Happy birthday and many happy returns Danny Minotte,Barry Ngo and Josh Sweeney. Born on the same day, across the years. Remember, birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
===
- 1637 – The contract prices of rare tulip bulbs in the Dutch Republic, which had been steadily climbing for three months, abruptly dropped, marking the decline of tulip mania.
- 1807 – Napoleonic Wars: The United Kingdom capturedMontevideo, now the capital of Uruguay, from the Spanish Empire.
- 1813 – Argentine War of Independence: José de San Martín(pictured) and his Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers gained a largely symbolic victory against a royalist army in the Battle of San Lorenzo.
- 1913 – The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, allowing the U.S. Congress to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the States or basing it on census results.
- 1959 – American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson were killed when their plane crashed shortly after taking off from Mason City Municipal Airport in Iowa.
===
Events
- 1112 – Ramon Berenguer III of Barcelona and Douce I of Provence marry, uniting the fortunes of those two states.
- 1377 – More than 2,000 people of the Italian city of Cesena are slaughtered by Papal Troops (Cesena Bloodbath).
- 1451 – Sultan Mehmed II inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire.
- 1488 – Bartolomeu Dias of Portugal lands in Mossel Bay after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, becoming the first known European to travel so far south.
- 1509 – The Battle of Diu, between Portugal and the Ottoman Empire takes place in Diu, India.
- 1534 – The Irish rebel Silken Thomas is executed by the order of Henry VIII in London, England.
- 1637 – Tulip mania collapses in the United Provinces (now the Netherlands) as sellers could no longer find buyers for their bulb contracts.
- 1690 – The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in America.
- 1706 – During the Battle of Fraustadt Swedish forces defeat a superior Saxon-Polish-Russian force by deploying a double envelopment.
- 1781 – American Revolutionary War: British forces seize the Dutch-owned Caribbean island Sint Eustatius.
- 1783 – American Revolutionary War: Spain recognizes United States independence.
- 1787 – Militia led by General Benjamin Lincoln crush the remnants of Shays' Rebellion in Petersham, Massachusetts.
- 1807 – A British military force, under Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Auchmuty captures the city of Montevideo, then part of the Spanish Empire now the capital of Uruguay.
- 1809 – The Illinois Territory is created.
- 1813 – José de San Martín defeats a Spanish royalist army at the Battle of San Lorenzo, part of the Argentine War of Independence.
- 1830 – The sovereignty of Greece is confirmed in a London Protocol.
- 1834 – Wake Forest University is established.
- 1852 – Justo José de Urquiza defeats Juan Manuel de Rosas at the Battle of Caseros.
- 1870 – The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to citizens regardless of race.
- 1900 – Governor of Kentucky William Goebel dies of wound sustained in an assassination attempt three days earlier in Frankfort, Kentucky.
- 1913 – The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect an income tax.
- 1916 – Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada burn down.
- 1917 – World War I: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany a day after the latter announced a new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
- 1918 – The Twin Peaks Tunnel in San Francisco, California begins service as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world at 11,920 feet (3,633 meters) long.
- 1931 – The Hawke's Bay earthquake, New Zealand's worst natural disaster, kills 258.
- 1943 – The USAT Dorchester is sunk by a German U-boat. Only 230 of 902 men aboard survived. The Chapel of the Four Chaplains, dedicated by President Harry Truman, is one of many memorials established to commemorate the Four Chaplains story.
- 1944 – World War II: During the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, U.S. Army and Marine forces seize Kwajalein Atoll from the defending Japanese garrison.
- 1945 – World War II: As part of Operation Thunderclap, 1,000 B-17s of the Eighth Air Force bomb Berlin, a raid which kills between 2,500 to 3,000 and dehouses another 120,000.
- 1945 – World War II: The United States and the Philippine Commonwealth begin a month-long battle to retake Manila from Japan.
- 1947 – The lowest temperature in North America is recorded in Snag, Yukon.
- 1957 – Senegalese political party Democratic Rally merges into the Senegalese Party of Socialist Action (PSAS).
- 1958 – Founding of the Benelux Economic Union, creating a testing ground for a later European Economic Community.
- 1959 – A plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa kills Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and pilot Roger Peterson in an incident that becomes known as The Day the Music Died.
- 1960 – British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan speaks of the "a wind of change" of increasing national consciousness blowing through colonial Africa, signalling that his Government is likely to support decolonisation.
- 1961 – The United States Air Forces begins Operation Looking Glass, and over the next 30 years, a "Doomsday Plane" is always in the air, with the capability of taking direct control of the United States' bombers and missiles in the event of the destruction of the SAC's command post.
- 1961 – A protest by agricultural workers in Baixa de Cassanje, Portuguese Angola, turns into a revolt, opening the Angolan War of Independence, the first of the Portuguese Colonial Wars.
- 1966 – The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.
- 1967 – Ronald Ryan, the last person to be executed in Australia, is hanged in Pentridge Prison, Melbourne.
- 1969 – In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.
- 1971 – New York Police Officer Frank Serpico is shot during a drug bust in Brooklyn and survives to later testify against police corruption. Many believe the incident proves that NYPD officers tried to kill him.
- 1972 – The first day of the seven-day 1972 Iran blizzard, which would kill at least 4,000 people, making it the deadliest snowstorm in history.
- 1984 – John Buster and the research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer, from one woman to another resulting in a live birth.
- 1984 – Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B is launched using Space Shuttle Challenger.
- 1989 – After a stroke two weeks previous, South African President P. W. Botha resigns as leader of the National Party, but stays on as president for six more months.
- 1989 – A military coup overthrows Alfredo Stroessner, dictator of Paraguay since 1954.
