Space Invaders
One sovereign nation masses troops on the border of its neighboring sovereign nation. Invasion is threatened. While there are statements from the ruler of the nation preparing to invade as to disguise his motives, the real reason for the invasion is a natural resource. The question is, how will the United States respond to this act of naked aggression?
The answer, in 1990, when Iraq's Saddam Hussein was massing his armies on the border with Kuwait, was to deploy troops. First to defend Saudi Arabia from invasion once Kuwait had been seized, then more to take Kuwait back from the invaders. At the height of the deployment, over 690,000 U.S. military personnel were involved in the conflict now known as the First Gulf War.
Now in 2014, when the resource isn't oil, but a warm-water port that isn't of strategic import to the U. S. and the rest of the West, we haven't moved a single soldier in that direction. Should we be preparing to expel the Russian troops from their new outposts inside the borders of the Ukraine? Maybe, maybe not. But the disparity of responses makes it pretty clear it was oil and not the sovereignty of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia that motivated the First Gulf War.
While the United States is clearly resolute in its position opposing the invasion, the rest of the world won't be. At least not for a protracted period. Europe is far too dependent on the oil and natural gas they import from Russia. Germany gets 1/3rd of those commodities from Russia. There are also a growing number of wealthy Russians who prefer to spend large chunks of time and money in Europe and sanctions that would keep them within the borders of Russia wouldn't go over well in the European nations where they spend that money.
We can rattle sabers at Vladimir Putin but the numbers don't work well for the U. S. The Russian military has less than 20,000 troops in the Crimea but their total armed forces outnumber the armed forces of the Ukraine by a ratio of more than eight to one. The U. S. has roughly 60,000 of its best troops currently deployed in Afghanistan. The best place for the U. S. to stage military operations into the Crimea would be Turkey; but given the current state of diplomatic relations between the U. S. and Turkey, they might well refuse to give us permission to operate from there. In fact, there may not be a single place in Europe that would sign off on allowing U. S. military forces to use their soil as a jumping off point to move into the Ukraine. Military responses are not a good option at this point and probably won't be for some time into the future. Perhaps if the financial stability of Russia is harmed by a long-term presence there, things might change.
So we are left with our own sanctions, and foreign policy to try to effect change and protect the sovereignty of the Ukraine. Not very comforting if you're a citizen of that nation.
* * *
"American Hustle" was nominated for ten Oscars last night, but didn't win a single statuette. It's been 64 years since a major motion picture received nominations in all four acting categories at the Oscars and was shut out of all four. The last film that happened to was "Sunset Boulevard."
Neither Christian Bale or any of the other three nominees had a prayer of beating out Matthew McConaughey. Likewise for Bradley Cooper and the rest of the nominees in the Best Supporting Actor Category. Jared Leto was destined to win that award.
Jennifer Lawrence was excellent in her role in this film but she might well have suffered from "J-Law fatigue" among the Academy membership. Or maybe it was just the fact that Lupita N'yongo was absolutely amazing.
But why didn't Amy Adams win? True, I thought all five of the nominated actresses were terrific and I wrote something about putting their photos on the wall and letting a dart decide who would win. However, I was sure it would be Ms Adams.
Then today as I was helping Mom run some errands, it dawned on me that it might not be just J-Law fatigue. It might be David O. Russell fatigue. He's been nominated for Best Director in three of the last four years. All three of those films were nominated for Best Picture. Adams, Bale, Cooper and Lawrence were each in two of the three and nominated for those performances.
Maybe people were just tired of those names? Just a thought. Doesn't change the fact the film and the performances were all outstanding.
* * *
In case I haven't made it clear before, I'm completely in favor of legalizing and then taxing marijuana. According to the New York Times, Colorado will reap an average annual windfall from the tax on pot of $100 million.
But I don't have a lot of sympathy for Robert Duncan. He's going to prison for 24 months for growing pot for a medicinal marijuana operation in Northern California. Why? Because even though he had consulted with an attorney (who advised the feds weren't pursuing operations like his), the Obama Administration announced a renewed effort to arrest and prosecute pot operations in California in 2011.
