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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: A 78 RPM
Christmas Song MP3 MegaSet CD, Audio Download, USB Stick
Today, December 20, 2025

December 20: Go Caroling Day: -- Once
upon a time, Christmas celebrations wouldn't have been anything
without caroling, and this is exactly what is celebrated today.
It's about nothing else but merrily singing songs from door to
door in the spirit of the holiday season. Christmas carols were
very popular decades ago, before there was digital entertainment
to distract us. As it became more and more uncommon to sing along
to carols, Go Caroling Day revives and preserves this classic
tradition. It is widely believed that caroling on Christmas
started in 1223 at the church of St. Francis of Assisi. He thought
that it was merrier to sing songs full of joy and fun during the
holidays, instead of solemn hymns. He also started the live
nativity scene. Caroling has been around even longer than
Christmas itself, as it was a part of many religious observances
and practices centuries ago. Christmas carols are essentially a
subset of Christmas music, whereas caroling specifically refers to
the act of singing this broad category of Christmas songs. The
Christmas carol is also known as a noel - a song or hymn. These
have a unique shared characteristic sound, which is based on the
musical chord patterns of medieval times. Popular Christmas carols
were composed before the 20th century. In modern times, new carols
have been written. A few popular Christmas carols are 'O Little
Town of Bethlehem', 'Jingle Bells', and 'Away in a Manger', and
many modern carols are composed by Alfred Burt. During the Middle
Ages, another popular trend similar to caroling started, known as
'wassailing'. It was a reference to the alcoholic drink called
'wassail', and the songs that were sung were vulgar and rude in
nature, and therefore viewed by the church as irreligious. Whether
it was gathering around the piano in the living room, or the
arrival of carolers on doorsteps in the neighborhood, caroling was
a heavily practiced tradition in which people enthusiastically
participated. Christmas caroling has commonly been referred to in
old classics. Whether in the story "A Christmas Carol"
by Charles Dickens or the film "It's a Wonderful Life",
it is guaranteed that, at some point, warmly bedecked carolers
will arrive, heralding a critical moment or just singing
traditional songs loudly for Christmas. On Sale @ 15% Off Discount
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: TV Toy
Commercials: The Classics 1950s-60s DVD, Download, USB Drive
Today, December 20, 2025

December 20: Games Day: -- Video games,
live games, card games, board games, mobile games, trivia games -
everybody loves games! With good reason, too; games are a fun way
to bust some stress. And that is just one of the many ways they
are good for us. Considering they are a fun break from routine,
games have been around in some form or the other throughout our
civilization. After all, games sharpen our problem-solving
abilities, our goal-focused strategies, focus and concentration,
coordination and communication skills, social interaction, and
multi-tasking. They can also be a motivating way to learn, and
also give us a better understanding of different cultures. So how
did an official day to pay respect to games come along?
Originally, Games Day was the name of an annual gaming convention
that first took place in 1975. Sponsored by the British game
production company Games Workshop, the convention takes place in
Birmingham in the U.K. In 1975 itself, a games convention in
August got canceled, so Games Workshop decided to fill in the gap
by having its own convention. After a few delays, it finally held
the event on December 20 at Seymour Hall in London. The company,
which started out producing traditional games like backgammon,
later moved on to fantasy games like Warhammer. At the time, the
convention was groundbreaking, since there were very few outlets
for gamers to come together and play. Such an event, naturally,
contributed to the growth of the gaming scene in the U.K. Soon
enough, such conventions showed up all over the U.S. and became
very popular, as they were the best platforms to showcase both
gamers and gaming companies. Now that you know where the tradition
came from, surely the best way to honor this day is to play some
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: Television
Broadcasting History Films MP4 Video Download DVD Set
Today, December 20, 2025

December 20: Cathode-Ray Tube Day (CRT
Day): -- A holiday that aims to appreciate the electron gun
technology of the cathode-ray tube (C.R.T.) and all the ways we
have benefited from it. A cathode-ray tube is a vacuum tube that
contains one or more electron guns. These electron guns emit
electron beams that are manipulated to become display images on a
phosphorescent screen. The displayed images may represent pictures
such as for a television set or computer monitor. They may also be
electrical waveforms for oscilloscopes, radar targets, or other
phenomena. Cathode-Ray Tube Day is celebrated to express gratitude
for the technology that many people rely on. The kinescope was the
initial name for the cathode-ray tube (C.R.T.). A Russian
immigrant called Vladimir Zworykin patented the invention in 1938.
The holiday is celebrated to mark the anniversary of the patent.
It has been said that the C.R.T. is a vacuum tube constructed from
a sizable glass envelope. Usually, it has a single or several
electron guns. Images are shown on a phosphorescent screen that is
part of the device. The images are produced by modulating,
accelerating, and deflecting electron beams onto a screen. Images
on televisions and computer screens, radar targets, electrical
waveforms on oscilloscopes, and more are all examples of images.
Negatively charged electrodes are known as cathodes. The entire
front portion of the tube is regularly and methodically scanned in
a predefined pattern in a C.R.T. television or computer monitor.
This is called a raster. Early Crookes tubes were found to contain
cathode rays in 1869. The first iteration of the C.R.T was created
in 1897 by a German scientist, Ferdinand Braun. The Braun Tube was
the name of the prototype. Germany produced the first commercially
available C.R.T. television sets in 1934. In 1932, R.C.A. was
granted a trademark for the name cathode-ray tube. It was made
available to the public domain by 1950. In the late 2000s, flat
panel display technology gradually took the place of cathode ray
tubes. These displays come in L.C.D., O.L.E.D., and plasma
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: United
Nations Documentaries Set: 2 MP4 Downloads Or 2 DVDs
Today, December 20, 2025

December 20: International Human
Solidarity Day: -- Seeks to celebrate the word's unity in
diversity. It's also a day to raise awareness about the importance
of solidarity. Solidarity is defined as an awareness of shared
interests and objectives that create a psychological sense of
unity. Solidarity also refers to the ties in a society that bind
people together as one. According to the United Nations Millennium
Declaration, solidarity is among the fundamental values that are
essential to international relations. The Declaration also states
that global challenges must be managed so that costs and burdens
are distributed fairly. This is in accordance with the basic
principles of equity and social justice. Additionally, those who
suffer the least should help those who suffer the most. The UN is
convinced that solidarity creates a spirit of sharing, which is
essential for eradicating poverty. On Sale @ 15% Off Discount Till
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: Lewis And
Clark & The Corps Of Discovery Expedition DVD MP4 USB Stick
Today, December 20, 2025

