Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: The Hands
Of Time... A Story On American Clocks DVD, MP4, USB Drive
Today, December 29, 2025
December 29: National Tick Tock Day/Still
Need To Do Day: -- An annual reminder for us to complete any
unfinished business that might need addressing before the end of
the year. As the end of the year approaches, many items call for
our attention. Unfinished business usually needs to be wrapped up
before the end of the calendar year. Things like larger business
purchases and charitable donations for the tax year may need to be
transacted before December 31st. Another thing to consider is your
medical plan. Does your deductible start over? Do you have a
Flexible Savings Account with funds to use? Some employers offer
annual benefits that will be lost if they aren't used by the end
of the year. Time is running out. Tick Tock Day may also be a day
to look at personal goals. Did you finish reading that book?
Bucket lists call our names. Where do we want to travel? We may
still need to explore some exotic foods, too. Maybe your goals are
grander or simpler. Whatever they are, tick-tock. To observe
National Tick Tock Day, remember: the clock is ticking. The count
down has begun. Check your list. Get that unfinished business
completed. Share your tips for checking off unfinished business.
If you're not sure what needs to be completed consider these
timely items: Check the tags on your car. Schedule a routine
physical exam. Change the filter on your furnace. Update your
virus protection on your computer. Did you miss your last wedding
anniversary? Order a National Day Calendar! Plan your vacation.
Wind your clocks. Complete a honey-do list. No matter how chose to
wrap up unfinished business, be sure to use #TickTockDay to post
on social media! Thomas and Ruth Roy at the Wellcat Herbs website
created Tick Tock Day. On Sale @ 15% Off Discount Till Midnight
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: The Mongol
Hordes: Storm From The East TV Series DVD MP4 USB Drive
Today, December 29, 2025
December 29: Mongolia Independence Day
(National Revolution Of Freedom And Independence Day): -- December
29, 1911: Mongolia: The History Of Mongolia: The History Of Modern
Mongolia: Mongolia Independence Day (National Revolution Of
Freedom And Independence Day): -- Mongolia gains independence from
the Qing dynasty, enthroning 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu as Khagan
Of Mongolia. A day of great glory and happiness for the Mongols,
who gained freedom after years of being under the Qing China rule.
This day is all about showing love for Mongolia, raising the
national flag, dining out, and of course viewing some awesome
fireworks! This year, step up your game and celebrate the amazing
day like never before. After all, the country's independence is
something that should be cherished and applauded till the end of
time. Mongolia had been under the Chinese Qing dynasty rule for
quite some time. However, due to several differences with the
Chinese rulers, the Mongolians craved a state of their own. Like
any other nation that is taken over, the biggest problem Mongolia
experienced was the fight for the retention of their culture,
which was slowly being replaced by the Chinese way of life. During
the 20th century, the fire for independence grew and the Mongols
started to take action to free the nation from the Qing dynasty.
In May 1911, the Xinhai Revolution overthrew the Qing dynasty and
established the Republic of China. Seeing that the Chinese had
problems of their own, the Mongols utilized the opportunity and
managed to free themselves from Chinese rule. On December 29,
1911, Mongolia officially declared its independence from China.
The spiritual leader of the Tibetan Buddhists was proclaimed the
head of state. He was given the title of Bogd Khan of Mongolia.
Unfortunately, Mongolia was only able to maintain a few years of
peace and freedom before the Chinese returned to Mongolia and
forcefully occupied the capital city. In fact, the Chinese also
pushed the Mongolian government to sign a document that forfeited
their autonomous status. At this point in time, Russian Bolsheviks
stepped in to aid the Mongols. The Outer Mongolian Revolution took
place in 1921 - a revolution that was fought with the help of
Soviet troops. After the troops reclaimed Ulaanbaatar from the
Chinese, Mongolia was declared independent once again. From 1921
until 1924, Mongolia worked to establish a new government. On Sale
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: The Celts
TV Series On Celtic History & Culture DVD Download USB Drive
Today, December 29, 2025
December 29: Constitution Of Ireland Day:
-- December 29, 1937: Ireland: The History Of Ireland: Irish
Nationalism: Constitution Of Ireland Day: -- The Irish Free State
is replaced by a new state called Ireland with the ratification
and adoption of a new constitution. The Constitution Of Ireland
established within the tradition of liberal democracy the rights
of Ireland's citizens, the proceedings of its courts, and the laws
that if follows. Since its independence, the Constitution of the
Irish Free State was the document used to govern the country.
However, in 1937, this was replaced by the Constitution of Ireland
since the Statute of Westminster 1931 granted parliamentary
autonomy to the six British Dominions. The Irish Free State
constitution on the other hand, was associated with the
controversial Anglo-Irish Treaty which many had opposed. The new
Constitution further dismantled some previous acts, and new and
improved amendments were added. The Constitution of Ireland is a
symbolic document that changed everything into Irish as well as
English. This was done by recognizing English as a second official
language in the Constitution. Among other things, the Constitution
of Ireland granted women the right to vote, as well as a right to
citizenship on an equal basis with men. Article 41.2 states that
the State recognizes that by her life within the home, a woman
gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot
be achieved. The State shall, therefore, endeavor to ensure that
mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in
labor to the neglect of their duties in the home. Furthermore, the
Constitution of Ireland guaranteed freedom of worship, and forbade
the state from creating an established church. Articles such as
these have a great impact on the perception of the citizens over a
period of time. Moreover, the Constitution also decides all legal
and other human rights commitments made by Ireland, including
treaties under the United Nations, the European Convention of
Human Rights, and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the
European Union. On Sale @ 15% Off Discount Till Midnight PT!
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: Remember
When: It'll Never Fly w/ Dick Cavett Inventions DVD, MP4, USB
Today, December 29, 2025
December 29, 1800: #BOTD: #HBD! Charles
Goodyear, American self-taught chemist and manufacturing engineer
who inventing the chemical process to create and manufacture
pliable, waterproof, moldable rubber known as vulcanized rubber,
for which he received patent number 3633 from the United States
Patent Office on June 15, 1844 (d. July 1, 1860) is #born in New
Haven, Connecticut. Goodyear's discovery of the vulcanization
process followed five years of searching for a more stable rubber
and stumbling upon the effectiveness of heating after Thomas
Hancock. His discovery initiated decades of successful rubber
manufacturing in the Lower Naugatuck Valley in Connecticut, as
rubber was adopted to multiple applications, including footwear
and tires. Goodyear died while traveling to see his dying
daughter. After arriving in New York, he was informed that she had
already died. He collapsed and was taken to the Fifth Avenue Hotel
in New York City, where he died at the age of 59. He is buried at
in Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1898,
almost four decades after his death, The Goodyear Tire &
Rubber Company was founded and named after Goodyear by Frank
Seiberling. On February 8, 1976, he was among six individuals
selected for induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
In Woburn, Massachusetts, there is an elementary school named
after him. The Government of France made him a Chevalier De La
Legion D'Honneur in 1855. On Sale @ 15% Off Discount Till Midnight
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title:
Washington, D.C. History Video Set DVD, MP4 Download, USB Flash
Drive
Today, December 29, 2025
( #JCKaelin here: It is indeed very, very
hard to get past the fact that this man fought for a Confederacy
devoted to maintaining slavery. His love of American Indians whom
he led in battle during that war mitigates this somewhat. If only
his vision of Universal Brotherhood could have sufficiently opened
his eyes to all this back in the day, he would not have had his
statue torn down by Black Lives Matter protestors in 2020; perhaps
the high numbers of blacks in the modern Scottish Rite mitigates
this, somewhat, also. ) ========= December 29, 1809: #BOTD: Albert
Pike, American lawyer, Confederate general, writer, journalist and
Freemason (d. April 2, 1891) is #born in Boston, Massachusetts.
Notably, he published a book called Morals and Dogma of the
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in 1871, of
which there were several subsequent editions. This helped the
order grow during the nineteenth century. Albert Pike died at the
Scottish Rite Temple of the Supreme Council in Washington DC, at
the age of 81. He was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery, despite the
fact that he had left instructions for his body to be cremated. He
was the only Confederate military officer with an outdoor statue
in Washington, D.C. from until June 19, 2020, when protestors tore
down the statue and set it ablaze, in connection with the George
Floyd protests because of Pike's association with the Confederacy
and complicity with the Ku Klux Klan. On Sale @ 15% Off Discount
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: General
William "Billy" Mitchell DVD, Video Download, USB Flash
Drive
Today, December 29, 2025
December 29, 1879: #BOTD: #HBD! Billy
Mitchell, United States Army general and pilot was a who is
regarded as the father of the United States Air Force (d. February
19, 1936) is #born William Lendrum Mitchellin Nice, France. Billy
Mitchell served in France during World War I and, by the
conflict's end, commanded all American air combat units in that
country. After the war, he was appointed deputy director of the
Air Service and began advocating increased investment in air
power, believing that this would prove vital in future wars. He
argued particularly for the ability of bombers to sink battleships
and organized a series of bombing runs against stationary ships
designed to test the idea. He antagonized many administrative
leaders of the Army with his arguments and criticism and, in 1925,
was returned from appointment as a brigadier general to his
permanent rank of colonel due to his insubordination. Later that
year, he was court-martialed for insubordination after accusing
Army and Navy leaders of an "almost treasonable
administration of the national defense" for investing in
battleships instead of aircraft carriers. He resigned from the
service shortly afterward of a coronary occlusion, obstruction of
blood flow in a coronary artery, at Doctors Hospital in New York
City at the age of 56. Mitchell is buried at Forest Home Cemetery
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mitchell received many honors following
his death, including a commission by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt as a major general. He is also the only individual for
whom an American military aircraft design, the North American B-25
Mitchell medium bomber, is named, and it served in every theater
of World War II and after the war ended many remained in service,
operating across four decades. On Sale @ 15% Off Discount Till
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: The
Wounded Knee Massacre The Battle of Wounded Knee DVD MP4 USB Drive
Today, December 29, 2025
December 29, 1890: #DOTD: #RIP: The
American Indian Wars (The American Frontier Wars, The Indian
Wars): The Sioux Wars: The Ghost Dance War (Pine Ridge Campaign,
The Messiah War): The Wounded Knee Massacre (The Battle Of Wounded
Knee, The Battle Of Wounded Knee, The Pine Ridge Campaign): --
Members of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army
massacred more than 200 Native American Lakota (Sioux) men, women
and children near Wounded Knee Creek (Lakota: Chankpe Opi Wakpala)
on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the U.S. state of
South Dakota, following a botched attempt to disarm the Lakota
camp. . During the battle, Company K of the 7th Cavalry was sent
to force the Lakotas's return to the areas they were assigned on
their respective reservations, and when the combined Lakota forces
pinned the 7th Cavalry down in a valley, they were rescued by the
9th Cavalry, an African American regiment nicknamed the "Buffalo
Soldiers". The day prior to the massacre, a detachment of the
7th Cavalry commanded by Major Samuel M. Whitside approached Chief
Spotted Elk's band of Miniconjou Lakota and 38 Hunkpapa Lakota
near Porcupine Butte and escorted them 5 miles (8.0 km) westward
to Wounded Knee Creek, where they made camp. The remainder of the
7th Cavalry Regiment, led by Colonel James W. Forsyth, arrived and
surrounded the encampment. The regiment was supported by a battery
of four Hotchkiss mountain guns. On the morning of December 29,
the U.S. Cavalry troops went into the camp to disarm the Lakota.
One version of events claims that during the process of disarming
the Lakota, a deaf tribesman named Black Coyote was reluctant to
give up his rifle, claiming he had paid a lot for it.
Simultaneously, an old man was performing a ritual called the
Ghost Dance. Black Coyote's rifle went off at that point; the U.S.
Army began shooting at the Native Americans. The Lakota warriors
fought back, but many had already been stripped of their guns and
disarmed. By the time the massacre was over, more than 250 men,
women and children of the Lakota had been killed and 51 were
wounded (4 men and 47 women and children, some of whom died
later); some estimates placed the number of dead as high as 300.
Twenty-five soldiers also died and thirty-nine were wounded (six
of the wounded later died). Twenty soldiers were awarded the Medal
Of Honor. In 2001, the National Congress of American Indians
passed two resolutions condemning the military awards and called
on the federal government to rescind them. The Wounded Knee
Battlefield, site of the massacre, has been designated a National
Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior. In 1990,
both houses of the U.S. Congress passed a resolution on the
historical centennial formally expressing "deep regret"
for the massacre. On Sale @ 15% Off Discount Till Midnight PT!
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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 29, 2025
December 29, 1911: The Century Of
Humiliation: The History Of China (The Hundred Years Of National
Humiliation): Anti-Qing Movements: The 1911 Revolution (The Xinhai
Revolution , The Hsinhai Revolution): The Provisional Government
Of The Republic Of China (1912): The History Of The Republic Of
China (1912-1949): -- Sun Yat-Sen becomes the first president and
founding father of the Republic Of China when a meeting of
representatives from the provinces of The Republic Of China (ROC)
headquatered in Nanjing elected Sun as the provisional president.
