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On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on December 08:
0065 BC Horace Rome, lyric poet/satirist (Satire, Odes)
1626 Christina, queen of Sweden who abdicated after becoming Catholic
1731 Frantisek Xaver Dusek, composer
1765 Eli Whitney (inventor: cotton gin and uniformity method of musket manufacturing: beginning of mass production)
1828 Clinton Bowen Fisk Bvt Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1890
1828 Robert Bullock Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1905
1861 William Crapo Durant founded General Motors
1861 Aristide Maillol, France, painter/sculptor (Seated Woman)
1865 Jean Sibelius, Tavastehus Finland, composer (Valse Triste, Finlandia)
1879 Paul Klee, Swiss/German painter/tutor (Bauhaus)
1886 Diego Rivera, Mexico, painter
1894 James Thurber (writer: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, My World and Welcome to It, The Last Flower, Is Sex Necessary?)
1899 James "Pigmeat" Jarrett pianist
1899 Sarah Williamson US missionary in Liberia
1925 Hank (Henry) Thompson (baseball)
1925 Jimmy Smith (modern jazz organist: Walk on the Wild Side)
1925 Sammy Davis Jr. (entertainer, singer: The Candy Man, What Kind of Fool Am I, Faraway Places; member: The Rat Pack)
1930 Flip (Clerow) Wilson (comedian: The Flip Wilson Show: Geraldine: "The Devil Made Me Do It!")
1930 Maximilian Schell (Academy Award-winning actor: Judgment at Nuremberg [1961]; The Odessa File)
1936 David Carradine (actor: Kung Fu; acting family: son of John, brother of Keith and Robert)
1937 James MacArthur (actor: Hawaii Five-O: Dano of "Book 'em, Dano"; son of Helen Hayes)
1939 James Galway, Belfast Ireland, flutist (18k gold flute, Royal Phil)
1939 Jerry Butler (singer: For Your Precious Love, He Will Break Your Heart, Only the Strong Survive, group: The Impressions)
1943 Jim Morrison ('The Lizard King': singer: group: The Doors: Light My Fire, Love Her Madly, Riders on the Storm)
1947 Gregg Allman (musician: keyboards, guitar, vocal: group: Allman Brothers: Ramblin' Man; Cher's ex)
1953 Kim Basinger (actress)
1964 Teri Hatcher Sunnyvale CA, actress (Lois Lane-Lois & Clark)

Deaths which occurred on December 08:
0644 Omar I, 2nd kalif of Islam, murdered
1292 John Peckham English archbishop of Canterbury, dies at 62
1587 Mary, Queen of Scots (1560-1587), executed
1596 Luis de Carabajal, 1st Jewish author in America, executed in Mexico
1643 John Pym, English House of Commons member, dies at about 59
1709 Thomas Corneille, French dramatist, dies at 74
1785 Antonio Maria Mazzoni, composer, dies at 68
1831 James Hoban architect who designed White House, dies
1907 Oscar II Frederick King of Sweden (-1907)/Norway (-1905), dies
1978 Golda Meir, Israel's PM (1969-74), dies in Jerusalem at 80
1980 John Lennon, assassinated in NY by Mark David Chapman at 40 [H]
1982 Marty Robbins country singer, dies at 57
1992 William Shawn, US editor-in-chief (New Yorker, 1952-87), dies at 85
1993 Carlotta Monti, lover of WC Fields, dies at 86
1994 Antonio Carlos Jobim, Brazil composer (Girl From Ipanema), dies at 67
1997 Leon Poliakov, historian, dies at 87
1997 Bob Bell clown (WGN's 1st Bozo), dies at 75

