On This Day in History: Paul McCartney meets John Lennon

On this day in 1957, 15-year-old Paul McCartney attends a church picnic in the village of Woolton, near Liverpool, where he meets 16-year-old John Lennon. Lennon had formed a band called the Quarrymen, which was playing at the picnic. Between sets, McCartney played a few songs on guitar for the band, and a few days later Lennon invited him to join. At first, McCartney didn't take the group seriously-in fact, he missed his first performance with the band because he had a scouting trip.

Soon, however, the group had a loyal following. The group changed its name to Johnny and the Moondogs and recruited McCartney's friend George Harrison. After bassist Stu Sutcliffe joined, they changed the name again, to the Silver Beetles, eventually modified to the Beatles. Tommy Moore joined the band as drummer and was replaced by Pete Best in 1960.

After a tour to Germany in 1961, Sutcliffe left the band to become a painter (he died of a brain hemorrhage less than a year later), and the band returned to Liverpool. Label after label rejected them. In 1962, Best left the band, Ringo Starr joined up, and the Fab Four--McCartney, Lennon, Harrison, and Starr--recorded "Love Me Do," the group's first Top 20 hit in the United Kingdom.

Two years later, they were introduced to American listeners. When they landed at Kennedy Airport in 1964 to start their first U.S. tour, a frenzied mob of fans greeted them. Their debut album in the United States, Meet the Beatles, became the fastest-selling album in U.S. history up to that time. The Beatles went on to score more No. 1 hits on the Billboard charts than any other group in history, with 20 chart toppers. They received the Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1965 at Buckingham Palace.

The band broke up in 1970, and each member either pursued a solo career or formed a new group. Although there was frequent speculation about the possibility of a reunion, Lennon's tragic murder by a deranged fan in 1980 ended that possibility.

Eight years later, the Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a retrospective anthology was released in 1995. It included the previously unrecorded "Free as a Bird," written by Lennon and recorded by surviving band members in 1994 and 1995. It became one of the fastest-selling albums in history.

Ok, yea, not as funny...

Film actor, director, and producer Leslie Howard was best known for his role as Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind. Haha that's funny he had a chicks name in real life and a chicks name in his biggest role.
Incidentally today in 1943 he died at age 50 in a plane crash. Howard's plane, traveling from Lisbon to London on World War II-related business, was shot down by Nazis who suspected Winston Churchill was aboard.
That part isn't as funny...

On This Day In History: Ellen Comes Out

In a widely publicized episode of ABC's comedy Ellen, TV character Ellen Morgan, played by Ellen DeGeneres, announces that she is gay. The episode featured cameo appearances by Oprah Winfrey, k.d. lang, Demi Moore, Billy Bob Thornton, and Dwight Yoakam. An estimated 42 million viewers watched the special hour-long program. Ellen became the first primetime sitcom to feature a gay leading character. The first openly gay regular character on a sitcom was Soap's Jodie Dallas, played by Billy Crystal, starting in 1977.

Until the "coming out" episode, DeGeneres' career seemed unstoppable. A New Orleans native, she worked various odd jobs after high school to support herself while she worked the stand-up comedy circuit. At age 22, she won Showtime's "Funniest Person in America" award and shortly after began landing small TV roles. In 1994, she was cast in a series called These Friends of Mine, but she stole the show, and the program came back in the 1995 season as just Ellen. The program finished in the top 20 shows for the 1994-1995 season. She seemed to be following in the footsteps of stand-up comics like Tim Allen and Jerry Seinfeld, and, like them, she published a bestselling book, My Point--And I Do Have One (1995).

Despite her success, and the enormous audience drawn by the coming-out episode, ABC cancelled the series at the end of the 1997 season. Although the network pointed to dwindling ratings, DeGeneres contended that the network buckled under pressure from conservative groups and stopped promoting the show after the controversial episode.

In September 2003, Ellen launched a talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which has since enjoyed great popularity. It won four Daytime Emmy Awards in its first season.

NOTE: I love Ellen's story. She had the bravery to come out when her career was at it's height and rose above the prejudice, bigotry and hate to become one of America's most talented and hilarious comedians. I remember when she came out my Dad (who is one of those lovable racists) vowed to stop watching her show, EVEN THOUGH he had adored it the whole time it aired and of course he wasn't the only one. Just goes to show you how far America has come. In a matter of time gay and straight won't matter, it will come back to the "content of ones character" to paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

On This Day In History: The Red Baron is killed in action

In the skies over France, Manfred von Richthofen, the notorious German flying ace known as "The Red Baron," is killed by Allied fire on April 21, 1918, with 80 victories under his belt, he was 25 years old. In a time of wooden and fabric aircraft, when 20 air victories ensured a pilot legendary status, The Red Baron downed 80 enemy aircraft.

