Unerased History – June 27th

“Happy Birthday to You” Day

Decide to Be Married Day

Happy Birthday Facts

  The song was originally called Good Morning to All and was used to greet schoolchildren in the morning. The melody for the famous song was first penned by two sisters, Mildred and Patty Hill Another Hill sister (Jessica) published and copyrighted the song in 1935. ‘Happy Birthday’ became the first song to be performed in outer space when it was performed by the astronauts on Apollo IX in 1969. Time Warner reportedly paid $25 million for the rights to the song in 1988. The copyright is currently owned by TimeWarner and licensed and enforced by ASCAP In its long history, only two lawsuits have been brought for illegal singing of the song. Annual royalties of the song are estimated at around $2 million. The copyright will not expire until at least 2030 There is much debate and controversy about the validity of this copyright for such a simple and old song. This copyright is the main reason you never hear waiters singing the song to patrons in restaurants. They usually sing some alternate, corporate-approved birthday song.   “The real contest is always between what you’ve done and what you’re capable of doing. You measure yourself against yourself and nobody else.”

 ~ Geoffrey Gaberino

 

conundrum \kuh-NUN-drum\    noun

1 : a riddle whose answer is or involves a pun

2 a : a question or problem having only a conjectural answer *b : an intricate and difficult problem

1652 - New Amsterdam (later New York City) passed the first speed limit law in the colonies (later the US.)
1776 - Thomas Hickey, who plotted to hand George Washington over to British, was hanged.
1778 – The Liberty Bell came home to Philadelphia after the British left.
1787 – Edward Gibbon completed “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” 1829 – English scientist James Smithson leaves a will that eventually funds the establishment of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, in a country he never visited.
1833 - Prudence Crandall, a white woman, was arrested for conducting an academy for black women in Canterbury, Conn. The academy was eventually closed.
1839 - The Spanish coasting vessel La Amistad (The Friendship) set sail from Cuba to Porta Prince with a load of African slaves. Cinque, originally Senghbe, and over fifty other Africans had been kidnapped in Sierra Leone and sold into slavery in Cuba. They were carried on a Spanish ship, the Tecora, to Cuba. Cinque and forty-nine other slaves and four children were placed on the ship La Amistad destined for Haiti. They revolted, killed the captain, and ordered the crew back to Africa but the ship sailed north and ran aground. It was captured by the US Navy on August 26.
1844 – Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and his brother Hyrum Smith, are murdered by a mob at the Carthage, Illinois jail. 1847 – New York and Boston were linked by telegraph wires.
1862 – Civil War: Confederates broke through the Union lines at the Battle of Gaines’ Mill on the third day of the Seven Days Battle in Virginia.
1863 - Civil War: There was a skirmish at Fairfax Courthouse in Virginia.
1864 - Civil War: Union General William T. Sherman launches a major attack on Confederate General Joseph Johnston’s army at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in Georgia.
1867 – The Bank of California is created.
1874 - Using new high-powered rifles to devastating effect, 28 buffalo hunters repulse a much larger force of attacking Indians at an old trading post in the Texas panhandle called Adobe Walls.
1876 - Dave Force of the  Philadelphia Athletics was the first National Leaguer to get six hits in a nine inning game.
1885 – Chichester Bell and Charles S. Tainter applied for a patent for the gramophone. It was granted on May 4, 1886.
1893 – Crash of the New York Stock Exchange. By year’s end, 600 banks and 74 railroads had gone out of business. The value of the U.S. silver dollar fell to less than 60 cents in gold.
1896 – The crew of the Lifesaving Station at Fourth Cliff, Massachusetts, responded to a traffic accident in front of the station.
1898 – The first solo circumnavigation of the globe is completed by Joshua Slocum from Briar Island, Nova Scotia in a 37-foot rebuilt fishing boat called the Spray. 1899 - The plague came ashore in San Francisco. Political leaders overrode health officials and denied its presence. The governor declared it a felony to publish its existence. By 1904 more than 100 people had died of “syphilitic septicemia,” the official pseudonym of plague.
1901 – In Havana, Cuba, U.S. Army physician James Carroll allowed an infected mosquito to feed on him in an attempt to isolate the means of transmission of yellow fever.
1905 – (June 14 according to the Julian calendar): Battleship Potemkin uprising: sailors start a mutiny aboard the Battleship Potemkin, denouncing the crimes of autocracy, demanding liberty and an end to war.
1905 - The dawn of the twentieth century witnessed a sustained burst of progressive activities as various disenfranchised elements of American society pushed to assert their rights. This was especially true in the world of organized labor, as workers marshaled their forces in the battle against Big Business.