Once that announcement was made, he knew he was at risk and continued to take part in the operation he'd helped to set up. He wrote an op-ed piece for the Huffington Post that's understandably self-serving, but also confusing. He writes "We hired lawyers from day one. We were entirely compliant with state law. It was shortly after the federal government said it would not intervene if people followed state law. We wanted to abide by the rules. None of us had criminal backgrounds. We’re all regular guys. The only reason we got into this was because the federal government said they wouldn’t intervene." True. But once they said they were going to crack down, why did he continue to take part in what was still illegal under federal law?
The position of the editors at HuffPo is clear.
* * *
Random ponderings:
Karma Rescue is a pet adoption/rescue service that has this statement on their website, "Dogs and cats ... go through psychological torment when they lose their family. Your pet deserves to stay with the family he/she loves." Apparently with the exception of the family that owned a four year old Rhodesian Ridgeback named Raffiki . They told the woman who'd searched frantically for her dog and begged Karma to allow her to adopt him back. Her four year old son misses him terribly. But since they considered her unqualified as a pet owner, they let him go to another family. Boycott Karma Rescue.
The 18 year old high school senior in New Jersey who claims that her parents tossed her out after she refused to live by their rules is suing them to force them to pay her expenses. When you become an adult, what your parents choose to do for you is just that. A choice. Their "obligation" under the law ends when you reach the age of adulthood. Live by their rules or become self-sufficient.
Two thumbs up to Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr, a married couple no longer together, for keeping things quite civil.
Why is it that the quality of various fast-food franchise operations can vary widely from location to location? Then again, the same is true of places like In-and-Out.
So roughly 1 in 5 military enlistees had a "common" mental illness prior to enlistment, which turns out to be on par with the entire population. That's not where the cause of the skyrocketing suicide rates among current military members or recently serving veterans. It's in the multiple deployments and reduced funding levels for the military as a whole. When you're a soldier on your third deployment to Afghanistan in five years and your wife and three kids need food stamps at home to survive...
Did #PoorLeo really trend on Twitter after Leonardo DiCaprio lost the Oscar for Best Actor to Matthew McConaughey? Sour grapes.
Farmers in Northern California are turning to "water witches" to find underground water.
* * *
March 4th in History:
Before listing the historical events of this date, it should be noted this is the one day of the year that is also a command. Say March 4th aloud to illustrate.
51 – Nero, later to become Roman Emperor, is given the title princeps iuventutis (head of the youth).
306 – Martyrdom of Saint Adrian of Nicomedia.
852 – Croatian Knyaz Trpimir I issues a statute, a document with the first known written mention of the Croats name in Croatian sources.
932 – Translation of the relics of martyr Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia, Prince of the Czechs.
1152 – Frederick I Barbarossa is elected King of the Germans.
1238 – The Battle of the Sit River is fought in the northern part of the present-day Yaroslavl Oblast of Russia between the Mongol hordes of Batu Khan and the Russians under Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal during the Mongol invasion of Rus'.
1351 – Ramathibodi becomes King of Siam.
1386 – Władysław II Jagiełło (Jogaila) is crowned King of Poland.
1461 – Wars of the Roses in England: Lancastrian King Henry VI is deposed by his House of York cousin, who then becomes King Edward IV.
1493 – Explorer Christopher Columbus arrives back in Lisbon, Portugal, aboard his ship Niña from his voyage to what is now The Bahamas and other islands in the Caribbean.
1519 – Hernán Cortés arrives in Mexico in search of the Aztec civilization and its wealth.
1628 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a Royal charter.
1665 – English King Charles II declares war on the Netherlands marking the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
1675 – John Flamsteed is appointed the first Astronomer Royal of England.
1681 – Charles II grants a land charter to William Penn for the area that will later become Pennsylvania.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: The Continental Army fortifies Dorchester Heights with cannon, leading the British troops to abandon the Siege of Boston.
1789 – In New York City, the first Congress of the United States meets, putting the United States Constitution into effect. The United States Bill of Rights is written and proposed to Congress.
1790 – France is divided into 83 départements, cutting across the former provinces in an attempt to dislodge regional loyalties based on ownership of land by the nobility.
