Comparisons
Donald Sterling spent more than an hour allowing CNN's Anderson Cooper to interview him, an interview that was aired on Monday evening, May 12th. Because I don't ever want to misquote someone, I'm going to take statements made by Mr. Sterling directly from a transcript of the interview.
"I'm not a racist. I love people. I always have. But those words came out of my mouth, I guess. And I'm so sorry. And I'm so apologetic."
You're not a racist. So why were you sued twice for discrimination in renting to minorities? Why did you choose to settle those two suits out of court? Because if you aren't a racist, and not being one is all that important to you, you'd have spent the money to fight dishonest claims accusing you of racism.
You love people? You're an oath breaker. You promised to forsake all others when you married your wife in 1955 but your own infidelities are well-known and well-documented. Let's hold on to that one for a bit and get back to that in a bit.
"I hurt my ex-wife. She is a beautiful person. She goes to the hospital, and she's a volunteer at Cedars-Sinai. When I went to law school, she worked at the children's hospital. She's a giver. She works. At this stage in her life, she still works."
You are quite proud of that Juris Doctor degree from the Southwestern University School of Law that you earned back in 1960. So why is it you're calling your wife your ex-wife? Neither of you has actually filed for divorce from the other. She says she's going to divorce you eventually, but in the eyes of the law, you are still married.
Not that those marital vows meant all that much to you. You did have an agreement drawn up between yourself and one Alexandra Castro, wherein you said you were "happily married" and had no intention of engaging in "...any activity inconsistent with your domestic relationship", but once again you settled out of court. Afraid of going to trial? Turned out it wasn't cheaper to keep her?
Here's another quote from Mr. Sterling, this one about Earvin "Magic" Johnson:
I read that the location of Kate Mantilini's on Wilshire in Beverly Hills is going to close next month. I was never a regular patron, although the few times I've been there were memorable and delicious. There was a night that a blind date I was to meet there went really bad, but a sympathetic server and some excellent food save me from that disaster.
I remember my last business lunch with a group of co-workers at the holidays and the reminders of what a major jerk our CEO was from the way he acted about the lunch.
But it isn't so much the loss of this particular eatery that's bothering me. It is the last link I have to Hamburger Hamlet, the first place I ever ate a truly upscale hamburger. There are a couple of Hamlets left (one in the Valley, one in Pasadena), but my trips to that part of Southern California are as rare as hen's teeth.
Not for long. I may or may not get to Kate Mantilini's before its doors close for good. I will get to one of the Hamburger Hamlets (probably Sherman Oaks) in the near future and enjoy a really great burger.
* * *
I wanted to go see a movie today, and then join friends for trivia. I wound up deciding it wasn't the best decision to pursue that plan. It is just too hot for me to be out driving and then walking in the heat. I'm still not nearly to what passes for "normal" for my weakened body. Maybe I'm growing. Maybe I'm maturing. Six months ago, I'd have just gone and thrown caution to the winds. I'd rather lament the choice at leisure than act hastily and wind up even more exhausted tomorrow.
Maybe I'm just superstitious. I was told in the ER last week I had an appointment today at the primary care clinic. I didn't bother to verify the accuracy of that date/time, I just went there this morning. Only to learn that the appointment had actually been scheduled for yesterday. So I guess having started on a bad note, I felt risk-adverse. Aside of course from buying a lottery ticket for tonight's drawing. That risk I was willing to take.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
It's really nice that Bruce Jenner is going to walk Kim Kardashian down the aisle on her wedding day. Wonder if they'll be wearing matching white lingerie beneath their outerwear?
Speaking of other major weddings, Hungry Man is marrying Sara Lee.
Magic Johnson says we should pray for Donald Sterling. Be careful how you get Tommy Lasorda to pray, Magic. He wished that V. Stiviano would be hit by a car and she was in a car accident within 48 hours.
Karl Rove is far more likely than Hilary Clinton to be suffering from some sort of brain damage. He is the textbook example of a nattering nabob of negativity in 2014. He's also probably some sort of Democratic Party secret weapon, given how much damage he does to the Republican machine.
On a related note, there are plenty of real negatives for Rove to pursue in his scorched earth style of campaigning.
If it turns out that this guy who ALLEGEDLY tried to extort money from Chris Brown over a fight on a basketball court made the whole thing up, the problem with our litigious society isn't that he could try a stunt like that. The problem is that there are lawyers out there willing to assist in that kind of extortion.
