Ridley's Believe It Or Not--This Day In History: 2020

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

December 30, 2020 Ridley's Believe It Or Not National Bacon Day

Ridley's Believe It Or Not December 30, 2020

CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues with 584,033 new cases (a .71% increase compared to a .75% increase yesterday) to bring the total over 82 million to 82,853,564, 22,363,169 of which are active, 60,490,395 closed with 58,682,990 recoveries (97.01% compared to yesterday’s 97.01%) and 1,807,405 deaths (2.99% compared to yesterday’s 2.99%) to continue the trend of increased cases with increased recovery percentages and decreased death percentages.

CV USA Cases: New cases of 164,307 (a .82% increase compared to yesterday’s .85% increase) to bring the total nearing 20 million to 19,950,045 with 7,836,909 active cases of which 29,089 (.37% of active cases and an increase of 169 for a new peak), recently on a disturbing upward trend with no dips from a high of 19,155 on July 23 (28,920 yesterday), are in serious or critical condition as trend has shifted and is still continuing to go up, and 12,277,443 closures, 349,080 of which have been deaths (2.84% compared to yesterday’s 2.85%) and 11,928,363 of which have been recoveries (97.16% compared to yesterday’s 97.15%). Our death rate percentage continues to improve and after many months is now .15% lower than the world rate and .27% lower than Canada which has the socialized type medicine Biden may well want to implement here and on a deaths per million population measurement on a steady climb to 1052 ranks behind Belgium (1667), Italy (1218). Peru (1132), Spain (1084), Bulgaria (1070) and UK (1066) which has now passed us despite leading world in testing), and only slightly worse than France (985), Hungary (977) and (839) eight days ago so added to the list, Mexico (956), Argentina (948), Brazil (905), Switzerland (874) and (830) four days ago and so added to the list, Chile (859 that we recently passed), Switzerland (874) and (830) two days ago so added to list, Sweden (861) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a rapid rise in deaths, Ecuador (789) and Bolivia (775) and we have now conducted 1,593,6481 more tests to bring the total to 251,765,894 (now at 758,397/M compared to Russia at 617,980/M so Trump was telling truth that we conduct more tests in number and on a per capital basis for nations (other than those nations that contain small populations like Bahrain, Denmark, Israel, Singapore and UAE) but for the U.K. which remains off the testing charts with tests at 800,233/M.

Non CV Case News: While Gilligan’s Island in TV land may have been isolated from pandemics, L.A. is not and 82 year old Dawn Wells who beat out 350 actresses including Raquel Welch to play the role of Mary Ann Summers on “Gilligan’s Island” has died of COVID-19; with police departments across the nation demoralized by liberal mayors and leftist city councils and the BLM defund the police movement and hit with massive retirements of officers fed up with the anti-police environment, Biden has just added to their growing woes with his announcement that the DOJ will start monitoring police department behavior; on the now you see now you don’t, Senator McConnell has just introduced a $2,000 stimulus check bill in the Senate that includes a repeal of Section 230 that has enabled social media to censor conservative free speech and the creation of a commission to study election integrity (commission sounds like a great idea but if Biden gets to select or has the power to remove Trump selections look for a whitewash); L.A. District Attorney Gascom, already incurring the wrath of crime victims for his edict to ban bail is now facing a palace revolt and potential lawsuit from career Assistant District Attorneys for his ordering them not to seek sentence enhancements for criminals with prior strikes being prosecuted (this Soros funded leftist bent on making L.A. more unsafe than it already is must have been a great fan of Monopoly and its “Get oul of jail free card”); not sure if this is a true Yogi Berra moment of “It’s Not Over Till It’s Over Moment” but Senator Hawley of Missouri became the first senator to announce that he will join a growing number of Red House members seeking to invalidate the Electoral College Vote on the 6^th of January (SCOTUS must be sweating blood over the prospect of being dragged into a process that could invalidate the election of Biden); Warnock’s past continues to dog him as Pastor Calvin Butts who hired him, hosted Fidel Castro at his church in Harlem in 1995, calling him “one of the great leaders in the world”, and has donated $3250 to Warnock’s election; Newsom must be oblivious to the growing recall movement as he announced his plan to reopen public schools to in school teaching in February (what about the science of almost zero CV infection in elementary schools and the fact that teachers and school staff are on the priority list after health care workers and residents of long term care facilities does he not understand https://recallgavin2020.com/); Big Fredo, trying to climb out of the negative popularity hole he has dug for himself, has announced that 6,700 mask wearing and negative testing result fans will be allowed to attend the Bills playoff game; another day in NYC’s defund the police land as a video shows a BMW blocked in Manhattan traffic and then attacked by a bunch of teen aged thugs appropriately hooded and gloved to conceal identity and race (the driver assuming he could move forward deserves a medal for being in fear of his life not driving into these scumbags); with no vacancy signs getting ready to be hung up in ICU’s in Los Angeles County, news that we need like in a hole in the head is that a case of the UK variant now called B.1.1.7 has been confirmed in Southern California in a man was serving in the Colorado National Guard sent to help contain an outbreak of COVID-19 at the Good Samaritan Home in Simla, Colorado.

Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In Chicago as of December 29, 2020, the number of shootings increased to 4,164 of whom 715 have died (total travesty of BLM when blacks are shot and killed by blacks in droves and only sounds of silence and complete absence of any protests in front of City Hall demanding action to curb the killings and shootings); Baltimore with a fraction of Chicago’s population and hoping against all hopes that 2020 will not be a record in terms of deaths but now seems to be shooting less and killing less and is now 380 behind Chicago at 335 murders (when will Chicago and Baltimore get serious about this carnage or is this the case of true racism as a Blue run city turns a deaf ear and a blind eye to the slaughter of people of color by people of color and when will the left focus on the problem of color on color shootings in Blue run cities which have been way more deadly and way more numerous than shootings by police or by random mass shootings which occur far fewer times);

As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “Time in a Bottle” by Jim Croce, the fact that as more cities get more crowded people are advancing the cause of proxemics and a quote by John Lewis of the UMW on the GM Flint Sit Down Strike of 1936, secure in the knowledge that if you want to send a gift for any memorable events like Father’s Day, college graduations, birthdays, weddings, or anniversaries, you know that the Alaskanpoet can provide you with a unique customized poem at a great price tailored to the event and the recipient. Please contact me for the details on the pricing.

