Columbus Day

BORN
Between August 25th and October 31st, 1435 to 1460. 1451 is the most frequently given date.

BIRTHPLACE
Columbus said Genoa, Italy. Other candidates -- Chios, which is now Greek but was a Genoese colony where Columbus is a common surname. Also, Majorca (Spanish Balearic Islands), Galicia, and other places in Spain.

MARITAL STATUS
Married Doña Felipa Perestrello e Moniz, 1479

CHILDREN
Diego, born to Doña Felipa, 1480, Madeira Islands. Fernando, born to Beatriz, 1488.

WIDOWER
Doña Felipa died between 1481 and 1485.

SIGNIFICANT OTHER
Beatriz Enríquez de Arana, after 1485.

DIED
May 20, 1506, Valladolid, Spain, age-related.

BURIED
Leading candidates: Sevilla, Spain; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; or Havana, Cuba.

IMPORTANT RELATIVES
Bartolemé Colón (older or younger, brother or uncle).

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Blonde hair (white after age 30), blue eyes, exceptionally keen sense of smell, excellent eyesight, perfect hearing. Perfect physical condition in 1492. Moderate in drink, food, and dress; never swore.

RELIGION
Catholic. Jewish background on one side of his family. Left son Diego at Franciscan friary, la Rabida, in 1481, retrieved him in 1491.

EXPERIENCE
Went to sea at age 14. May have been involved in naval engagement between Franco-Portuguese and Genoese Fleets in 1476. Made at least one voyage to England, possibly one to Iceland. Made four voyages to the New World: 1) September 8, 1492 to March 3, 1493; 2) October 7-10, 1493 to June 11, 1496; 3) May 30, 1498 to August 31, 1498 (Santo Domingo, see below for return to Spain); and 4) May 9, 1502 to November 7, 1504 [marooned in Jamaica -- June 25, 1503 to March 7, 1504].

CRIMINAL RECORD
Arrested in Santo Domingo August 23, 1500. Sent to Spain in chains in October 1500. Released December 12, 1500 and summoned to court.

In Honor of Veteran's Day

Submitted by Kevin K.

Today in History

Today is Veterans Day.
An annual American holiday honoring military veterans.







1918 - World War I ends: Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside of Compiègne in France. The war officially stops at 11:00 (The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month).
1921 - The Tomb of the Unknowns is dedicated by US President Warren G. Harding at Arlington National Cemetery.
1966 - NASA launches spaceship Gemini 12

Born this Day:
1885 - George Smith Patton, Jr., American general (d. 1945)
1899 - Pat O'Brien, American film actor (d. 1983)
1918 - Stubby Kaye, American comic actor (d. 1997)
1922 - Kurt Vonnegut, American novelist (d. 2007)
1925 - Jonathan Winters, American comedian and actor
1939 - Denise Alexander, American actress
1940 - Barbara Boxer, American politician
1951 - Kim Peek, American megasavant
1960 - Chuck Hernandez, Pitching coach for the Detroit Tigers
1962 - Demi Moore, American actress
1964 - Calista Flockhart, American actress
1968 - David L Cook, American singer and comedian
1973 - Jason White, American musician (Green Day)
1974 - Leonardo DiCaprio, American actor
1976 - Jason Grilli, American baseball player
1980 - Willie Parker, American football player
1983 - Matt Garza, American baseball player
1984 - Hilton Armstrong, American basketball player
1988 - Alexandra Kyle, American actress
1991 - Christa B. Allen, American actress
1992 - Trey Smith, American actor (son of Will Smith)

Today in History

1940 - Walt Disney begins serving as an informer for the Los Angeles office of the FBI; his job is to report back information on Hollywood subversives.
1951 - Direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the United States.
1954 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicates the USMC War Memorial (Iwo Jima memorial) in Arlington National Cemetery.
1958 - The Hope Diamond was donated to the Smithsonian Institution by New York diamond merchant Harry Winston.
1969 - National Educational Television (the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting Service) in the United States debuts the children's television program Sesame Street.

