DAILY CHUCKLE 8-315

"Let's all be careful out there!"

NOVEMBER 9TH

Today is Sunday, Nov. 9, the 314th day of 2008.
There are 52 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Nov. 9, 1938, Nazis looted and burned synagogues as well as Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in what became known as "Kristallnacht." It's estimated that more than 90 Jews were killed in the pogrom.

On this date:

• In 1872, fire destroyed nearly 800 buildings in Boston.
• In 1918, it was announced that Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II would abdicate. He then fled to the Netherlands.
• In 1935, United Mine Workers president John L. Lewis and other labor leaders formed the Committee for Industrial Organization (later Congress of Industrial Organizations).
• In 1953, author-poet Dylan Thomas died in New York at age 39.
• In 1963, twin disasters struck Japan as some 450 miners were killed in a coal-dust explosion, and about 160 people died in a train crash.
• In 1965, the great Northeast blackout occurred as a series of power failures lasting up to 13 1/2 hours left 30 million people in seven states and part of Canada without electricity.
• In 1967, a Saturn V rocket carrying an unmanned Apollo spacecraft blasted off from Cape Kennedy, Fla., on a successful test flight.
• In 1976, the U.N. General Assembly approved resolutions condemning apartheid in South Africa, including one characterizing the white-ruled government as "illegitimate."
• In 1988, former Attorney General John N. Mitchell, a major figure in the Watergate scandal, died in Washington at age 75.
• In 1989, communist East Germany threw open its borders, allowing citizens to travel freely to the West; joyous Germans danced atop the Berlin Wall.

Ten years ago:

• A federal judge in New York approved a massive antitrust settlement in which leading brokerage firms promised to pay $1.03 billion to investors who had sued over a price-rigging scheme for stocks listed on the Nasdaq market.
• The age of digital and interactive TV opened with the airing of a PBS documentary special, "Chihuly Over Venice."

Five years ago:

• Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's ruling bloc won a majority in the country's parliamentary elections.
• Three-time Top Fuel champion Shirley Muldowney, 63, ended her 30-year racing career with a loss in the second round of the Auto Club NHRA Finals at Pomona Raceway in California.
• Comic actor Art Carney died in Chester, Conn., at age 85.

One year ago:

• President Gen. Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan placed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under house arrest for a day, and rounded up thousands of her supporters to block a mass rally against his emergency rule.
• Chadian authorities released three Spanish flight crew members and a Belgian pilot detained in an alleged kidnapping plot of African children by a French charity.

Today's Birthdays:

• Baseball executive Whitey Herzog is 77.
• Former Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., is 72.
• Singer Mary Travers is 72.
• Actor Charlie Robinson ("Night Court") is 63.
• Movie director Bille August is 60.
• Actor Robert David Hall ("CSI") is 60.
• Actor Lou Ferrigno is 56.
• Gospel singer Donnie McClurkin is 49.
• Rock musician Dee Plakas (L7) is 48.
• Rapper Pepa (Salt-N-Pepa) is 39.
• Rapper Scarface (Geto Boys) is 39.
• Blues singer Susan Tedeschi is 38.
• Actor Eric Dane is 36.
  
• Singer Nick Lachey (98 Degrees) is 35.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer Sisqo (Dru Hill) is 30.
• Actress Nikki Blonsky (Film: "Hairspray") is 20.

Thought for Today:

"All life is an experiment."
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., U.S. Supreme Court justice (1841-1935).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 8-314

"Let's all be careful out there!"

NOVEMBER 8TH

Today is Saturday, Nov. 8, the 313th day of 2008.
There are 53 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Nov. 8, 1923, Adolf Hitler launched his first attempt at seizing power with a failed coup in Munich, Germany, that came to be known as the "Beer-Hall Putsch."

On this date:

• In 1308, Scottish-born theologian and philosopher John Duns Scotus died in Germany. (Scotus and his adherents came under attack by critics in the 16th century, giving rise to the term "dunce.")
• In 1837, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, a college exclusively for women, opened in South Hadley, Mass.
• In 1889, Montana became the 41st state.
• In 1932, New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated incumbent Herbert Hoover for the presidency.
• In 1933, President Roosevelt created the Civil Works Administration, designed to create jobs for more than four million unemployed.
• In 1942, Operation Torch, resulting in an Allied victory, began during World War II as U.S. and British forces landed in French North Africa.
• In 1960, Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy defeated Vice President Richard M. Nixon for the presidency.
• In 1966, Edward W. Brooke, R-Mass., became the first black candidate to be elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote.
• In 1983, Democrat W. Wilson Goode was elected the first black mayor of Philadelphia; Democrat Martha Layne Collins was elected the first female governor of Kentucky.
• In 1988, Vice President George Bush won the presidential election, defeating Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis.

Ten years ago:

• U.S. Rep. Bob Livingston, R-La., predicted he would succeed Newt Gingrich as House Speaker. (However, Livingston later resigned before he could become speaker after admitting to marital infidelities.)

