Happy birthday and many happy returns Hoang Thanh Hai,Mark Koch, Julie Huynh and Sokunthea Ing. Born on the same day, across the years. Remember, birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
===
February 8: Prešeren Day in Slovenia
- 1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots, was executed at Fotheringhay Castlefor her involvement in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin,Elizabeth I of England.
- 1855 – A series of mysterious hoof-like marks known as the Devil's Footprints appeared in the snow in Devon, England, and continued throughout the countryside for over 100 miles (160 km).
- 1879 – Enraged by a controversial umpiring decision, cricket spectators rioted and attacked the England cricket team during a match in Sydney, Australia.
- 1968 – Local police in Orangeburg, South Carolina, fired into a crowd of people who were protesting segregation, killing three and injuring twenty-seven others.
- 1979 – Denis Sassou Nguesso (pictured) was chosen as the new President of the Republic of the Congo after Joachim Yhombi-Opango was forced from power.
===
Events
- 421 – Constantius III becomes co-Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
- 1238 – The Mongols burn the Russian city of Vladimir.
- 1250 – Seventh Crusade: Crusaders engage Ayyubid forces in the Battle of Al Mansurah.
- 1347 – The Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347 ends with a power-sharing agreement between John VI Kantakouzenos and John V Palaiologos.
- 1575 – Universiteit Leiden is founded, and given the motto Praesidium Libertatis.
- 1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots, is executed on suspicion of having been involved in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.
- 1601 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, rebels against Queen Elizabeth I – the revolt is quickly crushed.
- 1693 – The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia is granted a charter by King William III and Queen Mary II.
- 1726 – The Supreme Privy Council is established in Russia.
- 1807 – Battle of Eylau – Napoleon defeats Russians under General Bennigsen.
- 1817 – Las Heras crosses the Andes with an army to join San Martín and liberate Chile from Spain.
- 1837 – Richard Johnson becomes the first Vice President of the United States chosen by the United States Senate.
- 1855 – The Devil's Footprints mysteriously appear in southern Devon.
- 1856 – Barbu Dimitrie Ştirbei abolishes slavery in Wallachia.
- 1865 – In the United States, Delaware voters reject the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and vote to continue the practice of slavery. (Delaware finally ratifies the amendment on February 12, 1901.)
- 1879 – Sandford Fleming first proposes adoption of Universal Standard Time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute.
- 1879 – The England cricket team led by Lord Harris is attacked during a riot during a match in Sydney.
- 1885 – The first government-approved Japanese immigrants arrived in Hawaii.
- 1887 – The Dawes Act authorizes the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal land and divide it into individual allotments.
- 1904 – Battle of Port Arthur: A surprise torpedo attack by the Japanese at Port Arthur, China starts the Russo-Japanese War.
- 1910 – The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated by William D. Boyce.
- 1915 – D.W. Griffith's controversial film The Birth of a Nation premieres in Los Angeles.
- 1922 – President Warren G. Harding introduces the first radio in the White House.
- 1924 – Capital punishment: The first state execution in the United States by gas chamber takes place in Nevada.
- 1942 – World War II: Japan invades Singapore.
- 1945 – World War II: The United Kingdom and Canada commence Operation Veritable to occupy the west bank of the Rhine.
- 1946 – The first portion of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, the first serious challenge to the popularity of the Authorized King James Version, is published.
- 1948 – The formal creation of the Korean People's Army of North Korea is announced.
- 1949 – Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary is sentenced for treason.
- 1950 – The Stasi, the secret police of East Germany, is established.
- 1952 – Elizabeth II is proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom.
- 1955 – The Government of Sindh, Pakistan, abolishes the Jagirdari system in the province. One million acres (4000 km2) of land thus acquired is to be distributed among the landless peasants.
- 1960 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom issues an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants will take the name "Mountbatten-Windsor".
- 1960 – The first eight brass star plaques are installed in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- 1962 – Charonne massacre. Nine trade unionists are killed by French police at the instigation of Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Paris Prefecture of Police.
- 1963 – Travel, financial and commercial transactions by United States citizens to Cuba are made illegal by the John F. Kennedy administration.
- 1963 – The regime of Prime Minister of Iraq, Brigadier General Abdul-Karim Qassem is overthrown by the Ba'ath Party.
- 1965 – After taking evasive maneuvers to avoid a mid-air collision immediately after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 crashes into theAtlantic Ocean and explodes, killing everyone aboard.
- 1968 – American civil rights movement: The Orangeburg massacre: An attack on black students from South Carolina State University who are protesting racial segregation at the town's only bowling alley, leaves three or four dead in Orangeburg, South Carolina.
- 1969 – Allende meteorite falls near Pueblito de Allende, Chihuahua, Mexico.
- 1971 – The NASDAQ stock market index opens for the first time.
- 1971 – South Vietnamese ground troops launch an incursion into Laos to try to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail and stop communist infiltration.
- 1974 – After 84 days in space, the crew of Skylab 4, the last crew to visit American space station Skylab, returns to Earth.
- 1974 – Military coup in Upper Volta.
- 1978 – Proceedings of the United States Senate are broadcast on radio for the first time.
- 1981 – Twenty-one association football spectators are trampled to death at Karaiskakis Stadium in Neo Faliro, Greece, after a football match between Olympiacos F.C. and AEK Athens FC.
- 1983 – The Melbourne dust storm hits Australia's second largest city. The result of the worst drought on record and a day of severe weather conditions, a 320 metres (1,050 ft) deep dust cloud envelops the city, turning day to night.
- 1986 – The Hinton train collision kills 23 people when a Via Rail passenger train collides with a 118-car freight train.