1791 – The Constitutional Act of 1791 is introduced by the British House of Commons in London which envisages the separation of Canada into Lower Canada (Quebec) and Upper Canada (Ontario).
1791 – Vermont is admitted to the United States as the fourteenth state.
1794 – The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is passed by the U.S. Congress.
1804 – Castle Hill Rebellion: Irish convicts rebel against British colonial authority in the Colony of New South Wales.
1814 – Americans defeat British forces at the Battle of Longwoods between London, Ontario and Thamesville, near present-day Wardsville, Ontario.
1837 – The city of Chicago is incorporated.
1848 – Carlo Alberto di Savoia signs the Statuto Albertino that will later represent the first constitution of the Regno d'Italia
1861 – The first national flag of the Confederate States of America (the "Stars and Bars") is adopted.
1865 – The third and final national flag of the Confederate States of America is adopted by the Confederate Congress.
1882 – Britain's first electric trams run in east London.
1890 – The longest bridge in Great Britain, the Forth Rail Bridge in Scotland, measuring 1,710 feet (520 m) long, is opened by the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII.
1899 – Cyclone Mahina sweeps in north of Cooktown, Queensland, with a 12 metres (39 ft) wave that reaches up to 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) inland, killing over 300.
1908 – The Collinwood school fire, Collinwood near Cleveland, Ohio, kills 174 people.
1909 – U.S. President William Taft used what became known as a Saxbe fix, a mechanism to avoid the restriction of the U.S. Constitution's Ineligibility Clause, to appoint Philander C. Knox as U.S. Secretary of State
1913 – First Balkan War: The Greek army engages the Turks at Bizani, resulting in victory two days later.
1913 – The United States Department of Labor is formed
1917 – Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first female member of the United States House of Representatives.
1918 – The first case of Spanish flu occurs, the start of a devastating worldwide pandemic.
1918 – The USS Cyclops departs from Barbados and is never seen again, presumably lost with all hands in the Bermuda Triangle.
1933 – Frances Perkins becomes United States Secretary of Labor, the first female member of the United States Cabinet.
1933 – The Parliament of Austria is suspended because of a quibble over procedure – Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss initiates an authoritarian rule by decree.
1941 – World War II: The United Kingdom launches Operation Claymore on the Lofoten Islands; the first large scale British Commando raid.
1943 – World War II: The Battle of the Bismarck Sea in the South West Pacific comes to an end.
1944 – World War II: After the success of Big Week, the USAAF begins a daylight bombing campaign of Berlin.
1945 – Lapland War: Finland declares war on Nazi Germany.
1957 – The S&P 500 stock market index is introduced, replacing the S&P 90.
1960 – The French freighter La Coubre explodes in Havana, Cuba killing 100.
1962 – A Caledonian Airways Douglas DC-7 crashes shortly after takeoff from Cameroon, killing 111 - the worst crash of a DC-7.
1966 – A Canadian Pacific Air Lines DC-8-43 explodes on landing at Tokyo International Airport, killing 64 people.
1970 – French submarine Eurydice explodes underwater, resulting in the loss of the entire 57-man crew.
1974 – People magazine is published for the first time in the United States as People Weekly.
1976 – The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention is formally dissolved in Northern Ireland resulting in direct rule of Northern Ireland from London by the British parliament.
1977 – The 1977 Vrancea earthquake in eastern and southern Europe kills more than 1,500, mostly in the seriously damaged city of Bucharest, Romania.
1980 – Nationalist leader Robert Mugabe wins a sweeping election victory to become Zimbabwe's first black prime minister.
1983 – Bertha Wilson is appointed the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada.
1985 – The Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for AIDS infection, used since then for screening all blood donations in the United States.
1986 – The Soviet Vega 1 begins returning images of Halley's Comet and the first images of its nucleus.
1991 – Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah, the Prime Minister of Kuwait, returns to his country for the first time since Iraq's invasion.
1996 – A derailed train in Weyauwega, Wisconsin, US, causes the emergency evacuation of 2,300 people for 16 days.
1998 – Gay rights: Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex.
2001 – 4 March 2001 BBC bombing: a massive car bomb explodes in front of the BBC Television Centre in London, seriously injuring 1 person. The attack was attributed to the Real IRA.
