tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53177851683225709642024-03-12T18:00:56.047-07:00MFPS's History & Theology BlogMattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.comBlogger207125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-5966207696986041152011-06-20T18:50:00.000-07:002011-06-20T19:02:23.634-07:002 years ago, "The Voice" was silence<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbAlaiUu7iVDrnpVU04NExZPqd07nt2o9SKJbez7DT53roFdOcJ3oGKmqQCBs1dFdHFtdQZJmPcOkmtrNoZsBx55HT5q4-qiv_QDJiwPQ_vb9YBJM2RXxarUMq76yTDjBtFl5AYfKvuQH5/s1600/neda-agha-soltan_47642233.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 334px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbAlaiUu7iVDrnpVU04NExZPqd07nt2o9SKJbez7DT53roFdOcJ3oGKmqQCBs1dFdHFtdQZJmPcOkmtrNoZsBx55HT5q4-qiv_QDJiwPQ_vb9YBJM2RXxarUMq76yTDjBtFl5AYfKvuQH5/s400/neda-agha-soltan_47642233.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5620485081832895282" /></a><br /><br />I cant believe its been already been 2 years since the world learn about your death, You will not be forgotten in my heart and prayers, I do hope someday that your nation and mine will live in harmony, may you rest in peace!<br /><br /><br />Footage of the death of Neda Agha-Soltan<br />She was born on January 23, 1983 – and died on June 20, 2009) drew international attention after she was killed during the 2009 Iranian election protests. Her death was captured on video by bystanders and broadcast over the Internet and the video became a rallying point for the opposition. It was described as "probably the most widely witnessed death in human history".<br /><br />Nedā is a word used in Classic Persian and modern Persian to mean “voice”, calling (sometimes understood as a “divine message”, but this is not the etymological sense of and d she has been referred to as the "voice of Iran". Her death became iconic in the struggle of Iranian protesters against the disputed election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.<br /><br />Circumstances of deathOn June 20, 2009, at around 6:30 p.m., Neda Agha-Soltan was sitting in her Peugeot 206 in traffic on Kargar Avenue in the city of Tehran.<br /><br /> She was accompanied by her music teacher and close friend, Hamid Panahi, and two others, who remain unidentified. The four were on their way to participate in the protests against the outcome of the 2009 Iranian presidential election.<br /><br />The car's air conditioner was not working well, so she stopped her car some distance from the main protests and got out on foot to escape the heat. She was standing and observing the sporadic protests in the area when she was shot in the chest.<br /><br />As captured on amateur video,[13] she collapsed to the ground and was tended to by a doctor, her music teacher, and others from the crowd. Someone in the crowd around her shouted, "She has been shot! Someone, come and take her!" The videos were accompanied by a message from a doctor, later identified as Dr. Arash Hejazi, who said he had been present during the incident (but has since fled Iran out of fear of government reprisals)<br /><br />"At 19:05 June 20th Place: Kargar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st. A young woman who was standing aside with her father [sic, later identified as her music teacher] watching the protests was shot by a Basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight at her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim’s chest, and she died in less than two minutes. The protests were going on about one kilometre away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gas used among them, towards Salehi St. The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me."<br /><br />Her last words were, "I'm burning, I'm burning!", according to Panahi. She died en route to Tehran's Shariati hospital. However, the civilian physician that tended to Neda in the video has stated that Neda died on the scene.<br /><br />Hejazi, standing one metre away from her when she was shot, tried to stanch her wound with his hands. Hejazi said nearby members of the crowd pulled a man from his motorcycle while shouting: "We got him, we got him," disarmed him, obtained his identity card and identified him as a member of the Basij militia (government paramilitary). The militiaman was shouting, "I didn't want to kill her." The protesters let him go, but they kept the alleged killer's identity card and took many photographs of him. A recent documentary on the shooting contained a previously unseen clip of demonstrators capturing the militiaman seconds after the shooting.<br /><br />Role of the Internet during 2009 Iranian election protests<br /> <br />A frame from the video of Agha-Soltan's death by gunfire<br />The videos spread across the internet virally, quickly gaining the attention of international media and viewers. Discussions about the incident on Twitter, using a hashtag of neda became one of the "'trending topics'" by the end of the day on June 20, 2009.<br /><br />The incident was not originally reported by the state-controlled Iranian media, but was instead first reported on by international media. The video has been shown on CNN and other news networks.<br /><br />There are three videos depicting her death. One shows her collapsing to the ground, apparently still conscious. The second shows her only after she appears to lose consciousness and begins to bleed heavily. The third video shows her just as she begins to bleed profusely.<br /><br />In the first video, the cameraman approaches a group of people huddled together in front of a parked car at the side of the street. As he moves closer, she can be seen collapsing to the pavement with a large bloodstain at her feet. Two men, Hamid Panahi and Arash Hejazi, are seen trying to revive her. The elderly Panahi was initially assumed to be her father, but later confirmed to be her music teacher.<br /><br />As seconds pass, her eyes roll to one side and she appears to lose consciousness. Blood begins to pour from her nose and mouth, and screams are heard.<br /><br />In the second video, the cameraman approaches her and the two men; the camera passes over them and centers on her face; her stare is blank and she is bleeding profusely from her nose and mouth. Loud screaming can be heard.<br /><br />The man next to her can apparently be heard speaking in the first video, saying her name:<br /><br />"Neda, don't be afraid. Neda, don't be afraid. [obscured by others yelling] Neda, stay with me. Neda stay with me!"<br /><br />The videos were awarded the George Polk Award for Videography for 2009.<br /><br /> Alleged Killer<br /><br />The man accused of killing Neda Soltan has been identified as Abbas Kargar Javid, a pro-government militiaman, after photographs of the Basiji’s ID cards appeared on the internet, according to The Times.<br /><br />Aftermath<br /><br />After being pronounced dead at Shariati hospital, Agha-Soltan was buried at the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in southern Tehran; she was denied a proper funeral by government authorities.<br /><br />The authorities had allegedly set aside empty graves for those killed during the protests. Her family agreed to the removal of her organs for transplanting to medical patients.[33] The Iranian government has issued a ban on collective prayers in mosques for Agha-Soltan in the aftermath of the incident.[48] Soona Samsami, the executive director of the Women's Freedom Forum, who has been relaying information about the protests inside Iran to the international media, told the foreign press that Agha-Soltan's immediate family were threatened by authorities if they permitted a gathering to mourn her. <br /><br />Samsami stated, "They were threatened that if people wanted to gather there the family would be charged and punished."<br /><br /> <br />Grave site immediately following burial.<br />Caspian Makan (Agha-Soltan's fiancé) told BBC: “Neda had said that even if she lost her life and got a bullet in her heart, she would carry on”.<br /><br />Time and other news sources have speculated that due to the widespread attention given to Agha-Soltan's story by social media networks and mainstream news organizations, she is already being hailed as a martyr.<br /><br />There is also speculation that the Shi'ite cycle of mourning on the third (June 23), seventh (June 27), and 40th (July 30) day after a person's death may give the protests sustained momentum, in similar fashion to the Iranian Revolution, where each commemoration of a demonstrator's death sparked renewed protests, resulting in more deaths, feeding a cycle that eventually resulted in the overthrowing of Iran's monarchy.<br /><br />On June 22, Iranian presidential candidates Mehdi Karroubi and Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who are contesting the validity of the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called upon Iranian citizens to commemorate Agha-Soltan. Karroubi announced his appeal on Facebook, asking demonstrators to gather in the center of the Iranian capital at 4:00 pm local time. The chief of the Tehran Police announced that his department had no involvement in the fatal incident.<br /><br />Later that day, riot police armed with live ammunition and tear gas dispersed a crowd of between 200 and 1,000 protesters who had gathered in Tehran's Haft-e Tir Square. The protests followed online calls for tribute to Agha-Soltan and others killed during the demonstrations. Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, a senior Iranian cleric and vocal critic of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called for three days of public mourning for the death of Neda.<br /><br />Caspian Makan, following Neda's death, was tortured and escaped to Canada. He recently visited Israel as a guest of Israel's Channel 2. "I have come here out of the brotherhood of nations," he told Channel 2.<br /><br />Funeral<br /><br />About 70 mourners gathered outside Niloufar mosque in Abbas Abad, where the Agha-Soltan family attended services. A leaflet posted on the mosque's door read, "There is no commemoration here for Neda Agha Soltan." Many in the crowd wore black. Some recited poems. After about ten minutes, 20 Basij paramilitary arrived on motorcycles and dispersed the attendees.<br /><br />On June 24, The Guardian reported the results of interviews of neighbours who said Agha-Soltan's family had been forced to vacate their apartment some days after her death.[55] Reuters reported that supporters of presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi stated they would release thousands of balloons on Friday, June 26, 2009 with the message "Neda you will always remain in our hearts" imprinted on them.<br /><br />On June 23, it was reported that, to prevent Agha-Soltan's family's home from becoming a place of pilgrimage, government authorities told the family to remove the black mourning banners from outside the home.<br /><br />On Friday, July 31, 2009, 40th day anniversary of the killings of such youth as Neda Agha Soltan, Sohrab Aarabi and Ashkan Sohrabi was held in Tehran where thousands of Iranians mourned for the loss of the victims. Reports also came of gatherings in the thousands in cities of Rasht, Shiraz and Mashad.<br /><br /> Desecration of her grave<br /><br />On November 16, 2009, supporters of the Iranian regime desecrated her grave and removed her gravestone. Later, on December 31, 2009, supporters of the Iranian Government defaced the portrait on her grave by shooting at it multiple times.<br /><br />Iranian government reactions<br /><br />The university branch of female members of Basij held a gathering in Tehran in front of the British embassy, demanding that Arash Hejazi be returned to Iran (as witness or suspect). As they are assumed to be close to the government, it means the government condemns the crime and is pursuing it (their way). <br /><br />According to an Iranian official, announcing her as a martyr is possible. Iran's ambassador to Mexico, Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri, suggested in an interview on June 25, 2009 that the CIA could have been involved in Agha-Soltan's death. Ambassador Ghadiri questioned how the shooting was video taped so effectively, asserting that the incident occurred away from other demonstrations. He also stated that using a woman would be more effective in accomplishing the goals the CIA is purported to desire. Ambassador Ghadiri said "the bullet that was found in her head was not a bullet that you could find in Iran" (he thought she was shot in head). <br /><br />The account of Doctor Hejazi was that Agha-Soltan was shot in the chest from the front, as there was no exit wound, and the video evidence showing a wound to the chest.<br /><br />Hejazi is the man seen in the video placing his hands on Agha-Soltan's chest to staunch her bleeding (as described above under section Circumstances of death).<br /><br />During his Friday sermon on June 26, the Supreme Leader's appointed speaker Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said "evidence shows that [protesters] have done it themselves and have raised propaganda against the system." Eye witnesses at the scene of the shooting said Agha-Soltan was shot by a member of the pro-government Basij militia.<br /><br />Iran's police chief, brigadier general Ahmadi-Moghaddam told the press on June 30, 2009 that the Iranian police and Ministry of Intelligence filed an arrest warrant for Interpol to arrest Dr. Arash Hejazi, an eyewitness of Neda's death, for poisoning the international atmosphere against the Iranian government and telling misinformation about Neda's death by giving his account of the incident to foreign news media.<br /><br />Ezzatollah Zarghami, the head of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, told the press on July 4, 2009 that the videos of Neda's death were all made by BBC and CNN.<br /><br />In November 2009, Iran's embassy in London sent a letter of protest to The Queen's College, Oxford about the college establishing the Neda Agha-Soltan Graduate Scholarship in Philosophy.<br /><br />In December 2009, Iranian state television aired a report about Agha-Soltan's death, portraying it as a western plot. The program argued that Agha-Soltan simulated her death with accomplices, and that she was killed afterwards, having no knowledge of her partners' intentions. and this can be seen here.<br /><br />Claims of forced confessions<br /><br />According to The Times, quoted from Mr. Makan and Ms. Agha Soltan's parents, officials tried to get them to confess that it was opposition protestors that had killed Neda, and not government militiamen. They were given incentives such as declaring Neda to be a martyr and giving the family a pension if they complied. Mr. Makan and Neda's family refused the offer.<br /><br />Mr. Panahi was later forced by the government to change his story. The new version of events were retold by Panahi on state television.<br /><br />Response to the Iranian government<br /><br />In December 2009, her family accused the security forces of killing her. This was the strongest statement the family of Neda Agha-Soltan made since her death. This accusation followed the spread of an Iranian government-proposed theory blaming a "conspiracy of western governments" for the killing. "I openly declare that no one, apart from the government, killed Neda. Her killer can only be from the government," her father told the BBC's Persian service by telephone from Iran.<br /><br /><br /><br />June 23, 2009<br />In a Death Seen Around the World, a Symbol of Iranian Protests <br />By NAZILA FATHI<br />TEHRAN — It was hot in the car, so the young woman and her singing instructor got out for a breath of fresh air on a quiet side street not far from the antigovernment protests they had ventured out to attend. A gunshot rang out, and the woman, Neda Agha-Soltan, fell to the ground. “It burned me,” she said before she died. <br /><br />The bloody video of her death on Saturday, circulated in Iran and around the world, has made Ms. Agha-Soltan, a 26-year-old who relatives said was not political, an instant symbol of the antigovernment movement. <br /><br />Her death is stirring wide outrage in a society that is infused with the culture of martyrdom — although the word itself has become discredited because the government has pointed to the martyrs’ deaths of Iranian soldiers in the Iran-Iraq war to justify repressive measures. <br /><br />Ms. Agha-Soltan’s fate resonates particularly with women, who have been at the vanguard of many of the protests throughout Iran. <br /><br />“I am so worried that all the sacrifices that we made in the past week, the blood that was spilled, would be wasted,” said one woman who came to mourn Ms. Agha-Soltan on Monday outside Niloofar mosque here. “I cry every time I see Neda’s face on TV.” <br /><br />Opposition Web sites and television channels, which Iranians view with satellite dishes, have repeatedly shown the video, in which blood can be seen gushing from Ms. Agha-Soltan’s body as she dies. By Monday evening, there already were 6,860 entries for her on the Persian-language Google Web site. Some Web sites suggest changing the name of Kargar Street, where she was killed, to Neda Street. <br /><br />Mehdi Karroubi, an opposition candidate for president in this month’s election, called her a martyr on his Web site. “A young girl, who did not have a weapon in her soft hands, or a grenade in her pocket, became a victim of thugs who are supported by a horrifying intelligence apparatus.” <br /><br />Only scraps of information are known about Ms. Agha-Soltan. Her friends and relatives were mostly afraid to speak, and the government broke up public attempts to mourn her. She studied philosophy and took underground singing lessons — women are barred from singing publicly in Iran. Her name means voice in Persian, and many are now calling her the voice of Iran.<br /><br />Her fiancé, Caspian Makan, contributed to a Persian Wikipedia entry. He said she never supported any particular presidential candidate. “She wanted freedom, freedom for everybody,” the entry read. <br /><br />Her singing instructor, Hamid Panahi, offered a glimpse of her last moments. <br /><br />He said the two of them decided to head home after being caught in a clash with club-wielding forces in central Tehran. They stepped out of the car. “We heard one gunshot, and the bullet came and hit Neda right in the chest,” he said. The shot was fired from the rooftop of a private house across the street, perhaps by a sniper, he said. On a Facebook posting along with the video, an anonymous doctor said he tried to save her but failed because the bullet hit her heart. <br /><br />“She was so full of life,” said a relative who spoke on condition of anonymity. “She sang pop music.” <br /><br />The relative said the government had ordered the family to bury Ms. Agha-Soltan immediately and barred family members from holding a memorial service. <br /><br />The paramilitary forces were quick to stop memorial services elsewhere, too. More than a dozen bearded men on motorcycles dispersed nearly 70 people gathered outside Niloofar mosque on Monday. Authorities ordered the mosques not to hold services for any victims of the demonstrations over the past few days. <br /><br />“Go, get lost,” they shouted, as the regular police stood by.<br /><br />But one police officer, watching the militia, said a prayer aloud with the crowd in her honor: “Peace be upon the prophet and her family.”<br /><br />As Ms. Agha-Soltan’s family held a private ceremony on Monday, they turned reporters away and refused to speak. “They were not allowed to hang even a black banner,” the relative said. <br /><br />Funerals have long served as a political rallying point in Iran, since it is customary to have a week of mourning and a large memorial service 40 days after a death. In the 1979 revolution, that cycle generated a constant supply of new protests and deaths. <br /><br />But the narrative of death has also been important in the lore surrounding the existence of the Islamic republic. <br /><br />The government portrayed itself in the role of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad killed by a far larger army during the seventh-century struggle within Islam, which gave birth to the Shiite sect that predominates in Iran.<br /><br />Days for prophets and saints believed killed in the service of the faith dot the holiday calendar, taking up 22 days of the year. <br /><br />So the very public adulation of Ms. Agha-Soltan could create a religious symbol for the opposition and sap support for the government among the faithful who believe Islam abhors killing innocent civilians.<br /><br />One poem circulating on the Internet explicitly linked her death to other symbols of the protest movement: <br /><br />Stay, Neda — <br /><br />Look at this city<br /><br />At the shaken foundations of palaces, <br /><br />The height of Tehran’s maple trees, <br /><br />They call us “dust,” and if so <br /><br />Let us sully the air for the oppressor<br /><br />Don’t go, Neda<br /><br />She has become the public face of an unknown number of Iranians who have died in the protests. While state television has reported 10 deaths and state radio 19, it is widely believed the total is much higher. <br /><br />A witness said the body of a 19-year-old man who was killed in Tehran on Sunday was given to the family only after it paid $5,000. <br /><br />For many Iranians, though, the death of a young woman has special meaning. <br /><br />“We know a lot of people have died, but it is so hard to see a woman, so young and innocent, die like this,” a 41-year-old who gave his name as Alireza said Monday. <br /><br />Women were particular targets after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began to strictly enforce previously loosened restrictions. Thousands of women were arrested or intimidated because they did not adhere precisely to Islamic dress code on the streets. <br /><br />Mir Hussein Moussavi, the leading opposition candidate, campaigned along with his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, and other prominent Iranian women rallied to his side as he promised to improve the status of women. <br /><br />A woman called Hana posted a comment on Mr. Karroubi’s Web site: “I am alive but my sister was killed. She wanted the wind to blow into her hair; she wanted to be free; she wanted to hold her head high up and say: I am Iranian. My sister died because there is no life left; my sister died because there is no end to tyranny.”<br /><br />Neil MacFarquhar contributed reporting from New York.MattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-4292442491952542772011-06-13T09:44:00.001-07:002011-06-13T09:53:44.638-07:00Feast day of Saint Anthony of Padua and remembering him after 780 years<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPk0am2VBh1b32mgotJupmGugTP6i7TK3t3CTo5WdlJ4LTHR_5mB4bpQ0uyg6eZN9Q5HdNvdQMxtpp_Shskhs43GlTNIyzOqMO7LPX4jEDBQtPOY9rU0aVE0iGVnRAYt94zF21yj0NoWGa/s1600/anthonypadua.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 269px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5617746387797335314" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPk0am2VBh1b32mgotJupmGugTP6i7TK3t3CTo5WdlJ4LTHR_5mB4bpQ0uyg6eZN9Q5HdNvdQMxtpp_Shskhs43GlTNIyzOqMO7LPX4jEDBQtPOY9rU0aVE0iGVnRAYt94zF21yj0NoWGa/s400/anthonypadua.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Saint Anthony of Padua: pray for us on this day and holds the record for being canonized in the shortest period of time after his death (less that one year)! Remembering you on this day after 780 years, happy feast day too!<br /><br /><br />Prayer to Saint Anthony of Padua<br />Holy Saint Anthony, gentle and powerful in your help, your love for God and charity for His creatures, made you worthy, when on earth, to possess miraculous powers. Miracles waited on your word, which you were always ready to request for those in trouble or anxiety. Encouraged by this thought, I implore you to obtain for me [request]. The answer to my prayer may require a miracle. Even so, you are the Saint of miracles. Gentle and loving Saint Anthony, whose heart is ever full of human sympathy, take my petition to the Infant Savior for whom you have such a great love, and the gratitude of my heart will ever be yours. Amen<br /><br /><br />Saint Anthony of Padua or Anthony of Lisbon, O.F.M., (born Fernando Martins de Bulhões; c. 1195 – 13 June 1231) was a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order. Though he died in Padua, Italy, he was born to a wealthy family in Lisbon, Portugal, which is where he was raised. Noted by his contemporaries for his forceful preaching and expert knowledge of Scripture, he was declared a saint almost immediately after his death and Venerable Pope Pius XII proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1946.<br /><br />Canonized 30 May 1232, Spoleto, Italy by Pope Gregory IX<br />Major shrine Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua in Padua, Italy<br />Feast 13 June<br />Attributes Book; bread; Infant Jesus; lily<br />Patron Saint of American Indians; animals; barrenness; Brazil; Elderly people; faith in the Blessed Sacrament; Fishermen; Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land; Harvests; Horses; lost articles; lower animals; Mail; Mariners; oppressed people; poor people; Portugal; pregnant women; seekers of lost articles; shipwrecks; starvation; sterility; Swineherds; Tigua Indians; travel hostesses; travellers; Watermen<br /><br /><br />Veneration<br />Anthony could be said to have become the "quickest" saint in the history of the Catholic Church because he was canonized by Pope Gregory IX on May 30, 1232 at Spoleto, Italy, less than one year after his death.<br /><br />His fame spread through Portuguese evangelization, and he has been known as the most celebrated of the followers of Saint Francis of Assisi. He is the patron saint of his adopted home of Padua, as well as of his native Lisbon, not to mention many other places in Portugal and in the countries of the former Portuguese Empire. He is especially invoked for the recovery of lost items.<br /><br />Proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XII on January 16, 1946, he is sometimes called the "Evangelical Doctor" (Doctor Evangelicus)<br /><br /><br />On January 27, 1907 in Beaumont, Texas, a church was dedicated and named in honor of St. Anthony of Padua. The church was later designated a cathedral in 1966 with the formation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Beaumont, but was not formally consecrated. On April 28, 1974, St Anthony Cathedral was dedicated and consecrated by Bishop Warren Boudreaux. In 2006 Pope Benedict XVI granted St. Anthony Cathedral the designation of minor basilica. St. Anthony Cathedral Basilica celebrated its 100th anniversary on January 28, 2007.<br /><br />Seventeenth century Spanish missionaries came across a small Native American community along what was then known as the Yanaguana River on the feast day of Saint Anthony and renamed the river and eventually a mission built nearby in his honor. This mission became the focal point of a small community that eventually grew in size and scope to become the city of San Antonio, Texas.<br /><br /><br /><br />St. Anthony is known in Portugal, Spain and Brazil as a marriage saint, because legend has him as one who conciliated couples. His feast day, June 13, is Lisbon's municipal holiday, celebrated with parades and marriages of humble couples. (The previous day, June 12, is the Brazilian Valentine's Day.) He is one of the saints celebrated in the Brazilian Festa Junina (also known as the "São João"), along with John the Baptist and Saint Peter.<br /><br />In the city of Madrid, young women, especially seamstresses have the practice of going to his local shrine, the Chapel of St. Anthony of la Florida, where the custom is to drop a pin into the holy water font. This would lead to their dreaming of their husbands to be that same night. That church boasts a series of paintings showing the saint's life painted by Francisco Goya, who is now buried there.<br /><br />In Uvari, in Tamil Nadu, India, the church of St. Anthony is home to an ancient wooden statue that is said to have cured the entire crew of a Portuguese ship suffering from cholera. St Anthony is said to perform many miracles daily, and Uvari is visited by pilgrims of different religions from all over South India.Tamil Nadu Christians have a high reverence for St. Anthony and is a popular saint there, he is lovingly called "The Miracle Saint", many miracles especially related to Finding of Lost things have been attributed to St. Anthony. There is a strong devoution to St. Anthony among Indian Catholics and can be seen In all of the Catholic Churches In India.<br /><br />Novena to Saint Anthony of Padua:<br />O wonderful St. Anthony, glorious on account of the fame of your miracles, and through the condescension of Jesus in coming in the form of a little child to rest in your arms, obtain for me of His bounty the grace which I ardently desire from the depths of my heart . (State your intention)<br />You who were so compassionate toward miserable sinners, regard not the unworthiness of those who pray to you, but the glory of God that it may once again be magnified by the granting of the particular request (State your intention) which I now ask for with persevering earnestness. Amen<br />Pray one Our Father,<br />one Hail Mary, and<br />Glory Be to the Father, in honor of Saint Anthony.<br /><br />Saint Anthony, pray for us!<br /><br />Days: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9<br /><br />DAY ONE<br />O holy St. Anthony, gentlest of saints, your love for God and charity for his creatures made you worthy while on earth to possess miraculous powers. Miracles waited your word, which you were ever ready to speak for those in trouble or anxiety. Encouraged by this thought, I implore you to obtain for me the favor I seek in this novena (State your intention). The answer to my prayer may require a miracle; even so, you are the saint of miracles. O gentle and loving Saint Anthony, whose heart was ever full of human sympathy, whisper my petition into the ears of the Infant Jesus, who loved to be folded in your arms, and thee gratitude of my heart will always be yours.<br /><br />One Our Father, one Hail Mary, and Glory Be to the Father, in honor of Saint Anthony.<br /><br />Saint Anthony, pray for us!<br /><br />DAY TWO<br />O miracle-working St. Anthony, remember that it never has been heard that you left without help or relief anyone who in his need had recourse to you. Animated now with the most lively confidence, even with full conviction of not being refused, I fly for refuge to thee, O most favored friend of the Infant Jesus. O eloquent preacher of the divine mercy, despise not my supplications but, bringing them before the throne of God, strengthen them by your intercession and obtain for me the favor I seek in this novena (State your intention) .<br /><br />One Our Father, one Hail Mary, and Glory Be to the Father, in honor of Saint Anthony.<br /><br />Saint Anthony, pray for us!