They set January 1, 1912 as the first day of Year One of a new
epoch with the institution of The Republic Of China Calendar,
often shortened to the ROC Calendar or The Minguo Calendar, a
calendar still in use in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and made that
date the day when Sun would formally take office. Li Yuanhong was
made provisional vice-president, and Huang Xing became the
minister of the army. A new provisional government for the
Republic of China was created, along with a provisional
constitution. Sun is credited for funding the revolutions and for
keeping revolutionary spirit alive, even after a series of false
starts. His successful merger of smaller revolutionary groups into
a single coherent party provided a better base for those who
shared revolutionary ideals. Under Sun's provisional government,
several innovations were introduced, such as the aforementioned
calendar system, and the fashionable Zhongshan Suit, a Chinese
tunic suit that was a favorite of both Nationalist and Communist
leaders in the future, named after Zhongshan, a prefecture-level
city in the south of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province,
China; both Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong regularly wore
Zhongshan Suits, and in modern times, the suit has popularly
become known as a Mao Suit. Sun Yat-Sen (1866-1925), Chinese
physician, writer, philosopher, politician, calligrapher and
revolutionary, was as the foremost pioneer and first leader of a
Republican China referred to as the "Father of the Nation"
in the Republic Of China (ROC) and the "forerunner of
democratic revolution" in the People's Republic Of China
(PRC). Sun played an instrumental role in the overthrow of the
Qing dynasty (the last imperial dynasty of China) during the years
leading up to the Xinhai Revolution, also known as the Chinese
Revolution or the Revolution of 1911. He was appointed to serve as
Provisional President of the Republic Of China when it was founded
in 1912. He later co-founded the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party of
China), serving as its first leader. Sun was a uniting figure in
post-Imperial China, and he remains unique among 20th-century
Chinese politicians for being widely revered amongst the people
from both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Although Sun is considered
to be one of the greatest leaders of modern China, his political
life was one of constant struggle and frequent exile. After the
success of the revolution and the Han Chinese regaining power
after 268 years of Qing dynasty rule, he quickly resigned from his
post as President of the newly founded Republic Of China to Yuan
Shikai, and led successive revolutionary governments as a
challenge to the warlords who controlled much of the nation. Sun
did not live to see his party consolidate its power over the
country during the Northern Expedition. His party, which formed a
fragile alliance with the Communists, split into two factions
after his death. Sun's chief legacy resides in his developing of
the political philosophy known as the Three Principles of the
People: 1) nationalism (Han Chinese nationalism: independence from
imperialist domination - taking back power from the Manchurian
Qing dynasty), 2) democracy, and 3) the people's livelihood (just
society). On Sale @ 15% Off Discount Till Midnight PT!
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: The
Russian Revolution DVD, MP4 Video Download, USB Flash Drive
Today, December 29, 2025
December 29-30, 1916: #DOTD: The European
Civil War: World War I: The First European War (The European
Theater Of World War I): The Eastern Front Of World War I: The
Assassination Of Rasputin: -- The so-called Russian "monk"
Rasputin (Grigory Yefimovich Novykh) #dies when he is assassinated
by a group of conservative Russian noblemen conspirators who had
lured him to a private home. There they poisoned Rasputin, beat
him at length, and then shot him, all the while playing Irving
Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band" (a vulgar allusion
to their mutual relationship to Rasputin's lover, Empress
Alexandra) on the phonograph; despite all this, he does not die.
They finally tie him up and throw him into the freezing Neva
River, and at that, he at last was drowned to death. Rasputin had
gained enormous influence with Russian Emperor Nicholas II and the
Empress Alexandra, claiming divine inspiration and the ability to
perform miracles, especially in helping young Czar Nicky, a
hemophiliac. He also urged severe measures in dealing with the
peasant masses, measures that largely ang ultimately provoked and
ensured the success of The Russian Revolution of 1917, and for a
time he virtually dictated government policy. Grigori Rasputin,
Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man, best-known for having
befriended the royal family of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of
Russia, through whom he gained considerable influence in the later
years of the Russian Empire (b. January 21, 1869) was born Grigori
Yefimovich Rasputin to a family of peasants in the Siberian
village of Pokrovskoye, located within Tyumensky Uyezd in Tobolsk
Governorate (present-day Yarkovsky District in Tyumen Oblast). He
had a religious conversion experience after embarking on a
pilgrimage to a monastery in 1897, and has been described as a
monk or as a strannik (wanderer or pilgrim), though he held no
official position in the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1903 or in
the winter of 1904-1905, he travelled to Saint Petersburg and
captivated a number of religious and social leaders, eventually
becoming a prominent figure in Russian society. In November 1905,
Rasputin met Nicholas II and his empress consort, Alexandra
Feodorovna. In late 1906, he began acting as a faith healer for
Nicholas' and Alexandra's only son, Alexei Nikolaevich, who was
suffering from haemophilia. He was a divisive figure at court,
seen by some Russians as a mystic, visionary, and prophet, and by
others as a religious charlatan. The extent of Rasputin's power
reached an all-time high in 1915, when Nicholas left Saint
Petersburg to oversee the Imperial Russian Army as it was engaged
in World War I. In Nicholas' absence, Rasputin and Alexandra
consolidated their influence across the Russian Empire. However,
as Russian military defeats mounted on the Eastern Front, both
figures became increasingly unpopular, and in the early morning of
December 30 [O.S. December 17] 1916, Rasputin was assassinated by
a group of conservative Russian noblemen who opposed his influence
over Alexandra and Nicholas. Historians often suggest that
Rasputin's scandalous and sinister reputation helped discredit the
Tsarist government, thus precipitating the overthrow of the House
of Romanov shortly after his assassination. Accounts of his life
and influence were often based on hearsay and rumor; he remains a
mysterious, captivating and decidedly d(a)emonic figure in popular
culture. On Sale @ 15% Off Discount Till Midnight PT!
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: James
Joyce's Ulysses + Portrait Of The Artist DVD, MP4, USB Drive
Today, December 29, 2025
December 29, 1916: First Publications: --
A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, the first novel by James
Joyce, is first published as a book by an American publishing
house B. W. Huebschis after it had been serialized in The Egoist
(1914-15). A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is the first
novel of Irish writer James Joyce. A Kunstlerroman ("artist's
novel" in English, a narrative about an artist's growth to
maturity, a sub-category of Bildungsroman ["education novel"
in English, a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and
moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood]) in a
modernist style, it traces the religious and intellectual
awakening of young Stephen Dedalus, a fictional alter ego of Joyce
and an allusion to Daedalus, the consummate craftsman of Greek
mythology. Stephen questions and rebels against the Catholic and
Irish conventions under which he has grown, culminating in his
self-exile from Ireland to Europe. The work uses techniques that
Joyce developed more fully in Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake
(1939). A Portrait began life in 1904 as Stephen Hero-a projected
63-chapter autobiographical novel in a realistic style. After 25
chapters, Joyce abandoned Stephen Hero in 1907 and set to
reworking its themes and protagonist into a condensed five-chapter
novel, dispensing with strict realism and making extensive use of
free indirect speech that allows the reader to peer into Stephen's
developing consciousness. American modernist poet Ezra Pound had
the novel serialised in the English literary magazine The Egoist
in 1914 and 1915, and published as a book in 1916 by B. W. Huebsch
of New York. The publication of A Portrait and the short story
collection Dubliners (1914) earned Joyce a place at the forefront
of literary modernism. On Sale @ 15% Off Discount Till Midnight
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: TV
Cigarette Commercials 1950s-70s Film Collection DVD, MP4, USB
Stick
Today, December 29, 2025
December 29, 1936: #BOTD: #HBD! Mary
Tyler Moore, American stage, film and television actress,
producer, social advocate, animal rights activist and beauty (d.
January 25, 2017) is #born in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood in
Brooklyn, New York City. She was widely known for her prominent
television sitcom roles in The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-1966) and
The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-1977). Her film work included
1967's Thoroughly Modern Millie and 1980's Ordinary People, the
latter earning Moore a nomination for the Academy Award for Best
Actress. Moore was an advocate for animal rights, vegetarianism
and diabetes prevention. With her two most prominent roles
challenging gender stereotypes and norms, The New York Times said
Moore's "performances on [The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The
Dick Van Dyke Show] helped define a new vision of American
womanhood." The Guardian said "her outwardly bubbly
personality and trademark broad, toothy smile disguised an inner
fragility that appealed to an audience facing the new trials of
modern-day existence." Moore and her husband Grant Tinker
founded MTM Enterprises, Inc. in 1969.[56] This company produced
The Mary Tyler Moore Show and several other successful television
shows and films. It also included a record label, MTM Records. MTM
Enterprises produced a variety of American sitcoms and drama
television series such as Rhoda, Lou Grant and Phyllis (all
spin-offs from The Mary Tyler Moore Show), The Bob Newhart Show,
The Texas Wheelers, WKRP in Cincinnati, The White Shadow, Friends
and Lovers, St. Elsewhere, Newhart, and Hill Street Blues, and was
later sold to Television South, an ITV Franchise holder in 1988.
The MTM logo resembles the Metro Goldwyn Mayer logo, but with a
cat named Mimsie instead of a lion. Mary Tyler Moore died at the
age of 80 at Greenwich Hospital in Greenwich, Connecticut, from
cardiopulmonary arrest complicated by pneumonia after having been
placed on a ventilator the week before. She was interred in Oak
Lawn Cemetery in Fairfield, Connecticut in a private ceremony. On
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Today's
EarthStation1.com 15% Off Commemorative Memorial Title: The Battle
Of Britain & The Blitz Documentaries Set DVD, MP4, USB
Today, December 29, 2025
December 29, 1940: #DOTD: #RIP: 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: Strategic Bombing During World War
II: European Air Operations During The Battle Of Europe: The
Blitz: The Second Great Fire Of London: -- The Luftwaffe
fire-bombs London, England, killing almost 200 civilians. The
Second Great Fire Of London is a name used at the time to refer to
this air raid, one of the most destructive of The Blitz. For over
three hours from 6:15 pm, over 24,000 high explosive bombs and
100,000 incendiary bombs were dropped. The raid and the subsequent
fire destroyed many Livery Halls and City churches and gutted the
medieval Great Hall of the City's Guildhall. The largest
continuous area of Blitz destruction anywhere in Britain occurred
on this night, stretching south from Islington to the very edge of
St Paul's Churchyard. The area destroyed was greater than that of
the Great Fire Of London in 1666, 274 years previously. The raid
was timed to coincide with a particularly low tide on the River
Thames, which made water difficult to obtain for fire fighting.
Over 1,500 fires were started across London, with many joining up
to form three major conflagrations which in turn caused a
firestorm spreading the flames further and towards St Paul's
Cathedral. Prime Minister Winston Churchill urged that the
Cathedral be saved at all costs. It was saved only by the
dedication of the London firemen who kept the fire that was raging
in St Paul's Churchyard away from the Cathedral, and of the
volunteer firewatchers of the St Paul's Watch who fought to put
out the incendiaries or firebombs on its roof. The 200 members of
the St Paul's Watch were mainly recruited from the Royal Institute
of British Architects who knew the vulnerabilities of the
structure and where to target firefighting efforts. More than 160
civilians died during that night, with many more dying of their
injuries sustained in this raid in the days that followed; 14
firemen died fighting the fires and 250 were injured. Buildings
completely destroyed in the fire storm included 19 churches (8 of
which were Wren churches), the Old Bailey (The Central Criminal
Court of England and Wales), 31 guild halls and all of Paternoster
Row. Paternoster Row was the centre of the London publishing trade
and an estimated 5 million books were lost in the fire. A famous
photograph, St Paul's Survives, taken from the roof of the Daily
Mail building by Herbert Mason shows the dome of St Paul's
Cathedral rising above clouds of black smoke. The photograph was
cropped for publication, with the original showing many more
destroyed buildings in the foreground. On Sale @ 15% Off Discount
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: Parrot
Sketch Not Included: The Very Best Of Monty Python DVD MP4 USB
Today, December 29, 2025
December 29: National Pepper Pot Day: --
An annual celebration of a soup with deep roots and a mythology to
go with it! Explore the flavors and history of the filling dish,
and the backstory of a pair of Monty Python's most beloved
characters! Pepper pot soup is a highly seasoned soup prepared
with peppercorns, small bits of meat, tripe, vegetables, and broth
- that is to say, it is a standard whatever-you-have soup with
meat, tripe, vegetables and peppercorns. The dish may be more
familiar by the name of Philadelphia Pepper Pot because it was
brought to the area by people from Africa, the West Indies, and
the Caribbean. Colonial Black women served the dish in their
homes, the homes where they worked, and in markets. It's
considered an early street food by many historians. One legendary
story credits this soup to George Washington's chef. The story
goes that during the brutal winter of 1777 and 1778, the
Continental Army was camped t Valley Forge on December 29th.
George Washington asked the army's chef to prepare a meal that
would boost morale and warm the troops. So the chef rounded up
some ingredients and called it Pepper Pot Soup. The troops
received the meal well and nicknamed it "the soup that won
the war." Though the story may be untrue, it receives some
credit for increasing the popularity of pepper pot soup in
Philadelphia and earning the dish its other name, Philadelphia
Pepper Pot. Monty Python fans will be most interested to learn
that the two old ladies - Mrs. Premise and Mrs. Conclustion - that
recur in pairs in multiple sketches, most famously in the
Exploding Penguin sketch (best known as "The Penguin On Top
Of The Television Set" sketch) and nearly always performed by
Pythons John Cleese and Terry Gilliam, were known as "The
Pepperpots" - because they were each a simmering pot "full
of it" - a simmering catch-as-catch-can vegetable soup, all
mixed-up in a part meat, part tripe stew! :D So observe National
Pepper Pot Day, experience the flavor of Pepper Pot Soup, or watch
that penguin on top of your television set - and use
#NationalPepperPotDay to post on social media!
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: Jack
Benny Complete Radio Broadcasts Set MP3 DVD, Audio Download, USB
Today, December 29, 2025December 29: International Cello Day: --
All cellists unite for International Cello Day on December 29. We
are all about celebrating culture and music aficionados. The cello
is a bowed string musical instrument with four strings tuned for
perfect harmony. It looks like a large violin, which one can play
while sitting down and holding it in between their legs. This
holiday is celebrated not only by cellists, but composers,
conductors, and music fans as well. This day also observes the
birthday of the renowned Spanish and Puerto Rican cellist,
composer, and conductor Pablo Casals (December 29, 1876 - October
22) 1973). International Cello Day is a notable day for all
cellists around the world. All cellists and composers band
together in memory of one of the most well-known musicians and
composers of all time, Pablos Casals. Casals was born on December
29, 1876, in El Vendrell, Catalonia. With the teaching of his
father, he was exposed to the world of music. At the early age of
four, Casals learned to play the violin, piano, and flute. With
his love and interest in all these instruments, he entered the
Municipal School of Music in Barcelona and learned to play the
cello. Casals has been named "the greatest musician ever to
draw bow" by Fritz Kreisler - a known violinist and composer.