1915 – Temperature hits 100° in Fort Yukon, AK. Average maximum temperature is 31 and the average minimum is 11.
1916 - The 4th Marine Regiment defeated Dominican rebels in a stand-up bayonet attack.
1917 – World War I: Hank Gowdy became the first baseball player to enter WW I military service.
1918 – World War I: Two German pilots were saved by parachutes for the first time.
1922 – American Library Association (ALA) awards the first Newbery Medal, honoring the year’s best children’s book, to The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon.
1923 – Capt. Lowell H. Smith and Lt. John P. Richter perform the first ever aerial refueling in a DH-4B biplane.
1924 – Democrats offered Mrs. Leroy Springs for vice presidential nomination. She was the first woman considered for the job.
1927 – The U.S. Marines adopted the English bulldog as their mascot.
1929 – Bell Labs demonstrates a color TV system for the first time.
1931 – Igor Sikorsky filed U.S. Patent 1,994,488, which marked the breakthrough in helicopter technology.
1934 - The US Federal Savings & Loan Association created.
1939 – First night game at Cleveland Municipal Stadium (Indians 5, Tigers 0).
1940 – World War II: Europe: Germans set up two-way radio communication in their newly occupied French territory, employing their most sophisticated coding machine, Enigma, to transmit information.
1941 – World War II: Europe: German troops capture the city of Białystok during Operation Barbarossa.
1942 – World War II: The FBI announced the capture of eight Nazi saboteurs who had been put ashore from two submarines, one off New York’s Long Island and the other off of Florida. The men were tried by a military court and six were secretly executed in a DC jail.
1942 – World War II: Coast Guard Cutter Mojave rescues 293 men from the torpedoed transport “Chatham”,  in the Strait of Belle Isle.
1942 – World War II: The Battle of the Eastern Solomons. Japanese submarine I-26 damages the USS Saratoga. It will remain out of action until October. The USS Wasp is now the only operational US carrier in the Pacific.
1944 – World War II: American forces of 7th Corps (part of US 1st Army) complete the capture of Cherbourg.
1944 – World War II: USS Stingray (SS-186) lands men and supplies on Luzon, Philippines to support guerilla operations against the Japanese.
1945 – World War II: The American carrier USS Bunker Hill is struck by a Kamikaze plane, killing 373 men.
1946 – CHART TOPPERS – “The Gypsy” by The Ink Spots, “They Say It’s Wonderful” by Frank Sinatra, “All Through the Day” by Perry Como and “New Spanish Two Step” by Bob Wills all topped the charts.
1949 – “Captain Video and His Video Rangers” premiered on the Dumont Television Network.
1949 – Walter Baade discovers asteroid Icarus inside orbit of Mercury.
1950 – Korean War: Just two days after communist North Korean forces invaded South Korea, the United Nations Security Council approves a resolution put forward by the United States calling for armed force to repel the North Korean invaders. 1950 – Korean War: Flying a F-82G Twin Mustang in a defensive mission over Kimpo Airfield, Lieutenant William G. “Skeeter” Hudson, 68th Fighter (All-Weather) Squadron, destroyed a Yak-7U fighter and was officially credited with the first aerial victory of the Korean War. Lieutenant Carl Fraser occupied the second cockpit as copilot.
1950 – Korean War: A patrol of F80C Shooting Stars from the 35th Fighter-Bomber Squadron intercepted eight Ilyushin IL-10 fighters over Kimpo. Captain Raymond E. Schillereff and Lieutenant Robert H. Dewald each scored single victories while Lieutenant Robert E. Wayne claimed a pair IL-10s. These were the first air-to-air victories achieved by jet fighters in U.S. Air Force history.
1953 – “Song From Moulin Rouge (Where Is Your Heart)” by Percy Faith topped the charts.
1954 – CHART TOPPERS – “Little Things Mean a Lot” by Kitty Kallen, “Three Coins in the Fountain” by The Four Aces, “Hernando’s Hideaway” by Archie Bleyer and “I Don’t Hurt Anymore” by Hank Snow all topped the charts.
1955 – The first “Wide Wide World” was broadcast on NBC-TV. Dave Garroway, of the “Today” show, was the program host.
1955 - First automobile seat belt legislation was enacted in Illinois.
1955 – The state of Illinois enacted the first automobile seat belt legislation.
1956 – Clarence Henry released “Ain’t Got No Home” to radio.
1956 - Martin Luther King was the featured speaker at the NAACP convention held at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium.
1957 – Hurricane Audrey kills 500 people in Louisiana and Texas.
1958 – NBC’s “Matinee Theatre” was seen for the final time.
1958 - Cuban rebel forces kidnapped twenty-nine US sailors and Marines and held them until Jul 18.
1959 – “Battle of New Orleans” by Johnny Horton topped the charts.
1959 – The play, “West Side Story,” with music by Leonard Bernstein, closed after 734 performances on Broadway.
1960 – “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” by Connie Francis topped the charts.
1962 – CHART TOPPERS – “I Can’t Stop Loving You” by Ray Charles, “The Stripper” by David Rose, “Palisades Park” by Freddy Cannon and “She Thinks I Still Care” by George Jones all topped the charts.
