JANUARY 6TH

Today is Tuesday, Jan. 6, the sixth day of 2009.
There are 359 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Jan. 6, 1838, Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail gave the first successful public demonstration of their telegraph, in Morristown, N.J.

On this date:

• In 1540, England's King Henry VIII married his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. (The marriage lasted about six months.)
• In 1759, George Washington and Martha Dandridge Custis were married in New Kent County, Va.
• In 1912, New Mexico became the 47th state.
• In 1919, the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, died in Oyster Bay, N.Y., at age 60.
• In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his State of the Union address, outlined a goal of "Four Freedoms": Freedom of speech and expression; the freedom of people to worship God in their own way; freedom from want; freedom from fear.
• In 1942, the Pan American Airways Pacific Clipper arrived in New York more than a month after leaving California and following a westward route.
• In 1945, George Herbert Walker Bush married Barbara Pierce in Rye, N.Y.
• In 1967, U.S. Marines and South Vietnamese troops launched Operation Deckhouse Five, an offensive in the Mekong River delta.
• In 1982, truck driver William G. Bonin was convicted in Los Angeles of 10 of the "Freeway Killer" slayings of young men and boys. (Bonin was later convicted of four other killings; he was executed in 1996.)
• In 1994, figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the leg by an assailant at Cobo Arena in Detroit; four men, including Jeff Gillooly, ex-husband of Kerrigan's rival, Tonya Harding, were later sentenced to prison for their roles in the attack; Harding, who denied advance knowledge of the attack, received probation after pleading guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution.

Ten years ago:

• The 106th Congress convened with Dennis Hastert taking over as the new House speaker.
• Buckingham Palace announced that Prince Edward, the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II, would marry his longtime girlfriend, public relations executive Sophie Rhys-Jones, later in the year.

Five years ago:

• Thirteen children and two adults were killed in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province by a time-bomb concealed in an apple cart on a street regularly used by U.S. military patrols.
• A design consisting of two reflecting pools and a paved stone field was chosen for the World Trade Center memorial in New York.
• Mijailo Mijailovic confessed to the fatal stabbing of Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in September 2003.
• Hitting star Paul Molitor and reliever Dennis Eckersley were elected to baseball's Hall of Fame.

One year ago:

• In a video posted on the Internet, Al-Qaida's American spokesman, Adam Gadahn, urged fighters to meet President Bush with bombs during his upcoming Mideast visit.
• Mikhail Saakashvili won a second term as Georgia's president.

Today's Birthdays:

• Pollster Louis Harris is 88.
• Bluegrass performer Earl Scruggs is 85.
• Author E.L. Doctorow is 78.
• Actress Bonnie Franklin is 65.
• Musician Joey, the CowPolka King (Riders in the Sky) is 60.
• Rock singer-musician Kim Wilson (The Fabulous Thunderbirds) is 58.
• Singer Jett Williams is 56.
• Rock musician Malcolm Young (AC-DC) is 56.
• Actor-comedian Rowan Atkinson is 54.
• Golfer Nancy Lopez is 52.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer Kathy Sledge is 50.
• TV chef Nigella Lawson is 49.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer Eric Williams (BLACKstreet) is 49.
• Movie director John Singleton is 41.
• TV personality Julie Chen (CBS' "The Early Show") is 39.
• Actor Danny Pintauro ("Who's the Boss?") is 33.
• Actress Rinko Kikuchi (Film: "Babel") is 28.
• Rock singer Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys) is 23.

Thought for Today:

"What this generation was bred to at television's knees was not wisdom, but cynicism."
Pauline Kael, American movie critic (1919-2001).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 9-006

"Let's all be careful out there!"

JANUARY 5TH

Today is Monday, Jan. 5, the fifth day of 2009.
There are 360 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Jan. 5, 1896, an Austrian newspaper, Wiener Presse, reported the discovery by German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen of a type of radiation that came to be known as "X-rays."