Casals became legendary in the music industry and the whole world
in the early 20th century, when he made a name for himself. He
performed as a soloist and with different orchestras. He
enormously added to the field of music. He is most remembered and
acknowledged for his recordings of the 'Bach Cello Suite,' which
he created and rediscovered in the latter half of the 1930s.
Before this, many cellists regarded them only as exercises, while
some did not believe it was a real published piece of music. With
this new revelation and popularity, music was never the same.
There was an influx of the suites' recordings. All cellists
suddenly had to know the suites and more composers created works
based on them. The Pablo Casals Festival is an event that runs for
two weeks. All artists and musicians around the globe are invited.
It continues to run today and celebrates the conductor himself,
Casals.
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: The
Presidential Inauguration With Walter Cronkite DVD, Download, USB
Today, December 29, 2025December 29, 2024: #DOTD: #RIP: Jimmy
Carter, American naval lieutenant, politician, philanthropist,
civil rights activist, author and farmer, 39th President of the
United States from 1977 to 1981, Nobel Prize laureate (b. October
1, 1924) #dies at 3:45 PM at his home in Plains, Georgia at the
age of 100. Shortly after the announcement, President Joe Biden
released a statement honoring Carter's legacy, calling him a "man
of principle, faith, and humility". The nation held an
official state funeral and day of mourning for Carter on January
9, 2025. All five living U.S. presidents -- Bill Clinton, George
W. Bush, Barack Obama, president-elect Donald Trump, and incumbent
Biden -- attended Carter's funeral. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are
buried beside each other next to a willow tree near the pond on
the lawn of their property across Woodland Drive from the house at
The Jimmy Carter House, Memorial Garden & Gravesite, their
longtime home, located at 209 Woodland Drive in Plains, Georgia.
After Jimmy Carter's death and in accordance to the Carters'
wishes, the National Park Service renovated the gravesite and
gardens around the pond for public access and use. Both areas,
along with Woodland Drive, were open to the public in July 2025 as
part of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park. The garden is
managed along environmental principles that reflect Rosalynn
Carter's interest in pollinator gardens, a type of garden designed
with the intent of growing specific nectar and pollen-producing
plants, in a way that attracts pollinating insects known as
pollinators. Jimmy Carter was born James Earl Carter Jr at the
Wise Sanitarium (now the Lillian G. Carter Nursing Center) in
Plains, Georgia. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously
served as a Georgia State Senator from 1963 to 1967 and as the
76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975. Since leaving the
presidency, Carter has remained engaged in political and social
projects as a private citizen. In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize for his work in co-founding the Carter Center. Raised
in Plains, Georgia, Carter graduated from the United States Naval
Academy in 1946 with a Bachelor of Science degree and joined the
United States Navy, where he served on submarines. After the death
of his father in 1953, Carter left his naval career and returned
home to Georgia to take up the reins of his family's
peanut-growing business. Carter inherited comparatively little due
to his father's forgiveness of debts and the division of the
estate among the children. Nevertheless, his ambition to expand
and grow the Carters' peanut business was fulfilled. During this
period, Carter was motivated to oppose the political climate of
racial segregation and support the growing civil rights movement.
He became an activist within the Democratic Party. From 1963 to
1967, Carter served in the Georgia State Senate, and in 1970, he
was elected as Governor of Georgia, defeating former Governor Carl
Sanders in the Democratic primary on an anti-segregation platform
advocating affirmative action for ethnic minorities. Carter
remained as governor until 1975. Despite being a dark-horse
candidate who was little known outside of Georgia at the start of
the campaign, Carter won the 1976 Democratic presidential
nomination. In the general election, Carter ran as an outsider and
narrowly defeated incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford. On
his second day in office, Carter pardoned all the Vietnam War
draft evaders by issuing Proclamation 4483. During Carter's term
as president, two new cabinet-level departments, the Department of
Energy and the Department of Education, were established. He
established a national energy policy that included conservation,
price control, and new technology. In foreign affairs, Carter
pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, the
second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II), and the
return of the Panama Canal Zone to Panama. On the economic front,
he confronted stagflation, a persistent combination of high
inflation, high unemployment and slow growth. The end of his
presidential tenure was marked by the 1979-1981 Iran hostage
crisis, the 1979 energy crisis, the Three Mile Island nuclear
accident, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In response to
the invasion, Carter escalated the Cold War when he ended detente,
imposed a grain embargo against the Soviets, enunciated the Carter
Doctrine, and led a 1980 Summer Olympics boycott in Moscow. In
1980, Carter faced a challenge from Senator Ted Kennedy in the
primaries, but he won re-nomination at the 1980 Democratic
National Convention. Carter lost the general election to
Republican nominee Ronald Reagan in an electoral landslide. He is
the only President in American history to serve a full term of
office and never appoint a justice to the Supreme Court. Polls of
historians and political scientists usually rank Carter as a
below-average president; he often receives more positive
evaluations for his post-presidential work. In 1982, Carter
established the Carter Center to promote and expand human rights.
He has traveled extensively to conduct peace negotiations, monitor
elections, and advance disease prevention and eradication in
developing nations. Carter is considered a key figure in the
Habitat for Humanity charity. He has written over 30 books ranging
from political memoirs to poetry while continuing to actively
comment on ongoing American and global affairs, such as the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The earliest-serving of the five
living U.S. presidents, Carter is the longest-lived president, the
longest-retired president, the first to live forty years after his
inauguration, the first to reach the age of 96, and the first to
live beyond the age of 96.
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: Armed
Forces Radio Presents Jubilee! WWII Radio DVD, MP3 Download, USB
Today, December 29, 2025December 29, 1952: #DOTD: #RIP: Fletcher
Henderson, also known as Smack Henderson because of smacking
sounds he made with his lips, African American jazz pioneer, swing
music pioneer, pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, a
seminal figure with vast influence in the development of big band
jazz and swing music and the ultimately the evolution of big band
music (b. December 18, 1897) #dies in New York City in 1952,
eleven days after his 55th birthday, having had a stroke that
resulting in partial paralysis that ended his days as a pianist
two years prior. Born James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson in
Cuthbert, Georgia to a middle-class African American family, he
was one of the most prolific black musical arrangers and, along
with Duke Ellington, is considered one of the most influential
arrangers and bandleaders in jazz history, and helped bridge the
gap between the Dixieland and the swing eras. Fletcher Henderson's
father, Fletcher Hamilton Henderson (1857-1943), was the principal
of the nearby Howard Normal Randolph School from 1880 until 1942.
His home, now known as the Fletcher Henderson House, is a historic
site. His mother, a teacher, taught him and his brother Horace to
play the piano. He began lessons by the age of six. His father
would occasionally lock Fletcher in his room to practice for
hours. By age 13, Henderson possessed a keen ability to read music
and sense pitch. He pursued the studies with his mother and
further engaged himself in lessons on European art. Although a
talented musician, Henderson decided to dedicate himself to math
and science. He attended Atlanta University (where he was a member
of the fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha) and graduated in 1920 with a
bachelor's degree in chemistry and mathematics. After graduation,
he moved to New York City with the intention of attending Columbia
University for a master's degree in chemistry. In New York City,
Henderson shared an apartment with a pianist who worked as a
musician in a riverboat orchestra. When his roommate was too sick
to perform, Henderson took his place, which soon gave him a job as
a full-time replacement. In the fall of 1920 he found work as a
song demonstrator with the Pace and Handy Music Co. Henderson now
found that music would be more profitable than chemistry and left
his job as a lab chemist to begin a life in music. When Pace left
the company to start Black Swan Records, he took Henderson with
him to be musical director, a job which lasted from 1921-1923.
From 1920-1923, he primarily played piano accompaniment for blues
singers. Henderson toured with the Black Swan Troubadours
featuring Ethel Waters from October 1921 to July 1922. After
hearing Louis Armstrong in New Orleans while on tour in April
1922, Henderson sent him an offer, but Armstrong refused because
Henderson would not hire Zutty Singleton as well. In July 1924 the
band began a brief engagement at the Roseland Ballroom. Although
only meant to stay for a few months, the band was brought back for
the autumn season. Henderson called on the 23-year-old cornetist
Louis Armstrong for a second time to join the band. Henderson's
offer on October 13, 1924 made history when the Henderson band
began their re-engagement at Roseland with Armstrong now in the
orchestra. Quickly the band became known as the best African
American band in New York. By late 1924 the arrangements by Don
Redman were featuring more solo work. In addition to adding hot
solos to arrangements, Redman arranged Armstrong's repertoire with
the King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, such as turning "Dippermouth
Blues" into "Sugar Foot Stomp." Armstrong played in
the band for only a year because he could not grow accustomed to
the arrangements and to the "pretension" of the other
band members. Despite this, his influence on the Henderson band
and all jazz during this time cannot be overstated. Through his
hot solos, knowledge of jazz repertoire, and introduction of
clarinetist Buster Bailey to the band, Armstrong turned
Henderson's Orchestra into a jazz band. Henderson's band boasted
the formidable arranging talents of Don Redman. After Redman's
departure from the band in 1927, Henderson took on some of the
arranging, but Benny Carter was Redman's replacement as saxophone
player and arranger from 1930-31, and Henderson also bought scores
from freelance musicians (including John Nesbitt from McKinney's
Cotton Pickers). Henderson developed his arranging skills from
1931 to the mid-1930s. His band c. 1925 included Howard Scott,
Coleman Hawkins (who started with Henderson in 1923, playing the
tuba parts on a bass saxophone, and quickly moving to tenor
saxophone and a leading solo role), Louis Armstrong, Charlie
Dixon, Kaiser Marshall, Buster Bailey, Elmer Chambers, Charlie
Green, Ralph Escudero, and Don Redman. In 1925, with Henry Troy,
he wrote "Gin House Blues", recorded by Bessie Smith and
Nina Simone among others. His other compositions include "Soft
Winds". Henderson recorded extensively in the 1920s for
nearly every label, including Vocalion, Paramount, Columbia,
Olympic, Ajax, Pathe, Perfect, Edison, Emerson, Brunswick, and the
dime-store labels Banner, Oriole, Regal, Cameo, and Romeo. From
1925-1930, he recorded primarily for Columbia and Brunswick/
Vocalion under his own name and a series of acoustic recordings as
the Dixie Stompers for Harmony Records and associated dime-store
labels (Diva and Velvet Tone). During the 1930s, he recorded for
Columbia, Crown (as "Connie's Inn Orchestra"), ARC
(Melotone, Perfect, Oriole, Vocalion), Bluebird, Victor, and
Decca. Starting in the early 1920s, he recorded popular hits and
jazz tunes. In 1924 he and his band recorded 80 sides. His version
of the pop tune "I Can't Get the One I Want", recorded
about June 19, 1924, was issued on at least 23 labels. In addition
to Armstrong, lead trumpeters included Henry "Red"
Allen, Joe Smith, Rex Stewart, Tommy Ladnier, Doc Cheatham and Roy
Eldridge. Lead saxophonists included Coleman Hawkins, Buster
Bailey, Benny Carter and Chu Berry. Sun Ra also worked as an
arranger during the 1940s, during Henderson's engagement at the
Club DeLisa in Chicago. Sun Ra said that on first hearing
Henderson's orchestra as a teenager he assumed that they were
angels because no human could produce such beautiful music.
Although Henderson's band was popular, he had little success in
managing it. His lack of recognition outside of Harlem had to do
more with the times in which he lived, apparently lackluster
management, and the hard times that resulted after the 1929 stock
market crash. Fletcher had a knack for finding talent, but he did
not have much luck keeping it. On many occasions he lost talented
members to other bandleaders. He also had trouble with finances.
When the band split up in 1934, he was forced to sell some of his
popular arrangements to Benny Goodman to keep them together. After
about 1931, his own arrangements became influential. In addition
to arrangements for his band, he wrote arrangements for Teddy
Hill, Isham Jones and Benny Goodman. His shoulder was injured in
an auto accident in 1928. His wife, Leora, blamed the accident for
his diminishing success. She said that John Hammond and Goodman
bought Henderson's arrangements to support him, that Goodman
always gave Henderson credit for the arrangements and said that he
played them better than his own. In addition, Goodman and Hammond
organized broadcasts and recordings to help Henderson when he was
ill. Four decades later, two of his songs, "Queer Notions"
and "Yeah, Man!" were performed in the movie Kansas
City. In 1935, Goodman's Orchestra was selected as a house band
for the NBC radio program Let's Dance. Since Goodman needed new
charts every week for the show, his friend John Hammond suggested
that he purchase some from Henderson. Many of Goodman's hits from
the swing era were played by Henderson and his own band in the
late 1920s and early 1930s, usually as head arrangements, which he
transcribed from his own records and then sold to Goodman.
