Not so tough now...
Brandon Spencer, a 21 year old admitted gang member broke down sobbing in a Los Angeles court. The judge had just sentenced him. 40 years to life in state prison. Seems a long sentence when all he did was fire a gun. Of course the fact that he was attempting to murder a rival gang member and ended up wounding his target and three others; leading to his conviction on four counts of attempted murder makes the sentence seem more reasonable.
The media has given us this image of gang members as hard, unforgiving, cold-blooded people who kill without remorse. Some of them certainly are just that. But someone with those attributes wouldn't break down and cry in front of their friends and supporters. He did. Why?
He asked for a second chance. "I'm sorry for what happened but I can't spend the rest of my life in prison," he said in the courtroom. "I'm not just some gang banger that they portrayed me as."
I'd love to be able to find out if that's true. To have the chance to hook him up to an infallible lie detector machine and ask him some questions:
"If you could go back and do it again, knowing you'd be caught and given this prison sentence, would you still pull that trigger?"
"If you could go back and do it again, knowing you'd get away with it, would you still pull that trigger?"
If you could give a message to every current and future member of a gang who is about to fire a gun at someone, what would that message be?"
The answers would be fascinating.
* * *
It is Friday afternoon as I sit down to write this. This is the first weekend in the year 2014 that I will enjoy without doing something work related. I worked every single Sunday thus far this year. Some Saturdays. Some Fridays. By resting up on Wednesday and Thursday, I feel much recovered and ready to enjoy my time off.
Before I do, I wanted to reflect a little on why I do what I do, and why I'm so passionate about it. Saving people money by ensuring they are getting the best possible result on their tax return is great, but it is making a difference in the lives of my clients that keeps me going. Because I showed several of my younger clients the importance of starting to save for retirement at the earliest possible point in one's work life; some of them opened IRAs this year. Some of them increased their contributions to their retirement plans through their employers. Others are planning to buy homes, once they were shown the tax advantages of ownership over renting. That's why I work so hard at what I do. Not just for the paycheck (although it is very nice), but because in my little way, I'm making things better for those who put their trust and faith in me to handle their taxes.
It feels good. That's why I do it.
* * *
The following can be found at www.petitions.whitehouse.gov
"Step 1 - Browse open petitions to find a petition related to your issue, and add your signature.
Step 2 - If your issue is not currently represented by an active petition, start a new petition.
Step 3 - If a petition meets the signature threshold, it will be reviewed by the Administration and we will issue a response."
Apparently their use of the term "response" is subject to interpretation. After a petition to deport Justin Bieber soared past that signature threshold, the White House said "Thanks for your petition and your participation in We the People. Sorry to disappoint, but we won’t be commenting on this one.
The We the People terms of participation state that, “to avoid the appearance of improper influence, the White House may decline to address certain procurement, law enforcement, adjudicatory, or similar matters properly within the jurisdiction of federal departments or agencies, federal courts, or state and local government in its response to a petition."
That's a crock. When President Obama is signing an Executive Order to create his version of the "Dream Act" for young people who are in this country in violation of current immigration law, he is the one deciding deportation policy for our nation. Advocates for those in this country illegally argue that deportations are up under the Obama Administration.
So he can't just duck this one because it is controversial. Seems to me you either deport all, or deport none. If we continue with this "deport those who have committed serious crimes" methodology we are just making a broken system worse.
Personally I am all for deporting Bieber and barring him from returning. But that's just me.
* * *
25 years ago today there was an explosion on the battleship U.S.S. Iowa in gun turret two. 47 members of the ship's crew were killed. As long as there is a need for a military force, there will be training and training is always going to include accidents. There are tragic losses suffered even outside of the dangers of training. In 1985, 248 Army personnel on their way home from a deployment to Egypt were killed in a plane crash at Gander, Canada.