On this date:

• In 1781, a British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold burned Richmond, Va.
• In 1809, the Treaty of the Dardanelles, which ended the Anglo-Turkish War, was concluded by the United Kingdom and the Ottoman Empire.
• In 1895, French Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, convicted of treason, was publicly stripped of his rank. (He was ultimately vindicated.)
• In 1925, Nellie T. Ross became governor of Wyoming; she was the first female governor in U.S. history. (She succeeded Frank E. Lucas, who had served as acting governor following the death of Ross' husband, William B. Ross.)
• In 1933, the 30th president of the United States, Calvin Coolidge, died in Northampton, Mass., at age 60.
• In 1949, in his State of the Union address, President Harry S. Truman labeled his administration the Fair Deal.
• In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed assistance to countries to help them resist Communist aggression; this became known as the Eisenhower Doctrine.
• In 1970, Joseph A. Yablonski, an unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of the United Mine Workers of America, was found murdered with his wife and daughter at their Clarksville, Pa., home. UMW President Anthony Boyle and three others were convicted of the killings.
• In 1994, Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, died in Boston at age 81.
• In 1998, Sonny Bono, the 1960's pop star-turned-politician, was killed when he struck a tree while skiing in South Lake Tahoe, Calif.; he was 62.

Ten years ago:

• Four U.S. Air Force and Navy jets fired on, and missed, four Iraqi MiGs testing the "no-fly" zone over southern Iraq in the first such air confrontation in more than six years.

Five years ago:

• Foreigners arriving at U.S. airports were photographed and had their fingerprints scanned in the start of a government effort to keep terrorists out of the country.
• NASA released a 3-D, black-and-white panoramic picture of the bleak surface of Mars snapped by the newly landed rover Spirit.
• China confirmed its first SARS case since an outbreak was contained in July 2003.
• After 14 years of denials, Pete Rose publicly admitted that he'd bet on baseball while manager of the Cincinnati Reds.
• Baseball pitcher Tug McGraw died near Nashville, Tenn., at age 59.

One year ago:

• Republican Mitt Romney won the Wyoming caucuses, picking up eight delegates; in a debate three days before the New Hampshire primary, Romney clashed with Mike Huckabee on foreign policy and John McCain on immigration.
• In a Democratic faceoff, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton accused campaign rival Barack Obama of changing his positions on health care and "a number of issues."
• A Piper Navajo Chieftain airplane crashed off Kodiak island in southern Alaska, killing six people.
• A canal breach in Fernley, Nev., flooded about 600 homes.
• New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady won The Associated Press 2007 NFL MVP award.

Today's Birthdays:

• Former Vice President Walter F. Mondale is 81.
• Actor Robert Duvall is 78.
• Football Hall-of-Fame coach Chuck Noll is 77.
• King Juan Carlos of Spain is 71.
• Talk show host Charlie Rose is 67.
• Actress-director Diane Keaton is 63.
• Actor Ted Lange is 61.
• Rhythm-and-blues musician George "Funky" Brown (Kool and the Gang) is 60.
• Rock musician Chris Stein (Blondie) is 59.
• Actress Pamela Sue Martin is 56.
• Actor Clancy Brown is 50.
• Singer Iris Dement is 48.
• Actor Ricky Paull Goldin is 44.
• Actor Vinnie Jones is 44.
• Rock musician Kate Schellenbach (Luscious Jackson) is 43.
• Actress Heather Paige Kent is 40.
• Rock singer Marilyn Manson is 40.
• Actress January Jones is 31.
• Actress Brooklyn Sudano is 28.

Thought for Today:

"The most certain sign of being born with great qualities is to be born without envy."
Francois de La Rochefoucauld, French author (1613-1680).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 9-005

"Let's all be careful out there!"

JANUARY 4TH

Today is Sunday, Jan. 4, the fourth day of 2009.
There are 361 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• Two hundred years ago, on Jan. 4, 1809, Louis Braille, inventor of the Braille raised-dot reading system for the blind, was born in Coupvray, France.

On this date:

• In 1821, the first native-born American saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, died in Emmitsburg, Md.
• In 1896, Utah was admitted as the 45th state.
• In 1904, the Supreme Court, in Gonzalez v. Williams, ruled that Puerto Ricans were not aliens and could enter the United States freely; however, the court stopped short of declaring them U.S. citizens.
• In 1948, Burma (now called Myanmar) became independent of British rule.
• In 1951, during the Korean War, North Korean and Communist Chinese forces recaptured the city of Seoul.
• In 1960, Nobel Prize-winning French author Albert Camus died in an automobile accident at age 46.
• In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson outlined the goals of his "Great Society" in his State of the Union Address.
  