<br /><br />DAY THREE<br />O purest St. Anthony, who through your angelic virtue was made worthy to be caressed by the Divine Child Jesus, to hold him in your arms and press him to your heart. I entreat you to cast a benevolent glance upon me. O glorious St. Anthony, born under the protection of Mary Immaculate, on the Feast of her Assumption into Heaven, and consecrated to her and now so powerful an intercessor in Heaven, I beseech you to obtain for me the favor I ask in this novena (State your intention). O great wonder-worker, intercede for me that God may grant my request.<br /><br />One Our Father, one Hail Mary, and Glory Be to the Father, in honor of Saint Anthony.<br /><br />Saint Anthony, pray for us!<br /><br />DAY FOUR<br />I salute and honor you, O powerful helper, St. Anthony. The Christian world confidently turns to you and experiences your tender compassion and powerful assistance in so many necessities and sufferings that I am encouraged in my need to seek you help in obtaining a favorable answer to my request for the favor I seek in this novena (State your intention). O holy St. Anthony, I beseech you, obtain for me the grace that I desire.<br /><br />One Our Father, one Hail Mary, and Glory Be to the Father, in honor of Saint Anthony.<br /><br />Saint Anthony, pray for us!<br /><br />DAY FIVE<br />I salute you, St. Anthony, lily of purity, ornament and glory of Christianity. I salute you, great Saint, cherub of wisdom and seraph of divine love. I rejoice at the favors our Lord has so liberally bestowed upon you. In humility and confidence I entreat you to help me, for I know that God has given you charity and pity, as well as power. I ask you by the love you did feel toward the Infant Jesus as you held him in your arms to tell Him now of the favor I seek through your intercession in this novena (State your intention).<br /><br />One Our Father, one Hail Mary, and Glory Be to the Father, in honor of Saint Anthony.<br /><br />Saint Anthony, pray for us!<br /><br />DAY SIX<br />O glorious St. Anthony, chosen by God to preach his Word, you received from Him the gift of tongues and the power of working the most extraordinary miracles. O good St. Anthony, pray that I may fulfill the will of God in all things so that I may love Him, with you, for all eternity. O kind St. Anthony, I beseech you, obtain for me the grace that I desire, the favor I seek in this novena (State your intention).<br /><br />One Our Father, one Hail Mary, and Glory Be to the Father, in honor of Saint Anthony.<br /><br />Saint Anthony, pray for us!<br /><br />DAY SEVEN<br />O renowned champion of the faith of Christ, most holy St. Anthony, glorious for your many miracles, obtain for me from the bounty of my Lord and God the grace which I ardently seek in this novena (State your intention) . O holy St. Anthony, ever attentive to those who invoke you, grant me that aid of your powerful intercession.<br /><br />One Our Father, one Hail Mary, and Glory Be to the Father, in honor of Saint Anthony.<br /><br />Saint Anthony, pray for us!<br /><br />DAY EIGHT<br />O holy St. Anthony, you have shown yourself so powerful in your intercession, so tender and so compassionate towards those who honor you and invoke you in suffering and distress. I beseech you most humbly and earnestly to take me under your protection in my present necessities and to obtain for me the favor I desire (State your intention). Recommend my request to the merciful Queen of Heaven, that she may plead my cause with you before the throne of her Divine Son.<br /><br />One Our Father, one Hail Mary, and Glory Be to the Father, in honor of Saint Anthony.<br /><br />Saint Anthony, pray for us!<br /><br />DAY NINE<br />Saint Anthony, servant of Mary, glory of the Church, pray for our Holy Father, our bishops, our priests, our Religious Orders, that, through their pious zeal and apostolic labors, all may be united in faith and give greater glory to God. St. Anthony, helper of all who invoke you, pray for me and intercede for me before the throne of Almighty God that I be granted the favor I so earnestly see in this novena (State your intention).<br /><br />One Our Father, one Hail Mary, and Glory Be to the Father, in honor of Saint Anthony.<br /><br />Saint Anthony, pray for us!<br /><br />May the divine assistance remain always with us.<br />Amen<br />May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.<br />Amen.<br />O God, may the votive commemoration of blessed Anthony, your confessor, be a source of joy to your Church, that she may always be fortified with spiritual assistance, and deserve to enjoy eternal rewards. Through Christ our Lord.<br />Amen.MattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-24088197808990875162011-06-12T19:41:00.000-07:002011-06-12T19:49:33.396-07:008 Years ago today, the world lost David Brinkley<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiseAKL1m_Gdt-PDno5dQypfqhMLsSgNVuk4PzhTtwyWuJ0gsIio9EGtsIxRL0OPWhPCNfDK1-c8a-_e92iHf3vDc6NjV2MBH9LGoxGGGkWW8wNFLH5Fd48kwk_s3x1CyytKOEtzHbKhEbg/s1600/tl_death_brinkley.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 350px; height: 250px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiseAKL1m_Gdt-PDno5dQypfqhMLsSgNVuk4PzhTtwyWuJ0gsIio9EGtsIxRL0OPWhPCNfDK1-c8a-_e92iHf3vDc6NjV2MBH9LGoxGGGkWW8wNFLH5Fd48kwk_s3x1CyytKOEtzHbKhEbg/s400/tl_death_brinkley.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5617530389559472562" /></a><br /><br />Mister Brinkley,Thank you for all of the years you have provided in the world of journalism. Especially you touch my heart with the journalist who gets connected with the presidency. I have enjoyed your 1995 Memoir on which I have received from a friend of mine in my local library and I have readed it like 4 times and I will treasure this book for the years to come. Thank you for introducing me in the world of the presidency with all of your interviews of every President since FDR to Bill Clinton. Thank You Mister Brinkley, Remembering you 8 years later today, may you rest in peace!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />David McClure Brinkley (July 10, 1920 – June 11, 2003) was an American newscaster for NBC and ABC in a career lasting from 1943 to 1997.<br /><br />From 1956 through 1970, he co-anchored NBC's top rated nightly news program, The Huntley–Brinkley Report, with Chet Huntley and thereafter appeared as co-anchor or commentator on its successor, NBC Nightly News, through the 1970s. In the 1980s and 1990s, Brinkley was host of the popular Sunday This Week with David Brinkley program and a top commentator on election night coverage for ABC News. Over the course of his career, Brinkley received ten Emmy Awards, three George Foster Peabody Awards, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.<br /><br />He wrote three books, including the critically acclaimed 1988 bestseller Washington Goes to War, about how World War II transformed the nation's capital. This social history was largely based on his own observations as a young reporter in the city.<br /><br /><br />June 12, 2003<br />David Brinkley, Elder Statesman of TV News, Dies at 82<br />By RICHARD SEVERO<br />David Brinkley, whose pungent news commentaries, delivered with a mixture of wry skepticism and succinct candor, set the standard for network television for generations, died at his home in Houston late Wednesday. He was 82. <br /><br />Mr. Brinkley liked to say that he had "done the news longer than anyone on earth." He summed up his own career as the subtitle of his 1995 memoir, "David Brinkley: 11 Presidents, 4 Wars, 22 Political Conventions, One Moon Landing, 3 Assassinations, 2,000 Weeks of News and Other Stuff on Television and 18 Years of Growing Up in North Carolina." <br /><br />His style of writing and delivering the news — clipped sentences spoken in measured cadences and in a sardonic voice — was echoed by legions of young television commentators, imitated by comedians and mimics, and instantly recognized by generations of Americans. <br /><br />His colleague Roger Mudd once observed that Mr. Brinkley "brought a level of political sophistication and literary craftsmanship and a lively sense of humor that television had never known before and that hasn't been equaled since." <br /><br />Mr. Brinkley was among the last of a generation of reporters who got their basic training at newspapers and wire services, then made their name in the new medium of television. That generation included Walter Cronkite and John Chancellor. <br /><br />"In my own work I have, for better or worse, always dealt or tried to deal with everything that falls under the heading of news," Mr. Brinkley wrote in his 1996 book, "Everyone Is Entitled to My Opinion." "Just news. No specialty, no emphasis on this or that or anything else. Just whatever came in." <br /><br />He described his commentaries as "the sauce, the spice, the flavoring to be mixed in with the wars, the medical discoveries and the economic upheavals that fill the front pages." <br /><br />Mr. Brinkley achieved a number of firsts, including writing and serving as host for one of the earliest television news magazines, "David Brinkley's Journal," in the 1960's. But he was at the height of his popularity from 1956 to 1970, when NBC teamed him with Chet Huntley on a nightly news program it called "The Huntley-Brinkley Report." <br /><br />Mr. Huntley, a saturninely handsome correspondent who was given to punditry, reported from New York and Mr. Brinkley held forth from Washington. The chemistry between the two newsmen, thanks largely to the controlled astringency of Mr. Brinkley's commentary, gave the broadcast a dominant place in the ratings, overtaking Mr. Cronkite's in two years. <br /><br />Mr. Brinkley was not given to nostalgia. Speaking in 1996 of Mr. Huntley, who died in 1974, he said: "We weren't really close. He was always in New York, and I was always in Washington." Mr. Brinkley once explained the enormous success of "The Huntley-Brinkley Report" in this way: "I wrote pretty well, and Huntley looked good and had a great voice." <br /><br />Reuven Frank, the program's producer, was credited with conceiving its famous closing lines "Good Night, Chet," "Good Night, David," "And good night for NBC News" as a gesture of warmth to offset the serious demeanors of Mr. Huntley and Mr. Brinkley and the seriousness with which they treated the nightly news. In later years, Mr. Brinkley said he thought the sign-off was "silly and inappropriate." <br /><br />Some of Mr. Brinkley's finest moments involved the coverage of politics by "The Huntley-Brinkley Report," particularly its live reporting from the parties' conventions, beginning in 1956. <br /><br />By 1964, the program's coverage of the Democratic convention drew a remarkable 84 percent share of the viewers. President Bill Clinton said that the Huntley-Brinkley coverage of the conventions fueled his early interest in politics. And Jeff Greenfield, the CNN news analyst, said, "David Brinkley created a whole generation of political junkies." <br /><br />"The Huntley-Brinkley Report" ended with Mr. Huntley's retirement in 1970, but Mr. Brinkley remained at NBC for 11 years after his departure. He was an anchor of "Nightly News" with John Chancellor from 1976 to 1979 and for a while presided over "NBC Magazine." In the 1960's, he had also been the host of "David Brinkley's Journal." Both "Magazine" and "Journal" were critically acclaimed, although neither attracted as large a share of the television audience as critics thought they deserved. <br /><br />In September 1981, Mr. Brinkley, then 61, said he was leaving NBC after 38 years "because there's nothing at NBC that I really want to do." The network had just picked Roger Mudd and Tom Brokaw as the anchors for "Nightly News" and Mr. Brinkley felt he had no role. He later called his departure "a rending, wrenching experience," that brought tears to his eyes. <br /><br />He soon joined ABC News, where Roone Arledge was planning a Sunday morning program. "This Week With David Brinkley" at first featured Benjamin C. Bradlee, then the editor of The Washington Post , and Karen Elliot House, a diplomatic reporter for The Wall Street Journal. It later included George Will, Cokie Roberts and Sam Donaldson. <br /><br />With Mr. Brinkley in charge, the program's blend of political news, commentary and sometimes quarrelsome debate established it as both a ratings leader and a trendsetter on Sunday mornings. It also inspired a wave of similar programs. Tim Russert, the host of NBC's "Meet the Press," which challenged the ratings supremacy of "This Week," said of his competitor, "David Brinkley redefined Sunday morning TV." <br /><br />Mr. Brinkley retired from his weekly stint as moderator of ABC's "This Week With David Brinkley" in November 1997, saying he would contribute commentary and perform other duties for the network. In the months leading up to his retirement, he observed that he had covered 22 national political conventions, which he had come to regard as "cruel and unusual punishment." <br /><br />Mr. Brinkley had been in deteriorating health for some time. He had lung surgery and afterwards, even after convalescence, some colleagues thought he had lost a step. <br /><br />In 1998, he surprised many of his admirers in the news business when he agreed to become a spokesman for Archer Daniels Midland , the agribusiness giant. He had retired from ABC only months earlier. Archer had gotten itself into serious difficulty with the federal government in 1996, paying a $100 million fine for the price fixing of food and feed additives. <br /><br />So there was considerable dismay when Mr. Brinkley appeared for A.D.M. in an advertisement on his old program with these self-introductory words: "Since television began, I have brought you the news — wars, elections, victories, defeats. The news, straight and true. I will still speak straight and true. I'll never change that, but now I will bring you information about food, the environment, agriculture, issues of importance to the American people and the world." <br /><br />Some of the most esteemed figures in television news, including Mr. Cronkite, the retired CBS News correspondent and anchor, expressed reservations and puzzlement, since representing a corporation appeared to be in conflict with Mr. Brinkley's image of independence as a newsman. <br /><br />When the commercial turned up only on the program that Mr. Brinkley had just retired from, ABC pulled the ad, but reinstated it a few months later. <br /><br />In later years, Mr. Brinkley was accused of becoming more of a curmudgeon than a skeptic. <br /><br />Mr. Brinkley countered: "As long as I've known anything about politics, I've been skeptical. And it has evolved. The more I saw, the more skeptical I became." <br /><br />He said that politicians in the 1990's were largely concerned with the "naked pursuit of power and of privilege and of perks." <br /><br />During his final election-night program, in 1996, Mr. Brinkley delivered some parting shots, calling President Bill Clinton a bore and telling voters they could expect more "goddamned nonsense" for the next four years. <br /><br />After covering presidential elections since the 1956 Eisenhower-Stevenson race, the 1996 election was Mr. Brinkley's last as a broadcaster. Winding up a long night, when ABC correspondents gathered around Peter Jennings, the anchor, Mr. Brinkley said of the newly re-elected Mr. Clinton: "He has not a creative bone in his body. Therefore, he's a bore, and will always be a bore." <br /><br />Callers flooded the network's phone lines to complain about or praise Mr. Brinkley's remarks. But he apologized to President Clinton a few days later. <br /><br />David McClure Brinkley was born on July 10, 1920, in Wilmington, N.C., the son of William Graham Brinkley, a railroad man, and Mary MacDonald West Brinkley. While he was still a student at New Hanover High School in Wilmington, he worked for a weekly newspaper, owned by a relative, providing a column about high school activities. It "was full of such racy items as who was buying 10 cent sodas for whom," Mr. Brinkley later said, "each one separated by three dots." <br /><br />After high school, he attended the University of North Carolina and Vanderbilt University, but got degrees from neither, because "I didn't think there was anything they could teach me," Mr. Brinkley said. He joined the Army in 1940 but was discharged for medical reasons a year later. <br /><br />In 1942, he got a reporting job with United Press in Atlanta and later worked for the news agency in Montgomery, Ala., Nashville and Charlotte, N.C. He then moved to Washington, where NBC, impressed by his ability to write for the ear, hired him as a news writer. <br /><br />In his 1995 memoir, Mr. Brinkley told how he came to deliver the news in his distinctive melodic fashion. During World War II, he said, he took to underlining words to ensure the correct emphasis on the radio and developed his "jerky, labored way of speaking." <br /><br />In 1945, NBC made him the moderator of a television news show called "America United," which was shown in the Washington area. Mr. Brinkley liked to say that he made all his learning errors at a good time, because at that point, there were only a few hundred people with television sets in Washington. <br /><br />NBC decided that Mr. Brinkley had on-camera talent and in 1950 made him a news commentator. The next year, he became Washington correspondent for NBC's nightly 15-minute news program, "Camel News Caravan," named after the cigarette company that sponsored it. <br /><br />In 1955, he met Mr. Huntley and in 1957, NBC decided that both men would be commentators on the "News Caravan," which was then anchored by John Cameron Swayze. Soon, Mr. Huntley and Mr. Brinkley became the anchors for the program and the combination immediately received critical acclaim. <br /><br />In August 1956, Jack Gould, the television critic of The New York Times , predicted that Mr. Brinkley might well be the forerunner of a new school of television commentator. He lauded Mr. Brinkley's terse style and said, "He has the knack for the succinct phrase that sums up the situation." <br /><br />The broadcast continued to grow in popularity and Mr. Brinkley added to his luster by his deft completion of special assignments. In 1959, for example, NBC sent him on a tour of the Mediterranean and the resultant clips were broadcast as "Our Man in the Mediterranean." It was literate, funny and acerbic. Three years later, Mr. Brinkley captured much the same tone with another such program, called "Our Man in Vienna." <br /><br />Throughout the 1960's "The Huntley-Brinkley Report" set the pace for NBC News, helping it pull ahead of its rival networks' news operations, including CBS News, which had always regarded itself as the elite network news operation. <br /><br />Mr. Brinkley's marriage to Ann Fischer ended in divorce. Their children are Alan, a historian who is to become provost of Columbia University on July 1; Joel, a correspondent in the Washington Bureau of The New York Times; and John. In 1972, Mr. Brinkley married Susan Adolph. Mrs. Adolph has a daughter, Alexis, by her previous marriage to Peter Adolph. <br /><br />The 1970's brought about increased criticism of both print and broadcast journalism, especially from conservatives. Mr. Brinkley met such criticism with characteristic directness. In 1970, when Senator Barry Goldwater, the Arizona Republican, complained about bias in the news and what he called "liberal comments about the Nixon administration" that had "taken on an edge of desperation and hysteria," Mr. Brinkley snapped, "He gave no details, no names and no specifics." <br /><br />He added that "no politician has ever complained about biased news coverage when the news reported made his political opponent look bad." He said that what some politicians wanted was "slanted reporting, slanted their way." <br /><br />Mr. Brinkley's commentaries kept their edge. In 1972, he noted in "David Brinkley's Journal" on NBC that if a Social Security recipient earned more than $30 a week at the time, he started to lose his pension. "His pension is not a gift, not charity and not welfare. He paid for it in advance," Mr. Brinkley said. "In simple truth, when a person retires, whether he works or not, is none of Washington's business." <br /><br />In the years that followed, both at NBC and at ABC, he railed at what he saw as the incompetence of big government. He came to think that Congress had dangerously isolated itself from the rest of the country. Over the years, his gut issues were taxes, law and order, environmental decay and urban planning. <br /><br />John J. O'Connor, reviewing this phase of his career for The Times, called Mr. Brinkley "one of the more articulate and persuasive practitioners" of television news reporting. <br /><br />"The only way to do news on television is not to be terrified of it," Mr. Brinkley said. "Most of the news isn't very important. In fact, very little of it is." <br /><br />Retirement<br /><br />Days before his announced retirement from regular news coverage, Brinkley made a rare on-air mistake during evening coverage of the 1996 presidential election, at a moment when he thought they were on commercial break. One of his colleagues asked him what he thought of Bill Clinton's re-election. He called Clinton "a bore" and added, "The next four years will be filled with pretty words, and pretty music, and a lot of goddamn nonsense!" One of his team pointed out that they were still on the air. Brinkley said, "Really? Well, I'm leaving anyway!" Brinkley worked this mistake into a chance for an apology as part of a one-on-one interview with Clinton that followed a week or so later.<br /><br />Brinkley stepped down from hosting This Week on November 10, 1996, but continued to provide small commentary pieces for the show until 1997. He then fully retired from television. He had been an electronic journalist for over fifty years and had been anchor or host of a daily or weekly national television program for just over forty years. His career lasted from the beginning of broadcast news to the information age.<br /><br />During his career, he won ten Emmy Awards and three George Foster Peabody Awards. In 1992, President George H. W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. Bush called him "the elder statesman of broadcast journalism"; but Brinkley was much more humble. In an interview in 1992, he said "Most of my life, I've simply been a reporter covering things, and writing and talking about it".<br /><br />Brinkley is the father of historian and Columbia University Provost, Alan Brinkley, and of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Stanford professor, Joel Brinkley.<br /><br />Brinkley died in 2003 at his home in Houston, Texas, from complications after a fall. His body is interred at Oakdale Cemetery, Wilmington, North Carolina.MattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-9008072194239010252011-06-12T19:36:00.000-07:002011-06-12T19:40:38.794-07:008 Years ago today, the world lost Gregory Peck<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjqFILuLhXihKl-E68IuUcIJs3n6qTAcc2jvEMowM2nD_vqhKZyx5OC7ZY04F7yqxE7oTyS49npv7YGuChb2DC_Vg0cl9kBzkYj_5KDdaG-4sJp56Y2pH1Hao7bYAd8_UJEpT-Nu9mcvbt/s1600/gregory-peck.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjqFILuLhXihKl-E68IuUcIJs3n6qTAcc2jvEMowM2nD_vqhKZyx5OC7ZY04F7yqxE7oTyS49npv7YGuChb2DC_Vg0cl9kBzkYj_5KDdaG-4sJp56Y2pH1Hao7bYAd8_UJEpT-Nu9mcvbt/s400/gregory-peck.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5617527941147400594" /></a><br /><br />Gregory Peck:to a wonderful actor, I truly admired your work in film especially "To kill a Mockingbird" and "MacArthur"! thanks! Remembering you 8 years later, may you rest in peace!<br /><br /><br />Born Eldred Gregory Peck<br />April 5, 1916(1916-04-05)<br />La Jolla, California, U.S. <br />Died June 12, 2003(2003-06-12) (aged 87)<br />Los Angeles, California, U.S. <br />Resting place Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Los Angeles, California <br />Occupation Actor <br />Years active 1942–2000 <br />Religion Roman Catholic <br />Spouse Greta Kukkonen (1942-1955; divorce)<br />Veronique Passani (1955-2003; his death) <br />Relatives Ethan Peck (grandson) <br /><br />Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor.<br /><br />One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an Academy Award. President Lyndon Johnson honored Peck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 for his lifetime humanitarian efforts. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking at #12<br /><br />Death <br />On June 12, 2003, Peck died in his sleep at home from bronchopneumonia. His wife Veronique was by his side.<br /><br />Gregory Peck is entombed in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels mausoleum in Los Angeles, California. His eulogy was read by Brock Peters, whose character, Tom Robinson, was defended by Peck's Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird.<br /><br />Awards/honors<br /><br />Peck was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning once. He was nominated for The Keys of the Kingdom (1945), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947) and Twelve O'Clock High (1949). He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird. In 1968 he received the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.<br /><br />Peck also received many Golden Globe awards. He won in 1947 for The Yearling, in 1963 for To Kill a Mockingbird, and in 1999 for the TV mini series Moby Dick. He was nominated in 1978 for The Boys from Brazil. He received the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1969, and was given the Henrietta Award in 1951 and 1955 for World Film Favorite — Male.<br /><br />In 1969 US President Lyndon Johnson honored Peck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. In 1971 the Screen Actors Guild presented Peck with the SAG Life Achievement Award. In 1989 the American Film Institute gave Peck the AFI Life Achievement Award. He received the Crystal Globe award for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema in 1996.<br /><br />In 1986 Peck was honored alongside actress Gene Tierney with the first Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival Spain for their body of work.<br /><br />In 1993, Peck was awarded with an Honorary Golden Bear at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival.<br /><br />In 1998 he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.<br /><br />In 2000 Peck was made a Doctor of Letters by the National University of Ireland. He was a founding patron of the University College Dublin School of Film, where he persuaded Martin Scorsese to become an honorary patron. Peck was also chairman of the American Cancer Society for a short time.<br /><br />For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Gregory Peck has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6100 Hollywood Blvd. In November 2005 the star was stolen, and has since been replaced.<br /><br />On April 28, 2011, a ceremony was held in Beverly Hills, California celebrating the first day of issue of a U.S. postage stamp commemorating Peck. The stamp is the 17th commemorative stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series.MattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-5417177125130478482011-06-12T10:07:00.000-07:002011-06-12T10:18:13.315-07:00Happy 87th Birthday to President George Herbert Walker Bush<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9hdpimy1KUpbOBpGBjeccNP5uZ4KKX7Joa8F_VoAVNDkoAOEvxgMM-1d2mSfr_5vOrYQdBlGEojF5Vx6Et7r6sWwCGuy_umyr_J7g0Mjw_I8ivr1ZGBTzZ2sp4iZ_iszi7doGeyrr23sy/s1600/bush_1827197c.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 250px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5617382879642222194" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9hdpimy1KUpbOBpGBjeccNP5uZ4KKX7Joa8F_VoAVNDkoAOEvxgMM-1d2mSfr_5vOrYQdBlGEojF5Vx6Et7r6sWwCGuy_umyr_J7g0Mjw_I8ivr1ZGBTzZ2sp4iZ_iszi7doGeyrr23sy/s400/bush_1827197c.jpg" /></a><br />Barack Obama praised George H W Bush as a 'diplomatic hand' who made possible what many had thought was impossible - ending the Cold War without firing a shot.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCY9-aO3a_huyEU2tvfTrH8ZRSlzifUlKHMKlbEjMmqrgfjW72zDbyRLDrOKRRmnhRISVRd8sgx10wlxRpcVNsnxdn-iiZVR1tYsYi_16chftM2_lE-WLglE6sjtvOfDN6WZQX6OcBtud4/s1600/george-barbara-bush.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 335px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5617381336014776306" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCY9-aO3a_huyEU2tvfTrH8ZRSlzifUlKHMKlbEjMmqrgfjW72zDbyRLDrOKRRmnhRISVRd8sgx10wlxRpcVNsnxdn-iiZVR1tYsYi_16chftM2_lE-WLglE6sjtvOfDN6WZQX6OcBtud4/s400/george-barbara-bush.jpg" /></a> Former President/Vice-President/CIA Director George Herbert Walker Bush and his wife/ First Lady Barbara Pierce Bush<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFILCwA1V9TrrRzKQonIJnMTWwUjjvxE1h5IXzV1OThJg9h9wEVOw9YjNZiCkj_-SKY_mJFXxW71iJHn8RG71L6M45gLRPWeZqeDjsFwr8fLeKgxGOBDjG-776tml9_X0YgBW_9UXPEUDT/s1600/george-bush-sr.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 275px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 356px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5617381329942614034" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFILCwA1V9TrrRzKQonIJnMTWwUjjvxE1h5IXzV1OThJg9h9wEVOw9YjNZiCkj_-SKY_mJFXxW71iJHn8RG71L6M45gLRPWeZqeDjsFwr8fLeKgxGOBDjG-776tml9_X0YgBW_9UXPEUDT/s400/george-bush-sr.jpg" /></a> One of the official photographs of President George Herbert Walker Bush during his presidency, 1989-1993.<br /><br /><br /><br />Happy 87th Birthday Mr President, I truly remember your presidency, I was remember watching being the commander in chief during Gulf War I in 1991.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />George Herbert Walker Bush (born June 12, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States (1989–93). He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President (1981–89), a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.<br /><br />Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to Senator Prescott Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush. Following the attacks on Pearl Harbor in 1941, at the age of 18, Bush postponed going to college and became the youngest aviator in the US Navy at the time. He served until the end of the war, then attended Yale University. Graduating in 1948, he moved his family to West Texas and entered the oil business, becoming a millionaire by the age of 40.<br /><br />He became involved in politics soon after founding his own oil company, serving as a member of the House of Representatives, among other positions. He ran unsuccessfully for president of the United States in 1980, but was chosen by party nominee Ronald Reagan to be the vice presidential nominee, and the two were subsequently elected. During his tenure, Bush headed administration task forces on deregulation and fighting drug abuse.<br /><br />In 1988, Bush launched a successful campaign to succeed Reagan as president, defeating Democratic opponent Michael Dukakis. Foreign policy drove the Bush presidency; military operations were conducted in Panama and the Persian Gulf at a time of world change; the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the Soviet Union dissolved two years later. Domestically, Bush reneged on a 1988 campaign promise and after a struggle with Congress, signed an increase in taxes that Congress had passed. In the wake of economic concerns, he lost the 1992 presidential election to Democrat Bill Clinton.