Thought for the day March 9th 2013 and some interesting historical facts

March 9th, 2013

Here's our Saturday thought for the day and some interesting historical facts
the historical facts courtesy of Wikipedia

632 – The Last Sermon (Khutbah, Khutbatul Wada') of Prophet Muhammad.1566 – David Rizzio, private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, is murdered in the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland.

1765 – After a campaign by the writer Voltaire, judges in Paris posthumously exonerate Jean Calas of murdering his son. Calas had been tortured and executed in 1762 on the charge, though his son may have actually committed suicide.

1796 – Napoléon Bonaparte marries his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais.

1841 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them had been taken into slavery illegally.

1842 – The first documented discovery of gold in California occurs at Rancho San Francisco, six years before the California Gold Rush.

1862 – American Civil War: The USS Monitor and CSS Virginia fight to a draw in the Battle of Hampton Roads, the first battle between two ironclad warships.

1910 – The Westmoreland County Coal Strike, involving 15,000 coal miners represented by the United Mine Workers, begins

1916 – Pancho Villa leads nearly 500 Mexican raiders in an attack against Columbus, New Mexico.

1933 – Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt submits the Emergency Banking Act to Congress, the first of his New Deal policies.

1944 – World War II: Japanese troops counter-attack American forces on Hill 700 in Bougainville in a battle that would last five days.1945 – The Bombing of Tokyo by the United States Army Air Forces began, one of the most destructive bombing raids in history.

1954 – McCarthyism: CBS television broadcasts the See It Now episode, "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy", produced by Fred Friendly.

1957 – A magnitude 8.3 earthquake in the Andreanof Islands, Alaska triggers a Pacific-wide tsunami causing extensive damage to Hawaii and Oahu.

1959 – The Barbie doll makes its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York.

1960 – Dr. Belding Hibbard Scribner implants for the first time a shunt he invented into a patient, which allows the patient to receive hemodialysis on a regular basis.

1961 – Sputnik 9 successfully launches, carrying a human dummy nicknamed Ivan Ivanovich, and demonstrating that Soviet Union was ready to begin human spaceflight.

1967 – Trans World Airlines Flight 553, a Douglas DC-9-15, crashes in a field in Concord Township, Ohiofollowing a mid-air collision with a Beechcraft Baron, killing 26.

1977 – The Hanafi Muslim Siege: In a thirty-nine hour standoff, armed Hanafi Muslims seize threeWashington, D.C., buildings, killing two and taking 149 hostage.

1997 – Comet Hale-Bopp: Observers in China, Mongolia and eastern Siberia are treated to a rare double feature as an eclipse permits Hale-Bopp to be seen during the day.

2010 – The first same-sex marriages in Washington, D.C., take place.

2011 – Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing after 39 flights.

“Only dumb people try to impress smart people.
Smart people just do what they do.”

~ Chris Rock

[Chris Rock]Christopher Julius “Chris” Rock III (born February 7, 1965) is an American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer, and director. After working as a stand-up comic and appearing in small film roles, Rock came to wider prominence as a cast member of Saturday Night Live in the early 1990′s. He went on to more prominent film roles, and a series of acclaimed comedy specials for HBO…source