1. National Bacon Day—created by Danya Goodman and Meff Leonard on this day in 1997 to celebrate Homer Simpson’s question on the episode “I Love Lisa” “Is It Bacon Day?” Easy holiday to celebrate from enjoying bacon garnish on a Cobb Salad or baked potato or my favorite a toasted BLT.

2. Falling Needles Family Fest Day—created by Thomas and Ruth Roy of Wellcat Holidays and Herbs on a day not known to me to gather the family around the Christmas Tree which is now shedding needles like a bad case of dandruff and if it could talk on this day with bottom of the barrel holidays would say, “Time to take me out as I am so dry I feel I am ready to burst into flames from spontaneous combustion.”

3. 1973 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 1973 on this day on a run of 1 week was “Time in a Bottle” by Jim Croce to join 26 other number 1 songs and as the third person to join the first time list posthumously 13 other acts who had their first number 1 song. Here is a recording of Jim Croce singing “Time in a Bottle”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO1rMeYnOmM Jim Croce’s first two albums were uncharted duds but his next two took off and his star was rising until on September 20, 1973 on the day before his lead single on his fifth album “I Got a Name” was to be released and after a live concert, the private plane he a four others were in crashed into a tree on takeoff killing everyone on board.

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “proxemics” which means the study of man’s needs for personal space.

5. Hard to Hold a Tiger---celebrating the birth on this day in 1975 of noted golfer and Stanford attendee Tiger Woods who is tied for the most PGA championships and second in major championships, still going strong in golf and able to win a major tournament.

On this day in:

a. 1903 the Iroquois Theater in Chicago packed with over 2,000 standing room only fans caught on fire from a defective arc light and proceeded to kill 605 from the flames and the smoke, making it the deadliest theater fire in U.S. history.

b. 1916 Russian mystic and adviser to Tsar Nicholas and his family and who bears a startling resemblance to Jack Dorsey was murdered and his body dumped into the Moscow River.

c. 1936 the UAW started a sit down strike at GM’s Fisher Plant which lasted until February 11, 1937 when the parties settled in a one page agreement where the UAW was recognized as the sole bargaining agent and workers were given a 5% increase in pay and allowed to talk about the union during lunch breaks.

d. 2005 Tropical Storm Zeta, the latest tropical cyclone to form in the Atlantic was formed 30 days after the end of the official hurricane season to span 2 calendar years but fortunately never made landfall to cause any damage.

e. 2006 formed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein having been earlier found guilty of crimes against humanity on November 6 was executed by hanging.

Reflections on the Flint Sit Down Strike: “Tomorrow morning, I shall personally enter General Motors plant Chevrolet №4. I shall order the men to disregard your order, to stand fast. I shall then walk up to the largest window in the plant, open it, divest myself of my outer raiment, remove my shirt, and bare my bosom. Then when you order your troops to fire, mine will be the first breast that those bullets will strike.” John Lewis, head of the UMW, to Governor Frank Murphy of Michigan after being informed by him that the Michigan National Guard would forcibly remove the sit down strikers.

Please enjoy the poems on events of interest on my twitter account below (if you like them, retweet and follow me) and follow my blogs. Always good, incisive and entertaining poems on my blogs—click on the links below. Go to www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com for Ridley’s Believe It Or Not—This Day in History, poems to inspire, touch, emote, elate and enjoy and poems on breaking news items of importance or go to Ridley's Believe It Or Not for just This Day in History.

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December 29, 2020 Ridley's Be;lieve It Or Not National Heroes Day

Ridley's Believe It Or Not December 29, 2020
CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues with 612,667 new cases (a .75% increase compared to a .64% increase yesterday) to bring the total over 82 million to 82,270,531, 22,192,947 of which are active, 60,077,584 closed with 58,282,828 recoveries (97.01% compared to yesterday’s 97.01%) and 1,794,756 deaths (2.99% compared to yesterday’s 2.99%) to continue the trend of increased cases with increased recovery percentages and decreased death percentages.

CV USA Cases: New cases of 168,421 (a .85% increase compared to yesterday’s 1.06% increase) to bring the total nearing 20 million to 19,950,045 with 7,788,918 active cases of which 28,920 (.37% of active cases and an increase for a new peak), recently on a disturbing upward trend with no dips from a high of 19,155 on July 23 (28,912 yesterday), are in serious or critical condition as trend has shifted and is still continuing to go up, and 12,161,118 closures, 346,628 of which have been deaths (2.85% compared to yesterday’s 2.85%) and 11,814,859 of which have been recoveries (97.15% compared to yesterday’s 97.15%). Our death rate percentage continues to improve and after many months is now .14% lower than the world rate and .28% lower than Canada which has the socialized type medicine Biden may well want to implement here and on a deaths per million population measurement on a steady climb to 1043 ranks behind Belgium (1656), Italy (1209). Peru (1132), Spain (1079), Bulgaria (1070) and UK (1051) which has now passed us despite leading world in testing), and only slightly worse than France (981), Hungary (963) and (839) seven days ago so added to the list, Mexico (948), Argentina (948), Brazil (903), Switzerland (863) and (830) three days ago, Chile (859 that we recently passed), Switzerland (848) and (830) two days ago so added to list, Sweden (837) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a rapid rise in deaths, Ecuador (788) and Bolivia (775) and we have now conducted 1,058,251 more tests to bring the total to 250,172,246 (now at 753,609/M compared to Russia at 617,980/M so Trump was telling truth that we conduct more tests in number and on a per capital basis for nations (other than those nations that contain small populations like Bahrain, Denmark, Israel, Singapore and UAE) but for the U.K. which remains off the testing charts with tests at 795,118/M.

