Today in History

[Jimbone]

Ah yes, social security... I mean really, what could go wrong?

Maybe Ida Fuller should have been the warning it was doomed:

Ida May Fuller was the first American to receive a monthly benefit Social Security check. She received the check, amounting to $22.54, on January 31, 1940.

By the time of her death, Fuller had collected $22,888.92 from Social Security monthly benefits, compared to her contributions of $24.75 to the system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_May_Fuller

I know, I know, they never expected her to live to 100...

[HairOfTheDog]

Yeah, Chicken Little.

That Social Security concept was shit from the start and bound to fail. It'll never last over...uh....80 years.

Seriously, Social Security has its down falls and inequities, and I think that it needs some major reforms/updates to be initiated in the next 10 years, lest it go bust.

But, FDR's concept and the SS Act has mostly served the country well, IMO, especially in regards to the average lifespan of the population having increased significantly over the last 8 decades - with SS benefits playing a major role in helping to sustain that growing elderly population post-retirement.

[Jimbone]

Fair enough.

[Mohammed]

Who gives a royal butt screw about ... social security. Utterly unimportant!

Unlike the port of .... Tsing Tao!!

Now THAT one was, and still is, of mind boggling importance. If you go to Hong Kong 25 years ago, you looked totally cool not asking for a Carlsberg or Heineken, but a ... Tsing Tao! Why? Because of Germany! The only place in all of China to produce Beer and Wine. Why? Because it was a German Colony. Just like Namibia, Tansania and America. Unlike the filthy English who robbed every place they set foot upon and gave them model trains in return, the Germans came with a sausage factory and brewery!

Hence ... Tsing Tao. Pure bliss and minced meat filled heaven!

[Maggot]

I have to admit German bologna is pretty damn good. Especialy with real american cheese and honey mustard.

[HairOfTheDog]

Fried bologna on sour dough toast with a thin slice of sharp cheddar and hot mustard (and a cold Tsing Tao).

Not terribly sophisticated, but pretty damn good and it doesn't cost a fortune, cookie.

Ahhh, the side benefits of World War I.

Thanks Germany and China!

[HairOfTheDog]

January 20^th is an interesting day in history for the US

War
-American Revolution: Battle of Millstone, New Jersey, 1777
-Civil War: Union General Burnside's troops get bogged down in mud, 1863
-World War I: Goeben and Breslau battle the Allies in the Aegean, 1918
-World War II: The Wannsee Conference, 1942
-Cold War: Truman announces Point Four program, 1949
- Vietnam War: New communist offensive anticipated, 1972

Incidents:
-1981, after 444 days, the Iran Hostage Crisis ends

Political Leaders
-Franklin Delano Roosevelt is sworn in as president, 1937
-FDR inaugurated to fourth term, 1945
-John F. Kennedy inaugurated, 1961
- Richard Nixon takes office, 1969
-Arafat elected leader of Palestine, 1996
-Ronald Reagan becomes president, 1981

Celebrity
Audrey Hepburn dies in 1993

Nobodies
HOTD spills hot coffee in lap racing to get niece to school on time - 2014; no school actually in progress due to MLK holiday.

[Maggot]

I took my trash out today, I bet the crows are having a field day with that buffet.

[HairOfTheDog]

A significant day in history, around the world...

--1922 Mohandas K. Gandhi was sentenced to prison in India for civil disobedience.

--1931 Schick Inc. marketed the first electric razor.

--1940 Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini held a meeting at the Brenner Pass during which the Italian dictator agreed to join in Germany's war against France and Britain.

--1942 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order authorizing the War Relocation Authority, which was put in charge of interning Japanese.

--1962 France and Algerian rebels agreed to a truce after more than seven years of war.

--1965 Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov went on the first spacewalk.

--1974 Most of the Arab oil-producing nations ended their embargo against the United States.

--2008 US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama confronted America's racial divide with a speech in Philadelphia. It was prompted by incindiary racial remarks made by Obama's African-American pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

--2011 US President Barack Obama demanded that Moammar Gadhafi halt all military attacks on civilians and said that if the Libyan leader did not stand down, the United States would join other nations in launching military action against him.

[HairOfTheDog]

20 years ago tonight, I was at a friend's house in Huntington Beach eating tacos and expecting to watch a pretty boring NBA play-off game.

