On This Day...

Written by Steve O from Bring It On!

Ted Kennedy was born. So was George Washington and Dolly.

Spain gave us Florida back in 1819. Thanks Spain, but you should’ve kept it! And we should have adhered to the treaty with Spain that gave us Florida because it called for us to renounce any and all claims to Texas. On a side note, the Dakotas, Montana and Washington state entered the Union on this date back in 1889.

The Republican Party held its first national meeting back in 1856. It’s funny, the entry on Wikipedia for the Republican Party reads like Ken Melhman wrote it himself. And oddly enough the early history of the Republican Party (1854-1980) has been deleted from Wikipedia. I guess Ken didn’t know how to re-write early Republican history so he just decided to delete it.

In 1865 Tennessee adopted a new constitution that abolished slavery, ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on July 18, 1866, and was the first state readmitted to the Union. Way to go Tennessee! It should be noted that eastern Tennessee hasn’t elected a Democrat to represent them in Congress since 1878. Strangely enough they have some of the highest sales taxes in the nation at 9.75%. So much for voting Republican. It’s a wonder Al Gore can survive live in Tennessee.

Speaking of Tennessee, in 1956, Elvis Presley entered the music charts for the first time, with “Heartbreak Hotel”. I am still amazed the Shrub beat out Elvis as one of the greatest Americans, if Elvis was alive today he would definitely have a larger FBI file on record.

The United States ice hockey team defeats the Soviet Union team at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in an upset dubbed the “Miracle on Ice.” It’s interesting that Jimmy Carter, then POTUS, was considering boycotting the summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Do you think we should boycott the 2008 Olympics in Beijing because of their human rights violations?

In 1987, Pop artist Andy Warhol died at age 58. Andy was definitely an enemy of the state.

In 1994, the Justice Department charged 31-year CIA veteran Aldrich Ames and his wife, Rosario, with selling national security secrets to the Soviet Union. Question, what’s the difference between selling national security secrets or leaking them for free?

Last year, a Virginia man was charged with plotting with al-Qaida to kill President George W. Bush. (Ahmed Omar Abu Ali was convicted on all counts in November 2005.) Question, how is this any different than the assassination attempt of Hugo Chavez?