The safety of children
Much is being made about the family who had to be rescued from their sailboat because one of their two young children had become very ill. They are taking a lot of heat for having put those two children in harm's way. One of the questions being raised is who should pay for the costs of the U. S. Air Force National Guard unit and the U. S. Navy ship that had to provide them with assistance.
If I'm in a car accident on the freeway, I don't have to repay the state of California for any costs they incur in sending a CHP unit to help me. Even if I did, it would be a relatively small cost. An hour or less of the officer's time, fuel costs in getting to where the accident took place and whatever paperwork and administrative costs were factored in. Begging the question, are the critics of what these parents did who claim they should foot the bill for their rescue saying that because of the large costs involved?
How much does it cost to send a fire truck with ladder to rescue a cat that's up a tree? If hikers are lost in the wilderness should they foot the bill for their rescue? In fact, the Orange County Fire Authority tried to recover $55,000 in costs for rescuing Nicolas Cendoya and his companion. The two teens got disoriented and required rescue after they ingested methamphetamine before setting off on their hike. A judge ultimately ruled that OCFA was not a victim and could not recover their costs.
What's really going on with the critics who want these parents billed for the cost of rescuing them and their children is that the critics don't agree with the choice to take those children on a one year cruise by sailboat. The parents claim they were "...as prepared as they could be" but that was clearly not the case. Since they're bad parents, they should foot the bill for their rescue. That's the twisted logic of these critics.
I'm far more worried about parents who leave their young children alone at night. Whether it is because they have to work to keep that roof over their heads, or they simply want to go out and party, children under a certain age shouldn't be left alone. There are tens of thousands of such children in this nation and very few who are in danger from being on long ocean voyages. Do we bill these parents who are out partying for the costs of rescuing their children from harm? Or for medical expenses incurred after they were injured due to the neglect of those parents? No, we don't.
Consider the case of 45 year old Scott Kolves of Grant County, WA. He was in his truck with his three sons, ages 12, 10 and 8. He decided on the spur of the moment to teach the 10 year old to drive. The results were tragic. Scott Kolves didn't notice that his son was about to drive off of the road. He tried to prevent the accident but was unable to stop the truck from plunging into a canal. The 8 year old died. The body of Scott Kolves has yet to be found. The other two boys were rescued. I hear no one being critical of this man's bad choice. Would any of you allow a ten year old to drive a car for the first time anywhere other than a flat, wide open space? I sure wouldn't.
Ultimately, these sea-going parents probably should not have taken children ages 3 and 1 with them for that lengthy a voyage. Their protestations that they have lived this life for seven years are nonsensical since they didn't have kids for the first four years of that time. They made a bad choice. They've suffered enough. Leave them alone.
* * *
"Wanted: young people to work hard for months at a time, for no pay. Tasks are menial, hours are long and there is no guarantee this internship will further your career in this industry, but it might. If interested, send resume and headshot. Be warned, there is fierce competition for this position."
That's a much more realistic description of the unpaid internships that are offered by entertainment industry companies (there are a number that now only offer paid internships among the "majors") than one normally sees. Yet there really is fierce competition for those positions, even today. It's the way the system works. Start at the bottom and hopefully claw your way up, forging relationships while making coffee, getting piping hot soup, finding that special brand of deodorant, picking up dry cleaning, filling up the gas tank in the boss's car and much more.
Contrast that with summer internships at law firms for law school students, where they are paid anywhere from $1,500 to $2,200 per week for two months of labor. Or with the average intern compensation at Google, $5,800 per month. All three types of internships require the same hard work and long hours, but one comes without pay.
Is this legal? Probably not. Even receiving college credit for an unpaid internship doesn't relieve the employer of the need to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act. Will it harm the entertainment industry companies if they have to start paying interns? No. We'll just see higher prices at the box office and elsewhere. The consumers will foot the bill.
* * *
Carol Thebarge was a substitute teacher for the Claremont, NH school system. She'd worked as a teacher for that organization for more than 30 years. She's been dismissed because she refused to unfriend her students on Facebook.