So today, I'm pausing to remember the following:
RIP. We are grateful for your service and sacrifice.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
I don't have a problem with Nancy Grace speculating that the Ultimate Warrior's use of steroids may have contributed to his premature death. But saying such a thing about Owen Hart, who died as the result of a stunt that went wrong is just out of bounds. Nancy Grace needs a stunner from Stone Cold.
Why would anyone want to impersonate Kris Jenner? On the phone or otherwise.
Kim Novak did not deserve the treatment she got from people following the Oscar broadcast. Donald Trump has no room to criticize anything anyone else does about trying to look better until he admits he's either a wig-wearer or Sy Sperling's best customer.
Michael's stores finally admitted being hacked. As if anyone didn't know already.
Making a statement is one thing. Paying your final college tuition payment with 97,400 pennies (they weighed 500 pounds) is a bit of overkill.
Western Union and MoneyGram may be in trouble. Walmart is getting into the money transfer business.
Debbie Gibson told the public she's suffering from Lyme disease after rampant speculation about her gaunt appearance. I just hope she gets better.
If it would allow the Lakers to pay him out at only $3.2 million over the next three seasons, waiving Steve Nash becomes a no-brainer.
"I got hit by a car, I think" was posted to Twitter by a former winner on "Big Brother." I don't ever want to have another night where I don't remember what happened, which is one of the reasons I no longer drink alcohol.
It's heartening to know that when asked who is worse, Vladimir Putin or Lindsay Lohan, visitors to TMZ.com were 68% for Putin and 32% for Lohan. Patriotism!
Chris Brown and the other inmates in the Northern Neck Regional Jail in Virginia will get a nice meal on Easter. Turkey ham (no pork to avoid offending Muslim inmates) and all the fixings.
Will someone please remove all of the Peeps from store shelves immediately after Easter is over?
FWIW I wouldn't go to Taco Bell for breakfast even if they paid me to eat it. Well, okay, if they paid me five figures I might go once or twice.
* * *
April 19th in History:
65 – The freedman Milichus betrayed Piso's plot to kill the Emperor Nero and all the conspirators are arrested.
531 – Battle of Callinicum: A Byzantine army under Belisarius is defeated by the Persian at Ar-Raqqah (northern Syria).
1012 – Martyrdom of Ælfheah in Greenwich, London.
1529 – Beginning of the Protestant Reformation: The Second Diet of Speyer bans Lutheranism; a group of rulers (German: Fürst) and independent cities (German: Reichsstadt) protests the reinstatement of the Edict of Worms.
1539 – Charles V and Protestants signs Treaty of Frankfurt.
1677 – The French army captures the town of Cambrai held by Spanish troops.
1713 – With no living male heirs, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inherited by his daughter, Maria Theresa of Austria (not actually born until 1717).
1770 – Captain James Cook sights the eastern coast of what is now Australia.
1770 – Marie Antoinette marries Louis XVI in a proxy wedding.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: The war begins with an American victory in Concord during the battles of Lexington and Concord.
1782 – John Adams secures the Dutch Republic's recognition of the United States as an independent government. The house which he had purchased in The Hague, Netherlands becomes the first American embassy.
1809 – An Austrian corps is defeated by the forces of the Duchy of Warsaw in the Battle of Raszyn, part of the struggles of the Fifth Coalition. On the same day the Austrian main army is defeated by a First French Empire Corps led by Louis-Nicolas Davout at the Battle of Teugen-Hausen in Bavaria, part of a four-day campaign that ended in a French victory.
1810 – Venezuela achieves home rule: Vicente Emparan, Governor of the Captaincy General is removed by the people of Caracas and a junta is installed.
1839 – The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom and guaranteeing its neutrality.
1855 – Visit of Napoleon III to Guildhall, London
1861 – American Civil War: Baltimore riot of 1861: A pro-Secession mob in Baltimore, Maryland, attacks United States Army troops marching through the city.
1892 – Charles Duryea claims to have driven the first automobile in the United States, in Springfield, Massachusetts.