1962 – NASA civilian test pilot Joe Walker in X-15 reaches a speed of 4,104 mph (Mach 5.92).
1962 – The United States launched the Mariner 2 space probe with an Atlas D booster.
1963 - USAF Major Robert A. Rushworth in X-15 reached  53.9 miles. Outer space is generally held to be 62 miles.
1964 – “A World Without Love” by Peter & Gordon topped the charts.
1966 – The first broadcast of Dark Shadows, a science fiction soap opera,  is aired on ABC-TV.
1967 – The world’s first ATM is installed in Enfield, London. The device was invented by John Sheppard-Barron. The machine operated on a voucher system and the maximum withdrawal was $28. The first one in the U.S., Chemical Bank installed the first ATM at its branch in Rockville Centre, New York, September 2nd, 1969.
1967 – Two hundred people were arrested during a race riot in Buffalo, NY.
1968 – Vietnam War: U.S. forces begin to evacuate Khe Sanh, 14 miles below the Demilitarized Zone and six miles from the Laotian border.
1970 – CHART TOPPERS – “The Love You Save“by The Jackson 5, “Mama Told Me (Not to Come)” by Three Dog Night, “Ball of Confusion” by The Temptations and “Hello Darlin’” by Conway Twitty all topped the charts.
1973 – Former White House counsel John Dean reveals Nixon’s “enemies list.” 1973 – President Richard Nixon vetoed a Senate ban on Cambodia bombing. 1974 – President Richard Nixon visits the U.S.S.R..
1976 – Air France Flight 139 (Tel Aviv-Athens-Paris) is hijacked en route to Paris by the PLO and redirected to Entebbe, Uganda.
1977 – U.S. Supreme Court in Bates v. State Bar of Arizona (5-4) ruled that advertising by lawyers was protected under the First Amendment.
1977 - Illinois reinstated the capital punishment.
1978 – CHART TOPPERS – “Shadow Dancing” by Andy Gibb, “Baker Street” by Gerry Rafferty, “It’s a Heartache” by Bonnie Tyler, “I’ll Be True to You” by The Oak Ridge Boys all topped the charts.
1978 - US Seasat 1, the 1st oceanographic satellite, was launched into polar orbit. 1979 – U.S. Supreme Court ruled private employers could give special preferences to blacks to eliminate “manifest racial imbalance” in traditionally white-only jobs. 1980 – President Carter signed legislation reviving draft registration.
1982 - The 4th Space Shuttle Mission-Columbia 4, was launched.
1982 - The Broadway show “Dancin’” closed at the Ambassador Theater after 1,774 performances.
1984 – Supreme Court ends NCAA monopoly on college football telecasts. In the case of the National Collegiate Athletic Association v. the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma,  the National Collegiate Athletic Association had unreasonably restrained trade in the televising of college football games.
1985 – U.S. Route 66 ceases to be an official U.S. highway. The legendary Route 66 originally stretched from Chicago to Santa Monica, Calif.
1985 - The U.S. House of Representatives voted to limit the use of combat troops in Nicaragua.
1986 – CHART TOPPERS – “On My Own” by Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald, “There’ll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)” by Billy Ocean, “Crush on You” by The Jets and “Mama’s Never Seen Those Eyes” by The Forester Sisters all topped the charts.
1987 – “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” by Whitney Houston topped the charts. 1988 - Mike Tyson retained the undisputed heavyweight crown as he knocked out Michael Spinks 91 seconds into the first round of a championship fight in Atlantic City, N.J.
1989 - President Bush, criticizing a Supreme Court decision upholding the right to desecrate the American flag as a form of political protest, called for a constitutional amendment to protect the Stars and Stripes.
1990 - NASA announced that a flaw in the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope was preventing the instrument from achieving optimum focus.
1991 – Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first black to sit on the nation’s highest court, announced his retirement.
1991 - The US Supreme Court ruled that juries considering life or death for convicted murderers may take into account the victim’s character and the suffering of relatives.
1992 – The body of kidnapped Exxon executive Sidney J. Reso was found buried in a makeshift grave in a state park in New Jersey. Arthur and Irene Seale were later convicted and sentenced to prison for the crime.
1992 – President Bush ordered federal troops to Florida for emergency relief in the wake of Hurricane Andrew.
1993 – Iraq War: US warships fired 24 Tomahawk cruise missiles at intelligence headquarters in Baghdad in retaliation for the assassination plot.
1995 – Space shuttle Atlantis blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a historic mission to dock with the Russian space station Mir. The flight was also the 100th U.S.-piloted space mission.
1995 - The San Francisco Chronicle received a message from the Unabomber threatening to blow up a plane by the July Fourth weekend. The Unabomber later called the threat a prank.
1996 - The GM North Tarreytown Assembly Plant produced its last minivan prior to closure for the remaining 2,100 workers.
