This Day & History ...

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[SIZE=+4]July 23[/SIZE]

Click here for Famous Birthdays for this day.
Click here for Music history for this day.

1715 - The first lighthouse in America was authorized for construction at Little Brewster Island, Massachusetts.

1827 - The first swimming school in the U.S. opened in Boston, MA.

1829 - William Burt patented the typographer, which was the first typewriter.

Birthdays


Karl Menninger 1893

Vincent Sardi 1894

Arthur Treacher 1894

Karl Swenson 1908

Michael Wilding 1912

Coral Browne 1913

Calvert DeForest 1921

Gloria De Haven 1925

Billy Maxwell 1929

Bert Convey 1933

Stacy Lacy 1934

Cleveland Duncan 1935 - Musician (Penguins)

Don Drysdale 1936

Ronny Cox 1938

Nicholas Gage 1939

Don Imus 1940 - Radio personality

Gary Stites 1940

Tony Joe White 1943

Dino Danelli 1945 - Musician (The Rascals)

Andy Mackay 1946 - Musician (Roxy Music)

David Essex 1947

Larry Manetti 1947

Belinda Montgomery 1950

Blair Thornton 1950 - Musician (Bachman-Turner Overdrive)

Edie McClurg 1951

Woody Harrelson 1961

Martin Lee Gore 1961 - Musician (Depeche Mode)

Eriq LaSalle 1962

Yuval Gabay (Soul Coughing) 1963

Nick Menza 1964 - Musician (Megadeth)

Slash (Saul Hudson) 1965 - Muscian (Guns N' Roses)

Stephanie Seymour 1968

Charisma Carpenter 1970

Sam Watters 1970 - Musician (Color Me Badd)

Alison Krauss 1971

Chad Gracey 1971 - Musician (Live)

Mr. Dalvin (Jodeci) 1971

Marlon Wayans 1972

Omar Epps 1973​

1877 - The first municipal railroad passenger service began in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1886 - Steve Brodie, a New York saloonkeeper, claimed to have made a daredevil plunge from the Brooklyn Bridge into the East River.

1904 - The ice cream cone was invented by Charles E. Menches during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, MO.

1914 - Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia following the killing of Archduke Francis Ferdinand by a Serb assassin. The dispute led to World War I.

1938 - The first federal game preserve was approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The area was 2,000 acres in Utah.

1945 - The first passenger train observation car was placed in service by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.

1952 - Egyptian military officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew King Farouk I.

1954 - A law is passed that states that "The Secretary of the Navy is authorized to repair, equip, and restore the United States Ship Constitution, as far as may be practicable, to her original appearance, but not for active service, and thereafter to maintain the United States Ship Constitution at Boston, Massachusetts."

1958 - The submarine Nautilus departed from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, under orders to conduct "Operation Sunshine." The mission was to be the first vessel to cross the north pole by ship. The Nautils achieved the goal on August 3, 1958.

1962 - The "Telstar" communications satellite sent the first live TV broadcast to Europe.

1967 - In Detroit, MI, rioting that claimed some 43 lives.

1972 - Eddie Merckx of Belgium won his fourth consecutive Tour de France bicycling competition.

1972 - The U.S. launched Landsat 1 (ERTS-1). It was the first Earth-resources satellite.

1977 - A jury in Washington, DC, convicted 12 Hanafi Muslims of charges stemming from the hostage siege at three buildings the previous March.

1984 - Miss America, Vanessa Williams, turned in her crown after it had been discovered that nude photos of her had appeared in "Penthouse" magazine. She was the first to resign the title.

1986 - Britain's Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey in London. They divorced in 1996.

1997 - Police in Miami Beach, FL, found the body of Andrew Cunanan. He was the suspected killer of Gianni Versace.

1998 - U.S. scientists at the University of Hawaii turned out more than 50 "carbon-copy" mice, with a cloning technique.

2000 - Lance Armstrong won his second Tour de France.




Today is Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Today in
World War II History

1940 - The Soviet Union took control of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

1951 - General Henri-Philippe Petain died at age 95. Petain had been convicted of collaboration with German occupiers of his country during World War II and was sentenced to life in prison.