<br /><br />Bush is the father of George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, and Jeb Bush, former Governor of Florida. He is the last president to have been a World War II veteran. Until the election of his son George W. Bush to the presidency in 2000, Bush was commonly referred to simply as "George Bush"; since that time, the forms "George H. W. Bush", "Bush 41", "Bush the Elder", and "George Bush, Sr." have come into common use as a way to distinguish the father from the son.<br /><br /><br />Recent activities<br /><br />The former president continues to make many public appearances. He and Mrs. Bush attended the state funeral of Ronald Reagan in June 2004, and of Gerald Ford in January 2007. One month later, he was awarded the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award in Beverly Hills, California by former First Lady Nancy Reagan.<br /><br />Despite his political differences with Bill Clinton, it has been acknowledged that the two former presidents have become friends. He and Clinton appeared together in television ads in 2005, encouraging aid for victims of Hurricane Katrina and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.<br /><br />In October 2006, Bush was honored by the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF), receiving the NIAF One America Award for his work to better the lives of all Americans.<br /><br />On February 18, 2008, Bush formally endorsed Senator John McCain for the presidency of the United States. The endorsement offered a boost to McCain's campaign, as the Arizona Senator had been facing criticism among many conservatives.<br /><br />On January 10, 2009, Bush and his son were both present at the commissioning of the USS George H. W. Bush (CVN-77), the tenth and last Nimitz class supercarrier of the United States Navy. Bush paid a visit to the carrier again on May 26, 2009.<br /><br /><br />Barack Obama honours George H W Bush<br />US President Barack Obama honoured German Chancellor Angela Merkel and America's "gentleman" 41st president George H W Bush with America's highest civilian honour on Tuesday<br />Mrs Merkel was not in Washington for the annual Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony but Mr Obama said she would be making an official visit "soon" and he would present it then.<br /><br />Mr Obama also honoured a list of political and cultural figures, including cello virtuoso Yo-Yo Ma, poet Maya Angelou and billionaire financier and philanthropist Warren Buffett.<br /><br />Civil rights pioneer congressman John Lewis, baseball great Stan Musial and Jean Kennedy Smith, the sister of assassinated president John F. Kennedy and a disabilities campaigner, were also among honorees.<br /><br />Mr Obama praised Mr Bush, father of his predecessor as president, George W. Bush, as a "diplomatic hand" who made possible what many had thought was impossible – ending the Cold War without firing a shot.<br /><br />"His humility and his decency reflects the very best of the American spirit. Those of you who know him, this is a gentleman, inspiring citizens to become points of light in service to others," Mr Obama said.<br />Related Links<br />You might like:Scientists create cow that produces 'human' milk10 Jun 2011(Telegraph News)Sarah Palin emails show colleagues unimpressed with her workload10 Jun 2011(Telegraph News)David Kelly files: Lord Hutton insists no secrecy surrounding the post mortem10 Jun 2011(Telegraph News)<br /><br />From the WebFORM THE WEB:Bridesmaids Dresses We Don't Hate13 May 2011(StyleList)My eyebrows clearly need help, but I don’t even have an idea about how to begin to groom them. What's the best advice you can give?01 Dec 1969(Style + Tech For Men)What Shape of Earrings Will Flatter My Round Face?24 May 2011(typeF.com)[what's this]Mr Obama said that Mrs Merkel "dreamed of freedom" as she grew up in East Germany.<br /><br />"When the wall finally crumbled and Germany was reunited, she broke barriers of her own, becoming the first East German and the first woman to become chancellor of Germany," Mr Obama said.<br /><br />"To America, Chancellor Merkel and the country she leads are among our closest allies. To me, she's a trusted global partner and a friend."<br /><br />Mr Obama joked that Mr Buffett made a loss on his first-ever investment as an 11-year-old boy but hung onto the stock and it recovered to yield a small profit, launching a stellar career.<br /><br />He also paid tribute to Mr Buffett's career as a humanitarian: "You don't see Warren Buffett wearing fancy suits or driving fancy cars."<br /><br />"Instead, you see him devoting the vast majority of his wealth to those around the world who are suffering, or sick, or in need of help.<br /><br />Mr Obama said leading US author, poet and civil rights campaigner Maya Angelou was renowned for "soaring poetry" and "towering prose" that had spoken to the conscience of a nation.MattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-57643262161407687192011-06-08T18:59:00.000-07:002011-06-08T19:12:44.938-07:002 First Ladies are born on this day<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5IRLLZhpILAsQAe-5n1oh8rq7310Lhe3WB2HVclJ60jhj2LCCP14VPrc9m66dizKwacFvjNd4qZ-QRl9L7fKJuB8Zwhur1SrTz0SiVcS0GRgeLqkNL9I_vfe7jSBa3JS6Qh6ytVVUpg67/s1600/george-barbara-bush.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 335px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5616035098405307746" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5IRLLZhpILAsQAe-5n1oh8rq7310Lhe3WB2HVclJ60jhj2LCCP14VPrc9m66dizKwacFvjNd4qZ-QRl9L7fKJuB8Zwhur1SrTz0SiVcS0GRgeLqkNL9I_vfe7jSBa3JS6Qh6ytVVUpg67/s400/george-barbara-bush.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Barbara Bush, thanks for being there with your husband, George Herbert Walker Bush and your son, George Walker Bush when they served as president!Remembering you today, happy 86th birthday!<br /><br /><br /><br />Barbara Pierce Bush (born June 8, 1925)(Age 86) is the wife of the 41st President of the United States George H. W. Bush, and served as First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993. She is the mother of the 43rd President George W. Bush and of the 43rd Governor of Florida Jeb Bush. Previously she had served as Second Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989.<br /><br />Barbara Pierce was born in Flushing, New York attended Rye Country Day School from 1931 to 1937, and is an alumna of Ashley Hall School in Charleston, SC. She met George Herbert Walker Bush at age 16, and the two married in 1945, while he was on leave during his deployment as a Naval officer in World War II. They would have six children together. The Bush family soon moved to Midland, Texas; as George Bush entered political life, Barbara raised their children.<br /><br />As wife of the Vice President and then President, Barbara Bush has supported and worked to advance the cause of universal literacy. She founded the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy while First Lady. Since leaving the White House, she has continued to advance this cause.<br /><br />First Lady of the United States<br />Barbara Bush's cause as First Lady was literacy, as it was when she was Second Lady, calling it "the most important issue we have". She became involved with many literacy organizations, served on literacy committees and chaired many reading organizations. Eventually, she helped develop the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.<br /><br />During the early 1980s, statistics showed that 35 million adults could not read above the eight-grade level and that 23 million were not able to read beyond a fourth-grade level. Mrs. Bush appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss the situation. She also appeared regularly on Mrs. Bush's Story Time, a national radio program that stressed the importance of reading aloud to children.<br /><br />Through her influence, Virginia's former First Lady Jeannie Baliles was inspired to form the Virginia Literacy Foundation, which supported Virginia's grass roots adult literacy programs. Through her support and the publicity she generated as First Lady, grass roots adult literacy programs began to spring up around the country.<br /><br />She was also active with the White House Historical Association and worked to revitalize the White House Preservation Fund, which she renamed the White House Endowment Trust. The trust raises funds for the ongoing refurbishment and restoration of the White House. She met her goal of raising $25 million towards the endowment.<br /><br />Bush was known for her affection for her pet English Springer Spaniel Millie and wrote a child's book about Millie's new litter of puppies. Barbara Bush became the first U.S. First Lady to become a recipient of the Henry G. Freeman Jr. Pin Money Fund, receiving $36,000, most of which she gave to favorite charities.<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRA5ejKW1_CEGhLakw49MdzUAuDgRC5tykt75OG5WY3AdAB4RD5ZpRczr-lSBgCr0fxcHhbcbpj_xntqKgKAWFw6Yx46IernOgUAcOLXzqWWs1Lkrk0gmnKhugbdFV8g2yf4qbyTT5PmY2/s1600/WilliamMcKinley-IdaSaxton.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 275px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5616036668682462018" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRA5ejKW1_CEGhLakw49MdzUAuDgRC5tykt75OG5WY3AdAB4RD5ZpRczr-lSBgCr0fxcHhbcbpj_xntqKgKAWFw6Yx46IernOgUAcOLXzqWWs1Lkrk0gmnKhugbdFV8g2yf4qbyTT5PmY2/s400/WilliamMcKinley-IdaSaxton.jpg" /></a><br />Ida McKinley, thanks for being there with your husband, William McKinley when he served as president!Remembering you today, happy 164th birthday!<br /><br /><br /><br />Ida Saxton McKinley (June 8, 1847 – May 26, 1907), wife of William McKinley, was First Lady of the United States from 1897 to 1901.<br /><br />First Lady of the United States<br /><br />President McKinley took great care to accommodate her condition. In a break with tradition, he insisted that his wife be seated next to him at state dinners rather than at the other end of the table. At receiving lines, she alone remained seated. Many of the social chores normally assumed by the First Lady fell to Mrs. Jennie Tuttle Hobart, wife of Vice President Garret Hobart. Guests noted that whenever Mrs. McKinley was about to undergo a seizure, the President would gently place a napkin or handkerchief over her face to conceal her contorted features. When it passed, he would remove it and resume whatever he was doing as if nothing had happened.<br /><br />The President's patient devotion and loving attention was the talk of the capital. "President McKinley has made it pretty hard for the rest of us husbands here in Washington," remarked Mark Hanna.<br /><br />The First Lady often travelled with the President. Mrs. McKinley travelled to California with the President in May 1901, but became so ill in San Francisco that the planned tour of the Northwest was cancelled. She was also with him on the fateful trip to Buffalo, NY in September of that year when he was assassinated, but was not present at the shooting.MattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-55972896991681768142011-06-06T09:46:00.000-07:002011-06-06T09:57:14.392-07:0043 years ago today the world lost Robert Francis Kennedy<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7wNON0QfWTGV4GByXp_b3erKJOGoo4sbBJ6i2rk-Sd7nb9Zw8Rll076Hrvc8q0GNvrVzPp5zJRcv7gSuDY9UmE1JupaJ4Eupf3dQXVPY-ND9NxF6pZS4RQO1zQep2Ed0I8JzDDfidcCk9/s1600/robert-f-kennedy-with-mlking-jr.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 377px; height: 308px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7wNON0QfWTGV4GByXp_b3erKJOGoo4sbBJ6i2rk-Sd7nb9Zw8Rll076Hrvc8q0GNvrVzPp5zJRcv7gSuDY9UmE1JupaJ4Eupf3dQXVPY-ND9NxF6pZS4RQO1zQep2Ed0I8JzDDfidcCk9/s400/robert-f-kennedy-with-mlking-jr.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615149410535244322" /></a><br /><br />Robert Francis Kennedy: you were truly a unqiue individual in the Kennedy family, You were a great Attorney General and Speaker on Civil Rights in 1960s, Remembering you 43 years later, may you rest in peace!<br /><br /><br /><br />Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968), also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F. Kennedy and acted as one of his advisors during his presidency. From 1961 to 1964, he was the U.S. Attorney General.<br /><br />Following his brother John's assassination on November 22, 1963, Kennedy continued to serve as Attorney General under President Lyndon B. Johnson for nine months. In September 1964, Kennedy resigned to seek the U.S. Senate seat from New York, which he won in November. Within a few years, he publicly split with Johnson over the Vietnam War.<br /><br />In March 1968, Kennedy began a campaign for the presidency and was a front-running candidate of the Democratic Party. In the California presidential primary on June 4, Kennedy defeated Eugene McCarthy, a U.S. Senator from Minnesota. Following a brief victory speech delivered just past midnight on June 5 at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, Kennedy was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan. Mortally wounded, he survived for nearly 26 hours, dying early in the morning of June 6.<br /><br /><br />The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, a United States Senator and brother of assassinated President John F. Kennedy, took place shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, in Los Angeles, California. After winning the California primary election for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States, Kennedy was shot as he walked through the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel and died in the Good Samaritan Hospital twenty-six hours later. Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian immigrant, was convicted of Kennedy's murder and is serving a life sentence for the crime. The shooting was recorded on audio tape by a freelance newspaper reporter, and the aftermath was captured on film.<br /><br />Kennedy's body lay in repose at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York for two days before a funeral mass was held on June 8. His body was interred near his brother John at Arlington National Cemetery. His death prompted the protection of presidential candidates by the United States Secret Service. Hubert Humphrey went on to win the Democratic nomination for the presidency, but ultimately narrowly lost the election to Richard Nixon.<br /><br />As with his brother's death, Robert Kennedy's assassination and the circumstances surrounding it have spawned a variety of conspiracy theories. As of 2011 Kennedy remains one of only two sitting United States Senators to be assassinated.<br /><br /><br />Assassination <br />Boris Yaro's photograph of Robert F. Kennedy lying wounded on the floor immediately after the shooting. Kneeling beside him is 17-year-old Juan Romero, who shook Kennedy's hand when the shots fell.<br /><br /><br />Four hours after the polls closed in California, Kennedy claimed victory in the state's Democratic presidential primary. At approximately 12:10 a.m. PDT, he addressed his campaign supporters in the Ambassador Hotel's Embassy Room ballroom, in the Mid-Wilshire district of Los Angeles.<br /><br />At the time, the government provided Secret Service protection for incumbent presidents but not for presidential candidates. Kennedy's only security was provided by former FBI agent William Barry and two unofficial bodyguards, former professional athletes.[During the campaign, Kennedy had welcomed contact with the public, and people had often tried to touch him in their excitement.<br /><br />Kennedy had planned to walk through the ballroom and then, when he had finished speaking, on his way to another gathering of supporters elsewhere in the hotel.<br /><br /> However, with deadlines fast approaching, reporters wanted a press conference. Campaign aide Fred Dutton decided that Kennedy would forgo the second gathering and instead go through the kitchen and pantry area behind the ballroom to the press area. Kennedy finished speaking and started to exit when William Barry stopped him and said, "No, it's been changed. We're going this way."<br /><br />Barry and Dutton began clearing a way for Kennedy to go left through swinging doors to the kitchen corridor, but Kennedy, hemmed in by the crowd, followed hotel maître d' Karl Uecker through a back exit.<br /><br />Uecker led Kennedy through the kitchen area, holding Kennedy's right wrist but frequently releasing it as Kennedy shook hands with those he encountered.[13] Uecker and Kennedy started down a passageway narrowed by an ice machine against the right wall and a steam table to the left. <br /><br />Kennedy turned to his left and shook hands with busboy Juan Romero as Sirhan Bishara Sirhan stepped down from a low tray-stacker beside the ice machine, rushed past Uecker, and repeatedly fired what was later identified as a .22 caliber Iver-Johnson Cadet revolver.<br /><br />After Kennedy had fallen to the floor, security man Bill Barry hit Sirhan twice in the face while others, including maître d's Uecker and Edward Minasian, writer George Plimpton, Olympic gold medal decathlete Rafer Johnson and professional football player Rosey Grier, forced Sirhan against the steam table and disarmed him.<br /><br />Sirhan wrestled free and grabbed the revolver again, but he had already fired all the bullets. Barry went to Kennedy and laid his jacket under the candidate's head, later recalling: "I knew immediately it was a .22, a small caliber, so I hoped it wouldn't be so bad, but then I saw the hole in the Senator's head, and I knew".<br /><br />Reporters and photographers rushed into the area from both directions, contributing to the chaos. As Kennedy lay wounded, Juan Romero cradled the senator's head and placed a rosary in his hand. <br /><br />Kennedy asked Romero, "Is everybody safe, OK?" and Romero responded, "Yes, yes, everything is going to be OK". Captured by Life photographer Bill Eppridge and Boris Yaro of the Los Angeles Times, this moment became the iconic image of the assassination.<br /><br />Ethel Kennedy stood outside the crush of people at the scene, seeking help. She was soon led to her husband and knelt beside him. He turned his head and seemed to recognize her. After several minutes, medical attendants arrived and lifted Kennedy onto a stretcher, prompting him to whisper, "Don't lift me". He lost consciousness shortly thereafter. <br /><br />Kennedy was taken a mile away to Central Receiving Hospital, where he arrived near death. One doctor slapped his face, calling, "Bob, Bob", while another massaged Kennedy's heart. After obtaining a good heartbeat, doctors handed a stethoscope to Ethel Kennedy so she could hear her husband's heart beating, much to her relief. <br /><br />After about 30 minutes, Kennedy was transferred several blocks to the Hospital of the Good Samaritan for surgery. Surgery began at 3:12 a.m. PDT and lasted three hours and 40 minutes. Ten and a half hours later, at 5:30 p.m. PDT on Wednesday, spokesman Frank Mankiewicz announced that Kennedy's doctors were "concerned over his continuing failure to show improvement"; his condition remained "extremely critical as to life".<br /><br />Kennedy had been shot three times. One bullet, fired at a range of about 1 inch (2.54 cm), entered behind his right ear, dispersing fragments throughout his brain. Two others entered at the rear of his right armpit; one exited from his chest and the other lodged in the back of his neck. Despite extensive neurosurgery at the Good Samaritan Hospital to remove the bullet and bone fragments from his brain, Kennedy died at 1:44 a.m. PDT on June 6, nearly 26 hours after the shooting.<br /><br />Five other people were also wounded: William Weisel of ABC News, Paul Schrade of the United Auto Workers union, Democratic Party activist Elizabeth Evans, Ira Goldstein of the Continental News Service and Kennedy campaign volunteer Irwin Stroll. Although not physically wounded, singer Rosemary Clooney, a strong Kennedy supporter, was present in the ballroom during the shooting in the pantry and suffered a nervous breakdown shortly afterward.<br /><br /><br />Edward M. Kennedy<br /><br /><br />Address at the Public Memorial Service for Robert F. Kennedy<br /><br />Your Eminences, Your Excellencies, Mr. President: <br /><br />On behalf of Mrs. Kennedy, her children, the parents and sisters of Robert Kennedy, I want to express what we feel to those who mourn with us today in this Cathedral and around the world. <br /><br />We loved him as a brother, and as a father, and as a son. From his parents, and from his older brothers and sisters -- Joe and Kathleen and Jack -- he received an inspiration which he passed on to all of us. He gave us strength in time of trouble, wisdom in time of uncertainty, and sharing in time of happiness. He will always be by our side. <br /><br />Love is not an easy feeling to put into words. Nor is loyalty, or trust, or joy. But he was all of these. He loved life completely and he lived it intensely. <br /><br />A few years back, Robert Kennedy wrote some words about his own father which expresses [sic] the way we in his family felt about him. He said of what his father meant to him, and I quote:<br /><br />"What it really all adds up to is love -- not love as it is described with such facility in popular magazines, but the kind of love that is affection and respect, order and encouragement, and support. Our awareness of this was an incalculable source of strength, and because real love is something unselfish and involves sacrifice and giving, we could not help but profit from it."<br /><br />And he continued,<br /><br />"Beneath it all, he has tried to engender a social conscience. There were wrongs which needed attention. There were people who were poor and needed help. And we have a responsibility to them and to this country. Through no virtues and accomplishments of our own, we have been fortunate enough to be born in the United States under the most comfortable conditions. We, therefore, have a responsibility to others who are less well off."<br /><br /> That is what Robert Kennedy was given. What he leaves to us is what he said, what he did, and what he stood for. A speech he made to the young people of South Africa on their Day of Affirmation in 1966 sums it up the best, and I would like to read it now: <br /><br />"There is discrimination in this world and slavery and slaughter and starvation. Governments repress their people; millions are trapped in poverty while the nation grows rich and wealth is lavished on armaments everywhere. These are differing evils, but they are the common works of man. They reflect the imperfection of human justice, the inadequacy of human compassion, our lack of sensibility towards the suffering of our fellows. But we can perhaps remember -- even if only for a time -- that those who live with us are our brothers; that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek -- as we do -- nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can. <br /><br />Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men. And surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again. The answer is to rely on youth -- not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. The cruelties and obstacles of this swiftly changing planet will not yield to the obsolete dogmas and outworn slogans. They cannot be moved by those who cling to a present that is already dying, who prefer the illusion of security to the excitement and danger that come with even the most peaceful progress.<br /><br />It is a revolutionary world we live in, and this generation at home and around the world has had thrust upon it a greater burden of responsibility than any generation that has ever lived. Some believe there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills. Yet many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation; a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth; a young woman reclaimed the territory of France; and it was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and the 32 year-old Thomas Jefferson who [pro]claimed that "all men are created equal."<br /><br />These men moved the world, and so can we all. Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. *It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped.* Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.<br /><br />Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change. And I believe that in this generation those with the courage to enter the moral conflict will find themselves with companions in every corner of the globe.<br /><br />For the fortunate among us, there is the temptation to follow the easy and familiar paths of personal ambition and financial success so grandly spread before those who enjoy the privilege of education. But that is not the road history has marked out for us. Like it or not, we live in times of danger and uncertainty. But they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history. All of us will ultimately be judged, and as the years pass we will surely judge ourselves on the effort we have contributed to building a new world society and the extent to which our ideals and goals have shaped that event.<br /><br />*The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of American Society.* Our future may lie beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control. It is the shaping impulse of America that neither fate nor nature nor the irresistible tides of history, but the work of our own hands, matched to reason and principle, that will determine our destiny. There is pride in that, even arrogance, but there is also experience and truth. In any event, it is the only way we can live."<br /><br />That is the way he lived. That is what he leaves us.<br /><br />My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.<br /><br />Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.<br /><br />As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him:<br /><br />"Some men see things as they are and say why. <br />I dream things that never were and say why not."MattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-41803221072356486982011-06-05T20:21:00.001-07:002011-06-05T20:45:54.238-07:00Remembering President Ronald Wilson Reagan after 7 years<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpXE4MQVBgi4MJtEG69xGLoolQCMd6Fn591kp_4Ps4qMw9EYg5ht7kIe68jQj0B4GHNViiAOv-gyTwPTOU7mi38ebLGIPy0lpVzkQcRWlpDoAfOTCwMp9ddfDomTbb8f8Emxy8_tXdntJZ/s1600/reagan.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 312px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5614943125187150546" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpXE4MQVBgi4MJtEG69xGLoolQCMd6Fn591kp_4Ps4qMw9EYg5ht7kIe68jQj0B4GHNViiAOv-gyTwPTOU7mi38ebLGIPy0lpVzkQcRWlpDoAfOTCwMp9ddfDomTbb8f8Emxy8_tXdntJZ/s400/reagan.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Mr. President, When I was born during your presidency in 1982, I remember seeing on tv and doing remarkable speeches, you are truly a gifted actor and president, thank you for breaking the infamous "0" curse and defeating the Communism,you are one of my top favorite presidents, remembering you 7 years later, may you rest in peace!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />President Ronald Reagan<br />During the week-long events, each time Nancy Reagan appeared in public, she was escorted by U.S. Army Major General Galen B. Jackman<br />On June 5, 2004, Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, died after having suffered from Alzheimer's disease for nearly a decade. His seven-day state funeral followed, spanning June 5–11.<br /><br />After Reagan's death his body was taken from his Bel Air, Los Angeles, California home to the Gates, Kingsley and Gates Funeral Home in Santa Monica, California to prepare the body for burial. On June 7, Reagan's casket was transported by hearse and displayed at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, then flown to Washington, D.C. on June 9 for a service, public viewing and tributes at the U.S. Capitol. After lying in state for thirty-four hours in the Capitol Rotunda, a state funeral service was conducted at the Washington National Cathedral on June 11, the day that President George W. Bush declared a national day of mourning. Later that day, after the service, Reagan's casket was transported back to California for interment at the Reagan Presidential Library. The state funeral was executed by the Military District of Washington (MDW) and was the first since that of Lyndon B. Johnson in 1973. Richard Nixon, who presided over Johnson's funeral, did not have a state funeral in 1994.<br /><br />Death:<br /><br />On the morning of June 5, 2004 there were reports indicating that former President Ronald Reagan's health had significantly deteriorated, following ten years of Alzheimer's disease. According to Reagan's daughter, Patti Davis, "At the last moment, when his breathing told us this was it, he opened his eyes and looked straight at my mother. Eyes that hadn't opened for days did, and they weren't chalky or vague.<br /><br />They were clear and blue and full of love. If a death can be lovely, his was." His wife, former First Lady Nancy Reagan told him that the moment was "the greatest gift you could have given me." President Reagan died of pneumonia at his home at 13:09 PDT (20:09 UTC, or 16:09 EDT). At his side were his wife and two of his children, Ron and Patti. His eldest surviving child, Michael, was with his father the day before.<br /><br />A hearse transported the body down Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles to the Gates, Kingsley and Gates Funeral Home in Santa Monica. Following his death, Nancy Reagan released a statement through the office of her husband, saying:<br /><br />“ My family and I would like the world to know that President Ronald Reagan has passed away after 10 years of Alzheimer's disease at 93 years of age. We appreciate everyone's prayers.<br />”<br />Declarations and tributes<br /><br />President George W. Bush was in Paris when Reagan died and acknowledged the death in a press conference. President Bush said this on June 5, 2004:<br /><br />“ This is a sad hour in the life of America. A great American life has come to an end. I have just spoken to Nancy Reagan. On behalf of our whole nation, Laura and I offered her and the Reagan family our prayers and our condolences.<br />Ronald Reagan won America's respect with his greatness, and won its love with his goodness. He had the confidence that comes with conviction, the strength that comes with character, the grace that comes with humility, and the humor that comes with wisdom. He leaves behind a nation he restored and a world he helped save.<br /><br />During the years of President Reagan, America laid to rest an era of division and self-doubt. And because of his leadership, the world laid to rest an era of fear and tyranny. Now, in laying our leader to rest, we say thank you. He always told us that for America, the best was yet to come. We comfort ourselves in the knowledge that this is true for him, too. His work is done, and now a shining city awaits him. May God bless Ronald Reagan.<br />”<br /><br />American flags at the White House, across the United States, and around the world over official U.S. installations and operating locations, were ordered flown at half-staff for 30 days in a presidential proclamation by President Bush. In the announcement of Reagan's death, Bush also declared June 11 a National Day of Mourning.