That's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. It's idiotic. Students are being deprived of a teacher who apparently has the ability to reach and influence them in a positive way because of some stupid administrative requirement. Suppose she'd unfriended them on FB and they stayed in touch via email or instant message software. What the hell is the difference? FB isn't some great evil, it's just a social media outlet that facilitates communication.
Parents weren't complaining. It was school staff who brought the situation to the system's upper management. The idiots that run this asylum need to be replaced by someone with a logical thought process and some good old fashioned common sense.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Are all of the 7-11s in India staffed by Americans? (inspired by a news story about a lawsuit filed in India alleging a software company is discriminating against 'stupid Americans')
How hard was it for Taco Bell to find all those guys named Ronald McDonald to be in their commercial? Wouldn't you change your name if you had been named Ronald McDonald? I know I would have.
Knowing he isn't eligible for parole for at least 14 years makes me wonder how well Phil Spector is doing in prison. The cacophony of sounds coming in through the bars of his cell are a whole new Wall of Sound.
There was no good reason for a Planet Fitness to send home a young lady who was wearing a tank top for "showing too much skin."
Someone please tell Corey Feldman he is in no position to demand anything regarding a sequel to "The Goonies" considering how badly his career is stalled.
Sources claim that Johnny Weir earned "only" $65,000 while covering the Winter Games for NBC. That won't cover the cost of even one Birkin bag.
The real Wolf of Wall Street is finally having the bite put on him by the Feds for his fancy beachfront homes here in Southern California. Couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.
Anyone who believes that Forever 21 CEO and founder Do Won Chang moved employees from full-time to part-time for any reason other than the Affordable Care Act, I have a bridge for sale in Brooklyn.
Is there some reason that Lady Gaga and her boyfriend needed to go to a nightclub so she could give him a lap dance?
Give Joan Rivers credit for saying something funny for once. I was channel surfing and landed on The View for a moment and heard her say "Barbara Walters retires, soon after that David Letterman retires, so obviously they are f*** buddies" which caused Walters and the rest of the panel to break out in laughter. Make that partial credit, since one of her writers probably came up with that before the show.
Yet another leader of a large church has confessed to adultery. If marital infidelity is such a heinous sin, why would so many men of religion risk their immortal soul over it?
Since both of the Fort Hood shooters purchased their guns at the same store, it must be the fault of the store owner that these shootings took place? The fault lies with the shooters themselves and a system that did not discover their mental infirmities until it was too late.
My first thought on seeing that Cynthia Rhodes and Richard Marx are divorcing was to wonder how fast I could lose all the excess weight I carry. After a quarter-century of marriage, one of the women of my dreams is suddenly available. She was gorgeous in movies like "Flashdance", "Dirty Dancing", "Staying Alive" and "Runaway." This song was actually a love letter to her while they were still dating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_E2EHVxNAE
Lindsay Lohan fell off the wagon with one glass of wine, or so she says. Color me skeptical at best.
Those residents of Clovis City in Northern California who are bothered by a coffee place that features baristas in bikinis need to just not go there. If a woman can wear a bikini to the beach or at a pool, she can wear it to work.
* * *
April 7th in History:
451 – Attila the Hun sacks the town of Metz and attacks other cities in Gaul.
529 – First draft of the Corpus Juris Civilis (a fundamental work in jurisprudence) is issued by Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I.
611 – Maya king Uneh Chan of Calakmul sacks rival city-state Palenque in southern Mexico.
1141 – Empress Matilda, became the first female ruler of England, adopting the title 'Lady of the English'
1348 – Charles University is founded in Prague.
1521 – Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Cebu.
1541 – Francis Xavier leaves Lisbon on a mission to the Portuguese East Indies.
1724 – Premiere performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's St John Passion BWV 245 at St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig.
1767 – End of Burmese–Siamese War (1765–1767)
1776 – Captain John Barry and the USS Lexington captures the Edward.
1788 – American Pioneers to the Northwest Territory arrive at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, establishing Marietta, Ohio, as the first permanent American settlement of the new United States in the Northwest Territory, and opening the westward expansion of the new country.