Now we honor his legacy with shitty yet, undeniably tasty frozen pizzas.

On This Day In History: Josephine Baker dies

African-American dancer Josephine Baker dies on this day in 1975. Baker, born in 1906 in St. Louis, was stranded in Paris in 1925 when a show in which she was performing went bankrupt. She landed a dancing job in the Folies Bergere, where her dancing and skimpy costumes became an instant hit with Parisian audiences. In France, Baker was considered the epitome of the jazz era, and French fans continued to adore her for 50 years.

On This Day In History: "Mrs. Robinson" wins Grammy

The soundtrack of The Graduate, which features Simon and Garfunkel's song "Mrs. Robinson," is presented with the Grammy for Best Record of 1968. The pair, who had known each other since sixth grade, also won the award for Best Contemporary Pop Vocal Performance. The pair released only six albums, plus a "Greatest Hits" LP, before they broke up in the early 1970s. However, they developed so many loyal fans that a reunion concert in New York's Central Park in 1981 drew an estimated 500,000 people.

On This Day In History: President Clinton acquitted

On February 12, 1999, the five-week impeachment trial of Bill Clinton comes to an end, with the Senate voting to acquit the president on both articles of impeachment: perjury and obstruction of justice.

In November 1995, Clinton began an affair with Monica Lewinsky, a 21-year-old unpaid intern. Over the course of a year and a half, the president and Lewinsky had nearly a dozen sexual encounters in the White House. In April 1996, Lewinsky was transferred to the Pentagon. That summer, she first confided in Pentagon co-worker Linda Tripp about her sexual relationship with the president. In 1997, with the relationship over, Tripp began secretly to record conversations with Lewinsky, in which Lewinsky gave Tripp details about the affair.

In December, lawyers for Paula Jones, who was suing the president on sexual harassment charges, subpoenaed Lewinsky. In January 1998, allegedly under the recommendation of the president, Lewinsky filed an affidavit in which she denied ever having had a sexual relationship with him. Five days later, Tripp contacted the office of Kenneth Starr, the Whitewater independent counsel, to talk about Lewinsky and the tapes she made of their conversations. Tripp, wired by FBI agents working with Starr, met with Lewinsky again, and on January 16 Lewinsky was taken by FBI agents and U.S. attorneys to a hotel room where she was questioned and offered immunity if she cooperated with the prosecution. A few days later, the story broke, and Clinton publicly denied the allegations, saying, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky."

In late July, lawyers for Lewinsky and Starr worked out a full-immunity agreement covering both Lewinsky and her parents, all of whom Starr had threatened with prosecution. On August 6, Lewinsky appeared before the grand jury to begin her testimony, and on August 17 President Clinton testified. Contrary to his testimony in the Paula Jones sexual-harassment case, President Clinton acknowledged to prosecutors from the office of the independent counsel that he had an extramarital affair with Ms. Lewinsky.

In four hours of closed-door testimony, conducted in the Map Room of the White House, Clinton spoke live via closed-circuit television to a grand jury in a nearby federal courthouse. He was the first sitting president ever to testify before a grand jury investigating his conduct. That evening, President Clinton also gave a four-minute televised address to the nation in which he admitted he had engaged in an inappropriate relationship with Lewinsky. In the brief speech, which was wrought with legalisms, the word "sex" was never spoken, and the word "regret" was used only in reference to his admission that he misled the public and his family.

Less than a month later, on September 9, Kenneth Starr submitted his report and 18 boxes of supporting documents to the House of Representatives. Released to the public two days later, the Starr Report outlined a case for impeaching Clinton on 11 grounds, including perjury, obstruction of justice, witness-tampering, and abuse of power, and also provided explicit details of the sexual relationship between the president and Ms. Lewinsky.

On October 8, the House authorized a wide-ranging impeachment inquiry, and on December 11 the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment. On December 19, after nearly 14 hours of debate, the House approved two articles of impeachment, charging President Clinton with lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice. Clinton, the second president in American history to be impeached, vowed to finish his term.