1997 - The Supreme Court threw out a key part of the Brady gun-control law, saying the federal government could not make local police decide whether people are fit to buy handguns. However, the court left intact the five-day waiting period for gun purchases.
1997 - It was reported that researchers have discovered the first defective gene that causes Parkinson’s disease. The mutated gene produces a defective version of the brain protein alpha synuclein.
1998 - Heavy thunderstorms in the Northeast and Midwest left at least 5 people dead. The annual Ben & Jerry’s One World One Heart festival at Sugarbush, Vermont, was cancelled.
1999 – A boarding team from the CGC Munro discover 172 illegal Chinese migrants aboard the fishing vessel Chih Yung off the coast of Mexico.
1999 - Juli Inkster shot a 6-under 65 to win the LPGA Championship, becoming the second woman to win the modern career Grand Slam. The first was Pat Bradley.
2000 - US House Republicans cut a deal to allow direct sales of food to Cuba for the first time in four decades.
2001 – Intel unveiled a 2-GHz Pentium 4 chip.
2002 - A US Air Force pilot was killed when his A10 “Warthog” crashed during a training mission in eastern France.
2002 - The US Supreme Court ruled to allow random drug searches in public schools on students who engage in extracurricular activities.
2002 – The US Supreme Court upheld a Cleveland school voucher program in Zelman vs. Simmons-Harris.
2003 – The United States National Do Not Call Registry, formed to combat unwanted telemarketing calls and administered by the Federal Trade Commission, enrolls almost three-quarters of a million phone numbers on its first day.
2004 -  Insurgents threatened to behead Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, a U.S. Marine who’d vanished in Iraq, in a videotaped that aired on Arab television.
2005 - The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Kentucky cannot display framed copies of the Ten Commandments in county courthouses, and allowed the Texas statehouse to keep the commandments as part of a display on its grounds.
2005 - The US Supreme Court also ruled that cable-TV companies are not required to share their high-speed Internet connections with rivals. 2005 - Wal-Mart heir John T. Walton (58), crashed and died while at the controls of a homemade, experimental aircraft near Jackson Hole Airport, Wyoming. His net worth was over $18 billion. Walton supported efforts to educate low-income children.
2006 - A constitutional amendment to ban desecration of the American flag died in a US Senate cliffhanger, falling one vote short of the 67 needed to send it to states for ratification.
2006 - US Surgeon General Richard Carmona issued a report that said secondhand smoke dramatically increases the risk of heart disease and lung cancer in nonsmokers.
2006 – “Railroad Killer” Angel Maturino Resendiz, linked to fifteen murders, was executed in Texas for the slaying of physician Claudia Benton in 1998.
2007 - Don Harvey and his wife, Joyce, of Oklahoma won the a $105.8 million Powerball lottery. They chose to receive a $33.3 million lump sum after taxes instead of the full amount paid out over 29 years.
2007 - Nevada Solar One, the first large CSP (concentrating solar power) plant built since the 1980s, went online with a capacity to generate 64 megawatts. 2007 - Torrential storms flooded parts of central Texas, stranding people on roofs, in trees and in vehicles. Constant downpours claimed eleven lives in the last eleven days.
2008 - US National Guard leaders ended a 5-day convention with their spouses in St. Thomas as their equipment accounts tallied a $47.5 billion deficit.
2008 - The US CDC said at least 810 Americans have been sickened by the strain Salmonella Saintpaul in tomatoes.
2008 - Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis, a church law expert known for his tough stance that politicians who support abortion rights be denied Holy Communion, was named to head the Vatican’s supreme court.
2008 – Bill Gates steps down as Chairman of Microsoft Corporation to work full time for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
2011 –  The Los Angeles Dodgers file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
2011 - The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is temporarily closed due to the Las Conchas Wildfire burning nearby.  A state of emergency is declared with mandatory evacuations.
2011 –  In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association strikes down a 2005 California law prohibiting minors’ access to violent or offensive video games, citing them as protected speech under the First Amendment.
2011 – Near-Earth Asteroid 2011 MD passed within 7,500 miles of the Earth’s surface at about 13:00 EDT flying over the South Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Antarctica.
2012 - Thirty-two thousand people in Colorado Springs, CO flee from the Waldo Canyon Fire that has destroyed hundreds of homes.
2012 - An 11-year-old girl, Ashton Jojo, vacationing with her family at a miniature golf course at Orange Lake Resort, in Orange County, Florida, is accidentally electrocuted after she falls into a 2-foot deep pond at the course while looking for her lost golf ball.
2012 -  The Indiana Pacers team president Larry Bird resigns, with Donnie Walsh being named to replace him.