I listened to some religious spokeshole on CNN today pontificating about how no one can re-define marriage as being anything other than between a man and a woman. I have news for you, preacher. Your God didn't define marriage. Our system of laws defines it. Our system of laws can and is redefining it. You want to limit marriages to those between a man and a woman in your church, feel free. In terms of who can marry, any two consenting adults can. If society someday wants to redefine marriage as a union between more than two consenting adults, so be it.
I'm not sure I see the symbolism of a woman who survived breast cancer having her nipples tattooed to celebrate that survival, but more power to her.
* * *
Okay, listening to the Magic Johnson interview with Anderson Cooper, and they're listening to some of yesterday's interview with Donald Sterling and hearing Sterling trumpet about how much more charitable he is than Magic Johnson is going to make me throw up my dinner. So here are some stats:
Grants made over the last three years based on review of IRS Tax filings:
Donald Sterling Foundation Year Magic Johnson Foundation
$370,500 2012 $536,600
$340,000 2011 $463,000
$382,500 2010 $416,000
Magic Johnson has a net worth of right around 25% of what Donald Sterling's net worth is; but his foundation out-donates Sterling's foundation year in and year out. What's more important is that Magic Johnson isn't lying about how much he's given versus how much he "pledged to give" in full page advertisements in the L. A. Times.
Sterling makes an issue of his being Jewish and boasts that Blacks don't help other Blacks, but Jews give to such purpose. Mr. Sterling, the Talmud makes it quite clear that while it is fine for the recipient of charity to thank the giver, it also makes it clear that giving in order to be able to boast about one's charity is actually not a mitzvah. It is a transgression.
* * *
May 13th in History:
1373 – Julian of Norwich has visions which are later transcribed in her Revelations of Divine Love.
1515 – Mary Tudor, Queen of France and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk are officially married at Greenwich.
1568 – Battle of Langside: the forces of Mary, Queen of Scots, are defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under James Stewart, Earl of Moray, her half-brother.
1619 – Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt is executed in The Hague after being convicted of treason.
1648 – Construction of the Red Fort at Delhi is completed.
1779 – War of Bavarian Succession: Russian and French mediators at the Congress of Teschen negotiate an end to the war. In the agreement Austria receives the part of its territory that was taken from it (the Innviertel).
1780 – The Cumberland Compact is signed by leaders of the settlers in early Tennessee.
1787 – Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England, with eleven ships full of convicts (the "First Fleet") to establish a penal colony in Australia.
1804 – Forces sent by Yusuf Karamanli of Tripoli to retake Derna from the Americans attack the city.
1830 – Ecuador gains its independence from Gran Colombia.
1846 – Mexican–American War: The United States declares war on Mexico.
1848 – First performance of Finland's national anthem.
1861 – American Civil War: Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the breakaway states as having belligerent rights.
1861 – The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia.
1861 – Pakistan's (then a part of British India) first railway line opens, from Karachi to Kotri.
1862 – The USS Planter, a steamer and gunship, steals through Confederate lines and is passed to the Union, by a southern slave, Robert Smalls, who later was officially appointed as captain, becoming the first black man to command a United States ship.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Resaca – the battle begins with Union General Sherman fighting toward Atlanta, Georgia.
1865 – American Civil War: Battle of Palmito Ranch – in far south Texas, more than a month after Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender, the last land battle of the Civil War ends with a Confederate victory.
1880 – In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.
1888 – With the passage of the Lei Áurea ("Golden Law"), Brazil abolishes slavery.
1909 – The first Giro d'Italia starts from Milan. Italian cyclist Luigi Ganna will be the winner.
1912 – The Royal Flying Corps, the forerunner of the Royal Air Force, is established in the United Kingdom.
1917 – Three children report the first apparition of Our Lady of Fátima in Fátima, Portugal.
1923 – Robert Bellarmine, a Doctor of the Catholic Church, is beatified.
1939 – The first commercial FM radio station in the United States is launched in Bloomfield, Connecticut. The station later becomes WDRC-FM.
1940 – World War II: Germany's conquest of France begins as the German army crosses the Meuse. Winston Churchill makes his "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech to the House of Commons.
1940 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands flees her country to Great Britain after the German invasion. Princess Juliana takes her children to Canada for their safety.
1941 – World War II: Yugoslav royal colonel Dragoljub Mihailović starts fighting with German occupation troops, beginning the Serbian resistance.
1943 – World War II: German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allied forces.
1948 – 1948 Arab-Israeli War: the Kfar Etzion massacre is committed by Arab irregulars, the day before the declaration of independence of the state of Israel on May 14.
