Kihei, Hawaii Whitefish, Montana Bloomington, Minnesota Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria UTC/GMT Iraq Afghanistan Republic of Korea Ocean Grove, Victoria
Optimized for 1280x1024 resolution

Sunday, November 30, 2008

NOVEMBER 30TH

Today is Sunday, Nov. 30, the 335th day of 2008.
There are 31 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

  • On Nov. 30, 1782, the United States and Britain signed preliminary peace articles in Paris, ending the Revolutionary War.

On this date:

  • In 1803, Spain completed the process of ceding Louisiana to France, which had sold it to the United States.
  • In 1835, Samuel Langhorne Clemens — better known as Mark Twain — was born in Florida, Mo.
  • In 1874, British statesman Sir Winston Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace.
  • In 1900, Irish writer Oscar Wilde died in Paris at age 46.
  • In 1936, London's famed Crystal Palace, constructed for the Great Exhibition of 1851, was destroyed in a fire.
  • In 1939, the Russo-Finnish War began as Soviet troops invaded Finland.
  • In 1962, U Thant of Burma, who had been acting secretary-general of the United Nations following the death of Dag Hammarskjold the year before, was elected to a four-year term.
  • In 1966, the former British colony of Barbados became independent.
  • In 1981, the United States and the Soviet Union opened negotiations in Geneva aimed at reducing nuclear weapons in Europe.
  • In 1988, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co. was declared the winner of the corporate free-for-all to take over RJR Nabisco Inc. with a bid of $24.53 billion.

Ten years ago:
  • Quebec's separatist premier, Lucien Bouchard, was returned to power, but with only 43 percent of the vote, setting back the Parti Quebecois' goal of seeking independence from Canada.
  • Deutsche Bank AG officially announced it was acquiring Bankers Trust Corp. for more than $10 billion.

Five years ago:
  • U.S. soldiers in Iraq fought back coordinated attacks throughout the northern city of Samarra.
  • Two South Korean contractors were killed in a roadside ambush.
  • Nathaniel Jones, a black man, died during a fight with Cincinnati police in a case that heightened racial tensions.
  • Walt Disney Co. vice chairman Roy E. Disney stepped down from the board of directors.
  • Mark Philippoussis gave Australia its 28th Davis Cup title, beating Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-5, 6-3, 1-6, 2-6, 6-0.
  • Former U.S. congressman and World Bank chairman Barber B. Conable Jr. died in Sarasota, Fla., at age 81.
  • Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel, died in Wyckoff, N.J., at age 98.

One year ago:
  • A man took hostages at a Hillary Clinton campaign office in Rochester, N.H.; Leeland Eisenberg surrendered about five hours later.
  • An Atlasjet plane crashed in southwest Turkey, killing all 57 people on board.
  • An Amtrak train and a freight train collided on a track on the South Side of Chicago, injuring dozens of people.
  • Motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel died in Clearwater, Fla., at age 69.

Today's Birthdays:
  • Actor Efrem Zimbalist Jr. is 91.
  • Actor Robert Guillaume is 81.
  • TV personality and producer Dick Clark is 79.
  • Radio talk show host G. Gordon Liddy is 78.
  • Country singer-recording executive Jimmy Bowen is 71.
  • Movie director Ridley Scott is 71.
  • Singer Rob Grill (The Grassroots) is 65.
  • Movie writer-director Terrence Malick is 65.
  • Rock musician Roger Glover (Deep Purple) is 63.
  • Playwright David Mamet is 61.
  • Actress Margaret Whitton is 58.
  • Actor Mandy Patinkin is 56.
  • Musician Shuggie Otis is 55.
  • Country singer Jeannie Kendall is 54.
  • Singer Billy Idol is 53.
  • Education Secretary Margaret Spellings is 51.
  • Rock musician John Ashton (The Psychedelic Furs) is 51.
  • Comedian Colin Mochrie is 51.
  • Former football and baseball player Bo Jackson is 46.
  • Rapper Jalil (Whodini) is 45.
  • Actor-director Ben Stiller is 43.
  • Rock musician Mike Stone is 39.
  • Actress Sandra Oh is 38.
  • Country singer Mindy McCready is 33.
  • Singer Clay Aiken is 30.
  • Actress Elisha Cuthbert is 26.
  • Actress Kaley Cuoco is 23.