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1965 CORLE JOHN T.---PITCAIRN PA.
1965 RICHTSTEIG DAVID JOHN---CEDAR CITY UT.
[09/30/74 REMAINS RECOVERED]
1966 ASIRE DONALD H.---POMONA CA.
[REMAINS RETURNED 06/21/89]
1966 HYDE MICHAEL LEWIS---BOULDER CITY CO.
[REMAINS RETURNED ID 04/17/91]
1968 REX ROBERT ALAN---RANDOLPH UT.
[REMAINS RETURNED 09/96]
1969 PIRRUCCELLO JOSEPH S.---WRIGHT PATTERSON AFB OH.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
1660 The first Shakespearian actress to appear on an English stage (she is believed to be a Ms. Norris) makes her debut as Desdemona.
1710 Battle at Brihuega: English General Stanhope captured
1776 George Washington's retreating army crosses Delaware River from New Jersey
1777 Captain Cook leaves Society Islands
1792 1st cremation in US, Henry Laurens
1813 Ludwig von Beethoven's 7th Symphony in A, premieres
1846 Hector Berlioz's "La Damnation de Faust" premieres
1849 Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Luisa Miller" premieres in Naples
1854 Pope Pius IX proclaims Immaculate Conception, makes Mary, free of Original Sin
1857 1st production of Dion Boucicaults "Poor of New York"
1861 CSS Sumter captures the whaler Eben Dodge in the Atlantic. The American Civil War is now affecting the Northern whaling industry.
1863 Abraham Lincoln announces plan for Reconstruction of South
1863 Pres Lincoln offers amnesty for confederate deserters
1863 Jesuit Church of La Compana in Santiago Chile catches fire, 2,500 die in panic
1864 Pope Pius IX publishes encyclical Quanta cura ("Syllabus errorum")
1869 20th Roman Catholic ecumenical council, Vatican I, opens in Rome
1874 Jesse James gang takes train at Muncie KS
1876 Suriname begins compulsory education for 7-12 years
1880 5,000 armed Boers gather in Paardekraal South-Africa
1881 Vienna's Ring Theater destroyed by fire, kills between 640-850
1886 American Federation of Labor (AFL) formed by 26 craft unions; Samuel Gompers elected AFL president
1895 Battle at Amba Alagi: Ethiopian emperor Menelik II drives Italian General Baratieri's out
1896 Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Missing 3 Quarter" (BG)
1902 Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr became Associate Justice on Supreme Court
1909 Bird banding society found
1913 Construction starts on Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco
1914 British & German fleets battle at Falkland Island
1914 Connie Mack sells Eddie Collins to the White Sox
1914 Irving Berlin's musical "Watch your Step" premieres in New York NY
1915 Jean Sibelius' 5th Symphony in E, premieres
1921 Eamon de Valera publicly repudiates Anglo-Irish Treaty
1923 German-US friendship treaty signed
1923 Labour/Liberals win British parliament
1923 Salary & price freeze in Germany
1931 Coaxial cable patented
1934 Friedrich Wolf's "Professor Mamlock" premieres in Zürich
1936 NAACP files suit to equalize the salaries of black & white teachers
1936 Anastasio Somoza elected President of Nicaragua
1938 LP Beria follows Nikolai Jezjov as head of Russian secret police
1941 San Francisco 1st blackout, at 6 15 PM
1941 Extermination Camp Chelmo opens
1941 London: Dutch government declares Japan the war
1941 Russian 16th army recaptures Krijukovo
1941 US & Britain declare war on Japan, US enters WWII
1942 8th Heisman Trophy Award: Frank Sinkwich, Georgia (HB)
1943 U.S. carrier-based planes sink two cruisers and down 72 planes in the Marshall Islands.
1946 Army rocket plane XS-1 makes 1st powered flight
1947 "Caribbean Carnival" opens at International Theater NYC for 11 performances
1948 14th Heisman Trophy Award: Doak Walker, SMU (HB)
1948 Jordan annexs Arabic Palestine
1949 Chinese Nationalist government moves from Chinese mainland to Formosa
1949 Jule Styne's "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" premieres at Ziegfeld Theater NYC for 740 performances
1951 "Tree Grows in Brooklyn" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 267 performances
1951 American League alters its restrictions on night games, adopting National League's suspended game rule & lifting its ban on lights for Sunday games
1952 1st TV acknowledgement of pregnancy (I Love Lucy)
1952 French troops shoot on demonstrators at Casablanca, 50 die
1952 Isaak Ben-Zwi elected President of Israel
1953 19th Heisman Trophy Award: John Lattner, Notre Dame (HB)
1954 Maxwell Anderson's "Bad Seed" premieres in New York NY
1954 WPTZ TV channel 5 in Plattsburgh NY (NBC) begins broadcasting
1955 Brooklyn catcher Roy Campanella wins his 3rd MVP Award
1955 Turkish government of Menderes forms
1956 1st test firing of the Vanguard satellite program, TV-0
1956 Guy Mitchell's "Singing the Blues" single goes #1 for 10 weeks
1956 16th Olympic games close in Melbourne, Australia
1959 Dom Mintoff demands independence for Malta
1959 President Eisenhower watches Pakistan vs Australia Test Cricket at Karachi
1960 Expansion Los Angeles Angels sign a 4 year lease to use Dodger Stadium
1961 Larry Costello scores 32 consecutive points without a miss (NBA record)
1961 Antwerp Belgium diocese forms
1961 Wilt Chamberlain scores the 2nd highest total in the NBA - 78
1962 114-day newspaper strike begins in New York NY
1962 "I Can Get It For You Wholesale" closes at Shubert NYC after 300 performances
1962 Failed coup in Brunei
1962 Funeral for Queen Wilhelmina of Holland (New Kerk, Delft)
1963 3 fuel tanks explodes when jetliner is struck by lightning crashing near Elkton MD-Only case of lightning caused crash, 81 die
1963 Mickey Wright/Dave Ragan Jr win LPGA Haig & Haig Scotch Mixed Golf
1965 Abe Burrows' "Cactus Flower" premieres in New York NY
1965 Nikolai Podgorny succeeds Mikojan as President of USSR
1965 Pope Paul VI signs 2nd Vatican council
1966 Yankee's trade, Roger Maris for Card's Charlie Smith
1966 US & USSR sign treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons in outer space
1967 Beatles "Magical Mystery Tour" album is released in UK
1967 NHL California Seals change name to Oakland Seals
1969 Greek DC-6B crashes in storm at Athens, 93 killed
1969 Police surprise attack on Black-Panthers in Los Angeles
1972 United Airlines airplane crashes at Chicago's Midway Airport killing 45
1973 "Seesaw" closes at Uris Theater NYC after 296 performances
1973 39th Heisman Trophy Award: John Cappelletti, Penn State (RB)
1974 Soyuz 16 returns to Earth
1974 Greek monarchy rejected by referendum
1974 Irish Republican Socialist Party forms
1974 Sandra Post wins LPGA Colgate Far East Golf Open
1975 "Raisin" closes at 46th St Theater NYC after 847 performances
1976 UN General Assembly re-elects Kurt Waldheim Secretary-General (Another great moment of moral clarity)
1976 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1977 43rd Heisman Trophy Award: Earl Campbell, Texas (RB)
1977 Portugal's premier Soares resigns
1980 "Bravo" network premieres on cable TV
1981 France performs nuclear test
1982 Demanding an end to nuclear weapons, Norman Mayer, holds the Washington Monument hostage - After 10 hours, police kill him; he has no explosives
1982 "Herman Van Veen: All of Him" opens at Ambassador NYC for 6 performances
1982 Suriname army leader Bouterse murders 15 opponents
1983 9th Space Shuttle Mission-Columbia 6-lands at Edwards AFB
1983 Richard Baker, Zen teacher, steps down from abbotship of San Francisco Zen Center
1984 Ringo Starr appears on Saturday Night Live
1984 73rd Australian Men Tennis: Mats Wilander beats K Curren (67 64 76 62)
1984 Europe & 64 developing countries sign Lomé III treaty
1985 Ken O'Brien's 96 yard TD pass (New York Jet record) to Wesley Walker
1985 60th Australian Women's Tennis: M Navratilova beats C Evert (62 46 62)
1986 House Democrats select majority leader Jim Wright as 48th speaker
1987 Flyers' Ron Hextall becomes 1st goalie to actually score a goal
1987 Jack Sikma (Milwaukee) begins NBA free throw streak of 51 games
1987 "Occupied" Palestinians start "intefadeh" (uprising) against Israel
1987 President Reagan & Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev sign a treaty eliminating medium range nuclear missiles
1988 Knick's set NBA record of 11 3-pointers & sink Bucks, 113-109
1989 Great Britain performs nuclear test
1990 Galileo Earth-1 Flyby
1990 Indians agree to a lease new ballpark in Gateway (Jacobs Field)
1991 Russia, Byelorussia & Ukraine form Commonwealth of Independent States
1992 Galileo's nearest approach to Jupiter (303 km)
1992 NBC announces that "Cheers" will go off the air in May 1993
1993 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is signed into law by President Bill Clinton. NAFTA, a trade pact between the US, Canada, and Mexico.
1993 30 killed at religious rebellion in Algeria
1993 Storm hits West Europe, 11 killed in England
1994 Darryl Strawberry indicted on tax evasion charges
1994 Fire in cinema in Karamay China, 310 killed