However, his brother Horace Henderson recounted (in Ross
Firestone's biography of Goodman, Swing, Swing, Swing) that the
clarinetist made heavy demands on Henderson for fresh charts while
his band was engaged for the Let's Dance show in 1934-35, and that
he himself helped his brother complete some of them. The singer
Helen Ward also stated that Henderson was delighted to hear the
Goodman Orchestra realize his creations with such impeccable
musicianship. In 1939, Henderson disbanded his band and joined
Goodman's, first as pianist and arranger and then working
full-time as staff arranger. He re-formed bands of his own several
times in the 1940s and toured with Ethel Waters again in
1948-1949. Henderson suffered a stroke in 1950, resulting in
partial paralysis that ended his days as a pianist, and he died
two years later. Henderson, along with Don Redman, established the
formula for swing music. The two broke the band into sections (sax
section, trumpet section, etc). These sections worked together to
create a unique sound. Sometimes, the sections would play in
call-and-response style, and at other times one section would play
supporting riffs behind the other. Swing, its popularity spanning
over a decade, was the most fashionable form of jazz ever in the
United States. Henderson was also responsible for bringing Louis
Armstrong from Chicago to New York in October 1924, thus flipping
the focal point of jazz in the history of the United States
(although Armstrong left the band in November 1925 and returned to
Chicago). Henderson also played a key role in bringing
improvisatory jazz styles from New Orleans and other areas of the
country to New York, where they merged with a dance-band tradition
that relied heavily on arrangements written out in musical
notation. A museum is being established in his memory in Cuthbert,
Georgia. Henderson differed from other musicians in his time. He
made the idea of playing jazz exclusively popular to ambitious,
young, black musicians. He made it financially stable and a way to
seize cultural power during the time. Henderson was genuine when
it came to the appearance of the band. He was all for making an
impact on the era. Henderson would intently see to it that each
member had a clean-shaven face, a tuxedo, and polished shoes. It
was recorded that he would do this before every performance,
especially ones in predominantly white communities, such as Times
Square. Henderson created a band that was capable of playing dance
music and complex arrangements. Louis Metcalf said, "The
sight of Fletcher Henderson's men playing behind music stands
brought on a learning-to-read-music kick in Harlem which hadn't
cared before it. There were two years of real concentration.
Everybody greeted you with 'How's studying?'"
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: King Of
Jazz 1930 Paul Whiteman John Boles Laura La Plante DVD MP4 USB
Today, December 29, 2025December 29, 1967: #DOTD: #RIP: Paul
Whiteman, American bandleader, composer, orchestral director, and
violist (b. March 28, 1890) #dies of a heart attack on in
Doylestown, Pennsylvania, aged 77. He is buried at The First
Presbyterian Church Of Ewing Cemetery in Ewing, New Jersey. He was
survived by his wife Margaret Livingston, American film actress,
businesswoman and beauty of the silent film era. Paul Whiteman was
born Paul Samuel Whiteman in Denver, Colorado. As the leader of
one of the most popular dance bands in the United States during
the 1920s and early 1930s, Whiteman produced recordings that were
immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as
the "King of Jazz". His most popular recordings include
"Whispering", "Valencia", "Three O'Clock
in the Morning", "In a Little Spanish Town", and
"Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers". Whiteman led a usually
large ensemble and explored many styles of music, such as blending
symphonic music and jazz, as in his debut of Rhapsody in Blue by
George Gershwin. Whiteman recorded many jazz and pop standards
during his career, including "Wang Wang Blues",
"Mississippi Mud", "Rhapsody in Blue",
"Wonderful One", "Hot Lips (He's Got Hot Lips When
He Plays Jazz)", "Mississippi Suite", "Grand
Canyon Suite", and "Trav'lin' Light". He co-wrote
the 1925 jazz classic "Flamin' Mamie". His popularity
faded in the swing music era of the mid-1930s, and by the 1940s he
was semi-retired from music. He experienced a revival and had a
comeback in the 1950s with his own network television series, Paul
Whiteman's Goodyear Revue, which ran for three seasons on ABC. He
also hosted the 1954 ABC talent contest show On the Boardwalk with
Paul Whiteman. Whiteman's place in the history of early jazz is
somewhat controversial. Detractors suggest that his ornately
orchestrated music was jazz in name only, lacking the genre's
improvisational and emotional depth, and co-opted the innovations
of black musicians. Defenders note that Whiteman's fondness for
jazz was genuine. He worked with black musicians as much as was
feasible during an era of racial segregation. His bands included
many of the era's most esteemed white musicians, and his groups
handled jazz admirably as part of a larger repertoire. Critic
Scott Yanow declares that Whiteman's orchestra "did play very
good jazz... His superior dance band used some of the most
technically skilled musicians of the era in a versatile show that
included everything from pop tunes and waltzes to semi-classical
works and jazz... Many of his recordings (particularly those with
Beiderbecke) have been reissued numerous times and are more
rewarding than his detractors would lead one to believe." In
his autobiography, Duke Ellington declared, "Paul Whiteman
was known as the King of Jazz, and no one as yet has come near
carrying that title with more certainty and dignity."
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: The
Golden Age Of Rock 'N' Roll DVD, MP4 Video Download, Flash Drive
Today, December 29, 2025December 29, 2022: #DOTD: #RIP: Ian
Tyson, best known as part of the Canadian folk and country music
duo Ian & Sylvia with Sylvia Tyson, Canadian singer,
songwriter and guitarist, author of several folk songs including
"Four Strong Winds" and "Someday Soon", the
former voted by CBC Radio One listeners as the greatest Canadian
song of all time (There was strong momentum for him to be
nominated the Greatest Canadian, but he fell short) (b. September
25, 1933) #dies at his ranch near Longview, Alberta at the age of
89. According to his manager Paul Mascioli, this followed several
health issues, including a heart attack and open heart surgery in
2015. Tyson became a Member of the Order of Canada in October 1994
and was inducted into the Alberta Order of Excellence in 2006. In
2003, Tyson received a Governor General's Performing Arts Award.
Tyson's 1987 album Cowboyography contained two songs that were
later chosen by the Western Writers of America as among the Top
100 Western Songs of all time: "Navajo Rug" and "Summer
Wages". He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame,
with Sylvia, in 1992. Ian Tyson was inducted into the Mariposa
Hall of Fame, with Sylvia, in 2006. He was inducted into the
Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 1989; Sylvia Tyson was
inducted in 2003. An announcement in July 2019 stated that Ian
Tyson and Sylvia Tyson would be inducted into the Songwriters Hall
of Fame, individually, not as a duo. The Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation article stated that "the duo's 1964's hit, 'Four
Strong Winds', has been deemed one of the most influential songs
in Canadian history". The report also referenced the song
"You Were on My Mind", written by Sylvia Tyson, as well
as her four albums (1975-1980). Ian Tyson was born Ian Dawson
Tyson in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Ian Dawson Tyson CM
AOE grew up in Duncan, British Columbia, where he learned to ride
horses on his father's farm, and eventually became a rodeo rider
in his late teens and early twenties. He took up the guitar while
in hospital recovering from a broken ankle sustained in a rodeo
accident. Fellow Canadian country artist Wilf Carter was a musical
influence.[4] He graduated from the Vancouver School of Art in
1958. After graduation, Tyson moved to Toronto where he began a
job as a commercial artist. There he performed in local clubs and
in 1959 began to sing on occasion with Sylvia Fricker. By early
1959 Tyson and Fricker were performing part-time at the Village
Corner as Ian & Sylvia. The pair became a full-time musical
act in 1961 and married three years later. In 1969, they formed
and fronted the group The Great Speckled Bird. Residing in
southern Alberta, the Tysons toured all over the world. During
their years together, the pair released 13 albums of folk and
country music. From 1970 to 1975, Tyson hosted a national
television program, The Ian Tyson Show, on CTV, known as Nashville
North in its first season. Sylvia Tyson and the Great Speckled
Bird appeared often in the series. In 1980, Tyson became
associated with Calgary music manager and producer Neil
MacGonigill. Tyson decided to concentrate on country and cowboy
music, resulting in the well-received 1983 album Old Corrals and
Sagebrush, released on Columbia Records. In 1989, Tyson was
inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame. His next
albums were cowboy music: I Outgrew the Wagon (1989), And Stood
There Amazed (1991), and Eighteen Inches of Rain (1994). Tyson
credited Adrian Chornowol with creating a unique sound for his
platinum album "Cowboyography", a unique style that he
maintained for the rest of his recording career. In 2005, CBC
Radio One listeners chose his song "Four Strong Winds"
as the greatest Canadian song of all time on the series 50 Tracks:
The Canadian Version. He has been a strong influence on many
Canadian artists, including Neil Young, who recorded "Four
Strong Winds" for Comes a Time (1978). Johnny Cash would also
record the same song for American V: A Hundred Highways (2006).
Judy Collins recorded a version of his song "Someday Soon"
in 1968. Bob Dylan and the Band recorded his song "One Single
River" in Woodstock, New York, in 1967. The recording can be
found on the unreleased Genuine Basement Tapes, vol. I. In 2006,
Tyson sustained irreversible scarring to his vocal cords as a
result of a concert at the Havelock Country Jamboree followed a
year later by a virus contracted during a flight to Denver. This
resulted in a notable loss of the vocal quality and range he was
known for; he has self-described his new sound as "gravelly".
Notwithstanding, he released the album From Yellowhead to
Yellowstone and Other Love Stories in 2008 to high critical
praise. He was nominated for a 2009 Canadian Folk Music Award for
Solo Artist of the Year. Sylvia joined Ian to sing their signature
song, "Four Strong Winds", at the 50th anniversary of
the Mariposa Folk Festival on 11 July 2010, in Orillia, Ontario.
Tyson has also written a book of young adult fiction about his
song "La Primera", called La Primera: The Story of Wild
Mustangs. Tyson's first marriage, to his musical partner Sylvia
Fricker, ended in an amicable divorce in 1975. Their son Clay
(Clayton Dawson Tyson, born 1966) was also a musical performer and
has since moved to a career modifying racing bikes. After the
divorce, Tyson returned to southern Alberta to farm and train
horses but also continued his musical career on a limited basis.
In 1978, Neil Young recorded "Four Strong Winds", and
Tyson used the royalties for a down payment on a cattle and horse
ranch. He started playing regularly at Calgary's Ranchman's Club
around this time. Tyson's autobiography, The Long Trail: My Life
in the West, was published in 2010. Ian Tyson married Twylla
Dvorkin in 1986. Their daughter Adelita Rose was born c. 1987.
Tyson's second marriage ended in divorce in early 2008, several
years after he and Dvorkin had separated. A book by John Einarson,
Four Strong Winds: Ian & Sylvia, was published in 2012.
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: An
Ocean Apart: US-UK Relations TV Series + Profumo Affair MP4 DVD
Set
Today, December 29, 2025December 29, 2006: The Aftermath Of World
War II: United Kingdom-United States Relations: The Anglo-American
Loan (Officially The Anglo-American Loan Agreement): -- The UK
settles its Anglo-American Loan post-WWII loan debt. The
Anglo-American Loan Agreement was a loan made to the United
Kingdom by the United States on July 15, 1946, enabling its
economy after the Second World War to keep afloat. The loan was
negotiated by British economist John Maynard Keynes and American
diplomat William L. Clayton. Problems arose on the American side,
with many in Congress reluctant, and with sharp differences
between the treasury and state departments. The loan was for 3.75B
USD at a low 2% interest rate; Canada loaned an additional 1.19B
USD. The British economy in 1947 was hurt by a provision that
called for convertibility into dollars of the wartime sterling
balances the British had borrowed from India and others, but by
1948, the Marshall Plan included financial support that was not
expected to be repaid. The entire loan was paid off in 2006, after
it was extended six years.
https://store.earthstation1.com/an-ocean-apart-us-uk-relations-tv-series-profumo-affair-mp4-dvd-set.html
Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: Firing
Line Special: The Kennedy-Macmillan Relationship DVD, MP4, USB
Today, December 29, 2025December 29, 1986: #DOTD: #RIP: Harold
Macmillan, nicknamed "Supermac", known for his
pragmatism, wit and unflappability, English captain, British
statesman, politician of the Conservative Party, Prime Minister of
the United Kingdom (b. February 10, 1894) #dies after a bout with
pneumonia at Birch Grove, the Macmillan family mansion on the edge
of Ashdown Forest, in Horsted Keynes, West Sussex, England, aged
92. His last words were, 'I think I will go to sleep now'."
His lifespan of 92 years and 322 days was the longest of any
British prime minister until surpassed on February 14, 2005 by
Lord Callaghan (Prime Minister from 1976 to 1979, Leader of the
Labour Party 1976 to 1980, the only person to have held all four
Great Offices of State [Chancellor Of The Exchequer, Home
Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Prime Minister], Member of
Parliament (MP) from 1945 to 1987. A private funeral was held on
January 5, 1987 at St Giles' Church, Horsted Keynes, West Sussex,
where he had regularly worshipped and read the lesson. Two hundred
mourners attended, including 64 members of the Macmillan family,
Thatcher and former premiers Lord Home and Edward Heath, as well
as Lord Hailsham, and scores of country neighbours. The Prince Of
Wales sent a wreath "in admiring memory". He was buried
in St Giles Churchyard beside his wife and next to his parents and
his son Maurice, who had died in 1984. The House of Commons paid
its tribute on January 12, 1987, with much reference made to his
book The Middle Way. A public memorial service, attended by the
Queen and thousands of mourners, was held on February 10, 1987 in
Westminster Abbey. Macmillan's estate was assessed for probate on
June 1, 1987, with a value of 51,114 PS (equivalent to 152,955 PS
in 2021). Harold Macmillan was born Maurice Harold Macmillan at 52
Cadogan Place in Chelsea, London, England. He was nicknamed
"Supermac" after a 1958 cartoon image of him by Victor
"Vicky" Weisz which first appeared in the Evening
Standard on November 6, 1958 with the caption, "How to Try to
Continue to be Top Without Actually Having Been There", which
became an enduring nickname for him. Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st
Earl of Stockton, OM, PC, FRS served in the Grenadier Guards
during the First World War. He was wounded three times, most
severely in September 1916 during the Battle Of The Somme. He
spent the rest of the war in a military hospital unable to walk,
and suffered pain and partial immobility for the rest of his life.