December 20: Sacagawea Day: -- December
20, 1812: #DOTD (?): #RIP (?): Sacagawea ("SAK-ah-jah-WEE-ah"
or "seh-KOG-ah-wee-ah", also spelled Sakakawea or
Sacajawea), nicknamed "Janey" by William Clark of The
Lewis And Clark Expedition, brave, brilliant and beautiful Lemhi
Shoshone or Hidatsa woman who in her teens helped the Lewis and
Clark Expedition in achieving their chartered mission objectives
by exploring the Louisiana Territory (b. May X, 1788) is reputed
to have died of putrid fever (Epidemic Typhus, also known as
Louse-Borne Typhus) at Fort Manuel in what is now Kennel, South
Dakota at the age of 24, according to Bonnie Butterfield (Cherokee
name: Spirit Wind-Walker), the coordinator of Information
Resources and WebMaster at California State University, San
Bernardino. Butterfield cited in 2003 historical documents such as
a journal entry from 1811 by Henry Brackenridge, a fur trader at
Fort Lisa Trading Post on the Missouri River, who wrote that
Sacagawea and her forced marriage husband Toussaint Charbonneau
were living at the fort. Brackenridge recorded that Sacagawea "had
become sickly and longed to revisit her native country." John
Luttig, a Fort Lisa clerk, recorded in his journal on December 20,
1812, that "the wife of Charbonneau, a Snake Squaw [i.e.
Shoshone], died of putrid fever." He said that she was "aged
about 25 years. She left a fine infant girl." Documents held
by Clark show that Charbonneau had already entrusted their son
Baptiste to Clark's care for a boarding school education, at
Clark's insistence. There is an obelisk to her memory at the
believed site of her death in Mobridge, South Dakota. The Hidatsa
people, however, maintain a detailed oral tradition that Sacagawea
was a member of their tribe who lived until 1869 -- and DNA
testing validates this claim. This narrative was formally
documented on Memorial Day 1923, when Bulls Eye, who claimed to be
Sacagawea's grandson, gave testimony to Major A.B. Welch at Dead
Grass Hall in Shell Creek Village on the Fort Berthold
reservation. A group of tribal elders attended as witnesses to
verify his account. According to Bulls Eye's testimony:1)
Sacagawea was not Shoshone but Hidatsa, the daughter of Smoked
Lodge and Otter Woman (a Crow woman); 2) After the Lewis and Clark
expedition, she had three daughters: Cedar Woman, Different
Breast, and Otter Woman (Bulls Eye's mother); 3) She lived among
the Hidatsa until 1869, when she died at age 82 from gunshot
wounds sustained during a Sioux raid; 4) Bulls Eye, then about 4
years old, was present when she died; Bulls Eye stated: "We
have heard about some white men who wrote about my grandmother.
These white men came along here about a hundred years ago. They
made a mistake... We have heard that they wrote it that she was
not a Hidatsa, that she was a Shoshoni prisoner among us. But she
was not a Shoshoni. She was Hidatsa." DNA testing conducted
in the 21st century showed that individuals claiming descent from
Sacagawea through Cedar Woman matched 74 different Charbonneaus in
commercial DNA registries. Charbonneau DNA was found only in
family branches that oral tradition indicated descended from
Sacagawea and Toussaint Charbonneau. Additional documentary
evidence supporting the Hidatsa account includes aa U.S.
government "individual history card" from Fort Berthold
listing Eagle Woman as Bulls Eye's grandmother; Jean Baptiste
Charbonneau's 1866 obituary describing his mother as "a half
breed of the Crow tribe"; and an unpublished diary calling
Jean Baptiste "half Crow Indian" with no mention of
Shoshone ancestry. Despite all this, and in keeping with Shoshone
tradition, Sacagawea's remains were located and buried at
Sacagawea Cemetery at Fort Washakie on the Wind River Reservation
near Lander, Wyoming, where a monument to "Sacajawea of the
Shoshonis" was erected , on the basis of this claim, in 1963.
In 1925, Dr. Charles Eastman, a Dakota Sioux physician, was hired
by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to locate Sacagawea's remains.
Eastman visited various Native American tribes to interview elders
who might have known or heard of Sacagawea. He learned of a
Shoshone woman at the Wind River Reservation with the Comanche
name Porivo ('chief woman'). Some of those he interviewed said
that she spoke of a long journey wherein she had helped white men,
and that she had a silver Jefferson peace medal of the type
carried by the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He found a Comanche
woman named Tacutine who said that Porivo was her grandmother.
According to Tacutine, Porivo had married into a Comanche tribe
and had a number of children, including Tacutine's father,
Ticannaf. Porivo left the tribe after her husband, Jerk-Meat, was
killed. According to these narratives, Porivo lived for some time
at Fort Bridger in Wyoming with her sons Bazil and Baptiste, who
each knew several languages, including English and French.
Eventually, she returned to the Lemhi Shoshone at the Wind River
Reservation, where she was recorded as "Bazil's mother."
This woman, Porivo, is believed to have died on April 9, 1884. She
was present for the negotiations for the 1868 treaty that created
the Wind River Reservation and later helped her people transition
to reservation life. Eastman concluded that Porivo was Sacagawea.
According to the reputed 1812 death date narrative, Sacagawea Day
is celebrated annually on that date in her honor. According to
this narrative, she was the daughter of a Shoshone chief and part
of the Lemhi band of the Shoshone tribe. Sacagawea is celebrated
for the courage she exhibited when at 16, she acted as an
interpreter for an expedition that was exploring the Louisiana
Territory. In the early twentieth century, The National American
Woman Suffrage Association adopted Sacagawea as a symbol of
women's worth and independence, erecting several statues and
plaques in her memory, and doing much to recount her
accomplishments. Sacagawea was born in May 1788 in the Lemhi
Valley, near the Salmon River and the Rocky Mountains, in
present-day Lemhi County, Idaho. She was kidnapped at the age of
12 by enemies of the Shoshones, the 'Hidatsa' tribe, and was taken
to a Hidatsa-Mandan settlement in North Dakota. Sacagawea then
became the property of French Canadian fur trader, Toussaint
Charbonneau, who took her as one of his wives in 1804. The origin
of the name 'Sacagawea' has been disputed over time as some
believe it is of Hidatsa origin meaning 'bird woman', while others
believe it is of Shoshone origin, meaning 'boat pusher'. Sacagawea
traveled with the expedition thousands of miles from North Dakota
to the Pacific Ocean, helping to establish cultural contacts with
Native American people and contributing to the expedition's
knowledge of natural history in different regions. She also had
significant value to the mission simply by her presence on the
journey, as having a woman and infant accompany them demonstrated
the peaceful intent of the expedition. While traveling through
what is now Franklin County, Washington, in October 1805, Clark
noted that "the wife of Shabono [Charbonneau] our
interpreter, we find reconciles all the Indians, as to our
friendly intentions a woman with a party of men is a token of
peace." Further he wrote that she "confirmed those
people of our friendly intentions, as no woman ever accompanies a
war party of Indians in this quarter". The National American
Woman Suffrage Association of the early 20th century adopted
Sacagawea as a symbol of women's worth and independence, erecting
several statues and plaques in her memory, and doing much to
recount her accomplishments. The Lewis and Clark expedition led by
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark was sanctioned by President
Thomas Jefferson after purchasing 828,000 square miles of almost
completely unexplored territory from France. They met with
Charbonneau and Sacagawea who provided a language link between
English, French, Hidatsa, and Shoshone which would come in handy.
They journeyed with the Corps of Discovery on the northern plains,
across the Rocky Mountains, to the Pacific Ocean, and back again.
Sacagawea was with her two-month-old son, Jean Baptiste, and was
just 16 when they left and was the only woman on the expedition.
Her numerous contributions to the expedition like her knowledge of
some terrain, identifying edible plants, and her calming presence
when the group was faced with strangers amongst a host of others
brought about her being celebrated today. On Sale @ 15% Off
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: Suleyman
The Magnificent: Documentary On Suleiman I DVD, Download, USB
Today, December 20, 2025

December 20, 1522: The Ottoman Empire
(The Sublime Ottoman State, The Turkish Empire): The History Of
The Ottoman Empire: The Ottoman Wars: The Ottoman Wars In Europe:
The Siege Of Rhodes (1522): -- Suleiman The Magnificent accepts
the surrender of the surviving Knights Of Rhodes (The Knights Of
St. John, The Knights Hospitallers, The Order Of Knights Of The
Hospital Of Saint John Of Jerusalem) who are allowed to evacuate.
They eventually settle on Malta and become known as the Knights Of
Malta. Suleiman I , also known as Suleyman I and as Suleiman The
Magnificent, Ottoman sultan (b. 1494: d. 1566) was known as
"Kanuni" (the Lawgiver) in his realm, and was the
longest-reigning sultan of the Ottoman Empire, ruling from 1520 to
his death in 1566. Suleiman became a prominent monarch of
16th-century Europe, presiding over the apex of the Ottoman
Empire's economic, military and political power. Suleiman
personally led Ottoman armies in conquering the Christian
strongholds of Belgrade and Rhodes as well as most of Hungary
before his conquests were checked at the Siege Of Vienna in 1529.
The Knights Of Rhodes, who became the Knights Of Malta, also known
as The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of
Jerusalem, the Order of Saint John, Order of Hospitallers, Knights
Hospitaller, Knights Hospitalier or Hospitallers, were a medieval
Catholic military order that became the modern Sovereign Military
Order of Malta, which remains a sovereign subject of international
law, as well as the Protestant members of the Alliance of the
Orders of Saint John of Jerusalem. It was headquartered variously
in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, on the island of Rhodes, in Malta,
and is now headquartered in Rome. On Sale @ 15% Off Discount Till
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: Isaac
Newton: Portraits Of Newton Documentary MP4 Video Download DVD
Today, December 20, 2025

December 20, 1684: Science: The History
Of Science: Astronomy: The History Of Astronomy: Scientific Laws
(Laws Of Science): De Motu Corporum In Gyrum (Latin: "On The
Motion Of Bodies In An Orbit"): -- Isaac Newton's derivation
of Kepler's Laws Of Planetary Motion into his own theory of
gravity, contained in the paper "De motu corporum in gyrum"
("On the motion of bodies in an orbit"), is read to the
Royal Society by Edmond Halley, from a manuscript written by
Newton and sent to Halley the month prior. De motu corporum in
gyrum ('On the motion of bodies in an orbit') is the presumed
title of a manuscript by Isaac Newton sent to Edmond Halley in
November 1684. The manuscript was prompted by a visit from Halley
earlier that year when he had questioned Newton about problems
then occupying the minds of Halley and his scientific circle in
London, including Sir Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke. The title
of the document is only presumed because the original is now lost.
Its contents are inferred from surviving documents, which are two
contemporary copies and a draft. Only the draft has the title now
used; both copies are without title. This manuscript (De Motu for
short, but not to be confused with several other Newtonian papers
carrying titles that start with these words) gave important
mathematical derivations relating to the three relations now known
as "Kepler's laws" (before Newton's work, these had not
been generally regarded as laws). Halley reported the
communication from Newton to the Royal Society on December 10,
1684 (Old Style; December 20, 1684 N.S.). After further
encouragement from Halley, Newton went on to develop and write his
book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (commonly known
as the Principia) from a nucleus that can be seen in De Motu - of
which nearly all of the content also reappears in the Principia.
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: Lincoln
And The War Within: Election To Ft. Sumter DVD, MP4, USB Drive
Today, December 20, 2025

December 20, 1860: The American Civil War
(The Civil War, The War Between The States): The Secession Of The
Southern States Of America: The Secession Of South Carolina From
The United States Of America: -- In reaction to the election of
Abraham Lincoln as President, South Carolina becomes the first
state to secede from the Union in a prelude to the U.S. Civil War.
By 1856, the South had lost control of Congress, and was no longer
able to silence calls for an end to slavery, which came mostly
from the more populated, free states of the North. The Republican
Party, founded in 1854, pledged to stop the spread of slavery
beyond those states where it already existed. After Abraham
Lincoln was elected the first Republican president in 1860, seven
cotton states - South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,
Georgia, Louisiana and Texas respectively - declared their
secession and formed the Confederate States of America before
Lincoln was inaugurated. The United States government, both
outgoing and incoming, refused to recognize the Confederacy, and
when the new Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered his
troops to open fire on Fort Sumter in April 1861, there was an
overwhelming demand, North and South, for war. Only the state of
Kentucky attempted to remain neutral, and it could only do so
briefly, and chose to remain in the Union. When Lincoln called for
troops to suppress what he referred to as "combinations too
powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary" judicial or
martial means, four more states - Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee
and North Carolina - decided to secede and join the Confederacy,
which then moved its capital to Richmond, Virginia. Residents of
the western counties of Virginia did not wish to secede along with
the rest of the state. This section of Virginia was admitted into
the Union as the state of West Virginia on June 20, 1863. Four
slave states decided to stay in the Union: Delaware, Kentucky,
Maryland, and Missouri. Although divided in their loyalties, a
combination of political maneuvering and Union military pressure
kept these states from seceding. On Sale @ 15% Off Discount Till
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: The Great
War (1964) TV Documentary Series DVD, Video Download, USB
Today, December 20, 2025