Thought for Today:
"A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies."
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900).



"Let's all be careful out there!"

I THINK HE'S GLAD HE WASN'T BORN A TURKEY




"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 8-335

















"Let's all be careful out there!"

Saturday, November 29, 2008

NOVEMBER 29TH

Today is Saturday, Nov. 29, the 334th day of 2008.
There are 32 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

  • On Nov. 29, 1963, President Johnson named a commission headed by Earl Warren to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy.

On this date:

  • In 1530, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, onetime adviser to England's King Henry VIII, died.
  • In 1864, a Colorado militia killed at least 150 peaceful Cheyenne Indians in the Sand Creek Massacre.
  • In 1908, New York Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was born in New Haven, Conn.
  • In 1924, Italian composer Giacomo Puccini died in Brussels, Belgium, before he could complete his opera "Turandot." (It was finished by Franco Alfano.)
  • In 1947, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the partitioning of Palestine between Arabs and Jews.
  • In 1961, Enos the chimp was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard the Mercury-Atlas 5 spacecraft, which orbited earth twice before returning.
  • In 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced he was leaving the Johnson administration to become president of the World Bank.
  • In 1981, actress Natalie Wood drowned in a boating accident off Santa Catalina Island, Calif., at age 43.
  • In 1986, actor Cary Grant died in Davenport, Iowa, at age 82.
  • In 2001, George Harrison, the "quiet Beatle," died in Los Angeles following a battle with cancer; he was 58.

Ten years ago:
  • Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected legalizing heroin and other narcotics.

Five years ago:
  • Gunmen in Iraq ambushed and killed two Japanese diplomats; seven members of Spain's military intelligence agency were killed in Mahmudiyah.
  • Thirty-three people were killed in the crash of a military plane in Congo.

One year ago:
  • A court in Sudan convicted British teacher Gillian Gibbons of insulting Islam for letting her students name a teddy bear "Muhammad" and sentenced her to 15 days in prison. (Gibbons was pardoned after spending more than a week in custody; she then left the country.)
  • Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, embarked on a new, five-year term as a civilian president, a day after ceding the powerful post of army chief.
  • Former Illinois Congressman Henry Hyde died in Chicago at age 83.
  • Former General Motors chief executive Roger B. Smith died in Detroit at age 82.

Today's Birthdays:
  • Hall-of-Fame sportscaster Vin Scully is 81.
  • Blues singer-musician John Mayall is 75.
  • Actress Diane Ladd is 73.
  • Composer-musician Chuck Mangione is 68.
  • Country singer Jody Miller is 67.
  • Pop singer-musician Felix Cavaliere (The Rascals) is 64.
  • Olympic skier Suzy Chaffee is 62.
  • Comedian Garry Shandling is 59.
  • Actor Jeff Fahey is 56.
  • Movie director Joel Coen is 54.
  • Actor-comedian-game show host Howie Mandel is 53.
  • Actress Cathy Moriarty is 48.
  • Actress Kim Delaney is 47.
  • Actor Tom Sizemore is 47.
  • Actor Andrew McCarthy is 46.
  • Actor Don Cheadle is 44.
  • Actor-producer Neill Barry is 43.
  • Musician Wallis Buchanan (Jamiroquai) is 43.
  • Pop singer Jonathan Knight (New Kids on the Block) is 40.
  • Rock musician Martin Carr (Boo Radleys) is 40.
  • Actor Larry Joe Campbell is 38.
  • Rock musician Frank Delgado (Deftones) is 38.
  • Actress Gena Lee Nolin is 37.
  • Actor Brian Baumgartner is 36.
  • Actress Anna Faris is 32.
  • Actor Julian Ovenden is 32.
  • Rapper The Game is 29.
  • Rock musician Ringo Garza is 27.
  • Actor Lucas Black is 26.