Born this day:
1871 - Winston Churchill, American novelist (d. 1947)
1889 - Claude Rains, English actor (d. 1967)
1924 - Russell Johnson, American actor (The Professor-Gilligan's Island)
1925 - Richard Burton, Welsh actor (d. 1984)
1932 - Roy Scheider, American actor (d. 2008)
1947 - Dave Loggins, American songwriter and singer
1956 - Sinbad, American actor
1959 - Mackenzie Phillips, American actress
1977 - Brittany Murphy, American actress
1978 - Eve, American rapper

The United States Marine Corps traces its institutional roots to the Continental Marines of the American Revolutionary War, formed at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, by a resolution of the Second Continental Congress on November 10, 1775, to raise 2 battalions of Marines. That date is regarded and celebrated as the date of the Marine Corps' "birthday".

Today in History

1872 - The Great Boston Fire of 1872.
1887 - The United States receives rights to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
1888 - Jack the Ripper kills Mary Jane Kelly, his last known victim.
1990 - Mary Robinson is elected Ireland's first female President and the first from the Labour Party.
2005 - Suicide bombers attacked three hotels in Amman, Jordan, killing at least 60 people.

Born today:
1934 - Carl Sagan, American astronomer and writer (d. 1996)
1941 - Tom Fogerty, American musician (Creedence Clearwater Revival) (d. 1990) )
1947 - Robert David Hall, American actor (CSI)
1951 - Lou Ferrigno, American bodybuilder
1973 - Nick Lachey, American singer
1974 - Uncle Kracker, American singer and rapper
1978 - Sisqó, American singer (Dru Hill)
1980 - Vanessa Minillo, Filipino television personality
1988 - Nikki Blonsky, American actress

Song of the Day - November 7th, 1968

"Hey Jude" was released in August 1968 as the first single from The Beatles' record label Apple Records. Over seven minutes in length, "Hey Jude" was at the time the longest single ever to top the British charts. It also spent nine weeks as number one in the United States—the longest run at the top of the American charts for a Beatles single. The single has sold approximately eight million copies and is frequently included on professional lists of the all-time best songs.

The song was Number 1 forty years ago today.

Today in History

1665 - The London Gazette, the oldest surviving journal, is first published.
1786 - The oldest musical organization in the United States is founded as the Stoughton Musical Society.
1874 - A cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly, is considered the first important use of an elephant as a symbol for the United States Republican Party.
1893 - Women in the U.S. state of Colorado are granted the right to vote.
1907 - Delta Sigma Pi is founded at New York University.
1916 - Jeannette Rankin is the first woman elected to the United States Congress.
1929 - In New York City, the Museum of Modern Art opens to the public.
1933 - Fiorello H. La Guardia is elected the 99th mayor of New York City.
1967 - Carl B. Stokes is elected as Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, becoming the first African American mayor of a major American city.
1973 - The U.S. Congress overrides President Richard M. Nixon's veto of the War Powers Resolution, which limits presidential power to wage war without congressional approval.
1983 - 1983 United States Senate bombing: a bomb explodes inside the U.S. Capitol Building.
1990 - Mary Robinson becomes the first woman to be elected President of the Republic of Ireland.
1991 - Magic Johnson announces that he is infected with HIV and retires from the NBA.
2000 - Hillary Rodham Clinton is elected to the United States Senate, becoming the first former First Lady to win public office in the United States, although actually she still was the First Lady.
2000 - Controversial US presidential election that was later resolved in the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court Case.
2000 - The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration discovers one of the country's largest LSD labs inside a converted military missile silo in Wamego, Kansas.
2002 - Iran bans advertising of United States products.
2007 - Jokela school shooting in Tuusula, Finland, resulting in the death of nine people.

