(I'm a guest Round Table opener today)

Today is a big birthday for the Internet, because if it wasn't for this not only would there be no Reader Rant, but The Eagle Pencil Company would be as big as IBM and Eberhard Farber as famous as Bill Gates. On this date in 1951 Remington Rand introduced Univac, the first commercial large scale business computer. It's first customer was the U.S. Census Bureau.



Let's not forget Flag Day - which is today.

"In 1885, Bernard J. Cigrand, a 19 year old teacher at Stony Hill School, placed a 10 inch, 38- star flag in a bottle on his desk then assigned essays on the flag and its significance. This observance, commemorated Congresses adoption of the Stars and Stripes as the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777. This observance was also the beginning of Cigrand’s long years of fervent and devoted effort to bring about national recognition and observance of Flag Day. The crowning achievement of his life came at age fifty when President Wilson, on June 14, 1916, issued a proclamation calling for a nation wide observance of Flag Day."

Personally I'd rather have "Constitution Day" on September 17th, even if we had to scrap Labor Day to get it. Labor Day is really just an excuse to have a three day weekend at the end of summer. Most Americans figure it has something to do with labor, well, duh. They don't have the foggiest notion that it was first declared to commemorate the Haymarket massacre in Chicago.

At last count about 1/365th of the human race was born on this day. Some of these I actually recognize, others, not:

1811 - Harriet Beecher Stowe, American author (d. 1896)
1856 - Andrey Markov, Russian mathematician - known for his work on theory of stochastic processes, later called the Markov chains, but you knew that (d. 1922)
1870 - Sophia of Prussia, consort of Constantine I of Greece and a real babe (d. 1932)
1894 - Marie-Adélaïde, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, runner up to Sophia of Prussia(d. 1924)
1906 - Margaret Bourke-White, American photojournalist, truly one of the greats (d. 1971))
1909 - Burl Ives, American musician (d. 1995)

Above: In Cat on a Hot Tim Roof with the ultimate male American sex symbol of all time.
1916 - Dorothy McGuire, American actress (d. 2001)
1919 - Sam Wanamaker, American actor (d. 1993)
1921 - Gene Barry, American actor
1925 - Pierre Salinger, John F. Kennedy's Press Secretary (d. 2004)
1926 - Hermann Kant, German author
1928 - Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Marxist Revolutionary, winner of the best poster of the 1970's contest (d. 1967)
1932 - Joe Arpaio, sheriff of Maricopa County,the "toughest sheriff in the U.S., who I wish would just go away - as does Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Arizona Ecumenical Council, the American Jewish Committee, and the Arizona chapter of the Anti-Defamation League.
1933 - Jerzy Kosinski, Polish author (d. 1991)
1936 - Renaldo "Obie" Benson, singer (The Four Tops) (d. 2005)
1936 - Irmelin Sandman Lilius, Finnish actor, on the list because my wife's parents are Finn, who knows what that makes her
1939 - Steny Hoyer, U.S. Congressman

Bush meets with Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) in the Oval Office Thursday, Nov. 9, 2006. "First, I want to congratulate Congresswoman Pelosi for becoming the Speaker of the House, and the first woman Speaker of the House. This is historic for our country,” President Bush said. He also stated, "This is the beginning of a series of meetings we'll have over the next couple of years, all aimed at solving problems and leading the country." > > >

Yup, and solve them they did....

1943 - Harold Wheeler, American composer
1944 - Laurie Colwin, American author (d. 1992)
1944 - Joe Grifasi, American actor
1945 - Rod Argent, English musician (The Zombies)
1946 - Donald Trump, American businessman and entrepreneur

1947 - Barry Melton, American guitarist (Country Joe and the Fish)
1949 - Alan White, British drummer (Yes)
1950 - Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury
1961 - Boy George, British singer, good friend of Nancy Morgan (Culture Club)
1966 - Traylor Howard, plays Natale Teeger on Monk American actress
1967 - Kelly Nash, American radio personality I never heard of
1968 - Yasmine Bleeth, American actress
1968 - Faizon Love, American actor
1968 - Campbell Brown, American journalist who often seems to actually know what the words she says actually mean
1969 - Steffi Graf, German tennis player
1969 - MC Ren, American rapper
1969 - Michael Gerber, American parody author

1984 - Siobhán Donaghy, British singer (ex-Sugababes) Alas, Siobhan left the Sugababes in 2001. Depending on who you believe she left on her own accord or was forced out. What we know for certain is that on tour in Japan she went off the stage to go to the bathroom and left never came back. The group is still popular in the UK.

