One Of Our Own Is Missing!

The_Kitchen_Guy

There were no new developments in Paige's case yesterday. No news, no new developments.

In news of Candles for Paige we had 67 candles as of this post. Remember, candles go out after 48 hours so keep lighting candles for Paige, her family and her three children.

Instructions for lighting candles for Paige are in the Missing thread, in this post.

On this date in History...

...in 1980, 350 million people tuned in to CBS to watch the season premier of the prime time soap opera, Dallas to learn who, in the previous season's cliff hanger, shot J.R. The entire Summer was spent with the speculation of "Who shot J.R.?" a question that still plagues some of us, for rather obvious reasons. Contrary to what you might think. the other "J.R." in question has never seen the episode and has no intention of ever seeing it.

...in 1783, Frenchman Jean-François Pilatre de Rozier and François Laurent made aeronautical history by being the first men to fly a untethered hot air balloon. The flight lasted about 25 minutes and carried the two men over Paris. Two years later, de Rozier would also become the first man to die in an aeronautic crash when his balloon crashed during an attempt to cross the English Channel.



...in 1877, Thomas Edison patented the device that would have him dubbed the Wizard of Menlo Park. No, not the light bulb, that would come later, this was the phonograph. He discovered the device while trying to create a telephone answering device! It was originally marketed as a dictation machine, but the popularity of it as an entertainment center set Edison, and several others, on the task of refining the device. In 1912, Edison debuted a machine that delivered far superior sound but it used disks that were incompatible with other record players. (Anyone who owns a Beta video recorder knows what it is like to have the superior product beaten out of the marketplace.)


Edison and an early phonograph.

...in 1970, the rarest Ford Mustang was introduced at the Detroit Auto Show. Dubbed the Boss 351, it featured a four-bolt main engine that was rated at 300 horsepower. Only 1,806 units were built in 1971, the only year the Boss 351 was offered. As the government clamped down on safety and emmissions, such cars became too expensive to build, to buy, and to operate and the muscle car faded from its glory years. The Boss 351 was one of the last ones. The Boss 351 Registry has located 551 of the the original cars.


1971 Ford Mustang Boss 351


...in 1916, the HMHS Britannic, sister ship to the Titanic, sank in the Aegean Sea, killing 30 people, more than 1,000 were rescued. After the sinking of the Titanic, the White Star Lines refined the design and altered the hull to make it less vulnerable to icebergs. More lifeboats were also added. Launched in 1914, the Britannic was requisitioned by the British government to serve as a hospital ship. At 8:12 AM, the ship was rocked by a huge explosion, and even though Captain Bartlett ordered closure of all watertight doors, the Britannic had already lost six compartments to flooding, more than the damage that sank her sister ship. Most everyone survived, the ones who perished tried to launch lifeboats, without orders, while the ship was moving and the lifeboats were sucked into the propellers. Jacques Cousteau found the wreck in 1976. No one knows what caused the explosion but most experts believe it was a German mine. (A third sister ship, the HMS Olympic, led a rather tame and uneventful service life, although she dropped a prop blade on her maiden voyage in 1909 and collided with the Nantucket Lightship in 1934 but was undamaged. She was taken out of service in 1935 and scrapped in 1936.)


(His Majesty's Hospital Ship) HMHS Britannic

That's it. That's all we know as of 12:01 AM, EST.

The_Kitchen_Guy

This is a very significant day in American history - if you're just hovering here, pop open the thread and see. There were no new developments in Paige's case yesterday. No news, no new developments.

In news of Candles for Paige we had 33 candles as of this post. Remember, candles go out after 48 hours so keep lighting candles for Paige, her family and her three children.

Instructions for lighting candles for Paige are in the Missing thread, in this post.

On this date in History...

...in 1718, Blackbeard the Pirate was killed just off the North Carolina Outer Banks during a battle with the British navy, that had been dispached from Virginia to put Edward Teach, a.k.a. Blackbeard, out of business. He had negotiated a pardon with Governor Charles Eden, in exchange for a sizeable share of Blackbeard's booty, but the planters of North Carolina appealed to Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood, who dispatched the navy. Legend has it that Blackbeard took five musket balls and 20 sword lacerations before he finally died.

...in 1950, the Long Island Railroad suffered a tremendous loss as two commuter trains collided in Queens, New York. A 12 car train was ordered to slow and stop in the station. When ordered to start again, the train's brakes had locked and prevented the departure. Meanwhile, the Babylon express, on the same track, received a green signal based on the commuter train departing the station. It collided with the commuter train, launching the rear car into the air and killing all aboard. When it was over, 79 people were dead and 363 suffered major injuries. Mayor Vincent Impellitari called the LIRR a "disgraceful common carrier" when he learned that defective equipment caused the crash.


First responders worked through the night. 79 people perished and
363 were injured in the crash.

...in 1927, Carl Eliason of Sayner, Wisconsin, received a patent for a motorized tobboggan, the first modern snowmobile. The Eliason snowmobiles were built in Sayner until the company was purchased by the FWD Company of Clintonville, Wisconsin. (FWD, to this day, still builds heavy duty four wheel drive trucks for military and commercial use.) The last of Eliason's designs, from 1953, influenced the design of every manufacturer's sleds, throughout the world. All of Eliason's "motorized toboggans" are on display in the Vilas County, Wisconsin museum. For more about the inventor of the snowmobile and the story of how it came about, visit the Eliason Snowmobile website.


Carl Eliason and his Motorized Tobboggan

...in 1963, in Dallas, Texas, Lee Harvey Oswald, from the 6th floor of the Texas Schoolbook Depository, shot and killed President John Fitzgerald Kennedy as his motorcade passed Dealey Plaza. On Sunday, November 24, Oswald was shot and killed by Dallas night club owner, Jack Ruby. The entire country ground to a halt in mourning the martyred President. It was the first major event ever covered wall-to-wall by television, by the time the dead-tree media went to press, television has already broken the next development. In fact, the shooting of Oswald was the first time a murder had ever been shown on live television.

The Kennedy Assassination is fraught with rumors, legends, misinformation and conspiracy theories. President Lyndon Johnson ordered an investigation that was headed up by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the results are commonly known as the Warren Report. It took ten months, and at the time of its release, it was widely accepted as the definitive answer to the assassination. The Warren Commission concluded that Oswald was the only shooter and that he acted alone. Today, the majority of Americans do not believe the report and think the assassination was a carefully planned and executed plot laid out by a conspiracy.

Incidentally, about the only thing correct in the Oliver Stone movie about the assassination was that John Kennedy was shot on November 22. The rest is pretty much baloney.


President John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917 - 1963)
35th President of the United States.

That's it. That's all we know as of 12:01 AM, EST.

Tropicalburstqt2

I <3 my Mustang!!

The_Kitchen_Guy

There were no new developments in Paige's case yesterday. No news, no new developments.

In news of Candles for Paige we had 33 candles as of this post. Remember, candles go out after 48 hours so keep lighting candles for Paige, her family and her three children.

Instructions for lighting candles for Paige are in the Missing thread, in this post.

On this date in History...

...in 1859, in a poor Irish neighborhood in New York's east side, Henry McCarty was born He would later change his name to William H. Bonney, using the first name of his surrogate father and his mother's maiden name, but he would go down in history as Billy the Kid. He began a career as a gunslinger in 1876 and was part of the Lincoln County War of 1878, one of the range wars of the odl west. It was said that Billy killed at least 27 people before his 21st birthday, although, only four can actually be attributed to him. On the night of July 14, 1881, Billy the Kid was shot and killed, at the age of 21, by Sheriff Pat Garrett near Fort Sumner, New Mexico.