- 1995 – Astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle as mission STS-63 gets underway from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
- 1998 – Karla Faye Tucker is executed in Texas becoming the first woman executed in the United States since 1984.
- 1998 – Cavalese cable car disaster: a United States Military pilot causes the death of 20 people when his low-flying plane cuts the cable of a cable-car near Trento, Italy.
- 2007 – A Baghdad market bombing kills at least 135 people and injures a further 339.
[edit]Births
- 995 – William IV, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 937)
- 1338 – Jeanne de Bourbon, wife of Charles V of France (d. 1378)
- 1654 – Pietro Antonio Fiocco, Italian Baroque composer (d. 1714)
- 1677 – Jan Santini Aichel, Czech architect (d. 1723)
- 1689 – Blas de Lezo, Spanish admiral (d. 1741)
- 1690 – Richard Rawlinson, English minister (d. 1755)
- 1721 – Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, Prussian general (d. 1773)
- 1736 – Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, Austrian musician (d. 1809)
- 1747 – Samuel Osgood, American patriot (d. 1813)
- 1757 – Joseph Forlenze, Italian ophthalmologist (d. 1833)
- 1777 – John Cheyne, British physician, surgeon and author (d. 1836)
- 1795 – Antonio José de Sucre, South American independence leader (d. 1830)
- 1807 – Joseph E. Johnston, American Confederate general (d. 1891)
- 1808 – Princess Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Princess of Prussia (d. 1877)
- 1809 – Felix Mendelssohn, German composer (d. 1847)
- 1811 – Horace Greeley, American journalist, editor, and publisher (d. 1872)
- 1817 – Achille Ernest Oscar Joseph Delesse, French geologist (d. 1881)
- 1821 – Elizabeth Blackwell, American physician (d. 1910)
- 1824 – Ranald MacDonald, Canadian-born Scottish educator and interpreter (d. 1894)
- 1826 – Walter Bagehot, English essayist, journalist and businessman (d. 1877)
- 1830 – Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1903)
- 1842 – Sidney Lanier, American musician and poet. (d. 1881)
- 1843 – William Cornelius Van Horne, American-born railway pioneer and executive (d. 1915)
- 1857 – Giuseppe Moretti, Italian sculptor (d. 1935)
- 1859 – Hugo Junkers, German aircraft designer (d. 1935)
- 1862 – James Clark McReynolds, American Supreme Court Justice (d. 1946)
- 1871 – Jean-Baptiste Mimiague, French fencer (d. 1929)
- 1872 – Lou Criger, American baseball player (d. 1934)
- 1874 – Gertrude Stein, American writer, poet and art collector (d. 1946)
- 1876 – William Tedmarsh, English-born American silent movie actor (d. 1937)
- 1887 – Georg Trakl, Austrian poet (d. 1914)
- 1889 – Carl Theodor Dreyer, Danish film director (d. 1968)
- 1892 – Juan Negrín, Spanish Prime Minister (d. 1956)
- 1893 – Gaston Julia, French mathematician (d. 1978)
- 1894 – Norman Rockwell, American illustrator (d. 1978)
- 1898 – Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect (d. 1976)
- 1899 – João Café Filho, Brazilian president (d. 1970)
- 1899 – Lao She, Chinese writer (d. 1966)
- 1899 – Doris Speed, English actress (d. 1994)
- 1900 – Mabel Mercer, English born cabaret singer (d. 1984)
- 1903 – Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, Scottish aviator (d. 1973)
- 1903 – Joe Stripp, American baseball player (d. 1989)
- 1904 – Luigi Dallapiccola, Italian composer (d. 1975)
- 1904 – Pretty Boy Floyd, American gangster (d. 1934)
- 1905 – Arne Beurling, Swedish/American mathematician (d. 1986)
- 1907 – James Michener, American author (d. 1997)
- 1909 – André Cayatte, French filmmaker (d. 1989)
- 1909 – Simone Weil, French philosopher (d. 1943)
- 1911 – Jehan Alain, French organist and composer (d. 1940)
- 1911 – Robert Earl Jones, American actor (d. 2006)
- 1912 – Jacques Soustelle, French anthropologist (d. 1990)
- 1912 – Mary Carlisle, American actress and singer
- 1913 – Richard Seaman, British racing driver (d. 1939)
- 1918 – Joey Bishop, American entertainer, member of the Rat Pack (d. 2007)
- 1918 – Shlomo Goren, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel (d. 1994)
- 1918 – Helen Stephens, American runner (d. 1994)
- 1920 – Russell Arms, American actor and singer (d. 2012)
- 1920 – Tony Gaze, Australian racing driver
- 1920 – Henry Heimlich, American physician
- 1923 – Alys Robi, Canadian singer
- 1924 – E. P. Thompson, English socialist historian, (The Making of the English Working Class) (d. 1993)
- 1924 – Martial Asselin, Canadian politician (d. 2013)
- 1925 – Keith Dunstan, Australian author and journalist
- 1925 – John Fiedler, American voice actor (d. 2005)
- 1925 – Leon Schlumpf, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 2012)
- 1926 – Shelley Berman, American comedian
- 1926 – Hans-Jochen Vogel, German politician
- 1927 – Kenneth Anger, American Underground Filmmaker
- 1927 – Val Doonican, Irish singer and entertainer
- 1927 – Joan Lowery Nixon, American writer (d. 2003)
- 1927 – Blas Ople, Filipino politician (d. 2003)
- 1928 – Ingemar Haraldsson, Swedish footballer (d. 2004)
- 1928 – Frankie Vaughan, English singer (d. 1999)
