NOVEMBER 22ND

Today is Saturday, Nov. 22, the 327th day of 2008.
There are 39 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Nov. 22, 1963, President Kennedy was shot to death while riding in a motorcade in Dallas. Texas Gov. John B. Connally, in the same limousine as Kennedy, was seriously wounded. Suspect Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested.

On this date:

• In 1718, English pirate Edward Teach — better known as "Blackbeard" — was killed during a battle off the Virginia coast.
• In 1890, French president Charles de Gaulle was born in Lille, France.
• In 1928, "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel was first performed, in Paris.
• In 1935, a flying boat, the China Clipper, took off from Alameda, Calif., carrying more than 100,000 pieces of mail on the first trans-Pacific airmail flight.
• In 1943, President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek met in Cairo to discuss measures for defeating Japan.
• In 1943, lyricist Lorenz Hart died in New York at age 48.
• In 1965, the musical "Man of La Mancha" opened in New York.
• In 1967, the U.N. Security Council approved Resolution 242, which called for Israel to withdraw from territories it had captured the previous June, and implicitly called on adversaries to recognize Israel's right to exist.
• In 1975, Juan Carlos was proclaimed King of Spain.
• In 1990, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, having failed to win re-election of the Conservative Party leadership on the first ballot, announced her resignation.

Ten years ago:

• The CBS News program "60 Minutes" aired videotape of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, an advocate of assisted suicide, administering lethal drugs to Thomas Youk, a terminally ill patient. (Kevorkian, who challenged prosecutors to charge him, was later convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 10 to 25 years in prison. He was released in 2007 after serving eight years.)

Five years ago:

• The Medicare prescription drug bill narrowly passed the House, 220-215, following a dusk-to-dawn debate.
• Thousands of mourners gathered in downtown Dallas along the street where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated 40 years earlier.
• College student Dru Sjodin disappeared while leaving her job at a Grand Forks, N.D., mall. (Sjodin's body was found in April 2004; a suspect, Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., was later convicted of kidnapping and murder and sentenced to death.)

One year ago:

• Retailers lured shoppers to stores and online on Thanksgiving Day ahead of the traditional Black Friday kickoff.
• A gunman shot and killed his ex-wife, their three children and himself in a park in Laytonsville, Md.
• French rail workers who'd staged a nine-day-old strike voted to return to the job.

Today's Birthdays:

• Former Sen. Claiborne Pell, D-R.I., is 90.
• Movie director Arthur Hiller is 85.
• Actor Robert Vaughn is 76.
• Actor Michael Callan is 73.
• Actor Allen Garfield is 69.
• Animator and movie director Terry Gilliam is 68.
• Actor Tom Conti is 67.
• Singer Jesse Colin Young is 67.
• Astronaut Guion S. Bluford is 66.
• Tennis player Billie Jean King is 65.
• Rock musician-actor Steve Van Zandt (AKA Little Steven) is 58.
• Rock musician Tina Weymouth (The Heads; Talking Heads; The Tom Tom Club) is 58.
• Former baseball player Greg Luzinski is 58.
• Rock musician Lawrence Gowan is 52.
• Actor Richard Kind is 52.
• Actress Jamie Lee Curtis is 50.
• Rock singer Jason Ringenberg (Jason & the Scorchers) is 50.
• Actress Mariel Hemingway is 47.
• Actor Stephen Geoffreys is 44.
• Rock musician Charlie Colin is 42.
• Actor Nicholas Rowe is 42.
• Actor Mark Ruffalo is 41.
• Tennis player Boris Becker is 41.
• Actor-singer Tyler Hilton is 25.
• Actress Scarlett Johansson is 24.

Thought for Today:

"In youth we feel richer for every new illusion; in maturer years, for every one we lose."
Anne Sophie Swetchine, Russian-French author (1782-1857).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 8-327

"Let's all be careful out there!"

NOVEMBER 21ST

Today is Friday, Nov. 21, the 326th day of 2008.
There are 40 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Nov. 21, 1922, Rebecca L. Felton of Georgia was sworn in as the first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate.

On this date:

• In 1789, North Carolina became the 12th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
• In 1927, picketing strikers at the Columbine Mine in northern Colorado were fired on by state police; six miners were killed.
• In 1942, the Alaska Highway was formally opened.
• In 1958, baseball Hall-of-Famer Mel Ott died in New Orleans at age 49.
• In 1964, the upper level of New York's Verrazano Narrows Bridge, connecting Brooklyn and Staten Island, was opened.
• In 1967, President Johnson signed the Air Quality Act.
• In 1969, the Senate voted down the Supreme Court nomination of Clement F. Haynsworth, 55-45, the first such rejection since 1930.
• In 1973, President Nixon's attorney, J. Fred Buzhardt, revealed the existence of an 18 1/2-minute gap in one of the White House tape recordings related to Watergate.
• In 1980, 87 people died in a fire at the MGM Grand Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas.
• In 1988, Canada's Progressive Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, won the country's general election.

Ten years ago:

• President Clinton, visiting South Korea, warned North Korea to forsake nuclear weapons, and urged the North to seize "an historic opportunity" for peace with the South.

Five years ago:

• More than a dozen rockets fired from donkey carts slammed into Iraq's Oil Ministry and two downtown Baghdad hotels used by foreign journalists and civilian defense contractors.
• Health officials said a deadly outbreak of hepatitis A at a Chi-Chi's Mexican restaurant in suburban Pittsburgh was probably caused by green onions from Mexico.

One year ago:

• New Hampshire set its earliest-ever presidential primary, deciding on Jan. 8, 2008.
• Officials announced the recall of more than a half-million pieces of Chinese-made children's jewelry contaminated with lead.
• Engineer Herbert Saffir, who created the five-category system used to describe hurricane strength, died in Miami at age 90.