Henry McCarty aka William H Bonney aka Billy the Kid.

...in 1874, Bathsheba Everdene is courted by three suitors in Thomas Hardy's Far From The Madding Crowd which was published on this date. The novel, with the oft-misquoted title, has a happy ending but showed three different faces of human nature. Far From the Madding Crowd contains Hardy's usual pessimistic view of the human condition.

...in 1876, the leader of New York City's corrupt political machine, William Marcy "Boss" Tweed, was extradited to the New York City after his capture in Spain. "Boss" Tweed came to power in Tammany Hall, the Democrat machine of New York City, in the late 1850's and by the mid 1860's, the "Tweed Ring" was buying votes, paying off judges, embezzling millions of dollars from City contracts and it virtually controlled New York City government. The blatant embezzlement of funds from the remodeling of the City Court House in 1871 was not ignored by the New York Times. Tweed's goons did the usual damage control, but other publications, led by Harper's Weekly, exposed the ring. Harper's Weekly cartoonist, Thomas Nast, ran a one-man campaign against Tweed with biting characterizations. The Tweed Ring was swept out of office in the elections of 1871, members of the ring were arrested, tried and convicted. Tweed himself escaped prison in 1875 and fled to Europe, but was recognized in Spain from Nast cartoons! He was returned to New York City and died in 1878, still in prison.


Thomas Nast characterized Tammany Hall as the tiger, an image that stuck. Tammany Hall continued as a
political machine after the arrests of the Tweed Ring but collapsed after helping Fiorello LaGuradia become
mayor in the 1934 election.


Thomas Nast's chracterization of the Tweed Ring.

...in 1897, Ransom Eli Olds received a patent for his motor carriage. He founded the Olds Motor Vehicle Company that eventually became the Olds Motor Works and later, the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors. The famous "curved dash Oldsmobile" put Olds on the map, even spawning the popular song, My Merry Oldsmobile. Olds would be forced out of his own company, so he started another company to build trucks, and his REO Speedwagon became a staple of the American trucking industry.


1902 Oldsmobile - about 19,000
of the popular little runabouts
were built.

...in 1936, the first issue of Life magazine was published. The weekly magazine, started by Henry Luce, was a companion to Luce's Time magazine. Where Time told the news, Life offered pictoral views of the news, along with locations and events around the world. Life set the standard for high-quality, journalistic photography. Life ceased weekly publication in 1972 because of competition from television, but it did start again as a syndicated insert to certain newspapers.

That's it. That's all we know as of 12:01 AM, EST.

The_Kitchen_Guy

There were no new developments in Paige's case yesterday. No news, no new developments.

In news of Candles for Paige we had 55 candles as of this post. Remember, candles go out after 48 hours so keep lighting candles for Paige, her family and her three children.

Instructions for lighting candles for Paige are in the Missing thread, in this post.

On this date in History...

...in 1963, Dallas nightclub owner, Jack Ruby, shot and killed JFK assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. The shooting happened in the basement of the Dallas Police Department, on live television. Conspiracy theory fans like to link Ruby to the underworld, the CIA, Richard Nixon and other organizations or people, but the Warren Commission concluded Ruby acted on his own, probably on the spur of the moment. He even left his dog in the car while he was making his shot. He later claimed he was just saving Jackie Kennedy the embarrassment of testifying at Oswald's trial. Ruby died of cancer in 1966, claiming the cancer had been injected into his system by the CIA, to keep him quiet. Before his death, Ruby made conflicting statements that he had acted alone, and that he was part of a vast conspiracy. It seems his real motive is lost to history.


Lee Harvey Oswald, handcuffed to Detective James Lavelle, was shot at point-blank range
by Dallas nightclub owner, Jack Ruby in a crowded corridor of the Dallas Police Department.
This amazing photograph was shot by Robert H. Jackson of the Dallas Times-Herald and
won the Pulitzer Prize for Photography.

...in 1859, Charles Darwin's controversial work, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection was published in England. The book does not contain the word "evolution" but his theory said that organisms eventually evolve through the process of "natural selection" and that environment will influence which genetic variations will develop in succeeding generations of the same species. The theory was not new, in fact, his own grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, had even suggested the theory but it was not until publication of this book that the theory was given any real consideration. Orthodox Christians branded the book, and the theory, as heresy. In 1871, Darwin published a follow-up that presented his evidence that man evolved from the ape, entitled The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. While his theory has been widely accepted in the scientific community, Creationists ask for evidence of which species have evolved in the last 1000 years, or for that matter, are still evolving. The argument continues.



...in 1849, John Froelich was born in Froelich, Iowa. He would go on to invent the forerunner of what is today's modern farm tractor, building and manufacturing tractors in 1892, in Waterloo, Iowa at the Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Company. Unfortunately, they were not successful, and he sold his business to John W. Miller, who changed the name to the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company. He stopped building tractors and concentrated on building gasoline engines. In 1911, Miller began building tractors again, and despite the company name, no one seemed to notice they ran on kerosene. The Waterloo Boy tractors were quite popular, and in 1918, the company was purchased by John Deere Company. Despite the name being changed to the John Deere Tractor Company, the tractors were still sold under the name Waterloo Boy until 1923, when the John Deere Model D was introduced.


A 1918 Waterloo Boy Tractor

...in 1971, a mysterious hijacker, calling himself Dan Cooper, parachuted into the night over Washington State with $200,000 in cash. Cooper hijacked the airliner using what looked like a bomb. The plane landed, per his orders, at the Sea-Tac airport where he was provided with $200,000.00, four parachutes and a flight plan to Mexico. Over the Lewis River in Washington, Cooper opened the rear stairway hatch (a unique feature of this particular model of the 727) and parachuted into the night from a height of 10,000 feet. There was a raging thunderstorm at the time with temperatures below zero, and Cooper was wearing only a raincoat and wrap-around sunglasses. The storm prevented any action of law enforcement to find Cooper and it was assumed that he perished in the fall. No trace of Cooper, dead or alive, has ever been found. In 1980, $5,880 of the marked ransom money was found in a bag along the banks of the Columbia River, near Vancouver, but that is as close to finding Dan Cooper as anyone has ever come. Through an error in communication with the media, the hijacker's name was listed as "D.B. Cooper" and that is how he is still popularly known. The story is a thing of legend in the Northwest and has even spawned several movies and television specials, but no one has ever solved the mystery of what happened to D.B. Cooper.


D.B.Cooper in 1971 and with age progression.

That's it. That's all we know as of 12:01 AM, EST.

The_Kitchen_Guy

There were no new developments in Paige's case yesterday. No news, no new developments.

In news of Candles for Paige we had 58 candles as of this post. Remember, candles go out after 48 hours so keep lighting candles for Paige, her family and her three children.

Instructions for lighting candles for Paige are in the Missing thread, in this post.

On this date in History...

...in 1963, President John F Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, on John Jr.'s birthday. About a quarter of a million people had filed past his flag-draped coffin as he had lain in state in the Capitol Rotunda the previous day. Approximately 1 million people lined the parade route between the Capitol and the burial site. President Kennedy's coffin was carried on a horse-drawn caisson, the only sounds being the sounds of the horse's hoof steps and the haunting drum cadence. Most citizens had believed that the President would be buried with his family in Massachusetts, but Jackie Kennedy selected Arlington in agreement with Sargent Shriver, Kennidy's brother in law, when she said, "He belongs to the people."


