Donald T. Sterling - Billionaire and Bigot?
Make no mistake. Donald T. Sterling is guilty of being both billionaire and bigot. Forbes Magazine, the most trusted media outlet for estimations of wealth says that as of April 25, 2014, Sterling is worth $1.9 billion. He made his money in real estate for the most part. In terms of the length of NBA team ownership he is the "senior" owner in the league, having purchased the then San Diego Clippers in 1981. He paid just under $13 million for the team back then and their current estimated value is more than $430 million. If they were to make it to the NBA Finals this year and triumph, the worth of the team could increase.
His racism was documented and proven long before TMZ.com posted audio of a conversation that Sterling allegedly had with his girlfriend, V. Stiviano. In 2006, the U. S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against him, alleging that he had engaged in discriminatory practices in how his massive inventory of apartments in Los Angeles were rented. He refused to rent to non-Koreans in the Koreatown area and would not rent to black in Beverly Hills. He eventually paid over $7.5 million in fines and DOJ legal fees to settle the lawsuit. The evidence against him was strong.
While Sterling may have prevailed when former Clippers GM Elgin Baylor sued him for wrongful termination, alleging age and racial discrimination; some of Baylor's claims were irrefutable. Baylor's salary after more than two decades was paltry in comparison with that of the white coaches that Sterling insisted he hire. He was one of the lowest paid GMs in the league.
Now we have these disgusting, despicable comments from Mr. Sterling; if the audio is a true and accurate recording of that conversation. It is very interesting (and telling) that the statement issued by Andy Roeser, Clippers president said nothing to deny that it was Sterling's voice. Here's that statement:
“We have heard the tape on TMZ. We do not know if it is legitimate or it has been altered. We do know that the woman on the tape -- who we believe released it to TMZ -- is the defendant in a lawsuit brought by the Sterling family alleging that she embezzled more than $1.8 million, who told Mr. Sterling that she would “get even.” Mr. Sterling is emphatic that what is reflected on that recording is not consistent with, nor does it reflect his views, beliefs or feelings. It is the antithesis of who he is, what he believes and how he has lived his life. He feels terrible that such sentiments are being attributed to him and apologizes to anyone who might have been hurt by them. He is also upset and apologizes for sentiments attributed to him about Earvin Johnson. He has long considered Magic a friend and has only the utmost respect and admiration for him--both in terms of who he is and what he has achieved. We are investigating this matter.”
One problem. It isn't the Sterling family who is suing Ms Stiviano. It's Mrs. Sterling. She's been pissed off since 2010 when the affair between Stiviano and Donald Sterling began. The bolded text above certainly doesn't ring true to me. It sounds fishy. It smells fishy.
What does it say about the veracity of a man when he makes a promise to help the least fortunate and fails to follow through. It's been eight years since Sterling pledged to spend $50 million on a site in East Los Angeles near downtown to provide services to the homeless. Nothing has even been planned and permitted, let alone built. Is the Los Angeles Times afraid to cover this failure because Sterling is such a huge revenue source for them? Possibly. No one who isn't part of the paper's management can say with any strong degree of certainty.
But here's the rub. The one thing the NBA should NOT do is order Sterling to immediately unload his team. Unlike the fiasco where Major League Baseball forced Frank McCourt to unload the Dodgers, this team isn't foundering financially. They aren't about to stop paying their bills. Forcing Sterling to sell in this situation might create a bidding war, but Sterling's penchant for pushing litigation to the limit will result in a prolonged struggle in the court system. He will claim that he won't get full value for the team, because he's being forced to sell.
What the NBA should do is to immediately suspend him from any participation in the operation of the Clippers. Appoint a trustee to take over for him. Allow the investigation into the comments we all find so offensive to prove whether or not he actually said them. If it turns out they aren't what he really said, he can go back to the way things were before. If they turn out to be true, then the league's other owners can vote to expel him from the NBA, giving him adequate time so that this doesn't become a distressed sale.
* * *
Since we're talking about the NBA and racism, I feel compelled to point out that when people say "the NBA is primarily a black league" the statistics back that up. The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports (part of the UCF School of Business) published a report in 2011 on the makeup of the player population of the NBA. At the time the percentage of players in the league who were black stood at 78%.
