Trevor WholohanThis Day in History, October 19th
October 19th 2007 00:20
This Day in History
1781 - Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown at 2 PM; Revolutionary War ends
1818 - US & Chicasaw Indians sign a treaty
1849 - Elizabeth Blackwell became 1st woman in US to receive medical degree
1856 - James Kelly & Jack Smith fight bareknuckle for 6 hours & 15m in Melbourne
1872 - World's largest gold nugget (482.8 pounds) found in New South Wales
1914 - U.S., government owned vehicles were first used to pick up mail in Wash, DC.
1919 - 1st Distinguished Service Medal awarded to a woman
1919 - Reds beat White Sox, 5 games to 3 in 16th World Series. This series is known as the black sox scandal as 7 White Sox help throw the World series.
1933 - Germany withdraws from the League of Nations.
1942 - A Japanese submarine launched a floatplane for a reconnaissance flight over Pearl Harbor. They reported on the ships in the harbor, then the aircraft was lost at sea.
1944 - Marlon Brando made his debut in the play "I Remember Mama" opened on Broadway
1944 - United States forces land in the Philippines.
1950 - UN forces entered Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea
1951 - Pres Harry S Truman formally ends state of war with Germany
1959 - Florence Henderson joins the Today Show panel
1960 - Martin Luther King Jr arrested in Atlanta sit-in
1960 - The US imposes an embargo on exports to Cuba
1963 - Beatles record "I Want to Hold Your Hand"
1973 - Pres. Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court demand to turn over the Watergate tapes.
1977 - Supersonic Concorde jet's 1st landing in New York City
1980 - Steve McPeak rides 101'9" unicycle
1982 - John De Lorean is arrested for trafficking in cocaine (later acquitted).
1983 - The U.S. Senate approved a bill establishing a holiday for Martin Luther King Jr.
1984 - Four U.S. employees of the CIA were killed in El Salvador when their plane crashed.
1987 - (Black Monday) The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 508 points or 22.6%.
1993 - Two US Blackhawk helicopters are fired upon with RPG's over Mogadishu.
1998 - Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson got his boxing license back after he had lost it for biting Evander Holyfield's ear during a fight.
2001 - In Philadelphia luggage, from a baggage locker that was deposited Sep 29, was found to contain C-4 plastic explosives.
2001 - Two U.S. Army Rangers were killed in a helicopter crash in Pakistan. The deaths were the first American deaths of the military campaign in Afghanistan.
2002 - In York, PA, former mayor Charlie Robertson was acquitted and two other men were convicted in the shotgun murder of a young black woman during race riots in 1969.
2003 - In London, magician David Blaine emerged from a clear plastic box, then suspended by a crane over the banks of the Thames River. He survived only on water for 44 days. Blaine had entered the box on September 5.
2005 - Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity.
2006 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 12,000 mark for the first time.
Famous Birthdays
1945 - John Lithgow actor (Harry & the Hendersons, Cliffhanger, 3rd Rock from the Sun)
1962 - Evander Hollyfield Heavyweight boxing champ (1990- )
1965 - Ty Pennington, TV carpenter(Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on ABC)
Joke of the Day
Space Monkeys
NASA decided to send a shuttle into space with two monkeys and an astronaut. They trained them for months. Then when they thought they were ready, they placed all three in the shuttle and got ready to send them up into space.
As the moment came closer NASA's mission control center announced, "This is mission control to Monkey One. Initiate!"
At that the first monkey started typing like mad and suddenly the shuttle's engines ignited and the shuttle took off.
Two hours later NASA's mission control center announced, "This is mission control to Monkey Two. Initiate!" At that the second monkey started typing like mad and suddenly the shuttle separated from the empty fuel tanks.
Another two hours later mission control announced, "This is mission control to the astronaut..." At this the astronaut responded "I know, I know. Feed the monkeys and don't touch anything."
Navy Officer Cutting Through
A Navy officer was cutting through the crew's quarters of his ship one day and happened upon a sailor reading a magazine with his feet up on the small table in front of him. "Sailor! Do you put your feet up on the furniture at home?" the officer demanded.
"No, sir, he says, but we don't land airplanes on the roof either."
The First Witness
A small town prosecuting attorney called his first witness to the stand in a trial – a grandmotherly, elderly woman. He approached her and asked, “Mrs. Jones, do you know me?”
She responded, “Why, yes, I do know you, Mr. Williams. I've known you since you were a young boy. And frankly, you've been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, and you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you're a rising big shot when you haven't the brains to realize you never will amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you.”
The lawyer was stunned. Not knowing what else to do he pointed across the room and asked, “Mrs. Williams, do you know the defense attorney?”
She again replied, “Why, yes I do. I've known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster, too. I used to baby-sit him for his parents. And he, too, has been a real disappointment to me. He's lazy, bigoted, and has a drinking problem. The man can't build a normal relationship with anyone and his law practice is one of the shoddiest in the entire state. Yes, I know him.”
At this point, the judge rapped the courtroom to silence and called both counselors to the bench. In a very quiet voice, he said with menace, “If either of you asks her if she knows me, you'll be in jail for contempt within five minutes!”
World Records
World’s Tallest Man
The tallest man in medical history for whom there is irrefutable evidence is Robert Pershing Wadlow. He was born at Alton, Illinois, USA, on February 22, 1918, and when he was last measured on June 27, 1940, was found to be 8 ft 11.1 in tall.
Wadlow's greatest recorded weight was 490 pounds on his 21st birthday and he weighed 490 pounds at the time of his death. His shoe size was 37AA ( 18½ in long) and his hands measured 12¾ in from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger. He wore a size 25 ring. His arm span was 9 ft 5¾ in and his peak daily food consumption was 8000 calories.
Furtherest Female Eyeball Popper
Kim Goodman of Chicago, Illinois, USA, can pop her eyeballs to a protrusion of 11 mm. (0.43 in) beyond her eye sockets. Her eyes were measured on the set of the television show Guinness World Records: Primetime on June 13, 1998.
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