On January 7, 1999, in a congressional procedure not seen since the 1868 impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson, the trial of President Clinton got underway in the Senate. As instructed in Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution, the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (William Rehnquist at this time) was sworn in to preside and the senators were sworn in as jurors.

Five weeks later, on February 12, the Senate voted on whether to remove Clinton from office. The president was acquitted on both articles of impeachment. The prosecution needed a two-thirds majority to convict but failed to achieve even a bare majority. Rejecting the first charge of perjury, 45 Democrats and 10 Republicans voted "not guilty" and on the charge of obstruction of justice the Senate was split 50-50. After the trial concluded, President Clinton said he was "profoundly sorry" for the burden his behavior imposed on Congress and the American people.

On This Day In History: Herbert Hoover marries Lou Henry

February 10, 1899
Herbert Hoover marries Lou Henry
On this day in 1899, future President Herbert Hoover marries his fellow Stanford University geology student and sweetheart Lou Henry in Monterey, California.

After their nuptials, the newlyweds departed on a honeymoon cruise to China, where Hoover had accepted a position as mining consultant to the Chinese emperor. Barely a year into their married life, the Hoovers got caught in China’s Boxer Rebellion of 1900, in which Chinese nationalists rebelled against European colonial control and besieged 800 westerners in the city of Tientsin. Hoover led a group of westerners in building protective barricades while Lou volunteered in a nearby hospital. After the rebellion was put down by an international coalition of troops, the Hoovers left China, splitting their time between residences in California and London and traveling the world.

Raised in Monterey, California, Lou Henry shared her husband’s appreciation of the outdoors and athletics. While Hoover served as secretary of commerce in the early 1920s, she helped build the Girl Scouts organization and presided over the Women’s Division of the National Amateur Athletic Federation. The Hoovers’ experience in China inspired them to also engage in relief work for refugees and tourists stranded in hostile countries. During World War I, Lou chaired the American Women’s War Relief Fund and other war-related charitable organizations. In 1929, she became the first president’s wife to invite the wife of an African-American congressman to a social function at the White House. The civic-minded and intelligent Mrs. Hoover spoke five languages, authored books and articles and received eight honorary degrees in her lifetime.

Hoover’s tenure as president coincided with the Great Depression. Although he had warned against the type of market speculation that led to the stock market crash of 1929, the country blamed him for the Depression for the rest of his term. Lou Hoover stepped up her charitable work during the crisis, but received harsh criticism for continuing to hold lavish White House social events at a time when unprecedented numbers of American citizens suffered utter poverty. Her actions contributed to the president’s unpopularity and Hoover left office in disgrace after one term.

On This Day In History: Beatles last public appearance

Perhaps the most influential musical group of all time, the Beatles make their last public performance on this day in 1969, giving an impromptu concert on the roof of their London recording studio. Neighbors complained about noise, and police broke up the concert. John Lennon closed the performance announcing, "I'd like to say thank you very much on behalf of the group and myself and I hope we passed the audition." In April 1970, Paul McCartney formally announced the group's breakup.

The Beatles, who led the rock-music movement called the "British Invasion," revolutionized popular music around the world and achieved unprecedented popularity. The band started as Johnny and the Moondogs, featuring Liverpool musicians John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison. When Stu Sutcliffe joined as their bassist, they changed their name to the Silver Beetles, later modified to The Beatles. Tommy Moore joined the band as drummer, but Pete Best replaced him in 1960. Sutcliffe left in 1961 to become a painter (he died of a brain hemorrhage less than a year later), and the band returned to Liverpool as the quartet that would rock the world.

Label after label rejected them in Europe. Then in 1962, Best left the band, Ringo Starr joined up, and they recorded "Love Me Do," their first Top 20 hit in the United Kingdom. In 1964, they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, and Beatlemania began in the United States.

The band's shaggy-haired stars, boasting an unrivaled playful and eclectic synergy, were among the first rock bands to write most of their own material. As the band evolved, its members experimented with a variety of different musical styles that ranged from the simple ("I Want to Hold Your Hand") to the innovative ("Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,"which used electronic music and a sitar to achieve an eerie sound to go along with its unconventional lyrics).

The Beatles received the Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1965 at Buckingham Palace, and their immense popularity prompted Lennon to tell a newspaper reporter, "We're more popular than Jesus Christ right now." Beatlemaniacs searched for hidden meanings in Beatles songs and album covers, and the release of Abbey Road, allegedly filled with coded clues, sparked rumors that McCartney was dead.

