1889 – Almon B. Strowger received a patent for the automatic telephone system, which was installed in Laporte, IN, in 1892.
1930 – Mohandas Gandhi began a defiant march to the sea in protest of the British monopoly on salt, in his first public act of civil disobedience.
1933 – Eight days after he was inaugurated, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented his first presidential address to the nation, more commonly called Fireside Chats.
1935 – Parimutuel betting became a reality as Nebraska legalized horse race bets.
1947 – President Harry S. Truman asked for U.S. assistance to prevent Greece and Turkey from falling to communist domination in what became known as the “Truman Doctrine.”
1951 – The comic strip, Dennis the Menace, appeared for the first time in 16 newspapers across the U.S.
1966 – Bobby Hull of the Chicago Blackhawks became the first player in the National Hockey League to score 51 points in a single season.
Looks like he’s having a tough time getting sweetness to stay interested. I just don’t understand why most southern conservative Republicans don’t like Romney. He’s tall, handsome, wealthy and – most importantly – a full-blooded Caucasian (even if though his daddy was born in México). Oh wait! How silly of me to forget! He’s a Mormon! Damn – just when they thought he was perfect!
“I feel it’s okay because I have no income and I have bills to pay. I have two houses.”
– Lincoln Park, MI resident Amanda Clayton explaining the $200 a month in food stamps she continued to collect after winning a $1 million state lottery jackpot.
Fortunately, officials ended up her benefits after this bit of news became public. Regardless, this just feeds the myth of the “welfare queen” Ronald Reagan created nearly 30 years ago, as both a reference to the need for smaller government and as code word for lazy Negroes and Indians. But still, two houses?!
Survivalist Tip: You’ll need some gauze bandages in your arsenal of supplies. There’s nothing fancy about them; they’re simple and easy to use and even re-use – after washing of course. Gauze bandages can be utilized for everything from severe cuts (such as the type you’d get when carving up wild game) to sprains (such as the type you’d get when beating the crap out of someone trying to steal your wild game). Along with your cache of iodine, bottled water, chocolate and Xanax, gauze bandages will help you handle a minor injury, as chaos reigns around you.
1779 – Congress established the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help plan, design and prepare environmental and structural facilities for the U.S. Army.
1791 – Samuel Mulliken of Philadelphia, PA became the first person to receive more than one patent from the U.S. Patent Office. Four patents were issued for his machines: (1) to thresh corn and grain, (2) to break and swingle hemp, (3) to cut polished marble, and (4) to raise the nap on cloths.
1861 – In Montgomery, Alabama, delegates from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas adopted the Permanent Constitution of the Confederate States of America.
1888 – The “Great Blizzard of 1888” started to roar along the Atlantic Seaboard of the U.S., shutting down communication and transportation lines. The storm continued for three days.
1927 – Samuel Roxy Rothafel opened the famous Roxy Theatre in New York City. Boasting an 18-feet by 22-feet screen and 6,200 seats, it cost $10,000,000 to build. Its first feature film was The Loves of Sunya, starring Gloria Swanson and John Boles.
1948 – Reginald Weir of New York City became the first black tennis player to participate in a U.S. Indoor Lawn Tennis Association tournament.
1964 – Arizona Senator Carl Hayden broke the record for continuous service in the U.S. Senate, completing 37 years and 7 days in the upper chamber.
1968 – Otis Redding posthumously received a gold record for the single (Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay. Redding had been killed in a plane crash in Lake Monona in Madison, WI on December 10, 1967.
1990 – Lithuania proclaims its independence from the U.S.S.R., the first Soviet republic to do so.
2011 – A magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off Japan’s northeastern coast, which generated an equally massive series of tsunamis that spread across the Pacific. The quake and tsunamis left roughly 19,000 people dead or missing in Japan; some 340,000 homeless; and crippled the Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant.
Chief Writing Wolf 