1798 – The Mississippi Territory is organized from disputed territory claimed by both the United States and Spain. It is expanded in 1804 and again in 1812.
1805 – Lewis and Clark Expedition: The Corps of Discovery breaks camp among the Mandan tribe and resumes its journey West along the Missouri River.
1827 – John Walker, an English chemist, sells the first friction match that he had invented the previous year.
1829 – Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, commences translation of the Book of Mormon, with Oliver Cowdery as his scribe.
1831 – D. Pedro I, Emperor of Brazil, resigns. He goes to his native Portugal to become King D. Pedro IV.
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Shiloh ends – the Union Army under General Ulysses S. Grant defeats the Confederates near Shiloh, Tennessee.
1868 – Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of the Canadian Fathers of Confederation is assassinated by Irish Republicans, in one of the few Canadian political assassinations, and the only one of a federal politician.
1890 – Completion of the first Lake Biwa Canal.
1906 – Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples.
1906 – The Algeciras Conference gives France and Spain control over Morocco.
1908 – H. H. Asquith of the Liberal Party takes office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, succeeding Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
1922 – Teapot Dome scandal: United States Secretary of the Interior leases Teapot Dome petroleum reserves in Wyoming.
1927 – First long-distance public television broadcast (from Washington, D.C., to New York City, displaying the image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover).
1933 – Prohibition in the United States is repealed for beer of no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight, eight months before the ratification of the XXI amendment.
1939 – World War II: Italy invades Albania.
1940 – Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to be depicted on a United States postage stamp.
1943 – Holocaust: In Terebovlia, Ukraine, Germans order 1,100 Jews to undress to their underwear and march through the city of Terebovlia to the nearby village of Plebanivka where they are shot dead and buried in ditches.
1943 – Ioannis Rallis becomes collaborationist Prime Minister of Greece during the Axis Occupation.
1945 – World War II: The Japanese battleship Yamato, the largest battleship ever constructed, is sunk by American planes 200 miles north of Okinawa while en route to a suicide mission in Operation Ten-Go.
1945 – World War II: Visoko is liberated by the 7th, 9th, and 17th Krajina brigades from the Tenth division of Yugoslav Partisan forces.
1946 – Syria's independence from France is officially recognized.
1948 – The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.
1948 – A Buddhist monastery burns in Shanghai, China, leaving twenty monks dead.
1954 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech during a news conference.
1955 – Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amid indications of failing health. (he lived another decade after his resignation)
1956 – Spain relinquishes its protectorate in Morocco.
1964 – IBM announces the System/360.
1967 – Film critic Roger Ebert published his very first film review in the Chicago Sun-Times. (note: He reviewed a French film titled "Galia" for the newspaper. But his very first film review was written in October of 1961, a review of "La Dolce Vita" for the student newspaper at the University of Illinois.)
1969 – The Internet's symbolic birth date: publication of RFC 1.
1971 – President Richard Nixon announces his decision to increase the rate of American troop withdrawals from Vietnam.
1976 – Former British Cabinet Minister John Stonehouse resigns from the Labour Party.
1977 – German Federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback and his driver are shot by two Red Army Faction members while waiting at a red light.
1978 – Development of the neutron bomb is canceled by President Jimmy Carter.
1980 – The United States severs relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
1983 – During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first space shuttle spacewalk.
1985 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declares a moratorium on the deployment of middle-range missiles in Europe.
1989 – Soviet submarine Komsomolets sinks in the Barents Sea off the coast of Norway killing 42 sailors.
1990 – Iran Contra Affair: John Poindexter is found guilty of five charges for his part in the scandal (the conviction is later reversed on appeal).
1990 – A fire breaks out on the passenger ferry M/S Scandinavian Star, killing 158 people.
1992 – Republika Srpska announces its independence.
1994 – Rwandan Genocide: Massacres of Tutsis begin in Kigali, Rwanda.
1994 – Auburn Calloway attempts to hijack FedEx Express Flight 705 and crash it to allow his family to benefit from his life insurance policy. The crew subdues him and lands the aircraft safely.
1995 – First Chechen War: Russian paramilitary troops begin a massacre of civilians in Samashki, Chechnya.