<br /><br />Some of the early international tributes to Reagan included those of Queen Elizabeth II, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, former Soviet Union Leader Mikhail Gorbachev, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, and French President Jacques Chirac.<br /><br />Martin advised Governor General Adrienne Clarkson to order all flags across Canada and at all Canadian diplomatic missions in the United States flown to half-staff on the 11th as well, in sympathy with the U.S.'s National Day of Mourning.<br /><br />People marked Reagan's death by leaving tributes and condolences at U.S. embassies and consulates overseas, as well as at locales around the country significant to Reagan's life, including his presidential library, his birthplace in Tampico, Illinois, the funeral home where his body was taken after he died, and the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity house in Eureka, Illinois.<br /><br />Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president, suspended his campaign until after the funeral out of respect for Reagan.<br /><br />News of Reagan's death put the ongoing presidential election on hold because it was considered disrespectful to have campaigns during a time of mourning. In Canada, their ongoing election was put on hold as well.<br /><br /><br />Funeral events at the Reagan Library<br />Nancy Reagan leans her head on her husband's casket at his presidential library<br />On June 7, Reagan's body was removed from the funeral home and driven in a 20-mile-per-hour motorcade, by hearse, to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.<br /><br />Reagan's casket, a Marsellus Masterpiece model, was carried by a military honor guard representing all branches of the United States Armed Forces into the lobby of the library to lie in repose.<br /><br />There, a brief family service was conducted by the Reverend Dr. Michael H. Wenning, former pastor of Bel Air Presbyterian Church, where Reagan worshipped. When the prayer service concluded, Nancy Reagan and her family approached the casket, where Mrs. Reagan laid her head on it.<br /><br />After the family left, the doors of the presidential library opened, and the public began filing in at a rate of 2,000 an hour throughout the night. In all, about 108,000 people visited the presidential library to see the casket.<br /><br />Departure to Washington<br /><br />On June 9, Reagan's casket was removed from the presidential library and driven in a motorcade to NAS Point Mugu in Ventura, California; it was the same airfield Reagan flew into and out of during his presidency when visiting his California ranch.SAM 28000, one of the two Boeing 747-200s, which usually serves the president as Air Force One, arrived to transport the casket to Washington. Thousands of people gathered to witness the plane's departure. Just before she boarded the VC-25A Presidential Aircraft, Nancy Reagan waved to the crowd with her military escort at her side. The plane lifted off at about 9:40 AM PST.<br /><br />Events in Washington<br />The caisson with President Reagan's casket on Constitution Avenue, marching to the<br /><br />Capitol<br />The riderless horse, Sergeant York, with Reagan's own riding boots reversed in the stirrups.<br /><br />The Bushes pay their respects to Reagan<br /><br />In Washington, D.C., members of Congress, and much of the public, paid tribute to Reagan immediately after his death and throughout his funeral.<br /><br />Funeral procession<br /><br />Events in the capital began when Reagan's casket arrived at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. It was removed from the plane, driven by hearse in a procession through the Maryland and Virginia suburbs and the nation's capital, across the Memorial Bridge, and onto Constitution Avenue.<br /><br />Just before the plane arrived at Andrews, the Capitol was evacuated for a brief period, for a plane carrying Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher was off course and created a scare by entering restricted airspace; the incident was attributed to radio problems onboard the plane and did not affect funeral events.<br /><br />Near the Ellipse, and within sight of the White House, the hearse halted and Reagan's body was transferred to a horse-drawn caisson for the procession down Constitution Avenue to Capitol Hill.<br /><br />Nancy Reagan stepped out of her limousine to witness the body's transfer; she was met with a warm greeting, including applause. The cortege began the 45 minute journey just after 6:00 PM EST, with the Reagan family following in limousines.<br /><br />Military units escorted the caisson as it made its way to the sounds of muffled drums. Behind the caisson was a riderless horse named Sergeant York, carrying Reagan's riding boots reversed in the stirrups.[26] The caisson paused at 4th street and Constitution Avenue, where 21 Air Force F-15's flew over in missing man formation.<br /><br />The mood during the funeral was far different than it was during the previous state funeral, for Lyndon B. Johnson, as that was one of intense recrimination and the mourners were far too angry and abusive and protested over the Vietnam War, as it troubled LBJ, and the wounds of it were still raw.<br /><br />Capitol Hill<br /><br />The caisson stopped when it arrived at Capitol Hill; military units removed it, and Hail to the Chief was played amidst a 21-gun salute.[28][29] The casket was carried up the west front steps of the Capitol, mainly because Reagan was first inaugurated there and he wanted to face west, toward California.[29] Two teams of military body bearers carried the coffin up the steps of the Capitol to Battle Hymn of the Republic.<br /><br />When the casket reached the top of the steps, Nancy Reagan and her military escort met it. As the casket passed them, Mrs. Reagan momentarily pulled away from her escort, reached out, and touched the casket. They followed it inside to the rotunda.<br /><br />The casket was placed under the rotunda, where it lay in state on Abraham Lincoln's catafalque.<br /><br />An evening memorial service then took place, with dignitaries primarily composed of Congressional members, members of the United States Supreme Court, and the diplomatic corps; the Reverend Daniel Coughlin, Chaplain of the House of Representatives, gave the invocation. Eulogies were then delivered by Senate President pro tempore Ted Stevens, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, and Vice President Dick Cheney.<br /><br />After the eulogies, the three speakers each laid a wreath at the casket, and Senate Chaplain, the Reverend Barry Black, gave the benediction.[32] Cheney escorted Mrs. Reagan to the casket, where she said her goodbyes. The dignitaries in the room paid their respects during the next half hour. In a rare instance, the doors of the Capitol were then opened to the public, who stood in lines stretching many blocks to view the casket.<br /><br />Public viewing<br /><br />The general public stood in long lines waiting for a turn to pay their respects to the president. People passed by the casket at a rate of about 5,000 per hour (83.3 per minute resp. 1.4 per second) and the wait time was about three hours. In all, 104,684 paid their respects when Reagan lay in state. The Washington Metro subway set a then daily record in ridership of 850,636 as a result.<br /><br />After returning to Washington following the G-8 Summit, President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush visited the rotunda to pay their respects.<br /><br />Many world leaders did the same, including interim Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, former Polish president Lech Wałęsa, and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.<br /><br />While Reagan's casket lay in state, Nancy Reagan and her family took up temporary residence in Blair House, the official residence of guests of the President of the United States. There, she was greeted by additional dignitaries and public figures. During a visit from Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister wrote in the Blair House condolence book, "To Ronnie, Well done, thou good and faithful servant."<br /><br />State funeral service<br />After thirty-four hours of lying in state, the doors of the Capitol were closed to the public and Nancy Reagan was escorted in, where she had a moment alone with the casket. A military honor guard entered and carried it down the west steps of the Capitol to a 21-gun salute where Mrs. Reagan, holding her hand over her heart, met it.<br /><br />After it was placed in a hearse, the motorcade departed on the five mile-trip to the Washington National Cathedral, where the state funeral service was to be held; crowds lined the route of the cortege as the hearse made its way.<br /><br />Dignitaries<br /><br />About 4,000 people gathered at the cathedral for the service, including President and Mrs. Bush, former president George H. W. and Barbara Bush, Gerald and Betty Ford, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, and Bill and Hillary Clinton. Members of Congress and past and present governors were also present.<br /><br />Foreign dignitaries attended as well, coming from 165 nations. The dignitaries included 36 past and present heads of state and government, and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. Leading the dignitaries were Mikhail Gorbachev, Margaret Thatcher, Brian Mulroney, and Prince Charles (representing Queen Elizabeth II). Other world leaders included U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Jordan's King Abdullah, as well as interim presidents Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and Ghazi al-Yawer of Iraq.<br /><br />Blair, Schröder, Berlusconi, Karzai, King Abdullah, and al-Yawer had been at the G-8 Summit in Sea Island, Georgia, and later decided to extend their stay in the U.S. to attend the funeral. For Karzai, the funeral was part of his week-long visit to the U.S. and it was the beginning of his visit to Washington. He scrapped a visit to the West Coast to visit the Afghan community there to attend the funeral. World leaders that attended the summit, but decided not to extend their stay in the U.S. to attend the funeral paid tribute at the summit, including Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, French President Jacques Chirac, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.<br /><br />Cathedral events<br /><br />The motorcade arrived at the Cathedral and Reagan's casket was removed. The bearers carrying it paused on the Cathedral steps, and an opening prayer was given by Bishop John Bryson Chane, Dean of the Washington National Cathedral.The casket was then carried down the aisle; the Reagan family followed and Mrs. Reagan was escorted to her seat by President Bush. Rabbi Harold Kushner and Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (the first female Supreme Court justice, whom Reagan appointed), then each gave a reading, which preceded the eulogies.<br /><br />The choir then sang hymns—"Faire is the Heaven"; "Bring Us, O Lord"; "And I saw a New Heaven"[41]—before former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher delivered the first eulogy. In view of her failing mental faculties following several small strokes, the message had been pre-recorded several months earlier and was broadcast throughout the Cathedral on plasma television screens. During the speech, Thatcher said, "We have lost a great president, a great American and a great man, and I have lost a dear friend."<br /><br />Following Thatcher's eulogy, former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney delivered one. Mulroney ended with, "In the presence of his beloved and indispensable Nancy, his children, his family, his friends and all of the American people that he so deeply revered, I say au revoir today to a gifted leader and historic president and a gracious human being."<br /><br />Former President George H. W. Bush then spoke, his voice breaking at one point when describing Reagan; Bush had been Reagan's Vice President from 1981 to 1989. His son, President George W. Bush, was the last to give a eulogy, saying in part, "Ronald Reagan belongs to the ages now, but we preferred it when he belonged to us... In his last years he saw through a glass darkly. Now he sees his Savior face to face. And we look for that fine day when we will see him again, all weariness gone, clear of mind, strong and sure and smiling again, and the sorrow of this parting gone forever. "<br /><br />The choir then partook in singing "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and Theodore Edgar McCarrick, Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, delivered a Bible reading from the Gospel of Matthew. The celebrant, former Missouri Senator the Reverend John C. Danforth, delivered the homily and Irish tenor Ronan Tynan sang songs such as "Ave Maria" and "Amazing Grace" at the request of Nancy Reagan. The Reverend Ted Eastman, former Bishop of Maryland, delivered the benediction, flanked by Reverend Danforth and Reverend Chane.<br /><br />Interment at the Reagan Library<br />The memorial service at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library<br />Nancy Reagan says her last goodbyes to the president just before the interment<br />Mrs. Reagan walks away from President Reagan's grave site after accepting the flag and saying her goodbyes<br /><br /><br />Return to California<br /><br />After the service, the casket was removed from the cathedral and driven to Andrews Air Force Base for the return to California, passing crowds along its route. The family and close friends boarded the VC 25-A Presidential Aircraft, and as she had done previously, Nancy Reagan waved farewell to the crowds just before boarding the plane.<br /><br />About five hours after the aircraft departed Andrews, it touched down at Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu, California. The public, including sailors from the USS Ronald Reagan, was there to witness the plane's arrival.<br /><br />Reagan's body was driven in a large motorcade on one final trip though the streets of southern California. As they had done throughout the week, crowds gathered along the motorcade route on its 25-mile (40 km) journey to Reagan's burial place, his presidential library in Simi Valley.<br /><br />Burial service and interment<br /><br />The service drew 700 invited guests, including former Reagan administration officials such as George Shultz, and noted dignitaries; Margaret Thatcher, who travelled on the plane from Washington, sat next to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver; former California Governor Pete Wilson was in attendance, as well as former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.<br /><br />Hollywood actors and other celebrities were also attended, including Kirk Douglas, Charlton Heston, Mickey Rooney, Dolores Hope (widow of Bob Hope), Merv Griffin, Tommy Lasorda, Wayne Gretzky, Scott Baio, Bo Derek, Tom Selleck, Pat Sajak, Wayne Newton, and the Sinatra family. The three surviving Reagan children, Michael, Patti, and Ron, gave final eulogies at the interment ceremony.<br /><br />Eulogies finished, and the service over, the Air Force Band of the Golden West played four "ruffles and flourishes", and the U.S. Army Chorus sang "The Star-Spangled Banner". Bagpiper Eric Rigler played "Amazing Grace" as the casket was moved to its grave site and placed on a plinth. There, burial rites were given, followed by a last 21-gun salute; members of the armed services fired three volleys and a bugler played "Taps".<br /><br />At that time, four Navy F/A-18 fighter jets flew over in missing man formation, and the flag that flew over the Capitol during President Reagan's 1981 inauguration was folded by the honor guard and was presented to Nancy Reagan by Captain James Symonds, the commanding officer of the USS Ronald Reagan.<br /><br />After Nancy Reagan accepted the flag, she approached the casket and spent several minutes patting and stroking it. She laid her head down on the casket, before breaking down and crying; The Washington Post described Mrs. Reagan as having been "stoic through nearly a week of somber rituals" but she "surrendered to her grief after being handed the flag that had covered her husband's coffin." While she cried, she kissed the casket and said "I love you". Her children surrounded her, and attempted to console her.<br /><br />Mrs. Reagan then walked away with her military escort, clutching the folded flag. The military band began to play the Victorian hymn "My Faith Looks Up to Thee" as the Reagan children said their goodbyes. Funeral attendees had an opportunity to file past the coffin.<br /><br />The casket was lowered into the tomb and closed approximately before 3:00 AM PDT; the exterior of the horseshoe shaped monument is inscribed with a quote Ronald Reagan delivered in 1991:<br /><br />“ I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph, and there is purpose and worth to each and every life. ”<br /><br />Music<br /><br />Music played during the week-long events included four ruffles and flourishes, "Hail to the Chief", "My Country 'Tis of Thee", "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", "Amazing Grace", "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" (also known as "The Navy Hymn"), "God of Our Fathers", "Mansions of the Lord", "God Bless America", "America the Beautiful", and "Going Home".<br /><br />Security measures<br /><br />The state funeral marked the first time that Washington hosted a major event since September 11, 2001. As a result, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) designated the state funeral a National Special Security Event (NSSE).<br /><br />Special precautions were taken because many of the events were open to the public and there were multiple protectees.[51] As means of assisting the motorcade, many streets were temporarily blocked off by law enforcement.[51]<br /><br />However, DHS was handling another NSSE at the same time: the G-8 Summit in Sea Island, Georgia.<br /><br />Public and media comments<br /><br />The majority of those commemorating Reagan were supporters of his, although not all held the 40th president in extremely high regard. In one noted example, Paul Mays, a retired engineer who never thought much of Reagan's politics, witnessed the motorcade leave the tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base; he commented "This is history".<br /><br />Frank Dubois, an American University professor, also was there for the motorcade, though of the laudatory praise he remarked, "[Reagan] hurt the environment; there was double-digit inflation. I just don't get it."<br /><br />The majority of media coverage of the event was deferential. Most major news organizations broadcast the various events live multiple times; during the week, the cable channel C-SPAN broadcast uninterrupted coverage of the funeral ceremonies. A few complained, however, that the television coverage was excessive and preempted coverage of other events.<br /><br />CBS News anchor Dan Rather was quoted as saying: "Even though everybody is respectful and wants to pay homage to the president, life does go on. There is other news, like the reality of Iraq. It got very short shrift this weekend."<br /><br />Reagan's obituaries also included a few criticisms. Richard Goldstein of The Village Voice criticized the funeral for its careful orchestration, writing, "Because the networks had so long to plan for this production... this was the most precisely mounted news event in modern times. Each gesture was minutely choreographed, every tear strategically placed."<br /><br />Additionally, some media outlets were criticized for lionizing Reagan without paying equal attention to more controversial decisions made during his administration. Thomas Kunkel, dean of the University of Maryland, College Park's journalism college, wrote in A magazine that the coverage "would have you believe that Reagan was a cross between Abe Lincoln and Mother Teresa, with an overlay of Mister Rogers."[55] Howard Kurtz, The Washington Post's media columnist, said Reagan was "a far more controversial figure in his time than the largely gushing obits on television would suggest." The Nation ran a series of articles about the many controversies of his presidency.MattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-63571860009112288592011-06-03T18:31:00.000-07:002011-06-03T18:40:14.067-07:00Today is the feast day of Blessed Pope John XXIII<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUtBttIGf_qcLnGi3Bcg-ucmETPhQg_XlZfD1jawJ7z8KR3Pmg644r9bSN5aWeJIeay7rVZjxXXWT-Tn-v5GtJdevxPfEYXXSOobobZ9cza1NuZpCIl-5ytl33hXu0NmPFCEDaNVr4OAgd/s1600/john-xxiii-2.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 328px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5614172714342119618" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUtBttIGf_qcLnGi3Bcg-ucmETPhQg_XlZfD1jawJ7z8KR3Pmg644r9bSN5aWeJIeay7rVZjxXXWT-Tn-v5GtJdevxPfEYXXSOobobZ9cza1NuZpCIl-5ytl33hXu0NmPFCEDaNVr4OAgd/s400/john-xxiii-2.jpg" /></a> Blessed Pope John XXIII or Angelo Roncalli John XXIII, pray for us your holiness, I was truly impressed when you was Beatified on September 3, 2000 as Blessed John the 23rd! I hope you become a saint!You were a great pope and a true savior in stopping World War III. Thank you your holiness! happy feast day and may you rest in peace!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Blessed Pope John XXIII (Latin: Ioannes PP. XXIII; Italian: Giovanni XXIII), born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (25 November 1881 – 3 June 1963), was elected as the 261st Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City on 28 October 1958.<br /><br />He called the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) but did not live to see it to completion, dying on 3 June 1963, two months after the completion of his final encyclical, Pacem in Terris. He was beatified on 3 September 2000, along with Pope Pius IX.<br /><br />Papal conclave, 1958<br />Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope, to his great surprise. He had even arrived in the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice. Upon being elected pope he was also formally the prefect of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Churches and prefect of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation.<br /><br />There was however a Cardinal-Secretary to run these bodies on a day-to-day basis. Many had considered that Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, was a possible candidate, but, although he was Archbishop of one of the most ancient and prominent Sees in Italy, he had not been appointed a cardinal.<br /><br /><br />Pope John XXIII's coronation in 1958.<br />He was crowned wearing the 1877 Palatine Tiara.<br />As a result, he was not present at the 1958 conclave and most of the cardinals abided by the established precedent of voting for only a member of the College of Cardinals, despite the affirmation in Canon Law that any Catholic male could be chosen.<br /><br />After the long pontificate of Pope Pius XII, the cardinals chose a man who – it was presumed because of his advanced age – would be a short-term or "stop-gap" pope. In John XXIII's first consistory, Montini was raised to the rank of cardinal; and in time he became John's successor, Pope Paul VI. John XXIII's personal warmth, good humor and kindness captured the world's affections in a way his predecessor, for all his learning, had failed to do.<br /><br />Upon his election, Cardinal Roncalli chose John as his regnal name. This was the first time in over 500 years that this name had been chosen; previous Popes had avoided using this name since the time of the Antipope John XXIII during the Western Schism.<br /><br />On the choice of his name Pope John said that<br /><br />I choose John ... a name sweet to us because it is the name of our father, dear to me because it is the name of the humble parish church where I was baptized, the solemn name of numberless cathedrals scattered throughout the world, including our own basilica [St. John Lateran]. Twenty-two Johns of indisputable legitimacy have [been Pope], and almost all had a brief pontificate. We have preferred to hide the smallness of our name behind this magnificent succession of Roman Popes.<br /><br />Upon his choosing the name, there was some confusion as to whether the new Pope would be known as John XXIII or John XXIV. In response, John declared that he was John XXIII, thus affirming the antipapal status of Antipope John XXIII.<br /><br />Before this Antipope, the most recent Popes called John were John XXII (1316–1334) and John XXI (1276–1277). However, there was no Pope John XX, due to confusion caused by medieval historians misreading the Liber Pontificalis to refer to another Pope John between John XIV and John XV.<br /><br /><br />Final months and death<br /><br />On 23 September 1962, Pope John XXIII was first diagnosed with stomach cancer. The diagnosis, which was kept from the public, followed nearly eight months of occasional stomach hemorrhages, and reduced the pontiff's appearances. Looking pale and drawn during these events, he gave a hint to his ultimate fate in April 1963, when he said to visitors, "That which happens to all men perhaps will happen soon to the Pope who speaks to you today."<br /><br />On 11 May 1963, the Italian president Antonio Segni awarded Pope John XXIII the Balzan Prize for his engagement for peace. It was the Pope's last public appearance.<br /><br />On 25 May 1963, the Pope suffered another hemorrhage and required blood transfusions, but the cancer had perforated the stomach wall and peritonitis soon set in. By 31 May, it had become clear that the cancer had overcome the resistance of Pope John.<br /><br />"At 11 am Petrus Canisius Van Lierde as Papal Sacristan was at the bedside of the dying pope, ready to anoint him. The Pope began to speak for a very last time: "I had the great grace to be born into a Christian family, modest and poor, but with the fear of the Lord. My time on earth is drawing to a close. But Christ lives on and continues his work in the Church. Souls, souls, Ut omnes unum sint."<br /><br />Van Lierde then anointed his eyes, ears, mouth, hands and feet. Overcome by emotion, he forgot the right order of anointing. Pope John gently helped him. Then the Pope bid him and all the other bystanders a last farewell.<br /><br />The Pope died 7:49 pm (local time) of peritonitis due to a perforated stomach cancer on 3 June at the age of 81. He was buried on 6 June, ending a reign of four years, seven months.<br /><br />On 3 December 1963, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian award, in recognition of the good relationship between Pope John and the United States.<br /><br /><br />Legacy and beatification<br /><br />Known affectionately as "Good Pope John" and "the most beloved Pope in history" to many people, on 3 September 2000, John was declared "Blessed" by Pope John Paul II (who himself was also declared "Blessed" in 2011), the penultimate step on the road to sainthood. He was the first pope since Pope Pius X to receive this honor. Following his beatification, his body was moved from its original burial place in the grottoes below St Peter's Basilica to the Altar of St. Jerome and displayed for the veneration of the faithful.<br /><br />At the time, the body was observed to be extremely well preserved—a condition which the Church ascribes to embalming and the lack of air flow in his sealed triple coffin rather than to a miracle.<br /><br />When John was moved, the original vault above the floor was removed. A new vault was built beneath the ground, and Pope John Paul II was entombed in this vault from 2005 to 2011. The vault was opened yet again in time for John Paul II's own beatification.<br /><br />The date assigned for the liturgical celebration (where authorized) of Blessed John XXIII is not 3 June, the anniversary of his death, as would be usual, but 11 October, the anniversary of his opening of the Second Vatican Council. He is also commemorated in the Anglican Communion.<br /><br />From his early teens, he maintained a diary of spiritual reflections that was subsequently published as Journal of a Soul. The collection of writings charts Roncalli's efforts as a young man to "grow in holiness" and continues after his election to the Papacy; it remains widely read.<br /><br />Sedevacantist and Conclavist groups have been some of Pope John's most outspoken critics.<br /><br />Many who subscribe to the teachings of Our Lady of Fatima also believe that Pope John deliberately withheld secret prophetic information revealed by an apparition of the Virgin Mary.<br /><br />This is perhaps the basis for Internet reports in the late 1990s about the supposed discovery of Pope John's diary where he received prophetic insight into the future, including the return of Jesus in New York in 2000.<br /><br />Although Pope John did have a diary, there is no evidence in it to suggest that he received apocalyptic visions of the future.<br /><br />In 2003, The Guardian newspaper found a confidential communique from John to Catholic Bishops, allegedly mandating confidentiality in matters of pederasty with the threat of excommunication. These allegations were later refuted by Archbishop Vincent Gerard Nichols, Chairman of the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults. Nichols explained that the communique "is not directly concerned with child abuse at all, but with the misuse of the confessional. This has always been a most serious crime in Church law."MattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-51014491976741035032011-06-02T20:06:00.000-07:002011-06-02T20:11:31.145-07:00100 years Carrie Nation died<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimvRRIzV3nWG0813w4hkXrlwFMSx6Cf6EmTAhKOyh5yfr_kWAsPHeERi7pzKlh4wN4EhZtA0pv3sNeYTzw_dWBBq6-P-bamh7gk8kzIOdMsASyU0SjdIL69WZ3jVgrHQ-dVoTn4qrqWhYd/s1600/carrie-nation.gif"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 260px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 260px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5613824816259486530" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimvRRIzV3nWG0813w4hkXrlwFMSx6Cf6EmTAhKOyh5yfr_kWAsPHeERi7pzKlh4wN4EhZtA0pv3sNeYTzw_dWBBq6-P-bamh7gk8kzIOdMsASyU0SjdIL69WZ3jVgrHQ-dVoTn4qrqWhYd/s400/carrie-nation.gif" /></a><br /><br />remembering you on this day on the 100th anniversary of your death, may you rest in peace!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Carrie Amelia Moore Nation (November 25, 1846 - June 9, 1911) was a member of the temperance movement, which opposed alcohol in pre-Prohibition America. She is particularly noteworthy for promoting her viewpoint through vandalism. On many occasions Nation would enter an alcohol-serving establishment and attack the bar with a hatchet. She has been the topic of numerous books, articles and even an opera.<br /><br />Nation was a large woman, almost 6 feet (180 cm) tall and weighing 175 pounds (79 kg) and of a somewhat stern countenance. She described herself as "a bulldog running along at the feet of Jesus, barking at what He doesn't like", and claimed a divine ordination to promote temperance by smashing up bars.