- 1929 – Ken Shipp, American football coach
- 1930 – Gillian Ayres, English painter
- 1932 – Peggy Ann Garner, American actress (d. 1984)
- 1933 – Polde Bibič, Slovenian actor and writer (d. 2012)
- 1933 – Paul Sarbanes, American politician
- 1933 – Than Shwe, Burmese military ruler
- 1934 – Juan Carlos Calabró, Argentine actor
- 1935 – Johnny "Guitar" Watson, American singer and guitarist (d. 1996)
- 1936 – Jim Marshall, American photographer (d. 2010)
- 1937 – Billy Meier, Swiss ufologist
- 1938 – Victor Buono, American actor (d. 1982)
- 1938 – Emile Griffith, US Virgin Islands boxer
- 1939 – Michael Cimino, American film director
- 1940 – Angelo D'Aleo, American singer (Dion and the Belmonts)
- 1940 – Fran Tarkenton, American football player
- 1941 – Neil Bogart, American record executive (d. 1982)
- 1941 – Dory Funk, Jr., American professional wrestler
- 1941 – Bridget Hanley, American actress
- 1943 – Blythe Danner, American actress
- 1943 – Dennis Edwards, American singer (The Temptations)
- 1943 – Shawn Phillips, American singer, guitarist and songwriter
- 1944 – Trisha Noble, Australian singer and actress
- 1945 – Johnny Cymbal, American singer and songwriter (d. 1993)
- 1945 – Bob Griese, American football player
- 1947 – Paul Auster, American novelist
- 1947 – Dave Davies, English musician (The Kinks)
- 1947 – Stephen McHattie, Canadian actor
- 1947 – Melanie Safka, American singer-songwriter
- 1948 – Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, East Timorese politician, Nobel Peace laureate
- 1948 – Henning Mankell, Swedish author
- 1948 – Jim Lockhart, Irish musician (Horslips)
- 1949 – Arthur Kane, American musician (New York Dolls) (d. 2004)
- 1949 – Hennie Kuiper, Dutch cyclist
- 1949 – Donald Palma, American musician
- 1950 – Morgan Fairchild, American actress
- 1950 – Pamela Franklin, British actress
- 1951 – Eugenijus Riabovas, Lithuanian football manager
- 1952 – Fred Lynn, American baseball player
- 1953 – Savvas Tsitouridis, Greek politician
- 1954 – Tiger Williams, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1955 – Stephen Euin Cobb, American novelist
- 1955 – Kirsty Wark, British broadcast journalist
- 1956 – John Jefferson, American football player
- 1956 – Nathan Lane, American actor
- 1956 – Lee Ranaldo, American musician (Sonic Youth)
- 1957 – Chico Serra, Brazilian racing driver
- 1957 – Steven Stapleton, English musician (Nurse With Wound)
- 1958 – Joe F. Edwards, Jr., American astronaut
- 1958 – N. Gregory Mankiw, American economist
- 1959 – Thomas Calabro, American actor
- 1959 – Yasuharu Konishi, Japanese musician (Pizzicato Five)
- 1959 – Lol Tolhurst, English musician (The Cure)
- 1959 – Ferzan Özpetek, Turkish film director
- 1960 – Kerry Von Erich, American professional wrestler (d. 1993)
- 1960 – Tim Chandler, American bass guitar player (Daniel Amos, The Swirling Eddies)
- 1960 – Joachim Löw, German football manager
- 1961 – Jay Adams, American skateboarder
- 1961 – Linda Eder, American singer
- 1961 – Keith Gordon, American actor
- 1962 – Michele Greene, American actress
- 1962 – Marty Jannetty, American professional wrestler
- 1963 – Raghuram Rajan, American economist
- 1965 – Kathleen Kinmont, American actress
- 1965 – Karlous Marx Shinohamba, Namibian politician
- 1965 – Maura Tierney, American actress
- 1966 – Frank Coraci, American film director
- 1966 – Kostas Patavoukas, Greek basketball player
- 1967 – Dave Benson Phillips, English children's TV presenter
- 1967 – Mixu Paatelainen, Finnish footballer and coach
- 1967 – Bob Taylor, English footballer
- 1968 – Vlade Divac, Serbian basketball player
- 1969 – Retief Goosen, South African golfer
- 1969 – Robert Pack, American basketball player
- 1970 – Óscar Córdoba, Colombian footballer
- 1970 – Warwick Davis, English actor
- 1971 – Sean Dawkins, American football player
- 1971 – Elisa Donovan, American actress
- 1971 – Vincent Elbaz, French actor
- 1971 – Hong Seok-cheon, South Korean actor
- 1971 – Sarah Kane, English playwright (d. 1999)
- 1971 – Christian Liljegren, Swedish singer-songwriter (Narnia, Audiovision, and Divinefire)
- 1971 – Rockwilder, American producer
- 1972 – Jesper Kyd, Danish composer
- 1972 – Mart Poom, Estonian footballer
- 1973 – Ilana Sod, Mexican journalist
- 1974 – Konrad Gałka, Polish swimmer
- 1974 – Julie Meadows, American porn actress
- 1974 – Miriam Yeung, Hong Kong actress
- 1975 – Brad Thorn, New Zealand rugby player
- 1976 – Mathieu Dandenault, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1976 – Isla Fisher, Scottish-Australian actress
- 1976 – Tim Heidecker, American comedian
- 1976 – Dwayne Rudd, American football player
- 1977 – Daddy Yankee, Puerto Rican singer and rapper
- 1977 – Marek Zidlicky, Czeck ice hockey player
- 1978 – Joan Capdevila, Spanish footballer
- 1978 – Adrian R'Mante, American actor
- 1978 – Eliza Schneider, American actress and singer
- 1979 – Becca Fitzpatrick, American author
- 1980 – Sarah Lewitinn, American writer
- 1980 – Kim E-Z, former member of the Korean girl group, Baby V.O.X.
