Selected events, births and deaths in history for October 23rd:
Events 4004 BCE - According to 17th century divine James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, and Dr. John Lightfoot of Cambridge, the world was created on this day, a Sunday, at 9 a.m. 1694 - American colonial forces led by Sir William Phips, fail in their attempt to seize Quebec. 1707 - The first Parliament of Great Britain meets. 1739 - War of Jenkins' Ear starts: British Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, reluctantly declares war on Spain. 1855 - Kansas Free State forces set up a competing government under their Topeka, Kansas constitution, which outlaws slavery in the United States territory. 1861 - President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus in Washington, D.C. for all military-related cases. 1915 - In New York City, 25,000-33,000 women march up Fifth Avenue to demand the right to vote. 1929 - After a steady decline in stock market prices since a peak in September, the New York Stock Exchange begins to show signs of panic. 1929 - The first transcontinental air service begins from New York to Los Angeles. 1930 - The first miniature golf tournament finished in Chattanooga, TN. 1935 - Dutch Schultz, Abe Landau, Otto Berman, and Bernard "Lulu" Rosenkrantz are fatally shot in a bar in Newark in what will become known as The Chophouse Massacre 1942 - Britain launched a major offensive against Axis forces at El Alamein in Egypt during World War II. 1942 - "Native Son", a play based on Richard Wright's book, opens on Broadway, directed by Orson Welles 1944 - The largest naval battle in history begins in Leyte Gulf, in the Philippines 1946 - The United Nations General Assembly convened in New York for the first time, at an auditorium in Flushing Meadow. 1956 - Thousands of Hungarians protest Soviet influence and occupation in their nation. 1958 - Russian poet and novelist Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. 1971 - Walt Disney World opens in Orlando, Florida. 1972 - Stephen Schwartz' musical "Pippin" opens on Broadway 1973 - President Richard M. Nixon agrees to turn over subpoenaed audio tapes of his Oval Office conversations about the Watergate scandal. 1973 - A U.N. sanctioned cease-fire officially ends the Yom Kippur war between Israel and Syria. 1976 - President Jimmy Carter, in a Playboy magazine interview, states that "I've looked on many women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times. God knows I will do this and forgives me." 1983 - Lebanon Civil War: U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut hit by truck bomb, killing 241 US Servicemen. 1983 - Two million people march in Western European capital cities demonstrating against the deployment of 'Cruise' and 'Pershing' missiles 1987 - The U.S. Senate rejected the Supreme Court nomination of Robert H. Bork on a 58-42 vote. 1996 - The civil trial of former American football player O.J. Simpson opens in Santa Monica, California. 1998 - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat reach a "land-for-peace" agreement. 1998 - In Amherst, New York, abortion doctor Barnett Slepian is killed by a sniper in his home. 2001 - The Provisional Irish Republican Army of Northern Ireland commences disarmament after peace talks encouraged by American President Bill Clinton. 2002 - Chechen rebels seize the House of Culture theater in Moscow and take approximately 700 theatergoers hostage. 2004 - A powerful earthquake and aftershocks hit Niigata, Japan, killing 35, injuring 2,200, and leaving 85,000 homeless or evacuated.