Today's Birthdays:

• Baseball Hall-of-Famer Stan Musial is 88.
• Actor Joseph Campanella is 81.
• Country singer Jean Shepard is 75.
• Actor Laurence Luckinbill is 74.
• Actress Marlo Thomas is 71.
• Actor Rick Lenz is 69.
  
• Singer Dr. John is 68.
• Actress Juliet Mills is 67.
• Comedian-director Harold Ramis is 64.
• Television producer Marcy Carsey is 64.
• Actress Goldie Hawn is 63.
• Movie director Andrew Davis is 62.
• Rock musician Lonnie Jordan (War) is 60.
• Singer Livingston Taylor is 58.
• Actress-singer Lorna Luft is 56.
• Actress Cherry Jones is 52.
• Rock musician Brian Ritchie (The Violent Femmes) is 48.
• Gospel singer Steven Curtis Chapman is 46.
• Actress Nicollette Sheridan is 45.
• Singer-actress Bjork is 43.
• Football player Troy Aikman is 42.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer Chauncey Hannibal (BLACKstreet) is 40.
• Rock musician Alex James (Blur) is 40.
• Baseball player Ken Griffey Jr. is 39.
• Rapper Pretty Lou (Lost Boyz) is 37.
• Country singer Kelsi Osborn (SHeDAISY) is 34.
• Actress Jena Malone is 24.

Thought for Today:

"A concept is stronger than a fact."
Charlotte P. Gilman, American lecturer and author (1860-1935).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 8-326

"Let's all be careful out there!"

NOVEMBER 20TH

Today is Thursday, Nov. 20, the 325th day of 2008.
There are 41 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Nov. 20, 1947, Britain's future queen, Princess Elizabeth, married Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey.

On this date:

• In 1789, New Jersey became the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights.
• In 1908, Anglo-American journalist and broadcaster Alistair Cooke was born in Salford, England.
• In 1910, revolution broke out in Mexico, led by Francisco I. Madero.
• In 1925, Robert F. Kennedy was born in Brookline, Mass.
• In 1929, the radio program "The Rise of the Goldbergs" debuted on the NBC Blue Network.
• In 1945, 22 out of 24 indicted Nazi officials went on trial (one in absentia) before an international war crimes tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany.
• In 1959, the United Nations issued its "Declaration of the Rights of the Child."
• In 1967, the Census Clock at the Commerce Department ticked past 200,000,000.
• In 1975, after nearly four decades of absolute rule, Spain's General Francisco Franco died, two weeks before his 83rd birthday.
• In 1992, fire seriously damaged Windsor Castle, the favorite weekend home of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.

Ten years ago:

• Forty-six states embraced a $206 billion settlement with cigarette makers over health costs for treating sick smokers.
• President Clinton wrapped up a visit to Japan and flew to South Korea.
• Israel turned over an additional 2 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinians.

Five years ago:

• Michael Jackson was booked on suspicion of child molestation in Santa Barbara, Calif. (Jackson was later acquitted at trial.)
• Record producer Phil Spector was charged with murder in the shooting death of an actress, Lana Clarkson, at his home in Alhambra, Calif., in February 2003. (Spector is being retried after his first trial ended in a deadlocked jury.)
• Suicide bombers blew up trucks in Istanbul, Turkey, at the British consulate and at a London-based bank, killing 32 people.
• Tens of thousands of demonstrators in London burned an effigy of President Bush to show their anger over the Iraq war.
• In Miami, trade ministers from across the Americas gave final approval to a framework for the world's largest free trade bloc as police clashed with hundreds of demonstrators.

One year ago:

• A judge in St. George, Utah, sentenced polygamous-sect leader Warren Jeffs to five years to life in prison for his role in the arranged marriage of an underage girl to her older cousin.
• Scientists in Japan and the U.S. reported creating the equivalent of embryonic stem cells from ordinary skin cells.
• Ian Smith, the last white prime minister of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), died near Cape Town, South Africa, at age 88.

Today's Birthdays:

• Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., is 91.
• Economist Beryl Sprinkel is 85.
• Actress-comedian Kaye Ballard is 83.
• Actress Estelle Parsons is 81.
• TV personality Richard Dawson is 76.
• Comedian Dick Smothers is 70.
• Singer Norman Greenbaum is 66.
• Vice President-elect Joe Biden is 66.
• Actress Veronica Hamel is 65.
• Broadcast journalist Judy Woodruff is 62.
• Actor Samuel E. Wright is 62.
• Singer Joe Walsh is 61.
• Actor Richard Masur is 60.
• Actress Bo Derek is 52.
• Reggae musician Jim Brown (UB40) is 51.
• Actress Sean Young is 49.
• Pianist Jim Brickman is 47.
• Rock musician Todd Nance (Widespread Panic) is 46.
• Actress Ming-Na is 45.
• Rapper Mike D (The Beastie Boys) is 43.
• Rapper Sen Dog (Cypress Hill) is 43.
• Actress Callie Thorne is 39.
• Actress Sabrina Lloyd is 38.
• Actress Marisa Ryan is 34.
• Country singer Dierks Bentley is 33.
• Actor Joshua Gomez is 33.
• Actress Laura Harris is 32.
• Country singer Josh Turner is 31.
• Actress Nadine Velazquez is 30.
• Actor Cody Linley is 19.

Thought for Today:

"People, when they first come to America, whether as travelers or settlers, become aware of a new and agreeable feeling: that the whole country is their oyster."
Alistair Cooke, British-born American journalist and broadcaster (1908-2004).

"Let's all be careful out there!"