Thought for Today:
"Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable."
Mark Twain (1835-1910).



"Let's all be careful out there!"

SAILY CHUCKLE 8-334






















"Let's all be careful out there!"

Friday, November 28, 2008

NOVEMBER 28TH

Today is Friday, Nov. 28, the 333rd day of 2008.
There are 33 days left in the year.
In American retail, today is known as "Black Friday."

Today's Highlight in History:

  • On Nov. 28, 1942, nearly 500 people died in a fire that destroyed the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston.

On this date:

  • In 1520, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the South American strait that now bears his name.
  • In 1907, future movie producer Louis B. Mayer opened his first movie theater, in Haverhill, Mass.
  • In 1919, American-born Lady Astor was elected the first female member of the British Parliament.
  • In 1943, President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin began conferring in Tehran during World War II.
  • In 1958, Chad, Gabon and Middle Congo became autonomous republics within the French community.
  • In 1964, the United States launched the space probe Mariner 4 on a course to Mars.
  • In 1979, an Air New Zealand DC-10 en route to the South Pole crashed into a mountain in Antarctica, killing all 257 people aboard.
  • In 1987, a South African Airways Boeing 747 crashed into the Indian Ocean with the loss of all 159 people aboard.
  • In 1990, Margaret Thatcher resigned as British prime minister during an audience with Queen Elizabeth II, who conferred the premiership on John Major.
  • In 2001, Enron Corp. collapsed after would-be rescuer Dynegy Inc. backed out of an $8.4 billion deal to take it over.

Ten years ago:
  • Some Republicans expressed disappointment and outrage over President Clinton's written responses to 81 questions from the House Judiciary Committee concerning the Monica Lewinsky affair, with one accusing the president of "word games."

Five years ago:
  • President Bush returned to his ranch in Crawford, Texas, after a secret, nearly 36-hour journey that took him to Iraq for a Thanksgiving visit with U.S. troops.

One year ago:
  • A day after an international Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Md., President Bush told the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian territories he was personally committed to their mission of peace.
  • Republican presidential rivals Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney clashed over immigration in a provocative, no-holds-barred CNN/YouTube debate.
  • O.J. Simpson pleaded not guilty in Las Vegas to charges of kidnapping and armed robbery stemming from a confrontation with sports memorabilia dealers. (Simpson and a co-defendant were convicted last month.)
  • Broadway stagehands and theater producers reached a tentative agreement on ending a crippling 19-day-old strike.

Today's Birthdays:
  • Recording executive Berry Gordy Jr. is 79.
  • Former Sen. Gary Hart, D-Colo., is 72.
  • Singer-songwriter Bruce Channel is 68.
  • Singer Randy Newman is 65.
  • Movie director Joe Dante is 62.
  • CBS News correspondent Susan Spencer is 62.
  • "Late Show" orchestra leader Paul Shaffer is 59.
  • Actor Ed Harris is 58.
  • Actress S. Epatha Merkerson is 56.
  • Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is 55.
  • Country singer Kristine Arnold (Sweethearts of the Rodeo) is 52.
  • Actor Judd Nelson is 49.
  • Movie director Alfonso Cuaron is 47.
  • Rock musician Matt Cameron is 46.
  • Actress Jane Sibbett is 46.
  • Comedian Jon Stewart is 46.
  • Actress Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon is 42.
  • Rhythm-and-blues singer Dawn Robinson is 40.
  • Hip-hop musician apl.de.ap (Black Eyed Peas) is 34.
  • Actress Aimee Garcia is 30.
  • Rapper Chamillionaire is 29.
  • Actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead is 24.
  • Actress Scarlett Pomers ("Reba") is 20.

Thought for Today:
"I am not sure that God always knows who are His great men; He is so very careless of what happens to them while they live."
Mary Hunter Austin, American novelist and playwright (1868-1934).



"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 8-333












"Let's all be careful out there!"