Instead, we wound up watching a white Bronco being followed by cops, helicopters and a whole lotta media.



Weird night. I don't know why it felt so surreal watching that ride play out on the 405, but it did. I don't think I'll ever forget it.

[Maggot]

I remember that, and was wondering why they didn't just shoot the tires out or something. It was almost like an episode of "Get Smart"

[QueenBee]

I have had enough about the damn bronco and the damn car chase I will just vomit.

[HairOfTheDog]

I remember that, and was wondering why they didn't just shoot the tires out or something. It was almost like an episode of "Get Smart"

It was just weird. It actually feels like it was 20 years ago to me -- no more or less. Hadn't thought about that Bronco drive in quite awhile.

"Why are we watching this and why is it on every channel?" I remember having that discussion.

Then, we just thought, "okay, let's see where this goes". It went right back to the suspect's house and he was arrested without incident, despite millions of lookie-loos watching it all go down.

Then, it dominated the air waves and papers for a year (at least in L.A.). There was no escaping it.

It really changed the way crime stories and trials are covered -- and, it was my first introduction to DNA (though, a sloppy over-explicit one, imo).

[BlueTiki]

I liked the folks holding signs, as if it were a sporting event or an abortion clinic protest, on the overpasses.

I was bummed he wasn't wearing the disguise when he exited the vehicle.

And to think . . . it was also the first media splash of a Kardashian.

[HairOfTheDog]

And to think . . . it was also the first media splash of a Kardashian.

Convicted for trying to steal his own mementos and memorabilia -- meh.

That conviction was make-up for one of his two real crimes -- the unleashing of the Kardashian.

[HairOfTheDog]

On Jan. 27, 1945, Soviet troops moved through the town of Oswiecim, Poland, and liberated the concentration camp complex of Auschwitz. In the weeks before, the majority of the prisoners being held there had been marched west towards Germany, leaving behind a few thousand people in severely poor health. These prisoners who remained in Auschwitz were a small fraction of those who were brought to the camp complex, where more than 1.1 million people are estimated to have been killed by the Nazis.

[Jimbone]

Today in 1513 Ponce de Leon saw what is now Florida.

President Wilson asked the US Congress for a Declaration of War against Germany to enter the USA into World War 1 in 1921.

Argentina invades the Falkland Island in 1982.

Rob Pilatus of Milli Vanilli dies in 1998.

[HairOfTheDog]

On this date 97 years ago, one of the deadliest wars in history was ceased.



At the 11^th hour on the 11^th day of the 11^th month of 1918, the Great War ends. At 5 a.m. that morning, Germany, bereft of manpower and supplies and faced with imminent invasion, signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside Compiégne, France. World War I lasted from 1914 to 1918.

The First World War left nine million soldiers dead and 21 million wounded, with Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, France, and Great Britain each losing nearly a million or more lives. The U.S. lost nearly 120,000 soldiers. In addition, at least five million civilians died from disease, starvation, or exposure.

[Maggot]

Wars and how really rotten they are get forgotten until there is another one and another generation begins to face it again and swear "It shall never be forgotten" again.

[Blindgreed1]

In 1988: On this day, authorities unearth a corpse buried in the lawn of 59-year-old Dorothea Puente’s home in Sacramento, California. Puente operated a residential home for elderly people, and an investigation led to the discovery of six more bodies buried on her property.

Puente was a diagnosed schizophrenic who had already been in trouble with the law. She had previously served prison time for check forgery, as well as drugging and robbing people she met in bars. After her release, she opened a boarding house for elderly people. Beginning in 1986, social worker Peggy Nickerson sent 19 clients to Puente’s home. When some of the residents mysteriously disappeared, Nickerson grew suspicious. Puente’s neighbors, who reported the smell of rotting flesh emanating from her vicinity, validated Nickerson’s concern.

Although all the buried bodies were found to contain traces of the sedative Dalmane, the coroner was never able to identify an exact cause of death. Still, during a trial that lasted five months and included 3,100 exhibits, prosecutors were able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Puente had murdered her boarders, most likely to collect their Social Security checks. Though she was formally charged with nine counts of murder and convicted on three, authorities suspected that Puente might have been responsible for as many as 25 deaths.