Births 1805 - John Bartlett, lexicographer best known for Bartlett's Quotations. (d.1905) 1835 - Adlai E. Stevenson, Vice President of the United States (d. 1914) 1844 - Robert Bridges, English poet (d. 1930) 1844 - Sarah Bernhardt, French actress. (d. 1923) 1869 - John Heisman, American college football coach for whom the Heisman Trophy is named. (d. 1936) 1892 - Gummo Marx, the lost Marx Brother (d. 1977) 1905 - Felix Bloch, Swiss-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1983) 1920 - Frank Rizzo, American politician, mayor of Philadelphia 1923 - Frank Sutton, actor (Sgt. Carter on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C) 1923 - Ned Rorem, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer 1925 - Johnny Carson, television host (d. 2005) 1931 - Jim Bunning, baseball player and conservative U.S. Senator 1931 - Diana Dors, the "English Marilyn Monroe" 1936 - Philip Kaufman, film director (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) 1940 - Baby Jane Holzer, actress 1940 - Pelé, Brazilian footballer 1940 - Ellie Greenwich, songwriter (Be My Baby, Chapel of Love, Da Do Ron Ron, Then He Kissed Me, River Deep, Mountain High) 1942 - Michael Crichton, nutcase American writer 1949 - Nick Tosches, American writer 1951 - Michael Rupert, performer and composer 1954 - Ang Lee, Taiwanese-born director and producer 1954 - Ed Fitzgerald, obscure American blogger and theatrical stage manager 1955 - Graeme Revell, composer 1956 - Dwight Yoakam, American singer, songwriter, and actor 1959 - "Weird Al" Yankovic, American musical parodist 1959 - Sam Raimi, American film director and producer 1959 - Nancy Grace, former prosecutor, now TV loudmouth 1962 - Doug Flutie, American football player 1965 - Al Leiter, American baseball player (Mets, Yankees) 1970 - Linzi Hateley, played "Carrie" in the noted Broadway musical flop
Deaths 42 BCE - Marcus Junius Brutus, a leading conspirator in the assassination of Julius Caesar, commits suicide after his defeat at the second battle of Philippi. 1939 - Zane Grey, author of Westerns (b. 1872) 1944 - Charles Glover Barkla, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1877) 1950 - Al Jolson, American singer and actor (b. 1886) 1983 - Jessica Savitch, American journalist (b. 1947) 1984 - Oskar Werner, Austrian-born actor (b. 1922) 1996 - Diana Trilling, NY intellectual, wife of Lionel Trilling (b. 1905) 2002 - Adolph Green, songwriter, partner of Betty Comden (b. 1914) 2003 - Madame Chiang Kai-shek, widow of the Chinese nationalist leader, died in New York at age 105. 2004 - Robert Merrill, American baritone, frequent singer of the "Star Spangled Banner" at Yankee Stadium (b. 1919)
absolutist
aggresive
anti-Constitutional
anti-intellectual
arrogant
authoritarian
blame-placers
blameworthy
blinkered
buckpassers
calculating
class warriors
clueless
compassionless
con artists
conniving
conscienceless
conspiratorial
corrupt
craven
criminal
crooked
culpable
damaging
dangerous
deadly
debased
deceitful
delusional
despotic
destructive
devious
disconnected
dishonorable
dishonest
disingenuous
disrespectful
dogmatic
doomed
fanatical
fantasists
felonious
hateful
heinous
hostile to science
hypocritical
ideologues
ignorant
immoral
incompetent
indifferent
inflexible
insensitive
insincere
irrational
isolated
kleptocratic
lacking in empathy
lacking in public spirit
liars
mendacious
misleading
mistrustful
non-rational
not candid
not "reality-based"
not trustworthy
oblivious
oligarchic
opportunistic
out of control
pernicious
perverse
philistine
plutocratic
prevaricating
propagandists
rapacious
relentless
reprehensible
rigid
scandalous
schemers
selfish
secretive
shameless
sleazy
tricky
unAmerican
uncaring
uncivil
uncompromising
unconstitutional
undemocratic
unethical
unpopular
unprincipled
unrealistic
unreliable
unrepresentative
unscientific
unscrupulous
unsympathetic
venal
vile
virtueless
warmongers
wicked
without integrity
wrong-headed
Thanks to: Breeze, Chuck, Ivan Raikov, Kaiju, Kathy, Roger, Shirley, S.M. Dixon
recently seen
i've got a little list...