• Poet T.S. Eliot died in London at age 76.
• In 1974, President Richard M. Nixon refused to hand over tape recordings and documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.
• In 1987, 16 people were killed when an Amtrak train bound from Washington to Boston collided with Conrail locomotives that had crossed into its path from a side track in Chase, Md.
• In 2007, Nancy Pelosi was elected the first female speaker of the House as Democrats took control of Congress.

Ten years ago:

• Europe's new currency, the euro, got off to a strong start on its first trading day, rising against the dollar on world currency markets.
• Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura took the oath of office as Minnesota's governor.

Five years ago:

• In Iowa, seven of the nine Democratic presidential hopefuls participated in a feisty, first debate of the election year.
• Afghans approved a new constitution.
• Georgians overwhelmingly elected Mikhail Saakashvili president, two months after he'd led protests that forced Eduard Shevardnadze to step down.
• Louisiana State University won college football's Sugar Bowl, defeating Oklahoma 21-14.

One year ago:

• The government reported that the nation's jobless rate hit 5 percent in December 2007, a two-year high, fanning recession fears.
• Howling winds, pelting rain and heavy snow pummeled California.
• Britney Spears lost custody of her two sons to ex-husband Kevin Federline a day after police and paramedics were called to her home.

Today's Birthdays:

• Actress Barbara Rush is 82.
• Football Hall-of-Fame coach Don Shula is 79.
• Actress Dyan Cannon is 72.
• Opera singer Grace Bumbry is 72.
• Author-historian Doris Kearns Goodwin is 66.
• Country singer Kathy Forester (The Forester Sisters) is 54.
• Actress Ann Magnuson is 53.
• Rock musician Bernard Sumner (New Order, Joy Division) is 53.
• Country singer Patty Loveless is 52.
• Rock singer Michael Stipe (R.E.M.) is 49.
• Actor Patrick Cassidy is 47.
• Actor Dave Foley is 46.
• Singer-musician Cait O'Riordan is 44.
• Actress Julia Ormond is 44.
• Tennis player Guy Forget is 44.
• Country singer Deana Carter is 43.
• Rock musician Benjamin Darvill (Crash Test Dummies) is 42.
• Actor Jeremy Licht is 38.
• Actress-singer Jill Marie Jones is 34.
• Christian rock singer Spencer Chamberlain (Underoath) is 26.

Thought for Today:

"Sometimes history takes things into its own hands."
Thurgood Marshall, U.S. Supreme Court justice (1908-1993).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 9-004

"Let's all be careful out there!"

JANUARY 3RD

Today is Saturday, Jan. 3, the third day of 2009.
There are 362 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

Jan. 3, 1959, Alaska became the 49th state as President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a proclamation.

On this date:

• 1521, Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Leo X.
• 1777, Gen. George Washington's army routed the British in the Battle of Princeton, N.J.
• 1868, the Meiji Restoration re-established the authority of Japan's emperor and heralded the fall of the military rulers known as shoguns.
• 1909, Danish-American comedian Victor Borge was born in Copenhagen.
• 1938, the March of Dimes campaign to fight polio was organized.
• 1947, congressional proceedings were televised for the first time as viewers in Washington, Philadelphia and New York got to see some of the opening ceremonies of the 80th Congress.
• 1949, in a pair of rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court said that states had the right to ban closed shops.
• 1961, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba.
• 1990, ousted Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. forces, 10 days after taking refuge in the Vatican's diplomatic mission.
• 1993, President George H.W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a historic nuclear missile-reduction treaty in Moscow.

Ten years ago:

• Chicagoans dug out from their biggest snowstorm in more than 30 years.
• Israeli authorities detained, and later expelled, 14 members of Concerned Christians, a Denver-based cult which Israeli officials feared was plotting violence in Jerusalem to bring about the Second Coming of Christ.

Five years ago:

• A Boeing 737 owned by Egyptian charter tour operator Flash Airlines crashed into the Red Sea, killing all 148 people aboard, most of them French tourists.
• NASA's Mars rover, Spirit, touched down on Mars.

One year ago:

• Barack Obama won the Democratic caucuses in Iowa, while Mike Huckabee won the Republican caucuses.
• After nearly 27 years in prison, Texas inmate Charles Chatman was set free by a judge because of new DNA evidence showing he'd been wrongly convicted of rape.
• Pop star Britney Spears was hospitalized after a child custody dispute with ex-husband Kevin Federline resulted in an hours-long standoff with police.
• The Kansas Jayhawks won the Orange Bowl, defeating Virginia Tech 24-21.