1999 – The World Trade Organization rules in favor of the United States in its long-running trade dispute with the European Union over bananas.
2001 – Mars Odyssey is launched.
2003 – U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein's regime falls two days later.
2009 – Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori is sentenced to 25 years in prison for ordering killings and kidnappings by security forces.
2009 – Mass protests begin across Moldova under the belief that results from the parliamentary election are fraudulent.
Famous Folk Born on April 7th:
Francis Xavier
Pope Clement XII
William Wordsworth (http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/by-the-seaside/)
James Curtiss
Walter Camp (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muY6KsbEUzU)
Will Keith Kellogg (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TTxDVprvo4)
John McGraw
Walter Winchell (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RS3MsxWFWY)
Percy Faith
Billie Holiday (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPJuFxl0bxY)
Ravi Shankar
James Garner (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyK_ubfTwwE)
Alan J. Pakula (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwZ9yy-jFzk)
Joe "Crazy Joe" Gallo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAXPPci6Wik)
Daniel Ellsberg (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8UL5aXBlsc)
Wayne Rogers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWLzpMiFlb0)
Bobby Bare
Cynthia Lynn (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVV3Q-0p8Qk)
Jerry Brown (Governor Moonbeam)
Francis Ford Coppola (this is the trailer to a very underrated film he directed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSVnTmj0-VU)
David Frost (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yf9vW8OM3o)
Julia Phillips (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhRG1OzbDJs she was the first woman to win an Oscar as a producer)
Stan Winston (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQs4Kec03eM)
Carol Douglas (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfCzMhZQ92U)
John Oates (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYUdldNzLNA)
Janis Ian (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhFnOAwr96o)
Jackie Chan (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74OBuMA2qEk)
Tony Dorsett (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVDuJ5wG9Ps)
Christopher Darden
Russell Crowe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQmizFjnFD8)
Bill Bellamy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C4tt0aroH4)
Jennifer Lynch
Adrian Beltre (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHUIAZGII9A he could be the Dodgers third baseman had wiser heads prevailed)
David Otunga (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svMFwiRoCnQ)
April O'Neil (the porn star, not the reporter)
And on this date last year, we lost one of the pioneering journalists of our time, Mike Wallace. RIP.
If I'm in a car accident on the freeway, I don't have to repay the state of California for any costs they incur in sending a CHP unit to help me. Even if I did, it would be a relatively small cost. An hour or less of the officer's time, fuel costs in getting to where the accident took place and whatever paperwork and administrative costs were factored in. Begging the question, are the critics of what these parents did who claim they should foot the bill for their rescue saying that because of the large costs involved?
How much does it cost to send a fire truck with ladder to rescue a cat that's up a tree? If hikers are lost in the wilderness should they foot the bill for their rescue? In fact, the Orange County Fire Authority tried to recover $55,000 in costs for rescuing Nicolas Cendoya and his companion. The two teens got disoriented and required rescue after they ingested methamphetamine before setting off on their hike. A judge ultimately ruled that OCFA was not a victim and could not recover their costs.
What's really going on with the critics who want these parents billed for the cost of rescuing them and their children is that the critics don't agree with the choice to take those children on a one year cruise by sailboat. The parents claim they were "...as prepared as they could be" but that was clearly not the case. Since they're bad parents, they should foot the bill for their rescue. That's the twisted logic of these critics.
I'm far more worried about parents who leave their young children alone at night. Whether it is because they have to work to keep that roof over their heads, or they simply want to go out and party, children under a certain age shouldn't be left alone. There are tens of thousands of such children in this nation and very few who are in danger from being on long ocean voyages. Do we bill these parents who are out partying for the costs of rescuing their children from harm? Or for medical expenses incurred after they were injured due to the neglect of those parents? No, we don't.
Consider the case of 45 year old Scott Kolves of Grant County, WA. He was in his truck with his three sons, ages 12, 10 and 8. He decided on the spur of the moment to teach the 10 year old to drive. The results were tragic. Scott Kolves didn't notice that his son was about to drive off of the road. He tried to prevent the accident but was unable to stop the truck from plunging into a canal. The 8 year old died. The body of Scott Kolves has yet to be found. The other two boys were rescued. I hear no one being critical of this man's bad choice. Would any of you allow a ten year old to drive a car for the first time anywhere other than a flat, wide open space? I sure wouldn't.