The grave of President John F. Kennedy, with the eternal flame, at Arlington National Cemetery.

...in 1920, Gaston Chevrolet, race driver and brother to race designer Louis Chevrolet, died while driving in a race in Beverly Hills, California. Gaston was born in La-Shauz-de-Fonds, Switzerland. He came to America to join Louis and Andre in the formation of the Frontenac Motor Corporation, which was to replace the Chevrolet Motor Company that the brothers had sold to Billy Durant's General Motors.


Gaston Chevrolet (in the car) and his
brothers, Louis and Andre.

...in 1979, American Airlines Flight 191 departed from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and crashed seconds later. Mounting bolts that held the port engine in place failed, severing the engine on takeoff. All 271 passengers and crew onboard died in the impact, along with two people on the ground. It was the highest death toll in an airplane crash in the United States until September 11, 2001 but remains the highest death toll in one aircraft crash on US soil. The crash anaylsis resulted in changes in maintenance procedures of the DC-10 aircraft.


Flight 191 went into a steep bank before it crashed, killing everyone on board.

...in 1952, the Dallas Texans of the NFL won the only game the franchise would ever win, by beating the Chicago Bears 27-23. The team was so bad that fans in Dallas stayed away in droves, and with five games left in the season, the ownership turned the franchise back to the NFL, which moved it Hershey, Pennsylvania. The team was disbanded, and the remains of it went to Baltimore to become the Colts. In 1960, the NFL granted another franchise to Dallas, and the Cowboys would go on to a better record than it's predecessor. The rival AFL also launched a team there, the Dallas Texans that would move to Kansas City to become the Chiefs.



...in 1949, Gene Autry hit the popular charts with Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The story of Rudolph was written by Robert L. May for his employer, Montgomery Ward's and tells the story of Santa's ninth reindeer. (The story is today owned by The Rudolph Company and although Rudolph seems to be a public domain piece of American folklore, the copyrights are fiercely guarded.) Of course, the song also introduces the 10th reindeer, Olive. You never heard of Olive? Listen closely to Gene Autry's version, and you'll hear him sing that "Olive, the other reindeer, Used to laugh and call him names."



That's it. That's all we know as of 12:01 AM, EST.

The_Kitchen_Guy

This will be the third Thanksgiving that the Birgfeld family is without Paige. Sadly, there were no new developments in Paige's case yesterday. No news, no new developments.

In news of Candles for Paige we had 53 candles as of this post. Remember, candles go out after 48 hours so keep lighting candles for Paige, her family and her three children.

Instructions for lighting candles for Paige are in the Missing thread, in this post.

On this date in History...

...in 1941, under Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, the Japanese First Air Fleet departed for Pearl Harbor. His orders were to return to Japan if diplomatic efforts resolved an impasse between the United States and Japan. Japan wanted the United States to lift economic sanctions and the United States wanted Japan to evacuate China, Indo-China and repudiate their membership in the Tripartite Axis Pact. President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull knew that a Japanese attack was likely but the target was unknown. The United States felt that if war was inevitable, Japan would have to commit the first act of war.


Admiral Chuichi Nagumo.
He died on Saipan, on June 6, 1944, having
committed suicide in a cave when his
defense of Saipan failed.

...in 1941, President Roosevelt signed a bill declaring the fourth Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day. The tradition of a day set aside for giving thanks started in the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies when Governor William Bradford established a Thanksgiving celebration. It was an annual custom in New England and in 1777, the Continental Congress declared the first national Thanksgiving. Later, President Washington proclaimed November 26 as the national Thanksgiving Day. President Lincoln moved it to the last Thursday of November in 1863. That's the way it stayed until 1939, when President Roosevelt moved it to the 23rd, a week earlier, in an attempt to lengthen the Christmas shopping season to boost the depression economy. It caused much confusion and consternation, though, some Americans did not recognize the date and celebrated on the traditional day. The Bing Crosby - Fred Astaire movie, Holiday Inn, had a confused turkey pick up and move a week on an animated calendar. In 1941, President Roosevelt moved it back to the last Thursday, where it has remained.

...in 1922, the first Technicolor film (in general distribution, anyway) opened. Toll of the Sea, featring Anna May Wong, used two negatives with red and green tints to create the color image. The process was very expensive and most studios passed on it until the late 1930's.




...in 1927, Ford Motor Company announced The New Ford to replace the venerable Model T that went out of production in May of that year. The New Ford was the first new car since the Model T went into production in 1908, with 15,000,000 of the Tin Lizzies built. The car was called the Model A. Henry Ford was quoted as saying that this car wipes the slate clean, so it would be called the Model A. In reality, it was a transition car, because the Model T had outlived it's production life and Henry's pet project, the V-8 Ford, would not be ready until 1932. Styled by Edsel Ford, the Model A was also called the "Baby Lincoln" for its styling and modern good looks. 5,000,000 Model A's were built in its four-year run.


Hugh and Loukie Smith recently drove their
1928 Phaeton across the country on the Lincoln
Highway. (Who would be dumb enough to drive a
Model A Ford across the country on the Lincoln
Highway? Hmmmm?)

...in 1942, "Round up the usual suspects" became a part of the American lexicon with the premier of Michael Curtiz's film, Casablanca. Staring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Clause Rains and Peter Lorre, the film was not widely liked by critics and did not do well at the box office. However, it is a beloved classic film, Bogart's first romantic role, widely appreciated by film fans everywhere. Standard lines from the film have become a part of our lexicon, including the usual suspects, along with "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine," "We'll always have Paris," and "Here's looking at you, Kid." (Click on the image to see the theatrical trailer for (arguably) one of the best films ever made.)



That's it. That's all we know as of 12:01 AM, EST.

The_Kitchen_Guy

There were no new developments in Paige's case yesterday. No news, no new developments.

In news of Candles for Paige we had 29 candles as of this post. Remember, candles go out after 48 hours so keep lighting candles for Paige, her family and her three children.

Instructions for lighting candles for Paige are in the Missing thread, in this post.

On this date in History...

...in 1095, Pope Urban II called on Christians in Europe to travel to Jerusalem and make war against Muslims that had been preventing Christian pilgrims from going to the Holy City. With a cry of "Deus volt!" (God Wills It) the Crusades began, the first of seven major military actions taken in the Holy Land, of which repercussions are still felt today. Urban died in 1099, two weeks before the fall of Jerusalem and before news of the Christian victory were heard in Europe.


Pope Urban II

...in 1924, a two-mile stretch of Broadway, from Central Park of Herald Square became the route of the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, featuring clowns, cowboys and the famous balloons, including Felix the Cat, the first balloon. Today's parade is all show-biz, glitz, lip-synced dance numbers and appearances by has-beens and wanna-be celebrities. And no, I won't be watching it.

Gimbel's was actually the first department store to sponsor a parade in Philadelphia, but it was J.L. Hudson's in Detroit and Macy's in New York that became the national tradition on Thanksgiving Day. In Detroit, the parade is known as America's Thanksgiving Day Parade and in 1990, the Chilly Willy balloon was being filled when it broke its tethers and took off. Chilly Willy floated above the parade route at about 5,000 feet. Eventually, Willy deflated and was fished out of Lake St. Clair, about 25 miles away from Detroit.

...in 1965, France successfully launched a satellite, becoming the fifth nation in space. First designated as A-1 for Army-1, the satillite was later redisignated Asterix after a popular French cartoon character. The satellite was launched atop a Diamont A from a launch site in Algiers. The satillite followed Sputnik (Soviet Union) Explorer I (USA) Alouette I (Canada) and San Marco I (Italy.)