2001 – Hintze Ribeiro disaster: A bridge collapses in northern Portugal, killing up to 70 people.
2002 – Afghanistan: Seven American Special Operations Forces soldiers and 200 Al-Qaeda Fighters are killed as American forces attempt to infiltrate the Shahi Kot Valley on a low-flying helicopter reconnaissance mission.
2007 – Estonian parliamentary election, 2007: Approximately 30,000 voters take advantage of electronic voting in Estonia, the world's first nationwide voting where part of the vote casting is allowed in the form of remote electronic voting via the Internet.
2009 – The International Criminal Court (ICC) issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Al-Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the ICC since its establishment in 2002.
Famous Folk Born on March 4th:
Henry the Navigator
Casimir Pulaski
Edwards Pierrepont
Channing Pollock
Knute Rockne
Dazzy Vance
Lois W.
Charles Goren
John Scarne
Paul Mauriat
Anne Haney (she's Jim Carrey's secretary in this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh6NzOHOU8s)
Paula Prentiss (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8HERyQwMO4 my favorite scene from this film)
Richard Benjamin Harrison (the dude from Pawn Stars)
Adrian Lyne
Lynn Sherr
Bobby Womack (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbbZ_k1Z8gU)
Rick Perry
Pete Haycock (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-054Wp2qR0)
Chris Rea (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSui9_IBgao)
Klinton Spilsbury (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J83cMBUTad4 his only film)
Kay Lenz (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H6btf_tehg&list=PLLS1_rFgin-4AW87F5rFreIEXXGgVX-BM)
Mykelti Williamson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuQZJHfWf9U)
Patricia Heaton (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RtNuYX1Go4)
Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini
Paul W. S. Anderson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYFOr1PN6EE)
Emilio Estefan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMAgkKXP_Zo)
Bob Lewis (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIEVqFB4WUo)
Brian Cummings
Dorothy "Cookie" Mueller
Catherine O'Hara (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeifMjqpsg0)
Steven Weber (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2S47otA-TQ)
Stacy Edwards
Kevin Johnson
Chaz Bono (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrmUms9hgqg)
Len Wiseman
Erin Heatherton
Movie quotes are on hiatus until further notice.
The answer, in 1990, when Iraq's Saddam Hussein was massing his armies on the border with Kuwait, was to deploy troops. First to defend Saudi Arabia from invasion once Kuwait had been seized, then more to take Kuwait back from the invaders. At the height of the deployment, over 690,000 U.S. military personnel were involved in the conflict now known as the First Gulf War.
Now in 2014, when the resource isn't oil, but a warm-water port that isn't of strategic import to the U. S. and the rest of the West, we haven't moved a single soldier in that direction. Should we be preparing to expel the Russian troops from their new outposts inside the borders of the Ukraine? Maybe, maybe not. But the disparity of responses makes it pretty clear it was oil and not the sovereignty of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia that motivated the First Gulf War.
While the United States is clearly resolute in its position opposing the invasion, the rest of the world won't be. At least not for a protracted period. Europe is far too dependent on the oil and natural gas they import from Russia. Germany gets 1/3rd of those commodities from Russia. There are also a growing number of wealthy Russians who prefer to spend large chunks of time and money in Europe and sanctions that would keep them within the borders of Russia wouldn't go over well in the European nations where they spend that money.
We can rattle sabers at Vladimir Putin but the numbers don't work well for the U. S. The Russian military has less than 20,000 troops in the Crimea but their total armed forces outnumber the armed forces of the Ukraine by a ratio of more than eight to one. The U. S. has roughly 60,000 of its best troops currently deployed in Afghanistan. The best place for the U. S. to stage military operations into the Crimea would be Turkey; but given the current state of diplomatic relations between the U. S. and Turkey, they might well refuse to give us permission to operate from there. In fact, there may not be a single place in Europe that would sign off on allowing U. S. military forces to use their soil as a jumping off point to move into the Ukraine. Military responses are not a good option at this point and probably won't be for some time into the future. Perhaps if the financial stability of Russia is harmed by a long-term presence there, things might change.