In the NBA's League office, in the front offices of the various teams, and outside of the highest levels (ownership and NBA Presidential Suite), diversity and equality of opportunity are strong. It is a bit disturbing to note that with the exception of Michael Jordan, there are no black among the list of majority owners of NBA teams. But hopefully that will change over time.
* * *
Leo Terrell is a civil rights attorney in Los Angeles. He is also an occasional guest-host for a radio talk show on KABC. He claims to be "fair-minded" but he is anything but. He claims to be independent and I actually believe that claim. His voter's registration is indeed independent (and yes, I checked). He hasn't made any political contributions to any candidates in the last five years that I can find record of with a quick search.
So why do I say he isn't fair-minded? Because of an hour-long tirade that I listened to him spew on Friday night as I drove home. He was ranting and raving about how conservative talk-show hosts always go on and on about the "rule of law" and that in the case of Cliven Bundy in Nevada, those same hosts defended his actions. "He broke the law" was like a mantra for Terrell throughout, whenever he wasn't hanging up on anyone who violated his rules for dialogue. "Bundy should go to court, not take up arms" was another meme.
Well Leo, the Bundy family went to court long ago and they are still there fighting it out. I think Bundy is a hypocrite, making public statements that he doesn't recognize the federal government as having any authority over him, but taking his case to federal court. I think he's a liar, since his claims that his family has had cattle grazing on the BLM managed lands before the agency existed are highly specious. I can't see why he can't pay the same grazing fees that over 15,000 other ranchers pay without taking up arms.
But he did use the rule of law. Bundy had pursued his case in the court system. He could appeal the most recent decision against him. Did failure to comply with the court order allowing the BLM to seize his cattle constitute a violation of the law? Probably. I think the BLM should have waited to move in until there were no further legal remedies available to Bundy, and then do it in such a way as to overwhelm this bigot and his twisted supporters with a show of force that would make them back down. That's just me.
Leo was correct that the conservative talk-show hosts like Larry Elder, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and the like were idiots to just back this moron without fully vetting him first.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
How do you break a rib while rehearsing for "Dancing With the Stars?"
How many women's hearts are heavy tonight as they learn that George Clooney is engaged? A lot I'd wager.
I had no idea there were breeds of dogs that cannot swim.
What kind of idiot runs for the U. S. Senate and then allows himself to get caught on video attending a rally supporting the legalization of cockfighting? A Tea Party Republican from Kentucky of course.
Good for Vince Carter. He nailed a three-pointer at the buzzer to win a game for the Mavs. I'm not a fan of that team but I am a fan of Carter.
How classy of Baron Davis to respond the way he did to the racist remarks of Donald Sterling. He tweeted "That's the way it is...He is honest about what he believes in..Been going on for a long time, Hats off 2 the Team.. 4 playin above it all." Sterling publicly heckled Davis when he was a Clipper and this would have been a perfect moment for payback. Well-played, Baron.
Earl Morrall, who passed away this week at age 79 was far and away the best backup QB in NFL history. RIP.
Two Phoenix PD officers who were caught playing cards and smoking stogies while on-duty are on paid administrative leave while an investigation is being conducted. If you're going to pay them, put them to work at something in the police station. Mopping floors might be a good place to start.
They're having a "smallest penis in Brooklyn" contest. Does the winner get a lifetime supply of one of those phony pharmaceuticals that allegedly promote penile growth?
* * *
This Date in History:
1336 – Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ascends Mont Ventoux.
1478 – The Pazzi attack Lorenzo de' Medici and kill his brother Giuliano during High Mass in the Duomo of Florence.
1564 – Playwright William Shakespeare was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England (date of actual birth is unknown).
1607 – English colonists make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia.
1721 – A massive earthquake devastates the Iranian city of Tabriz.
1802 – Napoleon Bonaparte signs a general amnesty to allow all but about one thousand of the most notorious émigrés of the French Revolution to return to France, as part of a reconciliary gesture with the factions of the Ancien Régime and to eventually consolidate his own rule.
1803 – Thousands of meteor fragments fall from the skies of L'Aigle, France; the event convinces European science that meteors exist.
1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines captured Derne under the command of First Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon.1865 – American Civil War: Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrenders his army to General William Tecumseh Sherman at the Bennett Place near Durham, North Carolina. Also the date of Confederate Memorial Day for two states.
1865 – Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Lincoln, in Virginia.
1923 – The Duke of York weds Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon at Westminster Abbey.