- 1989 – An Independent Air Boeing 707 crashes into Pico Alto mountain in the Santa Maria Island in the Azores, killing 144.
- 1993 – General Motors sues NBC after Dateline NBC allegedly rigs two crashes intended to demonstrate that some GM pickups can easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settles the lawsuit the next day.
- 1996 – The U.S. Congress passes the Communications Decency Act.
- 1996 – The massive Internet collaboration "24 Hours in Cyberspace" takes place.
- 2010 – A freak storm in the Hindukush mountains of Afghanistan triggers a series of at least 36 avalanches, burying over two miles of road, killing at least 172 people and trapping over 2,000 travelers.
[edit]Births
- 120 – Vettius Valens, Greek astrologer (d. 175)
- 412 – Proclus, Greek philosopher (d. 485)
- 1191 – Yaroslav II of Russia (d. 1246)
- 1291 – King Afonso IV of Portugal (d. 1357)
- 1405 – Constantine XI Palaiologos, last Byzantine Emperor (d. 1453)
- 1487 – Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg (d. 1550)
- 1552 – Agrippa d'Aubigné, French poet and soldier (d. 1630)
- 1577 – Robert Burton, English cleric and writer (d. 1640)
- 1586 – Jacob Praetorius, German composer (d. 1651)
- 1612 – Samuel Butler, English poet (d. 1680)
- 1649 – Gabriel Daniel, French Jesuit historian (d. 1728)
- 1677 – Jacques Cassini, French astronomer (d. 1756)
- 1685 – Charles-Jean-François Hénault, French historian (d. 1770)
- 1700 – Daniel Bernoulli, Dutch-born mathematician (d. 1782)
- 1708 – Václav Jan Kopřiva, Bohemian composer and organist (d. 1789)
- 1720 – Emperor Sakuramachi of Japan (d. 1750)
- 1741 – André Grétry composer from the Bishopric of Liège (present day Belgium) (d. 1813)
- 1762 – Emperor Gia Long the founded the Nguyễn Dynasty, the last of the Vietnamese dynasties (d. 1820)
- 1764 – Joseph Leopold Eybler, Austrian composer (d. 1846)
- 1792 – Queen Caroline Augusta of Bavaria of Hungary and Bohemia (d. 1873)
- 1798 – Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia, Russian Grand Duke (d. 1849)
- 1804 – Richard Lemon Lander, British explorer (d. 1834)
- 1807 – Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, English sculptor and naturalist (d. 1889)
- 1819 – John Ruskin, English author (d. 1900)
- 1820 – William Tecumseh Sherman, American Union general (d. 1891)
- 1822 – Maxime Du Camp, French photographer and journalist (d. 1894)
- 1825 – Henry Walter Bates, English naturalist and explorer (d. 1892)
- 1828 – Jules Verne, French author (d. 1905)
- 1829 – Vital-Justin Grandin, Canadian French-born Roman Catholic bishop (d. 1902)
- 1834 – Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist (d. 1907)
- 1847 – Hugh Price Hughes, English social reformer (d. 1902)
- 1850 – Kate Chopin, American author (d. 1904)
- 1866 – Moses Gomberg, Russian-born American chemist (d. 1947)
- 1878 – Martin Buber, Austrian-born Israeli philosopher (d. 1965)
- 1879 – Albert Taillandier, French racing cyclist (death date unknown)
- 1880 – Franz Marc, German painter (d. 1916)
- 1880 – Viktor Schwanneke, German stage director, stage and film actor (d. 1931)
- 1882 – Thomas Etholen Selfridge, American military officer and airplane crash victim (d. 1908)
- 1883 – Joseph Schumpeter, Austrian economist (d. 1950)
- 1884 – Reginald Baker, Australian athlete and actor (d. 1953)
- 1886 – Charles Ruggles, American actor (d. 1970)
- 1888 – Dame Edith Evans, British actress (d. 1976)
- 1890 – Claro M. Recto, Filipino nationalist (d. 1960)
- 1893 – Ba Maw, Burmese politician (d. 1977)
- 1894 – Ludwig Marcuse, German author and philosopher (d. 1971)
- 1894 – King Vidor, American film director (d. 1982)
- 1900 – Ivan Ivanov-Vano Soviet animator and Russian animation director (d. 1987)
- 1902 – Demchugdongrub, Mongolian politician (d. 1966)
- 1903 – Greta Keller, Austrian-born cabaret singer and actress (d. 1977)
- 1903 – Aleksander Mitt, Estonian speed skater (d. 1942)
- 1906 – Chester Carlson, American physicist and inventor (d. 1968)
- 1909 – Elisabeth Murdoch, Australian philanthropist (d. 2012)
- 1911 – Elizabeth Bishop, American poet (d. 1979)
- 1913 – Betty Field, American actress (d. 1973)
- 1914 – Bill Finger, American comic book writer (d. 1974)
- 1915 – Georges Guétary, French singer and actor (d. 1997)
- 1918 – Fred Blassie, American professional wrestler (d. 2003)
- 1920 – Herbert Siegert, German football manager
- 1921 – Barnett Danson, Canadian politician (d. 2011)
- 1921 – Lana Turner, American actress (d. 1995)
- 1922 – Audrey Meadows, American actress (d. 1996)
- 1925 – Jack Lemmon, American actor and film director (d. 2001)
- 1926 – Neal Cassady, American writer (d. 1968)
- 1928 – Gene Lees, Canadian biographer and lyricist (d. 2010)
- 1929 – Claude Rich, French actor
- 1930 – James Deetz, American anthropologist (d. 2000)
- 1930 – Alejandro Rey, Argentine actor (d. 1987)
- 1931 – James Dean, American actor (d. 1955)
- 1932 – Cliff Allison, British racing driver (d. 2005)
