The Silencer, Revenge of the Nerds 3: The Next Generation, Driving Me Crazy, Predator 2; died Mar 12, 2001
1933 - Orville Moody
golf: champ: U.S. Open [1969]
1934 - Judi Dench
Academy Award-winning actress [Shakespeare in Love (1999)]; The Corrections, Casino Royale, Mrs. Henderson Presents, Pride and Prejudice, The Chronicles of Rid****, Die Another Day, Mrs. Brown, Chocolat, Iris
1934 - Junior Wells
‘Godfather of the Blues’: musician: harmonica: Hoodoo Man Blues, Messin’ with the Kid, Little By Little, Broke and Hungry, What My Mama Told Me; died Jan 15, 1998
1938 - David Houston
Grammy Award-winning singer: Almost Persuaded [1966]; Mountain of Love, Livin’ in a House Full of Love, With One Exception, You Mean the World to Me, Have a Little Faith, Already It’s Heaven, Baby Baby [I Know You’re a Lady], So Many Ways; actor: Carnival Rock, Cottonpickin’ Chickenpickers; died Nov 30, 1993
1938 - David ‘Deacon’ Jones
Pro Football Hall of Famer: LA Rams: coined the term ‘sack’ of which he was premier at the time; NFL defensive player of the year [1967, 1968]; San Diego Chargers, Washington Redskins
1941 - Beau (Lloyd III) Bridges
director, Emmy Award-winning actor: Without Warning: The James Brady Story [1991-92]; The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom [1992-93]; Harts of the West, Ensign O’Toole; The Fabulous Baker Boys, Married to It, Sidekicks, The Hotel New Hampshire, Norma Rae, Two Minute Warning, The Other Side of the Mountain, For Love of Ivy, The Red Pony, Sea Hunt; son of actor Lloyd Bridges, brother of actor Jeff Bridges
1942 - **** Butkus
College and Pro Football Hall of Famer: Chicago Bears: middle linebacker: NFL Defensive Player of the Year [1969, 1970]; actor: Rich Man, Poor Man, Half Nelson
1943 - Jim Merritt
baseball: pitcher: Minnesota Twins [World Series: 1965], Cincinnati Reds [World Series: 1970/all-star: 1970], Texas Rangers
1944 - Shirley Brickley
singer: group: The Orlons: The Wah-Watusi, Mashed Potato Time, Gravy [For My Mashed Potatoes], South Street, Don’t Hang Up; died Oct 13, 1977
1944 - Neil Innes
musician: keyboard, singer, songwriter: group: The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band: I’m the Urban Spaceman
1945 - Michael Nouri
actor: To the Limit, Danielle Steele’s Changes, The Hidden, Flashdance, Gangster Wars, Love & War, The Gangster Chronicles, Downtown, The Curse of Dracula, The Bay City Blues, Beacon Hill
1946 - Dennis Dunaway
musician: bass guitar: founding memeber of Alice Cooper: I'm Eighteen, Is It My Body, Desperado, Under My Wheels, Be My Lover, School’s Out; The Dennis Dunaway Project: LP: Bones from the Yard
1947 - Tom Daschle
U.S. Senator [South Dakota 1987-2005]
1947 - Steve Owens
football: Heisman Trophy winner: Oklahoma [1969]
1949 - Tom Kite
golf champion: U.S. Open [1992]; PGA Rookie of the Year [1973], Vardon Trophy winner [1989], PGA Player of the Year [1989]
1950 - Joan Armatrading
singer, songwriter: Me, Myself, I, Love and Affection, Down to Zero, Water in the Wine, Drop the Pilot
1953 - John Malkovich
Emmy Award-winning actor: Death of a Salesman [1986]; Mulholland Falls, Dangerous Liaisons, True West, The Killing Fields, The Sheltering Sky, Places in the Heart, Of Mice and Men, In the Line of Fire, Empire of the Sun
1954 - Jack Hues
singer: group: Wang Chung: Everybody Have Fun Tonight
1955 - Otis Birdsong
basketball: guard: Univ. of Houston [Player of the Year: 1977]; Kansas City Kings, New Jersey Nets, Boston Celtics; four-time NBA all-star; scored over 14,000 career points
1956 - Sylvia (Sylvia Hutton)
singer: Nobody, You Don’t Miss a Thing, The Drifter, The Matador, Heart on the Mend, Sweet Yesterday
1957 - Donny Osmond
singer: Go Away Little Girl, Puppy Love; [w/sister, Marie]: I’m Leaving It All Up to You; group: Osmond Brothers: One Bad Apple; TV host: Donny and Marie; actor: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; dance champ: Dancing with the Stars [2009]
1961 - David Anthony Higgins
actor: Three Blind Mice, Snake Eyes, The Wrong Guy, Payback, Coldblooded, After the Shock, Tapeheads
1962 - Felicity Huffman
actress: Desperate Housewives, Transamerica, Christmas with the Kranks, Raising Helen, Path to War, Snap Decision, Magnolia, Harrison: Cry of the City
1971 - Todd Van Poppel
baseball [pitcher]: Oakland Athletics, Detroit Tigers, Texas Rangers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds
1972 - Reiko Aylesworth
actress: BuzzKill, The Understudy, AVPR: Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem, Magma: Volcanic Disaster, Sherman’s March, Random Hearts
1973 - Tony Batista
baseball: Oakland Athletics, Arizona Diamondbacks, Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles, Montreal Expos, Washington Nationals
1974 - David Akers
football [kicker]: Univ of Louisville; NFL: Washington Redskins, Philadelphia Eagles
1974 - Jacqueline Lovell
actress: Femalien, Lolita 2000, Erotic House of Wax, The Killer Eye, Dead Country, Little Manhattan, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, She Hate Me, Lolita 2000
1976 - Jim Finn
football [fullback]: Univ of Pennsylvania; NFL: Indianapolis Colts, New York Giants
Chart Toppers December 9
1944The Trolley Song - The Pied Pipers
Dance with the Dolly - The Russ Morgan Orchestra (vocal: Al Jennings)
I’m Making Believe - Ella Fitzgerald & The Ink Spots
Smoke on the Water - Red Foley
1953Rags to Riches - Tony Bennett
Many Times - Eddie Fisher
Vaya Con Dios - Les Paul & Mary Ford
Caribbean - Mitchell Torok
1962Big Girls Don’t Cry - The 4 Seasons
Return to Sender - Elvis Presley
Bobby’s Girl - Marcie Blane
I’ve Been Everywhere - Hank Snow
1971Family Affair - Sly & The Family Stone
Have You Seen Her - Chi-Lites
Got to Be There - Michael Jackson
Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’ - Charley Pride
1980Lady - Kenny Rogers
More Than I Could Say - Leo Sayer
Another One Bites the Dust - Queen
Smokey Mountain Rain - Ronnie Milsap
1989We Didn’t Start the Fire - Billy Joel
Another Day in Paradise - Phil Collins
Don’t Know Much - Linda Ronstadt (featuring Aaron Neville)
If Tomorrow Never Comes - Garth Brooks
1998Jumper - Third Eye Blind
Thank U - Alanis Morissette
Save Tonight - Eagle-Eye Cherry
It Must Be Love - Ty Herndon
2007Apologize - Timbaland featuring OneRepublic
No One - Alicia Keys
Bubbly - Colbie Caillat
So Small - Carrie Underwood
Enjoy All
Happy Birthday Dennis Dunaway, bass guitarist for Alice Cooper