Non CV Case News: Newsom’s regional stay at home order has been extended in San Joaquin County and Southern California as capacity at ICU’s has dropped to 0 percent with no date of termination but smart money would bet 3-4 more weeks; on the recall front for Gruesome Newsom, money is starting to pour into the effort (his mismanagement of the pandemic response and his arrogant Marie Antoinette dinner at the French Laundry should be the defining moments to put him on the recall ballot and on a one way ticket out of Sacramento); on news that we need like a hole in the head Colorado officials have confirmed that the new strain of CV which is supposedly far more contagious has been confirmed in a case in Colorado; Big Fredo is threatening criminal prosecution against ParCare’s vaccinating those not on a priority list and anyone else who commits the same act (it may be a law of humanity for the first responders, nursing home patients and those with preexisting conditions but may not be a criminal statue but helps obscure Big Fredo’s mismanagement of the response to the pandemic especially sending infected into nursing homes to kill the residents); in a case involving an attempt by Republicans to purge illegal voters in Georgia, a federal district court judge appointed by Obama who happens to be the sister of Stacy Abram refused to recuse herself from the obvious conflict of interest and ruled against the Republicans (why does this poet feel concern that the Blues have adopted the Stalin voting rule that “I don’t care who gets to vote as long as I count the ballots?); 41 year old Red Congressman-Elect Luke Letlow from Louisiana has just died from COVID-19 after being diagnosed on December 17, 2020; Massachusetts legislation overrode its governor’s veto of a bill requiring 16 year olds seeking abortion to have parental consent; Koby Francis, who had been arrested, handcuffed in back, and being delivered to the McKeesport Police Station for booking and managed to get his cuffs in front of him and conceal his weapon to shoot a police officer opening the door to remove him, has been caught in West Virginia after a week long manhunt.

Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In Chicago as of December 27, 2020, the number of shootings increased to 4,163 of whom 715 have died (total travesty of BLM when blacks are shot and killed by blacks in droves and only sounds of silence and complete absence of any protests in front of City Hall demanding action to curb the killings and shootings); Baltimore with a fraction of Chicago’s population and hoping against all hopes that 2020 will not be a record in terms of deaths but now seems to be shooting less and killing less and is still 381 behind Chicago at 334 murders (when will Chicago and Baltimore get serious about this carnage or is this the case of true racism as a Blue run city turns a deaf ear and a blind eye to the slaughter of people of color by people of color and when will the left focus on the problem of color on color shootings in Blue run cities which have been way more deadly and way more numerous than shootings by police or by random mass shootings which occur far fewer times).

As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “Me and Mrs. Jones” by Billy Paul, the fact that you enjoy a protreptic as opposed to criticism in dealing with subordinates and a quote on genocide by Allyson Schwartz, secure in the knowledge that if you want to send a gift for any memorable events like Father’s Day, college graduations, birthdays, weddings, or anniversaries, you know that the Alaskanpoet can provide you with a unique customized poem at a great price tailored to the event and the recipient. Please contact me for the details on the pricing.

1. The National Pepper Pot Day—celebrating the creation of pepper soup by the quartermaster of the Continental Army on this day in 1777 ten days after Washington had arrived at Valley Forge to set up winter headquarters from the provisions his troops had foraged from the surrounding countryside lavishly spiced with peppercorns.
2. National Heroes Day—first celebrated on this day in 2020 but like the true heroes who shy away publicity and do not seek recognition when events or circumstances prompt them to perform heroic act, the creator is probably basking in the shadows of anonymity.

3. 1972 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 1972 on this day on a run of 3 week was “Me and Mrs. Jones” by Billy Paul to join 20 other number 1 songs and 17 other acts who had their first number 1 song. Here is a recording of Billy Paul singing the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If4di0jmE5A Paul was born in Philadelphia and because of his high voice was influenced by female singers, especially Billie Holiday. He had a long and productive career singing in clubs and other venues after his “retirement” in 1998 and is known for successfully suing Nike for their using his “Me and Mrs. Jones” to promote Olympic star Marion Jones who won 5 Gold Medals that were ultimately stripped from her. He died of pancreatic cancer at age 81 on April 24, 2016.

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “protreptic” which means an utterance to instruct or persuade.

5. Come Hither Now and Get Cozy Dangerous---celebrating the birth on this day in 1947 of noted drummer Colin Trevor Frocks better known to his fans as Cozy Powell who for 30 years played with a number of bands but had the misfortune of dating a married woman who called him distraught wanting him to come immediately over which he was in the process of doing so at 104 m.p.h. when she called again demanding “Where are you” only to hear “Oh shit” and the sound of a car crashing which killed him, under the influence and not wearing a seat belt on April 5, 1998 at age 50.

On this day in:

a. 1972 Eastern Airlines Flight 401, a Lockheed 1011 TriStar enroute from JFK to Miami, had its crew distracted by a malfunctioning landing gear light and while circling at 2000 feet to manually check whether the gears had been extended failed to notice the auto pilot was no on and the plane slowly lost altitude to crash in the Everglades outside the airport, killing 101 and injuring 75 of the occupants in the first crash of a wide body aircraft.

b. 1975 a bomb went off in the TWA Baggage Claim area in La Guardia Airport, killing 11 and wounding 74; sadly the perpetrators were never identified.

c. 1989 in a what goes up must come down moment, the Nikkei 225 for the Tokyo Stock Exchange hit its all-time intra-day high of 38,957.44 and closing high of 38,915.87, serving as the single that the Japanese asset price bubble had burst and a long and massive decline was about to begin.

d. 1997 Hong Kong began to kill some 1.25 million chickens to stop the spread of deadly bird flu.

e. 1998 in a what took you so long moment, leaders of the Khmer Rouge publicly apologized for its genocide in killing 1.5-2.0 million Cambodians from April, 1975 to January, 1979.

Reflections on the deafness to “Never Again”: Yet, only years after the Nazi-era, millions were sent to their deaths in places such as Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda, and the world once again took too long to act.”Allyson Schwartz, former Blue Representative from Pennsylvania and now the CEO of the Better

Medicare Alliance.

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Tuesday, December 29, 2020

December 28, 2020 Ridley's Believe It Or Not The Pledge of Allegiance Day

Ridley's Believe It Or Not December 28, 2020
CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues with 515,751 new cases (a .64% increase compared to a 1.22% increase yesterday) to bring the total over 81 million to 81,657,864, 22,118,245 of which are active, 59,539,619 closed with 57,758,713 recoveries (97.01% compared to yesterday’s 97.00%) and 1,780,906 deaths (2.99% compared to yesterday’s 3.00%) to continue the trend of increased cases with increased recovery percentages and decreased death percentages.