Births:
1918 - Billy Graham, American evangelist
1922 - Al Hirt, American trumpeter (d. 1999)
1938 - Dee Clark, American singer (d. 1990)
1942 - Johnny Rivers, American singer and composer
1942 - Jean Shrimpton, British supermodel and actress
1943 - Joni Mitchell, Canadian musician
1944 - Ken Patera, American professional wrestler
1949 - Judy Tenuta, American comedian
1952 - David Petraeus, American military commander
1957 - Christopher Knight, American actor (Peter Brady)
1959 - Billy Gillispie, American basketball coach
1960 - Tommy Thayer, American guitarist (Kiss)
1970 - Andy Houston, American NASCAR driver
1974 - Kris Benson, American baseball player
1976 - One Be Lo, hip-hop artist
1979 - Will Demps, American football player
1979 - Joey Ryan, American professional wrestler
1979 - Jon Peter Lewis, American singer
1979 - Mike Commodore, American professional hockey player
1981 - Muhammad Hassan, professional wrestler

Today in History

1913 - Mohandas Gandhi is arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.
1947 - Meet The Press makes its television debut (the show went to a weekly schedule on September 12, 1948).

Born this day:
1946 - Sally Field, American actress
1955 - Maria Shriver, American journalist
1968 - Kelly Rutherford, American actress (Gossip Girl)
1970 - Ethan Hawke, American actor

Bobby Lee Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers died this day in Kalamazoo, Michigan at the age of 63. In January 2004, a toxicology report concluded that an overdose of cocaine had precipitated a fatal heart attack.

Bobby Hatfield - Unchained Melody

Today in History

1872 - Women's suffrage: In defiance of the law, suffragist Susan B. Anthony votes for the first time, and is later fined $100.
1940 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected to a third term as President of The United States of America.
2006 - Saddam Hussein, former president of Iraq, and his co-defendants Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed al-Bandar are sentenced to death in the al-Dujail trial for the role in the massacre of the 148 Shi'as in 1982.

Born Today:
1911 - Roy Rogers, American actor (d. 1998)
1941 - Art Garfunkel, American musician
1959 - Bryan Adams, Canadian musician
1963 - Tatum O'Neal, American actress
1973 - Johnny Damon, American baseball player
1974 - Jerry Stackhouse, American basketball player
1987 - Kevin Jonas, American guitarist, member of the Jonas Brothers

Today in History

1921 - Italian unknown soldier is buried in the Altare della Patria (Fatherland Altar) in Rome.
1924 - Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming is elected as the first female governor in the United States.
1952 - The United States government establishes the National Security Agency.
1970 - Genie, a 13 year old feral child was found in Los Angeles, California having been locked in her bedroom for most of her life.
1973 - The Netherlands experiences the first Car Free Sunday caused by the 1973 oil crisis. Highways are deserted and are solely used by cyclists and roller skaters.
1979 - Iran hostage crisis begins: Iranian people, mostly students, invade the United States embassy in Tehran and take 90 hostages (53 of whom are American).
2004 - President Bush declares November "National Hospice Month"

Born today:
1879 - Will Rogers, American humorist (d. 1935)
1916 - Walter Cronkite, American news broadcaster
1918 - Art Carney, American actor (d. 2003)
1930 - Doris Roberts, American actress
1937 - Loretta Swit, American actress
1946 - Laura Bush, First Lady of the United States
1961 - Ralph Macchio, American actor
1969 - Sean "Diddy" Combs, American rapper
1969 - Matthew McConaughey, American actor
1981 - Vince Wilfork, American football player (Patriots)

Deaths:
In the fall of 1981, after completing work on Poltergeist, Dominique Dunne met and later moved in with a popular Los Angeles chef, John Thomas Sweeney, who was working at the restaurant Ma Maison. After a short and abusive relationship, Dunne ended her relationship with Sweeney. A few weeks later, Sweeney strangled Dunne in the driveway of her home after she refused to reconcile with him. She died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California a few days later on November 4, 1982, at the age of 22.

