View On Google Earth
Posts
There are 56 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
- On Nov. 5, 1968, Richard M. Nixon won the presidency, defeating Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and American Independent candidate George C. Wallace.
On this date:
- In 1605, the "Gunpowder Plot" failed as Guy Fawkes was seized before he could blow up the English Parliament.
- In 1872, suffragist Susan B. Anthony defied the law by attempting to vote for President Grant. (She was convicted by a judge and fined $100, but never paid the fine.)
- In 1895, George B. Selden of Rochester, N.Y., received the first U.S. patent for an "improved Road Engine."
- In 1912, Woodrow Wilson was elected president, defeating Progressive Party candidate Theodore Roosevelt and incumbent Republican William Howard Taft.
- In 1940, President Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term in office as he defeated Republican challenger Wendell L. Willkie.
- In 1946, Republicans captured control of both the Senate and the House in midterm elections.
- In 1974, Ella T. Grasso was elected governor of Connecticut, the first woman to win a gubernatorial office without succeeding her husband.
- In 1985, Spencer W. Kimball, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, died at age 90; he was succeeded by Ezra Taft Benson.
- In 1987, Supreme Court nominee Douglas H. Ginsburg admitted using marijuana several times in the 1960s and '70s, calling it a mistake. (Ginsburg ended up withdrawing his nomination.)
- In 1990, Rabbi Meir Kahane, the Brooklyn-born Israeli extremist, was shot to death at a New York hotel. (Egyptian native El Sayyed Nosair was convicted of the slaying in federal court.)
Ten years ago:
- The U.N. Security Council unanimously demanded that Iraq resume cooperation with U.N. weapons inspectors immediately.
Five years ago:
- President Bush signed a bill outlawing the procedure known by its critics as "partial-birth abortion"; less than an hour later, a federal judge in Nebraska issued a temporary restraining order against the ban. (In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act.)
- Green River serial killer Gary Leon Ridgway pleaded guilty to strangling four dozen women over two decades, most of them near Seattle.
- Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean apologized for urging Democrats to court Southern whites who displayed Confederate flags on their pickup trucks.
- Bobby Hatfield of the musical duo the Righteous Brothers died in Kalamazoo, Mich., at age 63.
One year ago:
- Hollywood writers went on strike, forcing late-night talk shows to immediately start airing reruns.
- Police in major Pakistani cities fired tear gas and clubbed lawyers protesting President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's emergency rule.
- Talk show host Oprah Winfrey promised to "clean house" after a dorm matron was accused of abusing students at Winfrey's school for disadvantaged South African girls.
- Joe Torre was introduced as the new manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, less than three weeks after walking away from the New York Yankees.
Today's Birthdays:
- Actor Chris Robinson is 70.
- Actress Elke Sommer is 68.
- Singer Art Garfunkel is 67.
- Actor-playwright Sam Shepard is 65.
- Singer Peter Noone is 61.
- Actor Nestor Serrano ("24") is 53.
- Actress-comedian Mo Gaffney is 50.
- Actor Robert Patrick is 50.
- Singer Bryan Adams is 49.
- Actress Tilda Swinton is 48.
- Actress Tatum O'Neal is 45.
- Actress Andrea McArdle is 45.
- Rock singer Angelo Moore (Fishbone) is 43.
- Actress Judy Reyes is 41.
- Rock musician Mark Hunter (James) is 40.
- Actor Sam Rockwell is 40.
- Country singers Heather and Jennifer Kinley (The Kinleys) are 38.
- Actor Corin Nemec is 37.
- Rock musician Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead) is 37.
- Country singer-musician Ryan Adams is 34.
- Actor Sam Page is 32.
- Actor Jeremy Lelliott is 26.
- Rock musician Kevin Jonas (The Jonas Brothers) is 21.
Thought for Today:
"Examine what is said, not him who speaks."
An Arab proverb.
"Let's all be careful out there!"