1925 – Paul von Hindenburg defeats Wilhelm Marx in the second round of the German presidential election to become the first directly elected head of state of the Weimar Republic.
1933 – The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established.
1937 – Spanish Civil War: Guernica (or Gernika in Basque), Spain is bombed by German Luftwaffe.
1942 – Benxihu Colliery accident in Manchukuo leaves 1549 Chinese miners dead.
1944 – Georgios Papandreou becomes head of the Greek government-in-exile based in Egypt.
1944 – Heinrich Kreipe is captured by Allied commandos in occupied Crete.
1945 – World War II: Battle of Bautzen – last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht.
1945 – World War II: Filipino troops of the 66th Infantry Regiment, Philippine Commonwealth Army, USAFIP-NL and the American troops of the 33rd and 37th Infantry Division, United States Army are liberated in Baguio City and they fight against the Japanese forces under General Tomoyuki Yamashita.
1946 – Naperville train disaster kills 47.
1954 – The Geneva Conference, an effort to restore peace in Indochina and Korea, begins.
1956 – SS Ideal X, the world's first successful container ship, leaves Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas.
1958 – Final run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Royal Blue from Washington, D.C., to New York City after 68 years, the first U.S. passenger train to use electric locomotives.
1960 – Forced out by the April Revolution, President of South Korea Syngman Rhee resigns after twelve years of dictatorial rule.
1962 – NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
1963 – In Libya, amendments to the constitution transform Libya (United Kingdom of Libya) into one national unity (Kingdom of Libya) and allows for female participation in elections.
1964 – Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.
1965 – A Rolling Stones concert in London, Ontario is shut down by police after 15 minutes due to rioting.
1966 – An earthquake of magnitude 7.5 destroys Tashkent.
1966 – A new government is formed in the Republic of Congo, led by Ambroise Noumazalaye.
1970 – The Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization enters into force.
1981 – Dr. Michael R. Harrison of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center performs the world's first human open fetal surgery.
1982 – Fifty-seven people are killed by former police officer Woo Bum-kon in a shooting spree in Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea.
1986 – A nuclear reactor accident occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union (now Ukraine), creating the world's worst nuclear disaster.
1989 – The deadliest tornado in world history strikes Central Bangladesh, killing upwards of 1,300, injuring 12,000, and leaving as many as 80,000 homeless.
1989 – People's Daily publishes the People's Daily editorial of April 26 which inflames the nascent Tiananmen Square protests
1991 – Seventy tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before the outbreak's end, Andover, Kansas, would record the year's only F5 tornado (see Andover, Kansas Tornado Outbreak).
1994 – China Airlines Flight 140 crashes at Nagoya Airport in Japan, killing 264 of the 271 people on board.
2002 – Robert Steinhäuser infiltrates and kills 16 at Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot.
2005 – Under international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of that country (Syrian occupation of Lebanon).
Famous Folk Born on April 26th:
William Shakespeare -
Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Marcus Aurelius
Peter II of Portugal
John James Audubon
Eugene Delacroix
Charles Goodyear
Frederick Law Olmstead
Ambrose R. W(right
Rudolf Hess (rot in Hell)
Eddie Egan
Charles Francis Richter
Hack Wilson
Bernard Malamud (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i94ldGNNSQ0)
Vic Perrin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnf6oJZgevU)
Sal "The Barber" Maglie (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAK9UJ-EyDs)
I. M. Pei
Bernie Brillstein (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRA74O_BrSQ)
Carol Burnett (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-cXessab-I)
Bobby Rydell (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB5hM79efPw which would inspire this, 20 years later https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb97nlbJD0Q)
Gary Wright (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-DmAh0dObI)
"Crusher" Jerry Blackwell (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-qmTXS34ds)
Linda Thompson (not the one Bruce Jenner was married to, the really scary one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QxAgyZn58c)
Giancarlo Esposito (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HDBij8xgfU)
Roger Taylor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvE38DDcxlI)
Joan Chen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSMJkE9tFmk)
Jet Li (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wStCRCVwFo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWlyvYl_czg)
Kevin James (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkJvtczC9rc)
Glenn Thomas "Kane" Jacobs (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=kane)
Marianne Jean-Baptiste (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICz9q0RoYjc)
Ivana Milicevic (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kAZbN4bYVg)
Jordana Brewster (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMQT5wQN-pk)
Channing Tatum (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AnW97qET4E when I first saw this movie, I was reminded of this other, hysterical movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_n7ugovApo)
Jessica Lynch (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rhUNE1DaJw)
Giancarlo Esposito
His racism was documented and proven long before TMZ.com posted audio of a conversation that Sterling allegedly had with his girlfriend, V. Stiviano. In 2006, the U. S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against him, alleging that he had engaged in discriminatory practices in how his massive inventory of apartments in Los Angeles were rented. He refused to rent to non-Koreans in the Koreatown area and would not rent to black in Beverly Hills. He eventually paid over $7.5 million in fines and DOJ legal fees to settle the lawsuit. The evidence against him was strong.