 

 

1880 – Helen Keller, American deaf and blind activist (d. 1968)
1888 – Antoinette Perry, American theater director (d. 1946}
1899 – Juan Trippe, American airline entrepreneur (d. 1981)
1913 – Willie Mosconi, American billiards player (d. 1993)
1927 – Bob Keeshan, He is most famous as the title character of the children’s television program Captain Kangaroo, which became an icon for millions of baby boomers during its 30-year run from 1955-1984. (d. 2004)
1930 – Ross Perot, American businessman and politician
1942 – Bruce Johnston, American musician (The Beach Boys)
1951 – Julia Duffy, American actress
1956 – Brad Childress, American football coach
1956 – Ted Haggard, American evangelical preacher
1959 – Lorrie Morgan, American country music singer
1963 – Johnny Benson, American NASCAR driver
1986 – Drake Bell, musician/ songwriter /actor, best known for his role on Nickelodeon’s Drake & Josh

BOWEN, HAMMETT L., JR.
VIETNAM WAR

 

 

Rank and organization: Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company C, 2d Battalion, 14th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division. Place and Date: Binh Duong Province, Republic of Vietnam, 27 June 1969.Entered service at: Jacksonville, Fla. Born: 30 November 1947, Lagrange, Ga. Citation: S/Sgt. Bowen distinguished himself while serving as a platoon sergeant during combat operations in Binh Duong Province, Republic of Vietnam. S/Sgt. Bowen’s platoon was advancing on a reconnaissance mission into enemy controlled terrain when it came under the withering crossfire of small arms and grenades from an enemy ambush force. S/Sgt. Bowen placed heavy suppressive fire on the enemy positions and ordered his men to fall back. As the platoon was moving back, an enemy grenade was thrown amid S/Sgt. Bowen and three of his men. Sensing the danger to his comrades, S/Sgt. Bowen shouted a warning to his men and hurled himself on the grenade, absorbing the explosion with his body while saving the lives of his fellow soldiers. S/Sgt. Bowen’s extraordinary courage and concern for his men at the cost of his life served as an inspiration to his comrades and are in the highest traditions of the military service and the U.S. Army.

 

BUTTERFIELD, DANIEL
CIVIL WAR

 

 

 

Rank and organization: Brigadier General, U.S. Volunteers. Place and date: At Gaines Mill, Va., 27 June 1862.Entered service at: Washington, D.C. Born: 31 October 1831, Utica, N.Y. Date of issue: 26 September 1892. Citation: Seized the colors of the 83d Pennsylvania Volunteers at a critical moment and, under a galling fire of the enemy, encouraged the depleted ranks to renewed exertion.

 

 

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