- 1932 – John Williams, American composer and conductor
- 1932 – Jean Saunders née Jean Innes, English writer
- 1933 – Elly Ameling, Dutch soprano
- 1933 – Jack Larson, American actor
- 1935 – Council Cargle, American actor (d. 2013)
- 1936 – Larry Verne, American singer
- 1937 – Manfred Krug, German actor
- 1937 – Joe Raposo, American composer (d. 1989)
- 1939 – Ken Iman, American football player (d. 2010)
- 1939 – José Maria Sison, Filipino communist
- 1940 – Ted Koppel, American journalist
- 1941 – Nick Nolte, American actor
- 1941 – Tom Rush, American singer and songwriter
- 1941 – Jagjit Singh, Indian ghazal singer, songwriter and musician (d. 2011)
- 1942 – Robert Klein, American comedian
- 1942 – Terry Melcher, American musician and record producer (Bruce & Terry) (d. 2004)
- 1942 – Bob Munden, American shooting competitor
- 1943 – Creed Bratton, American actor and musician (The Grass Roots)
- 1943 – Pirzada Qasim, Pakistani poet and academic
- 1944 – Roger Lloyd-Pack, English actor
- 1944 – Sebastião Salgado, Brazilian documentary photographer
- 1948 – Lynda Lyon Block, American convicted murderer (d. 2002)
- 1948 – Dan Seals, American singer (England Dan and John Ford Coley)(d. 2009)
- 1948 – Ron Tyson, American singer (The Temptations)
- 1949 – Brooke Adams, American actress
- 1949 – Niels Arestrup, French actor
- 1950 – Cristina Ferrare, American former supermodel and actress
- 1951 – Z'EV, American text/sound artist
- 1952 – Daisuke Gōri, Japanese voice actor (d. 2010)
- 1953 – Roger Clavet, Québécois politician
- 1953 – Mary Steenburgen, American actress
- 1955 – John Grisham, American writer
- 1955 – Nancy Oliver, American playwright and television writer
- 1956 – Marques Johnson, American basketball player
- 1956 – Dave Meros, American bassist (Spock's Beard)
- 1956 – Kostas Triantafyllopoulos, Greek actor
- 1958 – Sherri Martel, American professional wrestler (d. 2007)
- 1959 – Damir Maričić, Croatian footballer
- 1960 – Benigno Aquino III, Philippine President
- 1960 – Dino Ciccarelli, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1960 – Stuart Hamm, American bassist (Joe Satriani, Steve Vai)
- 1961 – Vince Neil, American singer (Mötley Crüe)
- 1961 – Bruce Timm, American character designer, animator and producer
- 1963 – Mohammad Azharuddin, Indian cricketer
- 1963 – Joshua Kadison, American pianist and songwriter
- 1964 – Trinny Woodall, British fashion guru
- 1964 – Robert Nebřenský, Czech actor and musician
- 1965 – Dicky Cheung, Hong Kong actor and singer (Big Four)
- 1966 – Ulrich Hesse-Lichtenberger, German author
- 1966 – Bruno Labbadia, German footballer
- 1966 – Kirk Muller, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1966 – Hristo Stoichkov, Bulgarian footballer
- 1968 – Gary Coleman, American actor (d. 2010)
- 1968 – Claudette Pace, Maltese singer
- 1968 – Nasos Thanopoulos, Greek businessman
- 1969 – Mary McCormack, American actress
- 1969 – Shiva Rose, American actress
- 1970 – John Filan, Australian footballer
- 1970 – Alonzo Mourning, American basketball player
- 1971 – Andre El Haddad, Lebannon football referee
- 1971 – Mika Karppinen, Finnish drummer (HIM)
- 1971 – Andrus Veerpalu, Estonian cross-country skier
- 1972 – Paul Wight, American professional wrestler
- 1973 – Keith McDonald, American baseball player
- 1974 – Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, French disc jockey (Daft Punk)
- 1974 – Ulises de la Cruz, Ecuadorian footballer
- 1974 – Seth Green, American actor
- 1974 – Kimbo Slice, American mixed martial artist
- 1976 – Khaled Mashud, Bangladeshi cricketer
- 1976 – Adam Piatt, American baseball player
- 1976 – Abi Titmuss, English glamour model
- 1976 – Nicolas Vouilloz, French rally driver
- 1977 – Barry Hall, Australian rules footballer
- 1977 – Bridgette Kerkove, American actress
- 1977 – Yucef Merhi, Venezuelan artist
- 1977 – Mathieu Turcotte, Canadian short-track speed skater
- 1979 – Aaron Cook, American baseball player
- 1979 – Josh Keaton, American actor and singer
- 1980 – Ralf Little, English actor and comedian
- 1980 – Cameron Muncey, Australian guitarist (Jet)
- 1980 – Stephen Wright, English footballer
- 1981 – Myriam Montemayor Cruz, Mexican singer
- 1982 – Erik Rhodes, American porn actor (d. 2012)
- 1982 – Sousuke Takaoka, Japanese actor
- 1982 – Danny Tamberelli, American actor
- 1982 – Liam McIntyre, Australian actor
- 1983 – Jermaine Anderson, Canadian basketball player
- 1983 – Cory Jane, New Zealand rugby player
- 1983 – Jim Verraros, American singer and actor
- 1984 – Manuel Osborne-Paradis, Canadian alpine skier
- 1984 – Panagiotis Vasilopoulos, Greek basketball player
- 1985 – Ben Anderson, New Zealand basketball player
- 1985 – Petra Cetkovská, Czech tennis player
- 1985 – Thomas Gardner, American basketball player
- 1985 – Jeremy Davis, American bassist (Paramore)
- 1987 – Carolina Kostner, Italian figure skater
- 1987 – Francisco Javier García, Spanish footballer
- 1988 – Keegan Meth, Zimbabwean cricketer