While Sterling may have prevailed when former Clippers GM Elgin Baylor sued him for wrongful termination, alleging age and racial discrimination; some of Baylor's claims were irrefutable. Baylor's salary after more than two decades was paltry in comparison with that of the white coaches that Sterling insisted he hire. He was one of the lowest paid GMs in the league.
Now we have these disgusting, despicable comments from Mr. Sterling; if the audio is a true and accurate recording of that conversation. It is very interesting (and telling) that the statement issued by Andy Roeser, Clippers president said nothing to deny that it was Sterling's voice. Here's that statement:
“We have heard the tape on TMZ. We do not know if it is legitimate or it has been altered. We do know that the woman on the tape -- who we believe released it to TMZ -- is the defendant in a lawsuit brought by the Sterling family alleging that she embezzled more than $1.8 million, who told Mr. Sterling that she would “get even.” Mr. Sterling is emphatic that what is reflected on that recording is not consistent with, nor does it reflect his views, beliefs or feelings. It is the antithesis of who he is, what he believes and how he has lived his life. He feels terrible that such sentiments are being attributed to him and apologizes to anyone who might have been hurt by them. He is also upset and apologizes for sentiments attributed to him about Earvin Johnson. He has long considered Magic a friend and has only the utmost respect and admiration for him--both in terms of who he is and what he has achieved. We are investigating this matter.”
One problem. It isn't the Sterling family who is suing Ms Stiviano. It's Mrs. Sterling. She's been pissed off since 2010 when the affair between Stiviano and Donald Sterling began. The bolded text above certainly doesn't ring true to me. It sounds fishy. It smells fishy.
What does it say about the veracity of a man when he makes a promise to help the least fortunate and fails to follow through. It's been eight years since Sterling pledged to spend $50 million on a site in East Los Angeles near downtown to provide services to the homeless. Nothing has even been planned and permitted, let alone built. Is the Los Angeles Times afraid to cover this failure because Sterling is such a huge revenue source for them? Possibly. No one who isn't part of the paper's management can say with any strong degree of certainty.
But here's the rub. The one thing the NBA should NOT do is order Sterling to immediately unload his team. Unlike the fiasco where Major League Baseball forced Frank McCourt to unload the Dodgers, this team isn't foundering financially. They aren't about to stop paying their bills. Forcing Sterling to sell in this situation might create a bidding war, but Sterling's penchant for pushing litigation to the limit will result in a prolonged struggle in the court system. He will claim that he won't get full value for the team, because he's being forced to sell.
What the NBA should do is to immediately suspend him from any participation in the operation of the Clippers. Appoint a trustee to take over for him. Allow the investigation into the comments we all find so offensive to prove whether or not he actually said them. If it turns out they aren't what he really said, he can go back to the way things were before. If they turn out to be true, then the league's other owners can vote to expel him from the NBA, giving him adequate time so that this doesn't become a distressed sale.
* * *
Since we're talking about the NBA and racism, I feel compelled to point out that when people say "the NBA is primarily a black league" the statistics back that up. The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports (part of the UCF School of Business) published a report in 2011 on the makeup of the player population of the NBA. At the time the percentage of players in the league who were black stood at 78%.
In the NBA's League office, in the front offices of the various teams, and outside of the highest levels (ownership and NBA Presidential Suite), diversity and equality of opportunity are strong. It is a bit disturbing to note that with the exception of Michael Jordan, there are no black among the list of majority owners of NBA teams. But hopefully that will change over time.