When the band broke up, the members continued their musical careers as solo artists or band leaders. They were often asked to reunite, but that idea dissolved when Lennon was murdered by a deranged fan in 1980. Eight years after his death, the Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a retrospective anthology was released in 1995. It included the previously unrecorded "Free as a Bird," which was written by Lennon and recorded by the surviving band members in 1994 and 1995. It became one of the fastest-selling albums in history.

On This Day In History: The space shuttle Challenger Exploded

At 11:38 a.m. EST, on January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Christa McAuliffe is on her way to becoming the first ordinary U.S. civilian to travel into space. McAuliffe, a 37-year-old high school social studies teacher from New Hampshire, won a competition that earned her a place among the seven-member crew of the Challenger. She underwent months of shuttle training but then, beginning January 23, was forced to wait six long days as the Challenger's launch countdown was repeatedly delayed because of weather and technical problems. Finally, on January 28, the shuttle lifted off.

Seventy-three seconds later, hundreds on the ground, including Christa's family, stared in disbelief as the shuttle exploded in a forking plume of smoke and fire. Millions more watched the wrenching tragedy unfold on live television. There were no survivors.

In 1976, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) unveiled the world's first reusable manned spacecraft, the Enterprise. Five years later, space flights of the shuttle began when Columbia traveled into space on a 54-hour mission. Launched by two solid-rocket boosters and an external tank, only the aircraft-like shuttle entered into orbit around Earth. When the mission was completed, the shuttle fired engines to reduce speed and, after descending through the atmosphere, landed like a glider. Early shuttles took satellite equipment into space and carried out various scientific experiments. The Challenger disaster was the first major shuttle accident.

In the aftermath of the explosion, President Ronald Reagan appointed a special commission to determine what went wrong with Challenger and to develop future corrective measures. The presidential commission was headed by former secretary of state William Rogers, and included former astronaut Neil Armstrong and former test pilot Chuck Yeager. The investigation determined that the explosion was caused by the failure of an "O-ring" seal in one of the two solid-fuel rockets. The elastic O-ring did not respond as expected because of the cold temperature at launch time, which began a chain of events that resulted in the massive explosion. As a result of the explosion, NASA did not send astronauts into space for more than two years as it redesigned a number of features of the space shuttle.

In September 1988, space shuttle flights resumed with the successful launching of the Discovery. Since then, the space shuttle has carried out numerous important missions, such as the repair and maintenance of the Hubble Space Telescope and the construction of the International Space Station.

On February 1, 2003, a second space-shuttle disaster rocked the United States when Columbia disintegrated upon reentry of the Earth's atmosphere. All aboard were killed. Despite fears that the problems that downed Columbia had not been satisfactorily addressed, space-shuttle flights resumed on July 26, 2005, when Discovery was again put into orbit.

On This Day In History: Elvis First Appears on Television

Young country-rock singer Elvis Presley makes his first-ever television appearance on the TV musical-variety program Stage Show on this day in 1956. Presley sang "Heartbreak Hotel," which quickly became a hit single. In total, Elvis appeared on six shows. The program was hosted by swing band leaders Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. Elvis went on to appear on Ed Sullivan's immensely popular variety show, Toast of the Town, in the fall of 1956. The appearance made Elvis a household name.

On This Day In History: National Geographic Society founded

On January 27, 1888, the National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C., for "the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge."

The 33 men who originally met and formed the National Geographic Society were a diverse group of geographers, explorers, teachers, lawyers, cartographers, military officers and financiers. All shared an interest in scientific and geographical knowledge, as well as an opinion that in a time of discovery, invention, change and mass communication, Americans were becoming more curious about the world around them. With this in mind, the men drafted a constitution and elected as the Society's president a lawyer and philanthropist named Gardiner Greene Hubbard. Neither a scientist nor a geographer, Hubbard represented the Society's desire to reach out to the layman.

Nine months after its inception, the Society published its first issue of National Geographic magazine. Readership did not grow, however, until Gilbert H. Grosvenor took over as editor in 1899. In only a few years, Grosvenor boosted circulation from 1,000 to 2 million by discarding the magazine's format of short, overly technical articles for articles of general interest accompanied by photographs. National Geographic quickly became known for its stunning and pioneering photography, being the first to print natural-color photos of sky, sea and the North and South Poles.