Today's Birthdays:

• Record producer Sir George Martin is 83.
• Journalist-author Betty Rollin is 73.
• Hockey Hall-of-Famer Bobby Hull is 70.
• Singer-songwriter-producer Van Dyke Parks is 66.
• Musician Stephen Stills is 64.
• Rock musician John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) is 63.
• Actress Victoria Principal is 59.
• Actor-director Mel Gibson is 53.
• Actress Shannon Sturges is 41.
• Jazz musician James Carter is 40.
• Contemporary Christian singer Nichole Nordeman is 37.
• Actor Jason Marsden is 34.
• Actress Danica McKellar is 34.
• Actor Nicholas Gonzalez is 33.
• Singer Kimberley Locke ("American Idol") is 31.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer Lloyd is 23.
• Actor Alex D. Linz is 20.

Thought for Today:

"The human body is the best picture of the human soul." -
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian philosopher (1889-1951).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 9-003

"Let's all be careful out there!"

JANUARY 2ND

Today is Friday, Jan. 2, the second day of 2009.
There are 363 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• Fifty years ago, on Jan. 2, 1959, the Soviet Union launched its space probe Luna 1, the first manmade object to fly past the moon, its apparent intended target.
• Click here to find out more!

On this date:

• In 1492, Muhammad XII, the sultan of Granada, the last Arab stronghold in Spain, surrendered to Spanish forces.
• In 1788, Georgia became the fourth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
• In 1900, Secretary of State John Hay announced the "Open Door Policy" to facilitate trade with China.
• In 1929, the United States and Canada reached agreement on joint action to preserve Niagara Falls.
• In 1935, Bruno Hauptmann went on trial in Flemington, N.J., on charges of kidnapping and murdering the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. (Hauptmann was found guilty, and executed.)
• In 1942, the Philippine capital of Manila was captured by Japanese forces during World War II.
• In 1960, Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.
• In 1965, the New York Jets signed University of Alabama quarterback Joe Namath to a contract reportedly worth $427,000.
• In 1974, President Richard M. Nixon signed legislation requiring states to limit highway speeds to 55 miles an hour. (However, federal speed limits were abolished in 1995).
• In 2006, a methane gas explosion at the Sago Mine in West Virginia claimed the lives of 12 miners, but a 13th miner, Randal McCloy Jr., was eventually rescued.

Ten years ago:

• A U.N.-chartered cargo plane carrying nine people was downed in Angola's central highland war zone; there were no survivors.

Five years ago:

• Insurgents shot down a U.S. helicopter west of Baghdad, killing one soldier.
• British flights to Washington and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, were canceled as a security precaution.
• The NASA spacecraft Stardust flew through the halo of the distant comet Wild 2.

One year ago:

• The Justice Department opened a full criminal investigation into the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes.
• Pakistan pushed back parliamentary elections until Feb. 18, 2008, a six-week delay prompted by rioting that followed the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
• Oil prices soared to $100 a barrel for the first time.
• Late-night talk shows returned to the air two months into a writers' strike. (David Letterman and Craig Ferguson had interim agreements allowing writers to work on their shows; Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and ABC's Jimmy Kimmel returned without theirs.)

Today's Birthdays:

• Country musician Harold Bradley is 83.
• TV host Jack Hanna is 62.
• Actress Wendy Phillips is 57.
• Actress Gabrielle Carteris is 48.
• Movie director Todd Haynes is 48.
• Actress Tia Carrere is 42.
• Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. is 41.
• Model Christy Turlington is 40.
• Actor Taye Diggs is 38.
• Rock musician Scott Underwood (Train) is 38.
• Rock singer Doug Robb (Hoobastank) is 34.
• Actor Dax Shepard is 34.
• Actress Paz Vega is 33.
• Country musician Chris Hartman is 31.
• Rock musician Jerry DePizzo Jr. (O.A.R.) is 30.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer Kelton Kessee (IMX) is 28.
• Actress Kate Bosworth is 26.

Thought for Today:

"There are no whole truths; all truths are half-truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil." -
Alfred North Whitehead, English philosopher and mathematician (1861-1947).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 9-002

"Let's all be careful out there!"