Random World War II Quote

"On the European Front, the most important development of the past year has been the crushing German offensive against the great armies of Russia."
President Franklin D. Roosevelt - April 28, 1942​

 

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Today in Rotten History
Aug 3 1950

The U.S. Army knowingly kills hundreds of civilian refugees when Maj. General Hobart R. Gay gives the order to demolish the bridge, including refugees, over the Naktong River at Waegwan, Korea.

Aug 3 1963

Almost a year after the world barely averted World War III during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Hotline between the Pentagon and the Kremlin goes live. The system consists of two teletype machines, with a full-time communications link routed through London, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Helsinki. Not to be confused with the Batphone.

Aug 3 1966

Comedian and social critic Lenny Bruce dies of a morphine overdose in his Hollywood Hills home, two years after his original obituary was published in The Realist. At the time of his death, Bruce was being maliciously harassed by police and districts attorney in various states for his groundbreaking standup performances, causing great difficulty in finding venues at which to perform.

Aug 3 1996

An angry God makes "Macarena" by Los Del Rio #1 on the pop charts. The accompanying dancing disease afflicts millions before final eradication.​

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TODAY IN ROTTEN HISTORY

we live in a slightly mad world

Aug 4 1892

Someone takes an axe and kills Lizzie Borden's millionaire parents. Andrew receives 10 whacks, and Abby 14. Lizzie is later tried for the murders, but acquitted.

Aug 4 1964

Vietcong torpedo boats launch an unprovoked attack against the U.S.S. Maddox, while the destroyer is patrolling the Gulf of Tonkin. Except that it's only a hoax. Regardless, the Congress responds by passing the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing President Johnson "to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression." Which is how we wound up napalming those babies.

Aug 4 1993

Japan finally acknowledges that it forced 200,000 Korean and Chinese "comfort women" to fuck members of its armed forces between 1932 and 1945. Japan apologizes for the "immeasurable pain and incurable psychological wounds" it inflicted by forcing these women to be state whores, but makes no offer to pay reparations.

Aug 4 1994

Howard Stern withdraws his candidacy for governor of New York, ostensibly to avoid complying with the financial disclosure laws.


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Today in Rotten History
Aug 5 1955

Fruit-hat-wearing Brazilian superstar Carmen Miranda dead from cancer at 46.

Aug 5 1962

In her Brentwood, California home, Marilyn Monroe dies in bed, naked, after swallowing an overdose of sleeping pills. Or maybe she's killed by the CIA with a barbiturate enema. Either way, she's dead.

Aug 5 1963

The U.S., U.K. and Soviet Union agree to ban almost all nuclear testing. Underground testing is still permitted, however.

Aug 5 1980

The Osmonds musical group breaks up.

Aug 5 1983

Yankees outfielder Dave Winfield is charged in Toronto with cruelty to animals after fatally beaning a seagull with a baseball.​

 

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Aug 6 1890

Axe murderer William Kemmler becomes the first American executed by the Electric Chair, an invention created primarily to malign alternating current. It takes about four minutes for the electrons to kill the prisoner, by which time the odor of burnt flesh is inescapable. A newspaper headline the following morning reads KEMMLER WESTINGHOUSED, much to the glee of DC power proponent Thomas Edison.

Aug 6 1927

Andrew Warhola is born in Pittsburgh.

Aug 6 1945

At 9:15am, Col. Paul Tibbets releases "Little Boy" over Hiroshima and executes a hard, 159-degree turn. 40 seconds later, the Atomic Bomb detonates, yielding a 12.5 kiloton explosion and a huge, black mushroom cloud. About 45,000 people are killed immediately, and another 200,000 are killed in later years by leukemia and other radiation illnesses.