December 20, 1915: The European Civil
War: World War I: The First European War (The European Theater Of
World War I): The African Theatre Of World War I: The Middle
Eastern Theater Of World War I: The Battle Of Gallipoli (The
Gallipoli Campaign, The Dardanelles Campaign, The Defense Of
Gallipoli): -- The last Australian troops are evacuated from
Gallipoli. The Gallipoli Campaign, also known as the Dardanelles
Campaign, the Battle Of Gallipoli, or the Battle of Canakkale, was
a campaign of the First World War that took place on the Gallipoli
peninsula (Gelibolu in modern Turkey) in the Ottoman Empire
between 17 February 1915 and 9 January 1916. The peninsula forms
the northern bank of the Dardanelles, a strait that provided a sea
route to the Russian Empire, one of the Allied powers during the
war. Intending to secure it, Russia's allies, Britain and France,
launched a naval attack followed by an amphibious landing on the
peninsula, with the aim of capturing the Ottoman capital of
Constantinople (modern Istanbul). The naval attack was repelled
and after eight months' fighting, with many casualties on both
sides, the land campaign was abandoned and the invasion force was
withdrawn to Egypt. The campaign was the only major Ottoman
victory of the war. In Turkey, it is regarded as a defining moment
in the nation's history, a final surge in the defence of the
motherland as the Ottoman Empire crumbled. The struggle formed the
basis for the Turkish War Of Independence and the declaration of
the Republic of Turkey eight years later, with Mustafa Kemal
(Kemal Ataturk) as President, who rose to prominence as a
commander at Gallipoli. The campaign is often considered to be the
beginning of Australian and New Zealand national consciousness; 25
April, the anniversary of the landings, is known as "Anzac
Day", the most significant commemoration of military
casualties and veterans in the two countries, surpassing
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: Monster: A
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Today, December 20, 2025

December 20, 1917: The Aftermath Of World
War I: 20th Century Revolutions: The Revolutions Of 1917-1923: The
Interwar Period (The Aftermath Of World War I, The Interbellum,
Between The Wars): The Russian Revolution: The Soviet Union (The
Union Of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR): The History Of The
Soviet Union: The Russian Civil War: Opposition To World War I:
The October Revolution (The Great October Socialist Revolution,
The Bolshevik Revolution, Red October): Soviet Secret Police
Agencies: The Cheka (The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission,
AREOC): -- The Cheka, the first Soviet secret police force, is
founded. It was the first of a succession of Soviet secret police
organizations. It was established on December 5 (Old Style), 1917
by the Sovnarkom, also known as The Council of People's
Commissars, a government institution formed shortly after the
October Revolution in 1917 to lay the foundations of a
restructured the country to form the Soviet Union. It came under
the leadership of Felix Dzerzhinsky, a Polish
aristocrat-turned-communist. By late 1918, hundreds of Cheka
committees had sprung up in various cities. In 1921 the Troops for
the Internal Defense of the Republic, a branch of the Cheka,
numbered at least 200,000. These troops policed labor camps; ran
the Gulag system; conducted requisitions of food; subjected
political opponents to secret arrest, detention, torture and
summary execution; and put down rebellions and riots by workers or
peasants, and mutinies in the desertion-plagued Red Army. After
1922 Cheka groups underwent the first of a series of
reorganizations; however the theme of a government dominated by
"the organs" persisted indefinitely afterward, and
Soviet citizens continued to refer to members of the various
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: China In
Revolution 1911-1949 TV Series DVD, Download, USB Flash Drive
Today, December 20, 2025

December 20, 1936: China: The History Of
China: The Century Of Humiliation (The Hundred Years Of National
Humiliation) (1838-1945): The Sino-Japanese Wars: World War II:
The Asia-Pacific War: The Second Sino-Japanese War (The War Of
Resistance Against Japanese Aggression): The Second United Front:
The Xi'an Incident (The Sian Incident): -- Chiang Kai-shek,
coerced into submission by kidnappers from within his own command,
is forced to agree in principle to the Second United Front, a
brief alliance between Chiang's Kuomintang (KMT aka GMD) and the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to resist the Japanese invasion, and
to agree that the GMD would cease its efforts to restrain the
communists, and to focus its military power on fighting the
Japanese; the agreement was made official on Christmas Eve four
days later, In 1936, Chiang Kai-shek assigned the "young
marshal" Zhang Xueliang the duty of suppressing the Red Army
of the CCP. Battles with the Red Army resulted in great casualties
for Zhang's forces, but Chiang Kai-shek did not provide any
support to his troops. On December 12 1936, a deeply disgruntled
Zhang Xueliang kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek in Xi'an to force an end
to the conflict between KMT and CCP. To secure the release of
Chiang, the KMT was forced to agree to a temporary end to the
Chinese Civil War and the forming of a united front between the
CCP and KMT against Japan. The China Democratic League, an
umbrella organization for three political parties and three
political pressure groups, also agreed to take part in the united
front formed by KMT and the CCP. On Sale @ 15% Off Discount Till
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: The Call
To Glory: Chennault And The Flying Tigers DVD, Download, USB
Today, December 20, 2025

December 20, 1941: China: The History Of
China: The Century Of Humiliation (The Hundred Years Of National
Humiliation) (1838-1945): The Sino-Japanese Wars: World War II:
Aviation: Military Aviation: Air Warfare Of World War II: The
Asia-Pacific War: The Second Sino-Japanese War (The War Of
Resistance Against Japanese Aggression): Air Warfare Of The Second
Sino-Japanese War: Aerial Engagements Of The Second Sino-Japanese
War: The Flying Tigers (The First American Volunteer Group, AVG):
-- The first battle of the First American Volunteer Group, better
known as the "Flying Tigers", results in one of the
earliest American aerial victories in the Pacific War when
aircraft of the AVG's 1st and 2nd squadrons intercept 10
unescorted Kawasaki Ki-48 "Lily" bombers of the 21st
Hikotai attacking Kunming (modern Kunming), China. The bombers
jettisoned their loads before reaching Kunming. Three of the
Japanese bombers were shot down near Kunming and a fourth was
damaged so severely that it crashed before returning to its
airfield at Hanoi. Later, Chinese intelligence intercepted
Japanese communications indicating that only 1 out of the 10
bombers ultimately returned to base. Furthermore, the Japanese
discontinued their raids on Kunming while the AVG was based there.
One P-40 crash-landed; it was salvaged for parts. The First
American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Chinese Air Force in
1941-1942, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was composed of pilots
from the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC), Navy (USN), and
Marine Corps (USMC), recruited under presidential authority and
commanded by Claire Lee Chennault. The shark-faced nose art of the
Flying Tigers remains among the most recognizable image of any
individual combat aircraft or combat unit of World War II. The
group consisted of three fighter squadrons of around 30 aircraft
each. It trained in Burma before the American entry into World War
II with the mission of defending China against Japanese forces.
The group of volunteers were officially members of the Chinese Air
Force. The members of the group had contracts with salaries
ranging from 250 USD a month for a mechanic to 750 USD for a
squadron commander, roughly three times what they had been making
in the U.S. forces. While it accepted some civilian volunteers for
its headquarters and ground crew, the AVG recruited most of its
staff from the U.S. military. The group first saw combat on 20
December 1941, 12 days after Pearl Harbor (local time). It
demonstrated innovative tactical victories when the news in the
U.S. was filled with little more than stories of defeat at the
hands of the Japanese forces, and achieved such notable success
during the lowest period of the war for both the U.S. and the
Allied Forces as to give hope to America that it might eventually
defeat the Japanese. AVG pilots earned official credit, and
received combat bonuses, for destroying 296 enemy aircraft, while
losing only 14 pilots in combat. The combat records of the AVG
still exist and researchers have found them credible. On 4 July
1942 the AVG was disbanded. It was replaced by the 23rd Fighter
Group of the United States Army Air Forces, which was later
absorbed into the U.S. Fourteenth Air Force with General Chennault
as commander. The 23rd FG went on to achieve similar combat
success, while retaining the nose art on the left-over P-40s. On
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: Women Of
Courage: The WASP Aviators Of WWII DVD MP4 Download USB Drive
Today, December 20, 2025

December 20, 1944: The European Civil
War: World War II: The Second European War (The European Theater
Of World War II): Aviation: Military Aviation: Air Warfare Of
World War II: Women Airforce Service Pilots (Women's Army Service
Pilots, Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots, WASPs): -- The WASPs are
dissolved two weeks after the final class of WASP pilots, 71 women
in total, graduated from their training. The Women Airforce
Service Pilots (WASP) (also Women's Army Service Pilots or Women's
Auxiliary Service Pilots) was a civilian women pilots'
organization, whose members were United States federal civil
service employees. Members of WASP became trained pilots who
tested aircraft, ferried aircraft, and trained other pilots. Their
purpose was to free male pilots for combat roles during World War
II. Despite various members of the armed forces being involved in
the creation of the program, the WASP and its members had no
military standing. WASP was preceded by the Women's Flying
Training Detachment (WFTD) and the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying
Squadron (WAFS). Both were organized separately in September 1942.
They were pioneering organizations of civilian women pilots, who
were attached to the United States Army Air Forces to fly military
aircraft during World War II. On August 5, 1943, the WFTD and WAFS
merged to create the WASP organization. The WASP arrangement with
the US Army Air Forces ended on December 20, 1944. During its
period of operation, each member's service had freed a male pilot
for military combat or other duties. They flew over 60 million
miles; transported every type of military aircraft; towed targets
for live anti-aircraft gun practice; simulated strafing missions
and transported cargo. Thirty-eight WASP members lost their lives
and one disappeared while on a ferry mission, her fate still
unknown. In 1977, for their World War II service, the members were
granted veteran status, and in 2009 awarded the Congressional Gold
Medal. On Sale @ 15% Off Discount Till Midnight PT!
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: James
Stewart Biography, 2 Bonus Titles Jimmy Stewart MP4 Download DVD
Today, December 20, 2025