Ultimately, these sea-going parents probably should not have taken children ages 3 and 1 with them for that lengthy a voyage. Their protestations that they have lived this life for seven years are nonsensical since they didn't have kids for the first four years of that time. They made a bad choice. They've suffered enough. Leave them alone.
* * *
"Wanted: young people to work hard for months at a time, for no pay. Tasks are menial, hours are long and there is no guarantee this internship will further your career in this industry, but it might. If interested, send resume and headshot. Be warned, there is fierce competition for this position."
That's a much more realistic description of the unpaid internships that are offered by entertainment industry companies (there are a number that now only offer paid internships among the "majors") than one normally sees. Yet there really is fierce competition for those positions, even today. It's the way the system works. Start at the bottom and hopefully claw your way up, forging relationships while making coffee, getting piping hot soup, finding that special brand of deodorant, picking up dry cleaning, filling up the gas tank in the boss's car and much more.
Contrast that with summer internships at law firms for law school students, where they are paid anywhere from $1,500 to $2,200 per week for two months of labor. Or with the average intern compensation at Google, $5,800 per month. All three types of internships require the same hard work and long hours, but one comes without pay.
Is this legal? Probably not. Even receiving college credit for an unpaid internship doesn't relieve the employer of the need to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act. Will it harm the entertainment industry companies if they have to start paying interns? No. We'll just see higher prices at the box office and elsewhere. The consumers will foot the bill.
* * *
Carol Thebarge was a substitute teacher for the Claremont, NH school system. She'd worked as a teacher for that organization for more than 30 years. She's been dismissed because she refused to unfriend her students on Facebook.
That's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. It's idiotic. Students are being deprived of a teacher who apparently has the ability to reach and influence them in a positive way because of some stupid administrative requirement. Suppose she'd unfriended them on FB and they stayed in touch via email or instant message software. What the hell is the difference? FB isn't some great evil, it's just a social media outlet that facilitates communication.
Parents weren't complaining. It was school staff who brought the situation to the system's upper management. The idiots that run this asylum need to be replaced by someone with a logical thought process and some good old fashioned common sense.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Are all of the 7-11s in India staffed by Americans? (inspired by a news story about a lawsuit filed in India alleging a software company is discriminating against 'stupid Americans')
How hard was it for Taco Bell to find all those guys named Ronald McDonald to be in their commercial? Wouldn't you change your name if you had been named Ronald McDonald? I know I would have.
Knowing he isn't eligible for parole for at least 14 years makes me wonder how well Phil Spector is doing in prison. The cacophony of sounds coming in through the bars of his cell are a whole new Wall of Sound.
There was no good reason for a Planet Fitness to send home a young lady who was wearing a tank top for "showing too much skin."
Someone please tell Corey Feldman he is in no position to demand anything regarding a sequel to "The Goonies" considering how badly his career is stalled.
Sources claim that Johnny Weir earned "only" $65,000 while covering the Winter Games for NBC. That won't cover the cost of even one Birkin bag.
The real Wolf of Wall Street is finally having the bite put on him by the Feds for his fancy beachfront homes here in Southern California. Couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.
Anyone who believes that Forever 21 CEO and founder Do Won Chang moved employees from full-time to part-time for any reason other than the Affordable Care Act, I have a bridge for sale in Brooklyn.
Is there some reason that Lady Gaga and her boyfriend needed to go to a nightclub so she could give him a lap dance?
Give Joan Rivers credit for saying something funny for once. I was channel surfing and landed on The View for a moment and heard her say "Barbara Walters retires, soon after that David Letterman retires, so obviously they are f*** buddies" which caused Walters and the rest of the panel to break out in laughter. Make that partial credit, since one of her writers probably came up with that before the show.
Yet another leader of a large church has confessed to adultery. If marital infidelity is such a heinous sin, why would so many men of religion risk their immortal soul over it?