Aug 6 1970

750 unkempt Yippies show up at Disneyland, hell-bent "to liberate Minnie Mouse, have free rein of the park and infiltrate Tom Sawyer's Island," according to Youth International Party leaflets. Instead, they wind up scuffling with Disney security and other patrons, eventually prompting Anaheim police to close the park early and forcibly eject the dirty longhairs.​

 

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TODAY IN ROTTEN HISTORY

we live in a slightly mad world

Aug 7 1882

Ellison Hatfield is stabbed 26 times and shot in the back by Tolbert McCoy and two of his brothers. Two days later, the Hatfield clan captures the three McCoys and executes them by firing squad. Thus begins generations of bloodshed between the families, ultimately causing about 100 casualties.

Aug 7 1953

Eisenhower signs legislation retroactively granting Ohio official statehood for the previous 150 years. In 1803, apparently everyone just assumed that Ohio was a state, even though Congress had never passed legislation to that effect. The nation remained blissfully unaware of this fact until nosy historians began snooping around in preparation for Ohio's sesquicentennial.

Aug 7 1956

A convoy of seven army trucks loaded with dynamite explodes in front of the railway terminal in Cali, Colombia. The downtown district is instantly leveled, killing 1,200 people and injuring thousands more in the process.

Aug 7 1960

Film and television actor David Duchovny is born in New York City. Two of his most popular TV roles include Special Agent Fox Mulder from The X-Files, and transvestite DEA agent Dennis Bryson in three episodes of Twin Peaks (second season, though).

Aug 7 1998

More than 100 are killed and 2,200 injured when the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania are simultaneously struck by powerful car bombs. Nairobi is hit particularly hard, with a multitude of charred corpses littering the streets. Three months later, the United States indicts Osama bin Laden and Muhammad Atef in absentia for the attacks.

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TODAY IN ROTTEN HISTORY

we live in a slightly mad world

Aug 8 1925

40,000 robed Klansmen march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. -- a bit less than 1% of total Klan membership.

Aug 8 1960

Brian Hyland's song "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini" reaches number one on the pop charts.

Aug 8 1963

By tampering with railway signals, a 15 man team halts the Glasgow-to-Euston Royal Mail train in Buckinghamshire. The criminals make off with 120 sacks containing £2.6 million in cash. The incident goes down in history as "The Great Train Robbery."

Aug 8 1973

Elmer Wayne Henley confesses to killing his partner, David Owen Brooks, and to the the sadistic murders of 27 teenage boys beginning in 1970. Following Henley's instructions, police dig up 27 bodies before calling off the search. This beats Juan Corona's record of 25 victims.

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TODAY IN ROTTEN HISTORY

we live in a slightly mad world

Aug 9 1945

Because of the dense cloudcover over Kokura, USAF Maj. Charles Sweeney diverts his B-29 Bock's Car to the designated secondary target, 95 miles to the south. There he drops "Fat Man" -- a 22 kiloton Atomic Bomb -- over the city of Nagasaki, population 270,000. The blast kills 24,000 immediately, but another 46,000 perish from radiation-related illnesses over the next four months.

Aug 9 1960

Harvard professor Timothy Leary consumes seven Psilocybe caerulescens mushrooms in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Five hours later, the self-described atheist experiences a "fullblown conversion experience" next to a swimming pool. It is Leary's first drug trip.

Aug 9 1969

Tate Murders by Charles Manson's followers: Frykowski - shot twice, bludgeoned 13 times, stabbed 51 times; Pregnant Sharon Tate stabbed in the neck, breast, back, womb.

Aug 9 1974

Finally bowing to pressure from Senator Barry Goldwater and RNC chairman George Bush, President Richard M. Nixon resigns from office. His successor, Gerald Ford, assures the American people that their "long national nightmare is over."

Aug 9 1995

Jerry Garcia dies of a heart attack at Serenity Knolls near Novato, California. He had checked himself into the drug rehab center a few days prior, in hopes of kicking his longstanding heroin habit.

Aug 9 1997

Officers of Brooklyn's 70th precinct sodomize 30 year old Haitian immigrant Abner Louima with a toilet plunger, then insert the feces-contaminated plunger into Louima's mouth. Later, NYPD officials try feebly to dismiss the suspect's injuries as having resulted from ordinary homosexual activity, but a medical examination proves that to be inconsistent with the evidence.

