Welcome to the Round Table for Friday, January 15, 2010.









Events on this date
* 588 BC – Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem under Zedekiah's reign. The siege lasts until July 23, 586 BC.
* 69 – Otho seizes power in Rome, proclaiming himself Emperor of Rome, but rules for only three months before committing suicide.
* 1559 – Elizabeth I is crowned queen of England in Westminster Abbey, London.
* 1582 – Russia cedes Livonia and Estonia to Poland.
* 1759 – The British Museum opens.
* 1777 – American Revolutionary War: New Connecticut (present day Vermont) declares its independence.
* 1782 – Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris goes before the U.S. Congress to recommend establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage.
* 1822 – Greek War of Independence: Demetrius Ypsilanti is elected president of the legislative assembly.
* 1844 – University of Notre Dame receives its charter from the state of Indiana.
* 1865 – American Civil War – Fort Fisher North Carolina falls to the Union, thus cutting off the last major seaport of the Confederacy.
* 1870 – A political cartoon for the first time symbolizes the United States Democratic Party with a donkey ("A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" by Thomas Nast for Harper's Weekly).
* 1889 – The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is originally incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia.
* 1892 – James Naismith publishes the rules of basketball.
* 1908 – The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority becomes the first Greek-letter organization founded and established by African-American college women.
* 1919 – Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, two of the most prominent socialists in Germany, are tortured and murdered by the Freikorps.
* 1919 – Boston Molasses Disaster: A large molasses tank in Boston, Massachusetts, bursts and a wave of molasses rushes through the streets, killing 21 people and injuring 150 others.
* 1936 – The first building to be completely covered in glass is completed in Toledo, Ohio (the building is built for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company).
* 1943 – World War II: The Soviet counter-offensive at Voronezh begins.
* 1943 – The world's largest office building, The Pentagon, is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.
* 1947 – The brutalized corpse of Elizabeth Short ("The Black Dahlia") is found in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, California.
* 1949 – Chinese Civil War: The Chinese Communist Party forces take over Tianjin from the Nationalist Government.
* 1951 – Ilse Koch, "The Bitch of Buchenwald", wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in West Germany.
* 1966 – The government of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa in Nigeria is overthrown in a military coup d’état.
* 1967 – The first Super Bowl is played in Los Angeles, California. Green Bay Packers defeat Kansas City Chiefs 35-10
* 1969 – The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5.
* 1970 – After a 32-month fight for independence from Nigeria, Biafra surrenders.
* 1970 – Muammar al-Qaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya.
* 1973 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam.
* 1974 – Dennis Rader aka the BTK Killer kills his first victims by binding, torturing and murdering Joseph, Joseph II, Josephine and Julie Otero in there house.
* 1976 – Gerald Ford's would-be assassin, Sara Jane Moore, is sentenced to life in prison.
* 1977 – The Kälvesta air disaster kills 22 people, the worst air crash in Sweden's history.
* 1986 – The Living Seas opens at EPCOT Center in Walt Disney World, Florida.
* 1990 – AT&T's long distance telephone network suffers a cascade switching failure.
* 1991 – The United Nations deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expires, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm.
* 1992 – The international community recognizes the independence of Slovenia and Croatia from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
* 1993 – Salvatore Riina, the Mafia boss known as 'The Beast', is arrested in Sicily after three decades as a fugitive
* 1999 – The Racak incident: 45 Albanians in the Kosovo village of Racak are killed by Yugoslav security forces.
* 2001 – Wikipedia, a free Wiki content encyclopedia, goes online.
* 2005 – An intense solar flare blasts X-rays across the solar system.
* 2005 – ESA's SMART-1 lunar orbiter discovers elements such as calcium, aluminum, silicon, iron, and other surface elements on the moon.
* 2007 – Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, former Iraqi intelligence chief and half-brother of Saddam Hussein, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court, are executed by hanging in Iraq.
* 2009 – US Airways Flight 1549 makes an emergency landing into the Hudson River shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York City. All passengers and crew members survive.



May your day bring you strength, peace and healing, and then empower you to bring those to others.

Lovely and thank you, Phil. The music is a wonderful way to get started.

It's 32 in the piney woods this morning and supposed to go up to 70. We've had 15 days in a row of freezing temperatures -- a record for us. Watch for produce to be in short supply and expensive during the next few months -- Florida produce includes squash, green beans, strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers.

Stay warm --

EmmaG

Wonderful, Phil...enjoyed the photos...the laughs...and when I got to the music I just closed my eyes and went into it. Good start to the day. Now it's off to work for a while...

Great way to start the day Phil. And now that I've met you in person, your encouraging openings mean even more to me.

This would be funny if not so tragic.

Quick thought for the day:

What you love is a sign from your higher self of what you are to do.
~Sanaya Roman

Nice, Phil...I especially enjoyed the Rodin; he's an old favorite of mine.

Excellent opener, Phil~ I enjoyed everything do much!

Phil, the images are beautiful. I love the statue.
I've got the music going now. What a quiet wonderful way to end the day.
It doesn't snow that much here but when it does our pine trees look and sound like that when they start melting.

I'm putting all y'all to bed soon, guys.
Night!