JANUARY 12TH

Today is Monday, Jan. 12, the 12th day of 2009.
There are 353 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• Fifty years ago, on Jan. 12, 1959, Berry Gordy Jr. founded Motown Records (originally called Tamla Records) in Detroit.

On this date:

• In 1519, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I died.
• In 1773, the first public museum in America was organized, in Charleston, S.C.
• In 1915, the U.S. House of Representatives rejected a proposal to give women the right to vote.
• In 1932, Hattie W. Caraway became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate, after serving out the remainder of the term of her late husband, Thaddeus.
• In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt re-established the National War Labor Board.
• In 1948, the Supreme Court ruled that state law schools could not discriminate against applicants on the basis of race.
• In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson said in his State of the Union address that the U.S. should stay in South Vietnam until communist aggression there was ended.
• In 1969, the New York Jets of the American Football League upset the Baltimore Colts of the National Football League 16-7 in Super Bowl III, played at the Orange Bowl in Miami.
• In 1976, mystery writer Dame Agatha Christie died in Wallingford, England, at age 85.
• In 1986, the shuttle Columbia blasted off with a crew that included the first Hispanic-American in space, Franklin R. Chang-Diaz.

Ten years ago:

• The Supreme Court limited state regulation of voter initiatives, striking down several methods used by Colorado to police such measures.
• Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball was sold at auction in New York for $3 million to an anonymous bidder.

Five years ago:

• President George W. Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox forged agreement on the contentious issues of immigration and Iraq, meeting in Monterrey before the opening of a 34-nation hemispheric summit.
• Singer-songwriter Randy VanWarmer died in Seattle at age 48.

One year ago:

• President George W. Bush, visiting Bahrain, said he was cheered by news that Iraq's parliament had approved legislation reinstating thousands of former supporters of Saddam Hussein's dissolved Baath party to government jobs.

Today's Birthdays:

• Actress Luise Rainer is 99.
• Country singer Ray Price is 83.
• Singer Glenn Yarborough is 79.
• The Amazing Kreskin is 74.
• Country singer William Lee Golden (The Oak Ridge Boys) is 70.
• Former heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier is 65.
• Rock musician Cynthia Robinson (Sly and the Family Stone) is 65.
• Singer-musician George Duke is 63.
• Actor Anthony Andrews is 61.
• Movie director Wayne Wang is 60.
• Radio commentator Rush Limbaugh is 58.
• Actress Kirstie Alley is 58.
• Writer Walter Mosley is 57.
• Country singer Ricky Van Shelton is 57.
• Radio personality Howard Stern is 55.
• Rock musician Tom Ardolino (NRBQ) is 52.
• Writer-producer-director John Lasseter is 52.
• Broadcast journalist Christiane Amanpour is 51.
• Rock musician Charlie Gillingham (Counting Crows) is 49.
• Actor Oliver Platt is 49.
• Actor Olivier Martinez is 43.
• Rock singer Rob Zombie is 43.
• Rapper TBird (B-Rock and the Bizz) is 42.
• Model Vendela is 42.
• Actress Farrah Forke is 41.
• Actress Rachael Harris is 41.
• Rock singer Zack de la Rocha is 39.
• Rapper Raekwon (Wu Tang Clan) is 39.
• Singer Dan Haseltine (Jars of Clay) is 36.
• Rock musician Matt Wong (Reel Big Fish) is 36.
• Singer Melanie Chisholm (Spice Girls) is 35.
• Contemporary Christian singer Jeremy Camp is 31.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer Amerie is 29.
• Actor Will Rothhaar is 22.
• Actor Andrew Lawrence is 21.

Thought for Today:

"Give the people a new word and they think they have a new fact."
Willa Cather, American author (1873-1947).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 9-012

"Let's all be careful out there!"

JANUARY 11TH

Today is Sunday, Jan. 11, the 11th day of 2009.
There are 354 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Jan. 11, 1908, the Grand Canyon National Monument was created with a proclamation by President Theodore Roosevelt. (It became a national park in 1919.)

On this date:

• In 1805, the Michigan Territory was created by an act of Congress.
• In 1815, Sir John A. Macdonald, the first prime minister of Canada, was born in Glasgow, Scotland.
• In 1861, Alabama seceded from the Union.
• In 1913, the first sedan-type automobile, a Hudson, went on display at the 13th National Automobile Show in New York.
• In 1935, aviator Amelia Earhart began a trip from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Oakland, Calif., that made her the first woman to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean.
• In 1942, Japan declared war against the Netherlands, the same day that Japanese forces invaded the Dutch East Indies.
• In 1943, the United States and Britain signed treaties relinquishing extraterritorial rights in China.
• In 1964, U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry issued the first government report saying smoking may be hazardous to one's health.
• In 1977, France set off an international uproar by releasing Abu Daoud, a PLO official behind the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
• In 1995, 52 people were killed when a Colombian airliner crashed as it was preparing to land near the Caribbean resort of Cartagena.