CV USA Cases: New cases of 207,777 (a 1.06% increase compared to yesterday’s 1.09% increase) to bring the total over 19 million to 19,781,624 with 7,741,715 active cases of which 28,912 (.37% of active cases and an increase from a 28,747 new peak), recently on a disturbing upward trend with no dips from a high of 19,155 on July 23 (28,672 yesterday), are in serious or critical condition as trend has shifted and is still continuing to go up, and 12,039,909 closures, 343,182 of which have been deaths (2.85% compared to yesterday’s 2.88%) and 11,696,727 of which have been recoveries (97.15% compared to yesterday’s 97.12%). Our death rate percentage continues to improve and after many months is now .14% lower than the world rate and .27% lower than Canada which has the socialized type medicine Biden may well want to implement here and on a deaths per million population measurement on a steady climb to 1034 ranks behind Belgium (1653), Italy (1198). Peru (1130), Spain (1072), Bulgaria (1047) and UK (1045 which has now passed us despite leading world in testing), and only slightly worse than France (966), Hungary (950) and (839) six days ago so added to the list, Mexico (948), Argentina (944), Brazil (898), Chile (857 that we recently passed), Switzerland (848) and (830) two days ago so added to list, Sweden (817) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a rapid rise in deaths, Ecuador (787) and Bolivia (774) and we have now conducted 2,404,022 more tests to bring the total to 249,113,995 (now at 750,443/M compared to Russia at 613,270/M so Trump was telling truth that we conduct more tests in number and on a per capital basis for nations (other than those nations that contain small populations like Bahrain, Denmark, Israel, Singapore and UAE) but for the U.K. which remains off the testing charts with tests at 767,793/M.

Non CV Case News: The House did not touch the non CV Pork in the bloated goody bag relief bill with only $600 stimulus checks and passed the $2,000 stimulus check bill and sent it to the Senate and ignoring the need to in the interests of free speech and curbing the social media’s Iron Curtain of censorship eliminate Section 230 overrode Trump’s veto of the Defense Authorization Bill; Niki Haley who may well be the Red candidate for president in 2024 slammed Blues for making socialism the default position of the party ( Reds need to put more air time in front of Reps like Rep-Elect Victoria Spartz who left Ukraine and knows firsthand the failures of socialism; Rick Laude, Anthony Quin Warner’s neighbor revealed that Warner had indicated to him on the 21^st that “Nashville and the world will never forget me”; Big Fredo had his hands slapped in the toss the First Amendment away jar as the court struck down his draconian rules limiting attendance in churches, synagogues and other places of worship; Greg Norman, “The Shark,” as he fights CV which has turned his dives into sand wedges in terms of distances is warning that this is a serious disease and to follow the CDC rules;
Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In Chicago as of December 27, 2020, the number of shootings increased to 4,157 of whom 714 have died (total travesty of BLM when blacks are shot and killed by blacks in droves and only sounds of silence and complete absence of any protests in front of City Hall demanding action to curb the killings and shootings); Baltimore with a fraction of Chicago’s population and hoping against all hopes that 2020 will not be a record in terms of deaths but now seems to be shooting less and killing less and is now 381 behind Chicago at 333 murders (when will Chicago and Baltimore get serious about this carnage or is this the case of true racism as a Blue run city turns a deaf ear and a blind eye to the slaughter of people of color by people of color and when will the left focus on the problem of color on color shootings in Blue run cities which have been way more deadly and way more numerous than shootings by police or by random mass shootings which occur far fewer times).

As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “Family Affair” by Sly and the Family Stone, the fact that you enjoy a good prothalamion as a guest at a friend’s wedding and a quote on eating endangered fish from Charles Clover, "The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat," secure in the knowledge that if you want to send a gift for any memorable events like Father’s Day, college graduations, birthdays, weddings, or anniversaries, you know that the Alaskanpoet can provide you with a unique customized poem at a great price tailored to the event and the recipient. Please contact me for the details on the pricing.

1. The Pledge of Allegiance Day—celebrating the Pledge of Allegiance which ironically was written by a Baptist Minister Francis Bellamy who was a socialist to celebrate the 400^th Anniversary of Columbus’s arrival in North America and Congress on this day in 1942 recognized the Pledge of Allegiance and on this day in 1945 Congress recognized Pledge of Allegiance Day.

2. National Download Day—not sure when established or by whom but clearly created to encourage smart phone users to download apps which surveys show more apps are downloaded on this day that any other day of the year.

3. 1971 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 1971 on this day on a run of 3 week was “Family Affair” by Sly and the Family Stone to join 21 other number 1 songs. Here is a recording of Sly and the Family Stone singing the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbT_ask1Cco The band was the first major band to be male and female and racially integrated, formed in San Francisco and active 1966-1983 playing funk, psychedelic soul and rock.

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “prothalamion” which means a song or poem celebrating an upcoming marriage, a skill which the Alaskanpoet possesses in spades.

5. An Admiral With No Ships---celebrating the birth on this day in 1998 of Japanese Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara who after a variety of staff jobs in WWII was appointed to the dead end job of garrison commander of Wake Island after it had surrendered to the Japanese on December 23, 1941. The island was never invaded only bombed occasionally by American carrier forces include one attack in a sortie with future president George H.W.Bush and after one such raid on October 5, 1943, fearing an imminent invasion, Sakaibara ordered the execution of the 98 American civilians doing manual labor for the Japanese, a crime which after the island surrendered to the Americans on September 4, 1945, resulted in his being hanged as a war criminal on June 19, 1947 at age 48.

On this day in:

a. 1832 John C. Calhoun became the first person to resign as Vice President as he had been elected to the Senate from South Carolina.

b. 1895 Wilhelm Rontgen published a paper describing a form of radiation which become known as X-Rays.

c. 1918 Constance Markievicz, an Irish politician serving in a British prison became the first woman to be elected a M.P. to the House of Commons,

d. 1967 Muriel Siebert became the first woman to own a seat of the New York Stock Exchange, joining 1365 male members.

e. 1973 to the bane of developers, the Endangered Species Act was signed into law by President Nixon.

