This Date in History - September 20

Happy birthday to Sophia Loren.   Damn, looking good even in her 80s.

622:  MUHAMMAD AND ABU BAKR ARRIVED IN MEDINA.

Is the one guy a baker and that's just a typo?

1187:  SALADIN BEGINS THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM.

Have gun, will travel.   No, wait.   That's Paladin.

1378:  CARDINAL ROBERT OF GENEVA, CALLED BY SOME "THE BUTCHER OF CESENA" IS ELECTED AS AVIGNON POPE CLEMENT VII.

A bakr, now a butchr.

1519:  FERDINAND MAGELLAN SETS SAIL ON HIS HIS EXPEDITION TO CIRCUMNAVIGATE THE GLOBE.

I hope he has a Magellan with him.

1835:  RAGAMUFFIN REBELS CAPTURE PORTO ALEGRE TO MARK THE START OF THE TEN-YEAR-OLD RAGAMUFFIN WAR.

Ragamuffin was my grandmother's favorite word.   And she called me one many times.

1842:  CHEMIST JAMES DEWAR IS BORN.

Sorry.  Not the one who invented the liquor.
1860:  THE PRINCE OF WALES VISITS THE UNITED STATES.   

Not the one you think.   There's been a whole bunch of Wales Princes.

1863:  AMERICAN CIVIL WAR - THE BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA, WHICH IS THE ONLY SIGNIFICANT CONFEDERATE VICTORY IN THE WAR'S WESTERN THEATER.

Big deal, you've captured Chickamauga.

1881:  US PRESIDENT CHESTER ARTHUR IS SWORN IN UPON THE DEATH OF JAMES GARFIELD.

The second US President to be assassinated in the space of two decades.   Gee, don't let this become a habit.

1893:  CHARLES DURYEA AND HIS BROTHER ROAD TEST THE FIRST AMERICAN-MADE GASOLINE-POWERED AUTOMOBILE.

One-half mile to the gallon.

1910:  THE OCEAN LINER SS FRANCE, LATER KNOWN AS THE VERSAILLES OF THE ATLANTIC, IS LAUNCHED.

Didn't all those chandeliers make it sink?

1920:  CARTOONIST JAY WARD IS BORN.  

Father of Rocky and Bullwinkle.   Mother Ward says..."Wanna see me pull a rabbit out of my womb?"

1924:  SINGER GOGI GRANT IS BORN.

The Wayward Wind....

1929:  ACTRESS ANNE MEARA IS BORN.   

Paging Jerry Stiller.

1934:  ACTRESS SOPHIA LOREN IS BORN.

Go back and look at her photo again.  I know you want to.

1941:  HOLOCAUST - FOUR HUNDRED JEWS ARE MURDERED IN LATVIA.

And the horrors begin.

1942:  HOLOCAUST - 3,000 JEWS ARE KILLED IN THE UKRAINE.

And the horrors continue.
1946:  THE FIRST CANNES FILM FESTIVAL IS HELD.

They wanted to start it in 1939 but, you know, with the holocaust going on and all...

1947:  MAYOR FIORELLO LA GUARDIA DIES.

The inventor of the congested airport.

1962:  JAMES MEREDITH, AN AFRICAN AMERICAN, IS TEMPORARILY BARRED FROM ENTERING THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI.

Will somebody please give him the homework assignment?

1969:  BOB MOOSE OF THE PITTSBURGH PIRATES THROWS A NO-HITTER AGAINST THE NEW YORK METS AT SHEA STADIUM.

I know.  I was there with my father.

1973:  SINGER JIM CROCE DIES.

That bottle had no time in it.

1973:  BILLIE JEAN KING BEATS BOBBY RIGGS IN THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES IN THE ASTRODOME.

There couldn't have been two uglier tennis players.

1982:  THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE PLAYERS BEGIN A 57 DAY STRIKE.

If you had two months in the pool, you lost.

1994:  COMPOSER JULE STYNE DIES.

Now, everything's coming up roses on Jule's grave.

2001:  IN AN ADDRESS TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, US PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH DECLARES A WAR ON TERROR.

Sixteen years later, we're still losing.

2005:  HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR SIMON WIESENTHAL DIES.

Thank goodness he wasn't in the Ukraine or Latvia.

2011:  THE US MILITARY ENDS ITS "DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL" POLICY REGARDING GAYS IN THE MILITARY.

GI Joe, it's safe to come out of the closet, you anatomically correct thing, you.

2014:  SINGER POLLY BERGEN DIES.

My grandmother thought she was a show off.   But not a ragamuffin.   That was still me.

2015:  ACTOR JACK LARSON DIES.

Jimmy Olsen of TV's Superman.

2016:  DIRECTOR CURTIS HANSON DIES.

I once saw him in person interviewing Shirley MacLaine.

Dinner last night:  Went to a screening so nothing really.