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Oscar Week: The History Of The Oscars

Welcome to YakkityYak’s Oscar Week! We have a whole bunch of fun things planned for the week so be sure to keep your eyes on the Yak! Also, be sure to head into our forum HERE during the week where we will be voting for what nominees we think should win, leading up to First Annual Yakkster Oscars to be handed out on Sunday, February 27th. (No need to register to vote!) PLUS, just to see who’s the best when it comes to actual Oscar predictions, we’ll have a “Predict The Actual Winner” contest, with a prize of course! To enter to win a prize, you must be registered in the forum. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER, then go vote!

We thought we would start out this week with the history of the Oscars and how the annual tradition got it’s start. It began with man named Louis B. Mayer, studio boss of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who conceived the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927. Initially, it was a non-profit corporation made to promote the art of movie making. The Academy had 36 members at it’s beginning, with Douglas Fairbanks Sr. acting as president. The very first Academy Awards were actually held out of the public eye; a private banquet at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel was held to hand out the awards on May 16th, 1929. Tickets to the event held in what is known as the “Blossom Room” cost just $5!

There was very little suspense, actually no suspense at all, during this first ceremony, as the winners were already announced three months prior to the event. The following year, however, the Academy decided to keep the results private, only releasing a list of the winners to various news publications to be released at 11:00pm the night of the awards. This practice worked for awhile, until 1940, when the LA Times broke protocol and published the winners in the evening edition, which nominees were able to read as they arrived at the event. Yikes! Thus, the sealed envelope system was born in 1941, which is still in use today.

Only 15 awards were handed out at the first awards ceremony, representing cinematic achievements for 1927 and 1928. Emil Jannings won the first Best Actor Oscar, and received the very first Oscar statuette, literally. Jannings put in a request to have it delivered to him early since he was unable to attend the ceremony; he needed to return to Europe before the event could begin. This first ceremony was the only one that didn’t have an audience, but the enthusiasm surrounding the event was so great that an L.A. radio station began having a special one hour broadcast. It has been broadcast via radio and TV ever since.

The awards themselves continued to be held as a banquet at the Biltmore or Ambassador Hotels until 1942, when increased attendance made it impractical. The Academy needed a change of scenery to accommodate the growing amount of guests, so the 16th Annual Academy Awards were held at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, marking the move to a theater ever since. The first televised Oscars occurred in 1953 allowing millions across the U.S. and Canada to take in this prestigious event. The first color broadcast occurred in 1966, and the first international broadcast in 1969!

There are a ton of little known facts and fascinating Oscar trivia which the Yak will be proudly presenting to you in the coming week, with “Oscar Didja Know?” daily articles, Nominee specific articles, and more! So, keep your browsers tuned into the Yak all week, and don’t forget to come over to the FORUM and vote in the Oscar polls. You just may win a prize!

Also, be sure to leave a comment below! Are you excited for the Oscars? Do you have Oscar parties? Who do you want to win?

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Flashback Friday – “The Adventures of Huck Finn” Published

On this day in history, in 1885, Mark Twain published “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”! Did you know that Mark Twain was a pen name, that his real name was actually Samuel Clemens? Twain saw this book as a sequel to his 1876 novel “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, but this book also saw a more serious approach as well as it focused on the institution of slavery and other issues of the south at that time.

This wonderful classic of American literature told the tale of Huckleberry Finn and his friend Jim, a runaway slave as they rode a raft down the Mississippi river. If you’ve read the book you know that he ran way because he was about to be sold and separated from his wife and children; Huck went along with him to help him get to Ohio. What I really liked about this book was it’s satirical take on slavery, racism, religion and the overall social attitude of that era. To me Jim was strong, generous and brave as well was wise, whereas the other characters were shown to be violent, stupid and/or selfish. Huck was very naive to me, but the way he ended up questioning society’s attitude in general was just outstanding.

This book has not been without controversy, however, heck a month after it’s publication it was banned by a library in Concord, Massachusetts, saying it’s subject matter was “tawdry” while the narrative voice of Huck was “coarse and ignorant”. Other lemmings, sorry, I mean libraries, followed suit, which followed long after Twain’s death in 1910. In the 1950’s various African American groups protested it, saying it was racist in it’s portrayal of black characters even though others said it displayed a strong criticism of racism and slavery. Even more recently, there have been attempts to edit the book, most notably as of late to remove all reference to the “N” word, replacing it with slave. But I think the best judge  of this book is another literary genius, Ernest Hemingway, who once famously said that this book marked the beginning of American literature. He also said, “There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.”