1950 – The first round of the Formula One World Championship is held at Silverstone.
1951 – The 400th anniversary of the founding of the National University of San Marcos is commemorated by the opening of the first large-capacity stadium in Peru.
1952 – The Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, holds its first sitting.
1954 – The anti-National Service Riots, by Chinese Middle School students in Singapore, take place.
1954 – The original Broadway production of The Pajama Game opens and runs for another 1,063 performances. Later received three Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, and Best Choreography.
1958 – During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, Vice President Richard Nixon's car is attacked by anti-American demonstrators.
1958 – The trademark Velcro is registered.
1958 – May 1958 crisis: a group of French military officers lead a coup in Algiers demanding that a government of national unity be formed with Charles de Gaulle at its head in order to defend French control of Algeria.
1958 – Ben Carlin becomes the first (and only) person to circumnavigate the world by amphibious vehicle, having travelled over 17,000 kilometres (11,000 mi) by sea and 62,000 kilometres (39,000 mi) by land during a ten-year journey.
1960 – Hundreds of University of California, Berkeley students congregate for the first day of protest against a visit by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Thirty-one students are arrested, and the Free Speech Movement is born.
1963 – The U.S. Supreme Court case Brady v. Maryland is decided.
1967 – Dr. Zakir Hussain becomes the third President of India. He is the first Muslim President of the Indian Union. He holds this position until August 24, 1969.
1969 – Race riots, later known as the May 13 Incident, take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
1972 – Faulty electrical wiring ignites a fire underneath the Playtown Cabaret in Osaka, Japan. Blocked exits and non-functional elevators lead to 118 fatalities, with many victims leaping to their deaths.
1972 – The Troubles: a car bombing outside a crowded pub in Belfast sparks a two-day gun battle involving the Provisional IRA, Ulster Volunteer Force and British Army. Seven people are killed and over 66 injured.
1980 – An F3 tornado hits Kalamazoo County, Michigan. President Jimmy Carter declares it a federal disaster area.
1981 – Mehmet Ali Ağca attempts to assassinate Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square in Rome. The Pope is rushed to the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic to undergo emergency surgery and survives.
1985 – Police release a bomb on MOVE headquarters in Philadelphia to end a stand-off, killing 11 MOVE members and destroying the homes of 250 city residents.
1989 – Large groups of students occupy Tiananmen Square and begin a hunger strike.
1992 – Li Hongzhi gives the first public lecture on Falun Gong in Changchun, People's Republic of China.
1994 – Johnny Carson makes his last television appearance on Late Show with David Letterman.
1995 – Alison Hargreaves, a 33-year-old British mother, became the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas.
1996 – Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kill 600 people.
1998 – Race riots break out in Jakarta, Indonesia, where shops owned by Indonesians of Chinese descent are looted and women raped.
1998 – India carries out two nuclear tests at Pokhran, following the three conducted on May 11. The United States and Japan impose economic sanctions on India.
2000 – In Enschede, the Netherlands, a fireworks factory explodes, killing 22 people, wounding 950, and resulting in approximately €450 million in damage.
2005 – The Andijan Massacre occurs in Uzbekistan.
2005 – The Bính Bridge opens to traffic in Hai Phong, Vietnam.
2006 – 2006 São Paulo violence: a major rebellion occurs in several prisons in Brazil.
2008 – The Jaipur bombings in Rajasthan, India results in dozens of deaths.
2011 – In the 2011 Charsadda bombing in the Charsadda District of Pakistan, two bombs explode, resulting in 98 deaths and 140 others wounded.
Famous Folk Born on May 13th:
Ole Worm
Pope Innocent XIII
Maria Theresa
Pope Pius IX
Francis, Duke of Cadiz
Ronald Ross
Georgios Papanikolaou (inventor of the Pap smear)
Daphne du Maurier
Ken Darby
Robert Middleton
Joe Louis
Bea Arthur
Jim Jones (don't let him make the Kool-Aid)
Harvey Keitel
Ritchie Valens
Mary Wells
Lou Marini
Zoe Wanamaker
Stevie Wonder
James Whale
Gerry Sutcliffe
Dennis Rodman
Stephen Colbert
Darius Rucker
Samantha Morton
Brooke Anderson
Mike Bibby
"I'm not a racist. I love people. I always have. But those words came out of my mouth, I guess. And I'm so sorry. And I'm so apologetic."