Reflections on Endangered Species: "Celebrity chefs are the leaders in the field of food, and we are the led. Why should the leaders of chemical businesses be held responsible for polluting the marine environment with a few grams of effluent, which is sublethal to marine species, while celebrity chefs are turning out endangered fish at several dozen tables a night without enduring a syllable of criticism?" Charles Clover, "The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat"
Please enjoy the poems on events of interest on my twitter account below (if you like them, retweet and follow me) and follow my blogs. Always good, incisive and entertaining poems on my blogs—click on the links below. Go to www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com for Ridley’s Believe It Or Not—This Day in History, poems to inspire, touch, emote, elate and enjoy and poems on breaking news items of importance or go to Ridley's Believe It Or Not for just This Day in History.

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Monday, December 28, 2020

December 27, 2020 Ridley's Believe It Or Not National Visit a Zoo Day

Ridley's Believe It Or Not December 27, 2020

CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues with 978,796 new cases (a 1.22% increase compared to a .55% increase yesterday) to bring the total over 81 million to 81,142,113, 22,079,011 of which are active, 59,063,102 closed with 57,291,218 recoveries (97.00% compared to yesterday’s 96.99%) and 1,771,884 deaths (3.00% compared to yesterday’s 3.01%) to continue the trend of increased cases with increased recovery percentages and decreased death percentages.

CV USA Cases: New cases of 210,558 (a 1.09% increase compared to yesterday’s 1.65% increase) to bring the total over 19 million to 19,573,847 with 7,736,834 active cases of which 28,672 (.37% of active cases and a fall from a 28,747 new peak), recently on a disturbing upward trend with no dips from a high of 19,155 on July 23 (28,579 yesterday), are in serious or critical condition as trend has shifted and is still continuing to go up, and 11,837,013 closures, 341,138 of which have been deaths (2.88% compared to yesterday’s 2.90%) and 11,495,875 of which have been recoveries (97.12% compared to yesterday’s 97.10%). Our death rate percentage continues to improve and after many months is now .12% lower than the world rate and .29% lower than Canada which has the socialized type medicine Biden may well want to implement here and on a deaths per million population measurement on a steady climb to 1028 ranks behind Belgium (1650), Italy (1190). Peru (1129), Spain (1065), UK (1040 which has now passed us despite leading world in testing), and Bulgaria (1035) and only slightly worse than France (960), Mexico (945), Argentina (939), Hungary (938 and (839) five days ago so added to the list; Brazil (896), Chile (857 that we recently passed), Sweden (817) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a rapid rise in deaths, Ecuador (787) and Bolivia (774) and we have now conducted 1,468,467 more tests to bring the total to 246,709,973 (now at 743,203/M compared to Russia at 613,270/M so Trump was telling truth that we conduct more tests in number and on a per capital basis for nations (other than those nations that contain small populations like Bahrain, Denmark, Israel, Singapore and UAE) but for the U.K. which remains off the testing charts with tests at 767,804/M.

Non CV Case News: From DNA evidence and a vehicle VIN police have identified Anthony Quinn Warner as the individual who detonated the bomb in his RV that, thanks to police evacuations, injured only 3 but damaged 41 businesses in the Nashville Christmas morning bombing but the motive for it and the suicide are not clear; Trump has blinked and signed the omnibus funding bill and CV relief bill but has sent to Congress a red lined version of what he would like changed (chances of any spending cuts from Pelosi’s House almost nil so we are stuck with a thank you Nancy $600 lump of coal); Fauci who has been imitating a yo-yo in his estimates of percent of vaccinations needed for herd immunity has now settled on 75-80% and how believes that by summer we will have achieved that goal (assuming Biden does not screw up on the Trump vaccination plans); news uncovered recently reveals that Anthony Quinn Warner transferred 2 houses in Antioch, 1 in January, 2019 worth $160,000 and the other valued at $250,000 last month to Michelle Steel, an artist development manager at AEG Presents; Blue Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is finding her popularity approaching her name as murders in the city amidst a defund the police movement have risen to 158, the highest number since 1998 ( the total may now be 159 as this 0 year old shot while in a car with her mother and aunt shopping has died on Saturday):

Phil Niekro has died at age 81 to join 6 other Hall of Famers, including pitchers Tom Seaver, Whitey Ford, and Bob Gibson, who have died this year.

Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In Chicago as of December 26, 2020, the number of shootings increased to 4,151 of whom 710 have died (total travesty of BLM when blacks are shot and killed by blacks in droves and only sounds of silence and complete absence of any protests in front of City Hall demanding action to curb the killings and shootings); Baltimore with a fraction of Chicago’s population and hoping against all hopes that 2020 will not be a record in terms of deaths but now seems to be shooting less and killing less and is now 378 behind Chicago at 332 murders (when will Chicago and Baltimore get serious about this carnage or is this the case of true racism as a Blue run city turns a deaf ear and a blind eye to the slaughter of people of color by people of color and when will the left focus on the problem of color on color shootings in Blue run cities which have been way more deadly and way more numerous than shootings by police or by random mass shootings which occur far fewer times).

As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “My Sweet Lord/Isn’t It a Pity” by George Harrison, the fact that do not tolerate will protervity and a quote from Arthur Koestler, In the God That Failed ed. Richard Crossman, secure in the knowledge that if you want to send a gift for any memorable events like Father’s Day, college graduations, birthdays, weddings, or anniversaries, you know that the Alaskanpoet can provide you with a unique customized poem at a great price tailored to the event and the recipient. Please contact me for the details on the pricing.

1. The Third Day of Christmas—celebrating St. John the Apostle who wrote The Book of Revelations.

2. National Visit a Zoo Day—not sure when established or by whom but clearly created to encourage families to visit zoos in this nation, the first of which, the Philadelphia Zoo, was opened on July 1,1874 after having had its planned opening delayed by the Civil War.