So we are left with our own sanctions, and foreign policy to try to effect change and protect the sovereignty of the Ukraine. Not very comforting if you're a citizen of that nation.
* * *
"American Hustle" was nominated for ten Oscars last night, but didn't win a single statuette. It's been 64 years since a major motion picture received nominations in all four acting categories at the Oscars and was shut out of all four. The last film that happened to was "Sunset Boulevard."
Neither Christian Bale or any of the other three nominees had a prayer of beating out Matthew McConaughey. Likewise for Bradley Cooper and the rest of the nominees in the Best Supporting Actor Category. Jared Leto was destined to win that award.
Jennifer Lawrence was excellent in her role in this film but she might well have suffered from "J-Law fatigue" among the Academy membership. Or maybe it was just the fact that Lupita N'yongo was absolutely amazing.
But why didn't Amy Adams win? True, I thought all five of the nominated actresses were terrific and I wrote something about putting their photos on the wall and letting a dart decide who would win. However, I was sure it would be Ms Adams.
Then today as I was helping Mom run some errands, it dawned on me that it might not be just J-Law fatigue. It might be David O. Russell fatigue. He's been nominated for Best Director in three of the last four years. All three of those films were nominated for Best Picture. Adams, Bale, Cooper and Lawrence were each in two of the three and nominated for those performances.
Maybe people were just tired of those names? Just a thought. Doesn't change the fact the film and the performances were all outstanding.
* * *
In case I haven't made it clear before, I'm completely in favor of legalizing and then taxing marijuana. According to the New York Times, Colorado will reap an average annual windfall from the tax on pot of $100 million.
But I don't have a lot of sympathy for Robert Duncan. He's going to prison for 24 months for growing pot for a medicinal marijuana operation in Northern California. Why? Because even though he had consulted with an attorney (who advised the feds weren't pursuing operations like his), the Obama Administration announced a renewed effort to arrest and prosecute pot operations in California in 2011.
Once that announcement was made, he knew he was at risk and continued to take part in the operation he'd helped to set up. He wrote an op-ed piece for the Huffington Post that's understandably self-serving, but also confusing. He writes "We hired lawyers from day one. We were entirely compliant with state law. It was shortly after the federal government said it would not intervene if people followed state law. We wanted to abide by the rules. None of us had criminal backgrounds. We’re all regular guys. The only reason we got into this was because the federal government said they wouldn’t intervene." True. But once they said they were going to crack down, why did he continue to take part in what was still illegal under federal law?
The position of the editors at HuffPo is clear.
* * *
Random ponderings:
Karma Rescue is a pet adoption/rescue service that has this statement on their website, "Dogs and cats ... go through psychological torment when they lose their family. Your pet deserves to stay with the family he/she loves." Apparently with the exception of the family that owned a four year old Rhodesian Ridgeback named Raffiki . They told the woman who'd searched frantically for her dog and begged Karma to allow her to adopt him back. Her four year old son misses him terribly. But since they considered her unqualified as a pet owner, they let him go to another family. Boycott Karma Rescue.
The 18 year old high school senior in New Jersey who claims that her parents tossed her out after she refused to live by their rules is suing them to force them to pay her expenses. When you become an adult, what your parents choose to do for you is just that. A choice. Their "obligation" under the law ends when you reach the age of adulthood. Live by their rules or become self-sufficient.
Two thumbs up to Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr, a married couple no longer together, for keeping things quite civil.
Why is it that the quality of various fast-food franchise operations can vary widely from location to location? Then again, the same is true of places like In-and-Out.
So roughly 1 in 5 military enlistees had a "common" mental illness prior to enlistment, which turns out to be on par with the entire population. That's not where the cause of the skyrocketing suicide rates among current military members or recently serving veterans. It's in the multiple deployments and reduced funding levels for the military as a whole. When you're a soldier on your third deployment to Afghanistan in five years and your wife and three kids need food stamps at home to survive...
Did #PoorLeo really trend on Twitter after Leonardo DiCaprio lost the Oscar for Best Actor to Matthew McConaughey? Sour grapes.
Farmers in Northern California are turning to "water witches" to find underground water.
* * *
March 4th in History:
Before listing the historical events of this date, it should be noted this is the one day of the year that is also a command. Say March 4th aloud to illustrate.
