Daily Nonsense

Things are not going too well for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf this week.  Facing criticism from the Judiciary, both houses of Parliament, religious leaders and many foreign governments, Pervez has struggled to maintain power since his ‘election’ last November.

One of the Bush administrations most important allies in the fight against terrorism, Musharraf has acted in ways that have made Bush and Cheney proud.  By originally deposing the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in coup, to firing the Chief Justice of the Pakistani Supreme Court last March, Pervez has demonstrated the ability to bend the law to his will.

Pakistan’s Musharraf steps down

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, facing impeachment by parliament, has announced that he is resigning.

In a national televised address he said he was confident the charges against him would not stand, but that this was not the time for more confrontation.

The charges against the president include violation of the constitution and gross misconduct.

Mr Musharraf has been a key ally of the US in its war against Islamist extremism, following the 9/11 attacks.

‘No bravado’

Looking calm and dressed soberly in a dark suit and tie, President Musharraf said he had decided to resign after consulting his allies and advisers.

The tone of his speech was defiant.

Mr Musharraf said he had believed it was his destiny to save Pakistan, helped by God, and that he had prevented it from being declared a terrorist state.

In a clear reference to the leaders of the big political parties who have opposed him, Mr Musharraf said there were some elements who considered themselves more important than Pakistan and who were trying to betray the country.

He said their allegations against him were false, and that his appeals for reconciliation with his opponents had fallen on deaf ears.

"Not a single charge can be proved against me," he said, adding that although he had make mistakes he had always put Pakistan first.

[Thanks, BBC News]

This is so sick…….

Today in 1513 – Juan Ponce de Leon sets foot on Florida becoming the first European known to do so.

Today in 1902 – The "Electric Theatre", the first full-time movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles, California.

Today in 1972 – Actor Charlie Chaplin returns to the United States for the first time since being labeled a communist during the Red Scare in the early 1950s .

Today in 1992 – In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison.

Celebrating Birthdays today are Charlemagne, Giacomo Casanova, Hans Christian Andersen, Émile Zola, Buddy Ebsen, Sir Alec Guinness, Marvin Gaye, Leon Russell, Emmylou Harris, Keren Woodward, Rodney King, and Rory Sabbatini.

Celebrating Death-iversaries today are Prince Arthur Tudor, Thomas Gage, Johann Heinrich Jung, Samuel F. B. Morse, Hermann Rorschach, Buddy Rich, and Pope John Paul II.

Today is April Fools Day.

Today in 1924 – Adolf Hitler is sentenced to five years in jail for his participation in the "Beer Hall Putsch". However, he spends only nine months in jail, during which he writes the book Mein Kampf.

Today in 1976 – Apple Computer is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

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

Celebrating Birthdays today are Georg Mohr, Otto von Bismarck, Lon Chaney, Sr., Anne McCaffrey, Gordon Jump, Debbie Reynolds, Ali MacGraw, Samuel R. Delany, John Philip Abizaid, and Miroslava Vavrinec.

Celebrating Death-iversaries today are Niwa Nagashige, Giuditta Pasta, Scott Joplin, Helena Rubinstein, Marvin Gaye, and Jesse Stone.

Today in 1492 – Queen Isabella of Castille orders her 150,000 Jewish subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion.

Today in 1889 – The Eiffel Tower is inaugurated.

Today in 1959 – The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, crosses the border into India and is granted political asylum.

Today in 1995 – In Corpus Christi, Texas, Latin superstar Selena Quintanilla Perez is shot and killed by Yolanda Saldivar, the president of her own fan club.

Celebrating Birthdays today are René Descartes, Joseph Haydn, Alfred E. Hunt, Richard Kiley, Charles Guggenheim, César Chávez, Liz Claiborne, Shirley Jones, Marge Piercy, Patrick Leahy, Gabe Kaplan, Angus Young, and Paul Mercurio.

Celebrating Death-iversaries today are Anne Hyde, Sir Isaac Newton, John Pierpont Morgan, Knute Rockne, Anne Frank, Jesse Owens, Brandon Lee, and Terri Schiavo.

Today in 240 BC – First recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet.

Today in 1842 – Anesthesia is used for the first time in an operation by Dr. Crawford Long.

Today in 1951 – Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.

Today in 1981 – President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.