3. 1970 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 1970 on this day on a run of 1 week was “My Sweet Lord/ Isn’t It a Pity” by George Harrison to join 23 other number 1 songs and join 13 other acts with their first number one song. Here is a recording of George Harrison singing the songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNrAoMwbm9g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPM6DIzYyQU This Ex-Beatle went on to a great career as a solo performer and with the Traveling Wilburys and survived 40 stab wounds and a punctured lung when a mentally deranged person broke into his house but was beaten off by his wife with a fireplace poker but sadly his earlier 4 pack a day habit caught up with him and he died from lung cancer at the age of 58 on November 29, 2001.

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “protervity” which means peevishness, petulance which seems to describe progressives to a tee when they feel they are not getting their way.

5. Go Doing What You Love to Do Best---celebrating the birth on this day in 1976 of noted Polish mountaineer Piotr Morawski who was the first person to make a successful winter climb of Mt. Shishapangma, the 14^th tallest mountain in the world which is located in Tibet and is 26,335 feet tall but had the misfortune while on an international climbing expedition in Nepal of Dhaulagiri/Manasluunture, the 7^th and 8^th tallest mountains of falling into a crevasse on April 8, 2009 while acclimating at 5,000 meters and died at age 32.

On this day in:

a. 1929 General Party Secretary Joseph Stalin ordered the liquidation of the “kulaks” as a class which the Soviets proceeded to do by systematic starvation of the population of Ukraine which explains why when the Germans invaded in 1941 they were initially welcomed as liberators

b. 1935 Regina Jonas was ordained as the first female rabbi in the history of Judaism.

c. 1945 the International Monetary Fund was created with the signatories of 29 nations.

d. 1983 Pope John Paul II visited Mehmet Ali Ağca, a Turk in prison for attempting to assassinate him in the abdomen on May 13, 1981 in St. Peters Square and forgave him for his attempt. Mehmet was sentenced to life and served 19 years and was released to Turkey where he served 10 years for prior criminal activity and having converted to Catholicism in 2007 came to Rome on December 27, 2014 to lay white roses on St. John Paul II’s tomb.

e. 1985 in 2 coordinated attacks 4 terrorists attacked El Al’s ticket counter at the Rome International Airport with automatic rifles and grenades, killing 19 and wounding 99 before 3 were killed by security forces and the 4^th wounded and captured. Moments later in Austria at Vienna’s International Airport, 3 terrorists attacked the El Al ticket counter with grenades, killing 2 and wounding 40 others, one of whom died on January 22, 1986 before fleeing in a car after a gun battle with Italian police and El Al security but brought to bay with 1 terrorist killed and the other 2 wounded. The Rome terrorist was sentenced to 30 years in 1988 and was released due to good behavior in June, 2010 and the 2 surviving Vienna terrorists were sentenced to life and are still in prison rotting away.

Reflections on Stalin’s starvation induced genocide of Ukraine: I saw the ravages of the famine of 1932-33 in the Ukraine: hordes of families in rags begging at the railway stations, the women lifting up to the compartment window their starving brats which — with drumstick limbs, big cadaverous heads, puffed bellies —looked like embryos out of alcohol bottles…” Arthur Koestler, In the God That Failed ed. Richard Crossman
Please enjoy the poems on events of interest on my twitter account below (if you like them, retweet and follow me) and follow my blogs. Always good, incisive and entertaining poems on my blogs—click on the links below. Go to www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com for Ridley’s Believe It Or Not—This Day in History, poems to inspire, touch, emote, elate and enjoy and poems on breaking news items of importance or go to Ridley's Believe It Or Not for just This Day in History.

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Saturday, December 26, 2020

December 26, 2020 Ridley's Believe It Or Not First Day of Kwanzaa

Ridley's Believe It Or Not December 26, 2020

CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues with 439,687 new cases (a .55% increase compared to a .79% increase yesterday) to bring the total over 80 million to 80,1631.317, 22,031,361 of which are active, 58,599,956 closed with 56,836,211 recoveries (96.99% compared to yesterday’s 96.98%) and 1,763,745 deaths (3.01% compared to yesterday’s 3.02%) to continue the trend of increased cases with increased recovery percentages and decreased death percentages.

CV USA Cases: New cases of 314,186 (a 1.65% increase compared to yesterday’s .84% increase) to bring the total over 19 million to 19,363,289 with 7,664,409 active cases of which 28,579 (.37% of active cases and a fall from a 28,747 new peak), recently on a disturbing upward trend with no dips from a high of 19,155 on July 23 (28,659 yesterday), are in serious or critical condition as trend has shifted and is still continuing to go up, and 11,698,880 closures, 339,564 of which have been deaths (2.90% compared to yesterday’s 2.92%) and 11,359,316 of which have been recoveries (97.10% compared to yesterday’s 97.08%). Our death rate percentage continues to improve and after many months is now .11% lower than the world rate and .30% lower than Canada which has the socialized type medicine Biden may well want to implement here and on a deaths per million population measurement on a steady climb to 1023 ranks behind Belgium (1644), Italy (1185). Peru (1126), Spain (1065), UK (1034 which has now passed us despite leading world in testing), and Bulgaria (1022) and only slightly worse than France (958), Mexico (940), Argentina (936), Hungary (928 and (839) four days ago so added to the list; Brazil (895), Chile (855 that we recently passed), Sweden (817) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a rapid rise in deaths, Ecuador (787) and Bolivia (773) and we have now conducted 2,077,885 more tests to bring the total to 245,241,506 (now at 739,393/M compared to Russia at 606,994/M so Trump was telling truth that we conduct more tests in number and on a per capital basis for nations (other than those nations that contain small populations like Bahrain, Denmark, Israel, Singapore and UAE) but for the U.K. which remains off the testing charts with tests at 767,815/M.