- 1988 – Ryan Pinkston, American actor
- 1988 – Rucha Hasabnis, Indian television actress
- 1989 – Zac Guildford, New Zealand rugby player
- 1989 – Dani Harmer, English actress
- 1989 – JaJuan Johnson, American basketball player
- 1989 – Courtney Vandersloot, American basketball player
- 1990 – Bethany Hamilton, American surfer and shark attack survivor
- 1990 – Tran Thuy Dzung, Miss Vietnam 2008
- 1991 – Aristides Soiledis, Greek footballer
- 1991 – Roberto Soriano, Italian footballer
- 1992 – Carl Jenkinson, English/Finnish footballer
- 1994 – Nikki Yanofsky, Canadian artist and singer
- 1997 – Kathryn Newton, American actress
- 1998 – Šarlote Lēnmane, Latvian singer
[edit]Deaths
- 1204 – Alexius IV Angelus, deposed Eastern Roman Emperor (b. c. 1182)
- 1250 – Robert I of Artois, French Crusader (b. 1216)
- 1250 – Sir William II Longespée, English Crusader (b. 1212)
- 1265 – Hulagu Khan, Mongol ruler (b. 1217)
- 1296 – King Przemysł II of Poland (b. 1257)
- 1572 – Cho Shik, Korean Joseon Dynastys Neo-Confucian scholar and politicians (b. 1501)
- 1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots (b. 1542)
- 1599 – Robert Rollock, Scottish educator (b. 1555)
- 1623 – Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, English politician (b. 1546)
- 1696 – Tsar Ivan V of Russia (b. 1666)
- 1709 – Giuseppe Torelli, Italian composer (b. 1658)
- 1725 – Tsar Peter I of Russia (b. 1672)
- 1749 – Jan van Huysum, Dutch painter (b. 1682)
- 1750 – Aaron Hill, English writer (b. 1685)
- 1768 – George Dance the Elder, English architect (b. 1695)
- 1772 – Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Princess of Wales (b. 1719)
- 1847 – Theodor Valentin Volkmar, German politician (b. 1781)
- 1849 – François Antoine Habeneck, French violinist (b. 1781)
- 1849 – France Prešeren, Slovenian poet (b. 1800)
- 1856 – Agostino Bassi, Italian entomologist (b. 1773)
- 1907 – Hendrik Willem Bakhuis Roozeboom, Dutch chemist (b. 1854)
- 1910 – Hans Jæger, Norwegian writer and political activist (b. 1854)
- 1915 – François Langelier, Canadian lawyer and politician (b. 1838)
- 1921 – George Formby, Sr., English entertainer (b. 1876)
- 1921 – Peter Kropotkin, Russian anarchist (b. 1842)
- 1921 – Barrett Wendell, American academic and author (b. 1855)
- 1924 – Gee Jon, First man in U.S. to be executed by lethal gas. (b. 1895)
- 1932 – Yordan Milanov, Bulgarian architect (b. 1867)
- 1932 – Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll, New York City gangster from County Donegal in Ireland (b. 1908)
- 1936 – Charles Curtis, 1st American-Indian Vice-President of the USA (b. 1860)
- 1945 – Italo Santelli, Italian fencer (b. 1866)
- 1956 – Connie Mack, American baseball manager and executive (b. 1862)
- 1957 – Walther Bothe, German physicist and inventor, Nobel laureate (b. 1891)
- 1957 – John von Neumann, Hungarian-born mathematician and physicist (b. 1903)
- 1959 – Daniel Soubeyran, French rower (b. 1875)
- 1960 – Giles Gilbert Scott, British architect (b. 1880)
- 1960 – John Langshaw Austin, British philosopher (b. 1911)
- 1963 – George Dolenz, American actor, father of Micky Dolenz (b. 1908)
- 1964 – Ernst Kretschmer, German psychiatrist (b. 1888)
- 1965 – Wayne Estes, American basketball player (b. 1943)
- 1972 – Markos Vamvakaris, Greek musician and songwriter (b. 1905)
- 1975 – Sir Robert Robinson, British chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1886)
- 1977 – Eivind Groven, Norwegian composer and ethnomusicologist (b. 1901)
- 1979 – Dennis Gabor, Hungarian physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1900)
- 1980 – Nikos Xilouris, Greek singer (b. 1936)
- 1982 – John Hay Whitney, American financier (b. 1904)
- 1984 – Karel Miljon, Dutch boxer (b. 1903)
- 1985 – William Lyons, British automobile manufacturer (b. 1901)
- 1987 – Harriet E. MacGibbon, American actress (b. 1905)
- 1988 – Daisy Turner, American storyteller, centenarian, and daughter of ex-slave (b. 1883)
- 1990 – Del Shannon, American singer-songwriter (b. 1934)
- 1992 – Stanley Armour Dunham, American sergeant (b. 1918)
- 1992 – Denny Wright, British jazz guitarist (b. 1924)
- 1993 – N. Shanmugathasan, Sri Lankan communist leader (b. 1920)
- 1994 – Raymond Scott, American composer (b. 1908)
- 1996 – Del Ennis, American baseball player (b. 1925)
- 1997 – Robert Ridgely American actor (b. 1931)
- 1998 – Halldór Laxness, Icelandic author, Nobel laureate (b. 1902)
- 1998 – Julian Lincoln Simon, American economist and author (b. 1932)
- 1998 – Enoch Powell, British politician (b. 1912)
- 1998 – Rocke Robertson, Canadian physician, Vice-Chancellor of McGill University (b. 1912)
- 1999 – Denise Leblanc-Bantey, Canadian politician (b. 1949)
- 1999 – Iris Murdoch, Irish author (b. 1919)
- 2000 – Sid Abel, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1918)
- 2000 – Bob Collins, American radio broadcaster (b. 1942)
- 2000 – Derrick Thomas, American football player (b. 1967)