What do you think? Let us know in our forums HERE!

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Flashback Friday! This Day in History

Welcome one and all to another edition of Flashback Friday, this day in history! So, what happened on February 4th?

February 4th was a day of “firsts” for sure. Let’s take a look:

February 4th, 1938, Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs was released in the theaters and at that time was the most successful movie in history.

On this day, February 4th, 1959, the Barbie doll was first introduced! She was created by Ruth Handler, one of the founding members of the Mattel Company and was named after her daughter….you guessed it, Barbie. Later on, when the male counterpart to Barbie was introduced, he was named after her son Ken. Does that seem strange to anyone else, considering Barbie and Ken’s illicit history?

The first Winter Olympics in the US was held on this day in history; February 4th, 1932, taking place in Lake Placid, NY.

February 4th, 1957, saw the first day of the sale of the Smith-Corona portable typewriters. The company had been in production for 71 years and produced the first upper and lower case typewriters.

On February 4th, 1974, Patty Hearst was abducted by the Symbionese Liberation Army, setting off a chain of events leading to that infamous bank robbery with Hearst, then known as Tanya, participating.

On this day, in 1997, a civil jury panel in Santa Monica, California, determined that OJ Simpson was guilty in the deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ron Goldman.

On February 4th, 2004, the state of Massachusetts high court determined it was legal for persons in same sex relationships could be married. Also on this day and year, Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook. Have you seen “The Social Network” yet?

That all happened today, February 4th, in history!

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Flashback Friday: Space Shuttle Challenger Explodes

I was 10 years old and in the fifth grade. We were in our classroom, waiting for the teacher to come in. She did eventually come in, crying; and that’s when a TV was brought into each classroom where we saw the aftermath of the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. It was January 28th, 1986 and sadly, is our topic for today’s Flashback Friday.

The actual explosion occurred 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven crew members aboard. The shuttle virtually disintegrated into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of central Florida at approximately 11:39 a.m. EST. It was later found that an O-ring seal in the right solid rocket booster failed at liftoff. This failure breached the joint it sealed, which allowed pressurized hot gas from the motor of the solid rocket to get to the outside and infringed on the functioning of other parts. Then there was a structural failure of that external tank which led to the explosion itself. It was later discovered that several crew members actually survived the initial breakup of the shuttle, but did not survive the impact of the crew compartment slamming into the ocean.

This disaster halted the space program for 32 months, and also prompted President Reagan to form what was called the Rogers Commission to investigate the tragedy. This commission later found that key elements of  the decision making process and organizational “culture” that led to the explosion. Apparently NASA managers knew that the solid rocket booster designs had a potentially fatal flaw in the O-rings for at least 9 years prior to the explosion but didn’t address it properly. Another shocking discovery was that crew escape wasn’t possible either, at least during a powered flight. NASA had considered launch escape systems but decided that the shuttle’s expected high reliability didn’t necessitate one.

Many people actually saw the lift-off and tragedy itself due to the inclusion of teacher Christa McAuliffe in the crew, who would’ve been the first teacher in space. The other crew members who lost their lives that day were: Commander Francis (Dick) Scobee, 46,  who was married with two children. Pilot Michael J. Smith, 40, was on what would have been his first space flight. Mission Specialist Judith A. Resnik, 35, had previously become the second American woman in orbit during the maiden Discovery flight. Mission specialist Ronald A. McNair was 35 at the time of his death, and was married with two children. He became the second Black American in space back in 1984 during a previous Challenger mission. Ellison S. Onizuka was the third mission specialist, he was 39 years old, married with two children. Payload specialist Gregory B. Jarvis was not an official federal employee, but rather employed by Aircraft Corp.’s Space and Communications Group in Los Angeles, California, who made it possible for him to be on the Challenger flight.

The final crew member on the flight was Sharon Crista McAuliffe, the first teacher to fly in space. She was selected from an applicant pool of around 11,000 education specialists. McAuliffe was 37 at the time of her death, married to her longtime boyfriend Steven. NASA’s intent of having her on board was to have a gifted teaching professional who could communicate with students from space.