You're not a racist. So why were you sued twice for discrimination in renting to minorities? Why did you choose to settle those two suits out of court? Because if you aren't a racist, and not being one is all that important to you, you'd have spent the money to fight dishonest claims accusing you of racism.
You love people? You're an oath breaker. You promised to forsake all others when you married your wife in 1955 but your own infidelities are well-known and well-documented. Let's hold on to that one for a bit and get back to that in a bit.
"I hurt my ex-wife. She is a beautiful person. She goes to the hospital, and she's a volunteer at Cedars-Sinai. When I went to law school, she worked at the children's hospital. She's a giver. She works. At this stage in her life, she still works."
You are quite proud of that Juris Doctor degree from the Southwestern University School of Law that you earned back in 1960. So why is it you're calling your wife your ex-wife? Neither of you has actually filed for divorce from the other. She says she's going to divorce you eventually, but in the eyes of the law, you are still married.
Not that those marital vows meant all that much to you. You did have an agreement drawn up between yourself and one Alexandra Castro, wherein you said you were "happily married" and had no intention of engaging in "...any activity inconsistent with your domestic relationship", but once again you settled out of court. Afraid of going to trial? Turned out it wasn't cheaper to keep her?
Here's another quote from Mr. Sterling, this one about Earvin "Magic" Johnson:
"What kind of a guy goes to every city, he has sex with every girl, then he catches HIV and -- is that someone we want to respect and tell our kids about? I think he should be ashamed of himself. I think he should go into the background. But what does he do for the black people? Doesn't do anything."
It was at this point I realized that Mrs. Sterling was just plain wrong. Donald Sterling doesn't suffer from dementia. He's just demented. He has to be if he thinks he does even one iota as much for the community as Magic Johnson has done.
Enough about this scumbag for one sitting. I'm sure there will be more to write after the next segment of the interview airs.
* * *
I read that the location of Kate Mantilini's on Wilshire in Beverly Hills is going to close next month. I was never a regular patron, although the few times I've been there were memorable and delicious. There was a night that a blind date I was to meet there went really bad, but a sympathetic server and some excellent food save me from that disaster.
I remember my last business lunch with a group of co-workers at the holidays and the reminders of what a major jerk our CEO was from the way he acted about the lunch.
But it isn't so much the loss of this particular eatery that's bothering me. It is the last link I have to Hamburger Hamlet, the first place I ever ate a truly upscale hamburger. There are a couple of Hamlets left (one in the Valley, one in Pasadena), but my trips to that part of Southern California are as rare as hen's teeth.
Not for long. I may or may not get to Kate Mantilini's before its doors close for good. I will get to one of the Hamburger Hamlets (probably Sherman Oaks) in the near future and enjoy a really great burger.
* * *
I wanted to go see a movie today, and then join friends for trivia. I wound up deciding it wasn't the best decision to pursue that plan. It is just too hot for me to be out driving and then walking in the heat. I'm still not nearly to what passes for "normal" for my weakened body. Maybe I'm growing. Maybe I'm maturing. Six months ago, I'd have just gone and thrown caution to the winds. I'd rather lament the choice at leisure than act hastily and wind up even more exhausted tomorrow.
Maybe I'm just superstitious. I was told in the ER last week I had an appointment today at the primary care clinic. I didn't bother to verify the accuracy of that date/time, I just went there this morning. Only to learn that the appointment had actually been scheduled for yesterday. So I guess having started on a bad note, I felt risk-adverse. Aside of course from buying a lottery ticket for tonight's drawing. That risk I was willing to take.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
It's really nice that Bruce Jenner is going to walk Kim Kardashian down the aisle on her wedding day. Wonder if they'll be wearing matching white lingerie beneath their outerwear?
Speaking of other major weddings, Hungry Man is marrying Sara Lee.
Magic Johnson says we should pray for Donald Sterling. Be careful how you get Tommy Lasorda to pray, Magic. He wished that V. Stiviano would be hit by a car and she was in a car accident within 48 hours.
Karl Rove is far more likely than Hilary Clinton to be suffering from some sort of brain damage. He is the textbook example of a nattering nabob of negativity in 2014. He's also probably some sort of Democratic Party secret weapon, given how much damage he does to the Republican machine.
On a related note, there are plenty of real negatives for Rove to pursue in his scorched earth style of campaigning.
If it turns out that this guy who ALLEGEDLY tried to extort money from Chris Brown over a fight on a basketball court made the whole thing up, the problem with our litigious society isn't that he could try a stunt like that. The problem is that there are lawyers out there willing to assist in that kind of extortion.
