DAILY CHUCKLE 8-351

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DECEMBER 15TH

Today is Monday, Dec. 15, the 350th day of 2008.
There are 16 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Dec. 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights went into effect following ratification by Virginia.

On this date:

• In 1890, Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull and 11 other tribe members were killed in Grand River, S.D., during a confrontation with Indian police.
• In 1938, groundbreaking ceremonies for the Jefferson Memorial took place in Washington, D.C., with President Franklin D. Roosevelt taking part.
• In 1939, the motion picture "Gone With the Wind" had its world premiere in Atlanta.
• In 1944, a single-engine plane carrying bandleader Glenn Miller, who was a major in the U.S. Army Air Forces, disappeared over the English Channel while en route to Paris.
• In 1944, during World War II, American forces invaded Mindoro Island in the Philippines.
• In 1948, former State Department official Alger Hiss was indicted by a federal grand jury in New York on charges of perjury. (He was convicted in 1950.)
• In 1961, former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death by an Israeli court.
• In 1964, Canada's House of Commons approved dropping the "Red Ensign" flag in favor of a new design.
• In 1965, two U.S. manned spacecraft, Gemini 6A and Gemini 7, maneuvered to within ten feet of each other while in orbit.
• In 1978, Cleveland became the first major U.S. city since the Great Depression to default on its loans.

Ten years ago:

• President Bill Clinton concluded his three-day Middle East journey on a disappointing note as Israel refused to resume the West Bank troop withdrawals called for under the Wye River peace accord; nevertheless, Clinton declared his trip a success.

Five years ago:

• Former nurse Charles Cullen was charged with murder after telling prosecutors he had killed 30 to 40 severely ill patients in Pennsylvania and New Jersey since 1987 by injecting them with drugs. (Cullen later pleaded guilty to killing 29 people and attempting to kill six others; he was sentenced to 18 life prison terms.)
• The late Sen. Strom Thurmond's family acknowledged Essie Mae Washington-Williams' claim that she was his illegitimate mixed-race daughter.

One year ago:

• Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf lifted a six-week-old state of emergency.
• International climate talks in Bali, Indonesia, culminated in a last-minute U.S. compromise and an agreement to adopt a blueprint for fighting global warming by 2009.
• Celine Dion concluded a five-year engagement at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Today's Birthdays:

• Country singer Ernest Ashworth is 80.
• Actor-comedian Tim Conway is 75.
• Singer Cindy Birdsong (The Supremes) is 69.
• Rock musician Dave Clark (The Dave Clark Five) is 66.
• Rock musician Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge) is 62.
• Actor Don Johnson is 59.
• Movie director Julie Taymor is 56.
• Movie director Alex Cox is 54.
• Actor Justin Ross is 54.
• Rock musician Paul Simonon (The Clash) is 53.
• Country singer Doug Phelps (Brother Phelps; Kentucky Headhunters) is 48.
• Movie producer-director Reginald Hudlin is 47.
• Actress Helen Slater is 45.
• Actress Molly Price is 43.
• Actor Michael Shanks is 38.
• Actor Stuart Townsend is 36.
• "Crowd-hyper" Kito Trawick (Ghostown DJs) is 31.
• Actor Adam Brody is 29.
• Actor George O. Gore II is 27.

Thought for Today:

"History is the record of an encounter between character and circumstances."
Donald Creighton, Canadian historian (1902-1979).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 8-350

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DECEMBER 14TH

Today is Sunday, Dec. 14, the 349th day of 2008.
There are 17 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Dec. 14, 1799, the first president of the United States, George Washington, died at his Mount Vernon, Va., home at age 67.

On this date:

• In 1819, Alabama joined the Union as the 22nd state.
• In 1861, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, died in London.
• In 1911, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his group became the first men to reach the South Pole, beating out an expedition led by Robert F. Scott.
• In 1939, the Soviet Union was dropped from the League of Nations.
• In 1946, the United Nations General Assembly voted to establish U.N. headquarters in New York.
• In 1962, the U.S. space probe Mariner 2 approached Venus, transmitting information about the planet.
• In 1975, six South Moluccan extremists surrendered after holding 23 hostages for 12 days on a train near the Dutch town of Beilen.
• In 1981, Israel annexed the Golan Heights, which it had seized from Syria in 1967.
• In 1995, Presidents Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia, Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia and Franjo Tudjman of Croatia signed the Bosnian peace treaty in Paris.
• In 2006, South Korea's Ban Ki-moon was sworn in as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations.

Ten years ago:

• President Bill Clinton stood witness as hundreds of Palestinian leaders renounced a call for the destruction of Israel.

Five years ago:

• A weary, disheveled Saddam Hussein was displayed on television screens worldwide, a day after his capture by American troops.
• A car bombing outside an Iraqi police station near Baghdad killed at least 17 people.
• Actress Jeanne Crain died in Santa Barbara, Calif., at age 78.