This is a model of Asterix I, which is in such a high
orbit that it will likely not crash to earth for centuries.

...in 1870, the New York Times dubbed baseball "America's Pastime."

...in 1896, Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra) debuted in Frankfurt, Germany, 72 years before anyone would learn to know it as the opening theme to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Open the pod bay doors, Hal. (Click on Strauss' portrait to hear his stirring tone poem.)


Richard Srauss (1864 - 1949)

That's it. That's all we know as of 12:01 AM, EST.

The_Kitchen_Guy

There were no new developments in Paige's case yesterday. No news, no new developments.

In news of Candles for Paige we had 26 candles as of this post. Remember, candles go out after 48 hours so keep lighting candles for Paige, her family and her three children.

Instructions for lighting candles for Paige are in the Missing thread, in this post.

On this date in History...

...in 1942, the first mass-produced bomber, a B-24 Liberator, came out of Ford Motor Company's huge Willow Run factory, the largest building in the world. (At least, until 1943 when Chrysler's engine plant opened in Cicero, Illinois, where Tucker automobiles would be built in 1947.) In the 1930's, President Roosevelt foresaw the need for American productivity to be the biggest weapon in the arsenal as he also foresaw America's inevitable involvement in World War II. Charles "Cast Iron Charlie" Sorenson, the director of production for Ford Motor Company, worked out the details of Henry Ford's concept of mass-producing airplanes the way he had build Flivvers in the teens. The aircraft manufacturers derided the attempt, but the Willow Run building was larger than the facilities of Boeing, Douglass and Consolidated combined. Initially, there were problems with critics referring to the plant as "Will It Run?" but once production started, the 2.5 million square foot plant built 8,685 B-24's, in 1944, at the rate of one bomber per hour. Today, the runways built outside the plant in 1942 are the Willow Run Airport, and whether the personal accolades for Henry Ford are deserved or not, the Willow Run bomber plant was an industrial milestone.


The Willow Run Assembly Line was one mile long.


...in 1994, nefarious serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer, who was already serving 15 consecutive life terms, was beaten to death by a fellow inmate at Wisconsin's Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin. He died at the hand of fellow inmate, Christopher Scarver, who also beat and killed inmate Jesse Anderson. (Anderson was also reviled in Milwaukee for killing his wife and trying to frame two unidentified African-American youths for the crime.) Dahmer was convicted of murdering at least 17 young men over a period of 13 years, most of them young, gay, African-Americans. He would lure them to his apartment, asking them to model for a photography shoot, where he would drug and strangle them, mutilate their bodies, cannibalize them and destroy their remains in barrels of acid. He was arrested on July 22, 1991 and convicted of 15 counts in February 1992. Scarver's motive for the dual killings is unknown, however, many feel he did both humanity and the State of Wisconsin a favor. He was transferred to a federal prison shortly after the beatings.


Jeffrey Dahmer (1960 - 1994)

...in 1954, the first man to create and control a nuclear chain reaction, Enrico Fermi, died in Chicago at the age of 53. Fermi was born in Rome on September 1, 1901 and at the age of 17, decided he wanted to be a physicist. He studied at the University of Pisa, under German physicist Max Born who was known for his work with quantum physics, and he taught math at at the University of Florence. He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1938 and even though he was on the watch list, he was allowed to travel to Sweden to receive the prize. He and his wife, Laura (who was Jewish) never returned - they went to Columbia University in New York City where he worked with Neils Bohr. Recognizing the military implications of nuclear fission, Bohr and Fermi wrote a letter to President Roosevelt, the letter was signed by Albert Einstein and the result was The Manhattan Project. Fermi created a lab in a squash court under the football stands at the University of Chicago, where he created the first controlled chain reaction. Today, Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, is named in his honor.


Enrico Fermi (1901 - 1954)
He ushered in the Atomic Age.

...in 1925, what is today called The Grand Ol' Opry began broadcasting from Nashville, Tennessee on WSM 850 Radio. It was known as The Barn Dance in those days, to mimic the National Barn Dance show that was already being broadcast from WLS in Chicago. The producers realized that the audience loved the show, and performers were directed to dress like hillbillies and, where possible, adopt names that had a rural ring to them. Fans flocked to the studios to watch the show, and in 1943, the show was moved to the Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville. It had been built by Captain Thomas Ryman to house a traveling evangelist, Reverend Samuel Jones, and the building has a churchy feel to it, including stained glass windows. The Opry moved from the Ryman in 1974 to a new Opry House in the center of what was then called Opryland USA, nine miles from downtown. Opryland featured a now-dismantled theme park and several entertainment stages. The Grand Ol' Opy is still heard every Saturday night on "Clear channel WSM" which is a 50,000 watt radio station, broadcasting on 850 kHz and can be heard all over the south and much of the Midwest.


The show was sponsored by the National Life and Accident Insurance Company,
which also built the radio station. WSM stood for "We Shield Millions."

That's it. That's all we know as of 12:01 AM, EST.

The_Kitchen_Guy

There were no new developments in Paige's case yesterday. No news, no new developments.

In news of Candles for Paige we had 58 candles as of this post. Remember, candles go out after 48 hours so keep lighting candles for Paige, her family and her three children.

Instructions for lighting candles for Paige are in the Missing thread, in this post.

On this date in History...

...in 1929, Richard Byrd, with three companions, flew over the South Pole, the first to accomplish the feat. Byrd had flown from a base camp he built, called Little America, on the Ross Ice Shelf. The flight to the pole and back again took 18 hours and 41 minutes. Byrd made five expeditions to Antarctica in his career, the first in 1929, again in 1933 when he was a Rear Admiral in the navy. On that trip, he was trapped during the winter, for five months, at a weather station 123 miles from his Little America base camp. He was rescued in spring, in August of 1934 in pretty rough condition. He returned again in 1939, with a huge vehicle called the Snow Cruiser, which I wrote about in a Live Journal entry some years ago. During the war, Admiral Byrd served the navy and afterward, led the largest expedition (to date) to Antarctica. He made his fifth and final trip to Antarctica in 1955, Admiral Byrd died in 1957.

...in 1948, Chicago was part of the struggle for supremacy in the production of network television, and a local childrens' show, Kukla, Fran and Ollie premiered on this date on the NBC network. The program featured actress, Fran Allison, as the host of the program with the puppets Kukla and Ollie, a dragon. The puppets were the brainchildren of Burr Tillstrom, along with several other puppets that were a part of the "Kuklapolitan Players." The show was called Junior Jamboree when it went on the air in Chicago in 1947 and the name changed when it went national. ("Kukla" means "doll" in Greek and Russian.) While the show was canceled in 1957, it continued in syndication well into the 1980's. The show set a very high standard for childrens' television, Burr Tillstrom had very strict rules, including that he stayed away from politics. KFO actually attracted more adult viewers than children, after all, sponsors like RCA and Ford Motor Company were not trying to reach children. Tillstrom considered the program high-quality, family programing and did not like KFO to be considered strictly as a children's show. He also wrote into his will that no one could perform his characters, so Kukla and Ollie now belong to the ages. You can learn more about the program at the Unofficial Kuklapolitan Website.


Kukla, Burr, Ollie and Fran

...in 1963, President Lyndon Johnson assigned Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren to set up a special commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The Warren Commission worked for 10 months, interviewing witneses and principals in the case, before filing a report with the President that said Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and that the three bullets that killed the President and injured Texas Governor John Connaly came from his rifle. The report did not silence critics who believe it was a vast conspiracy. A 1978 House Select Committee on Assassinations report concluded that President Kennedy was "probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy" that involved multiple shooters and organized crime. Both reports are still hotly debated and are disputed around the world.