Celebrating Birthdays today are Ivan II of Russia, Francisco Goya, Vincent van Gogh, Sergey Ilyushin, Albert Pierrepoint, Richard Helms, Sonny Boy Williamson I, Warren Beatty, Eric Clapton, Tracy Chapman, Donna D’Errico, Celine Dion, and Norah Jones.

Celebrating Death-iversaries today are Vauban, Beau Brummell, Maxfield Parrish, James Cagney, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Alistair Cooke, and Dith Pran.

Today in 1461 – During the Wars of the Roses, the Battle of Towton – Edward of York defeats Queen Margaret to become King Edward IV of England.

Today in 1886 – Dr John Pemberton brews the first batch of Coca-Cola in a backyard in Atlanta, Georgia.

Today in 1973 – During the Vietnam War, the last United States soldiers leave South Vietnam.

Today in 2007 – The first Earth Hour event was held.

Celebrating Birthdays today are Carlo Buonaparte, John Tyler, Cy Young, Lou Hoover, Eugene McCarthy, Man o’ War, Pearl Bailey, Sam Walton, Billy Carter, Terence Hill, Eric Idle, Karen Ann Quinlan, Amy Sedaris, and Lucy Lawless.

Celebrating Death-iversaries today are Yaoya Oshichi, King Gustav III of Sweden, John Jacob Astor, Sir Robert Falcon Scott, Mantovani, and Carlo Urbani.

Today in 193 – Roman Emperor Pertinax is assassinated by Praetorian Guards, who then sell the throne in an auction to Didius Julianus.

Today in 1854 – to start the Crimean War, France and Britain declare war on Russia.

Today in 1979 – In Pennsylvania, a pump in the reactor cooling system fails in the Three Mile Island accident, resulting in the evaporation of some contaminated water causing a nuclear meltdown.

Today in 2003 – In a "friendly fire" incident, two A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft from the United States Idaho Air National Guard’s 190th Fighter Squadron attacked British tanks participating in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, killing British soldier Matty Hull.

Celebrating Birthdays today are Frederick Pabst, Maxim Gorky, August Anheuser Busch, Jr., Marlin Perkins, Julia Stiles, Reba McEntire, and Nikki Sanderson.

Celebrating Death-iversaries today are Emperor Go-Toba, Modest Mussorgsky, Virginia Woolf, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Jim Thorpe, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Emmett Kelly, Maria von Trapp, and Caspar Weinberger.

Today in 1026 – Pope John XIX crowns Conrad II as Holy Roman Emperor.

Today in 1953 – Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine.

Today in 2006 – In Scotland, the prohibition of smoking in all substantially enclosed public places comes into force.

Celebrating Birthdays today are Conrad Gessner, Robert Frost, Franz Stangl, Tennessee Williams, William Westmoreland, Sandra Day O’Connor, Alan Arkin, Nancy Pelosi, Diana Ross, Steven Tyler, and Jennifer Grey.

Celebrating Death-iversaries today are Heinrich Isaac, Antonio de Cabezón, Ludwig van Beethoven, Sarah Bernhardt, David Packard, Jan Berry, and Jan Sterling.

Today in 1306 – Robert the Bruce becomes King of Scotland.

Today in 1807 – The Slave Trade Act becomes law, abolishing the slave trade in the British Empire.

Today in 1955 – United States Customs seizes copies of Allen Ginsberg’s poem "Howl" as obscene.

Today in 1965 – Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King, Jr. successfully complete their 4-day 50-mile march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery.

Today in 1992 – Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returns to Earth after a 10-month stay aboard the Mir space station.

Celebrating Birthdays today are Francesco I de’ Medici, Caroline Bonaparte, Rudolf Rocker, Béla Bartók, Ed Begley, Jack Ruby, Simone Signoret, Jim Lovell, Gloria Steinem, Elton John, and Sarah Jessica Parker.

Celebrating Death-iversaries today are Giambattista Marini, Turlough O’Carolan, Frédéric Mistral, Claude Debussy, Renato Cellini, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, Nancy Walker, and Buck Owens.

Today in 1837 – Canada gives African men the right to vote.

Today in 1882 – Robert Koch announces the discovery of the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis (mycobacterium tuberculosis).

Today in 1989 – Exxon Valdez oil spill: In Prince William Sound in Alaska, USA the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels (42,000 m³) of petroleum after running aground.

Today in 2003 – The Arab League votes 21-1 in favor of a resolution demanding the immediate and unconditional removal of U.S. and British soldiers from Iraq.