- 2001 – Ivo Caprino, Norwegian animated film director (b. 1920)
- 2001 – Rousas John Rushdoony, Calvinist theologian (b. 1916)
- 2002 – Joachim Hoffmann, German historian (b. 1930)
- 2002 – Ong Teng Cheong, President of Singapore (b. 1936)
- 2004 – Julius Schwartz, American comic book and science fiction editor (b. 1915)
- 2004 – Cem Karaca, Turkish musician (b. 1945)
- 2005 – Jimmy Smith, American jazz musician (b. 1925)
- 2005 – Keith Knudsen, American drummer, vocalist and songwriter (The Doobie Brothers) (b. 1948)
- 2006 – Elton Dean, English musician (Soft Machine) (b. 1945)
- 2006 – Akira Ifukube, Japanese composer (b. 1914)
- 2007 – Anna Nicole Smith, American model, actress, and entertainer (b. 1967)
- 2007 – Ian Stevenson, Canadian-American professor and reincarnation researcher (b. 1918)
- 2008 – Frank J. Dixon, American immunologist (b. 1920)
- 2008 – Chua Ek Kay, Singaporean painter (b. 1947)
- 2008 – Phyllis Whitney, American mystery writer (b. 1903)
- 2009 – Marian Cozma, Romanian handball player (b. 1982)
- 2010 – John Murtha, American politician (b. 1932)
- 2011 – Tony Malinosky, American baseball player (b. 1909)
- 2012 – Luis Alberto Spinetta, Argentinean musician (Almendra, Pescado Rabioso, and Invisible) (b. 1950)
[edit]Holidays and observances
- Christian Feast Day:
- Earliest day on which Feast of Orthodoxy can fall, while March 14 is the latest; celebrated 42 days before Easter. (Orthodoxy)
- Nirvana Day (Mahayana Buddhism)
- Prešeren Day (Slovenia)
===
Labor triggers political fighting season
Piers Akerman – Friday, February 08, 2013 (11:08am)
AS Australian troops begin to stand down in Afghanistan, the Taliban are ramping up activities in preparation for the coming fighting season.
===
HIGH VALUE TARGET
Tim Blair – Friday, February 08, 2013 (5:41pm)
The hunt for ex-LA cop and triple-killer Christopher Dorner went dreadfully wrong early Thursday when police mistakenly opened fire on two women delivering newspapers. Both women survived. Dorner remains at large:
Christopher Dorner sees himself as a crusader, a 6-foot, 270-pound guardian angel who battles racism and helps those in need.He always wanted to be a cop and fulfilled that dream when he became a Los Angeles police officer in 2005. The dream ended with his firing three years later, an event that, according to a 14-page manifesto police believe Dorner authored, led him to plot violent revenge against those who he believed were responsible.
In fact, the manifesto seems to be substantially larger. Several pages appear to have beenomitted from media accounts. Hit those links. As for this lunatic’s battle against racism:
He also singled out lesbians and Asians as targets.“Those lesbian officers in supervising positions who go to work, day in day out, with the sole intent of attempting to prove your misandrist authority (not feminism) to degrade male officers. You are a high value target.“Those Asian officers who stand by and observe everything I previously mentioned… You are a high value target as well,” he wrote.
Not quite as high as Dorner himself. Follow the chase.
===
LOW-GAIN WAYNE PAIN
Tim Blair – Friday, February 08, 2013 (2:41pm)
The world’s greatest treasurer somehow never saw this coming:
The federal government’s mining tax raised $126 million in its first six months of operation.The minerals resource rent tax was forecast to raise $2 billion over the entire 2012/13 financial year.
The Greens are screaming:
Greens Senator Richard Di Natale said the result was “hugely disappointing …”“It’s a long way short of the government’s projections and many billions of dollars short of the original Treasury-backed mining tax,” he told Sky News.“How are we going to pay for the things that we need in this country?”
Here’s one way: stop wasting money on things we don’t need. Like the Department of Climate Change.
===
SAFE FOR THE SMH
Tim Blair – Friday, February 08, 2013 (2:13pm)
Professor Bunyip emails:
Professional harpy Clem Bastow has actually written something sensible – a remarkable reversal of form and unlikely to happen again anytime soon.Like her, I find the more obscene Wicked Campers one sees on our roads quite off-putting. There is enough vulgarity in the world already. In any case, she writes:“Ladies, are you into viral hits? Perhaps you’d like to cruise around the country in a van painted with Psy of Gangnam Style fame? Small catch: Psy is depicted reaming a random hottie from behind (here’s a photo of said van; be aware that it is NSFW, and also not safe for eyes/brains).”Yes, it is a very rude picture, and she is quite right to warn sensitive eyes not to look unless they really wish to take it in.So what does the Sydney Morning Herald’s homepage editor do?Why, he follows her NSFW link, snips it, and reproduces it in all its nasty glory on the SMH’s homepage! Too rude for the office, too rude for the road – but just right for the SMH.Are there no adults left at Fairfax?
No, but there are plenty of 9/11 conspiracy theorists.