December 20, 1946: Aesthetics: Performing
Arts: Premieres: Film Premieres: American Film Premieres: -- It's
A Wonderful Life, Frank Capra's popular American Christmas fantasy
drama film classic premieres at the Globe Theatre in New York on
December 20, 1946, to mixed reviews. Despite the fact that it was
nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Capra
was seen by some studios as having lost his ability to produce
popular, financially successful films, because of the film's
disappointing sales (the film's break-even point was 6.3M USD; the
film recorded a loss of 525K USD at the box office for RKO). While
Capra thought the contemporary critical reviews were either
universally negative, or at best dismissive, Time magazine said,
"It's A Wonderful Life is a pretty wonderful movie. It has
only one formidable rival (Goldwyn's The Best Years of Our Lives)
as Hollywood's best picture of the year. Director Capra's
inventiveness, humor, and affection for human beings keep it
glowing with life and excitement." Bosley Crowther, writing
for The New York Times, complimented some of the actors, including
Stewart and Reed, but concluded, "the weakness of this
picture, from this reviewer's point of view, is the sentimentality
of it-its illusory concept of life. Mr. Capra's nice people are
charming, his small town is a quite beguiling place and his
pattern for solving problems is most optimistic and facile. But
somehow, they all resemble theatrical attitudes, rather than
average realities." It's A Wonderful Life was produced and
directed by Frank Capra, based on the short story and booklet The
Greatest Gift, which Philip Van Doren Stern self-published in 1943
and is in turn loosely based on the 1843 Charles Dickens novella A
Christmas Carol. The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a
man who has given up his personal dreams in order to help others
in his community, and whose thoughts of suicide on Christmas Eve
bring about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence
Odbody (Henry Travers). Clarence shows George all the lives he
touched and what the world would be like if he did not exist. On
May 26, 1947, the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a memo
stating, "With regard to the picture It's A Wonderful Life,
[redacted] stated in substance that the film represented rather
obvious attempts to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore
as a 'scrooge-type' so that he would be the most hated man in the
picture. This, according to these sources, is a common trick used
by Communists. [In] addition, [redacted] stated that, in his
opinion, this picture deliberately maligned the upper class,
attempting to show the people who had money were mean and
despicable characters." Those statements to the FBI, whose
source was redacted in the memo released to the public, have since
revealed to have been made to the FBI by Ayn Rand. Although It's A
Wonderful Life initially received mixed reviews and was
unsuccessful at the box office, it became a Christmas classic
after its copyright lapsed and it fell into the public domain,
which allowed it to be broadcast without licensing or royalty
fees. Today, It's A Wonderful Life is considered to be one of the
greatest films of all time and among the best Christmas films ,
and has been recognized by the American Film Institute as one of
the 100 best American films ever made. In 1990, It's A Wonderful
Life was designated as "culturally, historically or
aesthetically significant" and added to the National Film
Registry of the Library of Congress. It was No. 11 on the American
Film Institute's 1998 greatest movie list, No. 20 on its 2007
greatest movie list, and No. 1 on its list of the most
inspirational American films of all time. Henry Potter (Lionel
Barrymore) was placed in AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Heroes &
Villains as number six of villains, while George Bailey was voted
number 9 of heroes. Capra revealed that it was his favorite among
the films he directed and that he screened it for his family every
Christmas season. It was one of Stewart's favorite films. On Sale
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: King: A
Filmed Record: Montgomery To Memphis DVD, Download, USB Drive
Today, December 20, 2025