Do you remember this event? Tell us about it in our forums here .

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Bret Michaels Scheduled For Heart Surgery

Bret Michaels is scheduled to have surgery on Monday, to repair a hole in his heart. The procedure will be done at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix by a team of surgeons.

In April of 2010, Michaels was treated for a brain hemorrhage, and it was at this time that the hole in his heart was discovered. This was highly publicized due to the obvious social status, but also because of his appearance and later win on Celebrity Apprentice, as well as his surprise appearance on last year’s American Idol finale. He will have a cardiac catheterization during this procedure, where doctors insert a catheter into a vein in his groin along with guide wires and a closing device directly into his heart. Cameras will assist the doctors as they repair the hole. The closing device will stay permanently in his heart in order to stop abnormal blood flow between the two chambers, the very thing thought to have caused the warning stroke he’d previously suffered. Without this, doctors say Michaels could develop further clots and possible further strokes.

Join us in wishing Michaels well, in our forums here!

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Flashback Friday – On This Day In History – January 21st!!!

Welcome back to “On This Day In History”!!! For today’s treasure trove of notable events, and man, did a lot of things happen on this date in history, we have presidential inaugurations, papal elections and endings and much more! Hey, why not come into our forums here to discuss?!?!

2010 A week after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, a 6.1 magnitude aftershock strikes Haiti
2009 Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States
2001 George W. Bush is inaugurated as the 43rd president of the United States
1998 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts Mama and Papas and Eagles
1998 Warner Brothers TV Network begins Tueday night programming
1997 Comet Hale-Bopp crosses Mars’ orbit
1997 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in New Orleans, Louisiana on KKND 106.7 FM
1997 Pakistan defeat West Indies 2-0 to win Australia one-day Series
1996 46th NHL All-Star Game: East beat West 5-4 at Fleet Center Boston
1996 Australia defeat Sri Lanka 2-0 to win World Series Cup
1996 U.S. Female Figure Skating championship won by Michelle Kwan
1996 WPAT FM New York City radio station switches to English-Spanish format
1995 “Love! Valor! Compassion!” opens at Walter Kerr New York City for 276 performances
1995 1994-95 NHL Season begin after a lengthy strike
1995 Russian ruble drops to 3,947 per dollar (record)
1993 Admiral Studeman, serves as acting director of CIA
1993 William J. Clinton inaugurated as 42nd president
1992 Australia beat India 2-0 to win the World Series Cup
1992 Score begins selling international soccer cards
1991 “Black and Blue” closes at Minskoff Theater New York City after 829 performances
1991 “Les Miserables,” opens at Pantages Theatre, LA
1991 “Peter Pan” closes at Lunt-Fontanne Theater New York City or 45 performances
1991 “Shogun – The Musical” closes at Marquis Theater New York City after 72 performances
1991 13th UCP Telethon
1991 Buffalo Bills beat Los Angeles Raiders 51-3 for AFC title
1991 Jane Geddes wins LPGA Jamaica Golf Classic
1991 U.S. Patriot missiles begins shooting down Iraqi missiles
1991 Matt Barr’s field goal with no time left gives New York Giant 15-13 Victory over defending champs San Francisco 49ers, for NFC title
1990 47th Golden Globes: Born on 4th of July, Driving Miss Daisy win
1990 U.S. 64th manned space mission STS-32 (Columbia 10) returns from space
1989 Bush inaugurated as 41st president and Quayle becomes 44th vice pres
1989 Wayne Holdsworth takes a wicket 1st ball in 1st-class cricket
1989 Reagan becomes 1st President elected in a “0” year, since 1840, to leave office alive
1988 Andre Hoffman skates world record 1500m (1:52.06)
1988 Arizona committee opens hearing on impeachment of Governor Evan Mecham