1897 – Léo Taxil exposes his own fabrications concerning Freemasonry
1903 – The Kishinev pogrom in Kishinev (Bessarabia) begins, forcing tens of thousands of Jews to later seek refuge in Palestine and the Western world.
1919 – Leslie Irvin of the United States makes the first successful voluntary free-fall parachute jump using a new kind of self-contained parachute.
1927 – Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.
1928 – The 125th and final fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.
1942 – World War II: In Poland, the Majdan-Tatarski ghetto is established, situated between the Lublin Ghetto and a Majdanek subcamp.
1943 – World War II: In Poland, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins, after German troops enter the Warsaw ghetto to round up the remaining Jews.
1945 – Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Guatemala are established.[citation needed]
1948 – Burma joins the United Nations.
1950 – Argentina becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1951 – General Douglas MacArthur retires from the military.
1954 – The Constituent Assembly of Pakistan recognises Urdu and Bengali as the national languages of Pakistan.
1956 – Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco.
1960 – Students in South Korea hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest against president Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign.
1971 – Sierra Leone becomes a republic, and Siaka Stevens the president.
1971 – Vietnam War: Vietnam Veterans Against the War begin a five-day demonstration in Washington, D.C..
1971 – Launch of Salyut 1, the first space station.
1971 – Charles Manson is sentenced to death (later commuted life imprisonment) for conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders.
1973 – The Portuguese Socialist Party is founded in the German town of Bad Münstereifel.
1975 – India's first satellite, Aryabhata, is launched.
1984 – Advance Australia Fair is proclaimed as Australia's national anthem, and green and gold as the national colours.
1985 – FBI siege on the compound of The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (CSAL) in Arkansas.
1985 – U.S.S.R performs nuclear tests at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalatinsk.
1987 – The Simpsons premieres as a short cartoon on The Tracey Ullman Show.
1989 – A gun turret explodes on the USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors.
1993 – The 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian building outside Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die.
1993 – South Dakota governor George Mickelson and seven others are killed when a state-owned aircraft crashes in Iowa.
1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is bombed, killing 168.
1997 – The Red River Flood of 1997 overwhelms the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota. Fire breaks out and spreads in downtown Grand Forks, but high water levels hamper efforts to reach the fire, leading to the destruction of 11 buildings.
1999 – The German Bundestag returns to Berlin, the first German parliamentary body to meet there since the Reichstag was dissolved in 1933.
2011 – Fidel Castro resigns from the Communist Party of Cuba's central committee after 45 years of holding the title.
2013 – Boston Marathon bombings suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is killed in a shootout with police. His brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is captured while hiding in a boat inside a backyard in Watertown, Massachusetts.
Famous Folk Born on April 19th:
Christoph Bach
Elizabeth Dilling Stokes
Eliot Ness (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISTQ9UZs4wY)
Sol Kaplan (another HUAC victim https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf7y1Bn4LKU)
Dick Sargent (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjcJDh2seDM)
Jayne Mansfield (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CKj7AvN6dM)
Dudley Moore (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOCW9Shz7lE)
Elinor Donahue (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOXqdX1Bb8c)
Eve Graham (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjtEYt6l2Cs)
James Heckman (Nobel laureate)
Tim Curry (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg-vgGuTD8A)
Mary Jo Slater
Paloma Picasso
Al Unser, Jr. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fwIcyBACeI)
Suge Knight (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1WJUUcR9go)
Jesse James (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pslbsWpBGk)
Ashley Judd (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRe4Hdin9Kc)
Susan Polgar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HujWLARJyNY)
James Franco (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCimtBMr2GE)
Kate Hudson (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dgeaQTeyvc no one should have to go through that)
Hayden Christensen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSwy412nttI)
Troy Palamalu (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaJFnGGECJo)
Maria Sharapova (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n-oFCRuTes)
The media has given us this image of gang members as hard, unforgiving, cold-blooded people who kill without remorse. Some of them certainly are just that. But someone with those attributes wouldn't break down and cry in front of their friends and supporters. He did. Why?