After the war Macmillan joined his family business, then entered
Parliament in the 1924 General Election, for the northern
industrial constituency of Stockton-on-Tees. After losing his seat
in 1929, he regained it in 1931, soon after which he spoke out
against the high rate of unemployment in Stockton-On-Tees, and
against appeasement. Rising to high office during the Second World
War as a protege of wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill,
Macmillan then served as Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the
Exchequer under Churchill's successor Sir Anthony Eden. When Eden
resigned in 1957 following the Suez Crisis, Macmillan succeeded
him as Prime Minister. As a One Nation Tory of the Disraelian
tradition, haunted by memories of the Great Depression, he
believed in the post-war settlement and the necessity of a mixed
economy, championing a Keynesian strategy of public investment to
maintain demand and pursuing corporatist policies to develop the
domestic market as the engine of growth. Benefiting from
favourable international conditions, he presided over an age of
affluence, marked by low unemployment and high if uneven growth.
In his Bedford speech in July 1957 he told the nation they had
'never had it so good', but warned of the dangers of inflation,
summing up the fragile prosperity of the 1950s. The Conservatives
were re-elected in 1959 with an increased majority. In
international affairs, Macmillan rebuilt the special relationship
with the United States from the wreckage of the Suez Crisis (of
which he had been one of the architects), and redrew the world map
by decolonising sub-Saharan Africa. Reconfiguring the nation's
defences to meet the realities of the nuclear age, he ended
National Service, strengthened the nuclear forces by acquiring
Polaris, and pioneered the Nuclear Test Ban with the United States
and the Soviet Union. Belatedly recognising the dangers of
strategic dependence, he sought a new role for Britain in Europe,
but his unwillingness to disclose United States nuclear secrets to
France contributed to a French veto of the United Kingdom's entry
into the European Economic Community. Near the end of his
premiership, his government was rocked by the Vassall and Profumo
scandals, which seemed to symbolise for the rebellious youth of
the 1960s the moral decay of the British establishment. After his
resignation, Macmillan lived out a long retirement as an elder
statesman. He was as trenchant a critic of his successors in his
old age as he had been of his predecessors in his youth. Macmillan
was the last Prime Minister born during the Victorian era, the
last to have served in the First World War, the last to wear a
moustache when in office, and the last to receive an hereditary
peerage.
https://store.earthstation1.com/firing-line-special-the-kennedymacmillan-relationship-dvd-mp4-usbht4.html
Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: Clive
James' Fame In The 20th Century TV Series DVD Set MP4 USB Drive
Today, December 29, 2025December 29, 2022: #DOTD: #RIP: Pele,
Brazilian soccer player (footballer) who played forward, and
actor, regarded as one of the greatest football players of all
time, and labelled "the greatest" by FIFA, among the
most successful and popular sports figures of the 20th century (b.
October 23, 1940) #dies at 3:27 pm at The Albert Einstein
Israelite Hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil of multiple organ failure,
a complication of colon cancer aggravated by COVID-19, at the age
of 82, Pele's death certificate stated that he had died of kidney
failure, heart failure, bronchopneumonia and colon adenocarcinoma.
He was survived by his 100-year-old mother, Celeste, who, given
her advanced age, did not understand her son's death; Pele's
sister Maria Lucia do Nascimento described their mother as "in
her own little world". Respects were paid by the great and
the good throughout the world, and after a long and elaborate
funeral procession, Pele was buried at the Memorial Necropole
Ecumenica in Sao Paulo. Pele was born Edson Arantes do Nascimento
in Tres Coracoes, Minas Gerais, Brazil. In 1999, he was named
Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee and
was included in the Time list of the 100 most important people of
the 20th century. In 2000, Pele was voted World Player of the
Century by the International Federation of Football History &
Statistics (IFFHS), and was one of the two joint winners of the
FIFA Player of the Century. His 1,279 goals in 1,363 games, which
includes friendlies, is recognised as a Guinness World Record.
Pele began playing for Santos at age 15 and the Brazil national
team at 16. During his international career, he won three FIFA
World Cups: 1958, 1962 and 1970, the only player to do so. Pele is
the all-time leading goalscorer for Brazil with 77 goals in 92
games. At club level he is Santos' all-time top goalscorer with
643 goals from 659 games. In a golden era for Santos, he led the
club to the 1962 and 1963 Copa Libertadores, and to the 1962 and
1963 Intercontinental Cup. Credited with connecting the phrase
"The Beautiful Game" with football, Pele's "electrifying
play and penchant for spectacular goals" made him a star
around the world, and his teams toured internationally in order to
take full advantage of his popularity. During his playing days,
Pele was for a period the best-paid athlete in the world. Since
retiring in 1977, Pele has been a worldwide ambassador for
football and has made many acting and commercial ventures. In
2010, he was named the Honorary President of the New York Cosmos.
Averaging almost a goal per game throughout his career, Pele was
adept at striking the ball with either foot in addition to
anticipating his opponents' movements on the field. While
predominantly a striker, he could also drop deep and take on a
playmaking role, providing assists with his vision and passing
ability, and he would also use his dribbling skills to go past
opponents. In Brazil, he is hailed as a national hero for his
accomplishments in football and for his outspoken support of
policies that improve the social conditions of the poor. His
emergence at the 1958 World Cup where he became the first black
global sporting star was a source of inspiration. Throughout his
career and in his retirement, Pele received several individual and
team awards for his performance in the field, his record-breaking
achievements, and legacy in the sport.
https://store.earthstation1.com/clive-james39-fame-in-the-20th-century-tv-series-dvd-set-mp4-usb-39204.html
Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: Black
Stars In Orbit: The Black Astronauts Of NASA MP4 Download Or DVD
Today, December 29, 2025December 29, 1921: #BOTD: #HBD! Dr.
Robert E. Shurney, African American aerospace engineer at NASA,
renowned for achievements critical to the success of the Apollo
and Skylab programs, Director Of The Kennedy Space Center's
Programs For Tool Useage In Space, inventor of the Zerogravity
Toilet, Microgravity Furnance, designer of the Lunar Rover's
aluminum tires, Seventh-Day Adventist deacon, community services
leader, and longtime member of the Oakwood College church (d.
November 25, 2007) is #born Robert Ellerston Shurney in Dublin,
Georgia to Vance Shurney (1900-1991) and St. Clair (Clara) Weston
Shurney (1901-1930), Robert was the third of four children. His
father, a veteran of World War I, was employed in the Dublin
Lumber Company sawmill.1 Following the death of their mother in
1930 due to complications during pregnancy, Robert and his
siblings were raised by grandparents in San Bernadino, California.
As a teenager Robert discovered he had a talent for designing
things, and worked as an auto mechanic. He wanted to become an
engineer, but had to drop out of school in order to help support
his family during the Depression years. Eventually he made his way
to Huntsville, Alabama, where he studied and worked at Oakwood
Junior College. He was inducted into the United States Army on
November 13, 1943, serving as a medic in the European theater
during World War II. Shurney married Susie Flynt (d. 1997), whom
he met while a student at Oakwood, on May 16, 1946, two months
after his discharge from the Army. They would have four children:
Darrell, Glyndon, Glenn, and Ronald. The Shurneys lived in
southern California for approximately three years. They then moved
to Nashville, Tennessee, where Robert took a position as a
maintenance engineer for Riverside Sanitarium and Hospital, an
Adventist medical institution established to serve African
Americans during the segregation era. While at Riverside, Shurney
and his colleague Jonathan Walker led the hospital's maintenance
staff in completing every phase of the construction of a new
Adventist elementary school, except for the architectural plans.
The school, intended primarily to provide Adventist education for
the children of hospital employees, opened September 19, 1961.
Shurney's inventive gift became evident when he designed and
installed a rotational surgical lamp for the hospital. Dr. Carl
Dent, Riverside's medical director, urged him to complete his
college degree. Having long desired to pursue higher education,
Shurney resolved to do so despite warnings from others about the
obstacles he would face as a middle-aged Black man and father of
four children. He pushed forward, graduating in 1962 with a
bachelor of science degree in engineering and physics from
Tennessee State University. After his graduation, Shurney's
application for an engineering position at NASA was initially
turned down. His sister-in-law, an acquaintance of Dr. and Mrs.
Martin Luther King, Jr., informed them about his plight and the
Kings in turn informed Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who
contacted NASA on Shurney's behalf, as did Congressman Adam
Clayton Powell, Jr., of New York. After a favorable interview,
NASA hired Shurney in the fall of 1962 as a flight systems
engineer at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville,
Alabama. One of Shurney's first contributions at NASA was to work
on the weight distribution of the massive Saturn V rocket.
President John F. Kennedy's dream to send a man to the moon by the
end of the 1960s was successful in part because of Robert
Shurney's work. As test coordinator for flight operations, he
directed crew training and research programs in aircraft-based
weightlessness simulations to test human reactions. He spent
300-400 hours in weightless flight using NASA's modified KC-135
aircraft but, remarkably, never had to take motion sickness pills.
One of Shurney's most notable contributions was designing wheels
for the NASA lunar rover, or "moon buggy," that enabled
Apollo 15, 16, and 17 astronauts to move easily across the moon's
surface. His successful design, combining metal plates on the
outside with mesh on the inside, made the wheels both strong and
lightweight, giving the rover maximum traction while keeping the
vehicle within weight specifications. He also helped design a
solar shield to insulate spacecraft from the intense heat of the
sun and a solar panel as a constant source of power. Shurney's
standout achievements also included developing ways for astronauts
to perform essential human functions in a zero gravity
environment. He developed a binding agent to keep the astronauts
food from flying apart while they were trying to eat it and
designed utensils and storage containers for the food. He also
helped invent space toilets for the Skylab missions. Shurney was
relentless in his pursuit of education, and in the ever-changing
world of NASA and space travel, such advancement was essential.
"During my time as an aerospace engineer, I kept abreast of
new innovations in space by attending many colleges and
universities, including Meharry Medical College, Howard
University, the University of Michigan, the University of Alabama
and the University of Oklahoma," he stated. He also published
several NASA Technical Memorandums and Papers on findings in
microgravity research for leading scientific journals. A graduate
again at the age of 64, Shurney completed his Ph.D. in physics
from Columbia Pacific University, San Rafael, California, in 1986.
Throughout his years at NASA, Shurney's involvement in the
Adventist church remained strong. He served as a deacon and held
other offices in the Oakwood College church. He spoke at several
Adventist colleges, including Andrews University where he lectured
for Black History week in 1978. He was a vigorous fundraiser for
Oakwood and active in the J. L. Moran Chapter of the Oakwood
College Alumni Association. After 28 years with NASA, Shurney
retired in 1990. He and his wife Susie continued residing in
Huntsville. They helped to establish the Adventist Community
Services Center in the city. In fact, Shurney's daily routine in
retirement, for several days out of the week, revolved around
collection and distribution of food and other items donated for
the center. He remained active after Susie's death in 1997. The
Dr. Robert Shurney Legacy Center in Huntsville, Alabama includes
an 11-acre campus with walking trails, pickleball courts,
pavilions, park area, a gymnasium, and the North Huntsville Public
Library. Dr. Robert E. Shurney died at his home in Huntsville,
Alabama, aged 85. His burial details are not publicly disclosed.
https://store.earthstation1.com/black-stars-in-orbit-the-black-astronauts-of-nasa-mp4-download-or-dvd.html
Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: The Red
Bomb Soviet Nuclear Bombs History + 2 Bonuses MP4 Download DVD
Today, December 29, 2025December 29, 1911: The Cold War: Soviet
Nuclear Espionage: Atomic Spies: -- #BOTD: Klaus Fuchs, German
theoretical physicist, atomic spy, politician and traitor who, in
1950, was convicted of supplying information from the American,
British, and Canadian Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union during
and shortly after the Second World War (d. January 28, 1988) is
#born Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs in Russelsheim, Grand Duchy of
Hesse, German Empire. While at the Los Alamos National Laboratory,
Fuchs was responsible for many significant theoretical
calculations relating to the first nuclear weapons, and later,
early models of the hydrogen bomb. After his conviction in 1950,
he served nine years in prison in the United Kingdom, then
migrated to East Germany where he resumed his career as a
physicist and scientific leader. The son of a Lutheran pastor,
Fuchs attended the University of Leipzig, where his father was a
professor of theology, and became involved in student politics,
joining the student branch of the Social Democratic Party of
Germany (SPD), and the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold, the SPD's
paramilitary organisation. He was expelled from the SPD in 1932,
and joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). He went into
hiding after the 1933 Reichstag fire, and fled to the United
Kingdom, where he received his PhD from the University of Bristol
under the supervision of Nevill Mott, and his DSc from the
University of Edinburgh, where he worked as an assistant to Max
Born. After the Second World War broke out in Europe, he was
interned in the Isle of Man, and later in Canada. After he
returned to Britain in 1941, he became an assistant to Rudolf
Peierls, working on "Tube Alloys"-the British atomic
bomb project. He began passing information on the project to the
Soviet Union through Ursula Kuczynski, codenamed "Sonya",
a German communist and a major in Soviet military intelligence who
had worked with Richard Sorge's spy ring in the Far East. In 1943,
Fuchs and Peierls went to Columbia University, in New York City,
to work on the Manhattan Project. In August 1944, Fuchs joined the
Theoretical Physics Division at the Los Alamos Laboratory, working
under Hans Bethe. His chief area of expertise was the problem of
implosion, necessary for the development of the plutonium bomb.