1987 Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite taken hostage in Beirut, Lebanon
1987 Rhino Records 1st #1-Billy Vera and Beaters’ “At This Moment”
1986 1st federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.
1986 Chunnel announced (railroad tunnel under Canal)
1986 Military coup in Lesotho under general-major Lekhanya and premier Leabua Jonathan
1985 Cold front strikes U.S., at least 40 die (-27 degrees F (-33 degrees C) in Chicago)
1985 Superbowl XIX: San Francisco 49ers beat Miami Dolphins, 38-16 in Stanford Superbowl MVP: Joe Montana, San Francisco, quarterback
1984 U.S. Female Figure Skating championship won by Rosalynn Sumners
1982 7 miners killed in an explosion in Craynor, Kentucky
1982 Honduras constitution goes into effect
1982 Piet Dankert elected chairman of European Parliament
1981 52 Americans held hostage in Iran for 444 days are freed
1981 Admiral Stansfield Turner, USN (Ret), ends term as 12th director of CIA
1981 Frank C Carlucci, ends term as deputy director of CIA
1981 Islander Glenn Resch’s 25th and last shut-out opponent-Flames 5-0
1981 Ronald Reagan inaugurated as president
1980 President Jimmy Carter announces U.S. boycott of Olympics in Moscow
1980 U.S. Female Figure Skating championship won by Linda Fratianne
1980 U.S. Male Figure Skating championship won by Charles Tickner
1980 Superbowl MVP: Terry Bradshaw, Pittsburgh, quarterback
1980 Superbowl XIV: Pittsburgh Steelers beat Los Angeles Rams, 31-19 in Pasadena
1978 Columbia Pictures pays $9.5 million for movie rights to “Annie”
1977 George Bush, ends term as 11th director of CIA
1977 Mr. Knoche, serves as acting director of CIA
1976 29th NHL All-Star Game: Wales beat Campbell 7-5 at Philadelphia
1975 5th NFL Pro Bowl: NFC beats AFC 17-10
1975 Terrence McNally’s “Ritz,” premieres in New York City
1974 4th NFL Pro Bowl: AFC beats NFC 15-13
1974 7th ABA All-Star Game: East 128 beats West 112 at Virginia
1974 A college basketball game ends 210-67
1974 Essex Comm College beats Englewood Cliffs 210-67 in basketball
1971 Ard Schenk skates world record 1000m (1:18.8)
1971 John Lennon meets Yoko Ono’s parents in Japan
1970 20th NBA All-Star Game: East beats West 142-135 at Philadelphia
1970 23rd NHL All-Star Game: East beat West 4-1 at St. Louis
1970 Super Fight, computer mock championship between Ali and Marciano
1969 Richard M. Nixon inaugurated as president
1969 University of Arizona reports 1st optical id of pulsar (in Crab Nebula)
1968 Houston ends UCLA’s 47-game basketball winning streak, 71-69
1968 U.S. Female Figure Skating championship won by Peggy Fleming
1968 U.S. Male Figure Skating championship won by Tim Wood
1965 Beatles appear on Shindig (ABC-TV)
1965 Byrds record “Mr Tambourine Man”
1965 JPL proposes modified Apollo flight to fly around Mars and return
1965 Generalissimo Francisco Franco meets with Jewish representatives to discuss legitimizing Jewish communities in Spain
1964 “Meet The Beatles” album released in US
1962 “Kean” closes at Broadway Theater New York City after 92 performances
1961 Arthur M Ramsay becomes archbishop of Canterbury
1961 Francis Poulenc’s “Gloria,” premieres in Boston
1961 Robert Frost recites “Gift Outright” at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration
1961 Yugoslav ex-vice-president Milovan Djilas flees
1960 Patrice Lumumba sentenced to 6 months in Belgian Congo
1959 Dmitri Sjostakovitsj’ Moscow-Tsjerjomoesjki, premieres in Moscow
1958 Betsy Rawls wins LPGA Tampa Golf Open
1958 KUED TV channel 7 in Salt Lake City, UT (PBS) begins broadcasting
1957 Betsy Rawls wins LPGA Tampa Golf Open
1957 Gomulka wins Poland’s parliamentary election
1957 Morton Gould’s “Declaration,” premieres in Washington, D.C.
1956 Buddy Holly records “Blue Days Black Night” in Nashville
1955 1st atomic sub, USS Nautilus, launched at Groton Conn
1954 -70 degrees F (-57 degrees C), Rogers Pass, Montana (U.S. 48 state record)
1954 Dmitri Sjostakovitsj’ “Concertino opus 94,” premieres
1953 1st U.S. telecast transmitted to Canada-from Buffalo NY
1953 1st live coast-to-coast inauguration address (Eisenhower)
1952 British army occupies Ismailiya, Suez Canal Zone