He asked for a second chance. "I'm sorry for what happened but I can't spend the rest of my life in prison," he said in the courtroom. "I'm not just some gang banger that they portrayed me as."
I'd love to be able to find out if that's true. To have the chance to hook him up to an infallible lie detector machine and ask him some questions:
"If you could go back and do it again, knowing you'd be caught and given this prison sentence, would you still pull that trigger?"
"If you could go back and do it again, knowing you'd get away with it, would you still pull that trigger?"
If you could give a message to every current and future member of a gang who is about to fire a gun at someone, what would that message be?"
The answers would be fascinating.
* * *
It is Friday afternoon as I sit down to write this. This is the first weekend in the year 2014 that I will enjoy without doing something work related. I worked every single Sunday thus far this year. Some Saturdays. Some Fridays. By resting up on Wednesday and Thursday, I feel much recovered and ready to enjoy my time off.
Before I do, I wanted to reflect a little on why I do what I do, and why I'm so passionate about it. Saving people money by ensuring they are getting the best possible result on their tax return is great, but it is making a difference in the lives of my clients that keeps me going. Because I showed several of my younger clients the importance of starting to save for retirement at the earliest possible point in one's work life; some of them opened IRAs this year. Some of them increased their contributions to their retirement plans through their employers. Others are planning to buy homes, once they were shown the tax advantages of ownership over renting. That's why I work so hard at what I do. Not just for the paycheck (although it is very nice), but because in my little way, I'm making things better for those who put their trust and faith in me to handle their taxes.
It feels good. That's why I do it.
* * *
The following can be found at www.petitions.whitehouse.gov
"Step 1 - Browse open petitions to find a petition related to your issue, and add your signature.
Step 2 - If your issue is not currently represented by an active petition, start a new petition.
Step 3 - If a petition meets the signature threshold, it will be reviewed by the Administration and we will issue a response."
Apparently their use of the term "response" is subject to interpretation. After a petition to deport Justin Bieber soared past that signature threshold, the White House said "Thanks for your petition and your participation in We the People. Sorry to disappoint, but we won’t be commenting on this one.
The We the People terms of participation state that, “to avoid the appearance of improper influence, the White House may decline to address certain procurement, law enforcement, adjudicatory, or similar matters properly within the jurisdiction of federal departments or agencies, federal courts, or state and local government in its response to a petition."
That's a crock. When President Obama is signing an Executive Order to create his version of the "Dream Act" for young people who are in this country in violation of current immigration law, he is the one deciding deportation policy for our nation. Advocates for those in this country illegally argue that deportations are up under the Obama Administration.
So he can't just duck this one because it is controversial. Seems to me you either deport all, or deport none. If we continue with this "deport those who have committed serious crimes" methodology we are just making a broken system worse.
Personally I am all for deporting Bieber and barring him from returning. But that's just me.
* * *
25 years ago today there was an explosion on the battleship U.S.S. Iowa in gun turret two. 47 members of the ship's crew were killed. As long as there is a need for a military force, there will be training and training is always going to include accidents. There are tragic losses suffered even outside of the dangers of training. In 1985, 248 Army personnel on their way home from a deployment to Egypt were killed in a plane crash at Gander, Canada.