- 1981 – Alisa Reyes, American actress and singer
- 1981 – Maurice Ross, Scottish footballer
- 1982 – Marie-Eve Drolet, Canadian short track speed skater
- 1982 – Alan Gurr, Australian V8 Supercar driver
- 1982 – Jessica Harp, American singer (The Wreckers)
- 1982 – Bridget Regan, American actress
- 1983 – Richard Bartel, American football player
- 1983 – Silambarasan Rajendar, Indian actor
- 1983 – Gabriel Sargissian, Armenian chess Grandmaster
- 1984 – Sara Carbonero, Spanish TV presenter and journalist
- 1985 – Andrei Kostitsyn, Belarusian hockey player
- 1986 – Lucas Duda, American baseball player
- 1986 – Mathieu Giroux, Canadian speed skater
- 1986 – Rebel Wilson, Australian actress
- 1987 – Jung Ayul, South Korean actress (d. 2012)
- 1987 – Angela Fong, Canadian wrestler, model, cheerleader
- 1988 – Kyuhyun, South Korean singer (Super Junior)
- 1988 – Nicola Redomi, Italian footballer
- 1988 – Gregory van der Wiel, Dutch footballer
- 1989 – Slobodan Rajković, Serbian footballer
- 1989 – Ryne Sanborn, American actor
- 1989 – Julio Jones, American Football player
- 1990 – Sean Kingston, Jamaican-American singer
- 1990 – Sterling Moore, American football player
- 1991 – Nikola Hofmanova, Austrian tennis player
- 1991 – Glenn McCuen, American actor and model
- 1993 – Getter Jaani, Estonian actress and singer
- 1997 – Paige Mary Hourigan, New Zealand tennis player
[edit]Deaths
- 619 – Laurence of Canterbury, 2nd Archbishop of Canterbury
- 699 – Saint Werburgh
- 1014 – Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark, England and Norway (b. c. 960)
- 1116 – King Coloman of Hungary (b. 1070)
- 1399 – John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (b. 1340)
- 1428 – Ashikaga Yoshimochi, Japanese shogun (b. 1386)
- 1451 – Murad II, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1404)
- 1468 – Johannes Gutenberg, German publisher (b. c. 1398)
- 1549 – Sri Suriyothai, Chief Queen of Ayutthaya
- 1566 – George Cassander, Flemish theologian (b. 1513)
- 1619 – Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham, English conspirator (b. 1564)
- 1737 – Tommaso Ceva, Italian mathematician (b. 1648)
- 1802 – Pedro Rodríguez, Conde de Campomanes, Spanish statesman (b. 1723)
- 1820 – Emperor Gia Long the founded the Nguyễn Dynasty, the last of the Vietnamese dynasties (b. 1762)
- 1832 – George Crabbe, English naturalist (b. 1754)
- 1862 – Jean-Baptiste Biot, French physicist (b. 1774)
- 1866 – François-Xavier Garneau, French Canadian poet and historian (b. 1809)
- 1873 – Isaac Baker Brown, English gynaecologist and surgeon (b. 1811)
- 1874 – King William Charles Lunalilo of Hawaiʻi (b. 1835)
- 1889 – Belle Starr, American outlaw (b. 1848)
- 1922 – John Butler Yeats, Northern Irish artist (b. 1839)
- 1924 – Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States, Nobel laureate (b. 1856)
- 1929 – Agner Krarup Erlang, Danish scientist (b. 1878)
- 1935 – Hugo Junkers, German engineer (b. 1859)
- 1936 – Sophie of Schönburg-Waldenburg, consort of William of Wied, Prince of Albania (b. 1885)
- 1937 – Marija Leiko, Latvian film actress (b. 1887)
- 1944 – Yvette Guilbert, French cabaret singer (b. 1865)
- 1945 – Roland Freisler, Nazi leader (b. 1893)
- 1947 – Marc Mitscher, American Navy Admiral (b. 1887)
- 1950 – Sid Field, English Comedian and Actor (b. 1904)
- 1952 – Harold L. Ickes, American administrator and politician (b. 1874)
- 1955 – Vasili Blokhin, Soviet Union executioner (b. 1895)
- 1956 – Émile Borel, French mathematician (b. 1871)
- 1956 – Johnny Claes, Belgian racing driver (b. 1916)
- 1959 – The Day the Music Died
- Buddy Holly, American singer (b. 1936)
- Roger Peterson, pilot (b. 1937)
- Ritchie Valens, American singer (b. 1941)
- J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, American singer (b. 1930)
- 1960 – Fred Buscaglione, Italian singer and actor (b. 1921)
- 1961 – Viscount Dunrossil, Australian governor-general (b. 1893)
- 1961 – Anna May Wong, American actress (b. 1905)
- 1964 – Sir Albert Richardson, English architect (b. 1880)
- 1967 – Joe Meek, English record producer (b. 1929)
- 1969 – C. N. Annadurai Indian (Tamil Nadu) Politician (b. 1909)
- 1969 – Eduardo Mondlane Mozambican independence founder (b. 1920)
- 1975 – William D. Coolidge, American physicist and inventor (b. 1873)
- 1975 – Umm Kulthum, Egyptian singer (b. 1904)
- 1985 – Frank Oppenheimer, American physicist (b. 1912)
- 1989 – John Cassavetes, American actor (b. 1929)
- 1989 – Lionel Newman, American movie music orchestra leader, composer and arranger (b. 1916)
- 1991 – Harry Ackerman, American TV executive producer (b. 1912)
- 1991 – Nancy Kulp, American actress (b. 1921)
- 1993 – Françoys Bernier, Canadian pianist and conductor (b. 1927)
- 1996 – Audrey Meadows, American actress (b. 1922)
- 1998 – Fat Pat, American rapper (Screwed Up Click) (b. 1970)
- 1998 – Karla Faye Tucker, American murderer (b. 1959)
- 2002 – Lucien Rivard, Quebec criminal (b. 1914)
- 2003 – Lana Clarkson, American actress and model (b. 1962)
- 2004 – Jason Raize, American actor (b. 1975)
- 2005 – Zurab Zhvania, Prime Minister of Georgia (b. 1963)
- 2006 – Al Lewis, American actor (b. 1923)
- 2009 – Sheng-yen, Buddhist monk and founder of Dharma Drum Mountain. (b. 1930)
- 2010 – Regina, Crown Princess of Austria (b. 1925)
- 2010 – Dick McGuire American basketball player (b. 1926)
- 2011 – Ron Piché, Canadian baseball player (b. 1935)
- 2011 – Maria Schneider, French actress (b. 1952)
- 2012 – Ben Gazzara, American actor (b. 1930)
[edit]Holidays and observances
- Christian Feast Day:
- Earliest day on which Shrove Tuesday can fall, while March 9 is the latest; celebrated on Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. (Christianity)
- Four Chaplains Day (United States)
- Heroes' Day (Mozambique)
- Martyrs' Day (São Tomé and Príncipe)
- Setsubun (Japan)
- Veterans' Day (Thailand)
===
All the strife is coming to a head … and it’s Gillard’s
Piers Akerman – Sunday, February 03, 2013 (12:15am)
A number of senior Labor figures have compared the Gillard government’s performance over the past week with the dying days of the Whitlam government in 1975, marred by distrust.