Since both of the Fort Hood shooters purchased their guns at the same store, it must be the fault of the store owner that these shootings took place?
My first thought on seeing that Cynthia Rhodes and Richard Marx are divorcing was to wonder how fast I could lose all the excess weight I carry. After a quarter-century of marriage, one of the women of my dreams is suddenly available. She was gorgeous in movies like "Flashdance", "Dirty Dancing", "Staying Alive" and "Runaway." This song was actually a love letter to her while they were still dating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_E2EHVxNAE
Lindsay Lohan fell off the wagon with one glass of wine, or so she says. Color me skeptical at best.
Those residents of Clovis City in Northern California who are bothered by a coffee place that features baristas in bikinis need to just not go there. If a woman can wear a bikini to the beach or at a pool, she can wear it to work.
* * *
April 7th in History:
451 – Attila the Hun sacks the town of Metz and attacks other cities in Gaul.
529 – First draft of the Corpus Juris Civilis (a fundamental work in jurisprudence) is issued by Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I.
611 – Maya king Uneh Chan of Calakmul sacks rival city-state Palenque in southern Mexico.
1141 – Empress Matilda, became the first female ruler of England, adopting the title 'Lady of the English'
1348 – Charles University is founded in Prague.
1521 – Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Cebu.
1541 – Francis Xavier leaves Lisbon on a mission to the Portuguese East Indies.
1724 – Premiere performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's St John Passion BWV 245 at St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig.
1767 – End of Burmese–Siamese War (1765–1767)
1776 – Captain John Barry and the USS Lexington captures the Edward.
1788 – American Pioneers to the Northwest Territory arrive at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, establishing Marietta, Ohio, as the first permanent American settlement of the new United States in the Northwest Territory, and opening the westward expansion of the new country.
1798 – The Mississippi Territory is organized from disputed territory claimed by both the United States and Spain. It is expanded in 1804 and again in 1812.
1805 – Lewis and Clark Expedition: The Corps of Discovery breaks camp among the Mandan tribe and resumes its journey West along the Missouri River.
1827 – John Walker, an English chemist, sells the first friction match that he had invented the previous year.
1829 – Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, commences translation of the Book of Mormon, with Oliver Cowdery as his scribe.
1831 – D. Pedro I, Emperor of Brazil, resigns. He goes to his native Portugal to become King D. Pedro IV.
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Shiloh ends – the Union Army under General Ulysses S. Grant defeats the Confederates near Shiloh, Tennessee.
1868 – Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of the Canadian Fathers of Confederation is assassinated by Irish Republicans, in one of the few Canadian political assassinations, and the only one of a federal politician.
1890 – Completion of the first Lake Biwa Canal.
1906 – Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples.
1906 – The Algeciras Conference gives France and Spain control over Morocco.
1908 – H. H. Asquith of the Liberal Party takes office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, succeeding Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
1922 – Teapot Dome scandal: United States Secretary of the Interior leases Teapot Dome petroleum reserves in Wyoming.
1927 – First long-distance public television broadcast (from Washington, D.C., to New York City, displaying the image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover).
1933 – Prohibition in the United States is repealed for beer of no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight, eight months before the ratification of the XXI amendment.
1939 – World War II: Italy invades Albania.
1940 – Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to be depicted on a United States postage stamp.
1943 – Holocaust: In Terebovlia, Ukraine, Germans order 1,100 Jews to undress to their underwear and march through the city of Terebovlia to the nearby village of Plebanivka where they are shot dead and buried in ditches.
1943 – Ioannis Rallis becomes collaborationist Prime Minister of Greece during the Axis Occupation.
1945 – World War II: The Japanese battleship Yamato, the largest battleship ever constructed, is sunk by American planes 200 miles north of Okinawa while en route to a suicide mission in Operation Ten-Go.
1945 – World War II: Visoko is liberated by the 7th, 9th, and 17th Krajina brigades from the Tenth division of Yugoslav Partisan forces.
1946 – Syria's independence from France is officially recognized.
1948 – The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.
1948 – A Buddhist monastery burns in Shanghai, China, leaving twenty monks dead.