The Society used its revenues from the magazine to sponsor expeditions and research projects that furthered humanity's understanding of natural phenomena. In this role, the National Geographic Society has been instrumental in making possible some of the great achievements in exploration and science. To date, it has given out more than 1,400 grants, funding that helped Robert Peary journey to the North Pole, Richard Byrd fly over the South Pole, Jacques Cousteau delve into the sea and Jane Goodall observe wild chimpanzees, among many other projects.

Today, the National Geographic Society is one of the world's largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions. National Geographic continues to sell as a glossy monthly, with a circulation of around 9 million. The Society also sees itself as a guardian of the planet's natural resources, and in this capacity, focuses on ways to broaden its reach and educate its readers about the unique relationship that humans have with the earth.

On This Day In History: Toy company Wham-O produces first Frisbees

On this day in 1957, machines at the Wham-O toy company roll out the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs--now known to millions of fans all over the world as Frisbees.

The story of the Frisbee began in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where William Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company in 1871. Students from nearby universities would throw the empty pie tins to each other, yelling "Frisbie!" as they let go. In 1948, Walter Frederick Morrison and his partner Warren Franscioni invented a plastic version of the disc called the "Flying Saucer" that could fly further and more accurately than the tin pie plates. After splitting with Franscioni, Morrison made an improved model in 1955 and sold it to the new toy company Wham-O as the "Pluto Platter"--an attempt to cash in on the public craze over space and Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).

In 1958, a year after the toy's first release, Wham-O--the company behind such top-sellers as the Hula-Hoop, the Super Ball and the Water Wiggle--changed its name to the Frisbee disc, misspelling the name of the historic pie company.

A company designer, Ed Headrick, patented the design for the modern Frisbee in December 1967, adding a band of raised ridges on the disc's surface--called the Rings--to stabilize flight. By aggressively marketing Frisbee-playing as a new sport, Wham-O sold over 100 million units of its famous toy by 1977.

High school students in Maplewood, New Jersey, invented Ultimate Frisbee, a cross between football, soccer and basketball, in 1967. In the 1970s, Headrick himself invented Frisbee Golf, in which discs are tossed into metal baskets; there are now hundreds of courses in the U.S., with millions of devotees. There is also Freestyle Frisbee, with choreographed routines set to music and multiple discs in play, and various Frisbee competitions for both humans and dogs--the best natural Frisbee players.

Today, at least 60 manufacturers produce the flying discs--generally made out of plastic and measuring roughly 20-25 centimeters (8-10 inches) in diameter with a curved lip. The official Frisbee is owned by Mattel Toy Manufacturers, who bought the toy from Wham-O in 1994.

On This Day In History: Roe vs. Wade

The Supreme Court decriminalizes abortion by handing down their decision in the case of Roe v. Wade. Despite opponents' characterization of the decision, it was not the first time that abortion became a legal procedure in the United States. In fact, for most of the country's first 100 years, abortion as we know it today was not only not a criminal offense, it was also not considered immoral.

In the 1700s and early 1800s, the word "abortion" referred only to the termination of a pregnancy after "quickening," the time when the fetus first began to make noticeable movements. The induced ending of a pregnancy before this point did not even have a name--but not because it was uncommon. Women in the 1700s often took drugs to end their unwanted pregnancies.

In 1827, though, Illinois passed a law that made the use of abortion drugs punishable by up to three years' imprisonment. Although other states followed the Illinois example, advertising for "Female Monthly Pills," as they were known, was still common through the middle of the 19th century.

Abortion itself only became a serious criminal offense in the period between 1860 and 1880. And the criminalization of abortion did not result from moral outrage. The roots of the new law came from the newly established physicians' trade organization, the American Medical Association. Doctors decided that abortion practitioners were unwanted competition and went about eliminating that competition. The Catholic Church, which had long accepted terminating pregnancies before quickening, joined the doctors in condemning the practice.

By the turn of the century, all states had laws against abortion, but for the most part they were rarely enforced and women with money had no problem terminating pregnancies if they wished. It wasn't until the late 1930s that abortion laws were enforced. Subsequent crackdowns led to a reform movement that succeeded in lifting abortion restrictions in California and New York even before the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade.

The fight over whether to criminalize abortion has grown increasingly fierce in recent years, but opinion polls suggest that most Americans prefer that women be able to have abortions in the early stages of pregnancy, free of any government interference.

