SAILY CHUCKLE 8-334

"Let's all be careful out there!"

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!"

NOVEMBER 27TH

Today is Thursday, Nov. 27, the 332nd day of 2008.
There are 34 days left in the year.
This is Thanksgiving Day.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Nov. 27, 1978, San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk, a gay-rights activist, were shot to death inside City Hall by former supervisor Dan White.

On this date:

• In 1701, astronomer Anders Celsius, inventor of the Celsius temperature scale, was born in Uppsala, Sweden.
• In 1901, the U.S. Army War College was established in Washington, D.C.
• In 1910, the Pennsylvania Railroad began regularly serving New York's Pennsylvania Station.
• In 1942, during World War II, the French navy at Toulon scuttled its ships and submarines to keep them out of the hands of German troops.
• In 1953, playwright Eugene O'Neill died in Boston at age 65.
• In 1970, Pope Paul VI, visiting the Philippines, was slightly wounded at the Manila airport by a dagger-wielding Bolivian painter disguised as a priest.
• In 1973, the Senate voted 92-3 to confirm Gerald R. Ford as vice president, succeeding Spiro T. Agnew, who'd resigned.
• In 1983, 181 people were killed when a Colombian Avianca Airlines Boeing 747 crashed near Madrid's Barajas airport.
• In 1988, actor John Carradine, known for his roles in horror films, died in Milan, Italy, at age 82.
• In 1989, a bomb blamed on drug traffickers destroyed a Colombian Avianca Boeing 727, killing all 107 people on board and three people on the ground.

Ten years ago:

• Answering 81 questions put to him three weeks earlier, President Clinton wrote the House Judiciary Committee that his testimony in the Monica Lewinsky affair was "not false and misleading."

Five years ago:

• President Bush flew to Iraq under extraordinary secrecy and security to spend Thanksgiving with U.S. troops and thank them for "defending the American people from danger."

One year ago:

• Israeli and Palestinian leaders at a Mideast conference in Annapolis, Md., agreed to formally restart peace talks.
• A Somali immigrant, Nuradin Abdi, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for plotting to blow up an Ohio shopping mall.
• Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor died after being shot in his Florida home by an intruder.
• Bill Willis, a Hall of Fame guard with the Cleveland Browns and Ohio State's first black football All-American, died in Columbus, Ohio, at age 86.
• Dr. J. Robert Cade, inventor of Gatorade, died at age 80.

Today's Birthdays:

• Actor James Avery is 60.
• TV host Bill Nye ("Bill Nye, the Science Guy") is 53.
• Actor William Fichtner is 52.
• Caroline Kennedy is 51.
• Rock musician Charlie Burchill (Simple Minds) is 49.
• Rock musician Charlie Benante (Anthrax) is 46.
• Rock musician Mike Bordin (Faith No More) is 46.
• Actor Fisher Stevens is 45.
• Actress Robin Givens is 44.
• Actor Michael Vartan is 40.
• Rapper Skoob (DAS EFX) is 38.
• Actor Kirk Acevedo is 37.
• Rapper Twista is 36.
• Actor Jaleel White is 32.
• Actress Alison Pill is 23.

Thought for Today:

"Who does not thank for little will not thank for much."
Estonian proverb.

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 8-332

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

"Let's all be careful out there!"

NOVEMBER 26TH

Today is Wednesday, Nov. 26, the 331st day of 2008.
There are 35 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• Nov. 26, 1789, was a day of thanksgiving set aside by President Washington to observe the adoption of the Constitution of the United States.

On this date:

• In 1825, the first college social fraternity, Kappa Alpha, was formed at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y.
• In 1883, former slave and abolitionist Sojourner Truth died in Battle Creek, Mich.
• In 1933, a judge in New York decided the James Joyce book "Ulysses" was not obscene and could therefore be published in the United States.
• In 1942, President Roosevelt ordered nationwide gasoline rationing, beginning Dec. 1.
• In 1942, the motion picture "Casablanca," starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, had its world premiere at the Hollywood Theater in New York.
• In 1943, during World War II, the HMT Rohna, a British transport ship carrying American soldiers, was hit by a German missile off Algeria; 1,138 men were killed.
• In 1949, India adopted a constitution as a republic within the British Commonwealth.
• In 1950, China entered the Korean War, launching a counteroffensive against soldiers from the United Nations, the U.S. and South Korea.
• In 1965, France launched its first satellite, sending a 92-pound capsule into orbit.
• In 1973, President Nixon's personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, told a federal court that she'd accidentally caused part of the 18 1/2-minute gap in a key Watergate tape.

Ten years ago:

• In the first speech ever by a British prime minister to an Irish parliament, Tony Blair predicted that Northern Ireland's troubled peace accord would ultimately work because of a strengthened cooperative spirit uniting Britain and Ireland.
• In India, at least 211 people died when two trains collided in the northern state of Punjab.

Five years ago:

• Human rights activist Gao Zhan, who was freed from a Chinese prison after the U.S. government interceded on her behalf, pleaded guilty in Alexandria, Va., to illegally selling American high-tech items with potential military uses to China. (Gao later received a reduced sentence of seven months in prison for her cooperation with authorities.)
• Hard-liners defeated moderates in Northern Ireland's legislative elections.

One year ago:

• President Bush met separately at the White House with the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority a day ahead of a major Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Md.
• Vice President Dick Cheney experienced an irregular heartbeat and was taken to George Washington University Hospital for evaluation.
• President Bush greeted the 2007 Nobel Prize winners, including former Vice President Al Gore.
• Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott announced his retirement after a 35-year career in Congress.
• Washington Redskins star safety Sean Taylor was mortally wounded when he was shot during a botched armed robbery at his home in Palmetto Bay, Fla. (Taylor died the next day.)
• Hall of Fame jockey Bill Hartack died in Freer, Texas, at age 74.

Today's Birthdays:

• Actress Ellen Albertini Dow is 90.
• Impressionist Rich Little is 70.
• Singer Tina Turner is 69.
• Singer Jean Terrell is 64.
• Pop musician John McVie is 63.
• Actress Jamie Rose is 49.
• Country singer Linda Davis is 46.
• Blues singer-musician Bernard Allison is 43.
• Country singer-musician Steve Grisaffe is 43.
• Actress Kristin Bauer is 35.
• Actor Peter Facinelli is 35.
• Actress Maia Campbell is 32.
• Country singer Joe Nichols is 32.
• Actress Jessica Bowman is 28.
• Pop singer Natasha Bedingfield is 27.
• Singer Lil Fizz is 23.
• Singer Aubrey Collins is 21.

Thought for Today:

"Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it."
Henry David Thoreau, American author (1817-1862)

"Let's all be careful out there!"