1952 Louise Suggs wins LPGA Tampa Golf Open
1950 “Dance Me a Song” opens at Royale Theater New York City for 35 performances
1950 Suriname becomes independent part in Realm of Netherlands
1949 J Edgar Hoover gives Shirley Temple a tear gas fountain pen
1949 President Truman announces his point 4 program
1947 Brigadier General Edwin K Wright, USA, becomes deputy director of CIA
1946 F Gouin follows De Gaulle as temporary leader of French government
1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt sworn-in for an unprecedented 4th term as president
1944 RAF drops 2300 ton bombs on Berlin
1943 Lead, South Dakota, temp is 52 degrees F, while 1.5 miles away Deadwood SD records -16 degrees F
1943 Operation-Weiss: Assault of German, Italian, Bulgarian and Croatian
1942 Japanese air raid on Rabaul New Britain
1942 Japanese invade Burma
1942 Nazi officials hold notorious Wannsee conference in Berlin deciding on “final solution” calling for extermination of Europe’s Jews
1941 Bela Bartok’s 6th string quartet, premieres in New York City
1939 Charles Ives’ 1st Sonate “Concord,” premieres
1939 Hitler proclaims to German parliament to exterminate all European Jews
1937 -45 degrees F (-43 degrees C), Boca, California (state record)
1937 1st Inauguration day on Jan 20th, (held every 4th years there-after)
1936 Edward VIII succeeds British king George V
1934 Japan sends Henry Pu Yi as regent to emperor of Manchuria
1930 1st radio broadcast of “Lone Ranger” (WXYZ-Detroit)
1929 1st feature talking motion picture taken outdoors, “In Old Arizona”
1926 2nd German government of Luther begins
1925 U.S.S.R. and Japan sign treaty of Peking, Seychelles back to U.S.S.R.
1922 Arthur Honegger’s ballet “Skating Rink” premieres, Paris
1921 British submarine K5 leaves with man and mouse
1921 Dagestan ASSR forms in RSFSR
1921 Mountain Autonomous Republic established in RSFSR
1921 Turkey declared in remnants of Ottoman Empire
1920 Dutch 2nd Chamber passes school laws
1910 Ottawa Senators sweep Edmonton in 2 for Stanley Cup (2nd of 1910)
1892 1st basketball game played (Mass)
1887 U.S. Senate approves naval base lease of Pearl Harbor
1883 Billy Barnes takes a hat-trick, England vs. Australia MCG
1879 British troops under Lord Chelmsford set camp at Isandlwana
1872 California Stock Exchange Board organized
1870 “City of Boston” vanishes at sea with all 177 aboard
1870 Hiram R. Revels elected to fill unexpired term of Jefferson Davis
1869 Elizabeth Cady Stanton becomes 1st woman to testify before Congress
1868 Florida constitutional convention meets in Tallahassee
1866 Prim’s Insurrection in Spain ends
1860 Dutch troops conquer Watampone in Celebes
1850 Investigator, 1st ship to effect northwest passage, leaves England
1841 China cedes Hong Kong to British
1840 Dumont D’Urville discovers Adelie Land, Antarctica
1840 Dutch King Willem II crowned
1809 1st U.S. geology book published by William Maclure
1807 Napoleon convenes great Sanhedrin, Paris
1801 John Marshall appointed U.S. chief justice
1800 Napoleon I’s sister Carolina marries King Joachim Murat of Naples
1788 Pioneer African Baptist church organizes in Savannah, Ga
1785 Samuel Ellis advertises to sell Oyster Island (Ellis Island), no takers
1783 Hostilities cease in Revolutionary War
1781 1st edition of Pieter It Hoens “Post of Neder-Rhijn” published
1778 1st American military court martial trial begins, Cambridge, Mass
1667 Treaty of Andrussovo-ends 13 year war between Poland and Russia
1648 Cornerstone of Amsterdam townhall laid
1613 Peace of Knarod ends War of Kalmar between Denmark and Sweden
1513 Christian II succeeds Johan I as Danish/Norwegian king
1503 Casa Contratacion (Board of Trade) found (Spain) to deal with American affairs
1356 Scottish king Edward Baliol resigns
1320 Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek becomes king of Poland
1265 1st English Parliament called into session by Earl of Leicester
1045 Giovanni di Sabina elected Pope Sylvester III
250 Saint Fabian ends his reign as Catholic Pope (236-50)
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Flashback Friday – On This Day In History, January 14th!