On This Day In History: President Carter Pardons Draft Dodgers

On this day in 1977, U.S. President Jimmy Carter grants an unconditional pardon to hundreds of thousands of men who evaded the draft during the Vietnam War.

In total, some 100,000 young Americans went abroad in the late 1960s and early 70s to avoid serving in the war. Ninety percent went to Canada, where after some initial controversy they were eventually welcomed as immigrants. Still others hid inside the United States. In addition to those who avoided the draft, a relatively small number--about 1,000--of deserters from the U.S. armed forces also headed to Canada. While the Canadian government technically reserved the right to prosecute deserters, in practice they left them alone, even instructing border guards not to ask too many questions.

For its part, the U.S. government continued to prosecute draft evaders after the Vietnam War ended. A total of 209,517 men were formally accused of violating draft laws, while government officials estimate another 360,000 were never formally accused. If they returned home, those living in Canada or elsewhere faced prison sentences or forced military service. During his 1976 presidential campaign, Jimmy Carter promised to pardon draft dodgers as a way of putting the war and the bitter divisions it caused firmly in the past. After winning the election, Carter wasted no time in making good on his word. Though many transplanted Americans returned home, an estimated 50,000 settled permanently in Canada, greatly expanding the country's arts and academic scenes and pushing Canadian politics decidedly to the left.

Back in the U.S., Carter's decision generated a good deal of controversy. Heavily criticized by veterans' groups and others for allowing unpatriotic lawbreakers to get off scot-free, the pardon and companion relief plan came under fire from amnesty groups for not addressing deserters, soldiers who were dishonorably discharged or civilian anti-war demonstrators who had been prosecuted for their resistance.

Years later, Vietnam-era draft evasion still carries a powerful stigma. Though no prominent political figures have been found to have broken any draft laws, Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and Vice-Presidents Dan Quayle and Dick Cheney--none of whom saw combat in Vietnam--have all been accused of being draft dodgers at one time or another. Although there is not currently a draft in the U.S., desertion and conscientious objection have remained pressing issues among the armed forces during the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

How To Dodge a Draft in Korea

On This Day in History: The "Witch of Buchenwald" is sentenced to prison

On this day, Ilse Koch, wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment in a court in West Germany. Ilse Koch was nicknamed the "Witch of Buchenwald" for her extraordinary sadism.

Born in Dresden, Germany, Ilse, a librarian, married SS. Col. Karl Koch in 1936. Colonel Koch, a man with his own reputation for sadism, was the commandant of the Sashsenhausen concentration camp, two miles north of Berlin. He was transferred after three years to Buchenwald concentration camp, 4.5 miles northwest of Weimar; the Buchenwald concentration camp held a total of 20,000 slave laborers during the war.

Ilse, a large woman with red hair, was given free reign in the camp, whipping prisoners with her riding crop as she rode by on her horse, forcing prisoners to have sex with her, and, most horrifying, collecting lampshades, book covers, and gloves made from the skin of tattooed camp prisoners.


A German inmate gave the following testimony during the Nuremberg war trials: "All prisoners with tattooing on them were to report to the dispensary.... After the prisoners had been examined, the ones with the best and most artistic specimens were killed by injections. The corpses were then turned over to the pathological department, where the desired pieces of tattooed skin were detached from the bodies and treated further."

Karl Koch was arrested, ironically enough, by his SS superiors for "having gone too far." It seems he had a penchant for stealing even the belongings of wealthy, well-placed Germans. He was tried and hanged in 1944. Ilse Koch was tried for crimes against humanity at Nuremberg and sentenced to life in prison, but the American military governor of the occupied zone subsequently reduced her sentence to four years. His reason, "lack of evidence," caused a Senate investigation back home. She was released but arrested again, tried by a West German court, and sentenced to life. She committed suicide in 1967 by hanging herself with a bedsheet.

On This Day In History: "The Twist" goes gold-again

Chubby Checker's hit "The Twist" becomes the first song to reach the No. 1 spot twice in two years. "The Twist" had hit the top of the charts in September 1960. The song, widely considered one of the most successful singles of all time, was on the Top 100 charts for 39 weeks, longer than any other single except "Red Red Wine" by UB40. When an early recording of "The Twist" by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters became the top dance song on Dick Clark's American Bandstand but failed to get much radio play, Clark suggested that a new artist should record a cover. Singer Ernest Evans of Cameo Records recorded the song and changed his name to Chubby Checker as a takeoff on Fats Domino. The song hit the charts in 1960 when it became immensely popular with teenagers, but adults started buying the record in 1962, after Chubby Checker sang "The Twist" on Ed Sullivan's October 22 show.