===
Gillard’s kicking own goals
Miranda Devine – Sunday, February 03, 2013 (8:48am)
IT really wasn’t an auspicious week for the Prime Minister to announce history’s longest election campaign.
Whether she chooses to call it a campaign or not, through a combination of bad luck and own goals, the omens for Julia Gillard have not been good.
It began on Monday night with her partner, Tim Mathieson’s, unfortunate joke about choosing a “small, Asian, female doctor” to perform rectal examinations for prostate cancer.
It was the First Bloke’s first official speech for the year, at a reception for the West Indies cricket team made right in front of Gillard, whose smile froze solid as the words emerged from his mouth.
In any reasonable environment, what he said would be written off as harmless blokey oafishness. But he fell victim to the anti-bloke jihad Gillard launched last year with her world-famous misogyny rant against Tony Abbott.
The PM’s Bloke Trap was meant for the Opposition Leader, an Oxonian Rhodes scholar with degrees in economics and law, who is a bloke, but no oaf. Instead it has become a trap for all blokes, which is a predicament for Labor, the blokiest of all parties.
Own goal one.
Mathieson also fell victim to the outcry over the government’s draconian proposed anti-discrimination laws, with their potential threat (since softened) of criminalising such jokes.
Double own goal.
On Tuesday, Rudd supporter Robert McClelland, the former attorney-general Gillard dumped from cabinet, announced he would not be contesting the election, amid reports he would join the bench of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission, and speculation about a by-election in his southern Sydney seat of Barton.
And there came a poll shocker showing Labor would lose up to 18 seats in the election.
Wednesday was Gillard, in her new glasses, with a crisp set-piece speech to the National Press Club and the problem of how to seize the moment, especially with Tony Abbott up the next day in the same venue.
Announcing September 14 as the election date seemed to hit the spot, although for NSW voters it evoked memories, unflattering to Labor, of other longed-for election days set by fixed terms far into the future.
Barely 24 hours later, two long-running Labor scandals hit the headlines.
Central Coast MP Craig Thomson, long protected by Gillard, was arrested, hardly a surprise to him or those he confides in, since Victorian police had invited him to surrender himself in Melbourne before Christmas, an offer they say he had declined.
Then there was former NSW Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid and family before ICAC in an unfolding story alleging corruption from ill-gotten mining leases involving ministers in the governments of wait for it - Gillard’s Foreign Minister, former NSW Premier Bob Carr and his successor Morris Iemma, now said to be a contender to take over McClelland’s seat.
Labor’s prospects are stinkier than durian in a Shanghai street market.
But there was worse to come. On Friday night, ALP vice-president Tony Sheldon gave an extraordinary speech at the Young Labor annual conference saying the party was suffering from a “crisis of belief brought on by a lack of moral and political purpose”, and that the
NSW Labor Right had become “a byword for what is wrong with Australian politics”.
A couple of hours later and the Opposition’s Christopher Pyne was on ABC’s Lateline, wiping the floor with a punch-drunk assistant treasurer (and marginal western Sydney seat-warmer) David Bradbury, hailed as one of Labor’s rising stars, who didn’t even know about Sheldon’s speech.
Then, just before midnight on Friday, came the bombshell news, first tweeted by my colleague Peter van Onselen: First Chris Evans, leader of the senate, and third-most senior minister in the government, and then Gillard ally attorney-general Nicola Roxon, will quit cabinet and retire at the next election.
Oh, and all the while there was also Kevin Rudd, tweeting away innocently on Friday night, including a strange retweet of a spoof movie poster depicting him slaying foes with a chainsaw, while a buxom woman clings desperately to his leg.
Rudd, by the way, had begun the day popping up in his former slot on Channel Seven’s Sunrise, opposite his old frenemy Joe Hockey, in what will be a weekly showcase of his talents.
All in all it was a messy start for a PM trying valiantly to defy poll figures showing a dispiriting trouncing for Labor, with a swag of western Sydney seats kaput.
Gillard put on a sunny face yesterday, as she always does, but you can’t help but think she is over-strategising every move.