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
World : Human Rights Week (Day 2)
Guam : Lady of Camarin Day
Japan : Enlightenment of the Buddha
Spain, Panamá, Canal Zone : Mother's Day
Spain : School Reunion Day
Uruguay : Beaches Day/Family Day
US : Christmas Card Day
Hi Neighbor Month

Religious Observances
Buddhist-Japan : Enlightenment of the Buddha
Roman Catholic : Solemnity of the Conception of the Virgin (Immaculate Conception)

Religious History
1775 Anglican clergyman and hymnwriter John Newton wrote in a letter: 'This is faith: a renouncing of everything we are apt to call our own and relying wholly upon the blood, righteousness and intercession of Jesus.'
1854 Pope Pius IX defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in his apostolic letter, "Ineffabilis Deus." It asserted that by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, Mary was freed from original sin "in the first instant of conception."
1907 Christmas seals were sold for the first time, to raise funds to fight tuberculosis. Today, Christmas seal income is used primarily in the fight against birth defects.
1962 The Rev. John Melville Burgess was consecrated as suffragan Bishop of Massachusetts -- the first African American bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church to serve a predominantly white diocese.
1981 In one of its major rulings regarding the issue of the separation of Church and State, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of student organizations holding religious services at public colleges and universities.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"Change is inevitable, except from vending machines."

