Tuesday Trivia

July 20
1801 - A 1,235 pound cheese ball was pressed at the farm of Elisha Brown, Jr. The ball of cheese was later loaded on a horse-driven wagon and presented to U.S. President Thomas Jefferson at the White House.

1810 - Colombia declared independence from Spain.

1859 - Brooklyn and New York played baseball at Fashion Park Race Course on Long Island, NY. The game marked the first time that admission had been charged for to see a ball game. It cost $.50 to get in and the players on the field did not receive a salary (until 1863).

1861 - The Congress of the Confederate States began holding sessions in Richmond, VA.

1868 - Legislation that ordered U.S. tax stamps to be placed on all cigarette packs was passed.

1871 - British Columbia joined Confederation as a Canadian province.

1881 - Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull, a fugitive since the Battle of the Little Big Horn, surrendered to federal troops.

1908 - In the United States, the Sullivan Ordinance bars women from smoking in public facilities.

1917 - The draft lottery in World War I went into operation.

1935 - NBC radio debuted "G-men." The show was later renamed "Gangbusters."

1942 - The first detachment of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, (WACS) began basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa.

1944 - An attempt by a group of German officials to assassinate Adolf Hitler failed. The bomb exploded at Hitler's Rastenburg headquarters. Hitler was only wounded.

1944 - U.S. President Roosevelt was nominated for an unprecedented fourth term of office at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

1947 - The National Football League (NFL) ruled that no professional team could sign a player who had college eligibility remaining.

1951 - Jordan's King Abdullah Ibn Hussein was assassinated in Jerusalem.

1961 - "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off" opened in London.

1969 - Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. became the first men to walk on the moon.

1974 - Turkish forces invaded Cyprus.

1976 - America's Viking I robot spacecraft made a successful landing on Mars.

1977 - A flash flood hit Johnstown, PA, killing 80 people and causing $350 million worth of damage.

1982 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan pulled the U.S. out of comprehensive test ban negotiations indefinitely.

1985 - Treasure hunters began raising $400 million in coins and silver from the Spanish galleon "Nuestra Senora de Atocha." The ship sank in 1622 40 miles of the coast of Key West, FL.

1992 - Vaclav Havel, the playwright who led the Velvet Revolution against communism, stepped down as president of Czechoslovakia.

1993 - White House deputy counsel Vincent Foster Jr. was found shot to death, a suicide, in a park near Washington, DC.

1997 - Seven people were arrested after New York City police found scores of deaf Mexicans kept in slave-like conditions and forced to peddle trinkets for the smugglers who had brought them to the U.S.

1998 - Russia won a $11.2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to help avert the devaluation of its currency.

2003 - In India, elephants used for commercial work began wearing reflectors to avoid being hit by cars during night work.

Musical Mondays

July 19

1811 - Composer Vincenz Lachner was born.

1939 - Jack Teagarden and his orchestra recorded "Aunt Hagar’s Blues."

1942 - "The Seventh Symphony," by Shastakovich, was performed for the first time in the U.S. by Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra.

1949 - Harry Belafonte began recording his first sessions for Capitol Records. They included the songs "They Didn’t Believe Me" and "Close Your Eyes."

1954 - Elvis Presley's first single was released by Sun Records. It was "That's All Right" b/w "Blue Moon of Kentucky."

1966 - Frank Sinatra, at the age of 50, married the 20-year-old actress Mia Farrow.

1969 - The Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Women" was released.

1969 - The Spencer Davis group broke up.

1975 - Orleans' "Dance With Me" was released.

1976 - Deep Purple broke up.

1980 - Billy Joel earned his first gold record with "It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me."

1980 - David Bowie made his theatrical debut as the title role in "The Elephant Man."

1981 - "Roy Orbison Day" was celebrated in Odessa, TX.

1990 - Vikki Carr opened the ceremonies for dedication of the The Nixon Library. She sang in front of 4 Presidents, President Nixon, President Ford, President Reagan and President Bush, all which she had performed for at the White House during their terms. Herny Kissinger, Alexander Haig and Gene Autry were also present.

1991 - Former Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler filed a lawsuit against the band. He claimed the other members had forced him to use heroin, then made him quit the band when he entered a rehabilitation program.

1995 - Elvis Presley's former doctor Dr. George Nichopoulous, lost his medical license for being "too liberal" when prescribing addictive drugs.

