This Date in History - June 10

Happy birthday to Judy Garland.   Oh, I know she's dead and all.   But it still is her birthday.   Way, way, way over the rainbow.

671:  EMPEROR TENJI OF JAPAN INTRODUCES A WATER CLOCK CALLED ROKOKU.

And who's the one who introduced the puzzle called Sudoku?

1190:  FREDERICK I BARBAROSSA DROWNS IN THE RIVER SALEPH WHILE LEADING AN ARMY TO JERUSALEM.

Wasn't Barbarossa a movie with Jane Fonda?

1539:  POPE PAUL III SENDS OUT LETTERS TO HIS BISHOPS, DELAYED THE COUNCIL OF TRENT.

First known use of Constant Contact.

1596:  WILLEM BARENTS AND JACOB VAN HEEMSKERK DISCOVER BEAR ISLAND.

And then ran off it because...well...bears.

1692:  BRIDGET BISHOP IS HANGED AT GALLOWS HILL NEAR SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS FOR DETESTABLE ARTS CALLED WITCHCRAFT AND SORCERIES.

And Endora got away?

1793:  THE JARDIN DES PLANTES MUSEUM OPENS IN PARIS.  IT LATER BECOMES THE FIRST PUBLIC ZOO.  

Don't feed the Parisians.

1829:  THE FIRST BOAT RACE BETWEEN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD AND THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE TAKES PLACE.

Slow news day on June 10, 1829.

1854:  THE FIRST CLASS OF US NAVAL ACADEMY STUDENTS GRADUATE.

Hats in the air.

1871:  CAPTAIN MCLANE TILTON LEADS 109 US MARINES IN A NAVAL ATTACK ON KANGHWA ISLAND, KOREA.

And you thought we only fought there in the 1950s.

1889: ACTOR SESSUE HAYAKAWA IS BORN.

Says who?

1895:  ACTRESS HATTIE MCDANIEL IS BORN.

T'ain't fittin'.

1901:  COMPOSER FREDERICK LOEWE IS BORN.

The rain in Spain...

1916:  AN ARAB REVOLT AGAINST THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE LED BY LAWRENCE OF ARABIA BREAKS OUT.

And probably was over sooner than the movie.

1922:  ACTRESS JUDY GARLAND IS BORN.

I would have been named after her if I had been a girl.   But I wasn't.

1935:  DR. ROBERT SMITH TAKES HIS LAST DRINK AND ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS IS FOUNDED IN OHIO.

Hello, Robert.

1940:  US PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT DENOUNCES ITALY'S ACTIONS WITH HIS "STAB IN THE BACK" SPEECH.

As opposed to his "pain in the forehead" speech just before he died.

1940:  DURING WORLD WAR II, ITALY DECLARES WAR ON FRANCE AND THE UNITED KINGDOM.

Stupido.

1944:  IN BASEBALL, 15-YEAR-OLD JOE NUXHALL OF THE CINCINNATI REDS BECOMES THE YOUNGEST PLAYER EVER IN A MAJOR-LEAGUE GAME.

Jeez, I can remember this guy still playing decades later.

1947:  BASEBALL STAR KEN SINGLETON IS BORN.

He was a big deal because he actually grew up in my home town of Mount Vernon, New York.

1959:  POLITICIAN ELIOT SPITZER IS BORN.

Politician...and crook.

1964:  THE US SENATE BREAKS A 75-DAY FILIBUSTER AGAINST THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964, LEADING TO THE BILL'S PASSAGE.

By the way, it was mostly Democrats opposing it.

1967:  THE SIX-DAY WAR ENDS WHEN ISRAEL AND SYRIA AGREE TO A CEASE FIRE.

It's good to know that it's been peaceful there ever since.

1967:  ACTOR SPENCER TRACY DIES.

Guess who's not coming to dinner.

1971:  ACTOR MICHAEL RENNIE DIES.

Klaatu barada nikto.

1973:  PLAYWRIGHT WILLIAM INGE DIES.

He wrote "Picnic."   Now he's under one.

1976:  FILM PRODUCER ADOLPH ZUKOR DIES.

His name is on the front of all those old Popeye cartoons.

1977:  JAMES EARL RAY ESCAPES FROM BRUSHY MOUNTAIN PRISON BUT IS RECAPTURED THREE DAYS LATER.

Well, that worked well, didn't it?

1977:  THE APPLE II, ONE OF THE FIRST PERSONAL COMPUTERS, GOES ON SALE.

There was probably no line.

1991:  ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD JAYCEE LEE DUGARD WAS KIDNAPPED IN LAKE TAHOE, CALIFORNIA.   SHE WOULD REMAIN A CAPTIVE UNTIL 2009.  

So she got tenure?

2002:  MOB BOSS JOHN GOTTI DIES.

I'll bet he was buried in a very nice suit and tie.

2003:  THE SPIRIT ROVER IS LAUNCHED, BEGINNING NASA'S MARS EXPLORATION ROVER MISSION.

Looking for Ray Walston.

2004:  SINGER RAY CHARLES DIES.

Georgia no longer on his mind.

Dinner last night:  Chef's salad again.