Elliott Abrams
Steven Abrams (Kansas BofE)
David Addington
Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson
Roger Ailes (FNC)
John Ashcroft
Bob Bennett
William Bennett
Joe Biden
John Bolton
Alan Bonsell (Dover BofE)
Pat Buchanan
Bill Buckingham (Dover BofE)
George W. Bush
Saxby Chambliss
Bruce Chapman (DI)
Dick Cheney
Lynne Cheney
Richard Cohen
The Coors Family
Ann Coulter
Michael Crichton
Lanny Davis
Tom DeLay
William A. Dembski
James Dobson
Leonard Downie (WaPo)
Dinesh D’Souza
Gregg Easterbrook
Jerry Falwell
Douglas Feith
Arthur Finkelstein
Bill Frist
George Gilder
Newt Gingrich
John Gibson (FNC)
Alberto Gonzalez
Rudolph Giuliani
Sean Hannity
Katherine Harris
Fred Hiatt (WaPo)
Christopher Hitchens
David Horowitz
Don Imus
James F. Inhofe
Jesse Jackson
Philip E. Johnson
Daryn Kagan
Joe Klein
Phil Kline
Ron Klink
William Kristol
Ken Lay
Joe Lieberman
Rush Limbaugh
Trent Lott
Frank Luntz
"American Fundamentalists"
by Joel Pelletier
(click on image for more info)
Chris Matthews
Mitch McConnell
Stephen C. Meyer (DI)
Judith Miller (ex-NYT)
Zell Miller
Tom Monaghan
Sun Myung Moon
Roy Moore
Dick Morris
Rupert Murdoch
Ralph Nader
John Negroponte
Grover Norquist
Robert Novak
Ted Olson
Elspeth Reeve (TNR)
Bill O'Reilly
Martin Peretz (TNR)
Richard Perle
Ramesh Ponnuru
Ralph Reed
Pat Robertson
Karl Rove
Tim Russert
Rick Santorum
Richard Mellon Scaife
Antonin Scalia
Joe Scarborough
Susan Schmidt (WaPo)
Bill Schneider
Al Sharpton
Ron Silver
John Solomon (WaPo)
Margaret Spellings
Kenneth Starr
Randall Terry
Clarence Thomas
Richard Thompson (TMLC)
Donald Trump
Richard Viguere
Donald Wildmon
Paul Wolfowitz
Bob Woodward (WaPo)
John Yoo
guest-blogging
All the fine sites I've
guest-blogged for:
Be sure to visit them all!!
recent listening
influences
John Adams
Laurie Anderson
Aphex Twin
Isaac Asimov
Fred Astaire
J.G. Ballard
The Beatles
Busby Berkeley
John Cage
"Catch-22"
Raymond Chandler
Arthur C. Clarke
Elvis Costello
Richard Dawkins
Daniel C. Dennett
Philip K. Dick
Kevin Drum
Brian Eno
Fela
Firesign Theatre
Eliot Gelwan
William Gibson
Philip Glass
David Gordon
Stephen Jay Gould
Dashiell Hammett
"The Harder They Come"
Robert Heinlein
Joseph Heller
Frank Herbert
Douglas Hofstadter
Bill James
Gene Kelly
Stanley Kubrick
Jefferson Airplane
Ursula K. LeGuin
The Marx Brothers
John McPhee
Harry Partch
Michael C. Penta
Monty Python
Orbital
Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
"The Prisoner"
"The Red Shoes"
Steve Reich
Terry Riley
Oliver Sacks
Erik Satie
"Singin' in the Rain"
Stephen Sondheim
The Specials
Morton Subotnick
Talking Heads/David Byrne
Tangerine Dream
Hunter S. Thompson
J.R.R. Tolkien
"2001: A Space Odyssey"
Kurt Vonnegut
Yes
Bullshit, trolling, unthinking knee-jerk dogmatism and the drivel of idiots will be ruthlessly deleted and the posters banned.
Entertaining, interesting, intelligent, informed and informative comments will always be welcome, even when I disagree with them.
I am the sole judge of which of these qualities pertains.
E-mail
All e-mail received is subject to being published on unfutz without identifying names or addresses.
Corrections
I correct typos and other simple errors of grammar, syntax, style and presentation in my posts after the fact without necessarily posting notification of the change.
Substantive textual changes, especially reversals or major corrections, will be noted in an "Update" or a footnote.
Also, illustrations may be added to entries after their initial publication.
the story so far
unfutz: toiling in almost complete obscurity for almost 1500 days
If you read unfutz at least once a week, without fail, your teeth will be whiter and your love life more satisfying.
If you read it daily, I will come to your house, kiss you on the forehead, bathe your feet, and cook pancakes for you, with yummy syrup and everything.
(You might want to keep a watch on me, though, just to avoid the syrup ending up on your feet and the pancakes on your forehead.)
Finally, on a more mundane level, since I don't believe that anyone actually reads this stuff, I make this offer: I'll give five bucks to the first person who contacts me and asks for it -- and, believe me, right now five bucks might as well be five hundred, so this is no trivial offer.