...in 1947, the United Nations voted to create the state of Israel by partitioning Palestine, a move protested by Arab opposition. After the Holocaust, with no where else to turn, Jewish refugees went to the newly formed state, in lands that had been occupied by Great Britatin. On May 14, 1948, the British withdrew at the expiration of their mandate, and the next day, Israel was invaded by Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. Although outguuned, the Israeli forces not only repelled the invasion but captured more lands. A similar invasion, with similar results, occured 20 years later, in 1967. The area is still under fire with hatred boiling over in some circles.

That's it. That's all we know as of 12:01 AM, EST.

The_Kitchen_Guy

There was an interesting report from the NBC affiliate in Grand Junction the other day. It says that there are new DNA tests being done that could link Paige to persons of interst. You can see it here: "Where is Paige?" Otherwise, there have been no new developments in Paige's case yesterday. No news, no new developments.

In news of Candles for Paige we had 51 candles as of this post. Remember, candles go out after 48 hours so keep lighting candles for Paige, her family and her three children.

Instructions for lighting candles for Paige are in the Missing thread, in this post.

On this date in History...

...in 1954, the first recorded (modern) case of a human being struck by a meteorite occurred in Oak Grove, near Sylacuga, Alabama. The eight and a half pound sulfide meteorite crashed through the roof of a house, bounced off the floor and struck Elizabeth Hodges on the hip. Other than a nasty bruise, she was not seriously injured. There were reports of people being inured or killed by meteroites in ancient Chinese history, in 1927 a girl was reportedly struck in Japan and in 1946, a boy was reportedly knocked off a bicycle by a meteorite but these reports are unsubstantiated. We reported, in the Morning Update, October 9 that a car had been struck in Peekskill, New York in 1992.


The Sylacauga Meteorite.

...in 1994, the luxury liner with a sordid past, the Achille Lauro caught fire and sank near Somalia. The ship had been constructed in 1947 as the William Ruys by the Royal Rotterdam Line and was used primarily to carry freight between The Netherlands and the East Indies. In 1965, the StarLauro Line bought the ship and, against superstition, rechristened the ship as the Achille Lauro. Ship lore says that renamed ships are bad luck, and the Achille Lauro certainly had a run of misfortune. In 1971, she rammed an Italian fishing boat resulting in one death. In 1981, a fire on board killed two people and in 1985, in its most notorious incident, it was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists who shot and killed a wheel-chair bound American, Leon Klinghoffer, then threw his body and wheelchair overboard.


The Achille Lauro caught fire at sea and sank in 1994

The Achille Lauro was traveling around the Horn of South African when she caught fire. Survivors were picked up by the USS Gettysburg Her sister ship, the Angelina Lauro also met a firey end. The Angelina Lauro caught fire at the dock in Saint Thomas and dramatic photos can be seen on Reuben Goosens' ssMaritime website. Reuben Goosens also has the story of the Achille Lauro on his website.

...in 1959, production began on Alfred Hitchcock's most terrifying thriller, Psycho based on Robert Bloch's novel of the same name. Hitch bought the rights from Bloch and then bought up all the copies of the novel he could to preserve the ending. The Norman Bates character, so well played by Anthony Perkins, was based on the real-life serial killer and grave robber, Ed Gein from Plainfield, Wisconsin. (See Morning Updates for July 26 amd November 16 for more on Ed Gein.) Hitchcock was an expert story teller and master of suspence. Hitch let his characters and excellent camera work plant the story in the audience's minds. The shower scene in Psycho is an excellent study in how to terrify an audience, it took over a week to film and lasts only 45 seconds. In the straight-on scene of the showerhead, it was actually 6 feet in diameter so the water spray would go past the camera. The scene does not show any actual carnage, it all occurs in the viewers' mind, the blood was actually Hershey's Chocolate Syrup. Although he was long an American citizen, Hitchcock was knighted in 1980, and he died in the same year.


Jant Leigh said she never took showers, unless she
absolutely had to, after seeing the film.

That's it. That's all we know as of 12:01 AM, EST.

The_Kitchen_Guy

This news story ran on the NBC affiliate in Grand Junction last week. While there isn't really much of anything new, it is nice to know that Paige is being remembered as we go into the holidays.

Where is Paige?

More than two years ago a Grand Junction mother of three disappeared.

Posted: 2:08 PM Nov 27, 2009
Reporter: Natalie Pallone
Link: WCCO Channel 11 News

The_Kitchen_Guy

There were no new developments in Paige's case yesterday. No news, no new developments.

In news of Candles for Paige we had 31 candles as of this post. Remember, candles go out after 48 hours so keep lighting candles for Paige, her family and her three children.

Instructions for lighting candles for Paige are in the Missing thread, in this post.

On this date in History...

...in 1990, 132 feet below the English Channel, crews tunneling from England met crews tunneling from France to complete the first link of the Channel Tunnel, or, Chunnel. The idea of a tunnel connecting the British Isles to mainland Europe was nothing new, even Napoleon proposed it in 1802. It was not until the 20th Century, though, that technology was available to tackle such an ambitious project. There are actually three tubes, one for each direction of travel and one for maintenance. The tubes carry high speed trains that make the 31 mile journey in 20 minutes, 23 of those miles averaging 150' below the English Channel.


Cross section of the Chunnel below the English Channel.


The Chunnel. High speed trains push air ahead of them, much like a piston engine. Tubes between the tunnels are built in to
balance the air pressure built up by the trains.

...in 1824, the Presidential election made the 2000 election look like a high school student council popularity contest. Does any of this sound familiar? With no clear winner, the election went to the House of Representatives, as dictated by the 12th Amendment. There were four candidates including Andrew Jackson with 99 electoral votes, John Quincy Adams (son of John Adams, the second President) with 84 electoral votes, Secretary of State William H. Crawford with 41 electoral votes and Henry Clay of Virginia with 37 electoral votes. Crawford was debilitated with a stroke just prior to the election, but Clay was disqualified as the fourth place finisher. He threw his support over to John Quincy Adams as they were part of a loose coalition called the National Republicans. The House voted Adams to be the President. Adams then appointed Clay to be his Secretary of State, which Jackson supporters called the fulfillment of a corrupt agreement. As a result, Adams had little popular support and his reelection bid failed in 1828 when he lost to Andrew Jackson.

...in 1913, Model T's began to come off Ford's new continuous moving assembly line at the rate of one car every two and a half minutes. The rate would eventually be a Flivver in less than an minute and the moving assembly line revolutionized the industry. In 1915, Henry Ford would institute the five dollar day, and shorten the work day to eight hours.


Flivvers (Model T Fords) being built on the first moving assembly line.

...in 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, an African-American woman refused to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man. That was a violation of Montgomery's racial segregation laws, and Rosa Parks was subsequently arrested. Following her arrest, a boycott was organized by a young Baptist minister named Martin Luther King, Jr. The boycott ran for more than a year, and since African-Americans comprised 70% of the bus ridership, the transit system felt the financial pressure. On December 20, 1956, the segregation rules were rescinded and the boycott ended. It was the first great victory in the non-violent civil rights movement in the United States.


Bus #2857, where all the ruckus started, is now on
display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.


Rosa Parks in 1955 with Martin Luther King, Jr. in the background.

That's it. That's all we know as of 12:01 AM, EST.

The_Kitchen_Guy

There were no new developments in Paige's case yesterday. No news, no new developments.