Celebrating Birthdays today are John Harrison, Orest Kiprensky, Ignacio Zaragoza, Harry Houdini, Roscoe Arbuckle, Clyde Barrow, Joseph Barbera, Dario Fo, Steve McQueen, Kelly LeBrock, Bob Mackie, Lara Flynn Boyle, and Peyton Manning.

Celebrating Death-iversaries today are Catherine of Sweden, Queen Elizabeth I of England, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Jules Verne, Mary of Teck, John Hersey, Martin Caidin, and Harold Melvin.

Today is Easter Sunday in Western Christianity.

Today in 1775 – Patrick Henry delivers his famous speech -"give me liberty or give me death" at St. John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia.

Today in 1933 – The Reichstag passes the Enabling act of 1933, making Adolf Hitler dictator of Germany.

Today in 2005 – The United States 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, refuses to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube.

Celebrating Birthdays today are Margaret of Anjou, William Kidd, Ludwig Quidde, Erich Fromm, Joan Crawford, Wernher von Braun, Mark Rydell, Craig Breedlove, Ric Ocasek, Kim Stanley Robinson, Yasmeen Ghauri, and Perez Hilton.

Celebrating Death-iversaries today are Justus Lipsius, Tsar Paul of Russia, Florence Moore, Peter Lorre, Edwin O’Connor, and Cindy Walker.

Today in 1621 – The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony sign a peace treaty with Massasoit of the Wampanoags.

Today in 1765 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Stamp Act, which introduced a tax to be levied directly on its American colonies.

Today in 1941 – Washington’s Grand Coulee Dam begins to generate electricity.

Today in 1984 – Teachers at the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California are charged with Satanic ritual abuse of the children in the school. The charges are later dropped as completely unfounded.

Celebrating Birthdays today are Maximilian I, Anthony van Dyck, Stephen Pearl Andrews, Chico Marx, Louis L’Amour, Nino Manfredi, Marcel Marceau, William Shatner, Roger Whittaker, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Laurie David, and Reese Witherspoon.

Celebrating Death-iversaries today are Johannes Magnus, Stephen Decatur, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Karl Wallenda, Dave Guard, William Hanna, and Kurt von Trojan.

Today is Good Friday in Western Christianity, as well as the traditional date of vernal equinox, the real equinox varies between years and World Poetry Day.

Today in 1871 – Journalist Henry Morton Stanley begins his trek to find the missionary and explorer David Livingstone.

Today in 1970 – The first Earth Day proclamation is issued by San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto.

Today in 2005 – the anniversary of the Red Lake High School massacre.  Jeff Weise shoots and kills seven people at Red Lake High School in Red Lake, Minnesota before committing suicide.

Celebrating Birthdays today are Johann Sebastian Bach, Maria Theresa of Tuscany, Florenz Ziegfeld, Gilbert M. ‘Broncho Billy’ Anderson, Forrest Mars Sr., Gary Oldman, Rosie O’Donnell, Ali Daei, and Kevin Federline,

Celebrating Death-iversaries today are Thomas Cranmer, Andrea Luchesi, Nadar, Shauna Grant, Dean Paul Martin, Leo Fender, Macdonald Carey, and Kevin Whitrick.

Today is the vernal equinox.

Today in 1616 – Sir Walter Raleigh is freed from the Tower of London after 13 years imprisonment.

Today in 1916 – Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity.

Today in 1995 – A sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway kills 12 and wounds 1,300 persons.

Today in 2003 – The illegal invasion of Iraq: In the early hours of the morning, the United States and three other countries begin military operations in Iraq.

Celebrating Birthdays today are Ovid, Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke, Henrik Ibsen, Börries von Münchhausen, B. F. Skinner, Ozzie Nelson, Carl Reiner, Fred Rogers, Jerry Reed, Carl Palmer, Spike Lee, and Holly Hunter.

Celebrating Death-iversaries today are King Henry IV of England, Sir Benjamin Truman, Ota Benga, Ferdinand Foch, Chet Huntley, Conor Clapton, and Lewis Grizzard.

Today is Fathers Day in many European Countries

Today in 1915 – Pluto is photographed for the first time but was not recognized as a planet.

Today in 1916 – Eight American planes take off in pursuit of Pancho Villa, the first United States air-combat mission in history.

Today in 1931 – Gambling is legalized in Nevada.