No idea who the following are:

1988 - Kevin Michael McHale, American singer
1989 - Lucy Hale, American actress
1989 - Courtney Halverson, American actress
1992 - Daryl Sabara, American actor
1992 - Evan Sabara, American actor


Events On June 14


1381 - Richard II in England meets leaders of Peasants' Revolt on Blackheath. The Tower of London is stormed by rebels who enter without resistance.
1645 - English Civil War: Battle of Naseby – 12,000 Royalist forces are beaten by 15,000 Parliamentarian soldiers wielding copies of Robert's Rules of Order..
1648 - Margaret Jones is hanged in Boston for witchcraft in the first such execution for the Massachusetts colony and presaging a good tourist business in Salem for many years.
1775 - American Revolutionary War: the Continental Army is established by the Continental Congress, marking the birth of the United States Army, no gays need apply.
1777 - The Stars and Stripes is adopted by Congress as the Flag of the United States in a close contest with the second choice favored by the great-great-great grandfather of Dick Cheney (pictured below).


1938 - (Click Mighty Mouse image for Greger's surprise) Action Comics issue one was released, introducing Superman. I always preferred Mighty Mouse to Superman because, first, he didn't need no stinking wimpy alter-ego like Clark Kent who could never get the girl, second he was unrelenting in beating the crap out of the cats (though I do love cats, these deserved it), and mostly because he was one helluva stud with the mouse-babes Pearl Pureheart and Mitzi.
1940 - World War II: Paris falls under German occupation, and Allied forces retreat.
1940 - A group of 728 Polish political prisoners from Tarnów become the first residents of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
1941 - Soviet mass deportations and murder of Estonians, Lithuanians and Latvians, the June deportation, begin.
1942 - Anne Frank begins to keep a diary.
1952 - The keel is laid for the nuclear submarine USS Nautilus.
1954 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a bill into law that places the words "under God" into the United States' Pledge of Allegiance.
1955 - Chile becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1959 - A group of Dominican exiles with leftist tendencies that departed from Cuba land in the Dominican Republic with the intent of deposing Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina. Save for four of them, all were killed and/or executed by Trujillo's army. This feat would be the inspiration for a clandestine group that would seek to continue undermining Trujillo's power and would be called "Movimiento Catorce de Junio" (14th of June Movement).
1962 - Albert DeSalvo, better known as the Boston Strangler, murders Anna Slesers, his first victim.
1962 - The European Space Research Organisation is established in Paris – later becoming the European Space Agency.
1962 - The New Mexico Supreme Court in the case of Montoya v. Bolack, 70 N.M. 196, prohibits state and local governments from denying Indians the right to vote because they live on a reservation.
1966 - The Vatican announces the abolition of the index librorum prohibitum (index of prohibited books), which was originally instituted in 1557. Amazing it took them until 1966, but then if this Pope has his way, who knows?
1967 - Mariner program: Mariner 5 is launched toward Venus.
1985 - TWA Flight 847 is hijacked by Hezbollah shortly after take-off from Athens, Greece.

My photos

Signs of the times (in my hometown, no less, and in front of a recently elected member of our Board of Selectman, the New England equivalent of a city council.) More about this picture and the man behind it HERE. Scroll down to my next post or go to front page to read about an even more controversial sign just put up in our town.


It's tough to be down and out

click to enlarge

Wow, Hal.
Nice!

Mighty Mouse
The format is beautiful.
I love your candid shots around town.

Thank you

I had a great day.
I'm tired but the concerts were so much fun. Today was geared toward the kids (kids on stage and all that) and was really cute. The music was awesome as ever.

Olyve

Thank you, Hal. And thank you, Greger for that great cartoon. I always loved Mighty Mouse.

Have a great day tomorrow!

EmmaG

gonna sleep tonight with thoughts of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof..." thanks Hal!

Well it is still Saturday night here, and we are off to

Great job, Hal! I wouldn't mind seeing more of your stuff!

Great work Hal! Thanks, We really do appreciate getting let off the hook now and again on these openers.
Mighty Mouse was one cool dude! And some brilliant early cartoonery, those old cartoon features weren't as technical but they made up for it in Fun

I particularly smiled when the lamb was riding Mighty Mouse's contrail.

I haven't really figured out your preferences for commenting on CHB columns. For example, my new one today is based on this sign:



Would you prefer to comment on what I wrote here rather than on CHB's front page? If so I'll open a topic for it.

olyve,
From yesterday's round table: I am and always shall be a big 3 Stooges fan, nyuck, nyuck. Toss in the Marx brothers, too, especially Groucho. And, Green Acres? Well, it's the place to be!

Great opening introduction for Sunday's Round Table, Hal! Great job! Might Mouse was always on my Saturday morning cartoon queue when I was a kid. Also, like most "Boomers," Might Mouse was my first introduction to opera. Remember how he'd fly along or fight some villain or sing to some damsel in that powerful tenor voice of his? I suppose a baritone might have been more "macho," but, hey, he was a mouse!
Joe