===
PAPERS UNIDENTIFIED
Tim Blair – Friday, February 08, 2013 (1:27pm)
The Los Angeles Times reports:
Two women who were shot by Los Angeles police in Torrance early Thursday during a massive manhunt for an ex-LAPD officer were delivering newspapers, sources said.The women, shot in the 19500 block of Redbeam Avenue, were taken to area hospitals, Torrance police Lt. Devin Chase said. They were not identified. One was shot in the hand and the other in the back, according to Jesse Escochea, who captured video of the victims being treated.It was not immediately known what newspapers the women were delivering.
You know, that’s possibly not the most crucial angle here.
UPDATE. Mystery solved:
Police opened fire, wounding two women tossing copies of the Los Angeles Times onto porches.
===
TWO BOBS
Tim Blair – Friday, February 08, 2013 (12:20pm)
The real reason Bob Carr hangs out with Bob Ellis: for once in his life, Carr is the pretty one.
===
The haughty silence of the enemies of free speech
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY082013(10:24am)
Michael Sexton SC says both the enemies of free speech and the “human rights” brigade aresuspiciously silent:
For some years ... commentators including James Allan and Janet Albrechtsen have attacked existing state and federal laws that make publications unlawful on the basis of notions such as insult, ridicule or offensiveness. I have written a number of pieces myself on the problem of these concepts in legislation.But where is the response from those in favour of these laws? There hasn’t been one. Yet we know that there is no shortage of persons in influential positions who do favour these kinds of laws. The fact that there is such legislation on the statute books at the federal level and in most states and territories indicates that they were pushed through the parliamentary process by powerful lobby groups.It is a measure of the muted discussion in Australia of so many political questions that proponents of these laws feel they do not have to answer any criticisms of them. Partly, of course, this comes from the sense of moral certainty held by many groups that are confidently prepared to decide what is best for the community. But there is also the quasi-religious belief in some quarters that any opponents are intrinsically evil and do not deserve a response.Amid this deafening silence from the supporters of the legislation, there has also been an absence of comment from a range of groups that are generally outspoken on questions of individual freedom. Where, for example, are the protests from legal professional bodies such as bar associations and law societies or from the various civil liberties organisations?…The American jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes said the “best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market”. The report quoted this statement but only to reject it. This was because, according to the report, most members of the community do not have “the capacity to engage in debate, in the form of the relevant critical reasoning and speaking skills”.This wildly elitist view that media content has to be regulated because most people are incapable of sifting or evaluating newspaper articles or radio and television broadcasts naturally provoked some hoots of derision. But, again, there was no real response to any of the criticisms of the report from those involved in putting it together or from anyone else. After this rare glimpse into the world of those who do not place a high value on freedom of speech, normal silence was resumed.
After Craig Thomson MP was charged with more than 100 fraud offences, Trade Minister Craig Emerson declared Thomson was entitled to the presumption of innocence. Emerson repeated what most people assume to be true, namely that in Australia you’re innocent until you’re proven guilty…The problem with claiming someone is innocent until proven guilty is that the statement isn’t accurate. It all depends. There are dozens of Commonwealth and state laws declaring people guilty first which then require them to establish their innocence…The Gillard government’s draft Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill unveiled at the end of last year proposes that an employer accused, for example, of racial discrimination should be presumed to be guilty. A few days before her resignation as attorney-general, Nicola Roxon announced she had backed down on that part of the bill which would have made it illegal to insult or offend someone. However, the sections of the bill which require those charged with discrimination to establish they’re not guilty remain.
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Not guilty, but down $215,000. “Justice”?
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY082013(10:17am)
Leave aside the issue of alleged interference. What does is say about the obscene cost of defending yourself in court?
THE South Australian Police Complaints Authority is investigating allegations that senior officers directly interfered to ensure former Liberal senator Mary Jo Fisher would face a trial on minor shoplifting charges in 2011…Ms Fisher, then a senator, was charged with shoplifting $92.83 worth of fruit and vegetables from an Adelaide supermarket while suffering from depression and anxiety in December, 2010.After the nine-day Adelaide Magistrates Court trial, Kym Boxall acquitted Ms Fisher of theft and found her assault charge “trifling”, before dismissing the charge without penalty…
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Crops up, but warmists still freak on the ABC
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY082013(6:57am)
Radio National was yesterday peddling the old scare about global warming killing crops:
FRAN Kelly: Dramatic falls in staple crop production, and a jump in malnutrition are predicted across the Asia Pacific in coming decades due to climate change. . . (Dr Mark Rosegrant) . . . according to your research which crops would be most affected?Rosegrant: We’re finding that the key staples of rice, wheat and maize are going to have very large declines through most of Asia—anywhere from 15 to 25 per cent compared to a no-climate-change scenario.
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Advantage Abbott
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY082013(6:43am)
Tony Abbott is taking full advantage of the free kick Julia Gillard has unwittingly given him:
THE Coalition has won a six-week advantage in gaining access to the nation’s top public service mandarins to test its election policies and the government’s programs, but Tony Abbott is pressing the most senior public servant for immediate consultations.Mr Abbott has argued Julia Gillard’s decision to announce a September 14 poll date triggers the Coalition’s access to public service consultations and the equal time provisions of the Broadcast Services Act. But the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Ian Watt, has ruled that full access will be granted from June 27.This date will still give the opposition a six-week headstart on the launch of the official campaign when shadow ministers are normally allowed to begin talks with senior public servants.