<br /><br />The spelling of her first name is ambiguous and both Carrie and Carry are considered correct. Official records say Carrie, which Nation used most of her life; the name Carry was used by her father in the family Bible. Upon beginning her campaign against liquor in the early 20th century, she adopted the name Carry A. Nation mainly for its value as a slogan, and had it registered as a trademark in the state of Kansas.<br /><br /><br /><br />Later life, death, and legacy<br />Nation's anti-alcohol activities became widely known, with the slogan "All Nations Welcome But Carrie" becoming a bar-room staple. She published The Smasher's Mail, a biweekly newsletter, and The Hatchet, a newspaper. Later in life she exploited her name by appearing in vaudeville in the United States and music halls in Great Britain. Nation, a proud woman more given to sermonizing than entertaining, sometimes found these poor venues for her proselytizing.<br /><br />One of the number of pre-World War I acts that "failed to click" with foreign audiences, Nation was struck by an egg thrown by an audience member during one 1909 music hall lecture at the Canterbury Theatre of Varieties. Indignantly, "The Anti-Souse Queen" ripped up her contract and returned to the United States.[14] Seeking profits elsewhere, Nation also sold photographs of herself, collected lecture fees, and marketed miniature souvenir hatchets.<br /><br />Suspicious that President William McKinley was a secret drinker, Nation applauded his 1901 assassination as a tippler's just deserts.<br /><br />Near the end of her life Nation moved to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where she founded the home known as Hatchet Hall. Ill in mind and body, she collapsed during a speech in a Eureka Springs park, and was taken to a hospital in Leavenworth, Kansas. She died there on June 9, 1911,and was buried in an unmarked grave in Belton City Cemetery in Belton, Missouri. The Women's Christian Temperance Union later erected a stone inscribed "Faithful to the Cause of Prohibition, She Hath Done What She Could" and the name "Carry A. Nation"<br /><br />Her home in Medicine Lodge, Kansas, the Carrie Nation House, was bought by the Women's Christian Temperance Union in the 1950s and was declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1976. A spring just across the street from Hatchet Hall in Eureka Springs is named after her.MattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-28229198094375997602011-06-02T18:48:00.000-07:002011-06-02T18:57:26.279-07:0070 Years ago today Lou Gehrig Died<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCM_hGPTxN6aaZgEToqgNHsI-QTH9cFYz5U1zQsnyDPjYQfZg_TeeupyjxrumKnFj0T1qNOQIpdme7sxrZNUYRBaYvSNT6vqKM49F7Hy5Zkl4LU1KHAyjDzosfsVcuNU1arjVpZlvTTj-h/s1600/lou-gehrig.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 301px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCM_hGPTxN6aaZgEToqgNHsI-QTH9cFYz5U1zQsnyDPjYQfZg_TeeupyjxrumKnFj0T1qNOQIpdme7sxrZNUYRBaYvSNT6vqKM49F7Hy5Zkl4LU1KHAyjDzosfsVcuNU1arjVpZlvTTj-h/s400/lou-gehrig.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5613804959413914370" /></a><br /><br />Lou Gehrig: the iron horse, one of the great yankees Baseball Player and the first Yankee to be in the Hall of Fame (1939), remembering you on this day after 70 years, may you rest in peace!<br /><br />Henry Louis "Lou" Gehrig (June 19, 1903 – June 2, 1941), nicknamed "The Iron Horse" for his durability, was an American Major League Baseball first baseman. He played his entire 17-year baseball career for the New York Yankees (1923–1939). Gehrig set several major league records. He holds the record for most career grand slams (23).<br /><br />Gehrig is chiefly remembered for his prowess as a hitter, his consecutive games-played record and its subsequent longevity, and the pathos of his farewell from baseball at age 36, when he was stricken with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.<br /><br />Gehrig was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939. In 1969 he was voted the greatest first baseman of all time by the Baseball Writers' Association, and was the leading vote-getter on the Major League Baseball All-Century Team, chosen by fans in 1999.<br /><br />A native of New York City, he played for the New York Yankees until his career was cut short by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), now commonly known in the United States and Canada as Lou Gehrig's disease.<br /><br />Over a 15-season span from 1925 through 1939, he played in 2,130 consecutive games, the streak ending only when Gehrig became disabled by the fatal neuromuscular disease that claimed his life two years later. His streak, long considered one of baseball's few unbreakable records, stood for 56 years, until finally broken by Cal Ripken, Jr., of the Baltimore Orioles on September 6, 1995.<br /><br />Gehrig accumulated 1,995 runs batted in (RBI) in 17 seasons, with a career batting average of .340, on-base percentage of .447, and slugging percentage of .632. Three of the top six RBI seasons in baseball history belong to Gehrig. He was selected to each of the first seven All-Star games (though he did not play in the 1939 game, as he retired one week before it was held), and he won the American League's Most Valuable Player award in 1927 and 1936. He was also a Triple Crown winner in 1934, leading the American League in batting average, home runs, and RBIs.<br /><br /><br />Final years<br /><br />"Don't think I am depressed or pessimistic about my condition at present," Lou Gehrig wrote following his retirement from baseball. Struggling against his ever-worsening physical condition, he added, "I intend to hold on as long as possible and then if the inevitable comes, I will accept it philosophically and hope for the best. That's all we can do."<br /><br /> <br /><br />In October 1939, he accepted Mayor LaGuardia's appointment to a ten-year term as a New York City Parole Commissioner and was sworn into office on January 2, 1940.<br /><br /> The Parole Commission commended the ex-ballplayer for his "firm belief in parole, properly administered", stating that Gehrig "indicated he accepted the parole post because it represented an opportunity for public service. He had rejected other job offers – including lucrative speaking and guest appearance opportunities – worth far more financially than the $5,700 a year commissionership." Gehrig visited New York City's correctional facilities, but insisted that the visits not be covered by news media.<br /><br />Gehrig, as always, quietly and efficiently performed his duties. He was often helped by his wife Eleanor, who would guide his hand when he had to sign official documents. About a month before his death, when Gehrig reached the point where his deteriorating physical condition made it impossible for him to continue in the job, he quietly resigned.<br /><br />On June 2, 1941, at 10:10 p.m., sixteen years to the day after he replaced Wally Pipp at first base and two years after his retirement from baseball, Lou Gehrig died at his home in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, New York.<br /><br />Upon hearing the news, Babe Ruth and his wife Claire went to the Gehrig house to console Eleanor. Mayor LaGuardia ordered flags in New York to be flown at half-staff, and Major League ballparks around the nation did likewise.<br /><br />Following the funeral at Christ Episcopal Church of Riverdale, Gehrig's remains were cremated and interred on June 4 at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York. Lou Gehrig and Ed Barrow are both interred in the same section of Kensico Cemetery, which is next door to Gate of Heaven Cemetery, where the graves of Babe Ruth and Billy Martin are located.<br /><br /> Eleanor Gehrig never remarried following her husband's death, dedicating the rest of her life to supporting ALS research. She died on March 6, 1984, on her 80th birthday. They had no children.<br /><br />The Yankees dedicated a monument to Gehrig in center field at Yankee Stadium on July 6, 1941, the shrine lauding him as, "A man, a gentleman and a great ballplayer whose amazing record of 2,130 consecutive games should stand for all time." Gehrig's monument joined the one placed there in 1932 to Miller Huggins, which would eventually be followed by Babe Ruth's in 1949.<br /><br />Gehrig's birthplace in Manhattan, at 1994 Second Avenue (near E. 103rd Street), is memorialized with a plaque marking the site, as is another early residence on E. 94th Street (near Second Avenue). The Gehrigs' white house at 5204 Delafield Avenue in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, where Lou Gehrig died, still stands today on the east side of the Henry Hudson Parkway and is likewise marked by a plaque.MattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-40346266979756432262011-06-02T18:35:00.000-07:002011-06-02T18:48:09.208-07:002 Former First Ladies were born on this day<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpXARUHgPNynzna9-f0wPCAvJOcYhz3qaq0CBrbLLmA8RL54T4u5XKGUKGvtDnVx4Qeh6abkzv3PpivdafBWR5uRHkkgn89gzGiawxqO9AtrxrVNFzd2iNZYAQvsOUQa_Ii81lGsaIcliN/s1600/martha_washington.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 284px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5613801885560050658" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpXARUHgPNynzna9-f0wPCAvJOcYhz3qaq0CBrbLLmA8RL54T4u5XKGUKGvtDnVx4Qeh6abkzv3PpivdafBWR5uRHkkgn89gzGiawxqO9AtrxrVNFzd2iNZYAQvsOUQa_Ii81lGsaIcliN/s400/martha_washington.jpg" /></a> Martha Washington: happy 280th birthday on this day, you are the woman who became known as First of America's First Ladies.thanks for setting a example to other first ladies!<br /><br />Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (June 2, 1731 – May 22, 1802) was the wife of George Washington, the first president of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, Martha Washington is considered to be the first First Lady of the United States. During her lifetime, she was known as "Lady Washington".<br /></p><br /><p><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 284px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5613803555914654642" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiufd7WRGWciXWpZADSD8d4cMNnsgHwLIvpkLz9ppKpnrjc3oQQtZ0HsO_AVMvXRggJiK6nRN1uqtzFwotMzksjuIeITEvAxmPhAZIR2YFI-NfTmXrV09OmzUMpiQ8cmVP8rYqVi7bJe7uX/s400/helen.jpg" /><br />Helen Louise Herron "Nellie" Taft (June 2, 1861 – May 22, 1943) was the wife of William Howard Taft and First Lady of the United States from 1909 to 1913.<br />As First Lady, she was the first wife of a president to ride alongside her husband down Pennsylvania Avenue on Inauguration Day (heretofore the outgoing chief executive had accompanied the new president). Two months after entering the White House, Mrs. Taft suffered a stroke, impairing her speech. She never fully recovered. With the help of her sisters, however, she entertained moderately. She received guests three afternoons a week in the Red Room.<br /><br />The social highlight of the Taft administration was the silver wedding anniversary gala (June 19, 1911) for some 8,000 guests. In her most lasting contribution as First Lady, Mrs. Taft arranged for the planting of the 3,000 Japanese cherry trees that grace the Washington Tidal Basin; with the wife of the Japanese ambassador, she personally planted the first two saplings in ceremonies on March 27, 1912<br /><br />Helen Herron: thanks for being the first lady under your husband's presidency, William H. Taft 1909-1913! happy 150th birthday!<br /><br /><br /></p>MattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-36345971486138955432011-06-01T18:46:00.000-07:002011-06-01T18:50:09.237-07:00Happy 90th birthday to Nelson Riddle<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEqAxbyni8MYX1weaGC1JHkJTkY-y-LCfCz0uaDXUUcdCNs35bON9OBzO4PeQNQDmAFpUtRqUuKZzKpAzBRqqKTzyQb5FU9U0aau-pQUjzkw-A-mqn0kVXYIuTHafZh6NhyphenhyphenWgGlL9gMk-2/s1600/nelson-riddle.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5613433070434340338" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEqAxbyni8MYX1weaGC1JHkJTkY-y-LCfCz0uaDXUUcdCNs35bON9OBzO4PeQNQDmAFpUtRqUuKZzKpAzBRqqKTzyQb5FU9U0aau-pQUjzkw-A-mqn0kVXYIuTHafZh6NhyphenhyphenWgGlL9gMk-2/s400/nelson-riddle.jpg" /></a><br />Nelson Riddle: I truly admire and love your albums with Frank Sinatra, especially only the lonely and songs for swingin'lovers. Some of my favorite songs for which you wrote the arrangements are "Angel Eyes," "One for My Baby," "Anything Goes," "What's New?" -- and, of course, "I've Got You Under My Skin", remembering you today, happy 90th birthday!<br /><br />Nelson Smock Riddle, Jr. (June 1, 1921 – October 6, 1985) was an American arranger, composer, bandleader and orchestrator whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid 1980s. It was his signature sound and iconic arrangements that defined a generation and his work for Capitol Records kept such vocalists as Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Judy Garland, Peggy Lee, Johnny Mathis, Rosemary Clooney and Keely Smith household names. He found commercial and critical success again in the 1980s with a trio of albums with vocalist Linda Ronstadt.<br /><br />Death and legacyIn 1985, Riddle died at age 64 of liver ailments. He is interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.<br /><br />Following Riddle's death, his last three arrangements for Ronstadt's For Sentimental Reasons album were conducted by Terry Woodson; the album was released in 1986.<br /><br />In February 1986, Riddle's youngest son Christopher, himself an accomplished bass trombonist, assumed the leadership of his father's orchestra.<br /><br />Following the death of Riddle's second wife Naomi in 1998, proceeds from the sale of the Riddle home in Bel Air were used to establish a Nelson Riddle Endowed Chair and library at the University of Arizona, which officially opened in 2001. The opening showcased a gala concert of Riddle's works, with Ronstadt as a featured guest performer.<br /><br />In 2000, Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops released a Nelson Riddle tribute album entitled "Route 66: That Nelson Riddle Sound" on Telarc Records. The album showcased expanded orchestral adaptations of the original arrangements provided by the Nelson Riddle Archives, and was presented in a state-of-the-art digital recording that was among the first titles to be released on multi-channel SACD.<br /><br />While in the Army, Riddle married his first wife Doreen Moran in 1945. The couple had six children. Riddle had an extra-marital affair with singer Rosemary Clooney in the 1960s, which contributed to the breakup of their respective marriages.[6] In 1968, Riddle separated from his wife Doreen; their divorce became official in 1970. A few months later he married Naomi Tenenholtz, then his secretary, with whom he would remain for the rest of his life. Riddle's children are dispersed between the east and west coasts of the United States with Nelson Jr. residing in London, England. Riddle's eldest daughter Rosemary is the trustee of the Nelson Riddle Trust.<br /><br />Riddle was a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the national fraternity for men in music.<br /><br />In a 1982 radio interview on WNEW with Jonathan Schwartz, Riddle cites Stan Kenton's "23 degrees north 82 degrees west" arranged by Bill Russo as inspiration for his signature trombone interplay crescendos.<br /><br /><br />Orchestrations for Frank Sinatra<br /><br />Capitol albums<br /><br />1953 Songs for Young Lovers<br />1954 Swing Easy!<br />1955 In the Wee Small Hours<br />1956 Songs for Swingin' Lovers<br />1957 Close to You and More<br />1957 A Swingin' Affair!<br />1958 Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely<br />1960 Nice 'n' Easy<br />1961 Sinatra's Swingin' Session!!!<br />Reprise albums<br /><br />1963 The Concert Sinatra<br />1963 Sinatra's Sinatra<br />1964 Sinatra Sings Days of Wine and Roses, Moon River, and Other Academy Award Winners<br />1966 Moonlight Sinatra<br />1966 Strangers in the Night<br />1981 "The Gal that Got Away"/"It Never Entered My Mind" from She Shot Me DownMattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-51108578576375686362011-05-30T10:43:00.001-07:002011-05-30T10:53:12.599-07:00580 Years ago today, Saint Joan of Arc received her martyrdom<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrqjQxH0ZVl-dioeVV-wLpU87ZEeM_zgZFgCfD-QEWTFlNu_BDjTR1TIKrwpJFKpvNyCQS71IJqGywGdlaVLQr_uKUtCwl_JKEZB4qhHOl89N27Y2RDSQLfPy82soRDCNPfJNDvaJWjuYV/s1600/st-joan-of-arc-feast-day.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 156px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrqjQxH0ZVl-dioeVV-wLpU87ZEeM_zgZFgCfD-QEWTFlNu_BDjTR1TIKrwpJFKpvNyCQS71IJqGywGdlaVLQr_uKUtCwl_JKEZB4qhHOl89N27Y2RDSQLfPy82soRDCNPfJNDvaJWjuYV/s400/st-joan-of-arc-feast-day.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5612568557984579954" /></a><br />Saint "Jeanne d'Arc" Joan of Arc :Thank You madam for being a great woman and a great saint. You are the patron saint of France! remembering you on this day after 580 years today! may you rest in peace and happy feast day!<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHvouuLZaMyCm0eXQoOpqOE6FCvyNDt8V6re04wCqrXLJvaNDEGmP2uzPwEla8VLRtNChuY8Rr3OiZD0lBLMq6hLYE692AqW8JnCG8aou-4-Gea8bKJBs_HII1Uz6dimgn-j-1xtOFvycP/s1600/large14402lg.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 227px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHvouuLZaMyCm0eXQoOpqOE6FCvyNDt8V6re04wCqrXLJvaNDEGmP2uzPwEla8VLRtNChuY8Rr3OiZD0lBLMq6hLYE692AqW8JnCG8aou-4-Gea8bKJBs_HII1Uz6dimgn-j-1xtOFvycP/s400/large14402lg.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5612566208365422274" /></a><br /><br />The Feast Day of Joan of Arc<br />Roman Rite Calendar - 05/30<br />Tridentine Calendar - 05/30 <br /><br />Beatified<br />11 April 1905 by Pope Saint Pius X <br /><br />Canonized<br />16 May 1920 by Pope Benedict XV <br /><br /><br />Following her execution, there were many who felt that Joan of Arc should not have been burned, but honored and made a saint for her communications with God, and her hand in leading the French to freedom from the English. <br /><br />Sadly, it was not for several years until she was even cleared of the charges. In 1452, the process of clearing her name would begin, and during that same time the Church declared that a religious play made in her honor at Orleans would qualify as a pilgrimage. <br /><br />This set the stage for the sainthood of Joan of Arc, and the creation of a Joan of Arc day, or St. Joan of Arc feast day to honor her. The push to make her a saint and create a Feast Day of Joan of Arc would gain some steam during the 16th century when Joan of Arc became a symbol of the Catholic League.<br /><br />By 1849, Monsignor Felix Dupanloup, who was the Bishop of Orleans, made the attempt for Joan of Arc's beatification and a creation of a Joan of Arc Day, until his death in 1878. Sadly, he did not live to see how the process would turn out for Joan of Arc.<br /><br />Joan of Arc would finally have her beatification in the year 1909, which would lead to the creation of a Feast of st. Joan of Arc. Her official canonization would happen on May 16, 1920, with the Joan of Arc Feast Day being set for May 30. Her canonization was performed by Pope Benedict XV at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. May 30 was chosen as the day for the Saint Joan of Arc Feast Day because it was the day she was burned at the stake. In all, 489 years passed between her death and her canonization, a notoriously long period of time for sainthood.<br /><br />However, since the creation of the Feast Day of Joan of Arc and her sainthood, Joan of Arc has become one of the most popular saints in the history of the Catholic Church. Joan of Arc Festival or feast is celebrated on May 30th.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Saint Joan of Arc:<br /><br />nicknamed The Maid of Orléans ''Jeanne d'Arc'', (January 6, 1412 – May 30, 1431) is considered a national heroine of France and a Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the coronation of Charles VII. She was captured by the Burgundians, sold to the English, tried by an ecclesiastical court, and burned at the stake when she was 19 years old.<br /><br />Twenty-five years after the execution, Pope Callixtus III examined the trial, pronounced her innocent and declared her a martyr. Joan of Arc was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920. She is – along with St. Denis, St. Martin of Tours, St. Louis IX, and St. Theresa of Lisieux – one of the patron saints of France.<br /><br />Joan asserted that she had visions from God that instructed her to recover her homeland from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War. The uncrowned King Charles VII sent her to the siege of Orléans as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence when she overcame the dismissive attitude of veteran commanders and lifted the siege in only nine days. Several more swift victories led to Charles VII's coronation at Reims and settled the disputed succession to the throne.<br /><br />Honored in Roman Catholic Church<br />Beatified 18 April 1909, Notre Dame de Paris by Pope Pius X <br />Canonized 16 May 1920, St. Peter's Basilica, Rome by Pope Benedict XV <br />Feast 30 May <br />Patronage France ; martyrs; captives; military personnel; people ridiculed for their piety; prisoners; soldiers, women who have served in the WAVES (Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service)<br /><br /><br />Execution <br /><br />Heresy was a capital crime only for a repeat offense. Joan agreed to wear feminine clothing when she abjured. A few days later she told a tribunal member that "a great English lord had entered her prison and tried to take her by force." She resumed male attire either as a defense against molestation or, in the testimony of Jean Massieu, because her dress had been stolen and she was left with nothing else to wear. In terms of doctrine, she had been safe to disguise herself as a page during her journey through enemy territory and she was safe to wear armor during battle. <br /><br />The Chronique de la Pucelle states that it deterred molestation while she was camped in the field. Clergy who later testified at the posthumous rehabilitation trial affirmed that she continued to wear male clothing in prison to deter molestation and rape. Preservation of chastity was another justifiable reason for cross-dressing: her apparel would have slowed an assailant, and men would be less likely to think of her as a sex object in any case.<br /><br />She referred the court to the Poitiers inquiry when questioned on the matter. The Poitiers record no longer survives but circumstances indicate the Poitiers clerics had approved her practice. In other words, she had a mission to do a man's work so it was fitting that she dress the part.<br /><br />She also kept her hair cut short through her military campaigns and while in prison. Her supporters, such as the theologian Jean Gerson, defended her hairstyle, as did Inquisitor Brehal later during the Rehabilitation trial.Nonetheless, at the trial in 1431 she was condemned and sentenced to die.<br /><br />Eyewitnesses described the scene of the execution by burning on 30 May 1431. Tied to a tall pillar in the Vieux-Marché in Rouen, she asked two of the clergy, Fr Martin Ladvenu and Fr Isambart de la Pierre, to hold a crucifix before her. A peasant also constructed a small cross which she put in the front of her dress. <br /><br />After she expired, the English raked back the coals to expose her charred body so that no one could claim she had escaped alive, then burned the body twice more to reduce it to ashes and prevent any collection of relics. They cast her remains into the Seine. The executioner, Geoffroy Therage, later stated that he "...greatly feared to be damned.<br /><br />Saint Joan of Arc, The Maid of Orleans (Jeanne d'Arc) is a recognized Saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Although she was excommunicated and burned at the stake by local officials in 1431, central church officials would later nullify her excommunication, declaring her a martyr unjustly executed for a secular vendetta. Her legend would grow from there, leading to her beatification in 1909 and her canonization in 1920.<br /><br />Death and 15th centuryAs with other saints who were excommunicated or investigated by ecclesiastic courts, such as St. Athanasius, St. Theresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, Joan of Arc was put on trial by an Inquisitorial court. In Joan's case, the court was controlled by the English government in occupied northern France, leading to her burning at the stake at Rouen. When the French regained Rouen in 1449, a series of investigations were launched which led to a formal appeal run by the Inquisitor-General in 1455. She was declared innocent on July 7, 1456. The Inquisitor's summary of evidence for the case describes her as a martyr who had been executed by a court which was itself in violation of the Church's rules.<br /><br />She had always been considered innocent by those of her own faction. The city of Orléans commemorated her death each year beginning in 1432, and from 1435 onward performed a religious play centered around her victories. The play represented her as a divinely sent saviour guided by angels.<br /><br />In 1452, during one of the postwar investigations into her execution, Cardinal d'Estouteville declared that this religious play would merit qualification as a pilgrimage site by which attendees could gain an indulgence from sin.<br /><br />Not long after the appeal, Pope Pius II wrote an approving piece about her in his memoirs.<br /><br />16th century<br /><br />During the 16th century, Joan of Arc was utilized as a symbol of the Catholic League, a group organized to fight against Protestantism during the Wars of Religion of that era.<br /><br />19th century to present<br /><br />Paradoxically, it was the publication of works by secular historians in the mid-19th century which seems to have sparked widespread public efforts to ask the Church to officially canonize her. Félix Dupanloup, Bishop of Orléans from 1849 to 1878, led the efforts which culminated in Joan of Arc's beatification in 1909, held in Notre Dame de Paris. During the subsequent fighting in France during World War I, Allied troops carried her image into battle with them. During one battle, French troops interpreted a German searchlight image projected onto low-lying clouds as an appearance by Joan, which greatly bolstered their morale.<br /><br />Her canonization came on 16 May 1920. Over 30,000 people attended the ceremony in Rome, including 140 descendants of Joan of Arc's family. Pope Benedict XV presided over the rite, for which the interior of St. Peter's Basilica was richly decorated (Associated Press, 16 May 1920).<br /><br /> <br />A commemorative medallion made in France at the time of Joan of Arc's beatification.<br />Her beatification approximately coincided with the French invention of the Janvier transfer engraving machine (also called a die engraving pantograph) which facilitates the creation of minted coins and commemorative medallions. This invention, together with the already well-established French sculptural tradition, added another element to Saint Joan's beatification: a series of well-made religious art medals featuring Saint Jeanne d'Arc with scenes from her life.<br /><br />Popularity <br /><br />Her feast day is 30 May. Although changes to the Church-wide calendar in 1968 moved many medieval European saints' days off the general calendar in order to make room for more non-Europeans, her feast day is still celebrated on many local and regional Church calendars, especially in France. Many Catholic churches around the globe have been named after her in the decades since her canonization.<br /><br />She has become especially popular among Traditional Catholics, particularly in France - both because of her obvious connection to this country as well as the fact that the Traditional Catholic movement is strongest in France. This branch of Catholicism, which has refused to accept the changes made by the Second Vatican Council, has compared the 1988 excommunication of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (one of the founders of the Traditional Catholic movement) to Joan of Arc's excommunication by a corrupt pro-English Bishop in 1431. Traditional Catholic parishes sometimes perform plays in Joan of Arc's honor.<br /><br /><br />Novena to St. Joan of Arc<br />(say once a day for nine days)<br /><br /><br /><br />Glorious St. Joan of Arc, filled with compassion for those who invoke you, with love for those who suffer, heavily laden with the weight of my troubles, I kneel at your feet and humbly beg you to take my present need under your special protection...(mention here).<br /><br />Vouchsafe to recommend it to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and lay it before the throne of Jesus. Cease not to intercede for me until my request is granted. Above all, obtain for me the grace to one day meet God face to face and with you and Mary and all the angels and saints praise Him through all eternity.<br /><br />O most powerful Saint Joan, do not let me lose my soul, but obtain for me the grace of winning my ways to heaven, forever and ever. Amen.<br /><br />St. Joan of Arc Novena<br />(say once a day for nine days)<br /><br />Opening prayer:<br /><br />Eternal Father, you gave us Saint Joan of Arc through your infinite love and mercy for us. We humbly ask that you send down your Holy Spirit upon us, as Your Spirit is the intermediary by which the Word goes forth from your lips and reaches the ears of the faithful. Allow me to be a witness to your Son Jesus Christ just as St. Joan of Arc was. Oh, Jesus, grant me the courage to do your will, that I may be in one accord with our Father in Heaven. I thank you for the gift of your love, which I hope to one day fully understand.<br /><br />Petition Prayer:<br /><br />Say 19 Our Fathers, followed by "St. Joan of Arc, by your powerful intercession, hear and answer me."<br /><br />When you finish, say the following prayer:<br /><br />Saint Joan of Arc, patron of France, my patron saint, I ask you now to fight this battle with me by prayer, just as you led your troops to victory in battle. You, who were filled with the Holy Spirit and chosen by God, help me this day with the favor I ask [here say your intention]. Grant me by your divine and powerful intercession, the courage and strength I need to endure this constant fight. Oh St. Joan, help me to be victorious in the tasks God presents to me.<br /><br />I thank you and ask you for your continuing protection of God's people.<br /><br />Closing Prayer:<br /><br />Sweet Saint Joan, plead for me before the throne of almighty God that I may be deemed worthy to be granted the request I have asked. Help me, Saint Joan, to be more like you in the attempt to love the Lord with all my heart, soul, and mind. Through your guidance and prayer help me to be a truly devout and loving Christian, that I may both know and see the will of God. Help me now St. Joan, in my time of need. I ask that you may always be near me guiding me closer each day to Jesus. Thank you Saint Joan for having heard my prayer.<br /><br />Amen.