I listened to some religious spokeshole on CNN today pontificating about how no one can re-define marriage as being anything other than between a man and a woman. I have news for you, preacher. Your God didn't define marriage. Our system of laws defines it. Our system of laws can and is redefining it. You want to limit marriages to those between a man and a woman in your church, feel free. In terms of who can marry, any two consenting adults can. If society someday wants to redefine marriage as a union between more than two consenting adults, so be it.
I'm not sure I see the symbolism of a woman who survived breast cancer having her nipples tattooed to celebrate that survival, but more power to her.
* * *
Okay, listening to the Magic Johnson interview with Anderson Cooper, and they're listening to some of yesterday's interview with Donald Sterling and hearing Sterling trumpet about how much more charitable he is than Magic Johnson is going to make me throw up my dinner. So here are some stats:
Grants made over the last three years based on review of IRS Tax filings:
Donald Sterling Foundation Year Magic Johnson Foundation
$370,500 2012 $536,600
$340,000 2011 $463,000
$382,500 2010 $416,000
Magic Johnson has a net worth of right around 25% of what Donald Sterling's net worth is; but his foundation out-donates Sterling's foundation year in and year out. What's more important is that Magic Johnson isn't lying about how much he's given versus how much he "pledged to give" in full page advertisements in the L. A. Times.
Sterling makes an issue of his being Jewish and boasts that Blacks don't help other Blacks, but Jews give to such purpose. Mr. Sterling, the Talmud makes it quite clear that while it is fine for the recipient of charity to thank the giver, it also makes it clear that giving in order to be able to boast about one's charity is actually not a mitzvah. It is a transgression.
* * *
May 13th in History:
1373 – Julian of Norwich has visions which are later transcribed in her Revelations of Divine Love.
1515 – Mary Tudor, Queen of France and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk are officially married at Greenwich.
1568 – Battle of Langside: the forces of Mary, Queen of Scots, are defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under James Stewart, Earl of Moray, her half-brother.
1619 – Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt is executed in The Hague after being convicted of treason.
1648 – Construction of the Red Fort at Delhi is completed.
1779 – War of Bavarian Succession: Russian and French mediators at the Congress of Teschen negotiate an end to the war. In the agreement Austria receives the part of its territory that was taken from it (the Innviertel).
1780 – The Cumberland Compact is signed by leaders of the settlers in early Tennessee.
1787 – Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England, with eleven ships full of convicts (the "First Fleet") to establish a penal colony in Australia.
1804 – Forces sent by Yusuf Karamanli of Tripoli to retake Derna from the Americans attack the city.
1830 – Ecuador gains its independence from Gran Colombia.
1846 – Mexican–American War: The United States declares war on Mexico.
1848 – First performance of Finland's national anthem.
1861 – American Civil War: Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the breakaway states as having belligerent rights.
1861 – The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia.
1861 – Pakistan's (then a part of British India) first railway line opens, from Karachi to Kotri.
1862 – The USS Planter, a steamer and gunship, steals through Confederate lines and is passed to the Union, by a southern slave, Robert Smalls, who later was officially appointed as captain, becoming the first black man to command a United States ship.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Resaca – the battle begins with Union General Sherman fighting toward Atlanta, Georgia.
1865 – American Civil War: Battle of Palmito Ranch – in far south Texas, more than a month after Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender, the last land battle of the Civil War ends with a Confederate victory.
1880 – In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.
1888 – With the passage of the Lei Áurea ("Golden Law"), Brazil abolishes slavery.
1909 – The first Giro d'Italia starts from Milan. Italian cyclist Luigi Ganna will be the winner.
1912 – The Royal Flying Corps, the forerunner of the Royal Air Force, is established in the United Kingdom.
1917 – Three children report the first apparition of Our Lady of Fátima in Fátima, Portugal.
1923 – Robert Bellarmine, a Doctor of the Catholic Church, is beatified.
1939 – The first commercial FM radio station in the United States is launched in Bloomfield, Connecticut. The station later becomes WDRC-FM.
1940 – World War II: Germany's conquest of France begins as the German army crosses the Meuse. Winston Churchill makes his "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech to the House of Commons.
1940 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands flees her country to Great Britain after the German invasion. Princess Juliana takes her children to Canada for their safety.
1941 – World War II: Yugoslav royal colonel Dragoljub Mihailović starts fighting with German occupation troops, beginning the Serbian resistance.