After the war, he returned to the UK and worked at the Atomic
Energy Research Establishment at Harwell as head of the
Theoretical Physics Division. In January 1950, Fuchs confessed
that he had passed information to the Soviets over a seven-year
period beginning in 1942. A British court sentenced him to
fourteen years' imprisonment and he was subsequently stripped of
his British citizenship. He was released in 1959, after serving
nine years, and migrated to the German Democratic Republic (East
Germany), where he was elected to the Academy of Sciences and
became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED)
central committee. He was later appointed deputy director of the
Institute for Nuclear Research in Rossendorf, where he served
until he retired in 1979. Klaus Fuchs died in East Berlin, German
Democratic Republic (East Germany) aged 76. He was cremated and
his ashes buried in the "Pergolenweg" (German: "Pergola
Path"; a pergola is most commonly an outdoor garden feature
forming a shaded walkway, passageway, or sitting area of vertical
posts or pillars that usually support cross-beams and a sturdy
open lattice) of the Socialists' Memorial in Berlin's
Friedrichsfelde Cemetery, a cemetery used for many of Berlin's
Socialists, Communists, and anti-fascist fighters.
https://store.earthstation1.com/the-red-bomb-soviet-nuclear-weapons-history-tv-series-mp4-download-dv4.html
Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: The
Soviet-Afghan War DVD, MP4 Video Download, USB Flash Drive
Today, December 29, 2025December 29, 1979: The Cold War: The
Afghan Conflict (The Afghan Crisis, The Instability In
Afghanistan): The Soviet-Afghan War: The Soviet Invasion Of
Afghanistan: Operation Storm-333 (Russian: Shtorm-333): -- The
Soviet Union installs Babrak Karmal as the new leader of the
Democratic Republic Of Aghanistan, two days after Karmal's
predecessor, Hafizullah Amin, was assassinated by the Soviets as
part of Operation Storm-333 (Russian: Shtorm-333), a covert
operation in which Soviet special forces stormed the Tajbeg Palace
in Afghanistan with the deliberate intent of assassining Amin. In
the ensuing battle at Tajberg Palace, 30 Afghan palace guards and
over 300 Afghan National Army guards were killed, 150 were
captured, and total of 1,700 Afghan soldiers surrendered to Soviet
troops and were taken as prisoners. Several other government
buildings were seized during the operation, including the Ministry
of Interior building, the Internal Security (KHAD) building, and
the General Staff building (Darul Aman Palace). Alpha Group
veterans call this operation one of the most successful in the
group's history. Declassified Russian documents show that the
Soviet leadership believed that Hafizullah Amin had secret
contacts with the US embassy and was probably a US agent. However,
this assumption was later proven to be false. Babrak Karmal,
Afghan politician who was installed as President of Afghanistan by
the Soviet Union when they intervened in 1979 (January 6, 1929 -
December 1 or 3, 1996) was born Sultan Hussein in Kamari, Kabul
Province, Kingdom of Afghanistan, the son of Muhammad Hussein
Hashem, a Major General in the Afghan Army and former governor of
the province of Paktia, and was the second of five siblings.
Educated at Kabul University, became one of the leading members of
the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) when it was
formed, having been introduced to Marxism by Mir Akbar Khyber
during his imprisonment for activities deemed too radical by the
government. He eventually became the leader of the Parcham faction
when the PDPA split in 1967, with their ideological nemesis being
the Khalq faction. Under Karmal's leadership, the Parchamite PDPA
participated in Mohammad Daoud Khan's rise to power in 1973, and
his subsequent regime. While relations were good at the beginning,
Daoud began a major purge of leftist influence in the mid-1970s.
This in turn led to the reformation of the PDPA in 1977, and
Karmal played a major role in the 1978 Saur Revolution when the
PDPA took power, though in later years he denounced it. Karmal was
appointed Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Council, synonymous
with vice head of state, in the communist government. The
Parchamite faction found itself under significant pressure by the
Khalqists soon after taking power. In June 1978, a PDPA Central
Committee meeting voted in favor of giving the Khalqist faction
exclusive control over PDPA policy. This decision was followed by
a failed Parchamite coup, after which Hafizullah Amin, a Khalqist,
initiated a purge against the Parchamites. Karmal survived this
purge but was exiled to Prague and eventually dismissed from his
post. Instead of returning to Kabul, he feared for his life and
lived with his family in the forests protected by the Czechoslovak
secret police StB. The Afghan secret police KHAD had allegedly
sent members to Czechoslovakia to assassinate Karmal. In late 1979
he was brought to Moscow by the KGB and eventually, in December
1979, the Soviet Union intervened in Afghanistan (with the consent
of Amin's government) to stabilize the country. The Soviet troops
staged a coup and assassinated Amin. On December 27, 1979,
Hafizullah Amin, Afghan People's Democratic Party General
Secretary and 2nd President of Afghanistan, was assassinated by
the Soviets as part of Operation Storm-333 (Russian: Shtorm-333),
a covert operation in which Soviet special forces stormed the
Tajbeg Palace in Afghanistan with the deliberate intent of
assassining Amin. There are various accounts of how Amin died, and
the exact details have never been confirmed, but it is believed he
was killed either by a deliberate attack or died by a "random
burst of fire", having ruled for slightly longer than three
months. Tajbeg Palace was guarded by Afghan National Army. In the
ensuing battle, Afghan armed forces suffered major losses. 30
Afghan palace guards and over 300 army guards were killed while
150 were captured. Amin's 11-year-old son died from shrapnel
wounds. A total of 1,700 Afghan soldiers surrendered to Soviet
troops and were taken as prisoners. The Soviets installed Babrak
Karmal as Amin's successor. Several other government buildings
were seized during the operation, including the Ministry of
Interior building, the Internal Security (KHAD) building, and the
General Staff building (Darul Aman Palace). Alpha Group veterans
call this operation one of the most successful in the group's
history. Declassified Russian documents show that the Soviet
leadership believed that Hafizullah Amin had secret contacts with
the US embassy and was probably a US agent. However, this
assumption was later proven to be false. Amin was born in Paghman
and educated at Kabul University, after which he started his
career as a teacher. After a few years in that occupation, he went
to the United States to study. He would visit the United States a
second time before moving permanently to Afghanistan, and starting
his career in radical politics. He ran as a candidate in the 1965
parliamentary election but failed to secure a seat. Amin was the
only Khalqist elected to parliament in the 1969 parliamentary
election, thus increasing his standing within the party. He was
one of the leading organizers of the Saur Revolution which
overthrew the government of Mohammad Daoud Khan. In 1979 he named
himself as president, prime minister, and chairman of the Khalq
wing. He has been described as "ruthless" and a "radical
Marxist". Amin's short-lived presidency was marked by
controversies from beginning to end. He came to power by disposing
of his predecessor Nur Muhammad Taraki and later ordering his
death. Amin made attempts to win support from those who revolted
against the communist regime which had begun under Taraki, but his
government was unable to solve this problem. Many Afghans held
Amin responsible for the regime's harshest measures, such as
ordering thousands of executions. Thousands of people disappeared
without trace during his time in office. The Soviet Union, which
was dissatisfied with Amin, intervened in Afghanistan while
invoking the Twenty-Year Treaty of Friendship between Afghanistan
and the Soviet Union. Karmal remained in office until 1981, when
he was succeeded by Sultan Ali Keshtmand. Throughout his term,
Karmal worked to establish a support base for the PDPA by
introducing several reforms. Among these were the "Fundamental
Principles of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan",
introducing a general amnesty for those people imprisoned during
Nur Mohammad Taraki's and Amin's rule. He also replaced the red
Khalqist flag with a more traditional one. These policies failed
to increase the PDPA's legitimacy in the eyes of the Afghan people
and the mujahideen rebels. Karmal had always been highly critical
of his Khalqist predecessors Nur Muhammad Taraki and Amin's
ultra-left radicalism. These policy failures, and the stalemate
that ensued after the Soviet intervention, led the Soviet
leadership to become highly critical of Karmal's leadership. Under
Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union deposed Karmal in 1986 and
replaced him with Mohammad Najibullah. Following his loss of
power, he was again exiled, this time to Moscow. It was Anahita
Ratebzad who persuaded Najibullah to allow Babrak Karmal to return
to Afghanistan in 1991, where Karmal became an associate of Abdul
Rashid Dostum and possibly helped remove the Najibullah government
from power in 1992. He eventually left Afghanistan again for
Moscow. Not long after, in 1996, Karmal died from liver cancer.
https://store.earthstation1.com/the-sovietafghan-war-dvd-mp4-usb-driv4.html
Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: War
Props: The Consolidated B-24 Liberator MP4 Video Download DVD
Today, December 29, 2025December 29, 1939: Aviation: The History
Of Aviation: The History Of Military Aviation: Maiden Flights:
Military Aviation Maiden Flights: -- First flight of the
Consolidated B-24 Liberator, an American heavy bomber, designed by
Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. During World War
II, while aircrews tended to prefer the B-17, General Staff
favored the B-24, because it had a high cruise speed, long range
and the ability to carry a heavy bomb load, and they procured it
in huge numbers for a wide variety of roles. At nearly 19,000
units, with over 8,000 manufactured by Ford Motor Company, it
holds records as the world's most produced: bomber; heavy bomber;
multi-engine aircraft; and American military aircraft in history.
https://store.earthstation1.com/war-props-the-consolidated-b24-liberator-d24.html
Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: Don
Knotts On Hollywood Palace TV Show DVD, Video Download, USB Drive
Today, December 29, 2025December 29, 2013: #DOTD: #RIP: Andy
Granatelli, American race car driver and businessman, most
prominent as the CEO of STP motor oil company, as well as a major
figure in automobile racing events (b. March 18, 1923) #dies from
congestive heart failure at the age of 90 on December 29, 2013 in
Santa Barbara, California. His cremains were given his widow
Dolly. Andy Granatelli was born Anthony in Dallas, Texas. Along
with his brothers Vince and Joe, he first worked as an auto
mechanic and "speed-shop" entrepreneur, modifying
engines such as the flathead Ford into racing-quality equipment.
During World War II, he became a promoter of automobile racing
events, such as the "Hurricane Racing Association",
which combined racing opportunities for up-and-coming drivers with
crowd-pleasing theatrics. Hurricane events, according to
Granatelli in his autobiography They Call Me Mister 500, included
drivers who were experts at executing and surviving roll-over and
end-over-end crashes, and also an ambulance that not only got
caught up into the race but also ejected a stretcher (with a dummy
on it) into the way of the racers.
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: LBJ
1991 TV Documentary Series Lyndon Johnson DVD Download USB Drive
Today, December 29, 2025December 29, 1965: The Cold War: The Cold
War In Asia: The Indochina Wars: The Vietnam War (The Second
Indochina War, The Vietnam Conflict, The Resistance War Against
America): -- The U.S. begins a concentrated peace drive when US
President Lyndon Johnson proposes unconditional peace talks to
North Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh. Accordingly, air action
over North Vietnam, halted at Christmas, was suspended until
January 31, 1966 (36 days, 15 hours). Governors Harriman and
Williams, Ambassador Goldberg and three other representatives were
dispatched to 34 capitals in order that the U.S. position would be
discussed with some 115 governments. Hanoi was contacted
indirectly. The far-flung public effort failed. In a letter to
world leaders dated January 24, 1966, Vietnamese leader Ho Chi
Minh rejected Johnson's offer, and repeated earlier criticisms of
the U.S . peace drive, calling it a "noisy propaganda drive"
and an effort to fool public opinion, and went on to describe
Johnson's 1965 State Of The Union Address statement that the U.S.
would not withdraw from Vietnam "an impudent threat." He
said the Four Points of the DRV (Democratic Republic of Vietnam,
aka North Vietnam) were the basis for negotiations. And a fifth
point was made: Ho said the U.S. must recognize the National
Liberation Front as the "sole genuine representative of the
South Yietnamese people and engage in negotiations with it."
On January 12, 1966, the Hanoi, Vietnam newspaper Quan Doi Nhan
Dan had declared Johnson's peace proposal "absurd" and
that "other proposals", like the U.S. 14 Points, be
discussed. "If the U.S. accepts the Geneva Agreements, it
should accept the Four Points vlhich are the the sum and
substance" of Geneva." The NLF (National Liberation
Front, aka the Viet Cong) rejected U.S. peace offers made through
intermediaries, according to a January 13, 1966 report carried by
the official Algerian news agency. The report followed a meeting
behleen President Boumedienne and the NLF representative in
Algiers. However, a Viet Cong source in Algiers reportedly hinted
that Hanoi might drop the demand for with-drawal of U.S. troops
prior to talks if the U.S. agreed to talk directly to the NLF. The
source said there could be no change in the NLF position until the
U.S. granted it official recognition.
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: The
American Adventure: TV History Series 1607-1876 DVD MP4 USB Drive
Today, December 29, 2025December 29, 1808: #BOTD: Andrew Johnson,
American general and politician, 17th President of the United
States from 1865 to 1869 (d. July 31, 1875) is #born in Raleigh,
North Carolina. He assumed the presidency as he was vice president
at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a
Democrat who ran with Lincoln on the National Union ticket, coming
to office as the Civil War concluded. He favored quick restoration
of the seceded states to the Union without protection for the
former slaves. This led to conflict with the Republican-dominated
Congress, culminating in his impeachment by the House of
Representatives in 1868. He was acquitted in the Senate by one
vote. His main accomplishment as president was the Alaska
purchase. Johnson was born in poverty in Raleigh, North Carolina,
and never attended school. He was apprenticed as a tailor and
worked in several frontier towns before settling in Greeneville,
Tennessee. He served as alderman and mayor there before being
elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1835. After
brief service in the Tennessee Senate, Johnson was elected to the
House of Representatives in 1843, where he served five two-year
terms. He became governor of Tennessee for four years, and was
elected by the legislature to the Senate in 1857. In his
congressional service, he sought passage of the Homestead Bill
which was enacted soon after he left his Senate seat in 1862.