Hello everyone and TGIF!!! For your reading pleasure, here’s a treasure trove of events that occurred on this day in history, January 14th. Enjoy and please, venture on into our forums here and let us know what you think!!!

On this day, January 14th:

1639 – Connecticut’s first constitution, the “Fundamental Orders,” was adopted.

1784 – The United States ratified a peace treaty with England ending the Revolutionary War.

1858 – French emperor Napoleon III escaped an attempt on his life.

1873 – John Hyatt’s 1869 invention ‘Celluloid’ was registered as a trademark.

1878 – Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the telephone for Britain’s Queen Victoria.

1882 – The Myopia Hunt Club, in Winchester, MA, became the first country club in the United States.

1907 – An earthquake killed over 1,000 people in Kingston, Jamaica.

1939 – “Honolulu Bound” was heard on CBS radio for the first time.

1943 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to fly in an airplane while in office. He flew from Miami, FL, to French Morocco where he met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to discuss World War II.

1951 – The first National Football League Pro Bowl All-Star Game was played in Los Angeles, CA.

1952 – NBC’s “Today” show premiered.

1953 – Josip Broz Tito was elected president of Yugoslavia by the country’s Parliament.

1954 – Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio were married. The marriage only lasted nine months.

1954 – The Hudson Motor Car Company merged with Nash-Kelvinator. The new company was called the American Motors Corporation.

1963 – George C. Wallace was sworn in as governor of Alabama.

1969 – An explosion aboard the U.S. aircraft carrier Enterprise off Hawaii killed 25 crew members.

1972 – NBC-TV debuted “Sanford & Son.”

1973 – The Miami Dolphins defeated the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII and became the first NFL team to go undefeated in a season.

1985 – Martina Navratilova won her 100th tournament. She joined Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert Lloyd as the only professional tennis players to win 100 tournaments.

1985 – Former Miss America, Phyllis George, joined Bill Kurtis as host of “The CBS Morning News”.

1986 – “Rambo: First Blood, Part II” arrived at video stores. It broke the record set by “Ghostbusters”, for first day orders. 435,000 copies of the video were sold.

1993 – Television talk show host David Letterman announced he was moving from NBC to CBS.

1993 – The British government pledged to introduce legislation to criminalize invasions of privacy by the press.

1994 – U.S. President Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed Kremlin accords to stop aiming missiles at any nation and to dismantle the nuclear arsenal of Ukraine.

1996 – Jorge Sampaio was elected president of Portugal.

1996 – Juan Garcia Abrego was arrested by Mexican agents. The alleged drug lord was handed over to the FBI the next day.

1998 – Whitewater prosecutors questioned Hillary Rodham Clinton at the White House for 10 minutes about the gathering of FBI background files on past Republican political appointees.

1998 – In Dallas, researchers report an enzyme that slows the aging process and cell death.

1999 – The impeachment trial of U.S. President Clinton began in Washington, DC.

1999 – The U.S. proposed the lifting of the U.N. ceilings on the sale of oil in Iraq. The restriction being that the money be used to buy medicine and food for the Iraqi people.

2000 – A U.N. tribunal sentenced five Bosnian Croats to up to 25 years for the 1993 massacre of over 100 Muslims in a Bosnian village.

2000 – The Dow Jones industrial average hit a new high when it closed at 11,722.98. Earlier in the session, the Dow had risen to 11,750.98. Both records stood until October 3, 2006.

2002 – NBC’s “Today” celebrated its 50th anniversary on television.

2002 – Actor Brad Renfro, 19, was arrested after being stopped on a traffic violation. He was charged with public intoxication and driving without a license.

2004 – In St. Louis, a Lewis and Clark Exhibition opened at the Missouri History Museum. The exhibit featured 500 rare and priceless objects used by the Corps of Discovery.

2005 – A probe, from the Cassini-Huygens mission, sent back pictures during and after landing on Saturn’s moon Titan. The mission was launched on October 15, 1997.