* * *
Leo Terrell is a civil rights attorney in Los Angeles. He is also an occasional guest-host for a radio talk show on KABC. He claims to be "fair-minded" but he is anything but. He claims to be independent and I actually believe that claim. His voter's registration is indeed independent (and yes, I checked). He hasn't made any political contributions to any candidates in the last five years that I can find record of with a quick search.
So why do I say he isn't fair-minded? Because of an hour-long tirade that I listened to him spew on Friday night as I drove home. He was ranting and raving about how conservative talk-show hosts always go on and on about the "rule of law" and that in the case of Cliven Bundy in Nevada, those same hosts defended his actions. "He broke the law" was like a mantra for Terrell throughout, whenever he wasn't hanging up on anyone who violated his rules for dialogue. "Bundy should go to court, not take up arms" was another meme.
Well Leo, the Bundy family went to court long ago and they are still there fighting it out. I think Bundy is a hypocrite, making public statements that he doesn't recognize the federal government as having any authority over him, but taking his case to federal court. I think he's a liar, since his claims that his family has had cattle grazing on the BLM managed lands before the agency existed are highly specious. I can't see why he can't pay the same grazing fees that over 15,000 other ranchers pay without taking up arms.
But he did use the rule of law. Bundy had pursued his case in the court system. He could appeal the most recent decision against him. Did failure to comply with the court order allowing the BLM to seize his cattle constitute a violation of the law? Probably. I think the BLM should have waited to move in until there were no further legal remedies available to Bundy, and then do it in such a way as to overwhelm this bigot and his twisted supporters with a show of force that would make them back down. That's just me.
Leo was correct that the conservative talk-show hosts like Larry Elder, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and the like were idiots to just back this moron without fully vetting him first.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
How do you break a rib while rehearsing for "Dancing With the Stars?"
How many women's hearts are heavy tonight as they learn that George Clooney is engaged? A lot I'd wager.
I had no idea there were breeds of dogs that cannot swim.
What kind of idiot runs for the U. S. Senate and then allows himself to get caught on video attending a rally supporting the legalization of cockfighting? A Tea Party Republican from Kentucky of course.
Good for Vince Carter. He nailed a three-pointer at the buzzer to win a game for the Mavs. I'm not a fan of that team but I am a fan of Carter.
How classy of Baron Davis to respond the way he did to the racist remarks of Donald Sterling. He tweeted "That's the way it is...He is honest about what he believes in..Been going on for a long time, Hats off 2 the Team.. 4 playin above it all." Sterling publicly heckled Davis when he was a Clipper and this would have been a perfect moment for payback. Well-played, Baron.
Earl Morrall, who passed away this week at age 79 was far and away the best backup QB in NFL history. RIP.
Two Phoenix PD officers who were caught playing cards and smoking stogies while on-duty are on paid administrative leave while an investigation is being conducted. If you're going to pay them, put them to work at something in the police station. Mopping floors might be a good place to start.
They're having a "smallest penis in Brooklyn" contest. Does the winner get a lifetime supply of one of those phony pharmaceuticals that allegedly promote penile growth?
* * *
This Date in History:
1336 – Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ascends Mont Ventoux.
1478 – The Pazzi attack Lorenzo de' Medici and kill his brother Giuliano during High Mass in the Duomo of Florence.
1564 – Playwright William Shakespeare was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England (date of actual birth is unknown).
1607 – English colonists make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia.
1721 – A massive earthquake devastates the Iranian city of Tabriz.
1802 – Napoleon Bonaparte signs a general amnesty to allow all but about one thousand of the most notorious émigrés of the French Revolution to return to France, as part of a reconciliary gesture with the factions of the Ancien Régime and to eventually consolidate his own rule.
1803 – Thousands of meteor fragments fall from the skies of L'Aigle, France; the event convinces European science that meteors exist.
1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines captured Derne under the command of First Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon.1865 – American Civil War: Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrenders his army to General William Tecumseh Sherman at the Bennett Place near Durham, North Carolina. Also the date of Confederate Memorial Day for two states.
1865 – Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Lincoln, in Virginia.
1923 – The Duke of York weds Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon at Westminster Abbey.
1925 – Paul von Hindenburg defeats Wilhelm Marx in the second round of the German presidential election to become the first directly elected head of state of the Weimar Republic.
1933 – The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established.
1937 – Spanish Civil War: Guernica (or Gernika in Basque), Spain is bombed by German Luftwaffe.
