GMT 12/17/2017 easy like Sunday morning

Today in History December 17

1399--Tamerlane's Mongols destroy the army of Mahmud Tughluk, Sultan of Delhi, at Panipat.

1861--The Stonewall Brigade begins to dismantle Dam No. 5 of the C&O Canal.

1903--Near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft.

1927--U.S. Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg suggests a worldwide pact renouncing war.

1938--Italy declares the 1935 pact with France invalid because ratifications had not been exchanged. France denies the argument.

1944--U.S. approves end to internment of Japanese Americans. U.S. Major General Henry C. Pratt issues Public Proclamation No. 21, declaring that Japanese American "evacuees" from the West Coast could return to their homes effective January 2, 1945.

1948--The Smithsonian Institution accepts the Kitty Hawk - the Wright brothers' plane.

1965--Ending an election campaign marked by bitterness and violence, Ferdinand Marcos is declared president of the Philippines.

1981--Red Brigade terrorists kidnap Brigadier General James Dozier, the highest-ranking U.S. NATO officer in Italy.

1989--The Simpsons, television's longest-running animated series, makes its US debut.

2010--Mohamed Bouazizi immolates himself, the catalyst for the Tunisian revolution and the subsequent Arab Spring.


Born on December 17

1962--Richard Jewell, police officer who discovered pipe bombs on the grounds of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, and helped evacuate the area before the bombs exploded.

JOKE of the Day

The Reverend Lewis was completing a temperance sermon and with great expression he said, 'If I had all the beer in the world, I'd take it and throw it into the river.'
With even greater emphasis he added, 'And if I had all the wine in the world, I'd take it and throw it into the river.'
Finally, the Reverend Lewis said, 'And if I had all the whisky in the world, I'd take it and throw it into the river.'
He sat down.
The Curate, Roger Marples, then stood up very cautiously and announced with a smile, 'For our closing hymn let's sing number 365, "Shall We Gather at the River."