51 – Nero, later to become Roman Emperor, is given the title princeps iuventutis (head of the youth).
306 – Martyrdom of Saint Adrian of Nicomedia.
852 – Croatian Knyaz Trpimir I issues a statute, a document with the first known written mention of the Croats name in Croatian sources.
932 – Translation of the relics of martyr Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia, Prince of the Czechs.
1152 – Frederick I Barbarossa is elected King of the Germans.
1238 – The Battle of the Sit River is fought in the northern part of the present-day Yaroslavl Oblast of Russia between the Mongol hordes of Batu Khan and the Russians under Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal during the Mongol invasion of Rus'.
1351 – Ramathibodi becomes King of Siam.
1386 – Władysław II Jagiełło (Jogaila) is crowned King of Poland.
1461 – Wars of the Roses in England: Lancastrian King Henry VI is deposed by his House of York cousin, who then becomes King Edward IV.
1493 – Explorer Christopher Columbus arrives back in Lisbon, Portugal, aboard his ship Niña from his voyage to what is now The Bahamas and other islands in the Caribbean.
1519 – Hernán Cortés arrives in Mexico in search of the Aztec civilization and its wealth.
1628 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a Royal charter.
1665 – English King Charles II declares war on the Netherlands marking the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
1675 – John Flamsteed is appointed the first Astronomer Royal of England.
1681 – Charles II grants a land charter to William Penn for the area that will later become Pennsylvania.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: The Continental Army fortifies Dorchester Heights with cannon, leading the British troops to abandon the Siege of Boston.
1789 – In New York City, the first Congress of the United States meets, putting the United States Constitution into effect. The United States Bill of Rights is written and proposed to Congress.
1790 – France is divided into 83 départements, cutting across the former provinces in an attempt to dislodge regional loyalties based on ownership of land by the nobility.
1791 – The Constitutional Act of 1791 is introduced by the British House of Commons in London which envisages the separation of Canada into Lower Canada (Quebec) and Upper Canada (Ontario).
1791 – Vermont is admitted to the United States as the fourteenth state.
1794 – The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is passed by the U.S. Congress.
1804 – Castle Hill Rebellion: Irish convicts rebel against British colonial authority in the Colony of New South Wales.
1814 – Americans defeat British forces at the Battle of Longwoods between London, Ontario and Thamesville, near present-day Wardsville, Ontario.
1837 – The city of Chicago is incorporated.
1848 – Carlo Alberto di Savoia signs the Statuto Albertino that will later represent the first constitution of the Regno d'Italia
1861 – The first national flag of the Confederate States of America (the "Stars and Bars") is adopted.
1865 – The third and final national flag of the Confederate States of America is adopted by the Confederate Congress.
1882 – Britain's first electric trams run in east London.
1890 – The longest bridge in Great Britain, the Forth Rail Bridge in Scotland, measuring 1,710 feet (520 m) long, is opened by the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII.
1899 – Cyclone Mahina sweeps in north of Cooktown, Queensland, with a 12 metres (39 ft) wave that reaches up to 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) inland, killing over 300.
1908 – The Collinwood school fire, Collinwood near Cleveland, Ohio, kills 174 people.
1909 – U.S. President William Taft used what became known as a Saxbe fix, a mechanism to avoid the restriction of the U.S. Constitution's Ineligibility Clause, to appoint Philander C. Knox as U.S. Secretary of State
1913 – First Balkan War: The Greek army engages the Turks at Bizani, resulting in victory two days later.
1913 – The United States Department of Labor is formed
1917 – Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first female member of the United States House of Representatives.
1918 – The first case of Spanish flu occurs, the start of a devastating worldwide pandemic.
1918 – The USS Cyclops departs from Barbados and is never seen again, presumably lost with all hands in the Bermuda Triangle.
1933 – Frances Perkins becomes United States Secretary of Labor, the first female member of the United States Cabinet.
1933 – The Parliament of Austria is suspended because of a quibble over procedure – Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss initiates an authoritarian rule by decree.
1941 – World War II: The United Kingdom launches Operation Claymore on the Lofoten Islands; the first large scale British Commando raid.