1999 - Dr. Dre filed a lawsuit against Priority Records and Death Row Records. Dre alleged that the release of the album "The Chronic 2000" infringed on his trademark.

1999 - They Might Be Giants released the album "Long Tall Weekend." It was released exclusively in the MP3 format.

Tuesday Trivia - July 13

 July 13
1099 - The Crusaders launched their final assault on Muslims in Jerusalem.

1534 - The Ottoman armies captured Tabriz in northwestern Persia.

1558 - Led by the court of Egmont, the Spanish army defeated the French at Gravelines, France.

1585 - A group of 108 English colonists, led by Sir Richard Grenville, reached Roanoke Island, NC.

1643 - In England, the Roundheads, led by Sir William Waller, were defeated by royalist troops under Lord Wilmot in the Battle of Roundway Down.

1754 - At the beginning of the French and Indian War, George Washington surrendered the small, circular Fort Necessity in southwestern Pennsylvania to the French.

1787 - The U.S. Congress, under the Articles of Confederation, enacted the Northwest Ordinance, which established the rules for governing the Northwest Territory, for admitting new states to the Union and limiting the expansion of slavery.

1793 - French revolutionary writer Jean Paul Marat was stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte Corday. She was executed four days later.

1812 - The first pawnbroking ordinance was passed in New York City.

1832 - Henry Schoolcraft discovered the source of the Mississippi River in Minnesota.

1835 - John Ruggles received patent #1 from the U.S. Patent Office for a traction wheel used in locomotive steam engines. All 9,957 previous patents were not numbered.

1863 - Opponents of the Civil War draft began three days of rioting in New York City, which resulted in more than 1,000 casualties.

1875 - David Brown patented the first cash-carrier system.

1878 - The Congress of Berlin divided the Balkans among European powers.

1896 - Philadelphia’s Ed Delahanty became the second major league player to hit four home runs in a single game.

1931 - A major German financial institution, Danabank, failed. This led to the closing of all banks in Germany until August 5.

1941 - Britain and the Soviet Union signed a mutual aid pact, that provided the means for Britain to send war material to the Soviet Union.

1954 - In Geneva, the United States, Great Britain and France reached an accord on Indochina which divided Vietnam into two countries, North and South, along the 17th parallel.

1967 - Race-related rioting broke out in Newark, NJ. At the end of four days of violence 27 people had been killed.

1971 - The Army of Morocco executed ten leaders accused of leading a revolt.

1972 - Carroll Rosenbloom (owner of the Baltimore Colts) and Robert Irsay (owner of the Los Angeles Rams) traded teams.

1973 - David Bedford set a new world record in the 10,000-meter race in London. His time was 27 minutes, 31 seconds.


1978 - Lee Iacocca was fired as president of Ford Motor Co. by chairman Henry Ford II.

1979 - A 45-hour siege began at the Egyptian Embassy in Ankara, Turkey. Four Palestinian guerrillas killed two security men and seized 20 hostages.

1982 - The All-Star Game was played outside the United States for the first time. They played in Montreal, Canada.

1984 - In Arkansas, Terry Wallis was injured in a car accident and was left comatose. He came out of the coma in June of 2003.

1994 - Jeff Gillooly, Tonya Harding's ex-husband, was sentenced in Portland, OR, to two years in prison for his role in the attack on Nancy Kerrigan.

1998 - "Image of an Assassination" went on sale. The video documentary is of Abraham Zapruder's home video of U.S. President Kennedy's assassination in Dallas.

1998 - Four young cousins in Gallup, NM, died after becoming trapped in a car trunk.

1998 - RealNetworks Inc. rolled out a test version of RealSystem G2. G2 is a streaming video and audio delivery system.

2000 - The United States and Vietnam singed a major trade agreement. The pact still needed to be approved by the U.S. Congress.

2000 - Sprint Corp. and WorldCom canceled their planned merger due to opposition by regulators in the United States and Europe.