There’s not much she can do about ICAC or the Victorian police, but her central campaign strategy of demonising Abbott is a cyanide pill which only exacerbates the empty, calculating cynicism corroding the core of modern Labor. In any case, giving Abbott a seven month platform in the hope he will better hang himself is high risk.
The fact is, that rough edges and all, and pathetically eager as he is to come across as a “good bloke”, Abbott is not what Labor says he is. He’s not “nuts”, weird, or anti-woman, even though the female scold section of the chattering classes keep writing that he makes their “skin crawl”.
Abbott and his family are refreshingly normal. They live in an unpretentious house in an unpretentious suburb surrounded by family and long-term friends. The kids work part-time in shopping malls and do volunteer work. The working mum does volunteer work.
The dad has an unusual job that often takes him out of town but he also volunteers.Demonising Abbott demonises any suburban family bloke. You can’t draw an imaginary line between them. And it will prove to be Gillard’s most profound own goal.
In the marginal seats where this election will be won or lost - former Labor heartland turned relatively affluent aspirational - blokes abound and the women who are married to them like it that way.
===
Admitting defeat maketh The Man
Miranda Devine – Sunday, February 03, 2013 (9:05am)
BOXING has a place in my heart because one of my earliest memories of my father was staying up late in Tokyo to watch him on TV, in Lionel Rose’s corner in 1968, when the legendary Aboriginal boxer won the world bantamweight title fight.
The first boxing match I went to in Sydney was Anthony Mundine’s first professional fight in 2000, after he left rugby league, a glittering display of showmanship, even if it disappointed purists.
He was nice and even gave me a signed boxing glove to auction for charity at my childrens’ school.
He’s courted controversy off and on, but I always admired him, in part because of his decent father Tony, but also because he didn’t drink, smoke or take drugs, and was a clean-living, hard-working role model for young people, especially Aborigines.
But his unsportsmanlike behaviour before and after last week’s fight against Daniel Geale was beyond disappointing.
But his unsportsmanlike behaviour before and after last week’s fight against Daniel Geale was beyond disappointing.
To complain he was “robbed” of victory when all judges and impartial observers of the match unequivocally scored the fight as a Geale win was plain embarrassing. Anyone who genuinely cares about Mundine ought to start telling him some home truths: to man up and accept defeat, because it is there we learn our greatest lessons.
Geale is, by all accounts, a good family man, who got his battered body out of bed a few hours after the fight to take his little girl to her first day of school. He didn’t deserve to be called an “Uncle Tom” by Mundine or have his own Aboriginal heritage called into question.
It’s all very well to say controversy makes for more $50 pay-per-views but soon, when 37-year-old Anthony Mundine is just another ex-boxer, the dollars dry up and his manipulative entourage no longer finds a use for him, what is left is his reputation.
I’m sure he’s better than that.
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WE MISS YOU NICOLA
Tim Blair – Sunday, February 03, 2013 (6:47pm)
Mark Dreyfus dials up the outrage:
Remarks comparing the federal government to the Nazi party are offensive and hurtful, new federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says.Coalition frontbencher Christopher Pyne on Sunday said the federal government was unravelling like Hitler’s government in the movie Downfall …“These immature and offensive comments have no place in Australian political debate,” Mr Dreyfus told journalists on Sunday.“There is no place in Australian political debate for a comparison of any Australian government with Hitler’s Third Reich.“These comments are deeply hurtful to holocaust survivors, they are deeply hurtful to any right thinking Australian.”
Oh, really? But what about ...
Mr Dreyfus said his own comments last year comparing Mr Abbott’s campaign on the carbon tax to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels was different.
(Via CL)
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LOW AIM
Tim Blair – Sunday, February 03, 2013 (11:45am)
With respect, Mr President, the idea is to shoot the skeet before it lands:
Via Lee M., who asks: “What the hell is Barack ‘Annie Oakley in Mom Jeans’ Obama shooting at – the trap house? His gun is almost horizontal, yet judging by the smoke it’s in muzzle jump. Was he shooting at a copy of the Bill of Rights nailed to a post five feet off of the ground?
Via Lee M., who asks: “What the hell is Barack ‘Annie Oakley in Mom Jeans’ Obama shooting at – the trap house? His gun is almost horizontal, yet judging by the smoke it’s in muzzle jump. Was he shooting at a copy of the Bill of Rights nailed to a post five feet off of the ground?
“What’s the smoke blowing out of the right side of the barrel – is it a ‘one-sided compensator’ that prevents him from shooting too far right? And while he’s no doubt firing low base shells he sure can handle recoil for a skinny guy. If I didn’t know better I’d think he was posing with a fake shotgun that was just blowing smoke out of the barrel for effect.
“Now this is what shootin’ clays looks like: leaning into the shot; actually pointing the gun up(where the targets are).”
Better stick to bowling.
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Smith denies wanting to jump ship, too
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY032013(7:34pm)
More of that “certainty” and “stability” Julia Gillard promised on Wednesday:
WA Labor may approach Mr Smith to take the helm if it loses the March 9 state election and federal Labor loses the September 14 poll, News Limited reported today.“This subject matter has been raised a number of times over the years during the minister’s time as Member for Perth,” a spokesman for Mr Smith said in a statement.“So far as these suggestions about conversations over the years are concerned, the minister has said ‘I made my choice about which parliament I wanted to be in a long time ago, and I’m not proposing to shift’....
Shopworkers union boss Joe Bullock was reported as saying Mr Smith had indicated to him he was interested in switching.
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To explain this morning…
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY032013(12:46pm)
The Bolt Report now attracts more viewers in total than Insiders on ABC TV does… Oztam figures up to last Sunday show there has been a 11%-plus rise in viewing of his program on Sundays (the 10am broadcast and then the 4.30pm repeat) in metro markets… His program has so far averaged in 2012 a total of 272,000 people in both screenings, up from the 258,000 who watched in 2011, when the program started.