I cannot see how the Government could argue it hasn’t already triggered the requirement for broadcasters to offer Abbott equal time. The legislation seems to be clear on this point:
“election period” means:(a) in relation to an election to the Legislative Council of Tasmania, or an ordinary election to the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory--the period that starts 33 days before the polling day for the election and ends at the close of the poll on that day; and(b) in relation to any other election to a Parliament--the period that starts on:(ii) the day on which the writs for the election are issued;whichever happens first, and ends at the close of the poll on the polling day for the election;
The PM’s department head seems to be relying on a contentious interpretation of “announce” in rejecting Abbott’s argument for immediate access to the public service:
A spokesman for Dr Watt said… “For the purposes of the guidelines for pre-election consultation with the opposition . . . the pre-election period dates from three months prior to the expiry of the House of Representatives or the date of the announcement of the House of Representatives election, whichever date comes first,” the spokesman said.He said while the Prime Minister had indicated her intention to advise the Governor-General to dissolve the House of Representatives, she had not yet done so. Based on Ms Gillard’s statement, it was expected that might take place around August 12, but three months before the expiry of the House of Representatives would be June 27.“That is the date on which the period for pre-election consultation could commence,” the spokesman said.
Does “announce” mean only Julia Gillard’s formal advice to the Governor-General, or, as Abbott argues, does it include her general advice last week to all Australians, including the Governor-General?
After all, Gillard herself has said she’d “announced” the date:
So, today I announce that I will advise the Governor-General to dissolve the House of Representatives and to issue writs on Monday the 12th of August, for an election for the House and half the Senate to be held on Saturday, the 14th of September.
This might be one for the courts.
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Looting the prudent to pay for the bungling
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY082013(6:36am)
The Gillard Government breaks yet another promise, this time to cover up its bungling over the new mining tax:
WAYNE Swan has reneged on his parliamentary pledge to provide monthly forecasts of mining tax revenues, citing Australian Taxation Office restrictions on “taxpayer confidentiality” for previous payments.The Treasurer - facing a united push from the Coalition and the Greens in the Senate for the tax office to provide details of the budget’s projected $2 billion payments this financial year for the minerals resource rent tax - has fobbed off demands to release details of revenue forecasts…It is clear none of the big three miners - BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata, which are liable for more than 90 per cent of the MRRT payments - has made any payments in the first six months of this financial year.
The Government is now desperately hunting around for other cash - like the money people have put aside to fund their own retirements..
Business leaders are blunt - and unusually eloquent - in attacking this planned attack on prudence:
BUSINESS leaders have demanded the government stop tinkering with the superannuation regime and warned that constant electioneering is undermining business confidence and consumer sentiment.In an exclusive and wide-ranging roundtable with The Australian yesterday, the board of the Business Council of Australia warned that the push to cut superannuation tax breaks for top earners was damaging to a compulsory savings system that was crucial to dealing with the costs of an ageing population.BCA president Tony Shepherd said: “Philosophically, I object to the term ‘concessions’. The money is ours. We go to work, we get paid. The money is ours. It’s up to government to justify how much they take from us. It’s not theirs, it’s our money. It’s not a concession, it’s our money.”Australia’s biggest private sector employer, Wesfarmers’ chief executive Richard Goyder, said people had made “significant sacrifices from their weekly (or) monthly salaries to build up a nest egg based on a set of rules” that included incentives to encourage income earners to put more into their super. “Then why should they be penalised for doing that?” Mr Goyder said.
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Obama absent during Benghazi attack
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY082013(6:28am)
Remember Hillary Clinton’s ad attacking Barack Obama? The one with the 3am phone call to the White House about some national security emergency? The call that just rings and rings ...
Now:
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta testified this morning on Capitol Hill that President Barack Obama was absent the night four Americans were murdered in Benghazi on September 11, 2012:Panetta said that Obama left operational details, including knowledge of what resources were available to help the Americans under seize, “up to us.”In fact, Panetta says that the night of 9/11, he did not communicate with a single person at the White House. The attack resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.Panetta said that, save their 5 o’clock prescheduled meeting with the president the day of September 11, Obama did not call or communicate in anyway with the defense secretary that day. There were no calls about the what was going on in Benghazi. He never called to check-in.
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A question for Dr Karl, the warmist
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY082013(12:39am)
Doctor Karl Kruszelnicki presents science on the ABC. In 2007 he ran as a Senate candidate for the Climate Change Coalition.
So you expect him to know the very basic data about global warming. You expect him to make it his duty to at least know whether the planet is indeed warming, and if so by how much.
Right?
Then explain this exchange of tweets, which I am told Kruszelnicki deleted from his Twitter account. (They certainly aren’t there now.)
Yes, I did write about these tweets in an update to my column yesterday, but the more I reflect on this the more I consider this a particularly egregious example of warmist know-nothingness. It is also a symbol of the giddy and irresponsible ignorance of so many of the noisier global warming prophets.
Dr Karl, debating the figures of Britain’s Met, asserts the world has warmed 0.3 degrees in 16 years - which still isn’t that much, actually.
But the Met’s figures, as tweeter Bill correctly informs him, actually show a warming just one-sixth of what Dr Karl claimed. That is so small that scientists say it’s statistically insignificant. It’s indistinguishable from background noise. Essentially zero.
Just in case there is any doubt about what the Met figures show, here is the Met in its own words, excuses and all:
The linear trend from August 1997 (in the middle of an exceptionally strong El Nino) to August 2012 (coming at the tail end of a double-dip La Nina) is about 0.03°C/decade, amounting to a temperature increase of 0.05°C over that period...
Or put it this way: if this rate of warming is real and was maintained for the rest of the century, the world by 2100 would be hotter by about 0.27 of a degree. You’d struggle to even measure it. You certainly wouldn’t notice a change in the climate, other than the natural ones that have always been with us.
Conclusions. First, I’m astonished Dr Karl didn’t know about this pause in the warming, and didn’t check it out even after I alerted him to it.
Second, I’m even more astonished that after finally (apparently?) learning of his mistake, Dr Karl did not apologise to me, issue a public correction or give any indication he would reassess his global warming catastrophism. He’s given no sign he will change his mind about anything even after learning the planet has not warmed 0.3 degrees in 16 years, as he thought, but just 0.05.