Famous People Born on This Date:

Benedict Arnold 1741

Henri Fantin-Latour 1836

Albert Schweitzer 1875

Cecil Beaton 1904

William Bendix 1906

Russ Columbo 1908

Mark Goodson 1915

Billy Butterfield (World’s Greatest Jazz Band) 1917

Andy Rooney 1919

Tom Tryon 1926

Billy Walker 1929

Caterina Valente 1931

Clarence Carter 1936

Sonny Siebert 1937

Billy Jo Spears 1937

Jack Jones 1938

Allen Toussaint 1938

Julian Bond 1940

Faye Dunaway 1941

Gibby Gilbert 1941

Holland Taylor 1943

Shannon Lucid

Graham Marsh 1944

Gene Washington

Carl Weathers 1948

T-Bone Burnett 1948

Lawrence Kasdan 1948

Geoff Tate (Queensryche) 1959

Steven Soderbergh 1963

Mark Addy 1964

Slick Rick 1965

Dan Scheider 1966

Tom Rhodes 1967

Emily Watson 1967

L.L. Cool J (James Todd Smith) 1968

Jason Bateman 1969

Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana) 1969

Jordan Ladd 1975

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Flashback Friday – President Clinton Impeachment Trial Begins

On January 7th, 1999, a trial for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton began. He was originally accused of lying under oath and obstruction of justice, later charges of witness tampering and abuse of power were added on. This was all due to testimony regarding the Paula Jones case and his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Many considered the evidence against him to show his guilt, however others asked if he was guilty “enough”. The Constitution states that a president can be removed from office due to “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors”. Since he obviously wasn’t guilty of treason or bribery, it all came down to “other high crimes and misdemeanors”, which is clearly a matter of judgement. When the Constitution was drafted, the framers put this power of impeachment in the hands of the legislative branch rather than the judicial branch which gives Congress the power to give it’s own judgement.
During the Watergate investigation, Gerald Ford stated that what defines high crimes and misdemeanors is “whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.” On this point, Clinton was clearly guilty. With that being said, the investigator into the entire Clinton matter, Kenneth Starr, wasn’t exactly impugn himself and his motives couldn’t be considered infallible. Many considered his obsession with finding something, anything, on Clinton in this situation, that he used Clinton’s affair with Lewinsky as a tipping point in the impeachment investigation. To play devil’s advocate, others could argue that the Clintons so effectively covered their tracks during the Whitewater “scandal” that the Lewinsky affair was the only thing Starr could chase him on. There was a multitude of issues which lead to the impeachment investigation; the Whitewater real estate scandal, the firing of White House travel agents, alleged misuse of FBI files and Clinton’s conduct during a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Paula Jones.
Another interesting point is that the vote to impeach was clearly a draw along party lines, both in the Senate and Congress. In the end, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Bill Clinton, but that was overturned by Senate two months after that.
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Oscar Nominee Pete Postlethwaite, Dead At 64 From Cancer

Pete Postlethwaite, most recently seen in the movie Inception, passed away on Monday, January 3rd, 2011 at the age of 64 after a long battle with cancer. His notable roles included the aforementioned Inception, In The Name Of The Father, Amistad, Romeo and Juliet and The Usual Suspects. His role in “In The Name Of The Father” earned him an Oscar nomination. He was in four films total this past year alone; Inception, The Town, Ironclad and Clash of the Titans.  He died peacefully at a hospital in Shropshire, England, surrounded by his family. Our condolences to his family.

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Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner – She Wins DWTS

In 1987 a movie was released which, for at least this article writer, defined a generation. It was the movie of my adolescence and was the only thing that replaced a heavy childhood crush on Michael J. Fox with a crush on “Johnny Castle” (or Patrick Swazye, lol). This movie was “Dirty Dancing”. And it immortalized the line “Nobody puts Baby in the corner” which, despite it’s overuse as of late, especially by me, completely fits with the star crowned the champion of Dancing With The Stars Season 11. Last night, Jennifer Grey and Derek Hough were crowned those champions ending a run that seemed to be called by many before the season even started. However, they weren’t without competition; there was a great field of talent this season and as seen by Bristol Palin’s improbable run to the finals, a great contingent of dedicated voters.

Jennifer Grey danced through some horrific injuries, stemming from a decades old car accident that she and at the time boyfriend Matthew Broderick were involved in. She wasn’t perfect all the time, her and Derek had their down weeks. But through it all, they made it to the end and won. I’m sure Johnny Castle/Patrick Swayze would be very proud, Baby stayed out of the corner! Tell us what you think in our forum here what you think of the results, and of the season!