Non CV Case News: In what looks like lightning speed the FBI has already executed search warrants on the residence of an as of yet unidentified person of interest in Antioch, 10 miles from the site of the explosion that damaged 41 businesses but thanks to the bravery of 6 Nashville officers evacuating the area before the explosion wounded only 3 people with no fatalities; in what could be the opening shots of the battle over how or if the Republican Party is going be structured in the post Trump presidency, Rep Kissinger is blasting his fellow Reds’ refusal to accept the election results and fund raising efforts to contest the election when a majority of the funds raised are not going for that purpose; we can point fingers of blame until the cows come home but Pelosi’s refusal to come to the table before the election on stimulus relief to help Biden win means she is target number one as millions of Americans are losing unemployment benefits (to paraphrase Robert Harper, “Millions for CV related aid to Americans not one cent for non CV related pork or illegals”); Kamara with his one cleat of red and the other green in tying Nevers’ 1929 6 rushing TD record may be fined for illegal colored footwear but he does not care and Nevers should be resting peacefully as earlier in the 4^th with Minnesota on the one yard line Kamara was on the sideline with 5 TD’s and had he been in more likely than not he would have ended the day with 7; we have known for years that to be a Blue in the House means to check your independence at Pelosi’s office door and now AOC is being warned by a top Blue for the N.Y. Democratic Party not to run in the 2022 primary against Chuck Schumer; as 89,000 New Yorkers have been now vaccinated, an example of the worst of human nature has come to light as a Parcare Community Health Services is being investigated for fraudulently distributing the vaccine to people not yet in line to receive it; Tulsi Gabbard, Blue Rep from Hawaii, is demanding a temporary halt to flights from the U.K. due to the new CV strain infecting people there.

Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In Chicago as of December 24, 2020, the number of shootings increased to 4,136 of whom 706 have died (total travesty of BLM when blacks are shot and killed by blacks in droves and only sounds of silence and complete absence of any protests in front of City Hall demanding action to curb the killings and shootings); Baltimore with a fraction of Chicago’s population and hoping against all hopes that 2020 will not be a record in terms of deaths but now seems to be shooting less and killing less and is now 373 behind Chicago at 332 murders (when will Chicago and Baltimore get serious about this carnage or is this the case of true racism as a Blue run city turns a deaf ear and a blind eye to the slaughter of people of color by people of color and when will the left focus on the problem of color on color shootings in Blue run cities which have been way more deadly and way more numerous than shootings by police or by random mass shootings which occur far fewer times).

As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “Leaving on a Jet Plane” by Peter, Paul and Mary, the fact that do not prefer long winded prosy utterances and a quote from Bill Clinton on Kwanzaa, secure in the knowledge that if you want to send a gift for any memorable events like Father’s Day, college graduations, birthdays, weddings, or anniversaries, you know that the Alaskanpoet can provide you with a unique customized poem at a great price tailored to the event and the recipient. Please contact me for the details on the pricing.

1. Boxing Day—celebrating the day the British upper class rewards servants with gifts and now better known in the U.S. as Return Day and the Day After Christmas Sales Day.

2. First Day of Kwanzaa—created in 1966 after the Watts Riots the previous year by Maulena Karenga as a unique holiday for African Americans to celebrate their culture in a week long celebration that ends on January 1.

3. 1969 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 1969 on this day on a run of 1 week was “Leaving on a Jet Plane” by Peter, Paul and Mary to join 16 other number 1 songs and join 7 other acts with their first number one song. Here is a recording of Peter, Paul and Mary singing the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVQAhhlq798 This folk pop trio was active 1961-1970, and went separate ways for 11 years during which Peter Yarrow was convicted of improper sexual advances to a 14 year old girl in 1970 and ultimately pardoned by Jimmy Carter in 1981 after serving 3 months of a 1-3 year sentence. The trio reunited in 1981 and performed and recorded until Mary Travers died on September 13, 2009 from chemotherapy complications from treating her leukemia.

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “prosy” which means prosaic or tedious which describes too often the speeches and writing of too many politicians and bureaucrats

5. No Chance to Grow Old with Graying Hair---celebrating or bemoaning depending on your political affiliations the birth on this day in 1942 of Gray Davis who after his second term reelection as Governor of California faced an early recall petition which resulted in his being the first Governor of California recalled and the second in the nation with that dubious distinction.

On this day in:

a. 1776 after a night time crossing of the ice clogged Delaware River on Christmas, Washington attacked the Hessian forces in a surprise attack that routed those who were not killed or captured in a much needed morale and enlistment boost to the Continental Army.

b. 1862 the USS Red Rover, the Navy’s first hospital ship, welcomed aboard 4 nuns to serve as volunteer nurses, the first case of females serving aboard U.S. Navy ships.

c. 1948 the last Soviet troops left Korea, leaving their American foes to remain there to this day.

d. 1963 the Beatles “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “I Saw Her Standing There” were released in the U.S., marking the beginning of Beatlemania and the decline of crew cuts among high school and college students.

e. 1972 in a not so subtle attempt to bring North Vietnam to the negotiating table 120 B-52’s each carrying up to 26 tons of bombs attacked Hanoi, the largest attack in Strategic Air Command history.

Reflections on Kwanzaa: "The seven principles of Kwanzaa—unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith—teach us that when we come together to strengthen our families and communities and honor the lesson of the past, we can face the future with joy and optimism.” President Bill Clinton

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December 25, 2020 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Christmas Day

Ridley's Believe It Or Not December 25, 2020
CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues with 627,555 new cases (a .79% increase compared to a .64% increase yesterday) to bring the total over 80 million to 80,191,630, 21,976,952 of which are active, 58,214,678 closed with 56,457,794 recoveries (96.98% compared to yesterday’s 96.98%) and 1,756,884 deaths (3.02% compared to yesterday’s 3.02%) to continue the trend of increased cases with increased recovery percentages and decreased death percentages.