<br /><br />Saint Joan of Arc Novena<br />(say once a day for nine days)<br /><br />St. Joan of Arc, <br />Filled with compassion, <br />For those who invoke you,<br />Filled with love for those who suffer, <br />Heavily laden with the weight of my troubles, <br />I kneel at your feet and humbly beg you, <br />To take my present need, <br />Under your special protection. <br />(Mention your request here). <br /><br />Grant to recommend it, <br />To the Blessed Virgin Mary, <br />And lay it before the throne of Jesus. <br />Cease not to intercede for me, <br />Until my request is granted. <br /><br />Above all, obtain for me, <br />The grace to one day, <br />Meet God face to face, <br />And with you and Mary, <br />And all the angels and saints, <br />Praise Him through all eternity. <br />O most powerful Saint Joan, <br />Do not let me lose my soul, <br />But obtain for me the grace <br />Of winning my way to heaven, <br />Forever and ever. Amen. <br /><br />Our Father…<br /><br />Hail Mary…<br /><br />Glory Be…<br /><br />(Repeat the prayer nine times.)MattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-23210813996303140702011-05-29T20:21:00.000-07:002011-05-29T20:30:54.343-07:0013 years ago today Barry Goldwater died<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV0zEjC2N5WCJA5dmJ0wBpruus-1YIGVQRy-ukiZjK2unj2hVz4JlWW-hKQJ1Fp9JuuW1OJtRgoDE4wx__pTw6ImBuxCH0ugBQrK1nIWoRKDEDzglGRYse_hnwtEYVZV4DIY1ctGVCpUCc/s1600/goldwater1964poster.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 258px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5612345705087167218" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV0zEjC2N5WCJA5dmJ0wBpruus-1YIGVQRy-ukiZjK2unj2hVz4JlWW-hKQJ1Fp9JuuW1OJtRgoDE4wx__pTw6ImBuxCH0ugBQrK1nIWoRKDEDzglGRYse_hnwtEYVZV4DIY1ctGVCpUCc/s400/goldwater1964poster.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Senator Barry Morris Goldwater: I am reading a book about the 1964 presidential campaign, its truly impressive, I got the book in your home state of Arizona and its signed by the Author himself and a newspaper article about the review of it, thanks for a interestin life,Remembering you 13 years later, may you rest in peace!<br /><br />Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909[1] – May 29, 1998) was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr. Conservative".<br /><br />Goldwater is the politician most often credited for sparking the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s. He also had a substantial impact on the libertarian movement.<br /><br />Goldwater rejected the legacy of the New Deal and fought through the conservative coalition to defeat the New Deal coalition. He mobilized a large conservative constituency to win the hard-fought Republican primaries. Goldwater's right-wing campaign platform ultimately failed to gain the support of the electorate and he lost the 1964 presidential election to incumbent Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson by one of the largest landslides in history, bringing down many Republican candidates as well. The Johnson campaign and other critics painted him as a reactionary, while supporters praised his crusades against the Soviet Union, labor unions, and the welfare state. His defeat allowed Johnson and the Democrats in Congress to pass the Great Society programs, but the defeat of so many older Republicans in 1964 also cleared the way for a younger generation of American conservatives to mobilize. Goldwater was much less active as a national leader of conservatives after 1964; his supporters mostly rallied behind Ronald Reagan, who became governor of California in 1967 and the 40th President of the United States in 1981.<br /><br />Goldwater returned to the Senate in 1969, and specialized in defense policy, bringing to the table his experience as a senior officer in the Air Force Reserve. His greatest accomplishment was arguably the passage of the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, which restructured the higher levels of the Pentagon by increasing the power of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to direct military action. In 1974, as an elder statesman of the party, Goldwater successfully urged President Richard Nixon to resign when evidence of a cover-up in the Watergate scandal became overwhelming and impeachment was imminent. By the 1980s, the increasing influence of the Christian right on the Republican Party so conflicted with Goldwater's libertarian views that he became a vocal opponent of the religious right on issues such as gay rights and the role of religion in public life.<br /><br />Death:<br />Goldwater's public appearances ended in late 1996 after he suffered a massive stroke; family members then disclosed he was in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. He died on May 29, 1998, at the age of 89 at his long-time home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, of complications from the stroke.[73] His ashes were buried at the Episcopal Christ Church of the Ascension in Paradise Valley, Arizona. A memorial statue set in a small park has been erected to honor the memory of Goldwater in that town, near his former home and current resting placeMattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-25878421113482680862011-05-29T11:13:00.000-07:002011-05-29T11:27:57.116-07:00Happy 94th birthday to President John F Kennedy<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4PT9wmlvzLdWALOZdn9Vq4eYF3EqZZtakW4iotsZyMJOJzJUZP8R-VTjjOpYbcSpwt2pWo4SqKDOS5uXUQ9bvuSScEQiWKUgz5-6muBYTcvT5yuDHqWO-k1DFOkYtyJTs1oXnHSECRWmC/s1600/r-JFK-MOON-PROGRAM-large570.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 167px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5612206350893755762" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4PT9wmlvzLdWALOZdn9Vq4eYF3EqZZtakW4iotsZyMJOJzJUZP8R-VTjjOpYbcSpwt2pWo4SqKDOS5uXUQ9bvuSScEQiWKUgz5-6muBYTcvT5yuDHqWO-k1DFOkYtyJTs1oXnHSECRWmC/s400/r-JFK-MOON-PROGRAM-large570.jpg" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmG4GAwyD7M90sSUnZ8qXu3FJJSq1gS0umM3_J1erNBpp2NFYjMhnDT5LrqBhfFszwv-PyQXeOkKgkl7x2t2E0CP3zijXgR669xJ1fKOIeXZlK-SIkt0mOKS70_z_NfI29T1lcqcsWnj7O/s1600/s_jfk6.gif"></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">John Fitzgerald Kennedy: today would have been your 94th birthday. Happy Birthday, Mister President. You will always be considered a great leader. You will be truly missed. Thanks for creating the stepping stone for all Catholics to reach high standards!</span>MattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-91757136855356604272011-05-27T19:02:00.000-07:002011-05-27T19:11:29.287-07:00Today is the 100th birthday of Vice President Hubert Humphrey<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh-eo-e6iBHc2MkVgAaKhZ_ZXO4IRu_U3FxpVv6IIhX3TJnl9dNcKwRYk2wJHU0BoGq5U4jJX9D8bwmlBVqO01x_1AdCexhWOP6ZoiVEx8Uo4oUqYvYZp0HYXBzHSmCl7z7ktzvYeojrfa/s1600/huberthumphrey.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 313px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5611583614287962034" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh-eo-e6iBHc2MkVgAaKhZ_ZXO4IRu_U3FxpVv6IIhX3TJnl9dNcKwRYk2wJHU0BoGq5U4jJX9D8bwmlBVqO01x_1AdCexhWOP6ZoiVEx8Uo4oUqYvYZp0HYXBzHSmCl7z7ktzvYeojrfa/s400/huberthumphrey.jpg" /></a> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Hubert Horatio Humphrey: thanks for serving as vice-president under Lyndon Baines Johnson 1964-1969. Remembering you today, happy 100th birthday!</span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9h8k6JDwOFC-2Jo3zzzSdAGPSW0oQcjoQSl_dspdRSyTpeRK6PimZGE_4TAgKQOIvj65SikjAgVE9QWnIxCnvuqbqwl8RqQU4F5q6mTv1QN29uMW9ksrvZFUOyQQJlKzUeJ4Xm7R3SQfy/s1600/Humphrey100_160.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 160px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 80px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5611583612293324754" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9h8k6JDwOFC-2Jo3zzzSdAGPSW0oQcjoQSl_dspdRSyTpeRK6PimZGE_4TAgKQOIvj65SikjAgVE9QWnIxCnvuqbqwl8RqQU4F5q6mTv1QN29uMW9ksrvZFUOyQQJlKzUeJ4Xm7R3SQfy/s400/Humphrey100_160.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978), served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and Americans for Democratic Action. He also served as Mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1945–1949. In 1968, Humphrey was the nominee of the Democratic Party in the 1968 presidential election but lost to the Republican nominee, Richard Nixon.<br /><br />The Vice Presidency (1965-1969)<br />Humphrey took office on January 20, 1965. As Vice President, Humphrey was controversial for his complete and vocal loyalty to Johnson and the policies of the Johnson Administration, even as many of Humphrey's liberal admirers opposed Johnson with increasing fervor with respect to Johnson's policies during the war in Vietnam. Many of Humphrey's liberal friends and allies over the years abandoned him because of his refusal to publicly criticize Johnson's Vietnam War policies. Humphrey's critics later learned that Johnson had threatened Humphrey —- Johnson told Humphrey that if he publicly opposed his Administration's Vietnam War policy, he would destroy Humphrey's chances to become President by opposing his nomination at the next Democratic Convention. However, Humphrey's critics were vocal and persistent: even his nickname, the Happy Warrior, was used against him. The nickname referred not to his military hawkishness but rather to his crusading for social welfare and civil rights programs.<br /><br /><br />While he was Vice President, Hubert Humphrey was the subject of a satirical song by songwriter/musician Tom Lehrer entitled "Whatever Became of Hubert?" The song addressed how some liberals and progressives felt let down by Humphrey, who had become a much more mute figure as Vice President than he had been as a senator. The song goes "Whatever became of Hubert? Has anyone heard a thing? Once he shone on his own, now he sits home alone and waits for the phone to ring. Once a fiery liberal spirit, ah, but now when he speaks he must clear it. ..."<br /><br />During these years Humphrey was a repeated and favorite guest of Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. He also struck up a friendship with Frank Sinatra that would endure Sinatra's early 1970s conversion to the Republican party and was perhaps most on notice in the fall of 1977 when Sinatra was the star attraction and host of a tribute to a then-ailing Humphrey. He also appeared on a Dean Martin celebrity roast in 1973.<br /><br /><br />America’s Forgotten LiberalBy RICK PERLSTEIN<br />Chicago<br /><br />JANUARY was the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth, and the planet nearly stopped turning on its axis to recognize the occasion. Today is the 100th anniversary of Hubert H. Humphrey’s birth, and no one besides me seems to have noticed.<br /><br />That such a central figure in American history is largely ignored today is sad. But his diminution is also, more importantly, an impediment to understanding our current malaise as a nation, and how much better things might have been had today’s America turned out less Reaganite and more Humphreyish.<br /><br />Our forgotten man was born in eastern South Dakota to a pharmacist, a trade the son took over after the family moved to Minnesota. That biographical fact was the source for the derisive title of a 1968 biography, “The Drugstore Liberal” — that is to say, like a “drugstore cowboy,” a small-timer, not really a liberal at all, at a time, quite unlike our own, when a liberal reputation was a prerequisite for the Democratic presidential nomination. The unfairness was evident only in retrospect.<br /><br />Humphrey made his national political debut in 1948 when, as mayor of Minneapolis and a candidate for Senate, he headed the Minnesota delegation to the Democratic National Convention. There he led a faction insisting the platform include a federal fair employment commission, a controversial goal of the civil rights movement.<br /><br />Segregationist Southerners threatened to walk out, a move that could have paralyzed the entire fragile Democratic coalition and handed the White House to the Republicans. The Democrats’ first presidential defeat in 20 years might have been laid at the feet of this ambitious 37-year-old.<br /><br />Humphrey could have been excused for quietly backing down. Instead, the man who had earned the nickname the Happy Warrior gave one of the greatest speeches in American political history.<br /><br />“To those who say this civil rights program is an infringement on states’ rights,” he thundered from the convention podium, “I say this: The time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadow of states’ rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights.”<br /><br />The motion carried. The Southerners walked out and ran Strom Thurmond for president. When Harry S. Truman won nonetheless, Democrats were on their way to becoming the party of civil rights. Hubert Humphrey catalyzed that change.<br /><br />He joined the Senate as a tireless champion of expanding the New Deal, but the exigencies of power were not kind to his liberal reputation. In June 1964 he was instrumental in passing the landmark Civil Rights Act. That August, however, President Lyndon B. Johnson turned to Humphrey to broker another deal at a Democratic convention, this time playing the opposite role: selling out a group of Mississippi civil rights activists who had hoped to be seated as delegates instead of the racist “regular” Democrats.<br /><br />It was part of Johnson’s condition for making him his running mate: he wanted someone who would do what he said without question. Soon Vice President Humphrey was the spokesman for the president’s unwise war in Vietnam. He took to the role partly out of loyalty, partly out of conviction: to a certain sort of old-line liberal like him, Vietnam was a crusade against imperialist expansionism. To younger “New Politics” Democrats, however, the war embodied the very opposite: a racist assault by an administration that was itself practically imperialist.<br /><br />It was Humphrey’s misfortune to inherit the presidential nomination in 1968, with the Democratic Party split down the middle between these factions — a tragedy sealed in blood, after Humphrey’s faction won the convention, in the streets of Chicago; and at the ballot box, with Humphrey’s agonizingly close loss to Richard M. Nixon in the general election.<br /><br />The defeat came in part thanks to his refusal to denounce the disastrous war in a forthright and timely fashion, and in part thanks to the abandonment of the ticket by the New Politics liberals who called him a warmonger (often, heckling him on the campaign trail, to his face).<br /><br />Was Humphrey really as hawkish as all that? Johnson didn’t think so; he actually preferred that Nixon win the election. He didn’t trust Humphrey to hold firm on the war.<br /><br />Poor Humphrey could never catch a break. Resolutely committed to quiet coalition-building at a time when ideological self-righteousness was the new normal, resolutely unhip at a time when political hipness was at a premium, he was now not just a loser but an embarrassment. He came in second place for the 1972 nomination; the victor, the self-righteous but significantly more hip George S. McGovern, then came in a distant second to Nixon.<br /><br />In the book by which many would remember that election, Hunter S. Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72,” each mention of Humphrey drips with mocking vituperation. Here, then, to many, is the Humphrey of history: an also-ran, a sellout, a joke.<br /><br />For progressives today, however, the joke’s on us. In the 1970s the Democratic Party turned its focus from a New Deal-inspired politics of economic security toward a Watergate-inspired embrace of institutional reform. The move was explicitly anti-you-know-who: “We’re not a bunch of little Hubert Humphreys,” proclaimed Gary Hart, the leader of the “Watergate Babies” Democratic Congressional class of 1974.<br /><br />Their reforms, however, largely failed in their intention to liberalize the nation. Conservatives and business interests were able to bend the new campaign finance rules and Congressional committee systems to their own ends. That, in turn, helped bring about what Paul Krugman calls the “Great Divergence”: the economic inequality that has made a mockery of ordinary Americans’ aspirations to join and stay in the middle class.<br /><br />The trends were already in evidence during the presidential season of 1976. The only thing missing was any organized Democratic response among the candidates — besides, that is, Hubert Humphrey, who was once more an also-ran for the Democratic nomination.<br /><br />Instead Humphrey, who had re-entered the Senate in 1971, spent the rest of the decade doggedly devising legislative solutions to the Great Divergence. His Balanced Growth and Economic Planning Act, introduced in May 1975, when unemployment was at a post-Depression high of 9 percent, proposed a sort of domestic World Bank to route capital to job creators. (It spoke to his conviction, in a knee-jerk, anti-corporate age, that pro-labor and pro-business policies were complementary.)<br /><br />And at a time when other liberals were besotted with affirmative action as a strategy to undo the cruel injustices of American history, Humphrey pointed out that race-based remedies could only prove divisive when good jobs were disappearing for everyone. Liberal policy, he said, must stress “common denominators — mutual needs, mutual wants, common hopes, the same fears.”<br /><br />In 1976 he joined Representative Augustus Hawkins, a Democrat from the Watts section of Los Angeles, to introduce a bill requiring the government, especially the Federal Reserve, to keep unemployment below 3 percent — and if that failed, to provide emergency government jobs to the unemployed.<br /><br />It sounds heretical now. But this newspaper endorsed it then, while 70 percent of Americans believed the government should offer jobs to everyone who wanted one. However, Jimmy Carter — a new kind of Democrat answering to a new upper-middle-class, suburban constituency, embarrassed by industrial unions and enamored with the alleged magic of the market — did not.<br /><br />“Government cannot eliminate poverty or provide a bountiful economy or reduce inflation or save our cities or cure illiteracy or provide energy,” President Carter said in his 1978 State of the Union address, a generation before Bill Clinton said almost the same thing, cementing the Democrats’ ambivalent retreat from New Deal-based government activism.<br /><br />Mr. Carter saw to it that only a toothless Humphrey-Hawkins law passed — one that made fighting inflation the government’s implicit policy goal while the toll of high unemployment was given much lower priority.<br /><br />Hubert Humphrey died of cancer on Jan. 13, 1978, a Happy Warrior to the end. “Sometimes I felt discouraged,” his wife, Muriel, recalled, “but Hubert never did.”<br /><br />Argue against his supposed heresies if you will. But the post-1970s deregulatory consensus that replaced them, embodied as much by Reagan then as Robert E. Rubin today, has hardly done a great job either. With unemployment once again at 9 percent, inflation minimal, corporate profits at record levels even in the face of criminal perfidy by bankers, the trade deficit at $48.2 billion and racial resentment running as high as ever, shouldn’t we perhaps spare a thought, on Hubert Humphrey’s 100th birthday, for his road not taken?<br /><br />Rick Perlstein is the author of “Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America.”MattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-76995523212242082272011-05-27T18:59:00.001-07:002011-05-27T19:01:47.685-07:00Happy 100th birthday to Vincent Price!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUMckEx6ZXzCK-EGx7a8NidDoT68NyKRxI1YCIignMk4Bdzlscf0M1Fp3Tr8GxOaXonKmYJ7sqs7pAXUPEAL5I5yhmCdNbgzaqs_0p8wzMoqL2MQ5AABDpq0nnAbCeWAUwVRS2MKAb-cRe/s1600/price.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 311px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5611580829203599554" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUMckEx6ZXzCK-EGx7a8NidDoT68NyKRxI1YCIignMk4Bdzlscf0M1Fp3Tr8GxOaXonKmYJ7sqs7pAXUPEAL5I5yhmCdNbgzaqs_0p8wzMoqL2MQ5AABDpq0nnAbCeWAUwVRS2MKAb-cRe/s400/price.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Vincent Price: A ghoulish actor, I truly admire your acting in all of the movies that you were in. remembering you today, happy 100th birthday!<br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.</span>MattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-42355809399305578942011-05-23T19:32:00.000-07:002011-05-23T19:44:46.518-07:00Remembering a great politican after 5 years<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXN51Jz3LaiC-Maj0bMazKlE591wIjMFRJJ62sZ6aHa6eBzMjNhf_O1pScEO8ON4AKsAMsq2yicL9VfGIXLuRKT5TsS-Tay_XiPw15uqB0ltOaAgTUuQNwSxYVoX49jEERTAgzfa8_3O24/s1600/Portrait_of_Lloyd_Bentsen.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 242px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5610107011552920834" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXN51Jz3LaiC-Maj0bMazKlE591wIjMFRJJ62sZ6aHa6eBzMjNhf_O1pScEO8ON4AKsAMsq2yicL9VfGIXLuRKT5TsS-Tay_XiPw15uqB0ltOaAgTUuQNwSxYVoX49jEERTAgzfa8_3O24/s400/Portrait_of_Lloyd_Bentsen.jpg" /></a> this is his official portait as the nation's 69th Secretary of Treasury 1993-1994<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih6Sx0d7y7C9ex8ssP_cmWRK1u24Id6EFoQpPAzBmTY36ruT9Apf6eRHWi-4hWVBBflB4dQeOHq3yfe8R-Rx4Yf3i56NZAnpLXiid2b-bwBDIrRrlPT1-R1zoQGNjID3jwGWz7MYAR6g4S/s1600/Lloyd+Bentsen+and+Dan+Quayle-8x6.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 350px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 248px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5610107000990849586" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih6Sx0d7y7C9ex8ssP_cmWRK1u24Id6EFoQpPAzBmTY36ruT9Apf6eRHWi-4hWVBBflB4dQeOHq3yfe8R-Rx4Yf3i56NZAnpLXiid2b-bwBDIrRrlPT1-R1zoQGNjID3jwGWz7MYAR6g4S/s400/Lloyd+Bentsen+and+Dan+Quayle-8x6.jpg" /></a> Vice Presidential Debate 1988: Quayle stated that he had as much political experience as John F. Kennedy had when he ran for the presidency. Bentsen retorted, "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy." Quayle responded by saying, "That was really uncalled for, Senator." Bentsen responded, "You're the one that was making the comparison, Senator<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV0AXRoVTF8-fVgP7vcYm8ZcnJwTv2rmrbA4a1Tk9Dj6NkwzFPVA67uYAERqniErKaPWDmfRd3HVwJMi4xZp95x4WgZFX4nNxErvzw7nyLZMIGCSd9XOF6WVDoi9KjTd7LJBwWMJokBx0F/s1600/DK091199ClintonBentson_th.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 264px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 194px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5610106998176099634" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV0AXRoVTF8-fVgP7vcYm8ZcnJwTv2rmrbA4a1Tk9Dj6NkwzFPVA67uYAERqniErKaPWDmfRd3HVwJMi4xZp95x4WgZFX4nNxErvzw7nyLZMIGCSd9XOF6WVDoi9KjTd7LJBwWMJokBx0F/s400/DK091199ClintonBentson_th.jpg" /></a><br />President Bill Clinton awarded Bentsen the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the nation's highest honors given to civilians.<br /><br />Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr:Sir its been a pleasure hearing you speak during your campaign for vice-president in 1988 and thank you for being a interesting secteratary of treasury under Clinton and helping John Kerry in 2004 for the presidency, thanks your great work,Remembering you 5 years later, may you rest in peace!<br /><br /><br />Lloyd Millard Bentsen, Jr. (February 11, 1921 – May 23, 2006) was a four-term United States senator (1971 until 1993) from Texas and the Democratic Party nominee for Vice President in 1988 on the Michael Dukakis ticket. He also served in the House of Representatives from 1949 to 1955. In his later political life, he was Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and the U.S. Treasury Secretary during the first two years of the Clinton administration.<br /><br />1988 Vice Presidential candidate<br /><br />Bentsen was on Walter Mondale's short list of seven or eight possible vice presidential candidates in 1984 and was the only southerner and one of three white males considered. In the end, Mondale chose New York U.S. Representative Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate.<br /><br />In 1988 Governor Michael Dukakis (Massachusetts) chose Bentsen to be his running mate in that year's presidential election, beating out Ohio Senator John Glenn who was considered the early favorite. Bentsen was selected in large part to secure the state of Texas and its electoral vote for the Democrats, even with fellow Texan George H. W. Bush at the top of the Republican ticket. Because of Bentsen's status as something of an elder statesman who was more experienced in electoral politics, many believed Dukakis's selection of Bentsen as his running mate was a mistake in that Bentsen, number two on the ticket, appeared more presidential than did Dukakis. One elector in West Virginia even cast a ballot for him rather than Dukakis, giving Bentsen one electoral vote for President.<br /><br />Bentsen was responsible for one of the most memorable moments of the campaign during his televised debate with Republican vice presidential nominee Dan Quayle. Quayle stated that he had as much political experience as John F. Kennedy had when he ran for the presidency. Bentsen retorted, "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy." Quayle responded by saying, "That was really uncalled for, Senator." Bentsen responded, "You're the one that was making the comparison, Senator."<br /><br />Peter Goldman and Tom Mathews wrote in The Quest for the Presidency 1988 that Bentsen "was the forgotten man" of the campaign until the exchange with Quayle. Thereafter, his "gray solidarity" was "made luminescent by the pallor of the other three men. However, there have been questions raised as to how well Bentsen really knew Kennedy. Some have claimed they only had a nodding acquaintance. "<br /><br />The Dukakis-Bentsen ticket lost the election. Bentsen was unable to swing his home state, with 43 percent of the Texas vote going for the Dukakis ticket while Bush and Quayle took 56 percent, despite the fact that Bentsen was simultaneously re-elected to the United States Senate with 59 percent of the vote.<br /><br />Bentsen considered running for president in 1992, but he, along with many other Democrats, backed out because of Bush's apparent popularity following the successful Gulf War. (Bush ended up losing the election to Bill Clinton).<br /><br /><br />Secretary of the Treasury<br />Bentsen resigned from the Senate in January 1993 to serve as the 69th Secretary of the Treasury under Clinton from 1993 to 1994. Clinton's selection of Bentsen for his Cabinet was well-received in Congress and on Wall Street. However, it was criticized by some Democrats after a Republican, Kay Bailey Hutchison, won the special election in June 1993 for the year and a half left in Bentsen's term.<br /><br />As a Senator, Bentsen had been a staunch advocate of reducing federal budget deficits. As Secretary of the Treasury, he was a principle architect and chief spokesman for Clinton's first budget which led to the economic expansion and falling deficits of the 1990s. He helped win crucial Republican votes to pass the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Bentsen also was pivotal in winning passage of the 1994 crime bill which banned assault rifles.<br /><br />After the resignation of Les Aspin in early 1994, Bentsen was seriously considered for the position of Secretary of Defense. This prospect, however, did not materialize and William Perry, then Deputy Secretary of Defense, was chosen to succeed Aspin.<br /><br />In early December 1994, Bentsen announced his resignation as Secretary of the Treasury. Before election day he had discussed with President Clinton that he was not prepared to stay in office until 1996. He was succeeded in the position by Robert Rubin.<br /><br />Later life and death<br /><br />In 1998, Bentsen suffered two strokes, which left him needing a wheelchair for mobility. In 1999 President Clinton awarded Bentsen the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the nation's highest honors given to civilians. He appeared in the summer of 2004 at the portrait unveilings at the White House of former President Bill Clinton and former First Lady Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.<br /><br />Bentsen died on May 23, 2006, at his home in Houston at the age of 85. He was survived by his wife, the former Beryl Ann Longino, three children, and six grandchildren. His funeral was held on May 30 at the First Presbyterian Church of Houston (where Bentsen and his wife had been members for many years) and is interred there in Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery. Former president Bill Clinton, who was a close friend of Bentsen's, delivered a eulogy.<br /><br />Legacy:<br /><br />As a freshman Senator, Bentsen guided to passage the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), a long-stalled pension reform bill providing federal protections for the pensions of American workers. He also championed the creation of Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), legislation improving access to health care for low income women and children, and tax incentives for independent oil and gas producers to reduce dependence on foreign oil.<br /><br />As a primary architect of the Clinton economic plan, Bentsen contributed to a $500 billion reduction in the deficit, launching the longest period of economic growth since World War II. More than 5 million new jobs were created during his tenure as Secretary. The Clinton plan also helped the United States regain credibility and leadership among the other industrialized nations.<br /><br />In recognition of his success in addressing a large shortfall in federal highway funding for Texas, two hundred seventy miles of U.S. Highway 59, from I-35 to I-45 in Texas (between Laredo and Houston, respectively), is officially named Senator Lloyd Bentsen Highway.<br /><br />His legacy also includes many water, wastewater and other infrastructure projects in the impoverished Colonia of south Texas, the preservation of natural areas across the state, and major funding for medical facilities too numerous to list.<br /><br />Bentsen's family continues to be active in politics. His nephew, Ken Bentsen, Jr., was a U.S. Representative (D) from 1995 to 2003 in Texas's 25th District, and a U.S. Senate candidate in 2002. His grandson, Lloyd Bentsen IV, served on John Kerry's advance staff during Kerry's 2004 campaign for the presidency of the United States.<br /><br />He is also known for inventing the term astroturfing.<br /><br />On January 22, 2009, the opening ceremony of the Senator Lloyd and B.A. Bentsen Stroke Research Center officially commenced in the Fayez S. Sarofim Research Build in the medical district of Houston, TX as part of the University of Texas Health Science Center of Houston. Notable speakers included Dr. Cheng Chi Lee and Houston Mayor Bill White.MattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-434054721820148652011-05-14T21:52:00.000-07:002011-05-14T22:01:03.459-07:0013 years ago the world lost Frank Sinatra<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPRCbrvGUsFksNQw1hzRikALvAMfXGoeKXxSG5wg-zOpbW97dxEZi-LoDX4Qn8X7uLeH1_y0xVFhShBy4yybNs7XK_rGpdHyawdocxbRQEsqr_fI3P5Zq2qDnYHX1gg9t1GResgPKYqkHN/s1600/large_frank-sinatra-movie-by-martin-scorsese.