1943 – World War II: The Battle of the Bismarck Sea in the South West Pacific comes to an end.
1944 – World War II: After the success of Big Week, the USAAF begins a daylight bombing campaign of Berlin.
1945 – Lapland War: Finland declares war on Nazi Germany.
1957 – The S&P 500 stock market index is introduced, replacing the S&P 90.
1960 – The French freighter La Coubre explodes in Havana, Cuba killing 100.
1962 – A Caledonian Airways Douglas DC-7 crashes shortly after takeoff from Cameroon, killing 111 - the worst crash of a DC-7.
1966 – A Canadian Pacific Air Lines DC-8-43 explodes on landing at Tokyo International Airport, killing 64 people.
1970 – French submarine Eurydice explodes underwater, resulting in the loss of the entire 57-man crew.
1974 – People magazine is published for the first time in the United States as People Weekly.
1976 – The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention is formally dissolved in Northern Ireland resulting in direct rule of Northern Ireland from London by the British parliament.
1977 – The 1977 Vrancea earthquake in eastern and southern Europe kills more than 1,500, mostly in the seriously damaged city of Bucharest, Romania.
1980 – Nationalist leader Robert Mugabe wins a sweeping election victory to become Zimbabwe's first black prime minister.
1983 – Bertha Wilson is appointed the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada.
1985 – The Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for AIDS infection, used since then for screening all blood donations in the United States.
1986 – The Soviet Vega 1 begins returning images of Halley's Comet and the first images of its nucleus.
1991 – Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah, the Prime Minister of Kuwait, returns to his country for the first time since Iraq's invasion.
1996 – A derailed train in Weyauwega, Wisconsin, US, causes the emergency evacuation of 2,300 people for 16 days.
1998 – Gay rights: Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex.
2001 – 4 March 2001 BBC bombing: a massive car bomb explodes in front of the BBC Television Centre in London, seriously injuring 1 person. The attack was attributed to the Real IRA.
2001 – Hintze Ribeiro disaster: A bridge collapses in northern Portugal, killing up to 70 people.
2002 – Afghanistan: Seven American Special Operations Forces soldiers and 200 Al-Qaeda Fighters are killed as American forces attempt to infiltrate the Shahi Kot Valley on a low-flying helicopter reconnaissance mission.
2007 – Estonian parliamentary election, 2007: Approximately 30,000 voters take advantage of electronic voting in Estonia, the world's first nationwide voting where part of the vote casting is allowed in the form of remote electronic voting via the Internet.
2009 – The International Criminal Court (ICC) issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Al-Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the ICC since its establishment in 2002.
Famous Folk Born on March 4th:
Henry the Navigator
Casimir Pulaski
Edwards Pierrepont
Channing Pollock
Knute Rockne
Dazzy Vance
Lois W.
Charles Goren
John Scarne
Paul Mauriat
Anne Haney (she's Jim Carrey's secretary in this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh6NzOHOU8s)
Paula Prentiss (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8HERyQwMO4 my favorite scene from this film)
Richard Benjamin Harrison (the dude from Pawn Stars)
Adrian Lyne
Lynn Sherr
Bobby Womack (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbbZ_k1Z8gU)
Rick Perry
Pete Haycock (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-054Wp2qR0)
Chris Rea (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSui9_IBgao)
Klinton Spilsbury (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J83cMBUTad4 his only film)
Kay Lenz (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H6btf_tehg&list=PLLS1_rFgin-4AW87F5rFreIEXXGgVX-BM)
Mykelti Williamson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuQZJHfWf9U)
Patricia Heaton (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RtNuYX1Go4)
Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini
Paul W. S. Anderson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYFOr1PN6EE)
Emilio Estefan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMAgkKXP_Zo)
Bob Lewis (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIEVqFB4WUo)
Brian Cummings
Dorothy "Cookie" Mueller
Catherine O'Hara (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeifMjqpsg0)
Steven Weber (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2S47otA-TQ)
Stacy Edwards
Kevin Johnson
Chaz Bono (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrmUms9hgqg)
Len Wiseman
Erin Heatherton
Movie quotes are on hiatus until further notice.
posted by me at 5:50 PM
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