So today, I'm pausing to remember the following:
| Crewmember's Name | Rate/Rank | Hometown |
| Tung Thanh Adams | Fire Controlman 3rd class (FC3) | Alexandria, VA |
| Robert Wallace Backherms | Gunner's Mate 3rd class (GM3)(FC3) | Ravenna, OH |
| Dwayne Collier Battle | Electrician's Mate, Fireman Apprentice (EMFA) | Rocky Mount, NC |
| Walter Scot Blakey | Gunner's Mate 3rd class (GM3) | Eaton Rapids, MI |
| Pete Edward Bopp | Gunner's Mate 3rd class (GM3) | Levittown, NY |
| Ramon Jarel Bradshaw | Seaman Recruit (SR) | Tampa, FL |
| Philip Edward Buch | Lieutenant, Junior Grade (LTjg) | Las Cruces, NM |
| Eric Ellis Casey | Seaman Apprentice (SA) | Mt. Airy, NC |
| John Peter Cramer | Gunners Mate 2nd class (GM2) | Uniontown, PA |
| Milton Francis Devaul Jr. | Gunners Mate 3rd class (GM3) | Solvay, NY |
| Leslie Allen Everhart Jr. | Seaman Apprentice (SA) | Cary, NC |
| Gary John Fisk | Boatswains Mate 2nd class (BM2) | Oneida, NY |
| Tyrone Dwayne Foley | Seaman (SN) | Bullard, TX |
| Robert James Gedeon III | Seaman Apprentice (SA) | Lakewood, OH |
| Brian Wayne Gendron | Seaman Apprentice (SA) | Madera, CA |
| John Leonard Goins | Seaman Recruit (SR) | Columbus, OH |
| David L. Hanson | Electricians Mate 3rd class (EM3) | Perkins, SD |
| Ernest Edward Hanyecz | Gunners Mate 1st class (GM1) | Bordentown, NJ |
| Clayton Michael Hartwig | Gunners Mate 2nd class (GM2) | Cleveland, OH |
| Michael William Helton | Legalman 1st class (LN1) | Louisville, KY |
| Scott Alan Holt | Seaman Apprentice (SA) | Fort Meyers, FL |
| Reginald L. Johnson Jr. | Seaman Recruit (SR) | Warrensville Heights, OH |
| Nathaniel Clifford Jones Jr. | Seaman Apprentice (SA) | Buffalo, NY |
| Brian Robert Jones | Seaman (SN) | Kennesaw, GA |
| Michael Shannon Justice | Seaman (SN) | Matewan, WV |
| Edward J. Kimble | Seaman (SN) | Ft. Stockton, TX |
| Richard E. Lawrence | Gunners Mate 3rd class (GM3) | Springfield, OH |
| Richard John Lewis | Fire Controlman, Seaman Apprentice (FCSA) | Northville, MI |
| Jose Luis Martinez Jr. | Seaman Apprentice (SA) | Hidalgo, TX |
| Todd Christopher McMullen | Boatswains Mate 3rd class (BM3) | Manheim, PA |
| Todd Edward Miller | Seaman Recruit (SR) | Ligonier, PA |
| Robert Kenneth Morrison | Legalman 1st class (LN1) | Jacksonville, FL |
| Otis Levance Moses | Seaman (SN) | Bridgeport, CN |
| Darin Andrew Ogden | Gunners Mate 3rd class (GM3) | Shelbyville, IN |
| Ricky Ronald Peterson | Seaman (SN) | Houston, MN |
| Mathew Ray Price | Gunners Mate 3rd class (GM3) | Burnside, PA |
| Harold Earl Romine Jr. | Seaman Recruit (SR) | Brandenton, FL |
| Geoffrey Scott Schelin | Gunners Mate 3rd class (GMG3) | Costa Mesa, CA |
| Heath Eugene Stillwagon | Gunners Mate 3rd class (GM3) | Connellsville, PA |
| Todd Thomas Tatham | Seaman Recruit (SR) | Wolcott, NY |
| Jack Ernest Thompson | Gunners Mate 3rd class (GM3) | Greeneville, TN |
| Stephen J. Welden | Gunners Mate 2nd class (GM2) | Yukon, OK |
| James Darrell White | Gunners Mate 3rd class (GM3) | Norwalk, CA |
| Rodney Maurice White | Seaman Recruit (SR) | Louisville, KY |
| Michael Robert Williams | Boatswains Mate 2nd class (BM2) | South Shore, KY |
| John Rodney Young | Seaman (SN) | Rockhill, SC |
| Reginald Owen Ziegler | Senior Chief Gunners Mate (GMCS) | Port Gibson, NY |
RIP. We are grateful for your service and sacrifice.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
I don't have a problem with Nancy Grace speculating that the Ultimate Warrior's use of steroids may have contributed to his premature death. But saying such a thing about Owen Hart, who died as the result of a stunt that went wrong is just out of bounds. Nancy Grace needs a stunner from Stone Cold.