December 20, 1956: Civil Rights
Movements: The American Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968):
Anti-Black Racism In The United States: Segregation: Racial
Segregation: Civil Rights Protests: Civil Rights Protests In The
United States: Transport And Bus Segregation In The United States:
Transport And Bus Boycotts In The United States: The Montgomery
Bus Boycott: -- The U.S. Supreme Court rules that integration of
the Montgomery bus system was now effected, ending The Montgomery
Bus Boycott. The Montgomery Bus Boycott began in Montgomeray,
Alabama on December 5, 1955 in response to the arrest of Rosa
Parks for refusing to give up her seat on a municipal bus to a
white man. Organized by the African American community, the
boycott lasted until December 20, 1956, when a U.S. Supreme Court
ruling integrated the public transportation system. On December 1,
1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing
to obey municipal bus driver James F. Blake' order to give up her
seat in the "colored section" to a white passenger,
after the whites-only section was filled, and then to move to the
back section of a bus. NAACP organizers believed that Parks was
the best candidate for seeing through a court challenge as a
result of her arrest for civil disobedience in violating Alabama
segregation laws. Others had taken similar steps, including Bayard
Rustin in 1942, Irene Morgan in 1946, Lillie Mae Bradford in 1951,
Sarah Louise Keys in 1952, and the members of the ultimately
successful Browder v. Gayle 1956 lawsuit (Claudette Colvin,
Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald, and Mary Louise Smith) who were
arrested in Montgomery for not giving up their bus seats months
before Parks. Parks' act of defiance and the Montgomery bus
boycott became important symbols of the modern Civil Rights
Movement. On November 13, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in
the case of Browder v. Gayle that racial segregation on public
buses was unconstitutional and declares Alabama laws requiring
segregated buses illegal, thus ending the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: The
Assassination Of Abraham Lincoln MP4 Video Download DVD
Today, December 20, 2025
December 20: Mudd Day: -- December 20,
1833: #BOTD: Samuel Mudd, American physician, a man whose name was
mud after his dealings with the assassin of Abraham Lincoln John
Wilkes Booth, a man who was imprisoned for conspiring with him in
the assassination (January 10, 1883) is #born Samuel Alexander
Mudd in Charles County, Maryland. Samuel Alexander Mudd Sr. worked
as a doctor and tobacco farmer in Southern Maryland. The Civil War
seriously damaged his business, especially when Maryland abolished
slavery in 1864. That year, he first met Booth, who was planning
to kidnap Lincoln, and Mudd was seen in company with three of the
conspirators. However, his part in the plot, if any, remains
unclear. Booth fatally shot Lincoln on April 14, 1865, but was
injured during his escape from the scene. He subsequently rode
with conspirator David Herold to Mudd's home in the early hours of
April 15 for surgery on his fractured leg before he crossed into
Virginia. Mudd performed surgery on Booth's fractured leg and
allowed both men to stay the night. At some point, Mudd must have
learned of the assassination. However, he did not report Booth's
visit to the authorities for another 24 hours. This delay appeared
to link him to the crime, as did his various changes of the story
under interrogation. On April 26th, authorities arrested Mudd. A
military commission found him guilty of aiding and conspiring in a
murder and sentenced Mudd to life imprisonment. He escaped the
death penalty by a single vote. President Andrew Johnson pardoned
Mudd, and he was released from prison in 1869. Despite repeated
attempts by family members and others, Mudd's conviction has never
been overturned, nor has his record been expunged. Mudd Day is an
annual sympathetic recognition of his birthday. Dr. Mudd's name
has been dragged through the mud since his sentencing giving the
term "your name is mud" a whole new meaning. However,
the phrase existed long before Samuel Mudd and the events of 1865.
And it meant exactly what it means today, too. Roger Mudd
(1928-2021), an Emmy Award-winning journalist, television host,
former CBS, NBC and PBS news anchor, and host of numerous History
Channel documentaries, was related to Samuel Mudd, but he was not
a descendant, as has mistakenly been reported. Samuel Mudd died of
pneumonia in Waldorf, Maryland, aged 49. He is buried in the
cemetery at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Bryantown, the same
church where he had once met Booth.
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: Daley:
The Last Boss: Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley MP4 Download DVD
Today, December 20, 2025
December 20, 1976: #DOTD: #RIP: Richard
J. Daley, American politician who served as the mayor of Chicago
from 1955, and the chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party
Central Committee from 1953, until his death (b. May 15, 1902)
#dies at 2:55 p.m. aged 74 following a massive 2:00 p.m. heart
attack on the city's Near North Side while on his way to lunch. He
was rushed to the office of his private physician at 900 North
Michigan Avenue who pronounced him dead. Daley's funeral took
place in the church where he had been baptised and attended since
his childhood, Nativity Of Our Lord. He is buried in Holy
Sepulchre Cemetery in Worth Township, southwest of Chicago.
Richard J. Daley was born Richard Joseph Daley in Bridgeport, a
working-class neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. He has been
called "the last of the big city bosses" who controlled
and mobilized American cities. Daley was Chicago's third
consecutive mayor from the working-class, heavily Irish-American
South Side neighborhood of Bridgeport, where he lived his entire
life. He was the patriarch of the Daley family, whose members
include Richard M. Daley, another former mayor of Chicago; William
M. Daley, a former United States Secretary of Commerce; John P.
Daley, a member of the Cook County Board of Commissioners; and
Patrick Daley Thompson, a former alderman of the Chicago City
Council. Daley is remembered for doing much to save Chicago from
the declines that other rust belt cities such as Cleveland,
Buffalo, and Detroit experienced during the same period. He had a
strong base of support in Chicago's Irish Catholic community and
was treated by national politicians such as Lyndon B. Johnson as a
pre-eminent Irish-American, with special connections to the
Kennedy family. Daley played a major role in the history of the
Democratic Party, especially with his support of John F. Kennedy
in the presidential election of 1960 and of Hubert Humphrey in the
presidential election of 1968. He would be the longest-serving
mayor in Chicago history until his record was broken by his son
Richard M. Daley in 2011. A panel of 69 scholars in 1993 ranked
him sixth among the ten best mayors in American history. On the
other hand, Daley's legacy is complicated by criticisms of his
response to the Chicago riots that followed the assassination of
Martin Luther King Jr. and his handling of the notorious 1968
Democratic National Convention held in his city. He also had
enemies within the Democratic Party. In addition, many members of
Daley's administration were charged and convicted for corruption,
although Daley himself was never charged with any crime.
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: The
Cuban Missile Crisis: At The Brink + Bonus MP4 Download DVD
Today, December 20, 2025
December 20, 1994: #DOTD: #RIP: Dean
Rusk, American colonel and politician, 54th United States
Secretary Of State (b. February 9, 1909) #dies of heart failure in
Athens, Georgia at the age of 85. He and his wife are buried at
the Oconee Hill Cemetery in Athens. Rusk Eating House, the first
women's eating house at Davidson College, was founded in 1977 and
is named in his honor, as is The Dean Rusk International Studies
Program at Davidson College., The Dean Rusk Middle School, located
in Canton, Georgia, and Dean Rusk Hall on the campus of the
University of Georgia. Dean Rusk was born David Dean Rusk in rural
Cherokee County, Georgia. He is one of the longest serving U.S.
Secretaries of State, behind only Cordell Hull. Dean Rusk taught
at Mills College after graduating from Davidson College. During
World War II, Rusk served as a staff officer in the China Burma
India Theater. He was hired by the United States Department of
State in 1945 and became Assistant Secretary Of State for Far
Eastern Affairs in 1950. In 1952, Rusk became president of the
Rockefeller Foundation. After winning the 1960 presidential
election, Kennedy asked Rusk to serve as Secretary Of State. He
supported diplomatic efforts during the Cuban Missile Crisis and
expressed doubts about the escalation of the U.S. role in the
Vietnam War. Rusk served for the duration of the Kennedy and
Johnson administrations before retiring from public office in
1969. After leaving office, he taught international relations at
the University of Georgia School of Law.
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: America
Held Hostage: As It Happened The Iran Hostage Crisis MP4 DVD
Today, December 20, 2025
December 20, 1988: #DOTD: #RIP: Max
Robinson, American broadcast journalist, the first African
American broadcast network news anchor in the United States,
co-anchor on ABC World News Tonight alongside Frank Reynolds and
Peter Jennings from 1978 until 1983, co-founder of the National
Association of Black Journalists (b. May 1, 1939) #dies of
complications due to AIDS at Howard University Hospital in
Washington, D.C., aged 49. Robinson was found to have AIDS while
he was hospitalized for pneumonia in Blue Island, Illinois, but he
kept it a secret, refusing to discuss it, despite widespread
rumors about why his health was deteriorating. Had had checked
himself into the hospital when he came to deliver a speech at
Howard University's School of Communications when he became
increasingly ill. He had asked that his family reveal that he had
AIDS so that, according to the new reports, "Others in the
black community would be alerted to the dangers and the need for
treatment and education." He is buried at Lincoln Memorial
Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland. Max Robinson was born Maxie
Cleveland Robinson, Jr. in Richmond, Virginia. The schools in
Richmond were still segregated when he attended them; after
graduating from Armstrong High School, Robinson attended Oberlin
College, where he was freshman class president; however, he only
stayed there for a year and a half and did not graduate. Robinson
briefly served in the United States Air Force and was assigned to
the Russian Language School at Indiana University before receiving
a medical discharge. He began working in radio early on, including
a short time at WSSV-AM in Petersburg, Virginia, where he called
himself "Max the Player," and later at WANT-AM,
Richmond. Robinson began his television career in 1959, when he
was hired for a news job at WTOV-TV in Portsmouth, Virginia.
Robinson had to read the news while hidden behind a slide of the
station's logo. One night, Robinson had the slide removed, and was
fired the next day. He later went to WRC-TV in Washington, DC, and
stayed for three years, winning six journalism awards for coverage
of civil-rights events such as the riots that followed the 1968
assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It was during this
time that Robinson won two regional Emmys for a documentary he
made on black life in Anacostia entitled The Other Washington. In
1969, Robinson joined the Eyewitness News team at WTOP-TV (now
WUSA-TV) in Washington, D.C. Robinson was teamed with anchor
Gordon Peterson, becoming the first African American anchor on a
local television news program, and the newscast took off. During
that time, he was so well-liked by viewers that when Hanafi
Muslims took hostages at the B'nai B'rith building in Washington
they would speak only with Robinson. In 1978, when Roone Arledge
was looking to revamp ABC News' nightly news broadcast into World
News Tonight, he remembered Robinson from a 60 Minutes interview,
and hired him to be a part of his new three-anchor format.
Robinson would anchor national news from Chicago, while Peter
Jennings would anchor international news in London and Frank
Reynolds would be the main anchor from Washington. Robinson thus
became the first black man to anchor a nightly network news
broadcast. The three-man co-anchor team was a ratings success, and
launched spoofs regarding how the three would pitch stories to
each other during the telecast by saying the other's name:
"Frank"..."Max"...."Peter," etc.
Robinson's ABC tenure was marked by conflicts between himself and
the management of ABC News over viewpoints and the portrayal of
Black America in the news. He was known by his co-workers to show
up late for work or sometimes not show up at all, along with his
moods, and his use of alcohol escalated. In addition, Robinson was
known to fight racism at any turn and often felt unworthy of the
admiration he received and was not pleased with what he had
accomplished. Together with Bob Strickland, Robinson established a
program for mentoring young black broadcast journalists. During
most of Robinson's tenure, ABC News used the Westar satellite to
feed Robinson's segment of WNT from Chicago to New York. TVRO
receiver earth stations were also coming into use at the time, and
anyone who knew where to find the satellite feeds could view the
feed. On the live feed, Robinson could be seen to have a drink or
two, but never during the actual aired segment, which led some
bars around the country to even have drink specials during the
nearly 90 minutes, and invited patrons to come in and see the "Max