CV USA Cases: New cases of 160,199 (a .84% increase compared to yesterday’s .70% increase) to bring the total over 19 million to 19,049,103 with 7,613,451 active cases of which 28,659 (.38% of active cases and a fall from a 28,747 new peak), recently on a disturbing upward trend with no dips from a high of 19,155 on July 23 (28,747 yesterday), are in serious or critical condition as trend has shifted and is still continuing to go up, and 11,595,851 closures, 338,263 of which have been deaths (2.92% compared to yesterday’s 2.92%) and 11,168,177 of which have been recoveries (97.08% compared to yesterday’s 97.08%). Our death rate percentage continues to improve and after many months is now .10% lower than the world rate and .29% lower than Canada which has the socialized type medicine Biden may well want to implement here and on a deaths per million population measurement on a steady climb to 1019 ranks behind Belgium (1639), Italy (1181). Peru (1124), Spain (1065), UK (1031 which has now passed us despite leading world in testing), and Bulgaria (1022) and only slightly worse than France (955), Mexico (935), Argentina (934), Hungary (915 and (839) three days ago so added to the list; Brazil (893), Chile (852 that we recently passed), Sweden (817) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a rapid rise in deaths, Ecuador (787) and Bolivia (772) and we have now conducted 3,027,872 more tests to bring the total to 243,163,621 (now at 732,543/M compared to Russia at 603,531/M so Trump was telling truth that we conduct more tests in number and on a per capital basis for nations (other than those nations that contain small populations like Bahrain, Denmark, Israel, Singapore and UAE) but for the U.K. which remains off the testing charts with tests at 767,826/M.

Non CV Case News: Nashville’s downtown was rocked with a massive explosion when a parked RV exploded fortunately after police were able to evacuate the neighborhood and only 3 people were injured; Blue Mayor of Nashville John Cooper came across on interviews chuckling on what police were doing to insure the blast was the only one that would occur today; leftist pseudo “journalist” Renea Baek Goddard and 3 others have been arrested in this summer’s BLM “protests” in Little Rock for trying to burn police vehicles; in a day late and dollar short like moment, 20 yr. old William Moss who fired two shots into the back of NYPD Officer Connor Boalick who was not injured due to his wearing a vest apologized for shooting the officer (doubtful if that will reduce his sentence for attempted murder); Witless Whitmer who has proven to be so inept running the state of Michigan revealed whe was relieved that Biden picked Harris though she indicated she would have accepted (the persons that should be relieved are the American people having to live in fear when the 25^th came down, she would be in the Oval Office); California, a state with some of the strictest lockdown rules in the nation, is experiencing a viral tsunami of new CV cases now topping 2,000,000 forcing the state to seek in foreign lands nurses and doctors to help treat the flood of new hospital patients.

Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In Chicago as of December 24, 2020, the number of shootings increased to 4,127 of whom 703 have died (total travesty of BLM when blacks are shot and killed by blacks in droves and only sounds of silence and complete absence of any protests in front of City Hall demanding action to curb the killings and shootings); Baltimore with a fraction of Chicago’s population and hoping against all hopes that 2020 will not be a record in terms of deaths but now seems to be shooting less and killing less and is still 371 behind Chicago at 332 murders (when will Chicago and Baltimore get serious about this carnage or is this the case of true racism as a Blue run city turns a deaf ear and a blind eye to the slaughter of people of color by people of color and when will the left focus on the problem of color on color shootings in Blue run cities which have been way more deadly and way more numerous than shootings by police or by random mass shootings which occur far fewer times).

As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “I Heard It On the Grapevine” by Marvin Gaye, the fact that are prospice in your outlook on life and a quoted for W.E.B Du Bois on the pardons granted by Andrew Johnson to former Confederates, secure in the knowledge that if you want to send a gift for any memorable events like Father’s Day, college graduations, birthdays, weddings, or anniversaries, you know that the Alaskanpoet can provide you with a unique customized poem at a great price tailored to the event and the recipient. Please contact me for the details on the pricing.

1. Christmas Day—celebrating the birth of Christ on a Christmas like no others in our past history and hopefully never again in our future with lock downs and shutdowns including Christmas church services and the fear of CV infection curbing Christmas travel.

2. National Pumpkin Pie Day—celebrating that delicious pie made from pumpkins that were vegetables indigenous to the New World but whose flavor and texture quickly spread to Europe with cookbooks appearing as early as 1653 on how to make pumpkin pie.

3. 1968 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 1968 on this day on a run of 3 weeks was “I Heard It On The Grapevine” by Marvin Gaye to join 15 other number 1 songs and join 9 other acts with their first number one song, one of whom was Otis Redding who reached the list posthumously after his death in 1967. Here is a recording of Marvin Gaye singing the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hajBdDM2qdg The singer who was known as the “Prince of Soul” grew up in a housing project with a strict almost abusive father and Marvin went on to find great success at Motown. On April 1, 1984 while trying to break up an altercation between his parents at their home, his father pulled out a gun and shot him twice, killing him.

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “prospice” which means to look ahead which is a skill other than kicking a can down the road that most of our fearless leaders lack.

5. Pennywise and Lifestyle Foolish---celebrating the birth on this day in 1967 of Jason Thirsk, bass player for the punk rock band Pennywise who struggled with depression and alcohol and shot himself to death on July 29, 1996 at the young age of 28.

On this day in:

a. 1809 Doctor Ephraim McDowell performed the first successful in the world removal of the ovaries in a surgery on Jane Crawford without the benefit of any anesthetics, he removed her ovaries along with a tumor weighting 22.5 pounds in 25 minutes. His patient returned home after 25 days and lived another 32 years.

b. 1868 President Andrew Johnson in a healing moment, pardoned all Confederate Veterans who fought against the Union in the Civil War.

c. 1951 hours after Harry and Harriette Moore had celebrated their 25^th wedding anniversary, a bomb exploded next to their house in Mims, Florida, killing Harry and fatally wounding his wife who died 9 days later. 4 KKK members were suspected of the killings in retribution for the Moores’ activities in the Civil Rights Movement but no charges were ever filed and the closest to justice, justice ever came was when a 4^th member committed suicide one day after being confronted by the FBI in 1952.

d. 1989 Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena were tried in a show trial lasting an hour of committing genocide, found guilty as would be expected under the circumstances, then led to a wall and executed by a firing squad.

e. 1991 Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as President of the Soviet Union which dissolved the following day.

Reflections on the granting of pardons to former Confederates who had fought against the Union: ”President Johnson, forgetting his own pre-war declaration that the “great plantations must be seized, and divided into small farms,” declared that this land must be restored to its original owners and this would be done if owners received a presidential pardon. The pardoning power was pushed and the land all over the South rapidly restored. Negroes were dispossessed.” W.E.B Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880

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