Dominique's father, Dominick, later wrote an article for Vanity Fare titled: Justice: A father’s account of the trial of his daughter’s killer.

Today in History

1913 - The United States introduces an income tax.

1957 - Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter orbit: a dog named Laika.

1964 - Washington D.C. residents are able to vote in a presidential election for the first time.

1979 - Greensboro massacre: Five members of the Communist Workers Party are shot dead and seven are wounded by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis during a "Death to the Klan" rally.



Born Today: 1933 - Michael Dukakis, American politician; 1949 - Larry Holmes, American boxer; 1952 - Roseanne Barr, American actress and comedian;. 1953 - Kate Capshaw, American actress; 1953 - Dennis Miller, American comedian

Today in History

Today is "All Souls Day".

In 1947, Howard Hughes piloted his huge wooden flying boat, the Hughes H-4 Hercules (dubbed the "Spruce Goose" by detractors), on its only flight, which lasted about a minute over Long Beach Harbor in California.

In 1976, former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter became the first candidate from the Deep South since the Civil War to be elected president as he defeated incumbent Gerald R. Ford.

In 1983, President Reagan signed a bill establishing a federal holiday on the third Monday of January in honor of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

In 1988 - The Morris worm, the first internet-distributed computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention, is launched from MIT.

Today in History

1926 – Magician Harry Houdini dies of gangrene and peritonitis that developed after his appendix ruptured.

Harry Houdini died of peritonitis secondary to a ruptured appendix. It has been speculated that Houdini was killed by a McGill University student, J. Gordon Whitehead, in Montreal. Houdini died of a ruptured appendix, caused by Whitehead delivering multiple blows to Houdini's abdomen.

Eyewitnesses were students named Jacques Price and Sam Smilovitz (sometimes called Jack Price and Sam Smiley). Their account of what happened generally agreed. The following is according to Price's description of the events. Houdini was reclining on his couch after his performance, having an art student sketch him. When Whitehead came in and asked if it was true that Houdini could take any blow to the stomach, Houdini replied in the affirmative. In this instance, he was hit three times, before Houdini protested. Whitehead reportedly continued hitting Houdini several times afterwards, and Houdini acted as though he were in some pain. Price recounted that Houdini stated that if he had had time to prepare himself properly, he would have been in a better position to take the blows. Although in serious pain, Houdini nonetheless continued to travel without seeking medical attention. Harry had apparently been suffering from appendicitis for several days and refusing medical treatment. His appendix would likely have burst on its own without the trauma.

When Houdini arrived at the Garrick Theater in Detroit, Michigan, on October 24, 1926, for what would be his last performance, he had a fever of 104 degrees F (40°C). Despite a diagnosis of acute appendicitis, Houdini took the stage. He was reported to have passed out during the show, but was revived and continued. Afterwards, he was hospitalized at Detroit's Grace Hospital.[29] Houdini died of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix at 1:26 p.m. in Room 401 on October 31 (Halloween), 1926, at the age of 52.

1967 - Robert Matthew Van Winkle, best known as Vanilla Ice, is an American rapper known for the 1990 smash hit "Ice Ice Baby."

Today in History

On Oct. 30, 1938, the radio play "The War of the Worlds," starring Orson Welles, aired on CBS. (The live drama, which employed fake breaking news reports, panicked some listeners who thought the portrayal of a Martian invasion was real. (More History & Birthdays)



In 1974, the Rumble in the Jungle boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman takes place in Kinshasa, Zaire.





And under the subject of "Do I Feel Old": Grace Slick, lead singer of Jefferson Airplane and solo artist, is 69 today.

Today in History

On Oct. 29, 1929, "Black Tuesday" descended upon the New York Stock Exchange. Prices collapsed amid panic selling and thousands of investors were wiped out as America's Great Depression began.