Southern slave states seceded to form the Confederate States of
America, including Tennessee, but Johnson remained firmly with the
Union. He was the only sitting senator from a Confederate state
who did not resign his seat upon learning of his state's
secession. In 1862, Lincoln appointed him as military governor of
Tennessee after most of it had been retaken. In 1864, Johnson was
a logical choice as running mate for Lincoln, who wished to send a
message of national unity in his re-election campaign; their
ticket easily won. Johnson was sworn in as vice president in March
1865 and gave a rambling speech, after which he secluded himself
to avoid public ridicule. Six weeks later, the assassination of
Lincoln made him president. Johnson implemented his own form of
Presidential Reconstruction, a series of proclamations directing
the seceded states to hold conventions and elections to reform
their civil governments. Southern states returned many of their
old leaders and passed Black Codes to deprive the freedmen of many
civil liberties, but Congressional Republicans refused to seat
legislators from those states and advanced legislation to overrule
the Southern actions. Johnson vetoed their bills, and
Congressional Republicans overrode him, setting a pattern for the
remainder of his presidency. Johnson opposed the Fourteenth
Amendment which gave citizenship to former slaves. In 1866, he
went on an unprecedented national tour promoting his executive
policies, seeking to break Republican opposition. As the conflict
grew between the branches of government, Congress passed the
Tenure of Office Act restricting Johnson's ability to fire Cabinet
officials. He persisted in trying to dismiss Secretary of War
Edwin Stanton, but ended up being impeached by the House of
Representatives and narrowly avoided conviction in the Senate. He
did not win the 1868 Democratic presidential nomination and left
office the following year. Johnson returned to Tennessee after his
presidency and gained some vindication when he was elected to the
Senate in 1875, making him the only former president to serve in
the Senate. He died five months into his term. Johnson's strong
opposition to federally guaranteed rights for black Americans is
widely criticized; he is regarded by many historians as one of the
worst presidents in American history.
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: TV
Commercials: The Classics Vol. 4 DVD, Video Download, USB Drive
Today, December 29, 2025December 29, 1975: #DOTD: #RIP: Euell
Gibbons, American author, naturalist and early health food
advocate who promoted eating wild foods during the 1960s and early
1970s (b. September 8, 1911) #dies aged 64 at Sunbury Community
Hospital in Sunbury, Pennsylvania of a ruptured aortic aneurysm, a
common complication from Marfan syndrome, a multi-systemic genetic
disorder that affects the connective tissue. His remains were
cremated; the final disposition of his ashes are not publicly
disclosed. He was born Euell Theophilus Gibbons in Clarksville,
Texas, and spent much of his youth in the hilly terrain of
northwestern New Mexico. After his father drifted from job to job,
he took his family, a wife and four children, to try their hands
at Homesteading. a lifestyle of self-sufficiency characterized by
subsistence agriculture, home preservation of food, and often
involves small scale production of textiles, clothing, and craft
work for household use or sale. During one difficult interval of
homesteading, Gibbons began foraging for local plants and berries
to supplement the family diet. He began to capitalize on the
growing return-to-nature movement in 1962 with the book Stalking
the Wild Asparagus, which was an instant success. Gibbons followed
it up with the cookbooks Stalking the Blue-Eyed Scallop in 1964
and Stalking the Healthful Herbs in 1966. He was widely published
in various magazines, including two pieces in National Geographic.
The first article, in the July 1972 issue, described a two-week
stay on an uninhabited island off the coast of Maine where
Gibbons, with his wife Freda and a few family friends, relied
solely on local resources for sustenance. The second, in the
August 1973 issue, featured Gibbons, along with granddaughter
Colleen, grandson Mike, and daughter-in-law Patricia, stalking
wild foods in four western states. His publishing success brought
him fame. He made guest appearances on The Tonight Show and The
Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, and received an honorary doctorate
from Susquehanna University. A 1974 television commercial for Post
Grape-Nuts cereal featured him asking viewers, "Ever eat a
pine tree? Many parts are edible." While he recommended Grape
Nuts over pine trees (including the oft-repeated quote that Grape
Nuts' taste reminded him "of wild hickory nuts"), the
commercials gained attention and fueled Gibbons' celebrity status.
Johnny Carson joked about sending Gibbons a "lumber-gram",
and Gibbons himself joined in the humor; when presented with a
wooden award plaque by Sonny and Cher, he good-naturedly took a
bite out of it (the "plaque" was actually an edible
prop). He was satirized by John Byner on the Carol Burnett Show
episode which aired October 6, 1973, shown eating tree parts and
asking related questions, including "Ever lick a river?"
In a 1974 skit on the children's television program The Electric
Company, cast member Skip Hinnant (as Early Gibbons) was a
proponent of eating items starting with the prefix "ST-,"
including a tree stump, a staircase (with a "first step,"
presumably made of wood), and sticks and stones. In Larry Groce's
1976 novelty hit "Junk Food Junkie", the singer extols
his healthy lifestyle, claiming to be "a friend of old Euell
Gibbons"; the record was released after Gibbons' death. Often
mistaken for a survivalist, Gibbons was simply an advocate of
nutritious but neglected plants, which he typically prepared not
in the wild, but in the kitchen with abundant use of spices,
butter and garnishes. Several of his books discuss what he called
"wild parties" - dinner parties where guests were served
dishes prepared from plants gathered in the wild. His favorite
recommendations included lamb's quarters, rose hips, young
dandelion shoots, stinging nettle and cattails. He often pointed
out that gardeners threw away the tastier, more healthful crop
when they removed such "weeds" as purslane and amaranth
from among their spinach plants.
https://store.earthstation1.com/tv-commercials-the-classics-vol-4-dv4.html
Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: Havel's
Audience With History: Vaclav Hevel DVD, Download, USB Drive
Today, December 29, 2025December 29, 1989: The Cold War: The
Dissolution Of The Soviet Union: The Revolutions Of 1989 (The Fall
Of Nations, The Autumn Of Nations, The Fall Of Communism): The
Velvet Revolution: -- Vaclav Havel, Czech playwright, philosopher,
human rights activist and dissident, is sworn in as the first
post-communist President of Czechoslovakia. He had formerly been
denounced by Czech Communists as an enemy of the state and had
spent five years in jail for his beliefs. He went on to lead the
peaceful "velvet revolution" which ended Soviet-style
Communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989, and he immediately afterwards
became President of Czechoslovakia. December 18, 2011: Vaclav
Havel, Czech poet, playwright, dissident, politician, statesman,
last President of Czechoslovakia, 1st President of the Czech
Republic (1936-2011) was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia. He was a
renowned writer of plays, essays, and memoirs. His educational
opportunities having been limited by his bourgeois background,
Havel first rose to prominence as a playwright. In works such as
The Garden Party and The Memorandum, Havel used an absurdist style
to critique communism. After participating in the Prague Spring
and being blacklisted after the invasion of Czechoslovakia, he
became more politically active and helped found several dissident
initiatives, including Charter 77 and the Committee for the
Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted. His political activities
brought him under the surveillance of the secret police and he
spent multiple stints in prison, the longest being nearly four
years, between 1979 and 1983. Havel's Civic Forum party played a
major role in the Velvet Revolution that toppled communism in
Czechoslovakia in 1989. He assumed the presidency shortly
thereafter, and was re-elected in a landslide the following year
and after Slovak independence in 1993. Havel was instrumental in
dismantling the Warsaw Pact and expanding NATO membership
eastward. Many of his stances and policies, such as his opposition
to Slovak independence, condemnation of the Czechoslovak treatment
of Sudeten Germans after World War II, and granting of general
amnesty to all those imprisoned under communism, were very
controversial domestically. As such, at the end of his presidency,
he enjoyed greater popularity abroad than at home. Havel continued
his life as a public intellectual after his presidency, launching
several initiatives including the Prague Declaration on European
Conscience and Communism, the VIZE 97 Foundation, and the Forum
2000 annual conference. Havel's political philosophy was one of
anti-consumerism, humanitarianism, environmentalism, civil
activism, and direct democracy. He supported the Czech Green Party
from 2004 until his death. He received numerous accolades during
his lifetime including the Presidential Medal Of Freedom, the
Gandhi Peace Prize, the Philadelphia Liberty Medal, the Order of
Canada, the Four Freedoms Award, the Ambassador of Conscience
Award, and the Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award. The
2012-2013 academic year at the College of Europe was named in his
honour. He is considered by some to be one of the most important
intellectuals of the 20th century. The international airport in
Prague was renamed to Vaclav Havel Airport Prague in 2012. He died
in the morning of December 18, 2011 at his country home in
Hradecek at the age of 75. A week before his death, he met with
his longtime friend, the Dalai Lama, in Prague; Havel appeared in
a wheelchair. Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas announced a
three-day mourning period from December 21 to 23, the date
announced by President Vaclav Klaus for the state funeral. The
funeral Mass was held at Saint Vitus Cathedral, celebrated by the
Archbishop of Prague Dominik Duka and Havel's old friend Bishop
Vaclav Maly. During the service, a 21 gun salute was fired in the
former president's honour, and as per the family's request, a
private ceremony followed at Prague's Strasnice Crematorium.
Havel's ashes were placed in the family tomb in the Vinohrady
Cemetery in Prague. On December 23, 2011, the Vaclav Havel Tribute
Concert was held in Prague's Palac Lucerna.
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: Life Of
Python Monty Python's Flying Circus Special DVD, Download, USB
Today, December 29, 2025December 29, 2019: #DOTD: #RIP: Neil
Innes, English writer, comedian, pianist, guitarist and banjo
player who collaborated with Monty Python and played in the Rutles
and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (b. December 9, 1944) #dies of a
heart attack near Toulouse, France, where he had lived for several
years. His remains were cremated, and the ashes given to his widow
Yvonne Hilton. Fellow entertainers, including John Cleese and
Stephen Fry, paid tribute to him. The League of Gentlemen star
Mark Gatiss also paid tribute to Innes. Comedian Diane Morgan
called him "one of the nicest people I've ever met and a
towering talent," and director Edgar Wright said he was
"forever a fan" of Innes. Innes was born in Danbury in
Essex. His Scottish father was a warrant officer in the British
Army, and Innes spent his childhood in West Germany where his
father was deployed with the British Army of the Rhine. He took
piano lessons from age 7 to 14 and taught himself to play guitar.
His parents were supportive of their children's artistic leanings,
and his father also drew and painted. After returning to the
United Kingdom, Innes received his formal education at Thorpe
Grammar School, the Norwich School of Art and Goldsmiths College,
London, where he studied fine art. He graduated with a Bachelor of
Arts in Fine Art from Goldsmiths in 1966. While still at
Goldsmiths, Innes joined a semi-professional college band
originally called the Bonzo Dog Dada Band (after Bonzo the dog, an
illustrated cartoon character from the 1920s, and the art movement
Dada), which was later renamed the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band after
the group tired of constantly explaining the concept of Dada to
confused onlookers (and later still the band name was officially
shortened to the Bonzo Dog Band). At this point the band, which
then had a revolving membership of anything up to a dozen players
at a time, largely performed a dada-influenced, deliberately
shambolic, comedic repertoire of trad-jazz cover versions at local
public houses and college events, to the delight and occasional
bemusement of audiences. Innes had met the band's co-founders
Vivian Stanshall and Rodney Slater some time earlier when they and
bandmate "Legs" Larry Smith were studying at the Central
School of Art, but Innes' official entry into the band was
actually facilitated by his then-landlord and college tutor,
Vernon Dudley Bohay-Nowell, who just happened to also be the
band's bass guitarist at the time. Innes' induction into the band
proved to be fundamental to their eventual success when he brought
a more focused and disciplined musical direction to their efforts,
with his talents as a composer, arranger and
multi-instrumentalist. At the band's creative peak in 1968 and
1969, Innes, alone and together with Stanshall, composed most of
the band's original material, including his solo composition (and
sole Bonzos hit) "I'm the Urban Spaceman", (produced by
Apollo C. Vermouth, a collective alias for Paul McCartney and
Gerry Bron), and "Death Cab for Cutie" (with lyrics by
Stanshall), which featured in the Beatles' film Magical Mystery
Tour (1967). Innes won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Novel(ty)
Song in 1968 for "I'm the Urban Spaceman". During the
same creatively-fertile 1968/69 period, Innes and the Bonzo Dog
Band also appeared each week in both seasons of the British
children's television series Do Not Adjust Your Set which also
featured future Monty Python members Eric Idle, Terry Jones,
Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam. Although initially intended to
appeal solely to children, the show's surreal and absurdist nature
soon also attracted a large adult following. After the break-up of
the Bonzo Dog Band in early 1970, Innes joined with former Dog
Band bassist Dennis Cowan, drummer Ian Wallace and guitarist Roger
McKew to form The World, a band hoping for "more commercial"
success with music ranging from rock to pure pop, yet still
retaining some Doo-Dah flavour and even some of the humour.
However, by the time their sole album, Lucky Planet, was released
in late 1970 the members had already disbanded and were moving on
to other projects. The 1970s proved to be a highly prolific decade
for Innes as a solo artist, band member and live stage and
television performer. In 1971, Innes briefly reunited with most of
his former Bonzo Dog Band colleagues to record their
reunion/contractual obligation album Let's Make Up And Be
Friendly, and he, Vivian Stanshall and Dennis Cowan also formed a
short-lived touring band named Freaks with Keith Moon on drums.
This in turn led Innes and Stanshall to a union with The Scaffold
and other musicians, poets and performers later that year as
Grimms. While Stanshall effectively bowed out of this group soon
after its formation, Innes remained as one of the permanent core
members for the next five years, working with Andy Roberts, Roger
McGough, John Gorman, Mike McGear, Dave Richards, Brian Patten,
Adrian Henri, John Megginson, future Rutles bandmates Ollie
Halsall and John Halsey, and Gerry Conway (among many others).