'R'" feed. ABC eventually caught on to what was happening,
and even resorted to hide what was going on by supering a slide
with the words "ABC News Chicago" on the screen during
the live feed during times that Robinson was not live over the
actual WNT broadcast. In addition, Robinson could often be seen
being harsh towards those who worked around him during the live
feed. Reynolds died in 1983, and shortly afterward Jennings was
named sole anchor of World News Tonight. Robinson was relegated to
the weekend anchor post, as well as reading hourly news briefs. He
left ABC in 1983, and joined WMAQ-TV in Chicago in March 1984; he
was the station's first black anchor. But his tenure with the
station was rocky, and he had conflicts with some of his
colleagues. He was also frequently absent. Robinson retired in
1985. Robinson was married three times. Two ended in divorce, one
in annulment. His first marriage was to Eleanor Booker from 1963
to 1968 and they had three children: Mark, Maureen and Michael.
His second marriage was to Hazel O'Leary from 1974 to 1975.
Robinson's final marriage was to Beverly Hamilton from 1977 to
1986, with whom he had another son, Malik. Robinson was the older
brother of Randall Robinson.
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: Peter
Ustinov's Russia TV Documentary Series DVD, Video Download, USB
Today, December 20, 2025
December 20, 1699: Russia: The History Of
Russia: The Russian Empire: The History Of The Russian Empire:
Chronology: Calendars: - Czar Peter The Great changes the Russian
New Year from September 1 to January 1 as part of his
reorganization of the Russian calendar by introducing the Julian
calendar, replacing the Byzantine calendar that had long been used
in Russia. The Russian Orthodox Church was particularly resistant
to this change. Traditionally, the years were reckoned from the
purported creation of the World, but after Peter's reforms, they
were to be counted from the birth of Christ. Thus, in the year
7207 of the old Russian calendar, Peter proclaimed that the Julian
Calendar was in effect and the year was 1700.
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: It Was
Twenty Years Ago Today: 1967 & Sgt. Pepper DVD MP4 USB Drive
Today, December 20, 2025
December 20, 2008: #DOTD: #RIP: Adrian
Mitchell, English journalist, author, poet, playwright and
activist (b. October 24, 1932) #dies at the age of 76 in a North
London hospital from a suspected heart attack. For two months he
had been suffering from pneumonia. Two days earlier he had
completed what turned out to be his last poem, "My Literary
Career So Far". He intended it as a Christmas gift to "all
the friends, family and animals he loved". His burial details
are not publicly disclosed. Born near Hampstead Heath, north
London. Adrian Mitchell FRSL (Fellows of the Royal Society of
Literature, a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV,
to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent";
only 500 members at one time) was a former journalist who became a
noted figure on the British Left. For almost half a century he was
the foremost poet of the country's anti-Bomb movement. The critic
Kenneth Tynan called him "the British Mayakovsky" (a
Russian and Soviet poet, playwright, artist, and actor). Mitchell
sought in his work to counteract the implications of his own
assertion that, "Most people ignore most poetry because most
poetry ignores most people." In a National Poetry Day poll in
2005 his poem "Human Beings" was voted the one most
people would like to see launched into space. In 2002 he was
nominated, semi-seriously, Britain's "Shadow Poet Laureate".
Mitchell was for some years poetry editor of the New Statesman,
and was the first to publish an interview with the Beatles. His
work for the Royal Shakespeare Company included Peter Brook's US
and the English version of Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade. Ever inspired
by the example of his own favourite poet and precursor William
Blake, about whom he wrote the acclaimed Tyger for the National
Theatre, his often angry output swirled from anarchistic anti-war
satire, through love poetry to, increasingly, stories and poems
for children. He also wrote librettos. The Poetry Archive
identified his creative yield as hugely prolific. The Times said
that Mitchell's had been a "forthright voice often laced with
tenderness." His poems on such topics as nuclear war,
Vietnam, prisons and racism had become "part of the folklore
of the Left. His work was often read and sung at demonstrations
and rallies."
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: Heroes
Medal Of Honor Victoria Cross Legion Of Honour DVD MP4 USB Drive
Today, December 20, 2025
December 20, 1977: #DOTD: #RIP: Henry
Tandey, British recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the second
most highly decorated British private of the First World War, most
commonly remembered as the soldier who allegedly spared Adolf
Hitler's life during the war (b. August 30, 1891) #dies of
unspecified causes in Coventry, West Midlands, England at the age
of 86. At his request, he was cremated and his ashes buried in the
Masnieres British Cemetery at Marcoing, France, on May 23, 1978,
by his undertaker Pargetter and Son. Due to French laws it was not
permissible for his ashes to be scattered, or any form of ceremony
or commemoration made to him. Henry Tandey Court, on Union Road in
his hometown of Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England is named
after him. A blue plaque is installed outside the Angel Hotel on
Regent Street where Henry Tandey was born, as well as at St
Peter's School, Augusta Place, Leamington. Private Henry James
Tandey VC, DCM, MM was born with the family name of Tandy, he
later changed his surname to Tandey after personal problems with
his father,and because of this, some military records have a
different spelling of his name. Although disputed, Adolf Hitler's
life was allegedly spared during this battle by Private Tandey
when they allegedly encountered each other at the French village
of Marcoing while Tandey was serving with the 5th Duke Of
Wellington's Regiment. According to this account, a weary German
soldier wandered into Tandey's line of fire. The enemy was wounded
and did not appear to have a weapon. Tandey chose not to shoot.
The German soldier saw him lower his rifle and nodded his thanks
before wandering off. That soldier is purported to have been Adolf
Hitler. The author David Johnson, who wrote a book on Henry
Tandey, believes this story was an urban legend. In some versions
of the story, Hitler allegedly saw a newspaper report about Tandey
being awarded the VC (in October 1918, whilst serving with the 5th
Battalion Duke of Wellington's (West Riding) Regiment), recognised
him, and clipped the article. In 1940, during the Coventry Blitz,
Tandey's home was bombed by the Luftwaffe. A journalist approached
him outside his bombed Coventry home, asking him about his alleged
encounter with Hitler. "If only I had known what he would
turn out to be," Tandey is quoted as saying. "When I saw
all the people and women and children he had killed and wounded I
was sorry to God I let him go."
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: Mein
Kampf: A Blueprint For The Age Of Chaos 1960 DVD, MP4, USB Drive
Today, December 20, 2025
December 20, 1924: The Interwar Period
(The Aftermath Of World War I, The Interbellum, Between The Wars):
Political Violence In Germany (1918-1933): The Beer Hall Putsch
(The Munich Putsch, The Hitler Putsch, The
Hitler-Ludendorff-Putsch) (German: Der Hitlerputsch, Der
Hitler-Ludendorff-Putsch): -- Adolf Hitler is released from
Landsberg Prison, a penal facility located in the town of
Landsberg am Lech in the southwest of the German state of Bavaria,
about 40 miles west of Munich and 22 miles south of Augsburg. It
is best known as the prison where Adolf Hitler was held in 1924,
after the failed Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, and where he dictated
his memoirs Mein Kampf to Rudolf Hess.
https://store.earthstation1.com/mein-kampf-1960-dvd-adolf-hitler-third-reich-holoc1960.html
Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: NBC
University Theater Of The Air Literature Radio Series MP3 DVD USB
Today, December 20, 2025
December 20, 1968: #DOTD: #RIP: John
Steinbeck, American journalist, novelist and short story writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (b. February 27, 1902) #dies in New York City
during the 1968 flu pandemic of heart disease and congestive heart
failure. He was 66, and had been a lifelong smoker. An autopsy
showed nearly complete occlusion of the main coronary arteries. In
accordance with his wishes, his body was cremated, and interred on
March 4, 1969 at the Hamilton family gravesite in Salinas,
California with those of his parents and maternal grandparents.
His third wife, Elaine, was buried in the plot in 2004. He had
written to his doctor that he felt deeply "in his flesh"
that he would not survive his physical death, and that the
biological end of his life was the final end to it. John Ernst
Steinbeck Jr. was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for
his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do
sympathetic humour and keen social perception." He has been
called "a giant of American letters," and many of his
works are considered classics of Western literature. During his
writing career, he authored 33 books, including 16 novels, six
non-fiction books, and two collections of short stories. He is
widely known for the comic novels Tortilla Flat (1935) and Cannery
Row (1945), the multi-generation epic East of Eden (1952), and the
novellas Of Mice and Men (1937) and The Red Pony (1937). The
Pulitzer Prize-winning The Grapes Of Wrath (1939) is considered
Steinbeck's masterpiece and part of the American literary canon.
In the first 75 years after it was published, it sold 14 million
copies. Most of Steinbeck's work is set in central California,
particularly in the Salinas Valley and the California Coast Ranges
region. His works frequently explored the themes of fate and
injustice, especially as applied to downtrodden or everyman
protagonists.
https://store.earthstation1.com/nbc-university-theater-of-the-air-otr-mp3-dv3.html
Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: The Old
Time Radio Drama MP3 MegaSet DVD, Audio Download, USB Stick
Today, December 20, 2025
December 20, 1954: #DOTD: #RIP: James
Hilton (novelist), English-American author, novelist,
screenwriter, mountaineer and mystic, best remembered for several
best-sellers, including Lost Horizon and Goodbye, Mr. Chips, and
for his Hollywood screenplays, including Mrs. Miniver (b.
September 9, 1954) #dies at his home in Long Beach, California at
the age of 54 from liver cancer, with his reconciled former wife
Alice at his side. He is buried at Knollkreg Memorial Park,
Abingdon, Virginia. A heavy smoker, Hilton had various health
problems when he made a farewell visit to England in 1954. His
obituary in The Times describes him as "a modest and retiring
man for all his success; he was a keen mountaineer and enjoyed
music and travel." Born in Leigh, Lancashire, England, the
son of John Hilton, the headmaster of Chapel End School in
Walthamstow, he was educated at the Monoux School Walthamstow till
1914, then The Leys School, Cambridge, and then at Christ's
College, Cambridge, where he wrote his first novel and was awarded
an honours degree in English literature.He started work as a
journalist, first for the Manchester Guardian, then reviewing
fiction for The Daily Telegraph. He wrote his two best remembered
books, Lost Horizon and Goodbye, Mr. Chips, while living in a
house in Oak Hill Gardens, in Woodford Green in northeast London.
The house still stands, with a blue plaque marking Hilton's
residence. By 1938 he had moved to California, and his work became
more connected with the Hollywood film industry. While he was in
California Hilton was also host of one of radio's prestige
literary drama anthologies, Hallmark Playhouse, from 1948 to 1952.
He married Alice Brown, a secretary at the BBC, just before they
left for the United States in 1935, but they divorced in 1937. He
then married Galina Kopernak, but they divorced eight years later.
He became an American citizen in 1948. Hilton's first novel,
Catherine Herself, was published in 1920 when he was still an
undergraduate. The next 11 years were difficult for him, and it
was not until 1931 that he had success with the novel And Now
Goodbye. Following this, several of his books were international
bestsellers and inspired successful film adaptations, notably Lost
Horizon (1933), which won a Hawthornden Prize; Goodbye, Mr. Chips
(1934); and Random Harvest (1941). After this, he continued to
write, but the works were not regarded as of the same quality as
his better-known novels. Hilton's books are sometimes
characterised as sentimental and idealistic celebrations of
English virtues. This is true of Mr. Chips, but some of his novels
had a darker side. Flaws in the English society of his
time-particularly narrow-mindedness and class-consciousness-were
frequently his targets. His novel We Are Not Alone, despite its
inspirational-sounding title, is a grim story of legally approved
lynching brought on by wartime hysteria in Britain. Freud-an early
admirer (though he considered The Meadows of the Moon below
par)-came to conclude that Hilton had wasted his talent by being
too prolific. First published in 1933, this novel won Hilton the
Hawthornden Prize in 1934. Later, Pocket Books, which pioneered
the publication of small, soft-cover, inexpensive books, picked
Lost Horizon as its first title in 1939. For that reason, the
novel is frequently called the book that began the "paperback
revolution." Hilton is said to have been inspired to write
Lost Horizon, and to invent "Shangri-La" by reading the
National Geographic Magazine articles of Joseph Rock, an
