Monday May 12, 2014

KALW | By Ichabod Cranium

Published May 12, 2014 at 6:13 AM PDT

On This Day In …
1777 --- According to the International Dairy Foods Association, the first ice cream advertisement appeared in the New York Gazette on this date.

1847 --- William Clayton got tired of counting the revolutions of a rag tied to a spoke of a wagon wheel to figure out how many miles he had traveled. So, while he was crossing the plains in his covered wagon, he invented the odometer.
1870 --- Manitoba entered the confederation as a Canadian province.

1903 --- President Theodore Roosevelt's trip to San Francisco is captured on moving-picture film, making him the first president to have an official activity recorded in that medium. A cameraman named H.J. Miles filmed the president while riding in a parade in his

honor. The resulting short move was titled The President's Carriage and was later played on "nickelodeons" in arcades across America. The film showed Roosevelt riding in a carriage and escorted by the Ninth U.S. Cavalry Regiment, which was unusual for the time, according to the Library of Congress and contemporary newspapers, because it was an all-black company.

1932 --- The body of the kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh was found in a wooded area of Hopewell, N.J.
1941 --- Adolph Hitler sends two bombers to Iraq to support Rashid Ali al-Gailani in his revolt against Britain, which is trying to enforce a previously agreed upon Anglo-Iraqi alliance. At the start of the war, Iraqi Prime Minister General Nuri as-Said severed ties with Germany and signed a cooperation pact with Great Britain. In April 1941, the Said government was overthrown by Ali, an anti-British general, who proceeded to cut off the British oil pipeline to the Mediterranean. Britain fought back by landing a brigade on the Persian Gulf, successfully fending off 9,000 Iraqi troops. Ali retaliated by sealing off the British airbase at Habbaniya. Hitler, elated at the grief the British enemy was enduring in the Middle East, began sending arms, via Syria, as well as military experts to aid Ali in his revolt.

1942 --- The Soviet Army launched its first major offensive of World War II and took Kharkov in the eastern Ukraine from the German army.

1955 --- Sam Jones of the Chicago Cubs pitched a no-hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates, winning 4-0. Jones became the first black pitcher to throw a major-league no-hitter.
1960 --- Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley appeared on the same TV special and performed the other's hit. Elvis sang "Witchcraft" and Sinatra sang "Love Me Tender."
1963 --- Bob Dylan walked out of dress rehearsals for "The Ed Sullivan Show" when CBS censors told him he could not perform "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues."

1967 --- The Jimi Hendrix Experience released their debut album "Are You Experienced."
1970 --- Chicago Cubs slugger Ernie Banks hits the 500th home run of his career. "Mr. Cub" was known for his engaging personality and love of the game, traits on display even as the dismal Cubs suffered through losing season after losing season.Banks was named the team’s most valuable player twice, in 1958 and 1959, and led the National League in RBIs twice and home runs twice, finishing with 512 home runs for his career. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1977.

1970 --- The Senate confirms President Nixon’s nomination of Federal Circuit Judge Harry A. Blackmun to the U.S. Supreme Court. Blackmun, born in Nashville, Illinois, in 1908, was regarded as a staunch conservative when he joined the nation's highest court

as an associate justice in 1970. Widely praised for his scholarly and carefully drafted opinions, Blackmun was initially allied with other Republican appointees on the court, but all that changed in 1973 with the Roe v. Wade decision. Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in America, was authored by Blackmun and thus made him one of the most vilified Supreme Court members in U.S. history.

1972 --- The album "Exile on Main St." by the Rolling Stones was released.
1975 --- The American freighter Mayaguez is captured by communist government forces in Cambodia, setting off an international incident. The U.S. response to the affair indicated that the wounds of the Vietnam War still ran deep.
1978 --- TheNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that it would alternate men’s and women’s names in the naming of hurricanes. It was seen as an attempt at fair play. Hurricanes had been named for women for years, until NOAA succumbed to pressure from women’s groups who were demanding that Atlantic storms be given unisex names

1982 --- Pope John Paul II was assaulted by a knife-wielding Spanish priest while visiting the shrine of Fatima in Portugal.
1987 --- Firefighters finally contain a giant fire sweeping eastward across China, but not before 193 people are killed.The fateful fire began on May 6 in Mohe County of the Heilongjiang Province. From the outset, authorities mishandled the blaze, failing to contain it while the size was still manageable. It spread quickly and within two days, 2,000 square miles had burned and 100 people were dead. Firefighters also had to contend with a separate large forest fire that had broken out near China's border with the Soviet Union that threatened to join the initial blaze.

1992 --- Four suspects were arrested in the beating of trucker Reginald Denny at the start of the Los Angeles riots.

2002 --- Former President Carter arrived in Cuba for a visit with Fidel Castro. It was the first time a U.S. head of state, in or out of office, had gone to the island since Castro's 1959 revolution.
2003 --- Fifty-nine Texas House Democrats fled to Oklahoma to prevent passage of a congressional redistricting bill.

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