Aug 9 1999

The U.S. Government closes the Mustang Ranch, a 104 room bordello near Reno, Nevada. U.S. Customs seized the house of ill repute for tax violations, which it believed to be operated by a front corporation controlled by Joe Conforte, original owner of the property when it first opened in 1955.

 

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[SIZE=+2]TODAY IN ROTTEN HISTORY [/SIZE] [SIZE=-1] we live in a slightly mad world [/SIZE]
Aug 10 1628
To assist in the war with Poland, Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus builds a magnificent warship, the Vasa, with 64 bronze cannon on two tiers. But on its maiden voyage, the lower gunports are accidentally left open, and the ship immediately sinks to the bottom of Stockholm harbor. The ship remains submerged until it is raised in 1961 to become a tourist attraction.
Aug 10 1966
Last words of James French, sent to the Electric Chair by the state of Oklahoma: "How about this for a headline for tomorrow's paper? FRENCH FRIES."
Aug 10 1969
Leno and Rosemary LaBianca are brutally murdered in their Los Feliz, California home by followers of Charles Manson. They take some of their victims' blood and smear HEALTER SKELTER on the refrigerator door.
Aug 10 1972
Paul McCartney and his wife Linda are arrested in Sweden after postal officials intercept a parcel of hashish addressed to their band, Wings.
Aug 10 1989
Disgruntled postal worker John Merlin Taylor blows his wife's brains out with a .22 Ruger, then drives to his job at the Orange Glen post office in Escondido, California. There he kills two coworkers on the back loading dock, then wounds another inside before blowing his own brains out.
Aug 10 1996
Heated by the sun, powerlines begin to sag in Oregon. Somehow this triggers a series of failures which cascades throughout the Western states. Four million people lose electrical service in Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Montana, and Texas. It is probably the worst power outage in US history.


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[SIZE=+2]TODAY IN ROTTEN HISTORY [/SIZE] [SIZE=-1] we live in a slightly mad world [/SIZE]
Aug 11 1772
The summit of Papandayan volcano in West Java suddenly implodes, unleashing a catastrophic debris avalanche which blankets an area of 250 square km. Tumbling boulders flatten 40 villages and their 2,957 inhabitants.
Aug 11 1933
Jerry Falwell is born in Lynchburg, Virginia. Contrary to reports later published in the esteemed journal HUSTLER, Falwell never actually fucks his own mother in an outhouse.
Aug 11 1965
A white motorcycle cop from the California Highway Patrol pulls over a car at 116th and Avalon, near Watts. When Marquette Frye fails the field sobriety test, the CHP officer places him under arrest and radios for a transportation unit and a towtruck. 15 minutes later, with more than 1,000 spectators gathered to watch the scene, a scuffle breaks out between police officers and members of the driver's family. This altercation sets the stage for the bloody Watts riots two days later.
Aug 11 1975
Paratroopers from Indonesia invade the island of East Timor, ostensibly to end a civil war, but in reality to seize the territory. They perpetrate a reign of terror against the inhabitants, which continues to this day.
Aug 11 1984
Not realizing that his weekly radio address is already on the air, President Ronald Reagan quips into his live microphone: "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."
Aug 11 1997
Responding to reports of a domestic disturbance at the L'Elysee condominiums in West Los Angeles, LAPD officers encounter Christian Slater "swinging his arms and yelling incoherently" in the building stairwell. The movie actor reveals to police that "the Germans are coming and they will kill us." He also mentions that he has been awake for most of two days, and the last thing he remembers is "snorting a couple of lines of cocaine this morning." When officers attempt to put him in handcuffs, Slater knocks one of them to the floor and makes an unsuccessful grab for the cop's weapon. His punishment? 59 days in jail.

 

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TODAY IN ROTTEN HISTORY

we live in a slightly mad world

Aug 13 1521

After an 80-day siege, Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortés captures Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire. When the Spaniards fail to discover Montezuma's treasure, they torture Cuauhtemoc by pouring hot oil over his feet. The emperor responds by asking, "Am I on a bed of roses?" They hang him three years later.

Aug 13 1926

Fidel Castro is born on his father's 23,000-acre sugar cane plantation near Biran, Cuba.