Austrian-American botanist and ethnologist exploring the
southwestern Chinese provinces and Tibetan borderlands. Still
living in Britain at the time, Hilton was perhaps influenced by
the Tibetan travel articles of early travelers in Tibet whose
writings were found in the British Library. Christian Zeeman, the
Danish father of the mathematician Christopher Zeeman, has also
been claimed to be the model for the hero of the story. He
disappeared while living in Japan (where his son was born in
1925), and was reputed to be living incognito in a Zen Buddhist
monastery. Some say that the isolated valley town of Weaverville,
California, in far-northern Trinity County, was a source, but this
is the result of a misinterpretation of a comment by Hilton in a
1941 interview, in which he said that Weaverville reminded him of
Shangri-La. Coincidentally, Junction City (about 8 miles from
Weaverville) now has a Tibetan Buddhist centre with the occasional
Tibetan monks in saffron robes. The name "Shangri-La"
has become a byword for a mythical utopia, a permanently happy
land, isolated from the world. After the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo,
when the fact that the bombers had flown from an aircraft carrier
remained highly classified, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt
told the press facetiously that they had taken off from
Shangri-La. The Navy subsequently gave that name to an aircraft
carrier, and Roosevelt named his presidential retreat in Maryland
Shangri-La. (Later, President Dwight D. Eisenhower renamed the
retreat Camp David after his grandson, and that name has been used
for it ever since.) Zhongdian, a mountain region of south-west
China, has been renamed Shangri-La (Xianggelila), based on its
claim to have inspired Hilton's book. W.H. Balgarnie, a master at
the Leys School, Cambridge and Hilton's father, headmaster of
Chapel End School in Walthamstow, were the inspirations for the
character of Mr. Chipping in Goodbye, Mr. Chips, a best-seller.
Hilton first sent the material to The Atlantic, and the magazine
printed it as a short story in April 1934. On June 8, it was
published as a book. Four months later it appeared as a book in
Britain. Hilton, who lived and worked in Hollywood beginning in
the mid-1930s, won an Academy Award in 1942 for his work on the
screenplay of Mrs. Miniver, based on the novel by Jan Struther. He
presented six episodes of Ceiling Unlimited (1943) and hosted The
Hallmark Playhouse (1948-1953) for CBS Radio. One of his later
novels, Morning Journey, was about the film business.
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: World
War I: The War Files TV Series DVD, Video Download, USB Drive
Today, December 20, 2025
December 20, 1937: #DOTD: Erich
Ludendorff, German general and politician (b. April 9, 1865) #dies
of liver cancer in the private clinic Josephinum in Munich,
Germany at the age of 72. He was given, against his explicit
wishes, a state funeral organized and attended by Hitler, who
declined to speak at his eulogy. He is buried in the Neuer
Friedhof in Tutzing in Bavaria. Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff
was the victor of the Battle Of Liege and the Battle Of Tannenberg
during the early days of the First World War. From August 1916,
his appointment as Quartermaster general (German: Erster
Generalquartiermeister) made him the leader (along with Paul Von
Hindenburg) of the German war efforts during World War I. The
failure of Germany's great Spring Offensive in 1918 in quest of
total victory was his great strategic failure and he was forced
out in October 1918. After the war, Ludendorff became a prominent
nationalist leader, and a promoter of the Stab-in-the-back myth,
which posited that the German loss in World War I was caused by
the betrayal of the German Army by Marxists, Bolsheviks, and Jews
who were furthermore responsible for the disadvantageous
settlement negotiated for Germany in the Treaty Of Versailles. He
took part in the failed Kapp Putsch (coup) with Wolfgang Kapp in
1920 and the Beer Hall Putsch of Adolf Hitler in 1923, and in
1925, he ran unsuccessfully for the office of President of Germany
against his former superior Hindenburg. From 1924 to 1928, he
represented the German Volkisch Freedom Party in the Reichstag
(legislature). Consistently pursuing a purely military line of
thought, Ludendorff developed after the war, the theory of "Total
War", which he published as Der totale Krieg (The Total War)
in 1935. In this work, he argued that the entire physical and
moral forces of the nation should be mobilized, because peace was
merely an interval between wars. Ludendorff was a recipient of the
Grand Cross of the Iron Cross and the Pour le Merite, which was
the highest military order of merit in Germany.
https://store.earthstation1.com/world-war-i-the-war-files-dvd-2-part-documentary-serie2.html
Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title:
Norman's Corner (1987) Gilbert Gottfried TV Special DVD, Download,
USB
Today, December 20, 2025
December 20, 2009: #DOTD: #RIP: Arnold
Stang, American comic actor and voice actor of radio, film and
television, whose comic persona was a small and bespectacled, yet
brash and knowing big-city type, voice actor of the title role of
the 1961-62 television cartoon Top Cat (b. September 28, 1918)
#dies of pneumonia at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton,
Massachusetts at the age of 91. He was cremated, and his ashes
were buried in Newton's cemetery. Arnold Stang was born to a
Jewish American family in New York City; however, Stang often
claimed Chelsea, Massachusetts, as his birthplace, and 1925 as his
birth year. Stang once described himself as "a frightened
chipmunk who's been out in the rain too long." Stang worked
in New York-based network radio shows as a teenager, appearing on
children's programs such as The Horn and Hardart Children's Hour
and Let's Pretend. By 1940, he had graduated to teenaged roles,
appearing as Seymour on The Goldbergs. Director Don Bernard hired
him in October 1941 to do the commercials on the CBS program Meet
Mr. Meek but decided his constantly cracking voice would hurt the
commercial so he ordered scriptwriters to come up with a role for
him. He next appeared on the summer replacement show The
Remarkable Miss Tuttle with Edna May Oliver in 1942 and replaced
Eddie Firestone Jr. in the title role of That Brewster Boy when
Firestone joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1943. Comedian Henry
Morgan made him a sidekick on his program in fall of 1946 and
Stang appeared in similar roles the following year on radio shows
with Eddie Cantor and Milton Berle. He also did the voice of
Jughead for a short while on the Archie Andrews radio show when it
was broadcast by NBC. At this time Stang had appeared in a number
of movies, including Seven Days Leave, My Sister Eileen, So This
Is New York with Henry Morgan, and They Got Me Covered. He had
also appeared on the Broadway stage in Sailor Beware, All In Favor
and Same Time Next Week, where he first worked with Berle. Stang
moved to television at the start of the Golden Age. He had a
recurring role in the TV show The School House on the DuMont
Television Network in 1949. He was a regular on Eddie Mayehoff's
short-lived situation comedy Doc Corkle in fall of 1952 as well as
comedy relief on Captain Video and His Video Rangers as Clumsy
McGee. Then he made a guest appearance on Milton Berle's Texaco
Star Theater on May 12, 1953 and joined him as a regular as
Francis the Stagehand the following September, often berating or
heckling the big-egoed star for big laughs. Stang also had guest
roles on several variety shows of the day including The Colgate
Comedy Hour. In early 1951, Stang appeared on Henry Morgan's Great
Talent Hunt, a take-off of The Original Amateur Hour, as "Gerard",
supposedly recruiting "talent" for Morgan. Stang starred
in movie short subjects for producer Edward Montagne in the early
1950s. In 1964, when Montagne was producing his McHale's Navy
spinoff Broadside, he recruited Arnold Stang midway through
production and gave him co-star billing. Stang joined the ensemble
cast as outspoken master chef Stanley Stubbs. In films, he had a
substantial supporting role as the best friend Sparrow in The Man
with the Golden Arm (1955) with Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak. In
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) he played Ray, who, along
with his partner Irwin (Marvin Kaplan), owns a gas station that
Jonathan Winters destroys. He appeared in Hello Down There (1969).
He partnered with Arnold Schwarzenegger (billed as "Arnold
Strong 'Mr. Universe'") in the latter's first film, Hercules
in New York (1969). In 1959, ABC Paramount Records released an
album by Stang, entitled Arnold Stang's Waggish Tales. Stang
worked often as a voice actor for animated cartoons, and voiced
the title role in Top Cat. The show lasted one season in prime
time, 1961-62, before going into reruns. Stang also provided the
voice for Popeye's pal Shorty (a caricature of Stang), Herman the
mouse in a number of Famous Studios cartoons, Tubby Tompkins in a
few Little Lulu shorts, and Catfish on Misterjaw. He also voiced
the character Nurtle the Twurtle in the 1965 animated feature
Pinocchio in Outer Space. On television he appeared in commercials
for the Chunky candy bar, where he would list many of its
ingredients, smile and say, "Chunky, what a chunk of
chocolate!" He provided the voice of the Honey Nut Cheerios
Bee in the 1980s and was also a spokesman for Vicks Vapo-Rub. As a
pitchman for Alcoa aluminum window screens in the late 1960s, he
was known for the tag line "Arnold Stang says don't get
stung". Stang also appeared in "The Grave Robber,"
an episode of the popular horror anthology series Tales from the
Darkside, playing Tapok, an ancient Egyptian mummy who encounters
some unscrupulous archaeologists who lure him into a game of strip
poker. Arnold Stang reprised Top Cat in Yogi's Treasure Hunt and
Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats. Stang also appeared on an
episode of The Cosby Show with guest star Sammy Davis Jr. (He also
made a cameo appearance in Bill Cosby's 1990 film Ghost Dad.) In
one TV advertisement, he played Luther Burbank, proudly showing
off his newly invented "square tomato" to fit neatly in
typical square slices of commercial bread, then being informed
that the advertising bakery had beat him to it by producing round
loaves of bread. He played the photographer in the 1993 film
Dennis the Menace with Walter Matthau. He also provided many
voices for the Cartoon Network series Courage the Cowardly Dog and
Turner Program Services' original series Captain Planet and the
Planeteers. He had a small role as Queasy the Parrot in the 1977
film Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure. Stang was in
many Broadway stage productions, including Front Page with Peggy
Cass in the 1969 revival. In 1994, he guest-starred as the voice
of Irwin the Mouse in the Garfield and Friends episode "Thoroughly
Mixed-Up Mouse". In 2004, Stang made his last appearance in
an interview with animator Earl Kress about the making of Top Cat.
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: DJ
Madness! 1950s-60s-70s Radio Shows DVD, MP3 Download, USB Drive
Today, December 20, 2025
December 20, 2012: #DOTD: #RIP: Jimmy
McCracklin, African American pianist, singer, and songwriter whose
style contained West Coast blues, Jump blues, and R & B (b.
August 13, 1921) #dies in San Pablo, California in the San
Francisco Bay Area after a long illness, aged 91. He is buried at
Sacramento Valley National Cemetery in Dixon, California. Jimmy
McCracklin was born James David Walker Jr. in Elaine, Arkansas,
U.S.. Over a career that spanned seven decades, he said he had
written almost a thousand songs and had recorded hundreds of them.
He gained national popularity after appearing on American
Bandstand in support of his self-written single "The Walk"
(1957), subsequently released by Checker Records in 1958. It went
to No. 5 on the Billboard R & B chart and No. 7 on the pop
chart after over 10 years of McCracklin selling records only to
the black community on a series of small labels. McCracklin
recorded over 30 albums, and earned four gold records. Tom
Mazzolini of the San Francisco Blues Festival said of him, "He
was probably the most important musician to come out of the Bay
Area in the post-World War II years."
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: Woody
Allen Vintage TV Shows Set DVD, MP4 Download, USB Flash Drive
Today, December 20, 2025
December 20, 1973: #DOTD: #RIP: Bobby
Darin, American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and
actor in film and television (b. May 14, 1936) #dies of sepsis, an
overwhelming systemic infection, after failing to take antibiotics
to protect his heart before a dental visit, which weakened his
already weakened body and affected one of his heart valves. On
December 11, he checked himself in to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital
in Los Angeles for another round of open-heart surgery to repair
the two artificial heart valves he had received in January 1971.
On the evening of December 19, a four-person surgical team worked
for over six hours to repair his damaged heart. Shortly after the
surgery ended in the early morning hours of December 20, 1973,
Darin died in the recovery room without regaining consciousness.
He was 37 years old. Darin's last wish in his will was that his
body be donated to science for medical research. His remains were
transferred to the UCLA Medical Center shortly after his death.
Bobby Darin was born Walden Robert Cassotto in the East Harlem
neighborhood of New York City. He performed jazz, pop, rock and
roll, folk, swing, and country music. He started his career as a
songwriter for Connie Francis. He recorded his first