On This Day In History: Laker winning streak comes to an end

On January 9, 1972, the 24-year-old Kareem Abdul-Jabbar leads the Milwaukee Bucks in a 120-104 victory over Wilt Chamberlain and the Los Angeles Lakers, breaking the Lakers’ record 33-game winning streak, the longest of any team in American professional sports.
Coached by former Boston Celtics star Bill Sharman and led by future Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Gail Goodrich, the 1971-72 Lakers began their historic run of victories on November 5, 1971 when they beat the Baltimore Bullets in Baltimore, 110-106. They set a new NBA record with their 21st win on December 11, beating the Atlanta Hawks 104-95 and surpassing the 20-game winning streak the Bucks had put together the previous year.


The defending National Basketball Association (NBA) champion Bucks got their revenge on January 9, when a keyed-up Abdul-Jabbar scored 39 points, outplaying Chamberlain (15 points) with more rebounds (20 vs. 12), blocked shots (10 vs. 6) and assists (5 vs. 2). Abdul-Jabbar’s dominance, combined with a "get-back" defense formulated by Bucks Coach Larry Costello, decisively halted the Lakers’ historic streak.
After ending their season with a then-record 69 wins, Chamberlain and his team beat the Bucks in the Western division title match. This got them a berth in the NBA finals, where they decisively defeated the New York Knicks, four games to one. Chamberlain retired from professional basketball in 1973, and two years later Abdul-Jabbar joined the Lakers, where he later teamed with Magic Johnson to make Los Angeles the dominant team of the 1980s.

On This Day In History: William Randolph Hearst Stops Citizen Kane Ads

From The History Channel Website
American mogul William Randolph Hearst, owner of the Hearst newspaper chain, forbids any of his newspapers from accepting ads for Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, slated for release later in the year. The film was generally interpreted as a psychological study of Hearst, portrayed as the fictional Charles Foster Kane.
In March 1941, Welles threatened to sue Hearst for trying to suppress the film, and RKO if it failed to release the film. The film premiered May 1, 1941, at the RKO Palace in New York and became one of the most highly regarded films of all time.
Born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and raised in Chicago, Welles was well versed in Shakespeare before he finished grade school. He excelled in poetry, music, cartooning, and magic. After high school, Welles-the son of an inventor and a concert pianist-chose to travel the world rather than attend college, and he launched his acting career in Ireland in 1931.
He came back to the United States in 1932 but was snubbed by Broadway, so he traveled to Spain, where he performed as a bullfighter. He returned to the United States soon thereafter and this time landed the role of Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet on Broadway. In 1937, he founded the Mercury Theater, home of innovative stage and radio drama. A noted radio artist, Welles' version of The War of the Worlds was so realistic that many listeners actually believed Martians had invaded New Jersey.

At age 25, Welles produced, directed, co-wrote, and starred in the Academy Award-winning Citizen Kane, his first foray into motion pictures. The film told the story of Kane, who muscled his way from rags to riches using unscrupulous tactics, while his desire for power destroyed his marriage and alienated his friends. The manager of Kane's newspapers was named after Dr. Maurice Bernstein, a Chicago physician who raised Welles after he was orphaned at age 12. Though Citizen Kane wasn't commercially successful, the film won praise for its unique camera and sound work, which influenced filmmakers around the world. Indeed, it topped the list in the American Film Institute's 1998 poll of America's100 Greatest Films. After Citizen Kane, Welles' diverse works included everything from Shakespearean adaptations to documentaries. Some of his acclaimed films included The Stranger (1946), The Lady from Shanghai (1947), and Chimes at Midnight (1966). In his later years, he narrated documentaries and appeared in commercials, and he left behind numerous unfinished films when he died in 1985. He was a recipient of the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award.

On This Day in History: Many Things Occur

In 1838 Samuel Morse demonstrates his telegraph system for the first time in New Jersey
In 1912 New Mexico Joins the Union
In 1919 Theodore Roosevelt Dies
In 1973 Schoolhouse Rock Debuts
In 1993 Renowned jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie dies
In 1994 Nancy Kerrigan is attacked
In 1996 "The Blizzard of '96" Begins (If you lived on the East Coast during this time you know how killer this was!)
In 2001 George Bush officially becomes president of the U.S. after a bitterly contested election