Today in 1987 – Televangelist Jim Bakker resigns as head of the PTL Club due to a brewing sex scandal; he hands over control to Jerry Falwell.

Celebrating Birthdays today are Johannes Magnus, Thomas McKean, David Livingstone, Wyatt Earp, Earl Warren, Adolf Eichmann, Tige Andrews, Ursula Andress, Paul Atkinson, Bruce Willis, and Vivian Hsu.

Celebrating Death-iversaries today are Emperor Bing of Song China, Edmund of Woodstock, Robert Cavelier de La Salle, Philip Mazzei, Lloyd L. Gaines, Edgar Rice Burroughs, John De Lorean, and Sir Arthur C. Clarke.

Today in 1314 – Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar is burned at the stake.

Today in 1850 – American Express is founded by Henry Wells & William Fargo.

Today in 1922 – In India, Mohandas Gandhi is sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience.

Today in 2003 – FBI agents raid the corporate headquarters of HealthSouth Corporation in Birmingham, Alabama on suspicion of massive corporate fraud led by the company’s top executives.

Celebrating Birthdays today are Mary Tudor, Philippe de la Hire, John C. Calhoun, Grover Cleveland, Rudolf Diesel, Edgar Cayce, Ernest Gallo, George Plimpton, John Updike, Wilson Pickett, Luc Besson, Queen Latifah, and Dane Cook.

Celebrating Death-iversaries today are Sir Robert Walpole, Laurence Sterne, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Peggy Wood, Robin Jacques, Erich Fromm, and Elizabeth Huckaby.

Today is Saint Patrick’s Day.

Today in 1756 – St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated in New York City for the first time (at the Crown and Thistle Tavern).

Today in 1901 – A showing of 71 Vincent van Gogh paintings in Paris, 11 years after his death, creates a sensation.

Today in 1970 – in the My Lai massacre the United States Army charges 14 officers with suppressing information related to the incident.

Today in 2003 – British Cabinet Minister Robin Cook, resigns over government plans for war with Iraq.

Celebrating Birthdays today are Thomas Boston, Jim Bridger, Gottlieb Daimler, Bobby Jones, Nat King Cole, Rudolf Nureyev, John Wayne Gacy, Michael Hayden, William Gibson, Kurt Russell, Lesley-Anne Down, and Dana Reeve.

Celebrating Death-iversaries today are Saint Patrick, Emperor Go-Saga François de La Rochefoucauld, Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, Daniel Bernoulli, Christian Doppler, Andre Norton, and Oleg Cassini.

Today is Palm Sunday.

Today in 1190 – Crusaders start to massacre the Jews of York; many Jews commit suicide rather than submit to baptism.

Today in 1978 – Aldo Moro is kidnapped by left-wing terrorists in Italy and is later killed by his captors.

Today in 1995 – Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The thirteenth amendment was officially ratified in 1865.

Today in 1998 – Pope John Paul II apologizes for inactivity and silence of some Roman Catholics during the Holocaust.

Celebrating Birthdays today are James Madison, Georg Simon Ohm, Emperor Ninko of Japan, John Butler Yeats, Henny Youngman, Dr. Josef Mengele, Pat Nixon, Jerry Lewis, Bernardo Bertolucci, Nancy Wilson, and Gore Verbinski.

Celebrating Death-iversaries today are Tiberius Claudius Nero Caesar, John Leverett, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Roy Bean, T-Bone Walker, Thomas Ferebee, and Ronald Ferguson.

Today is the Ides of March.

Today in 1776 – South Carolina becomes the first American colony to declare its independence from Great Britain and set up its own government.

Today in 1916 – President Woodrow Wilson sends 12,000 United States troops over the U.S.-Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa.

Today in 1965 – President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to the Selma crisis, tells U.S. Congress "We shall overcome" while advocating the Voting Rights Act.

Today in 1990 – Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first executive president of the Soviet Union.

Celebrating Birthdays today are Margaret Plantagenet, Andrew Jackson, Eduard Strauss, Harry James, Lawrence Sanders, Judd Hirsch, Mike Love, Lisa Holton, Terence Trent D’Arby, Sabrina Salerno, Eva Longoria, Jennifer 8. Lee, and Antti Autti.

Celebrating Death-iversaries today are Julius Caesar, Salvator Rosa, Luigi Cherubini, H. P. Lovecraft, Aristotle Onassis, and Benjamin Spock.