million-selling single, "Splish Splash", in 1958. This
was followed by "Dream Lover", "Mack the Knife",
and "Beyond the Sea", which brought him worldwide fame.
In 1962 he won a Golden Globe Award for his first film, Come
September, co-starring his first wife, Sandra Dee. During the
1960s he became more politically active and worked on Robert F.
Kennedy's Democratic presidential campaign. He was present on the
night of June 4/5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles at
the time of Kennedy's assassination. During the same year, he
discovered he had been raised by his grandmother, not his mother,
and that the girl he thought was his sister was actually his
mother. These events deeply affected Darin and sent him into a
long period of seclusion. Although he made a successful comeback
(in television) his health was beginning to fail, as he had always
expected following bouts of rheumatic fever in childhood. This
knowledge of his vulnerability had always spurred him on to use
his musical talent while still young. He died at the age of 37
following a heart operation in Los Angeles.
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: DJ
Madness! 1950s-60s-70s Radio Shows DVD, MP3 Download, USB Drive
Today, December 20, 2025
December 20, 2011: #DOTD: #RIP: Sean
Bonniwell, singer, songwriter, guitarist, leader and creative
force behind the 1960s garage rock band The Music Machine (b.
August 16, 1940) #dies in Visalia, California from lung cancer,
aged 71. His remains were cremated; the final disposition of his
cremains is not publicly disclosed. During his teens, Bonniwell
was inspired to form a high school vocal group after hearing the
song "Only You" by The Platters. After high school,
Bonniwell's first serious musical incarnation was that of
clean-cut pop-folk guitarist for the quartet The Wayfarers. The
Wayfarers released three albums under the RCA label. As the folk
music craze died out, Bonniwell sought to create music with "fuzz
and fangs". In 1965, he formed a trio called The Ragamuffins,
which quickly grew into The Music Machine. Adopting Beatles-style
moptop hair and all-black outfits (and Bonniwell's signature
single black leather glove), Music Machine churned out a
diversified style of garage rock. After the band's debut album
spawned the successful single "Talk Talk" (1966), the
original line-up broke apart. Bonniwell continued on with Music
Machine, now signed to Warner Bros. Records and renamed The
Bonniwell Music Machine (1967). Unhappy with the way things were
going, Bonniwell sold the rights to the band name to his label to
be released from their contract. In 1969, along with Mosaic Tweed
and a duo consisting of Brad Truitt and Billy Woodruff, he was
signed to the talent roster of Kevin Deverich and Associates run
by Kevin Deverich. Also that year, Bonniwell released a solo album
(Close) on Capitol Records. This recording marked a change in
identity for Bonniwell, who not only chose to make gentle,
sensitive music (contrasting that for which he was known), but
also chose to record under the name of T.S. Bonniwell. The
recording received minor label support and displeased Bonniwell
enough that he left the music industry altogether. He entered a
period of spiritual quest and internal soul-searching, grew a
beard, sold everything he owned, and drove around the US in a
Volkswagen bus. In 1996, Bonniwell self-published a memoir called
Talk Talk, which was later revised and re-titled Beyond The
Garage, published by the independent publisher Christian Vision.
Several years later, Sundazed Music put out previously unreleased
Music Machine material from the 1960s, along with demo recordings
from The Ragamuffins. Bonniwell claimed to have written over 300
songs since 1970. In November 2004, Bonniwell embarked on his
first European Tour, performing his hits with musicians from the
US and Europe. In 2006, Bonniwell recorded his first new material
in several years, as a guest musician appearing on a self-titled
debut album by The Larksmen, a garage rock group from Los Angeles,
California. He appeared on two songs entitled "Burn Like A
Boy" (actually written back in 1967 for The Music Machine but
never released) and "Out Of Darwin's Mind". Bonniwell
was quoted in Richie Unterberger's 1998 book, Unknown Legends of
Rock 'n' Roll, as saying "Rock and roll was a teenager in the
'60s, and I used that climate to express my confusion, my anger,
at the injustice of the world."
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: TV
Commercials: The Cable Age Classics III DVD, Download, USB Drive
Today, December 20, 2025
December 20, 2010: #DOTD: #RIP: Steve
Landesberg, American actor, comedian and screenwriter, best known
for his role as the erudite, unflappable police detective Arthur
P. Dietrich on the ABC sitcom Barney Miller, for which he was
nominated for three Emmy Awards (b. November 23, 1936) #dies of
colon cancer in Los Angeles, California, aged 74. His remains were
cremated, and the ashes given to his widow Nancy Ross. Steve
Landesberg was born Stephen Landesberg in the Bronx, New York. He
was part of improv group New York Stickball Team, which performed
several shows that aired on cable television shortly after Barney
Miller went off the air. Landesberg was a member of the cast of
the 1974 CBS situation comedy Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers. He
made guest appearances on The Tonight Show, The Rockford Files,
Law & Order, Saturday Night Live, The Golden Girls, Ghost
Whisperer, That '70s Show and Everybody Hates Chris. He starred in
Starz's original show Head Case as Dr. Myron Finkelstein. He
appeared in the motion pictures Wild Hogs, Leader of the Band, and
Forgetting Sarah Marshall. He appeared in 124 episodes of Barney
Miller as Det. Sgt. Arthur Dietrich, starting from the last
episode of the 1975 season until the end of the series in 1982.
Landesberg also co-starred in the TV pilot Black Bart, a spin-off
of Blazing Saddles. He attempted a comeback to television playing
a public defender in Seattle in an unsold sitcom pilot, The Best
Defense, later aired on June 19, 1995, on ABC. In the mid-1980s,
Landesberg was the spokesman in TV and print advertisements for
Northwestern Bell's long-distance telephone services. He also was
a TV spokesman for AAMCO Transmissions in the 1980s and early
1990s, and for The Discovery Channel, Canadian Airlines and Office
Depot in the 1990s. He and his wife, Nancy Ross Landesberg, had a
daughter, Elizabeth.
https://store.earthstation1.com/tv-commercials-the-cable-age-classics-iii-dvd.html
Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: The
Deming Of America: W. Edwards Deming DVD MP4 Download USB Drive
Today, December 20, 2025
December 20, 1993: #DOTD: #RIP: W.
Edwards Deming, statistician, author, academic, engineer,
professor, lecturer and management consultant (b. October 14,
1900) #dies in his sleep at the age of 93 in his Washington home
from cancer. When asked, toward the end of his life, how he would
wish to be remembered in the U.S., he replied, "I probably
won't even be remembered." After a pause, he added, "Well,
maybe ... as someone who spent his life trying to keep America
from committing suicide." He is buried at Saint Columbas
Episcopal Church Columbarium in Tenleytown, Washington, D.C..
Deming was born William Edwards DemingSioux City, Iowa. Educated
initially as an electrical engineer and later specializing in
mathematical physics, William Edwards Deming helped develop the
sampling techniques still used by the U.S. Department of the
Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In his book, The New
Economics for Industry, Government, and Education, Deming
championed the work of Walter Shewhart, including statistical
process control, operational definitions, and what Deming called
the "Shewhart Cycle" which had evolved into PDSA
(Plan-Do-Study-Act). Deming is best known for his work in Japan
after WWII, particularly his work with the leaders of Japanese
industry. That work began in August 1950 at the Hakone Convention
Center in Tokyo when Deming delivered a speech on what he called
"Statistical Product Quality Administration". Many in
Japan credit Deming as one of the inspirations for what has become
known as the post-war Japanese economic miracle of 1950 to 1960,
when Japan rose from the ashes of war on the road to becoming the
second largest economy in the world through processes partially
influenced by the ideas Deming taught: 1) Better design of
products to improve service; 2) Higher level of uniform product
quality; 3) Improvement of product testing in the workplace and in
research centers; and 4) Greater sales through side [global]
markets. Deming is best known in the United States for his 14
Points (Out of the Crisis, by W. Edwards Deming, preface) and his
system of thought he called the "System of Profound
Knowledge". The system includes four components or "lenses"
through which to view the world simultaneously: 1) Appreciating a
system; 2) Understanding variation; 3) Psychology; and 4)
Epistemology ("logical discourse"), the theory of
knowledge which studies the nature of knowledge, justification,
and the rationality of belief. Deming made a significant
contribution to Japan's reputation for innovative, high-quality
products, and for its economic power. He is regarded as having had
more impact on Japanese manufacturing and business than any other
individual not of Japanese heritage. Despite being honored in
Japan in 1951 with the establishment of the Deming Prize, he was
only just beginning to win widespread recognition in the U.S. at
the time of his death in 1993. President Ronald Reagan awarded him
the National Medal of Technology in 1987. The following year, the
National Academy of Sciences gave Deming the Distinguished Career
in Science award.
https://store.earthstation1.com/the-deming-of-america-dvd-engineer-w-edwards-deming.html
Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: Voyager
Rendezvous With Neptune Live Carl Sagan Sidney Poitier MP4 DVD
Today, December 20, 2025
December 20, 1996: #DOTD: #RIP: Carl
Sagan, American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist,
astrobiologist, author, science popularizer, and science
communicator in astronomy and other natural sciences (b. November
9, 1934) #dies from pneumonia at the age of 62 at the Fred
Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. His
burial took place at Lake View Cemetery in Ithaca, New York. Carl
Sagan was born Carl Edward Sagan in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, a date
commemorated as Carl Sagan Day, into a Reformed Jewish family; his
father, Samuel Sagan, was an immigrant garment worker from
Kamianets-Podilskyi, then in the Russian Empire, in today's
Ukraine; his mother, Rachel Molly Gruber, was a housewife from New
York. Sagan is best known for his work as a science popularizer
and communicator. His best known scientific contribution is
research on extraterrestrial life, including experimental
demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic
chemicals by radiation. Sagan assembled the first physical
messages sent into space: the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager
Golden Record, universal messages that could potentially be
understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find
them. Sagan argued the now accepted hypothesis that the high
surface temperatures of Venus can be attributed to and calculated
using the greenhouse effect. Sagan published more than 600
scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor
of more than 20 books. He wrote many popular science books, such
as The Dragons of Eden, Broca's Brain and Pale Blue Dot, and
narrated and co-wrote the award-winning 1980 television series
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. The most widely watched series in the
history of American public television, Cosmos has been seen by at
least 500 million people across 60 different countries. The book
Cosmos was published to accompany the series. He also wrote the
science fiction novel Contact, the basis for a 1997 film of the
same name. His papers, containing 595,000 items, are archived at
The Library of Congress. Sagan advocated scientific skeptical
inquiry and the scientific method, pioneered exobiology and
promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). He
spent most of his career as a professor of astronomy at Cornell
University, where he directed the Laboratory for Planetary
Studies. Sagan and his works received numerous awards and honors,
including the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the
National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal, the Pulitzer
Prize for General Non-Fiction for his book The Dragons of Eden,
and, regarding Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, two Emmy Awards, the
Peabody Award and the Hugo Award. He married three times and had
five children. After suffering from myelodysplasia, Sagan died of
pneumonia at the age of 62, on December 20, 1996.
https://store.earthstation1.com/voyager-rendezvous-with-neptune-dvd-carl-sagan-sidney-poitier.html
Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title:
Overlords Of The U.F.O. (1976) MP4 Video Download DVD
Today, December 20, 2025
December 20, 1946: #BOTD: Uri Geller,
Israeli-English illusionist, magician, television personality, is
#born in Tel Aviv, which was then part of British Mandate of
Palestine (now Israel). He is known for his trademark television
performances of spoon bending and other illusions. Geller has been
accused of using conjuring tricks to simulate the effects of
psychokinesis and telepathy. Geller's career as an entertainer has
spanned more than four decades, with television shows and
appearances in many countries. Secular magicians have called
Geller a fraud due to his claims of possessing psychic powers.
https://store.earthstation1.com/overlords-of-the-ufo-dvd.html
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