His only response, it seems, is to remove from his Twitter site any tweets on this topic that may be held against him.
I don’t think that’s good enough.
After all, had I exaggerated a temperature trend by a factor of six, what would have been said of me by warmists? How many activists would have rushed to denounce me to the Press Council? And, of course, there’s some basic questions about intellectual integrity and being straight with your audience, in this case Dr Karl’s 177,000 followers on Twitter.
So I ask Dr Karl, ABC science presenter, to at least tell us this: when the facts change, sir, does your opinion?
So I ask Dr Karl, ABC science presenter, to at least tell us this: when the facts change, sir, does your opinion?
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Don’t speak of the right we’re losing
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY082013(12:06am)
It is ironic - and telling - that the one human rights issue the Australian Human Rights Commission hasn’t listed as important in this election is free speech, the right that’s most threatened by the Gillard Government:
A primer on the latest threat to the right the commission has overlooked.
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What’s good for the ABC is poison for the rest of the media
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY082013(12:03am)
Fairfax newspapers are struggling for their very lives. Channel 9 nearly went broke. Channel 10 had to lay off many journalists. News Ltd papers must somehow find ways to make the Internet pay.
But for one media organisation the money just flows and flows, with an extra big splash just in time to spread a little pre-election warmth:
The ABC has defied tight conditions across the media sector to win a $10 million government increase in its news budget.The ABC’s director of news, Kate Torney, told staff in a speech at the broadcaster’s Ultimo head office today that was broadcast to ABC news offices around the country that there was “No better place to be if you’re a journalist than the ABC"…
No, if you don’t mind the ideological straightjacket. And if the ABC gets much bigger it will make sure there are actually few places you could be a journalist.
The huge expansion of the ABC, especially into on-line publication, is a menace to the privately owned press. The ABC can offer free on The Drum exactly the same kind of opinion writing that Fairfax’s Age and Sydney Morning Herald are trying to sell - and to exactly the same Leftist audience. The ABC’ is also giving away for free the news coverage that the private media must sell to survive.
It seems to me this competition can only end one way. Fairfax will quickly die, killed prematurely by a completely subsidised competition, leaving News Ltd as the country’s last big newspaper group. And then Labor and the Greens will want to dismantle that “monopoly”, too, leaving all its parts weaker.
Meanwhile the ABC will expand. Being state-owned, it will be overwhelmingly of the Left, as state-owned things tend to be. And being state-owned, it will be peculiarly vulnerable to government pressure. You may not see that pressure exercised openly today, but one day you inevitably will.
It is not just unhealthy to have one stiflingly orthodox media giant. It is dangerous if it’s a giant owned by the government and overseen by whom the government appoints.
This government gift to the ABC staff may be good news for journalists at the ABC, but it is one more threat to journalists everywhere else. And a bigger threat to the country.
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early morning echo point
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MORE ICE ……… the latest inconvenient truth - Global Sea Ice 30,000km² ABOVE average
The Polar Caps ice caps are melting, were all doomed !!! ……. well that’s what the alarmists have been preaching for over a decade.
However, according to the latest data, although the Arctic is 630,000 km BELOW average, the sea ice in the Antarctic continues to grow and is currently 660,000 km² ABOVE average
Add the two together, and global sea is currently 30,000 km ABOVE average - the opposite of what the alarmists preach.
Then have a look at the graph below, the red line on the bottom is the “daily global sea ice anomly" – this shows whether total global sea ice is above or below the mean from 1979 to 2006 – and as the graphs shows, total global sea ice bounces around is often above the mean (1979 to 2006) as it is now.
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Don't forget the Australian Informatics Competition being held on Thursday 9 May. This is a one-hour problem solving competition that seeks to identify computer programming potential. It is not a programming competition and no programming experience is required.
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Queensland Premier Campbell Newman - I'm so proud of Ashgrove State School's students for chipping in to help those who need really need it in Bundaberg.
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Dong Tam Martial Arts Centre lion making day! — at Dong Tam Youth Association.
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"I will extol thee, my God, o King;
and I will bless thy name forever and ever.
Everyday I will bless thee, and I will praise thy name forever and ever"
(PSALM 145:1-2).
"I will bless the Lord at all times
and His praise shall continually be in my mouth " (PSALM 34:1).
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Today we learned that the Mining Tax brought in $800 million less than Wayne Swan forecast. I guess for Wayne Swan to be out by only $800 million dollars by his own standards is probably not too bad. Peter Dutton
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We Need NOT talk Words - We Need to Show Respect on ANZAC DAY 25th April 2013, Support me & the Memory of the ANZACS by Liking and Sharing - Thank you
LEST WE FORGET
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4 TMN
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Benjamin Verdonck's Giant Nest in Rotterdam
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Deaf for 15 years, Dawn hears her son's voice for the first time. Don't miss this emotional moment, today on The Doctors. http://bitly.com/
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Starting the day with an awesome quote! "Don't take life too seriously, it's not like you're going to get out alive"
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Do you realise how God puts people on your path that have been through the same experiences as you? This is not by chance, this is by God's divine appointment. If you have experienced freedom from this experience you can be the example to others. Share your testimony how God brought you through it and encourage others that they too can receive freedom from that experience.
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Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds... (Deut 28:4)
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Did you know Blazing Saddles was released 39 years ago today?
How old were you when it came out?
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LIARS - LABOR IS SENDING OUT PAMPHLETS THAT THEY HAVE DELIVERED A SURPLUS AS PROMISED.
What surplus? Swan said in December that he couldn't deliver one
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For TMN
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