1943 – World War II: German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allied forces.
1948 – 1948 Arab-Israeli War: the Kfar Etzion massacre is committed by Arab irregulars, the day before the declaration of independence of the state of Israel on May 14.
1950 – The first round of the Formula One World Championship is held at Silverstone.
1951 – The 400th anniversary of the founding of the National University of San Marcos is commemorated by the opening of the first large-capacity stadium in Peru.
1952 – The Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, holds its first sitting.
1954 – The anti-National Service Riots, by Chinese Middle School students in Singapore, take place.
1954 – The original Broadway production of The Pajama Game opens and runs for another 1,063 performances. Later received three Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, and Best Choreography.
1958 – During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, Vice President Richard Nixon's car is attacked by anti-American demonstrators.
1958 – The trademark Velcro is registered.
1958 – May 1958 crisis: a group of French military officers lead a coup in Algiers demanding that a government of national unity be formed with Charles de Gaulle at its head in order to defend French control of Algeria.
1958 – Ben Carlin becomes the first (and only) person to circumnavigate the world by amphibious vehicle, having travelled over 17,000 kilometres (11,000 mi) by sea and 62,000 kilometres (39,000 mi) by land during a ten-year journey.
1960 – Hundreds of University of California, Berkeley students congregate for the first day of protest against a visit by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Thirty-one students are arrested, and the Free Speech Movement is born.
1963 – The U.S. Supreme Court case Brady v. Maryland is decided.
1967 – Dr. Zakir Hussain becomes the third President of India. He is the first Muslim President of the Indian Union. He holds this position until August 24, 1969.
1969 – Race riots, later known as the May 13 Incident, take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
1972 – Faulty electrical wiring ignites a fire underneath the Playtown Cabaret in Osaka, Japan. Blocked exits and non-functional elevators lead to 118 fatalities, with many victims leaping to their deaths.
1972 – The Troubles: a car bombing outside a crowded pub in Belfast sparks a two-day gun battle involving the Provisional IRA, Ulster Volunteer Force and British Army. Seven people are killed and over 66 injured.
1980 – An F3 tornado hits Kalamazoo County, Michigan. President Jimmy Carter declares it a federal disaster area.
1981 – Mehmet Ali Ağca attempts to assassinate Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square in Rome. The Pope is rushed to the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic to undergo emergency surgery and survives.
1985 – Police release a bomb on MOVE headquarters in Philadelphia to end a stand-off, killing 11 MOVE members and destroying the homes of 250 city residents.
1989 – Large groups of students occupy Tiananmen Square and begin a hunger strike.
1992 – Li Hongzhi gives the first public lecture on Falun Gong in Changchun, People's Republic of China.
1994 – Johnny Carson makes his last television appearance on Late Show with David Letterman.
1995 – Alison Hargreaves, a 33-year-old British mother, became the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas.
1996 – Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kill 600 people.
1998 – Race riots break out in Jakarta, Indonesia, where shops owned by Indonesians of Chinese descent are looted and women raped.
1998 – India carries out two nuclear tests at Pokhran, following the three conducted on May 11. The United States and Japan impose economic sanctions on India.
2000 – In Enschede, the Netherlands, a fireworks factory explodes, killing 22 people, wounding 950, and resulting in approximately €450 million in damage.
2005 – The Andijan Massacre occurs in Uzbekistan.
2005 – The Bính Bridge opens to traffic in Hai Phong, Vietnam.
2006 – 2006 São Paulo violence: a major rebellion occurs in several prisons in Brazil.
2008 – The Jaipur bombings in Rajasthan, India results in dozens of deaths.
2011 – In the 2011 Charsadda bombing in the Charsadda District of Pakistan, two bombs explode, resulting in 98 deaths and 140 others wounded.
Famous Folk Born on May 13th:
Ole Worm
Pope Innocent XIII
Maria Theresa
Pope Pius IX
Francis, Duke of Cadiz
Ronald Ross
Georgios Papanikolaou (inventor of the Pap smear)
Daphne du Maurier
Ken Darby
Robert Middleton
Joe Louis
Bea Arthur
Jim Jones (don't let him make the Kool-Aid)
Harvey Keitel
Ritchie Valens
Mary Wells
Lou Marini
Zoe Wanamaker
Stevie Wonder
James Whale
Gerry Sutcliffe
Dennis Rodman
Stephen Colbert
Darius Rucker
Samantha Morton
Brooke Anderson
Mike Bibby
posted by me at 7:00 PM
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