On This Day

Friday, the thirteenth — oh, wow!

1958 — James Roth weds Noreen Byers on Friday the thirteenth. In less than two years, they begin service in Mexico. They return to the States to live in mid-1976. After another relatively-short stint in Mexico in the early 80’s, they return to Oregon “permanently.” After a little over 25 years of service in that capacity, James recently retired as pastor and bishop of Hopewell Mennonite Church near Hubbard, Oregon. So, now it’s Friday the thirteenth again — but fifty years later. Congratulations, Dad and Mom!

In other years on this day . . .

1525 – Martin Luther marries Katharina von Bora — contrary to the RCCs celibacy rule for its priests and nuns.

1757 — Pope Benedict XIV grants people throughout the world official permission to have the Bible in their own language.

1774 — Rhode Island bans the importation of slaves — the first British North American colony to do so.

1900 — China’s Boxer Rebellion explodes into full-scale violence — foreigners as well as Chinese Christians are targeted.

1966 — The US Supreme Court rules in Miranda v. Arizona that police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.

1983 — After more than a decade in space, Pioneer 10, the world’s first outer-planetary probe, leaves the solar system.

1997 — A jury sentences Timothy McVeigh to the death for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.

2002 — The US withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

2008 — Substantial election returns show that Ireland’s voters have rejected the European Union reform treaty, a blueprint for modernizing the 27-nation bloc that cannot become law without Irish approval.

1944 — The “D-Day” invasion of Europe begins as Allied forces storm the beaches of Normandy, France.

1844 — The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) is founded in London.

1925 — Walter Percy Chrysler starts up the Chrysler Corporation.

1933 — The first drive-in movie theater opens.

1968 — Democrat Senator and Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy dies a day after he was shot by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan.

1752 — Fire consumes one-third of Moscow, the destruction including 18,000 homes.

1833 — All aboarrrrrd! President Andrew Jackson becomes the first President to ride a train.

1882 — More than 100,000 inhabitants of Bombay die as a cyclone in the Arabian Sea pushes huge waves into the harbor.

1889 — The Great Seattle Fire destroys the entirety of downtown Seattle.

1932 — The first gas tax in the United States adds one cent to the price per gallon.

1990 — US District Court Judge Jose Gonzales rules that the rap album As Nasty As They Wanna Be by the 2 Live Crew violates Florida’s obscenity law; he declares that the predominant subject matter of the record is “directed to the ‘dirty’ thoughts and the loins, not to the intellect and the mind.”

2005 — the United States Supreme Court votes to ban medical marijuana.

2008 — I saw a link to a calculator that reveals when your share of Earth’s resources are fully consumed — and thus, when it’s time for you to die. Or at least when you should start buying ERCs (Earth Resources Credits).

As of sometime this morning, I am an uncle again.

Interestingly, my new nephew isn’t thirty-some minutes old.

Not even close.

Gary is more like thirty-some years old.

My niece Carol Used-2b-Nelson has become Mrs. Martin.

Congratulations, Gary and Carol!

And welcome to the extended family, Gary.

Be fruitful in God’s kingdom.

Wishing you the best,
Uncle Mark

PS: I was going to include a wedding photo, but I don’t have one to include.

PS, Jr: Come to think of it, Gary is thirty-some minutes old…quite a few minutes in that some, though. 🙂

1642 — Montreal is founded by French colonists.

1652 — Rhode Island passes the first law in North America making slavery illegal.

1765 — Fire destroys a large part of Montreal.

1896 — The Supreme Court, in Plessy v. Ferguson, endorses “separate but equal” racial segregation.

1917 — The Selective Service Act of 1917 is passed, giving the President the power of conscription.

1927 — A schoolhouse in Bath, Michigan is blown up with explosives planted by local farmer (and disgruntled school board member) Andrew Kehoe, who then sets off a dynamite-laden automobile. The attacks killed 38 children and six adults, including Kehoe, who earlier had killed his wife.

1948 — It’s been four days since Israel once again became an independent nation.

1954 — Yesterday, in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the United States Supreme Court unanimously overturned earlier rulings going back to Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, by declaring that state laws that established separate public schools for black and white students denied black children equal educational opportunities — “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

1974 — India detonates its first nuclear weapon becoming the sixth nation to do so.

1980 — Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington State, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage.

1992 — The Archivist of the United States officially announces the 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — almost 203 years after it was initially submitted!

2008 — Hopewell Mennonite Church ordains a new bishop — for the first time in 25 years or so.

In the United States, today is National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day.

In Tunisia, it’s Martyrs’ Day.

1682 — French explorer Robert La Salle reaches the lower Mississippi River . . . and claims it and all lands that touches it for France.

1865 — Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders his army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, ending the Civil War.

1866 — The Civil Rights Bill of 1866 is passed by Congress over the veto of President Andrew Johnson, granting blacks the rights and privileges of American citizenship.

1867 — Passing by a single vote, the US Senate ratifies a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska.

1940 — Germany invades neutral Norway and also Denmark.

1945 — Dietrich Bonhoeffer is executed by the Nazis for his role in the attempted assassination of Hitler.

1967 — The first Boeing 737 (a 100 series) takes its maiden flight.

1969 — The first British-built Concorde 002 makes its maiden flight.

1970 — Paul McCartney announces the official breakup of the Beatles.

1991 — The parliament of Georgia votes to have independence from USSR.

2003 — Baghdad falls to American forces.

2008 — Oil roars to record over $112 a barrell on US inventory drop and Boeing again delays its launch of the 787 Dreamliner.

1621 — Leaders of the Plymouth colonists, acting on behalf of King James I, make a defensive alliance with Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoags.

1778 — Oliver Pollock creates the dollar sign.

1789 — The newly established U.S. House of Representatives holds its first full meeting.

1826 — Samuel Morey patents the internal combustion engine.

1863 — The first U.S. wartime conscription law is enacted.

1929 — Louie Marx introduces the yo-yo.

1933 — The recently elected Nazis under Julius Streicher organize a one-day boycott of all Jewish-owned businesses in Germany, ushering in the series of anti-Semitic acts that will become known as the Holocaust.

1970 — President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law, requiring the Surgeon General’s warnings on tobacco products and banning cigarette advertisements on television and radio in the United States starting on January 1, 1971.

1976 — Apple Computer is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

1979 — Iran’s government becomes an Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, officially overthrowing the Shah.

1999 — Nunavut is established as a Canadian territory carved out of the eastern part of the Northwest Territories.

2001 — Same-sex marriage becomes legal in the Netherlands, which is the first country to allow it.

2002 — The Netherlands legalizes euthanasia, becoming the first nation in the world to do so.

2008 — I awoke around 4:30 (in the morning) and couldn’t go back to sleep. (Can you point me to a yawning emoticon I can use here?) More importantly, Christian Light Education (CLE) raised it price on LightUnits by fifteen cents to $2.90 — but I haven’t gotten around to updating our site that sells their stuff. 🙁 Oh, and how about this BMW “innovation”?

On this day twenty-seven years ago, my wife celebrated her first birthday as Mrs. Roth.

1845 — rubber band patented

1942 — first Jews from the Lviv Ghetto (western Ukraine) gassed at the Belzec death camp (eastern Poland)

1966 — off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean, the Alvin submarine found a missing American hydrogen bomb

Oh, and today is Evacuation Day in part of Massachusetts.