1609 - Henry Hudson discovers Manhattan island

1833 - Quebec-built steamship 'Royal William' reaches England safely; the wooden paddle wheeler is the first ship to cross Atlantic entirely under steam power

1839 - First Canadian track & field meet held at Caer Howell Grounds in Toronto

1847 - Stephen Foster's song “Oh! Susanna�?is performed for the first time at a concert in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

1847 - Hurricane hits coast of Newfoundland, killing 300 people

1850 - "Swedish Nightingale" Jenny Lind gives first US concert

1860 - Toronto's Horticultural Gardens (now Allan Gardens) was opened on land donated by George Allan

1861 - Opening of Toronto Street Railway line; first horse-drawn streetcars in Canada; Montreal follows in November

1879 - The Woodstock College Observatory was opened, featuring a refracting telescope with a 20.4cm aperture, the largest telescope in Canada

1888 �?In Toronto, Governor-General Lord Stanley records an address to the President of the United States onto an Edison phonograph cylinder. This is the world's oldest known sound preserved on a record

1899 - Thomas Ahearn drove the first automobile on Ottawa streets

1911 - The Central Canada Exhibition in Ottawa featured demonstration flights by the US biplane the "Red Devil"

1912 - The Philadelphia A's Eddie Collins steals 6 bases in 1 game

1923 - After giving up a single, Red Sox Howard Ehmke retires the next 27 NY Yankees

1951 - Florence Chadwick becomes first woman to swim the English Channel from England to France. It takes 16 hours & 19 minutes

1954 - First Miss America TV broadcast

1959 - Baltimore Oriole Jerry Walker pitches 16 innings to beat the White Sox 1-0

1962 - The Beatles record their first songs for the music label EMI: "Love Me Do" and "P.S., I Love You."

1965 - Sonny & Cher release Baby Don't Go; and the Fortunes release You've Got Your Troubles

1966 - Johnny Miller became the first NY Yankee to hit a HR on his first at bat

1967 - The Beatles begin filming "Magical Mystery Tour"

1968 - Charles Lavern Beasley gives himself up at refuelling stop at Dorval Airport after ordering an Air Canada Moncton to Toronto flight to fly to Cuba; Texan commits first air hijacking in Canada

1970 - The Ford Pinto is introduced on this day at a cost of less than $2000

1971 - Nikita Khrushchev dies of a heart attack at 77

1973 - Chile's Socialist president Salvador Allende dies during a military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet and supported by the United States

1975 - Nicole Juteau the first woman constable in the Quebec provincial police

1977 - David Bowie and Bing Crosby film Bing's last Christmas TV special, singing a medley of "Little Drummer Boy" and "Peace On Earth"

1985 - Baseball player Pete Rose gets his 4,192nd career hit, breaking Ty Cobb's career record, which had lasted over 50 years

2001 - The worst terrorist attack on American soil - 2819+ die as a result of hijacked airplane attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Western Pennsylvania

Birthdays

1862 - O. Henry [William Sydney Porter] Greensboro NC - author: Four Million, Heart of the West, The Trimmed Lamp
1885 - David Herbert "DH" Lawrence, Nottinghamshire England - author: Lady Chatterly's Lover, Women in Love, Sons and Lovers
1899 - Jimmie Davis, Quitman La - songwriter: You Are My Sunshine, Nobody's Darling But Mine; Governor of Louisiana
1909 - Anne Seymour, NY City - actress: Gemini Affair, Empire, Tim Conway Show
1913 �?Bear [Paul William] Bryant, Kingsland Arkansas - college football coach: Under Bryant, Alabama had 25 winning seasons and was selected for bowl games 24 times
1917 - Ferdinand [Edralin] Marcos, Ilocos Norte - Philippines Pres (1965-86)
1917 - Henderson Forsythe, Macon Mo �?actor: Dr. David Stewart-As the World Turns
1920 - Dalton Camp, Woodstock NB - political organizer/columnist
1923 - Alan Badel, Manchester England - actor: Shogun
1924 - Tom [Thomas Wade] Landry, Mission Texas - NFL player: NY Giants / coach: Dallas Cowboys
1926 - Alfred Slote - author: Love & Tennis, Omega Station
1928 - Earl Holliman, Delhi La - actor: Police Woman, Tribes, Cry Panic
1930 - Cathryn Damon, Seattle Washington - actress: Mary Campbell- Soap
1935 - Gherman Titov, Alti Territory Russia - first man to spend a day in space, on Vostok 2
1936 - Charles Dierkop, LaCrosse Wisconsin - actor: Det Pete Royster-Police Woman
1939 - Lola Falana, Camden NJ - singer: Liberation of LB Jones
1940 - Brian DePalma, Newark NJ - film director: Body Double, Dressed to Kill, Mission: Impossible
1943 - Raymond Villeneuve, Quebec City - political organizer, founding member of the FLQ (Front de liberation Quebecois)
1945 - Franz Beckenbauer, Munich Germany - captain of the West German national soccer team that won the World Cup in 1974
1945 - Leo Kottke, Athens Ga - guitarist: Ice Water, Greenhouse
1946 - Julie Payne, Terre Haute Indiana �?actress: Wizards & Warriors, Duck Factory
1957 - Jon Moss, London England - drummer: Culture Club-Do You Really Want to Hurt Me
1958 - Mick Talbot, London England - keyboardist: Style Council-You're the Best Thing
1961 - Virginia Madsen, Chicago Ill - actress: Dune, Hot Spot, Class
1962 - Elizabeth Daily, Los Angeles CA - actress: Street Music
1962 - Kristy McNichol, Los Angeles CA - actress: Buddy-Family, Barbara-Empty Nest
1965 - Moby [Richard Melville Hall] Harlem NY - techno-artist: Play, Everything Is Wrong; descendant of writer Herman Melville
1967 - Harry Connick Jr, New Orleans La - musician/actor; songs - When Harry Met Sally, We Are In Love; films: Hope Floats
1970 - Laura Sisk Wright, Clinton MD �?actress: Allison-Loving, General Hospital

 

 

 

Aunt Karen

 

The teacher gave her fifth grade class an assignment: Get their parents to tell them a story with a moral at the end of it. The next day the kids came back and one by one began to tell their stories.
 
Kathy said, "My father's a farmer and we have a lot of egg-laying hens. One time we were taking our eggs to market in a basket on the front seat of the pickup when we hit a bump in the road and all the eggs went flying and broke and made a mess."
 
"And what's the moral of the story?" asked the teacher.
 
"Don't put all your eggs in one basket!"
 
"Very good, " said the teacher. "Now, Lucy?"
 
"Our family are farmers too. But we raise chickens for the meat market. We had a dozen eggs one time, but when they hatched we only got ten live chicks. And the moral to this story is, don't count your chickens until they're hatched."
 
"That was a fine story Lucy. Johnny do you have a story to share?"
 
"Yes, ma'am, my daddy told me this story about my Aunt Karen. Aunt Karen was a flight engineer in Desert Storm and her plane got hit. She had to bail out over enemy territory and all she had was a bottle of whiskey, a machine gun and a machete. She drank the whiskey on the way down so it wouldn't break and then she landed right in the middle of 100 enemy troops.
 
She killed seventy of them with the machine gun until she ran out of bullets, then she killed twenty more with the machete till the blade broke and then she killed the last ten with her bare hands.
 
"Good heavens," said the horrified teacher, "What kind of moral did your daddy tell you from that horrible story?"
 
"Don't mess with Aunt Karen when she's been drinking!"