But for those wondering what’s happening at Channel 10, with Insiders back today, here’s a report on the latest:
Ten has dusted off its long-running national current affairs show, Meet The Press, and has partnered with News Limited to give the program a face lift.
The revamped show will kick off in February with journalist Kathryn Robinson to host the new hour-long format…
The announcement to return Meet the Press “to its place as a key showcase of political journalism, with a renewed focus on policy debate” comes after the election was set yesterday for September.
The extension to an hour-long format will see the show move beyond its focus on politics to include sport, entertainment and lifestyle. Experts in fashion, entertainment, money and health will be pulled in from Ten and News Limited talent pools.
The new-look show will return on Sunday, February 17 at 10.30am.
James Warburton, chief executive officer at Network Ten, said: “Over the past two decades, Meet The Press has become an iconic program on Australian television screens.”
“Our partnership with News Limited will take Meet The Press to a new level and is another example of the innovative content partnerships we are pursuing at Network Ten.”
Kim Williams, News Limited’s chief executive, added: “Network Ten and News Limited will partner to create a fresh news show that will resonate strongly with audiences. It will cover politics in ways that are really relevant to people across Australia, as well as offering fresh coverage of sport, entertainment and lifestyle.”
Bernie Slattery reviews today’s Insiders.
For those missed the AbbottAbbottAbbott show, a replay:
UPDATE
Thank you for all the kind feedback. Unfortunately, with no moderators on I can’t publish it. Which may be as well…
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Who do you trust? A warmist or your lying eyes?
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY032013(12:26pm)
Climate Change Minister Greg Combet, November 2011:
Climate Change Minister Greg Combet backed climate adviser Ross Garnaut’s judgment that Australia was falling behind the world’s biggest economies in dealing with climate change and said it was ‘’absolute rubbish’’ to suggest it was acting ahead of the world…
Government advice says China leads the world in renewable energy investment, has shut some of its most polluting coal plants and plans to tax coal, oil and gas extraction in its western provinces. The US Congress had rejected emissions trading, but more than 10 US states and Canadian provinces plan to introduce a joint scheme in 2012.
‘’I think the argument that we’re out ahead of China and the US is fallacious,’’ Mr Combet said.
Environmentalist Geoff Russell in The Punch, June 2012:
China understands the accelerating rate of climate change and its human and environmental impacts and is acting accordingly.
The Climate Bridge group, October 2012:
Individuals ask ‘what is the point?’ of reducing their own carbon footprints, when ‘dirty’ China is belching out greenhouse gases without limit.
However, as demonstrated by the recent Climate Bridge report ‘Carbon Markets and Climate Policy in China: China’s pursuit of a clean energy future”, released in collaboration with the Climate Institute, these excuses are no longer valid. China is taking ambitious measures to tackle climate change…
For Australia, the realisation that it is being soundly beaten by China in the global clean technology race should be a call to action.
Chief Cimate Commissioner Tim Flannery, November 2012:
China leads the world in renewable energy with the most installed renewable power and the largest investment in 2011.
Beijing smog, January 2013:
(Thanks to reader MJA.)
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Labor runs out of cash for those free computers
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY032013(8:34am)
Another Labor promise turns out to be less than it seemed:
THE federal government’s scheme providing high school students with laptop computers is on the brink of collapse, leaving parents with hefty bills and educators with a chaotic start to the school year.Schools are already telling parents they must lease approved laptops for pupils this year, at a cost of hundreds of dollars. Some are telling students to bring their own computers, raising a raft of problems around internet capacity, security and provision of software, as well as placing pressure on low-income families…In 2007, as a key election promise - reiterated by Labor in 2010 - then prime minister Kevin Rudd promised all high school students would receive a laptop, a ‘’21st century toolbox’’, but funding for the program finishes in June.A spokeswoman for School Education Minister Peter Garrett would not make a commitment on future funding, saying the five-year program had been ‘’delivered on time and within budget’’, with 957,805 computers purchased nationally at a cost of $2.4 billion…
Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals president Frank Sal said it would not be feasible for schools to continue providing computers for all students when the funding dried up.
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Coalition makes Thomson an offer too good to refuse
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY032013(7:51am)
A potentially embarrassing development - for Labor - is averted with the Coalition’s help:
CRAIG Thomson has dropped his bid to delay his first court appearance on fraud charges because Parliament is sitting and he will now front a judge in Melbourne this week.
The MP, who faces 149 counts of fraud, had been advised that the Parliamentary Privileges Act exempts an MP from being arrested or appearing in court five days before or after Parliament sits.
The Coalition makes an unnecessary offer - given Thomson now claims to be an independent:
Manager of opposition business Christopher Pyne said yesterday the Coalition was prepared to offer Mr Thomson a pair so he could attend court.
That offer has been accepted. I think the Coalition has made a tactical mistake. Let Thomson try to delay the hearing. Let Labor complain he needs a pair from the Coalition.
Meanwhile:
Yesterday Mr Thomson was photographed allegedly driving erratically on his way to Sydney.
Mr McArdle said the media was harassing his client.
“That’s all a big lie. He has contacted the Australian Federal Police to report the person who was frightening him,” he said.
UPDATE
Reader OnceWasAGlobalWarmingAlarmist is one of many readers to disagree with me:
I think it’s a great tactical move. It makes the Coalition seem magnanimous while highlighting the obvious ... that Thomson is still Labor and the government depends on his vote. It only seems like a poor decision if you expected to see the same negative tactics that were previously employed. We’re in campaign mode remember?