Ten years ago:

• President Bill Clinton and House Republicans clashed in impeachment trial papers, with the White House claiming the perjury and obstruction allegations fell short of high crimes and misdemeanors and GOP lawmakers rebutting: "If this is not enough, what is?"

Five years ago:

• Democrat Howard Dean defended his record on race in the last debate before the Iowa caucuses, as he was forced to acknowledge that no blacks or Hispanic had served in his cabinet during his 12 years as governor of Vermont.

One year ago:

• Bank of America said it would buy Countrywide Financial for $4.1 billion in stock in a deal rescuing the country's biggest mortgage lender.
• Authorities in Jacksonville, N.C., found the remains of Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Frances Lauterbach in the yard of Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean, a comrade she had accused of raping her. (Laurean, who fled to Mexico, was arrested last April and charged in Lauterbach's death.)
• Former Olympic track gold medalist Marion Jones was sentenced to six months in prison for lying to investigators about using performance-enhancing drugs and her role in a check-fraud scam.
• Sir Edmund Hillary, the first to conquer Mount Everest, died in Auckland, New Zealand, at age 88.

Today's Birthdays:

• Producer Grant Tinker is 84.
• Producer David L. Wolper is 81.
• Actor Rod Taylor is 79.
• The former prime minister of Canada, Jean Chretien, is 75.
• Actor Mitchell Ryan is 75.
• Actor Felix Silla is 72.
• Rock musician Clarence Clemons is 67.
• Movie director Joel Zwick is 67.
• Country singer Naomi Judd is 63.
• Golfer Ben Crenshaw is 57.
• Singer Robert Earl Keen is 53.
• Musician Vicki Peterson (The Bangles) is 51.
• Actress Kim Coles is 47.
• Actor Jason Connery is 46.
• Contemporary Christian musician Jim Bryson (MercyMe) is 41.
• Rock musician Tom Dumont (No Doubt) is 41.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer Maxee Maxwell (Brownstone) is 40.
• Movie director Malcolm D. Lee is 39.
• Singer Mary J. Blige is 38.
• Musician Tom Rowlands (The Chemical Brothers) is 38.
• Actor Marc Blucas is 37.
• Actress Amanda Peet is 37.
• Actor Rockmond Dunbar is 36.
• Reality TV star Jason Wahler (TV: "Laguna Beach"; "The Hills") is 22.

Thought for Today:

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could."
Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, poet and philosopher (1803-1882).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 9-011

"Let's all be careful out there!"

JANUARY 10TH

Today is Saturday, Jan. 10, the 10th day of 2009.
There are 355 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Jan. 10, 1776, Thomas Paine anonymously published his influential pamphlet, "Common Sense."

On this date:

• In 1810, Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, divorced his wife, Josephine.
• In 1861, Florida seceded from the Union.
• In 1870, John D. Rockefeller incorporated Standard Oil.
• In 1920, the League of Nations was established as the Treaty of Versailles went into effect.
• In 1946, the first General Assembly of the United Nations convened in London.
• In 1957, Harold Macmillan became prime minister of Britain, following the resignation of Anthony Eden.
• In 1967, Massachusetts Republican Edward W. Brooke, the first black elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote, took his seat.
• In 1978, the Soviet Union launched two cosmonauts aboard the Soyuz 27 capsule for a rendezvous with the Salyut 6 space laboratory.
• In 1984, the United States and the Vatican established full diplomatic relations for the first time in more than a century.
• In 1989, Cuba began withdrawing its troops from Angola, more than 13 years after its first contingents arrived.

Ten years ago:

• Republicans and Democrats disagreed over whether to call witnesses in President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial, with Republicans pressing to hear testimony from Monica Lewinsky and others, and Democrats saying such testimony could unnecessarily prolong the proceedings.

Five years ago:

• North Korea said it had shown its "nuclear deterrent" to an unofficial U.S. delegation that visited the disputed Yongbyon nuclear complex.
• Michelle Kwan won her seventh straight title and eighth overall at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Atlanta; Johnny Weir skated to his first men's title.
• Actor-writer Spalding Gray, 62, vanished from his New York apartment (his body was found two months later in the East River).
• Novelist Alexandra Ripley died in Richmond, Va., at age 70.

One year ago:

• The United States on Thursday lodged a formal diplomatic protest with Iran over an incident in which Iranian speedboats harassed U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf.
• President George W. Bush, visiting Israel and the Palestinian West Bank, said a Mideast peace pact would require "painful political concessions by both sides."
• John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, endorsed Barack Obama's White House bid.
• Maila Nurmi, whose "Vampira" TV persona pioneered the spooky-yet-sexy Goth aesthetic, died in Los Angeles at age 85.