Five years ago:

• A suicide car bombing of a housing complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killed 17 people.
• Front-runner Howard Dean became the first Democratic presidential candidate ever to reject taxpayer money and avoid the accompanying spending limits, saying he had to act to compete against President Bush's cash-rich campaign.

One year ago:

• The Senate confirmed President Bush's nomination of Michael Mukasey to be the new attorney general, 53-40.
• President Bush suffered the first veto override of his seven-year-old presidency as the Senate enacted, 79-14, a $23 billion water resources bill despite his protest that it was filled with unnecessary projects.
• Dominican singer-songwriter Juan Luis Guerra swept the Latin Grammy Awards, taking home five musical honors including album of the year, record of the year and song of the year.

Today's Birthdays:

• Actress June Havoc is 96.
• Actor Norman Lloyd is 94.
• Jazz singer Chris Connor is 81.
• Singer Patti Page is 81.
• CBS newsman Morley Safer is 77.
• Singer-actress Bonnie Bramlett is 64.
• Singer Bonnie Raitt is 59.
• TV personality Mary Hart is 58.
• Playboy Enterprises chairman and chief executive Christie Hefner is 56.
• Actress Alfre Woodard is 55.
• Singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones is 54.
• Rock musician Porl Thompson (The Cure) is 51.
• Singer-actor Leif Garrett is 47.
• Actress Courtney Thorne-Smith is 41.
• Actress Parker Posey is 40.
• Rock musician Jimmy Chaney is 39.
• Actress Roxana Zal is 39.
• Singer Diana King is 38.
• Actress Gretchen Mol is 35.
• Actress Tara Reid is 33.
• Country singer/former "American Idol" contestant Bucky Covington is 31.
• Actress Dania Ramirez is 29.
• Actress Azura Skye is 27.
• Actor Chris Rankin is 25.
• TV personality Jack Osbourne ("The Osbournes") is 23.

Thought for Today:

"Man is born to live, not to prepare for life."
Boris Pasternak, Russian author (1890-1960).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 8-313

"Let's all be careful out there!"

NOVEMBER 7TH

Today is Friday, Nov. 7, the 312th day of 2008.
There are 54 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Nov. 7, 1917, Russia's Bolshevik Revolution took place as forces led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin overthrew the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky.

On this date:

• In 1874, the Republican Party was symbolized as an elephant in a cartoon drawn by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly.
• In 1893, the state of Colorado granted women there the right to vote.
• In 1916, Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress.
• In 1918, during World War I, an erroneous report that an armistice had been signed set off celebrations across the country.
• In 1940, in Washington state, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, nicknamed "Galloping Gertie," collapsed during a windstorm.
• In 1944, President Roosevelt won an unprecedented fourth term in office, defeating Thomas E. Dewey.
• In 1962, Richard M. Nixon, having lost California's gubernatorial race, held what he called his "last press conference," telling reporters, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore."
• In 1967, President Johnson signed a bill establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
• In 1972, President Nixon was re-elected in a landslide over Democrat George McGovern.
• In 1973, Congress overrode President Nixon's veto of the War Powers Act, which limits a chief executive's power to wage war without congressional approval.

Ten years ago:

• John Glenn returned to Earth aboard the space shuttle Discovery, visibly weak but elated after a nine-day mission.
• A scant four years after leading Republicans to glory, House Speaker Newt Gingrich announced he would resign not just his speakership but also his seat in the House.

Five years ago:

• Six U.S. soldiers were killed in the crash of their Black Hawk helicopter in Tikrit, Iraq.
• The defending champion U.S. baseball team failed to qualify for the 2004 Athens Olympics, losing to Mexico 2-1 in the quarterfinals of a qualifying tournament in Panama City, Panama.

One year ago:

• An 18-year-old gunman opened fire at his high school in Tuusula, Finland, killing seven other students and the principal before taking his own life.
• A cargo ship struck the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, causing the San Francisco Bay's worst oil spill in nearly two decades.
• Space shuttle Discovery and its crew returned to Earth, concluding a 15-day space station build-and-repair mission.
• At the Country Music Association Awards, Kenny Chesney won his second straight entertainer of the year award, while Carrie Underwood made it back-to-back trophies as female vocalist of the year.

Today's Birthdays:

• Evangelist Billy Graham is 90.
• Opera singer Dame Joan Sutherland is 82.
• Actor Barry Newman is 70.
• Singer Johnny Rivers is 66.
• Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is 65.
• Singer Nick Gilder is 57.
• Actor Christopher Knight ("The Brady Bunch") is 51.
• Actress Julie Pinson is 41.
• Rock musician Greg Tribbett (Mudvayne) is 40.
• "Daughter" Amber Roy is 36
• Actor Christopher Daniel Barnes is 36.
• Actors Jeremy and Jason London are 36.
• Actress Yunjin Kim ("Lost") is 35.
• Rock musician Zach Myers (Shinedown) is 25.

Thought for Today:

"Vanity is as ill at ease under indifference, as tenderness is under the love which it cannot return."
George Eliot, English author (1819-1880).

"Let's all be careful out there!"