Hello again, Headliners! Today’s birthday belongs to director Penelope Spheeris. Among the other Headlines Du Jour of yesteryear:
- 1775 – The USS Alfred becomes the first vessel to fly the Grand Union Flag (the precursor to the Stars and Stripes); the flag is hoisted by John Paul Jones.
- 1804 – At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor of the French, the first French Emperor in a thousand years.
- 1823 – Monroe Doctrine: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President James Monroe proclaims American neutrality in future European conflicts, and warns European powers not to interfere in the Americas.
- 1845 – Manifest Destiny: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President James K. Polk proposes that the United States should aggressively expand into the West.
- 1859 – Militant abolitionist leader John Brown is hanged for his October 16 raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
- 1927 – Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Model A as its new automobile.
- 1939 – New York City’s LaGuardia Airport opens.
- 1942 – World War II: During the Manhattan Project, a team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
- 1954 – Cold War: The United States Senate votes 65 to 22 to censure Joseph McCarthy for “conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute”.
- 1961 – In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist–Leninist and that Cuba is going to adopt Communism.
- 1962 – Vietnam War: After a trip to Vietnam at the request of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield becomes the first American official to comment adversely on the war’s progress.
- 1970 – The United States Environmental Protection Agency begins operations.
- 1982 – At the University of Utah, Barney Clark becomes the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart.
- 1993 – Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar is shot and killed in Medellín.
Here is today’s Headlines Du Jour:
FERGUSON FOLLOW-UP:
MORE OF THAT GOP OUTREACH:
MORE EXCITING EPISODES OF COPS GONE WILD:
GUNS, GUNS, GUNS:
OUR WIRED WORLD:
CLIMATE CHANGE:
FREE THE WEED!!!
IN INNER SPACE:
IN OUTER SPACE:
VIDEO DU JOUR:
Headlines Du Jour is a leisure-time activity of Not Now Silly, home of the
Steam-Powered Word-0-Matic, and your rest stop on the Information
Highway. Use our valuable bandwidth to post your news comments in
today’s open thread.