On This Day - 28th January

In History
1521 - The Diet of Worms began, at which Protestant reformer Luther was declared an outlaw by the Roman Catholic church.
1547 - England's King Henry VIII died. He was succeeded by his 9 year-old son, Edward VI.
1788 - The first British penal settlement was founded at Botany Bay.
1802 - Flinders discovers and names Fowlers Bay in South Australia.
1807 - London's Pall Mall became the first street lit by gaslight.
1871 - France surrendered in the Franco-Prussian War.
1878 - The first telephone switchboard was installed in New Haven, CT.
1878 - "The Yale News" was published for the first time. It was the first, daily, collegiate newspaper in the U.S.
1902 - The Carnegie Institution was established in Washington, DC. It began with a gift of $10 million from Andrew Carnegie.
1909 - The United States ended direct control over Cuba.
1915 - The Coast Guard was created by an act of the U.S. Congress.
1916 - Louis D. Brandeis was appointed by President Wilson to the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming its first Jewish member.
1918 - The Bolsheviks occupied Helsinki, Finland.
1922 - The National Football League (NFL) franchise in Decatur, IL, transferred to Chicago. The team took the name Chicago Bears.
1935 - Iceland became the first country to introduce legalized abortion.
1938 - The first ski tow started operation in Vermont.
1945 - During World War II, Allied supplies began reaching China over the newly reopened Burma Road.
1957 - The Brooklyn Dodgers announced that circus clown Emmett Kelly had been hired to entertain fans at baseball games.
1958 - Roy Campanella (Brooklyn Dodgers) was seriously injured in an auto accident in New York. He would never return to play again.
1958 - Construction began on first private thorium-uranium nuclear reactor.
1960 - The first photograph bounced off of the moon.
1965 - General Motors reported the biggest profit of any U.S. company in history.
1973 - CBS-TV debuted "Barnaby Jones."
1980 - Six Americans who had fled the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran, on November 4, 1979, left Iran using false Canadian diplomatic passports. The Americans had been hidden at the Canadian embassy in Tehran.
1982 - Italian anti-terrorism forces rescued U.S. Brigadier General James L. Dozier. 42 days before he had been kidnapped by the Red Brigades.
1986 - The U.S. space shuttle Challenger exploded just after takeoff. All seven of its crewmembers were killed.
1994 - In Los Angeles, Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg declared a mistrial in the case of Lyle Menendez in the murder of his parents. Lyle, and his brother Erik, were both retried later and were found guilty. They were sentenced to life in prison without parole.
1997 - Clive Davis received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1998 - In Manilla, Philippines, gunmen held at least 400 children and teachers for several hours at an elementary school.
1999 - Ford Motor company announced the purchase of Sweden's Volvo AB for $6.45 billion.
2002 - Toys R Us Inc. announced that it would be closing 27 Toys R Us stores and 37 Kids R Us stores in order to cut costs and boost operating profits.
2007 - Harry Melbourne, creator of the Freddo Frog, dies at age 94

Music
1722 - Composer Johann Ernst Bach was born.
1904 - Enrico Caruso signed his first contract with Victor Records. He debuted at the Metropolitan Opera two months before.
1927 - Jean Goldkette and his dancing orchestra recorded "I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover."
1940 - "Beat the Band" made its debut on NBC radio.
1944 - Composer John Tavener was born.
1956 - Elvis Presley made his first appearance on national television on "The Dorsey Brothers Stage Show" on CBS.
1965 - The Who made their first appearance on the British TV rock show "Ready Steady Go!"
1966 - Brian Poole and the Tremeloes announced their break-up.
1978 - At the request of a fan, Ted Nugent autographed a man's arm with a bowie knife.
1978 - The Doobie Brothers made an appearance on ABC-TV's "What's Happening."
1980 - The original Ants split up with Adam.
1985 - "We Are The World" was recorded. More than 40 artists were involved. The proceeds went toward worldwide hunger prevention.
1990 - Aaron Neville sang the U.S. national anthem at Super Bowl XXIV.
1991 - Gloria Estefan made her first live performance (at the American Music Awards in Los Angeles) since injuring her back in a bus accident while on tour.
1996 - Chris Isaak made a guest appearance on the NBC TV show "Friends."
1996 - Diana Ross performed as the featured halftime performer at Super Bowl XX in Tempe, AZ.
1998 - Tracey Lawrence was convicted of battery stemming from a quarrel in September with his wife, Stacie. Lawrence was sentenced to pay $500 to a Las Vegas shelter for battered women.
1999 - Pat Boone formed the Gold Records label, which will only sign artists 45 years old and up. The first perfomer signed was Jack Jones.