One year ago:

• A man accused of being the Phoenix Baseline Killer was sentenced to 438 years in prison for the sexual assaults of two sisters. (Mark Goudeau still faces trial for the slayings of eight women and a man in 2005-2006; he has pleaded not guilty.)

Today's Birthdays:

• Jazz musician Clark Terry is 88.
• Former "60 Minutes" executive producer Don Hewitt is 86.
• Actor Hal Williams is 70.
• Actress Patty Duke is 62.
• Pop singer Joyce Vincent-Wilson (Tony Orlando and Dawn) is 62.
• Entertainment executive Michael Ovitz is 62.
• Actress Dee Wallace is 60.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer Ronnie McNeir (The Four Tops) is 59.
• Rock musician Cliff Williams (AC/DC) is 59.
• Rock singer-musician Mike Scott (The Waterboys) is 50.
• Singer-musician Peter "Spider" Stacy (The Pogues) is 50.
• Actress Cynthia Gibb is 45.
• Actress Natascha McElhone is 39.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer Brian Dalyrimple (Soul For Real) is 33.
• Actress KaDee Strickland is 33.
• Actress Tammy Blanchard is 32.
• Actress Sophie Monk is 29.
• Actress Vanessa Hudgens is 20.

Thought for Today:

"You can close your eyes to reality but not to memories."
Stanislaw J. Lec, Polish author (1909-1966).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 8-349

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DECEMBER 13TH

Today is Saturday, Dec. 13, the 348th day of 2008.
There are 18 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Dec. 13, 1862, Union forces suffered a major defeat to the Confederates in the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg (Va.).

On this date:

• In 1642, Dutch navigator Abel Tasman sighted present-day New Zealand.
• In 1769, Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, received its charter.
• In 1835, Phillips Brooks, the American Episcopal bishop who wrote the words to "O Little Town of Bethlehem," was born in Boston.
• In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson arrived in France, becoming the first chief executive to visit Europe while in office.
• In 1928, George Gershwin's musical work "An American in Paris" had its premiere, at Carnegie Hall in New York.
• In 1944, during World War II, the U.S. cruiser Nashville was badly damaged in a Japanese kamikaze attack that claimed more than 130 lives.
• In 1978, the Philadelphia Mint began stamping the Susan B. Anthony dollar, which went into circulation in July 1979.
• In 1981, authorities in Poland imposed martial law in a crackdown on the Solidarity labor movement. (Martial law formally ended in 1983.)
• In 1994, an American Eagle commuter plane crashed short of Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina, killing 15 of the 20 people on board.
• In 1996, the U.N. Security Council chose Kofi Annan of Ghana to become the world body's seventh secretary-general.

Ten years ago:

• With a grave impeachment threat looming, President Bill Clinton told a news conference in Jerusalem he would not resign, and insisted he did not commit perjury.
• Voters in Puerto Rico rejected U.S. statehood.

Five years ago:

• Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces while hiding in a hole under a farmhouse in Adwar, Iraq, near his hometown of Tikrit.
• A summit to forge a European Union constitution collapsed in Brussels, Belgium.
• Oklahoma quarterback Jason White won the Heisman Trophy.
• Former Sen. William V. Roth Jr., R-Del., creator of Roth IRA accounts, died in Washington at age 82.

One year ago:

• Democratic presidential hopefuls meeting in Johnston, Iowa, called for higher taxes on the highest-paid Americans and on big corporations in an unusually cordial debate.
• Shareholders of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, approved a takeover by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
• Major League Baseball's Mitchell Report was released, identifying 85 names to differing degrees in connection with the alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Today's Birthdays:

• Former Secretary of State George P. Shultz is 88.
• Actor-comedian Dick Van Dyke is 83.
• Actor Christopher Plummer is 79.
• Actor Robert Prosky is 78. (Sadly, he passed 0n 2008-12-08)
  
• Country singer Buck White is 78.
• Music/film producer Lou Adler is 75.
• Movie producer Richard Zanuck is 74.
• Singer John Davidson is 67.
• Actress Kathy Garver (TV: "Family Affair") is 63.
• Singer Ted Nugent is 60.
• Rock musician Jeff "Skunk" Baxter is 60.
• Country musician Ron Getman is 60.
• Actor Robert Lindsay is 59.
• Country singer-musician Randy Owen is 59.
• Actress Wendie Malick is 58.
• Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is 55.
• Country singer John Anderson is 54.
• Singer-songwriter Steve Forbert is 54.
• Singer-actor Morris Day is 52.
• Actor Steve Buscemi is 51.
• Actor Johnny Whitaker is 49.
• Actor-comedian Jamie Foxx is 41.
• TV personality Debbie Matenopoulos is 34.
• Rock singer-musician Thomas Delonge is 33.
• Actor James Kyson Lee is 33.
• Actress Chelsea Hertford is 27.
• Rock singer Amy Lee (Evanescence) is 27.
• Country singer Taylor Swift is 19.

Thought for Today:

"My theory is to enjoy life, but the practice is against it."
Charles Lamb, English essayist (1775-1834).

"Let's all be careful out there!"