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 317px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606802159150158514" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPRCbrvGUsFksNQw1hzRikALvAMfXGoeKXxSG5wg-zOpbW97dxEZi-LoDX4Qn8X7uLeH1_y0xVFhShBy4yybNs7XK_rGpdHyawdocxbRQEsqr_fI3P5Zq2qDnYHX1gg9t1GResgPKYqkHN/s400/large_frank-sinatra-movie-by-martin-scorsese.jpg" /></a><br /><br />"Uncle" Frank Albert Sinatra, my family misses you on this day of your death, you were truly my favorite singer, I admire you work in the film world and the music world! you were truly a great signer and actor!Remembering you 13 years later, may yo rest in peace!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra<br /><br />(December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor.<br /><br />Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers". His professional career had stalled by the 1950s, but it was reborn in 1954 after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (for his performance in From Here to Eternity).<br /><br />He signed with Capitol Records and released several critically lauded albums (such as In the Wee Small Hours, Songs for Swingin' Lovers, Come Fly with Me, Only the Lonely and Nice 'n' Easy). Sinatra left Capitol to found his own record label, Reprise Records (finding success with albums such as Ring-A-Ding-Ding, Sinatra at the Sands and Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim), toured internationally, was a founding member of the Rat Pack and fraternized with celebrities and statesmen, including John F. Kennedy. Sinatra turned 50 in 1965, recorded the retrospective September of My Years, starred in the Emmy-winning television special Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music, and scored hits with "Strangers in the Night" and "My Way".<br /><br />With sales of his music dwindling and after appearing in several poorly received films, Sinatra retired for the first time in 1971. Two years later, however, he came out of retirement and in 1973 recorded several albums, scoring a Top 40 hit with "(Theme From) New York, New York" in 1980. Using his Las Vegas shows as a home base, he toured both within the United States and internationally, until a short time before his death in 1998.<br /><br />Sinatra also forged a successful career as a film actor, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in From Here to Eternity, a nomination for Best Actor for The Man with the Golden Arm, and critical acclaim for his performance in The Manchurian Candidate. He also starred in such musicals as High Society, Pal Joey, Guys and Dolls and On the Town. Sinatra was honored at the Kennedy Center Honors in 1983 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan in 1985 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997. Sinatra was also the recipient of eleven Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Trustees Award, Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.<br /><br /><br />Death:<br /><br />Sinatra began to show signs of senility in his last years and after a heart attack in February 1997, he made no further public appearances. After suffering another heart attack, he died at 10:50 pm on May 14, 1998 at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, with his wife Barbara by his side.<br /><br />He was 82 years old. Sinatra's final words, spoken after Barbara encouraged him to "fight" as attempts were made to stabilize him, were "I'm losing". The official cause of death was listed as complications from senility, heart and kidney disease, and bladder cancer. His death was confirmed by the Sinatra family on their website with a statement accompanied by a recording of the singer's version of "Softly As I Leave You". The next night the lights on the Las Vegas Strip were dimmed for 10 minutes in his honor.<br /><br />President Bill Clinton, as an amateur saxophonist and musician, led the world's tributes to Sinatra, saying that after meeting and getting to know the singer as President, he had "come to appreciate on a personal level what millions of people had appreciated from afar". Elton John stated that Sinatra, "was simply the best - no one else even comes close".<br /><br />In a concert live in Ephesus, John tells the audience of an experience which he explains as "one of the most special moments for me as a songwriter", when he went to the Royal Albert Hall in London and seeing Frank Sinatra who sang John's 1976 hit, "Sorry Seems To Be the Hardest Word".<br /><br />On May 20, 1998 at the Roman Catholic Church of the Good Shepherd (Beverly Hills) in Beverly Hills, Sinatra's funeral was held, with 400 mourners in attendance and hundreds of fans outside.<br /><br />Gregory Peck, Tony Bennett, and Frank, Jr., addressed the mourners, among whom were Jill St. John, Tom Selleck, Joey Bishop, Faye Dunaway, Tony Curtis, Liza Minnelli, Kirk Douglas, Robert Wagner, Bob Dylan, Don Rickles, Nancy Reagan, Angie Dickinson, Sophia Loren, Bob Newhart, Mia Farrow, and Jack Nicholson.<br /><br />A private ceremony was held later that day at St. Theresa's Catholic Church in Palm Springs. Sinatra was buried following the ceremony next to his parents in section B-8 of Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, a quiet cemetery on Ramon Road where Cathedral City meets Rancho Mirage and near his compound, located on Rancho Mirage's tree-lined Frank Sinatra Drive. His close friends, Jilly Rizzo and Jimmy Van Heusen, are buried nearby in the same cemetery.<br /><br />The words "The Best Is Yet to Come" are imprinted on Sinatra's grave markerMattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-13118331617299707502011-05-13T10:21:00.000-07:002011-05-13T10:38:49.682-07:0030 years ago today Blessed Pope John Paul II got shot<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHg4-hnx7mZYEPUNUTWbV6xJwxOR7OmwOJ0Yc63NfzarqA_MA9Xj2Suqg-J5cKAtouim82SSS3DPssIgE8tC7Z5CXiIBYy56y1cVKmSn21Wu8EcPfDXNhn6pc_0omm4p3IJq2EUieVqSik/s1600/0513_big.gif"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 266px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606255787194572066" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHg4-hnx7mZYEPUNUTWbV6xJwxOR7OmwOJ0Yc63NfzarqA_MA9Xj2Suqg-J5cKAtouim82SSS3DPssIgE8tC7Z5CXiIBYy56y1cVKmSn21Wu8EcPfDXNhn6pc_0omm4p3IJq2EUieVqSik/s400/0513_big.gif" /></a> The New York Times Headline on May 14 1981, the day after the assassination attempt on Blessed Pope John Paul II.<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXGr3LNt44ilScWoQEJaLEAIdbLycz7g0siEqP7O8_qWymwbfoZKdyXLIYitiqBmRCE9das9TTIrugRwrXy052hH66gQ5mqLeqgIJHR4xri1etQVQOU7kj0UI9Vx1lg5DAYauMr4WBUbuu/s1600/papfati.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 214px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606255782094694194" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXGr3LNt44ilScWoQEJaLEAIdbLycz7g0siEqP7O8_qWymwbfoZKdyXLIYitiqBmRCE9das9TTIrugRwrXy052hH66gQ5mqLeqgIJHR4xri1etQVQOU7kj0UI9Vx1lg5DAYauMr4WBUbuu/s400/papfati.jpg" /></a><br />Remembering you on this day, the feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fátima, especially on this day after the 30th year anniversary of the event that almost changed the world, thank you for being a great Pope!<br /><br /><br />30th anniversary of assassination attempt on Blessed Pope John Paul II<br /><br />Third Secret of Our Lady of Fatima<br />The third secret, a vision of the death of the Pope and other religious figures, was transcribed by the Bishop of Leiria and reads:<br /><br />"After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendour that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!' And we saw in an immense light that is God: ‘something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it' a Bishop dressed in White ‘we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'. Other Bishops, Priests, Religious men and women going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, Religious men and women, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God."<br /><br />Controversy around the Third Secret<br /><br />The Vatican withheld the Third Secret until 26 June 2000, despite Lúcia's declaration that it could be released to the public after 1960. Some sources, including Canon Barthas and Cardinal Ottaviani, said that Lúcia insisted to them it must be released by 1960, saying that, "by that time, it will be more clearly understood", and, "because the Blessed Virgin wishes it so." When 1960 arrived, rather than releasing the Third Secret, the Vatican published an official press release stating that it was "most probable the Secret would remain, forever, under absolute seal." After this announcement, immense speculation over the content of the secret materialized. According to the New York Times, speculation over the content of the secret ranged from "worldwide nuclear annihilation to deep rifts in the Roman Catholic Church that lead to rival papacies."<br /><br />Some sources claim that the four-page, handwritten text of the Third Secret released by the Vatican in the year 2000 is not the real secret, or at least not the full secret. In particular, it is alleged that Cardinals Bertone, Ratzinger and Sodano engaged in a systematic deception to cover-up the existence of a one-page document containing the words of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which some believe contains information about the Apocalypse and a great apostasy. These sources contend that the Third Secret actually comprises two texts, where one of these texts is the published four-page vision, and the other is a single-page letter allegedly containing the words of the Virgin Mary which has been concealed.[36][37][38] The content of two of these books, The Devil's Final Battle by Father Paul Kramer, and The Secret Still Hidden by Christopher Ferrara, are available online.<br /><br />The Vatican has maintained its position that the full text of the Third Secret was published in June 2000. According to a December 2001 Vatican press release (subsequently published in L'Osservatore Romano), Lucia told then Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone in an interview that the secret had been completely revealed and published - that no secrets remained. Bertone, along with Cardinal Ratzinger, co-authored The Message of Fatima, the document published in June 2000 by the Vatican that allegedly contains a scanned copy of the original text of the Third Secret.<br /><br />During his apostolic visit to Portugal between 11 and 14 May 2010 on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the beatification of Jacinta and Francisco Marto, Pope Benedict XVI explained in a rare conversation with reporters that the interpretation of the third secret did not stop with the interpretation of a prediction of the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in Saint Peter's Square in 1981.<br /><br /><br />Thirty years after the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul, “the time has come to attempt an historical assessment” of the event, according L’Osservatore Romano--“not only for its significance in the history of the 20th century, but especially its significance in the history of the Church and more generally in salvation history.”<br /><br />“The unresolved mystery of who ordered the assassination attempt--the solution to which, as [Blessed John Paul] wrote in his testament, was before everyone’s eyes--and the evident intervention of a miraculous nature which caused the deflection of the shots fired by a very skilled killer just steps away from his target, and the subsequent saving of the Pope, have given this event a strong spiritual significance,” writes Lucetta Scaraffia. “A significance confirmed also by the coincidence of the date with the first apparition of the Virgin of Fatima, in 1917, whose message was dedicated to the 20th century and in particular to the rise of Communism.”<br /><br />Scaraffia added:<br /><br /><br />The Marian intervention could not but confirm a certainty for Christians: even if the forces of evil are powerful and dangerous, they will not prevail. This interpretation on the one hand attributed the negative forces in play to more than just a specific group and on the other hand, opened hearts to hope by lifting the assassination attempt from an apparent historical contingency and placing it in the history of salvation. In this way, the battle that the Pope was combating could become even more the battle of all Christians. And the call which he repeated more than once to be not afraid and to open the doors wide to Christ, thanks to his example, became something that all could follow, not just the most conscientious and courageous elite.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Pope John Paul II assassination attempt<br />The first attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II took place on Wednesday, May 13, 1981, in St. Peter's Square at Vatican City. The Pope was shot and critically wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca, a trained sniper from Turkey, while he was entering the square. The Pope was struck 4 times, and suffered severe blood loss. Ağca was apprehended immediately, and later sentenced to life in prison by an Italian court. The Pope later forgave Ağca for the assassination attempt.<br /><br />Attempted assassination of the Pope<br />The site of the shooting is marked by a small marble tablet bearing John Paul's papal coat of arms and the date in Roman numerals.<br />Beginning in August 1980 Ağca, under the alias of Vilperi, began criss-crossing the Mediterranean region, changing passports and identities, perhaps to hide his point of origin in Sofia, Bulgaria. He entered Rome on May 10, 1981, coming by train from Milan.<br /><br />According to Ağca's later testimony, he met with three accomplices in Rome, one a fellow Turk and two Bulgarians, with operation being commanded by Zilo Vassilev, the Bulgarian military attaché in Italy. He said that he was assigned this mission by Turkish mafioso Bekir Çelenk in Bulgaria.<br /><br />According to Ağca, the plan was for him and the back-up gunman Oral Çelik to open fire on the pope in St. Peter's Square and escape to the Bulgarian embassy under the cover of the panic generated by a small explosion. On May 13 they sat in the square, writing postcards waiting for the Pope to arrive. When the Pope passed, Ağca fired several shots[2] with a Browning Hi-Power semi-automatic pistol, and critically wounded him, but was grabbed by Vatican security chief Camillo Cibin,[3] a nun, and several spectators who prevented him from either firing more shots or escaping. Four bullets hit John Paul II, two of them lodging in his lower intestine, the others hitting his left hand and right arm. Two bystanders were also hit by stray assassin's bullets; Ann Odre, of Buffalo, New York, was struck in the chest while Rose Hill, of Jamaica, was slightly wounded in the arm. Çelik panicked and fled without setting off his bomb or opening fire.<br /><br />The Pope, who lost nearly three-quarters of his blood and thus suffered shock from near-exsanguination, underwent five hours of emergency intestinal surgery—which required transfusions and a temporary colostomy—at the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic. Upon encountering the Pope in Rome's Rebibbia Prison for the first time following the attempt, Ağca asked him how he had survived.MattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-58408207530900870732011-05-13T09:54:00.000-07:002011-05-13T10:20:40.893-07:00Today is the feast day of Our Lady of Fatima<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgroDTvX11D3iabZnJhCzPyqTw-YfRArTTNhnRvanUJsh9RkiN9F3zIzNK3IoLrmUBIlBAjupVwF_nOjBNsdSxysU59EFrT4EU2mngaPAtonHITBhTg6LG1RdYHwwuE7V9icXtU4pBOydJZ/s1600/ChildrensofFatima.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 250px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606251378431554674" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgroDTvX11D3iabZnJhCzPyqTw-YfRArTTNhnRvanUJsh9RkiN9F3zIzNK3IoLrmUBIlBAjupVwF_nOjBNsdSxysU59EFrT4EU2mngaPAtonHITBhTg6LG1RdYHwwuE7V9icXtU4pBOydJZ/s400/ChildrensofFatima.jpg" /></a> Sr Lucia De Jesus Dos Santos with Blesseds Jacinta and Francisco Marto<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSGt8F9VpEhtZQUaJoo5hy5qmz95HJyCVo7a4N2AzKulxCMRdQcwdTX80K9mj0cCtgMTkCIjviaHeqWawNpLVTFU2KNaZWXujvNILuljL-qMP4M4WhpXvfh9ftDfppjDRdpNurjwpOpiBb/s1600/MaurFatima.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 281px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606245760924882562" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSGt8F9VpEhtZQUaJoo5hy5qmz95HJyCVo7a4N2AzKulxCMRdQcwdTX80K9mj0cCtgMTkCIjviaHeqWawNpLVTFU2KNaZWXujvNILuljL-qMP4M4WhpXvfh9ftDfppjDRdpNurjwpOpiBb/s400/MaurFatima.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Our Lady of Fátima<br /><br />(Portuguese: Nossa Senhora de Fátima)is a title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary with respect to reported apparitions of her to three shepherd children at Fátima in Portugal on the 13th day of six consecutive months in 1917, starting on May 13. The three children were Lúcia Santos and her cousins, siblings Jacinta and Francisco Marto. The title of Our Lady of the Rosary is also sometimes used in reference to the same apparition (although it was first used in 1208 for the reported apparition in the church of Prouille), because the children related that the apparition specifically identified herself as the "Lady of the Rosary". It is also common to see a combination of these titles, i.e. Our Lady of the Rosary of Fátima (Portuguese: Nossa Senhora do Rosário de Fátima). The events at Fatima gained particular fame due to their elements of prophecy and eschatology, particularly with regard to possible world war and the conversion of Russia. The reported apparitions at Fatima were officially declared "worthy of belief" by the Catholic Church.<br /><br />PRAYER TO OUR LADY OF FATIMA<br />O Most Holy Virgin Mary,<br />Queen of the most holy Rosary,<br />you were pleased to appear to the children of Fatima<br />and reveal a glorious message.<br />We implore you,<br />inspire in our hearts a fervent love<br />for the recitation of the Rosary.<br />By meditating on the mysteries of the redemption<br />that are recalled therein<br />may we obtain the graces and virtues that we ask,<br />through the merits of Jesus Christ,<br />our Lord and Redeemer.<br /><br /><br /><br />On 13 May 1917, ten year old Lúcia Santos and her younger cousins, siblings Jacinta and Francisco Marto, were looking at sheep at a location known as the Cova da Iria near their home village of Fátima in Portugal. Lúcia described seeing a woman "brighter than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and stronger than a crystal ball filled with the most sparkling water and pierced by the burning rays of the sun." Further appearances are reported to have taken place on the thirteenth day of the month in June and July.<br /><br />In these, the woman exhorted the children to do penance and Acts of Reparation, and to make sacrifices to save sinners. The children subsequently wore tight cords around their waists to cause pain, performed self-flagellation using stinging nettles, abstained from drinking water on hot days, and performed other works of penance and mortification of the flesh.<br /><br />Most important, Lúcia said that the lady had asked them to pray the rosary every day, repeating many times that the rosary was the key to personal and world peace. This had particular resonance since many Portuguese men, including relatives of the visionaries, were then fighting in World War I. According to Lúcia's account, in the course of her appearances, the woman confided to the children three secrets, now known as the Three Secrets of Fátima.<br /><br />Thousands of people flocked to Fátima and Aljustrel in the ensuing months, drawn by reports of visions and miracles. On 13 August 1917, the provincial administrator and anticlerical Freemason, Artur Santos (no relation), believing that the events were politically disruptive, intercepted and jailed the children before they could reach the Cova da Iria that day. Prisoners held with them in the provincial jail later testified that the children, while upset, were first consoled by the inmates, and later led them in praying the rosary.<br /><br />The administrator interrogated the children and unsuccessfully attempted to get them to divulge the content of the secrets. In the process, he tried to convince the children that he would boil them one by one in a pot of oil unless they confessed. The children, however, resisted. That month, instead of the usual apparition in the Cova da Iria on the 13th, the children reported that they saw the Virgin Mary on 19 August at nearby Valinhos.<br /><br /><br /><br />First two secrets<br />The first secret was a vision of Hell, which Lúcia describes in her Third Memoir, as follows:<br /><br />"Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repulsive likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent. This vision lasted but an instant. How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother, who had already prepared us by promising, in the first Apparition, to take us to heaven. Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror."<br /><br /><br />The second secret included Mary's instructions on how to save souls from Hell and convert the world to the Christian faith, also revealed by Lúcia in her Third Memoir:<br /><br />"You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end: but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the Pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illuminated by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.<br /><br /><br /><br />Fate of the three children<br /><br />Lúcia reported seeing the Virgin Mary again in 1925 at the Dorothean convent at Pontevedra, Galicia (Spain). This time she said she was asked to convey the message of the First Saturday Devotions. By her account a subsequent vision of Christ as a child reiterated this request.<br /><br />Lúcia was transferred to another convent in Tui or Tuy, Galicia in 1928. In 1929, Lúcia reported that Mary returned and repeated her request for the Consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart.<br /><br />Lúcia reportedly saw Mary in private visions periodically throughout her life. Most significant was the apparition in Rianxo, Galicia, in 1931, in which she said that Jesus visited her, taught her two prayers and delivered a message to give to the church's hierarchy.<br /><br />In 1947, Sister Lúcia left the Dorothean order and joined the Discalced Carmelite order in a monastery in Coimbra, Portugal. Lúcia died on 13 February 2005, at the age of 97. After her death, the Vatican, specifically Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (at that time, still head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith), ordered her cell sealed off. It is believed this was because Sister Lúcia had continued to receive more revelations and the evidence needed to be examined in the course of proceedings for her possible canonization.<br /><br />Lúcia's cousins, the siblings Francisco (1908–1919) and Jacinta Marto (1910–1920), were both victims of the Great Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918-20. Francisco and Jacinta were declared venerable by Blessed Pope John Paul II in a public ceremony at Fatima on 13 May 1989. Blessed Pope John Paul II returned there on 13 May 2000 to declare them 'blessed'. Jacinta is the youngest non-martyred child ever to be beatified.<br /><br />In 1941, Lúcia claimed that the Virgin Mary had predicted the deaths of two of the children during the second apparition on 13 June 1917. Some accounts, including the testimony of Olímpia Marto (mother of the two younger children) state that her children did not keep this information secret and ecstatically predicted their own deaths many times to her and to curious pilgrims. According to the 1941 account, on 13 June, Lúcia asked the Virgin if the three children would go to heaven when they died. She said that she heard Mary reply, "Yes, I shall take Francisco and Jacinta soon, but you will remain a little longer, since Jesus wishes you to make me known and loved on earth. He wishes also for you to establish devotion in the world to my Immaculate Heart."<br /><br />Exhumed in 1935 and again in 1951, Jacinta's face was found incorrupt. Francisco's body, however, had decomposed.<br /><br /><br />Popes and Fátima<br /><br />Ecclesiastical approbation does not imply that the Church provides an infallible guarantee on the supernatural nature of the event. Theologians like Karl Rahner argued however, that Popes, by authoritatively fostering the Marian veneration in places like Fatima and Lourdes, motivate the faithful into an acceptance of divine faith Venerable Pope Pius XII, Servant of God Paul VI, Blessed John Paul II and Benedict XVI all voiced their acceptance of the supernatural origin of the Fátima events in unusually clear and strong terms. After the local bishop had declared that (1) the visions of the three children are credible and (2) the veneration of the Blessed Virgin is permitted, the Portuguese bishops approved and declared the genuine supernatural nature of the event. The Vatican responded with granting indulgences and permitting special Liturgies of the Mass to be celebrated in Fatima.[14] In 1939, Eugenio Pacelli, who was consecrated bishop on 13 May 1917—the day of the first apparition—was elected to the papacy as Pius XII, and became the Pope of Fátima.[63] One year after World War II had started, Sister Lucia asked Pope Pius XII to consecrate the world and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. She repeated this request on 2 December 1940, stating in the year 1929, the Blessed Lady requested in another apparition the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart. She promised the conversion of Russia from its errors.<br /><br />On 13 May 1942, the 25th anniversary of the first apparition and the silver jubilee of the episcopal consecration of Pope Pius XII, the Vatican published the Message and Secret of Fatima. On 31 October 1942, Pope Pius XII, in a radio address, informed the people of Portugal about the apparitions of Fátima, consecrating the human race to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin with specific mention of Russia. (See below)[64] On 8 December 1942, the Pontiff officially and solemnly declared this consecration in a ceremony in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. On 13 May 1946, Cardinal Masalla, the personal delegate of Pius XII, crowned in his name Our Lady of Fátima, as the Pope issued a second message about Fatima:<br /><br />"The faithful virgin never disappointed the trust, put on her. She will transform into a fountain of graces, physical and spiritual graces, over all of Portugal, and from there, breaking all frontiers, over the whole Church and the entire world".[65]<br />On 1 May 1948, in Auspicia Quaedam, Pope Pius XII requested the consecration to the Immaculate Heart of every Catholic family, parish and diocese.<br /><br />"It is our wish, consequently, that wherever the opportunity suggests itself, this consecration be made in the various dioceses as well as in each of the parishes and families."<br /><br />On 18 May 1950, the Pope again sent a message to the people of Portugal regarding Fátima: "May Portugal never forget the heavenly message of Fátima, which, before anybody else she was blessed to hear. To keep Fátima in your heart and to translate Fátima into deeds, is the best guarantee for ever more graces". In numerous additional messages, and in his encyclicals Fulgens Corona (1953), and Ad Caeli Reginam (1954), Pius XII encouraged the veneration of the Virgin in Fatima.<br /><br />At the end of the Second Vatican Council Pope Paul VI renewed the consecration of Pius XII to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and, in an unusual gesture, announced his own pilgrimage to the sanctuary on the fiftieth anniversary of the first apparition. On 13 May 1967, he prayed at the shrine together with Sister Lucia. This historic gesture further cemented the official support for Fátima.<br /><br />Pope John Paul II credited Our Lady of Fátima with saving his life following the assassination attempt on Wednesday, May 13, the Feast of Our Lady of Fátima, in 1981. He followed the footsteps of Paul VI, on 12 May 1987, to express his gratitude to the Virgin Mary for saving his life. The following day, he renewed the consecration of Pius XII to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin.<br /><br />On 12 and 13 May 2010, Pope Benedict XVI had visited the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima and strongly stated his acceptance about the supernatural origin of the Fátima apparitions. In the first day, the Pope arrived to the Chapel of Apparitions to pray and gave a Golden Rose to Our Lady of Fátima "as a homage of gratitude from the Pope for the marvels that the Almighty has worked through you in the hearts of so many who come as pilgrims to this your maternal home". The Holy Father also recalled the "invisible hand" that saved John Paul II and said in a prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary that "it is a profound consolation to know that you are crowned not only with the silver and gold of our joys and hopes, but also with the 'bullet' of our anxieties and sufferings". In the second day, Pope Benedict's homily had pronounced in front of more than 500,000 pilgrims a reference to the Fátima prophecy about the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and related it to the final "glory of the Most Holy Trinity".<br /><br />Fatima Center Mourns the Death of Sister Lucy<br /><br /><br />Lucy dos Santos, the lone surviving seer of Fatima, died on February 13 at her Carmelite Convent in Coimbra. She was 97 years old.<br /><br />It is a time of both sadness and joy. A time of sadness, since the world is deprived of the presence of the last surviving seer of Fatima who in 1917 and thereafter received the Message of Our Blessed Mother. A time of joy, as Sister Lucy’s earthly sufferings are over. Our Blessed Mother promised that She would take the three children of Fatima to Heaven, and Our Lady will keep Her word.<br /><br />There is one aspect of Sister Lucy’s passing that is particularly saddening. She was never given the opportunity to speak publicly about the two most vexing questions regarding the Fatima Message: the Consecration of Russia and the Third Secret of Fatima.<br /><br />Since 1960, Sister Lucy had been forbidden to speak about the Fatima Message without prior authorization of the Vatican. She died under this imposition of silence with many questions left unanswered.<br /><br />For more than 15 years, the Fatima Center publicly campaigned to allow Sister Lucy to speak. "It is a pity", said Father Nicholas Gruner, Director of the Fatima Center, "that Sister Lucy was never allowed to either publicly confirm or deny the various statements attributed to her over the last 15 years concerning the Consecration of Russia and the release of the Third Secret."