1954 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech during a news conference.
1955 – Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amid indications of failing health. (he lived another decade after his resignation)
1956 – Spain relinquishes its protectorate in Morocco.
1964 – IBM announces the System/360.
1967 – Film critic Roger Ebert published his very first film review in the Chicago Sun-Times. (note: He reviewed a French film titled "Galia" for the newspaper. But his very first film review was written in October of 1961, a review of "La Dolce Vita" for the student newspaper at the University of Illinois.)
1969 – The Internet's symbolic birth date: publication of RFC 1.
1971 – President Richard Nixon announces his decision to increase the rate of American troop withdrawals from Vietnam.
1976 – Former British Cabinet Minister John Stonehouse resigns from the Labour Party.
1977 – German Federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback and his driver are shot by two Red Army Faction members while waiting at a red light.
1978 – Development of the neutron bomb is canceled by President Jimmy Carter.
1980 – The United States severs relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
1983 – During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first space shuttle spacewalk.
1985 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declares a moratorium on the deployment of middle-range missiles in Europe.
1989 – Soviet submarine Komsomolets sinks in the Barents Sea off the coast of Norway killing 42 sailors.
1990 – Iran Contra Affair: John Poindexter is found guilty of five charges for his part in the scandal (the conviction is later reversed on appeal).
1990 – A fire breaks out on the passenger ferry M/S Scandinavian Star, killing 158 people.
1992 – Republika Srpska announces its independence.
1994 – Rwandan Genocide: Massacres of Tutsis begin in Kigali, Rwanda.
1994 – Auburn Calloway attempts to hijack FedEx Express Flight 705 and crash it to allow his family to benefit from his life insurance policy. The crew subdues him and lands the aircraft safely.
1995 – First Chechen War: Russian paramilitary troops begin a massacre of civilians in Samashki, Chechnya.
1999 – The World Trade Organization rules in favor of the United States in its long-running trade dispute with the European Union over bananas.
2001 – Mars Odyssey is launched.
2003 – U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein's regime falls two days later.
2009 – Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori is sentenced to 25 years in prison for ordering killings and kidnappings by security forces.
2009 – Mass protests begin across Moldova under the belief that results from the parliamentary election are fraudulent.
Famous Folk Born on April 7th:
Francis Xavier
Pope Clement XII
William Wordsworth (http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/by-the-seaside/)
James Curtiss
Walter Camp (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muY6KsbEUzU)
Will Keith Kellogg (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TTxDVprvo4)
John McGraw
Walter Winchell (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RS3MsxWFWY)
Percy Faith
Billie Holiday (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPJuFxl0bxY)
Ravi Shankar
James Garner (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyK_ubfTwwE)
Alan J. Pakula (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwZ9yy-jFzk)
Joe "Crazy Joe" Gallo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAXPPci6Wik)
Daniel Ellsberg (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8UL5aXBlsc)
Wayne Rogers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWLzpMiFlb0)
Bobby Bare
Cynthia Lynn (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVV3Q-0p8Qk)
Jerry Brown (Governor Moonbeam)
Francis Ford Coppola (this is the trailer to a very underrated film he directed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSVnTmj0-VU)
David Frost (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yf9vW8OM3o)
Julia Phillips (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhRG1OzbDJs she was the first woman to win an Oscar as a producer)
Stan Winston (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQs4Kec03eM)
Carol Douglas (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfCzMhZQ92U)
John Oates (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYUdldNzLNA)
Janis Ian (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhFnOAwr96o)
Jackie Chan (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74OBuMA2qEk)
Tony Dorsett (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVDuJ5wG9Ps)
Christopher Darden
Russell Crowe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQmizFjnFD8)
Bill Bellamy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C4tt0aroH4)
Jennifer Lynch
Adrian Beltre (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHUIAZGII9A he could be the Dodgers third baseman had wiser heads prevailed)
David Otunga (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svMFwiRoCnQ)
April O'Neil (the porn star, not the reporter)
And on this date last year, we lost one of the pioneering journalists of our time, Mike Wallace. RIP.
posted by me at 4:17 PM
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