Aug 13 1942

Walt Disney's Bambi premieres in New York City.

Aug 13 1986

11 Mexican peace officers abduct DEA special agent Victor Cortez, Jr. along with an informant. The two are taken to a Guadalajara police station, where the men are beaten and tortured for four hours in an attempt to extract the names of other American drug enforcement agents operating in Mexico. The pair are freed only after Cortez's superior somehow arrives at the station and demands their immediate release.​

 

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[SIZE=+2]TODAY IN ROTTEN HISTORY [/SIZE] [SIZE=-1] we live in a slightly mad world [/SIZE]
Aug 14 410
Visigoths under King Alaric sack Rome after slave co-conspirators open the city gates for them. Looting lasts for six days.
Aug 14 1941
Corporal Josef Jakobs, a German spy, is the final prisoner executed at the Tower of London. Having a broken ankle, he is seated in a fine wooden Windsor chair and executed by an eight man firing squad of Scots Guards.
Aug 14 1945
Over the radio, Hirohito announces his unconditional surrender to Allied forces, thus bringing an end to World War II. This broadcast is the first chance the Japanese people have had to hear their god-emperor's speaking voice.
Aug 14 1951
Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst dies at home in Beverly Hills, California.
Aug 14 1965
Salvatore Bono and Cherilyn Sarkisian La Pierre capture #1 on the American pop charts with their song "I Got You Babe," launching the careers of Sonny & Cher.
Aug 14 2126
The next scheduled perihelion for the "Doomsday Rock," also known as the Swift-Tuttle Comet. The six-mile-diameter mass is thought to be roughly the same size as the asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs and will probably come within 15 million miles of planet Earth.

 

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[SIZE=+2]TODAY IN ROTTEN HISTORY [/SIZE] [SIZE=-1] we live in a slightly mad world [/SIZE]
Aug 15 1057
Macbeth is killed in the Battle of Lumphanan in Aberdeenshire. He had been king of Scotland for 17 years.
Aug 15 1935
Will Rogers, the most famous man in America, dies near Barrow, Alaska when his sea plane plunges into a lagoon. At the time, he and one-eyed aviator Wiley Post were surveying possible flight paths between Seattle and the Soviet Union.
Aug 15 1969
Woodstock begins on Max Yasgur's farm in upstate New York. Tickets are $18 for three days of counterculture musical acts, including Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and Sha-Na-Na.
Aug 15 1994
International terrorist Carlos the Jackal is jailed in France. The assassin was turned over by the Sudanese government after he checked into a Khartoum hospital for varicose vein surgery on one of his testicles.

 

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[SIZE=+2] TODAY IN ROTTEN HISTORY [/SIZE] [SIZE=-1] we live in a slightly mad world [/SIZE]
Aug 16 1819
60 cavalrymen charge into a crowd of approximately 70,000 protesters at St. Peter's Field in Manchester, England. The soldiers begin to hack away at the people with their sabers and trample them under hoof. 11 die and 400 are wounded in the Manchester Massacre, also called the Battle of Peterloo.
Aug 16 1938
Blues musician Robert Johnson, who presumably sold his soul to the devil (the story somewhat being told by the movie Crossroads), is poisoned by a jealous husband in Three Forks, Mississippi.
Aug 16 1960
Emmett O. Hashfield abducts Avril Terry, an 11-year-old girl in Booneville, Indiana. He then proceeds to murder, dismember, and eat portions of her, before tossing the leftovers in a river.
Aug 16 1977
Elvis Presley dies in his home at the age of 42, while sitting on the toilet. In the bathroom, he had been reading The Scientific Search for the Face of Jesus. Presumably, Elvis' search was concluded shortly thereafter.
Aug 16 1987
Mercury, Venus, and Mars all get bunched up near the Sun in what some call the Harmonic Convergence. Thousands of nutballs clustered at sacred locations like Mount Shasta, California begin meditating their asses off for some damn reason.
Aug 16 1997
Aida Nur El-Din, a night nurse at Alexandria University's El-Mairy Hospital, confesses to Egyptian authorities that she killed at least 18 ICU patients by injecting them with drugs stolen from the pharmacy. Before she can be taken downtown, El-Din jumps out a three-story window in a failed suicide attempt.