Why would anyone want to impersonate Kris Jenner? On the phone or otherwise.
Kim Novak did not deserve the treatment she got from people following the Oscar broadcast. Donald Trump has no room to criticize anything anyone else does about trying to look better until he admits he's either a wig-wearer or Sy Sperling's best customer.
Michael's stores finally admitted being hacked. As if anyone didn't know already.
Making a statement is one thing. Paying your final college tuition payment with 97,400 pennies (they weighed 500 pounds) is a bit of overkill.
Western Union and MoneyGram may be in trouble. Walmart is getting into the money transfer business.
Debbie Gibson told the public she's suffering from Lyme disease after rampant speculation about her gaunt appearance. I just hope she gets better.
If it would allow the Lakers to pay him out at only $3.2 million over the next three seasons, waiving Steve Nash becomes a no-brainer.
"I got hit by a car, I think" was posted to Twitter by a former winner on "Big Brother." I don't ever want to have another night where I don't remember what happened, which is one of the reasons I no longer drink alcohol.
It's heartening to know that when asked who is worse, Vladimir Putin or Lindsay Lohan, visitors to TMZ.com were 68% for Putin and 32% for Lohan. Patriotism!
Chris Brown and the other inmates in the Northern Neck Regional Jail in Virginia will get a nice meal on Easter. Turkey ham (no pork to avoid offending Muslim inmates) and all the fixings.
Will someone please remove all of the Peeps from store shelves immediately after Easter is over?
FWIW I wouldn't go to Taco Bell for breakfast even if they paid me to eat it. Well, okay, if they paid me five figures I might go once or twice.
* * *
April 19th in History:
65 – The freedman Milichus betrayed Piso's plot to kill the Emperor Nero and all the conspirators are arrested.
531 – Battle of Callinicum: A Byzantine army under Belisarius is defeated by the Persian at Ar-Raqqah (northern Syria).
1012 – Martyrdom of Ælfheah in Greenwich, London.
1529 – Beginning of the Protestant Reformation: The Second Diet of Speyer bans Lutheranism; a group of rulers (German: Fürst) and independent cities (German: Reichsstadt) protests the reinstatement of the Edict of Worms.
1539 – Charles V and Protestants signs Treaty of Frankfurt.
1677 – The French army captures the town of Cambrai held by Spanish troops.
1713 – With no living male heirs, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inherited by his daughter, Maria Theresa of Austria (not actually born until 1717).
1770 – Captain James Cook sights the eastern coast of what is now Australia.
1770 – Marie Antoinette marries Louis XVI in a proxy wedding.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: The war begins with an American victory in Concord during the battles of Lexington and Concord.
1782 – John Adams secures the Dutch Republic's recognition of the United States as an independent government. The house which he had purchased in The Hague, Netherlands becomes the first American embassy.
1809 – An Austrian corps is defeated by the forces of the Duchy of Warsaw in the Battle of Raszyn, part of the struggles of the Fifth Coalition. On the same day the Austrian main army is defeated by a First French Empire Corps led by Louis-Nicolas Davout at the Battle of Teugen-Hausen in Bavaria, part of a four-day campaign that ended in a French victory.
1810 – Venezuela achieves home rule: Vicente Emparan, Governor of the Captaincy General is removed by the people of Caracas and a junta is installed.
1839 – The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom and guaranteeing its neutrality.
1855 – Visit of Napoleon III to Guildhall, London
1861 – American Civil War: Baltimore riot of 1861: A pro-Secession mob in Baltimore, Maryland, attacks United States Army troops marching through the city.