Although GRIMMS was initially conceived purely as a touring
revue-type ensemble, early 1973 saw the release of their
self-titled live album, followed by a second studio-recorded album
Rockin' Duck at the end of the same year. GRIMMS remained an
informal enough setup throughout this period to allow the various
members to come and go as they pleased and continue with their own
outside musical, performing and literary careers, and in 1973
Innes also recorded his debut solo album How Sweet To Be An Idiot,
aided and abetted by various GRIMMS. The group also undertook
regular and extensive tours of the UK university and theatre
circuit throughout its existence, releasing a book of humorous
poetry, lyrics and photographs in 1974 entitled 'Clowns On The
Road' detailing some of their experiences. The final GRIMMS studio
LP Sleepers was released in 1976, after which their activities as
a group ceased. In the mid-1970s, Innes became closely associated
with the Monty Python team, having first worked with Michael
Palin, Terry Jones and Eric Idle on the 1960s television show Do
Not Adjust Your Set. He contributed music to the Monty Python
albums Monty Python's Previous Record (1972) and The Monty Python
Matching Tie and Handkerchief (1973), and played a major role in
performing and writing songs and sketches for their final TV
series in 1974, after John Cleese temporarily left the troupe. He
wrote a squib of a song called "George III" for the
episode "The Golden Age of Ballooning", which was sung
by the Flirtations but billed onscreen as the Ronettes. He also
wrote the song "When Does a Dream Begin?", used in
"Anything Goes: The Light Entertainment War". He
co-wrote the "Most Awful Family in Britain" sketch and
played a humorous stilted guitar version of the theme song, "The
Liberty Bell" march, during the credits of the last episode,
"Party Political Broadcast". He is one of only two
non-Pythons ever to be credited writers for the TV series, the
other being Douglas Adams (who co-wrote the "Patient Abuse"
sketch, also featured in "Party Political Broadcast").
He appeared on stage with the Pythons in the UK and Canada in
1973, in London in 1974 and in New York City in 1976, performing
the Bob Dylanesque "Protest Song" (complete with
harmonica) on the album Monty Python Live at City Center. He was
introduced as Raymond Scum. After his introduction he told the
audience, "I've suffered for my music. Now it's your turn."
In 1980, he travelled to the States with the Pythons again,
subsequently appearing in Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl.
He performed the songs "How Sweet to Be an Idiot" and
"I'm the Urban Spaceman". He also appeared as one of the
singing "Bruces" in the Philosopher Sketch and as a
Church Policeman in the "Salvation Fuzz" sketch. Innes
wrote original songs for the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(1975), such as "Knights of the Round Table" and "Brave
Sir Robin". He appeared in the film as a head-bashing monk,
the serf crushed by the giant wooden rabbit, and the leader of Sir
Robin's minstrels. He also had small roles in Terry Gilliam's
Jabberwocky (1977) and Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), and
performed the whistling on the latter's hit song, "Always
Look on the Bright Side of Life". His collaborations with
Monty Python and other artists were documented in the musical film
The Seventh Python (2008), which premiered at the Mods &
Rockers Film Festival on June 26, 2008. After Monty Python
finished its original run on UK television, Innes joined Eric Idle
on the series Rutland Weekend Television. This was a Pythonesque
sketch show based in a fictional low-budget regional television
station, which ran for two series in 1975-76. Songs and sketches
from the series appeared on a 1976 BBC LP, The Rutland Weekend
Songbook. One short sketch on the show spawned the Rutles (the
"prefab four"), which was an affectionate pastiche of
the Beatles. In the sketch Innes portrayed the character of Ron
Nasty, a character based on John Lennon, while Idle portrayed Dirk
McQuickly (a character based on Paul McCartney), and the fictional
group briefly performed 'I Must Be In Love', a suitably Beatlesque
pastiche written by Innes. Eric Idle later played a videotape of
the Rutles sketch on Saturday Night Live in 1976 during an
appearance as guest host, and the favourable response led to a
1978 American-made spin-off TV movie, All You Need Is Cash, with
Innes and Idle again playing Nasty and McQuickly. While Idle and
Innes co-created the original Rutles sketch concept, Idle wrote
the screenplay for the film on his own, and Innes composed all of
the songs for the project without any input from Idle ('Dirk
McQuickly's musical contributions on the soundtrack were performed
by guitarist/singer Ollie Halsall while Idle lip-synched them in
the film). Innes' songs consequently appeared on the soundtrack
album The Rutles, released by Warner Bros on 1978. The songs
written by Innes so closely pastiched the original source material
that he was consequently taken to court by the owners of the
Beatles' catalogue. Innes had to testify under oath that he had
not listened to the songs at all while composing the Rutles'
songs, but had created them completely originally based on what he
remembered various songs by the Beatles sounding like at different
times. Many years later, Innes' own music publisher demanded a
co-writing credit for Innes from Beatles-influenced band Oasis,
for their 1994 song "Whatever", as it directly lifted
parts of its melody from Innes' 1973 song "How Sweet to Be an
Idiot". This event was subsequently referenced in the Rutles'
song "Shangri-La" on their 1996 reunion album The Rutles
Archaeology, which was itself a parody of The Beatles Anthology.
After Rutland Weekend Television, Innes made a solo series in 1979
on BBC television, The Innes Book of Records, which ran for three
series until 1981. The series offered an early example of
music-video presentation, albeit on a shoestring BBC budget,
centred around new recordings of many of Innes' older compositions
along with new material written specially for the show. In keeping
with Innes' usual whimsically surreal style, each episode was
linked by a loose and often absurdist theme and also featured an
eccentric guest performer (such as Stanley Unwin or Percy Edwards)
or musician (such as Ivor Cutler or Jake Thackray). Innes' former
bandmate Vivian Stanshall also appeared in one episode, reciting
his own surrealist monologue about the English seaside. Other
television work During the 1980s, Innes delved into children's
entertainment. This new career path began when he took over from
Tom Baker as host of Yorkshire TVs "The Book Tower" for
the ITV network. He went on to play the role of the Magician in
the live-action children's television series Puddle Lane, also
made by Yorkshire Television. He also voiced the 1980s children's
cartoon adventures of The Raggy Dolls, a motley collection of
"rejects" from a toy factory. The 65 episodes for
Yorkshire Television included the characters Sad Sack, Hi-Fi,
Lucy, Dotty, Back-to-Front, Princess and Claude. He also composed
and performed original music and songs for children's television,
including Puddle Lane, The Raggy Dolls, The Riddlers and
Tumbledown Farm. He brought Monty Python's Terry Jones's book
Fairy Tales to television as East of the Moon. He contributed all
the stories and music on this production. He was also involved
with the popular children's show Tiswas. At the time of The
Beatles Anthology CDs, there was a revival of interest in the
Rutles and a new album was released in 1996 entitled Archaeology.
In 1998, Innes hosted a 13-episode television series for Anglia
Television, called Away with Words, in which he travelled to
different areas of Britain to explore the origins of well-known
words and phrases. Innes took part, along with the remaining Monty
Python members, in the 2002 Concert for George, in memory of
George Harrison. Innes was occasionally heard (often as the butt
of jokes) standing in as the pianist for the BBC Radio 4 panel
game I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. Innes toured the UK in 2006 and
produced a new Bonzo CD as part of the Bonzo Dog Band's 40th
Anniversary tour. In 2008 he undertook the Neil Innes and Fatso
30th Anniversary tour,playing predominantly Rutles numbers with a
few Bonzos and Python items. In late 2010, Innes announced the
formation of the Idiot Bastard Band, a comedy musical collective
featuring himself, Adrian Edmondson, Phill Jupitus, Simon Brint
and Rowland Rivron. The band debuted, with an 8-week residency, at
the Wilmington Arms in Clerkenwell, London in December, playing a
range of comedy songs old and new, with deliberately little
rehearsal. New concerts were scheduled in 2011. Jupitus was unable
to attend due to prior commitments and was replaced by several
special guests, including Paul Whitehouse, Barry Cryer and Nigel
Planer. Following the death of Brint, the band performed a further
tour in 2012. While a student at Goldsmiths College, London, in
the mid-1960s Innes met Yvonne Catherine Hilton; they married on
March 3, 1966. The couple had three sons, Miles (b. 1967), Luke
(b. 1971), and Barney (b. 1978).
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Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title:
Perspective On Greatness Cops And Robbers + Bonus Sam Sheppard MP4
DVD
Today, December 29, 2025December 29, 1923: #BOTD: Sam Sheppard,
American osteopath convicted of the 1954 murder of his pregnant
wife, Marilyn Reese Sheppard (d. April 6, 1970) is #born Samuel
Holmes Sheppard in Cleveland, Ohio. Due to the lack of jury
sequestering and the media circus atmosphere that infected the
jury's verdict, the conviction was eventually overturned by the
United States Supreme Court, which cited a "carnival
atmosphere" at the trial. Sheppard was acquitted at a retrial
in 1966. Sam Sheppard died aged 46 in Columbus, Ohio, found dead
in his home of what early reports indicated was liver failures;
however, the official cause of death was Wernicke Encephalopathy,
a type of brain damage associated with advanced alcoholism. He was
buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens in Columbus until September
1997 when he was exhumed for DNA testing as part of the lawsuit
brought by his son to clear his father's name. His attorney stated
that the DNA testing absolved Sheppard of the murder, because
there was blood at the murder scene that belonged to neither him
nor his wife. After the tests, the body was cremated, and the
ashes were interred in a mausoleum at Knollwood Cemetery in
Mayfield Heights, Ohio, along with those of his murdered wife,
Marilyn. The television series The Fugitive and the 1993 film of
the same name have been cited as being loosely based on Sheppard's
story; This claim, however, has always been denied by their
creators.
https://store.earthstation1.com/perspective-on-greatness-cops-and-robbers-and-bonus-sam-sheppard-mp4-dvd.html
Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: Pirates
12 Part Documentary Series MP4 Video Download DVD
Today, December 29, 2025December 29, 1733: Burials (?): -- Anne
Bonny, sometimes Anne Bonney, Irish pirate operating in the
Caribbean, and one of the few female pirates in recorded history
(b. March 8, 1697) is #buried (?) in the Colony of Jamaica. Anne
Bonny disappeared after she was incarcerated for piracy in April
1721 at the age of 24 in Port Royal, Colony of Jamaica, with an
uncertain fate; there is no record of Bonny's release, and this
has fed speculation as to her fate. A ledger lists the burial of
an "Ann Bonny" on December 29, 1733, in Jamaica, the
same town where she was tried. Charles Johnson writes in A General
History Of The Robberies And Murders Of The Most Notorious
Pyrates, published in 1724: "She was continued in Prison, to
the Time of her lying in, and afterward reprieved from Time to
Time; but what is become of her since we cannot tell; only this we
know, that she was not executed". Other sources have stated
that she may have returned to the United States after her
imprisonment, dying in South Carolina, where she was raised, in
April 1782. Bonny was born in Ireland around 1700 and moved to
London and then to the Province of Carolina when she was about 10
years old. Around 1718 she married sailor James Bonny, assumed his
last name, and moved with him to Nassau in the Bahamas, a
sanctuary for pirates. It was there that she met Calico Jack
Rackham and became his pirate partner and lover. She was captured
alongside Rackham and Mary Read in October 1720. All three were
sentenced to death, but Bonny and Read had their executions stayed
because both of them "pleaded their bellies", a process
of English common law which permitted a woman in the later stages
of pregnancy to receive a reprieve of her death sentence until
after she bore her child. Read died of a fever in jail in April
1721 (likely due to complications from the pregnancy).
https://store.earthstation1.com/pirates-12-part-documentary-series-mp4-video-download-124.html
Today's
EarthStation1.com #OnThisDay Commemorative Memorial Title: TV
Music & Dance Shows #14 Aretha Temptations Kinks DVD MP4 USB
Drive
Today, December 29, 2025December 29, 1946: #BOTD: #HBD! Marianne
Faithfull, English singer, songwriter, actress and beauty, is
#born Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull in Hampstead, London. She
was the daughter of British intelligence officer Robert Glynn
Faithfull, who worked with an Austro-Hungarian spy for the allies
during World War II - Eva von Sacher-Masoch, Baroness Erisso - who
became his wife and Marianne's mother. Marianne and her mother are
descendants of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, whose erotic novel,
Venus in Furs, spawned the word "masochism.".
Faithfull's maternal grandfather had aristocratic roots in the
Habsburg Dynasty, while Faithfull's maternal grandmother was
Jewish. Marianne Faithfull achieved popularity in the 1960s with
the release of her hit single "As Tears Go By" and
became one of the lead female artists during the "British
Invasion" in the United States. Faithfull began her career in
1964 after attending the Rolling Stones party where she was
discovered by Andrew Loog Oldham. After the release of her hit
single "As Tears Go By", she became an international
star. Her debut album Marianne Faithfull (1965) (released
simultaneously with her album Come My Way) was a commercial
success followed by a number of albums on Decca Records. From 1966
to 1970, she had a highly publicised romantic relationship with
Mick Jagger. Her popularity was further enhanced by her film
roles, such as I'll Never Forget What's'isname (1967), The Girl on
a Motorcycle (1968), and Hamlet (1969). However, her popularity
was overshadowed by personal struggles in the 1970s. During that
time she became homeless and suffered from heroin addiction,
alcoholism, and anorexia. After a long commercial absence,
Faithfull made a comeback with the 1979 release of her critically
acclaimed album Broken English. The album was a commercial success
and marked a resurgence of her musical career. Broken English
earned Faithfull a nomination for Grammy Award for Best Female
Rock Vocal Performance and is often regarded as her "definitive
recording." She followed with a series of albums, including
Dangerous Acquaintances (1981), A Child's Adventure (1983), and
Strange Weather (1987). Faithfull also wrote three books about her
life: Faithfull: An Autobiography (1994), Memories, Dreams and
Reflections (2007), and Marianne Faithfull: A Life on Record
(2014). Faithfull is listed on VH1's "100 Greatest Women of
Rock and Roll" list. She received the World Lifetime
Achievement Award at the 2009 Women's World Awards and was also
awarded the Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
https://store.earthstation1.com/classic-tv-music-amp-dance-shows-14-aretha-temptations-kinks-d14.html