Albums We Will Never Buy...
Barry Manilow: Original Gangsta

You Just Might Be A Scrooge...
If you give bathroom fixtures
as Christmas gifts
-- you just might be a Scrooge

Dictionary of the Absurd
xenophobia
The fear of warrior princesses

Famous Last Words...
Pull the pin and count to what?

1864 Pope Pius IX publishes encyclical Quanta cura ("Syllabus errorum")

ASIRE, DONALD HENRY
Remains Returned 21 June 1989

Name: Donald Henry Asire
Rank/Branch: O5/US Air Force
Unit: 354 Tactical Fighter Squadron
Date of Birth: 08 July 1923
Home City of Record: Pomona CA
Date of Loss: 08 December 1966
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 211500N 1051800E (WF675535)
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: F105D
Refno: 0544

Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 March 1991 from one or more of
the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence
with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W.
NETWORK.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: The F105 Thunderchief (or "Thud") performed yoeman service on many
diversified missions in Southeast Asia. F105s flew more combat missions over
North Vietnam than any other USAF aircraft and consequently suffered the
heaviest losses in action. They dropped bombs by day and occasionally by
night from high or low altitude and some later versions (F105D in Wild
Weasel guise) attacked SAM sites with their radar tracking air-to-ground
missiles. This versatile aircraft was also credited with downing 25 Russian
MiGs.

LtCol. Donald H. Asire was the pilot of an F105D which departed Takhli
Airfield, Thailand on an operational mission over North Vietnam on December
8, 1966. Asire's aircraft was number three in a flight of four.

Over Hos Binh Province, about 30 miles northwest of Hanoi, the flight
engaged enemy aircraft. Asire was last seen as he dove into a cloud layer
with an enemy aircraft in pursuit. Thereafter, no radio contact was made
with him.

Donald Asire was continued in a missing status until 19 September 1973 when
his status was changed to presumed killed in action. During the period he
was maintained missing, he was promoted to the rank of Colonel.

For years, the  Vietnamese denied any knowledge of Donald Asire, but on 21
June, 1989, they discovered his remains and returned them to U.S. control.
This return was not publicly announced at the time.

A Vietnamese defector stated in Congressional testimony that Vietnam
stockpiles hundreds of sets of American remains. Congress believed him. He
also testified that he had personally seen live American prisoners, held
long after the war was over and all Americans had supposedly been released.
Congress ignores this testimony, although over 10,000 reports relating to
Americans prisoner, missing or unaccounted for in Southeast Asia seem to
substantiate what he was saying.

The U.S. and Vietnamese "progress" at a snail's pace, while seemingly
ignoring the tremendous weight of evidence that their priority should be
those Americans still alive as captives. Meanwhile, thousands of lives are
spent in the most tortured state imaginable - unable to grieve, unable to
rejoice. They wait.

Pull the pin and count to what?

This is why Spotsy would never be admitted to serve in our Armed Forces.

Happy Wednesday Valin!

1987 Flyers' Ron Hextall becomes 1st goalie to actually score a goal

Ron Hextall was the first NHL grandson to play in the league. His father and grandfather had also played. Bryan Hextall Sr. played 11 seasons with the New York Rangers and won the scoring title in 1941-42. His son, Ron's father, played nine less glamorous years before retiring in 1976. Ron's Uncle Dennis also played in the league as a fourthline player of limited talent. Ron, however, was the first Hextall to venture into the net.

The result of his time as a skater, though, was that Ron became perhaps the game's most mobile goalie of all time. It also gave him a desire to do something no goalie had ever done before?score. Sure enough, the night of December 8, 1987, in a game against Chicago, the Flyers had a two-goal lead and the Hawks pulled their goalie in the last minute. Hextall got the puck near the side of his net and fired it in, the first time a goalie had ever shot a puck into the opposition goal. (Billy Smith of the Islanders was once credited with a goal for being the last player to touch the puck before the other team scored into its own goal.) Incredibly, Hextall replicated the feat in the playoffs. On April 11, 1989, he again fired the puck into the open net, against Washington, thus also becoming the first goalie to score in a playoff game.