Today's Birthdays:

• Opera singer Sherrill Milnes is 74.
• Blues artist Eddy Clearwater is 74.
• Rock singer-musician Ronnie Hawkins is 74.
• Baseball Hall-of-Famer Willie McCovey is 71.
• Singer Scott McKenzie is 70.
• Movie director Walter Hill is 69.
• Singer Frank Sinatra Jr. is 65.
• Singer Rod Stewart is 64.
• Rock singer-musician Donald Fagen (Steely Dan) is 61.
• Actor William Sanderson is 61.
• Boxer George Foreman is 60.
• Roots rock singer Alejandro Escovedo is 58.
• Rock musician Scott Thurston (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) is 57.
• Singer Pat Benatar is 56.
• Rock musician Michael Schenker is 54.
• Singer Shawn Colvin is 53.
• Rock singer-musician Curt Kirkwood (Meat Puppets) is 50.
• Actor Evan Handler is 48.
• Rock singer Brad Roberts (Crash Test Dummies) is 45.
• Actress Trini Alvarado is 42.
• Rock musician Matt Roberts (3 Doors Down) is 31.
• Rock singer Brent Smith (Shinedown) is 31.
• Rapper Chris Smith (Kris Kross) is 30.
• Actress Sarah Shahi is 29.

Thought for Today:

"Sex is the Tabasco sauce which an adolescent national palate sprinkles on every course in the menu."
Mary Day Winn, American writer (1888-1965).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 9-010

"Let's all be careful out there!"

JANUARY 9TH

Today is Friday, Jan. 9, the ninth day of 2009.
There are 356 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Jan. 9, 1913, Richard Milhous Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, was born in Yorba Linda, Calif.

On this date:

• In 1788, Connecticut became the fifth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
• In 1793, Frenchman Jean Pierre Blanchard, using a hot-air balloon, flew between Philadelphia and Woodbury, N.J.
• In 1859, women's suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt was born in Ripon, Wis.
• In 1861, Mississippi seceded from the Union.
• In 1945, during World War II, American forces began landing at Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines.
• In 1959, the Western series "Rawhide" premiered on CBS-TV.
• In 1964, anti-U.S. rioting broke out in the Panama Canal Zone, resulting in the deaths of 21 Panamanians and several U.S. soldiers.
• In 1968, the Surveyor 7 space probe made a soft landing on the moon, marking the end of the American series of unmanned explorations of the lunar surface.
• In 1972, reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, speaking by telephone from the Bahamas to reporters in Hollywood, said a purportedly authorized biography of him by Clifford Irving was a fake.
• In 1997, a Comair commuter plane crashed 18 miles short of the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, killing all 29 people on board.

Ten years ago:

• At the White House, presidential advisers prepared a public and legal defense in President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice; Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, meanwhile, pledged "above all, fairness" to the president, who ended up being acquitted.

Five years ago:

• Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced that the nation's threat level had been lowered from orange to yellow.
• Officials said Pentagon lawyers determined that former Iraq leader Saddam Hussein had been a prisoner of war since his capture.
• An Ohio woman who'd claimed to have lost a lottery ticket worth $162 million was charged with filing a false police report. (Elecia Battle was later convicted of the misdemeanor and put on one year's probation.)

One year ago:

• President Bush, on his first visit to Israel as president, warned Iran of "serious consequences" if it meddled again with U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf.
• The U.S. military reported nine American soldiers were killed in the first two days of a new offensive to root out al-Qaida in Iraq fighters holed up in districts north of Baghdad.
• Johnny Grant, the honorary mayor of Hollywood, died in Los Angeles at age 84.

Today's Birthdays:

• Author Judith Krantz is 81.
• Football Hall-of-Famer Bart Starr is 75.
• Sportscaster Dick Enberg is 74.
• Actress K. Callan is 73.
• Folk singer Joan Baez is 68.
• Rockabilly singer Roy Head is 68.
• Actress Susannah York is 68.
• Rock musician Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) is 65.
• Singer David Johansen (aka Buster Poindexter) is 59.
• Singer Crystal Gayle is 58.
• Actor J.K. Simmons is 54.
• Nobel Peace laureate and human rights activist Rigoberto Menchu is 50.
• Rock musician Eric Erlandson is 46.
• Actress Joely Richardson is 44.
• Rock musician Carl Bell (Fuel) is 42.
• Rock singer Steve Harwell (Smash Mouth) is 42.
• Rock singer-musician Dave Matthews is 42.
• Actress-director Joey Lauren Adams is 41.
• Singer A.J. McLean (Backstreet Boys) is 31.
• Pop-rock musician Drew Brown (OneRepublic) is 25.
• Rock-soul singer Paolo Nutini is 22.

Thought for Today:

"No written law has ever been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion."
Carrie Chapman Catt, American women's suffrage leader (1859-1947).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 9-009

"Let's all be careful out there!"