In news of Candles for Paige we had 47 candles as of this post. Remember, candles go out after 48 hours so keep lighting candles for Paige, her family and her three children.

Instructions for lighting candles for Paige are in the Missing thread, in this post.

On this date in History...

...in 1902, a French engineer named Leon-Marie-Joseph-Clement Levausseur patented an engine block that allowed for 8 pistons to fit into the space of 4 by making a V-shaped block. Levausseur's engine featured four cylinders in either of two banks of cylinders with two pistons on one throw of the crankshaft. If that doesn't mean much to you, don't worry. The short description is that he invented the V-8 engine. Early V-8 engines were expensive to make, as they were cast in two pieces and assembled, so they were only used in large, expensive automobiles until 1932. Henry Ford figured out how to cast a V-8 block in one piece and revolutionized the industry, yet again, by putting V-8's into popular price automobiles.


Leon Levausseur also designed and built aircraft
called Antoinette. Note the V8 engine that powers
this 1909 Antoinette, preserved in the Bourget
Museum in Paris.

...in 1823, President James Monroe proclaimed a foreign policy that became known as The Monroe Doctrine, that basically said that any European power asserting itself in the Western Hemisphere (colonization, primarily) was subject to American intervention, and conversely, the United States would stay out of European intrigue. The Doctrine was mostly the work of John Quincy Adams, who would be elected President the following year. The Doctrine was never tested until 1898 during the Spanish-American War, and it stood as the cornerstone of American diplomacy until WW I pulled the US into the European war and propelled the United States into the role of world superpower.

...in 1942, in a squash court under the football stands at the University of Chicago, Enrico Fermi produced the first nuclear chain reaction. It was a major breakthrough and ushered in the nuclear age. He sent a telegram to President Roosevelt that read, "The Italian navigator has landed in the new world." The Nobel Prize winning physicist, along with Neils Bohr and Albert Einstein, recognized the military implications of such an explosive power, and convinced President Roosevelt in the necessity of securing the power before Axis enemies did.


Enrico Fermi

...in 2001, Enron filed for bankruptcy protection in Federal Court. As the layers were peeled away, one of the largest scandals ever was revealed. The house of cards was formed with the merger of two Texas gas companies, The stock, once as high as $90.75 per share eventually closed at 26¢ per share, wiping out thousands of retirement investment funds. The architects of the fraud, Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling, were indicted on at least 35 charges of fraud. Lay died of a heart attack and Skilling was convicted on 19 of 35 counts of fraud. Skilling was sentenced to 24 years in prison.


The famous Enron sign was sold at auction for $44,000.00. Somehow, it always reminded me of this:



That's it. That's all we know as of 12:01 AM, EST.

The_Kitchen_Guy

There were no new developments in Paige's case yesterday. No news, no new developments.

In news of Candles for Paige we had 50 candles as of this post. Remember, candles go out after 48 hours so keep lighting candles for Paige, her family and her three children.

Instructions for lighting candles for Paige are in the Missing thread, in this post.

On this date in History...

...in 1984, one of the worst industrial accidents of all time took place in Bhopal, India when a Union Carbide pesticide plant leaked a cloud of methyl isocynate into the atmosphere. Approximately 1 million people lived in Bhopal at the time. 2,000 died immediately, about 600,000 were injured and at least 6,000 people have died since the cloud was dispersed. A series of mechanical problems and human error caused the leak, which remained undetected for at least an hour. When the alarm was finally went off, the damage was already done. The local government had never been apprised of toxicity of the chemicals used at the plant and there was no emergency plan in place. If people had placed a wet towel over their heads, they would have escaped the damage. The Indian government sued, Union Carbide settled in 1989 for $470 million dollars, but most citizens received just $550, far from enough to cover the medical expenses. Union Carbide shut down the plant after the disaster, although the plant is extant, reports are that it is still leaking poisonous material into the soil around Bhopal.


Arial view of Bhopal during the crisis.

...in 1967, Dr. Christiaan Barnard, at the Broote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, transplanted a heart into Lewis Washansky. The heart diseased grocer received a heart from Denise Darvall, a 25 year old woman who died in a car accident. It was the world's first human-to-human heart transplant surgery. Drugs used to supress the rejection of the heart caused him to contract double pneumonia and he died 18 days later, but the heart functioned fully until his death. As time went on, better anti-rejection drugs were developed that gives today's heart transplant recipients a much better prognosis. (Personal side note: Dr. Bernard visited Milwaukee's St. Luke's Hospital heart center in 1969, when The Old Man was recovering from open heart surgery. Dr. Bernard did comment on his case however, The Old Man was on so many drugs at the time that he never remembered the visit - but WE did!)


Christiaan Neethling Barnard (1922 – 2001)

...in 1979, the last AMC Pacer came off the assembly line. There is no inbetween with this car, people either love it or hate it. The haters deride it as one of the ugliest, and worst, cars ever made. The idea was good, but the huge greenhouse tended to make the car very warm in the Summer sun. The Pacer made the Time Magazine list of 50 Worst Cars.


I looked up "ugly" in the dictionary
and found this photo of a Pacer.

...in 1917, the Quebec Bridge opened near Quebec City. The bridge initially carried one roadway, two railroad tracks and pedestrian walkways. Today it carries three auto lanes and two rail lines. The structure is owned by the Canadian National Railway and is 3,239 feet long, 94 feet wide, and 340 feet high.


Upon construction, the Quebec Bridge became, and remains,
the longest cantilever truss bridge in the world.

...in 1989, Melissa Brannen disappeared from a Christmas party in Fairfax, Virginia. The five year old vanished without a trace, but interviews allowed police to zero in on a guest, Caleb Hughes. Detectives found him at 1:00 AM, washing his clothes, including his belt. Investigators used tape to collect hair and fibers from every surface in Hughes' car and house. Investigators were able to tie Hughes to the disappearance, and he was convicted of abduction but Melissa was never found. There is always hope, isn't there?


Melissa Brannen, as she looked when she disappeared and an age progessed to age 16.

That's it. That's all we know as of 12:01 AM, EST.

The_Kitchen_Guy

There were no new developments in Paige's case yesterday. No news, no new developments.

In news of Candles for Paige we had 28 candles as of this post. Remember, candles go out after 48 hours so keep lighting candles for Paige, her family and her three children.

Instructions for lighting candles for Paige are in the Missing thread, in this post.

On this date in History...

...in 1872, the British brig Dei Gratia spotted the American ship, Mary Celeste sailing erratically, under full sail, near the Azores Islands. The crew of the Dei Gratia boarded boarded the American ship to find a most strange circumstance. The ships stores and supplies were untouched, the cargo was still in the hold, the lifeboat and navigation instruments were gone and other than some water in the hold, everything appeared normal except that there was not a soul on board. The last entry in the captain's log had been made nine days earlier and 500 miles away. The captain and crew of the Mary Celeste were never found and the reason the crew abandoned the ship has never been found.

...in 1921, Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle learns his trial for manslaughter ended in a hung jury. Arbuckle was an up and coming comic in silent films, he discovered, and was a friend of, Buster Keaton and made films with Charlie Chaplin. He was one of the most popular comics in silent films until 1921 when he hosted a weekend party at a hotel in San Francisco. Starlet Virginia Rappe became ill at the party and died three days later of a ruptured bladder. Circumstantial evidence was used to arrest and try Arbuckle, who was accused of raping Rappe and and killing her with his excess weight. After three trials, he was acquitted but the damage was done. William Randolph Hearst's newspapers had tried and convicted Arbuckle in print before the trial started. He did direct some films under the pseudonym William B. Goodrich and even made some films in 1932 to start a comeback. The comeback was short-lived, though, as Roscoe Arbuckle died in 1933 of heart failure.