1892 – Charles Duryea claims to have driven the first automobile in the United States, in Springfield, Massachusetts.
1897 – Léo Taxil exposes his own fabrications concerning Freemasonry
1903 – The Kishinev pogrom in Kishinev (Bessarabia) begins, forcing tens of thousands of Jews to later seek refuge in Palestine and the Western world.
1919 – Leslie Irvin of the United States makes the first successful voluntary free-fall parachute jump using a new kind of self-contained parachute.
1927 – Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.
1928 – The 125th and final fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.
1942 – World War II: In Poland, the Majdan-Tatarski ghetto is established, situated between the Lublin Ghetto and a Majdanek subcamp.
1943 – World War II: In Poland, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins, after German troops enter the Warsaw ghetto to round up the remaining Jews.
1945 – Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Guatemala are established.[citation needed]
1948 – Burma joins the United Nations.
1950 – Argentina becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1951 – General Douglas MacArthur retires from the military.
1954 – The Constituent Assembly of Pakistan recognises Urdu and Bengali as the national languages of Pakistan.
1956 – Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco.
1960 – Students in South Korea hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest against president Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign.
1971 – Sierra Leone becomes a republic, and Siaka Stevens the president.
1971 – Vietnam War: Vietnam Veterans Against the War begin a five-day demonstration in Washington, D.C..
1971 – Launch of Salyut 1, the first space station.
1971 – Charles Manson is sentenced to death (later commuted life imprisonment) for conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders.
1973 – The Portuguese Socialist Party is founded in the German town of Bad Münstereifel.
1975 – India's first satellite, Aryabhata, is launched.
1984 – Advance Australia Fair is proclaimed as Australia's national anthem, and green and gold as the national colours.
1985 – FBI siege on the compound of The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (CSAL) in Arkansas.
1985 – U.S.S.R performs nuclear tests at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalatinsk.
1987 – The Simpsons premieres as a short cartoon on The Tracey Ullman Show.
1989 – A gun turret explodes on the USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors.
1993 – The 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian building outside Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die.
1993 – South Dakota governor George Mickelson and seven others are killed when a state-owned aircraft crashes in Iowa.
1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is bombed, killing 168.
1997 – The Red River Flood of 1997 overwhelms the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota. Fire breaks out and spreads in downtown Grand Forks, but high water levels hamper efforts to reach the fire, leading to the destruction of 11 buildings.
1999 – The German Bundestag returns to Berlin, the first German parliamentary body to meet there since the Reichstag was dissolved in 1933.
2011 – Fidel Castro resigns from the Communist Party of Cuba's central committee after 45 years of holding the title.
2013 – Boston Marathon bombings suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is killed in a shootout with police. His brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is captured while hiding in a boat inside a backyard in Watertown, Massachusetts.
Famous Folk Born on April 19th:
Christoph Bach
Elizabeth Dilling Stokes
Eliot Ness (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISTQ9UZs4wY)
Sol Kaplan (another HUAC victim https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf7y1Bn4LKU)
Dick Sargent (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjcJDh2seDM)
Jayne Mansfield (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CKj7AvN6dM)
Dudley Moore (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOCW9Shz7lE)
Elinor Donahue (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOXqdX1Bb8c)
Eve Graham (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjtEYt6l2Cs)
James Heckman (Nobel laureate)
Tim Curry (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg-vgGuTD8A)
Mary Jo Slater
Paloma Picasso
Al Unser, Jr. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fwIcyBACeI)
Suge Knight (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1WJUUcR9go)
Jesse James (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pslbsWpBGk)
Ashley Judd (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRe4Hdin9Kc)
Susan Polgar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HujWLARJyNY)
James Franco (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCimtBMr2GE)
Kate Hudson (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dgeaQTeyvc no one should have to go through that)
Hayden Christensen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSwy412nttI)
Troy Palamalu (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaJFnGGECJo)
Maria Sharapova (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n-oFCRuTes)
posted by me at 9:41 PM
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