Reader Rebellion likewise:
Andrew, I have to disagree with you on this one. I think it is a brilliant move. The nightly news will show the coalition bagging the government for their member CT, and then juxtapose that with him attending court instead of sitting in the House. Likewise, by offering to “Pair” him, CT’s position as an ALP member is further entrenched within the minds of the punters. You only offer a pair to a Government member, not an independent. Kind of hard for the ALP to completely disown him if he gets treated as a govt flunky.
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Plant forests and the rain will come
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY032013(7:41am)
Judith Curry of the Georgia Institute of Technology, an author of the standard textbook Thermodynamics of Atmospheres and Oceans, is encouraging. “The process they describe is physically correct,” she said. “The main question is its relative magnitude compared with other processes.” She thinks it could explain why climate models do not get monsoons and hurricanes right.
Fancy. Scientists questioning the science. I thought that was called “denialism”. Turns out it’s called “science”.
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So far, not so good
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY032013(6:59am)
After four days of Julia Gillard’s 227-day election campaign - announced from behind new glasses - reader Brian wonders:
I wonder how much longer the PM will persist with her new lucky spectacles before they are put back in the dressing-up box.
Good question. The media commentary today is not kind, even from Fairfax.
WATCHING Julia Gillard’s government disintegrate is a gruesome revisitation of the flame-out of Kristina Keneally’s government two years ago.
THE Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, capped the third day of her election campaign with the resignation of two frontbenchers, leaving her to fend off accusations Labor was spinning out of control…
‘’We agreed at the right time they would relinquish their ministerial roles and I would make new appointments,’’ Ms Gillard said. ‘’This is precisely the right time as Parliament resumes next week.’’But exasperated colleagues did not share her view. ‘’If this is the best time, then I know nothing about politics,’’ said one. ‘’This is not a cunning plan … it’s ridiculous, it’s got me f---ed,’’ said another.
The resignations have also raised talk of rats leaving a sinking ship and had internal critics claiming it again showed the Prime Minister’s political judgment remained problematic, with her government seen as lurching from crisis to crisis.
JULIA Gillard wept as two of her senior ministers quit politics yesterday, insisting the pair was not deserting a sinking ship.
But senior Labor sources predicted more resignations would follow before the next election as Ms Gillard hinted the Speaker may choose to delay any resulting by-elections until September 14, the date of the federal election.
WATCHING two ministers quit after you’ve just set the election date is an unlikely strategy for an election campaign.
Julia Gillard has confirmed some of the doubts among her own colleagues about her political tactics by announcing a reshuffle so soon after a major speech last Wednesday that sought to project “certainty” about her plans as well as the idea that Labor had everything in place to fight to retain government…
Caucus members who strongly support Gillard nonetheless admit she has a “roll the dice” approach that worries them.
JULIA Gillard’s war bunker is now such tightly controlled airspace that even when she has a plan it looks like chaos to the ALP caucus.
The Prime Minister still lets Wayne Swan, Anthony Albanese and a handful of others in on some secrets.
But most ministers are strapped into a re-enactment of the Hindenburg blimp disaster for the same shock-and-awe revelations that voters get.
UPDATE
This doesn’t sound helpful at all, even with a Labor man writing the script:
The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that work has begun on the series, with author Bob Ellis commissioned to write an initial script…Mr Ellis has been a speechwriter for Foreign Minister Bob Carr, with whom he remains a close confidant… He once chastised Ms Gillard for her “girly tears” over the death of her father, and using John Gillard’s death to “take time off playing hooky from her national obligations” while he has described Mr Rudd as “friendless”.
The series is the brainchild of Beyond executive producer Mark Hamlyn, whose company lists Nine, Seven and the ABC among its clients.
The series is supposed to screen “within 12 months”. The election is in seven and half months.
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My good friend Tracey Lee Maxwell's acting showreel.
You may recognise her as CereCere from Dead Moon Circus. I thought this might be interesting for all the fans and supporters to see :)
Tracey Lee Maxwell Thanks for sharing David Daniel Ball!! *ahem... sir* hehe
Would you be so kind as to share this link below? I'm in the running to win "Most Fascinating Actress" of the month for Star Central Magazine (You may have seen my posts..? LoL) I would looove your votes and support!! You can vote once a day and voting closes Feb 28... Thank you so much!!! Sending you good wishes and many blessings!! Chat soon xx Tracey
Most Fascinating Female Actresses Of The Month – March 2013 Edition===
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A few more words about the "advice" Ms Gillard gave about incorporating the AWU-WRA===
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Goody. I luv seconds for dinner and dessert
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The Beach Bash Xtreme Obstacle Challenge came to The Entrance this weekend. Caught up this morning with one of the local competitors, Paul who just wants to see strong, secure and stable Government. Congratulations Paul on successfully completing a difficult course.
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The Glass Igloo Village in Kakslauttanen, Finland is a winter resort and skyward-focused hotel of individual glass igloos. Each igloo is fashioned with glass that allows one to gaze at the magnificent northern lights.
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The corridors of Parliament House ?
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Fear will bring you into disobedience. Faith will bring you to dependence on God - Mandy F
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Valentines Day is fast approaching, make this Black Forest Cake for that special someone from our cookbook, 'Chocolate: A Love Story'! Max Brenner
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And Vietnamese-Australian cage fighter Thanh Vu advances to the semi-finals of the Bantamweight Grand Prix with a devastating TKO victory in the first round over Malaysian Bantamweight Mohd Fouzein!
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WE'VE GOTA GET OUT OF THIS PLACE...........
More Labor resignations are expected as government members flee Labor's dysfunctional and divided regime.
Just look at the chaos and confusion in Gillard’s ranks in the last 3 days – do they seriously expect the public to give them another 3 years !!!. Craig Kelly
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