1942 – Benxihu Colliery accident in Manchukuo leaves 1549 Chinese miners dead.
1944 – Georgios Papandreou becomes head of the Greek government-in-exile based in Egypt.
1944 – Heinrich Kreipe is captured by Allied commandos in occupied Crete.
1945 – World War II: Battle of Bautzen – last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht.
1945 – World War II: Filipino troops of the 66th Infantry Regiment, Philippine Commonwealth Army, USAFIP-NL and the American troops of the 33rd and 37th Infantry Division, United States Army are liberated in Baguio City and they fight against the Japanese forces under General Tomoyuki Yamashita.
1946 – Naperville train disaster kills 47.
1954 – The Geneva Conference, an effort to restore peace in Indochina and Korea, begins.
1956 – SS Ideal X, the world's first successful container ship, leaves Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas.
1958 – Final run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Royal Blue from Washington, D.C., to New York City after 68 years, the first U.S. passenger train to use electric locomotives.
1960 – Forced out by the April Revolution, President of South Korea Syngman Rhee resigns after twelve years of dictatorial rule.
1962 – NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
1963 – In Libya, amendments to the constitution transform Libya (United Kingdom of Libya) into one national unity (Kingdom of Libya) and allows for female participation in elections.
1964 – Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.
1965 – A Rolling Stones concert in London, Ontario is shut down by police after 15 minutes due to rioting.
1966 – An earthquake of magnitude 7.5 destroys Tashkent.
1966 – A new government is formed in the Republic of Congo, led by Ambroise Noumazalaye.
1970 – The Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization enters into force.
1981 – Dr. Michael R. Harrison of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center performs the world's first human open fetal surgery.
1982 – Fifty-seven people are killed by former police officer Woo Bum-kon in a shooting spree in Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea.
1986 – A nuclear reactor accident occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union (now Ukraine), creating the world's worst nuclear disaster.
1989 – The deadliest tornado in world history strikes Central Bangladesh, killing upwards of 1,300, injuring 12,000, and leaving as many as 80,000 homeless.
1989 – People's Daily publishes the People's Daily editorial of April 26 which inflames the nascent Tiananmen Square protests
1991 – Seventy tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before the outbreak's end, Andover, Kansas, would record the year's only F5 tornado (see Andover, Kansas Tornado Outbreak).
1994 – China Airlines Flight 140 crashes at Nagoya Airport in Japan, killing 264 of the 271 people on board.
2002 – Robert Steinhäuser infiltrates and kills 16 at Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot.
2005 – Under international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of that country (Syrian occupation of Lebanon).
Famous Folk Born on April 26th:
William Shakespeare -
Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Marcus Aurelius
Peter II of Portugal
John James Audubon
Eugene Delacroix
Charles Goodyear
Frederick Law Olmstead
Ambrose R. W(right
Rudolf Hess (rot in Hell)
Eddie Egan
Charles Francis Richter
Hack Wilson
Bernard Malamud (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i94ldGNNSQ0)
Vic Perrin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnf6oJZgevU)
Sal "The Barber" Maglie (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAK9UJ-EyDs)
I. M. Pei
Bernie Brillstein (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRA74O_BrSQ)
Carol Burnett (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-cXessab-I)
Bobby Rydell (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB5hM79efPw which would inspire this, 20 years later https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb97nlbJD0Q)
Gary Wright (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-DmAh0dObI)
"Crusher" Jerry Blackwell (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-qmTXS34ds)
Linda Thompson (not the one Bruce Jenner was married to, the really scary one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QxAgyZn58c)
Giancarlo Esposito (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HDBij8xgfU)
Roger Taylor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvE38DDcxlI)
Joan Chen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSMJkE9tFmk)
Jet Li (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wStCRCVwFo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWlyvYl_czg)
Kevin James (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkJvtczC9rc)
Glenn Thomas "Kane" Jacobs (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=kane)
Marianne Jean-Baptiste (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICz9q0RoYjc)
Ivana Milicevic (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kAZbN4bYVg)
Jordana Brewster (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMQT5wQN-pk)
Channing Tatum (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AnW97qET4E when I first saw this movie, I was reminded of this other, hysterical movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_n7ugovApo)
Jessica Lynch (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rhUNE1DaJw)
Giancarlo Esposito
posted by me at 11:51 AM
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