Typical Keystone Cops pose. Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle is on the far right.

...in 1915, under the spell of Hungarian author and lecturer, Rosika Schwimmer, pacifist Henry Ford chartered the Oscar II to take delegates to Europe. The delegates were going to talk to the heads of Europe to end the war. Dubbed "The Peace Ship," the idealistic attempt to sway European leaders to end the war was derided by press and diplomats alike. With Ford's sponsorship, it even became known as "The Flivver Ship." The failure of the mission has been talked about for decades with views both positive and negative. Ford himself, recognized that the Peace Ship was a failure but also recognized the publicity it generated for Ford Motor Company.

...in 1915, The Panama Pacific Exposition opened in San Francisco. It was the World's Fair and was supposedly celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal, but it was also a chance for San Francisco to show the world that it had recovered from the great earthquake of 1906. Like the White City of the Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, the buildings were all designed to be temporary, constructed of burlap and plaster. Also like the Columbian Exposition where one building is extant, one of the Pan-Pacific Exposition buildings remains.


The Palace of Fine Arts, as seen in 1919, was rebuilt in the 1960's and today houses a museum called the Exploratorium.

Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Mabel Norman starred in a Keystone film about the Exposition. It is available for your viewing here, on YouTube.

That's it. That's all we know as of 12:01 AM, EST.

The_Kitchen_Guy

There were no new developments in Paige's case yesterday. No news, no new developments.

In news of Candles for Paige we had 30 candles as of this post. Remember, candles go out after 48 hours so keep lighting candles for Paige, her family and her three children.

Instructions for lighting candles for Paige are in the Missing thread, in this post.

On this date in History...

...in 1952, Abbott & Costello jumped into television when The Abbott & Costello Show premiered on CBS. The duo started in Vaudeville on stage where they honed their act to a fine edge. They made the move to radio in the 1930's and developed a huge following. In 1940, they made the first of 36 movies together, including spoof send-ups of classic horror movies. Of these, Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein is the most popular. The television show only ran two seasons (52 episodes) but continued to run in syndication for many years. Their signiture routine, Who's On First landed in the Baseball Hall of Fame Museum in 1956, although contrary to urban myth, they are not members of the Hall of Fame and are not the first non-baseball players to ever be so honored. The routine (here's the script of it) which features misunderstandings over the unusual names of the players on the team, is still popular today and can be seen on YouTube by following this link from their 1945 film The Naughty Nineties.


Lou Costello (1906 - 1959) and
Bud Abbott (1897 - 1974)

...in 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, which repealed the 18th Amendment. Huh? The 18th Amendment prohibited the manufacture and importation of alcohol in the United States. Pennsylvania, Ohio and Utah ratified the amendment on the same day, reaching the three fourths majority of states needed to ratify an amendment. Prohibition began with temperance movements in the 19th Century, led by such notables as Carrie Nation, known for breaking up bars with a hatchet. The temperance movement grew in size and in power, and while many states banned alcohol within their borders, the temperance movement looked to Washington for federal assistance. On January 29, 1919 the 18th Amendment was ratified. (Some states still have "dry counties" and state governments regulate alcohol sales.) Congress passed the Volstead Act on October 28, 1919, overriding the veto of President Wilson, setting up enforcement of prohibition by the Treasury Department. It did little more than slow down the flow of alcohol. Organized crime saw an opportunity, and soon illicit breweries, distilleriers, distribution networks and "speakeasies" were operating across the country. The Al Capone syndicate operated with impunity in Chicago, at least, until a young treasury agent named Eliot Ness came to town. More importantly, lack of taxes on alcohol sales during prohibition cost federal, state and local treasuries millions of dollars. The unpopular law was repealed on this date in 1933 but some states continued prohibition. Mississippi became the last hold out to repeal prohibition in 1966. (Lynchburg, Tennessee is the county seat of Moore County and is home to the Jack Daniels Distillery. Moore County remains dry, and only recently has the distillery been allowed to sell whiskey to tourists with a special amendment made to the county charter.)


While you can purchase Jack Daniels
commemorative bottles at the distillery in
Lynchburg, Tennessee, you cannot consume
your purchase in "dry" Moore County,
under penalty of law.

...in 1945, Flight 19, a squadron of five US Navy Avenger torpedo-bombers, took off from Fort Lauderdale, Florida on a standard, three-hour training mission. They never returned. The leader of the patrol radioed in that he was having difficulty with his compass, other pilots reported the same problem. Eventually, the lost aircraft were forced to ditch for lack of fuel. The navy launched a Mariner seaplane to search for the downed fliers. It was never heard from again. None of the six aircraft or the remains of the 27 men on board the six aircraft were ever found. While the official navy story is that stormy seas hampered the search and rescue attempts and probably destroyed the remains, the event became the keystone in the legend of the so-called Bermuda Triangle. Christopher Columbus even reported compass problems in the area, and a similar shaped area east of the Phillipines is also referred to as The Devil's Sea. Much has been written about the Bermuda Triangle, by scientists and skeptics, and by those who believe it is an alien-built portal that allows intergalactic transportation. (This reporter belongs to neither the skeptics nor the tinfoil beanie crowd, but does enjoy the debate.)



That's it. That's all we know as of 12:01 AM, EST.

The_Kitchen_Guy

There were no new developments in Paige's case yesterday. No news, no new developments.

In news of Candles for Paige we had 61 candles as of this post. Remember, candles go out after 48 hours so keep lighting candles for Paige, her family and her three children.

Instructions for lighting candles for Paige are in the Missing thread, in this post.

On this date in History...

...in 1884, the Washington Monument was finally completed, fifty two years after it was started, and 85 years after his death. In 1783, the fledgling congress wanted to build a monument to George Washington, a statue, to commemorate his efforts in the Revolutionary War. When the architect of the new city of Washington, Pierre L'Enfant, designed the city, he left a special place for the statue. Washington died in 1799, and in 1832, a private group, headed by James Madison, began to raise funds for the memorial. They raised $230,000, far short of the $1 million needed, but they began to build the structure anyway, in 1848. The design, a classic obelisk, was chosen in a design contest. The cornerstone was a 24,500 pound block of white marble. Funding ran out about 6 years later. Mark Twain said, in 1861, that it looked like an unfinished chimney. It was not until 1876, the American centenial, that President Ulysses S. Grant declared the construction to be completed. The obelisk is constructed with about 36,000 blocks of marble and granite. It reaches 555 feet, 5-1/8 inches tall, the tallest building in the world at the time it was built. It remains the tallest structure in Washington, thanks to a special ordinace that prevents any structure in Washington from being taller than the Washington Monument.


897 steps lead to an observation platform at
the top, although today, there is also an elevator.
The Washington Monument was restored between
1996 and 2000.

...in 1955, the federal government made license plates a standard dimension. Prior to this date, states designed their own license plates and made a wide variety of sizes.


Click on the image to find what your state's plates look like.

...in 1865, the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, outlawing the institution of slavery. "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."


The 13th Amendment in
the National Archives.

That's it. That's all we know as of 12:01 AM, EST.

The_Kitchen_Guy

There were no new developments in Paige's case yesterday. No news, no new developments.

In news of Candles for Paige we had 63 candles as of this post. Remember, candles go out after 48 hours so keep lighting candles for Paige, her family and her three children.