<br /><br />Since 1989, a fierce campaign has been waged by certain influential members of the hierarchy, that Pope John Paul’s consecration of the world to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart fulfilled Our Lady’s request for the collegial Consecration of Russia. For decades, Sister Lucy repeatedly stated that a consecration of the world would not bring about the promised conversion of Russia. As late as 1985, in an interview in Sol de Fatima, Sister Lucy repeated that the March 1984 consecration of the world did not fulfill Our Lady’s request.<br /><br />After 1989, letters allegedly from Sister Lucy suddenly started to appear, in which she supposedly said that the 1984 consecration of the world did, in fact, fulfill Our Lady’s request. This contradicted her consistent testimony for 70 years. The authenticity of these letters is highly doubtful, and a number of these letters were proven to be fraudulent.<br /><br />Yet Sister Lucy was never allowed to state publicly whether she actually said that the consecration has been accomplished. It is clear, moreover, that the consecration has not been fulfilled. Our Lady promised that the consecration would bring about the conversion of Russia and a period of peace would be granted to the world. Russia has not converted to the Catholic Faith, and there is no period of peace. We still face the outstanding warning from Heaven given at Fatima that "various nations will be annihilated" if Our Lady’s requests are not fulfilled.<br /><br />Similarly, Sister Lucy was never allowed to speak regarding the Third Secret. The Fatima Center, and others, have publicly voiced concern over the version of the Secret released on June 26, 2000. Based on the testimony of those who have read the Secret, it is evident that the entire Secret was not released.<br /><br />Despite the Fatima Center’s repeated requests for the Vatican to allow Sister Lucy to speak publicly on the Secret, this permission was never granted.<br /><br />We are left to struggle with these issues. As for Sister Lucy, her ordeal on earth is over. Let us remember her in our prayers, and thank God that in His goodness, He sent Our Lady to Fatima to deliver mankind a Message of warning and hope.<br /><br />To honor Sister Lucy’s memory, the Fatima Center is now preparing a book on Sister Lucy that will be both a biography of her life and an anthology of her various writings and letters.<br /><br />The Fatima Center is also having a series of Masses said for Sister Lucy, and for the intention that her mission will continue after her death. Our Lady told Sister Lucy that she was to stay on earth to promote devotion to the Immaculate Heart.<br /><br />The Fatima Center will continue to promote the devotion to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart, and will carry on the work of advancing the full Fatima Message.<br /><br />Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her. May her soul rest in peace, Amen.<br /><br /><br /><br />Sister Lucia, 97, Last Survivor of Visionary Children of Fátima, Dies<br /><br />Sister Lucia, the last survivor of the three Portuguese shepherd children who told of a series of apparitions of the Virgin Mary in the village of Fátima in 1917, died on Sunday in her convent in Coimbra, Portugal. She was 97.<br /><br />A spokeswoman for her order, the Carmelite Sisters, announced her death to the Portuguese news media.<br /><br />She had lived in near isolation since 1948 in the convent, where she had devoted her life to prayer and meditation.<br /><br />Sister Lucia de Jesus dos Santos, originally named Lucia Abobora, was born on March 22, 1907, and was 10 when she and her two cousins, Francisco Marto and his sister Jacinta, said they first saw the Virgin in a field on May 13, 1917. Lucia said she was the only one of the three who could hear what the Virgin said.<br /><br />Their reports, which said the appearances continued for five months, were greeted with skepticism, and the children were even jailed and asked to retract their statements. But their visions were followed by what witnesses described as "the Miracle of the Sun," in which the sun was said to have broken through rain clouds and trembled and spun for 10 minutes, which was taken as confirmation of the visions.<br /><br />In 1930, Roman Catholic Church officials completed an exhaustive investigation and declared the Fátima apparitions "worthy of belief."<br /><br />The site became revered, and tens of thousands of Catholics visited the shrine that was built there. Francisco and his sister died in the influenza epidemic of 1918. Sister Lucia lived on to write several memoirs.<br /><br />In 1942, the church finally disclosed the content of the children's visions, based on letters from Lucia to her bishop in 1936. The first secret revelation was said to be a vision of hell as a warning that people should repent their sins. The second was said to be a warning against Russia's errors and a prophecy that the country would be redeemed by the Immaculate Heart of Mary.<br /><br />While the visions were reported at a time when the church was under pressure from anticlericalism, Fátima became a shrine for anti-Communists in the context of the Spanish Civil War and the cold war.<br /><br />The third secret of Fátima, which was not disclosed at the time, became an obsession for those who speculated that it predicted the end of the world or some rift in the church. Three popes learned of the secret as revealed by Sister Lucia, according to the Vatican, and decided not to release it.<br /><br />Finally, on May 13, 2000, the Vatican secretary of state told an audience of 600,000 that the secret actually referred to the attempted assassination, in 1981, against John Paul II, who figured in the original Fátima vision as "a bishop clothed in white."<br /><br />Skeptics were not convinced and have continued to speculate that the third secret involves something else.<br /><br />John Paul, however, accepted that the third secret foretold the attempt on his life and attributed his survival to Our Lady of Fátima. He has since visited the shrine and Sister Lucia several times and has placed the bullet that nearly killed him in the crown of the shrine's statue.<br /><br />Sister Lucia last spoke in public in May 2000, when the pope visited Fátima to beatify her cousins Jacinta and Francisco, placing them one step away from canonization.<br /><br />Among her last visitors, in July, was Mel Gibson, who presented her with a DVD of his film "The Passion of the Christ."MattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-76463948712921501142011-05-05T10:01:00.000-07:002011-05-05T10:11:04.717-07:00190 years ago today Napoleon Bonaparte<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF6HcEkxt5eJ1pBVWnB9IDJW2ebGFQL-kDfKUSAz85dI83zKhI8mSJF3h5y2rOwgA3aKycTPE7jVZYF8Tz0V-3mEUYWOXQE-Ly4CGEk2ewsgd-vcL95YOMXUTSbGQQ4_k7WgVxFsXHRViD/s1600/657px-Napoleon_sur_son_lit_de_mort_Horace_Vernet_1826.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 365px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603279738327055298" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF6HcEkxt5eJ1pBVWnB9IDJW2ebGFQL-kDfKUSAz85dI83zKhI8mSJF3h5y2rOwgA3aKycTPE7jVZYF8Tz0V-3mEUYWOXQE-Ly4CGEk2ewsgd-vcL95YOMXUTSbGQQ4_k7WgVxFsXHRViD/s400/657px-Napoleon_sur_son_lit_de_mort_Horace_Vernet_1826.jpg" /></a> Napoleon Bonaparte:to a wonderful and marvelous leader and also made a difference for France, remembering you after 190 years, May you rest in peace!<br /><br />Napoleon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815. His legal reform, the Napoleonic Code, has been a major influence on many civil law jurisdictions worldwide, but he is best remembered for the wars he led against a series of coalitions, the so-called Napoleonic Wars, during which he established hegemony over much of Europe and sought to spread revolutionary ideals.<br /><br />Napoleon was born in Corsica to parents of noble Italian ancestry and trained as an artillery officer in mainland France. Bonaparte rose to prominence under the French First Republic and led successful campaigns against the First and Second Coalitions arrayed against France. In 1799, he staged a coup d'état and installed himself as First Consul; five years later the French Senate proclaimed him emperor.<br /><br />In the first decade of the 19th century, the French Empire under Napoleon engaged in a series of conflicts—the Napoleonic Wars—involving every major European power. After a streak of victories, France secured a dominant position in continental Europe, and Napoleon maintained the French sphere of influence through the formation of extensive alliances and the appointment of friends and family members to rule other European countries as French client states. Napoleon's campaigns are studied at military academies throughout much of the world.<br /><br />The French invasion of Russia in 1812 marked a turning point in Napoleon's fortunes. His Grande Armée was badly damaged in the campaign and never fully recovered. In 1813, the Sixth Coalition defeated his forces at Leipzig; the following year the Coalition invaded France, forced Napoleon to abdicate and exiled him to the island of Elba. Less than a year later, he escaped Elba and returned to power, but was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. Napoleon spent the last six years of his life in confinement by the British on the island of Saint Helena. An autopsy concluded he died of stomach cancer.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />In February 1821, his health began to fail rapidly, and on 3 May two British physicians who had recently arrived attended him and could only recommend palliatives. He died two days later, after confession, Extreme Unction and Viaticum in the presence of Father Ange Vignali.<br /><br />His last words were, "France, armée, tête d'armée, Joséphine."("France, army, head of the army, Joséphine.") Napoleon's original death mask was created around 6 May, though it is not clear which doctor created it.<br /><br />In his will, he had asked to be buried on the banks of the Seine, but the British governor said he should be buried on St. Helena, in the Valley of the Willows. Hudson Lowe insisted the inscription should read 'Napoleon Bonaparte'; Montholon and Bertrand wanted the Imperial title 'Napoleon' as royalty were signed by their first names only. As a result the tomb was left nameless.<br /><br />In 1840, Louis Philippe I obtained permission from the British to return Napoleon's remains to France. The remains were transported aboard the frigate Belle-Poule, which had been painted black for the occasion, and on 29 November she arrived in Cherbourg. The remains were transferred to the steamship Normandie, which transported them to Le Havre, up the Seine to Rouen and on to Paris.<br /><br />On 15 December, a state funeral was held. The hearse proceeded from the Arc de Triomphe down the Champs-Élysées, across the Place de la Concorde to the Esplanade des Invalides and then to the cupola in St Jérôme's Chapel, where it stayed until the tomb designed by Louis Visconti was completed. In 1861, Napoleon's remains were entombed in a porphyry sarcophagus in the crypt under the dome at Les Invalides.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKw1tQmAYWZmiaGvUBEBXW4jIiPUEdjmYXK34el-hlrZKAi9D2oJTz-wQhB7ulJXEFPzy3K3aGJIIZ4kWL32bCs5hrKtKV1l4GsmO7DV0uxwfjV4LZlTNP1Qqf5H2iXvInBtTCkkt-LFsZ/s1600/Napoleon_Bonaparte.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 341px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603278708394930434" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKw1tQmAYWZmiaGvUBEBXW4jIiPUEdjmYXK34el-hlrZKAi9D2oJTz-wQhB7ulJXEFPzy3K3aGJIIZ4kWL32bCs5hrKtKV1l4GsmO7DV0uxwfjV4LZlTNP1Qqf5H2iXvInBtTCkkt-LFsZ/s400/Napoleon_Bonaparte.jpg" /></a> Cause of death:<br /><br />Napoleon's physician, François Carlo Antommarchi, led the autopsy which found the cause of death to be stomach cancer, though he did not sign the official report.<br /><br />Napoleon's father had died of stomach cancer though this was seemingly unknown at the time of the autopsy. Antommarchi found evidence of a stomach ulcer, and it was the most convenient explanation for the British who wanted to avoid criticism over their care of the emperor.<br /><br />In 1955, the diaries of Napoleon's valet, Louis Marchand, appeared in print. His description of Napoleon in the months before his death led Sten Forshufvud to put forward other causes for his death, including deliberate arsenic poisoning, in a 1961 paper in Nature. Arsenic was used as a poison during the era because it was undetectable when administered over a long period. Forshufvud, in a 1978 book with Ben Weider, noted the emperor's body was found to be remarkably well-preserved when moved in 1840.<br /><br />Arsenic is a strong preservative, and therefore this supported the poisoning hypothesis. Forshufvud and Weider observed that Napoleon had attempted to quench abnormal thirst by drinking high levels of orgeat syrup that contained cyanide compounds in the almonds used for flavouring. They maintained that the potassium tartrate used in his treatment prevented his stomach from expellation of these compounds and that the thirst was a symptom of poisoning. Their hypothesis was that the calomel given to Napoleon became an overdose, which killed him and left behind extensive tissue damage.<br /><br />A 2007 article stated the type of arsenic found in Napoleon's hair shafts was mineral type, the most toxic, and according to toxicologist Patrick Kintz, this supported the conclusion his death was murder.<br /><br />The wallpaper used in Longwood contained a high level of arsenic compound used for colouring by British manufacturers. The adhesive, which in the cooler British environment was innocuous, may have grown mould in the more humid climate and emitted the poisonous gas arsine. This theory has been ruled out as it does not explain the arsenic absorption patterns found in other analyses.<br /><br />There have been modern studies which have supported the original autopsy finding.[142] Researchers, in a 2008 study, analysed samples of Napoleon's hair from throughout his life, and from his family and other contemporaries. All samples had high levels of arsenic, approximately 100 times higher than the current average. According to these researchers, Napoleon's body was already heavily contaminated with arsenic as a boy, and the high arsenic concentration in his hair was not caused by intentional poisoning; people were constantly exposed to arsenic from glues and dyes throughout their lives. In 2007 and 2008 studies dismissed evidence of arsenic poisoning, and confirmed evidence of peptic ulcer and gastric cancer as the cause of death.MattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-33933720043022148242011-05-03T20:43:00.000-07:002011-05-03T20:49:55.888-07:0011 years ago the world lost Archbishop John O'Connor<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigXI7w5FPtj_9dLQ1pvxkRMB_JssoPzOU66vInrBnS2OGHatxXzISgeDCT0-uDG5eBLws9VTvn7OOt-jEpVbXTBd3FdINdTUUS46gUlydpCfo_bNwi857KaRuR_EX9keF0am1qGdsNW6nn/s1600/Cardinal_John_O_Connor003_large.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 381px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602703035526034274" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigXI7w5FPtj_9dLQ1pvxkRMB_JssoPzOU66vInrBnS2OGHatxXzISgeDCT0-uDG5eBLws9VTvn7OOt-jEpVbXTBd3FdINdTUUS46gUlydpCfo_bNwi857KaRuR_EX9keF0am1qGdsNW6nn/s400/Cardinal_John_O_Connor003_large.jpg" /></a><br />John O'Connor:you are also inspirtual individual especially for the Catholic Church. I admire your work and I was privelege to recieve holy communion and a prayer over me at one of your masses. I was also honored to attend your awake in 2000. I miss you, you should be a saint. You were truly a courageous and brave man who shares the same birthday as Rev. Martin Luther King Junior, may you rest in peace on this day after 11 years!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />John Joseph O'Connor, (January 15, 1920 – May 3, 2000) was the eleventh bishop (eighth archbishop) of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, serving from 1984 until his death in 2000. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 1985.<br /><br />Consecration as BishopO'Connor was made a Honorary Prelate of His Holiness and given the title of Monsignor on October 27, 1966. On April 24, 1979, Pope John Paul II designated him auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese for the Military Services and titular bishop of Cursola. O'Connor was consecrated to the episcopate on May 27, 1979 at St. Peter's Basilica, Rome by John Paul II with Duraisamy Simon Lourdusamy and Eduardo Martínez Somalo as co-consecrators.<br /><br />On May 6, 1983, John Paul II named O'Connor Bishop of Scranton, and he was installed in that position on the following June 29.<br /><br />Archbishop of New York<br />Styles of John O'Connor<br /><br />Reference style His Eminence<br />Spoken style Your Eminence<br />Informal style Cardinal<br />See New York<br /><br />On January 26, 1984, after the death of Terence Cooke three months earlier, O'Connor was appointed Archbishop of New York, and installed on March 19. He was elevated to Cardinal in the consistory of May 25, 1985, with the titular church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Rome, the traditional titulus of the Archbishop of New York.<br /><br />As Archbishop of New York, O'Connor skillfully brought to bear the power and prestige of his office to bear witness to traditional Catholic doctrine. Upon his death, the New York Times called O'Connor "a familiar and towering presence, a leader whose views and personality were forcefully injected into the great civic debates of his time, a man who considered himself a conciliator, but who never hesitated to be a combatant", and one of the Catholic Church's "most powerful symbols on moral and political issues."<br /><br />Illness and death:<br /><br />When O'Connor reached the retirement age for bishops of 75 in January 1995, he submitted his resignation to Pope John Paul II as required, but the Pope did not accept it. In 1999, O'Connor was diagnosed as having a brain tumor, to which he eventually succumbed. He continued to serve as Archbishop of New York until his death. He died in the Archbishop's residence on May 3, 2000 and was interred in the crypt beneath the altar of St. Patrick's Cathedral.<br /><br />UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, Former President George H.W. Bush, Texas Governor George W. Bush, New York Governor George Pataki and New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani were among the dignitaries who attended his funeral in St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was presided over by Cardinal Secretary of State Angelo Sodano. The eulogy was delivered by Cardinal William W. Baum. Edward Egan was appointed to succeed Cardinal O'Connor as Archbishop of New York.<br /><br />Legacy:<br /><br />Cardinal O'Connor was posthumously awarded the Jackie Robinson Empire State Medal of Freedom by New York Governor George Pataki on December 21, 2000. On March 7, 2000 O'Connor was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by unanimous support in the United States Senate and only one vote against the resolution in the United States House of Representatives.<br /><br />O'Connor was an object of scorn and ridicule in ACT UP's demonstrations, the most prominent of which was a protest that disrupted Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral on December 10, 1989. Michael Petrelis, a founding member of ACT UP, was arrested along with 110 others, including 43 inside the church, some of whom had chained themselves to pews, shouted or lay in aisles.<br /><br />Later, he indicated that the group "came to St. Patrick's in 1989 to repel the church's destructive intrusion into public policies concerning AIDS, gay civil rights and women's reproductive rights." O'Connor responded during the benediction at the interrupted Mass, "I must preach what the church preaches, teach what the church teaches."<br /><br />The strong feelings that Cardinal O'Connor's campaigning against gay civil rights inspired were evoked at his passing, when Time Out New York, a weekly city entertainment guide, expressed relief at his death, calling it one of the best things to happen to the gay community in 2000, saying "The press eulogized him as a saint, when in fact, the pious creep was a stuck-in-the-1950s anti-gay menace. Good riddance!". The resulting cries of outrage forced the magazine to apologize for the insensitive tone of the statement, but Time Out New York stood by its view that the Cardinal was an "impediment to gay and lesbian progress.<br /><br />Carmen Vázquez, a spokeswoman for the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center, opined that Cardinal O’Connor had "made the lives of gays and lesbians miserable with his public comments and opposition to their way of life."<br /><br />Jeff Stone, a spokesman for DignityUSA, recalled the group's twice-annual meetings with O'Connor: "We acknowledged that we had theological disagreements, so we tried to talk about areas where we thought we had some common ground--such as violence against gay people," and added, "We are saddened by his death."<br /><br />To honor his distinguished service as a US Navy chaplain, the Catholic Center at the Naval Post-Graduate School, Monterey, CA, is named the O'Connor Center. The largest student run pro-life conference in the U.S. is named in his honor. It is held every year at Georgetown University the day before the annual March for Life.<br /><br />Episcopal succession<br /><br />Episcopal lineage<br />Consecrated by: Pope John Paul II<br />Date of consecration: May 27, 1979<br />Consecrator of<br />Bishop Date of consecration<br />Alfred James Jolson February 6, 1988<br />Patrick Joseph Sheridan December 12, 1990<br />James Michael Moynihan May 29, 1995<br />Edwin Frederick O'Brien March 25, 1996<br />Robert Anthony Brucato August 25, 1997<br />James Francis McCarthy June 29, 1999MattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5317785168322570964.post-66129305722108855172011-05-02T11:02:00.000-07:002011-05-02T11:11:52.218-07:00Today is the 140th birthday of Father Francis Patrick Duffy<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB6tp4QhTSMsMbx5m1xFipCF_q32cLLzbMhX5HtFchLPJmzYuEmmQa4nk4stSkzKhsVjK9DXm2UQT6UygZsWUOhaX-G5YkfcFXgBrQ1V60wYgcNqPm0Us9Xk4zp4ncOa5yZ0QHc2RadHcO/s1600/%25255BRev_-Francis-Patrick-Duffy%252C-half-length-portrait%252C-seated%252C-facing___-painting-artwork-print.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 325px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB6tp4QhTSMsMbx5m1xFipCF_q32cLLzbMhX5HtFchLPJmzYuEmmQa4nk4stSkzKhsVjK9DXm2UQT6UygZsWUOhaX-G5YkfcFXgBrQ1V60wYgcNqPm0Us9Xk4zp4ncOa5yZ0QHc2RadHcO/s400/%25255BRev_-Francis-Patrick-Duffy%252C-half-length-portrait%252C-seated%252C-facing___-painting-artwork-print.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602183031287566610" /></a><br /><br />Father Duffy: You were a true soldier and priest, thanks for your guidance, happy 140th birthday!<br /><br />Francis Patrick Duffy (1871–1932)[1] was an American soldier, Roman Catholic priest and chaplain. As the chaplain for the "Fighting 69th", he became the most highly decorated cleric in the history of the U.S. Army. Duffy Square, the northern half of Times Square, is named after him.<br /><br />Father Duffy <br /><br /><br />FRANCIS P. DUFFY (1871-1932)<br /><br />The most celebrated U.S. Army chaplain in the Great War, Father Francis Patrick Duffy, a Roman Catholic priest, was born in Cobourg, Canada, and was ordained in 1896. He attended the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and then was appointed professor of psychology and ethics at St. Joseph's Seminary in New York. Father Duffy's career as an Army chaplain began with a brief tour of duty during the Spanish-American War when he was stationed at Montauk Point, Long Island. In 1912 he became pastor of Our Savior parish in the Bronx, and in 1914 he was appointed chaplain of the 69th Infantry Regiment of the New York National Guard.<br /><br />The "Fighting Sixty-Ninth," a basically Irish regiment, although containing members of other ethnic groups, had served with distinction during the Civil War. It was called up briefly during the Spanish-American War, and also in 1916, when it served on the Mexican border during General Pershing's Punitive expedition. When the United States entered World War I, the regiment was renumbered the 165th Infantry and assembled at Camp Mills, New York. Assigned to be part of the new Rainbow (42nd) Division, its members continued to refer to the regiment by its traditional sobriquet.<br /><br />Chaplain Duffy, by now a major and the senior chaplain of the 42nd Division, became an inspirational focus for the division and later for the A.E.F. The poet Joyce Kilmer writing about the voyage of the division across the Atlantic, observed that every day there could be seen a line of soldiers, "as long as the mess-line," waiting their turn to have Duffy hear their confessions. Every morning, Kilmer noted, a large crowd of soldiers would gather amidships on the transport where Chaplain Duffy would say Mass at an altar made from a long board resting on two nail kegs. Arriving in France in November 1917, the division spent the winter training and in late February 1918, took over front-line trenches from French forces at Luneville in the Lorraine sector. At dawn on March 20, Duffy and the men of the 42nd received their first serious baptism of fire when a barrage of mustard gas shells burst among them. The bombardment lasted two days and there were over 400 casualties, the majority of them blinded.<br /><br />For Chaplain Duffy, the next few months were to be filled with such scenes. He was most often found along the front lines hearing confessions and saying Mass, as well as visiting and counseling the soldiers. It was by his "ministry of presence" that he had his greatest influence and became an almost a legendary figure. Once the fighting began, he often traveled with a unit first-aid station, providing physical and spiritual care to the wounded and the dying. His presence on the battlefield was inspirational. Duffy was always near the heaviest fighting, exposing himself to constant danger as he moved from unit to unit. His decorations included the Distinguished Service Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal.<br /><br />After the war, Duffy returned to a new parish in New York City. As pastor of the Holy Cross Church on 42nd Street, just off Broadway, the "actor's Church, Father Duffy added to his already great popularity. In 1919, he published a best selling book, Father Duffy's Story, chronicling his experience in the Great War. He died on 26 June 1932. <br /><br />Conclusion<br /><br />In Chaplain Duffy, the chaplaincy produced probably the best known field chaplain in its long history.<br /><br />Chaplain:<br /><br />Already well known in theological circles, Duffy gained wider fame for his involvement as a military chaplain during World War I, when the 69th New York ("The Fighting 69th") was federalized again and redesignated the 165th U.S. Infantry Regiment. When the unit moved up to the front in France, Duffy accompanied the litter bearers in recovering the wounded and was frequently seen in the thick of battle. <br /><br />Recognized by the regimental commander, Lt. Col. William "Wild Bill" Donovan – who would go on to found the OSS in World War II) – as a key element in the unit's morale, Duffy's role in the unit went beyond that of a normal cleric: the regiment was composed primarily of first- and second-generation Irish immigrants from New York City, many of whom wrote later about Duffy's leadership. Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur admitted later that Duffy was very briefly considered for the post of regimental commander.<br /><br />For his actions in the war, Duffy was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal, the Conspicuous Service Cross (New York State), the Légion d'honneur (France), and the Croix de guerre. Father Duffy is the most highly decorated cleric in the history of the U.S. Army.<br /><br />Following the war he wrote Father Duffy's Story, which grew out of a manuscript originally started by Joyce Kilmer, the poet and convert to Catholicism who had joined the regiment and had become a close friend to Duffy. When Kilmer was killed in France, he was working on a history of the regiment's involvement in the war, which Duffy intended to continue, but Duffy was prevailed upon to include his own reminiscences<br /><br />Holy Cross Church:<br /><br />Duffy then served as a pastor of Holy Cross Church in Hell's Kitchen, a block from Times Square, until his death. While there, he had one last opportunity to make a contribution to Catholic thought: in 1927, during Al Smith's campaign for president, the Atlantic Monthly published a letter by Charles Marshall, a Protestant lawyer, which questioned whether a Catholic could serve as a loyal president who would put the nation and the Constitution before his allegiance to the Pope, a common thread in American anti-Catholicism. Smith was given a chance to reply: his article, which was ghost-written by Duffy, was a classic statement of the intellectual ideas behind American Catholic patriotism. It hinted at notions of religious freedom and freedom of conscience which would not be spelled out by the Church itself until the Second Vatican Council's Declaration on Religious Freedom in the 1960s.<br /><br />Death: Duffy died on June 27, 1932, in New York City.<br /><br />Beloved Chaplain of Fighting 69th Dies. <br /><br />New York, June 27 - The spirit of Father Francis Patrick Duffy, beloved chaplain of the 'Fighting Sixty-Ninth' of the wartime Rainbow Division, has rejoined the thousands of men who died on the battlefields of France where he served them. The present colonel of his old regiment was at the bedside until near the end. Others through the nation and especially in New York, home of the old Sixty-Ninth, known in war days as the 165th Infantry, mourned the chaplain who died at the age of 62. Father Duffy will have a military burial. The old Sixty-Ninth will attend the services of America's wars, msgr. John P. Chidwick, chaplain of the Battleship Maine when it was blown up in Havana Harbor, will preach the funeral sermon. <br /><br />Death came to Father Duffy early yesterday after an illness of three months from an intestinal infection. Hundreds of friends of all faiths had flooded the mails with letters of concern and hope for his recovery. The Irish chaplain of an Irish regiment won fame and decorations from his own and the French governments for his devotion to his men under fire during the World War. <br /><br />His death led General Douglas MacArthur, chief of staff in Washington and war-time commander of the Rainbow (42nd) Division, to reveal he had recommended the priest for command of the 165th Regiment at one time when the division was in the midst of an offensive.<br /><br />Legacy: Father Duffy is commemorated by Duffy Square, which is located in the northern triangle of Times Square between 45th and 47th Streets in Manhattan, New York City. A momument, which is located in front of the steps of the TKTS booth, portrays Duffy standing in front of a Celtic cross.<br /><br />In popular culture: In the 1940s movie The Fighting 69th, Father Duffy is portrayed by Pat O'Brien.MattHistoryPersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275451425549454996noreply@blogger.com0