 

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[SIZE=+2]TODAY IN ROTTEN HISTORY [/SIZE] [SIZE=-1] we live in a slightly mad world [/SIZE]
Aug 17 1896
Bridget Driscoll, a 44-year-old mother of two, becomes the world's first automobile fatality when she steps in front of a car outside the Crystal Palace in London. At the coroner's inquest, Arthur Edsall states he had been driving at only 4 mph. The motorist also claims that when he saw the pedestrian, he rang his bell and shouted "Stand back!" For whatever reason, the coroner accepts Edsall's preposterous story.
Aug 17 1948
Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard is arrested for bad checks in San Luis Obispo, California. In court a fortnight later, Hubbard pays the $25 fine.
Aug 17 1980
Dingos snatch baby Azaria from a campground near Ayers Rock, Australia. Her mother, Lindy Chamberlain, is later convicted of murder and spends three years in prison, but the conviction is ultimately overturned. Apparently there have been a number of baby/dingo incidents over the years, the dingo not differentiating animals from humans. (The fact that if you rearrange the letters in LINDY CHAMBERLAIN you get CHILDREN BY ANIMAL is just a coincidence.)
Aug 17 1987
Rudolf Hess found hanged by an electrical cord at Spandau prison, aged 93. He was incarcerated there for 40 years, 21 of those years as the solitary inmate. In 1941 Hess flew to Scotland with ideas of peace in his head, making Hitler very very upset.
Aug 17 1996
Belgian police discover the bodies of two eight-year-old children kidnapped for pedophilic purposes in the town of Jumet, a suburb of Charleroi. The children had starved while Marc Dutroux was jailed for theft, there being nobody to feed them. Along with the two is the body of Bernard Weinstein, one of the perpetrators of the kidnappings. In early September, two additional teenage bodies are discovered in a house owned by Marc Dutroux. The revelations send the entire Belgian nation into shock.

 

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[SIZE=+2]TODAY IN ROTTEN HISTORY [/SIZE] [SIZE=-1] we live in a slightly mad world [/SIZE]
Aug 18 1227
Genghis Khan dies in his sleep, after a fall from his horse. His old age and drinking probably contributed to his death, which the Mongols manage to keep secret for some time.
Aug 18 1503
Pope Alexander VI dies. He was the father of seven illegitimate children, and during his reign chose as his lover the lovely sixteen year old Guilia Farnese. A portrait of Guilia dressed as the Virgin Mary appeared over Alexander's bedchamber door, but by no means was she his only liaison.
Aug 18 1590
Sent to England to get supplies three years prior, John White finally returns to Roanoke Island and discovers his colony "strongly enclosed with a high palisade of great trees, with [curtain walls] and [bastions] -- very fort-like." There is no sign of the settlers or where they may have gone, but carved in the bark of one of the trees is the word CROATOAN.
Aug 18 1999
A giant black rainbow encircles the Earth, sucking all oxygen from the atmosphere. The air returns shortly thereafter, but only after millions die from asphyxiation. On the bright side, the survivors go on to build a utopian civilization. It all happens precisely as predicted in the 1950s by Criswell, the TV psychic immortalized in the movie Plan 9 from Outer Space.

 

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[SIZE=+2]IN ROTTEN HISTORY [/SIZE] [SIZE=-1] we live in a slightly mad world [/SIZE]
Aug 22 1485
Richard III slain at Bodsworth.
Aug 22 1776
George Washington asks the Continental Congress for permission to burn New York City, to stop the city from being used to quarter troops arriving via the British fleet. It is declined, but his soldiers set 1/4th of the town ablaze on September 21.
Aug 22 1911
Mona Lisa stolen.
Aug 22 1989
Huey Newton murdered.
Aug 22 1992
FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi fires a rifle shot that kills unarmed Vicki Weaver, at the Ruby Ridge standoff. Horiuchi claimed he was trying to shoot another man in the back. The FBI also killed Weaver's fourteen year old son Sam, and the son's dog.
Aug 22 1995
David Gahan, lead singer of rock group Depeche Mode, was hospitalized after trying to commit suicide by slashing his wrist. Gahan was found in his Hollywood home with a two-inch slit in his wrist.