Instructions for lighting candles for Paige are in the Missing thread, in this post.

On this date in History...

...in 1787, 37 of 55 delegates to the Delaware Constitutional Convention voted to ratify the new Constitution of the United States, making Delaware the first state of the new union. The new, stronger document replaced the Articles of Confederation that had served the original 13 colonies as the first federal government. On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution, making federal democracy the official government of the new United States of America.

...in 1931, according to some sources, the last Model A Ford was produced, so the factories could retool for the introduction of the V8 on April 1, 1932. As a Model A enthusiast and your unofficial historian of the Model A, this reporter knows this is not entirely true. Henry Ford had learned his lesson about the complete shutdown of his factories when no cars were produced between the time the Model T ceased production in May of 1927 and the introduction of the Model A in December of of 1927. Model A's continued to be built in some locations, mostly what were called "commercial" vehicles (trucks and station wagons) but certain passenger cars were also produced well into 1932, assuring sales for Ford Motor Company and its dealers...

...and in 1956, Chevrolet produced its 3,000,000th car for the year, the first time Chevrolet had produced over 3 million vehicles. (We're an equal opportunity car reporter.)


The 1931 Victoria was considered (by some) to be one of the most beautiful
Model A Fords. The slant windshield, inside sun visor and the "bustle" rear panel
was a harbinger of automotive styling of the mid 1930's.


The 1956 Chevrolet was the first Chevy to go over
3,000,000 production in one year. The 1957 Chevrolet is
one of the most fondly remembered American cars of the
era, but ironically, Ford outsold Chevrolet in 1956 and 1957.


...in 1941,movies theaters reported a drop of more than 50% in attendance on this date, because most Americans were in shock over...

...in 1941, the Japanese fleet launched a massive aerial attack from aircraft carriers against the American forces stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Within minutes, five of eight battleships at Pearl Harbor were sunk or sinking. Several other ships and most Hawaii-based combat planes were also knocked out.

Towards the end of 1941, the world was at war while the United States was at peace. Slowly, Americans were being drawn into the European war by sending materiel to England on the Lend/Lease program, but American merchant marine vessels were being attacked by German U-boats. American neutrality was in serious jeopardy.

The Japanese, meanwhile, were embroiled in a seemingly endless war in China. Japan's lack of natural resources was a problem and when Western powers cut off all trade with Japan in July of 1941, the Japanese war machine, desperate for materiel, made plans to seize the rich resources of southeast Asia.

War in the Pacific was inevitable. President Roosevelt had moved most of the US Navy fleet to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to act as a deterrent to the Imperial forces. The Japanese command saw the US Navy as the only roadblock to their Imperial ambitions. President Roosevelt and the American military leaders had knowledge that a Japanese attack on American forces was likely, and inevitable, but intelligence sources were sure the attack would come in the Philippines. An attack on Pearl Harbor was such an outrageously bold plan that no one believed an attack would occur there.


Over 2400 Americans died in the attack. Captain Franklin van Valkenburgh ran to the bridge of his ship, the USS Arizona, minutes before the ship exploded under fire. There were three men on the bridge including an ensign and quartermaster. Van Valeknburgh directed the defense of his ship from the bridge until a violent explosion tossed the three men to the deck. The ensign survived but the other two men were never seen again. Nothing of his remains were ever found, except for his Naval Academy class ring, which was later found in the wreckage.

He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest military honor bestowed by the United States.

Nearly 1.5 million gallons of fuel went down with the USS Arizona. To this day, about two quarts bubble to the surface daily which survivors refer to as "black tears." Estimates are that about 500,000 gallons remain, guaranteeing that the black tears will continue for decades.

The best piece of luck for the Americans, which spelled the eventual doom for Imperial Japanese aspirations, was that the American aircraft carriers were at sea on maneuvers. Had the carriers been in Pearl Harbor, the war might have been, at best, prolonged or at worst, lost.

It's been almost 70 years since the attack that rallied Americans into a united cause and much has changed in the world. Please, take a moment and remember the Americans who perished on this date in 1941.


That's it. That's all we know as of 12:01 AM, EST.

The_Kitchen_Guy

There were no new developments in Paige's case yesterday. No news, no new developments.

In news of Candles for Paige we had 54 candles as of this post. Remember, candles go out after 48 hours so keep lighting candles for Paige, her family and her three children.

Instructions for lighting candles for Paige are in the Missing thread, in this post.

On this date in History...

...in 1940, the Chicago Bears beat the Washington Redskins in the NFL Championship game. (The season was considerably shorter back then!) The final score was 73-0, the largest defeat in NFL history. In a regular season game, the Redskins had beaten the Bears by a margin of 7-3 when Redskins coach, George Prestin Marshall, called the Bears "Quitters" and "Crybabies." Papa Bear George Hallas used the phrases to motivate his team, running out the season to earn the chance to play the Redskins for the championship. The game got out of hand in the second half, and officials asked the Bears to stop kicking extra points because they were running out of footballs. After the outbreak of WWII, many NFL coaches and players, including George Hallas himself, enlisted. In 1946, after the war and everyone returned, the Bears won their fourth championship in seven years. With the exception of 1963 and 1985, the Bears haven't done much since.


Sid Luckman led the Bears offensive
attack in the 1940s. He ushered in the
modern era of pro football by quarterbacking
the first use of the T formation. A member of
the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Luckman is
considered to be one of the best quarterbacks
to ever play the game. (Photo courtesy of the
Chicago Bears.)

...in 1945, after the surrender of Japan, the occupation government allowed Toyota Motor Company to again start building busses and trucks, vehicles needed to get Japan's economy moving again.


Toyota reopened and used American production
assistance to learn a new way to produce vehicles. The
first Toyota sold in the US came in 1958 to little
fanfare. When the OPEC oil embargo struck in 1973,
Toyota became a major player in the US market and
today, Toyota is the largest automobile manufacturer in
the world.

...in 1980, singer, songwriter and Beatle, John Lennon, was shot and killed ouside of The Dakota apartment building in New York City by Mark David Chapman. Chapman was enamored with Holden Caulfield, the weird hero of J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. (Not to be confused with Bob Uecker's Catcher in the Wry.) Caulfield was also obsessed with certain celebrities and was convinced that John Lennon was a phony and plotted a murder plan. He shot Lennon in the back, then fired two shots into his shoulder while he was wreathing in pain. Chapman pled guilty and is serving 20-to-life in Attica Prison in New York. (Ironically, Lennon once wrote a song about a riot at Attica, which called for the freeing of prisoners everywhere.)


The entrance to The Dakota apartment
building, where Lennon died at the hand of
a gunman.

...in 1894, James Thurber was born in Columbus, Ohio. An accident as a child took one of his eyes, and he was a shy and retiring youth. (He lost his eye from an arrow shot by his brother, so listen to your mother.) While at Ohio State University, Thurber discovered writing, and he served the army as an cryptologist. In 1926, he moved to New York and landed a job with a new magazine called The New Yorker where he met E.B. White of Charlotte's Web fame. Thurber wrote delightfully humorous short stories and essays, such as The Unicorn In The Garden, The Scotty Who Knew Too Much and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, for which he is best remembered.


James Thurber (1894 - 1961)
"You could look it up."


...in 1941, President Roosevelt went before Congress to ask for a declaration of war against Japan. It began, "Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." (You can listen to the speech here.) While not one of the most stirring Presidential addresses in history, it was certainly one of the most important.


President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs the Declaration of War against Japan, December 8, 1941.
--Photo by the National Archives

That's it. That's all we know as of 12:01 AM, EST.