 

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[SIZE=+2]TODAY IN ROTTEN HISTORY [/SIZE] [SIZE=-1] we live in a slightly mad world [/SIZE]
Aug 23 1305
Scottish patriot William Wallace ("Braveheart") hanged, disemboweled, drawn, and quartered. His head was displayed on London Bridge.
Aug 23 1926
Rudolf Valentino dies.
Aug 23 1939
Germany and Russia signed the Molotov-Ribbentropp non-aggression pact (1939)
Aug 23 1951
Ninety West Point cadets are expelled for cheating, including most of the Academy's football team.
Aug 23 1968
The Youth International Party designates Pigasus as their choice of candidate for U.S. President. The boar hog is introduced at a press conference outside the Chicago Civic Center, with the slogan "They nominate a President and he eats the people. We nominate a President and the people eat him." The gathering is broken up shortly thereafter when the Chicago PD takes into custody the Yippie organizers and their pig.
Aug 23 1994
Inside an abandoned boathouse on the Scottish island of Jura, two members of the band KLF set fire to 20,000 fifty pound notes in front of witnesses. It takes two hours to burn all UKP 1,000,000.
Aug 23 1995
St. Petersburg resident Ilshat Kuzikov arrested in his apartment in connection with the murders of Misha Bochkov and Edik Vassilevsky, whose severed heads were found in city streets. Discovered in his apartment were jars of pickled human remains, bags of ears, a pair of arms and legs, and a partially eaten "casserole".



[SIZE=-2] copyright ©2006 rotten dot com
warning: contents harmful if ingested, do not eat [/SIZE]

 

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[SIZE=+2]TODAY IN ROTTEN HISTORY [/SIZE] [SIZE=-1] we live in a slightly mad world [/SIZE]
Aug 24 79
Pompeii buried by Vesuvius, apparently to punish the debauchery that made the town famous. Tens of thousands of people perished only to have plaster casts made centuries later of the hollows their bodies once occupied.
Aug 24 1572
Troops loyal to the French crown alongside Catholic civilians massacre the Protestant Huguenots of Paris, estimates range between 20,000 and 100,000 deaths. At news of this carnage of this St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, a gleeful Pope Gregory XIII ordered celebrations and a medal to be struck.
Aug 24 1812
The White House and other public buildings in the District of Columbia are torched by the British.
Aug 24 1958
Red China commences the shelling of the islands of Quemoy and Matsu, which hold one-third of Chiang Kai Shek's troops. The United States threatens nuclear retaliation for this, but the American people do not support the stance. A very strange compromise is worked out, permitting China to shell the islands on odd dates and Chiang Kai Shek's troops to resupply the islands on even dates.
Aug 24 1981
Mark David Chapman sentenced to 20 years for killing Beatle John Lennon.

 

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[SIZE=+2]TODAY IN ROTTEN HISTORY [/SIZE] [SIZE=-1] we live in a slightly mad world [/SIZE]
Aug 25 1835
The New York Sun publishes stunning revelations that Sir John Hershel has observed little men living on the surface of the moon. The stories, now generally believed to be false, brings the paper record circulation.
Aug 25 1900
Nietzsche is dead.
Aug 25 1989
Homosexual Congressman Barney Frank confirms that he paid a male whore, Stephen L. Gobie, for sex on several occasions. Frank later hires the man as a housekeeper, but scandal erupts when Gobie is discovered using the congressman's apartment as a sodomite bordello.
Aug 25 1993
Snoop Doggy Dogg arrested on charges of accomplice to murder, manslaughter, in Los Angeles.
Aug 25 2001
Rhythm and blues Singer Aaliyah's plane crashes on the island of Abaco in the Bahamas, killing her and eight others. Excessive weight aboard the tail end likely caused the plane to go down.



[SIZE=-2] copyright ©2006 rotten dot com [/SIZE]